And then we also have him, you know, cursing the fig tree.
We talked about that.
And then, you know, notably and kind of what we're going to
build off this morning is when he goes into the temple and
actually overthrows the tables of the money changers.
If you look there in verse 15, it says,
And they come to Jerusalem.
And Jesus went into the temple and began to cast out them that
sold and bought in the temple and overthrew the tables of the
money changers and the seats of them that sold doves and would
not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the
temple.
So this is a great, you know, example of what Christ thinks
about people taking the house of God and turning into a place of
merchandise.
That's why we don't buy or sell things in the house of God.
Everything that we have here, we give away for free.
That's what is being given away, you know,
don't just grab a chair on your way out.
You think those lazy boys look nice or the coffee urn or the
fridge or something like that.
Obviously, we don't charge for our Bibles.
We don't charge for any of our materials for,
you know, evangelistic purposes.
You know, we have a lot of free activities.
Everything we do here, you know, is provided by the church itself.
And a big part of that is because of this teaching,
right, because of the fact that Jesus does not appreciate his
house being turned into a place of merchandise.
And that's not really what I'm preaching about this morning.
But, you know, that's kind of what's taking place in the story
as we get into these latter verses of Mark,
chapter 11.
And what we're seeing here is obviously when Jesus is coming
into the house of God and shaking things up,
you know, he's upsetting some people.
And those people being the Pharisees,
the Sadducees, and they're actually looking to challenge
Jesus.
And that's what we see here in verse 27.
It says, and they come again to Jerusalem as I was walking in
the temple.
There come to him the chief priests and the scribes and the
elders and saying to him, by what authority doest thou these
things?
And who gave thee this authority to do these things?
So they're being quite hostile.
They're upset about the fact that Jesus,
this is the second time in which he's done this where he's
actually gone to the temple and just overthrew the money
changers, chased people out, and just,
you know, rebuked people for selling things in the house of
God.
That's the second time, right?
So now the Pharisees, you know, they're kind of fed up.
And they're saying, you know, who do you think you are to come
into the house of God and do these things?
By who gave us this authority?
You know, where do you get off thinking that this is something
that you have the authority to do?
They're being very hostile here in their approach to Jesus.
In their line of questioning here.
And, you know, same thing can be said, too.
You know, when we take that stand,
it's kind of a funny thing how hostile people can even get when
we would preach and say, hey, let's not sell things in the
house of God.
Let's not put things up for purchase.
You know, well, we can't afford to do it otherwise.
Well, then don't do it.
You know, that's my take on it.
If you can't afford to do something for the church,
then maybe you just shouldn't do it.
Maybe you should just, you know, do what you're supposed to do
for church.
Because, look, it doesn't cost anything to get up and preach
to God.
It doesn't cost anything to go out and go solany.
You know, it might come at a personal cost.
You know, maybe we'd have to spend a little money on gas and
our time, obviously.
But if you have the King James Bible and you're saved and you
have the Holy Spirit, you know, you can go out and preach the
gospel anytime free of charge.
Right?
So, we don't need to, you know, make the house of God,
the church of God into this place where it's just activities
after activity after activity.
Obviously, there's a time and place for those things.
But, you know, we're never going to have the $15 spaghetti
dinner.
You know, we're never going to have, you know,
all these fundraising events.
We're never going to have, you know,
the ladies are going to come to the Mother's Day event and be
charged to participate in things like that.
And people say, oh, what do you think?
What makes you so special?
It's like, you know, you're kind of having a pharisaical
attitude if you criticize that.
If you think that's kind of a misnomer,
that's kind of a minor point.
It's not a minor point when Jesus on two different
occasions is upset about the fact that people are buying and
selling things in the house of God.
And my sermon is not about this this morning,
but it's turning into it very quickly.
You know, is that, you know, Jesus,
he's overthrowing the tables of those,
not just the money chairs, but those that bought and sold doves,
which are actual, like, literally,
you know, biblically prescribed sacrifices in the Old Testament.
It's a legitimate sacrifice.
So, it's not that he's upset at what they're doing.
It's where they're doing it.
There's nothing wrong with conducting business and doing
things like that, but it shouldn't take place here.
And I understand we have people in this church that own
businesses and they talk to other people that own business
and they talk shop a little bit of church.
And I'm not against that.
But, you know, we want to be careful that we don't cross the
line where we turn church into this place where it's just a
place to go do business.
It's just to go to a place, you know,
to rub business with our elbow partners,
with those people that, with our business partners,
did I say that right the first time?
I don't know.
We rub elbows with our business partners where we go to just
make connections and things like that.
And I get it.
You know, people, it's just part of their life.
People are going to come to church and they're there for
the right reasons and they're going to talk about business.
They're going to talk.
I'm not against that.
But what I am against is when people come to church for that
purpose alone.
You know, they kind of zone out during the preaching.
They're not into the worship.
They're just kind of counting down the minutes so they can go
out and hand out their business cards and just try to promote
their business or earn business.
People come into churches with that intent because they know
there's a lot of people that get together.
It's a great place to network, okay?
So, we need to be careful we don't cross that line.
Now, look, if you own a business and someone comes up to your
church and wants to talk to you about it and you want to hand
them a business card, great.
But, you know, and I'm saying this because people have asked
me about this over the years.
Say, do you think it's right if I hand out a business card
at church?
Yeah, but don't put a stack of them back there by the coffee
machine, you know.
This isn't some cafe somewhere where everyone just gets to
leave their business cards out to, you know, don't put up your
ad for haircuts and stuff like that back there or whatever it
is, your lawn services and things like that.
You know, that stuff needs to stay out of the house of God
because when we come to church, you know, the pillar and ground
of the truth, which is the house of the living God, we ought to,
you know, be there for the right reasons.
We ought to be there to hear from the word of God.
We ought to be there to be ready to receive the word of God with
all readiness of mind.
We ought to be ready to, you know, put those things that
we've heard into practice in our lives and not be thinking about
other things that aren't even necessarily sinful, right?
It's fine to have business.
It's fine to succeed and do those things and to network.
It's just this isn't the place to do it in the church, in the
house of God.
And it's funny when you take that stand, how some people,
they get, you know, they're really rufflesome feathers among
other churches and stuff like that.
And they kind of go, well, what gives you the authority?
The authority of the example of Jesus is where we get that.
And look, I don't go to, I've been to other churches, you
know, and I'll visit other churches from time to time,
where they do sell things.
They have a bookstore where they're literally selling
Bibles, where they're selling the sermons, where they're
selling all these things.
They're trying to, you know, turn up, make a buck, you know,
while they have the house of God going on.
And I don't walk in there and just like overthrow the table,
you know, empty out the cash register on the floor and just
say, you know, make not my house a house of merchandise.
You know, this is a den of thieves.
I don't go in there and just raise hell in their church.
I just say, well, you know, that's between them and God,
I guess, you know, that's something that that pastor,
those people are going to have to answer for on the day of
judgment.
That's something that they're going to have to deal with, you
know, but as far as, and I don't go out of my way to make
a problem with those people, but Hey, I'm here this morning
at Mark 11, I'm preaching it.
