Beacon Sunday Service: June 23rd, 2024

Grace and peace and Psal one oh three verses twenty to twenty two says this. Uh it says, Bless the Lord, oh you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word.

Bless the Lord all his hosts, his ministers who do his will, bless the Lord all his works in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. And the psalmist here calls us, calls everyone to bless the Lord, to just basically bring glory to his name. And so as we corporately gather this morning, may we do that through songs, through prayer, through the hearing of God's word. May we just give glory to God in everything that we do here today. Would you do that with me as we sing together, bless the Lord O my soul my soul worship his holy name, single before my soul, I'll worship your name.

Bless Lord, bless the Lord O my soul, oh my soul, worship his ally name, seem like never before my soul, I'll worship your name on that day, and on that day when my strength is failing the end draws near, and my time has come, and still my soul will sing your praise until ten thousand years, and then forever bless the Lord, bless the Lord O my soul my soul, worship his holy name singer before.

Oh my soul, I'll worship your holy name. Bless the Lord, bless the Lord O my soul, oh my soul. Worship his holy name, sing like never before my soul, I'll worship your whole name. I'll worship your name. Amen. In this next song, can we sing this as a prayer to him? That everything that we have is given to us by the Lord, and he calls us just to give it right back to Him.

And so may we just proclaim that in Psalm today.

All I this offering is a means of grace.

Do grow my faith, and all I have is your more I have the less I need I learned that you'll provide for me 'twas blind to this but now I see not all I have is your kingdom come your kingdom come your will be done all I have is yours your finish that you be gone all I have yours that you would use the gifts I bring in service of the coming key is reason now to praise and see not I have yours all I have all his single I have all is your this morning we will confess our faith using the new city catechism and in this question and answer we will confess how God's grace enables us to obey him and so here's the question since we are redeemed by grace alone through Christ alone must we still do good works and obey God's word and together yes because Christ having redeemed us by his blood also renews us by his spirit so that our lives may show love and gratitude to God so that we may be assured of our faith by the fruits and so that by our godly behavior others may be one to Christ amen God calls us uh to just have faith in him and through faith uh he calls us in to do to do good works and so may we just again sing this next song as we come before him just as a prayer that God would enable us to just not only love him but just serve him wholeheartedly with our lives may we sing together before you I kneel before you I knew my master and maker to offer the works of my hand, for this is the day you give in your servants.

I will rejoice and be glad. For the strength I have to live and breathe. For each skill your grace has given me for the needs and opportunities that will glorify your name. Before you I knew you ask for your death.

Your grace in my blood within me like a stream.

In me and the harvest of life. Before you re kneel, before you we kneel our master and make stablish the work of our hands and order ourselves to seek first your kingdom in small and great task. May we live the gospel of your grace your purpose in our dreaming day.

Then our lives will bring eternal praise and all glory to your name, and all glory to your name.

At this time, we're gonna have our confession of sin. This is a time where we reflect on just the sin that we were born with, the things that we struggle with, and how the Lord has blessed us with salvation through the cleansing of our sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. So let us go through our confession of sin corporately together, and after we will have an individual time where we will confess the sins that we struggle with through our to our Lord. So together, our King of the universe, behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you. You are blessed and only sovereign, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. You alone possess immortality, and you dwell in unapproachable light.

Forgive us for dwelling in the darkness of our sins. We have acted contrary to your perfect law of liberty. We now bow and kiss your son, taking our refuge in him. Cleanse us from his kingdom's sake. Amen. Please be seated. Let's now have a personal time of confession of since we're your assurance of pardon.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The blood of Jesus cleanses us to make us white as snow. Amen. Today's prayer request is just some one of just a reminder of how faithful the Lord has been to our ministry. As you guys know, we are in the midst of a pastoral search, and our and the Lord, in our in our just our search, has provided pastors to come and take the pulpit for us. He sent us Pastor Madison, who has guided us during this time and truly blessed us with just a great example of a godly person, godly man, and just a great preacher and shepherd. We are the leaders are actually meeting with a per a possible candidate, uh, not this Monday, but next.

Uh, we're gonna be meeting him and his wife. And so I wanted to ask if we could just continue to pray for this meeting. Um, he was one of the prayer requests previously where we were interviewing him and just having conversation, and that went well. And this is the next step. Pray that this meeting would be fruitful. Uh, that both parties would just see a great connection uh not only through our foundation of faith, but relationally, that we could see um just the ministry possibilities that we could grow together. And ultimately, that is God's will for this pastor and his wife and his family to be a part of this family. So let's lift that time up in prayer.

