10.26 - James 2:14-26 // When Faith Comes Alive

Amen. And amen. How we doing, church family? Are you good? All right. Glad to hear it. Glad to hear

it. Hey, uh if you got a Bible with you, and I hope that you do, James chapter 2 is where we will be. James chapter 2,

and you can make your way there. We'll read from it in just a moment. Uh y'all, I got to brag on Addie right here next

to me. Uh man, Justin talking about stuff that like if that doesn't get you,

if that doesn't light a fire in you, then your wood's wet, right? So when you've got uh man students uh young

people who are just stepping up in every way at your church and Addie leading us through that last song and then uh you

know praying for us and taking us to the Lord and in her prayer. It's just awesome. I'm not going to get over it.

So great job uh proud of you and thankful for what God's doing through you as well as through the rest of the

worship team. Uh man, God is on the move here and I'm excited about it. It's great to see you. Uh I'm so glad that

you chose this gloomy, rainy Sunday uh to come and be a part of what's going on

here at Corey Church. If you're new or visiting with us, uh I should probably introduce myself and say my name is Pastor Brian and uh there's a card in

front of you that says connect with us. I would love for you to grab that card and fill it out. Uh that will give me some information on you and let me know

that I have your permission to follow up with you. I promise not to spam you uh or to overload you with text messages,

but just want to follow up and see what God's doing in your life. Uh church family, that's also a great way for you to just let me know that there's

something going on for you. Whether it's a prayer request that you've got or a next step you know you need to take,

whatever the case may be, you just put your name on there, give me some information, let me know what God's uh speaking to you or saying, and we'll

talk about it. Uh I'm excited. This is a big week for us. Uh Justin is not wrong

in his prayer. Man, I would love to just It's like I I was gonna update you with

last week's pictures from building three's progress and and how we're moving forward with with that. Uh but

it's already way different than it was last week. It just keeps changing every single week. Uh Kenneth and his team are

doing an awesome job up there. If you've not been up there or have no idea what I'm talking about, there's a building on the back side of our campus that we are

uh renovating to become our eventual worship space. And so we're adding an extension on to it and uh and doing some

work on there. It is a construction zone, so keep that in mind. But would love for you to just kind of take a quick journey up there and go check it

out. Uh if if you have a moment to do so today, it's it's looking awesome and you're starting to be able to kind of see the picture, see the visual of where

we're going. Uh but man, more than that, uh we've got an exciting opportunity this Wednesday. Uh if you've seen it on

the sign or you received the emails from me, then you know we are doing fall family fun night. Uh Trey suggested that

next year we add fantabulous uh to the beginning of it and I think that maybe every year we'll just stack one more

word to the front end of it until we have no more room on the sign. But fall family fun night is happening this

Wednesday 5:30 to 7:30. So, if you got some kids and you want to, uh, take them

out on Wednesday night and load them up with some candy and a great time and maybe some, you know, familyfriendly

competition, uh, then I would encourage you to come by here on Wednesday night. Certainly, church family, we need you as

as serve, uh, teamers. And so, come and be a part of that. Uh, we'll plug you in to have a job. Groups today, uh, the

church is going to be opened up. So, if you want to come and kind of, you know, get your stations ready to go, your

group leader knows where you're going to be. And if you want to start setting up stations, then you are welcome to do that throughout the day or anytime

leading up to Wednesday at 5:30. So, uh, we'll talk more about it as it gets a little closer. Watch your email and, uh,

and and looking forward to what God's going to do there. All right, having said those things, uh, today we get the

opportunity to step right back into, uh, the book of James. All right. So, we've been walking through it now for I think

this is week number four as we have marched through the first two chapters now of James. And we come to one of

those passages that every pastor looks forward to the opportunity to preach. All right. James 2:es 14- 26. This is

one of the ones that when I was going through seminary, there's some controversy about this passage. You'll hear people talk about this passage and

I was like, man, I can't wait until I get the opportunity to preach that passage in church. And so, uh, hopefully

it comes off as helpful to you and challenges you to keep on growing in, uh, as we've talked about, grit, right?

