The Sanctuary: Walking With God Season 2 Episode 1 – Why is James Chapter 2 So Misunderstood?

Welcome to Season 2 Episode 1 of The Sanctuary: Walking With God! In this episode, theologian Dan Robb and scientist Mark Wadsworth jump into the whirlpool of James 2. Why do so many people get the wrong idea about this chapter? Context! Context! Context!

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

He's like, what does a prophet, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? And here's the verse, here's the part of the verse that everybody just clings to, and because they just read everything into it, can faith save him.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

Dun dun dungeons Welcome to the Sanctuary.

SPEAKER_02 0:33

I'm Dan Robb. I'm the theologian. This is Mark Wandsworth. He boxes kangaroos in his spare time. Boy, it's hard to get them in those boxes. I'll tell you what, it is. Let me tell you. Let me tell you. And boy, am I glad to be back here with the Sanctuary Podcast and uh with you all. Of course, Mark has a new dog. So if uh you'll be hearing about him in the back.

SPEAKER_00 0:56

I can't shut him up.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

No, you can't. And uh, you know what? He's got a voice and he wants everybody to know it. He does.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

He's a counter tenor, that's what they call it. Yeah. Hey, but anyway, man, what's time?

SPEAKER_02 1:09

It's time for church. It is time for church. Well, it is time for me to do my spiel, and that is if you have a question, a comet, a query, a conundrum, or a quagmire, and you know what those are, and if the dog knows, maybe he'll chime in here. Uh, but you can reach out to us at SanctuaryBB.org no uh contact contact at sanctuarybb.org. Uh it's first time back in a while. So I'll have Nanak did it. Yeah, have him do that. Yeah, put him on screen. I'm sure people would love the improvement, right? Oh jeez. I don't look at these two goofballs. That guy's got a shirt on that looks very explosive. Yeah. And if you don't know, it's it is hot magma. Yes, it is. Ooh. Uh all right. Well, this is already off the rails, but uh that's I digress. We are since we're back and you know, from a long hiatus, you know, I had uh a long journey to the end of the world. Yeah, I didn't.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Otherwise known as Oregon.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Yeah, Portland. I did go to the Yeah, I did. Yeah. I was on the Oregon Trail and for a moment there I thought I had dysentery. So yeah. Uh no, I'm glad to be back and uh with uh with a new job and uh or with an old new job, I should say. And uh Mark is feeling better health-wise.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Yes, I can actually sit up and talk now.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

He can actually sing for his supper, so yes.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Although I usually let the dog do that for me.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Yeah, the dog does a good job. He has a better voice. He does have a better voice. Uh, there's a lot of issues that you know I was thinking about in the times since, and you know, one of them that always seems to come back is James chapter two, and you know, I think it's good to just kind of do a refresher. So we're gonna look at James chapter two today, and we will be looking at the New King James Version. Uh, I will put now I will put on my readers. Um but just for starters here, uh the reason why James, James 2 is like the watershed book. It's the book that Martin Luther just had no idea what to do with. He didn't think it should be in the Bible. And again, this is Martin Luther, the Lutherans of denomination, who's saying this because he had read Galatians and Romans and was like, the gospel is so clear. Where does this fit into all of this? And really, this is one of those cases where what James is doing is it's it's one of the earliest written uh epistles.

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Most theologians think that it's actually the earliest book in the New Testament.

SPEAKER_02 3:46

Yeah. Yeah, they do. And James is a half-brother of Jesus. But who is the who is this chapter, James chapter two, written to? Well, in verse one of chapter two, he says, my brethren.

