Faith: Dead or Alive?

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We'll have the great privilege of continuing our series in the book of James.

This is part four.

For me in this series it is only chapter two.

There's five chapters in the book of James.

This letter was the first, most likely the first New Testament letter, written around 48 or 49 AD.

The author of the book is none other than the half-brother of Jesus.

I think that gives him a little bit of clout.

His focus in this letter is more on how to be a Christian than on how to become one, and he's writing to a scattered, persecuted church.

Well, we'll get into it in just a moment.

But I want to ask you a question.

How many of you have a certain friend that is so nice that if they wanted to bring some level of correction to you, it would take you a while to even figure out that they're trying to correct something in your life?

In fact, when they were done, you'd feel encouraged.

You'd be edified.

How many of you have a friend like that?

You've got friends that are so nice.

James is not that friend.

All right, james is not that way at all.

James is an in-your-face.

He is blunt and to the point.

So we're going to look at the latter part of chapter 2 today, and so, for the reading of God's word, let's go ahead and stand up together.

James, chapter 2, verse 14.

James 2:14

Here's his question what good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds, then such faith saved them.

All right Out of the five chapters, out of the 108 verses, my guesstimate is this is the central thought of all that he writes this verse right here.

This is the verse that everything that he said before is coming out of this thought.

Everything that he is saying after comes out of this thought.

This is the center point.

If you're writing in your Bible, go ahead and write that down.

Another thought of James in all five chapters is well, at least my pastor thinks so.

James, chapter 2, verse 14.

James 2:14

Asking this question can such faith save them?

He then says things about the poor and taking care of them.

He talks about Abraham obeying God and offering up his son Isaac in obedience, and he said that that was his.

That was showed that he was righteous and that he had faith because he obeyed God.

And then he writes in verse 24.

You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

In the same way, was not even Rahab, the prostitute, considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction.

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

So I'm going to talk on this subject out of this latter half of this chapter.

I'm going to title it faith dead or alive.

All right, let's pray together because we need it.

Holy spirit, you inspire James to write these words, so you know exactly what your intent was.

So we pray that you would give us ears to hear, minds to understand, softened hearts to receive what you want us to hear and what you want us to understand and what you would desire us to receive.

We pray for your empowerment to be upon me to communicate this word as you would have me to yes, the right words, but also the right tone.

How you would have me to say, how you would have me to say it and be the great interpreter and teacher.

In our gathering today, we ask all of this in Jesus' amazing name, and everybody shout it amen.

All right, you may be seated.

I had the great privilege of officiating a wedding last night of a couple of our worship team members that got married.

So if you want to get married, join the worship team.

All that worship together just joins your hearts.

Wonderful couple began to make me just ponder.

I began to ponder about the journey over the years of being married and one of the journeys is learning to share a bed with somebody else and I thought, well, they're going to go through these stages.

Once you've been married about three decades you'll understand these.

If you're new to marriage, if you're under five, 10 years of marriage, you'll understand the first one or two stages I'm going to mention.

First stage is this you're thinking man, you're on my side, get over on your side.

That's the first stage of sharing a bed with one another.

I got up in the middle of the night with the tape measure and measured the bed when we were first married.

So there's that stage.

And then you kind of settle into it and everyone's got their side and everything's cool and you're comfortable and you just have this.

You have years of just peacefulness.

So then after a while and age and gravity and weight and all the stuff begins to take place, sleep gets a little noisier and then you have to adjust to the noise.

Usually women just have to adjust to the noise of men a lot of times.

But both of us, we start making noise when you're sleeping, all these snoring and stuff.

But then all of a sudden, after years of that, you don't know how to sleep without it and you're like that's part of the adjustment.

Now you're into it 20 years and you're just it's the noise, that's peaceful.

And then when you reach about three decades or more, you reach a new stage of sleeping next to one another.

And it's this, all of a sudden, when there's no noise, you wonder if they're dead or alive.

I've said to say but I've already reached that stage.

Are you okay?

Are you all right?

You know, you see, if you've been married a long time, you go through these stages.

How many of you know what I'm talking about?

You older people, you go through those.

All right, james wants us to know is your faith dead or alive?

He's asking us a question can that kind of faith save you?

So he wants us to examine our faith and he brings up a question is it faith or is it works?

Is it your belief or is it your behavior?

What saves you?

Now we all have needs in this room and every human out there on the planet has needs and they vary.

But I'm going to tell you right now there is the greatest need of every human in this room and every human on the planet is to be right with God.

The greatest need of everyone is to be right with him.

Now the question is how do we get right with God?

How are we actually born again and how do we know that we are Help?