That spiritual toughness as well as grace, that, uh, spiritual giftedness that God gives to us, uh, in order to

keep growing in him. Throughout the series, we've been walking through it, uh, in the manner of like picking up

truth principles from the book of James. So, I have no idea what the total number is now, uh, but we're over 10 and we're

making our way toward 20 today. 20 truth principles that we've gained from the book of James and we'll just keep on adding to it every single week so that

at the end we'll be able to look back and see all the many things that God has taught us because as we've discussed before I know that you're like me and

you hear the message on Sunday morning you're like that was good stuff I need to apply that to my life. What's for lunch? And then by the time you've made

it to lunch it's like what did we talk about this morning? Right? Uh so want to keep challenging you and encouraging you

to review uh what God is teaching you through this series. Uh, if I do not

step on your toes at least a little bit this morning, then the chances are good that I didn't do my job or you weren't

listening. All right? So, let's just make an agreement right now. Pastor Brian's going to do the best that he can

to walk this out in a way that's helpful and challenging and uh you keep your ears opened up so that you can respond

to what God's word says. James chapter 2, if you got it in your Bible, let me invite you to stand all around the room

if you are able. Uh this is just what we do as a way of honoring God's word and saying, "Hey, we're here and we are

ready to listen to what you have to say to us." So uh beginning in verse 14, I'll read and you follow along.

James says, "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if somebody claims to have faith but does not have works?

Can such faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks

daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace. stay warm and be wellfed,

but you don't give them what the body needs, what good is it? In the same way,

faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead by itself.

But someone will say, "Well, you have faith and I have works." Well, show me your faith without works, and I'll show

you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. Good. Even the demons

believe. And they shudder. Senseless person. I told you, man. James

James James will just kind of throw it right at you. It's not a very nice term to use in church, but here we go.

Senseless person. Are you willing to learn that faith without works is

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

his son on the altar? You see that faith was active together with his works? And by works, faith was made complete or

made perfect. And the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as

righteousness and he was called God's friend. Verse 24, you see that a person is

justified by works and not by faith alone. That's probably hitting some of

your ears this morning like wait that sounds different than what I have learned before. See that a person is

justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, wasn't Rahab the prostitute also justified by works in

receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route? For just as the body without the spirit is dead,

so also faith without works is dead. We

got a lot of work to do this morning, so I'm going to try and hustle us through this passage. But man, God's word's got

something to say for you today. So, let's listen and respond to it, okay? Jesus, thank you for your word. We pray

now that you will speak to us in this moment. Lord, move me out of the way. Say what you want to say to your people

and that includes me, Lord. Would you bless us with your presence as we walk through your word this morning in Jesus

name? And all God's people said, "Amen." Have a seat. Have a seat. Have a seat.

All right. So, if you got some sermon notes and you're following along, uh, then here's the first truth principle

that I want you to grab today from James 2:es 14- 26. And that's this. Dead faith

doesn't save. Dead faith doesn't save. Uh man, what an opener to the passage

this morning, right? James, as we've talked about multiple times now, James

does not pull his punches. He just kind of lets it hit you with full force, right? What good is it, my brothers and

sisters, if someone says they have faith, but they don't have any works to back it up? What good is it? It's

there's a question for us just kind of on the tone that James uses here at the beginning of like whether or not we as

Christians should pull our punches as much as we do. Now remember here I hear

me when I say this. James is talking to brothers and sisters in the faith in this passage. So what I'm not saying is

that you should go Bible thump lost people with the truth of God's word. Right? No. Disciplehip happens in the

context of relationships. Right? So, you should befriend lost people and you

should walk with them on a journey to meet Jesus where you encourage them to live up to what Jesus calls them to. But

when you're talking to a brother or a sister in the faith that you know is walking out of line with what God has

