← ArchiveSunday, November 29, 2015DateNovember 29, 2015Speaker—TextJames 2Passages in this sermonJames 20:45James 2:142:19Ephesians 25:40John 3:210:06John 1512:432 Corinthians 13:521:46Romans 1:8424:36TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00Thank you, thank you, one of my favorite songs of the season, amen, and two of my favorite people. Well, one of them. I'm not going to tell you which one, but she's never on time on Sunday0:24mornings. I don't know what that is. No, just kidding, just kidding. I love throwing her under the bus. She's just so easy. If you brought your Bible, I hope you did. Turn with me to James, James, the epistle of James chapter 2. Let me just kind of give you an idea about James, this wonderful epistle. James, one of the great reformers, Martin Luther, he was not crazy about0:51this book. In fact, the matter is he called it the straw epistle. He didn't like the book of James. He didn't like the epistle of James. He thought it had way too much practicality and not enough doctrine. But, you know, Martin Luther was right in a lot of areas, but in a lot of ways he was wrong. But we aspire to Luther's teachings because he did help lead the Reformation where we all came from,1:16out of the Catholic Church at one time. So, we all aspire to that. But, James, you know, not everybody, I know contrary to popular belief, I'm not always right. I know most of you think that I am, but I'm usually not. But James is a phenomenal book. Now, I'm not going to preach the book of James while I'm still here. I'm doing some one-offs for you over the next few weeks. And by the way, next Sunday,1:41you don't want to miss, our kids are going to be leading us in musical worship, and it's going to be an awesome time. And I'll bring a short message at the end. And then on the 13th, we're going to be doing the Lord's Supper. It'll be the whole service. It'll be the Lord's Supper. And on the 20th, I'm bringing a Christmas message for you also. And we're excited about this type of season. So, I really felt like we needed to address this real faith issue, really understanding what faith is. And so, as I was looking through all the study on the book of James, the epistle of James, I came2:11to this particular text in James chapter 2, verses 14 and following. So, I want you to notice with me in this particular passage, and I've entitled the message today as, How to Have Real Faith. How do you have real faith? And so, he begins by asking a bunch of, a series of questions for us to answer in our own heart. So, James chapter 2, beginning with the 14th verse through the 26th2:39verse. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to him, go in peace, go in peace and be warm and be filled, and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is it? Then he goes on to say in verse 17, even so, even so, faith, if it has no3:08works, is dead. Now, I want you to underline that because that's a very important line right there. Even so, faith without works is dead. Being by itself, but someone may well say to you, you have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith3:33by my works. You believe that God is one. You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe in shudder. Verse 20, but you are willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham, our father, justified by works when he offered Isaac, his son, on the altar? You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works,4:03faith was perfected, the scriptures was fulfilled, which says, and Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. You see that man, a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone. In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when4:29she was received a messenger and sent them out, and by other way. But verse 26, I want you to notice what it says. For just as the body without the spirit is dead, let that sink in, so also faith without works is dead. Now, I want to clarify something here. When you start thinking about faith and works,4:57I start running myself back to the Pauline epistles. I run back to what Paul has to say. The message truth is to understand real faith, we must understand the order of faith in Christ. It's by grace, through faith, for good works. Now, I want you to sink that in. By grace, through faith,5:19for good works. You see, we can't just have that five by grace thing happening in our lives. By faith, grace, faith, all tied together. Folks, let me tell you something. It leads us to verse 10 of Ephesians chapter 2. It says that we are created as workmanship, worthy, creating workmanship. So, I started asking these questions in my own mind. What is this whole idea of having real faith? The truth5:47of James emphasizes in this particular text is that the Word of God teaches throughout that we do what we do reveals really who we are. What we do really reveals who we are. The truth, of course, it depends, is the deepest and the most level, deepest of the most level possible. James is speaking not simply in belief.6:11He's speaking in who we really are. Twice in chapter 2, verse 17 and verse 26, a person is dead with dead faith, does not and cannot produce works that are truly good and are righteous. A person who professes Christ Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord, but does not love a Christ-honoring or a Christ-obeying6:35faith is truly a fraud. That's what James is telling us. Now, that's harsh teaching, is it