And then he calls for the attitude of true faith in verse 22. What's the first word? Repent. And pray to God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you, because I perceive that you are in the gall of bitterness, and you are in bondage to iniquity. Welcome to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. John MacArthur once said that even demons could sign the doctrinal statement of his church, and they could sign it honestly.
So, how could that be possible?
Well, while it is true that demons are evil and opposed to God, it's wrong to think that they don't believe profound biblical truth, especially the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. Demons know exactly who Christ is, and yet they know nothing about peace and joy and the blessing of salvation. That goes to show that believing truth about Christ is not the same as having a true living faith in Christ.
So how can you tell if your faith is alive or dead? John is explaining that in his series titled Show Me Your Faith. And now with today's lesson, here's John. Let's open our Bibles to James chapter 2, looking at verses 14 through 20.
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. In verse 14, he first describes dead faith as an empty confession that has no benefit at all. Remember 2 Corinthians 13:5, which says, Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. And how do you examine yourself? Not by looking at a point in time in which you went forward, signed a card, or whatever.
You examine yourself by looking at your life and seeing the product. What do you see? Because what you see reveals what you are. Empty confession is nothing but dead faith, and dead faith is counterfeit. Secondly, James says that dead faith is not only marked by empty confession, that is, by words without deeds, but secondly, it is marked by false compassion.
And here he moves specifically to The absence of deeds. False compassion. Look at verse 15. Very practical. If a brother or sister Be naked.
and deprived of daily food. We'll stop there just to set the scene a little bit. Here is a person who is naked. This is a kind of continual situation, a past condition brought into the present. Here is a person who is naked.
It doesn't mean stark naked without any clothing, it means poorly clothed. A person who is destitute of the necessities of life doesn't have enough clothes. Probably indicating that the person has not enough clothes to stay warm.
So here is a person who is cold. The word destitute means deprived. of daily food. Starving to death. Here's a person who's cold and hungry.
Very common situation. Very severe. No food. For the day, And no garment. To stay warm.
Brother or sister indicates this is a Christian document. It indicates that he's writing to a group of people who, at least outwardly, are not only identified with him as a Jew, but are identified very likely with the assembly of the redeemed. This is an illustration very much like 1 John 3, 17 and 18, where John brings up the same thing. How you respond to a person in need is the indicator of what's in your heart. I've told you that all along.
James and 1 John are very close parallels, both providing tests of true faith.
So here is this man or woman. Cold and hungry. And one of you meets that person in your assembly, they come. To visit you, they're there in the assembly. You see their condition, and one of you says to them, Go in peace.
Now that's a Common Jewish expression, you find it in Mark 5:34. Go in peace. Just pious. God be with you. God bless you.
Hope you do well. Empty words. You're really rejecting their hunger, and you're rejecting the fact that they're cold.
So you say to them, Um Go in peace. Be warmed and filled. Aren't you generous? In other words, what good is that? Kind of faith.
You mean to tell me that you're a new creature? You mean to tell me that you have the life of God in your soul, the life of a compassionate God, a loving God, and you can't concern yourself with someone in need? Verse 17 says, even so, faith. If it doesn't have works, is what? It's dead because it's alone.
A faith with no fruit, a faith with no product, is a dead faith marked by empty confession and false compassion. Turn to Matthew chapter 25. Verse 31 says, When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit on the throne of his glory. And the Lord will come in this time of judgment, gathering all the nations, separating them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And of course, this is the division of men to go into the kingdom and be shut out of the kingdom.
The sheep go to the right hand, the goats to the left. The king says to those on the right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Why? Because you believed. Doesn't say that.
He says, here's the reason you're coming to the kingdom. I was hungry, and you what? You what? Give me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink.
I was a stranger and you took me in. I was ill-clad and you put clothing on me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to me. And the righteous are going to say, now, wait a minute, Lord, when did we ever do that?
When did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty, and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or ill-clad and clothe you? When did we see you sick and in prison and come to you? And the king shall answer and say unto them, Truly I say to you, inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have what? And here it is.
The people who enter the kingdom aren't the ones here who simply are said to believe. They are the ones whose faith is made manifest in true compassion. On the other hand, The ones who are told in verse 41 to depart. Because they're cursed to entering everlasting fire, prepared for the devil, and his angels are the ones who failed to demonstrate. compassion and they go into everlasting punishment while the righteous go into life eternal.
