james2v19

Cork Free Presbyterian Church, 10 Briarscourt (Annex) Shanakiel, Cork, Ireland
Pastor: Colin Maxwell. Email: colin.maxwell@fpcmission.org

Context: James is setting forth to his readers the need of a practical Christian faith. He sprinkles his letter with several needful doctrinal references, because James is not a defender of some ambiguous concept called "faith" - a kind of "whatever floats your boat" idea of spirituality - but of the genuine, authentic NT faith - the only faith that saves the soul; the faith of God's elect.
Strong doctrinal content has already been observed:1:13-15/1:17/1:18/1:20/2:5 and now our text (2:19)
But if James is not the defender of an ambiguous faith, neither is he the defender/advocate of a dead orthodox faith
Immediate context proves this: A very practical case of some one in need coming to a Christian and being sent away cold/hungry with empty exhortations - James bluntly says: Such is a dead faith
(Reminded: old Salvation Army motto: Soap/soup and salvation)

In our text, James combines the spiritual and the practical into one
Some people said: "I believe in the one true and living God" - James says that they did very well to so believe (doctrinal) - but then he points out that the devils/hell also share that belief too - and this points us back to the practical once again, without which we have but a dead faith - and notwithstanding all our theological orthodoxy, this is not NT faith

Without divorcing the verse/surrounding passage/theme of the letter, yet it has several things to tell us in a stand alone context
3 main thoughts:

1) THE GREAT ADVANTAGES OF BELIEVING IN THE ONE TRUE GOD OF THE BIBLE:

A/ It may be that James is indulging in a little bit of sanctified sarcasm when he says that his readers "do well" to believe in one God
If you think this is out of character for James, with his "beloved brethren" (1:16/1:19/2:5) pleadings, please note his language in 4:4
"Ye adulteresses/adulterers"
I don't think the world would be a nice place, if we all went around all the time, indulging in sarcasm…but it has its place too

B/ However, we will take these words at face value (best way to neutralise sacrcasm BTW) and see that it is advantageous to so believe

[i] SUCH BELIEF SAVES US FROM THE FOLLY OF ATHEISM

The fool says in his heart: "There is no God" (Psalm 53:1)
In so saying, the fool (notwithstanding his accredited diplomas etc.,) effectively seeks to make himself "God" hence his great folly
Atheism may be the "in" philosophy among the various "movers/shakers" while a firm belief in the God/Bible may bring flak…but it is still folly (highest/order) to deny "Him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13)
God has revealed Himself in a number of distinct ways:

[i] The Bible - A unique Book that just wont go away
[ii] Creation - Not enough to save, but enough to condemn
[iii] The Person of the Lord Jesus Christ (John 1:14/18)
[iv] The power of the gospel (Romans 1:16) - Many witnesses
[v] The workings of a Sovereign Providence
[vi] The innate testimony of the soul, including the conscience etc.,
(Please remember that atheism is a world religion too)

And He will yet reveal Himself, although in a less gracious manner:
When the Lord Jesus comes again to judge the quick/dead and the many varied events associated with this great event:
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. (Matthew 24:30)
What a wakening there will be then! And sadly…too late, hence the folly
But a man with a NT faith is saved from this calamity

[ii] SUCH BELIEF SAVES US FROM THE FOLLY OF PANTHEISM

Pantheism has been around for a long time - an ancient heresy - but it has seen a real revival/recent times in the New Age movement
Pan = All and Theism = God and so "All is God" and "God is all"
Denies the Personality/God, fails to separate God from His creation
Creationists believe: God made the Heavens/earth i.e. He is separate from them - Pantheists believe God is the Heaven/earth
That's why you get "tree huggers" etc., and the folk who stand with their arms up on mountain tops - all trying to connect to their "god"
But if we believe there is one true/living God, then we are saved from such folly/nonsense - which originated in Genesis 3:5 "ye…as gods"

[iii] SUCH BELIEF SAVES US FROM THE FOLLY OF POLYTHEISM

Poly= many and Theism = God's so "many gods" as expressed: Hinduism
How confusing and foolish is such a belief - the delight of the Devil who would seek to rob God of His intrinsic and unique glory
If it is life eternal to know the one Living/true God (John 17:3) then the more names out there, the better for Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4)

