Good morning, Calvary Chapel. Hey, man, what a blessed time it
is to be here and have church community and church family.
It's always wonderful to see everybody.
We want to thank everybody that's coming here for the first
time. We want to just say thank you
for choosing to worship with us this morning.
And we thank those of you who have been coming.
We always, we always appreciate having you come back.
The Lord is faithful and we thank you for your, your
goodness, his goodness toward us.
Just two reminders I want to give you.
First of all, we do have those Connect cars.
I thought there was one out front.
I don't have one in my pocket either.
But those connect cars, they look like little business cards.
If you don't have them, please grab some before you leave and
use those cars to invite people to come and worship with us to
experience the Calvary Chapel family.
And of course, the other thing is, you know, just like the
women's retreat, we encouraged women to sign up for those
retreats. It's a very good way to get to
know the women here at Calvary Chapel Church and no more and
more of a personal basis and of course, to go through the word
together. And also men, I want to
encourage you to sign up as well.
If finances is a problem for that men's retreat, please just
let us know. We don't want cost to be a
reason why you don't come to this retreat.
So please let us know if cost is a reason.
So we want to encourage you to to sign up.
OK, let's turn in our Bibles to the book of James.
We're still continuing through the the book of James and we are
now in the 2nd chapter and we're going to be looking at verses
20, I'm sorry, verses 14 to verses 20 to verse 26, Book of
James chapter 2, verses 14 through 26.
And while we're doing that, we do want to welcome those who
were listening on the radio and those who were listening by way
of Grace MF Grace FM online or those who are listening by way
of the YouTube or any other platform that you're using this
morning to listen to Calvary Chapel.
We thank you for joining us this morning.
And as always, I always want to send an extended welcome and
thank you to those of you who are listening behind prison
walls. We thank you for being able to
just TuneIn with us and we pray that you'll be blessed.
Why don't we pray and then let's go.
Just go into the word, Amen. Is that OK?
Father, we do thank you for this blessed day that you have given
unto us, Lord, We thank you, Lord, that it's another day that
we have the opportunity to sit under Your word, another day
that we have an opportunity to commune with you and to
fellowship with You and to worship you.
We thank You, Lord, that we have this time that we can actually
hear from You what a privilege it is to be able to hear from
the Creator of both heaven and earth, the One who created all
things. As believers, we have the
opportunity to actually hear from Your Word, Lord, this word
of love and truth that You give to us.
And not only that, Lord, but You give us your Holy Spirit to help
us to understand it. Now, Lord, I'm asking you to
please speak through me this morning.
Let it not be my ideas, my opinions, my thoughts, but let
it be Your truth. I pray for Your anointing to
just be upon me and everyone that's here Lord, that You would
cause us to be able to see and understand Your truth.
Lord, it's the ministry of the Holy Spirit that does that in
US. Father, if You don't do this, we
won't get anything out of this time.
So stand in my body Lord, and think with my mind and speak
with my lips of clay. Cause us to leave here today,
Lord, knowing something more about you, something that will
have impact on the way that we live the rest of our lives.
May we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior
today. And if there's someone here,
Lord, that doesn't know you, I pray that today would be the
last day that they would not have eternal salvation, but they
would put their faith in Jesus Christ, the author and the
finisher of our faith. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
So we're in this book of James. And we did warn last week that
this book should come with a a warning about the things that
you hear. James is a loving, righteous
man. But the one thing that you will
get when you read the book of James is that you will get
practical teaching. You will get a direct word.
He loves you, but he's not going to sugarcoat anything.
And as we go through these scriptures, you will hear that
and see that and sense that. Now in chapter 1, back in
chapter 1, he talked about the fact that you will have to not
only be a, a hearer of the Word, but to be a doer of the Word of
God. He admonishes us on that.
And then he tells us in in the beginning of chapter 2, he says,
listen, don't take the Lord Jesus Christ, the faith of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Let us not take that with
partiality. If we are followers of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we don't show favoritism, we don't show
partiality toward anybody. We don't show it from the rich
or to the poor. We don't show it for black or
for white. We don't show it for anybody.
We are all one in Christ Jesus and then now he and he tells us
at the end of of that section that in verse chapter 2 verse
12, he says so speak and so do as those who will be judged by
the law of liberty. That means the law of love.
