The Great Justification Debate

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

0 comments

00:00
Let us turn our attention to our lesson for the evening, which is going to be found in the 2nd chapter of James.
00:08
I encourage you to open to James chapter 2 and hold your place at verse 14.
00:33
As I was praying tonight, I remembered an illustration from years ago regarding contradictions in the Bible.
00:45
I don't know if you've ever sat and talked to an atheist or been a part of a conversation where an atheist was expressing his doubts about the Bible, but one of the things that often comes up in the conversation if you're talking to an atheist, or like I years ago sat and listened to a lecture by Bart Ehrman, one of the men who is considered to be one of the leading scholars of higher textual criticism.
01:25
He is the professor of religion at North Carolina University.
01:32
No, he used to consider himself a Christian.
01:40
He was one of the brightest students of a great Greek professor, and I can't remember his name right off either, but I just remember hearing Bart Ehrman giving an exposition of what he considered the contradictions of the Bible.
01:57
And he kept going over, the Bible contradicts itself here, and the Bible contradicts itself there, and he just spewed it out, it was almost like it was his routine.
02:08
And it was just over and over and over again with these contradictions.
02:12
And I remember, and I don't remember who gave me this illustration, I don't remember where I heard it, it may have been in seminary, but I remember a story.
02:24
Imagine, and this may sound kind of weird, so hang with me.
02:28
Men, imagine you're coming home from work, and you see your wife at the door, and a man that you're not aware of who he is is walking out of the house.
02:44
Well, it would depend likely on your trust in your wife's faithfulness of what your mind would immediately think.
03:01
If you trusted that your wife was faithful, then you might immediately think, must have been a problem, she had to call a repairman, must have been a dangerous situation, maybe this is a neighbor, she needed help, whatever.
03:15
But if you didn't trust, or had no reason to trust, you might immediately think the worst.
03:22
And you say, what is he getting around to? Well, that's the way people come to the Bible.
03:27
If we come to the Bible and think it's automatically untrustworthy, then we're going to think everything possible to find in it the errors or contradictions therein.
03:42
But if we remember that it's always been faithful in the past, why would we even think for a second that it's going to be unfaithful now? Then when we come to something that may appear to be a contradiction, or a tension, that's the word that scholars like to use, a tension in the text, then don't we just immediately remind ourselves the Bible has always been faithful before, and it will remain faithful now.
04:23
I'm looking at the Bible, trust it, or what's the least I can do to get into heaven? I mean, that doesn't make sense to you? I'm not sure where you're going with that.
04:35
I mean, I'm not saying you're wrong.
04:36
I'm just not quite sure where we're at.
04:38
I'm saying, okay, I look at the Bible and say, oh my gosh, that's not right.
04:43
There's something wrong there.
04:45
Well, I'm looking for a problem rather than looking for the solution in the Bible.
04:51
And that's the point.
04:52
The point is, what's the least I can do to be saved? Well, Lord, you're looking for a solution.
04:57
That's a wrong thing to look for is what you're saying.
04:59
Okay, okay, yeah, yeah.
05:02
Well, this is not in my notes.
05:04
It's just, as I said, I was praying earlier tonight.
05:06
I just got to thinking.
05:07
We have come to a point in James which has been the center of controversy for the past 500 years of church history since the Protestant Reformation, which, by the way, if you want to argue that it began, I would argue it began before Martin Luther, but if you want to point to the fact that October 31, 1517 was the time when it really lit the fire of the Protestant Reformation, that means next year, this is 2016.
05:48
Can you believe it's 2016 already? But next year, 2017, that's how many years? 500 years since the Protestant Reformation was launched through the writings of the 95 Theses and the teachings of Martin Luther.
06:07
Well, this particular text that we're coming to tonight has been at the center of the controversy since its inception, and really the center thought or the center issue of the entire controversy is that Latin phrase that we're so familiar with here, sola fide.
06:33
What does sola fide mean? It means faith alone.
06:39
It is shorthand for justification by faith alone.
06:47
Many of us are aware that this particular doctrine does not go without objection.
06:56
Justification is how a man is made right with God.
06:59
There's something within man, or people want to believe rather, that there's something within man that he participates in to be made right with God, and so the reliance upon faith alone is not enough.
07:11
We want to participate.
07:13
We want to merit something.
07:14
We want to have our stake, our lot in this, and so you have the merit seekers who look for places in the Bible where they can fit in their merit, and they find it often in the second chapter of James.
