I want to begin today just by reading the passage. We'll read, beginning in verse 14 of James chapter 2, and we'll complete the chapter today. Some certainly difficult ground, or it can be, and I pray that we would rightly handle it today, that the Lord would be our helper. James writes, What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warm and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So 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 apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, Faith was completed by his works, and the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. The title today would be Faith and Works. Faith and Works in Salvation. The question before us is, is a person saved by believing Jesus only? Or must they do something in addition to that belief? Must works come alongside belief? Scripture can appear to say both things if we're not careful to read and study with discernment, spiritual mindedness. The scriptures can be made to look as though they say two different things. In John chapter two, We remember when Jesus began his ministry, and many people began to follow him. In John 2, verse 23, we're told, now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. And when we read that passage of Scripture, when we hear that many believed, we have a tendency, I think, to assume, to think that perhaps these people became sincere and true followers of Christ. But then we read verses 24 and 25 and it says, Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man for he himself knew what was in man. So again, as we read verse 23 and we come across these people that the scripture even tells us believed in his name. We would tend to think that these people have become followers of Christ, that they've been saved. After all, the scriptures come out and directly say that they believed in his name. But then we read those next two verses, and there's a strong indication, at least to me there is, that these people did not really become followers of Christ. Jesus did not entrust himself to them. He did not trust them. He knew something about them. He knew what was in them. And apparently what was in them was not worthy of his trust. And so, it seems on the surface here that something beyond belief is necessary. Simple belief. And our question today as we look at James chapter 2 is that very same question. Is belief alone enough? Or must one do something? Must works be added to it? Along with that scene in John chapter 2, there are other scenes that we come across in Scripture in the life of Christ, where it seems like people are following Him, but not from a sincere heart. You remember when the multitude and the crowd searched for Jesus after He had fed them the day prior, and Jesus looked at them and said, You follow me, not because you saw the signs or not because of who I really am, and I'm paraphrasing here, but because you ate yesterday, because I gave you what you were after temporarily. You know, we can't be too dogmatic, at least this is my opinion. We can't be too dogmatic in our assessment about who was saved and who was lost in scripture. But it seems clear to me, at least it does in some respect, it seems clear that there were those who had a kind of belief, a kind of faith, but seemed to come up short of being saved. that these people believed to a point but were not saved causes us then to think, well, what was missing? What was lacking? Maybe faith, maybe belief isn't enough. Maybe that alone is not all that's necessary for one to be saved. And that can lead us then to thinking that one has to do some kind of work in order to be saved. There must be something that we must do beyond believing in Christ. Yet there are so many passages of scripture that tell us the exact opposite, are there not? That tell us plainly that faith alone is what's necessary for salvation. Ephesians chapter two, that very familiar passage of scripture, by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. That seems as plain as it can be. That faith alone is what's necessary, Romans 3.28. For we hold, Paul says, that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. That seems quite evidently to be straightforward. Galatians 2 16. Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law, no one will be justified. And yet then we come across James in this second chapter, and we wonder what it is that we're to do about it. I remarked, I think, in the early stages or the early messages that the Lord has brought to us from James in the beginning, I remarked about Martin Luther and how he hated this book. He felt that it should not have been in the scripture. He hated it so much. He thought it should not have been included. At least he held that opinion for some time. The principal reason for his dislike was that this book, this chapter even, these particular passages of scripture seemed to him to say something very different from what the rest of scripture said. Luther, I think rightly so, rejected the salvation that the Catholic Church then and today, by the way, was peddling. This idea that salvation was somehow a mixture of our faith and our works. And he rightly rejected that teaching. And so let me say here at the outset that the end of this matter, to me, is that faith alone in Christ is necessary for salvation. There is no work that one must do. But we do have to wrestle with this passage of Scripture. Again, so many teach and preach something different. Some teach you must confess your sins to some man or pay indulgences or partake in the traditions or the sacraments or the ordinances of the church. You must speak in tongues. You must be baptized. You must do this. You must do that. In the early days of the church, it was you must be circumcised in order to be saved. And we know that the Scripture teaches us clearly that none of those things are necessary, that faith in Christ is what is necessary for someone, anyone, to be saved. There are few