A Call to Spiritual Maturity Pt3

The speaker discusses the apparent contradiction between Paul's teaching and a section of Scripture regarding the need for teachers in the body of Christ. They explain that Scripture does not contradict itself and that deeper understanding is needed to reconcile different verses. They emphasize the importance of considering the context and balance of Scripture and caution against taking verses out of context. They then delve into a section of Scripture from James that discusses the relationship between faith and works. James argues that faith without works is dead and questions whether a mere profession of faith is enough for salvation. The speaker emphasizes the need for a changed lifestyle and actions to accompany faith. They illustrate this with an example of someone who claims to have faith but does nothing to help someone in need. They conclude by explaining that faith and works are interconnected and that faith without works is dead. And I picked this section of Scripture specifically because it has an apparent contradiction with Paul's teaching and specifically because the body of Christ views it in many different ways. This is why we need the gift of a teacher in the body of Christ. In fact, Scripture even says, well, the whole verse we started this series with, you all should be teachers by now, but you are still babies, still drinking spiritual milk. We have verses that say you will no longer need to say to anyone, know the Lord, for all shall know him. So then why do we evangelize? We have those verses that say you will not need a teacher, you have no need of a teacher, for you know all things. So what is the balance of all of this? Because the teacher in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 is one of those gifts that Christ gave to the church. Without teachers, any one of us, every one of us, are subject to our own understanding of what Scripture says and thus has resulted in so many different beliefs about single verses. I have the opportunity to preach in the six o'clock service today and what I'm going to talk about is a well-known phrase in this congregation that truth taught badly does not negate truth. Truth taught badly does not negate truth. It's still the truth of the Word. Though somebody live it badly or teach it badly, it doesn't negate that it is still truth. And thus God saw fit to put teachers among us. We also have the other verse that says not many of you should be teachers, for teachers are held to a higher standard. And so how do we understand all of this if not by the help and the instruction of the great teacher, the Holy Spirit. Paul says in Romans 3.28, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Yet in James 2 verse 24 it says, You see then that a man is justified by works and not by faith. It seems that the two are against each other except for the fact that Paul tells Timothy all Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness. So if that's the case and both of these are in Scripture and Scripture does not contradict itself, then there must be some deeper understanding that we need to grow into and mature into. So we're going to go through this section of Scripture, through these verses, a little bit at a time, and we're going to see it from this a little more mature perspective regarding the harmony, the harmony between faith and works. So I want to give you a couple of definitions. If we're talking about faith, there are two ways to see faith. Faith is belief, trust, confidence. It's God's divine persuasion. But faith can also refer to simply a system of beliefs or a religious lifestyle. I have faith. Another word is justification, made or declared righteous. It means made or declared righteous, cleared of all charges approved. We are justified by faith. Another definition of justification, though, can be to show, exhibit or give evidence of being righteous. So one definition of justification is the actual act of being made righteous, whereas the other definition is basically the proof of having been made righteous. And our third definition is work, an act, deed or thing, which is different than the work of the law, which is actions done in accordance with a set law. Before we read Scripture, let's pray. Father, we bless Your name and we thank You, Lord God, that the Holy Spirit is our teacher. He's our guide. Jesus said that He would guide us in all truth, that He would teach us the things that Christ had said and would tell us of things to come, that He would reveal things to us and help us to understand. Your word says that it is the Spirit that searches out the deep things of You, Lord God, and reveals them to us. So, Holy Spirit, we come today and ask that You would teach us, that You would give us understanding, that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened, that we would grow in the wisdom and the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Help us today in Jesus' name. Amen. The mature Christian will find themselves in a place where they look at Scripture and say, OK, there's more to this than meets the eye. There's more to this than what is at face value. The sad thing is that what people will do is look at Scripture and say, well, I want to be mature. I'm going to dig deep into this. And we get convoluted sometimes and get off into these very extravagant explanations when really the most simple thing to do is accept what is there, accept it at face value. But