Scripture Reading: James 1:12-27
Please turn in your Bibles to James, chapter one. James, chapter one, the last couple of weeks, we've looked at the doctrines of justification and sanctification respectively, and we have tried to demonstrate that we need to keep these things clear in our minds, because when we mix them up, We can unwittingly confess that salvation is by grace through faith plus works. And that's simply not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that we're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Well, the book of James historically has been the unwitting victim of those who would mingle faith plus works. in order for salvation. The Roman Catholics obviously enjoy what they believe is James insistence on faith plus works in order to be saved. But we'll see this morning that James does no such thing. I want to focus on the salvation of God, the particular focus of James and the consistency of James with the Apostle Paul.
That there are not two schemes of justification taught in the Bible, but rather there is one scheme, and it is upheld throughout the scriptures, and we need to believe it. Well, I'll just pick up reading in James chapter one at verse twelve. Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone.
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning of his own will.
He brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves.
For, if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
Amen. Let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for the Holy Scriptures. We thank you for the unity of the Bible, for the plan of salvation, for the glory of God manifested, Father, Son and Holy Spirit working to save a people from their sins. We ask now that your spirit would be upon us, that you would give us clarity in our thinking, that you would give us understanding and cause us to think your thoughts after you. Forgive us now, Lord God, for all of our sins.
Wash us afresh in the blood of Jesus Christ and cause this to be a profitable study. And may we leave from this place as those who have been justified freely by your grace to be doers of your word. And for those, Lord God, who have come here that do not know Jesus Christ savingly, we appeal to you, the God of absolute sovereignty and power. We ask that you would convict, that you would bring forth by your word of truth and that you would do that glorious work of salvation that is impossible with man, but is possible for you, our great God.
And we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
Now, there is an important word in Christian theology that I hope that we'll all appreciate, and that word is alone. If you think about it, the Bible alone is the word of God. We are to worship the true and living God alone, and justification is by grace alone. Alone is a very important word in the scripture.
Even when the word is absent, the concept is present. You can turn to Romans chapter three by way of introduction to see this, that the word may be absent, but the concept is there. Romans three, verse twenty eight. Paul says, therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
We might say he's justified by faith alone. The same concept is true in Ephesians chapter two, where Paul tells us that it is by grace we have been saved and not by words. So we would say grace alone. Well, then, lo and behold, we get to the book of James, and it seems as if he is saying something opposite to what Paul, the apostle, is saying.
In James 2, at verse 24, he says, You see, then, that a man is justified by works and not by faith only or not by faith alone. So some in the history of interpretation have believed that perhaps there was an inconsistency between what Paul and what James taught. As I said, the Roman Catholics like to take this and like to teach or emphasize that we need to believe the gospel, but we also need to add our words or add our performance in order to be saved. No less a Bible scholar and theologian than Martin Luther said this of the epistle of James.
He said it is flatly against Saint Paul and all the rest of Scripture in ascribing justification to words. I want to pick on Luther. I just want to highlight him as a specimen in history of someone who saw or believe that there was a contradiction between Paul and between James. I think this evidence is to us that the best of men are men at best.
Well, as we look at this,
The Salvation James Teaches
we need to appreciate Paul's or James's emphasis in James 1 18. In other words, James 2 24 does not exist in a vacuum. It does not exist all by itself. We need to appreciate what James says concerning salvation as a whole.
And as we pick up on the salvation of God, we notice, first of all,
Context: Trials, Temptation, and God's Gifts
the context in which James says James 118 in verses two to twelve, we are called upon to persevere through God ordained trials. Notice in verse two, my brethren counted all joy when you fall into various trials. That's something we don't do. That's something we ought to do.
Generally speaking, when trials hit us, we either run the other way, we cry and complain, or we bemoan. Why would a good God ever do such a bad thing to me? James says when you encounter various trials, you ought to rejoice. You ought to realize that in God's purposes, trials play a vital role.
If you were never tried, you would never persevere. If you were never tried, you wouldn't have patience. If you were never tried, the Christ likeness that God is doing in you wouldn't come through. So there is a God-ordained reason for the trials that we have.
Notice in verses 13 to 15, he seems to indicate or he seems to teach that when these trials come, the inward temptation to sin is there. When trials come, the inward temptation to sin is there. Now, maybe this isn't your experience. Maybe you're one of the few that this is an exception for.
