If someone says he has faith, but he has no works, can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and be filled, and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead being by itself. But someone may well say, well, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without the works. And I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. Well, you do well. The demons also believe. And they shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works. And as a result of the works, faith was perfected. And the Scripture was fulfilled, which says, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. And he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith also without works is dead." It's not a game. This is a heavy text coming from a loving pastor who is the half-brother of our Lord Jesus. I agree with Doug Moo in his excellent commentary on James when he writes that this paragraph we just read is, quote, the most theologically significant as well as the most controversial paragraph in the letter of James. I agree. It can sound confusing just reading it out loud. Because as you've heard James' words now, there's been a chord struck, a dissonance sounded with things you remember Paul saying. I thought we were saved by faith and not works. According to your memory of Paul's writings. This was such a struggle to reconcile Paul and James that even the great Reformer, Martin Luther, referred to this epistle of James with these words. That epistle is, quote, a right, straw-y epistle, end quote. He really struggled with accepting James. Martin Luther. So this is a very important text. So important that this is the second of two messages I want to bring to you from this paragraph. And what I'm doing is I'm hanging my thoughts on three hooks, if you will. We saw last time the possibility. I'll review that briefly with you. But I also want us to see today in addition to the possibility, which is a warning, I want you to see the process. How does James approach his readers to jolt them to realize that the Christian life's not a game? Professing faith in Christ is not just something you say, think, or affirm. It's something that will indeed bear fruit. How does he bring them to that point? And then thirdly, I want you to see several key principles. How do we walk away from this? But this is a sobering reality. So just by way of review, I want you to see first of all the possibility or what I call the warning. We saw this two weeks ago. And before I remind you of that warning, I want to give you a pastoral observation. It's an observation by Jim Newcomer. Why? Because Jim Newcomer has to live with Jim Newcomer and listen to my thoughts and watch my struggles. But also because I've had the joy of serving in pastoral ministry for two and a half decades. My pastoral observation, knowing hearts on both sides of this pulpit, is this. Listen carefully. There are some Christians who worry about their salvation and shouldn't. But, there are also Christians who don't worry about their salvation and should. Definitely. And I'm struck as we come to this text and I see four sobering phrases that grab at our ankles every time we walk through this chapter. Listen to these phrases. At the end of verse 14, can that faith save him? Verse 17, even so faith, if it has no works, is dead being by itself. Verse 24, you see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. In one more, verse 26, faith without works is dead. Every time we walk through here, it's grabbing at our ankles. And it should be. Those of us who are truly believers should feel the grab at our ankles and God will use it to affirm that we are His children. But there are others who profess to be Christians who walk through this chapter and these phrases, grab at your ankles, and they should to stop you and to jolt you into the reality that you are not a true Christian. What is the possibility here? Well, we saw last week, first of all, that it's possible to have merely a verbal faith. A verbal faith. We saw this in verses 14 through 17. You can listen to it online. But this is a faith that's content only with what it confesses with its mouth. The religious talk that comes out. And religious talk is sourced in some religious knowledge. And that leads us to the possibility of the second faith. We call that letter B a mental faith. And this faith is content only with a creed. You find yourself anchored to a ministry or anchored to a doctrinal statement that is solid, and you think that that's good enough. We saw that in verses 18-20. But not only is it possible to have merely a verbal faith or merely a mental faith, but we saw that it's also to have what we called merely an optional faith. You say, what do you mean by that? Well, these are people that don't want to go to hell, but they don't want to get burned for a long time. And so they just want to know that everything's okay between them and Jesus to keep them from being burned for eternity. But it doesn't enter their thoughts at all as they walk through their weeks that this faith they claim ought to be making a profound difference in their lives. It's only optional. That kind of faith is only optional. They just want to know that they're not going to get burned. We saw that in verses 21-26. We did a flyover with a helicopter last time and we noted these three. And we saw that it's possible to have a verbal faith and a mental faith and an optional faith that doesn't have to produce works in your thinking, but we realized last time that a workless faith, as Charles Ryrie puts it, is