Life Hacks (Part 5): Being Certain of Eternity

Good morning.

Welcome again to Orchard Hill.

It's great to be together.

As I have matured, aged a little bit, you start to look back on life and remember some things a little differently just as you kind of look back.

So I'm in my 40s, and one of the things that that means is that I was growing up in the 70s, 80s, early 90s, kind of that era.

And one of the things that we did at that point when we got into high school is if we wanted to watch a movie on a Friday night, you would drive to a video store, you would go into the video store, you would find the movie you wanted on a big old VHS tape, you would pay for it, you would take it back to your house, you'd put it into something called a VCR, and you would watch it.

And that was the way that you would watch movies.

And the result of that was that to watch a movie was a big investment.

Like today, if you want to watch something, you just uh dial it up on Netflix, Hulu, whatever it is you have, and you say, you know what, I'm gonna watch this for a little bit.

If you don't like it, you just you you jettison it.

But at that point, because you had invested the time to drive to the store to make all of that commitment and you'd selected this movie carefully, if you put it in, you would watch it, even if the movie was exceedingly dumb.

So one of those movies that I remember is Monty Python the Holy Grail.

Anyone else remember that movie?

Um now, if you're younger and you haven't seen that, just indulge those of us who are over 40 for a moment.

So so Monty Python and the Holy Grail has a scene in it where this uh group that's kind of traveling on their quest come to this castle, but in order to get to the castle, they have to pass over this like pit of despair, death, something, if I remember it.

And the guy's standing there, and he says, Before you pass, you have to answer three questions.

And his first question is, What is your name?

Pretty easy, what is your quest?

The Holy Grail.

And then the third question was the question that that was the tell question.

And they were all very nervous to go up to this man or the this being, whatever it was, to enter across this thing.

And the first one, the question was, what's your favorite color?

He says, Blue.

He says, You may pass.

And so he walks right in, and everyone's like, This is easy.

The next guy comes up, what's your name?

What's your quest?

And then he says, and what is the capital of Assyria?

And the man says, I don't know.

And all of a sudden he's flung into this pit of despair.

The next person comes up, he's a little more, more cautious.

He says, Well, what's your name?

What's your quest?

And then he says, What's your favorite color?

And he starts to say red, and then he changes it and thinks maybe I should say blue because that got the other guy in, and so his confusion plunges him into the pit.

And then the other person comes up, the last one, and he says, he's asked, What's your name?

What's your quest?

And then he's asked kind of a question that's kind of a running gag throughout the movie.

What's the average uh airspeed velocity of an unladen sparrow?

And then he responds again, kind of with the same same running gag of the movie.

Is it African or European?

And the the keeper of the of the bridge says, I don't know, and he's plunged into the into the despair pit there.

Now, the reason I tell you that story is because in the church, there are a lot of people who perceive that eternity in heaven is a little bit like this, that the entrance is that someday we'll stand before some kind of a God or a judge or an angel or something, and we'll stand there and be asked a question, and if we get it right, then we get to enter, and if not, we'll be thrown into some kind of a pit.

And what that's done for many people for generations within the church is they've started to say, all that matters is that I get the minimum entrance requirements right, so that one day, if I if and when I stand before God, I will have my minimum entrance requirement down.

Now, certainly, what's happened in recent years in the church is people have said there's gotta be more than just the minimum entrance requirement.

And so there's the there's a whole kind of wave of people who are saying that's not what it's about.

It's about living for the kingdom now.

And to that end, that question about what is it that I need to say when I stand before God has become secondary to many.

And certainly within our culture, people live with a sense of saying, I don't know if that day's coming, but if it comes, whatever it is, whatever God is like, whatever judgment I might face, I'll take my chances.

Because I'm pretty good compared to other people.

And so this question about what is it that lets somebody live with certainty or confidence that one day, when they face their eternity, they'd be able to say with certainty, I know what that day will be.

But it's an important question.

And it's an important question, even if you've been around church a long time or if you've been away from church for a long time, this is an important question.

