Faith and Works, Rahab Illustration

All right, everyone, let's begin today with verse 16, I'm sorry, verse 18, and we'll read down from there to the end of this section in verse 26. Okay, James 2, 18, but someone will say, you have faith, and I have works. Tell me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

You believe that there is one God, you do well, even the demons believe and tremble. But do you want to know, foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? And do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God. It was accounted to him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God.

You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. Likewise was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way. For as the body without the spirit is dead. So faith without works is dead also.

So the topic this morning is the last three verses faith and works Ray have illustrated in this this area. All right let's let's begin by as we usually do reviewing last week and and Royce So let's begin. A couple of bullet points. Abraham's faith was demonstrated by his works, and that was simply offering up his son Isaac. God has asked him to do this, and that was on an altar. And importantly, as James repeatedly emphasizes, that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect. Okay, so the concept here in Abraham's example is a godly man who's responding by faith to what God's asked him to do. He had no knowledge that a ram was going to be substituted for ultimately Isaac, but yet he trusted God that if he had promised him a future that was dependent on Isaac that something glorious would happen. So anyway, Abraham responding by faith. And Roy did a great job sharing that with us last week.

And then in James 2.23, it restates Genesis 15.6, and the scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. So, you know, just like Abraham was accounted righteous by faith, we are accounted righteous by faith, by the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, as we see ourselves saved from the penalty of sin and the dominance of sin in our life. Alright, and then, and because Abraham's faith was exemplified by works, he was called the friend of God.

And I raised the point with Roy last week, is that the same for us today? And I'm not going to dwell on that. Do we have to continue to show works and be friends of God? In some sense, no. But anyway, that's not the topic for today. day. So let's move ahead.

All right, so James 2 24, ye see then, notice ye here, I'm going to come back to that, ye see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. And so ye, the plural, actually reminds us that it indicates that the broader audience is to whom James is speaking here. It's not simply the you as an example.

Someone criticizes what stayed for that works. That's an individual who's questioning this. But now James returns to the broader audience and says, you know, You know, the question comes up whether faith without works saves us. Verse 214 is the question that was raised by presumably an individual who raised this point. We don't want to dwell on that. But now James is speaking to the broader audience, all of us.

Do you see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone? All right, so that's the question or topic before us today. I'm going to share Constable with you a lot today because I think he's as right on here as anybody, but you'll see some other commentators that I'll also address in comments to follow.

So, quoting Constable, Paul and James are best understood as addressing quite dissimilar situations. I'm leaving a little section out there, whereas Paul's audience is in danger of relying on works for salvation, and that's covered extensively in Romans 4, 1 through 10. That's where we're at in the sanctuary now.

James readers are excusing themselves from good works, thereby showing only faith that is dead, okay? I mean, it's kind of this contrast constantly of faith versus works. So James emphasizes works, Paul emphasizes faith, but yet we see now that ultimately the best interpretation of this section of Scripture is that faith without works is dead for a good reason.

Okay? All right, let's go ahead. Remember that works only declare us as righteous, and that our works give evidence to others that we are applying our saving faith. And Andrew made this point wonderfully a couple weeks ago, that ultimately our works are not to prove to God, it's proof to one another that we are saved by faith, and therefore the works are evidence of our heavenly salvation.

And this is critically important. Because ultimately, I think we're not in the position of really judging our own works, are we? I mean, gee, was that of the flesh or was that of the Lord? I mean, you get bogged down when you think about that all the time. We're created as new creations in Christ Jesus to have our works exemplify that saving faith that we're all about, okay? All right, so nothing much more to say about verse 24, but the meat here is in Rahab.

This was a section that was challenging in some ways, so we'll see how we do here. Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received, or welcomed as a better interpretation, the messengers, or spies, and sent them, which is a stronger interpretation, thrust them forth out another way. Okay, so kind of a, it's a strong verse that I think the English translation needs to be emphasized with a little bit more emphasis on what the true Greek language says. So let's take a closer look at Rehab, okay? we're going to take more than just a close look. All right, so we're going to spend some time looking at the original text that relates to rehab because I think it's critically important in context to understand rehab.

In Joshua chapter 2 verses 1-4, now Joshua the son of Dan sent out two men from Acacia Grove to spies secretly saying, these are spies, they're not messengers, they're spies. Go view the land, especially Jericho. So they're looking into somebody else's land, right? So they're spies.

So they went and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab and lodged there. Now we're going to come back to this harlot kind of describing Rahab repeatedly. And that's, I think, an important thing we're going to take away from this. And they launched their, so the question is, they were great, and never mind.

And it was told to the King of Jericho, it was told to the King of Jericho saying, behold, men have come here tonight from the children of Israel to search out the country, meaning his country. Okay, so the king of Jericho sent the Rahab saying, I presumably sent somebody, Rahab saying, bring out the men who have come to you, who have entered your house, for they have come to search out all the country. Then the woman took the two men and hid them. So she said, yes, the men came to me, but they did not know where they were from. Did you believe that? Did Rahab not know where they were from? Well, anyway, we're all sinners saved by grace, right? Right lie, necessary lie, whatever, that's what scripture says. We have to interpret it appropriately.

Joshua 2.8 then, but she had brought them up onto the roof, that's where she, and hid them, were the stalks of flax which she had laid in order on the roof. So was she planning on their visit? She's got it all in order, but that's where they're on. They're on the roof in flax, in stacks of flax. So that's more detail than maybe we need, but maybe not. As the verse here says, because she sent them forth another way. We're going to come back to that in a second.

Alright, then Joshua 6.17 says, Now the city shall be doomed by the Lord to destruction.

And all who are in it, only Rehab the harlot shall live. She and all who are with her in the house, because she hid the messengers of spies that we sent." So here's the consequences. Not only did the city get burned that Rehab was exhibiting, or living in, but ultimately inhabiting is the term I was looking for, but ultimately Rehab was the only one who survived.

So it's clear that something of the Lord is working here to not only have the spies hid from Jericho, from the King of Jericho, but also that her life was preserved through this. Interesting history there, isn't it, in terms of ultimately the purpose of this verse in James. All right, sorry to make you dizzy there.

Joshua 6.23.25 goes on to say, and the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had. So they brought out all her relatives and left them outside the camp of Israel. But they burned the city and all that was in it with fire and only the silver and gold and the vessels of bronze and iron they put into the treasury of the house of the Lord. And Joshua spared Rahab the harlot, her father's household and all that she had so that she dwells in Israel to this day because she hid the messengers of spies and Joshua sent the spy out Jericho. So there's kind of the the evolution of the history that relates to Rahab and what she accomplished in God's will.

Jim? You know, the ruins of Jericho, there's a section of wall that did not come down. And I kind of think that's probably where Rahab and her family were. Yeah. Otherwise, if that whole wall would have come down, she would have been killed with the rest of them. Well, we don't have the details here. Nevertheless, Rahab survived this whole sequence of events. So it's pretty dramatic. OK.

Let's continue, then, to ask a question or make a statement. What evidence do we have from these scriptures that Rahab was justified by faith without works? What evidence do we have here that she was justified by faith before her works. Well, it's interesting, in her case, we see her works exemplified. She hid the messengers, and that's her works, if you will. And then also she sent them out by a different way, it says. So we see several things that talk about her works.

So I thought there was a passage that talked about We're trusting the Lord, but I guess I can't remember. Well, we're going to get there. We're going to get there. I don't see any convincing evidence from this section of scripture that God had spoken to her directly in terms of her role to hide the spies from the King of Jericho. Well, it's in Hebrews 11, right? I'm getting ahead of you. Yeah, okay. We're going to get there.

So, none that I can discern. I don't really see any convincing evidence that ultimately I'm 101. I know what you are. I know what you are. What is that? That's grape juice. I want you to have a little. I'm not. Honey. Sit down, please. So, there's no convincing evidence that I can see from the Joshua passages that she was directly approached by God.

We're going to come back to this, okay? Then how do we know that James is not missing the boat here? Well, we're gonna see about that. So Hebrews 11.31, by faith, the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe when she had received the spies with peace. So in Hebrews, She's given credit for responding in faith in terms of the acts that she accomplished. So Hebrews wouldn't have mentioned her. In fact, she's not ultimately saved, but in the Old Testament sense, by faith.

Bob, I was thinking, though, they heard about the Israelites and what God was doing. Yeah, who heard about them? Rahab and people in Jericho. I believe they had heard about God, so they knew that he was special in some way and that so that may be where she began to believe in him.

Yeah, we're trying to kind of the basis of Rahab even being represented in such a glorious way in scripture, but if she heard of him, we don't have direct evidence that in fact there was a communication between God and she. This is not like Abraham. Abraham and Rahab are very extreme and different examples of how works reflect faith.

J.F. and B., one of my favorite commentators, Jason Fawcett Brown, quote, say this. She believed assuredly that what her other countrymen disbelieved, okay, kind of related to what you're saying, Bonnie. And this in the face of every improbability that an unwarlike few would conquer well-armed numbers.

In this belief, she hid the spies at the risk of her life. So look at this. I mean, Israel's not prepared to take on Jericho. in terms of the defense department was inadequately funded. I wonder what the budget looked like in those days. So I think ultimately this, according to JF and me, really was evidence that she had enough information to know that hiding these spies was in the best interest of the future, God's future anyway. So I think, hence, Hebrews 11 31 names this as an example of faith rather than of obedience. So, I mean, it really reflects, I think, the view of scripture and of the Lord through the epistle to the Hebrews that ultimately this woman was saved by faith and the works were evidence of that faith. So I think we have to take that assumption and move forward, that in some way she had sufficient faith to carry out the works.

Isn't it interesting that different people have different reactions to what the news is about Israel? You've got all these Israelites, 600,000 men equipped for war in these little villages. Are people think that they're going to oppose all these men? So Rahab had the correct response.

She was afraid, so she was going to do whatever she could to save her life, basically. So you think this is self-preservation? Self-preservation, yeah. And other people, the rest of Jericho, wanted to defend themselves against them, you know, instead of, okay, maybe we ought to acquiesce and let them take us over and we'll be their servants and everything.

Rahab was ready to do whatever she could to save her and her family's life. But Jim, what kind of faith is to that? Was that faith in her own life then? I think so. Okay, but I know there's like you said there's no there's no scriptural reference to her faith in God except peepers But that's in the New Testament.

Well, that was those hundreds of years later So it's like a bit later. I said, yeah, but it it just seems you know, basically South Carolina. I'm surprised that all of Canaan didn't do that and You know, faced with 600,000 fighting men, you know, and we're coming up against them with 3,000 or 4,000 people. How are we going to survive that, you know? But I think God hardened their hearts like He did with Pharaoh, too. That's kind of another David and Goliath kind of story here, right? Other thoughts on this?

I think that she clearly had faith from God, because the scripture says it. James says it in Hebrews. And I think what's interesting is that her works, which maybe you can touch more on what are works, Bob, but her works were hiding the messengers. But she was a harlot. She was a sinner. She lied to him. And it's just really cool, the grace of God that comes out in all of that. He didn't look at her sin. He looked at her belief. and restored her family because of that belief, which is really a beautiful grace. Those are great points, Jimmy. I'm going to return to that very shortly here in the lesson today. OK, thanks.

And set them another way. So the question is, how should we interpret this? How, when, and to where? What do you think? Set them another way. Do we have any evidence to support what this is? And the answer to that is yes. From wherever they entered her house, we're not quite sure, perhaps a window and then to the mountain. But then if you ask that question, ultimately you could turn to verses 15 and 16.

Then she let them down by a rope through the window. For her house was on the city wall, okay, back to the point about the wall still being there, right? Okay, and she dwelt on the wall, and she said to them, get to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you. Hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Afterwards, you may go your way.

So it does tell us kind of where they went, how she got them out of there. Perhaps a window? Well, it says through the window. So, ultimately, kind of an interesting thing, kind of thinking about how this all occurred, you know, strategically in terms of the way she maneuvered them to the roof and the window and then out to the mountain.

But it's obvious that she was told that by the Lord. Well, okay. Or, you know, some other way from the Lord. So, you know, I agree with what Jimmy's saying on it. You know, she was by faith. She was wholeheartedly in this. This wasn't just a casual thing.

Let me just stay for a few minutes and then be on your way. I figured out how I'm going to help you and I'm going to help you as much as I possibly can. But the basis of that comes from her being identified in Hebrews as an example of great faith. These are the faith heroes of Scripture that are mentioned there. All right, good. Let's continue. Why does Scripture keep referring to Rahab the Gentile as a harlot. I mean, not every place, but most places, the modifier of Rahab as she's a harlot. Why? To show God's grace.

Okay, that's good. Well, that's the most extreme, probably, of a sinner here. Is that any different than vanity and pride? No, it's different than the rest of us. Okay, well, we'll go on with this. All right, so J, F, and B again. If an instance of obedience were wanting, Paul and James would hardly have quoted a woman of a previously bad character rather than many moral and pious patriarchs.

But it's an example, as Barbara just said, of free grace. Grace extending beyond any human understanding, right? Now we're going to return to the consequences of her behavior in a second. Perhaps evidence does suggest that her works were based on faith, justifying men through an operative as opposed to a more verbal faith. None could be more suitable than a saved harlot.

Now, Joshua 2.8.9 gives a little bit more understanding. Now, before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof and said to them, I know that the Lord has given you the land, that the terror of you has fallen on us, and that all the inhabitants of the land are faith-hearted because of you. So in a sense, there's a little evidence that ultimately the Lord was involved here. And that probably, that should be taken up earlier in my lesson.

I was, never mind. So let's pause and contrast these two examples of faith by works. Man versus woman. Israelite versus Gentile. Father of faith versus a foreigner. I mean, these are tremendous contrasts. And the nature of the background and sins of the individual are also pointed out. So the question to us is our sin any less than hers? Okay, so what's different? And you know, Matthew says something interesting about that before we come back to this. Which of the two did the will of the Father?

They said to him, the first Jesus said to them, Assuredly, I say to you, the tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you. So he's addressing the self-righteous Pharisees. in terms of his comparison of the nature of sin in terms of what ultimately allows entrance into the presence of the Lord. Interesting. I mean, I'm not going to build a scripture on that verse, but is he just saying that all sin falls short, and you're looking at tax collectors, and Harlots actually is an example of people, how can they ever get God's grace? But they didn't understand. Well, the key thing is that they realized they were sinners. Many people refuse to realize they're sinners. These people do, which is actually a benefit. I haven't come to say who think they're righteous.

So God works in marvelous ways. Well, the other thing to kind of relate to Rahab is she's in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. So I'm going to look at Matthew 1, 5, 6, and then jump over to 16. Salmon begot Boaz by Rahab. Look, there's Rahab. Boaz begot Obed by Ruth. Obed begot Jesse. And Jesse begot David the king. And David the king begot Solomon, by whom he had been the wife. who had been the wife of Uriah, and Jacob begot Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom the poor, who was born Jesus, who was called Christ. I mean, the idea, Rahab is not only looked at as a harlot, but ultimately in the lineage, the genealogy of our Lord and Savior. Isn't that incredible? God's grace is so incredibly extensive and profound.

And yes, I just say not only is she in the lineage, but they point out that she's, you know, they specify. So everybody knows that she's in the lineage. Good. Everybody in that lineage was a center on the on the level of rehab too. It's just that we look at the word. Oh, my gosh, it's offensive, but they were all centers equally.

Right, and the point I want to make here is stated here, remember all sin falls short of the glory of God, yet the consequences are quite different. I mean, the consequences of being a harlot or murder or theft is really quite different than pride and vanity, right? Or self-righteousness. I mean, but we can't dismiss the fact that all sin falls short of the glory of God.

And Rahab is an example that relates to one extreme type of sin. And you can, each one of us could say, well, we could never... be in that role ever, carrying out prostitution and related outcomes that relate to that. But nevertheless, Rahab is mentioned in scripture as a woman of faith and listed among the great members of the faith club. All right, Father. Yes, go ahead.

Sorry, this is Miles here. I was just saying, I think it's important to be really clear that in both cases, Abraham and Rahab, James is using believers, justified believers as an example of how a believer walks by faith in the day-to-day. The other thing, though, is that the faith itself must be demonstrable by the works that are perceived by our fellow believers, and maybe others outside the faith. Your thoughts on that? Yeah, yeah, exactly.

And just the fact that, you know, it's not an unbeliever, you know, who has faith in... Both the examples here that James gives are not not faith in God for eternal salvation. Both examples are where a believer puts their faith in God about some specific fact after the point of justification salvation. I think the contrast, though, to expand on that, Myles, thank you, is the fact that God communicated directly to Abraham. Now, that doesn't make his faith any less.

He's taking his son and thinking he's going to be sacrificed in some way. But yet, Rahab's communication is simply, I think as Vani mentioned, word of mouth and the fact that people in the area knew of you know, the issues related to Jerusalem. Well, the passage you read about how she knew they were coming, and they were fierce, you know, and she believed the God of the Israelites, and that was kind of a common thing. The Gentiles, many Gentiles believed in the God of the Israelites, and she was one that accepted and believed in Him. Yes, go ahead. Just a thought, when we think of Rahab as being a harlot, Remember from where Abraham was called by God. He was called out of the Ur of the Chaldees as an idol worshiper. Yeah, okay, right.

And he obeyed God to go to a land that he would be shown. And he also, in the context of the chapter, was it 15 that you read? is that he showed him the stars of the heaven, and I'll make you in number like that, and he believed God, and it was attributed to him for righteousness.

Man, I'll tell you, these two people are examples of all of us, aren't they? The experience that we have, and God's grace is also exemplified here in both of them. Boy, I tell you. There's nothing dead to that, Roy, thank you. I mean, Abraham stepped along the way with difficulties even after he came to faith, right? Through sacrifice. Yeah, his difficulties too. And you could argue that we saw some of Rahab's difficulties too. She wanted to protect the spies so much that she, you know, I don't know. That's a tough call.

Well, and Jim brings up maybe your own life. I mean, we're all concerned about our own lives. If somebody comes to the door, you're a believer, somebody comes to the door and says, I want your whole family. Where's your wife and children? And you think, this guy's going to hurt us. And, you know, at the moment, you probably may not exactly tell the truth to protect your family. So I don't know. That's a tough call. Not enough information here to really... Anyway, maybe I'm babbling on here, but...

No, but again, I want all of us to see the contrast between these two individuals, and Roy brings up good points about Abraham, too. He's, you know, been shown to be a man of faith in other aspects, but also he had a walk even after he sacrificed Isaac that wasn't so clean and easy going forward.

Alright, the last verse of this entire section is stated here. So, faith without works is dead also. So, let's look at the first part of this verse. What body and what spirit? You know, the Greek term for body and the Greek term for spirit can be broadly interpreted. There are multiple interpretations of these English words that ultimately we need to dissect here. Is this the body of Christ and the Holy Spirit? Or is the body without the spirit is dead? I mean, it could be, right? It could be both.

I mean, the body, if we think of the faith of the body of Christ, we are saved by faith. Remember the three tenses of the Bible. I was saved, I'm being saved, and I will be saved. But all that aside, let's say you were saved at a certain date or a certain time.

Without the Holy Spirit working in you, is the body of Christ dead? And to some extent, the interpretation, broad interpretation, of this section of James would be yes. Without works, you know, your faith is not evident and not really shared. But no, I think this really is the living body. Okay, I think this is a very practical interpretation. And the best Greek interpretation does say the body is the living body, meaning what we all, this flesh we live in. And the spirit is ultimately the breath of life that we all breathe.

So I don't think we need to overextend the interpretation here of the body of Christ. But I think that's interesting to ponder that. Because we're thinking of a body of Christ without works is kind of a dead body, isn't it? Any additional thoughts about that? Doesn't Paul say that the body is dead in Romans 6? Yeah. Even though you have the spirit? Right.

Buried with him in baptism unto death, right? risen with him and newness of life. But I think, Jimmy, the best interpretation here is this is the human body and the human spirit of the breath of life. So we'll leave it at that. And likely a changed life to follow, right? I mean, so this living body we live in, we're now a new body in Christ Jesus. So ultimately, this living body is one that's spirit-led, that is not dead.

So in a sense, that's an extenuation of the thoughts I just mentioned. So faith without works is dead also. So here's the theme of James, you know, what, 14 through 26. Dead here might be better translated as useless. or dead, Raj, what's the usual interpretation? Separation, right? Separation.

So, ultimately, the, go back one, so faith without works is dead, also. So, as dead as the human body is without the breath of life, without breathing, without oxygen, so our faith without works is equally useless. Now, the body is useless without a breath. unless you get CPR. So faith without debt is useless or separated also. So James wants to make that point.

How do we assess whether our works are based on faith and do we ever need to question our salvation? How many people after they first got saved then didn't realize that the sin nature didn't go away? I mean, I remember I had months of just living in glory, and then I started realizing what was down deep. You know, we're to reckon ourselves indeed into sin. I think one of the most important points of good doctrine is understanding for saved people, the sin nature never changes. but we need to reckon it biblically dead, because that's what scripture tells us.

But in fact, unfortunately, we wake up to the fact that that signature is still there. So because of this, because we have another nature that, and you remember, there's a battleground here between the spirit of God and our own spirit, in terms of the life we live.

Are we to, I mentioned this earlier, are we to assess how our works are doing here? What are your thoughts? Am I a witness to Carolina in terms of the life I live, or is Jim a witness? We are. We are, but yet, are we to be concerned about how we're doing here? That's the question. Well, isn't our focus to be on the Lord? Okay. That's our focus is to be on Christ. Not on our works, on Christ. Right, okay. So it's this new creation in Christ Jesus we are.

Remember 2 Corinthians 5.21, For he hath made him to be no sin, but to be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. We are righteous. Positionally, we are righteous.

So because of our position, this life spirit-led is one where we don't have to examine how we're doing. The spirit will alert us as to when we're falling short of God's glory. Wayne, a thought. I was just thinking if we walk in the spirit, we'll the fleshly things will go away. But thinking how well we do, that kind of puts you back into the fleshly things. So it says set your mind on things above and not on things to this earth. Okay.

And what about when we're tempted to sin? Remember, James deals with that in the first chapter, right? Is temptation itself a sin? The Lord Jesus Christ, remember, is not going to remove these temptations, but I think what I said earlier in earlier lessons, I think it's best to interpret for the believer that temptation is a testing to prove who we really are. And if you think of Christ in the wilderness, I don't believe he was tested to ever sin. We can't believe our Lord and Savior could sin. But we do believe in the wilderness he was tested by Satan to prove who he really was. And I think that's the mindset by faith, spirit-led, that we live victoriously over the sin nature by being tested to prove who we really are. So anyway, it's I think a different view of how we deal with this battleground between Satan, the flesh, the world system, and our new creation in Christ Jesus. Other thoughts?

Hey Bob, the focus of so much of this is the word works. Can you define what works are? That's my point here. How do we assess whether our works are based on faith? What are works? So somebody define works. Go ahead, go ahead, Jimmy. I'm sorry. Well, okay, he was asking for definition. I think, you know, if you go to Ephesians there, we know that God, for the believer, God has foreordained the works that we should walk in them. true works from a scriptural perspective that a believer is given or ordained from God. And so we're to walk in them. We're by faith to walk in those works. All right. I might not challenge that. That's not the right term. But how would you define simplistically what works are for the believer? Something you do by faith? Well, isn't it to bring glory to God?

That's what I was going to say. It's an indication of who you are in Christ, and then it gives the glory to God because those works as We'll point it out, Roger. We're preordained. I think it's a message that I've tried to implement with my children as we were raising them. It's not what you do, it's who you are. And once you know who you are, then what you do works as evidence of who you are. In other words, it sounds complicated, but it's not about what works are, it's who you are in Christ Jesus. Yeah, I like that.

Let those bring glory to the Lord. Other thoughts? I was going to say, Bob, yeah, I think what happens is that the life of Christ is displayed through us so that people see Him, right? I think his idea there is that a body without breath just lays there, doesn't communicate a thing. Just like that, those of us as believers who walk by faith, in that day-to-day activity, the life of Christ is manifest through us and He's glorified. And that's what I think the work is, is the Spirit's work in us to manifest the Son of God.

