I am way still, in all of life's ebb and flow
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know
Fills my every lung, singing as I, like was red
His cord filled my heart, slumbering chorus
Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know
Singing as I go, on the riches I heard
Sweet song, the cat's kind he ever rears
As I crush him for home, for home
Twice this month, and so one time will be on a Saturday, the second time will be on a Monday
If you'd like to participate also on a Monday, maybe you're not able to come on that Saturday
Just coordinate with Brother Hernandez, and he'll give you details about that
Be in prayer that we get a lot of people saved in TJ
And then the Lady's Prayer Breakfast is on Saturday, April 5th
Meeting at the building at 10am, Ms. Janelle Gonzalez heads that up
And so ladies, if you'd like to participate in that or help in any way, you can see her for more details
The big thing coming up is our Easter service, amen
That's coming up on Sunday, April 20th
And we have invites in the bag that we'd like for you to take when you go out sowing
Or take home and hand out to your friends, family, coworkers, people that you know
And the goal would be to just pack out the house, it's pretty packed right now
But we could do more than this
And so our previous record attendance was 218
We're hoping to hit about 235, maybe 240 this coming Easter
And so be in prayer over that, but we're going to have a breakfast at 945
And so be here nice and early with your visitors to get some breakfast
And then there will also be an Easter egg hunt after the service for the little ones
And so we're excited about that, be in prayer over our Easter service
It's always an exciting time of the year
When we exalt the resurrection of Christ
And it's just a good time to invite people to church
Because they're just more mindful
If they're not going to church, they're more mindful about coming to church
And we want to take advantage and invite them here to First Works
Amen
And so that's exciting, we have the science meetup also
On Sunday, April 27th
After the evening service
One announcement that's not on the bulletin that I'd like to read here
It says in light of Friday's part day
Or lack thereof, should we say
You know, because it was raining
We will have a homeschool craft
Meetup tonight
At a 5pm service
For the kids, so please see Mrs. Mahia
My wife, if you have any questions
About that, hope the kids can make it
Tonight for the craft
Meetup there, and then lastly
Please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching
So as to not be a distraction during
The service, that is it for our announcements
Let's go ahead and sing our next song, 105
Abide with me, oh I'm sorry
106, abide with me
Together nice and strong
On that first verse
Upon time the Lord
We'll sing it at this time the ushers
Will come forward to receive the offering
You can turn your Bibles to James chapter 2
James chapter number 2
James chapter number 2, James chapter 2
The Bible reads
My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ
The Lord of glory, with respect to persons
For if they're coming as your assembly, a man with a gold ring
And goodly apparel, and they're coming also a poor man
In vile remit, and yet respect to him
That weareth the gay clothing and say it to him
Sit thou here in a good place, say to the poor
Stand down there, or sit here under my footstool
Are you not then partial in yourselves
And have become judges of evil thoughts?
Harken, my beloved brethren, hath not God
Chosen the poor of this world rich in faith
And heirs of the kingdom which hath promised to them that love him?
But ye have despised the poor
Do not rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgment seats?
Do not they blaspheme that worthy name
By the which ye are called?
If you fulfill the royal law according to the
According to the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself
You do well, but if you have respect
To persons, ye commit sin and are convinced
Of the law as transgressors
For whosoever shall keep the whole law
And yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all
For he that said, "Do not commit adultery"
Said also, "Do not kill"
Now, if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill
Thou art become a transgressor of the law
So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged
By the law of liberty
For ye shall have judgment without mercy that hath showed no mercy
And mercy rejoiced hath against judgment
What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith
And have not works? Can faith save him?
If a brother or sister be naked in destitute of daily food
And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace
And be ye warmed and filled
Notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body
What does it profit?
Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone
Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith and I have works
Show me thy faith without thy works
And I will show thee my faith by my works
Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well
The devils also believe and tremble
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works
When he had offered Isaac his son?
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works?
And by works was faith made perfect?
And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith,
Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness
And he was called the friend of God
Ye see then, how that by works a man is justified
And not by faith only
Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot
Justified by works, which had received the messengers
And had sent them out another way
For as the body without the spirit is dead
So faith without works is dead also
Let's pray, dear Lord God, thank you again for this opportunity to be in your house
Justified by works, which had received the messengers
And had sent them out another way
For as the body without the spirit is dead
So faith without works is dead also
Let's pray, dear Lord God, thank you again for this opportunity to be in your house
Justified by works, which had received the messengers
And had sent them out another way
For as the body without the spirit is dead
So faith without works is dead also
Let's pray, dear Lord God, thank you again for this opportunity to be in your house
Justified by works, which had received the messengers
And had sent them out another way
For as the body without the spirit is dead also
Let's familiarize ourselves with this particular chapter
Because of the fact that it's always under attack
And often when you talk to people
About the right salvation
About what the Bible says about the Gospel
That it's by faith alone
By believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
That you can't lose your salvation
They'll often come back with, well, James chapter 2 says
That faith without works is dead
And this is actually a very popular chapter
Amongst false prophets
Because of the wording
Now, let me say this is that
The way you're supposed to study the Bible
In regards to a particular topic
Is that you need to go to the book of the Bible
That majors on a specific topic
A doctrine that you are studying
For example, if we wanted to study
The subject of salvation, you don't go to
The book of Proverbs, right?
You don't go to the book of Psalms
Or the book of Ecclesiastes
Or 1st and 2nd Kings
What do you go to? Well, first of all, you go to the New Testament
But specifically, there is a book that's
Laid out for us that explicitly
And clearly communicates
What it means to be saved, and that's the book of John
And if you want to get down deep into
The doctrine of justification
You go to the book of Romans, right?
You say, well, what about the book of James? Because isn't this talking
About salvation? Well, no, actually
It's not. And in fact, the book of James is
Being written to believers
And the importance of believers doing
Works coupled with
Their faith in order to profit others
And we'll get into that in just a bit
But I love the book of James, and I think it's a
Great book. I'm not like Martin Luther
Of the Protestant Reformation that said that
The book of James is the epistle of straw
He actually despised the book of James
And he didn't like it because he felt like
It contradicted the narrative
Of the book of Romans and the
Gospels, but I believe it works
Perfectly in conjunction, and a person
Only walks away thinking that it contradicts the Bible
If they don't know the Bible, right?
But we see that it's actually in
Complete harmony with the rest of
Scripture, and we're going to see this today
By the way, in order for us to even understand
The Bible, we have to read it in faith
Right? And what does it mean to read it in faith?
It means that we know that it doesn't contradict itself
So if you have one passage that says one thing
And another passage that seems
To say something completely different
We're just misinterpreting it, because the Bible
Does not contradict itself, it's written by God
It's in complete harmony
We need to base the one scripture that we're
Not interpreting correctly off of the ten
That essentially coincide with
One another, okay? And so this
Morning, we're just going to go through the entire chapter
And explain the interpretation
Thereof. Now the first thing we're going to look at this morning
Is the sin
Of partiality. What is the sin
Of partiality? It's when you prefer
Someone over another because of the fact
That maybe they're wealthy, they have
Clout, maybe they're famous, they have
Something, a possession, that you
Value, and therefore you prefer
Them over someone who doesn't. That
Is a sin according to the Bible
And that's the first thing that we see
In the book of James. Now
People will claim that verses
17 and 20 mean that if
You claim to have faith, but it's not
Coupled with works, it means that
You're not saved, right? And I'm sure
Many of us, many of you have heard that
Interpretation, like, well, if you don't have
Works with your faith, then you're not
Really saved, okay? But here's the thing
Is that the opposite would be true as well
Wouldn't it? For example, if you claim
To have faith, and you have bad
Works, that also means that you're not
Saved. So if you believe that if you don't
Have good works coupled with your faith, then you
Also have to believe that if you have
Bad works with your faith, then you're also not
Saved. But I want you to notice verse number one
Of James 2. It says, "My brethren,
Have not the faith of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory,
With respect of persons."
