WEBVTT 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:14.080 I don't know if you've noticed that there's uh something a little bit different here this morning uh up here on the platform. 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:16.559 Uh we have faith in the middle. 00:00:17.280 --> 00:00:18.640 Did you notice that? 00:00:19.280 --> 00:00:24.719 The first few months when we were here, faith had apparently fallen down or had been taken down. 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:31.440 Uh and then one one Sunday I noticed that faith had returned to Faith Evangelical Free Church. 00:00:31.920 --> 00:00:34.479 And it was over on one of the sides. 00:00:34.880 --> 00:00:37.280 And uh now faith is back in the middle. 00:00:37.600 --> 00:00:43.920 I think that's probably just coincidental, but wouldn't that be wonderful if that was what is really true? 00:00:44.079 --> 00:00:48.799 That faith is at the heart of who we are and how we live. 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:59.280 Um today is Sunday, the 3rd of April, 2016, and God is on the throne. 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:04.879 He was all week long, whatever kind of a week you had. 00:01:05.680 --> 00:01:09.280 He is today, and he will be in the week to come. 00:01:09.439 --> 00:01:13.200 We have no idea what this week will bring. 00:01:13.519 --> 00:01:20.239 But we not only have an idea, we know with a certainty that God reigns. 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:23.040 Our God is on the throne. 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:25.120 Our God is good. 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:35.840 Our God is loving, our God is faithful, his heart is kind, he is holy and righteous, he cares about us. 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:39.680 He entered into this, his rebellious creation. 00:01:39.920 --> 00:01:43.359 He draws near to us even when we were far away. 00:01:43.519 --> 00:01:46.959 While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:53.040 Our God is here, he is with us, he is good, and he is trustworthy. 00:01:53.519 --> 00:02:11.759 And so we turn to God's word because our trustworthy God, who has not left us alone, has spoken, and when he speaks, he does not stutter, and when he speaks without stuttering, he does not mislead. 00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:14.400 You ever thought about that? 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:18.639 He speaks to us clearly and he never misleads us. 00:02:18.960 --> 00:02:25.360 So we may always, last week, today, and in the week to come, submit ourselves to God. 00:02:26.000 --> 00:02:41.599 We do that in a variety of ways, but part of the way we do that is to open his word and say, Lord, teach, teach me, help me, help me get it, help me live out that which I am learning to believe. 00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:47.919 If that's going to happen this morning, it's not going to be because of my clever words. 00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:51.840 It's not going to be because you are so perceptive. 00:02:52.159 --> 00:02:57.759 It's going to be because God graciously chooses to communicate to us. 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:04.240 And I'd like to pray, and I would like to just ask that we might open our hearts to what God wants to say to us. 00:03:04.479 --> 00:03:05.759 Pray with me, would you please? 00:03:06.639 --> 00:03:09.840 Heavenly Father, you are good and you are involved. 00:03:09.919 --> 00:03:13.199 You've not left us in our sin and misery. 00:03:13.599 --> 00:03:21.439 You have come to us in the gospel, Christ, crucified, resurrected, life, life abundant. 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:23.520 You have spoken. 00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:26.800 And Lord, you do not mislead us. 00:03:27.039 --> 00:03:29.840 Everyone else can mislead us, but you never do. 00:03:30.240 --> 00:03:31.840 And so we trust you. 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:42.800 And I pray that as we turn to your word today, that we would hear your voice speaking in the quietness of our own hearts. 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:48.960 Not just my words, not just the words of James, but Lord, speak to us. 00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:54.240 And I pray you would give us hearts, every one of us here, every one of us here. 00:03:54.560 --> 00:04:04.000 Hearts that are receptive, hearts that are soft and responsive to you and to what you say to us. 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:07.520 Lord, have your way with us this morning, I pray. 00:04:07.919 --> 00:04:09.199 In Jesus' name. 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:10.479 Amen. 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:20.879 I'd like to have you open your Bibles, please, and we're going to continue after a pause of a couple of weeks with our study in the book of James. 00:04:21.360 --> 00:04:32.480 Uh three weeks ago, we uh we looked at the first part of the chapter of a section of which we're going to actually be looking at the second part uh this week. 