Faith That Works (James 2:14-26)

We are continuing our sermon series on James and I.

I try to make today's a little shorter so we could all enjoy

the festivities outside. All right, So what we believe

matters. Doctrine, theology, our belief

system, value system, it all matters.

And for the most part, unless you are visiting and you have no

idea, like what our church is about, for the most part, the

people who are here, you guys match up or agree at least on a

basic level, believe what our church believes or even though

if you disagree or at least OK with what we believe and what we

believe as a Christian matters so much.

And that's why there's all these branches of Christianity and

denominations and all of that. There was a pastor that just

started in Gardena, and I got a chance to get lunch with him a

couple of weeks ago. And yeah, when 2 pastors get

together, I don't like talking about, you know, like

denominations. But that's the first question

that, you know, he asked and I said, you know, we're done

denominational. And, and then he said, well, are

you going to join the denomination war?

I said, you know, it's been 13 years or probably not.

I, I think that boats, you know, has sailed.

A ship has sailed. Also, I don't think there's a

denomination that kind of matches perfectly what we

believe in. I know that sounds crazy, but

our combination of beliefs is, is kind of a little, it's a

little rare. Like if we joined, I don't know,

the biggest, I think the nomination, you know, it's

Southern Baptist, you know, I'm OK with them.

But our female preachers wouldn't be able to preach

anymore. I'm not OK with that anymore.

If you join like a Presbyterian Church and the elders will

decide everything. And you know what right now are

we have membership and we, we vote on everything.

And that wouldn't be able to go anymore.

And Methodist is a whole different thing.

And it's just like, well, nothing fits us and we stay non

dominational because what we believe matters.

It matters to me, matters to you.

What we believe matters. Our doctrine, our theology, it's

all important and there's no doubt about that.

But James is asking a very interesting question this

morning in this passage. He's asking us, hey, you guys

are all about beliefs and faith and all of that.

He's asking the audience, is it possible that all your beliefs

are useless? Let me read verse 14 real quick.

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to

have faith but does not have works?

Can such faith save him? He's saying what good is your

beliefs if it doesn't come with works?

And he goes one step further. He says, can such faith save

him? He's saying, are you even a

Christian if beliefs is all you have?

So today we're going to talk about what kind of faith, right?

How we could have a faith that also has works?

OK, That's what James was talking about today and that's

the question we want to answer today.

How can we have a faith that works?

How can we have true faith? Number one, we need to know that

faith and works cannot be separated.

Faith and works cannot be separated.

I already read 14, so I'll be reading 15 to 19.

Should be in the back behind me. If a brother or sister is

without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them

go in peace, stay warm and be way well fed, but you don't give

them what the body needs, what good is it?

In the same way faith if it does not have works is dead by

itself. But someone will say if you have

faith and I have works, show me your faith without works and I

will show you faith by my works. You believe that God is 1 good.

Even the demons believe and they shudder.

Here James starts off with two examples.

He has actually has four total. But for the first point I'll be

going over the 2 examples. He starts with the 2 examples

that are negative. He gives us basically different

case scenarios. The first case is 1517 and he

what James does really well is he takes like theology, he takes

concepts and then he said he and he brings it down to real life

instead of like all faith and works.

You know, you got to separate an Amen.

He says, let me give you an example.

This is how it looks like when faith and works are separated.

Does this look OK to you? And the first case study that he

he offers us, someone comes to church and that person is in

need. It says here without clothes.

It's not literal. It just means that person is

underdressed probably for the weather, doesn't have an outside

coat. Those are most more costly.

And it says LAX daily food. That's obvious.

Somebody who is underdressed and underfed and then someone comes

to that person and says nice things, they're polite.

Oh, I hope you stay warm. I hope there's food in your

stomach. I'll be praying for you.

And walks away. James is saying, does that.

Is that OK to you? And he's not saying like people

are doing this. So he's pointing it out.

He's bringing theology to life. And he's kind of discovering

what the what the audience. Hey, essentially, this is what

you're doing. Does this look OK to you?

No answer is no. That does not look OK.

Somebody comes hungry. You just can't be nice to them,

is what James is saying. He's saying that kind of faith

is dead. And he gives us a second

scenario, verses 18 and 19. You have faith and I have works.

Is some someone saying, you know what works is not my thing.

Good deeds are not my thing. Obedience is not me.

I'm all about faith works. That's kind of like your thing.

You know, I'm not good with people.

I'm shy, I'm introvert. You know what I'm I'm more of a

faith person and and works is someone who is maybe outgoing

and and yeah, I'm just not that kind of person.

MJ saying, oh, you think faith in the work is separate.

It's you think works is for some people and faith in some people.

