Faith That Works: Abraham's Living Faith

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Amen, what a wonderful hymn. All focus is on Jesus Christ and Him crucified, who gave
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Himself for us that He might redeem us. Don't you love that chorus? Sing, oh sing of my Redeemer.
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With His blood, He purchased me. On the cross, He sealed my pardon, paid the debt, and made me free.
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I don't know about you, but I could sing that all day long. Because that's going to be the song of the saints of the redeemed throughout all eternity.
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Might as well practice it. Because we're going to be saying that, singing that, throughout all eternity.
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Well, we're going to continue our study through the wonderful book of James. As Ms.
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Lillian was talking about, actually, James' commentary extended or expanded from our
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Lord's Sermon on the Mount. And we're looking at, what
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I would like to do is, this is a part two, and we're going to look at a little bit today of an introduction of living faith.
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We talked about dead faith last week. As we looked at James chapter 2, that emphasized the sobering truth of dead faith, faith that is false, not real.
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A kind of faith that is not alive, real or genuine. We saw that the first characteristic of dead faith is empty confession, which is in James chapter 2, verse 14,
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What doeth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith and not works?
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Can faith save him? Then we looked at the second characteristic of dead faith is false compassion.
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Not only there's an empty confession, there's a false compassion. We see this false compassion in verse 15 -17,
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If a brother or sister be naked without clothing and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto him again,
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Say, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body,
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What doeth it profit, even so faith, if it has not works, it is dead, being alone.
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Notice that the key word is if they say, no action, there's no action behind it, so it's dead faith.
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Then we saw the third characteristic of dead faith is shallow conviction. So you have empty confession, you have false compassion, then you have a shallow conviction, and that's found in verses 18 -20 that we looked at,
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Notice in each one of those beginnings of the paragraph, the section in which
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James is talking about, he says they say, Thou hast faith, and I have works.
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Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show you my faith by my works.
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Very good. Then he actually gets very sarcastic toward them.
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He says, well, you believe that there's one God. A big deal, really. Thou doest well.
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The devils also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, he says, that faith without works is dead.
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So we see here in this, we saw shallow conviction, a recognition of certain facts about God and His word without submission to either.
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It seems most likely that someone or some man refers to James himself speaking of himself using the third person out of humility.
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So he was not boasting, trying to prove that his own Christian life was more exemplary than others.
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He was not speaking primarily about faithfulness in the faith, but about faith itself.
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And that's what we see here in this section in which he speaks about dead faith in the first portion of it.
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He was saying, in effect, to anyone opposing the truth, he was declaring about the true salvation.
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You claim to have faith and that nothing else is necessary, that your faith can stand by itself before God and bring salvation.
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But the truth is you cannot show me your faith, the works, without any practical evidence or outworking of it, because true faith, as the
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Scripture speaks of, a faith that is living, always gives practical evidence of what has happened in the heart.
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And that's what he's saying. He did not say, by your works, but the faith that is given by grace, by God, produces good works.
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That's what we created unto good works, and Paul talks about that in Ephesians 2. And as just started in the previous verse, he says, even so faith, if it has not works, is dead, being by itself.
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Such faith is not really faith at all, certainly not saving faith. So as living faith produces good fruit, for that is its nature and its purpose.
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So dead faith does not produce good fruit. There's bad fruit.
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And Jesus said that. A tree is known by its fruit, because it just cannot. It is for that reason that a remembered experience of one's life with Jesus Christ, even a sacrifice...
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Let me put it this way, what I'm thinking is, for that reason, even an experience, quote -unquote, of giving one's life to Jesus Christ, even in a specific day or a place, is not itself proof of salvation, right?
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We have a lot of false converts because of that. And I think I need to bring that out right there, because just because you go to an altar and say a prayer does not mean one comes to the
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Lord Jesus Christ and repents of their sin. Just as repentance may involve weeping, but just because one weeps over their sin does not mean they are truly changed by it.
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It's the changing that brings evidence that there's been true salvation and true repentance.
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Well, today we're going to look at one of the first sections of faith that's living.
