James chapter two, the title
of the lesson this morning, fruitless faith cannot save. Now, there
are shockingly many people who say that the book of James shouldn't
even be part of the Bible. And the verses that are included
in our lesson this morning are why they say that, why they erroneously
say that. They say that James contradicts
the book of Romans where Paul so clearly states that we're
saved by faith without any works. But in verse 24 of James 2, James
says, you see that how by works a man is justified and not by
faith only. Now there's no conflict here
unless you want there to be. God's word never contradicts
itself. In the book of Romans, you know
this, Paul is talking about our souls being justified by faith
without any of our works being added to it. We're saved by the
Christ alone, by his work. James is talking about our faith
being justified before men. We can't see faith in the heart,
but we can see actions, can't we? And actions are directed
from the heart. And I'm afraid that people who
never want the preacher to talk about how the believer is to
produce good works, they're either just plain lazy or they're just
plain mean so that they don't want to do good works for others.
Let's never use the Bible as an excuse not to show love. Let's never use the Bible as
an excuse to do nothing. But never use the Bible to do
an excuse not to do good works. Let's not ever think that our
conduct does not matter because that's contrary to the teaching
of this whole book. Now, good works, they're not
an infallible proof of faith. I'm not saying that we should
do good work so people can see, oh, look what we're doing. That's
an infallible proof of faith. You remember Matthew chapter
25, at the very end of the chapter, when the Lord was talking about
his second coming, he divides the sheep and the goats. And
those ones at the end of the chapter, they told the Lord,
well, we visited the sick. We went to visit those in prison. We fed the poor. We gave to give,
or fed the hungry and gave to help the poor. They were full
of outward good works. They could talk about, Lord,
anytime we saw you in prison, we'd have come. But they didn't
know the Lord. Those outward works are not an
infallible proof of faith, but the absence of those works is
an infallible proof of the lack of faith. Look at Galatians chapter
five. True faith always produces good
works. It always produces godliness
and obedience, kindness, and love. Because that's the nature
of faith. Galatians 5 verse 6. For in Jesus Christ, neither
circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision. Your religious
works doesn't avail anything, and your lack of religious works,
neither one of those things contribute to your salvation. But faith. That's where salvation is found,
in faith. And that faith Paul says, works. It works by love. True faith
in the heart always works out of love for God, out of love
for others. And true faith in the heart will always affect
our conduct, direct our conduct. I put this in my notes and I
thought of Brother John Flamming. Those of you who remember Brother
John would hand out those little slips of paper often every Sunday. And there was one that he handed
out on more than one occasion and we hung in our refrigerator,
you cannot separate faith and conduct. Can't be done. See,
Paul wrote of the cause of justification. The cause of justification is
faith in Christ. That's how we receive it. James
is speaking of the effect of justification. Anyone that's
justified in Christ will produce works of faith and labors of
love. So I want us to look at these
verses this morning and see what is saving faith and what is dead
faith. To know, do I have saving faith or dead faith? I want to
know that. And I have four points, two on
what saving faith is not, and two on what saving faith is.
Number one, saving faith is not in word only. It's not just something
I profess to have. Verse 14, what does it profit
my brethren? Though a man say he hath faith,
and hath not works, can faith save him? Can that kind of 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 ye
warm and filled. Notwithstanding, you give them
not those things which are needful to the body. What doth it profit? Did you do him any good? Even
so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Now, if
someone says he has faith, I have faith in Christ. But his faith
doesn't cause him to act like he trusts Christ. And his faith's
not saving faith. It's just something in word only.
It's not real. That kind of faith is just simply
professed that does not affect a person's life is not saving
faith. And James gives this illustration.
If a brother or sister, someone here is in need, it's wintertime. They don't have a winter coat. And you tell them, well, go be
warm. But you don't give them any clothes.
What profit is there in your words? Absolutely none. Your words won't keep someone
warm, but a good winter coat will, won't it? Now you show
your care, your love for your brother or sister by going and
buying them a good winter coat. Words alone won't do it, but
actions will warm them. If a brother or sister is hungry,
They don't have enough to eat and you tell them, go be filled. What benefit are your words?