Again, the point is, judgment is on the basis of works. Not that our works earn salvation, but that our works manifest whether our Our faith is truly saving faith. And so James says dead faith is marked by empty confession and false compassion. Thirdly, I suppose we could say it's marked by shallow conviction. Look at verse 18.
Shallow conviction. Reading it in the authorized, yes, a man may say. You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works.
Now, James probably, it seems to me, is referring to himself. James is the man. He's the man. He's a little bit humble, and so he speaks in the third person. He certainly wants no boasting.
We see that over in chapter 4, verses 6 to 10, where he exalts humility, and in verse 10 says, Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and he'll lift you up.
So the man here, I think, is probably James. He possesses true faith.
So he says to another man, Who is claiming to have faith without works? He says, You have faith. And I have orcs. Show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works.
Now, the man who possesses true faith, very likely James, sort of putting himself in this position, says, all right. You're the antagonist. You want to argue the case, okay, you have faith. Let's say that hypothetically. All right, let's say you have faith.
And let's say that I have works. Here's the ACA test. Show me your faith without works. Go ahead. Mm-hmm.
Impossible. Can't be done. The word show means exhibit. Demonstrate, put on display.
So he says, Go ahead, show me your faith. How can you show faith without works? You can say, well, I believe. I believe. Show it to me.
Well You can't. It is absolutely impossible to demonstrate saving faith without a product. How people can say there is such a thing as a faith that is real, that has no fruit, is absolutely. Ridiculous, because how can they know that? James says, show it to me.
And if there is no righteous deed, If there is no fruit of righteousness, there is no way to demonstrate the validity of faith. That's a challenge, by the way. That's a challenge, and nobody can answer that challenge. Nobody can show their faith without works. James says On the other hand, I'll show you The reality of my living faith by what?
My works. It's obvious. There's no other way. Boy, that puts the hypocrite on the spot. Show me.
So when someone says, I'm a Christian. You don't say, oh. When did that happen? Oh, twenty-four years ago and Trotter? When somebody says, I'm a Christian, you say, Oh, show me your.
Salvation.
Well Show me. Tell me about your life. Tell me about the pattern of your behavior. Look at 2 Peter. Chapter 1.
He says in 2 Peter chapter 1. That the divine power of God has granted to us life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who has called us to glory and virtue. Would you notice that? He not only called us to glory, but he also called us to virtue. And through the gospel, he gave to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that we through these things might be partakers of the divine nature, having already escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
We have already received in some measure that divine nature in the new creation, the life of God within us, the indwelling Holy Spirit. We have already escaped to some degree the corruption that is in the world through lust. John says we've already been delivered from the world. John also says in 1 John chapter 2 that we've already overcome the wicked one.
So we have a new nature. We have in some measure escaped the corruption of our fallenness through the new nature that's in us. We have been delivered from the world and its threat to destroy us. And then he says, now you give diligence to add to your faith virtue and to your virtue knowledge and to knowledge self-control. And he goes through endurance and godliness and brotherly kindness and love.
And he says, if all these things are in you and abound, they make you to be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. If all these things are in your life, you'll be bearing fruit. But if you lack those things, you're going to be blind. You can't see very far. You'll never really know whether you were purged from your former sins.
You can't know unless you can see the fruit.
So Let's go to verse 9. And James says, A man can say, I have faith. A man can say, I believe, but if there's no works there, He can never demonstrate it. And somebody might argue and say, Oh, I believe in God. I believe in one God.
I'm a monotheist. And James says, You do? You believe there's one God, or you believe God is one, the Shema of Deuteronomy 6:4 and 5, the Lord our God is one Lord? You believe the basic theological doctrine of scripture. You believe in the unity of God.
The Jews always prided themselves on their orthodoxy, particularly on believing in the one true God. You believe that? You intellectually believe that? Let me tell you something. You do well.
Sarcastic. Oh, you're really something if you believe that. Let me tell you something. The demons believe that. and tremble.
What he's saying here is You believe that? Wonderful. I'll go one up on you. The demons believe it, and they. Tremble.
In other words, you're not even in the category with the demons. They believe that too, but at least they have the sense to tremble. That word means to bristle, to have the hair stand on end. They are in a high degree of terror. That's metaphorical.
