Fool's Gold Faith (part 2) - [James 2:14-26]

Just to think of the glories of heaven, I should be preaching on heaven this morning. After that, instead

I want to preach on the topic, are you going to heaven? Are you sure you're going to heaven?

I read this week that 500 ,000 Americans have counterfeit diplomas.

Just order online why to go to school, just get a counterfeit one, put it up in your office and you're set to go.

How many people in the world have counterfeit spiritual diplomas? How many people in this room have counterfeit spiritual diplomas?

You say you're going to heaven, but you're not really going. If I wanted to really challenge you,

I could challenge you this way, and you first might get mad at me when I do, but I'd rather have you mad than indifferent.

You call yourself a Christian? Prove it. You say you're a

Christian? Prove it. And that's exactly what James says in chapter one, verse 22, that you are to prove yourself what?

Doers of the word, not merely hearers only, auditors only, who delude themselves.

Let's turn our Bibles this morning to James chapter two, and look for the second week in a row, this God -breathed passage of James two that trumpets forth the truth.

Real faith lives. Real faith changes. There's a faith that doesn't save.

There's a faith that will not get you to heaven, and James wants to make sure you understand the difference. James is almost with Nixonesque -like speech.

Let me make this perfectly clear. There's a faith that doesn't save no matter what you say, no matter what you proclaim.

There's a faith that will not let you see Jesus face -to -face, and my desire this morning is that if you meet people that have a false faith, that you would in love tell them about how this

God quickens people through the work of Christ Jesus. If you're maybe sluggish in your faith,

I hope this motivates you and accelerates you to want to excel for the Lord by the Spirit's grace and power as He indwells you.

If you're already saved, I hope you say to yourself today, the only way I could come up with such faith that works and transforms is that it had to be given to me.

God, you gave me that faith. For those of you that have saving faith, we're not better, you're not somehow more excellent, more educated.

You are recipients of divine favor, that's all, and so today we have many purposes. I thought yesterday on the bike that we were going to have to revert back to Isaiah 6, as this bee comes flying up and hits me right here, but it didn't sting me.

There's a report that there are many bees that are dying and it's going to affect the crops because there's not enough bees to populate and pollinate all these different flowers and things, and I thought, well, the reason is because I've been killing them all on my bike, but it didn't sting me, so we're back into James, this sermon really that's been scripture rated.

It's a sermon that James preaches and you don't see a lot of, well, by the Spirit's grace you can do this, even though he knows that to be true.

It's lots of imperatives. Sometimes preaching is, here's a statement of fact, Jesus died,

Jesus lived a perfect life, Jesus was raised from the dead, Jesus is coming back, and in light of that, obey, imperative, but here

James doesn't do that much indicative preaching. It's all just grabbing you in the context of a local worship service where we've heard already about the great position we have in Christ.

We've heard already about how God saves us and then keeps us eternally secure, and so in the context of a service,

James really wants to make sure everyone is a Christian, and he says, if you're a

Christian, prove it, because if the God of the universe has transformed you with resurrection power, you will be different.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new what? Creature. The old has gone and the new has come.

2 Corinthians 5, verse 17. We saw last week there's a way to see false faith, and I call it fool's gold faith.

And as you scratch fool's gold, you smell the sulfur, letting you know that it's fake, so too,

James gives us five ways to see false faith by kind of scratching at the surface so we can get in there, and in review, the first thing he says about faith without works being dead is that it brings about no salvation.

Number one, we know faith without works is counterfeit because it doesn't save. Faith alone that doesn't manifest itself in works is dead.

Verse 14 of James 2, what use is it, my brethren? The Greek says if someone continually says he has faith, but he continually has no works in Greek, that faith cannot save him.

Two direct questions, two implied answers to get the reader's attention. There's no profit. There's no good.

Genuine faith has works. Real faith believes in.

Real faith is persuaded of. Real faith is confident in. Real faith wants to follow the

Lord that has granted that changed life. Real faith and trust. Real faith is dependent upon, and if you want to see the symptoms of the disease, if you want to see the disease, in this particular case, you have to look at the symptoms because we can't see into the heart of a person.

This person is all talk. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. He has over and over and over.

He keeps saying he has it. He keeps saying he has it. He keeps saying he has it, and he doesn't have it. Of course, salvation isn't by works.

He's already said that in chapter 1, verse 18. We are saved by faith in Christ.

Keep your finger there in James and flip over to Romans with me, if you would, just to be reminded that we are saved by works.