None. Words can't fill the belly. Words
can't nourish the body, but a good meal will. You show your love. If you say you love your brother
or sister, you're going to show it by giving them food that they
need. See, the love that you claim
for your brother or sister is no good. It's dead love unless
you act. Love always acts to give them
the things that they need. Well, the same thing's true about
faith in Christ. Someone who says they have faith,
but they have no works of faith. They have no labors of love.
They have dead faith. That kind of faith is in word
only and cannot save. Verse 18. Yea, a man may say
thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy
works. I'll show thee my faith by my works. Now someone says,
I have faith in Christ. You know, it's fair to ask to
see some evidence of it. That's not being unfair to ask
to see some evidence of it. Abraham and Rahab gave evidence
of faith to me. Hebrews chapter 11 is full of
people who gave evidence of their faith by their works. As someone
says, Good works are, that's a bad word. We can't talk about
good works. Show me your faith without your good works. It's
impossible. The only way we show evidence
of faith in the heart is by our works, by the way we live. Faith
in the heart always works in the life. Look at first John
chapter two. If a person has faith in Christ,
I know this, they'll believe, they'll obey God. They'll obey
him. 1 John 2 verse 4. He that saith, I know him and
keepeth not his commandments, that person is a liar and the
truth's not in him. If you love Christ, if you have
faith in Christ, you will obey God. If those actions of obedience
aren't there, there's no faith in the heart. There's just words
on the lips and those words on the lips Don't do anybody any
good. I used this illustration Wednesday
night, but it's the only illustration I can think of, so I'll use it
again. If I say, I love Janet, and I do, I say that often. I
talk about how much I love her, how much I appreciate her. If
I say that, but you see me, I don't act loving towards her. I act
mean towards her. I'm stingy with her. I don't
give her the things that she needs. Well, you'd say, Words
are cheap. Who wants that kind of love?
That's not real love. Show me your love by your works. Otherwise, that love is meaningless.
The exact same thing is true of faith. Faith that does not
work is not saving faith. All right, number two, saving
faith is not mere knowledge of facts. If our faith is just the
knowledge of fact, you know what our faith is? It's the faith
of devils. Look at verse 19. Thou believest
that there is one God. Well, thou doest well. The devils
also believe and tremble. See, believing that there's one
God, believing that God's the creator, that God saves sinners,
that's not saving faith. That's just believing fact. Believing
the five points of Calvinism is not saving faith. That's just
believing Plain, obvious fact. The devil and the demons believe
that. They know it better than we do.
They're not saved, are they? No. Saving faith is knowing Christ. It's believing Him. It's resting
in Him. And that faith will be seen in
our works. Verse 20. But wilt thou know,
O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Now, the way we
can identify saving faith is by the fruits of faith. Something
that's dead can't produce fruit, but something that's living does.
And living faith produces fruit. It produces love, joy, peace,
kindness, meekness, gentleness. And if those fruits are lacking,
that may be some kind of so-called faith, but it's not saving faith. You know, I don't know a lot
about trees and plants. You know, people can walk by
and look at a tree, look at a plant, and say, well, that's a, I can't. I mean, you could tell me it's
a red fifo, something that's not even real. I'd believe you.
I don't know. You could tell me, see that tree
there? That's an apple tree. I wouldn't know if it's an apple
tree or not. But I do know this. If you give me enough time to
watch it, I can tell you whether you're right or not. Because
eventually, an apple tree is going to produce fruit, specifically
apples. If it starts growing oranges,
it's not an apple tree. If it starts growing grapefruits,
it's not an apple tree. But if that tree produces apples,
it's an apple tree. If it does not produce apples,
it's some kind of tree, but it's not an apple tree. Now, apples
don't make the tree an apple tree. I've read stories when
they were very first trying to populate California and trying
to get people to buy property out there. They go out in the
desert and they stick some tree down the ground and they take
string and they tie oranges to it and take pictures of it, get
people to look at it from a distance. They look, you can grow, you
know. Well, taking a piece of string and tying an orange to
that tree did not make it an orange tree. The root makes it
an orange tree. The root makes it an apple tree.
