Danger of Counterfeit Faith

We're reading from James chapter 2 verses 14 to 26.

James 2:14–26

Faith without works is dead.

What good is it, my brothers and sisters,

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, and 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.

This is the word of God.

Great.

Thank you, Margo.

Let me pray for us.

Heavenly Father, as we come to your word,

we want to hear you speaking to us.

Won't you open up the eyes of our heart

to see you in your word,

and to see what it means to live by faith,

and to trust you, and to know you.

God, you know where each one of us are at this morning.

You know our fears and our worries.

You know what's on our heart, God.

You know where we feel anxious and afraid.

You know what we're hoping for and longing for.

You know our dreams.

God, this morning we pray that we will meet with you,

the living God.

We have already, God, in the sung worship.

Thank you for those wonderful songs

that you've given to us as a church to sing.

God, your word also, let it speak to us.

God, we know that your word and your spirit work in unison.

We pray, Holy Spirit,

now won't you make your word come alive to our hearts,

and speak to us, we pray, in your gracious name.

Amen.

One last thing before we dive in is,

if you've got a bulletin, open it up.

You'll see there's the scripture reading in front of you,

or if you've got a Bible on your phone,

have it in front of you.

I don't have a lot of scripture on the screen,

but I want you to look at the scripture as we go through it.

Well, I wonder if you've ever been ripped off

by buying something that you thought was true,

only to find out later it was a fake or a forgery.

When I was about 17 years old,

my older brother wanted to buy a car,

and there was a particular car that he wanted.

We lived in South Africa.

He had done all this market research.

He knew what that model,

that year,

should cost secondhand.

He was looking out for a good deal.

Anyway, one day,

he finds an advert for this particular car

at a really, really good price.

And so he thinks,

I know this car is worth more than that.

So being the entrepreneur that he is,

he says,

I'm going to buy the car,

and I'm going to flip it straight away.

I'm going to add 10%

and sell it straight away,

make a few bucks.

So,

he's good at entrepreneurship,

not so good at checking things out.

Buys this car,

a week later,

advertises again for 10% more,

and when people come to look at the car,

suddenly they notice all sorts of things

that he hadn't noticed.

This is wrong.

This is broken.

Turns out the car had been in a serious accident,

and someone had done a good job

of hiding the cracks and the faults,

and he ended up selling it for a big loss

at the end of the day, right?

Or I heard of a teenager recently,

also a family member,

who wanted a pair of Apple AirPods,

didn't want to pay the full retail price,

found a good deal on Carousel,

met the person on Carousel

for a good price of AirPods,

went home only to find out that they were fakes.

They didn't work at all.

And so what he thought was a good price

for genuine AirPods

turned out to be an expensive price for fakes.

Discovering something is not what you thought it was

can be very frustrating, very disappointing.

How many of us have built a friendship

or got to know somebody,

maybe a colleague in the workplace, a neighbor,

only to find out later

they're not who we thought they really were?

And of course, it can be very costly.

Some of you are involved in buying businesses,

and so you do all your research,

all your due diligence,

you turn over every stone you can,

look at all the financials,

but there's always a risk that you buy a business,

and at the end of the day,

it's not what you thought it was.

And there's a whole lot of stuff hidden behind.

I think of people invested

in Bernie Madoff's securities, right,

a few years ago,

and it proved not to be very secure at all.

Thinking something is legitimate or genuine

when it proves to be otherwise

can be frustrating, disappointing,

can be very costly.

But it can also be dangerous.

It can be very deadly.

Imagine you take your car for a service,

and the mechanic decides to install

cheap imitation brake pads on your wheels

instead of the real thing.

And one day they give way

when you're careering downhill.

Or think about somebody,

you go to hospital,

and somebody buys or installs imitation parts

in the ventilator, right?

You need some fresh air,

and the ventilator stops working

because of fraudulent parts.

Being fooled into thinking

that something is genuine when it's not

can be frustrating,

it can be costly,

it can be dangerous,

it can be deadly.

So what about our faith?

What about your Christian faith?

How do you know

whether your Christian faith

is the real deal?

Or whether you've just been fooled

into thinking that what you think is faith

is not really the real thing?

How would you know if it's fraudulent?

What diagnostic tool would you use

to employ,

to test the genuineness of your faith?

