James 2

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically from the audio and may contain small errors.

Thank you for allowing me to be with you today here at South Burleson. I want to thank Pastor Drew for giving me this opportunity to be with you and bring God's Word to you. I want to bring you first of all greetings from Dr. Jim Richards and all the staff over in Grapevine with Southern Baptist of Texas Convention. My name is Glenn Pierson. I am your field of ministry strategist, covering area where you all are over one corner of it. And And so we're just glad to be here. It's been, I've had about 120 churches that visit the pastors and help the churches in any way we can. So it's great to be here with you and actually see all of you today as we gather. I know those that are online, thank you for tuning in and being with us today. We are looking today in the book of James. Title of the sermon is faith in action. Talking about a living faith, have you ever heard the statistics that 80% of the work

in the church is done by 20% of the people? Well, honestly, as a pastor, there's times that I feel like it's more 10% instead of 20%, but you get the idea. It seems like there are a handful of people doing most of the things in the church and doing the ministry of the gospel. we evaluate why that is taking place. I think we can look at this and say, you know what, maybe the church has been partially in fault in this. Unintentionally, we have set people up for this type of life. Too often we have presented salvation as praying a prayer. We've presented salvation as walking an aisle, as being dumped in the water or joining the church. We sold it as a way to kind of like fire insurance to keep from going to hell when you die and we talked very little about living the life of a Christian. We had the idea and promoted the idea that salvation is something you do at a point in time and then once you

do it, you're done, you've done it, you've accomplished what you were supposed to do. Well that leads to many people who have a professed faith but little to no evidence of that faith. We don't see a change in their life. James questions us today and he gives us something to think about when he says, is this a living faith? Is this a saving faith? Let's make it a little more personal by asking it this way. Do you personally have a living faith? Do you personally have a saving faith? And if so, what is the evidence of that faith? So let's look at what James says in James chapter 2 verses 14 through 19. He says, what good is it my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works, can such a faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothes and likes daily food or one of you says to them, go in peace, stay warm and be well fed, but you don't give them what the body needs,

what good is it? In the same way, faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself. someone will say you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. Good. Even the demons believe and they shudder. Let's pray. Lord God we thank you for your word. Lord we ask that today your Holy Spirit who is here who is in our midst would teach us what you have for us today and help us take and apply the truth of your word to our everyday lives. Lord we give you the honor and the glory for what you're going to do in that. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Well as we start to look and at James chapter 2 verse 14 we see a question that is hugely important. James says what good is it? What good is it my brothers and sisters if someone claims to have faith but does not have works, can such a faith save him?

Now I don't know of anyone that has faith that doesn't want to know for sure that their faith is a saving faith. I mean that's the whole thing. That's the whole purpose. I've known many who have struggled with bouts of fear. Am I saved? If I die today, will I go to heaven? those types of questions and we try to help them walk through the answer to that so they have that assurance of their salvation. But let's go a little deeper with James' question. James' question might seem to be a trick question, especially if you call to mind what Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 and 9. Paul says, for you are saved by grace through faith, and this not of yourself, it's God's gift not from work so that no one can boast. So here's what we need to understand by comparing these two passages just on the surface the fact is that what we're doing is looking at two different sides of coin. We're

comparing apples to oranges. These two guys are talking about two different aspects of salvation. Paul in Ephesians is dealing with justification that act of salvation which is through Christ alone and not by ritual works of the law. In his days this would include things like like circumcision, ritual, Washington offering sacrifices and many others and of course we know the Pharisees of that day added many other things to that list. Things that they were doing so they said this is what we're saved. This is how we're saved. Well Paul says that is a false salvation. Now we know that today we might not call them Pharisees but we have our fair share of modern-day Pharisees. Paul says we're saved by Christ alone and that what he did on the cross is sacrifice for for God's gift to us, is God's gift to us of salvation and our response is by faith. But we don't have to do anything else.

There's nothing else. You can't serve on enough of church committees. You can't do enough of good works. You can't say the right things, be in the right place in the right time, and that be what you base your salvation on because that is a dead salvation. That is a false salvation. And Paul is dealing with that. he said that we have nothing to boast about outside of Christ in us. On the other hand, James is dealing with the validation of our salvation, the demonstration of our faith in Christ through works of mercy and in his illustration works of mercy works of grace because we have received mercy from God through salvation we are to extend mercy to others

demonstrating our living faith our saving faith so to take verse 14 and say that James is claiming that we are saved by works is taking in verse 14 totally out of context removing it from the other verses like James chapter 1 verse 21 where he writes, we are to only receive the implanted word which is able to save you. So James would agree with Paul and agree both of the passages fit together that we are saved by grace through faith and Christ alone. So then James asks a question in verse 14 and then answers his question about this living faith. Is it living? Is it real? Is it the same faith? He answers it in verses 15 through 17. I want you to notice first of all that it's illustrated answer is in the setting of acts of mercy and the context of the church family, not the world as a whole. Now that doesn't mean we're not supposed to have acts of mercy and grace and to those in our world, to our neighbors, to

those outside the church. We are and we do on a regular basis. Many churches have food pantries and they're involved in one of a food pantry in their faith community. They have clothing ministries. They're always having fun set up to help those that are struggling in life and that's a great thing. But we have to be careful that we don't take that somewhere where it shouldn't be and say because we do things like that, that is the gospel because the Bible says that is a false gospel, that's the social gospel which is a lie. And so the acts that we do are not the things that save, it is the faith that we have in Christ and his work on the cross that brings us true salvation. So here's the scenario that James sets up for us here, someone in the churches without the basic necessities of life. I didn't say their wants but I said their needs food, clothing,

shelter, you know it and you have the ability to help meet that need. Yet your response is simply a well-wishing. Here's what it might sound like today. Have a nice day. I wish you well. I'll be praying for you. See you later. What good did that do for that individual? What good did that do for the one in need? Not. There was no problem solved. There was no remedy. There was no action. There was no relief. There was no help. In the day in which James was writing the idea of saying go in peace keep warm and eat well was only seen as being sincere when it was accompanied by demonstrative action that took care of the problem that was recognized. Person needed alms they would give alms to demonstrate their mercy and their grace. So the Bible is saying to say near words without a covenant of action is a waste of time. It's useless. Then in verse 17 it says in the same way, so what he's saying is this is an illustration

and in the same way faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead. The answer to the question that James starts with is we're sounding no, a faith that is not demonstrated or proved by works is not a saving faith for anyone. In his commentary, Kurt Richardson states James puts the insensitive and active believer on the side of the unjust, unrighteous rich who have neither mercy nor compassion. So here's the deal. As believers, We are the unworthy recipients of God's grace and mercy. So how can we not demonstrate grace and mercy and extend it to others? By not demonstrating our faith through action, we are demonstrating a dead faith. We're showing nothing of what we claim to be inside of us. It hasn't changed anything in our lives. James then moves to address a couple of excuses that people have that he says has no merit. Look again at James chapter 2 verses 18 and 19.

But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you faith by my works. You believe that God is one? Good. Even the demons believe and they shudder. Too obvious here. The idea is that some of us have faith and some of us have works. And we need both to be good at what we do. It's kind of like my wife, Jerry. Jerry is a saint. Glenn has a job and his job is to make money. money. I have a job and my job is to spend money. I can't help it if I'm better at my job than he is at his job. So it's how you take that same thought and you move that over to James and what he's talking about and apply it there. The point would be like someone saying I have faith and with my faith I will cheer you on and encourage you since you have the and if you do the works and you do your role in working, I'll do my role in having faith and being a cheerleader and then

everyone has their individual roles and together we get something accomplished. James says no. Too often today I think that shows up in the separation between the clergy and laity. We have so come to this place where we've tried to split the two and I know there's a difference. I know that clergy is a call of God on our lives, but when we separate the two and we look at the jobs, there are some roles that need to be done by only the pastor. But when we come to the idea of visiting and sharing the gospel and extending the gospel message and evangelizing the lost, the idea is not that we hire a gun, we hire a man, We hire a person to come into the church and do that for us while we cheer them on and remind him of what is obvious. You see, we're all called to share the gospel. If I've got the gospel message in me that is the grace of God in my life, how on earth

can I keep quiet? How on earth can I not be sharing that gospel? How on earth can I not be living a life in such a way that it demonstrates Christ in In me, it paints a picture of Christ to a lost and a dying world. This idea of having a hired gun to do ministry is a misguided and self-deceiving way of thinking. We are all called to have a living faith. The truth is living faith cannot be disconnected from the deeds. in our lives. James says I can show you my faith by my works but you can't show me your faith without your works. See that's what we need to understand is that everything I do people are watching rightfully so and they're trying to determine am I living out what I claim to have and if that's not demonstrated in my life see when I'm saved when Christ comes into my life he says I'll make you a new person. And that means I live differently, I act differently, and my

schedules are different, my ethics are different, every area of my life is changed. So any claim of faith that does not result in a changed life and it is demonstrated through good works, it's a false faith. It's not a saving faith. There are also other excuses, but James points out another one here, and he says, faith that says, I believe there's one true God. That's enough. I've heard those kinds of things before. I had a guy one time tell me he knew he was a Christian because he had prayed, and God answered his prayer to give him a girlfriend. Well, maybe he was just in the right place at the right time, or she was in the right place at the wrong time, or whatever it was, but you don't base your salvation on that anymore than you base your salvation on the fact that I just believe there's one true God because James says rightfully so the demons believe and they shudder because they don't have that personal relationship

with him. It makes the hair stand up on their heads. In other words mere intellectual knowledge doesn't save anyone. Johnny Hunt writes, a person can be enlightened in his mind and even stirred in his heart but be lost forever. Faith that touches our intellect, faith that even touches our emotion but not our will is a wicked, false, dead faith. And it dooms us for all eternity. Calvin, John Calvin writes, it is faith alone that justifies, but faith justifies can never be alone. I love D.L. Moody's words. Every Bible should be bound in shoe leather. It means that we take the Word of God and we put our feet to the prayers and our feet to the Word and we do the ministry that we're called to do. So do you have an active faith? Do you have a living faith? It's what God's called us. And we want to make sure we have that kind of faith. Years ago we moved to Roanoke, Virginia.

We've never been to Virginia before, but got a call to go on staff in a church there. We went there and stayed for 10 years. One of the things that impressed me when I got to Roanoke was the mountains. But in the community, in the valley, were the pear trees. Those trees were beautiful. They'd line the streets. They were kind of the tree of the city. And so anywhere you went, the medians in the yards, when there were ordinances that said you had to have so many trees on your property as you were developing commercial property, these trees were fast growing. They were beautiful. were things that people would plant. Now, I love pears, so I thought what better place to live in a place where the tree that is in the valley is the pear tree. Well, they got in all the highways and the streets and the yards. They had beautiful blooms. They even – when the blooms were gone, man, the deep green of the leaves and the shape, their

natural shape. Nobody got out there and had to trim the hedges. The natural shape of this tree was beautiful. These trees love sunlight. Maybe for our understanding today and our illustration today, we would say they love the spotlight. But there was a problem with these pear trees. They never bore pears. They didn't and couldn't bear fruit. As they grew and they grew fast, they were very susceptible to damage. So from strong winds and storms, they would often split right down the middle. Third thing was that the damage many times was not done by storm it was done by their own weight their own beauty the leaves were full and the limbs were numerous and literally by their own weight those bloom filled beautiful trees would break and limbs would fall. You see these pear trees were ornamental pear trees, pear trees

called Bradford pears they looked their only value was to look good to make people ooh and aww about beautiful surroundings but there was no fruit. A pear tree without pears to me seems to be an oxymoron. All these beautiful trees. All these beautiful pears. Well, real faith. A saving faith bears fruit. There's a demonstration of what it's all about. It bears fruit that shows you who it is and whose it is. Today we have many things that are fake. We use the word faux, F-A-U-X. You can get faux wood. It's not real wood. You can get all kinds of things. Faux leather, not real leather. It's just something that looks kind of like the real thing. We want to make sure that we don't have faith that's a faux faith, that's ornamental, that's not real. So can I ask you today to be fruit inspectors? To be careful, I'm not asking you to look at those sitting on the couch with you and

sitting in the living room with you or people that you know in the community or in the church. I'm asking you to look in the mirror and look at yourself and ask yourself, do I have fruit of my salvation? Is there something about my life that demonstrates I have a living faith? I have a saving faith? Or was it that just way back sometime I walked an aisle, I was dumped in some water, I joined a church, and that was enough? See, God offers much more than fire insurance. And the faith that he offers to us is a take. He says, I make you a new person, a new life, not a cleaned up, not a fixed up, not a little adjustment here or there. And there's no such thing as a lone ranger Christian or a hidden Christian, because we're to be out sharing our faith and demonstrating our faith. So inspect your own life. Don't ask yourself about a date when you did something. Ask yourself, am I bearing spiritual fruit?

Am I demonstrating through my life the fact that I am saved? Are you acting on the faith that you claim you have? Is there evidence of a living faith in action in your life? Not a long time ago. Not oh, you remember back when. I'm talking about today. I'm talking on a consistent basis. Are you living out your faith? If not, you either need to get with it to realize that you've been living a life that doesn't fit with the salvation that you've received and make those corrections and make them immediately and start living out your faith or you need to go back and say, am I really saved? Do I have true salvation? Because true salvation can be seen in the life of a Christian. Stop living ornamental faith. Stop living faux-faith. Start living a life that demonstrates faith that shows that you have life today in Christ and you have life for all eternity in Christ.

Yes, we live in difficult times today. One of the ways we can demonstrate our faith is in our faith in Christ, not having this fear, not having this mentality that everything's going bad, I'm just gonna eat dirt and die. No, to have a faith in the one who is still in control even when it doesn't look like it. Do you have a living faith. We all need faith, but we all need a faith that is a true faith that saves.

This morning if you're not in that situation, if you discover the fact that you don't think you have that living faith, I would encourage you to talk to your pastor, to let him know that, let Him walk with you through that inspection process to determine was I really saved back whenever. Did I really accept Christ or did I just do something? As many I've heard say, I did it because everybody else was doing it and they just kind of told me that's what I was supposed to do. Listen, it's more than that. It's more than having your name in a role. It's about living for Christ today demonstrating that we're going to be with him for all eternity. If you have that faith, share it. Let it shine. Be someone that bears the fruit of the gospel and glorifies Christ. We're in this together. The world needs to see what true Christianity is. There are so many things out there that are false,

so many places that they can look and not find truth. We have truth in God's Word and as believers we have truth in our lives, the living Word of God. Let's demonstrate it today. Would you pray with me? Lord God, I pray for each one that has heard this gospel message. I pray that this church, South Ferguson Baptist Church, has this time today that they will, each member, ask themselves these question so that this church can be a light on a hill in this community. What a wonderful location you've given them. People all around right here by the ball fields where people pass on a regular basis. God use them in this places. They demonstrate their faith and reach out to this community and you add to their numbers as they glorify you, as they give you honor and glory and credit for what you do and you alone. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.