Yesterday we dealt with “Dead Faith.” It was the subject of James 2:14-17. Today we will look at James 2: 18-19.
James 2:18-19 “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. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.”
Can you imagine the reaction to new believers or those who were curious about the teachings of the apostles when James makes the statement that demons have faith? We always associate faith as being something from God, but we all have a faith of some kind. Faith is believing in something you can’t see or hasn’t happened yet. We do that all the time. We turn on a light feeling quite confident it will work. We take medicine but don’t understand how it works, we just trust that it will.
I have used these verses many times when dealing with someone about their salvation. Many times, people have head knowledge, but no heart knowledge. Romans 10:8-10 makes this clear. It takes both.
James uses the words in verse 19 to shock his immature audience. Who would think of using demons to illustrate faith? In the New Testament Jesus cast our demons often. He also gave this power to the apostles.
Mark 3:14-15 “And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils:”
As shocking as it is to believe that demons have faith, it is true. They believe in the existence of God, the deity of Christ, the existence of a place of punishment, and they recognize Jesus Christ as the Judge.
The man we talked about yesterday with dead faith was touched only in his intellect, but the demons are also touched in their emotions. We know this because “they believed and trembled!” Many times, in scripture we see demons. We know that in II Corinthians 11:14 Satan transformed himself into an Angel of Light. He who is an apostate angel; who is malignant and wicked; who is the prince of evil, assumes the appearance of a holy angel. He fools people all the time by having his demons appear as “ghost”. How do I know this? We cannot come back to this earth once we are dead. Scripture makes that clear. If you see something that appears as your loved one, it is an imposter, a demon. Satan wants nothing more than to play on our emotions, and convince us that what the Bible says is untrue. If he can convince you that one verse is a lie then you will begin to question all scripture. Little by little he will whittle away at your faith. Once that happens, you become your own God picking and choosing what you will believe. He weakens your faith each time he causes you to doubt.
A person can be enlightened in his mind, and even stirred in his heart, and still be lost forever. True saving faith involves a changed life. A changed life that can be seen. You were forgiven, fitting you for heaven, and changed, to fit you for as a representative of Christ on earth.
Ephesians 2:10 you were “created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Tomorrow we get to the “good stuff,” DYNAMIC Faith!