SPEAKER_00 3:58

So like every five, ten times in every chapter, he says, my brethren. Yeah. So he's writing to unbelievers, right? Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:07

Yeah. Well, he he said, you know, you could make the case like, oh, he's writing to the Jewish people, because in James 1, 2, you know, he talks about he's writing to his every all the twelve tribes, you know. But he says in the latter part of James 2 1, he says, Do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord God of glory, with partiality.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 4:29

So he's clearly talking to people who are saved.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

And, you know, you can make that argument. Well, he's talking to Jewish people. Well, yes, he is, because at this point in time, Christianity, Christians hadn't been called Christians yet. If you read the book, I actually find out when that happened the first time. And so the people who followed the way, which is what they call themselves, they were still Jewish. You know, as far as it goes.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Yes, and this is one of those passages where my the dean of my seminary would always say, We're training you to be biblicist. Don't ask me to spell that. And what he meant by that was, what is the text saying? Yeah you know, don't get caught up in your theological, like I guess, zone or wherever it is that your church believes, but really allow the text to lead you and guide you into what the truth is. And that's the part where I think so often we get our theological blinders on and we go, well, you know, my church is reformed, or my church is Methodist, or my church is the church of Christ, or whatever, nothing wrong. I don't have anything personally with those denominations, it's just that they will sometimes have a view already in mind, and what you do is you take the squ uh the square peg and you're putting, trying to put it in a round hole, and you're you're forcing things onto it.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Yes, and if I may say, I'd like to use one of those big dollar general store words. Yes. When you're reading the Bible, use the inductive method. Okay? What does that mean? That means read what's in the Bible and understand what's in the Bible. Read it, do not do not read into it. Read it and understand it. Don't sit and put your Sherlock Holmes hat on initially. Pen pipe, don't put your pipe. Pen pipe, don't use your pipe either. If you do get a light it, there you go. Uh, but seriously, you know, the Bible says what the Bible says. So do not sit down and start saying, well, you know, he used this word here, and then he used that word over here again. Well, I, you know, that's the same thing that uh, you know, Peter did, and uh, well, you know, Peter meant this, so obviously James meant the same thing Peter. No, no, no, no, no. Read the text, read all the text. When you're reading, like chapter two, like we're gonna go, we're gonna jump right into the middle of chapter two. What we what you should do is you should start at the beginning. Actually, start at the beginning of James and read, read the whole thing. It doesn't take that long. No, but you can't just simply jump in, pull things out of context, and then deduce that just means that.

SPEAKER_02 7:20

Yeah, because at the end of near the end of chapter one, he's talking about be a doer of the word, not a hearer of the word. And he's like, what good is it to look in the mirror? You you shave half of your beard off, and then you go, yeah, it's about right, and you just leave. It's like you've left the other half there. You're not done. You know, you've only done partial part of it. And which is why in chapter two, verse one through thirteen, he brings up a scenario and he's he's addressing an issue. And then in chapter three, he's gonna address another issue that does affect your actions, which is your tongue. And you know, he does a brilliant job with that as well, obviously, because it's God's word, but I'm just saying, it's not like, yeah, whatever. All right. Uh chapter two, verse 14. Uh, he says, so he just ends this whole thing, verse 13. I'll read that just for context. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Uh again, there he's talking about giving the best seat to these rich people and forgetting the poor and telling them, you guys just sit in the back, you know, see if you can seat, sit and squat, you know, who cares? And James is like, you can't do that because those rich people, they're probably going to be the ones that you owe money to, you know.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

No ones are gonna see you.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

They're gonna be the ones that are really gonna get it, give it to you there. So he's like, Don't do that, you know. He's like, what does a prophet, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? And here's the verse, here's the part of the verse that everybody just clings to, and because they just read everything into it, can faith save him? Dun dun dun. Does that scare you? I'm scared. It does. Okay, I'm I'm frightened. Uh if a brother, yeah, it's my dramatic pause. If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food. Sounds familiar from the earlier uh example he gave. And one of you says to them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled. But you do not give them the things which are needed for the body. What does it profit? And he's absolutely right, you know. I mean, I I always appreciate people saying they'll they'll pray for me. Uh but when you're in dire straits and you need like food for that day, you know, you you actually need someone to to do something. Maybe give you a dollar here, go get a yeah, go get a pop, or go get a a burger at McDonald's, you know. These what the scenario he's setting up there is basically this person is destitute. They need help now. They don't need lip service. They don't need your you to say, be well and warm. Thank you. Those are great words.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Yeah, that helps a lot when you're starving and freezing.