07:35
As such, this doctrine has divided people for a quarter of the church's existence.
07:42
We might add that salvation through faith was really the issue of Acts 15 that we're studying on Sunday morning.
07:49
You've heard me mention a few times that really the subject that they're debating is can a man be saved by faith alone, or does he have to become a Jew first? Does he have to obey the Jewish law? So really, it's not just 500 years of church history, but all the way back to our very beginning, this issue has stood as a point of controversy.
08:09
The spark which became the inferno regarding the issue came in the 1500s, as I said before, with Martin Luther.
08:19
He was the champion of what would be called Solafidianism.
08:23
Solafidianism is simply what we are.
08:25
We're Solafidiests.
08:27
We believe in justification by faith alone.
08:33
Almost every student of church history knows that Martin Luther had issues with the book of James.
08:42
If you've ever read Martin Luther, if you've ever looked into his writings, you will find that he did have a little bit of an issue with what James had to say about justification.
08:55
In the original preface of the New Testament in 1522 that Martin Luther translated, he wrote a preface to the New Testament and he called the epistle of James the epistle of straw, which simply meant that it just wasn't firm enough or it wasn't strong enough.
09:11
It didn't really stand on its own.
09:13
It really wasn't a strong part of the New Testament.
09:21
The short phrase would be later left out of subsequent editions, but would never be forgotten.
09:27
It was used by many as a stick with which to club the reformer.
09:31
If you've ever talked to a Roman Catholic, they will mock Martin Luther for this.
09:37
Oh, he didn't like James because James disagreed with him.
09:40
That's what they'll argue.
09:41
He didn't like James because James proved him wrong.
09:45
And so he called it the epistle of straw because it proves his teaching wrong.
09:54
Martin Luther did go as far as to question the canonicity of James.
09:59
Martin Luther questioned the canonicity.
10:00
By the way, canonicity simply means whether or not a book should be included in the Bible.
10:06
Martin Luther had the question, should James even be in the Bible? Now you and I think, oh man, what a question.
10:14
What a dirty, rotten thing to even ask.
10:18
But you have to consider something.
10:20
He also took issue with three other books of the Bible.
10:23
He took issue with the book of Jude.
10:26
He took issue with the book of Hebrews and with the book of Revelation.
10:33
But think of it for a moment.
10:35
I'm no Lutheran apologist here, but I just want you for a moment to think.
10:41
There has never been a golden leaflet handed down from heaven which says, here are the 27 books of the New Testament.
10:51
In fact, I imagine if I were to ask you all tonight to give me a reason why, the Shepherd of Hermes is not in the New Testament.
11:03
You probably wouldn't know.
11:04
And I don't say that to mock anyone, but I wonder how many of you would even know it was considered.
11:10
Or what it is.
11:16
Luther lived in a time where the church was known for corruption.
11:22
The church had been corrupted for over 500 years, if not longer, since the Middle Ages.
11:30
He had questioned so much of what the church had taught.
11:36
Would it not make sense that he would question what was in the Scriptures? By the way, do not the Catholics now have parts of their Bible that we do not have? They have an entire section called the Apocrypha.
11:50
They don't call it that.
11:56
They would call it Deuterocanonical.
11:59
Meaning that it would be a part of the canon, but a secondary part of the canon.
12:06
No, no.
12:07
Shepherd of Hermes is a New Testament work.
12:11
All the books of the Apocrypha make up the 400-year period between Malachi and Matthew.
12:19
Shepherd of Hermes is not considered part of that.
12:25
Ultimately, men like Erasmus, Luther, Cajetan, and different ones from the time of the Reformation, all had their questions.
12:36
Have we been misled on the Scriptures? Have we been misled? So when you hear that Martin Luther had an issue with James, don't think that, well, he had an issue with James just because he felt like James disagreed with him.
12:47
He had an issue with the fact that he wanted to be sure that what he was treating as Scripture was Scripture.
12:56
That this is what God had given to his church.
13:01
And unlike Marcion, Marcion was a heretic from the second century, Marcion did cut out parts of the Bible.
13:09
Marcion cut out whole sections of the Bible because he didn't like what they said.
13:14
Unlike him, Luther never cut anything out.
13:18
He questioned, he studied, but he didn't remove.
13:24
But having said all of that, Luther had a problem with James because he felt like there was an irreconcilable difference between what James said about justification and what Paul says about justification.
