James Part 6

James challenges us: “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?” (2:14). James does not question the value of faith; he questions a faith that remains merely verbal. His concern is not theological correctness, but covenant authenticity. Give a listen. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:19

Welcome to the Messiah in Life podcast. This series on the Epistle of James is taught by Bishop Justin D. Elwell of Restoration Fellowship International, who also serves as the Messianic Rabbi of Messiah Congregation in Washington Mills, New York. From our congregational home, we invite you into a rich and practical study of one of the most direct and challenging writings in the New Testament. Over the coming months, each episode will carefully examine James's call to a living faith. A faith that endures trials, governs the tongue, pursues wisdom, and expresses itself through righteous action. Rooted in the scriptures of Israel and the teachings of Messiah Jesus, this study brings the message of James into clear focus for life today, forming disciples marked by integrity, mercy, and spiritual maturity. Thank you for joining us. Now pour yourself a tea or coffee, and may the word we hear shape the lives we live.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Father in heaven, we thank you and praise you for this day that you've made for us. Lord, the word that you've given to us, may it enter our hearts, may it teach us, may it help us to renew our thinking, to renew our mind according to your will, your desire for us, that we will walk it out, that we would take it to heart, and that we would make adjustments in our own life, Father, as the Spirit leads us and guides us, help us, Lord, to live your word to your glory through your Son by the Holy Spirit. We pray in Yeshua's name. Amen. Beginning in chapter 2, verse 14 of the Epistle of James. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says, if your underlining says is where you'd want to underline. Says he has faith, but does not have works. Can that faith save him? If, conditional, a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. Underline this. This is the second negative. The first negative was regarding care for those who are in need. You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe and shudder. Do you want uh do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified, underlined justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was complete by his works. And the scripture was f fulfilled that says Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone, and in the same way was not also Rahab or the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them on by another way. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. This is God's word. James gets our attention right out of the gate. And this is, of course, a response to the earlier uh admonition in the chapter in verse eight if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing well. And of course, showing partiality and what have you. So here he begins to unpack what's uh he begins to unpack an idea that seems contrary to the teaching of the Apostle Paul. The reality is that we're seeing uh perspectively. Uh we have two perspectives that come together to bring us a much sharper vision, a much sharper focus of this theological principle that's at work. So James lays before us a question: what good is it then, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? He's not opposed to Paul. I think that's quite often the position that people take in the first century, second century, third century, as the Bible was becoming more um formalized, as people were recognizing how the books worked together, what was the original witnesses, and what have you, there was not the arguments of, well, is James disagreeing with Paul? They didn't see it that way. They understood the perspective that was coming from Paul and from James. If we think of Paul's, excuse me, if we think of Paul's um argument um given to us in Romans, specifically in chapter 2, verse 13, it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. That word justified, that seems to be the issue. Now, think of also Ephesians chapter 2. Everybody knows Ephesians chapter 2. It is really kind of the harp hallmark statement that we rely on, beginning in verse eight. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and it is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Messiah, Yeshua, Christ Jesus, for good works. See, in one in one uh aspect, he not as it's not a result of works, but it is two works. Good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. So James does not question the value of faith. That's not the heart of what he is laying out for us. The question, or he questions, I say, I should say, a faith that remains verbal. It remains an abstraction, it remains a philosophy, it remains um an unrealized position. So a faith that is alone. Now the problem is that we in the Western world particularly are very much informed by one way or the other, whether you come from a Catholic background or a Protestant background, are informed by the solas. I don't have a uh issue really with the solas, uh, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, so on. But it has informed our reading. It's become a lens for us. And quite often that lens can be a little clouded by that when we turn to uh scripture. So he's not concerned with theological correctness. That's not his issue here. He's pointing us to covenant faithfulness, covenant identity, and covenant authenticity, we might even say. It would be a difference that we would maybe articulate in this way. Are we living as an heir of God or are we living as a hireling, somebody who is waiting to be paid? So how do you live? Now I asked uh John earlier today when we were talking. If let's say your your let's say your father, your family were wealthy beyond understanding, billions of dollars, and you were the sole heir of that. How would you live? How would that inform your living? What would you do differently? You'd do a lot differently, wouldn't you? Imagine if it became a reality. It wasn't just a theoretical, but it was a reality. How would you live