We're going to answer that question today, but I want to go to a writing of Paul really quick.

When he wrote to the church in Ephesus, and if you've been in church for a while, you're very familiar with this verse out of Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 8 through 10.

Ephesians 2:8–10

Now, if you're new to the faith, this will be a very important verse for you, and it is.

How do I know I'm a Christian?

How do I become one?

For it is by grace.

You have been saved Through faith, and this is not from yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast.

Can I hear an amen?

Isn't that good?

That's good news.

Does Paul disagree with James?

Does James disagree with Paul?

Are they in contrast to one another?

We're going to answer that question, hopefully today.

This is what a lot of us remember out of Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, but this isn't the end of what Paul says.

It's the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast, for we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

So Paul and James are not in contrast to one another, they're just coming at it from different viewpoints.

A week ago my wife and I and some of our family and friends and their family decided to go rafting on the Minim River.

So we got these really commercial grade kind of rafts, the kind that if you go over a couple of rocks they do not pop.

In fact, if you can go over rocks all day I'm convinced because we did they do not pop.

We're on our way there and my wife notices you know, that river looks kind of shallow, looks shallow and I'm like it does look kind of shallow and there's nobody floating.

But we're already here.

We're going floating or dragging a raft for six miles.

We're going to do one of the one of the other when we get down there, one of the first things we do with these rafts they're already blown up for the most part, but we got out the pump and we made sure that they were as full of air as you could get them, and so we pumped them up to where you know you can't even hardly press on them.

They are tight.

Now the air in the raft is what keeps us afloat on top of the water.

You can't see the air inside the raft, but you can see the effect of the air in the raft.

It does its work on the water.

Faith is on the inside.

You can't see faith it's not something visible but you can see the effect of a living, breathing, real biblical faith on the inside, because it works its way out from the inside to the outside.

So, is it faith or is it works?

We're going to answer that question today.

Titus says it like this this is a trustworthy saying, and I want you to stress these things.

So you think, well, what do you want us to stress?

Do you want us to stress that, hey, that you should get all everything you want in this life and you should get the job of your dreams?

And you need to stress these things.

Well, let's see what he wants us to stress, so that those who have trusted in God and that's be us may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good.

So, again here, you've trusted in God.

What should be stressed is that a faith works its way out, and by devoting ourselves to doing what's good, these things are excellent and they're profitable for everyone.

So what are the writers of Scripture?

Are they saying that if you want to be saved, you have to do good works?

Is he saying?

If you are, I think what he's saying is, if you are saved, you will produce good works, and if you do not produce good works, then you might actually not have the kind of faith that saves you.

That is an in your face, james, blunt question and statement.

Now I'm going to quote somebody today twice.

It's a little ironic that I'm going to quote him because at first he wasn't that fond of the book of James, because he sparked the Protestant Reformation.

He came out of religion and he had worked so hard, beating himself up, trying to be good enough to make it into heaven.

Then he read the book of Romans and God revealed to him that you are saved by faith, and that's why Paul would say that as well to the Ephesians.

It's not by works, lest anyone should boast, it's the work of Jesus Christ and he was revolutionized, martin Luther.

So Martin Luther sparked this Protestant Reformation of which we are all a part of today and, without further ado, thanks for Everyone who comforted me to fall Leahy.

Hmmmm, he is the greatest of them all.

He is the Chanukah, and this is what I want to give you, a quote from Martin Luther, about this thought works or faith.

It's impossible to separate or take sides on faith or works.

It is as trying to separate a burning flame from its brightness.

They are together.

Is it faith or is it works?

Yes and yes.

Is it free will or the sovereignty of God?

Yes and yes.

Is it gonna be done through prayer or is it gonna be done through our action?

Yes and yes.

Is it gonna be a peanut butter, hot fudge, banana milkshake?

Yes and yes and yes and yes and yes.

When I was the afforded the opportunity to serve in my local church, straight out of Bible school I was given this Sunday school classroom, flannel boards and a metal chair.

So I was in there, didn't really know what to do, volunteering my time full time, knowing that God had called me to the church.

I knew God had called me to pastor and we were in a very small church in our community and had it was a.

We had just enough to pay the bills and maybe to pay the lead pastor, but I'm here to serve, let's go for it.

I didn't know what to do, so I just did whatever my pastor told me to do.

And the first thing that he did is he said I seek God in the mornings.

And so that's what I did.

Okay, I'm gonna seek God in the mornings.

I'd read my Bible, I'd pray and then I'd start memorizing scripture.

I had all this time to just study the word and just started memorizing the book of Philippians and having a great time.