And when we come to the book of James today, to James chapter 2, it's important that we actually look at some other references in the Bible, because this section seems to contradict some other sections.

James 2 · chapter mention

But let me start with some words of Jesus.

This is Matthew chapter 7, verses 21 through 23.

Matthew 7:21–23

Here's what Jesus says He says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those are the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?

Didn't we drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?

Then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you away from me.

And Jesus, I think, in some of the most chilling verses in the New Testament, says this.

He says, It's possible that you can be around church, that you can do the spiritual thing, that you can affirm right things, and you can miss you can miss eternity.

You can miss heaven.

That's what Jesus says.

Then Paul in Ephesians chapter 2 says this, and these are well-known, often quoted verses.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

This is Ephesians 2, verse and 9.

It says, For it is by grace that you've been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves, it's a gift of God.

And what does he say?

Not by works, so that no one can boast.

And so Paul very simply and unequivocally says, Here is the issue.

If you want to have a certainty of eternity, then it should not be based on your works or on the things that you do.

And then we come to the book of James, chapter 2.

James 2 · chapter mention

And James here says some things that are almost contradictory to what it seems that Paul just said.

He says that if we want to know that we have a future, and we can be certain of our eternity, that it should include works.

Seems to be just the opposite of what Paul's saying.

Verse 18, he says, But someone will say, You have faith, I have deeds.

Show me your faith without your deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.

You believe that there's one God, even the demons believe and shudder.

You foolish people, do you want evidence that faith without deeds or without works is useless?

And then a little later, he even goes so far as to say, verse 24, you see, the person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

It couldn't be more diametrically opposed.

And so the question, in many ways, is how do we reconcile those and what does it have to do with your eternity, with my eternity, with our sense of being certain?

Let me just read a few things that some people have written about this section of James and how it relates to other sections of the Bible, specifically to what Paul seems to teach.

Warren Wearsby said this, hearing God's word, chapter 1, verse 22 through 25 of James, and talking about God's word can never substitute for doing God's word.

What he's saying is that what James is driving at here is he's saying, you can hear about it, you can talk about it, but living it is what's in view.

J.

Vernon McGee, an old Bible teacher, put it this way: uh he said, as someone has said, Paul and James do not stand face to face fighting against each other, but they stand back to back fighting opposite foes.

And then one other commentator said, We are not saved by deeds, we are saved for deeds.

These two are two truths of the Christian life.

And Paul's whole emphasis is on the first truth, while James's whole emphasis is on the second truth.

And here's what what is is happening, probably, in my understanding.

So if you take Matthew 7, verses 21 through 23, 23, Jesus is saying, it is possible for you to miss eternity.

Matthew 7:21–23

Then I think Paul is saying in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9, that the way that we miss eternity is through works righteousness.

Ephesians 2:8

Meaning what we're doing is we're saying, my sense of well-being with God is based on how I perform.

And then we come to James, James chapter 2, verses 14 through 16.

James 2:14–16

And now we get James, and what he's concerned with is false faith or easy believism.

And what I mean when I say this is he's addressing something completely different than Paul.

What Paul's doing is saying is if you believe that the reason you can have eternity is because of your goodness, you're completely deceived because it's never based on your goodness.

But what James is saying is if you believe that because you've affirmed something, because you've said something, because you have right doctrine, because you felt something, because you walked an aisle somewhere and prayed a prayer and your faith doesn't lead to something, he says, then that is false faith.

And what he's concerned about here is this idea of false faith.

And here's the the challenge, I think, in the kind of evangelical church.

And that is what often happens is we believe that if somebody prays and affirms something, and in fact, in a rush to kind of assure them, we'll say, if you pray something, then you're now somebody who is quote unquote saved.

And then we'll throw in a phrase like, once saved, always saved, and so people walk away and say, I prayed a prayer, I took care of it all, now I'm good.

And what James is saying, don't be deceived by praying a prayer, or by doctrinal affirmation, or by creeds, or by something like that.

