2024-10-06 - San Jose CRC - sermon only - Gil Suh

 Good morning. Our scripture reading this morning is from the book of James, chapter 2, verses 14-26, which can be found in a number of places. You can find it in your pew Bible on page 978. You can follow along the screen, or now it is also in your bulletin.

Faith and Deeds.

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or 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? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 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. Amen. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that, and shudder. You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not your father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?

That his faith and actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God, and it was credit to him as righteousness, and he was called God's friend. That a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

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? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

This is the word of the Lord.

We're going to talk about faith. Faith is certainly a foundational element in the Christian life. Our Christian life is based on faith. The Christian is saved by grace through faith. And a Christian is to walk by faith. And it is impossible to please God without faith. However, it is important to realize there are different kinds of faith, but only one that is truly saving faith.

So, in this passage, we find James describing the two kinds of faith. This passage has many references to faith and deeds or works, so it is twelve times about faith and twelve times about deeds or actions. That's why the subtitle of this passage in the Bible is Faith and Works or Faith and Deeds.

James is not really contrasting faith and works as if there are two alternative options for approaching God. His point is that you cannot separate faith and works. James is rather contrasting dead or defective faith that produces no works with living or genuine faith that results in action.

Do we claim to have faith? Then, the next question is, which kind of faith do we have? And let's find out first the difference. So, in the first section of this passage, verses 14 through 19, we notice the first kind of faith. We might call this kind of faith dead faith. Dead faith is without love and only a talk, without a walk.

The living faith is the opposite, but the dead faith is now loveless. So those with this kind of faith know the correct vocabulary for prayer and sound doctrine, but their walk does not measure up to their talk. Why not? Because there is no love in the heart. Why there is no love in their hearts? Because they have not encountered personally with the love of Christ.

They have not experienced Christ's transforming love in their lives. Therefore, they know all the words and vocabularies, but there's no love. But those who experience Christ's love personally inevitably seek to meet the needs of others because there's love. So it's not only talk, whether it's a physical need or an emotional need.

That's why, in this passage, somebody has a physical need. Then, if someone else in the church says, Oh, bless you, Oh, go yourself, go in peace and warm yourself, but without intending or trying to meet the physical needs, then that person, his or her faith is dead, is useless. So that faith is only an intellectual faith.

In one's mind, one knows the doctrine of salvation. They can even quote the right verses from the Bible, but they never fully submit themselves to God and never fully trust in Jesus for their salvation.

So now, here, to shock any complacent readers, like when James said this, some people say even now, this thought is not enough to shock them. Now, James reminds us that even demons have this kind of faith. That's verse 19. Demons believe in God. There are no atheists or agnostics here. The demons do not even believe in God intellectually; they actually have an emotional response to that belief.

Here, they believe in and tremble. There's an emotional element to that, too. So now James is like shocking us. Do you think that you have faith? Make sure that faith is not dead faith because even demons have that kind of faith. Can this kind of faith save us? Of course not. Three times in this passage, James emphasizes that faith without works is dead.

Any declaration of faith that does not result in a changed life and good works is false.

Then, in the following section of this passage, verses 20 to 26, James describes the only kind of faith that can save us, and we may call it living faith. How is living faith different from dead faith? Living faith involves the whole person, every aspect of our being, mind, and heart, and our will.

The mind understands the truth, hears the word, and believes in our mind. And then the heart, in response to that truth, desires and rejoices in the truth. And the will acts upon the truth. The living faith involves our whole being. So true faith, living faith, then leads to action, inevitably. It's not like you have to; it just happens.

The faith God has given to us is meant to change our lives, not just our beliefs or status. I shared with you before that we are children of God by adoption. We are naturally born with sin, but God has adopted us as children, as sons and daughters, into this new family. Not just change the status, but change our habits and lives.

No longer do you belong to the street. Now you are in this household, this faith. So now you have to change your habits. To illustrate, James introduced two well-known biblical characters, Abraham and Rahab. And you could not find two more different people. Abraham was the father of Jews, a Jewish nation.

