Thank you so much for that prayer and for the praying, for the preaching of God's word. It's a privilege to be invited back here again today. If you have a Bible at hand, please turn open to James chapter two, verses 14 through 17. I was fortunate enough to preach for you twice at the end of last year, and so I'm glad to come back and preach the word of the Lord to you again. So I'm continuing a sermon series on Christian doctrine, seeing how your confession, the Second London Confession, summarizes those doctrines particularly well. itself being a summary of what Baptists traditionally believed the scriptures to teach at the time of the Reformation. So today we'll be continuing your series by considering the teaching of the 16th chapter on good works and how they relate to the Christian life and our salvation. And we'll see this with the Epistle of James, which is famous for its discussion on the relationship between faith and works in the second chapter. Before you listen to me any further, let's hear the words of God through the Apostle James, chapter 2, verses 14 through 17. Here are the very words of the Lord, your God. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? The brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food. And one of you says to him, go in peace, be warmed 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. One of the great problems of our age, of every age, in fact, is that so many people lie. And we think, rightly, that it is a bad thing to lie, especially when other people are doing it to us. But there are so many types of lies. There are political lies, which every politician has been accused of. There are economic lies, like pyramid schemes or Ponzi schemes. There are white lies, like the ones we tell our coworkers, our friends, our family, our parents, our children. There are religious lies, like the prosperity gospel or any rank heresy you can think of. But one of the biggest lies we hear in this world actually occurs on a Lord's Day morning. right here amidst the assembly of the saints. And it doesn't necessarily come from the pulpit, but it comes from the congregation. One of the biggest lies we hear is, I believe. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord. I believe. The statement I believe is the most precious confession a Christian can make. And still there are many throughout the church's history who have made that confession, and it was a lie. Whether they realized it or not, it was a lie because it proved not to be true. And it was proved not to be true because that person confessed Christ with their tongue, but did not hold Him dear in their hearts. And they demonstrated that they didn't confess Him in their hearts because they did not have any good works. They confessed with their mouths, but plotted sin in their hearts. They bowed before the cross, but had their hands covered in blood. So many of us pledged adherence to God's law and allegiance to the Lord our God with our minds, but we don't so much as wince when we break his law or break that allegiance. A Christian is not a Christian if he does not have good works. And that might sound like a works righteousness to some of you, that might sound anti-gospel to some of you, but I assure you I will explain in just a moment. But I want you to know that a Christian is not a Christian if he does not have good works. James's entire purpose in this epistle is to disabuse us of that notion that a Christian can stand amongst the saints and also live as an unsaved man. Throughout his epistle, he exhorts his readers to avoid double-mindedness. The double-mindedness is so common amongst the people of God. He doesn't want his Christian listeners to be content with superficial participation in the faith, desiring to hear the words of God but never employing them in their own lives. Many theologians even believe that the sin of double-mindedness is the major sin that James is discussing, the major concern for James. And right before our passage today, James has spent the majority of his letter instructing his hearers to not be unstable and double-minded men. And not merely to hear the words of God, but to act on it. and not to reckon yourself religious unless you care for the widows and the orphans and remain unstained from the world. So then James cuts to the chase in chapter two, and he states what I hope to show to you this morning, which is that living faith, very simply, produces good works. Living faith produces good works. And your confession, your church's confession, the 16th chapter of which we are looking at today, called Of Good Works, says the same. Good works done in obedience to God's commandments are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith. So that is point one then. True faith is living. True faith is living. Now, I know you just touched upon saving faith and repentance in your previous sermon, because those chapters precede this one in the confession, but I want you to keep paying attention because faith is integral to any discussion of good works. In fact, James would say that it hinges upon it. James begins this section with several rhetorical questions. For his listeners, he asks, what good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does not have good works? Can that faith save him? He asks, what good is it, or more accurately, what benefit is it if someone says he has faith and does not have works? Can that faith save him? I want you to notice two very important features of these questions. James is not asking what many men would presume him to be asking. He's not asking what benefit is it for a man if he has faith, but no works. Can that faith by itself save him? Can faith by itself save him? No, he's not asking whether faith by itself saves. We know that true faith is of great benefit to anyone who possesses it. The Apostle Paul proclaimed that it was not only a benefit, but it alone, in fact, justifies us. It justifies all who possess it. In the third chapter of Romans, he boldly states, for we hold that one is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. In verse 28, Romans 3, 28. Contrary to the opinion of far too many secular biblical scholars, James is not contradicting