Praise God. Listen, I'm going to tell you something. Never, never take for granted what God's given you. Right? And I appreciate... I tried to get Kristen to bring me a flute. And she offered. She said, I will if you'll play it. I said, you wouldn't understand what I was playing. I'm playing a whole different language and y'all can understand. Praise God. Amen. I want you to turn to James chapter 2. James chapter 2. this evening and you know brother Johnny as he was he was talking prompted me to think how many opportunities God gives us I mean really when you think about it you go to the restaurant and there are multitudes of people in there and I understand you know well so I don't want to interrupt their lunch or I don't want to interrupt their dinner and I understand that I don't think you ought to go shoving a track in their face and you know the If you died right now, are you 100% sure? You know, you've got to be prompted by the Spirit. But you know, if you'll just go, we were eating lunch Monday, me and another preacher, and I saw these three men at the table, and I just went over there, and you know, you find something to talk about. They were construction guys, and I asked them what they did, and they told me, and two of the guys were Spanish, and I handed them an invitation card, and I said, listen, I'd love to have you come to church, and the one said, you know, speak English. I said, well, man, that ain't no problem. We've got a Spanish church. and his eyes lit up. You never know what God will do if you'll just be available. But we get so, I mean let's be honest, most of us we sit at the table and we're like this or we're in conversation and you go to the grocery store and we want to get out of there and I understand that, right? You want to get out of there because if you don't it'll cost you $19,000 before you get out of the grocery store. But I think we've got to learn to slow down. Just slow down. and pray God just give me opportunity to and you don't have to know the Romans road right a lot of times if I don't know the Romans road what you do realize that in the gospel they didn't have the Romans road yet right I mean when when you look at when when the Lord changed people's lives you know what they just go tell them what Jesus did they give their testimony right this is what I was blind now I see right and that you don't have to have all the answers you you know you just got to tell them what God did for you and that that's really what people are looking for when they want to change They probably don't need to hear all the Christian lingo, right? They're not going to probably understand that. We just got to get real with them, right? We just got to say, hey, listen, you need Jesus and he'll help you. He's a great physician. Amen. James chapter 2, I want to begin verse number 14. Boy, I've enjoyed preaching through this so far. And James switches gears just a little bit. And again, by the way, when we say James wrote this, you do realize, I know you do, that he penned it down, but the Holy Ghost is the one that wrote it. See that gives more authority to the Word of God. If we say what James said, well that doesn't matter because I don't know James that well. But when I say God through the Holy Spirit inspired James to pen this down, now all of a sudden the authority of the Word of God is not James as an apostle, it is the Lord Jesus Christ. James chapter 2 verse 14 notice what he said he said what doth it profit my brethren though a man say now it's interesting there right didn't say does have he said say he have faith so he's saying it we can say whatever you can say whatever you want to right you can you can say I'm I trust God I believe God and you can say all that you want to right but there's always a proof that has to be made he said say he had faith and have not works Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Now that's in your Bible. You said, well, preach, we ain't saved by works. No, but faith produces works, right? Yeah. A man may say thou has faith and I have works. He said, show me that faith without that works. He said, I'll show you my faith by my works. Right. I'm I'm going to show you what my faith is about. I'm going, I'm going to actually live it. Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well. The devils also believe in tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. Now that's interesting because you look at that and say, well, it looks to me like God's saying that Abraham is saved by his works. No, that's not what he said. He said, seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect. Well, you know what perfect means in the Bible? Completed or mature, right? So it goes on to say, the scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God. You see then how that by works a man is justified, not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. Now let me say this, if you believe that your Bible's inspired, we say we do, right? We say we believe this King James Bible's inspired. God breathed, that's God's word, then we cannot cross out verse 26. For the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. That's in there. And so what James is really talking about is the Christian and his belief. See, we can say whatever we want to say about what we believe, but again, I've said it many times and you know this, that what we believe affects the way we behave. And so the word belief means a persuasion