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Now, here's today's message from Pastor Skiff. This is important because though we should and do Show the general community that we Believe in Jesus and love them and care for them and work for them and do acts of service and kindness. Principally, we should show that. First and foremost, Two other believers. That's what the Bible teaches.
Galatians chapter 6, verse 10: As we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.
So we have a special responsibility. to care for each other. Jesus said, Inasmuch as you did it to the least of these, my brethren. You have done it to me.
So Let's just Use a hypothetical.
Okay. After church, you go to lunch at Dion's. Anybody here like Deons? Listen, people move away from Albuquerque and they miss Dions. Like, that's like top of their list.
I don't know why. But anyway, you go to Dion's. And you order Pepperoni pizza with Yeah. Green chili on it. Right?
Maybe pepperoni pizza with some Italian sausage. And green chili on it. By the way, if you remember nothing else of my message, at least.
Now you know how to order your pizza.
So you go there and you get your pizza, you pick it up, it's hot, it smells good, it's under your arm, you're carrying it out. You see somebody there, kind of slumped into the corner, and you go, I think I recognize that person. You walk up to the person, kind of tattered, looks very gaunt, and you say, Don't you go to Calvary? They go, yeah, I'm there every week. I thought I recognized you.
God bless you. You look hungry. I am. Let me pray for you. And by the way, the green chili pizza is awesome, and then you walk out.
Well, that would be extraordinarily cruel, would it not? Because you did nothing to help that person in his condition, be callous.
So, Faith, our faith. should lead to fruitfulness. Our belief should be worked out in behavior. Our sight Should Show sympathy. 1 John chapter 3 is a parallel verse to what we are reading here.
This is 1 John 3 verses 17 and 18. But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word. Or in tongue, But indeed And in truth. Last week we touched on the Good Samaritan.
We use that as an example in the message. Let me go back to that. The parable of the Good Samaritan. Has a priest and a Levite in it, right? who walk by the guy who's Laying in the street, Yeah.
The priest and the Levite. We're both religious. The priest and the Levite both would have vigorously defended their faith in God. I'm a God follower, a God believer. Both of them saw a man dying in the road.
Neither of them cared to move a finger. It was all Site. Without sympathy.
So, two characteristics, and all these are very related to each other, just a little slight nuance change: words without works, sight without sympathy, third. Profession. Without proof. Verse 17. That's also Or therefore 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 without your works. I will show you my faith.
Buy my works.
Now, here James introduces an imaginary debate. Two people. First guy is a genuine believer. Second guy is a fake believer. thinking that his intellectual faith is all he needs.
First guy challenges the second guy to prove his faith. Hey, you have a pretty awesome profession. Can you prove it? Prove what you say. By something you do.
Or to put it another way, make the invisible. Visible. Make the invisible faith. Make it visible. Works.
Faith is invisible. You can't see faith. But you can see the effect of faith, the result of faith. Yeah.
Sort of like calories. Right? Ever seen a calorie? What does the calorie look like?
Now you've seen the effect of calories. Right? We see them on ourselves. pretty much every day, so we see what calories can do. Yeah.
So Make that which is invisible, faith, your statement of faith, make it visible, works. One of my favorite, probably is my favorite healing story of Jesus in the Gospels is when he's in a house and it's packed full of people. It's in Capernaum, and nobody can get around him, but there's four guys who want their friend who's paralyzed to Meet Jesus because they believe Jesus is going to heal them.
So this guy's a paralytic.
So what do they do? They climb on top of the Roof, and they take the tiles off, and they lower him down right in the middle of this crowd. And I've always wondered whose house that is. Because you know they're looking up going some I'm you're paying for this Right, maybe it was Peter's house, some think it was. Mrs.
Peter would have said, Really? This is what happens when you follow this guy? This happens. There was a lot of commotion going on. Jesus is teaching.
And as he's teaching, Daylight pours through the ceiling and this guy gets lowered. Down into Jesus' midst. And do you remember? When that happened, What the Bible says Jesus said, or what the Bible says about what Jesus did. It says this.
When Jesus saw their faith. When Jesus saw Their faith. He said to the paralytic, Man be of good cheer. Your sins are forgiven. But Jesus saw their faith.
What did he see? He saw the evidence of their faith. He saw the fact that they're willing to crawl on the roof, tear open the tiles, and put their friend down in front of him. That's the question. Can people see your faith?
Is there proof?
Now, I want to go back to the question in verse 14. I know we kind of went through it, but I want to circle back to that question at the end of verse 14: Can faith save him? Let's just kind of deal with this controversy that I. I mentioned with Martin Luther, and supposedly he's contradicting Paul the Apostle. Um James here is not saying that you are saved by Faith plus works.
If you were saying you're saved by faith plus works, that would dishonor the finished work of Jesus on the cross. If you say we're saved by faith plus works, now you're saying we have two Saviors. First is Christ and the second is ourselves.
