Beacon Sunday Service: June 9th, 2024

Um Sunday night uh in the middle of the night I hear her crying out and she has a nosebleed and so it's everywhere, all over the badge and all over her face, and so I get up, and then the next night she has another nosebleed, and Grammy got up. And so we were just kind of scrambling throughout the week. And so I don't know what your week has been like, but the grace of God has been there, and the peace of God has been through it all. So let's greet each other with grace and peace right now.

Speaking family.

The Lord is rogued, he has put on the strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established.

Your throne is established from old, you are from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice, the floods lift up their roin, roaring, mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty. Your decrees are very trustworthy, holiness befits your house, O Lord, forevermore. The Lord is almighty and he reigns, he reigns supreme in this world. He is the creator of this world. And when the church is in shambles, when this church feels like it's in shambles, going through persecution, um, the Lord is so faithful to remind us that that he is in absolute control. And um we find uh joy and comfort in that reality, and uh sing this first song together, the Lord Almighty rings.

Let's sing with uh Hallelujah, chorus, Hallelujah, Hallelujah for the Lord Oh mighty rain hallelujah for the Lord I got be all mighty there's an endless song as an endless song waiting to be sung with the voice of every tribe the sound of every tongue when the bride of Christ on that day of days brings with joy unto the land of multitude of praise like the roar of mighty seas and rows of thunder sing hallelujah for the Lord Oh might he reins Hallelujah for the Lord I got me all might we will join We will join the feast rest from battles one tell with great rejoicing all the wonders God has done like the roar of mighty cease rows of thunder all the church will sing hallelujah I'm a for the Lord Oh mighty race Ilua hallelujah for the Lord I God be almighty certain of that day so it's enough that day Christ we will proclaim all the more but share the price salvation in his name then we'll crave the anthem ring mighty courts rising to the king hallelujah for the Lord Oh mighty rain hallelujah for the Lord I got thee oh mighty rain hallelujah for the Lord Ohluia for the Lord I got a day oh mighty song is a white face I believe sing by faith by faith we see the hand of God in the light of creation's grand design the lives of those who prove their sweetness who walk by faith and not by side by faith by faith our fathers will be earth with the power of his promise in their hearts of a holy city built by God's all this word, peace and justice where we will stand, we will stand as children of the promise.

All things are possible who call upon his name. We will stand, we will stand as children of the promise.

Faith in God by sight. This next song is oh, just kidding.

Question comes from the New City Catechism. I believe it's question number thirty-five. Should those who have faith in Christ seek their salvation through their own works or anywhere else together? No, they should not, as everything necessary to salvation is found in Christ. To seek salvation through good works is a denial that Christ is the only redeemer and Savior. Amen that it's not up to us.

For this reason, we desire to give our hearts to the Lord each and every day. We sing this as a prayer unto God.

I give you my soul and live for you alone. Every breath that I take, every moment I'm away.

Every breath that I take, every moment I'm away.

Every day. Every moment.

Give you my soul.

Everywhere.

Today's confession of sin is a reminder that the word given to us by the Lord, the word Jesus Christ is the only way to guard our hearts from the impurities of sin. So let's do our confession of sin together. God of all grace and truth, you tell us that we can keep our way pure by guarding it according to your word. You tell us that we restore up your word in our hearts. We might not sin against you. But our ways and our hearts are full of impurity and sin. We have wandered from your commandments and fallen short of your glory. Forgive us for forgetting your word and not meditating on your precepts. Cause us to delight in your testimonies and statutes, all for Christ's sake and our joy. Amen.

Please be seated. Let us now take in a time of private confession to our Lord and Savior.

To all who call on him in truth.

Because of the gospel, our sins have been cast into the depths of the sea. Today's prayer request is one of encouragement for our ministry. As you know, in our pastoral search, we've been praying continuously for opportunities to come for people to meet and and match our foundation in our faith and our theology, and most importantly, our love for the Lord. Tomorrow, the leadership will be having an interview with a candidate. Please pray for us that we would ask the right questions, have fruitful conversation, and that the Lord will make it clear whether the candidate is a right fit for us or not. And ultimately, uh that the candidate also would be called by God to be the leader of a leader of this ministry.

And there's other opportunities coming as well. We're meeting with Pastor John Kim on Tuesday, a brother who we've connected with, and he is also just wanting to talk to us about ministry opportunities on Tuesday. So, you know, we went from having no options to several options, and that is by the blessing of the Lord. So please pray for us, your leaders uh during this time, and just as the Lord leads and guides our ministry during this time.