OK, let's separate it and let's see what it looks like.

And he's he's giving us an example of somebody who has

faith but no works. And and he's kind of being

extreme here. And the example he gives is

demons. He says you believe that God is

1 good. Well, even the demons believe

and they shudder. He's saying, you know what?

Demons have faith. They have faith in God so much.

OK, you guys are all pointing at somebody who's dressed like a

demon today. You've got the all right, we got

demon hunters and we also got a demon as well.

All right. You know, when I was a kid, you

weren't a lot of dressed a demon in church.

That was just maybe I grew up in a conservative church.

But yeah, we got a, we got a demon over there.

Anyway, what was he talking about?

Grew up, guys. I see demons like demon.

Oh, my goodness. All right.

This is a children's service. What's going on here?

Right? Demons have faith in God so much

that when they hear God's name, they shudder.

They have more faith in God than us, perhaps.

And, you know, let's think of it this way.

If you're a parent, you should feed your kids, OK?

It's not like someone could say feeding kids.

That's not my thing. I'm not, I'm not much of A cook.

I'm more about education. I'm more about taking them on

trips. Feeding your kids is kind of

your thing. What I do is educate.

And James will reply. You know what, like feeding the

kids, It's so basic that even the worst parent will do that.

You can't just, you can't just feed your kids.

You got to love them. You got to educate them, house

them. You can't really separate it.

You feed them and you do all these other stuff and you say

you can't separate our faith and works.

Let me let me I attempted to do what James does, bring it into a

modern day example. I'm going to I'm going to

Cambodia next week. That's that's like for real.

I am next week after service, next week, Sunday night, I'll be

leaving Cambodia and we'll be leaving me and Frankie and and

and couple missionaries that we support in Thailand.

We'll be meeting in Cambodia and we'll be doing Pastors

conference. I'm only gone for 10 days, but

let's just pretend for the sake of the story, I'm gone like 2

months. That'll never happen.

But let's just say I'm gone for two months, and two months is

long enough, or I might have to write something, write something

down for my kids. I'll be like, dear Maddie and

Micah, you're 11 and 13. You're old enough to kind of

replace who I am while I'm gone. So I need you to clean the

house, take out the trash. I need you to help mom with

Thanksgiving Turkey. That thing's really heavy.

I need you to fold the laundry. And I might give them a list of

things for them to do. And let's say two months later,

I come back and nothing is done. They did nothing and that bring

my kids over and say, hey, how come you guys didn't do anything

I asked you to do? And imagine my kids say this.

Well, dad, it's not like we did nothing on Friday nights.

We came to church and we got together and we studied your

letter. We even memorized parts of it.

And this part of the letter, we made it into a song and we sang

it every week. And Dad, you're going to like

this. I even invited my friends and we

studied that letter and we sang that letter together.

But Dad, I didn't know that we had to actually do what the

letter says. You get the point when somebody

who's willing to have faith and they know all the right things

and they say, you know what? I'm good there.

I'm good with knowing. I'm good with believing.

I'm good with faith. And you stop right there, James,

giving us all these examples of why that's not enough.

It's like my kids saying we celebrated your letter, but we

didn't know we had to follow it. So how can we have faith that

works? Well, faith and words cannot be

separated #2 how can we have faith that works #2 we need a

faith that is evidenced by difficult obedience.

Our faith has to have evidence, and the evidence is not just

obedience, but difficult obedience.

A difficult obedience requires true faith in God.

Let's read verse 20 to 24. Senseless person.

Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?

Wasn't Abraham our father, justified by works and offering

Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was active

together with his works and by works faith was made complete

and the scripture was fulfilled. That says Abraham believed God,

it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called

God's friend. You see that a person is

justified by works and not by faith alone.

Let's stop there. Now this, this four or five

verses that we just read, if taken out of context, could be

very dangerous. We know from the other parts of

Scriptures that, you know, especially Paul's letters, that

we are justified by faith. In fact, the, you know, when

Protestant Christianity kind of became Protestant Christianity

in the Reformation, in the faith alone, grace alone, Christ

alone, it's like kind of became the slogan of our faith.

You aren't safe through faith alone.

That that is kind of what all Christians believe in.

And it seems like James is saying something else.

He's saying, wasn't Abraham, our father, justified by works?

We've been learning, we've been justified by faith.

And James sounds like he's saying something else.

You see, faith was active together with his works.

And by works, faith was made complete.

Now, what does that mean? Works?

Faith is not complete without works.

Like what you need. You need both to be saved.

What? What is James saying?

OK, so let me clarify why he's saying, OK, we all, I hope we

all agree that works do not produce salvation, OK?

That means follow all the rules. Then you go to heaven.