So here he's specifically saying
Don't have the faith of Jesus
Christ with partiality. What is
That implying? It's implying that you can have it
With partiality, which is why
He has to command them not to.
The mere fact that the commandment is
In the Bible, not to be a
Respecter of people, not to couple
That with your faith, is an indication
That we as Christians have the
Tendency or have the temptation
To do such a thing, right?
We can have respect of people
With our faith. It's not right to do, which is why
He's commanding against it.
So it's showing us that it's actually possible
To have faith with discrimination.
Okay? Respect of people,
Partiality. This is why He has to command
Not to do it. In fact, look at verse 2.
It says, "For if there come unto you in assembly
A man with a gold ring and goodly
Apparel, and there come in also
A poor man in vile raiment," you know,
He's not necessarily dressed the best.
He doesn't wear
Name brand clothing or whatever
You consider to be vile raiment.
Verse 3 says, "And ye have respect to him that
Weareth the gay clothing." Now let me just clarify
That, okay?
Let's not talk about queer stuff, okay?
He's not coming into church with like a rainbow flag
Wrapped in a rainbow flag or something like that
Or like in daisy dukes or something
I don't know, whatever
Some queer stuff
Gay clothing in the Bible is referring to happy clothing
The homos have
Perverted that word
To mean something that it's not. Gay simply means
Happy. And I'm not saying that you should start using
The word gay to say
Happy because the connotation that it
Has is sodomy, okay?
And so I'm just
Kind of commentating and clarifying what it means
Here. So he says you have respect
To him that we're at the gay clothing. Who's the one with the gay
Clothing? It's not the LGBT
It's referring to the person who has a gold ring
Goodly apparel. He's like oh man
This guy is nicely dressed. This person
Is dressed, you know, to
Impress. He has expensive clothing
And the people in the church are
Respecting that individual because of how they dress
He says in saying to him
Sit thou here in a good place and
Say to the poor stand thou there or sit here
Under my footstool, are you not
Then partial in yourselves and are
Become judges of evil thoughts? So he's
Given this example and apparently
This is taking place in a church
Where maybe the pastor, the church
Leaders, they view two people coming in
One is evidently poor
The other is evidently rich or
Wealthy and then
More attention is given to the person
Who is actually wealthy, he's rich
He has possessions, he looks affluent
Rather than actually paying
Any attention or giving any favor
To the person who is poor and he's saying
You tell the rich guy, hey here's the best
Seat in the house, come sit here
But then you don't give that same attention
That same favor to the poor
He's saying you're judges of evil thoughts
You're being partial, why?
Because the house of God should be without discrimination
In regards to race
Right? In regards to
Economic status
Obviously we're partial when it comes to
False religions, I mean this
Is the house of God where we worship the Lord Jesus Christ
We're not going to
You know, tolerate Hinduism
Buddhism, Islam
Mormonism, Catholicism
You know, we're not going to tolerate
Things that are outside of the word of God, right?
This is obviously referring to
The fact that people are partial with others
Or favor others based upon
Their financial status, their economic status
And he's saying that this is sin
Because you're judges of
Evil thoughts, valuing people
Over their financial wealth because they're affluent
And in fact, look at chapter 3 if you would
Look at chapter 3
And look at verse 17, it says
But the wisdom that is from above is
First pure, then peaceable
Gentle, and easy to be
Entreated, full of mercy
And good fruits, listen to this
Without partiality, and without hypocrisy
So obviously the wisdom of God
Teaches us that when a person
Comes through the church doors
They come to hear the word of God
That they should be treated kindly
That we should be gracious with them
We should seek to win them to Christ
If they're already one to Christ
We should seek to teach them the word of God
And we should not be partial based upon how they dress
How they look, how rich they are
Or how poor they are
Why? Because the wisdom from above
Is without partiality
Go back to chapter 2 if you would
Chapter 2, I'm going to read to you from 1 Timothy 5.21
It says, "I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ
And the elect angels
And observe these things without preferring
One before another, doing nothing
By partiality." Again
Showing us that we are not to be a respecter of people
Look at verse 5, verse 5 says
"Hearken my beloved brethren, hath not God
Chosen the poor of this world rich in faith
And heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised
To them that love him? But ye have despised
The poor, do not rich men oppress you
And draw you before the judgment seats
Do not they blaspheme that worthy name
By which, by the which ye are called."
Now what is he saying? He's saying
Really what you should be doing
Is favoring the poor. Now why
Does the New Testament teach that we should go
To the poor or favor the poor
In regards to the message of God? I'll tell you why
Because poverty creates humility
And humility is necessary
In order to be saved
You know the hardest people to get saved are rich people
The hardest people to win to Christ
Are people who are affluent, who have money
Why? Because they're trusting in their riches
They have covetousness in their heart
It's hard to get them saved, they feel like they have
Everything that they need, whereas the person who's poor
The person who's not financially well off
That person is more open to the gospel
They ain't got nothing
They're willing to give you their time
They're willing to give you their attention
And they're humble enough to recognize
I need salvation because they don't have anything
And by the way, side note
This is why when we go and preach the gospel
We go to the poor neighborhoods
Also known as the ghettos
You shouldn't call it ghetto, I grew up in the ghetto, I can call it ghetto
You know, we go to the ghetto areas and guess what
That's where we see the majority of people saved
100 percent of the time
You know, and most of you know if you've gone
Soling in Anaheim Hills or these areas
You know, it's not very fruitful
People here are very affluent, they have money
And typically they're not interested in listening to the gospel
So we like to go to Compton
We like to go to South Central
We like to go to East LA
Now we need to start going to San Bernardino
You know, all these other areas because they're
Very receptive in those areas
And a lot of those people are near death anyways
I remember going to South Central
And I witnessed to a blood
You know, he was a gang member and he was
Flamed out from head to toe
And he ended up getting saved and he was like
Ready for the gospel and he was in tears thereafter
And I'm thinking to myself like you were
A blood before but now though you're
Washed in the blood of the lamb
But it could be that this man was just
Near death all the time, you know
And I've witnessed to many gang members who are very
You know, they're about that life
And they're extremely receptive to the gospel
And you kind of have to ask yourself maybe it's because
In the environment that they're in
It's not conducive to just living, but
It is conducive to the gospel, okay
So this is why he's telling them
That the poor of this world
Are actually rich in faith
They're actually willing to listen to the gospel
More readily than those
Who are actually rich in this world
And he's specifically
Rebuking them because he says in verse 6
That the rich men
Whom they're favoring
The rich men whom they're being
Respecter of people of
These same men are those who are
Oppressing them and drawing them
Before the judgment seats
Now the implication here
That he's referring to is that he's talking about
The Jews
And specifically the Pharisees
So like you have Pharisees and Jews
Coming into the house of God
And they have goodly apparel
They have the long robes
The phylacteries and they're rich
Oh because they devour widows houses, that's why
Just read Matthew 23
These people are covetous, they're greedy
They're wicked of that manner
And they're coming into the house of God
They're expecting Christians
To give them favor
And to worship before their feet, right?
Even though they're the ones who are guilty
Of arresting these same Christians
Bringing them before the judgment seats
And persecuting the righteous
And in fact, how do you know that that's what he's referring to?
Look at verse 7
That worthy name by which ye are called
And what does Revelation 2 and 3 talk about?
