WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:22.260 Hi, and welcome to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast. 00:00:22.760 --> 00:00:25.880 This is where you can find audio for our current and past sermons. 00:00:26.080 --> 00:00:30.420 We hope that you enjoy this week's installment, and be sure to check back next week to hear 00:00:30.420 --> 00:00:31.260 the latest message. 00:00:31.680 --> 00:00:32.460 Thanks for listening. 00:00:45.740 --> 00:00:46.740 Well, good morning. 00:00:47.460 --> 00:00:50.720 If you've got your Bibles, go ahead and open them up to James chapter 2. 00:00:51.360 --> 00:00:52.260 That's where we'll be. 00:00:52.340 --> 00:00:54.700 We'll start reading here in just a moment in verse 14. 00:00:54.860 --> 00:00:57.380 We've got a lot of stuff going on at the church. 00:00:57.680 --> 00:01:01.240 I believe as I sat back there and listened, we've got something for almost every different 00:01:01.240 --> 00:01:03.500 age demographic that we have. 00:01:03.580 --> 00:01:06.980 And so I want to invite and encourage you to join us on those. 00:01:07.240 --> 00:01:11.100 I want to focus just real quickly, our Harvest Hangout on October 30th. 00:01:11.340 --> 00:01:16.140 That's been just an annual event that we've been able to do in some different locations 00:01:16.140 --> 00:01:18.180 in the last several years. 00:01:18.540 --> 00:01:22.440 And it's been just a wonderful opportunity for us to gather as a church, but then also 00:01:22.440 --> 00:01:24.860 to build some relationships in our community. 00:01:24.920 --> 00:01:29.200 And so if you're thinking about it, I want to encourage you to join us. 00:01:29.440 --> 00:01:30.540 We need lots of candy. 00:01:30.800 --> 00:01:36.520 And I promise we're not sampling any of that, not too much, during the week at the church. 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:38.900 There is a safety inspection that we walk through. 00:01:39.020 --> 00:01:40.300 Dave and I volunteer for that. 00:01:40.520 --> 00:01:42.020 But other than that, we need candy. 00:01:42.140 --> 00:01:42.780 We need cars. 00:01:43.100 --> 00:01:45.440 Give you an opportunity to decorate and just have fun together. 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:47.780 And so please make sure you connect with that. 00:01:48.080 --> 00:01:50.420 And then Man Camp, just an awesome time. 00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:52.260 Years ago, we had this. 00:01:52.320 --> 00:01:55.620 We've been able to bring it back this year for our church. 00:01:55.960 --> 00:02:00.320 Wonderful opportunity for men to gather together, to fellowship together, to have a lot of different 00:02:00.320 --> 00:02:01.520 activities that we do together. 00:02:01.840 --> 00:02:06.060 But one of the most important things of there is the Christian fellowship and the message 00:02:06.060 --> 00:02:07.960 of Christ that's shared through that. 00:02:07.960 --> 00:02:10.640 And so I just want to challenge this for the guys that are out here. 00:02:10.820 --> 00:02:12.820 And maybe you're thinking about going and being a part of it. 00:02:13.040 --> 00:02:14.200 I want to encourage you to do that. 00:02:14.380 --> 00:02:19.860 But maybe you've got a buddy at work or a buddy that's a part of your hunting club or that 00:02:19.860 --> 00:02:21.520 lives in your neighborhood or something like that. 00:02:21.640 --> 00:02:24.420 And you could not get them to come to church, right? 00:02:24.780 --> 00:02:26.060 They're not going to step foot in here. 00:02:26.500 --> 00:02:28.060 But they'll go fishing, right? 00:02:28.300 --> 00:02:30.940 They'll go out and do those type things with you. 00:02:31.140 --> 00:02:31.840 I want to encourage you. 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:36.580 Maybe you grab a ticket for them and give great opportunity to connect them with some other 00:02:36.580 --> 00:02:40.540 men who are believers and to hear the message of Christ and how Christ is working in the 00:02:40.540 --> 00:02:42.100 lives of his people. 00:02:42.240 --> 00:02:43.720 And so I want to encourage you to be a part of that. 00:02:44.140 --> 00:02:49.160 Tracy Williams will be back here to my left at this back table, back here selling tickets 00:02:49.160 --> 00:02:49.720 afterwards. 00:02:49.940 --> 00:02:52.580 And so we'd love for you guys to come and connect there. 00:02:52.980 --> 00:02:55.000 Well, we'll start reading James chapter 2. 00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:56.860 Let's jump right into verse 14. 00:02:58.140 --> 00:02:59.240 James writes and says, 00:02:59.240 --> 00:03:05.080 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? 00:03:05.720 --> 00:03:07.340 Can that faith save him? 00:03:08.020 --> 00:03:13.380 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to 00:03:13.380 --> 00:03:20.960 them go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body, 00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:22.500 what good is that? 00:03:22.760 --> 00:03:26.900 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 00:03:27.360 --> 00:03:30.100 But someone will say, you have faith and I have works? 00:03:30.480 --> 00:03:35.080 Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works. 00:03:35.340 --> 00:03:37.000 You believe that God is one. 00:03:37.140 --> 00:03:37.740 You do well. 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:39.380 Even the demons believe and shudder. 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:40.720 Verse 20. 00:03:41.060 --> 00:03:45.580 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 00:03:46.120 --> 00:03:50.940 Was not Abraham our father justified when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 00:03:51.400 --> 00:03:56.900 You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works. 00:03:57.260 --> 00:04:03.040 And scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God and was counted to him as righteousness. 00:04:03.560 --> 00:04:05.360 And he was called a friend of God. 