Faith Works: The James-Paul Paradox

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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October 24, 2021

00:03: Invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to three passages, and I know that may be a little complicated so We're going to look at Genesis 22 We're going to look at James 2 and we're gonna look at Romans 4 So I don't know if you want to stick your fingers in all three or if you want to just try to outrun me When it's time to turn the page and those of you with digital Bibles You don't count because y'all can just jump right to it, but when we get to the time for reading That's going to be the three passages that we look at and they are on the board But before we read the text I want to give just a preliminary word because today is the second part of last week's sermon last week the sermon was entitled faith works and What I did was I looked at Genesis 22 And I compared it to James 2 because James uses Genesis 22 as an example of faith that is alive And he said faith that is alive is a faith that works And I know that what I said by some is considered to be controversial By some it's even considered to be flat-out false teaching But I am confident that not only what I said is biblical But that it is also in line with the historic reformed teaching on this subject In fact I want to read to you today our Confession I didn't read it earlier thought I forgot maybe I did, but I didn't I was going to read it now anyway So it didn't matter.
01:42: I want to read to you what our confession says about the relationship between faith and works This is what the 1646 London Baptist confession of faith says and it just so happens to be this is the article We were going to read today anyway Brothers bring it up if you would on the screen.
01:59: I want them to see this this should be is it 26 that we're on today 29 article 29 All right Listen to what it says all believers are a holy and sanctified people and that Sanctification is a spiritual grace of the new covenant and an effect of the love of God Manifest in the soul whereby the believer presseth after a heavenly and evangelical Obedience to all the commands which Christ as head and king and his new covenant hath prescribed to them Now that may sound a little wordy But what it's saying is the grace of sanctification that we have received you see you receive salvation first in justification, but you also receive the gift of sanctification which is where the spirit of the living God comes to live inside your soul and he spurs you on to good works and obedience to the commands of Christ That is the working of the Holy Spirit and I want to quote from the second London confession Just to affirm again this that's the first confession we hold to the first confession But there are times when the second confession is a little clear and I want you to hear what it says It says good works.
03:33: This is 1646 confession It says good works Done in obedience to God's commands are the fruit and evidence of a true and living faith Isn't that what I said last week So is what I'm saying in line with not only scripture, but with the historic reformed teaching Absolutely.
03:59: So I never mind anyone if you want to have a question about what I teach come and ask me I will try to clarify But know this these things I am saying are not being said on a whim.
04:13: I Stand on the Word of God and on the historic reformed teaching A.W.
04:21: Tozer said this he said to escape the error of salvation by works we have fallen into the opposite of error of salvation without obedience and That is exactly where many people are today To try to get away from salvation by works They have affirmed salvation without obedience and the Bible knows not of such a thing The Bible will never encourage you to to believe you are saved in disobedience It will never in.
04:58: Thank you.
04:58: I was waiting for that I will never encourage disobedience or for you to be confident living a disobedient life so today we're going to look at the distinction between James and Paul and how both of them look at Abraham and As I say sometimes sometimes my sermons may come across like theological lectures But you have to understand theology matters and it's important that we understand these things So that being said let's stand together.
05:31: We're going to read Genesis 22 1 to 3 James 2 21 to 24 and then Romans 4 1 to 3 Genesis 22 after these things God tested Abraham and said to him Abraham and he said here am I He said take your son Your only son Isaac whom you love Go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you So Abraham rose early in the morning Saddled his donkey and two of his young men with him and his son Isaac He cut the wood for the burnt offering and he rose and he went to the place of which God had told him Now we're not going to read the rest of story I just want to read the opening because it shows his obedience Abraham went and did what God commanded now go to James chapter 2 and look at verse 21 Speaking of this same story speaking of Abraham in this same context.
06:48: He says this Was not Abraham our father? Justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar you see That faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works and the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness and he was called the friend of God you see then that a Person is justified by works And not by faith alone and now to Romans chapter 4 Paul seems to say something almost completely opposite and this is what we're going to deal with Because really these are the two passages that seem to be most in conflict Listen to how Paul? Interprets the life of Abraham in this particular text What shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works.