The works of Jesus Christ. Not by our own works. If anyone ever asks you, are you saved by works?

You say, yes, of course. The only way to be saved is by works, and it's the perfect work of Christ, not our own.

We are tainted. Jesus had to be perfect for lots of reasons, but one is, if he wasn't perfect, he could only save himself.

He couldn't even do that. But if you take a look at Romans 3, 28, to be reminded that we are not saved by the works of the law.

That is, we cannot do anything to save ourselves. Romans 3, 28, and Paul says, for we maintain that a man is justified, declared righteous by the work of another, by faith apart from the works of the law.

In other words, faith alone, sola fide. We only are right in God's eyes by what? Faith alone.

And James says, but that faith doesn't stay alone. Luther had a problem because he was trying to take

James and Romans and put them together, and he thought they were addressing the same problems. And James says, faith isn't alone because works follow, and Paul said in Romans that it's faith alone.

If you look at Romans chapter 4, it helps us solve this problem when we look at chapter 4, verse 1, what then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found?

For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about.

Hey, I'm going to heaven because of something I did, but not before God. What does the scripture say?

Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now, to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due.

And so James says, I'm attacking the problem, not of how do you work your way to heaven because it's the work of Christ alone and not your own works as he would believe

Paul to say. But he's attacking the problem that says, you can say you're a Christian, you can say you have faith and then continue to live the way you used to live.

The second reason why faith without works is counterfeit, it doesn't help others. We remember that from last week.

Go back to James chapter two, verse 15 and 16. As Jesus was kind and compassionate, so too a faith that would follow this great

Lord would do the same thing. If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, what happens?

You just basically say, well, verse 16, go in peace, be warmed and be filled.

Take care of it yourself. And yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body.

What use is that? The answer? Well, it's not good at all. Thirdly, and still in review, verse 17, the third reason why faith without works is counterfeit or fake, it's not living.

Almost with kind of a conclusion or a summary statement here, verses 14 through 17.

And he says in verse 17, even so faith, if it has no works, is dead being by itself.

There's no other conclusion. You can say you have faith, but if there are no works that follow in kind and likeness of Christ, then

Luke 6 .46 is hauntingly appropriate for you. Why do you call me

Lord, Lord, and do not do the things I say? Maud Jackson said, we are saved by faith, yet faith is one.

With life like daylight and the sun, unless they flower in our deeds, dead empty husks are all our creeds.

To call Christ Lord, but strive not to obey, belies the homage that with words

I pay. Fourthly, it's almost like a knockout punch here.

Faith without works is counterfeit because number four, it just not, doesn't bring salvation or doesn't assist others.

It's not living. But number four, faith and works are inseparable like Siamese twins. Look at how

James puts this together. But someone may well say, there's the dialogue, it's very good writing and it's very lively style and you use your imagination, you kind of place yourself there.

You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works.

In other words, you say you've got faith. I've got works. I can demonstrate by my works the faith

I have. You cannot demonstrate the faith you have because you have no works. It's both and in other words.

James is defying people to prove faith without obedience. The person doesn't have works to go along with faith.

So this challenger says, show me your faith without the works. You can't do it. You can't demonstrate it. David said this very interestingly, a horse that cannot be seen, smelled, touched or ridden that eats invisible grass and leaves no mark on the ground, such faith is indemonstratable and suspect.

Faith apart from works cannot be a saving faith. It's both and. And then with one of the most amazing, stunning, wild illustrations in all the

Bible, he says number five, you want to see fool's gold faith and why it's counterfeit? Because there's no works.

The fifth one is because it's worse than demon faith. Verse 19. Here is kind of like the coup de gras.

You want to know how faith without works is dead because demons believe the verse 19.

This is like the one man said, like the stinger of a scorpion. It comes up over the body.

And in case you weren't convinced by the first four illustrations, here's the final little sting. Can you imagine sitting through James preaching?

Nobody walked out and said, he seemed so kind and compassionate in the pulpit. He has kind of a warm style.

I'm not going to go where I did last week, but just as a reminder, it's not about that.

Pulpit preaching, James preaching is about doctrinal fidelity. You believe

God is one, you do well. The demons also believe and shudder.

Demons shudder and James shatters the idea that somehow faith and works don't need to go together.

I'm going to give you several attributes of demon faith so you can see how far demons are along to then say, you know, demons seem to believe and everything about a demon faith will not yield its salvation.

