Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #20240911 - Faith In Name Only - James 2

Transcript

#20240911 - Faith In Name Only - James 2 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

0:05
Welcome to the study of God's Word recorded live at Calvary
0:09
Church in Aurora, Co. To learn more about the many
0:12
resources available through Abounding Grace Media or to tune
0:15
in to our live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co
0:20
dot Church or download our free Calvary Church.
0:23
App. Now let's open our Bibles and
0:26
study God's Word. James chapter 2, again, if
0:32
you're taking notes today, that would be maybe helpful for you.
0:34
If you'd like to take notes. It's helpful for me at least.
0:37
The title of the message today is faith in name only.
0:42
Faith in name only. And again, James, the brother of
0:47
Jesus Amazing, is speaking in this book about spiritual
0:52
maturity and what that looks like in the life of a believer.
0:57
Again, everybody grows old in this life, and we can't escape
1:02
that. The Gray hairs are coming, and
1:05
there's nothing I can do about it.
1:06
Just for men can hide it for only so long, right?
1:09
But not everybody grows up spiritually.
1:13
Just because you've been walking with the Lord for a long period
1:15
of time doesn't necessarily mean that you're growing in maturity.
1:19
You're growing in the things of the Lord.
1:21
And so James deals with that in this book.
1:23
And in chapter 1, the last couple weeks, we looked at that.
1:25
James talks about enduring life's trials, talks about
1:30
refusing life's temptations, the need to be genuine doers of the
1:37
Word and not just hearers of the Word.
1:40
Being quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to become angry.
1:46
And then we ended last week, investing in the people that
1:49
could never repay us. The widows, the orphans, the
1:54
fatherless. All of this, James is saying, is
1:58
a picture of maturing faith. And we've got very practical
2:04
looks into what maturity looks like.
2:07
So if you're here, and I'm sure if I asked you to raise your
2:10
hand, how many of you want to be a mature Christian, we would all
2:12
raise our hand. Of course we do.
2:13
I don't think any of us here would say I'd prefer to stay as
2:16
an immature believer, but sometimes it's helpful to know
2:21
what that what that actually looks like in our lives.
2:24
So now in chapter 2, the question is being asked here,
2:28
what does genuine faith look like?
2:32
What is that? How does that play out in the
2:34
day-to-day of our lives? Chapter 2 here can be divided
2:37
into two sections. Again, if you're taking notes,
2:40
Part 1 is loving faith. Loving faith in the 1st 13
2:45
verses here, loving faith. And then Part 2 is living faith.
2:52
Living faith from verse 14 through the end of the chapter.
2:56
Again, James talked about how faith operates in trials.
3:00
He talked about how faith operates in temptation, and now
3:04
he's going to show us how faith operates among one another,
3:08
among those of us here in this place that call this church
3:11
home. So again, Part 1, loving faith.
3:16
And underneath that, our first point tonight that we're going
3:18
to look at is why partiality is wrong, why partiality is wrong.
3:26
So let's pick up here in verse 1, James chapter 2.
3:28
My brethren, important to note here, by the way, James is
3:31
speaking here to Christians, not to the unbelieving world, but to
3:36
you and to me. Brothers and sisters, my
3:39
brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the
3:43
Lord of glory with partiality. For if there should come into
3:49
your assembly a man with gold rings in fine apparel, and there
3:54
should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes.
3:58
And you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes, and
4:01
say to him, you stand here in a good place.
4:05
And say to the poor man, you stand there or sit here at my
4:09
footstool. Verse 4 Have you not shown
4:12
partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil
4:18
thoughts? Wow.
4:20
So he's saying here that genuine faith loves.
4:25
It manifests itself as loving faith.
4:29
So when you walked in the doors right in front of me here and
4:34
you guys came in tonight, all partiality and all favouritism
4:39
and choosing one kind of person above another should end right
4:43
where those doors open up. Partiality again has this idea
4:48
in the Greek of receiving the face, receiving the face.
4:53
You see their outward appearance, their face is the
4:57
idea, and then you receive it as if it's the real thing.
5:00
Like what you see, this is me, this is who I am.
5:03
And another word for partiality we all know we're familiar with
5:07
is the word prejudice. Prejudice, which comes from a
5:11
Latin noun that emphasizes prejudging someone, causing us
5:17
to form an opinion about that person before we know the facts
5:21
about that person, simply based on, again, the appearance that
5:25
they have. And then once we've reached our
5:27
conclusions about that person, we ignore the facts because
5:31
we've made-up our minds about a person or about a group of
5:35
people and we prejudge them. That's this idea here of
5:40
partiality or favoritism, and it's wrong.
5:44
James is going to tell us because it's inconsistent with
5:47
who Jesus is. So Acts chapter 10, verse 34,
5:53
Peter speaking there says this God is not one to show
5:57
partiality. Or in Matthew chapter 22 verse
6:02
16, the Pharisees there are speaking to Jesus and they say
6:06
to James's big bro Jesus teacher, we know that you are
6:11
true and you teach the way of God in truth.
6:16
Nor do you care about anyone, for you do not regard the person
6:21
of men. They're saying they're Jesus.
6:24
We know that you don't have favourites when it comes to
6:26
people or First Samuel chapter 16, verse 7.
6:30
We're familiar with this one. Certainly God looks at, I'm
6:33
sorry, man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the
6:39
heart. He looks at what's inside.
6:42
So James is saying this as you live out your faith as a
6:46
Christian tonight and as you're growing in maturity in your
6:50
life, It's important to not allow our hearts to prejudge, to
6:57
be prejudice. This should never ever happen
7:00
among our gathering as we come together to worship.
