Faith That Works: Dead Faith

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Well, I'd like to invite you to turn with me to the book of James, chapter 2.
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We're continuing our study through the book of James. This section breaks off into another thought, and it's a very important one.
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We're going to be looking at a two -part section here. I call it faith that works.
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And actually, he's talking about faith without works is dead. But today, we're going to be looking at dead faith.
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It will be part 1 in Lord Willing. Next week, we'll be looking at part 2 of living faith.
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And there's a contrast. The opposite of dead, of course, is living. And you can have faith, but it can be dead faith.
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That's important. And it's important also, as we'll see in Scripture, that you can have faith that's living, that's real, that's genuine.
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So that's really what he's going to be talking about to us, and I think this is a very, very important section that we're going to be looking at.
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So hear the word of the living God from chapter 2. Let's look at verses 14.
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I'm going to go ahead and read all the way to the end of the chapter, verse 26. But we're going to only cover, as the
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Lord would lead us, verse 14 all the way to verse 20.
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We'll look at verse 20. We'll try to pack that in by God's help. So hear the word of the living
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God. And yet, you do not give them what is necessary for their body.
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What use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.
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But someone may well say, you have faith and I have works.
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Show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works.
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You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe and shudder.
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But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?
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Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac, his son, on the altar?
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You see that faith was working with his works. And as a result of the works, faith was perfected.
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And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
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And he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
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In the same way, was not Rahab the hearted also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
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For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
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May God bless the reading of his word to our hearts. Let's pray. Our Father, once again, we just ask that your blessed
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Holy Spirit would come now and be the teacher for each and every one of us that's in the
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Lord. And Lord, if there's anyone here in the sound of my voice that's without you, that has dead faith,
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Father, only you can awaken that faith. Only you can give the gracious gift that comes from you, because you are the author and the finisher of faith.
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And may we see also, as your word says, we look unto
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Jesus. He's the author and finisher of our faith. He's the one that started us out, and he's the one that will end us.
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He's the beginner, and he's the finisher. So, Father, help us within this hour to be steadfast, keeping our eyes upon Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
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We see his life, how he demonstrated all that needs to be demonstrated as the head of the church, the good shepherd of our soul, the great shepherd of the sheep.
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And as he walked, we should walk as well. So, Father, give us your
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Holy Spirit to help us in all these things, that we would only not just preach the gospel, but live the gospel.
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And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, it is right to say that James has no part in the popular discussion as whether a man is saved by faith and works.
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His concern is to prove that faith and works are inseparable.
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So you cannot separate the two. They are not enemies. They are friends.
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He never questions that faith is the very instrument of salvation, but he insists that if faith is real, it will manifest itself in works.
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That's what he's saying. And faith and trust and devotion and obedience and love, by the way, as 1
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Corinthians 13 says, and devotion and obedience and love, a faith which is not mere assent to a creed is not worthy of the name.
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A faith which does not produce works cannot save.
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That's what he's talking about here in this section. It is dead. Or should
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I say, it is a dead faith. It is barren. This is the truth which
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James seeks to establish in this wonderful, famous section of his epistle.
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Now, up to this point, as we have seen, he has been warning his readers against the folly of trying to hold faith in the
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Lord Jesus Christ, at the same time breaking the law of love and showing respect of persons.
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We've seen that. And showing partiality, that God is not a respecter of persons.
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He has insisted that this is impossible and that real faith in Christ will always manifest itself in love.
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You see this all through the epistles. You see this in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. He now proceeds to enlarge,
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I would say, upon this vital truth that is so important and to insist that real faith will always be manifest and conduct itself, or should
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I say, in conduct, acting it out, which is consistent with the law of God and the law of love, which is in Jesus Christ.
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Now, he makes a transition here. And that transition is the subject of justification.
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Justification. But it's not only justification, it is also the subject and the doctrine of faith.
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There's a lot of doctrine here, but we see James brings it to a very practical, shoe -leather, living it out, doesn't he?
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It shows that working faith, talking about justification now, shows that working faith, working faith, faith that works, are necessary in order that a person may be justified before God, and before a holy
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God, and how we can be right with God. Now, it not only brings that out, but what does justified mean?
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It basically means how I can be right with God judicially, how
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I'm esteemed before God, and counted, that we are accounted righteous before God.
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This is so important. Luther says this is really the pillar of the church. If we missed it here, we missed everything.
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And he is so right. And that's what he's speaking of. So we've got to see, what is
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James talking about? Is he contradicting himself, as so many people say? Well, we know better than that, don't we?
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Scripture actually complements itself. It doesn't contradict itself. It depends on the interpretation.
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That's why there's so much confusion out there today, that the interpretations are twisted and viewed in such a wrong way, and people are confused.
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You see it within other branches and out there, talking to other people, that people are confused.
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God's not the author of confusion. It is Satan. That's right. And he wants to divide.
