Thank you, Alistair. My name is Bruce, if we haven't met before.
But some of you may remember some weeks back in a filler sermon between sermon series in the morning.
I preached on the opening of James' letter, the glorious vision of the future.
Absolutely stunning, stunningly encouraging passage.
And I mentioned at that time that I thought James kind of lends itself to these sermon fillers
for these kind of slides, because he can delve in and out of James fairly easily.
James' letter is in some ways a bit like a grab bag of reflections on the Christian life.
So as we grab back into James this evening for a filler sermon between two series,
it's probably worth remembering that, at least to me,
he seems like one of the most provocative preachers in the New Testament.
I think you wouldn't have ever felt comfortable if you were among the congregation in Jerusalem
with Bishop James about to preach.
And I think you often find yourself wondering whether you've just heard what he said,
sort of clearing your ears out, and I think there's no exception for tonight.
In fact, it's probably the most shocking of these examples.
In the passage we just read, and we read that little snippet out of chapter 1
and then the longest snippet from chapter 2, because James kind of,
he comes in and out and weaves back to certain themes.
And so really he's talking about the same thing in both of these sections.
He just gets distracted and off he goes on a tangent, as it were.
But here James is asking us, is your Christianity any better than Satan's?
Somewhat astonishingly, that is in fact what he's just asked us.
Are you more of a Christian than Satan is?
You've got to admit, that's pretty good rhetoric, isn't it?
But it isn't just there for show.
James is serious and he's addressing a problem which beleaguers Christian churches
of any time and any place.
And we don't need to take it on faith that it's a problem for churches in the present day,
because I'm sure some of us would recognize it.
It's this problem of a Christianity that says it's a duck,
but it doesn't actually quack or waddle.
It's a Christianity that claims to be real, but in fact it isn't.
More seriously though, and this is where it really is more than just,
oh, isn't he such an intriguing speaker, this brother James?
It's a problem of a Christianity that cannot save you.
And it's this bit which actually I think gives us a good reason
as to why he would speak so provocatively,
why he really wants to get our attention.
It's a problem because if your Christianity is like that,
then it cannot save you.
Have a look in verse 19 again in chapter 2.
James writes,
You believe that God is one, you do well.
Even the demons believe, then shudder.
I don't know if you've ever given much thought to the faith of demons.
They've got one.
They believe that God exists.
They believe that Jesus died, that he rose again.
They even believe that he's coming back to judge the living and the dead.
The demons would freely acknowledge all of this to be true.
They believe this stuff.
But given their allegiance to Satan,
their faith isn't actually going to save them, is it?
Now, if it were only demons who had this problem of a faith that cannot save,
it wouldn't be so bad, would it?
I think we could close our Bibles at this point and go home feeling fairly assured.
The problem is it's not.
Many people have this problem.
Many people would believe that God exists,
that Jesus died and rose again.
They might even believe that he's coming again to judge the world.
But their faith cannot save them.
I wanted to say here, watch out.
It's easy to think of this problem as the problem you might recognise in other places.
Perhaps the cultural Christianity that pervades some of the larger denominations in this country.
The problem of a faith that maybe extends only as far as weddings, baptisms and funerals.
It's easy to think that this is this kind of problem of Protestant nominalism.
Church schools, perhaps, the private schools that are sponsored by churches.
It's the problem that's kind of in every other place except possibly in our church.
But if we start to think like that, we're going to fall into the very trap
that James is so seriously concerned that we should avoid.
There are, in fact, many people across Edinburgh who believe that God exists.
They believe that Jesus died and rose again.
Yet they do not possess a faith that can save them.
And so that's why James wants us to ask ourselves this evening, am I one of them?
Is my Christianity, in fact, any better than Satan's?
Now, the good news is that there's a basic litmus test that James goes on to tell us about
to see whether we can actually answer this question in the positive or the negative.
It's kind of a relief, really, a very simple litmus test, a binary.
