“Faith Works!” – FBC Morning Light (11/2/2023)

Well, good Thursday morning to you. Today we're reading in Ezekiel 9 and 10 and James chapter 2. I want to focus on James 2 for our time together. There are two big warnings in this second chapter of James.

One is the warning against partiality, showing partiality, and the other is a warning against a dead faith. Let's take a look at those two things, very briefly, just this first one. I do think it's possible for Christians in even good conservative Bible-believing churches to be guilty of what James is warning against in the first half of the chapter, that is, treating some people better than other people based upon external stuff.

Like James talks about showing deference to the rich person who comes in, and you treat him very respectfully and with great honor and dignity, but the poor person you go off over to the side, you go over there and get out of the way, and then just fawning over the rich person.

James says, look, don't do that. The poor person is probably more worthy of your attention and your adoration than the rich guy. The rich guy may just live for that adulation and for that preferential treatment.

The reality is that he's no better than the guy who doesn't have the wealth. We're all equal in Christ, is the emphasis here, and you treat people fairly and rightly and equally in Christ Jesus. That's one thing.

I think our problem is we often treat people based upon what we think they can do for us, what they can give to us, or how our affinity toward them may benefit us in some way. James says, don't go there.

Treat people with a sense of equality and the faith in the church. But then the second half of the chapter, he warns against a dead faith. He asks the question, if a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says, depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you don't give them the things that are needed for the body, what does it profit?

Also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. A dead faith is a worthless faith. He goes on to say, some say, I have faith, you have faith and I have works, show me your faith without your works, I will show you my faith by my works.

There's a good key to understanding what he's getting at here. Further on in the chapter, he gives the illustration of Abraham. He says, was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?

So you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works, faith was made perfect. You see that, he asks? So he says in verse 24, you see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only.

Now that really can throw us, especially after this past Sunday was Reformation Sunday and we made an emphasis that justification is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Here James says, wait a minute, no, you see a man's justified by works and not by faith only.

So is justification by faith alone, or is it by faith plus works? I think we need to understand what he's getting at here. His point is that it's not enough simply to profess a saving faith. Anybody can say, oh yeah, I have faith in Jesus, I am therefore a Christian.

And what James is saying is, prove it, prove it. If you really have faith in Jesus, it's going to make a difference in your life. And the difference in your life proves, gives evidence of, the reality of your profession, your claim of faith in Jesus.

In other words, the true faith, true saving faith, is going to be evidenced by corresponding works. So when he says that Abraham was justified, the faith of Abraham was justified by his works, and it was justified by works and not by faith only, what he's saying here is that Abraham's faith, when it says that he believed God and it was accounted for him for righteousness, his faith in believing God, that God was going to give him an heir, that God was going to give him all the things that he promised him, his faith in believing God was proved by his works.

His works justified, if you will, his profession of faith. Likewise, your works that follow your profession of faith justify or they give evidence of your faith's reality, and the fact that, or the idea that, you have actually truly been converted.

So maybe a way to illustrate this is by way of contrast. I've known some people in my years of ministry who claim to be Christians, who claim that they are saved, who claim to have prayed a prayer, trusted Jesus as their Savior and therefore are saved.

I'm thinking of one person off the top of my head here whom I met years ago while on visitation. It was a young mother with several children, and the more I talked to the person, I realized that none of the children had the same father, the guy she was living with was not her husband, and yet she said she was a Christian, she was saved.

I asked her how she knew that, and she told me, she said, when I was a child, I rode on a bus and on the bus ride somebody asked me if I wanted to go to heaven, I said yes, and they gave me a prayer to pray, and then after I prayed that prayer, we went to the church, and they baptized me, and told me that now I was going to go to heaven, I was saved.

I said, well, have you ever joined a church, ever been back to church? No, no, I never really, I went a few times after that, but no, I just don't see much of a need for that, and lived a life of profligacy ever since.

I'm suggesting to you that her works do not justify claiming to have saving faith, that's the point. Let's be careful, we don't show partiality, and let's be confident in our faith, as our faith is evidenced by the impact that that faith has made on our lives.

Father, we thank you for these challenges from your Word today, and we pray that you bless these thoughts to our hearts, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well listen, have a good rest of your Thursday, may the Lord bless you, and good day.