I have the good pleasure of working alongside several self-proclaimed mechanical ignoramuses. And between these two guys, they have a LOT of talent and God has gifted them with things that he didn’t give me. But the one skillset that neither of them has ever been accused of is this: auto mechanic. Now Pastor David claims to have changed brakes before, but that’s the self-proclaimed limit of his expertise.
But in an effort to give them a little bit of credit this morning, the one thing that I’m confident that they both know about cars is this – if the battery is dead, so is the vehicle. It’s really that simple. In fact, Pastor David claims to have actually changed a battery before (Pastor Brad thinks he might be able to if he actually owned a tool). But the good news is that you don’t have to be an auto mechanic to know that if the battery has no juice, the car isn’t moving. You cannot separate one from the other…they are both integral parts of the driving process.
As we continue in our teaching series through the book of James this morning, James makes a similar comparison with regard to faith and works as he addresses the notion that a person could actually think it’s possible to have genuine faith and yet have no gospel works to give evidence of their faith. In fact, he says, their faith is as “worthless” as a dead battery.
Go ahead to turn to James 2 this morning where we’re going to see James lay out another test…this time the test of how our good works (or a lack thereof) give evidence to the genuineness of our faith in Jesus Christ. In fact, here’s the startling truth that we’re going to see today: If you don’t have a trail of consistent good works, then there’s a really good chance you’re not saved.
James 2:14-20
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
We’ve titled this entire sermon series Faith and Works and THIS sermon is the reason for that title. The word “FAITH” is mentioned 7 times and “WORKS” 6 times. And James says that it’s essential for the Christian’s way of life to understand how faith produces good works. And I hope we can help sort this out for you today as this passage has sadly been a source of great controversy for hundreds of years. So let’s take a deeper dive into James’ teaching on Faith and Works, where the first challenge he gives us is this…
1. WORK HARD TO SHOW EVIDENCE OF GENUINE FAITH – vs 14-17
Quite simply, inward faith produces outward action according to verse 14. Look at it again with me. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? The short answer to this last question is simply, NO. Anyone professing to have faith without the evidence of works is deceived. To use some theological words that we use often, there is no such thing as justification that does not result in sanctification. Just like a dead battery, James says this person has dead faith (vs 17). James is literally saying that their salvation is phony.
Now I think that whenever we talk about works, it’s good to pause and be reminded of what James is NOT saying. He is not saying that the fruit of a person’s life is what saves them. Instead, he’s saying that the fruit (deeds & actions) are EVIDENCE of a person with true, inward faith in Jesus. Inward faith produces outward action.
In fact, James’ big brother, Jesus, helps us with this truth when he spoke these words in Matthew 7:16-20: "You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits."
Whatever we observe in a person’s life will give us a window into their hearts…good or bad. And it’s tricky because we DO want to believe what a person tells us, but Jesus doesn’t say to LISTEN to people and how they describe themselves. He says inspect the fruit of their lives.
The late pastor and Bible scholar, Warren Wiersbe, says it like this: "People with dead faith substitute words for deeds. They know the correct vocabulary for prayer and testimony, and can even quote the right verses from the Bible; but their walk does not measure up to their talk. They think their words are as good as works, and they are wrong."
Pastor James is so practical that he gives his church a simple illustration, which we read earlier about a poor brother who comes into the church without proper clothing. Listen to a modernized version of this story as illustrated in a Peanuts cartoon. Charlie Brown and Linus are inside all bundled up and Snoopy is out in the cold shivering in front of an empty dog food bowl. Charlie Brown and Linus are having a discussion about how sad it is that Snoopy is hungry and cold. “He’s cold and hungry. We ought to do something about it.” So they walk outside and say to Snoopy, “Be of good cheer, Snoopy,” and then turn around and go right back into the warm house. Take a wild guess where Charles Schultz got his inspiration from…right here in James 2. What James and Charles Schultz are both saying is that genuine faith should always be accompanied by good works…and that takes effort.
Now, in our quest to do good works, let me show you where we have to be careful. For years, the liberal arm of the church has operated as if service is an end, in and of itself…but the problem is that if you only feed people, but never tell them about Jesus, then all you’re doing is making sure that they’re not hungry when they get to hell. But those of us that reside in the conservative camp within the church, are often like Charlie Brown. We have all the right words, “Be of good cheer, Snoopy,” and we pat ourselves on the back because of all the knowledge we possess in our heads…and yet we fail to show compassion by meeting needs. James literally says that this is the kind of faith that does not save. People who believe the facts of the gospel but make no irrevocable commitment to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, must be confronted with the reality of their state…that this is a false assurance of salvation.
