Let's give attention to the reading of God's word. And it came to pass, after these things, that God did tempt, or test, Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham, and he said, Behold, here am I. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him therefore a burnt offering upon one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and claimed the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, abide here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son. And he took the fire in his hand, and a knife, and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father. And he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together. When they came to the place of which God had told him of, and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, Here I am. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh. It is said to this day in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By myself I have sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, that in blessing I will bless thee, in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the seashore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. because thou hast obeyed my voice." So Abraham returned unto his young men and they rose up and went together to Beersheba and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. Let's come before our God in prayer. Our Father which art in heaven You dwell in the high and lofty places, and yet your heart is with the contrite and lowly. You sit between the cherubim, reigning over all things, and yet you are near to those who are afflicted and brought low. Your ways are higher than our ways, so we can come to you for grace in our time of need. We are quick to anger. We are quick to take offense. We are quick to judge others and to justify ourselves. But your ways are not those ways, for you are quick to compassion and plenteous in mercy, endless in loving kindness. So, Father, teach us your ways. Hallow and magnify your name in us that we might rightly know you. You are a God of judgment and justice, yes, but a God abounding in mercy and faithfulness and compassion. in our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ, you never get tired of us. You never reproach us in our need. You know our need even better than we do ourselves. And you delight to hear our prayers. Father, fill us with your spirit that we might begin to know the love of Christ, which passes all understanding. As we know him, we pray that you would give us the grace to be conformed to his image. Teach us kindness and love. Fill us with joy and peace. Teach us patience and endurance. Give us understanding hearts. Forgive us our sins, which are many. Forgive us the sins that we know about. Forgive us the presumptuous sins. Forgive us the sins that our sinful nature carries with us every day of our life. Forgive us the sins that we haven't even committed yet. For we cling to your promises that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And Father, our sin abounds. Deliver us, we pray. This morning, Father, we pray that you would bless our communities, that you would send us your spirit and send your word to the hearts of men and women and children, our neighbors, our friends, our coworkers. By your spirit, we pray that you would teach our community the hope of the gospel, the freedom of salvation, the good news of Jesus Christ. Give us the right words to say. Fill your churches. gather, defend and preserve your people. We pray that you would provide all of our needs. We pray that you would give comfort to the lonely and peace to the downhearted. Give mercy to those wandering far from you and draw them back to your fold. Bless our state, the state of California. We pray that you would tear down false shepherds and false prophets and raise faithful shepherds who have tasted your goodness and know what it is. And we pray that you would bless our leaders. Bless our governor and those that work in our assembly. We pray that you would give wisdom and righteousness, that you would protect the unborn and give justice to the oppressed and abused. We pray that you would give wisdom and prudence to our president and our Congress, that we might live peaceable and quiet lives in all godliness. And father, we pray that you would give healing to those who are sick, protect us from this virus, give us humility and patience. And we acknowledge that there are many who suffer from chronic pain and chronic illness. We pray that you would cause them to look up to where Christ is on the throne and remind all of us that our life is not here, but seated at the right hand of God. And while we walk in this valley of tears, we pray that you would give us days of freedom from pain. Give us quiet oases of rest on our journey that we might not become too discouraged. And we pray that you would deliver us from this evil one. who seeks to divide, devour, and destroy. We are not unaware of his devices. We know that he thrives with fear and envy and pride and distrust and individualism. We pray that you would deliver us from him as he seeks to drive us to despair and ground our hope and our trust in your word alone, which cannot be shaken. Bless the reading and preaching of your word today. Give us ready hearts, quick to hear. Guide my lips and give us peace. In Jesus' name. Amen. My text this morning is found in James chapter 2 verse 20 through 26 James chapter 2 beginning at 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, 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 a friend of God. You see then, how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and sent them out another way. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. In my last sermon on the book of James a few weeks ago, I dealt with the apparent contradiction between James and Paul. Paul wrote, as I preached in the book of Galatians, that Abraham was justified by faith apart from works. And James writes that Abraham was justified by faith and works. Our tendency as fallen human beings is to decide which one of these passages we like the best and go with that one. But if we truly hold to the divine authorship of scripture, that's not an option. For God cannot lie. He does not change his mind. He does not contradict himself. And therefore, both of these passages are true, infallible, inerrant, and necessary for our salvation and comfort. So how do we reconcile the two? Well, first of all, we need to understand how language works. Words have different meanings and different nuances in different contexts. That's how language works. Our language is flexible. Our words can somehow take many different meanings. Take, for example, the simple word mouse. It has many different meanings. You cannot determine the meaning by the word alone. It depends on whether you're talking about what's living in your walls or what's attached to your computer. If you say the same word mouse in French, you get the word mousse. And it can either be a product for your hair or a chocolate dessert. or something that lives in your walls. This is how language works. If you don't understand how language works, you'll make a fool out of yourself in the interpretation of scripture, as we see every time we watch a television evangelist. Since there are no contradictions in scripture, Paul and James are using the word justified in different ways. It's clear in the context and in the examples that they both use. And if you don't have that straight, you'll be hopelessly confused. When Paul uses the term justified, when he says that Abraham was justified by faith alone apart from works, he's speaking about how to be righteous before God on his judgment throne. It's a legal term. It's the legal declaration of righteous in the eyes of God. we cannot possibly be declared righteous in the eyes of God by our works, because all of our works are defiled by sin, which James just taught in chapter 2. He said, do you really keep the commandment, love your neighbor as yourself? Remember, if you've broken one law, you're guilty of them all. So it seems very strange that in the same breath he would be teaching salvation by works. He was not a fool. That's certainly not what he is saying. Now with Paul, James also teaches that a man is righteous before God only by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ put on our account which we receive and make our own by faith alone. James is talking about true faith as opposed to dead faith. Paul never said that we are justified by dead faith, or by false faith, or by faith in false gods, or magic, or spirituality, or wealth, or power, or money. We're saved by Christ alone, which we make our own by faith. Saving, living faith unites us to Christ and makes us partakers of all his benefits. And this faith will always be tested. James is speaking of that tested faith that proves itself to be genuine by the actions that spring from it. Faith is justified, that is it shown to be genuine by the works that spring from it. That's the point of the text. As I have said before, faith is certain knowledge of all that God has promised in His word and a hearty trust that not only to others, but to me also, forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and eternal life are freely given to me by God, merely of grace, only for the sake of Christ's merits. But here's James' point. That kind of faith, that genuine faith in Christ and genuine knowledge and trust will always respond with the appropriate fruit. Jesus taught of many different kinds of faith. The fact is everybody has faith. Everyone believes in something. To say I have faith is not to say anything new. Every single human being that walks the earth has faith in something. Jesus even talked about different responses to the word of God in Matthew chapter 13. We read, He spake many things to them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow. And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth. And forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they were scorched, because they had no root. They withered away. Some fell among thorns, the thorns sprung up and choked them. But other fell into good ground and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. The word that we use for this kind of farming is broadcast farming. There once again is a word that's changed its meaning over the years. You take a handful of seed and you throw it out into the prepared ground. and the seed goes everywhere. Some of it lands in stony soil, some of it lands in thorny soil, some of it lands on the sidewalk, and some of it goes into good ground. You can only tell what kind of ground it's in when it starts to grow and when the sun comes up. Some hear the gospel, they scoff, roll their eyes, and walk away, or they're simply too busy to be bothered. There are many though that receive the word joyfully. And we know from experience and from church history and from the words of Jesus there are many different reasons why people receive the gospel. Some people like to be in church because of the connections. Being in church is a good way to make connections. Some