Are there going to be any demons in heaven swirling around the throne room singing, holy, holy, holy?

Yes? No. No. These demons have faith, but this faith doesn't save.

And so let's look at some of these attributes. Number one, I'll give you several translation.

I've got a bunch, but I don't know how far I'll get. And if I tell you 10, you'll want 10. If I tell you several, everything's just fine in your mind.

Several attributes of demon faith. Number one, it believes in the existence of God.

Demon faith or demons believe in the existence of God. They are not skeptics.

They are not atheists and they are not agnostics. They are not post -moderns.

They believe in God. That's just implied in that verse. Number two, demon faith believes in the unity of the

Godhead, maybe even the Trinity. I think they believe in the Trinity, but I'm just trying to say what these verses show.

Do you see that? You believe that God is one. Hey, that's what the demons believe that too.

You believe that God is one. You believe that God, certainly demons believe that God is

Trinitarian. Demons don't believe in the God of Jehovah's Witnesses and other

Arian false teachers. They believe in the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

They believe in the eternal Godhead. All this is going to push us to say, you know, when

I was a kid, I believed Jesus was God. I believed in the Trinity, but it's not enough to just believe it intellectually.

Number three, demon faith is monotheistic. These first three are all similar, monotheistic.

You believe that God is one. There's one God. You can hear the Jews just reciting the portions of Scripture every morning and every night.

Deuteronomy 6 .4, Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Rabbi Aqaba, who suffered a martyr's death, supposedly said one word as he died.

In reference to his belief in the Godhead, and he died with the word one on his lips, signifying the great

Shema, the great Deuteronomy 6 .4. Number four, demon faith is creedally orthodox, creedally orthodox.

It's not just about knowing something, because they know these things. I wish

I had a doctrinal confession here. I wish I had a Westminster Confession of Faith, 1689

Baptist Confession of Faith, Savoy Confession of Faith. I wish I had an Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, every one of these creeds.

And you know, the demons would say, I believe that. Some people say, well, what if you're wrong theologically about some point?

We as an elder board strive for theological fidelity, but we certainly can't be right on everything.

We just don't know where we're wrong, right? Because if we knew where we were wrong, we would change it. But I would have to say that demons believe better than we do in terms of sheer belief, sheer facts and creeds.

They know. They understand as spirit beings who God is, creedally orthodox.

Demon faith, number five, is also intellectual. The demons also believe, do you see that in verse 19?

They believe, but it's a fake belief. It's kind of the belief that the square of a hypotenuse of a right angled triangle equals the sum of the squares on the other two sides.

It's just general belief. It makes no difference in their lives. It doesn't have any effect. Number six, here we go.

I've been waiting for this one. Number six, demon faith is emotional. Demons also believe and frisussen.

You ever been to those churches and say, look to the person to the right of you and say, you know, hello or high five in the

Lord or Holy Ghost back rub or whatever they do. I don't know. If I was one of those kind of people, I would say, look to the person to your left and say, frisussen, because it's so on a monopoetic and it's the word that hair goes up on the back of a dog because they are emotionally charged.

I hear barking a couple of weeks ago and I go outside and Kim and the kids were still in California and that bark means one of two things.

It means it either has a cat up a tree, we're all cat, well, sorry, or it's got something cornered and she had a skunk cornered.

And so she had the hair up on the back of her coat, just up frisussen.

And then after she got sprayed and I took the organic tomato juice from Shaw's, the only thing

I had, I wouldn't get organic juice for the dog, but I had it for me and I'm pouring it at 11 o 'clock at night on the dog in the backyard and I'm matting it down in her face and in her hair.

She's kind of licking once in a while because it's, is it good or not for a dog? No, it's not too good. They don't like it.

And so then by then all her hair is matted down. This here in James is a present tense.

The demons continue to believe and they continue to shudder. It's an ongoing thing.

They're just not walking around going, today I'm not really thinking about the vengeance and the awful wrath of a holy

God. It's all the time. They know they're just waiting for the day. The Latin word for frisussen is horreo, horror, terror.

This word is translated in the Old Testament in Job 4 .15 where it says, dread came upon me and trembling and made all my bones shake.

Then a spirit passed by my face. The hair of my flesh bristled up.

Jews knew this word so much so that the Jewish tradition called demons, shah yaryam, hairy ones.

If you base your Christianity on an emotional experience, it could be deceiving.

