James 2:20-26 A Living Faith (Part 2)

Alright, guys, this morning we will be in James chapter 2.

James 2 · chapter mention

And today we will wrap up our study on faith without works in James chapter 2.

James 2 · chapter mention

And we will be looking at the second half of this passage, which is verses 20 through 26.

Verses 20 through 26.

So as I mentioned last time, this passage is very close to my heart because God used this passage in 2013 to bring me to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

And so growing up, I assumed I was a Christian because I went to church.

I think even once I put my hands up during worship.

And intellectually I agreed with all of the facts of the gospel.

But there was nothing saved about me.

Or to put it in James's words, my faith didn't work.

And here I was holding on to this false assurance that I was going to heaven because I agreed with Scripture.

Meanwhile, I'm doing whatever I want.

I'm fornicating, I'm smoking meth, I'm living in darkness.

But that didn't matter because I had faith, and that's all that mattered.

Ever since the gospel has been established, this horrible, destructive idea that faith can somehow be separated from the production of good works has plagued us, even the church.

You can have this faith and you can still go to heaven, but things like obedience and holiness and godly living, those things are optional.

And there's this push culturally to have a private, unseen, theoretical faith that doesn't need to be expressed.

They say things like, you don't need to repent.

Don't be so legalistic.

God knows we're all sinners, God He loves you, and so it's okay if you break His commandments.

There's grace.

Do whatever you want, live however you want.

What matters most is that you just have faith.

And this destructive doctrine that has given so many people false assurance of salvation is not only relevant today in American Christianity, but it was a serious issue during James's time.

In fact, his entire letter reflects this.

Because his main concern for these Jewish Christians who were undergoing persecution is that they would continue to live out their faith in what they do.

He wants their faith to be transformative and to transform the way that they walk and the way that they talk and the way that they treat other people.

And so this is not a letter of some random proverbs or instructions on how to be moral.

It is a letter written to persecuted Christians who were tempted to tone down their faith because persecution does that.

Persecution has a way of discouraging faith.

Don't talk about Jesus.

Don't let your good deeds shine before men.

Because you might get persecuted, you might suffer, or even worse, you might die.

But James will have none of it.

He demands a living faith.

And so we saw last time in verse 14 where James asks the rhetorical question: can faith, just the claim of faith, being separated from any form of transformation, can such a faith save?

He asks.

And then he gives us an example in verses 15 through 17 that clearly reveals the silliness of a faith without works.

And then he lays out his main point in verse 18.

He says that true faith in Jesus Christ will produce good deeds.

So faith is seen in what we do, it's seen in how we live.

And then to strengthen his argument, he points in verse 19 to the demons.

He says, You believe good.

Congratulations.

So do the demons.

And they have sound doctrine.

Yet they are evil and there's no salvation for them, and they're even pious enough to tremble.

And so what we learned last time is that true faith produces good works.

If you are a true believer in Jesus Christ, you will live a new life.

Not a perfect life, but a new life.

And if you are not living a new life in Christ, and all you have to show is an empty confession, then your faith is dead, it is useless, and it is demonic, according to James.

And your faith is counterfeit.

As Martin Lloyd Jones once said, he said, There is nothing more insulting to the holy name of God than to profess him with your lips and to deny him with your life.

If you are abiding in the root, you will bear fruit.

You cannot be adopted into God's family and live like the devil.

You cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit of God, and his name is holy, Spirit of God, and go on living habitually in sin.

First John talks about this.

Because in the true gospel, God saves us so radically that we literally become a new creation.

2 Corinthians 5 tells us that.

God pursues us, then he grants us the gift of faith, then he shows us the depths of the cross, and then he changes our hearts, he changes our affections.

We now have a hunger for righteousness and a hatred towards sin.

Then he adopts us into his family, and then he fills us with the Holy Spirit who empowers us.

You do not experience all that, this great salvation, and say, huh, I think that was interesting.

I think I'll go on enjoying sin and living in darkness and doing whatever the heck I want in life.

No.