It talks about those who say they're Jews and are not
But are the synagogue of Satan
And he says that they blaspheme
Right? They're blasphemous
They blaspheme the Lord Jesus Christ
And look, you can study who the adversaries were
Of the New Testament, you'll see that it was the Jews and the Pharisees
They're the ones who are persecuting the righteous
They're bringing people before the judgment seats
They are persecuting them
So these guys are coming into the church
And the pastors
Of those churches, the leaders are just like
Oh, you know, Rabbi
Come sit right here
Don't get your robe all dirty
And then they tell the
Gentile believer, go sit in the back or something
Now here we have families go sit in the back
But that's because we're actually favoring them
Because that way they can make a
Beeline into the mother/baby room if they have to
Look at verse 8 if you would
He says, "If you fulfill the royal law according to the
Scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself
You do well, but if you have respect to persons
he commits sin, and are convinced of the law
as transgressors."
So I want you to notice two things here
Number one is that the Bible obviously commands us
to love our neighbor as ourselves
and he says if you do that, you're doing well
However, if you're not doing that, then by default
you're being a respecter of people
So we know that being a person of partiality is a sin
Therefore, not
completing the royal law is also a sin
Because he that knoweth to do good
and doeth not to him it is sin
So if you're a person
you're like, well I don't drink, I don't smoke
I don't run with those that do
I don't commit those particular sins
Yeah, but then there's a bunch of other sins you have to worry about
which are the sins of omission
Meaning you omit actually
obeying the law, obeying the commandments of God
loving your neighbor as yourself
So this is showing us that it's possible
to be saved
and still be guilty of sin
and be saved
Because does anyone here love their neighbor as themselves
100% of the time?
Yeah, but you gotta do it sometimes though
Oh, I'm sorry, the standard in the Bible is not sometimes
I don't know where you get this "sometimes" standard
Yeah, but you should do that
You should be doing it
Yeah, but when do you do it all 100% of the time?
You know, the greatest command is to love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength
Do you know anybody who does that 100% of the time?
Yeah, but we should love God
Hold on a second, yeah, but the standard that you have
for loving God is not the same standard of the Bible
which is why all have sin and come short
of the glory of God
and listen to this, there's not a just man upon earth
that doeth good and sinneth not
So what is James 2 telling us here?
It's telling us that we
can have faith with partiality
we shouldn't, but it's possible
to have that, and even if you
strive not to have partiality
not to have bad works
with your faith, eventually you will
You say, well how do you know? Well look at verse 10
"For whosoever shall keep the whole law
yet offend in one point, he is
guilty of all." So hold on a second
If you are an
outstanding Christian who obeys
that one law, what about the rest of the laws?
Because according to the Bible, if you've kept
nine of the ten, which is more than ten commandments
But let's just narrow it down to those
ten commandments. If you keep nine of those ten
according to God, you're guilty of all
ten. Just because you violated that one
It sounds like God's standard is perfection!
And this is why
in order to be saved, we have to
what? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
Why? Because Jesus, no one's going to deny this
Jesus is the only one who's able to keep all of God's commandments perfectly
because He is God
We don't enter into Heaven
We don't get eternal life based upon our works
and our capability of keeping God's
commands. Why? Because no one's been able to do that
You've offended the law
I've offended the law
The law was meant to show us that we need a Savior
Whereas because Jesus Christ has kept the law
perfectly, because He's a perfect man, a sinless
man, when we believe on Him
the Bible tells us that His righteousness
His perfection is imputed
unto us, it's given to us
Therefore, when God sees us, He doesn't see us
through our righteousness, because they're as filthy rags
according to the Bible, He sees us through the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. So verse 10 is
a powerful verse to use when you're out souling
you know, when you're out preaching the gospel
to essentially convince people that they're
sinners, and that it doesn't matter
how many laws you keep
how many commandments you're able to do, at the end of the day
if you've offended in one point, you're guilty of all
and you know, every once in a while you run into
an arrogant, prideful person
who just says they've never sinned or something like that
and then you can just tell them, like, well you just sinned right now by lying
so, there you go
and by the way, the Bible says that the thought of foolishness is sinned
and no one's gonna say they've never thought of a stupid thought
a foolish thought, we've all had
and so, obviously
the Bible's constantly showing us
God's standard of perfection
to essentially show us that
we're not worthy of eternal life
our works cannot merit salvation
we need it through Jesus Christ
so partiality is a sin
and let me just remind us as a church
we should never be partial with anybody
who comes to our church
if someone comes into
our church with gay clothing
and by the way
in the day and age in which we live
that's probably going to happen more often
and I'm using gay the way we would use it today
because a lot of kids
they're just being influenced by a lot of sodomite stuff
and they're going to come in here
and they might look a little weird
they just look like they're a part of the world
maybe they're tatted from head to toe
maybe they have piercings all over their face
or you know, whatever
they just look different
the attitude should never be like, well, I'm not going to talk to this person
you know, I'm not going to try to reach out to this person
what is this person thinking
coming to a fundamental baptist church
I'll tell you what they're thinking, they're thinking they're going to find the truth
now look folks, if that person comes
rejects the gospel, doesn't want to get saved
hates the church, then there's the door, right?
we don't force people to stay
but hold on a second, if a person is looking for the truth
to the right place though, and we should not be partial
and think to ourselves, well this person
would never get saved, or something
I'm not going to talk because they would never get saved
and when you're out sowning, you should also have that same attitude
you know, you see some biker out there
some gangster
someone who doesn't look like
a fundamental baptist
they're probably the most likely person
to get saved on that route
and so look at people through the lens
of scripture and recognize
that they're a soul in need of salvation
and look beyond what they look like
on the outward. Look at verse 11
so we see the sin of partiality
but we also are going to see here
that saving faith, and when I say saving faith
I'm referring to faith that is placed in
Jesus Christ for salvation
saving faith can save the spirit
but it cannot save the flesh
that's important to note there. Saving faith
can save your spirit, but it cannot
save the flesh. Now look at verse
11. It says, "For he that said
do not commit adultery, said also
not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery
yet if thou kill thou art become a transgressor of
the law. So speak ye and so do
as they that shall be judged
by the law of liberty. For he
shall have judgment without mercy
that hath showed no mercy
and mercy rejoiceth against
judgment. What doth it profit, my
brethren, though a man may say he
have faith and have not works?
Can faith save him?" So in its
context, it's referring to those
who are transgressors of the law and the specific
laws that it's highlighting is murder
and adultery, which according to the
Bible are worthy of death.
Right? They're capital crimes worthy of death.
And so if a Christian is guilty
of these things, guess what? Your faith
in Jesus Christ is not going to save your hide
from dying. That's what it's saying. Because
can faith save you from the
mistakes you make this side of eternity?
Can faith save you from,
you know, dying a
horrible physical death? From being
punished by the consequences of your
actions? Absolutely not. Faith saves
you from hell, right?
And obviously we know that ultimately it does save
your flesh through the resurrection
long into the future. But the immediate
consequences to your actions,
it's not going to save you from that. So in other words,
yeah, you can be saved, but no, you can't
live however you want without consequence.
And this is the accusation that sometimes
people present. They're like, oh, you're saying you can be
saved and just live however you want. And it's just
like, well, you live however you want. What are you talking about?
Every person who says that lives however they want.
Like, you're saying that I can be saved and live however I want.
Well, you're not even saying you're saved and you still live however you want.
You live however you want no matter what.
What we're saying is that if you're saved,
you're not going to go to hell. And if you're saved,
God's going to chastise you
for your transgressions here
on this earth. Now go to Hebrews chapter 10.
Hebrews chapter 10. So he says, have
not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ
with respect to people. Don't be a partial person.
Don't have bad works with your faith.
Don't be a bad testimony to this world.
