Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: will we trust and obey Jesus in the real decisions of everyday life? Christ forms us through truth received, repentance practiced, and obedience lived out.
Main Points
Grace and Justification
hey let's open up our bibles to james chapter 2. and this morning i this passage is very dear to me tucker was very accurate in that regard this has been an important passage for me in my life and so i'm excited to get to share it with you guys um and really this morning i want to present some questions to you and i want to tell you some stories and so we're going to do that through the book of james and in chapter 2 here but the first question i really wanna to start with is you know a lot of people say they believe in god and i think if i took a poll you guys would probably say you believe in god is that correct can we do a quick show of hands no you don't again if you want to that's fine but yeah i'd say or a church that's a good assumption i can probably make that says yes you guys believe in god that's great um i guess the different question maybe to ask then is well what does that really mean to say you believe in god and that's what james is going to get at this morning and so in james chapter 2 verse 19 is where we're going to start we're going to pick up with the verse that kirk left with last week because i think it's just very uh poignant for where we're going to go today so if you guys will read along with me in james chapter 2 verse 19 it says you believe that god is one you do well even the demons believe and they shudder do you want to be shown you foolish person that faith apart from works is useless was not abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son isaac on the altar you see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works and the scripture was fulfilled that says abraham believed god and it was counted to him as righteousness and he was called a friend of god you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone 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 for as the body apart from the spirit is dead so also faith apart from works is dead this is the word of god this is his words it's through james read by us this morning and i was reminded this last week that this book is our friend and i want to call it that more often i want to say hey friend let's go hang out let's go hang out let's go see what you have to say to me today and this is a good friend but this is a hard passage this morning i think it's a tough passage is it's challenging and it's sobering i'd say it's it stirs us it should it should awaken us because apart from like it says in verse 19 and 20 apart from the works is useless that faith apart from works is useless that's just challenging to listen to i want to recap really quick where we were at because i think it's important as we pivot into this subject because we've talked about mercy and what that looks like and we should be unpartial with it right we should just give it liberally kirk last week talked about charity and in that regard that's one way of showing mercy is how we're charitable to others how we can give to others and we should do that without partiality okay and now he's taking it one step further and he's saying well hey you believe in god that's great but the demons believe that so show me what you believe show it to me because if not if you're not showing it to me then what is this are you really a charitable person are you really a merciful person and so he's taking it one step further to me it seems like and so that let me let me tell you guys there's a story about my life this is a little bit of my testimony or my walk my journey with jesus and so this is this will be our first story i um i was born in spokane washington born and raised there great godly parents so grateful for them they were saved during the hippie movement the jesus people movement right so i had a great unique life i've we've had school buses in my life we've done all sorts of fun things and so and i'm so grateful for it but my parents took me to church and i'm so grateful for that they took me to church and they showed me what a christian life looks like and i think they did that well i went to bible school i went to like you know sunday school we do on sunday and i learned verses and i was able to repeat all the books of the bible the fastest in class i was good i was sharp right that's important back then when he's a child if you can rattle through the books of the bible really quick and i would go to awanas and i'd memorize verses i even went to the iwana olympics once anybody been to the iwana olympics you don't get there uh necessarily based off of your thoughts but you get there because of your athletic ability i think there's a there was a picture of me there it is yeah that was me awana olympian my grandma made me that sweater so careful and my dad probably gave me the haircut so that's debatable i think mullets are coming back though so maybe um maybe it's time but you know and i don't want to belittle that experiences that i was i was having as a kid i was learning i was growing i was i was absorbing and getting new facts and thoughts about god right all the way into my adolescence in my teenage years and into my 20s i was learning and growing but you see in my early 20s i woke up one morning and the night before i had been arrested because i was drunk driving and so i woke up this morning and i thought well what's going on what why isn't this working i know all the right things i believe the right things i've learned them i've been taught them from childhood why am i in trouble what happened i believed all the right stuff but i had gotten into partying in high school and i loved getting drunk because of who i could become and what i felt like and what i could act like and more confident and i got used to this lifestyle