So he is not saying that. But some, like Martin, I think we can call him Marty by now. We know him so well. Saw that James, or thought that James, was contradicting Paul's clear teaching on justification, salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, nothing else, not saved by works. Yeah.
I mean, after all, Romans chapter 4, verse 5. But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted. for righteousness. It's pretty clear. Or Romans chapter 10, verse 9.
If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Can't get any clearer than that. Or Ephesians chapter 2. We looked at it the other night on Wednesday. For by grace you have been saved through faith.
That not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. Not of works. lest any one should boast. Then there's Galatians chapter 2, verse 16, Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
So If you're to compare what Paul said and what James here says, it sounds like they're contradicting each other. Paul's going, faith, faith, faith. James is saying, works, works, works. And so Martin Luther's going. What is a man to do?
Right. They contradict each other. No, they don't. Paul and James do not contradict each other, rather, they complement each other. They're not enemies fighting face to face, they're friends fighting back to back.
They're in the same army, but they're fighting two different enemies. The enemy that Paul is speaking against were Jewish legalists. who believed that you have to keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. James is fighting. Easy believism.
That says all you have to do is have this little intellectual knowledge. I believe in God. I've always believed in God. I went to church all my life, baptized, confirmed, tattooed, the whole thing. But that's all they got.
And so Paul is speaking about Pre-salvation Doing works in order to be saved. James is talking post-salvation.
Now that you're saved, can you validate it?
So, Paul is describing the root of salvation. Faith. James is speaking about the fruit. of salvation works. If you have a root In the soil, it will produce fruit.
This is Connect with Skip-Heitzig. Before we return to Skip's teaching, have you ever wondered what it really means to grow up spiritually? In Adulting, a study through the book of James, Pastor Skip Heitzig walks you through 21 powerful teachings that show you how to live a mature, Christ-centered life, one shaped by conviction, consistency, and character. This practical and encouraging series is yours when you give $50 or more to support Connect with Skip Heidzig and share teaching like this one today with more people around the globe. Request adulting as a CD package or digital download at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888.
Let's return now to today's message.
Something else. The word justified here is used. James uses the term justified or justification a little bit differently than Paul does. James And Paul use the same word, but they mean something slightly different. Let me explain.
Paul in Romans and Galatians. Speaks about being justified before God. James is speaking about being justified before us. before people, before mankind. Living your faith out so that people can see it.
Maybe this will help. It helped me.
So let's say there's a rowboat on the lake, and one oar is marked faith, the other oar is marked works.
Okay. Let's say you put just the right ore in and keep the left one up.
So works is. doing all the work. What's going to happen to the boat? It's going to go in circles. But you lift up the works oar and you put the faith ore in and you paddle what's going to happen now.
It's going to go in circles in the opposite direction, but still in circles. Put both oars in the lake and paddle together, and what will happen? You'll move forward and validate the claim that that is a transportation vehicle. You're going somewhere. Faith and works Working together.
If it's true faith, it will work. It's a faith that works. Jesus said it this way: every tree is known by its own. Fruit. By what it produces.
That's what James is talking about: the production of the saved life.
So, many years ago, I told this story at the other services. Many years ago, I had. I had an artichoke plant. I think. It said it was.
This is when I was living in Huntington Beach, and I always, I love artichokes. This is before I met Green Chili. I didn't know really what that was, but I loved artichokes, so I loved them so much I wanted to grow my own. I went to the store, got artichoke plant, planted it in my yard, backyard, little backyard that I had. Fertilizer watered it.
and watched and waited. For years. That's why I say I think it's an artichoke plant because I never saw a single. Artichoke. All that I had was a tag.
That said artichoke plant. And you know, some people are like that. There's no fruit on them at all, but they have a tag. I'm a Christian. It's just an empty class.
It's something they have. Placed on themselves, but according to James, it is dead. Dynamic belief will produce dynamic behavior.
So, three characteristics of fake faith. If you've got these going for you, you're faking it. words without works, sight without sympathy. and profession without proof. Fourth, and finally, Commotion Without conversion.
Commotion without conversion. Verse 19, you believe there is one God, you do well. This is James going, oh, you believe in God? Hoorah, bravo.
Next statement kind of shows the chide. Even The demons believe. And Trumble. But do you want to know, oh foolish man, he's inviting them to learn something. Do you want to know, oh foolish man, that faith without works Is dead.
So he says Oh, you believe one God? You're monotheistic, my Jewish brethren. You believe in Deuteronomy 6:4, Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Good. You have a good, solid, orthodox creed.
But now James wants to shock his complacent readers, and so he uses demons to illustrate. Fake faith. Oh, you believe in God?
So do the demons.
Now that sort of comes as a shock to a lot of people that Demons have faith. Demons have faith. And that just sort of begs the question: what exactly do demons believe? What is there? Theological statement.
Well, let me tell you what demons believe. First, demons believe God exists. There's not a single demon That is an atheist. Or an agnostic.
