Number two, and appreciate you being here in the Lord's house this morning. If you're visiting with us, we want to say welcome and appreciate you being here and thankful for the Lord allowing us to be in the service. Continue to pray for the group that's on the mission trip this week. I wasn't paying attention, Noah may have mentioned it in announcements, but dad and some of the young people are up in Montana. on a mission trip, and I talked to them this morning, and they had gotten there safely. And I wish I could have went, because if any of y'all know anything about mom, she is absolutely terrified of flying. And she's never been on a plane before. This was her first time. And I mean, I'm surprised that they got her on there. But I wish I could have seen what she looked like. But she said it was OK. But they got up there, and they're safe. So continue to pray for them. I know that the services the next few weeks are going to be a little bit different, especially in a couple weeks when a lot more of us are going to Maine. But I appreciate the Lord allowing us to do something. It's good to be a part of a church that's doing something for the Lord. And I think it's important to stay busy. I mean, the devil crowd, they sure are busy in the day that we live. Satan's working pretty hard and it seems like the more Satan works, the less the church works and the more lazy we get. But I appreciate the Lord allowing us to do something for Him. James chapter number 2, and I want to begin reading this morning. In verse number 14, I wanna deal with a subject that's been on my heart, I guess, probably the last month or so. The Lord has really just had this in my heart. And then we went in the Bible school and was able to teach a little bit through this chapter. And I want to just give you my heart, what the Lord's placed on it. And I hope that it'll be a help this morning. When you found your place, if you'd like, let's stand. and we'll rest from our seat for a moment and read this passage of Scripture. James chapter number 2, and let's begin reading in verse number 14, and we'll read down through the remainder of this chapter. The Bible said, What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." Verse 18, he said, "'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? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God." You see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Let's go to the Lord in prayer this morning. Lord, I thank you so much for the privilege that you've given us to be in your house this morning with your people. And Lord, it's just refreshing to be able to be in this sanctuary with people that love you. And Lord, I'm thankful that we can come here and get away from the things of the world, at least for a little while. And Lord, I pray that this morning you would touch our hearts and Lord, help us to Help us to focus on what You want to do in our hearts and in our life. Lord, You know our needs. You know our faults. You know the places in our life where we need to be challenged. And Lord, I pray that You would challenge us through Your Word. And Lord, I pray that You especially help us with the subject of faith. And Lord, I pray for us that are saved, You would realize what we have through salvation and how we have been justified by You. And Lord, I pray for those here, Lord, that maybe they're just holding on to a false profession. Maybe in their life they're just living their life based on their church membership or based on some sort of experience that wasn't real faith. Lord, I pray this morning through your Word that you would show them their need for salvation. And Lord, I pray that they would put their faith in you. Now, Lord, we love You. I can't do anything in myself. Lord, I know that. And Lord, I pray that You would just work in our hearts through Your Word for a few moments. And we'll thank You for all that You do. In Your name we pray. Amen. Now, I want to draw your attention to this chapter in James, chapter number 2. And I want us to take our thought from verse number 23 and verse 24. And you'll find that in this passage of Scripture, James is dealing with the subject of faith and justification, and how that faith and justification go hand in hand. And I want us to look at this doctrine. I know that this may be sort of a different message for a Sunday morning, but I want us to look at this doctrine of justification that's found here in the Word of God. and the doctrine of faith. And faith is a very important part of our Christian life. In fact, everything in our Christian life is based upon faith. And there's a lot mentioned about faith in the day that we live. There's a lot of ideas on faith. But this morning, I want to preach on having a real faith. And I want the Lord to help us to examine our lives. And I want to ask you this question this morning. Do you have a real faith? is the faith that you have in your heart, a faith that is real and a faith that is genuine. And I'm really afraid that in the day that we live, we see a lot of faith that contradicts the Word of God. And I believe there's a great passage of Scripture that deals with this doctrine. Now, I want you to notice a few things about this passage real quickly, and in a few moments, we'll look at a couple more places in the Word of God We find that the book of James is writing, and James is a very interesting book. It's a very straightforward book. You'll find that James deals with a lot of practical living in our daily life, and James had a burden for the people of