Dissecting Faith and Works: A Deep Dive into Salvation and James 2

Andrew Rappaport's Rapp Report

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Void where prohibited by law. 18 plus terms and conditions apply. See website for details. Well, clearly the

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Bible teaches you can work your way to be saved, doesn't it? That's what James 2 clearly states.

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Or does it? One, two, three. Welcome to The Rap Report with your host,

01:18

Andrew Rapoport, where we provide biblical interpretation and application. This is a ministry of striving for eternity and the

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Christian podcast community. For more content or to request a speaker for your church, go to strivingforeternity .org.

01:32

Welcome to another edition of The Rap Report. I'm your host, Andrew Rapoport.

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Glad to be here with you. I am the executive director of Striving for Eternity and the

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Christian podcast community of which this podcast is a proud member.

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We're glad to be here with you and we're going to tackle the topic again. We've done this in the past, but you know, there's times that this just has to be tackled again.

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James chapter 2, 15 and following, people say clearly teaches that works are necessary for salvation.

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Is that really what it teaches? Well, what do we always teach here at The Rap Report is context, context, context.

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Why is it that everybody that wants to use this passage to justify works -based salvation start in verse 15 and not 14?

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Strange thing, you'd think. Well, the reality is is that they do that on purpose.

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That's right, and we're going to tackle that today. Now, let us start by giving some definitions.

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Definitions are always good because of the fact that as we know what we're saying, you want to know what

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I mean by the words I'm saying. So therefore, when we interpret other people or more specifically the

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Bible, we want to use what's called authorial intent. What is authorial intent? Authorial intent is the idea that we want to make sure that when we listen to others, we are understanding what they mean by their words.

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That is the idea of authorial intent. And with that, I want to give you my definition so that as we speak in this episode, we are clear on what we're referring to.

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Now, when we say salvation, it's actually a term that can have multiple meanings.

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Salvation could be salvation past, present, future. And so when we talk about salvation, we need to be more precise what it means to be saved.

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Specifically, are we talking salvation in the past? This is obviously toward a believer, those that have been converted to Christ.

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Salvation in the past is what we'd refer to as regeneration. Regeneration is that moment in time that you went from being an enemy of God to a child of God.

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You went from being someone who denied Jesus Christ, who was against Christ, and now you are a follower of Jesus Christ.

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That is regeneration. Another thing that we end up seeing when it comes to salvation general is this idea of sanctification.

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Now, many people when they say saved, what they're referring to and thinking of is regeneration.

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And there we get into confusion because there are passages in the Bible that talk about being saved referring to this process of sanctification which occurs after we're regenerate and continues until the day we die.

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That sanctification is a process. And that process is a process where we are made more and more in the image of Jesus Christ as he refines us and works on us throughout our life.

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That is the process of sanctification where we're made more and more to look like and act like and behave like and think like Jesus Christ.

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Will we achieve that ultimately this side of heaven? No, we still have the influence of indwelling sin.

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We still have this battle that we struggle with, this war, as Peter would say, of lust that is within.

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So we end up having this battle between this doing right and doing wrong, doing what we want to do and doing what we actually do sometimes.

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And so this is the sanctification process. Now, if you are not being sanctified, well,

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I guess all I could say there is you may not be a believer. Now, when we deal with these in more depth, if you go through our series on what we believe in the past episodes, in fact,

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I'll just tell you I have made it a little bit easier as of today. You can go to strivingforeturning .org,

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the About section, and click on what we believe. You not only get our full doctrinal statement, but I've just put a article up that lists everything in this series where we're going through that doctrinal statement so that you can quickly find what you're looking for from the doctrinal statement to the more detailed explanation of it.

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So, sanctification is often referred to as salvation. And these two are where people get confused.

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They mix up regeneration and sanctification. Oh, Andrew, you forgot one.

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Thank you, listener. I am glad that you kept me accountable so I wouldn't forget one.

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I appreciate that. Thank you. The other one I mentioned is salvation future, which is what we refer to specifically as glorification.

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Glorification is the idea of the moment we die, this body of sin, this flesh is done away with, and we are now in a state where we will not sin.

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This is a period where we'll be with Christ, and that is the state we'll be in for eternity.

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That is glorification. This is why some call death graduation day.

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You graduate from the sanctifying process, that testing process where we're constantly being tested to see how we're doing in the faith, and we graduate to glorification.

