Well, we are going to be back in James 2 tonight, James chapter 2. Wesley, is this thing going to work tonight? It should. Okay. Well, Charles is back. It knows its master. James 2. Three verses. As I said, we covered a big swath, first 13 verses two sessions ago, and then last week slowed down and even more tonight, because I don't want to hurry through this. I want you to think through it. You've probably read this a hundred times, at least I hope you have, and think you know it, but you start looking at this in depth and you begin to see there's some interesting things going on here as to what exactly James is saying. James 2, in verse 18, we read, Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead." We have seen dead faith. If I was going to ask you, what does dead faith look like? What does it do? Nothing. There are no works that come from dead faith. It's a faith that is devoid of fruit. You kept seeing him say, what profit? Notice the last word of verse 16. What is it? Profit. What he means is the fruitfulness. What does that produce? Absolutely nothing. It falls short of the purpose of God. We like to dwell on the fact that we are saved by God's grace apart from good works. we tend to brush over the part that we are saved unto good works. We're saved by grace, without works, but unto good works. And you say, well, I don't have to believe that because I believe in predestination. Well, Paul goes on to say, good works that are before ordained, that we should walk in them. Predestined good works. And so if good works is not flowing out of the life of a believer, you understand then that what's happened This doesn't look like what God purposed in salvation. And then, the question He asked last week, can this faith save you? Last phrase of verse 14. And we need to understand it, can this kind of faith? In other words, we're not setting up, as we mentioned last week, a dichotomy, a battle between faith and works here. We're simply saying, can the kind of faith that has absolutely no fruit along with it, can that save a person's soul? And the answer is, of course, no. Anybody remember I said there's a little mantra that came from Luther and Calvin in the Westminster Confession? Anybody remember that little slick phrase? Was anybody here last week? I'm wondering. Yeah, I'm about to say that. Y'all were really attentive. Though we are saved by faith alone, We are not saved by that faith which can be alone. In other words, saving faith always brings with it the fruit of holy life. So memorize that. That is an excellent way of thinking about it. Yes, we're justified by faith alone. But the faith that saves us is itself never alone. It comes with something. It's the whole package. Luther said that as far as I can tell he was probably the first to say that Calvin picked it up in his institutes and then the Westminster Confession picked it up from there that's what it looks like the history of that same. Now keep in mind that James is not a heavily doctrinal book. If I were to ask you what does it look like what kind of book does it look like what would you say. In other words we have we have a whole section of books in the Old Testament. We call wisdom wisdom literature Psalms Proverbs Ecclesiastes Song of Solomon and so forth. And so James has as it's not a theological treaties like we see in Paul writing to the Romans. It's a very practical book and yet at the same time you begin to see how your doctrine does impact your practice and that you can't really separate those two things. So now we go into our text tonight and in the King James it says, yea a man may say, there in verse 18, the Greek literally reads, but someone may say. And so the question, who is this someone? Is someone actually saying this? That's one question we need to delve into. And then a second question is how much of verse 18 is spoken by this someone and how much of it is spoken by James? Take a look at it. What's our options here? If you look carefully at verse 18, what do you think? So you're saying that's the someone talking there. Who's talking then in the rest of it? That's James talking. I think you're exactly right. You must have read my notes, anyway. The ESV have cheated, that's what's happened, okay. Well, that is the way to read it that makes the most sense. There are some who say no, the someone is saying the whole thing. It's interesting that, and by the way, then the next question, to whom are the thy and the my referring? Notice that last phrase of verse 18? Show me thy faith without thy words I'll show you the my faith by my work so who's the by and the my here in other words these just questions to think about as try to make sense of that question I've never really paid that much attention to verse eighteen till I got to looking at it and it's an interesting it's an interesting thing of what exactly is this verse telling us and it depends of course on how you understand who is it that's talking Is it the someone saying the whole verse? By the way, MacArthur claims that. That it actually, the whole verse, is the statement of a Jew, a proud Jew, who is boasting in his faith. And whereas James is saying, is basically saying, no I'm, you know, I'm too humble. i'd