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This morning's message comes
from James 2, verses 14 through 26. 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 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. 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. And 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. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we admit that
this culture often desensitizes us to your glory and your majesty,
your perfections, Lord. We don't see you as we ought.
But Lord, we desire, by your grace here this morning, to see
you presented in your word, see Christ, to have him made
known to us in our hearts and in our minds, Lord. I pray for
your help, your mercy, your grace, Lord, that you would sustain
us, that you would help myself as I bring your word forward
to your people, Lord, that you would empower your truth, Lord,
to be effective for your purposes. And Lord, perhaps more needed,
I pray for your people who come here with a great burden upon
them and a great requirement upon them to receive from you,
to hear your word, Lord. And I just pray that you would
strengthen your people, ready their minds and their hearts,
Lord, to receive that which comes from you. And by your spirit,
would you cause it to be effective in their lives, transforming
the way they interact in their homes and their jobs and their
community, Lord. I just pray that you would help
us as we open your truth, Lord. Guide us by your spirit. Show
us, Lord, your beauty and your majesty here this morning as
we open your word. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. James 2, 14 through 26, has often
been contested and argued in many ways. People seem to think
that the book of James, and specifically this part of James, is some kind
of apostle heavyweight championship where James and Paul are having
some contested argument about faith and works. But nothing
could be further from the truth. That's not really what this passage
is about. James, as I mentioned, when we
first started the book of James, was written well before Paul
wrote Galatians, and the book of Galatians was not written
to refute the teaching of James. So there's no argument here,
there's no tension. They're actually very much in
agreement. And we believe in the coherency
of Scripture. That's just a big word to say
that no part of Scripture contradicts another part of Scripture. Yes? Every bit of Scripture is absolutely
true and without error. It does not err. So, this passage
will help us discern what is the right way to view
faith and works. What is their relationship? Really,
what is the difference between a false faith and a true faith? That's what we're going to see
here this morning. What is the difference between a false faith
and a true faith? That's what God's Word speaks
to us. A living faith, or as you might have guessed, a dead
faith. A living faith or a dead faith.
So James begins by posing a very good question. What good is it,
my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have
works? Can that faith save him? It's a good question. It's intended
to be answered in the negative. No, that faith cannot save him.
A faith that does not have works is not a saving faith at all.
What good is it? It's no good at all. The implied
response launches James into a very clear argument, not about
faith and works, but about faith and faith, true faith and false
faith, living faith and dead faith. What good is it, my brothers,
if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? This
is a very straightforward way of arguing. I could pose this
question in a way that's maybe more familiar to us. What good
is it, friends, if I say I love my wife, but I do not show her
that I love? What good is it? Sisters, you're
welcome to tell me how good that is, right? And not good at all,
right? As it's been said many times, there was a man, he said,
look, I don't understand what the big deal is. I told you I
loved you when we got married, and if anything changes, I'll
let you know, right? It doesn't work if we don't show
our faith. It doesn't work if we don't show
our love. We can have a lot of words, but
they mean nothing if there is not action connected to them,
and that is James' argument here. He uses three specific points
that we'll break our time here into. Three points, three descriptions
of this dead faith, okay? Three descriptions. The first
is a fake faith, okay? A fake faith. It's friendly,
but it's phony. So our first one here is a fake
faith found in verse 15. He gives us this example. If
a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily
food, and poorly clothed, by the way, does not mean he lacks
fashion sense. It means that he is not able to clothe himself
and he's lacking in daily food. He doesn't even have the food
for today. And one of you says to them,
go in peace. be warmed, be filled, without
giving them the things needed for the body, again he asks,
what good is that? What good is it? What good is
it to have mere verbal expressions of faith, of love, of compassion
to those in need, just words, words heaped up in an empty way? This really reads, when he says,
go in peace, be warmed and filled, this reads like a prayer, A prayer
that sounds very, very pious. A prayer of care and love, but
not a prayer that searches the individual's own heart and says,
do I have any extra clothing? Do I have any food? It's not
a prayer that has a willingness to care. No care for the poor. Truly, this kind of speaking,
be warmed, be filled, see you later, shows they don't really
care at all, do they? They don't really care at all.