Don't be a person who says that they're saved,
but then you're smoking pot on the weekends,
you're drinking, you're smoking,
you're living a godless lifestyle.
You know, what are you doing?
You are adding bad works to your faith.
You're like a troubled fountain,
a troubled spring,
that is a bad testimony to this world.
You know, the Bible says, "Ye are our epistles
written in our hearts, known and read of all men."
And it's true, sometimes you'll be the only
Bible that people will ever read. That is true.
You know, because people see you, they know that you're
a Christian, they're not going to pick up a Bible and read it.
They rely on you, right?
To tell them about the Word of God. And the Bible says, "Let your
light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
So we never want to have this attitude, "Well, I'm
saved, and so therefore I'm not going to really
care what my testimony is like.
I'm not going to really care about my behavior."
Hold on a second, the New Testament also
emphasizes the importance of having good conduct.
And in fact, the last time I checked, the Bible says,
"Be holy, for I am holy."
Now, why do we do that? Why do we live a holy life?
Is it to maintain our salvation? No, because that was
taken care of long ago when we believed on
Jesus Christ. We live
righteously. We live holy.
We live with proper conduct. Number
one, because we want to please the Lord.
Number two, we don't want to suffer the consequences of
having bad conduct. And number three, we don't
want to give Christianity a bad name,
right? We want to be a good testimony
to those around us
in hopes that they would come to the saving knowledge of
Jesus Christ. They're willing to talk to
us about the Gospel because they see that there's
something different about us. So it's important
not to be a worldly, carnal,
fleshly Christian.
It's impossible not to be 100% of
the time, but you can strive to be, you can endeavor
to be, and not have bad works
with your faith, right? The point that I'm making
here is that as a Christian,
if you sin, and you're unrepented
of that sin, guess what? God will punish
you. Not with eternal damnation,
because the Bible says, "I give unto
them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand." But hold on
a second, He can severely punish you here
on this earth. Look at verse 26 of Hebrews 10.
Here's another passage that people will try to
use in conjunction with James 2 to try to teach
that you can lose your salvation. It says,
"For if we sin willfully after that we
receive the knowledge of the truth, there
remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
but a certain fearful looking-for of judgment
and fiery indignation which shall devour the
adversaries. He that despised
Moses' law died without mercy
under two or three witnesses." So let me give you
some context of what He's talking
about here. Because people only want to focus on
that if we sin willfully after
they've received the knowledge of the truth, they're remaining no
more sacrificed for sins. Well, let me just clarify
something here. The sacrifice for sins
is actually not talking about Jesus, which
is what people think it's referring to. The
context of Hebrews chapter 10 is
the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament.
So when people would commit
sins, transgressions in
the Old Testament, they had the system
whereby they would offer an animal sacrifice
in the morning or in the evening in
order to atone for those transgressions.
And this is something that was happening
like 24/7, like every single day.
Just constant barbecue.
Constant burnt offerings.
Because people sin all the time.
So if you're sinning all the time, you're always going to have animal sacrifices.
Because it's just like, "Oh man,
I transgress against my brother. Let me offer
a lamb. I transgress against
my neighbor. Let me offer this."
People in Israel
understood that there are sinners. And that their sin
needs to be atoned for, for that particular
transgression. Well, in the
New Testament, the system of animal sacrifices
no longer exists. It's been done away
with. Why? Because Jesus Christ is the
ultimate official sacrifice
for the sins of the world. He is the lamb of God
who should take away the sins of the world.
He is essentially the perfect
offering whereby no more offerings
need to be made, right? So when he
says here that if someone sins
willfully, just as in the Old
Testament, well, you're not under that Old
Testament system whereby you can offer
an animal sacrifice to atone
for that transgression of the day. There
remains no more sacrifice for sins. Jesus Christ
has already been sacrificed, but hold on a second,
now you've committed a sin willfully
and a punishment needs to be
instituted. And he says in verse 27,
"A certain fearful, looking for a judgment, firing
indignation." Verse 28, "He
that despised Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses."
So let me just remind you that in the Old
Testament, if a person committed a
transgression such as murder, guess what?
An animal sacrifice could not atone
for that. Why? Because in the Old Testament
murder was punishable by
death, right?
Adultery was punishable by
death. So even if they had
animals to sacrifice, that wasn't
enough. They had to pay the ultimate price, which is
death. So what is he talking about specifically?
He's saying if there was someone in the
Old Testament that was committing a
transgression, they committed a capital
crime worthy of death, guess what?
They died under two or three
witnesses. So what are we talking
about specifically here? We're talking about people
who physically died. So even though they
were Israelites, even though they believed on
the Lord, guess what? That didn't
exempt them from suffering the
punishment of certain transgressions
that essentially called for them
dying physically on this earth. Now what does this
teach us in the New Testament? It teaches us, folks,
if you commit murder, you
commit a grievous sin, a grievous
crime, you being saved doesn't
save you from that, from the consequences of it.
Plain and simple. You know, if you are
a criminal, if you're a murderer,
if you're an adulterer,
if you are, if you participate
in any types of crimes
that our country, for example, would
deem as punishable by death, which I don't even know
if we put people to death anymore. You're going to suffer
the consequences of your actions. And let
me just say this. In my experience, I've
learned that even though the country
does not institute the death penalty
speedily for a particular
crime, God will, so you commit
a particular crime that maybe is not
worthy of death in the United States of
America. It's still worthy of death in God's
eyes. God has no issue with
killing you. Let me just repeat that again.
God has no issue with killing you
if you commit some sort of crime that
is worthy of death. You say, "I
don't think that'll happen." Do you want to roll the dice
on that though? You know, last time
I checked, the Bible says not to tempt the Lord our God.
And in fact, look at what verse 29 says
of how much sore punishment. Man,
what do you mean sore punishment? This guy died
under two or three witnesses. Meaning they're
being stoned by two or three witnesses. And he's like
of how much sore
punishment, meaning how much worse of a
punishment. Suppose ye shall ye be thought worthy
who hath trodden under the foot of the Son of God
and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was
sanctified an unholy thing and hath
done despite into the spirit of grace
for we know him that hath said
vengeance belongeth unto me
I will recompense sayeth the Lord
and again the Lord shall judge
his people. So this is interesting because we often
quote that regarding our enemies.
Vengeance is mine sayeth the Lord
I will repay and that's definitely
applicable in the Bible
to the enemies of God but hold on a second
apparently it's applicable to us too because the Bible
ends the verse in verse 30 with saying
the Lord shall judge who? His people.
