Faith Produces Maturity — James 2:14-26

[00:00:05] Thank you for listening to the Calvary Monterey Podcast. Please visit Calvary.com to learn more about our church.

[00:00:12] And visit NateHoldridge.com for additional Bible teaching from our lead pastor, Nate Holdridge.

[00:00:20] Teaching today is our lead pastor, Nate Holdridge.

[00:00:24] Let's take out our Bibles and turn to the book of James. As Pastor Manny said, James Chapter 2 is where we are this morning.

[00:00:31] James 2, 14 to 26 is our passage for today.

[00:00:36] And just a reminder, for those of you who are 60 years old and over, we're having our prayer meeting on Thursday mornings at 6.30 this month.

[00:00:44] And we got off to a great start this last Thursday. We're praying for revival and the moving of God's spirit.

[00:00:50] And so if you'd like to join us, we'd love to have you. You can come for just one week or all the weeks.

[00:00:55] But we had a great time, about 25 or so people this last week. They're early praying together.

[00:01:00] I had one brother who I think has been retired for a while. He said to me afterwards, he's like, it has been so long since I've had to rush to get somewhere at 6.30 in the morning.

[00:01:10] And so we had a great time praying and would love to have you if you're in that demographic this next Thursday.

[00:01:18] Kevin, I'm getting a little feedback up here if you could help out with that.

[00:01:21] Alright, if you guys would look in your Bibles or look on the screens, Chris Wright, who grew up here at Calvary and is about to finish up at Sonoma State.

[00:01:29] And God has a great plan for his life. He's going to read to us James 2, 14 to 26.

[00:01:36] Verse 14, What good is it my brothers? If someone says he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him?

[00:01:43] 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.

[00:01:53] What good is that? So also faith by itself if it does not have works is dead.

[00:01:58] 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.

[00:02:06] You believe that God is one, you do well. Even the demons believe in shutter.

[00:02:12] Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

[00:02:18] Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

[00:02:23] You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works.

[00:02:28] And the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believes God and it was counted to him as righteousness and he was called a friend of God.

[00:02:36] You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

[00:02:40] And in the same way was not also Rehab, the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way.

[00:02:48] For as the body apart from the spirit is dead so also faith apart from works is dead.

[00:02:55] Amen. Let's pray together. Lord we come to you this morning. Thank you for your word.

[00:03:01] And Lord as we interact with a text that really touches on so many core issues in our Christian life.

[00:03:10] Things like faith and works and even grace itself.

[00:03:15] We ask Lord that our perspective would be shaped and molded into your perspective and heart.

[00:03:22] And Lord thank you for James. Thank you for his honesty and clarity and we pray Lord that your word would be and find soft soil in our lives today that we'd be able to apply it rather easily.

[00:03:35] And Lord I also want to take a moment and pray for our high school kids and leaders who are going to be leaving this afternoon to go to the central valley to be working in triple digit heat packing food for people in need.

[00:03:49] And Lord we pray for them. We ask during these five or six days that they're working and laboring.

[00:03:57] Lord we pray that the world would fade away, that so many things would become clear that you'd give the team great unity together that you'd speak to each one of the students and leaders that you protect them Lord as they travel back and forth.

[00:04:12] And as they work in hard conditions we pray Lord that you'd use their labor of love and we pray for the people that this food lands upon at some point.

[00:04:22] And ask Lord that they would in the moment that they're consuming it feel the deep love of a God of heaven who sees them in their hour of need.

[00:04:32] And we'll one day come and right every wrong that is here on earth.

[00:04:38] We thank you Lord for who you are and we pray again that you speak to us from this passage of scripture today in Jesus name we pray. Amen.

[00:04:48] Well I'm struck by the idea that the passage that Chris just read to us.

[00:04:53] This might be the most important passage for many of you, maybe even myself included as we go through the book of James together because in this passage as I pray James is touching on subjects that if we get them right in the Christian faith will yield great results.

[00:05:13] And if we get them wrong in the Christian faith will lead to I think less than the kind of life that God has designed for us.

[00:05:21] Some of those concepts are faith and works and grace and we're going to talk about all those subjects this morning.