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:09.940 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 00:04:10.380 --> 00:04:16.120 And in the same way was not also Rahab, the prostitute, justified by works when she received 00:04:16.120 --> 00:04:19.140 the messengers and sent them out by another way. 00:04:19.320 --> 00:04:25.580 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, to also faith apart from works is dead. 00:04:25.580 --> 00:04:30.720 Over the last several weeks, we've been diving through and walking through the book of James. 00:04:31.100 --> 00:04:32.680 And we've talked about this all the way through. 00:04:32.780 --> 00:04:34.440 James is one of the most practical books. 00:04:34.580 --> 00:04:36.240 James doesn't hold any punches. 00:04:36.540 --> 00:04:37.540 He dives straight in. 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:42.360 108 verses and 59 commandments are what constitute James. 00:04:42.600 --> 00:04:49.000 So there's a lot of in this, do this, do this, do this, don't do this. 00:04:49.320 --> 00:04:51.320 James is very blunt. 00:04:52.040 --> 00:04:55.780 It's hard to walk away and say, well, you kind of hid that from me. 00:04:56.260 --> 00:05:01.280 James is being very upfront with everybody about the expectations, not that James has, 00:05:01.480 --> 00:05:03.020 but the expectations of the Lord. 00:05:03.340 --> 00:05:05.320 Here's what Christ is calling us to. 00:05:05.580 --> 00:05:07.260 Here's what a life in him looks like. 00:05:07.520 --> 00:05:12.060 And over the last several weeks, we've been seeing some very clear standards and examples 00:05:12.060 --> 00:05:15.020 of the problems that James is attacking. 00:05:15.140 --> 00:05:18.040 A few weeks ago, he says, be doers of the word, right? 00:05:18.120 --> 00:05:23.440 God's word is not there simply for an intellectual debate or for simply for knowledge. 00:05:23.740 --> 00:05:26.880 But as we read this, our, our mind is activated. 00:05:26.880 --> 00:05:28.580 Our, our heart is changed. 00:05:28.580 --> 00:05:32.780 And what comes from that is we do what God tells us to do. 00:05:32.840 --> 00:05:35.720 God gives us commandments, not suggestions, right? 00:05:35.720 --> 00:05:36.840 This is what we find in scripture. 00:05:36.840 --> 00:05:41.860 And then last week we looked at the sin of partiality and how we're to view people and 00:05:41.860 --> 00:05:44.200 see people the way that God calls us to. 00:05:44.200 --> 00:05:49.560 And we're not to show preference over anything that we see or that the world may define for 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:49.820 us. 00:05:49.820 --> 00:05:53.880 And so this morning we're going to look at verse 14 and we're going to see what the problem 00:05:53.880 --> 00:05:54.200 is. 00:05:54.400 --> 00:05:57.260 Here's the problem that James is addressing. 00:05:57.940 --> 00:06:03.500 He says, what good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith, but does not have 00:06:03.500 --> 00:06:04.100 works? 00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:07.840 Can that faith save him? 00:06:08.280 --> 00:06:15.620 So James comes and offers two questions to give a statement, to give the problem that 00:06:15.620 --> 00:06:19.500 James is addressing with the believers in which he's writing this letter. 00:06:20.040 --> 00:06:26.280 And so for us then, and for us today, meaning believers in Christ, we see that this problem 00:06:26.280 --> 00:06:26.900 exists. 00:06:26.900 --> 00:06:32.460 He's saying that there are those among you who claim Christ as savior and Lord. 00:06:32.780 --> 00:06:34.920 You gather in church functions together. 00:06:35.320 --> 00:06:37.100 You say religious things. 00:06:37.460 --> 00:06:43.300 You have all the, the, the somewhat outside showing of a religious person and fulfilling 00:06:43.300 --> 00:06:44.920 the duties that are there. 00:06:45.040 --> 00:06:47.720 But there is a lacking of a work. 00:06:48.540 --> 00:06:50.000 There's a lacking of a true. 00:06:50.120 --> 00:06:54.420 When you walk out of here, you may check all the boxes of signing up. 00:06:54.420 --> 00:06:57.680 You may register for every Bible study that's there. 00:06:57.980 --> 00:07:02.720 You may be the first person to drop candy in a bucket for the harvest hangout and bring 00:07:02.720 --> 00:07:04.960 the hats and gloves for the coats for the city. 00:07:05.280 --> 00:07:09.860 You're the person that maybe you're doing those things in religious context. 00:07:10.140 --> 00:07:15.600 But when you walk out of here, there's a lack of evidence of faith that is there and 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:20.520 specifically works of love is what we're going to see in his example. 00:07:22.040 --> 00:07:29.140 And so, so this is the problem that James is addressing, but I also want to address maybe 00:07:29.140 --> 00:07:36.020 the problem that people have had and accurately interpreting and teaching and preaching this 00:07:36.020 --> 00:07:36.400 scripture. 00:07:37.160 --> 00:07:41.500 James is not saying you are saved by works. 00:07:42.020 --> 00:07:42.260 All right. 00:07:42.440 --> 00:07:46.980 James is not saying we're going to walk through this because if this is the first time that 00:07:46.980 --> 00:07:48.720 you're reading this, you might go, no, no, no, no, time out. 00:07:48.820 --> 00:07:50.200 Like this is, this is what he's saying. 00:07:50.480 --> 00:07:52.000 And that's not what James is saying. 00:07:52.320 --> 00:07:54.420 James is not saying you are saved by works. 00:07:54.900 --> 00:07:58.100 Apostle Paul writes this in Ephesians chapter two, eight through nine. 00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:01.300 He says, for by grace, you have been saved through faith. 00:08:02.040 --> 00:08:03.760 And this is not of your doing. 00:08:04.180 --> 00:08:10.220 It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. 00:08:10.220 --> 00:08:14.960 So, so Paul and writing this to the church at Ephesus says, here's how you're saved. 00:08:15.140 --> 00:08:19.880 You're saved by grace through faith in Christ. 