Faith Without Works Is Dead

You can open in your Bibles with me to James chapter 2. In the medical field, there are things that are referred to as silent killers.

! There are things that are referred to as silent killers. These are things like high cholesterol or high blood pressure or even certain types of cancer.

You know, things that us young people don't have to worry about yet. But they can cause sometimes irreparable damage to the body even before they get detected by a doctor.

And so in some cases where these things are found out, it's too late to recover what's been lost. It's too late to try to reverse some of the damage that has already been done to the body.

And the church, as the body of Christ, also has some things that we could refer to as silent killers. Things that, from the inside, corrupt and corrode the body.

And sometimes, by the time it's noticed, there's already been significant and extensive damage that's been done. And as I mentioned that, you may think of specific sins or particular sins.

And I'm not thinking of any particular sin specifically. I want to think more holistically in big picture form at dead faith or useless faith.

This is a silent killer in the church. And it's silent because someone who has dead faith says all the right things.

Someone who has dead faith claims to love Christ and claims to believe in Christ. They'll show up to Elevate every week. They'll be in service on Sunday morning with their Bible open, taking notes.

They can quote Scripture. They can tell you stories about Christ. And yet, they never do anything with their life. You never see that alleged love for Christ come through in their life.

This is something we see a lot. It's a faith that claims to love Christ but doesn't serve Him. It's a faith that believes the Bible but doesn't obey it. And this is tricky because just by talking to this person, everything would look fine on the outside.

But underneath the surface, there's no love for Christ. There's no love for the Lord. And James talks about this problem in James 2, verses 14 through 26.

So I'm actually going to read this whole passage for us before we get started this evening. It's a little bit more lengthy than what we normally cover. But I think it's one thought that James is addressing here.

So James 2, starting in verse 14. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?

Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I'll show you my faith by my works.

You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works.

And the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works, and not by faith alone.

And in the same way, was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

James here is confronting head on people who say they love Christ, but don't show that they love Christ by how they live. And even as I say that, I'm sure you can think of people in your mind of someone who's been baptized, someone who shows up in your Sunday school class, someone who claims to love Christ, but as you think about their life, there's nothing that reflects what they claim with their lips.

They claim to follow Christ, but it's just noise. Their lives don't look any different from unbelievers around them. James' main point in this section is that faith without works is dead.

It's empty. It's useless. It's pointless. It's no good at all. So how can you know if someone has a living faith?

How can you know if they've got a faith that truly saves someone? How can you know if your faith is alive or dead? How can you calculate your own spiritual standing, your actions?

How we live shows who we are. So we've read our passage this evening. We're just going to have two points for it tonight.

We're going to see dead faith and living faith. Dead faith and living faith. So first we'll see dead faith in verses 14 through 19.

And as James is talking about and describing dead faith, he's going to make two points. He's going to say that faith without works is dead and faith without works is demonic.

So faith without works is dead. Both these points are under the main heading of dead faith. And the first thing he says is that faith without works is dead. And he starts with a question, what good is it, my brothers?

And if you look at this first kind of paragraph, verse 14 and 16, both have that question. What good is it? What use is it?

And James doesn't actually answer this question. It's just a question with an implied answer. It's kind of a rhetorical question. James' answer is it's not good. It's not useful.

There's no point to it. There's no use to it. And so what good is it, my brothers, if someone says that he has faith but does not have works?

He has words but no actions. He has talk but he doesn't have a walk. Can that faith save him? The kind of faith that doesn't do anything.

The kind of faith that has no works. Now James is not saying that salvation isn't by faith.

He's saying that if you claim to have faith but don't obey, your claim to faith is faulty. This kind of faith that doesn't have any works, this kind of faith that doesn't lead to obedience, doesn't save.

And so here's an important point to think about. How you live your life says more about your religion than what you say. How you live your life says more about your religion than what you say.

Now we need to say things, right? We need to confess Christ. We need to confess our sins. We need to believe in Christ. We need to tell people about the gospel. But there are a lot of people who can do that.

There are a lot of people who can tell the gospel story that don't love Jesus from their heart. So how do you live? The way you live your life is going to say more about where your heart is than what you can say with your mouth.

And that doesn't mean we shouldn't talk. We should talk. There are certain things we need to say. But the proof, the evidence is in how you live.

