I want to invite you to open up your Bibles to James chapter 2. We’re looking at verses 14 through 26 this morning, like we just read. This is gonna sound terrible, but whenever Pastor Ryan goes on vacation or has to go on a trip, I get a little bit excited, because it’s like, well, maybe I get to preach. But he went to a great conference, and yeah, I’m glad he was able to go. But James 2, verses 14 through 26, picking up this series in James.

And we come this morning to a passage of scripture that really, and even for those who have been saved for many years, has caused a lot of confusion and frustration for people and for Christians. Now, I’m not saying that That’s the Bible’s problem. I’m saying us as humans, we sometimes look at the scriptures and are confused and frustrated. And this is one of those passages that has caused some of that.

We read in this passage that faith without works is dead. And as soon as we read that, we think of the whole Narrative of scripture which says that it’s just to fate justification by faith. We’re declared righteous by God Christ gives us his righteousness and he takes our sins and it’s by faith not by works Scripture screams of that message and it’s because of God’s grace that we receive the gift of faith So the gift of faith isn’t something we do on our own. It’s a gift and Ephesians 2 verses 8 through 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. So we think of that where scripture screams at salvation and faith is not of works. And it’s a clear message.

And then we come to James chapter 2 verses 14 through 26 where we read that faith without works is dead and we kind of scratch our heads and wonder what’s going on. And even for those of us who’ve been saved for years, we come to this passage and we still sometimes wonder, it seems odd and different. We think, is James contradicting scripture? Is he contradicting the theology of Paul? Because that’s what a lot of people have said over the years, even great Christians. They’ve said, well, James isn’t lining up with the rest of scripture. James isn’t lining up with Paul.

Paul’s theology, it’s where we read in Paul probably the most comprehensive definition of justification. In Galatians 2, verse 16, Paul says this, Knowing that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus. Even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law. Since by works of the law, no flesh will be justified.

So we are justified by faith in Christ Jesus. Goes back to the soles, which are on the back of our wall there. We believe that. That’s in Fellowship Baptist statements of faith. It’s not because of anything we do that we’re saved, but because of faith in Christ.

Romans 5, verses 1-2, another well-known passage about justification, Paul writes this, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we celebrate in hope of the glory of God. So we read these comprehensive definitions of justification, justification by faith in Paul, and we see that scripture screams this message.

And we come to James, and like I said, we’re a little confused at times. But when we come to James, we need to remember that amidst the difficulty, confusion of the passage, because it’s difficult, because it’s confusing, we need to really study it and understand it, and seek to know what it is he’s talking about. And when we come to this passage, we see that only a true faith produces good works. And before even getting to verse 14, just some background knowledge, I just read those passages from Paul, where Paul says, justifications by faith and faith alone.

And we see that when we read Paul, and even when we come to James, James is not contradicting the theology of Paul. James is not contradicting all of what we read in scripture. Like I said, there are some throughout church history who have said that James was.

Martin Luther, the famous German reformer, who gave some of the greatest rebukes to the Roman Catholic Church at that time, saying the Roman Catholic Church teaches salvation by works. Luther says, no, that’s not true. Scripture says that is not true. He gave some of the greatest defenses history has known of the Scripture. But Martin Luther also had this to say about James. He said, Now Luther is not saying that James should be thrown out of the Bible.

That’s not what he’s saying. He did think it was not as good as maybe other books, like the books of Paul. But we see there from one of the greatest church figures, the great reformer, That even his view of James is not totally accurate and totally right. But when we really understand James, and we read the whole book, and we look at it like we’re supposed to in light of all of Scripture, we see that James is not contradicting the theology of Paul. He’s not contradicting the rest of Scripture, and he’s actually complementing this teaching of justification by faith.

And what he’s talking about is a person who says they are a Christian, but doesn’t live like one. They don’t act like they’re a Christian. They say one thing, but their life points to something else. The way they live their life points to the contrary. It shows that they are not a genuine believer, someone who is saved.