Then he says for this judgment for judgment is without mercy to
those who have shown no mercy. So James is demolishing us to
not only do the Word of God, and not only and not only do we do
it without showing partiality, but also that we do it through
the law of liberty, which is love.
To love the Lord thy God with all our hearts and all our minds
and all our strength, and to love our neighbors as the same.
And then Jesus Christ tells us that this is how all people, all
men will know that you are my disciples if you have loved one
for another. So it's not the religious things
that we do, but it's the love which is motivated by the Holy
Spirit. And we're going to talk a little
bit more about that in a minute. So then when he says to us that
judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy,
mercy triumphs over judgment. And that's at the end of that
section of, of of Scripture that back in verse 13.
But now we go to verse 14 and he now talks to us directly about
the kind of faith that is a saving faith versus what he
calls a dead faith. This is a very direct passage
here. And so when we listen to this, I
want us to listen to this not in a condemning way.
You know, don't think that anything that we're saying here
is to condemn. But James is saying these things
out of love. He doesn't want us to be
deceived. And there are many, there are
many people who are deceived in terms of their faith.
They they know the many people who who believe that they are
saved and are not. And James is saying that this is
how we can know whether your faith is a saving faith or if
you just say that you believe. So let's just jump into in verse
14, James says, what does it profit, my brethren?
If someone says he has faith but does not have works, can faith
save him? Whoa.
He starts off right out of the gate, hitting us right between
the eyes and saying, OK, we need to look at what kind of faith do
we have? As I'm studying through this and
he's I'm examining me just as we should be examining our self as
we go through this. What kind of faith do we have?
James says, if you know, what does it profit?
In other words, he's saying to us, what good does it do?
What good is it if you say you have faith but you do not have
works? Now here we can look at this and
say, well, there's a lot of men who used to have a problem with
this Scripture. I mean, Martin Luther had a
problem with this because in Martin Luther's eyes, and it was
definitely out of his misunderstanding of where James
was going. And then later they aligned.
But initially, Martin Luther felt that this shouldn't even be
in the Bible because it's not by works that we are saved, but
it's by faith we are saved. And he is right.
The Bible definitely tells us that we're we're saved by grace
through faith, and that not of our own.
It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should
boast. But but what James is saying is,
but that faith should have works.
That faith should have works. So he says here can faith save
him? And what he is saying is, can
that faith save him? What faith, The faith that he
just talked about, the faith that does not have works, Is
that a saving faith? Is that a faith that we should
have in Jesus Christ that we say we have this faith, but we
really don't? There's nothing in our lives
that indicate that we really do believe, that there's no
evidence of faith anywhere in our lives that we could still
walk in disobedience or walk in in our own flesh and do what we
want to do, but yet say that we have faith.
Oh, James is hitting us all right between the eyes and
saying, let's examine our faith. Let's examine our faith.
Can that faith save you? It's basically what he is saying
here. So then he goes on to to verse
15 and he gives an example. He says if a brother or sister
is naked and destitute of daily food.
Notice he didn't say if a brother or sister can't afford
to make the payment on his Lexus or if a brother or sister just
bought a new Cadillac and they're down, they're behind in
their payments or brother or sister have a oceanfront
apartment and they can't make that mortgage.
He ain't saying that. He ain't saying that.
He said if a brother or sister is destitute, they're naked and
destitute. They don't have the basic things
of life. Jesus talks about the basic
things of life. He said, listen, you know, don't
even worry about what you should put on or what you should eat or
what you should drink. And he uses and and and, and
part of that's because he uses the body to help with that.
If someone doesn't have it, he uses the body to help with that
when the world just happened. OK, so he, he, he says here that
if you don't have the basic things in life, if you don't
have the food and, and someone doesn't have clothing, you know,
Jesus himself said in Matthew, he says, don't worry about those
things. And then in first Timothy, Paul
says having food and clothing, what these we should be content.
But then I also love what Paul says over and I'm I'm sorry,
what first John says in 3/17. He says, but whoever has the
world's goods, and this is him lining up with James in terms of
saying to just say that we are that we believe and not have
works is useless. But John says this, but whoever
has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up
his heart from him. That means you see a brother
have need and you just cut your heart off from that person or
that sister. You just cut your heart off from
them. You just allow yourself to be
cold and callous when you see that they have need and even
says here you see that they have need and shuts up your heart
from him. How does that love abide?