If there's nothing in your life that corresponds to your declaration of faith, then your faith is worthless.

Let me show you how he says this.

This is James chapter 2, verse 14.

James 2:14

And following, what good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith and has no deeds?

So he just says, right out, what good is it?

If you say, I believe, but it doesn't show up somewhere.

Can such faith save them?

Suppose a brother or sister without clothes and daily food, and if what is without clothes and daily food, if one of you says to them, go in peace and keep warm and well fed and does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?

In the same way, here's the line, faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead.

So he says in verse 14, your faith is dead.

And by the way, the tenses here in the original language means if somebody keeps claiming to have faith and keeps doing nothing, then their faith is useless or dead.

Verse 17, he says, if you see somebody in need and it doesn't move you because the great commandment is love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and the second one is to love your neighbor as yourself.

In other words, if it doesn't move you to ever say, I'm about something more than myself, he says, then you know that your faith is dead.

And then we see this, verse 17 and 19 through 19, or 18 and 19, but someone will say, You have faith and I have deeds.

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds.

And then he makes this curious statement: even the b demons believe and shudder.

And what he's doing is he's saying, even demons have a knowledge of God and an affirmation that God is powerful, but they don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ, one of surrender.

And he says, even that is a kind of faith that is shallow.

And so here's what I think James is really doing.

He's driving at this idea of hypocrisy, of a kind of faith or a kind of religion that says, I believe, therefore I've punched my ticket for eternity, but it doesn't impact the way that I live.

Now, you and I understand this in other arenas of life.

So I have some things that I believe, but I don't believe them enough to let them change how I live consistently.

One of those is I believe that eating vegetables is much healthier than eating just about anything else.

But you know what?

I don't eat vegetables as much as I believe that they would be good for me.

Why?

Because there's a little piece of me that says, as much as I believe that, I don't like it, and therefore it doesn't impact my belief.

And here's again what I think James is driving at.

He's saying, if you have faith, like Kurt has faith in vegetables being good for you, that faith is not enough to change your life.

Now, here's what is true, probably for me.

If someday I go to the doctor and I find out that that my body is not going to continue to function at a high level because of the way that I eat, and that only if I eat vegetables will my life continue to be vibrant.

Do you know what'll happen?

All of a sudden, not just will I say, I believe it intellectually, but I'll say, now I believe it in reality, and I'll start eating healthier than what I eat today.

Now, that might be a goofy example, but do you see what James is driving at here?

He's saying, he's saying, if you have the affirmation in the creed or you've prayed a prayer or something like that, but but it hasn't shown up in the way that you actually live, he says, then you have a reason to question that kind of faith.

You have a reason to say maybe that faith is spurious or hypocritical in your life.

Here's uh what one writer said about this.

This is from Charles Coulson.

He said, This people flit about in search of what suits their taste at the moment.

It's what some have called the McChurch mentality.

Today it might be McDonald's for a Big Mac, tomorrow it's Wendy's or for a salad bar, or perhaps it's a sandwich at Chick-fil-A.

Spiritual consumers are interested not in what the church stands for, but in the fulfillment it can deliver.

The result is an age of mix them and match them, spiritual bar, spiritual salad bar, kind of spirituality.

And what he's driving at here is he's saying, here's what happens for many of us, and that is we decide that we're going to have a take it and leave it mentality with God, and that that is an actual faith, because what we're doing is we're saying, I'll believe as long as it suits me.

He's saying, I want you to understand, James is, that that faith, that kind of faith, is not helpful ultimately in our lives.

And then he he moves on just a little further, and he gives us these accounts of Abraham and Rahab.

Now, without going into some Old Testament study here, Abraham probably represents somebody who most of the listeners to James would have said, that's a good religious person.

And we're told that Abraham, even though other parts of the Bible say he was justified by faith, here it says he's justified by what he did.

And I believe what's happening is the word justified is being used in two different ways.

Paul's using it to say this is the way that it's caused, whereas James is saying this is the way that it's demonstrated.

And then Rahab was a prostitute who put herself in a place to say, I'm going to believe and act on my faith.

And here's what I think the whole sweep of this is saying.

It's saying, if you want to know that your faith has shown up in your life, it will show itself in compassion.

That's the whole part about the people who don't have needs.

It will show itself in a willingness to surrender to something that seems illogical.

The story here about Abraham being tested and about his son being asked to sacrifice his son.

And God provided another sacrifice, but but Abraham, we're told, believed even to the point of putting himself in a place where he said, I'll do what seems illogical.

And one of the ways that you know that your faith is genuine isn't just that you say, I'm going to do good to people who have less, but it's a willingness to say, I'll believe and obey something that seems to me to be illogical.

In fact, I would say, if there's nothing in your life that doesn't make sense to you that you've bent your knee to before God, then there's a chance that what you're doing in your faith is you're saying, God, I want to believe and I want to have eternity, but I don't want to bend my knee to you now.

And here's what, again, James is just driving at.

He's saying, saying, the way that you know that you've really come to believe is you bend your knee to some things that don't make perfect sense to you.

And then Rahab, I think, is a picture of somebody who's willing to sacrifice, willing to take God at his word and say, I'll step out of what's important to me.

Now it's significant here that Abraham is chosen, and Raham is chosen in part because they're opposite ends of the spectrum.

You get the religious and the irreligious.

But it's also significant because Abraham didn't do everything right.

If you read through the stories of Genesis, Abraham was tested several times and he failed.

But he didn't just fail, he also, when he failed, came back to God.

What James is not saying is that anytime you fail, you have reason to doubt your standing with God.

What he's saying is that the overall direction and preponderance of the evidence in your life will say, I am in a direction of saying that I trust or I want God in my life.

That's what he's talking about here.

Here's how William Bardclay writes about this at one point.

He says, there's a belief which is purely intellectual.

For instance, I believe the square on the hypotenuse of a right angled triangle equals the sum of squares on the other two sides.

And if I had to, I could prove it.

But it makes no difference to my life and living.

I accept it, but it has no effect on me.

There's another kind of belief.

I believe that five and five make ten, and therefore I will resolutely refuse to pay more than ten dollars for two five-dollar bars of chocolate.

I will take that fact not only into my mind, but also into my life and into my action.

What James is arguing against is the first kind of belief, the acceptance of fact without allowing it to have any influence in our lives.

And so here's what I want to do is I want to give you just some simple equations.

And I got this idea from some teaching R.

C.

Sproull did years ago about just how to put this into a way that we can think about it.

And here's what, if Paul is addressing works righteousness, if he's saying, saying there's an issue within the church that sometimes people will try to make it works and faith together, then what we can say is what Paul's writing against is this idea that if I do good things and I mix it with faith, that somehow that will equal my salvation.

So this is the idea that says, I believe the right thing and I do the right thing, and together it equals salvation.

And what Paul, I believe, in Ephesians 2 is saying is that is not a proper view of how we get our certainty.

Now, another way to look at that is to say, well, okay, if this isn't true, then maybe.

Maybe it's faith minus works equals salvation.

And I believe what James is doing is he's saying this is not an accurate way to view this either.

Because he's saying if you say I believe and I don't have any works, but that shows my salvation, he's saying you're missing something.

What I believe is probably the best way to see this is to say my salvation equals faith.

Now, if you remember your algebra classes, I'm going to put parentheses around this to say this comes on its own.

It's by itself.

This is the equation.

But once we have faith, it will also lead to our works, and I'm out of space, but you get the idea.

And the reason this is significant and maybe helpful is because it leads us to ask some questions.

You see, there's a couple ways that you and I can miss God and miss eternity, miss salvation.

One way is religion.

By saying, I don't need God, I'm pretty good.

And there's a lot of people in our world who will say, I'm not religious, I'm not necessarily into God or church, but I'm spiritual and I'm good.

And their belief is their own religion, their own sense of goodness will commend them to God to be enough.

And there are people within the church who say all the time, you know what?

The way I know that I'm good enough is because I'm good.

The other way that we can miss it is just through rebellion.

Sometimes through religion, sometimes through rebellion.

Paul's dealing with religion.

James is dealing with rebellion.

He's dealing with the part of us that says, I don't need to follow or bend my knee to a God at all.

I'm going to live the way that I want to live.

And I think if we go back to Jesus' teaching in Matthew 7, he actually merges this and the ideas of Paul and James quite nicely.

And again, I don't think they're at odds.

I think they're standing and facing other foes, but notice again what Jesus says here.

He says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who's in heaven.

And what Jesus is doing here is he's saying, here are some ways that you can miss the kingdom.

He says, You can miss it even if you have doctrinal accuracy.

The word Lord here is curiosity.

It was a technical word for an affirmation of the correct faith.

And so he's saying, you can say Lord, and you can still miss the kingdom.

In other words, you can have the right doctrine, you can do everything right and miss it.

I think when we see Lord, Lord here, he's also talking about an emotional experience.

In Hebrew, when somebody would double a word, what it would mean is that they were saying, this is something that has passion.

And although this is Greek that Jesus was using here, the Hebrew way of thinking still would have been prevalent.

So when he says, Lord, Lord, what he's doing is he's talking about a deep emotional connection.

In other words, he's saying, some people will say, I feel this and I feel it deeply.

And he's saying, and even there you can still miss it.

And then he says this many will come to me on that last day and say, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?

Did we not drive out demons?

Did we not perform miracles?

Now here he's talking about people who are who are in.

I mean, you know, when we get to a point here when we want to drive some demons out, I mean, we you know, we we go after people who've been around this block a few times.

And what he's saying is you can be all the way in, be perceived to be doing all kinds of good things, miraculous things, powerful things, and still not be a person who will inherit the kingdom.

In other words, Jesus here has taken Paul's idea, James' idea before they had it, and he said, Here, here, here is the issue.

So, so how do we know?

Here's what Jesus says.

Jesus says this, he says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

Many will say to me on that day, and then he goes through his things, and I'll say, Away from me, I never knew you, then I will plainly say to you, I never knew you, away from me.

So two things.

Jesus says that the way that we know is our relationship with him.

I never knew you.

The people he knows are the people who can have certainty.

And then he says, the one who does the will of my father, the one who's willing to submit to God.

Now, I stand here this morning, and I can tell you that I don't submit to God every time that I have the thought.

So how do I have certainty?

How do you have certainty if you know that that isn't true?

I think what James is driving at, and what Jesus is driving at here is not perfect submission, but he's saying, is the direction of your life, is it consistently in the path of saying, I'm putting my faith in Jesus to such an extent that it impacts the way that I actually make my choices?

And if it doesn't, then what he's saying is, you need to at least ask the question, am I certain that I really know Jesus, that I've really experienced his grace, that I really have a sense of who he is?

A couple of years, summers ago, probably two summers ago, my wife and I and two of our sons went rock climbing.

And I hadn't been rock climbing in years, at least not the kind where you uh have the ballet and you hook in and you're climbing up the face of something, and and if you fall, you you're you're held by the rope.

I mean, I had not done that for many years.

And I'd forgotten some of the commands that that they tell you, like on belay, belay, on, and all of this stuff.

But there's a moment when you're climbing up the face of a rock that you start to look down and you say, if something happens, I'm in trouble, even though you know you have this rope that's supposed to hold you.

And then you have the thought of who's down there at the bottom?

Do they really have me at this moment with the tension in the rope?

And then you get to the top of the of the rock formation, and what they tell you to do is to let go, and they lower you slowly down so that you come back down to the ground.

If they let you go quickly, you would die.

Or at least hurt yourself, maim yourself, something.

So you have a moment where you have to say, I don't just believe that this rope will hold me, I actually have to let go in order to come down this rock formation.

And here's again what I believe this passage is saying is if you want to be certain of your eternity, yes, you need to believe right things, but don't get stuck into thinking as long as I believe right things, or I said a prayer, or I went to church, it was enough.

The question is, are you letting go of your own effort to say, I have done enough?

And said now I've put all my hope in Jesus, and because I've put all my hope in Jesus, it has impacted the way that I think, the way that I live, the way that I choose to live.

See, if you're not sometimes bothered by your own sinfulness, it's an indication that maybe what you're doing instead is you're saying, I had that sin, that's some other problem.

I'm I don't need that.

If you're not sometimes bothered by the lukewarmness of your own heart when you come to worship or your hunger for the word, just how bored you can be with stuff that happens in any spiritual context, what it says is that you have come to a point where you said, you know what, I don't need this.

I'm good.

I believe the right thing, I'm good, I'm gonna do the right thing.

There's something in us that when we have said, I let go, I trust, that says, I hunger for, I long for the ways of God.

And what James, I think, wants us to do is he wants us to just take stock and see over and over that he says, faith without works is dead.

If you say you believe, but it doesn't impact you, then go back and look at your faith again.

One of the reasons at Orchard Hill, we don't often do what churches have sometimes called altar calls.

Like, why don't we have people come forward, raise their hands, pray, sign cards, all this kind of stuff, is because a lot of times I think those moments can lead to deception for people.

Where they say, you know what, I prayed a prayer, I signed a card, I walked an aisle, therefore I'm good.

And the issue in the Bible is always present faith.

It's never past decisions or past declarations.

It's present faith.

Do you have faith today?

And is that faith making a difference in how you live?

So if you and I want to live with certainty of eternity, means that we come to a point where we say, I believe, and it's showing itself in the way that I live.

Now, don't misunderstand.

The answer to this is not to say I'm gonna go home and try to do all kinds of good works.

The answer is going back to your faith and seeing the evidence that's produced in good works.

There's a big difference between those two.

And the evidence will follow what God does inside you when you realize that your works are never enough.

Notice he says, faith without works is dead.

I'll show you my deeds by my works, you show me your deeds or your faith by your works, or however that phrase exactly goes.

But what he's saying is, you can be dead both ways.

You can be dead in your good works, you can be dead in your faith.

So go back and say, it's all Jesus, he's done it, I can't do it, but because he's done it, it will show up in how I live.

I want to just take a moment and lead you in a prayer.

And so I want to just ask you to bow your heads, close your eyes for a moment.

And I just want to, before we leave this moment, just say if you're here today, if you're in Butler County, in the chapel, in the strip district, and and you are feeling a sense of conviction, like I'm not certain, can I just encourage you to not let this moment pass and get on to your Sunday meal or whatever else you have going on, but to do some business with God and say, God, I know that that maybe my faith has has been dead.

That I've believed, but it hasn't made a difference consistently in all of my life.

And maybe just in these moments, your your your prayer is to say, God, would you let my faith move from a declaration to something that's transformational?

Maybe today you're here and you say, you know, I've always thought that that I was just one of those people who was good, and whatever God would do in the future, God would do, but today you've realized that you actually need a savior.

That your works will never amount to enough.

Maybe right now is just your time to say, God, I've tried to, through my own efforts, through my own religion, make myself good enough, and I trust today that Jesus has done what I can't do.

Maybe you're here and you say, you know, I do believe and I have seen a change in my life.

Maybe today is just your day to say, God, thank you for what you've done.

I know it's not my works, it's your work, but thank you for working in me so I can see a pattern of change.

Father, we thank you for your word and the way that it challenges us and assures us and points us to you.

And I pray today that every one of us would leave with more certainty about our eternity.

And if and if this message has been unsettling, I pray that we would see that as a good unsettling because it's calling us to come back and to seek you in a way that maybe we haven't been for some time.

And we pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Would you stand and we're going to respond to this message with the worship team?