Paul. James is not asking whether faith by itself saves, he is asking whether there is a benefit to a man saying that he has faith. and at the same time not obeying God's holy law. Can that faith, can that faith which he says he has, can that faith save him? And the implied answer, based on James' tone and purpose, is an emphatic no. This hypothetical person, who I'm sure is a mirror into the soul of many in that congregation that James wrote to, in those several congregations he wrote to the Jewish diaspora, is a boaster. proclaiming to have faith in the gospel and needing no works, needing no works at all. The great theologian Thomas Manton notes, he that hath faith is sure of salvation, but not always he that saith he hath faith. In this whole discourse, the apostles' intent is to show not what justifies, but who is justified. Not what faith does, but what faith is. James presents this hypothetical person in order to demonstrate that saying you have faith is not enough. If you say you have faith but don't have works, then the kind of faith that you do have, whatever that might be, that faith will not save you. So when James asks the question, can that faith save? He indicates to us that there's not just one kind of faith. In fact, James intends us to understand that there are really two kinds of faith. A false faith, which is really no faith at all, and a true faith, which is the faith that saves. The kind of faith that Christians are to have is not merely believing that certain things are true. Certainly that's part of it. You certainly can't have faith without believing certain things are true. You can't believe the scriptures without believing the things in the scriptures. But some think that so long as you believe in a few gospel facts, you'll be saved on the last day. They ask questions like, what's the least I can believe and still be a Christian? I have a book on my bookshelf called that. They think if they confess the existence of God and the historicity of a handful of first century events, then they have faith. But Christians, this isn't the case. It's simply not true. James further on liberates us from that thought when he counters with this. You believe that God is one, you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder. Verse 19. You believe that God is one. James is referring here to the Shema, the height of a Jewish confession of faith. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. From Deuteronomy 6. It's an integral part of the Jewish life to recite and believe this very creed. However, a person can recite and ascend to the heights of this orthodoxy, and yet that will not save him. Even the demons believe that Christ is the Son of God come in the flesh, and they know that because of that, they will receive no mercy from God. When Jesus approaches the gathering demons of Matthew 8, they cry out, what have you to do with us, O son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? They know with certainty in this that torment is coming for them, despite their knowledge of Jesus as God's son. Simple ascent to doctrine will not save you, Christians, any more than a fire escape can save a man trapped in a burning building just because he knows and believes that that fire escape is right outside his window. Faith is the belief that all the truths of scripture are so, but it is so much more than that. Faith is also what the Heidelberg Catechism calls a wholehearted trust. It is a grasping trust, a clinging trust in the promises of God that he has given you through the gospel. It's a trust that not only was Christ crucified, buried, and risen, but that he was crucified, buried, and risen for you, and for your sins, and for me, and for my sins, and for the sins of all who would ever come to him with that trust. This is why the Apostle Paul describes Abraham's faith, or this is the way the Apostle Paul describes Abraham's faith when he says, no unbelief made Abraham waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That's from Romans 4. Though God had promised Abraham something seemingly absurd. that Abraham and Sarah would bear offspring in their old age and be a blessing to many nations, Abraham stepped forward with confidence, knowing that the promises that God had given to him could not be broken. He did not just believe in a historical fact. He didn't just believe that that God existed, but he believed in the promise of God for him. In the same way, once his promise had been fulfilled in the birth of his son Isaac, God commanded him to bring his son before him in sacrifice. And ever confident, Abraham stepped forward in obedience, knowing that God was able to even raise Isaac from the dead. Faith is a transformative confidence in the promises of God for you. It's not a historian acknowledging that the ancient battle of Thermopylae existed, it's a small fearful child knowing that his mother is his only source of refuge, his only hope, clings ever tightly to her with the feeble strength of his grip while she in turn pulls him closer to her. Faith is that same confidence in the refuge of God based upon the promises that he's given us as father. And what exactly do we believe are the promises of God for us? That Christ, being the very son of the living God, became flesh and dwelt amongst us? That he was delivered over to be crucified as a sacrifice to atone for the sins of his people? That he descended to the land of the dead, rose again from the dead, conquering sin and death and darkness, and ascended to the right hand of God from whence he will come to judge the living and the dead? That's not a list of facts to memorize and believe, it's a person and a work to trust in, to grab hold of by faith and by whom to be transformed. And it is by faith and faith only that we grab hold of those precious promises. And yet, when we come back to the question of James in this passage, what benefit is it, my brother, if someone says he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him? We do understand what kind of faith can save a Christian, but James is primarily focused upon what kind of faith cannot save a Christian, what kind of faith cannot save a person. What is the kind of faith that cannot