But for the great host of Christian people, when difficulties come, there is often temptation to sin. We might turn our backs on God. We might grumble and complain instead of be joyful. We might reckon, since everything is going wrong here, it really doesn't matter if I go and sin over there.
There's a whole bunch of things that Christians do when they're faced with trials. There's a whole lot of temptation to sin. So James says that when these trials come, you need to realize that there are these genuine temptations. He says that in verse thirteen, the character of God argues that he is not tempting us to sin.
God is good. God, according to James 113, says, Let no one say what he is tempted. This isn't the outward trial. This is the inward solicitation to engage in evil.
He says, Let no one say what he is tempted. I am tempted by God for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. So you can't say I sin because God made me. I can't.
You can't use that as an argument or as a reason. The very character of God does not allow it. He's a holy God. He's a righteous God.
He is not giving you this to sin. He goes on to say that the description of sin and the temptation that we find in our hearts are the problem. It's not God. It's our own soul.
It's our own heart. Notice in verses 14 and 15. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.
He sort of presents this as an anatomy so that you can be on guard against these things. You need to realize that you're in a spiritual battle, that when these outward temptations come, you don't succumb or give in to this inward desire to sin. And then he says, finally, in verses sixteen to eighteen, God's good gifts to us argue that he is not tempting us to sin. Notice verse sixteen.
Do not be deceived. My beloved brethren, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. God only gives you good things. Even in the midst of these God ordained trials, he is doing it for your good.
We know that from Romans chapter eight, verse twenty eight. Paul says that we know that we should know that we should live as if we know that. But again, sometimes we falter. We know that God causes all things to work together for good.
It is his character. It is his essence. It is his nature. It is God who is for us.
And then God does not, or because God is the giver of every good gift, you don't sin because of God. So you see, the whole emphasis here is how you're to deal in times of outer trial so that you don't commit inner sin. And then he highlights this greatest gift of God in verse 18 of his own will. He brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of his preachers.
That's James's doctrine of salvation. The chief gift that is given by the one who gives every good and perfect gift is salvation. So, when you are engaged in outward trial and you have temptation to inner sin, remember that God is good. Remember that God has saved you.
Remember the doctrine of regeneration or the new birth God brought us for. I suggest that we don't immediately jump to James 224 and begin to pit him against the apostle Paul. We need to back up. We need to realize that James, like Paul, highlights the sovereignty of God and his gracious gift of salvation to his people.
So that whatever 224 does mean, it does not mean that there is any animosity between Paul and James.
Salvation Is of God's Will Alone
OK, so the doctrine of salvation that James sets forth, he says it is of God's will. Don't you love that of his own will? If you don't love that, you should repent because our will is bound in sin. It was not of our own will that we chose God.
It was not of our own doing that we decided we did not wake up one day and say, you know, I think I want to follow after Jesus. No, the primacy of God's will is overarching in the scriptures. The Prophet Jonah testified of this back in Jonah 2.9. He said salvation is of the Lord.
Brethren, the saints of the angels in heaven praise God and the Lamb who sits upon the throne. And do you know what their praise is? Salvation belongs to our God. James here is consistent with the entirety of Holy Scripture when he highlights the primacy of God's will in the regeneration of sinners.
He is not at odds with the Apostle Paul. He is speaking the very same truth. Back in John 1, verses 12 and 13, we see this emphasis on the sovereignty of God in salvation. John 1, verse 12.
Having said that Jesus came to his own and his own received him not, he says, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. To those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. If you are here this morning in Christ, you are here because of the will of God. Please, let's not forget that.
We didn't choose God, God chose us. We didn't decide for Jesus, there's an old country pop song about Jesus, I have decided to follow Jesus. Yeah, after he ripped out your old stony heart. threw it in the trash and put in a new fleshly heart. That's when you decided to follow Jesus.
Romans 9 16, the Apostle Paul couldn't make it clearer of whose will reign supreme in the matter of salvation. He says it does not depend upon him who runs or upon him who wills, but of God who shows mercy. In first Corinthians chapter one, when Paul is telling the Corinthians how they were saved, it says that of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us the wisdom from God. James is consistent with the entirety of Holy Scripture in highlighting this fact that salvation is of the will of God, of his own will.
He brought us forth and he did so freely, wasn't dependent upon what we did. It wasn't dependent upon anything constraining God, but he acts according to his own good pleasure to love that about God. He is. Independent, he is solitary in terms of not needing counsel from us.
