We are continuing our sermon series on James and I.
I try to make today's a little shorter so we could all enjoy
the festivities outside. All right, So what we believe
matters. Doctrine, theology, our belief
system, value system, it all matters.
And for the most part, unless you are visiting and you have no
idea, like what our church is about, for the most part, the
people who are here, you guys match up or agree at least on a
basic level, believe what our church believes or even though
if you disagree or at least OK with what we believe and what we
believe as a Christian matters so much.
And that's why there's all these branches of Christianity and
denominations and all of that. There was a pastor that just
started in Gardena, and I got a chance to get lunch with him a
couple of weeks ago. And yeah, when 2 pastors get
together, I don't like talking about, you know, like
denominations. But that's the first question
that, you know, he asked and I said, you know, we're done
denominational. And, and then he said, well, are
you going to join the denomination war?
I said, you know, it's been 13 years or probably not.
I, I think that boats, you know, has sailed.
A ship has sailed. Also, I don't think there's a
denomination that kind of matches perfectly what we
believe in. I know that sounds crazy, but
our combination of beliefs is, is kind of a little, it's a
little rare. Like if we joined, I don't know,
the biggest, I think the nomination, you know, it's
Southern Baptist, you know, I'm OK with them.
But our female preachers wouldn't be able to preach
anymore. I'm not OK with that anymore.
If you join like a Presbyterian Church and the elders will
decide everything. And you know what right now are
we have membership and we, we vote on everything.
And that wouldn't be able to go anymore.
And Methodist is a whole different thing.
And it's just like, well, nothing fits us and we stay non
dominational because what we believe matters.
It matters to me, matters to you.
What we believe matters. Our doctrine, our theology, it's
all important and there's no doubt about that.
But James is asking a very interesting question this
morning in this passage. He's asking us, hey, you guys
are all about beliefs and faith and all of that.
He's asking the audience, is it possible that all your beliefs
are useless? Let me read verse 14 real quick.
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to
have faith but does not have works?
Can such faith save him? He's saying what good is your
beliefs if it doesn't come with works?
And he goes one step further. He says, can such faith save
him? He's saying, are you even a
Christian if beliefs is all you have?
So today we're going to talk about what kind of faith, right?
How we could have a faith that also has works?
OK, That's what James was talking about today and that's
the question we want to answer today.
How can we have a faith that works?
How can we have true faith? Number one, we need to know that
faith and works cannot be separated.
Faith and works cannot be separated.
I already read 14, so I'll be reading 15 to 19.
Should be in the back behind me. If a brother or sister is
without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them
go in peace, stay warm and be way well fed, but you don't give
them what the body needs, what good is it?
In the same way faith if it does not have works is dead by
itself. But someone will say if you have
faith and I have works, show me your faith without works and I
will show you faith by my works. You believe that God is 1 good.
Even the demons believe and they shudder.
Here James starts off with two examples.
He has actually has four total. But for the first point I'll be
going over the 2 examples. He starts with the 2 examples
that are negative. He gives us basically different
case scenarios. The first case is 1517 and he
what James does really well is he takes like theology, he takes
concepts and then he said he and he brings it down to real life
instead of like all faith and works.
You know, you got to separate an Amen.
He says, let me give you an example.
This is how it looks like when faith and works are separated.
Does this look OK to you? And the first case study that he
he offers us, someone comes to church and that person is in
need. It says here without clothes.
It's not literal. It just means that person is
underdressed probably for the weather, doesn't have an outside
coat. Those are most more costly.
And it says LAX daily food. That's obvious.
Somebody who is underdressed and underfed and then someone comes
to that person and says nice things, they're polite.
Oh, I hope you stay warm. I hope there's food in your
stomach. I'll be praying for you.
And walks away. James is saying, does that.
Is that OK to you? And he's not saying like people
are doing this. So he's pointing it out.
He's bringing theology to life. And he's kind of discovering
what the what the audience. Hey, essentially, this is what
you're doing. Does this look OK to you?
No answer is no. That does not look OK.
Somebody comes hungry. You just can't be nice to them,
is what James is saying. He's saying that kind of faith
is dead. And he gives us a second
scenario, verses 18 and 19. You have faith and I have works.
Is some someone saying, you know what works is not my thing.
Good deeds are not my thing. Obedience is not me.
I'm all about faith works. That's kind of like your thing.
You know, I'm not good with people.
I'm shy, I'm introvert. You know what I'm I'm more of a
faith person and and works is someone who is maybe outgoing
and and yeah, I'm just not that kind of person.
MJ saying, oh, you think faith in the work is separate.
It's you think works is for some people and faith in some people.
OK, let's separate it and let's see what it looks like.