Father, we lift up uh just this meeting with our brother and his wife next Monday with us as the leaders. I just pray, Father, that you uh would bless that meeting, that it would be a great time of just not only getting to know each other, but there would be fellowship had, that there would be uh wisdom and that the Holy Spirit would fill this place as we meet and gather, that there would be peace and clarity and just the process of where you want us to go, that it would be your will for both sides to join together and be uh in ministry together. We pray, Father, for just um clarity and wisdom on the leadership's behalf, and we just also pray that their path as husband and wife and as a family uh would be the same as ours, and ultimately that we would grow your kingdom together.

We thank you for our brother Pastor Madison, Lord, as he continues to bring us the word, and in his preparation this week, we pray for refreshment and for joy and for peace as he comes and brings the word to us today. Bless him and fill him with the spirit during this time as well. We thank you, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Children, you're dismissed for Sunday school. Teacher Tiffany is waiting for you in the classroom. Have a good day. We as uh the children are leaving, we're gonna have a few announcements. Uh first announcement is that our park day is booked. We have reserved uh Dr. Richard Rue Memorial Park and Stevenson Ranch. Uh, we will send an email out and let you know the details of the location or specifically address.

Honestly, you could probably just read that and Google search it right now, but uh we'll probably send an official email and let you know what we're planning. Uh we're gonna have our normal time of worship uh on July 7th at 10:30. So please make plans to arrive on time. Uh and food and games and um just a time of fellowship will be had at the park. Uh our offering options are Zell, Venmo, Cash and Check. Uh, if you're visiting, please do not feel obligated to give. But if you're a member, please give as the Lord has blessed you in your life. With that, I'm gonna welcome Pastor Madison. Hey, what a joy to uh continue our study in the book of James. And it was a couple of weeks ago. Let me see if I can, there we go.

Um I want you to look at this text today as though it's kind of a fight between faith and works. And in the book of James, just so you know, it's it's only five chapters. And James was the brother, half-brother of Jesus. Uh and you'll recall that when James wrote the book, a man by the name of Martin Luther, who started the Protestant Reformation, who was a Roman Catholic priest at the time. He was reading the book of Romans and he said, Romans, uh Romans 1:17, the just shall live by, and it was one word, faith. The just shall live by faith. And he's a Roman Catholic priest. And as a Roman Catholic priest, he's he's kind of scratching his head thinking, wait a minute. We tell people they have to do this, they have to get baptized, they have to go to communion, they have to go to confession.

Uh if they want to get more of God's grace, they should be married. They get married. Uh so he says, it sounds like we're telling people they have to do this and do this and do this and do this. And God's word says, wait a minute. The just shall live by one word. What was it? Faith. So as a Roman Catholic priest, he wrote out 95 things that he said needed to change in the Roman Catholic Church. And he went to Wittenberg, and on the door of the church there in Whittenbury, he nailed the 95 theses to the door. He said, These things need to change in our church. The church said, You're out of here. They excommunicated him. He was a priest in the Roman Catholic Church. They excommunicated him, and people began to follow him.

The people that began to follow him. Well, the Roman Catholic Church said, Well, wait a minute. You're you're you're really protesting what we're doing. And the people that began to follow him began to protest as well. And that's where you started the Protestant church. Because the word Protestant has the word protest right in it. So they said, Oh, you're protesters. You're the Protestants. And Martin Luther said, wait a minute. I'm just quoting God's word here. God's word says, how do you get saved? By faith. Not anything that we do, because all our righteousness is as filthy what? Do you know? Rags. Filthy rags. And so let me do this.

Two weeks ago, we looked at this text. I want to come back and look at the text again today. We looked at James 2, verses 14 to 26. Two weeks ago when we looked at it, we said this.

So James shares with us in this text three kinds of faith. Do you remember the first kind? It was called the dead faith. There are people that, yeah, they they have faith, but their faith is dead. And here's how it's worded in James. I'm clicking here, but nothing's happening. You want to advance that? Abraham? You want to advance that? Okay. Okay. We got all three in there. I'm going to back up here a second. Okay, you have a dead faith. And here's the verse, James 2.20. But will thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is what? Dead. It's still faith. But it's a dead faith. It's a faith that goes no place. And so, what do we say? It's a dead faith. And James says, wait a minute. What kind of faith do you have?

