James chapter 2. This has been a section of scripture
for a long time that has perplexed me. I just seen a little bit of grin
come up on your face there. I'm assuming that you had the
same perplexity that I had. Before I get into this, I think
everybody knows what we're going to be talking about here in the
second chapter of James. Where James speaks about faith
without works is dead. The question arises a lot of
times. I guess let me just go ahead
and read this before I say all this. Look if you would, and
I guess I want to start reading at, oh, let's start reading in verse
13. It says, or I'm sorry, verse 14. It says, what doth it profit,
my brethren, Though a man say he hath faith, and have not works."
That's a question. Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked
and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them,
depart in peace, be you warmed and filled, notwithstanding you
give them not those things which are needful in the body, What
doth it profit? Even so, faith, if it hath not
works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast
faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy
works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest
that there is one God. Thou dost well. The devils also
believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man,
that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified
by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith brought
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 alone. 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. I know many people who wants to
throw James out of the Bible because of these passages right
here. And the reason being is because it seems that James is
speaking in complete and total contradiction to the rest of
Scripture. And what happens to the detriment
of many is that they focus in on these passages and say, there
you go. It is about works. We are to
have works. Get out there and get to work,
Christian. And they think that James is paramount, and Paul
is just some lackey that's come up with some other new idea. They try to put James versus
Paul. And if you look at this, and
a lot of the religious world out there, and even the non-religious
world, take these passages here to even try to prove how the
Bible is written by men and contradicts itself. But my question to you
is, does James, in these passages, contradict Paul? We know Paul was the one who
wrote and taught ferociously justification by faith. We know
that Paul, in Romans, in Galatians, other places of Scripture, clearly
taught Justification in Christ alone through faith. Christ's
faith, that is. And so, Paul over here is saying
that we are justified by faith alone. And here we read James,
the apostle, just as much an apostle as Paul was, called of
God. And he's saying here that we
are justified by works I mean, that is clearly contradictory,
isn't it? Well, we know a few things, and
I've said this a lot of times. A lot of times we might not understand
what something says, but we know what it's not saying. And a lot
of times if you look at the explicit things in Scripture, we can understand
non-explicit things. Now, this seems to be very explicit,
though. James clearly says that man is
justified and not by faith alone. But yet Paul says that we are
justified by faith alone. So what is the problem here?
Well, the problem is our understanding. Our problem is the vantage point
in which we look at this. Our problem is with our interpreting
these verses And whenever you look at James and you begin to
interpret these verses as being contradictory to Paul or in a
place of proving that we are to keep good
words, then you're interpreting that from the wisdom of natural
man and not from the Spirit of God. Let's look at a few things
first before we even go much further into this, because I
think we need to kind of lay some biblical foundation before
we look at what James is saying here. First and foremost, turn
with me to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. Look with me if you would at
verse 16. Very familiar verses to all of
us, I'm sure. Probably most of us could probably
stand up and quote it. They won't stand up and quote
it. Everybody got nervous all of
a sudden. 2 Timothy 3.16 says, All Scripture
is given by inspiration of God. All Scripture is given by the
inspiration of God. That word inspiration there has
been breathed out by God. It's God's words. All Scripture
is God's words. So there we know that this isn't,
even though it was penned by men, it's not written from the
thoughts and the wisdom and the ideas of men. It's written by
God. God dictated to His men, and
they wrote it down. They were given inspiration,
or the words of God, and they wrote them down. But it says
all Scripture is given by the inspiration of God. Now, turn
if you would with me over to 2 Peter chapter 1. In 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 20, We learn this. It says, knowing
this first, that no prophecy of Scripture, now that word prophecy
there means forth-telling, not fortune-telling or fore-telling. It means forth-telling. Preaching. Speaking of preaching. Knowing
this first, that no prophecy or preaching of the Scripture
is of any private interpretation. Nobody came up with it on their
own. These aren't doctrines that men formulated on their own.
These are not teachings that men came up on their own. As
we learned in the previous verse, it was given by the inspiration
of God. So Paul wrote under the inspiration
of God. Peter wrote under the inspiration
of God. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, all
these men wrote under the inspiration of God. God gave them the words
to say and they wrote it down. So it didn't come by any private
interpretation or figuring out what this meant or what that
meant. No, they just wrote down what God had them write down.
Verse 21, it says, For the prophecy came not in old time by the will
of man. That's what I was just saying.
It didn't come by the will of man. But holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So the writing of Scripture
The documenting of the words of God came by the Holy Ghost. Now we learn in Scripture that
God is immutable. He cannot change. He's the same yesterday, today,
forever. We learn that God is of one mind
and who can turn Him. We won't go over and read those
verses. I pray that you know that those verses are biblical
verses and you can go look them up later. But the Scripture says
that God is of one mind and who could turn Him? Meaning that
God doesn't change His mind and He's not a double-minded man.
Therefore, if the holy Scriptures are written by the inspiration
of God, as the Holy Ghost gives them the words to say, the Holy
Ghost being God, then they cannot contradict. They're not going
to be at clash with each other. One's not going to disprove the
other. One is not going to lie about the other. So now, with
that foundation, we know that what Paul is teaching and what
James is teaching, both by the inspiration of God as the Holy
Spirit, give them the words to write down. These passages cannot contradict
otherwise the Holy Spirit of God would be a changed-minded
person. The Holy Spirit of God would
have contradicted Himself and God cannot contradict Himself
because He is truth. He only speaks the truth. He
is truth. And he cannot speak a lie. And
if he would speak that justification is by faith alone, and then say
that justification by works alone, then he would contradict himself
and he would be a liar, either on this side, where Paul said
it, or this side, where James says it. And we know that that
cannot be true. We understand that these two
verses are inspired and breathed out by the Spirit of God and
is truth. It can't be lies. It's truth. Therefore, if there is a seeming
contradiction in these verses, then it's in our understanding
and thinking. Because it's surely not in the
interpretation as God intends it. Okay? knowing that the writers are
not going to contradict each other because it's written by
the same person, the Holy Spirit. Let's look at some of the explicit
verses that Paul talks about as far as being saved by faith
or justification by faith where James is saying justification
is by words. But let's see what Paul says
because if we look at James just by himself and we take James
and what he is saying without the context of what Paul is saying,
then we are going to become Catholics. We are going to become Judaizers,
Hebrew Roots people. We're going to become people
who think that salvation comes through our good works, or that
our good works is fused with our faith, and that's what brings
justification. But that's not what the Bible
teaches. So, let's look at what Paul says. Turn with me if you
would, back to Romans. where Paul begins his treaty
on justification. Romans 3. And look with me, if you would,
at verse 20. It's where I would
like to begin. Well, actually, let's look at
verse 19. There was actually a passage in James that we didn't
read that also reiterates what Paul says here in verse 19, but
we'll just read this here in 19. It says, Now we know that
what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God. So the purpose of the law that
God gave was to make everybody guilty. It never was. The law
never was given to Moses to ever make anybody righteous before
God. The law came in that the offense
might abound. Romans 5 verse 20. So the law was given to show
us that we cannot be righteous, because we can't keep God's law.
