Today's scripture reading is from the book of James chapter 2 and maybe found on page 1196 in the Bible underneath the seat in front of you
James 2 my brothers as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ don't show favoritism Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ringed and fine clothes and a poor man and shabby clothes also comes in If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say here's a good seat for you But say to the poor man um you stand there or Sit on the floor by my feet Have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts Listen my dear brothers Has God not chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom. He promised those who love him But you have insulted the poor Is it not the rich who are exploiting you are they not the ones who are dragging you into court Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong If you really keep the royal law found in scripture love your neighbor is yourself You're doing right, but if you show favoritism you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it For he who said do not commit adultery also said do not murder If you do not commit adultery but do commit murder you've become a lawbreaker Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom Because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful Mercy triumphs over judgment What good is it my brothers if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds Can such faith save him? Suppose a brother assisters without clothes and daily food if one of you says to him Oh, I wish you well keep warm and well said But does nothing about his physical needs What good is it? In the same way faith by itself if it is not accompanied by action Is dead But someone will say you have faith. I have deeds Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by what I do You believe that there is one God good even the demons believe that and shudder You foolish man. Do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar You see that his faith and his actions were working together And his faith was made complete by what he did 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 You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone In the same way was not even rehabbed the prostitute considered righteous For what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction As the body without the spirit is dead so faith without deeds is dead This is the word of the Lord Thank you Karen Good morning Let's pray gracious Father. We thank you for Bringing us into your presence and we do pray now That you would be present that you would help us to see your majesty in this text Transform us Lord that we may love you more serve you better And run to the nations with the gospel Be with us now. We pray in Jesus name Amen So yeah tomorrow I get to go to camp again this time with the middle schoolers and Last week we were at camp with the high school students up in Georgia on lookout mountain where covenant college is And we had a really good time It was a really good week a lot of good learning but there was this one incident we could call it a Moment that I won't soon forget I was All of a sudden some students ran into where I was in the room where I was and they said there's a big problem And I said oh boy What is it and they said we think Kyle Delk and you probably know him or his family Kyle Delk broke his finger I'm like oh that's awesome because last year his brother knocked his tooth out but anyway I said okay Well, we better get him in here and have the nurse take a look at it So Kyle comes in and he's holding his finger and it's just clear that he was an excruciating pain and He shows us his hand and yeah, it's pretty obvious. There was a big problem with that hand So the nurse said we better go to the emergency room and we Then took him to the emergency room and We're able to further find out from the x-ray that yes, there was indeed a big problem with Kyle's finger. No, I'm gonna show you this
So if you don't like this kind of stuff Look away Problem ultimately what happened is Kyle was playing volleyball or some Weird game that they hit the ball each other. I don't get it But anyway, um, they're playing volleyball and he's swung about as hard as he could miss the ball hit red turners head and um And that was the result He's okay though. I just don't shake his right hand for a while
So you know find out there's this problem. I can see yeah it looks like there's a problem and then there's you know It's clear as a bell when we see the x-ray. There's a big problem here and uh, and that's how Life works. That's how God Speaks to us sometimes and and that's what James is doing for us here In chapter two he's bursting in the room and he's saying There's a big problem There's a huge problem With the faith that some of the people in the church were lied and even our church right here A problem that some of us have and ultimately He leads us to ask us this question is our faith useless is your faith useless if so that's a very big problem But and what we're gonna do now is we're gonna look at James chapter two or at least we're gonna focus on the second part of it And we're going to see as we look even deeper in scripture and turn that back on ourselves and see the way we behave We can start to see the x-ray of our spiritual health and see whether or not our faith is dead or alive Whether it is useless or not because ultimately the main thing that James wants us to see And that I want you to see today from the second chapter of James is that faith without action Is useless It's dead it cannot save you And that would be a big problem So here's how we're gonna do this um, I'm gonna talk about three different