James Session 7
Tom Shrader teaches from James 2:14-26 on the relationship between faith and works, emphasizing that while salvation is by grace through faith alone, genuine faith will always produce good works as evidence. He uses Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac as an example of faith demonstrated through obedience, calling believers to show their faith through acts of love and service to those in need.
“God saved you to become a display case for His good works.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: James (2009)
Recorded: 2009 at Cannon Beach Conference Center
Duration: 58 min
Themes: faith, works, obedience, humility, love, service, grace, salvation, new believer, struggling with faith, seeking purpose, questioning salvation, wanting to serve, mature christian, church member, spiritual growth
Scripture: James 2:8, James 2:14-26, Genesis 3, Philippians 2, Ephesians 2:8-10, Genesis 15:5-6, Genesis 22:1-18, Romans 8:28-39
Theological Themes: faith and works, sola fide, justification, sanctification, biblical obedience, grace alone, good works, spiritual fruit
Full Transcript
I hope you had a good day. As I said this morning, we're moving into session seven for me, so that's just past halfway. For me it's huge—we're working our way through the book of James. So if you want to open to that, please go ahead and do it.
I don't have really a pacing in mind. I'm not sure how much we're going to get done of the book, and maybe try to get to all of it. Clearly James has emphasized in that passage that we saw this morning—He's talking a great deal about humility. He's telling us that we are, verse 21, we should put aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness. In humility receive the word implanted—that's the word of God that's implanted in us. We receive that with that spirit.
Three Hallmarks of Christian Character
Now there's three words, and it may be more than this, and you're going to say boy it sure took you a long time to figure this out. But there are three words that I keep coming back to again and again and again that I think become the hallmark of who we are as Christians. One is humility. The other is love. And the other is service—service meaning minister or ministry. I come back to those three words over and over again.
In Philippians chapter 2, Paul tells that church at Philippi, He says this: "Have the mind or the attitude in you that was also in Christ Jesus, who although He existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but He emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, being made in the likeness of man. And being found in the appearance of man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient—obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." He said that's how we're to live. That's how we are to think and to respond, to behave, to act.
When Paul writes a little bit later to this church, He said, "I'm going to send you a guy." In verse 19, He said, "I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you so that He may encourage you, for I have no one else." Timothy—imagine you're in your church and you get a note from the apostle Paul and He says, "I'm going to send you this guy. He's the best I've got. I don't have anybody else quite like him."
What is it that sets him apart? In our economy we would start to think, boy this guy must be a heck of a preacher, or He must be an amazing author. He must really know how to work an organizational chart. He must really—and then you fill in the blank. Paul says, "I have no one else like him who is of kindred spirit. I have no one else who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare." Speaking of His staff, He said, "For they all seek after their own interest and not those of Christ."
The Root of the Problem: Genesis 3
That's what this whole thing starts—we the first night touched on it. We didn't go very deep there, so maybe now is a good time to do that. Why don't you turn—keep your finger there in James, we'll mark James—but turn to the front of the book to Genesis chapter 3, because that's how we got in this shape to begin with.
The reason that James has to correct this church, even as followers of Christ, is because of what happened in Genesis chapter 3. In Genesis chapter 3 we understand to get the explanation for all that is wrong with man or mankind. Genesis chapter 2 ends in the garden with the man and woman, verse 25, they're naked and they're not ashamed. You flip to Genesis chapter 4 and all of a sudden you have strife, anger, murder, torment. What in the world happened? Genesis chapter 3 is the explanation for all of that, and it's going to explain why James has to write these words of correction to this church or churches.
In Genesis chapter 3, it's a familiar story. The serpent appears to Eve and says, "Indeed," the last part of verse 1, "has God told you shouldn't eat from any tree in the garden?" Get for a moment the picture here. The temptation is not one of starvation or nourishment. Sometimes you get the sense that they're in this flat plane like we have down where we live, and there's this one tree, and on it is this one piece of fruit, and He's saying don't touch it. That's not it at all. They're in the garden. They're in paradise. There's food everywhere, nourishment everywhere. But He said, "That one tree, that one over there, I don't want you eating from that one."
The Nature of Temptation
And the minute He said it, something in them wanted that. I could walk by—which I do every time I come up—I could walk by this ledge right here every day and never touch it. But if you put a sign right here that said "wet paint," I guarantee you I would walk by and go, "wet paint." That's what it is. It is something about it.