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:24.520 The grace of Christ through the faith in Christ is what saves you. 00:08:24.660 --> 00:08:25.940 And it's not you. 00:08:26.120 --> 00:08:27.120 You don't do it. 00:08:27.180 --> 00:08:27.980 You don't earn it. 00:08:28.040 --> 00:08:29.080 You don't deserve it. 00:08:29.200 --> 00:08:30.980 It's the free gift of God. 00:08:31.100 --> 00:08:35.480 And if you could do it, then you'd have room to boast in your self-righteousness, but you 00:08:35.480 --> 00:08:35.980 can't do it. 00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:38.620 So there's no self-righteousness that's there. 00:08:38.800 --> 00:08:40.280 It's not a result of your works. 00:08:40.420 --> 00:08:43.220 So here's the question that we got to come to and wrestle with. 00:08:43.380 --> 00:08:45.160 Is this a contradiction of scripture? 00:08:47.240 --> 00:08:52.500 Does James two and Ephesians two contradict itself? 00:08:53.700 --> 00:08:59.260 Now, if we were to take those passages of scripture and isolate them apart from one another, 00:08:59.460 --> 00:09:06.640 then we may can come to a conclusion, an uneducated and inaccurate conclusion that the Bible contradicts 00:09:06.640 --> 00:09:07.040 itself. 00:09:07.920 --> 00:09:10.380 But the truth is the Bible does not contradict itself. 00:09:10.760 --> 00:09:15.900 The Bible does not contradict itself, but rather it complements and it completes itself. 00:09:16.900 --> 00:09:23.640 So the Bible works in and of itself to answer the questions that come through scripture, right? 00:09:24.220 --> 00:09:27.500 And then completing the entirety of the work. 00:09:28.220 --> 00:09:29.980 It's a picture of what comes together. 00:09:30.540 --> 00:09:32.160 It's why you can't remove things. 00:09:32.460 --> 00:09:36.840 It's why when there are struggles with scripture, what we say oftentimes is let's go to scripture. 00:09:37.260 --> 00:09:41.100 Let's allow scripture to answer scripture. 00:09:41.280 --> 00:09:49.660 But the problem is oftentimes we read isolated text and we draw our conclusion from an isolated 00:09:49.660 --> 00:09:50.240 text. 00:09:50.620 --> 00:09:52.460 And that's not what we're to do. 00:09:52.820 --> 00:09:54.480 Text is not meant to be read. 00:09:54.600 --> 00:09:56.280 Scripture's not meant to be read. 00:09:56.580 --> 00:10:01.380 Pull this out, isolate it, set it over to the side and say, I like this, right? 00:10:01.760 --> 00:10:05.000 Like scripture's not like Moe's, you know? 00:10:06.160 --> 00:10:06.520 All right. 00:10:06.940 --> 00:10:08.120 Scripture's not Moe's, right? 00:10:08.380 --> 00:10:09.240 Do you like to go to Moe's? 00:10:09.800 --> 00:10:10.900 I love to go to Moe's, right? 00:10:10.900 --> 00:10:12.000 Because everything's custom. 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:15.200 You don't like steak, but you like chicken, go to Moe's. 00:10:15.820 --> 00:10:18.680 You don't like jalapenos, but you like onions, go to Moe's. 00:10:19.040 --> 00:10:21.120 The beauty of Moe's is you get what you want, right? 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:26.620 It might be $45 for a burrito by the time you're done with it, but you get what you want. 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:30.580 And the danger is a lot of us apply scripture the same way. 00:10:31.860 --> 00:10:32.680 Well, I like this. 00:10:32.720 --> 00:10:33.340 I don't like this. 00:10:33.380 --> 00:10:33.860 I like this. 00:10:33.900 --> 00:10:34.540 I don't like this. 00:10:34.660 --> 00:10:36.960 And so we isolate the passages that we want. 00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:40.600 We're quick to speak to the reference of the things that rest and settle with us. 00:10:40.600 --> 00:10:44.060 And when we do that, we can take them and manipulate them to be what we want them to be. 00:10:45.040 --> 00:10:48.060 And there's groups of people who have done this with James chapter 2 and Ephesians chapter 2. 00:10:48.840 --> 00:10:50.300 And they say, well, this is what I want this to mean. 00:10:50.360 --> 00:10:52.540 And so I'm going to ignore and I'm going to isolate and do that. 00:10:52.700 --> 00:10:54.620 But text isn't meant to be isolated. 00:10:54.720 --> 00:10:55.860 Let me give you an example of this. 00:10:56.260 --> 00:10:57.820 Philippians chapter 4, verse 13. 00:10:58.640 --> 00:11:00.780 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 00:11:01.100 --> 00:11:05.000 Probably the number one Bible verse spoken by football players at all times, right? 00:11:05.780 --> 00:11:08.620 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 00:11:09.820 --> 00:11:11.100 What is this verse not saying? 00:11:12.060 --> 00:11:16.200 This verse is not for the defensive end to walk up, put his hand in the ground. 00:11:16.740 --> 00:11:20.100 And as he's going to sack the quarterback, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 00:11:20.180 --> 00:11:22.580 So I'm going to just take him out, right? 00:11:23.260 --> 00:11:32.480 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me is not the Bible verse that helps me as an overweight 43-year-old man claim that I can dunk a basketball, right? 00:11:32.640 --> 00:11:34.080 It doesn't happen, right? 00:11:34.100 --> 00:11:37.300 That's not what this text is talking about at all, right? 00:11:37.340 --> 00:11:41.180 This text does not mean that I can do these things because God is on my side. 00:11:41.940 --> 00:11:43.800 That's not what Philippians 4, 13 says. 00:11:44.100 --> 00:11:46.280 You see, this text is meant to be read in context. 00:11:46.500 --> 00:11:50.480 And when we read it in context, we will read in the entirety of the scripture to see what it's saying. 00:11:50.600 --> 00:11:51.840 So look back at verse 10. 00:11:51.880 --> 00:11:52.520 It will be on the screen. 00:11:53.080 --> 00:11:54.260 Paul writes and he says, 00:11:54.660 --> 00:12:22.680 I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. 00:12:22.800 --> 00:12:25.940 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:33.960 And so Paul writes to the church at Philippi and he's thanking them for a gift that they've sent him as they sent a gift of caring for him. 00:12:34.300 --> 00:12:39.220 And he says that, that I know you wanted to do this earlier, but, but you couldn't. 00:12:39.280 --> 00:12:42.700 And now that I've received this, here's the blessing. 