God that he was writing to, to be holy and to be separate and to live a life that was pleasing and honoring to the Lord. And this book is very straightforward. It deals with a lot of very practical truths in our life. There are several things that are mentioned. You'll find one of the verses, one of the most familiar verses dealing with sin is found in James chapter 1, and he talks about how that a man... is when he's drawn away of his own lust and ties, how that sin entices us through our flesh and through our own lust, and he also talks about the problem of the tongue and how much trouble the tongue can cause, are not used carefully, and so he deals with just a lot of practical truths through the Christian life. And we see that that's what he's dealing with here in chapter number two, and he begins to talk about the faith that we have in Jesus Christ. Now, there's a few things that he mentions about faith just in general, and we see a very particular faith that he's talking about. He's not talking about just a general faith or the way it's kind of thrown around in the day that we live. Now I want you to think with me a moment about faith and the way that we use it in our society. Most times when someone has any sort of religious affiliation, society will call that person a person of faith, because really any sort of religion is based upon a faith. for you to put your trust in an idol or even the false gods that are served in the day that we live and in many other different countries, it still takes a certain amount of faith. Because you're putting a trust and a belief in something else that you really can't communicate or have a conversation with. We know that throughout the New Testament, especially when Paul dealt with the Gentiles, as he was carrying the Gospel of the Gentiles, that he dealt with a lot of the false gods that the Gentiles and the heathens worshiped. And you find when he was there in Athens and all of the superstition that they had, and all of that superstition takes faith. In fact, a false religion takes much more faith than a Christian does in believing in the true God. because they're just believing in things that have been made up by man or things that they have dreamed up in their minds. Some people, especially in Paul's day, were astrologers and they were worshiping the stars and the planets, and they were just putting their faith in all sorts of things. So faith is a very generic term that's used in the day that we live. Most people, in fact, they say, it's insane that this is the truth, but they say that 70% of Americans say that they are Christians, they're people of faith. Now we know that that's not true, because we know that if 70% of Americans had true faith, and if they had real faith, we wouldn't see what's going on in our country today taking place. We wouldn't have God kicked out of our schools. We wouldn't have a government that doesn't respect God. We wouldn't have a lack of churches that stand on the Word of God and stand on the Bible. But what it is is it's people, they don't have real faith. They're just put under a generic term of faith and they believe in something. And we've seen in the day that we live a very ecumenical movement that has taken place. Faith is just a term that's thrown around very loosely. But you'll find that as James begins to deal with the subject of faith and justification, that he stresses the importance of having a real faith in our heart. It's not just a generic term that is to be placed on our life, but it's something that is a life-changing thing. If you have real faith, and I think we can prove it from the Scripture, but if you have real faith in your life, then real faith will completely change your life. Real faith will not leave you in your sin. Real faith will not leave you in all of the things of this world. Real faith will put something in your heart and in your life that causes a drastic change. Now, notice with me a couple of things in this chapter as we work our way through the passage of Scripture that we read. He mentions a few things about what faith, real faith, is not. Now look with me in verse number 14. First of all, James says that real faith is not just good intentions. Notice what the Bible says in verse 14. He said, "'What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and have not works? Can faith save him?' Now notice he's going to illustrate this thought in verse 15. He says, "'If a brother or a sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit?' So here's the situation that James gives us. You have a brother or a sister that's in need, and they come to your house, maybe in the middle of the night, and they knock on your door, they're hungry and their clothes are torn and ragged, and you can see how hungry and how their face is sunken in, and they have a real need of some help in their life. And James is saying, how crazy would it be for you to step out on your porch and say hello and tell them to go their way and to be full and to be clothed and not do anything about it? That would be insane. Your intentions would be good. The intentions would be that you wanted to help that person, but until you apply works to your intentions, until you put some effort behind the intentions that you have to help them, then it's not going to do any good. Just your intentions alone is not going to magically put some clothes on their back and put some food in their belly. And the same thing is true with faith in our salvation. There are a lot of people that have based their faith simply