He will strike vengeance upon
you. He's willing to destroy
you and just as the person
who died under two or three
witnesses well guess what you get a worse
punishment because we're in the New Testament
we have both Old and New Testament we have
the Bible we have church we have so much
knowledge of the things of God
and to whom soever much is given of him shall be much required
you say what is the finishing
give me the closing thought on that point pastor
ok look at verse 31 it is a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of a living God
that's a fact. What keeps us right
with God? There's a lot of things that keeps us right with God
being rewarded of God being blessed
of God but I'll tell you one thing that keeps us right
with God I don't want to fall into
the hands of a living God to be punished
by him and by the way this applies
across the board to everyone not just Christians
God will punish unsaved people
as well you know there's
people that have attacked us
have attacked me in times past
and God smote them you know back
I don't know if brother Mark was 2019
2018 or something like that
we held a conference out in
Ohio and it was called the fundamentalist
conference and it was just a conference about
soul winning preaching the Bible
we're trying to reach the people who are there give them a
conference and it was great we go
there but there's this enemy of ours
an online enemy that
made it his agenda
to just shut us down every
single venue we went to so brother
Marcus and I we went we set up all the live
stream we purchased the venue
and as soon as everything set up they're like you
guys gotta get out of you guys can't be here anymore we gotta
call the guy had infiltrators
come and harass us
we literally went to like three different
venues so we started in Ohio
we had to finish the conference in Kentucky
no joke and this guy would make videos
rejoicing how he shut us down
and I'm thinking man this is so evil
we're not even preaching anything controversial
we're literally just winning people to
Christ we're preaching the gospel
we're talking about the fundamentals of the
faith and this guy is just constantly
attacking us shutting
us down protesting
harassing us sending people to the venue
and I'll be honest with you I was
upset because you know it was just
it was just like a lot of hard work
Kevin right here right here brother Kevin
so then you know I get home
and I'm mad and
I strongly believe in imprecatory prayers
because the Bible teaches it so one way to
relieve that stress is through those imprecatory prayers
I was like Lord smite that person they try
to stop us from preaching the gospel like that's
the most evil thing you can do is
try to stop someone from getting another person
saved and I'm like smite that person
and we prayed as a church literally
two months after that the man was
brutally murdered he was
bludgeoned to death okay he's bludgeoned
to death and by the way he we weren't the only
ones he attacked he attacked many churches his
job like that he took upon himself is
to just judge you know to
harass churches and all these things he was
brutally murdered and they end up trying to pin
the murderer on like me and so I'm like
I prayed I prayed I had
nothing to do with it you say
why would you share a story like that to show you
that vengeance belongs into God and he will
repay and you say well you shouldn't have prayed that
well God answered it though so let me if
I shouldn't have prayed that then why did God answer it
prayed according to his will if it was
a wrong thing to pray then he
would be here with us today but he's not
and you know what this is happening again by the way
there's another guy who
sued me for preaching against
him he attacked all types of churches
he did all types of wickedness
against churches and now this
same man has six months to live because he
has an incurable disease the doctors
don't know what to do an incurable disease
that's killing him slowly and painfully
and this man was evil I'm talking about
I'm in a church service and he's
literally causing people to come
into our church service to serve me papers
on the pulpit to shame me in front
of the internet and everyone else and rebuke
me and he's filming it
he's passing the footage around
they're stealing money from churches
they're hijacking churches they're harassing
churches well now he has this incurable
disease and doctors are like we don't know what to do
you have six months to live lesions on his
body that are bursting and turning
into gangrene call the judgment of god
hey it's
a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living
god you say why do you serve god
because like
i got a better question why don't
you serve god you're crazy
i want to be on god's good side and by the
way let me just clarify i don't believe god's in heaven
just looking for a chance to just smite us
the lord loves us he's our heavenly
father we're his children and let me just say this
god is very gracious he's slow
to anger he's merciful
he's patient with all of us
i mean we could all attest to that
but let me just say this there comes a time when you
can push god too far let me read to you from first
corinthians 3 15 it says if any
man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss
go to first john chapter 5 but he
himself shall be saved yet so as by fire
know ye not that ye are the temple of god and the
spirit of god dwelleth in you if any man
defile the temple of god listen to this him shall
god destroy for the temple of god
is holy which temple ye are so
you know i know we hear a lot about the love of god
and the grace of god but we also need to know about
the judgment of god you know god is
judgmental he is righteous
and you know what don't mess with god
don't mess with god don't mess with
his people don't mess with his church
don't mess with his ministry don't
mess with the gospel because he's vengeful
he can smite you with the botch
that no doctor can cure
you of it's an incurable disease
i don't want that and you know what there's people in the
bible who were saved who got those same things
like i didn't i didn't i've never seen that side of god
probably because you just never read the bible though
there's a lot of positive in the bible but
can i get a witness that there's like a lot of
negative in the bible too
a lot of people that die a lot of people
that god just destroys and smites
and it's a side of god that many
churches today don't want to highlight at all
because they want to think that he's just up in heaven
and he's happy with everyone he's not angry
with anybody folks the bible says that the lord
is angry with the wicked every day that's what the bible
says and you know what he's worthy to be feared
because he does stuff like that look at first john
chapter 5 verse 16 if any man see his brother
verse 16 if any man see his brother sin a
sin which is not unto death he shall
ask and he shall give him life for them that
sin not unto death there is a
sin unto death i do not
say that he shall pray for it
so according to the bible there's certain people that can cross the
line and die because
of their sin this doesn't mean that their salvation
would be taken away doesn't mean they'll lose eternal
life because you can't lose eternal life but they
can just die you know well you know if they
die they just go to heaven yeah of course they will
because they're saved but hold on a second what about leaving
a legacy of being a byword and a proverb
of someone who God judged that's not fun
look at Hebrew chapter 12 Hebrew chapter 12
so look folks your faith can save you
from hell but your faith cannot save you
from your bad decisions your faith
cannot save you from your unrepentant
sin your faith cannot save you
from nonsensical things
that you do if you're being rebellious
against God you're fighting against
God you're being stubborn against God
God can't save you from that how about Saul
you know he was saved but he wasn't spared
that judgment so this should
motivate us to keep us
in line with God to strive
to do our best to serve the Lord to love the
Lord our God with all our heart soul mind and strength
because again God is not up in heaven just waiting
to rain down the hammer on us
in fact the complete opposite he's
up in heaven wanting to bless us he wants
to show himself strong on the behalf of them
whose heart is perfect with them right
he wants us to call upon him
and to pray unto him
and ask him to show us miracles
and to use us greatly
to bless our families our marriages
our children our church he wants all that
but hold on a second there's also this other
side where he will chastise
you if you get involved in sin
and you're unrepentant of it
he will and can destroy you
look at Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
number 5 it says and ye have forgotten the
exhortation which speaketh unto you
as unto children my son despise
not thou the chastening of the Lord
nor faint when thou art rebuked of him
now what does it mean to be chastened? it means to be spanked
okay it's a whooping
a chastening what do you call it in Spanish? it's um
what's the word? I can't believe I forgot it
what is it? what's the Spanish word?