I mean, how does that how does the love of God abide in him?
If you have the resources and you have the the ability to help
this person and you see they have need, but you close your
heart off from that person. John says how, how can the love
of God abide in you? How is the Holy Spirit active in
you? The Holy Spirit, which is the
spirit of truth and it's and it's love, love is shed abroad
in our hearts about the Holy Spirit.
How can that happen? And I cut my heart off from you
who need clothes and food. He said that should not be.
And this is part of what James is saying back here in verse 15.
He says if a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily
food, and one of you says depart in peace, be warmed and filled,
but do not give him the things which are needed for the body.
What does it profit? What does that profit?
So when he says depart in peace, that was actually a very common
Jewish a blessing at one time. It just simply means, you know,
depart in peace. That means be well, be parted,
you know, depart and be well, be good.
But is it more Christ like to sound pious and holy or to obey
and do acts of compassion and love?
You see, we are never more like Jesus Christ then when we show
His love and compassion and His mercy.
That was the ministry that He had walking the earth.
He constantly showed compassion. He would see a need in the
Bible. How many times did we read in
the Word that He would see a need?
Or He would see people and He would see them suffering or see
them struggling and the Word was saying and He had compassion on
them and He met the need. We're never more like Jesus than
when we have compassion and we show compassion and love.
Depart in peace. But that sounds really pious on
it sounds really godly, you know, depart in peace, be warm
and be fed. You know, I mean, it sounds
really holy. We look just by doing all that,
but that does nothing for the need of the person who doesn't
have food or doesn't have clothing.
So he says, what does it profit? What does it profit?
Verse 17 says thus also faith by itself.
If it does not have works, it's dead.
So he's already identified the first type of faith.
He says it's a dead faith. And a dead faith is that faith
that does not have works. It's dead.
It does not have life. It can't give life.
It can't help with life. If it's a dead faith, it's just
something I'm saying, but there's no life to it.
And then he gives. He goes on to verse 18 and he
talks about it almost like he's this, he's this person who's
being challenged by someone who wants to put their value on just
the faith. And they're, and, and basically
they're trying to say that all you're doing is putting your
value on your works, which he is not.
But he's, but it says here in verse 18, but someone will say
you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your
works. And I will show you my faith by
my works. But the way that this is
actually read is this way. How can you show me your faith
if you don't have works? That's your only ways to be
read. How can you show me your faith
if it does? If you don't have works, how can
you communicate to the world that you believe if there's
nothing in your life that's an obedience to Jesus Christ?
It's an obedience to His Word. No evidence at all that you are
truly following the one and only Jesus Christ, his word.
How can you do that? How how does that happen?
But how can you show me your faith if you don't have works?
That's basically what James is asking.
And then he says, I will show you my faith because I will
demonstrate my faith by my works.
Shouldn't our faith be substance and evidence of our of our
lives? We know that when you look in
the book of Hebrews Chapter 11 verse one, it says now faith is
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen. That's just taken for granted
that your faith is a faith that has action.
So basically your faith that you have is the substance of you
believing in something that you can't see, but it's evidence to
the one who doesn't believe. How do you know that there's a
faith that there's a God? I'm evidence because I believe
and he's working through me. He's working through you.
You demonstrate the power of God, You know, So we, we are, we
are substance and evidence. And James said we need to have
evidence. Of our faith show me your faith
buy your works and I'll show you my faith without your works and
I'll show you my faith buy my works.
So then in verse 19 he gets a little bit more intense.
He says you believe that there is one God you do well but even
demons believe and tremble. Wait a minute, James, are you
saying that I that if I have a saying faith and no evidence to
my faith, that my faith is no different than the demons?
Yes, that's what he is saying. That's what he is saying.
Why can he? How can he say that?
Because demons believe as simple as that demons believe, they
know that there is a God. There's no demons that are
atheists. They know there's a God, all of
them. They know there's a God.
Let's look at a couple examples of when they actually called him
out and said that he was God. They knew that he was God.
And Mark chapter one, verse 23, when when when Jesus went into
the synagogue and he was teaching and preaching the word
of God, speaking about the Kingdom.
And it was a man there who had an unclean spirit.
