Dead Faith

Now inevitably, people with dead faith always substitute words for deeds. They want you to believe that they are what they say when you must understand that we are what we do. True faith will always be seen in works. Dead faith. will not be seen at all.

Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. It doesn't have a shape or color, and yet everyone knows that wind exists. But can that be said of your faith in Christ? Is there a way that others and you yourself can know that the faith you proclaim is real?

Well, the Bible answers that question with a resounding Yes. As you'll see today on Grace TU, we're launching John MacArthur's series from the book of James titled Show Me Your Faith.

Now, hearing that title, Show Me Your Faith, what comes through loud and clear is that faith isn't simply what you say you believe in, it's something you can see. Here's what John had to say about that.

Well, James says faith without works is dead. Man, what he means to say is it's a lie. Show me your. your faith by your works. Where there are no works, there is no evidence of faith.

What does faith in Christ look like? How can you know whether your faith is alive or dead faith? Whether it's the real thing. Or false. This is an issue you cannot afford to be wrong about.

And there are a lot of um a lot of wrong teaching floating around about the fact that you can be a believer and not have a transformed life. That is obviously a lie. If you have been regenerated, born again, made a new creation, old things have passed away and all things are new. And James chapter 2 offers a test To help you find out where you stand with the Lord, there's nothing more important than this. In the light of what our Lord said in Matthew 7, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.

There are people who think they're connected to the Lord. who aren't. The evidence of true salvation shows up in works, righteous works.

So it's possible to think you're spiritually alive when you're not. and it's also possible to doubt whether you're spiritually alive When you look at the works in your own life, they're the evidence that you are.

So, getting this right is very important. There's an urgency to the truths we'll be looking at. Don't miss a day of the series called Show Me Your Faith. That's right, friend, don't miss a day. This study considers questions like what does saving faith look like and what effect will genuine faith have on your attitudes and your actions and your desires?

It's important that you know how to answer those questions.

So to help you with that, here is John MacArthur to begin his series called Show Me Your Faith. We come now to our study of God's Word and How grateful I am in my own heart for this wonderful occasion. To look at the precious revelation. of our blessed Lord. Let's open our Bibles to James chapter 2, looking at verses 14 through 20.

Let me read it to you. What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he has faith and has not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled. Notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body, what does it profit?

Even so, faith, if it has 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 dost well. The demons also believe and tremble.

But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works. is dead. To sort of paraphrase James, faith plus nothing equals nothing. James, for example, describes the kind of faith that equals nothing. He calls it dead faith in verse 17.

In verse 20, and again at the end of the chapter, in verse 26. Dead faith. Now, inevitably, people with dead faith always substitute words. For deeds. They want you to believe that they are what they say.

When you must understand that we are what we do. Trust not in words, trust only in movement. True faith will always be seen in works. Dead faith will not be seen at all.

Now, the point that you want to understand as you approach this passage is that there is a kind of faith that does not save. In Matthew, for example, chapter 3. The ministry of John the Baptist draws our attention. And many people were being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River, confessing their sins. In verse 7, when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said to them, O generation of snakes!

Who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth, therefore, Fruits fitting repentance. And think not to say within yourself, we have Abraham as our father. In other words, don't count on your heritage. Demonstrate by your works the legitimacy of your faith.

In chapter 5 of Matthew, And verse 16. Jesus said, Let your light So shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. In other words, the light that shines out of the life of a believer is the light of good works, demonstrated deeds. In chapter 7 of Matthew, The same Sermon on the Mount. Verse Not everyone that says, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of my Father.

It is not the sayers, it is the doers. Trust not in what people say, trust in what they do. In John chapter 8, We find again a graphic illustration of this very same kind of faith. Verse 30 and 31. As Jesus spoke again, the words relating himself and his father.

It says in verse 30, many believed on him. Then said Jesus to those Jews who believed on him: If you continue in my word, that is in obedience, you are my. Mathetes Alethos, my real disciples, and then you will know the truth, and then the truth will set you free from bondage to sin, and death, and hell, and judgment. All implied. Valid saving faith has always been verified by fruit.

And a false, dead faith is indicated by the absence of righteous actions.