save a person? The answer is a faith without works, a faith that does not produce good works. And this is point two, that living faith produces living works. Living faith produces living works. Very quickly, when we talk about good works, and when the authors of scripture talk about works, they very often intend us to understand this simply as obedience to God's law. Your confession very aptly states that good works are only such as God hath commanded in his holy word. Good works are simply those things which are commanded by God for Christians to do. The very frequent summary of those works are found in the Ten Commandments, which our Lord Jesus summarizes as two commandments, love for God, the first four commandments, and love of neighbor, the last six commandments. Jameson goes on to give what should be a clear and uncontroversial example of loving your neighbor. In illustrating the futility of a faith without works, he states, if a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? I want you to imagine for a minute the oddity of this scenario. A Christian brother is without clothing, shivering in the night because he cannot afford even a blanket. He has no food because he doesn't have money for something as simple as a loaf of bread. And a Christian, a simple man given mercy by God, has the audacity to wish this poor brother well without stewarding the good gifts he was given by God to help him. Yet he acknowledges the pity of the situation and wanting to appear like a Christian, he says, Go in peace, be warmed and filled. Meanwhile, keeping his food and his clothes to himself and justifying himself by saying he has faith in God. Would you believe that this man actually wanted this poor brother to go in peace, warmed and filled? What benefit are his empty words when he cannot even go to the very simple length of proving that he means them? The sinful man is just like the man who says he has faith but doesn't have works. Both men say they believe something. One says he believes that Jesus is the Christ and reigns over his life, and the other says that he wants the poor brother to go in peace, warm, and filled. Yet both men fail to prove that they actually believe such things by their actions. And so often, both men are actually us. We say we feel, believe, or desire things that we don't mean because so many of us are double-minded in our hearts. We say we desire God and his salvation, but when it comes down to it, we show by our actions that we don't desire salvation from sin, we merely desire forgiveness. We don't desire to be rid of sin, we just don't want to face her penalty. Why did you come to this Christian life? Why did you desire to have faith in the living God Was it not because you wanted salvation from your sin? And in salvation from sin, did you only suppose that you would be forgiven of your sin and left along in your way? And being left along in your way, did you not suppose that there was something more in the gospel than the penalty of your crimes being removed? There is so much more to the gospel than that. And when God saved you from your sins, He actually saved you from sin. Not just the penalty of sin, but from sin itself. Do you not suppose that what God has promised for eternity may be had in part here? Do you not rejoice that you'll be free from sinning in heaven? We must ask ourselves why we would not rejoice in obedience to God now and all that He's commanded. When the Christian first believes, and is united to Christ by faith. Christ pours out his spirit upon him, just as he poured his spirit out upon the disciples at Pentecost. And by that spirit, he makes that believer into a new creation, continuously conforming him to the image of Christ. And in conforming him to the image of Christ, the spirit gives the believer the strength and the desire to do what God commands. Just as the apostle said, it is he who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure, Philippians 2. It is God who makes you desire to obey and also gives you the strength and the ability to carry out that obedience. Your confession agrees, saying that the Christian's ability to do good works is not at all of themselves, but wholly from the spirit of Christ. And this is the component missing from our understanding of the gospel. We have focused so much, and with good and right intent, don't misunderstand me, with good and right intent upon the preaching of the forgiveness of sins, that we've entirely forgotten to preach freedom from sin. And this is not to say that God saves us due to our own merit. You know that that would be heresy. That would be a contradiction of the gospel itself. That would be a contradiction of grace itself. But it is, however, to say that when we believe in the promise of God and receive the Holy Spirit, He gives us a partial foretaste of eternity by making us a new creation. And in giving us a foretaste of eternity by making us a new creation, He leads us into obedience. It's not that the Christian must obey. He must, but it's not just that the Christian must obey. It's that the Christian cannot help but obey. And for this reason, the faith that saves cannot truly exist in us without works. The faith that saves cannot truly exist in us without works. Martin Luther said it's just as impossible to separate faith and works as it is to separate heat and light from fire. In his introduction to the letter of Paul to the Romans, one is not the other. but the one invariably brings about the other. But let's consider for a second exactly what works James has in mind. In actuality, this maxim applies to all of God's law, but James has a particular type of obedience in mind when he rebukes his audience. The type of obedience that James has in mind is love of neighbor. Love of neighbor. And I really want to emphasize this, and it's important to the existence of our faith. When we, especially conservative Christians who confess the infallibility of the scriptures and their role in the ordering of the Christian life, when we think of obedience, we typically think of it as it relates to God and as it relates to ourselves in our abstinence from committing acts of sin. So for example, we think of the first four