And then later on he'd go okay, now tell me something that needed done.

So how about we the vacuum the carpet?

Okay, I'd do that.

And then I would be asked to why don't you go preach at a youth meeting or young adult meeting?

So I go preach at that youth and young adult meeting.

And then the lawn would need mode, so then I could mow the yard, and then I was asked to lead worship.

And so I'd lead worship.

And then after a Sunday night meeting anybody remember when we had church on Sunday morning and Sunday night, and they were two different sermons.

Come on, anybody old enough to remember that?

No, you're too young.

All right, anyway.

And then, after you know, I'd lead worship and then I'd walk one of the grandmothers in the church home across the street.

So what was it to prepare me in the pastorate to pastor God's people?

Was it studying the Bible and memorizing scripture and the prayer time in the morning, or was it vacuuming the church carpet?

Was it preaching at a youth meeting or was it mowing the church lawn?

Was it leading worship or was it walking grandma home across the street?

Yes and yes, it's all of the above.

So are you gonna grow in your walk with God?

Just one way it's gonna be growing and my walk with God is gonna be all of the above.

But today I wanna break down this message in a couple of thoughts.

I wanna talk about what a dead faith is, because James says, hey, that's a dead faith.

I wanna talk about what a dead faith is.

I wanna talk about what a living faith is.

And then I wanna give us one application thought before we leave here today.

So let's talk about a dead faith.

What I'm really I guess I'm asking this question like James kinda did.

Am I a Christian?

What does it mean to be a Christian really?

Am I a Christian?

And here James goes in the same way faith by itself, if it's not accompanied by action, is dead.

So there is something called a dead faith.

Let me talk to you really quickly about two thoughts, about what I believe a dead faith is.

Number one is this knowing about God without knowing God.

A dead faith would be knowing about God but not actually knowing God.

That would be a head knowledge but not a heart knowledge.

That would be a dead faith, would be something that we would call a religious person.

That's why our vision as a church for you is to know God, find freedom, discover purpose and make a difference.

What do we mean by know God?

We want you to actually know God and not just about God.

We don't want you just to know church.

We want you to know the God of the church.

We don't want you to just to know the Bible.

We want you to know who the Bible leads you to.

So we don't want you just to know about him, we want you to know him.

And too many people have experienced dead religion, where they go to church but never go to God, where they've learned how to hear about God but maybe never learn how to hear from God themselves.

And if we are not intentional, we can be bought into a dead religion rather than a living faith.

And James is warning us to be sure that we possess the real thing.

Jesus had a lot of conversations with people who didn't actually know God at all, and here's one of the things he said to people who knew the Bible but didn't know the author of the Bible.

Look at this you search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life, but the scriptures point to me, yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.

Your approval means nothing to me because I know you don't have God's love when With in you Now.

We all know a lot of people that we hear about on the news or maybe in Hollywood and TV.

We know that and we feel like, well, I know them, I know who they are, when in reality, we know about them, we know of them, but we don't know them.

It's important that we don't confuse hearing about someone for actually meeting that someone.

So I think one of the ways that James would define a dead faith would be knowing about God but not actually knowing God.

I think another way that seems pretty clear from James is that believing that there is a God instead of believing in God.

James sassiest statement in the five chapters is James chapter 219.

It kind of cracks me up.

He's just sassy.

He's sassy.

Oh, you believe there's a God.

Good Demons do that.

He's like demons believe that God exists and at least they have an emotional response and they shudder.

So it's not good enough to believe that God exists.

Oh, I believe I believe there's a God.

That doesn't mean that you're born again or you have eternal life in you, and James wants us to know.

Believing that there is God doesn't even do as much as demons do.

Come on, tell your neighbor.

That's sassy, it's seriously sassy.

So he's challenging us.

I know many of you have heard the story of Charles Bondon back in 1859, when he was crossing on a tightrope across the Niagara Falls into Canada and he would go back and forth and he did it multiple ways and multiple times.

He rode a bicycle across.

Once he did it on stilts.

One of the times he did it in a sack going across.

Could you imagine going across Niagara Falls all the sound of the rushing water in a sack.

He did it one time carrying a stove and cooking an omelet.

I trip just walking around here sometimes, so he became famous for it.

And one time he went across and he came back pushing a wheelbarrow across the tightrope across Niagara Falls.

So he comes back and I mean all the crowd is just oohing and awing and just clapping, he's got him in the palm of his hand and he's like he says how many of you think that I could put somebody in the wheelbarrow and take them across?

And they're like, yeah, you could do it.

And then he asked the great question who's ready to get in?

And of course nobody did.