13:46
And one thing that Luther believed was that God is not double-minded.
13:52
God is not speaking from both sides of his mouth.
13:56
So if God's not speaking from both sides of his mouth, and these two guys don't agree, then one of them must be wrong, so what do we do? Again, I'm trying to put you in the mind of Luther here, mind of the situation.
14:14
Luther, from what I understand, his biographer Roland Bain recounted that he remarked that he would give his doctor's beret, that was the hat which identified his position in scholastic circles, he would give his doctor's beret to anyone who could reconcile James and Paul.
14:37
That's pretty serious.
14:49
Well, this is way after that part though.
14:51
Well, but the whole point is he was...
14:56
He was committed, is what you're saying.
14:57
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
15:02
Again, Luther saw an irreconcilable difference between James and Paul.
15:08
He believed that Paul taught justification by faith alone, and yet when you come to James chapter 2, it says we are saved by works and not by faith alone.
15:17
We are justified by works and not by faith alone, and this was an issue.
15:24
Luther understood the doctrine, or the teaching rather, of the law of non-contradiction.
15:30
You can't be and not be at the same time in the same relationship, and it either is or it isn't.
15:38
Luther would finally reconcile the two later, after making the statement about his hat.
15:45
He finally wrote this in his book, Here I Stand, on page 259.
15:49
He wrote this, Faith is a living and restless thing.
15:51
It cannot be inoperative.
15:53
We are not saved by works, but if there be no works, then there must be something amiss with our faith.
16:00
So he finally reconciled it in his mind, the issue between James and Paul, but it was not an easy reconciliation.
16:09
So I've told you all this as a long introduction, simply to say, as we come to this section of James, I want us to be sure that we are looking at it properly, and I want us to keep in mind that the historical arguments are there, and we should address them, and it's important that we understand the implications of a wrong understanding of this text.
16:31
If we get this wrong, we get the gospel wrong.
16:37
I want to read to you from A.W.
16:39
Pink.
16:39
A.W.
16:39
Pink, fantastic scholar, writer.
16:43
If you've never read Pink, read Pink.
16:47
I don't know what else to say.
16:48
Go get some Pink and read them.
16:53
A.W.
16:53
Pink wrote this in regard to this section of James.
16:58
Unless the subject and scope of James' epistle be clearly seen, the apprehension of many of its statements can only issue in God dishonoring, grace repudiating, soul destroying error.
17:14
He said, unless you get this right, you're going to be God dishonoring, grace destroying, soul destroying error.
17:21
That's where you're headed.
17:23
And he went on to say, to this portion of the word of God, more than any other have legalists appealed in their opposition to the grand truth of justification by grace through faith without works.
17:34
To the declarations of this epistle, have they turned to find their support for their Christ insulting, man exalting, gospel repudiating error of justification by human works.
17:45
By the way, A.W.
17:46
Pink did not like the wrong interpretation of James.
17:50
Merit mongers of all descriptions cite James 2 for the purpose of setting aside all that is taught elsewhere in Scripture on the subject of justification.
18:00
Romanists and their half-brothers the Armenians quote James 2.24 and suppose that that ends all the argument.
18:12
Again, this is not a simple issue.
18:15
It is an issue that has led many to a false understanding of the gospel.
18:23
So, with all, yes sir.
18:46
Sure.
18:47
And we're going to see that.
18:57
Sure.
19:00
But, and I want to challenge, I agree with you, I don't disagree with anything you've said, amen to everything.
19:12
But, and it's a hard but, you're talking to a Roman Catholic, like Robert St.
19:20
Genes who I'll be addressing next week because this is going to go more than this week, trust me.
19:26
Robert St.
19:26
Genes wrote in his book Not By Faith Alone that James is teaching us that adherence to the law is necessary for salvation and that it's what saves us.
19:41
Would you disagree with him? Yes.
19:43
For sure, right? That's the line we all believe, at least I hope everyone in this room would believe, that true faith would institute good works in the individual, would cause good works in the individual.
19:59
And I believe that's what James is teaching.
20:01
But what those who oppose justification by faith say is that James is teaching that our salvation is based on our works.
20:11
For sure.
20:17
So that's what I'm pointing out, that's why I'm making this such a hard, it is either by faith or it is by works, but if it is by works and faith together, it is not by grace.
20:30
Paul tells us that in Romans 4, that you were saying.