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But we're looking at faith that works. And like I said, we looked at dead faith last week.
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Let me read again this whole section so we can just get the whole of what James is talking about.
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Starting at verse 14. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works?
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Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and is in need of daily food, and one of you says to them,
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Go in peace, be warmed and be filled, and you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?
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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, I have works.
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Show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one.
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You do well. The demons also believe and shudder. 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? You see that faith was working with his works.
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As a result of the works, faith was perfected and the scripture was fulfilled which says,
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And Abraham believed God and it was a reckon to him as righteousness. And he was called the friend of God.
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And in verse 24 he says this, 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 harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent out by another way?
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In verse 26, For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
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Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your living word. It is active, it's powerful, it's sharper than any two -edged sword.
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Father, I pray, may your word do its work in our hearts today to even sanctify us even more so.
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Only by the truth can we be sanctified. So Father, may it have its sanctifying work in our heart today and may we use your servants as you speak.
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May we listen and then may we obey for your glory. In Jesus' name.
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Amen. Well, it says here in verse 1 -26 as we're going to focus on today, this
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Lord's Day, and the next Lord's Day, especially next Lord's Day, I'd like to look at as Rahab the harlot was justified by her works when she received the messengers sent out by another way.
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We're going to look at that. I think that's a great illustration for us of what James is trying to get across to us.
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But he speaks here of an example. The Apostle Paul here is contrasting living dynamic faith with what he has previously described as dead false faith in verses 14 -20.
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The saving faith with non -saving faith is a contrast.
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So productive faith with unproductive faith. There's the contrast. Godly faith with a kind of faith that is exercised even by demons or fallen angels, you could say.
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So in doing so, he does what might be expected, giving living illustrations. Don't you love how
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James does that? He gives living illustrations, practical examples so you could get it.
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And of course, it's the Holy Spirit. It's really inspiring him to do this. And everything he says is commentary on our
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Lord's Sermon on the Mount as Jesus preached basically on this. The first example he gives is
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Abraham. Abraham's the friend of God. He's the reverend, revered,
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I should say, patriarch, and the father of the Hebrew people, as you see in verses 21 -24.
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And the second illustration he gives is Rahab, a Gentile prostitute. Isn't that interesting?
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In verse 25, he goes to the Jewish father of the faith, and then he takes a
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Gentile that was a prostitute, a Gentile prostitute.
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And today, we're going to basically just look at, with Apostle James' first living illustration, the touch base on it is through Father Abraham, the father of our faith.
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So you see in verse 21, as Scripture says, was not
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Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac, his son, on the altar?
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And it's interesting here. MacArthur notes, this does not contradict
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Paul's clear teaching that Abraham was justified before God by grace alone through faith alone.
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It does not contradict that. And he says here for several reasons that James cannot mean that Abraham was constituted righteous before God because of his own good works.
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And then he says, one, James already stressed that salvation is a gracious gift of God. Where do we see that?
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Well, you see that in chapter 1. Go back a little with me in chapter 1 and look at verse 17 and 18.
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This is what he says. Every good thing and every perfect gift or every good gift or every perfect gift is from above coming down from the
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Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting of shadow. And then he says in verse 18, in the exercise of His will
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He brought us forth by the word of truth. So he's already clarified that faith is a gift of God.
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It's not something of works. So this is something he's saying here. Second is, and MacArthur says this, in the middle of this disputed passage, in verse 23,
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James quoted Genesis 15 .6 which forcefully claims that God credited righteousness to Abraham solely on the basis of his faith.
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Then, and the third reason is that the work that James has said justified
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Abraham was his offering up of Isaac in Genesis 22, 9, and 12, an event that occurred many years after he exercised faith and was declared righteous before God.
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So then he says, instead, Abraham's offering of Isaac demonstrated, and I like this, and he's so right.
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Notice what he says. He demonstrated the genuineness of his faith and the reality of his justification before God.
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James is emphasizing the vindication before others of a person's claim to salvation.