SPEAKER_02 10:11

You know, and my words with friends app, I'm not even going to be able to get a bingo using those words. So thank you for that, for your uselessness. Uh, verse 17. Um, thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. There is your second, you know, first, can this man's faith save him? So the first, you know, phrase that we all as Christians we read or have read at some point in time early in our faith and gone, you know, here's the next word that, you know, if you are of a theological persuasion or a certain denomination, and I say that because I've been to those churches and I know exactly what they're gonna say. They'll get there and they'll go, ah, yeah, this uses the word dead. That means you have no faith. And you're like, no, that's that's not what it means. It's dead doesn't mean it's no longer there. It's still there, it's just not moving, it's not doing anything.

SPEAKER_00 11:12

I was I was at Buffalo Wild Wings. Oh, I'm sorry. At like three o'clock on Thursday, and it was dead. Yeah. It was just laying there. It was just breathing. Yeah. It just the whole building fell over on its side. It was just it had given up the ghost.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

Probably would have been the best thing for Buffalo Wild Wings if you think about it.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

That's the same, that's the same thing, right? It is. Somebody says, oh, it's dead, right? And that doesn't necessarily mean dead, right? Right. We have lots of different uh descriptions for that word, and so did the Greeks.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Don't worry, we can fix that in post.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

No, we can't. That's okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:51

Had to try, had to try. No, you're right. That's you know, it doesn't mean it's no longer there, it just means it's not active. It's it's you know, it's like when I get home from work and I sit on the couch when I'm done with work. There's like a good 30 minutes where I'm just I'm just sitting there. I'm not gonna move. I'm gonna go, I just did that, I'm glad it's over, and I'm just recouping here. Um so he moves on here, and he gives sort of this uh argument here. And James does this in verse 18 and 19, and we're gonna show you some other examples of it throughout the Bible, but we'll read this first. Verse 18. But someone will say, You have faith, and I have works. So what they're saying is that you have two different things. One person has works, one person just has faith. And he's basically saying, Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. Well, the person with faith can't show you their faith without works, because that's that's incredibly hard to do. That's like someone that's like the person that's dead there. They're they're not moving, they're not active. They could have faith, they may not have faith. You know, you don't know because you don't see any response from them. They're they're dead. Right. They're inactive. They're inactive. That's a great way to say it. Verse 19. You believe there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe. And tremble. Exclamation point. If I can interject, you may interject, please.

SPEAKER_00 13:32

I once upon a time had a an educated pastor explain to me that that verse demonstrated that if you didn't have works, you weren't really a believer. And his argument was, well, the demons believed that the demons aren't saved. And my response to that educated pastor was, what do the demons believe? Well, the demons knew he was the son of God. Well, yeah. Okay, what does that mean? What do you have to believe in order to have salvation? Yeah. You have to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and that Jesus offers you eternal life simply by saying, Lord, you've offered it to me. Here I am. Let's do this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

And demons don't do that. Demons don't do that.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

Demons They can't do that, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:27

Well, and if you think about it, like what's even stranger is that when you really go into what are demons, anyways, yeah. They're basically disembodied spirits. And this is not Dan Robb talking, this is Michael Heiser talking, this is um Second Timbal Jewish writers talking.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

Arnold Frukenbaum.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

Arnold Frutenbaum. Uh, this there's a whole host of writers and then people that aren't even Christians that you know lived long ago that are saying, uh, demons are disembodied spirits of the dead Nephilim or the dead giants from Genesis 6, the dead offspring. They basically are part divine from the sons of God and part human. They had flesh. So God judged them already. So there's no way they can even make a faith decision at all because they've already been judged. And that final judgment, which if you read through the Gospels, you'll, you know, that story with the Legion, you know, it's like they're in that guy and he's going crazy, all the strength and everything, and people are fearful of him. And the Legion says to Jesus when he sees him, he's like, Are you come before the time? Because they know they've already been judged. They've already been judged, and they can't go, obviously, they're not going to go to heaven because of their sin, but they they can't go to the underworld either because they're human. They're not they're not really human either, not fully human. So they're sort of in this wasteland where they are just basically bound to wander wanting to inhabit a body. This is why, and this is a sidebar note on that, and and I really I think people need to be careful with what they invite into their lives. And what I mean by that, and I don't, this is a rabbit trail, but we are on this topic anyways, and I think it's important for people to know, and that is, you know, it's one thing to get into some of these new age practices, you know, uh, it can be sort of like self-esteem, self-help stuff, but be very careful with what you start to invite into your lives, because some of these new age authors, you know, will say stuff like, I have divine spirit beings that help me, you know, and you're you're the whole time when you're a little thinking about what they're saying, you're going, ah, that's not a divine spirit. They are a spirit being, but they're not doing that for their for your benefit, you know.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

And or let's let's uh meditate and allow our consciousness to travel into Let's Astropodrex.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

Yep. Yep, let's do that.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

No, don't do that either. Don't do that either. It's not a good idea.

