Let's read together from James chapter 2, verses 14 to 26.
And one of our elders is going to come and read for us.
George, come and read for us.
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 works,
and faith was completed by his works.
And the scripture was fulfilled that says,
Abraham believed God,
and it was counted to him as righteousness,
and he was called a friend of God.
You see that a person is justified by works,
and not by faith alone.
And in the same way,
was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works
when she received the messengers
and sent them out by another way?
For as the body apart from the spirit is dead,
so also faith apart from works is dead.
Amen.
And may God bless to us the reading of his own precious
and most holy word.
All right.
Last week, James, the little brother,
the little brother biologically of Jesus Christ,
performed surgery on us
as we try to become a community of mercy.
So what he said last week was that
we have to cut out favoritism, partiality.
So in order to become a people,
a community that show mercy,
we have to root out any sense
in which we look at other people
and value them as less than
based on social hierarchies like race,
ethnicity, performance, economic status,
anything like that.
So last week he told us what we've got to put away.
This week he comes and says,
as we long to become a community of mercy,
what to put on.
So this is a positive vision
of how to become people of mercy.
And it's rooted in chapter one,
verse 22, 23,
where he told us,
pure religion is this,
to visit the widow and the orphan
in their affliction,
so mercy,
and to keep oneself unstained
from the idols of the world,
obedience, holiness.
And so today he gives us a positive vision.
If you've rooted out partiality in your heart,
how do you then become a community
that's full of mercy?
And it's mainly through becoming a people
full of good works.
And so all throughout that passage
you'll have heard that
there's this call to good works.
There's a recent book
by a theologian named Tom McCall,
and he says at the very beginning
that good works,
a theology of good works,
a call to good works,
is the most neglected aspect
of theology focus
in all of Protestant thought.
And that may be true,
I'm not sure,
but it's important
that we can sometimes
forget about good works.
And this passage says that
in order to live out
the vision of James 1,
becoming a community
full of mercy
is to become a people
full of good works.
And so let's think about it together.
Four things to see.
Justifying works,
dead faith,
living faith,
and the root of living faith.
So first,
what sounds contradictory,
justifying works.
So,
let's deal with the hardest thing first.
In chapter 2,
verse 24,
we have a verse
that has confounded
Christians for centuries,
and has even split denominations
many, many times.
And it's 2.24,
read it with me.
You see that a person
is justified
by works
and not by faith alone.
Now,
that sounds
like a direct contradiction
to the Apostle Paul
in the book of Romans.
So,
Romans 3.28,
Paul says,
a person is justified
by faith alone,
not by works.
And then,
James 2.24 says,
a person is justified
not by faith alone,
but also by works.
And so,
that has been
such a text
that's proved
so difficult
for Christians
for the last couple thousand years
that we've been around.
Has the Bible
contradicted itself?
It sounds like it.
And the answer is,
surprise,
no.
No.
Said contra.
We rebut.
It has not contradicted itself.
No.
Instead,
what's going on here
is that
the scholars,
the theologians,
the commentators,
the saints of old
recognized that
there are two different uses
to the word justify
going on between
Paul and James.
So,
when Paul uses the word
to justify,
justification,
he's using it
in the sense of
getting right with God.
So,
justification for him
means reconciliation.
It means,
how can you stand
in the presence
of a holy God
while you need justification?
It's getting right with God,
being able to enter
His presence.
And so,
if you imagine,
Paul,
the metaphor Paul's
thinking of
is the courtroom.
It's a legal concept.
And in the courtroom
of justification,
imagine that you have
committed a great crime
and the judge
stands up
and says,
you have been pronounced
not guilty
even though you did it.
And in the eyes
of the court,
you have been set free.
Before the law,
you are reconciled
to the law.
You are good
with the law.
You are in right standing
with the law.
And so,
when Paul uses
the word justification,
he's got that sense
that before God,
He has pronounced you
forgiven,
acquitted,
legally,
clean,
before the court
of His justice.