20:35
Right? Okay, yeah, yeah, no, no.
20:38
And that's what I say, that's the part, I agree with you 100%, but the argument here, that is being made by, and by the way, next week's lesson is entitled, The Merit Mongers, so we'll just call them that, The Merit Mongers.
20:53
I just, that's A.W.
20:55
Pink's word, I loved it.
20:56
The Merit Mongers want to make the works meritorious.
21:05
That the works cause the salvation, rather than being a result thereof.
21:15
We'll deal with some of that more next week, but we are, because I do deal with some of their arguments more next week.
21:22
This week I'm just sort of breaking the text down, next week we're going to deal with some of the oppositional arguments.
21:28
Let's begin at verse 14, I want to look at 14, 15, 16, 17, if we have time tonight, we'll see.
21:35
I've put those on your sheet.
21:38
James begins in verse 14 with a question, What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works? Can that faith save him? This verse properly sets the context for all that's about to come.
21:56
All the way down to the end of the chapter, rests on a proper understanding of verse 14, I believe.
22:03
Because I believe that verse 14 actually resolves the conflict, that most people have with this, and I believe that if you understand verse 14 properly, which I hope you will before the evening is over, then you won't really have an issue with the rest.
22:20
The two words that I think matter most, if you're looking at the ESV, if you don't have the ESV they may be a little differently, but in the ESV I think the two words that matter most are the word says and the word that.
22:40
Two four letter words.
22:42
If you want to take your notes and underline those words, I'll explain why I think that those two words have so much importance in this particular statement.
22:53
He says, what good is it my brothers, if someone says he has faith.
22:58
Now that word is there in the Greek, lege is the Greek word for to say something or to speak.
23:04
Lego in the Greek to say or to speak.
23:08
Lego my ego, the Greek word for I said to myself.
23:14
Lego my ego is a Greek word.
23:16
I said to myself.
23:20
Lego there is in the Greek and that's something that must be understood.
23:24
James is talking in this particular passage about someone who is saying something about himself.
23:34
He is saying something, he's expressing something about his own condition.
23:40
He asked the question, what good is it if someone says he has faith? Let me ask you this just right off very simply.
23:49
Have you ever met somebody who said they had faith but really didn't? Have you ever met somebody who said they were a Christian and who weren't? You know what's funny is, I talk to people in various walks of life, some people who never go to church, they don't have any relationship with the Scriptures or with God or any type of conversation or communion with the Father through His Son, by the Spirit, and yet you'll start a conversation about spiritual things.
24:20
Oh, I have faith.
24:23
Man, I've got faith.
24:25
I talked to a guy the other day, dying of cancer.
24:27
Dying.
24:28
He is spread all through his body.
24:30
He probably will not live throughout the year unless the Lord does a miracle work in his life and his body.
24:36
I was trying to talk to him about judgment and death.
24:41
He goes, man, I've got faith.
24:43
But in what? So right away, we see that James is addressing something very simply.
24:53
He's saying someone can say they have faith and it be a lie.
24:59
Or they can say they have faith and it not be real.
25:03
Right? So the word says is important because what he doesn't say is what good is it, my brothers, if a man has faith and has no words? He says, what good is it if he says he has it? That adds a nuance to the statement.
25:25
We're dealing with somebody who's placing a claim on faith.
25:31
Verbally.
25:35
But he has no words.
25:37
Next thing I mention is the word that.
25:40
Two short words.
25:41
In fact, in the Greek, the word that is one letter.
25:46
It's the eta.
25:47
With the breath mark.
25:49
So it's hey.
25:50
Hey.
25:51
Hey, Pistis.
25:55
That faith.
25:58
Can that faith save him? The article that is identifying the faith.
26:07
Pistis, the Greek there.
26:09
It's identifying it as a type.
26:14
Growing up, my dad had diesel trucks.
26:17
Right? Still got a diesel truck.
26:20
I'm always asking him to sell it to me because I love that truck.
26:23
It's beautiful and drives well.
26:26
Maybe one day he'll sell it to me.
26:29
But that diesel truck does not take gasoline.
26:34
Even though I know at times we've tried to make that happen.
26:39
I had it on accident one time.
26:42
I don't want to embarrass him.
26:43
Dad was on a trip.
26:44
Put gasoline in the diesel.
26:45
But they thought it was diesel.
26:47
It weren't not.
26:48
And a couple miles later, he found out.