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And so when we look at glorification, we have to realize that this is something that we recognize is future.

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This is not an area that confuses when we talk about the issue of works -based salvation, and therefore we don't really have to address that issue.

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But we do have to address the difference between regeneration and sanctification. So throughout this episode,

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I want to be more precise in our language, and I'm going to refer to regeneration and sanctification, but both of those are terms that are referred to as being saved or salvation.

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So if you think about it, you have salvation, this general term that can refer to more specifically three different terms, regeneration, sanctification, glorification.

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I hope that is helpful, and that's necessary because I think that when people say, well, James disagreed with Paul, it's not that they disagreed.

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I think one is speaking of regeneration, and one is speaking of sanctification.

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So does James chapter 2 teach that you can be saved by works?

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In fact, you must be saved by your works. That is how many interpret this, because they'll look at this passage and say that it says very clearly that if you do not have works, you're not saved.

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Well, let's look at this, and what I'd like to do if you're not driving that is open your

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Bible. If you're driving, well, you can pull over and open your Bible or tag this and make sure you listen later, read this later and follow along.

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But let me read James 2 14. I want to start in 14. There's an important reason for that.

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It says this. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works?

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Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food and one of you says to him, go in peace, be warmed and filled, and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?

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Even so, faith, if it has no works, is dead being by itself.

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But someone will say you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works.

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

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But you are willing, but are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

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Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac as his son on the altar?

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You see that faith was working with his works.

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As a result of the works, faith was perfected and the scripture was fulfilled, which says, and Abraham believed

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God and it was reckoned unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God.

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You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

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In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them by another way?

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For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

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And so what we see here is this passage within a book that is speaking specifically of how we could know what genuine faith looks like.

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As you go through the book of James, he provides about a dozen different tests that you can test to see if your faith that you claim is genuine.

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He's dealing with Christians that were struggling. They were actually Jewish believers that were struggling under persecution and James is sending out this message to them to let them know as they're questioning, do we have genuine faith?

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They're struggling. They've been attacked and beaten and because of these things, they have been starting to doubt their salvation and he is providing them a way of knowing that your faith is genuine.

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And in this test, it is a test of works. Now he states here very clearly in verse 14, the question being answered.

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So when we talk about this whole thing of faith and works, we have to ask, is this regeneration faith or is this sanctification faith?

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In other words, you're dealing with somebody who is saying that they have faith, they possess it.

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So you're not dealing with the regeneration process. You're dealing with the sanctification process.

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How do we know that? Because the person already claims to have regeneration faith.

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It says, if someone says he has faith but has no works, then can that kind of faith save him?

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That's the question. The faith that has no works associated with it. You see somebody, maybe you've encountered this, that person who is, they said a prayer, they walked an aisle, they got a card.

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I remember years ago when we used to do evangelism door -to -door and we had a gentleman, the other elder and I were coming up to a gentleman

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Saturday morning, 10 something in the morning, 10, 11 o 'clock in the morning. The guy is still drunk.

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He's sitting out on his porch drinking away and he is telling us he's a

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Christian. And my friend, John, starts to question that.

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Just by his behavior, by the fact that he's drunk and using foul language.

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And he goes into his house, says, wait right here, goes in his house, gets his wallet, comes out, and out of his wallet he pulls out a little card.

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And he says, see, I said the prayer, I signed the card and he's shoving it in John's face.

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That's his proof he's regenerate. He signed a card. And John turns to James chapter 2 and says, you claim you have faith, but your works expose something different.

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That's the whole thing. If you don't have the works that go along with regeneration, we would question whether you're being sanctified, which requires regeneration.

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That's James's whole point. If you want to see whether you're a regenerate person, then what you must do is you must look at your works and see if that is part and parcel with regeneration.

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If I tell you that a human being is alive, there's certain things you're going to expect that human being to have happen, like breathing air or their heart pumping.

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These are things that are required for life. If I tell you someone's alive and yet they're brain dead, they're not breathing, their heart's not pumping, they are not alive by definition.

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I could say they're alive all I want, but they're not alive.

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What you have is a case that life has certain requirements.

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If someone claims they're alive but not breathing, or someone else, I should say, claims that someone's alive but not breathing, now they might be breathing by help of a machine, but they're still pumping oxygen through their lungs, their heart's not beating, they're brain dead, they are dead, and it doesn't matter what someone says.

