Lord, as we look at the book of James tonight, we ask that its core message would reach to us that you would reach us as we read. We pray, Lord, that as we consider the nature of true faith that you would work faith in us, real, strong, grounded faith, a faith that is not merely Orthodox ideas, but a true trusting in you. We pray, Lord, that you would work in us through that faith, what is pleased, all love and reliance upon you, and also the desire that James speaks of so often, to do what is right and good, to prove our faith is genuine by deeds of kindness and love and obedience. And, Lord, this book also challenges those of us here who are called to be teachers and leaders to do a good work of using our mouths to convey your truth and to bless people. Confess, Lord, together, that to use our tongue rightly as something beyond us, it shows us our weakness. It humbles us if we would reckon the use of all of our words. And, Lord, it's good that we be humbled, because when we're humbled then we turn to you for grace. And so, Lord, we pray that you would call us to good works and call us to yourself, even as we go about in this hour studying your word. We ask you to be pleased with my words, the meditations of each of our hearts, the Lord, our strength, our Redeemer. Amen. Well, today we are indeed looking at the Book of James, chapters 2, 3, 4, and 5. Last time we were together, we saw that there are three tests of genuine faith, remember that? Do you remember what the three tests of genuine faith are? Controlling your tongue and caring for the widows and the orphans in their distress. That is to say, caring for the poor and for the needy. The third test is keeping yourself unstained by the world. After that great discussion or summary, rather, of the marks of true visible religion, we noted that James did something that seemed a little bit odd. He got into a discussion of seeding patterns of all things in the local synagogue. And for doing things like that, James sometimes gets a bad name. But in fact, if you look at a simple thing like who gets to sit where and how you talk to people as they get their seats in the church, in truth, all of the tests of true faith are there. First of all, you have the sign of true faith, or lack of true faith, in that the person who says to needy, the poor, sit on the floor by my feet, be a footstool for my feet, is not helping the poor, dishonoring the poor. The one place where the poor might be expected to be treated well, even there. They are disregarded and treated shabbily. Of course, it's worldly to try to curry favor with the rich and the powerful. And you're using your tongue to say here, sit on the floor and to favor with the person. So in fact, this act, which seems to be so trivial, really gets at what true faith is. That is to say, proves itself, even in the little things of life. And then last, we saw that James raises the stakes on this, right? And we saw that while you might say, well, this is just a little thing, it doesn't really matter whether you get the seating thing right or not. James says, no, if you violate this part of God's will, you haven't just broken one little part of God's will, you've violated the law of God. You're not just breaking a law, you're violating God. And so there's no act of disobedience, it's a trivial matter. We also talked to, do you not remember this? About how all the commandments are interconnected. Somebody give me a nod of the head? Good, okay. And so if you lie, you cheat or steal, you probably violated somebody in a lot of other ways as well. That section is really very strong and could even be oppressive, which James seems to be very much aware of. So his last word, instead of this word of condemnation, so you've broken the law, his last word is mercy triumphs or boths or exalts over judgment. The last word is not the word of judgment, the last is the word of mercy spoken to believers. And now this prepares us for a great passage, James chapter 2 verses 14 to 26, and one that in some ways is one of the two heart center passages in James. He's very much continuing the theme of true religion. He's continuing the idea of being a doer of the word, and not a here or only chapter 1 verse 22 told us that. It's saying as you hear the word, help the needy, it's imperative that you actually help the needy and not just wish them well. He also is looking at the idea, expressed back in chapter 1, that we should gaze into the law and do it. And in fact in chapter 2, we might say James is gazing into the law, and here's how. Chapter 2 refers or alludes to Leviticus 19, one of the passages in Leviticus that has the most to do with reformulating ten commandments at several points. In Leviticus 1918, it says, love your neighbor. And of course, here we're going to see how we should go about loving our neighbors. And in Leviticus 19 verse 9 it says, don't glean the corners of your field so you can help the needy, which is being discussed in chapter 2. He also refers to Leviticus 19 and other places, but he seems to be meditating on the law here. There's even a reference to controlling the