[00:05:27] Now the normal way to teach this passage is to jump right into a big explainer on how Paul the apostle and his writings and James who we just read and his writings do not contradict.

[00:05:40] And I'm going to talk about that in a moment. These two great theologians and New Testament authors they are synchronized in the message that they communicated.

[00:05:50] And the reason why we ask those questions is because we're very conscious of the fact that Paul the apostle when he came along one of the doctrines that he so masterfully proclaimed to the church in books like Galatians and Romans

[00:06:06] is the doctrine of justification by what justification by faith. Right. Or maybe another way of saying it to borrow from Ephesians would be justification by grace through faith alone.

[00:06:19] And in our passage here are some of the things that James said in case you missed them as we read through it verse 14 his question is what good is it if someone says he has faith but does not have works.

[00:06:33] And verse 17 he said faith by itself if it does not have works is dead. In verse 20 he said faith apart from works is useless.

[00:06:45] And in verse 24 probably the most glaring he's like kind of increasing in potency and verse 24 the most potent phrase a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

[00:06:59] All right so we're going to we're going to think about how these two guys Paul the apostle who preached salvation by grace through faith alone and Paul and James who comes along saying so we see people are justified not just by faith alone but by also by works.

[00:07:13] We're going to see in a second how they are actually saying the same thing to different audiences but before we do that I want to look into James's heart less we miss his point in our wrestling match with his words.

[00:07:26] What is James's message to James true living genuine faith in Christ produces all manner of good works. Let me say that again to James true living genuine faith in Christ produces all manner of good works for James.

[00:07:52] It isn't if you're asked a question how is a person regenerated he's not going to say well it's faith plus works. It's not going to say that he's not going to say that it's faith or works about what he seems to be highlighting is that we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit with a faith that works.

[00:08:16] It just inevitably yields fruitfulness or change or transformation of some kind in a person's life for James. He's envisioning a person through their belief and confidence in the gospel that Jesus came and lived the perfect life on our behalf that he died the death that we deserved on the cross

[00:08:37] and that he rose from the grave on the third day and then ascended to the right hand of the father James thinks of someone believing in that message as a person who through that trust and faith and belief is made right with reconciled to becomes one with the living God whom in his letter he calls the father of lights with whom there is no change or variation or shadow of turning from whom every good and perfect gift flows.

[00:09:06] James cannot imagine a person coming face to face with that God being reunited with that God without some semblance of transformation at some point in their Christian life and journey be like somebody walking up to a live electrical outlet with a metal fork in their hand and sticking it in that electric outlet.

[00:09:32] Like wouldn't you just be watching like oh man let's see what happens next. You think something will occur. James thinks something will occur when a man or a woman through the gospel of Jesus Christ believes that message and is reunified with the God who made them created them shaped them molded them in his image.

[00:09:56] He believes there will be a change that occurs. That's James's view of what biblical faith will produce in a person's life. Now when it comes to Paul and James to me it's unfortunate that people have so often pitted them against one another because I think they're preaching the same message the same doctrine but they're addressing different errors in the church at their time.

[00:10:26] So what does it do with the way that they're using words? Words like works and faith and even though James doesn't mention it here the concept of grace. And you know the way that you're using a word it matters maybe here's a way to illustrate this let's say after church we were hanging out on the patio and I said to you hey

[00:10:47] I'm going to get a little football game going on this afternoon and would love to have you be part of this football game. We're going to meet over at Pacific Grove High School my alma mater go breakers and we're going to play a game of football come on out.

[00:11:03] And you show up and you've got a helmet and you've got shoulder pads and you're ready to go. You're like serious about this no two hand touch no flag football you're ready for full contact football and then you see me drive up and I pull up and I park and I get out of the car and I've got these short little

[00:11:23] shorts on and I've got shin guards on and like a bright European shirt on or something like that. You know like oh okay he said football but he meant something else. I thought it was one thing and he thought it was another thing and I think something similar is happening through the messages of both James

[00:11:43] and Paul. When Paul warned in his letters about works and highlighted justification by faith alone usually if not at all times Paul was dealing with the concept of or the false concept of people believing in Jesus and needing to then add the works of keeping

[00:12:10] the mosaic law or becoming Jewish on top of their Christianity or their faith. That was a huge thing that Paul was dealing with what do we do with the nations who are believing in Jesus do they need to become Jewish or not and Paul's answer and the whole New

[00:12:26] Testament's answer is emphatically no we don't need to become Jewish in our response to the gospel of the Jewish Messiah Jesus Christ. But when James comes along James is warning about works.

