"Useful" Faith

James 2:14–26 NASB95

14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? 17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. 18 But someone may well say, “You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” 19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. 20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar? 22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; 23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” and he was called the friend of God. 24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

INTRO: I want you to think of all the things in our lives that we are kinda proud of but serve no real purpose. Just so you are not thinking about that 25 year old t-shirt from some concert you saw, Let me give you some examples:

Some of you have a bunch of trivia-type knowledge that, outside of impressing your family when Jeopardy is on, is pretty well useless.

Some of you have unique talents - like making strange noises with different parts of your body, perfectly mimicking the mating call of the red fox, or speaking exclusively in 80’s song lyrics. These are fun, but serve no practical use.

Still others have graduated from high school and maybe even college, and have yet to put to work any practical use of the many subjects that you studied.

My point is this: All these things can be valuable, but only when we put them to good use. For most of us, we are comfortable with having these talents or knowledge and not doing much with them. After all, they just aren’t that big of a deal.

However, this is different when it comes to our faith. I want to point you to our text. In v. 14, James poses a question. Let me read that again.

(READ 14)

I want to ask you that question in a slightly different way:

What use is your faith?

Now, you might be thinking, “That’s a strange question.” And, you’re right, but it’s a good question. You see, there is a theme that we’ve been looking at throughout this letter where James is arguing for authentic, saving faith. James asks here whether your faith is useful in salvation.

If your faith is genuine, then it will produce in you good works which are useful in proclaiming God’s Kingdom. We talked about this briefly at the end of chapter 1. Let me refresh your memory by reading 1:26.

James 1:26 NASB95

26 If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man’s religion is worthless.

In this verse, James tells his readers that idle talk or boastful talk about religious things is useless. Similarly, Jesus said that if we have genuine faith in him, He will be with us and we in Him. And because He is in us, we will produce good works or fruit. (John 15:5) These are to be used to direct others to Christ.

In Galatians 5, Paul states that the Spirit of God living in us will produce the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control.

So you see, real faith, saving faith is evident in our lives through our works. Now, I want to make sure you aren’t hearing me wrong. So listen closely.

I cannot see your faith. And you can do all kinds of good works that look like faith being demonstrated. I don’t know that I can discern the difference. But God can.

He knows whether your works are acts of obedience or if they are fabricated for show. It saddens me the number of Christians and some pastors even whose life looked like ones of faith, but later on were revealed that they were frauds.

Ultimately, the good works that come out of your life are not to impress me or anyone else. They are to be the fruit of an authentic, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. So, I am not standing here to try and pass some sort of judgment on your life. That is God’s job.

I am here to show you how God’s Word informs us so that we may stand in confidence as children of God. We do that with “Useful Faith” That is the title of our message. I pray that God will illuminate His word for us as we study together this morning.

As we dive in, be sure to make use of the sermon guide. It will be a helpful reminder and study tool as you go through the week.

Authentic faith produces good works, and these good works all have a purpose according to James. Thus, Useful faith produces useful works. Let’s look at the usefulness of them.

First,

Faith-produced Works Impact the World and Give Necessary Witness to Our Words. (15-17)

(READ)

James uses a rhetorical question to demonstrate his point. If our faith is only something we loosely cling to- words we say, something we sprinkle in on top of all the other worldly priorities, etc., then it is dead or useless.

You can picture this scenario here, right? Now, James is not saying that we don’t have faith if we don’t have a compassion ministry for the homeless. Rather, it’s a comparison. Just as words alone will not fill the empty stomach of the hungry nor warm those who are cold, faith apart from the works it produces is not viable.

One of the key assignments for believers is that we are to be witnesses to the world for Jesus. The Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20). Acts 1:8

Acts 1:8 NASB95

8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

The Christian life necessarily means that we are reaching out, sharing the hope of Jesus. But if we never demonstrate the love and righteousness of Christ, our words are empty. If our lives do not testify that we are changed- born again, how on earth will lost people see that the hope in Jesus is real?

Ephesians 2:10 NASB95

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Someone once said, “The Gospel is only good news if it gets there in time!” Perhaps we can add, “in sincerity”

If we gather in the church building, but are not going in love to our neighbors, then what use is our faith for the lost around us? If we expand our knowledge of God’s Word, but never live out or share the life-transforming truth, what use is it?

But, if we have been gripped by the Holy Spirit, filled with His power, then our lives will produce good works. These good works may come out in service- feeding the hungry, helping the poor or aged, modeling righteousness and integrity, standing up for the vulnerable, etc. They may come out in discipleship and teaching, or they may come out in missions and evangelism..

However they manifest, our faith-produced works are useful in that they testify of the God we serve, the grace we’ve received, and the new life we now live.

Would your neighbors think that your religion is useful? Do they see your love for one another- how you forgive and how you refuse to slander and think- “They really are different.” Do they see your good works that support the gospel that you claim?

What use is your faith? Faith-produced works impact the world and give necessary witness to our words.

Next,

Faith-produced Works Illustrate Our Identity and Set Us Apart (18-20)

Again we see James make the point that faith and works ought not be separated. (READ 18)

ILL: When I was a kid, I remember my family going to the pool. At the time, I didn’t know how to swim. But, I was perfectly content splashing around on the shallow end. At one point, my dad informed me that it was time to learn to swim. I argued and told him that I knew how to swim, I just liked the shallow end.

Now, my dad was smarter than I gave him credit for. He said, “Show me you can swim or you aren’t getting back in the pool” I made the motion.. and look, say what you will, but to this day, I cannot separate my ability to swim from my dad hurling me into the deep end of the pool that day.

The point James is making is that what we say and really what we believe only matters if it produces the right results. (READ 19-20)

When faith produces works in our lives, it demonstrates that we are truly God’s children.

James pulls no punches here- look, Demons believe in God. They know who Jesus is! Yet, they are not redeemed by their belief. Many people, I’m afraid, have a dead faith - some are sitting in the church pews across the country this morning. They believe intellectually, but that is not real faith. Instead, they have bought into a false gospel.

Many are the church members who confess the name of Jesus, but deny the authority of His word. Many are those who like the idea of heaven, but do not realize that the path is narrow.

ILL: This morning the Hendersonville Unitarian Church service is titled “Dreaming of Heaven” - They think that everyone is God’s child, but folks, unless you have been born again, you are a child of wrath, not a child of God.

Listen to Paul’s words:

Romans 8:9 NASB95

9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

Do you have the Holy Spirit in you today?

You say, “How can I know I have the Holy Spirit?” You are led by the Holy Spirit- which means your life will be under the lordship of Christ- a life marked by good works that give glory to God in heaven. A life surrendered to His will and His ways! It’s not your doing, it’s His!

What use is your faith?

Does your faith set you apart from the demons?

Does your faith identify you as a child of God?

You and I, through faith in the finished work of Jesus are vessels by which that faith is illustrated through our actions. Faith-produced Works Impact the World and Give Necessary Witness to Our Words and illustrate our identity and set us apart!

Finally,

Faith-produced Works Prove Our Standing in God’s Kingdom (21-25)

(READ)

Here we see 2 examples of authentic faith which produced works that proved their faith. You are likely familiar with both accounts. Let’s take a minute to examine them:

Abraham was promised that through his seed, God would make a great nation. He and Sarah had a son, named Isaac, when Abraham was 100 years old. And, in a test of his faith, God told Abraham to take Isaac, his only son, to the top of the mountain and offer him as a sacrifice.

Now, this whole thing is difficult for us to imagine. I want you to know that, despite the seemingly absurd command, Abraham got up early the very next day and began the journey. The trip to the mountain top was 3 days. He had several opportunities to back out. He could have made excuses, reasoned his way out of obedience.

But as the author of Hebrews tells us, Abraham believed God would keep his promises so that even if God allowed him to sacrifice his son, God would raise Isaac back from the dead (something that had never been done, btw) in order to fulfill his promise.

You see, Abraham believed God and acted on his belief. He tied up the boy, he had the knife raised, and his actions proved his faith.

Rahab was a prostitute in the city of Jericho when the Israelite spies came in. She believed in God’s power and promise to save her. She believed that the Israelites would be given victory over Jericho and acted on that belief, hiding the spies and helping them escape.

She put it all on the line. Chances are if the Israelites had not returned when they did to lay siege on the city, Rahab would have been found out and killed for treason. Surely her faith produced her works, for there was much more benefit in man’s equation for handing over the spies to the authorities.

Both of these folks are listed in Hebrews 11, what we endearingly name the roll-call of faith. Their faith was evidenced in their works, which proved their righteous standing in God’s kingdom.

So it is with us. If we believe God- that salvation from Christ is eternal and complete, then our actions will result in giving up all that the world calls valuable for the sake of the kingdom. It’s joyfully abandoning all the earthly pleasures up so that we can partake in the Heavenly promises!

Jesus told several parables of His Kingdom. His kingdom promise brings believers to forsake our own personal riches in favor of His eternal glory! Friend, you don’t own anything that can compare to God’s Kingdom!

In Matthew 7:24, Jesus said that “everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to the wise man who built his house upon the rock...”

How sure is your foundation? Can you look at your life and know that you have not only heard the word of God, but you are acting on it?

Now, you see, we don’t like to talk about this: But I want you to hear the principle illustrated by Abraham and Rahab: If we say we have faith and are given the opportunity to be faithful, yet do not, then your faith is a lie.

Look, every one of us is called to action. We are called to leverage our lives for the sake of God’s Kingdom. We are called to be a witness of Christ. God has spoken- if you say you believe His Word and yet refuse to obey him, then what use is your faith?

James 2:26 NASB95

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

Folks, What use is your faith? Is it real? Is it an authentic, saving faith?

Maybe you are here this morning and you realize that your faith is lacking… maybe as you reflect upon your life, you recognize that your foundation is one of sinking sand.

I have good news. Jesus has come to transform lives. Won’t you come, and give your life to Him today?

[PRAY]

Discuss: Why do we try to separate faith and works?

Discuss: Think through Jesus’ rebukes to the disciples, calling them ‘men of little faith.’ How do these examples inform us about faith and works?

Discuss: James said that Abraham was justified by his works. How was faith working in his works?