differently? That's how you approach this chapter, this section of the chapter. To live as an heir of God, right? Paul tells us if you are in Christ, then you are seed of Abraham and heirs according to promise. He also tells us that we're joint heirs with Messiah. Yes, excuse me. How does that change your living? How should it change your living? That's the question. You need to ask when you approach this section on faith. What is your identity? Who are you? Are you who you were or are you who you are? Who are you? What has he done? How has he transformed you? How do you now live as a son or a daughter in the household of God? And heirs of all things with Christ. That I can tell you is better than being an heir of a billionaire. Right? Because those billions of dollars are not going to glory. So how do you live now? How do you live now? How do you approach how do you approach the life of faith now? Does it just stay up here? Does it just stay somewhere tucked in safely? Or does it begin to act? So let's uh consider this a little bit more closely. Faith that does not act is incompatible. Or is excuse me, I should I should say is incapable of saving. It's incapable. That's controversial. Yeah, right? Because it flies in the face, it flies in the face of everything that the Protestant world would would accept. Largely because they have disconnected what James gives us here from what Paul has given. Paul and James, I will submit to you this. Paul and James do not conflict with each other at all. Do not conflict with each other at all. Um it's not because works replaces faith. That's again not James's our argument, but because living faith necessarily produces obedience. Living faith. That's exactly what Paul says in Ephesians 2.10. The works that God has prepared before us, a living faith will bring, produce obedience. There will be a response to this. It's not, he's not asking us to adhere to a theological uh philosophy. This is my this is my disposition, this is my way of uh looking at the world, but it doesn't cause me to do anything. I'm not really changed by it. Think of what Messiah said. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my father, Matthew 7, 21. In Mark 2, 5, we read this, and when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your your sins are forgiven. They acted because faith moved them. And what is what is the testimony of Mark? Messiah saw their faith. He saw it. How did he see it? He looked into their mind, and he could see that they really wanted to be moved by faith, but they were stone dead. No, they got up on the roof, they pulled back the tiles, they destroyed property, they lowered him down in. And Yeshua Jesus saw their faith. That's the work, that's the response to faith. That is the obedient. Christ would heal them if they got to him. Right? So they acted. So again, you have to ask yourself, how are you living? Are you living as someone who is an heir to the kingdom of God, who is part of the kingdom of God? Not just saying, Lord, Lord, didn't we? No. And that's that is the problem. If we move, if we disconnect faith from that outward manifestation of work, if one or the other is not there, it's incomplete. Didn't we do this? Didn't we do that? Didn't we do all of these other things depart from me? You workers of anomia, of lawlessness, I never knew you. I never knew you. So there's a knowing that happens by faith, through faith, because as just with the paradigm of Abraham, we'll talk about Abraham in a few moments, but just by the paradigm of Abraham, Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. So he believed him, he knew him. Messiah is saying we must know him, we must believe. That belief is accounted as righteousness, that righteousness leads us, it's by faith that we are by faith that we are trusting in him. That righteousness then leads to actions that are consistent with the will of the Father, that are lined up and moved and motivated by faith. It's I'm even more I'm even overcomplicating more than I want to. But let's go to the illustrations. There's the first illustration that he gives, and it's a negative one. If someone says he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him? Now that's a question that people were looking at me when I talked about that. Yeah. Well, it's when we think about that that phrase, that question, that statement, and we think about how it's preached week after week after week, right? We wonder does James understand the gospel? There's a very famous preacher in Atlanta, Georgia that will tell you he did not. He did not understand the gospel. Can you imagine the audacity to say that James, the brother of Messiah, the first leader of the church in Jerusalem, didn't understand the gospel? That's that is quite the audacious statement. Alright, so this first negative example. Be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Again, you need both Paul and James to see the fullness of what is given to us in scripture regarding this. We have clarity on it. So James illustrates his point by a practical or with a practical example. Words of blessing without meeting physical needs are nothing. Someone's before you and they have a need. And he he qualifies it. He says, a brother and a sister. So he's not even speaking about, let's say, the man on the street or the woman on the street. He's bringing it inside the house. Your brother or your sister, someone that you claim to have relationship with. They're without. And you say, eh, well, go in peace. Go in shalom. Be filled, be blessed. I'm out of here. What good is that? So again, the phrase today is, well, you know, we have to have discernment. But he's not talking about the person down on the corner. He's talking about the person that's sitting down the aisle from you, sitting in the same worship service, sitting in the same synagogue as you. If you know they have a need, but you're and you're telling them be at peace, be in shalom. But you're not doing anything. Is there really an active living faith there? Living faith not only changes you, it changes those around you. Aren't you guys glad you came today, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:21

I would say they both looked at it in the same way.