00:12:42.700 --> 00:12:44.540 And so he's thanking them. 00:12:44.940 --> 00:12:50.080 And then he goes in and gives like a little biblical lesson of the sufficiency of Christ. 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:58.460 And he says that while you've met the need that I have, God brought me through a wonderful season of being in need. 00:12:58.940 --> 00:13:07.320 And that through this season that Paul has learned what it means to be content in every situation in which he finds himself. 00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:15.920 And so whether he's in need or in abundance, he knows that Christ is sufficient and that Christ is his source of strength. 00:13:15.920 --> 00:13:19.500 So Paul says, I know what it's like in both of those. 00:13:19.820 --> 00:13:27.420 And I can praise the Lord because verse 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 00:13:28.220 --> 00:13:38.280 Whether locked up in a jail cell of need and I've heard from no one or proclaiming the gospel out and receiving the gifts that you've given me. 00:13:38.400 --> 00:13:41.980 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, right? 00:13:42.100 --> 00:13:44.940 We see the context of what this is talking about. 00:13:44.940 --> 00:13:53.480 So when we look at James and we look at Paul and the context and the entirety of the Bible, here's what we see. 00:13:53.900 --> 00:14:02.660 James is not saying you were saved by works, but James is saying that you were saved by a working faith. 00:14:04.280 --> 00:14:05.940 And in this, he and Paul agree. 00:14:07.020 --> 00:14:08.280 Galatians 5, verse 6. 00:14:09.560 --> 00:14:20.600 For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. 00:14:21.460 --> 00:14:21.640 Right? 00:14:21.640 --> 00:14:31.100 And so we see this concept of continuing to build on that faith is not just this mental agreement. 00:14:32.000 --> 00:14:38.720 That faith is a transforming faith that produces something in us. 00:14:39.060 --> 00:14:44.760 And Paul says in Galatians 5, 6, only faith what working through love. 00:14:45.320 --> 00:14:48.160 So this is what he says you can hang your hat on. 00:14:48.900 --> 00:14:50.600 This is what he says what matters. 00:14:50.960 --> 00:14:52.640 What does saving faith look like? 00:14:52.940 --> 00:14:55.080 Faith working through love. 00:14:55.180 --> 00:15:00.620 And so James is addressing those who claim faith, but they show no love. 00:15:01.480 --> 00:15:04.220 They show no faith working through love. 00:15:04.220 --> 00:15:09.960 And so what James is doing is he's addressing the problem of counterfeit faith. 00:15:10.800 --> 00:15:12.860 He's addressing the problem of counterfeit faith. 00:15:13.340 --> 00:15:19.100 People who say Jesus, people who show up for church, they slap their bumper stickers on their cars. 00:15:19.220 --> 00:15:21.480 They quote their Bible verses at convenient times. 00:15:21.600 --> 00:15:26.140 But when the fruit and the evidence of their life is examined, it's not there. 00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:31.120 And so as James has been doing, he gives a hypothetical that's not a hypothetical. 00:15:31.540 --> 00:15:31.740 Right? 00:15:32.220 --> 00:15:33.300 He gives a hypothetical. 00:15:33.680 --> 00:15:40.740 Like if I gave the hypothetical of speeding to church this morning and rolling through a stop sign, chances are one of you did that. 00:15:40.800 --> 00:15:40.960 Right? 00:15:41.060 --> 00:15:42.800 It's a hypothetical, but it's not. 00:15:43.480 --> 00:15:44.660 And this is what James addressed. 00:15:44.760 --> 00:15:45.700 Verse 15 and 16. 00:15:45.700 --> 00:15:57.300 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 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? 00:15:57.560 --> 00:15:58.520 So here's the setting. 00:15:58.620 --> 00:16:01.720 A fellow believer in Christ, a brother and sister in Christ. 00:16:01.860 --> 00:16:06.980 You see them, and in the Greek, they're poorly clothed or they're naked. 00:16:08.660 --> 00:16:22.620 Clothes fallen off, ragged, busted up, can't protect themselves from the elements that they face, and they're without basic nutritional sustenance. 00:16:22.980 --> 00:16:26.380 They have nothing is what James wants you to get. 00:16:27.120 --> 00:16:32.340 And when you see them, in the translation, here's how you see them. 00:16:32.580 --> 00:16:34.200 Here's how you greet them. 00:16:35.160 --> 00:16:36.280 Have a good day. 00:16:36.620 --> 00:16:38.760 Maybe someone else will take care of your problems. 00:16:40.820 --> 00:16:42.060 Have a good day. 00:16:43.180 --> 00:16:45.240 Maybe someone else can get you some clothes and food. 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:47.180 But I'm not interested. 00:16:47.940 --> 00:16:50.080 And then you keep journeying on, right? 00:16:50.260 --> 00:16:51.240 What have you shown? 00:16:51.460 --> 00:16:55.180 You've shown that they do not matter, and you do not care. 00:16:55.700 --> 00:17:04.660 And James says, if there's one of you in there who claims faith in Christ, but yet you have this counterfeit faith, that one of you can see this, 00:17:04.920 --> 00:17:07.140 can that faith save them? 00:17:07.600 --> 00:17:08.080 No. 00:17:09.120 --> 00:17:10.500 No is what James says. 00:17:11.580 --> 00:17:20.000 You can say all you want, but if that's the evidence of faith in your life, James says you have counterfeit faith. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:21.060 It ain't real. 00:17:22.200 --> 00:17:23.340 It's getting rejected. 00:17:25.580 --> 00:17:28.020 It may look similar at times. 00:17:29.260 --> 00:17:31.640 There may be pieces that people can cling to. 00:17:33.240 --> 00:17:39.820 You've maybe been a really good hearer of the word, but brother or sister, you're not doing it. 00:17:40.820 --> 00:17:41.820 That's what James says. 00:17:43.160 --> 00:17:45.460 And then he describes counterfeit faith. 00:17:46.540 --> 00:17:49.840 He doesn't just leave it at, this is what this looks like. 00:17:49.980 --> 00:17:53.920 He begins to describe what counterfeit faith looks like. 00:17:54.460 --> 00:17:59.980 And the first thing that he says is that counterfeit faith is a dead faith, not a living, not a growing faith. 