[00:12:44] The idea that we are justified by works and not faith alone when he's dealing with that he's dealing with those who thought that empty words were enough to secure salvation.

[00:12:58] To the false teachers that James addressed they would have said things like you know as long as you just intellectually believe this as long as you you know think that this is actually what happened that Jesus died and was buried and rose from the dead as long as

[00:13:10] you just think that that's true then you're good to go. James though expected good works to flow from a person who has been truly reunited to God not the good works of keeping the mosaic law but the good works that he talks about in this letter

[00:13:28] you know things like taking care of those who are hurting financially or taming the tongue which we'll talk about next Sunday in James chapter three and Paul I think we could say it also envisioned faith like that in his writings.

[00:13:47] Let's look at a famous passage in Ephesians chapter two we'll put it on the screen for you Ephesians two verse eight and nine. He says for its by grace that you have been saved through faith and this not from yourselves it is the gift of God not by works so that no one can both so according to Paul how's a person

[00:14:12] who is justified in God's sight does it happen through works he's like no it doesn't happen through works it happens by grace through faith this is a gift of God but then look at the very next thing that he said in verse 10 of Ephesians two he said for we are God's

[00:14:29] created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do so for Paul it's like the question is can I be saved by justified by the things that I do he's like no it happens by grace through faith but he's saved you to a life of good works that he has planned for you before you were even born again.

[00:14:59] In your life who don't yet know Jesus I just love like seeing people who don't yet know Christ and just imagining what they could be if the Lord got a hold of their lives.

[00:15:10] You know just like man there I believe that there are good works that he has ordained for you to walk in and after you know him he's going to carve that path for you you're going to be such a weapon in the hand of God.

[00:15:23] And that's the perspective that Paul had and this whole heart that true and legitimate and genuine faith produces something in a person's life.

[00:15:37] That's James' heart I want that to become my heart our heart as well.

[00:15:43] You know I've been telling you that the book of James seems to me to be James' explanation of the mature or whole or perfect Christian life.

[00:15:59] All of us we want to be this none of us are this completely and for James as he is he talked about this mature Christian life his perspective was faith is a huge part of the Christian life.

[00:16:12] It's a huge component in being driven towards that life of maturity.

[00:16:19] Now if I'm being honest which is like I try to be all the time just so you know.

[00:16:25] I think that the problem that James dealt with in our Western church culture seems to be more of a prevalent problem than the issue that Paul dealt with.

[00:16:44] You know there's different medicines for different sicknesses you know you'd never take cough syrup and rub it on your eczema or something like that.

[00:16:54] You know you realize there's different medicines different treatments for different illnesses.

[00:16:58] And it seems to me that there are plenty of people who are going to Dr. Paul for his medicine who should be going to Dr. James for his medicine.

[00:17:13] What I mean is if you're a person who is absolutely fundamentally convinced that you cannot work your way into God's kingdom.

[00:17:27] You're absolutely fundamentally convinced that it's only by the blood of Jesus as we saying earlier that you are made righteous in the sight of God.

[00:17:36] If you're absolutely fundamentally convinced of that gospel truth that biblical fact and then you decide to abstain from a life of any response to the Lordship of Jesus in your life.

[00:17:54] And then you run to Paul to comfort you for that lack of fruitfulness I think you've gone to the wrong place.

[00:18:03] James would come forward and say that that's not a real faith. That's not a genuine faith. It's not the true article.

[00:18:12] So to me Paul and James were in league together they're not fighting face to face. They're fighting back to back ready to defend the gospel from different enemies.

[00:18:23] I think that Paul fought the legalists and if I could say it like this James fought the laziest. That's who he was up against.

[00:18:33] And like I said I think we need James in our modern time. We need to embrace the concept that a workless faith is a dead faith and a dead faith cannot save it cannot justify because it isn't faith at all.

