Faith That Works

If you would, turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2. And just hold your place there. Ephesians chapter 2. We hear a lot today from people talking about what one must do to be saved. There's really only one reason that people insist on doing something in order to be saved. Human pride. self-righteousness. And why is it so important, crucial, urgent to know that salvation is by grace and not by works? Well, I'll give you four quick apparent reasons. First, salvation by grace in Christ gives God all the credit. If we had a part in salvation, we would naturally want to share in the credit, and it would become a work to both stand. Secondly, salvation by God's grace through Jesus Christ alone produces true peace, true rest, and true assurance. You know, if salvation depended on my work and your work, we would never know if we had done enough. Have we prayed enough? Have we repented enough? Have we obeyed enough? That was my experience growing up in works religion. I always felt like I came short. You know why? Because I did. We all come short of the glory of God.

That includes all of us. Resting entirely on Christ's finished work brings the peace, the rest, and the assurance that we would otherwise never have. Thirdly, salvation by God's grace through Christ our Substitute humbles the sinner. Grace destroys boasting and pride. We don't have anything to boast in or boast about. We have nothing to glory in. One who believes that they contribute will always have a reason to claim that they did their part. And that's nothing short of disboasting.

Well, you know, I did this and I did that. And then fourthly, salvation by God's grace in and by and through the Lord Jesus Christ gives all the glory to the Lord Jesus who did for us what we could never do for ourselves. And you might say, well, isn't that the same as giving all the credit to God to give Him all the glory? Well, those expressions are no doubt related. But giving God all the credit means acknowledging that He alone is the source and the cause of every spiritual blessing and that every good thing accomplished Him giving it to us and giving God all the glory goes further. It's not merely just recognizing what he's done. It's honoring him and praising him and admiring him and exalting him because of who he is and what he has done. Oh, I tell you, we have a God that we ought to glory in because he did it all. Jesus paid it all. We sing that. I wonder if we really believe it sometimes. Credit answers the question of who does the saving.

Glory answers the question of who's going to be praised for it. Certainly not you and I. And good thing because God is very plain in the scripture. He will not share His glory with another. Isaiah 42, a and Jonah, Jonah, he answered the question of who gets all the credit, all the glory in one short sentence. Salvation is of the Lord that settles it right there.

The difference between grace and works. Now, listen to me. I believe this will be a help to you if you're still struggling with the difference. The difference between grace and works is not just some small theological detail. It's the difference between trusting Christ and trusting in yourself. It's the difference between life and death.

Sinners are accepted by God because of what Christ did, and not by what they accomplished. Good works follow salvation, but they can never be the cause of it. And that's what most preach today. It's a salvation by works. Good works follow salvation. Last week, I preached on the subject of Christ's finished work. The Gospel says it's finished. A false gospel says, eh, it's not finished. You've got to add something to it. And that's why works in grace are so fundamentally opposed to one another. A false gospel shifts the focus from what Christ has done to what man must do. In the true gospel, Christ did and finished the work. And the false gospel declares that Christ started the work, but we got to finish it.

Does that give you any encouragement? It doesn't mean, especially knowing that the work that I've got to provide has got to be perfect to be accepted. I've never done anything perfect. I've never done anything really good in God's eyes, much less perfect.

In the true gospel, faith receives. In the false gospel, faith performs. In the true gospel, Christ is sufficient. In the false gospel, Christ is necessary, but not sufficient. You've got to add something to it. In the true gospel, God gets all the glory. In the false gospel, man shares in the glory. And God, as I've already said, is very explicit. He's not going to share His glory with another. In the true gospel, assurance. You know what assurance is. You're assured of something. You've got confidence in something. Rest in Christ alone.

In the false gospel, assurance rests in personal performance. The true Gospel points the sinner to Christ's obedience and Christ's blood and Christ's righteousness and Christ's finished work. They don't point anything towards us, and I'm so glad that it doesn't. The false Gospel points the sinner back to themselves, to their decisions. Oh, I made a decision. I decided to follow Jesus. I let go. I let go. I got saved. their efforts, their commitments, their obedience. It's a perversion of the gospel. You know what perversion is.