No matter how much we try to keep God's law, we always break
God's law. No one ever has kept the law
of God except for Christ alone. So the law was given for the
purpose of condemning us in our sin, showing us that we are sinners
before God to show us, and again, this is for those who have been
given to understand it. See, the person who is not born
of God, they don't see this. They don't understand this. They
might know that they have done a sin, but they don't realize
that they are sinners who cannot keep the law of God. They think
they are sinners who have just sinned, and they need to be a
better person and quit sinning more. but the child of grace
is given to see that that law, that standard, that measure of
righteousness cannot be attained in this flesh. Therefore, we
have no hope in ourself, no hope in our own righteousness, no
hope in anything that we do to save us because we cannot be
saved by our works. Our works are always going to
be deficient of righteousness. And because our works are deficient
of righteousness, we cannot merit favor with God. We cannot be
accepted of God. God cannot forgive us. God cannot
redeem us and love us and keep us and all the things that God
does for us. He cannot do that based upon men's works because
men's works, as the Bible says, all have fallen short of the
glory or righteousness of God. We have all fallen short of the
glory of God. We have not been able to keep
that. So Paul here is making it clear that God has given us
this law and under this law everybody has become guilty. Now look at verse 20. by the
deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight." So what's Paul saying there? I mean, what's the plain
and main thing that he's saying there? Nobody is going to be
justified before God by keeping the law. Now, brethren, that's
an axiom. That's a principle of Scripture. That's something that you can,
as my grandpa used to say, take to the bank. By the deeds of
the law shall no flesh be justified. Now, before we go any further,
let me ask the question. Do you still think that you can
be justified before God by keeping some laws? What laws are you
going to keep? Because here it says, by the
deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. So what laws are
you going to keep that is going to make you justified before
God? So what works? Get out there and start working.
And you tell me, what works are you going to do that are going
to justify you before God? That God's going to look at and
say, hey, all right. Because you've done that, I'm
going to give you the inheritance. Because you've done that, I'm
going to forgive you of your sins. Because you've done that,
I'm going to give my love to you. I'm going to give my preservation
to you. I'm going to take care of you.
I'm going to, at the end of time, I'm going to give you a new body,
and I'm going to bring you into my presence, and you're going
to be with me for all eternity, and there will be no more sorrow
and no more weeping and crying and sickness and death. All this
stuff is going to be gone away. You're going to get all the inheritance
that is coming to my children because you did whatever. No, he says, by the deeds of
the law, no flesh shall be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. See, whenever the law comes in,
we begin to realize, hey, there is no righteousness in me. I
can't keep the righteousness. But look at verse 21, it says,
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon
all them that believe, for there is no difference. For all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. So here we see explicitly, Paul
says that our justification before God comes by the faith of Jesus
Christ, not our exercising faith in Christ, not Christ's faith
that He gives us so that we would trust in Him, but we are justified
by Christ's actual personal faith, His faithfulness to God in keeping
the law on our behalf. That's what justified us. See,
to be justified before God is to be able to be holy and to
be righteous. The only one who did not fall
short of the glory of God or the righteousness of God was
Jesus Christ. Why? Because He was perfect in
every way. Perfect. Without sin. Man is full of sin. Nothing but
sin. But Christ was without sin. Therefore,
being without sin, His righteousness, His legal standing before God
is accounted to us. That's what imputation means.
It's imputed to us. It's laid to our account. So
we have an imputed righteousness by faith alone, not by our faith
alone, but by the faith of Christ alone. He imputes that to us,
and then he, in the new birth, imparts faith to his children,
that same faith that he has, He imparts to His children. He
is the one who grants that faith, who gives that faith. And listen,
this is very important, especially to the topic we're talking about
today. He's also the one that controls and empowers that faith,
sustains that faith, activates and works that faith. It's not
us. Faith is not something that we
can do anytime we want. Whatever we just choose to do
so. No, faith is something that is wrought in our heart by God.
It's something that is wrought in our mind by God. Faith is
something that is worked within the child of grace. So therefore,
we can't claim to be justified before God because we believed
in Jesus. Because we don't have faith. The Bible even says that.
All men have not faith. So the faith that we actually
exercise in Christ Jesus to believe on Him and to trust what He says
and to love our brothers, to love God, that faith is something
that is wrought in us, and that word wrought means worked in,
activated in, controlled by God. That's something that God does
in us. Faith is a work of God in us. Matter of fact, it says,
And Ephesians, we'll read this here in just a little bit, but
Ephesians says explicitly that faith is not of yourself. It
is a gift of God. And if it is a gift of God, that
means that it is a work of God. It isn't something that is natural
or inherent in our nature. Our nature is void of faith. Not natural faith. Don't mix
them up. Natural faith and spiritual faith
are two different things. Natural faith, whenever Caveman
sat down in that chair, he had faith that that thing wasn't
going to fall down on the ground underneath him whenever he sat
down. That's natural faith. I have faith every time I get
in my car that I'm going to drive across town without it breaking
down. That's natural faith, okay? So that's not what we're talking
about. We're talking about the experience of God's work within
us to keep us looking to Christ for salvation, to keep us looking
to Him as our hope for us to love God and to love our brethren
and to, as we'll see, to work out that in our lives as we have
fellowship and dealings with the brethren. But here he says,
for all sin to fall short of the glory of God, justified freely
by His grace. It says, Whom God has set forth
to be of propitiation through faith in His blood to declare
His righteousness for the remission of sin that are passed through
the forbearance of God. To declare, I say, at this time
His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. Not because he believed in Jesus,
But just, he's talking about the people group, the believers.
