2019-05-12 James 2:14-19 Faith That Works (1): Two Kinds Of Faith

FAITH THAT WORKS (1): TWO KINDS OF FAITH (James 2:14-19) May 12, 2019 Read James 2:14-19 – We now come to a short but very critical series. The actress Helen Hayes was not much of a cook. One Thanksgiving she warned her family: “This is my first turkey. If it isn’t right, don’t say a word. We’ll just get up without comment and eat out.” Everyone assured her everything would be fine. Ten minutes later she returned to find everyone seated at the table – all wearing their hats and coats. Their actions denied their professed faith – just as often happens with supposed believers. Faith is at the core of Christianity. Heb 11:6: “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” Faith is the key to forgiveness and entry into God’s kingdom: “For by grace you have been saved thru faith” (Eph 2:8). And faith sustains Xn life: II Cor 5:7: “For we walk by faith, not by sight.” Faith is critical to Xn living from start to finish. You can’t claim to be a Xn without it. So – I ask you this morning, How’s your faith? Before you answer, consider this. Jas notes 2 kinds of faith. One real; one not. One living; the other dead (vv. 17, 20, 16). One saves; the other does not. True faith works; false faith does not! Let’s call one faith and the other unfaith. Many who think they have faith actually have unfaith, self-deceived. They claim faith, but Jas asks, “Can that faith save him?” Implied answer: No! So if one faith saves, and another does not, we’d better know which we have. To evaluate our faith, note how Jas characterizes dead faith versus living faith. I. Dead Faith Talks; Living Faith Walks 14) What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” No, it cannot. It is shown false by its lack of Spirit-inspired works – deeds of love for God and love for others. They are missing. Dead faith talks; living faith walks. The person of false faith “says” he has faith (15); and he “says” to those in need, “Go in peace”, but there is no action to back up his words. He is all talk and no walk; all show and no go. Faith and works go together like love and marriage or a horse and carriage, inseparable friends. One without the other shows either to be fraud! You say, “That can’t be true. That’s salvation by works.” But that is not Jas’ point at all. He is not saying we are saved by our works. But he is saying that 1 saving faith will result in works. Saving faith happens in a moment but results in a lifetime of action. Paul gets it: 2:8-10. “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9) not a result of works, so that no one may boast. [Saved by faith; No works. Crystal clear! But now watch] 10) For we are his workmanship [believers are], created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” His point: We were made believers for good works not by good works. We don’t do to become; we do bc we are! Suppose I carve out a bat, like the kid in The Natural. Then I use it to get hits in a baseball game. It’s clear the bat was not made by the hits, but for the hits. That’s the purpose for which it was made, just as God made us believers was for good works. But if the bat is soft or cracked or ill-shaped and does not produce hits, we’d say, “What good is that?” That’s no bat! So if we say we have faith without works, Paul asks “What good is that?” What benefit or advantage? Faith that is no good to God or others is no faith. All talk; no walk. It’s like joining the army. Takes a second! One minute you’re a civilian; the next you’re a soldier. But that momentary commitment results in a lifetime of change. You’re no longer your own. You’ve been created to fire weapons, drive tanks, and protect the homeland. You’re not made a soldier by driving a tank! You’re made a soldier for driving a tank. A momentary commitment; a lifetime of change. So with saving faith. One moment you are an unbeliever; the next you are in Christ. But that moment results in a changed life, or it’s not real. What we do reveals who we are. Jas illustrates: 15) If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16) and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? Is Jas saying we’re saved by giving things to those in need? No – he is saying if we have saving faith we will give to those in need. Living faith acts; dead faith talks about it. This is exactly Jesus’ point in Mt 7: 16) You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17) So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.” Dead faith produces no valid spiritual works; living faith does. V. 18: “But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” Commentators differ on where the quotation marks should end in this verse. Greek has none; they are interpretive. Perhaps someone is saying, “You have faith; I have works. We’re both okay.” Then Jas objects. That’s possible. But 2 I think it’s better to end the quotation marks at the end of the verse (like NASB). Jas has “someone” saying in v. 14 that he has faith without works – claiming there is no need for them. In v. 18 he has a contrasting “someone” countering that contention by saying, “You [say] you have faith and I have works. [Okay] Show me your faith apart from your works [You can’t. There’s nothing to indicate your faith is real!]. I will show you my faith by my works.” That, I think, is what Jas is doing. This “someone” gets it; No works; no faith! John does the same thing in I Jn 3:17-18: “But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18) Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” Dead faith talks; living faith walks. Take inventory, Beloved. If you’re one who “says he has faith”, but you’re not involved in ministry to others, you may only have dead faith. “What good is that?” Jean Jacque Rousseau, French philosopher, hero of Reason which put human wisdom above God, called himself a friend of all mankind – said he was a man born to love and taught that persistently. He said of himself whoever “examines with his own eyes my nature, my character, morals, inclinations, pleasures, habits, and can believe me to be a dishonest man, is himself a man who deserves to be strangled.” He talked a good talk. But he hated his father and placated him only to get an inheritance. He sought a long-lost brother only to certify him dead so he could get the money. Gave no names to any of his 5 kids, but placed them in a hospital for neglected infants where 2/3 died in the first year. None of his survived. Rousseau, the lover of mankind, didn’t even record their birthdates! His walk never matched his talk, which is exactly the first characteristic of dead faith. Workless faith is worthless faith! True faith acts. Living faith acts – not because it has to; because it wants to. People with dead faith substitute words for deeds. How’s your faith? II. Dead Faith Knows Facts; Living Faith Knows God It’s true, to know God, you need facts. It’s foolish to worship a God of our own imagining, tho most people do. For example, “A loving God would never send anyone to hell.” Really? Where did you find that God? Not in the Bible – nor any other credible source I know other than human wisdom. That is a God in our own image – a God of our own making – thus the worship of self. Are you sure you are really up to that job