Now it's clear that many people possess that kind of faith. They believe in God. They believe in Jesus Christ. But not to the point of salvation. They may believe the facts about God, the facts about Christ, but they manifest no irrevocable commitment to Jesus Christ.

They manifest no changed life. That comes with true salvation marked by repentance. And obedience. The Lord was so concerned with this, He spoke about it in the parable of the soils. He spoke about it, no doubt, alluding to it in part with the wheat and tares.

He spoke about it in John 15 with the abiding and the non-abiding branches. He spoke about it in Matthew 7 with the professors and the possessors. This is a common issue in the ministry of our Lord. Intellectual belief is not enough.

Now, beloved, let me tell you something that burdens my heart greatly. The Church of Jesus Christ must deal with the soul-damning impression that a simple knowledge of the gospel is equal to acceptance of saving faith. We must deal with the deception and the delusion that knowing the truth equals redemption. It's almost as if people think that what you don't deny, you must believe. and that that would be sufficient.

James will not permit any such deception. to go unchallenged. People who believe the facts of the gospel but make no irrevocable commitment to shun sin and serve the Lord Jesus Christ, which commitment is empowered in the saving work itself, must be confronted with the reality of their state. In fact, the whole of the epistle written by James is a series of tests by which you can evaluate whether your faith is a living faith or whether it is a dead faith.

Now In this wonderful second chapter, in verses 14 through 20, he brings up the test of works. And by works, he means righteous action. Righteous behavior. Behavior which is obedient to God's word and which manifests a godly. Nature.

How we live then, beloved, proves who we are. This, I believe, is the composite test in this epistle.

Now, James has already brought up this issue. Go back for a moment to verse 22 of chapter 1. He has already introduced it when he said, Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man beholding his face, the face of his birth, his Genesis face, as it were, in a mirror. He looks, goes his way, forgets the manner of man he was.

In other words, he looks, sees his problem, does nothing about it, goes away and forgets it. But whoever looks into the perfect law of liberty, which means the word of God, and continues there, he is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. In other words, God says you need to be a doer, a continuer in looking into the word of God and putting it into practice in your life. And again, James brings up the same issue here in chapter 2.

Now, may I say that no one is saved by works? Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 says, Not by works, lest We should boast. We are not saved by works. If we were saved by works, we would adulterate grace, and grace would be no more grace. No one is saved by works, listen carefully, but no one is saved without producing works.

That's the issue. without producing works. The work of repentance and submission to Christ being the initial ones.

So James is dealing with dead faith, non-saving faith. That is the issue. He's writing the Jewish Readers. They had identified themselves with the Christian faith.

Some of them obviously were genuine and some of them were less than genuine. Hence all of these tests are given in the epistle. But they had outwardly identified with the Christian faith.

Some of these Jews had gone from one extreme to another on the matter of works. Imagine living all your life under a system of works knowing you couldn't live up to the system. Imagine being required to keep laws you know you couldn't keep. Imagine being absolutely overwhelmed with a myriad of rules that no human being could ever live up to, and believing that your salvation was dependent on your ability to do what you couldn't do. A tremendous burden.

In fact, in Matthew 23, Jesus said the leaders who espouse that system bind on people burdens far too heavy for them to bear. And so here are these Jewish people, typically oppressed by a guilt-producing burden. And along comes somebody preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is all about grace and all about liberation and all about freedom and all about joy. And they hear that gospel and they say, that's for me. Wow.

Freedom from legalism sounded too good to be true. And could it be that some of them misunderstood that freedom and went too far the other way? Going all the way from legalism to an unfounded and abusive liberty. They were under the mistaken notion that since works were not efficacious for salvation, maybe they weren't efficacious for anything, and maybe they weren't even necessary. And could it be that James was recognizing in the congregation to which he wrote some people who were trying to espouse a salvation that was simply believing the facts and requiring nothing?

It doesn't sound too far-fetched. It's been espoused in every generation since. Obviously, whatever the cause and the background, There were some who felt themselves secure just being hearers of the word and were self-deceived. They were saying, oh, yes, that's true. Oh, yes, that's true.

But never was it fleshed out in their life.

Now, what is the character of dead faith? This is what James wants to point out to us. Let's look at our text. What is the character of dead faith? He gives us three marks of dead faith.