This is what it says.
That's why we take the stand that we do.
And that's why we're not selling things in the house of
God.
We're never going to charge for anything in this church.
We're never going to charge you to join us on a missions trip.
You know, people go on a missions trip here.
Everything's paid for.
I mean, that's an amazing thing.
It's such a blessing to be a part of faithful word Baptist
church, to be in this church of all churches because of the
fact that there's so much offered to those that actually
want to do the work of God.
If you're serious about soul winning, if you're serious
about the Bible, if you're serious about the things of
God, this is the church in Tucson, Arizona.
I absolutely believe that from the bottom of my feet to the
top of my head, that if you want to go out and go soul
winning and learn the word of God and practice the word of
God in your life, this is the place to do it because we got
it going on.
And the thing is, you know, we're connected to the great
church in Tempe as well.
Obviously faithful word Baptist church Tempe.
We're a part of that church.
We're a satellite of that church.
We're a plant of that church, but we also benefit from the
fact that many of their, you know, soul winning events are
open unto us as well.
And I get it, we have to make a little bit more of an effort to
participate in that, but, you know, we can, anytime you want,
go on these big missions trips.
We can go to the small town, you know, reservation soul winning
trips, things like that, and not pay a dime for it, okay?
Obviously in some of the international stuff, you know,
you might have to pony the bill for your airlines because it
gets pretty expensive, right?
But we're trying to do as best we can, right?
When you get there, typically your room and boards paid for,
you know, typically you don't have to pay for any of your
activities and things like that.
And it's a great opportunity to serve God in this church.
And I love the fact that in all the years this church has been
open and functioning, we've never had to charge a dime for
any of those activities.
It's always been open and free to the people that want to
participate in it.
I mean, there's not a lot of churches that I know of that
can say that.
There's not a lot of churches out there, you know, that are
going to go to that great length to just take in the tides and
then just put it right back into the people and give it right
back to the congregation.
So praise God for that.
But anyway, you know, the tie-in is that if you want to do the
work of God, you can, okay?
And look, we should do the work of God as Christians.
You know, we should be people that desire to labor for the
Lord.
And I'm going to kind of lead into that here in Mark chapter
11, look at verse 27.
Of course, we just read that.
They're asking him, you know, what authority to do these
things, end of verse 29.
And then Jesus, and if we read all the parallel passages, we
would see that Jesus is kind of turning their line of questioning
back on them.
He's kind of, and you'll see Jesus do this from time to time
with the Pharisees.
They're trying to pin him down on something and it's not that
he's trying to be evasive or dodge the question, but he's
actually trying to put it back on them, right?
He's kind of, they're trying to catch him in his words.
They're always trying to find wherewith they can accuse
Christ.
Jesus knows that and instead of just answering their directions
or excuse me, their questions point blank, you know, he puts
it back on them and kind of puts them on the spot and kind
of reveal some things about them.
That's kind of what he's doing here.
In fact, we'll just read it very quickly here.
It says in verse 30, right?
So they asked a question in verse 29, you know, what authority
do you do these things?
That's just a point blank question, right?
And Jesus says there and they, he responds by saying the baptism
of John, was it from heaven or men?
Answer me, right?
So instead of answering their question, well, let me tell you
where I get this authority.
He's like, well, I got a question for you, right?
And they reason themselves with themselves saying if we shall
say from heaven, he will say, why then you do not believe?
Okay, if you believe it was from heaven that the baptism of
John got his authority, if John and his baptism got that authority
from heaven, that it was a divine unction from him, that it
was divinely mandated by God, that baptism, then why didn't
you believe him?
And they don't want to answer that question.
Because they don't believe that, right?
They don't believe, they didn't believe in the baptism of
John as we'll see.
And he said, and that's what they're reasoning themselves.
Well, if we say it's from heaven, then he'll ask why we
didn't believe him, showing that they didn't believe in the
baptism of John.
But if we shall say of men, you know, and then it says they
feared the people, for all men counted John that he was a
prophet indeed.
So they're trying to appease the crowd, right?
So keep that in mind during our political season here that
people are going to tell you what you want to hear a lot of
times.
They feared the people, right?
They feared the public masses.
Verse 33, and they answered and said to Jesus, oh, we cannot
tell, like, oh, really?
You're a Pharisee, you're a Sadducee, you're a religious
leader, you know, you're coming into this synagogue, excuse
me, into this temple, and grilling me about what authority
I had to do these things, and you can't even answer whether
or not the baptism of John was from heaven or of men.
It's kind of a lame answer.
We can't tell.
It's a safe answer.
And Jesus answering sayeth unto them, neither I tell you by
what authority I do these things.
You know, if you don't want to answer my question, I'm not
going to answer yours.
Now, if you would go over to Matthew 21, that's all we're
going to look at in Mark 11.
We'll look at a parallel passage in Matthew 21, where the
dialogue kind of goes on a little bit more, and Jesus
explains a couple things about the baptism of John, and this
will lead into my original point about the fact that, you
know, there are works that we're supposed to do as Christians.
You know, obviously we're saved by grace through faith and
not of works.
Let's say a man should boast, but, you know, believe it or
not, there's more to the Christian life than getting
saved. Salvation in the Christian life is just the beginning.
That's why it's called being born again.
You know, you're become as a newborn babe and you have to
desire the sincere milk of the Word of God that you may grow
thereby. You know, that tells us that our purpose in life as
Christians is to grow in the fullness and stature of Christ,
that we are to let the Word of God dwell richly in us with
all wisdom, and that we are to grow up into all things in Him.
We are to grow into a perfect man.
That's why we're given ministers for the perfecting of the
saints till we all come to the full stature of Christ.
That's the purpose of church.
There's more to the Christian life than just getting saved.
That's just the start.
That's just the beginning.
That's, you know, think about, you know, Jesus likened it
unto a physical birth, right?
Except a man be born of the water and of the spirit, he
cannot enter the kingdom of God, right?
That water birth is the flesh.
That's why he goes on and says in John 3, that which is of
the flesh is flesh, and that which is of the spirit is spirit,
right?
So the analogy that Christ uses of the Christian life and
being saved is that of a literal physical birth, right?
And, you know, we don't just give birth to our children,
bring our children to this world and just say, well, good enough.
Well, everything's done here.
You know, no, nothing left to be done.
You know, we just set the kid on the table and they just, you
know, they'll just grow.
Eventually, they'll learn to walk by themselves, learn to
feed them by themselves.
No, there has to be somebody there to clean up after them,
you know, change the diaper, feed them, pick them up, carry
them around everywhere they go, help them to develop their
motor skills and grow into a fully functioning adult.
That's a process.
And the reason, you know, that's the same thing in the
Christian life.
You get saved, you know, don't stay a baby.
You know, obviously physical children are going to grow up
one way or another and some, you know, we did ignore them
to some degree.
They might not make it depending to which degree we ignore
them, but you know, if we don't aren't attentive to their
needs, they might have, you know, some things that they're
lacking.
They might not be fully developed in certain areas, right?
And it's the same thing in the Christian life.
If we just ignore our Christian growth, you know, ironically,
we're not going to grow.