00:18:00.180 --> 00:18:01.480 Look back at verse 17. 00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:09.200 So faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 00:18:09.840 --> 00:18:10.840 It's dead, right? 00:18:11.200 --> 00:18:14.520 When something is living, it produces something. 00:18:15.340 --> 00:18:15.420 Right? 00:18:15.900 --> 00:18:20.620 And we, when we are living in Christ, we produce something. 00:18:20.800 --> 00:18:22.060 We talked about this this summer. 00:18:22.140 --> 00:18:22.620 What do we produce? 00:18:22.780 --> 00:18:23.960 We produce the fruit of the spirit. 00:18:25.020 --> 00:18:30.500 This is the evidence of Christ in us, that the spirit of God rests in us. 00:18:30.500 --> 00:18:40.540 And he's working in us and changing things about us and molding us more and more into the image and likeness of Christ so that this is who we are. 00:18:40.940 --> 00:18:44.360 But James says counterfeit faith doesn't produce that. 00:18:44.600 --> 00:18:45.880 What it produces is death. 00:18:46.880 --> 00:18:48.120 So it's a dead faith. 00:18:48.200 --> 00:18:49.340 It's not a living faith. 00:18:49.500 --> 00:18:50.740 It's not a growing faith. 00:18:50.940 --> 00:18:58.860 So if you say that you have the intellectual faith by itself, but you do not have the works, then what you have is you have death. 00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:00.660 You have death. 00:19:01.540 --> 00:19:02.260 You're not growing. 00:19:02.780 --> 00:19:03.560 He continues on. 00:19:03.620 --> 00:19:08.140 The second one that he shows us is he says counterfeit faith is demonic faith. 00:19:08.820 --> 00:19:10.720 Demonic faith, not surrendered faith. 00:19:10.920 --> 00:19:12.140 Look down at verse 19. 00:19:13.420 --> 00:19:15.080 You believe that God is one. 00:19:15.780 --> 00:19:16.560 You do well. 00:19:17.560 --> 00:19:20.400 Even the demons believe and shudder. 00:19:21.100 --> 00:19:25.740 Now, if you're partial to sarcasm like I am, you really enjoy verse 19, right? 00:19:26.300 --> 00:19:29.300 This is some great sarcasm that James gives us. 00:19:29.300 --> 00:19:33.780 If you believe that God is one, he quotes what's called the Shema, right? 00:19:33.860 --> 00:19:40.320 You have this basic layer of faith of knowing who God is, that God is one, then you do well. 00:19:40.580 --> 00:19:41.960 Even the demons believe that. 00:19:41.960 --> 00:19:43.400 Even the demons believe that and shudder. 00:19:43.400 --> 00:19:44.800 And here's what he's saying. 00:19:45.160 --> 00:19:49.060 Demonic faith knows who God is. 00:19:49.800 --> 00:19:53.340 Demonic faith knows who Christ is. 00:19:53.860 --> 00:19:58.120 Their belief even produces something in them. 00:19:58.560 --> 00:19:59.160 They know who God is. 00:19:59.160 --> 00:20:01.340 They know who God is and they fear him. 00:20:01.340 --> 00:20:03.720 They shudder from him. 00:20:04.080 --> 00:20:09.000 But they live their life in rebellion against him. 00:20:09.440 --> 00:20:11.260 Not surrendered to him. 00:20:11.460 --> 00:20:13.700 Not changed by him. 00:20:14.020 --> 00:20:19.680 And so what James says is you believe things about God, but you don't surrender to him? 00:20:22.120 --> 00:20:23.040 Faith of a demon. 00:20:24.140 --> 00:20:25.060 See how that ends up. 00:20:26.900 --> 00:20:28.360 And this has got to hit home for us. 00:20:29.300 --> 00:20:32.260 This has got to hit home for each and every one of us. 00:20:33.060 --> 00:20:35.920 Do we have the faith of a demon? 00:20:36.980 --> 00:20:41.200 Well, I know a lot of things about God, but I'm just not ready to lay down these things in my life yet. 00:20:43.100 --> 00:20:48.960 I believe in God, but these are just the things of me that I like to have, that I like to do. 00:20:49.200 --> 00:20:53.760 You mean to tell me that I have to surrender, to surrender, to lay these things down? 00:20:54.100 --> 00:20:55.520 No, don't sign me up for that. 00:20:55.660 --> 00:20:56.420 But I have faith. 00:20:56.480 --> 00:20:57.080 I go to church. 00:20:57.160 --> 00:20:57.820 We're good people. 00:20:58.140 --> 00:20:58.980 Great, so do demons. 00:21:01.020 --> 00:21:05.980 The third type of counterfeit faith, as he describes, is useless faith. 00:21:06.820 --> 00:21:08.340 Useless faith, not working faith. 00:21:09.280 --> 00:21:10.120 Verse 20. 00:21:11.740 --> 00:21:18.500 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works? 00:21:19.200 --> 00:21:19.760 Is useless? 00:21:20.680 --> 00:21:25.320 So, this term for foolish, it means empty. 00:21:26.260 --> 00:21:27.160 It means empty. 00:21:29.020 --> 00:21:37.860 Do you want to be shown, you empty person, not filled with the spirit, that your faith is useless? 00:21:38.520 --> 00:21:40.020 That it's not working? 00:21:40.620 --> 00:21:42.400 That it accomplishes nothing? 00:21:43.600 --> 00:21:47.500 Then continue to work through this, James says. 00:21:48.620 --> 00:21:50.800 James says, can you have counterfeit faith? 00:21:51.220 --> 00:21:52.060 Sure, sure. 00:21:52.200 --> 00:21:53.120 You can have dead faith. 00:21:53.200 --> 00:21:54.580 You can have demonic faith. 00:21:54.660 --> 00:21:56.140 You can have useless faith. 00:21:56.440 --> 00:22:00.800 And that faith does not save you. 00:22:01.880 --> 00:22:02.780 It doesn't. 00:22:03.980 --> 00:22:10.040 We're not going to stand before the Lord and say, well, I believed. 00:22:10.840 --> 00:22:14.140 I believed, but there's no evidence. 00:22:14.780 --> 00:22:16.740 There's no evidence in my life. 00:22:17.060 --> 00:22:27.060 There's nothing that I can hang my hat on where the knowledge of who Christ is and the power of the transforming work of the spirit of God dwelt in me, 00:22:27.320 --> 00:22:31.000 but I'm the same piece of garbage that I was before I got saved. 00:22:32.620 --> 00:22:33.860 James says, can that faith save him? 00:22:35.500 --> 00:22:37.180 Absolutely not. 00:22:38.060 --> 00:22:44.300 And so James says in verse 18, we skipped over it, we're coming back to it, that what matters, what counts is saving faith. 00:22:45.340 --> 00:22:48.760 He says, but someone will say, you have faith and I have works. 