description. To truly know God we must have facts – just as we must have facts about any person to know them. 3 The problem is dead faith knows facts, and that’s all. There is no commitment to those facts – no action in light of those facts. It is a theologically informed dead faith. Jas says: 19) “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” In other words, “You believe in one God. Good for you. But is that saving faith? I got news for you. Even the demons believe that – they even have the sense to shudder at that thought. But they are not saved. They know God exists, and they know His holiness. They shudder thinking of His judgment. But they do not surrender to the Person. Information alone does not save them. And information alone will not save you either. If that’s all you got, you got nothing; your faith is dead.” God is one -- the Jewish shema – the core of their faith taken from Deut 6:4: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” Good theology. Critical to know about God. He’s the one and only. But Deut 6:4 is followed by Deut 6:5: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Facts must be followed by obedient submission to those fact; otherwise they just condemn. Facts alone never saved anyone. Facts are essential; but facts are not sufficient. I know a lot of facts about Geo W. Bush. I even met him once. But I have no relationship with him. I know facts; but I don’t know him! It can be the same way with God – we can know facts, but be spiritually as dead as a doornail –no relationship, no commitment, no friendship. It is possible to believe everything you know about God and still not actually know God. This is dead orthodoxy. You believe in God. Good! Does that save you? No – not in and of itself. The demons believe as well – all of them. There is not an atheist demon in the universe! Neither is there one who is saved. You may know theology. You know amil vs. premil; can recite the creeds, define sublapsarianism and supralapsarianism, know the order of the decrees, explain and substitutionary atonement and distinguish between propitiation and expiation. Does that save you? No – not in and of itself. The demons know all of that – and they know they are condemned. They even begged Jesus “not to command them to depart into the abyss” before their time (Lu 8:31). They know; but they’re not saved. Jonathan Edwards points out demons have been to the greatest seminary in the universe -- the throne room of God. They know more sound doctrine than the greatest saint who ever lived. They know and respect the power of God. If knowledge would do it, they’d be in! it doesn’t, and they’re not! Intellectual assent never saved anyone. What we know must go from our minds to our hearts. Knowledge must lead us to love Christ and repent sins or our faith is 4 DOA. A full head without an obedient heart is a tragedy. Spurgeon said, “You and your sins must separate or you and your God will never come together. No one sin may you keep; they must all be given up. They must be brought out like the Canaanish kings from the cave and be hanged up in the sun.” Until we use God-given knowledge to repent the sins Jesus paid for on the cross, we will never know God whatever else we know! Howard Hendricks worked as youth director while attending Wheaton. One boy in the junior department had memorized 600 verses – 600 word perfectly! Give him any reference; he had the verse down cold. But one day money was missing from the offering. Hendricks investigated. You guessed it – it was the 600-verse prodigy. Hendricks quote a verse to him which Todd told him he had misquoted! Hendricks asked, “Do you see any connection between that verse and your stealing?” “No – well, maybe.” Howard asked, “What is that connection?” “I got caught.” Plenty of head knowledge; no heart surrender. Dead faith knows facts; living faith knows God. So, how’s your faith? III. Dead Faith Professes; Living Faith Possesses Dead faith is really no faith at all. V. 14: ”What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” So, do works save us after all? No – they merely show the faith is real – that it is living and not dead. Calvin: “We are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone.” Twice Jas describes faith by itself as dead! 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” 26) For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” How do you know a body is dead? No animation, right? No response. No life. That is faith without works. It is dead, unresponsive to God. The response doesn’t save; but it is a necessary result of salvation. Jas belabors this critical point. Dead faith claims – v. 14: “someone says he has faith” – he makes a profession. But there’s no life change to back up the claim. He’s like a guy who says he’s an MD surgeon, but he can’t take out an appendix. He may profess all he wants, but you know he does not possess what he claims. That’s like dead faith – professing, but not possessing. Living faith possesses life, and it shows. Jesus illustrates by parable. Mt 21:28) “What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29) And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. 30) And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. 31) Which of the two did the will of his 5 father?” Who had living faith? The 1st. The 2nd professed; the first possessed. Jesus’ point? Dead faith is all talk; true faith acts. Want to see a real-life example of dead faith? John 2:23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust [believe] himself to them, because he knew all people.” They believed in Him; He didn’t believe in them. Why? Dead faith. They were professors, but not possessors. True faith acts. Conc – So, how’s your faith this morning? Mike MacIntosh lived in SoCal in the early 60’s. As a teen, he noticed that most men swore and told dirty stories, so in order to be accepted as a man, he decided to sharpen his skills. He says, “By the time I was 20, I had developed an extensive vocabulary of swear words. There were not many filthy stories I didn’t knkow either, and those I knew I repeated as often as possible.” But in the Spring of 1970 he ended up at Calvary Chapel, became one of the thousands of hippies who accepted Jesus there and began daily Bible study and prayer. He writes, “One morning as I was praying and having my devotions, I suddenly felt as if a lightning bolt had hit me dead center. I realized I had gone 7 days without saying a swear word or telling a dirty story. It had been only a week, but already the purifying work of the HS had made a dramatic change I my life. Drunkenness and drugs had also disappeared.” That’s living faith, Beloved. It changes everything. Martin Luther said, “True faith is a living, busy active, powerful thing; it is impossible for it not to do us good continually. It never asks whether good works are to be done, but has done them before there is time to ask the question; it is always doing them.” Professors don’t change. Possessors can’t help but change. So, how’s your faith? Is the fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, self-control) is that fruit growing in your life – or is it the same old you day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. How’s your faith – dead or alive? Let’s pray. 6