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He wants to cause confusion. But the truth makes it so crystal clear. And it's straight.
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And that's why it needs to be spoken in power, but not only in power, but it must be spoken in clarity.
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Now, whether it's just not from behind a podium or a pulpit, but you out there, there's people who have questions about this.
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So we must be careful in our evangelizing, that we speak the truth in love, but we speak it in clarity.
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And that's where we call upon the Holy Spirit of God to help us. He's the one that can really open their eyes and enlighten their minds and open their heart.
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But, you know, Luther, even though he would have a hard time with this, and his background is what you well know,
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Luther would have a hard time with James. He actually called the book of James the epistle of straw. He didn't think much of James.
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And he saw Paul as Paul the apostle laid straight about the doctrine of justification by faith alone.
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But James is not contradicting Paul. He's complementing Paul. And that's what we want to see.
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Now, the successor, and should I say, not the successor, but the apprentice of Luther was
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Philip Melanchthon. Melanchthon said this, and this is one of my favorite quotes.
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And actually, I'm sure he has other quotes from Philip Melanchthon. But he said this, who was
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Martin Luther's apprentice. This is what he said, quote, It is faith alone that saves, but the faith that saves is not alone.
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And I love that. That's exactly what James is saying. Paul says it, too, in Ephesians chapter 2.
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We see that. So here, I say it again.
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It is faith alone that saves, but the faith that saves is not alone.
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Put the two together. You've got the gospel. You've got the whole gospel right there.
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And so the object here is given, here in verses 14 through 26, is to show us that in truth and clarity by the
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Holy Spirit, in which James is speaking, that in fact as well that no one can be regarded as truly righteous before God who does not lead an upright, holy life.
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You see people trying to separate this in our day today, don't you? People that are very much into antinomianism, trying to justify their wild, free living, they call it, by separating it from the law, and saying the law is bad, but we know better.
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The law is holy, it is good. It is absolutely perfect. It is the standard, but we know that we cannot live by that standard.
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We should strive to that standard, but that we know that that standard was lived through the Lord Jesus Christ.
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He fulfilled the law to the full. He fulfilled it.
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So we look to the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, but does that mean we throw out the 39 books of the Bible?
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Absolutely not. So it's there, a holy, set apart, sanctified life before God and men, and men as well, just not
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God, but God and men, that if a person professes to have faith, as James says in verse 14, he says he has faith and has not works, cannot be justified.
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Something has to be shown. Something has to be seen. It has to be demonstrated. So that if he has real faith, it will be shown by his good works.
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We'll be seeing that in a minute. Jesus spoke about this on the Sermon on the Mount. You know this, brothers and sisters, as well as I do.
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Everything that James speaks of here, he draws from the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And I really believe in his mind's eye, as he pictures this, he is writing this out, and he's thinking of the
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Sermon on the Mount. He's the Sermon on the Mount. We're going to be looking at that. But also the apostle
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Paul. Let me bring Paul here. Consider the Lord Jesus Christ. No greater person.
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Actually, everything that the apostles preached and taught were everything that they got and received from the
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Lord Jesus Christ. I like what MacArthur said. Really, the epistles, the 27 epistles, a great deal of them, is all commentary on what
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Jesus spoke. Jesus is the head of the church. So the apostles complement each other.
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And what Jesus is, they just take it from their perspective, and they are addressing what audience they're addressing here.
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James is addressing devout Jews. Jews that are scattered abroad, that are suffering.
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And a lot of them, that's mixed up in doctrine. So he's bringing to them, this is the correct teaching, this is the correct doctrine.
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Now, the apostle Paul would agree with James. I really believe that.
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In this truth of that faith does not stand alone. There's working faith that entails.
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Ephesians 2, as you well know, this well -familiar verse, verses 8 -10 says this,
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For by grace you have been saved through faith. It's the instrument. Faith is the instrument.
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And that not of yourselves. So we have no part in this salvation. It's not of works, he says.
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And it is the gift of God. Now, what's he talking about the gift of God? Faith is the gift of God.
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Faith comes from God. Even repentance as well. These are gifts that we cannot earn.
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God gives us an instrument. It's the necessary instrument to lay hold of Christ.
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It's Christ that saves, as Spurgeon says. But it's the instrument to lay hold of God.
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You must have faith. And so it's by grace, God's favor, that we've been given this salvation through faith.
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And that not of yourselves. He makes that clear. And he tells us why.
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It's the gift of God. And then he says, not of works. Least any man should boast in it.
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You know, once we get to heaven, I really believe this, by grace and by grace alone, we're going to say we're saved by the blood of Jesus.
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If anybody could say I've got a little percentage in this salvation, they could say, hey,
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I could boast a little bit. I've got a little part in it. Just a smidgen. No, sir.
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No one will have a smidgen or a one percent salvations of the Lord.
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So that's what Paul says. No one's going to boast. No one should boast.
