Faith and Works [Part 3]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. Abraham believed that God was able to raise the dead. Whatever he was going on in his mind, I'll tell you what was not going on in his mind.

Abraham had no notion that he was going to come back down off of Moriah with a dead son. You know why? Because he believed God. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Word and Spirit, the beauty of balance as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina. Now, if you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. So, as you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you this resource, today's special offer.

Contact us at PastorAlan.org, that's PastorAlan.org, or call 877-544-4860, that's 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Alan Wright. It was through faith.

We could see mountains move. That Jesus himself was the one who died in our place and did the work in our behalf. And the interesting thing is that actually if you read James more carefully and you look at James chapter 1 verse 21, James says, Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word. Receive a revelation, he's saying.

Receive the word of God. And look what he says about the word of God, which is able to save your souls. He's not saying your works save you, he's saying the word of God which comes in and it's by that word that faith comes in our lives. James also says in chapter 2, whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. So James is making it clear that if you had every work of righteousness but you failed at one point, then you'd be guilty of the whole law. You read it more carefully, you realize that even when James says in chapter 4, there's only one law giver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. We don't save ourselves.

James knows it and he knows it full well. What he's saying is that if you look at faith from one angle and you see the gift that faith celebrates, then you can see from this side that faith is the receiving of a gift and so it has nothing to do with human activity. But if you were to look at it from the other side, you could see that faith, real faith is by its very nature going to act or else it wasn't faith.

He's saying that faith and activity, faith and works, faith in the demonstration of faith are so closely connected that on the one hand they seem to be diametrically opposed opposite to faith and works and yet what he's saying is that you actually look at it, it's one in the same. We're all suspicious of these timeshare deals where they offer you a promotional and they'll give you something free if you come and listen to the spiel. Ann and I did one in Orlando, Florida one time and we were going to be given a festive luau that night. It was neither festive nor a feast and you've had these things happen all the you've had these things happen. For the funniest one, my father-in-law talks about that years ago he and his wife, my mother-in-law, they went up to look at something in the mountains and they took them up the hill to these beautiful units in a beautiful big Cadillac and they gave them the spiel and then they declined. They said see you later and they said well how do we get back down the mountain? They said well you walk.

