A Faith That Follows Through
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
v
5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
Is Our Faith A Claim?
Is Our Faith A Claim?
Is It All For Show?
Is It All For Show?
James writes in James 2:14-17…
14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
Like Christianity there are millions of people that “claim” to be faithful children of God but when that faith is put to the biblical test it is found wanting.
How many actually “visit the widows and orphans” instead of expecting others to do it for them?
27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
How many actually want to stir each other up to love and good works by putting the highest priority on assembling with the saints for Sunday and Wednesday bible class and am and pm worship instead of hoping others will not notice they are gone doing worldly things.
24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
How many actually read and study God’s word “every day” to make certain they are approved of God, instead of just hoping they are found approved?
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
How many actually pray to God “without ceasing” instead of just hoping God knows they were intending to eventually get better at praying to him.
17 pray without ceasing,
12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Summary
Summary
How many people claim to be faithful Christians but are far more willing to say “Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things they need?”
How many claim to be faithful but in reality never actually seek to be faithful?
Faith that is simply a claim is dead.
17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
After we test our faith’s claim we must ask ourselves…
Is Our Faith A Conviction?
Is Our Faith A Conviction?
Is It Your State Of Being?
Is It Your State Of Being?
Again we read in James 2:18-19 reads…
18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!
Unfortunately, there are not a just a few claiming faithful Christianity that are more like the demons than the faithful in Hebrews 11.
By that I mean there are certainly a lot of people with a strong conviction that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist and thus they believe strongly in God which should led them to eternal life (John 3:16), but doesn’t.
Why, because when it comes to a conviction concerning their faith or trust in God that is another story all together, as it is what they know is need but in reality not very wanted.
Faith is not that which sits idly by.
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.
Hebrews 11:35–38 (ESV)
35 …Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated— 38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
Summary
Summary
Faith that leads to actual faithfulness is “who we are” a faithful child of God, not what we pretend to be.
To fear God and keep his commandments is “our essence.”
Ecclesiastes 12:13 (ESV)
13 The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole of man.
When our faith is more than just a claim and forms who we are we must lastly ask ourselves…
Is Our Faith A Commitment?
Is Our Faith A Commitment?
Is It A Promise Fulfilled.
Is It A Promise Fulfilled.
Lastly we read in James 2:20-26…
20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;
23 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. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 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?
26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.
When a person comes to Christ to have their sins washed away a promise is made by the one seeking salvation to the one offering salvation.
To die to sin and walk in a newness of life, i.e., a life based on faith and faithfulness.
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Summary
Summary
When we are saved by being washed and redeemed by the blood of the Lamb it is because we gave our word to be committed in our faith to our God.
27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”
Conclusion
Conclusion
Not once a year, once every six months, or even once a month are we to examine our faith but “every single day.”
5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
If we don’t we will be failing to the test and those that fail the test do not have eternal life.
Therefore…
Test your faith’s claim, conviction, and commitment to God almighty today and be brutally honest with yourself.
Do you need correction, then do it, do you need to stay the course than do it but don’t go out those doors this day without testing your faith!!!
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.