SPEAKER_02 17:09

No, and I'm not trying to beat up on this uh top or this uh thing that practice that people do, you know, but be careful really seriously with if when it comes to something like yoga, because it's if you're doing it for the stretching and for the health benefits, that's one thing, and there's nothing wrong with that. When you get to something called kundalini yoga, opening up your third eye, all of those things, now you are opening up yourself to a whole nother spiritualism that isn't an open door. It's just kind of like why my parents were so upset when you get the Ouija board out. You know, it's not that it's just the board, but what it invites, all of these things.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

It's important to understand that the practice of yoga, what we think of it, most people think of it in in the West, is it's just an exercise program. Right. But the whole point for the exercise program was to be able to stimulate develop your body uh so that you could sit in a trance state for hours at a time without serious damage. So the the exercise was just the precursor to the real stuff. Yeah. So beware, you know. Uh nothing wrong with that. Well, says the fat man, nothing wrong with exercise. Yeah. Um but watch out, you know. Don't don't fall down that that rabbit hole. Yeah. Oh, it's just a little bit of meditation.

SPEAKER_02 18:39

Yeah, and I um excuse me, I uh the reason why I say that is because demons want to inhabit a body, and when you start to open the door for that, you start inviting things into your life.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Yeah, do you remember that story Jesus told about you know the you come and you sweep cast out a demon, yeah, and and you know, the it's all swept and clean, and then the demon comes back with seven others worse than him and say, Hey, look, it's really nice in here. Let's come back in. But it's like so I say no no astral projection, man.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

If you're out of here, something else can come in. Yeah, yeah, it really is. I mean, it's definitely all right. I I just wanted to make that statement just because when he says even the demons believe, it's it's their their belief isn't, yes, they believe because of everything that's happened since then the flood and all of it. They have no choice. I mean, they have to look at it and go, yeah, we're not gonna win. But you know what? We know that we're not gonna win, but we're gonna try and take as many down as we can, you know. So that's why I say they there they can't respond. Just like a dead body, they a dead body may have faith, it but it's inactive, so it needs works to make it alive. Um, I remember being in college, and they someone would give a sermon about um the Dead Sea, and they're like, you're getting so much knowledge in this Bible college and in graduate school and all of this to learn in your faith and grow. You don't want to be like the Dead Sea where you're just everything is coming in and nothing is going out. You know, and stuff needs to come in and it needs to go out. Therefore, we as believers need to do some type of service. And that can be anything ranging from you making a list of people because of your health reasons and just praying for those people on your way on your commute to work or as you're doing your morning devotions. Um, really being a prayer warrior, that is just one simple thing that you can do if you have the time, or remember to do that, or make it a point to do that rather. Um other things can be just helping other people, being an encouragement to them, you know, saying a positive word to them, you know, following up with people, um, not making it about yourself, but making it about the other person, you know, being someone that the other person can share what's going on in their life with you. Uh there's all sorts of things, of course, giving food to the homeless, you know, of course getting involved in your local church and doing the helping out with the children's ministry or whatever it is. But it it is using whatever unique gifts and talents that God has enabled you to have and using those for his kingdom. And that can look like a lot of different things. It's not for me to be your Holy Spirit, you know. Really seek that out and ask God what he would have you to do. But it is an incumbent upon every believer to do something. I don't know what that is for you, but when we do something for the Lord, that makes our faith more alive. And other people can see it. But going back here, verse 18 and 19, let's look at He uses that phrase, but someone will say, or yeah, yeah, he uses that. So 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 35 and 36. This is Paul writing. This is 1 Corinthians, maybe a little bit of time after James was written. So one of the first epistles, but not, you know, so not the first one, but he says, But someone will say, How are the dead raised up? And with your body, and with what body do they come? And then verse 36. He now flips it on them and he says, Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive until unless it dies. Paul uses that again, this whole kind of phrase. So you can see there with Paul from in that 1 Corinthians, and then what he does here in Romans chapter 9, verse 19 through 20, and he does it a couple of times in Romans, so I'm just picking one. He says, You will say to me then, so he's assuming this argument. Maybe it's not as ridiculous as what James is doing, but or what he was doing in 1 Corinthians, but he says, Why does he still find fault? For who has resisted his will? Then he goes on to answer, But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing form say to him who formed it, Why have you made me like this? So Paul is using it as a way to communicate the foolishness to someone who's tracking with him, but they still have some objections. It's the objector kind of argument, I guess you will. And that's kind of what James is doing here in verse 18 and 19. He's he's already he's already seen what someone's going to say, because there's going to be that person in the crowd that goes, hmm, yeah, I don't know about this. I'm going to slightly raise my hand. And you're like, oh great, not this guy. He's raising his hand. You know who I'm talking about. No, I'm just joking. There are those people out there. Yes. Some will say. Some will say, hmm, greetings and salutations. Uh all right. Uh I'll stop doing that. All right. So why am I in James? Oh, there it is. Okay. All right. Verse uh 21. Was not Abraham or before you go.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

