James 2. James 2. It's been a little bit since we were here. We are going to slow down. I took a really big hunk, 13 verses last time, and I thought we are getting into some, well, things we need to think about and very controversial section, misused by many. And so I thought it would be very helpful if we sort of slow down our pace. Tonight we're going to take a look at four verses here. James 2, 14 through 17. James 2, 14 through 17. Let's read it together here. What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he have faith and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, One of you say unto them, depart in peace, be you warmed and filled, notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body, what does it profit? Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." We've already sort of encountered the fact that James uses the word faith a little differently than the Apostle Paul. Look back at verse 1 James 2 verse 1, My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. You say, well, what does respect of persons have to do with my faith? Well, faith for James speaks of a bigger, broader thing than just what you believe. It's your lifestyle. And it's what we would say of what faith are you? Oh, I'm Catholic, I'm Mormon or whatever. He's using it in that sense, the sum total of what we are as Christians, that we are in the faith. And this, I guess I might get my stuff up here. Boy, that's lopsided. Oh well. The story of my life, we're half bubble off plum. Not the first time. Well I'll read you the question it's the question he starts out with in verse fourteen what does it profit. Now let me ask you this what would be another way of asking that question when James talks about profit what kind of profit what what does he have in mind you think advantage what's good for any other synonyms that's that's good. What you got a modern language what what's the other translations yeah huh what good good I'm tempted to sort of think in terms of fruit because really that's what we're talking about here we're talking about the fruitfulness of the Christian life which is the profit the profit for a farmer is the fruit that the crop produces and so the point is is that what he's about to suggest is that there is a way of Supposedly living as a Christian which produces absolutely no fruit Doesn't ever get to what God intended I I threw this out when we were studying 2nd Peter Dealing with the idea of adding to your faith this and this and this you remember that and it struck me while I was going through that and I told you at the time and I'm more confirmed in it now than ever that sometimes we as Christians think our fruit is that list of nine things that Paul listed love joy peace long-suffering Jonas that you know that's what we're supposed to be well that's what you're supposed to be but my point when we were going through that is that's the fruit of the spirit that's not your fruit that's the spirit's fruit in you allowing you then to produce good fruit and your good fruit or works work is a four letter word And it certainly is in reform circles sometimes. We give it a bad rap. You know, we don't believe in works. Well, you better believe in works. James believes in works, as you will most definitely see here. So the profit for the Christian is the good work, the good fruits, the advantage coming out of his life, the things that he is supposed to produce. And so his question is, what does it profit? What good is it? My brethren, though a man say, notice again saying, that he has faith and have not works. Can faith save him? I don't know if we're going to be able to... Yeah, Wesley, you're going to give me the illusion of control again. Notice back in chapter 1, 22, we had hearers of the word, but no works. They don't do. They're not doers. They're not practicers of the word. Now, in 2, 14, We have a sayer of the word, but not a doer. Notice there's a theme that runs through here. You've got people hearing, but not doing. And then another step, they profess it, but they don't do it. There's a lot of different ways, you see, to fall off the wagon here. I don't guess you're going to see the other one. The assumption underlying all of this, two things. A Christian is supposed to produce fruit. Would you say that's a given? Jesus taught us that in John 15, that's the whole point of being in the vine, so you can bear for fruit, much fruit. Bring glory to your father by the fruit you bear. There's also an assumption that true faith will have works, fruit, along with it. And that's where James is starting, that's his sort of starting principle. So the question in The end of verse 14, it's very important that we understand the question. What exactly is James asking? When he says, can faith save him? What he means is, can that faith, such faith, save him? You say, what faith? A faith that says but doesn't do. And we need to keep that clear in our heads. What we're talking about is a faith that says does not perform, doesn't produce the good works. And the question is, can that faith save him? The obvious answer, anybody figure anybody figure out the answer yet? It's a rhetorical question. You're not supposed. I had a lady, I think I told you back in Wyoming, she had been a patient at the state hospitals and she used to answer my rhetorical questions for me, which was all right, except when she'd get them