things first. We're gonna clear away some of the confusion James uses the word justified and he seemingly uses it in a little different way than Paul uses it And to show that there's no contradiction First we'll start by clearing away the confusion and then we need to talk about Having a confession without a commitment to obedience to Christ So we'll talk about having a confession without commitment and then finally we'll consider the weight of Christ Let's pray Father just be with us now. We pray that you would help us to see what you want us to see in this text in Jesus name Amen Okay, so let's clear away the confusion James and Paul use the same word but differently and if you've never seen this before Uh, I need to warn you it kind of and when I first saw this I was like, whoa There's a little crisis of faith there because they don't seem to be saying the same thing take a look at Romans 328 Paul says for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law Okay, he's saying we by faith alone Apart from what we do and then James comes along in 2 verse 24 and he says you see that a person is justified by what he does And not by faith alone and at first glance if you haven't Come to understand this that can be kind of scary because it looks like the Bible contradicts itself And the good news is it doesn't let me explain how this works first. Let's talk about what justification is the theological doctrine of justification by faith alone God in his grace accepts two things From Jesus in our place or on our behalf when we have faith in Christ God accepts the punishment that Christ experienced on the cross In place of our being punished on the cross. That's one thing and through that we're forgiven The second thing is God accepts the righteousness That Christ built up and and lived out in his life on our behalf So all our sins are paid for by Christ and we're given the righteousness of Christ in justification and Paul and the whole of scripture makes it very clear that that is by faith alone what we do has nothing to do with it So how do we make sense of what James says? Well There's two different ways in which the word justification is used in the New Testament Paul uses it in the way that I was just describing being made right with God to be justified is or to justify someone is to make or declare them just and that is what God does when we put our faith in Christ James is usually using a different sense of the word justified He's using in the way that it is to demonstrate that someone has been made right with God So Paul's talking about being made right with God and James is talking about being shown to have been made right with God Now if you want to see this You can turn to Luke 735 Because it's the other there's another time where this word justified is used in the New Testament in the sense that James is using it You know who said it? Jesus and he's talking and what he says is wisdom is proved right by her children Listen wisdom is proved right by her children We can talk about what he meant some other time but the point is he used the word justified And it's the same to prove or to justify it's the same sense that James is using
And so there's these two different senses Paul is talking about being declared just And James is talking about being shown to have been made right with God to make sense Okay, so with that out of the way We can move on to talking about confession without commitment and if you think about it James is absolutely right How can we possibly prove to anybody that we believe That the Bible is true that Jesus is God that he died first is how can we believe how can we show that we believe this stuff
Or you could say it All you want but the reality is the proof is how we live our lives and how we respond to Knowing what God has done for us look at verse 14 through 17 James says what good is it my brothers if a man claims to have faith But has no deeds can such faith save him suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food If one of you says to him go I wish you well keep warm and well fed but does nothing About his physical needs what good is it in the same way Faith by itself if not accompanied by action is dead Let me bring this into our time period in the first century Go I wish you well keep warm and well fed that was something that was a greeting or a salutation that people would offer Sometimes when you know they were leaving or parting ways In in our day and age we might say something a little different and here's here's the scenario Here's the scene someone from our church that we know and love shows up and says they have these these needs And it would be one of us to simply be in like this Boy, that's rough Good luck with that and what James is saying is that If your faith Would allow you to stand there and not do anything about meeting the physical needs Of that person that brother or sister in Christ your faith is dead