He doesn't get his arm twisted behind his back. He operates in accordance with his own pleasure, and it's a good and glorious will that he displays.
Salvation Is Effectual and Likened to a Birth
James goes on to say that salvation is effectually right of his own will. He brought us forth. He doesn't help us to bring ourselves forth. He brought us forth.
Remember when Jesus is at the gravesite of Lazarus and Jesus issues the command, Lazarus, come forth. Lazarus is dead. In fact, one of the sisters says, Behold, Lord, he stinketh. Don't ask for that stone to be rolled away from the tomb.
You're going to smell the body of this rotting corpse. Well, Jesus has the ability. He has the power that as he issues the command, he has the ability to enable obedience to the command. God doesn't bring us forth by asking our opinion.
God changes our hearts in Psalm 110 verse three. It says your people shall be volunteers in the day of your power. Salvation is a factual. Salvation is real.
God doesn't make us savable, he actually saves us from our sins. This is what the apostle, this is what James is highlighting of his own will. He brought us forth and then salvation is likened to a birth. He brought us forth.
Is that great? He brought us forth. What's this picture of regeneration? You must be born again.
He uses a bit of a different word than John uses in this bringing us forth. But I think the context helps us understand why. Look at chapter one, verse fifteen. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin.
Desire conceives and it gives birth to sin. God gives birth to sinners. God brings us forth by the word of his power. One commentator said the choice of the word in chapter 118, rather than what we find in John, for instance, was dictated by a need to parallel 115.
Sin produces death, but God produces life. And the way or the means by which the Lord does this is indicated in the verse by the word of truth. Again, a Pauline emphasis throughout. He is not teaching a different way of salvation.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. We get to the book of Acts. What do they do?
They go on, preach doctrine. They go on, preach truth. They tell sinners to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and they will be saved. Faith comes by hearing the apostle Paul says in Romans 10, 17.
And hearing by what? By the word of God. In Ephesians chapter one, in whom you believed after hearing the word of truth, the emphasis of the means is the same. He brought us forth by the word of truth so that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creature.
The Focus of James: Demonstration, Not Justification
That brings us to the practical implications of this birth. You've been born again. What are you supposed to do? You're supposed to live like it.
That's James's emphasis in his epistle. I mean, just a reading of it hopefully will cause you not to fall into a Roman Catholic idea. James is not talking about how we are justified by God. He is talking about how that justification is fleshed out in our lives.
We've quoted over the last couple of weeks by a quote by Gordon Clark when he says that If a claimed justification does not inevitably produce good works, it simply was not justification. That's what James is dealing with. That's James's context. That's James's idea of his will.
He brought us forth by the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. So what does that mean for us, James? Listen to God's word. Verses 19 and 20.
Put God's word into practice. Verses 21 to 27. You say you're justified and you don't care about widows and orphans. You're a fake.
You say you're justified and you don't bridle your own tongue. You're a fake. You say you're justified and you show partiality in the church. When a man dressed in rags comes in, you have him sit in the very back.
And when a man dressed in finery comes, you sit him right up front. Thankfully, in our church, because of the volume, everybody already sits in the back. The only open pew would be up front for any that would wander in. Do you see what James's thrust is?
You say you've been justified. You must live like it. Not you need to believe and work in order to be saved. His emphasis is the same as Paul's.
His emphasis on the grace of God, the sovereignty of God, faith in the Lord Jesus. He says in chapter two, verse one, My brethren do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with partiality. He's not teaching some opposite way to be saved. He is not adding words to faith in order to be saved.
He is saying to a people that claim to be justified, you need to live like it. You need to function like it. You need to conduct yourself in the fear of God. You need to close your mouth once in a while and open up both ears.
You need to be slow to speak, is what James says. You need to be quick to hear. You see, that's one of the marks of the unregenerate. They're not slow to speak.
It's one of those dying things in the life of the regenerate. We always want to talk. In fact, we can't wait till someone we're talking to shuts up so we can talk, because we're far more important. And what we have to say makes so much more sense than what they do.
So you see, James is saying, don't be like that. You've got two ears. You've got one mouth. Let's live consistently with that function.
God made you to listen twice as much as you speak. We talked about this briefly on Wednesday evening in Titus chapter three. He says to speak evil of no man. Have you noticed how in our in our world, and I'm not as old as some of the people in here, my dear and esteemed older brothers and sisters, but things that were commonplace even when I was a kid are gone.