wrong. It was embarrassing for us all. Jim accumulated yeah what it's like heaping up game it's yeah what what good what good does it do is to heap up heap up is a good way of putting it in other words what we're being introduced to here is that not all faith saves true every kind of faith say and and unfortunately in some circles I grew up in everything passed for faith if you just nod your head to a proposition that's that's faith in your site raise your hand sign a card prayer prayer bingo you're in but one of the things that we find very quickly especially in john's gospel is that not every kind of faith saves which seems to be strange because everybody wants to run to john three sixteen and uh... all of a sudden you get in john you know they want to go to john's three sixteen to avoid galvanism And you're not going to avoid Calvinism in John. And then they want to run to John 3.16 to justify easy-believism. And you're not going to find easy-believism in John. Go to John 2. Just a moment. I'm going to give up on that, Wesley. The gremlins have struck again. John 2. This is a fascinating text. John 2.23 says, Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name And what's significant about that is that he had just said back in chapter one, to as many as received them, to them gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. So he's using the exact same expression he did back there in chapter one. But now he says to these who many believed his name when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men And he needed not that any should testify, man, for he knew what was in man." Now if we sort of work our way backwards here, the reason he did not commit himself to him is because he knew what was in him. He didn't need anybody to tell him what was in him. He knew what was in him. And he did not, therefore, the word commit here is sort of a play on the word to believe. to trust, in other words, the sense, it's like a little riddle here, many trusted in his name but he did not entrust himself to them. Now can you be saved if Christ does not entrust himself to you? Jesus saves, that's what we're seeing, that's the truth. But so if Christ does not give of himself to you, no matter what you've done, That's not a saving thing. And here we see that there is a deficiency in their faith. What do you suppose it was? What do you think? What's what's wrong with their faith? What's in them? What caused them to believe in the first place? The miracles. Yeah. I'm sorry. Houdini. Yeah. Here's a miracle worker come to town. We believe the miracles. We began to see very quickly in John that it's one thing to see the miracle, it's another thing to really get the miracle. You remember the loaves and bread and so forth? You're just seeking me for this bread here. You don't want the bread that has come down from heaven. So we see very quickly in John that just a superficial faith that Jesus is a miracle worker is not a saving faith. So we see it there. Go to John 8. We see a very similar thing. John 8, all that starting verse 28. Then Jesus said unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, that's a phrase indicating the crucifixion, then shall ye know that I am He, that I do nothing of Myself, but as My Father hath taught Me, I speak these things, and He that sent Me is with Me. The Father hath not left Me alone, for I do always those things that please Him. As he spoke these words, many believed on him. And I've often said this is the most short-lived faith you'll ever find. It lasted about 30 seconds. Notice, as then said Jesus to those Jews who believed in him, if you continue in my word, then you are my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And they said, we are Abraham's seed. We were never in bondage to any man. You don't know what you're talking about. You begin to see the problem with their so-called faith. Again, the deficiency is that there's a sense in which we will believe what we see and what sounds right to us. I've had people tell me, well, you know, the part of the Bible I believe is that part that makes sense to me. Well, that's not the test of whether you really believe it or not. You know, if you believe the Bible, the word of God, you believe it, whether it makes sense to you or not. In other words, you're not picking and choosing. It's not a cafeteria plan where you can select which proposition I'm going to believe. So here we have Christ saying some things. And they say, oh, yeah, we believe that. Then he says, you should know the truth. Drew should make you free. And they said, we're not. We don't need to be free. And of course, he goes on to tell them, oh, yes, you do. You're Satan's slaves. You're Satan's seed. We have a notice in verse 44. He says, you're of your father, the devil, his lusty will do. These are believers that he's talking to. Go to chapter 15. This is, of course, what I was talking about a moment ago, the vine in the branches. Chapter 15, he says, every branch in me, verse two, every branch in me. That bears not fruit, he takes away. and every branch that bareth fruit, and purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." Now notice that there is a sense in which the branch can be supernaturally, superficially attached to the vine. There is a faith that looks, right, it's like if you say, the faith that says and doesn't do. Right? So here we've got