Living Faith 

James 2:21‑26

As you know, we are in the midst of a study of the epistle of James.  As we have been moving through 1 Timothy on Sunday morning, we've been moving through James on Sunday night.  And I would invite you to open your Bible to James chapter 2 as we come for our study this evening to verses 21 through 26...James chapter 2 verses 21 through 26.  This is the second half of a portion of Scripture on the subject of dead faith.

Now one of the most important and at the same time one of the most frightening truths in all of the Scripture, I believe, is that there is a faith in God, there is a faith in Christ, there is a belief of Scripture, there is a belief of the gospel that does not save from hell.  Let me say that again.  There is a faith in God, there is a faith in Christ, there is a belief of Scripture and a belief of the gospel that does not save one from hell.

It is possible to believe in God, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, to even believe that what Christ did He actually did, to affirm the cross and the resurrection and never be delivered from sin and never be given eternal life.  That is what James would call "dead faith."  He mentions it in verse 17, "Faith if it has not works is dead."  He mentions it again in verse 20, "Faith without works is dead."  And he mentions it a third time in verse 26, "Faith without works is dead."  And in verse 26 he identifies it like it were a corpse without life, a corpse lying in a casket all dressed up, all made up, looking very life like but with no internal life principle, no breath, no movement, nothing but a mannequin with a painted smile.

Now James is very exercised in his spirit that no one under his care would escape the understanding of this great truth.  As any faithful pastor would want to warn his people about the reality of non‑saving faith, so James has that desire as well.

He has already brought it up back in chapter 1, do you remember verse 22?  "Be ye doers of the Word,"  that means whatever has happened in your life produces obedience to Scripture, "and not just hearers deceiving your ownselves."  In other words, don't be under the illusion that because you hear truth and your mind affirms truth that that is enough.  What is enough is when you begin to produce truth in your living, those are the works that he has in mind here in chapter 2.  Faith, says James, without a corresponding change of life, without a transformation, without a product has no evidence and therefore is not real.

The point then that he's making is very clear.  Non‑saving dead lifeless faith is known by the absence of righteous deeds.

Now let me take it a step further.  Faith is invisible.  You can tell me you have faith but I can't see that faith unless you show me that faith.  And you can't show me that faith unless you show it to me in a transformed life.  It is not enough to say you have faith, that proves nothing.  That's merely an affirmation which may or may not be true.  Faith in a sense is like the wind, you can't see it, you only see its effects.  It's like electricity, you can't see it but you can feel and enjoy and appreciate its effects.  It's like radio waves, you can't see them, they're invisible but you can appreciate their effect.

Faith is not known to be real until it is evident in action, deeds, in doing.  As chapter 1 verse 22 put it, or in works as we see here in chapter 2.

Faith in James' mind, you must understand this, is a statement equal or a word equal to spiritual life.  When he says "faith without works is dead,"  what he really means to say, if we can clarify it that way, is spiritual life without works is dead.

There's no real life there at all.  Unless you show me a transformed life, there is now way that your faith can be verified to me or in fact to you.

Now James is setting forth as you well know a crucial teaching regarding true salvation.  Because as we've been learning all along, Christ and all the New Testament writers are very concerned about people who may be self‑deceived as to their faith.  And that ought to be a major preoccupation of every pastor today because churches are literally filled with people who are under the delusion that they have saving faith and are looking forward to heaven when the fact is there has never been a transformed life and therefore there's never been a justifying change in their inner most being.

In Ephesians chapter 2 it says, "For by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves.  It is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast."  And there the indication of Scripture is you're saved by grace through faith not of works.  But then he says in verse 10, "God has created you unto good works which God has before ordained that you should walk in them."  Saved by grace through faith unto good works.

The absence of good works is an indicator of the absence of real saving faith.

At the end of the tenth chapter of Hebrews, you are familiar I know with this text, it says in verse 38, "The just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him, we are not of them who draw back unto perdition but of them that believe to the saving of the soul."  And what the writer of Hebrews is saying is there is a belief that is not to the saving of the soul.  There is a belief that goes so far and falls back.  There is a belief that goes all the way to the saving of the soul.

In Matthew, we remember very well chapter 7 where Jesus in verses 21 to 27 deals with those people who have a false faith.

"Many shall say unto Me, Lord, Lord, have we not done this, done this, done the other?  He says, Depart from Me, I have never known you, you workers of iniquity."  In other words, it isn't what you say, it's what you produce and what you produce is iniquity therefore what you say is meaningless.  It is the life pattern that validates or invalidates the claim to salvation.