The nature of the tree makes it an apple tree. The apples
are the evidence of what's in the root. The apples are the
evidence of the nature of the tree. Well, the exact same thing's
true of faith. Our good works do not save. Our
good works do not produce faith. Christ is the root. Christ in
the heart saves. The nature of Christ given to
us in the new birth, that's salvation. Good works are the fruit. the
evidence of the nature that God's given us in the new birth. Saving
faith always produces fruit of good works. Now, this is a fair
question. What fruit? What fruit specifically? Well, I have several things saving
faith always produces. Number one, saving faith produces
the fruit of repentance. Saving faith always repents of
sin. and turns to Christ, turns from
whatever it is we were trusting in and turns to Christ. You see,
it's not just mere knowledge of fact. It's one thing to know
Christ is the savior of sinners. It's another thing to turn to
Christ and cast all your soul upon him and trust him to save
you. It's one thing to know there's just one God. There's just one
way of salvation. But it's another thing to come
to that one God and beg Him to save you because you know He's
the only Savior. He's your only hope. Saving faith
always produces repentance. Number two, saving faith always
produces submission. Saving faith submits to God. Saving faith submits to the righteousness
of God. A rebel never submits. That's
what Paul said about his Jewish brethren. They have not submitted
themselves to the righteousness of Christ, the righteousness
of God. Well, Paul, how do you know that? I look at their works. They're still going about to
establish their own righteousness. They still think that their good
works will buy them salvation or will buy them something, some
blessing from God. Now, saving faith does work,
does produce good works, but not in order to get something
from God. No, saving faith works because God has already saved
us and we want to live in God's will and God's way. Saving faith
also submits to whatever it is God does with me. Eli, when he
heard Lord's going to kill his two sons, what did he do? He
submitted. That's the Lord. When the Lord
took away everything Job had, except his wife, and maybe his
wife didn't start talking ugly to him. What did Job do? He submitted. He worshiped. The Lord gave,
and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Saving faith always submits. Number three, saving faith always
produces the fruit of love. Love for Christ and love for
his people. Saving faith loves God. Saving faith loves God's way
of salvation. Saving faith loves the fact that
God's sovereign, that God elected a people, that the son came and
saved those people by his sacrifice and by his righteousness. Saving
faith loves the fact that God the Holy Spirit is the one that
gave me faith, that gave me life. Saving faith loves that and wouldn't
have it either way. Saving faith loves the gospel
of God. Just loves to hear about God,
our Savior. And saving faith loves people. Look at 1 John
chapter 4. 1 John 4 verse 19. We love him
because he first loved us. He's the one who put that heart
of faith in us. Now verse 20, if a man say, I love God and
he hates his brother, he's a liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, How can he love God whom he hath not seen?
And saving faith is obedient. Verse 21, this is a commandment
we have from him, that he who loveth God, love his brother
also. Saving faith produces love for
people. It's just hard to believe the man who says he has faith,
but he owns a business and he runs that business in dishonesty.
He's dishonest with his vendors. He's dishonest with his employees.
He's stingy with them. He doesn't give them an honest
day's pay. He's hateful to everybody in the business. He thinks the
best way to rule that business is by ruling in fear to make
everybody afraid of him. He might be able to turn a profit. He probably will. But it's just
impossible for me to believe that man has saving pay. It's
just impossible. I sure don't see any evidence
of it. I'll put it that way. because saving faith loves. It's hard to believe a man who
claims to have faith but won't give to help spread the gospel.
It's hard for me to believe that man loves anybody. If he's not
giving to spread the gospel so other people hear the Savior,
hard for me to believe he loves them. Most loving thing you can
do is make the gospel available so somebody can hear it. Saving
faith will help a brother in need. If they're in trouble,
he'll give for them, give to help them. He'll be kind to them.
