Am I saved?

That’s a question a number of people have asked me over the course of my lifetime.

I have a standard number of questions I ask them and specific verses I use to give them assurance.

But after reading James’ letter in the Bible, I have realized that I need to ask them one more question.

Can you see how your faith in Jesus has made a difference in how you live?

If you believed in nothing rather than Jesus, would we notice a difference in your life?

That’s what is at the heart of James’ message today - if your “faith” doesn’t affect your life - you don’t have a saving faith.

Now, I understand that faith is an extremely personal thing - got it.

And I know we say that a person’s salvation is between them and the Lord.

But I also know, that we are to look at Christians as our brothers and sisters, and that’s got to make a thinking person pause.

For those of you with student athletes or band members or a member of the arts.

If you are in a booster meeting and someone you have no clue who they are walks in and says, “my kid is the theatre group and I want to volunteer,” what would you do?

Open arms, “Great - here you go, we want you to be the costumer and help them in the dressing rooms!”

Would you?

Not if you had half a brain.

You would want evidence.

The release of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Sexual Abuse Task Force report a few weeks back put a bee in my bonnet.

Our staff is on a mission to make absolutely sure that 100% of everyone who works with children or students has taken the Ministry Safe Training.

Let me tell you what that training is designed to do.

Our Ministry Safe training is designed to teach us how to spot the things that people do that groom children and students for abuse.

It is designed to help us see the evidence that someone might be an abuser.

Because people who are not safe with kids will have certain tells that we can look for.

And if everyone is trained to see it, chances are real good that one of us will catch it.

And your child, or grand child - it could totally be yours that we save - your child will not have to grow up with horrible memories and hurt and pain.

That’s worth an hour, right?

All of that to say this - just because we are in church doesn’t mean that reason and logic get thrown out the door.

Verse 19 says, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe...”

They believe - but it makes no impact on their existence.

Faith that has no impact on a person’s life is not a saving faith.

“Well, you can’t say that.”

I’m not - God’s word does.

Our text today is James 2:14-26.

Take your Bibles and open them to James chapter 2.

And if you are joining us by live stream or by video or podcast - we are glad you’ve joined us.

If you are local, we’d love for you to join us in person.

But right now, if you are in a safe place, pull out your Bible and join us as we look at James 2.

While you are looking, remember a couple of things from the last couple of weeks.

First, James says we live under the law of liberty.

That means we are free to follow Jesus - there is nothing to stop us.

And second, the “law” James makes his argument around is “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

I’m reminding us of that because we are about to hear it again.

Hear the Word of the Lord.

James 2:14–26 ESV

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So 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 apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Faith you can’t see is dead and it won’t save you.

James 2:14 “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?”

Notice what James says here, “…if someone says he has faith...”

Not that “…if someone has faith,” but that “someone says he has faith...”

Now the objection I keep hearing in my mind is this, “Brother Pastor, you know we aren’t supposed to judge anyone.”

Yep, I got it and I’ll play along today even though I hear Inigo Montoya saying in my mind, “I do not think that word means what you think it means.”

So for today, let’s do this:

2 Corinthians 13:5 ESV

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!

Today, let’s examine ourselves.

Do we have a saving faith?

Does our faith have works that seals our faith as real?

You see, if we trust in Jesus, we’ll want to be like Jesus.

Jesus did good works, so will we.

Not to prove that we are good - not to try to be good.

But because we are good - we are righteous.

We’ve been cleansed by Jesus blood, made right with God.

We are free to do our best to be like Jesus.

And in our striving to be like him, we will do good works naturally.

They are simply going to come out of us.

So, when you look at your faith, what do you see?

For many people, faith is simply a wishful thought.

If I believe it hard enough and long enough, it will happen.

You may have heard the saying, “If you believe it, you can achieve it.”

Is that what our faith is, a wish that things will turn out O.K. if I simply keep believing everything will turn out O.K.?

James asks, “Can that faith save him?”

He’s implying, “No, it can’t.”

Then he gives us this example.

James 2:15-16 “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?”

So, someone comes to your door - no, no - not someone - a brother or a sister.

A fellow Christian - you greet them at church.

Shake their hands.

Pray in groups together.

One of those folks - someone you know - not a stranger on the street, but someone who you know is a brother or a sister.

And they come to your door poorly clothed.

That word means practically naked.

It doesn’t simply mean they aren’t dressed for the occasion or dressed for the elements.

They are wearing rags that barely cover them.

And they are lacking in daily food.

They have nothing to eat and have had nothing to eat today.

“And one of you says to them, “go...”

I’ve got to stop her because this word slapped me.

You’ve heard people says before, “Go in peace.”

I think I’ve said that at the close of a worship service or two.

It carries a good meaning.

That’s not this go.

This go say, “Move along.”

“You knocked at my door - move along to someone else’s.”

James 2:16 “and one of you says to them, “[move along] in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?”

It’s not that you don’t have something to give to them.

You don’t want to be bothered.

That’s crushing.

That guy - who claims the name of Christ - who has been blessed by the Lord with means to help - gives them a blessing and a cold shoulder.

“What good is that?”

John said, 1 John 3:17-18

1 John 3:17–18 ESV

But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

James 2:17 “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

Faith you cannot see is dead and it cannot save you, it is not real.

Well, I believe in God.

OK, great - but do you have peace with God?

A dead faith doesn’t result in peace with God.

James 2:18-19 “But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”

This is the part of James that scares me. Really.

A lot of people can tell me a lot of things about Jesus.

So many people know so much more than I do - and I listen.

But I sometimes wonder - do you know Jesus or just know about Jesus.

And what scares me is so many people are convinced - I mean convinced - that knowing Jesus is enough.

James 2:19 “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!”

Now think about what James is saying here.

The demons whose home is in hell.

They live in the land of outer darkness where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

This is there home where the fires of hell and the stench of rot and the screams of torment are eternal.

They live there.

And they believe in God.

They believe in Jesus.

They know the Holy Spirit.

And it causes them to shudder in fear because they roam free now but they know their fate.

But they do not have peace with God.

Revelation 20:10 ESV

and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

They know what the fate of their father the devil is at the hands of God.

And they tremble in fear.

But you?

“Oh, I believe in God.”

“Now move along and be warm and filled.”

“I don’t have time to be bothered.”

You’re so confident in your knowledge of God that you ignore the practice of your faith.

You don’t even respect God enough that you shudder in fear of what the Lord can do.

You’ve got that God thing covered, move along.

I beg you right now.

I plead with you - if your belief in God is the same as the demons - repent.

Please do not take the chance on leaving here to wait for another day - a better day - a more convenient day.

Because there might not be another day.

Simply believing in God does nothing for you.

A dead faith doesn’t result in peace with God, but

A living faith results in friendship with God.

And people can see that - it can’t be hidden.

Abraham is very prominent in the history of the church.

God came to Abraham and promised him that one day he’d have more children than there are stars in the sky.

Problem was Abraham and his wife were well beyond child bearing years.

But Abraham believed God.

So he and Sarah kept trying to make a baby - and no baby came.

For 25 years.

But at the age of 100, Isaac was born.

Abraham and Sarah loved that miracle baby of promise.

And then one day, when the boy was older, God came to Abraham and said to offer Isaac as a burnt offering to God.

Think like Abraham for a minute.

You give me this child that you’ve promised me we’d have - and we did.

And now you want us to sacrifice him.

God, you have been faithful.

You must have a plan.

As horrible and sad as this is, let’s go.

in case you don’t know the story, God stopped Abraham from carrying the plan through.

Abraham’s faith was proven in his works - he followed God regardless the request and the Lord was faithful.

James 2:23 “and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.”

He had peace with God.

You can tell when someone is a friend of someone, can’t you?

They do things for each other.

They talk to each other.

They hang out with each other.

It’s obvious who our friends are - it’s plain for everyone to see.

That’s how faith and works operate.

If you have faith, people can see it because

A living faith results in compassion towards our neighbors

There’s a lot of background to get to verse 25.

James 2:25 “And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way?”

So instead of giving the entire history, let’s net this out.

Abraham is kind of the founding father of the faith.

Sometimes the Old Testament writers referred to God the Father as the Lord of “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

But they don’t include Rahab.

Rahab lived in Jericho and the Israelites were about to invade Jericho.

Israel sent spies to check it all out and when they were about to be discovered, a lady of evening named Rahab took them in and hid them.

She lived in the city wall and had a window that faced outward.

She lowered the spies to the ground on a rope to save them.

Before they go, she tells them the story of what they have heard about Israel’s God and she says this:

Joshua 2:11 ESV

And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the Lord your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.

She makes a statement of faith and she follows up her words with action.

She lowered them down on a rope.

If the rulers of Jericho found out, they would have executed Rahab.

But that didn’t happen.

And when Israel invaded and Jericho fell, Joshua rescued Rahab and her family.

Rahab ended up married to a man named Salmon who had a son named Boaz, who married a woman named Ruth.

Whose great grandchild ended up being King David.

And if you keep following her descendants, you’ll run into Jesus.

Faith - and works.

James 2:26 “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”

Had Abraham just believed - no more than the demons do - we would not be here.

Had Rahab just believed - no more than the demons do - we would not be here.

But their faith was confirmed by their works.

They loved God so much they couldn’t help but do good works.

Am I saved?

Can people smell Jesus on your clothes?

Do people know you are a Christian without you ever saying a word?

Or, do you have to tell people.

“Well, I’m a member of the First Baptist Church of Gray.

“Joined when I was little.

“Been a member there for years.

Let me tell you what scares me about that.

Revelation 20:11–15 ESV

Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

That will happen one day.

Don’t let it happen to you.

Repent - and don’t believe in Jesus.

Follow Jesus.