"Faith apart from works is dead"...Such is the statement of a man who was tired of seeing men and women profess faith in the saving and transforming gospel of Jesus Christ, to go on living a life that is hardly touched changed or affected by the radical call of the gospel...spurning the glory of God with their "so called faith."...No doubt about it. James had had enough of churchmen claiming faith in Jesus Christ when their lives testified to the contrary. In James 2 he mocks such faith as dead...non-existent...He even declares that this man's profession of faith is nothing more than a mere acknowledgment of the truth...that which is fulfilled even by the demons...Such faith contradicts the words very definition. True faith reveals itself through works. For example, let's say I discovered this upcoming Sunday that a bomb was going to explode in our church sanctuary and with great urgency and desperation I called and warned you...telling you not to go into the building and to warn others likewise...If you got off of the phone and declared to yourself the truth of my statement, only to remain silent and yourself walk into the church sanctuary that following morning...what did your acknowledgment of the truth matter?...You may have told me on the phone, even, that you believed me. But your worthless and ultimately false belief was revealed by your foolish actions. Liken that to this teaching in James 2... James is not saying that you must add to your faith works...No...He is saying that true faith reveals itself by works...He says, "Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works...Do you want to be shown foolish person ,that faith apart from works is useless?" So I want to challenge you all...as this truly has challenged me... So often we try to answer the faithfulness problem by resolving to do more, to work harder, or to learn more...When the problem is much deeper. James is teaching us that at the heart of weak works...is weak faith... and very possibly, no faith at all...The trouble most often in my own soul...is unbelief. Bear with me... Because we know this to be true...True Faith...True belief ...does not exist only in one's mind.

Consider Matthew 13 in which a man, upon coming across a great treasure buried in a field, in his joy, goes and sells all that he has to buy that field...or the merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it...What was it that drove these men to such great sacrifice and surrender? They recognized the value...the beauty...the splendor of the treasure...And they knew...that it truly was the finest thing he had ever before seen. Such belief led to the abandonment of all prior loves and treasures...That is what Jesus is declaring to us about true faith...True faith isn't just mildly interested...It's fascination does not merely lead to interest and study...It leads to radical living...Seemingly foolish in the eyes of the world. But consider this...such faith would have been noticed by the world...I can imagine that the man and the merchants neighbors looked on, confused and perplexed, as they sold all of their old treasures...as they cast aside their former loves...to make way for this great treasure. They must have wondered what it was that led these men to such great surrender and sacrifice..."It must be something of great value...greater value than everything else he has..."

Do you see why I must now say with great sadness (but not without greater hope) that I am a man of weak faith...Consider Luke 17:6 where Christ says that "if you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it would obey." Again, my faith is terribly weak...and my life of minimal sacrifice and reserved living and giving testifies to such faith. I speak mainly to the testimony of my fear of men revealed by my disquieted conscience and my silent tongue. What is it that keeps me from laying aside my life for the gospel? How is it that their approval keeps me from telling them of the great realities that will soon come crashing down upon them? What silences me? The answer...is unbelief...Consider the radical claims of the gospel...and how un-radically I live...I have had to ask myself and I would ask you...Do you really believe? Do you really believe that God...the God who created all things is furious with my rebellion...That He sees it as no less heinous than that of the devil himself...That His anger and wrath will be justly poured out on all of mankind for their wickedness...Do I really believe that that is true?...Do I really believe that this very God...sent His only Son ...humbling Himself to the greatest imaginable extent, laying aside His glory and descending into this fallen and depraved world to live among His creation...that He lived the life of sinless perfection that no man had or could ever live...That He perfectly pleased His Father in heaven to the utmost degree...and then that that very Son...that perfect and spotless lamb...gave Himself into the Father's hand...to be crushed...so that all who believe in Him might be saved...Do I really believe that Christ has drank the full cup of God's wrath for me and for thousands of other people walking on this earth now...?...And do I believe...really...that He rose from the dead...forever defeating sin and death...Mighty to Save......and that He now sits in the Heavens at the right hand of the Father...waiting...eagerly for the great day in which He will accomplish His two final purposes for mankind......The vindication of His glory through the pouring out of His furious wrath...And the calling to Himself of His people from every tribe, people, and nation to be received into glory....

Do I believe that?...Really?...Because I think James would declare a life of silence... worthless "faith."...He would liken you to the demons who acknowledge God as God and go on with their lives...You see it is not difficult to look at those things and say...yeah that's true...But unless those things drive you in your joy...to go and sell all that you have...to cast away all former treasures and loves......if the treasure of Christ does not drive you to such a life...you don't believe...You don't see the truth...Because the truth changes everything...I see in my own life a brokenness over my failings and a great desire to faithful living...My heart beats to preach the gospel and my silence burns within me. I praise God that by His grace my heart has not yet become hardened to His conviction concerning my compromise and foolish unbelief...So I will ask myself...what am I now to do?...wrong question... We always answer the faithfulness problem with that question...Some of us, we are looking for that thing...that one thing that will make us "super-evangelists"...It doesn't exist outside of the gospel...Christ has already given it to us...Repent and Believe...

So in my own life I am desperately praying for greater faith...greater faith in the bare bones of the gospel...God, make me like the man who, upon finding the treasure, leaps up in his joy and runs to go and sell everything...I am not content to be a laborer that watches everyone else work... Give me greater faith! Oh that I would have the faith of only a grain of mustard seed...I want to believe what you have said more...We can't "graduate" from the gospel...Our church is so sound in it's theology, but I wonder...for all we know what has it done? What is it worth if such knowledge does not drive us to live radical lives for the glory of our great Savior and LORD? ...Because Christ did not say and do the things He said and did so that we could first study them......He said and did them, first, so that we would surrender to them...I pray that we will not approach the throne of judgment knowing every detail, theological term, and intricacy of the atonement...and yet...it not be ours... I pray for our church...that we would not deceive ourselves...great knowledge does not reveal real belief...James, Paul, John, Christ...and the entire testimony of Scripture will tell you...Belief is revealed by through your life...This is so important...Because the study of theology is imperative for the Christian...but even a non-Christian can be excited and about and fascinated by theology...Our colleges are full of professors who have devoted their life to the study of the Bible and yet, they don't know God... So ask yourself...do you believe?...Do you really believe that Christ is more valuable than all of your other treasures? Do you really believe that He came...that God came to this earth...and that He is coming again?... Don't answer with your head...examine your life...Because the child of God went and sold all that he had to have the treasure...while the rich young ruler thought the salvation of Christ not worth the cost. So...what's your faith like?...Strong?...Weak?...Non existent?...Because I think it is safe to say that because faith without works is dead...Weak works reveals the greater problem of either weak or non-existent faith... To close...John Piper, when speaking of the great Evangelist of the 1700's, George Whitefield, said,

"So if you ask Whitefield, 'Why do you preach the way you do?' he would say: 'I believe what I read in the Bible is real.'

Do you believe that what you read in the Bible is real?...then respond accordingly...Live ...by dying...live by dying to yourself...to this world...to your former loves...Surrender yourself to the truth..."let us go to Christ outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come." To close I want to provide some supporting verses concerning some of my claims in this message...

Concerning living
John 15: 5
Matthew 19: 16-24 (study)
Matthew 13:44-45
Romans 14:8 (7 the presupposition)
Philippians 3:16

Concerning Preaching in living
2 Corinthians 4:13-15
2 Corinthians 5:11
2Corinthians 5: 14-15; 17-21

Concerning Giving in living
2 Corinthians 8:1-15
2 Corinthians 9:11-14

Pray for Faith...