the sense in which there is a branch attached, but there's no life, there's no fruitfulness coming for it. So what does the father do? He comes, he purges it. To purge, in fact, there is a whole school of interpretation on this verse that what he's really doing is picking them up and washing them, because purge means to clean. But the problem is purging, when you apply it to a vineyard, means to snip it off. Words have different meanings depending on the context. If you say, I dressed my child this morning, that's one thing. A man goes out and dresses a deer, that's a completely different thing, right? The word is the same, but the meaning is completely different depending on the context. And in agriculture, this term, purge, as far as I can tell, was used to indicate the pruning, the snipping off. of the unproductive branch. He's not just washing them off, he's cutting them off, and then a little later gathering them together and burning them in the fire. So it's clearly people who are attached in some way to Jesus, but they're not vitally attached. There's not a life-giving thing going on. There's no union, no real union, and that's being exhibited by the fact that it's a dead branch. Let's put it that way. It's a dead branch. Well, it's hard for us to know in that context exactly who those people are. Are they professing Christians? They may well be. But it's clear that we can have a superficial, shall we say, association with Jesus. We can sit among his people and not be hitched. John talks about those that were with us, went out from us, but they really never were of us. They really weren't Christians. They were here with us for a while. They rubbed shoulders with us. We can sit, sing the hymns, pray the prayers, you know, hold our mouth right. But do we have that living, vital union with Christ? And if we don't have that, then that branch is just a dead branch. Because this is just dead faith. It's just outward. It's just show. That's all it is. It has no inward reality flowing through it and producing fruit. Look in verse five and six of this same chapter. I'm the vine, you're the branches. He that abides in me and I in him. The same brings forth much fruit. Without me, you can do nothing. If a man abide not in me. Now that means to stay. If a man doesn't stay in me. And again, there seems to be a sense in which they, for a time, they're superficially attached to Christ. But he says, if they do not abide in me, he's cast forth as a branch, is withered, dies. and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. So I'm not saying that they were genuine Christians and lost their salvation, but they had the appearance, the outward appearance, of being a Christian. They said they had faith. Does that make sense? We see this kind of thing quite often in the New Testament. And then, in our context, back to James 2 a minute, Wesley, what do you think? Now I've got to find out where I'm at. Okay, there we are. There's our non-saving faith. Look at the last one here, James 2, verse 19. He says, Thou believest that there is one God. Whoopee! Thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. Notice again, it's a superficial acknowledgement of a fact, a fact they'd rather not have, by the way. And yet, obviously, that faith does not save the devils. It doesn't produce any change in the devil. So we've had several examples of non-saving faith, including one right here in James. Now, the key to understanding this, I think, is this. What exactly is this passage teaching? Is it teaching that we are justified by faith plus works? That's one option. You'd have to say, and a superficial reading, if you do not try to make this harmonize with other texts of scripture, you can easily come to that conclusion. Is that admitted? That would be a superficial reading, and if you just took this by itself, that's the conclusion you'd come to. Does it teach faith versus works? In other words, we're either justified by faith or we're justified by works are these faith and work set at odds with one another one of them the question faith plus works is that's what it's saying that justifies us or is it saying you're going to be justified either by faith one party's gonna say that the other by works or are we justified by a faith that works option a is favored by a number of groups that believe in works as being essential for your justification. Roman Catholic Church, the most obvious example, Church of Christ. My roommate loved this passage. He had this passage memorized from, uh, because he said, we're saved by works, no bones about it. Um, I threw up one day, John three 16 to him. And he said, uh, what's John three 16 say? I don't know that verse. and i'm thinking you know i grew up in southern baptist as the first verse well no i think malachi three ten was first verse bring all the ties into the storehouse as first verse but uh... uh... the second verse i learned was uh... john three sixteen so it would just blew my mind here's a kid a preacher son had no clue what john three sixteen said you know almost anybody even in my little ignorant bunch you know what john three sixteen said i mean you see the guy with the striped hair in the end zone, noting up the sign. You'd think everybody knows. He didn't know. But why? But he knew this passage backwards and forwards and could quote it. And so to somebody from a works-based salvation, this