Yep. Verse 20, it's really important. There. Yeah, thank you. So verse 20 says, but uh, do you want to know, oh foolish man, that faith without works is dead? That's the way the New King James translates it. But if you notice on the New King James, there's this little fiddly bit that says footnote. Uh-oh. And if you bring up the footnote, it says text reads useless. I wonder what they would translate useless as dead there. Can't imagine. I can't imagine what it wouldn't have anything to do with trying to prove your theological bias about something, would it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:11

But I think it's a it's a great it's a great point because they're probably translating that as dead because he used dead already, and so they're thinking, okay, but the reality is what what good is a dead body? It is useless. And that's really more how we need to look at this, you know. And I want to just say this because I heard a message a couple of weeks ago. Oh gosh. They called it uh in the mess, it was some guy got up to speak who didn't have the he I don't think he had gone to Bible college, but he was the youth pastor speaking for the pastor, and he he talked, he used this patches to to talk about demon, do we have a demonic faith? You know, and I just thought, man, you were doing so good until until you got there. And I'm like, why do you have to do that? And I I I I understand, I think I've calmed down more in the past. I probably would have been like, I'm gonna write an email, you know, and then strongly worded, strongly worded email. And then and then now I realize like, consider the source. And I think this is a good for our audience to know is do the work yourself. You know, really seriously. You know, you you're at the church that you're at, it could be a variety of reasons. Maybe you like the pastor, you like the pastor jokes, you know, or maybe you love the community or the worship, maybe you like the Bible teaching. Who knows? I don't know why you you like what you like or feel led to be where you're at. That's between you and the Lord. Um, but even pastors, you know, they have a hard enough job as it is. And most of the time, when you're up there in the pulpit, you know, I remember being told in seminary it takes, it's supposed to take a good 35 hours a week to devote yourself to a Bible message to deliver it to the congregation. Most pastors don't have that. Most pastors will have uh, maybe if they're lucky, half of that time in order to do that, let alone do you know the Wednesday night message if they do that, or a Sunday night message if they even do that. Who knows? But uh then they have all these other responsibilities. These are mid-sized to smaller churches that these guys are are with. So I do that's why when I when I heard that from this young guy, I I thought I'm not gonna hold that against him, but I do hope that and I will pray that somebody will I think there were a mutual friend of ours, did have a conversation with them about that uh because his kids were in the youth group. But uh it's it's one of those where you you do have to remember to pray for your pastor and help them, you know. And uh, and sometimes um you because of the church denomination, and maybe you're you're there because you believe God wants you there, but the messages that come out of that pulpit are more lordship, or they're more maybe there you're not even sure where they stand on the salvation issue because it's kind of all a mixed bag there. That's something that you can be praying for them about and maybe at some point have a conversation with them. But I digress, that's my soapbox. All right. He goes on here, he says Verse 21, right? Thank you. Verse 21, thank you. Was not Abraham our father, I put on my glasses and I still couldn't see it. Uh was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar. So that's Abraham's faith responding with works, essentially. Excuse me. Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? So we're talking about not justification, we're talking about sanctification. That's what James is after here. He's after your, we are saved from the power of sin. We are being saved from the power of sin. Not justification being saved from the penalty of sin. I think the example people give is like Abraham, Abraham's call in Genesis chapter 12. You know, God calls him out and he responds. He's like, I'm here, God. And then in Genesis 15, you know, it's more of a people call it a confirmation of his faith because of his works. All right. Verse 23. And the scripture was fulfilled, which says, Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. 24. You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only. Now let's go back to verse 23. Abraham twice lied about his wife, and he's called the friend of God. He lied about his relationship twice. So not just one time, oh, I made a mistake, probably could overlook it, but did it again the second time. Ah, she's just my wife, and because Sarah was so beautiful, both times the guy was trying to get with her, trying to marry her, trying to make her his wife, and God had to intervene. And it's it was such a family sin that poor Isaac does the same stupid mistake, you know. So one can make a case, well, you got a generational sin going on here. Yeah. So while Abraham trusted in God and he's counted as a friend, he's still a human being. So, and that's something that this whole sinless perfection thing that some Christians like to like to teach, you know, it's uh ridiculous because the Bible is full of people that are just they're humans. And they probably wouldn't be invited to most churches. Uh verse 25, likewise was not Rahab who the harlot go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 31:12