He'll pray for them. He'll show them that he loves
them. If he doesn't do that, it's just hard for me to believe
he's got saving faith because that's not loving. All right,
number four, saving faith always produces the fruit of worship. People who believe God worship
God, and they worship God with the people Saving faith will
not forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner
of some is. And you're not doing that because you're looking for
an attendance medal. Oh, look out, what an example of faith
he is. That's just what we ought to do. Saving faith worships
because I need to worship God. Saving faith worships because
I need to hear from God. Wayne was telling me Wednesday
night how much he loves the Wednesday night service. He said, Oh, I
need that. That saving faith. It's because I need to. And then
fifthly, saving faith produces the fruit of perseverance. It
won't quit. It will persevere to the end.
Look at Hebrews chapter 10. Saving faith is look to Christ.
If you look to Christ, you're not going to be able to look
away from him. You're going to be like Peter. There ain't anywhere
else to look to him, shall I go? Hebrews 10 verse 38. Now the
just shall live by faith. If any man draw back my soul
shall have no pleasure in him. But we're not of them who draw
back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of
the soul. First John chapter two. Verse 19, they went out from us, but they
were not of us. For they had been of us, they
would, no doubt, have continued with us. But they went out, that
they might be made manifest, that they were not all of us. Saving faith produces the fruit
of perseverance. It will not. It cannot quit.
That's its nature. All right, number three, saving
faith denies self. Verse 20. But wilt thou know,
O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham
our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his
son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought
with his works? His works were wrought from his
faith, and by works was faith made perfect. And the scripture
was fulfilled, which said, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed
unto him for righteousness. And he was called the friend
of God. Now you remember the story. God
came to Abraham when Abraham and Sarah were too old to have
children anymore. And God told Abraham, Sarah is
going to have a son. Now there was no natural reason
for Abraham to believe that they'd have a son. It's impossible for
them to produce children. But God said it. So Abraham believed
it. Abraham believed what God said.
And it was counted to him for righteousness. Abraham was made
righteous by faith in Christ, not by his works, not by his
acts of faith. He is made righteous because
he believed God, his faith. And Abraham didn't just believe
he and Sarah would have a son. Abraham believed the Messiah
was coming through that son, through Isaac. Abraham believed
that. When Isaac was born, Abraham thought. And then God told him
his place. Then one day, God spoke to Abraham
again. He said, Abraham, take your son, your only son, Isaac,
whom you love, take him to a place I show you and you kill him.
You draw and quarter his body. You lay those body parts upon
the altar and you stand there and burn it and watch it burn
as a sacrifice to God. And Abraham obeyed. Abraham went
to the place that God showed him and went to the top of that
mountain fully intending to kill his son. That took a great deal
of self-denial. That self-denial was the proof
Abraham believed God. Abraham still believed God was
going to bring the Messiah through that son, even though Abraham
fully intended to kill him. I can show you that back a couple
pages, Hebrews chapter 11. Verse 17, by faith. Abraham, when he was tried,
offered up Isaac. And he that had received the
promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was
said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that
God was able to raise him up even from the dead. From whence
also he received him in a figure. Abraham so fully believed that
he was going to kill his son that when God provided a substitute,
that ram caught in a thicket by its horns, It was like Abraham
received his son, resurrected from the dead. Abraham still
believed the Messiah was going to come through Isaac. Now, that
just showed us Abraham really did believe God, didn't he? Now,
if Abraham had refused to take Isaac to Mount Moriah, if he
said, Lord, I can't do that. I cannot do that. I can't do
it. I cannot explain that to Sarah. If he'd have said that,
we wouldn't have any evidence at all Abraham believed God would.
Matter of fact, we thought he didn't believe God because his
actions didn't show he believed God. But Abraham believed God. And it wasn't just faith on the
lips that justified Abraham, was it? No, it wasn't that kind
of faith. It was true faith in the heart. And Abraham justified
that faith. He proved that faith was genuine
by his actions. That's what verse 24 means. You
see then how that by works a man is justified. By works a man
is Faith is justified and not by faith only, not by faith that's
alone, not by faith that's just in word. Faith puts its money
where its mouth is. That's really what that means.