people love the orderly lives of Christians. They want that order in their own lives. They come to church because they want to learn about the law and how to get their lives regulated and how to get order in their lives. It's a good goal. Some want peaceful families, a way to keep their spouses and their children in line. We've had people attend church on the first Sunday and ask, do you guys practice church discipline here? Because they want a discipline for somebody that they knew. Some people want to fight their addictions or change their behavior or become better people. Some simply don't want to be left out. They want to be part of the community. Some people like the music, like the practical advice, like the political activism. Some like to have the guarantee that everything will turn out okay. And since human nature is complex, all of us have all sorts of reasons all jumbled up in our heads. Why do we become Christians? Why do we come to church? Why do we believe? We might have all sorts of reasons. Jesus strips it all away when he talks about true faith. He prayed to the Father, this is eternal life. that they might know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." I've preached on this many times. The goal of our life is fellowship with God. The heart of every problem in the world is that we're cast out of Eden. The only thing that will satisfy the longing of our hearts is fellowship with God. When it's restored again, everything else leads to that. What good is the forgiveness of sins if God can't stand the sight of us? What good is the imputed righteousness of Christ if God doesn't want to be around us? What good is healing from diseases? What good is order in our homes? What good is better behavior, freedom from addiction, food, drink, protection, community, safety, if God can't stand to be around us? Moses saw this in the wilderness when God said, I'll still feed you, and I'll still give you water, and I'll still lead you in the land, but I'm not going to go with you. And Moses said, well, what's the point? Because he understood. Everything that God has done for us is for only one purpose, that we might know him. Saving faith above all else comes to Christ. in order to be received by Christ. False faith comes to Christ to get the goodies that Christ can offer. The God's people come to Christ to be received by Christ. That's the goal of genuine faith. As Jesus said, come unto me, I will give you rest. it gets jumbled up in our thoughts and in our desires and in our longings so often that sometimes we can't separate one thing from another thing and we wonder and we worry one thing's for certain in the Christian life the sun will arise it will be down on your heads thorns will come up and it will get hot genuine faith is known only one way What happens when it's tested? That's what this passage is about. What happens when faith is tested? Abraham's faith was tested. Did he really believe what God said? Of course, God already knew the answer. We know that way back in chapter 15, which happened 15 years earlier. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. God already considered Abraham righteous because he believed the promise. But the test of Abraham's faith was where the dross, the impurities, were about to be purged away. where Abraham's faith would be shown to the whole world and even to Abraham himself for what it really was, pure gold of genuine faith. His faith, as James says, was made perfect by his actions when it was tested And what was the test? We read about it in Genesis chapter 22. In the background of the promise, God promised that the Redeemer would come through Isaac. The one who would crush the head of the serpent and redeem us from sin and misery and bondage would come through Isaac. And then God says take Isaac, your only son Isaac, the child of the promise, the one that you love, and go offer him as a sacrifice. And there's a conflict, isn't there? Abraham knows that the promised Redeemer is going to come through Isaac, and he believed that promise. We read in chapter 15. That was the faith that united him to Christ, the coming Redeemer, and made him a partaker of all of his benefits, as Paul teaches us in Romans. But if Isaac is dead, how can Christ come into the world? What do you do when all that you see around you contradicts the promise that God has given you? The fact is God's promises are easy to believe when things are going well, when the situation is normal, when you aren't hurting and persecuted and lonely and danger, sick, dying, outcast, despised. When God promises that He will forgive sins, that He loves us, that He will redeem us, that He is our God and we are His people, and that nothing can take us from His hand, what happens when everything falls apart? What about when the soldiers are asking about the men under the flax on your roof? What do you do when God commands you to sacrifice your only son? What about in the days of Job when God takes your sons and your daughters and your cattle and your sheep and destroys everything you have and then takes your health? The fact is when you come to Christ because you like the orderliness You like the law, you like the order, you like the political activist, you like being in the big church with all the big names. You like the family that has everything together where everything is under control and the good orchards and all the fruit is coming forth and everything is coming up roses and everything is wonderful just like the preacher promised. What do you do when all of that is taken