7:03
We should never show favoritism among some, among people, among
7:09
a person in verse one here he says not to hold the faith of
7:14
our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice this, the Lord of glory
7:19
with partiality, not to hold the faith of the Lord of glory,
7:23
Jesus with partiality, because in his presence, in the presence
7:27
of the Lord of glory, it doesn't matter if you're rich, it
7:30
doesn't matter if you're poor. We're all the same.
7:34
We're all the same in the glory and the presence of God.
7:39
And in the same way James would say looking down on people, and
7:43
it might be because of their age.
7:45
So you might have older people disregarding younger people and
7:49
that next generation or it might be younger people dishonouring
7:53
the older people. Certainly people disregard other
7:57
people based on their race and the colour of their skin.
8:00
People disregard people by their poverty.
8:05
And and so James is saying here it is quite literally denying
8:09
the faith. When you do that, it is not
8:11
holding to Jesus faith. The faith of Jesus.
8:16
Jesus would never count some people better or worse the way
8:20
that we do. He wouldn't do that.
8:23
So as those who hold his faith, those who hold the faith of
8:27
Jesus, it is essential that we don't do that either.
8:31
And love, agape love among one another.
8:35
It understands this. The Holy Spirit lives inside of
8:39
you and speaks to you about this thing, says, yes, this is the
8:43
way, walk in it. Jesus of course, came and he
8:47
dwelt among us. He sat down with sinners, he sat
8:51
down with tax collectors. And so an example of maybe the
8:55
way that it would work out in the church here today, some of
8:58
us may have been raised in a home where your parents or your
9:01
grandparents look down on a particular group of people
9:05
because of the colour of their skin, or maybe it's their
9:08
cultural backgrounds. And it's true, we know this.
9:12
Racism is alive and well in our culture today.
9:16
It's alive and well in our world today.
9:19
It always has been and always will be.
9:22
I had a meal the other day with Pastor Ian.
9:24
We were talking about this. And racism is demonic.
9:28
It comes from the enemy. It comes from the one who seeks
9:31
to steal and to kill and to destroy.
9:34
And here's the thing the Bible tells us about the enemy.
9:37
He is a liar from the beginning. So what he would like to do is
9:41
stoke your pride to make you feel that you're somehow better
9:46
than someone else because of the shade of your skin or because of
9:50
your cultural background in some way.
9:53
But this has no place in the church among us.
9:56
It should have no place among us.
9:58
You come to Christ and the person that you're now sitting
10:03
next to, no matter what the colour of their skin is, is your
10:07
blood bought brother and your blood bought sister in this
10:12
place tonight and we're going to spend eternity with them.
10:15
Even by the way, the person that might really annoy you, you're
10:18
going to spend eternity with that person.
10:20
I love this about Revelation. It tells us this, every tribe
10:25
and every tongue are going to be around the throne of God.
10:29
It says there that it's going to be multiethnic, it's going to be
10:33
culturally diverse. It's going to be multilingual
10:37
for all eternity. There's something even of our
10:41
our ethnicity, the Bible tells us, that will remain forever,
10:46
forever. So this beautiful picture of a
10:48
sea of countless faces, of every shade, of every colour, of every
10:54
tribe, of every tongue around the throne of God, worshipping
10:58
him because he saved us, because he purchased us by his blood.
11:03
And we should be willing tonight to lay down our lives for one
11:07
another. Never, ever to disparage one
11:10
another because of outward appearance.
11:13
Never saying and we've, I've heard this before.
11:15
Well, that's just how I was raised.
11:16
That's the way I am. That's what grandpa used to
11:18
always tell me. Well the reality is when you
11:20
came to Jesus, your faith now supersedes all of that,
11:24
supersedes how you were raised and what you were taught.
11:27
Because the Bible tells us, Ephesians 213, we have been
11:30
brought near by the blood of Jesus Christ.
11:34
Every single person that is born again in this room has been
11:37
brought near the even playing field.
11:40
We were born sinners. We had nothing to contribute.
11:43
Jesus in His great mercy reached out to us in love and He saved
11:47
us. He purchased us by His blood.
11:49
So as the sons and daughters of God now, we never have the right
11:54
to show favour to one person above another or to look down
11:58
upon somebody. So there's no space in the
12:01
church, no place in the church for there to be partiality, for
12:04
there to be favoritism, for there to be prejudice.
12:07
James is telling us this here. And the whole point here, the
12:10
section in James 2, is to dismantle this kind of thinking,
12:13
this faulty thinking in the hearts of the believers.
12:15
And James needed to address it because in the early church
12:18
there was great tension with the Jewish believers and those that
12:22
were from Rome. And he's going to speak on this,
12:26
but there's no, no place for it among us tonight.
12:29
Our second point here, why not just why partiality is wrong,
12:33
but #2 what partiality looks like?
12:36
What partiality looks like. James now gives us an example of
12:41
this because he doesn't just want to give us a rule to follow
12:45
as we see in verse one, but he wants to give us a story that we
12:48
can relate to. And so he says verse 2, if there
12:52
should come into your assembly, he's speaking here of the
12:55
gathering of the church. Remember, the church is not the
12:59
building. The church is not 18900 E
13:02
Hampden Ave. It is us.
13:05
It's the people that are gathering here as we assemble
13:07
together. We are the church.
13:10
And he's saying, here there comes in to your assembling a
13:13
man with gold rings and fine apparel, and there should also
13:18
come in a poor man in filthy clothes.
13:22
And you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes.
13:24
And you say to him, you sit there, you sit in a good place.