a worthless faith. Or as John MacArthur says, it's a sham. Or as Tom Schreiner in his great commentary on this epistle says, it's a dead sham. As Homer Kent says, there's an ever-present conflict between mere assent to a creed and a vital act of faith. As one person put it, if we have a verbal faith and a mental faith and an optional faith only, we are all talk and no walk. That's the possibility we saw in our last study. But now we want to land the helicopter. How does James get to these points? And I want you to see the process he uses. Or, look at it this way. James is going to reach in five very distinct directions to make his point and to jolt his readers then, listen, and now, into understanding it's possible to think you're saved and you're not. What does he do? He reaches in these five directions. First of all, he reaches for a ministry example. A ministry example. We see that in verses 14-17. Again, look at this text. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister... Now stop there. Already at this point in the epistle, in these two chapters, you know he's writing to professing believers who meet regularly, listen, with other professing believers. So the context of verses 14-17 is actually within the household of faith, or the professing household of faith, if you will. Other believers. If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and be filled, and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? It's a good question. It says that there are poor folks in your midst, brothers and sisters in Christ. And it says here, without clothing and in need of daily food. It is an interesting word. I can't really soften that word, without clothing. I mean, the word literally means to be without clothes. Now, it could be a statement of they barely have enough to cover themselves, yet they are Christians and they worship with you. And then without food, I mean, this is obviously a daily requirement. As a matter of fact, Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount again, that James is often referring to, talks about the importance of food, and clothing, and how God looks after His own. But the picture here is a ministry context. and it's another brother or sister in Christ come to you, they're barely clothed, they have no food for their family, and you say to them, go in peace. What's that? That's actually a polite thing to say. You're wishing them well. I mean, those are pious words. Perhaps a good place to start, but not finish. I mean, you want to greet them, and you want to greet them with warmth. But look at the last part of that phrase. It says, be warmed and filled. There's a lot of debate here whether this is what we call the middle voice or the passive voice in the Greek. Middle voice is this. It would be translated this way. Go, I see you don't have clothes and food. Go and clothe yourself. And feed yourself. You say, how is that loving? It's not. I kind of land in the camp that believes it's the passive voice, which would be translated this way. Middle voices act on yourself. Passive voices, you need to leave right now and go figure it out yourself. Someone else is going to have to clothe you and feed you. Not me. Go in peace and I'll say something pious there at the end. I mean, you can't go wrong with either interpretation. Because the point's still there. They're in front of you. And yet you say you have faith. You say you're a child of God. But you say, I'm done with you. I hope things work out with you. James asks a great question. What use is that? I see a principle here. An unsaving faith makes no difference in others. Because it makes no difference in you. It makes no difference in you. And he uses this as his first illustration. Remember, these are professing believers. They say, we love other believers. And we want to see the Gospel bear fruit. And we want even those who persecute us to come to Christ. Or they'll have to get to that point in their thinking. And James says, great, let's talk about a ministry context then. You're not even living out your faith with each other. There's no fruit. There's no works. Can that faith save him? Verse 14. Well, secondly, he reaches for a second direction in this argument. He reaches, in verses 18-20, for an imaginary objector. An imaginary objector. Now look at verse 18. But someone may well say, well, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without the works and I'll show you my faith by my works. Now stop there. A lot of trees have died to make paper for the commentaries to debate where the quotation marks go in this verse. They have. And I have to say, as much as my preference is for the New American Standard, I go with the ESV and the other translations on this one, and I think the quotation marks need to go at the end of the phrase, you have faith and I have works. End quote. Now, we don't have quotation marks in the Greek, so that's why there's so much debate. And there are good arguments, there's actually three good arguments. One carries the quotation marks all the way down to the bottom of verse 18, and others will even go further than that, down to the quote in verse 19. But I agree with most of your translations that you have, that outside of the New American Standard, it's that first phrase, that's it. In other words, there's an imaginary objector, and this was a literary form of argument in the ancient world, to introduce an imaginary conversation, if you will. And so James is saying, you know, someone might say this, they'll say, well look, James, you have faith, and I have