Father, Lord, we lift up um just our pastoral search to you transparently. It's been a long journey. It's already been a year, Lord. But Lord, you have been faithful to our ministry, and we are doing our best to serve you and to glorify you in the best of our capacity. Lord, we thank you for um such leaders as Howard, Stephen, even myself, and and with the guidance of our brother Pastor Madison, just uh making right decisions and opening up opportunities for us to be able to interview uh and meet pastors, Lord. We pray for our interview tomorrow with our brother Peter. We pray that you watch over us and allow the conversation to be fruitful and whatever doors may open, uh may whatever opportunity arises from it, Lord, we pray that it would just be according to your will.

We also pray for our conversation with uh Pastor John of Lighthouse Bible Church. We just ask that you watch over that conversation as well. Um Lord, whatever happens in our decision-making process, that we as leaders would make the best decision, the wisest decision, most um fruitful, glorifying decision given to us uh with clarity by you, Lord. We pray for guidance and and just um that you watch over us during this time. We thank you for all that you do for us, and we pray for blessing upon Pastor Madison as he brings us the word today. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Children, you're dismissed for Sunday school. Be teacher teacher Tiffany and teacher John. As the children are being dismissed, I'm gonna go over a few announcements.

Uh we have our park day on July 7th. We have uh it'll be at Dr. Richard Rue Memorial Park in Stevenson Ranch. Uh the reservation is made. We will have more details to come as we get ready to go in a month. Uh what to expect. We're gonna have worship, fellowship, food. Uh, we're gonna do games, and we're gonna have hopefully have a great time together uh just being outdoors. Uh worship is gonna start on time at 1030. So please, uh, once you're given the address or directions, uh, please plan accordingly to be there on time. And then with offering options, we have Zoe Van Moe Cash and Check. Uh, I'm gonna welcome Pastor Madison to give us a word. Go ahead.

Hey, I'm wondering what kind of faith uh you have. And so I put that on the screen. But let me introduce it this way. In our society, especially since computers came along, uh, and it was kind of funny this morning as I was talking uh with Albert, we were talking about when people had computers and lands. Uh since I'm since I'm ancient, you know, the first the first computers I bought were back in 1977, and they were really on the cutting edge, you know. Uh a friend of mine said, hey, you need uh computers, and and so I I bought uh I bought several because he said he he uh had uh a business. He said, I tell you what, if you buy four of them, you can sell three of them off, and you can have yours for free then.

And so I thought, oh, that's a good way to go. And they were 4K. If you have any idea, you know, I mean, that's so small, it's uh our uh little calculators don't have that that little of memory anymore. But it was only 4K, and before it came out, they upped it to 8K, and you could you know do really nothing with them, and I thought, well, it's gonna be there. But today, when you think about computers, it's hard to almost believe what you see or hear in our society. For instance, uh, I was with my wife and uh our two kids, and her brother and his wife and their two kids and her parents. So all of us, uh all ten of us were together on a trip, and I took a picture of the group. So here's ten of us.

And then I thought, well, I'll play around. This goes back 15, 20 years now. I thought I'll play around with this picture. And so I took my wife's mother's face and circled it, and I put her face on every one of us. And then I said to them, Wow, we've been together so long, we're starting to look alike. And she looked at the picture and and she wasn't quite sure that her mother looked at the picture and just going, I what? You know, she just couldn't, she couldn't figure out. Can you trust pictures today? Oh heavens, no. I mean, in pictures today, I mean you can do anything. I can take pictures and here's the person, and I say, Oh, let's add another person into this picture. Or let's just uh take that person in and we'll wipe that person out of the picture.

So can I trust what I see? Well, with AI now, artificial intelligence, I mean, you can take somebody's voice, replicate it, type in the words that you want them to say, and they'll say it in Stephen's voice, or in Josh's voice, and you think, well, oh, did Josh say that? Did oh no, did Stephen really say that? Because uh with the technology we have today, uh it's almost getting so you can't trust everything you see or hear. How many of you have gotten phone calls? Spam calls, you know, your your favorite friend calling you, spam, and and I just I just send it to voicemail. If it's not in my uh telephone directory on my phone, it just goes to the dead letter office. But here's uh the phones that we have that we used to have, and one of the phone calls that I got, how many of you have gotten phone calls from the IRS?