He's saying That the words just saying some nice words doesn't do anything and I love the way he does it's it's it's brilliant Because he shows that it neither of these are good the the claim to faith or just saying nice words think about this What does it do for someone If you just say boy good luck with that what does that do for them? What good is that? It's absolutely worthless and in the same way he says for you to say I have faith in Christ But then do nothing That's worthless too is this harsh? Yeah Is it absolutely necessary James thinks so So we must think so as well You know chapter one and beginning of chapter two James kind of peppers the whole section there with all of these little Tests of faith things that can help us determine whether or not we have living faith or not if you remember last week when Seth was preaching on chapter one he mentioned a bunch of things and in verse 12 He talks about being blessed as the man who perseveres under trial So if you persevere under trial that's because you have a living faith if trials are crushing you You do not have a living faith how about one verse 19 reaction to circumstances? Do we turn to the word or do we try to figure things out on our own one verse 22 He talks about not just hearing anybody can do that but doing Are we doing the things that God commands if so we do have a living faith? In verse 26 he talks about controlling the tongue in verse 27 He talks about visiting orphans and widows and he also talks about being unspotted by the world And then of course in the whole first section of chapter two here He talks about favoritism and how it's a sin and it all leads up to this giant bomb that explodes as we realize James is saying to us If our faith in Christ does not compel us to act like Christ it is dead It is useless Now he's not looking for perfection Okay, that's clear we won't be perfect until Jesus has returned and made us perfect But if our faith does not compel us to do Christ like things to be like the one who redeemed us Our faith is dead Should we make it worse? Let's do that look at verse 19 verse 19 is pretty scary James says you believe there is one God good Even Demons believe that and shudder let me explain to you what he's doing here One of the most important doctrines of Christian theology and therefore Old Testament Israelite theology as well is the fact that God is one In Deuteronomy 6 we see the Shema where it says the Lord our God the Lord is one So what James is doing here is basically saying oh you've got good doctrine Oh, you can answer catechism questions awesome so can the demons
Think about this in Luke 8 We see Jesus healing the demon possessed man And when Jesus shows up the demon possessed man falls down at Jesus's feet and says what He says Jesus What do you want with me Jesus son of the most high God? Don't torture me. He knew exactly who Jesus was I listened to a sermon by Tim Keller in which he referred to Jonathan Edwards who points out that Nobody knows more about God than demons Think about that. They went to seminary in God's presence. They were in God's very presence before they fell So they know and they believe everything they believe all the everything that's true about God and the Bible and so ultimately what we're seeing here is that you can believe the facts about Jesus and the gospel That he died that he rose again that he's the son of God you can believe the facts Of the gospel without embracing Jesus as Lord that's what the demons fail to do they confess that Jesus is the son of God But they refuse to commit their entire existence to serving Jesus Christ as their Lord and master Now did they obey yeah think about it. He told them to go the herd of pigs and they did But they didn't obey because they love them or they're grateful for what he've done Grateful for what he's done. They obeyed because they're absolutely petrified of them. They are so scared Of the power of Jesus Christ
And that's why James says you know they know doctrine but they shudder They're deathly afraid Keller also says that every Christian needs to kind of ask themselves are you obeying Because you love Jesus or are you really just afraid?
Listen James wants us to know That talk is cheap
We can say anything we want about what we believe but the reality is If our actions don't back it up then our faith isn't real James knows this James was there when Jesus said in Matthew 7 Not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven But only he who does the will of my father who is in heaven many Many Will say to me on that day Lord Lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles Then I will tell them plainly I never knew you Away from me you evil doers James was also there When Jesus said if you love me you will obey my commands in John 14 and also he said that true disciples are the ones who are obeying Jesus commands in John 8 and of course we can't forget Matthew 25 Where Jesus talked about when he returns in glory the sheep the true believers And the goats the false believers will be separated based on What they say No, based on how they treated people in need
Now again, let me be clear. We are not made right with God. We are not saved by what we do But what we do proves whether or not we have truly received Christ as both our Lord and Savior you can't You can't expect To show up on judgment day and stand before God Who is our father, but is our judge and say something like this. Yeah God Yeah, I didn't do a whole lot of what you said in the book, but I believe that Jesus died for me, so we're good right
Because the proof that you didn't believe Jesus died for your sins will be in the fact that you didn't live accordingly Francis Chan has a illustration that I'm going to borrow and what he shows us is this It's like this. We forget that God is a judge And so we think sometimes it's like we're at the Olympics and the judges are in the front row And here goes the act and the and we jump up onto the bounce beam and this is our act
Just do what is only required so it looks like I'm on the right Thing here. I'm not gonna take any big chances. I'm definitely not gonna sacrifice anything um, just gonna kind of do this thing and then Pretty soon it'll be over and then He's a judge
