Heavenly Father, we come again before you and as we delight again to be in your presence and to raise to you our worship, our songs of praise, we pray that you’re in your goodness that you would press down now upon us in our lives with the weight of your word that humbles our pride, but also that by your grace lifts up into your presence, that we may delight in hearing your voice and having your work upon our lives, Lord, as you minister to us through that word and by your spirit, Lord, and so we pray. that by your grace, in your spirit, through your word, that you would grow us together into the likeness of our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. For it’s in his name we ask and all God’s people said, amen. Amen.

James chapter two, starting in verse 14. Please give full attention, this is the word of our God. James continues, verse 14. What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith, and I have my works. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one. You do well. Even the demons believe and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works. And the Scriptures were fulfilled that said Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness, and he was called a friend of God. You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works, when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.

The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

Well, Pastor commented in regard to this passage, this text, James 2, 14 and 26, that it, in a sense, will dissatisfy all sides of what they’re expecting when they come to hear about this passage. Those who are theologically minded might think that they put up with the practical parts of James, and now they think that the good stuff is finally here, this theological point. But this part is actually very practical. And then the other side you might have the practical, pragmatically-minded person who loves what James has been talking about, and now they have to put up with this heavy theology. But that’s not quite the case as well. This is utterly practical, even though it is of course, richly theological. And then there’s perhaps the neutral-minded person, the pastor said, that this passage, they approach it neutrally, there’s kind of an indifference. You know, at the end of the day, this passage won’t allow for neutrality, right? It calls us to commitment, and we should never be neutral or indifferent about God’s holy word. And I’m sure, and I pray, of course, that none of you will be disappointed or indifferent about this or any other passage from the word of God. I do pray that all of us will be fed as we look at this section, even as we are challenged and blessed by this word from James. Much could and should be said about this passage, and perhaps we’ll return to it at some point and take a more detailed micro look at some of the things going on here. But I want us to see what James is doing this morning. in this whole section of these verses in chapter 2, the second half of chapter 2. And what James is doing, what he has been doing, he’s laying out the nature, he’s telling us, laying out what the nature of true saving faith actually is. So I’d like to begin, before we get into the passage, proper to look at some words and concepts that James uses here, right? And lay some background and some foundation so that we have a clear understanding of what your Bible is actually telling you, okay? And so the Bible tells us that it is the Word of God, right? The Bible is the Word of God, and all of it is the Word of God, right? That means necessarily some things about it, if that’s the case. Some of those things are that it does not contradict itself, right? James does not say something that’s then later contradicted by, let’s say, Paul. It does not contradict itself. It cannot contradict itself. The word of the Lord is not changing. It is not yes and no at the same time. Okay, and so also we have to remember that the Bible interprets itself, right? The Bible interprets itself. There’s not a decoder ring that’s needed to understand what scripture says, but the Bible is what, right? It is clear, authoritative, inspired, necessary, and sufficient. All right, clear, authoritative, inspired, is necessary for salvation, and it is sufficient, right? It’s all that we need to know for life in Godliness. So, this is important to remind ourselves of these things. It’s important to remind ourselves of these things, especially when we come to a passage like James chapter two, right? Most of you are probably aware that this can be, for some, a difficult passage. Historically, in the church, it has been a difficult passage. Mainly because of what some see as a contradiction there between James and Paul. This apparent or alleged contradiction. And that says what? It says, well, Paul says that we’re justified by faith alone, and then James here, on the other hand, says that we’re justified by works and not by faith alone. And to make things worse, it’s the same language being used by Paul and James, right? The word justify in Greek is the same thing that Paul uses and that James uses. And so we come to this passage and we think, is all hope lost, right? Is this hopelessly irreconcilable for us to understand and affirm what James is saying and what Paul is saying elsewhere? And of course, that’s not the case. We’re not hopeless. This isn’t a hopelessly irreconcilable issue. The solution, actually, is quite clear when we look at and get some understanding of what’s going on. And that solution is to recognize that James and Paul are using this word, the same word, but with different meanings. And that shouldn’t be a big deal to us, right? We do this all the time, even in our day. We use words differently depending on the context that we use them. And so this is actually clear from the text if we look at it and what it says. And so the word that we’re talking about here is the word justify, right, or the word righteousness. It’s the word dikayu, right? If you’re studying Greek, then write that down, and that’s fine. If not, don’t worry about it. But it’s important because this word is the word that was translated in the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. This is the Septuagint you’ve probably heard of, some of you. It’s the ancient Greek version of the Old Testament, completed around the 3rd century BC. It’s a very old witness to the Word of God. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it uses the same word when it translates the Hebrew word for the same things, to be righteous or to justify. Right, and so basically the word is used there in a judicial context, right, in the Old Testament. And so you have two parties, if you will, the accuser and the accused, and then they stand before the judge who will, what, who will decide between them. And if you were falsely accused, the judge, his task was what? It was to justify you, to render a favorable verdict of acquittal to you, right, to declare that you were in the right This is the word that was used to justify, to be righteous, to vindicate. And so let me give you a couple of examples, a couple of ways that translators have rendered from the Hebrew into English this word that we’re talking about. Deuteronomy 25 verse 1. Most of you are probably using the ESV, and it says this. If there is a dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, right? Acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, okay? Acquitting is the key word there, right? That’s the word we’re talking about that ends up being translated in the ancient Greek of the Old Testament as justify, the same word that James and Paul use. Another English translation, it says, they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked. But that’s actually a better one. And actually those two words there, justify the righteous, it’s the same root, root word, right? So it’s to justify the justified or to declare righteous the righteous, okay? It’s justify the righteous. Other translations of this word, acquit, exonerate, declare, And so that’s the word, as I said, that’s translated into Greek, right, the word that, as I said, James is using here and Paul will use later. And so when we come to the Psalms, right, we look at the usage of this word, and Isaiah, for instance, the word takes on, this is later progression historically, the word takes on a different nuance, a different flavor. And the nuance and flavor that it takes is an eschatological one, right? Remember that word, the ultimate end, right? Not just the end, but the ultimate things, this final consummatory, ultimate sense, right? It has to do with God’s vindication of his suffering people, right? We see this again in Psalms and Isaiah. Or in the exile, for instance. In the discussion of this, We see the same thing, right? Although Israel is in exile because of their own guilt, God will reverse their situation and declare his people to be in the right, right? Justified, vindicated, exonerated. Psalm 92, Psalm 98 verse 2 says this. The Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. How so? We’ll go on. Because of his vindication of his people. So Paul picks up on this later sense, this later eschatological meaning of the word that is translated into justify in our Bibles. And for Paul, that ultimate vindication is what? What’s the culmination of all things? What was all that picture of? That ultimate vindication has already intruded into history, where and how? In the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was the ultimate vindication. And for those united to Him, for them as well. Listen to Romans 3, just two verses of what we heard earlier in our New Testament reading. Romans 321, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. The righteousness of God has been revealed in the cross. The greatest display of that righteousness. And God poured out the fullness of his wrath on the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he raised him from the dead, publicly vindicating him and granting him the reward that he merited, the reward of eternal life. And ultimately, this goes back to the Adamic, Adam failing to meet the terms of this covenant, while the second Adam, the last Adam, fulfills these things. All right, so this transition from wrath to vindication, this happened once and for all in Jesus Christ, who, praise God, those who have placed their faith in him, he is our covenant head. He’s the one whom we are found and we identify with, we are united to, and therefore his merit, his vindication, is ours, right? And that’s a glorious thing to be sure. And so those who are united to him are partakers of that vindication that he earned. All right? And so this is what Paul calls justification. James, on the other hand, is using the word in its original, more basic meaning without that ultimate eschatological connotation. So for James to be justified means to be proved right. For James to be justified means to be vindicated in one’s claim to be a believer. And so we see this as well in the New Testament. In places like this older, simpler use of the word, in places like Matthew 11, 19, and its parallel passage in Luke 7, But listen