We'll turn with me to the Book of James. The Epistle of James, Chapter 2. As we come to one of the lesser known passages in the Book of James, I mean that ironically, one of the more famous passages from the Book of James. James, Chapter 2. And we'll be reading verses 14 through 26, James chapter 2, verses 14 through 26. And again, let us now attend to the reading of God's word. 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 the 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. Let's pray. Our God and our Father, we thank you for the teaching of James. We praise you that you inspired this book and gave it to your people for our edification, our sanctification in the Lord Jesus, our growth in likeness to his blessed image by the work of the Spirit within us. And we pray, Father, that you would now make us to be attentive and receptive to this divine teaching. That you would use it in our hearts to sanctify us. That Jesus' prayer would come to pass in our lives. Father, sanctify them by your word. For your word is truth. Ready our hearts now by the Spirit. for faith and hope and love. And may Jesus receive praise and honor and glory as you do so. We pray this in his name. Amen. Well, if someone is only familiar with one or two passages in the book of James, This is probably one of them. And the sad plight of these famous texts is that very often they take on a life of their own out in the world. Abstracted from the larger flow of thought and line of argument of which they are but one part. We have a tendency with these well-known passages to uproot them from their native soil and take them into the laboratory for study, not realizing that we can only fully appreciate and understand them as part of their original environment. Now that's particularly important relative to this passage from James 2. because a lot of the confusion surrounding how to interpret these verses, a lot of the nonsense bandied about relative to what this passage means would simply evaporate if due consideration was given to its place in the overall context of the letter. James is not introducing a novel idea here in chapter 2 verses 14 through 26. He's dealing with ideas that he's already brought to the table and simply expanding thoughts that he's already introduced to us. And to begin with, we need to momentarily return to one particular verse. Look with me back at chapter 1 and verse 18. Chapter 1 and verse 18. Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. And remember the importance of that verse and the flow of James' thought. It's a transitionary verse because it pushes James in a different direction and causes him to start asking some particular questions. How, for example, do we know that God has indeed brought us forth by the word of truth? How do we know that we possess this new life that God gives according to his own will? Verses 19 through 27, remember the spiritual reality of new life, of regeneration, is seen, is manifested in our posture toward the word of God. Those brought forth by the word of truth hear that word. They receive that word with meekness. And they are doers of that word. And beginning in chapter 1 in verse 22, James acknowledges the possibility of self-deception. The possibility of thinking that you possess these spiritual realities of salvation. when the reality for you is that you do not. In verses 22 through 25, it is being a hearer of the word only, as opposed to being a doer of the word. And then in verses 26 and 27, we encounter the practice of this useless religion. over against the pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father. And we see in these passages James, the pastor, who is zealous to awaken people out of their self-deception, that they might then flee to Christ and be saved. His concern is that there are people claiming to be Christian, unaware that they do not yet possess the spiritual realities of salvation. His concern for all of us, and I hope we've been able to get a sense of this as we've moved through the book thus far, that James' concern for all of us is that we would be entirely unsatisfied with a Christianity that exists only on the level of appearance and not at the level of heart reality. James knows that the flesh loves a veneer of religiosity. without ever possessing in substance the real thing. And that's what James wants for us. He wants us to possess the real thing, the substance of the matter, the realities of salvation and not just an appearance of the reality of salvation. He wants for us to be able to say, yes, in accordance with God's Word, in humble reliance upon His grace, I can sense that God's seal of authenticity is stamped upon my faith in Jesus Christ. And then in chapter 2, verses 12 and 13, James reminds us that the church is to be judged. So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. In other words, the unbelieving cannot hide in the church from the judgment of God. Psalm 50, Hear, O my people, And I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you. To the wicked, God says, what right have you to declare my statutes or take my covenant in your mouth, seeing you hate instruction and cast my words behind you? United to Jesus Christ and clothed in him, we will stand in the judgment because we will be found in him. But you see, the issue is that not all who are members of the visible church are truly united to the Lord Jesus. And there will be those who, despite membership in the visible church, will not stand in the judgment of God, but will fall. And James wants us to be dealing with these issues now, rather than later. James wants us to be discovering and dealing with unbelief now, rather than later. And in chapter 2, verse 14, James returns to the idea of appearance versus reality. Appearance versus reality. What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? With, of course, the implied answers to those questions being nothing and no. It profits nothing, and that faith cannot save him. Well, point number one, as we move through this passage this morning, verses 14 through 17, the issue. What is the issue? Well, look at the direct parallel here with chapter one in verse 26. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, dot, dot, dot, this one's religion is useless. Chapter two, verse fourteen, if someone says he has faith now, James doesn't do it, but he could have ended his thought in verse fourteen of chapter two, the same way he ended the thought in chapter one and verse twenty six. This one's faith is useless. In fact, he says it now stronger than that, doesn't he? Verse 17, the problem more than uselessness is what? It's deadness. It's deadness. Faith by itself is dead. And the issue here is the mere appearance of faith rather than the reality of faith. And James uses a brilliant illustration to explain this to us. Verses 15 and 16. 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? Now what's going on in that illustration? It's a lack of action that proves the insincerity of the profession. A lack of action that proves the insincerity of the profession. You see, it's in your power to warm and fill this person. And yet you say, depart in peace, be warmed, and filled. If you meant that, you would warm them and you would fill them. The issue here in James' illustration is that despite the well wishes, this person's so-called sympathy is proved insincere by his actions. This person's sympathy is proved dead and useless. And it's proved to be these things by a professed desire, be warmed, be filled, that never bears fruit in action. Depart in peace. Verse 17, thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. An illustration from marriage. If I say to Melissa, my wife, I would do anything for you. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? Well, how does she know that I'm speaking the truth? When the anything comes, and I do it, you see. And not just the little, easy anything, but the big, the hard anything. And that's the brilliance behind the examples of Abraham and Rahab that we'll get to in a moment. If I stand fast and follow through, the original sentiment will have been proved sincere. But if I don't stand fast, and follow through. If I don't do it, whatever that anything may be, those words will have been proved empty and insincere. With the point being that James is not entertaining here the existence of true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that falls short of its goal through a lack of works. Just as the useless religion of chapter one was no true religion, so here the dead faith of chapter two is no true faith. It's empty, it's insincere, it's ultimately an illusion. That's the issue that James is exploring in this passage, the reality of a dead faith. that is no true faith at all. That's what he is pressing home upon us. The reality of this dead faith. Verse 17, verse 20, verse 26. The reality of dead faith. And how do we know if our faith is dead? No works. Thus also faith by itself if it does not have works, is dead. Well, that brings us to our second point, verses 18 through 25. We considered the issue, and now we consider the objection. The objection. Verse 18, but someone will say, you have faith, and I have works. And the idea being expressed here is basically this. What's the big deal? James, you know, get off my back. Pay your nickel, take your pick. What does it matter if one person is all about faith, another person is all about works? Can't we just agree to disagree on this issue? To which James replies, I'll tell you why it matters and I will show you that we can't just agree to disagree. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. Lesson number one being faith and works are distinct but inseparable. Faith and works are distinct but inseparable. One cannot truly exist without the other. Faith is proved real faith by the works that are produced by that faith. Works, likewise, are proved real works by the faith that is the productive soil out of which those works grow. James continues, you believe that there is one God, you do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. Lesson number two being your creed without deeds puts you worse than the demons. Your creed without deeds puts you worse than the demons. Do you recognize the creed there in verse 19? From Deuteronomy chapter 6, the famous Shema. Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. Well, buddy, the demons can affirm the Shema as well. And at least it affects their lives. At least they know to tremble. at the confession of the one God. At least they have some sense of his majesty, enough to know that they must tremble before him. It belongs to fallen men and women, fallen image bearers, to possess this unique pitch of arrogance and delusion that would profess to no God and yet remain utterly unaffected by that knowledge, when the knowledge of him point, in fact, should affect every single aspect of our existence. And then subsequent to these two lessons, James marshals, of course, these two examples from the Old Testament to prove his point. But do you want to know, oh foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Verse 21, was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? And verse 25, likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? And