Faith Without Works

May 29, 2017

Faith Without Works

How many times have you heard or read faith without works is dead.  Then you think, hey, I thought we were not supposed to rely on works. I’m looking in the book of James and I really want to get this right. James 2:14, says, “What does it profit my brethren if someone says he has faith but does not have works?  Can faith save him?”  What a powerful question that is being asked in this particular passage.  The implication is that faith alone cannot save him.  Because, he asks “can faith save him?”  It says, “What does it profit brethren if someone says he has faith but does not have works?”  

How many times have we heard over and over and over that, “Oh no, you can’t have works, you can’t do anything by works”, works this, works that, and bad, bad, no, no, no.  Right here it says you can’t have faith without works.  And, it actually says, in verse 18, now this is so powerful, “But someone will say, you have faith and I have works.  Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works.”  And then in verse 20 it goes on to say that “faith without works is dead, being alone.” So, you can have all the faith in the entire universe, but if you don’t have the works to go along with that faith, you have nothing.  So then, what are the works?

I am one that continues to be in amazed and stand in awe of all the things that I am finding in the New Testament concerning Torah, the law and commands, our works and the works of YHVH.  But the main point here are the works that YHVH commanded.  The things that He said we needed.  And here, I am reading this passage and it asks the question, “can faith alone save you?” No! the implication is no, it can’t.  So, the other implication is you need works to go along with your faith in order to be “saved.” We’ve talked about this before. One day I will be able to give a real in-depth study on faith, the salvation, and being born again, and everlasting life.  They are all separate concepts, all of them.  And we’ve just kind of rolled them all into one ball and said, “Okay, here, this is all you need to do, just believe in grace, just trust in grace, and you can have these things.”  No, no, no!  It is so much more beautiful than that; more profound than just put these concepts into one neat little package and stamp grace all over it. Right here it’s very plain-  Faith without works is dead! Period!

Now, I have a dear sister that is coming along in her walk in Torah and there are some powerful, powerful things that I believe the Lord has for her.  And, some of the steps that she needed to take in order to get to that next place required almost a complete abandonment of anything that she could see in the natural.  That’s a difficult thing to do.  Now, I’m speaking to a lot of people out there when I say this to you.  There are some of you out there that have a walk that is so unique with YHVH that it will require an incredible amount of faith in order to get to that next place in your life. I’m talking about stepping out onto nothing.  I’m talking about the kind of faith that Abraham had.  YHVH said to him, “Go to a land that I will show you.”  Go to a land that I will show you?  He was saying, “I’m not telling you where you’re going.  I’m telling you, just go, and I’ll get you there.  And so, this is the kind of faith that is required of some of us who are believing YHVH for some massive amounts of promises; massive things in this walk and in this life.

My brothers and sisters, I challenge you right now that faith without works is dead.  You can’t just sit around and say I have faith the Lord’s gonna do this.  The Lord’s gonna do this.  I’m just waiting here for the Lord to just do something.  Oh no- you put your feet to your faith, as you’ve heard that said before. YHVH told Abraham to go and Abraham started walking. He put feet to his faith.

Let me move on to another little thing here, because, as I have told you guys before, I’m trying to equip you.  I’m trying to equip the saints with the true gospel of the Kingdom.  I’m talking about the gospel that Peter, that James, that even Yeshua himself spoke about, which is Torah.  That is the gospel.  That’s the good news!  This is the gospel that they were teaching.  When Paul said, “Be like a good Berean,” what was he talking about?  He said this because they would go and study for themselves the things Paul had said to see if it was true.  What were they studying, my brothers and sisters?  They were studying Torah.  That is what they were studying.  They were studying the only study manual they had to compare to the words which Paul was speaking- Torah.  Paul would come up and tell them some beautiful, beautiful truth, and they would say, “wait a minute, let’s go study this out to make sure what he’s saying lines up with Torah.”  They didn’t have Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.  They didn’t have Hebrews.  They didn’t have the epistles or all the things in the New Testament.  They went and studied Torah and then probably said something like, “Oh yeah- yeah, that thing that Paul said at the meeting, here it is.  Okay, we can go with that.”

So, this has been kind of my thing right now as I’m studying and learning good things about Torah, learning good things about His commands, learning good things about His law, and how it applies to us so deeply and so beautifully.  I mean that with all my heart.  This is a beautiful, beautiful thing that I’m learning.  The law and His commands are not grievous.  They are not burdensome.  They are absolutely beautiful and in saying so, I am in complete agreement with King David.  And, the more that I learn about them, the more I fall in love with His word all over again.  I thought that I loved His word when I was mostly just studying the New Testament, but I have fallen in love with Torah.  Why?  Because that’s what they spoke about, that’s what they studied when they were talking about the word. That is the bible they were in love with and now I am beginning to understand it. They didn’t have the New Testament.  They had Torah and that is what they were talking of.

So, that being said, I want to share with you something that the Lord shared with me concerning this scripture.  As I was contemplating these things about the law and His commands and the beauty of the true gospel of the Kingdom, YHVH said to me, “David, you know this scripture, ‘Faith without works is dead.’”  I said, absolutely, yes. And so here, in, James chapter 2 verse number 18.  “But someone will say you have faith and I have works.”  And then it says, “Show me your faith without your works and I’ll show you my faith by my works.”  And, so the Lord spoke to me and He said, “You know that scripture too?”  I said absolutely.  It’s a beautiful scripture.  He says, “I want you to change it around just a little bit.” I was like okay.  

(Now, please, understand, this is my personal experience, my brothers and sisters.  I’m not telling you that I’m changing the gospel around or changing His word in any way, shape or form.  No, no!  This is the way that YHVH spoke to me, and so please don’t think that I’m trying to change things up on you or confuse anybody.)  

Here is how I believe I heard the Spirit of the Lord say this, I believe He said, “you show me your grace without the law and I’ll show you my grace by the law.”  Hallelujah!  When I heard that in my spirit, it set me free. What a beautiful way to express that; to understand how grace and law work together.  Because I hear it over and over, all you need is grace, all you need is grace, all you need is grace, well you show me your grace without the law and I’ll show you my grace by the law!

Take that, make it part of your confession, that my grace is nothing without the law.  I need the law in order for grace to be activated.  If all you have is grace, what need of you of the law?  You don’t need the law if all you have is grace.  And, if you don’t have the law, what do you need grace for?  It’s very simple when you think about it. And, so here I am, hearing this in my spirit.  Show me your grace without the law and I will show you my grace by the law, through the law, with the law, in conjunction with the law.  The two work together.  But, as I said before, grace is just a piece of the puzzle that makes up the entirety of Torah.

You know, I stepped out in faith many times, my brothers and sisters.  I’m sitting here, telling you as one who has walked this faith walk before.  Faith without works is truly dead…standing alone.  So, I challenge you, if you’re in that place right now, take a step of faith; take a leap of faith, and watch what YHVH does.

You have faith, now what you need are the works in order to activate that faith; to validate that faith. The same goes with the grace that you think you have.  The grace that you have is only activated by adhering to the law.  Hallelujah!  Isn’t that beautiful?  

So, those of you out there who are believing YHVH for some powerful things, I want you to take this message and put some feet to that faith.  Amen?  Put some feet to that faith!  Allow YHVH to show you just how big He is and how He can work things out for your good.  The blessings of YHVH are absolutely awaiting those who would step out in faith.  Hallelujah! Faith without works is dead, my brothers and sisters. So live it!  Hallelujah!

~ Shalom,

David

 

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