You drive out—we have some beautiful places in northern Arizona where you can drive and you're in these amazing trees and pines and all of this. And you'll see these roads, they're two-lane roads, fairly primitive, paved but primitive. And they'll have these pristine yellow signs that say, you know, "winding road up ahead," "deer crossing," "watch for falling rocks," and these beautiful pristine yellow signs, not a mark on them. Then they'll be one that says "no shooting" and it's filled with bullet holes. It's like, you know, on a Saturday, "Hey, Bubba, no shooting? Nobody's going to tell me not to shoot." That's exactly what happens.
Where'd that come from? Genesis 3. Something happens in Eve. She's tempted. "You're not going to die"—that's what He says in verse 5. "You're not going to die."
For God knows, here's the deal: you're going to be like Him. Don't you want to be like God? Why do you want anything or anybody over you? You don't need anybody telling you what to do. That's God—He doesn't care about you. I care about you. If I love you, why would I put rules and regulations and restrictions on you? God, He just doesn't love you like I love you.
The woman saw in verse six that the tree was good for food and was a delight to the eye, was desirable to make one wise. Now what's fascinating to me is we have no time frames here. They're created. I don't know how long it was after creation that the temptation came. We have no idea of what that time frame is, nor do I have an idea of the time frame between when the serpent came and said go ahead and eat and Eve actually ate. I guess other than just curiosity, it really doesn't matter much. The reality is she ate, and then she gave it to her husband and he ate.
The Immediate Effects of Sin
Now look at verse seven. This is the result of sin: their eyes are open and they both knew they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and they made for themselves loin coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God. And the Lord called out and said, "Where are you?" And he said, "When I heard the sound of thee in the garden I was afraid because I knew I was naked."
You see what happens here? Sin comes in in verse six. In verse seven they begin to cover themselves. In verse eight they hide, and in verse ten they're afraid. You want to talk about the effects of sin on you and me and us and the whole world? We're all screwed up. We're all hiding something.
Some of you are in these things called accountability groups, right? And even in those accountability groups, let's be honest, you're not honest in there completely, are you? You have things you hide, don't you? I do. I tell Susan a lot—I'll tell her everything—but I got stuff I hide. I'm ashamed of it. I'm embarrassed by it. And I'm afraid.
Fear: The Primary Result of the Fall
The number one prohibition that Jesus gives us in the New Testament—He says it twice as often as any other prohibition—is "Do not be afraid." Why? Well, because He created us. He knows how we are. He knows the results of the fall. He knows we're afraid.
We are fickle little people. When the stock market rises, we're afraid. When it falls, we're afraid. When we have a little, we're afraid. When we have a lot, we're afraid. When it rains, we're afraid. When it's dry, we're afraid. We're afraid of everything.
We're afraid when we hear a little noise in the corner, and then we look, and in just a short period of time we're pretty convinced it's Charles Manson. We're not sure—we didn't hear that he was out on probation—but we think it's Charles Manson. And then all of a sudden we throw on the light, and what is it? Your jacket on a chair. We're afraid. How'd we get this way? That's the result of sin.
Our Primary Mission as Christians
That's why we say to you—and again I find myself sometimes saying these things like this is really important, not that the other stuff isn't, but if we were doing PowerPoint this would be the things I'd put up there—this is kind of a big thing: You and I as Christians spend our lives—you get this now, okay? You want to write this one down—push back the effects of the fall. Push back the effects of the fall in our life. Push back the effects of the fall in the world.
I am not a loving person, kind person. I don't have joy, peace, naturally. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control—I don't have that because of Genesis 3. But now the Holy Spirit comes into my life and He transforms my life so that in it there is now a desire for the things that God wants for us. I didn't care about Him before. Now I have a desire for them. I care for them. They matter desperately to me.
The answer to the issues you and I face is sin. The problems are internal.
Engaging the World While Remaining Holy
Now I have friends who hang around and say, "I don't think we ought to have anything to do, for example, with the world," so they use politics. "I don't think we ought to have anything to do with politics." Well, there's a very big difference between politics and public policy. I think you should be involved trying to see what you can do to eliminate abortions in your community. I think you should be involved in making your community and this world a better place to live.
"But wait a minute, all we can do is change their heart." Well, that's the Holy Spirit's job. I got that. But I have tons of friends who have really infected significant people because they've engaged the system, and these people have watched them work and they've seen something different about them.