You know walk back down the mountain. So you get something that tells you you've won a million dollars you're like yeah sure sure sure but let's say let's just say you got a phone call and it sounded legitimate someone said that you have won a million dollars all you have to do is go to the lawyer's office tomorrow sign some papers and receive the cashier's check. Would you go? Well you would go if you believed it unless you got so much money that the million dollar doesn't mean anything to you in which case please see me after church I want to talk to you about got a few things we need to do but no you'd go if you believed it right. So you could say the people that were down there signing and receiving their check you could look at it from one angle and say they're signing for it and their activity of coming down here to get it is what got them the check but on the other side you say that didn't have anything to do with it it was a free gift and so it was just their faith that believed it but if you look at it from the other side yeah but the reason you know that they believed it was they went down there and they signed the check they signed for the check so you could from one side you said no it's just about faith no you said no it's just about the other time anybody that didn't come down here and sign the check they didn't get it yeah but in other words the action of going and signing for it was so much evidence of the faith that if you didn't sign for it you'd have to say you didn't believe it it was the faith but the action the work of it was the demonstration that that faith was real if somebody said oh I believe that that million dollars is for me but they don't go down there and sign for it and get it you'd have to say you don't believe it this is what James is saying he's saying our faith when you really believe something it ends up getting demonstrated in what you do in fact of the matter I think what he's saying is that when you really believe something it just shows quite naturally you can't just say oh I love people I love God I've got this faith surge in me I believe they got and then you meet somebody and you have this compassion for them and you feel the love of God bursting in your heart towards them and you have provision and available means to help them and just say okay off you go be warm be fed and I know if you've got if you've got a faith in you there's a mission that's in you also and it just starts working like that you can't you can't even hide it if you tried if it's real listen to things you believe and you feel strongly about you can't hide it you can try but you it will come out it'll squirt out some years ago it just so happened that the final game the national championship game the NCAA basketball tournament fell on a weekend that I and my family were at the beach my brother and his family were at the beach and my father-in-law was there and my father-in-law is a Duke fan and Duke was playing in the national championship and I don't know if I've mentioned this before but I'm not a Duke fan I'm a Carolina fan I don't know if I've ever ever mentioned that before and my brother who went to Carolina and so I'm a little embarrassed to say this because you know ACC conference should pull for ACC conference and all that and Carolina and Duke only 20-25 minutes apart from each other and Chapel Hill and Durham we're so closely net we should pull for each other but maybe if you're from around here you've noticed we don't pull for each other so we're in this quandary where we're going to watch the national championship game and Graham my father-in-law is kind of like now are you guys going to be pulling for Duke you know here are you going to be polite about this and we're like oh you know yeah sure we are like yay we just can't wait for Duke to win another national championship and hear about it all year long yeah we can't wait for that we'll pull for the for Duke blue devils and so dutifully throughout the whole game we were like you know Duke would score we're like oh that's a nice good move there yeah very good and we were very polite and we were and then about five minutes left in the game they called a foul I don't remember who Duke was playing in that championship game but they called a foul on the other team and just forgetting himself my brother leaps up off the couch and goes oh come on ref he sat back down he said I just mean you know you know you want to kind of call me that let's see what he'd done was we'd watched a whole game nearly nearly 35 minutes this whole basketball game we get down the last night and he just revealed that the whole thing was a lie that the whole time he's sitting there like I wish you guys would lose you know and you just reveal it because you can't help it that's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series if you've ever thought that being filled with the Holy Spirit meant shutting off your mind you're in for a wonderful surprise God's word and God's spirit were never meant to be separated word and spirit always belong together the key to abundant life in Christ isn't knowing your Bible the secret isn't being filled with the spirit the answer is both word and spirit when you make a gift of support this month we'll send you Alan Wright's newest audio album on CD or digital download titled word and spirit it's about the beauty of balance embrace the fullness of God's word and his spirit and grow like never before with word and spirit you'll grow up and you'll be helping someone else grow as well and remember when you partner with Alan Wright Ministries you'll be broadcasting the love of God to thousands every day now we are in our final days of offering this special product call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastorallen.org today's teaching now continues here once again is Alan Wright what's in the heart eventually gets exposed and I think that's part of what James is saying here how could you call that how do you say why would you want to say somebody's got faith when we can't see it at all you say you're pulling for Duke but you're mad that the ref called a foul on the other team no you just your action exposed what you really believe so faith is so closely connected with its activity that James is saying faith without this is dead it's not even real Alan is saying that we're not saved through our faith he's just saying here's what saving faith actually looks like right and it's manifest in your life it changes everything inside of you it changes your priorities it fuels our sense of mission and it is therefore something that is much more than mental assent the Christian faith is not intellectual assent to biblical doctrines what James is saying is that biblical faith real faith is a trust relationship that changes everything he says even the demons believe again the prince of preachers Charles Spurgeon said it well he said I have no doubt devils are very orthodox are very orthodox and get this line oh I do not know which church they belong to though there are some in all churches there was one in Christ's church when he was on earth for he said speaking of Judas one was filled with devils devils he said believe all the facts of revelation I do not believe they have a doubt they have suffered too much from the hand of God to doubt his existence they have felt too much the terror of his wrath to doubt the righteousness of his government they are stern believers but they are not saved this is James saying let me tell you what faith is faith is not oh I can check off and tell you intellectually I believe these things and get all my doctrines right and all you know it's something so it's it's in the heart and it's demonstrated in the life you know the famous story of one of my favorite illustrations of such of a circus performer who went to a busy downtown area and he took a tightrope and he stretched it between two buildings a couple stories high and a crowd began to gather beneath him and he hollered down to the crowd he said how many of you believe I can walk across to the other side and they said yes we believe yeah and so he walked across to the other side and on the other side on top of that other building there was a wheelbarrow he had put there and he took the wheelbarrow in his hands he said how many of you believe as the crowd began to grow how many believe that I could push the wheelbarrow across to the other side and they all chanted yes we believe we will believe we believe go go go and he pushed the wheelbarrow across to the other side and then