commandments. I can obey God by worshiping him only, by not worshiping any created thing or image, by using his name reverently, by keeping holy his day and attending to his worship and prayer and the reading of the scriptures. Then we think of the last six commandments. I can obey God by not dishonoring my parents, by not hating in my heart or murdering, by not committing sexual immorality or committing adultery, by not stealing and lying, by being content with what I have. However, we so often forget the intent of those last six commandments. Remember one of the important hermeneutical principles of interpreting the commandments, where an action is commanded, the opposite is forbidden as sin, and when a sin is forbidden, the opposite action is commanded. So when our Lord says, do not murder or hate in your heart, he commands us to love and to promote life. When our Lord says not to lie, he commands us to speak the truth. When our Lord says not to steal, he commands us to live generously. For those of you who care for such things, that principle is found in the Westminster Larger Catechism, which is a product of the Reformation. Our Lord Jesus understood this principle, which is why when he summarized the last six commandments, he summarized them as what? You shall love your neighbor as yourself. You shall love your neighbor as yourself, Matthew 22. And this is precisely the type of commandment James decides to describe when he wants to illustrate the type of works that faith brings about. And I really want to emphasize this fact. If you have faith, you will love your neighbor in this way. Many of us, because we're perhaps religiously conservative, are so afraid of liberalizing movements of the early 20th century that we've sometimes under-emphasized the role of charity and love of the poor, needy, and the helpless and weak. Or at least we've felt compelled to heavily qualify it. And because these liberal movements began drifting away from the gospel and establishing a social gospel in its place, which is heresy, we've often come to find emphases on charity and relief of the needy to be suspect. And I understand. I understand that we are afraid of losing the gospel if we decide to emphasize these points of Christian duty. But we need to understand that while these things are inherently not the gospel, don't let anyone tell you otherwise, they are necessary consequences of being the people of God, the redeemed of the Lord. We need to understand that before the 20th century liberal movements practiced charity, we were there first. Before heretical liberation theology in Latin America cared for the poor through their false gospel, we were there first. Before the rise of Marxisms and social theories and a myriad of other secular systems of thought, we were there for the needy first. Before us, there was little care for the poor and needy, for the helpless and the weak. Before the rise of Christianity, there is little to no record of this kind of charitable effort in the ancient world. Our fathers brought about those mighty works of God. We fed and clothed the poor. We visited the prisoners. We cared for the widows and orphans. We, for the most part, invented the public hospital. We established homeless shelters and soup kitchens in the early centuries of the church, and since then, the world has followed suit. And why? Because our fathers understood that true and living faith brings about true and living works, and not just works of piety and avoidance of personal sin, but works of love and charity too. And don't think that I'm under-emphasizing works of piety and avoidance of personal sin. I am certainly not. Faith not only accomplishes these commandments, but it delights to do so. While there are seasons of unexcited obedience for each of us, as we are more conformed into the image of Christ, we will more and more cease to see our Lord's commandments as burdens, but as works we delight to do in love of God and of neighbor. Pastor Joel Beeky says, love and law belong together. In fact, law can only be fulfilled through love. That's why the apostle says, love is the fulfilling of the law in Romans 13. It is only in love that we can obey. But I'll continue to emphasize it because of my concern for its lack of emphasis in my own circles at least. There are still some Christians who have little concern over the physical needs of our poor and needy brothers, the kind that James prescribes here. And as if the gnostic spirit of early Christian heretics were reborn, we often feign care for our neighbor's souls in the preaching of the gospel, at the same time despise and neglect their body. Either we have been lied to and misinformed as to the role of charity and love in the Christian life, or we have no Christian life. If we herald the gospel to despise and detest our neighbor, we're like a clanging church bell atop a steeple, always calling men into the church and never going inside ourselves. In short, if we have no works, our faith is dead. Which brings us to our third and final point, and I'll try to be brief. Dead works indicate a dead faith, which is why James goes on to deduce this from his rhetorical questions. Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Do you say that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you say that you believe in His substitutionary death on the cross? Do you believe in His glorious resurrection from the dead and His ascension to the right hand of God? Do you believe in His imputed righteousness? Do you have a covenantal view of reality, a rich sacramentology? Do you believe in the impassibility, incomprehensibility, ineffability, and immutability of God? Do you believe in rich Chalcedonian Christology? Do you confess diophysitism, diothelitism, and another combination of orthodox isms? And do you yet have no love or works accompanying your faith? then I tell you, my friends, that your faith may be dead, false, and in vain. It has not brought about the spiritual changes that true faith brings about. We often talk about inanimate objects being dead. We talk about our phones being dead, our car batteries being dead. We talk about food expiring, right? We use this powerful metaphor for many non-living