Faith Without Works (Part 2)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio, with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with No Compromise.

Faith Without Works Is Dead, Not Saving Faith

Now look at what he says here. It kind of gets convicting. When one of you says, it's like this, James the pastor, who this is most likely a sermon of James here that we have in the text. He knows there's somebody out in the congregation who does this.

And it's like his long fingers going, yep, there's one of you. One of you does this right here. When one of you says, that's the idea, and it's kind of scary. When you say things, they cost nothing. It's lip service.

You don't give them what's necessary, verse 16. What use is that? Now he says, yet you do not give them. He opens up the congregation to say, you, plural, you don't help out either, and so make sure your faith is an active faith, or maybe you're really duped.

John strikes the same nerve, 1 John 3, whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him. How does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

Number three, don't ever buy into the lie that faith without works is a saving faith, because three, it's not living. It doesn't bring salvation, it doesn't help others, and it's not living. And again, this is good because it should stir up our faith if we're Christians.

We should be thankful that God gave us faith that results in works. Maybe there's somebody here who's not born again. If you say, oh, I'm a church member, I've been baptized, verse 17, almost a summary statement of the last few verses.

So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is necros. It's dead. No life, no activity, permanent cessation of all vital functions. Might look like it's okay on the outside, but the corpse isn't alive.

Roper said, to illustrate dead faith, it is that kind of faith which would lead a man to take a bottle of medicine from his medicine cabinet, looking at the instructions on it, he says, I'm sure they're correct.

I have all the confidence in the source of the medicine. I know who wrote these directions. I believe everything about it. I know this will relieve my headache if I just take it. But he takes the medicine bottle and puts it back on the shelf.

He doesn't lose his headache. It continues on, yet he can say, I believe that medicine. I believe all about that medicine. That's dead faith. It's not living faith. Because faith and obedience are bound up together.

If faith is the engine, then works are the caboose. Jesus said in Luke 6, why do you call me Lord, Lord, and yet do not do the things I say? Strangely, and in a way that's scary to me, there are some people in evangelical circles that say, you're not called to be a fruit inspector.

Because when they talk about these issues, is that person really saved? He says he is, but his life doesn't show any grace at all, any works at all. But you know what? I can't judge. And then they quote the world's favorite verse.

What's the world's favorite verse? Judge not lest you be judged. It's like that's their memory verse. That's what the world knows. And they don't look at it in terms of context. And so they say, well, we can't judge.

And you know what? God never called me to be no fruit inspector. Kind of sounds cool, especially if I'm doing something and I want you out of my business. Fruit producing isn't an option for the Christian, because God has made you alive.

And God has given you the ability to produce the fruit. If there's no fruit in your life, I want you to inspect your own life and say, Lord, help me, save me, give me fruit. If you see no fruit in someone else's life, true, maybe they serve the Lord behind the scenes and you can't see that.

There's an aspect of people's lives we don't know. But I live in the world of evangelical leadership, and all they can try to do these days is to water everything down to the barest minimum. The standards are so low in Christianity, you don't even need the Holy Spirit to jump over the hurdle.

And if we're not careful, even good people can say, you know what? I think I'm going to lower the standard of salvation because my spouse, my kids, my friend. If the salvation standard is like this, I know they don't meet it, but I so want them to be into heaven.

I'll try to lower this in my mind so then I can count them as Christians. For Paul, when he valued Christ more than anything else in life, that was his stimulus to pour himself out for others. I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

I consider them rubbish that I might gain Christ and to be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ. If you meet someone and they say, well, I've just got Jesus for hell insurance, then you need to talk to them.

Spurgeon said, I would recommend you either believe God up to the hilt or else not to believe at all. Believe this book of God, every letter of it, or else reject it. There's no logical standing place between the two.

Be satisfied with nothing less than a faith that swims in the deeps of divine revelation, a faith that paddles about the edge of the water is poor faith at best. The absence of deeds proves there's no faith.

Faith and Works Are Inseparable

Number four, don't buy into this lie that faith without works is saving because faith and works are inseparable, verse 18. Faith without works doesn't bring salvation, doesn't help others, it's not living, and faith and works are inseparable.

Look at how James continues to build his case. But someone will say, he's injecting somebody's opinion here, someone will say, you have works and I have faith. Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works.

A little imaginative dialogue, that was a good way to teach people. You allege to have faith, I have works, I can demonstrate my faith by my works, I challenge you to demonstrate your faith without your works.

Someone will say, you have faith and I have works, show me your faith apart from works, he says, I'll show you my faith by my works, because faith is invisible and God knows whether it's real or not, but the only way we know if it's real or not is an outflowing of what comes out of the person's mouth and hands and life.

Show me your faith without the works. Since faith is invisible, what can we see? I kind of like this illustration by David's, a horse that cannot be seen, smelled, touched or ridden, that eats invisible grass and leaves no mark on the ground, such faith is indemonstrable and suspect.