They don't have hair. Yeah. The demons go one better than men. They go one better than religious phonies. They shudder.
They shake. They're in grave fear. Whereas it says of men in Romans 3:18, there is no fear of God before their eyes. Men don't fear, demons fear. That demon said in Matthew 8:29 to Jesus, What are you doing?
Are you here to torment us before the time? In other words, they all know they're headed for torment eternally, and they're saying, wait a minute, wait a minute, it isn't time yet. They know where they're headed. Intellectual faith is dead faith. Demons have more than that.
They have an emotional faith.
So dead faith is inferior even to demon faith. Thomas Manton describes a non-saving faith in very graphic terms. A simple and naked assent to such things as are propounded in the Word of God, and maketh men more knowing, but not better, not more holy or heavenly. They that have it may believe the promises, the doctrines, the precepts, as well as the histories. But yet, lively, saving faith it is not.
For he who hath that findeth his heart engaged to Christ, and doth so believe the promises of the Gospel concerning pardon of sin and life eternal, that he seeketh after them as his happiness. And doth so believe the mysteries of our redemption by Christ, as that all his hope and peace and confidence is drawn from thence, and doth so believe the threatenings, whether of temporal plagues or eternal damnation, as that in comparison of them, all the frightful things of the world are as nothing. Manton goes on to talk about this kind of shallow conviction that is nothing more than human faith or demon faith. He writes, It is to be distinguished from temporary faith. Which is an assent to scriptural or gospel truth, accompanied with a slight and insufficient touch upon the heart, called a taste of the heavenly gift and of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come.
Hebrews 6. By this kind of faith, the mind is not only enlightened, but the heart affected with some joy, and the life in some measure reformed at least from grosser sins, called escaping the pollutions of the world. 2 Peter 2:20. But the impression is not deep enough, nor is the joy and delight rooted enough to encounter all temptations to the contrary. Therefore, this sense of religion may be choked or worn off either by the cares of this world or voluptuous living or great and bitter persecutions and troubles for righteousness' sake.
It is a common deceit, he says. Many are persuaded that Jesus is the Christ, the only Son of God, and so are moved to embrace his person and, in some measure, to obey his precepts, and to depend upon his promises, and fear his threatenings, and so by consequence to have their hearts loosened from the world in part, and they seem to prefer Christ and their duty to him above worldly things, as long as no temptations do assault their resolutions, or sensual objects stand not up in any considerable strength to entice them. But at length, when they find his laws so strict and spiritual, and contrary either to the bent of their affections or worldly interests, they fall off and lose all their taste and relish of the hopes of the gospel, and so declare plainly that they were not rooted and grounded in the faith and hope thereof. He's right. And he pulls together The teaching of Hebrews and the teaching of 2 Peter to affirm what he says.
Verse 20. Concludes our look at the passage, and James says, Will you know, O vain man? That means empty-headed. Will you know, will you are you willing to recognize this, oh, you empty-headed man, that faith without works is dead? He uses a different word for dead here.
than he used previously in verse 17. He used the word arge, it means fruitless, it means a tree that bears no fruit. You are as destitute as a dead tree, as a dead corpse. You are no better than a dead seed, a dead root, a dead nerve, a dead engine, or a dead anything.
So James says, you have dead faith. And it profits absolutely. Nothing. That says. Shallow conviction.
False compassion. Empty confession. To conclude our study, look at Acts chapter 8. and an illustration of dead faith. Acts chapter 8.
Philip. came preaching. The people listened to him as he preached in Samaria. With a fiery heart. A man of God, a holy man, full of faith.
It tells us about his virtue back in chapter 6. And in verse 9, a certain man was listening. Name was Simon. He previously Had used magic and sorcery to bewitch the people of Samaria, passing on that he himself was some great one. And they were all giving heed to him from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God.
And to him they had regard, because for a long time he had bewitched them with sorcery. But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. Philip has a first-class, first-rate revival in Samaria. People are really coming to Christ. Verse 13, underline this.
Then Simon himself, what's the next word? Believed. He believed. And when he was what? Baptized.
He continued with Philip. Looks good. Believed, baptized, continued. Three good things. And he was amazed.
Beholding the miracles and signs which were done. Believed Baptized. Continued Verse They prayed for the people. who heard the word and believed to receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet the Holy Spirit had not fallen on them.
