Do faith and works exist in harmony or opposition? Pastor Jack Hibbs tackles this age-old question in today’s episode, drawing from the transformative teachings found in the Book of James. With engaging anecdotes and real-world parallels, Pastor Jack challenges listeners to introspect deeply about their personal faith. He underscores the significance of a faith that prompts action, as exemplified by Christian humanitarian efforts worldwide. Join in as we explore whether professed belief in Christ truly reflects in our day-to-day actions and interactions, and how this introspection can impact our spiritual growth.
If you are saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ, your faith will be observable and tangible and noticeable by all those around you in this life by your works.
SPEAKER 02 :
This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible. Did you know there’s an easy way to stay informed on the latest biblical events shaping our world today? Check out the Happening Now section at jackhibbs.com. Now, these live events feature Pastor Jack Hibbs alongside special guests diving into current events, cultural shifts, and how they align with biblical prophecy. It’s a unique blend of Bible teaching and real-time analysis that helps you make sense of today’s headlines through the lens of Scripture. Happening Now is not just about information. It’s about equipping you with the truth and encouraging you to stand firm in your faith, no matter what’s happening around you. Now, these discussions are eye-opening, they’re thought-provoking, and they’re a great way to stay spiritually grounded in a rapidly changing world. Whether you watch live or catch up on past events, Happening Now will help keep you connected to God’s Word and what’s going on in the world today. Visit JackHibbs.com and click on Happening Now. Don’t just watch the news, understand it from a biblical perspective. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues in his series called The Book of James with a message titled, Salvation by Faith or Works? Part 1. Now, before it became one of the books of the New Testament, James was a letter sent to the Jews who chose to follow Jesus Christ. And as new believers, James tells them that true faith in God produces some great works. You see, there is great controversy that surrounds this section of James, but James is not attacking salvation by faith alone. He says that faith without a change of lifestyle does nothing to promote Christianity. So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that Christianity is a faith that does. It’s practical, it’s usable, and the world is enjoying its blessings. Now, with his message called Salvation by Faith or Works, Part 1, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
SPEAKER 01 :
Right now, James 2, verses 14 to 20, James says to us, what does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith and does not have works, can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, depart in peace, be warmed and be filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, quote, you have faith and I have works. Show me your faith without your works and I’ll show you my faith by my works. You believe that there’s one God, you do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. But do you want to know, oh foolish man, that faith without works is death? The question we’re asking today is salvation, is it by faith or is it by works? Martin Luther, the great reformer, when he had the Bible given to him translated into German, and also as he was studying as a Catholic priest, came to the book of Romans. As he was reading on his own, Martin Luther read the book of Romans and came to the conclusion that a man, that a woman is saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ plus nothing else. And that filled Martin Luther’s heart with so much joy, it led to the Reformation period. He got kicked out of the church, you know, and the rest is history. In fact, you and I are sitting here today, Probably, maybe all of us, maybe some of us, most of us, born again, saved by the grace of God and all because of Martin Luther’s radical conversion to Christ. As Martin Luther read through the New Testament, he came to the book of James and it so shook him and startled him in his misunderstanding of the book of James that he threw the book of James down and he said, this is a straw of thistle. It’s made out of straw. It’s to be burned. He didn’t understand. He took… Paul’s words about works that were not justified by works. That the Christian is not saved by what he does. That nobody can be saved by what he does. Paul said this clearly in Romans. Also in Galatians. And James comes out and uses the very same word that Paul used for works. Very same Greek word. And James comes along and says, I tell you something. A man is justified by what he does. And Martin Luther and many churches today and many people are confused. In fact, there are cults who knock on your door. Some of them come peddling right up and they’ll talk to you and they’ll say to you, look, it says right here in the book of James that we’re saved by our works. And the cults, as with some Christians, make a very fatal mistake. Very fatal. In fact, listen carefully. This message can be the most important message you ever hear. Not because I’m saying it. In fact, I will probably flub it up. But because of what the word says right here. The most important message. Because are you saved by works or are you saved by faith? Was there something between Paul and James that they couldn’t reconcile? Is there a contradiction in the Bible? Listen carefully. They use the exact same word for works, but they’re found in 180 degree different context. You see, when you pull a verse out of context, you have just qualified to become a cult. Judas went out and hung himself. And I’m going to start the church of hanging yourself. And you know that sounds so