That he might be the just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. That's the quantifier. Who is
he the just and the justifier of? The believing ones. Not because they were believing
ones. They were believing ones because
they have been justified of God. He says, where is boasting then?
It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but
by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith, and look what he says here, without
the deeds of the law. Now, that's just right there
is completely opposite of what James said, right? James said
that we are justified by works alone without faith. So see, this is where people
begin to start doubting the Scriptures, begin doubting God. Listen, remember this thing,
remember this principle. The natural man, who we are created
in Adam, the natural man, his default position is always self-righteousness. His default position is always
thinking that I can put my hand to something and do something
for God so that God will be pleased with me and accept me. That's
the default position of the natural man. He thinks that he can do
that. It started with Adam. Adam thought that he could do
something and put his hand to something and to justify himself
before God. So what did he do? He got in
some fig leaves, he clothed himself, and he thought God was going
to be okay with that. And what did God do? God came and said,
no, shook that off, we're not going to... And he clothed him
with what God required him to be clothed in. Not from Adam's
work, but from his own. Whenever Cain and Abel came and
presented their sacrifices, he accepted Abel's but not Cain's.
Why? Because Cain's was the work of
his own hands. See, God will never accept the
natural man's attempt to be holy attempt to be righteous, attempt
to keep the law for righteousness. He's never going to accept that.
That was the axiom. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. God has made that plain and clear.
I am not justifying any person based upon their law keeping. Why? Because the flesh is weak
and it cannot keep the law of God. Therefore, nobody would
ever be justified. Nobody would ever be justified
if God was to justify people by their works. No one would
ever be justified. And so that's why Paul here is
saying that we conclude that a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law. So that's very clear. Look if
you would over at chapter 4 while you're there, verse 5. or excuse me, verse two. For Abraham was justified by
works he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. We'll come
back to that here in a minute. Verse three, for what saith the
scripture, Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for
righteousness. Now to him that worketh, is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. So if you want to
be a worker, it's going to be accounted under you as a debt. If I work for something, I'm
not receiving something. I've mentioned this to you before.
Digital x-ray company pays me to go out and work and fix and
install x-ray equipment. So whenever I go out and work
on x-ray equipment and fix it, drive all over the country working
on stuff, and come home, that day that I've done, I have put
in work for them, and they in turn owe me wages. And if my
boss would come up and say, or if someone would say to me, I'm
going down to the bank, cashed in my check or deposited my check
in my account, someone would say, oh, I see you're cashing
your check from work this week, huh? Boy, your boss was surely
gracious to you to give you that. Wait a minute, was my boss gracious
to pay me for the work that I did for him? See, that's not grace,
because grace is unmerited favor. Grace is somebody giving me something
that I didn't deserve, that I didn't work for, that I'm not owed. Grace is to give something to
someone freely with no strings attached. That's what grace is. So if I work and my boss pays
me, that's not him being gracious. Now, he may be gracious in giving
me a job, but once we are contracted together as employer-employee,
and I do work and labor for him, he has contracted me to give
me my wages. And he gives me my wages. And
so I earn those wages and I have therefore grown to boast, hey,
I did 80 hours of work this week and that is what I have earned. And that's what Paul is saying
here. If you are trying to seek to be justified by your works,
It's going to be not grace that you receive. It's going to be
wages. And what did the Bible just say?
The wages of sin is death. You know what you're going to
get in return for your working? Because all you're working is
sin. You're going to get death. So brethren, all these preachers
that are out here telling us that we've got to keep the law for
righteousness, that we need to be law keepers for righteousness,
and that God is only going to accept us if we're good little
Christians keeping all the law of God and being righteous before
God, and everything here is actually going completely against what
Paul said. Because Paul here is saying,
listen, if you do works for righteousness, then you're not getting grace,
you're getting a wage, and the wage of sin is death. Your payment for you going out
there and trying to work for righteousness is death. That's
what your wage is. Listen, you hear gospel preachers.
A gospel preacher is one who is going to tell you that it
is not by the law. A gospel preacher isn't going
to tell you to pull up your bootstraps and get out there and start working
for Jesus. That's a Judaizer. That is the
ones that Paul said that that is not the gospel, that that
is a false gospel and let it be a curse. But yet we have preachers
and churches all over this country and all over this world who every
Sunday that all the preaching is a preaching of life application
about how you need to get yourself up to par, get yourself up and
do good, do right, do all these things. And it's a preaching
of do, do, do, work, work, work. And Paul here says, listen, if
you're going to go through and do that, you're going to get
wages, not grace. Because salvation is by grace. For by grace are you saved, not
by works. For by grace are you saved. So
if you want to be saved, don't do it by works because by works
you're going to get your wages and those wages is death. If
you want to be saved, and I'm saying this in a human Because
all those who will be saved are going to be saved because God
has elected them before the foundation of the world. Christ has died
for them and not one will be lost. Every child of grace that
God has elected and Christ has died for, they will come, they
will be saved. So I'm not saying this is a decision
thing. But what I'm saying is, in our mind, as the children
of grace, our salvation is not dependent upon us working. It
is upon Christ who died. Our salvation is upon grace being
given to us. And out of that grace, Christ
came to die. From that grace, God loved us,
Christ came and died for us, and the Holy Spirit of God quickens
us and gives us the understanding of this Gospel to rejoice in
this Gospel, to hope in this Gospel. Faith believes in Christ,
not believes in His existence, not believes necessarily in His
being God, although that comes with it, but believes in Him
as their righteousness. That's what the Gospel is all
about. And so we believe. Therefore,
if we believe in Christ, if we believe upon Him as our righteousness,
if we believe on what He says and everything like that, then
that shows that we have been one of the justified. Because
one of the justified, if you are justified before God, if
Christ has died for you, and you are that person who has been
justified, the Bible says here that He is the justifier of them
that believe. So that means all those who have
been justified are believers. Now that doesn't mean that they
come out of the womb believing. But at some point of time, God
begats them or brings them forth as believers, as children of
God. He begins to make them manifest
as the children of God, not only in their own mind, but outwardly
before others. In their own mind, they begin
to see that I'm a child of grace. I begin to see that I've been
died for. I begin to see that there is a righteousness that
has been given to me. I begin to see that there is
an inheritance to be had. And it hasn't got anything to
do with me because I've also been given the seed that I'm
a wretched sinner who has no hope in himself. So I'm looking
to Christ Jesus. And this is what Abraham did.
