Faith and Works Expanded
James 2:18-20 · Andrew Molloy · May 21, 2023
James, No. 18
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261931205988

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, we're studying the book of James. We're in chapter 2. And we're studying 14 through 26 is the section we're studying. And that is faith and works. And Bob started out the class last week, this section. I'm continuing it. And then I think it's Roy next week, right, Roy? I believe, yep, yep, it's Roy next week. And so my task is verses 18 through 20 today. But I'm going to kind of backfill and review a little too. So I'll read from verse 14 in James chapter 2.

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace and be warmed and filled, and yet you do not give him what is necessary for the body, what use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

But someone may well say, here's verse 18, where we're starting today, You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac, his son, on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected. And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, and Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. And he was called the friend of God. We'll look at that section on Abraham next Sunday, Sunday morning.

Verse 24, you see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead." So that's our task for this week, next week, and I think one more week after that, maybe two, and then we're done with this section in James.

I highlighted in red these words. I didn't get all of them, but just to give you an idea, highlighted is the word dead, highlighted is the word works, believe, and I've highlighted a few justified. There's three justified there that I see highlighted in verses 14 through 26, and works, and faith, and justified, and immediately what happens And that happened to me all week. It always happens. You hear the word dead, works, justified, believe, and your mind goes immediately to salvation, justified, and saving grace, and being justified by grace, and the cross and things. Your mind goes to Romans chapter 3.

But James isn't in that. He's in a different modality here, and we'll look at that. So keep that in mind. My brain kept going there, and I had to keep switching my brain back. It would trip to salvation. I had to trip it back to sanctification mode, basically. So that's what we're doing. Here's a little review of 14 through 17, some background. What use is it, or what does it profit? That's from the King James.

My brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works, can that faith save him? See, in that, your mind immediately goes to what Merriman calls forensic salvation. You know, when you're first saved. If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you comes to them and says, go in peace and be warmed and filled, And yet, you do not give them what is necessary for the body. What use is that? Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

So, in the King James, the word is, what does it profit? That's a little better. That makes a little more sense than the word, what use is it, there in verse 14. James's concern is with the profit or the gain or the advantage or benefit is a good word, benefit manward or towards another believer in Christ. What does a profit, what does this faith profit other believers? That's what he's getting at here. So faith produced good works is by divine design and divine design is generated, its goal is the good towards others or the benefit towards others.

And that's why, hence, that's why James uses this example of this person who's short on clothing, is starving, short on food. This is basic survival. he's in basic survival mode and this person who sends them away with a good word to be warmed and filled doesn't have works, right?

And that is interesting because early, I think it's verse 8, if someone wants to check back at verse 8, he mentions this One of the commandments, love your neighbor as yourself, right? So this ties in back into verse 8. And so when you're not giving a brother or sister or maybe a stranger, if you're not providing for their basic personal needs, food, water, clothing, shelter, if you provide those things for yourself, That's loving yourself. You're taking care of yourself. And that's very basic.

So if someone is lacking those things, he's using that illustration to tie back to that command in might be Deuteronomy. Love your neighbor as yourself. So James asks, can that faith save him? And your question should be save him from what? Does anyone want to take a stab at that?

Okay, coffee hasn't kicked in yet. Save him from it's what we're talking about here is phase two. There's three phases of salvation is what we teach here at Holly Hills. This is not phase one. It's not saving from the eternal penalty of of sin by death in eternity. That's phase one.

And that's what I like that word Merriman uses is forensic salvation. Or forensic justification is the word he uses. It's not that. It's this other mode of salvation. I went off a lot of Merriman's work on this in his little, he has this little missive on this section.

And he says that there's a reciprocity between word-produced works and deliverance of the soul from the consequences of sin, or sin's hang-ups, is what he calls it. So it also ties back into what James was talking about, being doers of the word, and not just tears. And that brings deliverance from the soul.

And what word do you think of when you think of the word deliverance? It's salvation, right? Salvation is deliverance. So we're being saved, but we're being saved after we've been saved, kind of, right? So here again his phase 2 salvation deliverance from the power and the looming hazard of sin in our lives.

And if you think back to verse 21 in chapter 1 of James, he says, receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls. There's the same concept he's using. And preserving under temptation to sin in chapter 1. He says, do not be carried away by lust, and he explained how lust gives birth to sin, and he used some examples, sin, having a quick tongue, he goes into filthiness and wickedness, and showing partiality, we studied that a couple weeks ago, that's all in verse 1.