New Testament scholar Rob Plummer has a helpful quote on this theme. He says this, the necessity of deeds as evidence for true faith. And that’s a good way to think about this passage we’re going to be reading is that it emphasizes the necessity of deeds as evidence for true faith. And we’re going to come back to that word all throughout this passage, this sermon is evidence, evidence. We’re going to be looking at that word a lot. True faith produces good works. And these good works are right ethical living, good living.

Living in light of God’s word, how he tells us to live. That’s all some important introductory information that we need to know before we get into the passage. But even some more introductory information, we need to remember where we are in the book of James.

James ends chapter one by talking about the importance of not just being a hearer of the word, but being a doer of the word also. He’s talking about those who not just, they merely listen, but they don’t actually live out the truths of scripture. They don’t act like a Christian. And that’s how he ends chapter one. He tells his readers that a heart devoted to Christ is one that obeys. If you say you’re devoted to Christ, you have to obey. You have to obey what he says. Those who have put their faith in Christ must live that faith out by obeying.

And pretty much, and I said this when I got to the end of chapter one, but a lot and pretty much all that comes after James chapter one is him demonstrating and showing, hey, this is what it looks like to be a doer of the word. His readers are asking, okay, James, what does that look like to be a doer of the word? He’s gonna go on throughout the rest of the book and explain that and show what it’s like.

And in chapter 2, really one of the things he’s doing in all of chapter 2, from verse 1 to verse 26, is he’s showing how to do proper faith. This is what it looks like to have a proper faith. Verse 1 of chapter 2 says this. My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. So he starts the chapter with faith, and he ends the chapter with faith. So this chapter is about proper faith, godly faith, biblical faith, and what that looks like. He spent the first 13 verses talking about partiality, saying we should not show personal favoritism. And our passage today shows that true faith produces good works. And we’re going to look at this main idea in two main ways. The first way… is a false faith, and this will cover verses 14 through 20.

So getting right off the bat, James, in usual fashion, he gets right to the point. He doesn’t beat around the bush. He says exactly what he’s intending to say. We get to verse 14. He says, what use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?

And we see he’s using rhetorical questions again. In the first part of chapter two, he was using rhetorical questions. And he’s using them again. And he’s using these questions to get his readers to see the error of their ways. They listen to these questions being read, or they read them and they think, the answer is obvious.

And they think, oh, we’re not living rightly. They read, what use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? Their response should be, no, that faith can’t save him. The answer is obvious, and he wants his readers to see that. And the clear response is no, that faith cannot save him. Now, it’s important, and like I said, James is not talking about someone who is actually saved.

He’s talking about someone who says they have faith. And he makes this clear in verse 14. My brethren, if someone says he has faith, but has no work. He doesn’t say if someone has faith, he says if someone says they have faith, but has no works. This is someone who’s maybe just made a profession of faith. And many of us have seen examples of this throughout our life, even in churches. There are people who sit in the pews for years and years. They say they know Christ. They say they believe in God. They make a profession. But we look at their life and the evidence of their life, and we see the evidence points to the contrary.

They don’t have a true saving faith, and that’s what James is talking about. They say they have faith. James wants his readers to see that this so-called faith is not genuine. We’re talking about the genuineness of someone’s faith. Are they actually saved? Have they actually put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ? And as we move into verses 15 through 16, James provides a picture of what this false faith looks like. James does that throughout this book.

He gives pictures of what he’s talking about to help demonstrate to his audience his main point. Verse 15, if a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warm to be filled, and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? And this is a picture or an image that his readers can probably relate to. It may even be something they’ve experienced. And he’s saying it does no good to tell a brother or sister in Christ, he’s saying brother or sister, so we’re talking about believers, People they’re in church with, it does no good to tell a brother or sister who is in desperate need of daily provision to have a good day. And that’s kind of what he’s saying.