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Verse 10. And here's what I'm really getting to here. For we are his workmanship.
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I like to think of workmanship. We are his masterpiece. We are his. He is taking us to form us into an image, and that image is
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Jesus Christ. And, beloved, he loves us so much he would take us through any lengths and any breadth and any depth, no matter what it takes sometimes, to make us into the image of Jesus Christ.
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We are his workmanship. And then I like this next part. Created. You are created in Christ Jesus unto good works.
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There it is. Unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.
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Now, how can anybody say, Paul's not talking about that you throw out good works? Good works don't save us, but we are saved unto good works.
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That is so clear to me. How can anybody miss this? But therefore, good works cannot produce salvation, but are subsequent.
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It's the result of God -empowered fruits and the evidence of salvation.
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And that's all James is talking about. He's talking about faith that works.
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It doesn't stand by itself. It doesn't sit down and do nothing. It's active. It's living.
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It's vibrant. It demonstrates in love. It sees someone in need, a brother and sister in need.
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And when the need's there, you do something about it. Yes. Amen. So if it's not shown by works corresponding to its nature, it will be certain that there's no true
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Christianity or true religion, as James would put it, or that his professed faith is worthless.
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Worth nothing! Or that his professed faith is worthless, in other words.
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So, so to speak, the standpoint from which James views the subject is not that faith is unnecessary or worthless or that a man is not justified by faith rather than by his own works in the sense of it being the ground of the acceptance with God.
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See? Or in other words, the place where the apostle takes his position and which is the point from which he views the subject.
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We've got to see the way James is viewing this. That he views this subject is not necessary before man is justified to inquire in what way he may be accepted of God.
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But listen. But it is after the act of justification.
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That's what he's talking about. After the act of justification. It's the after effects, the evidence that justification speaks of.
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I like what J .C. Riles said. He said, don't speak to me about your justification unless I see some sanctification.
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And he nailed it right there. He knew how to say it, didn't he? Sister Lillian. To show that if faith does not lead to good works, it is dead or is of no value.
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That nails it. No value really hits hard with me.
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And that in fact, for as the very evidence of justification is to be found in a holy, good, upright living, and that when this is not manifest, that it's not demonstrated, is another way to put it, and all of man's professed
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Christianity would be worth nothing. So the
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Apostle James speaks to us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit about all the important doctrines of faith, justification.
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And the remainder of this chapter is neatly divided into two subjects. Neatly divided.
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And it's very simple. If you see in verses 14 -20, he speaks of dead faith.
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Faith that's dead. Worthless. Of no value. Then in verses 21 -26, as we will look at, finish next
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Lord's Day, that he speaks of living faith. Faith that's active.
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Faith that is living. And a truth that James emphasizes in this text and the
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Word of God teaches throughout is that we do, what we do,
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I should say, what we do really reveals who we are. I can't see how we can say it any plainer than that.
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What we do, my actions will speak louder than my words. You know the world out there that looks at us?
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They care less what we say. They're looking at how we act. How we act this out.
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Our attitudes. How we conduct ourselves. How we walk. Look at Psalm 1.
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Basically he's talking about how a person lives. How a person walks. Blessed is that person who basically walks in the way of the
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Lord. You see, it speaks of conduct. And you notice how Paul, when
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Paul teaches in his epistles, the first half of his teaching will be nothing but sound theology.
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And the second half, he takes it to application and what does he do? He talks about how we live.
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This is the way you live. Look at Romans. Romans 1 all the way to Romans 11 is theology.
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He makes his point. All the world's guilty before God. He starts out, actually he gives the gospel.
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Then he breaks it down. Chapter 3 and chapter 4 and chapter 5 and chapter 6. And you see all this theology.
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And he teaches us how this is, from the word of God, how to instruct us.
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And you notice the transition? Look at chapter 12 to the end of the chapter. It's nothing but fleshed out in the way we walk and the way we live.
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And that's where it really makes a difference. James is like that. So the great truth, of course, is on the deepest and most important level.
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It's the way we live. So what we do reveals who we are and our character.
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So James is not simply just speaking of beliefs in general, but of the foundational belief of saving faith.
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Now, Pastor John MacArthur says this, and I like this, The genuineness of a profession of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is evidenced more by what a person does than by what he claims.
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He goes on to say this, A person professes Christ, but who does not live a
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Christ -honoring, Christ -obeying life is a fraud. Boy, he gets right to it, doesn't he?
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But it's true. If you don't live it out. Now, it's not talking about sinless perfection.
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We're going to be talking about that in a minute as well, but it's the direction he takes. It's the direction.
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So here in chapter 2, in the remainder of this chapter, James twice describes such faith as being dead in verse 17 and verse 26.
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And a person with dead faith does not and cannot produce works that are truly good and righteous, and the absence of such works is evidence of the absence of saving faith.
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Let me start with some questions before we look into our points. Important questions come to the forefront, such as this.