for them, hey, there's a time where you don't need to pull your punches. There's

a time where you just need to say it straight up. Hey man, look, I I don't

want to say this, but I got to be honest with you. So So So let me just say this

and then let's talk about it, okay? Let me just be straightforward with you. You and your girlfriend shouldn't be sleeping together, okay? Now, let's now

let's have a conversation about it, right? Because we want to we want to invite people to to conversation, but but like there is a time when you just

need to put on your James hat and say, "Hey, brother. Hey, sister. Listen, this

is what God's word says. what are you doing? Right? So, having said that, uh,

he asked this question, what good is it? I want you to think for a moment of a vacuum cleaner. Let's say that you go to

the store and you buy a vacuum cleaner and you bring it home and you take it out of the box and man, it's fancy. It

looks nice. They painted it, you know, it I mean, it's just beautiful. It's got all the different settings, the bells and whistles. It's the fanciest vacuum

cleaner that can be bought with money and you're excited about it. So, you take the cord, you plug the cord into the wall, which I know you don't do that

anymore cuz they're battery operated, and that's cool, too. Anyway, you plug the cord into the wall and you turn it on and the vacuum cleaner just blows the

dust and dirt all over the place, right? So, you can imagine that question, what

good is it in that situation, right? Because the truth is, you need a vacuum cleaner that sucks. And I don't mean a

vacuum cleaner that stinks. I mean a vacuum cleaner that actually sucks stuff up into itself, right?

That's what you need. Exactly. And so, uh, anyway, you've you you hopefully understand the point that James is

making. Think about it with me. He's saying, "What good is an object that

doesn't do its job?" It's the same question. What good is faith if it

doesn't have works? If if faith doesn't drive you to works,

then you got hosed. It's not It's not real faith. You bought something fraudulent. you received something

fraudulent. Um, James asked the question, it's a rhetorical question and the answer to that question is no. He

says, if someone has faith but without works, can that kind of faith save him?

Again, the implied answer is no. The faith that does not have works to go

along with it cannot save you. All right. Now, here's where I got to ask you. Is this not a blatant contradiction

in the Bible? You'll hear people say that from time to time, right? You'll you'll hear them say things like, "The Bible is full of contradictions." Many

of you, if not all of you in the room, have probably heard something like that. It's a real popular uh thing to say. And

um here's what I'll say in response to it. If you have questions about particular uh passages and

contradictions, then I want you to come and talk to me about them. I challenge you to that. Would love to have those conversations with you. The Bible is

full of ready apparent contradictions.

Things that look contradictory. I'll give you that there are some of them. This is one of them. But when you

actually understand what the Bible is saying, no, it it never once contradicts itself. And it's actually kind of amazing because of how many different

people wrote this book, contributed to it across a thousand years of writing

all the way from Moses to the New Testament authors, right? uh over a thousand years where different authors

wrote and contributed to pull this whole thing together. It's it's hard to believe it, but from start to finish,

there is no actual contradiction in the Bible. I'd stand on that. Again, I welcome you to to come and and and and

challenge me at some point, but I don't just want to straw man it because people who oppose do have a decent point when

they look at this passage and they say, "Well, isn't there a contradiction here in James?" So, let me let me read it for

you again. So here the question that James asks, can can faith without works save? Again,

the implied answer is no. In fact, James is going to get real direct about it toward uh the end of our passage. You

heard it probably, and we'll come up on it again in just a little bit. But let me read you some passages why people

would say this is contradictory. Galatians 2:1 16, you can write it down if you want to. says this, "Know that a

person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ."

So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the

law because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

Right? uh Romans chapter 3 27 and 28. Where then is boasting? Paul says uh are

are we allowed to brag about the salvation that we have in Christ? He says no. Boasting is excluded because of

what law? The law that requires works of us? No. Because of the law that requires

faith. For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works

of the law. Romans 4:es 2-5. This one's a little bit longer, so hang with me.