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James' teaching perfectly complements Paul's writings. Salvation is determined by faith alone, according to Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, and demonstrated by faithfulness to obey
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God's will alone in Ephesians 2, 10. So, end quote. So isn't that, you know, so many people think
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James is contradicting Paul. No, he complements him. He complements him.
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So what do we see in verse 21? Verse 21 is a severe stumbling block to the
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German Martin Luther, but there's a reason for that. He was adamantly opposed to the
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Roman Catholic dogma of salvation through works, and so strong a defender of the truth was
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Luther by salvation, by grace alone, through faith alone that he completely missed the Apostle James' point here, really.
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And it's ironic. I was gleaming through Sinclair Ferguson's book there,
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Miss Lillian, is that he says the same thing, that calling the entire writing of the
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Apostle James' epistle a straw. But Luther, you've got to understand Luther, he struggled with this because in his life, during his time, if you know anything about his life, and I know
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Brother Ben and everybody else here knows about Luther's life and his background, he struggled with earning his way to heaven by good works.
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This man was devout. He was a devout monk as he became into the order of the
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Augustinian church there. And he studied very hard his background.
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His father wanted him to be a lawyer. He was a very studious, devout man, and his heart was everything that he could do to get it right with God.
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And all he could see was God's frown. And he tried in every way he could. Everything by the flesh's power to muster it up to get to heaven.
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But as you well know, he saw the Gospel and Paul's account in Romans 1, verses 16 and 17, especially verse 17, and that he saw that the righteousness in which he sought so hard was provided in Jesus Christ.
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And Jesus paid it all and it was released to him and it was liberating to him.
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But James is in no way contradicting Paul. And like I said, that was the struggle of Luther.
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And we must remember that the apostle James was in no way contradicting the great doctrine of salvation by faith alone, right?
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He was not dealing with the means of salvation. This is what we need to see. He was not dealing with the means of salvation at all, but rather with the outcome of salvation, the fruits, what it produces, the evidence that it shows that something has happened in your heart, that a man believes unto righteousness with his heart, but it is shown by the fruits that he bears.
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And that's what James is emphasizing. The evidence that it genuinely occurred after establishing the absence of good works proves that a professed faith really, in a sense, is like tares growing alongside the wheat, so to speak.
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You see this today. It's not real and saving, but rather it's deceptive and dead faith.
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It's a dead salvation. How many people that you and I know that professes something that does not possess the real genuine article, the real thing, that there have not been changed, that there's no real fruits of real repentance that's given.
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They say something, but it is not backed up. So, which is always only by God's grace working through man's.
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It's not something we do. It's a work of God. We know that. It will be demonstrated outwardly by faithful obedience to the
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Word of God and to His will in the form of a holy, as I read this morning from Peter.
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What does he talk about? He talks about how to conduct yourself in holiness, to live godly until Jesus comes back again, right?
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So, it is demonstrated in righteous deeds of charity, righteous deeds of love, and that is what he's talking about.
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Warren Wiersbe gives a good word here, and I got a quote from him as well about true saving faith, and I could not bypass this, and this is what he says in his commentary.
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He says, quote, Faith is only as good as its object. The man in the jungle bows before an idol of stone and trusts it to help him, but he receives no help.
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No matter how much faith a person may generate, if it is not directed at the right object, it will accomplish nothing.
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And then he says this, I believe may be the testimony of a many sincere people, but the big question is, in whom do you believe?
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What do you believe? We are not saved by faith in faith, in which the prosperity gospel teaches, which is heresy.
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We are saved by faith in Jesus Christ as revealed in his word.
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And he goes on to say this, Dynamic faith is based on God's word, and it involves the whole man.
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Dead faith touches only the intellect. Demonic faith involves both the mind and the emotions, but dynamic faith involves the will.
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The whole person plays a part in true saving faith. The mind understands the truth, the heart desires the truth, and the will acts upon the truth.
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The men and women of faith, named in Hebrews chapter 11, the hall of fame of faith, were people of action.
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Don't you love that? They were action. And he says this, God spoke and they obeyed it.
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Again, faith is not believing in spite of evidence. Faith is obeying in spite of consequence.