That's not what we believe in, OK, That's works equals

salvation. We do not believe that.

It kind of sounds like here it's OK, you have faith and works and

then you're saved. It kind of seems like that.

But that's not what actually James is saying either.

He's saying faith in God, knowing the gospel, faith

produces salvation and salvation produces works.

You are saved through faith alone.

But if you're truly saved by faith, grace alone, Christ

alone, there will be evidence in your life which is works, which

is obedience. And he says in that way that's

complete salvation will produce works.

And he gives us 2 examples of salvation producing works.

Case number 3 is Abraham, right? Talked about Abraham.

Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as

righteousness. If you read the Bible from the

beginning, which a lot of us do within the 1st 15 chapters, we

read what we just read. Abraham believed God and it was

credited to him as righteousness.

That is a direct quote from Genesis 15-6.

Abraham believed God, that's faith, and it was credited to

him as righteousness. OK, that is imputed righteous,

meaning God gave his righteousness to Abraham.

That's what happened to us when we became Christians, when we

became, when we were saved, Jesus gave us his righteousness,

grace without we didn't deserve it.

We didn't earn it through grace. Jesus gave us righteousness.

That's why we're able to be saved.

And he says that a person is justified by works and not by

faith alone. Faith cannot be by itself.

You could say somebody said this, you're safe through faith

alone, but not faith that is alone.

You need works. So what is the works that that

is evidence in Abraham's life? Well, we know the famous story.

God wants Abraham's son. Abraham waited like 100 years

for a son, and finally he has a son, names him Isaac.

Name's laughter. There's so much joy.

They love the baby. And God says, I want your son,

take him to the mountain and sacrifice him.

And Abraham obeys. He's willing to go that far for

obedience. Does God want really, Isaac?

No, God wanted to reorient his hierarchy of love, meaning God

wanted to make sure that Abraham had God #1 and everything else

#2 What was Abraham's difficult obedience?

That he loved God above his children, His child.

That was a difficult obedience. That was something that required

true faith in God. Otherwise, if it was left to

just human desires, no way any parent could obey that.

It is impossible to have your children as #2 without some

miraculous power strength given by our faith in Christ.

So in Abraham's life, that was evidence of salvation.

He was able to forgot number one kids #2 and then we have the

second the last case study, second of the second part case

study #4 is Rahab. Let me read verses 25 and 26.

In the same way, wasn't Rahab the prostitute also justified by

works in receiving the messengers and sending them out

by a different route? For just as the body without the

spirit is dead, also faith without works is dead.

This is the third time he's seen something like that.

Faith without works is dead. They need to be together.

Now, why is Rahab an example of a difficult obedience?

OK, well, Rahab's story is the Israelites.

They wander around the desert for 40 years as punishment.

And finally they got to the the promised land, Canaan.

By this time, it's the second time around and they send spies

to scout the area. And the spies hid in Rahab's

house. The soldiers went to Rahab's

house and say, hey, did you guys see any spies or did you see any

spies? And Rahab says they went that

way, but they were spies were really hiding in our house.

And in Joshua 29 through 11, this is what it says.

You don't have to turn to it. I'll read it.

And she explains why she was able to risk her life to and lie

to the soldiers. I know that the Lord has given

you this land and that the terror of you has fallen on us.

Everyone who lives in the land is panicking because of you.

But we have heard how the Lord dried out the water of the Red

Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to

Shihon and AOG, the two Amorite kings you completely destroyed

across the Jordan. When we heard this, we lost

heart and everyone's courage failed because of you.

For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.

Rahab saying is you know what? I risked my life to help you

because your God is the true God.

I believe in your God so much that I know 100% that Canaan

will be conquered by your God. So I want to worship that God

and that's why I am helping you. Now this little speech, 3

verses, it sounds like faith, but we know that her faith was

genuine only by her works. Rahab acted on her faith.

She risked her life to act on her faith.

Her faith led to action only when what she did and what she

said matched up. Then it becomes evident that her

faith was real. These two examples that James

gives us, it's not just any obedience, and I hope you see

this. It was difficult obedience to

put God above your child. That's difficult to risk your

life forgot. That's difficult.

Often times after a sermon like this and obedience in the works,

we look at our lives and we go, oh, you know what the talent

team went to Michel. Yeah, I gave them some money.

Frankie's, you know, Mingle House Farm.

Yeah. Yeah.

I don't need to that. You know what I helped out at

the, you know, at at the local shelter, The 10 commandments.

I obey. You know what?

I think I'm good with the obedient thing.

I think I have enough works in my life, but often times it's

all the easy obedience in our lives.

Obedience is easy when it's beneficial.