not? It slaps us around a bit. But folks, it's not just what we say, it's what we do that produces. In fact, the matter is, in the Gospels chapter 3 of Matthew, John the Baptist even says something. Notice what it says in verse 7 through 9, saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming for baptism. He said to them,7:04you brood of vipers. Now, that's the kind of guy you want to have hanging around you, right? Just call you a brood of vipers right out of the gate, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Therefore, bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, we have able to raise up children to Abraham. You cannot count on your heritage for salvation, no matter how great it may be. Folks, let me tell you something. I find a lot of people7:32who count on their heritage for their salvation. They say, well, I've been a Southern Baptist. I've been Baptist all my life. I've been Southern Baptist nine months before I was born. That still doesn't give you salvation, right? I've been a member of Bethel Baptist Church. I had a lady come up to me not long ago in another church, said, I've been a member of this church since its foundation. I've been a Christian my entire life. I said, really? How did that happen? Now, I know I shouldn't have7:57said that, but I did. And I just kind of blatantly said, how did that happen? So, you were born a Christian? She said, yes. I said, no, you weren't. You were born a pagan. Well, I made a friend right out of the bat. I mean, she really befriended me right out of the bat. I just really wanted to challenge her a little bit because she was challenging me. I said, folks, let me tell you something. You cannot be born a Christian. You're born a pagan. Every sweet little angel back there8:22in that nursery that was born, was born a pagan. And at one point in time, some point in time, we pray. That's why we dedicate them to the Lord so that we can grow them up, give them the admonition, give them the knowledge so they can come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. For by grace you've been saved through faith that not of yourselves that is a free gift of God, not as a result of works that any man should boast. So, if you are truly trusting God and belong to8:51Him, you will give evidence by repenting of your sins and living righteous, righteously. Living, you should live a righteous life. You should say, I want to live for God in every aspect of my life. Calling them a brood of vipers, He was calling them out, is what He was saying. He was calling them what they really, really were over in the Sermon on the Mount. Those three chapters, man, amazing9:17teaching, Sermon on the Mount. My life verse, let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify the Father who is in heaven. Goes on later into the text, chapter 7, verse 21, it says, Lord, Lord, some will say, Lord, Lord, when we enter in the kingdom of heaven, but he who does not does the will of a father will enter into heaven, but he who does not will not. Folks, let me tell you something. We can't have salvation by faith alone. It's got to be9:44salvation by faith for good works. So, real faith is us working out our salvations. Now, stop. Some of you said, I heard him say working salvation. You can't work for your salvation. You work out your salvation. John chapter 3, verse 2 and 3 says this. Jesus came to Jesus. Nicodemus, you know him. One of the Pharisees, one of the great, great minds, he came to Jesus and he says, at night, he said,10:12Rabbi, we know that you have come from the Father or come from God as a teacher, for no one can do the signs that you do unless God is with him. And Jesus said to him, truly, truly, for sure, for sure, he's saying, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Folks, I want to challenge us today to evaluate during this Christmas season. As we launch into this10:42Christmas season, many gifts are given and received, and it's an exciting time for us. It's an exciting time for our kids. Those eyes just get so big on Christmas morning and all those gifts and all those kinds of things. But the greatest gift that you and I can give, the greatest gift that we can receive is the gift of eternal life in heaven for our very own. So I'm challenging us today to evaluate our own real faith. The Lord Jesus made it quite clear that no matter how sincere we might be or acknowledge11:12the truth about him does not constitute spiritual birth. There's a lot of people who know a lot about Jesus, but they don't know Jesus as their personal Savior and Lord. And I find it quite interesting that we here in the buckle of the Bible belt, we have more Christian talk than we have11:35Christians. I believe we got more Baptists than we got believers, to be honest with you. I really do. I am totally convinced that we have grown up another generation of church people instead of Christ followers. A true disciple of Jesus Christ will obey his word. He will constantly obey his word. And a continual disobedient life is proof of false discipleship. Folks, let me tell you12:02something. We need to grasp the reality that this world is dying and going to hell. And that we have the responsibility during this Christmas season, not just to give a nice gift or give a nice plate of food. Folks, we must, we must, it's imperative that we give the greatest gift, the gift of eternal life12:25away. We can't save them, but we have been commanded to tell