MORNING MANNA            5-3-23

FAITH AND WORKS

“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?.”- James 2:14

James does not say that the man in today’s verse has faith. The man himself says he has faith, but if he really had saving faith, he would have works also. His faith is a matter of words only, and that kind of faith cannot save anyone. Words without works are dead.

Salvation is not by works. Neither is it by faith plus works. Rather it is by the kind of faith that results in good works.

Why then does James say in verse 24 that a man is justified by works? Isn’t this a flat contradiction of Paul’s teaching that we are justified by faith? Actually there is no contradiction. Both are true. The fact is that there are six different aspects of justification in the New Testament, as follows:

We are justified by God—He is the One who reckons us righteous.

We are justified by grace—God gives us justification as a free, undeserved gift.

We are justified by faith—we receive this gift by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are justified by blood—the precious blood of Christ is the price that was paid for our justification.

We are justified by power—the power that raised Jesus our Lord from the dead is the power that makes our justification possible.

We are justified by works—good works are the outward evidence to all that we have been truly justified.

It is not enough to testify to a conversion experience. We must demonstrate it by the good works that inevitably follow the new birth.

Faith is invisible. It is an unseen transaction that takes place between the soul and God. People cannot see our faith. But they can see the good works that are the fruit of saving faith. They have reason to doubt our faith until they see the works.

Abraham’s good work was his willingness to slay his son as an offering to God. Rahab’s good work was betraying her country. The reason they were “good” works is because they demonstrated faith in Jehovah. Otherwise they would have been bad works, namely, murder and treason.

The body separated from the spirit is dead. That’s what death is—the separation of the spirit from the body. So faith without works is dead also. It is lifeless, powerless and inoperative.

A living body demonstrates that an invisible spirit dwells within. So good works are the sure sign that there is saving faith, invisible as it is, dwelling within the person.- William MacDonald

David Stone

Lakeway Baptist Church 

Humble, Tx.

MORNING MANNA            5-2-23

OUR BEST DAY

“So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”- 1 Corinthians 15:54–57

Our society goes to great lengths to avoid dealing with the reality of death. We hate to acknowledge that life is going to come to an end, and many people simply live in denial, acting as though they will never die. Yet the undeniable reality is that unless the Lord returns, all of us will one day come to the end of our lives. For the Christian, the approach of death is nothing to fear. The resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us the assurance that our eternity with Him is guaranteed. There is nothing left to fear, for He defeated death forever. And in truth knowing that we will be present with the Lord immediately when this life ends means that death is not something to be feared.(copied)

Charles Spurgeon said, “On the day of the believer’s death, dying is forever done with. The saints who are with God shall never die any more. Life is wrestling, struggling; but death is the end of conflict: it is rest—victory. Life is longing, sighing, crying, pining, desiring. Heaven is enjoying, possessing, delighting one’s self in God. This life is failure, disappointment, regret. Such emotions are all over when the day of death comes, for glory dawns upon us with its satisfaction and intense content. The day of our death will be the day of our cure. The day of our death is the beginning of our best days.” For the Christian death is not a defeat, it is the day we experience the victory Jesus won for us.

David Stone

Lakeway Baptist Church 

Humble, Tx.

MORNING MANNA              5-1-23

DISAPPOINTING JESUS

“And Jesus answering said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. And as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down, and tare him. And Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and delivered him again to his father.”- Luke 9:41–42

When John Paton, the missionary to the New Hebrides islands was working to translate the Word of God into the language of the people he served, he wanted to be sure he conveyed the meaning accurately. As he was trying to come up with just the right word for faith, one of the native workers who had been converted and was helping Paton came into the house after a long day of toil and labor. Collapsing into a chair, he propped his feet up and declared how good it felt to sit down. When Paton heard him use his word that meant “lean your whole weight on,” he realized he had found the best translation possible for faith.

When we do not lean our whole weight on what God has told us, we rob ourselves of power and blessing and the answers to prayer that we need. But there is more. We also rob those around us of the impact and influence we should have on their lives, depriving them of the help that they need. But there is still more.

 When we do not walk by faith, we disappoint the Lord. Refusing to believe His promises is an insult to His nature and character. “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). God has never broken a promise, yet all too often we listen to the voices of doubt and refuse to act upon what God has told us in His Word.The Christian life can only be lived successfully as we walk by faith in what God has promised us.- Copied

David Stone

Lakeway Baptist Church 

Humble, Tx.

MORNING MANNA              4-30-23

SING YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS

“And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments—and they (their enemies) were smitten.” –2 Chron. 20:22 

This is the Lord’s Day and Christians all across the land will gather to worship. But singing praise to God isn’t something to be reserved for Sunday alone. We ought to praise God everyday and in doing so we gain the victory over our enemies, success in our struggles. More than a century ago, an unknown writer gave us this good advice: 

“Oh, that we could reason less about our troubles, and sing and praise more! There are thousands of things that we wear as shackles which we might use as instruments with music in them, if we only knew how.

Those men that ponder, and meditate, and weigh the affairs of life, and study the mysterious developments of God’s providence, and wonder why they should be burdened and thwarted and hampered–how different and how much more joyful would be their lives, if, instead of forever indulging in self-revolving and inward thinking, they would take their experiences, day by day, and lift them up, and praise God for them.

We can sing our cares away easier than we can reason them away. Sing in the morning. The birds are the earliest to sing, and birds are more without care than anything else that I know of.

Sing at evening. Singing is the last thing that robins do. When they have done their daily work; when they have flown their last flight, and picked up their last morsel of food, then on a topmost twig, they sing one song of praise.

Oh, that we might sing morning and evening, and let song touch song all the way through.”

David Stone

Lakeway Baptist Church 

Humble, Tx.

MORNING MANNA              4-29-23

AN ADVOCATE

“These things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous”– 1 John 2:1

If you are a Christian there will be times when you will be frustrated by your failures. That being the case this verse should bring encouragement. I don’t know who wrote the following, but it is well said.

 “The Christian’s goal, John says quite frankly, is total sanctification, complete victory over sin in our own life.

John is not satisfied, and neither is the Holy Spirit who inspired him to write these words, with a half-way Christianity. It is not good enough to live a more holy life than your next door neighbor; it is not good enough to simply avoid the “big” sins like murder or adultery.

No, John insists, my goal for you is for you to completely mortify the sin that so easily besets you. Pride, gluttony, worry, fear, selfishness, lying, and lust should all meet with a zero-tolerance determination in our spirit. We should never be content to allow any sin to set up camp in our heart without consistent opposition and a concerted effort to root it out.

But almost in the same breath John also gives us this blessed reminder, knowing that sin will never be completely defeated this side of the grave: if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

Although we are not righteous, Jesus Christ was perfectly righteous on our behalf. When we sin, we have an advocate with our heavenly Father who pleads hisrighteousness on our behalf.

The Christian life, then, is a mixture of dissatisfaction with sinful self and complete satisfaction in the righteousness of Christ. It is striving and resting, improving and perfection.”

David Stone
Lakeway Baptist Church
5801 FM 1960 E
Humble, TX. 77346