I have a young friend—my brother calls her a protégé of mine. I don't know that she'd be comfortable with that. She's twenty-six now. She was elected to public office when she was twenty-three. And I make no bones about it: I have my iPhone sitting right here. Sometime tonight I'm going to get a text from her. There's a program we've been working on for a year and a half, and tonight is the night that the vote's on it. It's huge.
This young lady is having a profound impact in our community as she sits down with people who would never—they think you and I are nuts, they think she's nuts—but they've worked with her and they've seen her. And now when there's crisis in their life, they turn to her. You know what? This is important. Now that's supposed to be the norm.
Back to James: The Law of Liberty
If you go back to the book of James—now that's how we got this way, Genesis 3—you go back to the book of James and what we were looking at this morning, what James was calling us to was in fact this law of liberty. He says in chapter 2, verse 8: "Fulfill the royal law: you shall love your neighbor as yourself."
Remember I said there's something about this idea of humility that I'll never come to Christ, I'll never begin the Christian walk without humility? But in the midst of this humility, here's the call that I have: to demonstrate to the world, and that's love.
Before He died, Jesus gathers all of the disciples together and tells them, "I'm about to go away." Judas has betrayed Him, so He's sitting there with the boys and He says to them, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you..." What is it? Love one another.
Now think with me for a second. Jesus could have put a lot of things in that blank. Jesus could have said, "They'll know you're my disciples if you really study your Bible, if you really sing great songs, if you really preach great messages." He could have said anything in there. But He said, "Here's the distinguishing characteristic, that thing that separates us from the rest of the whole world—that we love."
This is the great commandment: to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. Who's your neighbor? Anybody that's in your sphere of influence. Love them how well? The way you love yourself. You care for yourself, you want what's best for you—that's the most natural thing in the world.
The Natural Instinct of Self-Love
I used to come home—I went through a season when the girls were young and I did a lot of traveling. I'm not a big traveler. I don't like it. I have no interest in going outside of the country. If you need a passport, I've got no interest in going. Couldn't care less. I know some of you think that's really weird, but I just couldn't care less.
I had somebody the other day trying to tell me how beautiful Italy was, how I should go to Italy, how cool Italy would be. I said to him, "Hey pal, I have the Discovery Channel. I don't need to go to Italy." Anytime the key thing in your drawer is a ruin, I don't need to see it. That's just the way I am. I have no interest in any of those things at this point. When He's saying go, I'd be ready to go. If He's saying go and be a witness, I get it.
But He said this is how you're going to know, this is the way you're going to know, this is how people are going to know that you're mine—that you love. When I was traveling, I'd come home and I'd be out and I didn't like it. I'd come home and I'd always bring the girls a t-shirt—that was a real easy thing to do, and I wasn't much for any of the other stuff. I'd always come home, and the minute I'd come in, they'd kind of come up to me and I'd take a t-shirt out and I'd give it to one of the girls. The minute I did, the other one would say, "What about me? What about me?" I never had to teach them that. "What about me?" Love others as you love yourself.
From Self-Love to Service
So turn the phrase around a little bit. What about them? What do you do for them? Right with this idea of humility and love is the idea of service. See how that all ties really right together with the very place that we are in this whole study?
He says, "Love your neighbor." Let's go back now—love your neighbor as yourself—the perfect law of liberty. Then He says in verse fourteen, the question we ended with this morning: "What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him?"
Then He gives an illustration: "If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,' and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself."
The Reformation and Faith vs. Works
Most of us in this place and time would be a product of the reformers. So there's this point in time where Luther comes along and says, "Listen, this church, this Catholic church, has gone astray. They are adding all sorts of things to the gospel. They're selling indulgences, but they've turned this into a money machine, a cash cow, and they're trying to convince people salvation is by works."
Jesus comes along and He's already spoken—He said, "I'm the way, the truth, and the life." Paul's come along and he says, "I'm saved by grace." Then Martin Luther discovers it. It's Luther that says he's reading through the book of Romans, and all of a sudden he reads in Romans chapter one, verse sixteen: "I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith." Luther said, "When I read that verse, the doors of heaven swung open and I walked in."
Luther and the reformers were committed—salvation by faith. Martin Luther hated the book of James. Fortunately, he was so busy he didn't have time to write a lot about it, but he hated the book of James because it so easily could be viewed as teaching a works salvation.