Is your faith dead? Or is it really alive and doing something in your life? There was a second kind of faith that he mentions. This faith seems so strange. I'm calling it a demonic faith. And here's what it says in James 2.19. Thou believest there's one God. That's terrific. Thou doest well. As a matter of fact, that's good theology. There is just one God. But then he says, the devils also believe. They believe and tremble. But they're not going to heaven. It's a demonic faith that says, hey, they got they got all the things, thinking correct. There is not, I'm going to use two words here. There is not one demon that's an atheist. An atheist says there is no God. The demons, no, there's a God.

There's not one agnostic as a demon. And an agnostic says, well, there might be, but you can't know. The demons know. And shudder and tremble. Demonic faith. There's a third kind of faith that he mentions in this text. And that's the faith that's, okay, I believe in the Lord. I'm going to live for the Lord. All I have is the Lord, just like we sang this morning. Let me give you the verse. And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed God. And it was imputed unto him for righteousness. When did he, when was this verse written and quoted? Abraham believed God when he was going to sacrifice his son. He said, I believe. And since I believe, when God tells me to do something, I'm going to do it.

It's not a dead faith. It's not a demonic faith that knows about God but never yields to God. It's a faith that says, I believe in God, and whatever he says, that's what I'm going to do. So when we look at this text in James chapter 2, verses 14 to 26. This is a passage of Scripture that has led to false religions around the world. As a matter of fact, two in America really got planted based on this passage of scripture: Jehovah's Witness and Mormonism. And Mormonism especially, and they it's all based, it's going to be based on works. You're not going to be saved unless you work at it. So let me go back and say, is this really a fight between faith and works? Not really. It was, when you go back to Martin Luther though, Martin Luther said, I'm not sure the book of James even belongs in the Bible.

The guy that started Protestantism is saying, oh, wait a minute, he called it a straw epistle. Because he wanted to make sure, and he was just learning this himself as a Roman Catholic priest. He was learning, wait a minute, why James is saying faith without works is dead, so you must have to work. But he didn't realize how they fit together. So let me tell you, let me give you, if it's gonna, if you're gonna work your way to heaven, and you can't do that, but if you're gonna work your way to heaven, every false religion that's gonna teach you how to work your way to heaven, they're gonna say, you need to do this, you need to do this, you need to do this. So let me just put that word on the screen.

This is what they're going to tell you. You have to do, well, let me give you some of the things they say you have to do. You have to do good deeds, you have to get baptized, you have to take communion, you have to honor your parents, etc., etc. etc. You're gonna have to do these things in order to get saved. Isaiah 64, 6 says, huh, all that we want to give to God, all our righteousness is as filthy rags. We're gonna we're gonna do these things, and then we're gonna say, here you are, God. Hey, look at this, I did this for you. And he's gonna say, why are you giving me those filthy rags? Let me get rid of that for a second and slide that over, okay, and say, every false religion has a little bit of truth.

If I want to, if I want to make a counterfeit 100 bill, if I go to the store down here, and I and I don't have any money, and I want to have a counterfeit, $100 bill to buy something, I will not take monopoly money. If I go to the store and I get on a roll of my monopoly money, and I start to hand it to them, they're gonna look at it and say, What's that? They're gonna laugh and they're gonna say, Oh, uh we can't sell you anything. You see, counterfeit money needs to come close, as close as possible to looking like real money in order to pass off it as real money. The same thing can be said of false religions. If you're gonna pass it off as a genuine faith, you want it to look as close as possible without being genuinely real faith.

So this is a counterfeit. It looks almost like the real thing, but the real thing, look at the screen, the real thing has to add the letter N and the letter E, and you begin to realize the difference between real Christianity and counterfeit counterfeit Christianity is one says you have to do something, and the other says, it's been done for you. Jesus paid it all, all. All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it light as snow. So on the cross, what did Christ cry out? The last thing on the cross. Here's what he cried out. It is finished. It's done. If you think you can work your way to heaven, you're never gonna get there. And that's why Christ came and died on the cross.

So he could pay the only penalty.

That we might become righteousness in God. So let me uh show you this little picture. I I will tell you, um I I wanted to share this almost in the beginning uh at the start of the service today, and I thought, no, I'll wait and share it during the sermon time because it fits with where the sermon's going. This happens to be uh one of my grandkids on Friday, just this past Friday, he had gone to vacation Bible school all week long, and they had been talking about uh Luke 15 and the prodigal son and how he was lost and how he got found, how he needed to be saved, and so on Friday he says to his dad, why why why why isn't Jesus in my life?