So true faith denies self and trusts God. True faith will deny
any works of self in order to be saved and just rest in Christ. True faith will deny any glory
to self and will glorify Christ. And saving faith denies self
and bows to God even when I don't understand. See, if I have to
understand what God's doing before I obey Him, that's putting self
in the equation, isn't it? Saving faith denies self. I don't
have to understand what God's doing. It's above my pay grade. If He explained it to me, I couldn't
understand it anyway. I don't have to understand how
God can possibly bring good out of this in order for it to be
right. I just believe God. And saving faith will deny self
for the good of others. Saving faith will deny what I
want for the good of others. Saving faith will deny what I
think is best for me for the good of the church as a whole.
Today's Mother's Day is a good example. You mothers, know something
about denying self for the good of your children. How many times
did Jim Meadows tell us, when you have them babies, and I bet
you know more, you deny self for them. That's what saving
faith does. Denies self, denies what I want,
denies my feelings and my, for what's best for others. It denies
self. And then fourthly, saving faith
will publicly identify with Christ. Verse 25. Likewise, also was
not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received
the messengers and had sent them out another way? Now, Rahab knew
God was going to give Jericho to Israel. She knew that. She
said, you're God's God. And she asked those spies for
mercy. And they said, all right, we'll spare you and we'll spare
everybody in your house as long as you have this scarlet line
hanging in the window. That scarlet line was the way
they could identify everybody in that house was under the covenant,
was under our promise to spare their lives. And that scarlet
line is a picture of the blood of Christ. Everyone who's under
the blood of Christ is under the covenant. They're under God's
promise to save his people from their sins. Now, Rahab had those
spies hit up on her roof. And all the old writers are just
completely bum-fuzzled by this. They worked themselves to death
over this. She had them hid up there on
her roof, and she told a lie. Those men from Jericho came,
and they said, where are those men that came in to you? And
she said, I don't know where they are. They went that-a-way,
probably. I don't know. She told a lie. And all the writers
are so just, oh, but they just cannot. Rahab couldn't have told
a lie. Rahab couldn't have really been
a harlot. She's just an innkeeper, you
know. No, God saved sinners. And God said, that was a good
word. We don't have to try to explain that. It's just what
God said. Rahab put her life on the line to protect those
spies she had hit on her roof. And the only reason she'd do
that, if she got caught in that lie, they'd put her to death.
The only reason she'd put her life To save the life of those
men, today's the first day she ever laid eyes on them. The only
way she put her life on the line to save their life is she believed
God. She believed God's promise. He's
going to spare her. And as soon as those spies escaped
off into the night, Rahab immediately hung that scarlet line out her
window. She didn't wait until the last possible moment. She
didn't stay over here with these people at Jericho and all that
that they were doing, you know, until the last possible moment.
and then identify with children of Israel. She did it immediately. Saving faith will identify with
Christ. Now, I'm going to try to keep
it a secret. Saving faith will confess Christ in believer's
baptism. Now, you don't have to be baptized in order to be
saved. But I'm telling you the truth, I wouldn't give a plug
nickel for anybody's profession of faith that has not been baptized.
I wouldn't do it. Saving faith will confess Christ.
Saving faith will confess Christ by being in the public worship
service, by meeting with God's people. And saving faith will
confess Christ publicly by living a life of obedience to God's
way, by living an honest, loving, forgiving, hardworking life.
Now, this is interesting. I don't know if you've ever thought
about this, but James gives us two examples of what faith is.
Abraham, the father of the faithful, and Rahab the harlot. You wonder
why he chose those two examples? I believe I know part of the
reason why. He couldn't have picked two more opposite people
to show us no matter who you are, no matter how much you know
or how much you don't know. No matter if you have strong
faith or you have weak faith, no matter if you have great faith
or little faith, your faith in God will work. I don't care who
you are. It's going to show itself by
good works. And faith that does not produce good works is as
dead as a corpse that doesn't have any breath in it. Verse
26, for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without
works is dead also. That's saving faith. It works.
God help us to have faith that works, believes. All right. Lord bless you.