Please open your Bibles this evening to the letter of James, the letter of James, where we take up our series in chapter 2. You'll find that right after the letter to the Hebrews on page 1289 in the Pew Bible, 1289. Our text this evening has long been the source of much controversy. I spent more time trying to sort through controversies this week than I've actually been able to get to the text because there's just so much noise around it and it's divided into two camps, those who embrace James for what he says and those who reject James for what he says primarily because whether they think he agrees with Paul or not in this you know this story my intention tonight is to try to steer clear of all of that and to invite you to join me in a fresh attempt to listen to James as James who is wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove in exposing and debunking a major problem in the church of his day, a major problem in the church today. We need to remember as we hear this text tonight that James is speaking to brothers in the Lord. He's speaking to the church. He's speaking to those who have faith, faith that is being refined by God through the trials that they are being put through, faith by which they are able to turn to God in prayer with confidence asking for all that they need. He's speaking to Christians who are saved by God and who of His own free will brought us forth. He gave us new birth by the word of truth. In this text tonight, James takes for granted that he's speaking to people that believe themselves to be saved. His discussion tonight is not about the way of salvation, how it is that we're saved. That's the starting point. We need to hold on to that as we go through our text tonight. His concern in this letter and leading up to tonight, and this is a pinnacle moment, is that He's calling upon us to live in a way that shows that we have faith. He's calling us to be doers of the Word, not just hearers only. To practice religion that is pure and undefiled before God. And that kind of religion shows itself in mercy and care. for other people. He's urging us to strive to really be faithful to the royal law, which is to love your neighbor as yourself. To be mindful of the needs of others around us more than we're mindful of ourselves. And to speak and act in such a way that shows that we have one eye on judgment day that's coming. Remembering to do works of mercy today for judgment is without mercy to the one who shows no mercy that's the context he's been calling us to live in that's the direction he's been moving us to go and we have to pause and think why is he giving us so much effort to get us moving well one gets the sense that James is writing to Christians who are happy to sing Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so but we're not so happy about showing that love to other people they seem complacent satisfied with what little they knew it was already more than they needed to know and they were satisfied with what little they did it was already too much the schedule is so full there's so much to be busy at the attitude might be expressed this way we believe James we believe and leave us alone might even be a little higher sounding than that we know what we believe We know our Bibles. We know our confessions. Just don't tell us what to do, James. That's the attitude that is evidently percolating in the churches when James writes this letter. And I think it's an attitude that we live in in the American church today. And that pressures that are out there are also pressing in here. We all have things competing for our time, our attention, our interests, our energies. We're all busy. Our favorite response. How are you doing? I'm busy. We're all busy. The question is, have we become complacent? And that's the question James is going to put before us tonight. And James is warning them, and he warns us, that if the faith they profess has no interest in the love or mercy to others, no interest in doing good works, it's not true faith. It's not faith that saves. It's what the Belgian Confession called vain faith. You might have heard it when we read it tonight. Vain faith. It's in vain. It does nothing. What I'm going to call bogus faith. The sham. It's fraudulent. It's an imposter. And in our text tonight, we're going to find this bogus faith exposed. James is going to strip off all the shellac, all the varnish, all the hypocrisy. And show it for what it really is. and he does it in three ways. First, he shows us that it's obviously useless. It's obviously useless. Secondly, it's evidently foolish. The evidence will show it's foolishness. And it's historically unjustified. There's no basis in the history of redemption to have this faith and to believe that it's true. I've already reviewed all the background I was going to read for you tonight that's listed in your bulletin, So I'm going to go straight to our text, which is in chapter 2, beginning in verse 14. If you haven't read it already, when you hear it, you're going to go, Oh, yeah, this text. I want you to leave your baggage at the door. The preconceived judgments of James, or what he's saying here, at the door. Because we're going to go down James' path tonight, not the systematic theology path that has lots of debate. All right, hear now the word of God from James, chapter 2, beginning at verse 14. 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 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. Here ends the reading of God's word this evening. Well, James begins by identifying this bogus faith. He describes what it is, and he shows us that it's obviously useless. He does this in the first couple of verses. He does in verse 14 with two questions. These questions are not an inquiry to discover what might be true or what might not be true. These questions are designed to give away the answer, the answer that he expects. He asks, what good is it, my brothers, if someone has faith but does not have works? It's no good. Can that faith save him? It cannot. That is James' position, and we need to know it from up front. That's why he poses the question. We don't need, this isn't an inquiry. This is a defense for someone who has faith but does not have works. It's not a good thing. And that kind of faith can't save. In verses 15 and 16, he asks the