probably have a hard time trying to save what mcArthur was saying i don't agree with him i think he's wrong this most time he's right but i don't think so this time but his surmising is that this is a boastful jew uh... basically promoting himself whereas james is saying that you can be a little more humble than that and i don't know i don't get it that doesn't ring true to me a better answer in my view is exactly what Charles said. The first phrase is the assertion of a hypothetical opponent. In other words, it's not necessarily anybody is out there saying this, but this is certainly being thought, or at least this is a possibility. In other words, someone could say this, and that language, the phrase someone will say, is a common way of introducing exactly this kind of an argument that you're you're saying i know what you're thinking you you may not be saying it but you you this what you want to say you're gonna say the second phrase of verse eighteen i believe is james's response to the someone's statement in the first place the objector is stating in the first part of verse 18 that both faith and works are legitimate expressions of the Christian religion. Is that true? I mean, is it true that true religion has faith? Is it true true religion has works? The objector exactly is making a contrast between the two. In other words, saying, well, it'd be like, say, the gifts. I've got the gift of teaching, you've got the gift of helps. We don't have the same gifts. Nobody has it all. None of us have the whole package. So in other words, in my case, my gift as a Christian is my faith. And your gift, James, happens to be your works. But what James is doing, he's not buying it. It's not like spiritual gifts. that you get a piece, and you get this one, and you get that one, that there's a dichotomy, a separation between them. What James is arguing is, no, in the case of faith and works, they're both to be found together right alongside one another. They're like Siamese twins. I saw it just briefly glanced at the screen on the news, and they were talking about it today. They separated Siamese twins. Well, in the case of faith and works, they're Siamese twins, but you better not separate They're not to be divided from one another. And so that seems to be, in other words, the objector is simply saying it's just enough if I have my faith, that's enough. You perhaps, you know, you want to hit it a little harder. You don't have much faith, so you're going to do some works. And James is saying, uh-uh, doesn't work that way. You've got to have both of these things going along. And presents his objector then in his response in the last half of verse 18. James is presenting his objector with a problem. The problem is this, how will you, in the Greek word here, deknouo, which is an exhibition to show, it's translated show here. How will you show this faith of yours? How will this faith be exhibited? Now let's think about that. Anybody watch Perry Mason? That's all my law instruction came from Perry Mason. But I do know that every now and then they pick up a piece of thing and they say, Your Honor, we want to enter this into evidence as Exhibit A. It might be a gun, might be a bloody handkerchief, who knows? But this is Exhibit A. In a court of law, an exhibit is a tangible, material piece of evidence that the jury then is able to inspect. In other words, it's a visible piece of physical evidence that either supports or detracts on one side of the other the trial that's what an exhibit is in a court of law and in my view that's exactly how james is using the term here in other words what are you going to use then in your case your this faith without how we how will we know you've got faith you say you have faith but faith if you think of it is a matter of physical You heard the term metaphysics. It simply means that it's non-material. It's real. It's something. Faith is clearly a concept. It's something. You've got it, or some of you have it, you know. But it's nothing that you can put your hand on. I cannot see it. I can't look from the pulpit and see faith in your heart. Can you? You look around and say, well, yeah, there's a believer over there. No, not him. He doesn't have any faith. Right? In other words, what James is saying And how are we going to know? You say you have this faith. How would we figure that out? And so you show me your faith without your works, which you get to thinking about it, pretty difficult to do. Because then in the mind of James, the works is the evidentiary evidence of the faith. It's how you see faith. That make sense? I'll show you, you show me your faith without your works. Let's see you do it. I'll show you my faith by my works. My evidence of my faith will be the works that flow out of my life from it. That there's the tangible, visible exhibit A that you can see that then tells you about something you can't see. You think about a trial, a murder trial for instance. Rarely, you know, is there an eyewitness. Somebody says, well I saw it happen. But what happens? You look at evidence you can see to understand the crime that you couldn't see, that no one saw. But you can piece together the crime that you didn't see by the