Three descriptions of the nature of dead faith. First of all, dead faith is identified by an empty confession. It is identified by an empty confession. Verse 14. What does it profit?

Or of what benefit is it? My brethren, And I think he's speaking at that point. to a Jewish brethren Jewish audience. And of course, collectively to the church that are identified outwardly as brethren. What does it profit?

Or of what benefit is it? Though a man say he has faith, But has not works. What good is such a claim? Can faith save him? Now look at it.

If a man says he has faith, for the sake of argument, a man comes along, he makes that claim: I have faith, I believe, I believe in God, I believe in Christ. He confesses to believe in the death of Christ. He may confess to believe in the resurrection of Christ. By the way, it's a present tense. What does it profit, my brothers, though a man continually go on making the claim that he believes?

The word in the Greek test means anyone. Anyone. What good is such a claim from anyone? If he has not, Erga. Works.

If he has not product. If he has not good works, righteous deeds is the pattern of his life. What good is such faith? The answer is it's no good at all. That's the obvious answer.

It's nothing but an empty confession, an empty profession, a claim with no evidence. If there are no works and no righteous deeds, you cannot. Demonstrate A changed life. If, when true faith is placed in Christ, we receive a new nature, that new nature will manifest itself. In John 15, as I mentioned earlier, Jesus said: take the branch that has no fruit, cut it down, tie it up, and throw it in the fire.

That fruitless branch, I believe, represents a Judas disciple. Represents somebody who's outwardly attached, but there's no life flow and therefore there's no product. And you know these things.

So James adds. At the end of verse 14, can, and I might imply, that... Faith, save him, such faith as that. Can that kind of faith acquit a man on Judgment Day? Can faith not accompanied by a dramatic change in moral character and conduct be true saving faith?

What's the answer? No. Can such an empty confession save? From a God, look at verse 13, who will be merciless to the man who shows no mercy. And you mean to say to me that a man can believe and show no mercy and still be saved?

Some would say you can believe and have no fruit and still be saved. And Jesus says, if I look at your life and I see not the fruit of mercy, there will be no mercy for you. Why? Because Jesus himself can evaluate the validity of faith. based upon the product of that faith.

If salvation is a new birth, if salvation is a transformation, if salvation is a total change, then it must demonstrate itself in the behavior consistent with that new nature. If I am a new person, there will be new factors in how I conduct myself. Look at Romans 2. In Romans 2, we have the criteria by which God will judge. And in verse 6, it says, He will render to every man according to his deeds.

The final judgment will be according to his deeds. You say, I thought the final judgment would be on our faith. The final judgment will be on our faith as indicated in our what? Our deeds. And he goes on to delineate it.

To the people who through patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality will come eternal life. In other words, it isn't that you're saved by those works, it's that those works manifest that you have a new nature. But the people who are contentious and don't obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath will come. The converse of that is, true believers will not be contentious, they will obey the truth, they will obey righteousness. Tribulation and anguish on every soul of man that does evil.

Glory, honor, and peace to every man that works good. In other words, we're going to be judged on the basis of what we've done. Because what we've done and what we do is the indicator of who we are.

Now, somebody's going to say, well, wait a minute, isn't James in conflict with Paul? This is the typical argument? Doesn't Paul say we are saved simply and only? and totally by grace. In Romans 11, 6, if by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace, and if there's any works, then it's no more grace, otherwise, work is no more work.

In other words, isn't he stripping grace of any work at all? Doesn't he say the same thing in effect? I think it's in Galatians, isn't it? Chapter 2 verse Sixteen Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even as we believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified? Isn't Paul saying no works and James saying works and aren't they in conflict?

May I suggest to you that James and Paul are not standing face to face in a confrontation, but they're standing back to back fighting two common enemies? Paul is fighting those people who want salvation. to be by works James is fighting those people who want a salvation that doesn't demand anything. Paul is saying salvation is only by grace. James is saying that salvation only by grace produces works.

There's no debate here, there's no argument here, there's no tension here. It is not a face-to-face disagreement. It is a back-to-back defense against two different attackers. Paul is defending himself against legalistic salvation, and James is defending himself against a libertine approach that says you can believe and have no change in your life and still be saved. Go back to chapter 1, verse 18.

