This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to day four of Daily Drive Time Devotions. Look through
James chapter two, verses 14 to 26 today. As we look at these verses, we're
really getting into the part of James that many of you, as we started this
study, this is the part you wanted to talk about.

This is the faith and works part of James. This is where James talks about faith
without works is dead. What does he mean about that?

How does that work in our lives? James, the whole book is about how you develop
a faith that works, a faith that has meaning in your daily life. You'd be
shocked at how many people never do develop a faith that works.

They talk about it, but they never do it. And that's what James is going to focus
on in these verses. You see, we have a lot of questions about faith and works,
and we're going to answer those the next couple of days.

But James writes about this not just to answer our questions. He writes about it
to encourage our faith. He writes about it because he wants us to live out a
kind of faith that has meaning in our daily lives, that makes a difference in
the world around us.

A kind of faith where we realize Jesus Christ is working in my life. So this
isn't some discussion of philosophy. This is about daily life and faith in daily
life.

In fact, you see that as James begins talking about this in verse 14. Let me
read for you verses 14 to 19. "What good is it, my brothers," he says, "if a man
claims to have faith, but has no deeds?

"Can such a faith save him? "Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes "and
daily food. "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? "In the same way, faith by itself, "if it's not accompanied by action, is
dead. "But someone will say, you have faith, I have deeds.

"Show me your faith without deeds, "and I'll show you my faith by what I do.
"You believe there is one God, good. "Even the demons believe that and shudder.

" James says in these verses that faith without works, faith without deeds,
faith without doing the things that God made us to do in Christ Jesus, it's a
dead faith. A wordy, but workless faith is worthless. Now, as he talks about
faith and works here, he's not talking about faith plus works.

He's talking about faith that works. It's a very important distinction. He's not
talking about, first I have faith in Jesus, and then I add to that some good
things that I do, or maybe I add the good things I do before I have faith in
Jesus, and I put those two together, one plus one equals faith equals heaven.

No, he's talking about faith that works. He's saying, first you have faith in
Jesus Christ, and because of that faith, it's going to change what you do. It's
going to change how you act.

That's what genuine faith does in a person's life. He's not talking about a
faith here that's been alive and then it died. When he talks about faith being
dead, he's talking about a faith that's never come to life at all.

And we're going to focus on that a little bit more and the questions you might have
around that tomorrow. But I want to begin with the answers. 'Cause these verses
are all about answers.

He's talking about a faith that works. And he says a faith that works, well,
there are five things that you gotta realize. It has to go beyond mere words.

It has to go deeper than intellect. It has to go further than emotion. It has to
trust the trustworthy, and it must affect the way that I act.

Let's look at those five things. A faith that works must go beyond mere words.
He says in verse 14, you claim to have faith.

You say it, but there's no results of it in your life. Faith is not just
somebody saying, I have faith. We all can say things.

Faith is someone truly trusting in God. We're going to get to that in a few
minutes. It has to go beyond mere words.

And number two, it must go deeper than intellect. Faith is not a trust in some
group of facts or something that happened in history or some philosophical idea
about God. This philosophical discussion is in verse 18.

He says, somebody says, well, you have works, but I have faith. You know, you do
good things, but I have good intellect about it. I have good thoughts about God.

And James is saying, that's not genuine faith. Genuine faith is going to impact the
way that you act. James is very practical here.

He says, if faith doesn't do anything, what good is it? It's as good as, and he
gives us illustration, as somebody who's hungry, they're cold, and you just say
to them, hey, be well-fed, be warmed, and you walk away. It's meaningless.

It's gotta go deeper than intellect. It's gotta go beyond mere words. And number
three, he says, it has to go further than emotion.

This really gets to some of us, because we think faith is all about emotion.
It's all about some feeling that I have inside about God. James says in verse
19, you believe that there is one God, good.

Even the demons believe that. That's talking about an intellectual belief there.
So it goes beyond intellect.

They believe that, and then he says, they shudder. They have an emotional
response to that. They shudder inside.

A lot of people think, if they come into church and they have an emotional
response, they shudder in the presence of God. They realize there is a truth
that God is there, that somehow that means they have faith. And James says,
that's not faith.

Even the demons do that, because they know that God is real. Shuddering
emotionally because you know that God is real is not trusting God with your life
in a way that changes things. Faith that works has to go beyond mere words.

