Let's pray, please. Father, we pray your blessing upon our time in Holy Scripture. May we. Revere these words as the very words of eternal life that come to us from the mouth of our God. We bless you that you preserve through your good providence these words for us that we might learn from them, that we might take them into our hearts and be changed by them. We pray we would receive their truth with faith and love laid up in our hearts and practice it in our lives. In Christ's holy name we ask, amen. Please take your Bibles and turn to James chapter two, verse 14 to 26. James 2, verses 14 through 26 is our scripture reading and our sermon text for this morning. James 2, 14 through 26. James 2, beginning at verse 14, this is God's word. What use is it, my brethren, 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 warm, 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. Someone may well say, 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, you do well. The demons also believe and 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 also faith without works is dead. May God bless the reading of his holy word. Let's say you one day have the opportunity to be a witness for the gospel to someone, and you seize that opportunity. And after you've shared the gospel with them and spoken clearly and plainly about what it means to be saved by faith alone and Christ alone, even mentioning the marvelous doctrine of the legal forensic justification of the sinner before God through Christ's righteousness being imputed to our account. And you speak of the cross of Christ being the sole basis of our forgiveness. Let's say you got this in response from someone. Let's say that they hear all that and then say this to you. Well, I certainly believe that we need the grace of God and we need Jesus to be saved, but the Bible very clearly denies what you are saying. We must have works in order to be saved. Jesus told a very important parable in Matthew 18 about a man who owed his master 10,000 talents, which is an unimaginable sum of money. And when this man was unable to pay off his debt, he begged for mercy and the master forgave him that entire debt, the whole 10,000 talents. But when this man had a servant who owed him a much smaller amount and refused to forgive him, the master reinstituted the man's debt. The passage even says, Matthew 18, 34, And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay off all that was due to him. So my heavenly Father also will do to you, if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses. Not only this, but you spoke so much of the idea of justification by faith alone as being what the Bible teaches. And yet, none of the passages you cited use that phrase, faith alone. Did you know that the only place faith alone is actually used in the Bible is James 2.24? And in that passage, your doctrine of justification is explicitly rejected by the God-breathed scriptures. James 2.20. But do you want to know, oh foolish man, that faith without works is dead? James 2.24, you see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. How can you believe in justification by faith alone, when the only place that phrase is used in the whole Bible is James 2.24, where it's denied? How would you answer them? You need to know how to answer that. Teach your children, teach your grandchildren, teach all future generations, please hear me. If the first place a person goes in the Bible to describe how a person can be saved and go to heaven, if the first place they go is a parable or James chapter two, you are talking to a person who is not in submission to the word of God. And you're talking to a person who in the final analysis doesn't care what the Bible says. You just need to know that. Now, scripture was just quoted, wasn't it? and lip service was given that this is what the scripture says. But how do we know this? How do we know that people that begin in the details of parables or James 2, how do we know that they're not in submission to the word of God? Several reasons. Number one, the book of James is wisdom literature, speaking to Christians about living the Christian life. It is not an exposition of the doctrine of the justification of the sinner before God. Why would you go to wisdom literature instead of to the sections of the Bible that address the subject? Number two, it's a very common error of beginning Bible students to assign a certain meaning to a word and then assume that that's what the word means everywhere it's used. They see the English word justified in James 2 and assume with no sensitivity to the context that it's being used in the same way Paul uses it in Galatians and Romans. Thirdly, parables. Parables are a specific genre of literature, which is intended to communicate one primary meaning. The details of parables are not supposed to have mountains of theology extracted from them. If someone starts with the details of parables to explain what they believe, how someone gets to heaven, I wanna warn you, be on the alert, be on the alert. This morning, we're gonna walk through a very important and beautiful passage of scripture, James 2, 14 to 26, which we must understand well, so that we're not misled by the unfortunate frequent misuses of the passage to deny the freeness of the gospel of Christ. But apart from its frequent misuse, James 2, 14 to 26, it's positive teaching, I believe, is one of the biggest doctrinal needs in America today. How many people do we talk to when we go out witnessing who claim to be Christians? Probably more than half. And then when we ask them to explain the gospel, there's no understanding at all. None. There's no repentance. There's no discipleship. They don't understand grace. They don't understand how a person's made right with God. So this morning, we're gonna look