of partying and living in that way and all along i was i was believing in god i believed in god and this verse just kind of smacked me you believe in god but you do well the demons believe that i see i wasn't really living out the second half of that declaration there that james throws out that you believe the god is one it's in deuteronomy 6 4 through 5. i'll read the whole section to you because it says hear o israel the lord our god the lord is one great and you shall love the lord your god with all your heart with all your soul and with all your might see i didn't i didn't finish that part i didn't i didn't live out that half believed it the demons believe it the doctrinal statements for the demons is right on point believe in god yes they would absolutely believe in him and i had the same doctrinal statement in regards to that but my lifestyle didn't match the second half of this section i wasn't loving god with all my heart with all my soul with all my strength where were my works where were my deeds that james talks about did the actions of my life reflect the belief that i had in god i would be honest and say no they didn't they didn't they actually argued i'd say quite the opposite of my beliefs but i did the math and that was 19 years ago this november that i was awoken by god and he was giving me a little golf clap it was kind of sarcastic great job noah wanna olympian great job noah you memorized some verses you believe i'm god you checked the box good job you went to church good job and those are great things i don't want to again belittle those things but that slow golf clap from god challenged all my beliefs really what i really believed what i was really doing because my faith was empty faith and that's what paul's getting or that's what james is getting out here excuse me he's saying this is an empty faith and noah you have an empty faith that's what god was saying to me so it's good that you've done all those things that's so great but do you want me to show you know what that verse 20 says do you see it now you foolish person that your faith is empty it's idle it's useless it's dead it's not working do you want to do something about it what's the next thing will you live for me is what i what i caught when i was getting this golf clap will you live for me that's great that you believe in me will you live for me not just repeat it over and over again in my head and still does to this day but it's great that you believe in me will you live for me i want you guys to think about these same two questions and so that's why i said today's about questions and stories so those questions do you believe in god you guys said yeah a lot of you would say you believe in god and so if that's the case what kind of belief is it take a moment think about it ask god go home ask a family member loved one friend co-worker hey what kind of belief do i have do you see it in my life and then answer the next question that he's asking you do you live for me will you live for me if you don't you see james wants us to understand that i think faith of faith must produce in us some visible changes there has to be some actions connected this is not so much about doctrinal or nor apologetic that james is really getting out it's really practical it's about our character it's about our content it's about who we are day to day our rhythms of life of what we're doing and why we're doing it our habits say a lot about us and so james says that no life changes this is my words for james he's basically saying no life changes are symptomatic of a dead faith and so will you live for me is the challenge it's great because we have two great biblical examples here in the text so we'll hop into verse 21. it says was not abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son isaac on the altar you see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works because of that he goes into what us christians call the hall of faith hebrews 11. it's a list of all these great biblical characters that believed great things and did great things they lived these things out in action so i want to read to you his section in the hall of faith is hebrews 11.
Grace and Justification
it says by faith abraham when he was tested offered up isaac and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said in isaac your seed shall be called concluding that god was able to raise him up even from the dead from which he also received him in a figurative sense this is just an amazing story i love the story of abraham he's just such an awesome example to how we can live our life and just following god you know early on in his life god called him to leave his land you know it just seemed so bizarre back then why would you do that and he followed him he allowed that to happen he trusted god he had this experience with yahweh and it's like okay i'm going to follow you wherever you tell me to go and then he promises you're going to have a great nation behind you i'm going to give you so many kids and he believes this for years and years in genesis 15 when he first receives it all the way to genesis 20 there's many years that happen in between he finally receives this and now he's challenged because he's asked to offer up his son and will he do it conviction without action would be useless so he goes through with it and furthermore i just abraham's so great because it this act of faith that he recorded in 15 chapter 15 of genesis it occurred before he offered up isaac it occurred before the law was even around the law hadn't come out yet he was just having a relationship with god so this is all before the law came out and abraham is following jesus he's following god he's believing what is being said and he's walking in it and he's executing it and so then verse 23 comes in and it says and the scripture was fulfilled that abraham believed that god uh believed god and it was counted