And so they because he'd heard the gospel every day this past week, and so what was interesting, his mother uh probably let's see 35 years ago or so was at vacation Bible school all week long at a church, and she came home from vacation Bible school on the last day, and she said to my wife, you know, we need to pray for, and she mentioned another little girl who didn't have Christ as her savior, didn't have Christ in her life, and she was wanting to pray for that girl to get saved, you know, to have Christ in her life. And my wife said, Well, Dean, do you do you have Jesus in your life? Because we knew she hadn't trusted Christ at that point, and she said, No. And my wife says to her, You don't you think you need to do that before anything else?

It's one thing to pray that this person will trust Christ, but what about you? Yeah. She was six years old at the time. And she said, Yeah, I need to do that. I need to do that right now. And my wife was thinking, no, I want my husband to uh to be here, and so she got me to come right into the room where they were, and Dan trusted Christ as her savior. The first thing she wanted to do after she trusted Christ as her savior was put a sign uh on our garage. Deanne trusted Christ and the date. She wanted to put a big sign on our garage door, you know, and I thought that you know that says, So we put it and we we did a sign, and we're gonna, you know, post it, you know, and we took a picture of her, and we celebrate with her her spiritual birthday every year, just like and uh her physical birthday, and we do that same with our son.

Uh and but Colton is this little guy's name. And on Friday, well, Curtis, our son-in-law, and some of you have met him, uh, is holding him. And my my daughter says this to him. Okay, okay? Got the sound up, Abraham. Hey, hey, Colton, can you tell me what you just did? Turn it up just a bit.

Because he died fun dead, classes. Do you have sin? Yeah. We need his forgiveness, huh? Did he stay dead? No. What did he do? He was on the dead. Very cool. We love you, buddy. So, this little guy, what does God's word say? Let the little children come into me and forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of heaven. He's saying that we need childlike faith. We are not to act or not to act, child, childish, but we're to be childlike. Childlike says, okay, uh, I'm I'm wanting to, yeah, I did wrong. Yeah, I need to forget, you know, I need your forgiveness. If you, you know, will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in him, and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead.

So, what did they ask him? Did Christ stay dead? No, he arose from the dead. If you will believe and confess and believe, you will be what? Saved. So let me ask you this. When you look at faith and works, what kind of works can a little guy like this do to get saved? You know, and there are people that think, oh, he's too young to believe and trust the Lord. Now, what a wonderful thing when children make that decision. As a matter of fact, in our church, excuse me, in our church in Palmdale, I've challenged our our people when it comes to even communion and baptism for their children at some point. Because do you know what really happens? He's made a significant decision, right? If if your child can understand they're a sinner, and that Christ died for their sins and was buried and rose again, that's those are pretty big concepts.

If they understand that, then why wouldn't they be able to understand communion? That you can do this in remembrance of me, and that it doesn't save them. Or baptism. That's a beautiful picture. I'm gonna baptize you, I'm gonna put you in the water, I'm gonna bury you in the water, because it's a picture of how Christ was buried and came back to life, and how what you're really saying as a child or as a person, look, this is a picture of how I want to die to myself, and I don't leave them under the water when I bury them. I bring them back. And what they're saying is this is a picture. Jesus was baptized. I want to be baptized. Jesus commanded it, I want to obey what he said, but it doesn't earn my salvation.

So let me go on here then to faith versus works. Romans 4, 5, but to the one who does not work, but believes on the one who declares the ungodly to be righteous, his faith is credited for righteousness. Did you get that? The one that does not work. So what is this doing? This is just hammering away at the misinterpretation of James. One thing we know for sure is scripture cannot contradict scripture. So if I have clear multiple passages that works will not save me, then I cannot interpret James to think that works are necessary to be saved. Let me give you some more verses. Romans 11 6. Now, if by grace, I love the way Paul is, he's writing here, and he says, let me let me say it this way. If you get saved by grace, then it's not by works.

Otherwise, grace would cease to be grace. God's grace is something that he says, hey, you can't earn it. I just give it to you. Well, wait a minute. To the one that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is coming with righteousness. Both in Romans. Let me take you to Ephesians 2.8 and 9. He says, For you are saved by grace. I'm going to emphasize you are saved. You are saved by grace through faith. And this is not from yourselves, it is God's gift, not from works. Man, it's just like scripture is just going, don't work your way. Listen to me. If works cannot save you. And that's what it says here, right? Not a works. You can't work your way to heaven. Not a works.