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And I love that. I think Wiersbe nailed it down pretty good. True saving faith leads to action.
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It's always active. It's always moving. I don't know if you notice this, but of course you do. When you read in the
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Gospels that people that were saved, like the woman of issue of blood, what did she do?
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She was desperate. Her faith moved her to action, to go toward Jesus.
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And as far as she was concerned, nothing would stop her from touching the hem of his garment. So she pressed forward with everything she had.
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This was God's grace upon her soul. As she was being active and obedient to what she needed to take hold, to be whole, she knew that she had to get to Jesus.
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It was active. Faith was active. The same with blind Bartimaeus. Nothing would shut blind
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Bartimaeus up. He was a blind man. He was a beggar on the side of the road to Jericho.
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Jesus is passing by. People tried to shut him up. He pressed forward. Nothing would stop him.
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That's the way faith is. It's active. It's dynamic. Living faith,
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I should say. Not dead faith. But the faith that pleases God. And God gives us faith, by the way.
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It's a gift from God. And it's like God was just bestowing that grace upon them to do this action, and they did it.
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So that was the Holy Spirit that was working upon them. But true saving faith always leads to action.
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Dynamic faith is not just intellectual contemplation or emotional consideration.
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It leads to obedience and the part of the will. And this obedience is not an isolated event. It continues throughout the whole life.
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And actually, it leads to good works. And that's what James is talking about. So many different kinds of works are named in the
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New Testament. Now we're talking about works. Galatians 2 .16 speaks about the works of the law to relate to the sinners to attempt to please
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God by obeying the law of Moses. And of course, it's impossible for a sinner to be saved through the works of the law.
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It's only by the works of Jesus Christ. The works of the law. Of course, the law has a purpose.
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It's a tutor. It's a schoolmaster. It's good. It's holy, as Paul said, to lead us to Jesus Christ. But it cannot save us.
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It condemns us. It shows us our sin. And it has a great purpose.
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And I believe that's why there's the great purpose of the law. You can't throw out the law.
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For in order to see that we're sinners and doomed under God's wrath, it helps us to see what sin is.
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It revives the sin. And it shows us the strength of sin so that we can fly to Jesus Christ and beg for mercy for Him.
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It also speaks about the works of the flesh. What about Galatians 5 .19? Are done by unsaved people who live for the things of the old nature.
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The works of the flesh. These are also wicked works, as the Bible speaks in Colossians 1 .21.
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And in Hebrews 9 .14, it speaks of dead works. So you have works of the law, works of the flesh.
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You have dead works. You have wicked works. And where there's living, but when there's living dynamic faith, truth -saving faith, you will also find always good works.
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There's good works. And the good works is what God is looking at.
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And of course, that's only produced by His Holy Spirit. It is interesting that the Apostle James illustrates his doctrine in the lives of two well -known
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Bible characters here. And like I mentioned previously, it's Father Abraham and the Jewish Father Abraham and the
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Gentile prostitute Rahab. I love the way the Holy Spirit just gives James these two illustrations.
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Isn't it beautiful? The Jewish audience, the Gentile audience. And mainly he's speaking, of course, to Jews scattered abroad.
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But he starts with Father Abraham. You could not find two more different persons, can you, in Scripture?
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Abraham was a Jew. Let's look at this. Rahab was a Gentile. Abraham was a godly man.
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Rahab was a sinful woman. She was a harlot. She was a prostitute. Abraham was the friend of God while Rahab belonged to the enemies of God.
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Isn't this beautiful? You have the Gospel. I love the way James brings this out. This really excites my soul.
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So what did they have in common? Both of them exercised saving faith in the living God. That's what they did.
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That's what they had in common. They had living, active faith. One was a Jewish man that was a very godly man.
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Of course, he had his failures and faults, right? But you had the comparison of the
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Gentile Rahab who was a dirty, prostitute Gentile. MacArthur notes here also, because fallen man is morally and spiritually bankrupt with no redeeming merit at all before God, nothing he can possibly do in himself and by his own power can make him right and acceptable before the
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Lord. It is for that reason that salvation has always been possible solely through the pure graciousness of God working through a faithful response to His grace.