tongue because he's going to talk in just a moment early on in this segment about simply giving nice wishes to poor people, using your tongue and giving nice words, it really have no value. So you need to control your tongue. In other words, James 2, 14 to 26 is very much working at the question, do you have real faith, is your faith manifesting itself? Let's take a look at what he actually says, chapter 2 verse 14. He opens with a question, what good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? That question, what good is it, is actually the word that's used there is actually, what is the prophet or what is the benefit? That little idea of what is the benefit is one that was used in ancient rhetoric to help people deliberate about things. Is this course of action worth anything or not? What is the benefit of this course of action? If you have faith or say you have faith but have no deeds? Now the next thing that comes up in verse 14 is a little bit shocking because you don't know Greek. So you just have to trust me on this or get a hold of somebody or I brought my Greek New Testament, I can show it to you if you have a smattering of Greek or just want to see it with your own eyes. The next phrase is, the man claims to have faith that has no deeds. In the NIV it says, can such faith save him? But in the original, that word such is not there. What he actually says is, can faith save him? Of course we are used to thinking that, yeah, faith can save anybody, that's the gospel, isn't it? That anybody who believes can be saved. But James is toying with us a little bit, we might say. And prodding us or poking us with this question, can faith save the person who has faith but no works? And the way he expresses it, he expects the answer no. There is a kind of faith that doesn't save, the kind of faith that has no works. Well, what kind of faith is that? What is real faith anyway? He takes us through this in four little scenarios. The first scenario is the case of a needy brother versus 15 to 17. And it makes the point that false faith or spurious faith, I love the word spurious, it just seems so negative. It seems like you are almost spitting as you said. Spurious faith is ineffective manward, ineffective toward our fellow man. Now here is the brief vignette describing false faith. Here is a brother versus 15 to 17, or a sister without clothes, without adequate clothes that is, you know, dressed in rags or inadequately prepared against the cold. Without daily food, if someone says, hey, you know, I hope things go well for you. I hope you get warm, I hope you know, be well fed. But you don't do anything to help them, there is that question again. What is the benefit? What is the value of that course of action? Of course, the answer is, it's worthless. What good is it to be kindly disposed and say to someone who is desperately needy, hey, you know, things will turn around for you someday, I'm sure. And I hope it soon, by, I'll be praying for you, what is the benefit of that? It doesn't help them at all. In a similar way, James says, now, verse 17, faith by itself, if not accompanied by action is dead. False faith is like seeing a need but having vague, well wishes. And it's ineffective. If you see somebody who is hungry, don't tell them you hope their belly gets filled, buy them a pizza. That's what the Lord wants you to do, or a bowl of soup. The second case is the case of knowledge without peace, knowledge without peace. And this shows that false faith, or spurious faith again, is ineffective Godward. Now, you have to observe this pretty carefully in verse 18. In verse 18 it reads this way, but someone will say, someone who is an advocate of faith that doesn't have work. Someone will say, you have faith, I have deeds. Now, if you just watch this carefully, you realize that the wording is not quite what you would expect here. In fact, it's the opposite. What you would expect somebody to say is, I have faith, you have deeds, right? Because that's the issue. James is saying, you need both. Faith without deeds is no good. And maybe the other person you would expect to say, well listen, you're a, you're a deed kind of person. And I'm a faith kind of person. And James could read it, read it that way, but he kind of turns it around to say, listen, any way you cut it, no matter how you would express it, some people think, some people's response to the call to good works is, it's a gift thing. You know, everybody has different gifts. And some people have the gift of administration, other people have the gift of service, other people have the gift of encouragement or evangelism or teaching. And that's the way faith in works is. Some people have the gift of knowledge and doctrine, and other people do something about it. Other people are doers. The problem with that thinking is, of course, that if you look carefully over the gift list of the Bible, which we'll do later on in a week or a couple of weeks, if you look at the gift lists of the Bible, almost every gift you see, maybe somebody who's highly gifted, but all Christians ought to participate in every gift. Think