What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather according to the flesh, has found? If Abraham was justified by

works, well, he's got something to boast about, but not before God. But what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God,

and it was credited to him for righteousness. That's the exact passage that James quotes, by the way. Hopefully, you remember it from just a

moment ago. Now, to the one who works, pay is not credited as a gift. Like your

boss doesn't come to you and give you a paycheck and say, "Hey, here's a gift." Right? Does that does that make sense? That no, you earned that. You worked for

it, so they give it to you. But Paul in Romans is saying, "The one who works, pay is not given as a gift, but it's

something that's owed. But to the one who does not work, but who believes on

him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited for righteousness." Last one, Ephesians 2:es 8 and N. Many of you

are familiar with this. For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not by works, lest any man should boast.

So again, you hear those four passages that I just read, all written by the Apostle Paul. And then James comes along

and he says things like uh faith if it doesn't have works is dead by itself.

Can a faith without works justify? James would answer, "No, it can't." Now,

here's the thing. Paul, who wrote these other passages, would give the exact

same answer as James. He would say that faith that doesn't have works

accompanying it is dead and dead faith can't save anybody. We'll talk more

about it as we go on. So, hold on to that and as we keep on working through the passage, we'll we'll we'll we'll get

to that a little bit more. Point number two on your sermon notes is this. Real

faith doesn't leave needs unmet. Uh James gives a example of what dead faith

looks like in action, right? Uh so so you're going to see the contrast between real faith, which doesn't leave needs

unmet, and then dead faith, which not only leaves the needs unmet, it actually

makes fun of the person on the way out. Okay, so here's the story that James uh tells. I want you to notice the qualities of the person that he brings

up. He says, "If a brother or sister

Right? A brother or sister. So this is not just talking about any random person. If a brother or sister, that

means somebody who's in the family of God, right? Somebody who's who's in the church with you or a Christian in this

case. If a brother or sister is without clothes

and lacks daily food, man, this person's in danger,

right? this person is on the edge of not making it right if if if

I mean it's hard for us to imagine right because we have air conditioning and heating and all that kind of stuff that when temperatures go too high we can

cool ourselves down when temperatures go too low we can warm ourselves up they didn't they didn't have that stuff back then so imagine a brother or sister

somebody in your church family who doesn't have the clothes that they need to wear and doesn't have the food that

they need to eat. You can see the danger that that person is in, right?

And yet one of you says to them, "Go in peace,

stay warm, and be wellfed." What an absolute joke.

And hey, I got to be honest with you. Too many times, too many times the church has done

exactly this. um not us. And and that's not who we're

going to be, by the way. Like when people are in need here in this church, I hope that you have the humility and

the willingness to come and to say like, "I'm in need. I need help. I'm lacking what daily provisions I need to make

it." And and I promise you that there are people at this church ready to step up to meet that need in your life. Okay?

Now, we're going to get you more help than just the physical provisions that you need, but we're going to make sure

that those things are taken care of. Too many times the church has uh has neglected this and has left it.

But see that dead faith's response is is actually mocking to the person who

who's who needs help. This is a brother or sister. Did you notice the Christian ees

that the person uses? Go in peace. Come on, man.

Go in peace to the person who's starving. Go in peace to the believer who's

freezing because it's cold and they don't have the clothes that they need. Who's who's lacking daily provisions? You

can't say that. You can't tell somebody to go in peace when they don't have what they need to make peace.

Be warm. Nice sentiment. They don't have what they need to be warm.

Be wellfed. Same exact thing. You see the point that I'm making? This is dead faith is actually mocking the person

who's in need in this in this case. We can't do that.

And so a question that we as a church need to ask always and keep before us is

what are the needs around us? Now we're in a a relatively and I say

relatively that word's important. We're in a relatively affluent part of the world. All right. Um, in fact, our

government actually has programs and whatnot. And you know, when the government's open, those programs

function and do what they're supposed to. Uh, but our government has programs to help provide for and take care of

people who have like fallen on hard times and are experiencing the lack of

daily food, daily provision that they need to stay alive. But that's no excuse for us as a church

to miss those opportunities, by the way. And those opportunities are out there. So keep your eyes open and be looking

for them because uh man when when we have that opportunity we need to stand ready to meet it. Does that make sense?