is how they would understand this passage. But as I put out there to the side, that absolutely destroys salvation by grace. Paul shows us that in several ways, that if you add works to grace, you wind up perverting grace where it's no longer grace. You're either saved by a free gift or it's not free. You've earned it. There's no middle ground. Cheap grace isn't free grace. It's really what this would be claiming. A cheap grace. Now, option B makes James clearly contradict the Apostle Paul. paul says that we're justified by faith apart from the works of the law very clearly states that so in other words if we take that tack we got a real problem if you're a bible-believing christian that suddenly we can harmonize these two things c is the position that we would hold i would hold i hope you hold this because not only does it make sense but it dovetails with the testimony of scripture elsewhere for instance Ephesians 2, 8, and 10. We love, by grace, who you say through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. In other words, clearly, this faith and grace is connected to good works. And unfortunately, we sometimes fail to connect that, make that. It's not that works save us, but that works are the foreordained. You love that word? Well we like it when it speaks of our salvation being foreordained, but notice here's the works being foreordained that you should walk in. So in other words, fruit is predestined. In other words, this is not optional. So notice the connection there. Another place, Galatians 5, 6, and I've said up here it is not works without faith, it's not faith without works, but it is a working faith. In Galatians, there's a couple of statements Paul makes. Let's look at this one right quick. Galatians 5. Sometimes Paul has these little expressions he uses several times. And here in Galatians 5, in verse 6, he says, For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. Now you say, well, what do you mean? In Christ neither circumcision avails anything or uncircumcision. Avail means profit again. Advantage doesn't do anything for you. You say, well, I know I'm accepted with God because I'm circumcised. Or another guy says, I know I'm accepted with God because I'm not circumcised. Paul would say, doesn't make one bit of difference. Well, what does make the difference? Faith, which works by love. You see the sense? Go to the last chapter chapter 6 verse 15 for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything or uncircumcision but a new creature there he states the same proposition but puts a different tail on it but clearly to be a new creature is to be a creature who exhibits a faith that works by love that's what he's getting across to us that's the evidence of regeneration So if you say, I'm born again, I'm regenerated by the spirit of God, but I don't have a faith that works by love, you're barking up the wrong tree. That's dead faith. OK, you have any questions at this stage of the game? Any comments? Throw money? OK, whatever. So in other words, what we're dealing with is getting the cart and the horse in the right order. Whereas O.E.W. Johnson said, get and hold the shotgun by the right end. You want to make sure you know what's cause and what's effect. What's doing this. And here we find, I'm forgetting my thing here, there is a helpful way, I remember again the old timers, the old preachers, when I first came into the grace movement, it's amazing how many of these statements wonderful statements that I never ever heard you know till I was in my twenties in Sovereign Grace circles because I think there's only ones ever read these threes these things and you'll find this statement by Luther I think he's probably one of the first that said it Calvin picked it up the Westminster Confession incorporates it you'll find this statement quite often though we are justified by faith alone We are not justified by that faith which can be alone. Now think about that. What's what's it saying. If you were going to rephrase that for me how would you state it. It's sort of a snappy way of saying this. Hope it'll stick with you. Everybody's too scared to go ahead David. Faith without works is dead. Yeah. In other words if we were looking at this we would say that faith and works then are like Siamese twins. But it is not the works that justifies it's the faith in Christ that justifies us. But it's our works that there is the inevitable outcome of being joined to the Savior. And I keep coming back to the principle of vital union that when we think about it what is it about faith that saves us. It unites us to Christ. That's why it saves. And being united to Christ in my unwittingly cycling through this If we're united with Christ, it's like being plugged into a socket in the wall with electricity running through you. You're going to do some stuff. You're going to show some signs that you've got power flowing through your body. And so it is with the person plugged into Christ. The faith that saves us saves us because it appropriates Christ. And that then is what produces the good works. But we can't confuse the two. That's what happens in Roman Catholicism. In one sense they're correct but in the other they miss the whole boat by trying to say that we're justified by a combination of our faith and our works. And so the Protestant view is that it's faith and faith alone sola fide. You'll be