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Well, that's James's point here. If you say you're regenerate, then there are certain works that are naturally going to be seen with regeneration.

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If you do not have those works, then you're not regenerate because you don't have the natural inclinations that come with the

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Holy Spirit. Now, it doesn't mean we're all perfected immediately. No, this is a process that the

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Holy Spirit works through us over time. And so what we see is he's answering the question.

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You have someone that professes regeneration, but not possessing regeneration.

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That is the question being asked. This is why they avoid verse 14 when they want to use this passage.

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Why? Because verse 14 tells us what he's trying to answer. He's answering the question, can this type of faith, the kind of faith that has no works with it, can that type of faith save you?

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And he then illustrates it. What should that faith look like? Well, you have a brother or sister that doesn't have clothes or food, and you go, hey, be warmed and filled.

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In other words, you don't help them. You just ignore a brother and sister.

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Now, he's speaking to people who were suffering, people who were losing their jobs and had no way of taking care of themselves.

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What was very common in that day, as it says in chapter one of James, he's writing to those who are scattered abroad.

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So he's writing to those who suffered persecution and had to flee maybe the only town they ever knew.

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A village, you typically live in one village all your life. Most people never traveled outside their village.

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If they did, it was only to a neighboring village, which would be far away, and you wouldn't do that often.

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So most people stayed within their village. To pick up and move and scatter to whole different nations or areas that are far out of your realm to avoid persecution because the

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Jewish believers are being persecuted in Jerusalem and they have to leave and go to areas, like say

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Egypt maybe, or even up in what we call Iran, Iraq, those areas far outside of Jerusalem.

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Well, now you don't have your family, your friends, or your job. This is why many people would sell themselves as slaves to have work.

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This is what we end up seeing, is that this is very common in that day, that people that would scatter because of persecution would have to find means of work.

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And so what would they do? They would appeal to other believers. So now you have someone who is struggling to eat and be clothed, and other believer says, at least a professing believer, and they say, hey, be on your way.

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That faith, in verse 17, even so, faith if it has not works is dead by itself.

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Right? What faith? Well, he's saying that. The faith that they're claiming be well and be warmed and well and you do nothing for them.

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That faith, even so, that faith. Why? Because the works that are expected is you take care of a fellow believer.

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And it says, verse 18, but someone may well say, you have faith and I have works.

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So what do you have? You have a person that's claiming, well, I have faith. Another person saying, well,

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I have works. What are we going to see? Well, he says, show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works.

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In other words, can you see faith? No. It would be wonderful to see if God gave us this way of identifying, oh, that person has faith.

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Well, actually, he has by the works that we do. See, you can't see if I'm converted to Christ.

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You can't see if I'm a genuine believer. That's something you cannot see physically.

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You just can't see faith apart from the works that I do.

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Give me enough time. Be close enough with me. Examine the works I do and you'll see whether I have genuine faith.

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Why? Because the works that I do over a long period of time shows and exposes whether I have faith or not.

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In other words, you can't see the faith, but you can see the works. And that is what James is saying. James is saying that you cannot do this by faith alone.

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You have to look at the works that someone does. How do you know someone's genuinely saved?

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By their works. Examine their works and you will see. And so that's the point that he's making.

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He says in verse 19, you believe God is one, you do well. The demons also believe and shudder.

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In other words, what he's saying here is really hard. He's saying that someone is claiming that, well,

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I believe God is one. Well, this is in a time when many people would say there's multiple gods. Now, Jewish people would stand out and now the

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Christians stand out as claiming only one God. That actually in that day and age was called atheism.

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To believe not in all the gods, but only one God. They called that atheism. Strange, different from how we would think of it.

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But what you see is that even the demons believe that there's one

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God, but they shudder. To have someone claim that there's one

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God and yet they don't shudder, they don't have a fear of who

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God is, that's the issue here. You end up having a case where what

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James is trying to illustrate and explain here is that a person who says that they believe, but has no works is no better than demons.

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Ouch, that hurts. Yes, it does. So when you're claiming that works are necessary for salvation, look at the text here.

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He's claiming that a person who claims that they have belief without works, in other words, they say they're saved, but they don't have works, the sanctification works.

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He says they're no better than demons. This is people that claim they're saved, but do not do works.

