The Fundamentals of Faith – Captain Erika Hernandez
TSA Doctrine 7
James 2:14-24
http://pomonacorps.blogspot.com/2009/07/fundamentals-of-faith-tsa-doctrine-7.html
We believe that repentance towards God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and regeneration by the Holy Spirit are necessary to salvation.
What this is in essence is a theological road to salvation!
We know the commonly know road to salvation found in the book of Romans.
Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
Romans 6:23a "...The wages of sin is death..."
Romans 6:23b "...But the gift of God is eternal
Romans 5:8, "God demonstrates His own love for us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us!"
Romans 10:13 "Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved!"
- Call out to God in the name of Jesus!
Romans 10:9,10 "...If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation."
In essences doctrine number seven of The Salvation Army tells us that because of our sins, we must show repentance towards God and no one else. The way we do that is by putting our faith and complete surrender in Christ’s atoning Sacrifice as we learned this during last week’s sermon.
And finally, our transformations our regeneration to a new life is made possible only by the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Therefore, doctrine number seven is really a doctrine based around FAITH! And faith is really all we have. Our beliefs in God, in Christ and in the Holy Spirit are all based on faith!
All who claim the title "Christian" will be able to agree on the following two truths: salvation is by grace alone (Ephesians 2:8) and salvation is through Christ alone (Acts 4:12).
The Bible tells us we must have faith in order to be saved (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is nothing more than believing and trusting?
Searching the Scriptures, we see faith also involves being consistent with God’s truth (1 Thessalonians 2:13), obedience to Him (Romans 1:5, 16:26), and it must be working in love (Galatians 5:6).
In fact our scripture for today, James 2:20 says that faith without works is dead. But what does this mean?
Is our salvation somehow connected to our faith or how we put our faith into action? Let’s look into that!
What does the Bible teach about salvation? Abraham was justified by works? Romans four, is that what it says? "Abraham was justified by what...? "Faith." Abraham was not justified by works.
Romans chapter three says, "No man is justified by works. By the deeds of the law shall..." what? "No flesh be justified," none. There is no way that we can be justified. In Romans 3:28, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds or the requirements of the law.”
Salvation is by faith, not by works. Galatians chapter three tells us the same thing, that you cannot be justified by works, you cannot be saved by what you do, in terms of deeds. He says, “…they that are of faith,” Galatians 3:9, “are blessed with faithful Abraham.”
It’s all a matter of faith. The man that is justified, he says in verse 11, “But no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, … The just shall live by faith.” Now the Bible teaches that you are saved by faith, well then you say, what in the world is James saying?
Can faith save him? You see, James is looking at this from the stand point of evaluation. He is looking at a man who says, "I have faith!" And he is saying, all right if you have true saving faith then I ought to see some evidence of it, right? “By their fruits you shall...” what? "...know them.”
He is simply saying, if your faith is genuine then it’s going to manifest itself. “If any man be in Christ he is a new creation, old thing are passed away and behold all things become...” what? "…new.”
There is going to be a manifestation a public representation. And so he says, what kind of faith have you got my friend, I don’t see any evidence?
James is not talking about the works of the Law. He simply says that the faith which saves you will produce works, works of faith. The faith that James is warning us about here is an empty professing faith, that which is phony and counterfeit.
Paul refers to the same idea when he says in 1 Corinthians 15:2, “… unless you believed in vain.” Paul also wrote, “Test yourselves, to see if you are in faith, examine yourselves …” (2 Cor. 13:5).
One of the greatest dangers for us preachers of the gospel is that we like to see people converted, and we are willing to accept a bold or superficial yes from some individual who says, “Yes, I’ll trust Jesus.”
However, it is so easy today to be as phony as a three–dollar bill. I don’t know if you have seen one of those three dollar bills but at first glance it looks real but once you take a second look or even examine it closely you will see that it is a fake.
Paul and James are in perfect harmony in their teaching. When Paul speaks of works, it is works of the Law. He says in Romans 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”
He is saying in effect, “Yes, the Law is a mirror—it reveals you are a sinner—but it cannot save you; the works of the Law cannot save you at all.”
James also says that you have to have something more than just the works of the Law.
He wrote, “For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (v. 10). As someone has put it, “Man cannot be saved by perfect obedience, for he cannot render it. He cannot be saved by imperfect obedience because God will not accept it.”
The only solution to this dilemma is the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, and both James and Paul emphasize that.
In Galatians 2:16 Paul made it clear that men are not saved by the Law, but later in that epistle he wrote, “Let us not lose heart in doing good…” (Gal. 6:9).
There is a lot of doing that goes with believing. “Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap” (Gal. 6:6–7).
In this section of his epistle when James speaks of works, he is speaking of the works of faith. Paul also wrote about works of faith: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumscision means anything, but faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6).
Both of these men taught that faith must be a working faith. As John Calvin put it, “Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is not alone.”
