We all want to see change. We can post on social media. We can protest. We could put mottos on our t-shirts.
But unless there's one thing that we practice, I assure you there will be no social restoration. What's that one thing? That's today on Living on the Edge. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Living on the Edge is a daily discipleship ministry helping Christians live like Christians. I'm Dave Drouie and here's a question.
It sounds a little bit like a joke, but really it's not. What's the difference between a social club and the church? The answer? Less and less. Research tells us the culture is pressing in on the church and the differences between the two are becoming less and less. So what do serious minded believers do to counter cultural pressure and not give up their positive Christian influence? Well, Chip's invited his son Ryan to answer that question by sharing his message called Social Action.
Now Chip will be here in studio to add his thoughts after the teaching, but let's join Ryan Ingram now for his talk from James chapter two. In the midst of social injustice and social unrest, our hearts are longing. Our nation's longing is this. How do we experience social restoration? Like how do we experience where the brokenness and the fracturedness of our society and the brokenness and the fracturedness of what the evils of racism, the evils of prejudice, the brokenness and the fracturedness of when we go to the extremes and we just cast people in categories. How do we begin to see restoration and healing and wholeness? And I think there's actually another question for those of us who are followers of Jesus that we have to ask is how do we bring about social restoration?
You see, you see the church was never intended to be a social club. We've turned it into that. I go, I, I'm a part of this. I get my community.
No, no, no. We are to be a people to bring out a social revolution in the name of Jesus. That is our purpose on this planet to bring the gospel, which changes hearts and lives and healing and wholeness.
Well, how do we bring about social restoration? And in fact, James, the half brother of Jesus, he was the pastor of the church in Jerusalem that was undergoing their own social upheaval. They experienced intense persecution. They were scattered. They were in unrest.
They were disoriented emotionally trying to figure out how to navigate life. And he's going to give us four phases in which we are to engage in to experience or to bring about social restoration. Social restoration begins when followers of Jesus embrace. There is no social distinction. Now listen, among followers of Jesus, there is to be no favoritism. There is to be no prejudice.
There is to be no racism. It has no place among the people of God. The apostle Paul would say it this way, that there is neither Jew nor Greek.
There's neither slave nor free. There's neither male nor female, but all are one in Christ. And where we embrace that as followers of Jesus, the first step is, Hey, there is no social distinction. A distinctive mark of the first followers of Jesus and the followers today is to be that there is no social distinction. We're looking at phase two, social action.
Remember that question? How do we bring about social restoration? If we want to experience social restoration, followers of Jesus need to engage in a very specific social action. And James is going to unpack it for us in James chapter two, verse 14.
If you got your Bibles, would you open up and dive in with me today? We're talking all about social action and here's what James says. What good is it? My brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith, but has no deed, what good is it? What good does it do if I believe in certain things, but I don't do what I say I believe?
And then he asked another question. Can such a faith save them? Can such a faith help them? What kind of faith does that produce or what does it do?
Does it do anything at all? And then he's going to give us an illustration. Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes.
Here's the picture that he's painting. Suppose you're walking around, but if you've come across someone, you're going like, man, this is someone I know, someone I love. This is a brother or a sister in Christ. Suppose you come across them and they're without clothes. Literally in the Greek it's naked. Suppose they're naked.
This is the picture he's painting and they have no daily food. Now, if one of you says to them, go in peace, which is just a typical farewell, have a good day. Maybe we'd say it this way. Take care. Like, like, like take care. Like you should, you know, you need to take some care. And, and he says this, keep warm and well fed, which is actually the person commanding them. You should get some clothes. You should get some food.
You really need to take care of that, but does nothing about their physical need. Now the question, what good is it? And the answer, you know, and I know no good at all. It does them no good. If, if I just have good feelings, good intentions, good thoughts, oh, I'm just going to send you good thoughts.
I don't even know what that means. I'm going to send you good thoughts, but I do nothing good. Then it does no good at all. This is what James is saying.
And now he's bringing it home. He says in the same way in like manner, listen to this faith by itself, if not accompanied by action is dead. Faith by itself, if not accompanied with action is useless or worthless. See, he's saying if we want to experience social restoration, followers of Jesus need to put their faith in to action. He's calling you and I to have a faith that works, a faith that gets to work.
See, it's one thing to talk to talk and we all know this. It's another thing to walk the walk. He's saying practice what you preach, put it in to action. See what James is addressing here is something that has become like the way we've started to engage as followers of Jesus in America. See what he's addressing with these early followers is a type of mentality that we can have what some have called a fire insurance faith, right? It means I believe certain things.
I say certain things. It has zero impact about my daily life. Like I'll go to church on Sunday, but it has no impact on Monday. But because I believe these certain things I hold to these propositional truths, then my eternity is secure though it has no impact on my earthly reality.