26:51
Diesel does not work in a gas engine.
26:53
And gas does not work in a diesel engine.
26:55
It's two different types of fuel.
26:58
So now, having given that explanation, I want to describe something.
27:05
What good is it to say that I have diesel when I actually have gas? Can that fuel run my truck? Now, let me say it again.
27:21
And think about what James has said here.
27:23
What good is it to say I have diesel when I have gas? Can that fuel run my truck? Not if it's a diesel engine.
27:32
I can say it's diesel, and I can pour it in there.
27:35
But if it's gas, it ain't going to run.
27:41
It's probably going to destroy the whole innards.
27:44
Innards, that's a good Calahan word.
27:46
That's going to mess up all the inside parts.
27:51
The what? The engine.
27:53
So now, now go back to what James has said.
27:57
If someone says he has faith, but he doesn't have works, then he's not got the faith that saves.
28:07
He's got a different kind of faith.
28:10
That faith that he has is not saving faith.
28:14
Does that make sense? He's got gas, and he needs diesel.
28:19
He's got the wrong kind of faith.
28:28
Yes, absolutely.
28:30
Absolutely.
28:31
A.W.
28:32
Pink, I'm going to be quoting him a few times tonight.
28:35
Ability to pray in an unorthodox, or in an orthodox manner about the doctrines of Christianity is a vastly different thing from justifying faith.
28:43
Now that's A.W.
28:44
Pink's fancy way of saying just because somebody talks about Christianity, talks about being a Christian, that doesn't make them saved.
28:51
In fact, that's a far cry from genuine faith.
28:57
Understanding that James is referring to a certain type of faith, a faith that doesn't save, not genuine faith, sets the understanding for the rest of the chapter.
29:11
Because later, when he says, in verse 24, which we're going to deal with next week, but he will say that man is not justified by faith alone, but he's justified by his works.
29:21
He's justified by works and not by faith alone.
29:23
The faith alone is this kind of faith.
29:30
Faith alone, in James' mind, is not what we're talking about when we talk about justification by faith alone.
29:38
The faith alone that he is talking about is the kind of faith that is not true faith.
29:45
And that faith doesn't save.
29:48
What did you say? It's dead faith.
29:50
It's not a living faith.
29:52
It's not a true faith.
29:54
And so everything that he says from now on has to be understood in that context.
29:59
He is making a distinction between true and living faith and dead faith.
30:04
And how does he make the distinction? True and living faith will bring about good works.
30:08
Dead faith will not bring about good works.
30:11
There are two types.
30:12
One saves, one damns.
30:17
And understanding that distinction will be what drives us through this.
30:20
If you can't understand the distinction, you will constantly be butting up against Paul.
30:24
But if you understand the distinction, you'll see that him and Paul are like butter.
30:28
They go right together.
30:30
Yes.
30:35
No.
30:36
No, no.
30:37
We both agree with that.
30:38
But that's the question to this.
30:42
Yeah.
30:42
The question...
30:43
And Robert St.
30:44
Genesis would say, yes, they participate in my salvation.
30:48
I wouldn't...
30:48
He totally disagrees with all of them.
30:49
Sure.
30:50
Absolutely.
30:51
And that's the issue, is they run to James like a football player runs for the end zone.
30:57
They run to James for this one verse to cancel out everything that's said in Romans and in Galatians and in all the other books of Paul and even the words of Jesus when He says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that whosoever believes and does all these other things will not perish but have an eternal life.
31:18
No, He didn't, did He? Even Jesus taught in the most famous book of the Bible that ultimately it is faith and not words that justify us before God.
31:30
So, let's look now at verses 15 and 16 understanding the context that He set with verse 14.
31:36
He set a context.
31:38
This person is speaking about faith and they have a faith that doesn't save.
31:43
Verse 15 says, If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, verse 16, 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? Now look, this is a hugely practical example as far as examples go.
32:08
Notice that it references a brother, verse 15.
32:12
It says, If our brother or sister is lacking, or poorly clothed, and lacking daily food, now this is just to point out the fact that He is referencing something that's happening within the church now.
32:28
You know, He's referring to the fact that this is our brothers and sisters in the church.
32:32
We're looking out in the congregation and we got people in the Rolls Royces and the people that can't even get rolls for dinner.
32:41
There's a distinction here.
32:43
And He's saying, You got people that don't have what they need to eat and they don't have what they need to wear in your congregation, and what are you doing? Yeah.
