Foundations of Faith Part 2 – Lawson Perdue – 12/16/2024

Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today. We are sharing on the “Foundations of Faith” from the Book of James. And today, we’re sharing on James 2: the action of faith. Faith without corresponding action is dead being alone. If you really have faith, you’re gonna act like it. Open your heart and receive the word of God today. Blessings. Today, we’re gonna be in James 2. And we’re gonna talk about faith without works is dead. James says this three times, James 2:17, James 2:20, and James 2:26. So we’re gonna talk about works, which are the evidence of our faith. Thank God we have works that demonstrate that we have faith in Jesus Christ. Let’s begin reading James 1, or James 2, excuse me, and verse one. “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.” Now, remember, last week, we talked about that God is no respecter of persons. He’s no respecter of persons, however, God is a respecter of faith. And Romans 2:11 says that God is no respecter of persons. God is equal with people who come to him. We also talked about this, we talked about the goodness of God. And we said in Romans 2:4 that the goodness of God leads us to repentance. Now in a little bit after I read a few more verses of James 2, we’re gonna go to Romans 2, and we’re gonna read Romans 2:5-10. And it very much connects with James 2:1-9. So it says, if you have faith, don’t have faith with partiality, because God is not a God who plays favorites, or he’s impartial, right? God is no respecter of persons; he’s a respecter of faith. He goes on, he says, “For if there comes to your assembly a man with a gold ring and good clothes, and there comes a poor man in poor clothes, and you have respect to him who wears the nice clothing and say, ‘Sit here in a good place,’ and you say to the poor, ‘Stand there or sit under my footstool,’ aren’t you then partial in yourselves and become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved brethren: Has not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him? But you have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by which you are called? If you fulfill the royal law, according to the scripture, you will love your neighbor as yourself, you do well. But if you have respect to persons, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.” So he tells us two places in there, James 2:1, James 2:9, that we are to have faith in Jesus without the respect of persons because, really, our faith in Jesus should mirror who God is, and God is no respecter of persons. Now, let’s go to Romans 2 and let’s read in Romans 2, because Romans 2:5-10 really fits in with what James is saying in James 2 about works being the evidence of our faith. And he says here at Romans 2:5, “After the hardness and impenitent heart, you treasure up wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” If you’re not giving in to the gospel, if you’re not believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, you’re really heaping up, treasuring up judgment that is to come. “Who will render,” it says in verse six, “to every man according to his deeds. To those who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory, honor, and immortality, eternal life.” If you have faith, the fruit of your faith is that you’re going to patiently continue in well doing. You’re gonna seek for glory and honor and immortality, and you will receive eternal life. “But to those who are contentious and do not obey the truth, to those who really don’t have faith, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, they will receive tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man who does evil to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. But glory, honor, and peace to every man who works good to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.” In other words, if you have faith, your faith must have corresponding action. You’re gonna be rewarded not really for what you do; you’re gonna be rewarded because you believe Jesus. But the evidence that you believe Jesus is in not your words, but your actions. Or maybe we should say both your words and your actions. So when we read Romans, Romans is really the revelation of righteousness. And when you read Romans in context, in Romans 1, what Paul is saying, he says, “I’m not ashamed,” in verse 16 and verse 17, “of the gospel of Christ, which is the power of God to salvation, to everyone who believes it, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile.” He says in verse 17, “For therein in the gospel, the righteousness of God has been revealed from faith to faith, according as it is written: the just shall live by faith.” So Romans is really the revelation of righteousness by faith in Jesus. And Paul says this in Romans 1 that righteousness is received by faith. In Romans 3, Paul says, again, righteousness is received by faith. In Romans 4, Paul says, again, righteousness is received by faith. And in Romans 5, Paul says it again, righteousness is received by grace through faith. Righteousness is received. In fact, he says, “When you believe on Jesus,” in verse 17 of Romans 5, “you go from the reign of sin and death to the reign of grace and righteousness by faith in Jesus.” But what happens when you believe on Jesus? In Romans 6, Paul says this, he says, “We’re no longer to live in sin as those who have put faith in Jesus.” He says, number one, because you’re dead to it. Number two, because you’re free from it. Number three, because you have authority over it. And number four, because sin will kill you. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Sin is emotional, sin is stupid, and sin is deadly. So he’s not condoning sin. But then in Romans 7, he says this, he says, “Just like sin will kill you as a believer, legalism will kill you.” And in Romans 1, after we quoted verse 16 and 17, the rest of the chapter, Paul goes on and says, “Gentiles need righteousness, which comes by faith in Jesus,” because they’re caught up in philosophy, idolatry, lust, and all kinds of ungodliness. In Romans 2, he’s saying, “Jews need righteousness, which comes by faith in Jesus, and they’re caught up in legalism. They make their boast in the law, but through breaking the law, they dishonor God.” So he’s not coming against, what he’s saying is, if you really have faith, you’re gonna have corresponding action. Now, in James 2, Pastor James talks about two sides of a coin. And number one, he says, “We don’t wanna have respect to persons because we’re made in the image of God and we have faith in Jesus.” And God is no respecter of persons. He’s a respecter of faith. So if you have faith, you’ve gotta have corresponding actions. He goes on in James 2:10-13, and says, “Not only is there judgment if you live in sin,” right, but he says, “there’s righteousness if you live by faith.” Let’s read James 2:10-13. “For whoever keeps the whole law, yet offends in one point, he’s guilty of it all. For he who said, ‘Do not commit adultery,’ also said, ‘Do not kill, or do not murder.’ Now, if you commit no adultery, yet if you murder, you’ll become a transgressor of the law.” He says in verse 12, “So speak you, and so do you, as those who will be judged,” and he calls the new covenant again, “by the law of liberty.” So he’s talking about grace, he’s talking about freedom that comes when we put our faith in Jesus. He says this then in verse 13, and I love verse 13, “For he will have judgment without mercy who has showed no mercy, and mercy rejoices against judgment.” How many of you are glad that grace is greater than our sin? How many of you’re glad today that God’s mercy is greater than his judgment? Because what James is really saying in James 2:1-9, “Listen, if you live in sin, you’re gonna be judged.” But he said, “Guess what? God’s grace is greater than our sin. God’s mercy triumphs over judgment.” Friends, we’ve been sharing today from “Foundations of Faith”. I have a lot more to say in the realm of faith. And we have all of these teachings online, downloadable audio, downloadable video from live in our church. We would love to have you receive them and many others, free of charge. So check us out at CharisChristianCenter.com.