If a person says, go in peace, be warm, be filled, that’s what they’re saying, hey, have a good day. This person comes to us, they’re in desperate need of daily provision, whatever that may be, clothes or food, and we look at them and say, hey, you’ll do okay, see ya.

And we don’t help them. We don’t help this brother or sister or individual who is in desperate need of help. And when you study this passage, you see the individual that James is describing is a Christian who is living in poverty, a Christian who is in desperate need of help. It does them no good to say, hey, have a good day.

We need to respond in helping. We need to respond in love, in caring, in mercy, in compassion. And the response of those with true faith should be to show mercy and compassion. Echo the words of Jesus in Matthew 5, 7, blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are those who have compassion on others, compassion on our brothers and sisters in Christ. James is saying you need to have compassion on Christians. And if you don’t, if you don’t have this mercy, if you don’t have this compassion, are you truly saved?

And James brings home his point in verse 17. He says, even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. Saying that faith is not shown to be, if faith is not shown to be genuine through works, then it is dead. And he uses the word dead. He doesn’t say, you know, the faith isn’t, it’s not great, it’s okay. He says it’s dead, it’s meaningless. It’s being by itself. It’s shown to not be genuine. Our faith should be evident, our faith should be genuine. And the genuineness of somebody’s faith is demonstrated through good works, through right, through righteous, ethical living, right living. As we move into verses 18 through 20, we see that faith and works go together.

That’s what James is trying to demonstrate in these verses. I’m gonna read verse 18, James says, As I was studying this passage, verse 18 is one that I was always a little confused on, and studying it, it was great to read different people and see how they explained it. But one scholar pointed out about verse 18, he said, some people have said this is one of the hardest verses in the New Testament to understand.

And part of it gets down to the quotations, quotation marks. In my version, the quotation marks start, have you have faith, and it ends at the end of the verse. Some translations, if some of you have the ESV, you’ll say the quotation marks are different. So the difficulty of this passage comes in to how we understand who is saying what.

And probably the best way to understand this passage is that the first part of 18 is a comment made by an opponent, and the rest of the verse is James’ response to the opponent. So James is essentially kind of bringing up this, if we want to say, hypothetical conversation with an opponent. And he’s doing this to strengthen his argument. So the first part of verse 18 would be from an opponent to James.

And they’re saying, you have faith, and I have works. And what this person is saying is that it’s not necessary to have both. Hey, James, you’re saying that faith without works is dead. You’re saying we have to show the genuineness of our faith by our works. That’s not true. We don’t need both. You’ve got to stop going on about this. Stop making a big deal about this.

But James responds by saying, show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works. He’s saying, no, you need both. If you say you have faith, if you are saved, then you have to have good works. You should be living a righteous life. They are both important. You need both. And notice, and this is, I think, one of the most important parts about this passage. James says, by my works, verse 18, he says, show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith I will show you my saving faith. I will show you the fact that I am a Christian by my works.”

And that’s what he’s getting at. The genuineness of someone’s faith is made evident by their works. He’s not saying, hey, I’m showing you my faith because I was saved through works. That’s not what he’s saying. He’s showing, I will show you my faith by my works. So he’s not contradicting the rest of Scripture. He’s not contradicting Paul. I will show you my faith by my works. I can demonstrate to you that I am saved, that I have true saving faith. His faith is evident from his works. And James is just continuing to emphasize what this dead faith looks like.

He wants his audience to be aware of the dangers of this. Don’t do this. James is, in several parts in this, throughout this book, even in verse one of chapter two, he says, You see that he has a love for the people he’s writing to. This isn’t just some academic exercise for them. He loves them. He cares for them. He wants to see them living godly lives. He wants them to live right lives. He wants them to do good works that demonstrate the genuineness of their faith, which is why he’s writing to them.

