Crazy Notes and James 2

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio Ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth. This is also known as Duplex Gratia Radio.

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Somebody said, why do you call it radio if it's just a podcast? Well, bub,

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I used to be on the radio because we paid a lot of money for that. Talked to a friend the other day, he's on 700 stations and I believe his budget's in the millions.

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So I don't have that kind of money. I think I have 10 Patreon supporters. If you want to go support NoCo Radio, that'd be awesome.

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We used to get a lot more support when we were a discernment ministry, but that's another story. We are on two stations,

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KAGV in Alaska and KFGR in Wyoming, Powell, Wyoming, with friends in both places.

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I've got friends in both places. I don't know why that song just popped into my mind, but it did.

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I just got back from Omaha, Nebraska and we had a great time. It was kind of our,

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I don't know, not anti -shepherds conference that I'm against something.

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That's not my point. But it just was different because smaller, at my brother's church instead of a church that I don't have any brothers at.

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But lots of folks came. So I saw people there. Who did I see there? The speakers were

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Daryl Hart, Pat Abendroth, Michael Beck and myself.

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So let's just start with them. Daryl Hart and I sat next to each other on Friday night, just before his messages.

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And he has a summer place here in Massachusetts, so we got to talk about that a little bit. And we talked about Omaha, Nebraska.

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We talked about Pat Abendroth and I don't know, I think we hit it off.

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Daryl's one of those guys where I almost think, you know, I don't want him mad at me.

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Major scholar, et cetera. And so that was good to get to know Daryl. Seemed like a normal guy. Didn't seem like a weird OPC person.

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Pat Abendroth, I don't need to say much about him. You know him, he's been on the radio station here many times and been at the church, Bethlehem Bible Church.

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My brother and put together a great conference and the details were looked after.

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And I thought he did a great job as conference coordinator. I'm sure he was stressed out. We went on a nice 35 mile bike ride together and he had a couple of his friends.

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I told everybody if he could just slow down in the pace line, that'd be good. So they're nice to me. I appreciate my brother.

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And it's great to see his children, my nieces and nephews and my sister

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Marcy and her daughter. So that was great to see them. The other speaker was Michael Beck and Michael Beck's from South Africa, but now lives in New Zealand and he did a great job and it was good to get to know him behind the scenes.

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Seemed like a regular guy. I think we could be friends in real life. If you lived closer, we could be friends.

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I think I'll have him on NOCO and he's going to have me on 2H Soldier. So that was good. Loved the speakers, each one of them in their own particular way.

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Who else was at the conference? Well, all kinds of people. My son Luke was at the conference. That was good to see NOCO Jr.

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there. Actually Michael Beck asked if Luke and I could be on a show together and talk about dad and ministry and having a son and trying to raise a kid that wasn't a pastor's kid.

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So that should come up pretty soon. Hopefully. We'll see. And then I saw all kinds of other friends.

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Renee was there. I appreciated to see Renee, his big smile. So that was fun.

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He's kind of like a son to me. And I saw Steve Meister. Steve Meister's a pastor out in Sacramento at Emmanuel Baptist.

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So that was fun. You have to watch out what you say around Meister, he's pretty sharp. Pastor John Tucker was there from Beloit, Ohio, south of Cleveland.

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John and I are friends. You've heard him on NOCO. He's a lawyer. And I'm usually at his conference there once a year in Ohio.

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So that was fun. See, everybody's related by conferences and stuff like that. I met

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John at the Shepherds Conference years ago and I met Meister, I think through Rich Barcelos, because Steve and I both like punk rock music or something.

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A lot of the Tri -City guys were there. That's the church that my son serves at.

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Senior Pastor Jonathan Rourke was there. It's always fun to talk to Rourke and get his insights on things, behind the scenes insights.

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As a pastor, one of his elders were there, I think too, Dave Crawford and John Stead.

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I know Dave a little bit, but I know John really well. And John is just such an evangelist.

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Dave is the guitar player. If I told him he was a worship leader, he wouldn't like that. But you can listen to the

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Pactum and hear Dave Crawford talk about worship, I think you'd be encouraged. Anyway, then a bunch of other friends came,

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JT Stead and others. And so I'm going to forget people, I know. But we all converged in Omaha, met some other pastors, met

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Pastor Jody, matter of fact. He was from Alabama and was encouraged and came up. Some good behind the scenes discussions there.

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All that to say, the Pactum, Pat Abendroth. You can go to the Pactum and listen to the shows of the conference and he'll have those as we go.

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And I'll probably play the ones that I was on, on NOCO radio. So enough about that. I hope to be at Deeply Rooted Conference in November 10th and 11th, deeplyrootedpodcast .com.