You know, we could be saved for 10, 15, 20 years and still
be a babe in Christ because we've never fed ourselves the
milk of the Word of God.
We've never moved on to the meat of the Word of God.
We've never been faithful to church.
We've never been steady in church.
We've never been faithful to our Bible reading, to our prayer,
to serving God.
And we've been, you know, quenching the Spirit, grieving
the Holy Spirit of God.
And we've not been led by the Spirit of God to grow up into
Him in all things.
You know, we need to make sure that we're doing the work of
God.
We need to be make sure that we're putting on spiritual
muscle, that we're developing our spiritual frame so that
we can go out and do the work that we're called to do.
The Christian life is a life of labor and work, which you
know, is probably why a lot of people aren't interested in
it.
It's why a lot of people would probably just rather go to
a church where they're never going to be challenged to do
anything, where they're just going to be told exactly what
they want to hear.
They're just going to get their, you know, have their ears
scratched and just sit on their merry way and just told them
they don't need to change anything.
You don't need to get any sin out of your life.
You don't need to take the things of God seriously.
You know, you're saved.
God loves you and He's just going to bless you all the way
to the end of your life and you don't have to do anything in
return.
That's not how it works though.
You know, no good thing will He withhold from them that to
them that walk up rightly, right?
If we're, if we are doing the things we have to do, then we
will be blessed of God.
But if we're not, well, you know, it's the chastening of
God.
Again, I'm leading into all that.
I'm kind of getting ahead of myself here.
But look at Matthew 21 verse 28, because remember the Pharisees
are asking him, you know, what gives you this authority?
He says, wait, what about the baptism of John?
Was it of heaven or of men?
Oh, we can't tell that.
I'm not going to answer your question.
And then he goes into this, this parable where he explains
some things about the baptism of John.
This is all going to tie into my point.
I promise.
But he says there in verse 28, well, what think ye?
A certain man had two sons and he came to the first and said,
son, go work today in my vineyard.
And he answered and said, I will not, but afterward he repented
and went.
So the story is, you know, this guy's got a vineyard, he's got
a farm, whatever you want to call it.
And he goes to his first son and says, hey, go, go get the work
done.
Go do your chores.
And he says, no, right?
He gets all sassy.
I won't, right?
He disobeys his father.
And as he's walking off to go do whatever it is he's going to
do, other than what he's supposed to be doing, he has a
change of mind.
He repents, right?
He changes direction and he goes back and does the work that
he's supposed to do, right?
And he came to the second, said, likewise, and he answered
and said, I go, sir, and went not.
So he goes and asked them whether the twain did the will of
his father, the guy that just paid him lip service, the guy
just said, I will, and didn't do it, or the guy who actually
to his face denied him, but then in the end went and did it.
Whether the twain did the will of his father is saying in the
first, Jesus saith unto them, verily I say unto you that the
publicans and sinners and the, excuse me, the publicans and
harlots go before, into the kingdom of God before you, right?
They represent that first son.
They were told, hey, this is, this is the Lord.
This is God.
That's what the Bible says.
They refused it, but then later they got right, right?
Later, they believed on Christ, the Gentiles.
For John came unto you in the way of righteousness and you
believed him not and say, you know, the Pharisees obviously
in the story, they represent that second son who, you know,
they're paying lip service to the father.
They're paying lip service to God all those years.
You know, that's why it says in Romans, you know, what advantage
half the Jew chiefly every way because unto them were committed
the oracles of God, you know, they did have an advantage in
the Old Testament being Jews because they had the Bible
because they had the law.
They had the Levitical priesthood.
They, these things were being taught to them.
These are things that they understood.
Okay, but you know, they understood it and they might even
pay lip service, but they didn't actually do the work.
They didn't actually do the things that were required of
them, right?
And he's saying as a result because you did not believe the
kingdom of God is going to be taken from you and given unto
a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.
But notice what he says about the baptism of John here.
John came unto you in the way of righteousness.
So Jesus, you know, he already knows the answer in Mark 11.
Was it of heaven?
Yes, because he came unto you the way of righteousness and
he believed him not right.
Jesus already knows in Mark 11 in this parallel passage here
as well what they believed about the the baptism of John and
he repented not he believed not on him, but the publicans and
the harlots believed him and when he had seen it you repented
not afterwards you might believe him.
So I'm having us take the time to look at this and if you
would go to Matthew 3 to point out the fact that the repentance
that's taking place here is based upon belief.
Okay, because I don't want to be misunderstood this morning
when I'm saying that we need to work for God.
It's not for salvation and I get that probably everyone in
the room understands that that's it's of age to understand
these things.
But this is not a this is a topic you cannot harp on enough
in the day and age that we're living in because this is this
whole thing about work salvation is literally everywhere
else in the world when you really think about it.
There's only two religions in the world those that believe
it's by works and those that believe it's by faith.
That's it whether you're talking about Hinduism or Buddhism
or whatever other ism Catholicism any other thing that's
outside of the Bible.
They all teach to some degree work salvation Islam, you know
all of them they all believe, you know, whether it's the
Mormons whether it's you know, the Church of Christ even
those that would claim the name of Christ many of them are
believing in a in a works based salvation.
Okay, and I'm not saying that you know, we're the only ones
as Baptist that have the truth obviously there's other
evangelicals out there.
There's you know, what would be considered Protestant faiths
which we are not as Baptist Protestant.
We didn't come out of the Catholic Church that you know
might have the right gospel in certain areas, right?
They might in certain sex and certain, you know branches
of Christianity.
You might have people that actually have the right gospel
but by and large, you know, we as independent fundamental
Baptists are really the biggest group that's preaching
salvation by grace through faith.
Is that because we're Baptists?
No, it's because as Baptist we believe that the Word of God
is the final authority.
This is the final authority and all matters of faith and
practice to you know, the independent fundamental Baptist.
That's what makes us what we are and look it's crystal clear
throughout the entire Bible and it's just expounded beyond
end in the New Testament that salvation is by grace through
faith that it's a free gift that it's unto him that believe
it and not to him that worketh right that his faith and
that his faith is counted to him for righteousness.
And yet today and unfortunately, even it's creeping into
many Baptist churches and many fundamental Baptist churches
this repenting your sins heresy, which is nothing more than
just a works-based salvation.
I mean, how could that not be probably one of the hardest
things even as you know, any born-again Christian who's
believed on the true gospel and is genuinely saved, you know,
and is actually trying to live for God understands how hard
it is to repent from sin.
I mean just trying to break the chains of addiction alone,
you know are sometimes practically impossible, you know,
and it takes the Holy Spirit of God it takes a you know,
maybe a support group in a church takes people encouraging
you takes the preaching Word of God to really get people
over some sins in their lives.
It's hard so to sit there and say oh you got to do that in
order to be saved.
I mean you how could that not be works-based salvation?
How can anyone sit there and tell me to my face that they
have to quit their drinking give up their pot quit watching
porno quit, you know fornicating quit doing whatever sin
it is.
They have to find some sin in their life and stop doing it
in order to be saved and tell me oh, but that's not works.
That's an incredible amount of work.
Especially if you're addicted to these these things.
That's it.
