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Sermons and messages from Pastor Jason White and others at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Tyler, TX
If you have your Bible this morning, we're going to be looking at James chapter two, if you want to turn there, if you want to pull out your device that maybe have a Bible app on and you finally want to follow along that way, we're going to be in James chapter two, starting in verse 14. And just a moment, we'll be looking at verses 14 through 26. If you're familiar with your Bible, you're familiar with James, you know that this has become one of the most talked about passages in all of Scripture all throughout the Bible, James is going to bring up faith and works and how faith without works is dead. He's going to say in those statements, that statement alone has led a lot of people to begin to teach that either works are necessary for salvation. Or that true saving faith will always result in a lifetime of good works. And so in other words, if works aren't necessarily have to be there for salvation, it's still grace alone, by faith alone in Christ alone. But we reconcile what James is saying here by saying that a true Christian will progressively and faithfully and persistently produce good works throughout his or her own life. That's the evidence of true saving genuine faith, by grace alone through faith alone, in Christ alone. So a lot of times, it's become the litmus test, if you will, on whether or not someone is saved. I've been a part of a lot of conferences, a lot of church services were there, it was a big part of altar calls, right? And you need to know that you may not really be saved if you're not seeing this evidence of good works based on this. And even if you made a profession of faith, and you've been baptized, and all of those kinds of things in it seemed real, but you don't really see the works there, then you may not be saved, and people really getting saved in those moments. And then I've seen a lot of people really confused after that, because they feel like they become really, truly committed Christians and the evidence of the works is there. But then they begin to fall away a little bit later. And then they are confused. Again, a true Christian wouldn't fall in a way like that and do those things. And they say that I'm going to persistently and faithfully produce good works or manufacture those. I mean, I wouldn't do that must not really be saved, I didn't really even really mean it. The second time that came forward, there's just a lot of confusion about this kind of thing. And what James is saying here, and I personally, don't think that that's what James is trying to accomplish throughout this section of scripture. And I think you'll see that as we walk through it today. Now, listen, there's a lot of really smart scholarly people whom the Holy Spirit lives in, who have written about this passage, and will land on a different interpretation of where I'm going with this today. And I'll admit that, and I'm saying this is the way I see as I've studied scripture, and I've read it, and I've read commentaries and prayed through it, that I feel convicted about what he means in this and to teach it and bring it before you today. And if you don't necessarily agree with that, or land on a different place, that's okay, too. We can still be brothers and sisters in Christ and be in this thing together and not land exactly on the same page with everything that there is in scripture here together. And that's the beauty of the church and the unity that he brings us through the diversity and where we're all at at different times. But with that being said, let's dive right in and just walk through what James says, In this section, verse 14, he says, What good is it? My brothers and sisters if someone claims to have faith, but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Okay, so when James says, What good is it here? He's saying, what does it profit? What ever translation you're reading from may even it may say that what is it profit, the Greek word that he's using there? That's what he's getting at? What does it profit? What benefit? Is it if someone claims to have faith, but have no deeds? And of course, the answer that James is looking for is none. It's not profiting to that person or to anyone else around them. Then he asked the question, Can such faith can that kind of faith, save them now, to me, this is where the first place we really start getting, you know, off and down into the weeds and down the directions that we talked about a little bit earlier, because we see the word save there, the Greek word soza. And we automatically think that it means salvation from hell. But I don't think that what is what James necessarily means here. And we see that from what we talked about in week one, when we walk through the first 18 or 20. Few, I don't remember how far we went during week one of this message series. So let's go back and just look at some One thing that James said during the first part of this letter in verse 18, he said he chose referring to God, to give us birth through the word of truth. And in verse 21, he says, humbly, accept the Word planted in you, which can Soho you which can save your soul, the Greek word suitcase is there in the original text. So same word in both places. And I don't think that James means salvation from hell here, either. He's already said in verse 18, that God had given them a new birth. He said in verse 21, that the word had already been planted in them, they'd already been saved from the penalty of sin. And when he says, to accept the word already planted in them, that they just received by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, that means to accept Jesus's way of doing things to allow your actions to line up with who you now are in Christ, the new creation that he's made you into. And so when you and I take action in this way, and following where Jesus is leading us, that's when we finally begin to really experience our salvation in those moments, we were already saved before those moments, but now we begin to experience our salvation in an outward way through our souls. It's one of the ways that we experience the new creation that we've become the salvation that we've received in our lives. So that's one way we experienced salvation in those moments. But there's another way that we experience salvation in those moments, as well see, as we take action, and we follow Jesus in His ways, and the ways that he's leading us to live than we are also saved from the negative realities and natural consequences of sin. I mean, when we sin, we always experience consequences of sin. We don't spirits condemnation, but we experience