07:52: He has something to boast about but not before God for what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as Righteousness Father in heaven.
08:04: I thank you for your word.
08:06: May it be now that you would write these eternal truths upon our heart In Jesus name.
08:12: Amen There are many many many books and many more sermons That have been written and preached About the subject which I'm dealing with today So I want to say from the outset I Make no attempt to break new ground or to bring any any type of new ideas But I do think it is important in fact imperative That we understand What I'm going to talk about today, and I know I talked about this last week But last week we didn't look at Paul We just looked at James and I gave an exposition of James's writings But today what we're going to see Is we're going to see there is an apparent paradox between James and Paul now you guys know what a paradox is, right? Paradox is when you get two physicians together in the same room haha, no, okay a paradox is When you have something that appears to be a contradiction, but it is not Give you an example the Bible says an Eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth a hand for a hand and a foot for a foot But then in another passage it says turn the other cheek Do not exact vengeance against your enemy and you say boy that sounds like a contradiction In fact recently I talked to a man and he told me the Bible contradicts itself Because it says I for an eye here, and it says turn the other cheek there.
10:14: That's a contradiction.
10:15: I said no I said I understand it's a paradox because you don't understand the context of both of those passages See the context of an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth was given to judges to understand what justice looks like Justice has a Righteous standard that has to be met and the righteous standard is when a judge judges.
10:36: He has to judge according to equity Equity is an eye for an eye tooth for tooth hand hand foot foot But when Jesus said turn the other cheek He was talking about individual forgiveness one to another if you hit me hurt me stab me cut me I don't have to do it back to you.
10:52: I can forgive you.
10:53: I don't have to extract vengeance from you But if a judge has a criminal standing before him he is bound by the law to enact justice because that's his job So you see what I mean there when I say it's a paradox not a contradiction We have to understand the entire context to see why those two passages don't They don't contradict one another there are two different contexts and Beloved I want to say from the outset That is exactly how we have to understand the relationship between James and Paul Because while both of them are dealing with faith and both of them are dealing with works And yes, both of them are dealing with the idea of justification Both of them are coming at the subject from two different perspectives and giving us two sides of a very Important truth we looked at James last week, and what does James do he says? Abraham is an example of faith when he took his son Isaac and offered him up on the mountain Because he proved that his faith was genuine Didn't he I? mean Didn't he have to have faith by? Walking three days with his son going up a mountain with his son and when his son said father I see that I see the wood and I see the fire But where is the lamb and to say God will provide those were words of faith every step He took was a step of faith And when he took out that razor sharp knife And he was prepared to run it across the throat of his son that would have been an act of faith But it was faith in action It was faith with hands.
12:39: It was faith with feet.
12:41: It was faith with more than just a mouth and I'm convinced today that most People who call maybe I don't say most a lot of people who call themselves Christians have nothing but a mouth faith They do nothing but pay lip service to Jesus and they have no Change of life to show for the faith that they say they possess Abraham showed his faith He walked that three days He climbed that mountain and he pulled out that knife and he showed God what he was willing to do for his faith and God stopped him right at the moment that he was about to pursue that Act and James says that's living faith That's what living faith looks like But then we go over to Romans 4 and that's where we're going to start even though that's where we ended That's what we're going to begin today We go over to Romans 4 and Paul seems to say something quite different And so I think it's important that we understand What Paul is saying and I want to mention before we read this as I said before many books many sermons have been written and One of the great heroes of the faith my hero the man We're going to celebrate in part next week when we talk about the Reformation was Martin Luther Martin Luther had a big mouth.
14:14: I love it That's part of why I like him so much.
14:17: He knew he just was a preaching preacher and Martin Luther didn't know when to be quiet.
14:22: He just kept on talking But Luther He really had a hard time with the guy with the book of James and how to reconcile it with Paul in fact in the in the 1522 edition of his New Testament the first Time he Translated he wrote it.
14:40: He wrote a preface to the New Testament in that preface to the New Testament He said that he thought that the the book of James was the epistle of straw Meaning that it wasn't a full orbed epistle.