In the book of 1 Peter,

the apostle Peter writes,

and he says that

like a furnace to silver or gold,

trials are to our faith.

A furnace tests silver and gold,

and it heats it up,

and it reveals the impurities,

and the alloys,

and the fake materials.

So trials do the same thing to our faith.

They reveal what's genuine and real

when the heat comes.

Well, we've been reading the book of James,

and the brother of Jesus, James,

has been watching these Christians

who were once part of his congregation

going through these trials,

and he seems to be worried

by what he sees.

And so he's concerned

as to the genuineness of their faith.

And so in this passage,

he invites them to take a closer look

and to examine the authenticity

of their Christian faith.

Well, to change analogies,

James is like a doctor

who holds up the x-ray of their faith

to the light of day,

and he invites them,

and he invites us,

to look at the x-ray

and to see what's really there.

And so James is helping his readers,

this scattered congregation

that he calls his beloved brothers and sisters,

to examine the legitimacy of their faith.

And he's concerned

that what they think is genuine

may be nothing more

than just religious tradition

or superstition.

And this is James' big idea

for the passage today.

He says,

real Christian faith

is not simply believing certain truths.

Genuine Christian faith

causes you to live differently,

and not just because of what you believe,

but because of who you've come to believe in.

Okay, so it's not just believing

propositional truths,

creeds, and statements,

as important as that is,

it actually,

those beliefs cause you

to live differently,

but not simply because

of the theological truth,

but because of the person

or the being,

the God behind those truths,

because of who you've come to believe in.

Or said another way,

James is saying that

simply holding

to certain theological

or Christian truths

and doctrines,

true as they may be,

and as sincerely

as you may hold them,

if those truths

don't cause you

to live differently

because of a real dynamic

relationship with God,

then those,

your faith

may be no more worthwhile

than a teenager's fake airpods

at the bottom of his cupboard.

And if you know

what a teenager's cupboard

looks like,

that's not worth very much,

right?

So James is telling us this,

that where our professed belief

in Christ has no material impact

in our faith,

doesn't change the way we live,

the way we speak,

the way we handle conflict,

the way we handle challenges,

how we steward our finances,

our sexuality,

our positions in society,

maybe our faith

is not as sincere,

genuine as we thought it was.

And the way that James

is going to do this

is this,

he's going to hold up

four pictures for us.

The first two are examples

of fake or fraudulent faith.

The second two are pictures

of genuine faith,

okay?

I think you see

a picture behind me.

So James is going to hold

up four pictures.

The first two are fraudulent faith.

The second two are genuine faith.

So let's dive in

and look at what he says.

Look at the first one with me.

Look at verse 14 to 17.

He says,

what good is it,

my brothers and sisters,

if someone says

he has faith

but does not have any works,

nothing to back it up?

Can that kind of faith save him?

If a brother or sister

is poorly clothed

and lacking in daily food,

one of you says,

go in peace,

be warmed,

be filled.

Without giving them

the things that they needed

for the body,

what good is that?

So also faith by itself,

if it does not have any works,

it's dead.

James gets straight

to the point here.

Pretty clear.

What's his point?

His point is,

talk is cheap.

Easy to say the right things.

We say what people

want us to say.

We want to save face.

We say the right things.

But backing that up

with reality,

that's another story.

Maybe you've experienced

this in business.

You want to do business

with someone.

You have a couple of meals

and meetings

and someone says,

yeah, no,

it looks good.

I think we can really

do something.

I think there's a potential

deal here.

We'll be in contact.

And then you never hear

from them ever again.

And you phone them.

You send emails.

Silence.

Silence.

They're saying the right thing.

And we tend to think

that as long as nobody's hurt,

as long as nobody's offended,

as long as I can kind of

keep the peace,

no harm done.

And so we tend to say

the right things.

James says,

unless that's backed it up,

it's meaningless.

And the point is that

we can do the same thing

with our Christian faith.

We can say the right thing,

say, God,

I believe this.

This is true.

But unless there's some

substance behind it,

maybe it's all a sham.

We say things like,

God, I really trust you.

But if we don't take

any risks,

if we don't trust God

when it's hard,

do we really trust Him?

Confession,

I had this a few years ago.