If that is your attitude and you can do that without experiencing any level of divine discipline, your faith is not real.

You are deceived because faith described in my Bible is living, it is active, it is transformative, it moves, it responds, and it chases after the will of God.

Hebrews 11, by faith they did.

This is why James demands a working faith.

If your faith is not working, it is not saving.

And just to be clear, you are not saved by your good works.

So I want to make that absolutely clear.

The Apostle Paul makes that evident.

But good works is the evidence that you really do know God and love him.

If you are truly abiding in him, you will bear fruit.

If you are truly in a relationship with Jesus, your life will manifest to some degree practical holiness.

And if you have faith on the inside in your heart, it will reveal itself on the outside in your lifestyle.

True faith produces good works.

Works without faith is legalism, and faith without works is deception and leads to loose living.

And both are not the gospel but pitfalls that lead many men and women to hell.

And so God's faith that he offers is a living faith.

And God's salvation that he offers, although it is freely received, is a salvation that works.

And so today we're going to pick this teaching back up in verse 20, starting in verse 20, where James is going to lay down some evidence to support this truth.

He shouldn't have to prove this to us.

He has made a great case already, but he anticipates some pushback.

And so he says in verse 20, you foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?

So he starts off by calling them fools.

And he doesn't say this out of spite.

James isn't trying to hurt their feelings.

He calls them fools because of how thoughtless their position is.

People are always trying to find loopholes in God's program.

So mankind is always looking for a way to live like the devil but still get heaven.

Okay, I don't want to do anything for God, but I still want the streets of gold.

And I want eternal life, but I just don't want God to be there.

But James isn't having any of that.

He says, if this is your position, you are a fool.

And your position is senseless.

And so then he asks them, Do you want evidence for what I'm saying?

That faith produces good works.

Do you want evidence?

And I could imagine some people in the room saying, James, show us this from scripture.

And that is exactly what he does.

If you want to support a biblical doctrine, always use an example from Scripture.

A good biblical hermeneutic is always allow scripture to interpret scripture.

And remember, he's writing to Jewish Christians.

So to the Jewish mind, if you can prove a point from Abraham, the father of faith, then you win the argument.

And that is exactly what he does in verse 21.

He says, Was not Abraham our father considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?

So this is one of the strongest examples of a working faith.

Genesis 22.

This is where Abraham believed and obeyed God to the point of sacrificing his son.

Now we all remember the story.

God tells Abraham to give his son Isaac up as an offering.

Now this is a big ask because Abraham, one, he loved his son Isaac, but also two, Isaac was the heir of the promise that God had made to him.

So through Isaac, Abraham would have many descendants, as numerous as the sand on the seashore.

And through Isaac, a great nation would form who would who would know God and salvation would be spread to all nations.

But now, as a test, God tells Abraham to sacrifice him.

I mean, could you guys imagine that?

God makes you a promise, I'll give you a son, then he gives you that promise, the son is born.

Then God says, sacrifice him.

I mean, to the human mind, this is ridiculous.

It's sadistic, it's insulting.

God brought me all this way to give me a gift and now take it away.

But that's not Abraham's response.

No, he's being driven by what?

By his faith in God.

He gets up the next morning, he prepares everything for the offering, and on the third day he takes Isaac, the one whom he loves, who is the very object of his future promise, and he grabs the knife into his hand to kill him.

And as he goes to do so, God stops him.

Abraham, Abraham, do not lay a hand on the boy.

For I have prepared a sacrifice.

And because of Abraham's faith and obedience, right here, we have one of the greatest Old Testament pictures of the gospel.

But what do we learn from this story concerning faith and works?

What do we learn?

Well, we're told that in verse 22.

James says, You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.

So what we see then is a living faith, a faith that is working.

His faith is driving him to obey God, and his obedience is proving that he really does have faith.

And so these two things are inseparable.

Wherever there is genuine faith, there will also be authentic obedience.

A genuine faith in God cannot be disconnected from some degree of practical obedience to God.