00:22:49.180 --> 00:22:58.540 Show me your faith apart from your works and I will show you my faith by my works, is what James says. 00:22:59.440 --> 00:23:05.500 So James says, some people will separate these and say, well, you can have faith and I can have works and that's just what we're going to do. 00:23:05.760 --> 00:23:06.880 And James says two things. 00:23:07.080 --> 00:23:11.400 He says, you cannot show me your faith apart from your works, which means this. 00:23:12.260 --> 00:23:15.080 If you have counterfeit faith, your works show that. 00:23:16.380 --> 00:23:19.040 If you have counterfeit faith, your works show that. 00:23:19.300 --> 00:23:22.140 Who you are, this is what lives out in your life. 00:23:22.140 --> 00:23:29.380 But if you have saving faith, right, the second part is it becomes a visible faith. 00:23:30.180 --> 00:23:31.160 It's seen. 00:23:31.800 --> 00:23:32.860 It's tangible. 00:23:33.900 --> 00:23:34.900 You can touch it. 00:23:35.020 --> 00:23:36.160 You can hear it. 00:23:36.400 --> 00:23:37.600 You can sense it. 00:23:37.840 --> 00:23:38.960 You can see it. 00:23:39.840 --> 00:23:39.980 Right? 00:23:40.740 --> 00:23:45.900 My men's group that meets on Thursday mornings, we're going through the book of Genesis and looking at the life of Joseph. 00:23:45.900 --> 00:24:01.400 And Joseph, not to recap everything that we've gone through, right, but Joseph, as he's in Egypt, it says several times throughout Scripture that those who are not believers know that Joseph is a believer of God because of who he is and what they see. 00:24:02.180 --> 00:24:07.480 Joseph's not walking around with scrolls, slapping bumper stickers on the inside of his prison cell, right? 00:24:08.460 --> 00:24:09.700 Saying, I believe in Jesus. 00:24:10.660 --> 00:24:16.900 But from tangible evidence in his life, this is what they see and who his faith is. 00:24:17.120 --> 00:24:20.880 So true faith, a saving faith, it's a visible faith. 00:24:21.420 --> 00:24:30.160 In the practicality of James, what James does for us so graciously and kindly is James gives examples of this faith. 00:24:30.220 --> 00:24:32.680 And the first example that he gives us is Abraham. 00:24:33.640 --> 00:24:38.540 He says, was not, verse 21, was not Abraham our father justified by works? 00:24:38.540 --> 00:24:40.800 When he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 00:24:41.320 --> 00:24:47.040 You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works. 00:24:47.360 --> 00:24:54.660 And the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God and it was kind to him as righteousness as he was called a friend of God. 00:24:54.860 --> 00:24:59.660 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 00:25:01.820 --> 00:25:11.520 Genesis 15, 6 says, in the account of Abraham, and he believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. 00:25:12.080 --> 00:25:20.920 So Abraham believed in who God was and what God said to promise to Abraham entered into a covenant relationship that he would do, 00:25:21.100 --> 00:25:24.520 that God would bring a great nation and lineage through him. 00:25:24.780 --> 00:25:27.220 The redeemer would come through his son Isaac. 00:25:27.560 --> 00:25:29.040 This is, this is, this is the promise. 00:25:29.040 --> 00:25:35.300 And Abraham placed his faith in that God, the one true God. 00:25:36.540 --> 00:25:39.340 And then life got complicated. 00:25:40.620 --> 00:25:41.760 Life got tough. 00:25:42.520 --> 00:25:49.220 It had to become more than an interaction in a moment that Abraham had with God. 00:25:49.700 --> 00:25:54.740 And we see this account in Genesis chapter two, and I'm going to read, start in verse one. 00:25:54.820 --> 00:25:58.240 We're going to read all the way through, let me see what we got here, through verse 14. 00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:06.500 And it says, after these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here I am. 00:26:07.520 --> 00:26:09.760 Verse two, the promise that God gives him. 00:26:10.460 --> 00:26:11.920 Verse two is going to come into some conflict. 00:26:13.000 --> 00:26:27.140 He said, take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of those mountains of which I should tell you, right? 00:26:28.560 --> 00:26:29.860 Sacrifice him, kill him. 00:26:31.060 --> 00:26:31.880 Verse three. 00:26:33.580 --> 00:26:37.140 So Abraham arose early in the morning. 00:26:38.180 --> 00:26:40.500 I don't know if you're prone to procrastinate. 00:26:41.300 --> 00:26:42.180 I am. 00:26:43.580 --> 00:26:50.480 If God says, go sacrifice your son, I don't know that I'm getting up that early for that, right? 00:26:52.300 --> 00:26:52.780 Faith. 00:26:53.980 --> 00:27:01.640 Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and his son Isaac. 00:27:02.440 --> 00:27:07.980 And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. 00:27:08.860 --> 00:27:14.820 And on the third day in this journey, Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. 00:27:15.480 --> 00:27:17.920 In verse five, I love verse five. 00:27:19.200 --> 00:27:24.400 Then Abraham said to his young men, this is faith, people. 00:27:24.760 --> 00:27:25.880 Stay here with the donkey. 00:27:26.280 --> 00:27:29.720 I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you. 00:27:31.000 --> 00:27:31.400 Faith. 00:27:32.860 --> 00:27:36.860 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son. 00:27:37.820 --> 00:27:41.360 And he took in his hand the knife, the fire and the knife. 00:27:42.420 --> 00:27:43.960 And so they went, both of them together. 00:27:51.180 --> 00:27:54.300 And Isaac said to his father, Abraham, my father. 00:27:54.420 --> 00:27:55.600 And he said, here I am, my son. 00:27:55.840 --> 00:27:58.540 He said, behold, the fire and the wood. 00:27:58.920 --> 00:28:00.580 But where is the lamb for the burnt offering? 00:28:01.300 --> 00:28:06.440 And Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. 00:28:06.740 --> 00:28:09.360 So they both went together. 00:28:09.360 --> 00:28:13.140 Verse nine, and they came to the place of which God had told him. 00:28:13.480 --> 00:28:18.080 And Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac, his son, 00:28:18.240 --> 00:28:20.820 and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. 