The Bible says, and the man said, I know who you are, holy
one of God. He understood that a lot of the
Pharisees didn't even get that the spiritual elite, they didn't
even understand it. And then again in Luke Luke 8
verse 28, when he landed on the in the country of the Gadarenes,
the Bible says that there was a man that was possessed with many
demons who came in and and fell at his feet.
And when Jesus called him out, he spoke and he said, what have
I to do with you, Jesus, son of the Most High God?
So demons believe they know that there is a God, but the problem
is, is that they don't submit. They don't fear him, they don't
submit to him, They don't they're not obedient to him.
They don't have evidence of their faith.
And James is saying, people who say they have faith and no
evidence is no different than the demons faith.
It's no, it's no different than the demons faith.
Even demons have faith that there is a God and they even
know the Son of God. But there's no love, no
submission, no trust, no or obedience, only hatred,
rebellion and disobedience. You know what?
Sometimes that's me too. That's us sometimes, isn't it?
Sometimes we can be disobedient. Sometimes we can be hatred,
hate, hateful. Sometimes we don't submit to
what the word of God says. That could be me too.
So what's the difference? The difference is it's not our
lifestyle. The difference is it's not the
way we are categorized. We sin.
We fall short of God's glory and sometimes in doing that we are
disobedient. We don't submit and sometimes we
can be rebellious against the Word.
That's just truth because there is no no one who's perfect.
There was only one and that was Jesus.
The the rest of us need his grace.
But if our lifestyle has not changed once we profess Jesus
Christ and we're the same as we were before we profess Jesus
Christ, that's a problem. That's just saying we have faith
with no evidence. Listen, there's no way that we
can have an encounter with Jesus and not have change and not be
changed. There's no way.
It's impossible. It's almost like if I ran into
you today and I saw you for the first time and I said, Jan, how
you doing? Jan says, Louis, how you doing?
I said, you know what, Janet, this has been a really
interesting day. I was walking out of the church
today and I was walking across W Pittsburgh St.
E Pittsburgh St. and a great big tractor trailer came down the
street and ran over me. And Janet's sitting there
looking at me like, OK, well, where's the evidence of that
encounter? I don't see no lacerations.
I don't see no broken bones. You're talking, you're not
laying up in the hospital somewhere.
You can't have, I cannot have an encounter with a tractor trailer
and there not be evidence. Would you agree with that, Jan?
Amen. So that is, I mean, listen, if I
said I ran into three pit bulls out there and I fought them all,
and I told you that you want to be looking for bites, you're
going to be looking for bones and everything, you're going to
be looking for all kind of stuff.
But you don't see any of that. You don't see no evidence that I
had that encounter, then chances are you probably would start
thinking, I'm not sure you did have that encounter.
Same way with us, if we say that we had an encounter with Jesus,
there's no way we're walking away from that without change.
There's no way. No way we can't.
How can the spirit of the living God live in US and it not change
us? That would almost mean that we
are serving a powerless God and we don't.
We serve a powerful God, a God who is all powerful.
I've done that before. I've had said a said faith
before dead faith. I have, I had, you know, I had,
I had said that I believed and I really didn't.
One time in my life, I got so tired.
I went to a church and I got so tired.
This guy bugging me about coming up and giving my life to Christ.
I just came up and just said a prayer and walked away.
And there was nothing different about me.
Nothing. Nothing.
I left her the same way I came, a Sinner looking for more sin.
There was nothing that changed in me.
But when I finally had an encounter with Jesus, it was
different. It was different when I had a
true encounter with Jesus. It was different.
And I'm sure all of you can say the same thing, that when you
truly had an encounter with Jesus, your life was different,
Not perfect, but different, different.
I couldn't sin and get away with it and have nothing in my heart.
I was convicted. Whereas before I didn't care if
I was in a conversation with somebody and I offended them, I
walk away with that conversation now and I and I would be
convicted. The Holy Spirit would convict me
and tell me that you know you was wrong.
You know you shouldn't have said that, and you shouldn't have
said it the way you said it. You know that you need to go and
make that right. The Holy Spirit will do that in
us. But there was a time of my life
when that didn't happen. If you got offended, you were
just offended. So what?
So we cannot have an encounter with God and not change.
That's the point I'm trying to make here.
And this is exactly what James is saying.
