Becoming a Community of Mercy (Part 2)

Let's read together from James chapter 2, verses 14 to 26.

James 2:14–26

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,

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,

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,

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,

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.