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:37.759 But we began at verse 14, and that section goes through verse 26. 00:04:38.959 --> 00:04:48.399 Um we took some time out to stop and reflect on the meaning of baptism, a very important, uh, clear biblical subject. 00:04:48.639 --> 00:05:02.800 And in a few weeks, we're actually going to have a baptism service here in a couple of weeks, seeing some people giving testimony to the reality of God working in their lives, a reality of a faith that works, a faith that is real. 00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:10.879 Last week, how could we not speak on the resurrection and the glorious victory of the cross? 00:05:11.120 --> 00:05:26.319 Well, that glorious, victorious Lord speaks and communicates to us, and he led his disciple James to write these words to us, words that are not just from James, but are words from God. 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:31.600 Not just for the believers in the first century, but also for us today. 00:05:31.839 --> 00:05:32.800 So let's read those. 00:05:32.959 --> 00:05:35.360 Follow along, if you would, please. 00:05:35.519 --> 00:05:39.279 Uh James chapter 2, verses 14 through 26. 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:43.759 In the Pew Bible, it's page 100, I'm sorry, 1,012. 00:05:45.920 --> 00:05:47.600 Verse 14. 00:05:48.240 --> 00:05:54.800 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? 00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:58.240 Can that faith save him? 00:05:58.560 --> 00:06:00.879 There's different kinds of faith, you realize. 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:06.480 And he's talking about the real thing: a faith that is accompanied by works. 00:06:07.680 --> 00:06:10.399 Verse 15, if a brother or sister is a good example. 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:17.120 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to him, Go in peace, be warm, be filled, good luck. 00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:19.199 Wish you well, I'll pray for you. 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:24.959 Without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 00:06:25.920 --> 00:06:30.000 And it's clear that it's no good, it doesn't accomplish anything. 00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:37.519 So also faith by itself, if it doesn't have works, is dead. 00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:42.639 Verse 18, but someone will say, You have faith, I have works. 00:06:42.959 --> 00:06:48.079 Well, show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 00:06:48.399 --> 00:06:51.120 You believe that God is one, you do well. 00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:53.360 Even demons believe and shudder. 00:06:53.519 --> 00:06:57.600 There is a kind of belief that is intellectual only. 00:06:58.959 --> 00:07:08.879 Satanic forces have knowledge about God, they believe in God, they believe there's one God, there's no polytheistic demon, but it doesn't do them any good. 00:07:09.839 --> 00:07:11.439 Just that kind of faith. 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:12.560 What is that? 00:07:14.959 --> 00:07:16.399 Verse 20. 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:23.680 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:31.920 Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 00:07:32.399 --> 00:07:45.360 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 it was counted to him as righteousness. 00:07:45.519 --> 00:07:47.279 He was called a friend of God. 00:07:47.600 --> 00:07:53.279 For you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 00:07:53.759 --> 00:07:55.439 Not by faith alone. 00:07:57.600 --> 00:08:06.079 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? 00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:14.000 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. 00:08:14.800 --> 00:08:23.600 Now, this is a fairly dramatic high point in this book of James. 00:08:24.639 --> 00:08:45.440 And in effect, what he is saying in this passage from 14 to 26, the first part of which we looked at a couple weeks ago and today's, this section is like the high point or the centerpiece, uh, the centerpiece of the book of James. 00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:50.240 Everything has been building up to this, and everything flows out of that. 00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:54.639 It is the centerpiece. 00:08:55.120 --> 00:09:01.679 And he's talking the section we looked at last time at bogus faith, false faith. 00:09:02.000 --> 00:09:04.399 We compared it to monopoly money. 00:09:04.559 --> 00:09:07.120 If you're playing a game, monopoly money is great. 00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:10.000 The only problem is we're not playing a game. 00:09:10.159 --> 00:09:13.279 And monopoly money you can't take to the bank. 00:09:13.679 --> 00:09:19.200 No, there's a bogus faith that we can play around with, but that is not real faith. 00:09:19.679 --> 00:09:23.120 Real faith is something quite different. 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:27.919 So in that first section, we we talked about the bogus faith. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:30.320 In this section, we'll talk about real faith. 