That's so much work.
That's something we as Christians have to work against
every day.
You know, we have to fight the flesh every single day.
That's a battle.
It's a fight.
That's work.
I don't I don't think there's any veteran out there who's
ever been involved in warfare to come back and say oh, yeah
going to war easy.
There's a cakewalk.
No, it's worth to go to war.
You know, that's why we know we have to be soldiers of Christ.
That's why we're like and under soldiers because living
the Christian life.
It's a warfare.
It is work.
Okay, so I'm making making sure I make that point here
and Jesus is making in Matthew 21 the parallel passage of
Mark 11 where he's saying look the problem with you guys the
baptism is John is that when the harlots and the publicans
believed they repented they repented and believed right?
That's the repentance that that needs to take place from
going from unbelief to belief and it's very clear.
Okay, and yet today people want to change the meaning of what
repent means.
It simply means to turn to have a change of mind, you know,
God repents in the Bible more than anybody else.
Okay, God God's not repenting of sin.
You can't just tack that in on there at the end of that word.
Okay, and he's saying the problem with you guys is
repented not afterward that you might believe right?
So the repentance that he's looking for is that they would
believe if you're in Matthew 3 now, let's go back to the
actual time when the baptism of John was taking place and some
of the interaction that took place between John and the
Pharisees look at verse 7 it says but when he being John the
Baptist saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to
his baptism, right?
Probably the same guys.
There's probably some of the same guys there that are
grilling John are now in Mark 11 grilling Jesus by his authority.
That's why he's calling them out on the baptism of John when
he sees them he says Oh generation of vipers who hath
warned you to flee from the wrath of to come, you know, it's
always and I'll constantly bring it up because it's just so
funny to me every time, you know, some pastor some preacher
gets up and gets a little fiery and gets it, you know, actually
uses some rough language a little bit from behind the pulpit
actually, you know calls people it gets, you know, you know,
calls people out or whatever calls a spade a spade from the
pulpit be like Jesus would never talk like that the apostles
like John got up and call them a bunch of vipers publicly in
front of everybody.
He looked him dead in the eye and said you generation of
vipers who have warned you to flee from the wrath to come.
He called them vipers and said that they're on their way to
hell.
You know, that's strong preaching.
That's hard preaching.
Nothing wrong with it and in verse 9 and think not to say
within yourselves.
We have Abraham to our father for I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham and
now also the axe is laid onto the root of the trees.
Therefore every tree which bringeth forth not good fruit
is hewn down and cast into the fire go to Matthew chapter
number seven Matthew chapter number seven.
So basically John is challenging them saying bring forth fruit
meets for repentance.
Hey bring forth the right kind of fruit in your life.
And so why would he why would he say that because he's
basically asking to do something that's impossible right
because they don't believe they're not good.
They're going to trust in their works.
They're going to go about and establish their own
righteousness and they won't have the righteousness of
Christ in their lives.
They just want to hold to the vain traditions of their
fathers.
They just want to hold to the law and the prophets.
They don't want to change and they don't want to get on God's
program in putting their faith in Christ right.
So John says you know don't think about saying we have a
brand to our father bring forth some fruits to show us that
you actually are who you think you are and essentially when
you think about it telling them to do something they can't
do.
And I say that because of what we read in Matthew 7 verse
15 beginning there where Jesus talks about false prophets
which is exactly what the Pharisees and Sadducees had
become right because they're preaching a false gospel.
They're preaching their own tradition.
They're preaching not they're teaching for Commandments
Commandments of God the doctrines of men.
Okay, look at verse 15 beware of false prophets which come
to you in sheep's clothing right.
They're going to say the right thing they're going to look
the right way.
But inwardly they are ravening wolves.
You shall know them by their fruits right.
So you can kind of see the tie in here with the baptism of
John.
Hey bring forth fruits meet for repentance.
Oh wait you can't because you're a viper because you've
got the wrath of God abiding on you because you don't want
to believe on Christ.
You see the baptism taking place.
You see the publicans in the harlots.
You see all Israel coming out unto me and confessing their
sin and being baptized and believing on Christ which is
to come and you're not doing it right.
You're a viper therefore you can't bring forth fruit meet
for repentance because you're a false prophet.
That's kind of the tie in here.
You shall know them by their fruits do man gather grapes
of thorns or figs of thistles even so every good tree bring
it forth good fruit but a crop tree bring it forth evil fruit.
Look at verse 18 a good tree cannot bring forth evil free
fruit neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
It's impossible right.
Don't go out to the citrus tree and expect to have a banana
there right one bananas growing palms.
But anyway, that should be your first clue.
They don't go out to you know, some tree the orange tree and
try to get a grapefruit.
It's not going to happen because it's impossible.
Right.
It's that's the that's the analogy.
It's impossible for somebody who has believed who has not
believed on Christ who's rejected Christ to bring forth
good fruits.
It can't happen.
Right.
This is why Paul said in the book Romans that all our righteousness
are as filthy rags before him.
Right everything, you know, not by our own works, but by his
mercy, he saved us as it says in Titus.
Not by works of righteousness, which we have done because
we can't do any righteous works of our own accord.
Right, but if we are born again, if we believed on Christ,
if we've repented and believed on him, you know, now we can
bring forth fruit.
Okay, and this is the point I'm trying to make this morning.
It's kind of a long way around because you can bring forth
fruit in your life.
You should.
What's the meaning of what's the purpose of the Christian
life to bring forth fruit and glorify your father which is
in heaven.
This is the will of my father that you should bring forth
much fruit.
That your fruit should remain.
These guys can't do it.
Look at verse 19 every tree would that bringeth not forth
good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.
It's useless.
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
Like one of the greatest testimonies you can have as a
Christian is to bring forth fruit.
One of the greatest testimonies and assurances that you are
saved or to be able to show the world that you're a Christian
is by the way you live your life by the things that you do.
It's important.
Go over to John chapter number six, John chapter number six.
Now obviously again when it comes to salvation it's all by
faith.
Right.
But that's not where the Christian life ends.
And it's unfortunate because there's just too many Christians
today.
There's too many children of God that just want to remain
babes.
They don't want to bring forth fruit.
It's a shame.
You're in John 6.
Look at verse 27.
Labor not for the meat which perisheth.
Right.
So this is after he's been feeding the thousands.
He's gone across the sea.
They followed him there and he says you know you came for the
meat right.
You came to get fed again.
You didn't come to hear what I had to say.
He's saying don't leave labor for the meat which perishes but
for the meat which endureth and unto everlasting life which the
son of man shall give unto you for him have the God the father
sealed.
Then said he they said unto him what shall we do that may might
work the works of God.
Now that's a good question.
And look these people haven't even gotten salvation down
necessarily.
You know it seems like what we're going to read in verse 29
they're saying well what should we do to work the works of God.
You know would the God that more Christians would ask
themselves that today when the God that more of God's own
people would say I wonder what God wants me to do.
I wonder what God's will is for me.
I wonder what God would have me to do.
You know sometimes if people even ask themselves that
question of all at all it's usually like the last question
that they ask and then it just whatever the answer is gets
dismissed if it doesn't line up with what they want.