Paul told the Galatians, I marvel that you're so soon removed from Him, God, that called you into His grace, the grace of Christ, into another gospel, which is not another. There's only one gospel, only one Savior, only one God. But there will be some that trouble you. and would pervert the gospel of Christ, make a perversion out of it. And that's what the preaching of works does. It makes a perversion of the mercy and grace of God. If preaching makes any part of acceptance with God dependent upon the sinner rather than entirely on Christ, it's not gospel preaching.

It's a false preaching. It sure is. Here in Ephesians 2, there's no clearer proof in all the Scripture that that's so. Look at verse 8. Ephesians 2 verse 8. You know these verses. You've heard them so many times. We need to hear them again. We need to hear them over and over and over again.

For by grace are you saved. How are you saved? By grace. Through faith. And that not of yourselves. That's the first hint right there. It's not of yourself. What is it then? It's the gift of God. And then he reiterates, not of works. Why not of works? Lest any man should boast. And then look at verse 10. For we are His workmanship. Whose workmanship? God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. May I underline that? It's unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Now, there's a line. There's a line that every human heart keeps trying to cross. That being the line between earning and receiving. Two totally different things. You go to work, you put in 40 hours work in a week or more and you get paid for it. You earned it. Somebody comes up to you for no apparent reason and says, here's $1,000 and you take it happily. That's receiving. You didn't do anything for it. It's a gift.

And Paul draws this line here with precision. How is a sinner saved? He said, by grace. Through faith. God is the giver of both. God gave the grace. God gave the faith to believe. God gave the life to a dead sinner in order to believe. That's the only way you're going to get it. Grace is God acting where man cannot.

You cannot save yourself. I tried for years. Didn't work. Failed miserably. And then one day, a preacher told me that God saved me by His grace. And that He did it on purpose. It wasn't an accident. It wasn't me giving my heart to Jesus. God divinely intervened. God said, that's enough. Christ came to save you from your sin. And I heard. God's call is always affection.

It's unearned favor. It's undeserved mercy. It's sovereign kindness flowing from God alone. It has nothing to do with man's efforts. And you know who that offends? One that's trying to work their way to heaven. That's who it offends. The one who says, I decided to follow Jesus. That's who it offends. One that says, you know, I gave Jesus my heart. That's who it offends.

This channel, the channel of this grace is through faith. Faith is not a work that earns salvation. Faith receives what grace freely gives. Through faith. Through faith. Anybody can claim to have faith. And to make sure that every single sinner understands, Paul adds there, and that's not of yourselves. Because what we'll do by nature, man will by nature start making their faith the reason for their grace. You know what I'm talking about? They'll start trusting in their believing instead of God giving the grace. The channel of this grace is through faith. Faith is not a work that earns salvation, it receives it. And could it be any plainer here? Could it be any clearer? Grace doesn't leave room for boasting. Salvation excludes works. Not of works. Can you say that any plainer than that? Not of works. And the reason is simple.

Boasting. You will boast. You'll boast. If works contributed to salvation, then heaven's going to be filled with people comparing resumes. One say, well, I prayed more. I prayed more than you did. Another say, well, I gave more than you did. And another might say, well, I lived more righteously than all of you. But in the kingdom of God's grace, every mouth is silenced.

Nobody's saying, haven't we, haven't we? Look what I've done. Look what I gave. Look what I did. Every saved soul doesn't point to their performance. They point to Christ's finished work. He's why I'm saved. He's why I'm here. He did for me what I couldn't do. We are His workmanship. Who's His? Not our own workmanship. The believer's not self-made. We talk a lot today about self-made men and women. Ain't no such thing. If you're successful, you work hard, God gave you all the grace to do that. Gave you the health to work. Gave you the mind to be good at what you do. Gave you the ability to be good at what you do. It's still all of Him. Nothing originates with us. We're not reformed, we're not renovated, and we're not repaired. That's what's wrong with religion today. Religion's trying to renovate people, trying to repair people, trying to reform them.

We are created in Christ Jesus. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature." 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things have become new. God made a new creation, a new creature. God gave that creature a new heart. He didn't improve the old one. This is a new creation formed by divine hands. Created in Christ Jesus. It's a spiritual creation. And this is my point this morning. Salvation has a purpose. What is it?