And he's confronting that type of engagement from followers of Jesus. And he says, no, no, the calling for you and I, if we want to experience social restoration is a faith that works, a faith that gets to work, a faith that does the work of faith. Well, what is faith? And I want to define this for us because, because I think we over spiritualize faith, right?
And so it becomes this like very abstract concept. And yet the reality is every single action that you take is preceded by faith in you. We live and operate by faith. I mean, when you turned on your car, that was an act of faith, trusting that all the things that are going to work on, uh, you know, the way they built that machine, it would work to turn on and take you somewhere.
We do these step by step all the time. So let me give you a definition of faith. Faith is a strong confidence in and reliance upon someone or something like I have confidence in you. And so I'm going to rely or trust or bank on you or someone. It means to believe to the extent of complete trust and reliance.
For example, let me give you an example of this. You go to the doctor, the doctor gives you a diagnosis and maybe you have some sort of infection and you've been going through this and then they give you antibiotics. This is fantastic. Faith is trusting the doctor's diagnosis that you have confidence in reliance upon the medicine that they gave you. And so you take that pill, you take the antibiotics to get well. And what James is saying is it's great to say, I have confidence in the doctor. It's great to say I have, you know, this pill right here, these antibiotics. Fantastic. But if you do not take the pill, what good is it for you?
No good at all. So let's then turn this of what is biblical faith? Well, that faith is the confidence in that God is who he said he is, his character, and he will do or accomplish what he said he will do. Meaning then I will begin to take what I cognitively believe about God and who he said he is and what he said is true and put that into practice in my daily life.
I like how John Ortberg said it. He said, faith is coming to believe with my whole body what I say I believe with my mind. Faith is coming to believe with my whole body what I say I believe with my mind. And so to trust Jesus is to believe that he was right about everything. He was right about how we should go about life. He was right about the best ways of life. He was right that he is life itself and that no one can come to the father except through him. And to follow Jesus is to follow and step in to life. Now, for some you're wrestling with and wondering about, okay, Ingram, what happened to salvation by faith alone?
Right? Okay. This faith and works deal. What happened to salvation by faith alone are like Paul and James in conflict here. Are they contradicting each other? No, they're not contradicting each other.
In fact, they're complimenting each other. See the apostle Paul and James are addressing two different groups with two very different issues at hand. Paul is addressing legalism and how to enter into the family of God.
And you had legalism saying you have to do X amount of works to be accepted by God. And this is who Paul is addressing. And James is addressing those already in the family of God who say, you know what?
He's talking about activity in the family of God, not how to get into the family of God, but activity in. See the apostle Paul is addressing the root of salvation or the root of faith. James is addressing the fruit of faith. And if you read the apostle Paul carefully, you'll recognize he understands this too. In fact, the famous passage, and if you're still following along in the book of James, you got your analog Bible out.
Just flip over a few pages over. You go to Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, and hear the apostle Paul. This is our salvation by faith alone tax that we hold so dear. He says, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this not of yourself. It is a gift of God, not by works. You can't do anything to earn the gift of God. You can't do anything to make yourself right with God so that no one can boast just by faith in his grace.
Okay. But then notice what Paul says in verse 10, because we often stop at verse nine, four, we are God's handiwork, his masterpiece, his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. Now help me out here to do good, to do what? To do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. See, you are not saved by good works, but you are saved for good works. See your good works will never earn you any merit before God. But if we understand and recognize the grace of God and what it means to be in his family, we recognize that that our faith in action, we were created in Christ Jesus to do good works right now. The calling of James and of Paul is a faith that works. I like how Dallas Willard said grace is not opposed to effort.
See, we confuse this. Grace is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude.
Effort is an action. Well then, why is this faith that works so very important? What's the big deal about all of this?
Why does James seem to think this is what it's going to take to help bring about social restoration? Well, he's going to give us three reasons why this is so incredibly important. The first thing he's going to say to us is your behavior reveals what you truly believe. How you behave reveals what you actually believe, not just what you say you believe. And he says this, some will say you have faith and I have deeds. Or, you know, you have the faith side and I do the deed side.
You know, we can't all do the same. And he says this, show me your faith without deeds. I will show you my faith by my deeds. And then he goes on to say this. You believe that there is one God great for you.
I could see him just clapping. Nice. Awesome. Even the demons believe that and shudder. Don't miss this. So check this out. Doctrinal correctness is incredibly important, but if all you have is doctrinal correctness without a life that lives it out, he says it doesn't differentiate you from the demons.
See, your behavior reveals what you truly believe. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and Ryan Ingram's teaching is from his series Social Restoration. Ryan will be back with part two of his message in our next program, but Chip's here now with some thoughts about what you heard today.