to him as righteousness and he was called a friend of god we talked about this earlier this summer in the sermon on the mount but abraham's righteousness was attributed to him because of his belief his faith and how he lived out that faith it was given to him because he had this sincere belief and he lived that belief out to the t we broke it down this summer that before because then the law didn't exist you just had this relationship with god it was we said that he was he was loyal to yahweh in this land that he was called to go to in the pagan world he trusted god when it didn't make sense the things that god was asking him telling him he's like okay well i believe in you i trust you let's go he obeyed him by living and teaching righteousness and justice he believed to live these things out was just crucial and so he obeyed god in that way and he taught that to his kids and their kids and so on and lastly he looked at jesus he looked to the messiah he looked to god to provide for him along the way that was his rule book for as far as he was concerned he had those things those relationships those times with god and that's what jesus has called the pharisees too and the sermon on the mountain saying you guys your faith is just his actions it's actions and you don't have the heart of a relationship with me and so this guy he's my friend i'm gonna call him my friend because he understands the heart and the real desire of how we're supposed to be living this out and what a great title to have as your legacy right friend of god that's hard to beat that's pretty awesome i just think about that i'm like wow that's a friend kirk craig or one of our pastors here he said you know a friend he reminded me he said you know a friend it does stuff with you right it sits there with you it goes with you right it works alongside you he's there with you and i'm like wow god and abraham are friends like that's cool they lived out these life together they did things together they talked together they walked together and he trusted him and it makes me think about my own legacy you know i got to do uh be a part of a funeral here this week for a lady that it was 106 years old when she passed away that's impressive and the family had and the friends had just amazing stories she was born the year the titanic sank so 1915 right so you can imagine the story she's seen that the world she's seen the wars she's seen all the different changes of time and sickness and all that stuff and the stories were great and stories were amazing and she had a great legacy so cool to get to hear her story but i when i sit at funerals i just i often kind of morbidly think what if this was my funeral what would people say maybe some of you have thought about that what are people going to say when i'm gone i it's challenging because i'd love to be able to say at the end of this you guys are like you stand up and say no it was a friend of god boom i'd be like that's great wow i hope that could be said i mean i hope i could say i was i loved my family that i that i you know i loved people you know i hope that could be said about me but i have to start doing that today if that's going to ever be part of my legacy and that's what i just love about abraham his legacy was this day-to-day he lived out what it looked like to be a friend of god so at the end of his life he could be called a friend of god and that's just that's sobering to me that's hard because it's like wow do i live that way every day do i do i sign up to be a friend of god am i listening am i paying attention am i living out the things you're asking me to do god no not always but what do you guys want your legacy to be roll that around chew on that write it down think about it talk to people about it verse 24 we kind of switch gears a little bit because he kind of just wants to reiterate this point he says you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone that's troublesome because paul says you're saved by faith and faith alone and so there's this is contrast here i'm like wait what's going on paul says your faith and faith alone that's what saves me and you're saying wait justified by works and not by faith alone kirk did a great job with this last week i think unpacking it so i don't want to spend a ton of time but they're talking about two different types of justification here and so paul says that we're justified by faith alone and he's saying before god in that way and that's a saving faith we believe that he died and rose again that's a saving faith that we're justified by in that way and james is on the other side of the coin he's saying yeah but it's by our works that's proven and so we're justified by our works that we have this real faith and so they're talking about two different things they're using the same word and so that makes it kind of tricky but this those are the subject changes right there different matter there going on because remember he's talking about this intellectual acceptance of certain truths just like the demons believe that there's god that's a very intellectual acceptance okay i believe that i couldn't i could agree to that but without the trust in jesus as a savior it's not a saving faith so it is a saving faith if you put it in jesus it's not if you've just believed the facts in that regard and do nothing about it so the kind of faith it saves because i think it's important to just make this a concrete is that one that believes in christ in jesus who was crucified and resurrected for forgiveness of our sins and that belief is what awakens us that belief is what we say makes us born again right it brings us to life it awakens our spirit to god and we're regenerated we're alive we can now see and feel and understand things differently because he has breathed i'd say real life spiritual life into us and awaken us so that's saving faith but part two now this christian life is i