first of all, I want us to think about why James uses these two particular examples. What was the promise that God gave to Abraham? Well, God gave Abraham many promises, but they all came into focus through what? The promise of a son, the promise of a seed, the promise of offspring. In God's providence, that's the exact promise we'll be thinking about this afternoon from Hebrews chapter 11. So there's quite a bit I can leave for that sermon. the promise that God would give Abraham and Sarah, though old and worn out and barren, a son. And Abraham believed that promise. And God gave them a son in due time. And then comes Genesis 22. And God commands Abraham to sacrifice that son. Point being this, that Abraham was asked to do, there in Genesis chapter 22, that which most powerfully tested his faith in the promise of God. Rahab, what message had Rahab heard about God? Joshua chapter 2, Rahab had heard of the exodus and of the power of God and salvation. Rahab had heard about the destruction of Sion and Og, and she believed in Yahweh as the one living and true God. And so she risked her life to hide Israel's spies and to help them escape from Jericho so that they could bring their report back to Israel. Remember the marriage illustration from earlier in the sermon. Well, for both Abraham and Rahab, God asked for the anything. And not the little anything, but the really big, will you do anything, anything? And they did it. They did it. from which James makes the following conclusion, verse 24, you see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. And if I can deal with a big controversy as briefly as possible, James is not contradicting the Apostle Paul. James is not teaching a different salvation from the Apostle Paul. It's the same salvation viewed from different vantage points. Paul teaches justification through faith. James teaches the justification of faith. In other words, What Paul is doing is he's teaching how a person is vindicated as righteous before the face of God. Answer, through faith alone and not by works of the law. James is teaching us here about how that same person's faith is subsequently vindicated as being a true faith. throughout then the course of their Christian life as they heed in the power of the Spirit the commandments of God and seek his face diligently? With the answer to that question being not through mere profession. That is not how we cling by faith to God throughout the course of this Christian life. not successfully at least, not through mere profession, but through a faith that is shown true by its works. And you can see how perfectly Abraham and Rahab's examples demonstrate this point. You don't sacrifice the son of promise unless you truly believe that God is going to raise him from the dead. and you don't risk your own life for foreign spies unless you truly believe that God is against your land and has set apart your home for destruction. You only have to ask James one question to know that he's not contradicting the Apostle Paul. James, in Genesis 15, 6, which you quote in verse 23, There, at that moment, was Abraham truly made righteous before God through faith? Or was he only made righteous at a later point in Genesis 22, subsequent to his obedience? James, in the Pauline sense of the word, was Was Abraham justified in Genesis 15 or was he not justified until Genesis 22? And for James, the question would have been absurd. Of course, Abraham was righteous before God there in Genesis 15. That's exactly the verse that I quoted for you. Abraham believed God and it was accounted for him righteousness. Genesis 22 was simply the vindication of that declaration of righteousness. You could say that Genesis 22 was the justification of Abraham's justification. God's seal upon his faith that it had borne fruit and was true. And that was now manifest for all the world to see. James is not answering the question, how do I become saved? James is answering the question, how do I discern if I have truly been saved? James is not teaching that works bring you into salvation. James is teaching that works demonstrate that you have been brought into salvation. not how you come to saving faith, but whether or not the faith that you claim is in fact saving. Again, James and Paul are talking about the exact same salvation viewed simply from two different vantage points. Paul emphasizes faith as the alone instrument that unites us to Christ. James emphasizes here, works as the necessary marker and manifestation of true saving faith. Which brings us then to our third point, verse 26. We looked at the issue, we considered the objection, and now verse 26, the conclusion. For as the body without the spirit is dead, So faith without works is dead also. Remember that the reality James acknowledges is the reality that words can be cheap, that talk can be cheap. It's easy to simply say that one believes the gospel. And those words can have an appearance of life and vitality. But let us not be self-deceived, James says, that though words may have an appearance of life, if they are merely words, they are dead, just as dead as the body without the spirit. What would happen if right now, at this very moment, my spirit left my body? Well, it would be quite the spectacle. And you'd have a lifeless body to deal with, and you could shout at it, kick it, prod it, and it wouldn't do a bit of good. And James is saying, so faith without works is dead. Well, how do we respond to this teaching? Let me start by saying that there may be a strong voice in your heart telling you not to respond to this teaching. Just nod your head up and down, up and down, smile, shake a few