the consequences of sin in our lives, it never fulfills it never satisfied, it actually leaves us feeling worse, instead of better, may feel good in the short term. But in the long term, we always feel worse. So this is what James I think is talking about here in verse 14, when he says, Can such faith save him, not save him from hill. But faith alone cannot allow someone to experience their salvation, you'll miss out on the life of Christ flowing through you if you don't take action to. And also, it won't save you from the negative realities and the natural consequences of sin that you experience if you don't follow through in action with the ways that he's leading you into those actions. I really like the way that Tony Evans puts it in relation to this passage, he says this, James is not talking about a sinner who needs to get to heaven, but rather a saint who needs needs heaven to work through him. James is not talking about a sinner who needs to get to heaven, but a saint who needs heaven to work through him. And so this is the first thing I think that we need to see that James is not talking about how to get to heaven. He's talking about how to have heaven work through you, because it's already present. You're already spiritually seated there as a citizen of heaven. James goes on verse 15, within example, so suppose the brother or sister is without clothes and daily food, if one of you says to them Go in peace, keep warm and well fed, but does nothing about their physical needs? What good is it? What does it profit? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead? Obviously, everyone knows that if you saw someone in need of clothing and food, and you just kind of wished him, well, just good luck with that, buddy, that it's not going to profit them in any way. That's kind of done what he's saying here. So James, relates that to faith and deeds here, it doesn't profit you does it profit anyone else around you if faith isn't accompanied by the actions, that the object of your faith is leading you in? In that moment, you're going to miss out on experiencing his life through you to make impact on that person.
You're not going to experience the salvation that you have in the ways that Jesus is leading you to in that moment. So James says that faith without action is dead. It's useless. It doesn't profit. James isn't saying here that there's no faith. Again, this is another place where I think a lot of us move away from what I think he's saying here in context. A lot of people say that faith being dead equals no Have faith that you don't have any faith. If someone isn't doing good deeds, then that means that they had no faith in the first place. And they weren't really Christians is the way we hear it taught a lot of times. A couple of things about this, I mean, just even thinking through these kinds of things, I mean, philosophers, when looking at logic and making arguments, say things like a cannot be non A. In other words, you can't say that an apple is not an apple, right? It's illogical. You can't make that statement. So you can't say that faith is not faith, you can't say that faith by itself is not faith. It doesn't seem to add up and make sense when James is saying that faith without works is dead. He isn't saying it's not faith, he's saying it's unprofitable. I mean, if you and I have faith, that it's better to give, than to receive, but we don't follow through with giving to someone in the moment that they're in need, you can see that that's unprofitable. That doesn't mean that I don't really believe that. There are things that I can deeply believe I believe in loving and serving, and I should faithfully sacrificially love my wife as Christ loves the church. And if times if I'm walking in my flesh, and I'm being selfish and lazy, and not helping and sacrificing for her and with her along the way, then does that mean that I don't really believe those things or have faith that that's true what I should be doing, though, it just means that in that moment, it's beyond that belief is being unprofitable, not experiencing the what I could experience, if I was walking in my, in the spirit, instead of my flesh in those moments, because when we're walking by the power of the Spirit in us, and through us bad faith and dependence, it's always going to lead to action. If Jesus is leading and putting something on our hearts about this as the thing that we would be should do in that moment, and we don't follow through with that in the power of the Spirit, then that's me walking in my flesh that leads to no action. The Spirit, if I'm trusting in him, he's always going to lead me into following through with that action as I make myself available to him. Now, James, as he goes on, brings up and objector someone who might object to what James is saying here about faith and deeds and how they work together. He says this in verse 18, he says, but someone will say you have faith, I have deeds, show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith, by my deeds, you believe that there is one God good, even the demons believe that in shutter. Okay, so let's talk about these quotation marks for just a second. There are no quotation marks in the original Greek. When James was writing this, there's no quotation marks that are there. Those who do the work of translation and reading the original Greek text, and translating that into English have to decide where they should put the quotation marks in different translators land in different places as where to where to place these particular quotation marks. In other words, who's saying what? The object or what's he saying? And when does James come back in and start responding to the objector in the NIV, which I think was on your screen first. They make the assumption that it's just you have faith and I have deeds, that's the only thing the objector says. And then James steps back in it says, show me your faith without deeds, and I'll show you my faith by my deeds and trying to prove him wrong. But look at the NASB translation, and where the quotation marks are there. They're wrapped around the entire verse 18, you have faith, and I have works, show me your faith without works. And I will show you my faith by my works, the objector, saying that and then they make the determination that James jumps back into verse 19, in response to the objector, by saying yet you believe that God is one do you do well, and demons also believe in shutter. Now, here's yet another translation, where the quotation marks are wrapped around all of verse 18. And all of verse 19. In other words, they're making the determination that the objector is saying everything within that, and then James comes back, and starts to respond to Him in verse 20.