about it. There's a gift of encouragement, right? Who has the gift of encouragement? Somebody who's just great at lifting people's spirits. We know a barn of a type person. And somebody just can read people's faces and knows when they're down and says the good word and past people on the back and all those sorts of things, right? But we're all supposed to encourage each other, aren't we? What did Hebrews say? Saw it a couple of weeks ago. Encourage one another daily, as long as it's called today. There's this gift of encouragement, but we all encourage. There's a gift of evangelism, but we all have to be able to give an account of the faith we have, right? So there's the gift, the high expression, but there's also the modest expression, right? And faith is a gift, actually, but every Christian should have faith. And service is a gift, but every Christian should serve. So the excuse, listen, you have faith, I have deeds, or I have faith, and you have deeds, whichever way you say it, is all wrong. Because it neglects the fact that we should all participate in belief and in action. Real faith, real faith has both. James replies to this error, says to them, you show me your faith without deeds and I'll show you my faith by what I do. Faith is proven by the deeds. Faith is only known by the life. I will show you my faith by what I do. If somebody tells me over and over again, I really know how to cook. I'm a gourmet cook, I really love to cook and get out the pots and pans and make a mess and really make some great food. After I hear that about five times, I'm inclined to say, so when are you having me over for dinner? Let's see some stuffed mushrooms. Let's see some poached salmon and some scalloped potatoes. Let's see some asparagus al dente. Asparagus is easy to wreck. There's lots of ways to ruin asparagus. You've got to be good to make asparagus taste good. Who knows what I'm talking about here? Nobody knows what I'm talking about. If you can do asparagus and peas, if you can make peas taste good, then I admire you. Because it's easy to overcook peas and it's easy to undercook peas, so get it right and I'll believe you. James says, you say you have faith. Come on, prove it. Prove it with some deeds. He goes a little bit farther and says, you believe that there is one God. You have orthodox ideas about God. Good. Let me tell you. You're right up there with the demons. They've got some orthodox theology. They believe there's one God. They believe he sees all that he's a judge of the earth. They also believe that they're going to be destroyed on account of it. Orthodox ideas without living faith. I'm what you would call an adult convert to Christianity. I became a Christian at the age of 18 as a freshman in college. I clearly remember having this kind of faith as a teenager. I believe there was one God. I believe that Jesus Christ was His Son. And I believe that by believing Him you were saved and I believe there's important to live a good life out of faith. I knew all the theology and I didn't believe a lick of it. I was afraid. I thought about God as little as I possibly could. And that wasn't little enough when I was 15, 16, and 17 years old. It is very possible to have orthodox theology. I could have led someone to Christ when I was 16. I know a lot of other people in that position. They've hung around churches and they know enough theology. They could actually give the gospel with clarity. Suffice and clarity that someone, if God was working in an unusual way, could be pleased to use those words. But they don't believe it. And they have no peace with God. They tremble like the demon. So false faith, spurious faith, is ineffective God word. Thirty talks about the case of difficult obedience. And that is the case of Abraham. To prove again, now positively that faith without good works is useless. He gives another case, and that is the case of true faith, which is effective God word. And we come to the case of Abraham. Faith acts effectively in the case of his near sacrifice of Isaac. Now you understand the life of Abraham and the central test in his life. At the age of 75, his wife was 65. The promise came that they would have a son, right? Then they waited, how long did they wait for a child? 25 years, the age of 190, their child was born. When all reason and experience would have said that Abraham reproductively and his wife Sarah were as good as dead, they continued to believe we might say even that every time they had conjugal relations it was an act of faith. That God would do what he said. Of course, Abraham stumbled, but fundamentally during those years he was faithful until then that dreaded day, that terrible day, when God said, take your son, your only son whom you love, Isaac, and sacrifice him in the mountain, I will show you. Now when Abraham was willing to offer that child, and that there are a couple of clues about his age, how would he have been? How old did he have to be when that event occurred? What are the clues as to his age? Not exact years, but rough age. He was able to carry the wood. He was able to carry the wood as one, a couple