00:09:30.399 --> 00:09:36.559 And what we're dealing with is the relationship between faith and works. 00:09:36.960 --> 00:09:44.799 The relationship between faith and how it works itself out in our lives in practice. 00:09:45.600 --> 00:09:51.840 Um there is a kind of faith that is bogus, and there is a kind of faith that is real. 00:09:52.559 --> 00:09:56.720 And we need to get this right, my friends. 00:09:56.960 --> 00:09:58.000 This is a big deal. 00:09:58.159 --> 00:10:01.039 This is a central issue for us. 00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:04.159 What is the nature of your faith and mine? 00:10:05.200 --> 00:10:09.840 How do we distinguish the real thing from the counterfeit? 00:10:10.879 --> 00:10:16.559 And James is spending this entire book dealing with it, and he kind of pulls these thoughts together. 00:10:16.720 --> 00:10:19.759 Everything is building up to this, everything flows out of that. 00:10:20.000 --> 00:10:23.039 What does real faith look like? 00:10:23.600 --> 00:10:31.120 James has been telling us, he started out by telling us that real faith makes a difference when our life falls apart. 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:40.879 Count a joy when you meet various kinds of trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect. 00:10:41.120 --> 00:10:56.639 You see, real faith, when we go through horrible experiences, and don't kid yourself, life is filled with some wonderful experiences, but there are very, very difficult times in your life and in mine. 00:10:56.960 --> 00:10:59.440 In this world you will have tribulations. 00:10:59.759 --> 00:11:01.600 Jesus promised that in effect. 00:11:01.679 --> 00:11:07.759 He just observed that's the way a fallen and a broken world is, and you have a fallen and a broken heart. 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:14.399 And we go through difficulties, sometimes soul-wrenching, gut-wrenching difficulties. 00:11:14.559 --> 00:11:21.039 And the person of faith goes through those, and his faith makes a difference in the midst of them. 00:11:21.279 --> 00:11:22.159 Not perfectly. 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:24.080 We're not, we haven't arrived. 00:11:24.320 --> 00:11:29.600 Our lives, if it's real faith, are changed, but they're also changing. 00:11:29.679 --> 00:11:30.960 It's a process. 00:11:31.279 --> 00:11:35.759 But it affects the way we respond when life falls apart. 00:11:36.399 --> 00:11:45.600 And this was one of the ways that James talked about the difference between real faith and bogus faith. 00:11:47.919 --> 00:11:51.279 He continued on in verse 19 of chapter 1. 00:11:51.440 --> 00:12:03.039 He started talking about the difference between hearing and doing the word, and no, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger. 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:07.039 And in the context, it has to do with how we interact with one another. 00:12:07.279 --> 00:12:15.600 And his exhortation to us is that real faith helps us be quick, slow, slow, not slow, quick, quick. 00:12:15.759 --> 00:12:19.759 And if we're left to ourselves and we get into conflicts with one another, and it happens. 00:12:19.840 --> 00:12:22.799 It happens with you, it happens with me, it happens all the time. 00:12:23.039 --> 00:12:25.440 Where does how does our faith impact that? 00:12:25.519 --> 00:12:34.159 And he's saying, our faith, as we begin to live out our faith, it makes a difference when we get into struggles with people. 00:12:34.399 --> 00:12:39.279 And we begin to be quick to listen. 00:12:40.639 --> 00:12:48.480 Slow, slow to speak, and incredibly slow to get angry. 00:12:48.639 --> 00:12:51.919 But we go quick, slow, slow, slow, quick, quick, which is it? 00:12:52.159 --> 00:12:54.879 Now that's an outworking of our faith. 00:12:55.120 --> 00:12:58.240 How does our faith relate to those kinds of things? 00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:00.720 And James is saying it relates totally to it. 00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:04.080 That's part of the expression of our faith. 00:13:04.799 --> 00:13:09.279 And he he went on and he talked, and we looked at it a few weeks ago about worship. 00:13:09.440 --> 00:13:13.519 And he said, you can have a phenomenal worship experience, and it means absolutely nothing. 00:13:13.600 --> 00:13:15.039 You may think, well, that was great. 00:13:15.120 --> 00:13:17.279 I loved the music today, or I hated the music today. 00:13:17.360 --> 00:13:18.320 It really doesn't matter. 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:23.039 But let's say you happen to love it, and then you were moved by it. 00:13:23.120 --> 00:13:27.919 And if that's all that it is, then your worship service was worthless. 00:13:28.080 --> 00:13:31.519 If it doesn't lead us to be different. 00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:47.440 And so he talked about real worship ought to lead us to bridle our tongue to a faith that is pure, a life that is pure and undefiled, and visiting orphans and these practical outworkings. 00:13:47.600 --> 00:13:51.919 Real faith, not bogus faith, is characterized by those things. 