if we take one verse at face value out of context with everything else, we'll get ourselves in trouble. And we'll get others in trouble who we share that with and spread that bad doctrine to others. We need to, as we mature, take Scripture in the context of the whole. We need to consider who it's written to. We need to consider what was going on at the time. We need to figure out the context of the whole. We need to balance any conclusions that we come to against the weight of the rest of Scripture. So if I come to a conclusion about God based on one verse and say, well, this is how God is, then, and it's erroneous, what I'm doing is forgetting what the rest of Scripture says or ignoring what the rest of Scripture says. A case in point is people like to say, don't judge me. You're not allowed to judge me. Scripture says don't judge. Well, no. Scripture actually says don't judge or you will be judged by the same standard. In other words, if you're going to judge, you better live up to the measure that you are judging the other person. Know that when you judge, you put yourself under the same microscope because Scripture also says that we are supposed to evaluate each other's works. That if we see somebody who has fallen in a sin, that we are supposed to gently and humbly restore such a one. Well, if I have no right to judge or if I have no place to judge, then I have no place to fulfill the Scripture that says that I'm supposed to help you when you fall and you're supposed to help me when I fall. How are we to judge if each other has fallen? If it is against Scripture to judge, we have to take the whole context. We have to balance Scripture with Scripture. All right, are you ready? Verse 14. We'll read 14-17 in this section. What does it profit my brethren if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? Yeah. Paul says you're saved by grace through faith, so faith saves it. Well, let's keep reading. Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food and one of you says to them, Depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. Now we need to understand who James is writing to. If we go back to verse 1, it says, James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad. So one, the context of this letter that James is writing is in the context of a people group who has grown up within the culture of the old law that understands relationship with God based on the law that goes back to the covenant with Moses, the covenant of Abraham. And so we need to read this with that understanding that they are viewing faith by that second definition that I gave you as a system of beliefs, a religious lifestyle. So when James says, Can faith save him? He's saying, Can a mere profession of a religious lifestyle be enough to save someone? James is not referring to the active faith that Paul is referring to when he says that we are saved by grace through faith. He's not referring to the faith that Hebrews 11 talks about when it says multiple times, by faith they did these things. They walked in faith. Now James will get there, but as he starts this section, this is not what he's talking about. He's basically saying if faith is dead without works, is it really faith at all? Because his point is that faith without works is dead. So then if there's no life in it, is it really faith? If there's no life in your profession, are you really saved? There are those that will come to this Scripture and say if Christ did it all, then it doesn't matter how I live. Or they'll say if Christ did it all, then I don't need to do anything more. We were talking about this yesterday of those that would say, well, the mere act of saying yes, I believe is an act of your own doing and therefore it's not receiving salvation by faith because you worked for it. You didn't work for it. You didn't go on the cross. You didn't sacrifice yourself. You're simply professing that you receive what Christ has already done. Well, that's a work. No, it's not. Grow up. It's not a work. It's a profession of faith. These people were saying yes, I believe, but not doing anything about it. Yes, I confess this. Okay, where's the change in your lifestyle? Where's the change in your speech? Where's the change in your actions? Where's the change in your interaction with God's people and your interaction with people who are yet outside the kingdom? So to illustrate this, James says, well, if you find somebody destitute of daily food and you say, God be with you, I'll pray for you. And it's within your means to do something about it. And yet you do nothing and you just say, faith be with you. Is that going to do any good to that person? It makes no difference to that person. It helps that person's condition not one bit for you to say, God be with you. And James likens that to saying it's the same when you say you have faith, but you do not have works or actions. Verse 18, but someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe and they tremble. But do you want to know, oh foolish man, that faith without works is dead? Do you want to know that? Do you really want to know that? He asks them. He says, show me your faith without your works. In other words, how can you prove what you are saying? Anybody can say anything. I'm a millionaire. I'm a billionaire. Show me your bank account. No, you just have to believe it. I'm a billionaire. A quick look at my bank account, you'll know that that's not true. I can say it. I can even believe