SPEAKER_00 18:26

They but they came at it from different directions because of the audiences that they were writing to. So the how the audience, how the audience would receive it largely depended on their background. So Paul has to unpack the history of faith, the history of works for a largely Gentile audience. So he's coming at it from a different perspective simply because he wants to be able to explain it to his audience in a way that they'll understand it. James's audience has a much different um advantage. They already have the necessary groundwork, they already have the revelation of scripture, right? Because verse one of chapter one, he's writing to the 12 tribes in the dispersion. So they already have the Torah, they already have the groundwork laid. They just need it to be refined. Where Paul has to do, he has to go out and rough it in, then he has to do the finishing work. But they're both saying the same thing. They're just coming at it from two different directions, um, largely because of who they're writing to. I wouldn't write to a scholar the way that I would write to someone sitting in the in the in the you know chairs here. I'm not going to use highly technical language for somebody here that I would use for somebody in in a position of scholarship, right? Largely because you don't want to take three days to read a paragraph. You know, it so you you write to your audience, and that's what they're they're showing us here. So that first uh example, um this faith, we would say, is ineffective. It's hollow, it's empty. And Jewish tradition, Jewish ethics, uh, the Musar tradition, as it's called today, consistently links righteous speech with righteous action. What they say is righteous, right? Let's read this again. Go in peace, be warmed and filled. That's a righteous statement. It's a blessing. You're you're you got you're you're you've or you're whole. Now go in peace and be filled. But the action isn't there. So the righteous words and the righteous deeds have to be connected. Blessing without mercy is empty. So there has to be the element of mercy in play as well. So when God redeems the soul, when God redeems the soul, it's expressed in the hands. When God transforms you inwardly, changes your heart, changes your mind, it's expressed through the hands. Your hands will reach out to the world. The hands are not just for blessing, right? The hands are also for giving. They're for lifting up, they're for helping. So the interior affects the exterior. What's going on in here? So out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. You could also say out of the abundance of the heart the body moves. Right? So then we have the negative, the second negative, which is striking. And this penetrates to those who say, ah, but I have theological precision. I'm very orthodox. I know what I know. What does he say? You believe that God is one. He's quoting the Shema here. The very uh the primary uh proclamation of faith in Judaism. Shema Yisrael Adonai Elohinu Adonai Echad. You believe that God is one, you do well. Ah, you do well. But even the demons believe and shudder. Demons have a much broader revelation of the spirit than we do. Because they're in the second heaven. They believe, but their belief doesn't change them. Their belief causes them to shudder because of the holiness of God. Our belief must necessarily through Christ change us. Not just that he is one, because at that point we're on the level of a demon. Yeah, you know God is one. The scripture tells us that. But what's it gonna do? Think about a demon. What does a demon do? It goes off and does its own will, its own pleasure, serves its master. And that's where we have to be mindful of. You can have all of the theological. There are there are people who can uh in the seminaries, in the universities, who can quote the Greek, quote the Hebrew. They can give you all of the uh technical language for every theological concept, but do not believe that the word of God is true. Exactly. That's that's what James is saying. What good is that? Right? So you believe that God is one, you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder. Their appraisal, their knowledge of God does not change them. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. Yeah, that's it's it's humbling when we think about that. So James observes possession of belief, or uh even possessing correct belief, we would say. Um let me rephrase that. Even the demons possess, in that regard, possess correct belief. They believe, they know that God is one, they tremble. But true faith involves trust, allegiance, and obedience, not just acknowledgement. Not just acknowledgement. People will tell you all the time, or they'll tell me all the time, oh, I believe in God. Even the demons believe and shudder. What specifically do you believe? Do you believe that the Son of God took on flesh, the fullness of the Godhead bodily, took on flesh, died upon a cross for us as a propitiation for our sin, was raised from the dead, and now stands beside the Father in heaven. Do you believe that? Right? Do you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead? Do you profess with your mouth that he is Lord? Well, I believe in God. The demons believe and shudder. Right? So that is that's a warning. You can have the theological uh precision, you can have a knowledge that there's a God out there somewhere, but at the end of the day, um that won't save you. Well, they shudder because of the holiness of God. Right? Well, the wrath is is caught up in the holiness of God. So whatever is evil will be overcome by his holiness. We uh we approach, we cannot approach in ourselves, even with a confessed faith in Christ, we cannot approach the holiness of the Father outside of the Son. You can only approach the Father through the Son. Because how this how this works, okay, so the Holy Spirit dwells in us, we are found in the Son, the Son is found in us, and through the Son, we're able to enter into the presence of the Father because the one who is bringing us into that presence has forever been in communion in the fullness of the Godhood. So we enter into the holiness of God and we experience and appreciate the holiness of God through Christ. We cannot be outside of ourselves. So I think when these looking at the demons shuddering, they're outside and apart from, and that holiness is ultimately going to be the wrath of God that overtakes them. Because nothing impure, nothing unholy can be in the presence of God. So that's the undiluted judgment that not only wipes out humanity, unregenerate humanity, judges unregenerate humanity, but also the demonic realm. Yeah. Scary. So this uh that's that statement, obviously, I've already said this, uh, echoes the Shema. And hearing demands the Shema demands, we would say, not just hearing, but also doing. Okay, so we hear and do. Um and then demands the loving action that's consistent with the word of God. So James then appeals to Abraham. Was not Abraham our father justified? Now, here is the language of justification that seems to conflict with Paul. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? Again, this is specifically written to a Jewish audience. So he references this most important visual of the Akeda of Isaac, the binding of Isaac, where the son willingly lays down to be a sacrifice for his father. So he uses that. He doesn't explain it. Why? Because the audience he's writing to already knows it. So he is using this illustration. Was not our father Abraham justified? Then he clarifies, and the scripture was fulfilled. The scripture was fulfilled. I'll explain that in a moment. This says Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Now this brings it into a fine point. Justification as Paul is using it is not the same as justification as James is using it. Same exact underlying word, different use. I'll explain. I always do. You never have to ask me to. I'll expand until your brain goes poop. Um awful.

