Living Out the Gospel
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James 2:14-26
James 2:14-26
Living Hope and Resurrection day or Come Satisfy.
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Main Point: True Faith is always demonstrated in the way we live.
Opening Illustraton:
You’ve just won the 10 million dollars in a lottery drawing. There’s just one issue, you have to go up to the office where you collect your money and prove your identity.
How are you going to do that?
License?
what if you don’t have that yet!?
bring a parent? Bring a friend?
find someone to vouch for you!
ASK: Did what you bring to prove your identity make you the winner?
NO!
It proved you are the person who won, but it doesn’t make you the winner.
For example, if someone brought your license with them, but they weren’t you, are they the winner? NO!
If you won, only you can claim that prize. Everything you bring with you to prove you won, helps prove you are who you say you are. But, that’s it. The identification itself doesn’t make you a winner.
TRANSITION:
In the same way, your good works as a Christian don’t save you, but they do provide proof that you are saved.
Just like a witness or a license doesn’t make you who you are, it does help show who you are.
Read James 2:14-26
James 2:14–26 (CSB)
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him?
If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.
But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works. You believe that God is one. Good! Even the demons believe—and they shudder.
Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless? Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete, and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness, and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute also justified by works in receiving the messengers and sending them out by a different route? For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.
Last week we discussed the gospel.
Can anyone remind me what main verse I gave you from 1 Corinthians that is a great biblical definition of the gospel?
I bring that up again today because what saves you from God’s wrath against your sin?
THE GOSPEL!
Jesus actions on the cross and coming back to life save all who will believe. (Romans 1:16
Romans 1:16 (ESV)
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
The Gospel is Jesus actions against sin fully paying the debt we all owe.
Salvation is accepting Jesus’ actions in my place to save me from God’s wrath against sin.
There is a difference between Salvation and the Gospel. That’s important because this morning we are going to focus more on what Saves us.
But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
This is a central theme in the book of James.
James affirms that theme in the section of Scripture we read today and even concludes it by saying, “Faith without works is dead.”
In other words, if you have no actions to back up your faith, you have no faith!
Just because your family goes to church, that doesn’t mean you have a personal faith that reflects the faith of your parents.
Case and point. Do you know who James is? Who wrote this book?
He’s the brother of Jesus.
Yet James, doesn’t find his faith in being somewhat related to Jesus… He finds faith IN JESUS!
James’ identity wasn’t in his heritage, His identity was in God.
What about you?
Is your identity in Christ?
In verses 15-17, James writes about recognizing the needs of others and meeting those needs.
His point is, you can’t just see someone (in your church especially) lacking basic needs and then ignore those needs and call yourself a believer.
Also, why do we so often here someone say a problem or issue in their life and say “ok… I’ll pray for you” but then we don’t…
Sometime I’ve tried to put into action in my own life is praying immediately.
If someone says, “Hey can you pray for me about ________”
DO it immediately!
Put your faith into action!
I believe Jesus. I believe praying to Him matters. Let me put that faith into action immediately!
Being gracious to the poor.
Praying for someone immediately
encouraging someone in Jesus’ name.
All 3 of these things are acts of worship.
This is you, responding in action, to the faith you claim to have.
Do you ever make that connection?
Read James 2:20-22
Senseless person! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless? Wasn’t Abraham our father justified by works in offering Isaac his son on the altar? You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was made complete,
Now we get to an interesting term.
Justification.
What is that?
For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast.
If you got pulled over for a speeding ticket and that fine was $1000
Until you pay the money, you’re debt to the government isn’t justified.
Now imagine being in the court room and someone stands up and says, “I’ll pay that ticket for him! I’ll take the debt! Let Him go free!”
This is what Jesus does for us.
Jesus justifies us before God.
Read Eph. 2:8 again. This isn’t something you could do!
vs. 9 says “It’s God’s gift - not from works so that no one can boast.”
Another way to say this is to talk about my boys.
It’s scary as a parent taking your young boys out anywhere in public.
Why? Because they represent you…
When your boys go wild in a public setting, it feels like a reflection of you… a bad reflection.
But when Roman especially lays his head on his pillow at night, I want him to know I take responsibility for him, but he also takes responsibility for Him too.
He is my son, not because of what he does, but simply because he exists. He will never stop being my son. That’s my responsibility to remind Him of that.
His responsibility is to act in a way that represents our family well. The values we believe in.
So going back to the illustration at the start, Roman is a Wofford. He is Ben and Allison’s son. Nothing can change that identity.
He could show identification and have people vouch for him, but it doesn’t matter ultimately because He is ours.
At the same time, he doesn’t always act in ways that prove he belongs to us.
His actions are foolish.
Here’s how I address that.
“Roman, buddy… I hate what you are doing right now, but I love you.”
I continually try to pump that message in his head.
WHy? Because he needs to know when His actions are bad.
But he also needs to know his actions are not his identity.
We need to remember that too!
Your good works for Jesus won’t save you.
But not doing good works and claiming to be saved won’t save you either!
Both of those are true!
Faith saves you.
As a saved person, you’re changed now to live for Jesus!
Vs. 19 says “Even the demons believe and they shudder.”
yeah! If belief were all it took, demons would in heaven too! Right?
The point today is simple.
Faith in Christ changes you.
Understanding the weight of your sin.
+ The cost Jesus paid for you.
= A life of humility faithfully trusting Christ.
YOu won’t always ACT perfectly… That’s ok!
Your identity is In Christ!
But you can’t ALWAYS ACT IMPERFECTLY… that’s the point this morning.
You’re not always going to get it right.
but that’s not an excuse that frees you to always get it wrong.
Living for Jesus is the best decision you could ever make!
Living for Jesus means,
my friend got into the school I wanted to get in to and I didn’t… Jesus has other plans for me. I can still celebrate with my friend and be sad for me. But I’m going to trust Jesus!
my friends got married before me… I feel left behind. I can celebrate them and still be sad for me, but I’m going to trust Jesus in the process.
my identity is not in my plans for the future, I’m just going to live for Jesus today and be sure I’m doing the little things right in my relationship with Christ!
There are so many ways and directions we could take this but it comes back to this ultimate.
If Jesus saved you, how has that changed you?
How has that changed your actions in life?
If Jesus hasn’t changed anything about you then have you really been changed?
It’s impossible to be a Christian and Jesus not affect your life.
True faith in Christ will be demonstrated in how you life.
So how are you living?
Are you rooted in your identity in Christ?
Or are you just trying to impress God with your actions?
Or are you apathetic to all of this. You just don’t care anymore.
I hope you are rooted in Christ.
God wants to do big things in your life! But are you giving him the ordinary first?
Let Him lead you.
Be Faithful.