Please turn now in your Bibles to James 2 as we continue our study through the letter of James. This morning we will consider verses 14-19. However, I'm going to read verses 14 through the end of the chapter, this being one large section here on true faith. So, Lord willing, next Sunday evening I will deal with the second half of this passage, verses 20-26. But for context, let us now read James 2, starting at verse 14. Let us give careful attention. This is the Word of God. James writes, What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works and by works faith was made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness and he was called a friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. Likewise was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she 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. Amen. May the Lord bless to us the reading as well as the preaching of his holy word. Well, just a few brief moments ago, we all confessed together the Articles of the Apostles' Creed. I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, etc. These articles in the Apostles' Creed being the essential truths, absolutely necessary, the essential truths of the Christian faith. Christians for nearly 2,000 years have been confessing these very things and have been dying for such a confession. A confession that you would rightly make and would rightly defend and hold on to. Indeed, a confession that could be made by any demon. James 2, verse 13. James has spoken of the coming judgment of God. In Hebrews, the author says it is appointed for man once to die, and after death comes the judgment. Likewise, Paul says that we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and on that day, On that day when God will judge man by Christ Jesus and bring to light the secret things of darkness and reveal the secret counsels of the heart of man, will the confession that you just made be on that day discovered as a confession of true faith? Or as a faith that demons have? And you find and you hear that one you thought to be your Lord says to you, depart from me, worker of iniquity. I have never known you. What kind of faith do you have? And how do you know? Previously in James, James has addressed the unmerciful in the church and he has said that those who do not show mercy in this life will not find mercy at the judgment of God. And those who unrepentantly show favoritism within the church will receive a guilty verdict from God no less than the one who unrepentantly commits murder or commits adultery. That was in the previous passage. And at this point, James anticipates a coming objection. That someone in the church, someone who is on the membership rolls is going to rise up and say, now wait a second, time out. Don't talk to me about being a transgressor of God's law. Don't talk to me about my sin. And don't burden me with the law of God. It doesn't matter ultimately what I do or what I don't do. What matters is what I believe. And I believe in Jesus Christ. I have faith. I have faith. And that seems to sound right. It seems like a good objection perhaps to make to what James is saying. But here we find in James 2.14-26 there are two kinds of faith in Jesus Christ. There are two kinds of faith in Jesus Christ. One leads to life, to eternal life. The other, to eternal death. Because it is itself a dead faith. And how do you know one from the other? Which is which? Well here in verses 14-19 we find that that faith that does not obey God's law is a dead faith. That faith that does not obey God's law is a dead faith. This is James point. And we will consider this passage in two main points. First, a false profession of faith as well as a false division of faith. So first, a false profession of faith. As we begin, before we dive into the text, it's important for us to recognize and to realize that verses 14-26 of James 2 has caused considerable problems and has been the subject of much debate throughout all of church history. Perhaps you know that even the great reformer Martin Luther questioned the entirety of James' letter based on this passage. Whether it should even be included in Scripture because it seems to contradict what Paul says. As we understand Paul to teach on faith and what faith is, Paul says that a man is justified, in other words, a man is declared by God acting as a judge, that God acting as a judge declares a man to be righteous, to be not guilty, to be free of all guilt from his sin, based not on the works, not on his obedience, not on what he does, but based upon his faith. A man is justified by faith. As Galatians 2.16 says, we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law no flesh, no one, shall be justified. And yet James says that Abraham was justified by his works. Verse 24, you see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. It seems to be a direct contradiction, doesn't it? But when we consider the actual purposes, the reasons why Paul wrote what he wrote and why James wrote what he wrote, and when we consider the context in which they wrote, and the particular language they used to convey these truths, we find that there is actually no contradiction at all between Paul and James. Whatever apparent contradictions melt away. Very briefly, Paul is addressing the error of the Judaizers. The error of the Judaizers who were teaching that you had to not only have faith, but you had to have obedience to the law of Moses to be in the Kingdom of God. To come into salvation. and Paul is countering them and contradicting