same question in a story. A story like he used last time that takes place in the church, because if it can happen here, it can happen anywhere. A brother or a sister in obvious need is greeted by one of you with kind words, but with no love or mercy. One of you who says he has faith but does not have works will say things that sound like blessings, but they do not bless. Go in peace. Be warm. Be filled. Without giving them the things they need for the body, James is saying, you might as well have said what you actually meant. Good luck. Someplace else. God helps those who help themselves now. If you had more faith, things would be better. What good is that? It's no good. Clearly, bogus faith is no good to the other guy who needs help. They're still poorly clothed and hungry. James has another concern here. Someone who says he has faith but does not have works needs to know that it will also be no good for him or for her on judgment day. Remember last time, verse 13, he warned to pursue acts of mercy because judgment will be without mercy. For those who show no mercy. If you have the kind of faith that does not have works, that shows no mercy, you have reason to be concerned. It's no good for you in the judgment. There will be no evidence that you ever believe on judgment day. The books will be opened. And there will be nothing to show that you belong to Christ. James echoes the warning Jesus gave about the final judgment. In Matthew 7, Jesus said, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. And he expanded on this in Matthew 25 when he said, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was stranger and you did not welcome me. Naked and you did not clothe me. Sick and in prison and you did not visit me. Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me. That is James' concern, and he wants those who claim to have faith but have no works to know this is cause for concern, that faith will be of no use in the judgment. James' point here and throughout this text is to understand that it's not enough to say you have faith. It's not enough to say that you believe. In the same way that wisdom is justified by your children. That means, young people, that means that when you do something that's wise, it's proved by what it does. It proves to be wise. Wisdom is proved by its children. It's justified by all our children. Faith is justified in the same way by its children. And the children of true faith, as we heard in Belgic 24 tonight, is good works. It's love. It's mercy. Apart from good works, the claim to have faith is unjustified. There's no basis to say that you have it. And so James says three times in our text, this is the theme. Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Verse 17. Faith apart from works, it's useless. Verse 20. Faith apart from works is dead. Verse 26. A faith that has no works is bogus, phony. Well, the second thing that James wants to expose about this bogus faith that he's concerned about is that it is evidently foolish. In itself, it's foolish. And he approaches this task in verses 18 through 20, and then he carries it on all the way to the end of our text with a change of tactics. Instead of coming at us directly and telling us these things with these pointed questions and with this story to make sure we get the point. He kind of steps away from the conversation and he sets before us an imaginary conversation between two imaginary people. I suppose in our video game world, it would be like having two avatars having a conversation. The first person that's involved in this conversation is someone who says he has faith but does not have words. That's one party. He's identified in verse 20 as the foolish person. The fool is right in his own eyes, the Proverbs say, and he needs to be corrected. And so the second person in this conversation is the wise man who's going to do the correcting. Now James does this because he wants to set before us a situation that all of us can observe and come to our own conclusion about where we sit in it. Am I sitting with the wise man, or am I sitting with the fool? This is a very effective way for learning without getting confronted directly. He wants us to listen in and learn from this other person's correction. Younger brothers and sisters, you know what it is to learn from somebody else's correction. It's very profitable, not nearly as painful as going through it yourself. And that's what James is doing for us tonight. He wants us to see the correction of a fool and help us to see whether we need that correction or not. So at the end of the day, who will you agree with? The wise man or the fool? And so in verse 18, the wise man begins by introducing the problem. Someone will say, you have faith and I have works. That's the problem. How do we sort out who's right? The one who says, I have faith, or the one who says, I have works. In what follows, he takes the foolish person to task to expose his foolishness. He wants to let him see what he's not seeing. The fool is right in his own eyes. He doesn't see things right. He's self-deceived, and the wise man has to show him. In verse 18, he begins with this challenge. He says to the fool, show me your faith apart from works. In other words, prove to me the existence of what you call faith that produces no work. Faith is an invisible thing. It's bound up in our hearts. No one but God can see it unless it produces something on the outside, in word or deed or expression, that lets people know that we have it. In other words, the presence of faith in our hearts has to be verified. It has to bear witness. It has to have fruit. And that's exactly what it's designed to do, as we read in Belgic 24. In Ephesians chapter 2, we know very well that it's by grace you've been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing. It's the gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast. You've been saved by grace through faith, for we are His workmanship, God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for what? for good works. Good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. When God gives faith, He gives it for works. Good works are how others will recognize that we have faith and that that faith is true. Jesus promised by this, all people will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. That's