And so as you think about your life, I think almost all of you here would claim to be Christians. As you think about your life, what if someone's only exposure to Christianity was your life?

So someone didn't know what the Bible taught. Someone didn't know what Christianity was. You were the only Christian they knew. Based on them watching your life, what would they say about Christianity?

What would they think Christianity is? What would they think it does in someone's life? Because I'm afraid that for some of us, if someone's only exposure to Christianity was our lives, they would be like, well, I mean, yeah, I don't believe what he believes, but I live the same way.

Yeah, I don't believe what she claims to believe, but our lives aren't different from each other. How you live says more about your religion than what you say.

And that was James' point even all the way back at the end of chapter one. True religion is visiting orphans and widows and keeping yourself unstained from the world. How you live reveals what you believe.

And James gives us a picture of what this dead faith is like. He gives an example in verses 15 and 16. If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?

So what is dead faith like? It's like compassionate words without compassionate actions. It's like saying the right things without following through with action.

It's like warm words from a cold heart. And so the example he gives is someone in their church, a brother or sister comes to them who's poorly clothed, lacking in daily food.

So they have some clothes, but they're not adequate for the weather. They don't have a winter coat. They don't have enough food to get through the day. This is a fellow Christian, someone who belongs to their church, who's poor.

And the person speaking to them has the ability to share with them, has the ability to give them clothes, has the ability to give them some of their food. food. And you just say, hey, stay warm out there.

Hey, hope you find some food. It says the right things. Those are the right words, but there's no actions that go with them to help those people out. This would be like going up to a homeless person in December and saying, hey man, I hope you stay warm.

I hope you find a place to stay. I hope you can find some food. It's the right thing to say, but there's no action that goes along with it. And James' question is, what good is that?

What does that accomplish? What use is that? It doesn't do anything. So also, verse 17, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

The person who says they have faith, but doesn't obey Christ, is like a person who says nice things to someone in need, but doesn't help them.

Doesn't actually provide for them. And James is talking about this kind of dead faith that doesn't have any works. This faith is dead because true faith always works.

True faith always obeys. Not to earn salvation, but as a proof of salvation. I enjoy going to weddings.

I enjoy seeing people get married. If you invite me to your wedding one day, I will be there, almost assuredly. What is it that makes up a marriage ceremony, though?

It's words, right? Like, people just kind of get up there and talk to each other, and then they sign something that has words on it. Like, there are some acts, like they exchange rings, but that's not really doing anything.

It's more just like, this is a sign of the words that I spoke to you already. And so, is it possible for a husband on his wedding day to say that he loves his wife and to say that he'll be faithful to her for the rest of their lives and then not do what he says?

Is that possible? Yes, you know examples of that. You've seen examples of that. Were they actually married? Well, yeah, legally, but did he actually love her like he said he would?

No. He said all the right words, like they were actually married. He said the right things, but he didn't follow through on them. He wasn't actually faithful like he said he would be.

James is contrasting here dead faith with living faith, and he says dead faith is like that husband, that scoundrel who promised himself to his wife forever and didn't follow through on what he said.

What good is that? What use is that? He says faith without works is dead, but he also says that faith without works is demonic.

In verse 18, he says, but someone will say, you have faith and I have works. Now, I have an ESV, and so there are quotation marks around that statement. I think it's best just to ignore the quotation marks in this verse.

Quotation marks weren't a part of the Greek that James was writing in, and so people translating them try to add them to figure out where speech begins and ends by certain people. I think here, the quotation marks aren't helpful.

I think what James is actually saying is that someone's going to say, so he's imagining an objection coming from these people he's writing to, and he says, someone's going to say that you all have faith.

These people I'm writing to, you guys have faith, and I, James, have works. And so what they're doing is they're separating faith from works. Like, yeah, we got the faith, we just haven't downloaded the works package yet.

We haven't, you know, gotten that part of it yet. It's like, we just have faith, you've got works, we've all got different spiritual gifts, James, calm down. And James is saying, no, no, no, this, someone's going to object and say, like, well, yeah, we just have the faith, we don't have works.

And James says, show me your faith, apart from works. Prove that you've got faith. Show it to me. Show me what it does. And I'm going to show you my faith by my works.

How do you demonstrate that you believe in Christ? By obeying him. Not because obeying him earns you salvation, but because that proves that you actually trust what he says.

