Ron Dunn Podcast - How To Complete Your Faith (Ron Dunn Podcast)

Episode Date: October 16, 2019

From the series on Faith

Now would you open your Bible to the book of James, chapter 2. The book of James, chapter 2, and I'm going to begin reading with verse 14 and read through verse 26. James, the second chapter, beginning with the 14th verse and reading through the end of the chapter, verse 26. What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not worked? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, 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, even so faith, if it hath not worked, is dead, being alone? Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have worked. Show me thy faith without thy work, and I will show thee my faith by my work. Thou believest that there is one God. Thou doest well. The demons also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works

was faith made perfect? 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. You see then how that by work a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by work when she had received the messengers and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without work is dead also. Now let me read again two verses, verses 22 and 23,

speaking of Abraham. Seest thou how faith walked with his work, and by faith, by work, was faith made perfect. And the scripture was fulfilled which says, Abraham believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God. A key word is the word imputed, which means to credit somebody's account. That's what faith is. That's what faith does. Faith is the standard of exchange in the kingdom of God. Faith is our spending money as God's children. Faith is the coin of the realm. And the Bible in this verse and in Galatians 4 and Romans 4

makes it very clear that I can bring my faith to God and God will take that faith and will exchange it for whatever commodity is needed at that time in my life. That God takes my faith and with that faith then credits my account with something else. For instance, Abraham needed righteousness. He needed a right standing before God. He needed to be able to stand in the presence of God and know that everything between he and his creator was right. Now, how was Abraham to have this credited to his account? When God looked up his account, he didn't see any righteousness

there. He saw nothing that would cause Abraham to have a right relationship with him. How was Abraham then to have that credited to his account? Well, on a certain day, Abraham believed God. Abraham brought his faith to God, and God took that faith and exchanged it for righteousness and put down on his account righteousness credited to the account of Abraham. That's what faith is. And if a person knows how to believe God, he can come to God with whatever need he has, spiritual, material, financial, emotional, and put that faith to God, and God will exchange that faith for that commodity that he needs and will credit his account for that thing. You find this in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11.

That's a precious chapter, but where it really begins to sail is beginning in verse 32, when the fellow's running out of time and running out of paper, and he doesn't have the time nor the space to list everything that faith accomplished, and so he just takes everything that he can think of and piles it on top. In verse 32 he says, What shall I more say, for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jeshi, of David also and Samuel and of the prophets? Now, guess this. Who through faith subdued kingdom? Here was a fellow one day that needed to subdue a kingdom.

And he said, Lord, I don't have anything with which to subdue a kingdom. I don't have any money to buy a kingdom. And he said, Lord, all I have is faith. And the Lord said, that's exactly what I'll sell your subdued kingdom for. And this fellow brought to God his faith, and God credited his account with a subdued kingdom for. And this fellow brought to God his faith, and God credited his account with a subdued kingdom. Now, that's paraphrased translation. You have to use your imagination here. Notice he says that they wrought righteousness. Abraham, they obtained promises. Here's a fellow that had a promise. There was a promise he needed to obtain. Now, you know,

there's a difference in having the promise in the book and in having it in your heart. Obtain. And a fellow said one day, there's a promise that God has made, and I need to obtain that, but I don't have the buying power. I just want to spend cash, and I don't have the buying power to obtain a promise. He said, Lord, all I have is faith. God says, that's what I'm selling it for today. You can obtain any promise in the book for the price of faith. And this fellow brought faith to God, and God exchanged that for an obtained promise. What promise would you like to obtain today?

God has a special on today. Go on for a special price that any promise in this book can be obtained for the price of believing. And he goes on and says, stop the mouths of lions. I guess he's talking about Daniel. Daniel said, Lord, I need some lion muzzles. And all of this came on me so quick, I didn't have time to stop by the pet store and buy any muzzles for these lions. And if you don't give me some lion muzzles,

I'm going to vanish in just a moment. And Lord, all I have with which to buy muzzles for these lions is faith. And God said, you have to use your imagination, God said, that's exactly what I'll sell you a lion muzzle for. And Daniel brought his faith and exchanged that faith for lion muzzle. That's what it says. He stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire. I suppose that's the three Hebrew children. How were they able to quench the violence of fire? With faith.