14:56: He said he thought it was missing the gospel It didn't really proclaim the gospel, but later later, he said this and In his book here I stand he said this He says faith is a living and restless thing.
15:11: It cannot be an operative We are not saved by works, but if there be no works there be something amiss with our faith So at a certain point he got around to understanding what James was saying But early on he had a hard time making that reconciliation So let's do some reconciling.
15:32: Let's look at Romans 4 and We only read verses 1 to 3, but I want to look at verse really all the way down to verse 8 As he says this What then shall we say was gained by Abraham our forefather according to the flesh? Now somebody might jump up and say hey James said he gained Justification because James says was he not justified when he offered up his son Isaac and somebody may want to make that argument But listen to what Paul says verse 2 He says for if Abraham was justified by works He has something to boast about but not before God that sentence Not actually clause just small clause that clause is the key He has nothing to boast about before God because I'm gonna tell you this right now.
16:30: I Don't care how good your works are.
16:32: I don't care if you're spick-and-span Clean as a whistle you do everything right every day.
16:39: You don't have anything to boast about before God and That's Paul's point You'll notice if you go back to James and look James is very concerned with how we relate to one another You see that a man is justified by his works.
16:58: It's about what we see and that's the only thing I can see I Don't know your faith unless I see it accompanied by works.
17:09: I Don't know your heart But I know some of you well enough that I think I know your heart a little bit Because I know you And that's the only way you know, I talk about a lot of time I do funerals and I do funerals all the time.
17:22: I got a funeral do today at 3 o'clock and Most of these funerals I never ever know these people.
17:28: I just their families call me They need me need a minister and I go and I do the best I can to preach the gospel But I never talk about the person beyond what the family tells me, you know, he was a carpenter He was a electrician who whatever whatever that's all I know But when I do a service for one of y'all You know when I preach for Sybil Taylor When I preach for Patsy Hoffman, I can preach the person that I watched their faith in action You understand I saw them living their faith before the people of God and I can say I don't know this person's heart Perfectly, but I know that they live for Christ and that's the evidence of faith.
18:15: I Saw this person loved the Lord.
18:18: I saw this person come to church I saw this person Sacrifice week in and week out for the people of God and I still got the road Patsy Hoffman bought me because I didn't have a Robe, I ought to wear it next week Brother Andy won't like that But what I'm saying is I've seen people's faith and that's what James is talking about We can't see words but we can see works and James is talking about hands and feet That go with faith But Paul is talking about what we have before God and guess what you have before the throne of God Christ alone When you stand before God and God says to you, why should I let you into my kingdom? It's not going to be I was at church every Sunday and what it's not going to be.
19:15: My name was on the roll It's not going to be I was baptized.
19:18: It's not going to be I gave to the church It's going to be nothing in my hand.
19:24: I bring only to the cross I clean and that's all and that's Paul's point and Again, I just point it to you.
19:35: It's in verse 2.
19:36: He has something to boast about but not before God Abraham had many things that he could say were blessings from God and he did many righteous works But nothing will hold before God.
19:52: The only thing that holds before God is the righteousness of Jesus Christ Now keep that in your mind and let's read down to verse 8 because you'll see how that plays out look at verse 4 Now to the one who works His wages are counted as a gift Excuse me are not counted as a gift But as his due and to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly His faith is counted as righteousness just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness Apart from works blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin Now let's look at that.
20:33: Let's kind of piece it apart Look at verse 4.
20:36: He says now to the one who works his wages are not counted as a gift But as his due remember again, we're talking about the way God sees us God you may want to write this down repeat it put it in your head God owes No, man Anything so when Paul says to the one who works His works are counted as a wage He's saying if God accepted you based upon your work It would be because he was indebted to you God is not indebted to you for anything No matter how good a work we ever do God will never be indebted to us He says but to the one who doesn't work And you say but wait a minute.
21:22: Does that mean he doesn't do good works? No, no No What it's saying notice is and to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly His faith is counted as righteousness again.
21:33: The context is clear.