Unto good works. Unto good works. Good works glorify God, not the believer. We're not saved by good works. We're saved unto good works. Unto means motion in the direction of. Good works are not the root, not the cause of salvation. Good works are the fruit. They're the result of salvation. Salvation has a prepared path.

It says before ordained that we should walk in them. What does that mean? Just what it says. God ordained His people to do good works. God not only saves the sinner, He prepares the path of the saved. He directs our steps. Our salvation is not random. Our calling is not accidental. Our good works are not improvised. God prepared them beforehand.

I was thinking about this yesterday. God, in His mercy and in His grace, prepared the man to preach who you heard the gospel from, if you're a believer. Isn't that something? God did that. You know, I've heard people say, you know, I just accidentally strolled into church one day and I heard and I believed and I decided to follow Jesus. No, you didn't. If you heard the true Gospel, God ordained it. God prepared the way. God directed your steps. God sent His Spirit. God sent the Gospel. God saved you by His grace. And it wasn't by anything you did. And with that said, We have another dear brother who writes the book of James. And does he differ from what Paul believed? Well, we just looked at what Paul wrote about grace and faith and works. Is James telling us something different?

Absolutely not. Turn with me to James 2. And I'll leave you there the rest of the time. But look at this with me. James 2. We'll begin in verse 14. James 2 verse 14. The Scripture, the Bible is without controversy. These men believed the same thing. James 2 verse 14.

James says, What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and hath not works? Can faith save him? Now think about that. Let's read again. What doth a prophet, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith? A man says he's got faith and doesn't have any works. Can faith save him? And what James is saying is this. If a man says he has faith and he doesn't have good works as evidence, is his faith a false faith? Or is it true faith? James is addressing those who merely claim to have faith. Notice the word, if a man say, you know, I can say anything, but it doesn't make it true. You know, I can say anything. I can tell you I'm Elvis Presley, but I'm not. Now this is very important. Please hear me on this.

The issue is not whether faith saves, but because true faith most certainly does save. We're saved by grace through faith. Paul's already said that. James here is questioning whether a professed faith, a faith that produces no fruit, no good works, is genuine. Is faith without works genuine faith? True faith, God-given faith, is never alone. That's a good title. We'll just make that the title. True faith, never alone. True faith always brings evidence.

James here is in total agreement with Paul. And let me say this slowly and clearly, James is not discussing how a sinner is accepted before God. He agrees with Paul, it's by grace through faith. James is telling us how genuine and true faith is recognized among men.

It's not by what a person merely says, but what their life reveals. Faith is invisible. You can't see my faith, I can't see yours. But the effects of faith are not invisible. Yes, God knows and sees the hearts of all of us. But others recognize true faith by the fruit that it bears.

The Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, I won't turn you here, but I want to read you a few verses. He said, Beware of false prophets, verse 15, which come to you in sheep's clothing. There's a lot of those out there. Still today, they got Reverend in front of their name and they wear a nice suit and their names on the sign, just like mine is here. And they dressed up like sheep, but they're wolves in sheep clothing. Inwardly, he said, they are ravening wolves and you shall know them. How? By their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? What does that mean? It means that a thorn bush can't produce grapes. And it means a fig tree produces figs, not thistles.

The Lord is teaching a needed truth here. Many men speak of God. Many may quote Scripture. I told you about a man that my father knew that had committed the whole New Testament to memorization and wound up killing himself. That didn't profit him any. Many may appear religious and not have faith at all. The true test of their faith is not their profession, what they say. It's not what they say about themselves. It's by their fruits that you shall know them. Now let me read the next four verses. Listen to them carefully. I don't want you to turn there. It says, Even so, this is the Lord talking.

He said, Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bear forth evil fruit, and neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. A thorn bush cannot bring forth apples, but an apple tree will. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is honed down, chopped down, and cast into the fire.

I've noticed on the way to church this morning, one of my neighbors had cut down a bunch of branches and they were all piled out in front of the house, you know, for the city to pick up. And the ones that still had leaves on them, they'd already starting to wither and turn brown and fall off. They were separated from the life-giving tree, weren't they? Wherefore, by their fruits you shall know them.

