Faith that Works
A Faith That Works
I’m sure that you’re familiar with the common expression, “Your actions speak louder than your words.” That’s really the theme of the whole book of James
The results of faith: A changed life
If our faith is inactive, it’s like a dead body without a spirit (James 2:17)
We can be unaware of how we are in danger
A man tells how he and his wife went up to Pike’s Peak in Colorado, just outside Colorado Springs. Pike’s Peak is 14,115 feet in altitude. The air was so thin that I immediately got dizzy and had a headache and his wife started turning purple. On the way back down, there is a place where they do a brake check. The road is so steep they want to make sure that people have not rode their brakes all the way down the hill so as to fail the rest of the way down. So about halfway down some authorities take a laser temperature of your brakes to see if they are hot and apt to fail. If you have, you are required to stop for a half hour to let the brakes cool. Everyone thinks their brakes are fine. But you would be surprised how many people were pulled over to the side to let the brakes cool down. They were saved from a catastrophe by having their brakes checked.
Do you have faith? I think nearly everyone in this room will answer this question with a "yes." We think we have faith. But it is important to let God do a check to make sure that you truly have faith. This is what James is doing in James 2:14-26. Do you have the faith that is acceptable to God? It is not enough to think we have faith. We need to test to determine if we have valid, real faith. The thesis of James’s discussion begins in verse 14.
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? (James 2:14 ESV)
James presents a person who claims to have faith. But does he really? This person has faith but he does not have any activity corresponding to that faith. James asks a very important question: can that faith save him? Can this kind of faith be saving faith? James will use four cases to answer this question. Can faith without any corresponding activity save?
Billy Graham, had this to say about faith and works and their relationship to each other: “There really is no conflict between faith and works. In the Christian life they go together like inhaling and exhaling. Faith is taking the Gospel in; works is taking the Gospel out.”
Table of Contents
Case #1: Faith without Works Is Dead (2:15-17)
Illustration: One may have an old washing machine that doesn’t work well, it’s not very useful, it’s not the best in the world, but at least it works. However, to have a dead washing machine. That’s not good for anything but to put out in a field and shoot for target practice. A dead washing machine is not really a washing machine, it’s a cubical hunk of junk.
Case #2: Belief Alone Is Useless (2:18-20) The works prove the faith.
Illustration: Can you imagine an arrogant young man standing on a basketball court and exclaiming that he can make five out of five half-court shots? Well, there’s an easy way to settle this, right? Step right up big boy and actually hit the shots! Let’s see what you can do!
In the same way, James says, it’s one thing to say that you have faith, but you don’t actually demonstrate genuine living faith until you show a changed life with godly living.
Case #3: Abraham Was Justified By His Works (2:21-24)
Jas 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Jas 2:22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?
Jas 2:23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.
Jas 2:24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
ABRAHAM'S FAITH WAS AN OBEDIENT FAITH that OBEYED GOD...
1. He left his country - He 11:8
2. He sojourned in a foreign land - He 11:9-10
3. He offered his son Isaac - He 11:17; cf. Jm 2:21-24
-- Abraham's faith was not a dead faith (cf. Jm 2:20,26), but a dynamic faith expressing itself in obedience!
-- Though he had a faith that works, he did not trust in his works; rather in God who justifies the ungodly
Case #4: Rahab Was Justified By Works
“By faith Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, after she had welcomed the spies in peace.”
Hebrews 11:31
We all probably know the story of Rahab the harlot. As a quick refresher, Joshua sent spies into the city of Jericho to check out the city Israel was to conquer. Rahab, a woman of ill repute, took in the spies and when the King’s men asked her to turn them over, she hid Joshua’s men in her attic. Then, she lied to the king’s men, telling them the spies “went that away!” Off the king’s men went, never finding the spies.
A short time later, the army of Israel marched around Jericho for six days. On the seventh, they blew the trumpets and the walls fell.
Rahab’s faith—a belief that the spies were men of God—saved her and her family. This led to a series of amazing events.
What we do know is; a woman who was likely at the absolute bottom of the social ladder, who was likely mocked by the very men who accessed her services, who was labeled in the most hurtful way . . . suddenly faced a choice and an opportunity.
She could choose to obey the authority she knew (her king), or she could choose the God she did not know. She decided on a leap of faith.
Hundreds of years later, the writer of the letter to the Hebrews still called her “Rahab the harlot.” So no, she didn’t lose her label. But she did gain entrance into what we now call, “The Hall of Faith” in Hebrews 11.
Rahab’s choice led to the conquering of Jericho. Which led to Israel’s rise as a nation. Rahab’s choice also led her to marry Salmon, which led to the birth of Boaz. Boaz married Ruth, one of only two women to have books of the Bible named after them. Rahab, Ruth and others created the generational line leading to the mighty King David. And King David led to . . . Jesus.
One choice. Just one. By a woman with everything stacked against her.
Keep in mind.
“Can God work through me?” God uses the unlikely. Regardless of our pasts--whether better or worse than Rahab’s--God seeks those who will seize the opportunities He gives.
Rahab seized her opportunity and her moment of faith changed the scope of human history. Why can’t this happen when the unlikely person walks in our door? And why can’t this happen with us, his unlikely servants?
Conclusion:
There is a story about some very wealthy and well-placed people visiting Mother Teresa in Calcutta. She received them graciously and showed them the work that she and the Sisters of Charity did. The story goes that at one point along the way, Mother Teresa stopped to dress the wounds of a leper. As she cleaned the oozing wounds and replaced the soiled bandages, one of the wealthy people was heard to say, “I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars!” – To which Mother Teresa was said to have replied, “Neither would I.” Now this story may be urban legend but it doesn’t matter, because Mother Teresa did devote her entire life to helping the lepers and the homeless and the abandoned in Calcutta, India.
WHAT IS UNDENIABLE IS THAT MOTHER TERESA’S FAITH DROVE HER TO DEVOTE HER ENTIRE LIFE TO HELPING THE MOST HELPLESS AND NEEDY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.
“Our faith must actually move our hands, feet, minds, and bodies to demonstrate the character and kingdom of God. We serve the poor, we fight oppression, we feed the hungry, we invite people in our homes, we encourage one another with words, we love our neighbors.
1. False faith offers no service to others. In the first illustration James revealed that false, non-saving faith does not act on behalf of others. It says all the right things but does not help others.
2. False faith offers no obedience to God. In the second illustration James showed us that demons believe but they do not have saving faith. So also for us that our belief is not enough. Faith must lead to action in obedience to God.
3. True faith offers costly obedience. The third illustration showed us the faith of Abraham. We learn from Abraham that true faith offers obedience of great sacrifice. Saving faith will make great sacrifices to serve and obey the Lord.
4. True faith offers costly service to others. In the final illustration James used Rahab to show that saving faith acts godly toward others. Saving faith acts in the best interests of others, even at a detrimental cost to one’s self.
5. No Such Thing as Secret Faith