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What kind of faith really saves a person? What kind of faith really saves a person?
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Here's another question. Is it necessary to perform good works in order to be saved?
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Is it necessary to perform good works in order to be saved? Here's another question. How can a person tell whether or not he or she is exercising true faith, true saving faith?
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How can he know? How can he tell? So really James answers these questions by explaining to us that there are three kinds of faith here, and only one of which is true saving faith.
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In James chapter 2, verses 14 through 20, James provides three characteristics of such false, dead, worthless faith.
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It is these three we will look at this morning. And here's my outline.
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In verses 14 through 20, and Lord willing, like I said, we'll look at next week at verses 21 through 26.
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This is a lot here. So part two. Now the contrast of dead faith, we'll look at living faith.
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So the three characteristics James gives us that is dead faith and worthless faith are this.
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First of all, dead faith is marked by empty confession.
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Verse 14. It is marked by an empty confession. Second, we will look at it is marked by a false compassion.
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A false compassion. That is found in verses 15 through 17. And then third, it is marked by a shallow conviction.
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Shallow conviction. And that is found in verses 18 through 20. So let us look very quickly, just for a few minutes here, to see by God's help and God's word in these three characteristics.
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First of all, false, dead, and worthless faith is marked by an empty confession.
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An empty confession. He says this in verse 14.
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What use is it, my brethren, if someone who says he has faith but has no works?
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What use is it, my brethren, if someone, underscore this, says, say, can that faith save him?
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Can that faith save him? Well, the answer is implied that such faith cannot save. It is not true faith because it cannot save.
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So now let me ask this question here. How do we know this? Simply, we see James that does not say that this person actually has saving faith but that he claims to have it.
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You see, he speaks it. But notice, this is the key verse.
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If someone says, how many people have you all known that you do know right at present that lives right here?
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He says it. This is important because this one phrase really, truly governs the interpretation of the entire passage before us.
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He makes a profession but he does not possess. You see, it's in the context that indicates that it refers to the acknowledging, the acknowledgement that one believes the basic truths of the gospel.
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Now, a person making such a claim would be in such things as the existence of God.
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Scripture is the word of God for summonly, presumably I should say, and the Messiah -ship of Jesus Christ.
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He understands this. Also, he may believe in Jesus' atoning death.
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He may make a reference to resurrection and ascension. In any case, the theological orthodoxy in such a person's faith is not in question, is it?
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So the issue that he has no works is really the key. That's what we need to look at.
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He has no works to back it up. Okay, he's talking theology. He has all this theology and he recognizes, oh,
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I know all these things. Okay, good for you. You know all these things.
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Give you a medal, right? The verb form in the phrase describes someone who continually lacks the evidence to support the claim of faith he retunedly makes.
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Likewise, no particular type of works is specified, is it? But the obvious meaning is that the righteous behavior conforming to God's revealed word is pleasing and acceptable to him.
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Now some of the righteous and godly works James has already mentioned are given in the previous chapter.
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We looked at that, didn't we? What did he speak of? He doesn't namely name them here.
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That sounds almost like a contradiction. Excuse my English here. But he speaks of endurance, doesn't he?
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Perseverance in chapter 1, verse 3. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience.
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So he's already spoken. That is good works. Perseverance under trial.
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Chapter 1, verse 12. We looked at that. Blessed is the man who endures temptation. For when he has tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the
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Lord has promised to them that love him. He's spoken to us about purity of life, hasn't he?
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In chapter 1, verse 21. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and naughtiness and receive the meekness of the engrafted
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Word which is able to save your souls. You see, in chapter 1, he's given us these fruits.
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How about obedience to Scripture? Has he spoken about that? Absolutely. You look at chapter 1. Look at verses 21 and 23.
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But be ye doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the
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Word and not a doer, he's like a man beholding his natural face in a glass in a mirror. So, we see this, that he's already given.
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What about compassion for the needy? Now, we're talking about fruits and good works. He didn't necessarily name them here in chapter 2, but he did talk about them in chapter 1.
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Verse 27. What did he say? And this is where he's leading up to. Notice the path that he's taking.
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Notice the trail. We can see a trail here. Pure religion, undefiled before God.
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And the Father is this, the visit, the fatherless, and the widows, and their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
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That's some pretty good works. That's good works. How about impartiality? We talked about that the last two
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Lord's Day. Chapter 2, verses 1 through 9. And then later, he mentioned such things as acts of compassion in chapter 2, verse 15.
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How about controlling the tongue? We're going to go toward that. That's going to be very convicting. The whole chapter 3 just about deals with that.
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Verses 2 through 12. Humility. He talks about humility in chapter 4, verses 10.
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I'm sorry, in verse 6 and verse 10. Truthfulness. In chapter 4, verse 11.
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Patience. You can go on and on. You see that James is really bringing out these good fruits.