Anybody? Here's a phone call that's gone around, listen to it, but it's gone around the the internet to people. The reason of this call is to inform you that IRS is filing lawsuit against you. To get more information about this case file, please call immediately on our department number 310. 292. 0678. I repeat 310. 292. 0678. Thank you. When's the last time you got a message from the RAIRS that said thank you? Thank you for sending your money to us. There was an article then that was published in the CNBC magazine that said, guess what? That's not the IRS calling. Because you really can't trust everything you see and hear anymore. But what's interesting is when you come to church, you can't always trust everyone who says they're a believer, that they're a believer.

Or that they've trusted Christ as their Lord and Savior. We know, for instance, that Ephesians 2.8 and 9 says, For by grace you are saved through what? Faith. We've already read it in the one of the catechisms this morning. Where does where does our faith come? Where does where does our salvation come from? Our faith in the Lord Jesus. Not by what? Not by works. And so he says it here. You're saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves. It is God's gift, not from works, so that nobody can what? Nobody can boast in the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5.7 says it this way, for we walk by what? Faith, not by sight. Because, you know, if I the pictures I talked to you about, my my mother-in-law looked at that picture and uh by sight is saying, wow, we do, we do look alike.

How did you do that? But we walk by faith and not by sight. Now let me just spread that apart for a second so that you know what it means. If we walk by faith, here's what it means. That we live by faith.

By faith, by faith, you know, and you're well literally walk. We live by faith and not by sight. Romans 14 uh 23 says it this way. They were questioning whether to do things. Can I eat this food? Can I eat this food? Can I do can I worship on this day? Do I have to worship on Saturday? Or do I have to worship on Sunday? So he says, but he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith. And whatever is not from faith is what? Sin. So there are times that we have freedom to do things that other people don't have freedoms to do. Because in the they don't have the faith to do that. For instance, I'll I'll even go here.

Not because it was necessarily right or wrong, but it was just a healthy thing to do. For instance, if it doesn't, it had to what split the what? Do you remember? Split the hoof or chew the cud, then you could, those were animals that didn't get the diseases that other animals got. So for instance, if you ate ham and things like that, especially back in the old testament times when it couldn't be cooked well and and Jesus hadn't even declared it to be clean at that point. But back then, if you got it, you could get trichonosis from pigs. And so they they said, oh, so we didn't the Jewish people didn't eat anything like that. But when the Gentiles came along, man, they they were eating everything.

And so what did they do in church? You had some Gentiles and you had some Jewish people, and so did you say to the Jewish people, here have some ham. Oh, you'll love lobster, you know, and what a lobster feed on. Oh, yeah, they feed on the dead things and some of the things in the ocean that are not as, but they really taste good when they're cooked well and dipped in butter and things like that. But uh, you don't come right out and say, Oh, you you can eat this. No, because if they they have doubts, whatsoever as not of faith is what? Sin. So don't encourage people to do things that you have the freedom to do if they don't uh aren't able to do it in faith. Hebrews 11:6 says it this way. Now, without faith, it's impossible to please God.

So when we get to the book of James, they're contrasting faith and works. And where we get to it in James chapter 2, where we are today, he's really making the contrast between faith and works. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. If somebody said, What did Pastor Madison talk about today? Without faith, it's impossible to please God. James shares with us, listen to me. This is odd. This almost sounds strange. James shares with us three kinds of faith. Only one of them gets you saved. But there are three kinds of faith that he's going to deal with in James chapter 2. The first one is a dead faith. A dead faith. How do you have a dead faith?

James 2, verses 14 and 15. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have what? Works. So he's gonna tie, he's gonna try to tie here faith and works together. And this, this passage, this very passage has been the confusing passage which has spawned heresies throughout Christianity. There are two major religions that use this verse to say you have to work as well as have faith to go to heaven. You have to work.

No, they lived by faith. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. That was 400 years before the Ten Commandments came.

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says they says they have faith? Why did I start out with the internet and what people say? Because sometimes Audrey and I listened this past week to an art uh uh an article that was on the internet that was a verbal article, wasn't I something I read? It was a verbal article that said that the law case against President Trump is now under question. And so I'm playing this for my wife, and she's listening to it because one of the jurors put on Facebook or one of their cousins put on Facebook that my cousins, a juror, so we're listening to this. And you know, the first thing my wife said, I don't know. Is that a spoof or is that is that real? Because I already said to you, on the internet, it's hard to do how what do you believe?

And so when you come here, huh? If someone says he has faith, so I'm I'm wanting to know, do they really have faith? If someone says they have faith but does not have works, ah, can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food, uh, but doesn't that have works? Now, really what James is saying is he's looking for, is there any evidence in your life? He's not saying, okay, work your way to heaven. Is there any place that God told me that if I get baptized, I'm gonna go to heaven? If I take communion, I'm gonna go to heaven. If I go to church, then I'm going to go to heaven. Is there any place in God's word that says that? No. Throughout God's word, I'm saved one way, by faith in what he's done for me.