33:03
I love this illustration.
33:05
He says, You say to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, and then you don't do anything.
33:10
You don't give them what warms them and what fills them.
33:14
This is so common.
33:16
It's common in the church.
33:18
Unfortunately.
33:21
We have another way of saying it now.
33:22
What do we say to people when they tell us they got a problem? I'll pray for you.
33:28
And a lot of times we don't even do that.
33:30
We can't even fulfill on the easiest thing, which would be to pray.
33:36
We forget.
33:37
By the time we get home, we've had our McDonald's, we've had our warm clothes and home to go to, and the person told us they don't even have food for their kids.
33:45
Well, we'll pray for you.
33:48
You might say, I'd never do that.
33:50
But do you not think that it happens? We simply give words of wishes, but we don't give anything to change the person's condition, and what does it tell us about the condition of our own heart? That's very convicting to me.
34:18
This isn't limited to the congregation.
34:20
I want to point that out, but it does have the congregation in view.
34:25
Obviously, the church will never solve world poverty.
34:29
What I mean is this church is not going to solve all the poverty in the world.
34:33
We can solve poverty among ourselves, though, first.
34:37
Nobody in this church should go hungry.
34:39
Nobody in this church should go without a need met, because I know that we have enough between us all that no one should have to.
34:55
Again, Pink says, Here the apostle applies the illustration he has employed to the case before him proving the worthlessness of a lifeless and inoperative faith.
35:03
Even our fellow men would promptly denounce as valueless a love which was gushing in words, but lacking in works.
35:12
What do you call someone who constantly talks about helping people, but never helps them? A hypocrite, right? A person who constantly brags about the need to help, but never actually participates in the help.
35:34
See, this is where it gets kind of difficult, because he's giving us an example that we can all relate to, and we don't like to relate to it.
35:44
We don't like the conviction that comes with it.
35:51
And then verse 17, which is what my brother's already said, So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
36:01
He's identifying the type of faith that he's addressing.
36:08
It's not living.
36:09
It's not active.
36:11
It's dead.
36:14
Faith by itself is not real faith.
36:22
Words of compassion, not words of compassion.
36:25
Yes.
36:29
The faith which is dead is that faith which is referenced in verse 14.
36:39
During the height of the Reformation, this issue was a great debate, as I've already mentioned.
36:48
The Reformers cried, sola fide, and what did their opponents say? James says no.
36:57
You cry out, sola fide, we tell you, James tells you no.
37:04
On the back of your sheet, there are some blanks that I'd like to give you now, because I want to help you understand something about the Reformers.
37:15
Reformed theology does not teach that faith by itself, apart from works, is the faith that Paul tells us and that Jesus tells us does save.
37:34
But yet they were accused of that.
37:37
So they gave us language that I think can help.
37:44
You see the three blanks on your sheet? The Reformers told us and gave us these three things.
37:51
They said there are actually three different ways that faith is described.
37:56
Three different ways that you can identify what faith is, and I'm going to give you these three things.
38:01
The first one is gnosis.
38:07
If you want to write that down, you can put in parentheses, knowledge.
38:20
The Reformers were very apt to use the Latin, so I'm just using their language.
38:26
Gnosis, knowledge.
38:31
The next one was a census.
38:41
A census means belief.
38:55
The third one was fiducia.
39:06
Fiducia.
39:10
And if you wanted to translate fiducia into English, it would be faith, but it would be trust.
39:26
So the Reformers said, we believe that justification is by faith alone.
39:34
Why would they argue such a thing when James makes such a point to say it's not? Remember who they were at odds with.
39:52
The Roman Catholic Church had established not only a system of works for salvation, but even within the system of works, they had maligned that system to create, for lack of a better term, spiritual prostitution where it was purchased.
40:24
They were selling salvation at a cost.
40:29
Have you ever read the 95 Theses? Do you know what the vast majority of the 95 Theses were dealing with? The sell of indulgences that you could buy your salvation with a coin.
40:48
Do you realize that hasn't stopped today? Do you realize Rome still sells indulgences today? Do you realize recently a conversation came up they're having a year of Jubilee, a special Jubilee celebration in Rome where the Pope has a special door that he opens, and if you pass through that door, you can receive an indulgence.
41:12
And there's pictures of him going through, and then Pope Ratzinger, who came before him, who is now Pope Emeritus, which is an interesting title, is Pope Emeritus.