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And he's drawing it from the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the question is this.
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Can that faith save him? Notice what he says right here. Verse 14.
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It's not offered to dispute the importance of faith, but to oppose the idea that just as any kind of faith can save.
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Now, we're going to look at this a little bit more, but if you look in Matthew chapter 7, verses 16 through 18, this is what
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Jesus said. You shall know them by their fruits. And Jesus gives an illustration.
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I don't need to give an illustration. The scriptures. Jesus himself does it. He says, do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles?
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No. What does he say? What's his point? He says, even so, every good tree brings forth good fruit.
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But a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
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And then he goes on, a good tree cannot cannot bring forth evil fruit.
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Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. It's impossible.
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It's going to be one of the two. You don't have three. You got two. That's it.
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Now again, going back to what James is saying, can that faith save him?
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Grammatically form the question calls for a negative answer. No. It cannot save.
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A profession of faith that is devoid of righteous works cannot save a person. No righteous works can save a person, no matter how strongly he may proclaim it.
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He's already noted. It's not that some amount of good works is added to true faith can save a person, but rather that faith that is genuine and saving will inevitably produce good works.
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And that's what he's getting to. And that's pretty much all
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I got to say about the empty confession there. Let's move on to the next one. We see a dead faith is marked secondly by a false compassion.
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It's marked by a false compassion. What does it mean? Now let's pick up verse 15 through 17.
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Look with me quickly onto that. If a brother or sister,
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I appreciate one thing Brother Keith pointed out. He didn't mention a neighbor here. He mentioned a brother and a sister.
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What's he saying? Within the household of faith. That's where we look first.
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In other words, James is saying, what about the ones that fellowship with you?
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Right with you is the first priority. That's why he says a brother or sister is claiming is without food and is in need of daily food.
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And one of you says to them, well go in peace, be warmed and be filled.
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That sounds so pious doesn't it? And yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body.
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What use is that? What a question. What a question.
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So what is James doing? James is illustrating this point by by actually comparing faith without works to words of compassion without acts of compassion.
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That's what he's doing. Now this illustration James gives is clearly seen also clearly seen in their
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Lord and the Gospel of Matthew chapter 25. Let's go there very quickly.
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Chapter 25. Look at verses 31 -46 and I'll be honest with you. This is a very powerful chapter.
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What is set before us here is Jesus' judgment of the
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Gentiles really and within this chapter this is all going to happen in the future when all stand before God and Jesus Christ.
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Jesus will be the judge. MacArthur basically says the judgment described here is really different than the
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Great White Throne judgment but it's a judgment here that you have the sheep and the goats.
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They're different natures here. That's why he mentions sheep and goats.
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Notice in verse 31 when the Son of Man comes in His glory and he's talking about the day of the
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Lord here. The final day of the Lord and all the angels with Him and then
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He will sit on His glorious throne and all the nations will be gathered before Him.
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Wow. Can you picture this? And He will separate them from one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.
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Notice it's not three here. There's only two. There's sheep and there are goats. Now He goes into detail and He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.
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I think Jesus is saying the one that's on His right, the sheep, are the ones that are saved by His right hand of power.
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That's right. His salvation. Anytime you know God, God is
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Spirit right? But when it speaks that God has His right mighty hand, He's speaking of His power.
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Those are the ones whom He has saved on His right. They were saved by His right hand of power.
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On His left, these are not saved. They're the goats. Notice in verse 34. Then the
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King will say to those on His right, on His right first He speaks to the sheep, right?
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Come you who are blessed of My Father. Those who are elect, right? We are blessed.
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The elect are blessed because they've been chosen. Not of us. Not of our works. You are blessed of My Father.
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Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Just reading that makes me want to just fall on my face and say,
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Lord I worship you. I had nothing to do with this. Before the foundation of the world.
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Before God created it. Hey, who else picks that up? You almost hear the same kind of language in the same time from Paul the
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Apostle in Ephesians chapter 1. About the doctrine of election. Well let me go on here. Jesus is getting to something.
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Listen to what He says. Now, these are the ones that demonstrated it. Listen to this. For I was hungry.
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Notice He speaks to Himself. I was hungry. You gave Me something to eat. I was thirsty.
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You gave Me something to drink. I was a stranger. You invited
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Me in. Naked, you clothed Me. I was sick and you visited
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Me. I was in prison and you came to Me. Then the righteous will answer
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Him and say, Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you and thirsty and give you something to drink?
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And Jesus says, and when did you see you a stranger and invite you in or naked or clothed you?
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I'm sorry. He hasn't answered that yet. And then, when did we see you sick and in prison and come to you?
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And then He says this. The king will answer and say to them, truly
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I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine and even the least of them you did it to Me.
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Boy, that is such strong language. And then, listen to how He answers the sheep, not the sheep, but the goats.
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Verse 41. Then He will also say to those on His left, depart from Me, accursed ones, and to the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.
