Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would move with gentle and deep power upon us this morning.
Father, your word told us that you want us to be not just hearers of your word, but doers of your word.
And so, Father, we ask that for us this morning, that you would help us to hear your word well and be doers of your word.
We ask that your word would come into our hearts and we give you, Father, full permission.
We invite and give you full permission for your word to speak into our hearts and rule in our hearts.
And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
I fell in love with my wife, but she didn't fall in love with me in the very early days of our relationship.
In fact, it was one of those situations where I sort of fell in love with Louise almost from the first moment I saw her, even though I didn't even know her name.
But she didn't have that same experience of me.
That's the stuff of romantic comedies and all that other stuff that happens all the time.
Eventually, I became her friend.
But Louise was in love with another man.
Nothing wrong with that.
We'll call him Bob.
And so I sort of became a bit of a friend of Louise and of Bob.
And there was this one particular night.
There used to be this thing in Ottawa, way, way, way, way back, called the Hoots.
It used to meet in Jack Purcell Community Center on Sunday evening.
Sort of a bit of a gathering for people like folk music and those who were sort of connected to the counterculture, as I guess it would have been called back then.
And so there's this one night I go to the Hoots and I happen to come in at the same time that Louise is coming in with Bob.
And they invite me to sit with them.
And so we take our coats off because I think it was either late, late, late fall or early, early, early spring.
And we take our coats off.
And Louise says she'll sit there while Bob and I go and get something from the little place.
They sold coffee and different types of things like that.
So I go up there and I order what I'm going to have.
And then it's Bob's turn.
And Bob orders what he wants to have.
And then he says this.
He says, I know what Louise would like.
She'd like this.
It was apple cider.
And I can't remember the thing that was tea.
But she says, I know what Louise would like.
She'd like this.
Now, that little phrase was like a dagger in my heart.
Because in those little words, I know what Louise would like,
it really brought home to me the vast gap between myself and Louise and Louise and this other fellow.
Because it dawned on me that I wouldn't have had the vaguest idea in the world what to buy Louise.
I didn't know what she would like.
And it was a very depressing evening for me.
I tell you this story.
And hopefully, if you just sort of remember it, and I'm going to say a few more comments about it.
But if you have this story in the back of your mind, as we read James 2, verses 14 to 26,
it'll help you to understand what James is saying and what he's talking about.
This desire that I had to be in a relationship with Louise,
the fact that I didn't know much about her, and all that type of stuff.
If you just keep that in your mind, it'll really help us as we read this text.
So if you have your Bibles, turn in them to James 2, verses 14 to 26.
If you're a guest here this morning, we're preaching through the book of James.
That's what we do most of the time here at Church of the Messiah.
And so we've come to this text, and that's what we're looking at.
And some of you might not know this, but this historically, at least for 500 years,
has been a very, very, very controversial text in at least certain circles of the Christian church.
In fact, Luther, one of the early reformers, thought that the book shouldn't be in the Bible
because it contradicted what the rest of the New Testament said.
So it's been a very controversial text, and actually it's because of this text
that Luther thought it shouldn't be in the Bible.
And so here's how the text goes.
It's James 2, verses 14 to 26.
And just by the way, it's just to move to the side here so the camera can see this for a moment.
Maybe you can see it or you can't.
Maybe my water's in the way.
But it says up there, grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
It's a very, very famous Christian saying.
Grace alone.
How am I made right with God?
I'm made right with God by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
And so it's very fortuitous that that sign is here because here's what verse 14 says.
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Can that faith save him?
And a bit of a grammar geek moment.
In the time of the text that this was written, there's a verbal form in the original language
where they use certain questions.
They always imply that the right answer is no.
It's not like a real question that they're going to discover.
It's just a way of speaking where they pose a question, but the answer is no.
And so basically what he's saying is,
what good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone says he has faith but does not have works,
can that faith save him?
And the answer is no.
So in other words, the question is,
should we take the sign down?
Because the sign is wrong.
That in fact, we're not saved by grace alone through faith alone.
We're saved by grace alone through faith and works.
And that's the way the text should actually go.
So what's going on here in the text?
Well, just as we're starting to get into it,
I didn't realize when I was preparing this sermon that the gospel text was going to be John 6.
But many, many, many years ago, in the early days of my being a Christian,
I had a very funny story connected with John 6.
And so every time I read the text, I smile inwardly when I read it.
So I became a Christian.
I was sort of connected to the counterculture,
more of a wannabe than an actual member of the counterculture.
I was a bit of a wannabe hippie, had long hair, a beard.
By long hair, I mean down to my belt, like not just sort of down past my ears, like down to my belt.
Anyway, we had this home fellowship, like sort of home church, home Bible study group.
And one day we invited somebody who really was very, very involved in the counterculture.
We had somebody, we'd been having talks with him,
and he'd gotten to know a little bit about the Christian faith,
and he came to one of our Bible studies.
And the Bible study was John 6.
And so we're going along, and we would get into a bit of a discussion about it.