41:22
He goes through the door, and all these other people come through the door, and a bunch of dignitaries, and people who live in different places, and have all these positional hierarchies in their life, and they go through that door.
41:32
Why? To receive this indulgence.
41:35
If there's anything that flies in the face of everything Paul taught, it's that.
41:45
That you can earn God's favor by walking through a door.
41:49
What nonsense is that? So the Reformers said, No! We are saved by the work of Christ, not by our own works.
41:59
We're saved by Him, not by us.
42:01
It is His righteousness, not ours.
42:03
And the only thing that allows me to lay claim to His righteousness is faith.
42:08
For no work that I do will gain any merit at all, when His merit is all in all.
42:18
That's why it was such an issue.
42:21
Is that it, sir? Yes.
42:28
But when pressed about what do you mean when you say, What do you mean? Faith.
42:39
They said, Gnosis is not enough.
42:44
Gnosis simply means to know what something claims to be true.
42:52
A census is not enough.
42:56
It means to believe that something claims it's true.
43:02
You might say, Now wait a minute.
43:04
That's not enough.
43:09
They said, No, it's fiducia.
43:12
It's trust.
43:14
And you say, Well, what separates belief and trust? The best illustration I have, and some of you may have heard this before, but it is literally the best illustration I have.
43:26
And so if you've heard it before, hear it again.
43:29
If you've got a better one, I'll be happy to hear.
43:36
But if you think about a parachute, I fully understand and know the claims of the parachute.
43:51
Jump out of the plane.
43:54
It'll catch you.
43:56
And it will take you to the ground.
43:58
I know the claim.
44:02
And guess what? I believe it.
44:05
But I ain't stepping out of no plane.
44:08
I don't care if I've been strapped tight and I'm wearing two of them, one on either side.
44:12
You would have to push me hard.
44:18
Harder than you think to get me out of that plane.
44:23
And that's the difference between belief and faith.
44:25
I believe a parachute will save me.
44:29
But I don't trust it enough to step out of the plane.
44:43
Well, that's the Ray Comfort thing, yeah.
44:46
And it's similar.
44:47
My point is simply trying to help you understand the difference between B and C.
44:53
Because there is a difference between believing and...
44:55
And when you go back to John 3, 16, and you read where Jesus said, Whosoever believeth in Him will not perish.
45:05
The Greek is Pascha Pistouan.
45:09
It's the same Greek word used here for faith.
45:15
And it's the same word used everywhere else for faith.
45:18
John 3, 16 says, in a very simple way, All the ones in faith will not perish.
45:29
It's not simply a census.
45:34
It's fiduciary.
45:40
Yes, exactly.
45:42
And when we get...
45:44
No, no, you're fine.
45:45
That's exactly right.
45:46
He's going to talk next week about that very thing.
45:49
You can know the truth and you can even believe it.
45:52
Demons believe it.
45:56
Think about when Jesus came to them.
45:58
What did they say? Oh, Jesus, Son of the Most High God.
46:02
Right? They knew who He was and they believed who He was.
46:05
They didn't have faith.
46:08
So, when you hear sola fide, justification by faith alone, know that it is not simply easy believism.
46:17
It is a faith that works.
46:20
As we have in our notes, and I will end with this quote from John Calvin.
46:25
I forgot to put his name on there.
46:26
Faith alone saves, but faith that saves will never be alone.
46:35
Let's pray.
46:35
Father, thank You for Your Word.
46:37
Thank You for the truth.
46:39
I pray that I've been faithful to the Scriptures tonight, Lord.
46:41
I pray that this has been faithful teaching.
46:45
And Lord, I pray that we would never believe something just because John Calvin said it or A.W.
46:49
Pink said it or just because Martin Luther said it, Lord, but that we would believe it because it's what the Bible teaches.
46:55
And Lord, we see in the Bible what some might call a tension between James and Paul.
47:01
But as we go through the weeks ahead, I pray that we'll see that they both are teaching a very simple and basic truth that true faith will never be devoid of the fruit of the Spirit which comes with being born of the Spirit.
47:16
And the fruit of the Spirit is love.
47:19
And Father, it's that love that grows in our hearts to a work that seeks to do what Christ has commanded of us because the Bible tells us, Lord, that if we love You, we will seek to keep Your commandments.
47:36
We thank You, Lord, and we give You all glory and praise in Jesus' name.
47:39
Amen.