Escaped the edge of the sword. Out of weakness were made strong. Lacked valiant in fight. Turned to fight the armies of aliens. Women received their dead, raised to life again. Now get this, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance. They could have had deliverance. They had the price of deliverance, faith, but they didn't want to accept it. They were willing to die. Why? That they might obtain a better resurrection. Now that's what faith is. That's the marvelous coin of the realm that God has placed in the hand, in the life of the simplest believer. And he says, whatever you need from me in my treasure house, whatever you need,

you can move into heaven's treasure house with unlimited buying power with faith. Abraham believed God, and God credited that faith to Abraham for righteousness. Now, the only thing wrong with all that I've said is that it doesn't work for a great many of us. And one of the most frustrating, disillusioning, and discouraging things that happens in the life of a believer is to realize the power and the potential of faith, to realize that all man has to do is to bring his believing to God, and God can translate that into whatever is needed in his life. And so the fellow follows the formula, pushes all the right buttons, turns all the right knobs,

pulls all the right levers, and he comes up short. And it doesn't work. And it doesn't happen. I'd be interested to know this morning, has this failed in your life ever? Have you ever come to God and you've had his word on something?

You've known that this was the will of God and you've brought that promise to God, but yet God has not exchanged your faith for what you needed? I think that's been the experience of all of you. But you know there's a little verse there that so many of us have overlooked, and it's that 22nd verse. He says, Seeest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works, now get this, was faith made perfect. Did you know that no one of us this morning has perfect faith? But rather, that faith that we have must be made perfect.

The word perfect means to bring to completion or to arrive at its goal. As a matter of fact, I believe it is the Beck translation that translates it this way, that when faith arrives at its goal. You see, a lot of our faith never arrives at its goal. It never does what it was sent out to do. Now, Abraham's goal was a righteous standing before God, and his faith reached the goal and accomplished what it was sent out to do.

Many of us have faith, but it never reaches its goal. It never brings to completion. It never obtains the thing that we want to obtain with it. And one of the greatest teachings in all the Word of God is this teaching right here, that your faith and my faith must be perfected, that it must be completed in order for it to arrive at its goal and to accomplish what God intended it to accomplish. Now, I want to share with you this morning the biblical teaching in this passage of how you can complete your faith and how your faith can arrive at its intended goal. And perhaps you've been believing God today for something, and maybe you've been believing God today for something, and maybe you've been believing him

for a long time, but it has never arrived at its goal. And you have had one disappointment after another. All right and by works was faith made perfect. How is my faith completed? What do I do that makes my faith reach its goal and accomplish its purpose. It is made perfect, it is completed by works. By works. Now, don't let that throw you. You said, I thought faith and works were like oil and water. You couldn't mix them. In a sense that's true, and in a sense that is not true. Some people came to Jesus one day and they said, tell us what we have to do to work the works of God. Jesus said, this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. Hebrews chapter 4 says, he that is entered into rest, and the word rest is a synonym for a belief,

he that is entered into the land of belief has ceased from his own work. He hasn't ceased from working, he ceased from his own work. But he does the works of God. And your faith must be perfected and completed by work. By work. I went through this 11th chapter of Hebrews again, and I noticed that every time one of these heroes of faith is mentioned, it mentions something they, what, did. Look at verse 4, Hebrews 11. Just listen as I read it. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice. By faith it doesn't say by faith he sat down and did nothing.

Faith is not an emotion. Faith is not passive. Faith is not sitting around with your arms folded saying, all right, God, it's all up to you. You do it. Now, it is all up to him, and he does do it, but not with you sitting around with your hands folded. By faith, Abel offered up.

He did something. Look at verse 7. By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen, is yet moved with fear. He was moved. He didn't just sit there, he was moved. Prepared an ark. By faith, Abraham went out, not knowing whether he went.

By faith, he sojourned. Through faith, Sarah received strength, and on and on. Every time they had faith, that faith was perfected by work. Now, there are two kinds of works that are necessary for completing our faith. Number one, our faith is completed by cooperating works, by works that cooperate with our faith. These works are not opposite, contrary to faith, but they are the issue of faith. They are the result of faith. What is faith? Faith is acting upon the Word of God. Faith is acting upon the Word of God. And if you can ever understand that, you will know exactly what I'm talking about this

morning. That with faith there must be a work that cooperates with that faith. Phillips translates it like this. So you see that his works were partners with his faith. I like that. There was a partnership, and faith was the main partner, and out of that faith grew a work. And when a man believes God and establishes faith, that faith will issue in some kind of work. You know, faith is something that many of us do not understand. In the book of Hebrews, in the third chapter, the apostle is talking about Israel's failure to enter into victory. And he says in verse 18 of that third chapter

that they who did not enter in, they did not enter in because they were disobedient. Now, in the English translation, it's translated they did not believe, but the Greek word is they did not obey. And in the very next verse, the 19th verse, he says, so then you see that they could not enter in because of unbelief, and there it is, the word of unbelief. You see, in verse 18, he says they couldn't enter in because they didn't obey. In verse 19, he says they couldn't enter in because they didn't obey. In verse 19 he says they didn't enter in because they didn't believe. Well, now, why didn't he make up his mind?