I had this feeling. I had this warmth. Something came over me. Certainly we have an emotional reaction to the gospel.

But what James is trying to do is say that's not all there is because he's pushing everything towards intellect.

Of course it's fine. We have to believe credully. Emotion is fine. Of course, we want to have joy and being afraid of our sins and all these other things, but it will all lead to real saving faith has what works.

Emotions are good, but not if they're the end all. Look at what he says here.

He's almost mocking. He says, you believe God is one, you do well.

It's an intentional, sarcastic comment. Now outside of James, I found some other things that demons believe and how they believe.

Let's turn to Mark chapter five for a moment. Let me show you more about demon faith and all this is James trying to make the point about demons know a lot, they emotionally respond, but they're not saved.

And so it's not just enough to know and enough to experience. We have to know and experience, but if we are really saved, it will manifest itself in actions and we come to the next part here.

This demon faith is reverent. Mark five verse one, they came to the other side of the sea into the country of the garrisons.

We all know what's going to happen, but I want you to specifically look at what the demons thought are believed or how they acted.

When Jesus had come out of the boat immediately, a man from the tombs with an unclean spirit met him. And you can just imagine the chaos.

And if you're standing next to Jesus, what you must want to do, almost want to step in front of Jesus to take a bullet for him.

Because here comes these crazy demon possessed people and he had his dwelling among the tombs and no one was able to bind him anymore.

Even with the chain, the negatives in the original language, just nobody could subdue him because he had been often bound with shackles and chains and the chains had been torn apart by him and shackles broken in pieces and no one was strong enough to subdue him.

Shackles on the feet, chains on the rest of the body and constantly night and day among the tombs and in the mountains, he was crying out and gashing himself with stones.

Ever heard anybody howl like a coyote in the middle of the night because they're so deranged by a demon blood curdling,

I'm sure an earthly and seeing Jesus from a distance.

He knows who Jesus is. He knows he's the son of God. He ran up and hit him in the face.

No, demon faith is even reverent.

And he ran up and bowed. Not only is demon faith reverent, but additionally, demon faith knows

Jesus is the son of God. It bears witness to Christ's sonship. Verse seven, and crying out with a loud voice.

Can you imagine what this must have sounded like? What do I have to do with you, Jesus, self -professed

Messiah? Is that what it says? What do I have to do with you,

Jesus, son of the most high God? Most high God used to both Jews and Gentiles to say that there's one

God and only one God. No false gods. It's the one living God of Israel.

I implore you by God, do not torment me. Earlier in Mark 3, it says one demon said, unclean spirit, you are the son of God.

Demons are better off than most of the faculty of Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Brown put together.

And demons also believe there's a place of torment as another reason. Another factor of demon's faith.

Verse seven, I implore you, do not torment me. Verse eight, for he had been saying to him, come out of the man, you unclean spirit.

And he was asking him, what is your name? And he said to him, my name is Legion, for we are many. My name is 6 ,000 infantrymen.

And he began to entreat him earnestly not to send them out of the country.

Luke says he wanted them not to send them to the abyss. Matthew 8 says this.

What have we have to do with you, son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? Demons believe in hell.

Demons believe in torment. Demons believe that Jesus is the son of God. Demon believes that, you know,

I should have reverent worship. And you say, well, if that all doesn't work, what else is needed?

Let me give you a few things that are needed. Number one, saving faith must see beauty in its object.

Demons don't see the beauty and the preciousness like Peter calls the precious blood of Christ in 1

Peter. What James is saying, number two, saving faith must experience a transformation into the likeness of its object.

And so you see beauty in the object. And when you see beauty in the object, you want to be more like that object.

In your own mind and also the spirit in you saying, I want to be more like Christ. Second Corinthians three says we are being transformed in the same image from glory as glory, just as from the

Lord spirit. Number three, saving faith believes upon, not just about.

Act 1631. And they said, believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

Believe, believe with all the rest you have upon the object. Not just believe about, but believe upon.

Let me read to you several verses and you tell me the theme of these verses. You tell me what's common with all these verses.

And I won't even tell you where they're from. But just listen to these verses as you notice the theme.

What is common about every one of these verses? Jesus said to them, follow me and I will make you fishers of men.

Jesus said to him, follow me and allow the dead to bury their own dead. And as Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called

Matthew sitting in the tax office and he said to him, follow me. He who does not take his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.

Jesus said to him, if you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions, give to the poor and you shall have treasure in heaven and come.