I can look back to my college days.  And I had a very close friend in college.  We were really buddies in every way.  He was a son of a pastor, I was a son of a pastor.  His father and my father were very close friends.  In fact, they were very often ministering in the same environment.  They were committed to the same theological perspective.  He and I were very active in youth ministry.  I was involved as a youth pastor, he was involved as a youth pastor.  I had designs to go to seminary, he had designs to go to seminary.  He played one running back, I played the other running back.  He played one cornerback, I played the other cornerback.  We played basketball together.  We did things together.  We talked together.  We ministered together.  We served the Lord together.  I had ever indication in my heart that this guy really knew Christ and was headed for a life of service to Him.

We parted after college and I hadn't seen him in a long time.  I picked up the L.A.  Times one morning and read that he had been defrocked as a professor of philosophy at a local university for parading a group of naked people across the stage of his classroom and pointing out their private parts in public and putting on a sexually deviated display.  I then found out later that he got into setting up rock concerts, after which he had divorced his wife, got involved in some crime and was involved in serving a sentence to pay for his crime.

As far as I know to this day, he flatly and overtly denies the faith.  Every thing that I saw or everything, I should say, that he told me he believed when he was young turned out to be empty words because the character of his life demonstrates that there's no reality in his heart.  That's a very frightening thing because you have to ask yourself the question, how many more people do I know like that?  And how many more people are there who will ultimately demonstrate in this life the deadness of their faith?  And beyond that, how many people are there who will never know their faith is dead until they face their maker only to find out in horror that that which they assumed to be saving faith is nothing more than damning faith?

I'll tell you, as a pastor of a church for 18 years, I'm not into the "hit and count heads"  kind of evangelism.  When you're in the church for a long period of time, you don't just have people parade through, make an indication of salvation, write them down on your list and leave town.  You stick around long enough to find out whether the faith is real and the way you know the faith is real is by what you see in the life.

Now that's exactly what James is after in this text.  The first thing he does in verse 14 to 20 is describe dead faith.  He says it has three characteristics.  Number one, an empty confession, verse 14, "What does it profit, my brothers, though a man say he has faith and has not works?  Can that kind of faith save him?"  What's the answer?  No.  And that's implied in the question.  That kind of faith can't save him, can it?..is the Greek design of the original text.

First of all, dead faith is an empty confession.  It is a faith without a product.  It is a man who simply says and never does.  It is a claim without verification.  There are no works.

There is no patient endurance in trials.  There is no true holiness, purity, humility and open reception of God's truth.

There is no obedience and submission to the Word.  There's no control of the tongue.  There's no godly compassion.  There's no brotherly love.  There's no abstinence from worldly things.

There's no impartiality.  And all of those things are the issues he discussed in the first two chapters.

As Hebrews 6:9 says, he must show...quote:  "The things that accompany salvation."  The saving work of God provides in a soul repentance and love for God and love for Christ and hunger for righteousness and desire for the Word and hatred of sin and obedience to God and submissiveness to His will.  In fact, if you look at Hebrews chapter 11, you'll meet all the heroes of faith and you will find that all the heroes of faith were known by their...what?...their works.  Every one of them is characterized by what he or she did because that's the only way faith can be demonstrated.

A poet puts it this way.  "Let all who hold this faith and hope in holy deeds abound, thus faith approves itself sincere by active virtue crowned."

The second thing James says is that false faith is indicated by a false compassion.  In verses 15 and 16, he talks about a brother or sister being destitute, naked, cold and hungry without food.  Somebody coming along and saying to them, "Be warmed and filled,"  if it's in a middle voice as we saw last time, he's saying warm yourself and fill yourself, don't bother me with your problems.  If it's a passive voice, he's saying I hope you can be warmed and I hope you can be filled by somebody else, certainly not me.  And he goes on his way.

What does that profit, he asks at the end of verse 16?  What good is that kind of faith that knows no compassion?  What good is that kind of faith that knows no brotherly love?  What good is that kind of faith that does not act toward another as Christ would act toward another?  Don't tell me that's saving faith because there's no changed nature because a redeemed soul will respond as the Redeemer would respond for the redemption brings about the life of God in the soul of man.  And the life of God is expressed in the attitudes of God.  So false compassion can be added to empty confession.