Now my faith will go to work. But here he's calling the question, but does not have works? Ah, James is saying, I want evidence. Show me. If you're gonna say you have faith, then let me see it in your life. Let me see evidence. What kind of evidence? The fruit of the spirit, love and joy and peace and gentleness, the fruit of the spirit in Colossians 5. Or I'm gonna look for not just that kind of fruit, but I'm gonna look for a changed life, a new desire. Something that says, ah, if he says he has faith and he doesn't want to serve the Lord, why doesn't he want to serve the Lord? Why doesn't he want to live for the Lord? Why doesn't he want to have any evidence? So James is really talking about evidence here.

If he says he has faith but does not have works, can his faith save him? Some people say, you know, a good way to maybe read that sentence is can that kind of faith save him? We're not, listen to me carefully here. We're not into easy believism. Oh, just ask Jesus, come in your heart, and then you can live any way you want. That's not what God's word says. God's word says, if I ask Christ into my life and I repent of my sins and I make him Lord of my life, my life will be different than the world. I'll walk in the light as he is in the light, and I'll have fellowship with other believers, and I'll desire that fellowship with other believers. If he says he has faith, but there's no evidence, ah, can that can that kind of faith, look at that third line?

Can his faith save him? Can that kind of faith save him? No, because if he just says, if I said to you this morning, if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior and you want to just invite him into your life, oh now you're saved and you can live anyway. No. God's word never says that. If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, keep warm, and eat well, but you don't give them what the body needs. What good is it? In the same way, if it doesn't have works, is dead by itself if it doesn't have work. We're talking about what kind of a faith. They said they had faith, but what kind of faith does he say it is?

There's nothing that's changed your life if you haven't trusted Christ and made him the Lord of your life. Let me put uh verses 17 to 26 on the screen. Okay. And let me show you the emphasis of this text. Faith uh is dead by itself. Faith without works is useless. Faith without works is what? Dead. So what man, can you see if you don't really dig into this? Why Jehovah's Witness go door to door and think that I love it when she'll my wife will tell you when it's Jehovah's Witness comes by our door, you know, or a Mormon. But uh, I was out one summer uh day I'm I'm outside mowing the lawn. It's really hot where we live, it gets really hot. You know, it's it's a hundred degrees, and and I'm out mowing the lawn and Jehovah's Witness or going door to door.

So I stop. You know, I'm I'm at least where I can get some water and I have shorts on and I'm I'm trying to be uh not overheated, and they're out there and they're all dressed up and they're gonna share the the their their message with me. So I I say to them, um, and they love this kind of passage. And so I say to them, let me ask you this. They don't know it, they don't know my pastor. Okay, they don't know who I am, I'm just somebody in the neighborhood. And it's you know, it's I forget what it probably was on a Monday because I used to take Mondays off for for years, and then it got so I took Fridays off. But I I was out there, they're talking to me, they're cooking. I'm cooking. And uh I said, well, let me ask you that.

I said, I'm interested in spiritual things. I said, if if I follow your way, will I get to heaven? Um, I said, what do I have to do if I follow your way to get it with get to heaven? Well, they said, well, you have to do the works of Jehovah. You have to go door to door, and you have to do, and I said, So, and if I do that, will I go to heaven? Will I make it to heaven? And well, they they weren't quite sure. Because you never can know for sure. That's the problem with uh really Jehovah's Witness and Mormons. You're gonna work your way in, and it's almost I I hope I'm gonna make it there. I hope I've done enough. That's what's so wonderful about your faith in Christ. He died for your sins once for all.

Every one of them. My tomorrow's sins were on that cross. And when he said, if I call on his name and I trust him as my Lord and Savior, I'd be saved. I I would have eternal life, and I'll never perish. That's what God's word says. So I'm talking with them, and we're getting into more conversation. And I said, I I told you I'm interested in some spiritual things. Hold on. I go into my house, I come out with their Jehovah's Witness Bible. And I opened it up to 1 John, and I said, Do you know you're going to heaven? And one of them, no. The other one says, Um, I'm not sure. And I said, Okay, this is your Bible, right? Oh, yeah, you know, they're all excited. I got one of their Bibles, and it's a it's a transliteration.