[00:18:45] We need to kill our weak and empty definitions of faith and replace them with the living and powerful definitions that the Bible gives.

[00:18:55] And we need to trade out the smoldering ashes of unbiblical faith for the blazing inferno that is biblical faith. Biblical faith does something to the person who has it.

[00:19:07] Alright so let's look at our text and look at three things that biblical faith does starting in verse 14 to 17. We're going to read through it again.

[00:19:16] But verse 14 to 17 in this first section faith does good. Let's read together he says what good is it my brothers if someone says he has faith but does not have works can that faith save him.

[00:19:31] 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.

[00:19:45] So also faith by itself if it does not have works is dead.

[00:19:52] Okay all through this whole passage all the way to the end of it there's this opponent that James is dealing with and this might have been a real person.

[00:20:09] This might have just been you know James embodying that some of the false teaching that was floating around the early church in those days and this opponent has these objections.

[00:20:20] And the first opening argument James says is that this opponent says they have faith that's what James said they say they have faith.

[00:20:31] But James is not sure about their faith because there's no works attached to it it's void of works and so he's not sure that he says that faith can save him.

[00:20:44] To be clear James is very confident that true genuine faith can save a person but what he's unsure of in this first opening argument is the legitimacy of the faith claim of the person making it.

[00:21:05] That's why he says I'm not sure that that faith can save him this man says James says he has faith it's a claim and it's a brand of faith that is not the biblical reality.

[00:21:21] Now to illustrate this point James tells this story of a person coming to a church gathering and they clearly have need you know their unclothed maybe it's winter time.

[00:21:34] They're freezing they're in need and then on top of that they're hungry and visibly so you know they can't even hide the fact of their hunger during the gathering itself.

[00:21:48] And James says you know if that person is there and one of you goes up to them and it's like an abhorrent scene like we would never want this to happen.

[00:21:57] And one of them says to this person who's obviously struggling oh hey I see you I see you in your need you need clothes and you need food.

[00:22:09] I know just the thing for you I'm going to tell you something okay be warmed.

[00:22:16] Okay but wait there's another thing I want to tell you be filled as well and then you just walk away James is like that is terrible.

[00:22:26] That's not the way that you want to respond now a lot of people think that what James is doing with this illustration is he's giving us an example of when faith or how faith could be activated.

[00:22:37] Like you see someone in need and active biblical genuine real faith says I want to respond to that need.

[00:22:44] I think James would say that's what faith does but I actually don't think that's what James is doing with this story.

[00:22:50] I think he's using it as an illustration of empty pointless words right.

[00:22:57] What good is it to say to say to say this guy says he has faith this guy says he believes this guy says God has gotten a hold of his life.

[00:23:08] But to say doesn't mean anything to a guy like James who is looking for the evidence because true faith he's saying does good to James.

[00:23:21] To James faith by itself faith that is only in word with no actions backing it up is what he calls dead faith.

[00:23:30] In other words you can say anything you want but it doesn't mean anything to James until the actions back up the words now that word only work less proclamation of faith according to James is not good.

[00:23:41] That's why I asked the question is it good. Is it good and the answer is no this false fake faith is not good but real faith faith that's alive and genuine it is good.

[00:23:54] It does a world of good in people's lives and through people's lives to other people now at this point I just need to start asking the question like is this a is this tough for you to digest.

[00:24:08] You know is this a hard concept for you to wrestle with from James. Does it sound like an affront to grace to you.

[00:24:22] My suggestion is that it shouldn't.

[00:24:25] Paul is the New Testament author who talked about grace so eloquently and powerfully more than anyone else.

[00:24:34] And Paul clearly expected that grace would produce radical results in a person's life when you read Paul's letters what you discover is that he thought that the gospel of grace would transform not just individual lives but would transform whole communities.

[00:24:54] He expected and in generations after his death would have seen the entire world reshaped because of the gospel of grace that he preached.

[00:25:06] Paul thought of God's grace as something that was so radical that it knocked down the barrier between Jew and the nations and formed this radical new humanity.

[00:25:17] He saw it rocking like you read Ephesians. He saw it changing marriages. He saw it changing families. He saw it changing workplaces.