stupid and ridiculous, but that’s how cults are formed. A cult… founder will see some verse in the Bible and build an entire belief system upon a verse. You can’t do that. You are to read the whole counsel of God. And if you read what Paul says about works and faith, and if you read about what James says about works and faith, you’ll come to the same conclusion. Are you listening? This is the conclusion. That you are saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ. And if you are saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ, Your faith will be observable and tangible and noticeable by all those around you in this life by your works. Because you’re saved by faith in Jesus Christ alone, Ephesians chapter two, verses eight and nine. Eight and nine, they tell us that we are saved by faith, by the grace of God, by faith. It’s a gift. not by works lest any man should boast, but because those of us who are saved, truly converted to Christ, the proof, listen, the proof of our conversion will be seen by those around us by how we live the fruit of our lives. James calls it works. And I got to tell you, you may have had a parking problem getting in here this morning, but next week you might not have a parking problem getting in here. I’m not being cute right now. I’m serious. Listen, people left this morning’s service pretty ticked off. You know what? My hope is that it just leads them to true salvation. We’re going to read it for what it says. People have been asking, when are you going to get to that stuff about faith and work with James? Well, here you go. Your prayer has been answered and this is it. My question is, can you handle it? Can you handle it from here on out? This is part one of a message entitled Salvation by Faith or by Works. Wherever you look around the world, Christianity has made a difference. I challenge you to not believe a word I tell you about this and go look for yourself. Go look at the hospitals that have been built around the world. Go today even to Islamic Muslim countries. Go to the best hospitals they have. You know who founded them? Christian Missionary Ventures founded them. Go to Europe, both Western and Eastern Europe, even in places where God was not allowed. Find out the best of schools or hospitals. Find out who founded them. When you go to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, UCLA. And you do research, true, honest research. When you look at sociology with an honest and severe examination, find what affects a community and a people and how these great universities were founded and started. They were started by Christians who believed that God wanted us to be educated and to be elevated, that life is worth something and needs to be protected and nurtured and cared for. Thus, there’s hospitals. Listen, the Judeo-Christian belief found in the Bible elevates the standard of living worldwide. Even in countries that don’t believe what you believe, they will allow Christian ministries in because of their humanitarian works. To this very day, it’s true. When there’s a great earthquake in areas of Turkey, Muslim, Who’s the first in there? But Christian humanitarian efforts and World Vision and other great ministries founded upon Christ and his commission. Why do they do this? Why do you do what you do as a Christian? to maybe even an enemy who might be against you because the love of Christ constrains us. God’s love in our hearts will even go to our enemy and give them something to drink, give them something to eat. That’s the Christian. And James this morning is talking about who in church is really a Christian. Well, Pastor Jack, aren’t I a Christian just because I attend here? Answer, no. Well, aren’t I a Christian because I was baptized? No. Well, aren’t I a Christian because my dad used to be a pastor? No. Aren’t I a Christian because I’m a Republican? Good laugh. Aren’t I a Christian because I’m a Democrat? Aren’t I a Christian because I was born in America? No. Listen. James says, James was asking you this question this morning. Are you a Christian because you say you believe in Jesus Christ? No. And from this moment on, this message takes a life or death turn. You can get angry with me all you want, and you might, but don’t mess up the message with the messenger. Take the word of God for exactly what it says. By the way, I came across this. I can’t believe this is true, but I… Trust the man’s commentary. He’s a great man of God. And he said that he found this in the New Yorker magazine, the New Yorker. It was entitled Church Light, L-I-T-E. Church, easy, Church Light. It was a commercial. It was an ad. Church Light. We have 24% fewer commitments than most churches and we’re home with a 7.5% tithe. We have 15 minutes service or sermons and our services last 45 minutes. We have only eight of the commandments that we adhere to, and you can choose which ones they are. We use just three spiritual laws, not four, and everything you wanted in the church, we are that and less. This is a commercial for a church in the New Yorker magazine. Isn’t that amazing? Now, if you say, hey, this is like my kind of church, 45 minutes in and out. During the introduction of this message, you can exit now and go find one. You can find them easily. They’re easily found. And they’re growing by the dozens. Listen, James is going to be asking us a question this morning. Are you really saved? Are you really a believer in Jesus Christ? And has this belief led to faith in Christ? Guess what James is going to say, what we often say here. James is going to tell us point blank, don’t tell me, don’t respond, don’t say a word. James wants to ask the question he’s going to ask it. Are you really a Christian? And then quickly his hand comes up and says, don’t even respond. Because I want to watch you. That’s what James is saying this morning. I want to watch you. I don’t want to hear you. I want to watch you to see if in fact you are a Christian.
