Sermon Tone Analysis

(MAIN SLIDE) “Faith That Works.”

INTRO

There’s a song we used to sing growing up, being a pastor’s kid...

“If you’re saved and you know it, say Amen!” (3x)

“If you’re saved and you know it, then your life will surely show it, if you’re saved and you know it… say, Amen!”

It was just a song we sang that didn’t have the same meaning as it does today.

Today, singing that song is convicting.

There’s a saying, “faith is like calories; you can’t see them, but you can definitely see their results!”

James’ whole theme in this section of Scripture is all about results.

In fact this whole section is saying that “A genuine faith results in genuine works.”

Charles Swindoll says that “If you say you believe like you should, then why do you behave like you shouldn’t?”

Kids pick up on everything, don’t they?

They also learn what faith is from us, sometimes by our words but mostly by our actions.

Kids that sing that song that I mentioned early will believe it based on if their main role models act on it, otherwise it’s just a fun song to sing with an empty meaning.

This is exactly what James is saying in 2:14.

Verses 1-13 in chapter 2 describe how to honor the poor, but in verses 14-26 James explains how we should share with them and serve them.

James expounds on serving and sharing with the poor in this way...

We often list good deeds like this as Christians; praying, reading the Bible, preaching, teaching, going to church, etc.

But we also forget that we are equally called to visit the sick, pay your bills on time, being honest in business, telling the truth, controlling our temper, being consistently kind and helpful, watching someone’s kids so they can go visit their sick family member, etc.

Works, we could, say are Christian love in action.

But here’s the catch.

Being a Christian is not just believing certain things are true, “because the Bible tells me so.”

Being a Christian involves 4 truths, as Chuck Swindoll lays out in his commentary on James:

1. Genuine faith isn’t indifferent, but involved.

The people James is referring to that are in need are other brothers and sisters in Christ who have genuine needs like food and clothing.

A genuine love reaches out to others and genuine faith produces acts of compassion.

2. Genuine faith is not independent, but partnership.

James reference to dead is meaning something that is useless or ineffective.

It is the opposite of effective or living.

3. Genuine faith is not invisible, but on display.

James brings up a hypothetical situation

What he is illustrating is a person that says “I keep my faith to myself.”

“I don’t wear my beliefs on my sleeve.”

But James challenges those with a passive, ineffective faith by saying a genuine faith MUST display itself.

4. Genuine faith is not intellectual, but from the heart.

This is an interesting add in that James writes about, however very profound.

His audience, mostly all Jewish backgrounds would understand his context which would be,

This verse was very well known to Jewish people.

It was known as “the Shema” and was recited as the first part of a prayer each day and also at the end of each day before bed.

It was taught to their children to signify and remember that they serve and worship only one God.

The issue is that just acknowledging who God is, is not enough.

Having knowledge all about the Bible is not enough.

This is a major downfall of many pastors.

They do well to teach but fail to live out that same faith.

See, as James says, even Satan and the demons know the facts of the gospel, they know the plan of salvation but they also know they can’t escape judgement.

James’ point is that it’s by what people say they are and how they live their life that we decide whether they have truly responded to the gospel or not.

There is a saying that Henry Jacobsen brought up in his commentary on James and it goes like this, “Measure people by their profession and measure yourself by your life.”

Simply put, God will judge the hypocrites, not you.

We’ll come back to how we can evaluate where we are at in a little bit.

Now in verse 21 James gives a couple examples of people who displayed genuine faith.

Some people, even scholars have struggled with James’ writing in 2:14-16 in relation to faith and works.

All these verses imply that faith without works is dead.

But Ephesians 2:8-10 says...

And then in our current Scripture...

It says Abraham was justified by his works.

But in Romans 4:1-12 it seems to say something else...

READ Romans 4:1-12

And then in James 2:25 it says...

James lists Rahab as an example of someone who was justified by her works.

But in Hebrews 11:31 it says...

It says she was saved by her faith.

So a few questions come up:

Does James 2 say we’re not saved by our faith?

Does James 2 say we’re saved by works?

Do other passages say faith is not accompanied by works?

To answer those questions and make sense of all the Scriptures we just read we need to understand the different definitions of Faith and Justification.

We should look at 2 definitions of faith first.

Faith

ONE: Belief something is true.

This admits that the gospel is true but stops there

Faith

TWO: Personal trust or commitment to a person or truth.

This definition admits the gospel is true AND commits themself to Christ and trusts Him for salvation.

Next we’ll look at 2 definitions of Justification

Justification

ONE: To declare righteous or just; to free from guilt.

(Something God does)

a.

This tells what God does for a person who trusts Christ as their sin bearer, Christ died for sins so God declares a believer righteous.

Justification

TWO: To vindicate oneself or prove oneself of righteous (Something man does)

a.

This definition expresses what a believer does in front of others, that shows they have been justified or declared righteous by God.

By understanding the different definitions of both faith and justification it helps us understand that James does not deny Salvation by faith or that the other Scriptures deny good works (or vice versa).

There are no contradictions.

James’ writing more so compliment the other Scriptures.

So when we read James 2:21-25 we see that James uses two extremes.

Abraham was:

1.

The father of Hebrews.

2. Man of power & respect

3. Recipient of God’s promises

Rahab was:

1. Gentile harlot

2. Woman with a bad reputation

3. Breaker of God’s moral laws

When we look at both people that James uses as examples we need to understand something.

Every believer will find themself somewhere in between Abraham and Rahab.

James’ message about faith and works applies to us all.

There are plenty of generous and good people, even religious people who claim to have faith in Jesus Christ.

Some would say that those people, no matter what their true beliefs are or lack thereof, are acceptable to God.