to the way that it’s used here. This is the same word. Wisdom is proved right by her deeds. Proved right, justified. Wisdom is justified by her deeds. That’s the same word, that dikayu. So according to James, this happens in the believer’s lifetime. Notice the examples that James uses. We’ll look at them in a moment in more detail. But Abraham and Rahab, both of them are what? They’re justified. in James’ use of the term, after initial faith and before the final day of judgment. They’re said to be justified after initial faith. Abraham, he was proved right when he offered Isaac. He was proved right, he was justified. Or Rahab was proved right when she received spies that were sent by Joshua. It’s what we read in James chapter 1 verse 12 that we looked at a while back where it says, when he stood the test, standing the test. It’s a confirmation in a believer’s lifetime of the genuineness of their faith. And so what happens as we persevere through our lives in the midst of trials or tests, this is what James has been talking about. And so if we keep these two senses of how the word is used by James and by Paul, the problems go away, right? And in reality, when we look at James and what James is talking about, his usage of the word, he’s really not even talking about justification in the strict technical sense, the way that we think of it. He’s not talking about this theologically precise way that we use justification like in our catechism, question answer 33, this tells us what? The justification is an act of God’s free grace. wherein he pardons all of our sins, accepts us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ, imputed to us and received by faith alone. That’s how we define justification. That’s not what James is talking about. He’s using an older, simpler sense of this word. And if we read the precise, the tactical definition into James, we’ll never be able to see the harmony with Paul. And this is one of the big problems that people have fallen into over the centuries, right? James, again, he’s using a more basic and simple sense of the word. It’s about a relationship, right? James is talking about the relationship between faith and works. Many people struggle with James. And they struggle because they read justification and works together, right? They read these two words and they get very uncomfortable. But why is it? Because they tend to read Romans into James, rather than read James as it is in its historical context. And if you think about it, Romans and Galatians, Paul writes these letters. He’s addressing a particular teaching, false teaching, that says it’s possible to gain acceptance with God to be justified by keeping the law. And Paul says, no, no, no, no, no. Paul powerfully argues against this false teaching. He decimates it in Galatians and in Romans. But if it is true, why does Paul do that? Because if we are truly sinners, totally and utterly devoid of spiritual ability, we are dead, then it’s impossible to be justified by our works, by our performance. And we have to remember as well, You’ll recall the dating of James. When was James written? It’s very early. It’s possibly the earliest New Testament book that was written. Possibly in the mid 40s, 46, 48 AD. And so this is quite prior to Paul. There isn’t this development and controversy over justification from the Judaizers that came later that Paul has to deal with. This isn’t what James is addressing. James is addressing a danger, it’s a different danger, right? But it’s a, and what Paul, what James is addressing is also a very significant danger, right? And it’s the danger of cheap faith, right? Or easy believism, if you will. right james is addressing a faith that affirms in some way the data of the gospel but doesn’t leave hold of the life uh… that that faith doesn’t leave hold of the life of the person who professes it right so he’s giving these examples he’s calling them out for this bad behavior james here says that faith is not true faith that danger that james is addressing is real that’s the danger to want comfortable faith, right? Easy faith. It’s a danger to pride ourselves on biblical literacy, if you will, or theological knowledge, and all the while not understanding that the radical claim that Christ makes over our lives. It diminishes, downplays that claim. So as we look at James, he’s actually quite pastoral. He’s speaking to issues of people that he’s ministering to, and to us as well as the church throughout time. And so he says in verse 14, what good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works, can that faith save him? And then he says, notice the example he gives of a needy person. If a brother or sister, poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and you say, go in peace, be warmed and filled without giving them the things they need, what good is that? So you see the analogy here of what he’s making. If it’s meaningless to confess niceties to a person, person that’s in need because it doesn’t address their need, right? It’s meaningless, right? You profess these niceties but do nothing for them. It’s meaningless. If that’s the case, then faith that is confessed but shows no actual fruit, faith that doesn’t do anything, it’s a dead faith, he says. That faith is dead. And that’s true, right? We all know this. We know this intellectually and in reality in our lives. But I think there’s something more profound here in James’s example, right? James, and then in other places, in the New Testament, we see this. He’s saying that true faith, saving faith, will always result in particular fruit, right? Fruit