Abraham believed the truth about Jesus Christ being his righteousness
and he believed God and it, the seed, was accounted to him. Abraham
believed that the seed was going to be his righteousness, not
his own works, not his going and taking Isaac up on the altar.
That's not it. That was the sign or the symbol
or the signification that Abraham was a believer. What happened
with Abraham taking Isaac up onto the mountain and onto the
altar and was there ready to slay his son, who the Lord had
promised was going to be from where the seed comes, trusted
God, believed in God, went through the whole entire thing because
God had worked in him faith. It wasn't Abraham that did that.
Abraham was faithless. We see it all through the Bible.
Abraham was a faithless man. From the time he came out of
Ur of the Chaldees and started following where God took him,
yep, that by faith he was let out because God enabled him to
do so. But after that, we see time after time after time that
Abraham was a poor, poor example of faith. I mean, how many times
did he say, hey, tells his wife, hey, you need to act like you're
my sister so I don't get killed. They know that you're my wife,
they're gonna kill me and take you from me. to act like they're
my sister. How many times whenever did God
say that you were going to have children, him and his wife both
chuckled at it, thought it was funny. Oh, that can't happen.
Abraham was faithless, just like all the rest of us was. But Abraham
also showed faith by coming out of the Ur of the Chaldees, leaving
his idols behind. Oh, by the way, Abraham was an
idolater. He left those idols behind. He
did take Isaac up on the Mount, so there were things that Abraham
did. How did he do those? Because
of the grace of God that was in him. Giving him faith to do
those things. But whenever Abraham acted on
his own, Abraham was faithless just like the rest of us are.
Same thing with Rahab. James was talking about Rahab
in our passage. Do you think Rahab was some moral
person? Some religious giant? No. Who was Rahab? What was she? You remember? It told us what
she was. Prostitute. She was a harlot.
Rahab was a harlot. She was a harlot up until the
time that the spies came in and she hid the spies. She was in
harlotry. And guess what? When she hid
those spies, she lied to all the other people. So in hiding
the spies which the Bible credits her for her faith of doing, in
doing that, she was lying to everybody else. Now that's kind
of ironic, isn't it? Do you think Rahab was some moral,
divine, religious person? No. But God had given Rahab faith. And in doing so, she trusted
God Whatever, she was told to hide these spies, and she hid
those spies. Now, what does it say here? It
says, For if Abraham was justified by works, he had word of glory,
but not before God. What says the Scripture? Abraham
believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. 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, counted for righteousness. The
one who justifies the ungodly, Christ. Christ is the one who
justified us. And His faith is the one who
justified us. So His faith is counted for righteousness. And whenever I am given faith,
I believe that His faith is my righteousness. I believe on Him. I believe that I've been imputed
the righteousness of God and that God is not looking at my
righteousness, nor do I have to perform a righteousness so
that I can be accepted of God. I look to Christ alone and I
am resting in His Word and not trying to uptake my Word. Even as David also described
it, the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputed righteousness
without works. Paul was very clear. Look at
verse 13, it says, for the promise that he should be heir of the
world, this is Abraham, for the promise that he should be the
heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through
the law, but through the righteousness of faith. of Christ. See, we don't become
the heirs of the world as the children of God. We don't become
the heirs of the world through the law and law-keeping. That's
what works is we become heirs by the righteousness of Christ. Now, turn with me over to Galatians
2. Let's look at verse 16. It says,
knowing that a man is not justified by the works
of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ."
Now, is that explicit? And is that plain? I'm asking,
brothers, I don't know any other way to look at this. Knowing
that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by
the faith of Jesus Christ. Not by the faith of Michael Smith.
But by the faith of Jesus Christ. Now, just a side note here. If you look at modern translations
of the Bible that use the corrupted Greek manuscripts, they insert
the word in, by the faith in Jesus Christ. Those Greek texts that they translated
the King James into, it's the faith of. And there's a difference
between the faith of Jesus Christ and the faith in Jesus Christ.
Faith in Jesus Christ is something that I do. Faith of Jesus Christ
is something that Christ does. But by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." So he
said it twice right here in the same passages. But if while we
seek to be justified by Christ, see we're seeking to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners. Is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? So that's basically saying God
must be unjust because if we seek to be justified by Christ,
And we're sinners. Is God wrong for doing that?
He says, God forbid. For if I build again the things
which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I, through
the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. Paul said here, no, the law is
what let me know that I was dead to the law. I can't keep the
law. It was through the law that I became known in my own mind
that I am an enabled person to keep the law.
All I can do is unrighteousness. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from this body of death? He said, whenever I
choose to do one thing, or when I choose to do good, evil is
present with me. I want to do this that's good,
but I always do this which is evil. Paul is saying that there
is always within me evil dwelling continually. I can't do anything
pleasing to God. So he said, I learned that from
the law. When I looked at the law, I see that I can't keep
that. And so God showed me that so
that I might live unto God and not under the law. See, the child
of grace is showing their inability of righteousness by law keeping
so that they might in turn look to Christ. and live unto God. Live hoping in Him. Live unto
Him as their source of righteousness. For he says, I am crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave Himself for me. So now Paul is saying, listen,
now that faith of Christ is living in me. Therefore, if I do anything,
it is not me who does it, it is Christ that does it in me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain." Very clear, brethren, that justification
before God does not come by words. Look, if you would, while you're
there in Galatians chapter 5, verse 4. It says, Christ has become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law. You are
fallen from grace. Not that we can be justified
by the law, but what Paul is saying here is you who are seeking
to be justified by your works, by your law keeping, then Christ
has become of no effect to you. Meaning that everything that
Christ secured in His death, remember where we're at. We're
in Galatians, right? Paul is writing this letter to
the Galatian believers who began in the Spirit, but now was trying
to be made perfect by law keeping. Why? Because those preachers
of the law started infiltrating their churches and began to whisper
in those people's ears, yes, you need to be saved by grace
and by words. You still need to keep the law
of Moses to be right before God and to be saved. If you don't
believe me, just read Galatians and you'll see Paul says that.