And he's he's giving us an example of somebody who has
faith but no works. And and he's kind of being
extreme here. And the example he gives is
demons. He says you believe that God is
1 good. Well, even the demons believe
and they shudder. He's saying, you know what?
Demons have faith. They have faith in God so much.
OK, you guys are all pointing at somebody who's dressed like a
demon today. You've got the all right, we got
demon hunters and we also got a demon as well.
All right. You know, when I was a kid, you
weren't a lot of dressed a demon in church.
That was just maybe I grew up in a conservative church.
But yeah, we got a, we got a demon over there.
Anyway, what was he talking about?
Grew up, guys. I see demons like demon.
Oh, my goodness. All right.
This is a children's service. What's going on here?
Right? Demons have faith in God so much
that when they hear God's name, they shudder.
They have more faith in God than us, perhaps.
And, you know, let's think of it this way.
If you're a parent, you should feed your kids, OK?
It's not like someone could say feeding kids.
That's not my thing. I'm not, I'm not much of A cook.
I'm more about education. I'm more about taking them on
trips. Feeding your kids is kind of
your thing. What I do is educate.
And James will reply. You know what, like feeding the
kids, It's so basic that even the worst parent will do that.
You can't just, you can't just feed your kids.
You got to love them. You got to educate them, house
them. You can't really separate it.
You feed them and you do all these other stuff and you say
you can't separate our faith and works.
Let me let me I attempted to do what James does, bring it into a
modern day example. I'm going to I'm going to
Cambodia next week. That's that's like for real.
I am next week after service, next week, Sunday night, I'll be
leaving Cambodia and we'll be leaving me and Frankie and and
and couple missionaries that we support in Thailand.
We'll be meeting in Cambodia and we'll be doing Pastors
conference. I'm only gone for 10 days, but
let's just pretend for the sake of the story, I'm gone like 2
months. That'll never happen.
But let's just say I'm gone for two months, and two months is
long enough, or I might have to write something, write something
down for my kids. I'll be like, dear Maddie and
Micah, you're 11 and 13. You're old enough to kind of
replace who I am while I'm gone. So I need you to clean the
house, take out the trash. I need you to help mom with
Thanksgiving Turkey. That thing's really heavy.
I need you to fold the laundry. And I might give them a list of
things for them to do. And let's say two months later,
I come back and nothing is done. They did nothing and that bring
my kids over and say, hey, how come you guys didn't do anything
I asked you to do? And imagine my kids say this.
Well, dad, it's not like we did nothing on Friday nights.
We came to church and we got together and we studied your
letter. We even memorized parts of it.
And this part of the letter, we made it into a song and we sang
it every week. And Dad, you're going to like
this. I even invited my friends and we
studied that letter and we sang that letter together.
But Dad, I didn't know that we had to actually do what the
letter says. You get the point when somebody
who's willing to have faith and they know all the right things
and they say, you know what? I'm good there.
I'm good with knowing. I'm good with believing.
I'm good with faith. And you stop right there, James,
giving us all these examples of why that's not enough.
It's like my kids saying we celebrated your letter, but we
didn't know we had to follow it. So how can we have faith that
works? Well, faith and words cannot be
separated #2 how can we have faith that works #2 we need a
faith that is evidenced by difficult obedience.
Our faith has to have evidence, and the evidence is not just
obedience, but difficult obedience.
A difficult obedience requires true faith in God.
Let's read verse 20 to 24. Senseless person.
Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?
Wasn't Abraham our father, justified by works and offering
Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was active
together with his works and by works faith was made complete
and the scripture was fulfilled. That says Abraham believed God,
it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called
God's friend. You see that a person is
justified by works and not by faith alone.
Let's stop there. Now this, this four or five
verses that we just read, if taken out of context, could be
very dangerous. We know from the other parts of
Scriptures that, you know, especially Paul's letters, that
we are justified by faith. In fact, the, you know, when
Protestant Christianity kind of became Protestant Christianity
in the Reformation, in the faith alone, grace alone, Christ
alone, it's like kind of became the slogan of our faith.
You aren't safe through faith alone.
That that is kind of what all Christians believe in.
And it seems like James is saying something else.
He's saying, wasn't Abraham, our father, justified by works?
We've been learning, we've been justified by faith.
And James sounds like he's saying something else.
You see, faith was active together with his works.
And by works, faith was made complete.
Now, what does that mean? Works?
Faith is not complete without works.
Like what you need. You need both to be saved.
What? What is James saying?
OK, so let me clarify why he's saying, OK, we all, I hope we
all agree that works do not produce salvation, OK?
That means follow all the rules. Then you go to heaven.
