And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
FIRST FAITH, THEN ACTION
JAMES, in his letter to the Christians of the diaspora,” the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad” He had two purposes for writing,
- To correct a corrupted faith that was rapidly seeping into the church.
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- Many were professing faith in Christ, but living immoral and unrighteous lives.
- Their faith was profession only—a faith of license with little or no restraint upon behavior
- If you or your church are not responding to God and attempting things that only He can accomplish, then you are not exercising faith. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him”(Heb.11:6).
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- If people in your community are not responding to the gospel as they did in the New Testament, one possible reason is that they are not seeing God in what you are doing as a church.
- If you have faith in the God who called you, you will obey Him; and He will bring to pass what He has purposed to do.
- If you lack faith, you will not do what He wants. That is disobedience
WITHOUT FAITH A PERSON CANNOT PLEASE GOD. WITHOUT FAITH A CHURCH CANNOT PLEASE GOD.
- To present the true Faith of Christ: A Faith of the heart—A Faith that produces outward fruit.
- James’ point is very simple: a person is known to be a Christian only by his behavior.
- What he does proves one of two things: it proves he is a Christian or it proves he is not a Christian.
WHAT YOU BELIEVE ABOUT GOD WILL DETERMINE WHAT YOU DO
AND HOW YOU LIVE.
- What you do reveals what you believe about God, regardless of what you say.
- God and the world can tell from your response what you really believe about God
Your actions really do speak louder than words.
When the two blind men demonstrated that they believed Jesus was merciful and that He was the Messiah (Son of David), Jesus healed them according to their faith (Matt. 9:27-31).
A woman who had been sick for years believed that just a touch of Jesus’ garment would allow His healing power to flow to her. She was willing to risk public ridicule in order to experience His healing power. She acted in faith, and Jesus healed her (Matt. 9:20-22).
When a centurion sought Jesus’ help to heal his servant, he said, “Only speak a word, and my servant will be healed” (Matt. 8:8). Jesus commended the centurion’s faith in His authority and power, and He healed the servant because of the faith of his master (Matt. 8:5-13).
In each of these biblical examples, what the people did, indicated to Jesus what kind of faith they had or did not have.
ON THAT PASSOVER WEEKEND OUR LORD AND SAVIOR HAD A
CRISIS IN BELIEF,
HIS ACTIONS REVEALS WHAT HE REALLY BELIEVES ABOUT
THE FATHER
SEE, HIS ACTIONS REVEALS HIS FAITH
Look, you can see His Faith in Action?
On that hill far away, on that old rugged cross,
Look, you can see His Faith in Action?
Jesus was cursed as he became sin for us! Wave after wave of our sin was poured over Christ’s sinless soul.
Again and again during those three hours his soul recoiled and convulsed as all our lies, infidelity, hatreds, jealousies, murders, and pride were poured upon his purity
With horror Christ found his entire being to be sin in the Father’s sight.
Look, you can see his faith in action?
As they pierce Him in the side.
Look, you can see His Faith in Action?
The sixth cry, “It is finished”; The seventh cry, “Father, into thy hands…..,” Our Lord dismisses His spirit
As He hung His head and died.
Look, you can see His Faith in Action?
As they laid Him in the tomb
Look, you can see His Faith in Action?
It’s the third day morning, don ‘t you see Him He gotten up, He has all power…