So this is all being saved from the power of sin and its looming hazard. And the second thing is, so we've talked about saving now, so what kind of faith is James referring to here in this section? And we kind of covered that already, but the audience he's talking to we posit the fact that he's talking to believers who have already been saved by grace.

Phase one salvation. They've been justified. They have justification. Even though James uses the word justification sort of in a different, with a different twist on it, they've been justified by grace, by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, right? So this phase two salvation is also sanctification, being separated from sin, and separated from the power of sin. And phase three, just to review or to remind ourselves, there's going to be a phase three someday, and that's going to be glorification, and that's what you're going to experience when you die, or you're raptured, and that'll be nice.

You know, today's May 21st. It's my dad's birthday today, so he's in glorification mode right now. So if we sang him happy birthday, it'd do no good, because he would not hear it and he wouldn't care. Not one iota about this being his birthday today here on Earth, as he's just in this glorious state, right? So that's glorification.

We're still kind of in the review mode of 14 through 17 here in chapter 2. What does it profit if a brother says, yes, faith, but has no works? So what kind of faith is what we're talking about? Again, we're talking about phase 2 salvation from the power and influence of sin. I'm really hitting that point home, aren't I? A little more than I probably want to do, but It came out that way on the slides.

So faith remains and continues in the Christian life. And it's from faith to faith, right, or from faith to ever, from faith to ever, I should have that, that shouldn't say every right there in that second bullet point, it should say ever, from faith to ever increasing expanses of faith.

That's Romans 1.17, as God reveals his ever-widening aspects of his righteousness. So he shows you more and more your faith expands and grows to what you're exposed to in the Christian life from faith to faith. So this is day-to-day living faith that we maintain. As it says again in Romans 1 17, the righteous man shall live by faith.

It's living faith. Here again, I have the phase two thing. I put that in a lot, this lesson, I didn't realize that, but it's sanctifying faith. It's living the word implanted. It's that sanctification of separating us. from sin, separating us from the old man and the world and the flesh and the devil.

So here's the definition of faith from Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1. It says there that faith is a substance and you can translate substance into the word reality. Faith is the substance or reality of the things of God. Believing God's things that he has done and he will do he saved us.

He baptized us into Christ's death burial and resurrection and our personal faith is just relying on that or depending on that and Relying on Christ who exists now as our righteousness our sanctification and our redemption first Corinthians 130 And Mike, that was a couple of weeks ago. You were wondering where that came to your mind, right? That verse, and you were wondering where that was. Remember that? And then we said, oh. And then we found it. But that's a wonderful verse.

Christ is our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. Any questions? comments or... This point I thought of, and see if you agree with me here, there is an impossible amount of believing to do because God is infinite and has done an unfathomable, unfathomable amount of things. The things he's done is just so vast. So we have to learn these things and that's faith. You have to exercise faith or belief or reliance on those things. And it takes you a lifetime to know what those things are, doesn't it?

And even though they're written in scripture, there's a ton of amount of things that he has done. When he talks about his things, it talks about how he took Israel from Egypt and he led them out of Egypt and he imposed all these plagues on Pharaoh And then he led Israel to the banks of the Red Sea, and they were going to die. But he parted the Red Sea, and they crossed safely. And then when the Egyptians came, and they started going through, then he made the waters come in on them.

And those are all things he's done, things of God. Only God has done those things. And that's what Scripture kind of mentions, these things. And those are all the things. And that's how he describes himself. by the things He has done. Or the hymn, Great Things He Has Done, right? Hey, Andrew? Yeah. Oh, okay. I didn't know if you could hear me.

The verse that you quoted there, 1 Corinthians 1.30? Mm-hmm. I love that verse.

It is preceded of Him, or you, in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness and sanctification and redemption. What really strikes me about this is that it is God's work. He makes Christ unto us. In other words, the impression of Him that we have in His goodness and perfection is God's work. He's glorifying Christ to us.

Isn't that neat? Yeah, and that comes from verse 29? No, it's in verse 30. Oh, okay, so I just truncated some of verse 30 there. But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God, that is Christ of God, is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Wow, yeah, that is a good verse. That is neat.