away? Remember, James is writing to a persecuted church. The trying of your faith produces patience, if it's genuine faith. What do you do when the family falls apart? When the crops fail? When you get sick? When you're covered with boils and scraping yourself with broken pottery? When you fall into sin? When your marriage falls apart? What do you do when the faith is tested? James points us to what Abraham did. The writer of Hebrews says, By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. And he that received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. And here's why Abraham did it. He accounted that God was able to raise him up even from the dead. Before that moment, Abraham really didn't have to act on his belief that God is able to raise the dead. Of course, he believed it. There's a difference between theoretical knowledge and concrete knowledge. In theory, God can raise the dead. We confess it in our creeds. But on that day, Abraham's faith went from theory to the concrete. God is able to raise the dead. He will keep his promise to me. That changes everything. If God is able to raise the dead, then this earth isn't our home. So as the prophet Habakkuk said, although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines, and the labor of the olive shall fail, the field shall yield no meat, the flocks be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. We can rejoice that way in the Lord only if we really believe his promises. that we are righteous in his sight, that he will raise us from the dust and we will be with him forever and we will dwell in his house forever. And if that's true, if righteousness, forgiveness of sins and eternal life are freely given to me by God, merely of grace, and God is able to raise the dead, then what do we have to fear? Every Christian will have a time in their life, many times in their lives, when they will actually have to act according to their confession. Does God raise the dead? Does God forgive sin? Does Jesus receive sinners? Isaac asked Abraham, where's the sacrifice? Abraham said, God will provide the sacrifice. This wasn't just Abraham blowing off Isaac. You know how often we do that with our kids? We just say something to get them to quit asking questions so we can be at peace. He wasn't doing that. He was actually making a profession of faith. He believed in his heart that God would provide the sacrifice. That was what it was all about. And he was teaching Isaac that. God will provide the sacrifice. This isn't the end, Isaac. God is providing a sacrifice for God is able to raise the dead this is a sore trial and I can't see past tomorrow but here's what I know God is able to raise the dead and God will provide a sacrifice and he acted on that faith and James says his faith was perfected it shone like gold purified the opposite end of the spectrum is Rahab the harlot I preached on a couple months ago once again James mentions her by her full name Rahab the harlot not Rahab the mother of all the faithful not Rahab the bold and magnificent not Rahab the consistent maker of wise choices but Rahab the harlot why does James do that why does James remind us of who Rahab was I believe the answer goes to human nature, which goes all the way back to Cain and Abel. Way back at the beginning, Cain offered his sacrifice. He offered the sacrifice of a man of substance. That's what his name means. Cain means a man of substance. Here's something. This is a man from the Lord, Eve said. He lived like that. He acted like that. That's who he was, a man from the Lord. Abel's name meant nothing. Literally nothing. vapor, wind, vanity. It's translated vanity in the book of Ecclesiastes. It's the same word. It meant vapor. And when Abel's sacrifice was accepted and Cain's was not, Cain was furious. Because one thing a man of substance cannot stand is the idea that God accepts Abel. That guy Really? Don't you know what kind of a guy that is? God accepted Rahab? Really? The harlot? You dare to put her name in the same breath as Abraham? Cain's sacrifice was the sacrifice of the people who matter. The important people. And nothing makes the important people angrier than the fact that God accepts sinners. The fact is, God accepts Abel, God accepts Rahab, and God accepts Abraham. And it's always on the same basis. The perfect work of Christ put on their account and received by true faith. And that will always infuriate the canes of the world. I can't possibly be accepted on the same basis as that guy. This is why there's a relentless push in every age that must be continually fought against to add something to the gospel. There's gotta be something, right? Otherwise, I'm just like Rahab the harlot. Otherwise, I'm just like Abel. I'm just like that guy. That can't possibly be true. Yes, maybe I'm saved by faith alone through grace alone, but obedience is how I'm going to pay God back. And I'm going to sure do it better than that guy over there. If there isn't anything you can do to add to the perfect work of Christ, how can I be separated from those people? If I can't add anything to Christ, how will I be accepted before, how will I be able to boast? But the heart of the gospel is this, Jesus Christ accepts sinners. He redeems sinners and presents them as a bride adorned for the groom. Beautiful, accepted, lovely, pure, righteous, innocent, wearing the perfect righteousness and holiness of Christ. And the question is this, do you believe that? If you believe that, then your actions will change. Just like Abel believed that, and offered the sacrifice in