James chapter 2 verse 19. James chapter 2 verse 19. The title of my message tonight
is The Faith of Devils. The Faith of Devils. And I knew
as soon as I began preparing the message, I'm going to have
to come back to the subject again I can't possibly cover everything
that needs to be covered in this one message, so Lord willing,
I'll come back to the same subject next week. The faith of devils,
James 2 verse 19. Thou believest that there is
one God. Thou doest well. You ought to
believe there's one God. Everybody ought to. The devils
also believe and tremble. And before giving you the meaning
and message of this text, let me make a few statements by way
of introduction that are needful. First, understand this. The gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ is vitally, essentially different from that
which is preached by every religion in this world other than the
gospel of Christ our Redeemer. Vitally different in that it's
a difference of life and death. Essentially different in that
at the very essence of it, the gospel of Christ is different
from the religion of this world. The gospel of Christ is a message
of grace alone. I wish there was some way I could
state that with the emphasis that it needs to have. Every
religion in the world except the gospel of Christ tells you
to do something by which you recommend yourself to God, by
which you make yourself acceptable to God, by which you turn God
toward you in favor. It is the business of all false
religions to patch up a righteousness in which sinners can present
themselves to God and be accepted. It is the business of the gospel
preacher to proclaim a righteousness ready-made, a robe of righteousness
ready to wear, a perfect righteousness, righteousness brought out by
Jesus Christ alone, obtained by His obedience and by His blood
by his doing and dying without any contribution on your part. I'm talking about perfect righteousness. Righteousness wherein sinners
stand immutably, unalterably accepted in the beloved. Perfect and complete before God. I hold before you in Christ Jesus
perfect righteousness. perfect righteousness. Righteousness
without any works, conditions, or stipulations to be met by
you. Will you receive righteousness
as the free gift of God or will you cling to your own filthy
rags and continue to try to make yourself acceptable to God? Israel followed after the law
of righteousness. The problem with all men and
women in unbelief. For you here who yet believe
not the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's the reason. You really
think you're good. That's the reason. There is no
other reason. You really think you have something
by which you can commend yourself to God. Something that sets you
apart from the rest of us. Something that makes you think
that you really don't deserve God's wrath, and you really will
be accepted of God because you are, after all, basically a good
person. You haven't yet been convinced
that you are, after all, basically a very evil person. You are, after all, basically
a very wicked person. Not good. And you need righteousness. But as long as you go about trying
to establish righteousness for yourself, you read the Word of
God, you come here and listen to this preacher preach, and
you stumble over the stumbling stone. I'm at the age and the
physical condition that if it's sticking up, I'll stumble over
it. I stumble all the time. I just stumble all the time.
Well, Christ, for most of the world, is just something sticking
up in the way, and you stumble over the stumbling stone and
fall into hell, trying to establish righteousness of your own, not
understanding the revelation of the gospel. Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes it.
What does that mean? The law is going here. This is the path of the law.
The law is going here. It's like a road map going from
here to Lexington. From my house to my daughter's
house is 35 miles. 35 miles, and I get to the end
of the road on which I'm traveling, I've reached their house. You
understand that? Christ is the end of the road
of the law. This is what the law points to.
This is the direction the law gives. Christ is the finishing
of the law. He completed it all. He satisfied
it all. He fulfilled it all. He performed
it all. Christ is the E-N-D, the termination
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Every
believer understands everything God requires, Christ is. Every believer understands everything
God requires Christ is. Now hear me well. Any religion
under any name, any religion you have experienced, any religion
you have been taught, any religion you embrace under any name that
conditions salvation on something you must do, be it a work ever
so small, is anti-Christ. Any religion that make salvation
somehow, somehow, be it in the least degree imaginable, make
salvation, righteousness, holiness, sanctification, to be dependent
on something in you is damning. Billy McCormick, if being here
in church tonight is something you depend on to make you righteous
with God, it's damning. You understand that? You understand
that? Oh, Brother Don, it can't be
that serious. Listen to the book. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you,
that if you be circumcised, now I don't know anybody here. In
fact, I've only known one or two in my life men who were getting
ready to go to the hospital to be circumcised. I've known just
one or two in my life. I've met very, very few people
who were anticipating going to the hospital and getting circumcised.