In verse 19, he shows that a belief in monotheism, believing in one God, isn’t enough to save someone. Verse 19 says, you believe that God is one, you do well. The demons believe and shudder. Even the demons believe in God. So he’s saying the demons believe in God and they actually do something about it. They’re scared of God. They shudder. That word shudder has meaning to it. They’re frightened of him. So the demons believe in God and they actually do something about it. They’re scared.

And when James is referencing, you believe that God is one, he seems to be quoting from Deuteronomy 6, verse 4, which was known as the Shema. And this would have been well known to his primarily Jewish audience. It would have been a passage they memorized, and most of them would have known well. And what James is saying is, he’s looking to his readers and saying, so saying you believe in God, but not actually living out that belief, points to the fact that you are not saved and you are just as bad as the demons. And it’s a bad day when you and the demons are equals. I mean, that’s a bad day. And we see that all the time. We see a lot of people who fall into this category. I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. I believe that God was real. Well, so do demons. So do Satan. Saying you just believe in God is not enough. Do you know God? Do you have a personal relationship with him?

And this is what James is getting at. He’s getting at those who may seem religious. He’s saying, no, no, this is not enough. Do you actually know him? In verse 20, James comes back again to his main point. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? He says foolish. He’s doubling down almost. He’s emphasizing, hey, what you’re doing is wrong.

Foolish is not a word that is to be taken lightly. This is the person who’s devoid of truth and understanding. Oftentimes it’s used for someone who is apart from God. To be called a fool in the Bible is not a good thing. You don’t want to be known as someone who’s devoid of understanding or devoid of truth, and that’s what he’s calling these people. Are you foolish? Because to say that works but don’t mean anything is a foolish way of speaking.

And he’s emphasizing this point, that we cannot ignore the importance and significance of good works, that they show the evidence of someone’s faith. But we also need to recognize in our confession that we read this morning, really sort of introduced us to this topic and hit on all the major parts, and it hit on this part as well, that it needs to be said that the only one who gives us, the only one who truly gives us the ability and strength to do good works is the Holy Spirit.

If you are saved and you belong to Christ and the Holy Spirit is living within you, He gives you new life. Romans 8, verses 9-11 says this, However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness, But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

The Holy Spirit gives life. The Holy Spirit is the one who regenerates us, causes us to see, hey, I’m a sinner. I need to repent of my sins. I need to put my faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit works that within us, and then He stays with us. He dwells within us, and He gives us the ability and strength to do these good works, to do righteous living because we could not do it on our own.

Even once we’re saved, we continually need God’s help. It’s not that we get saved and we’re like, we’re good, thanks God, I’ve got it from here. No, we continue to need His help. God’s help in our lives just doesn’t stop on the day we get saved. It continues, and we need to praise Him for that. The Holy Spirit shapes us more into the image of Christ. This is one of the processes we call sanctification, growing in our faith and becoming more like Christ.

And it’s the sanctification process that the Holy Spirit works in us that gives us the ability to do good works, to live righteously. Dr. Joel Beakey, in his book, A Puritan Theology, had this to say regarding the Puritans’ understanding of sanctification. He writes this about the Puritans. He says, the Puritan said the Holy Spirit sanctifies us by showing us our need for holiness, by convicting us of sin, by implanting a desire for holiness, by working on our whole nature to resist sin, and by helping us to persevere in holiness. Showing how the Holy Spirit works in our life in this sanctification process.

You see three of the things he mentioned there are holiness. Our need of holiness, implanting a desire for holiness, and helping us to persevere in holiness. If you’re saved and you’ve given your life to Christ, we are called to live a holy life. And these are all good works, and striving for holiness is a good work.

And I think that’s one way of helping, because we do struggle at times. We hear this good works thing, and we can’t help but separate it from a works-based salvation. We think of a Catholic understanding, how even today, even Catholics today, they still preach and teach a works-based salvation. But when we think of good works, as we read James, I want us to think of some of these things we talked about.