Before we before we go any further on Abraham, it took me a minute for his brain cell to kick in, but Romans 4. Paul talks about Abraham too. Yeah. But Paul says that Abraham was justified by faith. James says that it was works, right? Uh but you get okay, so here's Romans 4, 4.1. Uh, what then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. So we read that, and then we read James, and you'd say, well, those two guys are saying two different things, but they're not.

SPEAKER_01 32:10

No.

SPEAKER_00 32:11

You have to ask yourself the justification aspect of this. If you're talking about faith and you have faith in Jesus, then you are justified in God's eyes. If you have works, that's good, but that's not what justifies you in the eyes of God. It justifies you in the eyes of man. Because like James said up there, you know, if you're if you're not doing this stuff, you're dead, right?

SPEAKER_01 32:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:41

So you are there, you're a believer, you know, you're you love the Lord, you feel all gooey gooey and all that, but you do absolutely nothing and never tell anyone, never show anyone, ever do anything that demonstrates what you truly believe, then no one around you understands, and therefore you're not justified in the eyes of man, because you haven't done anything to justify your belief. But let's say you start you know acting on what you what you believe, and you go out and you start, I don't know, uh working at homeless shelters or teaching a Sunday school class. I taking care of somebody's kids, you know, it can be anything. It's that doesn't have to be a religious thing, it just something where you're helping your brother and sister. Yeah, then that action is justification for you. And it's you know, you can't brag about it to God. That's not the point. What you're doing it for is so that other people understand that this is what God wants you to do and how they should be treating everyone else.

SPEAKER_02 33:47

It's understanding that everything I do, I want to do it to the glory of God. Exactly. And uh that's how now I can live like a reprobate and I can not do any of that. Would I still go to heaven? Yes, if I believed in Jesus Christ for eternal life, I would. Um I'm justified by faith in them. But would it be fair for someone to look at my life and go, man, uh is Dan even a believer? That's probably a fair question for them to ask because they're looking at my life and going, he doesn't do anything, you know. He's like a he would He's like a dead man. He's like a dead man, exactly. And and because he it's like he's useless, you know. It's like he is useless for the kingdom of God because he he just sits there. He blinks every once in a while, but he just sits there, you know. And that's kind of what, you know, I mean, in a lot of ways, we all we all have heard it in church before, you know, someone comes up, and I've heard it in enough churches where someone will stand up to give announcements. We really need this, we need help with this, we need this in the church. And then you look out there as you're making that announcement and you realize there's crickets, you know, and there's people that probably could, but you look out there and you're like, it's like I'm talking to a bunch of dead people.

SPEAKER_00 35:13

I need to polish my antique anima casting.