And I wrote down here, a cow that can't be eaten is suspect as well. It's just fake, it's invisible, it doesn't exist. Number five, oh, this is just devastating. Don't ever buy into the lie that faith without works saves, because this kind of faith, this false faith, number five, is worse than demon faith.

Lenski says this is the most stunning illustration of dead faith in all the Bible. Verse 19. If so far it's been the scorpion with the pincers kind of crawling up on your pillow and you wake up in the morning and here's the scorpion right in front of you, 219 is the stinger going to sting you in the forehead.

How's that for no compromise radio? I mean, it's just like, it's when you quick brush it over to your wife's side. You believe that God is one. By the way, the content of the faith here isn't argued. It's the lack of works that flow out of such a saving faith.

You do well. Sarcasm galore. Big deal. If I was teaching a youth group, I'd put my finger in my mouth and pop it. But I'm not going to do it right now. You do well. Bravo. Yes. The demons also believe.

And you know what? They one up you because they have more than intellectual faith. This word shudder is an emotional reaction to who God is. You think you've got it down because you can recite the creeds.

You can recite 1689 Westminster Confession. You say Jesus is God. Jesus is coming back and all that. Well, the demons do better than you because they're actually afraid. That's a good place to start. The fear of the Lord is a beginning.

That's a sign from God. The avalanche is coming for you. That's kind of cool, wasn't it? I should have like a little button there when I push it. Effect. Weak point. Snow avalanche. Demons have more than intellectual faith.

They shudder. And friends, I would imagine we all have children who at one point in their lives, if in fact not right now as well, they've got all the right answers. They go through the attributes of God and they can tell you how he's almighty and how he's beautiful and how he's compassionate and how he's a deliverer and how he's excellent.

And you just could go through an alphabetical list and they would subscribe to every single one. Kids are not born into the world as Christians, so they have to be born again. And here the demons shudder.

The demons take a look at the passage again. They believe God is one. They believe in the attributes and existence of God. They could read Charnock's book and say, I totally believe that. They're even believing in the unity of God.

You believe that God is one. Now he's disassociating himself from this person, James, is you believe, you deceptively believe this, that God is one. This is the part of the Old Testament that the Jews would recite every morning and every evening, the Shema.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. It is said of Rabbi Akiba, who suffered a martyr's death, that the last word he breathed out was the word one because of this great confession. They're creedally orthodox.

They believe the statement of faith. They probably have memorized the Apostles' Creed. Now I lay me down to sleep, our Father who is art in heaven. They probably have it all memorized. But take a look at this.

The demons believe and they shudder. And that's an ongoing word, by the way. They keep on shuddering. It's a great onomatopoetic word there, frisussen. If I say it like this, you'll probably get it. Frisussen.

It's just kind of fun to say, by the way. It means to shake. It means to bristle. When you have a dog and the dog is afraid, what happens to the hair on the back of the dog? It frisussens. It's scared.

Fear. That's why, in tradition, demons were called the hairy ones. How do you like that for a demon picture? The hairy ones. Why are they called hairy ones? Because they were afraid of God because if they had hair on their backs, it would be going up.

Bristling up, Job 4 translates it. Trembles at my word, Isaiah 66, same idea. But just because you know things, it says that's not going to get you anywhere. Actually, if you only believe in the God of the Bible and the statements of faith and everything else, you have a lower rank in your life than demons.

Demons outrank you. Demons we know aren't going to heaven. Demons we know don't have saving faith. Demons aren't going to swim around and swirl around the throne of God forever with the saints and other good angels singing and saying, Holy, holy, holy.

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Demons have no love for the object of their faith, Christ Jesus. Saving faith does. When you get saved, you have an appreciation for the beauty of Christ and appreciation for what He's done for you and how excellent is His name in all the earth.

And when you stare by faith through the Scriptures at the person and work of Christ, something begins to happen to you. You begin to be transformed from one level of glory to the next. 2 Corinthians 3.

And you say, I've been redeemed out of the slave pit of sin. I owe my life to you. I'll follow you. No wonder so many times Jesus doesn't say, believe. He says, follow. I like to ask people this question.

Do you believe Jesus enough to follow Him? Because if you don't, you might ask yourself, do I really have saving faith? Paul and Silas in prison. They were preaching there, and they said, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.

You and your household. Believe unto. It's like you're going this way, following all your own sin, and turn, of course, by the grace of God, and believing unto. Going from one way to the next. Of course we say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

But the belief required here isn't the kind of faith that just has an intellectual component only. No wonder, and this is frightening as well, 1 Corinthians 15. Unless you believed in vain. So I ask you the question.

Have you believed in vain? There's a faith that doesn't save. Number six, and finally. Why should you never buy into this lie of Satan, and lie of our flesh that faith without works is acceptable before God?

Because of these, let me give you, how shall I say it? It's exactly opposite of what commendable faith is. Let's do that. Let me give you two illustrations. One of Abraham, the other of Rahab. Six reasons why you shouldn't believe in the lie of faith without works.

