Some time ago we learned a verse
from Hebrews about faith.
Now
faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen.
Faith is tangible yet intangible. You can’t see it but we say it has
substance. We talk of evidence of things
not seen.
What in the world is evidence of
things not seen? I get a perfect example
for about 300 plus days each year from my office. I look out of the window, that I am thankful
we decided to put in what is now my office, and see the American Flag at the
post office. It is not hanging down the
pole it is flying full mast with a full-value wind.
I can’t see the wind, but I can see
the evidence of the wind. I have seen
the evidence of things not seen.
James says show me your faith by your
deeds—by your works. He gets a little
terse here and there. If you really
believe in God then show me your faith by what you do. That’s a good ole Missouri, Show Me!
You
want to say that you believe, but consider the fact that the demons really
believe in God. They don’t have any
doubt. It scares the hell out of them
because they know that the one true God is a righteous God and has consigned
them to hell. They
know with certainty their eternal destination.
Make no mistake, they believe in God.
So how are we different? James says, look at the way you live. Do you live by the law of love or do you just
love the fact that God’s grace keeps you from keeping company with the demons?
But I believe
that God is real. By the evidence
of creation itself, I know that God
has to be real. I believe that Jesus
died for my sins. I believe that the
Holy Spirit is with me now.
James says, let me introduce you to
Forensic Christianity.
If all that you say is true, there
will be evidence. There will be evidence
of things not seen.
If you see a person who is
hurting—maybe hungry or homeless—and you have the means to help but do nothing,
then there is no evidence of this thing called faith.
If a person who does not believe in God
helps this pitiful person, there is evidence of a good deed but no profession
of faith in God. You can have good deeds
without faith.
Not everyone doing good things has
faith in God and not everyone who claims faith in God seems to have evidence to
support that claim.
There is a song by Everlast titled
What It’s Like. Most of you my age
haven’t heard them and probably wouldn’t like them. Some folks here don’t need to listen to
them. Their lyrics are very real but
just too raw for most people.
We've all seen the man at the liquor
store beggin' for your change
the hair on his face is dirty,
dreadlocked and full of mange
he asks a man for what he could spare
with shame in his eyes
get a job you blanking slob is all he
replied.
Now the song is about walking in
another person’s shoes and it goes into some situations where we could just
point fingers of blame and excuse ourselves.
You got your own self into that mess, now deal with it. That is, unless we were called to live out
our faith.
Think to the parable of the Good
Samaritan. The man who was beaten, robbed, and left for
dead should have known not to travel the road between Jericho and Jerusalem
alone. He was just asking to be
robbed.
But Jesus is answering the question, Who
is my neighbor? He uses this
parable. At the end of the parable, you
know how this goes, it is the Samaritan who shows mercy. It is the Samaritan who loved the man left
for dead. It is the Samaritan whose
actions showed him to be a neighbor.
If you have received Jesus as your
Lord, I will see your faith. You will
see my faith in acts of mercy. My mercy
does not make me faithful. My
faithfulness makes me merciful.
My acts of goodness do not bring me to
salvation but my salvation brings me to acts of goodness
and mercy.
I have told this story in different
groups from time to time. Once upon a
time I was a newspaper manager for The Oklahoman. I had a territory that went from Canute to
Mangum to Cement/Cyril and to
Hinton. After a couple years I was
promoted and was responsible for things south of I-40 and west of I-35 with a
little spillover here and there so a town didn’t get divided in half.
There had been trouble with service in
Chickasha right before I was promoted.
It was really bad. The area had
gone through 7 managers over the past year and carriers were quitting every
week. As I interviewed manager
prospects, I told them that Chickasha was a hornet’s nest. Don’t ask for this job unless you are ready
to deal with 100 customer complaints on day 1.
I spent most of my first two
months putting Chickasha back together while culling through manager prospects.