If works can't save you, listen to me carefully. If works cannot save you, works cannot keep you. You know what I'm saying there. If you trust Christ as your Savior, God looks at you and calls you saved. Calls you born again, calls you a saint. Calls you, Ephesians 1, holy and without blame before him in love. And you didn't do anything. You just trusted him. You trusted what he did on the cross. You trusted that he said it's finished. I made your salvation possible. And if works cannot save you, it can't keep you saved. And that's where many people they panic at times.

Ungodly. They still sin. But it wasn't your sin that you know made, it wasn't works that got your sin wiped away. And it's not your works that can keep them wiped away. Your salvation is in Christ alone. Faith alone in Christ alone. Let me go on. 2 Timothy 1 9. He has saved us and called us with a holy calling. Not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. Did you hear what he just said there? Before you even had a creation, his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ before time began. Before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1, he has chosen us in him before he even created the world to be holy and without blame before I'm alive.

Your salvation started before God created the world. Titus 3, 5. He saved us, not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit. Do you have I said it enough? Can I slap you enough with these verses? Stop working, stop working, stop working to get saved. Don't take away the last part of that sentence.

But it's not to get saved. Let me give you what Jesus said, John 6.47. Jesus said, I assure you, anyone who believes has eternal life. This is this is where we need to be really cautious when it comes to Lordship salvation. I believe he's the Lord Jesus Christ. But I still sin. If we say we do not sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth isn't in us. 1 John 1 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, cleanse us from some of our to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The wonderful thing about our God is He did it all.

And I just trust what He did to get saved. Then He says, Oh, I want you to live for me. You know, He is the Lord. He's the boss, He's the Lord, I'm the servant. He's the master, I'm His bondservant, bond slave. I, Lord, whatever you want me to do, I want to do. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not an easy believism. But listen to me carefully. While it's not an easy believism, it's not a difficulty to believe. God's not asking you to do something that's impossible. He's asking you to trust what he did, which was impossible, to die for the sins of the world, and to come back to life and say, I'm going to give you eternal life. If Jesus said we're saved by faith and not by works, and if Paul said we're saved by faith and not by works, then we must interpret the words of James in light of the words of Jesus.

James said, faith without works is dead. James said, Abraham was justified by works.

Okay.

Justified means just as if I'd okay, take that word, justified, and it means just as if I'd never sinned.

It's just like Alex has never sinned. And you say, wait a minute, I know I have, but how does God look at me once I trust him as my Savior? Just as if I'd never sinned. Okay, let me let me go further, though. It not only means just as if I'd never sinned, because that's that's a that's saying it in a negative way. You have not sinned. Negative. Okay. Justified also means when God justifies you, when you trust Christ as your Savior, he says, just like they'd never sinned. Oh, but there's a positive side to it as well. Here's the positive side. Yeah. Let me say it again. One side is just as if I'd never sinned. The other side is just as if I'd always obeyed. Did you hear that?

You and I know we have not always obeyed. But when God saves us, he wipes away our sin. And he imputes to us righteousness. So when he looks at us, what does he see? I'm holy and blameless before him in love. So when I go to interpret James saying Abraham was justified by works, and Rahab was justified by works. I go, what does he mean by that? Because we know that the multitude of scripture says you're justified by faith. The just shall live by faith. Not by works. So let's make sure we interpret the words of James in light of the words of Jesus. Jesus and Paul are teaching us that before conversion.

Before you were saved, salvation is based, must be based on faith alone. Before you get saved, no amount of works that you can do will ever save you. And again, I quoted Isaiah 64, 6. All our righteousness is as filthy rags. Anything we pawn off to God, hand off to God, say that we've done for him. He says, I don't need that. I let my son die for you. Are you saying what he did on the cross wasn't good enough? So Jesus and Paul are teaching us that before conversion, salvation has to be based on faith alone in Christ alone. Now let me slide that down and say it this way. James is teaching us that after conversion, after I trust Christ as my Savior, faith must be evidenced by works.

They see no difference in your life. James is saying, wait a minute. Faith without some kind of evidence, and that evidence is evidence to people in your works, in your in your love, joy, peace, patience, the fruit of the Spirit. Those are the works of righteousness that flow out of your life once you trust Christ as your Savior. If you don't see that in your life, then maybe you need to question whether you've really trusted Christ, whether you have a dead faith, or whether that's that devoted faith. So let me give you this. If somebody said, hey, what's Pastor Madison preach about today? Jesus, Paul, and James all teach about doing the works of God after salvation. That's why James, you can't throw James out.