Castigar, this is a different
word though it's a word my mom used
to use on me I can't remember what it was
and what is it saying here? it's saying you forgot
you forget that God
deals with you as unto children
now I don't know if you know this but God doesn't do like
this helicopter you know
parenting or this time out
parenting no no no
don't do that no no no stop
no no oh you're bad
he's like pshhh now obviously
he tells us through his word no don't
and what the bible is telling us here is that
God deals with us as unto children
meaning that he actually spanks his children
unlike some parents
and we all know we've all seen
in this society parents who don't spank their children
you know what happens when children don't get spanked
they become spoiled brats
disrespectful spoiled brats
who are a thorn in
this society they have no problem with
disrespecting their elders disrespecting their
parents they're brazen in their
sin and many of them go to prison
too you know why cause they're never whooped
you say why are you a pastor cause I got whooped
that's why why aren't you
in jail cause I got whooped why aren't
you in drugs and a gang member
cause I got whooped my mom
whooped me and I'm thankful that my
mom whooped me you know because it
deters you from a lot of bad decisions
punishment is necessary
for us to make sure we get right
and I know some of you didn't grow up
getting spanked I get it you know some of you are
just like well my mom never spanked me we know
my dad never spanked me I know
you're
an epistle known and read of all men
we know you weren't spanked but hold on a second you gotta
change though you have to change
and you gotta make up for lost time
and you gotta make up for discipline that maybe you didn't
get as a child now that you're a Christian
and by the way it's okay if your parents
if you're an adult now and your parents didn't
whoop you that's okay God's gonna whoop you if you get
out of line okay cause that's what the Bible says
look what verse 6 says for whom the Lord
loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth
every someone he receiveth so God's
not whooping you because he hates you he does it because he
loves you because if God never
chastise you you'd just be making all
kinds of bad decisions get involved
in all kinds of sin with no
consequence you destroy your life but
when we are punished when we are
chastised it causes us to be humble and
get wrapped back on the right track
and the Lord loves us and you know
obviously we don't feel that way
when we're getting chastised by our
parents or by God right we don't think
like man God loves me finances are
destroyed God loves me man everything's
going horrible in my life the love of
Christ no one thinks that immediately
but we know that later it yields the
peaceable fruits of righteousness it
says in verse 7 if you endure chastening
God deals with you as with sons for what
the father chastened is not now that's a good
question for this society like you're the dad
why aren't you spanking them because the Bible says
what son is there that doesn't have a dad who whoops
him that's like the natural course of things
he says in verse 8 but if you be without
chastisement were of all our partakers
listen to this then are you bastards
and not sons so what's a bastard
it's someone who is an illegitimate
child and what the Bible's saying here is
that if a Christian claims
to be a Christian they claim to be saved but
they're just never chastised by God
for their sin according to the Bible
they're probably not even saved. They're an illegitimate
child of God, they're not a child
of God, they're illegitimate and that's
an indicator of that is the fact that they're not being
chastised by God. Now I don't think it's our job
to go around and go to backslidden people and be like
hey if you're not getting chastised you're
a bastard you know, you're just illegitimate
I don't think you're saved because
let's just be honest people who are
saved who are out there in sin
and who are in the world
they're not going to tell you that
they're being chastised of God
they're going to be like, oh no it's going great
everything's going fantastic, you know, God's good
but inwardly they're just dying
you don't know what's going on behind the scenes
the point is here is that
God can punish you
and you know what, you being saved does not
save you from God's hand of chastisement
even to the point where He might kill you
and look, it's repeated, go back to James
we see this over and over again
in the Bible that God has
killed people over
and over and over again
He's not to be trifled with
He's not to be messed with, He's not to be tempted
He's not to be disobeyed
and this is why it's important that
at the beginning of your day, at the end of your day
you just get right with the Lord
and you examine your heart and say, Lord
search me, see if there's any wicked way in me
I want to be right with you, forgive me for my sin
I want to make sure
that I'm living a life that's pleasing unto you
I want to clear myself with you
keep a clean heart before God
so we see here
that James 2 is teaching that partiality is a sin
it's also teaching us that saving faith
cannot save the spirit
but not the flesh
and then we see that faith without works
is unprofitable
which also means dead
it's used interchangeably actually
look at verse 15
so what is dead used synonymously with in verse 16?
profit
now what are these passages teaching?
well before I tell you what it teaches, let me tell you what it's not teaching
because I've heard this
if I had a dime for every time someone said this to me
we would have our building already
people will say, you know, we tell them
hey, the bible says
for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves
it is the gift of God, not of works
lest any man should boast
the bible says
for by works of righteousness which we have done
but according to his mercy, he saved us
the bible says
but to him that worketh not
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly
his faith is counted for righteousness
the bible says, therefore we conclude
that a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law
and they're like, yeah, but faith without works
is dead though
so does faith without works is dead negate
all the verses that I just showed you?
should we just
sorry, my bad
alright, I didn't think of that
let me just cross out every single verse
in the bible that says not of works
my bad, let me just, you know what you're right
and what they're implying is that they contradict
now look, logically we would say
we know the bible doesn't contradict
but logically we would say
if five verses are saying the same exact thing
and one doesn't seem to fit the
narrative of that five, we still go with
the five, but here's the
logical reasonable explanation is
if five verses are saying the same exact thing
and one seems to not fit that narrative
we're misinterpreting that one
because the bible doesn't contradict itself
yeah, but James 2 says
can you find James 2 though?
if I handed you a bible without you going to
the table of contents, can you just pull up James chapter 2
for me? No, because most of them are just
parroting what other preachers are saying
so what's the context of this? He's saying
that if you claim to have
faith, but a brother or sister comes
to you in need, and you don't give
them those things that are needful for the body, your
faith is dead. In other words, your
faith is unprofitable for that person.
You being saved doesn't help a person get
fed, doesn't help a person get
clothed, if you don't do something about it.
That's what it's saying. Because he says, "Even so,
faith, if it hath not works, is dead being alone." And again,
what is the context of James 2? Have
not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ
with respect of persons.
And then we see here that we should
have faith with works.
But in both cases, we always have faith.
So what is the theme
of this chapter? The theme is, we all have
faith because we're saved, but some of us
have bad works with our faith,
sin, and some of us don't even have
works. And the goal would be
to not have partiality, not have sin,
but to have good works. Why? To profit
other people. Not, or
adding bad works to our faith doesn't
profit you because it might kill you.
If you're saved, guess what?
If you do the wrong things, being saved
does not save you from God's hand of chastisement.
You can still die from it. But let me also
say this, you know, having faith and not
having works doesn't profit anybody else.
Don't be a selfish, self-centered Christian.
That's what it's saying. I mean, there's no other
way we can interpret these three verses here.
And in fact, there's literally nothing about salvation
here. Nothing. Absolutely nothing about
salvation in these three verses. It's all about
clothing and food. And
let me just remind everyone here
that not everything in the Bible is about salvation.
Now there's a good chunk dedicated
to explaining salvation, but let me just remind
you, not everything is about salvation because guess what?
Once you get saved, there's a bunch of other stuff to learn.
Every page in the Bible is not about salvation because God
wants you to learn how to be a good Christian. He wants
you to learn how to live out the
Christian life. And that's what James chapter 2 is all about.
So he says, if you don't have
works, meaning you don't give
your brother or sister food
and clothing, raiment, then
you being saved is like a dead faith
because it's not working at all. For example,
you know, if I had a vehicle, but my
vehicle does not have gas, does
not have oil, does not have the necessary
you know, functions in order
to like go from point A to point B,
does that negate the fact that it's a car? It's still a
car. It just doesn't work.
Right? You know, there's a bunch
of people out there who like, their
hobbies like constructing vehicles,
classic cars,
and they just sit in their garage. They don't go
anywhere. Some of them might not even have a motor
to go inside. But it's still a car!
Like you wouldn't look at it and say there's no car here.
You wouldn't go to that garage and say
you want to see my car? What car?
All I see is an object.
Well no, it's a car. It's just not
running right now because I haven't really fixed it to go from
point A to point B. That's not a car then.
A car goes from point A to point B. And you know what?
There's some truth to that. But here's the thing though.
It's still a car though. It's still a car!
And you know what? The same thing goes with us as Christians.
We're saved if we believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now the second question is, are you
a working Christian though? If you're not,
you're just a saved person. Because you're not
profiting anybody else. So saving
faith profits you, but a working
faith saves other people,
profits other people. Look at verse 18.
Actually let me read to you from Titus chapter 3
and verse 7 before we read on here.
It says, "That being justified by his grace
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal
life." Let's talk about salvation.
It says, "This is a faithful saying,
and these things I will, that thou
affirm constantly, that they
which have believed in God
might be careful to maintain
good works." So it's like if you're saved
you've got to make sure that you maintain good works. Why?
These things are good and profitable
unto men. So he's saying
they're like, hey, if you believe
you have faith and you're saved, that's
great, but you've got to make sure you remind people
to maintain good works
because that's profitable
for other people. Sounds to me like God
wants us to be like a functioning
Christian, right? A profitable
Christian, not an unprofitable servant
but a profitable servant, someone who
benefits others through the Gospel
through being a blessing to others, right?
That's what it's saying. He goes on to say in verse 14
"Let ours also learn to maintain
good works for necessary uses
that they be not unfruitful."
So to profit means to be
beneficial, to benefit others. God
wants people to benefit from us as being as Christians.