evidence you do see. And that seems to be exactly how James is coming at this, that, fella, you've got yourself a real problem here. By claiming you have faith, there is absolutely no way to attest that claim if it does not have works visible evidence that show its existence. Okay, with me? Wrong button. I messed it up. Help me. All I've got to do is just hit the wrong one. There we go. Alright. James asserts that the only way to exhibit your unseen faith is by those works which can be seen. And once you get this In other words, if you don't confuse cause and effect, don't get the cart before the horse here. It is not the works that in any way saves the soul. It is your faith in Christ. But a faith, true faith in Christ exhibits itself by the works, the fruit that flows out of it. Good works are the exhibition of faith. I put the old saying, show me the money. Notice the term here, show me, show me your faith. Let's see it. it's in in it's in the imperative by the way imperative move command i command you show me tell me the money let's see the real deal here all right now we have an extreme example member we had an extreme example of dead faith anybody remember what that was you got a poor couple shows up on your front door on your doorstep and they don't have anything to wear and they're hungry and you say what be warned and failed and don't do anything for now what is again fascinating is that be you warmed and failed is exactly what you should say right that's correct doctrine the problem is if the works do not flow then there is no fruit there is no consequence in other words it's just all talk and so you begin to get see what james is talking about with faith without works. Why would you even call it faith if it didn't have works? Well, it's correct, you see. Oh yeah, they're saying exactly what a Christian ought to say. Be you warmed and filled. My heart just overflows with compassion for you. That's what's supposed to happen. Unfortunately, that's all that happens. There's never the work that comes out of it. You begin to see that we've been, I don't know how far back you can trace the split, But I've mentioned before that the split between fundamentalism and liberalism was over a lot of things, the authority of the word of God primarily, but especially over the idea of the social gospel. The liberals took the social needs as their gospel. We're going to meet the needs of man. Well, the other side sort of rejected that and said, no, we're just going to talk about faith. We're just going to talk about religion. We're just going to talk about doctrine and things like that. We don't get into social stuff. That's what they do. These folks that don't believe the Bible, they just do a bunch of, you heard the term, do-gooders. That's all they want. They just want to do good. And what we've done is throw the baby out with the bathwater. Because what James is showing us here is that you can say, well, it's in my heart I want them warmed and filled. Well, your heart's not warming and filling them. That's the problem. And we've been steeped in this idea that it's all about me and my heart. And it never has to come out my flesh. Never has to be manifested by what I do. As long as my heart's right, I'm good to go. And here we have a case in the first example of dead faith where the heart is exactly right and the faith is dead as a doornail because it never produces fruit. Now, that's the first example. We're going to see a similar thing here in the second example, which I call devilish faith. And when I say devilish faith, I'll ask the question, what pops in your mind? What kind of faith is devilish faith? What would that, out of this context, if you just heard that on the street, huh? Devious? Error? In other words, we have in our mind, what would devils believe? I mean, these are gotta be, this is evil, wicked stuff. that devils believe. And yet James is going to give us a very different picture of devilish faith. Notice he begins with a or the fundamental doctrinal assertion of Jewish Christian theology. Monotheism. That there is one God. The Jews believe that. From the Shema there in Deuteronomy 6, the Lord our God is one Lord. Christians believe there is one God. Remember Paul talking about, through the Corinthians, about meat sacrificed to idols? We know that there is one God. That's a fundamental belief, essential belief. He could have probably cited some other essential things. He could have cited God as creator. That's pretty essential. He could have said, well, this is a God who is sovereign, which is almost like saying country butter. If he ain't sovereign, he's not God. Nevertheless, he could have emphasized the sovereignty of God. Or the holiness of God, perhaps. But instead, what does he assert? That there is one God. That's the devil's confession. That's the devil's belief. Is it true? Absolutely. You see, we're not dealing with here so much as a lie. Devilish faith, in this case, is not a lie. It's true. It's absolutely true. It's essentially true for us to believe that proposition. So, I put up there, the point is, no one denies that such an assertion, that there is one God, isn't true, or that it's not essential, or that it's not a