But at least these people saved or not had at least their heart
was in the right place.
Oh you know we should be doing works for God but what should
we do.
Jesus answered send them this is the work of God that you
believe on him whom he has sent.
So obviously you kind of get an idea of the crowd that he's
talking to.
Right he's saying you need to believe on Christ that is the
work of God.
Okay and you know that's how we get saved.
But again that's not where it ends.
But you know there's probably a lot of Christians that
that's the exact that's their attitude.
Oh well you know I read John 639.
This is the work of God to believe on him.
All done with the Christian life and wrong answer.
Get the context here.
Jesus is you know preaching to the unsaved.
Jesus is trying to reach the lost sheep of the house of
Israel.
Right he's reminding them you need to believe on me.
Right.
That's the work that you need to be concerned with as an
unsaved person.
And we all get that.
You know if you would go back to Titus chapter number three and
you'll see why you know and I know this isn't a new sermon
this isn't a new topic.
This isn't something I haven't preached before.
But when we get into Titus you'll see why it's something
that I'm bringing up again and have off brought up repeatedly
from this pulpit and will continue to do so.
That we as God's people ought to be concerned with doing the
work of God in our lives.
That it should be a priority in our lives not just optional not
just something we'll get around to if it's convenient.
And I think we all understand that if we're not saved the work
of God is to believe on him whom he has sent.
Right and I could quote verses all day about that but just for
the sake of time let's move on and into the main point that I'm
trying to make here.
Look at Titus chapter 3 verse 4 but after that the kindness and
love of God our savior toward man appeared not by works of
righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he
saved us by the washing of general regeneration renewing
of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Christ
Jesus Christ our savior that being justified by his grace we
should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life
powerful verses about salvation here and even you know reminding
us that there's a lot more to the Christian life than just
salvation.
I mean look at the way salvation is being described here.
It's the kindness and love of God that has appeared unto us
that it has appeared toward man.
You know the kindness and love of God is why you're saved this
morning.
Never forget that.
It's not just you know some some you know mechanical you
know spiritual transaction that took place and you got saved.
You know God's not just up there contractually bound by
something some divine decree or something.
God and his mercy God and his love God and his grace made
salvation available to man.
That should tell us something about the love of God behold
what manner of love he had bestowed upon us that we should
be called the sons of God for God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son that whosoever believed in it should
not perish but have everlasting life.
You know it's the love of God that makes us Christians you
know we should never think that it's anything that we've ever
done anyone's truly saved understands this you know get
this hottie spirit get this attitude of like well of course
God saved me I mean look at me.
No it's the love of God my friends it's the grace of God
that got you saved.
Not by works of righteousness which we have done.
I mean that's that's what you so mind boggling when you hear
people say we ask what are you going to do to go to heaven.
Well as a good person.
Oh you're good works are going to get you to heaven.
You're you're you're righteousness.
And often what what they count as their righteousness is just
the fact that they haven't committed some horrific sin like
well I've never raped or murdered anybody.
And I've never committed adultery on my spouse.
Oh man.
St. Peter just throw the gates wide open and let this guy sit
him down on the right hand of Jesus.
Like in the best that's the attitude that's out there with
most people it's amazing.
They just think oh man you know I've never stolen a car I've
never carjacked anyone just pat themselves on the back.
You know what they're really doing is you know they're like
the publican and the Pharisee that went up to the temple to
pray and they're kind of like that Pharisee they're going at
least I'm not like this man.
You know I fast twice in the week and gave tithes of all that
I have.
I'm not like this publican over here.
And what the publican do he couldn't even so much as lift
his eyes toward heaven but beat upon his breast and said God be
merciful me and his sinner.
Jesus said that he went down justified and not the Pharisee
because he understood that it's by the grace of God it's the
love of God it's the mercy of God that has been appeared unto
us that we're saved not by our own righteousness.
But according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration
right you've been bathed in the blood of Christ if you're saved
you've been plunged in that crimson flood you've been
reborn you've been regenerated to what.
I mean I mean if Christ is going to these great lengths that
the love of God is just shed upon upon us so abundantly that
he's sending and sacrificing his own son to live a perfect
life to take upon himself the sins of the world to die that
shameful death of mocking and cruelty to go down and to have
a soul sent to hell for three days and three nights to be
resurrected again and to suffer all those things to what end is
that beyond salvation.
I mean think on the great length that he's going to to do that
that washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost
it just sounds to me like God's gone to great lengths for our
sakes.
I mean just just to get us saved.
You know do you think that's all God's concerned about.
No in fact we're told you know you're not your own but you
have bought with the price as the price of a lamb without
spot without blemish.
That we're not our own.
You know once we're saved we can't seriously say well my
life's mine to do whatever I want with it that that's not
what the Bible says I'm afraid you're at odds with the
scripture if that's your attitude.
You know you are not your own but you're bought with a price
therefore glorify God in your members.
You know we've been washed by the regeneration we've been
renewed to the Holy Ghost to just just just to disregard the
things of God to have to pay no attention things of God just
put God in the back burner.
I mean he's not even on the back burner in some people's
lives.
Some people have even gotten the pot out and put it on the
stove when it comes to their Christian life.
But you know he has shed upon all these things on us
abundantly and we are justified by grace as he says there and
we are made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
Look whether you know if you're saved whether you serve God
with a single minute of your life or not you're still going
to go to heaven.
You know and we could go on and on about that about you know
Romans and Galatians and just we could go to so many places
that go to Galatians chapter number five that you don't
serve God you're saved you don't have to serve God for a
second you don't have to give God a second thought and you'll
still go to heaven because of what because of the kindness
love God because of the fact that he has shed his his grace
upon us abundantly in Christ Jesus.
That's great.
But do you think that's all that that's what God intends
for his people.
That's what God intends for his children.
That's what God expects of us.
Nothing like you know I spent the first part of sermon
establishing the fact that you know it's not by works of
righteousness.
That's the problem that the Pharisees had.
They were trusting themselves and not in God.
They didn't believe in the baptism of John.
They didn't repent afterward.
That's why people like harlots and publicans and sinners
could get saved easily because it's not based upon their
merit their personal worth or their works.
It's all through him.
They got it.
They understood the message.
They were grateful for it.
We will establish that but do you think that's where the
Christian life ends.
Well, I'm not going to hell.
Well, I'm glad we're not going to hell this morning.
Honestly, you know that we could be a sing hallelujah for
the rest of our lives over that one plain fact.
It's great that will never that hey, I'm saved this morning
and Jesus has spent more time in hell than I ever will think
about that the Bible says that it's you know, his soul went
down into hell that will not suffer, you know, they'll not
leave my soul in hell, right?
That's a that's an amazing fact.
You never just think about that that Jesus Christ the son
of God is spent more time in hell than you ever will.
You'll never dip a toe in hell if you're saved.
Right, but he wouldn't suffer three days and three nights.
He tasted death for every man.
Okay, but my question this morning is is that that you
know as great as that is do you think that's where the
Christian life ends because to me, you know after you know
being in church for you know, 20 years being in full-time
ministry for six years now, you know, I've noticed over
the time that that is the attitude that a lot of people
have as Christians today.