That's what was going on. Go back to the Jerusalem Council
in Acts chapter I believe it's Acts 15. I might be wrong on
that. Someone can correct me. But I think it's Acts chapter
15 where Paul and Barnabas went back to the Jerusalem council
and they began to tell them, hey, you need to get a hold of
these guys coming down to all these Gentile churches. And they're
trying to tell everybody that they still need to be saved by
keeping the law of Moses. Because he mentioned being circumcised
and keeping the Law of Moses. It wasn't just about circumcision,
brethren. It was about keeping the Law
of Moses. And so we see here, Paul is saying,
listen, if you are seeking to be justified, then everything
that Christ did in His coming is of no effect to you. Forgiveness
of sin. Redemption. Propitiation. All the things that Christ secured
for His people on the cross is of no effect for you because
you're trying to seek it by law. And the wages of that will be
death. For we who through the Spirit
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Not by works. We don't hope wait for the hope of righteousness.
We don't wait for righteousness to be given to us through our
works. We do it through faith. Let's do a couple of pages over
the Ephesians. Chapter 2. I already quoted this
once, but let's read it. You can see it for yourself.
I'm not making this up. And this also will lead us into
what we're talking about in these works. It says, for by grace
are ye saved. For by grace are ye saved. Paul said that even before he
got to this place, that we were saved by grace. He didn't even mention faith
in that whenever he said that. He just said, for by grace are
ye saved. We know that that's true. Whenever
we read those familiar verses, keep your hand there in Ephesians.
I'm just going to read real quickly here for you. In 2 Timothy 1-9 where it says,
"...who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which
was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began." The grace that saves us is given
to us before the world began. What grace is that? Well, we
know that in grace God sent His Son. But the grace that was given
to us before the foundation of the world is God's electing love. God's electing love was given
to us because the Bible says that He has loved us with an
everlasting love and it says that those names were written
down in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain before the
foundation. of the world. And those people
that God loved, He said, for God so loved that world that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. That's not an invitation
to believe on Jesus. That's an exclamation or a proclamation
of who those people are that Christ died for. The believers,
or the believing ones, are the ones for whom Christ died. And
those are the ones who are the recipient of eternal life because
of that death of Christ. And so that grace that saves
through faith, the faith of Jesus Christ in coming and living our
obedience for us and dying the death for us, that obedience
or that faithfulness all pours out of God's eternal love for
us before the foundation of the world. And how can works be included
in that? How can works that we do now
be included in God's vision of how He was going to redeem us? did everything in Christ Jesus.
Because back to Ephesians chapter 2, we learn that it is in Christ
Jesus, that was Ephesians chapter 1, that we received all those
blessings. But here it says, For by grace are ye saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God. Not of words. Grace and salvation is not of
words. Matter of fact, the grammatical
structure of this in the Greek, the that, or excuse me, the it
is the gift of God, and that, the that there, is referring
back to grace, it's referring back to saved, and it's referring
to faith. Because of the grammatical structure
of that. Now I'm not a smart man, but
I've had to use to help me learn that. But that right there goes
back. And really, you don't need those
tools to know, because the plain reading says, for by grace are
you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. You're not
saved by yourself. It is the gift of God. In other places of Scripture,
we find out that faith is a gift of God. Why? Because it is the work or the
gift of God. What are the gifts of God? Love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, faith. It's a gift
of God. And he says here, he says, Not
of works lest any man should boast. So if salvation came by
any man's works, then we have room to boast. And we just learned
that Paul had said that Abraham believed God, and it wasn't of
worse lest he would be able to boast before God. And what Abraham
did, he was not able to boast before God. But look what it
says in verse 10. It says, and here's what ties
in to what we're going to see in James. For we are his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them." Now, we've talked about this here before, brethren. This
is not saying that there is a list of works that we have to do,
that we need to figure out what it is that God wants us to do,
and then we get out there and do it. No, the works that are
good works are the ones that God has ordained. And if God
has ordained us to walk in them, you've heard my phrase a million
times now. I'm sure that you've got it memorized. The child of
grace is going to work every work that God has ordained for
him, no more and no less. Are you going to work more works
than God ordained for you to work? Are you going to work less works
than God ordained for you to work? Because He said that they
shall walk in them. See, we're going to do every
good work perfectly that God has ordained for us to do. No
more and no less. The exact number of good works
that God has ordained to be worked in us will be worked out. That's God's promise to us. That's
why we rest in the fact that I don't look at my outward appearance.
I don't look at my activity. I don't look at my scores chart
and see how many good deeds and how many bad deeds I'm doing
to know whether or not I'm accepted of God or in right standing with
God because God is not looking on the outward appearances. But
what's He looking at? He's looking at the heart. And
what's in the heart? The Bible says that He has put His Spirit
in our heart that we would keep His statute. The Bible says that
He has given us the Spirit of God, and that Spirit of God convinces
us of sin, and the Spirit of God also causes us to look into
the law of liberty that James spoke about. We look into the
law of liberty, which is looking unto Christ and His obedience.
And so he says here that we are created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained, that we should walk
in them. Why? Because we are His workmanship. That means God
is the one doing the work and we are showing evidence of a
work being done. That's what workmanship is. We
go back, the Bible uses this illustration in several places
of a potter in the clay, right? I don't know if anybody's ever
watched one of those potters on a potter wheel making clay
pots and everything. It's actually kind of fascinating
and a little bit satisfying whenever you watch them take that clay
and they start spinning. They put their hand and they press
it in just a little bit and all of a sudden, it just kind of
comes up to a weird looking vase or something like that. Is the clay doing anything? Is
the clay doing anything to make itself like that? Is the clay
forming itself? And then once it's done, once
it's done, And that pot, let's say he makes a plate. And he
makes that plate, and that plate hardens and is now ready to be
used. Does that plate do anything to work? No, it's just the plate. Who's the one doing the work?