Then in verse 17 and 18, "Even so, faith if it has not works is dead being alone.  If a man says you have faith and I have works, show me your faith without your works and I'll show you my faith by my works."  He says if a man just walks up and says, "I'll show you my faith without my works,"  James as if debating with some imaginary antagonist who would say that, there must have been some in the assembly to which he writes, says you say you have faith, do you, show me your faith without your works.

And the man stands there unable to do it.  You can't do it.  It's impossible.  Faith is invisible.  So you say you have faith, do you, and you don't need works, then you show me your faith...impossible.

So, the third element of non‑saving false dead faith is a shallow conviction.  It's brought out in verse 19.  A man says, "Well, I believe in orthodox truth."  James says, "You believe in God, do you?  You do well.  The demons also believe and shudder."

In other words, at best your faith is demon faith.  Don't pat yourself on the back because you believe orthodox truth.  Demons are orthodox.

Do you know the demons are orthodox?  Let me give you a little insight into that.  In Matthew 8, one of the demons said to Jesus, "Why are You here to torment us before the time?"  You remember that statement?  A demon said, "Why are You here to torment us before the time?"  Do you know what that tells me?

The demons have a very established orthodox eschatology...they have an orthodox eschatology.  They also have an orthodox Christology...Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you?

They understand the church.  They understand the work of the Spirit.  They understand the trinity.  They understand everything, they're all orthodox as we've been seeing.  And they know the truth and they believe the truth but they shudder...they don't love the truth, they don't love righteousness, they don't love God, they don't love purity and love holiness, they love everything rotten, everything evil.  So demon faith is orthodox, it just doesn't save.

And what he's saying is, at best just being orthodox is no better than demon faith.  And demon faith is damning faith.  So verse 20, he repeats, "Will you know then, O empty‑headed man, that faith without works is dead."  Don't give me some shallow conviction about your orthodoxy, don't try to indicate some false compassion by wishing well on people, wishing well to people who are in need, and don't make some empty confession to have a faith that produces nothing.  This is a dead faith.  No spiritual life.

No true love of God.  No love of holiness.  No pursuit of holiness, godliness, righteousness, no hunger for the Word.

Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "If any man be in Christ he's...what?...new creation, old things have passed away and behold all things have become new."

In dead faith there's no spiritual triumph in trouble.

There's no living faith that evidences itself with endurance, with joy and difficulty.  There's no eager readiness to respond to the Word.  There's no hunger and longing for purity.  There's no close self‑examination to see sin.  There's no continual driving internal desire to be exposed to the cleansing of the Word, there's no control of the tongue to be used for the glory of God and the edification of others.  There's no true compassion, love and generosity to those in serious distress.

And there's no broken, humble, meek spirit.  It's a lack of real transformation.  That's dead faith.

Now in verses 21 to 26, and that was just a quick review, in verses 21 to 26, we have the contrast of living faith and I want you to see this, this is so marvelous and so powerful a text because the illustrations are so very graphic.  Let's look at verses 21 to 16, the contrast of living faith.  James has shown us what dead faith is, now he wants to show us by contrast what living faith is.  And he is still structuring his argument as if it were a debate with a Jew in the assembly who is arguing that a faith with no works is still a saving faith.  That's really behind this, as we pointed out last time, and I'm trying not to go over everything.  But somebody in the assembly is going to say, "Well, all we need is faith and all there needs to be is grace and it doesn't have to show up in your life, it's not by works and, boy, we're out of legalism into antinomianism, doing our thing, faith is enough.  And so James structures his argument against that kind of thinking, that kind of thinking that says faith alone is enough and if there's nothing every produced in your life it really doesn't matter, it's simply a matter of believing and salvation is nothing more than forensic and justification is nothing more than God saying you're justified, it doesn't necessarily include a transformed life.  That is so foreign to Scripture.  But that's the kind of thing James is debating as he talks with this antagonist that he has hypothetically created.

Now to make his point of what really constitutes living faith, he uses three illustrations.  As he had three elements or characteristics of dead faith, he has three illustrations of living faith.  Number one, is Abraham.  And this goes from verse 21 to 24, let's begin at verse 21.  "Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?"  Now that verse has really caused paroxisms for many people.  Abraham justified by works...this is what Martin Luther got all mixed up about and then called this an epistle of straw because he couldn't figure out what that was really saying.

