Some time ago I was visiting with a pastor in another state, and he was talking about how there are well over 30 churches in just their small community.  He said, “You know how it is here; everyone says they are a Christian.” I told him I know exactly how it is; in a lot of places in America — in the South especially — virtually everyone you run into says they are a member of a church, and thinks they’re going to heaven. But the problem is, in many cases, they really don’t have saving faith.

Remember Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who DOES the will of my Father who is in heaven.”  In other words, there will be a lot of people who think they have saving faith, but really don’t. How can you know if you have genuine, Biblical, saving faith, or not? 

The book that we’ll begin to study today give us a lot of answers to that question. The Book of James shows us what REAL faith looks like. Now I can tell you right off the top that there are some things that genuine, saving faith does NOT look like:

— it does NOT look like the person who supposedly makes a “decision” for Jesus at some point in their life, gets baptized, but then lives like they never met Jesus, with morals and standards just like the world around them.

– it does NOT look like the “religious” person who reads their Bible and goes to church every week, while they gossip about people, play up to those who have money, but totally ignore the elderly, widows, orphans, or the poor! 

Real, Biblical faith, James tells us, is an entirely different thing. In Chapter 2, James writes: “If a man says he has faith, but he has no works, will that faith save him?” The answer, of course, is “no”!  If you have genuine, saving faith in Jesus, you will have works that demonstrate that your faith is real. What does real, saving faith, look like? Do YOU have it? A lot of people in America today are deceived – are you one of them?  This book will show you. 

The Book of James historically has been one of the most controversial books of the Bible.  For example, in Martin Luther’s preface to the German translation of the Bible that he was writing in 1522, he wrote:

“Therefore St. James’s epistle is really a right straw-y epistle, compared to these others, for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it.” 

Luther thought James was an epistle of “straw”, because it seemed to him to emphasize works too much, and he thought it didn’t share the nature of the Gospel. I agree with Luther on many things, but I disagree with his evaluation of James. In fact this book teaches us A LOT about the real nature of the gospel. It shows us what REAL FAITH LOOKS LIKE in several ways:

— First of all, it shows us WHY we need to be saved

— Second, it shows us HOW we are saved – by faith in Jesus Christ. 

— Finally, in what is a great emphasis of the book, it shows us what your life will LOOK like if you really are saved.  

So let’s spend a few minutes this morning by looking at these three ways the Book of James shows us “What Real Faith Looks Like.”

I.  It shows us WHY we need to be saved

The Book of James dramatically reveals to every one of us our pressing NEED to be saved. 

It is easy to look at the Book of James and get lost in all the specific admonitions and think it’s just a practical “how-to” book. But it isn’t. Its practical admonitions actually confront us week after week with our need to be saved – because when we look at what all it says we should be doing, we see there is NO WAY can live up to the standards of this book! It shows us very dramatically that we have all broken God’s laws, and we have a desperate need of a Savior!

This realization that we need a Savior is the single greatest need that people in America have today. Most people have no sense of their accountability to God. They think they are pretty good people. When you speak to them while doing evangelistic surveys, they say things like: “I know I’m not perfect, but I haven’t murdered anybody; I think I deserve to go to heaven.” But they don’t realize that they have broken God’s laws; they stand guilty before Him and they will be condemned for their sin. 

Genesis tells us that Adam & Eve were tempted by Satan in the Garden of Eden, and they chose to ignore God’s commandment, and sin. This has subsequently repeated in each of us since. We have all inherited a nature corrupted by sin, and when we come to the time when we can make our own choices, every one of us does actually choose to sin. We have all broken God’s Laws. If you have any question about whether this is true, this Book of James will definitely show you!