of people have said, there's something else. He was able to reason with his father. He was able to say, we got wood, we've got fire, but where is the sacrifice? So we have to depict the scene, him being at least close to ten years old, to be the logical one to carry the wood, and ask at least mildly sophisticated questions. I guess if you argue with me, I'd say maybe he was nine, maybe he was 14 or 15, maybe 12. But now they've waited 25 years, now they've waited 10 or 12 more. He's almost grown up, he's half grown up, maybe 15 even. And now God says, I'll take him away from you. Now the book of Hebrews, as we know, says that Abraham believed that if necessary, God could raise his son Isaac from the dead. When he offered him up, you remember that little dialogue he has with the servants where he says, wait here and we will come back to you, expressing his faith there in that place. Now Hebrews describes this in very strong language. So here's one more piece of evidence of faith that works is useless. Wasn't our, verse 21, our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did. The Greek reads, wasn't he justified? Wasn't his, maybe we could translate it this way? Wasn't he considered righteous? Wasn't he justified by what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? And then, verse 22, you see that his faith and his works, it's a literal translation, his faith and his works were working together and his faith was brought to completion. It's a very literal translation. And in fact, if, I don't even know the word monergism and synergism, I don't even know those words. How do you have no idea what I'm talking about? Okay, very briefly. Monergism is the idea that monos is one, and ergos means work. You've heard of ergonomic chairs and things like that. There are chairs that let you work more efficiently. Ergos means work. So monergism means that salvation occurs by one working, that is to say by God working. Monergism is the idea that God saves. And synergism is the idea that we're saved by mixing or by two working together. Of course, I'll heard of synergy. Synergism is the idea that mankind and God have to work together. That it's a cooperative venture. The God alone can't save. We have to help them out a little bit. Synergism is, you know, you'll get to this in one of your classes. It's generally considered to be heretical. God saves. But here in this place, I'm going a long way to get to a Greek word. Here in this workplace, the word is actually, has to do with, is the word related? It gives us synergism. Sunerge. His faith and his works were working together. So his faith was brought to completion. Faith comes to maturity or full expression only when it works. Real faith must work. Faith hasn't come into its own if there are no works. Then verse 22, verse 23 goes on to pound the home just a little bit more. And the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Or it was reckoned to him as righteousness. Let us just say, you remember, everyone Abraham was first justified or reckoned righteous. Do you know where it was in his history? What chapter we're in? First question, back you up a little bit. Where was Abraham nearly sacrificing Isaac? What chapter was that? Genesis chapter 22 is correct. When does God declare Abraham righteous? Genesis 15 is the correct answer. He could turn to Genesis 15 with me for a moment and look at this. To see what James is expressing a little bit more clearly, Genesis 15. Now again, we're keeping in our mind that it's in chapter 22 that Abraham offers his son. On the altar. Now chapter 15 occurs roughly at the midpoint between the time when Abraham heard the promise of a child and the time when the child was actually born. We could say maybe he's 85 years old or 82 years old. It does say 85. After this, 151 of Genesis, the word of Lord came to Abram. His name was still Abram here. Don't be afraid, Abram. I'm your shield. You're a very great reward. Lord, Abram says, What can you give me since I remained childless and the one who will inherit my estate as a lazer of the mask because that's his leaving servant? Basically what Abraham is doing here is back talking to God. God says, I'm your shield and your great reward. And Abraham says, Oh yeah, then how has come you haven't given me the thing that I've been waiting for the most for the last ten years? If you're my shield and my great reward, where's that son you've been talking about? And Abraham said, You've given me no children. A servant of my household will be my heir, verse four. The Lord who's always willing to get into a serious discussion with anybody said, You're wrong. Ali, is your Damascus will not be your heir. A son coming from your own body will be your heir. Then he took him outside and said, Look up at the heavens and count the stars. If indeed you can count them and went outside and looked at the stars. It's not like here it isn't St. Louis. You understand this, right? You're out in St. Louis, a nice clear day. You can see 17 night. Of course, I mean, you can see 17 stars. And if you look carefully, three of them are planes and one is a