I don't know if you remember back to school science.
I don't even know whether they would use litmus paper anymore in school science.
But at least back in the medieval era when I went to school,
you'd have these solutions and these small coloured pieces of paper that you'd dip in them.
And if the paper turns blue, it's an alkaline.
If it turns red, it's an acid.
It's a litmus test.
And James says that there is a test a bit like this for faith,
and it's every bit as visible as a coloured piece of paper.
James is saying that if your faith is better than Satan's, it can be seen.
The visibility, though, of a faith in Jesus that is a saving faith
is a bit different to the visibility, though, of, say, other world religions.
And this is a point worth thinking about.
For example, it doesn't become visible according to what you wear.
You can tell, for example, if a woman is a Muslim because she may be wearing a hijab.
You can tell a person is a Hindu if they have the red mark on their forehead.
But faith in Jesus becomes visible in a very different way.
Faith in Jesus becomes visible, according to the Scriptures,
in what we do and say.
This is why James says in verse 18 of chapter 2,
Now, there's another moment where we have this incredible echo of James' half-brother.
When we looked at the first passage in James,
there's these wonderful echoes of Jesus' teaching in James' letter.
And we have one here.
Can anyone remember where Jesus once said this?
He said,
What Jesus is saying in Luke chapter 6 is exactly what James is saying here.
I mean, the difference is, of course, that Jesus is using a word picture.
The person whose life yields briars or thorns doesn't really believe in Jesus,
even if they claim to.
The person who yields figs and grapes, however, they really do.
And you can tell by what you see.
So both Jesus and James are simply saying that
even though you can't peer into someone's heart
and see whether their faith is genuine or not,
their faith is, in fact, always visible.
It becomes visible in what we do and say.
So, it's a very simple point he's making.
He says, absolutely nothing to see.
No good words, no good actions on the outside
that can point to only one thing.
That faith is dead on the inside.
That's James' point.
Very simple, isn't it?
He's a good preacher.
It's very simple.
If faith is dead,
well, of course, that's why it's unable to save you.
And it's no better, then, than the faith of demons.
And that's worth thinking a little bit, too.
It's because faith in Jesus is not just this list of things
that you hold to be true.
It's something that is alive.
It's an active power.
It's a bit like the batteries, I think, inside children's toys.
I think that's a good way to think about it.
When our eldest was a very young boy,
it's hard to imagine now, he's almost as tall as I am.
He was, in fact, inside a cot.
You could keep him in there at that stage.
And he had this terrific toy,
but I can't remember whether we bought it for him
or whether it was a gift.
It was absolutely fabulous.
But for that thing, for all the fishes to move around inside,
it needed these massive D-sized batteries.
And what those batteries were to the mobile,
which gave it such life, such a terrific toy,
that's what faith is to the Christian.
Faith is the animating power of the Christian life.
It animates a Christian.
It makes them alive.
So if someone says that they believe in Jesus,
but there's no actions,
then quite simply the batteries are dead.
And so this is why James says those words in verse 26,
For as the body apart from the spirit is dead,
so also faith apart from works is dead.
Now, have you seen someone who was dead?
Not a question you'd actually have to ask 50 years ago,
but nowadays that's actually an interesting question.
I remember seeing my maternal grandfather shortly after he died,
and I remember as a boy just being utterly struck
by how different he looked.
I actually only ever remember him having Parkinson's disease,
quite severe, because he was quite old
and he had had it for a long time.
So he's already very, very weak, very weak and very thin.
But my mum remembers him as actually being quite fit
and quite strong physically.
But even though I'd never seen him like that,
there's this enormous difference between my wise and old,
weak Parkinson's grandfather and a dead grandfather.
Very, very strong memory when I saw him dead.
And that's actually what James is saying about faith too.
There's quite a difference between faith being dead
and it actually being very weak.
A huge difference.
A very visible difference.