For example, in Chapter 3 it talks about the importance of taming the tongue. James 3:2 says, “If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect (mature) man, able to bridle the whole body as well.”  That’s the standard that is set before us: control your tongue and you will be a perfect person. But the problem is, NONE of us can do that!  We all lose “the battle of the tongue”! James flat out says a couple of verses later: “no man can tame the tongue”. ALL of us sin and lose this battle every day – which points out how utterly LOST we really are! Jesus said “By your words you will be justified and by your words you will be condemned.” We know which of those two it will be: if it’s up to our words, we will all be condemned! We’ve gossiped, we’ve slandered, we’ve cursed, we’ve insinuated, we’ve boasted, we’ve flattered, we’ve lied, we’ve deceived, we’ve spoken when we shouldn’t have, and we’ve NOT spoken up when we SHOULD have! If there were no other Commandments in the Bible other than those regarding our words, it would already condemn us all!  “By your words you will be condemned” Jesus said.

Who here this morning can say: “I have tamed my tongue. I never say anything I shouldn’t?” I already KNOW what the answer is: Not one of us!  “No man can tame the tongue”! So this points out our desperate need for a Savior. We need a Savior like Jesus: not someone who shows us all the things that we have to DO in order to be saved, because we can’t do them. We can try to do good, but we fail! We need a Savior like Jesus, who Himself lived the perfect life that we could not live, who “while being reviled, did not revile in return; while suffering He uttered no threats” – in other words, He DID keep His tongue under control! He lived the perfect life that we couldn’t live, so that He could die on the cross as the perfect sacrifice for our sins, so that if we would confess our sinfulness to the Lord, and trust His sacrifice on the cross to save us, He will forgive our sins, and GIVE us His perfect righteousness, and we will be saved, NOT on the basis of what we have done for Him, but on the basis of what HE did for US by dying for us on the cross. THAT is the kind of Savior we need – One who does for us what we can’t do for ourselves. 

Our need for a Savior like Jesus is shown to us verse after verse, chapter after chapter in this Book of James. If we’re wise, we’ll see our need for a Savior at every turn in this book:

— In Chapter 1 we see how we aren’t caring for orphans and widows the way we should, and how we have been stained by the world – and we see how much we need a Savior.

— In Chapter 2, we see how we have played favorites with the rich even in the church, and we realize how much we need a Savior

— In Chapter 3 we see how we sin with our words every day, and we are reminded of how much we need a Savior

— In Chapter 4 we see how selfish and worldly even our prayers are, and we know we desperately need a Savior!

— In Chapter 5 we see how our luxurious living in the face of the poverty of the world around us condemns us, and it casts us all on the mercy of God — we need a Savior! 

James 2:10 says “Whoever keeps the whole Law, and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of the whole Law.” If you spend much time at all in the Book of James, you will quickly see that you have stumbled in much more than ONE point!  We’ve broken God’s commandments left and right, and we need a Savior! The Book of James makes that very clear. It shows us WHY we need to be saved.

II.  It shows us HOW we can be saved.

James doesn’t merely show us the problem – it also shows us the solution. It shows us the Savior we need. Luther thought James didn’t share the nature of the gospel, but I disagree: from the very first verse, James preaches Jesus to us. It’s true that James only mentions the name of Jesus twice in his book, but both times it is packed with meaning:

— The first verse says, “James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.” So he starts off with Jesus. He calls Him the “Christ” – “Christ” is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “Messiah,” the Anointed One God promised in Isaiah 53 who would bear our iniquities for us. He is the “Lord” – the One whom we are to follow in personal commitment.  From the first verse, James says that the solution to our sin problem is having Jesus as our Lord & Savior. 

— Then Chapter 2:1 says “My brethren, do not hold your FAITH in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism.”  His topic there in Chapter 2 is favoritism in the church, which is a sin. But he also speaks there of how we are saved from our sin: through FAITH in the One he calls “our glorious Lord Jesus Christ.” This is just what Ephesians 2:8-9 teaches: “By grace are you saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”  It is faith in Jesus, not our own good works, that saves us.