I read a lot of different things about this this week. And if you pick up a number of commentaries, they'll walk you through this version, then you can I mean, you can get buried in it all. And then finally, someone in the commentary say, we believe, you know that it's probably this but we're not really sure about these kinds of things here. I'm just telling you, again, And I'm not a translator, I can't do the work that they're all doing in these kind of situations. But what made the most sense to me as I read through a lot of different things that a lot of people said was that the quotation marks or the objector is saying everything that's there in verse 18, and 19 that we just looked at last and James doesn't pick back up and start responding to him until James chapter two verse 20. And in the reason is because that seems like the most natural spot where James jumps back in the conversation, because in verse 20, he jumps in and says, You foolish person, like he's addressing the objector. Now, finally, do you want evidence that faith without deeds as well, some translations even say it, but do you want to know? Oh, foolish man, right, which just seems like okay, now I'm jumping back in, and I'm gonna respond to what it is that you are saying. Here's what one of the commentators that are red said around this in verse 18, and 19, a specific literary format that James uses, was familiar from the Greek diatribe, which was learned and a learned in argument of form of discourse. The form employed in verses 18 through 20, might be called the objection reply format. Words such as James but someone will say, are used to introduce the objection. And when the objection has been stated, a sharp rejoinder is begun with words like James, but do you want to know, oh, foolish man, this same format used by James also encouraged in Rome's to Romans chapter nine, and First Corinthians chapter 15. And the view that many writers that James reply has to begin at verse 18. B ignores the manifest structural signals of James text, these writers have failed to produce any comparable text in relevant scripture. I don't know, that just makes the most sense to me. As I prayed about and read a lot of these things, that seems to be the thing that makes the most sense about the objector. And then where James is jumping back in and the objector, what he's really kind of saying here is no, James, faith does not result in actions, nor does actions or do actions result in faith or reveal faith. They aren't linked, the objector is saying, and the objector brings up the example of the demons. He says, you know, for example, the demons believe they have faith that God is not multiple gods, but just one God, they have the correct beliefs about who God is, but they're not going to go out and do good deeds. So see, James, they're not linked. The right faith doesn't necessarily lead to the right actions. James jumps back in and says, You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless with its unprofitable, and he gives the example of Abraham and Rahab in the Old Testament, verse 21, was not our father Abraham, considered righteous for what he did. When he offered his son Isaac on the altar, you see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. 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 considered righteous by what they do, and not by faith alone, in the same way was not even Rahab, the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction. Okay, so we certainly don't have time to take an Uber deep dive into everything that was going on in these Old Testament situations that James brings up here. But what James is showing is that this objector that he had brought up it is it to the objector is that Abraham and Ray Hubbs faith in these situations that he mentioned, was working together with their actions. He said, Is it it was made complete, it was carried out, the faith was there, the faith was carried out, it became mature, this is the way faith is supposed to work. Now, this wasn't always the case in Abraham's life. Abraham made a lot of mistakes along the way. You can go read about all of those in Jay in the book of Genesis. But you know, I mean, Abraham grew impatient, waiting for God's promise of a son, and ended up sleeping with his maid servant to help God out over here and again, you'll see a number of mistakes that he makes along the way. Now, does that mean that Abraham didn't have faith in God or any faith in God? I mean, again, if the point of the passage is to prove that you must have good works to be saved or evidence of those things, then Abraham must not have had saving faith. I mean, there are a lot of things that were not very progressive about him moving forward in the way that He was responding to God and the faith that he had. But we're told in Genesis chapter 15, that he believed God and his faith was credited to him as righteousness that he was justified in that moment. But there were times when his faith and actions were not working together, his faith in those moments was dead, it was unprofitable. It was not didn't mean it wasn't there. It just meant it was unprofitable. But we see in this example of trusting God with Isaac, right, where, where his faith and trust and dependence on God in that moment led to the right actions, and it was profitable, and it saved him from the consequences of sin. And then it also justified Him before men. People saw that this or solve this and the way that he trusted God with this and the way God responded to him and provided for him in this particular moment, to save him and to save Isaac and they called him God's