And he was one of the very first people who said anything about it.
He said, George, that's a wonderful text.
Now I understand what happened.
And we were all a bit surprised.
He said, yeah, because it says that there was lots of grass in that place.
And in the 70s, grass was a way to refer to marijuana.
So he said, there's lots of grass in the place.
That just means they were all there with Jesus smoking marijuana.
Yeah.
And because they were smoking marijuana,
anyway, he went on and on with this whole thing.
But the fact of the matter is, I mean, the Bible just meant grass as the stuff you mow.
But he thought grass meant the stuff that you smoked.
And so he fundamentally misunderstood the text.
And so it's actually a very good segue into our text.
The text says, what good is it, my brothers and sisters,
if someone says he has faith but does not have works?
Can that faith save him?
And the question is, well, what's going on here?
Works, by the way, is just a sort of a very simple word that refers to what you do.
Like, what do you actually do?
And not only what you do with your body physically,
but what do you do with your emotions?
What do you do with your mind?
What do you do with your lips?
Like, what do you do?
That's just what the word works means in this particular consequence, in this context.
But what does faith mean?
Actually, for a lot of people probably, and I was thinking about this,
that I was thinking a lot of my non-Christian friends would probably misunderstand the word faith
because the word faith is used in a very particular way in our culture.
It's usually used to mean in one of two senses.
It either means a type of emotional state or a type of personal power.
You'd hear people talk about how you have to have faith.
Faith, it's going to work out, you have to have faith.
And the idea there of having faith is that faith is like a type of power that we have.
Sort of, I'm not being derogatory, but I'm just trying to illustrate it.
It's almost those of you who remember the Care Bears,
when it came to the right time to try to deal with the issue,
and they sort of stuck out their chest and stuff.
Hearts came out from their chest to deal with the bad guy and shut the bad guy down.
And so for a lot of people in our culture, when they hear the word faith,
what they really think of is a type of power.
That there's a type of power within you that's called faith.
That if you just sort of garnish it and get it together and focus it and project it,
that you're able to change the world in a way that's good for you and good for others.
But always good for you, but good for you and good for others.
And you just have to have faith.
It's a type of power.
That's how a lot of people understand faith in our culture.
And on the other hand, and the other way that a lot of people understand faith
is that it's a type of emotional state where you'll hear people say,
well, I have faith this is going to work out.
And what they really mean is that they have a type of emotion connected to it.
An emotion of sort of tranquility or happiness or rest that it's all going to work out.
And that's what they mean by it.
They have a certain emotional state.
So is that what is going on here in the text?
Is the text saying that if you don't have this sort of personal power and works,
which doesn't really make sense,
or if you don't have this type of emotional state and this other stuff,
like what's going on there with the text?
Is that what the word faith means?
So some of you might be wondering, why are we even talking about this?
Well, one of the things that drives my wife nuts about me,
when I go to other churches on my holidays,
I make it like a personal goal to not criticize or complain about the sermon
because it's always easy to complain about other people and not complain about yourself.
It's a danger for ministers.
But it's probably the same for musicians or anybody who's good at anything,
to nitpick how other people do it and not look at yourself.
But, you know, at the end, after we go to the church, I don't say anything negative.
In fact, if I think the sermon's really bad,
this is a suggestion for you as well, by the way,
if you think this sermon's tanking,
that's an opportunity for you to pray for me in the congregation.
And that's what I try to do when I'm visiting another church.
If the sermon is really tanking, I think,
okay, now God brought me here today to pray for the pastor and pray for the congregation.
But one of the things that, it's amazing how often it happens,
that the person supposedly talks on the text,
but if he'd actually just read the few verses after the text,
he'd realize that everything he said about the text was wrong.
Like, it's astounding how often it happens.
Like, one of the preceding sins of Christians and non-Christians
when they look at the Bible is they just look at the Bible as if it's just that text.
And they go ahead and they talk about it.
But if you think about it, the text is part of a book.
It would be as if you watched one minute of a movie
and then went on and on and on about it.
But from the one minute in the movie,
you might not even know who the good guy or the bad guy is.
Like, you don't know how the movie ends.
You don't know how anything happens.
You just make this judgment and go on and on about the movie.
And if some of you have watched the whole movie and you'd listen to it,
you'd go, come on, that's crazy.
That doesn't make any sense.
Like, you can't just talk about that.
You need to know what happened before and what happened after.
So the same thing with reading the Bible.
You always have to look at what's going on before and after.
And in this particular case, when it says,
what good is it, my brothers and sisters,
if someone says he has faith but does not have works,
can that faith save him?
It's referring to a huge point in the book of James
that happened just immediately before it.
So I didn't ask people to put this on the screen.
It won't be on the screen.
If you have your Bibles, you can see it.
Or you just have to trust me that I'm reading it correctly.
And what is said immediately before this is this.
It's the last four words, the last four words of verse 13.
Mercy triumphs over judgment.
And it's a very, very, very powerful phrase.
