God Will Do Through You
June 5, 2016 Speaker: Hunter Muse Series: Faithful: Living Out the Word in Poverty and Pain
Passage: James 2:14–26
James 2:14-16
James set up a dialogue
James commends acts of charity (1:27), but he is not confining fruit to acts of charity
"Go in peace" is similar to our "Good luck"
vs 17-
Summary – true faith cannot be separated from works
Can do nice things apart from faith, but ultimately these are self serving
Is James contradicting Paul?
vs 18-
Works demonstrate faith is present
Faith leads to different actions than when you were trapped under sin
Examples of fruit throughout your journey of faith
vs 19-
Belief or true faith is different from knowledge and understanding
James uses an important doctrine to make his point
Demons know the truth – Mark 5:1-13
Many people know the truth of Jesus, but are not His children
vs 19-
Word play - Faith without works doesn’t work
Fool is a serious charge in the Bible
Proverbs
Describes one who doesn’t believe
vs 21-22
Point back to the OT to instruct about the NT
Connects to James 1:2-4
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
Testing and trials draws us near to God and make us more complete
Obedience leads to more obedience and draws us nearer to God similar to trials
vs 23
Reference to Genesis 15:6
“And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”
Flips the script of offering Isaac and his righteousness
Abraham’s righteousness drove his actions
vs 25
Abraham makes sense, but Rahab?
Emphasizes prostitute
Think of others – Noah, Moses, Daniel, etc.
God is pointing us to His grace
Lineage of Jesus
He transforms us
vs 26-
God is an acting God
Helpful image of life
Luther
“O it is a living, busy active mighty thing, this faith. It is impossible for it not to be doing good things incessantly. It does not ask whether good works are to be done, but before the question is asked, it has already done this, and is constantly doing them.”
More in Faithful: Living Out the Word in Poverty and Pain
July 17, 2016
James 5:13-20July 10, 2016
The Lord is ComingJuly 3, 2016
The Misuse of Wealth and Power