Miles, thank you, but to extend that thought, too, this is not something we need to self-examine. We're called to live a life that's Spirit-led, bringing glory to God, and let Him be the judge, right? All we can do is live by faith and abide to scriptural truth about who we are. In parallel to what you've already said here, and Miles hit it right on the head, I think, is that Abraham heard God He believed, and so did Rahab, and so do we. How do we hear? We hear through the Word of God, but by the same token, what we hear and focus on is Him, the source of the message. And that, I think, is what James is getting at here, is if Christ lives through us, if He is revealed, then the works are the evidence of true faith in Him. Well said, Roy. I'm going to end with a series of constable quotations here. Okay, so bear with me, there are three.

Never once does James question whether the rich or poor have been saved. Neither does he admonish them in such a way that should cause them to question whether they have been saved. He never says, for example, the trouble with you people is that you're not saved. He does not come forward with a plan of salvation. He does not warn them of a false assurance. He does not go over the basis of saving faith.

I think that's really a profound interpretation of James and what he's about. Second constable quotation. James previously said that not every believer will bear visible fruit. And I have some verses quoted there. Such a believer's faith is not productive, but dead. Nevertheless, he has faith. Some unbelievers appear to bear the fruit of saving faith, but God will one day expose whether they're weak or terse.

That's not our job to judge one another as to whether we're really biblically saved, I was saved at a certain time or date. So another profound thought, we can't be overly judgmental, but I think that's what fellowship's all about. We gather together the fellowship around the Lord Jesus Christ together. So I'm not questioning whether Marilyn or Pat are saved. I'm just questioning, you know, ultimately letting the Lord, how He judges whether our works are to His glory or not. That's not our job. We're to live by faith.

And finally, the faith which is mentioned in this section, 14 through 26, chapter 2, can be presupposed in every Christian. And dot, dot, dot. James's intention is not dogmatically oriented, but practically oriented. And he wishes to admonish the Christians to practice their faith, for instance, their Christianity by works. I think that's a great point. summarial statement as to what this whole section of James is about. I'm going to close with an interesting verse that relates to the church at Sardis, where Christ himself said as he discussed the various churches and their strengths and weaknesses, Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God. So this is a church that saw it as apparently doing pretty well in certain aspects of their faith, but their works have not yet been perfect. Now what's perfect mean, scripturally? Complete. Complete. They've not been completed. They're falling short of what the expectations are for that body of Christ. Would anyone like to make any closing comments in this very important section of this?

Faith versus works. I would like to say on that second point of constable, I think that I would, not that I don't want to say I disagree, because I don't want to be that strong, but I think every believer has some level of works. And I think James is writing this as a hypothetical. It's like if you don't have works, your faith is dead or whatever. I just think everybody that has Christ in them has some works that come out. Okay. Well, that's again, I think, the point here that Kosovo is making. We can't really know, really, ultimately, whether someone's works are meeting God's expectation or glory. But we're called to works by our faith. You know, and the self-righteous, I mean, that's the weak versus heirs.

There are plenty of people who live good lives, right? And if you look at them superficially, you say, gee, they must be believers. But they're not. But yet, they still are doing a lot of things that bring glory to themselves through their decisions about life in general. Yes, Karen. And, too, I think with works, I mean, some works are more visible than others. People do a lot of things behind the scenes. You know, those aren't visible to others, but they're still doing the works.

Well, the parallel and the consequences of sin are different, too. I mean, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. There's John listing the three greatest sins. Lust of the eyes and lust of the flesh is not sexually intended. It could be, but it's about everything. Lust of the eyes and lust of the flesh. I mean, so anyway, all that aside, we're not here today to divide various sins, but I'm just pointing out is really, Carolyn said, works, some are very evident and some are not, but we ultimately need to believe that it's not our job to judge works.

It's the fellowship we share around the Lord Jesus Christ. Jim, close us in prayer, would you please? Father, thank you for We really do appreciate your word and the guidance that it gives us. Thank you for good teachers that can explain to us what the truth of your word is. We just love you, Lauren. We thank you for all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.