It's always a joy to gather a second time on the Lord's Day. And it's always a privilege to open up His Word and share fellowship around it. Please turn with me to James Chapter 2. In James Chapter 2, we will be primarily focusing on verses 18 through 26 in this chapter. But for the sake of context, I want to begin reading in verse 14. James 2. 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. Pray with me. Heavenly Father, this text can be difficult in its interpretation, but also in its application. So, Lord, we pray that you would help us, you would assist us, preacher and hearer alike, We pray for clarity, but also for power, also for you to work in our hearts. We pray with a view towards this upcoming week that we want to be men and women of integrity who walk according to what we claim to believe about you and about the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you will grant us humility, that if there is something that is at conflict with something that we are living in today, that we would be humble enough to receive it, that we would receive the Word of Heaven appropriately, and desire, in turn, to live according to what You desire us to do. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. One of the amazing things about the Word of God, as many of you know, is how it always seems to anticipate objections, that could come against it. God is never caught off guard by the objections and disagreements that come up against him. For example, we see this in Paul's epistles in Romans 3, verse 7, after he said that man's unrighteousness demonstrates just how righteous God is in contrast to man, he already anticipates an objection coming up. In verse 7, Somebody might say, hey, why not do evil that good may come? Another text in Romans, similarly in Romans 6, after he confirms that we are all under grace and not under the law, in similar fashion in verse 15, he asks hypothetically, what then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but grace? I'm sure you guys are familiar with those kinds of hypothetical questions thrown around by the Apostle Paul. because he understands that not everybody is going to be automatically on board with the argument that he is giving. He writes these hypothetical questions because he knows not everyone in his audience will automatically obey or agree with what he is saying. James is no exception. After James begins to explain why true Christian faith will produce good works, He also anticipates an objector. He already anticipates someone among his audience to have a problem with what he just wrote down. Therefore, we read in James 2.18, but someone will say, but someone will say, you have faith and I have works. And before we move on from that verse onward, Before we move on, I wanted to provide some basic context about this epistle just to give us a refresher. The author is James, the oldest half-brother of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was considered an associate of the apostles and a leader in the Jerusalem church. And his audience was made up of Jewish Christians who were dispersed from Jerusalem due to persecution at the hand of Herod Agrippa. And the burden of James' heart was to see these believers actively, consistently live in righteousness, to practically live for Jesus in all aspects of life. Therefore, this book has rightly been called the Proverbs of the New Testament. Our section in chapter 2 began with a question, and we read this in verse 14. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? And now, underline this next question, because this is really the theme of this entire second half of James 2. Can that faith save him? Can that kind of faith save him? This question is the question that James is seeking to answer. James is arguing, therefore, that a faith that does not produce good fruit is not saving faith. Some people may say that James is in conflict with Paul, and that James is teaching work salvation, and that can obviously not be further from the truth. It cannot be further from the truth. Listen to one of the most famous sections in Paul's letters, Ephesians 2, verses 8-10. Don't turn there, I'll just read it. Ephesians 2, verses 8-10, For by grace you have been saved through faith, And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of our works, so that no one may boast, for we are his workmanship." We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for what? For good works. Which God prepared beforehand that we should walk. That we should walk in them. That we should walk in good works. James is in perfect harmony with that text that we just listened to in Ephesians 2. In light of Ephesians 2, James might as well be saying, if God has given you the faith just described for us by Paul in Ephesians, you would be a new creature who walks in good works. Plain and simple. So James is arguing that if you are not walking in good works, it begs a serious question as to whether or not you have true saving faith. Can a faith that is in contradiction with Ephesians 2 be true faith from God? Be true faith in Jesus Christ? I like to believe if James had a copy of Ephesians, he would put that in as a supporting document within his own epistle. Unfortunately, I think he wouldn't have had a chance. The epistle of James is most likely written before Ephesians. In any case, he is arguing to his audience, yeah, you may have faith. Sure, you have faith. But it might be a man-made faith. It's not a God-made faith. It's not a God-created faith. It's not a faith from heaven. It is not the faith that God gives, as we just read in Ephesians, because God's gift of faith will inevitably result in good works. But somebody disagrees, right? Somebody disagrees, or at least James anticipates somebody, at least one person, to disagree with what he just wrote down. So let's go to James 2.18. Now we begin with our text, James 2.18. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Now there's some debate among scholars about what James' opponent really means when he says the statement, you have faith and I have works. But this much is clear, he is not happy with what James has argued for so far. He doesn't like what James just said and I don't think he, and this is, you know, please bear with me, this is my interpretation and I think there is again a disagreement on this exact meaning from this objector, but I think that this guy is not a super aggressive, argumentative, hostile guy. I don't think this is a very aggressive guy. I think he's trying to diffuse any tension that James is creating with people who really don't want to live in righteousness. He's trying to be the middleman, some sort of mediator within the context of this confrontation that's probably going to take place between James and people who say, I don't need to live out my faith in this practical way. I think he's trying to be some sort of a mediator within that confrontation. And I was thinking about titling the sermon, a rebuke for an antinomian, that is somebody who is anti-law, anti-law of God. But I think an even better title, and this is a term that would not have been used back then, but it would definitely be applicable today. I think an even better title for this sermon is a rebuke for easy-believism. A rebuke for easy-believism. And easy-believism is so pervasive in in the American church. It is absolutely pervasive. It is everywhere. And for clarity's sake, it is the idea that as long as you have some kind of intellectual acknowledgement that Jesus is Lord and Savior, and you compliment that with a little bit extra, a little bonus, which would be, you know, walking down the aisle, signing a card, being baptized, showing some temporary action. That's enough. That validates your faith, right? So you hear about, you know, unfortunately, right? When you're at a funeral and you have a professing Christian who's passed away, but you know this person did not live a life that was according to the gospel. But the people, their family, the pastor, whoever it is, who is trying to put some positive spin on this person's life usually says, but this person did pray a prayer when they were 12. They did raise their hand at youth retreat when they were 15, even though from that point on there was absolutely no sign of repentance, of saving faith that was lived out in good works. I think this opponent of James is close to that line of thought. He isn't anti-law, anti-nomos, completely, but he is anti-law in the sense that he doesn't believe that every professing Christian has to obey the law of God. It's a good option, but it's not for everyone. So this guy, this opponent, I believe is essentially saying, hey, you have faith, and I don't think he's directly speaking to James, I think he's speaking in more general terms, hey, you have faith, I have works. You do you, I do me. You show your love for God in that way, and I'll show my love for God in this way. He's suggesting that good works are not expected from every Christian. Hey, some of us only have faith, and that's alright. Not everybody's as committed. I'm committed. I'm happy to live out my faith, but this is an option. This is not a command that is universal for every Christian. So, James, please calm down a little bit. Let's diffuse the situation a little bit. In other words, he seems to be driving, this objector, this opponent, is driving a wedge, driving a wedge between faith and works, as if they are not related to one another. James responds, therefore, in the second half of verse 18, Look in your Bibles. Show me your faith. Show me your faith apart from your works. And I will show you my faith by my works. According to James, there's no division, right? There's no division between faith and works. They're essentially two sides of the same coin. Two sides of the same coin. If you truly have faith in Jesus, you will bear good works. If you bear good works, it is because you truly have faith in Jesus. You can see this goes completely against easy-believism. In easy-believism, faith in Jesus doesn't necessarily result in a transformed life. The problem is God doesn't create pennies with Lincoln memorials missing. If God gives somebody faith, as we just read in Ephesians 2, that faith will inevitably result in good works. He gives that person a new heart and expects him or her to begin walking according to his commandments. Easy Believism says, hey, it's alright, you don't need a Lincoln Memorial. God accepts pennies with Abraham Lincolns, but that's it. The Word of God obviously completely contradicts that. God does not create pennies that are only half filled. The Word of God says, if you don't have a Lincoln Memorial, you're a fraud, right? You don't have the real thing. You don't have real saving faith. Show me. You can't, right? James isn't expecting some kind of answer, right? Some kind of sufficient answer to that question. I know you can't show your faith. I know you can't show that you really believe in Jesus unless you can point to the way in which you live consistently. When he says that, When he says, I will show you my faith by my works, he's touching on the central theme of this entire passage, and that passage is James 2.14 all the way to the end of the chapter. He's touching on the central theme of this text, and it is this true faith is shown, is demonstrated by visible good works that continue on throughout a believer's life. We can say, I believe Jesus is my Lord and Savior. Obviously, especially easy in our American culture, even today with a post-Christian culture, it's still relatively easy to just say that. But if there's no reflection of that confession in how we live day to day, that confession is empty. If believing in Jesus doesn't produce love for our Christian brother or sister, doesn't produce love for the lost, and it doesn't produce a pattern of righteous living for the Lord, your confession is fraudulent. So for the rest of this evening, our focus is to examine the rest of James' response to his opponent. And I think that his response can be divided into three rebukes. Three rebukes. First, a rebuke with