It might not jump out of you.
Some of you might like the sound of it just hearing it.
But the more you understand this text,
the more you understand just how big and powerful a word is.
Because what James has done is he unearths something
that we all know and sometimes deeply troubles us,
but we don't really know what to do about it
other than to try harder.
And what James unearths just before this is very bad news
is that there's something fundamentally broken about human beings.
That even the best human being,
there's something that's a bit dark at different parts of their life.
That there's something a bit broken,
even in the best person, about different parts of their life.
And that if we're all really honest,
like really, really honest,
the type of honesty that can happen at 3 o'clock
or 4 o'clock in the morning
or when you're beating yourself up over something,
that to realize that there's just something,
there is something just broken.
Like, why is it to my best friend that I said that?
Why is it that to my boss I said that?
Why is it that that slipped out?
Like, why is it that rather than getting up and helping,
I did the opposite?
Like, why is it?
And every single human being,
if they're even remotely self-aware,
and by the way,
there was a wonderful line in the newspaper this week
talking about somebody.
Self-absorbed, self being,
there are many people today who are self-absorbed,
but not self-aware.
Isn't that a wonderful phrase?
Self-absorbed with zero self-awareness.
But if you aren't,
if you have any self-awareness,
you realize there's something broken.
And so what James is talking about
is this wonderful thing.
It's a four-word summary of what Jesus does for us on the cross.
That God's seen our great need,
that Jesus dies on the cross and rises from the dead.
And that the way to understand what Jesus does
as he's dying upon the cross for you,
as he tastes all there is to taste of death for you
over the three days,
and as he rises from death and defeats death,
having vanquished hell, so to speak,
is that what we see is mercy triumphing over judgment.
That the judgment that God has on you,
the judgment that other people have on you,
the judgment that you have on yourself,
those things you cannot deal with
and cannot, you can try to maybe drink it away
from your conscience
or distract yourself away from your conscience
or just pretend that it not happened
or isolate yourself from the people that remind you
or the situations that remind you
that there's these things in your conscience
that just cannot be dealt with,
that God knowing all,
Jesus as God knowing all there is to know,
that he had left the glory and splendor of heaven,
he takes on our human nature,
he lives the life that we could never live,
and he dies in your place.
That the judgment of God happens,
but there's this wonderful surprise
that God's mercy triumphs over that judgment
in a way that can make you right with him.
And it's this wonderful, powerful, powerful phrase.
In an age where we struggle with hopelessness,
this is the profound hope of the gospel.
In an age which struggles with anxiety,
this is the profound gospel hope
in the face of anxiety
that God knew every single thing about you
with nothing held back.
He knew you perfectly.
Still, he loved you,
and he loved you so much,
and Jesus loved you so much
that knowing you absolutely perfectly
from the moment of your conception
to the moment of your death,
still he was willing to die in your place.
In your place condemned he stood.
In my place condemned he stood.
And that in his death upon the cross
and in his resurrection,
what you are seeing is God's wonderful provision
of grace and mercy,
that mercy triumphs over judgment.
And that's what James has just shared.
So then the question is,
how does that,
how do I connect to that?
How do I get that?
How do I get into that?
How do I get included in that?
How do I receive it?
How does that get in me?
Like, what's even the right language?
Like, given who he is and what he's done,
like, how does that become mine?
How does that become me?
How do I get there that there gets to me?
And Christians historically have answered,
reading the Bible,
that the answer is that
it's all an act of grace,
God's grace alone,
that we get into it
and it gets into us through faith alone.
And who do you have the faith in?
You have the faith in Christ alone.
You have, that's who you connect with.
The person of Jesus,
who's also the promise of God,
the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world,
that you connect to Jesus with faith.
And James knows that that's the Christian answer.
But he knew that back in his time,
just as there is today,
there's lots of confusion about what faith is.
And that's what he's getting at.
So first of all,
he says something to shock everybody.
But after he shocked everybody by saying,
what good is it,
my brothers and sisters,
if someone says he has faith,
but does not have works,
can that faith save him?
What he does is he unearths
four different misconceptions
about what faith is
so that we can understand
what faith really is
and what it isn't.
And so that for those of us
who might have been very,
very confused,
can realize that maybe we aren't as,
maybe,
maybe what's going on in us
doesn't suck after all
and isn't as terrible
or missing the point as we thought.
Or otherwise,
say, you know what,
I just thought it was those other things.
And today's the day that you can say,
now that as James starts to give you
these examples of what it is
and what it isn't,
that you say,
I want that, Lord.
Jesus, be my Savior,
be my Lord.
Like, mercy triumphs over judgment,
yes.
Like, let that be in me
and let me be in that.
Yes, yes, yes.
So how does he do it?
Well, just actually,
I'm going to give you
the big idea of the text
before we get into the text
and read the rest of his things.
And I don't know
if it's going to be on the screen or not
because I sent it very late
to the poor tech team.
Faith is humbly connecting
to the triune God
from your heart
so that he changes
the real you
in your real life.