Do they have a love for Christ? Do they have a love for God's Word? Do they want to come and hear the preaching of the gospel? Do they have a concern for God's glory? Do they have a love for fellow believers? You know, you pass from death to life. How? By your love for the brethren, by your love for one another. Is there repentance where sin is exposed? Is there perseverance and patience through trials? Is everything good with them and they praise the Lord when everything's going good and they're downcast and like the Lord's out to do me and when things are going bad? Is their acts of obedience flowing from gratitude?

Just as a tree's known by its fruit, faith is known by its works. The fruit does not give life to the tree. The life in the tree produces the fruit. That's so easy for us to understand naturally and physically speaking, but so difficult from a spiritual standpoint. In the same way, works do not create faith. Genuine faith creates good works. The believer's work is not the cause of salvation. The believer's good works are the fruit of salvation.

And it's Christ's finished work that saves. It's nothing that we can do to save ourselves, but. There's much the one who saved is ours to do. After being saved. Oh, there's so many things I and I'm so ashamed. in all the ways that I failed, but I do want to. Anything that I do, it's motivated by what Christ has done for me. That's the way it should be. It's Christ-finished work that motivates us.

Okay, James 2, look at verse 15. He's going to give us an example of this now. If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food. James gives us an illustration here to explain what he meant in verse 14. And he speaks of one or those who lack adequate clothing and daily necessities. And he says in verse 16, And if one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled. Notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body, what does it profit?" Somebody knocks on your door and they're in ragged clothes. And it's obvious they haven't eaten in days. They're famished. And you look and you say, oh, be ye warmed and filled. and don't give them some clothing and don't give them something to eat?

What did it profit? Huh? What did it profit them? He's exposing the difference here between a professing faith and true faith. A person sees a brother or sister in need and offers kind words, but no practical help. The question is, what does that profit? These words of well-wishing accomplish nothing because they're not accompanied by any action. They gave them not those things that were needful. Just as empty words cannot clothe or feed a needy person, listen, an empty profession of faith cannot demonstrate the reality that salvation exists within. I'll tell you who's got faith. The one that gives. The one that helps. The one that has compassion.

Our Lord didn't simply speak of love. He acted in love. Christ didn't just simply tell sinners to be saved. He came into the world to save them. He obeyed the law perfectly. He suffered, He died, and He rose again. And He did so to accomplish redemption for His people. The Lord didn't simply speak of forgiveness. He provided forgiveness by personally putting sin away. It was by the sacrifice of Himself. No other way for it to be put away. My mother used to tell me all the time, put your money where your mouth is. Our Lord did. By the sacrifice of Himself, He put our sin away. And look at verse 17. Even soul faith, if it hath not works, is dead. What is it? It's dead. Being alone. So again, real faith, genuine faith, God-given faith is never alone. It's never alone. Faith alone is never alone. Grace saves, faith receives, and work follows. Even then, our works are not good enough to save us.

Now listen, this fruit-bearing does not happen overnight. You know, a newly planted apple tree, Steve puts out plants that bear fruit. They don't happen overnight. A newly planted apple tree doesn't bear a full harvest of apples overnight. You don't plant the tree and then go out there the next day and expect to find apples. It takes some time. But the life is in the tree. Life's in the tree first, and the fruit appears afterward. And in the same way, spiritual life is given by God first, and good works gradually become evident.

And I'm saying that so that you're not discouraged. I've been discouraged plenty by questioning my own faith. You sure don't act much like a person that has faith, that's been given grace. But let me tell you this, growth is expected. If that apple tree two or three, four years down the road still don't bring forth apples, what are you going to do? Steve, you're going to cut it down, you're going to burn it.

We are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord. And James is not disagreeing with Paul about salvation being by grace alone. James is just declaring that grace is never alone. It's always joined with a new life that begins to show up in what a person does. I heard a preacher one time say, and I'm not trying to be funny, there's a lot of truth in it. He said, being a believer, a child of God, is kind of like being pregnant. You don't have to tell anybody. After a little while, it'll get out on you. People will notice. Where there's no love, no obedience, no compassion, then faith is only words. It's like a body with no breath in it. It's dead and alone. And faith looks away from self.