of truth. So belief is not Just I have an intellectual knowledge. Belief means I am persuaded of the truth. Persuasion causes me to move, right? If I'm persuaded of something, it is stronger than I just have an intellectual belief. A persuasion means that I'm moving in that direction. So James is questioning the belief of professing Christians. You say, well, I don't think that's right. I don't think he ought to question someone's profession of faith. Well, why not? I'm not saying that to judge people, but listen, it's hard. It's hard to accept brother Jerry, that we as say, we believe the Bible, right? That we believe, uh, the gospel. We believe the book of James, but then if we're truly saved. Then we do nothing with it. It's like this. If I said, well, you know what, Brother Shane, I'm a very generous person. I'm a very giving person. But with all that comes into me, if I never give out, I'm not a generous person. I say that I'm a generous person. The way you prove that you're generous is when you get something, you give some of it out. And it's no different with faith. You can say you have faith, but if you never give anything out, then what you're doing is just professing that you have faith. And so James is saying, listen, I'm tired of seeing all the professing Christians that are doing nothing for the glory of God. And it's no different today, let's be honest. Brother Johnny mentioned it, you know, think about how many people around you need to hear the gospel, and hey, you may not go knock on doors, but there's nobody in here tonight that shouldn't be sharing the gospel. Can we agree with that? There's nobody in here that shouldn't be giving the missions. There's nobody in here that shouldn't be reading their Bible and praying. I mean, we profess that we know Christ, yet our actions, I mean, do people see Jesus in the way we act? Right? And that's really what he's saying. So if we really hold something is true, then we adjust our behavior to prove that we believe it's true. Give an example, right? So, so, uh, you know, we, we, we say, well, um, we, we believe something. Years ago, again, you've got to watch the medical community because the experts are wrong. So they said, well, you know, red meat is bad for your cholesterol and bad for your heart. You shouldn't eat red meat. And so a lot of people say, well, I believe what my doctor said, so I'm not going to eat red meat. Well, then all of a sudden later on, they come out and say, well, it's not bad for you. Well, if you believed it was bad for you, you wouldn't eat it. Praise God, I never thought it was bad for me. I just kept eating it. Right? So just a few years ago, they said, well, you know, we had the pandemic and in order to stop the pandemic, you got to take this shot. Well, if you believe the shot was going to do that, you took it. If you didn't believe it was, you didn't take it. Right? So it's like that with everything. What you believe, what you truly believe, if you look at the pattern of the way you behave, it will tell you what you really believe. You can have an intellectual, I believe this, but the way, listen, if you think that it's healthy to, you know, to eat salad, you'll eat salad. If you think it's healthy to exercise, you'll go exercise. Well, I believe it, I just don't do it. Then you don't believe it enough. And so James is saying here, if you have faith, great, prove it. Let's find out. I mean, that ought to be kind of the way we look. Let's find out. You say you've got faith? Let's see. Let's see it. Right? If I have faith, I need to prove it. Right? So we have to be careful by examining everyone else. Again, this is not the scripture to point so that you don't have faith. Look, it is to point at me and say, do you have faith? And so how do we prove it by the way we live? So I'll give you, what, three things, I think. Is that right? Yep, I got three on this scripture. Number one is the approach in verse 14. The Bible said, What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and have not works? Can faith save him? So the first thing we see in this verse is the false claim is quoted. He said, listen, you say you have faith. The fact is we cannot divorce works from faith. You can't do it. You claim you have faith and it should produce works. Ephesians 2, 8, 9, praise God for that. But you got to, you got to group verse 10 in there as well. We're saved by faith. We also, when we're saved, it should produce godly works in our life. Why? Because we cannot divorce faith from works. Can you have faith and do nothing with it? You say, well, I'm a generous person. Well, if you don't ever give anything away, right? You say, I believe in missions, but you don't pray for missionaries and you don't help finance the work. Do you really believe in missions? I believe in soul winning, but you never soul win. I believe in Bible study, but you never read the Bible. I believe in, you know, being kind to my neighbor, but you're not kind to your neighbor. You don't believe what you don't do. Then the false claim is question. He said in verse 14, what does it profit my brethren though a man say have faith and have not works can face save him. So actual measurable results of our faith. He said, listen, it, if you are who you say you are and you're indwelt by the Holy spirit of God, there should be a measurement of some amount of your faith. Now it's not all the same, right? God gives us different amounts, abilities