it. I can have the conviction in my heart, the delusional conviction in my heart. I can write a check for five million dollars. It'll bounce. There's no funds to back it up. We can say whatever we want to, but our actions will prove what we actually believe and our actions will prove what is the truth. No matter what we declare, our actions will betray us or prove us. James is saying here, so what? You profess faith. You profess to believe in God. He says even the demons believe in God and they have a corresponding action. There is a reaction from demons. He's saying demons are even showing their faith more than you are, which is a terrible indictment. What a horrible thing for us to take an example from demons. It says that even they believe and tremble. Even for them, there is a proof of their belief. It's not enough to say I believe. There must be an action that goes along with it. But it's not an action where we are saying, oh, I must do these things to prove my faith. A genuine faith will walk in action that proves that it exists. Just like there is life in our bodies and as there is life in our bodies, we move, we live, we have being, you came. There's life in you. So also, if there is true faith, then there will be life that is produced from it. Verse 21 and 22. Therefore, nope, wrong chapter. That's a good verse, too, but not the one I want. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works and by works faith was made perfect? Have you ever read this verse before? Have you ever chewed on this verse before? What have you concluded? When you read this, what do you think? Was not Abraham our father justified by his works? I thought we were justified by faith. Absolutely. Paul and James are not in contradiction with each other, and since that is the truth, then there must be something deeper that we need to understand or something that will bring clarity to us to help us understand how Paul and James can be saying something that seems completely different, and yet it is exactly in harmony with each other. The word synergy means the interaction of elements that, when combined, produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements or contributions. Let me read that again. Synergy is the interaction of elements that, when combined, produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements or contributions. So I've got faith here and I've got works here. Can faith work? Sure. Jesus said if you have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea. Faith works. Faith is powerful. Then you have works on this side, your good deeds and things that we do for people, the things that we can view as being a good person in order to attain our salvation, or we can put the two together and realize that they work so well together where works proves our faith, that faith leads us to works, and the outcome of the two things is so much greater than the individual items that are there. The synergy of faith and works produced in Abraham justification. It says at the end of verse 22, by works faith was made perfect. By works faith was made perfect. Now, if we understand this word perfect in a definition of flawless or without error, then we would understand it in a certain manner and say that faith is nothing without works, which is kind of what James is saying, but we need to understand that this word perfect means complete. It means reaching the end as in a race, or rather it means completing a process as in growth. Works help our faith to become complete and effective, but what comes first is faith. And so James continues, verse 23, to show us exactly this, that faith comes before works. And the scripture was fulfilled which says Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God. You see then that a man is justified by works, not by faith alone. Now if we go back to Genesis, we brought this up last time, that the time distance between when it says in Genesis 15 and Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness and when he actually took Isaac up to the mountain and laid him on the altar ready to sacrifice him before God, that the time frame in between that was something like 30 years. 30 years. But it doesn't say Abraham sacrificed his son and was counted righteous. It says he believed God and was counted righteous and his belief was justified. Remember that second definition I gave you. The justification is showing something to have been made righteous. Not the act of making righteous, but the proof that one was made righteous. His faith, or Abraham himself, was shown to be righteous because his belief in God led him to be able to sacrifice his son, the son of promise. Abraham's faith produced the work or actions of sacrificing which action was the justification or proof of him believing God in the first place. James and Paul are not at odds with each other, though they're using the same word simply because words have different definitions. That's why it's important that as we grow and as we study Scripture that we understand the context, that we look at the verses that surround the verse we're looking at, that we take into account what all is going on and, more importantly, that we ask the Holy Spirit to give us revelation and understanding. Where Paul leaves off, per se, in his statement about being justified by faith, James takes it one step further, not improving on, but takes it one step further to say, OK, you've been justified by grace through faith, now