He's a patriarch. Rahab was a Gentile prostitute. Abraham was the friend of God, and Rahab belonged to the enemies of God. However, they had something in common. Both of them exercised their faith in God by works. Abraham obediently offered up his son Isaac on an altar. He was willing to do it by action, not just yeah, I will do that. Actually, he was about to do it.

Rahab courageously welcomed the spies into her home and helped them out. Of course, she believed that Israel's God was a true God, and then she acted upon that belief by helping his people. So, Abram and Rahab both have faith in God and express that faith in action. So, in James, we see two kinds of faith.

Now, let's apply it to ourselves. What kind of faith do we have, and how do we know?

I brought this book. I'm gonna just briefly talk about Shakespeare. This is Shakespeare's book, Othello. If you know him, William Shakespeare is considered to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, writers in the English language. But most of his works are play scripts. What are play scripts?

The scripts are meant to be played out by actors, not just read or studied. So, earlier this year, Joyce and I had a chance to go to London, and we had the opportunity to watch Othello at the Shakespeare Globe Theater, one of many Shakespeare plays. We had this book, which we had bought beforehand, to read.

But you know what? Watching the play is a totally different experience than just reading it. These words are spoken and acted out by actors on the stage. Very powerful. And that's what Shakespeare meant when he wrote this. In other words, until you watch Othello play it out, only reading It's not quite what Shakespeare intended.

God has given us his word for our salvation. And we receive his truth by faith. And God is the author of our faith. And he meant our faith in his word to be acted out in a way in the real world. To display and declare living Christ who is with us, both by individual believers and the church, and that's living faith. We may not act out perfectly. We may not memorize the whole thing, but we know what it was meant to be. And if we have the faith in Christ. It's not only that we read and then just understand, but we will live out and act out because we know the author's intention.

Living faith is faith that saves, and salvation is past, present, and future. It has a threefold reality: We have been saved , we are being saved, and we will be saved. So, all through faith in Jesus Christ, that faith moves us and changes us, and anyone who has their faith cannot remain unmoved or unchanged because their faith is supposed to connect us to the living Christ who loves us so deeply and eternally. And we know that we cannot just remain unmoved or unchanged once we experience that kind of love, even our human experience. That means either you don't understand that love or you don't receive it. But if we claim to have faith in Jesus, we are connected to him, and we cannot just be unmoved, unchanged.

And we need to examine ourselves. In light of that truth, each of us needs to continue to examine our own hearts and lives and make sure that we possess true, saving, living faith. And not to condemn us but to compel us to come to live in Christ again and again. So may our prayer be similar to that of the psalmist

Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me, and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

So, James explained these two kinds of faith to us, brothers and sisters, not just to make us feel like, "Oh, I don't have that kind of faith," but to compel us to come to Christ again and again.

Lord, examine my heart, and I want to seek that kind of faith because that's the kind of faith that will save me and save the world.

As we come to this table today, the communion, I'm going to ask a few questions for us to examine. So, let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we come before you with humble hearts, acknowledging the gift of faith you have given us through Jesus Christ. We recognize true saving faith is not just about knowing the right things or saying the right words but about allowing our lives to be transformed by your love and power. There are some reasons, Lord, if we have not done so recently, and somehow, Lord, if we became so complacent, O God, forgive us and turn us around.

Help us to live out a faith that is alive, one that expresses itself through love, obedience, and action. We struggle through it. Teach us to avoid a faith that is merely intellectual or dead, but instead to fully trust in you. Amen. Knowing that, Lord, you will move us and use us in your will, time, and way, just as Abraham and Rahab did, acting in bold faith.

Search our hearts, Lord, and reveal areas where we lack true faith. Lead us in the way everlasting, and may our lives reflect the love and grace you have shown us. We ask your Holy Spirit to guide and empower us so that our faith may produce good works, bringing glory to your name in Jesus.

Amen.