What's he talking about? If you do something. If you do
something, if you do something by which you hope to win God's
favor, maintain God's favor, or improve your standing in God's
favor, if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. Nothing. Christ is become of
no effect unto you, of absolutely no use and no benefit to you,
who are justified by the law. You've missed the grace of God
altogether. All right, here's the second
thing. Because we preach this salvation, salvation by grace
alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, we are constantly
accused of being evil people and to no means. Practicers and
promoters of licentiousness and ungodliness and enemies to all
good works. Now that doesn't really bother
me much. It really doesn't. It used to. When I was a young
man, it used to bother me. I kind of cringe at folks suggesting
such a thing. But the fact is, every faithful
gospel preacher throughout history has been accused of these things.
Practicing and promoting licentiousness. Accused of those things by the
message which he preaches. People hear the message your
pastor preaches and you try to verify and testify to others.
And they say, well that's evil. That opens the floodgates to
ungodliness. That'll cause people to live
like hell. That'll cause people to behave
bad. That's exactly what Jude describes
the religious infidel proclaiming concerning the gospel. He says
they turned the grace of our God into lasciviousness, denying
the only Lord God, our Lord Jesus Christ. The Jews, the Pharisees,
they said concerning our Lord Jesus, he's a glutton, he's a
wine-bibber. They said concerning the Apostle
Paul, he says, let us do evil that good may come. And nothing
could be further from the truth. I expect no more from spiritually
blind ignorant people, but nothing could be further from the truth.
The charge is altogether without foundation. Grace doesn't produce,
promote, or in any way excuse ungodliness. I chose my words
deliberately. I suggest that you remember them.
Grace doesn't produce, promote, or in any way excuse ungodliness. Let me back up a little. Mark just read Matthew 7, verses
1 through 5. Judge not that ye be not judged.
Grace doesn't produce, promote, or in any way excuse ungodliness
in me. It teaches you to excuse it in
one another. It teaches us to excuse one another.
Do you know what I've observed? I've been pastoring now for a
long time. I get numbers messed up. I've
been pastoring since I was 21 years old. And some of you may
have done this. You may have, so forgive me if
I've forgotten it. But I can't recall a single time in my Christian
life since I was 17 years old, I can't recall a single time
anyone coming to me and saying, Mother Dawn, do you think it's
right for a Christian to? I've never had anybody ask me
that. Do anything. Is it right for a Christian to
wear a black shirt to church on Tuesday? Is it right for a Christian
to go to the movies? Is it right for a Christian to
go swimming? Is it right for a Christian to smoke? Is it right for a Christian
to eat salt on his meat? Do you think it's right for a
Christian to? I've never had anyone that I
can remember ever ask me that question regarding something
they were fixing to do. Isn't that sad? Isn't that sad? It's always... I saw Lindsey
Campbell at the restaurant the other night and you know what
he was doing? Is it right for a Christian to do that? Is that
right? Grace teaches us to excuse even
that which in our eyes appears to be evil and the brother. and
that which really is evil, to cover it. Love covers a multitude
of sins. Love never exposes it. Never exposes it. What did you
mean to say there, Brother Don? Love never exposes evil in somebody
else. Doesn't do it. The only reason
for exposing evil in another is to promote yourself and destroy
the other. Wow, that's tough. No, that's
as tender, as sweet, as good as life can get. Imagine how
things would be in our relationship with each other all the time
if that were the case. Imagine how it would be in your
house if that were the relationship all the time between husband
and wife, son and daughter, brother and sister, mother and father.