It's true. It brings no salvation. It doesn't assist others. It's not living. Faith and works are inseparable. It's worse than demon faith, and it's the exact opposite of real faith. Verse 20. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

Do you really want clear proof? The way I would say to young people is, it's time to face the facts, pal. That's kind of the attitude here. Why? Because it's a very important issue. Every person you know will either die and go to heaven because of the perfect work of Christ Jesus, or they will die and go to hell where the worm dieth not forever and ever and ever.

And that means you, and that means your children, and your friend, and the guy next to you on the airplane. God is not so unjust to just let a sin go without being punished, and it will either be punished on Jesus or be punished on you.

That's why you need a substitute. That's why this is important. That's why if you say to yourself, by the grace of God, there are some works that flow out of my life, and God has given me a wonderful sense of assurance that the works that flow out of my life are divine works.

I could have never done them on my own. Thank you, Lord, for that assurance. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? There's almost a feeling of impatience here, Hebert said.

And so, what does he show them? Well, he shows the Jews Father Abraham, verse 21. Look at all these questions that he asks. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

What do you mean justified by works? Doesn't that undo everything we're talking about here? Justified by works before people. How can you see it? Was he not justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac?

How do you know he was a believer? By the way, how many years earlier did it happen, his faith, how many years earlier did he believe? Genesis 15, then he believed in the Lord and he reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Thirty years after Abraham believed, he demonstrated that his faith was real by almost slaying his son Isaac. I think he did slay him in his heart. Verse 22, the key to unlock these scriptures is you see.

You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works. You see that, don't you? That's the point he's trying to make. Did not the conduct of Abraham in offering up his son prove that he believed in God?

Genesis 15, he believed and then 20 or 30 years later, didn't he show you his faith, the epitome of his faith? By demonstrating it outwardly? Of course he did. That's why we can say he was justified by works in our eyes.

I'd like to go over Genesis chapter 22 to go over the passage, but I can't do it, so we need to just keep moving. You see that faith was working with his works. See, that's a real faith. As a result of the works, faith was perfected.

And verse 23, the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. The outgrowth of that belief right there is going to slay Isaac, his only son, the promised son, the son he loved, and he was called a friend of God.

He was already saved when he did that. This just showed the world. Abraham was really a friend of God. Verse 24, you see, God already knows. God saw Abraham's real faith in Genesis 15. We saw this faith in Genesis 22.

Here, you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. You see, but you know what? I'm not really Father Abraham. I'm not a great father like Father Abraham. What about me? And now he gives another person Rahab.

We've got a man and a woman. We've got a Jew and a Gentile. We've got a great person and a nobody prostitute. Same thing with her though. Verse 25, and in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

Oh, I believe you, you spies. I believe you. I believe you've got a great God. I believe that this God does all kinds of great things. Really? How do we know that was true? Verse 25, she received the messengers and sent them out by another way because her faith worked.

That's what we could see. Here we have this harlot who's a brand new believer, a minor Bible character. I'm no patriarch, but I can identify with this prostitute. One reformer said he deliberately brought two such people together in order to exhibit more plainly that no, at no time was any person of whatever condition, our race, our class reckoned among the justified and believing if they did not show works.

And that was risky business for her. She could have died and so could have her family. And then what does he say at the very end? He says in verse 26, a clinching analogy, you drive the nail in halfway and then knock it over to clinch it for as the body apart from the spirit is dead, if you see a body and there's no breathing, you know they're dead.

So also faith apart from works is dead. So what do you say the next time you meet someone and they say, I believe, but their life doesn't show it? Well, maybe you need to look longer. You don't know for sure if they're saved or not, but maybe that person is your spouse, maybe that person is your child, maybe that person is a friend of yours and they keep on saying, I believe, I believe, I believe, I believe, and they keep on not showing that they have a faith that's active.

Then you need to love them and tell them the truth. It's not mean. I'll tell you this, though, it's super hard. How do you like to go up to somebody and say to them, well, that's what I had to say to the guy next to me on the airplane.

Based on your own profession of faith, what you've just told me, I don't think you should call yourself a Christian. I guess he could have hit me, but he said, no, I'm a Christian. I used to read the Bible every day.

I used to minister in the jail. I used to lead. They used to come to me for prayer. I memorized things. I did homework. And he said, but what happened was my old girlfriend picked me up when I got out of jail after three years, and I knew I shouldn't go home with her, but I did.

That was six years ago. So I think our verbiage needs to be careful. I'm not Jesus, so I can't say you're going to hell. But I could say, based on what you said, today might be a good day for you to consider the claims of Christ and repent.

It's not too late for you. Here's the good news. No matter what you have done, no matter how tricked you have been, no matter how self-deceived, satanically deceived, worldly deceived you've been, today's the day.

And so how about you today? If you're not a Christian, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And if you are a Christian, aren't you glad you're saved? I am so glad I don't have to bear my own sins.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're located on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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