Let's take it carefully and I want you to understand what James is saying.  "Was not Abraham our father?"  Now there is a sense in which Abraham is the father of all Jews, and since James, a Jew, the brother of our Lord, the half‑brother of our Lord, is writing to scattered Jews, as chapter 1 verse 1 says, he could be saying "Abraham our father"  in a Jewish sense.  Our father in a racial sense.  In fact, in Romans 4:1, Paul says, "Abraham, our father,"  pertaining to the flesh.  In John 8:33, Jesus said to the Jews, "You are of Abraham's seed."  And then in verse 37, He says, "I know that you are Abraham's seed."  So there's a sense in which James can be saying Abraham, our father, in a physical natural racial sense.  The great patriarch was certainly the symbol of all that was Jewish and all that was to be honored among Jews since he was their honored progenitor.  He was also the standard of righteousness for all of the Jews.

But James has in mind more than that.  And when he says "Our father, Abraham,"  he has in mind that Abraham is the father not only of the Jews racially but of all people who believe in God unto salvation, whether they are Jew or Gentile.  He is in a sense the father of all the faithful, of all those who believe.

This is a very important emphasis that the Apostle Paul wants us to understand in writing the epistle to the Galatians.  And so in chapter 3 and verse 7 Paul says, "Know ye therefore that they who are of faith, the same are the sons of Abraham."  So then verse 9 says, "They who are of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham."

There is a spiritual sense in which all who believe are somehow connected to Abraham.  He is the model of faith and we sort of follow that model.  He is the classic illustration of saving faith.  In that sense, he is the father of the faithful.

You often hear people say, for example, the George Washington is the father of our country.  Now we don't mean by that that George Washington fathered every person in America.  We don't mean that.  We mean there's a sense in which he is all that embodies the greatness of America.  He is the one who gave structure and life and destiny and future to this nation.  So Abraham in that sense is the father of the faithful.  He set the model and the example of believing in God.  The first great classic ancient illustration of saving faith with specifics was Abraham.

So, James identifies then Abraham as the father not only of the Jews but of the...the father of those who believe.  So remember now, he is writing to an assembly of believers so it would not be out of character for him to say to them, "Our father, not only in the Jewish sense, but also in the sense of faith."  "Was not Abraham then our father,"  now here's the key word, "justified by works?"  Stop at that point.

Now immediately everything in us that's evangelical goes "Hold it right there.  Justified by works?"  What does it mean to be justified?  It means to be considered right with God.  "You mean to say Abraham was considered to be right with God by works?"  Someone blows the whistle and says foul, this cannot be possible.  And invariably where they take us is to Romans 4, so let's go there.  Romans chapter 4, now I want you to follow very carefully as I just hit some key highlights here.  In Romans chapter 4 the discussion is about Abraham.  Paul starts out like this, "What shall we say then, that Abraham our father,"  he uses the same phrase, "as pertaining to the flesh as found, if Abraham were justified by works, he had something of which to glory, but not before God."

Now wait a minute.  James says Abraham was justified by works.  Paul says if Abraham were justified by works, he would have something to glory of but not before God.  What does the scripture say?  Verse 3, "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.  Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt."  In other words, if he earned it it wouldn't be grace it would be something God owed him.  "To him that works not but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."  So what Paul says is Abraham wasn't justified by works before God, he was justified by faith.  He was justified by grace, justified by faith not works.

And he goes on to talk about that in verse 6.  He says that David also describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness apart from works, saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin or put sin to his account.  So in verses 1 to 8, Paul says Abraham was justified by faith not works.

Then starting in verse 9 he says he was justified by grace not law.  And all the way down through verse 17 he makes the point that Abraham was justified by grace, by grace.  Comes to verse 16, "It is of faith that it might be by grace,"  by faith and grace, that's his whole emphasis.  First, justified by faith.

Then the emphasis turns to grace.  And in the third section, verse...well, it's about verse 18 and following, he says that he was justified by divine power not human efforts, really saying the same thing over and over again.  It was God's power, it was God's work in his behalf.  The same power that raised Jesus from the dead, verse 24.  The whole argument of Romans 4, and I wish we had more time to spend in it, the whole argument is Abraham was saved by faith, Abraham was saved by grace, Abraham was saved by divine power not human effort.  That is a very strong statement on salvation without works.  It is parallel to what we just read in Galatians chapter 3 where it very clearly says that Abraham believed God, he is the father of the faithful...that is those who believe.  It says in verse 6 of Galatians 3, "Abraham believed God, it was counted to him for righteousness."  And verse 11, "No man is justified by the law, the just shall live by...what?...by faith."