how they'll know. Good works are how Christ recognizes true faith in his church. When you read the Revelation, Jesus had John write letters to the churches, and in most of those letters, five out of seven, I believe, he says to the church, I know your works. I see what is being produced there. And the wise man asked this question knowing that the fool can't justify his claim. He has no evidence to bring. He says he has faith, but he has nothing to show. He can't prove it. He can't prove a negative. And he can't prove it. And so the fool has no reason to believe that his faith is true and he has every reason to suspect that his faith is bogus. You understand what he's done to the fool? He's shown him to be empty handed. He has no way to verify. No way to justify his claim that he believes. I, on the other hand, says the wise man, I will show you my faith by my works. My faith has fruit. My faith has evidence. I can bring that evidence to the table and justify my claim to you that I have faith. Well, now that the wise man has shown the fool his foolishness, he moves on to rebuke him and hopefully frighten him a bit. He says, you believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe and shudder. In other words, the faith you say you have, this faith without works, is no better than that of the demons. It's no better. How is this so? Well, this is why we read Heidelberg Catechism number 21 tonight, because there we are reminded that true faith involves three things. We can say we have faith, but true faith has three elements, three aspects. Children, what is it? It's not only a knowledge and a conviction that everything God reveals in His Word is true. It's also a deep-rooted assurance created in me by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel. This assurance that trust that all that Christ has accomplished was not only for other people, it was for me. It takes knowledge, it takes conviction, agreement that is true, And deep-rooted assurance that is true, not just in general, is true for me. Well, what do the fool and demons have in common? What kind of faith do they have? They know there's a God. He says, you believe that God is one. They know that there's a God and they're convinced that what the Scripture says about them is true, that God is one. That's found in Deuteronomy. The person who has this bogus faith can know that. He can say that. The demons can know it and say it as well. And what do the fool and demons lack? They do not have trust. They know that God exists. They're convinced that what He's done and will do is going to happen. But they have no trust that Christ has done anything for them. They can't because that's the gift of God. It's created by the Spirit through the Gospel. It changes our hearts so that we look outside of ourselves to Christ to save us. And trust Him. And so they do not trust Christ to save them. And to trust Christ is to love Christ because He first loved you. And to love Christ is to be thankful to Christ. And to be thankful to Christ is to show gratitude to Christ. And to show gratitude to Christ is to live for Jesus in all that I do. The demons don't trust Christ. They have no love for Christ. They're enemies of God, and they know it. And they know and are convinced that judgment is coming, and they shudder. The fool, on the other hand, the one who says he has faith but does not have works is not trusting Christ, and he shows no love for Christ. But unlike the demons, he thinks it's all okay. He deceives himself that all is well. I say I have faith. James is trying to tell him to wake up and smell the coffee. This is literally a slap across the face. You need to wake up. You are deceived. And it will be too late on Judgment Day. The fool's lack of works betrays his lack of love for Christ. And his lack of love for Christ betrays a lack of trust in Christ. And unless this changes, he should shudder like the demon. He should be shaking in his boots. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Wise man has just rebuked the fool. He hasn't said anything about himself, but in the silence we should see the contrast that's being painted here. We should be able to fill in the blanks. If this bogus faith is that way, what's true faith look like? True faith is justified. It is confirmed by the good works it produces. It's able to demonstrate that it exists. And those with true faith can confess in Heidelberg 81 that our good works serve as evidence. They demonstrate. They show that we love Jesus, that we trust Jesus. They're evidence of our faith to God that we're grateful for our salvation. They're evidence of our faith to ourselves so that we might be further assured of our faith by its fruits. We might see that the Lord is at work in us and it's evidence of our faith to our neighbors so that they might be won over to Christ. They might see in us that difference from the world that attracts us to them. James has said, if anyone says he has faith but does not have works, his faith is bogus. Not only is it absolutely useless, useless to other people, it will be useless to you on the day of judgment. It's evidently foolish. There's no evidence that you can muster that will demonstrate that it's true. There's nothing you can bring, and it's no better than what the demons have. In fact, it's worse because you're deceived to think it's all okay. And that ought to be enough to settle the matter. The case is pretty compelling. He's approached her from two different directions. He's undermined anything the fool might have to say. But again, the fool is right in his own eyes, and according to verse 20, the foolish person still isn't convinced. He needs more evidence. James, for a wise man, I'm not convinced. I need more information. Help me out here. And so James, through the wise man, proceeds to show him that his bogus faith is historically unjustified. There's no historical precedent for him to claim that what he has is true. The wise man calls him out. He says, do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Do you need more proof that faith without works doesn't work? Okay. I can accommodate. I'll call two more witnesses. I'll call two witnesses, two believers whose good works verify, that confirm, that justify that their faith is true. I call to the stand Abraham and Rahab. Now the