13:26
You say to the poor man, you stand there, you sit in my
13:29
footstool. Have you not shown partiality
13:32
among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
13:36
So James here gives this example of two men who stand out in the
13:40
church. As the church is gathering, they
13:42
show up. One comes in dripping with gold
13:46
and with nice clothes. As a matter of fact, in this
13:49
Near East culture, James is writing about these people that
13:53
had this great wealth, they had great nobility and what they
13:57
would do to sort of show who they were as they would wear
13:59
these jewel studded garments and they would wear silk.
14:04
And that was just to simply let people know I'm influential, I
14:08
am powerful. And they probably would show up
14:10
with an entourage. Anytime there's money, you're
14:13
going to have people that are going to be with you, right?
14:15
And some of these people, James tells us we're showing up in the
14:19
church with their silk and with their gold studded garments.
14:24
And it would be easy for people in the church to treat those
14:28
people better than the person that comes in that looks like
14:31
they might be homeless. And the reason is because the
14:35
person that comes in, it looks like he's got wealth.
14:38
Maybe can give me some connections.
14:40
I could use some connections. I want to network with someone
14:43
like that. Or promotion, right?
14:46
And that's a heart of covenants that, by the way, is in all of
14:48
us. We're we're we're quick to move
14:52
in our own flesh towards that kind of a thinking, What can you
14:57
do to help me? The second man in the story that
15:00
James is telling is dirty, probably has torn up clothes.
15:05
He probably smells. No doubt he's alone, maybe he's
15:10
homeless, definitely low income. Because the idea that James is
15:15
getting at is one man is exceptionally rich and this
15:19
other man is exceptionally poor. That's what he's trying to
15:22
communicate. Now here at church, there comes
15:27
a greeter, and the greeter sees both of these guys and he's
15:30
going to help them come take a seat here in the church.
15:32
He doesn't know either of these two men.
15:34
He doesn't know their characters, but he's impressed
15:36
by the bling of one man. And so he gives them a good
15:40
place to sit, right up in the front or right in the place of
15:42
prominence. You sit there and then the poor
15:47
man, he says to him, you go stand just kind of out of the
15:50
way or go sit by my footstool. The idea is stay out of the way.
15:53
We don't want to see you because you might give our church a bad
15:57
look or a bad impression. Now, to be clear, James isn't
16:02
making an issue of being rich or poorer.
16:04
That's not his point here. He's not saying that there's
16:07
anything wrong with being rich and he's not saying there's
16:10
anything wrong with being poor. We have in the church both rich
16:15
and poorer. Jesus even says the poor you
16:18
will always have with you. So this is always going to be
16:22
part of the makeup of the church.
16:24
But what James is saying is you better not treat somebody that
16:28
walks in in $1000 suit any different than someone that
16:32
walks in with dirty, smelly, stained clothes.
16:36
He is addressing here the motive that affects behavior.
16:41
And so he says here, if you treat people this way, verse 4,
16:45
have you not shown partiality among yourselves?
16:49
And you become now, he says judges with evil thoughts.
16:53
James couldn't be any more clear as he's writing under the
16:57
inspiration of the Holy Spirit here.
16:59
This kind of prejudice in our gathering is sin.
17:04
It's sin. It's not opinion, it's sin.
17:08
The one place we should never discriminate should be in the
17:13
gathering of God's people in the church.
17:17
It says here in verse 4, if we treat one another differently by
17:20
prejudging one another or again in the Greek by receiving the
17:25
face partiality by looking at the outward appearance of a man,
17:30
then it's revealing something in inside of us.
17:33
And he says it reveals our evil thoughts.
17:37
It's true. You can be a born again blood
17:40
bot Christian and still have evil thoughts.
17:45
And if James were here this evening in this church and our
17:49
church and our Wednesday evening gathering, I'm sure he would
17:52
come and he would say, OK, guys, Calvary Church, you say you have
17:56
faith. I'm going to come and do this
17:58
Wednesday night service. And I'm going to sit in the
18:00
back, in the back row and I'm going to watch how you guys
18:03
treat one another, how you guys treat people.
18:06
Not just going to watch the pastor.
18:09
That's going to be all of you. How do you treat the stranger
18:12
that has come in among us tonight?
18:13
Maybe there is one. Maybe there's somebody when
18:15
you're welcome here. By the way, if you've come in
18:18
and you don't know anybody, but for whatever reason you've been
18:21
brought into this place tonight, we're so glad you're here.
18:25
What do you do if somebody comes in that's physically different
18:28
than you? Somebody comes in with
18:31
disabilities, somebody comes in blind, somebody comes in in a
18:36
wheelchair. It's just interesting and very
18:40
beautiful picture. In Luke chapter 13, Jesus goes
18:43
into the synagogue one day and it happened to be on the
18:46
Sabbath. And it says that there was a
18:48
woman that came into the synagogue as Jesus was in there
18:52
and she was crippled. But literally in the Greek it
18:56
says she was bent in half. So you imagine this.
19:01
That was her life. She constantly had dust in her
19:04
face. Her hair was continually dirty,
19:07
she was deformed. And it says there that when
19:11
Jesus saw a woman, somebody's little girl that walked in, he
19:17
didn't see a monster. He didn't see somebody that he
19:20
wanted to turn away from. It says there that he saw a
19:24
woman, and when he saw a woman, he prayed for her.
19:29
And it says she was healed. And then, of course, the
19:32
synagogue leaders, rulers, the Pharisees there got mad at
19:37
Jesus. And the reason they got mad at
19:39
him is because he healed her on the Sabbath day.
19:42
And this is how Jesus responds to them.
19:44
He says, you hypocrites, this daughter of Abraham, she's been
19:49
bound for 18 years and she is now loosed.
19:54
The idea there is she is now healed.
19:56
You're more concerned about when I did it than what I did.
