James: Practical Faith
James 2:14-26
Pastor Jefferson M. Williams
Chenoa Baptist Church
10-13–2024
Where’s the Fruit?
I once had a conversation with a guy in his 20s. I’ve known him since he was a little kid. He went to church every week, Christian school, said a prayer in 5th grade, student ministry every week. He said he was a Christian.
But as we talked, it became clear there was absolutely evidence of Jesus in his life now. He had no interest in reading his Bible, (boring), going to church (stupid), or loving God’s people (hypocrites).
As I listened, he suddenly stopped and said, “I bet you think I’m not a Christian.” I swallowed hard and said, “Just because you had a Christian mom, doesn’t make you a Christian. Just because you went to church or was baptized or attended Christian school doesn’t make you a Christian. And just because you prayed someone else’s prayer in 5th grade doesn’t mean you are born again.
He smiled and said something I couldn’t believe. He said, “i think you are right Jeff.” So I walked him through the Gospel and challenged him to have a real conversation with Jesus about the destiny of his soul.
He shook his head and said that he wasn’t interested right now. Too much “fun” to be had while he was young.
As he drove away, my heart was so heavy because I knew where he had learned that kind of “faith.” His father would tell you that he was a Christian yet committed adultery on his wife multiple times with multiple women and was basically known as a conman and a liar.
In American Christianity, many times we turn the work of the Spirit into a little formula. I know of a church that if the kids in Sunday school said the “sinner's” prayer, they got cookies. Many of them prayed the prayer every week just to get cookies.
?On the surface that seems sweet, but it is deadly dangerous. Because then they grow up and will tell you that they are Christians because of a prayer they said when they were 5 years old, no matter how little fruit their is in their lives.
And that’s what James is going to focus on in this section - the fruit of our salvation.
This is the most controversial section in the book of James. It is because of the verses we will study this morning Martin Luther called James the epistle of straw.
The Text in Context
In chapter one, James focuses on how God uses trials and temptations to strengthen our faith and shape our character.
In chapter two, he shifted gears to our behavior as Christians - particularly the ridiculous practice of showing favoritism to rich people who came to their meetings, while looking down on the poor. James exposes their motives and shows that their behavior should line up with what they say they believe.
Please turn with me to James 2 in your copy of God’s Word.
Prayer.
Talk is Cheap
James begins this section with a bone to pick with his readers.
Look at verse 14.
“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?” (v. 14)
James has already told us his thoughts on the kind of behavior that should be exhibited by Christians - keeping a tight rein on the tongue, looking after orphans and widows, and keeping one from being polluted by the world.
James addresses his audience and asked them what benefit it is to keep talking about having faith if there are no deeds to back it up.
Rich Mullins wrote a song describing this:
It's about as useless as a screen door on a submarine
Faith without works baby it just ain't happenin'
One is your right hand one is your left
It's your light your guide your life and your breath
Faith without works is like a song you can't sing
It's about as useless as a screen door on a submarine."
It’s like having a driver's license but have no interest in driving.
Eugene Peterson paraphrases James question this way,
“Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere. In this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it?”
There was a problem between some of his readers’ words and actions and James was preparing to call them out.
He asked, “Can such a faith save you?” The answer to this in James mind is a resounding no.
He’s going to give four case studies to prove his point.
Case Study #1 - Good Luck
“Suppose a brother or a 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?” (v. 15-16)
James gives us a scene that would have been very common in his reader’s lives. There is a fellow believer who is without adequate clothing, probably just wearing an inner tunic that would not be very effective at keeping him warm. The character in this story is also hungry.
He then introduces us to another character in the story - someone who claims to be a Christian. The reaction to this poor soul tells something about their poor heart.
They basically say, “Wow! You are really down on your luck. That’s too bad. Keep your spirits up and don’t become discouraged. Hope you find a way to stay warm. You’re actually looking pretty thin. Hope you find some food. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, “God bless you!”
Kind of makes you want to wince, doesn’t it? How can this person claim to be a Christian but have no compassion for a fellow believer?
Actually, the apostle John asked the same question:
“If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has not pity on him? How can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (I John 3:17-18)
Has it ever occurred to you that you might be the answer to someone’s prayer?
James sums up this case study up with this bold proclamation:
“In the same way, faith by itself, if not accompanied by action, is dead.” (James 2:17)
John Calvin famously said it this way, “We are saved by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone.”
There is a type of faith that is actually a dead, lifeless, external faith that will not result in salvation. It’s a matter of all talk and no walk. Unfortunately, that kind of faith is very common today, especially in the churches of North America.
Here’s a question that I was asked as a baby Christian that I’ve never forgotten:
If you were put on trial for being a born again Christ-Follower, would there be enough evidence to convict you?
James makes the case that born again believers show their faith by their love and compassion for others.
A manager of a homeless shelter in Chicago was being interviewed by a pastor of a large church in the suburbs.