Faith is humbly connecting
to the triune God
from your heart
so that he changes
the real you
in your real life.
I'm going to say it
other times during the service.
And just to sort of
give you a bit of a high view
of what that means,
and I'll talk about it
a little bit more
in the words to come.
By saying that faith
is humbly connecting
the triune God
to the triune God
from your heart,
it's saying that it's personal.
That it's from your heart.
It's from the very center of you.
Like, if somebody,
if you met somebody
who had that type
of deep affection
and love
and personal connection
to their lawnmower,
you'd think they were weird.
And you'd be right.
If you had somebody
who didn't have
any type of warmth
or connection
to their husband
or their wife,
you'd think that's not right.
And so,
what it's saying is
that the faith
is something personal.
It comes from,
it involves your heart,
the very center
of who you are.
And I'm using the word heart
in the biblical way,
not the modern way.
In the biblical way,
the heart is the very center
of who you are.
And from your heart,
the heart,
like in modern world,
heart refers to emotions.
But in the biblical world,
and that's the way
I'm using the word,
the heart is the center
of who you are
and out of your heart
flows your imagination,
your mind,
your will,
your emotion,
your affections.
Like all of these things
that we sort of
have different words for
have one source,
which is the very center
of who we are.
So when I say
that faith is humbly connecting
to the triune God
from your heart,
sort of it changes
the real you
and your real life.
It's talking about,
it's a personal knowing
of the Father
and the Son
and the Holy Spirit.
You know Jesus
and the power
of the Holy Spirit
and Jesus is the one
who makes you know
the Father.
And it involves
the emotion,
the imagination,
the will,
the mind,
everything.
It's saying that
this is something
which is deeply human,
which I'll talk about
more in a moment.
It's human because
it's based on the Trinity
as well,
by the way.
I mean,
actually I'll say
something about this
right now.
You know,
from a long time
I've thought that
there's a lot of stuff
in evolutionary theory
that just doesn't
make any sense.
Because if Darwinian
theory is true
and it's all about
the survival
of the fittest,
the fittest thing
to survive
would be something
that it can just
propagate itself
and doesn't need
another person
and doesn't need
a community.
if you just
think about it
for a second,
like what a weird
way,
like how is it
better that for
the human being
to,
human race to
continue,
that there has
to be both
a husband and
a wife,
like a man and
a woman,
and that it even
takes more than
two people to
survive,
that,
you know,
like even the
earliest records
of any type of
human life,
there's always a
tribe.
It's not just
that you have
to have one
man and one
woman,
like not two
men,
like why?
Like really,
the best way,
if you really
want to have
ultimate survival,
it should just
be that I'm
like an amoeba
type blob,
and at the
right time I
just sort of
something oozes
out of me,
and another
human being
that doesn't
mean any
other human
beings just
goes on and
on and on.
It's a really
crazy way,
like that doesn't
really make any
sense in terms
of if it's all
about the survival
of the fittest,
it's all about
evolutionary development
that helps the
propagation of
species,
like that doesn't
make any sense,
but,
and it also
makes no sense
if you think
about it,
that personhood
comes out of
the impersonal,
I mean,
that's at the
heart of
evolutionary theory
as well,
is that somehow
or another the
impersonal,
an impersonal
world somehow
or another
creates persons,
well how can
that be?
Like we don't
see that ever
happening anywhere
around us,
we don't see
lawn mowers
developing into
persons,
we don't see
calculators turning
into persons,
persons,
so how could
that be?
But,
you know,
it makes
sense if
the one who
has ultimately
created all
things and
sustains all
things has
made human
beings in
particular to
be different
on one level
part of the
created order
but different
than everything
else in the
created order
because human
beings bear the
image of God
and from all
eternity the
real God,
and that's one
of the reasons
by the way I
use the word
triune God,
I use the
word triune
God because
I as a
Christian do
not believe in
the God that
most Canadians
believe in.
I believe in
the triune God
which is not
what most
Canadians believe
and in fact
one of the
funny moments
with an
atheist or
somebody who's
given up on
faith and
they no longer
believe in
God and if
you ask them
what do you
mean by God
and they tell
you and you
say well
actually you
and I are at
one,
I don't believe
that God
either,
I don't
believe that
God exists,
sort of
catches them by
surprise,
what like,
thought you
should be a
Christian,
yeah,
I'm a
Christian but
I don't
believe in
that God,
like if I
were you I
wouldn't believe
in that God
either,
but if from
all eternity
there's the
person of
the Father
loving the
person of
the Son
and the
person of
the Holy
Spirit,
then the
idea that
we are
made for
a personal
connection and
personal
relationship
because we
are made
in God's
image makes
complete and
utter perfect
sense.
And I'll
say,
yeah,
and so,
you know,
it's personal,
it is of the
heart,
it is human,
it is
Trinitarian,
it has
boundaries in
terms of,
like faith has
boundaries or,
in other words,
it's connected to
the object.