20:01
Now, by the way, this woman had every reason, particularly under
20:04
that kind of leadership, to say, you know what?
20:06
God doesn't love me. I prayed for healing over and
20:10
over. What's the point of even coming
20:12
into the sanctuary today? What's the point of even coming
20:14
into the synagogue? But for whatever reason, she was
20:18
there and Jesus honored her. Jesus honored her.
20:23
And look, if you're here and you see somebody making fun of
20:29
somebody else in our gathering, or you see somebody gossiping
20:32
about somebody else, you have permission on behalf of the
20:36
elders and the pastors of the church to take ownership of
20:39
that. Because this is our family.
20:42
This is our family. If you hear somebody making a
20:44
disparaging remark about another person, if you hear somebody
20:48
making a racial remark about another person, you have every
20:51
right to say to that person that doesn't belong in this place
20:55
that that person is fought by the blood of Jesus Christ and he
21:00
is the Lord of glory, as it tells us here in James.
21:04
So please, church, don't ever let that slide.
21:08
Don't ever let it slide in your own heart.
21:09
If that's you, take it to the Lord and confess it, but don't
21:13
let it slide with another brother or sister around here
21:15
either. So again, we looked at what
21:20
partiality is. It's wrong.
21:22
James tells us. We looked at what partiality
21:25
looks like. He gives us the picture here of
21:27
these two men #3 how partiality is inconsistent with genuine
21:33
faith. It's our Third Point how
21:35
partiality is inconsistent with genuine faith.
21:38
Now he told us in verse one that loving faith understands glory.
21:44
He speaks there of the Lord of glory.
21:45
We're all the same in the presence of God.
21:48
Here in verse five, he says loving faith understands grace.
21:54
Verse 5, listen, and I love here as he's challenging them, he
21:59
still says you're you're, you're beloved.
22:01
You're still beloved. My beloved brethren, has God not
22:05
chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of
22:11
the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?
22:16
So James has in mind here, I believe the same idea that Paul
22:20
had in first Corinthians chapter 1 where Paul says there verse 26
22:26
For you see your calling brethren, that not many wise
22:30
according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are
22:35
called. But God has chosen the foolish
22:39
things of the world to put to shame the wise.
22:43
And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to
22:46
shame the things which are mighty.
22:50
So again, the idea because God doesn't show partiality and he
22:54
didn't show partiality to you when you were foolish and when
22:58
you were weak and when you were without hope.
23:00
And because Jesus never showed partiality and that example of
23:04
him healing the bent over crippled women is one example of
23:07
many, then neither should we show partiality.
23:11
We're his children, we're the sons of God.
23:13
We have the faith of Jesus, His faith.
23:16
We've got the living Holy Spirit alive in US.
23:20
And James would continue in verse 6.
23:23
But you have dishonored the poor man.
23:26
This is a challenge here. This is a challenge.
23:30
Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?
23:33
Do they not blasphemy that noble name by which you are called?
23:38
Again, James's point is that if we judge somebody based on their
23:42
outward appearance, it is not a true assessment of who they are.
23:47
It doesn't speak of their character.
23:49
The very people that may have treated this particular church
23:53
that James is writing to better that dude wearing the gold ring
23:56
and the nice clothes, they're the very people that are
24:00
dragging this early church to the authorities.
24:03
They're the very people that were blaspheming the name of
24:06
Jesus Christ. And so the Sadducees, the ruling
24:10
class of this day, they were heading all of this up.
24:14
Of course they didn't like Christianity, they persecuted
24:17
Christians, but they were in partnership with the Romans and
24:21
they were powerful and they were wealthy.
24:25
And so James is saying, isn't it the rich man who oppresses you
24:29
and drags you into courts? That's his point.
24:32
So mistreating the poor in other hand makes no sense at all.
24:36
It makes no sense. Loving faith understands glory,
24:40
loving faith understands this grace.
24:42
And then here in verse 8, loving faith understands the word of
24:45
God and it says here in verse 8, if you really fulfil the royal
24:50
law according to the Scripture. And then he, he's defining what
24:54
that royal law is. Here he quotes from Leviticus
24:57
19. Jesus also quotes this in
24:59
Matthew Chapter 7. You shall love your neighbor as
25:03
yourself. And I like that He calls it the
25:06
royal law because it is the law of heaven.
25:10
It is the law of the king of the Kingdom that we're citizens of.
25:15
And so James is saying, treat people the way you would want to
25:18
be treated. And if you do this, verse 8, you
25:21
do well, you do well. But verse 9, if you show
25:27
partiality, you commit sin and you're convicted by the law as
25:34
transgressors. He he helps explain what he's
25:38
saying there. Verse 10 For whoever shall keep
25:41
the whole law and yet stumble at one point, or the idea is if you
25:46
break one point of the law, of all the laws, hundreds of them,
25:50
if you broke one of them, he is guilty of all of the law.
25:55
So by breaking this royal law, not loving your neighbour as
25:58
yourself, he is saying that's like breaking all of the others.
26:02
So to explain verse 11, he said for he who said do not commit
26:08
adultery also said do not murder.
26:11
Now, if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you
26:14
have become a transgressor of the law.
26:17
So going back to what he said that we looked at last week,
26:19
James 122, if you're going to be a doer of the word and not just
26:24
a hearer of the word, he is saying here, then do what's
26:28
right and don't show partiality. Verse 12, so speak.
26:34
And so there it is. Do as those who will be judged
26:38
by the law of liberty. Again, chapter one, verse 25, he
26:43
mentions there as well the law of liberty.
26:46
James is saying as a Christian, as one that is not just growing
26:51
old, but growing up as one that is maturing.
