The Faith that does not Save

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I want you to imagine a man. If you were to ask this man if he has faith, he would say, 'Yes, I'm a Christian.' And if you asked him what it means to be a Christian, he could tell you. 'I believe that God made the world, and that he made me. 'I believe that because God made me, I should live with him as my God, but I don't. 'I believe that I deserve God's punishment and that there's nothing I can do to save myself. 'And I believe that despite all of that God loves me and he sent his son, Jesus, to die for me. He took the punishment that I deserve, so that if I put my faith in him I can be saved. 'I am trusting in Jesus' death to save me.' That's what he says. That is his faith.

But…If you looked at that man's life, you would find no evidence of his faith. He says he has faith. But that's not what his life looks like. His life looks like everyone else's. He says he believes in God, but he lives his life as is he is god. He says he's trusting in Jesus, but he lives as if this life is all there is.

Here is the question for us this evening. Will that man's faith save him?

Let's pray.

Look at v14…

What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?

I think it's fair to say that James would be an awful person to invite round for dinner with a group of friends wouldn't he?! Because all the way through this letter he keeps on saying things that make us feel uncomfortable. And the reason we feel uncomfortable is because we know where this is going. We know the answer to James' question in v14 don't we?

But just in case we're not sure, James gives us an illustration to make his point. Look at v 15…

Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food.

Imagine that someone close to you is in serious need. This person is not without clothes for a special occasion, it's not that they don't have the right thing to wear for a party, it's that they don't have anything to wear at all. This person isn't missing an ingredient for a cake they're making, they haven't come round for a cup of sugar, this person doesn't have the food they need today to survive. v16…

If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it?

If all you or I did for that person was to give them a pat on the back and say, 'I hope you keep warm,' Or say to them, 'Hey, I really hope you find a meal.' What good is that? A. It's no good at all, v17…

In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

If all you have is words. If all you have is what you say you believe, but your life hasn't changed and you're not living any differently from the world around you. If all you have is that kind of faith, alone, James says your faith means nothing. It's empty. It's dead.

Faith alone is futile, vv 14-19

"But," v18a… 

...someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds.

'James, we all have different gifts,' someone will say, 'some of us are thinkers, and some of us are doers. 'Some people have the gift of faith. They know what they believe. They've got books, they study, they argue, they read. They're the thinkers. 'And other people have the gift of deeds. They just want to be out there, doing the stuff, making a difference, getting involved. They're the doers. 'We all have different gifts James, some people have faith and other people have deeds.' And what does James say? v18b…

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do.

There is no separating out faith and deeds, he says. Faith and deeds go together. Faith and deeds are two sides of the same coin. Just understanding and accepting the truth about God, if that kind of faith is all you've got, he says, well then you're no better than the demons, v19… 

You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that--and shudder.

(This is, incidentally, where your dinner party ends because all your other guests have left!)

It's not hard to see what James is saying is it? But it's hard to hear. Faith, by itself, is worth nothing. Faith alone is futile.

So why is James saying this? Why does he write this in his letter and why has it been kept for us to read? Well, he's saying all of this because in the world that he was writing to back then, and in our world today, there are people who say that they have faith, people who, when asked what religion they are, tick the box that says Christian, people who say that they believe in Jesus, but who live lives that show no sign of their faith at all.

James writes this because he knows that there are some people who think that they will be saved because of what they believe, and they are wrong.
Not that what they believe is wrong. No, just like the demons, they believe true things about the true God. But their faith won't save them because all they have is faith. They have faith, alone. And faith alone is futile.

There is a danger that people who call theselves Christians are not saved at all. And there is a danger that you think I'm talking about other people, and not you. Do you see? James is urging us to examine if our faith is real, or if it's fake.

A while ago Gayles and I were visiting her parents who still live in the town where we grew up. They took us out for a curry one night and as we sat down I realised that one of the people sitting on the table next to us was someone I went to school with. In fact we'd been good friends for the last two years of secondary school. His name is Julian. And as we finished our meals he came over and he said hello. And we talked a bit and he asked me, 'What are you doing now?' And I told him that I was married and had a daughter and I lived in Gateshead and that I am the Assistant Minister of a church called Holy Trinity Gateshead. And he looked at me in complete disbelief, and he said, "Dim, I didn't know you were religious?! Did you get into that after you left school?"

I had spent hours with Julian every day for two years! I went to church every week, and every summer I went on Christian camps. I was even one of the leaders of the Christian Union at our school. Yet looking back Julian couldn't remember anything that made him think that I had faith in Jesus!

Now, there might be lots of reasons for that. Perhaps Julian has a terrible memory? Or perhaps he never liked those bits of my character so he chose to forget them? But perhaps for those two years at school while I would have said I was a Christian and I had faith in Jesus Christ, perhaps my life never showed it? Perhaps I claimed to have faith but had no deeds?

