There we go. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Got the wrong camera going on there. I'm glad to see you here today as we gathered together for a little Thursday night Bible study. We always have a good time on this, which is, I guess our Bedrock Bible study for our online ministry, that this is where we started out Thursday night, I don't know, about eleven years ago. And some of you been gathering the entire time for these wonderful studies and fellowship as we gather around in the great big electronic table. And so glad to see you. I hear from people all the time that tell me, hey, we listen to you all the time. I'd love it if you put a chat in sometime or a comment, but I know a lot of you don't listen live either, but it's sure nice if you're one of those out there says, you know, I listen all the time, but never have contacted and said hi. Just send an email, Randy@randywhiteministries.org, say hello, I'm out here. I just wanted you to know because it encourages me, that's all. It just encourages me, but it needs a little encouragement every now and then. And those of you who are watching live, let's go ahead and put in a little comment and let me say hi to you at the end of the broadcast. And a couple of announcements here before we get into Bible study. We won't spend a lot of time, but Paul's Epistle to the Romans graphically presented that's our theme for the Labor Day Bible Conference, which is coming up in September 2 through five. Just trying to remember the dates. And there it is, right there. Friday night through Monday noon, we have a fellowship. In fact, now, hey, we hadn't had this up here, but now we got it up because I realized it was there's, the schedule, Friday night, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, we got it all up there and all the prices are there and everything. And you can just click right there to register. You don't pay anything when you register. We'll send you a little invoice and we would love for you to come join us in Branson. I've been studying Feverishly, the book of Romans, and I'm excited about getting into that. And this Sunday, before I get to this Sunday, let me say one other thing on the website here, by the way, if you want to know where to find all of this, you go to Randywhite. I'll get it. Randywhiteministries.org, come right over here to the Trips button. And then the Branson retreat right there is coming up, by the way, Holy Land tour. That's old information there, but I'm about to update that with the 2023 trip to the Holy Land. So come join us in Branson. And then also while you're over here, click the podcast button because we now have podcasts back up and running after a long time of sort of limping along on that. We've got the Sunday pulpit, we've got the Wednesday Bible studies, we've got the Thursday Bible studies. And down here we've got Ask the Theologian and you can click on each one of those and it'll give you a little bit of instruction onto how to go for that. Well, it does promise me, only reason it didn't there is because I'm connected to here and it won't go on the internet, but anyway, it'll go there. So right here, check it out. This is Sunday sermon. Why the Virgin Birth? This came up. It's one of the Because you Ask series. And you ask real recently because I did the sermon on original sin. Original sin is almost always given as the reason for the virgin birth. So if you don't have originals, then why have the virgin birth? So we'll have a little Christmas in July. Come join us this Sunday, 10:45 a.m.. Last Sunday we started a new series on hermeneutics, the Randy White Guide to Hermeneutics. That's at 945. Got a couple of things Sunday. You can join us live or archived, but tonight we have come for this, the Epistle of James, rightly divided verse by verse. And I look forward to teaching that tonight. There is an outline available for you at the Connect site, RWM Connect site. And you get to that. Just in case you're not there. You get to that right here, RWM Connect. If you are not a member of that, you'll have to send in a request or just send me your email, Randy@randywhiteministries.org, and say, hey, I want to be in that Connect stuff. Let me in and I'll let you in. And once you get there, all of the outlines are there. That's the first place they go. It's the best place to download them and have a collection in some semblance of order for all of that. So check that out. And those available, our outlines are available for you today. Nathan was giving me a hard time being a little long on the outline today. Went two and a half pages. But that's because we want to be thorough, right? We want to cover it all. And I want to try to get down to verse 26 tonight. We will see how we do. But with that, let's jump right into the Scripture. And as we have every Thursday night, we've got the King James Version right over here. And we're going to start in chapter two, verse 14. I'm going to make it a little bit bigger for you here. There we go. And then we've got the new barrier linear here. We may or may not use it. We've got the Young's Literal over here, may or may not use that. But we certainly will base our studies off the King James Bible right here and begin in this really hotly debated passage of Scripture. James, chapter two, verses 14, going down through 26. This is the passage of Scripture in which James really hot and heavy, gets into the works issue. And so that is what we are going to look at and what we are going to discuss beginning in verse 14 right here, where James starts out saying what does it profit my brethren? Though a man say he hath faith and have not works, can faith save him? Now, obviously the implication is no, faith can't save him. Faith alone is not enough. Now this comes as quite a surprise. Can faith save him? Well, you and I of course, if we were out doing some witnessing and perhaps we went to someone's door and we'd say I'd like to share with you how to be saved. And it came down to believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. And if the person said, well, can faith alone save you? You. And I would say absolutely. Faith alone. That's what it is. We live in a dispensation of the grace of God and God is blessing us with this gift and it is by grace through faith, not a works. Can faith save him? Absolutely, faith can save him. In fact, let me tell you that if you add anything to faith, it removes from faith. You don't want to remove from faith, you want to have faith and faith alone. In fact, we might say that Christians have long held to a belief of solepide faith only faith, solepide. Are you saved? Not by works. If you had works, you would be able to boast it is by grace through faith, not of works. We'd be pretty strong on that issue, wouldn't we? Well, James comes along here and he brings this question which is can faith save? And we'll see later can faith alone, can faith all by itself, can that save a person? Now, as much as the Christian world would preach Solafide, faith alone, especially the Reformation world, in fact that Solafide is one of their mantras, if you will. And they talk about the five solas, which to me shows somewhat the contradiction in the whole thing. You can't have five only, you can only have one only. But nonetheless they've got the five solars, the five only that are there. And right at the beginning of that is SolarCity only faith. This is it. This is the end of it. Faith alone. Now though, Christianity would wax eloquent about faith alone. If you've been around Christianity very long at all, you know that it gets into a lot of things beyond faith and requires a lot of things beyond faith. We don't even have to get into the Catholic world with all the works of the sacraments that are involved. We can get into even certainly through the Reformed world and very much through the evangelical world as well. And we would say, yeah, you got to have faith. But let me tell you, faith without works is dead. Yes, sola, fide. But what the Christian world does is develop a definition of faith which requires works. So all you have to have is faith. Oh yeah, faith is works. Faith requires works. Faith has the biggest part of the ingredient is work. If you don't have works you don't have faith. And so they have worked to mix Paul and James and bring about a conclusion that really in the end I think agrees more with James than it does with Paul or agrees more with prophecy than it does with mystery. Agrees more with kingdom than it does with the dispensation of the grace of God has been to this terrible mixture which has just confused people all the world over. In fact, the question right here can faith save? Let's jump down to verse 17 and what do we see here? Here's the answer. Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead. Being alone, well you see it, you got it. I mean he gives the answer right there. Okay, let's jump back up to verse 14 where we're at right now. And so here's this question. It's a rhetorical question but we can pretty much see and understand and imply where the answer to this is going to go. Now as I mentioned, the broader church would announce faith and faith alone but it would very much preach. You've got to have works with your faith alone, sola fide and also works because works is part of fide. For example, the website got questions. You know, I'm not a fan. It speaks on this particular passage and it says grace through faith saves. And that faith is manifest in works. If someone claims to have faith yet exhibits no good works, his or her faith is dead or nonexistent. The faith versus works debate in is really no debate at all. Both faith and works are integral part of the Christian life. Biblically faith is the cause of salvation while works are the evidence of it. Now basically got question says solar feede. Feede means works. You got to have works. There's no way around it. Can faith save him? I'm going to be so bold as to say yes. Faith without works can and does save. That is the dispensation of the grace of God. Now I must admit if I were God I would not have done it this way. If I were God, I would have required 12% 15%. Let's make it 20% of your giving. 20% of your income ought to be given to the local church. And I would require you to crawl on hands and knees to show your devotion unto the Lord. Every time you come to the church, when you get within 100 yards, you should get down on your hands and knees and you should crawl in so all the pastors by will look and say, oh my, what faith they have. Those people are willing to crawl the church. I would add one work after another after another after another. If I were God. But I'm not God. And aren't you glad? But the world can I again be so bold as to say, the Christian world doesn't really like God doing this. You can't do that. You can't give them a full day's wages coming in at 05:00. This doesn't work. This is not the way we carry out Christianity. God, let me tell you how to do it. And we prohibit God from being, shall we say, gracious. Now, we're reading this in James, of course, because James was written prior to, I think, probably even four or five years prior to the beginning of the dispensation of the grace of God or the beginning of the Pauline pattern. And so we have the beginning of this section here that leads us to say, okay, James and Paul have something very different to say now. He says, what does it profit? Brethren, the word profit here is Othellos. Othello. I'll get it right there, the word Othellos. In fact, we get the name. I haven't heard his name in a long time, but you used to hear of some women named Ophelia. Ophelia. Ophelia. It's a form of opelos. And ophelia means benefit or hear it's translated profit. What do you get out of it? So let's look at it this way. What do you get out of having faith without works? What's there? He's going to go on and say, nothing. Maybe you stuck in your thumb and pulled out a plumb and said, mine, what a good blame I but you don't have anything for it. There's no ophelias, incidentally, the genus or species, I'm not sure which. Anophelias is a mosquito. No profit, no benefit, no goodness there. So what ophelias is there? My brethren, though a man say, hath faith and hath not works, can that faith save him? We go on to verses 15 and 16, and he gives the first of his four illustrations on this passage of Scripture. I'm going to reach over here and grab my pin. That works. No, I don't have it in there. I thought I said the first of three illustrations. There's four illustrations actually going to come. He gives the first one in verses 15 and 16. He says, if a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you saying 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 opelias? What profit is there in verse 16? And it's an illustration, it's a simple illustration. It's an illustration that comes from daily life. It is an illustration that is going to be one of four illustrations that are all going to be built together. We'll compare them when we get to the end. But it really is a clear teaching, and that clear teaching again, starting in verse 15. This clear teaching is, hey, if your faith is going to be worth anything, it's just like trying to close someone or feed someone, you're actually going to have to do something. You're going to have to do something more than just depart in peace, be warmed and filled. Kumbaya you got to actually do some works here and this is what he is bringing about. I think we could find a number of places in scripture to go to that would speak the same kind of thing and they would all be Jewish scriptures. I want us to just compare one, they would all be hebrex scriptures. First John, chapter three, verse 17 says, but who so hath this world's good and see if his brother have need and shutth up his bowels of compassion for him. How dwelleth the love of God in him. Now, again, one John 317, you can just imagine that if the love of God does not dwell in you, could you go out and claim to be one of the faithful? I should say first John 317 really is saying the same thing as let's get back over here. The same thing as versus 15 and 16 of James, that, hey, you've got to do something here. This is nothing new. I think that if it were not for the epistles of Paul, let's just pull out the epistles of Paul, the 13 epistles of Paul out of the scriptures, then there wouldn't be anything shocking at all about James. Chapter two, verses 14 through 2026, because it fits perfectly with all the Hebrew scriptures. It's only Paul that comes in. And what would you say throws a wrench in this thing? Because Paul comes and he is literally, utterly going to contradict what James is saying. Now, you and I would agree on the illustration. If you're going to close someone or feed someone, well, you got to do some work. You got to go get them to close, hand them the clothes, give them the clothes, deliver them the clothes, take them to food, cook the food, whatever it takes work to do that. But this is an illustration to say you've got to have faith in order to be one of God's. Now let's continue on. There's the illustration in 15 and 16. It comes down to then verse 17 and he says even so, okay, just like that illustration, even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead. Being alone, that is faith. Being alone. Could we say it this way? Solafied is dead. Sola Cde doesn't work. Faith alone. James says, don't give me that. I won't take faith alone. Faith, if it does not have works, it is