will be born out of that new life, right? That the faith that God has given and that has been exercised is true, right? Will result in what? A life of love, right? Loving, a life of love, a life that reflects the love of Jesus in our lives. And so James understands the nature of the gospel and he understands the nature of the human heart. He understands that bright and wonderful promise of the gospel, even as it’s given in the Old Testament, right, the wonder of the gospel. We read Ezekiel 36, I believe, last week. We’re not going to read that again, but you’ll recall Ezekiel 36, 26 and following, it says, God, what He promises to give a new heart of flesh, He gives that new heart. He gives His Spirit within you, and He causes you to walk in His statutes and to obey His rules. And so true saving faith comes from that new heart, and the new heart is moved and motivated by a whole new set of priorities, right? A whole new set of purposes and goals and values. The paradigm has shifted, right? It’s a whole new set of loves and desires and thoughts. And because of that, there flows a life that’s transformed, a transformed way of living. And where once my life is controlled by my wants and my needs and my feelings, now it’s controlled by what? It’s controlled and moved by a love for God, right? And because of that, a love for my neighbor as well, right? So this is always the fruit of saving faith. Different degrees to be sure, imperfect to be sure, but this is the trajectory that comes as a result of that new heart of flesh. And Jesus points to the same example, right? You recall, he points to the same thing in the example that he gives, rather. He says, a good tree is known, it produces what? Good fruit. And a bad tree produces bad fruit. The tree is recognized by its fruit. You know an apple tree by its apples, right? You know a pear tree because it has pears growing on it. And you also know that the pear tree, all the way down to the roots, right? The whole thing is, that’s what it does, it produces pears, right? If it doesn’t have pear roots, do pears grow on trees? I think they do. It wouldn’t produce that fruit, right? It would be different. So Christ is saying, he’s arguing for this organic consistency between what’s in our hearts and what comes out of our, in our words, in our choices, in our actions, in our lives, in our behaviors. And John, of course, agrees with this, right? In 1 John, the one who was born of God loves. He who does not love does not know God. Pretty simple, right? The one born of God loves. And so true saving faith results in transformed living, right? And the center and the core of that is an allegiance to and living out those two great commandments, right? Loving God and loving our neighbor. These will love God above all else everything flows from that reality that most properly basic core belief in Love in our hearts, right? And so there’s a new life. There’s a new life beating in my heart. The spirit is living within me And we love our Lord Because we love our Lord we’re becoming more and more like our Lord, right? We’re becoming more gentle people, becoming more merciful and compassionate and sympathetic and tender people, because we’re becoming more Christ-like, right? Those are the fruits of faith that we see. And so James here, he has no place for faith that is not laid hold of the way you live your life, right? That faith must do so, and that’s what he’s talking about. In the rest of the passage, James will lay out before us, he gives us these three reasons or three arguments to support this perspective on the nature of true faith. These three arguments. The first one is the demon argument, and then the patriarch argument, and then the prostitute argument. Those are the three that we see as we go down. The demon, the patriarch, and the prostitute. In verse 18, he said that someone will say, You have faith, and I have works. Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. A true faith demonstrated by action. It’s the fruit in my life, in a transformed life, that assures me of God’s justifying grace. One of the things. There’s a subjective element to it. But it demonstrates it proves true, even to me. of the true faith in my life, the fruit that we see. And then he says, very provocatively, he says this first argument. You believe God is one, that’s good. Even the demons do, and they shatter. So this is a central tenet to our faith, as you all know. It’s central to our faith and right belief about God. James is quoting here, the Shema, right from Deuteronomy. You’re familiar with Deuteronomy 6. It says, Hear O Israel, the Lord is your God, the Lord is one. Right, and the hope of the world is found in this one true and living God, right? This is central. And then James says shockingly, yeah, the demons believe that as well. What’s he saying here? Is he saying that theological data, theological belief is unimportant? He’s not saying that. He’s saying that that mere belief in and of itself is not enough. Christians throughout the centuries have talked about belief or faith and define that, and they’ve talked about the three elements of what comprise faith as knowledge, assent, and trust. I’m sure you’ve all heard something of this. You’ve heard examples of it. But James is arguing against the inadequacy of mere theological assent that does not produce fruit in the life of the person making that profession. You all know that we love theology here. We love scripture. We love the truths that we find and mine out of God’s word that he’s given for us. We love his word. And I’ve said half-tongue-in-cheek