So if someone says they believe in Jesus
and there's absolutely no movement whatsoever,
it's quite simply the active power of faith is gone.
Like the demons, that person might acknowledge certain things to be true,
but the active power that comes from the Spirit of God
that makes them alive is simply not there.
Because if it were, it'd be something to see.
Very simple.
So the James' point is that a faith that is better than the demons
is a visible faith and it's alive
and it's visible because it is alive
and it's alive because it's animated by the Spirit of God.
This is the litmus test
as to whether saving faith is present.
So would your faith turn the litmus paper blue?
That's James' question.
Are there actions on the outside that reveal what's there on the inside?
Before you answer, I want you to think again
and look again at the example James chooses to illustrate his point
because it's possible, even if you know this passage well,
that you might have missed it.
James illustrates this point with a very specific example.
James goes on to say,
if a brother or sister is poorly clothed
and lacking in daily food
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?
Now the specific example that James comes to land on
is something you may or may not have anticipated.
It's love, but it's actually not just love generally.
It's love for the poor,
but it's not just love for the poor generally.
It's specifically love for poor Christians.
James says,
suppose a brother or sister is without clothes or daily food.
Now you can miss this kind of specificity
because in our culture,
speaking of somebody who's not your biological brother
as your bro suggests that you might perhaps be into hip-hop.
As you can tell that I'm clearly not.
In the Bible, however, it refers,
it's the language of being a Christian,
a fellow Christian.
The Bible calls fellow Christians brothers and sisters
because when you become a Christian,
you get a family,
whether you like it or not.
God becomes your father
and because of that,
then you have a lot of little bros
because the Lord Jesus Christ is now your big bro.
That's the humbling and extraordinary truth of the gospel.
So when James is speaking here of a brother or sister,
he's actually talking about a fellow believer.
But look again,
James is not just speaking of a brother or sister
who's short of a pound.
He's talking about a brother or sister
who doesn't have adequate clothing,
a destitute fellow brother or sister.
Now how many shirts do you own?
I've got about six of these coloured shirts.
I remember particularly when I was in full-time employment,
I think I had eight or nine
because then you might skip the ironing or something for one week.
You could still be wearing the proper clothes.
But that's five more than James is talking about.
James is talking about a fellow Christian who is cold
because he doesn't own enough clothing to wear.
That's destitute.
That's poverty on a scale
that you don't really even see in Edinburgh.
So how many Christians' friends
do you have that are that poor?
Now some of us involved in Basics Bank,
a terrific thing that this church does,
they might actually be able to give a specific answer
to a question like that.
Whether or not, though,
we ever do actually come across Christians
that are in this category here in Edinburgh
is actually irrelevant.
I want to suggest that it's ultimately irrelevant
because we know that even in James' day,
this care for destitute brothers and sisters
extended much further than local congregations.
One of the amazing things in Paul's letter
to the Galatian churches,
it relates this interesting story
of when he met James in Jerusalem.
He was getting this spiritual check-up
to see whether his gospel was in fact the real deal or not.
And he relates this incident
when James gives him parting words.
James is completely convinced, by the way,
of Paul's orthodoxy.
And as they shake hands and part,
James gives him one word to remember.
He says, remember the poor.
And then Paul tells the Galatians
that he actually didn't need this reminder.
And the proof of that, actually,
is one of the things that comes out
all through the New Testament,
a hallmark of Paul's apostolic ministry.
It was, in fact, a collection for the poor,
the destitute Christians
who are persecuted in Jerusalem.
And interestingly,
he seemed to have quite a bit of accounting skill.
He'd managed all these checks and balances
to give confidence to the churches
around the Mediterranean Sea
who are contributing to this collection,
protect himself, I guess,
from accusations of fraud.
And we read about this, actually,
all through the New Testament,
that this care for the poorest of Christians
had almost had an international scale,
a transcultural scale,
from the very beginnings.