satellite. That's on a good day. I'm talking about going out to the Rockies and getting out there at, I hit a cord there. Going out at, you know, two in the morning, climbing halfway up the hillside, somewhere you're starting off at 8,000 feet. You climb up to 9,000 and you find a little clearing and you line your back. And if you can't get to the Rockies, you can go to maybe the Smoky Mountains and do that and just look at the stars. Get away from all the light pollution, all the industrial pollution. And it's dazzling. It takes your breath away. And God said, That is what your offspring will be like. And Abraham, verse 6 says, Believe God. And it was reckoned or credited to Him as righteousness. That's 156. So that's the day when He was accounted righteous before God by faith. We would say He's just, He was justified by faith on that day. But James is, is almost playing with that formulation here in order to correct the misconception. In verse 23, He says, The scripture was fulfilled that says, and now he quotes 156, Abraham believed God and it was counter to Him as righteousness. So what he's saying is, it's as though our justification or justification of James has different phases to it. There is the initial phase and then there's a later time when that word of justification Abraham is vindicated or proven to be true when he demonstrates his faith by the deed of offering up Isaac. Let me get you to share with me just for a minute. Give me your opinion a little bit. Justification. There are three time frames possible, right? There's the past and there's the present and of course the future. Where does justification occur in the past and the present or the future? Okay, how many of you want to say the past? Why do you say it's the past? Okay, people say, you know, justification is the thing in the past because that's when Jesus died to a tone for our sins. You can also reason that it's in the past another way. What's the other way we can say it's in the past? Okay, we look back to the day when we profess faith in Christ and we say on that day I was justified, right? How many of you know the word ordosolutus, order of salvation, raise your hand high so I know. Okay, the rest of you don't know, so let me give you a very brief background on this as well. The ordosolutus is a concept that says there is an order to salvation. It starts off with God's divine plan and all eternity. You think of Romans 8, 28. Those who meet for new, he predestined. Those who meet predestined, he called. Those who meet called he justified. And we have, then, you know, once you're justified, then you're adopted in the family of God, right? And you are growing in grace. That's called sanctification. And if you keep on growing, that's called perseverance. At the end we come to glory or glorification. That's the order of salvation. When we think in those terms, how do you know that now it's familiar to you now that I mentioned it? When we think in those terms, we then think of justification as something that lies in our past because now here I am growing in the Christian faith and it all started. I mean, I'm in the sanctification phase, right? You know that word, right? I'm in the persevering phase. I'm in the growth phase. So my sanctification is in the past. So that's one way we could look at it in terms of the work of Christ which has passed on one account and also we look to the day when we professed faith. But I heard some other people saying they're not so sure they want to say it's in the past. So who wants to argue for another time frame? Future. Who said that? All right, wise in the future. Okay, it has to do with our judgment, very good. That's right. When will we hear the words? You are righteous, you are just, you are exonerated from your sin. When will we hear that with our own ears? Whatever that means in the judgment day, you know, don't get into when the resurrection body starts, okay? But, you know, when will we actually hear it?
So in the judgment day, right? When will all be arrayed before the throne? So in a sense, our justification lies in the future. On the judgment day, the day the Bible calls that great day, the day of Jesus return, right? All right, can anybody make the case that justification is present, a present reality? I can. Okay, make the case. Okay, positionally, I'm justified now every day. Anything else? Okay, on an ongoing basis, our sin is forgiven. But there's also something else that those are both true statements. Positionally, we're justified day by day, we're forgiven day by day, we're right with God day by day. There's one more thing and that is that every time we perform a good work, it verifies or proves that we're right with God. That's what's going on in verse 23, back in, back to turn back to James. You're going to look at it, that odd phrasing that we could stumble over, you see that scripture was fulfilled when it said Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. He goes on to say, you see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone, verse 24 says, now wait a minute, you say. I thought that's we were justified by faith