at a passage that needs to be preached, and it needs to be preached fervently and accurately. It's misused a lot, that's a shame, that's on the church, but it's much needed. Now, I've given you an outline there in your bulletin, we just covered the first point, if it's in the bulletin, actually, yeah, it is. Introduction, the imaginary false teacher. Go back and listen to that again and think, how would you answer someone who said everything that I just said? If you can't tell, I've had that said to me by many people over the years. Point number two, all other saving graces. You need to understand what this is about. The Westminster Confession of Faith makes a critical point in its chapter on justification. How is a person made right with God so they can go to heaven? Listen. It says, faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and His righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification, yet it is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but works by love. What does that mean? It is not alone in the person justified. Faith is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces. Saving faith in Jesus Christ and repentance unto life are both gifts of Christ to his elect people. Both of those gifts are secured by the cross of Jesus. We must never think of the work of Christ on the cross as separated from his intercessory work for us in heaven. The very same group that Jesus died for, He also intercedes for. He prays for them that their faith would not fail. Jesus Christ gave Himself on the cross for His elect people, and He intercedes only for those for whom He died. This is the expressed teaching of the Word of God. Consider this passage. When people ask you the question, how can you believe in a limited atonement? How can you possibly believe in a limited atonement? And the reason we believe in it is because it's the explicit teaching of the word of God. Listen to scripture. Listen to Romans 8, 29. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called. Whom he called, these he also justified. Whom he justified, these he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? What then shall we say? What shall we say to the doctrine of predestination? Wow, what a great topic for us to all fight about and split over, right? Is that what Paul says? He says, if God is for us, who can be against us? And then he says, listen carefully to who Christ died for. Listen, he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. Who is the us all there? Those foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified. How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? Who is the us all that Christ was given for? God's elect. It is God who justifies, verse 34. Who is He who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore has also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. What is the antecedent of that pronoun? God's elect. Who does Christ intercede for? God's elect. Who does He give Himself, deliver Him up for us all? What is the antecedent of the pronoun us? God's elect. Those foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified. When a person comes to Christ, it is because they have been drawn by the Father, because they were given to Christ before the foundation of the world. The person who truly comes to Christ does so because that individual's salvation was entrusted to Christ by the Father from before the foundation of the world. To come to Christ is to believe in him, to be justified by faith. Listen to the word of God. Jesus told the 5,000. The 5,000 that he had just fed with five barley loaves and two fish, they came over, they wanted another free lunch. And he told them that. He said, you're not following me because you saw the sign, but because you ate of the loaves and had your fill. And they say, what must we do that we may work the works that God requires? And Jesus said, here's the work that he requires, that you believe in me. And they could no more swallow that than most Americans today could. And then he tells them, all that the Father gives me, John 6, 37, all that the Father gives me will come to me. In other words, all that the Father gives me will believe in me, will come to me, will exercise faith in me. What does it mean to come? It means to believe on him for your justification, for your salvation. And as people are really getting angry at him and really considering walking away, he tells them this in John 6, 64. But there are some of you who do not believe, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who would betray him. And he said, therefore, I have said to you that no one is able to come to me unless it has been granted to him by my father. And the very next verse says, from that moment, many of his disciples turned away and followed him no more. Did Jesus care? He wanted real disciples. He wanted people who actually believed him, not people that were there for the free food. No one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up on the last day. This effectual drawing of the sinner to Christ, listen please, it's also a drawing away from sin. It's also a turning away from our former life, a turning away from our former master. Jesus said, no one can serve two. Every human being on earth, no matter who they are, where they live, where they're from, has one master and only one. And conversion to Christ is a turning away from the old master to a new one. In conversion, there's a radical reorientation in the heart that goes from self and sin to Christ. Repentance will always be present where there is true saving faith in Christ alone. A desire to follow Christ will always be present in someone who truly believes. And Acts 11, 18, the scripture says, when they heard these things, they became silent and they glorified God saying, then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life. And that was after they saw Cornelius and his household speaking in tongues and doing all of that. They said, hey, God has clearly granted repentance to them. Acts 13, 48, when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life, believed. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. If you're a Christian, same exact thing happened to you. The Lord opened your heart. You had been appointed to eternal life. The effectual call happened and aren't you thankful it wasn't resistible? Therefore, as Jesus taught us and as the rest of the scriptures bear out explicitly, Jesus came into the world with an express mission to save individuals who were elected by name from all eternity. And part of Jesus's work to secure and ensure that they will repent and believe is also to purify them and make them zealous for good works. Redeeming them from their sins and giving them a legal title to go to heaven is just as much a part of God's work in a person's life as he is making us zealous for good works. Those two things always go together. This is a critical point because so much of American evangelical Christianity today looks at the work of Christ on the cross as if it were an impersonal, generic, provisory work for the whole world. which meant if they're so inclined through common grace, they may or may not avail themselves of it through an independent act of their free will, thus in effect, saving themselves. This completely depersonalizes the doctrine of election and destroys one of the central doctrines of the Bible, which is that God has a church, that God has an elect people whose salvation he has entrusted to his son, our Lord Jesus. Every letter that was written in the New Testament is addressed to the called out ones. What does ekklesia mean? It means those who are called out. Called out by who? By God. Another reason this is so foundational to James 2 is the fact that God has predestined not only that we would repent and believe and be justified, but he also predestined that we would be conformed to the image of Christ. That we would be a people who are purified and made zealous for good works. Listen carefully to this passage and how it connects the work of Christ with being zealous for good works. Titus chapter 2, 11, listen to the scripture. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, listen, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed, that's our justification, and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works, sanctification. Saving faith and repentance are blood purchase gifts of Christ for his elect people. Just as Jesus Christ gave himself for us, that he would redeem us from every lawless deed, justification, he also gave himself to purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. There's no such thing as a redeemed person who is not also being purified and made zealous for good works. And that brings us to James 2, 14 to 26. Why is this passage so important? Here's a critical question I want you to think about. Can you see faith in Jesus Christ in someone? Can it be seen? The answer is no, you can't. Consider looking at two people who are sound asleep. Imagine that, looking at two different people who are sound asleep. One of them is a born again person who has faith in Christ and the other is not. Could you tell which one of them was a believer? No, God can, but we can't. More on that in a moment. One of the most important concepts that the Bible tells us that we need to have in our minds and hearts at all times, the Bible addresses the phenomenon of false brethren. At any given moment, I have no doubt about it, every church in this country, every church in the world has false brethren in it. Galatians 2 verse 4, Paul says, he makes a reference to that group of men in the Galatian churches. He identifies them as false brethren. Why did he identify them as false brethren? Because they didn't teach the true gospel. Jesus spoke about the church being occupied by wheat and tares. There will always be people in Christian churches who profess to have faith in Christ, but in reality, they don't. How can we tell the difference? At times, it can be extraordinarily difficult to. Extraordinarily difficult to tell, is someone a false brother or a false sister, or are they legitimately believers? Matthew 7, 15 says that many wolves come to us wearing sheep's clothing. They look like sheep. They act like sheep. They even talk like sheep. But inwardly, they are ravenous wolves, false apostles, deceitful workers, false brethren. Paul warns us in 2 Corinthians 11, 14, he says, Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if Satan's ministers, hang on, so Satan has ministers? Yeah, they get in pulpits every Sunday. Satan has ministers? Yes. And they mount pulpits every Sunday. It's no great thing if his ministers, if Satan's ministers transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works. Now, some false brethren will escape judgment all the way until their death. They won't be known until they die. What they really were will be revealed on the day of judgment. For many, however, Jesus said in Matthew 7, 20, by their fruits, you will know them. By their fruits, you will know them. And Paul also warned Timothy. You wanna write down a verse of scripture and meditate on it, chew on it, weigh it in your mind this Sabbath day. It's one of the most disturbing verses in the whole New Testament, I think. 