works. Meaning, there's a type of faith that has to be obvious, and then there's one that doesn't. One will produce works. One might not necessarily produce works. And James picks up and responds with these words. Okay, buddy. I mean, buddy's in the Greek there. Show me your faith without the works. How do you do that? I look at this imaginary objector and I'll say, okay, you say work's unimportant. Go ahead and demonstrate your faith to me then that you have saving faith. I'm waiting. I'm watching. I don't know what I'm watching for though. And we'll stay there to the end of the week, to the end of time, waiting for some demonstration of his faith without works. James says, while we're waiting, I will show you my faith by my works. And the objector might throw up his hands and say, well, I have right doctrine. James says here in verse 19, well, you believe that God is one, you do well. Remember, he's writing to a Jewish audience here. What James has just referred to is the Shema. That's in Deuteronomy 6, verses 4-9. This was the highest expression of monotheism that a Jew, listen, could reach for. Right there at the climax of Deuteronomy in the Pentateuch, it says, the Lord our God is one God, and you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. Highest expression of Jewish monotheism. And the subjector says, well, I don't have to show you my works. I believe the right stuff. And James continues by saying, well, you know what? The demons also believe the Shema. And they shudder. And as I mentioned last week, Kent Hughes told his congregation at College Church in Wheaton that there's no such thing as an atheist demon in all of creation. Demons have impeccable theology in what they believe about God, and what they believe about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. In Matthew 8, verses 29-30, at the Maniac of Gadara, that scene where there is a legion of demons possessing a man. Remember that? It says that they are crying out to Jesus, what are you doing here? We know who you are. Don't torment us. They know who Jesus was. Again, I see in Mark 5, verse 7, just listen as I read this to you. Verse 6, seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran and bowed down before Him, the man that was demon-possessed. And shouting with a loud voice, he said, what business do we have with each other, Jesus' Son of the Most High God? In Acts 19.15, there's a demonic possession scene again. And the demons say, Jesus we know and Paul we know, but who are you? They have amazing faith. And look what Paul says. But their faith doesn't save them. It causes them to cower. And he's still talking to this objector, this imaginary objector. And so he says this, verse 20. Are you willing to recognize, and look what he calls him, you foolish fellow. Literally, this is James being nice, empty head. You can't show me your faith without work. And just saying there's things going on in your brain waves that mean that there's a change and there doesn't have to be a change on the outside, that faith can't save you, man. It's one thing to have knowledge of facts. It's another thing to have a mental assent to those facts. Not only acknowledging the facts are there, but even saying, yes, I see them there. But it's a total different thing to trust those facts. Exercise that faith. That faith is a gift from God. So he uses a ministry example. These people say that they're ministry minded. He uses that example. Then he reaches for the highest doctrinal statement he could reach for, secondly. And has an imaginary conversation. To make the point, you can think you're saved and you're not. But now, he's pulling out the rook card as we go to number three. He's writing to a Jewish audience. He's going to reach for curtain number one. He's going to reach for Abraham. He's going to reach in what I call in letter C, the national hero. The national hero. Now look at verses 21-24. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works. And as a result of the works, faith was perfected. And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, and Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. And he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. You say, well, what's going on here? It sure sounds like Martin Luther said, like James and Paul are at odds here. Well, I need to remind you that, first of all, James is writing before Paul. He's writing this before Galatians and Romans were written. I think that's an important fact. But I do want you to hear Paul for a moment. I want you to see what appears to be a discrepancy. Hold your finger here and go with me to two passages. The first one is Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 4. You'll know this passage as soon as I start to read it. Verse 1, Romans 4.1, this is Paul. What then shall we say that Abraham our forefather according to the flesh has found? For if Abraham is justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. By the way, that's the same thing you just heard James quote. We'll get back to that. Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. A second text is Galatians 3, verses 6-7. Galatians 3, verses 6-7. Just listen. Even so Abraham believed God, He's quoting this again, the same thing that James quotes. And it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. And again, down at verse 11. Now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident. For the righteous man shall live by faith. You say, well it sure does sound like they are at odds. Well, again, let me point out something to you that will unlock a very confusing paragraph and actually make it very clear. Again, I like how Kent Hughes addresses this with one sentence in his commentary. He says, quote, Paul says works cannot bring us to Christ. James says that after we come to Christ, works are imperative. You say, what's going on here? Well understand this, that the phrase that both James and Paul quote is Genesis 15 verse 6. I want you to look at that with me. Genesis 15 verse 6, just real quickly. Again, these will be familiar words, but you need to lace these together tightly in your thinking. We have here the promise from God to Abraham that he will have a son. Remember that? Remember how old they were, Abraham and Sarah? And look at verse 5. And He took them outside and He says, Now look toward the heavens and count the stars. If you are able to count them, so shall your descendants be. He's saying that to a man without a child. He's promising him a child. An heir. And look at verse 6. And this is the same verse that Paul and James are quoting. Then he, Abraham, believed in the Lord, and he, God, reckoned it to him, Abraham, as righteousness. I think it's very important you understand that they're both quoting the same text in Genesis. But, James also refers to another scene in Abraham's life. Go back to James 2. Verse 21, Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? James quotes that first, and then he will fall back on Genesis 15.6 and verse 23. You say, what in the world is going on here? James is saying, and James is trying to make a point that your faith will produce fruit. There's no doubt about it. And he says, Abraham When he offered Isaac, or was prepared to offer his own son, his promised heir, Isaac, he was prepared and started to go through the motions of sacrificing his son out of obedience to God. God stopped him. James' point that he's making is his works, his obedience, prove that he has faith. And when did that faith start? Back in Genesis chapter 15, 30 years earlier. Between Genesis 15 and Genesis chapter 22, you have 25 to 30 years have passed. And for 25 to 30 years, Abraham's been a friend of God. Abraham has had his faith in God. It's been credited to him as righteousness. And when the time came to put the faith to the test, it passed. His offering of Isaac, or willingness to, didn't save him. James isn't teaching that it did. It only reveals that there already was in place a saving faith. So where we thought James and Paul disagree, we find indeed they agree. We already saw in James 1.17-18 that James already has taught that faith is a gift. Salvation is a free gift. It's not earned. And the works that James is talking about are different than the works that Paul is talking about in the context of Romans and Galatians. In Romans and Galatians, he's talking about the works of the law. James is talking about fruit of salvation. Or as one commentator says, Paul's focusing on the priority of faith. James is focusing on the proof of faith. Paul taught there would be fruit. Ephesians 2.10 talks about good works which God has prepared beforehand for us to walk in them. Or in Galatians 5.6, Paul writes, faith working through love. And so that's why I like coming to James here in chapter 2, and it says that when Abraham was justified by his works, it doesn't mean he was saved, it means that his works, listen, vindicated, proved that he was the real deal. And he says it in a different way at the end of verse 22. You see, faith was working with his works, or literally out from, and as a result of the works, here's a phrase, faith was perfected. It was brought to completion. Tilias. It's like if there was a Dunkin Donuts coffee shrub or tree, there's debate whether it's a tree or a shrub, I would buy it. And I'd learn how to roast it. I love their coffee. I know that's a mystery to you. But you know what? Let's say I got a little sapling, if that's what I would call it. You can tell I don't work in a garden. Work with me. I got a sapling of a Dunkin' Donuts coffee bean shrub tree thing. And I planted it and I watered it and I gave it all the care I was told to and I was instructed to. And you know what? You could come to my house and I'd show you that's a Dunkin' Donuts coffee bean sapling. And it would be. It would be true. But it wouldn't come to completion until it had matured to a point where it was producing the blossoms and producing the coffee bean that I would roast. Even before the bean showed up, it was a legitimate coffee shrub. But we will eventually expect there to be fruit. So he reaches for the national hero real quickly. Where does he reach next? An unlikely hero. I mean, look at it this way. He goes from the height of the Jewish mind of Abraham to this fourth category. An unlikely hero. Verse 25. He goes from Abraham, ground zero in the Jewish mind, and now he reaches for a Gentile, who happens to be a woman, who happens to be a prostitute, who happens to be a liar. He's making a point. The way Abraham was saved and produced works. to prove the reality of his faith, it's the same with the most detestable person you can come up with in your mind. In the same way it was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way. And he's rehearsing here Joshua chapter 2 in the fall of Jericho. And you will read in verses 8-24 four expressions of Rahab's faith. We know that God is with you. We know He's giving you this area. We know He's given you this city. She's expressing faith in God. But what does she do to demonstrate it? The cord that she uses to lower the spies out her window? She does