valuable thing to confess. Should you confess that there's just one God? Or do you go around worshiping the cat god and the dog god, you know, all these other gods? Well, of course! Our confession, there's just one God. That's who we worship. And it is a distinguishing characteristic of the people of God that they believe that fact, as opposed to the people around them. In Paul's day, you had mentioned going to Athens, where you have all these altars to all these gods. Ever got under the sun? And what was peculiar about a Jew? Well, he didn't worship all those gods. He only had one. So in other words, you understand that. Is that a good thing that you believe that there's just one God where everybody else around you believes these other gods? In other words, it sets you in a different class and a good class to be in. This is a good thing. The question is, but is it enough? The proposition is doctrinally sound. Does the confession alone suffice? True as it might be, if it's alone. If that's all it is. If that's all you've got is, I read your statement of faith and I believe everything in it. Is that enough? And that's James' point. He drives his point home by citing the orthodoxy of demons. The truths that demons believe. You say, well, what truth could a demon possibly believe? Well, let's take a look at a few. Barry, look up Mark 1, 24. Charles, look up Acts 16, verse 17. David, look up Acts 19, verse 15. Barry, are you there? Barry, are you here? Mark 1, 24. Jesus has gone into the synagogue in Capernaum. Been there, done that. Been there, done that. Stood in that very spot. That's a demon. I know you, the Holy One of God. You say, well, he's almost saved. I mean, he's confessing Jesus as Lord. Think about it. Is that true? You know what he's talking about? Okay. What's next, Charles? Acts 16, 17? Pretty good preaching. That's a fill up by the mention I've been there. Just rubbing it in. There that slave girl who has a spirit of divination. Pith Pith Pith Python again. At the Oracle of Delphi. Originally it was known as Gaia Mother Earth. With a Python God. Who gave oracles at that spot. Apollos according to great mythology slew the python and made a temple himself so that he became the temple of the Oracle of Delphi but the Oracle of Delphi this woman priestess and they would die and replace them with new ones had what they called the spirit of Pythia python the snake she still has that spirit that original spirit that was there this girl this has a spirit of python Other words, she is a little version of the biggie up there at Delphi. She's a localized version. She's small time stuff. But the whole notion of the Oracle is you want to know your foot. You want to know the future. So you could pay them some money and they'll we've got a little bit going on these days. Pamela, money, they'll tell you what's going to happen tomorrow. The old preacher, two preachers walking down the street of streets of London. When these fortune tellers came up said for a shilling I'll tell you your what's going to happen tomorrow and he said I'll give you two shillings you can tell me what happened yesterday. Pretty good logic you can't tell me what happened yesterday I don't think you can tell me what's going to happen tomorrow. Anyway all of that to say here's the situation but notice what she not what this demon knows. I mean you read that again Charles what that what the confession of that. These men. I'll quote it these men. or servants of the Most High God who have come to show us the way of salvation." Now, why did Paul say, why did he get sick and tired of that and cast the demon out? Why wouldn't you have said, hey, look here, here's your prophet, here's your prophetess here, listen to her. Sometimes you don't want somebody's endorsement. If you're running for president, you probably don't want David Duke to endorse you, just saying. And you certainly don't want the help of the devil, because the one who gives the help can take it away. Okay, what's next? David, Acts 19, 15. I found my favorite stories. The seven sons of Siva attempting to cast the demon out. And the demons say, Jesus, I know. Kyrie Murrow once told about a man down in his church. He was praying on a Wednesday night, and he says, Lord, I want to be well known in hell. And Comrade went up to him afterwards and said, What in the world are you talking about? He said, Well, like the seven sons of Saba, they said, Jesus, I know, and Paul, I know, I want to be known in hell. I want the demons to know who I am. They knew. They knew who Jesus was. They knew who Paul was. They didn't know who these critters were. And so they weren't about to bet on them. They stripped them naked and made them go running. I guess that's the first streaking incident that we had right down through the streets of Ephesus. That would have been a sight. Certain things you just can't unsee though. I, you know, visualize that in my mind. Okay, we got another. Vaughn, look up Matthew 8, 28 through 32. This is Jesus' encounter with Legion, the demonic, the Gatorade. And if you think that because you believe in the sovereignty of God, that that means that you are in good. That alone is enough. Then listen to what these