Faith

“Faith, by itself, if it does not have works, is, what is it? In other words, there's a difference between a living faith and a dead faith. A dead faith is intellectual. A dead faith can be confessional. A dead faith can be a ritual. But a true faith, a living faith, a saving faith, is a faith that works. We are not saved by works plus faith, but we are saved by a faith that works.”

“In verse 14, we see that there's a type of belief in God that is different from authentic saving faith. He says in verse 14, what good is it, my brothers, if someone says that he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? Can that faith save him? Indicating that there's a different type of faith than what we're talking about here. here. James isn't here talking about strong faith versus weak faith. He's not talking about mature faith and immature faith. He's talking about a dead faith and a living faith.”

“faithful obedience comes from a sincere faith. Faithful obedience comes from a sincere faith. If you're taking, if you're, if you have your own Bible with you, go ahead and underline those words sincere faith. If you want to circle the word sincere, that's kind of the key word here. Sincere faith. Faithful obedience comes from a sincere faith. Why do we say that? Look with me at verse 5. Verse 5 says, I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your”

“That's a foundation of who we are. We have faith in many different things in this life, like these pews that you're sitting on. You have faith in the pew to not force you to fall to the ground because it's not sturdy enough to hold the weight of your body up. We all have faith in something. We all have faith in many different things, but here we see that these men had faith in someone and that someone's name is Jesus. And so in Hebrews 11 verse 1, and this is the NIV, it says that faith is confidence in what we hope for, an assurance about what we do not”