Salvation Transforms How We Live
What James is suggesting here is not that we can or should or will earn our salvation. He's suggesting that our salvation, once it's been given to us, should transform the way we live. I am—and here's a phrase if you've been around when I've been up here, I use it all the time—I am saved by God from... We always get that part. I'm saved by God. He's the one who does it. I'm saved from Him, from His wrath, and I'm saved for Him. I'm saved for good works.
So the classic passage, though, the one that we hang on over and over and over again, is found in the book of Ephesians. In Ephesians chapter two, verse eight and nine: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." Salvation is totally a gift of God.
But we rarely unpack the next verse—verse ten: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." God saved you. God saved you to become a display case for His good works.
That's why he says, "Let them see." Susan, I'd like to go to the mall. I'm a guy, but if you were a gal, I'd be the perfect guy in this sense—not physically, clearly, but in this sense. I love chick flicks. I could watch "You've Got Mail" every night. At the end when "I was hoping it was you," I'd cry every time. I love it. I love chick flicks and I love to shop.
I have no problem with this. This is my favorite time to go to the store—when I get home from vacation, it'll be picked over, but what's left—all the shorts will be like nine ninety-nine. This is what I wear all year long: shorts and long sleeve t-shirts, because it's usually cold in the air conditioning. Perfect. This is what I wear all year. I love to shop.
The Cosmetics Counter Illustration
Well, every time we walk into a department store, the first thing you see—not in everyone depending on the door, but when you come into most department stores in its key place—the first thing you see is the cosmetics. Every time we come in, I'll say to Susan, because there's a huge cosmetics department at Dillard's. I'm not exaggerating—the cosmetic department has to be as big as this room. It's gigantic. I say to Susan every time, "There must be a ton of money in cosmetics. It mustn't cost them much to make this, and they must sell it for a lot of money."
The thing you notice about the cosmetic department is it all looks good, especially the cases. Then they have those certain seats where they sit you down—it's kind of like this right here, isn't it? They sit you down, and there's always someone there. They put you in the best possible light. They get some Clinique and then they get some of this other stuff, and they work you over. They do your eyes, and you're at that moment in time as good as you're ever going to look. That's it, right there.
God says for you and me, that moment in that light, in that display light like a jewel that's in a display case where the light hits it just right—that's how you're supposed to be for Him. You're supposed to be His display case. So you walk around the town of Cannon Beach, and these people should see something distinct and different about you.
Living as God's Display Case
There's a businessman here in town, and I had the privilege of meeting him on the Fourth of July a few years ago. I befriended him. Every time I come to town, I have lunch with him. We had lunch today, and we're going to meet tonight at nine o'clock and finish up this lunch—just conversation, just hanging with him.
I love hanging with him because he's a cool guy. He loves hanging with me because I'm a cool guy. That's not beating him with Bible verses—I'm just letting him see how I live. As he looks, he says, "You know what? There's something different there. There's something intriguing there." It's the works.
Faith Without Works Is Dead
It's also very practical. In verses fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen, he says if you've got somebody—a brother or a sister—and they have a need, and you have the ability to meet it, but you don't, you just say, "Go in peace, I'll pray about that," James says, "Is that real faith?"
I find verses fourteen through seventeen extraordinarily convicting. Right now in our church, there are people who are really hurting. I'm sure you have them in yours—people who are really hurting. There's not a day—last Sunday night between the four-thirty and six o'clock service, I had three different people who came up to me and asked if I would pray with them right there because either they or their husbands or their wives were going to lose their job this week. That's just one little time frame.
What's my responsibility to them? I don't mean as a pastor, and I don't mean as a church—I mean individually. I don't know. How much am I supposed to give, and how much am I supposed to share? I don't know. My suspicion is that the answer is this: more than I am.
The Challenge of Time and Resources
Let's even get rid of the money part, because that's so convicting that I don't even know. How am I supposed to respond when somebody says, "I need some of your time"? Because I'm convinced that's my most precious resource—time. "Can I meet with you?" I don't know.
That's what he's saying, though. He's saying in the course of a day, as you're walking along and somebody has a need and you can meet that need, if you don't meet that need, then I need to ask if your faith is real. That to me is very convicting.
He's saying it's wonderful—I love that song "My Redeemer Lives." I love that song "You and I Were Made to Worship." I love that song "Even the Rocks Cry Out." I love that. Maybe I'll join you guys for that concert tonight. That was pretty good right there. Maybe not "Even the Rocks Will Cry Out." I love that we stand and lift up our hands. I love it. I love the doctrine that goes with it. I love all that stuff.