00:28:21.440 --> 00:28:27.500 In verse 10, then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. 00:28:28.520 --> 00:28:37.400 But we pass by and say, I don't have money to feed you. 00:28:39.180 --> 00:28:42.520 And he reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son. 00:28:43.220 --> 00:28:47.980 But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. 00:28:48.240 --> 00:28:50.020 And he said, here I am. 00:28:50.160 --> 00:28:53.960 And he said, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to harm him. 00:28:53.960 --> 00:29:00.280 For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. 00:29:00.500 --> 00:29:03.100 And Abraham lifted his eyes and looked. 00:29:03.380 --> 00:29:07.400 And behold, behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by his horns. 00:29:07.680 --> 00:29:12.540 And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 00:29:12.780 --> 00:29:15.200 So Abraham called the name of that place. 00:29:15.460 --> 00:29:16.960 The Lord will provide. 00:29:17.780 --> 00:29:23.220 As it is said to that day on the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. 00:29:23.500 --> 00:29:27.220 So Genesis 15, Abraham declares his faith. 00:29:27.520 --> 00:29:30.020 Genesis 22, we got to see how this works out. 00:29:31.140 --> 00:29:34.880 Do you really believe what you claim? 00:29:36.920 --> 00:29:39.460 And Abraham believed and it's seen. 00:29:40.260 --> 00:29:41.820 Was Abraham's faith dead? 00:29:42.780 --> 00:29:43.220 No. 00:29:44.280 --> 00:29:44.640 No. 00:29:45.760 --> 00:29:48.660 It was working and it was growing. 00:29:49.440 --> 00:29:50.480 And it was difficult. 00:29:51.660 --> 00:29:54.080 Was Abraham's faith demonic? 00:29:55.240 --> 00:29:56.280 Was it in rebellion? 00:29:56.380 --> 00:29:57.280 No, it was surrendered. 00:29:58.400 --> 00:30:03.560 God, you tell me what to do with the things that are most precious to me. 00:30:03.560 --> 00:30:05.040 And Lord, I will obey. 00:30:05.560 --> 00:30:10.160 I will obey in every step that he took. 00:30:10.540 --> 00:30:11.460 He obeyed. 00:30:11.640 --> 00:30:12.480 Was it useless? 00:30:12.800 --> 00:30:13.480 Was it empty? 00:30:13.740 --> 00:30:14.220 No, no, no, no. 00:30:14.240 --> 00:30:14.920 It was working. 00:30:15.200 --> 00:30:18.100 It was working in his life. 00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:19.920 Look at verse 22 in James 2. 00:30:20.260 --> 00:30:24.540 You see that faith was active along with his works. 00:30:24.940 --> 00:30:28.480 And faith was completed by his works. 00:30:29.720 --> 00:30:31.820 James says it was active with. 00:30:32.840 --> 00:30:35.100 His faith was active with his works. 00:30:35.560 --> 00:30:40.080 And his faith was completed by his works. 00:30:40.300 --> 00:30:42.640 But then there's another illustration. 00:30:42.900 --> 00:30:43.800 There's Rahab. 00:30:44.720 --> 00:30:47.560 And if you're thinking like Abraham, okay, there's Abraham. 00:30:47.840 --> 00:30:49.720 Like Abraham, big deal, right? 00:30:49.860 --> 00:30:50.840 Big, big deal. 00:30:51.580 --> 00:30:52.680 But there's Rahab. 00:30:53.800 --> 00:30:57.940 Rahab can oftentimes be a forgotten character in scripture. 00:30:59.200 --> 00:31:02.060 But look at James 2, 25 and 26. 00:31:03.320 --> 00:31:12.600 And in the same way, was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 00:31:13.120 --> 00:31:19.900 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. 00:31:19.900 --> 00:31:22.600 So Rahab, here's who she was. 00:31:22.660 --> 00:31:26.460 She was a prostitute in the Canaanite city of Jericho, found in Joshua chapter 2. 00:31:27.180 --> 00:31:34.160 And Jericho was a fortified city that was directly in the path of where God told the Israelites to go as they crossed the Jordan. 00:31:34.160 --> 00:31:35.040 And they were to take it. 00:31:35.380 --> 00:31:42.840 But before they entered into the land, Joshua sent two spies over into Jericho to get a lay of the land to figure out what was going on. 00:31:43.280 --> 00:31:48.860 And the king of Jericho heard that they were two spies and ordered that the spies be brought to him. 00:31:49.340 --> 00:31:51.720 Now these men had stayed at Rahab's house. 00:31:52.200 --> 00:32:01.400 And Rahab, instead of turning them in, she hid them and helped them with a plan because she had heard about their God who would become her God. 00:32:01.880 --> 00:32:05.120 And in Joshua 2, verses 8 through 13, we get this story. 00:32:05.240 --> 00:32:10.400 It says, behold, the men laid down as she came up to them on the roof and said to them, 00:32:10.400 --> 00:32:21.680 I know that the Lord has given you the land that the fear of you has fallen upon us and all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:29.880 Verse 10, for we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt 00:32:29.880 --> 00:32:38.560 and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan to Sion and Og, whom you devoted destruction. 00:32:38.740 --> 00:32:42.640 And in verse 11, we're going to hear Rahab's profession of faith. 00:32:43.020 --> 00:32:49.760 And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted and there was no spirit left in any man because of you. 00:32:49.880 --> 00:32:52.160 For the Lord your God, here it comes. 00:32:52.400 --> 00:32:56.440 He is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath. 00:32:58.500 --> 00:33:05.440 Now then, please swear to me by the Lord that as I have dealt kindly with you, 00:33:06.160 --> 00:33:10.480 you will also deal kindly with my father's house and give me a sure sign. 00:33:10.720 --> 00:33:23.540 And that you will save alive my father and my mother, my brothers and sisters, all of whom belong to them and deliver our lives from death. 00:33:24.400 --> 00:33:39.580 She laid her life on the line to save them and said, as we share common faith, not racial connections that's there. 00:33:41.180 --> 00:33:42.740 She's not an Israelite. 00:33:43.740 --> 00:33:48.240 But as we share this commonality of faith, remember me. 00:33:49.220 --> 00:33:50.000 And they did. 00:33:51.020 --> 00:33:56.640 And when they took Jericho, her family was the only one saved. 