It shows their heart. And what James is saying it shows
is their true standing with Christ. This question, can that faith
save him, tells us how important this passage is to us. This is
about an eternal matter. Can the faith save? This is not
just a matter of, is that the best way to live your Christian
life? This is not a matter of, is this really the best way to
be the best Christian you can be? This is a matter of does
that faith save? What does saving faith really
look like? No care for the poor. James is
probably echoing Jesus over in Matthew 25. You may be familiar with this passage.
The parable of the sheep on his right, the goats on his left.
He will say to those on his left, depart from me, you cursed into
the eternal fire prepared for the devils and his angels. For
I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you
gave me no drink. I was a stranger and you did
not welcome me. Naked and you did not clothe me. Sounds like
James, doesn't it? Sick and in prison and you did
not visit me. Then they also will answer saying, Lord, when
did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick
or in prison and did not minister to you? When? Then he will answer
them saying, truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of
the least of these, you did not do it to me. And these will go
away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal
life. And so you have here this parable that clearly points out
those who heap up kind words only, but do not do, are in effect
not serving Christ, not truly obeying Christ. They do not love
Jesus Christ. And that's why here at Tapestry,
we do not just say we're gonna pray We're gonna pray for our
community, but rather we seek opportunities to actually serve. Now, do we do this service so
that we can get into heaven? No. Do we do this service so that
we can somehow appease an angry God? No, because all our good
works, we couldn't pile up enough good works to get right with
God. We couldn't pile up enough good
activities to please God or to placate an angry God, rightfully,
justly angry at our sin. We couldn't do enough, and we
know it. We feel that. We could never bring enough to
God. We know we're always lacking. So then why serve at all? We're
always lacking. Let's just pray. We got good theology now. We've
got a prayer to pray. Lord, just be merciful unto me.
And then I go my way and do nothing. It's a fake faith because a real
faith says, where can I live out this love? I've been loved
with such a great love. Where can I now live it out? The faith by itself, if it does
not have works, is dead faith. The Apostle John agrees with
this. You could look in 1 John 3.10. In fact, the Apostle John
spends quite a bit of time on this. 1 John 3.10, by this it
is evident. You see an evidence of those
who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.
Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one
who does not love his brother. Verses 16 through 18 of the same
chapter in 1 John 3. By this we know, love, that he
laid down his life for us. And so, because of that reality
that Christ has laid down his life for us, we ought to lay
down our lives for our brothers. But if anyone has the world's
goods and see his brother in need, sound familiar? yet closes his heart against
him, how does God's love abide in him? Again, another question
that responds in the negative, it doesn't abide in him. Little
children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and
in truth. And so you see both Christ, the
Apostle John, they're giving us the same truth here this morning
as James. That people who only sound religious, who only sound
religious, have a dead faith. A faith that's not alive. Faith by itself, in just words,
a profession of faith. Our country is full of those
who make professions of faith. And I would say to us and to
all of them, faith by itself, if it does not have compassion
and love for those in need, is a dead faith. of fake faith. James then moves on as he introduces
someone who is, he's probably not being passive aggressive
here and talking to someone in the congregation or receiving
the letter, but yet he is talking to everyone who's receiving this
letter, giving us kind of someone to argue with. This someone to
argue with is not Paul. He's not arguing with Paul, but
rather a common way to present an idea in this time to have
an argument laid forward to address. 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. So here's our second example
description of this dead faith. This is a fallen angel faith,
a demon faith. Yeah, it's that bad. It's dead. If that wasn't bad enough, this
is the kind of faith that demons have. Listen to what he says
in verse 19. You believe that God is one,
you do well, even the demons believe. Even the demons believe. You may already be aware that
Satan knows his scripture. Can you see how he used it when
he tempted our Lord in the desert? He knows his scripture. Satan's
theology is most likely better than ours. His understanding
of who God is, How God created, I mean, he's been there a long
time, he's been observing these things for a long time. His demons
are no different, they've learned from him. And James, he cites
the Shema, Deuteronomy 6, 4. It says, hero Israel, the Lord
our God, the Lord is one. Very fitting for James to use
this, speaking to his Jewish audience, that is a verse that
every Jew and every demon knows. The demons, they understand who
Christ is. They recognize who Christ is,
who he truly is. In Matthew 8, 29, the demons
cried out, what have you to do with us,
O son of God? The demons make this statement,
O son of God. And the Pharisees wouldn't even
say that, would they? The Pharisees wouldn't even go
that far. but they recognize. Mark 1.24, demon says, I know
who you are, the Holy One of God. I know who you are. Acts 19.15, demon says, there
Jesus I know, and I know about Paul. The demons know who Christ
is, they recognize Christ, their theology is good. And so it is,
especially among our excellent reformed circles, our theology
is great. Our systems are well-oiled, well-presented,
everything laid out. And I am not suggesting that
we should not have good theology. We should have good theology.
