Sermon Tone Analysis

!!! [[James 2:14-26|Bible:James 2:14-26]]

 

! Translation

 

14 What is the benefit, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have work?

Is that faith able to save him?

15 If a brother or a sister is naked and lacking daily food 16 but someone says to him, “Go in peace, be warm and full,” but he does not give him that which is necessary for the body, what is the benefit?

17 And so faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works”; show me your faith without works and I will show you faith through my works.

19 You believe that God is one, you do well; also the demons believe and they shudder.

20 But do you wish to know, oh vain man, that faith without works is inactive?

21 Was not Abraham our father justified through works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?

22 You see that faith worked together with his works and through works faith was made perfect, 23 and what was said in Scripture was fulfilled, “but Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness” and he was called a friend of God.

24 You must see that through works a man is justified and not through faith only.

25 But likewise also was not Rahab the prostitute justified through works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?

26 For just as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.

!

Outline of Passage

 

#.

14-17 What good is faith without works?

* 14.

Is workless faith effective faith?

* 15-16 The brother in need

* A brother is seen to be in need

* The brother is wished well

* None of the needs are addressed

* This is a useless response, no working out of faith

* 17.

Faith without works is dead

#. 18-26 Getting more specific: examples

* 18. Words of faith

* Show me your faith with your words

* I will show you my faith with my actions

* 19.

Demons and faith

* You believe in one God

* Even demons believe in one God

* The demons are terrified by God

* 20-25 Demonstration from the Torah

* 21-23 Father Abraham

* 21.

He was made righteous by faith in action

* 22. Faith and works together, faith made perfect by works

* 23.

Abraham believed – faith completed in action.

* 24.

Justified by works and not faith alone

* 25 Rahab the prostitute

* Protected the messengers of Israel

* Justified by her faith in action

* 26.

Death through separation

!

Sermon Manuscript

 

A few weeks ago we looked at [[James 1:19-27|Bible:James 1:19-27]] in which James talks about being more than just hearers of the word.

Summarized in [[James 1:22|Bible:James 1:22]]: “/But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves./”

In our text this morning James approaches the issue from another angle: our claims of faith.

We often let people know that we are Christians, claiming faith in Jesus Christ, but how often is our claim filled with real substance?

Put another way, how often are we living out the things that we claim?

Let’s hear what God has to tell us through his servant James in [[James 2:14-26|Bible:James 2:14-26]].

{{@Cue Pray}}

 

There was once a man who loved guns.

This story will be hard for you to follow since we don’t know any people like that.

This man had one gun in particular that he always carried with him.

He said it was his favorite gun, that he was licensed to carry it, and that he always wanted to have it with him for protection.

He claimed that he was ready: Just let someone come after him or his family, they would receive a swift and harsh response!

But there were some problems.

For one, the man had never shot a gun.

For all his years of collecting guns, he had yet to pull the trigger.

If he were to be faced with a conflict he wouldn’t really know how to fire in order to defend himself.

The biggest problem was that he never carried ammunition with him.

No one knew if he actually owned any or if all his guns were unloaded.

Not everyone knew about the problems.

Some people were impressed by his big talk.

Some thought, “That is the man I want to be with in a dark alley!

He’d keep me safe!”

Others knew the truth and they looked on him with contempt.

Had this man faced danger he might have looked a little intimidating with his guns and his claims, but an experienced adversary might not be easily fooled.

The story sounds a little ridiculous.

Would such a man actually exist?

Well, they probably do.

And understanding that the story is a picture of what James is talking about, we know that such people certainly do exist.

Among Christians these are the people who claim faith in Christ but their faith is like an unloaded gun: it is empty, ineffective, and is unable to demonstrate any of the power of God.

James’ question is a valid and important question: what good IS faith that has no works?

We have to be careful not to misunderstand James.

It was passages like this that led Martin Luther to want to pull James from the canon of Scripture.

But James is not contradicting the teaching that salvation is by grace alone through faith.

Works cannot save a person.

This passage is all about faith.

It is faith that brings salvation, but James is concerned that we have true, saving faith.

Let’s take a moment to define faith.

[[Hebrews 11:1|Bible:Hebrews 11:1]] tells us: “/Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen./”

Faith is that assurance, that trust, that belief we have that the things promised are things that will come to pass.

Faith is not based on testable evidence, it is not based on rules of logic and reason, and for these reasons modern scientific thinking has difficulty accepting the notion of faith.

Do not fault people who struggle with faith in this way – love them and guide them into the truth.

Their struggle is understandable.

Faith is not something that is easy to grasp, even if it is something that all people experience, whether they realize it or not.

So faith is the assurance of the unprovable.

What is Christian faith?

After all, we’re not interested in any vague notion of faith but faith as it relates to the Christian life.

For Christians, faith is trust in the promises of God as revealed through his Word, the Bible.

We have faith that God is in control.

We believe what the Bible says about our sinful state and separation from God.

We believe that the Bible is true when it tells of Jesus coming to die for our sins.

We have faith that Jesus has redeemed us of our sins and has given us a new life.

[[2Corinthians 5:7|Bible:2 Corinthians 5:7]] tells us that we “/walk by faith and not by sight/.”

We do not live for this world; we live for God and we work in the kingdom he has established.

We do not build up treasures on earth but treasures in Heaven, having faith in [[1 Corinthians 2:9|Bible:1 Corinthians 2:9]] which tells us, “/as it is written, ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’/”.

These things come only by faith.

Trust that God holds us now and God holds our future.

Faith should make one be willing to throw caution to the wind when God calls us to do something that seems crazy.

There is a story from early Irish Christianity of monks who were sailing in the ocean.