I added four new sermons this week to the Sermon page.

We (”we” being me and the church I pastor, Eastwood Baptist Church) did a topical Christmas sermon based on a few character traits of faith observed in the lives of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus:

• “Thoughtful, Humble Obedience in the Christmas Story”

We also finished up our church’s verse-by-verse study through the Letter of James.  I added three new sermons there:

• “Fighting in the Church” (James 4:1-10)
• “The Serious Sin of ‘Speaking Evil’” (James 4:11-12)
• “James’ Closing Admonitions” (James 5:1-12)

Enjoy and be blessed.

Most of us are familiar with the little phrase, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me.”  In my experience that has not proven to be true.  I suggest that the person who came up with it probably didn’t have a very balanced view of things. Either they never had anything negative said about them at all, or they had so many hurtful things said about them that they went into some sort of state of denial.

Compare the meaning of that phrase with what the wisdom writer of Proverbs had to say about the power of words: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Prov. 18:21).

As part of our ongoing series through the Letter of James I preached out of James 3:1-12 this weekend at my church.  Perhaps more than any other passage in the Bible these 12 verses describe the devastating power of the sinful words and ways in which we speak.  My message was titled, “The Power of the Tongue.”  Give it a listen.

• Here’s the sermon audio for this message.  Just click the ‘Play’ button (the little triangle pointing right) to listen now.

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• Or you can download the sermon and listen to it later via mp3 player or burnt CD by visiting my Sermon Download Page, finding the word “Download,” right-clicking on it, and choosing the ‘Save As’ option.

Unfortunately I was not able to record the second half of this sermon.  Due to time constraints it was broken into two parts and the second half took place during our Sunday PM worship service which is not recorded.

In case anyone’s interested, here’s the outline I preached from.  I’m always interested to see how others put their thoughts together.

I preached Part 2 of the message, “Faith without Works Is Dead” this weekend.  Part 1 covered James’ explanation of the relationship between faith and works by way of looking at his two examples of a faith that doesn’t work.  Part 2 seeks to explain faith and works in light of his two examples of a faith that does work.

• Here’s the sermon audio for this message.  Just click the ‘Play’ button (the little triangle pointing right) to listen now.

  Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

• Or you can download the sermon and listen to it later via mp3 player or burnt CD by visiting my Sermon Download Page, finding the word “Download,” right-clicking on it, and choosing the ‘Save As’ option.

The two examples James gives of a faith that does work are the OT saints Abraham and Rahab.  There’s was faith that believed God to be bigger than any problem the world can present and better than any solution it can offer.

My two concluding observations on the relationship between faith and works:

1. Faith saves all by itself, but it never stays all by itself.
2. Good works can never earn salvation, but they are the necessary evidence of salvation.

I also sought to distill my thoughts on what may seem to be a contradiction between James who says that Abraham was justified by works (James 2:21-24) and Paul who says that Abraham was justified completely without works (Rom. 4:1-5).*

My conclusions on this point were basically that Paul and James are not talking about exactly the same thing.

• Paul is addressing the question of how one is saved.
• James is addressing the question of if one is saved.
• Paul is talking Gen. 15.
• James is talking Gen. 22.
• Paul is talking initial faith apart from works.
• James is talking continued faith demonstrated by works.

What we find, though, is that both perspectives are absolutely necessary and taken together they form the basis for an orthodox understanding of salvation.

• W/o Paul we’d be left open to the heresy which says, “I’m saved by my good works.”
• W/o James we’d be left to the heresy which says, “I’m saved by faith alone…in such a manner that works are now not essential or necessary to my life as a saved individual.”
• But taken together we get this holy tension that, in my mind at least, produces the beautiful effect that is the totally free, completely life-changing gospel of Jesus Christ.

*Concerning this seeming “contradiction” b/t James and Paul I was helped tremendously by John Piper’s sermon, “Does James Contradict Paul?” (manuscript link | audio link).