verses, very few, in all of scripture that fuel the fire of ongoing theological debate about this idea of works and faith than these in here in James. So what are we to do with them? What are we to make of all of this? What's the answer to the question that I ask at first? Is faith alone necessary for salvation, or must someone do something? Must works be added in order for someone to be saved? What is the answer to that question? Is a man saved by faith alone, or are works of any kind, some kind, necessary? And you see, that is the fundamental question. that we're dealing with. How is a man to be saved according to the gospel of Jesus Christ? How is it that we are saved? Do we believe and that is enough? Do we have faith and that is all that's required? Or is there works as James appears to say here? And I want to say to you again right here at the outset, maybe spoiler alert, I don't believe that's what he's saying at all. I think he's saying something else. but this is not a small question that we're wrestling with today it drives at the question of whether or not the christian message of salvation in christ as presented in the bible is a coherent and consistent and uh... rational message or if it is internally inconsistent and that's that's incoherent and that's worthy of our rejection rather than our acceptance this is a This is at the meat of the matter. This is the heart of the gospel message. And James and Paul and James and Peter and James and John and these others, they seem to be at odds with one another. What are we to do with this? We can't just skip over this passage and pretend it isn't there. I think that's the path maybe that Luther attempted to go, and he was much smarter than I'll ever be, but I don't believe that's the path to go. We can't treat it like the proverbial elephant in the middle of the room that we refuse to acknowledge is there. James says it. It's right here in front of us. We can't do anything else with it. It's here. This passage that talks about the necessity of works with regard to salvation. To ignore this would be to give the impression that the Bible is not trustworthy in all that it says, and so we can't ignore it. Because if the Bible is untrustworthy in anything that it says, it will be untrustworthy or considered untrustworthy in all that it says. Now before we begin to answer the question specifically, I think what is What is very helpful in this particular situation and in many others when we're studying a passage of scripture that seems to contradict what other passages say, it's helpful to take a look back at what came immediately prior to the verses in question. And so we have to go back, I think, here a couple of verses in verse 12. where we're told to speak, those of us who are believers in Christ, followers of God, so speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. All of what James says in verses 14 through 26 are on the heels of that statement that James has told us. Everything that we are to understand in verses 14 through 26 must be consistent with the context of verse 12 and what he has been writing about. As with much of scripture, a lot can go wrong with our interpretation, and often a lot does go wrong with our interpretation of a particular passage or our investigation into a particular question, like the one we're asking and seeking an answer to today. Much can go wrong in that interpretation when we remove ourselves from the individual particular context of the passage that's at hand. And the idea that I think is now at hand for James is how is it that we are to live as believers, as Christians, knowing I want you to think about this for just a minute. Verse 12. Before we move on to answer this perhaps deeper question, or theologically, anyway, deeper question about the role of works and faith, I want you to think about verse 12, because it will shed light on what you think about the rest of these verses. We're to live and we're to act as people, as individuals, as someone who one day is going to stand and be judged according and next to the law of liberty. That's where you're headed, and that's where I'm headed. That's where absolutely every one of us will stand one day. We'll stand before God, before Christ, and we will answer next to the law of liberties. Our lives will be judged according to that law. The idea here in James, that is the idea that is undergirding all of what he says here. So then living as people with the understanding that we will be judged one day by the law of liberty is something we must understand if we're to understand what James is saying about works and faith. got to combine these two ideas because one directly impacts the other. Now, you see, I want you to understand something. If somebody, some critic, unbeliever, some trite person, some antagonist to God, someone who would want to show the Bible to be What it is not, which is incoherent. If someone wants the Bible to sound as if it's inconsistent or contradictory, they can certainly do so. It's actually not going to be all that difficult to do. All you have to do is cut and paste scripture from one place and put it next to another outside of its context. And that's often what happens with this debate about works and faith. cutting and pasting from the Bible and putting it out in front of people and making it sound as though the Scriptures are inconsistent with itself. And that's certainly not. I hope no one here is so intellectually or, more importantly, spiritually lazy. Let's read this to you. The Bible is the Word of God. It tells us who He is. It tells us who we are. It tells us that we are creatures who inhabit not only time, but eternity. It tells us that we are not just creatures with minds, but hearts. It tells us we are more than physical bodies, that we have a soul. It tells us that we have offended God by our willful sin and rebellion against Him. It tells us that the reason we are anxious, afraid, unfulfilled, and lost is because