When Doctrine Doesn't Transform Life
But he's saying the doctrine doesn't matter if your life isn't transformed. The transformation isn't just that now you read more books or go to more Bible studies. The transformation is that you now are attracted to hurting people—that you see a need and you meet it. I struggle.
He doesn't let up. Look what he says: "Someone will say, 'You have faith and I have works.' Show me faith without works, and I'll show you my faith by my works." He's saying, listen, somebody says they've got faith, but there's no change in their life, there's no difference in what they do—what good is that faith?
In fact, he goes on and says, "If you want to talk doctrine, you say you believe in God. That's fine, but the demons believe in God, and they shudder." Let me give you a loose paraphrase: the demons believe in God, and it scares the snot out of them. You believe that there's this God—isn't that what happened? Jesus is walking along, and all of a sudden He would see somebody who's possessed by a demon. He would start to engage this demon, and the demon would say, "You're the one true God! You're Jesus, the one true God!" All the time.
Faith That Works vs. Doctrine That Doesn't
Demon doctrine was always rock solid. What James is saying is rock solid doctrine in and of itself only qualifies you at this point to be a demon. That's all that doctrine's doing. You got this? Hell is going to be filled with people with solid doctrine.
There was a guy who was in our church. His father was a theologian. He's written five great theological books that I've heard are really good, though I haven't read any of them. This young guy will tell me there's no way his dad's a believer. That's what James is saying.
They both go together. I need doctrine because it's the doctrine that drives my good works. There's a whole bunch of people who don't know Christ who feed the hungry. In fact, in a lot of instances, the ones who don't know Christ do a better job. They seem to care more, run the soup kitchens. They care more about the world they live in, more about the culture, more about its impact. We'd rather complain. They'd rather do something. I think what they do is wrong and they take it in the wrong direction, but at least they're doing something.
James is saying don't come in here and talk to me about all this great big old solid doctrine if it isn't changing the way you live.
When Faith Doesn't Affect Business
The biggest screw job I ever got in business—this guy absolutely just screwed me. There's no other way to say it. He had a Bible that you would need a crane to get it on his credenza. He had the biggest Bible in the world on his credenza.
I remember asking him—this is stupid, I'm dumb here—but I was so mad and so acting in the flesh, not the Spirit. I said to him, "I thought you were a Christian." Dumb, stupid thing to say. I should have just taken it and gone. But I'm glad I said it because he said, "I am, but I don't let it affect the way I do business."
I said, "Well, if anybody doubts it, give me a call, because I can tell you that's the truth."
See, James is saying you can't say that. You can't say you're a Christian and not have it affect the way you live. He goes right to an example of dealing with the truly needy around you.
Abraham: Justified by Faith or Works?
He asks a question in verse 21: "Was not Abraham our father justified by works?" Interesting question, isn't it? Especially in light of what Paul writes. When Paul writes about Abraham, he says Abraham our father was justified by faith. He writes that in the book of Romans, chapter 4, verse 12, somewhere in there.
I remember I'd been a Christian just a short time, and we started a Bible study. We chose the book of James—I have no idea why we chose the book of James, so we were in trouble right away. We were all new, and I'm reading along one night. My mentor is teaching the book of Romans. I'm going to his study. I'm studying the book of James. He's teaching in Romans and Justin taught that morning Abraham was justified by faith. I'm studying the book of James, and I look at this, and all of a sudden I realize that He says Abraham our father was justified by works.
So the question becomes: which one?
Well, the answer is pretty simple. What's going on here is that Abraham, in terms of what we're talking about from Paul's perspective, Abraham was justified before God by faith. Abraham was justified by man by works. How do I know Abraham had real faith?
Abraham's Faith in Genesis
Well, turn with me to the book of Genesis. Let's go all the way back. There's this moment in Abraham's life where God appears to him and God says to him, "Here's what's going to happen." It's Genesis 15. He says you're going to have all sorts of offspring. He takes him outside. Verse 5, Genesis 15:5: "He said, 'Look toward the heavens and count the stars, if you're able,' and He said to him, 'So should your descendants be.'"
Now He had previously appeared to Abraham and said, "Look at the dust, and as much as you see sand, that's how many descendants you will have." Now He says, "Look up, and this is how many descendants you will have."
Look what happens in verse 6: "Then he—Abraham—believed the Lord, and it was declared to him as righteousness." It was at that moment that he was declared righteous.
