Sermon by Bob Bradley - PDF Free Download

Saving Faith Sunday, February 5, 2017 Bob Bradley I want to talk about Faith. I want to talk about what faith really is. I thought today, if we as people, if we get faith wrong then we don t go to heaven. If we don t get this right then we do not get to go to heaven. Because the Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God. If we read the book of Ephesians, chapter 2, verses 8 and 9; it talks about the unsaved are saved by grace through faith. Do you remember reading that? It goes on. The Bible also says that anything that is not of faith is sin. Therefore, if we get faith wrong and our understanding of faith is wrong then we don t get to go to heaven. that is why this lesson and the lessons we are going to be having through the book of Galatians is so important because Paul was dealing with folks in Galatia that were being bombarded by the Judaizers that were trying to mix Law and grace. They were preaching another gospel. Paul said it is not really another gospel but you are just perverting the very gospel of Jesus Christ. You are trying to add something to that. What they were adding; they were adding Law. They were adding circumcision and Holy Days. They wanted Gentile believers to become Jews is actually is what they wanted to do. If you read Acts 15, that discussion had already been had at Jerusalem a way back time before that. It has already been decided that Gentiles did not need to do all of that. Yet that did not stop the Judaizers and the false teachers from coming. Paul asked the question or made the statement; I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that has called you. When you read chapter 3, verse 1; he made the statement, You foolish Galatians. What is going on in your life? The reason Paul was using harsh and hard words like that I don t think he was mad at these people. I think he was trying to get their attention to understand that if you get this wrong then you are not going to heaven. If you get faith wrong, you are not going to heaven. I think sometimes we need to be like that with our families and friends. We need to be blunt with them. We need to let them understand that going to heaven is great, going to heaven is something we want to do, but if you are going to get there, we are going to have to change our life. We are going to have to be born again. We are going to have to receive Jesus as our Savior. If we don t do that then we are not going to get to go. I think and I m not being belligerent. I m not being overbearing. I think we need to remind our people and our families and people we are working around. There is one way to get to heaven and that is by faith in Jesus Christ. If we don t do that then we don t get to go. Again, that is not being harsh.

James 2:14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? James 2:15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, James 2:16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? James 2:17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. James 2:18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. James 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. James 2:20 But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? James 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? James 2:22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? James 2:23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. James 2:24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. James 2:25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. I do want to say, it is good, I appreciate when we see the old folks and call on some of the old folks that Herman has been there, or Keith has been there, or Dale has been there. That encourages me to know that. That encourages me that we have our deacons that are visiting and going and doing. I appreciate that guys. I appreciate you doing that. As I told you before church that is a great reflection not only on you guys but it is a great reflection on Campbell Chapel. I appreciate what you are doing. Do you know what I know? I know the Lord will bless for what you are doing. I appreciate that today. James 2:14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? He is asking a question. Can faith save him? What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? Get this. That is the question. Can faith save him? He says he has faith but he doesn t have any works. Can faith alone save him? James 2:15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, James 2:16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? James 2:17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