That they just feel like that, you know, they got their
their escape route planned out of hell.
They've got their ticket punched for heaven and that's
kind of where it ends with them and God and that's a real
shame because there's so much more that's available to us.
And sometimes you wonder is, you know, why is it that some
people just refuse to serve God and I think sometimes it's
simply because they're told because they should.
It's it might not even because they want to it simply because
somebody's telling me.
Hey, you should that's what the Bible says because there's
something in human nature where we just we don't want to do
anything anybody tells us to do.
I mean all parents can attest to this, right?
You know, you need to go to bed.
Go to bed.
They're whining.
They're crying.
They're obviously exhausted.
They should go to bed, right?
And when they wake up, they're the they're the delightful
people that we want them to be these children, right, but
they won't go to bed.
They want to sleep.
They wish they felt better, but they don't want to go to bed.
Why because just because somebody's telling them to do
it. I mean, good night, you know, ma makes some great meal.
She sets it on the table.
It's delicious.
No, I'm not gonna eat it now.
Why do you not like it?
I've seen you eat it before you've asked for that meal before
it.
No, I'm not gonna eat it.
Why because it's because of this because somebody's telling
them they should that's it because there's we're just you
know, the man's nature is just rebellious by nature.
You people come to church.
They get here some preacher get up and start telling them what
the Bible says and they need to get right with God.
They need to serve God and take the things of God seriously
and they'll be like that little kid.
Well, I'm not gonna do it then.
I'm just not gonna do it.
Why because you said I should that's it like, oh you sure
showed me will put me in my place.
Here's the thing though.
You can you can go do whatever you want with your life.
I'm going to keep serving God and I'm going to be fine.
You're thinking about that my my joy, my my Christian life
my rewards in heaven are not dependent upon what anybody
wants to take me up on what I'm preaching.
You know, my job is just to tell you what the Bible says
try to motivate you to rebuke to reprove and exhort with
all on suffering doctrine.
That's what I'm doing this morning.
Don't be like that little kid.
Don't be like that Rebel that we all are.
Well, I'm not going to do it simply because of the fact
that someone said I should.
You know, sometimes when we when we do the things that
we should we find out it feels really good right to do
the things that you should actually turns out to be the
good thing.
I mean, isn't that true in life?
Like people who procrastinate admittedly some of us more
than others.
When we actually do the things that we know we're supposed
to do sometimes we even like want to pat ourselves in the
back.
Well, yeah, I did the laundry like well good job.
You're supposed to do that like oh I did the dishes.
Oh good job, you know, but it doesn't it feel good to do
the things that you should I mean think about all the things
that you don't want to do but you do them anyway because
you're supposed to and how you feel afterwards you feel you
feel kind of proud of yourself like you're a big boy like
you're responsible right like you're an adult.
Okay.
Well, you know some people in the Christian life they need
to get a sense of that feeling they need to grow out of being
a babe in Christ and start feeling what it's like to walk
as an actual full-grown mature Christian.
How are you going to do that by doing the things that you
should okay by doing the things that you should and you should
do them because again as this whole rant started you're not
your own it's your bout with the price you can like it or
lump it.
That's what the Bible says.
I don't know where I had you turn to Galatians 5 look at
verse 16 this I say then walk in the spirit and shall not
fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Does it sound to you like as in the Christian life you kind
of have options you can walk in the spirit or you can fulfill
the lust of the flesh.
That's the Christian life in a nutshell and you know, you
have to make a decision because it says in verse 17 the flesh
lust against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.
These things are at odds with one another and they will be
for the rest of your life.
It's true, you know and look just walk in the spirit and
you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh.
It sounds simple and it is but you know, you got a purpose
to do that in your life.
That's why you got to do the things that you should that's
why you should be in church reading your Bible and I and
I say that in that order on purpose because if you're not
going to church, I'm going to put my money on the fact if
I were a betting man, which I'm not that you're probably
not reading your Bible either and if you're not reading your
Bible, you're probably not praying and if you're probably
not doing any of those things, I'm pretty sure you're probably
not telling anybody else about Jesus.
You're probably not preaching the gospel and we could probably
just start go right there.
Just start going down all the list all the things that we're
not doing that we should be doing.
Because if we don't have the discipline to just get in church
like the easiest thing in the Christian life to do.
I mean, I'm not going to take a vote but I'm sure if we if
I did I said what's easier to go to church or to read your
Bible everyone say.
Oh, yeah going to church way easier.
I mean, you just you just have to pretend to be paying attention
right now, right?
And maybe I should start testing people by just saying some
bizarre thing right in the middle of a sermon just to just
a test to see who's paying attention right because I've
been out there.
I know how easy is just glaze over and just say well if I
just point my face in that general direction, you know,
he'll think that I'm at and just every once in a while do
this. No, I'm just kidding.
Right, but I'm just making the point that it's that easy.
You could come here and fake it.
Even if you want to do not that anybody is right, but you
could you could fool me, right?
Maybe I should start handing out a quiz after immediately
afterwards.
Like what do we talk about this morning?
What was the one great truth of the sermon?
Right, but my point is this is like if you're not even doing
that you're probably not doing everything else that comes in
the Christian life and that's a shame.
And you have to do these things you have to choose.
Are you going to walk in the spirit?
Are you going to fulfill the lust of the flesh?
Look, there's a lot of people out there this morning on
Sunday morning that are out there fulfilling the lust of
the flesh and look he goes on and explains, you know, the
floss that works the flesh which are manifest are these
adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
verse 20, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variants, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envings, murderings,
murders, drunkenness and revelings and such like like
he just gives us litany of things and look there's probably
a lot of people that are doing those things.
