A Neck Up Religion Won'T Cut the Mustard on Judgment Day — E.A. Johnston

Faith That Produces Obedience

I'm gonna base a premise on the Word of God, friends, and if it's so, then it should give assurance of faith to many of us. And if this premise is so, it should question our assurance and worry us to do something about it.

My premise is based on the Word of God, and that's good enough for me, because I believe my Bible. My premise is stated in plain, simple language that any schoolboy could understand. It's summed up by a quote from the evangelist Sam Jones.

He said, before my conversion, I believed, but did not practice. But after my conversion, I was a believer and a doer. That's pretty simple, isn't it, friends? It just means that if your life doesn't back up your lips, then a mere profession of faith won't help you when you die, when your soul goes to the judgment.

The Modern Gospel and the Narrow Way

A problem exists in the modern church today, and the problem is a serious one. It has to do with folk salvation, or the lack of it. The gospel message has been so watered down to only believe gospel. It's brought in the way of salvation in ways Jesus never did.

Jesus spoke of a narrow way. Jesus spoke of a way that few there be that find it. Jesus also always connected obedience to the Word of God with faith in God. And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the Word of God and do it.

And it would be James, the older half-brother of Jesus, who would warn in his epistle about the vast difference between doers of the Word and hearers only. Listen to me, friend, for I am concerned about your soul.

If the course of your life's actions do not reflect and demonstrate your faith in Christ, then you are one who has something to be very concerned about, because a neck-up religion won't cut the mustard on Judgment Day.

True Conversion Versus Intellectual Belief

And that's the title of my message today, friends. A neck-up religion won't cut the mustard on Judgment Day. A mere intellectual belief without a living faith behind it is a dead, worthless faith. That's not me saying it, friends, but God saying it in his Word.

And that's what I'm going to give you the rest of this sermon is God's Word. That's what we're going to look at today, true or false conversion. Like Sam Jones so aptly described the difference between the two by saying, Before my conversion I believed but did not practice, but after my conversion I was a believer and a doer.

We will be in the book of James. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in the first two chapters. James was the oldest half-brother of the Lord Jesus. He witnessed Christ's appearance following his resurrection, and he was among those assembled together following the ascension to await the coming of the Holy Spirit.

He was martyred for his faith. So what he has to say about faith should make us sit up and listen and get the wax out of our ears so we can hear and apply it to our lives. The major theme of his epistle is his appeal to the believer that true faith results in outward acts of obedience and righteousness.

James on Hearing and Doing the Word

We will begin in James chapter 1 and verse 19, which states,. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For the wrath of man worked not the righteousness of God.

Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man beholding his natural face in a glass.

For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what man or man he was. Let me pause here to say, friends, that what James is warning us about is a dead faith from an empty religious profession that leaves a person with a false assurance of heaven because his faith is only from the neck up.

He has no inward change wrought by the Spirit of God through regeneration, and therefore his actions and behavior don't back up what he claims to be, what he claims to possess. He's a Christian in name only.

He has no spiritual life, no substance. It's as if he sees himself in a mirror as one thing, and he's the other, and he lives pretty much the same way he did before he professed faith in Christ. There's no inward change.

He merely reforms himself a little, cleaning himself up a little on the outside, to talk the talk, but he doesn't walk the walk. Mordecai Ham referred to these church members as halfway fellows. They stand at the door, holding on to the church with one hand, and holding on to the world with the other, and they are having a good time with the rest of the sinners.

They are in the doorway, blocking the way for others by their life. Then Mordecai Ham went on to say, now, they'll always accuse me of carrying around a sledgehammer with which to pound the church members.

Yes, sir, I do pound them, and every time I come down with the sledgehammer, of God's word, I knock one of those halfway fellows out of the doorway, and every time I do, I knock one out. I get a sinner in.

Well, Mordecai Ham is saying the same thing that James is describing here in his epistle. If you're only a hearer of the word and not a doer, you have room for concern. You may be resting upon the rotten plank boards of an empty religious profession.

Your faith may only be from the neck up. The rest of you still belongs to the devil. Well, let's look at what he says in verses 25 to 27. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he, being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Pure Religion and a Transformed Life

If any among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is in vain. But this reminds me, friends, of the elder in the church who I knew. He could stand in the sanctuary in front of everyone there and pray the most angelic and heavenly prayers.

But one day, this man invited me to come see him at his workplace, and as I sat there at his desk, I couldn't believe my ears. This man had one of the filthiest mouths I ever had heard. Every other word that came out of his mouth was a cuss word and a swear word.

He was one way at church on Sunday, and quite another way at his job during the week. I'll never forget it, because it so shocked me. James finishes chapter one by stating, Pure religion, and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in the reflection, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

Like Sam Jones said, before my conversion I believed, but did not practice. But after my conversion, I was a believer and a doer. Sam Jones also describes being a Christian along these terms. He said, being a Christian means quitting your meanness.

Faith Without Works Is Dead

Wow, that brings it close to home. I guess that explains why we have so many mean people in the church. Now in chapter two of the book of James, we see where he really makes the rubber hit the road by building onto his premise that faith without works is dead, and a dead faith won't keep you out of hell, friend.

We're just going to read a few verses of his statements as we pick it up, beginning in verse 14. What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and have not works? Can faith save him?

If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled. Notwithstanding, you give them not those things which are needful to the body.

What doth it profit? Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Well, translated, this means if we are made aware of a need and we have the means to meet that need and we do nothing to meet that need and relieve that person's affliction, then our faith is only from the neck up.

Practical Obedience and Compassion

Many are willing to say, I'll pray for you, but I don't want to get involved with my time or money. I'll never forget the time when I was a teenager and a friend of my mother was dying. This lady had me, hear me, this lady had once heard me play the guitar and she took comfort from it.

So when she was at home dying, she asked my mother to ask me to drop by her house and bring my guitar and play it for her. But I refused to go spend time with an old woman, so I said I was too busy to do that.

I still feel the tinge of regret to this day. I had nothing but time on my hands back then. I just didn't want to go be with an old woman. Perhaps God has placed a person in your path, friend, who qualifies for your help.

Will you give it or will you give them nice platitudes or will you do something? James goes on to say, yea, a man may say, thou hast faith and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works.

Demons Believe, but Saving Faith Obeys

And then the next verse should send shutters up our spines. Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. What James is saying here, friends, is you better watch out that your profession of faith is no better than the devil, who also believes that there is one God.

There is danger here because a neck up religion won't cut the mustard on judgment day, because on that day the lake of fire will be boiling and spitting flames. For there stands a great white throne and a broken law and the sentencing of the law must be carried out upon all guilty lawbreakers by the judge of all the earth and shall not the judge of all the earth do right.

The Body and Faith Must Both Be Alive

James ends his discourse by saying, For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Like Sam Jones said, before my conversion I believed but did not practice. But after my conversion I was a believer and a doer.

Let us pray.