21:34: He's talking about the faith that he has How will that faith be shown to be shown by works? But the works themselves are not what's standing before God what's standing before God? The one he has faith in he believes in God who justifies the ungodly his faith is what stands before God? Not his works Paul is not even close dealing with what James is dealing with.
22:01: I Promise you Paul because I'm going to show you in a few places in just a minute I'm going to show you where Paul talks about the value of good works You have to understand Paul is not throwing good works away and saying they don't matter what he's saying is before God and On Judgment Day when you are judged for your salvation, it will not be upon your good works Now I'll go a step further and say your good works will be accounted on Judgment Day because the Bible says they will The Bible actually tells us that we are going to be judged according to our works, but not for salvation In fact first Corinthians 3 it says so it says we have works some of them are wood hay and stubble some are gold silver and Precious stones They're all going to be put through the fire and he says and those which are wood hay and stubble are going to burn up And those that are gold silver precious stones are going to survive, but they will be saved Because the person that's talking about is the same person.
22:58: He's saying that I confuse you.
22:59: I hope I didn't what I'm saying Is I'm not saying your works don't matter what I'm saying is your works don't Make your standing before God Your works do have value But your works don't produce your standing before God Jesus does Okay, and I love let me tell you something verse 7 and 8 you'll notice in the ESV Bible if you have one it's offset Because it is a quote.
23:25: He's quoting David Notice what he says Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin That's the point because not one of your good works will ever put away any of your sins Not one good work that you could ever do will ever pay for any sin you ever do I've used this example a thousand times and when I come up with a better one You'll be the first to hear it But the best example I can give is the man standing before the judge and the judge says you have committed this crime and the man Says yes, but I'm a good person.
24:08: I did good things I Was a Boy Scout.
24:12: I was a I was a model citizen.
24:13: I paid my taxes.
24:15: I did all my stuff I was supposed to do I helped old ladies across the street.
24:19: I fed my neighbor Yeah, but you're still a lawbreaker And even if you did all those good things you still broke God's law and you still stand guilty in the court of God and Because you stand guilty in the court of God not one of those good things is going to pay for your sin And that's why it says blessed is blessed is he whose lawless deeds are forgiven Blessed is he whose sins are covered who covers our sin Jesus Christ his blood and righteousness cover our sin And without him we would stand guilty in the throne room of God and We would be worthy of nothing but his punishment so again, Paul is really dealing with our standing before God and he's dealing with the justification before God which comes through faith alone in Christ alone and James is dealing with what how do we know our faith is real? Because it shows itself in what we do.
25:19: That's what James is dealing with and that's the two very Important things that we need to understand is the two contexts and how those two contexts Balance one another I want to read to you from Calvin this is a quote from Calvin's commentary and This is what he says We must take notice of the twofold meaning of the word justified Paul Means by it the gratuitous gratuitous imputation of righteousness before the tribunal of God what did I just say it's what we have before God and James is the manifestation of righteousness by the conduct and that before men as We may gather from the preceding words.
26:10: Show me your faith.
26:12: He's quoting from James who says show me your faith Notice what Calvin just basically teaches us here and I think he's right Paul is dealing with our justification before God and James is showing how our justification is shown to be true before men and it is by works In fact, if you have an ESV study Bible, that's that big one.
26:37: That'll choke a camel That's a big you carry that when I tell you what you'll build some spiritual muscles and some physical muscles That's a big old Bible.
26:44: And this is what it says in the notes of the ESV study Bible It says quote the primary way in which Paul uses the word justify Emphasizes the sense of being declared righteous by God through faith on the basis of Jesus's atoning sacrifice Whereas the primary way that James uses the word justify in James 221 Emphasizes the way in which works demonstrate that someone has been justified as evidenced by the good works that that person does Isn't that what I said last week? Ain't that what I said this week? that's the balance and That's how we find the balance and that's how we find the answer to the paradox of James and Paul and if we want to see What I would consider to be the best Picture of the relationship Between faith and works in the Bible we find that in Ephesians chapter 2 so turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2 in fact as We turn there.
27:55: I am reminded of William Tyndale William Tyndale was called God's outlaw He translated the Bible into English and he smuggled it all around and he was caught They actually tricked him.