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So is he addressing the issue of regeneration? No, he's giving a way of saying you have to have these sanctification works to show that you have the regeneration faith.

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To have regeneration, you're going to have these works.

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And if you don't have those works, you're no better than a demon. Verse 20, he says, but are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

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Wait, wait, wait, what? That's right. Not only does he say that a person who makes a profession of faith without possessing faith, in other words, a person who says they're saved, they say they're regenerate, but they don't have the regeneration works, in other words, sanctification.

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Not only does he say that they're no better than demons, he says they are foolish fellows.

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Well, it would be foolish to profess belief and not have it. This is exactly what

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Matthew 7, 21, 23 says, where he says, many will come to me in that day, this is

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Jesus speaking, many will come to me in that day and say, Lord, Lord, haven't we done many great works in your name? We've cast out demons and healed the sick, done many miracles, and I will declare of you,

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I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness.

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In other words, if you claim to do miracles, but you don't have the works of sanctification, the works that we would see a regenerate person having, then

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Jesus is going to say he never knew you. He's going to say depart from him, you who practice lawlessness. He's going to say you're no better than a devil.

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You're foolish. Oh, but Andrew, Andrew, let's look at the case with Abraham.

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Well, I'm glad you asked about Abraham because, I mean, James brings up Abraham, so wouldn't it be good to bring up and discuss that?

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It would be. And let's do that right after these messages.

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There are two books that I would like to recommend you purchase. What they, meaning people who aren't

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Christians, other religions believe, and what we believe. Systematic Theology Made Simple.

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Both are great resources, especially if you plan on witnessing to somebody. strivingforeternity .org.

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See all that Truth Spresso has to offer by going to www .truthspresso .com.

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By the way, when we say vetted, we actually only accept about 30 % to 40 % of all the podcasts. So it is not easy to get on the

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We have something for everybody from theology to apologetics to homeschooling to podcasts for women, for Bible studies, for sermons.

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So we have something for everyone there. Go to www .christianpodcastcommunity .org. All right, so Abraham. Why does

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James bring up Abraham? Well, Abraham is considered the father of the Jewish faith. He's the one everyone looks to when we talk about faith.

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And so it says in verse 21, was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac as his son on the altar?

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Now it's very interesting that he brings that up because when would we say that Abraham was saved?

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Was it when he offered his son as a offering? No, actually not.

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Long before that, many years, decades before that. So he's not talking here about regeneration.

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He's talking about being justified by works. In other words, the justification of works is sanctification.

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He's being proven to have faith because he was willing to sacrifice

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Isaac. I have a talk that I give and you could probably find it on YouTube on the life of Abraham.

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A great talk if you ever want me to come to your church and present that. But I go through the life of Abraham to talk about faith and we realize that early on Abraham did not have the great, he wasn't the great man of faith that we think of.

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He didn't have a lot of faith early on. We see that. We see that the struggle that he had with lying to save his own life, even giving his wife away to other men, to marry other men and sleep with other men to save his life.

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What? Yes, but he did that after he was circumcised.

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Yeah, he did those things afterwards. It was the time when Isaac was born that we see that he really started having faith that was unmovable.

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But you see, he would have been what we call saved or regenerate long before that and still was struggling with his faith and those works.

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But by the time he offers Isaac, he's already a believer.

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So this cannot be referring to regeneration. So those who want to say that you must be saved by works fail to understand that this is speaking to someone who is already converted, someone who already follows

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God. Abraham at this time is already regenerated. So this cannot be works of regeneration.

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That's clear when you go through Genesis. It says in verse 22, you see that faith was working his works and as a result of the works, faith was perfected.

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This word perfected, teleos, means the idea of perfected or complete. It's the idea of completion.

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Not that you'll be perfect, but you will be completed. You'll be matured.

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So this is the idea we see here. He has these works that they result in showing that he was saved.

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Why? Because he was willing to obey God in some of the strongest things. Because it says in verse 23, and the scripture was fulfilled which says and Abraham believed

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God and it was reckoned unto him as righteousness and he was called the man of faith.

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Well, it's interesting because that's Genesis 15 that we see that and yet he doesn't offer his son up as an offering until Genesis 22 and there's decades in between there.

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How do we know? Oh, very simple. Because Isaac at this time is basically probably a young teenager, but you had a lot that transpired between Exodus, or sorry,

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Genesis 15 and Genesis 22. You had Ishmael born.