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It is not that in the Old Testament men were saved through the law and that in the New Testament they were saved by faith.
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No. At whatever point in the unfolding revelation and the work
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God men may have lived or ever live,
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God requires nothing of them for salvation except true faith in Him.
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Hebrews 11 makes abundantly clear that both before, I like this, before and after the law was given at Sinai, salvation was by faith.
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Abraham believed in the Lord, Moses tells us, and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.
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Don't you love that? Well, yet the Apostle James says that the father of our faithful, of the faith, whose very faith itself was a gift of God, was nevertheless justified by works, by faith.
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But he was justified by works and what he did showed that what he believed was right.
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You know, that seems like a contradiction, but it's not. It has frustrated and confused believers throughout the history of the church and clarified by understanding that justification by faith, which is very, very important to get right.
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If we get this wrong, we've got everything else wrong. It pertains to a person standing before God, whereas the justification by works that James speaks in pertains to a person standing before men.
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It's that simple. And that's basically the point which Paul takes and James takes.
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Both apostles agree with each other and they don't contradict each other, they just have that view.
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Seemingly contradiction, but there's no contradiction. Some Bible commentators have further imagined a contradiction between James' declaration that Abraham was justified by works and Paul's teaching that was justified solely by grace through faith.
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But such is not the case. However, the apostle James has already emphasized again that every good, gracious gift comes from God above in James 1, verses 17 -18, which
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I read previously. So we know that, right? And verse 23 quotes
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Genesis 15 -6, which declares that God imputed righteousness to Abraham solely on the basis of faith.
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Faith alone. But also the specific event James said justified Abraham by works was the offering of Isaac, his only son.
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What a tremendous test of Abraham, this man, up in age and had to offer up sacrifice.
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What a test. And this, in his son, he knew the seed was there.
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And that son was everything to this man, right? God tested him.
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It was an event that occurred many years after he declared righteous before God. This happened afterwards.
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So he had to offer up Isaac. And that speaks so much of this man, of what he believed and how he was accounted righteous before God.
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So what is important for us to remember is this truth here. The Apostle James is teaching then that Abraham's willingness, that's what we need to see, his willingness, his desire to offer up Isaac vindicates.
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We can't miss this. It vindicates his faith before men. You see?
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The first is before God. That's the view Paul takes. Before God, you're accounted righteous.
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You're righteous just as you've never ever sinned in Jesus Christ. And Jesus has taken all that sin upon himself and was saved by Jesus' works.
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And you see, but James takes the view that what Abraham did is vindication by faith before men.
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A teaching which the Apostle Paul was wholehearted in agreement by the way, because Ephesians 2 .10
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says what? For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.
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See that? Which God prepared beforehand. And I like the old
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King James version here because it says before the foundation of the world we should walk in them.
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I like that. Therefore is no conflict between the two holy inspired writers. The same
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Holy Spirit. Now don't you love this? When you start digging into this and you see this, there is no contradiction.
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Scripture interprets Scripture. Scripture backs up Scripture. So now let's look a little bit at what the
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Bible, the Word of God has to say about this important doctrine of justification. I think this is a good place to start this part here on living faith.
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We'll look very quickly. It is important to understand that first of all, the Greek verb diko or justification has two general meanings.
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I was briefly scanning this on Sinclair Ferguson. He brings out the same thing, Sister Lillian.
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I didn't get a chance to look at it, but I'm going to pick that book up in a minute and bring out one quote.
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It got me excited. Thank you so much for that. The first pertains to acquittal.
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That is declaring and treating a person as righteous. That is its meaning in relationship to salvation.
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And in a sense, which Paul almost always uses that term, he declares, for example, that we are justified as a gift by God's grace through redemption, which is in Christ Jesus in Romans 3 .24.
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It's all been paid for by the blood of Jesus and his sacrifice.
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That's what it means by faith alone. We're justified by faith apart from the works of the law,
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Romans 3 .28. And that, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ. So that is acquittal. That's what Paul is talking about. In another letter he writes, and actually he says this, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus.