He's a judge and you expect him to say after a life of no good deeds wow good job Well done good and faithful servant. It's not gonna happen and you need to realize that If your faith is not leading you into action if you are not doing the things that scripture is calling you to do your faith is dead And God wants you alive So what so what do we do What if you're sitting there realizing as I hope maybe some of you are That you've said you believe But your life doesn't reflect it. What are you supposed to do? It's right here in the text We need to consider the weight of Christ Let me tell you what that means When we translate the word glory into English from the original languages the only one of the nuances one of the Senses that gets missed is the fact that glory has weight We think of illuminosity or shining brightness or fame, but but glory has weight to it when we are in God's presence We will physically feel the weight of his glory and Jesus Absolutely glorious look at verse one of chapter two James sets this all in motion by saying my brothers as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ other Translations say my brothers as believers in Jesus Christ the Lord of glory
But however you worded the point is he wants us to be considering how glorious how weighty Christ is Think about this look at verses 20 through 26 James says you foolish man do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless Was not our ancestor Abraham considered not made righteous, but considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar Listen, you see that his faith and his actions were working together and his faith was made complete by what he did And the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness He was called God's friend You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone in the same way Was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction As the body without the spirit is dead faith without deeds is dead think about Rahab Rahab was a prostitute and the spies show up and they You know, they're asking for help. How does she she says I believe I believe your God is God How does she prove it just by saying that I believe it guys see a good look no she risks her life She hides them she takes care of the Hebrew spies because she believes that their God is God and she proves thereby that she had faith Now talk about Abraham in Genesis 15 We learn that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness, but how do we know Yes, the Bible says he believed and therefore we know it's true, but in addition to that how do we know Abraham believed well James things we should flip to Genesis 22 and recall the account where he offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice I have a 16 month old son and I can't imagine being asked to do this but Abraham was God said Abraham I want you to take your son your one and only son I want you to march him up a mountain and I want you to plunge a knife into his chest and then burn him as an offering to me Here's how you know Abraham believed God The next morning he got up early and he took his son and he marched him up the mountain and he laid him on the altar And he raised the dagger and at just the right moment the angel of the Lord cried out to him and said do not lay a hand on the boy Do not do anything to him now. I know that you fear God because you have not withheld from me your son your only son And there was a ram provided in the bush for the sacrifice instead of his son Isaac now that is written there not for God say God knows everything He knew it's written there for us to know now We know too that Abraham feared God believed God trust his God has faith in God So Abraham's son is spared and his his faith is proven And then I love this look at verse 23 Abraham was called God's friend
Abraham proved how much he how much faith he hadn't God how much he loved God and God calls him his friend So why is Jesus so glorious
Because Jesus is the one who took our place On the altar you see thousands of years later Because because everybody deserves to die because everybody deserves to be slaughtered But also because God is so merciful and so loving And because Jesus is so glorious God marched his one and only son up a mountain and raised the dagger But he didn't stop he didn't provide a ram he plunged it down into his son Jesus We call that the crucifixion and the most amazing thing is Jesus was in on it Jesus was willing to do this he carried his own cross
Jesus willingly took the wrath of God the Father upon himself to prove prove to you How much he loves you how much he loves me Jesus's love Was justified by what he did Jesus's love is justified proven demonstrated by this ultimate sacrifice that he made in our stead and that makes Jesus glorious
And he did it So that you and I would know he's the truest friend anybody could ever have greater love has no one than this That he lay his life down for his friends
My friends if you are realizing you are walking around with dead faith. I implore you to Talk to the prayer partners will have at the sides under the crosses Don't walk around with dead faith anymore Come alive Let us help you do that My friends consider the weight the glory of Christ And as you consider the fact that he laid himself on the altar in your place and died for your sins You will find the strength you need to live for him and as you are living for him And doing these things that you are called to do you will start to feel that assurance Knowing that your faith is alive As Jesus is alive and that you possess not a dead but a saving faith a transforming faith
Father a living faith and you are the only one Who can give us that? help us to consider to cherish to ponder to bathe in the gloriousness of our savior Jesus That that would compel us to living out the gospel That East Orlando would see That the world would see that the nations would be glad We pray all these things in the matchless name of our crucified and risen savior Jesus Christ Amen