What I'm saying is what James is saying, that that theology
apart from works is dead. It's lifeless. It's cold and
empty in some ivory tower somewhere, and it's of no use. It doesn't
produce life. It's useless. Do you want me
to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is
useless? What the irony is here in this passage, friends, is
how the demons Respond. Even the demons believe and they
shudder. Even the demons have a response. Even the demons have some kind
of work happening from their belief. They shudder at the terror
of coming judgment. Even the demons believe and they
respond, yet there are Christians and myself falling in that category
at times where I read beautiful, amazing, glorious truth about
our holy and righteous God, and I sit there like this, hmm, cool. It's not enough. to just see
who God is, to revel in the majesty and beauty of our Lord and Savior
and the wonderful work of salvation on the cross and walk away unaffected. In fact, if you truly have seen
and tasted the glory of God and the righteousness of Jesus Christ
alone, then you will not be unaffected. It would be like saying, I walked
out into the middle of I-35 and got hit by a truck and just kept
on walking. something that powerful and that
amazing, friends, it does not leave you unaffected. What good
is a container with a label on it? Food, medicine, and yet you
open it up and there's nothing inside. Is that any good for
the hungry? No. Does that treat the sick? No. And so we can have the labels
of theology, but do we have the life of it? Biblical truth alone
is no substitute for saving faith. It's just a fallen angel faith.
It's just the same faith the demons have. It's dead. It's dead faith. And so with verse 20, James transitions
and says, do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith
apart from works is useless? And he transitions to using scripture. He gives us two examples from
scripture. Two positive examples to go against
this third example of description of dead faith. That is a fool's
faith, right? Do you want to be shown, oh,
empty-headed one? That's what that literally means.
You empty-headed person, that faith apart from works is useless. He gives two scripture examples,
Abraham and Rahab, and he drives home his argument with scripture,
as we should do with all the arguments that we make, yes?
Any arguments we get into, sure, we can have logic, we can give
practical, pragmatic reasons, we can discuss it till we all
turn blue in the face, but at the end of it, as James does
here at the end of this point, we should use God's word. We
should go to God's word and apply God's word to our arguments. But what's interesting is this
is where the arguments get challenging. Because this is where the crux
of the contested discussion between James and Paul starts to come
into play. Because if you recall back in
Romans 3, 28, Paul says, for we hold that one is justified
by faith apart from the works of the law. We hold that one
is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. But James
says in verse 22, you see that a person is justified by works
and not faith alone. That sounds pretty contradictory.
Trust me, I sat and stared at it for a good solid week before
I even glanced at a single other piece of information because
I wanted to understand what is the relationship between these
two. Well, they're not opposed to one another. They're back-to-back.
In fact, Chaplain James Covey referenced that just briefly
in his message last week. You might recall, he did some
very interesting hand gesture that I can't quite pull off,
but it was very good for me mentally because I'm a picture guy. So
back-to-back, they're facing opposite sides. Here on one end
is the legalist saying, you need to add works, Paul. You need
to plus something to your faith. to make it good enough. And then
over here, no, no, James, I just said I believe. I don't need
to do anything. I don't need to change how I
live. It's all right. You see the opposing camps here. And Paul and James are standing
on the truth as good soldiers of the cross and looking both
directions and dealing with it, right? And so Paul's addressing
one question. How can man stand before a holy
and just God and be justified? The answer, by faith alone. Yes,
by faith alone. Before God, man's declared judicially
righteous based upon the merit of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ alone, not based on any works, not based on any deeds,
not based on anything we do. I'm thankful for that. James is addressing a different
question entirely, and that's why you get a different answer,
right? You're not asking the right question.
