Faith Allegiance
James: Faith Alive • Sermon • Submitted
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· 5 viewsThe book of James has historically been attributed to James, the brother of Jesus. This is debated but not many convincing arguments that make the case for someone else. James is early leader in the Church based in Jerusalem. This book is an interesting one because it is written like a letter but has interesting elements that make it hard to put in a box. People love this book because it is accessible. The instruction is understandable but goodness the teaching is hard to apply to our life, if we are honest. James is pressing hard what it looks like to actually live out a life of faith. What does “faith that is alive” look like. James shows that a heart absent from God will not bring about love in the world, and similarly, a heart that has claimed to be given to God, must love.
Notes
Transcript
Faith Alive
Faith Alive
Quick overview of James
Written as a general letter, written by half brother of Jesus. This is interesting because he is a skeptic until the resurrection:
people love James because:
it is short and to the point. Wisdom literature
it is practical
it uses illustrations that are vivid and impactful.
Scripture
Scripture
My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do. Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Pray.
Introduction
Introduction
This week has been crazy yall. I really struggled with what to do with the sermon, with what to say. Did I need to flex away from our series to preach something different. What is the pastoral response. And truth be told, the pastoral response is exhausting because “pastoral” usually means something about calculated and measured so as to encourage everyone in the room. So that we all leave feeling encouraged.....yeah I can’t do that fully. We live in a time that depending on what I say today, some of you will applaud and some might turn me off forever. The truth is, a Christian response to what has taken place in our country will not be encouraging to everyone who hears this message. In the same way our statement this week has already comforted some and enraged others.
But in praying for our direction, God had something planned with us to be in James 1. This is the right text for us. If there was ever a time for the church to “not just listen to the word, but do what it says.....it is today.”
There is three strong movements here in the text:
new life
accepting the word
Living out the word
New Life
New Life
This section begins in verse 21, verse 19 and 20 talk about anger....quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to angry....hate to move past that verse quickly....commit it to memory this week yall.
But our section really starts in 21
Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
This is bridging back to the end of last week’s section, look at verse 18....
He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
Because Jesus has given you new birth, get rid of everything else. This is similar language found through out the NT with Paul and others....this idea that in Christ, you have taken off this other life like a garment. It is something you no longer wear.
The new birth, is a complete change. John Wesley, founder of the Methodist movement wrote, that there are no more fundamental doctrines and beliefs than that of justification and new birth. The first talks about the forgiveness of sins, the work that God does for us....
The second, the new birth, is the work that God does in us to renew our fallen nature.
To take off the garments of old.
My son, when he gets a new pair of shoes....that is all he wants to wear. Like forget any other pair. If we buy him dress shoes, then look out....playing in the mud, he has to wear those. No way around it.
Paul, James, NT authors are going to say, that is how it should be....stop putting on your old shoes. Stop living like God has not broken the power of sin, the lure of the world, and your addiction to yourself.
Marks of the new birth:
Faith, hope, love
Faith is the power over sin, evil, and self. This is belief that you belong to God and He is yours. Jesus is Lord, Jesus is King, and nothing can separate you from that truth
Hope: You now see the world differently. You are walking in an inheritance of the King. You acknowledge and walk in the intimacy of God’s Spirit. You have a patience that is otherworldly
Love: Love shed abroad in your heart. There is a two-way highway between you and Christ. Receiving more and more of his love for you while you expound in your love for him.
Utterly different than the life before, this is new birth. James says quit putting on the other garment. Quit living like your like has not been purchased.
Does your life have the marks of new birth?
Now what is interesting is that James stops halfway in the illustration that is usually chosen by Paul and others....rather than saying, take off this, and put on this
James says I want you to accept the word....
Accept the Word
Accept the Word
James says the putting on of life....walking in life is the same thing as humbling accepting the word
look at it again
Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.
Accept the word planted in you.
Some have argued that this is about being saved, but it does not fit with the context.
We hear, “accept the word,” and we think “accept Jesus into your heart,”
and that is not what James is telling you, but that does not fit. This has already taken place.