them and discussing and addressing how one is saved. But this is not James' point. James is not writing this letter to give a treatise on how you are justified, how you come into the faith, how you become saved. That is not his point at all. He is not dealing with how you are saved. He is dealing with who is saved. Whereas Paul deals with obedience and the relation of obedience to the law of God, to salvation prior to being saved, James is dealing with obedience to the law of God after one is saved. And specifically here, in this particular context that we are dealing with in James chapter 2, The context is James addressing professing believers. He is not addressing unbelievers and telling them how to be saved. He's addressing professing believers. The context, he's faulting them for their failure to show charity towards other believers in the church. And this leads inevitably to a discussion on whether or not if you are not repenting of your sin, you might not even be in the faith. And this is what this discussion is leading to. And so with that in mind, let us then consider verse 14. Get into the text. What does it profit, James writes, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can faith save him? To understand what James is actually saying here, we have to notice specifically what he says and what he does not say. Notice, James does not say, what does it profit my brethren if someone has faith, but does not have works? He says what? What is a prophet, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? If someone simply says he has faith? The kind of faith that James is critiquing, criticizing, addressing is not a true faith. It is a faith that is only evidenced by a bare profession. One who's simply speaking empty words and saying, I believe. That is what James is addressing. He is not criticizing true faith as we understand it, as even Paul has described it. And so James is going on to show us how it becomes evident that one who has only a bare profession of faith, one who is just saying they have faith, but don't actually. And as much as I love the New King James and its translation, they completely blow it. on the follow-up question that James asks here in verse 14 where it says, can faith save him? Here, the way that's translated, it appears that James is suggesting that true faith is insufficient to save an individual and perhaps you need to add works to it, your obedience to the law, in order to be saved. But that is not what is in the original Greek. The original Greek is not written, can faith save him? The original question is, can that faith save him? pointing us back to the faith he just described. A faith of a bare profession. A faith that someone simply says they have, but they don't actually have legitimate faith. That is what James is addressing in this passage. And we understand what James is getting at in speaking in this way. We recall in Romans 10 that Paul says that if you are to be saved, you must confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. But talk is cheap, isn't it? As Jesus Himself says, anyone can say, Lord, Lord. Anyone can say, Lord, Lord. If a husband tells his wife, I love you, but then he beats her and he cheats on her, he doesn't provide for her needs, he speaks harshly to her, his many love views They mean nothing. They're empty words. And this empty and bare talk that masks a false faith is what James is addressing. And so he illustrates that idea with the empty talk of a Christian, a professing believer in verse 15. Here in verse 15, you have a poor believer who is coming to those who can provide for their needs, coming to them and asking them, asking fellow believers, fellow individuals who profess like faith, to provide for their needs. And given the previous context that we had in James addressing the poor and the rich and how the rich were being neglected, it's not unlikely that this scenario was happening in the churches to which James wrote. But here we have a poor believer who is cold, who is hungry, who is shivering, dressed thinly in clothing, worn out clothing, standing at the door and knocking. And the needs are basic. Food and clothing. As Paul even speaks of in 1 Timothy 6, verse 8, that having food and clothing with these things we shall be content. These are the very needs that were being met in the early church in Acts 2. Everyone coming together, making sure no one had any lack. And Christ tells us about these very needs. Needs we're not to worry about. He says, do not worry saying what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what shall we wear. The Heavenly Father knows we have these needs and He promises to meet them. And at times, God sees fit to meet these basic needs of life, not extravagant needs, meet these basic needs of life in the church, through the church. And while it is true that we live in the world and we are to be neighbors to those who are in the world, those who are outside of the church, and we are to meet their needs too if opportunity presents itself to us. It is in the church primarily. It is in the church where for God's people, the rubber is going to most often meet the road when it comes to meeting the needs of others. It is there in the church where love towards God and love towards neighbor is tested. is proven, is found to be true or false. In verse 16, this professing believer who answers the door is only pretending. His words aren't backed up by anything. It's an empty statement. An empty word of blessing. And so there he is. He's standing