Like do not murder. It's pretty beneficial to obey

that if you murder, you're going to go to jail and you might bad

things happen. So we say, yeah, I'll, I'll keep

that. Do not lie.

Well, if you lie and people find out you're lying, well, you'll

be embarrassed. So I'll be saying what?

I won't lie, right? I won't, I won't.

I'm not going to go around saying I'm 510, OK, That's not a

people will laugh at me. That's not a good lie.

So if it's, if it's clearly not beneficial, then we say, OK,

that lying is not good for me. So I'll.

I'll just not lie. There's a there's a certain

benefit to these obediences. You help Frankie's farm.

It feels good. Oh, yeah, Yeah.

Hey, I'll do that. But what's the difficult

obedience? Like even going back to lying?

How about lying benefits you? Even the little things.

Maybe my wife. Text me.

Hey, did you do dishes like I asked you to do?

And I didn't do it, but here's my options.

I could say, no, I didn't do it. And then, you know, it could be

another fight or whatever. Or I say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I

did it. And then hurry up and do it

before she comes home. A little lie.

No fight win for me, right? That lie benefited me.

Little lie on your taxes benefits me more money.

A little lie here there When you tell the truth and it hurts you,

that's difficult obedience. I think This is why dating

couples have such hard time staying pure.

People don't see the benefit of staying pure.

How does how does controlling myself with the person I'm

dating, how does that benefit me?

It doesn't. It bothers me.

We don't see the benefit. So that's not something that

people obey these days. Difficult obedience.

How about helping somebody? You know, there's a someone who

came to our church, you know, one of our original members and

she had a really crazy life, probably one of the craziest

like life stories that mom passed away and that wasn't

around. So she was like 16 and she had

to take care of her little brother and she worked full time

for $3.00 an hour. Now this is, you know, like 30

years ago, but still 25 something years ago, but still

$3.00 an hour. The liquor store owner knew that

a, you're an illegal immigrant. There's no way, you know, you

get a job anywhere else. You work for me for $3.00 an

hour. And she, she, and this is like

way before she came to our church, but that was her life

story. Let's say there was somebody

like that in our church, right? Just straight A student, just

amazing person, nice, kind, dedicated, working full time,

supporting her brother who wouldn't help her.

But the difficult obedience. If somebody that's opposite of

that kind of person, it's like you're in need because you

messed up. Like I said, somebody just

gamble their life away. Maybe somebody is, they come

here looking for community, which is a good thing.

But you realize, oh, this person needs community because he's

such a jerk. He has no friends.

He's selfish. He's he or she is, I don't know,

always angry, always blaming, whatever.

So it's like, oh, you have no friends.

Oh, you kind of deserve that. Oh, you have no money because

you gambled away or whatever. That person kind of deserves to

be poor. How do you help that person?

How do you be kind to that person?

For somebody who is. 16 and working full time.

It's like oh you deserve better. Oh poor kid.

Here let me help you. But to a person, it's like.

Oh, you kind of did that to yourself.

You kind of deserve that. How do?

You help that person, That's the difficult.

Obedience and. Jesus did.

That throughout his ministry here.

The people who are. He was helping were prostitutes

rehab his example. People he helped.

Were lepers at the time, people thought people who had leprosy

deserved that they did something bad, they deserved it so Jesus

was helping people that did bad things and.

That's why people cannot. Understand why Jesus was

spending time with the people that He was doing time with.

Difficult obedience is when. You yourself is financially

tight and you pay for someone else's meal because they're in a

greater need than you. Difficult obedience.

Is you yourself had a rough week, but you.

Still take time to. Listen to your coworkers

problems. Difficult obedience is you do

works. You obey for God when there is

no clear benefit. So how do we love this way?

How do we care this way? How do we love difficult people?

How do we obey difficult things? How do we do that?

It's only. Through the power of the gospel.

We have to be. Reminded of the Gospel.

Always, always, daily. Because what?

Is the gospel. Gospel is that God made the

worst trade with us ever worse for him.

We gave Jesus our sins, wrath of God, punishment, and Jesus gave

us forgiveness, grace, eternal life, the rights to be sons and

daughters of God. Everything we have is.

Undeserved. We deserve hell and punishment,

but we got the opposite. When we realized through.

The gospel that whatever we have is undeserved.

Then you will view the world with different eyes.

You will no longer be the judge and say you deserve that.

You deserve better, you deserve worse.

You don't see in those terms you.

See, you're in. Need I want to help?

You're lacking in something I. Want to help?

It's only through. The power of the gospel, we're

able to do that. Main point Genuine faith a.

Faith. That works is.

Evidenced through difficult obedience.

Let's take time to pray.