Now, before he gets to that, I hope you'll take a second to go online or tap share and encourage others to join us for this series too. Social Restoration is complicated. Even with the best of intentions, well-meaning people get themselves into trouble. So how do we make a difference and bring light, not heat?
Well, these messages from Ryan Ingram bring a lot of clarity to that question. He looks at our current circumstances with a gospel vision of community and provides biblical solutions. For a limited time, resources for Social Restoration are discounted, and the MP3s are always free. To order your copy or to send it to a friend, visit us online at livingontheedge.org. For additional information, just give us a call at 888-333-6003.
That's 888-333-6003. Well, Chip, this series from Ryan is certainly a timely one. As you guys talked about it, I know one of the things that was important is that there's a ton of rhetoric being thrown around today, but not a lot of practical help. And so not only do we have these programs, but Ryan's put these messages into a little booklet so people could read it on their own and then share it with others. Absolutely, Dave.
As Ryan and I talked, he pastors a church, obviously right here in the San Francisco Bay Area, a very progressive part of the country where social justice and the kind of issues that are rocking our world and our country. And you know, if you want to see macro change, you can talk about it, you can put it on a t-shirt, you can say this is what's wrong. But at some point in time, you have to take steps. You have to have very specific steps. And so in his booklet, Social Restoration, where does it start and what must we do?
Ryan will give us some very specific biblical steps to move from words to actions in our own worlds so we can begin to move as followers of Christ, as agents of blessing that bring healing to our fractured world. Really helpful, thanks. Well, not only is it a print copy, but we're also making this little booklet available as an e-book. Either way, you can choose a free copy when you go to our website, LivingOnTheEdge.org. Tap special offers on the app or give us a call at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003. We'd love to get it into your hands and then have you pass it on when you're done. It's a great little conversation starter with the bonus of God honoring solutions. Request your free copy of Social Restoration at LivingOnTheEdge.org.
Special offers on the app or by calling us at 888-333-6003. I hope you'll do it today. As we wrap up today's program, I'm still thinking about something Ryan said that I think would be easy to miss. I mean, to get our minds around it, to let it really take root in our souls and let it motivate our attitudes.
And I think it'll change everything if you really grasp it. He said, We are not saved by good works. We are saved for good works.
And then he had a line I love. I'm not sure where he got this, but we've talked about it a lot as father and son and pastor to pastor. And it's this, Your behavior reveals what you really believe. And I hear people and myself say all the time, I believe this or I believe that.
At the end of the day, if you want to know what you believe about anything, your behavior reveals your real beliefs. My generation, so much of the emphasis has been we are not saved by our good works, right? It's by faith through grace that we are saved.
That's not of ourselves. It's a gift of God, not a result of works lest any man should boast. I just quoted Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9.
And in my generation, we pounded that home. But I think we might have pounded that part of it too strongly without verse 10 that says that we are his workmanship created for a good work that God ordained that we should walk in. I think we're living in a day where people actually think, I believe in Jesus.
I can sing some songs. I intellectually agree with the right doctrines. Everything must be okay. But then you look at their behavior or look at yours or I look at mine and you say, am I serving anyone anywhere? Well, not really. Does my money go to meet the needs of the poor, the orphan, the widow, those that are hurting? Do I give regularly of my time? Do I really care about people?
Well, not really. And somehow posting something on media or saying I believe certain things or going to a concert or singing little songs about Jesus, we have deluded ourselves into thinking that, oh, we really are believers. We're really followers. The fact of the matter is we are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. And if there is not a habitual pattern of kindness, love, sacrifice, care, patience, holiness, and concern for other people, then we need to pause and we need to ask ourselves, what do I really believe? Or am I like this passage where it says the demons believe intellectually in Jesus? They believe he's Lord.
They have not submitted to his Lordship. So this is a sobering question and I want you to think about it all day. Where are you at in your relationship with Jesus Christ? What does your behavior say about what you really believe?
And for those of you who would lean back and say, you know, I know without a doubt that I'm a part of God's family. Then I would say, do you have a pattern of good works beginning in your family, your neighborhood, where you work, and your church? And are we doing that in a way where our good works are literally shining brightly and letting people understand there is a God who deeply loves them? If not, let's make a difference together. Let's love people. Let's do good to everyone, even those we vehemently disagree with and watch what God does. As we wrap up, I want to say thanks to those who make this program possible through your generous financial support. Your gifts help us create programs, purchase airtime, and develop additional resources to help Christians live like Christians. Now, if you've been blessed by the Ministry of Living on the Edge, would you consider sending a gift today? You can call us at 888-333-6003, tap the donate button, or donate online at LivingOnTheEdge.org. Your support is greatly appreciated. We'll be sure to join us again next time when we continue our series, Social Restoration. Until then, this is Dave Drouie saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.
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