things to indicate their lack of functionality. And this is true with faith. But I don't want the metaphor to be lost on you. I don't want you to be underwhelmed by it. When James says that this kind of faith is dead, we ought to envision something cold and lifeless, something departed, gone, slain, nonexistent. Friends, if we say we are Christians and yet have no works, this is the state of our so-called faith. Dead faith is no faith at all. And we know that if our faith is dead, then our souls too are dead. The Apostle said that through Christ we have obtained access to God by faith. And if our faith is dead, then we have no access to God through Christ. But rather we're like an unanchored ship floating away into the depths of uncharted seas. It is true and living faith which anchors us to God and by union with God, he produces through us, his children, good works because God is glorified through the obedience of his children and gives them everything they need to glorify him through his spirit. Yet not I, but through Christ in me. Friends, true faith in Christ and the gospel of his love produces good works. That is the most fundamental thing you can walk away with today. Christians who have been saved delight to obey God. And this is not a gospel of works. This is the gospel that preaches freedom from sin. Not just your penalties, but from sin itself. And it is certainly true that we will not be perfect before the resurrection. Those that say we can have never truly examined themselves. We do not always delight in obedience. You do not always do the works that God has commanded. And if you confessed today when we gave our confession and pardon, and you truly examined yourself, then you know that's you as well. All of us. Sometimes our hearts are cold. However, we know that God has given us his spirit. And by his spirit, he has given us the power to put to death the deeds of the flesh, as Paul says in Romans 8. So I'd like to offer some applications for us before we close. But first, I'd like to give you guys a word of comfort to those of you who might be struggling with what was preached today. If you struggled today, I don't want you to walk away in fear. I want you to know that dead faith is not the same thing as weak faith. Just as a sick man is not the same thing as a dead man. The mightiest of Christians have struggled with weak faith. And so also will your faith be weak at times. And that does not mean that God has let go of you, nor does it mean that you've let go of God. The theologian Thomas Brooks said, Your salvation is not determined through the strength of your faith. It is determined by the strength of the one in whom you have placed your faith, Jesus Christ. And if he's grabbed hold of you through faith, then no one can ever take you out of his hand. But finally, how might we apply this lesson of James today? Firstly, I'd like to suggest that you examine yourselves. 2 Corinthians 13 five says examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves or do not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail to meet the test. I hope that when I was preaching today and I talked about all these things we failed to do, all these works we failed to live up to, I hope you didn't think of someone else. I hope you didn't think about how that man down the pew has not been living this sermon. I hope you haven't thought about how your neighbor has not been living this sermon. I hope that you would have examined yourself instead. We know that works don't save us, but they are helpful in determining whether God has indeed brought life to us. Just as he promised to forgive us of our sins, so has he promised to liberate us from doing them. As our Lord said, every good tree produces good fruit, so also does every Christian produce good fruit. Secondly, seek out ways that you might obey the commandments of God, not only in the pious things that we ought to do for him, which we ought to do, but also in the love of neighbor, which he has likewise instructed us to have. James says, religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this, to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained from the world. Thirdly, come alongside your brothers and sisters. Confront those that you love about producing works of faith. Your husbands, your wives, your children, your dear friends. Christianity is a community religion. Christ did not just die for us as individuals. He died for us as those who would be his church. So rebuke, exhort, and encourage one another in this faith of Jesus Christ. Lastly, don't attempt any of what I've said today through your own efforts. James doesn't just want bare obedience from you. God does not just want bare obedience from you. He wants obedience flowing forth from a true and lively faith. Works flowing from your own will are just as dangerous as a dead faith. They cannot save you. Only Christ can through faith. But I want you to go from here knowing that Christ has given you his spirit, if indeed you've had faith. Not that you would rest content in sin, but that you would, by his spirit, put away all your sin and put it to death. Let's pray. Almighty and most merciful Father, have mercy on us. Have mercy on us, O Lord, for we have not lived as we ought. But we have rather often been content to live ungodly lives, resting only in ungodly faith. We pray, Father, that through Jesus Christ, our Lord, and the power of your spirit, you might grant to us all a true and lively faith in the promises of the gospel. And let us not be content to merely be forgiven of our sins through your gospel, but let us also find freedom from our sins through your gospel. And so continue, Lord, to make us by your spirit to delight in your holy law, to delight in those simple acts of piety, to delight in abstaining from sin, to delight in loving our neighbor as ourselves. Gracious God, as we leave here, continue to bring to our hearts the message of James, that we might be sufficiently warned of the dangers of a dead faith and encouraged, knowing that even with weak faith, our Lord Jesus Christ has come to save us. It is only by him that we dare come to your holy throne, oh God, and in his name that we pray, amen.