Okay. All right. So having said that uh we do live in a relatively affluent part of the world and so physical needs are

not as often readily apparent. Everybody looks like they've pretty much got it together. You're all dressed in

reasonably warm clothes this morning despite that it's a little chilly outside, right? Um, so the the deeper

question for us is what are the spiritual needs that this community has around us and how can we run to meet

those needs on a regular basis? Not to the neglect of physical needs whenever

we see that opportunity we should step into. But but what are the spiritual needs beyond that that we can help meet? Now

there's a little bit of a controversy here, right? Uh James can uh

James can make you wrestle a little bit when you're driving down the street and you stop at a red light and you see somebody there with a cardboard sign

that says, "I need help." Right? Uh and and you can feel like if you're sitting there at that stoplight and you're not

rolling your window down and giving money or giving food or giving something, are you uh practicing dead

faith in that moment? And listen, I I really believe

pastorally I don't, you know, I I really believe that that's a wrestling match

with the Holy Spirit that you and I need. So, I'm not going to lay it to rest for you today. I'm not going to say

that you should never help the person who's got a cardboard sign because if you just give them money, then you're probably just enabling them and it's

always going to go to bad use. I'm not going to say that. And I'm also not going to say that every time you see

one, you should roll your window down and you should pass them a five or a 10 or $20 bill. I'm not going to say that.

I think it's a wrestling match with the Holy Spirit that you and I need and that God brings into our life to do a soul

check on us and say, "Are you concerned about the needs around you? And what are

you doing to meet those needs?" So, I want you to um I want you to tune in to

the Holy Spirit in those moments. And I want you to say, God, how can I help this person in particular? And how can I

help people like this person? And if the Holy Spirit lays it on your heart to do something for them, then do it. I'll

give you an example. When I was in high school, I grew up in Orlando and I would

make the drive from my house on the northwest side of Orlando to uh the southwest side of Orlando uh where

Valencia Community Colleg's west campus was. and I would drive through like some rougher parts of town. Uh I'm real

grateful that my parents provided, you know, good transportation for me. I was in a minivan and so anybody who saw me

who may have wanted to, you know, hurt me was like, "He's in a minivan. Leave the guy alone." You know, and so anyway,

uh along the way, I would often see people who were standing by the side of the road and and had signs that said they needed help. And so I made a

decision that from then on I was going to in the morning when I packed my lunch, I was going to pack two. I was

going to make one lunch for me and then I was going to make one lunch for the person that I saw along the side of the road that I could give to them and say,

you know, hey, here I don't know if this helps, but hopefully it will, right? Um, it was really disappointing. I tell that

story because like that's what I felt like the Holy Spirit wanted me to do. What was frustrating is that then Satan

countermoved and I never saw a homeless person as often as I had that extra bag, you know, in my car. So, I'd make two

lunches and I would end up uh just throwing one away at the end of the day, which was disappointing. Anyway, story

goes to tell you, be sensitive to the Holy Spirit in those moments. Recognize that this passage in particular is

primarily talking about brothers and sisters who are in the family, but don't disregard the needs that God brings into

your life otherwise. Okay? Uh James wraps this section up by saying, "Faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead by

itself." And then he's going to press the issue a little bit further. So number three on your notes, dead faith

is demonic. Dead faith is demonic.

Um, it's the faith of demons. The James uses weird wording here at the

at the beginning of this passage. He says someone will say, "You have faith and I have works." That's actually the

opposite of what we expect James to say. Um, we would expect him to say, "Well, you have works, but I have faith."

Right? Because that's the person that he's arguing against. But nevertheless, however James meant it, his point is

clear, right? His point is that there's somebody who's standing up and saying, "Well, sure, maybe you've got your

works, but I've got my faith." And so James responds to that person and says,

"Prove it. I'll show you my faith by what I do."

How are you going to show me your faith if you can't use works to justify it?

See, uh, hang in there with me. Uh, I'm I'm going to try and walk this out in in a little bit of detail.