The one who takes the plate, puts the food on the plate, washes
the plate, puts the plate up. Everything that has to do with
the work of the plate has to do with something outside of
the plate. The plate is just who it is. It's the plate. The
pot is just the pot. It's the potter who makes the
pot, determines what the pot is going to be, and then the
one who is the one working the pot, using the pot, taking advantage
of the pot's making, is the one who is the workman, not the pot. The pot doesn't do anything. That's what Paul is saying right
here, for we are his workmanship. That means everything that is
being done is being done by Him through us and in us. And if it's being done in us
by Him, then let me ask you, how do you control it? How do
you control those words? To say, well, today I think it
doesn't work for Jesus. I hear people all the time on
Facebook, a lot of my old Christian friends in the Armenian camp,
you know, talking about all the work that they're doing for God.
all the work that they're doing for Jesus, all this stuff. Well,
let me ask you, how are you determining to do that? Whenever you aren't
in control of your faith, when you aren't in control of the
work being done in you, how are you doing anything? And besides
that, James, I believe, in his passages, is not even talking
about religious and moral activity. I believe that he is talking
about an inward work of God that comes out in our working and
our fellowship with the brother. Turn back, if you would, to James. And by the way, if you want to
write this verse down, you can. I'm going to turn to it real
quick. I was going to read this and I skipped over. because it
kind of got off track a little bit. But in Isaiah 45 and verse
25, for those Reformed folks who think we're still justified
by our own faith, verse 25 of Isaiah 45, it says,
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall
glory. That tells us two things. Number
one, that all the spiritual house of Christ His seed, spiritual
seed of Israel. They are going to be justified
in Him. Not in your works and not in
your faith. In Him. And, what are they going
to do? They are going to glory in that. For the one who works, they glory
in their works. Whether they glory outwardly
to other people, hey, look at me at what I do. And there's
a lot of people that do that. They get out on the street corners
and they trumpet all their almsgiving, as Matthew would say. They spread
it out to the world, what all they're doing and giving to God.
So whether you're doing that or
whether in your own self you're boasting to your own self, Hey
man, I'm doing a lot better this week. I didn't do this, I didn't
do this, I didn't do this, and I did this, and I did this, and
I read my Bible more this week, I prayed more this week, whatever
the case might be. Now, those who are justified
will glory in the Justifier. And so if you hear people glorying
in their words, then in their mind, What is being told about
them, they're telling on themselves, is that they in their heart believe
that they are justified before God by what they've done. Therefore,
they are boasting in themselves. They're boasting in what they
do. So whenever you hear a preacher boasting about his church, about
his numbers, about his money, about all this kind of stuff,
boasting about himself and what all he's accomplished in his
ministry, You're looking at someone who thinks that they're justified
before God because of what they've done. And Paul said that we will not
be justified by those things. But anyway, Isaiah is proof that
we are justified in the Lord and we shall glory in Him. But back here at James, if you
would. Let me get back over here. James chapter 2. We see that James, the context
here, that James is saying all this stuff is in regards to how
we as brethren treat each other. And he begins up here talking
about verse 2, chapter 2. Let's just start in verse 1. My brethren, have not the faith
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of
persons. For if there come unto your assembly
a man with a gold ring and godly apparel, and there come also
a poor man in vile raiment, and ye have respect to him that weareth
the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good
place, and say to the poor, Stand thou there, and sit here under
my footstool. Are ye not then partial in yourselves,
that I become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved
brethren. What does he mean by judges of
evil thoughts? That person is believing that
that guy is in his state because he's not being obedient to God. And isn't that kind of how we
default, judge people? We judge people's religiosity
on how much they do for Jesus? Or how much they don't do for
Jesus? Oh, that guy's doing that. Well, oh man, he must not be.
And so we elevate or we demote people based upon our performance. And here, James is giving this
example. He said, listen, if one comes
into you and he's in fine apparel and raiment, you put him up.
But obviously, he's prominent. He's got something going. The
Lord is blessing him because of how he is. So let's give him
the precedence. And then here comes a man of
lowly estate, poor man, whatever. Obviously, the Lord isn't blessing
him and everything, so he's going to take a lower seat. And so we're having partiality
between each other. So it's how we serve one another. How we are serving. We're serving
the more prominent, outspoken, beautiful person and not the
lowly of persons. That's how we're treating each
other. That's what James is dealing with here. How we are treating
people within the assembly. And he says, Have not God chosen
the poor of this world, rich in faith? and the heirs of the
kingdom which He had promised to them that love Him. But ye
have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you and
draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme
that worthy name by which ye are called? If ye fulfill the
royal law according to the Scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. Ye do well." Now, he's not bringing
up the moral law. He's not bringing up the mosaic
law, the civil law, the ceremonial laws. He's bringing up that law
that is being worked in us by the Spirit of God, the law of
a loving God and loving the brethren. He says, If thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself, ye do well. But if you have respect to persons,
what's on the outside, if you're looking to the outside and having
respect for them on how they are doing things outwardly, you
commit sin and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one
point, he is guilty of all." So basically saying, you know,
if you're looking at these people and how they're doing things
on the outside, what's being produced on the outside? Didn't
Jesus say that this wayward generation seeks after signs? The religious people are always
looking for signs, not just miraculous signs, signs outwardly. They're
looking for evidence outwardly. But the Bible tells us that the
fruit of the Spirit are spiritual fruits. They're not outward,
fleshly fruits. They're spiritual fruits. And
they're fruits that are worked by God inwardly. And so that's
what we are to look for. And one of the things is loving
God, looking to Christ, and loving Him, and hoping in Him, and trusting
in Him. That's the law of liberty. And
loving our brethren as ourselves. That is the royal law. And it
says, For he that said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do
not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery,
yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So
speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law
of liberty." There's that phrase again. He said, don't be like
them who are judging on outward appearances. Be like those who
are judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without
mercy that hath shown no mercy, and mercy rejoices against judgment. What does it profit, my brethren,
though a man say he hath faith and have not words? Can faith
save him? Now here he goes again. He talked
about how he treated those in the assembly as they come in
and their status. Now what does he say here? If a brother or
sister be naked and destitute of daily food. Notice he says,
if a brother or sister. Again, he's keeping it within
the context of the assembly, of the people of God, of the
brethren. If they be naked and destitute
of daily food, and one of you say to them, depart peace and
be warmed and filled, notwithstanding you give them those things which
are needful to the body, what doth it profit?" If you just
say that you're, you know, be warmed and well-filled and not
look after your brother or sister in Christ who is in need and
help provide for that need, then what does it profit you? He says,
even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead. being alone. Now this is where we get into
what James is actually saying. Paul spent all those verses that
we just talked about for how long? Over an hour or around
an hour here already. Laying down the foundation that
legal justification before God is not by works. It's not by
the law. It's not by anything that we
do. But it was by Christ alone. James is saying something from
a different vantage point, which is actually saying what Paul
is saying in a different way. Paul is looking at it from the
standpoint of justification before God. James is looking at it as
the justification before men. The works that faith produces
in us the love of the brethren, the not being a respecter of
persons, the taking care of each other, looking into the law of
liberty, of loving Christ, and looking at Christ, and hoping
in Christ. That right there, those internal works, the fruits
of the Spirit, which are the works of Christ, those things
there are the evidences, are the justification to others that
we have been legally justified before God and given faith in
the new birth because that faith that we get in the new birth
will produce the fruits of the Spirit because Christ is in us. That's why Paul said, I no longer
live but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live,
I live by the faith of Christ. The faith of the one who died
for me. The faith of the one who saved
me. The faith of the one who keeps me. The faith of the one
who will, in the end, redeem me from this body of death. I
live by His faith. That means Christ's faith working
in me. And when Christ's faith works
in me, it's evidence in loving God, loving the brethren, trusting
in Christ alone. And those are the things that
show forth that we are justified. It justifies us before men. Not
in a legal standing before God, but before each other. Now, listen. It's surely going to show within
the people of God. But listen, brother. It's our
experiential standing. Look, if you would, and I'm going
to read one more verse and we'll be done here. John 13. I spent a lot of time on legal
justification when we were talking about experiential justification. I hope you understand what I
mean by experiential. The difference between legal
and experiential. Legal is everything that is contractual within the
covenant of God that is required to save men. That was what God
determined to do. That's what God covenanted to
do for His elect people in saving them. And so all of that, all
the onus of that covenant is upon God because that eternal
covenant was not a conditional covenant. God did not covenant
with us that He would save us. God made a covenant of Himself
that He would save His people and this is how He would do it.