James give us another challenge that would fall under the category of false-assurances of our salvation…
2. TRUST THE EVIDENCE, NOT THE EXPERIENCE – vs 18-19
We don’t want to spend too much time here because James only gives us a quick example in the text, but I think it’s worth mentioning under the banner of false assurances of our salvation. Sometimes we are guilty in today’s church of making too much of an emotional experience, and then trusting in the emotional feeling as a sign of the genuineness of our faith. Someone once asked me for counsel and what advice to give a Christian friend who had no appetite for the Word of God, no commitment to the house of God, and no desire to be around the people of God. So I asked my friend why he thought this person was saved. And the answer was that this person HAD to be a Christian because of how emotional they were when they prayed the sinners prayer.
Maybe James was battling this in the early church too…look with me at verses 18-19: "But someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!"
We don’t talk a lot about demons but the early church would have witnessed the up-close power of demonic forces. And James utilizes a little bit of shock value to get his audience’s attention. Once again, he’s giving an example of someone with intellectual knowledge of God. Even the demons believe intellectually. And what do demons believe? They actually believe in the existence of God. In the gospels we learn that they are neither atheists nor agnostics. They believe in the deity of Christ. In Mark 5, they actually recognize Jesus Christ as the Judge. And yet despite their faith, no one supposes that demons will spend an eternity with Christ.
One of the daily affirmations of a godly Jew was to repeat Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.” And so James says, “I hear you proclaiming that you believe that there is only one God. Good for you. So do the demons…and they shudder.” James is referring here to the emotional experience that demons have when they come into the King’s presence—they shake in their boots at the name of Jesus. This is a step beyond the person earlier that intellectually acknowledged God. This person not only BELIEVES in God, but they have a genuinely emotional experience when they encounter the very presence of God.
One of the things that all of our children and student leaders are so careful about here at LHC is to NOT utilize emotion in an attempt to elicit a salvation response. You’ve probably all heard of the church camp where the speaker teaches on the lake of fire all week and then on the last night asks the students to raise their hands if they don’t want to go to hell. FYI – we won’t send your students to this camp. Because not wanting to go to hell is not the same thing as surrendering your heart to Jesus…not even close. If you’re listening, smack your neighbor and say WAKE UP. Heaven is not a place for people who do not want to go to hell. It is a place for people who love the Lord…and that’s not semantics. I’ve never met a single person that genuinely wants to go to hell…but that’s a far cry from devoting your life to Christ. Here’s the point I’m trying to make – real faith subsequently results in a changed life…and the changed life, not your experience, is the evidence of genuine salvation.
The last challenge I want you to see this morning is this…
3. DON’T BE AFRAID OF GOOD WORKS – vs 20-24
Let me openly acknowledge, that in our quest to understand the Apostle Paul when he taught that salvation is through faith alone, I wonder if conservative, evangelical churches haven’t demonized good works. But even Paul said in Ephesians 2:10 that we were created to do good works. So let’s pick up where we left off earlier.
James 2:20-24: "Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone."
Let me tell you how this passage has been the source of such great controversy. Those who hold to any form of works-based salvation have used the book of James (and specifically these verses) to defend their position. For those who have stood for salvation by grace alone, this passage has caused them some grief depending on how it’s interpreted. In fact, the man credited with starting the Protestant Reformation against the Catholic Church and their historical teaching of works-based salvation, the great Martin Luther, concluded that the book of James should not even be included among the inspired books of the Bible.
"21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?" At a glance, it sure sounds like James is saying that good works produce salvation. So what gives? Well, let’s start with what we know. Back in chapter 1, James has already declared that salvation is a gracious gift…so we have to start with that as our baseline. And we know that all the way back in Genesis 15, God declared Abraham righteous based on his faith alone. And later in Genesis 22, God tests the genuineness of Abraham’s faith by asking him to sacrifice his innocent son, Isaac…you Bible scholars might recognize that chapter 22 comes AFTER chapter 15. In other words, Abraham had a right standing with God long before he tied Isaac to the altar (which if you don’t know the whole story, right at the last second, God provides a ram in the bushes to be used as the sacrifice).