Look at verse 18. "Yea, a man
may say, Thou hast faith, and I have
works. Show me thy faith without
thy works, and I will show thee my
faith by my works." Now what is this
referring to here? Well he says, you know, a person
can say, they have faith, I have
works, show me your faith without your works.
So how do you show someone that you believe
without works? I'll tell you how,
by your words. Right?
Like when we go knock on doors,
we don't knock on a door and say, "Hey, can you show me that you're a Christian
real quick?" Right? What do we tell them?
Like, what do you believe about salvation?
And we base, whether we're going to give them the Gospel
or not, based upon what they tell us that they
believe. Right? "Oh, I'm a Christian.
I believe it's by salvation, by grace through faith."
And at that point we determine, "Oh, this person's a
Christian. They're a saved individual." Right?
So they showed me their faith without their
works, purely by their words.
Right? So obviously this could be
referring to that particular case as far as
salvation is concerned, or it could just be
referring to having faith in God
for other uses, other things
in life. Because I don't know if you know this, but
the Bible tells us that we need to live faith to
faith. Meaning that we need
faith not only to be saved, but we also need faith just to
live the Christian life. Like we need to depend on
God, pray unto God for our
needs, protection,
you know, for other people,
for health issues, financial issues.
We need to have faith. He that
cometh to God must believe that he is
and that he's a rewarder of them to diligently seek
him. Without faith it is impossible to
please him, the Bible says, right? So if a person says
they have that faith, but they don't have works,
we just have to take their word for it. But he's saying
here, I'll show you my faith
by my works. Now, if
I told a brother or sister, you know,
they come to me like, "Pastor, I'm hungry.
I haven't eaten in three days.
I'm out of money."
And if I told them, "Well, I have faith
that God will
provide for you. And in fact, let me
bless you. Be warmed and filled."
I'm not really displaying
my faith there by my works.
I'm like, "God will be there for you.
He will feed you."
As I'm eating
or cracking a red bull,
I'm like, "Well, God's going to take care of you.
Don't worry about it." Man, this is good.
Anyways, be
warmed and filled. I hope you get a meal
just as good as this or something, you know?
And if I tell that person, like, "Hey,
I believe that God's going to provide for you."
The Bible says it, you know,
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God.
These things shall be added unto you.
If any of you lack wisdom, let
them ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally."
I can quote all kinds of verses,
tell them that God's going to provide, but if I'm
not the conduit of that answer to the prayer,
my faith is dead. It's unprofitable.
Because if I'm able to meet that need in a special way,
if I have it in my power to help this person and I don't,
then I have an unprofitable faith.
So what should be done as a Christian is like,
"You know what? I know God will provide for you in a special way.
I know He's not going to let you go hungry.
I know He's going to provide for you.
And you know what? Let me help you as well.
Let me get first dibs on helping you.
Let me show you the God that's going to help you.
And here is, you know, a gift card to In-N-Out.
Or here is, you know, here's your rent or whatever.
Here's the bill that you need to be paid.
Or here's the need that you specifically have or whatever.
That is a working faith, okay?
And so what is the teaching here?
It's teaching us that we can tell people we have faith with our words, without our works.
And some people just have to believe it, right?
Like if we tell them, like, hey, I believe God's going to provide, you know, we would have to believe them.
But a stronger pace for the faith that we have is if we actually do something about it, okay?
So let me give you another example.
You know, if you say, you know, let's say you don't have a job, okay?
And you're like, I believe God's going to, you know, provide me a job and he's going to do this or whatever.
But you don't have works where you're actually looking for a job.
You know, you sound real spiritual and all.
But, you know, how many applications did you put in this week, though?
None, because I know that God is just going to, I'm looking for the right job.
I know that it's coming.
The heavens shall open, he shall pour me out a blessing.
And I'm just like, no, you just need to go put in some applications.
You have a dead faith.
Because look, we believe what the Bible says.
We believe that God will provide.
We believe that God will sustain.
We believe that God will bless.
But you know what?
We also want to make sure that we're doing our part in that action, right?
Now, thankfully, when it comes to salvation, God doesn't need our part.
You know, we don't participate in our salvation because all we're going to do is mess it up because we're sinners.
That's why salvation is called a gift, not an exchange.
Like, I'll do this, if you do this.
No, all we have to do is ask Him for salvation. We can have it.
It's a free gift. It's what the Bible says.
But everything after salvation, though, requires our works, though, to be profitable.
And so, you know, if you believe down deep in your heart that God will provide you a job,
well, show me your faith by your works and get your lazy rear end to the application
and fill that application and actually go get a job.
And look, Target, that's a job. Pizza Hut, Little Caesars, McDonald's.
Yeah, but I'm looking for that one job though.
You're looking for that job that pays you, huh? Yeah. McDonald's pays. Little Caesars pays.
No, but I'm looking for that one job though. You're not even looking though.
And so at the end of the day, you know, we need to make sure that we recognize that a dead faith is a faith
that doesn't profit others as proven by the example that the naked and hungry brother or sister didn't get fed or clothed.
OK, and so we need to be able to profit others by showing them with our works.
You notice how you see how this has nothing to do with salvation, nothing to do with salvation.
And, you know, the next time someone says faith without works is dead.
Say, what if I just showed you 10 verses that says that we don't have works?
Because, look, Romans four or five should just do it, right?
But I'm going to tell you right now, people who typically do that, they're stubborn.
They don't want to adhere to the scriptures.
Because if you really love the truth, you just admit like, oh, I guess I was wrong because there's 10 verses right here.
Let's move on here before we run out of time.
Look at verse 19. It says, "Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well; the devils also believe and tremble."
Now, here's another verse.
Because, you know, you'll tell people like, oh, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, you know, thou believest there is one God, thou doest well; the devils believe and tremble.
You know, well, there's two things wrong with that statement that you're making.
Number one, the verse says, "Thou believest that there is one God."
And it doesn't say, "Thou believest in the Lord Jesus Christ."
That was placed in your faith. And number two, devils can't get saved.
I don't know if you know that. Demons and devils are damned eternally.
So this isn't referring to them, you know, believing for salvation, believing for eternal life.
What's actually being referred to here is the mental assent that they have of their faith in God, right?
Like, devils also know that God exists. You believe that there is one God.
That's great and all, but again, you need to have works coupled with your faith in order to profit someone else.
Because you have the same understanding that a devil has that God exists.
Because again, there's nothing in here about salvation.
Just because you see the word "believe" doesn't mean that it automatically means it's referring to salvation.
"Thou believe that there is one God, thou doest well."
Well actually, I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
And by the way, this is often also coupled with Matthew chapter 7.
You say you have to believe on Jesus Christ for salvation, well man, he will say to me that day, "Lord, Lord."
I'm like, "Okay, finish up the passage, finish it up." Because the guy who's saying that says,
"Lord, have not I prophesied in your name, done many wonderful works, you know, cast out devils,
and I will profess unto them, I never knew you, depart from me, you that work iniquity."
You know, it's funny, you're promoting a workspace salvation, which is exactly what this guy said.
Like when he goes there, he's not like, "Have not I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ?
Have not I placed my faith in Jesus for salvation, and not only only I trusting in Jesus for salvation?"
No, he lists all the good things that he did. And if you look at that list, it's not a bad list.
Casting out devils, preaching in his name, doing many wonderful works, and what did God call it?
Works of iniquity, because he's not saved.
And so, no, sorry, you know, it doesn't say anything here about believing in Jesus Christ.
It just says, "Thou believeest that there is one God. The devils also believe and tremble."
It doesn't say the devils also believe and are saved, or the devils also believe and, you know,
faith alone didn't do anything for them. It's just referring to the fact the devils also have the same
mental, you know, capacity to understand that there's one God, it doesn't do them any good.