So it has the Greek on the top, the English underneath, and then their translation right there beside it. So I go to 1 John 5, and I said, This is what your Bible says. These things are written so that you might know you have eternal life. I said, This was after an hour, hour and a half, they just cook it away. After that hour and a half, I said, This says you can know you have eternal life. If there's nothing else you remember about our conversation today, I said to them, I want you to leave here with this question. Your Bible, your Bible says you can know your eternal life. Why don't you know you're going to heaven? I dropped the mic. You know, it's over. You know, did they come back? No, they didn't come back, you know.

This says, look, there are people that say they have faith, but what kind of a faith is it? What does this say? It's a dead faith. Got it? Now, just so you look at the screen there. Oh, but the top one says dead faith. The second one in verse 20 says a useless faith, and the last one in verse 26 says it's a dead faith. Okay? Here's the Greek word that's used in the King James version of the Bible. The cross.

Okay. In their translation, it they used the there are some finds of scripture that our archaeologists have found that go back further than what the King James Version used. And so they got back further, but necros is dead. Our English word, our English word that comes letter for letter from this, and we put it into a word is necropolis. Necropolis. You've heard of a metropolis, metropolis is a large city. A necropolis was an ancient word for a large cemetery. So all three times in the King James Version, faith without works is dead. Faith without works is dead. Faith without works is dead. Ah, in the once, once the Dead Sea Scrolls and some other texts were found, they go, wow, look at this is an older text.

How do we know it's an older text? Because of the material that was used, and both the material in the paper and the material that was used to write the letters. For instance, if somebody said they wrote something, oh, I just found something, and wow, this was at the time of Christ, and it just happened to be uh a magic marker that was used. You'd say, no, they didn't have magic markers back at the time of Christ. And so we can know from other materials of other kings and rulers, oh, this is what they used back then in the papyrus or the materials that they use. And so we went back, and in the older writings, this word uh Argos was used in the second line for useless. Now I want to say it makes about this much of a difference between these two words.

Okay, you want to rely on God's word. But if I said to you, uh, I I drive a Tesla, if the battery in that Tesla is dead, it is useless, you know? I can't go anywhere. And useless is the same as uh a dead battery. So whether it's uh necross or argos, something is useless, uh, it's kind of dead to us, you know. I can't I can't use it. If if if I was doing farming and I was using horses to pull the plows, and they're you they're they're dead, they're pretty useless. I can't use them. So what he's saying here is look, faith, there are people that say they believe. But what do they believe? Jehovah's Witness believes something, Mormons believe something, but did they believe the right thing? Because that kind of faith can be a dead faith.

Let me put this on the screen. The Greek word for faith appears 11 times in these verses, and the Greek word for works or deeds appears 12 times. Man, he's just laying out here. Faith and works and faith and works and faith and deeds. We want to get it right. Faith, without faith, it's impossible to please God. And he says, look, there are three kinds of faith, though. The first kind that he mentions in James 2 is a what? A dead faith. The second kind of faith that he mentions is a demonic faith. A demonic faith. Demons. What do you mean, demons have faith? Here's the text. But someone will say, You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you faith from my works.

You believe that God is one, you do well. Here's the verse. The demons also believe, and they shudder, but they're not going to heaven. Right. So what do they believe? And they shudder. I have to think of. We had a missionary. Come, our church years ago. I don't know if you know. Well, he's out, he wants to go for a walk early in the morning, morning. He's staying with one of our families on the hillside. So he goes out on this path, and we have some nice paths up there to walk on into the mountainside. And especially when the poppies are in bloom in April. I mean, we have the whole valley. I mean, there are areas that, man, it's just like a carpet with poppies, those beautiful poppies. So he's out for a walk.

When he comes back to the house of our people, the lady says to him, Oh, did you see any Mojave greens? Mojave greens are rattlesnakes in our area. They're about this long. And they're more poisonous than other kinds of rattlesnakes. And she said, Did you see any Mojave greens? And he said, No, what are they? And she said, Well, they're rattlesnakes. And he goes, Oh my goodness, I thought I heard rattlesnakes several times out there, but I thought, oh, that wasn't the problem. He said, Yeah, I walked the path, and then I walked through the field area. And I'm going, oh my goodness. And all of a sudden, you know what he did? He shuddered at the thought. And the next day, believe me, he stayed on the path and didn't walk through the field.

Because the rattlesnakes are up there everywhere in the fields. The demons shudder at the thought of God. They believe. You know, sometimes when I say to somebody, do you know that you're going to heaven? And they say, Oh, I think so. I say, well, if you stood before the Lord right now and he said, Why should I let you into my kingdom? What would you say? And I'm looking for an answer that's biblical. And they say, Well, I will I believe. And I say, okay, that sounds good. Let me ask you this. God's word says the demons believe and shudder. But they're not going to heaven. So what do you believe that they don't believe? Just the very fact that they believe. Oh, let me show you. We know they're not going to heaven.