If you were to put a chair up on the stage for me, and this is like a super common analogy that that people will use when they talk about faith and trust,

right? You put a chair on the stage in front of me, and I tell you, I believe that that chair will hold my weight. You

could look back at me and say, "Pastor Brian, the only way to convince us that you believe that is what?"

To take a seat. To sit down in the chair and exercise your faith. See, here's the

thing. Works are the only active mechanism that faith has to demonstrate

it. You cannot prove faith apart from works. It's like uh light is the only

active mechanism of a light bulb. So if I uh if I had a light bulb in my hand and I said it works and you said prove

it but I'm not allowed to provide electricity to the light so that it's to

the bulb so that it's light comes on. You've robbed me of the only way that I have to demonstrate that it actually

does work. So friends hear me. You can't prove your faith apart from works. It

doesn't matter how much you say I believe. It doesn't matter how much you sing I believe. I believe in Jesus and I

believe that he died on the cross for me and I believe in God the Father and I believe that the Holy Spirit has filled

me. Prove it. And the only way that you can do that is through works. The only way that you can

demonstrate your faith is by works. So here's a question for you to

consider. Don't want you to answer. Just want you to think about it. What works would you use to prove your

faith? See, if all that you can do is

articulate the statement, I believe, then James would look at you and say,

"Hey, good job, but so can the demons." It's kind of like this other analogy

that like, you know, people uh guys will say of their spouse, you know, like she

knows that I love her. I mean, I provide for her, you know, I I pay the bills. I put a roof over her head, right? And you

could look back at that guy and say, 'Well, good job, friend. But beavers do that much for their families.

Is that the standard that you really want to hit? So, so here it is. In the same way, I believe. Hey, good job,

friend. So do the demons. And here's the difference between

somebody who says, "I believe," and the demons

is that they're scared to death of their con their uh their confession.

The demons shudder, James says, when they say, "I believe in God the

Father, the maker of heaven and earth, and I believe in the Son, Jesus Christ, who gave his life to save, and I believe

in the Holy Spirit." When the demons acknowledge their faith,

they shudder in fear because they know that judgment is coming. All right, so here's a question that I got to ask you.

Friend, are you dumber than the demons?

Do you confess, "I believe with no work to back it up."

And yet, when you think about believing in the one true God, you don't shudder.

Doesn't worry you a bit. You think, "I'm good. I'm good with God. God loves me."

You know, like he loves everybody. I've never given my life to him. I've never done anything for him. I don't

change my life because of him, but I believe in him. Again, friend, that kind

of faith is useless. It's demonic and it's dead. Don't have that kind of

faith. Number four, and finally on your notes, is this truth that James presents in the

last handful of verses. Real faith works.

Real faith works. He gives a couple of uh biblical stories to illustrate this

point. First of all, he talks about Abraham and he says, "Wasn't Abraham, our father in the faith, justified by

his works when he offered Isaac on the altar." If you're unfamiliar with this story, it's actually a really, really

famous story in the Old Testament. The Jewish people called it by one word, akadada, which means binding, right?

Binding. Because when God called Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, he bound

Isaac, tied him up, and laid him on the altar. So, they call this story uh the binding. And of course, if you're

familiar with the Bible, then you know that Abraham goes all the way to taking the knife in his hand, preparing to

slaughter his son. And as he's about to do the the act, God says, "Stop."

Because God would never have anyone sacrifice their own children. It was done as a test. God knew all along that

he was going to stop it before it ever came to that. It was done as a test to prove the character of Abraham's faith

and to give you and me an example of what real faith looks like.

How far are you willing to go? How far is your faith willing to take

you? James says his faith, Abraham's faith was willing to take him all the way to the murder of his own son

to prove his faith in in God. It's actually really interesting if you follow along. See, uh the story is

deeper than what I presented to you. Isaac is the child of promise. He's the one through whom God is going to make

good on his covenant promise to Abraham that Abraham's descendants would outnumber the stars in the sky. Right?