that bad theology is a crime and we don’t want to be criminals, right? So we want to have good theology. We want to think rightly about what scripture says and what it tells us. But good theology isn’t an end in and of itself, right? It’s not an end in and of itself. Good theology is a means to an end. To what? To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. It’s a means to an end. It’s a means of growing closer to the Lord Jesus Christ, walking with Him more truly and more closely. Our intimacy with the Lord is born out of it, it’s enhanced, it’s grown from our understanding of God’s Word and our closeness and our mining the depths of what God has given us in His Word. It’s a means to an end. And if it doesn’t result in radical changes, in the impact on my life, the way you live your life, it’s actually bad theology or incomplete theology. Something’s off. Possibly it’s an idol for some people. And sometimes we err by placing a separation between the theology we confess and our functional theology, right? So being comfortable with this distance between what we say with our mouths, what we say we believe, and between that and what we actually live out in our lives. Of course we’ll be inconsistent. Of course we’ll fail. Of course we’ll blow it and betray our profession in many ways because we are foolish and feeble and forgetful and weak. and still full of sin, lingering sin, but may we never be comfortable with that gross inconsistency, right? That’s just one of the things in our lives that we struggle. Part of the warfare that we live is battling this inconsistency, being made aware of it, confessing, receiving, and moving on, right? In a heart that is bothered and grieved by those things is a heart that bears the evidence of transformation and growth, right? Those who do not believe don’t care. So because of the, you know, John Calvin said that because of residual lingering sin or lingering sin nature, we remain partially an unbeliever until we die, right? And those inconsistencies expose the continual struggle of faith that’s still in my heart, that warfare, as I said. And what do you do? What do you do in the midst of this struggle when you’re confronted and grieved about your weakness and failing and inconsistency? What do you do when you go to Christ again? You flee to Jesus again and afresh and always. right, and confess your sins, and he prays God for his righteousness, and that he provides the forgiveness that you need, and that he transforms your heart, and continues to grow you, right? There’s growth in your heart and in your life. And he will, and he does. The gospel will change you. It will change you. His spirit, working through his word, will transform and grow and sanctify even the slowest of us, right? And He does. He’ll make your life increasingly to match your profession through His strength, for His glory. And so that’s the argument from the demon. And then the patriarch argument, right? Verses 20 to 24. You want to show that faith apart from works is useless? Wasn’t Father Abraham justified by works when he offered Isaac on the altar? We think, isn’t he saying here we’re justified by works? Well, we need to understand what he means by that, right? But with that scripture, interpret scripture, right? I mentioned this earlier. And here’s what he means. It’s in the very next verse. He says this, verse 22. You see the faith was active along with his works, Abraham, and faith was completed by his works, right, you see that? It’s completed by his works. That’s what he’s talking about, that his faith demonstrated itself to be justifying faith because it was accompanied by the testimony of a transformed way of living. And this is what greater demonstration of love other than the work of Christ, could there be of the love of God than this example of Abraham? If faith results in a remarkable allegiance to God and true, living, practical affection for the Lord, it cannot be demonstrated more powerfully than in the life of Abraham. And all of you who are fathers, Right, we shudder when we read this passage and we think about this, what happened, what was asked of Abraham. And we think, what would I have done? What would I have done? Right, Abraham and his one and only beloved son. This son that he longed for and waited for. And he’s to sacrifice him for the Lord. What would he have done? What would we do? And this is what true faith will do. It’ll cause you to offer that most precious thing in your heart, in your life, to God for the simple reason that what? That you love Him. You love Him. Not primarily because it’s logical or practical or easy, right? He lays on His altar the most precious thing in your life. That’s what we are to do. When you stay content to let everything go, saying, I give it all to you, Lord, all of it, right? It’s not easy, but it’s what we’re called to do. And we can’t do so. We need to be aware, right, brothers and sisters, in our own lives of those precious things, right? What things in our heart are just that much more important than the Lord’s, right? Things that we cling to, we would just die if we didn’t have or if we lost. What precious Isaac in your life are you holding on to or withholding? It’s more important than the Lord. Because if our hands are knuckle-white, ripped upon the Lord, they cannot hold anything else. We don’t need anything else. Keep Jesus as your most important treasure. right, your most important treasure. And again, that affection, that affection will drive out and displace the idols in your heart, right? Fill your clean hands with the Lord, Jesus