demons confess about Jesus. Matthew 8, starting in 232. Think about what these demons are professing. That Jesus is Lord. He's Judge. He's Sovereign. He has the right to do with them what He will. They say that. Are you come to torment us before the time? In other words, what is that confessing? Number one, I know there's a time of judgment, and I know that in that time of judgment, I'm going to get it. I'm going to be tormented. The only question is not whether there's going to be torment or whether I'm going to get it. It's just, have you come to start it early? Notice they are confessing that he is, as Paul says, the one that God has ordained to be the judge of men and demons all judgment in the hands of the son they could they know that they confess that their eschatology is correct maybe the only ones who ever got their eschatology right they know there is a last time coming and they know what's waiting on them in that last day they have to ask permission to leave, and they have to ask permission for the destination. If you will, let us go into that herd of swine over there. You put all that together and you understand now a little bit of what James is saying? Are the devils orthodox? A whole lot of the time they were right on the money in the confessions that they make. And so then that raises this question, well what's the effect of it? What's the Well, the devils believe and tremble is how the King James put it. A better translation would probably be shudder. I suppose the hair standing up on the back of your neck, that's a pretty good way of thinking of it. They're absolutely terrified by that proposition. May I point out that devils believe more than most men do. Their faith goes further. Most people don't believe it at all. Demons believe it. And of those who do believe it, how many shudder? How many tremble? How many cannot possibly sleep at night because they are so convinced that there's a day coming when at the hands of the Son of Man, they're going to receive judgment and be tormented? Do you understand how strong the faith of demons can be? Well then, what's the problem? Notice that demonic spirits, this is interesting, spirits you would think would be interested in physical things, right? No, that doesn't make much sense. Spirits, you'd think, would be interested in spiritual things. Now this is just off the top of my head, so I don't know if this is right or not, but it just doesn't make sense to me. Dogs are generally interested in dogs, cats are interested in cats. Why wouldn't spirits be interested in spiritual stuff? I know they deal with physical stuff, but that's not really their element. They are spiritual beings. That's what demons are. Spiritual entities. And because of that, it's interesting that most of the time we have demons interested in doctrine. Now they will pervert doctrine. We see Satan doing that with Jesus and so forth. We have false doctrine. Doctrines of devils. Why are they concerned about doctrine? Nobody else is. They're really concerned about spiritual stuff. I think they have the best church attendance of anybody around. They show up every service. They are focused on what's going on right here in our church life, in the lives of our people. They are intensely interested. This is their domain. It's what they do. But problem is they being evil. cannot produce good for believe it as true as it is believe it as strongly as they believe it at the end of the day it doesn't generate any righteous holy conduct why not not their nature i told you story about the frog in the scorpion trying to get across the river you probably heard it the frog the scorpion says to the frog well let me climb on your back and swim across the river let me get across the river on your back in the frogs and I'm going to do that you'll sting me and he said why would I sting you I'm floating on your back and they get out in the river get about halfway across the scorpion goes to sting in the frog is that what are you doing he said well it's just my nature I can't have it that's what scorpions do well what are demons do they do demon stuff that's what they do that's who they are They cannot possibly bring forth good fruit. So, this last verse, are you ready now, O vain man, to acknowledge, to confess, that a faith without works is dead and will not save the soul? So we've had these two examples, one of dead faith, tonight of devilish faith. Okay? We'll stop there. Any observations? Yeah, Charles? The pastor. Well. Obviously at the end of the day the Lord is the determiner of what is a good work and what's not. We certainly would think that there's times when we think we've done a good work and it turns out that's not the case we have an example of that. people coming to our Lord when the door is shut and saying, but wait a minute, you talk in our streets, we did many wonderful works, we cast out demons in your name. And he says, depart from me ye workers of iniquity. They saw it as a good work, he sees it as a work of iniquity. So obviously at the end of the day, I am not the determiner of that. wouldn't you say that we have some parameters by which to judge what is a good work was not and that this thing about that met what would be