1 Timothy 5, 24. Listen to scripture here, listen to it. Paul warned Timothy, a pastor, some men's sins are clearly evident. Okay, some people's sheep outfit is not very well fitted and you can see blood dripping off their fangs. Some men's sins are evident, preceding them to judgment. Listen, but those of some men follow later. They'll get away with it for years, decades, for a long time. Notice that it's not by what people say, but by their fruits that we will know them. There are very clear characteristics that are always found among God's truly redeemed elect people. In this passage here in James 2, we have a very clear reminder that a person's claim to have faith in Christ is not justified by faith alone, but by their works. I have people ask me all the time, how can I know if I'm one of God's elect? Can I really know if I'm one of God's elect? And I would say to you what the Synod of Dort said about that. How do we know if we're one of God's elect? It's not by trying to peer into God's hidden counsel or try to climb up into heaven and look at God's mind. It's by noticing the clear fruits of election pointed out in God's word. A true faith in Christ, a longing to obey, a hunger for worship, a hunger for fellowship with God's people, a longing to know the word of God. Those are the fruits and the signs that someone truly is a believer. And so a person's claim to have faith in Christ is not justified by faith alone, but only by their works. So let's walk through the passage. Look at verse 14. This is dead faith versus living faith. Verse 14. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? And the opening verse is the key to the whole passage. It's critical that we consider verses 14 to 26 as a whole unit. And notice verse 14 closely. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? What this entire passage is going to address fully is how a person can be justified before men in saying they have faith. That's what the passage is about. How is my profession of faith justified? Not before God, but before you, before other people. It can only be justified by what I do. My profession of faith can't stand by itself. It can only be shown to be right by the way I live my life. That's what the passage is about. It's not about how a sinner is justified before God. The fact is, anyone can say that they have faith, but such a profession, if it's not accompanied by all the other marks of God's saving mercy, by repentance, by a zeal for good works, a brokenness over sin, a desire to be holy, then that faith they claim to have is dead being by itself, is what the passage says. This should stand as a challenge to all of us. Many of us have heard the gospel hundreds of thousands of times in our lives. And most of us here this morning would say, I have faith. I have faith in Christ. And the passage asks a question about a profession of faith that is not accompanied by works. Can that kind of faith save someone? The point is that only those whose lives have been obviously, clearly, visibly changed by the grace of regeneration have the right to be justified in saying, I have faith in Christ. The faith of some people exists only in words, like talkative from the Pilgrim's Progress. Just talk, talk, talk, talk all the time. Such is a clear indication that they're hypocrites who have deceived themselves. The work of Christ not only forgives us of all of our sins, our past, present, and future sins, our original sin that we inherit from Adam, and all of our actual transgressions. The work of Christ not only forgives us of all of our sins, declares us righteous by Christ's righteousness being put into our account, but it also purifies for himself, for the Lord, a special people who are zealous for good works. There's no such thing as a true Christian who's justified by faith alone, who is not also in their personal and church life, zealous for good works. Now, if you hear that and think, boy, I just feel terrible about how zealous I am, I have hope for you. If you're sitting here going, yep, I'm zealous for good works, check, got it, we're good to go, I'd be worried about you. Those redeemed from every lawless deed are also purified and made zealous for good works. Think about this. When the gospel came to the city of Ephesus, in Acts 19, the Bible tells us that many, quote, who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. Now, why did they do that? Why'd they do that? Because now they're zealous for good works. And part of a zeal for good works includes a hatred for your former bad works. Have you ever seen someone delivered from grim servitude and slavery to certain kinds of sin? And they become angry at who they once were. They become angry about the sin that they once were enslaved to. I had a dear Christian brother in college and we used to get together and read scripture together and pray together. And we would walk to a coffee shop and on our way to that coffee shop, we would walk past a store that sold pornographic magazines. And I remember walking with him to that coffee shop for the first time. And he, as we walked past the store, through the glass, you can see those magazines laying on the ground and he would spit on the ground and point his finger at it and say, in Christ's name, I defeated you. That's zeal for holiness. Someone who's delivered from those kinds of sins. As we're all delivered from our pet sins and our besetting sins, there is gonna be a hatred for that former sin and a desire to be holy that wasn't there before. In Christ's name, I defeated you. Every time we walk past that, spit on the ground. In Christ's name, I defeated you. And look at verses 15 and 16. 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 warm, be filled, and yet you don't give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? How many of you here have ever been told by someone who consistently mistreated you, I love you? Did that profession of love mean anything to you? How many of you have ever been assured by someone who has consistently shown no care or concern for you, and in fact was never anything but rude and nasty to you, that quote, deep down they really love you, end quote. Did that assurance mean anything to you either? Did it warm and comfort your heart? It is important that we understand fully the implications of the ninth commandment. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. This commandment requires us to tell the truth, to tell the whole truth and not to mislead, not to equivocate, not to exaggerate or lie. Do you see the absurdity of the illustration in verses 15 and 16 here in James 2? If we see a Christian brother or sister who's naked and starving, and we simply say to them, be warm, be filled and walk away from them, What good is that? How absurd is that? Look at verse 17, the application. Even so, in the same way, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. If our profession of faith is not accompanied by a life that has changed and transformed, that's in the process of being sanctified, we're just like the person in the illustration telling the naked, hungry person, be warm and be filled. The teaching point here is simple. It is impossible for a truly God-granted, grace-effected faith in the Lord Jesus to be by itself in the person to whom it is given by God. That person, by the very same cross that achieved his or her justification before God, is now zealous for good works. And if they are not, their claim to have faith in Christ is, just like their soul, dead. Just remember that justification by faith that is accompanied by good works is not the same as justification by faith and works. Please keep that distinction in your reasoning. A faith that results in good works, being justified before God by a faith that's accompanied by the changed life does not mean we're saved by faith and the changed life, by any stretch. Now look at verse 18. But someone may well say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without the works, which is impossible. And I will show you my faith by my works. Notice the all important phrase there, show me. We're not talking about justification before God here. We're talking about the justification of a profession before other people. You show me that you're a Christian by your works. Show me your faith without works and I'll show you my faith by my works. That's the key to the text. The point is clear. Faith is invisible. It can't be seen in and of itself as it is a mental assent to and trust in the gospel of Christ. But the true believer's faith can figuratively be seen by his or her works. This only makes sense within a Calvinistic reform biblical view of salvation. You see, there's a very odd false gospel that has come up in the last few decades that excludes repentance from being part of God's work in a saved person's life. Repentance and following Christ are, we're told in that perspective, they're just optional. You don't need to turn against sin. You don't need to turn on your former master and follow Christ. As long as you make a decision for the Lord at some point in their life, you're saved, you're going to heaven. In Arminian and free will based perspective, such a position, it makes perfect sense. After all, getting saved is grounded upon an independent act of faith on the sinner's part. It would seem to follow logically that whether or not you're gonna follow Christ is just as optional as getting saved was. But in Scripture, in the Bible, Jesus not only forgives, he always makes his people zealous for good works. Because they were predestined not only to be saved, not only to be justified, but they were predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. Someone can't be a true Christian unless they're also being sanctified by the work of Christ. There's no such thing as an unrepentant Christian. If the people at Ephesus professed their faith in Christ and then went right back to their magical books and kept on doing all that sin, was their profession of faith legit then? Of course not. Since saving faith, repentance, sanctification, they're all fruits of God's effectual grace, and they always come as a package deal in a sinner's life when that person is effectually called and united to Christ, it follows that we can say with James in verse 17, thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead faith. Why, if it's not accompanied by all other saving graces, repentance, sanctification, the new heart, new affections for holy things, for the Lord, for his church, for worship, for the word of God, et cetera. In other words, if a person says they have faith, but their life is unaffected, then clearly their faith is dead. It is spoken only. It's not real. It didn't come from God. Remember the Westminster Confession? Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the alone instrument of justification. Yet it's not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is no dead faith, but works by love. And R.C. Sproul's mentor, John Gerstner, listed three formulas. The first two are errors and the third one is the truth. The first error is Rome's error. Faith plus works equals justification. How do you get into heaven? According to Rome, faith in Christ plus your good works. That's wrong. The second error would be the antinomian error. The non-lordship position. The idea that you can remain completely unconverted and still go to heaven. And that formula is faith minus works equals justification. In scripture, the formula the Bible gives us is faith equals justification plus works. If you have true faith, divinely given, are affectionately called by God, united to Christ, born again by his spirit, you will be justified. You cannot possibly be anything other than justified. You are going to heaven and you will live a life of service to the Lord now. Because your heart's been changed. Whether you like it or not, God will sanctify you. Look at verse 19. You believe that God is one, you do