on good intentions. In fact, is that not what we hear a lot of times about the religions of this world? People say, They may not be right, but they have good intentions. But the fact is, good intentions, as well as they may be, and you and I both understand that there are all kinds of religions that are way more faithful to their belief than most Baptists and most Christians are, but the fact is, good intentions is not real faith. You can have all the good intentions, you can come to church, you can put on the show, you can have intentions of doing right, intentions of living for the Lord, but good intentions are not real faith. And I'm afraid many times we have a church and a society full of people of just good intentions, but they've never experienced real faith in their life. So first of all, he says that good intentions are not real faith. Now notice secondly with me. He also says that intellect, just intellect alone is not real faith. Now look what he said in verse number 17. After he used this illustration, he said, "...even so, faith, if it hath not works, it is dead being alone." So a faith that does not produce works in our life is a faith that is not real. It's a faith that is in vain and a faith that is dead. He goes further. Look what he says in verse 18. He says, "...Yea, O a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me Thy faith without Thy works. I will show Thee Thy faith by My works." Now look at verse 19. He said, "...thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well." He says, that's great, it's a great thing to believe in the true God, but look what he said. He said, "...thou doest well, but the devils also believe and tremble." So he says, not only is good intentions, you can have all the good intentions in the world that you want, but it'll never produce real faith in your life, But he says just an intellect of knowing God, just an admission of believing that there is a true God, is not real faith. And that's what a lot of people have based their salvation on. Just the fact that they believe, and there are many lost people in the day that we live, that believe there is a true God. They believe that there's only one God. They believe that He created the world. They believe that He's sovereign. They believe that He's just. They believe that if they have a certain amount of fear for that God, but in their heart they've never experienced the faith that would change their life. All they've based their Christian life on is just an intellect of God, just a knowledge. But we understand that faith goes much further than our intellect because James said, even the devils believe and tremble. Don't you know if there's anybody tonight, this morning, if there's anybody that knows there's a true God, it's Satan. If there's anybody that knows there's a true God, it's the demons that are roaming this earth. And the fact is, even though they know there's a true God, they even tremble because they know the power of a true God, they still do not have real faith. And just because you know there's a real God, just because you believe there's a God, just because you have an intellect of the fact that there's a God in heaven, doesn't produce real faith in your life. Now, watch what he does. We see, first of all, he says that good intentions are not real faith. Secondly, he says that just our intellect is not real faith. But notice he's going to give us the illustration of real faith in our life. How do we know, as a Christian, that we have experienced a saving faith in our life? Now, I want you to listen to me. I'm not at all trying to make you doubt your salvation this morning, because I believe that salvation is simple. Salvation is just as simple as anything that can be done. When you realize you're a sinner, and you put your faith and your trust in Christ, and Christ changes your life, that is true salvation. And salvation is easy. And we understand, and we'll see it a little further in a moment, but we understand that salvation doesn't make us perfect. It doesn't make us sinless. But we do find what James is trying to illustrate, that if there is true faith, if there is real salvation in the life of a person, that there is going to be evidence of it in their life. A person cannot be saved and live their entire life without any evidence of Christianity, any evidence of faith working through them. Now, I want you to notice what he says. Look with me in verse number 20. He said, But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead. He uses the word vain meaning that A person that simply has intentions, or a person that simply has an intellect of God and of who He is, is still a person. If that's the only faith they have, it's still a faith that is vain. Because that faith will not change your life. So what is it? How do we know if we've experienced real faith in our life? Well, James is going to tell us. Notice what he says. He uses the example of Abraham. Notice what the Bible said in James 2 and verse 21. He said, "...was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar?" Now, James brings our attention to this word justified. The word justified is a very common word that we use, especially when you're dealing with the doctrine of salvation. And through salvation, it's a positional term of what has happened in our life through salvation. When we were saved, when we put our faith and trust in the gospel, then positionally, spiritually, Christ justified us. You understand that everything that was done in salvation in our life was a spiritual