Accept the word planted in you, means to apply the word that has been given
Douglas Moo writes
If this interpretation is on the right lines, then the command to accept the word implanted in you is not a command to unbelievers to be converted (“accept the word” means this elsewhere in the New Testament), but to believers to allow the word to influence them in all parts of their lives. By adding the word humbly to the command, James reminds us that we need to be open and receptive to the work of the word in the heart. Christians who have truly been “born again” (v. 18) demonstrate that the word has transformed them by their humble acceptance of that word as their authority and guide for life.
1 Moo, D. J. (2000). The letter of James (pp. 87–88). Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos.
When we are born again, the word of God, Jesus, the Spirit is planted inside of us....we have to apply it.
What is happening here? Well in order to understand that we need to understand what it means to believe in Christ. What is the idea of biblical faith found in scripture?
We have reduced faith in Jesus....believing in Jesus to just a mental assent. This mental exercise and it is more than that.
Christian faith always begins in the mind, in rationality, but Christian faith is always completed in action. Faith in Jesus has always meant something more....
Scholar Matthew Bates argues that when we translate to the english faith, we should change that to allegiance to grasp what the biblical narrative is trying to grasp.
Salvation by Allegiance:
The concept of allegiance welds mental agreement, professed fealty, and embodied loyalty.
The reformers understood this, Luther wrote about a threefold definition of faith:
1) notita – content to be intellectually apprehended
2) assensus – intellectual agreement that this content is true
3) Fiducia – trust or disposition of reliance.
Allegiance is getting to the point of not only believing in Jesus, not only pledging our allegiance, but also trusting in Him with our actions.
Go grab the stool....
Faith begins in the mind but is always completed in action.
To accept the word, means to do it.
Faith Alive
Faith Alive
This is where James turns it up. To be a Christian means to live how you say you believe.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
If you do not do what the word says, if you do not live out your faith, then you are like the person that looks in the mirror and then immediate forgets what they look like.
Jesus describes it like the seed that falls on bad soil and never takes. There is a forceful warning here. Did you catch it?
If you do not life your faith, you will be deceived. One more from Douglas Moo
People who merely listen to the word, James says, are on dangerous ground: they deceive themselves. Paul uses this same verb in Col. 2:4 (its only other occurrence in the NT), where he warns the Colossian Christians about false teachers who “deceive” people “by fine-sounding arguments.” The idea of “deceive” in these contexts is clear: to be “deceived” is to be blinded to the reality of one’s true religious state. People can think that they are right with God when they really are not. And so it is for those people who “hear” the word—regular church attenders, seminary students, and even seminary professors—but do not “do” it. They are mistaken in thinking that they are truly right with God. For God’s word cannot be divided into parts. If one wants the benefits of its saving power, one must also embrace it as a guide for life. The person who fails to do the word, James therefore suggests (in an anticipation of his argument in 2:14–26), is a person who has not truly accepted God’s word at all.
If you do not live out your faith, if you do not apply God’s word to your life, if you do not walk with him intimately and daily, you will be deceived into thinking that everything is all good. That your way is God’s way. That what you desire is what God desires.
I believe this is what has led to Christian nationalism in our day. Christian nationalism is a perversion of the gospel of Jesus Christ with political agenda and national patriotism. It is in giving our nation a messianic identity, that we some how are the city on a hill, the light to the nations. These are words that God uses to talk about the kingdom of God, not the United States of America.
This has existed since the beginning of our country....
Thomas Jefferson: “The United States is the world’s best hope.”
Abraham Lincoln: “the unity of the U.S. and its form of government is the last best hope of earth.”
This rhetoric is dangerous and unbiblical
If we spend every waking moment with our faces stuck in the news, we will begin to live out a narrative that is other than the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We have been told that X is the biggest threat to us. Progressivism, or Single issue topics, or Right-wing, whatever....
the biggest threat to the church is for the church to forget who she is and who she belongs to.
Church we have to get our heads out of Fox news, CNN, Newsmax, MSNBC, and get our faces in scripture
we have to change our posture from anger and fear to prayer and hope
We have to live out our faith, James gives examples:
control your tongue
look after orphan and widow
“The Bible is there to enable God's people to be equipped to do God's work in God's world, not to give them an excuse to sit back smugly, knowing they possess all God's truth.”
-- N. T. Wright
We have to wake up. We have to repent of the ways that we have contributed in idolatry, or in apathy, and we need to get busy. Who will love the widow? Covid has provided too many opportunities. Who will love the orphan? Their numbers are staggering.