Follow me. The next day he purposed to go forth into Galilee and he found Philip and Jesus said to him, follow me.

My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. If anyone serves me, let him follow me and where I am, there shall my servant also be.

If anyone serves me, the father will honor him. Now this he said signifying by what kind of death he would glorify

God. When he had spoken this, Jesus said to Peter, follow me.

Jesus said to him, if you want to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me.

What's the common theme? Do you believe enough in this great God who has saved you to follow him?

Because deeds will follow real faith is the point of James. Now let's go back to James. There is a faith that doesn't save.

First Corinthians 15 says unless you have believed in vain. So James with pastoral kindness yet firmness wants to say faith without works is dead to the extreme.

You could be a demon and confess the great principles of the faith and still not go to heaven.

James wants obedience to the faith, as acts would say. Chapter six of the false teachers.

Titus says Paul said to Titus, they profess to know God, but by their deeds, they deny him.

So James says faith without works is counterfeit. He gives those five reasons and ways, and then he gives some illustrations based on history.

Abraham, Rahab, and then another common illustration.

Verse 20 of James 2. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

Are you professor only without having the faith? Are you willing to learn there must be evidence in your life that you're different?

Certainly not perfection, but you really need to understand that. And what does he call him? What kind of fellow?

What kind of fellow does he call someone who thinks that they can just say they're a Christian, they can just sign the card, walk the aisle, say they were a

Christian when they were 15 years old, and then live like hell the rest of their life? James says, you are what kind of fellow?

I almost don't want to say it. You are a foolish fellow.

The same word Jesus used when he said raka in Matthew chapter 5. Don't call anyone raka.

You shouldn't go around telling anybody they're idiot, numbskull, dunce, stupid, unless they go around thinking they're going to heaven and they have no works, then that is an appropriate occasion to say you are a fool.

Eternity is at stake. This person has no sense, no moral sense, and no faith either.

He says you're a fool. This is the worst possible thing you could ever do.

And then he gives an illustration of Abraham, how Abraham's faith worked. He's not describing how

Abraham was saved necessarily. He's just saying Abraham was a different man than when he was worshiping the false idols of his father.

Verse 21, was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?

He wasn't justified by works in God's eyes, but in whose eyes was he justified by works? Anybody that would look.

How can you see Abraham's faith? You can't. So he justifies, he makes evident, he makes obvious to people as they look at Abraham that he was different.

How do you know Abraham believed? Because he offered Isaac his son up.

And then you notice in verse 22, two key words to understand this so you're not contradicted in your mind about faith and works.

Verse 22, you see, God already knows he's justified by the work of Christ, not his own works.

But the only way we know if Abraham is saved, you see that faith was working with Abraham's works.

As a result of the works, faith was perfected or it was real. Arthur Pink said,

Paul writes of our justification before God. James writes of our justification before men.

Paul treats of the justification of persons. James of the justification of our profession.

James is vindicated, shows Abraham's vindication because he has works. How much faith did

Abraham have? You're a hundred year old man and you're ready to kill your only son. And that son you've been told will have millions and millions descendants.

That's proof of faith. Don't you think he believed God? Can you just imagine? Came about after these things,

God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham. And he said, here I am. I take your son.

Well, Lord, I've got two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Which one would you like me to take? Your only son.

Can you be more specific, God? Isaac.

Before he said Isaac, he said whom you love and certainly he loved both. Isaac. Sure, you've got some purpose in his life and he's the promised one and the chosen one.

What should I do? Go to the land of Moriah. And one man said, great, we get to go together for a father and son outing.

It's like a vacation. And offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which

I will tell you. Read that the first time. We already know what's in there, but the first time you imagine

Abraham hearing it. The faith. Maybe it didn't come right up, but more of a shock and anguish, startling.

Your only son, John Calvin said, as if it were not enough to command in one word the sacrifice of his son.

He pierces as with fresh strokes the mind of the holy man by calling him his only son.

He again irritates the wound recently inflicted by the banishment of the other son. But Hebrews says by faith,

Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Abraham's faith worked and we can see that.

Not only did Abraham's faith work, but also another lady was involved in the

Bible. And what does your text say? Rahab. He says, you see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

Verse 24. But there's someone else there. Rahab. Verse 25. Well, this is amazing because we have first a man.

Who demonstrates faith is not alone. And now we have a woman. We have a rich Abraham.