00:13:52.320 --> 00:14:00.159 And so he went on and on and on, and we've gone on and on and on, and it's only been the first chapter and a half. 00:14:00.320 --> 00:14:03.519 And there's three more chapters that will flow out of this. 00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:07.120 And James will continue to press into us. 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:11.200 And he will talk about things like really taming the tongue. 00:14:11.360 --> 00:14:17.840 He already talked a little bit about it, but really taming the tongue is a work of an outgrowth of our faith. 00:14:17.919 --> 00:14:24.639 It's a work that comes from and goes together with real faith. 00:14:26.240 --> 00:14:33.679 Similarly, embracing godly wisdom instead of stiff arming what God has to say to us. 00:14:33.919 --> 00:14:38.240 Do you ever have times in your life in which you hold God off at a distance? 00:14:38.480 --> 00:14:39.840 I do, you do. 00:14:40.559 --> 00:14:47.840 Well, faith causes us to soften our hearts towards God, be responsive towards God. 00:14:48.559 --> 00:14:50.320 That's part of faith. 00:14:50.399 --> 00:14:54.000 It's an expression, and without that, our faith is just talk. 00:14:54.720 --> 00:14:57.759 And he'll talk about avoiding quarrels and conflicts. 00:14:57.919 --> 00:15:02.080 He'll talk about how we plan for the future, knowing who's God and who's not. 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:03.200 He is and we're not. 00:15:03.360 --> 00:15:05.360 We don't know what the future holds. 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:07.200 And that's an outworking. 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:14.960 How we handle the future and make decisions about tomorrow is an expression of faith, according to James. 00:15:15.440 --> 00:15:18.159 So on and on it goes. 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:27.840 It's the relationship between works and faith, and how do we know the bogus from the real. 00:15:28.720 --> 00:15:33.519 Now, the fact of the matter is that throughout church history, the church has struggled with this. 00:15:33.679 --> 00:15:36.320 You have struggled with it, I have struggled with it. 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:40.799 Well, we're in company, whether it's good company or not, I'm not sure. 00:15:41.039 --> 00:15:51.200 But as you just review how believers, throughout the centuries, there's always been this tendency to not be sure how to relate faith and works. 00:15:51.279 --> 00:15:56.240 And what's the proof, the litmus test of real faith? 00:15:56.320 --> 00:16:01.360 And how do we know whether the faith of that person or my faith is real or bogus? 00:16:01.519 --> 00:16:03.919 And it began even in the New Testament. 00:16:04.000 --> 00:16:10.720 You had the Judaizers who came along, and the book of Galatians deals with that and elsewhere. 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:13.360 But basically, a strange thing happened. 00:16:13.600 --> 00:16:21.360 Non-Jews came to faith, and that was unexpected, and that was hard for the Jewish believers who had found their Messiah. 00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:29.759 The first believers were all messianic Jews, and then came these Gentiles, and so the question arose in the church: how do we know that's real? 00:16:29.919 --> 00:16:31.919 And do they have to become Jews first? 00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:34.799 Or can and this was a big debate. 00:16:35.279 --> 00:16:47.120 And James and Paul and Peter and the leaders got together in Acts 15 and sorted this out, and they made it clear there's some expressions of faith that need to be there. 00:16:47.679 --> 00:16:51.440 That was a question in the first century, second and third century. 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:54.720 Um time of great persecution. 00:16:55.519 --> 00:16:58.080 It was very difficult to be a believer. 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:11.680 And many believers came under persecution of various kinds, sometimes physical, sometimes social, and there was a huge tendency for people to recant their faith in Christ, to give up their faith, at least publicly. 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:17.759 And then at a point in time, Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal, and now the church had a real problem. 00:17:17.920 --> 00:17:22.319 What about these people who had given up their faith and now want back in the front door? 00:17:22.480 --> 00:17:23.599 How do we know that's real? 00:17:24.319 --> 00:17:29.519 And this whole issue of how do you how does real faith express itself? 00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:34.000 This kind of thing can continued on. 00:17:35.440 --> 00:17:37.359 The time of the Reformation. 00:17:38.480 --> 00:17:42.400 At the core of the Reformation was the relationship between faith and works. 00:17:42.559 --> 00:17:50.240 The medieval Catholic Church had an understanding of salvation, which was kind of what we might call a works righteousness. 00:17:50.480 --> 00:17:57.359 By our works we will earn enough credit, or God will gain God's favor and we can be justified. 00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:02.640 And the reformers had a problem with this correlation of faith and works. 