Introduction:
Matthew 7:21 - Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Romans 2:6-8 - He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
How to Prove You Have Faith (James 2:14-26)
- A faith that doesn't Move you to Serve = dead faith. (Jas 2:15-17)
- A faith that is just about Agreeing to Doctrine = dead faith. (Jas 2:18-19)
John 3:2 - This man (Nicodemus) came to Jesus by night and said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him."
- A faith that Makes your Choices = living faith. (Jas 1:20-26)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:39-01:40
Open up your Bibles with me please to James in chapter 2. Let's just pause and I'm gonna ask you please, please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's Word and I will pray for you to have a heart open to receiving God's Word. You should approach every message up here as the most important message ever given, because it's all God's Word. And I guess some weeks you feel that weight a little heavier than others, and this is one of those weeks. So I'm just going to ask I'm just pleased that we just pause for a moment and go before the Lord and be ready to receive what he wants to tell us.
01:41-01:42
All right?
01:43-01:44
So pray for me, I'll pray for you.
01:49-02:00
Father, just a moment ago, we sang, "There's No One Like You." And that also means there's nothing like your word You speak.
02:03-02:04
It matters.
02:08-02:17
Every word you say, we have to regard as coming from the mouth of an eternal God.
02:19-02:21
We need to take it with that level of seriousness.
02:21-02:51
Father, let us hear what you have to say in your Word today. We pray in Jesus' name. All of God's people said, "Amen." James chapter 2, we're gonna be picking up in verse 14. While you're still turning there, the first pet that I ever had was was a hermit crab.
02:52-02:55
How many people, show of hands, have ever had a hermit crab?
02:56-02:58
Way more than I was expecting.
02:58-03:00
Some of you put your hands up very proudly.
03:01-03:04
I saw some of you like, I'm kind of embarrassed to admit that.
03:04-03:15
Well, if you, like me, if you had a hermit crab, you could testify that they are as fun as they are adorable, right?
03:16-03:18
Didn't get a lot of amens on that one, Dan.
03:20-03:22
But hermit crabs are great.
03:22-03:31
You know, we had the little plastic, you know, like bin for them with the sand and the shells, and you put the peanut butter in.
03:31-03:32
Did you feed yours peanut butter?
03:32-03:33
We gave ours peanut butter.
03:34-03:37
And they were just, I don't know.
03:37-03:40
I can't remember what mine's name was.
03:40-03:44
Probably something stupid like crabby or whatever, shelly.
03:47-03:51
but which is a bad name for a crab, but great for a person, bad for a crab.
03:52-03:57
But just to make that clear, but you know the worst part about having a hermit crab?
03:57-04:00
Those of you that has your hand up, you know.
04:01-04:12
You know the worst part about having a hermit crab was when they died, you didn't know it just by looking at it.
04:13-04:16
You see, when they died, they looked exactly like that.
04:16-04:26
And there'll be times I've walked by for days, oh, well, you know, crabby's just out, you know, hanging out, but you didn't know they were dead until what?
04:26-04:29
You go to pick them up and play with them and then what happened?
04:30-04:35
Plop, they would just like plop out of their shell and you saw all that stuff that was inside.
04:35-04:37
Oh, it was, do you remember what I'm talking about?
04:38-04:39
Some of you are connecting.
04:40-04:52
Others of you need to go buy a hermit crab this afternoon just to experience the slight shock, more grossness that comes when they just plop out of their shell when they're dead.
04:53-05:01
You see, they had this way of looking alive when actually they were dead.
05:02-05:07
And we're in this series right now called intentional faith.
05:08-05:18
And I'm gonna ask you, don't you wanna know If the faith that you claim to have is alive, or is it dead?
05:21-05:36
Biblically, it's possible that you live your life thinking that you have this living and saving faith, and you don't.
05:38-05:39
Look at verse 14.
05:41-05:51
James says, "What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does not have works?
05:54-06:03
Can that faith save him?" So James introduces this next section by hitting us right between the eyes.
06:04-06:30
If you say that you have faith, but there's nothing in your life that indicates that beyond your words, James says, "What good is that?" Is that true saving faith?
06:31-06:33
And listen, you have to understand this.