dead. Now again, what profit does dead faith give you? Well, absolutely not. And this is where James began in verse 14. And let's just again look at this. Even so, faith, if it has not worked, is dead. Being alone. I know that the King James version is so difficult to read and so difficult to understand that I understand that you may not be able to understand these complicated words you're saying what it's like the simplest thing I could ever read. A third grader could read that. Indeed they could. So you look at it and you say there is nothing mysterious about this at all. Simple, I suppose. It means what it says and says what it means right there. Faith that have not works is dead. Being so simple maybe explains why, for example, martin Luther had such an animosity towards the book of James. Because Martin Luther, of course, was the one that came up with this sola fide thing from a study of revelation excuse me, from a study of the book of Romans. And he did the right thing and coming up with that saying, oh yeah, Solafide. But then he read James and he said, james doesn't teach Solafide. We got to get rid of James. And for a while he put James in the Bibles that he was publishing. He put James as an appendix. Maybe this is not even scripture, he said, because of the conflict between Paul and James. Now, Martin Luther, I don't want to give too much credit there, because he was a wicked man in so many ways, but Martin Luther was also the same guy that said, he eventually said, yeah, it is faith and faith alone. And if you're not baptized, you don't have that faith. And so he added works back into it. But you look at this, if Martin Luther had understood right division like you and I do, saying James is not written to Martin Luther, quit trying to apply the two and you'll take out the confusion. If he had understood that, maybe Solafide would have actually been a reality for him. I think, by the way, in the reformed world, Solafide is can I say it just bluntly again? Solafide is the biggest joke they've got. What do you mean? Solafide solely too? Oh yeah. And only this too, and only that too. And only this and only that, and only that, and only this. Yeah, there's a lot of only in there. And it's a joke is what it is. And this is what happens when you build your theology on what man teaches, on what theology books say, rather than what on the Bible or what the Bible says. Now, the rejection of Pauline theology is spread about Christianity, where they reject faith alone. And so what is done then with that rejection? The reason it is done and the reason you have so much conflict between James and Paul would go away completely if let's just suppose that we're going to take James 217 for exactly what it says. Faith alone is dead. It has no profit what it says. But how can we teach grace with that? I tell you. The way to do it is to take James, chapter one, verse one, literally. And what does it say to the twelve tribes? How about that? If we take this literally to the twelve tribes, and we understand that to be literally true, until he changes the object of his letter, the direction of his letter, the address needs of his letter, and he never does. We've gotten to 217 and heaven, it's still to the twelve tribes. If we take that literally, then we come back to verse 17 here and we can take this literally. Even so, twelve tribes, you have faith, but if you twelve tribes don't have works, that faith is dead being alone. And we say, well, that just matches with all the Old Testament, that just matches with the Law, that just matches with the scripture that the twelve tribes live under. And there's perfect harmony. We're not trying to put it to Paul, who's not writing to the twelve tribes, but Paul is writing to the body of Christ, which is not of the twelve tribes. But you know, the problem is, we looked at this in session one when we got to verse one, and we saw that just over and over and over again, there was this blatant rejection of taking James one one literally. Go back to that session if you've forgotten it. And literally what the commentators do, one after another, is they line up to say, james doesn't know what he's talking about. James is a liar. James wrote twelve tribes, but he meant the church. It says Israel, but it actually means me. And they do it over and over and over again so consistently, which is exactly why they have all the problems all through the book of James. And when they get to 217, they have problems reconciling it. And so what they do is try to divide salvation where here's the entryway, and yet here's where you abide in salvation. Or here's the entrance. It's by grace. Here's the proof that you ever came into that entrance. It's by works. And you don't have to have any works at all to get in. But if you don't have works, you never got in. And it's this dog chasing its tail kind of thing that you and I have experienced it over and over in Christianity. And might I add that some of you are tuned to right division. You have become so frustrated by going down to the local church and hearing that garbage that you just say, I'm not doing it anymore. I can't. I'm going to bust the vein if I sit there through that anymore. I just got to get out of here. And there is no local assembly that separates James from Paul. Every one of them you go down to and say, you know, how do you reconcile James and Paul? Well, they reconcile themselves. They say exactly the same thing. They're just coming from a different perspective, that's all. Sunny. And you look at that and say, no, this is impossible. They're not speaking the same thing. Let's go on and come down to verse 18 and he says in verse 18 that this is almost a dare. A man may say, thou hast faith and I have works. Show me thy faith without works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. This is kind of the dare right here. Show me thy faith without works. Now, it's a dare that if you're talking about the Mosaic faith and James was to the twelve tribes, it's impossible. The Mosaic, the Torah faith, you can't show without works. An impossibility. And in fact, let me show you some of the impossibility. Let's go to the Book of Leviticus and we'll see chapter what is it? Chapter 18, verse five. And here it says, Moses speaking, you shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, which if a man do, he shall live in them. I am the Lord. Now, you can't come and say, I carry the Jewish faith. But the works thing, I don't have to have works. There's no works in Judaism. Why, Judaism is fully by grace. No, it doesn't work that way. And so you come back here to verse 18, James 218, and he gives this dare. Hey, twelve tribes, show me thy faith without works. If you don't have works, you don't have Jewish faith. So it's this dare. I will show you my face by my works. Now, obviously, within Judaism in James day, and I suppose with any day, wherever you go, you could pick a page in the Old Testament at random and probably find that there were Jews who were living, who were claiming to hold the faith and yet had no works to go with it. And that would have been no different, of course, in James day, and perhaps would have been even worse in James day than some other days. So he's challenging the twelve tribes on to works as it comes here. But, you know, if you are discussing Pauline faith and trying to put this in with Pauline faith, show me thy faith with how it works. And you say, okay, here I am saved under the polling pattern, and I'm going to show you my works. Let me put my works on display. And that you find if we were to show our faith with works that would negate our Pauline faith, the very definition of the Jewish faith is it requires works. But the very definition of the Pauline faith is