00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:09.839 And so they declared, no, uh one is saved by faith, by grace, not by works. 00:18:10.079 --> 00:18:12.799 But that's what it was really at its core all about. 00:18:12.960 --> 00:18:28.240 The interesting thing was, a half a generation, the reformers who had been persecuted became the persecutors because the Mennonites and the Anabaptists viewed things differently, and there was a struggle going on of how do we know what's real and how do we know whose faith is real. 00:18:29.039 --> 00:18:35.200 Same kind of thing happened in more recent times in Nazi Germany. 00:18:35.759 --> 00:18:43.519 The church, the German church, came under the control of Hitler and Nazism. 00:18:44.000 --> 00:18:49.759 And so believers and clergymen had to stand up and be counted. 00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:54.960 And there were some who shied away and just kind of bent their head and went along. 00:18:55.119 --> 00:18:58.000 And there were others who stood up and said, No, we can't go there. 00:18:58.160 --> 00:19:01.359 And those who said, no, I can't go there, paid a price. 00:19:01.759 --> 00:19:11.440 One of the more familiar examples to us is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor of the believing Evangelical Church, Protestant Church in Germany. 00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:13.200 Paid a price with his life. 00:19:13.440 --> 00:19:18.160 Shortly before the war was brought to an end, uh, he was put to death. 00:19:18.319 --> 00:19:19.680 But then what happens? 00:19:19.839 --> 00:19:21.920 Uh then the Nazis were gone. 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:25.359 What about those Germans who had gone along with it? 00:19:25.680 --> 00:19:27.200 And where was their faith? 00:19:27.279 --> 00:19:29.839 And now they what are we supposed to think about them? 00:19:30.079 --> 00:19:31.519 Same kind of same kind of thing. 00:19:31.680 --> 00:19:35.680 Happened the same way in Eastern Europe when the wall came down. 00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:39.519 Uh suddenly it was okay for the churches to come out of hiding. 00:19:39.599 --> 00:19:52.240 And some churches, some people had gone underground, had gone silent, and now they could come out, and there was a huge issue in Eastern Europe of, well, where was their faith then and what's their faith now? 00:19:52.400 --> 00:19:54.319 How does faith and works relate? 00:19:54.720 --> 00:20:03.119 60s, 70s, 80s in our country, there was a whole discussion that we often use the term lordship, salvation. 00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:06.160 There was a big debate about that, still is in some circles. 00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:17.519 The question is, can you just receive Christ as Savior, or can you receive Christ as Savior without Him being Lord of your life, having control of your life, giving every area of your life to him? 00:20:17.680 --> 00:20:20.079 And it's the same question in effect. 00:20:20.319 --> 00:20:29.680 And the way it was posed then is if Christ isn't Lord of all, is he Lord at all in your life? 00:20:29.920 --> 00:20:34.640 In other words, full surrender, is that not implicit in salvation? 00:20:34.880 --> 00:20:43.119 So, 2,000 years, and we're not going to solve this problem today, but what I want to say is this really is a big deal. 00:20:43.359 --> 00:20:47.039 Nevertheless, James is crystal clear. 00:20:47.359 --> 00:20:49.519 God through James is crystal clear. 00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:51.759 Verse 14 of chapter 2. 00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:56.160 What good is it if someone says he has faith but doesn't have works? 00:20:56.400 --> 00:21:02.400 And we looked at this and we saw the very grammatical construction almost demands and answer, no good. 00:21:02.559 --> 00:21:04.240 What good is it it is no good? 00:21:05.359 --> 00:21:08.240 Faith without works doesn't save. 00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:10.559 Verse 17. 00:21:10.799 --> 00:21:15.359 So faith by itself, if it doesn't have works, is dead. 00:21:15.519 --> 00:21:17.039 Faith by itself. 00:21:17.440 --> 00:21:21.440 And what we'll find is that true faith is never by itself. 00:21:21.759 --> 00:21:24.160 There are works that flow out of true faith. 00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:26.960 But faith by itself is dead. 00:21:27.839 --> 00:21:31.920 Verse 20, we'll see in a minute that that kind of faith is useless. 00:21:32.400 --> 00:21:36.720 It's unemployed, it's vacant, it's empty, it's not the real thing. 00:21:36.960 --> 00:21:47.119 Verse 26, faith without works that grow out of faith is like a dead corpse, where the breath is gone, the spirit is gone, is just a corpse. 00:21:47.359 --> 00:21:50.319 So James is very clear about this. 00:21:50.480 --> 00:21:53.920 The difficulty is not the clarity of James. 00:21:54.240 --> 00:21:59.680 The difficulty, as we try to bring this to light, he says in verse. 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:05.440 Verse 20, maybe the problem is not that this is difficult to understand. 00:22:05.599 --> 00:22:08.480 Maybe we don't really want to hear. 00:22:08.799 --> 00:22:09.759 Bear with me. 00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:11.440 Verse 20. 