06:33-06:38
There is a type of faith that does not save, right?
06:38-06:41
We're gonna see this verse 17, verse 20, verse 26.
06:41-06:52
He says, "It's faith that is dead." And then he says, "It's useless." And then again, he says, "It's dead." This is how our Lord said it back in Matthew 7, 21.
06:52-07:17
"Not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, "but the one who," look at this, "does the will of my father, "who is in heaven?" And Jesus went on to say, people are gonna say to him on that day, "Lord, Lord, didn't we do all these things?" And I'll say, "Depart from me, I never knew you." But you have to see that Jesus and James saying the same thing, it's not about being a sayer.
07:18-07:20
Standing up, I have faith, I have faith, I have faith.
07:20-07:22
It doesn't matter what you say.
07:28-07:28
Matters what you do.
07:30-07:45
We talked about this a couple of weeks back, I believe, but we are actually judged according to our works because our works reveal who we really are, not who we say we are, right?
07:47-07:52
Romans 2, if you need a good cross-reference verse, judged according to works.
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What, what?
07:53-07:55
Look at what the Bible says.
07:55-07:58
He will render to each one, what's it say?
07:58-07:59
according to his works.
08:00-08:08
To those who by patience and well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life.
08:08-08:19
But for those who are self-seeking and do not, oh, there it is again, obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury.
08:23-08:28
So we see in verse 14 here in James chapter two, he's talking about the importance of works.
08:29-08:30
What do we mean by works?
08:30-08:36
I think we gotta get a good definition on the table because some people might wanna take works to mean anything.
08:37-08:46
But biblically, when the Bible talks about works, it's fruit that manifests in the life of a born again Christ follower.
08:48-08:50
It's obeying the word of God.
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It's just very simply, it's doing the things that God calls his people to do.
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That's works.
09:00-09:00
Right?
09:01-09:02
Like what are some examples of works?
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Well, I'm gonna write a few down here.
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Here's a big one.
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Something that is repent, bear fruit in keeping with repentance, right?
09:20-09:24
And then, you know, Harvest Bible Chapel, we talk about what does a disciple do?
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we believe a disciple of Jesus Christ worships, walks, and works, right?
09:37-09:45
Works, being involved in ministry, whether it's working in kids ministry, worship ministry, hospitality, facilities, security, whatever.
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Here's another work we've talked about last month quite a bit is your witnessing.
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That's a work, that's something that God has called you to do.
09:57-09:58
It's an act of obedience.
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It's something that should show up in the life of every believer.
10:02-10:02
Here's another one.
10:05-10:14
You know, Jesus said, "Where your treasure is there, your heart will be also." So we could say one work would be how you spend God's money.
10:14-10:15
It's all God's.
10:15-10:17
What do you do with God's money?
10:18-10:22
Jesus said, "That's an indicator of where your heart is." Right?
10:24-10:34
So as soon as we talk about works, as is our custom, we like to jump to either side of the spectrum, right?
10:35-10:42
And there are some people that are like, "Yes, if you don't do these things, you can't get saved." And they wanna make this like work salvation.
10:42-10:43
And that's not true.
10:44-10:48
Works do not save you, right?
10:48-10:57
But then you get to, I think, more of the opinion that you would find in a church like ours, where works are regarded as completely unimportant.
10:58-11:00
And I've actually heard people say that in the church.
11:01-11:02
Oh, works don't matter.
11:02-11:03
We're not saved by works, so works don't matter.
11:04-11:06
And that's not what the Bible says either.
11:09-11:16
And some people look at what James says, and they almost see it as a contradiction with the apostle Paul.
11:16-11:20
Like James and Paul are like butting heads here.
11:20-11:25
James and Paul, they were only butting heads because Paul says you're justified by faith and James says you're justified by work.
11:25-11:27
So these two are really clashing.
11:27-11:31
Listen, James and Paul are not head to head clashing here.
11:32-11:39
Instead of seeing them head to head, what you need to do is see James and Paul back to back, like Charlie's Angels pose, right?
11:39-11:40
You know what I'm talking about?
11:40-11:41
Some of you do.
11:41-11:46
They're back to back because they're defending the truth.