Now it was quite a while before that promise is fulfilled. Abraham is living with Sarah. Some time has passed. They're old, and Sarah said to him, "Well, God must have not gotten it wrong because He doesn't make mistakes, but it must be that I'm not going to be the wife."
The Story of Hagar and Ishmael
They had a custom in that day that you could take a maidservant, and the master—in this case Abraham—could have relationships with her. If, in fact, it was a child born of her, then they would just set it immediately, in this case on Sarah's lap, and it would become her child.
So Sarah goes in to Abraham and says, "Listen, we've got this custom, and I think God is going to do it, but not through me. I think God wants you, in this case, to have relationships with one of my gals." Now that's what the Scripture says.
Then this is what I think happened: Abraham said, "Oh, I could never do that." And she said, "Well, I think you should do it. You should have Hagar." And he said, "I could not do it. Which one is Hagar? That one? Well, let's give it a whirl." It doesn't say that, but I think that's what happened.
So out of this comes Ishmael. God comes back and says, "Abraham, that's not what I'm talking about. See, you're going to have a son, and you're going to have a son with Sarah when he's 100 and she's 90." They give birth to this son Isaac.
God Brings Life to Death
In the midst of this, God drops this little gem: "Hey Abraham, I'm the God of the impossible. I bring life to death. That's who I am, Abraham."
I'm going to hit the pause button because we'll come back to this story. Maybe that's what you need to hear right now. Maybe you just got some news today. I've gotten more emails and text messages today—there's all sorts of stuff going on. Maybe that's you. Maybe you came up here this week with a dead marriage. Nobody knows it but you do. Is that right? Maybe you're hopeless? Well no. Helpless? Yes. Hopeless? No. God brings life to death.
Maybe you got somebody you've...
Abraham's Story of Impossible Faith
Been praying for and praying for and praying for and their heart is hard and hard and hard and you've almost given up? Don't worry about it. It's not your job. He's the God of the impossible. How cool is it to believe Him for stuff that unless He does it, it's never going to happen? That's where Abraham was.
In fact, this was so silly to them that the scripture tells us when God came and said you're going to have this baby, here's what happened: they laughed at Him. They laughed! Ha ha ha, there's no way. Some of you have little ha ha ha's running around here probably. They laugh at Him, but oh my golly, he is the apple of Abraham's eye.
The Ultimate Test
Now look at chapter twenty-two, because when we get to chapter twenty-two we get to the incident that James is talking about. James is talking about Isaac, and in Genesis chapter twenty-two it came about that after these things, after a period of time, that God tested Abraham. Isn't that interesting? We've been talking about tests. You mean God tests us? Yeah.
Can we say it again? Everything that comes in your life is either caused by or allowed by God. If that's not true, then He's not God.
Abraham was tested. It says He said, "Abraham," and Abraham said, "Here I am." And God said in verse two, Genesis chapter twenty-two: "Take now your son, your only son, the son whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you."
God comes to him with very specific instruction. If God would have said "grab your son and make a sacrifice," Abraham would have said, "What? Hey Ishmael, we're going for a ride." He didn't say that. "Grab your son." Which son? "Your only son." Which one? "The one named Isaac." The promised one. The one you've been waiting for. Your most prized possession. And go to the mountain, and I'm going to tell you when you get there to sacrifice him.
Abraham's Response
How does he respond? Verse three: "So Abraham rose early the next morning." No record of the emotion, though there had to be a ton of it. And he saddled his donkey, and he took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son, and they split wood for the burnt offering, and they arose and they went to the place of which God had told them. And on the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place in the distance.
That's all we have. It's a fairly sterile account. Not much emotion there. You would think there would be a lot of emotion in that moment. I've got to believe that as he's walking along for three days, Abraham's looking at him and going, "What are you doing, God? This makes no sense. This is the promised one right here."
Ever done that? "I've been doing all this work. What are you doing, God? Why would you do this to me, God? This makes no sense, God." Three days. One thing to think about it casually. Three days he experiences it.
The Declaration of Faith
And then Abraham says this. He said to the young men in verse five: "Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go yonder and we will worship and return to you."
Did you get that? You see what's in there? This is huge. Here's what we know because we can fast forward: we know when Abraham gets there, his intention is to kill him. He's going to do what God told him to do. That's the promise. He's going to go to the altar, he's going to lay Isaac on it, and he's going to sacrifice him. There is no question in anybody's mind that's what Abraham's doing, right? Would you agree with that? Is that right?