I remember writing

a position paper

for Watermark.

This is what we believe

on this certain area.

And it was very theological,

very wonderful,

really brilliant paper,

if I can say so myself, right?

This is what we believe.

Well, about six months later,

I actually had to defend that paper.

And there was a situation

where I actually had to

then explain,

this is what we believe,

and I cowered away.

It's one thing to say,

this is what we believe,

but when push comes to shove,

it was easier just to stay silent,

remain quiet,

avoid the conversation at all.

That's James' point,

that validity of our faith

and our relationship with God,

and whether we really,

it's based on whether

we really know Him,

whether we really love Him,

whether we really trust Him.

It's not authenticated

by what we claim,

it's by how we live.

And so he asked the question,

verse 14,

look here,

can that kind of faith

save a person?

His answer is no.

So look at his summary statement,

verse 17.

So also faith by itself,

that means faith in concept

or idea only,

if it does not have works,

if it doesn't correspond

to real life,

well, that kind of faith is dead.

It's not real faith at all.

Okay, first picture,

cheap talk.

Second picture,

look at verse 18 to 20.

Here, James anticipates an objection.

So he says,

okay, someone might say,

well, you have faith,

I have works.

Okay?

You're a faith kind of person,

I'm a kind of practical

kind of person.

In other words,

you say potato,

I say potato.

You like rice,

I like noodles.

Okay?

Okay?

In other words,

why do you have to

put me in a box

and say that

I've got it,

my faith needs to look like this?

There's so many different

types of Christians,

right?

And some people are

kind of believing,

trusting God,

faith kind of people.

Some are just very practical,

social justice,

get their hands dirty

kind of people.

And so yeah,

you might be one of those people,

I'm one of these people.

And James says,

no, no, no,

what you're doing

is you're taking one thing

and you're creating

a dichotomy,

splitting into two,

and saying choose one

or the other.

But these two things

inherently go together.

Very silly analogy.

It's like a hen

saying to another hen,

you lay egg yolks,

I'll lay egg whites.

Okay?

Not going to be

a very good,

productive hen.

Those eggs

are not going to sell

very well.

It's like imagine

you go to buy a car,

you want to buy

a secondhand car,

you go to a car dealer

because you don't want

to get ripped off

like my brother,

and he says,

I've got two cars for you.

This one's got an accelerator,

this one's got brakes.

Which one do you want?

Well,

that's not going to be

a very good car,

right?

You need them both.

James says,

one person says,

look,

you've got faith,

belief,

trust,

I've got works.

What's the big deal?

No,

the big deal

is these two

go together.

Show me your faith

apart from your works,

I'll show you my faith

by my works.

Now,

drive that car,

best of luck to you.

Let's see how far you get.

I'll drive my car that has both

and I'll show you

how this works.

Look at verse 19.

Here you see something fascinating.

It says,

okay,

you believe that God is one,

you do well,

even the demons believe that,

and shudder.

Now,

remember,

all devout Jews

every day

would recite a prayer

called the Shemal.

The Shemal is a prayer

that's based on

a couple of scriptures

in Deuteronomy.

The first one is

Deuteronomy 6.

It says,

hear, O Israel,

the Lord our God,

the Lord is one.

So every single day,

devout Jews

will wake up in the morning

and recite this prayer.

Hear, O Israel,

the Lord our God,

the Lord is one.

You shall love

the Lord your God

with all your heart

and all your soul

and all your might.

The Jewish Christians

that James is writing to

would have known

this prayer.

It's probably

one of the most

important sentences

in the whole Old Testament

for Jewish men and women.

James says,

you know that thing

that you recite

every morning?

You believe God is one.

That's great,

but even the demons

believe that.

Even Satan knows

that that's true

and he's not a Christian.

Sam Albury says like this,

are you pleased

with your right understanding

of who God is,

your good theology?

Congratulations,

you're at precisely

the same level

that the demons are at.

You see,

just because you have

good theology

or you know your Bible

really well,

you know your doctrine

straight as an arrow,

doesn't mean you have

saving faith.

You genuinely know God.

As many have observed,

hell is full of demons

with great theology.

They don't know Jesus.

They don't trust him.

They fear him,

they shudder,

but they've never come to him

in surrender

and love and trust.