John Ryland grew up a couple hundred years ago in England, and he was an extraordinary young man. He read through the New Testament in Greek at 8 years old. When he was 11, he read through the Book of Genesis 5 times – in Hebrew!  He was very gifted, and very “religious.” His father was a pastor. But despite all of these things, he had an unsettled feeling, for he knew that he was not right with God. His family background didn’t save him; all his religious readings in Hebrew and Greek, and all his religious works didn’t save him. But one day a young friend of his made it clear to him that he would never be saved by the things he did, but only by putting his faith in Jesus, and what HE did for him on the cross. Ryland did put his trust in Jesus that day, and from that day on, he KNEW that he was saved.    

What John Ryland did is what we ALL must do: we need to make certain that we have personally put out faith in Jesus as our Lord & Savior. We’re going to talk a lot about works in the Book of James in the weeks ahead, because a person’s works demonstrate whether they really are saved, but make no mistake: you will not saved by your own works and deeds. You must put your trust for your salvation in Jesus and what HE did for you on the cross alone. James emphasizes this: it is faith in Jesus that saves.   

But James also emphasizes something else very important about salvation; and this is something that many of us in the Bible Belt especially need to hear: we are not saved by just making an empty “profession” of faith which doesn’t show itself in our works. James 2:14 goes on to say, “What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works?  Can that faith save him?” And the answer of course, is NO!  It can’t! Real faith is much more than saying that you prayed some prayer in church one time and got baptized. Real faith is more than knowing that you walked down an aisle, or made an emotional “decision” some time in your past. Real faith is much more than “getting baptized” or joining a church. Real faith LIVES OUT the truth of the gospel by FOLLOWING Jesus as Savior and Lord. 

It is significant that each time the name “Jesus” is used in James, he puts the word, “Lord” with it. He is “LORD Jesus Christ” in 1:1; He is “our glorious LORD Jesus Christ” in 2:1. And James says in :1 that he is not just an “adherent”; he says I am a “bondservant” of the Lord Jesus Christ. In all these ways, James is showing us that it’s not enough to claim that you have “faith” in Jesus; if you really have saving faith in Jesus, you will show it, by following Him as your Lord. This Book makes it very clear that your faith will show itself by the way you live:

— Chapter 2:17 says “Faith, if it has no works is dead, being by itself.”  

— :20 says “Faith without works is useless.”  

In other words, if you really know Jesus as your Savior, you will SHOW IT by following Him as your Lord. Which, quite frankly, exposes the so-called “faith” of a whole lot of people as bogus!

Samuel Rutherford, a pastor in Scotland in the 1600’s, wrote that you could “scarcely light upon a man” in Scotland who didn’t claim to have faith. It’s that way in a lot of places in America now too, right? You can scarcely find a person here in Angleton who says they don’t believe in Jesus. But on the other hand, you can also scarcely find the person who is really following Jesus! James tells us this is NOT real faith! He says it’s no good saying “I believe” and then not following Jesus. If that’s the kind of faith you have, James says, that so-called “faith” is NOT going to save you. 

There is no “easy believism” in the Book of James. There is no “pray this prayer and live however you want” salvation that seems to be so common down here in the “Bible Belt.” James teaches that you are saved by faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord, which, if it is real, will SHOW itself in the way you live. 

So each of us should examine ourselves this morning: is your faith in what Jesus did on the cross for you, or is it in your own religious works, to make you right before God? And if you say your trust is in Jesus, are you really following Him as your Lord? Are you showing your faith is real, by the way you live? 

III.  It shows us what we will LOOK like if we are really saved.

So what does the life of  those who are really saved look like? What do they do? The book of James shows us “What Real Faith Looks Like”:

James makes it clear that we are saved by faith in Jesus, but it also makes it clear in Chapter 2 that you are not saved by having a “faith alone” – that is, a faith that is not REAL, and lived out in practical ways. 