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You have a whole lot that goes on, all this traveling around. It's decades between those two time periods.

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And so if he was called regenerate in chapter 15 and decades later justified by works, those works that justify him cannot be works that regenerate him.

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You see the difference here. So with all of that as a backdrop, all of that's the backdrop to where he says in verse 24, you see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.

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This is where people say, see, he's justified. In other words, he comes to regeneration by faith plus works.

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You can't have faith alone. If you speak to someone that's Roman Catholic, they'll point out this is the only place in the entire

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Bible that you see the words faith alone, because they are against the solas by scripture alone, in faith alone, grace alone.

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You know, we look at those, they have a problem with faith alone. Why? Because they say faith plus works.

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So as you look at that, he's speaking of what type of justification?

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Well, with Abraham, the example, the immediate context, he is not speaking about regeneration because Abraham's regeneration occurred decades before as we see in verse 23 of this text.

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So he's clearly not talking regeneration. He's talking sanctification.

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How do you know? How do you know that I'm a believer? Well, I'm justified in your mind, not in God's mind, in your mind by the works that I do.

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How do we know Abraham is a believer? We can't see the faith that God put within him.

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Only God can see that, but you and I can see the works. So to God, he's justified at regeneration, but for you and I, he's justified in our sanctification.

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You see the difference? You see, he's speaking here, James is speaking to men about how men can know whether they have genuine faith.

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He's not talking to God about how God could know someone has genuine faith. Big difference between the two.

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And as we look at these two and examine these two, we have to realize what he's saying here very clearly is that we look at someone's works and that justifies them in our minds that, yes, this person is genuine believer.

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If they don't have the works that go along with regeneration, you should question whether they're believers or not.

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If you are examining your own life and you don't see the Holy Spirit making changes in your work, in your life by the works you do to be more like Christ, then you should question whether you are a believer.

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Are you converted to Christ? Maybe you need to come to repentance. Turn from trusting your good works or your good nature and turn and trust

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Jesus Christ, what he did on that cross, as a payment of sin. You see, Matthew 7, 21 to 23 is dealing with people that are trusting in their works for regeneration.

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Here, you're talking about people who are trusting in their profession for their regeneration.

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And both are false if it's not the combination of, if it's not really regeneration.

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You need not just a profession, but you need a profession with the works that go along with it. And those works are not, oh, look at this thing that I'm doing here to bring attention to myself.

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That's what you end up seeing in Matthew 7. Where's all the attention? What I did, I did, I did, not

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God did. Well, the reality is the believer looks at what God did, God did, God did. God gets all the credit for the good works we do, not us.

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We should be amazed at the fact that we do any good works. When we get up and our body is aching,

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I don't know, maybe you've never had this experience, but I've been starting to realize this recently and having this as I've had health problems.

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I'm waking up and saying, Lord, I deserve far worse. Thank you that I'm having struggles only with double vision.

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Something that suddenly started happening recently. And so it gives me a headache and I can't concentrate.

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I can't read for as long and it's been a real problem. But you know what? I deserve eternity in a lake of fire.

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Thank you, God, for allowing me to suffer with nothing worse than double vision.

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Have you prayed like that? I'm amazed when I pray like that. It happened one day. I didn't expect it.

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I just woke up and thought that and said, say, God, thank you for working in me that I would have that kind of gratitude and thankfulness instead of complaining.

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It shows how God has been working in my life to where I'm grateful even for the things that I suffer.

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Oh, by the way, that's the exact context of James chapter 1 where he talks about trials in life leading to our faith.

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You see the context is the same here. So when he says that you see a man is justified by works and not by faith alone, he's talking about the fact that if we're going to look at someone and say they have genuine faith, in other words, they're regenerate, they would have the sanctifying works along with them.

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James gives one last example. He says, in the same way was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?

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Well, if you read the account of Rahab and you realize that in Genesis when

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Rahab, or sorry, in Joshua, when Rahab, it's Joshua 2, receives the spies, she already knew of the

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God of Israel. You see the fact that she did this, she hid them, she receives them and hides them, sends them out another way, was the justification to show that she already was believing.

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Because she was regenerate, she did these things. That's the point.

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And all of this to get to the one verse so many people use, verse 26.