In fact, I noticed as I was driving into church this morning
that you know one of the local cantinas where they serve
up, you know, a lot of the people that in my area that
like to go to drink they were already open for business on
a Sunday morning and there are already cars parked there and
I'm sure there's plenty of people in there this morning
drinking, you know, drinking last night away getting their
margarita with their raw egg and try to get over their
hangover from everything, you know, there's plenty of that
stuff going on but you know, there's probably even a lot
of God's own people that maybe they're not doing anything
as wicked as any of the things that are in this list, the
drunkenness, the fornication and the such like but you know
what they're still fulfilling the lust of the flesh because
instead of doing the things that they should by being in
the house of God for the preaching of God, preaching the
Word of God, they're fulfilling the lust of the flesh by
just skipping out and I get it, you know, people get sick
and people can't make it, I understand that but you know,
there's plenty of God's people whether it's this church
or some other church that they will not be in the house
of God just because they don't want to be and maybe it's
because at one time someone told them they should be and
they're like, I'm not going to do it, just stupid, you know
what, that's fulfilling the lust of the flesh, they're sitting
at home playing a video game, they're sitting at home, you
know, watching ESPN or some night, you know, morning news
program, just taking the things the world, look, there's
nothing necessarily inherently sinful in those things but
when you're doing that over the things that you should be
doing on, you know, when it comes to the things of God,
getting together on the first day of the week at least one
time out of the week to just hear the preaching the
Word of God, you can't do that, you're fulfilling the lust
of the flesh, you're not walking in the spirit, how could
you say otherwise? I mean, who could say that with a straight
face, I'm walking in the spirit, never dark in the door
of church, you know, it's not true but the problem is sometimes
we as Christians, we want to go down through this list,
right? Well, I'm not committing adultery, I'm not committing
fornicate, I'm not doing witchcraft, right? I'm not committing
any of these, I'm not murdering, I'm not drunken, I'm not
reveling, well, good, I'm glad but you know, there's a little
bit more walking the spirit than that too, you know, walking
the spirit like it refines us, it just makes us better and
better and better as God's people. Look, if you're doing
any of these things, knock it off, okay, a lot of them get
kicked out of church and some of them, if you're doing them,
I would probably question whether or not you're really
saved, I mean, witchcraft, good night, right? But we shouldn't
be doing these things. If you be led of the spirit, you're
not on the law, right? And the works of the flesh are listed
but look at verse 22, but the fruit of the spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance, against such there is no law. These are
the fruits of the spirit and this is what people miss out
on when they're not walking in the spirit, right? Because
think about, think about the works of the flesh, they're
manifest but you have to go do them, don't you? I mean, no
one just finds themselves suddenly stabbing somebody like,
oh, I'm committing murder, why did that happen, right? No
one just finds themselves with a 40 up in the air going,
whoops, no one just stumbles into sin like that. I mean,
like, I know people like to act like that happens but people
think about what they're going to do and then they go and
do it. People think about committing adultery, they think
about committing fornication, they think about all of these
things, you know, the witches get together and they go over
their brew and whatever they're going to put in the cauldron
that morning and they commit witchcraft, okay? I don't know
if that's how it actually works, it's probably like crystals
and things like that. But you know, that, whatever it is
nowadays, but my point is that people are intentional in
things that they do, right? They go and do them and then,
you know, they have the fruit of those things, those things
bear fruit. Whatsoever man soweth, that shall he also reap,
you know, be not deceived, God is not mocked. But the fruit
of the Spirit is these things, right? Meaning this, that you
can't, you can't just make these things happen in your life,
you have to, you have to walk in the Spirit. How do you get
the love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance that comes through
the Spirit? By walking in the Spirit. See what I'm saying?
You can't just wake up in the morning and say, okay, today
I'm going to have love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. I'm just going to
have these things because I want to, right? No, just like
these other sins, you have to think about them. Not that
these things are sins, these other things. You have to think
about them and intentionally set out to make it manifest
in your life. Well, how do you manifest the fruits of the
Spirit? They're not the fruits of you, they're the fruits of
the Spirit. How do those things manifest in your life? By
walking in the Spirit. Which tells me if you're not walking
in the Spirit, you don't have these things. It's certainly
not in the abundance that you could. And don't these things
sound like nice things to have in your life? I mean, who
would say, no, I don't want love, joy for the birds, right?
Look, there's people that live joyless lives. They do. And
it's sad. Peace? Who wants peace, right? Nobody. Long
suffering? Look, we could all stand as much of that as we
can get. Gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,
these are all great things. But it's not like putting on a
shirt. You don't go to the closet and say, well, today I'm
going to wear faith. Today I'm going to wear love. No, you
have to walk in the Spirit and these things will manifest
themselves in your life. They'll just be there. But your
part is to actually walk in the Spirit, right? And how do
you do that? By doing those things which he has commanded
us. By walking in newness of life. By realizing that we
are not our own. We are bought with price. Verse 24, they
that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the
affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also
walk in the Spirit. I love that verse. Because it's the
salvation and the Christian life right there again. Hey,
you live in the Spirit. You believed on Christ? You have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. You want
to go live like a dead man? That's up to you. You can go
live for the old man. You can go do that. You'll still live
in the Spirit. You'll still have heaven. You'll still, you
don't have that inheritance coming your way. You're still
going to be a child of God. But you know, since we live in
the Spirit, we might as well walk in it. That's what Paul
is saying. Hey, if we live in the Spirit, why not walk in
it? If the Spirit has given us life, eternal life, why don't
we enjoy the things of the Spirit while we're here on
this earth? Things that this world would love to have and
they can't have it. They go looking for it in all these
other places. They want peace. They try to find it in
addiction. They want peace. They think it's in a bottle.
They think it's in a pipe. They think it's in a joint. They
think it's in whatever. They go looking for it in pills and
everything else. Thrills, pills and everything in between. And
they don't have it. They keep looking and looking. Look, if
we live in the Spirit, let's walk in the Spirit and we'll
have these things. These are things that the world covets,
my friend, and they're real. You know, godliness with
contentment is great gain, the Bible says. It's great gain
to just live a godly Christian life and can be content with
such things as you have. But Paul said elsewhere, I have
learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.
You know, contentment is something that's learned.
Walking in the Spirit is something you have to endeavor
to do. I'll wrap it up. I should have had you keep
something in Titus 3. Go back to Titus 3 if you haven't,
if you've left there. I'll remind us of Hebrews 13 verse 20.
Now the grace of God that brought again from the dead our
Lord Jesus Christ, the great Shepherd of the sheep through
the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in
every good work to do his will. Make you complete, make
you wanting nothing, right, as he says in James. Be perfect,
wanting nothing, lacking nothing. Not perfect in the sense
of sinless, but perfect in the sense of being mature and
complete, not having, you know, gaps in your Christian life.
Make you perfect in every good work. So does it sound
again that the God of peace who raised up Christ from the
dead and that through the his own blood of the everlasting
covenant. I mean, he's again, he's emphasizing. Remember
what God did. Remember God's part in this whole thing.
You know, maybe this would motivate us to live for God if
we would meditate upon what God has done for us. He says
that God make you perfect. The God of peace make you perfect
in every good work, work to do his will. You know, our
Christian life does not stop at salvation. It's only begun.
You get saved, you have work to do. You get saved, there is
a will of God that you have to do. Work in you that which
is well pleasing to sight through Jesus Christ to whom be
glory forever and ever. Amen. Look at Titus three verse
eight. And again, this, you know, I said earlier, this is
why I'm preaching this. This isn't a new sermon. You come
to church here, you know, you're going to get exhorted to
work repeatedly from this pulpit. You know, and that, and
you say, why? Well, that's why our soul winning members, I
believe, have never been as strong as they are right now.
You know, over the last year, we've had people kind of come
and go from our church all these last six years. In fact,
I sat down and just roughly went over it in my head. And
I'm not saying it's discouraged anybody. This is just the
nature of church. You might as well just accept it. Churches
have revolving doors. Okay. And there's, you reach a rate
of attrition where you have people coming and going at the
same rate. And it's always going to be that way in every
church. Okay. You know, it's just, it's when you're in a
smaller church, it's a little more magnified. It's a little
bit, you see it a little bit where it stands out more, but
I promise you it's in every church. You'll see a church
that's running 300 people on Sunday morning. They'll be
running 150 on the midweek service. That's just the nature
of church. You know, you know, the vast majority of the church
is Sunday morning glories and we're thankful for them. Okay,
honestly. But, you know, over the course of six years or
the last, you know, we've seen just as many people leave this
church that is now currently attended. Okay. And I just did
that off the top of my head. I was just thinking about all
the families and people that have kind of come and gone.