Imagine how that would be in our relationship in the church
and kingdom of God all the time if I never exposed anything bad
about Jonathan Holbrook. No matter what I do, I just keep
it to myself. We ought not keep secrets like
that. Why not? Why not? I keep them about myself.
I ain't about to tell you what's going on inside of me. And you
do the same thing because that's the nature of one you cherish. God help us. I don't know if
any of us know anything at all about cherishing anything like
we do ourselves. Understand that? But grace doesn't
produce and doesn't promote and doesn't excuse ungodliness in
me. Number three. True saving faith
in Christ Jesus does most assuredly produce good works in regenerate
men and women. I don't suggest that faith in
Christ produces works that lost unregenerate people approve of,
admire, and applaud. I've been hammering this as hard
as I can hammer it because it needs to be hammered. Forget
about trying to get the approval of unregenerate people. Just
forget that. Forget that. The world would
never approve of Abraham taking his son Isaac to Mount Moriah
to kill him. Find me anybody in the world
who would ever approve of that. Anybody. God did. God commanded
it. God calls it an act of faith.
Abraham takes the darling of his heart and says, God, you
want him? He's yours. It's called consecration to our
Redeemer. The world would never, never
approve of Rahab hiding the spies and telling the people who came
looking for them they went out another way. The world would
never approve of that. The world would say, that's horrible.
That ought never to be done. She did what God called a work
of faith by which God here illustrates faith in Christ and obedience
to God. A good work. A good work. Good
works are not the cause of salvation. Good works are not a condition
of God's favor. Good works are no basis of assurance
before God. Good works are not a means of
sanctification. The good works are the certain
inevitable result of God's grace in a man's life. If God saves
you by His grace, He has foreordained that you should walk in good
works. And what God foreordained, God
performs. Now, let's look at our text here
in James chapter 2. James wrote his epistle primarily
to expose and silence a very grave and serious error that
had crept into the church even in the apostolic days and is
just as rampant now as it was then. It is the flattering delusion that men and women may possess
faith in Christ by simply giving assent to gospel truths. People think that head knowledge
of gospel doctrine is a stamp of grace and proves that they
are heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. They suppose
that embracing the doctrine of Christ is the same thing as embracing
Christ. What a foolish delusion. What
a foolish delusion. Did not Judas, Ananias, Simon
Magus, Demas, and Theotrophes all embrace the doctrine of Christ? Did they not? Judas went out
and preached with the Lord's apostles. If he were a will worshipper,
I suspect somebody would have known it. Simon Magus came out
and represented himself as being one with the disciples. He identified
himself with their doctrine. Demas traveled with the Apostle
Paul preaching the same gospel. Deoctrathes was a preeminent
man in the local church where John the Apostle was a servant
of God. And yet these men are in hell
today. The fact is any faith, any faith
professed by men, any faith professed by me, any faith professed by
you, that doesn't radically change our lives is a false faith. Any faith that doesn't radically
change your life is the faith of devils, no more. That faith
of which the book of God speaks is a faith that teaches men and
women to walk in and carefully maintain good works for the glory
of God. I repeat, and I want you to hear
me clearly, good works is no basis of assurance. If you look
to your good works as a basis of your assurance, you'll either
sink in utter despair or you'll become a proud, self-righteous
Pharisee. But faith always radically alters
the life of a man or woman who believes God. And faith in Christ
causes people to walk in good works. Look at the challenge
James gives in verse 14. What doth it profit, my brethren,
though a man say he hath faith and have not works? Can faith
save him? And notice what James says. He
doesn't say, what doth it profit a man to have faith without works?