Things like Don't say anything if you don't have something nice to say. In other words, if you can't say something nice, keep it shot. We really don't want to hear you speak evil of someone. Bridges says, and I quote it on Wednesday night, We need to think twice before we speak once.
That's James's point. That's what he's saying, as justified believers, as those who have been brought forth by the grace of God, as those who have heard the word of God and by his grace believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, as those who profess to be the saved of God, listen more than you talk. And when it comes to widows and orphans, visit them, love them, care for them. This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God and the Father.
Not to live as if there is no widow, not to live as if there is no orphan. You're to love them, you're to respect them, you're to seek to alleviate the needs. And not just widows and orphans, but the ill, the sick, those among you. Be charitable, be kind, be hospitable, keep oneself unspotted from this world.
James brings it to a head when he says you need to be doers of the word. You've not just been brought forth by the word of truth. You ought to function as those who have been brought forth by the word of truth. You ought to live by the word of truth.
You ought to desire the word of truth. You don't even begin to enter into the idea that you're not going to avail yourself of the Bible. You're not going to read. You're not going to study.
You're not going to. That's not even the issue with James, which is the issue so much in our own generation, just getting people to read the Bible or come to hear it preached as a chore. James treats the doing of it. You'd be doers of that word.
What good is it if you're like a man who looks in the mirror and he shaves and he sees what he looks like and then he walks away and somebody says, what do you look like? I don't know. Couldn't tell you haven't got a clue. That's the audience in the context of whom James is dealing.
What is this justification mean in your life? You say that justification is an act of God's free grace, wherein he has pardoned all your sins and he has accepted you as righteous in his sight. Only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to you and received by faith alone. What's that mean?
Why are you different than the Muslim? How are you different than the Buddhist? How are you different than the Hindu? What distinguishes one who's been justified by God's grace?
Well, at a minimum, you're going to love widows and orphans. You're going to bridle your tongue. You're going to you're going to be doers of the word. That's James's point.
That's James's context. James White, Doctor White, says this exhortation of Christians is not addressing how the ungodly are declared righteous before God, but how that declaration is showed outwardly or shown outwardly in the Christian life. Let me just read that again and then we'll move to consider the focus of James. This exhortation of Christians where he's talking specifically about chapter two. is not addressing how the ungodly are declared righteous before God.
But how that declaration is shown outwardly in the Christian life. We might say he's not dealing with actual justification, the pardon of sin and the accepting of us as righteous in his sight because of the imputed righteousness of Christ. That's actual. But the declarative or the worked out or the or the fleshing out of what God has done actually, that's James's focus.
And we see that in chapter two. Notice he's already said salvation is given freely by our gracious God and is likened to a new birth. You cannot skip one eighteen in the proper handling of chapter two. Salvation is by the means of God's word and through faith in Jesus Christ.
Salvation always results in the same being a doer of the word. That's just the way it is. When a baby is born, what do they do? They breathe.
When a Christian is born again, what does he do? He breathes. He does what God calls him to do. Now, it may not be as he ought.
It may not be as he wishes. But it is, to some degree or other, that a true Christian will always be a doer of God's Word. That is the inevitable link between justification and sanctification. Notice, James is dealing with this whole idea of demonstration, not actual justification.
But what we can see, what we can feel, what we can touch, what is played out in the arena of human life, that's James' focus. You need to get this. James is not talking to a bunch of people and saying, here's how you're actually justified by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. He's talking to a bunch of people who claim to be justified by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
And he's saying that as claimants to this justification here, then, is what you should look like.
Dead Faith vs. True Biblical Faith
Notice in 214, what does it profit my brethren if someone notice says he has faith? What's he dealing with? He's dealing with someone's claim to being a Christian, not actual justification by the power of the triune God, but a statement. Someone says they have faith.
You might be twenty five in this room. You might be ten in this room. You might be fifty five or one hundred and five or five. And you might say that you're a Christian.
You might say that you have given your heart to Jesus, or you might say that you have believed the gospel. Now, notice what does it profit my brethren if someone says he has faith, but does not have words? And literally, he says, can that faith save him? Can that kind of a faith save him?
One that says, yes, I believe, but there's no substance, no evidence, nothing concrete. Nothing fleshed out, no different than the devil or as James uses the demons who believe that God is one. They at least tremble. There's some who profess faith in Jesus Christ.