well. The demons also believe and shudder. And here we have the example of the person whose theology is correct. The affirmation of monotheism. You believe that there's one God. That was a strong indication that you were a believer because most of man's religions were polytheistic at the time. One commentator said this, from this we can gather a vital element of James' polemic. The confession of dead, empty faith that he is attacking, which he plainly says cannot bring salvation, is not to be condemned for its error as to orthodoxy, but is condemned for its abnormality in lacking deeds to evidence its vitality. That is, a dead faith can speak the right words without being a true and living faith. Listen, dead orthodoxy is just as much a danger in James' thinking as living heresy is for Paul. Both extremes have constantly plagued the church throughout history. Think of Mormonism. Think of Mormonism. There you have living heresy. Their zeal for their false gospel, their false God, the idea that you can be married in one of their temples and become a God, like the God of this world became a God long ago. Their zeal for that knows no bounds, but it's a zeal for error that is soul destroying. And think of dead orthodoxy, a reformed Presbyterian congregation where the theology is down pat, every I is dotted, every T is crossed, but there is no zeal to speak the gospel to anybody, little interest in discipling the next generation, sporadic church attendance, no vision to see the kingdom of God advance, and a sad indifference to the suffering of those around them. Dead orthodoxy and living heresy are both a danger. Look at point number four, professions justified by worse. Look at verse 20. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Okay, stop there. The force of this rhetorical question is this. Do you want evidence that faith without works is dead? And James is gonna give two biblical examples of individuals whose professions of faith were justified by their works. And who are they? Abraham and Rahab. Abraham and Rahab, their faith was not merely a said or spoken profession. It was no dead faith, but it was shown to be real. Their faith was shown to be true by the lives that they lived. Now think about Abraham, look at verse 21. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? Now, if that verse is read all by itself without any regard for context, and it's put up against what Paul says in Romans four, where he says clearly Abraham was not justified before God by works, it looks like a contradiction. James 2.21 says Abraham was indeed justified by works. The question you got to ask is justified with regard to what? But we see, when we see this word justified in scripture, we've got to ask the question, justified before whom? Justified in what way? Justified forensically before God's law? No. Remember the opening verse of our passage, look back at verse 14. What does it profit my brethren if someone says he has faith, but doesn't have words? Can not faith save him? This passage is about the justification of a person saying they have faith. How do we know that? That's what verse 14 says. How is that claim to having faith justified before other men? It can only be justified by works because what a person trusts in cannot be visibly seen. Thus Abraham was justified in saying he had faith by his works when he offered up Isaac upon the altar. When he offered Isaac on the altar, look at verse 22. You see that faith was working with his works. And as a result of the works, faith was perfected or shown to be true. It's critical to notice in this text that faith was working together with Abraham's works and that by works, faith was made perfect or brought to completion or shown to be legitimate. Notice it does not say faith was working together with Abraham's works and by that justification was made perfect or salvation was made perfect. The perfection of faith by the deeds did not change the faith, but showed that it was real faith, not just spoken, but actual, a matter of the heart, not just of the mind. Look at verse 23, here he quotes Genesis 15, six, and the scripture was fulfilled or was shown to be true. which says Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness and he was called the friend of God. And here James cites the very same passage that Paul cites in Romans four and Galatians three, Genesis 15, six. We saw that the foundation for Paul's entire discussion of justification through righteousness being imputed to our account. But James cites it for a completely different reason. You see, dear congregation, the offering of Isaac upon the altar was many, many years later. after Abraham was justified. It was years later after Genesis 15. When Genesis 15 happens and Abraham is taken outside, look at the stars and count them. It says, Abraham believed that promise and was justified right there. He believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. The offering of Isaac is many years later. And by his willingness to offer Isaac at God's command, the genuineness of what's recorded in Genesis 15, six is shown. He really did believe. How do we know that it was real faith? Because his life was changed, because his works followed. Did Abraham really believe God in Genesis 15, six? Yes. How can we see it? How can we see it? By the fact he offered Isaac when God commanded him to. In other words, by his works. Remember that's the whole point of the passage. How a person's claim to have faith is justified. Since faith is in and of itself invisible, saying you have faith can only be justified or shown to be right by your works. In this case, Abraham's belief in God was shown to be living and dead because of his works. Now look at verse 24, here it is. You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. Very clearly, a man is justified in saying he has faith only by his works. Look back at verse 14 again. You see it? You can't miss this. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but has no words? Can that faith save him? A faith that's spoken only and is not accompanied by a changed life? This passage is not about how sinners are justified before God, but rather how a man's claim to be a follower of Christ is justified in the eyes of other men. It's only justified by works. I can't show you my mental act of trusting in Jesus. You can only see if it's affected the way I live my life. The next example, Rahab, look at verse 25. Gives another example. 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? And James cites another example where a profession of faith was justified by works. Rahab was a prostitute, a Canaanite prostitute who lived on the wall in Jericho. Now, clearly God doesn't justify prostitutes and let them into heaven for hiding spies. It's talking about something else, isn't it? It's the justification of her incredible profession of faith. Remember what she says to those spies? We heard about all that Yahweh did to the Egyptians and how he destroyed them. When we heard you were coming here, our hearts melted. And we know that your God is the true God. She made that profession of faith. Her faith was in the true God. And how do we know that that profession of faith was not merely a profession of faith? She was willing to hide those spies and risk her life. And therefore, she was justified by her works too. Justified with regard to what? Justified in saying she had faith. That's what James chapter two is about. Don't be thrown off by the use of the word justify. You look up the word, the Greek word, the verb justified and the adjective and the noun, look it up in the Greek dictionaries for the New Testament. There's a very wide range of usages. It doesn't always mean the same thing. And how do we know what it means? Context, context. And then verse 26, for just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. Final conclusion is quite vivid. The human body without its soul, without its spirit, is dead. Notice how well verse 26 bookends this whole paragraph. I wanna read verse 14 and then read verse 26. Look at verse 14 again. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but has no works? Can that faith save him? Now look at verse 26. For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. Consider the illustration of that text very carefully. Body and soul were created by God to be inseparably joined for eternity. Death is the unnatural tearing asunder of what God created to always be together. Our bodies were intended by God at creation always to be with our souls. Their separation of physical death because of sin is unnatural. It is as unnatural and as abnormal and out of place as a professing Christian who lives like the unbelieving world all around them. and has no zeal for good works, has no desire to follow Christ. I started witnessing to a guy, you know, a couple Saturdays ago, three Saturdays ago, and he said, oh, don't worry about me, I've got the Lord. Don't worry about me, I've got the Lord. Well, what exactly is the Bible to you? It's not God's word, it's just man's interpretation of spiritual things. Why does that guy think he's got the Lord? because some minister somewhere along the line must've told him, you walk the aisle and pray the magic prayer, you're good to go, you're going to heaven. No call to repentance, he wasn't cut to the heart, no hunger for the word of God, doesn't even think it is the word of God. And yet I've got the Lord, I'm good, I have faith. Is that profession of faith justified by merely saying it? No, you've got to have a life that's transformed for that profession to be legitimate. We live in an era of church history when this passage is more needed than ever. American Christianity has been overrun with Arminianism, with other forms of free will theology that deny the biblical doctrine of election. The proponents of these views have led millions of people, millions of them to believe that they have the ability in and of themselves at any time by making a decision or praying a prayer to make themselves right with God and go to heaven. Repentance, discipleship, following Christ, everything Jesus ever said about that evidently is optional and it's not part of the message. And the thought goes something like this. Look, some people, they just want to get their ticket punched and go to heaven while some other people get a little more excited and they want to go further. Evidently God will take whatever you're willing to give him and be happy with it. That's a lie. That's a lie. I fear has deceived millions of people in this country. Remember when God told Moses to go speak to Pharaoh? And Moses went in front of Pharaoh and says, thus saith Yahweh, let my people go that they may serve me. It wasn't merely let them go so they can go out in the wilderness and have a big party and continue on in sin. It was let them go that they may serve me. It's exactly the same with us. When a person truly is born again by God's spirit, when the heart of stone is shattered by the work of the Holy Spirit and made a heart of flesh, that person will long to know their God. They will begin to cry out, Abba, Father, I want to know you. I want to know everything in your word. I want to follow you. I want to be part of your people. I want to be part of your church. I long to take the Lord's supper. I want to win others to Christ. I want to be holy and godly. I want to put all my sin behind me. But the person who simply says, yeah, I have faith in Jesus, and I still live with my girlfriend, and I still practice Wicca, and I still do all the things I did before, is that profession of faith justified merely by