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For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

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Well, I used an example earlier in this episode. Did you pick up on it? Yep. It was on purpose.

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How do you know that a body, a human body, is alive or dead?

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Well, it would be whether it has the spirit in it. How would we know? Well, we know today by checking heart.

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Is the heart pumping? Checking the lungs? Are they breathing air? Checking brain activity?

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Are there brain waves? We have advanced technology. How would they know? Well, they would say that they would describe it as the body without the spirit.

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In other words, once the spirit leaves the body, your heart stops, you stop breathing. They had no way of checking brain activity.

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They actually would have to look at the body and know whether it's alive or dead.

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For just as a body without the spirit is dead. In other words, someone's claiming someone's alive, but their spirit's gone, they're dead, they're physically dead.

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So also faith without works is dead. So you have a living body when it's spirit and body.

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It's heart pumping, lungs pumping, brain activity. But if you don't have that, you have a dead body.

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If you have someone that is claiming to have faith, but there's no works there, they're a dead person, spiritually dead.

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Just as someone's physically dead, if they don't have the activities of life, same with your spiritual well -being.

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If you do not have the spiritual works that proceed regeneration, then you are spiritually dead.

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The faith that you profess to have is a useless faith, and I would argue that the majority of people in the world have this kind of useless faith.

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They claim to be Christians even. Some claim to be Muslim or Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, whatever they may have.

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And what are they always relying on? Their works earning them salvation. But they're not having the faith that leads to the works that work against human pride.

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See, the faith leads to humility, to where we do not do the work within us.

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God does that. So it is a different kind of work. And this is what we end up seeing, that when it says that faith without works is dead, it is speaking of sanctification, not regeneration for the works.

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If you are regenerate, you will be sanctified. They go hand in hand, like a living body goes hand in hand with breathing and having their heart pumping.

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But if you don't have those things, you are not living. You are dead. And if you don't have sanctifying works, you are spiritually dead.

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That is James's point. James is making it abundantly clear in this text, not that you get regenerated by works, but that you are seen by other people as having regeneration because you have the works that go along with sanctification.

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In other words, if you're not being sanctified, you're not regenerate. That's his whole point here.

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If to use the specific language, we would have the more precise language we would have today. If you don't have sanctifying works, then your regeneration profession is dead.

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It is useless. It makes you no better than the demons and James calls you foolish.

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This is the Holy Spirit speaking through James. So as we examine this, look at this and realize this is serious.

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And for those who claim that this is teaching that you can be regenerated by works, this text is speaking the exact opposite.

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It's speaking to those who make a profession but have no faith. In fact, what it's really speaking to is the fact that you claim to be saved when you really aren't.

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How do you know you have genuine faith? Well, James would say, you know that by the works that someone does.

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Now I want to give some last -minute things, but I want to plug a couple more podcasts and some other announcements that we have before we finish up this podcast.

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So I want you to check out this from one of our other podcasts at The Christian Podcast Community.

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over coffee each week and talk about God's Word. Me too. Hi, I'm Anthony Russo.

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I'm the host of Grace and Peace Radio. Grace and Peace Radio is a Christian living blog and podcast dedicated to engaging conversations about applying

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God's Word to everyday life. I hope you'll join me Anthony Russo on Grace and Peace Radio each week at graceandpeaceradio .com

44:36

or right here on the Christian Podcast Community .org. Jesus said you are the light of the world.

44:45

How is your flame of truth Christian? Is it burning bright? Hi, I'm Rebecca Berswinger, creator and host of One Little Candle, a weekly podcast dedicated to encouraging, empowering, and equipping believers to be the light that God has called us to be so that we may pass down undefiled the truth of God's infallible

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Word to the next generation. From encouraging inspirational stories and testimonies, spiritual warfare, or controversial cultural issues, there's something for everyone in this podcast so that you'll be empowered to dispel the darkness with the light of God's truth while lighting your own little corner of the world.

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All it takes is one little candle. Listen to One Little Candle on your favorite podcast app at onelittlecandlepodcast .com

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or at christianpodcastcommunity .org. These are just some of the other podcasts you can hear at the

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Christian Podcast Community. Now, I want to give you guys some announcements of where I will be.

45:48

So if you want to come and have me come to your church, I encourage you to go email us at speakers at strivingforetourney .com

45:59

and the best thing to do is just go to strivingforetourney .org. Notice the difference there, but you can go to strivingforetourney .com

46:06

gets it to the same place, but go to strivingforetourney .com and go to the Contact Us section and book a speaker.

