FAITH THAT WORKS, PART 2: FAITHFULNESS

FAITH THAT WORKS, PART 2: FAITHFULNESS James 2:14-26 January 23, 2011 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction "One Sunday morning all the ducks came into duck church. They all waddled down the aisle and into their duck pews, and squatted. Then the duck minister took his place behind the duck pulpit, opened his duck Bible and read, 'Fellow Ducks! You have wings, and with wings you can fly like eagles. You can soar into the sky! Use your wings!' The ducks quacked a loud 'Amen!' The duck minister closed his duck Bible, and they all waddled home." In the second chapter of James, this great first century leader, earthly half-brother of Jesus, head of the Jerusalem church and bold, in-your-face preacher, is making a strong clear point: Faith has work to do! In fact, as we’ve studied the first two chapters of this epistle we have confronted the clear truth that genuine faith is not just religious thoughts and rituals, it is practical, down-to-earth living for Jesus. Last week we began to consider verses 14-26. We learned about how faith, if it is to be genuine faith, must evidence itself through good works. Faith that is not obedient is not faith, not real faith. Reflecting on the same verses this morning, I want us to see that while we are called to do good works, we must understand that if the works themselves are not done in faith, real faith, they are as dead as those done by pagans who are trying to earn God’s favor. The Bible says even the most sincere of those good works are like filthy rags in the sight of our holy God. So we’ll look at the issue of good works from 2 sides: obedient faith and faithful obedience. Let’s review one of the key summary statements from last week just to get thinking oriented. Good works do not save you, but they do serve as evidence of the genuineness of your faith, and whether or not it is saving faith. Further, we Christians do not do good works in order to be saved; because we are saved. James reminds us that our thinking must be clear on these matters lest we fall victim to false doctrine or empty ritualistic religion. The Text This morning I want to read from The Message. Sometimes a different version helps us to hear and understand the meaning of a passage more clearly. Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department." Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove. Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands? Wasn't our ancestor Abraham "made right with God by works" when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? Isn't it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are "works of faith"? The full meaning of "believe" in the Scripture sentence, "Abraham believed God and was set right with God," includes his action. It's that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named "God's friend." Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works? The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn't her action in hiding God's spies and helping them escape—that seamless unity of believing and doing—what counted with God? The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse. As we move forward to the two Old Testament illustrations James presents, let’s briefly summarize what we’ve learned: Summary: Concerning Salvation and Works • We are saved by God’s grace through faith • Our BC good works cannot, do not save us • Faith that is real will produce good works AD • Good works (AD) do please and honor God • Without AD good works as evidence, faith is no good, dead • Not only do BC good works not save us, neither can they please and honor God I never cease to be amazed at the difference between spiritual understanding of people who have genuine, saving faith that works, and the spiritual cluelessness of those who don’t. Example #1 – Abraham Remember the story of Abraham, to whom God promised many descendants, but not until he was 100 years old was he given a son, whom he named Isaac. Then when Isaac was a young man, Genesis 22 tells us, God told Abraham to take him up on the mountain and sacrificed the boy to Him as an act of worship. Not only was human sacrifice forbidden to the Jews; not only was Abraham shocked that God would ask him to do such a thing; but to take the life of this son—the child of promise through whom Abraham would realize God’s covenant promises—must have seemed outrageous! And it was outrageous! But once he was certain this was God’s desire, Abraham began the ascent to the top of the mountain with Isaac. Now well over a hundred years old, He gave the heavy lifting to Isaac, to carry the wood for the sacrificial fire. Abraham carried the knife and the fire. He was willing to do it, and the Bible says it was because of his faith in God—a genuine, saving faith. I often think of Isaac, a young man strong enough to carry the wood up the mountain, so he had to be at least an adolescent. When he asked the question of his dad, Here’s the wood and the fire, but where is the lamb? He was probably already getting the idea. He could easily have overcome his father and saved his own life, but he willingly went through with the idea as well! His faith was certainly as great as Abraham’s. Hebrews, as we read from chapter 11 earlier tells us that Abraham trusted that even if his only son, the son of promise, should die, God was able to raise him up. The rest of the Bible clarifies for us what that event foreshadowed and we now know Isaac was not the only Son who would carry the wood of his own sacrificial death up a hill, and do it willingly. It wasn’t until Abraham was just ready to plunge the knife into his son that God stopped him and changed the plan. God saw the evidence of Abraham’s faith—his absolute obedience to God. The depiction in that story of the sacrifice of Jesus, God’s Son, is plain, but still mysterious and enigmatic. Abraham’s faith in God did not overshadow his love for his son, but in spite of that love for Isaac, Abraham believed and obeyed God. God, in spite of his love for His only-begotten Son Jesus, loved us enough to follow through on the sacrifice of His Son. And He did raise that Son from the dead. So, what do we learn about faith and works from the story of Abraham and Isaac? James says, You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. (vs.26) Faith is made complete by what we do. When faith and actions work together faith is completed by the action of obedience. Jesus said Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me . . . If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. Don’t bring empty, vain words to the Lord. If you mean what you say about your faith in Him, you will do all that faith demands. And if you don’t, you betray a faith that is DOA. May I make a simple, but accurate application here? Those who say they believe in Jesus, but never deny themselves enough to serve Him, who never step out to testify to others about the gospel, who never give in a meaningful, sacrificial way to support His kingdom work, who never get past their own selfishness to serve others in His Name. Is that really faith in Jesus? Is that really love for God? I’ll say again what I said last week, if you find you are one of those who have mouthed the words but never done the work, you need to come to real faith in Him and stop playing at religion. How do you do that? It’s really very simple: Seek Him and you will find Him. Believe the gospel in your head and your heart. Ask Him to save you from your sin, yourself and your shame. In Jeremiah 29:13, God says to you: You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Seek the Lord with all your heart and you will find Him in faith—genuine faith. It is then, when you let Christ rule in your heart that you will be taught and empowered by His Spirit to join faith and works. And it will be credited to you as “righteousness”. Example #2 – Rahab As Joshua prepared to take the city of Jericho, he sent two spies to do surveillance. To cover their true identities, they went and stayed with a prostitute named Rahab. From that vantage point they scoped out the city, and to others it simply looked like some travelers were consorting with the woman of the night. When they were found out, she hid them in the flax on her roof, and later helped them down the outside of the city wall by a rope. Joshua 2 says she and others had heard how the Lord delivered the Hebrews from Egypt through the Red Sea and the other exploits of His people Israel and had come to faith. She could have simply said that she believed, so that the men would save her and her family’s lives when Jericho was destroyed. But she proved her faith by risking her life to save the spies when the king’s espionage team came to interrogate her. Amazing! God was honoring the very real faith of a harlot! The good works that are done by someone who has genuine faith will evidence their faith every time, no matter who they are or who they’ve been or what they’ve done. This woman of the evening, who was not a Hebrew, but a Canaanite, decided to entrust her life to God no matter the consequences, and God saw faith. Let me tell you this morning as clearly as I know how. It doesn’t matter who you’ve been all your life up to this point; it doesn’t matter what you’ve done. God loves you and says you are a candidate for saving faith. He says to you today, If you will put your trust in me, if you will stand for me today in courageous faith, I will save you from your sins and judgment. Turn your life over to Him this morning and let Him make it into something meaningful and marvelous. Some of the greatest servants of God have come from horrible places and horrible backgrounds. But He love to show the world what He can do with a life that is committed to Him. You’ve heard the expression, to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear? That’s what God does. One man playing in a Salvation Army Band was taunted by a heckler, Do really believe all that stuff? Do you believe that Jesus turned water into wine? He replied, Sir I don’t know my Bible very well yet, so I couldn’t tell you anything about turning water into wine, but in my case, He turned beer into furniture! Conclusion The most famous pair of conjoined twins was Chang and Eng Bunker, two brothers born in 1811 in Thailand (though at the time it was known as Siam). They eventually traveled with P.T. Barnum's circus for many years and were billed as the Siamese Twins. Chang and Eng were joined at the torso by a band of flesh, cartilage, and their fused livers. In modern times, they could have been easily separated. Due to the brothers' fame and their rare condition, the term came to be used for all such twins. About 1 in 3 Siamese twins are connected at the chest, and these are known as thoracopagus twins. There are a number of possible configurations, but the common element being that thoracopagus twins share a single heart and cannot be separated. As we leave the second chapter of James, I want to punctuate what James says about faith and works just once more. James says that faith and works are Siamese twins joined at the heart. If you try to separate them, and make one stand without the other, they both die. If you have no real faith and yet you perform good works, you are a victim of Satan’s lie that you can earn God’s favor through what you do for Him, even if you are not interested in living for Him. You become a mere religionist, trying to be saved by your own effort. But the Bible says if you have works without genuine faith, you are as lost as a kitten in a hailstorm. On the other hand, if you say you believe in Christ, yet your life has never produced a steady flow of good works in service to God and other people, your so-called “faith” is merely an illusion. The lack of good works in your life proves that your heart has not been touched and changed by God’s love yet, and that in turn means you do not have saving faith. The faith that you have is, as James puts it, “dead.” Further, he asks somewhat sarcastically, “what good is it?” Bottom line, faith and works are Siamese twins. If you want to please God and have genuine saving faith, come to Him in all humility of heart and give Him your life—all of it—all of your sin and shortcoming, all of your guilt and your shame, all of your failures and your futile attempts at being good on your own. He can change you. Repent today of all of that, give it to God, trust Christ as your Savior, and then watch Him plant His new nature in your life and begin to produce good works—real, good works that please and honor Him.     [ Back to Top]