works are not allowed. Let's look at a couple of passages of Scripture in Galatians. This comes from Galatians, chapter three. Let's look in verse two, galatians, three, two. And Paul says, this only what I learned from you received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Now here he's talking about the reception of the Spirit, the entrance, if you will. But how did you get it? Were works involved no hearing of faith? Yes. Let's jump down to verse five. Galatians, chapter three, verse five. He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you. Doity it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Again, we know what the answer is. In James the answer is always works. In Paul, the answer is works are going to negate your faith. Let's go on to chapter three, verse ten, Galatians 310. And it says, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. Now, can you just imagine here James and Paul going at it. You see, they never did go at it. And the reason is that James is writing again, let's say four or five years prior to the Pauline dispensation coming in the dispensation by the grace of God. And by the time James and Paul had their meeting, they came put these things together. And James says, yeah, I understand what God is up to now and they gave each other the right hand of fellowship. But if you're trying to reconcile the book of James, the letter of James to the letter of Galatians, it is absolutely impossible. They are oil and water, they do not mix. So here he comes. And remember again, James says, I dare you to show me your faith without works. And Paul says, well, as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. I'm not about to show you my works that would be under the curse where it is written curses as everyone that continues, not in the things which are written in the book of the law to do them. He says, if I'm going to come and show works, I'm going to have to show every one of them. You got to continue in the whole thing. That's verse ten. Let's go down to verse eleven, Galatians 311. But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Wait a minute, can faith alone save you? Well, Paul here is giving the argument. Let's go on into verse eleven. And the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live. Now you put these together, he's got a faith side, he's got a law side. The law side, he says, is of works. The man that doeth them, those laws shall live in them. James is living under the law. He's teaching people under the law, the twelve tribes under the law. He's saying the exact same thing here. These two are compatible. The law is not a faith, but the man that do it shall live by them. You show me your faith without works, I'll show you my faith by my works, because this is the Jewish faith. The man that doeth them shall live in them. That's verse, verse twelve. We could go on and on through all this, but let's jump back to James, chapter two, verse eight. And again, thou hast. Faith. And I have works. Show me thy faith without works and I will show you my faith by works. Let's go continue on to verse 19. Thou believest that there is one God. Thou doest. Well, the devils believe also. The devils also believe and tremble. Now, thou believest there is one God. You know, that's the heart of Judaism. Thou believest there is one God. Remember Deuteronomy, chapter six, verse four. The Lord. Our Lord is one god. The Shema of Israel. Here. O Israel. The Lord our God. The Lord is one. That belief there. Okay? Thou believest you have faith there is one God. Not only the Shamad, Deuteronomy 64, but the first commandment thou shalt have no other gods before me. The second commandment thou shalt not make us for thee any graven images. So this little statement right here in verse 19, thou believest there is one God. I think you could interpret this as saying, so you're a Jew? Oh, good. The devil believes Jewish theology, too, but the devil doesn't do them. The devils, I should say the demons, the devils, they know the orthodoxy of Judaism, but they don't do they even tremble at the fact that there is one God, but they don't do the law. Faith alone. No, I don't really care what you believe. And we go on into then verse 20. But without no vain man, that faith without works is dead. Put 19 and 20 again together. So you got faith that God has won. Well, good for you. It doesn't do you any good. It has no profit to you because it's dead. Faith without works is dead. Again, this is as blunt as you can be. This goes back to all of those previous verses, like verse 14. This is the second time he said faith without works is dead. Verse 14, I believe in verse 14, he implied it. Verse 17, he just outright stated it. Now in verse 20, he states it, old vain man. He's talking about the one who only has faith and not works. Faith without works is dead. Again, I don't know how you could put it any more bluntly. Sorry to the young people in the room, but I'll use an old political illustration. Remember the guy who later became President, who perhaps his most famous words ever were these words read my lips. No new taxes. Those six words are probably the reason he didn't have a second term because there were new taxes by the end of his first term. If you're going to be that blunt, well, stick to it. Do what you say. Read my lips. Here. James is saying, Read my lips. Faith without works is dead. But the equivalent of the rhinos. The evangelicals will come along and say the faith without works is dead. Absolutely. But let's sneak some works in over here. You got to have them. And it takes again, which is so utterly clear and disregards, it I think that James teaches there is a requirement of works. Paul teaches. Works are absolutely not allowed. How do we reconcile these two? We don't. We separate these two. We have a dispensational change. We rightly divide the word of truth, what we do. So then we come into verse 21. Well, before I get there, let me say that some of you know that this is the second time I have taught the Book of James on our Thursday night Bible studies. The first time was way early on, ten years ago, at least, maybe a little over. And I think you can still find that online if you want to go and see how dashingly handsome I was ten years ago and utterly wrong. Even though I was a dispensationalist and headed towards right division when I taught the Book of James ten years ago. I was doing the very best I could to reconcile James and Paul. Which let me put that differently. That doesn't sound so glamorous. I was doing the very best I could to reconcile law and grace and get them to get along and walk the path together, because this is what evangelical preachers do. And so you wax eloquent for a long time about how this he's not talking about salvation. I want you to know he's not talking about salvation. He's not talking about salvation. Even though in verse 14 he said, can that save you? But he's not talking about salvation. He can't be talking about salvation. He can't be, because I saw in my theology book that we're saved by grace alone, and I teach you we're saved by grace alone, but he's talking about the living of the Christian life. You become a Christian by grace alone, and then you better work, work right. And you try to reconcile these things and bring them together and put them into harmony. I think it's a lot better saying, hey, these things don't harmonize. Let me give my own illustration. James is going to give a few, but I'll give one here. When I was a young pastor, we had a little, you know, I was a Baptist preacher, so every now and then they get out of sorts with the preacher or whatever. And there was this younger fellow in the church who was loved and well respected, but he disagreed with me on