demons. Secondly, a rebuke with scripture. And finally, a rebuke with a corpse. As we do so, I have a two-fold purpose for us. First, for us believers to rightly examine ourselves. For all of us in this room to examine ourselves, to see if we have any easy believism characteristics or beliefs still stuck in our minds that we need to rightly repent of and turn from. That's purpose number one. Purpose number two, my goal is that for anyone here who thinks they have true faith, that they will humbly recognize that they do not and repent for the first time and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. Let's move on with our text. Verse 19. James leads into his first rebuke, a rebuke with demons. You believe that God is one. You do well. That's some sarcasm. That's some sarcasm. You do well. Okay, good job. Clap, clap, clap. You believe that God is one. But even the demons believe and shudder. Even demons have a confession of faith. Even demons believe in the Shema, which is Deuteronomy 6.4, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. That's the text that James has in mind as he writes this down here in verse 19. Remember, he's confronting Jewish Christians in this epistle, so he's perfectly aware that his audience is made up of people who have memorized the Old Testament, and most definitely the Shema, since they were a toddler. And just in case they thought well of themselves, because of their monotheism that God is one, he checks them a bit. And he tells them, well, that's not really a big deal because demons do that too. Demons do that too. What's so special about that? You do well. Clack, clack, clack. What's so special about that? Imagine this. Put this more in our modern context. Just imagine this in your mind. What would happen if you put right in front of a demon the Westminster Confession or the Baptist faith and message, whatever confession that you agree with more. They'll probably believe and shudder, but their faith in that document and what that document teaches will not lead to repentance, nor does it lead to worship. It is suggested from the gospel accounts that one of, if not the main reason why, Jesus, and I always found this to be very unique, very interesting, the main reason why Jesus did not let the demons speak out loud publicly about his identity is because they did not make those confessions that he is the son of God out of a place of repentance, out of a place of worship. You could put it this way, demon faith has the correct information, but it does not have the correct posture. Demon faith has the correct information, but the incorrect posture. For example, you can hear the begrudging nature of demon faith in Matthew 8.29. Don't turn to this text, just one verse. It's Matthew 8.29, when Jesus encounters the two demon-possessed men, and the demons speak through the men by crying out, What have you to do with us? What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? Translation, why are you here so early? We know who you are. We know what you're going to do with us eventually. But why are you here so early? So you can hear the sense of fear and trembling. You can even hear some respect for Jesus. But obviously, they don't want any kind of intimate business with Him. They don't want any kind of intimate proximity with Him. They don't want to repent. And they have definitely no interest in worshipping Him. We live in, I just mentioned this a few moments ago, we live in a post-Christian age, whatever that means. We live in a post-modern age, a godless age. And as a result, how many of us, if we're honest with ourselves, as we're here at church on Sunday, not only morning but evening service, how many of us, if we're honest with ourselves, kind of feel good about ourselves? Maybe just a little bit. You know, as our culture decays, right? As all of these sins that the Bible condemns becomes normalized within politics, within Hollywood, within every avenue of our society, how easy is it, how tempting is it for us to just feel a little bit good about ourselves? That we do believe that God is one. That we do believe the Bible is the Word of God. That Jesus is not just a man, but the God-man, the Son of God. It can be pretty tempting. And if you do, that's obviously good and dandy, but it only gets you as far as demons go. Right? It only gets you as far as demons go. So my encouragement for all of us tonight is that we seek assurance that we are the real deal, that we have true saving faith in what the Bible signifies as evidence of saving faith. not this comparison game with this decaying pagan culture that we live in. Look to the scriptures to receive affirmation that you are truly a follower of Jesus Christ. For example, the fruits of the Spirit, love for your neighbor, a servant's heart, being unashamed to share Christ, proclaim the gospel to people. And if I may add, Don't seek assurance in associations. Don't seek assurance in associations, and that can come in a multitude of ways, and we have a tendency to do that. That can come in a multitude of ways, being associated with your family, because they have multiple generations of pastors or faithful believers. I'm a part of my family who has this incredible legacy. Therefore, I must be Christian. Or it could be, children trusting in their parents, right? Trusting in their parents' faith, as if there's some overflow. Some overflow that comes from faithful parents who have believed in the Lord for a long time and continue to be passionate about the gospel. And as a child, you begin to think, well, I like mom and dad. I don't know about God, but I do like mom and dad. I respect mom and dad. And that association gives you a level of comfort. that you are Christian, possibly. And I can identify more with this. You associate yourself, if you're somebody who wants to do ministry, who wants to preach, you associate yourself with the right conferences, the right seminaries. I went to the Ligonier Conference. I went to the Shepherds Conference. I came from Southern Seminary, a conservative Bible-believing