SPEAKER_01 30:06

Awful. Awful. What's awful meaning?

SPEAKER_00 30:17

That's what it that's the original meaning. To be full of awe. And what was that specifically referenced to? The Lord. I'm filled with awe. But over time it took another meaning to be terrible. You know? It's horrible. Yeah, it's terrible. That's a horrible thing to have. That's an awful thing to happen to awful. Yeah. Um, so we have we have the, and that's why we, you know, especially when you read the King James, some of the words that we use today were used differently than in the um the King James era. So you have to know the original meaning in order to understand what the text is saying. Um, good exercise mentally. So awful is an example of something that was good, and now we use it in a negative uh fashion. Justification. Justification in the first century meant two different things. First, as Paul was using it, uh, justification receiving, excuse me, receiving the action. Um I'm gonna read my writing here. Receiving the action of being made right. So we're justified in Christ, we're made right in Christ. That's Paul's used usage of justification. The way that James uses it as he does he uses it as vindication. What's his justification for saying that? Have you ever said that before or something similar? How did he justify that? What are we asking? How do they how do they vindicate? How do they uh give proof, offer evidence? That's exactly how James is using it. So James is not using it in a Pauline fashion, and I think he's doing that intentionally because he wants to emphasize a different point than Paul did. So Paul is using it in, and Paul uses it in the vindication sense in what we read from Romans 2.13. The doers of the law will be justified, vindicated. They will be shown to be faithful, right? So this is how James is using it here. So Jay A Paul, Paul primarily uses it as um justification, showing that we're made right through Christ. James uses it as vindication, right? So was not, let me read it, let me read this slightly differently. Was not Abraham our father vindicated? Was not Abraham our father shown to be right by works when he offered up his son Isaac? So evidence, vindication, evidence or proof of something. So it's a proving. Was not Abraham our father proven by works? He demonstrated his faith. That's why he says in verse 23, Abraham believed God, and it was counted in him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. So his faith, excuse me, his faith was complete by his works. In other words, the word here, um telieo, uh um telieo. Um excuse me. It brought to the purpose. This is the same word tell us, the purpose for something, the end of something. The so uh Paul talks about in Romans 10, 4, that the um that the Torah, the law, um uh oh my goodness, I'm having a blank moment here. For Christ is the uh I want to get it right since I'm putting it on on this uh podcast here. For ten four. Okay, for Christ is the talos of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. It's the purpose, it's the goal. Christ is the goal. So here the purpose of his faith was justified or proven through the act of giving up his son. That's simply what he is using. That's why he's explaining it in this way. So his faith was, tell yeah, yo, that's what I'm trying to get out here. Um was completed by his actions. So the binding of Isaac is central, of course, to Jewish understanding of faithful obedience under trial. Abraham's trust in God was demonstrated by costly obedience, not abstract belief. His faith in the Lord was going to cost him something, his son. Right? So this was the uh completeness. This demonstrated the completeness of Abraham's faith. It just was not intellectual anymore. He was willing to give the Lord everything. So, in that action, by that work, it demonstrated that his faith was living.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 35:50