00:22:12.559 --> 00:22:18.480 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 00:22:18.720 --> 00:22:23.119 Now there's there's uh a significant thing that he's doing here. 00:22:23.279 --> 00:22:27.759 When he asks, do you want to be shown? 00:22:28.480 --> 00:22:33.920 It is almost literally, do you really want to be shown? 00:22:34.880 --> 00:22:38.880 And he's saying, are you willing to be shown? 00:22:39.119 --> 00:22:47.200 And and he's suggesting that maybe our struggle with this is not that it's so difficult, but there's a problem with our will. 00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:53.680 Maybe we're not really willing to respond and hear and respond to what God is saying. 00:22:53.920 --> 00:22:57.039 So he starts out, this is difficult stuff. 00:22:57.359 --> 00:23:06.400 Because it's causing us, I hope it causes us to say, is my faith real or is it just monopoly money? 00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:13.279 And part of the question is, that's a question I'd really rather not have posed, and I'd really not answer. 00:23:13.759 --> 00:23:16.960 And so he helps us say, are you even really willing? 00:23:17.359 --> 00:23:28.720 You know, it's quite possible for us to just, we can be here, we can have gone through the motions, and yet our hearts, there's something wrong. 00:23:28.880 --> 00:23:30.480 They're not responsive to God. 00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:33.279 We're not growing, we're not developing Godward. 00:23:34.160 --> 00:23:38.480 And that's the kinds of questions that he poses here. 00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:43.759 A faith that has little evidence to back up the claim to faith. 00:23:43.920 --> 00:23:54.160 It would be kind of like somebody who said, okay, if we put it in our terms, I raise my hand, I have faith, I prayed a prayer, I go to church, I believe in Jesus. 00:23:54.400 --> 00:23:56.319 Check, check, check, check. 00:23:56.480 --> 00:23:57.359 I'm good. 00:23:57.759 --> 00:23:59.119 Leave me alone. 00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:03.839 James will not leave you alone. 00:24:04.079 --> 00:24:05.680 You may leave him alone. 00:24:05.920 --> 00:24:07.440 That's what I did as a new believer. 00:24:07.519 --> 00:24:08.240 I've told you about that. 00:24:08.480 --> 00:24:11.920 My great wisdom as a believer for three or four months. 00:24:12.240 --> 00:24:15.519 I didn't read the book of James because it didn't agree with me. 00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:31.039 Whether you're that immature, um, or whether you just kind of don't let it in, just passively aggressive about it, just holding God at a distance. 00:24:31.200 --> 00:24:35.440 That's the kind of question we ought to have going through our minds this morning. 00:24:35.839 --> 00:24:38.799 What's the nature of my faith? 00:24:39.839 --> 00:24:45.599 So uh that question, uh, do you even really want to hear? 00:24:46.240 --> 00:24:47.680 presses in on us. 00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:51.519 Are you open to what God is saying to you? 00:24:55.519 --> 00:24:56.559 Are you open? 00:24:56.720 --> 00:24:57.920 Are we open? 00:24:58.160 --> 00:24:59.839 Are we responsive? 00:25:00.400 --> 00:25:03.279 Are we soft and flexible? 00:25:03.839 --> 00:25:08.480 Or do we keep God at a distance and our hearts stony and cold? 00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:10.559 Those are real questions. 00:25:12.079 --> 00:25:17.359 It's interesting, he says, uh, how foolish are you in that case? 00:25:17.599 --> 00:25:18.960 Now it's very interesting. 00:25:19.039 --> 00:25:24.160 There's a whole bunch of different words for fool in the Old Testament and the New. 00:25:25.759 --> 00:25:31.359 Um words and the breadth of vocabulary says something about where we're coming from. 00:25:31.519 --> 00:25:38.000 We lived in the Low Countries in Europe for many years where there's canals and water all around. 00:25:38.400 --> 00:25:41.759 And there were twenty different words for canals. 00:25:42.160 --> 00:25:44.400 Twenty different words because they were all around. 00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:47.279 It was an important part of their culture. 00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:51.119 There were at least ten different words for rain, different kinds of rain. 00:25:51.359 --> 00:25:55.039 Each different kind of rain had its own word because it rained all the time. 00:25:55.599 --> 00:26:01.759 When there are many words for fool in the scripture, maybe that is not by chance. 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:10.960 The particular word for fool that is used here means hollow or vacant or empty. 00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:17.599 We used to use the term space cadet or airhead. 00:26:17.759 --> 00:26:23.839 I won't pick on any of the blondes around here, but there's something along those lines that goes with nothing personal. 00:26:27.680 --> 00:26:31.359 The word is really means hello? 00:26:31.680 --> 00:26:33.119 Is there anybody inside? 00:26:33.359 --> 00:26:35.839 Kind of like back to the future. 