[00:25:27] Paul had a huge view of what God's grace could do in a person's life in a church's life and in a whole society's life should it run rampant.

[00:25:38] He thought of it as a radical divine dynamic to quote one scholar or a moral and social transformation is what would be produced according to others.

[00:25:52] And perhaps you've heard though that grace is opposed to works in some way but this is untrue. Dallas Willard said it like this.

[00:25:59] Grace is not opposed to effort. It's opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action.

[00:26:10] You know in Bible times when sometimes you hear people talk about grace like this it's like God gave us all this grace and we could never repay him for his grace

[00:26:19] and we don't want to be guilty of trying to earn his grace. So there's nothing that we can do in response. That's not how they understood a gracious lavish incredibly one sided gift in the New Testament era.

[00:26:34] To them the word grace meant I can respond. I'll never repay. I'll never be able to earn it but I get to live my life responding to what the giver has given to me.

[00:26:50] This is part of the reason why our vision here at Calvary is Jesus famous because I don't want to have to bug everybody about like you got to do this and you got to do that

[00:27:01] and you can't do this and you can't do that. Like I will do that if I have to but what I would rather have happened is for Jesus to become so important, glorious, famous, honored, loved, esteemed, appreciated for the grace of Jesus to so impact our lives

[00:27:18] that we then just say how can pastor just show me how I can respond to him? Show me how I can say thank you to him with my life. That's how James I think saw real biblical faith and how he saw grace.

[00:27:38] So this is the first thing I want you to see the faith does good and I think that we understand this. You know when you come across a believer who's just making a world of difference, you know they're just making an impact in their world.

[00:27:55] Don't you just intuitively know that God must have done something radical for them. Their eyes were open to it. They're so thankful to God that they want to give back to him.

[00:28:09] Don't you just know like they're not trying to earn their salvation. They're trying to say thank you for their salvation. Thank you for that reunification with the God who made them.

[00:28:20] Okay the second thing that I want you to see from the passage is number two, faith produces evidence. All three of my points today are just basically the same point but with different words to make it seem like three separate points.

[00:28:35] Because James just has one big thing he's saying to us today. Let's read verse 18 and 19 together. He says, but someone will say here's that opponent again you have faith and I have works.

[00:28:48] Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works James said. You believe that God is one. You do well even the demons believe in shutter.

[00:28:59] Okay it appears that the next angle that James's opponent takes is kind of saying to James like hey you know some people are faith people and some people are works people.

[00:29:16] And so you just James it sounds like you're kind of like a works guy and some people are faith people, some people are works people, some people are grace people and some people are doers.

[00:29:26] You know it's like we're all just so different in the body of Christ. That's the argument that is given to James. James he knows that faith cannot be separated from its outcome.

[00:29:39] So he challenges his opponent. He says show me your faith apart from your works. Like you kind of can't, it's impossible.

[00:29:47] The works or the outcome of faith are tied to a string at the other end of a person's works.

[00:29:57] So if you were to take someone's faith you pull on that string there's going to be outcomes to that true and biblical faith.

[00:30:04] Now as James says this it's kind of scary because he talks about how this person is sound and doctrine.

[00:30:09] Right. Remember he's writing very early on in the life of the church. He's probably writing this epistle before Paul the Apostle wrote down any of his letters but Paul was definitely out there already preaching justification by faith.

[00:30:23] And when James wrote this he's writing predominantly to Jewish Christians. The church had was still kind of becoming more gentile in nature.

[00:30:30] So he's the leader of the church there in Jerusalem. He's writing to these scattered predominantly Jewish Christians and he tells them he says look you guys say God is one.

[00:30:42] That's from the book of Deuteronomy that this is like a huge doctrinal piece of Judaism. It's the great Shema if you've ever heard that statement before that title before.

[00:30:52] It's a huge piece of biblical theology. God is one. He said you do well to say that. You do well to think that. You know James likes it when people are theologically on point but then he drops this bomb on them and he says you know

[00:31:09] you know but even the demons believe and shudder. I'm sorry this is your first day at church today and we're going to get into demons here for a second.

[00:31:21] I do believe that there is more than meets the eye in the world in which we live.

[00:31:27] And this demonic realm when you read the Gospels it's interesting that demons had really good theology.