That's not what we believe in, OK, That's works equals
salvation. We do not believe that.
It kind of sounds like here it's OK, you have faith and works and
then you're saved. It kind of seems like that.
But that's not what actually James is saying either.
He's saying faith in God, knowing the gospel, faith
produces salvation and salvation produces works.
You are saved through faith alone.
But if you're truly saved by faith, grace alone, Christ
alone, there will be evidence in your life which is works, which
is obedience. And he says in that way that's
complete salvation will produce works.
And he gives us 2 examples of salvation producing works.
Case number 3 is Abraham, right? Talked about Abraham.
Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as
righteousness. If you read the Bible from the
beginning, which a lot of us do within the 1st 15 chapters, we
read what we just read. Abraham believed God and it was
credited to him as righteousness.
That is a direct quote from Genesis 15-6.
Abraham believed God, that's faith, and it was credited to
him as righteousness. OK, that is imputed righteous,
meaning God gave his righteousness to Abraham.
That's what happened to us when we became Christians, when we
became, when we were saved, Jesus gave us his righteousness,
grace without we didn't deserve it.
We didn't earn it through grace. Jesus gave us righteousness.
That's why we're able to be saved.
And he says that a person is justified by works and not by
faith alone. Faith cannot be by itself.
You could say somebody said this, you're safe through faith
alone, but not faith that is alone.
You need works. So what is the works that that
is evidence in Abraham's life? Well, we know the famous story.
God wants Abraham's son. Abraham waited like 100 years
for a son, and finally he has a son, names him Isaac.
Name's laughter. There's so much joy.
They love the baby. And God says, I want your son,
take him to the mountain and sacrifice him.
And Abraham obeys. He's willing to go that far for
obedience. Does God want really, Isaac?
No, God wanted to reorient his hierarchy of love, meaning God
wanted to make sure that Abraham had God #1 and everything else
#2 What was Abraham's difficult obedience?
That he loved God above his children, His child.
That was a difficult obedience. That was something that required
true faith in God. Otherwise, if it was left to
just human desires, no way any parent could obey that.
It is impossible to have your children as #2 without some
miraculous power strength given by our faith in Christ.
So in Abraham's life, that was evidence of salvation.
He was able to forgot number one kids #2 and then we have the
second the last case study, second of the second part case
study #4 is Rahab. Let me read verses 25 and 26.
In the same way, wasn't Rahab the prostitute also justified by
works in receiving the messengers and sending them out
by a different route? For just as the body without the
spirit is dead, also faith without works is dead.
This is the third time he's seen something like that.
Faith without works is dead. They need to be together.
Now, why is Rahab an example of a difficult obedience?
OK, well, Rahab's story is the Israelites.
They wander around the desert for 40 years as punishment.
And finally they got to the the promised land, Canaan.
By this time, it's the second time around and they send spies
to scout the area. And the spies hid in Rahab's
house. The soldiers went to Rahab's
house and say, hey, did you guys see any spies or did you see any
spies? And Rahab says they went that
way, but they were spies were really hiding in our house.
And in Joshua 29 through 11, this is what it says.
You don't have to turn to it. I'll read it.
And she explains why she was able to risk her life to and lie
to the soldiers. I know that the Lord has given
you this land and that the terror of you has fallen on us.
Everyone who lives in the land is panicking because of you.
But we have heard how the Lord dried out the water of the Red
Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to
Shihon and AOG, the two Amorite kings you completely destroyed
across the Jordan. When we heard this, we lost
heart and everyone's courage failed because of you.
For the Lord your God is God in heaven above and on earth below.
Rahab saying is you know what? I risked my life to help you
because your God is the true God.
I believe in your God so much that I know 100% that Canaan
will be conquered by your God. So I want to worship that God
and that's why I am helping you. Now this little speech, 3
verses, it sounds like faith, but we know that her faith was
genuine only by her works. Rahab acted on her faith.
She risked her life to act on her faith.
Her faith led to action only when what she did and what she
said matched up. Then it becomes evident that her
faith was real. These two examples that James
gives us, it's not just any obedience, and I hope you see
this. It was difficult obedience to
put God above your child. That's difficult to risk your
life forgot. That's difficult.
Often times after a sermon like this and obedience in the works,
we look at our lives and we go, oh, you know what the talent
team went to Michel. Yeah, I gave them some money.
Frankie's, you know, Mingle House Farm.
Yeah. Yeah.
I don't need to that. You know what I helped out at
the, you know, at at the local shelter, The 10 commandments.
I obey. You know what?
I think I'm good with the obedient thing.
I think I have enough works in my life, but often times it's
all the easy obedience in our lives.
Obedience is easy when it's beneficial.