Mark Hankins was already talking. I heard him mention that joy is a serious business of heaven, and all of a sudden, I heard the Holy Spirit tell me that the burden of heaviness has been lifted from you. So just going into that service and just hearing that and having the Holy Spirit active and the anointing active in the service, lifted it just like that.

Now, I ask you a question. When James is talking about keeping the law, is James just talking about the 10 Commandments? No, he’s talking about the whole law. He’s talking about 620 various laws that go with the big 10. But if you ever think that you’re doing well, keeping the big 10, I have a question for you. There’s a rich young ruler, he came to Jesus in Mark 10. He said, “Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said, “Well, go read what Moses said.” He said, “I’ve done these things from a child up.” Jesus said, “That is good.” Guess what? He was a rich, young ruler, living according to God’s design leads to good things happening in your life. However, Jesus said, “You haven’t done them all. You’ve forgot one.” He said, “Well, which one?” He said, “Well, the very first one. You’ll have no other god’s before me.” He said, “If you wanna have eternal life, you go take all your stuff and sell it and give it to the poor and come and follow me.” “Because,” Jesus said, “really, it’s faith in me that demands your whole life. And you’re saying that you’ve kept them all. And I’m saying, if you really understand what the law says, you haven’t even kept any of it.” So we’re saved by grace through faith. We’re saved by God’s act of grace in the person of Jesus when he died for our sins. And God raised him from the dead, right? And sat him on his own right hand and made him Lord. We’re saved by grace through faith when we believe Jesus, when we believe that Jesus died, Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and Christ was buried and Christ was raised again the third day, according to the scriptures. We’re saved when we believe Jesus, and we’re not saved by our performance, we’re saved by his grace, and it’s his grace alone. In fact, Paul talks about this in Galatians. So we read in Romans, but let’s go to Galatians. Paul says this, some people think that James comes in contention with what Paul was saying in Galatians, and Paul is explaining the grace of God in Galatians to Galatian believers who started out trusting in God’s grace, but then got caught up in performance. And so Paul says this in Galatians 2:16. He says, “Knowing”, I like that word, knowing, everybody say we need to know this.