Faith changes you
in all areas of
your life,
it moves towards
a particular
end,
and just as,
you see,
and this is where it
goes back to the
story that I had
with Louise.
you see,
at all times,
faith is a
type of
personal knowing
where you open
yourself up to
the other in
the hope that
the other opens
themselves up to
you.
That's at the
end of the day
what it is.
And that,
you know,
it's appropriate,
like if Louise
had gone on to
marry Bob,
and if by chance
we had been
friends,
I might continue
to know her,
but I could only
know her as a
friend,
obviously,
otherwise it
would transgress
the marital
relationship.
And you know
your wife or
your husband in
a different way
than you know
your friend,
and in a
different way
than you know
your child,
and in a
different way
that you know
somebody else.
The object is
important,
there's a type
of a fitness
between the
object and the
person where
you don't want
to transgress
it.
But in the
case of Louise,
I desire to
have a deeper
relationship,
a different
type of
relationship
with her.
I desired
that I
would know
how to
open myself
up to her
and have
her open
herself up
to me
in a way
that would
move to
a deeper
type of
relationship
and a
different
type of
relationship.
But at
the end
of the
day,
and as it
turned out
by the
providence
of God,
her and
Bob came
to an end
and I was
able to
marry her
and we'd
been married
a long
time and
I'm very,
very,
very grateful
for it.
But the
fact of the
matter is,
is this ability
to connect in a
relationship with
another human
being doesn't
depend upon IQ,
doesn't depend
upon how much
you can know
in school,
it doesn't
depend upon how
powerful your
emotions is,
it's fundamentally
deeply human.
and that's
one of the
wonderful things
is that God
doesn't call us
to get into
what he's done
for us in the
person of Jesus
where mercy
triumphs over
judgment.
He doesn't do
something that
means that we
have to be
really,
really smart
and be able
to figure out
theology really
well or that
we have to
have the type
of willpower
that's described
in our culture
that we can
just sort of
really,
really use our
willpower to
connect to God
or he doesn't
call us to be
the type of
person who
always has lots
of really positive
types of emotions
so that we
have these
positive emotions
about God.
No,
the way we
connect is
through faith
and if you
think about it,
a little
baby,
a little
baby,
just nursing
with its
mother,
the baby
knows the
mother.
The mother
has a
relationship
with the
baby and
the baby
has a
relationship
with the
mother.
The baby
has a
different
relationship
with the
mother
than the
father
does.
But it's
just the
fundamental
nature of
the human
being that
human beings
can do that
connecting with
other human
beings in a
personal way.
It's how God
designed us.
It's fundamentally
human.
A handicapped,
a severely
handicapped adult
or child can
have a relationship
with another
human being.
A very,
very elderly
person,
just before they
get lost in
dementia,
can have
still a
personal
relationship
with somebody.
And that's
why God,
the way that
we connect
with Jesus
is something
which is
fundamentally
connected to
who we are
that does
not depend
upon us
having strength
of will,
strength of
mind,
extensive
education,
great verbal
dexterity
and clarity
or any of
these types
of things.
it's a
personal
connecting,
a personal
connecting
that can
grow with
knowledge about
the person.
Over time,
maybe now I
would know
how to go
up to the
thing.
Louise would
say I'm a
very slow
learner and
she would be
right.
I am a
very slow
learner when
it comes to
my relationship
with her.
But I know
how to order
for her,
like I would
have known
that a long
time ago.
I know
lots about
her and
about how
she is and
how she
works and
who she
is and
how I am
and the
knowledge
grows.
And that's
what faith
is.
You see,
it's because
mercy triumphs
over judgment
isn't just an
abstraction,
it's not just
a slogan,
it's a
summary of
what Jesus
does for
us with
his life,
his death
upon the
cross,
and his
resurrection,
and it's
a knowing
of him.
And just
as to know
any human
being,
you get
involved in
their life,
what they
say,
what they
don't say,
what they're
like,
what they've
done,
what they
haven't done,
what they
will do,
you get
involved in
all of
those types
of things.
But at
the same
when you
know Jesus,
you can't
know Jesus
without knowing
who he
is and
what he
says and
what he
doesn't say
and what
pleases him
and what
doesn't
please him
and what
he's
accomplished
for you
and what
he will
accomplish
for you
and what
he's
continuing
to accomplish
for you
and in
your life.
And that's
who you
know.
And it's
summarized
with this
profound
truth that
every moment
in your
Christian walk,
mercy triumphs
over judgment.
Struggling
with anxiety,
mercy triumphs
over judgment.
Struggling
with hopelessness,
mercy triumphs
over judgment.
Feeling you
are an
absolutely
crappy
Christian and
maybe you
are,
but you
know the
comfort?
Mercy
triumphs
over judgment.
That
describes
who he
is and
what he's
done.
Let's
just read
the text
very quickly.
I got
out of my
notes,
by the way.
We need
to read
the rest.
So how's
how you
unpack it?
Look at
verses 15,
16,
and 17.