We don't even travel. Least the demons, and I'm here to applaud demon faith, but at least demons tremble at their profession that there is one God. We have Christians or professors today who profess to believe Jesus, who profess to follow the Lamb, who live in open adultery, who live in open fornication, who engage in all manner of wickedness and ungodliness. The demons out faith them because at least the demons tremble when they consider that God is one.
It's actually become bad to fear God in our generation. It's all about happiness and about happiness and about joy and about my satisfaction and about myself needs. No, it's about the glory of the triune God and his majesty and his honor and his excellence and his holiness. Ask Nadab and Abihu when they offered up strange fire to the Lord and God killed them.
What did he testify to Moses? By those who come to me, I must be regarded as holy. Doesn't matter about your felt needs. It doesn't matter in the big scheme of things about your happiness.
It matters about God. You see what James is saying? You say you have faith. You don't have works.
Can that faith save you? Is that the real deal? Is that the genuine article? The issue isn't faith against works.
The issue isn't faith plus works. The issue is biblical faith versus false faith. That's what James is dealing with. See, biblical faith, whenever we believe the truth of God's Word, whenever we believe the propositions of the gospel, whenever we believe what the Bible says concerning about Jesus, when we believe it the way the Bible says, we will follow the lamb wherever he calls us to go.
That's James's point, and that is evidence throughout the context. Notice verse 18. But someone will say you have faith and I have words. Show me your faith.
You see, demonstrate it. James is a pastor. For the sake of brevity, I didn't get into the introduction. James is the half brother of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was not converted until the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then James became a leader in the church in Jerusalem. He probably wrote this letter in about 46 or 47. It's one of the earliest epistles that was written in the New Testament canon. So what I suspect happened is that there were a lot of people who said, oh, this is great.
We can believe on Jesus and live like the devil. James says, no, you can't. True biblical faith always produces worse. True biblical faith always issues forth in holiness.
True biblical faith always produces doers of the Word of God. And so Pastor James is pastorally charging the congregation and saying, show me, put up or shut up. Don't claim to be a follower of Jesus and not follow him. Don't claim to be justified freely by his grace.
Don't say that of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth so that you can live an open act of rebellion against the word of truth. Don't do it. Notice in James two, twenty two. Do you see again what we see?
Do you see that faith was working together with his words and by works faith was made perfect? We'll look at Abraham in just a moment. But again, the emphasis here is on the demonstration of this. Not the invisible actual justification by God, but the outward declaration of that truth fleshed out in life.
And then verse twenty four, even you see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith. Only the Puritan Manton said in this whole discourse, the apostles intent is to show not what justifies, but who is justified, not what faith does, But what faith is in Paul, since a sinner is absolved in James, since a believer is approved. Amen. If the Catholics would have read that under the power of the spirit as they search James to perhaps they would no longer be an operation.
James is not teaching faith plus words.
Abraham and Rahab: Works as Declaration
Notice his illustrations, Abraham. and Rahab the harlot. Abraham and Rahab the harlot. Could you get to further opposites. Really.
Could you from the rubric of the whole scheme of men to that were more opposite. Abraham and Rahab. Here's James point. Whether you're a patriarch or you're a prostitute.
Whether you are the father of the faithful or you are in the language of Ralph Davis, the shady lady from Jericho, God's way is the same. You're justified by grace through faith in Jesus. When you've been justified by grace through faith in Jesus, you will act like it. and the very order of James's treatment of the life of Abraham evidence is that notice verse twenty one was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar that happened in Genesis twenty two. James is saying, when he went up on Mount Moriah to take his son, his only son, and to bury a knife in that son of his love, don't you see the declaration or the working out of the justification that God had already given him?
That's the order of the text. Notice. Verse twenty one was not Abraham, our father justified by words when he offered Isaac his son on the altar. Do you see that faith was working together with his words and by words faith was made perfect or complete notice and the Scripture was fulfilled The Scripture that was fulfilled had already been spoken in Genesis 15.
Abraham believed God and it was declared or accounted unto him as righteous. There's actual justification. There's God's pardon of iniquity and the imputation of Christ's righteousness in Genesis 15. For James's purpose, he says that Genesis 22 is the demonstration of that justification.
When Abraham goes up to drive that knife into the son of his love, you know, he's the real deal. And you all can't even give somebody something to eat or put a cloak on them when it's cold out. That's his point. You say, be warm and be filled. you say you're justified justified people don't do that.
