What does the Bible say about faith and works? How do our emotions and obedience relate to each other? Everyone has a measure of faith and we need to have the correct type of faith that works by love. Being motivated by fear does not produce good works.

<p>What does the Bible say about faith and works? How do our emotions and obedience relate to each other? Everyone has a measure of faith and we need to have the correct type of faith that works by love. Being motivated by fear does not produce good works.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Amazing Facts

Joe Crews

Faith that Works


This is America! Several states have already banned capital punishment as a result of recent public demonstrations. It's felt by many that fear of the death penalty does not produce better obedience to law. I'll be back in a moment to talk about a motive which could eliminate law-breaking in time. Hello, this is Joe Cruz on the Amazing Facts broadcast, facts which affect you.

We've all heard a great deal about faith and works and how they operate in the Christian experience of an individual. 1 can't be a successful Christian without having an abundance of faith and without also having a corresponding supply of works. Now I must confess that generally speaking the works seem to be more hard to come by. It's not hard to really convince people about the truth. The Bible is very logical and the gospel message is really very reasonable.

But to get people to act on their convictions and to actually obey the truth that they understand is much more difficult. I've always believed that it's better for a person never to hear the truth than to hear it and not do anything about it. I ran across a statement by a famous psychologist the other day which makes me even more sure that I'm right in this belief. Here's what this psychologist said, and I'm quoting from him. He said, an emotion not expressed in action operates as a poison in the mental life with a deadly effect upon character." And then he goes on to say, "...we feel deeply moved by a portrayal on the screen, or even by a sermon, but we do nothing about it.

In that case we are worse off than if we had never learned anything about it. And then he says that the disintegration of character comes about by this kind of action. You see, we get stirred up emotionally and want to do something very much. After all, any emotion usually brings on a corresponding action. When a person is frightened, usually they want to run, and if a person is angry, sometimes he wants to fight.

And if he is emotionally disturbed because maybe some animal is in trouble or difficulty, he wants to intervene and save that animal. And yet if he doesn't do it, or is not able to do it, it works as a sort of deadly toxin in the body and even upon the character itself. So you see, friends, obedience is actually necessary for our physical and emotional happiness. Now obedience is based on faith. Somebody says, Well, I don't have much faith.

That's my problem. Listen, everybody has faith in something or somebody. Some folks put their faith in people, And some people put it in science and gadgets. But remember this, the object of our faith determines the kind of faith we have. Here is a wonderful text of the Bible in Galatians 5, verse 6.

For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love. Oh, yes, we have got to have a faith that works, but it must work by love. Now some people have a faith that works by fear. Suppose a car comes up to an intersection to a big stop sign. The car stops because the driver has faith in that sign, and his faith works.

But that faith is based on fear and the works which follow also. He's afraid that if he drives out into that intersection, another car may smack into him, or a policeman might be watching from around the corner and give him a ticket. So it's really not from love of the policeman that he stops, but his faith worketh by fear and he stops. Now in April, millions of people go rushing down to the post office to meet the deadline on their tax forms. Why do they do that?

Because they have faith in the government and in the law of the government, and so they work to obey that law. But it's a work which is based on fear. Let me tell you something. Those people will get by with just as little as possible. They'll not go the second mile at all.

They'll not do anything extra. They simply try to fulfill the letter of the law in order to escape the penalty. Now the faith that worketh by love will always raise the standard and will actually go the second mile. I heard of a mother who had 3 boys, and it was quite a struggle for her to keep those boys well-groomed. You know, boys will be boys, and so she sometimes had to use some force even to get them to comb their hair and shine their shoes and keep their clothes tidy.

They were always resisting those laws that she was trying to enforce on them. But then 1 day she noticed something very strange. Her oldest son in his early teens came in and he was all clean from top to bottom. I mean his hair was combed, his shoes were shined, and he was spic and span. And she could not understand it.

She waited another day to see if it could possibly be an illusion, but it was the same thing again the next day. Then she found out something. A new family had moved in down the street, and there was a girl in that family. Now perhaps the girl had never seen Johnny, but Johnny had seen her, and it had already made a tremendous difference in his life. He no longer had to be forced to keep clean and tidy.

In fact, the law of good grooming was now working in his life, and it was based on love instead of fear. He no longer feared his mother's long arm of enforcement, but he was doing it from a much deeper emotion. I am afraid that thousands of people, friends, have a faith that worketh by fear. Too many people, in fact, have a fire-escape religion. They give only what is required.