work. There was not really anything physically that happened. When we were saved, our bodies didn't transform into some amazing different thing. We had no physical, we may have experienced emotions with our salvation, but even emotions are a spiritual thing. So everything that happened in our life was spiritual, and justification is the spiritual position that we have in Christ. Justification, the word just is an old legal term that's used, and you'll find many times in courtrooms and in the legal proceedings that they use the word just, and what just means is that I've been made perfect, I've been made righteous in the sight of God. It's amazing, it just amazes me how much happened in our life when we were saved. And through justification, what happened is God took a dirty, rotten sinner that deserved to go to hell, and washed him in the blood of Calvary and made him clean and perfect. And now what I deserve, now this is not what I deserve physically because I deserve hell, but now because I've been put in Christ and I've been made righteousness, the justice that I get is heaven. Do you understand that when we're made just, what Christ has said? You remember in John chapter number 1, we quote the verse all the time, John chapter 1 and 9. He said, if we confess our sin as faithful and just, forgive us. But do you know what that verse is saying? That verse is saying that because we're saved, because we have the righteousness of God in our life, that it is just, it is right, Now this amazes me. I don't understand how in the world it would be just for God to forgive a dirty, rotten sinner. But when we're saved through faith, it is just for Christ to forgive us when we ask for forgiveness because of the righteousness of Christ. So what justification is? Justification is a transferal of morality. Because what happened is when Christ went to the cross, He took my dirty, rotten sin. He took my immorality on Himself on the cross. He bore the pain and the suffering of the sin of mankind on Calvary. And He took my dirty, rotten sin and He gave me His righteousness. And now this morning when we're saved through faith, when we've been justified, we have a position spiritually of being made completely clean. We've been made completely right because no one, listen now, no one gets to heaven that's not righteous. No one gets to heaven that's not perfect. And you and I can't do it, but through salvation, the doctrine of justification worked in our life, and we have a position of righteousness in the sight of God. It's amazing what the Lord did in our life through salvation. So that's what Abraham says. He says what real faith produces is justification in our life. Real faith transforms a dirty, rotten sinner into a righteous son or daughter of the Lord. Now, notice what he says, though. He uses this term justification. It's interesting how he goes all the way back, all the way back to the first few chapters of the Bible and brings out Abraham's life to illustrate it. Now, if you will, I want you to run with me to a couple different passages of Scripture. If you will, first of all, let's go to the book of Romans. I want you to go to the book of Romans, chapter number 4. There's something interesting about the example that is used of Abraham. And you'll find that Paul used the same example twice in his writings. And Paul always mentioned about Abraham's life that when Abraham, and in a few moments we'll go to the book of Genesis and we'll look at the experience that Abraham had with the Lord, But we see that when Paul writes, he's talking about the fact that it was Abraham's faith, it was his belief in God that justified him, meaning this, that salvation has always been by faith. Now we know that the economy of God has changed throughout the Scripture. There was the time of conscience when there wasn't a law. There was the time of the law when God gave the law to the nation of Israel. We know when the New Testament came, the law was done away with, so the economy of God has changed in some ways. But how He deals with His people, because in the Old Testament, He was dealing directly with the nation of Israel, and anyone that was saved had to come through the nation of Israel because that was the way God dealt with His people. But now in the New Testament, when Paul took the gospel of the Gentiles, the door is open for salvation to everyone, So we understand that the economy has changed, but the fact is it's always been faith. Faith has always been what justifies a man and makes a man righteous in the sight of God. Even though there was the law and even though there were a lot of works that took place in the Old Testament, it still was not the works that saved those individuals, it was the faith. And we're going to see that in the life of Abraham. Now, in Romans 4, notice with me in verse 1, Paul begins to illustrate the fact that Abraham was saved through his faith. Look at what he said in verse 1. He said, "'What shall we say then, that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he hath whereof to glory.'" Now we have to understand the relationship that works has with real faith. Because we know, we understand that the Bible teaches that works do not save us. And there are many, many, many people across this globe that are going to hell because they're trusting in their works. And we understand that if we trust in our works, works cannot save us. So the relationship that faith has with works is not that works save us, because Paul's going to show us that here in Romans. He