So,
how do you receive that?
Do you receive that
by works?
No, no,
never by works.
You receive God's
pronouncement of justification
only by grace
through faith
in Christ alone.
That's Romans 3.28.
But then James comes
and says,
but wait,
no,
justifying faith
is not alone.
You don't just need faith,
you also need works.
Well,
he's using the word justify
in a different sense.
And the word,
the sense that he's using it
is in,
is the way we use it
very commonly today.
Most of us don't use it
in the way Paul is using it
in normal speech.
But we use justify
in the way James is using it,
and that's to demonstrate something
or to prove something,
right?
So,
imagine that you,
you imagine a mechanic,
a mechanic,
there's a,
there's a auto,
auto shop
hiring a mechanic,
and the mechanic
sends in his CV,
and it's a very good CV.
He's got lots of skills
on paper,
and he gets the job,
and on day one,
the boss comes and says,
now here's the spanner,
and there's the engine,
and I want you to do surgery,
beautiful surgery,
that only a skilled mechanic
could possibly do
on an engine like this,
and you see,
what does he have to do
in that moment?
He has to justify his CV.
He has to demonstrate,
he has to prove,
he has to show
that what he has claimed
to be true of his identity,
a great mechanic,
is actually true in real life.
That's how James
is using the word.
And so Philip,
there's a Lutheran
that followed Martin Luther,
he was kind of the next
theologian after Martin Luther,
Philip Melanchthon,
and he has formed this phrase
that has been famous,
that sort of captures
how you put Paul
and how you put James together.
And here's the phrase
that Melanchthon gave us.
We are saved by faith alone,
but not by a faith
that remains alone.
We're saved by faith alone,
we're justified by faith alone,
but never by a faith
that remains alone.
So another way it's been said
is you are saved by faith alone
and Christ alone
through grace alone,
but that faith never fails
to demonstrate itself over time.
So that's what Paul,
James means,
faith without works
is dead faith
because living,
justifying faith,
reconciling faith
with God the Father
will prove itself
to be real faith
through change,
through good works,
through works of mercy
and works of obedience.
Now, I need to move on.
This is not some abstract,
this is not just a discussion
for Edinburgh Theological Seminary
or New College.
This is not abstract theology.
And we know that
because James brings
this whole situation
so close to home
because he starts out
in verses 15 and 16
by giving a situation
and saying there are
brothers and sisters
in the local church
who are coming and saying,
I'm hungry and I'm thirsty
and I'm cold.
And people in the local church
at the time
are simply saying,
well, peace be with you.
I hope it goes well.
But they're not supplying
clothing or food or drink.
And he's saying,
you see, this is not abstract
because he's calling out
the church and saying,
if this pattern continues,
then it is showing
that your faith is dead faith.
So faith actually works itself out
how in meeting needs,
mercy,
the works of mercy
is how close to home,
real life that James
is bringing this for us.
Now secondly,
he takes us to really see that,
to get that down into our hearts.
He takes us into a deeper dive
into what is dead faith.
And he does that in verse 19.
So you'll see in verse 19,
he says,
you believe that God is one,
you do well.
Even the demons believe that
and shudder.
Now he's saying,
he's quoting from Deuteronomy 6,
that God is one,
the Shema in Hebrew,
hear O Israel,
the Lord your God,
the Lord is one.
And he said,
you believe that doctrine,
that is very good,
you need to believe that doctrine.
But he said,
you know that the demons
believe that as well.
And so he's pointing out
the fact that the demons
live in the spiritual realm
and in the spiritual realm,
they know all about God
and they believe
correct doctrine about God.
They even shudder
in his presence.
They even tremble
when they are in his presence.
They fear God.
And he's saying,
so you say you have
correct doctrine,
but the demons have
correct doctrine.
But you pass by the believer,
the brother or sister,
who is naked and hungry
and you don't feed them
or clothe them.
He's saying,
even the demons believe
as much as you believe.