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Even we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith.
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And then he says this, in Christ and not by the works of the law, since by the works of the law no flesh will be justified.
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He also reminds Titus that in Titus 3 .7, that being justified by his grace, we are made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
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So that's the term acquittal. The second meaning of diakaiō,
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I hope I said that right, I probably not, but anyway, what's important here is to get the meaning, right?
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Justification pertains to vindication, or should you say proof of righteousness.
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The proof of righteousness, it is used in that sense a number of times in the New Testament in relation to God as well as men.
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What does it mean? Well, Paul says in Romans 3 .4, let God be found true and every man be found a liar, as it is written that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged.
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What does he mean? Well, let me pull in another scripture and you can get his meaning. He writes to Timothy and he says to his son in the faith, in 1
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Timothy 3 .16, that Jesus Christ was revealed in the flesh, and notice what he says, was justified.
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In other words, he was vindicated. He was vindicated diakaiō. It's the same
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Greek word right here. In the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
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Don't you love that? That's an outline right there. That's a whole another series of sermons. But Jesus Christ himself commented that wisdom is vindicated, justified by all her children in Luke 7 .35.
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So what do we do here? We do not want to miss this. It is the second sense which
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James is using, the diakaiō in James 2 .21,
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that he asks rhetorically, was not Abraham our father justified by works?
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This is what he's talking about. He explains that Abraham's supreme demonstration by offering up Isaac, that justification occurred as he offered up Isaac, his son, on the altar, which happened many years after his justification by faith, recorded in Genesis 15 .6.
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Let me say that again. Abraham our father justified by works?
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He explained that Abraham's supreme demonstration of that justification occurred when he offered up Isaac, his son, on the altar, which happened many years after his justification by faith, recorded in Genesis 15 .6.
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Genesis 15 .6 and chapter 22 is several chapters back.
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So he's demonstrated what already previously happened. And that's the way it works, right?
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It was when God, I'm sorry, when Abraham offered up Isaac that the whole world, let's look at it like this, the whole world could perceive the reality of the faith of this man,
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Abraham, that was genuine rather than false. It proved.
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See, he passed the test and it proved that the faith that he had was authentic.
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It was real. It was living. It wasn't dead. It was active. You notice that.
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It wasn't dead. So you're not going to believe this, but I'm almost to my conclusion.
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I'm doing quite well, praise God, right at 37 minutes. So that's it.
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She's keeping me straight. So the conclusion is this.
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Let me conclude. You see, there's a perfect relationship, right, between faith and good works.
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You see that? Genuine living faith, genuine good works.
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You know, Jesus said that. A tree, a bad tree will bear bad fruit.
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A good tree always will bear good fruit. It is what it is.
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And you know, we see it so simple because the Holy Spirit has shown us, but other people out there that are still dead in their sins has a dead faith.
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The thing about it is they may intellectually know it, as Ben prayed this morning, about you can intellectually know all these things, and they think because they know it intellectually they're okay.
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Oh my goodness, no. There has to be a change. There has to be genuine repentance.
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There has to be, as Zacchaeus did, restitution. Something must happen.
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And it's demonstrated what happens in the heart. Didn't Jesus teach this? What did He teach?
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It's always regeneration before reformation. You cannot pour, how did
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He say, new wine into old wine scans. That's what He was talking about. In other words, you can't reform it on the outward.
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Something has to happen on the inward. It's not from the outside in, it's from the inside out.
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That is what actually the gospel is all about. There must be a radical change within.
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And what Abraham did proved it vindicated before men what has already happened in his heart previously, that he believed
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God and it was accounted unto him righteous. You see, that's the way it works. And that's a perfect relationship between faith and works.
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As someone once said, Abraham was not saved by faith plus works, but by faith that works.
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I'm telling you, that's the way it works. Amen, pardon the pun. Well, so how was
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Abraham justified by works? James 2 .21, what does he say? When he had already been justified by faith?
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Well, we see that in Romans chapter 4. Answers that.
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By faith he was justified before God and his righteousness declared by works.