Like do not murder. It's pretty beneficial to obey
that if you murder, you're going to go to jail and you might bad
things happen. So we say, yeah, I'll, I'll keep
that. Do not lie.
Well, if you lie and people find out you're lying, well, you'll
be embarrassed. So I'll be saying what?
I won't lie, right? I won't, I won't.
I'm not going to go around saying I'm 510, OK, That's not a
people will laugh at me. That's not a good lie.
So if it's, if it's clearly not beneficial, then we say, OK,
that lying is not good for me. So I'll.
I'll just not lie. There's a there's a certain
benefit to these obediences. You help Frankie's farm.
It feels good. Oh, yeah, Yeah.
Hey, I'll do that. But what's the difficult
obedience? Like even going back to lying?
How about lying benefits you? Even the little things.
Maybe my wife. Text me.
Hey, did you do dishes like I asked you to do?
And I didn't do it, but here's my options.
I could say, no, I didn't do it. And then, you know, it could be
another fight or whatever. Or I say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I
did it. And then hurry up and do it
before she comes home. A little lie.
No fight win for me, right? That lie benefited me.
Little lie on your taxes benefits me more money.
A little lie here there When you tell the truth and it hurts you,
that's difficult obedience. I think This is why dating
couples have such hard time staying pure.
People don't see the benefit of staying pure.
How does how does controlling myself with the person I'm
dating, how does that benefit me?
It doesn't. It bothers me.
We don't see the benefit. So that's not something that
people obey these days. Difficult obedience.
How about helping somebody? You know, there's a someone who
came to our church, you know, one of our original members and
she had a really crazy life, probably one of the craziest
like life stories that mom passed away and that wasn't
around. So she was like 16 and she had
to take care of her little brother and she worked full time
for $3.00 an hour. Now this is, you know, like 30
years ago, but still 25 something years ago, but still
$3.00 an hour. The liquor store owner knew that
a, you're an illegal immigrant. There's no way, you know, you
get a job anywhere else. You work for me for $3.00 an
hour. And she, she, and this is like
way before she came to our church, but that was her life
story. Let's say there was somebody
like that in our church, right? Just straight A student, just
amazing person, nice, kind, dedicated, working full time,
supporting her brother who wouldn't help her.
But the difficult obedience. If somebody that's opposite of
that kind of person, it's like you're in need because you
messed up. Like I said, somebody just
gamble their life away. Maybe somebody is, they come
here looking for community, which is a good thing.
But you realize, oh, this person needs community because he's
such a jerk. He has no friends.
He's selfish. He's he or she is, I don't know,
always angry, always blaming, whatever.
So it's like, oh, you have no friends.
Oh, you kind of deserve that. Oh, you have no money because
you gambled away or whatever. That person kind of deserves to
be poor. How do you help that person?
How do you be kind to that person?
For somebody who is. 16 and working full time.
It's like oh you deserve better. Oh poor kid.
Here let me help you. But to a person, it's like.
Oh, you kind of did that to yourself.
You kind of deserve that. How do?
You help that person, That's the difficult.
Obedience and. Jesus did.
That throughout his ministry here.
The people who are. He was helping were prostitutes
rehab his example. People he helped.
Were lepers at the time, people thought people who had leprosy
deserved that they did something bad, they deserved it so Jesus
was helping people that did bad things and.
That's why people cannot. Understand why Jesus was
spending time with the people that He was doing time with.
Difficult obedience is when. You yourself is financially
tight and you pay for someone else's meal because they're in a
greater need than you. Difficult obedience.
Is you yourself had a rough week, but you.
Still take time to. Listen to your coworkers
problems. Difficult obedience is you do
works. You obey for God when there is
no clear benefit. So how do we love this way?
How do we care this way? How do we love difficult people?
How do we obey difficult things? How do we do that?
It's only. Through the power of the gospel.
We have to be. Reminded of the Gospel.
Always, always, daily. Because what?
Is the gospel. Gospel is that God made the
worst trade with us ever worse for him.
We gave Jesus our sins, wrath of God, punishment, and Jesus gave
us forgiveness, grace, eternal life, the rights to be sons and
daughters of God. Everything we have is.
Undeserved. We deserve hell and punishment,
but we got the opposite. When we realized through.
The gospel that whatever we have is undeserved.
Then you will view the world with different eyes.
You will no longer be the judge and say you deserve that.
You deserve better, you deserve worse.
You don't see in those terms you.
See, you're in. Need I want to help?
You're lacking in something I. Want to help?
It's only through. The power of the gospel, we're
able to do that. Main point Genuine faith a.
Faith. That works is.
Evidenced through difficult obedience.
Let's take time to pray.