11:47-11:53
And you see what Paul was going after was people that wanted salvation by works.
11:53-11:54
I'll earn my way to heaven.
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And Paul's like, eh, that doesn't do it.
11:57-12:09
And what James is going after are the people that say they want a salvation that doesn't require anything, a salvation that doesn't demand anything.
12:11-12:21
And the truth is no one is saved by works, but no one is saved without producing works.
12:22-12:27
And this gets so messed up in the church, so bad.
12:30-12:34
But you have to think of the relationship of faith and works like this.
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I'm gonna draw a little campfire here.
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You have to think of the relationship like this, right?
12:52-12:53
So you have this fire.
12:57-13:00
I'm going to put a little orange in the fire here.
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I feel like Bob Ross up here, right?
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Do I look like Bob Ross?
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Don't answer that.
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All right.
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Yeah, I need more hair.
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All right.
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So, this is the relationship with faith and works.
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We're gonna see this in James.
13:20-13:25
You have a fire and you have smoke, right?
13:25-13:32
Now, you could have all the smoke in the world and not create a fire out of that smoke, right?
13:34-13:38
But if you have fire, you're always going to have smoke.
13:39-13:43
And you see, that's the relationship between faith and works.
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Faith is like the fire, and the smoke is like the works.
13:49-14:01
You could do all the works in the world and you're never going to conjure up biblical saving faith, but this is what we're gonna see James is talking about.
14:01-14:08
If you truly have biblical faith, it always results in works.
14:08-14:12
It's the smoke that comes from the fire of faith.
14:13-14:15
That's the relationship, you see.
14:17-14:27
It's simply this, how we live proves who we really are, not who we say we are.
14:29-14:40
And if you wanna push back on that, I would just lovingly challenge you to consider What exactly happens when someone gets saved?
14:42-14:44
It's always the same thing.
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It's always the same thing, right?
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How does somebody get saved?
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They hear the gospel message.
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They hear the message about Jesus Christ, died on the cross for our sins, rose from the dead to give us eternal life.
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They hear the gospel message, they believe the gospel message, and they turn from their sin.
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And what happens when someone genuinely does that?
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They become an adopted child of God.
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And the Bible says God puts his Holy Spirit in the heart of every believer.
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And when that happens, that results in a total transformation.
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Your desires change, your appetites change, your purpose change, everything changes.
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And you'll never convince me that the God of the universe comes and indwells your heart and you stay the same.
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A faith that hasn't changed you hasn't saved you.
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And listen, you can be a church goer, you can be a church member, you can be a perfect church attender.
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But if you don't have evidence in your life that God indwells you, then he doesn't.
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And you don't have biblical faith.
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Like, well, what's the evidence that God indwells you?
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It's a true saving faith.
16:17-16:23
The fire always results in works, the smoke, right?
16:23-16:26
So let's, that's really the whole sermon.
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Like, woo-hoo, we're done, I'll hang on.
16:30-16:31
How to prove you have faith.
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Write this down, 'cause James doesn't leave us there, so we're not gonna stop there.
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James goes on to prove his point.
16:38-16:39
How to prove you have faith.
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Number one, a faith that doesn't move you to serve is a dead faith.
16:45-16:47
Look at verses 15 and 16.
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He says, "If a brother or sister is poorly clothed "and lacking in daily food, And one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body.
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What good is that?
17:11-17:12
What good is that?
17:14-17:16
You see, James is saying when you see a need.
17:19-17:24
Somebody in the church, he's talking about specifically someone in your church or someone in your small group.
17:25-17:31
It's like, man, you got, they come to you and they're like, "Man, I'm really struggling right now.
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"I am really struggling." And your response is, "Well, good luck with that." You know, that does sound tough.
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I really hope something works out for you.
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Or the worst, you know what we say, right?
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Thoughts and prayers.
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Sorry.
17:55-17:57
Thoughts and prayers, thoughts and prayers.
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But you don't do anything to actually help?
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What good is that?
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That's what James is saying.
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He goes, that's being a new creature in Christ.
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That's God's Holy Spirit living in you as you see somebody in desperate need and you do nothing to help?
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You're just like, hey, good luck?
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Look at verse 17.