You believe that there is one God, you do well, but even the
demons believe and tremble. But do you want to know, O
foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
James is saying, I like the way he said it in the NIVI, like the
way it reads in the NIV. And in the NIV he says, you
foolish person, which basically means you empty hearted, empty
minded person. Do you want evidence that faith
without works is dead? And actually instead of the word
dead, it uses the word useless? Do you want evidence of that?
And then as we drop down, he gives us evidence beginning with
Abraham, verse 21. He says, was not Abraham our
father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the
altar? Do you see that Faith was
working together with his works and by works Faith was made
perfect. So what he's saying here, James
is saying, I'm going to give you an example of one who he's
actually going to give us 2 examples. 1 is going to be
Abraham. The other is going to be the
harlot Rahab. We'll get to her in a second.
But Abraham said, but he gets to Abraham and he uses him as an
example of someone whose faith was justified by his works.
How was that so? Well, we know that back in
Romans chapter 4, Paul referred to Abraham when he was talk
about justification by faith, meaning that you are justified,
you are declared righteous by your faith.
And that was also he, he and he took that from Genesis chapter
15 where Abraham had an encounter with God and, and God
told Abraham and gave him all these promises.
He said, listen, this is back in Genesis chapter 15 round verse
6. You can read it.
He says, listen, you are going to have a child from your own
loins. And not only that, but you are
going to have descendants that's going to number so large that
the stars, it'll be like the stars.
The number of stars, you won't even be able to count them.
You're going to have that many. And the Bible says that Abraham
believed God and it was accounted to him for
righteousness. So he was justified by his
faith, meaning declared righteous by his faith.
But that's not what James is saying here.
James looked at chapter 22 in Genesis where it was the story
that came where he actually was told that he has to he has to
sacrifice Isaac, his love, the only son that he had that came
from his loins. He had to sacrificing.
And the Bible says that he obeyed and he went to put Isaac
on the altar. He didn't sacrifice him.
God didn't allow that, but he put him on the altar.
And when he put him on the altar, what he said back in
chapter 15 was fulfilled. It was justified that he
believed God and he obeyed God in chapter 22, and this is what
James is saying. His faith was completed when he
obeyed God. He showed when he gave a
demonstration, he gave evidence that he believed.
That was in chapter Genesis, chapter 22.
What a blessing that is that our faith is fulfilled by our works.
He, James, never said that we obtain salvation by works.
He never once said that. But he does say that the
salvation that we have through faith should produce works in
our life. That's what he is saying.
So he goes on here and he says down in in 23, he says, and the
Scripture was fulfilled, which says Abraham believed God and it
was accounted to him for righteousness.
Yeah, faith is, you know, faith in Jesus Christ is, is
righteousness apart from the law, separate from the law.
And then it says, and he was called the friend of God.
Now this is the verse that we're getting to now.
This is the verse that really caused the big stir, the biggest
stir, he said. You see then verse 24, you see
then that a man is justified by works and not by faith only.
That was a very bold statement because everyone at that
particular time understood that. Wait a minute, faith, you know,
a man is justified by works and not faith alone.
And of course, Martin, you know, Martin Luther was thinking or
wait a minute, I read Romans chapter 3, verse 20 and I'm
going to read that for you. It says therefore by the deeds
of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight.
For by the law is the knowledge of sin.
And then I'm going to read verse 22 for you.
Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to
all and on all who believe. And then in verse 28, he says,
therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart
from the deeds of the law. And then Paul also double S down
on that back over here in Galatians chapter 2, verse 16,
he says, knowing that a man is justified by the works of the
law. I'm sorry knowing that a man is
not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus
Christ. Even we have believed in Christ
Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by
the works of the law for by the works of the law, no flesh shall
be justified. So Martin Luther is saying,
look, I read that. So when you try to tell me here
that you see then that a man I'm back in James now chapter 2
verse 24. So when you try to tell me that
you see then that a man is justified by works and not by
faith only I got a problem with that.
But what Martin, what what Martin Luther didn't understand
is that the word justified in this case does not mean declared
righteous. That's not the way James is
using it here. Here James is saying that you
are proven righteous. You are shown to be righteous,
meaning justified. Your, your, your faith is
justified. It is shown to be righteous.
It's proven to be righteous. So the the faith that actually
declared you righteous in the sight of God, that faith, OK, is
justified by your works. It's proved to be righteous.
What a blessing that is. It doesn't take away from our
faith to to do works of righteousness.