That makes verse five so powerful: "Stay here, you guys. Stay here. The lad and I will go yonder. We will worship and we will return." How can that be? "I'm going to kill him."
You talk about faith! He didn't have this concept of resurrection, and yet he was believing in it somehow. He knew. He knew that when God made a promise, He'd fulfill it. He knew what God told him to do. He knew he was going to kill him. And he was able to say, "God has made this promise. It's this boy. And even if I kill him, somehow God has to bring him back. Not because He's promised to me, but to fulfill the promise that He's made. Somehow that has to happen. He's not obligated to me. He just said He's going to do it."
God's Promises to Us
That's pretty cool, isn't it? All those promises that are in here that are made to you and me. Those promises that He'll forgive sin, take your sin as far as the east is from the west. That's significant, isn't it? He didn't say north from south, because see, if I go north, north, north long enough, I end up going south. If I go south, I end up eventually going north. But if I go east, I'm always going east. I just keep going east in a circle. That's how far our sins are away.
Well, does God forgive and forget? Well, He doesn't forget. He doesn't have amnesia. He just doesn't hold them against us. That's a promise. "He who began a good work in you will continue it till the day of Christ Jesus." That's a promise. Doesn't always feel that way, does it? It's okay. It doesn't always feel that way.
It's not a picture of me holding on to Him. It's not based on my strength. It's based on His. It's based on Him holding on to me. That's a promise.
The Promise of Romans 8
Here, you want a great promise? Keep your finger right there in Genesis twenty-two because we're going to come right back, but turn to Romans chapter eight. I'll show you a great section here. Make sure we come back now. We've got to finish this story.
Romans chapter eight. Paul makes this unbelievable statement. In fact, in verse twenty-eight: "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose."
Now we could unpack that, but you get the drift of it. It's a promise that all things work together for good. It's not a universal promise to all people, all places, because there's a qualifier. It's to those who love God and are called according to His purpose.
So then he's going on, and he begins to ask this question. Verse thirty-one: "If God is for us, who is against us?" "Who will bring a charge" - verse thirty-three - "against God's elect?" Verse thirty-five: "Who can separate us from the love of Christ?" Get this - not our love for Him, but His love for us.
Love for us—who can separate us from His love? Who can separate us from the love that Christ has for you? Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword? Verse thirty-seven: "And all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I'm convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor heights, or any other created thing"—in my Bible I've written my name, Tom Schrader—"I can't separate us from the love that God has for us in Christ Jesus."
That's a promise. God loves you. Nothing—tribulation, prosperity, pain, joy—none of it can separate you from the love that God has, and He promises that. He promises you being held by Him.
God's Perfect Embrace
I used to, when I would take the girls and maybe be laying in bed, I'd be sitting in a chair like this and they'd come over and I would take them. It didn't matter how old they were. I'd always grab them and I'd always say, "You're the perfect huggin' size. You're just the perfect huggin' size."
My daughter Hailey texted me the other day and she said, "Dad, I'm sitting here—I was sitting there and I was holding Braden and I said to him, 'Braden, you're the perfect huggin' size.' But I never really understood what you meant until today."
Well, you need that. My girls were great. They loved to just hug. It didn't need a lot of talk, just hug, just to curl up and just sit in my arms and just hold them, and it was like the whole world would just kind of drift away from them.
You need that too from God. If you can imagine Him just enveloping you, putting His arms and everything all around you so that whole list of stuff, all that yuck, all that stuff that's out there, it can't separate you from His love—even your sin—because He loves you. What can separate us from His love? Nothing.
The Value of Promises
See, a promise is really only as good as the one who makes it. You can have Ginsu knives with a lifetime guarantee, but if you can't find Joe Ginsu, that guarantee isn't going to do you any good.
My friend Larry Wright had this one day. One Thursday we're talking, this guy comes up and says, "Hey man," and Larry said, "I'm going to see you now. I'm going to see you on Thursday." My little thing went off—I just got a call from somebody, so something's up. "We're going to find out. I'm going to see you Sunday. I'm going to do the wedding." Larry's going to marry him.
The guy said, "Yep, see you Sunday." I'm talking to Larry Monday morning. Larry says, "Something awful happened yesterday. Sitting at my desk last Sunday night, and I looked down and I realized I was supposed to do that wedding this afternoon, and I forgot all about it."