Think about it in living a life in pursuit of holiness. Living a life that you’re seeking to be separate from sin. A life where you’re seeking to conform more into the image of Christ. A life where you’re seeking to know God more and more. That is good works. Seeking to know God more and more.

Faith in Christ produces good works because of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. We need to emphasize that when we come to this passage, because James is saying to do good works, and we need to, but we also need to address that it’s God working in us and through us. And like I said, we need to listen. We have a responsibility to listen and obey the Holy Spirit’s guidance in our lives and what he says.

Galatians 5.25, if we live by the Spirit, let’s follow the Spirit as well. Paul is saying if we live by the Spirit, if you belong to the Holy Spirit, you need to live by him, live by his guidance, live by the conviction that he gives you in regards to sin because we can’t ignore and suppress what he says. And we shouldn’t do that. We must listen to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

And when we do and we let Him work in our lives, you see that a false, a true faith produces good works, but a false faith does not produce good works. And as we think of this theme of a false faith not producing good works, we need to remember that Christians or people must have a true faith and not a false faith. A true faith where it’s evident that we are saved. A false faith is one that is not in Christ.

It’s still in us. Our strength is in ourselves. Our worth is in ourselves. We need to remember that we are all sinners and the only one who can save us from our sins is Jesus Christ. It is only by putting our faith in Him for the forgiveness of sins that we can be saved. We read that in Paul. It’s faith in Christ. Not faith in this. Not faith in Christ. And faith in this other thing. Faith in myself. It’s faith in Christ.

And because Christ paid the penalty for our sins on the cross and rose from the dead, we can receive the gift of faith. Like I said, faith is a gift, and we receive that. And when we receive this gift of faith, this true faith, because the Holy Spirit works in our lives, then that true faith produces good works. Faith produces good works, and that’s important to understand. It’s not good works produces faith. Good works don’t come before faith. Yes, we do good works, but faith in Christ comes before.

Good works are a natural outflow of saving faith, and I think it’s helpful to think of it like that. These good works come from a saving faith. Now, sometimes we think, well, what about when I was unsaved, I did a lot of good things. I gave to charity, I was nice to this person, I helped granny across the street, or whatever it might be. And yes, it’s true, unsaved people can do good works.

But we need to remember that they are done for their own reasons and not for God. If you’re unsaved, if you’re apart from Christ, those good works you do, they’re maybe to make yourself feel good or for your own pride or whatever, your own selfishness, whatever they might be. They’re not done for the glory of God. They’re not done in the pursuit of holiness.

As Hebrews 11, six says, it is impossible to please God without faith. So you’re apart from Christ, you’re doing these good deeds, but if you’re apart from Christ, you’re not pleasing God. Because the way you please God is you need faith. So faith is key to pleasing God, to honoring Him, to obeying Him. A false faith has no good works, but a true faith does. And that brings us to our second theme, or the second way we’re looking at this idea is that, and it’s a true faith.

Covering verses 21 through 26. And we see as we move into 21 through 26 that James gives two examples in this section from the Old Testament that demonstrate faith evidencing itself in works. And they’re coming off the heels of verse 20. Verse 20 says, So 21 through 26 are coming off verse 20. And James will show that the faith of Abraham and Rahab was not useless. They had a useful faith. They had a genuine faith. It was not useless.

Verses 21 through 23 look back to great father Abraham. And specifically Genesis chapter 22, where God tells Abraham, Abraham, I want you to sacrifice your son Isaac. And Abraham goes to do it. He doesn’t question God. He doesn’t say, God, I’m not sure about this. He doesn’t refuse. He responds with immediate obedience. He acts on his faith in God.

Hebrews chapter 11 verses 17 through 19 tell us that Abraham believed God was able to raise Isaac from the dead because of the promise God had made to Abraham. God had made the promise to Abraham that he’ll give him a land, seed, and blessing. So Abraham knew God had promised to give me a son. He’d promised to make a great nation out of me.