So, you have very clear teaching in Galatians 3 and Romans 4 that Abraham was justified by faith, grace.  Grace is God's unmerited favor in graciously giving a man salvation because he believes.  And even the faith of that man is a gift of God, according to Ephesians chapter 2.

So, on the one hand Paul seems to be saying..and rightly is saying..salvation, justification by grace.  Here comes James.

James says the same man, same illustration, Abraham was justified by works.  How do we understand that?  All right, notice Romans 4:2 and let me give you a distinction.  It says in Romans 4:2 that Abraham, if Abraham were justified by works, he would have something to glory about.  In other words, he could pat himself on the back if he made it in by his own works.  But...mark this little part of the verse...not before God.  Now get this, you cannot be justified by works before God.  Mark that.  You cannot be justified by works before God.  Only by faith and righteousness is then imputed to you, verse 6, verse 11, verse 22, verse 23.  You can only be justified by faith and when you put your faith in God in Christ, God grants you an imputed righteousness.  He puts righteousness to your account.  The idea is that man is bankrupt...spiritually bankrupt, morally bankrupt.

He puts his faith in Christ and God deposits in his bankrupt account all necessary righteousness to make him suitable to dwell in the presence of God.

Now this happened to Abraham.  In Genesis 15 and verse 3 and following to verse 6.  Paul quotes that in the third verse of Romans 4.  What does the Scripture say?  "Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness."  In Genesis chapter 15, listen now carefully, Genesis 15:3 to 6, it says that.

Abraham believed God and righteousness was put to his account.

God deposited righteousness.  In the words of Isaiah 61:10, God clothed him with the robe of righteousness.  God gave him his righteousness as a gift.  Now mark that.

When you put your faith in Jesus Christ, righteousness is imputed to you, that is it is deposited to you.  You don't have it.  You don't earn it.  You receive it as a gift from God.

That's the marvel of salvation by grace through faith.  Like all of us who are bankrupt, we stand before God with nothing in our spiritual account, God through our faith acting in response to His sovereign grace deposits in our account the very righteousness which He possesses and we stand right with Him.

Abraham experienced that.  This is the sole condition of salvation.  It is said in Genesis 15:6 he believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.

So, Abraham then is the father of all who believe because it was his believing that brought about righteousness.  When he believed, God gave him righteousness.  That's just the way it's always been.  Old Testament salvation, New Testament salvation, very same thing.  Whether it's Abraham or you, it doesn't matter, it's all the same.  Whether it's on that side of the cross or this side of the cross, you believe God.  What do you have to believe about God?  As much as God has revealed about Himself.

At whatever point in the unfolding revelation of God a person lived, they were to believe God to the point of that revelation.

Abraham obviously didn't have the New Testament, he didn't even have the Old Testament.  The fullness of God's revelation was not yet closed.  He didn't enjoy all that we enjoy but he believed what God had revealed.  And that's the essence of saving faith.

There's no salvation by works.  Back in Romans chapter 3 it says in verse 20, "By the deeds of the law will no flesh be justified in His sight."  On the other hand, it says in verse 24, "Justified freely by His grace."  So, now mark this, we are made right with God by His grace.  He dispenses that grace to us.  We respond in believing faith to that sovereign grace and we're saved.  No works involved.

You say, "Well, does James believe that?"  Sure he believes that.  In fact, in James 2, look at verse 23, in James 2:23, he quotes the very same scripture.  Now follow me on this.  The scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God."  So James understands that passage in Genesis 15:6 and he understands exactly what it means.  He is quoting the very same text Paul quotes in Romans 4.  Now listen to what I say to you.  Abraham was justified before God, that's the key idea, before God through faith.

You say, "Well, how could God justify Abraham?  How could He just cover his sins and forgive him?"  Because Christ would in the future die for the sins of Abraham just as Christ in the past has died for the sins of every believing person.  He believed in the Lord.

But when was that in his life?  That takes us all the way back to the beginning when God called him in Ur of the Chaldees and said, "Get out of this land, leave your people and go to a land that I'll show you,"  back in Genesis chapter 12.  He was probably about 75 years old at the time of his calling.  And he believed God.  He picked up everything.  Left a pagan land.

