James 2:14-26 (Fool’s Gold, part 1)

These are my notes from a sermon series. It has not been proofed for spelling or grammatical errors. I present it to you as-is.

Today we are going to begin a short series looking at real faith, the kind that brings about salvation and transformation, and two types of imitation faith that sounds real and feels real but does not produce salvation or transformation.

James 2:14 says, What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone? ¹⁵ Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, ¹⁶ and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? ¹⁷ So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. ¹⁸ Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.” ¹⁹ You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God. Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror. ²⁰ How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless? ²¹ Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete. ²³ And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” He was even called the friend of God. ²⁴ So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone. ²⁵ Rahab the prostitute is another example. She was shown to be right with God by her actions when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road. ²⁶ Just as the body is dead without breath, so also faith is dead without good works. (NLT)

If you casually read this you will think that it takes faith and good works to get to heaven, but with a closer examination you will discover that’s not what this is saying. What this is saying is that when a person places their faith in Christ they will show it by various good deeds. Their faith brings about a change in how they see and treat people.

This is real important, so I want to be real clear. So let me give you two very important truths.

• First, your salvation is produced by your faith. Listen carefully to Ephesians 2:8 which says, “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— ⁹ not from works, so that no one can boast.” (Eph. 2:8-9, CSB). Your salvation is produced by your faith.
  • You are told that “you are saved by grace through faith.” It is by God’s grace that you are able to place your faith in Him for salvation. When the grace of God is mixed with faith in God regarding what He did on the cross through Christ you have salvation. So you are saved by grace through faith. Your salvation is produced by your faith.
  • Ephesians 2:8 goes on to say, “… and this [talking about your faith] is not from yourselves [you did not create the ability to believe within you]; it [talking about your faith] is God’s gift.” The ability to have faith in Christ for salvation was a gift to you and it was by God’s grace that you were able to believe. Without God giving you the faith to believe you would never have believed and you would have never become a follower of Jesus. For you are saved by grace through faith.
  • Ephesians 2:8 goes on to say this faith for salvation is a gift and “not from works, so that no one can boast.” Our salvation is not from works. It’s not believe in Jesus and be good and you will be saved. It’s not believe in Jesus and go to church then you will be saved. It’s not believe in Jesus and get baptized and then you will be saved. It’s not believe in Jesus and bless somebody and then you will be saved. Your salvation is by grace through faith in Christ alone. Your salvation is produced by your faith.
• Listen carefully, your salvation is produced by your faith and your salvation is proven by your works. Look at Ephesians 2:8 again which says, “For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— ⁹ not from works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do” (Eph. 2:8-9, CSB). You are not saved by good works, but you are save for good works. You place your faith in Christ. He saves you. You become born again. You are a new creation on the inside. The Holy Spirit is now inside you and working in you. Little by little you begin producing actions and words that reveal love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and faithfulness. Your faith in Christ is now producing good works. You get saved and now you are thinking thoughts like, “What does God want me to do?” He wants you to get baptized, so you get baptized. He wants you to forgive so you forgive. He wants you to love, so you love. He wants you to be gentle, so you are gentle. This new you is beginning to reveal that your faith is real. Your salvation is proven by your works.

But there is a problem. There is real faith and there is imitation faith. In James 2, James is going to introduce us to two imitations of faith and genuine faith. The two types of imitation faith I call intellectual faith and emotional faith, but the real faith I call whole faith.

Today, we are going to examine intellectual faith, next week we will look at emotional faith and then we will finish with whole faith. Let’s take a look at three things about intellectual faith and remember intellectual faith in not real faith, it’s an imitation.

Intellectual faith involves only the mind

Number one, intellectual faith involves only the mind. People will often confuse genuine faith with intellectual faith. The devil, he is completely content with people staying confused about this. A person with intellectual faith is smart. They know the Bible. They can tell you the Bible stories. They can tell you what the Bible says about how to get saved. They will tell you they are saved and they are a believer, but in reality nothing about their life says they are a believer. This is what James is addressing in verse 14 when he rhetorically asks an important question in verse 14, “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?” The answer is no. James is addressing those who claim to be a follower of Jesus, but have nothing to back it up.

If you were to ask this person, “Are you a Christian?” They would say yes. If you were to ask them if he had asked Jesus Christ to be the Lord of his life he would say yes. Listen carefully, this person is not a Christian simply because he says yes to these questions. James says, “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?” James is saying, “What good is it if a person says they are a Christian, says they have trusted Christ, says they have believed Jesus, and says that he is the Lord of their life when their life doesn’t back up what they say? Intellectual faith knows and says the right things, but the truth has never made it to their heart for an internal transformation.

Today we tend to label people as Christians if they make the slightest sound of being a believer. Let me say that it is more than just talk that is involved in real faith. It’s more than just knowing the answers. Jesus made this very clear when He said, “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter” (Matthew 7:21, NLT). Not everyone who has a Christian bumper sticker that reads, “Jesus is Lord” is a Christian. Not everyone who wears a Christian T-shirt is a Christian. Not everyone who goes to church is on their way to heaven. “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions?”

To drive home his point, James gives us an illustration in verses 15-16, Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing, ¹⁶ and you say, “Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well”—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do? ¹⁷ So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. This intellectual faith is a dead faith, a useless faith.