And what did James say? Of his own will begot he us with the word of truth. In other words, he presents a sovereign salvation by grace. God saved us by his own will through the word of truth. James affirms a salvation by sovereign grace, but then he says, in order that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creation, in other words, to make us new creatures.

to make us different. Paul says the same thing. We are saved by grace through faith, not of ourselves, but we are his workmanship created unto good works. They both say the same thing. Both agree that there is a faith that does not save.

Turn for a moment to 2 Timothy chapter 2. And verse 19. And listen carefully to what Paul writes here. to show you how he agrees with James. Nevertheless, says Paul writing to Timothy, And speaking of those who err concerning the truth, Mentioned in verse 18, in verse 17, their word is an evil word, it eats like a disease, like gangrene.

He says, Nevertheless, the foundation of God stands sure. There are a lot of people trying to knock the foundation apart, a lot of people trying to offer another foundation, but the foundation of God is immovable and it has this seal. In other words, here is what seals the truth: the Lord knows them that are His. And how does He know them? Let everyone that names the name of Christ what?

The part from iniquity. The mark of true salvation is a departure. from iniquity. In Titus If you would notice Paul again Making reference to the same thing, verse 16 of chapter 1. Listen to this.

He's talking about people who claim to be believers. He says they profess that they know God.

Now follow, but in works they what? They deny him. Being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work, reprobate. That word reprobate has the idea of a confused, disoriented. and wicked mind.

So they profess to know God, but the denial comes in their works. It doesn't matter what you claim, it only matters what you demonstrate. Chapter 2, he says it again in verse 7. In all things, showing yourself a pattern of good works.

So, James is considering an empty profession. An empty confession with no evidence.

Sort of an intellectual external acceptance of the facts of the gospel, as opposed to a wholehearted, irrevocable commitment to give oneself totally to Christ And to exchange One's life for his life. One's sovereignty for his sovereignty. That's basic. And Paul is In his particular ministry, emphasizing the beginning of the Christian life, insists that no one can earn forgiveness. No one can earn a right relationship with God.

That comes only from God's free, sovereign grace. There are no human pre-salvation works. You don't have to repent in your own flesh. You don't have to set yourself up for salvation by agreeing to do this or agreeing to do that in your flesh. But where true salvation takes place.

Where sovereign grace reaches down and totally transforms a person, there will be an abandonment of sin and abandonment of self to the sovereignty of Christ as a part of that saving work. I think about Ephesus. And when the gospel came to Ephesus in Acts 19, immediately the text says the people who were deep into magic and the occult took all of their magic books, having heard the gospel and believed, and what did they do with them? They burned them all. Paul reminds the Thessalonians that they had turned from idols to serve the living and true God.

It is an exchange of masters.

So while salvation is all of God, it is also within the saving work that repentance and a turning from sin and an embracing of a new master takes place. And I don't believe for a moment that a newborn believer understands the full implications of that. I don't think when I was saved, I understood the full implications of my sin and turning from my sin. I don't think I understood the full implications of what it meant to submit to Jesus Christ. That's an ever increasing awareness even now in my life.

No one is saved by works. But no one is saved without becoming a new creation, and in the new creation comes the product: repentance. Submission. Obedience. Love toward God.

and all the other works that the Spirit of God would produce. You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. Our current study is titled, Show Me Your Faith.

Now, friend, perhaps you know someone who claims to be a Christian, but his life doesn't exactly support that claim. John's current study could be just what that person needs to hear to help him know whether he truly has faith in Christ. You can download this series from our website for free, so get in touch today. Our web address is gty.org. Both messages from Show Me Your Faith are free of charge.

the MP3 audio and the written transcripts. And in fact, all of John's sermons are free to download at our website, that addressagaingty.org. Also, let me encourage you to let us know how God is using grace to you in your life. And be sure to tell us how you hear our broadcast. Mentioning the call letters of this radio station is a big help.

Our email address, letters at gty.org. That's letters at gty.org. Or if you want to reach us by regular mail, our address is GraceToU. P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, California.

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Now for the entire Grace to U staff, I'm Phil Johnson with a question. What specifically is the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian? If you said belief in biblical truth, then you might be surprised what you hear on the next broadcast. Join us as we continue John MacArthur's study called Show Me Your Faith. With another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time on grace to you.