For brother
or sister
is poorly
clothed
and lacking
in daily
food,
and one
of you
says to
them,
go in
peace,
be warm
and filled,
without
giving them
the things
needed for
the body.
What
good is
that?
So also
faith by
itself,
if it does
not have
works,
is dead.
One of the
things that's
so wonderful
about James
is he tells
you what
he thinks.
What do
you think,
James?
It's dead.
It's
completely
worthless.
So what's
he describing?
He's describing
what the
normal way
is for
faith.
He's going
to describe
as wrong
the two
normal mistakes
that people
make about
faith.
You see,
what happens
to this
particular
person?
They're just
caught up
with themselves.
They're just
caught up
with their
own world.
What they're
concerned with
is making
a posture
type statement.
What they're
concerned with
is saying
the right
word.
What they're
concerned with
is having
the right
emotion
about the
person.
In terms
of virtue
signaling,
it might
even be
that they
leave and
they just
feel so
good about
themselves
that they've
said something
like this.
Don't I
really care
about the
poor?
It's just
like when
I saw
that Black
Lives Matter
demonstration,
all those
people,
I thought,
all you
folks,
I mean,
there's a
real problem.
I'm not
denying the
problem.
But gosh,
if you
wanted to
get a
whole range
of Pharisees
and virtue
signaling,
and if I've
offended you,
then that's
life.
That's what
it was.
Virtue
signaling.
Powerful
emotions that
did
nothing.
Did
nothing.
It's the
secular
equivalent of
go your
way,
do well.
you see
how it's
a problem
and we
don't even
necessarily
realize it?
And I
don't know,
maybe I'm
going to get
some angry
emails because
I compare
this text to
Black Lives Matter
demonstrations in
Canada.
I can't comment as
much about the
states.
But it's all
about emotion.
You know,
one of the big
things I had as a
problem in my
early Christian
days,
I became
Christians through
charismatics,
and I'd go to
these worship
services and all,
and everybody,
there'd be all
these times in
the service
closing their
eyes,
their arms are
up,
you can just
feel all the
emotion.
And I think to
myself,
gosh,
I'm a crappy
Christian.
I suck.
But then it's
so, you know,
and then you
realize after they
go right from
that to get
drunk.
And you go,
like some
people just
like emotional
displays.
Some people
just like to
mouth the right
words.
And what
James says,
is that
faith?
No,
it's dead.
Complete
dead end.
Now,
now that we
more reformed,
restrained,
Anglican types,
where very few
of us are much
in danger of
being in a
worship service
where we're
jumping up and
down and
waving our
arms,
so we can
say,
yeah,
I'm really
glad James
nailed those
persons.
Now he
nails us.
that's what
he does
next.
Look what he
says immediately
after that.
Verse 18,
but someone
will say,
you have
faith and I
have works.
Basically,
what's behind
that is it's
as if he
knows what's
going to be
written in
Romans 12
and 1
Corinthians 12
where there's
the gift of
faith and the
gift of works
of mercy and
compassion.
And it's
sort of as if
the person
said,
well,
you know,
there's
different strokes
for different
folks,
you know,
whatever.
And James
says,
show me your
faith apart
from your
works and I
will show you
my faith by
my works,
by what I
do.
You believe
that God
is one?
You do
well.
And then,
boom,
even the
demons believe
and shudder.
And that's
for us more
reformed or
evangelical types
who might be
able to recite
the entire
39 articles,
the entire
Westminster
Shorter
Catechism,
Luther's
Shorter
Catechism,
for Roman
Catholics who
can quote
verbatim
the entire
big fat
book of
the Catholic
Catechism
of the
Christian
faith.
But that's
just mere
not,
it's just
things in
your head.
And if it
isn't that
personal
relationship
that involves
a change
in your
life,
what does
James say
it is?
It's
like demons
who know
perfect,
I mean,
what he's
saying here
is,
this is
so crazy,
every demon
has a
better,
a more
pure
theology
than every
single,
any one
of us
here in
the room.
And so
if it's
just a
matter of
the Christian
faith is
all about
perfecting
your
theology,
it's going
to be hard
to beat a
demon,
human,
but it's
completely
useless.
It would
be as if
I merely
studied
Louise from
a distance
and got
to know
her perfectly
and perfectly
and perfectly,
but never
actually said
hello to
her.
And not
only hello,
but then
talk to her
for an extra
couple of
moments and
then maybe
have coffee
with her
and then
have it
develop.
And those
are the
classic
two big
mistakes.
And then
he points
us in a
better
direction.
Remember
I said
that faith
is humbly
connecting
to the
triune
God
from your
heart
so that
he changes
the real
you
in your
real life.
That's the
heart of
all relationships.
Having a
child
changes you.
If it
doesn't
change you,
there's
something
wrong.
Having a
friend
changes you.
If it
doesn't
change you,
there's
something
wrong.
Being
married
changes
you.
If it
doesn't
change
you,
there's
something
wrong.