what the spies say and leave it there, demonstrating works or fruit of her faith. So much so that she herself makes it unto the hall of faith in Hebrews 11.31. By faith, Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace. Even an unlikely hero demonstrates that faith will produce works. But then he reaches one more place. Maybe he didn't connect with the ministry context, or the imaginary arguer, or the national hero, or an unlikely hero. Well, this fifth one, anyone can connect with. Listen, at any time, all the time, he uses the physical body. The physical body, verse 26, Every last one of us constantly has a body. Every last one of us understands the human body. And if there's no spirit in the body, it's dead. If the body is not animated with life, it's dead. And spiritually speaking, it's not like he was saved and then lost it. No, there was never any life to begin with. Wow! James! Take it easy. These people are hurting. James uses a ministry context, imaginary conversation, a national hero, an unlikely hero, and a physical body to warn, listen, professing believers that it's possible to have a verbal, mental, optional faith that's still an unsaving faith. You say, wow, so what? And real quickly, number three, the principles. How do you walk out of here? Here it is. First of all, be serious in your personal evaluation. I beg you. And in a service where we even had the Lord's Table, I remind you that there are some Christians who worry about their salvation and they shouldn't. And there are other professing Christians who don't worry about their salvation and definitely should. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 13.5, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. And Peter agrees in 2 Peter 1.10, Brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. My prayer this morning is that there are people here that think they're saved that would really get saved today. I'm just being straight up with you. Especially in a context like this that I grew up in as well. A Christian church. Vibrant Christian church. With decades of ministry. I grew up in a church with a huge bus ministry and a huge thriving Christian school. And many of my classmates are not Christians today. They never were. And a lot of Christians in that church professing Christians were merely riding on the coattails of energy of a few people doing a lot of ministry. And there's no life in those people. Do a sobering, sobering inventory. Is your life producing the fruit of salvation? Secondly, be encouraged by your radical transformation. Brothers and sisters, if you truly are in Christ, you look at your life on a regular basis, whether you've been saved for months or years or days, and you're like, how in the world is this happening? I mean, the transformation in my life, I can't explain, you think. And I'm like, that's right. You can't explain it but to look up and say, thank you, Lord, for rescuing me and making me a new creature. 2 Corinthians 5.17. If anyone's in crisis, a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. Be encouraged by the change you see. And thirdly, be honest with your personal evangelism. Please be honest with your personal evangelism. No more easy-believism evangelism. Don't say, just repeat after me. Paul says in Acts 26.20 how they kept declaring both to those of Damascus first, then also at Jerusalem, then throughout the whole region of Judea, and even to the Gentiles, listen, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance. I remember I used to do the easy prayer thing, make no demands on someone, and I used to lead a lot of people to Christ, especially in college and grad school, out on the street. And then I read John MacArthur's book, The Gospel According to Jesus, and a few other books by Sproul and some others, and it messed my life up. First of all, it made me do an inventory I had never done before about if I was truly saved. And it changed my evangelism. I even wrote a tract back then that started with the holiness of God. And it called for people to acknowledge that and to understand what repentance from sin is and what trust in Christ is. And that things are going to be different. You know, I didn't see as many people saved. I still saw some people saved. But I saw lasting fruit with those people. Because you're honest going in with evangelism. The Spirit of God worked with the simplicity and the clarity of the Gospel presentation and people were truly transformed. So you can see why as we come to Palm Sunday, I am saying to you, this isn't a game. Church is not a game. And you don't get a pass because you've been present and active. Time will tell the truth. You know, it was Martin Luther who really struggled with accepting James initially. He called it that right straw epistle. But it was also Martin Luther in the preface to his Romans commentary, and I close with these words. He too taught the importance of works with faith. How faith, we are saved by faith, but a faith that saves you is a faith that changes. And he wrote these words. Oh, it is a living, busy, mighty thing, this faith. And so it is impossible for it not to do good works incessantly. It does not ask whether there are any good works to do, but before the question rises, it has already done them and is always at the doing of them. He who does not these works is a faithless man. He gropes and looks about after faith and good works and knows neither what faith is nor what good works are, and though he talks and talks with many words about faith and good works." He got it. Do we get it?