Faith on Display

James 2:14-26

· Turn with me in your Bibles this morning to James 2.

· James 2:14-26.

· Stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy word.

· Read.

· Pray.

· We started out in the book of James considering the Test of faith.

· To count it as joy when you face trials of various kinds because it produces patience.

· And James told us that trials and temptations ultimately prove our faith to be genuine.

· We find out if our faith is in God or somewhere else.

· And James moved on then to the characteristics of that genuine faith.

· And the characteristics are ultimately summed up by James 1:22: “But be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

· James is particularly concerned by Christians who say that they believe in one thing, but their actions say something completely different.

· And thus far, James’ concern has been the way Christians treat other people, especially those who might be considered lowly in spirit.

· In James 1 he said to take care of orphans and widows.

· James 1:27: “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit the orphans and widows in their trouble., and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”

· In James 2 he said not to treat the rich better than the poor.

· James 2:1 “My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory with Partiality.”

· And in our passage this morning, James doesn’t just continue in what he has been saying, he doubles down.

· James says that the person who isn’t willing to back their faith up with works, doesn’t have faith to begin with.

· “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?”

· This is an argument that has gone on through the ages.

· What saves us?

· Our faith or our works.

· There’s two groups of people who take extreme sides.

· One side takes on the legalistic view, and they say that your works save you.

· Often times, people are called legalists who are really just seeking to obey what God has said.

· Its one of those terms that is easy to accuse people of when they preach against sin.

· So someone might say you’re preaching legalism when you preach repentance, but that’s not legalism, its just the Bible.

· Legalists add layers of rules on top of existing rules, just to keep from coming near those initial rules.

· For example. A legalistic person might say, okay, there’s a lot of bad things on TV that we shouldn’t watch.

· But instead of just not watching those things, they add a layer and would say that because of that, it is wrong for anyone to watch any TV whatsoever.

· That’s not a law in the Bible, it’s a practice they have put into place, but now they would say that you are sinning anytime you are watching TV.

· Even if its innocent.

· And they believe that these added layers and all of these laws that they have come up with are actually what justify them before the Lord.

· They believe they are saved because they have gotten their act together.

· The Pharisees were legalists, they would add things to the law and then try and hold other people to it.

· That’s often what they did when they tried to trip Jesus up.

· They would elevate their own tradition with the word of God, and Jesus rebuked them for it.

· The other side of extremism on this subject says that Faith alone saves you to the extent that your works don’t matter at all.

· As long as you say this simple prayer and say that you believe in God, then you can live it up however you want and you will be justified in the end.

· In other words you can go on sinning, because God will forgive you.

· This group of people would say that we all have sin, and there is no difference between your sin and my sin, and therefore we can’t really police that, we can’t hold people to standards like that.

· So you can do what you want to do and I’ll do what I want to do, and Jesus will forgive you anyways.

· Now obviously, both of these extremes are wrong, and we’re going to look at that, but if I had to point to one of these extremes and say that the church today is in danger of one, it would be the second option.

· People have adopted the lie from the culture that God doesn’t really care how we live.

· That in the end, we all have sin so it doesn’t really matter.

· Essentially, it all comes out in the wash at the end, right?

· But that is literally the opposite of what James is writing.

· James brings out the question.

· “Can such faith save him?”

· The question could be asked this way.

· “Can a faith that does not express itself through good works, really be a saving faith?”

· And the answer to the question is no.

· “If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus, also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

· At surface level, telling someone to go in peace and be warmed and filled sounds like a nice answer to the person in need.

· But can you honestly say that you want that for them, if you are unwilling to get your hands dirty and help them in that time?

· A few years ago, we wrecked our van on the way to Revival.

· Totally destroyed it.

· And while we waited on the side of the road, Kent and Lori drove past us and saw that it was us on the side of the road.

· And Kent called me to make sure we were okay.

· And he didn’t just say, well sorry Tyler I hope you and your family get this figured out.

· They didn’t leave us stranded in a totaled van in the rain off the side of 54.

· They turned around and came back and waited with us and put my kids in their truck while I talked with the Highway Patrol and then they took us home.

· How did I know that they actually cared?

· Their actions said so.

· Likewise, James says, Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

· A faith that does not serve the Lord, is not a saving faith.

· And a faith that does not care enough about the poor and the lowly, and the destitute, is not actually a saving faith.

· James says it is dead.

· It is useless.

· James then gives the response of someone who may object to this doctrine.

· “But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works.”

· This is an age-old question, does James contradict Paul?

· Is James teaching that your works save you?

· Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9

· “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

· This is not a contradiction, James is simply saying that if you have a saving faith in Christ, then the natural progression is for there to be works flowing out of that in your life.

· You will want to be different.

· You will want to serve the Lord.

· The works that flow out of your faith are simply a confirmation that your faith is real.

· Your works are your faith on display for all to see.

· James is not saying that you are saved by your works.

· He would agree that its is grace alone.

· But Paul even said in Ephesians 2 verse 20,

· “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

· These two teachings go hand in hand.

· Your works do not save you, but they do matter.

· James goes on with what I personally consider the smoking gun on the matter.

· Verse 19

· “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe-and tremble.”

· It is simply not enough to say that you believe in God, and think that you are saved because of that.

· That’s cool that you believe in God, James says, you’re doing well.

· But so do the demons and they even fear him.

· They know who he is, they know the power that he has over them, they even acknowledge it.

· In the gospels every time Jesus came across a demon, they would beg him not to harm them.

· Mark 5:6-10 Jesus comes up on the man possessed by a legion of demons and the demons know who he is.

· “When he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and worshipped Him. And he cried out with a loud voice and said, ‘What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore You by God that you do not torment me.’ For he said to him, ‘Come out of the man, unclean spirit!’ Then he asked him, ‘what is your name?’ And he answered, saying, ‘My name is legion, for we are many.’ Also he begged Him earnestly that He would not send them out of the country.”

· The demons believe, the demons fear him, but spoiler alert, the demons are not and will not be saved.

· Their belief that God is who he says he is will not get them to heaven.

· There has to be more.

· The faith that saves embraces the gospel and acts accordingly.

· It is impossible to meet Jesus and not be different. That’s just what happens.

· Knowledge of God is not enough.

· Saving faith requires trust in the Lord and obedience to his word.

· Verses 20 through 23 look to the example set before us of Abraham and Isaac.

· Isaac and Sarah had waited for years for their beloved son whom God had promised them, even at an old age.

· Once they had him, God told Abraham to go take him up on top of the mountain and sacrifice him on the altar.

· Abraham trusted in God and walked him up the mountain.

· How do we know that he trusted God?

· Because he was doing as the Lord had commanded him to do.

· Right at the end, just before Abraham made the sacrifice, God stopped him, and provided him with a ram to sacrifice instead.

· Verse 22 says

· “Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?”

· Abrahams Faith was put on display by his works.

· He didn’t just say, yeah, I trust you God.

· I know you would provide, if I were to do such a thing.

· No, he took Abraham up the mountain, without a lamb to sacrifice.

· Because He trusted God.

· James is saying not that works save you, but that your works demonstrate that you actually have faith.

· Once again, the same theme keeps popping up that is all throughout this book.

· Being a doer of the word and not just a hearer, demonstrates that you actually wish to follow Jesus.

· Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness—and he was called a friend of God.

· But again, how do we know he believed God?

· He demonstrated it in his actions.

· Abraham didn’t just say I trust you God, and then go on and do his own thing.

· Abraham brought his son to the altar to give as an offering to God.

· Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son for God.

· He clearly showed in his actions that he believed God had a plan.

· He showed that he believed God would take care of him.

· It is easy to say, yes I trust in the Lord.

· But it’s a completely different thing, when God asks us to do something that we don’t understand or something that we don’t want to do.

· Dear Christian, is this the faith that you have?

· A faith that says yes Lord, to whatever he commands of you?

· There’s a story of a tight rope walker, he was going back and forth all day over Niagara Falls.

· Eventually he got a wheel-barrow and started pushing it across.

· The crowds were around him cheering, and watching.

· He said to the crowd, who believes I can fill the wheel-barrow with sandbags and make it across?

· Everyone cheered, so he did.

· When he came back, he said, who believes I could put a person in here and make it across?

· Everyone cheered.

· So he said, okay, I need a volunteer, someone get it.

· The crowd fell silent.

· It seemed that no one wanted to get in.

· Its easy to cheerlead from the side lines and say that you believe, but it requires true faith, to get in the wheel-barrow.

· Verse 24, sums that up.

· “you see then that man is justified by works, and not by faith only.”

· Your faith will produce works.

· Put your money where your mouth is.

· Don’t be all talk, but show it in your actions.

· Verse 25, James turns to the Old Testament story of Rahab.

· “Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?”

· Rahab showed her faith by putting herself at risk in order to protect the Jewish spies from her own people, when they came to scope out the promised land.

· James isn’t saying that Abraham was saved by his work.

· And he isn’t saying that Rahab was saved because she hid the spies.

· He is saying that what they did showed that their faith was genuine.

· When we believe in God, we serve him, not ourselves.

· We step out in faith knowing that the Lord will provide.

· James ends this chapter with his assertion one more time in verse 26.

· “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

· If you have a relationship with Jesus, your life will naturally reflect that relationship.

· You will not be without sin, but you will have a desire to be more like Christ.

· There’s no way around it.

· Just as we said a couple weeks ago, this whole book of James is a good mirror to look into.

· How do you match up?

· If you are living in constant sin and you aren’t bothered by that, then you need to take a long hard look at your relationship with Jesus.

· You may sin, but it will bother you when you do, that’s called conviction, and it’s a good thing.

· Do you feel convicted of your sins?

· Does your life look different now than when you first said yes to Jesus?

· This isn’t legalism, we’re not adding any layers, we’re not adding hoops to jump through, this is the word of God.

· Your faith, should produce good works.

· Jesus himself said that the world will know Christians by their fruit.

· What kind of fruit are you producing?

· Are you serving the Lord or yourself?

· Take Paul as one last example.

· He’s described in Acts as ravaging the church.

· He was dragging Christians to jail.

· He was there when Stephen was stoned to death and approved of his execution.

· On his way to Damascus to go persecute more Christians he had an encounter with God and his life changed forever.

· He ended up fleeing persecution himself when he got to Damascus because of his new found belief in Christ.

· He was a changed man. He took the gospel all over, he wrote many of our books in the New Testament.

· He did not stay the same because Jesus changes us.

· This idea that’s out there that we can just live however we want and it’ll all be cool when we get to heaven is not true.

· This is a lie straight from hell.

· Jesus didn’t come here to die for us to go on living in sin.

· Your works don’t save you, but they do matter.

· They show your faith to be genuine.

· Give invitation.