Faith that Works

1. Faith that Works James 1.19-27

2. Introduction—Where there is smoke, there’s fire.

3. Take-Home Truth • True faith works.

4. True Faith Works • Faith makes room for the Word. • Faith acts on the Word. • Faith lives the Word.

5. Faith makes room for the Word. (19-21) • By self control (19-20) • “quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger” • Our unchecked anger does nt equate to God’s righteousness.

6. Faith makes room for the Word. • By removing the ‘junk’ (21) • I John 1.5-7 “This is the messages we have heard from Him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

7. Faith makes room for the Word. • Ephesians 4.17-24 • “Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in tem, due to their hardness of heart.”

8. “They have become callous and given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned in Christ!—assuming that you have heard about Him and were taught in Him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to our former manner of life and is corrupted through deceitful desires…”

9. “and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

10. Faith makes room for the Word. • Hebrews 12.1-2 • “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closel, and let us run with endurance the race set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…”

11. Application • Faith makes room for the Word: • We have to remove the ‘junk’ of sin in order to receive the Word, which is what saves you.

12. Faith acts on the Word. (22-25) • By looking intently (22-23) • By looking continually (23-24) • The result is a functional Christian life (25) • Deuteronomy 6.25—”And it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to do all this commandment before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.”

13. Faith acts on the Word. • Works do NOT equal faith. • Deuteronomy 9.5-6—”Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them our before you, and that He may confirm the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people.”

14. Faith acts of the Word. • Ephesians 2.8-9—”For by grace you have been saved through faith. And that is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

15. Application • Faith acts on the Word: • Look long and hard at the Word as you analyze your life. Know that the actions you do, do not cause salvation, but are the result of it.—Just as there cannot be smoke with out fire. Faith’s ‘fire’ is made evident by the ‘smoke’ of our actions in response to the Word.

16. Faith lives the Word. (26-27)

17. I John 3.3-10 • “And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as He is pure. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen Him or known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as He is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of Man appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”

18. Faith lives the Word. • Cross apply verse 27 to what we just read in I John 3.3-10. • V 10—”whoever does not practice righteousness AND whoever does not love his brother” • V 27 “visit orphans and widows (love), keep oneself unstained (righteousness)”

19. Faith live the Word. • I John 3.16-19 • “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our hearts before Him…”

20. Faith lives the Word. • Bridle the tongue (26)

21. Application • Faith lives the Word: • Love and righteousness. Holiness and compassion. These are the lifestyles that define a person of faith. True faith acts and lives, not just talks.

22. Conclusion • Is the fire of your faith strong? If it is, the smoke of your faith (actions) will be visible for miles, like a forest fire. No one can deny the magnitude of the fire when accompanied by a billow of smoke. Is your fire of faith evident to all by the billow of action?