Get this. It brings out the idea of someone coming to church. It is painting a picture for you and me of someone coming into our assembly. We are meeting. We are at church. We are doing whatever we are doing. Someone comes in that we know, as they said here, A brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food. They come in here and they don t have anything to eat. They may not necessarily have enough clothes on their back. Here we are doing whatever it is we are doing. Someone gets up and says, Hey, I hope you get something to eat. I hope you find some clothes somewhere. We just sort of tell them to go on about their way. Listen. James wants us to understand here is that is not Faith that is alive. When we really have faith that is alive do you know what that faith will do? It will make us go to work in doing something. When we see needs, I might not be able to meet every need in this community and you can t either but when we see needs and see people that are destitute and we have a way to help them, feed them, clothe them; do you know what we are going to do? It is going to stir something on the inside of us and we are going to do everything we can to be able to help those people that are in need. Do you know what? The people here that he is talking about; James is talking about someone that they saw a need. They thought about it in their mind. They knew it was real. They knew it was there but they did not do one thing about it. I m glad of something tonight. The faith that we have, a faith that is real, a faith that is alive; it will put us to work. We can be able to see the needs of people. When we see the needs of people then we want to help them. We won t be bidding them. We won t be shoving them off on somebody else. We won t be praying and saying, Well, they got themselves in this mess and I pray you get yourself out. Listen. Things may be good for you today but things can change overnight. We may have plenty of food today. We may have health today. Everything may be good today but tomorrow, if we live is a new day. Things may be different. Things may different tomorrow. I have seen this and I am sure you have in the ministry over the years, many times. People in need. The writer says, If we see our brother or sister in need and shut up our bowels of compassion against them, how dwellest the love of God in us? There is something wrong there. Isn t there? This person s faith is absolutely dead. There is nothing alive in a person s life, when we see the need of people that are hurting, when we see the people that we can actually help who are in our space and we just dismiss it and we go on and shove them aside, and we don t want them around listen there is something wrong in my relationship with God. That kind of faith is dead. That kind of faith will never get you to heaven. Amen! Get this. James 2:17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Keep that in mind. Faith that has not works is absolutely dead.

James 2:18 Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. James 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. It is great that you and I know there is a God in heaven. It takes a measure of faith to understand that. We can say that there is a God in heaven. We can say that I believe there is a God in heaven. Listen. Is that as far as it goes? Do you know what James is talking about? We know that there is a God in heaven. That is wonderful. He says here we know that. We can understand. We believe that there is a God in heaven. But do you know what he wants us to understand? Even the devils also believe that there is a God. When you read the Bible you remember When Jesus comes across the lake, He comes over in the land of Gadara. He meets a guy over there that has a legion of demons in him. Do you remember that guy? Do you know what happens? We have a conversation and we know that He begins to have a conversation with the legion of demons in this guys. Do you know what the Bible tells us happened? We know that Jesus commands the legion of devils to come out of him. Listen. These guys begin to plead Don t cast us out into the deep. Not only did that know that Jesus was the Son of God, but they also knew there was a place of torment. There was a place of judgment. They did not want to be cast out into the abyss, or out into the lake of fire. Listen. They know there is a God in heaven. They know Jesus is His Son. They know that there is a place of torment. You can know about God. You can get emotional about God as these demons, no doubt, did. They were trembling. We can think about there is a God in heaven and it even can touch our emotions. However, if that is as far as it goes we will never get to heaven. I saw people stand in the churches and God speak. They would hold onto the seats. They would cry. They got very emotional. Listen. That is great. However, it takes more than that to get to heaven. It goes beyond our emotions. The devils believe and they tremble. They know who Jesus is. The Bible testifies. When you read Mark 3, Jesus was healing all kinds of people, casting out demons and evil spirits. Do you know what the evil spirits testified when you read your Bible. They testified This is the Son of God. They knew who He was. They believed that Jesus is the Christ. However, it takes more than a belief intellectually in our minds. It takes more than an emotional belief to get to heaven. It takes more than that. We can get emotional and we do. I love singing. We can emotional about singing. God can stir us. We can emotional about a lot of different things. It takes more than that to get us to heaven. It touches our mind. It touches our emotions. Those two things won t save us. Do you know what it has to touch? It has to touch our will. Right down in here where decisions are made