Matthew 25, 41 says, then the Lord will also say to those on the left, depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for who? Prepared for the devil and his angels. So the demons believe. They have faith. You know, listen to me carefully. There is not an atheist in hell. They know there's a God. And the demons, the demons, there's not a demon that's an atheist. They know there's a God. They believe in God, but they're not going to heaven. There's not an, there's not a demon who is an agnostic. An agnostic is a person that says, you can't know there's a God. They know there's a God. Let me take you to Mark 3. Here's what the demons believe about God. Whenever the unclean spirit saw Jesus, those possessed fell down before him and cried out, You are the Son of God.

They could recognize him as God, but they didn't make him God the Lord of their lives. They saw this is God. Luke 8 31 says it this way, and they begged him not to banish them to the abyss. They not only knew there was a God, he was the Son of God, they knew that there was an eternal hell. And they still didn't believe. Suddenly they shouted, What do you have to do with us, Son of God? Have you come to torment us before the time? Because they know there's a day that their time is up, and they're going to be judged forever. They know they believe, but they're not going to heaven. What kind of faith is that? It's a demonic faith. James 2 19 again says, You believe that God is one. You do well.

The demons also believe and shudder. Listen to me carefully. What do you believe? What kind of faith do you have today that's going to get you to heaven? Faith without faith, it's impossible to please God. There are three kinds of faith. There's a dead faith. Faith without works is dead. He's not saying that you have to have works to get to heaven. He's saying, if you have no evidence, if you don't want to work out your salvation, he says it that way in Philippians. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Notice he doesn't say, work for your salvation with fear and trembling. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling to glorify God. So there are people that have a dead faith.

There are people that there are demons that have faith. That's demonic faith. And there are people that have this kind of this devoted faith that says, This is what I need to get to heaven. Here's what the text says. Foolish man. Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless? Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works when he did what? Offered Isaac his son on the altar. This is what he's saying. Look, you can have, what did Abraham say to God? You can have whatever I cherish. He had one son of promise. Isaac. And God said, Genesis 22. And God tested Abraham. Tested Abraham. There are times that God allows us to be tested.

He wants to know, where's your heart? What did he do with Abraham? He said, I want you to take your son, your only son, and offer him on the altar. Wait a minute, God, you promised all the stars. You see the stars? That's how many descendants I'm going to have. And they're going to come through this guy. And you want me to sacrifice him now? And you'll recall his son went up to the mount with him. And he said, Dad, here's the fire, and here's the altar. Where's the sacrifice? And Abraham said, God, God will provide himself a sacrifice. And then he put Isaac on the altar. Can you imagine what the thoughts that are going through your mind?

I would want to obey God. I have one son. Would I want to put him on an altar and sacrifice him? I don't know if I could do it. I'm just being transparent here with you. But Abraham put his son on that altar and came up with the knife. And that's when God said, stop. Now I know that you love me more than him. And that's all I wanted to know. And he was saying, Abraham offered his son, Isaac. Abraham was saying to God, you can have whatever I cherish. Let me ask you this. Is that the kind of faith you have in God? You can have whatever I cherish.

I'm willing to sacrifice whatever I cherish. Is that the kind of faith you have? That's what's going on in the book of James here. Not that James, that Abraham did any works. What did he do? He walked up the hillside, he put his son on the altar. He didn't do anything. He took a son for a walk, laid him on an altar. But he showed God his heart. You can have, you can have whatever I cherish. I want to cherish you more than I cherish anything else. Is that the kind of faith you have? So the scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed God and it was credited him for righteousness, and he was called God's friend. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. Abraham believed God, believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

Because all my righteousness, what scripture say? All our righteousness is as a filthy what? Filthy rags, is what Isaiah says.

You just think of the filthiest rag you can think of. And that's what he's talking about. Our righteousness, our works.

In the same way, wasn't Rahab the prostitute also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by a different route. She's saying, she's saying, Lord, I'll do whatever you ask. She's the only one in the city of Jericho. Joshua fit the battle of water? Jericho. And who was in Jericho? Rahab. Where did Rahab live? She lived right on the outer wall of Jericho. Why did she live on the outer wall of Jericho? Well, what was she doing to earn money? I hate to say it this way. Okay? She was a prostitute. Okay? Where did prostitutes live? See, people in Jericho, nobody wanted to live on the wall. Who gets attacked first?