said, verse 2 of chapter 4, "...if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God." So here's what Paul's saying. If it was Abraham's works, then Abraham could say, look at what I did in justifying myself. We want to understand that it's impossible for mankind to justify themselves in the eyes of God. So he says in verse 3, "'For what saith the Scripture, Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of death.'" Here's what Paul's saying. He said if Abraham would have worked for his justification, then he would have been a debtor to the one that had justified him. And if you and I were able to work for our justification, then we would have been put in debt to Christ, and it would have been a debt that we could not pay. We would have never been able to pay the debt that it would cost to justify us through Christ. But because it was a gift, because it was free, you and I don't owe anything, because salvation is free through Christ. Now look what he said in verse 4, Now to him that worketh in the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." So when a person turns away from their works, and that's really the problem. You remember in the New Testament, that's the problem that the Jews had. They couldn't leave behind their works. They wanted to hold on to them. But when a person turns away from their works and from their pride, and they put their faith in Christ, then they're saved. Is that not what the Bible says? Now, go to the book of Galatians, chapter number 3. You'll find once again Paul is writing, and he uses Abraham again in dealing with the subject of justification. Now, you have to be careful. I was reading this just over the last month or so, and if you're not careful, you'll almost think there's a contradiction in the Word of God. Because what we just read in James a few moments ago said, James said, was not Abraham our father justified by works. Well, wait just a second. In the two verses of Scripture we're fixing to read, the Bible says Abraham was justified by faith. Look in Galatians chapter number 3, look with me in verse number 6. He said, "...even as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." Now, you remember what Paul was dealing with in the church of Galatia? It was all the Judaizers that were trying to attach works to salvation. They were trying to bring faith and works together for salvation. And Paul's trying to distinguish the difference in the relationship that faith and works have. So here's what he says, He says, "...even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the Scripture foreseeing..." It's amazing how powerful the Word of God is. "...the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel of Abraham, saying, Indeed, shall all nations be blessed." Paul's saying that before the gospel was ever taken to the Gentiles, before it was ever taken to the considered ungodly in society, that all the way back in the book of Genesis, God had foreseen what was going to happen, and through Abraham, He established the doctrine of justification, that it was through faith, when Abraham trusted in Christ, that he was justified. So we find it's very definite in the Word of God that our works do not justify. So what does James mean? What does James mean when he says that Abraham, our father, was justified by his words? Go with me back to the book of James and let's look at this verse. Back in the book of James, notice what he says. He says in verse number 21, "...was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?" Now hold on just a second. Every time that Paul mentioned Abraham and his justification, he always mentioned in chapter number 15 when Abraham was standing there and looked up at the stars and believed God, and the Bible says it was accounted to him for righteousness. That's justification. A person is given righteousness. So why in the world would James say in verse number 21 that Abraham was justified by his works? But notice what James said. He clears it up. Look what he said in verse number 23. And the Scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. So what James is saying is that the work that Abraham did in taking Isaac was the fulfillment of the faith that had taken place in his life earlier. Now, real quickly, let's go to the book of Genesis, and let's look at this passage of Scripture, and let's notice how Abraham was justified by his faith. Let's go to Genesis chapter 15 first. Now, we're all familiar with this passage of Scripture. But I want you to understand the relationship that works have. And what James is trying to teach us is the fact that our works is an indication of whether our faith is real or not. And I'm afraid that there are so many people in the day that we live that have put their trust in some sort of false pseudo-faith that has never changed their life, it's never kept them in the house of God, it's never gotten them out of sin, it was just some sort of experience that they had, and I'm telling you that the Bible is very clear that that kind of faith is not real faith. Now look what the Bible says, Genesis chapter 15, You'll find that Abraham had just gotten through the battle in chapter 14 where he went down and he saved Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah and all those cities from the captivity. He rejected the gift that Sodom had offered him. He rejected it because Abraham understood that his reward was in the Lord. In verse 15, the Lord comes by. Abraham's probably at a pretty discouraging place. The Lord comes by and he tells Abraham, he said, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. And God begins to give Abraham the promise. Now Abraham's promise is a little bit different because God is not giving him the promise of the gospel. He's just giving him a promise of what he's going to do in his life. And here's what the gospel is. The gospel is a promise. When we hear the gospel, it's a promise that if we believe God, if we put our faith in Christ, that we can be saved, our life can be changed. So notice what happens. The Bible says in verse number 5, it says, Genesis chapter 15 and verse 5, And He brought them forth abroad and said, Look now toward heaven and tell the stars, "'If thou be able to number them,' and he said unto them, "'So shall thy seed be.'" Now look at verse number 6. Here's how Abraham was justified. He heard the Word of God. In verse 6 he says, "'And he believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness.'" Here's how Abraham was saved. He heard the Word of God. God said, "'I'm giving you a promise.' Abraham said, "'God, I believe your promise.'" And when God believed the promise that God had promised Abraham, it brought justification. He was saved. He was made just in the sight of God. In fact, you go through the book of John, the Gospel of John, I think it's like 101 times that the word believe is used in some sort of form or another. And the word belief is how we're saved, by believing, putting our trust in God. Abraham believed God who has counted him righteous. So why does James bring into play the passage of Scripture going into Genesis chapter number 22? Now, let's look at the instance in Abraham's life. Now, you're going to find, if you're not careful, you'll think James is saying, we'll think he's saying that Abraham was justified by his works, but what James is doing, he's explaining the relationship that our works have with our salvation. And here's what happens in Genesis chapter 22. In Genesis chapter 22, now God is going to make evident in Abraham's life the faith that had taken place several chapters earlier. Now here's something about faith that we all know. Faith is invisible. We can't see faith. You can't touch faith. You can't hear faith. You can't smell faith. Faith is completely invisible to our human senses. There's no way to tell what faith is. Faith is an invisible thing. In fact, it's the evidence of things not seen. Ain't that what the Bible said in Hebrews chapter 11? That's what faith is. It's invisible to us. So how do we tell faith? Well, here we're going to see that the faith that he had that was invisible, God is going to prove in his life in chapter number 22. Now notice what the Bible says. It says, "...and it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham. And he said, Behold, here am I." Now I'll just be honest with you, this passage of Scripture just bothered me for quite a while. Why in the world would God tell Abraham to do something that you and I both know is wrong? And we know that God never goes against His own Word. So why in the world would God tell Abraham to take his son and to kill him? We know that that is not right. You're not supposed to kill your son. Why in the world would God do that? But what God is going to do is He's the only way that God can prove that Abraham really has faith. Now Abraham could have said with his mouth that he had faith, But the only way that God can prove in Abraham's life that he has real faith is if he takes away any possibility of that promise coming true except through God. Now Abraham, as long as he could see Isaac, that was a physical evidence of the fact he could have a nation come from him. But when God asked for Isaac to be taken away, now we're going to see if Abraham is trusting in Isaac or if he's really trusting in the faith that he said he had in chapter number 15 when he trusted the promise of God. And here's what the Lord does. Verse number 2, here's what he said. It says, And he said, Take now thy son, thy only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon the mountain, which I will tell of thee. Look at what the Bible says, And Abraham rose up early. Here's what proved the fact in Abraham's life that he had real faith, is when he heard the Word of God and he was obedient to it. You know, if Abraham would have not done this in chapter 22, it wouldn't have been that this work saved him, because we understand that works can't save. It wasn't that his work saved him, but if he had not done this work, it would have been an indication that he had never had faith in God in the first place. So here's the relationship that works have in our life through salvation. It's not works that save you, But if you have a real faith in your heart, there will be times in your life that you give your life in obedience to the Word of God. If you're here this morning and you have no regard for the Word of God, and we have a lot of people in our churches, especially, there's all kinds of people probably this morning sitting on a pew because they have their Sunday morning tradition of going to church, and that's as far as it's ever gone in their life. They have no love for the Lord. They don't pick up their Bible. They have no regard for the Word of God. They never do anything in obedience to the Word of God. And if you have never had any sort of obedience to the Word of God in your life, then you do not have real saving faith. Not that it's the obedience that saves you, but it's accompanied with it. And that's what James is trying to say. I want to read you this. I was reading the