But without that faith proved,
it's proving itself
as dead faith.
And of course,
the demons have dead faith.
They're lost.
Now what he's doing here
is he's pointing us
to the different one
of the different ways
to have dead faith.
And let me give you three.
There are more than this,
but I think these three
are the primary ways
that dead faith happens.
Number one is decisionism.
And decisionism says,
I once prayed a prayer
at X time
asking God into my heart.
And I did it secretly
in my soul
to hedge my bets.
I needed,
I know that,
I won't say it out loud
like this,
but I know that I needed
fire insurance.
And so at X time long ago,
I asked God,
I made a decision
that I wanted God
into my heart
so that I would know
that if whatever else
happens in my life,
at least I'll have
that to lean on.
And just notice that
when we say that,
we're saying it's my decision
to accept the Lord
into my heart.
Or another one
would be moralism.
Moralism says,
I believe that
at the end of my days,
I've done more good things
than bad things.
And so in the great scales
of justice
in the heavenly courtroom,
God will put my good works
on one side
and my goodness
will outweigh my badness.
And again,
when we say that
in our heart,
we're saying one day
God will judge
my performance
and he'll see
that it was good.
It was good enough.
Or,
in the case of the demons,
it's the problem
of intellectualism
that produces dead faith.
I agree with
correct theology.
You know,
he's saying here
that even the demons
can say yes
to the truths
of the apostles' creed
as they're written on paper.
And in that say,
you know,
I do believe,
I assent to the right doctrines,
therefore,
I believe God
will accept me.
And that's called
intellectualism.
And in that case,
we're saying
it's my knowledge
that earns me the right.
To God's presence.
And you see,
in every single one of these,
the reason it's dead faith
is because it's
my knowledge,
my performance,
my decision
that's the basis
of getting into
God's presence.
And instead,
what James is calling us to,
I don't think he's
pushing Paul
out of the picture,
no,
not at all.
He's even using
Paul's language
because he's observing Paul.
He knows what Paul said
about justification
is so true.
And we could sum it up
like this.
What's the difference
in dead faith
and living faith?
It's this.
In the great hymn,
we're going to sing it
in just a moment,
Rock of Ages.
When you sing
Rock of Ages,
you say,
nothing in my hands
I bring,
simply to the cross
I cling,
naked I come to thee
for dress.
Helpless,
I look to thee
for grace,
foul I
to the fountain fly,
wash me,
Savior,
or I die.
You see the difference?
The difference in
dead faith
and living faith
is my performance,
my prayer,
my decision,
my knowledge
versus a heart
that has been changed
with justifying faith
says,
nothing in my hands
I bring.
Simply to the cross
I cling,
naked,
foul,
helpless,
I come to thee.
That's the fundamental
difference between
dead faith
and living faith.
And so the question here
is not do I acknowledge
the right sentences
about God
or did I make
the right decision
at the right time
in my life
or have I done
enough good
for God to accept me?
The real question is
has God gotten
a hold of your heart?
Has God gotten
a hold of your heart?
Not do you accept him
but has he reached out
to you
and gotten a hold
of you
and turned your life
upside down
and you say,
nothing in my hands
I bring.
Simply to the cross
I cling.
That's the difference
between dead faith
and living faith.
There's one writer,
commentator, scholar
who sees Leslie Mitten.
He puts it like this,
summarizing this passage.
It's a good thing
to possess
an accurate theology
but it is unsatisfactory
unless that good theology
also possesses us.
Thirdly,
deeper into living faith.
Now,
the positive vision
of living faith,
the beautiful vision.
Notice that
the illustration
that James gives us here,
the situation
that he's addressing
when he says
that faith without works
is dead faith
is just this normal situation
where in the first century church
where we mentioned last week,
people really were struggling
with genuine nakedness,
not having clothes,
just tatters to wear
or genuine hunger,
not having enough food
to survive.