It justifies our faith. So those two are working
together. I mean, people try to make it
seem like they were like at odds with each other with swords, you
know, like they were sword fighting.
Now it's justification by faith. And, and, and then James said,
no, it's justification by your works.
That's not what was going on. They were actually fighting two
different enemies. One was fighting this way.
Let's just say Paul was fighting this way and he was fighting
against those Judaizers who was trying to say that you need to
have the deeds of the law in order to be saved.
So he's fighting with them. And you can't just do it by
faith. And Paul saying, no, it's by
faith that we are saved apart from the deeds of the law.
And then this way, James is fighting with a whole different
group of people. And James is saying that,
listen, you know, these people are saying, listen, you know,
you, you know, it's, it's not just your deeds.
You know, it's, it's once you get saved, you don't have to
worry about doing no good deeds. You don't have to be obedient to
the word of God. You're covered by grace.
You can live any way you want to live because you have said that
you have faith. So they were fighting two
different enemies, but they run the same team.
Let us not get caught up in that.
Let's have a lot of Holy Spirit to work in our hearts and in our
lives to produce good works, good works.
You see the rest of Ephesians 28 and 9, which begins with we are
saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves, but
it's a gift of God lest any man should boast.
The rest of that in verse 10 says, for you are God's
workmanship created unto Christ Jesus for good works which he
prepared beforehand, that you walk in them, that you walk in
them. That's the faith that we have in
Christ Jesus. And then verse 25 says likewise
praise and worship team, you can come forward.
He says likewise, was not Rahab the harlot?
And this is the second example. Was not Rahab the harlot also
justified by works when she received the messengers and sent
them out another way? This is a very intriguing story.
I love reading this story. Now first of all, we know that
Abraham was considered the father of the Jews.
Abraham was a righteous man and, and, and he was justified by his
works. Rahab, on the other hand, was a
harlot from a Pagan nation, but yet they both were considered to
be justified by their faith. So if you look back into the
story, if we were to look at this story and and just quickly
summarize it, we know that Joshua was now taking the place
who have now taken the place of Moses.
And they were going through the Canaanite lands and they were
getting, they were basically getting out the evil or the
Pagan people who have filled up. The sins of of those nations,
they have filled up those sins and God was now purging them and
he was using the armies of Israel in order to do that.
So they came to Jericho, this little town and, and, and, and
they, and, and they were coming to spy it out.
Joshua was sent 2 spies out to spy it out and they came to
Rahab who was a harlot who had a house on the wall, which means
that she must have been doing very well.
And so so they had this house on the wall and that's where they
came. And Rahab understood because she
said, you know what? I heard about you and I heard
about your God. I know what you did to the other
people on the other side of Jordan and to their kings and
how God gave you that land. I heard about that.
I heard about how to the Lord split the Red Sea and let you
walk over on dry land. He said, and she also said, and
I know that the Lord has delivered this land into your
hands. I know it.
But the only thing I'm asking she said, I know that your God
is God when she said that we can read it right here back in
Joshua chapter 2 right here in verse 11, she said and soon as
we heard these things, our hearts melted.
Neither did there remain any any more courage in anyone because
of you for the Lord your God, He is God in heaven above and on
the earth beneath. So she declared her faith and
her show of faith is when she hid those spies on the roof.
She and she risked her life to do that because had they found
out that those spies were there and she was helping them, she
would have been dead and everybody in her family would
have been dead. But instead she risked her life
and hid those spies and had an agreement with them.
Look, when you come back to take this land, please spare me and
my family. And they said you and your
family will be spared, but you have to put a red, a red
scarlet, get a red scarlet, a ribbon and tie it on your door.
And I promise you, anybody that's inside that house will
not suffer. Not even one hair on their heads
will be heard. And she did that and she
received salvation. Now she is actually in the
genealogy of Jesus because not only was she faithful
pronouncing her faith, but she demonstrated her faith by
risking her life for the righteous Lord have mercy.
So you know. And so in doing that she
received salvation. She received that salvation.
So then in verse 26 it says for as the body without the Spirit
is dead, so faith without works is dead.
Also, James is saying here that you're just like the body.
The body is nothing without the spirit.
It's the spirit that brings life to the body.
It's the way that they communicate to the world is
through the spirit. In the same way, if you just
have faith and no works, then you just have dead faith because
your works give life to your faith.