That's
how
relationships
work.
And so
James now
points us
in terms
of a
more
positive
direction.
Verses
20 to
24.
Do you
want to
be
shown,
you
foolish
person,
that faith
apart from
works,
in other
words,
faith apart
from your
life being
changed,
faith apart
from your
life being
changed is
useless.
Was not
Abraham our
father justified
by works when
he offered
up his
son on
Isaac on
the altar.
You see
that faith
was active
along with
his works
and faith
was completed
by his
works 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.
You see that a
person is
justified by
works and
not by faith
alone.
What he's just
saying here is
is that faith
is active.
It was active
in terms of
Abraham,
that it's
active,
that it
involves such
things as
it grows.
What he
actually does
here is he
connects,
if you go
back and you
read it,
he connects
the life of
Abraham from
Genesis 15 to
Genesis 22.
So there's
eight chapters
there and
he texts
something from
the beginning
of Abraham's
walk with
God and
towards the
end of
Abraham's
walk with
God.
And he
takes a
25 year
span of
Abraham's
life and
he connects
it.
He shows
that there
was this
active
aspect and
growing
aspect and
developmental
aspect of
Abraham's
faith in
the personal
God.
Remember,
faith is
humbly
connecting to
the triune
God from
your heart
so that it
changes the
real you in
your real
life.
And it
culminates in
this particular
story,
which I don't
have time to
go into right
now.
Which has
to do with
his son
Isaac.
That in a
sense there's
always a type
of a
fulfillment.
There's always
a moving
towards something
greater, a
goal.
That a better
friendship, a
better marriage, a
better relationship
with your kids, a
better relationship
with your boss, a
better relationship.
That there's always
this sense that
there's always
something more
that you can
do.
Not in a way
that crushes
you or kills
you, but in a
sense that you
know that it's
just natural, that
bothers you if
your relationship
with your child
or your spouse
or your friend
is going in the
wrong direction.
Wrong direction
means that you
have a basic
idea that there's
an end, a
telos, something
that should be
going towards, that
you're off track
and you want to
get back to it.
And once again, if
we understand that
faith is humbly
connecting to the
triune God from
your heart so that
it changes the real
you and your real
life, then you
realize that there's
this direction that
that connection will
continue to go,
which is continue to
get you closer and
closer to God.
And when it says
that faith is
active, what it is
there in the
original language, it
says faith is active
and works, and the
images of a boss and
co-workers doing
something together,
that's the image in
the original language.
In other words, what
happens first and
foremost is the boss
making the decision,
but then the boss
makes a decision and
everything works
towards it.
You know, it would
be the same thing
that, in a sense,
what really begins
a relationship with
me and Louise is
entering into a
relationship, and
then certain actions
follow.
The actions don't
go before or
separate from a
relationship.
I mean, that would
just be weird,
wouldn't it?
Like, she would view
it as stalking.
If I just sort of
kept coming up,
refused, she refuses
all my advantages, I
just keep buying her
coffee or doing other
types of things, that
wouldn't, she'd think
I was stalking her.
That's a definition
of a creep.
But it's not, if it
begins with a
relationship and then
out of the relationship
certain actions follow,
like, that you don't,
you know, you don't
dominate, you know,
husbands don't
dominate your wives.
Don't mistake
dominating your wives
for whatever the
biblical text is you
think you're quoting.
You're just misquoting
the Bible.
It's the wrong, it's
not the right telos.
It's not moving the
right way.
That's what's going on
here in the text.
The relationship, in
a sense, guides and
makes sense of the
actions.
And then the next
thing which he does in
verses 25 to 26 is,
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?
For as the body apart
from the spirit is dead,
so also faith apart from
works is dead.
And I originally, I
got, I spent more,
anyway, I didn't manage
my time in the sermon,
well.
Hopefully it's all in
the providence of God,
it's all worked well.
The interesting thing
about going from
Abraham to Rahab is
that Abraham is a
hero of the faith, and
so a lot of us could
say, well, that leaves
me out.
I'm not a hero of the
faith.
I'm not Billy Graham.
You know, I'm not
St. Francis of Assisi.
I'm not Calvin.
You know, I'm not
Corrie Ten Boom.
I'm not like that.
And so he uses the
example of a woman who
was a pagan and a
prostitute.
And whereas Abraham's
story is a story of 25
years of development
and growth, Rahab's is
of a moment when she
has to make a
particular decision,
then act out of it,
and it completely
changes her life.
And so he takes man to
woman, high prestige to
no prestige, long period
of time to sudden.
And in both cases, he
says, you see in here
there's the beginning of a
connecting to the
triune God in a way
which changes you, the
real you in your real
life.
I just want to close with
two things.
I'm an evangelical.
I believe that it's
appropriate for me to
tell people about Jesus
and say, if you haven't
given your life to Jesus,
there's no better time
now than to get in on the
most spectacular,
wonderful, real thing
that's ever happened in the
real world, which is that
mercy triumphs over
judgment.
