Sermon Tone Analysis
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Good morning and welcome to Oldfield Free Church.
I’m Ian and it’s great to see you here.
We’re going to sing a few songs, pray and have notices
...before the message: Faith that works
If you’re new here welcome and please take one of the leaflets on the table at the back and stay for a cuppa after the service and introduce yourself.
We’d appreciate it if you switch your mobiles to silence so we are not unnecessarily distracted during the service.
Mighty God, everything you do reveals your glory and majesty.
Open our eyes to see what you are doing in our lives.
Let us marvel at your good gifts and your wise provision.
Your acts are amazing Lord.
We can not comprehend the number of blessings you pour out on us from day to day.
As we gather today around your name, we pray that you would fill our hearts, our minds and our souls.
Transform us Lord, and make us more like you.
Through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.
Hymn: 302 Tell out my soul
VIDEOS: Jesus strong and kind, I have this hope
Father of all, we pray for your church, all of those throughout the world, brought together through faith in your son.
We ask for your protection upon your people and lift before you, those Christians around the world who are persecuted for their faith.
We pray that you will bring renewal to the church, in faith, love and service and that divisions will be healed so that unity may come.
Help your church to have good, robust conversations, to listen and disagree well, help those that lead reach the decisions that will be for the good of all and for your glory.
Lord, we pray for our community.
We thank you for all the opportunities that you have given and ask that you continue to lead and guide us as we seek to shine your light in this place and in this area.
Lord, we pray for those as they go about their daily life and work, we pray for the young and the elderly, for families and those who live alone, that you will work through their and draw near to them that they find You.
Lord of all, we lift before you all leaders, we pray for the day when all that lead governments locally, nationally and worldwide will come under your rule.
Lord of healing, we pray for those who are sick and suffering, in mind, body or spirit.
For those who are grieving such as Thavam’s family.
Meet with those who find themselves in darkness and wrap your comforting and healing arms around them.
In a moment of silence, we will each bring before you someone in need of our prayers today.
Notices & Collection (298)
Video: Yet not I
Reading and Sermon
How are we saved?
By our works?
Or by our faith?
And that is the crux of the issue for the great reformer Martin Luther.
He thought that James was contradicting Paul and had even written this letter to dispute with him.
So much so that he put James in the appendix to the New Testament.
Which, was a bit much.
It was a big issue in Luther’s day as it is today.
If we are saved by faith plus works then we have to ask what was the point of the cross.
We can save ourselves by doing enough good works.
But if we are saved by faith alone then we are dependent upon Jesus’ death and resurrection.
And if we read Paul’s letters especially those to the Galatians and to Romans then we will find that it is by faith alone we are saved.
So, is James saying the opposite then when he says faith apart from works is useless and dead?
In fact, James, which was written first, by the way, Paul wrote his letters after.
James is complimentary to Paul.
And that is what we are going to find out as we go through this passage.
The difference is found in that Paul wrote to those who had placed their faith in the law as the way of salvation AND in Jesus.
But the works of the law cannot save you.
Martin Luther was addressing a similar problem with the Roman Catholicism of his day that was saying, as it still does to this day, that you had to follow all the tenets of the Catholic faith and its sacraments to be saved.
This Luther and I are saying is not good news.
However, just as works plus faith cannot save, the evidence of faith IS good works.
Faith justifies us before God.
He knows when we put our trust in Him.
Faith and trust are synonyms.
God knows the moment we are saved.
God is omniscient, that is, He knows all things.
He does not need external evidence.
For example, the man on the cross next to Jesus had not a chance to show good works but that man entered Heaven regardless.
Why?
Because He submitted to the rule of Christ and trusted Him for salvation.
This was no simple intellectual attitude of simply believing - no he trusted completely.
This is true faith.
Had he lived there would have been evidence in his life.
To understand that the word faith is more than simply knowing, there are many who know all about Christ, what He has done, and may even acknowledge that all those things are true.
Does that save them?
No. Why?
Because they do not give their lives to God through Jesus.
There are many reasons for this but the chief of them is that they love darkness more than light.
So, it takes more than simply believing.
Believing has to do with trust.
You may believe a chair will not collapse when you sit on it but it is only when you have sat down on it that you prove your belief.
And you have proven this since you were a child.
But now jump from a tall bridge with a rope attached to you on the basis that someone said it is safe to do so... and trust that the you will stop before you hit the ground without splatting.
You may say you believe that all safety precautions have been taken, that the harness will be attached and that you would not die…but is it all talk until you actually bungee jump off the edge of the bridge?
Until you actually jump do you really have faith?
Maybe yes, maybe no.
If you are truly a believer it is that that will move you to take that extra step…if not, it was all bravado and not true.
So James says: show me your faith!
Before God we do not need to evidence our hearts but before people we do.
We reveal our faith by what we do.
Good works did not save us but faith without good works is evidence we do not have faith.
True faith reveals itself in works.
If our faith does not then we have to ask the question have we truly trusted in Jesus for our salvation or were we all talk.
Calvin, that is John Calvin of the 16th Century, not the maker of jeans and underwear, said:
“It is faith alone that justifies, but faith that justifies can never be alone.”
Paul wrote one of my oft quoted verses:
And Paul also says:
True faith is never by itself, it always has as its evidence good works.
We are familiar with the Parable of the Sower, right with the four types of ground, three of which produced nothing at all but one did: Why?
Because they truly understood the Gospel:
We are also told by Jesus
And didn’t Paul writes whole chapters on how we should live as Christians?
Why? because our faith needs an outlet to work in the world and God works through us at such times.
Indeed, did we not see last week that James said that it is wrong to discriminate towards someone who is rich or poor?
And that this faith produces mercy.
James goes on in verse 16, that if you see someone in need and only encourage them with words rather than with actions then this helps not one iota.
Then what is the good of saying “I believe in One God” and have nothing to show for it.
Yes, trust in God is mental assent but this does not save the demons.
If you believe there is One God, what is called in Hebrew the Shema, well done, good for you!
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