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He says, "So also faith by itself, "if it does not have works is dead." Listen, he says, if you can so easily dismiss a brother or sister in need, he doesn't say your faith is weak.
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He doesn't say your faith is immature.
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Do you see the word that he uses?
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He says, "Your faith is dead.
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"It's dead." And you're like, "Well, no, hang on, why, why, why?
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"I care, I care." No, you really don't.
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Because caring is, hey, let's find a way to fix this, right?
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Let's find a way, let's sit down, let's pray, but let's talk and let's figure out a way to fix this problem.
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Because when you really have faith, like true biblical faith, you can't help but help.
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And I've seen it every time in this church.
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When a need shows up here, I see the people that have true faith jumping in.
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Let's figure out the best way to help.
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And I see people that have dead faith.
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It's like, well, good luck with that.
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I hope they get that situation figured out.
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James says that's dead faith.
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Maybe it's needs here.
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Maybe it's needs with our friends in Thailand, where there's constant needs, 23 churches and four children's homes, and there's always needs there.
20:00-20:03
We have ministry connections in Nepal.
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We've given to help in the past time, especially during the pandemic.
20:09-20:18
I've been in touch with Pastor Timothy from Nepal, and I don't know if you've been following the news, but right where he does ministry, there was a massive earthquake.
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We have some of those pictures.
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Can we show some of those?
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This is, again, pastor friend of mine, he has a whole network of churches, much like Thailand, and this devastating earthquake hit, and it directly affected two of their church plants.
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Eight of their people are seriously injured, okay?
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These are people that we are connected with in ministry.
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And I'm calling on you to say, "Hey, do you wanna help support this?
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Go to our giving page, go in the missions tab, give the general missions.
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We're going to be sending them some relief to try to help them this week.
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And you can be a part of helping." But you see right now, some people are gonna look at this and they're gonna think, "Oh, that's too bad.
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I hope people step up.
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I hope people help." What about you?
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Can we just see a desperate need and just close our heart to it?
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We have other needs in the church.
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We are constantly in need of children's workers and hospitality workers.
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And I can't think of a ministry where we don't need more people stepping up.
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And there are people that hear the call and say, "Wow, you know what, that ministry, yeah, like children's ministry, that's really important.
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I sure hope people step up and help with that.
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And I would say, well, what about you?
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How can you see a need and you have some ability to meet the need and you just brush it off?
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You see, that's what James is saying here.
21:59-22:07
If you can meet a need and you just brush it off, that says something about your heart.
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What it says is your faith is dead.
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Right, number two, a faith that is just about agreeing with doctrine is a dead faith.
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Look at verse 18.
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He says, "But someone will say, "you have faith and I have works.
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"Show me your faith apart from your works "and I will show you my faith by my works." Right, so the guy that's reading this or hearing this, "Hey, you need to pump the brakes there, Pastor Jeff.
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"I got faith." James says, "Show me, show me.
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"Point to something in your life that says, "'Here's the evidence that my faith is real.' "Point to something in your life right now "that says, 'Here's the evidence.' "Show me choices that you make, "things that you do because of Jesus, "because of what God's word says.
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"point to something." If you're like, "Well, you know what, Pastor Jeff, "I believe, I do believe, "there's just not a whole lot to point at in my life." Well, James would say, "Well, then you don't really believe." 'Cause look at verse 19.
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He says, "You believe that God is one." We all know people like this.
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And maybe you're one of them.
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You know, maybe you're trying to share the gospel, someone invites them to church, you're having a spiritual conversation.
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We've all been there.
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Where immediately the person says, "Well, I believe in God." You ever heard somebody say that?
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"I believe in God." They just hurry up and throw that up.
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Like, before you start with all this gospel stuff, I just want you to know, I acknowledge that there is a God.
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I believe in God.
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Look at what James says.
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He says, "You believe that God is one?
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"You do well." Anybody sense a bit of sarcasm there?
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You get that?
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James is like, "Wow!
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You agree with the most basic doctrine of Scripture that there's one God?
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Wow!
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Are you Charles Spurgeon?
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Wow!
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Good for you!
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That's awesome!
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That's awesome, Mr. MacArthur!
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You know who else believes that?