I love to swim in the summer with my kids, and Ryle, our thirdborn, hasn't learned how to swim yet. Our older two do know how to swim, Ryle hasn't quite figured it out yet.

We'll teach him next summer. But at the beginning of this summer, a few months ago, he was trying to learn how to jump into the pool, and I was trying to get him to jump to me, and he was scared. And so I'm like, hey, jump to me.

And he wouldn't do it. He was just, like, standing on the side of the pool crying. And I'm like, hey, I'm going to catch you. Like, do you trust me? Do you know that I'm going to catch you? And he was like, yes. And he wouldn't jump because he was a little liar.

He didn't actually trust me, right? The proof of him trusting me would have been him doing what? Jumping into me, right? He said he trusted me, but he didn't actually follow through.

And that's what James is saying. Like, how do you prove that you trust something? How do you prove that you trust a chair? Well, you sit in it like you guys are. You trust those things. Maybe wrongly, but we'll see.

How do you prove that you trust something? There are actions that are required. And James is like, okay, prove to me that you have this trust that doesn't lead to any good. Prove that to me.

Show it to me. And he says in verse 19, you believe that God is one. You do well. You do well.

This comes from Deuteronomy 6, verse 4. One of the most often quoted verses in the Old Testament in a Jewish context. And James is writing to Jewish Christians, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

It's a very basic, monotheistic belief that Jews held. It's a belief we hold as Christians. And James is saying, you guys believe that. That's good. That's a right thing to believe.

And the Jews even, interestingly, thought that having this verse written on your clothing or having this verse written in your home or reciting this verse would even keep demons away.

And so if they were ever scared or suspected there was demonic activity, they would recite this verse. And that's interesting based on what James says next. He says, you guys believe that, but even the demons believe that and they shudder or they tremble.

And James is saying, you're right to believe this, but even the demons believe that. And so I think this phrase, you do well, in verse 19 is kind of sarcasm.

He's like, you guys believe this, like, great job everyone. You did it. Even the demons believe the same thing. So when our daughter Amelia was learning how to read, Lacey sent me a video of her reading just a basic book and she read the whole thing.

It was just a few pages and the way I reacted to her when she did that is when I got home, I was like, Amelia, you did so good reading. I'm so proud of you.

If I say those words to my then five or six year old daughter, you guys understand I'm proud of her. If I said those things to Luke after he read scripture tonight, you'd understand, okay, I'm being sarcastic, like, good job, Luke.

You did it, buddy. Great job. And so I think that's how James is talking here. He's like, hey, yeah, good job. You believe the right things. The demons believe the right things too. And it may be surprising to us that demons have good theology, but demons do.

Demons have great theology, actually. They believe all the right things. They just hate God. They don't love him and so they don't obey him. And you may be suspicious of that, but just read through the Gospels.

The disciples, like, can't figure out who Jesus is. They're like, okay, this guy's kind of like a prophet or something. And he calms the storm with his words and like, who is this? He just spoke to a storm and stopped it.

But anytime a demon shows up and has a conversation with Jesus, the demon knows exactly who Jesus is. The disciples are like, who is this? We can't figure this guy out. And the demons are like, you are the Holy One of God.

They recognize exactly who he is. They have perfect theology and they hate Christ. And so James is saying, demons aren't saved because they believe the right things.

Because their hearts are cold towards God. And so you Christians, just because you say you believe the right things, if you're not living them out, there's no evidence that you're any different than a demon.

In fact, if you say the right things but don't live them out, you have more in common with the demons than you do with a disciple. The demons have perfect theology but they hate him.

They don't love him and so they don't obey him. And so the way you prove what you believe is through your behavior.

It's through how you live. Faith doesn't just hear the word, it obeys it. And so we've seen dead faith. Secondly, we see living faith in verses 20 through 26.

James is continuing this hypothetical conversation. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Now how do we know that James is continuing this kind of diatribe, this pretend conversation?

Well, he addresses this person as a foolish person. Anytime he speaks directly to these Christians he's writing to, what does he call them? He calls them brothers. He calls them beloved brothers.

And now here in this conversation he's calling them a foolish person. And so I think he's continuing this kind of objection that he's pretending someone's going to make.

And so he's like, do you want to be shown that faith apart from works is useless or that it's dead or that it does no good? And he's going to give us two examples of living faith. Two examples of living faith.