People on the wall. So the cheaper housing was where? On the wall. So she was on the wall. Oh, and another reason she was on the wall is when people came into the city gates. Who wanted to be the first to sidetrack the men? The prostitutes. And so the prostitutes were on the wall. So she took them in. People thought, not much out of the ordinary. She takes other men in all the time. She could hide them there. And when Israel came back to march around the city, she was supposed to take the linen and hang it out the window. So that they would know, don't kill the woman in that house because she helped us. She said, Lord, I'll do whatever you ask. Two people. Abraham said, I'll give you what I cherish.

Rahab said, I'll do what you ask. Listen to me. This is where, can I use a word that you you don't often hear? This is where we talk about Lordship salvation. You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Or you make him Lord of your life. Or you say, I'm a sinner, and I need a Savior. And Lord, I'll give you whatever I cherish, and I'll do whatever you say. Not so that I can get to heaven, but because I love you. Let me put it this way. Work is involved in the salvation experience. But not like the Mormons teach, and not like the Jehovah's Witness teach. Let me give you three ways that work, that work is involved in our salvation. First, there's a work that God does for us. It's Him that does the work.

I believe in the work He's done. And where did He do that work? On the cross.

That's the work that God does for us. He does everything. He died on the cross. When he died on the cross, I don't. There's the word that's used in Greek. The last word that Jesus was crying out on the cross, he said the Greek word to tell us die. It's one word in Greek. It's three words in English. The three words in English are it is finished. To tell us die. The work that God gave him to do, that God the Father gave him to do was finished. He died on the cross. There's the work that God does for us. Secondly, there's the work that God does in us. And that work is called sanctification. By the way, who's doing the work here? God is.

Sanctification. Listen, I'm a sinner, right? And when I trust Christ as my Savior, he says, look, you're down here, you're living in, you're living in a gutter. Let me let me take you out of the gutter and let me start having you live more like Jesus. And that's a process. You start down here, and he wants you to be like Jesus. Now he says, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna declare you holy. Holy, pure. But that's not where you live all the time, is it? Don't you sin? If we say we do not sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth isn't in us. So somewhere between unsaved and holy, he takes you through this process where he's working in us to make us more like Christ, more like himself, and less like the world.

That's the evidence you want to see in your life. Do you have that kind of faith? Where you're more like Christ today than you were last year. When I was falling in love with my wife, I wrote her a note and I said, I love you more today than yesterday. But less than tomorrow. That's what you want to be saying to the Lord. I love you more today than I did yesterday. But less than I'll love you tomorrow. That's what sanctification's all about. Where you and by the way, it may look like this. Look at my hand. You start down here, and you're growing up like this, and then you know, you turn down a little bit, and then you grow up a little bit like this, and then you oh, you have a problem, and then you're growing closer to him, and then it plateaus, and then you because the whole process it's a process, not salvation.

Salvation's a one-time thing. Look, I trust Christ, I'm saved. I mean the Lord of my life, I'm saved. Birth, when I'm born physically, one time, it happens. But when Emily grows up, Emily, well, it'll take, it's a process. The birth immediate, one time. The process in our Christian life, the process is sanctification. But there's some more work. There's then there's the work God does through us. He does for us, he does in us. And he does through us. And the process he does through us is called service. I serve him.

So if somebody's in need and I help them, it's God working through me. Through us to serve other people. The question I have, well, the question I have is what kind of faith do you have? Ephesians 2 8 9 again says, for by grace you've been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of not as a result of works that no one should boast. By grace, that's how I'm going to make it to heaven. Not by what I do, but by what he's done. Grace.

But grace says, ah, God in his grace, it's amazing grace, and he gives it to us. Look at the last part of this. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. What's it say? For good works. What he's done in us will produce good works in our lives. But that good works does not save us. That good, those good works are evidence, are evidence that our God did a work in my life. Do you think do you think I was a preacher when I got saved? No. Do you think I never even wanted to get up and talk in front of people? That's the last thing I wanted to do. And if I said to almost any one of you, hey, come on up here and why don't you get the sermon today? You say, I don't know, I don't want to do that.

That's not, I don't like to talk in front of people. But God did a work in my life, and here I am. God wants to do works in our life. Put this on your put this in your notes. Remember, we don't work to get saved. We work because we're saved. You don't work to get saved. You work because you're saved. That's the difference. Now, we're going to be looking at this again next week, this portion of scripture and talking about works in this sense. But let me let me put this question on the screen. We've had three kinds of faith. The question I have is which faith do you have today? Do you have a dead faith? Oh yeah. You said you trusted Christ, but you're not doing anything for him. You're not doing anything to serve him.