we are separated from the One who gave us life. It tells us this and many other things. It tells us that God is a righteous and holy God who came to earth in the form of His Son and He died on a cross so that we might have an opportunity to escape the punishment that was rightly ours. It tells us that Christ rose again from the grave and that right now He is at the right hand of God. The Bible tells us everything that is important that we need to know. This is a book that deserves and demands our careful study, not some silly cut and paste of one passage next to the other that God didn't put next to each other. And as you think about that, if you put two verses side by side that appear to say opposite things, I want you to stop and think for just a minute and consider the fact that the author, God, did not put those two verses side by side. He was talking about different things at different times. And he's talking about something different here in James than Paul was talking about in Romans. And we want to look at that, and I think that's going to answer our question. I hope it does. Now, then the law of liberty before which, as we've said, we will be judged as followers of Christ in this world is just that. It is a law. It is a calling. It is a demand of God. It comes with requirements, as all laws do. It comes with rules. It comes with things we are to do, things we are not to do. But it comes down to this, does it not? Is this not what Jesus said? When asked, what is the greatest commandment? It is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. The second is like unto it, to love your neighbor as yourself. It is a law, then. It is something we are to submit to. In our nation, in our society, and in many others like it in the West, it seems that we've lost all respect for the idea of law, and that's overstating the matter, but it's been very much deteriorating in our society and in our nation, the minds and hearts of people, this idea of respect for law. You want to be cool today? You want to be accepted? If you want to be thought of as enlightened and beyond the average person and moved into some greater place of understanding, you need to be somebody who champions, oh, there is no such thing as ultimate truth. There's no such thing as law that you have to abide by. It's just up to you. Well, there's no more silly thing in the world that one can say than that. It leads to chaos and fear and all kinds of terrible and horrible things, but the law that we are, the law of liberty that we are going to be called next to or called an account of is a law, and yet it is a law of liberty. Liberty. Freedom. This is not a law, and I know we'll part ways with some when we say this, but this is not a law that we're forced to follow. This is a law of liberty. This is not a law that, like the law of nature, say gravity, that no matter how much you might want to disobey the law of gravity, you're going to obey it. You can jump off a building and believe that you can fly. The law of gravity is going to overrule your thinking on the issue. But the law of liberty that God calls us to, He allows us, you and me, to partake in that obedience through our willing desire to obey this law of liberty. There are laws and they must be obeyed, but this is a law that we willingly obey, that we want to follow. And that's who James is talking to, is he not? He's talking to saved people. He's talking to believers. He calls them brothers. He's called them that multiple times. Fellow followers of Jesus Christ, there is within you a desire, is there not, to follow God's law? It sets us free to do what we want to do, which is please God, which is if you didn't have the law of liberty, you could not do, because you would not know what to do. You would not have any way to show him your obedience and thus your love. It's not merely the fear of punishment that compels us to obey God. It's the desire within our hearts to obey him that leads to true and sincere obedience in our lives. And that's, I think, in part why James calls it the law of liberty. This is a law that brings to us not bondage, but freedom. Freedom to be and to do what we desire to be and do in God, in Christ, as a child of His. This is what the unbelieving world just simply doesn't understand about Christianity. They don't understand it. They don't get it. They look at a Christian and they see what they think is forced behavior and sadly sometimes perhaps it is. in legalistic views of Christianity where people are compelled and forced to behave or dress in certain ways. Because that's what people expect. But the true idea of Christianity is not that one that is compelled beyond the desire of the follower. It is a law that brings them liberty to be what God has called them to be. A believer looks at the law and sees an opportunity to show God that they love Him. That's what they see. The world looks at it and they see something that they reject and rebel against, and they don't get it. So so as we look at this, James speaks about works in faith as he does. It's crucial for us to keep in mind that this is what he is talking about. He's talking to believers and reminding them that they ought to live as people who will one day be judged next to this law of liberty and how they responded to God's call to obedience to this law of liberty. And so they will be judged by how they used their liberty to follow Christ, their freedom, how they used that freedom that they were given. And we have to ask ourselves that question. And I would ask you that question. How about you? Is the law of God, is the law of God something you would describe as that which has set you free to do what you desire to do? you want to do. I know that the flesh still remains with us. I know that, as Paul said, sin easily besets us. I recognize the spiritual battle that goes on while we're still on this side of eternity. But is there something inside of you that longs and feels a freedom and