When asked what he needed most, his answer was surprising - shoes.
The pastor smiled and took off his shoes and put them at the edge of the stage. During the last song, hundreds of people followed his example and brought their shoes to the stage.
There was a beautiful picture, which I tried hard to find, of a mom, dad, and three kids, all in socks, walking to their car after service.
Megan Rabey contacted me this past week and said she felt God was prompting her to go help in any way she could in the mountains of North Carolina. She got a list of things that were needed and headed there yesterday to serve and love whoever God puts in front of her.
What can you do? Make it a point this week to “see the need, meet the need.”
If you want to donate to help Samaritan’s Purse’s work in NC, or Vermont, or Florida, you can go to their website www. Samaritianspurse.org.
Case Study #2 - the Invisible Christian
James then imagines a person presenting an objection to what he has presented so far:
"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.” (v. 18)
This is the case of the invisible Christian. This person sees deeds as a type of spiritual gift. Some have it and do “good works” and some don’t. They just have faith.
But that’s like saying you have the gift of breathing. James says that if we are truly born again, we will do good works. We won’t do these things to get God to love us more. They will flow naturally out of us as we seek to love God and love those around us.
I’ve had people say to me, “My Christianity is private.” Jesus didn’t see it this way:
“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)
Your good deeds actually bring God glory and point people to Him.
That’s what James is getting at in these verses. He is talking about fruit, or the results, of our salvation. If a person is truly saved, what kind of behavior can we expect from them?
“A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” (Matthew 7:18-19)
Faith is like calories. You can’t see calories but you can always see the results.
Jesus was teaching in a packed house when four men approached carrying a friend that was paralyzed on a mat.
"Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mark 2: 4-5)
Remember that the apostle Paul said that becoming a Christian is a life-transforming event:
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” (2 Cor 5:21)
It’s like a caterpillar becoming a butterfly - a complete soul renovation.
Or as Warren Wiersbe has written:
“No man can come to Christ by faith and remain the same anymore than he can come into contact with a 220 volt wire and remain the same!”
I’m currently listening to the Andrew Robert’s biography of King George III. When he was young, he fell in love with a commoner and he knew he couldn’t marry her.
One of his advisers told him to make her his mistress.
George answered that his grandfather had mistresses and his father had mistresses but that he was a Christian and he would not dishonor God or the young woman by making her a mistress.
A.J Griffin has been a professional basketball player for the last two years. He signed a 5 year - 17 million dollar contract. Last week, he walked away from it all. Why?
So he can concentrate on ministry full time.
Is your faith visible to those around you?
Case Study #3 - Demonic Faith
James now comes to one of my favorite verses in all the Bible:
“You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that - and shudder.” (v. 19)
He starts with a statement that every Jew reading the letter would agree with - there is one God. That was the beginning of the Shema that every Hebrew child would learn from infancy and that adults would repeat twice a day.
James turns the corner on them with a vengeance and says, So what? Even the demons believe that!”
Demons believe God exists
Demons are monotheists - there is only One God
Demons believe in the deity of Jesus.
Demons believe in hell.
This individual has a lot of head knowledge but no heart change. Their theological knowledge is impressive. But James knew that even demons could agree with our doctrinal statement. They know for a fact that there is one true God and, when confronted by Jesus, the demons would shriek, “What do you want with us, Son of God?” (Matthew 8:29)
But their knowledge doesn’t lead to repentance. It actually leads to terror. How do we know? Because James says that they “shudder.”
This word means , “when your hair stands straight up in fright.” This is where we get our idea of “goosebumps.”
It’s in the present tense which means it is something that is always true. The demons shake in fear when they think of God.
James writes that there is a type of faith that is just in your head.
Charles Spurgeon wrote:
“If there is a faith that leaves a man just what he was and permits him to indulge in sin, it is the faith of devils. Perhaps not so good as that for the demons believe and tremble while the hypocrite professes to believe God and dares to defy God and seems to have no fear of Him whatsoever.”
John Wesley attended Oxford and started what came to be known as the Holy Club. This group of students met at 4:00 am and prayed for hours. They memorized huge sections of the Greek New Testament. They shared Christ with other students and faculty.
He then became a pastor. After a few years of pastoring, he decided to go to America and bring the Gospel to the Native Americans in Georgia.
When the boat he was on encountered a terrible storm, he found himself filled with fear and panicked at the idea of dying. There were a group of Christians on the boat that were singing hymns.
He asked them how they could be so calm. They answered that they were safe in God’s hands. Wesley had no such assurance.
He wrote in his diary, “If I am to convert the heathen, who shall convert me?” He had worked so hard for the Lord and was so tired.
He returned to England where he became very depressed.
One night, he attended a service where he heard a man reading a sermon by Martin Luther, explaining that genuine faith trusts Christ alone for salvation, apart from works.