Which was it? They didn't believe or they didn't obey. It was both, because faith is obedience. And I've said it before, and I'll say it again at this point, that you only believe as much of this Bible as you are obeying. And if I were to ask each one of you individually this morning, do you believe this book? You'd say, amen, praise the Lord. I believe it from kibber to kibber. I believe from Genesis to Revelation. I even believe the binding is inspired because it says Holy Bible. I believe that book all

the way through. But I have something to say to you that you only believe as much as you're obeying. And that part of this book that you are not obeying, you don't believe. Because believing isn't sitting around having an intellectual opinion about something. Believing is acting, doing something about it. It is being a doer of the Word. And Jesus says, a man that hears the Word and doesn't do anything about it is a fool. And James says he is self-deceived. You see, you deceive yourself. You think you believe it, but you don't believe it. You know, there's a very disturbing verse over in John chapter 14. I think I'll just read it. No use me being the only one disturbed about it.

Let you get in on it. In John chapter 14, there's a very disturbing verse. It's verse 21. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them. Now, we all have his commandments, but keeping them is something else. He that hath my commandments and keeps them, obeys them, he it is that loveth me. Well, I thought love was sentimental doing it and sitting around with a high smile on our face and lifting up our hands and saying how I love Jesus. That's not love. That may be an expression of love. You know what love is? Love is obedience. And I'll tell you something, if you are not being obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ and the commandments of this book, you don't love him. No matter what you say. And you only believe as much of this book today as you are obeying.

And if there's any commandment here that you're not obeying, you just don't believe it. You don't have faith. Now, when was Abraham's faith credited to his account for righteousness? Notice in that second chapter, it says in verse 21, was not Abraham our father justified by works? When was he justified? When did God write down in his account justified? When he offered up Isaac, not before. He wasn't justified when he was riding on those dockies to the place of execution. He wasn't justified when he left those dockies and told those servants, the lad and I will come again. That didn't justify him. He was believing, but his faith

hadn't reached its goal. God hadn't put it down on his account. He was not even justified as he was walking up the mountain with Isaac bringing up the firewood. Now, he was believing God, but God had not yet taken that faith and exchanged it for righteousness. It had not yet been credited to his account. When was it? When Abraham's work cooperated with what he believed. You see, many of us deny what we believe by what we do. Instead of our work confirming our faith, they contradict our faith. This morning I was talking about the keys to financial freedom.

We've been talking about it for the last two Sundays in this special Sunday school class. And you know, there are a great many of us that believe that God is able to take care of us financially and that he will meet our needs. But when the offering plate is passed and you just put in a dime, that work of yours has contradicted what you believe. That work has not cooperated with your faith. And so, first of all, there is a work at issues from that faith that will cooperate with it. I hear people sit around and say,

Man, I believe God's going to save so many souls this week in this revival. And they say, I believe in God for that. And they sit down and they don't do a thing about it. And I want you to know that's not the way to win people to Jesus, just sitting around believing God's going to do it. You know, one of the basic laws of Scripture is you can't have a harvest unless you sow. And if a man really believes that God is going to save some people, you see, that inspires him and encourages him to go out and witness. Why? Because now he

has the assurance his witnessing is not going to be fruitful. But his work has to cooperate with what he believes. Now, not only must there be cooperating works, and this is very important, there must be corresponding works. Now, by that, well, Phillips translates it like this. His faith had corresponding actions. Three times Phillips translates it like that. His faith had corresponding actions.

Now, what do I mean by that? In other words, the work that you do must be relevant to what you're believing. Now, he uses an illustration here of a fellow walking along, and he sees somebody that needs clothes and needs food. Now, he believes that he can speak the word of faith, and God will clothe him, and God will feed him. And so he says, God bless you, be you warmed and filled. He spoke a word of faith. If he were to put it in our language of today, he'd say, friend, just trust God. Just believe

God. And God will provide. But he himself does nothing about it. Now, he believes that this man is going to be warmed and filled, or he wouldn't have said that. He really believes it. But he himself does nothing about it. Now, he believes that this man is going to be warmed and filled, or he wouldn't have said that. He really believes it. But he hasn't worked. Well, he heard the first point of the sermon. He said, okay, works need to cooperate with faith. So he goes out here and starts chopping down trees.