I often coach the kids when we're doing family worship. You're
not asking the right question. So here, James is addressing
our opening question. What good is a faith that does
not work? What good is it? Men were claiming
to have faith, but their lives were completely unchanged. You
can see that in verse 18. Someone will say, you have faith
and I have works. I don't need change how I live. I don't need to have anything
happening to me or from me because of my faith. I just know it up
here, like the demons, right? I just speak it a lot, right?
Fake. How do we know? that we have genuine faith? That's
the question James is answering. He's challenging those who just
profess faith, all of us. He's challenging all of us who
profess faith. Is it genuine? Is it real? Is
it authentic? And James' answer to how can
you know if one's faith is genuine? You can see it. You can see it. Now, God doesn't need our works
to determine if our faith is genuine, right? He can see our
hearts. But James is not answering that question. James is asking,
how can you and I know among one another that this faith is
real? Well, we can see it in each other. James wants to be shown. He wants
to be shown when someone claims to have saving faith. And we
should want that too. We should want that for each
other and for the glory of God. I want to see that faith living
in you. I wanna see that faith producing fruit in your lives,
love to your spouse and your neighbor. James is using the word justified
here. You see that a person is justified
by works and not by faith alone. In the same way Christ used the
word justified back in Luke 7.35. Yes, it's true, you can use the
same word and have different intended meaning, yes? And here
is the way that James is using it in Luke 7.35. Here's the same
way that Christ is using it is the same way James is using it.
And Christ uses it in Luke 7.35 this way, wisdom is justified
by all her children. Now, did Jesus mean that wisdom
is declared righteous before a holy God by all of her children?
No, that doesn't even fit, right? No. Jesus is saying that wisdom
is demonstrated to be true and wise by the things that come
from it, right? And so our faith is shown to
be genuine by the things that come from it. James is just saying, show me,
show me that your faith is true. He's a lot like the U.S. Congressman
from Missouri. All right, Willard Vandiver,
who said, frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I'm from Missouri, you have got
to show me. Yeah, it's the show me state,
right? A beautiful state. You see, in verse 18, he says,
show me. In verse 22, he says, you see.
In verse 24, he says, you see. That's how we know that James
is not talking about justification before God. He's talking about
justification before man. Not that we must be justified
before man, but James would have every person reading this letter
look into their own hearts. Are they truly believing in the
Lord? Are they confident in Christ?
By the way, Paul agrees. He doesn't disagree. Check out
Galatians 5, 6. For in Christ, Jesus, neither
circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything. No works
count for anything, but only faith working through love. That's all that James is saying.
And James' answer is just echoing what Christ said. You will know
them by their fruit. You can see Matthew 7, 18. And so Abraham's faith, these
two positive examples from the scripture, Abraham's faith was
evident in his willingness to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice.
Abraham was justified by faith, we agree with Paul, trusting
in God in chapter 15 of Genesis. But it came to full fruition,
James tells us. It was shown, displayed, fully
alive and mature, fruitful, useful, in chapter 22, when Abraham acted
on that promise, believed God. Hebrews 11 gives us some very
similar language over there. You're welcome to check that
out. You see that justification, according to James, is demonstrated
to man when we act on our trust in God. Simply saying the words,
simply knowing the words, cannot save its dead faith. A living
faith's operational. Just like with Rahab, he uses
another example. Rahab's faith was displayed when
she served the spies. So just so you can take this
home, Abraham's faith was one of sacrifice. And Rahab's faith
was one of service. Do those two words describe how
you respond to God's glorious promise of salvation? Rahab's faith was displayed when
she served the spies by protecting them, aiding them, giving them
hospitality. She exercised her faith in the
true and living God. And both of these individuals
had a faith that reacted, not out of dutiful obligation, but
more like a spiritual reflex. If someone's alive, and you go
and you take that little hammer and you hit their knee, what's
bound to happen? Doctors, nurses, medical professionals
among us, and anybody else, right? It's going to respond, yes? And
so, all James is saying is, where's the spiritual reflex? Church,
where is our spiritual reflex? In the day-to-day, when we come
among the poor and the needy, when we're engaging in theological
discussions, where's our spiritual reflex? Only faith. that produces obedience
to God truly matters. Whether one is a patriarch like
Abraham or a prostitute like Rahab, and everybody in between,
James is very clear that faith is all that matters. True, living
faith, not dead faith. So here's our focus. Is James saying faith plus works
equals salvation? No, I hope that's pretty apparent.