hearing a lot about that this next year. But at the same time this faith that saves us is never alone. It always comes with a principle of good works and holiness. If it's true faith. Memorize that. And so we close with an example of dead faith in action. It's sort of hard to say, well what do you mean dead faith in action? How could it be an action if it's dead faith? But we have here a picture in James 2, 15 and 16 of the kind of faith that does not save. and I think you'll get the picture here in this example in verse fifteen he says if a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food he's needs clothing needs needs food and one of you say unto them depart in peace and be you warmed and fail notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body here's that question again what does it profit what good does it do. You'll notice if one of you say, we're back to hearing and not doing, saying. Here's an extreme example of saying, my desire for you is to be warmed in veal. In other words, the problem is not in what you say. What you profess is the fact that you don't do it. And so, if you don't give them what they need, what good? does it do now notice you see the cycle of good works here the works is the fruit that's supposed to be produced from your faith and if you are if you have this thing he calls back in verse one the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ your works ought to be revealing that notice I would say that this violates what we called last week the law of liberty we saw that in verse twelve By law of liberty, I would say that's an expression for the law of Christ, the law of the gospel. In other words, it violates gospel principles. We're not living like a Christian when we live that way. The gospel demands a certain lifestyle. We are debtors to grace. We're debtors to God's charity. We're nothing but beggars at the back door of his mercy. And when others come to us asking mercy, asking for compassion, to refuse them is the same thing that went on in that parable about the man forgiven so much and then refuses to forgive. It's the same principle. We're violating the heart of the gospel when our behavior does not match up with what we say. So we can be, as O.B.B. Caldwell down in New Orleans used to say, you boys, he taught in the seminary down there, he says, you boys, But you guys are straight as gun barrels. And just as empty. How true. How true. We can just have all our ducks in a row. We say the right things. You see. But do we follow through? Is there ever any profit? Is there any advantage? Any fruit that accrues? I was thinking of an example of this. A woman standing by the casket of her dead husband but insisting to you that he's alive. And you say, well, wait a minute. She would say, well, I know he's not moving, but he's really got his he's alive in his heart. And I think we would say if his heart was alive, he'd be alive. He'd be doing something. But you think this is ridiculous. But how many today insist that they are alive to God and yet produce absolutely no fruit, no evidence, But oh, they're alive in their heart. They just murdered five people, but he's got a good heart. No, he doesn't. And there's what James is doing, is tying our profession to our conduct and saying a profession without a conduct doesn't profit anybody or anything. Our fruit is the desire that we stated fleshed out. by the good work. Again, we tend to get a little mystical and gnostic at this point. We think that it's just enough if we've got a good heart. If we think good things. If we've got good desires. If my heart's alright, everything's going to be fine. But what we begin to see in the purpose of God, God's purpose is for us to flesh it out. He gave us a body. You think about this. If you're dealing with angels, could you have that illustration? They're naked and hungry. Angels don't get naked and hungry. I guess they're already naked all the time, I suppose, unclothed. But they don't get naked and hungry. Who gets naked and hungry? People with bodies. In other words, you see what I'm saying, we get so spiritually minded, the old saying, that we're no earthly good. We think that all this is is an exercise so that we can develop an enlightenment, and that's what Gnosticism was all about. We're the illuminated ones, and that's it. And this body stuff, what you actually do is really worthless, doesn't do anything. But we see the purpose of God in giving us a body is that we get to express spiritual truth through our body to another body. All right. That's my piece. What do you think? Have you ever thought of that? God could have made us immaterial spirits. We wouldn't have to worry about somebody showing up without clothes or hungry. But clearly God's purpose is that we believe the gospel, yes, but that we express it with our bodies to others in a body. And so we've gone through a time in the early 1900s when liberalism went wholehearted in the the direction of happen poor folks you know we're gonna do good works forget the gospel let's do good works the extreme example one garcia down in in my pc the old presbyterian guy down there he was pressed uh... president of the presbyterian church for three years in mexico and the uh... presbyterian church u.s.a. offered them several million dollars to use to help poor people, but they couldn't do anything else with it. They couldn't evangelize. They