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There you can see we have a new speaker with Striving Fraternity. It is

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A .M. Brewster. He is one of our podcasters as well with Truth Love Parent.

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He deals with family and counseling issues. So if you'd like to have Aaron or I come to your church, check out the different topics we can discuss and I can speak on more topics.

46:36

I got to update that list. Boy, oh boy, it's out of date. I think I put that list together like 10 -12 years ago and I have to update that because I've done a lot more talks than just those, but if you want to have us out to your church, that would be great.

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But if you want to come to one of the events we're at, if you're listening to this, well, like live, this weekend,

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July 6th, sorry, 7th and 8th of 2023, I'll be doing an evangelism training in Indianapolis.

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Just go to, for that one, you go to Eventbrite to sign up and just look for Hearts for the

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Lost. That is who we're doing it with and I will be speaking that Sunday at Harvest Bible Fellowship in Pendleton, Indiana.

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So you could check that out. That'll be a 930 service. I will be doing a tour of the

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Bible Museum with some friends and folks in DC. So I'll be in DC in the

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July 20th to 23rd. So if you're in DC, contact me, info at strivingforattorney .com.

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We'll see if we could meet up and get together and may do some open -air preaching outside the White House.

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We will see. But I will also be up in Idaho for much of August, August 12th to September 5th.

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Got a number of events that we're working on. It looks like I just got word that I will be preaching at a church in Washington and I got to get the name of the church, don't have that in yet, but I will be speaking at a family camp in Idaho and that'll be, so I'll be speaking in Washington on,

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I'll be doing an evangelism training Saturday, August 12th and Sunday, August 13th, and I'll be preaching that morning.

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Just email me, info at strivingforattorney .com to get the details of that. I'll be at speaking at a family camp in Idaho on August 18th, 19th, and I think just 18th and 19th.

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That's a Friday -Saturday. I will be talking on topics of can you trust the Bible, social justice, and also the uniqueness of Christianity.

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So I will be up that way if you want to come out, if you're up in the Idaho area. If you're in New York, I'll be at the

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Overcoming Evil Men's Conference. Sorry, ladies. This is with the organizers, John Harris, and you could go to worldviewconversation .com

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to get details on the Overcoming Evil Conference. That's a men's conference up in northern

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New York. Looking forward to that. Be down in Sarasota, Florida, September 13th to October 6th.

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So if you're in the Sarasota area, I will be down there doing some meetups with folks.

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So that's one where you'll need to reach out to me, info at strivingforeturning .org, info at strivingforeturning .com

49:51

to get a hold of me so that we could do some meetups. I'll be doing meetups there. I'll be out in Texas in November, November 11th to the 14th.

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I'll be, or sorry, well, the November 12th. I'll be at Grace Life Church of Dallas, Grace Life Church of Dallas in Texas, and that is that I'll be preaching there.

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And then I will be doing a school,

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I should say. It's Legacy Classical Christian Academy. I will be teaching there at their

50:27

Worldview Week. And that wraps up what I have currently for the year.

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So if you're at any of those events, I want to encourage you to come check it out, come find me, say hello.

50:39

Look, here's the thing. If you listen to this podcast, please, please, please let me know when you see me.

50:45

I love that. It helps me. And if this episode has been helpful for you, please share it.

50:52

It really helps us a lot. If you could share this episode, it would be a lot for us.

51:00

It helps to be able to make sure that we're being a good steward of the time that God gives us, to the resources we have to help others.

51:10

So sharing this with others, especially those who struggle in this area, just bookmark this episode so that you could share it when people tell you, you got to be saved by your works.

51:20

I hope this was helpful. And if it was, please let me know. You can write a review on whatever podcast app you have or email us, info at strivingforattorney .com.

51:30

It is really helpful for us to know that this is helpful to you. Give a shout out to our sponsor,

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MyPillow. If you want to get, they are running their sales right now. They have their slippers at $25 with the promo code

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SFE. So get those before they sell out. And with that, that's a wrap.

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With expertise and passion in the areas of theology, church history,

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Christian living, evangelism, apologetics, parenting, homeschooling, sermons, and much, much more.

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So check us out at ChristianPodcastCommunity .org.

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