And uh Abraham tries to make it himself. He has a son with a mistress named Ishmael. And God says, "I'm not going to

fulfill the promise through Ishmael. It's going to come through the son that you have with your wife Sarah, whose

name is Isaac, right? And they have Isaac in their old age." Abraham's 100. Sarah is 90. They get made fun of

because you thought your parents were old. Isaac's parents were old, man. Uh, and so anyway, they have Isaac and then

God calls him when Isaac is a young man to sacrifice Isaac. Abraham goes forward to do it believing that God is still

somehow able to make good on his promise even if Abraham takes the life of his

son. Hebrews helps us a little bit. It says that uh Abraham considered God able

to raise the dead and and and that's why he had the faith to do what he did. So it's like you can

get in Abraham's mind a little bit. You can see that Abraham's like, "Well, should I have to go through with this,

then the life that I take from my son, God is able to give right back to him." And that's how the promise is going to

keep going. Right? So, so there's Abraham whose faith was demonstrated as

active together with works and so his faith was made complete. Let me present

it this way to you. Okay? Think about it this way. When we say that Abraham, when James says that Abraham was justified by

works, he's saying that Abraham's uh I'm sorry, that Abraham was

vindicated, not saved in that moment. So, his faith was proved,

not established in that moment. Abraham's faith is established when he believes God. And that's when the Bible

says that it was credited to him as righteousness. But his faith is proved when he goes to sacrifice his son. See,

if Abraham had heard God's call, uh, Abraham, Abraham, go take your son, your only son, the son that you love, and

sacrifice him on the mountain that I will show you. If Abraham had said, no,

then he would have demonstrated that he did not really believe God.

So, it's not that Abraham didn't have saving faith in that moment. It's that his saving faith was vindic vindicated.

It was made complete. It was demonstrated to not be lacking. Paul uh

James says that this fulfilled the scripture and it fulfills Paul's

argument too by the way from those passages that we read earlier where Paul is saying that Abraham was saved by

faith in the sense that he was saved by real faith. faith that was living and

active and led to works. In the same way, James gives another

example. This is kind of funny the way that he sets this up because you got Abraham and Abraham is like the first

hall of famer in the Hebrew Bible pretty much. I mean like he is the OG literally of the Israelite people. Uh he is the

first and foundational patriarch. He's the one that God first called and said,"Abraham, I'm the Lord and I'm

going to give you this promised land." Right. So Abraham's I mean he's top dollar. You know, if if you're

assembling a cast of ancient Israelites uh to go win a competition, you want

Abraham on your team. You know who you don't want on your team? Rahab.

She's like the total opposite. Rahab is a foreigner, not born an Israelite,

should have been excluded from God's promise, and she was a prostitute. Now parents, I'm going to let you explain that to your kids if and when you want

to. We're going to skip right by it today and assume that you know what I'm talking about. Rahab was not an

illustrious character of the faith. But nevertheless, she also exercised

faith in God and her faith went to work. When Joshua sent the spies to go and

check out the promised land, Rahab welcomed those spies into her house,

which is also really sketchy and weird. I you know anyway the Bible is interesting right? Uh read it. Anyway so

he welcomes the she welcomes the spies into her house. She hides them from the government of Jericho and then she sends

them out by a different way to keep them safe. Totally betrays her own people.

Why? You can read about her confession back in the uh in the book of Joshua in

the story. It's because she knew. She believed that the Israelites were the people of God and that God had handed

over the city of Jericho into the hands of the Israelites. And you know what she didn't want? She didn't want to be wiped

out with the rest of her faithless people. So, she exercised faith in the one true God and demonstrated that

faith, vindicated it by her works.

Uh James concludes with a really powerful analogy that I think drives the the the point home and and I'm wrapping

up. I'm going to invite the worship team in just a second, but he says in verse 26, just as the body without the spirit

is dead, so also faith without works is dead. All right? So So I'm going to ask you a question and I understand that

this is going to be sensitive for a lot of us in the room, right? Because most of the time when we see a dead body,

it's somebody that we loved and still do. But I want you to think about a

moment when you've seen a dead body and how in the depth of your soul, you

know something is not right there.