So if God has me kill my son, I know he can bring him back to life. In fact, when you read Genesis 22, and Abraham and Isaac are leaving their servant, Abraham responds to his servant and pretty much says, we will be back. He doesn’t say, I’m gonna be back. He says, we will be back, him and Isaac both.

So he knew God could raise his son. He knew God could raise Isaac. And he was acting on that faith, showing the genuineness of his faith. And this passage also shows how strong his faith was. I mean, this is a strong faith. There’s people who’ve been saved and known Christ for years. And if they were to hear this message from God, many of us would be like, what? Sacrifice my son? So we see here the strength of Abraham’s faith, and the stronger the faith, the greater the works. And because of Abraham’s works, because of his obedience, his faith was made evident. And actually, once God stops him from killing his son and he says, Abraham, you obeyed me, he reaffirms the promise that he made to Abraham and says, I will fulfill all those things.

And James quotes Genesis 15, verse six in this passage, but he applies it to Genesis 22. In verse 23 of our passage, it says, and the scripture was fulfilled, which is Genesis 15, six, which says, and Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. And James is taking Genesis 15, six, but he’s applying it to the incident that we read about in Genesis 22. It’s in that episode of Abraham’s life where his faith was made evident. And we see that because of Abraham’s true faith, he was able to have a close relationship with God. It says in verse 23, it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

And it doesn’t end there. It says, and he was called the friend of God. The friend of God. And this might be an allusion to a couple different passages, but one in particular is from 2 Chronicles 20, verse 7. This is King Jehoshaphat, his prayer of deliverance. His enemies are approaching. He’s overwhelmed by these enemies that are approaching to him and he goes to God in prayer asking for deliverance. And he says in chapter 20 verse 7, Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land from your people Israel and give it to the descendants of your friend Abraham forever? Of your friend Abraham.

And this is a reminder that true faith brings us closer to God. If you have genuine saving faith, your relationship with God will grow over the years. It’s part of the sanctification process, growing closer to God. He was called a friend of God. What a relationship to have with God, to be called a friend of God. Our relationship with God should be our chief one in life, the chief one that we’re seeking to grow in and knowing more and more each and every day.

And Paul hits his main point again in verse 24. He says this, you see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. He continues in this passage to bring that up again. In the midst of the pictures he gives, in the midst of the different stories he gives, he says, hey, you see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. He’s coming back to that point. He continues to reiterate it.

And a better way of understanding verse 24 is maybe, and I’ll read it this way, you see that a man is shown to be justified by works and not be faith alone. He’s shown to be righteous. So how is a man shown to be righteous? How are Christians shown to be righteous? How are they shown to be saved? How are they shown to have this right standing before God? By their works, by their living, the way they act, godly living.

And like I said, he continues to reiterate his point, and he wants his readers to have no doubt of what he’s talking about. His readers can’t walk away from this passage thinking, I don’t know what James meant by all that. What was he talking about? It’s clear what James is saying. That works are important.

And then we move from this example of Abraham, and then James gives an interesting example. We’d maybe think for him to go to another Patriarch from the Old Testament or maybe another figure with great faith, but he goes to Rahab from Joshua 2 And Joshua 1 we see that God tells Joshua who is now leading the people of Israel. Hey go take the land it’s time to take the land and Joshua sends a couple spies to go out to the city of Jericho and spy things out they go to Jericho and they go to the house of Rahab the harlot or the prostitute and they hide there and the officials of the city of Jericho find out the spies are there and And they go to find him. And they say, Rahab, are they here? And she says, no. And she protects the spies. And we see after the officials of Jericho and some of the guards go away, she’s talking to these spies and basically saying, I recognize Yahweh.

I recognize your God. He is true. We have heard of what he’s done. And I want to follow him. And we see her amazing faith, her amazing example of faith. And he’s making the same point he made with Abraham. And it’s interesting, like I said, he chooses a Gentile prostitute to do this with.