in my life. That is where faith has to touch if I am going to go to heaven. That is where it has my will. Get this. Here is the lesson. He talks about Abraham here. James 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? James 2:22 Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? James 2:23 And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. James 2:24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Get this. When you read Genesis 15, do you know what you will find out? Abraham was talking to God, when you go back to chapter 11 and chapter 12 of Genesis; we know that God had called Abram and told him to get out of his country and from among his kindred and from his people. He was going to take him to a land that He was going to show him. We know that God was going to bring him to the land of Canaan. We understand that. God had a plan and purpose for Abraham s life. We know that God was going to However, when we get to the book of Genesis, chapter 15; we find out that Abraham begins to talk to God about a son. We know that Eleazar and that story that was there. Abraham began to pray about a son and ask God about a son. Do you know what He begins to tell him? He says, You are going to have a son. You are going to have an heir that is going to come from your loins. That is exactly what happened. When we turn over a few more chapters, we know that a young man was born by the name of Isaac. The Bible tells us that Abraham was 100 years old when Isaac was born. That takes faith in itself. It took faith to believe the promise of God that he and Sarah were going to have a son, a child when they were well past bearing age. Listen. We have a God in heaven that does the impossible. We have a God that loves you and me and that saved you and me. We have a God that has called you and me who can do things that absolutely blows our minds. We know that Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 years old. We turn over a few more chapters and several years had passed. The Bible says that God spake unto Abraham one day in Genesis, chapter 22, and said, Abraham, I want you to take your son, thy only son, Isaac. I want you to take him to Mt. Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering upon that mountain. The Bible says do you know what Abraham did? He gets up the next morning. He chops wood. He get some stove wood to take with him. He gets some young men. He puts the wood on Isaac s back. He travels. He gets towards the land and the mountain to where he was going to go. We know that he gets to the land of Moriah. He gets to the mountain. He tells the young men to stay down at the base of the mountain. He tells Isaac to come on. We are going to go to the top of the mountain. We are going to go up there and worship and we are going to come back. We know that Abraham and Isaac get to the top of the mountain. We know

that Abraham built an altar. He took the wood that Isaac had carried up there. He put it on the altar. Do you know what he did? He was getting ready to draw his knife back and he did draw his knife back and getting ready to slay his son. Do you know why he was going to do that? He was going to do that because God said I want you to slay your son. Do you know what Abraham did? He believed God. Listen. If we are going to see God do some things in our life, we are going to have to believe Him. He drew back the knife. He is getting ready to slay his son. However, there was a voice came from heaven, Do not thy son any harm. Listen. God saw. God knew exactly what Abraham was going to do. Do you know what God did? God blessed Abraham. Because Abraham believed God, God imputed righteousness. Listen. It takes belief. It takes faith in Almighty God. When we have faith and put faith in Him then He imputes us; He infuses us with the righteousness of Jesus Christ. He declares us right with Him. Hallelujah! Nothing apart from that will ever work. Get this. The guy in the church who saw the person that had a need, he saw. His mind knew what was going on, but he said, I hope you find something. We will be praying for you. They pat him on the back and sent him away. That is not faith. That is not living faith. When we get to the devils, the demons; they believe. They knew who Jesus was. They knew who God is. They trembled. Do you know why they trembled? They trembled because they know they are going to the lake of fire. They have enough faith to know that there is a place of judgment coming. Even the devils know that. However, here is a guy by the name of Abraham. Not only did it touch his mind; could you imagine being him? This is your only son. Isaac is probably 25 or 30 years old now or maybe older than that. He is not a baby anymore, when you read the scriptures. How would you think that Abraham felt when God says, I want you to slay your only son? Do you think that touched his emotions? I ll guarantee you, it touched his emotions. Do you know what I also know? It touched his will. Because do you know what it did? It went right down to the place where decisions were made in my life, your life and in Abraham s life. He knew if God said it then it had to be right. He knew if God said it, he knew if God ordered it then it had to be right. God had a plan. Listen. Real, genuine, saving faith is faith that we simply take what God says and believe it. Do you know what that will do in my life? It will put you to work. Saving faith, saving genuine, real faith will put you to work. You can t sit idle. You won t sit idle. You won t want to with real, genuine, saving faith. Abraham heard. God spoke. Abraham heard. Abraham listened. It touched his will. He said, Okay, Lord. I m going to go. He chopped up some wood, split some wood. He took Isaac and some servants and he went. If God hadn t spoke from heaven, we would be reading in the book where Isaac died on the altar here because Abraham was