them. Jesus also used a similar figure of speech when he said in John chapter 15, probably one of my favorite passages in the word of God is John chapter 15, the vineyard passage. You remember I preached it several months ago. Then notice what he says in verse 5, 6, and verse 8 as well. I'm the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me,12:53and I in him. He bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch and is dried up. And they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. By this is my Father glorified. By this is my Father glorified that you should go and bear fruit and so prove to be my disciples. You say, wow, Dan, I thought you were going to be13:18encouraging today. Sometimes the word of God is sharp. Sometimes the word of God cuts to the bone marrow. He said, Jesus said, I'm the vine, you're the branches. What he is actually saying in a nutshell, in that 117 verses in the vineyard passage. He's saying, church, if you believe in me, if you are truly my disciples, I want you to be the branch, nothing more and nothing less.13:47I want you to stay so connected to the vine that you will produce the gospel conversations in everything that you do so that you can prove to be my disciple. That's exactly what he's saying. A profession of faith that produces no satisfaction is dead faith. True believers are not, are themselves14:08God's workmanship. Yes, they are. That's what he said in chapter 2 verse 10 in Ephesians. He says, I am convinced that the Lord put this in my heart for you today. My challenge for us over these next few14:24days together and well when Josh comes to lead you, I believe we need to evaluate truly our faith. Do we have just a church faith or do we have a saving faith? If we have a saving faith, we will be willing14:49to sign up and get busy for kingdom work. It is challenged. The Lord is challenging each and every one of us over these next few days. Folks, let me tell you something. These are challenging times in this country. We are under attack in this country and it is time for the New Testament church, the body of Christ to stand up and say, yes, I have saving faith and I'm willing to share it with you. This is not an15:17option. This is not an elective class that we sign up for. If you're a Christ follower, you are commanded by Scripture to live out the gospel. That means to have gospel conversations. So, how does this come into real faith? I started thinking about these two people, James and Paul, the Apostle Paul. We Baptists, we love to15:40talk about Paul, don't we? We love preaching through the epistles of Paul, those writings of his. Who's right? Is James right or is Paul right? Paul says, for by grace you've been saved through faith for a life of good works which God has already prepared before us. James says, faith by itself16:03is not accomplished, if not accomplished by action, is dead. So, who's right? You want the answer? Both of them. Both of them. Both of them are right. When you really look at it, it's by grace through faith. We get that. For good works. So, James is saying, I'm going to take Paul's writing one step16:26further. If you truly have grace by faith, you will work out your salvation. Amen? Not work for your salvation, but work out your salvation. Now, now that I've completely made all of you mad and some have already left, they have. What is real faith? I want to give you four or five things and I want you to16:49jot these down. Find a piece of paper. We didn't give you a handout this week. Real faith is not just something you say. When you look at this text, real faith is not just something you say. Look at verse 14. What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but has no works? Can that faith save him? It's not just something we say. We can't just walk around and say, it's so easy to say that. You know,17:18I saw a statistic recently that over a billion people on the planet, a billion, 7.5 billion people on this planet total, over a billion of them have never heard the name Jesus. That's shocking with the internet and all the satellite and all the television. Over a billion people have never heard the message of hope. A billion people. That's unacceptable, is it not? And so in this season where we're giving and taking,17:48we're receiving gifts and we're giving gifts and we're having all this amazing food and all these parties and all these things. And I love every bit of it. Obviously, look at me. I love every bit of it. Folks, let me tell you something. The most important thing we do is not just say that we believe Christ and say that we share the gospel, but folks, we need to present the gospel. So real faith is not just saying. It's not something you just say. Real faith is not just something you just feel. It's not a warm18:15fuzzy. I got this feeling. Look what it says in verse 15. If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food and one of you say to him, go in peace and be warm and be filled and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is it? Now that's one thing I can say about this wonderful church. If you're a guest here today, well, I'm telling you, we give some food away around this18:42place. We give some toys around this way, wet place, and we're doing everything we can do. Eradicate those kids who have no parents. We're doing everything we can possibly do. If we only do those three things and we do them well, I think God will say, well done, Bethel Baptist