feels as though you've been set free from that bondage of sin to be what God has called you to be? And by that, you find in your life you follow Him when He calls? Is that how you look at the law of God? Free in Christ and free to Christ? Or would you describe the Christian life that you're living more like a prison? Because that's not how it should be seen. A prison that keeps you from doing what you really want to do. A prison that forces you to do things you really don't want to do. But that's not the law of liberty. And so as we look what James says about works in faith, we have to understand it's in the context of what we already know, which is we've been called to this law of liberty. We've been set free to be something very different from what we were. This idea, though, that the Christian life is a prison and not freedom, it's like the man who says, I don't really want to be Christian, but I hope I am, because I want to go to heaven when I die, or maybe I want people to think I'm a Christian, because that's the most advantageous way to live, or that's the comfortable place for me to live. So I'm going to call myself one, a Christian, whether it's true inwardly or not. That there is nothing in my life that demonstrates the sincerity of my belief in God and Christ is of no concern to me. I will just name it and claim it, whether it's mine or not. We need to be careful with these thoughts. I am going to stand one day before God. You will, too. And I will stand and I will be judged, not by a law that forced my obedience. but a law that provided me with an opportunity to obey God who loves me, sent his Son, and his Son who died for me, forgave me, and has prepared for me an eternal place in heaven." That's the context of this passage. There's a gap as wide as the sea. between viewing Christianity in this light of this law of liberty and viewing it as a list of do's and don'ts, as a forced behavior. And this, again, is what James is speaking about. And we want to look now at verse 14. And we won't take these, of course, one by one. I want to just, having said all of that, I want to make just some comments on the answer to the question. And I think we start right away with something of an interesting point with regard to translation, to scripture. A good deal of confusion, I think, about this entire question of works and faith in James could have been avoided for many of us, I believe, if one Greek word had not been left out of the King James translation of the Bible, and I'm not trying to bash the King James, I'm not. And we'll talk about that more in just a minute. But it is an easy and early step, and the most helpful one, if you'll just take some time as you study scripture. The first task at hand of any student of the scripture is to establish, as best as you can, what the translational issues might be, or what the Greek and Hebrew, and there are so many helps available to us. You don't have to have a seminary degree to have some insight into what that original language said, and I am grateful for that. You see, you can go down the path of interpretation and then application in your life based upon some very poor observation if we're not careful. And this whole question about whether James disagrees with Paul, whether works are necessary to salvation or not, I think a lot of confusion can be avoided if we just start there sometimes. And so let me read to you the ESV. We've read it already. Verse 14. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? The American Standard Version, which was the American preferred translation of the revised King James in 1901. What did it profit, my brethren, if a man say he have faith but have not works? Can that faith save him? The New American Standard. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says that he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? The King James. What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and hath not works? Can faith save him? Do you note any difference? There's a very important word that seems to be missing, and it is in the Greek. That two-letter Greek word, ho. And it means that in reference to something very specific. You see, James is not asking, can faith alone save him? James is asking, can faith that does not come with, that has no works that follow it, is that faith that saves? Is that faith saving faith? He's not asking, are works necessary to be saved? He's asking a very different question. James, again, does not simply ask, can faith save him? He asks, can that faith save him? What faith? A faith without works. Can a faith that is absent of works be saving faith? That's really the question that we're dealing with. Is such a thing even possible, James is going to say. He's gonna ask a rhetorical question, even though he is going to answer it. Is it enough to say that you believe whether there are works that demonstrate that belief or not? And I want you to hold with me, if you will, because it's easy to go way off the rails on this line of thinking. And many have, and many do. And I don't want to be, I don't want to make that mistake. I don't want to be guilty of that. But is it enough to say that you believe? Can you really believe the gospel and not have your life affected by it? Is that possible? Can that really happen? Can you really have faith in God and not have faith in Him to form and shape the things in your life? Can you really have faith in Christ and not desire to follow and obey Him, who has given you a hope and a promise of eternal life in heaven with Him and His children? That seems to be what James is asking. Can this be? Not are works necessary to be saved, but can there be salvation without works? If you're wondering, maybe even, I find this interesting, and again, I don't want to be critical, but I find it interesting that King James translation, the majority of those translators already had their theological minds made up about this question and left out that