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Look at verse 19, he says, "Even the demons believe." And shudder.
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He goes, "Great theology." Oh, by the way, you know who else has decent theology?
24:53-24:53
Our demons.
24:55-24:55
Great theology.
24:57-25:07
In fact, we could probably get a demon to write a doctrinal statement for the church, and it'd probably be pretty accurate.
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Except for all the parts where they'd lie.
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But James, you see James's point here, right?
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James says, oh, you believe that there's one God.
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Good for you.
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By the way, that level of theology isn't even on demon level, because demons believe that, and they are shaking in their little demon booties.
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They're terrified because they know that there is a God.
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And you can just say it flippantly.
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You believe the facts, but you have no commitments.
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James here is telling us, look, intellectually agreeing.
25:57-26:01
Intellectually agreeing with facts is not enough.
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That's not true biblical saving faith.
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It's not enough.
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You want a good case study of this, just very, very quickly.
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You don't have to turn here, but just write the reference down.
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You can go back and check this later.
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But John chapter three, famous passage.
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John 3, two says, "This man," talking about Nicodemus, "came to Jesus by night and said to him," now look at what Nicodemus said to Jesus.
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Do we have that scripture?
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It says, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." Without breaking this down too much, you have to notice that Nicodemus acknowledged Jesus' teaching.
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He acknowledged Jesus' signs.
26:54-26:59
And it looked like in a real sense, he was acknowledging the divinity of Jesus Christ.
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And I would expect the next verse, Jesus to say, "Wow, that's really good, Nick.
27:07-27:09
"Hey, you sound like you're saved.
27:10-27:17
"You sound like a good Christian boy." But if you're familiar with that passage, you know that's not what Jesus said.
27:19-27:23
Jesus pointed out that it's not enough to just intellectually agree with these things.
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What did Jesus say?
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He said, "Nicodemus, you must be changed.
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You must be born again." So listen, if your faith is just agreeing with the Bible, but you don't have works, that says something about your heart.
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And what it says is your faith is dead.
27:53-27:56
Then number three, how to prove you have faith.
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Those are two negatives.
27:58-27:59
Here's a positive.
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Number three, a faith that makes your choices is a living faith.
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A faith that makes your choices is a living faith.
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Look at verse 20.
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It says, "Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, "that faith apart from works is useless?
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"You want proof that works are the evidence of real faith?" Look at verse 21.
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He says, "Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?" You know, stop there, Abraham.
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Like if you're familiar with the New Testament at all, you know he's the poster boy for faith, right?
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He's the father of the Jews.
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He's the father of everyone who has true faith in the living God.
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And James here takes us back to Genesis chapter 22.
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Paraphrase, you can go back and check this later.
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The Abe was finally, finally given the son that he was promised.
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He was finally given Isaac.
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And God said, "Okay, give him back.
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"Sacrifice him." And Abe proved that his faith was real because he was willing to do whatever God said.
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No questions asked.
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Look at verse 22.
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He says, "You see that faith was active "along with his works, "and faith was completed by his works." Aba clearly demonstrated that he had faith.
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Like how?
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It wasn't just walking around telling everybody that he'll stand still for more than seven seconds.
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Hey, by the way, I believe, Hey, by the way, I believe, hey, by the, I believe, I believe in God, I believe in the living God.
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He says, Abraham proved it by his works.
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Because we see Abraham's faith made his choices.
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Because I believe God, I'm going to do what God says I should do.
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He's like, that's how we know Abraham had faith, right?
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Look at verse 23 and 24, he goes on.
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He says in the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
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And he was called a friend of God.
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You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.
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Here he quotes Genesis 15, six, Abraham believed God.
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And James is expounding on that a little bit.
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It says, "Yes, Abraham believed God and he acted like it." You see that?
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Abraham was counted righteous and he acted like it.
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And I love this.
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Do you see at the end of verse 23, Abraham was called a friend of God.
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See, a true born again believer, a true person of faith acts like a friend of God.
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And I just have to ask you, how's your relationship with God?
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What's your relationship with God like?
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Is God sort of that other church member that you run into on Sunday occasionally?
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Like, God, it was good to see you at Harvest Bible Chapel this morning.