other night on this subject, and I was thinking about the relationship that faith has with works. And I read, there was a piece that Martin Luther wrote on justification and faith and the works, and the end of it said this, and I thought it was good, he said this, he said, therefore justification does not require the works of the law. We understand that we are not justified by our obedience to the law, but here's what he said. He said, but it does require a living faith which performs its works. So it's not the works that are required for salvation, but the faith that it takes to get saved produce works. There's a man, I've never really heard of him before, but there's an author by the name of Jerry Bridges, and he was an evangelist. He wrote a book on the pursuit of holiness, but he said this. He said, faith and holiness are intricately linked. Obeying the commands of God usually involves believing the promises of God. Does that know what happened in Abraham's life? It was his obedience to the command of God that showed he had faith in the promises of God. And that's what faith does in our life. It produces the works. Go over to the book of James. I want to show you this. Let's go back to our text, and I'm finished. Go back to the book of James. And you'll find that the work that we have in faith is differently. Now, we know that there are all sorts of religion that they believe that their works are going to get them to heaven. They think that if they do this or do that, that it's going to justify them in the sight of God, and we know that that can't be done. We know that faith is a gift that we have from the Lord. Remember what Paul said in Ephesians 2? He said, For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourself. Faith comes from the Word of God. So there's no way that we can have faith in our life without having an obedience to God's Word in some areas. Now, as I already said, it doesn't mean that we're perfect. It doesn't mean that we're sinless. In fact, Abraham wasn't perfect. He made a big mistake when he went down to Hagar to try to do it his own way. Abraham wasn't perfect, but he did believe the promises of God. He did have real faith. Look in the book of James with me, in chapter number 2, and we all know that there are the works of the law. But real faith does not produce works of the law. Because here's what works of the law is. Works of the law are works done out of fear. When I do a work for the law, I mean, how many of us would like to be able to get on the interstate and go 100 miles an hour? We could get somewhere a lot quicker. I mean, it'd just be nice sometimes to be able to go a lot faster. So I don't obey the speed limit. necessarily because that's what I enjoy doing. In fact, sometimes it's a little bit annoying to obey the speed limit. I don't obey the speed limit because I enjoy it. I obey the speed limit because I'm scared that if I don't, I'm going to get in trouble and it's going to cost me a lot of money. So that's what the works of the law is. But works with faith is not works of the law. Look at what James says in verse number 12. He said, so speak ye and so do, and he brings in, this is a law that's found through the New Testament, he brings in this phrase, and I love this, but what he said, he said, so speak ye and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. Our works in faith are not works of fear, but we do works according to the law of liberty. What is the law of liberty? The law of liberty is that when we were justified in Christ through salvation, He set us free from the bondage of sin. He put us in liberty. That's how our Christian life is lived. And we do works. Works of faith are not from fear, but works of faith are from love. Works of faith is when we say, Lord, You've set me free. You've given me liberty. And because of that faith in my life, I want to do something for You. It's not things that you have to do. It's not things that we do because we're scared. It's works that we do because we love the Lord. And a true faith, a real faith in our life, produces a love in our heart that will cause us to want to do something from Him. So it's not faith, it's not works that save us. Our works have nothing to do with our salvation, but the fact is, if there is a true faith, if there was a time where you put your faith... Here's the problem of society nowadays. Everybody wants a salvation that gives them a surety that they're not going to hell, but they don't want a salvation that can change their life. And there are a lot of people that pray a prayer, and the only reason they pray that prayer is because they don't want to go to hell. Now, I'm not saying you can't get saved for that reason, because I remember the night I got saved, I didn't want to go to hell. I was scared to death. I didn't want to go to hell. But some people, that's as far as they ever want to go. That's why, and I'm not at all, we do soul winning in this church, and we have visitation, and I'm not at all against that. I believe that's a great thing to do. But there are a lot of people and there are a lot of churches that are, I mean, they're huge, and they have a lot of numbers, but what they'll do is they'll have people that get saved, and I mean, I can't tell you the preachers that I've seen that they'll go out and have 15 people saved, but none of those people ever come to church. None of those people's lives ever change. It's not the preacher's fault, it's not the gospel's fault. What it is is it's people, they want a faith that can keep