to. to work. But everybody that says they're saved shouldn't be sitting on a church pew doing nothing for God. Amen. You ought to be doing something, right? Listen, I know this, praise God. You say, well, working in the nursery is not a big deal. Sure it is, right? Singing in the choir is not a big deal. Working in the children's ministry is not a big deal. Sure it is. Hey, doing security, that's not a big deal. It's a big deal. Listen, but not just in church, what are you doing outside of church? So James is talking about a practical faith. I don't want a dead faith. Listen to what I'm saying. Religion gives you a dead faith. Relationships gives you a living faith. If he's real, It'll move you. Amen? I mean, when you realize what God's done for you and kept you out of hell, it ought to move us to do something for the cause of Christ. So that if we have true faith, it motivates us to live for Christ. Listen, God shouldn't have to drag you into doing stuff for Him. I mean, if we believe what we say we believe, we shouldn't doubt God. Oh, but I do preacher. I have faith, but I sure doubt God. Then you don't have faith. See, it's like this. A theoretical faith is I believe God can do it, but I don't believe God will do it. Or I believe God can do it or will do it for other people, but he won't do it for me. Right. And that's, but that's where our world is. It's like, well, that'll work for you, but it won't work for me. Right. You want to get out of debt? Here's how you do it. You spend less than you make. Right? Put money in the bank, pay your junk off. Right? You say, well, you don't understand, preacher, that won't work for me. I don't make enough money. Didn't say how much you made. It's just you've got to spend less than you make to have some in the bank. Am I right? Well, do you believe that? I sure do. Are you doing it? Well, right? In theory, it works. Same thing with faith. Well, I believe God can do all things. Do you? Yeah, but right. I know it's faith over fear, but I'm afraid I believe he'll do it for brother Shane, but won't do it for me. Well, you don't believe your Bible because the Bible said God's not a respecter of persons, right? So we talk out both sides of our mouth we say we have faith but then when we actually have to walk in faith we don't do it. So so James is saying listen if that's who you are then I have to question whether or not you really have faith in the all powerful almighty God that you say you serve. Listen I can do all things through Christ except for these things right. Either we have to believe it and live by it or you don't really believe it. You just intellectually believe it. Right? So he gives us the approach in verse 14. In verse 15, 18, he gives us an appraisal. He says, all right, look at this example. He said, if a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled. Right? But here's somebody in the church and they don't have any clothes. They're freezing. They're hungry. And you say, listen, I'm praying for you. I'm going to pray that you get some food. And I'm going to pray you get some clothes. I know it's 15 below out there, but I'm going to pray God give you a coat. You got three of them on. You're like, I'd give you mine. But you know what? If I gave mine, then I might get a little chilly. But that's the way we act, right? But John, he's talking about, listen, in our community people need the gospel and it's sad that people even in America in the Bible belt have never heard the gospel. Boy, that's terrible. But if you don't do anything about it, right? Give another example. Ready for this? You say, oh preacher, America's in such bad shape. It is terrible what these people are doing to our country. What people? Well, you know, the Dems. They're just, they're just, well they don't believe anything we believe. Let me help you with something. The elephants don't either. And the politicians and the liberals and these, they're destroying our country. Right? And they're indoctrinating our children in the public school and we can go on and on and on. Here's my question, what are you doing about it? Just sitting back griping, you and Fox News. Right? Listen, you and Sean Hannity talking about how bad things are in America, but we ain't doing nothing about it. If it's that bad and you think it's that bad, you know what you do? You go down to the school board and say, I'm running for school board. I'm running for commissioner. I'm running for mayor. I'm running for president of the United States of America. Whatever. You don't believe it's that bad or you do something about it. But see, we, Brother Russell, we think, well, somebody else will do something about it, right? And I don't have to do anything about it. Somebody's going, this is America, right? Well, it's going to be all right. We always come through this stuff. Well, you don't know your Bible, because America is not in there in the end times. So you say you believe, but we don't do anything about it. So he's saying, here's somebody in the church, right? He's not even talking about somebody, one of the peddlers down at Walmart. He's saying you got somebody in the church that doesn't have a coat and is hungry and your answer to it is depart in peace, be you warmed and filled. Notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body what does it profit? He said what's it saying? I hope you get warm and I hope you're not starved to death. He said, Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works. And he said, I'll show thee my faith by my works. So the appraisal is first he gives us a case to consider. And I mentioned that, the need, the practical. This was practical because many of the church were this way. I mean, we live in a great country, let's be honest. Most of us have not come to church hungry or cold. But that was prevalent then. So they understood it was an example. Like Jesus always gave parables to people because he would relate the message to something they understood. Now James is saying, listen, we got people in the church. You know, brother so and so and his wife came and he's lost his job. And you know he lost his job. No, they don't have any food. And it's 15 degrees and they don't have central air and heat. And you said, brother, listen, I just want you to know I'm praying for you. That ain't putting food in their belly. But we have faith. Just, hey, have faith. Trust God. Why don't you give what you got and you trust God. Amen. Right? Listen, I'm praying for you. You just trust God. God's going to take care of you. Here's an idea. Why don't you give them all your stuff and you trust God. Well, wait a minute now, preacher. Wait a minute, I thought you believed you could trust God. Well I do, then give your stuff to him. Hallelujah. We ain't shouting how are we? Right? Just trust the Lord. Trust God my friend. You know he'll never leave you, never forsake you. But I ain't giving you my stuff. Right? That's what he's saying. How big is your God? How strong is this faith that you brag about? Listen, I'm really trusting God for this thing. You are not. You're trying to fix it yourself. So they understood the need and then the needful action is not enough to acknowledge the need. The Bible said that we're to take care of the needs of our brothers and sisters of Christ as we have the ability to do so. That's what he said. It may not be enough to simply pray for the need. Practical faith meets the need. I understand. I understand the day we live. Listen, I know there's a lot of con men out there, a lot of folks that are not honest and it's hard to tell somebody's got... You pray, God says, hey, give them some money. Give them some money. Buy them a hamburger. Listen, if they got a sign that says, hungry, we'll work for food, go buy McDonald's and give them a bag of hamburgers. If they are really hungry, you've helped them. If they're not, right? I'm not going to give anybody anything. It's mine. You might be the one out there one day. So it's a case to consider but then the conclusion here's what he said if faith does not have works is dead. You may tell you why Christianity is failing in America. It shows liberal churches preachers what it is. No I'll tell you exactly what it is. Ready. Pay attention what I'm saying. We got a dead faith. It's exactly right. We got a dead faith. We talk about it, right? We talk about it. Oh, I'm trusting the Lord, preacher. I love Jesus with all my heart. But nobody out there knows you do. We got a dead faith. We want to be Christian inside the church, but then we walk out here where it needs to be broadcasted, right? Hey, we're more upset about a ball team losing. We're more upset about a political party losing than we are of people dying and going to hell. We can't figure out why God ain't doing anything. That's right. Listen, I'll preach. All right, watch this. Ready? We family, right? We can get real. Can we get real for a minute? We had a lot of people here Sunday. I mean, good crowd. Amen. Some of them probably say, hey, I'll tell you what, boy, we had a great crowd at church. We had a great crowd at our church. Let me ask something. How many did you invite? Right. How many did you invite? Well, everybody I know goes to church. You don't see the problem in that? You with me? See, we got to get off of this theoretical faith where it's just like I can talk about my faith but I don't have to live it outside the walls of the church. It's hard to talk about living faith when we've been blessed to the point where we don't have to worry about anything. Right? So faith that gives intellectual descent to various doctrines is what most of us have, let's be honest. Faith that believes in the Lord Jesus who went about doing good but never goes about doing good. So it ignores the need of others and only sees our own needs. Do you realize that the greatest, maybe one of the greatest examples of Christ that you can be is an intercessor? Let me ask you this, all right? You have to examine this because nobody knows this but you. What's your prayer life look like? Do you spend more time praying for your needs or spend more time praying for the needs of others? So a living faith is a laboring faith. Then number three, the application in verse 19, 20, the Bible said that, thou believest there's one God, thou doest well, the devil also believeth. Can you just see, they're like, look, we believe God, we believe there's one God. He said, well, that's good, the devil believes that too. Good for you, right? He said, but well thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead. So here's what he's saying, that the application of this whole thing is that our faith needs to be displayed. Right? You say you believe faith expresses itself in observable good works. I mean, we listen again, we have to be careful with this, right? Here's what I mean. We live in a day where we have some tools that could be