“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even as we have believed in Jesus, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law, shall no flesh be justified.” So we can’t be saved by our works. We can only be saved by grace, by faith in God’s grace. We can only be saved by faith in Jesus. However, when we put faith in Jesus, it changes the way we live. And that’s what James is talking about. Let’s go a little farther. Paul says it again. In chapter three, he asks a question. He said, “How did you get saved?” Did you get saved by the works of the law or by hearing faith? Did you get saved because of what you did or what Jesus did? How’d you get saved? By Jesus. You believe Jesus, right? But he says again in verse five, he said, “He then who works miracles among you, how does he do it? Does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith?” And the question is obvious. By the hearing of faith. He’s really saying everything from the beginning of your salvation to the end of your walk with God here on this earth, it is all by faith in God’s grace. In fact, Ephesians 2:7 says that we’re gonna receive the exceeding riches of his grace throughout eternity. So grace started, amen, far before you got saved. Amen. Hallelujah. And grace is gonna continue on throughout eternity. Oh, how we need his grace. But he says this in Galatians 2. Notice what he says in verse nine. Or Galatians 3, excuse me, Galatians 3:9. “So then those who are be of faith are blessed with believing,” one translation, I love this translation, “Those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.” You’re not blessed because of what you did. You’re blessed because of who you believed. He says, “For as many as are of,” verse 10, “the works of the law are under the curse.” If you are trusting your performance, if you’re trusting anything, except trusting Jesus, he said, “You’re under the curse because it’s written: ‘Cursed is everyone who continues not in all the things written in the book of the law.'” The problem with law keeping for righteousness or receiving the blessing is if you’re gonna receive because you kept the law, you’ve gotta keep it all. It’s kind of like baseball. Maybe you like the New York Yankees. They have a winning record. They’re a great team, but they don’t win every time. Maybe you know someone who’s a great scholar, but you don’t score a hundred on every test. And what he says, really, here in Galatians 3, Paul tells us that the law is our school master to bring us unto Christ. So the law showed us how short we fell of Jesus. And if we’re gonna be saved by keeping the law, we’ve gotta keep the whole law. In fact, I’m not saved even today by keeping the whole law. You know, this summer, it was really hot and dry. So I decided at the beginning of August, I would plant some grass in my yard, in the dry spots. And so I went out, you know, about the first Monday of August, in the afternoon after I got home from church, and I raked all the dead stuff up in my dry spots. And then I took 10 bags of manure and I raked it all on the ground. And then I got the seed and I bought this special seed, what they call it, the green center or something, over there on Mesa. I bought this fine fescue grass. They said it takes half the water of the other grass. So I bought this special seed, but guess what? It’s not just fine fescue, it is fine fescue, but it’s three different kinds of fescue grass. And the law says that you can’t sow your field with mingled seed. So after I raked all the dead grass out and raked all the manure in, then I started planting the seed. And just as I started planting the seed, it started raining and it rained almost every day for 10 days. And I have green grass in all my dry spot. I got my yard looks awesome, thank you, Jesus. But guess what? Even in planting that grass seed, I broke God’s law. In fact, today I’m wearing some clothes that are not made of just one fiber. And the Bible talks about, if you’re gonna wear cotton, you gotta wear cotton. And you can’t wear a mixture of cotton and polyester. You can’t wear a mixture of wool and linen. You gotta wear wool or you gotta wear linen, but you can’t wear a mixture. So you know I’ve got socks on that are 97% whatever they are, and they’re 3% of something else. But you know what? My socks are making me break God’s law. And yours probably are too if you have socks on.

Congregation Amen.