Look at Abraham when he was bid to go up on the Mount Moriah and sacrifice the son of his love. He obeyed God. Why? Because he had been justified by God in Genesis 15 when he believed the gospel.
And that statement brethren when he believed the gospel. Sometimes it gives us a bit of difficulty. It shouldn't The first statement of the gospel is Genesis 315. Genesis 315.
Paul in Galatians 3 highlights Genesis 17 and says the gospel was preached beforehand to Abraham, that God would justify the Gentiles. The gospel is from beginning to end. There's not two ways. There's not three ways.
There's not a myriad of ways. There is one way of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. And when one is justified, they'll live like Abraham or they'll live like Rahab. Rahab, the harlot.
She's like Smokey the Bear. We don't ever just refer to Smokey. We say Smokey the Bear. Rahab's the same way.
Her middle and last names are the harlot. Do you ever think about that? That's tough to shake. Rahab the harlot.
What happened in the life and the ministry or in the life of Rahab the harlot? She knew of God's power, according to Joshua 2.10. She knew of the God of Israel. She knew or confessed his majesty in Joshua 2.11.
And she cast herself on his mercy, according to Joshua 2.12 and 13. But for James's purpose, he is highlighting her works, her activity, her hiding the spies as a demonstration that she, in fact, believe in the God of Israel. That's what he says here. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
The capstone on all of this is simple, for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. Also, you claim to believe on Jesus. You will work not for your salvation. You will work because you have been saved.
Whether you are a patriarch or a prostitute, the father of the faithful or the shady lady from Jericho, justification again is an act of God's free grace. Justification inevitably produces good words like volunteering to sacrifice your son out at Mount Moriah or engaging in treason against a particular law order for the God of Israel. That's what we have did. We undervalue her work.
What was she doing? She was risking her life. Why, because you've been justified freely by God's grace. That's James's point.
Consistency of James with Paul
This is consistent with the apostle Paul. We will go to each of these specific passages. You want to jot it down. There is in Galatians 2, 7 to 10, the public approval of Paul by James.
Seems odd. James and Paul are teaching a different means of salvation, a different way of salvation. That Paul was saying when he visited Jerusalem, James extended to him the right hand of fellowship. So go preach, go preach the uncircumcised.
Just don't forget the poor. Galatians 2, 7 to 10. There was no animosity. There was no difference.
James didn't say, wait a minute, you've been teaching something that is contrary to what I'm teaching. That's not what happened. As well, the use of Abraham is an illustration. James and Paul both use him as an illustration, strange if they're teaching different ways of salvation.
And then the necessity of good works and Paul. I think James is simply an amplification or another way of doing what Paul does in Ephesians 2 10. In Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, he declares the actual way by which we are justified, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For, he says in verse 10, we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in that our studies on Wednesday night.
We see in Titus 2 verse 14, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people. should be careful to maintain good words. That's all James is saying. That's it. There's no animosity.
There's no difference. There's no, you know, unfortunately, in the language of Martin Luther, a flat contradiction. James is not teaching that you have to work plus believe in order to be saved. Simply not the case.
It's not true to the scripture. So there's our look at the salvation, at the focus, and at the consistency with Paul. And
The Unity of the Bible
I believe we see in this, first of all, the unity of the Bible. The unity of the Bible. From beginning to end, brethren, you search the scriptures and you will see that all the parts consent to one particular hope. The glory of God in the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ.
The unity of the Bible is something that we ought to appreciate, that we ought to marvel at, that we ought to love. If you don't see how the Bible works as a unified whole, you need to read more. You need to study more. You need to appreciate that the New Testament isn't sort of an afterthought with God, but it is simply the fulfillment, the realization of all that the Old Testament anticipated previously.
That that promise given in Genesis 315, which is a promise of grace, a promise of kindness. We sometimes look at what happened after the fall as if God was some sort of a vicious taskmaster when he is driving the man out of out of the Garden of Eden. He did that in his grace. Man had sinned, man was fallen, lest he reach out and take the tree of life and feel himself in that place of sin.
God drives him from the garden. That tree of life is opened again in the new Jerusalem because of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. It's that foundational promise in Genesis 315, which is believed on by the Old Testament saints. which is filled in as redemptive history traces on as Abraham is given up a promise of the covenant of promise. As David is given a covenant of kingship, what's all this doing?