word that. That's interesting to me. Whether intentional or malicious or whatever, the missing whole in the Greek changes the entire nature of the question. So the question is not, can faith save him? The question is, can that faith save him? That faith that doesn't come with words, was that saving faith? And so we see here, again, some rhetorical questions. I think it was. The idea that one can have faith without works, in James' view, seems to be absurd. It doesn't need to be answered. But James does answer it, and by providing some absurd examples, does he not? James asks, does it do any good for one who's poor and lacks food and clothing for you to say, go on your way, be warm and filled? Does that do anything? Is that possible? Does that accomplish anything? Of course not. Words bring no calories to the body. It brings no warmth to the body. They don't. This poor man will starve or die of exposure no matter how much you might encourage him otherwise. And James tells us that this is what faith apart from works is like. And can that be? Is it possible? I want to go ahead and say this. I was going to say it later, but I want to say it now because, like I said, it's easy to fall off the rails here. You can already, in your mind, if you're sincere about this and you're listening sincerely and you want to hear from God and what his word says, it's easy for you to say, oh, well, I don't have any great works in my life. I haven't done any great, wonderful things, but that's not what I'm talking about. Do you have a desire in your heart to honor God? Does that lead you to read His Word? Does it prevent you from participating in certain things in life that others freely partake in? Does it move you to do something in your life because you are a follower of Christ? Has it impacted your life? Does it have any kind of manifestation in your life? And I think that's what James is talking about. So don't label this, I haven't done any wonderful, great things that anybody would talk about. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking, and I think James is, this changes you. This moves you to become something different than what you were. You desire to follow God, and it brings with it, by default, a change in behavior and thinking. James tells us, Clearly, and roughly even, what faith apart from works is like. To believe, according to James, that one can have faith in God without faith impacting their lives and leading to works of faith, again, is like believing that you can make things real simply by saying them, by claiming them. The power of positive thinking. Many false prophets borrowed from that idea of the motivational speaker, the power of positive thinking, to say it enough times and eventually that you're going to begin to believe it, but they tell you that the only thing that you're lacking is the courage to believe what you say, and I would say that's not true. It's not courage that's lacking. It's an unwillingness to suspend belief in what is true and real. That's what must be overcome. for a motivational speaker merely. For the rest of us, for those who desire honesty and sincerity, we desire something that is real, that changes our hearts, changes us inwardly and leads us to a life that though far, far from perfect, leads us down a path where we desire to please and to honor God with our life, and that will, by default, according to James and my understanding of it, will lead to various things that we have in our life, works. Things that come out of that faith. Things that are produced by that faith. The false prophet has to convince you that you can make anything real in your life, whether there's evidence for it or not. And isn't it interesting that Satan and the world cast stones at the Christian who claims they don't have any evidence, when often it is the world that is basing their opinions on many things without any evidence of their own. And the child of God bases his behavior, his works, his life on the evidence that may not be seen, but is evidence still inside the heart, as Hebrews tells us. It is the substance of things hoped for. the evidence of things not seen. And that produces in my life things that I do, things that I would not do otherwise. James throws cold water on that whole horrific lie that you can make anything real in your life whether there's any evidence for it or not. He shakes us awake and breaks the siren song of the false prophet with the striking and even harsh, as I said, in plain words. Verse 20 calls the man a fool. Do you need any evidence? What does he say in verse 20? Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? It's as though he is saying, do I need to show you? Do I need to tell you? What is so abundantly and obviously clear? This is the way that he approaches this question. And in this wake-up call that he gives us, he does desire to do that. to wake up anyone who believes that there is a God but does not submit to him. That's what he said in verse 19. You believe that God is one, you do well, even the devils believe and shudder. A belief in God that does not include humble, willing, and sincere service would incite fear and trembling. That's what it should incite. A belief that there is a God to whom you are unwilling to submit It shouldn't incite fear and trembling. It shouldn't, the fact that you believe in Him, that He exists, apart from being submitted to Him, and asking Him to forgive you for your sin, to believe in Him apart from that submission, would be the worst place that you could possibly be. It shouldn't provide some sort of false comfort that you believe in God, if you've not been made right with Him. If he has not forgiven you of your sin, there's really no more dangerous place for you to be than to believe that God is, but refuse to submit to him. Think about what you're saying to God if that is the case. God, I believe all that you've said, and yet I just don't care enough to surrender my life to you. I