And James may be trying to show that even the quote-unquote lowliest of sinners can still come to faith in God. It could also be, as New Testament scholar Doug Mu points out, that both Abraham and Rahab were considered great models of hospitality and faith among Jewish people. So remember, James is probably writing to a primarily Jewish Christian audience. So he’s taking two figures that they hold up and say, hey, Rahab and Abraham, they’re great figures of faith and hospitality. And James is saying, hey, these two figures you hold up of faith, you say they have great faith? Well, they also had great works. Look at how their faith was demonstrated. Look at the evidence for their faith. These people you love, these people you think are great, they had faith in works. Look at their lives. And as we get towards the end of the passage, we see that James ends with a picture that once again is clear to understand.

Verse 26, for just as the body without the spirit is dead, when the soul leaves the body, the body is dead. So just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. Faith without works is dead. Body cannot live without a soul, and true faith must be accompanied by works to show the genuineness of the faith. We must have a true faith. And if we are saved and we have put our faith in Christ, then we should be doing good works.

We should be pursuing holiness. We should be following the words and the teachings of scripture. We should be caring for the needy in our churches. That was one of the examples James gave in the first part of this section. Someone comes to you in need, we should care for those in need. That’s what our benevolent offering is for. Churches need a benevolent offering and thankfully here we’re able to have one and we’ve been able over the years to give it to people in need. Benevolent offerings are great. We should give to it and we should use it for those in need.

We should not show partiality as James just talked about in the first 13 verses. Don’t show personal favoritism. I talked about the Holy Spirit’s work in our life earlier. We should practice the fruits of the Spirit that we read about in Galatians 5, 22 through 23. And these are great pictures of what it looks like to do good works. If you ever think to yourself, well, what is James talking about with good works? What does this mean? The fruits of the Spirit are a great place to go for that.

We should be loving, kind, and gentle. We should be patient. We should have self-control. These are things we need to do. They’re not easy, but we are called to do them. We should live out the teachings of Christ and the teachings of the whole Bible, the teachings of James. We could go on and on and sing about what these good works, what this pursuit of holiness looks like, but the point is, if we are Christians, we have to act like it.

You say you have faith. You say you’ve been saved. Does your life demonstrate it? Can someone look at you and say, hey, I think their faith is genuine. I think they’re actually saved. One of the things I love and so greatly appreciate about the elders here at Fellowship Baptist, Pastor Pye, Pastor Ryan, Pastor Ben, Pastor John, Pastor Harold, and Pastor Chuck, is that their faith is genuine. I sit with these guys in elders meetings. We sit in different circumstances together and I look at their lives and I say, they really love God. They really want to live a life in honoring God.

Their faith is genuine. Our faith should be evident. We must have a true faith. As we close, I’d like everyone to turn to Ephesians 2. I read earlier verses 8 and 9, but I want to read verses 8, 9, and 10. It’s a famous passage. It’s a beautiful passage. But Ephesians 2. Verses 8, 9, and 10. The Apostle Paul writes this, starting in verse 8. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. We do not save ourselves, we don’t. Verse 10.

For we are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus for good works Which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them Before time began God chose to remake us through his son for good works we would be saved through his son because of his work on the cross and the penalty he paid for us and but He created us so that we would live a life of holy living in pursuit of Him doing good works. Christians are called to do good works that are evidence of our faith. We need to do them, so let’s do them. Let’s close in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your Word. I thank You for what we just read about in James 2, verses 14 through 26, that faith without works is dead, We understand that doesn’t mean we’re saved by works, but we do understand that it means that once we are saved, we have to live lives honoring to you which we are doing good works.

We are pursuing holiness, pursuing righteous living, and I pray that we all do that, that when people look at us, they think they are Christians, and that Fellowship Baptist Church would be known as a church who are known of having the fruits of the Spirit. In Jesus’ name, amen.