And he's saying
that in the church community
there were instances
where the church
was gathering on a Sunday
and those needs
were completely being ignored.
Notice how ordinary
that would have been for them.
So, in other words,
he doesn't say that,
here's how you measure
living faith.
When the church decided
to take that mission trip
this summer to Timbuktu,
did you sign up?
You know,
did you sign up
to the mission trip
on the other side of the world?
No,
he takes something
so normal
as the needs
that are happening
in the weekly worship service,
people in this room
that have needs
and saying,
are you awake to them?
That devastatingly ordinary
as the measure
of the difference
between dead faith
and living faith.
And what happens here
is that somebody
comes to this person
who's hungry,
thirsty,
and in the text,
verse 16,
they say,
well, friend,
be well and be fed
and may God bless you.
And the commentators say
that this is very probably
a benediction,
a benediction
that was being pronounced
in churches already.
So they're quoting here
in the same way
that maybe you might know
the benediction I give
at the end of every service,
grace, mercy,
and peace to you
in the name of God,
the Father,
Son,
and Holy Spirit.
Now,
in our instance,
we don't have
the same situation going on,
but to bring this
to our moment,
this would be
like somebody coming up
to you in tea and coffee
and saying,
I can't pay my rent
and I'm being kicked
out of my flat tonight
and I think I'm going
to be on the street.
And you're saying,
well,
just step aside
for a second.
Grace,
mercy,
and peace to you
in the name of God,
the Father,
Son,
and Holy Spirit.
And you're saying,
and then your friend
later saying,
you know,
I heard so-and-so
was getting kicked
out of their flat.
They're not going
to have a place
to sleep tonight.
And he said,
don't worry,
I pronounced
the benediction
this morning
over them.
It's going to be okay.
That's the illustration
he's giving.
And he's saying,
now,
benedictions are very good.
But he's saying,
that is proving itself
to at least be sleepy faith.
Faith.
In other words,
what is living faith?
Living faith
is looking for needs
and meeting them.
That's all.
And he gives us
two great examples here
through Abraham
and Rahab.
And you'll see that
in verses 21 and following.
Was not Abraham
our father justified
by works
when he offered up
his son Isaac
on the altar?
And then down
in verse 25,
you see,
in the same way Rahab,
the prostitute,
justified by works
when she received
the messengers
and sent them out
by another way.
Now he takes
these two figures,
Abraham and Rahab,
to example this to us.
And what is he saying?
He's pointing us
to what is lived faith?
Lived faith
is the example
of Abraham.
He's not using Abraham
to say Abraham
as a hero.
No, he's saying
he's an exhibition.
And the exhibition
of lived faith
is that when God
came and said,
Abraham,
give your only son.
Put the knife
to his neck.
Oh, what a command.
We don't have time
to explain that command.
We'll have to come back
later to that.
But when he said
that Abraham obeyed,
what is lived faith?
The example of Abraham.
First, it's obedience.
So when you read
the Ten Commandments,
when you read
the Sermon on the Mount,
the Christian
who has experienced
justification longs,
at least is growing
and longing,
to obey the commands
of God,
to obey the Ten Commandments,
to obey the Sermon
on the Mount.
And then,
on the other side,
Rahab,
the prostitute,
welcomed the spies
of Israel
into her home
and protected them
when they had great need.
So you see what he's doing?
He's saying,
on the one hand,
lived faith
is obedience
to God's command.
On the other hand,
it's Rahab,
which is meeting
a need
when it comes to you,
like the spies.
And so how do you
live your faith out?
He's saying you
obey the commandments
of God
and then you look
for needs
as God brings them
to you
through other people
in your life
and you meet those needs.
You obey the commands,
you meet the needs.
James 1, 22,
what is pure religion?
To care for the orphan
and the widow
and their affliction needs
and to keep yourself
unstained from the world
by obedience,
holiness,
those two things.
Lived faith,
pure religion.
Now this is what's called
a merism.
And a merism in literature
is where you take
two extremes
and you put them together
to say that,
look how wide
this commandment goes.