26:54
Speak and do as those who are letting the Scriptures be your
26:59
guide, the beautiful law that does not weigh you down and
27:05
burden you. It's the law of liberty that
27:08
sets you free. It sets you free.
27:11
Verse 13 For judgement is without mercy to the one who has
27:15
shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgement.
27:20
So if you want mercy, then show mercy.
27:25
The grace received is grace bestowed.
27:30
It's grace given. So James is saying again, this
27:33
is what maturing Christian faith looks like.
27:38
So for us tonight, if you come across somebody in our gathering
27:42
and you probably have, you have a hard time with that person for
27:44
whatever reason, it's the kind of person that just drives you
27:48
crazy. You go the opposite direction
27:51
when you see them downstairs in the Res Cafe, right?
27:53
You're like I, I'm making a beeline towards that entrance
27:56
over there so I can avoid them. Whatever it is, the person you
28:00
struggle with, the the person that drives you crazy, By the
28:03
way, you may be that person for someone else too.
28:05
So just keep that that in mind. Someone may be avoiding you as
28:08
well. Sure, that's the case with me.
28:11
We will always come across difficult people in a church.
28:14
We always will. Because there is no perfect
28:18
church and there's no perfect church because the church is
28:21
full of people and we are imperfect people.
28:24
Charles Swindoll said it this way.
28:25
That ministry would be so easy if it wasn't for people.
28:29
If it wasn't for people. So rather than trying to get as
28:33
far away from that person as possible, or treating them with
28:36
partiality or choosing some above others, maybe we could ask
28:40
the question like this. Lord, I need your help.
28:46
How can I best love this person? God doesn't come natural to me.
28:51
What do they need and how can I help them in some way?
28:55
But how can I build them up rather than in my heart?
28:59
Tear them down? How can I show them mercy
29:04
instead of God? What's been in my heart towards
29:07
them? Partiality and prejudice.
29:11
Oh Lord, I need your help. I need your help with this.
29:15
And I think as the Holy Spirit is speaking tonight, we should
29:17
all examine our hearts tonight. We should all ask ourselves in
29:21
honesty, where have I been guilty of this?
29:25
And James again is saying, don't ever treat anybody unfairly
29:29
because of superficial outward appearance.
29:34
It's not the way that mature Christians live.
29:39
So there is this loving faith that James talks about.
29:41
And then our Part 2 of this chapter is living faith.
29:46
Living faith. You can see faith in the life of
29:48
someone who is a genuine believer.
29:51
Otherwise it's a faith in name only.
29:57
Nobody wants that kind of a faith.
30:00
Now in these next 3 verses, verses 14, verse 15 and verse
30:04
16, these are really the main point or the main thesis of the
30:08
entire book of James. So these are worth underlining,
30:11
circling, highlighting, putting stars next to.
30:14
In other words, everything before these four, these 3
30:16
verses point forward to it. And then everything that that
30:20
you read in James after these 3 verses point back to it. 1415
30:25
and 16 here in chapter 2, verse 14.
30:28
What is a prophet, my brethren? If someone says he has faith but
30:32
he does not have works, can faith save him?
30:36
The idea here is do they really have a saving faith or is it a
30:41
faith in name only? James is asking here if somebody
30:46
says they have faith, Somebody says I'm a Christian, but they
30:51
walk around in rebellion, they walk around in compromise, they
30:54
walk around in sin. He's saying, is that really the
30:57
kind of faith that saves there needs to be?
31:01
He's going to say a living faith, a living faith.
31:06
Someone once said it this way, and I've remembered this one.
31:10
Faith is like calories. Calories.
31:13
You can't see them, but you can always see the results, right?
31:16
And so James is questioning here and saying, if you say you
31:20
believe like you should, why are you living like you shouldn't?
31:25
That's what he's asking here. Anybody, anybody can claim to
31:29
have faith. But does the way you live prove
31:33
you have faith? Could somebody look at your life
31:35
and say there is evidence of your life of living faith
31:40
otherwise? If not, then there's no profit.
31:42
There's no good to even say that we have faith, right, if there's
31:45
no evidence of it in my life. Can that faith in name only?
31:49
James asked. Can that faith save them?
31:52
And the answer, of course, is no, of course not.
31:55
In the Greek here, James is really asking a rhetorical
31:58
question. There.
31:59
He's making a point there. A faith that is not genuine and
32:03
a faith that produces no works. There's no fruit, he's saying.
32:07
It's not a saving faith. It's not a saving faith.
32:11
So James continues here then, with three characteristics of a
32:15
faith in name only, three characteristics of a faith in
32:20
name only #1A faith in name only is indifferent.
32:26
A faith in name only is indifferent.
32:28
Look at verse 15, if a brother or sister is naked and destitute
32:35
of daily food, that's important to pause here for a second and
32:38
just take note. These are true brothers and
32:40
sisters that he's talking about among us born again.
32:45
And he's saying here they have a genuine need, not somebody
32:47
that's trying to play the system or not somebody that's trying to
32:49
take advantage of the church. This is a genuine brother, a
32:53
genuine sister, and they have a genuine need.
32:56
And he's saying they don't even have the basic necessities to
32:58
live. They're truly in need.
33:01
Verse 16 and one of you says to them, the part in peace be
33:06
warmed and be filled, but you don't give them the things which
33:10
are needed for the body. What is a profit?
33:13
What's the point? It reminds me of what John said
33:17
in first John chapter 3 verse 17.
33:19
He said something very similar there.