faith. And Abraham believed it, and offered up Isaac. And Rahab believed it, and hid the spies on the roof, and sent the soldiers off the other way. And David believed it and faced Goliath with five stones and a sling. And Jacob believed it and went home to face Esau finally. And Judah believed it and offered himself in the place of Benjamin. And Sarah believed it and followed Abraham to the place that God led him. And Ruth believed it and proposed to Boaz in the middle of the night on his threshing floor. And Esther believed it and entered into the presence of the king not knowing if she would live or die. And what was it that they believed that caused them to do that? They believed the promise that God is able to raise the dead and that God will provide a sacrifice. And the reason that God will do all of that is to bring us back into fellowship with him because he loves us through Jesus Christ, our Lord. We come to Jesus because He has promised to receive us. We come because we want Him to receive us. We come not to get the stuff, but to rest in Him. To be carried like lambs in His bosom and to hide under His wings. And that faith will be tested. Do you really believe that? It's easy to say until the test comes. Some will fall away like Demas loving the present world. when the heat gets too hot. When the stuff is threatened, what we truly desire is revealed. When what we truly desire is the rewards of this earth, then we will eventually fall into all manners of sin. That's really what it is. Like Judas, when he finally realized that Jesus was actually going to go to the cross, He said to himself, I didn't sign up for this. And what followed was betrayal, lies, murder, blasphemy, theft. And eventually he killed himself. When what we truly desire is the wealth and the mammon of this world. When what we truly desire is the reputation and the significance and the easy life, the greetings and the marketplace where everything is going smoothly and everything is going wonderfully and we love how people say, oh you go to that church, okay I'll see you Sunday. When that's truly what we want above all else. Those are the things that John calls the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life. And when those things are taken away, We turn angry, petulant, cruel, demanding, and all of the commandments are broken in our desperate desire to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. That's not the fruit of true faith at all. That's why Jesus said you'll know it by their fruit. What all of these men and women of faith that I just mentioned had in common is they desired above everything else to know God and to be known by God. To sit at the feet of Christ as disciples, clean and whole and forgiven of all their sins and to be at peace. That's what faith is. to believe the certain promise of God that all my sins are forgiven. He is my God and I am his son. When the fires of testing happened, they acted according to what they truly desired. And their faith was justified, proven to be genuine by their actions, by their words, by what they did with their bodies. Abraham the father of the faithful and Rahab the harlot both received on the same basis genuine tested saving faith in Jesus Christ for genuine faith only has one goal to be received by Christ in the testing all of the pretenses burned away until there's only one intense, aching, longing desire, which David sums up in Psalm 27 perfectly. One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. And when Jesus came into the world, the promised Redeemer, he provided all things necessary. And now we hear his promise and his word to us. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and forever. Amen. And so when you are on this lonely journey in this valley of tears and you don't know how it will end, when you're frightened and everything else is shaking around you when you're hurt and lonely and anxious the city is falling down all around you and everything else fades away that promise can never be taken away for God is able to keep us from falling he's able to raise the dead and he has provided a sacrifice on one final note In Genesis 22, the mountain that God showed to Abraham, the mountain of Moriah. Eventually, it was the threshing floor of Aaron the Jebusite right outside the city of Jerusalem. And in the days of David the king, the avenging angel went through all of Israel, killing Israelites by the thousands with the sword of God's wrath. and that angel stopped with the sword upheld right above that threshing floor of Aaronah where Abraham offered Isaac. David on God's instruction built an altar there and offered a sacrifice and the angel put the sword away and that was how God showed David where the temple was to be built and that's where David laid up the foundation for the temple, and Solomon built that temple on the same spot where the angel put up his sword, the same spot where Abraham said to Isaac, God will provide a sacrifice. For God never lets his word fall to the ground empty. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you that here we have a firm foundation, here we have the place to put our feet. Here we have the solid rock when everything else fades away, when everything else is taken away. We know that you are our God. We are your people, the sheep of your pasture, that you love us, that you hear our prayers, and that you are indeed leading us through this dark valley of the shadow of death into green pastures beside still waters. Lead us today, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen.