Faith Accompanied in the Believer

Driving home: Martin Luther, that once spiritually tortured Augustinian. Monk, who became the great Christian and mighty preacher of the grace of God, said that the biblical doctrine of justification, that is, justification in Christ …

The transformation of Saul, a self-righteous Pharisee and persecutor, into Paul, a bond slave of Christ, is used to show a powerful example of the central place of justification.

Is both formed and nurtured by the gospel, and since the heart of the gospel is the proclamation of justification in Christ alone, received by faith alone, the place this doctrine has in the understanding and in the experience of the members of the professing church of Christ, will be the most accurate index of the true state of that church, either standing or falling. Standing in the wonderful reality of justification and all that flows out from it, or falling from that central truth and moving in the direction of apostasy. Well, there was a man greater in gift and...

4:49 - 5:49 Read in full sermon

Driving home: a gospel in which God makes all the provision for our acceptance with him, and he requires, he requires nothing at our hands, but that we should, with the empty hand of faith, embrace the offered righteousness in Jesus C…

The Larger Catechism's definition of justification is likened to a large, beautiful house with seven well-furnished rooms, each representing a component of the doctrine, to provide a comprehensive and biblically accurate understanding.

Well, Paul says, I marvel you were so quickly removing from him that called you, in the grace of Christ, unto a different gospel, which is not another gospel. They had moved away from a gospel that was a gospel of pure grace, the unmerited favor of God to those who deserve nothing but his judgment, a gospel in which God makes all the provision for our acceptance with him, and he requires, he requires nothing at our hands, but that we should, with the empty hand of faith, embrace the offered righteousness in Jesus Christ. Well, in seeking to understand this biblical gospel, this atlas-like trut...

7:13 - 8:35 Read in full sermon

The point: Fight against both the Pharisee (works-righteousness) and the antinomian (faith that is alone) tendencies within your heart.

The apparent contradiction between Paul and James is clarified by likening them to two sections of an army approaching a common enemy (the devil's errors) from different directions, emphasizing their unified purpose.

It puts you in company with demons, not saints. James says it's a dead faith, it's a vain faith, it puts you in company with demons, not saints. Not saints, but demons. Now at first sight, and I'm sure some of you felt that when I read that passage in James and gave emphasis, were they not justified by works? You say, wait a minute, it looks like there's a contradiction. Paul again and again says a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. And James comes along and says, we are justified by our works. And it looks like they're saying diametrically opposed things. Well, they're...

23:35 - 24:36 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The passage is expounded in three sections. Verses 14-17 question the profit of a faith without works, using the analogy of offering empty words to the needy. Verses 18-20 present…

The example of telling a naked and hungry person 'Go in peace, be warmed and filled' without providing for their needs is used to illustrate the emptiness of a faith that consists only of words without corresponding actions.

If a man's faith is just a matter of words, it stops short of being true faith. Then he gives a parallel that is suggested. If a brother or sister be naked in lack of daily food, and one of you say to him, go in peace, be warmed and filled. And you give him not the things needful to the body.

34:36 - 34:58 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The passage is expounded in three sections. Verses 14-17 question the profit of a faith without works, using the analogy of offering empty words to the needy. Verses 18-20 present…

The ability to verbally or non-verbally (with signs) say 'I believe' is used to show how easy it is to make a mere profession of faith without genuine heart change.

I believe I'm justified. You can say the words. If you can't say them verbally, you can say them with the proper signs, like our brothers do. I believe I'm justified.

35:28 - 35:40 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Faith alone justifies, but not the faith, which is alone.

An analogy of a child asking about the cause of devastation in a thunderstorm (lightning alone, but not all lightning is destructive) is used to explain the apparent contradiction and real harmony between Paul's and James's teachings on faith and works.

So then, when we think of Paul's emphasis, and we think of the emphasis of James, I found this very helpful comment in John Stone's commentary on the book of James, and this may be helpful to you. The apparent opposition and real harmony between the declarations of James and Paul may be illustrated by an analogy. Suppose a thunderstorm by which lives and property have been destroyed, and that an intelligent child in the desolated district whose ears had been stunned by the peals of thunder, and his eyes dazzled by the glare of the lightning, should ask a friend, was it the thunder or the light...

44:54 - 46:12 Read in full sermon

The point: Feel the publican's pain, assume his posture of humility, and make his plea: 'God be merciful to me, the sinner.'

The publican in Jesus' parable, standing afar off, beating his breast, and pleading 'God be merciful to me, the sinner,' is used as an example of true humility, repentance, and casting oneself on God's grace.

Have you seen your sin and your inability to recover yourself and cast your anchor into the ocean of God's justifying grace, not looking for something to be done in you that will give you the right to cast your anchor in the ocean of his free grace, certainly not seeking to find something done by you, but Christ himself, Christ alone, to put it in biblical language. Have you felt the publican's pain? Jesus said that publicans stood afar off, would not look up to heaven, beat upon his breast. What's that? It's just describing the inner pain of his undoneness. He had come to see he had nothing, ...

50:06 - 51:09 Read in full sermon

The point: Be comfortable with James's emphasis that justifying faith is never alone but accompanied by other graces, and with John's tests of real spiritual life.

A story of a preacher who admitted to skipping 1 John because its 'tests of real spiritual life' made him uncomfortable is used to illustrate resistance to James's and John's emphasis on works as evidence of faith.

Are you comfortable with James' emphasis? That the faith alone that lays hold of Christ is never a faith that is alone but is accompanied by other graces. Are you comfortable with James' emphasis? I remember a preacher years ago when I was in the traveling ministry who was honest with me and told me whenever he came through reading his Bible and came to the book of 1 John he was always uncomfortable and he skipped it.

53:27 - 54:02 Read in full sermon

The point: Live with a countenance, demeanor, and bearing that speaks the power of the gospel, marked by righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, awakening desire in others.

A personal anecdote about his doctor's staff being glad to see him because he was 'always so pleasant' is used to illustrate how a joyful, gospel-transformed demeanor can speak the power of the gospel to the world.

That's what awakens in people a desire to ask a reason of the hope that is in us. It was a humbling thing. One of my many doctors one day he said to me Al or maybe he calls me Mr. Martin he's one of these young enough to be my son I think he calls me Mr. Martin.

58:24 - 58:48 Read in full sermon