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Maybe I'll see you next week.
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Is God sort of that like church acquaintance?
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Is God the 911?
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Like, yeah, I pray when I'm at the complete end of my rope and I have nothing else to do, I pray.
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Is God your 911?
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What if I, what if, what if I were to ask God what the nature of your relationship with him is.
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So God, I'm talking about this person here.
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What's your relationship?
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What would God say?
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Would God say, yeah, you know what?
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He walks around and talks like he knows me, but he never talks to me.
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Or would God say, yeah, he's a friend?
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Would God say, yeah, she's a friend?
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See, that's how Abraham was regarded because of his relationship with God.
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And you see James's point here, Abraham was not just willing in a hypothetical scenario.
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Like Abraham, he had faith and God set him down one time.
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Like, Abraham, how strong is your faith?
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Well, my faith is pretty strong, Lord.
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Okay, I'm gonna give you a hypothetical.
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You know, would you hypothetically, would you, you know, eat a cricket for me?
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Oh yes, Lord, I would do that.
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Okay, hypothetically, would you, I don't know, sacrifice your son for me?
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Oh yeah, hypothetically, God, if you ask me, you see, with Abraham, it wasn't hypothetical.
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He actually had his son on the altar.
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He had the knife in his hand.
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And that's what you have to identify in your life.
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Is your faith conceptual or is your faith actual?
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Because like Abraham, we'll know if you really have faith by what you'd actually do, not by what you say.
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or think you do.
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And you're like, oh, okay, laying it on pretty thick here, Jeff, I'm supposed to compare myself and I'm supposed to compare my faith with Abraham's, you know, like on the Mount Rushmore of the Old Testament, you know, the father of Israel, I'm supposed to compare, that'd be like a guitar player comparing himself with Eddie Van Halen.
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I'm supposed to compare myself to that guy.
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Okay, if that seems a little heavy for you, let's look at the same principle in somebody not as famous.
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Look at verse 25.
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It says, "In the same way, "was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works "when she received the messengers "and sent them out by another way?" So here's a total contrast.
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You have Abraham, this faithful Jewish male leader, and you have Rahab the prostitute, terrible nickname, but this evil Gentile woman.
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And if you're unfamiliar with her story, Joshua chapter two, I'm gonna paraphrase for you.
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"Joshua sent spies to Jericho, "and the king of Jericho found out "that there were Jewish spies in their midst, "and he asked Rahab, 'Where are the spies?'" And she's like, "I don't really know.
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"They kind of came through here and they were gone.
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"I'm not sure where they went, "but if you hurry, you might catch them, who knows." But she had them hidden on the roof.
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And then she goes to them and she explains why she protected them.
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She's like, "Hey, your God has a reputation.
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"I believe that he's the Lord "and he's going to give you victory.
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"Would you please spare me and my family?" And you're like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa.
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"This Rahab became a person of faith.
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"How do we know that she became this person of faith?" That's James's point.
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We know she did because of her works.
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Rahab had one opportunity.
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She had exactly one opportunity in her life to demonstrate that she really believed.
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And she took that opportunity because she put her life on the line to protect the Israelites.
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So you have two very different people.
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But James is stressing what they had in common.
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Listen to this, your faith is proven by what you do, especially when what you have to do is hard or costly.
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That's when we'll know if you really have faith.
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Not, do you believe that there's a God?
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Do you go to church?
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Do you go to Bible study?
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All this, hey, all that is wonderful.
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But when it's all on the line, what do you do?
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When it's gonna cost you something to follow Jesus Christ, what do you do?
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And you see, that's the great thing about trials.
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You know, James started this whole epistle with trials.
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That's the great thing about trials.
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That's the great thing about the Bible calling us to hard things is because that's where your faith is proven. I mean just imagine with me for a second. Imagine that your life was just so cush. Just imagine that every day was the best day of your life. You felt great. You person that you knew just got along perfectly with each other. Oh and everyone that you know is healthy and you always had plenty in the bank, always.
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And all God ever asked of you, "Hey if you have time can you just show up at church on Sunday if it's not too inconvenient for you?" That's all God ever asked.
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Are you in that scenario? If that was you, how would I know if you really believed?