So we are to go on in faith, growing in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, from 2 Peter 3.18 there. So this is the faith that we're talking about. We've been saved, and now we are being saved. And this is what James is, this is his subject here in this section of scripture. One more verse by way of background and review is chapter 2 verse 17.

Even so faith if it has no works is dead being by itself. So dead means, and we all know this, separation. So he's talking about faith being separated from its works basically, just as when you die, physically, there's a separation of the body from the soul and the spirit. And he'll come to that at the end of this section. We'll look at that.

So by divine design, Faith was not designed to be separate from works. There is to be a production of divine good in life, is what Merriman says. And separating those, or doing one without the other, is just not God's intent. Hence, it is without benefit to believers or mankind. It's profitless. It's useless. So James example again in verse, was that 16? Yeah,

16. The man or the woman who is ill-clothed or malnourished is sent away with just a word of encouragement and you're not addressing the vital need. And that's opposed, and we looked at this again. So this is review. That's opposed to the law principle to love your neighbor as yourself. This is profitless, useless. I repeat myself. Don't die a lot. Well, that's good, because then it hammers it. It hammers it in. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

And so by the third cup of coffee, it'll just What James is talking about here is phase two sanctification, even though so many people, the Roman Catholics, think it has to do with forensic salvation, salvation from hell, and so do the Reformed theologians, Reformed theology.

But it's in very much agreement with Paul. So I've got this section from Titus 3, chapter 3, Titus chapter 3, and Paul just says, remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, and be ready for every good deed. There you have it. Malign no one, be peaceable, gentle, showing consideration for all men, For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. That's a bad list, isn't it?

Verse 4 of Titus chapter 3, But when the kindness of God and his love for mankind appeared, Verse 5, He saved us, not on the basis of the deeds that we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing and regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. That's phase one, salvation. Verse 6, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy statement and concerning these things I want you to speak confidently so that those who have believed God, and here's the critical section, will be careful to engage in good deeds. These deeds or these things are good and profitable, there's our word profitable, for men.

Exactly what James is saying. is what Paul's saying right there in Titus 3.8.

Isn't that great that they match up just perfectly? But it is, isn't it? I can barely read it. But when you go home, take a magnifying glass, and it's there. Or you know what would be cool is if, well, this is not a Mac. On Macs, they do this. But you, yeah. Yeah, but maybe Bill Gates has figured out how to do that yet. So far, who knows? But there it is. So, on to verse 18. And we'll make kind of a fast work of 18 through 21. Since we gave all this background, it'll be fairly simple to go through.

James says, but someone may well say, you have faith and I have works. Well, show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works, is what he says in verse 18. So, setting the scene for this, the scene of verse 18 is there's two people, there's two actors, is how I think of this.

There's a believer, who's a someone. Well, they're both believers. He's referred to as someone in the conversation. He's talking to another believer, a second person. That's the you with the pronoun you. Those are the two actors in the scene. And if you think they're sitting on a park bench under a tree, that's OK. You can think that. But they're talking to each other.

This is called, in Greek, Who's the ancient Greek? Socrates. So this is probably the Socratic method here of setting up this. This is called a diatribe. Now in English, we think of a diatribe as a person going off and just getting all mad. But it used to mean a diatribe between two, they're talking to each other. quite civilly, and they're having a diatribe. So this is what he's doing. He's presenting this diatribe here. Who's not in this scene, nor any of the action going on in verses 14 through 20? Anyone want to take a stab at that? So we have two actors.

Good, good. But some theologians think that one is an unbeliever. But who even might think about, thinking about, it's kind of easy when you think about it. It's God, right? God isn't, he's not in this, these, did you, did you guess that right? Oh, good, good, yeah.

So he's not in this, he's not sitting on the park bench, and he's not over, he's not kind of peering in, he's not up in the tree, Well, he's there, yeah, because he's everywhere. But you know what I mean. He's not a conversant to this scene. So he's not the one being shown any works to prove salvation.

As I say, and have said many times before, the Roman Catholics and the Reformed theologians, they take this passage to mean that. This is just one man or woman's word against another man or woman's word. And Critical and Jimmy in our class brought this paper up. The critical word in this passage is the word say. It is one man saying one thing and another man saying his piece. And that's from Jay and Darby. And they're having a rhetorical conversation. not involving God or eternal salvation or the penalty from sin. Contrast this to what we're studying in the 1030 hour, Romans 3.