He's going to show us Abraham the patriarch and Rahab the prostitute. Abraham the patriarch and Rahab the prostitute. So first we see Abraham in verses 21 through 24.

And he says, was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar.

Now if someone asked me, how is someone justified? That word justified means declared righteous. So how is someone declared righteous by God?

If you just ask me that question with no context, how is someone justified? My answer, rightly, according to the Bible, would be someone is justified by faith apart from works.

That's what Paul says in Romans 3.28. We hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. But James here says something that seems to completely go against that.

He says, Abraham was justified not by faith but by works. And later in verse 24, James just straight up says, a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.

So James and Paul seem to be saying different things. So how do we try to understand this? Well first we need to look at this word for justification.

What does it mean? Well it means to be declared righteous or considered righteous. And so this is kind of a legal term. So if you think about our legal system, at the end of a trial, what does the judge declare?

Guilty or not guilty? That is a legal declaration. When the judge says that, does that change who that person is that's being judged?

No, they're the same person, right? And so we understand that someone could be said not guilty but they actually did the crime. Does that make sense? We know of people that got away with it through our legal system.

They were declared legally not guilty but it didn't actually change who they were. They were actually guilty by nature. And so when we think about justification, it's like that judge saying guilty or not guilty.

It's God's declaration about us. And so he looks at someone who has faith in Christ and says, righteous. Just like Christ is righteous, just like Christ is holy, that's how I'm going to treat you.

And so it's the opposite of what we call condemnation. And this is how Paul uses the word. It's a declarative act of God that comes through faith apart from works.

But how is James using it? I want you to pay attention to James' bigger argument. What is James' argument? He's concerned with what is the proof of faith? How do you demonstrate your faith?

And so he uses words like, show me or I'll show you. Do you want to be shown or see, look? And so James' argument here is between true and false faith.

James would say that true faith justifies, false faith condemns. True faith has works. False faith does not.

And so the way James is actually using this word for justified is how we would just say demonstrate or prove. A person demonstrates their faith by works.

A person shows their faith by works. That's how James is saying. He says in verse 22 that faith was completed by his works. It was demonstrated or fulfilled by his works.

So James and Paul aren't contradicting each other. They're not fighting. I think it's best to view them as standing back to back, defending the same truth just from different angles. Paul's writing to people who are saying that, yeah, by your righteous works, you're earning favor with God.

And Paul's saying, no, no, no. You're justified by faith without works. James is writing to people who are saying, I believe in Jesus. I don't need to obey him. And James is saying, no, no, no.

Look at Abraham. How did we know that he had faith in God? It was through his works. And so Paul's talking about how someone is justified before God. James is talking about how we're justified before others.

How would someone else know you're a Christian? Not simply by what you say, but by how you live. By how you live.

And so James says, verse 21, was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

You see that faith was active along with his works and faith was completed by his works. And so in Genesis 22, Abraham's waited for a son. Isaac is finally born to him in his old age.

And then God says, I need you to kill him for me. Strange command. We find out actually it's a test. What is being tested though? Abraham's faith.

Do you trust me with what you hold most dear in this life? Do you trust me with your future? Do you trust me with the future of your family? His faith was being tested.

Did he have a dead faith? Did he have a demonic faith? Or was his faith real? Was his faith willing to say, God, I trust you. I will obey you no matter what.

Or was his faith just something he was like, yeah, I believe in God. But I'm not going to do what he's commanded me to do. But he was obedient. He passed the test and so his faith was fulfilled or his faith was completed.

And so that's what James is saying. His faith, his trust was active with his works. His faith was brought to fruition or fulfillment by his works. In verse 23, the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.

That's a quote from Genesis 15, 6. In Genesis 15, 6, Abraham just says, God, I believe you. He trusts God and God counts him as righteous.

He justifies him. And that faith was proven, that faith was fulfilled when Abraham was willing to obey God even when it cost him his son.

Even when it cost him his entire future. It proved that Abraham actually did believe God. And so he was called a friend of God.

No longer an enemy, no longer a stranger, but a friend. And so James says, verse 24, you see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone or not by a faith that is alone.

Second example is Rahab the prostitute in verse 25. It says, and in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way.

Now, in Joshua 2, the Israelites are entering into the promised land to conquer it. They come to Jericho. Rahab is a prostitute in Jericho.