Followed his faith in the true God.  I don't know how much revelation he had, probably a very little bit.  But God had sovereignly worked on his heart.  There was a response of faith.

He started the walk of faith, the life of faith.  And at that particular point, he was granted righteousness.

You say, "Well, then what does James mean when it says here in James, `Was not Abraham our father justified by works?'"

Listen to this.  Abraham was justified by faith before God but he was justified by works before men.  Do you see the difference?

That's the whole point James is making.  Works are the only way his faith can be seen and verified as real saving faith by himself or any other man.  The only way I can know I'm genuinely redeemed is to see the pattern of my godliness, the evidence.

The only way you can know it is to see my life.  And it is this justification before men that James has in mind.  Paul was emphasizing justification before God.  James is emphasizing the vindication of a man's claim to salvation before others.

So, it was at Ur of the Chaldees and in the walk of faith that Abraham exhibited that God saw his faith and imputed to him righteousness.  But notice what James says, he identifies very specifically when Abraham was justified by works.  He says it was when he offered Isaac his son on the altar.  That's when the whole world could see the reality of his faith and he having been justified before God already was now justified before men.  The watching world could perceive the reality of his faith.

Go back to Genesis chapter 22 and let's look briefly at that record.  Genesis chapter 22..."It came to pass after these things that God did test Abraham,"  very important, this is a test.  A test of what?  It's a test of Abraham's faith in order to demonstrate its reality, its genuineness.  He said to him, "Abraham.  He said, Here I am.  He said, Take now your son."  He rubs it in, "Your only son."  Rubs it in again, "Whom you love, take your son, your only son, the son you love, go to the land of Moriah and...get this...offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I'll tell you about."  Absolutely unbelievable.

Abraham knows this.  He knows that God has made him a promise.  And God made him a promise years ago.  By this time Isaac is maybe ten to fifteen years old.  This is nearly fifty years after he first believed God.  And he's been walking in this promise all these years, somewhere between forty and fifty years.

And God's been saying your seed will be as the sands of the sea and as the stars of heaven and I'll make out of your loins a great nation, whoever blesses them will be blessed and whoever curses them will be cursed.  And Abraham for years is believing this, even though he has no daughter, he has no son, he has no child, he's married to an old lady who's barren.  Finally God gives him a child when he's a hundred years old.  Now ten years later, or fifteen, when he's between 110 and 115 and all he has to look at regarding this promise of a seed as wide as the sand of the sea is one measly kid.  And now God comes to him and says take that kid to Mount Moriah and kill him.  And everything he knows about the covenant keeping character of God is violated in his mind.  And everything he knows about God's standard of sacrifice is violated because God has never required human sacrifice...never permitted it.  It's murder.

How can God reverse Himself?  How can God be ungod?  How can God contradict everything about His nature that I know to be true?  God says take your son and offer him as a sacrifice.

"But...but...but...there's never been a human sacrifice...but He's the promise you made.  What about Your nature?  What about Your truthfulness?  What about Your faithfulness?  This will violate everything I know to be true about You.  This will destroy Your reputation."

What does he do?  Does he argue with God?  No.  Here is the evidence of his faith...no questions asked.  "Got up early in the morning,"  verse 3.  Saddled his ass, took two of his young men with him.  Isaac his son cut the wood for the burnt offering.

Rose up, went to the place which God had told him.  Off they go.

A couple of young men, Isaac and the beast of burden carrying the wood.  "On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, saw the place afar off.  Abraham said to his young men, Stay here with the ass, I and the lad will go yonder and worship...mark this in your Bible...and come again to you."  There's his faith.

How's he going to do that?  God says go kill the son.  He says I'll be back and so will he, we'll come back.  Did he believe that?  "Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, laid it on Isaac his son, took the fire in his hand and knife and they went both of them together.  Isaac spoke to Abraham his father...this will tear your heart out...My father, he said.

Here I am, my son.  He said, Behold the fire and the wood but where's the lamb for a burnt offering?  And Abraham said, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a burnt offering.  So they both went together."  He believed in his heart that whatever the sacrifice would ultimately be, God would provide it.

"They came to the place where God had told him.  Abraham built an altar, laid the wood in order."  I can't imagine the scene behind these two words, "Bound Isaac."  I don't know whether Isaac just said, "Here I am, tie me up,"  or whether there was a little bit of discussion or whether there was a fight.  But anyway, laid him on the altar.  "Stretched forth his hand, took the knife ready to plun