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For I was hungry, you gave Me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, you gave
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Me nothing to drink. I was stranger, you did not invite Me in.
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Naked and you did not clothe Me. Sick and in prison, you did not visit Me. Then they themselves also will answer,
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Lord, notice they call Him Lord, when did we see you hungry and thirsty and stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not take care of you?
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And then He will answer them, truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to the one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.
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These will go away into eternal punishment but the righteous into the eternal life.
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I don't know about you, it really does not need much commentary. Jesus pretty much speaks it very clear.
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In other words, the true saving faith is demonstrated.
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And those that profess to have faith called Him Lord, they did not demonstrate it.
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You see, true saving faith always works. It always works. Well, my time is going by very quickly.
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Let's look at the third point. This I think is one of the most critical. Not only there is an empty confession or a false compassion, there is also a shallow conviction.
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Dead faith is also marked by a shallow conviction. Notice in verse 18 through 20.
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Back to James. 18 through 20. Very important here.
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Someone may well say, you have faith, I have works. Show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works.
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I want to stop right there. That is so critical. You know what James, what is he doing?
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He is further proving his point by another imaginary challenge. He is challenging him.
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What a challenge. Amen. That is powerful, isn't it? He gives a challenge.
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What James is saying is here basically, what is he saying? He is saying without works, and I am talking about good works in the
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Lord. There is no possible way of proving that faith exists.
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That is what he is saying. Such faith is a phantom or it is a dream or a delusion.
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But one who truly believes can say without pride yet with all confidence in the
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Lord and not in the flesh, I by my works will show you my faith.
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You see, that is what he is talking about. Show me your faith. He is giving a challenge.
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And to show further the vanity of a faith which consists in mere intellect or should
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I say intellectual ascent as people know here. As Tozer said it, you can like a shotgun barrel, you can be professed to be something you are not and you can be empty as one as well.
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That is so true. You see this so often everywhere in evangelical churches and it is so sad.
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James takes a case in point really. He turns to some Jew. This is what he is doing. This is
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Jewish people he is writing to. And he plumbs himself upon being very orthodox.
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I got a lot of facts here. I know the theology. I know the language of Scripture.
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And then what does he go to? He goes to the unity of God. That is what he takes. Why does he do this?
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Because that was the one thing that the Jews got. They understood that it was called the
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Shema. In Deuteronomy 6, 4 and 5 it basically says the Lord is one. The Lord is one.
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And he goes to this and this is one of the most basic doctrines of the Old Testament.
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You see after Elijah won that great challenge with the prophets of Baal on the
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Mount Carmel. That is exactly what they all said. When they fell on their faces and they worshiped
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God. That the Lord is one. The Lord is one. You see this is something very well known to the
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Jews. The Shema. But listen to James. Listen to what he says in sarcasm.
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He answers the question in a sense. He says I will show you my faith by my works. You believe in that God is one.
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Right? You do well. You do well. You know what he is saying in our language today?
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He would be saying big deal. Ok. Big deal. The demons also believe.
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The demons also believe. Our terminology.
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But big deal. Fallen angels affirm the oneness of God. They also believe in a judgment to come.
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As a matter of fact they not only believe it. They shudder. They tremble. They affirm the oneness of God.
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They even tremble and shudder at its implications of it. How do we know this? There are many passages but jump with me back to Matthew.
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I want you to see this. Matthew's Gospel. Chapter 8.
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Look at verse 28. And look at let's stop right there at verse 30.
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But there is something that happens here when demons are cast out into the swine. And something that the legion of demons said to Jesus.
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Notice in verse 28 when he came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes two men who were demon possessed met him as they were coming out of the tombs.
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Could you imagine this? They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way.
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You don't mess with people that are demon possessed. Super powerfully strong.
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Breaking chains. No one can hold them. Verse 29. Notice the demons cried out and saying in the
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New American Standard version it says, What business do we have with each other son of God? Notice they called him the son of God.
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They know who he is. They recognized his deity. And then it says this
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Have you come here to torment us before the time? Hey, they recognized they were going to be tormented in eternal judgment.
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So they recognized two things there. They believed in the deity of Jesus Christ Jesus thou son of God you have come to torment us.
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Have you come to torment us before the time? The judgment? And you know what happened.
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Of course Jesus cast him into the herd of swine. The swine violently went down over the edge and people got more upset about the swine than the people that was healed.
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That shows you the way people are. They're backwards. They get more upset about animals dying than a human being.
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Some things don't change, right? There we are today. Children getting aborted by the millions and people get more upset about seals and dolphins and whales than human beings being killed.
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It's right here in scripture. But the demons the demons that's why he says big deal that you believe this.
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Big deal. And why does he say that with sarcasm? Well, basically you think of it
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I heard Spurgeon says this even the atheists he said atheism is a strange thing.
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He said even the demons tremble believe and tremble. He said atheism is such a strange thing.