wise man could have called many more from the witness list. If you look in Hebrews chapter 11, you know the hall of faith. It has a list, by faith Abel, by faith Abraham, by faith Moses, by faith... I want to encourage you tonight, before you go to bed, to go read that chapter and see how every one of those who are mentioned there, by faith, so and so, the very next thing is what they did. How they acted. What works demonstrated that they had true faith. The wise man could have brought them all. But the word of God only demands two or three witnesses and if we count the wise man himself that he said, I can show you my faith by my works, he just needs two more. The case is sealed up. and in what follows we need to remember that this conversation is taking place between the wise man and the foolish man this is not a theological debate this is not an argument about how men are saved and others are not saved this is not an argument over justification by faith alone versus justification by faith and works alone that's all settled this is about the man who says I have faith and I have no works and I'm good with that through the wise man James is exposing everyone who says they have faith but has no works to be self-deceived fools. Their faith is bogus. They cannot show their faith apart from works. They can produce no evidence. And the wise man, however, will present Abraham and Rahab and show that their faith had evidence. It had works. The evidence, their works, will serve to verify, to confirm that their faith is true faith. This is what he means when he says that they were justified by works. I know when I read that today, you're going, oh, that sounds wrong. They were justified by works. He's not saying that they were or anyone is saved by their works. That's not the argument. Not even in part. They were justified by their works. Their claim of faith is justified. There's a basis for it. There's facts to establish it. There's evidence to prove it. They were justified in that way by their works. He's pressing the point and he's being intentionally provocative. His language is certainly pressing buttons in his hearers. Those who are justified, made right with God through true faith, will have the reality of their faith justified, confirmed, verified by the works that only true faith can present as we live toward other people. It shows itself in love and in good work. True faith will be justified. Anyone who says that he has faith but does not have works, he has no evidence to justify his claim that he has faith with God. That's what James is trying to get at here. So first we have the testimony of Abraham, verses 21 to 23. He opens in verse 21 with a question. Again, a question he knows the answer to. He's a good lawyer. He wants us to know that he knows the answer and he wants us to get the answer when he asks the question because this question summarizes the whole case or the whole testimony of Abraham. He says, Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? Yes, is the answer. Of course he was. His works testify that his faith was true. Pastor Gordon and I, you've noticed it now, but we found out on Saturday that our texts were going to overlap in the sense that he had reference to the very same thing this morning. Abraham's obedience. What do we do with that? This is what you do with that. It's what James is doing with it. Abraham's obedience testified to the fact that he really had been justified by grace through faith by God. And now he's going to unpack that case. That's his summary statement. And he says when we consider his works, especially when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar, he wants us to see four things in that act of obedience. Four things, he says. You see, in verse 22, you see that faith was active along with his works. You see that Abraham's faith worked with his works. His true faith was not dead. It was living and it was active. and it did things in him that produced disobedience. His faith was active. He's not saying it was faith plus works. He's saying faith drove his works. The second thing he wants us to see is that faith was completed by its works. Abraham's faith had purpose, just like everyone's faith has purpose, that God gives faith. What is that purpose? To do good works. Abraham had a purpose. And as he fulfilled that purpose, through all the ups and downs and the U-turns and the detours and all the things that we know went wrong, thanks to our series through Genesis, his faith found completion, it found expression, it found accomplishment in producing obedience. And the pinnacle of that obedience, at least from the record, is offering Isaac on the altar. When the Lord said, do this, that's the only time that Abraham didn't stop and ask questions. It's the only time he didn't hymn and haw about how long he could wait. He just did it. Nothing was said. He just went. His faith was completed in his works, most notably in that one. The third thing you're supposed to see is that Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Pastor Gordon connected those for us again this morning. Genesis 15, Genesis 22. Abraham's works were not something that were added on to his faith. They're not something that were done in addition to or instead of his faith. Because Abraham trusted in God, they were the necessary outworking of his faith. They were the necessary fulfillment of his faith. And so here, through the wise man again, he's connecting the declaration of Abraham's righteousness in Genesis 15. God declared him righteous because he believed God through faith. In Genesis 22, where he's declared righteous, his faith is justified because it showed itself in obedience. So he wants us to see that these are connected. 30 years apart. 