But here’s the point…Abraham’s offering of Isaac demonstrated the genuineness of his faith and the reality of his justification before God. Simply put, Abraham was justified before God by his faith, and his salvation was justified (or vindicated) before men based on his works. His heart was declared righteous in Genesis 15, and his life (or his good works) followed suit as recorded in Genesis 22. Look again at verse 22: "You see that faith was active [referring to Abraham’s faith] along with his works, and faith was completed by his works." Just like a fruit tree hasn’t accomplished its purpose until it produces fruit, faith has not accomplished its purpose until it demonstrates itself in a righteous life. Quite simply, a changed heart produces a changed life. Let me repeat that.
Paul Tripp, in his devotion this past Wednesday from New Morning Mercies, reminds us that “true biblical faith is ALWAYS something that you live. If your faith does not reshape your life, it is not true faith.” So back to the original question, “Do good works produce salvation?” No—but salvation ALWAYS produces good works.
Now it might feel like we’ve plowed through the text rather quickly, but it’s because we want to have plenty of time to not just teach on a theoretical level, but to leave time to jump over to the practical by answering the question…
WHAT EXACTLY ARE GOOD WORKS?
I’m actually going to let Jesus answer this by taking you to Matthew 25. In this passage, Jesus paints a picture of what it will look like when he returns in all of his glory on the Last Day, and all the nations will be gathered. And it’s here that Jesus will begin to separate people – HIS people on his right, and everyone else on his left. And listen to what he will say to HIS people:
Matthew 25:34-40
“Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you took care of me; I was in prison and you visited me.” And then Jesus’ people, will respond like this: 37 “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” 40 And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to ME.”
So what are good works? Jesus says it starts with feeding the poor, clothing the naked, and visiting those in prison. Now if we’re honest, sometimes we look at these types of ministries of serving the poor as being connected to those who hold to liberal theology. But don’t gloss over the fact that the only illustration of the type of works that should accompany genuine, saving faith (that James gives us in chapter 2) is how we minister to the poor.
So is serving the poor, the ONLY ministry that qualifies as good works? Of course not…it can involve:
• Getting involved in foster care and adoption, or serving these families
• Caring for our widows (checking in on them, dropping them a note, asking if they have any projects for your family)
• Inviting a group of friends to study the Bible together
• Financially supporting one of our Member Missionaries
All of these things are great things, but if you’ve ever read the New Testament, I just don’t think you can ever disconnect from the ministry of showing love to the poor. So often, I find myself assuming that poverty is always directly connected to a lack of hard work or personal responsibility. But that is a prideful thought because it’s not always true and needs repented of.
So what does ministry to the poor look like in your life? For us, that ministry HAS to be connected to and birthed out of the local church…because the local church is the ONLY God-ordained mission’s agency in the New Testament. That doesn’t mean that ministry to the poor has to be the ONLY one, but it does mean that it has to be the priority. And responsibility to care for the poor cannot be passed off solely onto the government…it HAS to be a concern of the church. That’s why the focus of our mission’s offering this year is the work that we’re doing at our Middletown mission campus where 100% of what we give as a church, will be a directly invested into those battling poverty and every type of brokenness right in our community. And for some of you, maybe God is pushing you towards serving directly at Middletown as part of our core team on Sunday evenings…because it’s there that you can do EVERYTHING that Jesus talked about in Matthew 25.
At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, good works, and specifically serving the poor, is literally the difference between heaven and hell…not my words, but Jesus’ words. Listen to his words from the passage that we just read in Matthew 25: 41 "Then [the King] will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.'" Church, here’s why we’re not afraid of good works. It’s because a changed heart ALWAYS produces a changed life. And good works are the evidence of a genuine, SAVING faith in Jesus Christ. There’s simply no middle ground.
Today, you might be hearing these words from both James and Jesus and maybe you’re feeling good because you’ve got a list a mile long of good works to accompany your faith. That’s excellent so long as you’re not holding those good works up as a badge of honor or as the way you think God loves you. If you’re serving and loving others well, keep it up, and keep modeling what this looks like for the rest of us.
Maybe you’re not a Christian but you’re curious and want to know more. Maybe you’d even be as bold to say you are like the demons in verse 19—you believe there is a God and maybe you’ve even had the emotional experience of “shuddering,” but you know you’re not following Jesus. Maybe you have a head knowledge of God, like the pious man back in verse 16, but not a saving relationship with Jesus. Wherever you find yourself this morning, the gospel is inviting you to repent, to cross that line of faith, and to walk in newness of life.