And I come up to him. I say, what are you doing? He said, I'm warming that fellow over there that's cold, and I'm feeding him who's hungry, and I'm clothing him who's naked. I said, what are you doing? He said, I'm warming that fellow over there that's cold, and I'm feeding him who's hungry, and I'm clothing him who's naked. I said, is that right? He said, that's right. How are you doing that?

He said, I'm chopping down trees. I'm working. Faith without works is dead. I have faith that he's going to be warmed and clothed and fed. And so now I'm working. I'm chopping down trees. I tell you something, he can chop down trees all day long, but that fellow's not going to be

warmed and fed and clothed. See, his works must correspond to his faith. Now listen, with every act of faith, there is a corresponding act of work. All right, what is the corresponding act that this fellow ought to do that corresponds with his faith? All right, he believes

that this fellow's going to be clothed. What's the work he ought to do? He ought to clothe him. It's simple. He ought to take out of his own pocket and give to this man what he needs. And when he does that, God takes that man's faith and he credits it to this man for abundance, and whatever this man gives away, God will give it back to him in abundance. Because his faith has had not only a cooperating work, it has had a corresponding work. And every belief has really a corresponding work. Here's a fellow that wants to quit smoking. Now, he believes that God can keep him, can deliver him from smoking. I'm just using this as an illustration.

And he believes that God can deliver him from this. And so he sits back there and he says, I believe God, I believe God, but he doesn't tell anybody about it, doesn't say anything, doesn't do anything about it. He just believes in God. And he goes home and takes out that package of pell mills and sticks them in the desk drawer, doesn't throw them away, just in case, you know, he might backslide. And so after a few days, he just can't take it anymore, breaks out in a cold sweat and has DTs and withdrawal pains. Well, he hasn't told anybody about what he did, and so he can go back to smoking, nobody knows.

Now, what's wrong with his faith? His faith did not have any works that cooperated with it and corresponded to it. But I've seen men who smoke for 20 or 30 years, three packs a day, four packs a day, walk down in a service

and say, Pastor, people, God has delivered me from nicotine. Take out that pack of cigarettes, put it down there. Here they are. I'm not smoking anymore. God has delivered me.

Faith is the victory. If I believe I have victory, I have victory. I believe. Now, what's he done? He has believed and his work has been perfected. Rather, his faith has been perfected by his work. Here's a woman that has a lost husband. And she says, I believe God is going

to save this lost husband. Now, that's her faith. Now, what is her corresponding act? You find in 1 Peter chapter 3, Likewise, you wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they can without a word be won, while they behold the chaste conversation of the wife. Here's a wife who says, I believe God's going to save my husband. I'm believing, I'm believing, I'm believing. But she fails to do two things. Number one, she fails to submit to him as God has commanded her.

Number two, she fails to live before him a pure and holy life. Therefore, her faith is not made perfect. She can sit up here and believe God until kingdom come, and he'll never be saved because her faith will not reach its goal until there's a corresponding and a cooperating work. Here's a man who believes God can save him.

He's lost. He needs God to do a miracle of salvation in his life. He can stand back there this morning and give an invitation and believe all he wants to, but he'll never be saved until that believing He needs God to do a miracle of salvation in his life. He can stand back there this morning, give an invitation, and believe all he wants to, but he'll never be saved until that believing issues in a work, and he acts upon it, and he has a corresponding work, which is to publicly confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

You see, it says, if thou shalt confess, do something. See, with thy mouth, Jesus is Lord, and at the same time believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made, something is done unto salvation. So here is a person who says, I believe God can save me. Now there must be a corresponding act. What is that? You publicly move out and you publicly confess

Jesus Christ is Lord, Jesus Christ saved. Now on and on we go go. I just used some of these illustrations to try to perhaps show you exactly what James is talking about, that with every belief there is a corresponding act. Now, I want to give a different invitation first this morning. And I've prayed that the Holy Spirit will this morning show us, show you, what acts of obedience you need to perform in order to complete your faith. The Ron Dunn Podcast is available to perform in order to complete your faith. to additional Ron Dunn messages, visit sherwoodbaptist.net slash bookstore and search Ron Dunn. For more Ron Dunn materials, including sermon outlines, devotions, and scanned pages from a study Bible, please visit rondunn.com.