It's gotta go deeper than intellect. It's gotta go further than emotion. It's
gotta touch your will, where you decide.

And then it must touch your actions, what you do. It has to touch your will. It
has to trust the trustworthy.

James begins to talk about that in verse 20. Let me read for you James chapter
two, verses 20 to 26. 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? You see that his faith and his actions were
working together so that his faith was made complete by what he did. And the
scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to
him as righteousness, and he was called God's friend.

You see that a person is justified by what he does 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.

Now I know as I read those verses, you have some questions about faith and
grace, and we're going to really focus on those tomorrow. But as I said a moment
ago, I want to focus on the answers today. And the answer that James is giving us
here is that faith will not work if it's misplaced.

He talks about genuine faith here. It's faith in God. Only God is ultimately and
entirely trustworthy.

So faith trusts the trustworthy. In fact, you can trust him more than you can
trust yourself. You can trust his ideas more than you can trust his ideas, his
opinions more than you can trust your own opinions, his directions more than you
can trust your own directions in life.

James, as he talks about genuine faith and genuine trust and what it means,
picked two of the most different examples you can imagine to teach us this
simple principle of a faith that works. He picked Abraham and Rahab, a man and a
woman, a Jew and a Gentile, a patriarch and a prostitute. You couldn't imagine
two more different people.

So why did he choose these two? Because they both trusted. Abraham, you can read
his story all through Genesis about how he trusted God again and again and again
and again.

In these verses, he talks about the fact that he trusted God when he offered
Isaac on the altar. Rahab, there is just one story of her trust in God. Very
brief.

When the spies came in and they were going to see that the walls of Jericho were
going to fall and Rahab trusted them enough to take them into her home and say,
would you make sure that my family is saved because she believed there was a
real God? She was trusting the trustworthy. She wasn't trusting the town she
lived in or the people that were there.

She trusted the real God. God is trustworthy. As you look at yourself, I don't
know what you feel about how trusting a person you are.

I find that oftentimes I'm not as trusting as I would like to be. I'll just be
honest about that. But I've learned that God is trustworthy.

I can always trust in him. And that is where faith begins, with my trust in him.
And that kind of trust changes the way that I act.

That's the fifth thing about faith. Genuine faith must affect the way that I
act. Faith without works is dead.

Faith that never touches my actions hasn't even touched my heart. That's what
he's saying here. John Calvin said about what James says here, it is faith alone
that justifies, but faith that justifies can never be alone.

It's going to affect my life. It goes back to that old question you might have
heard. If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough
evidence to convict you?

If your faith hasn't made one bit of difference in your life or in your actions,
then what is there to say you have genuine faith? You don't become perfect. None
of us are perfect.

We all still struggle with sin, but we see Christ changing us. We see ourselves
making different choices, doing different things, reading God's word, worshiping
with God's people, doing God's work in the world. Our faith is not determined by
what we do, but it is demonstrated by what we do.

And if there's no demonstration, James is saying here, James is saying here, you
better face up to the fact that there may be no faith if there's no
demonstration. You say, "Sure, I'm a believer, I'm a Christian. " Do you attend
church?

No. Do you donate your time at all to serve other people? No.

Do you tithe? Do you know what God's given to you? No.

James is saying when it's all no's, that's a phony belief. That's not genuine
faith. You're just conning yourself.

And a lot of people are doing that. You're just conning yourself. Other people
aren't fooled, and God certainly isn't fooled.

James writes these verses to help us to recognize that genuine faith is going to
impact what I do, who I am. Now, tomorrow we're going to look more deeply into
this question of faith and works. As we close today, I'd like to close with an
honest time of prayer together before Jesus.

And would you just ask him honestly, Jesus, have I mistaken some emotional or
intellectual experience for true life-changing faith in you? Have I been telling
myself I have faith, but it's not making any difference in my life, and that's
because I've just attended a church service. I've never really trusted you.

If you have any doubt about that, you can take care of it right now. Faith
trusts the trustworthy. It doesn't begin with your works.

That's the result of your faith. It begins with your trust. So say to him right
now, Jesus Christ, I trust you.

I trust you to forgive my sins. I trust you to lead my life. I trust you to
direct my actions, to make me into the kind of person that you created me to be.

I trust you. I'm not trusting in what I'm doing. I'm trusting in you, Jesus
Christ, and I pray that that would change what I'm doing.

Change me because of who you are. I pray this in your name. Amen.