alone. James says no, you're also justified by what you do, verse 24, meaning every time we perform a good deed, it verifies, it demonstrates that we indeed belong to God, that we're right with God. His life is at work in us. We could put it another way, we could say that God's word, you are righteous with me, is vindicated or proven to be true every time a believer performs a good work that flows from their faith. God is not liable to the charge of saving people by illegal fiction, but in fact we demonstrate that we belong the Christ when we're justified in a sense what happens is that God sees us not as we are, but as in ourselves, but as we are in Christ, He sees our sins covered by Christ's righteousness and by His sacrifice. He sees Jesus works, His perfect obedience, wreck into our account. Well somebody would say, that's a fiction, but no, because our life really is in Christ, God sees us in Christ, and we really are in Christ, our life really is hidden in Christ as Paul says. And the proof that our life is really hidden in Christ is those deeds. They could only come to pass by faith spontaneously expressing itself in good deeds. I know you have some questions about this and I'll be happy to take them. Let me just keep on going for a little bit to the fourth case, the case of the good pagan who demonstrates that real faith is effective manward. Abraham is an illustration of faith that works, maybe even a logical one we might say that Jews viewed Abraham as a hero of the faith and as a deeply righteous man, maybe the most righteous man who ever lived, someone said, so that's a logical choice, but what kind of a choice is Rahab to demonstrate living faith? I mean, look how bad she comes off compared to Abraham. Here's Abraham, a father of Israel and Rahab, a Canaanite woman. And here's Abraham, a noble male patriarch and here's Rahab, a disreputable female prostitute. But I would submit to you that Rahab is an outstanding example of real faith. In fact, a perfect example of how real faith is never simply an intellectual conversion, never simply holding orthodox ideas about God, which is what James was opposing. Because if she merely had orthodox ideas about God, she would have been destroyed with the rest of everybody else in Jericho, right? If she had simply fought to herself, you know, I think the God of the Israelites is the true God and very powerful, or would have happened to her. But she acted on her face so that when the spies showed up, she did something about it. Now, you may say, well, what did she do? She told a lie. Indeed, it's true. But she acted. She believed that God is the real God and she put her allegiance with God, with God's people. That little thing of helping the spies hide was a way of proving that she had transferred her allegiance from her own pagan gods and pagan race and was siding with Israel, the God of Israel and his people. We could put it this way. She didn't do much. Abraham did this spectacular thing. And here's this woman who basically tells a little story, a little subterfuge that helps a couple of men run off. But she did what had to be done. She did what lay before her to do. And it made a difference. Their lives were spared. She demonstrated that her faith was real. What is James all about? James is speaking to people who grew up in church today. I'll put it this way. And grew up in Sunday school and are content with holding orthodox ideas in his own day. Of course, people didn't grew up in Sunday school because there wasn't a Sunday school. I was invented in the 19th century, not by the apostles, just in case anybody shocked by that idea. There were people back then who were content with orthodox theology, orthodox doctrines. So what he's trying to do is say, that's not enough. That's not genuine faith. He's speaking to comfortable Christians. One thing that you will sometimes hear about ministry is that it's important for those who are engaged in Christian work to comfort the afflicted. But it's also important to know how to afflict the comforted. That is to say those who are falsely comfortable, those who think because they're decent and nice to their neighbors, because they've been baptized, categorized and sanitized from most major sins, they're all right with God. And they're not. Real faith shows itself in radical good deeds. Rayhab didn't do much. She's not a hero. She hit a couple of men and let them get off. But she's a perfect example of the fact that mere intellectual ascent to ideas about God is not enough. She did what had to be done. Let me press on a little bit more so we stay at least vaguely on schedule and talk about the consistency of James or the rest of the Bible. Some people have a hard time with James, not because they don't understand what we've just been going over, but because he sounds quite different from Paul. Paul in Romans 3.28 says, a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law that's Romans 3.28. Or a Galatians 2.16, no man is justified by works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ. Now that sounds very, very different, doesn't it? It sounds almost