Sometimes in church we talk a lot about faith and grace, but not so much about deeds. We say, and rightly so, that we are not saved by our works, we're not saved by what we do, we are saved by putting our faith in Jesus and trusting what he did for us on the cross. And that's right. But that's not the end of the gospel, it's the beginning.

Do you remember what Jesus said in our first reading in Matt 25? In vv 31-33…

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 will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

He's talking about judgment day, vv 34-40…

Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take 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 of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.

On Judgment Day, the ones who God will welcome into heaven are the ones who put their faith into practise. The King looks for not just words, but deeds, vv 41-46…

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 and 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.

Do you see? There are some people who have a Charlie Bucket kind of Christianity. They read their Bibles and come to church and hear that we are saved by faith. And that's true. But then they misunderstand. They think that having faith in Jesus means just saying the right things. They believe in their minds that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died for the sins of the world. And so they think they have faith, and that their faith is their golden ticket into heaven. Like Charlie Bucket, or Augustus Gloop, in the children's story, they have their golden ticket so they're ok.

But what Jesus says in Matt 25 and what James says in chapter 2 is that if that's what you think then you're wrong. 

…faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." 

Faith alone is futile.

But that's not all. Secondly he says… 

Faith alone is impossible, vv 20-26 

Look at vv 20-21…

You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless ? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?

In the book of Genesis God appeared to a man called Abraham and promised him that he would be the father of a whole nation, that his descendants would outnumber the stars in the sky. And Abraham laughed because he was 100, and Sarah was 90 years old! And they had no children. But God kept his promise and Sarah had a baby boy called Isaac. And then in Genesis 22 we read this…

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, 'Abraham!''Here I am,' he replied.Then God said, 'Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.

It was a test, but Abraham didn't know that.

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.

Abraham didn't just say that he believed in God. He didn't just believe in God in his head. He believed in God with all his heart. So he was willing to put his faith into practise. "You see," v22…

...that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.

Faith and deeds go together. What you do, reveals what you believe. And what you truly believe, shapes what you do. Faith alone is really impossible. And so James says in v24…

You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

Now, over the years, some people have struggled with that verse. They've struggled with it because on the surface James seems to contradict what Paul says in his letters. Look at what it says, for example in Ephesians 2…

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast.

James says that a person is saved, by what he does and not by faith alone. And Paul says that we are saved only by faith and not by what we do!
What is going on? Well, what's going on is that James and Paul are really talking about two different things. Let me explain.

If you ask most people how they think someone gets to heaven this is what they'll say…DEEDS = SALVATION. If you do enough good things, you'll get into heaven.

If you ask most religious person how they think someone gets into heaven, they'll say something that looks like this. DEEDS + FAITH = SALVATION. You need to do enough good things, but you've also got to believe the right things.

Sadly, sometimes Chirstians start to believe that as well. When we think that we've done something really good so God, must love us a little bit more,
Or when we've done something really bad, God must love us a little bit less, we've fallen into the trap of thinking that, DEEDS + FAITH = SALVATION.

But that's not what the Bible says. All the way through the Bible, and nowhere more clearly than in Paul's letters, we are told that we are saved by faith alone…FAITH = SALVATION

We don't have to do anything to earn our salvation. In fact there is nothing we can do to earn our salvation. We are saved entirely and eternally when we put our faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross. We are saved by faith alone, and James could not agree more. But he goes on to add something that we often forget. And that is that faith in Jesus is never alone.

Putting your faith in Jesus ALWAYS leads to living your life for Jesus. FAITH = SALVATION = DEEDS

That's what James is saying here, and it's exactly what Paul teaches as well. Look at Ephesians 2 again, vv 8-9…

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast.

But then he goes on in v10…

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

We are saved by faith alone, but real faith is never alone, faith alone is impossible, it is always accompanied by deeds. That's what we see in the life of Abraham. And in v25 it's what we see in the life of Rahab. When the Israelite spies came to Rahab in Joshua 2 she didn't just say that she believed in the God of the Israelites, she hid the spies and helped them escape.

Real faith, alone, without changing your life, is impossible. As v24 says,

You [can] see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.

Let me ask you, what kind of faith do you have?

Can you see the fruit of faith in your life? Has your life changed since you became a Christian? Are you growing in your love for the things that God loves? Are you losing your appetite for the things that the world has to offer? Do you find yourself choosing to obey God, rather than choosing the easy option? Or is your faith only words? You say you believe, but your life doesn't look like you believe.

We all need to examine our hearts, and our faith. Because faith alone is futile. And real faith alone is impossible.

Faith that is alone, without deeds, that's the faith that does not save.

Let's pray.

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