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He was justified before men and his righteousness was demonstrated. That's what
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Romans 4 basically teaches. The whole chapter talks about that. It is true that no humans actually saw the event of Abraham, right?
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Put his son on the altar. But the inspired holy record of God in Genesis 22, that whole chapter, enables us to see it by faith.
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That event and the witness, Abraham's faith, was demonstrated by his works.
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That's what James is saying. It was demonstrated. He did something about it. You notice, remember what
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Abraham said? I love that story because he told his servant, he said, I and the lads are going to worship, but we're going to return.
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You see that? Faith was in action. He didn't sit back and say, oh,
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I believe in God, and I have Isaac here. God said, no.
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Take him, put him on the altar. Sacrifice him to me. He was put to the test.
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This man believed in God. Scripture even says in Hebrews that even if he were to slay him,
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God could raise him from the dead. He believed God could do anything. And that's what faith does.
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Let me drive home a point here to us in this conclusion and application.
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I like what D .L. Moody said. Every Bible should be bound in shoe leather. I think that says everything, doesn't it?
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You are that walking Bible before the world in which they don't know a lot of the people that's lost in their sins.
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They have no hope in God. They see you. You're it. And we bear witness of what
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God has done in us, right? How do they know that? How do they know what we believe in our faith, in our hearts?
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They can't look in our hearts, can they? But they look at our life. Our life should show it.
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That's what James is saying. Show it. Demonstrate it. It's faith that works.
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He did not say that because he had been a successful, talking about Moody, a shoe salesman.
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He said that because he was dedicated, he was committed, and he was an obedient Christian.
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I really believe that. So dynamic living faith, if there's anything in our application, it's this right here.
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That our dynamic living faith always obeys God. Obedience is better than sacrifice.
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It proves itself in daily life, and it works. It works, and the works meaning a righteous, and as you know this all in the
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Scriptures, a righteous, holy life that bears fruit.
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And what kind of fruit are we talking about? The fruit of the Spirit. Notice it doesn't say fruits of the
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Spirit. It's the fruit of the Spirit. It's like one cluster all in one. I was thinking about this, of our hydrangea bush that we have.
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Teresa loves hydrangea bushes, and I just use this as a simple illustration, but she cuts them.
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But if you look at the bush, it's beautiful. There's a cluster of...
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She's amening me. There's a cluster of flowers, but it's almost like one flower, you see.
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It's all one, drawn from that same vine. But it's living, right?
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But it's all together. It's all in one, and that's why I say love, joy, and I believe there's a divine order here, because he mentions love first, because it's grounded.
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Everything is grounded in love. Notice what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13, the three greatest is what?
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Love, which is charity, agape, and then you have hope and faith.
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Those three are great, but what's the greatest? Love. Hope is really important.
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Faith is definitely important. And Paul talks about that, right? But there's a reason he did that, and of course, if you study
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Corinth, they emphasize the gifts over the gift. And Paul goes, the gift,
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I should say, the most important gift, and Paul says the greatest of all these gifts is love.
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And then he talks about how you demonstrate this. He said here you are devouring one another.
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There's conflict in the Lord's Supper. You emphasize a man's talents and gifts above Jesus Christ.
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And you focus so much on the gifts, and you made him an idol. And then he says, but yet, where's your love in your heart?
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That's what Paul is saying. And he literally gets the rod out and he gives him a rebuke, doesn't he? But that's what
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James is actually saying. That's what Paul emphasizes. It's all grounded in love.
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Even truth must be spoken in love. We love one another because God loved us, right?
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Why? Because God is love. Well, we love one another because also the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts.
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But how is it demonstrated? If it's in our hearts, it must be demonstrated. And it's demonstrated by what?
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Obedience. Obedience to the faith. So it's demonstrated outwardly what we have inwardly.
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Love, joy, peace, long -suffering, kindness, faithfulness, self -control, and so forth.
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So the fruit of righteousness, holiness, loving righteousness, hating iniquity, hating sin.