prove it. Prove it through your actions. Not prove it because I doubt you, but where is the proof of that change in your life? Don't just say you believe. Live it. One verse says, let's not just say we love one another, let us actually love one another. Galatians 3 says that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God as evident, for the just shall live by faith. Now, when Paul refers to the word works, he's referring to the works of the law, the works of a system of beliefs, the works that were put in place in the Mosaic Covenant through the Ten Commandments and subsequent instructions. He's referring not to an action or a deed, but a set of required instructions. They're referring to two different things. James is talking about an act of faith that finds its completion or culmination through its works. A good example we find in this is a fruit tree. A fruit tree reaches its culmination. We say a fruit tree is healthy when it does what? Produces fruit. If a tree is in our yard that we're expecting a harvest to come from and no harvest comes from it, what do we say? Well, the tree hasn't matured yet. The tree hasn't reached full growth yet. It hasn't done what a tree is supposed to do, produce fruit, a fruit tree at least. So have you done what a believer is supposed to do? Has your faith produced action? Has your faith produced a lifestyle that exemplifies a relationship with God? In verse 25 and 26, Likewise was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. James brings us to this most unlikely of examples. He starts with the example of Abraham, the patriarch of all of Israel, the one who is held in such high esteem and on such a high pedestal, and then he brings in Rahab, the lowest of what you would consider to be a prime example of faith and works. But what this shows us is that it doesn't matter who you are. Faith without works is dead. It doesn't matter who you are. Your works will justify or prove what you believe. Your actions will show whether what you declare is actually what you believe or not. This brings us back to Galatians chapter 2 verse 19 and 20. The body without the spirit is dead. You can go to a funeral, look in the casket, there's a body there. There's no spirit there. There's no life there. It's just a body. The person that we're mourning at a funeral is not even there. It's just their skin suit. So also Paul says here in Galatians 2, for I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live. I am just a skin suit. Without Christ I would be lifeless. Without faith and works I would be dead. I would be no different than a lifeless body in a box. He says I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but it's Christ who lives in me. The life which I now live in the flesh, in other words in this skin suit, on this earth, in this body, this life that I now live, the only way that there is life in me right now, Paul says, is because of faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. It's no longer I that moves this body, he says. It's Christ that lives in me. It's Christ that dictates my actions. Elsewhere he says because of this great work of Christ, my interest in the world has died and its interest in me. Oh, to get to that place. Oh, that we would all reach that place of maturity. Oh, that we would all desire to be able to say with Paul, it's no longer I that live, but Christ that lives in me. Oh yes, Pastor, I believe that. Yes, I'm sure you believe it. I believe it too. But we can certainly evaluate our day and point out the times where it was not Christ living through us, it was our old flesh living through us. We must mature. Remember what I said before. We fluctuate between the stages where while with one topic in this life with Christ we have reached maturity, in another topic we might still be at level two. What is not good is to go back to level one, where we deny that we need Christ in the first place. Fluctuation is fine. Stagnation is not. Let us pursue to grow in the grace of the Lord. Father, we bless your name. We praise you, God. We exalt you. We magnify you. Lord, may we live every day in the knowledge, in the revelation, and in the truth, Lord God, that it is no longer we who live. It's you living through us. May we crucify our flesh. May we realize, Lord God, that we are not obligated in any way, shape, or form to obey the desires of the flesh. We are not obligated in any way to sin. We have been set free from all sin according to the sacrifice of Christ. We have been completely delivered. Father, may we mature in our walk with you that we no longer slide back into those things, that we no longer pursue those things, that we no longer let what is dead still have influence over us. And Father, out of this gratitude for what you have done for us, out of this faith in what Christ has done on the cross, out of, Lord God, a faith that has received the grace of God to justify us, to make us righteous, Lord God, out of all of that, may our lives be lived in great work and activity for your glory and the advancement of your kingdom, God. May our grand desire not only be to worship you, but also to bring others to you, to encourage each other in this life of faith, to bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Lord God, may we not betray, may we not betray our confession of faith, but hold fast, Lord God, and ever so much more as we see the day approaching. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.