Faith and Works [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright.

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. 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 Reynolda 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. To understand any portion of Scripture, you must interpret that Scripture in the context of the whole of Scripture. If you've heard me preach much, you'll pick up on this, and I want to reiterate it over and over with you. The Bible is one great story. This is one of the things that's so amazing about the Word of God. How could it be that people who have different pens and different cultures and different era of time are writing down Scriptures that then compiled from all of these different eras of time, protected in astounding ways with their accuracy, and then come together in this one book that has in it narrative literature and has wisdom literature in it and apocalyptic literature and has instructions in it and has stories in it and has all variety of manner of cultural influence that might have come in through these writers. But you put it all together, and it's absolutely mind-bending to me as a student of literature how anything like this could come to pass when right from the very beginning on page one, you begin to see shadows and types of understanding what will actually be fulfilled in Christ himself so that the whole of the Word of God comes together in this amazing, seemingly seamless tapestry that has been woven together. It has to have been orchestrated by an author who is beyond it and above it and transcended over. The marvelous thing about the Bible is that it is one great big meta-narrative telling the redemptive story of a God who made a beautiful world and made people in his own image and how those people in their rebellion against God found themselves by their sin separated from God in a gulf, a chasm so great that no one could ever climb over it or get through it.

No one could ever pay a price that was dear enough, an infinite price, an ultimate price. No human being was righteous, not one of them, so no one could come or climb their way back to God. So this God, this God, this creator of the ends of the earth had so much love and so much compassion and so much longing that he did the unthinkable. He came in his only begotten Son, a God who became flesh.

Who'd ever heard of such a thing? And this human being, Jesus of Nazareth, lived the sinless life. He lived a life that we couldn't live. He paid a price that we couldn't pay. He was a hero.

He was a hero who'd come to rescue the damsel in distress and this hero was not just a heroic character. He was a real man in real history and yet he is God himself and he's ascended on high and he's made us to be his bride forever and forever and so it is that we've been given a great commission in this world and we are part of the redemptive story because we're telling the whole world about the love of Jesus. I'm telling you it's one story from Genesis all the way to Revelation and it's all woven together by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. I love the word of God. And so when you read a text, you read that text saying where does this fit into the story?

Where does it fit into the story? And if you don't read it like that with this primary hermeneutical principle, Scripture interprets Scripture. Have you ever come to an unclear text is unclear to you?

Don't don't get worried about it. The more clear Scriptures interpret the less clear Scriptures. We know this God is love. If you read the Bible one thing you know for sure God is love. The steadfast love of the Lord endures forevermore. His loving kindness is new to us every morning. God is love. So if you come to a prophetic verse that says the Lord says Esau I have hated. You don't all of a sudden go oh no everything's wrong. It's not you guys where does this fit into what I know to be true about who God is. See let me give you a kind of a natural example.

In the natural you could see something like this maybe make sense of how we also look at the spiritual things. Our daughter Abigail 18 wonder if my wife went to Abby and said Abby we need you to clean up your room. And let's say Abby responded and said which she would not do but if she responded and said see there you just had me so I could work for you. I'm nothing but a slave around here. I'm just Cinderella in the ashes. I'm just sick of it. I think I'm going to run away from home because that's all this is about. But this whole time there's nothing else about here.

Just work work work. That's all anybody cares about right here. That's all anybody wants from me. That's all you care about.

I've had it with you. Well she wouldn't say that. She wouldn't say that.

But the reason really she wouldn't say that is she might say I don't feel like cleaning my room but the reason she wouldn't say that is because there's a whole story that if you try to sum up our story by Abby go clean your room you'd miss the story. Now if you're going to understand this story you're going to have to go back to that delivery room and watch my wife labor and bring that child into the world and see the love that started then. If you want to know the story you'd have to see the see the father stand there with tears rolling down his face. You'd have to know the story included a time that it was a terrible car accident that could have taken that child's life and angels were there attending so she was not harmed. You'd have to know 18 years of parents sacrificing for her and loving her and speaking blessing over her life every day so that it would go well with her.

You'd have to understand from a parent's perspective what love really is and you'd have to know that that father would be willing to lay his life down for her. How foolish it would be to say it sums up the story of this household by the verse Abby go clean your room. You see what I'm saying? I love God's word. You don't pull out a little text from James and go oh no this unrivals it instead you look at the text and you say well what is God saying to us through this text since we know that God saves us not according to our own merit. Well the first thing that you do is you understand the nature of God.

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. 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 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 PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. Our theology arises out of the word of God. And that theology arises out of the understanding of the wholeness of the word of God. So in the end our theology matters.

