Sermon Tone Analysis

Overview

Last week we covered 2:14-20 where James asks the question, "What good is it if you say you have faith but don't show it by your actions?

Can that kind of faith save anyone?"

He then goes into a hypothetical, to better drive home his point; Unless faith produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.

James unpacks this idea of an intellectual faith versus a living faith.

True faith will produce.

Don’t miss the meaning behind James statement in vs 17

He’s not saying that deeds or action without faith produces.

Faith without action is as useless as action without faith.

Even the demons believe there is one God.

And get this, the tremble in terror!

If your faith doesn't produce, you're no better off then the demons who believe in the one true God.

Authentic faith is "belief in action."

(NLT)

19 You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God.

Good for you!

Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.

20 How foolish!

Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?

21 Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?

22 You see, his faith and his actions worked together.

His actions made his faith complete.

23 And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”

He was even called the friend of God.

24 So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.

25 Rahab the prostitute is another example.

She was shown to be right with God by her actions when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road.

26 Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works

Abraham

Abraham, the father of the nation of Israel.

You really can't get much better than that.

Well, except Moses, maybe.

Faith without good deeds is useless.

I'll prove it.

Remember Abraham?

Well, he was counted righteous because of what he did.

James gives some examples of faith that works.

James original readers were very familiar with this story.

God promised Abraham that he was going to be the father of a great nation.

Only problem, Abraham was old.

Really old.

And his wife was too.

But Abraham believed God.

Finally, Sarah was pregnant and gave birth to a son whom they named Isaac.

This was the son that the promised nation would come.

As Isaac is getting older, late teens, early twenties, God tests Abraham's faith.

He told him to sacrifice his son, Isaac.

They get up early the next morning, gather all of the supplies for the sacrifice and take a 3-day journey.

They arrive at the foot of the mountain God told Abraham about, Isaac decides to speak about the elephant in the room.

I don't know about you, but I'm not sure that would be a good enough explanation for me to continue up the mountain if I were Isaac.

They arrive and build an altar.

Abraham tied his son, Isaac, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood, picked up the knife to sacrifice his son.

Abraham passed the test!

The LORD provided a ram for the sacrifice and Isaac was not harmed.

What was Abraham thinking?

He receives two contradictory statements.

Isaac is the son that will become a great nation through whom all nations will be blessed.

Take Isaac to this mountain and sacrifice him.

God, do you realize that only one of these statements can become true?

It would be very easy to believe one and reject the other.

But Abraham believed both!

Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice by faith alone, without actions.

No. Abrahams actions completed his faith.

Faith and actions work together.

Did God count Abraham righteous because of his actions or faith?

His faith.

Abraham believed the Lord and righteousness was credited to him a full seven chapters earlier.

That's some 35 years before he proved his faith in when he sacrificed his son.

Faith is the ultimate cause of Abraham's actions.

I believe that the point James is making is that Abraham's faith was much deeper than a cognitive belief.

Not that his faith produced his work, rather his faith and works cooperated together.

Woh James.

Wait a minute.

We're shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone?

Did he not read Pauls letter to the Romans?

Here is the critical difference between Paul's doctrinal stance and that of James.

One is relating to salvation while the other is relating to righteousness.

While Paul is claiming entrance into the Kingdom is solely dependent on faith in Jesus and not obedience of the Jewish Law, James is declaring true faith in Jesus will be evident from our acts of service to God, with a focus on works of charity.

James was not saying that Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son was the means by which he secured salvation.

He's saying his willingness revealed obedience that he truly had faith.

Wisdom's value is confirmed in the actions that come from it.

"James would be claiming that Abraham was “shown to be right” by his actions: his prior acceptance by God (), the “righteousness” that he had already attained by faith, was demonstrated in his deeds of obedience.

Douglas J. Moo, The Letter of James, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2000), 135."

James' examples went from a patriarch to a prostitute.

He's covering the whole scale here.

Rahab, the prostitute.

How would you like that title?

She's probably thinking, "That was so long ago.

Why can't you refer to me as Rehab, the one who hid Joshua's spies in Jerico and helped them get away?"

Believe it or not, there's a reason she's referred to as Rahab, the prostitute not just because she was a prostitute.

It's believed that Joshua's spies went to a prostitutes house because it wouldn't be that out of place to have random guys stop by for the night.

Their spies, they don't want to gain the attention of the king's men and incite suspicion.

Either way, their plan didn't work.

The king got word that spies had come to his city and he sent orders to have them brought out.

Rahab went up on the roof to talk with them.

Rahab had faith before the spies showed up at her door.

It was that faith that motivated her to do what she did.

Abraham & Rahab are extreme opposites in light of their background.

But both proved their faith in God through their actions.

Abraham's faith prompted obedience.