God there is doing all the talking. He's quoting himself. Paul is quoting him in the Old Testament as to how mankind has not made the mark, and is sinned, and all man is guilty. God is doing all the talking there. And the words he's using is faith, justification, and salvation. Same words. So, as I explained at the top of the class, my mind was always tripping to that. But trip your little circuit breaker back when that happens. We're talking about this, we're talking about another thing here.

God is able to see and discern the hidden things of the heart. That's from 1 Samuel. Man is not able to see another's faith. And certainly not the hidden things of another man's heart, right? So God is able to see the heart, man is not. And that's what this verse is saying. I can't see your faith But I can see your faith by your works.

Faith needs to take on something substantive to be perceived by man. Hence, it clothes itself in a righteous work or a godly action. And then it is made manifest. Then people can see it. And we'll study that next week when we study Abraham. And he uses that example. Verse 19, you believe, and this is the second person in this conversation, that God is one. You do well.

The demons believe, and they shudder. So when I came to this, I said, what? Demons believe? Can that be true? What are you talking about, James? And then I thought of this thing that Marilyn, not Marilyn, but Merriman, Ron Merriman had in his little circular, Martin Luther said that James is an epistle of straw and destitute of evangelical character. So that's what Martin Luther thought of this book, which is funny. So I put that in because it does sound like when he brings up demons believing, that's a strange thing. So what James is saying is you believe God is one, or you believe you're a monotheist, and he's saying that's good. The person is saying to the other person in the indicative mood, you assert the reality of the fact that you believe there's one God and no others, and that's a good thing.

And here's what he is referencing, Deuteronomy 6.4. The Lord is our God, the Lord is one. And the force of this verse is that's beautiful, that's truly right, that's excellent. Congratulations to you. But, he's asking rhetorically to this person, Do you know that the demons also have faith that God is one?

So much so that they shudder at the knowledge of it. Now what do you think that shuddering business is all about? Does anyone want to take a stab at that? Maybe someone's calling in and... They know their future? They know the answer. They're zooming in.

And I can't find this in any of the commentators, but what I think he's referring to here is this young guy who's possessed by these demons, you know, and he's got no clothes on and he's running around and he's crazy. And the demons and Jesus, they say to Jesus, what business do we have with each other? Jesus, Son of the Most High God, that's demons talking right there. Does that sound like they kind of get it, right? And they say, I beg you, do not torment me. That's demons talking to Jesus Christ. The demon's name is Legion. So there's tons of them in this poor man. They're called Legion.

They were employing him Jesus Christ, not to command them to go away into the abyss. So, does that sound like they're fearful and trembling, and they respect Jesus' authority? I think so. And you have in Revelation, chapter 20, that finally, at the end, He's going to throw them all into the abyss. So they know that. So they, you could say, as as James does, they believe. They believe on those things. They know what scripture said. They know their future, and their future is certain.

And so, James is just making that comparison. Both the you actor in this scene and the demons believe. And that's both in the same tense of Greek, present tense, active voice, indicative mood, which is interesting, that demons and this other persons have the same belief in that way. So the point of verse 19 is the demons believe, too, but their faith is separate, separated or dead, or devoid of good, life-generated good works. profiting mankind. It's not what demons do. They don't profit mankind. And that's God's design. And they're not saved. And it gets kind of hard because they're not saved. So you think that you could, your mind could say that, well, demons aren't saved.

So he must be talking about an unsaved person, but he's, he's not, he's just contrasting. It's really, it's really kind of difficult to impact all this, but he's not using that to say that there's a, like the Catholics do, let's say. He's just contrasting the two things using demons as a point of reference here. Okay, verse 20.

But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? And this is just, a restatement of what he's been talking about here. The word willing is phalo, and the word recognize is the word we know from to know or to gnosko. So with the Greek added, he's saying, are you desirous or wanting to come to be acquainted with, come to know the fact that faith divorced of works is without value in relation to God's design. Uselessness is barren, or barrenness, being barren of anything good.

Constable says it's like, you know, we all live, but we might have a dead organ in our body. I think of the spleen. I don't know if the spleen does, do you know, Margaret, if the spleen does anything? Or it's just, yeah, or that, no, I'm sorry, I think the spleen is a, worthwhile organ. The pancreas. It's the pancreas. Or the gallbladder. I thought the gallbladder. Oh, the pancreas is...

