Title: Show Me Your Faith!
Contents
Sunday day sermon
Text: James 2:14-26
Title: Show Me Your Faith!
Faith and works are inextricably linked. If you say you believe and do not follow action, it is dead faith. Also, acting on one's own accord without faith is also dead faith. For example, saying you believe in Jesus and not doing what Jesus said is dead faith. It is also dead faith to act on one's own accord without Jesus' direction.
To explain this in a more understandable way, Abraham said that he believed in God. Then God suddenly said to Abraham, "Take your son from me!" Is it a dead faith depending on how Abraham behaves in that case? It's up to you whether you believe it or not. Those who have perfect faith will trust their son to God without hesitation, but those who say they believe only with their mouths will hesitate for fear of the death of their children.
It is said that there are about 2 billion Christians worldwide today. Among them, about 12 million people in Korea alone are Christians who believe in Jesus. But do these people really have the same faith as Abraham? Maybe there are people who believe in Jesus only with their mouths? It is easy to test them. Since they believe in Jesus and become Christians, you can quickly find out if you listen to the words of your servant (the Son of God) that Jesus sent directly and follow them and obey them.
Jesus said, “Wake up! I will go like a thief!” This is exactly what he meant when he said, “I will go like a thief” means that the Gentiles will go without anyone knowing. Why are you coming like that? This is because only by doing so will we be able to select true believers in Jesus from among the Gentiles. The Son of God never appears in a splendid appearance before humans. It is because you can find the true grains of faith in Jesus only when you come in a humble and unsightly appearance.
Even though the Jews said they believed in God, they did not believe in the Son whom God had sent. Why did those who worked so hard to go to the temple, slaughtering cattle and slaughtering sheep and offering sacrifices to God, did not believe in the Son God had sent? It is because they have believed in God only with their mouths without a heart. If they had truly believed in God “with all their heart, with all their mind, and with all their soul,” they should have believed in the Son whom God sent as well. However, because they had believed in God only with their mouths without a heart, they did not recognize the Son whom God had sent and did not believe. After all, they had been living a life of vain faith, believing only with their mouths for two thousand years.
So, can Christians today confidently say that they really believe in Jesus? Can Christians today, unlike Jews, really say they confidently believe in Jesus “with all their heart, with all their mind, and with all their soul”? Even if Jesus comes in the same form as us because of our confidence, will we be able to recognize him at once, believe in him, and obey him? Today, those who do not realize that they are sinners against the Holy Spirit will never believe the Son of God who comes before the Gentiles.
It was not that the Jews were stupid and did not believe in Jesus. Because they did not believe in God with their hearts, they did not believe in the Son whom God had sent either. If you do not believe in your heart, you will not be able to realize that you are a sinner. If you do not realize that you are a sinner, you cannot understand why God sent His Son. How can the Jews believe in him when they do not know why God sent him?
The reason God had them go to the temple according to the law, slaughter oxen, slaughter sheep, and offer sacrifices to God was to make the people of Israel understand their sins. was believed to be dying out. Those who believed that their sins were forgiven through the sacrifices offered before God could not have believed in the Son sent by God.
Likewise, Gentiles today also believed in the name of Jesus who came to the land of Israel and received the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of God), and now they are living as Christians. As Gentiles who did not know God, they came to know that God is alive through receiving the Holy Spirit, and through this they were able to go to the chapel and continue their religious life to this day. However, when Christians who have received the Holy Spirit examine their hearts with the Holy Spirit (God), they will soon come to realize that they are sinners with a corrupt heart.
But even though they know that they are sinners with a corrupt heart, they are mistakenly thinking that if they go to the chapel and worship in Jesus name, all their sins will be forgiven. This is the same principle as if the Jews themselves knew that they were sinners, but they went to the temple and slaughtered sheep and offered sacrifices to God, they thought that their sins would be blotted out.
Just as the law served as a schoolteacher to find out the sins of the Jews and lead them to the future Christ, the Holy Spirit poured out on the Gentiles today also plays the role of a schoolteacher to discover the sins hidden in the hearts of the Gentiles and lead them to the Christ who will come before the Gentiles. that you are doing
Therefore, true faith is saying that when the Son of God comes before us and speaks to us, we act according to the word as perfect faith. No matter how hard a person may have attended church for a long time, if the Son of God comes and speaks to them and they do not believe and obey them, then such a person calls on the name of Jesus only with their mouths. It can be said that he is the owner of a dead faith. Dead faith refers to those who do not have life.
However, disobedience to the word of God or the word of the Son sent by God is the truth and the life, which is death. Disobedience means death because the Word of God has authority. This authority has been given by God only to His Son. Authority means that when God speaks, if you reject the word, the devil works, and if you obey, angels help you.
In order to save human souls, you must be a son who has received the authority to forgive sins from God. Since God cannot appear directly before sinful humans (if God appears directly, all humans will die instantly because of their sins), He appeared through His Son. So, to the Jews who lived under the law, the Son of God came in the flesh, and to the Gentiles today, the Son of God is to come in the form of a Gentile.
“Faith and works” are what we call perfect faith and perfect works when we hear, believe, and obey the words of the Son of God who comes in this way. On the other hand, what about the beliefs and actions of those who live a religious life today? Don't you say that you believe in your words, but act your way in your actions? There may be a reason why the Son has not yet appeared before us, but even so, none of us have completely entrusted ourselves to the Lord, and we are all setting things up by myself.
If the Lord suddenly appeared to these people and said, “Give me all your possessions,” how many people would believe him as the Son of God and willingly donate all of their possessions? When he asked us to give away all of our possessions, he must have said it as a test of our faith, but as we who did not believe, we doubted him and said, “What am I going to eat after giving away all of my possessions?” will not hesitate In this way, our faith will eventually become a dead faith. And everything you have lived your life of faith until now will be in vain.