It's fleshing out more and more of this promise of Genesis 315. So much so that when we turn to the New Testament, we see the New Testament or the New Covenant, which Paul says in the fullness of the times, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law. He is the yea and amen. He is the fulfillment of all that was written previously.
You need to understand this and appreciate this. Not so that you can argue against dispensationalists. Not so that you can win some debate, but so that you can see that from eternity past, your triune God has orchestrated a salvation that no man could have ever conceived of. That the father would elect, that the father would choose, that he would predestine, that the son would come into this world, that he would live as our coveted head, that he would fulfill the law of God, that he would die as our sacrifice and as our substitute, that he would raise again, and that he would send the spirit to take that finished work and apply it to us.
If that doesn't promote from you a hallelujah, what a savior, you've got problems. The unity of the Bible testifies that God is in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. If you have been included in that plan, praise him, worship him, adore him. On a Sunday morning when you're dragging and you're tired and you don't want to go, thank Father, Son, Holy Spirit, working in glorious triunity to save me from my sins.
Hopefully, that'll get you out of bed and put a spring in your step and a praise on your lips so that you will have the privilege of coming amongst other New Covenant believers and praising this God. The unity of the Bible is glorious. It's not just thrown together. It's not just piecemeal.
There's no afterthought in the mind of God. The 66 books all ascribe, all subscribe, all teach us of one God with one plan for his own glory and for our well-being. And if you have come here this morning and you don't know Jesus Christ. Look at the blessing of James 118, of his own will, he brought us forth.
There's hope for you. There's not hope in you. There's not hope in your merits, there's not hope in your excellence, there's not hope even in your will. But there is hope in the God of heaven and earth because he wills, because he has purpose, because when we get to the book of Revelation, we see that there is a countless multitude, men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
Do you realize that when we finally get to heaven, we're going to be praising God with our black brothers, with Indian brothers? We're going to be praising God with those who have been purchased out of the wickedness of men and brought before the Lamb who sits upon the throne. If you don't know Jesus Christ today, believe on Him. That's what the Bible says to you.
Sometimes people say, what does it mean to believe? It means to take the Bible and believe what God says. You say, the demons believe and they're not saying they didn't believe the right truth. They may believe in monotheism.
You need to believe that Jesus Christ is God, that Jesus Christ lived, died and rose again. Yes, believe all of the Bible, but peculiarly for your salvation, believe those truths that focus on Jesus. That he was born, that he lived, that he died, that he rose again. First Corinthians chapter 15.
Moreover, brethren, we declare to you the gospel. And what does Paul say is the gospel that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. The Christ rose again for according to the scripture. You believe that the Bible says and you will be saved.
Isn't that beautiful? You believe that and you'll be saved. You can go to a Mormon tabernacle, you can go to a Kingdom Hall, you can go to a Hindu complex, you can go to a Sikh land and they're going to have you say, go out and do better. The Bible's message is you can't do better.
You need to believe the gospel and you will be saved. And then finally, for those who are justified, those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we need to align our conduct with God's word. It simply does not bode well for us when we claim to be justified freely by his grace and then we live like the devil. When we say we're justified freely by his grace and we live like nothing ever happened to us.
Again, you may be old, you may be young, but if you claim, if you profess to be justified by God's grace and you don't have works, James question is pertinent. Can that faith save you? Because it ain't the real deal. Biblical faith always inevitably produces good works.
So I suspect that most of us are going to have to go home or at least right here after and repent. God, our lives. Our conduct, our actions have not been consistent with your word. We have been like that man who looks in the mirror, walks away and then can't tell you what he looks like.
We have been like that man. Father, please forgive us. Please cleanse us afresh and please fill us with your Holy Spirit that we may live in a manner consistent with our profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for the scriptures. We thank you for their unity and we thank you for your glory and your majesty displayed so clearly in the written word. We just pray, Father, that you would be pleased to bless the word as it goes forth today all throughout the earth. We pray that your word would run swiftly and be glorified, that your word would go forth conquering and to conquer and that a great multitude would believe.
We pray for Pastor Crawford that you would bless our brother. See labors in Baltimore. We pray that you'd bless this initial meeting of the church. And we pray that many would come and hear the truth that Jesus Christ is Lord and that Jesus Christ saves.
And we pray God most high that you would establish a faithful biblical doctrinal work there in Baltimore. and that you would bring glory to your name and the salvation of the peoples. And we ask now that you would go with us. We pray that you would help us to reflect upon these things. And we ask through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.