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But you know they believe in the deity of Jesus a judgment day to come and James points this the man with dead faith was only touched in his intellect not his heart.
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His heart was not transformed. The man with dead faith had his intellect enlightened but he did not have a changed life.
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Even the demons are touched in a sense with emotions here. They tremble!
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That's emotional, isn't it? They shudder. They believe they tremble but they do not have saving faith to experience to believe and to tremble.
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Now to go on here to lose my track here a person can be enlightened in his mind and even stirred in his heart.
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Look at Esau. We read about Esau this morning. Esau gave away his birthright like nothing because of his appetites.
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Then later on it says and you see this, he sought repentance with many tears but yet he did not find it.
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You see that? See, you can be moved emotionally have a religious experience but never truly come to real repentance and saving faith.
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You see, true saving faith involves something much more than just a mere intellectual ascent, right?
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You know this. I'm preaching to the choir here. Something that can be seen and recognized and what is it?
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A changed, transformed life. That's what changes. First, what's the second?
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Corinthians 5 .17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.
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He's a new creature. Depends on your translation. New creation I like to say. Old things passed away.
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Behold all things have become new. That's what the gospel does when saving faith comes in.
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MacArthur notes this in his commentary. I've got to move on because my time is almost gone. In his commentary he said
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James is therefore obviously not in conflict with Paul about the basis of salvation as some interpreters have maintained.
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They are not standing face to face confronting each other but are standing back to back fighting two common enemies.
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Paul opposes works, righteousness, legalism. James opposes easy believism.
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Isn't that the truth? But both men make clear listen to this, that we are going to be judged on the basis of what we have done.
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For that is a sure indicator of genuine salvation.
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Isn't that the truth? We just read it in Matthew 25. That's it. You know
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Jesus said for an hour is coming which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come forth.
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Listen to what he says. Those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life and those who have committed evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
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Notice what he said. Good deeds, evil deeds. It's going to bring the judgment. So it's why we've acted out and why we've acted it out and how we've acted it out basically says who we are.
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Titus 2 .7 Paul says that in all things believers are to show themselves show themselves to what?
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To be an example of good deeds. Stated negatively everyone who names the name of the
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Lord is to abstain from wickedness. 2 Timothy 2 .19
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And those who profess to know God by their deeds deny him.
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It's the deeds that exposes the person who they are. They are detestable and disobedient and listen to this, this is strong language and are worthless for any good deed.
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Wow! That's Titus 1 .16 So where there's true salvation the sovereign grace reaches down to regenerate to regenerate and transform a person from a sinner to a saint.
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God will create in the soul of that person new longings to forsake sin.
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And by the way, you know this as well as I do the older you get and the more you grow with the
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Lord Jesus Christ what is more detestable is the sin within yourself. Lord save me from myself.
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And serve the Lord Jesus Christ with loving aspirations and obey his divine standards of righteousness.
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What James is basically saying show me your faith without your works and he challenges the devout
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Jew that's orthodox and then he answers it and says I will show you my faith by my works.
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That's what he's saying. How can a person show his faith by his works? Well, can a dead sinner perform good works?
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No. Impossible. Being born again Christians involves trusting
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Christ, living for Christ, receiving life and then you reveal it. That's the way it works.
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I wish I could remember Brother Keith's illustration about the car and the engine and the spark plug. That was good. But you've got to have it all working together.
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Correct me if I'm wrong. I know a little bit about mechanics. You take out the spark plug you're not going to have an engine firing off.
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You've got to have something with fire. You've got to have something that has combustion. And you've got to have it all working in sync that makes the thing go.
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And that's pretty much what he's saying here. You're talking about something that the rubber meets the road. But you see, you receive that life, it reveals it.
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Faith that isn't barren is not saving faith. And by the way, the
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Greek word translated dead here in James 2 .20 carries the meaning of barrenness or idleness.
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That is strong. Like money drawing no interest. It just sits there.
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And it's not drawing interest. So real living faith is active. It's living. It's vibrant.
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It's breathing. There's always obedience to it. Because there's true love for the
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Lord. As much as I could say here. But I want to conclude with this. Go with me to Matthew chapter 7.
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And this is really the conclusion of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. The greatest sermon that has ever been preached in the history of man.
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Right here, folks. This sermon was preached, and you know, it covers three chapters, right?
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The greatest sermon preached within these words. You could break this down, folks.
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You study this sermon, it will change your life. Convict your life.
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Change it. But it is preached perfectly. Of course, it's preached from the perfect man.
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This is the greatest teacher that ever taught. This is how our Lord gave His conclusion to everything. I want you to think of this.
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He concludes it with everything He taught previously. All those important truths in chapter 5, in chapter 6.
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And He brings it down to this. And I want you to hear this. Look at verse 13. Enter through the narrow gate.
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Could you imagine this conclusion? Listen to this. Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide, the way is broad, that leads to destruction.