33:20
First John 317 whoever has this world's goods and sees his
33:25
brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the
33:30
love of God abide in him? It's another rhetorical question
33:34
there. So let's say that you're here
33:36
tonight and you're in a life group and somebody comes into
33:40
your life group this week and tells you they lost their job
33:43
and they don't have money now to be able to pay their rent, to
33:47
buy their kids clothes and to feed their kids lunch this week
33:52
at school. And then you simply say to them,
33:55
yeah, man, that really stinks. Well, we'll pray for you and
33:59
then you walk away. Or even worse, even worse, you
34:02
give them a Bible verse or something as a Band-Aid, right?
34:04
Well, God says he'll work all things together for the good.
34:07
So peace out. Hope that works out for you,
34:09
right? Well, again, the whole point is
34:11
there. If there's a genuine need and
34:14
you have the ability to help meet that need or to help maybe
34:18
corral a group of people to help meet that need and you don't do
34:22
it, James is saying it's a useless response or it is a dead
34:28
response. What good is a faith in name
34:32
only? It does no good.
34:35
It doesn't produce anything. Living faith reaches out to
34:39
other people. Living faith is not indifferent.
34:42
Living faith responds with compassion.
34:46
Second point here. A faith in name only is
34:49
invisible. A faith in name only is
34:53
invisible. Look at what he says in verse 17
34:54
and 18 here. Thus also by faith itself, if it
34:59
does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, well, you
35:04
have faith and I have works. Well show me your faith without
35:09
your works and I will show you my faith by my works.
35:13
Again, James saying here show me your faith without works.
35:18
Is that possible? Is that possible that you can
35:21
show me your faith without works?
35:22
How do I even know that your faith is real then, is his
35:25
point. Without works, without any
35:28
evidence of it, it's an invisible faith, and it's of no
35:32
good to anybody. Again, James says.
35:35
I will show you my faith in demonstration by loving those
35:41
around me, by enduring the trials, by refusing temptation,
35:46
by being swift to listen and slow to speak and slow to become
35:51
angry. You can see it and it's
35:53
demonstrated, you know, if you say you go to the gym and you're
35:58
like, yeah, I lift everyday, bro, right?
36:00
And at some point I would think that there would be some kind of
36:04
results if you do that. And James is saying again, faith
36:09
has to have results also. Otherwise, James says that that
36:13
kind of faith, if it doesn't have results, it's dead faith.
36:17
It's useless faith. In other words, the response
36:21
here to the person that says, well, you have faith and I have
36:24
works. They're saying I agree with you,
36:27
James, but my faith is quiet. My faith is private.
36:32
I'm more of an introvert kind of a person.
36:34
I just like to keep my faith to myself.
36:37
Maybe you've talked to people like that.
36:39
Maybe you are a person similar to that.
36:41
James's point here is that genuine faith actually looks
36:45
like something. You can't hide it behind a
36:48
bushel, right? It looks like something.
36:50
If you can't see it, then how do you know it exists?
36:53
It's like Bigfoot, I'll believe it when I see it.
36:57
And when it comes to faith, I will show you my faith by my
37:00
works. Our Third Point here, a faith in
37:03
name only is only intellectual. A faith in name only is only
37:10
intellectual. And not that you can't be
37:14
intellectual and have faith. Of course you can, right?
37:16
There are so many good Bible scholars, so many good
37:19
apologists. The point he's going to make
37:22
here in verses 19 and 20, But a faith that is only intellectual
37:26
is a problem because intellectual faiths love to
37:30
argue. We see that here in verse 14,
37:33
someone says, and then we see it in verse 15, but one of you
37:37
says, and then we see it again in verse 18.
37:39
But someone will say, and I don't know if you've been around
37:42
somebody like this, they're great at arguing with you, but
37:45
they're terrible at living what they say they believe.
37:49
And that's what James is saying here, verse 19.
37:51
You believe that there is one God.
37:54
He's speaking specifically here to the Jewish people who prayed
37:58
the Shema every single day right here, O Israel, the Lord our
38:02
God, the Lord is 1 Deuteronomy 6/4.
38:04
He says you believe the Lord is that there's one God.
38:09
Again, you do well, you do well to believe that.
38:13
But then it adds here even the demons believe and they tremble.
38:18
But do you want to know, oh foolish man, that faith without
38:22
works is dead. So this is the kind of person
38:26
he's Speaking of that goes to church.
38:27
It's the kind of person that knows theology.
38:29
It's the kind of person that can recite Bible verses, but his
38:32
behaviour doesn't match his belief.
38:35
His behaviour doesn't match his belief.
38:37
In other words, he has information, but he doesn't have
38:40
transformation there. There's that big gap, that 18
38:43
inch gap between his head and his heart.
38:45
And then Jesus makes this. I'm sorry.
38:47
James makes a startling point here that even the demons
38:50
believe. There's no such thing as atheist
38:54
demons. There's no such thing as
38:56
agnostic. I don't really know if there's a
38:58
God demons out there, right? He's making the point here that
39:03
that the demons believe in the New Testament.
39:04
They believed in Jesus. When we would see a demon
39:07
possess a person, the demon when it would manifest or or speak
39:12
out, it would say, oh, Jesus, son of the most high God.
39:16
They knew. They knew they had faith.
39:19
It was intellectual, but of course it wasn't saving faith
39:23
for the demon and at least for the demons.
39:26
They tremble in the Greek there I look this up.
39:29
It says it means to bristle. They bristle, literally they're,
39:34
I don't know if they have hair on their head, but the word is
39:37
the hair stand up on their heads because they knew who God is.
39:42
They knew who he is. So you may have an unsaved
39:45
relative and you've probably heard this.
39:48
I've heard this, right? Well, I believe the same thing.
39:50
You believe my faith is the same thing your faith is and you know
39:55
it's not true, right? So what I would do is that your
39:57
next Thanksgiving dinner, quote this verse.