These men need a place to go where they can remain unseen, undetected as they're spying it out. And so a prostitute's house was a place to go to remain hidden.

And Rahab received the spies, protected them, lied to defend them and keep them alive. And because of her faith, it was demonstrated by her risking her life, she was able to keep her life and she's considered righteous.

Now, why does James refer to Rahab? You know, it makes sense for him to refer to Abraham. These are Jews he's writing to. Abraham was like the Jew. He was the first Jew. He was the patriarch.

He was rich. He was influential. He was wealthy. He had great faith. God blessed him. God made his descendants as numerous as the stars. But Rahab was not influential.

She was not rich. She was a Gentile. And not just any Gentile. She was a prostitute. She was a woman. She was of little account. Why does James refer to her as another example?

Because it's proving his point that true faith is risk-taking and sacrifice-making in order to be obedient.

If the king of Jericho had found out what Rahab was doing she would have lost her life. And so this Gentile woman who didn't even have a Bible had never been to church is justified before God and before men because she had heard about how powerful God was and she believed him.

And the evidence of that belief is found in her treating his people well. Both the patriarch and the prostitute had a living faith in God.

Both of them were willing to risk their life risk their future risk what they held most dear in order to be faithful to God. are you willing to do this?

You won't find yourself in a situation like Abraham or Rahab were in. God told Abraham to kill his son you won't find yourself there you also won't find yourself in the position that Rahab was in. But are you willing to obey like that?

Are you willing to be faithful like that? Are you willing to obey God even when it costs you something? Even when it's painful? Even when God asks you to give up your future that you thought would be yours?

In verse 26 James returns to his main point as the body apart from the spirit is dead so also faith apart from works is dead.

You as a human being are both body and soul your body can be seen your body can be analyzed your internal organs can be seen on a scan but your soul is what theologians call immaterial it's not observable we can't see it under a microscope or through an MRI it's there it's your personality we could say it's who you are but it's separate from your body it's different from your body and so when someone dies their body is left here behind but their soul departs either to the presence of the Lord or into hell and James is saying the body without a soul is dead and that's what faith without works is like the works are what give life to faith the works are the proof of life for the faith that you say you have and so to say I love Jesus I believe in Jesus but not to live for him it's just a corpse in the church it's just sitting there not doing anything it's useless it's no good it's not good for anything and so the question for us is do you have true faith faith isn't just believing something faith leads us to action faith leads us to taking risks and making sacrifices like Abraham and Rahab that James points out to us here not everyone who claims to have faith has true faith not everyone who says they follow Christ actually follows him what about you is your faith dead or is it alive do you actually follow Christ or do you just claim to follow him does your faith in Christ lead you to obey him or is your faith workless a workless faith is a worthless faith it's dead it does no good now if you look back up at verse 19 it says the demons believe and shudder or they tremble they're afraid and why is that

I mentioned earlier they have a perfect theology they know everything they don't know everything what they believe everything they believe is right everything they believe is true but they're afraid because they know judgment is coming for them they know their time is short and we will be examined by Christ too we will be judged by him as well for believers that will be a judgment of determining reward for unbelievers that will be a judgment that determines punishment but we will all stand before Christ one day and Jesus who sees everything and knows everything will be the one who judges us and what is he going to judge us by he's going to judge us by our works he's going to judge us by what we did and so we in Sunday school we were just in 1 Corinthians 3

Paul was there talking about good works that are like gold and silver and precious stone and bad works that are wood hay and straw what kind of works are you building in this life what kind of works are you demonstrating in this life Christ will judge them and so you might have a dead faith that's a real possibility and so I want to help us think through that how do we know if our faith is living or dead well I'll tell you a really bad time to find that out is when you're standing before Christ that would be a really horrible and irreversible time to figure out that your faith was dead and so I want to help us think through is our faith dead so here are five things actually six I've got six six symptoms of dead faith number one you don't love the Lord above everything else you don't love the Lord above everything else if you claim to be a Christian you have to claim to love the Lord but how much do you actually love him are you willing to give your life to him are you willing to give your life for him or is there something else that you love more like your comfort or what the world thinks of you do you love him above everything else number two second symptom of dead faith you only do things when it seems like you'll get credit for them you only do things when it seems like you'll get credit for them so if you think back to the widows and orphans that James mentions why does he mention those two groups of people because they're not going to be able to give you credit that's where your faith is proven real and authentic it's possible if there's an opportunity to serve the church and you're like man I hope people see me when I do this or there are opportunities to serve the church and it seems like no one's going to see you do this and give you credit if you only serve when it seems like you're going to get public credit the motives of your heart aren't right number three you don't meet needs around you you don't meet needs around you now people will have needs that you won't know about