It was amazing.
And so the question we need to ask, then,
thinking about what James was saying,
is, is that actually a feature of ours?
A feature of our Christianity?
The point is, whether or not there may or may not
be destitute Christians here in B.C.
or even more broadly in Edinburgh,
there are many brothers and sisters
beyond these walls who are destitute
in the way that James is describing.
And, you know, the amazing thing
that I think about at this point
is actually, at this point in time,
more than ever in the history of the Christian church,
we are closer to them.
With the click of a mouse,
you can send a bag of rice
and a copy of the scriptures
for a poverty-stricken Christian
in the highlands of Vietnam.
Or with the click of a mouse,
you can send money to rebuild a church
that the jihadists have burnt down in Nigeria.
Our reach extends incredibly now
than it ever has in the history
of the Christian church.
I was reflecting on this
and I was reminded of the old TV show,
again, perhaps demonstrating my age,
if that's a completely foreign image to you.
Just put that down to the litmus test example.
But when I was a child,
there was a British animation
called Inspector Gadget
and he had these go-go gadget arms.
And it makes me think
that globalization has actually given Christians
these go-go gadget arms
that extend far longer
than even long arms will reach.
We can reach Christians around the world
in a way that James and Paul
could only have dreamed of.
Yet I fear that many Christians,
even in this situation,
have turned a deaf ear,
not just to their teaching,
but especially to James' half-brother.
Here again, we have another echo
from Jesus' own teaching.
James tells us
the poorest of the Christian poor
is what makes our faith visible,
caring for them.
That sounds a lot like what Jesus said
at the end of Matthew's Gospel.
Jesus said,
When the Son of Man comes in His glory
and all the angels with Him,
He will sit on His throne
in heavenly glory.
All the nations will be gathered before Him
and He will separate the people
one from another
as a shepherd separates the sheep
from the goats.
He'll put the sheep on His right
and the goats on His left.
Then the King will say
to those on His right,
Come, you who are blessed by My Father,
take what is your inheritance,
the kingdom prepared for you
since the creation of the world.
For I was hungry
and you gave me something to eat.
I was thirsty
and you gave me something to drink.
I was a stranger
and you invited me in.
I needed clothes
and you clothed me.
I was sick
and you looked after me.
I was in prison
and you came to visit me.
Then the righteous will answer Him,
Lord, when did we see you hungry
and feed you
or thirsty
and give you something to drink?
When did we see you a stranger
and invite you in
or needing clothes
and clothe you?
When did we see you sick
or in prison
and go to visit you?
The King will reply,
I tell you the truth,
whatever you did for one,
one of the least
of these brothers of Mine,
you did for Me.
Then He will say
to those on His left,
Depart from Me,
you who are cursed
into the eternal fire,
prepared for the devil
and His angels.
For I was hungry
and you gave Me
nothing to eat.
I was thirsty,
you gave Me
nothing to drink.
I was a stranger
and you did not invite Me in.
I needed clothes
and you did not clothe Me.
I was sick
and in prison
and you did not
look after Me.
They also will answer,
Lord, when did we see you
hungry or thirsty
or a stranger
or needing clothes
or sick
or in prison
and did not help you?
He will reply,
I tell you the truth,
whatever you did not do
for one of the least
of these,
you did not do for Me.
Then they will go away
to eternal punishment
but the righteous
to eternal life.
Again, we have this
amazing echo
in James' letter
of Jesus' own teaching.
You can imagine
He would have remembered this
from what He had heard
of His brother.
Jesus also says
that saving faith
shows itself
in love
for the poorest
of one's brothers
and sisters.
A faith that shows
no concern
for the poorest
of our brothers
and sisters
is in fact
no better than Satan's
and that's why
Jesus says
that those
on His left
are to depart
for where?
For the eternal fire
prepared for whom?
For the devil.
See, there's a direct
connection to James' teaching.
