James Part 6 - The Faith That Works James 2v14-26

Gavin Wright continues Immanuel Church Brentwood's sermon series on the book of James with chapter 2v14-26.

This sermon is from Sunday 26th April 2026.

Transcript

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Our Father God, thank you for your word. As we hear it again this morning, please help us to be doers of the word, not hearers only. Give us your spirit's aid, Lord, to understand, but not just understand, to be changed and to live in light of what you have done for us. Amen.

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Amen.

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So James chapter two from verse 14. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warm 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, Well, 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. You do well, even the demons believe, and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father 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 completed by his works. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way. For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. The grass withers and the flowers fall. But friends, the word of the Lord stands forever. It is good. Faith is the big issue in today's passage. Do you have faith? And how can you tell if someone has faith? And I don't mean sort of faith in anything, I mean faith in Jesus, faith that saves you. Can you tell? James would say that you can. That you can tell if someone has saving faith in Jesus. And Jesus actually thought you could too. So as I was reading one commentator this week, he pointed back to the incident in Mark chapter 2. You probably know this story, right? When you remember there was a paralyzed man, and his friends carried him to the top of the roof, and they cut a hole in the roof, and they let him down so that he could see Jesus and be healed by him. And of those friends, Mark, when he's writing his gospel, writes, When Jesus saw their faith, you can see faith. You can tell if someone has real faith in Jesus because you can see it. And this is the big thing, really, that James is saying today in our passage. James says, this is the headline, remember this if you remember nothing else. You can tell if someone has saving faith by their works. You can tell if someone has saving faith by their works. You can tell if someone has real faith in Jesus by the way that they live. And James is going to help us to see that. And he's going to do that really by talking about, if you can sort of stretch your brains a bit, by talking about two faiths. One that is real and one that isn't. One that saves and one that ultimately condemns. And when I asked a minute ago, do you have faith? If your answer was yes, then let me ask another question. What sort of faith do you have? What sort of faith do you have? We're going to look at the two types. Here's the first type of faith, and this is the first heading, only two headings today. Faith without works is dead and useless. Faith without works is dead and useless. James's words, not mine. So James, okay, what's going on? James is writing to those in the passage who clearly are all talk but no action. Good at saying the right things, but very bad at following through. Have a look at verse 14. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? He says, What good is that faith? Can that faith save him? And the answer will become clear as we go through. What good is that faith? It is no good. That faith can't save you. Friends, just for a second, imagine there are two types of faith. This is what James is describing, and you go through life with this kind of faith, and you think everything's fine. This is all you need. And you live your life like that, and at the end, you discover that it meant nothing. And it leaves you in hell. That is what is at stake here. When James asks the question, can that faith save him? That is what is at stake. So please listen up. What good is it, James says, if someone says he has faith? Someone says he has faith. So back in chapter one, James already alluded to the fact that we're very good at deceiving ourselves, right? And here, particularly about the reality of our faith. We can kid ourselves about what's real and what isn't. But James gives us a helpful reality check, and he insists to us that faith is checkable. His readers may look like Christians at a sort of surface level, but what James does here is he peels back the veneer to expose the fact that they are actually thinking and acting very differently to someone with real faith. Double-mindedly. And the whole letter, and this bit in particular, James wants to say to them, stop pretending. Stop pretending. Stop playing at faith and actually get engaged in a life where Jesus truly is your Lord and your King. Just remember the context here. James is writing to uh believers. So at the start of chapter two, he says, My brothers, that's who he's talking to. But they were believers who were double-minded, who sometimes thought and loved and spoke and acted as if they weren't believers. And James says, Don't have that kind of faith. Grow up, be mature, stop being split, stop acting like you don't have saving faith, and live as if you do, become whole. Holy Christ. And this week, at the heart of that double-mindedness, it is the issue, isn't it, of what sort of faith do you have? And please notice this. The question is not can faith save? That's not the question. Faith saves. The issue