Abraham was
the father of the nations.
Abraham,
the father of the covenant.
Abraham,
a mighty warrior.
Abraham,
father Abraham,
we say.
Rahab was a Gentile
Canaanite prostitute
that in the eyes of the world
no one cared about.
And you see what he's doing?
He's saying,
look at the great father Abraham
and the great Rahab
as examples
of what it looks like
to live your faith out.
Both.
Both ends of the worldly spectrum
of social status
and hierarchy.
You see he's saying
no favoritism,
no.
Look,
on every end
we've got both sides
of great examples
of what it means
to live faith
across the Bible.
The point is that
a heart that God
has gotten a hold of
lives the faith out
by meeting needs
and longing
to obey God's commands
in their life.
Fourthly,
lastly,
that brings us
to the real root
of living faith.
Now,
he tells us here
that in verse 15 and 16,
which brings us back
to last week's passage
as well,
that dead faith
has evidence.
Dead faith
has a tell.
Dead faith
shows itself up.
And that evidence here
is in a lifestyle,
a pattern
of not meeting
the needs of people
that God puts
along our path.
So,
dead faith
shows itself up
over time
when we consistently,
pervasively
don't meet the needs
of the people
that God puts
in our path
and give ourselves
away in generosity.
Now,
notice it's not
a lack of doctrine.
How does this happen?
It's not a lack
of doctrine.
It's not a lack
of willpower.
It's something deeper
than that.
It's something deeper.
And what's deeper
than that,
if we come back
to Rock of Ages,
we'll see it.
Remember,
the heart
that has been
justified by faith,
grace alone,
and faith alone,
Christ alone,
can say,
Lord,
nothing in my hands
I bring
simply to that cross
I cling.
Naked I come
to thee for dress.
Foul I to
that fountain fly.
Now,
if you can say that today,
if that's your heart,
this is the deep,
this is how lived faith,
it's so deep.
How it works
is that when you look out
and you see somebody,
you see somebody
that is in need,
a principle triggers
in your soul.
And the principle is,
I was that person
in need.
So when you can say,
naked I come
to thee for dress,
hungry,
hopeless,
helpless,
Lord,
I come to thee,
you see,
then you've got
justifying faith
in your life,
and you've got
this principle
down in your heart
that when you see
somebody in need,
that principle
gets triggered
and you say,
I want to move
towards that person
because I am
that person.
I am the person
who God helped.
I am the poor beggar
who God moved toward.
I am the hungry.
I am the naked.
I am the person
in tatters
that God showed mercy to.
You see,
that's the principle.
That's at the deeper root
of real living faith.
And it's for that reason,
I think,
that James,
to illustrate that,
takes us to Abraham.
Right?
Because Abraham,
in Genesis 22,
he was called
to take his son,
his only son,
up the mountain,
Mount Moriah.
And his only son,
Isaac,
put the wood
upon his back
that day,
carried the wood
up the mountain.
And as they were
going up the mountain,
Isaac turned to his father,
Father Abraham,
and he said,
Dad,
where is the lamb?
And Abraham said something
very famous
and very important.
He said,
God will provide.
You see,
Abraham in that moment
was not trusting
in his obedience.
He was not trusting
in his performance.
He was trusting
in God's provision
of a substitute.
He was trusting
that God would provide
the lamb
for the sacrifice.
And you know,
you probably know
from Genesis 22
that that day,
Abraham,
his hand was stayed.
He did not take
the life of his only son.
And you see,
that place where he did that,
Mount Moriah,
that's one of the hills
that Jerusalem
was placed upon.
Mount Moriah
is a set of hills
where eventually
the temple would be built.
Eventually,
eventually,
another son,
the only begotten
son of the father,
would go up
Mount Moriah,
this very same mountain
that we see in Genesis 22,
the mount we call Golgotha,
Calvary,
and he would carry
the wood upon his back.