There's a difference between a crowd saying I believe and then somebody saying I believe in I put my life on the line, I put everything I have into the wheelbarrow.

I'm saying you're in charge of nothing I can do.

You're carrying my life from this day forward.

There's a difference between getting in the wheelbarrow and cheering from the stands yeah, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

James is saying that.

James is saying a faith that believes there's a God but doesn't believe enough to put their life in God is dead.

So let's talk, then, about what a living faith is.

That's a dead faith, but a living faith.

James goes show me your faith without deeds and I'll show you my faith by my deeds.

In other words, I've got a living faith and I want you to know something about what a living faith is.

And a living faith by my deeds, a living faith sacrificially serves.

A living faith sacrificially serves.

When you're born again, you will like people a whole lot more than you did before you were born again.

If you don't, you're probably not born again.

You believe in God, or you believe there is a God, but you don't believe in him yet.

You just believe like demons do, or maybe not even that much.

You might not shudder, but James is telling us a living faith will produce a love that will produce deeds.

You say you got faith by your faith.

I tell you watch me, I'll show you my faith.

I'll show you by the way I serve people.

I'll show you by the way that my faith will reveal itself by serving the poor, by serving the imprisoned, by serving the broken, by serving the lost, by loving on my neighbor.

There was a movie that I saw years ago.

I don't remember the title of it.

It's one of those Christian movies set in the era of Jesus with his disciples, and it was all about this man who had heard about Jesus the king and he wanted to meet him so desperately.

But he knew you never approach a king without a gift.

So he decided I'm gonna sell everything I have and I'm gonna put it all in jewels, I'm gonna put those jewels in this sack and I'm gonna go find this king and I'm gonna give him all that I have sold so that I could meet him.

So he found out where Jesus was and he heard that Jesus was in such an era in such and such a city.

So on his way to that city he got interrupted because he met some broken person by the roadway who was in need.

So he knew I can't just leave them here.

So he sold one of his jewels, cashed it in and met the need of that stranger on the side of the road.

After he was done taking care of their need, he made it to the city where he heard Jesus was and he found out he's no longer here, he's moved on and I heard he was going to such and such a city.

So he was on his way to that city to meet the king that he had heard about, with all that was left of his belongings, in a sack with these jewels that he wanted to present to him.

And he was on his way and he went through a leprous colony and he was struck by the need of all the lepers and so he began to sell jewels to meet the needs and to bandage the wounds of the lepers in that colony.

And then finally he thought I've got to go meet the king.

And he had a few jewels left.

And he was on his way out and he heard when he got to the city where that Jesus was no longer there.

He goes, where is he?

Where is he?

And he heard he was in such and such a city.

So he was on his way there to that city and on his way of course you know the story now he saw a need and he only had a couple jewels left and he sold those to meet that need and now all he had was this empty sack and he wanted so desperately to give something to the king and he raced to that city because he didn't want to miss him this time.

And when he got there he heard that he was gone on his way to Jerusalem.

So he gets to Jerusalem.

By the time he gets to Jerusalem, he finds out through the crowd he's dead, he's gone, you're too late.

He wept.

He went outside the city and he just wept and then the resurrected Jesus appeared to him and showed up and he said, with his head bowed, he said I've wanted to meet you all my life and I had presents to give to you and I had to use them all and now I have nothing left to give you.

And Jesus, of course, said when you did it to the least of these, you did it unto me.

And of course, it reminds me of what Jesus said in Matthew, chapter 25.

Matthew 25 · chapter mention

When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne.

All the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, those with a living faith from those with a dead faith.

He'll put the living faith people on his right and he'll put the people with a dead faith on his left.

And the King will say to those on his right come, you who are blessed by my father, take your inheritance.

The kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.

I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.

I was a stranger and you invited me in.

I needed clothes and you closed me.

I was sick and you looked after me.

I was in prison and you came to visit me.

Then the righteous will answer him Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?

When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothes you?

When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?

I love this about those with a living faith they don't even know they're doing it.

You see, those with the living faith, it's not works-based, it's not like I gotta do this, it's just what they do.

When did we do this?

The king will reply.

Truly, I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.

A living faith, my friends, is a faith that sacrificially serves.

You are saved to serve, and when Jesus gets on the inside of us, we have the most humble servant that has ever lived and breathed on the planet, living in us.

How do I know he is?

Because he works his way out through humble, sacrificial service.

Let me say it like this saved people serve people.

Again, martin Luther.

He said we are saved by faith alone.

But the faith that saves is never alone.

You see, the faith that saves is always accompanied by its outward working of works.

Just like I know there's air in a raft, by the raft, floating on the water.