used to glorify God, right? Social media, much as that. Yeah. 95% of the time I'm preaching against it, but you could use it to glorify God. You could use it to show good works, not to brag on you, but to glorify God. Correct? Good. You could. The problem is if we're not careful because of this stinking flesh we got. It becomes more about look at me instead of look at God, right? It could be. But that's what I'm saying. Our face should be displayed. And if the only place we can display it is on a social media platform, then maybe what we need to do is start doing more because you don't have to listen. If people in your community don't know that you're saved. If people where you work don't know that you love Jesus, if people at your school doesn't know that you love the Lord, I mean, if they can't see it, you don't have to go around beating them saying, listen, I'm a Christian and we don't cuss and you don't cuss around me. They ought to just know it. It may take some time, but there ought to be enough evidence in your life where they're going, something different about that guy. Right? But see, we're Secret agents. Secret agent Christians, right? I'm going to hand out some tracts today. Right? Just throw them on the ground and hope somebody picks them up. So our faith should be displayed, not so it brings glory to us, but so it brings glory. And the best way to do it, let's be honest, is to talk about what the Lord has done. Because if we're honest, we talk more about the stuff done to us than we do what God's done. Right? So the application is to display your faith. Not your good works for you, but display your faith and express it in observable good works. And nobody else may see it, but if I do something for Brother Shane, right? I mean, this man Brother Johnny witnessed it. Do you think he's ever going to forget him? No. Now he may end up at church here, he may end up somewhere else, but what I'm saying is, There's something that he saw in him to go. I think I want that. And then here's, here's this faith disputed. He said this in verse 20, he said, but will thou know old vain man that faith without works is dead vain. Here's what empty, empty. Are you willing to put your faith to work? So, that's the test. You say, well, not your place to judge me. You're right. But who wrote this? The Holy Ghost. James, he's no nonsense. He's probably teaching his Sunday school class. They were talking about faith. Oh, I trust God so much. I have so much faith. I'm a man of faith. Oh, I love the Lord and I trust him so much. James, think about this. Here's a man, the brother of Jesus. who's walked with Jesus, who's seen the crucifixion of Christ, who's seen the disciples and all the persecution in the early church, remembered the book of Acts and all they went through. And here's some Christians and some of them were persecuted, but there's probably some that are just like, yeah, I'll tell you what, I was at work. They made fun of me for going to church. I'm being persecuted for the Lord. And there's probably several stories like that. My kid did not, he's not on the starting ball team because we can't miss church on Wednesday night and they miss practice and they won't start it. That's discrimination if I've ever heard it. And I can see James sitting there, can't you? Anybody else? Yeah, I just, I didn't get that raise at work. I know it's because I'm a Christian. I won't go to their parties and drink alcohol with them. Anybody else? I see James, you don't even get it. You don't even get it. Jesus died for you. and you're cowering in fear because you don't have faith but you say you have faith but he said listen if you won't even produce some works with your faith it's not real right? sometimes I wonder if some of these writers of the New Testament especially Paul was writing a letter to the Church of 2024, what it'd look like. Probably just two words. Forget it. I don't, I don't have enough ink. I don't have enough ink to just forget it. Right. Our faith should produce works. produce something. I mean, if you plant some seeds in the ground, surely you expect something to come out. If we got who we say we got on the inside, there ought to be some fruit. And you don't have to, you don't have to, you don't have to brag about it. Brother Bobby, I've been again I've been here a little while and usually the people that are going to tell you all the stuff they've done for Jesus are usually the ones that aren't going to do anything for Jesus right here preacher here's my resume when I walk in the door now put me in a position that I'm qualified for or You can just get in and figure out where you fit in and work, right? I see that. Honestly, brother Jimmy, the day we live, a lot of these young preacher boys, I went to Bible college and I need to take me a church that's going to support my family and I need a package and I need a retirement plan and you know, I need this amount of salary or You can just go where God tells you to go and work. And he might bless you. Our faith should produce works. And James is saying, listen, if it doesn't, there's something wrong with your faith. All these years later, it's still pretty convicting, isn't it? We say we've got faith and there's no works. It ain't much. So let's strengthen our faith and let our faith cause us to labor for the glory of God. All right, let's gather around the altar and pray tonight. Appreciate you being here. Ask the Lord to help us.