[00:31:37] We don't know everything that they thought or whatever but there are certain things that they said that are recorded in the Gospels.

[00:31:43] They believed in the authority of Jesus over them. They believed in the consummation of all things a future day of judgment.

[00:31:53] And they believed that Jesus was the Christ the Son of God. These are things that they said James said even the demons believe and shudder like when Christ would walk into a room during his earthly ministry there wasn't

[00:32:08] an emotional visceral impact upon the demonic realm. But what James is saying is theological aptitude and emotionality in response isn't the end of what faith is about.

[00:32:25] Faith will ultimately have those elements but then push through to an outcome works or transformation or fruitfulness in a person's life.

[00:32:38] No one would ever confuse a demon with a friend of God even though they are sound and doctrine and emotionally moved.

[00:32:46] So for James he says no I will show you my faith by my works in verse 18.

[00:32:54] I'm not going to just say important doctrines. I'm not just going to be emotionally moved by God's truth but I'm going to be expecting that there's going to be change in transformation that occurs in my life.

[00:33:08] Now again I'm just trying to remind you at this point James has this ultimate vision of maturity that as we walk with God we're progressively climbing towards.

[00:33:18] This isn't like you're either perfect or you're out kind of thing. This is his way of saying when real faith is active it's doing something in a person's life.

[00:33:28] I was talking to a dad recently and I asked him can I tell this story and he's like sure.

[00:33:35] Every dad out there you have moments where you think you're doing such a good job and then you just drop the ball. You just really fail big time.

[00:33:44] Dad fails and he was telling me about this one time when his son was just like one year old and his wife had trusted him.

[00:33:53] Like you're on it. You're on duty and so he's like watching his boys and they were one of them was thirsty and he gives his little one year old sports drink to drink.

[00:34:05] Which already some of you are like well don't do that there's a lot of sugar. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that his kid downed it and then he realized that it was a caffeinated sports drink.

[00:34:17] Yeah I know. Call Child Protective Services right now. They made it through.

[00:34:25] But he told me he said you know it was like a little scary there for a second and he's like you could definitely tell that he had consumed some caffeine.

[00:34:37] He was up all he's like I paid a price a very steep price. He was up all night. He's bouncing off the walls you know kind of thing.

[00:34:43] What's what's my point. My point is that faith is like that. You can't see it but you'll definitely see its results.

[00:34:52] Okay. You can't see the caffeine but you can definitely see its results and that's what James's concept of faith is.

[00:35:01] Faith it cannot be seen but the results of it can be seen. Do you believe this.

[00:35:07] You know because I think sometimes we probably need a little bit of an attitude adjustment about works.

[00:35:16] You know is it possible for someone to slip into legalism in an attempt to appear more godly to other people in their church family or in an attempt to try to earn a position before God.

[00:35:32] Is that possible. Absolutely. I hate legalism man. I hate when I find it in myself. I hate that tendency you know where we're trying to look more spiritual than we really are.

[00:35:44] I don't like that. I don't I don't like the idea of like you know some kind of checklist before God you know like I read even the hard parts of the Old Testament.

[00:35:52] You owe me you know kind of like I don't like that kind of attitude before the Lord. The legalism is totally possible but again if we're honest I think that it's the grace demands nothing perspective that many in the church are more in danger of succumbing to right now.

[00:36:14] James wants us to stop seeing good works as some danger to our life with Jesus. He doesn't want us to think like that. He wants us to be expectant. You have prepared good works in advance for me to walk in and I want to walk in those works.

[00:36:40] So I think there might be a part of us that needs to turn the dial a little bit and James is here to help us turn that dial. Okay the last thing I want you to see like I said it's the same point in three different phrases.

[00:36:55] Number three faith leads to actions. Faith does good. Faith leads to actions. A verse 20 to 25 let's read it together. He says do you want to be shown you foolish person that faith apart from works is useless.

[00:37:09] 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.

[00:37:32] 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.

[00:37:52] Okay the opponent that James is dealing with doesn't say anything here but James has something to say to him he actually calls him a foolish person there in verse 20 and he appeals to these two characters from the Old Testament Abraham and Rahab.