39:59
Even the demons believe and then see how that goes over with
40:02
them. Just piece of advice there for
40:04
you. And then in verse 20, he repeats
40:08
what he said in verse 17. Faith without works is dead.
40:15
And look, a person can know all that there is to know
40:20
intellectually about who Jesus is.
40:23
They can know about what he did to save the world from its sin,
40:29
but unless they receive him as their personal Savior, unless
40:33
they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they're not born again.
40:37
The Bible tells us. I know for me, I grew up in
40:40
church from the moment I was born.
40:43
Basically, my parents had just gotten saved right before I was
40:46
born. My dad became a pastor.
40:49
I sang the songs, I went to Awana, I memorized the Bible
40:52
verses, but I was lost. I was lost until I was about
40:57
almost 16 years old when I gave my heart to Jesus.
41:00
I knew it all. I knew it all, but I wasn't
41:04
saved. And you know, if you're here,
41:07
your wife can't do it for you. And if you're here, your parents
41:11
can't do it for you and the Catholic Church can't do it for
41:14
you and Calvary Church can't do it for you.
41:18
It's not a boy about joining a religious club because you sit
41:22
in church. Somehow that makes you a
41:23
Christian, right? You need Jesus yourself
41:27
personally to make that personal decision to choose Him as your
41:32
Savior and as the Lord of your life.
41:36
And then that will lead us to our 4th and final point here #4
41:40
genuine faith then will produce genuine changes in your life.
41:46
Genuine faith will produce genuine changes in your life.
41:51
James is going to give us 2 examples here from the
41:53
scripture, Abraham and Rahab. These two, by the way, couldn't
41:58
be more polar opposite of one another, and they both had
42:03
nonetheless genuine faith. Look at verse 21.
42:06
Was not Abraham our father, justified by works when he
42:10
offered Isaac his son on the altar?
42:13
Now, you probably know this story.
42:15
If you don't, you can read it what he's talking about here in
42:17
Genesis chapter 22. But there seems to be a
42:21
potential problem here as we're reading this, because what James
42:24
says here is Abraham was justified by works.
42:29
And then you may think as the Bible student that you are, wait
42:32
a minute, Paul would say in Romans chapter 3, verse 28,
42:37
something that would sound like a contradiction, James saying
42:41
Abraham was justified by works. But here's what Paul says in
42:43
Romans 328. Therefore, we conclude that a
42:46
man is justified by faith apart from works, apart from the deeds
42:52
of the law. Paul would say, So which one is
42:55
it? Are we justified by works or are
42:58
we justified by faith apart from the works?
43:03
And the reality is, it might look like from a a cursory
43:07
glance at this that James and Paul are disagreeing, but really
43:10
they're saying the same thing. It's two sides of the same coin.
43:15
See, there is, you may have heard this before, the root of
43:18
salvation. And then there is the fruit of
43:22
salvation. There's the root of salvation
43:25
and the fruit of salvation. The root of salvation is what
43:28
Paul is speaking about, that at the moment you are saved, it is
43:34
his grace through faith, nothing else being added to it.
43:39
It has been a free gift that was given to you.
43:42
And Paul says that is saving faith.
43:45
That is saving faith. The fruit of salvation that
43:50
James is speaking about here is that once a believer is saved,
43:55
then our lives will bear the good works that come from a life
43:59
that has been changed. Our life will demonstrate that
44:03
we've been brought from spiritual death into spiritual
44:06
life. There's the root of salvation
44:08
and the fruit of salvation. Our lives will demonstrate again
44:12
that we are alive and we have a living faith.
44:16
So Paul uses the word justify in Romans 328 to mean this.
44:21
You've been pronounced righteous in the sight of God, so from
44:25
God's perspective you are justified just as if you've
44:28
never sinned. When James uses the word justify
44:32
here, he means you are proved righteous in the sight of other
44:36
people from human perspective. So you're pronounced righteous
44:40
by God and then you're proved righteous in front of other
44:44
people. Paul shows how an unbeliever
44:47
becomes a Christian and James shows how an or how a believer
44:52
lives as a Christian. And the great reformer Martin
44:57
Luther said this and this is worth writing down because this
44:59
is helpful. We are saved by faith alone, but
45:04
the faith that saves is never alone.
45:07
We're saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never
45:11
alone. So here you are and you're
45:13
telling somebody the life changing power of Jesus Christ
45:16
in your life. And James is saying that is
45:20
wonderful. So glad.
45:22
So let's see it. What does it look like if he set
45:26
you free from sin, if he set you free from death, if he's
45:29
transformed you, What does that look like then in the life of a
45:33
person? So with that clarity in mind,
45:36
let's go back here again as we get ready to wrap this up.
45:38
James using Abraham and Rahab as examples of faith.
45:41
He says this was not Abraham our father justified by works when
45:45
he offered Isaac his son on the altar.
45:47
Do you see that faith was working together with his works
45:51
and by works faith was made perfect or faith was made
45:54
complete. There verse 23 and the Scripture
45:58
was fulfilled which says Abraham believed God and it was
46:02
accounted to him for righteousness and he was called,
46:05
I love this, the friend of God. So in other words, we know
46:09
Abraham was a man of faith because we can see his ultimate
46:13
act of faith and obeying God's command even when it made
46:17
absolutely no sense to him. Sacrifice my son.
46:20
Well, it tells us in Genesis, if he were to go through with that,
46:24
he would have believed that God would have raised him from the
46:25
dead. Actually, I believe Hebrews
46:26
tells us that when it speaks of Abraham, it was a faith that
46:30
obeys. Verse 24, You see that a man, so
46:34
in this case he's Speaking of Abraham, is justified again.