00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:37.519 Ouch. 00:26:37.920 --> 00:26:40.799 Hello, McFly, anybody home? 00:26:41.119 --> 00:26:44.799 And James is kind of going, anybody home in there? 00:26:45.119 --> 00:26:46.960 How foolish is it? 00:26:47.200 --> 00:26:53.039 How empty is it to think that you can have faith and that it not be life-transforming? 00:26:53.200 --> 00:26:57.119 And if your life isn't being transformed, then there's a big problem here. 00:26:57.279 --> 00:27:00.079 And is that the real thing or is that monopoly money? 00:27:00.240 --> 00:27:05.039 And I get wanting to hold that off at a distance. 00:27:05.759 --> 00:27:08.960 Um God doesn't really give us that option. 00:27:11.599 --> 00:27:14.799 He calls it empty, useless faith. 00:27:15.119 --> 00:27:30.319 Unemployed, unproductive, and that word for useless that appears here in verse 20, uh, faith apart from works is useless, is a word that was commonly used for someone who is unemployed. 00:27:30.559 --> 00:27:47.599 Uh, in the parable of the laborers uh in Matthew 2020, workers in the vineyard, there were some people who hadn't, they were day laborers and they were just standing around because nobody had come and hired them for the day. 00:27:47.759 --> 00:27:49.119 They were unemployed for the day. 00:27:49.200 --> 00:27:50.960 They were useless, they were unproductive. 00:27:51.119 --> 00:28:00.799 And that's the picture of faith without works, faith that doesn't express itself in a changed and changing life, is not the real thing. 00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:02.720 It's just unemployed, it's just empty. 00:28:02.960 --> 00:28:04.079 Anyone home? 00:28:04.319 --> 00:28:05.440 What's going on? 00:28:05.680 --> 00:28:07.200 Something's wrong here. 00:28:07.920 --> 00:28:18.880 Um something, it's like a field that has been planted with good seed and yet nothing comes up. 00:28:19.039 --> 00:28:24.720 Or it's like a tree, a fruit tree, that doesn't bear any fruit, doesn't bear any apples. 00:28:24.799 --> 00:28:26.960 There's something seriously wrong with it. 00:28:27.039 --> 00:28:30.480 That's the same kind of thing that James is talking about. 00:28:30.559 --> 00:28:34.240 And he's pressing in and he says, What about you and what about me? 00:28:35.200 --> 00:28:36.880 Bogus or real? 00:28:38.160 --> 00:28:39.759 And how do we know? 00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:48.640 And the answer is we know because our lives change and we're not perfect, but we're being transformed. 00:28:48.799 --> 00:28:49.920 We're a new creature. 00:28:50.319 --> 00:28:52.240 Old has passed away, the new has come. 00:28:52.319 --> 00:28:55.599 We're not yet fully new, we've still got a lot of the old around. 00:28:55.759 --> 00:29:06.799 We've been raised kind of like Lazarus, we're we're out of the grave, but we've still got the bindings all around us, and so Lazarus hobbled around, and Jesus said, go release him. 00:29:07.200 --> 00:29:09.119 And there's a picture, that's where we are. 00:29:09.279 --> 00:29:24.559 We're not yet all we will be, but if we're not at least bobbling around trying to figure out how to move and how to live and how to express it, if there's little or no outgrowth, then there's a deeper problem. 00:29:24.880 --> 00:29:29.680 And that's a question for all of us to wrestle with. 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:33.119 Now, he takes uh an example here. 00:29:33.440 --> 00:29:36.960 He takes the example of real faith of Abraham. 00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:52.720 And uh we won't take the time to go into all of this, but Genesis chapter 12, Genesis chapter 15, Genesis chapter 22, that Abraham is the consummate example of a real believer in the Old Testament. 00:29:53.039 --> 00:29:54.480 A real believer. 00:29:54.640 --> 00:30:08.079 He was called from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to a place that he knew not where he was going, a place that God had promised, and it says, Abraham believed and he obeyed. 00:30:08.240 --> 00:30:09.680 He took a step. 00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:15.440 He took a step, not because he could see it, but because God had said it. 00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:23.359 He began to organize his life around who God is and what God has said, not what he could see or could understand. 00:30:23.759 --> 00:30:27.279 And he became the great example of faith. 00:30:27.599 --> 00:30:33.680 A promise, he went to a promised land, a land of promise, but he didn't inherit the promise. 00:30:33.759 --> 00:30:44.720 It was going to be his descendants who would be as numerous as the stars of the sky and the grains of sand in the ocean, but it wasn't there now. 00:30:44.960 --> 00:30:49.839 And so from Sarah and from you will come a great nation. 00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:53.759 And Abraham was an old man, Sarah was barren, and they just laughed. 00:30:53.839 --> 00:30:56.640 How could that, she just laughed, how could that possibly be? 00:30:56.880 --> 00:31:05.519 But they followed and they organized their life and they lived in such a way that reflected their faith, that was an expression of their faith. 00:31:05.599 --> 00:31:08.880 And he becomes the great example for us. 00:31:10.319 --> 00:31:12.799 It's very, very interesting. 