SPEAKER 02 :
You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series, just go to jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And for now, let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
SPEAKER 01 :
This message is going to cut us in half. I’ve already tried to compromise it, water it down, put, you know, pampers all around it. I couldn’t get out of my study time without the Lord beating me up about it. And me standing up here right now is not any kind of works in my life. I’m not sitting here pointing down at you simply because I’m elevated up on a stage that you might be able to see better and I can see you better. Me teaching has nothing to do with what we’re talking about here right now. I’ve got to stand before God just as you. I’ve got to ask myself as you do now. Those who know us the best… Granted, we’re not going to be perfect, but those who know us the best, can they say about us that we are truly Christians? You know, quite frankly, maybe if we asked our dogs and our cats, they could tell us. What would our dogs say about our Christianity? Well, he leaves in the morning all happy and dressed up and spunky, but he comes home and kicks me the moment he walks in the door. And he grumbles about that 7.5% tie that he gave. I mean, we come to church, we come in, and you know, look at us, we’re at our best, and this is it. Don’t judge each other. We can’t judge each other here right now. We’re at our best. We’re at church. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Oh, look, he wants that parking spot. I yield, brother. God bless you. How are you? Great. How are you? Fine. Anything I can do for you? And then the buzzer rings, and it’s time for the next service. And we’re out in the car, and oh, praise the Lord. Yeah, I wish this guy would hurry up. Okay, go. Okay, great. Driving down the street, we’re at brunch now. We’re having breakfast. Come on, we’re that waitress anyway. What’s the deal? And by the time we get home, we’re kicking the dog. And it’s not right. James says, listen. We’re to judge our own hearts. James is saying, those of us who are really saved, those of us in this building who are really, really saved, truly, our names are written down in heaven. We’re going to heaven, truly. We’re trusting in Jesus Christ completely. And not only do we say it, but we live like it. James is saying, your life will be seen by others and it will affect other people. There are those within every church, Jesus promised them, sad to say, Jesus promised that there’d be others within the church as the church would grow that would come in who would be tares. Tares, or we would use the word today, lookalikes. They look just like you do. They lift their hands just like you do. They have Bibles just like you do. They dress just like you do. They might even do more than you do. But Jesus says in the end, they wind up being judged. In fact, not ever being in the kingdom, only in church. They trusted by what they said, not by what they actually did because of their love for God. They were very religious and wound up missing heaven altogether. They might’ve been very moral. They might’ve been very nice, but they missed heaven. People, I don’t know how to bring this message across. I have struggled with this. I’ve delivered it two times already, last night and this morning, and you’re the third time that it’s coming, and I’m still torn up about it because it just hits us so hard, upside the head. Believing in Jesus Christ is not gonna save you. Belief in Jesus Christ that leads to faith in him saves you. Question. The Holy Spirit asked every one of us this morning, what kind of faith? Because you can have faith in many things. You can have faith that a certain political leader is going to push that bill through or whatever the case might be. You may have faith that your car is going to start after service, but do you have saving faith in Christ Jesus alone? James says this, if it’s true, and man, you know, in this room, thanks, statistically in this room, there’s some people in this room that statistically are going to go to hell. because they didn’t listen to this or they’re not listening and they’re not reading the Bible or they’re sleeping or whatever the thing is. Your belief must lead to faith. Faith must lead to you trusting in Christ completely for your salvation. If that’s true, James says, all of us will know it by how you live your life. First point, verse 14, we’ll just dive right into this. He says, What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says, you gotta underline that word says, he has faith, but does not have works. Can faith save him? The thrust that he’s making is what does it profit? So the first point is what we say must be in line with what we do. Watch this. James is talking to a church. Remember, he’s writing to the believers. He’s speaking right now. You know, forget who I am right now. Just erase it. If you want to just, you know, turn around and look the other way, if that works, do it. Pretend it’s James speaking this morning. James