Friends,

saving faith,

genuine Christian faith,

is not just intellectual assent

to core doctrines

and beliefs.

It is that,

but it's more than that.

It's heartfelt trust

in who God is

and handing our lives

over to him.

So James tells us

that genuine saving faith,

yes,

it's grounded

in theological truth.

This is who God is,

but it's more than simply

knowing a lot about God.

It's loving him.

It's knowing him.

It's trusting him.

If you're a high schooler here,

if you're a part of the youth

this morning,

so glad that you're with us,

chances are,

you're here

because you grew up

in a Christian family

and have parents

that want you

to know God.

And that is an amazing privilege.

You are very privileged

to grow up in a family

that has parents,

not perfect parents,

not a perfect family,

but parents who love God

and want you to love God.

But one of the dangers,

high schoolers,

is that you can grow up

in a family

because you know

the Christian stuff

thinking that you're a Christian.

Because you know the stories,

you know the catechisms,

and you know the Bible teaching,

and you've memorized

the Bible verses.

Youth and high schoolers,

here's a challenge for you.

I want you to go home

and at lunchtime today

or dinner tonight,

I want you to ask your parents

this question.

Mom and dad,

how do you know

that your faith is genuine

and not fake?

Okay,

can you do that?

And then I want you

to ask yourself a question.

Am I really a Christian

or am I just believing

what my parents

have told me to believe?

Okay,

can you do that,

high schoolers?

Ask them that question

tonight at dinner time.

See,

you too can be fooled

into thinking,

yeah,

I'm a Christian,

I'm safe,

I know all this stuff.

But do you know him?

Do you trust him?

Do you love him?

James has given us

two examples

of counterfeit faith,

right?

But now he gives us

two examples

of genuine faith.

Look at what he does here.

Look at verse 20.

He says,

do you want to be shown,

you foolish person,

that faith apart from works

is useless?

We said earlier,

James is like a doctor,

right?

He holds up this x-ray.

James is a great doctor,

he just needs to work

on his bedside manner.

Not a good thing

to call your congregation,

you foolish people.

Okay,

but anyway,

well,

that aside.

Verse 21,

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 was counted to him

as righteousness.

He was called

a friend of God.

Now,

if you're new to church,

James assumes

that we understand

some of the Old Testament

and so there's a story here

that you need to understand.

Let me explain to you.

In the Old Testament,

Abraham is kind of

the founder

of the Judeo-Christian faith

in many ways.

And one day,

God comes to Abraham

and he says to Abraham,

through your descendants,

I am going to create

a nation of people

and through that nation,

I'm going to send

the Messiah,

the Savior,

who will save humanity

from sin and death

and the curse of the fall.

And so Abraham,

you're going to have

a son and descendants

and through them,

the Savior of the world

is going to come.

The only problem is

Abraham is one,

very old,

and two,

doesn't have any children.

And so things

are not looking good.

Well,

fast forward about 30 years,

Abraham is now even older.

He's about 100 years old

and God is good

on his word

and gives him a son.

A son called Isaac.

And so,

it seems like

the promise

is going to be fulfilled.

And so Abraham

has the son Isaac,

through Isaac

and his descendants,

the world is going

to be blessed

and saved.

But then one day,

God asks Abraham

to do something crazy.

He says,

Abraham,

take your son,

your only son,

whom you love,

go up on the mountain

with a pile of wood

on his back

and sacrifice him to me.

Make a burnt offering

and sacrifice your son

to me.

Now,

immediately you can see

there's a couple

of problems with this.

One,

what do you do with that?

I mean,

what parent says,

yeah,

sure,

no problem.

Let me just go

kill my son,

right?

I mean,

that itself is,

okay,

you need to wrestle

with that.

But in addition to that,

everything that Abraham

was and had

and believed in,

his entire legacy,

the hope for humanity

rested on this one child

not dying

but staying alive

as long as possible

and having many,

many children.

And so here,

God says,

the whole hope

of the world,

I want you to

sacrifice it for me.

Well,

Abraham somehow

so trusts God

and his promise

that he takes his son,

his only son,

he puts wood on his back,

climbs the hill

and is about to sacrifice him

and at the last minute

God says,

okay,

that's enough.

Now you know

that I know

that you love me

and trust me.