00:31:13.039 --> 00:31:15.759 Genesis 15, verse 6. 00:31:16.079 --> 00:31:20.000 Abraham believed the Lord and he credited to him. 00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:22.720 God credited to him as righteousness. 00:31:22.960 --> 00:31:28.319 And that's the very first time in the Bible the word belief is used. 00:31:28.640 --> 00:31:33.440 The example is Abraham, a real, real believer. 00:31:33.759 --> 00:31:52.799 And what James picks up on in the story here is the account in Genesis 22 where God told Abraham, God, at this point, uh Isaac had been born, his son, the son of promise, the son where all of God's blessings for his progeny would come out of that. 00:31:53.119 --> 00:31:57.920 And that was, this was the way God was going to answer his promise. 00:31:58.000 --> 00:32:04.319 And so God said, All right, I want you to take a knife and I want you to sacrifice him on the mountain. 00:32:06.799 --> 00:32:14.799 And it says in Hebrews 11, we won't turn there, but it says that you almost wonder what was going through his mind. 00:32:14.880 --> 00:32:22.720 Here they're going up the mountain and carrying the wood, and Isaac was, I don't know, 10, 12, 15 years old, something like that. 00:32:22.799 --> 00:32:27.519 And he asks him, okay, I see the wood, and uh, where's the sacrifice? 00:32:27.680 --> 00:32:34.480 And Abraham knew exactly what or who the sacrifice was going to be, and he said, God will provide. 00:32:34.720 --> 00:32:50.960 Uh and he gets up there and he prepares the knife ready to come down, and God holds, stays his hand and provides a substitute, a ram, which is a beautiful picture for us of the Lamb of God who had come to take away the sins of the world. 00:32:51.200 --> 00:32:55.759 But what James picks up on here is something rather different. 00:32:56.000 --> 00:33:01.359 He uses Abraham to talk about the relationship between faith and works. 00:33:01.599 --> 00:33:08.960 So in verse 22 at the beginning, let's read 22 through 20, or 21 through 24. 00:33:09.599 --> 00:33:16.160 Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 00:33:16.400 --> 00:33:17.519 Verse 22. 00:33:17.759 --> 00:33:22.079 You see that faith was active along with his works. 00:33:22.480 --> 00:33:26.240 Now, I need to pause for that with that thought for a moment. 00:33:26.400 --> 00:33:32.319 What he is saying here, literally, is his faith was working together with his works. 00:33:34.160 --> 00:33:36.160 Faith worked together with works. 00:33:36.240 --> 00:33:41.839 There's a play on words here that this particular translation doesn't really bring out to the full. 00:33:42.079 --> 00:33:45.200 NASB does a little bit better job in this case. 00:33:45.359 --> 00:34:02.000 But he's saying, our works work together, and it's synergy, sun ergeo, a synergy from which we get that working together, the works of faith work together with the faith to produce works. 00:34:03.039 --> 00:34:04.720 That's the way it goes. 00:34:04.880 --> 00:34:10.960 And he sees in the example of Abraham the way it works, as it were. 00:34:11.679 --> 00:34:14.960 Abraham's faith worked together with his works. 00:34:15.199 --> 00:34:25.039 The point is that faith and works, true faith, not bogus faith, true faiths, faith always goes along with works flowing out of faith. 00:34:25.280 --> 00:34:30.960 They not only flow out of faith, they make the faith complete. 00:34:31.280 --> 00:34:33.599 Second half of verse 22. 00:34:36.559 --> 00:34:47.199 Faith was completed by his works, and the scripture was fulfilled that Abraham believed God and God counted him as righteousness. 00:34:47.440 --> 00:34:51.760 Faith was completed, was made complete. 00:34:52.159 --> 00:34:57.360 It's like some of you, we we happen to like jigsaw puzzles. 00:34:57.599 --> 00:35:12.559 Um I think I told you at one point or another that the um a nasty uh rebellious little boy by the name of Walt, when our family, when I was young, was doing jigsaw puzzles, when nobody was looking, I'd take a piece of the puzzle and stick it in my pocket. 00:35:13.599 --> 00:35:15.360 And then I could put the last piece in. 00:35:15.519 --> 00:35:16.480 I could make it complete. 00:35:16.639 --> 00:35:18.559 There's a real mature way, huh? 00:35:19.280 --> 00:35:22.559 But it's not complete until the last piece is in. 00:35:22.719 --> 00:35:39.599 And in effect, he's saying the the the act of sacrificing, at least being willing to, starting that process until God interrupted, was what was a completion and a proof of the reality of Abraham's faith. 00:35:39.840 --> 00:35:46.320 And God saw that and he considered, he justified him, he considered him righteous as a result. 00:35:46.960 --> 00:35:54.079 Faith that doesn't come to completion in actions is bogus faith, not real faith. 00:35:55.840 --> 00:36:01.519 Just take a second and turn over to Philippians chapter 2. 00:36:02.719 --> 00:36:06.239 Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. 00:36:07.119 --> 00:36:23.599 Paul says, Therefore, my beloved brother, as you have always obeyed, he's talking about obedience, so now not only in my presence, but more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 00:36:24.639 --> 00:36:29.519 Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 00:36:29.679 --> 00:36:30.159