[00:38:15] These two characters could not be more different if you know the Old Testament story. Abraham is known as the father of faith. Abraham is the great patriarch of Judaism of Israel the father of Isaac who was the father of Jacob who was the father of the 12 patriarchs who became the tribal leaders of the nation of Israel.

[00:38:41] Abraham is a big deal. On the other end of the spectrum he talks about this woman Rahab she's obviously not like Abraham she's female. She's not an insider like Abraham widely received by everyone.

[00:38:55] She's a resident of Jericho on the outside of the covenant community. She's not a person that's considered righteous at first glance she was a practicing prostitute there in Jericho but a moment happened in both of their lives where their faith was evidenced through a radical work.

[00:39:18] For Abraham the work was when he offered his son Isaac on the altar as a sacrifice. Now that might be a new story to some of you in the Bible is kind of one that we can't really do in Calvary kids very well.

[00:39:33] You know it's kind of scary to the little guys you know like my mom and dad might do that no don't worry about it. God did that the father did that the son went along with that he did the hard thing that we don't have to do.

[00:39:47] That's kind of the story of Genesis 22 but the story there is that Abraham years after he believed God's promise and God accounted it to him for righteousness. This is like the passage Genesis 15 that Paul alludes to in his writings like in Romans.

[00:40:06] Years later when Isaac was full grown and had become the child of promise Abraham goes to offer him to the Lord in obedience to the Lord.

[00:40:17] Now he didn't have to go through with it God stopped him the Bible says in Hebrews that Abraham believed that even if Isaac died God would have to raise him from the dead because Isaac hadn't had any children yet and God had said it will be through Isaac that the promise will unfold.

[00:40:31] So he believed that Isaac would be risen from the grave. But what James is pointing out is that work was the thing that evidence the faith that Abraham had now don't get James wrong.

[00:40:43] James is not saying that years earlier when Abraham believes he entered into this funky state of limbo before God where maybe he's the real deal. Maybe he's not the real deal and then this event happens later in his life and he does it.

[00:41:02] He passes the test and his faith is verified and now he's actually justified. No he's justified before God right at that moment of faith and confidence in the Lord trusting in the promise that God had made to him.

[00:41:18] But what James is saying is you start pulling on that Genesis 15 string and you're going to get all the way to Genesis 22 when Abraham did offer Isaac.

[00:41:27] It's an evidence of the faith that he displayed. Now what did Rahab do? Well Rahab she was a resident of Jericho. Jericho was the first city that the Israelites were going to encounter when they came into the promised land.

[00:41:44] Jericho had heard that 40 years earlier God had brought down plague after plague after plague in judgment upon the Egyptians and that God was giving the land to his people and that they were on their way.

[00:41:58] For 40 years they could track them in the wilderness. They heard of the victories that God gave to them in the wilderness. They heard about it in town.

[00:42:06] They believed that these things had happened but they said it, they thought it but it did nothing to them. It did not change their actions.

[00:42:19] They didn't try to seek peace with the Israelites. They didn't try to move out. Nothing except for Rahab. Rahab saw these two guys. They were spies. Apparently not very good at it because she figured it out and spies are found in town.

[00:42:34] They hear about these spies. Word gets around. They come to Rahab's house and she hides them. She says remember me, remember me.

[00:42:43] Her faith, she put her life on the line and I believe that God is going to do this for you. I want to be on Yahweh's team so her faith led to that action.

[00:42:55] And that's what James is pointing out. He's saying it, you know true biblical faith. You're going to see it at some point in a person's life.

[00:43:06] Now I don't think for myself, I am definitely not the evidence police. You know like I don't know. For Abraham this was something that happened over three decades later.

[00:43:20] You know and for Rahab it was something that happened pretty immediately but for us we need to as Paul said to the Corinthian church we can inspect our own lives and our own hearts.

[00:43:30] Amen. And we can, as Jesus said you want to take a look at the plank that's in your own eye. We don't need to go around being you know works inspectors, fruit inspectors in the lives of other people.

[00:43:42] Sometimes people's faith is at a real low ebb and very dormant and at some point it comes blossoming forth into a powerful work in obedience to God.