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Or maybe more importantly, how would you know if you really believed? But when When you're called to give sacrificially, when you're called to go on a mission trip, that you're like, I'll be honest with you, I'm really nervous about going, but I'm doing it.
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When you're watching your sick kids struggle, when you've lost your job, the bank account's pretty close to zero, and you're still making choices that prove that you trust God, then we'll know that your faith is alive.
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One last illustration.
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Verse 26, he says, for as the body apart from the spirit is dead, So also faith apart from works is dead.
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His last illustration is a corpse.
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It's a body without a spirit, that's dead.
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He says in the same way, faith without works, it's dead.
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You know, I was thinking a lot about that illustration because by virtue of my position, I attend a lot more funerals than the average person.
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And you know, there's a lot of work that goes into making that body in the casket look good.
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There's a lot of work that goes into that.
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You get the nice clothes, they dress the person up in nice clothes, and then they do all the makeup, and they have somebody come in, and I know a lady that does this.
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She goes in and does the hair of deceased people.
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And every funeral I've done, you know, as I'm standing near the casket, I'm talking with people, I'm praying with people, and people come through the line and they look at the body.
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They all say the same thing.
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You know what it is, right?
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"Oh, she looks so good." You know what I'm talking about?
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"She looks so good." They put a lot of effort into making that body look good.
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And not to rain on anybody's parade, but look, she might look good, but there's no life in there.
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And that's James' point here.
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For some people, that's your faith.
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You put so much effort into making people think that you look good, but there's no life in there.
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This is what James is saying, people.
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Faith works.
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It just does.
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You can say that you have faith in God.
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You can agree that what God says is good and right.
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You can carry your Bible.
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You can come to church.
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And you can even post spiritual things on social media all the live long day.
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But if there's no evidence in your life, no fruit to back up your profession of faith, Nothing that I could point to that says, oh, look, he really believes that God said what he said and he meant what he said.
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Well, James says your faith is dead.
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If you're right now, if you're like, man, I'm feeling a lot of heaviness and conviction about that, man, I got some really good news for you.
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If you're sitting here going, man, I think my faith is dead, I got awesome news for you.
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Do you know God is in the resurrection business?
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That's what he does.
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That's God's thing.
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He raises the dead.
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And I would say, look, if you're sitting here today or you're watching this stream and you're like, maybe my faith is dead.
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I'm like, well, let's just be honest with ourselves and let's be honest with God and let's ask him to bring life into a dead faith and then act accordingly.
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I ask you to bow your heads with me, please, as our worship team makes their way back up.
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And I know we're in a crowded room here, but I just want as much as you can to tune everything out and just focus on God right now.
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Father in heaven, we are so blessed in this country to have the freedom to come together like this and sing and pray and talk about your word.
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And there's countries right now where we could be arrested and or executed on the spot for doing exactly what we're doing.
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Father, I think that as great as the freedom is, the downside is it can attract people that maybe think they have faith because they attend a church service, but there's no evidence in their lives to back it up.
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So Father, just now, if there's any of my friends here that are discovering, wow, you know what?
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I really don't have biblical faith.
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God, I pray right now that they would be honest with you about that.
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The Father, they're done putting on a show.
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They're done trying to look good.
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But like Abraham and like Rahab, They're ready to start acting on what they say they believe.
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Father, you know, we're not trying to be a flashy church.
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We're not trying to draw attention to ourselves.
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We're not trying to put a spotlight on anything or anyone except Jesus Christ.
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Father, we just want to be faithful.
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And for that to happen, Father, we need a faith that's real.
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So I pray that through the conviction that comes from your word, as your Holy Spirit works with your word, that today you've rattled some people awake.
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We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read James 2:14-26
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What exactly is James talking about when he speaks of “works”? Give specific examples of the kinds of works that flow from authentic faith.
Suppose you see a church member who doesn’t seem to show any works resulting from saving faith. How do you know if they are just an immature believer or not really a believer at all?
How would you approach such a person (from question 2) if they were in your Small Group?
James says Abraham was justified by works (James 2:21), but Paul says in Romans 4:2 “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.” Do James and Paul contradict each other? How would you explain this?
Breakout
Pray for one another!