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We'll see how the treatments affect me. That starts in a few days.

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By the time you hear this, probably already had some treatments. I might get the infusion, i .e.

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chemo, or I might just get pills. We'll see, but I'm ready to get going. It's quite the mental trip.

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I received a note. So here comes the show. Six minute intro, sorry. I didn't talk about food though.

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I didn't talk about, you know, I don't know, wine or something, non -alcoholic wine,

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O'Doul's. You know, I didn't talk about any of that. If they made,

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I think, I think Guinness makes it non -alcoholic, don't they? Who knows? I'm preaching at church.

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This was some time ago and somebody walked out and just handed me a note. And so the note was on the offering envelope.

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The offering envelope says, my offering to the work of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through Bethlehem Bible Church, West Wilson, Massachusetts.

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And then it's got general fund, building funds, et cetera. And anyway, most people give online now, tithely, that type of thing, checks.

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But we just, we still have offering envelopes. And I like that. My offering to the work of my

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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through Bethlehem Bible Church. So this is not an episode on giving, but I do want to say,

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I want to say, I do want to say, you don't pay for the light bills.

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You don't pay for the pastor's salary. You don't pay for snow removal.

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You don't pay for envelopes for offering, I guess, in an indirect way you do.

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But the theological way I'd like you to think about it is you're giving money to the Lord Jesus and that's, you write the check essentially to him.

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You want to say, out of your love for me, I want to give back for the ministry of the gospel.

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And so for the ministry of the gospel to go forth, salaries have to be paid, lights have to be turned on, et cetera, et cetera.

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But if you're like, well, I'm not going to, you know, I'm mad at the church, therefore I'm not going to give because I'm going to, you know, not pay the pastor's salary or something.

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That's just the wrong way to do it. It should be an act of worship. That's actually why we pass the plates during the

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Sunday morning service. There's some debate about that. Should you or shouldn't you? I won't get into that today. But they handed me one of these envelopes.

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Well, I don't take money from people. So if you come up to me and say, I have $1 ,000, I have $1 ,000,

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I have $10 ,000, I'd like to give to the church. Here you go. I won't take it. I will grab a deacon,

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I'll grab one of the financial officers, I'll grab someone else, the secretary, and I'll have them take the money.

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I don't want to touch the money. I don't want to be involved in money. I don't collect the money.

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I don't count the money. I don't deposit the money. I don't write checks from the money. The elders, the non -staff elders, they determine salary and they pay me money.

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So I don't have to be a plumber so I can study the Bible more to preach the gospel. That's how that works.

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I thought maybe I was going to have to say, oh, excuse me, I don't take the money. But I thought wrongly.

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There was a note and the note is written on the outside of the envelope, which is the back. And then they kind of ripped it open and wrote in the middle.

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So on the inside, here's what it says. Good afternoon. I guess

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I preach past noon. I'm going to have to get ready for this.

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This is going to be very interesting show. And how long have you been on that medication? That's a little hint of what's going to happen.

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This is the first time I've attended your service. I'm with a friend that brought me.

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His name is, and then they have different handwriting for this name. So maybe he didn't even know his friend, but his friend wrote his name.

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And I'm reading what this person wrote, even though there's going to be typos and stuff, misspellings.

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A beautiful two L's, a beautiful feeling is within the encompassing of the sacred holy place.

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My friend is Jew, Dea, Christian, instead of J -U -D, they spell it

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J -E -W -D. I don't know why that's so funny.

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My friend's a, he should have say like a Messianic Jew. My friend's a Jewish Christian. Okay. I get that.

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And a dreamer of, arrow flip over, negotiator of love with all the leaders of this world.

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I read it exactly the way it was written, a negotiator of love. I've heard a doctor of love.

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I've heard of basketball players with the last name love.

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I've heard love connection. My wife used to work for love connection with Chuck Woolery.

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Be back at two and two, true story. Chuck like donuts, two chocolate donuts before every show.

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And I think a pack of cools, if I remember rightly. A negotiator of love with all the leaders of this world and has a very special spirit.

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I believe with my whole heart, if your congregation sends us to Israel, I would do my best to help him succeed in honor of God.

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Love, please give us a call. Then he gives his name. I didn't think

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I said any name, any money rather. Well my point is nothing.

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You know, Hebrews 8 .1. The point that I'm saying is this, oh brother.

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Mike Ebenroth, No Compromise Radio. Let's talk about something else. Someone asked me the other day about the book of James.

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And today I want to talk, I almost said wanna, I want to talk about James 2.

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Because it's the only place in the New Testament that says you're saved not by faith alone. So what do we do with that?

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And this is not a big exegesis. This is not a bunch of Greek words. This is just if someone asks you about final justification and James 2.