is, can this faith say? Can this faith say? The issue is, can this faith make any difference to your life? The issue is whether what you hold is true or not. Give me a second. I've lost something vital, but it's okay. We'll be fine without it. That that is the issue going on at the heart of what we're talking about. And we get to this point. James is describing the person who speaks, who says, I believe this, who says I'm a Christian, who says, Yeah, I agree with that, I assent to that, it's all true. But in real working practice, what they believe makes no difference to their lives. And friends, that that is nominal Christianity, or it's a lot like it. It is a lot like those folks who've grown up singing the hymns in assembly and go to church every now and again, and maybe they've been confirmed, and they love the idea of living in a Christian country, but at the end, their faith makes no practical difference to their lives. And James is saying that is a tragedy, if that is you, because that doesn't save, that still ends in hell. Yet James is warning us about this kind of faith, this mental ascent to the Bible, to the gospel, to the goodness and the lordship of Jesus, but nothing more than that. And he calls it dead faith. So look at verses 15 to 17. For 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. And it's easy to see what we've got here. James asks us to imagine that someone comes in, your clothes are all dirty and ripped, and they wander in, smelling the look of hunger on their faces. And this is the line that we give them, oh well, I hope everything works out. See you next week. Or I'm so sorry, you'll be in my prayers. Friends, it's the kind of faith that is just words. And if that's all that you're going to do, and you don't actually do anything about what's wrong with a person, then what good has that done? James is asking, what good is that? It's no good to the person who continues to be cold and uncomfortable and hungry, and it's no good to you, because that faith won't save you. James says that faith is dead, verse 17. You can't ride a dead horse and you can't ride a dead faith into heaven. And friends, James is asking us to think about whether we have the kind of faith that ignores the suffering of those we meet. Whether we have the kind of faith that has fridges full of fine food whilst forgetting that there are some, even in our midst, who struggle to put three meals on the table a day. The kind of faith that is happy to tell someone that will pray for them, but will never consider actually doing anything about it. Never consider the prospect of actually going and helping them like Jesus would have done. Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Real faith changes us to be like the one who has saved us. Just minded actually, as we read that psalm earlier, what is he like, the one who saved us? Psalm 72 told us he delivers the needy when he calls, the poor and him who has no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy and saves the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence, he redeems their life, and precious is their blood in his sight. Do we think of those in need the way that God thinks of them? Has our faith in God changed us like that? Verse 14. A man who says he has faith but does not have works. A woman who claims to be a Christian, but whose life shows no evidence of it, can that faith save, can that faith do any good? And the answer is obvious, isn't it? James is saying no. That makes no difference. And James isn't comparing faith on one hand, is he? And works on the other. He's comparing two types of faith: faith without works, and faith with works with action. Faith without obedience to Christ's commands to love the needy, and I'm afraid that is a dead faith, according to James. It's very uncomfortable. But if it wasn't clear enough, he goes on actually to describe it in verse 20 as a useless faith. Look at what how he describes it. Some 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, you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? So someone says, one person has faith, another person has works. We're all different, aren't we? Just sort of different angles on the same thing. They're both valid. And James says it doesn't work like that. Faith and works are not options. He says, two faiths. Show me your faith apart from works, and I will show you my faith by my works. And do you think you can work out another way to show someone your faith apart from works? It's kind of like, and forgive me for this, I did very badly at science at school, so if this doesn't work, don't tell me. Just live with it. But it's like sort of like saying, um, show me electricity without showing me light or heat. Well, how do I know there's electricity? There's light and heat. And the absence of evidence probably means that there is no electricity. Not real electricity. And the big problem is that it's possible for this person to believe the right things. Right? Verse 19. This person believes that God is one. And he's sort of saying, great, that's true. It's very orthodox, right? God made and owns everything. Jesus Christ is Lord of all. He reigns even today from heaven. These are the kind of statements of faith that folks in church will consider as signs of true Christianity. But clearly back then there were folks around who thought it was enough just to believe those things, just to believe the right things about God, and it's the same today. But just believing the right things, it is getting faith