something, I don't know what it was, and his family and a number of others. And there was a little skirmish going on. Well, being a young pastor thought, well, we ought to come, let us reason together, says the Lord. So I scheduled a meeting, a Saturday morning meeting in my office. You'll come in, I'll come in, and old John, you come in. John was the chairman of the deacons. John, you come in and help us work through this thing. And I remember that John began the meeting and he said, well, what would it take to bring you together? Bring it back where he had told us he was going to leave the church. Bring it back where you're not going to leave the church. And the young man said it would take a burning bush. And John did something that so shocked me and I thought, no, you can't do this. He said, well, okay, let's have a word of prayer and say goodbye. I look at it now and say that was the one of the most wise things he could have ever done because there wasn't going to be a burning bush. The guy had already made up his mind. John didn't feel the need to harmonize that which doesn't harmonize. John said, okay, you're going to go your way, we're going to go our way. Let's be done with it. Let's just call it claim here. And he said a prayer and he dismissed the meeting. And I thought, no, we're supposed to beg and grovel and do something, compromise. What are we supposed to do? But John was exactly right. I was just young and out of the seminary and just thought harmony was the way to go for everything. Now basically what we've got here, trying to harmonize James and Paul, we ought to just say, let's have a closing word of prayer and go on our way because James and Paul are not going to harmonize. We've got to divide. We've got to separate these two just like we would Leviticus and Galatians, for example. Now, so he says, faith without works is dead. Let's go into verse 21. Was not Abraham our father, justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son, up on the altar? And here in verse 21, he begins his second illustration. Of course this is the biblical illustration that begins and this would be based upon we don't need to go there, but based upon Genesis chapter 22 where Abraham takes Isaac and offers him up on the altar and in Genesis 20 212, which says, here it is God seeing that thou hast withheld thine only son, thine only son from me. So the Lord looks at it and says, oh, now I see, okay, yeah, you're really going to go for that. You're going to do that. And so Abraham says right here, justified by works. Was not Abraham our father, justified by works? The problem is that Paul argues very strongly that Abraham was not justified by works. Now here again, it's in a sense of rhetorical question, but we know exactly the answer that is elicited out of here is the answer is yes, okay, Abraham was justified by works. But let's look at what Paul says here. Let's go to Romans, chapter four, verse two. If Abraham were justified by works, he hath where of to glory, but not before God. Now his argument, you can even tell him the context here is that Abraham was not justified by works. So James, chapter two, verse 21, was not Abraham our father? Justified by works. Paul comes along and says, oh, if Abraham were justified by works, then let him pat himself on the back, because that's all he's got. James says, Abraham, if he said he had faith and had no works, that would be dead. Faith. Paul says, Abraham, if he tries to bring works into it, that would be dead. There would be only glory for himself. This is just about the clearest contradiction you can get in all of the Scripture. Romans, chapter four, verse two, compared to James, chapter two, verse 18. And in Romans, let's jump down to verse four. And it says now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. Again, Paul is pretty clear, isn't it? You want to bring works into it, then that's not grace. If somebody works, you owe them something. It's a debt paid the end of the day. And that's not the salvation we're teaching. And he's talking about Abraham again, he's saying exactly the opposite of what James said going on Romans, chapter four, verse five. To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifythe ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Now, again, look at the contrast between Paul and James. To him that worketh not, can faith alone save him? Paul says, if you bring anything other than faith alone, then you got problems, because it's the one that believes without works. Believes on him that justify as the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Now, again, you might say, oh, here's what I like to do. When there's a contradiction. Well, it must be some underlying Greek word that's different. But let's go back up to verse two. Abraham. Excuse me. Romans, chapter four, verse two. If Abraham were justified right here, abraham were justified. Now, if we were to look at this. First of all, this is strong's Greek word, number 1344. Remember that number 1344, and it's a verb. Arist, passive indicative, third person singular. Okay, error. Passive indicative, third person singular. Verb means there's some action. Aris means it's done at a point in time. Passive means Abraham was not the subject doing it, it was being done. To him. Indicative is just a statement of facts. Third person is Abraham. He Abraham, and there's only one of them. So here we go. Words 1344. Now, if Abraham were justified by works, let him sing his own tune. Let him tune his own horn. That's all he's got. Let's go back to verse 21. James, chapter two, verse 21. Was not our father. Abraham. Was not Abraham our father, justified by works. Here we go. Justified. Look at that word, number 1344. It's a verb. Arist, passive indicative, third person singular. It is exactly the same thing. One of them says, Abraham was justified by works. The other one said, Abraham was justified by faith. Now, what in the world do you do with that? It's the same man and the same action, the same word, the same verb. So what do you do? It would be easier if we were talking about, I don't know, Titus versus Moses, because then we could say that's dismensationally different. But here we're talking about the same man. I mean, even if we were talking about the same man, it would be easier if we were talking about Saul versus Paul, a different era of his life. But we're talking about the same experience right here of offering his son upon the altar. Same guy, same context, same date, same wording, different conclusion. Either James is wrong or Paul is wrong, or they're using the exact same circumstances to talk about something different. Now, I think that obviously both Paul and James are using Abraham to prove their point. They must have a different point that they're trying to prove. Paul, I think, is seeking to prove that Abraham was not justified by the law, which came later, 430 years later. James is trying to prove that faithful Jews ought to work within their faith, just like Abraham did. Now, I think, in the end, one of the things that we as Christians have to be comfortable with, and I think the more we studied the Bible, the more we can be comfortable with. We have to be comfortable in understanding that there are some things about the Bible that we don't understand. This very much frustrates some more than others. I think within Christianity, there's kind of this tension between those who are really just utterly dismissive of contradictions in the Bible. Well, there are no contradictions, just seeming contradictions. Everything works together in a perfect harm. There's absolutely nothing in the Bible that contradicts, I've read the Bible through and through or and I've not found a single contradiction in the Bible except