SPEAKER_02 35:16

Right. So it is a lot of work, it can be an insurmountable amount of work, and it can be difficult for believers because we're so guarded with our time that we're afraid that if we we work, you know, 40 plus more hours, five days a week, maybe six days a week, 60 hour workdays, 60 hour work week, sorry, my bad, that would be crazy. Um and we do these things, and that sometimes there's just really nothing left, you know, and you're like, I have two, I have kids, I got this, what else can I do? Like I said, you can do little things. And if you are retired and you maybe have more time on your hands, there's more you can do. I'm not looking at you. You teach a Bible study. Yeah, yeah, I you deal with those people, you know, those people? Uh yeah. Uh but that's what I'm saying is that there may be more time that's there for you to do something, you know. And if you can't, and if maybe you still feel like you can't do that, you know, pray and ask God, you know, which really should be at the start of any of it, and say, God, what would you have me do and wait? Just keep praying that each day and wait for an answer. And the answer will become so obvious to you at some point as to what God will have you do. You know, otherwise, keep doing what you're doing until God moves in your heart to do something. So that's my spiel there. Um I like it. Verse 25, for the body without the spirit is dead. Right. It's uh useless.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

26.

SPEAKER_02 37:02

So, verse 26, yeah. See, I I should be reading with my glasses. So, faith without works is dead also. So he sums it up there really well. Um, but again, this is more of a sanctification issue, and this is the problem with uh denominations take slapping salvation, justification, and sanctification and throwing it together like it's uh two pieces of white bread with olive loaf bologna in the middle, and you're going, oh, that's a sandwich, there it is, and you're like, No, though all of those things should be separated, and you never should eat olive loaf unless you're really hard up.

SPEAKER_00 37:41

Oh. How about head cheese?

SPEAKER_02 37:44

Yeah. Mark, where are you going, buddy?

SPEAKER_00 37:48

Where am I going? I'm not going anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 37:50

You're not going anywhere? Okay. I just see simplified Greek on your computer. Yeah, it's like I put on your computer. I was like, oh my gosh. My computer's trying to scare me. Yeah, it might be, it might be. That's happening here.

SPEAKER_00 38:02

That's like uh that's like easy uh uh marine boot camp.

SPEAKER_02 38:08

Right. Yeah. Look, uh there is no world in which you need to be doubting your salvation. If you're ever, in fact, doubting your salvation, the fact that you're merely having that conversation with yourself is because you're judging yourself for one. And uh by simply the mere fact that you believe in Jesus, God has accepted you. You are accepted in the beloved, as uh Ephesians 1 would say, 1, 6, I believe. And because we're accepted in the beloved, we we should, we need to have works in our life, good works, in order to have um our faith to be made alive. And it's why uh Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8 and 9, for by grace you have been saved, it is the gift of God, not of yourselves, lest any man should boast. That's why you have verse 10 that says, For we were created for good works, you know, that Christ has for us, that we should walk in them. And those things we are created for that, and God does have things for us to do, which is why the most serious prayer that we can pray each day is, God, what would you have for me to do today? And just watch, wait, see what he does. Again, we're not really in control of anything in life, anyways, and uh God is the one that's in charge, so we need to step in in faith and uh allow him to work and see what he does for us and respond with something works.

SPEAKER_01 39:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 39:49

Well, Mark. With the right kind. With the right kind, that's right. You're right, the right kind. Yeah. I robbed a bank so I could give to the poor. No, that's uh that's going about the wrong way. Evil Roy Slade. Yeah, alright. That's uh okay. All right. Well, folks, uh, thanks for listening. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe and smash that like button. Next week, I think I'm kind of I have a dilemma, Mark. I feel like after we do a message like that or podcast like that, we we need to do one just on believing in Jesus, you know, or who I am in Christ. You know, that's a good one. We'll we'll do that. We'll who I am in Christ.

SPEAKER_00 40:24

We'll just steal it directly from Dr. Anderson. We will steal it. It's so good you can't you can't improve on it.

SPEAKER_02 40:31

You can't even slice it. Yes. So remember, we're not saved because we're eternally faithful to the Savior. We're saved because he is eternally faithful to us.