Saving Faith

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Rob Konold; James 2:14-26 Saving Faith

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You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan. Hi, good morning, everyone.
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I don't think I've ever been introduced as a founding member before. I was here when the church started, but we don't really have a placard or anything of the founding members.
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It's not really a thing. I do want to just say that it is a privilege to preach
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God's Word this morning, and Don did ask me to fill the pulpit this morning, and it's a big responsibility.
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I want to accurately and correctly share God's Word with you, and I'm excited to do that this morning, so I'm really excited.
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I wanted to let you know that this morning I'll be preaching from the book of James, the book of James.
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And to be honest, if you're flipping through your Bible, it's toward the end.
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It's also sort of stuck between Hebrews and 1 Peter. You might miss it if you're flipping fast, so good luck finding it this morning.
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But the book of James, I love James. It's just so full of wisdom.
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He packs a lot into five short chapters. And I just wanted to share a little bit about the book of James this morning as a way of introduction to the sermon.
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Most Bible scholars agree the author of James is James. Well, that's pretty obvious, right?
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But most Bible scholars agree that the author of James is James, the brother of Jesus, because there are more than one
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James mentioned in the New Testament. And James, the brother of Jesus, it's really interesting.
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If you look back in the Gospels, in John chapter 5, verse 7, it says that even
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Jesus' own brothers didn't believe in him. So here you have someone who grew up with Jesus who didn't even believe
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Jesus was the Messiah at the time, yet later on, after Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection, and ascension, we learn that James is not only a believer, but he becomes a leader in the church, in the early church in Jerusalem.
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So he now is leading the church in Jerusalem, the believers, and this same
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James is the one who writes this book to us today. So very interesting history there from James.
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One of the things that I guess caught my attention when I first started reading and studying the book of James, and I remember back to my college days when
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I really started digging into the Bible a little bit deeper, and James, every time I read something in James, it was like he just punched me in the face.
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He has a way of saying things that are just very blunt, very to the point.
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He doesn't beat around the bush. I'll be honest, in my own communication style, naturally,
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I tend to try to soften things. I don't know why, it's just who I am, kind of how I'm wired, not James.
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And I think that's why maybe I'm attracted to this book. He just says it like it is. Boom. So we're going to get a little bit of that this morning.
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I'm excited about that. A couple of examples, and in a way of just reviewing the book of James this morning, in chapter one, he starts off the whole book by saying, you should be joyful in trials.
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What? Like, how? And yet he says it's because those trials are perfecting your faith, they're maturing you, they're bringing you to a more
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Christ -like state. He goes on to say, you know, if you need wisdom, just ask for it.
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You know, he's just so blunt, he's so pointed, and I think as a young person, I wanted to be wise,
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I wanted to grow in wisdom. And so, you know, he just says, ask God, and God will give it to you. You know, later on in chapter one, he talks about reading and forgetting the word.
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And I just want to ask, have you ever read something in the Bible or maybe heard some scripture read, and then immediately you just forgot what it said?
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Like, it goes in one ear, right out the other. Like, I've been guilty of that. I just, I tune out, I don't pay attention or whatever.
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And James says, he calls you out. Basically, he calls us all out. He just says, you need to read the word, you need to remember it, and not just that, but you need to do it.
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And he is just very pointed about that. So, I just love some of these very blunt communication that James gives us in the
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Bible. One other thing I'll touch on from the book of James, and he hits this throughout the book, not just in the first chapter, but also the second chapter and throughout, and that is the rich versus the poor.
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And he says, you know what? In our society, we have a problem, and it existed back in the church in his day, and it exists in the church today, and that is we are biased.
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We show favoritism. We'll treat one person really, really well because they look nice or because they can do something for us.
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We perceive that they're better somehow, and we are biased. We show favoritism.
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He says, no, you should not show favoritism. And he's very pointed on that as well. So, that really brings us to our passage today.
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It's James 2, and we're going to be in chapter 2, verses 14 to 26 this morning.
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So, you can turn there. He's going to be addressing the topic of faith and works, faith and works.
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In fact, we're going to see, he actually digs a little deeper, and he says, he really addresses the question of what is the definition of saving faith?
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How is a person saved? You know, is it really true that you can just believe in Jesus, and you've punched your ticket to heaven?
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You're good to go. Problem solved, right? I mean, is that it? Really? Is that how God designed the universe to work, or is there some effort on our part required?
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Do we have to do something to get into heaven? How does this work? How do works and faith fit together?
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So, we're going to talk about that today in our message, but first, let's read the passage, and then
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Dave will come and lead us in worship. So, let's read James 2, verses 14 to 26.
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What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
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Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warm, be well -fed, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is it?
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So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
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But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from works.
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I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one, you do well.
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Even the demons believe and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
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Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?
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You see, faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works.
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And the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God.
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You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
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And in the same way, was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?
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For as the body apart from the Spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
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So let's pray now as Dave comes to lead us in worship. Heavenly Father, I just thank
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You again for Your Word, for the Scriptures, God, for all of it.
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We need Your Word, God, to be corrected and we need to be reminded of the truth of Your Word daily and weekly and repeatedly.
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Lord, I thank You for these words from James. Father, I pray You would just impress upon our heart the lessons and the things that You want us to learn by Your Spirit.
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God, I pray Your Spirit work in and through Your Word this morning to bring about a change and transformation.
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And God, as we come to worship You, Lord, again, we recognize
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You are God and we are not. You are almighty and powerful. You're loving and gracious to us,
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God, in ways we don't deserve. And Lord, we just want to come before You in worship this morning as we prepare our hearts to hear
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Your Word. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks, Dave. Appreciate you leading us in worship solo this morning.
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Nice, nice work. Good morning again, Recast Church. We're going to jump back into our text, as I mentioned earlier, and we read
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James chapter 2, verses 14 to 26. And I would just encourage you to have your Bibles open and follow along as we go and read those words yourself.
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Again, I love James. I think he kind of says it like it is. So, I mean, sometimes
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I think I'm a little bit superfluous up here preaching because he kind of preaches it all right there in the text. But read it for yourself as I share and explain.
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James 2, verses 14 to 26. I'm going to start off with a couple of questions this morning as we come back to the text.
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This is an audience participation, and so I need a quick show of hands here. How many of you, and I'm genuinely curious about this, how many of you grew up in the church and were saved at a young age, maybe as a kid, a youngster?
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How many, quick show of hands, grew up in the church, saved as a young child? Cool. A lot of us.
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Myself included. In fact, I am so grateful to God for Christian parents who raised me and explained the gospel to me at a young age.
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I was saved when I was six years old. And then I grew up, you know, being built up in that knowledge and growing in my faith as a result.
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Praise God for that. Okay, next question. How many of you throughout the course of your life, at some point, how many of you have ever doubted your faith?
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You've wondered, how do I know if I'm saved? How do I know if I'm going to heaven? Anybody? Yeah. So I think doubts are normal.
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That's a part of, I think, life experiences. We go through hard things in life, challenging things.
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And I think that that's an important question to wrestle with. I think we need to wrestle with that.
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And that's one of the key questions we're going to be focused on this morning, is how do I know if I'm saved? So I'm excited to tackle that as well as many other questions today.
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So let's jump back into it. James 2, verse 14. We're going to start right there in verse 14.
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James opens it up with a question, and he's very direct. Here's what he says. If a person says he has faith but doesn't have works, can that faith save him?
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So it's interesting. I emphasize the word says there for a reason, because basically what we have here is a person claiming to have faith, but there are no works to back it up.
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There's nothing in their life to back up or substantiate that claim to faith. And the question then that's posed very directly is, can that kind of faith save a person?
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Which brings up the question really of, well, what is saving faith? Like how do you define saving faith?
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So I want to just jump back to the book of Hebrews and answer that question. So fortunately for us this morning,
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Hebrews comes right before James, and I'm going to go to Hebrews 11, which is probably like two or three pages back in your
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Bible. So really close. We're just going to flip back to Hebrews 11, verse 1, and we get a definition of faith.
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So nice of the author of Hebrews to just define it for us this morning. And here's what Hebrews 11, verse 1 says.
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Faith is assurance of things hoped for, a conviction of things not seen.
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So faith is an assurance. It's a confidence in what you hope for. And it's a confidence in things that are not even able to be seen.
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Maybe they haven't happened yet, or they're invisible things. And that is what faith is. It's not flimsy hope.
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It's not like desperate hope or wishful hope. It's a confidence in what you believe.
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And then one thing I really love about the Hebrews author is Hebrews 11 goes on to just list off example after example after example of faithful, faithful people and how they lived out their faith.
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So let's see, what does it say? If you read on, if you just skim down through that, you see Abel offers a sacrifice in faith.
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Enoch pleases God through faith. Noah builds an ark through faith.
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Abraham, he picks up his family and moves his entire family on a promise from God based on faith.
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And later offers his own son Isaac by faith. And so we see just example after example of faithful, faithful people living out their faith and acting on their faith.
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So I want to just round out this definition of faith a little bit from that whole passage. Faith is a confident belief or a full assurance of the things that we hope for.
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And it's exemplified in the life of the faithful person by actions done in faith.
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So I'm rounding that definition out and showing how it all ties together. And now
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I want to take that definition from Hebrews and jump back into James. So now
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James is going to answer his own question for us. Can faith without works save us?
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And the outline for this morning's sermon is really four examples. James uses four examples to answer his own question.
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The first two are negative examples. The second two examples, the last two examples are positive examples. And so let's just talk about those really quickly.
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So example number one in the outline is verses 15 to 17. Faith without works is not saving faith.
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And that's a negative example of a hungry person not getting fed. And then the outline point number two is verses 18 and 19.
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And you can see it on the screen now. And that's the belief in existence of God is not saving faith. And the negative example there is of demons.
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Point number three in the outline is the positive example, verses 20 to 24. We see that true faith is demonstrated by works.
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And that's the example of Abraham. And then the last point in the outline is verses 25 and 26, a positive example of Rahab.
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So that's the outline for this morning, and we'll just walk through each of those points. So starting off with verses 15 to 17, let's dig into that first example.
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In verse 15, you'll see that there's a basic need described. We see that specifically it's food and clothing, food and clothing.
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These are pretty critical needs. I think we can all agree. Have you ever seen Maslow's hierarchy of needs?
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Down at the very bottom, you've got those basic needs, right? Food, shelter, clothing, things like that. That's what we're talking about.
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But I think it's interesting in verse 15 to note that in this example, the person in need is a brother or sister in Christ.
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So the example we have given to us by James is there's a fellow church member. They're hungry.
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They don't have clothes. They don't have basic needs being met. And the response to that in verse 16 is instead of helping, it's a simple wishing them well.
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You know, go in peace, be warm and well -fed, and nothing is done to meet the actual need.
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You know, I just have to be honest. I mean, I would say at best, those are empty, hollow words, right?
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I mean, I think we would all question, does the person really wish that they were warm and well -fed? If they had the means to help them, and they don't help them, do they really care?
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I think that's pretty obvious. James asked the question this way. He says, what good is that? What good is it?
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It did nothing to meet the actual need. So what we see here in this passage is a true heart of compassion compels action.
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A true example. James is comparing now back to faith. This example reminded me as I was thinking about it of a parable that Jesus shared.
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This is the parable of the Samaritan, the good Samaritan.
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You guys probably remember this. The Pharisees were questioning Jesus. They were challenging Him, right? And they said, which is the greatest law?
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And Jesus said, to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. And they said, well, who's my neighbor? Who do
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I have to love? And how does Jesus answer? He gives the parable of the good Samaritan. And I love it because the
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Pharisees, the ones he's talking to, the Jewish leaders, are the bad guys in the story. He just nails them to the wall.
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But he says, basically, there's this wounded man. He's a traveler. He gets robbed, wounded, beat up.
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He's laying on the road half dead. And the Pharisees in the story, the Pharisees and the scribes and the
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Sadducees are walking by and just ignoring him. They don't even want to look at him. And the hero of the good
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Samaritan story is a Samaritan who is a half Jew. And these were despised people, despised by the
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Jews because they were not full -blooded Jews and they didn't worship in Jerusalem and they were looked down upon.
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And in this story, Jesus, as He's talking to the Pharisees, takes a Samaritan, someone that they despise, and He uses him as the hero.
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And He says, this Samaritan had compassion on this person on the side of the road that's dying.
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And what does he do? He goes and he picks him up and he binds his wounds and he helps him, puts him on his donkey, carries him to the next village, and pays an innkeeper to care for him for an extended period of time.
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Talk about going out of your way to care for someone. That is compassion.
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That is love for your neighbor, Jesus is saying. And again, if you have compassion, it compels you into action.
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That's what Jesus was saying. In the same way, James, his half -brother is saying, if you see a need and you don't act on it, then you don't really care.
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James is calling you out on that. In the same way, faith, he's saying, faith, if it's not accompanied by some actions, it's empty and hollow faith.
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And by the way, if you think I'm being too strong, I always like to go back to James to see how he says it. He says at the end of 17 there, what does he say?
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He says, faith, if it is not accompanied by actions, is dead, period.
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That's pretty clear. So that's the first example, a negative example, and now we'll move on to verses 18 and 19 in the outline, verses 18 and 19.
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It's another negative example. I'm sorry, we'll get to the positive examples in a second, so just hang with me. James is saying in verse 18, he's presenting a potential counterpoint to his own position.
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He's saying, okay, some people might say, you have faith and I have works.
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So in other words, he's saying something like, we all have gifts, right? You have faith,
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I have works. You don't have to have both, do you? Well, yes, it's true.
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We do have spiritual gifts, and it's possible that we could have...someone
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might have the spiritual gift of faith, and so, wow, that person is just incredibly faithful.
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They just have such strong faith as a spiritual gift, but that's not what we're talking about here.
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We're talking about saving faith. What does it take for a person to be saved? And that's the faith that every believer must have to be saved.
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And then James suddenly goes to a demonic example. By the way, when I first read this, it caught me by surprise.
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I don't know if you've read through this passage and been shocked by it as well. I think James intentionally is trying to shock his reader into kind of waking them up.
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But he says, basically, verse 19, let's look at it. He says, you believe God is one. You believe
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God is one. Good. You do well. Even the demons believe. And shudder.
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Have you ever thought about this, by the way? What do the demons believe? Obviously, they believe in God.
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They know spiritual reality. They live in a spiritual realm, and they know that God is real, and they even shudder.
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But are they submitting to God? Are they obeying God? Are good works flowing out of a demon's life?
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I would argue no. In fact, they are going counter to everything God is trying to accomplish in the world.
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And so James is saying, making a very obvious point here, that just because a demon believes there is a
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God does not mean the demon is saved. And he's pointing out that there's a huge difference.
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Saving faith is not just mental assent. It's not just mental knowledge of a fact.
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As we defined earlier, and I'm going to go back to this Hebrew's definition, faith is assurance of the things we hope for, a conviction of the things seen, resulting in a life submitted to God, where God is the
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Lord of your life. And it results in changes in your life, in actions flowing out of you.
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So true faith is deeper, and it results in action. So I'd like to challenge all of us this morning as we reflect on this, and just pause for a brief moment here, whether you've grown up in the church, and I had a show of hands earlier, and I grew up in the church, or whether you just walked in the door, maybe you came to faith later in life.
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My question to you this morning is, do you believe in God? Good, so do the demons.
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Does your belief result in good works, in a changed life, in actions done by faith?
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That is the question that I want all of us to ponder this morning, and we will come back to that later, don't worry.
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So let's move on now to a positive example, point number three. We're going to be in verses 20 to 24 now, and I want to just talk about this example of Abraham himself.
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Who was Abraham? He was the father of the Jewish people. And James starts with the question, do you want to be shown, foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?
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And then he says, verse 21, he says, he points back to Abraham's faith in action when he was willing to offer up even his own son,
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Isaac, as a sacrifice. And verse 22 goes on to explain that faith was active with his works, and faith was completed or perfected by his works.
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So I think this is a really important clarifying point this morning for us as we examine James' teaching here in this passage.
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James is not emphasizing a works -based righteousness. He is not.
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He is saying that faith is the starting point. James is also agreeing. He's saying faith is key.
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Faith is the starting point, but he's saying that works always accompanies that faith. It always starts with faith, but true faith is always a faith in action.
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And the action is what completes or perfects the faith. So they work together.
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It's a package deal. You don't get one without the other. They go together always. That is what
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James is saying. Verse 23 is interesting. It quotes an Old Testament passage.
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You'll notice in your Bible, and you may have a footnote here that you're probably way ahead of me, and you saw, oh yeah, that references to Genesis 15 .6,
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and you're flipping back there. But this is a quote from the Old Testament. It is from Genesis 15 .6. And the quote here is,
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Abraham believed God, and it was credited as righteousness. And I just need to point out here that Paul, the apostle, in Romans 4 .3,
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it's very interesting. Paul quotes the exact same passage, the exact same passage.
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He quotes Genesis 15 .6 as well. And Paul explains very clearly in Romans that faith comes first.
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Faith comes first. And this is actually substantiated in this quote. Abraham believed and was declared righteous first.
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Then came the works. Then Abraham followed God in faithful obedience. And that part came second.
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So I think it's very important that we have the right sequence there. So you may be thinking in this positive example of Abraham, way to go,
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Abraham. Good for you. Super awesome. Father of the Jewish people. Great, faithful example.
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I could never live up to that. I just want to point out that Abraham wasn't perfect.
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In fact, as you examine Scripture, if you ever read through Genesis and you've read the stories of Abraham, two times he is so scared of his own skin that he calls his wife,
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Sarah, his sister, because he's afraid of the repercussions. Twice he did that. And then you may remember also that Abraham's faith wavered.
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And instead of trusting God to fulfill his promise to make him the father of many nations, and he didn't have any kids, so he takes a concubine,
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Hagar, and he has a son, Ishmael. And boy, that leads to all kinds of negative consequences, doesn't it?
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So, I mean, Abraham, was he perfect? No. In fact, no biblical character that you read about is perfect other than Jesus.
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They all have many flaws. And so do we. So do we. So I just want to encourage you this morning.
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My reason for that little bit of aside is to say that none of us are perfect. But Abraham is cited here as an example of a faithful, of having truth -saving faith, and that faith results in obedience in his life.
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Obedience, especially in the case of his willingness to even offer his own son, Isaac, as a sacrifice.
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All right. So that's our third example. And then we're going to move on to the fourth, another positive example. And this last one is the example of Rahab.
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I really like this example because it's such a contrast to Abraham. It's almost like the author, James, here is like giving you two positive examples at different extremes.
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You know, Abraham, like the most major character of the Bible, Rahab, very minor mentions.
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Abraham, the father of the Jewish people, Rahab, a prostitute from Jericho.
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Abraham, a Jew, Rahab, a Gentile, a pagan from Jericho.
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So you just have extreme contrast here. And yet Rahab, a foreigner, is lifted up here as a positive example for us to consider.
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And her faith really is amazing. I just want to reflect back on her story for just a moment and think about this.
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You can see it back in the book of Joshua, the early chapters there. But she, first of all, is a
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Canaanite. She grew up in Jericho and lives in Jericho, and she becomes a prostitute.
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And the news of the Israelites has come to Jericho as the story unfolds in Joshua.
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And they hear there's this group of people that left Egypt miraculously. The Red Sea dries up and they cross on dry land.
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They defeat the Amorites, and now they're heading toward Jericho. And so she is living in Jericho.
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She's hearing all this news, and she believes in God. She believes in the God of Israel. She believes so much so that she's willing to take incredible personal risk and risks her own life to hide the
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Jewish spies that had arrived at the city. And she hides them and then sends them out in a different way and protects them.
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And this incredible faith that she had, she acts on.
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She acts on it, and she takes a lot of personal risk. And I want to just take a moment here this morning, as I was reflecting on this example, it really did convict me.
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What personal risk have I taken in my life? You know, have I ever risked my life for my faith? I can't think of a time when
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I have. I don't think we tend to have very many risky events where we're risking our life for our faith these days.
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And yet many people down through the ages have. There are many Christian martyrs who've done that very thing.
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But I just want to stop and ask, what risks are you and I willing to take for our faith?
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What risks would you be willing to take? Maybe the risks we take today are a little smaller and not as significant as risking your life, but I think we still take risks.
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Perhaps the risk is identifying with Christ. Maybe the risk is sharing your faith with a friend, knowing they may be offended.
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They may not like you. Maybe it's a risk of losing status or your position because you're sharing your faith.
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Are you willing to take those risks, even if it costs you personally? That's my question for all of us this morning.
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So from this example of Rahab, and I'm going to tie all four examples together here, Rahab's willingness to take a risk, and all four examples that we saw, we conclude in verse 26 now, that just like the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.
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And I just want to point out here, this last illustration that Paul gives, I'm sorry, James gives, is the body and the spirit go together.
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The body and the spirit are one. And we know that if the spirit leaves the body, the body is dead.
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The body dies. It's the same thing with faith and works, he's saying. Faith, if it doesn't have accompanied by works, is dead.
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So let's just circle back to the question that James brought up back in verse 14. You may remember at the very beginning of the message, if someone says they have faith, but there's no evidence in their life to support it, can that faith save them?
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The answer is clearly no. Faith without works cannot save someone. But the real answer,
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I think, is also in the definition of the word faith. What do you mean by faith? James is saying that faith without works is not really true saving faith.
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And a true saving faith is a faith that results in works, good deeds done in faith by the power of the
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Spirit working in your life. So before we conclude the message here and go to application,
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I want to take one more side note here and just touch on a controversy within the church.
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And this is something that some have done to pit James against Paul.
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I mentioned Paul earlier, and I want to just dig into that a little bit more. So some have said, well,
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James and Paul, they're not on the same page here. They disagree with each other. The Bible contradicts itself.
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And I want to explain this this morning in a little bit of detail. So let me bring out a verse for you to look at here.
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You're welcome to turn to this. It's Romans chapter 3, verse 28. And this is one verse in which
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Paul says very clearly, for we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
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So that's what Paul says, right? And people will pit that against the passage we just read from James.
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And I'll quote from James chapter 2, verse 24, where he says, we see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
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And the people that will pit these two together will say, look, they contradict each other. They're disagreeing.
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I want to address this head on. And the truth is, there is no conflict here. And I believe there is no conflict, and I'm going to explain why.
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There are two points I want to make this morning. One is around the fact that context, they're addressing different issues.
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Paul is addressing a different issue than James is addressing. So there's different contexts I want to talk about. And then secondly, they're using different terminology.
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The definitions of words are different, and I need to explain both of these things really quickly. So first of all, let's take the different issues that they're addressing, different contexts.
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So the context for Paul is that he's addressing an issue with the Judaizers.
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I don't know if you're familiar with the history here in the book of Acts chapter 15, but specifically,
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Paul was saying...Paul was addressing the Judaizers. The Judaizers were saying that they were requiring new
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Gentile believers to be circumcised and to follow the Jewish law.
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So that was the problem that was going on in the early church. Some Jewish believers, the
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Judaizers, were saying, okay, new Gentile believers, that's fine, that's fine, but you got to become a Jew in order to really be saved.
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And Paul was just tackling that issue head -on. In the book of Romans, he nails it. In the book of Galatians, he hits on it.
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And if you want to read about this more, Acts chapter 15, at the very beginning of that chapter, Paul and Barnabas are confronting the
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Judaizers, and they get into a sharp dispute with those people. And then they're actually sent to Jerusalem to meet with the apostles, and they have to resolve this issue, major issue of conflict within the early church around the
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Judaizers. And the end conclusion is, no, Gentile believers do not need to be circumcised.
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They do not need to obey the entire Jewish law to be saved. That was the conclusion that everyone came to in Acts.
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And you can see also in the book of Galatians, Paul tackles this issue very pointedly.
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So that was the issue Paul was confronting in Romans chapter 3. So what about James?
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James, on the other hand, is talking to believers. He's talking to believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. That's exactly how
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James addresses it. And actually, if you go back to verse 1 and 2 of James chapter 1, you'll see that the letter is actually addressed to the 12 tribes scattered among the nations.
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So he's addressing Jewish Christians, and there may also be Gentile Christians mixed in with that, but he's addressing believers.
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He's addressing the church. And secondly, James is specifically tackling this issue that within the church, some people were claiming faith but not having any life change from it, no works to back it up.
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And he's clarifying that true, genuine faith always produces good works. So my first answer to this contradiction is different context.
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They're talking to different problems, right? And the second point is the terminology. And I want to focus on the word works.
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I think it's very clear that as you dig into this and examine it, that there are different things that they mean by works.
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For example, Paul, when he says we're justified by faith alone in Romans 3 .28, apart from works, that is absolutely true.
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But the works he is talking about are specifically the observance of the Old Testament Jewish law, the
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Torah. He's saying you have to be a Jew, you have to follow the entire Jewish law in order to be saved, and he's contradicting that point.
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That's what Paul means by works is following the Jewish law. And James, on the other hand, when he says works, he's talking about good deeds that flow out of a love and a compassion that God gives us.
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So works for James is completely different. That's good deeds that naturally fulfill the law.
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And I want to give you a couple examples. James 1 .27, James says, true religion is this, to look after orphans and widows in their distress.
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And so James is talking about caring for the needy. That is an example of love in action.
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Or in chapter 3, he says, hey, you need to control your tongue. By the way, that's really challenging, controlling the tongue.
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But that's another example of good works flowing out of your life. Or he talks about later in chapter 3,
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James says, wisdom, we need wisdom from above that results in peace -loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy, good fruit, no favoritism or hypocrisy.
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I mean, those are the things James is talking about by works. He's not talking about Old Testament law.
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So again, I think that the terminology works gets confused between those two passages.
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So one more point on this. There are many passages we could go to in the Bible, and I won't bore you with all of them this morning, but I want to touch on one more in Ephesians 2, verses 8 to 10.
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Ephesians 2, 8 to 10, and this is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. This is Paul, the apostle, writing to the church in Ephesus, and in verses 8 and 9, what does
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Paul say? He says, for it is by grace you are saved through faith, and this not of works, so that no one can boast.
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And I need to find my place in the outline here. So Paul clearly is saying in this passage, in verses 8 and 9, we are saved by faith, not by works, right?
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It's very clear. But then let's just go on to verse 10. In Ephesians 2, verse 10 says, for we are
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God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
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God prepared in advance for us to do. So Paul is saying here that the very purpose for us, the reason we were created in the first place was to do the good works.
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God even prepared those things in advance for us. So Paul is saying in Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10, just like James, that we are saved by faith, but that that faith was designed and intended to produce good works in us.
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So I think, again, James and Paul are contrasted sometimes and pitted against each other, but they actually are in agreement.
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And I hope you can see that in those passages. Paul clearly states salvation is by faith alone, a person is justified by faith alone, and we stand before God justified by what
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Christ did on the cross for our sins. But James is also correct by clarifying that that saving faith is never devoid of works.
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It always changes you by the power of the Spirit in your life. Actions are always going to follow true faith.
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And I think maybe it's interesting how people will take Paul and James and pit them against each other. Maybe the better question is to say, well, do
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Paul and James even agree with Christ? Right? Because Christ is our Savior. He's our Messiah.
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He is the Word in flesh. And so what did Jesus have to say about this?
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And maybe we should be asking that question. So let's just take a quick look. I think John 3 .16
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is a great verse. I think it's probably the most quoted, memorized verse in Scripture.
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And it says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
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So clearly from that verse, we see that belief in Christ results in everlasting life.
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No question. But have you ever read the less well -known verses that follow that?
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Just read through that passage a little farther, and you'll get to verse 20 that says, Anyone who practices wicked things hates the light because their deeds were evil.
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And then verse 21 says, Anyone who lives by the truth comes into the light so that his works may be shown as accomplished by God.
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So even Jesus in the very verse where everyone quotes John 3 .16 goes on to say that works are important as well.
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Jesus talks about works in that passage, stating very clearly that our good works are really God accomplishing them through us.
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And I could quote many other passages. I don't have time to this morning, but Jesus teaches that if you love
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Him, that you'll obey Him, John 14 .21. And He explains that you will know a tree by its fruit.
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You will know a tree by its fruit, clear teachings from Scripture, from Jesus. So we can see that Jesus also taught that true belief, true faith will be accompanied by good works and good deeds as we obey
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Christ. And so what the bottom line is, I really want to just draw the conclusion here is James and Paul and Jesus are all teaching us the same things.
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So at this point, I want to move into application as we wrap up today. First, let me just talk about those, talk to those who would say,
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I have faith, I'm a true believer. And again, maybe you grew up in the church and I certainly did that.
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Maybe you came to faith later in life, but after hearing things this morning, maybe, maybe you aren't sure if your faith is real.
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I'd just like to ask you to examine your life for a moment. Do you see evidence of God working in you to change you?
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And I want to be clear, I'm not talking about achievements. I'm not talking about things you've accomplished, like how many verses you've memorized or how many days you've had your devotions this week, or how many
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Bible studies you've led, or how many songs you've written, Dave Bunt, or whatever the accomplishment, that's not what
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I'm talking about. In fact, I think God looks at those things very, very differently. He does not judge us based on our achievements and our accomplishments, the things that maybe look good to other people around us.
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What I'm asking about this morning is about your character and your heart and what's going on inside.
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Are you becoming more Christ -like? Is Christ really the
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Lord of your life? Are you submitting every area of your life to Him in humble obedience? Are you a disciple of Christ?
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And I think this will show up in your life as fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5 talks about the fruit of the
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Spirit. I think this is a great place to go when asking these questions of, is my faith real?
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You should see the fruit of the Spirit being grown in your life.
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And I'm talking about love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.
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We know that list, but what does that mean? Like, love in action. Actually, like we talked about earlier, love compelling you to act, to care for people around you that are in need.
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Joy. Yeah, what kind of joy? Joy in the midst of trials, as James says. Joy in the midst of hardships.
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That's a fruit of the Spirit. What about peace? Peace beyond understanding.
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A peace that you have when something really terrible happens in your life. Are those things being manifested in your life?
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I think if you are not seeing those things in your life this morning, I do want to challenge you.