For the devil
and his angels.
A faith that is not
better than Satan's
brings people
to the same destiny
as Satan
and his angels.
Now, I know
that there are
many here in B.E.C.
who do show concern
for our brothers
and sisters
and they do it
in many meaningful ways
and indeed
in the most meaningful
of ways in prayer.
It's a terrific thing
to uphold our brothers
and sisters
in prayer
because they are
so desperately reliant
on our prayers.
The interesting thing
though is James
is kind of a step
ahead of us
and his teaching
anticipates this
and he goes
directly to prayer.
Do our prayers
resemble the prayers
that James describes
in chapter 2
verse 15?
Do we pray,
Lord, I wish them well,
keep them warm
and well fed,
but then don't
actually do anything
about their physical needs
because that's
James' illustration
of a faith
that is not visible.
In verse 15,
James says,
If a brother or sister
is poorly clothed
and lacking in daily food
and one of you
says to him,
Go in peace,
be warmed 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.
He gets quite a pointed
comment that if we only
pray for our brothers
and sisters
when it's in our power
to actually help them,
James says that that
is suggestive of a faith
that is in fact dead.
So if we really want to
know the answer
to this question,
and I've been drawing it
out to make the point
that James is making
as sharp as possible,
we need to ask questions
like,
What do I give
to the poorest
of Christians?
Just as Paul arranged
this collection
for the Christians
in Jerusalem,
there are many people
who give us those
go-go gadget arms
to reach the people
that are beyond our reach.
I think one of the things
that really helped me
when I realised
that this truly
was the emphasis
of the scriptures,
the organisation
Voice of the Martyrs
became such an appealing
group of Christians.
It was an organisation
formed some time ago
by a Romanian pastor
who spent many years
in prison.
And they have the most
wonderful way
of actually supporting
churches in a spiritual way,
encouraging their faith
and very practically
providing food and clothing,
especially to some
of the hidden victims.
So when a pastor
is put in prison,
usually that's a dreadful
burden for the wife
and the children.
They have this wonderful
ministry.
And an organisation
like that is something
that has actually
encouraged me
over many,
many years.
So if you have never
heard of Voice of the Martyrs,
let me encourage you
that these are one
of the absolute premier
groups that are operative
in the world
who allow us
to actually act
on what James is saying.
When I personally
started to see
that this is such
a huge emphasis
in the New Testament,
I began to include
not just the needs
of my local church
or missionaries
in financial giving,
but also the poorest
of brothers and sisters
around the world.
And Voice of the Martyrs
actually enables us
to direct money
specifically to that.
So as some of you know,
I'm a full-time student
at the moment,
but I'm very blessed
with some very fat
scholarships.
But there have been times
when I've had very,
very little income
or none at all.
And so giving
will often go up
and down.
Sometimes there's been
money for my own
food and clothing,
especially as a musician
before I was a pastor.
You can imagine
that probably well.
Alberto has probably
got the same problem
at the moment.
But the thing is
that one of the things
that we can think about
is modulating our giving
according to our needs.
And that's exactly
what Paul encourages.
So one of the things
that I did was keeping
one of the last things
off the list,
one of the first things
back on,
was the Christian poor,
precisely because of
what James and Paul
and Jesus teach
about what a high priority
it is in the Christian life.
Now naturally,
I don't have any idea
about your finances
and whether you contribute
to BEC
with the obligations
that we have here
to support our pastors
and the work here
or to the work
of foreign missions.
They're two stories
that are kind of
separate sermons
entirely on their own.
I have no idea
whether you're very
limited financially
or whether in fact
you're very wealthy.
although all of that
really affects
in very fine detail
what specifically
God is telling us
tonight
through James' message,
I can make a few suggestions
to help you
let what James is saying
move from this kind
of abstract principle,
the very concrete application
in your life.
And so the very first place
I need you to think about
is the money that you have
at your disposal
and your financial obligations.
that you might already have
and that includes BEC
and Christian missions.