Just like it doesn't do you any good, if you don't actually do something about it,
it's not going to profit someone else. "But with thou know, vain man, that faith without works is dead."
So on. Look at verse 21. Now here is the coup d'etat of James chapter 2
that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that their interpretation is wrong, okay?
Verse 21 says, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works?"
Here's the important part. When? When?
When he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar.
And people were like, "Checkmate! See, he's justified by works!"
Yeah, but when was he justified by works? Oh, when he offered up Isaac his son.
Okay, well go to Romans chapter 4.
And this is why it's important to just study the Bible.
You know, study to show thyself, approve them to God, a work man that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
Because really what we have to do is study James 2 in light of Romans 4.
Do you know why?
Because both of them are talking about Abraham being justified.
And again, they don't contradict.
They're actually talking about two different instances though.
Two separate events in the life of Abraham.
One in Romans 4, one in James 2.
And how do we know he's talking about two different events?
Because James 2 went out of its way to tell us when he was justified by works.
And one was that when he offered up Isaac his son upon the altar.
Look at Romans 4 verse 1.
"What shall we say then that Abraham our father is pertaining to the flesh hath found?
For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God."
So James 2 literally said that he's justified by works.
Romans 4 says that he's not justified by works.
Look at what verse 3 says, "For what sayeth the scripture?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness."
Verse 5, "But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him to justify it the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness."
Now, what's important about this?
Well, Abraham offered up his son Isaac, if you know the chronology, in Genesis chapter 22.
Okay?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness, according to Romans 4, in Genesis 15.
Huh?
So, what happened first?
He got saved first, and then years later, in Genesis 22,
he offered up his son Isaac upon the altar, justifying him before God?
No, justifying him before man.
Now, doesn't that fit the context of James chapter 2?
Because James 2 is basically promoting the importance of being justified before others.
Oh, you say you have faith, show me your faith by your works.
Give me clothing and food if you claim to have faith.
Well, they use Abraham as an example, because Abraham believed God in Genesis 15,
and it was counted unto him for righteousness, meaning he was saved.
But in Genesis 22 is when he actually offered up Isaac upon the altar, justifying him before others.
And in fact, you're in Romans 4, look at verse number 11.
It says, "And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith, which he had yet been uncircumcised,
that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also.
And the father of circumcision to them, who are not of the circumcision only,
but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had yet been uncircumcised."
So what is it saying? It's saying that he received the seal of circumcision before he was circumcised.
So before the physical action of circumcision took place, he got that seal.
Now when was that? Genesis 17. That's when he was given the command to circumcise,
whereas he received the promise, or the seal, in Genesis 15, being yet uncircumcised.
What's the point that I'm making here? The point that I'm making is, salvation came first before anything else.
And, you know, he got saved in Genesis 15, he received the seal of circumcision in Genesis 17,
he offered up his son Isaac upon the altar in Genesis 22.
What does that tell us? It tells us that sometimes people get saved,
and they don't really start working or serving God until later on in life.
Now, there's some who just jump right in. We've got people in our church that got saved,
and they're just like, they don't even test to see if the water's cold, hot.
They're just like cannonballed right into it, right?
There's people like that. They're like, "I don't even care if there's water."
And they're just like jumping. And that's great.
But there's other people, they're just kind of...
You've been at pools with people like that, right?
Sometimes you just need to shove them in though, you know?
But sometimes people get saved, right?
And literally they don't start serving God or doing any works until years later.
That's a fact. Maybe some of you are like that.
There's nothing wrong with that. That's just the way of man sometimes.
They get saved and they don't really think about the things of God for a long time.
And then it's not until maybe they hear a sermon, they have a conversation, or just awaken something.
They're just like, "You know what? I need to start serving God."
And then they get serious about the things of God.
You're not alone. Abraham was the same way.
He got saved, a bunch of stuff happened between that, and then he started doing works thereafter.
So it says when. Go back to James chapter 2. We're almost done.
Look at verse 22, speaking of Abraham.
It says, "Seeest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?"
And what does perfect mean in the Bible? It means complete.
So in order for him to be a complete Christian, he needed these works to be coupled with his faith.
Faith justified him before God, his works justified him before man.
It says in verse 22, "And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called a friend of God."
So literally in James 2, it says that Abraham was justified by believing.
Look at verse 24, "Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only."
So again, you're justified by faith before God, but you're justified before others by your works.
Look at verse 25, here's the last example.
It says, "Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way."
Now I don't have time to develop this, but go to Hebrews chapter 11 if you would.
if you would, Hebrew chapter 11. So this is when the spies came in to take over Jericho and the only
one who got physically rescued was Rahab the harlot and her household, right? Well in James 2 25 it
says that she was justified by works when she received the messengers, okay? And let me just
explain to you that this doesn't mean that she got saved because she received the messengers,
but the messengers believed her that she believed in the God of the Bible when she received the
messengers. Now how do we know that she got saved that she believed by faith? Look at Hebrews 11
verse 30. It says, "By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were compassed about seven
days. By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them," listen to this, "that believed not when she
had received the spies with peace." So if it's saying that she didn't perish with them that believed
not, what is that implying about Rahab? That she believed. So she believed, therefore she didn't
perish with them that believed not, and then her faith was justified before the messengers when she
received them into her house. Because what would it look like if Rahab was like, "She believes,"
and she's like, "Yeah, but I can't really hide you guys, and I really want to help, you know, be
warmed and filled though, you know. I hope it all works out for you guys, and I hope you guys get
Jericho, you know. I'm praying for you. God's going to use you in a great way, you know. Good luck."
You guys would be like, "This lady is, what is she?" You know, but obviously she exercised her faith
by receiving the messengers, okay. And lastly, verse 26 of James 2 says, "For as the body without
the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." Now, just like the car illustration,
if you look at a dead person, if I died right now, preaching the way I want to go, and I just
fall to the ground, you know, and my spirit is in heaven, you would still say this is a person,
this is a pastor person here. Even though my spirit is no longer there, it's gone home to be
with the Lord, that is still my body. The difference is that it's dead, but it doesn't
take away the fact that the body is still mine. So what is the main emphasis of James 2? The main
emphasis is for Christians who are already saved to get to work, because we are as workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them.
But let me just remind you is that you need to balance out that doctrine with understanding
that salvation is not of works, because if you believe it is by works, then you're not saved.
Why? Because that means you're trying to participate in your salvation still.
And you know what? There's not no amount of works that you could ever do
to pay for eternal life. It's not going to happen.
The finished work of Christ is all that's necessary for us to be saved.
He's already purchased salvation and sorry, you're 2,000 years too late.
And even if you lived 2,000 years ago, it wouldn't aid you anything,
because you are eternally in debt in your sin.
Yeah, but we should do the right. Yeah, but you know what?
Sorry, that should is not a standard of God. The standard of God is perfection.
And no one's perfect. Therefore, we need the salvation of Jesus Christ.
But you know what? Now that we're saved, I mean, I got saved July 22nd, 2007 when I got saved.
Thereafter, start working for the Lord. Start doing works, right? Why? So I could profit others.
Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for James chapter two,
a powerful chapter here. It's a powerful chapter that refutes a workspace salvation
in spite of what the workspace salvation is trying to do with it. But it's also a powerful
passage just to motivate us to serve you by serving others, to love you by loving others,
and to profit others, Lord, through our Christian life and conduct.
Pray that you'd help us to take these things to heart. Bless us as we go on our way. We love you.
We thank you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
♪ The flowers of the same, on star of a star and an oar, in his holy arms they flourish, like a flower's stem, in his loving he bears them. ♪
♪ Neither says the bird that shows the soul for this whole still soul. ♪
We're singing "Yordish Mist."