Church, y'all good and faithful servants. But folks, let me say something. It's not just a warm feeling. We can't just run up here with a few toys from Walmart and set them on the table out there. It's got to be an ongoing thing. It can't be just a feeling. Even so, if it has no works, it's dead by itself. So, real faith19:11is not just something you say. Real faith is not just something you feel. Real faith is not just something you think. It's not just something you think. Look what verse 18 says, but someone may well say, if you have faith and I have works, show me your faith without the works, and I'll show you my faith by my works. So, it's not just something we think about. It's not just something we feel. It's not just something we say. It is not even something that we believe. Real faith is not19:40just something you believe. You believe that God is the one you do well. The demons also believe. Folks, let me tell you something. We can believe that God saves the universe. The demons even know that they're working decent. They're working hard. The devil is working hard to stop that. He's working hard to say, no, we need to have it for ourselves, right? I'll often say this. He cannot snatch you out20:05of the hand of God if you're truly his child. He can't because Scripture says you cannot lose your salvation. Once you're saved by his grace, you are saved by his grace, period. The Bible never says anywhere in Scripture that you can lose your salvation. By the way, if you could lose your salvation, that means you could learn your salvation and it wasn't a free gift and Christ would have to go to the cross every time you sin. So, you cannot lose your salvation. You can never lose your20:34salvation. No one, no theological mind will ever convince me of that because it's not based in Scripture. The Scripture said, for by grace you've been saved through faith. It is the free gift of God, not as a result. If it was a gift that we had to earn, it means we'd have to pay for it. We didn't. Christ paid for it at the cross for us. So, even the demons believe that. So, here's what they do. The devil, the demons, and all his workers, they know they can't snatch you out of the hand of21:03God. They know that they can't take you away from Jesus. So, what they stop, get you stop doing is to stop sharing the story. They get you to believing that your church work is all you need to do. They get to believing that you just show up every so often and worship and throw a few dollars in the plate and you're good. Folks, let me tell you something. Real faith is not just something you21:29believe. Real faith is not just something you think. Real faith is not just something you feel, not just something you say, but real faith is something that you do. Real faith is something you do. I want to jump out of James for a second and go to 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 5. Listen what it says. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Now, here's the21:54question for you today. I'm about done. Do you pass the test? I had some time this week alone. I just had some time alone to ponder where we've been, where we've come from here and where I'm headed in22:18my next assignment and just walking through that. And God just took me to that question this week. Me. You say, wait a minute, you've been a pastor for 32 years. Yeah, I examined myself this week. And I said, God, I know I failed you in some areas. I know I have. But this one thing I can say, I've never since that moment that I came to that understanding, I haven't doubted it. I've not22:47doubted your saving grace on my life. But every one of us need to examine, is our faith real? Our faith being examined by the actions that we do. Real faith is something you do. James is not saying you work your way to heaven. He is not saying works delivers salvation. But I wrote this in my quiet time23:16this morning for you. Our faith is not determined by what we do. It is demonstrated by what we do. It's not determined by what we do. It's demonstrated by what we do. Am I truly a born-again believer? You see, if we're going to launch into the next generation of church life, we all need to be on23:45the same page understanding the answer to that question, are we truly Christ followers? I think we can safely say that it's available for every one of us because scripture clearly points us to that. It's available for everyone. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that24:11whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. It's not for a select elect few. It's for anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord. Believe on the name of the Lord and thou shall be saved. It doesn't say a certain individual or certain group can. Romans chapter 1 verse 84, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes.24:41So the question begs today, am I a Christian? Am I a Christian? And what changes can I see that points that evidence in my life? What points? What in my lifestyle points that I am a true Christ follower? God's hand of grace reaching down and our hand of faith reaching up for salvation. Saved by grace through faith to do exactly what God intended and created us to do.25:11Real faith is not something we say. It's not something we feel. It's not something we think. It's not even something we believe. Real faith is something we do. By grace, through faith, for good works.25:41Thank you.More sermons on James →