You gotta know Larry—when he says he's going to do it, he's going to do it. He had every intention of being there, but that doesn't do you any good if you don't have the ability to pull it off. It's one thing for me to say to you, "I love you, I'll be there for you." That's another thing when God says it. You gotta get that. You gotta get that on your hard drive.
Abraham and Isaac's Faith Journey
Let's go back to the story. We'll finish it up. We go back to Genesis chapter twenty-two. When we last saw our hero, he was leaving the guys with the donkey. Up the hill he goes.
Verse six: "And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and he laid it on Isaac, his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife, and the two of them walked." Isaac spoke to Abraham and said, "My father." He said, "Here I am." He said, "Behold, we have the fire, we have the wood. Where's the lamb for the offering?"
Isaac's not stupid. They're walking along, he said, "This is interesting. We have all the makings of a great sacrifice except we don't have the lamb. We don't have the sacrifice. Where is the sacrifice?"
And Abraham answered, verse eight: "Jehovah Jireh—God will provide." And the two of them walked together.
The Ultimate Test of Faith
And they came to the place where God had told them, and Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar on top of it. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took a knife to slay him. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham." He said, "Here I am." He said, "Don't stretch out your hand against the lad. Do nothing to him, for I know that you fear God since you have withheld nothing, not even your son."
Just a side note—we talk about the faith of Abraham. I'm thinking Isaac's got a lot of faith in this deal too. We're not exactly rock solid on ages, but we think that at this point Abraham was somewhere between one hundred and fourteen and one hundred and twenty. Isaac's between fourteen and twenty. My suspicion is an eighteen-year-old could outrun a hundred eighteen-year-old. So we're thinking Abraham has faith—how about the faith that Isaac had to climb up on that altar?
Faith Passed Down
By the way, here's a parenting issue: I'm convinced that faith is contagious, and he got that faith from his daddy. He knew that. I spent all my life trying to get the kids to know they could trust me. I'd love to put them up on the counter—that was always my thing. Put them on the counter and say, "Jump, Connor, jump!" Boy, they weren't always sure. "Jump!" And I'd hold them.
Somehow Isaac got—you talk faith—Isaac got the faith that whatever his daddy was gonna do, he was a man of God, and that's why he was gonna do it. Isn't that an amazing story?
Faith Working Through Works
And that's the illustration that James uses. He says, "Listen, if you want to talk about—look at Abraham. You see, faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, his faith was perfected." Abraham said to him that Abraham believed and it was declared righteousness to him. You see, a man is justified by his works, not by his faith alone.
Now he's talking about that word "justified." It speaks in a judicial sense, but it also speaks of a vindication before man. That's what he's talking about—the evidence of this internal faith is the external. It's to see this and to believe it. But let's close with it when people—
See, you do they see this faith? Do you act like a follower of Christ? See, that affects everything. Are you a husband that acts like a Christ follower? Are you a wife that acts like a Christ follower? Are you a student that acts like a Christ follower?
I've had a ton of people say to me the summer staff the way they serve it is amazing how kind and generous they are. It is, but you understand that's supposed to be normal. That's the way we're supposed to act. That's the way we're supposed to behave.
Do you, when people are done engaging you, do they walk away better off for having been involved with you? Some of you are single. If you're dating somebody, as a result of dating you, are they in a better place before God than when they started dating you, or a worse place? Those are all huge issues of how you're to live.
The Demonstration of Faith Through Our Words
There is one demonstration of life change that's really huge, and it's what He talks about in chapter three. In chapter three, verses one through twelve, is the longest contiguous passage we have in all of the scripture dealing with the topic of the tongue - what to say, how to say it, why to say it, when to say it.
Tomorrow night - no session tomorrow morning - tomorrow night when we get together, got the cookout out there four thirty, tomorrow night when we're in here we're going to start with James chapter three and we're going to look at this discussion on the tongue. And I tell you, I tremble teaching this. If I'm vulnerable anywhere, and there's many places, this is really a place I'm vulnerable. I'll bet you are too, huh? We'll look at it tomorrow night.
Father, tell remind us that our faith, the faith we have, is to be in You and You alone, but that faith is never alone. That You change us in our hearts, in the way we live. I pray for tonight, the rest of tonight, that we would use it to bring honor and glory to You, God. Thank You that we can be here for this amazing place. I pray we have a special time tonight and take advantage of the extra time we have tomorrow morning, that You would use it for rest and relaxation, and that we would come back here tomorrow night ready to look at what You have to say. Father, we pray that to You in Christ's name. Have a great night. Concert back here.