But you need to understand, he's not talking about to get saved. I get saved by faith alone in Christ alone. But he's talking about before the world now. The world sees us and they knew. Some people, they had a really ungodly life before they came to Christ. And the world knows that. And then they get saved. And people go, wow. I'll give you an example. Let me go back in history for an example. When Nixon, when President Nixon was president of the United States, there was a man by the name of Chuck Colson, who worked on his staff and was in charge of doing all, you know, some of the dirty, dirty tricks that they said that were done. Everybody knew him. I mean, he would do it, he would do anything that make sure that the president was there and getting reelected.

He ended up in Chuck Colson ended up in prison for what he did. The illegal things he did to help President Nixon. But prior to ending up in prison, during the time the trials were going on and he was in trouble, he wondrously gloriously got saved. His life completely changed. He told the truth about everything, even though it was going to send me to present. And he started a ministry in prison. And when he got out, he continued that ministry called prison fellowship. And ministered to inmates across the United States.

They got gifts for kids of inmates, because inmates couldn't buy them Christmas gifts. He said, his faith went to work. Because people saw, and when they saw the work he did, they said, Man, this guy's changed. They realized, they realized then he was justified. He was different. He was already saved. But when the people saw it, when the people saw his works, then they declared him as well. Justified. So what I want to say is Jesus, Paul, and James all teach that you have to do works, but it's after salvation. So look at three lessons. When it comes to works, when it comes to works that James is going to teach us. Okay, the first one is this works show our submission to the word.

Did you catch that? If God's word says to do this, and I do it because God's word says it, and he says, to help the poor. But then when I help the poor, I'm submitting to God's work. I'm submitting to God's word and doing works that say to the world, hmm, he's different. So here's an example. Jesus replied, this is the work of God that you do what? Believe. And the one he sent. So Jesus is talking about works. Jesus doesn't ignore works, but he's going to say the real work of God starts with belief. And then we get to James. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith, can his faith save him? 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? This is God's word saying that we need to serve others. If people have needs, and God, we say God's changed us, then we help people.

And what does our church want to do? What do saved people? They submit to the word. Our works show that we're submitting to what God's word says. That's why this is James chapter 2. But James chapter 1 says it this way. If there's any verse you know out of the book of James, it might be this one. But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Do you know that verse? Be doers of the word. Work that word. God's word says it. I ought to do it. Look, all these guys talk about doing works, but it's always after salvation. It's not wrong to do works. But it is wrong if you're doing works thinking you're going to get saved. This solves the conflict between the New Testament of faith and James of works.

Before it's faith alone in Christ alone. After, ah, is he the Lord of my life? Then I'm going to show works are going to show submission to the word. Ah, he does know the Lord. There is a difference in his life. Works show our faith is alive. It's not dead. Here's what it says in James 2.14. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, keep warm, eat well, but you don't give them what the body needs. What good is it? In the same way, faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead by itself. We've talked about a dead faith. And what does works reveal?

As a believer? It shows that I have a faith that's alive, that wants to obey, wants to submit to the word, and is alive.

I immediately put in my phone book, uh Colton's spiritual birthday. Set it for an annual event, so I can be excited with him about that. But when a child is firstborn, they're day old. What evidence is there that they're alive? Well, they're breathing, and in no time, they want some food. What evidence is there that you have trusted Christ as your savior and you're spiritually alive? Well, soon you ought to be wanting to have some spiritual food, which is his word, the word of God. And some Hebrews says it this way. Uh when we first start out as believers, we're on the milk M I L K, the milk of the Word.

And later on we move to the meat of the Word. And he said, and some of you, you when you ought to be eating the meat of the word, you're back on the milk of the word. All you want to know is what God is going to do for you. And when you pray, it's all about Lord, give me this, Lord, give me this, Lord, give me this, Lord, do this. And you're not in the meat of the word, saying, how do I understand this? And how do I counteract false religions in the world? We would say in this church that we want to expose false teaching in the world. And that's exactly what this morning. When I said to you, Mormonism and Jehovah's Witness. Use this passage and confuse this passage and teach people that they have to work their way to heaven.

