Faith Always Bears Fruit

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Faith Always Bears Fruit

James 2:14-26Faith Always Bears Fruit If you have your Bibles I would invite you to turn with me to James, chapter two, as we continue our way through this great little book together. The first week we were in James we looked at the first verse and the words of greetings and we said, even then, that the very language that James used in his greetings, language which recalls the Old Testament pilgrimage of Israel in the wilderness, prepared us to think about the trials of the Christian life. And sure enough, as we studied James:1, verses 2 through 18, we saw his focus on how the Christian ought to respond to trials. Then in James, chapter 1, verses 19 through 27, James seemed to change the topic a bit. He expressed concern about the possibility that a person could profess faith in Christ,…

Faith Comes by Hearing

Romans 10:14-21 Faith Comes by Hearing If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 10. Last week we were in verses 1 through 13 and Paul went out of his way to stress the centrality of faith; we're not saved by our own works, we're not even saved by our own righteousness, we're saved by the righteousness of Christ. How do you get that righteousness? You call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You trust Him, you confess with your mouth and with your heart that He is the Lord and you shall be saved. Paul goes out of his way to stress the importance of saving faith. We don't contribute to our right standing before God through our deeds. It's not our righteousness that makes us right with God. We don't have to perform great feats in…

The Son of Man Will Judge (By Works!)

If you have your Bibles, I’d invite you to turn with me to Matthew, chapter 25. We come today to the last of a series of studies in the Lord Jesus’ teachings on the end times in Matthew 24 and 25. It’s become very apparent in the last several passages that we’ve looked at that Jesus emphasizes that faithfulness it He way that we are prepared for His coming. But He also raises the possibility that there may be some people who think they are His disciples who are not, in fact, faithful. Of course, He warns all those who are not his disciples that they should not think that they are ready for the day of His coming; but instead should prepare now by trusting in Him, and by faithfulness that they may be ready when the day comes. Because when the day comes, it will be too late, as we saw…

Christ Confounds with the Word of the Kingdom, Part 2:…

If you have your Bibles I’d invite you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 22. Last week we began a study of a series of new conflicts and exchanges between Jesus and the religious leaders of Israel. In each of those conflicts and exchanges He reveals His divine wisdom and goodness while He simultaneously exposes the evil of their hearts. In Matthew 22, verses 15 through 22, which we studied last week, Jesus faced and answered a question meant for entrapment put to Him by the Pharisees and…

The Establishment of a Covenant People The Promises of…

Genesis 17:15-27 The Laughter of Unbelief Two weeks ago we began our studies in the chapter of Genesis 17. Abram, this man whose name meant exalted father, had spent 86 years of life not being a father at all, and then finally had had a child through his wife's maid servant, a concubine, named Hagar. And over that 13-year period, the idea had grown in Abram's mind that the promise that God had made to him to make him a father of many nations was actually going to be fulfilled through…

The Confession and the Cross of the Kingdom, Part 1:…

If you have your Bibles, I'd invite you to turn with me to Matthew 16. As we've already noted, Matthew 15 through 17 proves a turning point in the gospel of Matthew. In those passages not only the leaders of the people of Israel but the crowds themselves reject the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not that they have bad thoughts about Him, it's not that they openly oppose Him. It's just that they refuse to recognize His claim to be the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And…

More of Jesus’ Kingdom Miracles and Teaching,…

If you have your Bibles I'd invite you to turn with me to Matthew 15. We're in Matthew 15, and I'd like to direct your attention to verse 21. Verse 21 begins a new segment in Jesus' ministry. The great Galilean ministry is done. It ends in verse 20 of chapter 15. And now Jesus enters into a distinctively Gentile territory. He is now in the region of Tyre and Sidon. The central chapters of Matthew's gospel 15, 16, and 17, record for us a turning point in…

The Parables of the Kingdom, Part 7: No Honor in…

If You have your Bibles Id invite you to turn with me to Matthew chapter 13. In this great passage we have seen seven kingdom parables of our Lord in which He teaches us about unexpected qualities of the kingdom. Now in this final passage in Matthew 13, beginning in verse 53, Matthew records the Lord Jesus' movement to the town of Nazareth, His hometown, to preach the gospel there, and we see the response of the people, or rather the lack of response of the people to the gospel that was…

The Ambassadors of the Kingdom, Part 2: John’s…

If you have your Bibles with you, I invite you to turn with me to Matthew chapter eleven. As we continue our study in Matthew's gospel, we've completed a survey of Matthew chapter ten in which the Lord Jesus commissioned His disciples before they went out on their first missionary journey into towns of Judea. And we might expect Matthew to tell us a little about what happened on that first journey, but He says nothing about it. Luke gives us one verse about it. Mark gives us…

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