It's the works that communicate to a dying world who Jesus is.
It's your works. When they see you walking in
obedience to a God that they can't see, it gives testimony
and brings glory to God. What an awesome thing.
Let us be a church that will
allow the Holy Spirit to work in US in such a way that we will be
that light and salt to a dying world and that we will
demonstrate true saving faith through good works.
Let's prepare for thank you, brother here.
Nope, there's none there. Thank you, brother.
Let's prepare for communion. And I want us to keep in mind
here as we do this that we serve Christ Jesus who actually came
into this world and he demonstrated good works the
entire time that he walked this earth.
He demonstrated, He actually demonstrated the word of God
before the people. He walked that out.
He showed them how merciful God is, how patient God is, how
gracious our God is. He showed them how forgiving he
is and that he forgives transgressions, He forgives
iniquity, He forgives sins. Jesus demonstrated that.
He demonstrated the power of God and everything that God and
everything that God was. He, he, he said, the Bible says
that he embodied, you know, the whole, the whole, the fullness
of the Godhead was in Jesus Christ.
That means all power, all forgiveness, all patience, all,
everything that God was, it was embodied in Jesus Christ.
And he walked this earth and demonstrated that before man for
3 1/2 years. And yes, he was even obedient.
He even demonstrated obedience, the same obedience that we
should demonstrate we can do it through the power of the Holy
Spirit. Because he says, I'm going to go
back to the Father, but I'm going to send you a helper.
So we have a helper living on the inside of us to help us to
obey the word of God. When we think about what kept
Jesus on that cross, when he gave himself, he gave his body
to be broken. He gave his blood to be shed for
our sins. But when he did that and he hung
on that cross, it wasn't nails that kept him on the cross.
Don't think that it wasn't the nails that kept Him on the
cross. He could have called 12 legions
of angels and they would have. They would have came and
destroyed everybody and brought Him down off that cross.
That's not what kept Him on that cross.
What kept Jesus on the cross was our sin and His love for us.
That's what kept Him on the cross.
What keeps you in the furnace sometimes, going through
suffering for your kids and not turning your back on them.
What keeps you from doing that? Your love for your kids.
And that's exactly what kept Jesus on the cross.
There's love for us, love that we don't even deserve, love that
we could never earn. So, Father, we pray today your
Holy Spirit will work in each and every one of us in a
powerful way that we would not only profess that we believe,
but we would actually, oh God, walk in the faith, walk in
obedience, walk showing evidence of our belief in you, our trust
in You, relying upon you, endeavoring to do what you tell
us to do. Lord, adhering to your word.
We thank you, Lord, for the sacrifice that you are to us,
that you were to us on that cross, Lord.
And we thank you even for your resurrected ministry as you
mediate for us. Lord, You were the propitiation
for our sins. You took the place of what
should have was what was meant for us.
And as you advocate for us, Lord, in the heavenlies, we
thank you, thank you Jesus. So, Lord, help us to be mindful,
to submit to your Holy Spirit, Lord, that we will walk worthy
of your calling, worthy of the ministry that you've called us
to, that we would obey you, Lord, that we would show that
there's a difference between the world and the church.
So on a night in which Jesus was betrayed, he took the bread.
And after he gave thanks, he broke it.
And he said, take, eat. This is my body which is broken
for you. Eat this in remembrance of me.
In the same manner also he took the cup, and after supper he
said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which was
shed for the sins of many. The sins of many, even the sins
of those who are still today have not come into the
sheepfold. It was even shed for them.
He said drink this and as often as you drink it, drinking in
remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this
bread and drink this cup, you do show Lord's death till He come.
Amen. The altar is open.
If you would like to come up and just call on the Holy Spirit and
ask for God to fill you with His Holy Spirit, that you would have
the power, that we would all have the power to walk in the
fullness of obedience and in the fullness of the Word of God to
be evidence before this dying world.
We need it now more than ever. We need it now more than ever.
Things are stirring and we need God's power to help us to be
steadfast, unmovable, and always abounding in the work of the
Lord, because we know that the work of the Lord is not in vain.
So the author is open. If you want salvation, feel free
to come and give your heart. Give your life to Jesus Christ
today. No need to leave here not
knowing your eternity. You can know your eternity
today. I pray you will.
In Jesus name I pray. Amen.