00:33:56.900 --> 00:33:59.860 The writer of Hebrews talks about her also in Hebrews 11 31. 00:33:59.860 --> 00:34:09.240 And he says, by faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies. 00:34:10.300 --> 00:34:12.200 There have been a lot of questions about Rahab's faith. 00:34:13.460 --> 00:34:16.380 Why she's continually known as Rahab the prostitute. 00:34:17.540 --> 00:34:20.360 And here's what I'll land on about Rahab this morning. 00:34:21.920 --> 00:34:23.260 Rahab's faith was young. 00:34:24.620 --> 00:34:28.460 Rahab's faith in a lot of areas could be argued that it was weak. 00:34:29.100 --> 00:34:30.720 And with some sinful tendencies. 00:34:31.720 --> 00:34:31.880 All right. 00:34:32.480 --> 00:34:33.660 But it was living. 00:34:34.180 --> 00:34:35.340 It was surrendering. 00:34:35.740 --> 00:34:36.740 And it was working. 00:34:37.660 --> 00:34:40.580 And her faith saved her. 00:34:41.840 --> 00:34:45.620 Rahab's faith, Abraham's faith was a saving faith. 00:34:46.560 --> 00:34:51.460 And so faith alone unites us to Christ for righteousness. 00:34:51.920 --> 00:34:58.460 And the faith that unites us to Christ for righteousness does not remain alone. 00:34:59.100 --> 00:34:59.700 It works. 00:34:59.700 --> 00:35:00.720 It works. 00:35:00.720 --> 00:35:08.100 And it produces something in us that then comes from us. 00:35:09.100 --> 00:35:10.460 And so I want to close with this. 00:35:11.000 --> 00:35:14.160 I want to end with the verse we began with. 00:35:14.980 --> 00:35:17.140 What good is it, Willow Ridge Church? 00:35:19.140 --> 00:35:29.940 If someone says that he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him? 00:35:32.600 --> 00:35:39.240 This morning, I want to ask you this question. 00:35:41.060 --> 00:35:42.420 What kind of faith do you have? 00:35:44.160 --> 00:35:45.440 What kind of faith do you have? 00:35:47.160 --> 00:35:48.400 Do you have counterfeit faith? 00:35:49.600 --> 00:35:50.480 Dead faith? 00:35:51.480 --> 00:35:52.280 Rebellious faith? 00:35:53.120 --> 00:35:53.880 Useless faith? 00:35:55.080 --> 00:35:56.340 Or do you have saving faith? 00:35:57.380 --> 00:35:58.520 Faith that is alive? 00:35:59.300 --> 00:36:00.080 Faith that is surrendered? 00:36:00.940 --> 00:36:01.580 Faith that is working? 00:36:02.780 --> 00:36:02.960 All right. 00:36:03.580 --> 00:36:04.220 Would you pray with me? 00:36:09.680 --> 00:36:13.820 Lord, I thank you for the difficulty of this passage of scripture. 00:36:16.900 --> 00:36:22.560 Lord, I thank you for the hard exam that it creates within us. 00:36:23.080 --> 00:36:27.160 Are we simply hearers of the word? 00:36:28.980 --> 00:36:30.340 Or are we doers? 00:36:31.860 --> 00:36:35.940 Is our faith simply something that we know? 00:36:37.160 --> 00:36:40.260 Or is our faith who we are? 00:36:41.800 --> 00:36:43.620 Do we have saving faith? 00:36:44.960 --> 00:36:49.860 Faith by grace in Christ and Christ alone. 00:36:51.660 --> 00:36:59.720 Not merited by our own works, by our own deeds, but in our own account. 00:37:00.720 --> 00:37:10.900 But faith by grace through Christ and through his work and through his perfection and through what he has done. 00:37:13.160 --> 00:37:18.660 But a faith that is working. 00:37:18.660 --> 00:37:19.780 A faith that is alive. 00:37:21.360 --> 00:37:23.600 A faith that is surrendered. 00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:27.180 A faith that desires obedience. 00:37:28.700 --> 00:37:30.840 A faith that hates sin. 00:37:32.380 --> 00:37:34.220 A faith that loves people. 00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:39.120 A faith that is deepening and growing in you. 00:37:41.340 --> 00:37:41.580 All right. 00:37:41.640 --> 00:37:44.520 Lord, is this the faith that we have? 00:37:46.100 --> 00:37:48.200 Lord, as we gather in here. 00:37:49.400 --> 00:37:56.980 Lord, so many times this message, this passage of scripture is not for the person who this is their first time hearing about Christ. 00:37:57.060 --> 00:38:06.700 But it resonates the most in the man or the woman who for years has heard about Christ. 00:38:08.060 --> 00:38:10.920 Who has made an intellectual decision about Christ. 00:38:12.500 --> 00:38:14.860 Who's given Sunday morning to Christ. 00:38:16.460 --> 00:38:20.640 But who holds Monday through Saturday for themselves. 00:38:22.840 --> 00:38:26.780 Who holds the works of their faith for themselves. 00:38:29.360 --> 00:38:35.220 Lord, may we be the people who embody a living faith. 00:38:36.260 --> 00:38:37.100 A true faith. 00:38:37.920 --> 00:38:38.920 A saving faith. 00:38:39.820 --> 00:38:43.920 That's not found in what we do in and of ourselves. 00:38:44.900 --> 00:38:49.240 But is found and is evident by the work of the Spirit living in us. 00:38:51.300 --> 00:38:53.040 So, Father, speak to us. 00:38:54.380 --> 00:39:01.180 Those of us this morning, Lord, who need to come recognizing our faith in Christ. 00:39:01.480 --> 00:39:04.000 But, Lord, seeing maybe we've become stale. 00:39:04.140 --> 00:39:06.140 Maybe we've hit the cruise control. 00:39:06.720 --> 00:39:06.880 Right. 00:39:08.200 --> 00:39:10.020 And, Lord, you're working in us. 00:39:10.740 --> 00:39:12.600 Saying, ah, today's a good day. 00:39:13.020 --> 00:39:14.680 Just fall before me. 00:39:17.100 --> 00:39:17.940 And repent. 00:39:18.940 --> 00:39:27.040 Or maybe today is that day when we recognize that our faith has never been saving faith. 00:39:28.180 --> 00:39:30.060 It's always been counterfeit. 00:39:31.820 --> 00:39:39.680 And today is the day when we say, Jesus, I want the saving faith that only you can provide. 00:39:42.040 --> 00:39:46.560 God, work, draw us near to you. 00:39:47.400 --> 00:39:48.460 And it's in Jesus' name we pray. 00:39:48.460 --> 00:40:05.420 Thanks again for listening to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast. 00:40:05.740 --> 00:40:08.040 We hope that you enjoyed listening to this week's message. 00:40:08.360 --> 00:40:12.040 If you'd like to learn more about who we are or explore additional resources, 00:40:12.640 --> 00:40:17.100 visit us online at www.willowridgechurch.com 00:40:17.100 --> 00:40:20.680 or by searching for Willow Ridge Church on Facebook and Instagram.