couldn't teach. Just use it to help poor people. And to Juan's credit, he told them they can keep their money. They didn't want their money under those circumstances. But that's liberalism. You know, let's just go, let's be a bunch of do-gooders. The problem was the other side of the thing. The fundamentalists went the other way. And it's all about us getting our ducks in a row, getting our heart right and getting our spirit clean. and forgetting the poor, forgetting texts like this. And what we've got to come back to is a balance that these are not, it's not faith versus works. It is the combination of this thing, faith producing good works, good works that are meeting the needs of people. Notice, this is a brother or sister who's destitute. This is your Christian brother who has come to you. and the duty that we have therefore to meet that need is as far as we're possible and able. All right, what's your feedback? Make you uneasy? Jim? Say that again. Faith is a work of grace. Does a work so that you will work. That's a good way of putting it. Exactly. Yes, Sherry? Boy, you hit an important thing right there, I think. And a lot of it is the American pride and psyche that we we want to put on a show that everything's OK when it's really not. And what we forget is that to have for every giver, there has to be a receiver. And sometimes the grace of receiving is more difficult than the grace of giving. But the problem is that no one ever gets blessed for giving if someone is not willing to receive. Right. It takes two to tango. And I think you're exactly right. We are not honest with our. Our needs. I find, of course, we know there's all sorts of things that go on in the name of Christ, scams and whatever. Everybody using Jesus. And by the way, the early church, it's interesting that the document, the twelve apostles, man, you read that document, one of the early sort of church government documents from about the first century. They said, you know, somebody shows up and they can stay two days, third day, they're on their way. You know, this was not a welfare ticket. And they had people in that day traveling around, living off the benevolence of Christ's people. So it's always been a problem. So we're fully aware of that. But what I have found, certainly among this church, is whenever there's a legitimate need, man, people empty their pockets. They're willing to meet it if they possibly can. Our deacons pretty well have a policy of anybody, Steve, correct me here, but almost y'all will help almost anybody the first time. Just sort of a stand, if they need it, they don't give them money, but give them a tank of gas, groceries, they'll... Now, come back for more. There's more questions to answer, you understand. But in other words, the first instinct is to help. and to assume that their stories correct even if it may not be and we realize we can be flimflam we can be taken for a ride with that but my personally I would rather be cheated sometimes then to not give to a legitimate need at other times and just figure the Lord will take care of that I've often prayed putting money in somebody's hands Lord turn this into a curse if they're not telling me the truth it's true May this be multiplied. If it's not, may it be a curse. And not preach the gospel. Yeah. Without the gospel, is it really going to do anything? Yeah. And there's a there's a sense in which what in the helping to meet human need, we are recognizing that they are genuine people worth something in our eyes. And it's but we're doing it with the desire that would be able then to have a door of opening for the gospel uh... the best example twice now brother moses church down there has taken advantage of a natural disaster and their safety net in mexico is virtually not existent i don't know why he could even call it that to joke the government officials show up and look around says this is terrible and they go home never see him again never do a thing for uh... most the time the catholic church won't happen brother moses in his people man they mobilized they uh... took truckloads of food down to this new place all of their all they had the food soup line over there at uh... mendoza and and while the they got a hundred people lined up there for food while they do they got guys preaching up and down the line you know it's an opportunity for the gospel and that to me is the perfect example of what we're talking about and you say well This is the old American pragmatism, does it work? Well, you got a church over there at Mendoza and you got a church down there at Soledadero now. Yeah. People were uptouched. In fact, the Catholic priest came down there over at Mendoza and the people ran him off. They said, look, he was trying to get them to throw Moses' bunch out. And they said, you don't care about us. These people are the ones helping us. Get out of here. speaks volumes when people are desperate in needing help. So we want to always be looking for the opening. Any other any other thing? And Sherry, I really appreciate that, because I've thought about that so many times that you've got to have both. You know, we say, no, I don't really need that. But in a sense, you're you're robbing the person of the opportunity of meeting the need. And that's that's blessing. And if you don't have a receiver, you don't you're not going to have a giver. Well, all right. Let us.