And this book shows us what some of those practical ways are. Now, there are some books of the Bible in which you might be tempted to get lost in abstract theology. James is NOT one of those books. It is not composed of mere theological speculation. It is eminently practical:

— Chapter 1 shows how you will respond to trials if you really have faith.

— Chapter 2 shows how you will treat people if you have genuine faith.

— Chapter 3 shows how you will talk if you are really saved.

— Chapter 4 shows what some of your attitudes will be if you have real faith.

— Chapter 5 shows how you’ll use your money, and how you will pray, if you really have faith. 

From first to last, this book shows us “What Real Faith Looks Like.” (I thought it would be the perfect “followup” to Isaiah 53, which had so much theology about the cross and the “Substitutionary Atonement;” so now in James we get very practical. For the next several months, Lord willing, we are going to compare our lives to the standard of genuine faith that James displays for us. James holds up the “mirror” of God’s word up to us and says “If you are really saved by that ‘Substitutionary Atonement,’ then this is what your life will look like.” Every one of us should ask ourselves as we walk through this book: Is this what I look like?  It will search our lives.

The author and playwright Tennessee Williams once said that he stopped seeing his analyst because, “He was meddling too much in my private life.” That’s pretty funny, but I’ve got to tell you, one’s analyst is nothing compared to the Book of James! The Book of James will “meddle” with your life!  It will meddle with your life big time – it will meddle with your private life, it will meddle with your public life, and it will meddle with everything in between — IF you take it seriously! You’re gonna have a choice with this book: you will either face yourself practically and seriously, or you will harden your heart and walk away. You got to do one or the other. Of course, that’s always the choice with the gospel. You’ve either got to be willing to leave everything and follow Jesus, like His disciples did, or you will choose to walk away sorrowful, like the Rich Young Ruler did. There’s no “middle ground” with the gospel.  And that’s how it is with the Book of James, too. Every week you will be faced with specific, practical choices to make in your life, as it shows us “What Real Faith Looks Like.” Some of us will see that we are really on our way to what this book teaches is a life of genuine faith. We’re not “there” yet, but we are genuinely on the way. But others of us – if you’re honest – will say, “Man, I’m not anything like this!” And it’ll show you that you really need to be genuinely saved! 

CONCLUSION:

This book has SO much to offer. I want to challenge you to do several things as we get ready to study this book verse by verse, starting next Sunday:

— first of all, BE HERE every service you can. 

— invite someone to come with you. You undoubtedly know someone who would benefit from hearing the practical teaching of the word of God that is found in the Book of James.

— read it for yourself each week, and make notes and pray about what you find here. And then see what more God shows you when we study it together.

— Some of you may want to do something very special: work on memorizing this book. Just start with verse 1: “James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes who are dispersed abroad, Greetings …” 

Memorize it yourself; Moms & Dads, encourage your kids to memorize this book. Give them a big reward if they will memorize the whole book: tell them you’ll buy them that iPad or take them to Disney World or whatever. It will be worth whatever you do, to encourage them to put this marvelous treasure of the word of God into their lives. It can be life-changing!

— BUT listen: as important as memorizing this book is, I think James himself would say that the most important thing you can do with his book is not just memorize it; but APPLY it; DO what it says! Find those specific things God says you need to be doing differently, and put those things into practice in your life. Do NOT just look at this book, or listen to it, and walk away. Ask God to help you see yourself in the “mirror” of this book, and by His Spirit’s power, come away changed forever! 

— And the most important thing you can do with this book is to ask yourself, if you say that you are a Christian, is this what your faith looks like? Some of us today can already tell: this is NOT what your faith looks like. You know right now that you have never been saved. But through God’s grace, you can be, today. Admit that you have broken God’s Law; put your faith in Jesus as your Savior and Lord, and commit yourself to follow Him and live your faith out like this book describes, with His help. When you do that, you can know that you are truly saved – because that is “What Real Faith Looks Like”!