gotta exercise i gotta live this out this belief that i have this faith i how do i do that this is the active living part this is the faith that we must exercise to stay healthy in the second half of the deuteronomy passage healthy in our heart soul mind body acting on our faith is very important and we need to practice it we all know practice is hard it's difficult but it's good and i believe in physical exercise it's tucker alluded to it earlier i enjoy running i really do um i believe it's beneficial for me in a health way right i get healthier by running and i feel good it's also something that i could tell you a lot about so i have the knowledge of it and i actually do it as well so it's a perfect example for me right now this morning because i live the faith that i have in running i believe it's good i do it i see the benefits of it i continue to do it and it's over overflowed into my life in so many different ways where it's now it's spiritually and mentally beneficial for me as well and i and i love it i really enjoy it if you guys just want to talk about that more we can just stop and just talk about running that's a classic joke with runners so if you start talking about running you just don't ever stop so um but physically you know i believe it's due it's good to do that so but versus someone else that doesn't believe that they're not going to have the same convictions to go out and run every day right they're not going to want to do that but i think it's important to kind of picture the different type of faith and how it kind of is birthed or beli how it begins i have this friend who called me he actually called me this last week so it's perfect he said hey i want to get into running what do i do and i was like wow it's like an open audience this is i've been waiting this my whole life so here you go so i gave him for like a half hour i gave him like the things i'm like hey check this out try this don't do that maybe do this you know i gave him these things and i could tell on that side of the phone he was jotting it down he's like okay and then at the end i said all right well hey let me know how it goes he's absolutely easy i think i'm going to do it in a couple days i'm going to try it cool i hope he does right i don't know i'm just saying that's the beginning right that's he's got the knowledge he's got the understanding he knows what to do he you could sign he could check all the boxes and say yep i know i'm supposed to do this i'm not supposed to try that i'm supposed to wear this and so he could say that he knows about running now he could talk about it he could tell his friends all about running in some ways but has he done it is he really a runner yet no i hope he becomes one i've got faith that he's going to try it at least and we'll see what goes and that's often i think how we look at the word in the bible and the truths that we've absorbed sometimes we look at them and say yeah i got all these talk i got all these thoughts i know all this stuff i got it but now what are we doing with it is what james is imploring us with another story this guy's a little further along in his faith okay he i also enjoy bouldering at the climbing gym so i enjoy going there and climb in and it's just a great way to just stay active in that way in an upper body way and i have this friend who says hey i want to i want to get into climate i you know i can see your health benefits you're looking fit like let's say can i come and do and join you like yeah absolutely come join me so he comes and he's like man this is this was great it was his first time he's like wow this is this is really fun i want i want to do this again i'm going to sign up so i can come more i'm like okay well that's kind of a commitment now you're going to financially hop in cool and so he does he pays for the membership right and he comes back the next week and he's there again i'm like cool you're here all right let's go and climb again he's like you know i need to get some shoes so he buys a pair of climbing shoes and so now he's like he doesn't just believe that it's a benefit to start climbing to get healthy now he's pot committed right he's paid for this stuff and he's like i'm in i want to be a climber i think it's going to be good for me let's go so i said all right that's great and he's just starting he's still doing it he's learning it he's figuring it out and i don't know if he'll become a great climber or not but the point is he's invested and he's on his way he's on his journey the little baby steps to get to the next checkpoint are happening and i'm like ah that's awesome it's so exciting right so there's just different phases different levels of where we're at with our faith where we're going what god wants to do and what we're hopping into what we're comfortable with and then we get to a story like this in the word it talks about rahab this is another story another faith journey and this is in verse 25 and it says 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 wow talk about a pendulum swing of contrast right we've seen abraham he's like the pinnacle this honorable godly man friend of god right can we think about the contrasts here just for a second just the obvious ones we have male and female okay they're in that world the female definitely wasn't as equal is much harder to be a female back then he was a very honorable man respected you know good in business in a sense she was dishonorable she was in a pagan nation she was she was a prostitute she was a canaanite woman coming from this pagan nation he was a jew trying to follow yahweh just see such a contrast in the way that these two were are pictured and so i love that james puts them both in this story back to back next to each other because there's a dividing line here it's just it's a line that makes them equal excuse me it's just
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.