And what you understand about who God is and why he came to justify us through his grace by the mechanism of faith. As you understand that this God who created us in his own image loves us so very very much that he would rather come and be insulted and persecuted mocked tortured suffocating and dying on our behalf rather than to simply annihilate us. God wants people in heaven. God wants fellowship with his people. It's who he is. He's not trying to keep people out.

Some people have this idea of God that it's like he's like sitting over him like you're so it's like well he messed up that was it you didn't have enough works you're out. I went to the Dixie Classic Fairs we do always this year and I went over to play my regular game that I always win. I have hidden talents. And one of them is the small basketball toss at the Dixie Classic Fair. It's a small basketball and a very small rim. The ball will barely fit into the rim.

But the rim is not very far away. And I win it every year. I win a stuffed animal or a basketball prize or something like that. I win every year. And so I went over this year and I gave him my five dollars which entitled me to play three games. You get two tosses and you got to make both of them. No problem. And I went up and I started my procedure. I'm going to go ahead and clue you in.

This is for free. The secret to the small basketball toss at the Dixie Classic Fair. You must do it underhanded. If you try to do it overhanded what happens is that the arc and the height increases the level of difficulty to which you'll probably never make it. Any little mistake it'll hit the rim and it'll bounce violently out. But if you toss it underhand with a gentle backspin on it. I win it every year.

Until this year. I paid my five dollars. I went up.

I took my little spin the ball backwards a few times to get the feel for it. Told my family back up don't be in my peripheral vision. Get my faith up.

Pray in the spirit. And then I make my toss. And the man looks at me and he says I'm gonna let you do that over again. He said but I need you to look at the sign. And I looked over the sign and in real small print down at the bottom of it something new had been added.

No underhand throws. Yeah. You know what I did? I said give me my five dollars back. I walked off changing the rules on me like that.

I've been going that thing for 20 years. I am entitled to my animal. Give me my five dollars back.

Animals not worth five dollars anyway. Some people think God's like that. It's like we're standing here and no underhand throw and I'm gonna make it a little harder for you to get into heaven.

Really? He died for you. Greater love hath no man than this than he lay his life down for his friends. He didn't come because he wanted to make it harder for us to be in relationship with him. He wanted to make it possible. I come to the scripture therefore with this deep assurance God is utterly for us and not against us.

He so loved the world. So don't come to James going oh no it undermines everything. Instead I remember Romans 3 20 Paul says for by works the law no human being will be justified in his sight. I remember Galatians 2 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. You come to Galatians 3 for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse. Spurgeon the prince of preachers said it succinctly and well. Whatever the statement of James may be it could never have been his intention to contradict the gospel. It could never be possible that the Holy Spirit would say one thing in one place and another in another. Statements of Paul and of James must be reconciled and if they were not I would be prepared sooner to throw overboard the statement of James than that of Paul. Luther did so I think most unjustifiably. If you ask me then how dare I to say I would sooner do so my reply is I said I would sooner throw over James than Paul for this reason because at any rate we must keep to the master himself the Lord Jesus Christ and he goes on to preach that Jesus himself said whoever believes that 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 work save you 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 build guilty of the whole law you read it more carefully you realize that even when James says in chapter 4 there's only one lawgiver 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 of 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 time shared deals where they offer you a promotional and they'll give you something free if you come and and listen to the spiel 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 before 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 him 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 would 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 now you'd go if you believed it right because I so 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 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 said no it's just about faith now 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 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 it's in our faith and you really believe something it ends up getting demonstrated and what you do in fact of 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 surgeon the 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 the things you believe and you feel strongly about you can't hide it Alan Wright boy that's true faith and works is the teaching and you're probably thinking aha a grace-based ministry and they are talking about works we've got Alan back here in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and a final word yeah we'll explain that 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 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 the gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries this broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support 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 pastor Alan org so Alan you have faith and works how does this work pardon the pun grace based teaching where you really still have the language of works still involved here what do you mean by that well when we say grace works or faith works as we call today's message yeah we're really affirming what I hope is being communicated in every message that we bring forth and that is that the grace of God at at work within us does produce good works through us but it is not as many people suppose right works is something that is an external attempt to conform to external laws and expectation but faith works in this way when there's a gospel awareness that comes in your life and you see the finished work of God and Jesus Christ faith comes faith comes by hearing faith comes by hearing the Word of God and so when you have faith you naturally act on it I hope that's what people blisters are picking up on if you believe that you step in a dark room that that light switch is going to cut it on that's faith and so what do you do you turn it on it would be foolishness to stand in the dark when you believe that you can cut that light switch on well if it's so simple if it is real in a simple situation like that how much more so the greater matters of life faith by its very nature moves us into activity so we never meant to have never meant that grace leads to idleness grace and the faith that joins it is active today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries