Is Your Faith Working?

We’re looking tonight at one of the more famous passages, maybe one of the more controversial passages in Scripture.

When I was a teenager I always said I wanted to go sky diving. One of my really good friends went sky diving right after we graduated high school. He went a few times actually. He invited me to go once because he knew that I had said multiple times that I wanted to do it. I believed that it was most likely that if I went sky diving the chute would open and work properly and everything would be fine. But when he asked me to go and put a real life opportunity in front of me, that belief proved not to be very solid. I thought that little back pack would save me, but I didn’t have true and complete faith in it or else I would’ve taken the action of jumping out of a plan with that back pack being the only thing to keep me from going splat.

Kristen and I have some friends and they have a daughter. When she was a baby she slept really well. Once they put her in bed for the night she didn’t wake up until the morning. He used to joke after they put her in bed that they could go get ice cream cause she wasn’t going to wake up. But they never actually left the house because they didn’t have full faith the led to action.

Full faith, complete faith, saving faith in Jesus leads us to action. To doing things from that faith because of that faith! Now we’re not talking about jumping out of planes or leaving babies, but about being led in our actions in life every day by our faith in Jesus.

pray and read Jas 2:14-26

A saving faith in Jesus Christ always produces good works in a person's life, and those works are evidence of that person's saving faith.

Faith Works

If you have saving faith in Jesus, you will do good works He puts before you to do.

On church days we have deacons patrolling our campus to be on the look out for anything bad. So if a deacon came in here and said, “everyone you need to get out now!” what would you do? It depends on if you have faith in them. If you do, you’ll act by doing what? And if you don’t have faith, what will you do?

14-19; James is having a conversation with a hypothetical person here. This person is saying they have faith and therefore don’t have to do any good works.

Saving faith in Jesus is always followed by acts of faith in Jesus, good works of faith.

Ephesians 2:8–10 ESV

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

20; Just “believing” is not saving faith.

You show your faith not just by what you think or by what you feel but by what you do. Faith acts. –David Platt

We have to do good works, acts of faith, in big scary things like standing up for God’s truth when no one will. Showing love to people that no one else is.

And we have to show our faith in the little, every day things like being in prayer, spending time in the Bible, loving others, being honest. If we have faith in Jesus, then we trust his Word that instructs us to do these things.

Faith acts, and to prove it James gives a couple examples.

Check This Faith Out

Faith leads God’s people to do things only explainable by their faith in Him.

20-23; Abraham takes Isaac to the altar in Gen 22.

22; His faith was “completed” by his acts of faith. Faith leads to obedience and obedience matures faith. Seeing God's faithfulness increases ours.

25; Rahab risks her and her families lives in Jos 2.

Jos 4; The army crosses the Jordan and then God gives them instructions that will make them unable to fight a battle for over a week. They’ll just be camped out in the sight of the people they are headed to battle against, not even able to defend themselves.

That is a huge act of faith take to be obedient to God!

Be Strong Chapter Four: Forward by Faith (Joshua 3–4)

It has been well said that faith is not believing in spite of evidence but obeying in spite of consequence.

Kristen and I got married in June 2009 and in January 2010 we moved from Birmingham to Louisville. The only things we had in Louisville were bills, rent, and I had a bunch of school work. We didn’t have jobs, didn’t even have leads. We didn’t know anyone (which by the way, I think was great for our marriage). It didn’t make much sense for us to go. But God, in his grace, had given us a direction. And God, in his grace, had given us faith. And because He had given us faith, we were obedient. And He was proven to be good and faithful through it!

What step of faith is God calling you to make? What plans are you making to do it? How can I help??

Jesus Saves Through Faith, not Works

We need to understand the relationship between faith and works.

Everlasting Gobstoppers are different colors, you have to work through them to find out what color they are. What ever color the second and third layers are, they already are that color, but we don’t have confirmation until it’s uncovered. If you have faith in Jesus, it’s there and your good acts of faith exposes it!

24 & 26;

Some of you may be remembering something Paul said...

Romans 3:28 ESV

For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

This is still true! Paul is talking about works of the law for people who are not yet saved. They can not be saved by those.

James is talking about works from faith for people who have been saved. We display and authenticate our faith through them.

In other words, we do them because Jesus has already saved us, not so that He will save us.

This is why understanding context in the Bible is so important.

So yes, works are related to your salvation. They do not save you, but they show that you are saved.

Martin Luther said, "O it is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, this faith. It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly. It does not ask whether good works are to be done, but before the question is asked, it has already done them, and is constantly doing them."

Check yourself out. Are there good works of faith being displayed in your life? If not, you’ve got to ask yourself a difficult question; do you have a true, saving faith in Jesus? Have you put your faith in Him to receive forgiveness and righteousness and salvation? Do you really have faith in who He is and that his Word is for your good? If so, put your faith to work. If not, your faith is in something or someone else, but this Jesus is the only one worthy of it! Put your faith in Him tonight!