46:39
In other words, he's shown to be proved to be a person of faith,
46:44
justified, proved to be a person of faith by works and not by
46:49
faith only. In other words, he does
46:52
something. It's a living faith that is born
46:56
out of a saving faith. So verse 25 says likewise was
47:00
not Rahab. You can read about her story in
47:02
Joshua chapter 6. The harlot also justified by
47:06
works when she received the messengers and sent them out
47:09
another way. So what James is doing here is
47:11
taking the best man and the worst woman, and he's holding
47:15
the two of them before us, Abraham the father of faith, and
47:20
Rahab the harlots, or Rahab the prostitute.
47:24
And he's telling us both of them had genuine faith and it was
47:28
real in their lives and in their actions.
47:32
And what's beautiful, they were both included in the Great Hall
47:35
of faith in Hebrews Chapter 11. And Rahab, this prostitute was
47:39
included forever in the genealogy of Jesus himself and
47:43
Matthew chapter one, verse 5. And then James closes out this
47:46
section here by repeating what he said before verse 26.
47:50
For as the body without the Spirit is dead, that's that's
47:54
what death is. It's the separation to be absent
47:57
from the bodies to be present with the Lord, Paul would say.
47:59
For as the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without
48:02
works is dead also. So James again concludes with
48:07
this idea of faith without works is dead.
48:10
In other words, it is a useless faith in name only if it has no
48:15
reality or no evidence of life in it.
48:19
It was Martin Luther that also said this true faith will no
48:23
more fail to produce good works than the sun can cease to give
48:27
light. So you've heard it said that
48:31
love is a verb, not just a feeling, it's a verb.
48:35
Well, James is saying here, so is faith.
48:38
So is faith. So as a worship team comes up
48:41
tonight to close out the challenge for us, I believe the
48:44
Holy Spirit would say to you and to me, he's been speaking to me
48:48
on this. What are the areas of your life
48:52
that he's poking at tonight? You know, if you've been
48:56
partial, if you've been prejudice, if you've showed
48:58
favoritism to somebody who's that been to who's that been
49:03
against who have you prejudged rather than love them and and
49:08
love them as a blood bot son and daughter, especially if it's
49:11
been somebody in our gathering here the church and if somebody
49:15
is coming to mind, if there is that person is there maybe you
49:19
need to ask the Lord tonight. Do I need to go to them Lord and
49:22
do I need to seek forgiveness from them?
49:24
Do I need to make it right? Or if it's just been in my
49:28
heart, perhaps, Lord, what do I do to best love that person?
49:32
Lord, what do I do to help them again?
49:35
How can I build that person up? And I think we all need to
49:39
examine our hearts tonight, and we all need to ask the Lord to
49:42
show us where we have been guilty of this.
49:45
And I'm sure that if we were to take an honest look, we've all
49:48
been guilty to some degree of this.
49:50
Otherwise, the Holy Spirit wouldn't have needed to record
49:53
it in the scripture for us to be reading on this Wednesday night.
49:58
Or are there areas of your life where perhaps your works or your
50:01
lifestyle aren't matching up to what you say you believe?
50:06
Again, James would say that your faith is the faith that is being
50:11
watched. If you say that you're a Jesus
50:14
follower, then the lost and the dying world all around us are
50:18
going to watch to see what a Jesus follower looks like.
50:21
How do they love people around them?
50:24
What's their temperament like? What's their disposition towards
50:30
those that the world might discard?
50:33
Castaway. It's a challenge to us, isn't
50:37
it, to read some of these things.
50:40
If you have a saving faith and you're here tonight and you're
50:42
born again, I believe God would say to you that He wants to stir
50:46
up in you a greater loving faith.
50:50
And He wants to stir up in you a greater living faith.
50:54
If you have the root of salvation, he wants you to also
50:59
have the fruit of salvation. And that's that's what's being
51:03
communicated to us here tonight. Look, he loves you.
51:07
It's for you. It's not against you.
51:11
Paul would tell us he doesn't just want you to grow old as a
51:16
believer. There's some miserable old
51:20
believers in this world. He wants you to grow up.
51:24
He wants you to mature. He wants to bear fruit in your
51:27
life. He's in the process of making
51:30
you more like Jesus. We have Jesus's faith.
51:35
We have the spirit of the living God living inside of us.
51:40
And so we get to be a part of this Bible calls it the
51:44
sanctifying work, this process. And none of us have arrived and
51:49
we're all a work in progress. It's good news, right?
51:53
But we seek the Lord for his mercy and we confess our sin if
51:57
we need to do that tonight. He's faithful and just.
52:00
He'll forgive you. He'll cleanse you.
52:02
But let's stand and let's just, let's, let's do business with
52:06
the Lord if we need to in our hearts tonight.
52:07
You can pray as the song is being sung over you.
52:10
We can make this song our prayer tonight.
52:14
And it's a good challenge. It's a good challenge because
52:17
what the world needs is a church that is filled with the Holy
52:21
Spirit of God, a church that is going to live out their faith,
52:25
their genuine faith with the reality and the power of Jesus
52:29
Christ in them. And if we do that, Aurora,
52:34
Denver, Elizabeth Parker, Highlands Ranch, they'll all be
52:39
changed. They'll all be changed because
52:41
that's what the world needs. We pray that you've been
52:44
encouraged by this Bible study delivered live from the
52:46
sanctuary of Calvary Church for prayer.
52:49
Call us at 87730 grace that's 877-304-7223.
52:58
To listen to this message in its integrity or to join us for our
53:01
live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co dot Church
53:07
or download our free Calvary Church app.
53:10
Be blessed as you worship Jesus this week.