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Yes, unfortunately, we have tares among the wheat. Yes, we do in the churches. To fit the description even in Titus, what they said, people profess to know
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God, but in works, notice what he said, in works, they what?
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Deny Him. It's not proved. There's no evidence. Being abominable, that means detestable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.
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That's the Word of God. So we must remember that. We must remember.
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In Titus 3 .8, and I'll close with this, this is a faithful saying, and these things
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I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works.
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These things are good and profitable to men.
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So it's not what we say. It's who we are. True faith is always demonstrated by who we are.
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It's active. It's obedient. It doesn't mean we're perfect, right? We know that. We fall short of that.
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We're not talking about sinless perfection. We are talking about our direction of life. Salvation has taken place because we see who we are.
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We see who God is. We see who we really are because we see who God really is. And there's a change.
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There's always that change. Like Zacchaeus. I think Zacchaeus is a great story because he demonstrated the justification that happened when
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Jesus says, I'm coming to your home. Salvation has come to you. And what did he do?
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Hey, he demonstrated. He gave fruits. Like John the
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Baptist, good fruits came out because of repentance. Boer fruits.
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Jesus constantly talked about this on the Sermon on the Mount. Well, let me close with the words of Jesus Christ.
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Go with me to Matthew. And I believe I went here last week, but I think this is a good place for us to close.
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Matthew chapter 7. And notice how this so fits perfectly what
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James is saying. Oh, yes.
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Very quickly. As you turn there, St. Clare Ferguson. I didn't forget Ms. Lillian. He says this.
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The principle then is a straightforward. The person who is counted as righteous through faith will do what is righteous.
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That's a good quote. He says, In a sense, he or she is counted righteous, justified by grace through faith, and as such is counted righteous, justified because he or she lives righteously.
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End quote. So, so true. Don't you see what Jesus is teaching here? What does he say in verse 15 of chapter 7?
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Beware of false prophets. Why? Who come to you.
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They come to you in sheep's clothing. They pretend to be righteous, but they're not righteous inwardly.
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Inwardly, they're what? Ravenous wolves. Verse 16. You will know them by their fruits, the way they demonstrate their life.
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And then he says this. You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorns or bushes nor figs or from thistles, are they?
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I believe when James is emphasizing his point, his mind is right here. I really believe that.
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And what does he say in verse 17? So every good fruit, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
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That's the way he is. But a good tree cannot produce bad fruit nor a bad tree produce good fruit.
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Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
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So then, here's his point. You will know them by their fruits.
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So, so important. False doctrine cannot restrain the flesh.
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So false prophets manifest wickedness. It's just seen by the fruits. It's the way it happens.
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It happens like that in nature, and Jesus says that's the way it happens in each and every one of us, unless there's regeneration.
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And regeneration, something happens. God does something, but God.
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Let's pray. Father, we thank You this morning for Your good Word. Lord, may each and every one of us apply this great truth to our hearts, knowing that we've been regenerated, justified, acquitted before You in Heaven.
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You've declared us righteous, but inwardly, Lord, we've been regenerated.
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If it's really something that has happened, it will show its way out in good fruits.
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Love, joy, goodness, faith. All this will be seen in our lives.
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Not in total perfection, because Lord, we have remaining sin, but Lord, we definitely see that we have to deal with that remaining sin and crucify it and put it to death by the blood of Jesus' cross, and by the cross we bear as well.
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Lord, we thank You for the great change that You have produced. It's not anything of our own good works.
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It's all by the works of Jesus and what He did on the blood of His cross. So there's where we go.
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We go to the cross. We go to what Jesus has done because it is by His good works we're saved.
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But if we truly say by His good works, then our good works will show something that it's
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Jesus' good works. It's not us, but it's God. It's You, O Lord, that has done the work.
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You have produced the change, and there's living and active faith that's only accomplished by Your Holy Spirit that dwells within us.
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So Lord, as we live in a dying, such a fallen world without hope, without God, Lord, may they see and glorify
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You and see You. That's how they see You, glorify
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You, by seeing the good works in us. And Father, we thank
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You. All this is accomplished by justification, by faith alone.