as the crowd had really grown in numbers now he cried down to them and he said how many of you believe that I can actually take a person put them in the wheelbarrow push it across to the other side and the huge crowd said yeah we believe yeah go go go he said okay one of the believers come on up get in the wheelbarrow and a crowd dispersed now you find out what you believe right it's not mental assent it's not saying the right thing is something deeper than that that's what James is saying that's what it means to have faith it really means in the end that you take the balance of your life the weight of your being and you trust God I trust you God for my salvation I trust in you for what you've done for me in Christ I yield to you I trust in you I gladly get in the wheelbarrow yeah the faith is faith is not a work but faith works it signs for the check because it believes it it demonstrates it out of the heart because that's where its affections lie it gets into the wheelbarrow because that's the way trust works so when James references this mysterious disturbing and marvelous story in Genesis chapter 22 where Abraham is told by God I want you to take your son your only son whom you love that sound familiar your son your only son whom you love and go up to the mount Moriah and there I want you to offer him upon the altar and in this breathtaking act of obedience Abraham gathers up wood and puts the wood on his son so that Isaac is carrying the wood up the hill sound familiar and on the way up Isaac who was the son of promise he was the promised son the miracle that was the living fulfillment of the promise that Abraham gave that God gave to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son and that there would be a nation that would be born through them this boy Isaac he looked at his dad and he said dad he said we got the fire we got the wood we got he said but where's the lamb and Abraham said one of the most powerful prophetic verses in all of the old testament he said God will provide himself a lamb and people read that story and I've heard preachers preach that story like this well see what God tested Abraham and Abraham was willing to give up the thing that was most precious to him are you willing to give up the things that are most precious to you God might come and ask and take something away from you that's precious and then you demonstrate like that's not what this story's about at all because Abraham said to his servant he said my son and I are going to go up and worship and we'll return the writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews 11 in the hall of faith fame he said that Abraham believed that God was able to raise the dead whatever he was going on in his mind I'll tell you what was not going on in his mind Abraham had no notion that he was going to come back down off Mariah with a dead son you know why because he believed God he believed God and that's why the scripture says he believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness it's why Paul echoed this and he said it was Abraham's faith it was his belief that justified him and he was credited with righteousness what did he believe he believed the promise of God God had said I'm going to make you into a nation look Abraham into the stars of the heavens if you could count them so numerous will all your descendants be in your old age you will have this child Abraham look if you could count the sands of the beaches so will your people be and Abraham had Isaac his only son he was the son of promise he was the means to which God was fulfilling all of his promises to Abraham and Abraham believed God and therefore he believed that he would go up on the mountain with Isaac and he come down from the mountain with Isaac and the only thing he knew to say was God himself will provide a lamb and sure enough they got up there and the angel stopped his hand and showed him the mercies of God and there was a ram in the thicket rustling around that became the center of the sacrifice and they worshiped God and returned why is James referencing this then because he's saying Abraham went and signed for the check he believed God the irony of the story if Abraham hadn't believed God's promise I don't think he'd ever gone up on that mountain he was not about to kill his son child sacrifice was an abomination in Israel in other words his faith worked there's still a story about faith but which angle are you looking at it from in a few weeks we will my family will keep a custom and the lights will dim at the Steven Center and Tchaikovsky's music will begin and we will watch once again the story in dance across the stage of little Clara who is a recipient of a gift from Uncle Drosselmeyer a mysterious uncle of a wooden soldier a little nutcracker just a toy wooden inanimate object until there's a great dream and a little magic sprinkle and you realize that the soldier comes to life and he fights against the king of the mice and he is glorious and there is joy and everything changes James 2 is here to say to you you're not an inanimate wooden toy you're not a wooden soldier you're alive princes and princesses in the kingdom warriors with the sword of the spirit of the spirit you got faith and your faith works and that's the gospel Allen Wright at the conclusion of not only today's teaching of faith and works but the conclusion of the entire series today the beauty of balance Allen is back here in a moment with additional insights on what we've been taught in and a final word for today in the series if you've ever thought that being filled with the holy spirit meant shutting off your mind you're in for a wonderful surprise god's word and god's spirit were never meant to be separated word and spirit always belong together the key to abundant life in christ isn't knowing your bible the secret isn't being filled with the spirit the answer is both word and spirit though some traditions emphasize studying scripture and some traditions emphasize the spirit the path to real christian growth is the fullness of both word and spirit as someone once said all word no spirit you dry up all spirit no word you blow up both word and spirit you grow up when you make a gift of support this month we'll send you Allen Wright's newest audio album on cd or digital download titled word and spirit it's about the beauty of balance embrace the fullness of god's word and his spirit and grow like never before with word and spirit you'll grow up and you'll be helping someone else grow as well and remember when you partner with allen right ministries you'll be broadcasting the love of god to thousands every day now we are in our final days of offering this special product call us at eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty that's eight seven seven five four four forty eight sixty or come to our website pastorallen.org allen beauty of balance faith and works what a great way to end this and thinking of that story of abraham i think is a very appropriate way that we can take and say okay i see it i like the light switch illustration you've also used in this well when you have faith let's try to remember this way when you have faith that faith acts without even you don't have to think about it right yeah and so so many times we we look at scriptures like the story of abraham and the call for him to sacrifice isaac and and these these texts would almost be scary to us because they're like oh boy you know that i would never well when we see it rightly as we have today and we start understanding what james means that what happens when you have a faith that has come by the gospel you see what god's done in jesus christ and so it arouses faith belief confidence trust in god and his saving work for you well the more that you see that the more you have faith the more you're going to live your life that way you're just going to act in that way and so it's a very natural thing and i hope that's what we've been seeing and and all throughout the whole series daniel just uh the beauty of balance is to say that these things that might seem in conflict whether it be celebration and contemplation or whether it be uh faith and works what we're really saying is that it's both yeah and it's the beauty of god and there's balance in god and there's balance in his church and there's balance in his people and that's how we soar through life is through really two wings and we spread them wide and we live this life of grace and truth today's good news message is a listener-supported production of Alan Wright Ministries