going to kill him. Do you know why? It was because God said so. God said. Abraham heard. He believed. He did. Because of that Abraham was declared righteous. Amen! God infused him with righteousness. GET THIS. God placed righteousness on his account. Amen! Impute is a banking term. It is an accounting term. When it says God imputed him, it means God put righteousness on his account. Isn t that awesome to think about? A guy that lived where they worshiped snakes, frogs and all kinds of stuff. Amen! People like you that lives in downtown Pedro. We live in Ironton and did all kinds of stuff. We are not any different than Abraham was. We were all sinners. We were all dead in trespasses and sins just like Abraham was. However, he heard the voice of God. He believed the voice of God. When he did that his will took over and he says I know that God said it. I know that God is going to have something great in mind. That is exactly what I am going to do. He did it and God infused him with righteousness. God declared him right with Him. Abraham became a friend of God because he listened, he did, and he was obedient to what God said. Nothing else. The next one is about Rahab. Abraham is on one end of the spectrum and Rahab is on the other. Amen! You don t have to be good people to go to heaven. You have to be saved. Amen! Do you know what the Bible says? We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no, not one. So, we all have sinned. Okay? Rahab was a lady that lived on the wall. She was a lady of the night. She was a prostitute. She was a harlot. She lived on the wall in the city of Jericho. Do you remember reading that story? When you read Joshua chapter 2 and also chapter 6; Joshua was getting ready to lead. Moses has died. Joshua was getting ready to lead the children of Israel across the river, over into the land of Canaan. He got over there and was going to have battles and troubles and all of that. However, he was going to divide the inheritance with the people. That was going to be one of Joshua s big things is to run out the enemy and then sort out the land and give each tribe their land. As he is getting ready to go over and he sends a couple of guys; Let s go over and look. Let s go over and spy the place out. They get there and they come to the city of Jericho. They come right to the place here is the thought in this and it is a good one, and I never thought about this until today they get to the place where Rahab lives. They could have come to any place on the wall. They could have come to any place in here but they come to a place where there was going to be somebody there in that house that was going to believe in the same God that they were serving. You can say that was just an accident. I don t believe that. You can say that was a coincidence. I don t believe that at all. Listen. What God did for these guys, God can do for you and me. If we will just listen, He will direct our path. He will put us to the houses and the places we need to be.

They get here. They come in. They have a conversation with Rahab. Rahab says, Hey, I know. I know. We have heard of what your God did, the children of Israel did unto the Amorites. Sihon, the king of the Amorites, and Og; we have heard all about that. You guys utterly destroyed them. Joshua 2:10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. Joshua 2:11 And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath. When we heard about that our hearts melted. Our courage is all gone and everybody in this city. Our hearts have melted because we know and we have heard what the God of heaven has done for you guys with the king of the Amorites. We know that the king here is of Jericho, that the boys have come to spy out the land. They go to Rahab and Rahab knows they were coming and she took them upon the roof and hid them in some stalks that were up there. They come in and question them and so forth and said, They were here but they are gone. We know that the soldiers took off. Listen to what happens. The guys come down and have a conversation with Rahab. Do you know what Rahab says when you read the story in chapter 6 of Joshua? Rahab knows that the God of heaven, the God of Israel is the God that they are serving. She knows that. She is a harlot. She is lives on a wall. She is a heathen woman. Listen. She heard what God had done to the king of the Amorites. She heard how God had given victory over the people that couldn t fight and that had no idea about fighting; yet the God of heaven gave victory to these people over the king of Amorites. She heard that. Not only did she hear that but she believed that. Amen! That is what she said. I know that the God of heaven is your God. I know that. Hey, guys if you take off to the mountains and stay for 2 or 3 days these guys will search around for a while then come back. Then you guys can go home and everything will be fine. She says, I have a request. I have helped you guys out. Would you do something? Will you remember me and my family when you guys come, when the armies come, when God gives you this city, when you over run it and tear it all down; would you please remember me and my family? That is in the book. Isn t it? Do you know what the guys said? Absolutely. If you don t tell anybody what we are doing and you keep it to yourself, and Rahab had to be a good woman to do that. They made an agreement. Here was what they were going to do. Don t tell our business to anybody. When we come to this place, make sure your dad, mom, your family and everybody in your house is inside your house because if they stay in the street then their blood is going to be upon their own head that is in the book, read it if they are inside then it is our issue. They took a rope. Get this. They took a rope that was some kind of scarlet colored material. They made the agreement and she let these guys down the wall by this scarlet colored material. Do you know what they said? Get this.

When you see us coming and you know we are coming, Rahab take this scarlet colored rope and tie it and throw it out your window. Everybody knows to let that alone, but you have to throw this out and put it in your window. Do you know what I thought today? Here she has this piece of scarlet colored rope, 20 to 50 feet long. I don t know. I could imagine how she took care of that after these guys left. Do you think that was important to her? Do you think that piece of rope was important to her. Do you know what she knew? She knew that piece of rope was going to save her life. She knew that if that rope was hanging in the window when the armies came, she knew and she believed get this she believed that everything was going to be fine. I promise you she guarded that. I promise you that she did not let anybody play with it. I promise you she probably did not do anything with it. I would say everywhere she went, she knew where it was at. She knew it was where she could get her hands on it in a hurry. She knew that was her lifeline. She knew that was going to be the thing that was going to save her life. That was in chapter 2. Get this. Chapter 6 rolls around and they come. Israel is there. They march around the city once each day for six days. On the seventh day, they march around it seven times and they shout and the walls all fall down, except one spot. There was one spot there with a rope hanging out of it. Joshua told the guys. Go in there and kill everybody in there. Burn everything in there with fire. You destroy everything in there, young, old and all; but Rahab and her family bring them out alive. Do you know what they knew? They knew exactly where Rahab was at. Do you know why? They knew because of the promise, of the covenant, the agreement that had been made. She heard what God had done. She believed in her heart that the city was going to be destroyed. She will say, Hey, I have to throw this out of the window if I am going to live. That is actually saving faith. That is genuine, dynamic, absolute, awesome faith. We hear. It touches our hearts. Our will says, I ve got to go. I ve got to do. I ve got to get this done. It saved her life. That is the kind of faith that will save your soul. That is the kind of faith that will take you to heaven. We hear God speak. We hear God s voice. We read God s Word. It touches us emotionally. Not only that but also, it touches us in our will. We decide I know what God wants. I know what God expects. I know what God is saying and I am going to get after it. When I do that it is saving faith. We hear. We believe. We do. The question we need to ask ourselves tonight is this. Is our faith really real or is it dead? Is our faith something that is motivating us and energizing us and energizing our will? We must know that if we are going to do what God wants us to do and we are going to go to heaven then our life has to be changed? Abraham s life I promise you, when we get to heaven if it would be this way we could ask Abraham, What was one of the days in your life that you never forgot? Do you know what he would tell you? He would tell the day that I went to the land of Moriah and was getting ready to kill my son. I promise you that would be number one on the

list. If we could talk to Rahab when we get there do you know what Rahab would tell us? I can still yet remember the scarlet colored rope I threw out the window when I saw them coming. That is faith, my friend that works. That is faith that is alive. If you say you have faith and you never do anything then your faith is dead. Abraham was justified not by faith alone but by faith and works. Faith put his work to moving. Faith that he had produced works in him. Faith that Rahab had made her work. It produced works in her. Amen! She was saved. Her family was saved. The remarkable thing is when you go over in the book of Matthew; do you know what you will find out? When you start reading about the genealogy of Jesus Christ, do you know who you read about? You read about a lady by the name of Rahab. She is in the genealogy of Jesus Christ. You say, surely that is not right. Well, that is right. Faith that moves you to action is faith that is real. Amen! If your faith never moves you then you have issues. Amen! Listen. We need real genuine faith that is alive and it changes our life. We are not the same people. If you have been saved, you are not the same person you used to be. Do you know why? Because faith has changed you. Faith in Jesus Christ has changed you. It has molded you. It has helped us to be different people than we used to be. That is what faith will do in your life. If you say you have faith and your life is still as it used to be then your faith is dead. You are going to miss heaven if you don t change. Listen to His voice. Call upon Him tonight. Put faith in Him tonight. Do you know what He will do? He will do some great things in your life. He will save you. He will cleanse you. He will keep you. He will put you to work. Faith that is real is a faith that will put you to work. If you need to come and pray tonight then come and pray.