They were a new group in the development of the church. They laid their hands on them in verse 17. The apostles did, they received the Holy Spirit. When Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles' hands, the Holy Spirit was given, and by the way, I believe it was attended by a miraculous sign of speaking in foreign languages, speaking in language by the power of the Spirit of God. There had to be some supernatural phenomena so that there would be a recognition that indeed the Holy Spirit had come.
When he saw that through the laying on of hands the power of the Spirit was given, he offered them money. And he said, Give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy Spirit. Man, I'll pay you for this. This is magic that will really bring it in. I'll pay you.
And Peter said to him, Your money perish with you. You know what he says there? You're going to perish. And your money perish with you. Because you thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money, you have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God.
He believed, he was baptized, he continued, he was amazed, and he was damned. You see it? You have no part in this. Your money perish with you. And then he calls for the attitude of true faith in verse 22.
What's the first word? Repent. Of this thy wickedness. And pray to God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you, because I perceive that you are in the gall of bitterness, and you are in bondage to iniquity. You're bound by sin.
It is possible to believe. It is possible to be baptized. It is possible to continue to listen. It is possible to be amazed by everything happening in Christianity and to be. Damned.
That's dead faith. And what came out of the life of Simon was evidence of an unregenerate heart. And so James says, look at your works. What do they tell you? about your faith.
You're listening to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. John's current study is titled, Show Me Your Faith.
Now, friend, as you listened to John's lesson to day, perhaps you found that while your faith is not a dead faith, you still battle with sin. It's frustrating, it's a struggle, and it never seems to end.
Well, a while back, John had some comments about that, and they're still timely and encouraging, so let's hear them now. No, I I would say that's the evidence that you're a Christian, because the people who are non-Christians don't battle with sin. they run to it. Just think about Romans chapter 3. There's none righteous, no, not one.
There's none that does good. There's none that seeks after God. The poison of asps is under their lips. They have no fear of God before their eyes.
So the non-believer is not having a battle with sin. The only thing the non-believer has to do is hide his iniquity at some level so that he's not socially unacceptable.
So he's socially restrained in some fashion, but there's not this internal battle between sin and righteousness because there's no righteousness there.
So, the very fact that you struggle with sin, you hate the sin in your life, you want to be delivered from it, and you have a hard time and it's disappointing to battle it, is evidence of your regeneration. Because what's happened is you're a new creation, still incarcerated in unredeemed human flesh. As Paul says in Romans 8, waiting for the redemption of your flesh, your body. I want to mention a book that will help you with this. Its title is Standing Strong.
Standing strong. And it talks about the fact that this side of heaven, you're going to struggle with temptation, you're going to struggle with the flesh. You're also going to struggle with a spiritual enemy who is keenly interested in creating opportunities for you to sin, and of course, that is Satan. The book Standing Strong Helps you to deal with Satan, deal with how he works, how he assaults. his strategies and also how to deal with the flesh.
This is a vital book, and it specifically goes through the armor of the believer that's laid out in Ephesians chapter 6.
So you'll find this really helpful in your spiritual battle. That's right, friend, and it is really helpful with chapters on guarding your mind and the importance of prayer and how skillfully to use the Bible. John's book called Standing Strong can help you win spiritual battles and live in a way that honors Christ no matter what you might face. Order a copy when you contact us today. Standing Strong costs ten dollars and fifty cents and shipping is free.
to order call 8005 GRACE or shop online at gty.org. Keep in mind that Standing Strong is also available in Spanish. To order your copy in English or Spanish, call us at 800-55GRACE or go online to gty.org. And remember, at gty.org you can also tap into a wide range of free Bible study tools, including daily devotionals, over 3,600 sermons in MP3 and transcript format. streaming video of Grace T U television.
and the Grace to You blog. At the blog, I'd encourage you to look for the series of articles called, What is Saving Faith? It's a great supplement to John's current radio study. All of those resources and more are available free of charge at our website, gty.org.
Now, for the entire Grace to You staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for making this broadcast part of your day. Be back next time as we continue John MacArthur's study called Show Me Your Faith. With a look at one of the greatest examples of genuine faith in all of Scripture. The Life of Abraham It's another 30 minutes of Unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time on Grace to You.