seminary. And I'm preaching, I'm not just a churchman, I'm not a layperson, but I'm doing real ministry publicly for other people. And I'm associated with these great men. Of course, I'm being faithful. Of course, I'm showing signs of grace in my life. But none of those things are confirmed in Scripture as evidence of saving faith. Seek and find assurance of your salvation in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness. In the fact that you don't love the world anymore. In the fact that you are no longer enslaved to certain vices which did hold you in bondage. Find assurance in these things. Because demons, they can go to a certain extent in faith, you could say. but they have no business with the characteristics that I just mentioned. The born-again believer does. So James first rebukes the opponent, his opponent with a rebuke with demons, and secondly, he goes on to a rebuke with Holy Scripture, and in his context, the Old Testament Scriptures is what he has in mind. Verse 20. Do you want to be shown You foolish person. That faith apart from works is useless? I love how direct he is. 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. James here points to two Old Testament examples, Abraham and Rahab, to show that their very own, now that is a rebuke in itself, that these Jewish Christians who grew up with the Old Testament Scriptures, the Hebrew Bible, he points to their own Hebrew Bible, which they know so well, to attest to the fact that true faith in God always results in action. Abraham and Rahab both heard the Word of God, they both believed the Word of God, and they both acted according to the Word of God. In Abraham's case, he had heard from God, that through Isaac, his offspring will be named. That's Genesis 21-12. So when he went to offer Isaac at the altar, the writer of Hebrews says this, he, Abraham, considered that God was able even to raise him, Isaac, from the dead to fulfill his, God's promise to produce offspring through Isaac. In Rahab's case, the second example, she heard in Jericho about God rescuing his people in the Exodus, and she heard about how God destroyed the two kings of the Amorites. Therefore, Joshua 2.11 states, her heart melted. Her heart melted because she heard and believed that the God of Israel was the God of the heavens and the earth. Her faith in Yahweh was the true and living God. led her to act and serve the two spies on that night. And I believe she served those two spies because she knew they belonged to the God. They served the God whom she was being drawn to. It wasn't just this horizontal human-to-human interaction. I believe there was some kind of theological vertical interaction going on. She is seeking to serve the God that she was being drawn to. It's a perfect example of how James is not talking about perfectionism. For him to use these two individuals is a great case of anti-perfectionism. I can't really say it any better than that. Abraham lied, Rahab lied, and the Bible never endorses those lies, never puts those lies in a positive way. But they did fundamentally believe in the Word of God that came to them and their faith in God produced action can produce action. At the core of both of their beings, God had given them a living faith that was willing to act. And don't let this language of being justified by works and not by faith alone scare you too much. We must remember the context of this entire text, of this entire passage, especially verses 14 to 26. And you could even argue the whole epistle is focused upon the necessity of sanctification, the necessity to live out your faith in good works. This is the context when James says this in verse 24, being justified by works and not by faith alone. And the Greek word dikaio, which is translated justified in this verse, more literally means just to regard as just or righteous. Abraham and Rahab were just and righteous in terms of sanctification, in terms of living consistently with their faith in God. And we do this in our normal language. If you see a brother or sister in the hallway and you're trying to maybe refer somebody to a good Bible study, it's like, oh, okay, all right, well, I want to refer you to that righteous brother or sister. That guy's a really righteous man and I refer you to him. When we say that, that man is righteous, we're not saying that man bribed God with his good works. We're not saying that, right? We're saying that's a man who lives according to his faith. That's a man of integrity. He walks according to his talk. That's what we mean when we say that man's a righteous man. And I think that's the idea here, that Abraham and Rahab were declared to be right in terms of their integrity. They lived according to what they believed about God. The context, again, is not about the forgiveness of sins. That would be a problem. If the context was about being forgiven and cleansed of our sins, only Jesus Christ can accomplish justification along those terms. To segue a bit, what if, let's just say that James, so quick history lesson, James was written around AD 40 to 50, the last book of the New Testament, the revelation that was given to John, probably in the early AD 90s. Let's just say that this document, this epistle of James was written after the book of Revelation, okay? Just explore your imagination with me for a bit. And keep in mind that James was happy to use some Old Testament scriptures to rebuke his audience, to give them clear examples of men and women who acted upon their faith. So let's say James has the New Testament in his arsenal, and he's talking to the modern Christian. He's writing a letter to the modern Christian. He has the New Testament in his bag. I would like to thank you, probably say, do you not know Peter? Do you not know Paul? Do you not know these men who live out their faith? Who put in work for the gospel? Where in the New Testament do you see any kind of lax, apathetic, anti-law Christianity? So even to this modern American church, There are no excuses because we do have the full counsel of God showing example after example of men of God who didn't just make a profession of faith and live like a pagan. We have men and women who are not perfect, but definitely pursued perfection for the glory of God. That is throughout the scriptures. So even for our American modern church, there is absolutely no excuse for us to think that to be a true Christian, you don't have to live out your faith, you don't have to bear good fruit, you don't have to bear, show evidence of grace in your life. Jesus did not suffer on the cross to redeem a lazy, complacent people. Titus 2.14 says this explicitly. Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. The rebuke against easy-believism can be made with demons and also all of the Holy Scriptures that you have in your hand. And finally, we end with a corpse. A rebuke with a corpse. Verse 26. For as the body apart from the Spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. I'm sure many of us have attended a funeral with an open casket, In an open casket, you see whoever just passed away dressed up pretty nicely, probably has some makeup on. If you just glance over really quickly, and I've had this thought when I've passed by an open casket, you can maybe convince yourself that they're just asleep. They look relatively acceptable, presentable. And you can maybe convince yourself for a second, that man, that woman, is just asleep. You can come to a church like this. You can listen to the right sermons. You can know how to do the religious talk, how to talk Christian. And you can have an appearance that you are spiritually alive. But that fake makeup and that fake suit and tie is not going to fool God. You can appear a certain way. You can appear spiritually alive. You may even be able to convince yourself that you're spiritually alive. But underneath, your soul is rotting. It is dead. Still under the bondage of vices. Still under the bondage of pride, of anger, murdering her, still under the bondage of lust, fornication, immorality, still under the bondage of self-righteousness, still under the bondage of drunkenness, substance abuse, you name it, you are not bearing good works to the glory of God and you're spiritually rotting inside. You have an appearance that you have spiritual life, but God sees through all of the façade. So my question is, is that any of us here today? Is that any of us here today? Are we bringing a façade to Grace Baptist Church? Are we bringing a façade and even convincing ourselves that we are okay with God because we can play church, we can play religion? At the beginning I said that I had two purposes in preaching this text. First, for us believers to examine ourselves to see if we are consistent with the Word of God, to see if we have any easy believism characteristics right now and rightly repent of those ways. And secondly, for anyone here who thinks they have true saving faith, for that person to finally realize that they don't have saving faith and repent for the first time and trust in Jesus for salvation. I'm going to be very upfront. I'm addressing that second crowd right now. So I'm sure there's at least one person in this room that can fit into this category. And to that person, if that's you, I want to leave you with an image. I want to leave you with an image as we head out. Imagine we're just talking about a casket, we're just talking about a funeral, talking about death, a dead body. Imagine it is your funeral. You've passed away and it's also an open casket. It's also an open casket and your friends and your family, your brothers and sisters or the Christians that you did life with here at Grace Baptist are passing by your casket and they're giving their condolences to your family, to your friends. Ask yourself this question. What will they think and what will they say as they pass by that casket? Will they say, Johnny here, he's a good guy. He's a nice guy. I could do business with him. I could trust my family with him. He even made a profession of faith. But if I'm going to be honest, I never saw Monday through Saturday, Christianity. I never saw a consistent display of good works indicating, giving evidence of saving faith in his heart. I'm gonna be honest, I don't know if Johnny is in the loving presence of Jesus right now. Or, or, in my hope and prayers, that's going to be this scenario for you, or will it be, isn't it such an amazing thing? Isn't it such a celebratory event? Of course, there's sorrow at a funeral. Of course, there's sorrow in the passing even of a believer. But will your brothers and sisters, the Christians that you did life with here at Grace Baptist, pass by your open casket and say, Isn't it amazing that he or she is finally with the Lord Jesus Christ whom he or she went to work for and served for and labored for throughout the course of his or her life. It must be so rewarding to finally be with the Savior who he or she loved and worked for all those years. Will that be what people are saying as they pass by our casket at our funeral? In God's grace, I pray that will be the case for all of us. Amen? Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the whole counsel of God. It gives us a sense of your grace. It also gives us a sense of your law. It gives us tremendous wisdom as to how we are to live for you and honor you and glorify you. We pray, Father, that you would give us the right posture before you, the right posture before your Son, that You would purge out of our hearts any pride, any arrogance before Your Word, that You would grant us the right self-examination of where we are at. And we pray, Lord, that we would be a people that are consistent with Titus 2.14, a people zealous for good works because of our faith and love for Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray that if there is a child, an adult in this room, who trusts in associations, who is trusting in comparison games, and is temporarily able to play the church game. We pray, Lord, that You would grant them faith in Jesus, a robust, obvious faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.