And so Abraham's faith is saying, God, I love you, I believe in you, I believe that you are my greatest good, and that you're worthy of worship, and I trust you.

And Adam's behavior, his actions is responding to that faith.

So when God says move, he moves.

And when God says don't do that, he doesn't do that.

And even when God says sacrifice your son, there's no objection, but rather an eager readiness to do whatever the master wants.

Now I think it's important also to recognize that Abraham wasn't perfect.

He was not a perfect guy.

If you look at his life, not all of his actions line up with his faith.

He jeopardized his wife a time or two.

He got impatient, waiting on God to give him a son, so he slept with one of his concubines.

I mean, at times he was foolish.

But if you look at the overall inventory of his life, he exemplifies a man who had a living faith.

His lifestyle reflects his heart for God.

His actions are working together, revealing that his trust in God is for real.

And what's the result?

Well, we're told that his faith was made complete by what he did, says James.

Now, what in the world does that mean?

Was Abraham's faith insufficient before offering up Isaac?

Did this act of obedience merit him a second blessing or a double anointing or something like that?

No, not at all.

The phrase here, complete, refers to bringing something to its fullness.

So, in other words, our faith is not legit, it cannot be declared complete until it reveals itself in a righteous life.

So our faith is vindicated or it's proven true when it shows up in our actions.

So let me give you guys an illustration.

I had a buddy in high school.

He always had these smoking hot girlfriends, as he would call them, who conveniently always lived out of state, out of our reach.

And after a while, we began to press him on the issue.

And all he ever had to show for this claim of this smoking hot girl that he's dating from out of state was a picture that looked like it was copied and pasted from the internet.

Actually, I think it even had like a website logo below it.

But he got no phone calls from her, no texts, no emails, there was never any visits.

He never went to go see her, she never went to come and see him.

And so we never saw any evidence that he actually had a girlfriend.

And so we never believed him.

We couldn't vindicate his claim because he had nothing to show for it.

Well, in the same way, our claim of faith is not complete until it is tested and it reveals itself through active obedience to God.

So imagine someone saying, God, I love you, and then God responds to them, then follow me.

And they say, Oh, no way, I'm not gonna follow you.

Or if someone says, God, I trust you, God, with all my heart, and then God tells them, Well, then I want you to give up give some money to the poor, help the needy.

And they respond, Oh, but no way, God, I'm not gonna do that.

How is there any vindication here?

If this is the case, your faith is not complete, it cannot be justified, it cannot be vindicated.

At best, your faith is suspect, and it may be that your faith is not real but phony, and you might be deceived thinking you're a child of God heading towards heaven when you may be in all reality a child of Satan still heading towards hell.

And I say that in love that you might come to saving faith.

You know, as professing Christians, we should be able to point to our life humbly and say, My faith has changed my life.

I don't walk like I used to, I don't talk like I used to, I don't love sin like I used to.

No, I'm not perfect, I still make mistakes, and at times I'm very selfish and disobedient, but my faith is the dominant power in my life.

I serve God, I'm slowly but surely conforming to Scripture, and God leads me, and He deals with me, and He empowers me to walk in good deeds, and He gives me spiritual energy to accomplish the divine assignments that He has assigned to me.

I don't live for myself anymore.

I live for another, I live for God who bought me at a great price through the blood of Jesus Christ.

Friends, can you say that this morning?

Are your works pointing to your faith, vindicating it?

Show me how you spend your money, show me what you do with your time, show me how you treat your neighbors, show me how you serve the church, show me how you follow God, and I'll show you your faith.

It will reveal what you truly believe about God in his word and his son Jesus Christ.

How we live will either confirm our faith as real or expose it as false.

So that is exactly what happened in Genesis 22 with Abraham.

His faith was vindicated.

And look at what verses 23 and 24 say about this.

And scripture was fulfilled.

Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God's friend.

You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

So, what is James saying here?

He is saying that Abraham's obedience in Genesis 22, his readiness to offer up Isaac, is the outward evidence of his initial faith and conversion in Genesis 15, when he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God.