Christ, and never let go. And so that’s the patriarch argument. And then we have, finally the prostitute argument. Of course, Rahab, verse 25. And brilliantly, if you notice what James is doing here, the example he’s giving, he uses a good person, bad person examples. Abraham’s the pinnacle, the height of faithfulness. And then he uses the example of a quote-unquote bad person in Rahab. But he says this in verse 25, and in the same way, was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? And you see what James is saying here, right? What was it that Rahab did? You’ll recall, right? She endangered her own life by doing what she did with the spies and hiding and misdirecting, but she did it. She endangered her own life for her love of others, right? And it’s very interesting. that James argues for the living, fruitful reality of true and saving faith, having pointed to the inadequacies of mere assent to knowledge. And the two examples he gives are wonderful examples of the first and second great commandments. True faith will produce a life-changing love for God, Abraham, and true faith will produce a life structuring love for others, right? We see in Rahab, the example of Rahab. That’s the nature of true faith, right? It’s changing you, it changes your heart, it transforms your life. And then he goes on in verse 26, and he says, for as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead. Right, faith is not animated by love for God and love for neighbor. A faith that’s like that is a dead faith, James says. And then we think, obviously, we can go from what is the Scripture saying to what is it saying to me, or how does this apply to me, to our lives? What is it saying about us when we look at this passage from James? What is God telling us or wanting from us? Well, I think a number of things to be sure. First, if you’re His, if you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, receive the encouragement of this passage. There is an encouragement here for you. And again, you may be thinking, like I think, I don’t feel very encouraged right now. I feel discouraged, I feel convicted. But listen, if that’s you, listen, dear Christian. If you’re his child, and you’ve exercised that true faith in him, in him alone, for all of your life, then there is already fruit, the fruit of love in your life for others. It is there. These are already, they’re already words and actions and choices and deeds that you wouldn’t be doing were it not for the operation of the Holy Spirit working in your heart, right? The result, the overflow, the outflow of saving grace, saving faith. And so, dear Christian, recognize that truth. Receive that encouragement. And then second, There’s an encouragement. There’s also an exhortation. An exhortation. Make sure your faith is genuine and not counterfeit faith. This is something that James is saying here. Maybe you professed faith, but you live like your life belongs to you. That is contrary to what Scripture says. We’re bought with a price. The life you live is no longer your own. It belongs to the Lord. And in essence, actually, you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ, with Christ in God. And that’s the place from which you live your life from. And if that’s so, You look like your life belongs to you. Even though you professed faith, there is an exhortation here, brothers and sisters. Confess your sins and seek God’s forgiveness. Confess. and seek forgiveness. Plead with Him to make you aware and to grow you to consistency in your life for His glory, right? And then the third thing for everyone, for all of us, this passage is a call. It’s a call, right? Where does God call you to a greater, deeper, fuller faithfulness, fruitfulness from that faith, right? Where do you need to be more practical and consistent and persistent in your love for God? Where has He called you? to willing self-sacrifice for the good of your neighbor, for the good of your family, for the good of those around you. To evidence, to demonstrate, to reflect the love of Jesus. Where is he wanting to build zeal in you? That all that theology that we believe, that we live in the details of our life. So receive that encouragement. Hear the exhortation, follow that call. And as we do, brothers and sisters, let us always look to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, this one who gives the new heart, right? And who also enables and works in you to walk in these good works that you were created to walk in. and let us seek to display the truth of who we are and the one to whom we belong by our lives, with our mouths, right? Living the life that’s overflowing with the love given to us in Jesus Christ and all for what? For the praise of his glory. Amen.

Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you again for your mercy upon us in Jesus Christ. We thank you that You have plucked us from the fire, Lord, and given us life, and that you’ve made us children in your family. Father, we thank you that our Savior ever lives to intercede for us. We pray, Lord, that we would indeed be so radically changed by the reality, even if newly made aware of the reality and the magnitude of all that you’ve done for us. Lord, and that we would indeed model our Savior in giving our life up for others. Lord, that we would be changed and that our lives would manifest, would evidence the truth of who we are, united to Christ, dead to sin, raised to walk in newness of life. Father, we praise you for this. We ask you to increase our faith, continue to protect us this week, and we ask this all in Christ’s name, amen.