Abraham was justified by works. Abraham was not justified by works. Don't be dismissive of these things, because I think when we're dismissive of them, it just says we haven't studied the Bible nearly as much as we think we have, and at the same time don't believe that. We always have to have the answers for everything, that we can come to it and say, now, you know, faith taught that Abraham was justified by the law, by works, I should say. And Paul taught that Abraham couldn't have been justified by works. They were both leading a different direction, trying to do something. But I'm here to tell you that I don't think I can completely reconcile those to the satisfaction of the ladies and gentlemen of the jury. I think if we're trying to really have a rock solid argument here that has no leaks in it, I think we're going to have a hung jury. And I think it's okay to say the Bible has some parts in it I can't understand. The Bible has some parts in it I can't put together, but let me tell you, I can put together a lot more of it than I used to be able to. And I am at the point where I can understand that the Bible is full of all the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How inscrutable are his judgments, how unsearchable are his ways. I'm going to keep studying and trying to figure out how to completely get that together. I think that I know how to reconcile James chapter two, verses 14 through 23, and with the overall teaching of Paul, james requiring works, paul not requiring works, in fact not allowing works. I can reconcile those and I do that by division. This one is a little more difficult. Taking James chapter two, verse 21 and reconciling it with Romans chapter four, verse two, which are completely moving in the opposite direction, it's okay to say I'm working on that one, so I'm working on that one. Let's go on to verse 22 where James says, see us now how faith wrought with his works completed rot as you fully worked it out. And works was made and by works was faith made perfect. In Jewish theology? Very much. Faith and works worked in tandem with one another and they were both very much required. Faith created works and works perfected faith. And there's a lot of Jewish theology again in Christian salvation teaching, I don't think in Paul, but in Christian salvation teaching you get this over and over again and in fact, even you take this by works, faith was made perfect. Let's go. Remember, of course, ephesians two, eight, nine. Let's go to Ephesians 210 and in 2010 it says, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Now this we is referring to the Jewish people. We, the Jews are his workmanship. We the Jews are created in Christ Jesus unto good works. But let's back up to verses eight and nine. For by grace are you saved through faith and not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship. Now what I want you to notice here is that there's a pronoun change. For by grace are ye saved through faith. But we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. And the good works, if you follow the wes and the USS and Ephesians, it's always going to end up being the Jewish people. If you follow the yees, it's always going to be the body of Christ. So he's got these two verses about the body of Christ and the body of Christ is not by works. And he comes back because he interweaves the Jewish message and the grace message over and over again in the book of Ephesians. And so he comes back to the Jewish people and says, hey now I said there's no works and you should boast. But for the Jewish people we're his workmanship created under Christ Jesus for good works. And so he begins to reconcile some of that again by dividing that. Okay, that is verse 22. See how faith works and works eight perfect. Verse 23 then and the Scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed God and was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. Now this right here does an interesting thing in verse 23. I'm going to make this just a little bit smaller so I can fit the entire verse on the Scripture in verse 23. Sorry if that's a little too small. So the Scripture was fulfilled with saith Abraham believed and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. Now that is a quote from Genesis, chapter 15, verse six. It's quoted a number of times, including in Romans chapter four. And so the Scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed imputed unto him for righteousness. But he doesn't stop here. The interesting things he does, he says, and he was called the friend of God. Now it's interesting here that James might be coming around and saying, oh, now I have waxed eloquently about how much importance there was to Abraham's works, but he believed and it was imputed under him as righteousness by his works. He was called the friend of God. Again, this is not part of Genesis 15 six. This is part of we won't look it up, but Isaiah, let's see, second Chronicles 27, Isaiah 41, verse eight. Both of those are where he was called a friend of God. Abraham was called a friend of God. Could he be saying faith works by faith, it was credited unto him as righteousness. By works, he was called the friend of God. It's interesting that he puts this and oh, also, let me say and puts that in together there. Okay, let me get back up to size here and then let's go to verse 23 24. You see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only. This is the third time that he has come and he has given such a blatantly unpaid statement. I can imagine that if Paul and James were writing at the same time paul writes Romans four, same time James is writing James, chapter two. Or one writes it first and then the other would reply, it would be like this bitter feud that's going on. But when James and Paul meet, they don't have a bitter feud. Paul says, hey, I got a new revelation. And James says, you sure about that? Tell me about this new revelation. They finally come and confirm, yeah, Paul's got a new revelation, which is why James doesn't agree with Paul. James has written many years before Paul gets his revelation and shares his revelation, and that revelation is communicated out, and you and I live under that revelation, which means we shouldn't try to live under James. If we try to live under James, we're going to end up with this constant dog chasing his tail kind of faith. So here it is plain as day. By works, a man is justified. Says exactly the opposite of Paul. By works, a man is justified not by faith only, not sola fide. That's Judaism. No surprise. He's writing to Jews even before a mystery has ever been given. Hey, Jews, you got to have works. Just jack out there about your Judaism. Put some works to it. Do the works of the Law, verse 25. He gives an illustration and a one verse illustration. His third illustration here, and he says likewise, was not rehab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way. Now, again, we know the story of rehab, of course, and the scarlet thread that was left out the window and how this saved rehab in our household. We may look at rehab as a gentile. None of the Jews do. The Jewish tradition, and there's probably some strength to it, but the Jewish tradition is that she converted to Judaism. She became part of Israel at that time, she came into the camp of Israel. As a matter of fact, many Jews believe that she actually became Joshua's wife. Meet Ms. Joshua Rehab. We won't get into that today. It's an interesting possibility and perhaps some truth to it. But here she is justified by work so far. He's given these three illustrations. He gave the first illustration from Daily Life, a man naked and hungry. He gave the second illustration from Scripture, abraham, the third illustration from Scripture. And then we go into verse 26. There we go. Yeah, into verse 26, he gives the fourth illustration. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. Also, it's about the fourth time he said that very bluntly. Now, in that simple illustration here, the body without the spirit is dead. Note the lowercase S. I think that's absolutely correct. Here. Pneuma is the word. Of course, we get things like pneumatic from it or pneumonia from it. And it has to do with air. It has to do with breathing when it's in relation to the body. And so don't read this as kind of a Calvinistic way. The body without the spirit is dead. That if you don't have the Holy Spirit, you're dead. It's talking more bluntly than that, more literally than that. Remember my rule of thumb been teaching hermeneutics on Sunday morning. My rule of thumb is take it the absolutely most dummy, literalist way you can take it. If that works, don't search any further. So the body without breath or air is dead. Well, yeah, sure enough. Take air from the body. You take breath from the body, he's dead, not breathing anymore. No air for him. So as literal as that is, is how we should take it. The body without spirit, breath, air. And King James gives a marginal note there, by the way. Breath. The body without breath is dead. So faith without works is dead. Also, as air is to the body, so works is to faith, plain as day, because you want to see how good faith is by itself. Quit breathing. Should I be dead? Yeah. Faith alone is just as dead, just as useless. Again, I don't know how James could have been more clear in what he was saying in that just utterly plain as day clear. You have to have works absolutely a contradiction with Paul. And the only way to reconcile the entire passage here is to rightly divide to separate those out. Now, let me add one more thing. I know I've been going a while here, but we had a question not too long ago and asked the theologian about kyastic structures and what is a kyastic structure? And the Greek letter kai is the equivalent of our ex. It crosses. So a chaastic structure is shaped kind of like a cross. And I've given you the picture of it on the outline. And you see these often in Scripture. And I think they help you to say I'm understanding this correctly. I'm not missing the scope of it. It's a supplement. This is extra credit here to show the chaosic structure that is here. So back in verses 14 through 17, you get the illustration from Natural Life, from Everyday Life. As I said on the outline, the illustration from Daily Life. If a man's naked and hungry, you got to do some work. You got to feed him. It's an illustration from Daily Life. Now, if you start watching, you can almost always discover that somewhere that is going to be matched. Imagine this thing as climbing a mountain and then going down the other side of the mountain. So if you start at the bottom of the mountain and I don't know, maybe there's a stream, and if it's right here in the Rockies, pinion trees. Pinion is kind of a scrubby little pine, gives wonderful pine nuts that you roast and eat. But they're 810ft tall and they're kind of a big giant bush. But you get those at the lower altitude. Now guess what happens? You can predict this. I'm going to go up to the top of the mountain. I'm going to come down the other side of the mountain. And at the other side of the mountain, what am I going to see? I'm going to see the other side of the mountain. I'm going to see pinion trees and a little stream at the bottom. That's what I'm going to see. Well, we can begin to predict. You see it enough times that you say, hey, I want to watch for this. We have an illustration from Daily Life. I suspect we might end up with an illustration from Daily Life. Then this is a very simple kyastic structure. He goes from an illustration to daily life up the mountain a little bit, and he's got an illustration from scripture. Well, we expect we're going to come around the mountain, and we're going to get from the tree line to the tree line on the other side. And he has another illustration from Scripture. By the time you see these three, you say, I'm expecting a fourth just to match this thing out. Because the Bible is such tremendous literature. So he goes from daily life to Scripture illustration. Then from Scripture illustration rehab down to daily life. That's the issue of you got to breathe to be alive. That's a chaastic structure. You can see them often in the entire book. You can see them in segments of Scripture. You just see them over and over. It's kind of the fingerprint of God on the Scripture that it's in the Bible so much. You would have to say it's impossible that that collection of about 40 authors could be that consistent in the structure of the Scriptures to use these Kiasms embedded within kiasms. Even Bollinger was just a genius at finding these. It's one of the reasons I like the companion Bible in the enlarged print edition as sold by Dispensational Publishing House. That's the end of our study of James tonight. I would love to greet you here in just a moment. If you haven't put a chat in the box, go ahead and do so. And by the way, if you have put a chat in the box or if you're not watching live, send me an email. Randy@randywhiteministries.org I got this lovely email today. I think it was yesterday, actually, from a friend up in Illinois. I watch all the time, and I said, tell me your story. And I just enjoyed reading the story. I'd love to hear your story, too. Who are you? Where are you? In fact, I'll tell you what, if you'll say, hey, why don't you send me one of those essential gospel brochures, flyer or pamphlet, I don't know what to call it thingies, the Essential Gospel. I'll drop one in the mail to you if you'll send me an email, give me your address. And I think it's a nice little way to share the gospel and simple. On that, I should give a programming note. Next week we won't be here. So sorry about that. I'll be broadcasting on Monday, but Tuesday I'm going on vacation. It's been a long time since I've been on vacation, and I got to go see my grandkids down in Florida. So off to Florida next week after Monday. And so it'll be two weeks before we get back to James. And let's see, this Sunday, why the virgin birth? We'll look at that in the sermon time. And don't forget, click the Trips for Branson. Click the podcast right there, and we'll have all of that there ready to go for you. And if you go to our website@randywhiteministries.org, there's thousands of videos for you to watch while I am gone. So pick a series you haven't done and you can binge watch it. How does that sound? And now with that, I won't take too much time because I'm already overtime. But let me carry out let me get in here and say hi to you. Just a moment here. We've got sholo Arizona coming in. Good to see Everett and Debbie coming in here today. Oh, look, 1.14 inches in ten minutes this afternoon. Forecast to get more after sundown and tomorrow according to the Essence's calendar. Essence calendar, excuse me. It's now of the 8th, 59 47 in Jerusalem. Yeah, the 9th of AV is a big one. We got a very nice rain here today, too. I hate to bring up that new Mexico and Arizona are getting rain while the rest of you are golden fried. Sorry about that. Crystal Springs, Mississippi. Good to see you. Daryl and Vulcan. Alberta, Canada. Neil always with us. Thank you. Donald from Merles Inlet, South Carolina. And I think I saw on there somewhere donald asking for prayer for his daughter. And yeah, she's having some surgery complications. So we'll very much be praying for your daughter, Donald. Thank you for letting us know that. Auburn, Kentucky. Keith and Carla, thanks for being here tonight. And we've got the Giles family with us from Forney, Texas. Welcome. Good to see you. We've got greetings blessed evening from the dinners in Pittsdon, Pennsylvania. Dr. Mike, thank you very much. And Maryland and Roger always with us again. Waveshaw, Minnesota. I learned this week that Wavesaw saw was some kind of an Indian chief. I forgot what tribe he was. An Indian chief. And I've been listening to an audiobook, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee from 1970 or 72 or something like that. And it's interesting. I haven't studied that era of history too much. So I almost think as I listen to all this, I think that's absolutely terrible and treacherous and certainly it was then. I'm also saying I'd like to read the other book, whatever the other one on the opposite side is. Does anyone know what the opposite of burying my heart and wounded me? What the opposite perspective is, if there's one out there? Or is it just historically so true that there is no defense for it? I don't know. But anyway, they mentioned Wabashaw. And I thought of Maryland and Roger. Yakolt, Washington. Jennifer, good to see you. And Yakult yakult is the home of Tanya Harding. See, I know all about these towns. Jennifer, thanks for being here. You and your girls. I appreciate that. Is Roger out in Fresno, California. Good to see you. Roger, you've got to know what the opposite is of what the counterargument is for Wounded Knee. You're an educated man. Right. Let me know. Eric in Ohio doing better. I understand. Thank you. We've been praying for you and for your mother. Herb and Sherry. They are I'll just read it right here. Two ecstatic people rejoicing in God's blessing of great news regarding the success of Herbs treatment herb's treatment in keeping his cancer in check. Has a very aggressive bladder cancer, but it has not spread. It just got test results today and we are very grateful for that. Deb, good to see you. Let's see. This is Deb in the Ozarks, I believe. I want to get all my debs right. Cliff in Ontario. Glad you're here and there's. Debbie in Mississippi. Thanks. Mississippi One and Mississippi Two are both here and accounted for. Rodney Denise in Memphis, Tennessee tonight Good to see you. Jerry Leesburg, Georgia. Thanks for being here with us. Phil and Dream. Well, thank you. We appreciate your teaching. I appreciate you being here. Just phil and dream always with us. Lexington. And Carol here she comes in at Fresno, California. Tell your husband to find out what the opposing argument is on the Wounded Knee book. Piedmont, South Carolina. Good to see you, Jim. I appreciate it. And Chuck in Weatherford, Oklahoma. Thanks for being here. Zena down under in Western Australia. Good to see you. She's not complaining about the heat anymore. Winter is sitting in down there, isn't it? For whatever winter's worth. Liz is I mentioned from Illinois. I forgot in the town. But Liz so glad you checked in tonight. Good to see you and thanks very much for being here. She shared a little testimony with me on email and I appreciate it. And Linda in Lexington, here with us. Present and accounted for. Thank you. Got the cat, the rightly dividing cat. Also, Scott down in the hill country of Texas. I appreciate that. I like that. Now, that's a good life. He says, I've been on my phone. I had to make the 30 minutes round trip to the mailbox on the highway. Friend. That's a good life. When you live 15 minutes 30 minutes round trip when you live 15 minutes from the mailbox. Has chosen well. Enjoy. Appreciate it. Alex in London. Alex and Terry, good to see you. I appreciate you all being here in London early in the morning. You all are staying up too late. Thanks for being here with us. Sean, Cincinnati, Ohio, grace and peace to you as well. Thank you for that. Gerard in the Netherlands, also staying up too late tonight. Good to see you. Our friend from the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Always a blessing to have you with us. And let's see. Nicholas in bowling. Brook, Illinois. Thank you again for being with us. Been with us from the beginning of these studies. And John and Bev, good to see you. In St. Croix County, Wisconsin. Excellent. See, I had a question or two come in tonight. Yeah, there's a good word. Chris says, what level of works could one be saved by anyway? Who makes that determination? This is the great dilemma in our dispensation that there's no one here who could make the determination. Now, under the law, there were all the requirements of the law and they were pretty cut and dried. I mean, even if there's 613 of them, they're right there. 613 is a lot, but it's not so many that you can't know what they are and check the list first and carry it out. So under the law, there was that determination. The law made that determination under grace. It ends up being the manipulative preacher who makes the determination and becomes a problem. And let's see also from Chris. Are people afraid to rightly divide simply because if they separate certain scriptures from their lives that are not applicable, they end up with a level of fear or a loss of salvation? I think there is that huge emotional part of it, that level of fear that if I put away James, what about Jeremiah? And I don't care about most of Jeremiah, but 20 911, I really like that one. So I think you search this ahead of time and the mind searches it out ahead of time and you see these things that go on there. Okay, I really am out of time here, long time ago, but time for me to say a word of prayer and go on until tomorrow when I'll be on Ask the theologian. Let's do pray together. Heavenly Father, I pray that you would encourage each one who's been here tonight in Bible study and we read some words that if it were not for Paul, we would look at them and say, well, it's just as clear as can ever be. And yet, because of Paul's writings, they become as controversial as ever could be because they say something very different than what the Apostle Paul teaches. I pray that tonight, in attempting to do as we've been instructed, to study the Scriptures, to show ourselves, approved the workmen, who had no need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. I pray that we have done that faithfully, dear Heavenly Father. And that where we have aired or where we have failed to have some understanding that our continued study of the Word and our continued fellowship with other right dividers would lead us to the information that we long for. Our desire, dear Heavenly Father, is to see, to understand, to be right in our right division. And we just pray that that has been the case tonight. We ask for your watch, care and your blessings. We pray especially for Donald's daughter. She has these complications from surgery tonight and ask you to strengthen and encourage her. We rejoice with herb and sherry and the wonderful news that they have received that this cancer is contained for now. We look forward to Heavenly Father, to even greater word of healing, and it's our desire and our prayer, dear Heavenly Father, and we're grateful for the care that you give to us each and every day. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Well, from Towson, Mexico, to across America, around the world, wherever it is you are. Thanks for being with us you've been a blessing tonight and I'll see you tomorrow. I'll see you Sunday. I'll see you Monday. And then I'll go down to Florida on vacation and see my grandkids for a few days and look forward to that. God bless you, each one of you. Randy@randywhiteministries.org, let me know if you want one of those essential gospel tracks. I just printed a bunch more today and Madison is right over there. She's been folding them furiously, ready to mail one out to you, and I'd be happy to do so. God bless. We'll see you soon.