When the Jehovah's Witness come to my house, I when I write out asked them, what do I have to do to go to heaven? To be with the Lord. Well, you have to do the works of Jehovah. I said, Well, what are those? Well, you have to go to door to door, you know, and handing out flyers, and you have to. It's it's that counterfeit religion, remember? The counterfeit religion is DO. Do this, do this, do this, do this. And it was a shock to them when I said, So do you know you're going to heaven? Do you know you're going to be with the Lord when you die? See, they don't really know they're going to go to heaven, Jehovah's Witness, because they believe only from what I understand from their reading or their teaching that there's 144,000 and they get to heaven, but there's going to be a new heaven and a new earth, and the rest of believers are going to be on the earth with Jesus.

And so they, when I asked them if they knew their way to heaven, they were a little confused on that because they know, well, we're not we might be here on earth with, well, I said, Do you know you're do you know you have that salvation? And one said yes, and the other said, I don't know. And that's when I went and got their Bible out of my house, took it out to them, and read to them, 1 John chapter 5, verse 12, these things are written that you might know you have eternal life. And I said, So the only thing I'm gonna leave you with today, uh, the Jehovah's Witness people, the only thing I'm gonna leave you with today is if your word, your Bible says you can know you have eternal life, then why don't you know you have eternal life?

I said, I hope that that question just haunts you until you find that life in Christ. James 226 says it this way for just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. Works show our faith is alive. The question I have is what kind of works are you doing for the Lord? Listen to me. The last thing a guy, I remember playing basketball in my high school and basketball and college. What was interesting about playing um basketball is nobody, nobody that's on the team wants to sit the bench during the game. They're wanting to sit near the coach and they're wanting to get in the game. You want to get in the game. Why is it that in Christianity we have people content to be on the bench?

They don't want to be in the game, they don't want to serve God, they don't want to do the works that he's called us to do once we're saved. Nick Valenda, you were you remember this guy? Uh June 16th, 2012, he walked the tightrope across Niagara Falls. This is something I I can't even comprehend. I don't I almost want to say, uh I don't know where a guy's mind can be and cross and do that. I mean, so he's crossing the falls. Uh over a hundred thousand people were at Niagara Falls watching him. Matter of fact, it I've I've read two figures. One was about 112,000, one was 130,000, and there were millions watching online.

Did any of you watch online? I I was watching and going, oh my goodness. It took him eight, just 18 minutes to cross. He walked the length of six football fields. Well, look at it. Here's what it looks like.

There was so much mist coming up that at times it could hardly see blinking his eyes to see what the one. He was carrying over 70 pounds of stuff on his body.

You know, the hole and that you stuff.

How do you walk your Christian body?

Life of the Lord.

Until he finishes crossing the falls. He gets right near the end, then he quickly gets off the car.

Notice he's tethered. Did you see that?

He has now. It's been ten years since he did that, or ten years. He is now thinking that when he retires in about ten years, he wants to go across it one more time. This time he went from the United States to Canada, tethered. The next time he wants to go from Canada back home, untethered. And I'm thinking, what? But let me give you another example. This is Charles Blonen carrying his manager on his back, crossing Niagara Falls in 1860, 1859, 1860. You're just you're just praying, dear God, don't let my children ever be that foolish, right? Blonnen when he would do it, wasn't really at the main horseshoe falls.

And he would cross, he pushed a wheelbarrow across. One time he stopped, had breakfast, and went the rest of the way across.

See, the reason you don't see all the mist and that kind of stuff when he crossed is he wasn't right at the falls where the mist was really like if you've ever been to Niagara Falls, you can almost you need to almost have a rain jacket, you need to have a rain jacket on because it's just so saturated with all the mist and stuff coming up. But one time after Blonnen crossed Niagara Falls, he said, How many of you believe I could I could uh carry you across Niagara Falls? People raised their hand, he said, Oh, your hands up, how about you? Come on, get on my back and I'll carry you across the falls. A lot of people raised their hands saying, We believe you can do it. But when he asked them to put their faith to work, everybody backed up.

Except his manager. I would say, I would say if I was his manager, I'd tell you what, you need to get a new manager. I'm not doing this. But his manager, which one really believed? Do you hear the difference there? Which one really? They all said they believed.

Listen to me. These all Jesus, Paul, James, all say, get to work, but it's always after salvation. What's the issue? Works show our submission to the word. If the word says, we do it. Works show our faith is alive. Thirdly, works perfect our faith. What on earth does that mean? Works perfect our faith. Here's the way it's worded in James 2, 21 and 22. Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you remember the story? Remember Abraham in the book of Genesis? He didn't have any children. His name was Abram. And his name got changed to Abraham, meaning father of many. And he didn't have any sons, any children. When he was 100, Isaac was born to him.