in the doorway. And there is behind him a flickering light and a crackle of a fire. and you have the warmth and the aroma of a freshly made meal pouring forth out of the doorway into the cold and frosty air, and He only says to the poor believer, depart in peace. Be warmed. Be filled. Literally, He says warm yourself. Fill yourself. In fact, stuff yourself the word is. Gorge yourself. Be warm. Be filled. Instead of laying aside his own self-regard, instead of laying aside that take care of number one mentality and use the fruits of his own labors to bless others who are in need, as Paul says in Ephesians 4, he simply puts on the mask of godliness and he speaks as though he is blessing. And he says in essence, be anxious for nothing, dear one. Be anxious for nothing. God is going to work out everything for your good. God will provide. He promises to provide. I'm a little busy right now. I can't really help you. I'll pray. I'll pray for you. I'll pray that someone maybe will come alongside and meet your need. I'll pray that someone might come and tend to you when you're sick or visit you when you're lonely. I'll pray that someone will come alongside and encourage you when you're downtrodden. But I'm a little busy right now. We're about ready to eat. So, thanks for coming. And so the poor leaves cold and unfilled. and the law of love unfulfilled. 1 John 3, verses 16-18 John writes, "...by this we know love, because He laid down His life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." And this professing believer here in v. 16 was only loving in word. Not in deed and in truth. His words were simply empty words. As empty as that poor man's stomach. They were useless. They were of no value. They were of no benefit. And this is what James is saying. In the same way as his words did not fill that man's belly, did not clothe that man's back in the exact same way as those words did nothing ultimately, so also, that faith that is devoid of obedience to God, that faith that is devoid of good works is empty. It is useless. It is profitless. It is not true faith. That is a faith that is flying solo. A faith that is a lone ranger. It's not characterized by good works. And one that is not characterized by good works is dead. It is lifeless. It is a corpse. And as a corpse, it cannot get up. It cannot move about. It cannot do what true faith in Christ does in regards to salvation. That kind of a faith, that empty faith, that mere profession of faith is like Coke Zero. Perhaps you've seen the slogan or the advertisement, you don't know zero until you've tried it. Tried what? Zero, no sugar, no calories, no taste. I can swallow air and try Coke Zero. There's nothing to it. Diet Dr. Pepper tastes the same as regular, no it doesn't. Stop believing the lie. You're trying to convince yourself it does not taste the same, and you know it. It is not real soda. It's not real pop, right? It's fake. It's empty. I don't care what the can says. It's a can of lies. There's nothing to it. It might look like pop on the outside, but it's empty on the inside. It's zero on the inside. And so it is with faith. A faith that does not have the characteristic obedience to God, that faith is empty and false. And Paul agrees with this exactly in Titus 1.16. There he is speaking. Paul is speaking of unbelievers. And listen to his words. He says, they profess to know God just like the man in James 2.14. They say it. They profess to know God, but in works, they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, disqualified for every good work. You see, James and Paul agree entirely. If you are not one who obeys the Word of God, your disobedience, says James, makes your profession of faith in Christ to be a lie. It is an empty, a bare profession. And you have, as Paul says in 2 Timothy 3, verse 5, only a form of godliness, but not the power of it. and your faith is just a corpse. It looks like a man, but it's not alive. It's just a shell. And so, what do your works say? Your obedience to God. Does your works in this life confirm your profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Or do your works render your profession of faith in Christ to be false? Such a false profession of faith as we find in the next verses is related to a false division between faith and works. So let us look then at verse 18. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works. and I will show you My faith by My works." James here is addressing the unbiblical thinking that the two, faith and works, are unrelated things. Unrelated entities that you could have one without the other. That you could have two people. Both equally saved while one is just into obeying God's law and the other is simply into believing. that one is given to the practical aspect of Christianity, the other simply the theoretical. So she really loves to go study the Bible. She likes going to Bible study. She likes the church thing. She likes obeying all of these rules of God and getting with God's people. That's great. That's her. That's not me. I just believe what I need to believe. And we're both good. We just have differences of personalities. That's just not me. That's not what I like. But I believe the things I need to believe. And James says, absolutely not. No. You can't do that. You cannot have one without the other. Just as you cannot truly obey God without faith, as Hebrews 11.6 says, that without faith it is impossible to please God, so you cannot have true faith without obedience. The two go together. As Jesus declares even in