Amen? And so nobody has kept God’s law 100%. You cannot be saved by keeping God’s law. And the problem with trying to trust your performance to receive salvation or any of God’s blessing is nobody performs 100%. That’s not why God gave the law. God gave the law so when Jesus came, you’d say, “Jesus, save me. Jesus, help me. Jesus, I trust you, Jesus.” Thank God for Jesus. Everybody say thank God for Jesus. Thank God for grace. And that’s what Paul’s talking about in Galatians 3:10. He says, “Cursed is everyone who continues not in everything written in the Book of the Law to do him. But no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, the just shall live by faith.” He’s saying exactly what he said in Romans 1:17. And he says in verse 12, “And the law is not of faith.” So if you’re trying to be saved by keeping the law, some people are trying to keep all these various laws, so on and so forth. Read the Book of Colossians. See what it says about it, okay? But he says, “The law is not of faith.” And Romans 14:23 says this, it says, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” See, the law wasn’t given to make you righteous. The law was given to show you that you were a sinner and you needed Jesus. So when Jesus came, you’d give up. Quit trusting yourself. Quit trying to do all these things and just believe Jesus. There are no atheists in the foxholes. You know, when we started this church, Barbara was talking about it. One thing, I went to a group of apartment buildings one day and I was handing out flyers there, and Barbara got a call later and this person was offended because they said, “We’re atheists and we don’t believe in God. And so who is this person that’s putting out these flyers?” “Well, that happens to be my husband.” “But by the way, even though we’re atheists and we don’t believe in God, would you baptize our baby, please? Because even though we don’t believe in God, we believe in God.” Now, we don’t baptize babies because we believe that people need to express a personal faith in Jesus. But at the same point in time, amen, there are no true atheists. If somebody’s in a foxhole, somebody’s shooting at ’em, they’re calling on Jesus. Hallelujah. Amen. And so he says this, “The devils believe and tremble. But will you know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac, his son, on the altar?” You see how faith with his works and by works, his faith was made perfect. Now, when did Abraham receive righteousness by faith? Galatians 15:6 said, Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for righteousness. Galatians, or excuse me, Genesis 15:6. Genesis 15:6 says that. Genesis 15:6 was talking about Abraham was approximately 85 years old. How old was Abraham when he offered up Isaac on the altar? He was at least 114. ‘Cause most Bible scholars believe that Abraham offered Isaac sometime between the time he was 14. Abraham was a hundred when he was born and 25 years old. So we’re gonna say 15, right? We’re gonna say he is 85 in Genesis 15, he was 115 in Genesis 22 when he put Isaac on the altar. And it says in Hebrews 11:19 that he accounted that God was able to raise him from the dead wherewith he received him in a figure. That was probably Abraham’s greatest act of faith in his entire life. Because Isaac represented everything that Abraham had been believing God for about 40 or 50 years at that time. And so to take his son and offer, but he believed, “Hey, if I offer him, God will raise him from the dead.” And in Genesis 22 says, “By myself, I have sworn that in blessing, I’m gonna bless you, in multiplying, I’m gonna multiply you.” Now, guess what? We all love Father Abraham, right? And I believe that God calls Abraham the father of faith, not because he was such a faith giant, but because Abraham really needed faith in God. Friend, thanks so much for watching the broadcast and being with us today. I wanna let you know that if you need prayer, we have trained prayer ministers that are waiting today to receive your call. And we’ve had many people healed in their bodies, received Jesus as their Lord, received the baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, which has brought them into an entirely new aspect of faith. So if you need prayer, be sure and give us a call. And I want to say a great big thank you to all of our partners who help us produce these broadcasts.

Narrator If you are gonna live for Jesus, it will take both faith and wisdom. God has a great plan for your life. And any plan he designs takes faith to bring it to pass. The Book of James is full of incredible wisdom. Pastor Lawson’s five-part teaching, “Foundations of Faith: Lessons from James”, will unpack that wisdom. The digital download is a $25 value yours free today. Download ’em now at charischristiancenter.com.

Hi, ladies, I am so excited to have you personally join us for this year’s Rejoice Women’s Conference. I know that God has something amazing in store for you. I know that he has good plans for us. I hope to see you there, February 6th through 8th. Cathy Duplantis is our keynote speaker. My daughter-in-Law, Heather Perdue, will be joining us as well as I’ve even asked my husband, Pastor awesome Lawson. And he’ll also be ministering. It’s gonna be a great time. I look forward to seeing you there.

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