friend. He's a friend of God based on the outworking of what they saw the faith and the trust. In that particular moment. Abraham was a friend of God before, he didn't become the friend of God, when He trusted him in that moment and followed through with his actions. It was a manifestation of his trust and faith, and people could see outwardly now this is a friend of God. This is someone who knows God is in in relationship with Him. Abraham's faith was justified before men, they saw how it was profitable in the outworking of his faith. And this is the way it is meant to work. After we all put our faith and trust in Jesus for salvation, to then exercise faith in the way that he is guiding and leading us in life by actually taking the steps that he's leading us in, in guiding us into that's when his power, that's when his life come flowing through us. It's no longer dormant and in useless and just sitting there. It's being carried out to completion, and we experience our salvation coming through our lives in those moments. So James, I think, is trying to get his audience and us to see that if we put our faith and trust in Jesus for salvation, and are not following through, then we are missing out on God's power working in us and through us. You may have faith and eternal life with or in him to go to heaven one day, but you are missing out on that eternal life working through you. Now, in those moments, it's not benefiting you in your own life. And it's certainly not benefiting others around you. Maybe this illustration will help. One of the things that we can't avoid today and that we're all kind of into a smart technology, right? We have smart phones, we have smart cars, we have smart TVs, we have smart everything it seems like Right? Well, part of that smart technology, we have motion sensor lights, right Motion Detecting lights. And so you can walk up to the edge of a room and see that it's dark in that room. But when that begins, that sensor begins to sense motion, when it sees that action, then the lights get turned on. But again, it has to detect the movement before the lights will actually respond. Now, the lights are there, all the power to the lights is connected. But until you actually take a step of action, you will not see that power kick in, in activate those lights, you can stand at the door, you can have all the faith in the world that the lights are in that room, all the faith, that power is hooked up to those lights, but you're not going to see those lights turned on by faith alone. It is useless, it is not profiting you you have to take a step of action and then that power kicks in and activates the lights in those
rooms. So we can have put our faith and trust in Jesus for salvation, received his life. It's all completely there, the power, it's all hooked up, just like the lights are in a dark room and the sensors and all of that stuff but it's just sitting there dormant but when we have the faith that Jesus is leading us to take a certain action and we take a step of action in that direction. That's when the lights kick on. That's when the power kicks in begins to flow through us and produce results and our faith is now on display. For others our salvation is being manifested through us Before a lost in a dying world, makes it useful, makes it profitable, an impact is being made. So James finishes up in verse 26, and says, As the body with the spirit is dead, so faith, without deeds is dead. Without deeds without action, it leaves faith dormant, it just sits there, you miss out on the life of Christ being expressed through you, you miss out on his power being expressed through you, when you walk by your flesh, you reap flesh, you sow flesh, you reap flesh, you walk by the Spirit, you reap the eternal life that was already in you, but as now being expressed through you. What does this mean for you? What does it mean for us as a church? Well, let's, let's not be a church who's sitting around waiting to get to heaven. Let's realize that heaven exists in us, we're already spiritually seated there and allow heaven to be expressed through us in action, and indeed, in order to make Kingdom impact in this world.
I think that's what this passage is about. I don't I don't think it's about James wanting us to second guess whether we're really saved or not based on our actions. Again, it's not a passage about sinners needing to get to heaven, but about saints needing heaven to work through them. And so the question becomes, how is Jesus wanting to work through you this morning? Well, what's he leading you to get involved with and take action on in this world that you've been ignoring, or dismissing in some way? Is it mentoring someone through the mentoring Alliance? Is it getting involved in helping to stop human trafficking? Is it fostering someone? Is it adopting someone? Is it providing financially for someone in need serving widows, serving orphans, ministering to your neighbors, telling them about Jesus, taking them a meal, reaching out to somebody on your sports team or your school or something else? Whatever it is, if you have the faith, that those are the ways that Jesus is leading you, but you are not following through with it in the power of the Spirit and doing those things, then it isn't profiting you and it certainly isn't profiting those whom Jesus is leading you to serve. So let's walk by faith and allow Jesus to lead us into his actions. Let's get involved in what he's doing in our community and around the world and let's experience heaven being manifested through us and transforming the lives of the people around us. Let's see faith in action.