People that I actually would have considered, you know, like
at least semi-members who showed up with some regularity
for at least some length of time. It's almost even with
the number of people that are like currently attending our
church. There's probably, there's probably more people
that are still attending. But, you know, we have people that
have been here for years that are faithful, that understand
these things, that have changed, that have walked, are walking
in the Spirit of God. And that's why this church is getting
the work that it's getting done. Because there's people that
said, hey, if I live in the Spirit, I might as well walk in
the Spirit. You know, and it's really about quality over
quantity when it comes to church anyway. I don't know where
I was going on. Oh yeah. I was starting, I saying that because
you say, well, why do you preach about doing the works of God?
Because we get the results. You know, you preach about soul
winning. Guess what? People go soul winning. You preach about
reading your Bible. People read their Bible. You preach about
church attendance. Most of the time people come to church.
And that's why I'm preaching this again this morning. That's
the tie in here. Why do you go on and on on this? Because I'm
commanded to. Look at Titus 3 verse 8. This is a faithful
saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly.
I'm probably not doing it enough. Constantly. Like just
every Sunday I should just be up here preaching this, right?
Every, every sort of just constantly affirm these things
Titus, the apostle Paul writing to a preacher that they which
have believed in God, they have believed they're saved might
be careful to maintain good works. It's a powerful verse.
It's a reminder that, you know, yeah, we've believed in God.
You know what? God has work for you to do. There's a
will of God. There's a work of God that needs to be done.
You can't just remain a babe for the rest of your life.
I mean, you can if you want to, but you won't have the love.
You won't have the joy. You won't have the fruits of the
spirit in your life. You won't have, you won't bring forth
fruit unto God. You won't glorify God in your life.
Yeah, you'll go to heaven. You'll have no inheritance
beyond that to speak of. You'll have no reward in heaven.
That's not what I want for any of God's people. And that's
why we're told to confirm these things constantly that people
be careful to maintain good works. Look, if you're here
this morning, say, well, that's me. I mean, I've been doing
the soul winning. I've been in church. I've been Bible reading
and I know there's people like that in this church that have
been faithful over the years and are doing the things of God.
Don't stop. Maintain good works. Keep going for these things.
He says are good and profitable unto men, both the people that
are doing them and the people that are affected by them.
There's a lot of people in Tucson. There's thousands of
people in this city that have been saved as a result of this
ministry. They've profited from this ministry being here.
And he goes on, avoid foolish questions, genealogies,
contentions, and strivings about the law for they are
unprofitable in vain. A man that is an heretic, kept the
first and second mission, reject knowing that he that is
such is subverted instead of being condemned himself.
Let's just come down to verse 14 where he reiterates it again.
I just keep, I feel like you're repeating yourself so often
in these sermons. Well, you know what? So did Paul. You
know, a lot of Paul's epistles are just the same thing
practically. So many of them have parallel passage and even
in the same chapter sometimes of an epistle like this, Paul
repeats himself because there's things that we need to have
drilled into our heads as God's people. There's things that
we need to get through our thick skulls, that we are not
our own, that we have works to do. Let ours also
learn to maintain good works. Oh, Paul's so redundant. He's
just harping to Titus. Yeah, because you need to. You know,
this isn't something that's explained to me when I
started out preaching years ago in a preaching class. It's
something that stuck with me over the years. It's things
I've expressed to other people is that when you preach a
sermon, make it about one thing. One thing because that's
typically anybody gets out of it anyway. I mean, you could
get up here and I could preach all kinds of things and cover
all these different topics and it's just the way our
minds work. People are kind of, their attention goes like
this. I'm as guilty as that as anybody else. It's just the
way we are. So you just need to make your sermon about one
thing. What's the sermon about this morning? Do the world of
God. Work for God. Bring forth fruits. Meet for repentance.
Hey, you believed on Christ? Great. Let's do some works
then. You're God's child? Grow up. Do some work. Serve God
with your life. Don't act like it's this optional
thing that God doesn't care about. You know, he's gone to
great lengths for our sake. Don't think he's not asking
something in return. You're not your own. You're about the
price. Let us also learn to maintain good works. These
things, this is something people have to learn. This is
something they have to be taught. Hey, you're supposed to
be working for God. You're supposed to be reading your
Bible, going to church, thinking on the words of God and
serving God, all the things that come in the Christian life
and it's really not that complicated. And a lot of
people aren't going to do it simply because they're being
told they ought to and that's silly. Learn to maintain good
works. Start them if you haven't and if you have, keep
going. For necessary use is why that they be not unfruitful.
We don't want to be useless Christians. We don't want to
be people that are unprofitable to God, unprofitable to our
brethren, unprofitable to this world. And I think this is
such an important message, especially in the day and age
that we're living in. When we just have all these options
where we can just go out there and we can just, we're living
in such a prosperous time and it's such a prosperous country
where we just, you know, living in a land of just bounty and
there's just so many options, so many different ways we can
spend our time. I mean, we could just go get great jobs and
I'm not against these things. We go get great jobs, make a
great wage, have lots of free time to just pursue all these
hobbies, go all these places and do all these things. But
you know what? Where does God fit in that? Has God even
factored into the equation for some people you wonder? Have
you even carved out any time in your day, let alone your week
or your life for God? You know, you need to maintain those
good works. Why? So that you be not unfruitful. It's a
recurring theme from this pulpit, I know, but you know, he
told Titus, these things are confirmed constantly, that
they'll affirm these things constantly. In the same chapter,
he tells them twice. Remind them to maintain good works. You
know, because we don't, we don't want to see people get to
heaven as ministers. And God say, was this your church
member? I mean, was this somebody that lived in your town?
Was this somebody that you'd minister? Yeah, that's them.
Well, I mean, what do they, I don't know, you know, just like
God's being like, okay, so what'd you do? What do you got
to show for me? Oh, nothing. Where did I put my fruit? Where
did I put those good works? Well, what were you doing? Well,
I did a lot of other things that were profitable, that
weren't fruitful. And I get it. We're all going to have
wood, hay, stubble in our lives. We all have to live and
survive in this world. I'm not saying every single minute of
your life has to, you know, but really when you think about
it, when you're walking in the spirit, you are doing all
things unto Christ. I mean, we're commanded to labor as unto
Christ, as unto the Lord, not unto men. When you're at your
job, work like you're working for Jesus. And the same shall,
you know, you shall receive a reward, the Bible says. So
anyways, that's my message this morning. You know, you say,
how'd you get that at Mark 11? I don't know. That's what
happened. You had a bunch of people, you know, that refused
to believe on Christ. And then you had people that did believe
that believed on the baptism of John. They repented and believed
and then, you know, they brought forth works, meet for
repentance. That's the challenge. Hey, bring forth works,
meet for repentance in your life. Don't think that
Christian life just stops at salvation. That's just the
beginning. The end is when we all face Christ as individuals
and give an account for those things which were done in our
body, whether it be good or evil. Let's go ahead and close
in a word of prayer.