He elected them. He redeemed them. He sealed them
and He keeps them until the day of redemption. But in John chapter
13 and in verse 35, we see there is an experiential justification,
meaning that's what we not only feel, experience, but it's what
others recognize as being a proof of something that was unseen. That's unseen. Remember, faith
is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. Faith is the evidence of salvation. Faith is the evidence of salvation. Faith is the evidence of salvation. I can't reiterate that more.
Faith is the evidence of things not seen, not works. But when faith is there, when
Christ is in me, it produces the fruits of the Spirit, which
are the works of God that are ordained for me to walk in and
that are enacted or enabled or empowered or worked at as the
workmen by Christ. Verse 35, John 13, By this shall
all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." James is dealing with how we
deal with each other in the assembly in love and respect and honor. If Larry was a millionaire and came
in here and I treated him different than Zach, who is a 20-year,
a 50-year, a 100-year, and I give Larry more respect than I give
Zach because Larry is a millionaire and Zach's a 50-year, then I
would be wrong in that. Why? Because I am judging people
by their outward appearances. But if I come in and I see how
Larry has a love for God and a love for the brethren, and
I see how Zach has love for God and a love for the brethren,
and I realize these two are brothers. And so I treat Larry as a brother.
I treat Zach as a brother. I don't treat one one way because
he does more work. If Larry comes in and he's out
in the community and he's feeding the poor and clothing the naked
and he's helping the widows and helping the orphans and doing
all that. And he's doing all these great
good deeds. And then I come in and Zach really hasn't done much
of anything. And I have more respect for Larry
than I do for Zach. I'm judging by outward appearances.
Because anybody can feed the sick or feed the hungry and clothe
the naked and help the sick and help the children. Anybody can do that. There are
secular organizations out there that do it all the time. That's
no proof that they're children of God. What's the proof that
they're the children of God? Faith is the evidence. And faith
produces what? Love for God, love for the brethren,
and a hope in Christ Jesus. Believe in the Gospel. You see why everything hangs
on those things? Because those are things that
cannot be mimicked by anybody. love for the brethren, love for
God, and a hope in the Gospel alone. Now, the deadly man, there
are wars against that. There are sometimes, Larry might
not be too happy with mine. We may love each other as brethren,
but he may not be happy with me. Or I may not be happy with
him. And we may be at odds. There may be a time whenever
I don't feel like doing anything. I don't want to do anything.
There may be a time whenever I'm not happy with God because
of a certain circumstance in my life. The Adamic man is always
going to be against those things. That's the warfare. That's why
Paul was saying, O wretched man that I am, in my mind I love
my brethren, in my mind I love God, in my mind I have hope in
the Gospel, but in my flesh, I fail at all of them. I failed
at loving my brethren and I failed at loving God. I failed at hoping
in the Gospel because that endemic man still thinks that I can do
something and keep up some appearances before God. But thankfully, the
Spirit of God constrains me. For the love of God constrains
me. The love of God that's been given
to me and the grace of God that has been given to me and the
Spirit of God that is in me constrains me. That's the works that we're
seeing. And when those are evident in
our lives, those are what is the things that we can see that
there has been a justified person before God. It doesn't get us
justified. It doesn't save us in the fact
of a legal salvation of a standing before God. But it saves us in
an experiential way. It saves us from the wrong knowledge
of righteousness, the wrong knowledge of our fellowship, the wrong
knowledge of how we are to minister to one another. See, that is
what saves us. The faith in Christ shows that
we have been justified by God, and then the love of the brethren
shows that we have been justified before God. These things are
evidential things that come out because of the work that's already
in us, not to make us saved. So whenever people look at James
and say, hey, he's talking about salvation in the legal standpoint,
then they've missed it. James isn't at contradiction
with Paul. James is talking about a different
justification from a different viewpoint. Paul was worried about
justification in a legal standing before God. James is talking
about an experiential justification before men. That's why Paul said
when Abraham believed God, it wasn't by works because he had
nothing to boast for before God. But surely by his work that God
did in him of faith, it was evident to those outside that he was
justified before God. Abraham didn't do that to get
justified. Abraham did that because he was
justified. One's legal, one's experiential. One's legal, one's evidential.
And we don't control either one. Both of them are by the sovereign
will of God. Therefore, we have no room to
boast in our legal standing or in our experiential outworking,
because it's all of God's work. Doesn't the Bible say that it
is God who works in you? To work out your salvation with
fear and trembling. How do I do that? If I'm not
to work, how do I do that? Because it's God that works in
you. You will work out, but it's not you doing the work, it's
God working in you. And He's going to work those
fruits in you. He's going to work all those
works that He ordained for you. Don't worry about it. Some days
it may not look like it's happening, but trust God that it is. And
to you out there, when you're looking at me, no, God's doing
that work. Though it might not look like
it, God's doing that work. Whenever we have that understanding,
brethren, if the Spirit so gives us that understanding, you know
what? I'm going to treat each one of my brethren in such a
way because I know It isn't Larry to will and to do. It isn't to
Mark to will and to do. It isn't for my wife to will
and to do. They are all at the mercy of
the Spirit of God working in them those things which God has
ordained for them to do. Therefore, I have patience and
longsuffering if the Spirit would work that in me. I have patience
and longsuffering because they're just like me. You're just like
me. We all struggle with our sin.