That's an impossibility. He says, what will it profit
a man to say he has faith without works? There's a big difference
between saying I have faith and having faith. Augustus Toplady
said, the man who professes himself a believer must offer something
more than his own verbal profession if he wishes to be credited by
the profession he's made. Should I declare to you that
I make a million dollars a year. And you know my life. You know how I live. You'd say,
well, either he's lying or he's a lunatic or he's the tightest
man I've met because I don't own any property. My clothes
don't reflect that. My lifestyle doesn't reflect
that. If you could get hold of bank records, they sure don't
reflect that. So you say, well, he's just talking. He's just
talking. Don Fortner, millionaire? That's
the most absurd thing I ever heard. You see, faith without
works is just talk. That's all. That's all. Faith
is a hidden principle of the heart, revealed and made manifest
by works of faith and righteousness. What are those? Works that help
one another. Works that are profitable to
one another. In this book, I know religious
people and we're as guilty as everybody else. We like to think
about works and we think about that means you dress a certain
way, you talk a certain way, you walk a certain way, you eat
certain things, you go certain places, you do this, you don't
do that. Self-righteousness clings to
us like spiderwebs cling to you. You rake it off and there's a
thousand more to rake off. What are good works? In this
book, they always have to do with being kind and gracious
and loving and caring. Is that right, Lindsey? Always.
Read the last chapter of Matthew. In the last day, our Lord will
say, blessed is my Father. You saw
me hungry and you fed me and you saw me in prison and you
visited me. You saw me sick and you came
to me. You saw me naked and you clothed me. You saw me thirsty
and you gave me water to drink. You saw me naked and you put
clothes on my back. Oh, come inherit the kingdom
prepared for you in the foundation of the world." He says, when
did we do that? When did we do that? When you did it to one
of the least of these my children. These good works by which believers
profit one another and profit other people are things unobserved
by themselves. The minute you think you started
doing good, you messed it up. The minute you think you started
doing good, you messed it up. But the works performed by religious
infidels Folks who think they're good. They'll tell you about
it. And when the Lord Jesus says,
depart, you're cursed. You never did these things. When
didn't we do that? We've always done good stuff.
What was that? Good works are works that honor
God. They're done for Him. They're
seen by Him. Observed by Him. Abraham justified
his claim of faith. to Christ. He said he believed
God. He believed God. He believed
God. And he justified it. When God
called for him to take his son Isaac up to the mount and sacrifice
him there, Abraham took his son and headed for Moriah. Oh, what
a trial. After these things, it came to
pass, the Lord did tempt Abraham. After these things, after all
he had been through, I mean, trial after trial after trial
after trial, and now God says, bring your son Isaac and sacrifice
him, but I want you to wait three days. Three days. I can almost imagine any of you
or myself, doing something so drastic on
the spur of the moment, in a moment of inspiration when we feel greatly
moved of God to do it. I can almost imagine that. I
can't imagine one of us making such a sacrifice after thinking
about it for three days, looking at boy eyeball to eyeball every
day for three days. except as we believe God. God said, Abraham, this boy,
this is the one through whom the woman's seeds come in, by
whom your sin will be put away. This is he in whom all the nations
of the earth will be blessed. This is the one. Christ is coming
through his seed. Kill him. And Abraham took Isaac
to Mount Moriah and sacrificed him to God, fully persuaded that
God would raise him from the dead. Because he believed God. He believed God. Everything about
it was contrary to nature. Everything about it, contrary
to reason. Everything about it, contrary
to logic. Everything about it, contrary to science. Everything
about it, contrary to everything that anybody had ever done in
history. Abraham believed God and went
up to Mount Moriah to slaughter his son, fully anticipating that
he's coming back down from Mount Moriah with his son walking with
him. He said to his servant, I and the land will go yonder
and worship God and we will come back here to you. And if you believe God, you can
willingly, deliberately commit everything to God. If you believe
God, you can willingly, deliberately commit everything to God, trusting
Christ the Redeemer. The Lord will provide. The Lord
will take care of this. The Lord will sustain me. The
Lord will do me good. The Lord will bring me to glory.
Everything's all right. My Redeemer's on His throne.