So hood on to your theistic belief as regulated by this Book
A man who throws away a faith in God is the biggest loser of all time
I can't remember much of what Im learned in Sabbath School and in Children's meetings…but I learned/retained this:
God is and that greatly helped me when I was 16 years of age and anxious to be saved
Wicked man is portrayed in Psalm 10:4 "God is not in all his thoughts"

An awful judgement will be avoided:
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, (Romans 1:28)

2) WHY THE DEVILS SO BELIEVE AND WHY THEY SO TREMBLE:

A/ Made mention of how it suits the Devil to have men either deny God, or hold many confused views about God: 2 Corinthians 4:4
Wonderful thing about this murderer/liar is this: He and his legions of damned/fallen angels do not hold unorthodox views at all
Devil is as theistic as the best of the Christian theologians

B/ They believe because they were once in Heaven with God
Believed that Satan was once the covering cherub before God
The Lord Jesus saw him fall as lightening from Heaven (Luke 10:18)
The devils referred to here are referred to in 2 Peter 2:4 as the angels that sinned - presupposing a time beforehand when they did not sin
They saw the glories/beauties of Heaven, yet freely rejected it all and freely chose to follow their new found leader into rebellion
But they still believe in God in that intellectual sense

C/ They believe because they see all the evidences which others see, and which leave them void of any excuse at all
Perhaps a lot more being in the spirit realm where we cannot see
Our Lord Jesus is exalted: Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: (Ephesians 1:21)
Most particularly, do they witness with growing dismay the mighty power/God in the conversion/sinners
The Devil (and his angels) are represented by the strong man/parable who was bound and his good spoiled (Luke 11:21) With what feverish activity, do they seek to prevent the word/God taking root, and yet they cannot prevent the elect/God from coming to faith/Christ:
All that the Father giveth to me shall come to me… (John 6:37)
They see the mighty power that is involved in the sinner believing to the saving of His soul - not the sinner's own power - but that of God and equated in Ephesians 1:19-20 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places…

D/ The devils tremble in their genuine faith in the one true/living God because He is not and never was going to be their Saviour
They will meet Him as a Judge

[i] Hell was prepared for them from before the foundation/world:
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: (Matthew 25:41)

[ii] Even now, they are reserved in chains unto that dark hour:
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. (Jude 6)

[iii] Consider the depths/their fear when the Lord Jesus came and particularly the reasons the demon gave:
And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. (Mark 1:23-24)

E/ Would that sinners would so fear! What blindness possesses a man, who accepts the reality/death and who might even have general thoughts about God and the Day/Judgement, and yet shows no concern about his soul, nor seeks salvation while presently on offer

3) YOU NEED MORE THAN A MERE INTELLECTUAL BELIEF
This is the whole thrust/passage and of the verse

A/ A man says that he believes in God - not in the many aberrations already outlined - but an orthodox faith in the true God/Bible
Well/good…but it is merely intellectual i.e. contained in his brain alone?
Must be intellectual otherwise it cannot be true
True faith is always built on knowledge - we instruct before we exhort
But these things can get stuck in the brain and never reach the heart
And if this is the case - it is not saving faith and of no greater value than that of the Devils who are in a similar situation
Listen to the way/salvation as expounded by Paul - not the emphasis:
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9-10)

B/ We may be used to tackling the merit mongering people who either substitute works for faith or supplement it with works
We say that such is not the faith/God's elect that saves
The religion of the Pharisees - the religion that makes the outside of the cup clean, but leaves the inside foul and dirty
In a day when the merit mongering way/Cain is still going strong, we need to cry aloud and spare not (Isaiah 58:1)

C/ But please remember: James is attacking those who have all the correct doctrine but who give no evidence of an outworking of it
Language of James is pretty strong…dead/vain faith
This verse just about sums up the worth of such a faith

D/ What should we do?
I'm pretty sure that we could maybe do more in a charitable way to feed/clothe the poor (v15-16) or a thousand, different, practical ways
But don't let us fall into a dead, barren, intellectual faith that takes Bible doctrines but fails to clothe them with evidence
Such faith is dead and will be dead in the day/Judgement: Matthew 25
Let us not have any regrets in that day, but rewards: Matthew 25 again

THE END