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Someone asks you, are you saved by faith alone? A Roman Catholic asks you, are you sure you want to believe in sola fide when the

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Bible says you're not saved by faith alone? If someone asks you, can the word justification in Greek also be translated vindication?

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If someone asks you, could you please talk about faith and works so I can understand it?

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If someone says to you, does Romans 4 with Paul saying you're justified by faith alone contradict

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James chapter 2? If someone asks you, that's the name of the show.

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If someone asks you, hey, listen, I'm a negotiator of love.

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I'm a negotiator of love. I could do a whole show about Israel as well because this show is being recorded probably six days into the

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Israel war as they're getting ready to invade Gaza. I will say just as a side note,

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I watch what people post online. First of all, I think you need to say to yourself, and of course

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I know I make mistakes on social media, but my general rule is it's kind of should be for one way communication.

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It kind of should be sometimes lighthearted. You can't really get caught up in it.

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I think when people try to give hot takes, like discussing pre -Mill versus Amill in light of the

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Israeli war, I just think that's just bad form. It's just, okay, what about Palestinian Christians and what about Israeli unbelievers and should be pro -Israel and anti this, that, and the other?

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I just think at this time of war and the beheadings and everything else, I just think, you know what,

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I think you should be praying for the Christians. That's certainly true. You can do that anytime. I just think you should just be careful.

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I don't even really want to say too much now. Of course, I know war is horrible and terrorism is awful, but just, dear

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Christian, I think you might want to just be careful what you post on social media. Mike Eamond, brother,

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No Compromise Radio, James chapter 2, a simple way to just think through it. Now, remember, whenever you go to a book of the

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Bible, you should probably say to yourself, what's the theme? What are we going to do? How do we see this in big picture so we can see the parts that make up the whole?

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Remember James is the first book that's written in the New Testament. Other things have occurred. If this is written in 45, 46, as a matter of fact,

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I wonder if my ESV study Bible tells me when it was written.

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I bet it does. This had to be written after the council, no, if it were, it would have been mentioned.

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The letter was most likely written in the early to mid 40s. Let's just say 45. I think

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I used to say 44, but 45. Well, Jesus has been conceived, born, grew up, public ministry, life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension.

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That's all happened. And so let's say Jesus did die at 33 AD. It's probably not the right day, but let's just, for sake of argument, 12 years later, we have the first written book of the

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New Testament. Now the events have occurred. They know about Jesus, they know about his resurrection, and now something's written.

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So it shouldn't surprise us that the first book that's written is law to guide Christians because we've had the gospel,

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Jesus incarnate discussed, talked about. We don't have

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Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John yet. Maybe Matthew is the first gospel that's written, but it would be written after James is written.

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And if you want to argue for Mark and priority, you can do that. It would be written after James. The point in what

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I'm saying is this, the first book that's given after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus is a book with 104 verses,

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I believe, with 52 imperatives written to guide Christians. Nothing in this book about death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

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Something about his glory in chapter two, that's true. But in terms of his substitutionary death, his representative life, resurrection, not in there.

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Well, because he just died 12 years ago, that's in their mind, that's there. And so the book is written in this way.

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Here's the way you could probably think about it. Well, instead of a book of test of saving faith, do you count it joy when you encounter various trials?

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That's a test. No, that's not the best way to do it. And by the way, I sometimes count it all joy.

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I sometimes don't. I wish I would. I wish I could do it more. I wish I could be more godly.

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I wish I would be more of a doer of the word than what I am. I wish I wouldn't have prejudice or discrimination.

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I wish those are desires of mine, but these aren't test of saving faith. This is the law given to Christians.

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What's that called? Third use of the law, to guide, to norm, to instruct. And so, dear

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Christian, since Jesus has been raised from the dead and all the promises about him are true, he's the real

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Messiah, well, you can count it all joy. You can be a doer of the word, et cetera.

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So that's the way you look at James, big picture. It's not a bunch of Proverbs, and it's not a book of test of saving faith.

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We come to chapter 2 then, and I'll pick it up in verse 14. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?

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Can that faith save him? Implied in the Greek, no. I could read it like this if you want,

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Greek. I don't think I said I was going to do Greek, but I'm going to. If someone keeps saying he has faith but doesn't have any works, can that, that faith can't save him?

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If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says this to him, go in peace, be warmed or be filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is it?

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So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. All right, so what do we do with that?

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Verse 18, but someone will say, so people are saying they have faith.

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How do you know if someone has faith or not? They just say they do. Of course, God knows, but we can't see on the inside of a person.

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We can't see a halo on top of their head or flaming fires or something like that. How do we know if somebody's a

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Christian when they say they are? That's something that you ought to say to yourself.