wrong. He says, where does it get you? You believe there's a God, verse 19, and hold on to your seats. Because do you see, even the demons believe that, by the way? There is no more theologically orthodox college in the world than hell. They've got their doctrine absolutely straight. They know their Bibles back to front. If you think that believing things in your head is the same thing as saving faith, then you need to wake up. Because demons can do that. And they shudder with fear, and rightly so. That is a scary place to be. He was there and he wrote about this. And he said they did not stand because their understanding of faith was intellectual. It was an hour on Sunday morning. And Bonhoeffer said they never took up their crosses and followed Jesus, which is part and parcel of what it is to have saving faith in him. Bonhoeffer said, Why is it that those Jews died? It was because the Christians who'd been brought up in Sunday school never stood against Hitler because their faith was not one that also took action. One commentator wrote that it is good to possess accurate theology, but it is unsatisfactory unless that good theology possesses you. James says that that faith is dead. It is useless. What sort of faith do you have this morning, friend? What would be discovered if someone opened up your diary or looked into your bank balance or listened to your language or checked out your relationships? What would they show or not show about you? Faith without works is dead and useless. But there is a second kind of faith, isn't there? It's sort of hopeless. That's what our second point is this morning. Second and last point. Faith with works saves. Faith with works saves. Or if you want to pun, real faith works. So into the last bit of the passage, we've got faith that is alive and useful. It is saving faith. And James is about to show what it was about these two people, Abraham and Rahab, that saved them. That meant they were considered justified before God. Now, these verses can seem tricky. And they've caused some controversy and bother over the years. And particularly the area of controversy is people being worried that James is teaching us the opposite of what Paul taught us. Okay? Verse 24 sort of summarizes where the pickles come up. You see that a person is justified by works, not by faith alone. And you'll be wondering how can that be true if Paul tells us in Romans 3 that we are justified by faith apart from works of the law? That may be a question that you've got. And if so, we we really need to understand that James and Paul are writing to very different people, very different contexts. So Paul, back in Romans and Galatians, Paul was opposing people who wanted a sort of DIY religion. Do it yourself. They want you to feel like they were put right with God because of their works. Okay? So in other words, uh when the crunch comes, Jesus returns, we can stand before God and look him in the eye and genuinely think that he will have us on our merits. We believe such and such about him, sure, but in the end, it is my performance that will get me over the line. How good my works have been that will get me into heaven. And Paul says to that, no, just no. Salvation is all God's gift, and therefore we are rescued, we're justified, we're considered right with him because of our trust in what God has done through Christ on the cross. That's Paul. Now, friends, James believes that, but he faces a different issue. He is writing to the Orthodox Christian, verse 14, who says he has faith but shows no evidence of it by his works or actions. That's different to Paul's issue. That is trusting that I can say the right things and say, oh, I've got faith in God and that that will be enough. But both Paul and James actually they agree that real faith will lead to works. What Paul called in Romans the obedience of faith. They always come together. And that the faith James describes as dead faith, that's not what Paul means when he writes of being justified by faith alone. It's not that kind of faith. Neither of them think that this dead faith will save you. And if I can steal, if what I'm saying is muddy and unclear, one line of someone else's, of David Gibson's, because I find it so helpful, he says, the great glorious doctrine of justification by faith alone is true, and the faith that justifies is not alone. It always comes with works. James isn't talking about how a person is justified, he's talking about how we can tell a person is justified. He's talking about the evidence, the light and the heat from the electricity. And so he gives us these two examples of saving faith. First of all, Abraham, verse 21. Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? So you might remember the story of how Abraham was told by God to offer his one and only son Isaac as a sacrifice. He took him, he bound him, he was all ready to do the deeds to sacrifice his son. Now God stepped in and provided a substitute, but that's not the point here. The point is Abraham's willingness to follow through in his faith. And verse 22 says, his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was completed by his works. That word completed isn't an accident, by the way. That's that whole word that we keep on finding in James, wholeness. Abraham's faith was whole. It was complete. This is what James wants to move Christian people towards, instead of reflecting the dead faith of the unsaved. Verse 23, the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. And he was called a friend of