Now they produce Atheist and agnostic, it's what they want to do, but none of them themselves are. atheists nor agnostics. They believe God exists. Second thing that demons believe, they believe in one God. They are monotheistic.
They know that all the other gods and religious systems are fake. Heck, they made them up. Third thing they believe, they believe in the deity of Jesus Christ. They recognized him in Mark chapter 3. The unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, fell down before him and cried out, saying, You are the Son of God.
So they believe God exists. They believe in one God. They're monotheistic. They believe in the deity of Christ. The fourth thing they believe is, they believe in the place of eternal punishment, they believe in hell.
In Luke chapter 8. We are told Jesus asked him, saying, What is your name? And he, the demon-possessed man, said legion, because many demons had entered him. And they begged him, begged Jesus that he would not command them to go into the abuso. The abyss, the The place of punishment.
Yeah.
And then finally, demons believe that Jesus will be the final and ultimate judge. Matthew chapter 8. Suddenly they cried out, saying, What have we to do with you, Jesus, you Son of God? Have you come here to torment us? Before The time, they know what's coming.
So, think of what demons believe. They believe God exists. They believe God is one, one God, not many. They believe in the deity of Christ. They believe in eternal hell.
And they believe that Jesus will make the final judgment call.
Sounds pretty solid. Pretty orthodox. Heck, we might want to invite some of those demons to church. We might think they're so orthodox. But here's the point.
you can believe all the right things up here and be eternally lost. Remember the conversation with Nicodemus and Jesus? Nicodemus had a faith after seeing Christ perform some miracles. And it says, Many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did, but Jesus would not commit himself to them because he knew what was in men. And then it says, Nicodemus comes to Jesus and says this: We know.
Collectively, we Some of us believe we know you're a teacher come from God. For no one can do the signs and miracles you do unless God is with him. And Jesus fired back and said, Unless you are born again, You will never see the kingdom of God. You might have a claim, Nicodemus, that I'm the Messiah that I have. Been sent from God that I can do miraculous power.
All those things are sort of right. But you still have to have a life change. You have to be born again. You know, you can believe that. Jesus is the Son of God.
It's another thing to believe in him. On a personal, authentic level.
So Demons have a A pretty solid statement of faith.
Something else, and this is really the text itself. Demons are also moved emotionally. You believe there is one God, you do all, even the demons believe, so they have faith. And And what else do they do? They tremble.
Literally, that means they shudder. They bristle. They are moved emotionally.
So they're both orthodox in their theology and they are touched emotionally. But question, ready? Are demons saved? None of them are saved. There has never been A life change with them.
Their lives, it's not genuine faith. Not genuine faith. They're moved emotionally, and sometimes we get fooled. We see somebody crying, and we say, Well, there's the proof of genuine faith. They're shedding tears.
Maybe. There's a lot of reasons people can cry. I have discovered it. A lot of reasons. Just because a person is expressive and emotive and outwardly sorrowful in and of itself is not sufficient evidence.
You can be enlightened in your mind, you can be stirred in your heart, and you can be lost. Forever. And the change is when you go from believing that God exists, believing that Jesus is something, the Son of God, and believing in God and believing in that Jesus. On a personal level. Back to John Bunyan and the book Pilgrim's Progress, which I highly recommend.
I quoted to you something that was at the beginning of the book. This is now the very end of the book. Christian has made his journey through life, from the city of destruction, through all the peril, all the dangers, and he is now at the gate of the celestial city itself. He is about to enter into heaven. with many others.
But he's with a final character whose name is Ignorance. Don't you love all the names of these guys? Ignorance. And ignorance has also traveled His whole Experience. Through the troubles and toils and hardships of life, made that perilous journey, and now is at the very gate of heaven, just outside the gate.
And At the very end, he is cast. Through a door on the side of a hill. And he vanishes. And John Bunyan closes his book by saying, Then I realized. that there was a way to hell.
Even from the gates of heaven. You know, you can sort of fake it for a long, long, long time. Time. And be really close and almost saved. Almost doesn't count.
So, love and Marriage Go together like a horse. and carriage But I think we should change the lyrics to suit our purpose. Faith in action. Faith in action. Go together, I don't know, like a tire and traction.
It's hard to find a rhyme to that. This, I tell you, brother, you can't have one without the other. If your faith Listen, if your faith hasn't changed you... Your fate hasn't saved you. You're saved by Faith alone.
But a faith that saves. It's never alone. We're so glad you joined us today for Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go. Don't miss this opportunity to request Pastor Skip's series, Adulting, a study through the book of James.
This 21 message series dives deep into what it means to live a spiritually mature life. full of faith, character, and Christ-like purpose. Adulting is our thanks for your generous gift of $50 or more to help share God's word with more people. Call 800-922-1888 or visit connectwithskiff.com slash offer. And while you're there, sign up for Skiff's weekly devotional emails and get a free download of a chapter of Skiff's The Biography of God.
Thanks for spending time with us today and we'll see you next time on Connect with Skiff Heights. Make a connection, let the food. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of connection communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