So it's not there's not really a conflict here. It's simply trying to unpack the meaning of the language. So Jesus himself appeals to Abraham as a model of faith. We see that in John 8, 39, a faithful response to God. And James's argument aligns, we would say, with Jewish interpretation. Abraham's actions did not earn covenant status. Actions do not earn us status. Actions do not create our identity in Christ, but it's it reveals the genuine trust in God's promises. So what we're doing reveals the identity that we already have in Him. Again, it's living as an heir, not as a hireling, not as someone who is expecting to be paid, right? So we are living as heirs according to promise. We're living with that reality, and that demonstrates uh or it shows that um we're trusting in the Lord. So we're not doing action or doing work in order to gain status before the Lord. We're not trying to gain position, it's simply the outworking of the inward faith. So then he turns to Rahab. Actually, let me read uh from verse 24 on. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. That is uh that would be a very, if you just left that unpacked, it would be a very controversial statement, particularly in the Presbyterian world. A person is justified by works, not by faith alone. One way of understanding that is this we are saved by grace alone through faith alone, but it's not a faith that remains alone. Okay. I didn't come up with that, by the way. That's a very common construction. And in the same way, continuing verse 25, in the same way was not also Rahab. Now, why does he move from Abraham? He moves from Abraham, who is what? The father of Israel, the father of the Jewish people, the father of the faithful, right? Then he moves to Rahab, this wealthy prostitute, uh, wool merchant. Hmm. Well, then that put a damper on things. Rahab the prostitute was not also Rahab the prostitute justified, vindicated, proven by works when she received the messengers and sent them by another way. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. Rahab, what does she confess? We have heard what the Lord has done. Hearing. You believe that God is one. Well, the demons do, and they shudder. She heard, and the hearing caused her to respond. So her faith was to receive the spies, to hide the spies, to send them on another way. So, in that action, because what'd they say, your house will be saved? So this was a vindication of what she heard and believed. Her action of sending them by the other way, vindicated her faith, proved her faith. Okay. Again, what's when we look at that one word justified in our English, well, actually, you look at it in the Greek too, you got to understand the background of it because it's the same word. But when we don't see how each of them are using it in the context that we find it, that's when our theology gets all wound up, and we get very excited about this, and we get arguments over, well, I'm Pauline, and I don't really know if James understands this. And James, you know, I mean, it just becomes absurd. How can the Holy Spirit who inspired the Word of God inspire contradiction? He can't. So it must be something in our thinking that is um muddying the waters, and that's exactly what happened. So James highlights Rahab, a Gentile woman who acted in faith by protecting uh Israel's spies. So her inclusion underscores a key biblical theme. Watch this. Covenant faithfulness is recognized through obedience or excuse through allegiance and action, that would be obedience, regardless of social status or background. You don't have to be perfect in yourself to be received by the Lord. And it doesn't matter where you came from. So scripture is so, you know, the way the Holy Spirit led the apostles, how he inspired Paul to go out to the nations, how he, you know, he calls Paul. Paul was not only called to the Gentiles, the Lord said, I will have him go out before Jews and Gentiles. Now he becomes the primary apostle to the Gentile world while Peter remains the apostle to the Jewish world. But how he has him writing of these very important, very complex things, and he talks about it, talks about the advantages that the Jewish people had in Romans 3 and Romans 9. There was the advantage that is there. They have the revelation of Scripture and every other advantage that is given, every gift that is given. That's why he's able to say in Romans 11, 29 that the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. He's already articulated what the gifts are, he already articulated what the calling is. It's irrevocable. Now, you can then apply it to those who are in faith in Christ, but that primary target of Romans 11.29 were the Jewish people within context of Romans 11. But now here's James. James writing to the Jewish world. He's saying, Hey Rahab, she's one of our Messiahs, you know, great, great, great, great, great-grandmamas. But here's how she got there: Faith and works. Because the faith was vindicated or proven by the work. She didn't get there just because, she got there because she believed and did. Yeah, she believed God. And that same belief that worked in her was the same belief that was working in Abraham, the same faith that is working in you. Yes? Cannot be anything different. Otherwise, it would be contrary to scripture. But it doesn't matter your background or your social status. It's amazing to me. Now, I'm I'm I'm not someone who's going down the road bopping to jelly roll. I don't quite know what a jelly roll is. I know he's a performer who has a really bad history. He was in prison for dealing drugs, he was covered with tattoos. He's given his life to Christ. I talked about this with somebody. If it was you, I apologize. But the I'm sorry. I don't know. I don't know his music. I'm sure it's fine. I don't know. I really don't know his music. I know the one he did with uh Brandon Lake, but beyond that, I don't know it. Not my thing. I'm not really there. Anyway, let me move along. No, well, no, I'm just gonna move along. You're not gonna find jelly roll on my phone. I'm sorry. If that ages me, I apologize. But anyway, so he gets up at some award show, right? And he talks about how Jesus belongs to everyone and he, you know, gives a very praises Jesus as Lord, gives a very, what we would say, evangelical statement of faith before the world. The non believers, the atheists in the audience were mad as much as the Christians. Were mad. The Christian world was judging him. Look at him. He can't really be a believer. I really want to use some language that would be classified as unkind, uncharitable, and foul. Because that shows the hardness of heart. I don't know the man's heart, but I heard what he said. What does scripture say? No one can confess Christ unless he be born again. Unless the Spirit of God is in that person, you cannot confess Christ. That might be controversial. I know. That might be I might be uh sent to the outback or something. But I found it amazing that both both camps were as equally as mad at the man. So the Holy Spirit had to be behind that, I guess, right? Yeah, well, because he doesn't fit a mold. Because his wife was a call, a call girl or something. I guess I saw this the other day. She was some type of escort. It's an unregenerate worldly sin. Is his sin or her sin any different from anybody else's sin? I hope you've read your scriptures. That's not the case. I don't really know anything about them except for what you know snippets I hear there, uh here, here and there. Um is Christ incapable of weren't we just talking about Rahab? What is what is the testimony of scripture? Rahab, the the the classy lady.

SPEAKER_01 45:35

Thank you for night.

SPEAKER_00 45:36

Lady of the night. So I I say this, and I say this not in jest, it's just um it's remarkable. But the beautiful thing is that we're seeing, because I I follow, I follow a uh a ministry on Facebook or Instagram, one of these places, that specifically reaches women in the pornographic industry. And more and more, you're seeing two things happen to those poor ladies, those poor women. They're either committing suicide or they're being born again. Which is preferable? Can I ask that to the Christian world that wants everyone to look just like them? Which is preferable? I'm gonna leave that aside for now. So this resonates, and I'm gonna get mail about that, I'm pretty sure. This resonates with uh the teaching that of Messiah that says that many from the outside, uh outside of the expected boundaries will enter the kingdom. Well, some insiders will not. We see that in Matthew 8, 11 through 12. Some of the some of those that we see pontificating on the Facebook may not be there. I say that only because I'm pontificating on the Facebook. But what's the important thing that we trust Christ, and in that trust, our trust is vindicated by our action, our lifestyle. Yes. Should we know them by their fruits? Right? We talked about that at the men's meeting this morning. We'll know them by their fruit. If there's no fruit in the life, faith under the Lord is going to produce fruit. It's absolutely unavoidable. You will produce fruit. Not because you're attempting to, but because of his faithfulness in your life. Let me move along. So James concludes this incredible metaphor. He says, and the body, the body apart from the spirit is dead. So also faith apart from works is dead. I have stood, and I know probably Tina has as well. I have stood beside beds where people took their last breath. And I will absolutely, I'm sure Tina can testify to this as well, that I the difference between that moment where life was there and when it was not, is absolutely clear. The moment that life leaves the body, that person ceases to look as they once did. It is absolutely visible. I'm talking to Doc here. You you miss that. I mean, that's that's the what is he saying? Faith without works is dead, just as the body apart from the spirit is dead. Faith and works are not rivals, beloved. Your spirit and your body, there's going to be contention there because the flesh wants what it wants. But in reality, they're not rivals. Why? Because the spirit already has victory. This is just carrying us on our mission. So faith and works are not rivals. You have to get that out of our thinking regarding this subject. They're inseparable realities. You cannot sit on your blessed assurance. Well, but wait a minute. I I if you can't do anything, pray. If you can't move, pray. If you're confined to a bed, pray. Pray. That's still fading. Because you're trusting God beyond your circumstance. You could be bitter, you could sit and say, Look what you've done to me. But instead you're responding in faith and praying. So we're saved by faith alone. But if faith does not remain alone, I've always appreciated that. So they're not rivals. This is covenant theology in its most practical form. Again, make it as practical as you can. Faith expressed through obedience, love, and God's justice, his righteousness. So James 2, this chapter confronts that the community that this community that he's writing to, again, with an unavoidable truth. Faith that aligns itself with power, neglects the poor, remains inactive is not the faith of Messiah. It's not. Faith that only responds to the wealthy, faith that only responds to the poor, faith that alienates, faith that segregates is not the faith of Messiah. Think about this. I was asked this question. And I remember this, and I was asked this question in Kenya many years ago. And it shows where the thinking was at the time. That I was asked, well, first I was at my very first question, I've talked about this before, was about polygamy. That was my very first question in Kenya at a conference in a breakout session with young married between 25 and 40, I think is what the age grew, 25 and 35 is what they gave