It's an unbelievable account

of taking God

at his word.

But what's James'

point here?

His point is,

Abraham's faith

was active

along with his works

and was completed

by his work.

James' point is that

genuine Christian faith

is not just theoretical,

God,

I trust you.

It actually has

real relevance

in real life

on the decisions

that we make,

on the way we conduct

ourselves.

Real Christian faith

is not just believing

propositional truths

but really trusting

in a real God.

Real Christian faith

knows not just

that God is God

but that he's good.

Not just that he's true

but that he's trustworthy.

Not just that he's a father

but that he's faithful

and therefore brings our lives

and says,

God,

this is so hard

but you are good.

I trust you.

This is the point

that the writer

of the book of Hebrews

makes as he looks back

on the Old Testament

and he recounts

the stories

of men and women

of their genuine faith

and how their faith

was made visible

because of the way

it manifests itself

in the real contours

of life.

And so he says,

think about Abraham.

God comes to him one day

and says,

Abraham,

leave your family,

your father's home,

your country.

Follow me.

Trust me.

I'm going to take you

to a new place.

I'm not telling you

where it is

but trust me

and Abraham did.

Or God says that

Moses,

because of his trust in God,

turned his back

on the privileges of Egypt

growing up in the palace

and associated himself

with the slaves

because he knew

that God's promise

was faithful.

Or he says,

think of the nation of Israel,

how they left Egypt,

wandered in the wilderness

even though they didn't know

what lay in store for them.

It was genuine faith

in the faithfulness of God

that caused David

to go up against Goliath

even though Goliath

was much bigger,

much scarier,

much more experienced

soldier than him.

But his genuine faith

in the faithfulness of God

caused him to actually act.

Or think of Daniel

and his friends

in Babylon,

how they refused

to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar

knowing that that meant

the lion's den

or the furnace

or some other certain death

and yet their trust

in the trustworthiness of God

led them to actually say no.

Friends, think of Hosea,

this man whose wife

probably left him

to go sell herself

into prostitution.

God says,

go and bring her back

and marry her again

a second time.

And Hosea says,

you are God

and you are good.

I trust you.

Okay, I'll do it.

Or think of Esther

who takes her life

into the hands

and goes into the king's palace

and challenges him

to revoke an edict,

bring shame on himself

against God's people.

But she goes

because God asks him to.

Or think of Gideon

who goes against

the Midianites

even though he's outnumbered

500 to 1.

It's his genuine trust

in the trustworthiness of God.

And the writer of Hebrews

says that this is

what faith looks like.

Friends, this is James' point.

As you look at the panorama

of scripture,

genuine faith

is not just saying,

God, I believe you to be true,

but I believe you to be trustworthy.

And I'll put my life

in your hands.

Faith is tangible.

It's real.

It leads to real action.

And so James asks us

the question again,

is our faith,

is my faith genuine

or is it fantasy?

Is it intellectual belief

about something?

Or is it heartfelt faith

and trust in someone?

Someone that's proved

himself to be good.

Look at the final picture

that James paints for us.

Verse 24.

He says,

you see that a person

is justified,

that means a person's faith

is proven to be true,

shown to be true,

by works

and not simply

by faith alone.

In the same way,

was it not also Rahab,

the prostitute,

justified by works

when she received

the messengers

or spies

and sent them out

another way?

For as the body

apart from the spirit

is dead,

so also faith

apart from works

is dead.

Again, James here assumes

that we know

our Old Testaments.

And so the story here

is the nation of Israel,

they come out of Egypt,

they wander in the wilderness

for 40 years.

They actually wander there

because they don't

have great faith in God.

God asked them previously

to trust Him

and they're like,

no, we're not going

to trust you.

They stay 40 years wandering.

Eventually,

after 40 years,

God says,

okay, it's time to go

into the promised land.

They cross over

the river Jordan

and they're going to

occupy the promised land.

But in order to do that,

they need to conquer

one or two towns

and cities

that are in their way.

The first city

that they come to

is a city called Jericho.

And so Joshua,

the leader,

sends two spies

into the city

to go and suss it out,

do some reconnaissance work.

But they obviously

can't go and say,

hey, we're spies.

So they go in

and the chances are

they go in as kind of

merchant traders, right?