If it's not apparent, go read this section of chapter 2 over
and over until God shows you that that is not true. James
is not saying faithless works equals salvation. We are saved
by faith alone. But the faith that saves is never
alone. Heard that before? I think it's
well said, and I agree. Here's our takeaway, our focus.
James is emphasizing the inseparable connection between faith and
works. It's inseparable. Now let me
be clear, for the Christian, there is definitely a distinction
between faith and works. We recognize, yeah, I'm not saved
by my works. I'm saved by faith alone and
Christ alone. But we cannot create an unbiblical
division between the two. That is, splitting faith and
works is a lot like splitting an atom. And really, when we
split that atom, it has destructive consequences, nuking our spiritual
life, if you will, if you can let me extend that metaphor.
We can't split them unnecessarily. We can make distinctions about
them, and it's important that we have those distinctions correct,
yes? Because remember, this is a matter of salvation. But James
clarifies that we're not saved by a fake faith or fallen angel
faith or foolish faith, but by a functioning faith, a faith
that's operational. If it doesn't work, then it's
broken. Why do I have to spend 30 minutes
explaining that? I guess just so we can all be
edified, but it's that simple, right? I could have just said
that and sat back down. If the faith doesn't work, then
it's broken. It's that simple. Works cannot
be the ground of our justification, the basis of our justification,
because they can't atone for sin, right? But faith in Christ
alone will have the inevitable effect of a transformed life. Faith and works are really two
sides of the same coin. That's the main point here. Working
in harmony to demonstrate a vibrant, vital faith, all to the glory
of God. So let me give you three points
of application, and then we'll wrap up. James is often emphasizing
practical things. So first, at a high level, we
can learn from this passage that the way people are using words
is not always the way that you're understanding words. And so that's
just an important lesson to learn from this passage. Paul and James
were not pitted against one another, and neither do we always need
to be so pitted against each other with our words. We can
take the time to understand one another, hear one another, and
have that full discussion. That would bring glory to God.
Second, we must use a passage like this to examine the authenticity
of our faith. Do our actions really reflect
what we believe? Are we truly trusting God? Now,
we may not be heretics with our theological understanding, but
the question is, are we hypocrites in the way we're living that
out? Do we walk in love that can be seen and felt and known
by our neighbors and our family? May God give us grace to have
true faith. I believe, Lord, help my unbelief. We want to be full of works so
that our Father in heaven would be glorified. Isn't that what
scripture says? Third here, in application, in
the function here, let us always remember and reapply this truth,
that salvation's not about earning our way to heaven, but it's about
exercising the gift of faith we've been given. Faith in the
promise of God, faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ,
faithfully walking in the spirit according to his word. In short,
a living faith, not a dead faith. In our last verse, verse 26,
for as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith
apart from works is dead. James went through great length
to give example and argument and scriptural support over and
over in this section. He was layering this truth, this
kind of faith, that is alive, it turns the world upside down.
This kind of faith that's alive brings glory to God. James 2,
14 through 26 is a powerful reminder that faith without works is indeed
dead. May God increase our faith. Let's
pray. Lord God, we do thank you for
your grace that saves us, Lord. We thank you for this passage
that is so pointed and clear about what faith truly is, Lord. We thank you that our salvation
is not based upon our works, Lord, but we pray that you would
give the increase in our lives and our church, Lord, that you
would bring forth fruit of faith, that we would believe you, that
we would believe we're not called to just sit on the sidelines
to speak lofty words, to think lofty thoughts, Lord, but to
live out, to walk worthy of the calling with which you've called
us, Lord. I pray that you would apply this truth to our lives,
that it would empower us to go forward. Because of your gospel,
because of your grace, Lord, would you help us to live in
a way that brings true honor to your holy name. And it's in
Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
Dead Faith
Series The Book of James
| Sermon ID | 1015231912431158 |
| Duration | 37:08 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | James 2:14-26 |
| Language | English |
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