believe you created me, but I refuse to submit to you. I believe that you love me, but I do not love you. I believe that Jesus left heaven to come to earth to suffer and die for me, but I am unwilling to bow before him in thankfulness and awestruck wonder at his love. I believe that I am a sinner. I know it, in fact. But that does not move me to repent and ask you to forgive. This is not the faith. that James encourages us with. Can that faith save? Surely there is little that is a greater cause for shuddering than to think in those ways, in that way. I want to conclude today in verse 26. For the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. Faith without works is a dead, lifeless, inanimate thing, according to James. It doesn't move, it doesn't work, it doesn't progress, it doesn't do anything at all. And that's not the kind of faith that we can look at and label or consider, according to James, as faith that saves. And I want to say this as well, that the order of all of these things is important. works do not produce faith. Some may hear a message like this and say, I need to go out and I need to start doing a whole lot of good works so that God will save me. They'll think that. You might think that. that I need to become a better person. Preacher, you're right. I'm not right with God. I'm doing this in my life, and I know it's wrong. I'm not being honest in my life. I know that's wrong. I'm not being a good person, and I know that's not right. And so you'll go out, and you'll try to do all of those things, hoping that the works can produce. James is talking about a faith that produces works. He's not talking about works that produce faith. There is a big difference between those things. If you want to be saved, I want to tell you today, there is no work that you can do to merit it. There's no goodness on your part that can make you impressive to God. He sent His Son to die on a cross because we're all sinners, and without Him, we don't have any hope of heaven. And that's just the bottom line truth of the Gospel. And there's no work that you can do to merit it. There's no work that you can do to be of any kind of closely close to be equal of value to what's been done for you. There's no trading involved here. This is not a bartering with God. This is not a negotiated surrender. I got myself, and I became a better person, and I started to go to church, and I started to give my time, and I stopped cussing, and I was more honest at work, and slowly over time, I became a follower of God, because those works led me there. I tell you today, it begins with faith. Works follow faith. Works done without faith are also pointless. They're like filthy rags to God, is what we're told in Scripture. So keeping the order is so essential to our understanding of what James is saying. The Christian message of salvation is sometimes, though, presented by giving the minimum requirements, it seems. We look for the low bar of entry to heaven. that provides the greatest, the lowest requirement that prevents or provides, I should say, the greatest benefit. Far too many are willing to tell you what you want to hear, what you want to be true in this case, instead of what is actually true. The true Christian message of salvation, again, is one that calls upon us to willingly, freely, fully follow God and submit to the law of liberty. The test of heaven. The test of being with God in eternity. The test of salvation. It's a pass-fail test. There are no greats. There's not one person who's more saved than another. And there's not one person who's less saved than another. It's a pass-fail. I believe in God, and that belief produces works. It changed me. It made me a different person. It drew me to Him, and it draws me yet to Him. It's a pass-fail test, and if you would be in, then you're going to have to be all in. You must be prepared to follow God with all of yourself. Such a following simply cannot result in the absence of works according to James, because it follows such faith. And I want to say one final thing before I close. And I've said it in some ways, but I want to reinforce it. I don't want to take away from what I've said here what James says, I think. But I also do not want anyone to leave here thinking that their works will ever merit their salvation, or that works are required for salvation. It's not what I'm saying at all, and I don't think it's what James was saying. He is teaching us, and God is teaching us, how to examine ourselves. Our works could never merit what God has given us in Christ. Your works will never save you, and works are not required before you're saved. So don't leave here today, or don't leave this message thinking you need to go clean yourself up, as I said, but just submit to God. We leave it now with the Spirit of God, and it's to Him that I point you, to clarify for you and for all of us in our own hearts what we need to hear and what we need to know. If there's something God is impressing upon your heart, I would encourage you to obey that impression, that inward draw of the spirit of God. If he is drawing you to himself, I would beg you to listen and to heed and to go toward that. Don't run away from it. submit to Him, repent of sin, have faith in Christ, find peace with God. When you find that peace, that true peace with God, that salvation, being born again, regeneration as it makes you new, and then you begin walking the rest of your days, not in perfection, not here, but you begin to walk the rest of your days, and you begin to add things to your life because of it. You begin to add those works that don't make you more saved, but just allow you to rejoice in the law of liberty that you are saved, and that you take advantage of those opportunities to please Him and to love Him. Works and faith. I pray that God would keep these things in our minds and hearts in a straight way, and that the Lord would bless us with the presence of His Holy Spirit. Let's stand in sync.