the parable of the soils, the sowing of the seeds on the soils, only that soil that truly received the Word bore fruit. Inevitably bore fruit. And this is what James is getting at. And so it is that one who has true faith, fruit will be inevitable in their life. They will inevitably respond in obedience to God. Think of Paul when he was Saul. Before, he was breathing threats against the church. He was angry. He was out to pursue and to persecute the church. What happens immediately at his conversion? Lord, what would You have me do? The Lord tells him and he obeys. You see how obedience is related directly to one's faith. And so it is. One who professes faith and says they have faith, James is saying back to them, prove it. Show me your faith. And show me your faith without obeying God's Word. Can you do that? And the answer is no, you can't. Why? Because works are the effect of faith. Just like ripples in the pond are the effect of a rock that was cast into it. If Christ the rock has been cast into your heart, there will be a ripple effect. There will be movement. There will be motion. There will be something that will change. But some people's hearts do not receive that rock of Christ. They're a frozen pond. And the rock simply bounces off. And there's no ripple effect. And so Paul is saying, you cannot show me the cause without showing me the effect. You cannot show me your faith without showing me your works. If you have faith in Christ, you will inevitably do works. You will do that which is obedience to God. And so James says, I will show you my faith by my works. Literally, he says, I will show, I will explain, I will make known out of my works, my faith. So you see the instrumentality. Works are a means, an instrument of demonstrating the faith of an individual. This is how God has ordained it. So just like a pulse on a body indicates that person is not dead, we're not dealing with a corpse here. So also, the fruits of righteousness are like that pulse. This individual has genuine faith. If you have no fruits, you have no faith. These two cannot be separated. But wait. Wait. What about Paul? Acts 16, verse 31. The Philippian jailer. Sirs, what must we do to be saved? Paul said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. I believe in Jesus. I believe in Jesus Christ. I have faith in Him. Do you believe that He's the Son of God? Yeah. Do you believe that He became man? Yes. Do you believe that He died on the cross as a Savior for sins? Yes. Do you believe that He rose again? Yes. So do the demons. So do the demons. Do you want a cookie? Do you want some prize for that mental agreement? So do the demons. Verse 19, you believe that there is one God, you do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. Even the demons believe and tremble. You see, here we understand there are two kinds of faith. There is a kind of faith that does not result in obedience towards God as the demons. A kind of faith that does not result in a lifestyle of obedience to God ultimately, no matter how emotional you might feel about the truths of Scripture, or how sentimental you get about it, the kind of faith that is not marked by a lifestyle of obedience ultimately is just an intellectual faith. And those who have faith without works have only an intellectual faith no different ultimately than what the demons have. ultimately no better than a demonic faith. Now we as reformed people, we like to pride ourselves and boast on the fact that we have our theology down. We got it down. Well, so do the demons. Demons are orthodox. Here James says literally, you are believing God is one? James here is quoting essentially Deuteronomy 6.4, the great Shema. of an Israelite. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. That's literally what James says here. You believe God is One? This orthodox Jewish belief, a tenet that they would hold to rigidly. This is why they deny the Trinity. James says demons believe that God is One. Demons believe in the truth of Deuteronomy 6. There is no demon in hell that is an atheist. They're not that foolish. Not only do demons believe in the one God and that God is one, they believe that God is triune. You recall in Christ's earthly ministry, who was it that immediately recognized Him for who He was? It was the demons. Much more quickly than any person ever did. In Matthew 8, Jesus comes to heal the gathering demoniac. who is filled with a legion of demons. And when they see Him, they cry out in fear, what have we to do with You, Jesus, You Son of God? Have You come to torment us before the time? You see, they understand who Jesus is. They understand that He is the Son of God. They understand His absolute power, His absolute authority. They even understand in the coming judgment that they have no power outside of what He allows them. And that judgment is coming upon them. You see, they're orthodox. They could pass any ordination exam hands down, no problem. In one sense, being Trinitarian and holding to 24-hour, six-day creation makes a child of God out of you as much as it does out of a demon. Hell will be full of individuals. Not just atheists, but people who hold to the solas of the Reformation. Hold to the five points of Calvinism. Now this is not to say abandon theology. It doesn't matter then. Get rid of biblical knowledge. That is not at all what James is saying. But being able to recite the catechism, being able to correctly fill out your workbooks, to go through the process of confirmation and to agree with a certain set of morals