I can't see it, I can't see it, I can't see it.

I can't see it.

I can't see it, I can't see it, I can't see it, but I can see the effect of it.

So I know that I have a living faith when I see it working its way out of my life.

So is it faith or is it works?

How am I truly to know if I'm a Christian?

How do I know if I'm saved?

It's not faith and works.

It's not faith or works, but rather it's a faith that works.

I know I have the real thing when it works its way out of me.

So a living faith sacrificially serves other people yes, everyone.

But you don't have to read far in the Bible to see that the people that heaven focuses so much on are the marginalized of society, prisoners, jesus said it.

The sick, jesus said it, the hungry, the poor.

A living faith loves people In the living faith, my friends, one more thought.

It surprisingly changes you.

You're just amazed that you're not the same person.

Not because you just disciplined yourself so hard, but stuff just starts coming out of you.

Anger leaves and love comes in, pitterness falls away and mercy flows out.

There's change in your life when you're a real Christian and that's why James talks about Rahab the prostitute.

In the list of someone who's considered righteous because there's hope for anybody, she's listed right alongside the father of faith, abraham, rahab, prostitute.

There's no one more surprised in heaven that she made it than Rahab Well, actually, maybe the thief on the cross.

How'd I get here?

I'm surprised that you did that in me.

I'm surprised I wanted to give lodging to the spies.

I'm surprised that I wanted to help.

I don't know how God did it in me.

He just did.

And some of you are surprised.

You're no longer hungover, you're no longer sleeping around, you're no longer addicted, you're no longer doing the drugs, you're no longer broken like you used to be.

There's no one more surprised than you that you're sitting in church.

You're like I don't understand it.

And I'm here to tell you that's what gives God glory is you don't take the glory.

No one's more surprised that your marriage made it than you, but you know it was Him.

A real, living faith surprisingly changes you.

So I got one application thought for us today, one thought, and I just want us to look at this scripture examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith, test yourselves.

Here's the test, and I think this is really important because James is in our face to church people.

So let the Holy Spirit be in your face right now.

Ask yourself these questions Do I sacrificially serve other people?

I got to examine my faith.

Do I sacrificially serve others or do I, down deep, just always complain that no one serves me?

How about this in marriage?

Bottom line of marriage problems is this issue.

Who's going to serve who?

Do I sacrificially serve other people?

And the second question is has my life changed and does it continue to change?

Because you could have started with a living faith and traded it for a dead one, and the last time you changed was 27 years ago, when you gave your life to Christ.

So let's do what we've been doing and let's ask the Holy Spirit what he's saying to us before we leave here.

Let's bow our heads, close our eyes.

Holy Spirit, we invite you to help us take this test, help us to examine our faith.

What are you saying to me?

What are you saying to me?

What are you highlighting to me today?

And, holy Spirit, we now ask that you will help us, help me to have a living faith, with every head bowed and every eye closed.

I want to speak to someone today, just in the solitude of this moment between you, me and heaven.

Maybe you're not sure you have a faith at all and maybe you've believed there is a God, but you've never put your life in the wheel barrel, you've never said God, I'm all yours, I give you everything I am, I leave everything behind, I leave my past life of sin and selfishness and I'm yours.

And if you can change Rahab, then I ask you to change me.

And if that's you and you'd say, bob, I'm ready to change in a dead faith for a living one, or I'm ready to put my life on the line and say I want you, I want to be what it really means to be born again, I want to be a real Christian and I want to give my life to Jesus.

Today, if that's you, I'm not going to call you forward, but I would like to know between you, me and Jesus, who's going to pray this next prayer with me to get their life right with God.

Would you just look up at me and catch eyes with me and maybe wave your hand so I can see you?

I see you, it's beautiful.

Who else is here today?

I don't want to miss you.

I see you.

I see you, it's great, see you.

Wonderful.

Who else is here?

Wonderful choice Today's your day.

I might have missed you.

I promise you Jesus did not, but I want you to pray right where you're at.

I just want you to say yes to this prayer.

As I pray on your behalf, jesus, I lift up my friends before you.

Today, we thank you for giving your all for us.

So today I say I want to give my all to you.

I no longer want to just believe that you exist, but I want to believe in you.

I want to put all of my life in you.

Forgive me of every sin I've ever committed.

Come into my heart.

I want a living, breathing, real faith that makes me born again and changes me from the inside out.

Fill me today with you.

I pray all of this in Jesus' amazing name, and everybody shout it amen.

Can we give Jesus a hand clap for how good he is today?

Lord, we love you so very much.

We hope that today's message encouraged you.

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