As he listened, Wesley realized for the first time that he had been trying so hard to win God’s approval through his deeds but had never trusting Christ alone.
He wrote these famous words in his journal:
“About a quarter after nine, while Luther was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt that I did trust in Christ, in Christ alone, for salvation; and assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.”
From that moment on, Wesley preached that salvation is only by grace and we prove our salvation through the works we do out of love and gratitude to God.
He preached over 42,000 sermons in his life, sometimes riding on horseback 60-70 miles per day. He was still doing this at 82 years old!
Question: Is your faith all in your head? Do you have a healthy reverence and awe of Almighty God?
Case Study Number #4 - the Patriarch and the Prostitute
James wraps up this section by giving us two examples of real faith.
First, Abraham:
“You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered 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 Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness” and he was called God’s friend. You seen that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.” (v. 14-20)
Again James realizes who his audience is and uses Abraham as an example.
Okay, this is where the controversy comes full boil. James says straight out that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. This seems to directly contradict Paul’s words about Abraham in Romans:
“What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter. If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about - but not before God. What does the Scripture say, “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (Romans 4:1-3)
What is going on here? How about Paul’s words in Galatians:
“We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.” (Galatians 2:15-16)
You see - the Bible is full of errors and contradictions. We might as well go play golf on Sunday mornings.
Do James and Paul really disagree with each other on how one is made right with God?
Justified
I want to make the argument that Paul and James do not disagree with each other. They just approach the same subject differently.
They aren’t enemies fighting face to face. They are soldiers fighting back to back.
The emphasis is different. Paul is writing about the root of salvation. James is more interested in the fruit of salvation.
The perspectives are different. Paul is looking at salvation from God’s perspective. James is more interested in the human perspective. Paul sees the fire in the fireplace. James sees the smoke from the chimney.
The terms are different. Words can have different meanings. The word rock can mean a stone or a verb to go back and forth, or a type of music.
Just as the same word can have different meanings, the word justified means different things in the writings of
James and Paul.
To Paul, justified means how a person actually gets into a relationship with God. When God justifies us, He doesn’t do it on the basis of anything we do.
Paul wrote to Timothy and told him that God, “has saved us and called us to a holy life - not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace.” (I Tim 1:9)
To James, the word justified means that the relationship will ultimately look like.
Both Paul and James refer back to Genesis 15:6 when “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness” when God had promised to make his descendants more numerous as the stars in the sky. They both agree that is when Abraham began his relationship with God.
Thirty years later, in Gen 22, Abraham is asked to put his faith into action by offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice. His faith produced the fruit of active obedience.
When James said that his faith was made complete by what he did, he simply meant that Abraham’s faith went to another level.
His faith grew in a way that it wouldn’t have if he had not been obedient. This whole episode of faith made his faith stronger.
Matthew Henry wrote: “Faith is the root, good works are the fruit, and we must see to it that we have both.”
James’ second example could not have been more different that Abraham. Abraham was the Father of Israel.
Rahab was a Gentile. Abraham was respected. Rahab was a prostitute. Abraham was called a friend of God. Rahab was from a pagan nation. But, ultimately they both shared the same faith.
“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.” (James 2:25)
She believed in the one true God, the God of Israel, and her faith led her to hide the spies. In this one action, she risked her life and chose her side. But it was her faith that got her a spot in the “Hall of Faith” in Hebrews 11:
“By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.” (Hebrews 11:31)
Dead Faith vs. Living Faith
James finishes this section with a summary statement:
“As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” )v. 26)
A faith that doesn’t express itself in good works is dead. It’s not faith at all.
There are millions of people who attend church every week, know about the Gospel intellectually, and even live moral lives. But they are not born again. They are just people who have become very good at playing church.
Is that you? Paul wrote to the believers at Corinth:
“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ is in you - unless, of course you fail the test?” (2 Corinthians 13:5)
Do you simply know about Him or do you actually know Him? And does it show?
A missionary in China once told of Jesus for the first time to a group of people in an inland town. When he finished, someone said,
Oh yes, we knew Him. He used to live here.”
Somewhat surprised, the missionary tried to explain that Jesus had been on earth 2,000 years ago.
The man still insisted that he had met Jesus saying, “Not so, He lived in this village, and we knew Him.”
The crowd then took the missionary to the village cemetery and showed him the grave of a medical missionary who had lived, loved, served, healed, and died in that community.
Would anyone ever confuse you for Jesus?
Resume vs. Referral
I hope by now that you understand that we are saved by faith alone. There is no amount of good works you can do to save yourself. It is by grace alone, faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.
Two thousand years after Abraham found that ram caught in a thicket and sacrificed that ram in place of his son, on the very same mountain, God sacrificed his only Son in our place to pay the penalty for our sins. But trusting in the finished work of Christ, we can be born again and spend eternity in heaven.
What are you trusting to get you into heaven?
Resume vs. Referral video