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I want to pause and challenge you and ask, maybe today is the day that you humble yourself and acknowledge your sin before God and seek
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His forgiveness and salvation. Salvation is found only through faith in Christ and what
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He did on the cross. But maybe you're looking at your life and saying, I'm imperfect, but I do see evidence of that faith growing in me and changing me.
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Then be encouraged. I want to encourage you, don't be proud. This is not a moment to pat yourself on the back, but a moment to recognize that's the
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Spirit of God working in you, building you and maturing you and completing you. It's evidence that the
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Holy Spirit is real, that the Spirit of God is real and working in you. I'm always amazed when Jesus was meeting with His disciples,
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He says, it's better for me to go because then the Spirit can come and be with you.
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That's the assurance of the New Testament, that we have the Holy Spirit living in us as believers, helping us, convicting us, yes, at times of sin in our lives, and guiding us and turning us back to Christ.
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So be encouraged today if you see evidence of God's Spirit working in your life. All right, that was the first application point.
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That was just one, sorry, it was a long one. Application point number two, perhaps you're struggling with sin in your life.
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Perhaps as you listen to the sermon today and the message and you're left wondering, does this mean my faith isn't real?
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I'm struggling with sin. Maybe some other area of your life is not right, you're just struggling to break free from that.
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First of all, I just want to tell you, you're not alone. I think we have all struggled with sin.
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Dave talked very bluntly and pointedly this morning. We're all broken. We're all broken.
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This is not about perfection. But at the same time, I need to tell you, do not continue in sin.
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God's call in your life is to resist the devil. Scripture says, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
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Instead of continuing in sin, seek God. And whatever you're struggling with, the answer is repent from the sin and turn away from it and to God, and do it over and over and as many times as you have to.
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Continue to turn from sin in your life. And I have some practical advice as well. Seek out a brother or sister in Christ, someone who you trust, someone you know, and ask them to pray for you and ask them to hold you accountable and help you in that area.
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This is not a battle we want to fight on our own. And again, let me remind you, the Holy Spirit is stronger than any sinful temptation in your life, and He will help you.
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God will make a way for you to escape. So while we're all imperfect and we all fail in many ways, sanctification is a slow process where God points out sin in our lives, convicts us of sin, and gives us strength to turn from it and overcome it.
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And that's just all a part of the process of growing in our faith. So as we come to the end of the sermon today,
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I'm going to introduce communion, and Dave is going to come and lead us in a song. I just wanted to say the answer to all of these questions today that we've been asking, you know, doubts about our faith.
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Is our faith real? Struggles with sin. The answer to all of this is not try harder, okay?
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That is not the answer. So please don't hear that this morning. The answer is the gospel. The answer is the good news about Jesus Christ.
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We need this gospel not just when we first learn about God and become a Christian, but we need this gospel over and over and over.
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We need to be reminded that Christ died for us, that He gave
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His life so that we could be made right before God and have right standing. It all starts with faith.
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Faith comes first. So this is a celebration this morning. It's a routine. We do this every week.
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So as Dave sings a song here in a moment, I'm just going to encourage you guys to get up out of your seats and go back to the tables, they're located in the back, and grab a crack of juice and take communion at your own pace.
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But do it in a way of remembering and rejoicing in what Christ has done for you, because He paid the price we could not pay.
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He died for our sins so that we could be made right. All the good works that we're talking about this morning flow out of a life of faith, out of a life that's already been transformed on the inside by Christ and what
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He did. You know, this morning, maybe you're wondering and you're saying, hey, I'm not sure I'm saved.
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I would love to talk to you afterward. I just encourage you to find me after the service, find another believer who could share more about how to know
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Christ personally. But I would encourage you, again, if you're saved, participate in communion this morning.
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If not, feel free to just sit in your chair and take in a song and consider the sermon and the message this morning.
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Let me pray now as Dave comes. Heavenly Father, I thank You again for Your Word that challenges us.
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God, I thank You for James and the way he just pointedly says faith is accompanied by works, and our true saving faith needs to be evident in our life.
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Lord, I pray as we contemplate that this morning, Father, that You would just convict us where we need conviction, that You would encourage us where we need encouragement, and Lord, that You would guide us and lead us.
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And again, we just come back to the cross of Christ and what You did for us, Lord. We could never earn our salvation.
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We can never do enough. We are all lost and sinners, Father. And thank
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You for making a way for us to be able to be with You in a relationship with You, God, not just now, but forever, that we have eternal hope that we will be with You.