They will not go beyond the actual letter of the law. Jesus said that this is not enough. In Matthew 5, verses 40 and 41, If any man will soothe the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain." Now, listen, friends, love gives more than is demanded every time. In every state there is a law requiring the husband to support his family.

A man, in fact, can be put in jail if he doesn't provide for his family. But is that why a good father does it? Is that why you Christian fathers support your families? Of course not. You are hardly conscious of that law.

You do it from love. Yet there are many Christians who simply do what they know should be done, because they are afraid of being thrown in the fire at the end if they don't. Their works are based on fear of the law rather than upon love. The 10 Commandments, by the way, is just a minimum requirement for the Christian. We should go far beyond that.

That's why Jesus said, It is written, Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto thee, Thou shalt not look upon a woman to lust after her. You have already committed adultery in your heart. You see, he showed that the real Christian would go far beyond the mere requirement of the letter of that law. Love always raises the standard.

There's not a question of just getting by. There's no quibbling over whether it's right or wrong. It's not, What can I do and still make it into Heaven? The question will be, how much can I do to show my love for Christ? You know, a mother had stepped out of her home to go down to the neighbors for a few moments and left her little baby asleep.

And suddenly she heard the fire siren. She rushed down to see her home in flames. She ran desperately to her burning home and a fireman was standing in the door. He said, You can't go in, lady, you'll die if you do. And she stopped.

She obeyed that fireman because of her fear. But then suddenly a higher law began to operate, and she remembered that little baby, and she dashed past that fireman and into the house to save her child. Love took over, the higher law of love. That's what we need so desperately, my friends, in serving God. We need to have a faith that works by love, not just because we are afraid of the punishment at the end of the road, unless we do certain things.

Have you ever seen these long-faced, miserable Christians who are just forcing themselves to do good because they don't want to be burned up in that fire." Oh, it's an unhappy thing, believe me. Too many Christians give a lying impression of their religion. They drag out in the morning as though they are carrying some great big heavy load on their backs. Christians should be the happiest people in the world, because love is motivating their service. A missionary over in India saw a little girl carrying her baby brother on her back.

The baby was almost as large as the little girl herself. So the missionary looked down on the child in sympathy and said, ìMy, what a burden you have to carry!î The little girl looked up perplexed and said, ìNo, this is no burden, this is my brother!î Oh, friends, donít you see that the service we render to God becomes a joy when we have love for him, there is a personal emotion involved here. The legless soldier had the same kind of faith that works by love. While he was in the hospital, some unthinking person came along and said, ìOh, I am so sorry you lost your leg.î He said, ìI didnít lose it, I gave it.î And thatís it, friends, thatís the secret. What we do for Christ we do from love.

We give it to Him. He doesn't exact it from us. He doesn't force it out of us, it's not something that's extracted. It's something that we are joyful and happy to do for him, because we love the privilege of being Christians. Remember this, the object of our faith determines the kind of faith we have.

The object of the Christian's faith, of course, is Christ. And this means that it ought to be the very best faith and ought to be a faith that worketh by love and certainly not by fear. How does your faith operate today, friends? Are you serving God because you love Him? Is that the purpose of your obedience?

Are you trying to just get by with as little as possible so that you can make it into the kingdom of God? Or do you love Him so much that You are going the second mile and you are doing everything you can so that there will be no question about obeying him. You see, many people take the benefit of the doubt themselves rather than giving that benefit to God. They take a chance, they run a risk of displeasing God. But I'll tell you, the person who loves God supremely with all his heart, soul and mind will not do anything that runs any risk of displeasing God.

He will put Jesus first and himself second, and obedience will always be a first priority in his life. And that obedience must always come from love, if it is true obedience. In the last days some people are going to make their boast of doing their duty and of performing their works. According to the words of Jesus, they are going to come at the very last moment and say, Lord, Lord, didn't we do this, didn't we do that? And you will read that story in Matthew 7, verses 22 and 23, in fact, Christ told about it and how Many people would come at the very end of time and they would make their boast about casting out devils and working miracles and doing all these other wonderful things.

And Jesus will say to them, and now these are the words of Christ Himself, Jesus will say, I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work iniquity. Now why will he do that? Listen, because they had no love in their works. Oh, yes, they did things, but they only did them to escape the fire.

They only did them because they were afraid not to. God is looking for people who will love him in his own right and who'll be glad to go the second mile, to engage in any Christian service and not consider it a great sacrifice to do it, just because they love him. May God bless you as you live this kind of Christian life for him, France, because this is the only kind of service that God will accept. And now, this is Joe Cruz saying goodbye for today. You

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Faith that Works

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