We all struggle with our inability. And yet we're all beholden to
God to give us the grace and to increase our faith and to
exercise that faith in us and those fruits in us so that we
would be and do and accomplish the things that God has ordained
in this habitation. All of our works have been ordained
of God. They have been wrought in God.
And so it's up to Him to bring them out. It's up to Him to exercise
them. Therefore, Mike can't say, here's
my list. Here's what I want to do today.
This is how I want to get it done. And Mike, as a preacher,
is not going to get up here and say, all right, here's what you
need to do. Get to work. I'm not saying much
in here. I've seen the stupid video. I
don't mean to go any further. I've seen a stupid video this
week, I'll tell you what, it made me want to puke. It was
some fundamentalist preacher, and I don't know from what church
or what denomination, but it came across and they were getting
all over these women for wearing these tights under their skirts.
I knew it was in the Holiness Church because they kept saying,
we're the Holiness Church. They were talking about their
women in their long jean skirts, they were starting to wear those
tights underneath there. And they were saying women aren't
supposed to wear pants. So, they were wearing tights, those tight
things that women wear. And some women even got up to
this thought, oh yeah, when women start wearing those, their skirts
are going to start getting up closer, until eventually they
won't wear skirts at all, and now they're just wearing the
tights and they're wearing the pants, and all like that. And you see,
let's put laws upon laws upon laws
here. Nothing wrong with women wearing
skirts. I'm not getting down on that
at all. I'm just saying the mentality of those preachers was let's
find out what you're doing and what you're not doing because
if you're going to be righteous, you need to be getting down to
this right here. When God puts it into the heart
of His ladies or men, dress modestly, they're going
to dress in accordance with how God wants them to dress. But
here this man, the women had their skirts almost down to their
ankles, but because that much of a legging was showing, they
were heartless. Now I know the Philips here,
they've come up through that movement, the holiness movement,
and how rigid and how strict and how legal Things are. That's
exactly what the Pharisees were doing. They were adding laws
upon laws upon laws. They were adding laws to laws
to keep this law that God gave. But because they wanted to make
sure to keep it, they made a law and a law and a law and a law
to make sure that there was no way to circumvent the law. And
they held man to their standard. See, that church was holding
ladies to a standard that God didn't ever forgive them. That's
where legalism gets us. Who's to say how much righteousness
is righteousness and how much is not righteousness? Because
we just read a while ago that if you offend in one point, you're
guilty of all of them. So those preachers that's up
there condemning those women for that much leggings showing
from underneath their skirts are just as guilty as those women
and what's in their mind guilty because they themselves have
not kept the law. They're judging themselves by
themselves. That's why what James is saying
is completely different. It's not the outward work, but
it's the inward work that God does inside of us, that evidences
or justifies us before our men and women in our assemblies.
It justifies us that we have been justified because, listen,
every one of us in here that has ever been to another place
where we are with people of like faith, whenever I went out to
West Virginia, I went out there and I've never met those people
ever before in my life. Whenever I went there, it wasn't
but 10, 15 minutes, I could tell we were like kindred. And there
immediately became a bond of love between those brethren,
even though I didn't even know them. Some of them may be rude
and just obnoxious or something like that outside of the media.
I don't know. While we were there, everything
was great. But there was a bond of love there. Why? Because I
seen their love for the brethren. I seen their love for the Word
of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ and their love and honor
to God. And that right there, it did something inside of me. It
connected with something inside of me. And whenever we come across
people, it's almost you can know right away, that's a brother
in Christ, that's a sister in Christ. See, that is what James
is talking about. James is talking about we are
justified by our works, not our religious activities, but our
works that are being brought in us by God. And therefore,
it's not a contradiction, it's a justification that's by Christ
in faith alone, in His faith alone. Alright, does anybody
have any comments or questions? No corrections. No rebukes. Anything you want to add to it?
Anybody got anything you'd like to share? Give your preacher a message
to his brother. You're all welcome. All right,
let's bow and have our prayer. Father, we thank You today for
Your grace to us and Your mercy that You've given us in Christ
Jesus. We thank You for the life that we have in and through We
thank You, Father, that we can rest in the fact that all the
works that You have ordained for us are being completed just
as You have ordained in the time that You have ordained it in
this habitation You have ordained for us. And Lord, that we rest
in Your activity, in Your work alone, and not in the activity
and the ability and the desire and hope of the natural
man. to perform something in His own
self-righteousness. So, Lord, we just pray that You
might help us to keep these things in mind by Your Spirit, that
we might continue to look to Christ, to believe in the Gospel,
to believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and that we should love
each other and that we should serve one another in love as
we look upon each other and know that we're all fallen, sinful
children of Adam. But because of the grace of God,
we have this kindred, that no man can share, that no man can
know, no man can understand. Even so much so, Father, that
even our love and our fellowship with the brethren is so much
stronger than even our blood ties to our families who know
not God and know not this Gospel. Father, we just are so humbled
by the fact that You would even save any sinner by Your grace
and by the work of Christ Jesus and why we would even be considered
to be saved, Lord, is beyond us. But we know that it's only
because of Your will, that Your purpose has a purpose to do,
that we are saved. Because we know that we are no
different than anybody else in this world, that we are sinners
deserving of damnation. But Lord, we are grateful for
the salvation that comes in Christ Jesus. And we dare not lift an
eye or lift a heart to think that we can boast within ourselves
because we know that it's all by grace and it was all done
by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it's to Him that we give
exaltation and glory and honor to today. And we pray, Lord,
that it's been pleasing to you and what we've done today. And
we pray that the Spirit has been with us today to help us in our
worship. And I pray, Lord, the things
that I've said today has not been from natural wisdom of my
own mind, But Lord, it's truly been in accordance with your
word, within the truth of Christ. And Lord, that it might be to
the edifying of your people. For it's in Christ's name that
we pray. Amen.