28:19: They sent a man in as a spy Pretended to be his friend and then the man who pretended to be his friend turned him over and they burned him What a scoundrel but That particular story when William Tyndale was brought before the court and he was asked Are you claiming? That works do not justify a man before God and he quoted Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 He said this he said for by grace You have been saved through faith and That is not your own doing it is the gift of God Not of works lest any man should boast For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works Which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them And this is what Tyndale said he said the fruit of the tree Doesn't make the tree good or bad.
29:30: It shows whether the tree is good or bad in Ephesians 2 8 to 10 we have three prepositions for I'm sorry got that out of order by through and for We are saved by grace We are saved through faith We are saved for good works And I'm gonna tell you you can't leave out any of those You can't say one is Important and one isn't because Paul doesn't allow for that Paul wants us to know that we're saved by grace and that's it Nothing we have done grace is unmerited Favor and he wants us to know we've been saved by grace He wants us to know that we've been saved through faith and that is not of ourselves.
30:27: It is a gift of God Not of works less anything we do we should boast about certainly not we're saved by grace through faith He says for we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works That's the that's the result that is what happens because We are saved.
30:50: It's not that faith plus works equal salvation.
30:54: It's salvation Which comes by faith equals good works If you ever hear someone say that James and Paul contradict one another It's not true Because both of them are dealing with two aspects of faith and Paul clarifies it right here in Ephesians chapter 2 So, what does this tell us how do we how do we take this now and put some feet to it? How do we how do we apply this to us? well Here's something to consider Even though we know we are saved by grace through faith alone.
31:43: We must never divorce good works from our faith We must never say that we have no responsibilities in the Christian life because we do They are not Responsibilities that cause us to be saved, but it's just like my brother said this morning I don't know how many of you guys really paid attention to what he said, but what he said was true He said we give because we should want to give but that doesn't mean it's optional Because Jesus didn't make it optional He made it voluntary And that's you say well, wait a minute.
32:18: Is it voluntary optional? Not really Because he calls us to be generous.
32:24: He calls us to be givers and Therefore how we do it when we do it and what we give is voluntary But not optional How we serve the Lord where we serve the Lord when we serve the Lord and in what way we serve the Lord that's going To be between us and the Lord But the fact that we do or we don't is not an option It's not as if some we got and brother Andy uses this this this this Illustration sometimes about the rowing.
32:54: I don't know how many of you remember him using that illustration, but it's so good It's here it comes again If you know, it's like one bullet will shoot out of one gun to shoot out of another so here it comes comes out of me He said, you know a lot of times church is like a boat Where everybody's rowing? He said then you got those who are rowing in one direction and you got those who are sitting letting everybody else row and watching them row and they're happy to sit there and enjoy the trip, but they're not going to pick up an oar and help and Then you got people who row in the other direction and they're dangerous Because they try to stop the progress We should all be trying to row And we should all be trying to row in the same direction And if you think I'm saying I'm asking for too much I Mean was it not our Lord who told us? that before we Before a man builds a tower He should look and see if he's if he's prepared to build that tower and we should not put our plan to the hand of the plow and look back But that we should focus and go forward and move forward in the kingdom that there are there we have responsibilities We have responsibilities here.
34:06: We have responsibilities in the kingdom of God.
34:09: We have responsibilities as the people of God It's a shame that I should feel uncomfortable saying that Well pastor, you don't run people off I don't want to run people off I want to push people forward I want to encourage people I'm not trying to run anyone off.
34:26: I want you to understand this if we say that we have faith and There is no evidence of it And Paul, I mean James asked us what good is it? If we say we have faith and there's no evidence Charles Spurgeon said this He says when a patient Believes in a physician He carefully follows his prescriptions and directions Faith which refuses to obey the commands of the Savior is merely a pretense And will never save the soul Get what Spurgeon is saying? He's saying if you went to the doctor and you trusted your doctor and the doctor said you need to do X Y & Z and You believed your doctor was cared about you and he had your best interest at heart.
35:19: You do what your doctor said But then you come to the great physician Jesus Christ the one who saved your soul the one who loves you and gave himself for you And he says you ought to be doing X Y & Z and you say I don't have to do that What does he know? He's only God See the ridiculous Nature of that attitude.