And if you didn't know
that until now, I'm
telling you now, and I'm
telling you that he did it
for you.
There's no single person
who's so bad, so screwed
up, so psychologically
damaged, so much a
failure, who's so much
rejected by the world,
whose life is so screwed
up that this is not in
fact an invitation to you,
that you can take place
that even though your life
is a mess upon a mess
upon a mess upon a mess,
as Jesus lived this life
that he lived and died
his death upon the cross
and rose from the dead,
he was thinking of you
in the hope that you
would say to him,
Jesus, be my Savior and
Lord.
Help me to get into that
and please get into me.
I'm an evangelical.
I believe that.
And I've just said it to
you again.
But here's what I also
want to tell you.
There's three different
ways that people get
into that.
I know people,
and in fact,
I know people who are
for the fulfillment of
what every Christian
prays.
There's beautiful young
children here.
I can tell you this
right now.
If the parent is a
Christian, none of them
is saying, I sure hope
that my child becomes a
witch and a drug addict
and then joins a biker
gang for eight years so
they can have a dramatic
sudden conversion.
What does every Christian
pray?
They pray, I'm going to
read stories to the,
I'm going to read Bible
stories to my kids.
I'm going to bring them
to church.
I'm going to pray for
them every day.
Why?
Because every parent
wants their child to,
in a sense, be able to
say when they're 20,
you know what, I don't
know if there ever was a
time in my life I didn't
believe and trust in
Jesus.
And just as a baby
doesn't have to have
amnesia for 20 years
and all of a sudden
discover its mother,
you can have a real
relationship with Jesus
that begins from
infancy that you don't
know the moment to
change but the
relationship is real.
And there's others who
can't tell you a moment
they came to trust in
Jesus.
They could say that on,
you know, March 15,
2020, I wasn't a
Christian and March 15,
2021, I became, I know
I'm a Christian and where
that moment came where I
went from one to the
other, I can't tell you
where it happened but
you know what I can tell
you?
I can tell you that
Jesus is my Savior and my
only hope is that mercy
triumphs over judgment.
And then there's others
of us who can say, yeah,
you know, there was a
moment, George or some
other person or my
neighbor told me about
this and I realized it
was time for me to lay
down my arm or open the
drawbridge and get down
on my knees and look at
Jesus and say, Jesus be
my Savior, I want mercy to
triumph over judgment in
my life.
And God is so shameless
because it's a personal
thing.
He accepts all three.
Please stand.
Let's just pray.
Father, some of us here,
some of us here as maybe
adults don't really know
that there was a time
that we ever, we've just
always believed in Jesus.
And Father, we give you
thanks and praise that
because to be with Jesus
is about having a
relationship with him and
just as a child can have a
relationship with its
mother from the moment of
birth and even from the
moment of conception so we
can have a moment, a
relationship with Jesus
that we don't know the
beginning.
Father, we give you thanks
and praise for Christian
families, for moms and
dads who read the Bible to
their children and pray for
their children and sing
Christian songs and love
them and bring them to
church and other types of
things to grow their faith.
And Father, for everyone
here who that describes, we
are so grateful for the
parents and we are so
grateful that they know
Jesus and did not have to
go through some of the
messes the rest of us had to
go through before we became
Christians.
And Father, there are some
here who have given their
lives to Jesus and they can
say the moment.
There's others who can say,
well, I wasn't one now, then
and now I am and I don't
know more.
Father, we give you thanks
and praise that you use
that means as well to bring
people to a trusting
connection with you, with
Jesus that changes our life
and changes our real life
and our real destiny, our
real end.
And Father, we thank you for
that work of the Holy Spirit
that brought us to Jesus.
And Father, if there are any
here who have not yet given
their lives to Jesus, I ask
that the Holy Spirit would
move deeply in their lives, if
they feel, Father, a type of
a pressure to surrender and
say yes, that they would
stop fighting that pressure
and that they would just
turn to Jesus and say,
Jesus, be my Savior and
Lord.
I want it to be the case not
of how good a person I am or
thinking I'm too bad a
person, but that the song
and story of my life will be
mercy triumphs over judgment
because I have received Jesus
as my Savior and my Lord.
And Father, for all of us, we
ask that you help us to be
more and more and more gripped
with the wonder of the
gospel, that mercy triumphs
over judgment, that that
might be the ground by which
we understand our lives,
understand our past,
understand our present,
understand our future, that
mercy triumphs over judgment,
that Jesus would be the one
as that truth is brought
deeper to our heart, that
propels us to live, that
draws us to live, that
grounds how we live, that
becomes the lens by which we
see ourselves in our past
and our future, and
motivates us to live.
And Father, we ask that
your Holy Spirit would do
that wonderful, continuing,
saving, sanctifying work
until that day when either
you have returned Jesus or
we die and see you face to
face, and we enter into
glory all along, not you
weighing our merits, but
pardoning our offenses.
Father, we thank you for
Jesus.
Grip us with the gospel, and
all God's people said,
Amen.