me. Very first question, polygamy. I've talked about that before. This one was about can one race marry another based on the word of God? Can one race marry another? Can a black man or black woman marry a white man or a white woman? That was the heart of the question. According to scripture, they wanted to know. And I said, Well, you you can't intermarry races. But you had to change the way that the word was used, yes? Scripture is clear about unbelievers marrying non-believers. There's only two races in scripture. The family of God and the unregenerate. See, that was where the twist had to come in. Just as James did this little twist of justified. Sometimes you have to hear the question and then biblically answer the question so that they go, Oh. Oh. So the answer to their question was yes. But you had to get them there. You had to get them past their own issues, right? That was my second, no, that wasn't my second question. That was much later. Different conference. But so drawing from the Torah, drawing from the prophets, drawing from the teachings of Messiah, James calls for a faith that resists partiality. This is what he's been arguing. And this is really what this section is, 14 through 26, is answering what has come before it. Resist partiality, embodies mercy, and demonstrates loyalty to God through action. How do you demonstrate your loyalty to God? How do you do that? So in a world, this world that we look at, we have it, we we have so many things that are shaped by perception, shaped by position, shaped by advantage, and so on, shaped by compromise, shaped by any type of injustice that the world can come up with. Now that's the problem. That's that word. If you use justice today, and particularly in the church, it's it's a very loaded word. But you have to mean the justice of God, not the justice of man. So James insists that true faith will be visible. It's not, it's it's tested not by confession alone. It's not just your confession, but by covenant faithfulness lived out in community. It's with all of the complexities of life. How do we respond faithfully? Right? I mean, that's where how do you know? I mean, uh, you can sit in a room, uh room by yourself, still sin, still be a sinner, still be wicked, rotten, or saintly. But if you really want to see where you are, be in a community where someone offends you every time you see them. I walk in this building and I offend somebody. I walk out of the building and I offend somebody. I get on Facebook, I offend somebody else. But how do we know? You good people, you're all looking at me like, oh, that would never be the case. Hang out with me for a while. Um how do we know when the Word of God and the Spirit of God have worked in us and working things through? But when we face those challenging moments where we have to extend forgiveness, we have to extend mercy and grace when we don't, we ordinarily would not want to. How do we respond? Right? Can't do that on our own.

SPEAKER_02 55:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 55:32

Power. Yes. Yes. So there we are. It is it can become a very difficult passage if we overcomplicate it. Again, it all turns on how justification, how do you understand justified in this context? Again, Paul uses it for justifying how we are made right before God. James is using it as vindication. How do we show how to what is the proof of the evidence? Just think of how you use that word. That word was used the same then as it is now. So think about that when you when you're interpreting this. The proof. The proof of what has changed. The proof or the evidence. What is the evidence that you are faith? Abraham's evidence was this that he offered up his son. Rahab's evidence was this that she saved the two spies. Amen. Hebrews 11:1. Yeah, get up and go. Get moving. Amen. Alright, so we'll take some questions. I'm gonna turn this off. We'll take some questions online. Hopefully, this wasn't too complicated. My intention was to demystify it. Hold on one second while I cut to our wonderful British voiceover.

SPEAKER_03 57:14

Amen. Thank you for joining us. And until our next episode, may the Lord bless and keep you in the name of Messiah Jesus. Amen.