like a contradiction with James chapter 2 verses 21 and 24. So let's take at least 10 minutes to unpack that and see how in fact they cohere. First of all, the entire New Testament agrees that real faith must produce good works. This is not just something that James says, Jesus, you know, is the one who started. He said, buy their fruit. You will know them in Matthew chapter 7, verse 16 to 20. And he said, it's also vain to say, you know, Lord, Lord, if you don't have our genuine faith in him. He said that on the last day, a person will be judged. You know, that famous scene when all are arrayed before Jesus. And he says, I was hungry and you didn't feed me. I was naked. You didn't clothe me. I was in prison. You didn't visit me. And in another group, he says, I was hungry and you fed me. I was naked. You clothe me. I was in prison. You visited me. What he's saying is that on the last day, he will judge people according to their works. Paul says the same thing. We must all render account for the deeds done in the body, whether good or evil. On the last day, our deeds will be brought out and will be the ground of judgment. Now, what does that mean? What it means is not the deeds in themselves, but rather that the deeds that come from faith will be used on the last day. If your faith is real, Jesus says, it will constantly necessarily express itself in good deeds, so that there will be manifests before all the world. And one of the most important ways to look at this passage, Matthew 25, is to realize that the believers, those who will go to the right hand will say, Lord, when were you hungry? When were you thirsty? When were you in prison? We don't remember that. Well, of course, they don't, because the righteous do what is good naturally. It's like good fruit growing on a good tree. It's like good words naturally coming from a good mouth. We don't even know we're doing what's good because it's just us, we're just being ourselves. So it's not some good works that we put on a pedestal that causes to be judged, but is the life of Christ, John chapter 4, John chapter 15, we could think of, it's the life of Christ like a well springing up from within. It's like being vines on branches on a vine. You can't help but grow grapes and give the fruit when the life of Christ is in you.
And in that sense, Jesus says, good deeds are necessary, because if the life is there, then the good deeds will necessarily come. And if they don't come, it shows there's no life there. So that's what Jesus says in the synoptic gospel. Jesus is in John and John chapter 8 verse 39. He says, if you're the children of Abraham, do the deeds, do the works of Abraham, John 839. And he says that fruitless branches will be cut off, but those who abide in the vine bear fruit, keep God's commands and show love for one another, John chapter 15. And Paul says the same thing. People sometimes say, well, you know, James is stressing that we're justified by faith that works, and he stresses works and Paul doesn't stress works. Actually, there are 50 times, or almost 50 times, a couple of passage of debateable, almost 50 times where Paul says that it is necessary for Christ to produce good works. Let's give you a handful of them, some of the ones that you may know. And first Corinthians 3, 13, Paul says, each person's work must be manifest. Galatians 6, 4, he says, each person should test his own work. James chapter 2 verse 10 says, you have to keep the whole law, and Paul says the same thing. Galatians 5, 3, it's necessary to keep the whole law. They both praise the law. It's royal and perfect. He gives liberty, and James and Paul says it's spiritual and holy and just and good, so he produces deeds of the law. Both of them say, chapter 1 of James, chapter 2 of Romans 2, 13 of Romans says, not hearers, but doers of the law will be considered righteous, followed in Romans 2, 13. Notice how similar Romans 2, 13 sounds to James. James 2, 13, 4, it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. Here how similar it is to James? Or here's another one from Paul. Romans chapter 2 verses 25 to 27, sounds so similar to James 2, 14 when he says that what counts or profits is obedience. He's talking about Jews who have pride in their knowledge. He says or in their status as Jews, 225 of Romans. Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law you become, as though you had not been circumcised, if those who are not circumcised, keep the laws requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? One of the circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you, even though you have the written code and circumcision are a law breaker, you've got to keep the law. Romans says your theology, your theological knowledge is not enough, and maybe the crowning passage of them all is found in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 to 10. We love the quote Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 for it is by grace your saved, right? For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not from yourselves as a gift of God, not as a result of work so that no one should boast. And