some of the parameters admonishing why and if i can just focus in on exactly what you're saying why would that be an acceptable thing to do cautious you're commanded okay and that's my point one token of a good work is we're told to do it battle on it puts us on the right track now those folks that were doing miracles and casting out demons I'm not sure they ever had a command to do that we do have commands and Charles listing several here of our duty towards each other and so forth but the reason those would be good things to do is not because we've decided they're going to be good but the Lord said do this you see me wash my feet your feet now you go wash their feet and I think that's an important one it's commanded Anything else come to mind? Other qualities of good works that would help you say, yeah, that's a good one. Fasting, praying. Ah, there we have the case in the Sermon on the Mount of giving, fasting, praying to be seen of men. In other words, the motive, the selfish, self-centered motive, rather than for the glory of God, it is a self-centered motive to make yourself look good, religious, respectable in the eyes of man. And so that is a, I think that's a very valuable way of saying, when I do something for somebody, is that really a good work? Was I really concerned that God be glorified through the meeting of their needs, or was I more concerned about how I look? and that certainly comes into play as well a works righteousness mentality that if i do this then god is obligated to do this legalism in some sense of legalism really is a work without faith the faith is in the the agreement the contract not in the person i don't need a person i don't need a contract if i trust the person why do we get got it and bond used to be a lawyer why why do you drop papers because at the end of the day, that keeps everybody honest. If they were honest, you wouldn't have to have it. And so yeah, there's a pretty good sense that legalism is the sign of the absence of faith and why then law and faith can't go together. Anything else along those lines? Yeah, Darren. Yeah, boy, it's hard to see. Yeah, that's right. Hard to know. certainly they had that problem but james of course came down on the other side but they could undoubtedly it was still around undoubtedly you're right exactly different form of the same problem don't see anybody going around nobody wants go around certain sizing guys these days i mean and met one lately but you know we just got some mail bond you'll say so Yeah. Yeah, it's a toughie. I bought a work devoid of self-interest. But have I ever done a work devoid of self? And even and even that's not a good way of putting it. We are too. It's like he that saves his life shall lose it. He that says lose his life shall save it. But the sum total is you ought to be interested in keeping your life. That's a given. And so you say, well, he's really self-interest. Well, yeah, it is for your interest to keep your life, but you keep your life by losing your life. Here's the paradox. Okay. So yeah, the idea of how do we determine a good work. And obviously a work of benevolence, of compassion, mercy. And as Vaughn says, though, our best works are mingled. Our best works are filthy. You begin to see why. We can't. It's so difficult. I can't preach a sermon without the thought. How am I doing? The most blessed times I've ever had preaching is when I just lose all concept of me. Lose myself in the message. That's rare because most of the time I wished I hadn't said that. Wished I'd said this. Wished I wonder how that came across. You understand what I'm saying? Everything we do is like that. How am I looking today? And boy, it's hard. That's the sin nature rearing its old ugly head, and why our works will never justify us, because they're wormy. Our best fruits, wormy, rotten. It's Christ. That's it. Yeah? Let me just use a tangible example of what you're saying. I think you and Chris did a fabulous work, but I hope you don't see it that way. And that's the that's the I don't know how to say catch twenty to the feedback mechanism of the Christian life is that I know that what saves me is Christ's work in Christ's work alone. That's my hope. And yet if I truly believe that and if my faith is real as we saw tonight my life is going to be producing good works. And so I better not forget to check out what's coming out of my life. But the problem is the more that I check what's coming out of my life, the more problems I see with what the more I scrutinize it, the worse it looks. I began to see all these things, these self-interests and so forth, which means I can't trust it in pushing me right back to Christ and to Christ alone. It's just like a vicious feedback loop. And we're not to be not to have our head in the sand. Oh, I made a decision back there at the crusade 50 years ago, and I'm in. I'm good. You don't have your head stuck in the sand. You examine your life examine yourselves where they're in the faith says Paul. But at the end of the day that ought to drive you right back to Christ because there's just nothing over here in anything you've produced as good as it might be and especially to the eyes of man that's going to save your soul.