30 years apart. He wants us to see that the faith through which God declared Abraham justified in Genesis 15 was itself justified. It was verified. It was confirmed. It was evidenced. It was proven to be true by Abraham's works, especially in sacrificing his son in Genesis 22. And the last thing he wants us to see is that Abraham was called a friend of God. Through true faith, Abraham was justified by God and called Abraham his friend. That's mentioned in Isaiah 41. It's something that Hebrew tradition takes for granted. We don't hear it often. But Abraham, by virtue of being saved by grace through faith, was brought into a relationship with God which was friendly. And we know that we're all born in a situation where we are not friends with God, and God is not our friend apart from this faith. And only true faith can serve to rescue us from being enemies of God to being friends of God. And so it's important that he notes this, that Abraham was a friend of God. His faith was true. God brought him near. That's the testimony of Abraham. Father of the faith. Justified before God through faith and his faith justified before men by his obedience. And from Abraham's testimony, we are to see the conclusion of the matter in verse 24. Again, it says, You see now, you see, that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Man, that's hard to hear. We want to put all kinds of extra meaning on that that James doesn't have in mind. We believe that justification, salvation toward God, is by grace alone through faith alone, in Christ alone. James believes the same. Don't let the words throw you. They look so familiar, but then they look out of place. You've got to remember to interpret James by James. And remember what he's doing. He's been exposing the fool who says he has faith but has no works to show it. He's exposing bogus faith that is alone because it doesn't have any works. No one can be justified by that kind of faith. No one can be justified by faith alone, what he's talking about here. That kind of faith alone, it stands alone, it has no works, it can't justify, it can't save you. Abraham's faith, however, was true faith. And it did not stand alone. He believed God. And that belief was accompanied by works. It didn't stand alone. Every person who has this kind of faith is justified by it. Alone. I know this is complicated when you hear all these words. Justification, alone, faith, alone, works, faith. R.C. Sproul summed it up in a nice little statement. You write this one down. You need this one for understanding James. Justification is by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone. Justification is by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone. Justification is by true faith alone. And that true faith does not stand alone. It shows itself in work. That's the case from Abraham. And in verse 25 we have the testimony of Rahab, the second witness. It's much more brief, but it's no less important because it will confirm everything that has already been learned from Abraham. She has the same faith. She's going to give the same testimony. She has the same evidence. Different circumstances in her life, but she had works that showed that the faith that she had was true. Therefore, he simply sets her a file, so to speak, on the table. He just puts it there and raises the question, the summary statement, just like he did with Abraham. He said, and he expects the same answer that agrees that the summary is true. And he asks the question, 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? Yes, of course she was. Her works testify to the reality, the truth of her faith. James has been working really hard here to have us hear him. He's been working to expose anyone who says that he has faith but does not have works. To expose that it is a bogus faith that cannot save you. It's obviously useless. It's evidently foolish. It's historically unjustified. The case is closed. The verdict is in. And we find the verdict. Verse 26, Just as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. This bogus faith is dead. It's lifeless. There's nothing in it. It's a false hope. True faith, however, saves and it shows itself in your life. And so we've been witness to this conversation. actually a monologue between the wise man and the fool. And the question that comes to all of us tonight, this is the question James is posing here without having to ask it. This is the question. Have you been seated with the fool or have you been seated with the wise? If you've been seated with the fool, the bad news is your faith is futile. It's dead. It's useless. The good news is you're here. You're alive. And judgment hasn't come yet. You have time to recognize your foolishness. You have time to repent of your foolishness. You have time to turn away from yourself, trust in Christ to save you, and to work the good works within you that will show that you've been saved. There's hope for the fool until the Lord returns. And if you've been seated with a wise man, if you've been seated with a wise man, you know that your works aren't perfectly representative of your faith. Even as a believer, we can be complacent. We can be inconsistent. We can fail to act when we should act. But we recognize that we have a desire. More and more, we pray, and an ability, more and more, we pray, to be doing these things that demonstrate that we have believed, that we are living for Jesus because He loved us. And so if we're seated with a wise man, we can give thanks to God for the fact that we're there and continue to strive to do the good works that glorify Him, that assure us of our own faith and present before our watching world evidence that God saves people by grace, through faith, in Christ alone. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we come before you tonight and we thank you for leading us through this letter, this portion of the letter from James. If we spend any time in it at all, Lord, we know it's been a confusing conversation. Lord, I pray that this helps, that you will help your people to understand what James would have us see. That we would be confident in the faith that we have if it trusts in Christ and it shows itself in our living. That we'd have cause for concern if we claim Christ, but there's no evidence to show that it's true. I pray, Father, for your people tonight that through this we would be not only challenged, but we would be encouraged to look to you in Christ Jesus, our Lord, alone for strength, for willpower, for consistency, for clarity, to live lives indeed that glorify you and benefit your people. That our faith indeed would be useful to others in need and would show itself useful in the judgment. and that the evidence that it bears in our lives, this faith, this evidence it shows, would be an encouragement to us. As we wait for Christ's return in glory, we ask this in His name. Amen.