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There are many who enter through it. The gate is small, and the way is narrow, that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
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Notice the difference. The contrast. The many. The few. The broad.
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The narrow. You notice there's only two. Now I want you to think of this. I got this from MacArthur, and I put it in my own words, but this is really good.
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It's the gospel application here. And MacArthur says this. There are two gates.
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There are two ways. There are two destinations. Only two groups of people.
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In verses 13 -14. And notice this. Only two kinds of trees. Good and bad.
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There's only two kinds of fruit. Good or corrupt. Verses 17 -20. Two groups at the judgment.
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Verses 21 -23. Get this. There's only two kinds of builders. Building on two kinds of foundation.
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Verses 24 -28. So for our Lord Jesus Christ is drawing.
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This is me here. He's drawing the line crystal clear of demarcation. Right here.
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It's possible. Clear as possible that there's a way that leads to destruction and there's a way that leads to life.
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And by the way, you know what the Proverbs said. There's a way that seems to lead to life at the end there of his death.
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You see. But Jesus is saying there's only two. And that's it. Well, within these two he draws that conclusion.
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I'm looking to see how much time I got here and I don't have much time left. But if you look at it in its concrete form
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I've got to find my track. He draws the line.
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Well, I do know this. I can't find exactly what I'm looking for. But I will draw it.
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I will bring it down to one thing. Is this. I couldn't help but think of Zacchaeus here.
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He's a perfect illustration that believed in Jesus. But he did not only say it. He demonstrated it, didn't he?
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And I want to close with this. In Luke 19 8 he says, Behold Lord, half of my possessions
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I will give to the poor. And he did. I have defrauded and if I have defrauded anything
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I will give back four times as much. That's true repentance folks. That's restitution.
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This man was broken. You know, you think of it when the pagans of Ephesus trusted in Jesus Christ. You know what the
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Word of God says here in Acts 19 18 and 19? Listen, it's confessing and disclosing their practices.
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Many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone. They counted up the price of them and found it all, 50 ,000 pieces of silver.
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In other words, they did something about it. By the indwelling Holy Spirit working through the new nature, they instinctively knew that occult practices were evil and had no place in the redeemed lives.
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That's what they knew. And in the same way, many former pagans in Thessalonica had turned to God from idols to serve the living and true
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God. Something happened and they proved it. Well, let me close with this.
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Let me conclude this message with comments from John MacArthur and one more good quote. I couldn't leave it out.
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He does such a good job on this area about righteous works.
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The new birth produces righteous works. He says this, it is not that newborn believers immediately understand the full implications of the gospel and know everything they should believe and everything they should and should not do.
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But I like this point he says. Those things come with ever increasing awareness as one grows in knowledge of the word and in fellowship with the
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Lord. But there is an immediate and new spiritual moral orientation that the
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Lord gives every child who is born into his family and kingdom. No one is saved without becoming a new creation.
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And by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the new creation produces such righteous works as repentance, submission, obedience, and love of God and love for fellow believers.
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And that's found in 1 John chapter 4 by the way. Salvation does not produce immediate perfection but a new direction.
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It's not perfection. It's direction. So the new disposition that hates sin, loves the
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Lord, and seeks to know Him and obey His will begins to manifest itself in their behavior.
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I thought that's perfect. And that is so true. And that's what
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James is talking about here. It's the evidence. It's the living out.
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It's what salvation produces. It is better to obey than to sacrifice.
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Let's pray. Our Father, I just cannot help but think of the godly
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Amy Wilson Carmichael. A woman that was raised in a very prestigious, luxurious, very rich home, but yet had a heart for the
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Indians as well as Hudson Taylor did.
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I say the Indians, I'm sorry, China. They had a heart for missions and they did something.
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And yet she was the one that said you can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.
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Lord, I love her prayer. And may this, may her prayer be our prayer today.
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Lord, give us the love that leads the way. Give us the faith that nothing can dismay.
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Give us the hope that no disappointments tire. Give us the passion that will burn like fire.
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Make me thy fuel, flame of God. Oh, that says everything. Lord, we need to demonstrate this to the world.
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We need to demonstrate it within the church. We need to demonstrate it with our brothers and sisters. And Lord, you even said it through your son.
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It's by our good works that we will glorify you. By the good works. The good works doesn't save us, but it does produce good works.
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For this reason we are saved. We are your workmanship. We are created for good works.
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So Father, as it has been said in scripture, it is better to obey than to sacrifice. This pleases you. Obedience.
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And we obey because we love you. To obey, to show forth and demonstrate the love of God to a needy person, a brother or a sister.
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And then yes, to a neighbor. So Father, help us in these things we pray. And give us your power and fill us with your spirit that we may be pleasing to you because in the end you're going to be the final judge of our deeds.
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So Father, help us we pray as we ask for your grace to trust you even more and to obey you.