God. And timelines are important here. So it is Genesis 15, in which God made promises to Abraham, and Abraham believed them, and it was credited to him as righteousness. But then it was seven chapters and many, many years later, that Abraham offered his son Isaac as the sacrifice. And what James is saying is you can't have Genesis 15 unless that leads to Genesis 22. Genesis 22 completes Genesis 15. If faith has obviously been there before the sacrifice, but the sacrifice, if the sacrifice hadn't been offered, if Abraham hadn't obeyed, then it wouldn't have been the saving faith that was Abraham's. They necessarily go together, they work together, faith active along with his works. And what James is speaking out against really is cheap faith. So saving faith, what is it like? Well, look at Abraham. It's the kind of faith that acts, even to those extraordinary lengths, that sacrifices and obeys faith that acts. Little illustration. This is a true story, called Daryl Pace, who was giving an archery exhibition in New York in Central Park. This archery exhibition was heavily attended, loads of people there, loads of news stations covering the events. And he was showing what he could do. He was using these steel-tipped hunters arrows. And he was hitting target after target after target. Really impressive, wonderfully accurate. But then he called for a volunteer. And all this volunteer had to do was hold up an apple at waist height. That's all they had to do. Would anyone volunteer? One person, one reporter, nervously did. And he stood there as Darrell Pace lined up his arrow from 30 yards away. That's quite a lot of yards away. And then released it. And the apple exploded, and the arrow went straight through and hit the target behind. Who in that faith, uh, who in that crowd had faith in Daryl Pace? Lots of people thought he could probably do it. But only one person had the kind of faith that would step out and act, that would live as if they really trusted the one in whom they had the faith. Now, for those of us here at Emmanuel, friends, we can talk the talk, we can be great with our words, but will we act? Even when, like Abraham, perhaps like that reporter, it feels like acting might be costly to us. And it would be unbearably costly, were the object of our faith, our Saviour and our King Jesus Christ, not so utterly faithful and trustworthy. And then we get the example lastly of Rahab 2, verse 25. In the same way, was not Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? So uh we read about Rahab last year, Joshua chapter 2, and the faith that saved her, and that is an active faith. She sheltered the Israelite spies and Jericho from the king and his soldiers. Her faith was demonstrated by the way in which she risked her life and sided with God and his messengers. She stood up for God, she stood up for his people. Her faith was one that not only believed in him but protected and saved those in need as he does. Her actions showed that she was justified. True saving faith, it is observable. Friends, what sort of faith do you have? Who do you know who is lonely and needs company? Who do you know who is poor and needs help? Who do you know who is uh who is unable to drive and needs lifts? It's an almost endless list of questions we can ask. But how today, friends, might your faith be seen in your works? A few months ago, uh Jessica and I actually were in a moment of particular need without any particular details, and we were absolutely blown away by members of our church family who knew about it and stepped in to help us, to serve us in different ways. We saw saving faith in action, and we are so grateful to God for it. A faith that is living, that is useful, that saves, that justifies not that the work alone saves, but that the work belongs to the faith that saves. What sort of faith do you have? Just as we finish, I do want to say this isn't written to make real Christians worry that they're not good enough to go to heaven. That's not how it works. I do think James wants all of us to hear it and probably change something in us. I suspect all of us today know that we have something we need to work on, works that we need to do in obedience to Jesus that we're not doing. But he knows that we all struggle with sin, and he knows that none of us is Jesus. And he knows that we need to rest on his grace, and he offers it to us freely. And Jesus loves our desire to change. And if you have that desire to change today, this passage isn't here to condemn you, it's a call with the person that you are, and the time of life that you are, with the abilities that you do have to ask for his help to live it out, to live out what you believe. Some of us might rightly hear a sharp warning this morning. If that's you, friends, bring it to the Lord and find mercy and help to change. He does love to forgive and help and change sinners who have never known living faith until today. What sort of faith do you have? Faith that is dead or faith that works? Let me pray for us. Father God, please keep us from uh the sin and folly and the danger of being all talk and no action, of saying we believe in you, but never living like we do. Help us to hear that warning, Lord. And please grant us true faith in Jesus, and grant us his help through his Holy Spirit to be doers of the word, to care for the vulnerable, to give ourselves for you, and in your service to others. Please keep us from dead faith and give us assurance in the presence of works that belong to a living faith in Jesus. Amen.