So, in other words, let me put this more simply: when Abraham offered Isaac up at the altar, it proved that his faith was real back in Genesis 15 when he first believed God, thus he fulfilled Scripture.

And so notice what it doesn't say.

He's not saying Abraham earned favor with God by his works.

He's not even saying that Abraham needed works in addition to his faith for divine approval.

Abraham already had divine approval, he was already called a friend of God.

God had already justified him back in Genesis 15.

So he isn't concerned about the means of justification here, but the visible evidence of it.

Someone is not saved because they say they are a Christian.

Anyone can claim to be trusting in Christ.

You could train a parrot to say it.

The real evidence is how faith moves someone to obey what God has said to them.

This is what the apostle Paul called the obedience that comes from faith in Romans 1:5.

Romans 1:5

The mere claim of faith is not enough.

Until there is evidence of your confession, there is no vindication, and you shouldn't be considered righteous based on empty words.

But there must be fruit that flows from your faith.

And Abraham shows us that.

Now, someone might raise their hand and say, Well, Abraham is an he's an exception.

He's a rare bird, a great spiritual powerhouse, who happened to have extravagant faith and excellent works.

But that's not true across the board.

Okay, says James.

Then let us look at the example of Rahab, the Gentile prostitute, in verse 25.

He says, In the same way was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction.

Again, we all remember the story.

Rahab was a woman living within the walls of Jericho.

God had given this land into the hands of the Israelites, and they were getting ready to destroy the city and claim it.

Now, Rahab, who was a prostitute by professional, Was moved by the fear of the Lord, and at some point she placed great faith in the God of Israel.

And mind you, her faith was based on secondhand testimony.

And so when the spies of Israel entered the city and they were in great danger of being caught, her faith in God compelled her to recognize these men as authentic witnesses of God.

So through faith, she decided to help them.

Now this was an act of treason against her people.

They would have killed her and her whole family if she'd been caught.

But by faith, she considered it worth it.

She hid them in her home, she gave them good instruction to escape the city.

She acted with urgency and personal concern for their safety.

And so her faith, just like Abraham's, revealed itself by what?

By what she did.

Her works were entirely different than Abraham's, but both alike prove that a living faith is a working faith.

Faith is always accompanied by action.

And we see this throughout Scripture.

And so faith was driving the actions of both Abraham and Rahab.

They didn't do these things because they were trying to earn favor with God.

Abraham didn't go and sacrifice his son out of obligation or fear or compulsion.

And Rahab didn't risk her life because of fate or superstition or for personal gain.

They did these things for one reason only.

They believed in the true and living God.

They feared him.

They trusted him.

They adored him.

And therefore they acted accordingly.

They moved on his command.

They recognized his infinite worth.

They saw his beauty and his splendor.

They were compelled by his love, moved by his spirit, and therefore they aligned themselves with his will.

They were, as 2 Timothy 2 says, vessels of honor, useful to the master, prepared to do any good work that God might have for them.

And so by faith they moved, they acted, they responded.

Their faith wasn't just merely intellectual or academic or sentimental.

It was so real that it penetrated the very members of their physical body.

It moved their thoughts, their lips, their arms, and their legs.

And as if these two examples still isn't enough for us to grab a hold of this, James ends his whole argument by pointing to a dead body.

In verse 26, he says, As a body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.

So I don't know if you guys have ever seen a dead body before.

I have.

But without life or breath in it, it is totally useless, motionless.

The body's just a shell at that point.

It's unable to do anything.

And even worse, it begins to decay and it begins to stink, which is why culturally we dispose of dead bodies through burial or cremation.

Well, to make the comparison here, if you claim to be a follower of Jesus, but you don't follow him, and if you claim to love him but you don't keep his commandments, and you claim to know him, but your life is defined by darkness, and if your faith has not transformed your lifestyle and you're not loving the saints, and you're not making disciples, you're not getting involved in kingdom work, or growing in your love for your neighbors, or concerned about the lost, or living a new life with Christ, well, your faith is just like a dead body.