Well, it's the appendix. Oh, say again, Jimmy? The appendix is the one that's not... Appendix, okay. Well, yeah, there's one... So whatever organ it is, there's one... There's one useless organ, and no one knows why it's there. So they... Or the tonsils, yeah. Or that thing that hangs down in the bottom of your throat. Yeah, is that... I guess you need that. But anyway, so he made this example of being alive, but having this dead, non-working organ in your body, is what barrenness is.

So he punctuates this verse in verse 20 with, you foolish fellow, and foolish is kenos, devoid of truth, empty-handed. Or it used to mean empty-handed like you come to a luncheon or something and you don't bring a gift for the host. Well, that's being foolish. But now we kind of think, and I think this is better, it's empty-headed, or you're without It's just being empty-headed or carelessness, let's say. So, are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that, and here's our conclusion, that faith without works is useless. And here's, I tried to be like Wiest here, so here's my stab at it, having faith in the present apart from, and that's chorus in the Greek, apart from showable things or acts or undertakings done in the present, is existing in a state of valuelessness, valuelessness, or unprofitability towards, or manward, towards man. Because that, we have an is there, an imi, see that the faith without works is imi, useless.

So that's existing in the state of uselessness. And I borrowed, again, from Merriman to make my amplification there. And he's really strong on this valuableness or good or benefit towards man as its aim or goal. So I looked at the Strongs, and the Strongs says this. uselessness means.

What do you think this faith without works is? Laziness, shunning the labor one ought to perform leisurely. And he got that from the usage that Homer used in the Iliad. Do you agree with that? So that, boy, then you think, oh boy, I'm a useless, lazy so-and-so. So it doesn't, that gets you into the works the works mode here so but that's what he says but I don't know if that's truly what James is getting at here.

Okay so all that to say I've made a chart here to explain all this and I'll have to see if it stands the test of time but we have the Paul in Romans 3 is talking about justification by means of faith And it's occupied with the root down there. That's what Paul is talking about, the root.

And that which is before God and justification before God. Since God searches the heart and knows every thought, therefore, He does not need to be shown. He knows your faith, so He doesn't need these things. And He's going to determine what you do at the beam of seat judgment, what works are good, what works are valueless. He knows all that.

So what Paul is dealing with in Romans 3 is law works, and James and James 2 is dealing with faith works or life works. So that's the contrast there. James is dealing with that which is before men. Show me is what believers would say to other believers. James is focused on or occupied with the fruit of faith, which is above ground.

And you see the fruit there, the little, I guess, they're apples. And you can see that. See that little man? He can see that fruit. But what he can't see, down in the lower left there, is he can't see faith. Because that's below illustration. A couple commentators use this example of the tree in the vine. He can't see that. So he can't see your dependence or your reliance on the finished work of Christ.

But what he can see is the fruit. And that's all that encapsulates sort of what we're getting at here, if that makes sense. Does that make sense? It's like a mind bender is the Lord prepares all the works. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, right. And so, if you want certain things done, that's right. what our life is going to be, who's going to interact with us. So our works are set for us, and then he's going to give us rewards for doing the works that he prepared us for, that we did. And I think some believers are created for certain good works, other believers are, like I, I'm not a big evangelizer.

I can't, I don't like rejection, right? I don't like to get that snap back, that I don't like It's like putting your finger in a mousetrap and getting zapped. You always get zapped when you talk to unbelievers about the lower right. Some people love that. They kind of thrive on that and are very good witnessers. But I don't think that's my strong suit. But I think I'm comfortable with that. But maybe they'll come along later. Who knows? I don't know. I can credit one person, my wife, to that, but that was pretty easy to do. She was pretty receptive. She didn't snap. She had no negativity like everyone does. So I'm a softie, but the Lord probably has that in mind.

That's probably why my dad, you never saw him get up in front and sing, right? He wasn't in the choir. And you know why that was? Just because you wouldn't want to hear that, right? But he could do other things. So yeah, maybe that's it. So there you go. All right. Any other thoughts? Is that clear as mud? Yeah, right. Good. Okay.

Well, let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this time in James and a difficult passage, but we thank you for your Holy Spirit who provides illumination and guidance into these things. And we thank you for salvation, which is in Jesus Christ. And we pray these things in his name. Amen.