A girl once asked her Sunday school teacher, “How can I be a Christian and still have my own way?” The teacher gave to her Romans 8:5 which says, “For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.”
If you are a child of God, you cannot have your own way. You are going to do His way.
“Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you …” (Rom. 8:7, 9).
Paul says that now that you are indwelt by the Spirit of God, you can produce the fruit of the Spirit in your life; if you don’t, there is something radically wrong. A Christian doesn’t do as he pleases; he does as Christ pleases. Regardless of how long they may have claimed to be in the faith.
During the depression there lived in Pittsburgh a business man who was having all kinds of problems in his life. He went to his pastor and, after talking over his problems, he said, “I love my Savior. I love my family. I love my church.
I love my business. But there are times I feel like walking out on all four of them.” The pastor looked him straight in the eye and said, “Well, why don’t you?” The man replied, “The reason I don’t is that I am a Christian.”
May I say to you, saving faith which makes one a Christian will lead to good works. However, we are so anxious to get church members that we accept them on the slightest profession.
As a result, many churches are filled with professing Christians who are really unbelievers.
When we understand how Paul and James use the words faith and works, we can see that they are in total agreement in their teaching.
Now James deals with the identification of faith. Saving faith can be recognized and identified by certain spiritual fingerprints.
There is a verification of genuine faith. James gives us this practical illustration—
If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled”, and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? [James 2:15–16].
Pious clichés, mere church talk or even faithful attendance every Sunday is not the evidence of saving faith. There must be a work to go along with the vocabulary. You can be very pious and say to an individual, “Brother I will pray for you, and I know the Lord will provide.”
The Lord put you there as a child of God to do the providing. I get a little weary sometimes when wealthy Christians pat me on the back and say, “Captain Erika, you are doing a fine thing.
You are doing the right thing in giving out to the needy and preaching the Word of God,” but they do not have a part in supporting this ministry financially or even worse with their actions.
I have a hard time believing they are sincere. You may piously say to someone, “Oh, brother, I’m for you.” Are you for him? My friend, a living faith produces something—you can identify it.
The Lord Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one another” (John 13:35).
Then in Romans 13:8, Paul says, “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.”
The point is that you cannot say you are a child of God obedient to him, faithful in His son Jesus and moved by His holy spirit and live like a lawless individual.
I do not mean that whenever an individual asks you for money you should give it to them but maybe you have some food you can offer or even buy them a meal along with your own.
And I do not think that you should believe every individual who professes to be a Christian, but go ahead and search out their fruits. By their fruits you will know them.
My heart is warmed when I think of a certain individuals I know who are giving financial assistance to someone in need and telling no one about it. May I say to you, you are telling by your life whether your faith is genuine or not.
Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, “You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without works and I will show you my faith by my works”. [James 2:17–18].
“Faith, if it has no works, is dead.” The faith is dead? Why? Because living faith, saving faith, produces works. You have to draw that conclusion from James’ illustration.
He is talking about the fruit of faith. Paul talks about the root of faith. Those are the separate emphases of each man, but both Paul and James say that faith alone saves.
Paul also says that faith is going to produce fruit—“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace …” (Gal. 5:22). The Lord Jesus said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abides in me, and I in him, he bears much fruit …” (John 15:5).
Last week we sang the song, “O for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer’s praise,” but we do not even use the one tongue we have and then we give nothing at all to Him.
James says it is faith that saves, but saving faith produces something.
Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble [James 2:19].
Lip service is not the evidence of saving faith—even the demons believe.
You foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless? [James 2:20].
Paul said that Abraham was justified by faith (see Rom. 4:3), and Genesis tells us that he was justified by faith (see Gen. 15:6; 22:1–14). Was Abraham justified when he offered his son Isaac?
The question is: Did he offer his son Isaac? And the answer is: No, he didn’t. Then what was Abraham’s work of faith? How did works save him?
His faith caused him to lift that knife to do a thing which he did not believe God would ever ask him to do. But since God had asked him, he was willing to do it.
He believed that God would raise Isaac from the dead. Abraham never actually offered Isaac, because God provided a substitute, but he would have done it if God had not stopped him.
This is a choice illustration of the fact that you demonstrate your faith by your actions. The action of this man was that he believed God. What is the action of our faith?
What fruits are visible in our lives? How do others know that we are followers of Christ by just observing us? Are we truly a new creation, are we truly repentant towards our heavenly father?
By looking around and seeing all of these empty seats I would say our fruits are not very evident.
Are we truly faithful to our savior Jesus Christ? Are we truly allowing the Holy Spirit to regenerate us back into the image of God?
In order to be saved we need to repent towards God, have the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and be renewed by God’s Holy Spirit, allowing these changes in our life so that we can produce the fruit that is a result of our genuine faith!
Would you like that? I know I do, then I am going to invite everyone to come forward, every one come and here and stand with me as we pray this morning.