35:43: What does Christ know? He's only God Problem is we have given ourselves over to a responsibility free Salvation a responsibility free Life when it comes to God does your faith? Show itself in obedience or are you pleased? To live with a dead faith as James tells us there are people who live with a dead faith He says that he says you show me your faith and I'll show you my faith by what I do He said basically he's saying there are people that have a dead faith In fact if you don't believe people have a dead faith How do you end up at Matthew 7 22 Well Matthew 7 21 23 if you don't remember that passage It says many will come unto me on that day and say Lord Lord.
36:57: Did we not do this? Did we not do that and Jesus will say what I? never knew you I never knew you I was asked to come and speak at a Chapel service for a group of teenagers And and I said, what do y'all want me to preach on they said preach on whatever you want to preach, huh? That's on you If you invite me and you make it up to me I'm preaching Matthew 7 21 to 23 to a group of kids because that's exactly what I preached and The teachers look like they wanted to hang me halfway through the message Because this was the question I asked Why do so many young people leave the faith when they become adults and There's all this stuff.
37:47: Well, they go to college.
37:48: They get they get mixed up by the college professors They get mixed up by the world.
37:52: They get into sin and blah blah blah.
37:54: I said no, it's because they weren't saved to begin with The vast majority of the reason why people depart the faith when they become adults is because they didn't get saved when they were younger That's the reason I say it's the only reason but that is the vast majority of the case There's a lot of people who run around thinking they're saved and there ain't they they are not Now I'm not up here to tell you you are or you aren't But there are concerns and I pray for every one of y'all and I hope you pray for me But I have to ask you today has Christ changed your life and you know that Christ has changed your life Do you know when Christ changed life? You might not know the minute you might not know the hour but you know You were blind and now you see you know, you were lost and now you are found, you know you went from being a son of this world to a son of God and You can look at your life and you can say I am NOT who I used to be Even if you still struggle with some of the same sins, even if you still struggle with some of the same temptations Hey, let's get let's gather and pray for one another because I'm not saying you're not going to but you will hate that sin With that you once loved So now you done went from preaching to meddling.
39:28: I'm gonna start stepping on toes Because I don't know if you're listening This is serious I don't want anybody in this room to go to hell and a false faith is no better than the faith of demons But I'll listen to this.
39:43: This is from Dustin binge this way says he says the devil doesn't mind if we appear holy before others As long as we aren't holy before God and That's what many people do they come into church on Sunday that wear their best clothes They have their best attitude they fight with their wife on the way here But when they get here, everybody's all smiles because you got to be perfect before everybody else and in the rest of the week There's no godliness.
40:08: There's no righteousness.
40:08: There's no family worship.
40:09: There's no Bible reading There's no desire to be with the people of God or learning the Word of God and we say but it doesn't matter.
40:17: I'm saved It's too hard to hear pastor Is it? Is this my job is this our job the elders of this church Cause you to be introspective You come around this table every week and you eat What does it say you're supposed to do before you eat examine yourself Augustine he was a Before he got saved he was quite a carouser If you read his biography and the things that he did before he got saved Augustine was a man of sin In fact, it was his mother who prayed for him and prayed for him and prayed for him and he finally got saved When he got saved his life changed and he became a radical convert to the faith He wrote some of the most important works of that time in history did some of the most important things for the church But before he got saved he was a very sinful man And after he got saved he was walking through the market and a woman Who was his former mistress Saw him walking through the market and she said Augustine Augustine it is I And he said yes, ma'am But it is no longer.
41:51: I how many of you can say today? It is no longer.
42:02: I Christ has changed my life.
42:09: Let's pray father.
42:20: I thank you for your word.
42:22: I Thank you for the promise of the gospel that we stand on Christ alone for our salvation But also, thank you Lord that you have given us your word which tells us that if we are in Christ We are a new creation old things have passed away and all things have become new.
42:40: I Pray Lord that you would give us a right understanding of where we stand with you and Lord God for those who are saved I don't want them to live in doubt.