Faith Is Action

As we continue our series on Joshua, we remember what we’ve seen so far, in chapter one, God promised to be with Joshua as he had been with Moses, therefore, he should be bold and very courageous. God promised he would go before the Israelites, preparing the way for them. In chapter two, Rahab’s words to the spies confirmed that God was true to his word. The Canaanites in Jericho were terrified of the Israelites. God struck fear into their hearts.

Time to Act

The time to act had come. Joshua and the Israelites had to put their faith into action. No more talking about when the conquest would happen. No more planning, no more hoping, wondering, the day arrived. Led by Joshua, led by the priests, led by God, they prepared to cross the Jordan River. Oh, one more thing, did you catch that the river was at flood stage?

Did you know that fast flowing, muddy water only 6” deep can knock a person off his feet? Can you imagine standing on the bank of the Jordan River, watching the water rushing by? Can you imagine the trust those priests put in God? The men carrying the ark boldly went forward and trusted God to take care of the wild, turbulent, rushing, deadly water.

God Promises

Of course, we’ve all read the story, so we know; God took care of it. God Promises, God Delivers. He took care of the Red Sea, the Egyptians, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Noah, etc. God demonstrates his faithfulness throughout the scriptures. He follows through, every time. Putting our trust in God is reasonable, intellectual and wise.

God promised to go before the Israelites, even into the waters of the Jordan River. He did. God promised to go before them into the land, he did. God promised that he would never leave Joshua, he never did.

God gives those very same promises to us also. Jesus said to his disciples, “All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to me, go therefore and make disciples of all nations teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, and behold, I am with you always even to the end of the age.” In Hebrews 13:5b-6 we read, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

This is where God demonstrates his overwhelming power at work in his people. All we need to do is trust in God and his power. That’s all. But having all the power in the universe is useless unless someone uses it. There’s no point in building a clean energy power plant if there’s no place for the power to go.

God promises to be with us. God promises to give us words to say, or not say. God promises to be in us and to work through us. God promises to make the connections, so that, by faith, we can make disciples of all nations.

But, those are nothing more than nice sentiments if we never actually do anything. Unless we actually step out and obey, unless we put ourselves where God can use us, we’ll be as useless as a generator with nothing plugged into it.

A Screen Door on a Submarine

There’s a song that gets to the point of all of this. The lyrics go like this, “Faith without works is like a song you can't sing. It's about as useless as a screen door on a submarine.” This song, of course, reflects the teaching recorded in the book of James, 2:14-26, “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 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. 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. ”

Let me stop there for just a moment. James is making a very important distinction here, faith in Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Lord, true faith will result in a transformed life, such that you can and will see good deeds as a result. James illustrates this with his example of helping a naked and hungry person. Please don’t focus just on the example what James is illustrating is care, care for other people! There are limitless ways to care for others. Care for others comes from a changed heart. But it is sometimes hard to tell why people are doing good things—some are doing it, like we saw last week, for themselves. Ask people what motivates them. True followers will always point to Jesus, not to themselves.

The second distinction James makes is that you can’t just do good deeds apart from the gospel. There are lots of philanthropic people around the world who do all kinds of wonderful and amazing things, but they are not doing it for Jesus. All our good deeds have to be done for Jesus. The why we do what we do has to be communicated, always!

We continue with verse 19: You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.

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

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

Last Sunday afternoon, we had the privilege of hearing Reverend Crown preach on God’s Word concerning Abraham’s faith. That sermon, also explained here by James, illustrated that Abraham’s faith in God resulted in action. When commanded, Abraham didn’t hesitate, he left immediately.

How is God calling us to demonstrate our faith in Him? Is there anything in our lives, pride, status, plans, desires, anything getting in the way from simply obeying Him? Are we coming to God, are we seeking to obey God on our terms or on His? I don’t know about you, but there are a lot of people who claim to be Christians who are saying, “I’m a Christian, but…” They don’t want to submit to the Lordship of Christ.

Let’s be honest, it’s not just Christians out there, it is Christians in here, or watching at home. It’s you, it’s me. Adam and Eve’s rebellion runs strong in all of us. We have to bring it into submission to Christ, and we see that then true faith results in action.

Faith Results in Action

Actions don’t precede faith; they are the result of faith. Because God has promised, we do what He commands us to do. Because Christ is in us, we act.

In 2007, I had the privilege of accompanying a group of teenagers on a Serve trip to California. I remember sitting down for a meal with some of the people we’d been helping during the week. A lady asked us where we were from. I said, “Edson, Alberta, Canada.” After a crazy loud exclamation, she called out to her friend, saying, “Come over here and meet these people, they came all the way from Canada to help us!”

Do you know who and what the greatest missionary, the greatest act of service in history was? Jesus, Jesus came all the way from His Father’s throne to help us, more than that, to save us, to redeem us, to atone for us, to bring us from death to life, to bring us out of bondage and slavery to sin, into freedom, joy and delight! But to live in that, we have to accept what Jesus has done, submit ourselves to him, and in him, discover true life!

The Israelites did. They stood on the banks of the Jordan River. Let me read verse 10 and 13 again. “And Joshua said, ‘By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites: And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the LORD, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap.”

How did the Israelites know that the living God was among them? They stepped out in faith, as the Lord had commanded them. How do we know that the living God is among us? We step out in faith.

Wasn’t it faith that caused all of us to step out and join together in this congregation? Isn’t faith and the presence of the living God among us that motivates us to serve at the Soup Kitchen, correspond and, hopefully again, meet with inmates at the prison, isn’t it faith that moves us to take the Ripple Effect newsletters in our mailboxes and reach out to our neighbours? Isn’t it the belief that the Living God is with us, that causes us to trust Him, in life, in the face of death, in the difficulties we face, and in the joys we experience? Yes, we can see that the living God is with us. All his promises are true. Let us trust him with everything, listening to his summons.

God is summoning us to let His love be shown and told. God is summoning us to tell the gospel so that those blind by sin can see, so that those are unloved, uncared for, hungry, homeless, can be loved, can be brought into God’s home. Let us let God move, live, and grow in us, and us in Him. Amen.