The spirit is missing from that body. So as offended as you are in your soul

and and listen, I I give you permission and encouragement pastorally. I want you

to be offended in those moments because you should look at that body and you should say that is not right. It's not

how it was supposed to be. It's not part of God's design for his good creation. It's offensive.

Friend, when you see faith without works, you should be just as offended.

And I'm talking about in your own life. When you see faith, I believe. I believe

in God. I believe that Jesus died, so I'm good. And you're unwilling to

actually change your life and do things that demonstrate your the outworking of your faith.

That faith is dead and it should be offensive to you. As the worship team comes back up, I'm

going to put something on the screen and and I know I've gone it's it's it's been a little while. We've been talking for a bit. Um, if you can like give me just a

little bit more of your mental energy because I want you to see uh this really helpful outworking of the supposed

controversy that's in James chapter 2. So here's four ways, four different ways

to look. This is not like a sequential path. These are four different ways to look at the relationship between faith

and works and salvation. Okay. Uh number one, the idea that works lead to

salvation. There is no Christian on planet earth that can believe number one. Nobody believes that. Nobody

believes that you can earn your way to salvation. You're not good enough. I'm not good enough. You'll never be good enough. So,

you can't do it. Number two, though, there are some Christians that believe in this one. In fact, uh

a lot a lot of folks in the Catholic Church have been taught to see things this way. Number two, that faith plus

works leads to salvation. You believe and you work and the more you do, the

better your position will be. The shorter your time in purgatory will be and ultimately it will lead you into salvation. Hey, hear me. That's not

where we land. We do not believe that as a Baptist church. Number three, there

are some people who get caught up in this one, man. And a lot of times this is like this is churches like us or

churches like non-denominational places where it's like all about the easy belieism where all you got to do is pray

a prayer, admit, believe, and confess, right? And and that's going to get you in. That's that's going to make it good.

All you've got to do is have faith and that leads right to salvation.

And James is saying, "Not qu not not so fast, my friends." See,

it's missing something. Number four is where I want you to land in your mind and your heart. Faith leads to salvation

and works. You believe and that's all it takes to get you in. But if your belief was

genuine, if it was real, if it was active, if it was alive,

then it will lead to activity in real life.

It'll lead to you meeting needs in the community, the lives of the people that are around you. It'll lead to you

sharing your faith with classmates, fellow students, co-workers, family members who need to hear about Jesus. It

will lead to you ruthlessly and relentlessly killing sin in your life.

that whether it's lust and pornography or lies, big lies or small lies, if it's

cheating, if it's unfaithfulness, if it's just not being a person of your

word, real faith will lead you in a campaign against those things, brothers and sisters. And hey, that's what I want

for you and that's what I want for me. Because here's what I know.

Every time we look at sin and we say no and we turn

around and we face the Lord and we take steps toward him,

you're walking in the direction of life instead of death.

So brother or sister, today I want you to ask the question of yourself in this time of response. What kind of faith do I have? Do I have real faith, active

faith, living faith, faith that works, or do I have dead faith that settled for

a prayer, settled for easy belieism and never took me anywhere?

If it's the second, then this is your moment to respond to the Lord and say, "That's not the kind of faith that I

want to have. I want to have real and living faith." If it's the first, then I

want you to ask God to give you more and more opportunities to demonstrate it, right? To prove it. Not because you're

earning your way into his good graces or into a greater reward in heaven. We don't believe it works like that.

But because God has blessed you with the gift of faith that has led you to salvation and called you to a life of

demonstrating it. Let's pray. Jesus, I thank you for this time that we've had together. And I ask that now

in this moment, you'd be glorified in our response. As we sing about the life

that you give to us, the breath that you put in our lungs, I pray that Lord,

you'll convict us of where our faith has been dead, sin that we've been overlooking, needs that we haven't been

meeting. Lord, convict us and call us to a higher level. We pray this in Jesus

name. Amen.