Or as James says earlier in verse 19, your faith is as good as the demons.

So here we have a closed case, the closed argument.

And so let all those who promote a faith without works be silent.

Let all those who pervert the grace of God into a license to sin stop doing so.

And let all those who claim to love Jesus but live contrary to him change their mind.

In light of the demons, in light of Abraham and his life, in light of Rahab, may we understand this morning, church, that the claim of faith without action is like a cold, dead, lifeless body.

So how do we apply these truths here at Proclamation Church this morning?

Well, I'm no prophet and I cannot read hearts, but there's no doubt in my mind that there may be some in the church today who do indeed have a counterfeit faith.

You may confess Christ, you may come to church, you might even tithe and participate in religious motions, but you're not truly alive in Christ.

You're not waking up each day delighting in him, walking with him, enjoying him, interacting with him, and you're not advancing his kingdom on earth.

That that wouldn't define you.

But yet you claim faith while you're living in darkness, there's not an eager readiness to offer up any kind of sacrifice to God, and you do just enough dead religious works to help soothe your conscience and keep up with the facade.

If this is the case for you, you are in great deception.

And I understand because I've been there before.

And you might be thinking, stop judging me and stop making me feel condemned, but that is not what I'm trying to do.

I promise you that.

I say this, God is saying this because He has your best interest in mind.

He wishes that none would perish.

He's in the business of exposing lies and revealing truth.

And it would be a cruel thing to just let someone walk comfortably to hell when they think they're going to heaven.

And so I preach this evangelistically so that you might come to your senses this morning.

That you would wake up and realize that your so-called faith is not working, and that you might realize that you can today, even now, place a true, living, active, saving faith in Jesus Christ this morning.

This is what God wants for you.

Not a dead faith, not a faith that keeps you enslaved to sin, not a faith that allows you to be your own God, not a faith that is useless and accomplishes nothing, no, but a saving faith, a faith that totally transforms your mind and your heart and overflows into every department of your life.

Will you come this morning?

Holy Spirit, help us.

And for the believers in the room, it's vital that we hear this message too.

Because this isn't solely an evangelistic passage.

This is for us Christians as well.

To remind us of the faith we have, to encourage us to grow in godliness and in good works, that we wouldn't grow weary in doing what is right.

And let's just be honest as Christians.

I'll be the first one to raise my hand.

We can get lazy, we can get passive.

At times we don't want to do anything that requires faith-filled effort.

Our flesh gets in the way.

And we don't want to serve or be hospitable or share Jesus with a stranger or do discipleship because it's too messy.

But that's not the faith that we've been given.

We've been saved by God.

We've been reconciled to God.

We've been made right with God so that we can live for him and glorify him on earth.

So he didn't just pay the penalty for our sin, he has also broken the power of sin in our lives so that we might live in the power of the Holy Spirit and reflect Jesus on earth.

And so may we put this into practice.

As Paul says in Philippians 2, may we work out our own salvation with fear and with trembling.

And so for the Christian, there is no retirement until we go to be with Jesus or until he returns to us.

But until then, may we reflect our faith on earth, reaching the lost, making disciples, serving the church, praying continually and working faithfully, wherever God may have us.

And may we do it for his glory.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you so much for giving us a living faith.

Lord, I am in awe this morning, knowing that we can live with you, that we can actually know you.

That today we can go home and we can talk with you, interact with you.

Lord, you have not given us a faith that keeps us on autopilot, or a faith that we just kind of have and we don't really interact or know you.

No, Lord, you've given us a living faith, one that works.

And so, Lord, I pray that that would become a reality for each person in this room, that we would grab a hold of that.

And Father, I pray that if there's anyone here that may not know you or may have a counterfeit faith, that you'd that your Holy Spirit would do what he does best and bring them to a saving faith in Jesus.

So Lord, help us to remember what the true gospel is.

We are saved by faith, not by works.

We are saved by faith, by grace.

But we're saved for good works.

To do your will and to walk in Christ's likeness.

Write that on our hearts this morning in Jesus' name.

Amen.