[00:43:51] But James is pointing out real faith will do something. There will be some change or transformation that occurs at some point in a person's life.

[00:44:02] And so he concludes in verse 26 with this statement. He says, for as the body apart from the spirit is dead so also faith apart from works is dead.

[00:44:12] Can you agree with that? Will you believe that good works are not an added extra just as breath is not an added extra to a living body?

[00:44:23] Will you embrace James' vision of maturity, his thinking that faith produces the whole and complete Christian?

[00:44:31] Now I want to say just two things as I wrap this up. Just two things that might be in some of your minds.

[00:44:36] First of all I want to make sure you know some of you are if I took a show of hands you'd raise your hand if I asked the question are you susceptible to condemnation?

[00:44:47] You know some of you are like that here. Your conscience is very tender and I know from years of experience preaching the Bible that I could have conversations with somebody after a teaching like this where it's like look you're not who I was talking to.

[00:45:03] You know like coming up to me like you know I don't know. I don't know if my faith is legitimate or genuine and I'm looking at their life like man you're like a prayer warrior in the church.

[00:45:14] You're serving like crazy. You're leading in the church. So many people think of you as a mentor, a guide. You're very godly. You're super devoted.

[00:45:24] I don't think you should worry. There's so much fruit that I'm seeing in your life but a lot of times people like that are the first ones to be like I feel broken by this passage and I just want to say I'm not really talking as much to you.

[00:45:39] I'm talking to the other guy. You know who you are okay?

[00:45:46] The other thing I want to say because some of you might be thinking about because this is how teachings like this always go. Any pastor dealing with this passage of James has to talk about Martin Luther, the great reformer.

[00:45:58] You know he kind of with other reformers helped rescue Christianity from the dark ages of the idea that we're saved by our works and he helped uncover justification by faith afresh.

[00:46:13] And some of you guys are conscious that good old Martin at one point he wrote that James is an epistle of straw.

[00:46:20] You've heard that before. You probably haven't heard the larger context. He said in comparison to other books of the Bible that so clearly talk about justification by faith alone like John 1st John Galatians, Romans, 1 Peter.

[00:46:35] He listed a handful of books that he was more at home in with the doctrine of justification by faith.

[00:46:42] There were lots of other reformers around Martin Luther who understood what James was trying to say but Martin struggled with it a little bit.

[00:46:52] That might lead you to think that he would disagree with some of the things I was saying today, but I want to read to you as we wrap up this morning before we take communion.

[00:47:02] His definition of faith from his commentary on the book of Romans. You tell me if he thought what I'm saying is true.

[00:47:12] He said, faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace.

[00:47:17] So sure and certain that the believer would stake his life on it a thousand times.

[00:47:24] This knowledge of and confidence in God's grace makes men glad and bold and happy in dealing with God and all creatures.

[00:47:32] And this is the work which the Holy Spirit performs in faith because of it without compulsion a person is ready and glad to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer everything out of love and praise to God who has shown him this grace.

[00:47:52] Thus it is impossible to separate works from faith quite as impossible as to separate heat and fire.

[00:48:04] I think Martin Luther, the great reformer understood what the doctrine of justification by faith alone would produce in a person's life.

[00:48:15] A life of incredible works and he certainly was a great model. An example of that he spent his life for the cause of Christ. Amen.

[00:48:24] All right, let's pray together. Lord, we thank you for your word today.

[00:48:29] And Lord as we've leaned into it, tried to lean into what James has had to say.

[00:48:37] Lord, we ask that you would help us Lord. If there's any part of our mentality on faith or grace or works that has been off, we pray Lord that it would be tweaked by your word.

[00:48:52] Thank you Lord. And now Lord as we approach your table, we are thankful for that radical grace in which we stand.

[00:49:01] We do want to spend our lives responding to it. We pray that you'd forgive us for the moments where we do not.

[00:49:09] But Lord, we consume it afresh this morning and ask that you help us to run in it this next week.

[00:49:17] Thank you for listening. If you would like more teachings and information about Calvary Monterey, please visit Calvary.com.

[00:49:28] You can also find books, teachings through the Bible and articles from our lead pastor at NateHoldridge.com.

[00:49:35] Thanks again for tuning in. See you next week.