I'm not talking about those I'm talking about when you know someone needs something but when you know they're hurting when you know they need help how do you respond to that are you willing to help them are you willing to be with them are you willing to be a friend to them James repeatedly refers to that showing favoritism is sinful having something that can help someone like food or clothing and not giving it is not loving not meeting needs around you number four the fourth symptom of dead faith sin doesn't bother you sin doesn't bother you now sin might bother you and sin bothers all of us when it's against us right someone does something wrong against you everyone's frustrated by that everyone's angry at that but for a lot of people that's the only time they get angry at sin is when it costs them something or when it's against them do you hate the sin in your life because it's sin or are you just sorry when you get caught are you just sorry when it costs you something are you sorry when it sets you back a little bit if sin never bothers you in your life you might be in a dangerous place number five fifth symptom of dead faith would be that you're proud or you could say prideful you're proud or you're prideful and our initial reaction is to be like well

I'm not proud but that's exactly what proud people say am I right but do you know the signs of pride and a great test of pride in our own hearts is how often do you pray prayer expresses dependence on the Lord that we need him we need something from him and so if you don't ever pray you don't ever think that you need something that's prideful how often do you pray what's your prayer life like and how often do you apologize to someone else or how often do you repent if you're unwilling to apologize or unwilling to repent that's a sign of pride if you're unwilling to say that you were wrong if you're unwilling to ask God for forgiveness that's a sign of pride and then how specific are you when you apologize if you stole someone's dog I don't know why you do that but if you stole someone's dog and then just said sorry that's not a very specific apology what are you sorry for how specific do you get when you apologize if you're unwilling to get into details of how you've wronged someone that's also a symptom of pride last one number six you don't read the

Bible you don't read the Bible God's word is food for our souls and if you say you're a Christian but don't read the Bible then I just don't know what you mean this is God's word written to us Christians are marked by being people of this book if these things describe you you might have dead faith now as we look through these sins like all of the these sins are in our hearts in seed form like we all are prone to pride we all are prone to not wanting always to read our Bibles but how do you respond when you see these things in your life do you repent of them or do you not even notice them at all we will stand before Christ and what is our only hope of surviving that judgment of surviving that evaluation well there's good news that the

Bible holds out to us Christ is not just the judge he's the one who has been judged by God Christ is not just the one who brings wrath he's one who has borne the wrath for us he's received God's wrath in our place he suffered God's wrath on the cross for all of our bad works for all of our sins and he delights to show mercy Christ delights to show love and he can give you a faith that is not the dead demonic kind that James is attacking here he can give you a faith that is alive and is robust and leads to action a faith that obeys a faith that works a faith that justifies a faith that saves and my prayer for every one of you regularly is that the Lord would save you and the Lord would sanctify you and if you're not saved in this room I have prayed for you that the

Lord would save you and that you would turn from your sins and ask him for forgiveness you have to do that I pray that you would do that James point here is that faith without works is dead but true faith obeys Which one do you have?

Which one do you have? Our Father we thank you for our time this evening in your word we thank you so much for how like a mirror it exposes us before you there's nothing that can be hidden from your sight this word evaluates and examines the thoughts and intentions of our hearts as Hebrews 4 says and so I pray for all of us here that we would examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith to see whether we have true faith in Christ and I pray for students here who may have confessed to believe in Jesus and may have even been baptized but have not actually lived for Christ that you would help them see if their faith is authentic or if their faith is nothing more than the faith and belief that demons have so Father I pray you give us all a true and living faith and help us to demonstrate that faith through our works

I pray it would be a church and a youth ministry that's full of good works not because we want to try to earn your love or not get you to be mad at us but because you have loved us through Christ we pray we express that love through action it's in Christ's name we pray amen for for we are we are on for we we are we we are we have we have you have we have we have we have we have we have we have we have we have we have we have we have we have we have we have we have we have we have we fathers have we have we have fathers fathers fathers We have We under