Sometimes I would overnight there. Sometimes I would drive back and forth. I grew tired of Chickasha and the drive to
and from this place. Now, I had the
other fourth of the state to take care of as well, but Chickasha was just
sucking the life out of me.
One evening, I was ready to head home
knowing that I would be back in a few hours.
I had not eaten all day, so I pulled into Arby’s to get the 5 for 5
special. I don’t like drive-throughs so
I went in to get my drink and 4 sandwiches and got in the car to head home.
As I looped around the back of the
restaurant, I see a man digging in a dumpster.
I continued and made a left on the road heading west. I was ready to be home and get my 2 hours
sleep. It was about half a block later
that I made a U-turn. I think it could
have qualified as a Bat-Turn.
My company car was a Dodge
Magnum. It had a long wheel base but I
spun that baby around like a pro. It
took under a minute to get back to Arby’s and the dumpster and the guy was
gone. He wasn’t inside or walking
anywhere nearby. He was gone.
I knew that I was supposed to help
that guy. Yeah, I can eat 4
sandwiches. I hadn’t eaten all day. I was on the hungry side, but this guy was
dumpster diving and I drove by him.
I knew exactly what the Spirit that
lives within me was telling me to do. I
knew exactly what my faith was compelling me to do and I had not done it.
I should have taken those sandwiches
back and gotten a refund because as I ate them on the drive home, they were the
worst tasting sandwiches ever.
My faith did not manifest itself into
works, at least not as it should have. I
should have been so in tune with my faith and the Spirit that lived within me,
it would not have taken half a minute to realize what I should have done.
I want you to consider two different and
provocative concepts: Worthless faith and faithless works.
James uses the example
of Abraham and Isaac and how Abraham demonstrated his faith by offering his
son as a sacrifice to God. No father
here ever wants to have their faith tested in that way, but Abraham had faith
that God would fulfill his promise that he would be the father of many nations
and that promise would come through Isaac.
At the end of this example, James
gives us the formula for faith and works.
Neither is a stand-alone entity. Faith
and deeds work together. Faith is made
complete in our works.
There is no such thing as an academic
faith. Faith moves us to action. Our actions are incomplete without
faith.
But every time that I think of faith
and works, I think about being saved by grace not works. I am saved by grace through faith. My salvation comes completely from God.
That statement should be rock solid in
your foundation of faith. I am saved
by grace through faith!
Saved by grace through faith is
absolutely true. There are no asterisk
or caveats. It’s true. But is it true for you? Have you received Jesus not only as Savior
but as Lord?
If we have truly professed
our faith in the words that we know so well, Jesus is Lord, then we
are helpless to do anything but respond to this incredible gift with action. Sometimes our action is delayed but we are
compelled to action nonetheless.
Our salvation comes from God in the
blood of Christ Jesus. Our salvation is
completed in our
response to his great love. We could
call this the fullness of our salvation.
I most often use the term
discipleship.
Jesus
said that once we believe in him, we pass
from death to life. Before we
received Jesus as Lord, we were under a death sentence. Our existence without Jesus was death.
James makes the analogy as the body
without spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.
We try to dissect God’s instructions
to us. His instructions to us are less
for analysis and division and more for synthesis—receiving
the full Biblical witness and unison—living in one accord as the body of
Christ.
You can only dissect faith and works
in a corpse. You can’t do this in a
living being. I am going to patent the
Faith and Works version of the game Operation.
There’s no bones or hearts or kidneys to remove, just faith and
works.
If you take either one out, that nasty
buzzer sound goes off. Your patient is
dead!
Faith and works work together. They are a package deal.
Everyone who is saved by grace through
faith in Jesus Christ is predisposed
to good deeds. That is your new
nature. To live otherwise is to deny
the
Spirit of God that lives within you.
So, here are the test answers for
those taking the course for credit.
Faith and actions work together.
What you do completes what you believe.
Faith without works is dead.
Amen!
Amen!
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