You haven't even been obedient, maybe even being baptized and following him. And your faith is a dead faith. Or do you have a kind of a demonic faith? You know he's God, but you haven't trusted him. Or do you have this faith that says, I'll do like Abraham. I'll do, I'll show you that I want to cherish you. I'll sacrifice. I'll sacrifice the things I love so that you know I love you more. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father. We're we're pausing right now to let your word just hammer our hearts. We're letting your word speak to us today so that the faith that we have is genuine and real.

While your heads are bowed. Let me ask you this. This is the most important answer that you could ever give. Is what kind of faith do you have a faith in our Lord Jesus Christ that made him the Lord of your life? That made you a believer that accepted his grace. And you know for sure that you're going to heaven. Because your faith is not a dead faith. Your faith is not a demonic faith. But your faith is a faith that says, Lord, I cherish you. And I'll do what you say. Can you make that decision today if you've never made that decision before?

If you haven't seen any evidence in your own life, can you make that decision today? Lord, we give you this and pray that no one sitting here will spend eternity apart from you. But having heard this today, they'll place their complete trust and faith and make you the Lord of their lives.

Amen.

Amen. Thank you so much, Pastor Madison, for such an important message that we need to be reminded of each and every week. We have this proclivity to want to work for things in life. And we do. We work for everything that we have. Well, the one thing that we can't work for and earn is our salvation. And it's almost as if we have amnesia to that reality. Like we we forget this reality that only God's grace, uh only by God's grace through faith can be saved. And um that's why we always say we must preach the gospel to ourselves daily to remind our souls of this reality and of this beautiful truth. And so we all stand together and sing this song. Yet not I, but through Christ in me. What a perfectly fitting song.

Uh you know what? When I pick songs for our time together, sometimes I'm I'm completely lost. Because I can't guess what Pastor Madison or what the preacher is going to preach. Uh, but the Lord is always gracious and faithful and just leading me in the right direction. Uh I feel like this song is just so perfect for today's sermon. Uh so we could just sing together. What gift of praise of grace is Jesus my reasonable to give my joy, my righteousness set free, my steadfast love, my life is only boundless peace to this hold.

My hope is only Jesus. For my love is only to my save all this mine, and not I birth through Christ give me the night, the night is dark, but I am not forsake for by my side, the Savior, he will say I labor on a weakness and choice for my need.

To the cycle to this I hold my shepherd will be fending through the deepest family will be older has been one, and I shall come in that dread.

The future show the price it has been paid, amen.

And he was raised to overthrow the way to this I hold my sin has been heated Jesus now and ever is my plea hold of Jesus are released.

With every breath, with every breath I long to follow Jesus, for he has said that he will bring me home and day by day I know he will renew me until I stand with joy before the throne to the side hole to this side hold my hope is only Jesus All theory evermore to live when the race is complete, so I live shall read I birth through Christ and you to the side hold to this side hold my hope is only Jesus All the glory ever to live when the grace is complete, so my lips shall repeat not through Christ in me.

I trust the message uh from God's word really just kind of burrowed into your hearts today. Hey, as we wrap the service, and just before I close in prayer, let me just once again emphasize what we talked about earlier that on July 7. We're gonna have an old church picnic, and it will be up on the fly.

And the service will start it at 10:30 up there. We won't have a service down here, it'll be an outdoor service. Uh and it'll be a praise time. We'll have I forget the taco things that are coming in, the taco trucks and stuff like that, and then we have we'll have game and stuff for the kids, and I'm gonna be speaking that today on the ten commandments. And what I want to be able to do is have you and the kids have it all for memory by the time you leave. And it won't be a long message that day, but I want you to begin to plan now so that you know you're not thinking, oh, you didn't show up here on the 7th and have forgotten about it. But I want you to just really have a fun day with a church fellowshipping together.

And if you have friends that would want to come and have a day, we'll have kids' games and activities and adult games and activities. So it'll just be a fun time. And so I want to nudge you July 7th. Be thinking about it. Okay? Let's close our time in prayer. Heavenly Father, I would ask that in the name of Jesus, you would pour your spirit out on this congregation. Father, would you bless the parents who are here? Help them to be great parents with their kids this week. Father, for those who are single, that they could walk with you this week with their eyes on you, knowing though that you uh have days ahead for them that will count for your glory. We pray that you would cause your face to shine on them today and be gracious unto them.

In our Lord's name we pray. Amen. God bless.