And that day,
instead of us saying,
but where is the lamb?
There would be no substitute.
He was the lamb,
the son of God,
the only begotten.
He was the one
that was sacrificed
in our place.
He came to meet
the need of mercy
that we have most desperately.
See,
he chooses Abraham
so that we might be able
to say something like this.
You don't become a person
of good works
by doing good works.
You become a person
of good works
by saying,
God took my sin
so seriously
that it cost the life
of his only begotten son.
And that he showed me
in that moment
how much he loves me,
how much he wants
to move towards me
and my need.
And then out of that principle,
you live your life.
Out of that principle,
you live your life.
And so,
I'll simply finish
with this.
In verse 22,
he says,
you see that faith
was active
along with Abraham's works
and faith was completed
by his works.
Now,
here's how it all works.
Here's how justifying faith
and works
all fit together.
He says that
in Abraham's life,
he believed on God
and it was counted
to him as righteousness.
That's what Paul means
by Romans 3.28.
He believed
because in the courtroom
of God's justice,
God was saying,
you're acquitted,
you're forgiven,
you're not guilty.
God was showing him
active mercy
in that moment.
And then it says,
his works,
his obedience
made him complete,
his faith complete.
And the word that gets used
there for complete
is the word
that we were so focused on
in our first couple sermons.
It's the word
from James 1.4.
Where James was telling us
that in our suffering,
we can become complete,
perfect.
That's the word.
It gets translated
in the SVS.
Perfect,
lacking in nothing.
You see,
it's the same word,
mature.
And so here's how it works.
When you look
to God alone
through Christ
by faith alone
for grace,
you receive justifying,
justification.
You receive the gift
of forgiveness.
And then when you go
and you see people in need
and you say,
I now long
to do God's commands
as he's given them to me,
what happens?
That compassion,
that act of compassion
and love towards people
then completes your faith.
Or what does that mean?
It matures it.
So that maturing faith
isn't what's saving you,
no,
but it is making you
more like Jesus.
It's completing you.
It's making you whole.
It's making you perfect,
quote unquote,
complete,
lacking in nothing,
you see?
And so sometimes
we don't feel like
moving towards people in need.
We don't feel,
we are Christians
and yet we don't have
the emotion
in a moment
to go and show compassion.
We don't have the emotion
in a moment
to take up somebody's need
in our life.
And here's what he's telling us.
That doesn't mean
you have dead faith.
No, instead,
he's saying,
in that moment,
remember,
count it all joy,
remember,
consider,
remember the principle,
God showed me mercy,
so I,
in the ledger,
the intellectual ledger even,
I'm going to move
towards this person
in mercy.
And that act of mercy
is actually going
to reignite your faith.
See,
moving towards people
in compassion
is what reignites
sleepy faith.
If you have justifying faith
in your life,
no matter how you feel,
he's saying,
move towards people in need
and it's going to give you,
it's going to give you
faith that you didn't know
you could have.
It's going to strengthen.
It's going to put you beyond
what you thought
could be possible.
God loved us first.
He showed us mercy.
Therefore,
we are to become a people
who show mercy to others.
Let us pray.
Father,
we don't for a second
come today believing
that our good works
will justify us
and instead
we hear these words
that justification
comes by Jesus Christ alone
and his work for us.
And so,
I pray that today
somebody in this room
would believe that
maybe even for the first time
that they can receive
your forgiveness
only through your grace.
And then,
Lord,
would you work in us
a heart that longs
to move towards people
in mercy
because of obedience,
not on the platform
of moralism
or intellectualism
or behaviorism
or decisionism
but entirely on the basis
that we are people
who you love.
And so,
we thank you for your love.
Let us rest in it
now as we sing.
Let us celebrate it
now as we sing.
As we sing these words,
naked we come to thee
for dress,
helpless we look to thee
for grace,
foul we to thy fountain,
we fly,
wash us,
Savior,
or we die.
And we pray that
in Christ's name.
Amen.