hands, and get on with your life. That voice, whether it comes this morning or this afternoon or the quiet of the night, or someday subsequent to now, that voice is to be resisted at all costs. For it does not come from God, but from the devil. Satan loves for unbelievers to remain completely oblivious to their unbelief, simply because they've made some sort of verbal profession and they sit in church week by week. And Satan loves for Christians to remain weak and ineffective in their Christian walk because they never aggressively deal with the root of sin in their lives. And wonderfully, along with James' own testimony, it's the Apostle Paul who gives to us the proper response to James' teaching. Second Corinthians 13, 5, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless, indeed, you are disqualified. You see, with The reality underlying both what Paul just said to us and what James has been speaking to us, that believing in Jesus Christ truly changes a person. Why is that? Well, because the spirit is poured out and if anyone is in Christ, behold, he is a new creation. The old has passed and the new has come. And if the new hasn't come, if there are no works to testify that the new has come? You see, the answer at that point is not, well, I have to go and try my hardest to do more works. Because the lack of works is more fundamentally a lack of faith. If you find upon self-examination an utter lack of the works of faith, It's because you haven't yet believed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And the answer is not to try harder. The answer is to repent and believe. I will show you my faith by my works. The works must grow out of the soil of faith or they won't grow at all and will simply become mired in the filthy rags of self-righteousness. We first repent and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and repenting and believing upon him, the spirit then gives the strength to do the works that God has prepared beforehand that we might walk in. And as you truly believe, as you look upon your life and you see the Lord at work producing those works of faith, Inevitably, what happens for all of us? Well, we sense weakness to one degree or another. All of us senses our lack of perfection, that there is still much work to be done, struggles to be conquered, sins to be put to death. You see weakness and you desire growth. And again, that's all of us from one degree to another. And then our prayers, Lord, make us to be as Abraham and as Rahab. May you grow our faith such that our lives produce the fruits of salvation to the glory of your name, that our actions become more and more commensurate with the faith that we profess in the Lord of glory. Again, James' teaching here is that If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. And that our lives must bear forth the fruit of that newness, lest our faith be proved no true and real faith at all. And so ultimately, again, we are not to be scared or intimidated by this passage, but we are to praise God for it, for it searches our hearts. And if there is deception, where there is Remaining unbelief, our prayer is to be that the Word of God would root it out and that the Spirit would then give us strength to put that unbelief to death and to more closely cling to the Lord Jesus Christ. That we who are a purchased possession would be more zealous for good works. Did you notice how Jesus put it in our response of reading? Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven. But who? He who does the will of my father in heaven. Because the doing of that will grows out of a heart that is united to Christ by faith. Likewise, he says, Our Savior, therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken to a wise man who built his house on the rock. Again, brothers and sisters, let us be repulsed by the thought of mere profession without works, as that mere profession would be a root of unbelief and nothing more. and let us build our house upon the rock of Christ, so that the rain may descend, and the floods may come, and the winds can blow and beat on that house, but it will not fall, for it was founded upon the rock of our Savior. Let's pray. Our God and our Father, As soon as we hear that we are made to be righteous in your sight by faith alone and not by works of the law, the flesh is at work to convince us, great, let us sin, that grace may abound. But along with Paul and James, together with one voice, let us say, may it never be, But may the faith that you have worked into our hearts produce the fruit of those good works that you have prepared beforehand that we may walk in them. May we be diligent, Father, to do the commandments of our Savior in the strength of the Spirit, in reliance upon your grace. that we might be that lamp set upon a stand, that city upon a hill, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the nations might see our good works and praise our Father who is in heaven. May you root out the deception in our hearts and root out the unbelief that in those places where we have grown slack, where the flesh has lulled us to sleep, may we rise up in a holy zeal to recommit ourselves to Christ, to live for Him, to consecrate ourselves for His glory. For what this world needs is not a dead faith, but a living faith that testifies to the glory of the One who has loved His people and died for his people, who pours out his spirit upon all who cry out to him, who receives all who believe in his name, who is reigning at the right hand of the majesty on high, and who is coming again to judge the living and the dead. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.