And they do

what most merchant traders do

as they pass through the city.

They go to the house

of a local prostitute

called Rahab

and they stay with her

to not be seen

for who they are.

But Rahab is heard.

So Jericho are not Israelites.

They're not Jews.

They don't know God.

But Rahab is heard

about the God of Israel.

She's not an Israelite,

but she's heard

that God is powerful

and strong

and she's heard

that this God

is faithful

to his promises

that he makes.

And so she picks up

when that the Israelites

are coming to attack us

and these spies

are coming to suss things out.

And now she's got a decision.

Who will I trust?

Will I trust my fellow citizens,

the Jerichoites

or people of Jericho

and fight against God

or will I trust

the God of Israel

and side with him?

Whose side am I going to take?

Well, while she's

deliberating about this,

word gets out

that there are two

suspicious people

walking the streets

of Jericho

and they stay at Rahab's house.

And so the city officials

come to her,

knock on her door

and say,

hey, who are the two guys

that you are sheltering

in your house

and bring them out?

And suddenly she's got to decide,

who am I going to trust?

Am I going to trust

the God of the Israelites

that he's going to save

his people

or will I trust my people?

And she comes to the conclusion

that God is trustworthy,

he's with his people

and that no one

who trusts him

is in danger

and no one

who stands against him

is safe.

And so she makes a decision

and this is what she says.

She says,

I know that the Lord

has given you our land.

For we have heard

how the Lord your God

dried up the water

of the Red Sea

before you came out of Egypt

and what you did

to the kings of the Amorites

who were beyond the Jordan.

For the Lord your God,

he is God

in the heavens above

and on earth below.

She's saying,

I've come to believe

he's the real God.

So more than just believing it,

she acts in it.

And so she says

to these two spies,

okay listen,

you go hide on the roof

and she tells the soldiers,

oh,

I think they went that way.

Created our version

and she saves

these two spies

and lets them live.

He may have

this Gentile prostitute,

this person

who in every respect

was outside

of the covenant people of God.

She's not an Israelite,

she's not a believer,

she's not rich,

she's not famous,

she's not esteemed,

she's the very opposite

of Abraham.

Abraham is wealthy,

she's poor,

Abraham's a man,

she's a woman

in that culture,

not a good thing.

Abraham is respected,

she's a sex worker,

Abraham's a Jew,

she's a Gentile,

in every way the opposite.

And yet both of them

have one thing in common,

they trust

in the God

of Israel.

And so here she is,

her faith in the living God

was not simply believing

propositional truths,

her faith caused her

to make bold

and risky decisions,

not just because

of what she believed

but who she had come

to believe in.

And so James' question,

verse 14,

does that kind of faith

save you?

Absolutely it does.

Friends,

James is telling us

that genuine faith

is not so much about

what you know

but who you trust.

And trust by its very nature

means you put your hands

in the life of somebody else

at their mercy.

So as we come to a close,

where do we find ourselves?

Well, the question is

where do we find this faith?

Every passage of Scripture

in the Bible

has got a purpose behind it.

The authors,

in this case James,

didn't just write

to tell us,

you know,

some poetry or something.

They've got a purpose.

They want us to do something

with the passage.

They want us to respond.

How does James

want us to respond?

What is James' purpose

for writing this passage?

One of the things

that's interesting

is in nowhere in this passage

does James tell us

to do a single thing.

There's no action,

no imperative.

So what does he want us to do?

How does he want us to respond?

Well, let me tell you firstly

how not to respond.

The wrong way to respond

is to say,

okay,

well,

James tells you

that faith

without doing a lot of things

is useless,

so I guess I better get busy,

right?

Okay,

I'll join the multimedia team

and I'll join the kids ministry team

and I'll go in that social justice outreach.

James is not writing,

saying,

you lazy Christians,

get busier.

Okay?

That's not what he's wanting to do.

What he's wanting to do

is he's wanting to say,

stop

and examine your faith.

Does what you say you believe

correspond to reality?

Is what's true in your mind

played out in the reality of your life?

Do you really,

he says,

to what extent do you really believe?

James has been pushing us to see

that Christianity

is not about intellectually

believing something,

but coming to believe

and trust in someone.

In John chapter six,

some people come to Jesus

and they say,

Jesus,

what works must we do

to be doing the works of God?

God,

we want to get to eternal life,

we want to get to heaven,

what must we do?

Must we fast more?

Must we pray more?

Must we give money to the poor?

What must we do

to do the works of God?

And Jesus says,

this is the works of God,

to believe in him

whom God has sent.

You want to do the right thing?

Trust me.

Believe in me.

Look to me.

Friends,

where do we find this kind of faith,

this genuine faith

that so changes our lives

that we live and behave

and think and act differently?

The kind of faith

that causes us to obey

even when it's hard.

Don't look inwardly to yourself.

Look outwardly to Jesus.

Let your mind be captured

by the trustworthiness

and the faithfulness of Jesus.

Do you remember what Rahab says?

He says,

we've heard the stories

that God has been faithful

to his people

time and time and time again.

Friends,

hear the stories

of where God has been faithful

to us.

And where is God

most faithful to us?

Jesus died on the cross.

And so don't look inwardly

and say,

I've got to do more.

I've got to be more.

I've got to try harder.

Don't look at yourself.

No, friends,

forget about yourself

and look to the crucified Christ.

That's how you know

that Jesus is faithful.

And so what battle

are you facing this week?

What trial

are you facing this week?

What thing at the moment

are you wrestling with God

and say,

God,

I don't know

whether I can trust you or not.

If I step out on the water,

will you be there for me?

Friends,

the cross proves

he won't let you down.

Robert Murray McShane,

one of my favorite quotes.

For every one,

look at yourself.

Take 10 looks

at Jesus Christ.

He is altogether lovely.

Such infinite majesty

and yet such meekness

and grace

and all for sinners,

even the chief of sinners

like me.

Live much

in the smiles of God.

Bask in his beams.

Feel his all-seeing eye

settle on you in love

and rest in his almighty arms.

Friends,

the amazing thing

about Jesus Christ

is it doesn't matter

who you are

or what you've done.

It doesn't mean

your background,

your socioeconomic status.

It doesn't matter

if you're the world's

worst criminal

or the world's

greatest philanthropist.

If you will simply

come to Jesus

and take a small step

and say,

God,

I want to trust you,

he'll draw near.

He'll save you.

He'll rescue you.

He'll prove himself

faithful to you.

In his mercy

and in his grace,

he will come

and meet with you.

And so what about you?

Friends,

some of us have been religious

for many, many years.

You've done the church thing.

You've done the retreat.

You've done the CG thing.

But maybe you're not

genuinely a Christian.

Maybe you're not

genuinely saved.

Do you know him?

Do you love him?

Do you trust him?

Maybe you believe

the facts about him.

You do well,

but even demons know that.

Come and trust him.

Friends,

maybe you genuinely

are a Christian,

but your faith

has become cerebral

and intellectual.

It's become dry

and academic.

You go through the motions.

Why don't you this morning

come and get on your knees

and say,

God,

I want to know you.

I want to trust you again.

I want you to have your way

in my life.

Jesus,

come and have your way.

Let me pray for us

as we come to close.

Lord Jesus,

thank you so much

for your amazing grace.

God,

thank you for who you are

again and again

throughout scripture.

God,

every page of the Bible

echoes the fact

that you are God,

but you're also good.

You are true

and you are trustworthy.

You are a father

who loves us

and you are faithful

and we can bank

our lives in you.

God,

it's very easy

to come to church

and to sing

the wonderful songs

we sang this morning,

but God,

to actually,

for that to be

the reality of our hearts

is sometimes hard.

I pray,

God,

won't you open

the eyes of our hearts,

Lord?

God,

even now,

open the eyes of our hearts

to see you

that we can trust you.

Help us to see you,

Jesus,

how good

and trustworthy you are.

Help us to see

that Jesus,

you went to the cross

for us

God,

come and have your way,

I pray.

God,

both individually

and as a church body,

as a community,

I want you to help us

to be those

that love you,

trust you

and obey you.

Father,

I pray for the wrestle

that's in our hearts

this day,

this week,

God,

where we've got

some decisions to make,

which way will we go?

Help us to trust you,

God.

Father,

forgive us for our

eager faith.

forgive us,

God.

But then help us

to grow.

Help us to become

more like you.

Pray this in your

great and wonderful name.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Thank you.