Rahab justified her claim to faith, hazarding her life for God's
people and God's messengers. That woman Hazarded her life. Can you imagine what would happen
if those fellows in Jericho had caught Rahab hiding those spies? She hazarded her life. This is
called faith working by love. Faith working by love. Believers
are people who are called My witnesses by God. My witnesses. If you could spell out the word
witness in a transliteration from Greek to English, you know
what it's spelled? It's spelled martyr. Martyr. Martyr. Martyrs? You a martyr? Me a martyr? Martyrs? What are you talking about? But
dumb martyrs are folks who are burned at the stake. Burned at
the stake! Because they're glad to lay down
their lives in a cause worthy of their lives. On my first trip
to England, some of you will remember the historic history
better than I do. I've told this before. I had just read J.C. Riles' Why Were the Martyrs Burned? And we were driving around Scotland
and we came to an inlet and I recognized the name. I asked Bill Clark
to pull over and Shelby and Bill and Evelyn and I got out and
stood there for a little bit and I told them why. I just read this book. These two women were staked out
on the ocean when the tide was low. The older one staked out
a little closer, there to be put to death. The older one a
little closer to the tide coming in than the younger one because
the papist who were determined to destroy them and to stamp
out the gospel of Christ from the world wanted the younger
one to hear the other one suffer and die hoping she would recant.
Do you know what they'd have to do to just be cut loose and
walk away? Know what they'd have to do?
All they had to do was say that the bread wine at the Lord's
table really is the body and blood of Christ. That's all they
had to do. Acknowledge that somehow by papist
mumbo-jumbo magic and superstition when you take the bread and wine
that bread really becomes the body of Christ and that wine
really becomes the blood of Christ. All they had to do was say that's
so. Couldn't do that. What's the significance of that?
Difference between idolatry and grace. Difference between idolatry
and worshiping God. Difference between truth and
damnation. That's the difference. And they
both died as martyrs. Women who willingly laid down
their lives in the cause of Christ. For Christ, His gospel, and His
people. And if you are a believer, Allen
Kibbe, and your pastor is a believer, if we are, we're martyrs. We willingly lay down our lives
in the cause of Christ. Glad to do so. Asking God for
grace continually that we may do so. God give me grace. day by day
to consecrate myself to you all for grace all for grace to be
completely consecrated to Christ and hold back no Isaac completely consecrated to the
gospel of God's free grace. Hold back nothing cherished,
completely consecrated to you. God's church, God's people, Christ's
redeemed ones. If you could cut into my heart,
that's the passions you would find in my soul. And soon, soon I shall have what
I desire, because Christ is mine. This is that faith which the
book of God speaks of when it speaks of bowing to Christ, surrendering
to Christ, believing on Christ. You see, trusting Christ is neither
more nor less than giving yourself to Him. It is giving yourself
to Him. Rock Barnard used to tell this
Indian chief missionary trying to minister to out in Oklahoma
after they had that horrible march of tears across the country. And this chief got real concerned
about judgment and eternity and he came to the missionary one
night and he said, missionary man, chief give him moccasins
to Jesus and laid them down at his feet. And the missionary
looked at him and he said, chief, Jesus doesn't want your moccasins.
He took him in a huff. Gone for a while, and he came
back, and he said, missionary man, chief, give him tomahawk
to Jesus. And he laid that down at the
missionary's feet. He said, chief, I don't know how to tell you
this, but Jesus doesn't want your tomahawk. He'd gone for
a long time, and he came back, and he brought his beautiful
headdress and laid it right down at the missionary's feet. He
said, missionary man, chief, give him headdress to Jesus.
And the missionary looked up at him and he said, I don't know
how to tell you this, chief, but Jesus doesn't want your headdress.
And he went out in a huff. He was gone for a long time.
He came back finally late. And he said, missionary man,
chief, give himself to Jesus. That's what he demands. And he
won't have less. God, give me grace today. now to give myself to my Redeemer. Amen.