In Genesis, listen to me carefully so you get this. In Genesis 15, it says, Abraham believed God. Genesis 15, 6. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. His son was born. When his son was somewhere between the age of 15 and 20, God asked him to sacrifice his son. I want to know, do you love me more or do you love your son more? When his son was fifteen or so, he took him up on the altar. His son said, Dad, here's the wood. And here's the altar, but where's the sacrifice? He said, God's going to provide. And he put his son on the altar. And he came up with a knife to kill his son.

And God stopped him because he said, Oh, don't do it. Now I know that you, that you fear God. That you do. You love me more than your son. He stopped him from doing it. But read this text. Wasn't Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son and the altar? That was in Genesis 22. But he was justified by faith in Genesis 15. 15 or 20 years before. Do you understand that? His son hadn't even been born. And he was, he was said, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness in chapter 15. He got saved by faith. He's the father of faith. Years later, when he offered his son, the world said, wow, this guy, he's got the real deal.

And be obedient to God's word. And his works at that point. Years later, 15 years later. The world began to say, after salvation, the world said, Oh, the works. Now the world knows based on his works that he's justified. Do you hear the difference there? You see that faith was active together with his works, and by works, faith was ah. Would you hear that? Faith was what? Perfected. Consummated. Teliatol is the Greek word. And this is the form of the Greek word that was used when Jesus died on the cross. When he died in the cross, and he said, it is finished. It's to tellesti. To telestai. And this is the form of that. Teleol. It's complete.

It's finished. It's perfected. It's reached the point I want, I wanted to reach in your life. So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, this is Philippians. Now Paul is saying about works. Just if you always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence. Work out your salvation. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Note that it does not say, work for your salvation. This is the working it out. I trusted Christ. I put my faith in Christ. Now it's time to go to work and watch him perfect my life.

Let me leave you with a question that would kind of drive this home. Has your faith known the joy of working for the Lord. You know, there are people that have jobs today, they hate their jobs. They don't want to do them, they just hate it, they do it because they have to.

And planting a church and watching it grow. And I never thought, oh, I hate this job, I want to get another job. I'm asking you to find areas in our group of believers. And in your community where you're doing the works of God and doing it with joy. Would you bow your heads and let's pray together? Heavenly Father, we're asking right now that you'll speak to our hearts. Lord, we know that any works that we would attempt to do to get saved will fall short. And so we're praying today that you will work in our hearts and lives so that we'll desire to serve you, to work for your glory.

We're asking today that what we've studied in the book of James can become a reality in our lives. That we'll understand that before we got saved, our faith was all that was needed to trust you. And we're asking today that you'll put us to work as saved believers. So the world can see the difference you make in our lives. For we pray these things in the wonderful name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. Amen. Let's all rise and respond in worship. As we go through this week, may we just uh have that mindset of having a faith that works for the Lord. So let's sing together.

By faith we see the hand of God in the light of creation's grand design in the lives of those who prove his faithfulness, who walk by faith and by sight. By faith, by faith, our Father's will, with the power of his promise in their hearts of a holy city built by God's own. A place where peace and trust will stand. We will stand as children of the promise. We will fix our eyes on him, our souls reward, till the race is finished and the work is done.

We'll walk by faith and not by sigh. By faith, by faith the prophet saw.

With the power to break the chains of sin and rise triumphant from the grace. By faith, by faith the church was called to go in the power of the Spirit to the laws to deliver captives and to preach good in every corner of thee. We'll send, we will send as children of the promise.

Till the race is finished and the work is done. We'll walk by faith and not by sight. By faith, by faith the mountain shall be moved, and the power of the gospel shall prevail, for we know in Christ all things are possible. For all who call upon his name, we'll stand, we will stand as children of the promise.

On him, our soul's reward, till the race is finished, and the work is done.

As we close the service today, uh, I was in Jude this morning. Jude only has one chapter, and yet it has such a wonderful promise, and he ends it with a benediction. You know what a benediction is? It's when they place a blessing on you. And here's his benediction in Jude, verse 24. Now to him talking about the Lord, now to him who is able to protect you from stumbling, and make you stand in the presence of his glory without blemish and with great joy. That would be my prayer on your life today. Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, we're praying that you would allow us to live this week, not stumbling without blemish and with great joy. Help us serve you and serve you well.

In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Have a great week in the Lord. Ready next week to come back and have communion.