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Oct 07, 2018

Loving Faith

Passage: James 2:14-26

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: James

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: faith, grace, love, serve, works

We will always “do what we believe.” Access to God and his absolute love and total forgiveness is most certainly a sheer gift of grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith). But James reminds us that true faith will always result in loving upward in worship and outward through acts of love. Being a follower of Christ is all about belief, and belief will always result in behavior. Our behavior will not impact God’s love for us, but God’s love for us will most certainly impact our behavior. The contrast to this has been an issue throughout church history, leading pastors during the Reformation in the 1500’s to remind us that we are: “Saved by faith alone but not a faith that is alone.” So James warns us against both sides: simply saying that we believe, but living as if the Gospel isn’t true (so actually not believing); and simply “being good” and thus “earning” our way into God’s Kingdom. Our adoption is an absolute gift that absolutely propels us to love outward as a fruit of truly believing.

ORDER of Worship

Prelude: Tylenol - How We Care

Call To Worship: Ephesians 2:1-5,8-10 ESV

Songs:

  • Holy, Holy, Holy
  • Lead Me to the Cross
  • Praise to the Lord the Almighty
  • Amazing Grace (original version)

Reading: John 15:5,9-11 ESV

Gratitude Reading: Colossians 2:6-7 ESV

Gratitude Prayer: Savior Alone (adapted from The Valley of Vision)

LEADER: O God of all Grace. You have given us a Savior in Jesus. Work in us this faith.

ALL: To know Him.  Receive Him. Love Him. Glorify Him.

LEADER: May we trust Him as Refuge. Confess Him as Lord. And serve Him as King.

ALL: This is our heaven on earth.  Here is our duty.

LEADER: To know the love and mercy of Christ and to walk in gratitude of this gracious gift.

ALL: Holy Spirit work in us the beauty and goodness of Jesus.

Sermon Title: Loving Faith

Central Text: James 2:14-26

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! 20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; 23 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. 24 You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 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? 26 For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

Illustrations:

Response: 1 John 4:10-19 ESV

Benediction: 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 ESV

 

Related Scriptures:

  • Genesis 15:6
  • Genesis 22:9-14
  • Deuteronomy 5:29
  • Proverbs 3:1
  • Matthew 5:14-16
  • John 6:28-29
  • John 14:15-21
  • John 21:15-21
  • Romans 3:21-26
  • Romans 4:1-5
  • 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
  • Galatians 5:6
  • Ephesians 2:8-10
  • Philippians 2:12-13
  • Colossians 2:6-7
  • 1 Peter 1:3-7;13-16
  • 1 John 4:10-21
  • 1 John 5:1-4

Media:

10.07.18 Album

Discussion Questions:

  1. When have you encountered “real vs. counterfeit”?
  2. This passage is a sticky one that led Martin Luther to temporarily debate if it should even be included in the Bible. Why is that?
  3. Does this contradict Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
  4. In 2:21 we see that Abraham was “justified by works” (referencing Genesis 22). But as you look deeper, see what happened with Abraham 20 years earlier in Genesis 15:6 “And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”
    1. How is it that sometimes “justify” means “to acquire”
    2.  ...and other times it means “to reveal or prove”
    3. Go back and finish reading the next verse in Ephesians...2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
    4. Does this make you feel guilty or ashamed?
    5. Does it put a weight on you to “behave”?
    6. How does it help explain James’ point of faith and works?
  5. What is the relationship between salvation, faith and works?
  6. How can we fully rest on the Finished work of Jesus AND also be motivated to love others?
  7. How do we love with freedom vs. love with guilt?
  8. How can you tell the difference between an improper guilt over thinking your works are a substitute for Jesus’s work, and a proper struggle with learning to follow in Jesus’s way? How do you respond to each kind of scenario in light of the gospel?
  9. Why is the mercy we’re called to show to those in need a natural response to the mercy shown us in Jesus?

Quotes:

  • “...faith can be no more separated from works than the sun from his heat.” -  John Calvin
  • “O, it is a living, busy, active mighty thing, this faith. It is impossible for it not to be doing good works incessantly.” - Martin Luther
  • “If you didn't earn your salvation to start with, then how could you 'un-earn' it?” - Timothy J. Keller
  • “When we say that believing is not working, but a ceasing from work, we do not mean that the believing man is not to work, but that he is not to work for pardon, but to take it freely, and that he is to believe before he works, for works done before believing are not pleasing to God.” - Horatius Bonar
  • “To trust Him means, of course, trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you would not take his advice. Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to Heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first faint gleam of Heaven is already inside you.” - C.S. Lewis (Mere Christianity)

Books / Docs / Articles

Sermons / Talks:

Does James Contradict Paul? By John Piper

James 2:14-26

Wisdom For A Useful Faith by Justin Anderson

James 2:14-26

Christ Our Life by Timothy J. Keller

Colossians 3:1-14

Faith and Works by Apologia Studios