saying I have faith? Absolutely not. Anyone can say that, I have faith in Jesus Christ, but can people see your faith by the life that you live, by the life I live? God always knows if our profession is real, but people do not. Would God say to you, as he said to Abraham, when he raised the knife to slay Isaac, now I know that you fear God. Would God see your tears for the lost, your burden to love your spouse, your burden to love your local church, to love your children, your sorrow over your sin, your love for the Bible, your desire to cut off the sin in your life. Would God look at that in us and say, now I know that you have faith in my son. What does our life say about the reality of our profession of faith? If people, not God, but people, if people could see a video of one whole week of our life, would they see our faith in Jesus by our actions? Would it be obvious to them that this individual is a follower of Christ? Justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. True faith, if it is divinely given by the effectual call of God's grace, will always and ever be accompanied by a life of discipleship and an ongoing war against sin, by a constant feeling of brokenness and inadequacy and a sense of personal wretchedness. And I just want to encourage you, having a sense of personal wretchedness is a good thing because it keeps you clinging to Christ. What do you bring to the Lord's table? What do you bring to the Lord? What do you bring to your salvation? The sin that made it necessary. And that's all. What does our life say? Listen to that final verse again, verse 26. Just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. Being by itself. Let's close in prayer. Blessed Heavenly Father, we thank you for your liberating power. And Lord, even as I go through this text, it's convicting, and it stirs my own heart to think about myself and the ways I still fail you. But we who see that wretchedness, we're thankful for it. We're thankful that we see the need that we have for someone else's righteousness, the need that we have for the all-sufficient atoning sacrifice of Christ. And may we who are broken and mourning over our sin, hungry and thirsting for righteousness, find comfort and peace knowing that Jesus has paid it all, that by his shed blood, by his stripes, we are healed, that his righteousness clothes us like a garment of salvation so that no charge can ever be brought against us. If there are any here whose faith in Jesus is merely a spoken faith, would you convict them of their sin and break their heart and give them a new one? We pray all this in Jesus's name. Amen. Someone left a comment on one of my videos on our YouTube channel about the gospel. Probably a younger Christian, and they asked the question, what happens if I still sin after I've come to Christ? And I just responded, welcome to the club. That was the life lived by the Apostle Paul. Listen to the scriptures, Romans 7 to 14. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am a flesh, soul, and bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. Is that this past week? But if I do the very thing I don't want to do, I agree with the law, confessing that the law is good. So now no longer am I the one doing it, but sin dwells in me. For I know that nothing dwells in me but it is in my flesh. For the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. How many of you woke up one day this week with the best of intentions? Not to fall to your resetting sins, to do everything righteous today. The desire is present, but the doing of the good is not. The good I want to do, I do not do. But I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I'm doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. for I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And then the triumphant indicative, the triumphant accomplishment of the gospel, Romans 8.1, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. So no matter how monumental the struggle, no matter how many times we face plant, no matter how many times we fall, no matter how many times our plans go astray because of sin, the blood of Christ answers all of that failure. It answers our pre-conversion sins, and aren't you thankful? Jesus Christ died for the sins of Christians too. He died for Christian failure. And it's always and only Christ. That's all we have. All we have is Christ. And if that's where you are in your heart and life, and you are grieved over what you did this past week, and the ways you failed, and your prayerlessness, or the coldness of your prayers, or maybe you committed your besetting sins again this week, but you're trusting in Christ alone, and you have that sense of wretchedness and that sense of brokenness, this is to give you assurance. Jesus gave us something we could touch, that we could hold, that we could taste, so that we would have it confirmed more and more in our hearts that what the Scripture says is true. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Yes, but I sin so stubbornly. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Yeah, but you don't get how evil I really am. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. and for the rest of eternity. Scripture says in Matthew 26, 26, when they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, take ye, this is my body, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you pitied us in our sin, you pitied us in our waywardness, that you loved us indeed with that everlasting love, you sent Jesus into the world to seek us out and to save us. Strengthen our assurance that Christ is a perfect Savior to save us even from our Christian failures. And we pray that our hearts truly would commune in your body together as we hold and partake together. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.