And I simply want you
to ask a very simple question
is your faith visible
in the way that James describes
in the very specificity
of what he says?
Ask yourself
whether your faith
can be seen
and then perhaps consider
whether you can investigate
some of the ways
that it can become visible
if it's not visible.
I'd really encourage you
to look at the website
of Voice of the Martyrs
or some of the other organisations
that do this amazing work
of giving us
these go-go gadget arms
to reach poor brothers
and sisters.
I take it that our Christianity
is quite a bit better
than Satan's.
I take it that you've gathered
here tonight
in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ
that you don't just believe
that he exists
but that you love him
and that you worship him.
I take it that you believe
that he didn't just
die and rise again
but that he died
and rose again
for the forgiveness
of your sins.
I take it that we do share
in a faith
that is able to save
in other words.
That we've embraced
Jesus for ourselves
that we've been born again
by the Spirit
who gives us this life
this animating power
of faith.
So if that's the case
let me urge you
to make the faith visible
in the way that
James, Paul and Jesus
is saying.
Let our faith be visible
among our brothers
and sisters here in B.C.
Yes, keep doing that
through words of kindness
deeds of service
even through the harder words
that have to be spoken
from time to time
but let's not forget
what James is saying.
Let me encourage you
to put time aside tonight
to actually reflect
what James is saying
time before you go to bed
on whether your faith
is visible
in care for the poorest
of your brothers
and sisters
because there will come
a time
when we shall meet them
at the resurrection
of the righteous
and can you imagine
what it would be like
to have some Vietnamese woman
thanking you
perhaps even crying
thank you so much.
It was so difficult
for that 20 years
we were so poor
but those people
gave us rice
we would have died
can you imagine
what that would be like?
It's certainly no hardship
to share in that kind of joy
and if this is absent
in your life
so too will that joy
in the last day
when we are gathered
with a host of brothers
and sisters
who have paid
such a heavy price
for their confession
of Christ.
It's a joy
that is absent
in your life
and it is a joy
that James
seeks to share
with us
not a naked obligation
an interferer
like Graham
said so helpfully
this morning
is a joy
that James
is seeking
to add to our lives.
So let me encourage you
to pray for wisdom
to discern
how you can be fruitful
in the type
of international concern
that has always
characterized
the Christian church
from its very beginnings
for the very poorest
of our brothers
and sisters.
That really just takes you
to I can't tell you
what to do
because I don't know
what you are doing.
But let me say
that if you are actually
already involved
in this kind of love
please be encouraged
to keep being visible.
Visible perhaps
not to the person
sitting next to you
but it's certainly visible
in the eyes
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me encourage you
to keep going
because that is often
the hardest thing
in the Christian life
when your house
is in order
to keep going.
Take courage.
God will always
provide for you
in the same way
as that he calls us
to provide for others.
So let me encourage you
to keep going.
If God's word
has illumined
something new
for you tonight
don't let it go.
Think further on it
and allow your faith
to become visible
in action.
Will you join with me
now to pray
that the Spirit of God
will let our church
abound
in the kind of
visible faith
that James
enjoins on us
in his letter.
Loving and merciful
Father
we thank you
that you sent
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord Jesus
we worship you
as you are seated
at the right hand
of the Father
restored to the glory
that you had
with the Father
from before
the creation
of the world.
We worship you
that you became poor
so that we could
become rich.
We ask Lord Jesus
for grace
grace to see
what it is
for faith
to become visible
and we ask
that you would
stir in our hearts
the love
for our brothers
and sisters
who are hard pressed
and we ask Lord
that you would
meet their needs
according to the riches
of your glory
and that you would
give us the privilege
and the joy Lord
to be a part of them.
Let our faith
be visible
here in BC
here in Edinburgh
and indeed
to the ends of the US.
We ask this
in Jesus name.
Amen.