To bring this closer to home let me explain it this way. Suppose your doorbell rings and you open it to find a family you know that has hit hard times. The father says, “We haven’t eaten in several days. Can you help us?” You know this family is legit. They are not trying to scam you or trick you. They are in real need.

So you take the family into your living room, get out your Bible, and say, “Let’s see what the Word of God says.” You start reading passages that tell how God can make a way where there is no way, how He rained manna on the Israelites when they were in the wilderness, how He miraculously fed five thousand people with a few loaves of bread and a couple of fish.

Then you say, “My Bible says God can feed you when you are hungry. He’s a doctor when you are sick, a shepherd when you are lost, and a rock when you are in the midst of storms. My Bible tells me God can do anything. Isn’t that encouraging? Let’s have a word of prayer.” You ask God to meet the needs of this brother and sister and their children, lay your hands on them and say, “Go in peace,” show them to the door, and close it behind them and return to watching your TV.

God’s question to you and me in that situation is, “What good is that kind of faith?” You claim to be a believer. You claim to believe God’s Word but you show no compassion, no concern, and no love toward others. That hungry family didn’t need a sermon, they needed supper. They didn’t need to sit in your living room, but in your kitchen. They needed you to open your refrigerator, not your Bible.

Now don’t misunderstand. There’s nothing wrong with sharing the Word with people in need. I’m doing right now with you. The problem is when your faith is only academic. Intellectually you say you are a believer. You say this and you say that and your faith is all talk and no walk. “What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don’t show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?” Is that genuine faith? Is that real faith? Is that saving and life transforming faith? No. It’s an imitation faith. It’s close, but its not the real thing.

Intellectual faith produces no action

Intellectual faith involves only the mind and number two, intellectual faith produces no action. Intellectual faith may say a lot and verbally claim a lot of things, but it is not real faith. Look closely at verse 17 where James says, “Faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds….” If your faith is real then you will see fruit and good deeds coming from your life that demonstrates to you and to others that it’s real. For example, I can hold up a seed and tell you that this seed is an apple tree seed. It looks like a seed and it could be an apple tree seed… but that seed by itself isn’t enough unless it produces a tree that produces apples. The only way I know that seed is a genuine apple seed is when it produces apples.

The same is true about your faith. Faith by itself isn’t enough unless it produces good deeds. I can tell you that my faith is real, but if it’s not producing a life of faith then it’s not real. It’s a dead faith, it’s an intellectual faith that says the right things but does not produce the right things.

Intellectual faith is a useless faith

Intellectual faith involves only the mind and produces no actions, and number three, intellectual faith is useless. James says in verse 17, “Faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless” (NLT). When someone says they care, but they show no acts of compassion or concern then their care is dead and useless. That’s what James is saying about faith. You can say you have faith in Jesus, but if you don’t care about what Jesus cares about then that faith is a dead and useless faith.

Let’s talk about this phrase “dead and useless.”

• Have you ever seen a dead tree? It is taking up space, but it doesn’t produce anything. A dead orange tree doesn’t produce oranges. A dead faith doesn’t produce acts of faith. A dead faith does not produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness or faithfulness. Overtime, real faith in Jesus will produce the things of Jesus in that person’s life. That’s the nature of faith. The nature of an orange seed is that when it’s planted will produce a tree and that tree will produces oranges. The nature of real faith is that when it’s planted in you will eventually produce the fruit of faith from that life. Instead of being dead, it’s alive.
• Have you ever seen a useless refrigerator? A refrigerator needs electricity. If it does not have electricity it is useless. It will not do what is it designed to do without electricity. You can put milk in it, food in it, drinks in it, and you can put whatever you want in it but without electricity, that refrigerator is useless. The same is true about faith, faith without good deeds is useless.

You can tell me that you believe in Jesus, but unless that belief… that faith produces the things of Jesus in your life you only have an intellectual faith. You may be able to tell me the story of Jesus and believe the story of Jesus is true, but if your faith in Jesus is not going beyond words then your faith is dead and useless.

Conclusion

Today we have spent time looking at intellectual faith and what it is and how it compares to real faith. I’m concerned that some people believe they have real faith saving and life transforming faith when it reality they only have this intellectual faith. They claim to believe in Jesus, when what they really mean is they believe the story of Jesus. They believe there was a real Jesus, they believe there was a real cross, a real tomb, a real resurrection, and some day he will return. They believe those facts about Jesus, but their faith has never accepted Jesus as Lord and their faith doesn’t cause them to base their life on Him. That is faith without good deeds that James is talking about.

Intellectual faith is applying the same faith onto Jesus that we place on historical figures. Intellectual faith believes in Jesus the same way it believes in Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Elvis Presley, or Jack the Ripper. Do you believe the story of Abraham Lincoln? Yes. Do you believe the story of Elvis Presley? Yes. Do you believe the story of Jack the Ripper? Yes. Do you believe the story of Jesus? Yes. Intellectual faith.

Just like James, Paul had the same concern about a group of believers in Corinth. He was so concerned about this that he wrote them in 2 Corinthians 13:5 saying, “Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves” (NLT). Take a hard look at your life and what you believe. Is your faith in Jesus real, if it is you will see spiritual growth and the fruit of the Spirit being produced in your life and you will find yourself loving God’s people more and loving the people more.

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