We have a poor Rahab. We have a righteous. Abraham. And now we have the prostitute

Rahab. Verse 25. Do you want to see if Rahab's faith worked? I don't care if you're old or young.

Man or woman. Prostitute, policeman or professor. If you're saved, you will be different.

And in the same way, was not Rahab, and she's always called this the harlot. Also justified by works in our eyes, in our minds.

When she received the messengers and sent them out another way. Just in case

Abraham's example was not conclusive or sufficient. Like with all good Bible teachers, there's going to be two illustrations for two witnesses required to establish truth.

And if I was going to bring another illustration of faith, I would bring in Joshua. Elijah. David. Solomon.

Somebody. And we bring in Rahab the harlot. She was so well known, he doesn't even tell the story.

He just says in verse 25, in the same way, she was justified by works. Hebrews 11 recounts it by faith.

Rahab the harlot did not perish among those who were disobedient after she had welcomed the spies in peace.

And then finally, James 2 .26 says, For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

If you put those two phrases right underneath each other, you'll see. Body without spirit.

Faith without works. Both are dead. Take a little mirror.

You can hold it up to the mouth of a corpse. And there's going to be no condensation.

Faith without works is dead. You hold the mirror up to your own life and say, I've examined my life closely.

And I know what Christians do. And I know how they act. And I know how they're changed. And I look at my own life.

And before others, I think I can trick them. But before God, I don't see any change from the inside.

And James, in love, says, It's dead. Cry out to the God who saves.

Hauntingly, Jesus said similar things. Listen to the church in Revelation 3 .1.

To the angel of the church in Sardis write, He who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says this,

I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.

So what does he say? What does Jesus say to people who are at a church and they're dead?

Not the church is dead, but they themselves are dead. What would Jesus say? Here's the corpse of a person.

Alive physically, but dead spiritually. What would Jesus say? And I will say what Jesus says to you if you're not a

Christian. Wake up. That's what Jesus said.

He said it so loud somebody dropped their pencil. That's the effect that's needed. Wake up.

You have faith and you have no works. It's time for the alarm clock to go off because there might not be many more days.

Wake up. And then Jesus said, And strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die, for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of my

God. Wake up. Remember. Obey. Repent. Be watchful. Be a

Gregory is what he's saying. James isn't mad at people.

James wants to make sure there's no foolish people that walk around thinking they're going to go to heaven, but have no works.

If you know people in your life, you shouldn't be mad at them. You should love them enough to tell them the truth, to show them scriptures, to pray for them.

If you're struggling in your Christian walk, and you don't have assurance, then it's time to get back to the proper priorities, and God will give you proper assurance.

Let's commensurate with your works. But if you're here today, maybe you're one of my kids, maybe some of your kids, maybe you've been here for many, many years, maybe you're on all kinds of committees, and you continually say you have faith, and you continually have no works, you aren't going to heaven.

Puritan Gurnall said, Say not that thou hast royal blood in thy veins, and art born of God, except thou canst prove thy pedigree by daring to be holy.

You say you're a Christian, prove it. And one of the most strangest writers, says something very proper for my conclusion.

Unproductive faith cannot save, because it is not genuine faith. Faith and works are like a two -coupon ticket to heaven.

The coupon of works is not good for passage, and the coupon of faith is not valid if detached from works.

Let's close in prayer. Lord, we would ask that you would seal these truths to our heart, and something that you wanted us to know, not just from Jesus' lips,

Matthew's, Mark's, Luke's, John's, James'.

Father, it's easy to say that we believe, and it's even easy to say we believe in this great country that you've provided for us, where we don't have hardly any persecution.

So Lord, I would ask that as we have celebrated your table today, as we have given the imperative to believe and have works commensurate with that, would you do your saving work in the lives of the people here?

Certainly there must be many, dozens, who need to bow the knee and they can't do it on their own. They've tried to accept

Jesus in their heart, they've tried to say the prayer, they've repeated the sinner's prayer over and over and over again, and yet we know it's you alone that quicken and make alive, and so I pray that you would make them alive, and they would respond with faith that has works.

And Lord, we thank you as a church body that you have given us this kind of faith. We have now new affections, and we love

Bible teaching, we love evangelism, we love to hear the truths of heaven, we love to hear songs that tell us about the wonderful grace of Jesus.

Before we were saved, we didn't love any of that. We loved things about me, myself, and I, and about our own lusts and pleasures and our pride.

Thank you for delivering us, and help us to act like who we are. Help us to have conduct befitting an officer.