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If someone says, and one of you says to them, but someone will say, okay, see where we're going with this?

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Someone will say, verse 18, you have faith and I have works. Now here comes the second word that we want to focus in on with emphasis.

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Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

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You believe that God is one, you do well, even the demons believe and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

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Earlier, I was saying, say, say, say. If someone says, you say to them, but someone will say.

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Now we move to the word show. Show me. Now, I can't see invisible things, neither can you, but I can see things that people do.

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I can see things that people show me by their works.

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Show me your faith and I will show you my faith. Do you want to be shown?

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How can you see faith? You can't, but you can see evidences of faith. You can see fruit of faith.

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Let's see if this is correct or not. Verse 21, was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son

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Isaac on the altar? You see, it's been shown to you.

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You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works.

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And the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

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And he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

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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?

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For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

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Well, it starts off in verses 14 and through early 18, say, say, say, all right, you say you have faith.

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All right, well, show me, show me your faith. I can't see invisible. So show me externally and show me by works.

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Now what's happening? In verse 21, Abraham was not justified by his own works because he goes on to say

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Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Romans chapter four makes that clear.

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And Genesis chapter 15 make that clear. But what's happening here?

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Genesis 15 is when Abraham believes. Genesis 22 is when he offers up his son Isaac on the altar.

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Well, I can't see Abraham's mind. I can't see his faith. Faith is invisible, but I could see that he trusted

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God so much so that he was going to kill his son. I'm in his heart. I think he already killed him and the knife was stopped.

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How can I see that though? Well, with my eyes, I can't see faith, but I could see the works.

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So that's the first thing that we need to make sure we're clear on. You say a lot, just like David Bern is talking heads, you're talking a lot, but you're not saying anything.

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When it comes to seeing things, I had to do it.

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Here's the other way that you could think about it. And actually the second time I said I wasn't going to say a Greek word, but I'm going to was not

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Abraham. Our father justified by works, you know, justification can be translated justification like declared righteous, or it can be the word for our

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English vindication, vindication. And that's what it is here.

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Was not Abraham our father vindicated by works when he offered up his son Isaac? Oh, you see, that makes total sense with the saying and the scene and the showing and vindication.

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And because he's vindicated, because I can see it. It's not just lip service. It's not just talk. I can see that.

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I mean, obviously through the pages of scripture. I can see Genesis 22. He believed in chapter 15 of Genesis and his faith was vindicated, proven as real and right and saving, not demon faith in Genesis 22.

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I know it says you're justified by works and not by faith alone, but it says, you see, you see verse 24.

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So that's the key. So if I had to summarize all this, here's what I would say. There are people that are out there that have a fake faith, a false faith, a non -saving faith, a spurious faith.

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That's true. There are people that are in 1 Corinthians 6 and other vice lists will not inherit the kingdom of God.

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I believe that with all my heart. There's a faith that doesn't save. There's a faith that's not knowledge, assent and trust.

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There's a faith that just talks, says, says, says. I am for works.

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I am for obedience. I am for the imperatives for Christians that we do out of gratitude.

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I'm not against the law. And you know that if you listen in any way, shape or form here on No Compromise Radio, duplex gratia,

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Christ for pardon, Christ for power, obviously. So what do we do? We say to ourselves, okay,

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I understand what's going on here. There's a faith that doesn't save. And if you want a faith that's vindicated, think 1

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Timothy 3, verse 16, Jesus was vindicated by the spirit.

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Same word. How was he justified? Declared righteous? No, vindicated by the resurrection of the dead.

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And therefore, when you come to James 2, verses 14 through 26, and people say, final justification, you have to have enough works to be justified.

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You say, that's not true. Jesus' works were enough, and our works will be fruit and evidence, and we will be vindicated on that last day.

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If you want to talk, you know, the Reformed talked that way. Initial justification and final vindication, okay, you could talk about that.

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I wouldn't talk about initial and final, I'd just say initial and vindication on Judgment Day. Okay, we can talk that way.

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But here, if a Roman Catholic says you don't care about works, if Federal Vision says you don't care about works, if Daniel Fuller says you don't care about works, short shrift to works, we say, yes, we believe in works.

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We want that. Luther's right. Faith alone saves, and that faith that saves won't be alone.

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That's simple. We have categories for these things, and we don't need to blur the two together and have gospel, gospel and law together.

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We don't want that. So, James 2, very simply, in light of Jesus and his resurrection, we would like to do good works, and our works show other people that, in fact, our faith is true.

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My name is Mike Gabendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. You can write me, mike at nocompromiseradio .com.

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We'll hope I make it to the Tennessee conference. We shall soon find out. Thanks for listening.