And it rests in the Lord's finished work. But when that trust in Christ is real, it doesn't stay invisible. It begins to express itself. The expression in Scripture calls it good works. Good works is obedience. Good works is repentance, it's love, it's mercy, it's endurance, it's submission to God's will.

It's not only like go out and buy somebody a new car or something, you know, that's the way this world looks at it. Good works, it's not, they're not done to be saved, they're done because we're saved. And listen, we don't get saved. I have to say this. Salvation is not something we obtain or achieve. Get. Just that little three-letter word. Sounds like you acquire something that you went after. You don't get saved. You get a job. And you work to get money. And you exercise and you eat right to get healthy. But getting saved makes salvation sound like a result of our action or a decision that we made, and it's not that at all. Ephesians 2 verse 5 says, Ye are saved.

2 Timothy 1.9 says, He hath saved us. Salvation is spoken of in the past tense. It's a completed action done in Christ. It's finished. The work's finished. What must I do to be saved? Believe in Christ who finished the work. He perfectly did what God required. Trust in Him. Lean on Him. Depend on Him. Quit working and start believing. Start trusting. If works come first, then salvation becomes uncertain, self-generated, always incomplete. Good works can only come after life is given.

What can a dead man do? Can a dead man do any good thing? No. He can't do anything bad either for that matter. And we're dead in sin. We died with Christ and He paid our debt in full and everything that He did, every good work that He did, we did in Him.

Faith is the empty hand that receives what Christ has already finished. Good works follow what Christ has already done. Saved by grace and works together, but by grace through faith in Christ alone. And let me say this as reverently as I can. I hope you don't take me wrong, but I want to say it that it's so true. That takes all the pressure off of us placing all the responsibility for our salvation on Christ. The grounds of our hope is not what we produce, not the fruit that we produce, But what Christ accomplished, that takes the pressure off. But the evidence of that grace is not going to stay hidden. When Christ saves, He changes. Now, I'm not what I want to be, and I'm not what I should be. But thank God, I'm not what I once was.

We rest in His finished work and we walk in His good works, the works that He's already prepared for us who are His. And this is the evidence of His finished work in us and for us. Look at verse 24. For you see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Now when James says a man is justified here, that word means make just and right with God. He's not contradicting Paul. He's using that word justify in the sense of being shown or proven to be genuine. James is showing us what real saving faith looks like in a person's life. It shows itself through good works. James uses Abraham and Rahab It's proof.

Abraham offered Isaac his only son. God said, take thy son, thy only son, and take him up on this mountain and sacrifice him to Me. He was 100 years old when he had that boy. He'd been wanting a son all his life. He tried his own route through Hagar. But God said, no, that's not the Son according to promise. And now God's saying, you take that Son, your only Son, the Son that you love, and you sacrifice Him to Me. And that's exactly what He went to do. And then God didn't let Him go through with it. And this was obedience to God's command. Rahab. Remember Rahab? She was a harlot. She lived on the walls of Jericho. And these spies came to her and stayed with her. She was an innkeeper too. And she hid those spies because she feared God. She said, I heard about your God. I heard about what your God did in Egypt and what He did to those two kings on your way here. And I know what He's going to do to us. And I'll do anything I can to help you. Both their actions proved their faith was real. Their obedience made invisible faith visible.

Look at verse 26. For as the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead alone. We've all been to open casket funerals and we see that body there. And it looks like them, but really, It doesn't, because the life is left. That person's gone. It's just that shell that remains.

The body without the Spirit is dead. So is faith without works. No fruit means no life. No life means no faith. A profession of faith, me claiming to have faith, that never brings about any changed actions in my life, is not God-given faith. It's just not. May God enable us to show our faith by serving our great and gracious God by good works. It's the only kind of faith that can say. Now, let me say one more time and I'll finish. My works will never be good enough. Yours won't either. I'll never be compassionate enough. Neither will yours. Neither will you. They're all just feeble efforts still greatly hindered by our sin. Agree? My holiness, my righteousness, my forgiveness and acceptance with God comes only by Christ's finished work for me. Out of love, Out of love for the one who loved me and gave himself for me, God enabled me to do good work.

Faith That Works

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