that's where we usually end our quotation. But then he goes on to say, for we are God's workmanship, remember this, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. So Paul is every bit as insistent on good works as James is, and we could go through the entire New Testament and demonstrate this in Peter and John and Revelation and all the rest. Another way of looking at this is to try to get the perspective of what each author is after, what problems are they trying to correct, what are they working on? When Paul says, man is justified by faith in Christ and not by works of law, what Paul is addressing is the person who asks, how can one get into the kingdom, how can one be saved? That's his question. Do you, as some people say, do you need to be circumcised, do you need to observe the food laws, do you need in order to be saved to become a Jew first? And Paul's answer is no. All you have to do is believe, no works of law. James's question is, how should I treat these people who believe since they grew up with the faith and have been trained in the faith that they're right with God, that it's enough to have orthodox ideas. We might say, Paul is writing for people like the westlies. You know the story of the westlies? You know the story? John Wesley, who had a holiness club, used to get up and pray, what was it, three hours or two hours I forget? Two or three hours a day, sort of from five in the morning or four in the morning until seven in the morning, something like that. And then he would go and distribute food and clothes and medicine throughout the city, and then he would start his regular work, his regular ministry. And he did that for a number of years in London and then he went to America to convert the Indians. And he began to preach, and he not only spoke to the Indians, but he was skilled man, and so pretty soon he was preaching in the church in Virginia and the governor's family was there listening to him week by week and they're very impressed with him. And the governor's daughter got engaged to him and the governor's daughter broke it off with him, and he preached a sermon about how she shouldn't have done that. And then the governor said it's time for you to leave, and he said no, I haven't even started, and he said no, it's time for you to leave. And so he was sent back to England, and he went back, there was a storm at sea, and there was a real danger, so it seemed that the ship and those on it would be lost. There were some Arabians over in a corner, and they were praying, they were singing, they were rejoicing, and he walked over them and said, how can you be so happy, so cheerful on this day when you may die? And they said, well, if we die, we'll go to be with the Lord. And he said, he wrote this in his journal, he said, how can they be so sure, what more have they done than I have done? See, that's who Paul is writing for, people with that misguided question, what good deed do I need to do in order to be saved? And with that question on his mind, he went back to London, you know, the story, and went to a church at night where they were doing their couple of things in the story that you should never do. One thing you shouldn't do is denounce the governor's family in a sermon, you know, and you also really shouldn't denounce anybody's family in a sermon and preach against one person so you shouldn't have done that. It just doesn't work, it's not right, and it doesn't work, like most things aren't right, it doesn't work either. But then besides that, there's another thing that you shouldn't do, but this one did work, and that was somebody was reading a 230 year old sermon. Now, the good thing is it was a really good sermon, and it was a sermon that Luther spoke, really actually a preface to his commentary on the book of Romans, and while that was being read, Wesley understood that you get right with God by faith, not by works. What's the place of works in getting right with God? There is no place, you see, but once we are right with God, that's what James is saying, it must produce works, and if there are no works, then it indicates that you're not right with God. That is the thesis of James, and really the entire New Testament, of course, agrees with that, the entire New Testament teaches that. I have a little chart for you, which you've seen in your notes, four views of salvation and works, you see that on the page. View number one is that works, produce salvation, that's nobody teaches that in the church. The second view that a lot of people might go for initially is, well, faith, the arrow means produces or results in. Faith, that produces salvation, in a sense that's true, but the third and the fourth clarify a little bit. Some would say it's faith plus works that produce salvation. But Paul and James and the entire New Testament and the entire Old Testament all say no, the best formulation is faith produces salvation plus good works. The works are necessary afterward, afterward. Good works are necessary not in order to be saved, but they are in order to be saved no, but because we're saved, yes. That's a place of good works.