them from hell. They want a faith that they can go to sleep and say, phew, I'm not going to have to worry about that. But they don't want a faith that will change their life. You cannot have real faith if you are still in love with your sin. A person that is still in love with their sin can never have real faith. But when a person realizes their loss, and they put their faith and their trust in Christ Jesus, then it's a real faith that produces a work. I thought about this. when Christ was teaching in the New Testament, He mentioned faith as a grain of mustard seed. And faith is a very powerful thing. In fact, remember what the Lord said, He said, if you have faith as the grain of mustard seed, that you can say to that mountain to be moved and it'll move. That's how powerful faith is. Faith is a powerful thing. And how in the world could we expect, how in the world can we say that we have real faith, something that's that powerful, something that with faith the size of the grain of a mustard seed would move a mountain, something that powerful happens in our life, and you're going to say that it doesn't change your life? You're going to say that it doesn't do anything different, that you're going to be able to live your whole life the same as you were before? That's not the real faith of the Bible. The real faith of the Bible will change our lives. When the seed of faith is put in our heart... You know when you plant a seed in the ground? You can take that seed and you place it in the ground, and there's no evidence that that seed is in the ground. You can't see it. You could walk all over it all day long. It's covered up by the dirt. There's no evidence. But when that seed is placed in the ground, eventually, you'll see not the seed, but you'll see the fruit of that seed. Now we'll look at a stalk of corn and we'll say that was produced by a seed. We never saw the seed. We weren't there when it was put in the ground, but we can see that there was a seed there because there's evidence of it. And when God puts the seed of the gospel in our heart, and we respond, and we put our faith in the gospel, then it will grow something in our life. I know that there are a lot of Christians that are saved in a bad environment, and they're saved in maybe a church that is not doctrinally straight, and it's hard to grow in those situations, but I promise you that if you have had real salvation in your life, there's something that's going to grow. Something as big as God, something as powerful as faith, If it's real, it's not going to leave you the same. And I want to ask you this morning, do you have real faith? And I already told you, I'm not trying to make you doubt your salvation, not at all. But I believe that as a society and as churches, we need to understand the seriousness of faith. And there are so many people that have just put their faith in good intentions, or they put their faith in what their mom and dad have told them, and this, that, and the other. And they've never had real faith. There's never been a time in their life where they said, Lord, I believe You. I believe Your Word. For myself, I put my faith in Your Word. And when we do that, we're made just in the sight of God. And that's the relationship that faith and works has. It's not our works that save us. I know I've said that several times, but it's not our works that save us. Works can never save us. If works could have saved us, Christ wouldn't have had to come and die on Calvary. Our works can't save us because we're set free in Christ. When we have faith in our lives, it produces a love in our heart to want to do something for God. So I want to ask you this morning, do you have a desire? You're not going to be perfect. None of us are perfect. You're not going to live sinless, but do you have a desire to do something for God? Do you have a desire or are you just happy? coming to church, you know, once or twice, three times a month maybe, and just, you know, just kind of coasting through and you don't really care. All you care about is the fact you're not going to hell. I believe true faith will put a desire in our heart to do something for God. We don't always act on it. We don't always fulfill it like we should, but true faith produces a desire to serve the Lord. I'll ask you this morning, do you have a desire? Do you have a desire in your heart to do something for the Lord? I believe that's the indication. You know, there are a lot of people that say, well, You can't judge, and it's not our place. It's not our place as a Christian to judge people. It's not our place to go around and look at their life. I would never say whether someone is saved or whether they're not, because we can't know that. Only God knows that. But there's a lot of people that'll say, you can't judge, you can't base your salvation. But we use indications in our life of things that we can't see all the time. The only reason that we stop at the gas station a few times a week is because there's an indicator that says you're about out of gas. And if it's out of gas, it's not that indicator's fault. It's not the indicator that is keeping our car running. It's the fuel. But it's the indicator that says you don't have it, and it's going to die. And that's what James is saying. James is saying you say you have faith, but if your faith is a faith that's never affected your life, then it's a faith that is dead. It's a faith that's not real. So I ask you this morning, do you have real faith? Let's stand. You have the message the Lord laid on my heart.