as being good and right is not ultimately what it means to be a Christian. True faith, does possess the true knowledge of God, but that is not all that it is. There has to be more because the demons believe in these exact same things and they're not saved. Not only do they believe in these things, James says they tremble in the belief of these things. They tremble at the thought of God in great terror. Now, children, Perhaps at nighttime, you have had the experience where something scares you. And you find yourself in your bed, or perhaps running to your parents, and you are shaking. You're so afraid that you are shaking. Your body is actually shuddering in terror. This is the word James uses for the demons. You know the demons? And Satan himself? The prince of demons? These beings who are more powerful than any of us combined? At the thought of God, they shake with fear. They tremble before Him. Is it not a wonderful thought that this God is your friend? He's not a friend to demons. Demons tremble, even in fact outdoing hypocrites in the church. Hypocrites in the church don't even tremble at the thought of God. The hypocrites in the church sit in the pews week by week. The same truths that cause the demons to shake and shudder. The truths of God's holiness, ho-hum, yawn. The truths of the coming judgment, yawn. Eternal hell, yawn. So what? How much longer is this church service going to go on? Let's sing the doxology. Praise God. Out the door. and go on to live a life undevoted to Him and get on with what I really desire. Demons even outdo the hypocrites in the church. And so, though they believe in God, and though they shudder, you see, even that is not good enough. Even that does them no good. Because they are not saved from their sins by such a faith that they have. And if your faith is only one of knowledge, only one of knowledge, you are not saved. James is saying. Even if you do religious things merely out of a fear, merely out of a trembling fear to cover all your bases, so that you don't have to go to hell. Well, then you are just one step closer to the faith of demons who see God not as their Father, not as their friend, but as their enemy and one they fear. You see, true faith works by love towards God, not terror. As Galatians 5.6 says, faith what avails but faith working through love. Only through Christ is the terror of the knowledge of God removed. As Paul says in Romans 5.1, therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. See, true faith will result not only in obedience, but in obedience that is prompted by love for God, not terror. Insofar as you serve the Lord out of love, then you serve the Lord in truth. True faith cannot be devoid of loving works of obedience towards God. And so, this morning, the Lord Jesus Christ warns us that not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, will inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, but only those who do the will of My Father in Heaven." See, at the coming judgment of God according to Revelation 20, you who have true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and have the promise of eternal life, you will be discovered not by Christ administering to you a quiz on the Apostles' Creed and the articles that are contained within. You will be discovered by your deeds. You will be discovered by your deeds, as John writes, and the dead were judged according to their works. Why? Why according to their works? Why according to the things they did in this life? Because true faith is more than just memorizing facts about God and mouthing a confession. Paul says that in order to be saved, you must not only confess with your mouth, but you must also believe in your heart that God raised Christ from the dead. And that faith, the faith that is in the heart, that is more than just a head knowledge, that faith is a vital, a living union and connection to the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And through that union of genuine faith, Christ by His Spirit lives in you and works through you. As Paul says in Galatians 2.20, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. In the life that I now live, the life of Christ, I live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is Christ who lives in you and through you. The Lord Jesus is the vine. His people are the branches. And if you truly abide in Christ, and if He truly abides in you, you will bear much fruit. So are you bearing fruit in your life today? Or do you resemble that fig tree that Christ cursed? That fig tree that was producing no fruit? That fig tree that represented Israel? Though they had much religion, they had the temple, they had the law, they had it all. Yet they did not bear fruit when it was time for them to bear fruit. And Christ cursed that fig tree. And so you say you believe in God. You say you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, are you obeying His law? Does His law impact your life? Do you see it addressing your lifestyle and are you responding to it? Is His law influencing the way that you speak? The thoughts that you think? How you use your eyes? How you use your bodies? Or do you simply say, I'm covered by grace. I'm fine. I don't have to worry about that. Well, if you are not concerned to obey the law of God, then you must today repent of your dead faith. Because it is a faith that will only lead to death. and you must seek Christ for His mercy. For faith in God without works is a dead faith and will only lead to death. That's what James declares to us. Amen.