walks up. I wish it was James. He’d be a cute old man. He’d come up here this morning with a long white beard. James, precious God that he is. He’s the brother of Jude who wrote the book just before the book of Revelation. That’s Jude. This is James. James is the half-brother of Jesus himself. James is the ruler of the church in Jerusalem. He’s a real neat guy, but he’s also very direct. We see him in the book of Acts. He doesn’t pull any punches, and he tells it exactly how it is. James walks up, and you might say, what a cute old man. I mean, you look when John Wolford comes. What a cute guy. Although he’s not little, the guy’s huge. What a cute man. I just said, look, wouldn’t you love to just sit and listen to John Wolverine all your life? I can. Oh, look at James. He’s so cute. And you know, there’s an authority that he has. He can sit here and say with his finger out, he would point to you and he’d say, if you’re not walking with Jesus Christ, then you’re probably lost. And you’d go, I received that from James. Wow. Wow. Take it from James this morning. James is talking to only those in the sanctuary who say they’re Christians. If that’s you, then you better listen. If you’re not a Christian this morning, this message may or may not apply to you. But for those of us who would say, yes, I am a Christian. If somebody asked us on the street, we’d say, yes, we’re Christians. James says, then I’m talking to you. And he’s saying what we speak with our mouths better match up to what we say.
SPEAKER 02 :
pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Salvation by Faith or Works, Part One. Thanks for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Book of James. It’s a series on being doers of the word and not just hearers only. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. Our book of the month, Pastor Jack, it’s called The Way of the Shepherd, and it’s by Dr. Kevin Lehman. Tell me about the book of the month. Yeah. Is it geared toward business or leaders or who’s it geared toward?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah. Well, first of all, let me put it to our audience this way. We are not departing from these wonderful, obviously spiritually based books that we offer up here on the program. Yeah. But I have to tell you that I read this book by Dr. Kevin Lehman. who’s a believer, but he’s also a man who’s called upon to speak all over the world to leadership conferences. And so he wrote a book called The Way of the Shepherd, Seven Secrets to Managing Productive People. So you said, well, Jack, I’m a Christian. I don’t need to know that. But there might be a few of you in this audience right now that you are a Christian, but you’re also a leader. You’re a manager. You might be a supervisor. You might be a business owner because God has blessed you and you have that opportunity. How should you lead? How should you lead others? What kind of examples should you leave as a leader? And I love what this book announces. Kevin Lehman says, if it’s greatness that you want out of people, it’s greatness that you must give them. Mm-hmm. Well, think about that. When we talk about greatness, of course, you and I don’t have any greatness. Jesus is great. He’s talking about if you do business God’s way, you’ll be a man, a woman of integrity, excellence. You’ll be someone who’s loyal. People will trust you. I tell you what, American business needs this book because America’s business is broken. Nobody trusts anybody anymore. Before the ink dries on the paper, you’re in a lawsuit. Why? Because we have forgotten God. And I would love to see Christ-like leadership in the area of not only church business, but business business. You know, you look around and you see companies. I got to tell you, we are very dear friends of the Snyder family, which in Southern California, people know is the owners of In-N-Out Burger. Absolutely. You want to talk about excellence? You want to talk about loyalty? Mm-hmm. Where does that come from? Oh, it is legendary. The leadership to this moment is all about Jesus Christ. This book is gonna be a great, great asset to any of us who have jobs or to any of us who provide jobs.
SPEAKER 02 :
So could somebody read this book in a way to maybe reinvigorate their sense of calling, maybe purpose sort of thing? Is that on the money?
SPEAKER 01 :
Well, I got to tell you right now, there’s a great chapter on complacency. There’s a great chapter on burnout at work. And there is a wonderful dialogue between the employer and the employee on how to keep it fresh. And I got to tell everybody this wonderful part about the book. is that it’s about a mentor that is now schooling a young college graduate on how to succeed with excellence. Again, biblically based, it is so practical. Your high schooler should have this book, your college kid should have this book, and if you are certainly working or you have people working for you, you should read this book.
SPEAKER 02 :
The Way of the Shepherd by Dr. Kevin Lehman. It’s available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
