Part of the chapter that I want to focus on is there, beginning in verse number 14, where
the Bible reads,
What doth it profit my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works,
can faith save him?
If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them,
Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things
which are needful to the body, what did that profit?
Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works.
Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.
And the title of my sermon this morning is, What doth it profit?
And that phrase is found at the beginning of verse number 14, What doth it profit?
And then that question is found again at the end of verse 16, What does it profit?
Now the word profit means advantage, benefit, or gain.
What good is it?
What good does it accomplish?
What advantage?
What benefit?
What gain?
What does it profit?
Now I'm not going to preach this morning about why James 2 is not teaching a workspace salvation.
I've already done a lot of sermons on that.
You can easily compare Romans chapter 4, which also talks about Abraham and his faith, with
James 2, and easily see that Romans 4 is talking about being justified by faith alone without
works in the sight of God, and that James 2 is talking about being justified in the
sight of man, not your eternal standing with God.
I'm not going to go into that.
That's not what the sermon's about.
What I rather want to preach about is that phrase, What does it profit?
You know, what does it profit if we go to church and we believe all the right things,
but we're not doing any work for the Lord?
Now the reason I ask that question is that if you look at the illustration that's used
here in James chapter 2, beginning in verse number 15, it says, If a brother or sister
be naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace,
be ye warmed and filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful
to the body, what does it profit?
Now stop and think about that statement.
What does it profit?
Is he saying what does it profit you, or is he saying what does it profit others?
We're talking about others.
Because people are hungry, people are naked, people are destitute, and if they came to
you for help and you just said to them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled, what does
it profit?
It's saying what does it profit them, okay?
So the question what does it profit, it's not about what kind of advantage, benefit
or gain does it bring to ourselves.
It's about the advantage, benefit or gain that our works bring to other people, to others.
That's what this whole question is about.
What does it profit?
You see, if we don't go soul winning, if we don't teach other people the Bible, if we
don't invest in other people's lives, but yet we have all the right beliefs and we go
to church and live a clean life, what does it profit?
And that's the title of the sermon this morning.
What does it profit?
In order for our faith, in order for our beliefs, in order for our doctrine to be profitable
for other people, we need to have works to go with that faith in order to profit others.
Yeah, sure, we're going to heaven by faith alone, but what good does that do to the people
around us?
We better get some works with that.
That's why James 2 is a chapter that's speaking to people that are already saved.
That's why he says, what of the prophet, my brethren.
This whole book says over and over again, my brethren, my brethren.
It's written to believers, trying to get them to do something for other people.
Now go to 2 Timothy chapter 3, 2 Timothy chapter 3, and the first thing I want to point out
is that our faith must have works in order to be profitable to other people, in order
to benefit the people around us and the people that we come into contact with.
Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 15, and that from a child thou has known the holy
scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus.
Now that's great for you personally, Timothy.
It's great for you that you grew up knowing the Bible.
It's great for you that you knew the scriptures, and those scriptures were able to make you
wise unto salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
That's how you got saved, Timothy, by faith.
But what about other people?
That's why the Bible says in verse 16, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and
is profitable, notice the word profitable, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness.
Why?
That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.
So what the Bible's teaching in these three verses is that the Bible doesn't just teach
you how to get saved.
It doesn't just teach you about salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
There's a whole bunch of other scripture that's all profitable as well.
Why?
So that you'll be furnished to do good works.
So that you'll be able to reach other people.
So that you'll be able to instruct and correct and reprove and rebuke others and be used
by God to reach other people.
You see, at your average independent Baptist church today on Sunday morning, they preach
on the gospel every Sunday morning.
They preach on the plan of salvation every Sunday morning.
And that's great to be saved, but there's a lot more that this book has to teach than
just being saved.
All scripture's profitable for doctrine, even the part that has nothing to do with salvation.
And why do we need all those other parts?
So that we can be instructed and corrected so that we can be furnished unto every good
work.
God's word is not just for us personally.
It's actually to equip us so that we can profit others.
So the doctrine that we believe and teach should be profitable unto other people.
It should lead us to good works that would benefit others.
Go to Titus chapter 3 verse 8.
Titus chapter 3, just a few pages to the right in your Bible.
Titus chapter number 3 verse 8.
You see, doctrine that we believe and doctrine that is taught from the pulpit should result
in real work being done for the Lord, if it's profitable doctrine.
And we should constantly ask ourselves this question, what doth it profit?
About many things in our lives and many things that we believe and teach.
What's the benefit?
What's the gain?
What's the advantage?
What does God want us to do with this information?
Look if you would at Titus chapter 3 verse 8.
The Bible says, this is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly
that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.
So God is saying that as preachers we should constantly be hammering on the people that
are already saved.
They've already believed in God.
They've already believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
We should constantly get them to see that they need to maintain good works.
And then the next thing he says is, these things are good and profitable unto men.
So you see how having works is profitable unto men?
If we're doing the right works, we're benefiting the people around us.
It's for their benefit.
Look at verse 9, but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and striving
about the law for they are unprofitable and vain.
Vain means worthless.
So he's saying real doctrine, real biblical doctrine of the scriptures is profitable.
All of it's profitable.
And it's so that we can be furnished unto good works whereby we profit the people around
us.
Here he says that maintaining good works is profitable unto men.
It's good.
But then he turns around and says, there are some things that people get involved in, religious
things, spiritual things, church things that end up being unprofitable and vain.
They end up just being a waste.
What are they?
Foolish questions.
Stupid questions is what that's saying.
Genealogies.
Totally worthless.
Totally vain.
I mean, what does it profit?
Genealogy.
And we'll go into that in a moment.
Contentions.
Now what are contentions?
That's basically arguing with people.
Strivings.
That's a similar thing.
Strivings about the law.
Arguing about nitpicky points of the law.
These are unprofitable and vain, the Bible says.
And that's why he says in verse 10, a man that is an heretic after the first and second
admonition reject knowing that he that is such a subverted and sinneth being condemned
of himself.
What's he saying?
Arguing with people about doctrine becomes a waste of time.
Unprofitable and vain.
Which is why someone who is a heretic, someone who believes false doctrine, we should attempt
to correct them one time.
They don't receive the word of God.
We attempt to correct them a second time.
If they again just reject the plain truth of scripture, then we just reject that person.
We walk away.
This is great advice when you're out soul winning.
I mean, think about it.
When we're out soul winning, we are out there to profit others.
We want to get people saved.
We want to benefit others.
Look, I don't go soul winning for my benefit because I'm already saved, I'm already going
to heaven, and even if I never go soul winning again, I'm still going to heaven.
So when I go out soul winning, I'm doing that for other people that they might also be saved.
So when I go out there and I knock on a door and I find someone who's interested in the
gospel and they're willing to listen and I can preach the gospel to them and get them
saved, that's profitable.
Now even if I can just plant a seed with that person, that's still profitable because that's
something that's helping them.
Planting a seed or watering a seed, not saying that everybody's always going to get saved.
And even if no one gets saved, it's still profitable if you're planting a seed, if you're
preaching the word of God, if you get a thought in their mind or get a few scriptures to them.
But what's not profitable is getting tied up in a long argument with a Jehovah's Witness
or a Mormon or some other just dyed in the wool false teacher and just getting into contentions
and strivings.
It's unprofitable and vain.
Debating is unprofitable and vain.
And so that's why after the first and second admonition, we should just reject the heretic
and just walk away and move on to the next person so that we have something profitable
to do with our time than just banter, which is unprofitable and vain.
So the Bible, and if you would flip over to 2 Timothy chapter 2, just a few pages back
in your Bible toward the left, 2 Timothy chapter 2, he said, avoid foolish questions.
You're turning to 2 Timothy 2, genealogies, contentions, strivings about the law for their
unprofitable and vain.
It doesn't make sense to waste your time doing that.
It says in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 14, of these things put them in remembrance, charging
them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit but to the subverting
of the hearers.
Don't strive about words to no profit.
Look if you're in an argument, if you're in a conversation, if you're preaching something,
you better ask yourself that question, what does it profit?
What am I accomplishing right now?
What is the goal here?
He says, don't strive about words to no profit but to the subverting of the hearers.
Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly
dividing the word of truth, but shun profane and vain babblings, just blah, blah, blah,
for they will increase unto more ungodliness.
He keeps contrasting things that are profitable and things that are not profitable, babbling,
arguing, striving, just nitpicky.
And when he talks about questions about the law, this is where the Jews get real nitpicky
about whether it's okay to use an elevator on the Sabbath day or whatever, or whether
turning on a light switch is kindling a fire on the Sabbath, you know, because there's
kind of a little spark that's sort of like fire when they flip the switch.
These are just the kind of missing the forest for the trees, kind of nitpicky arguments
and strivings about the law that don't benefit anyone.
They don't do anyone any good, and they're a waste of our time and a waste of our lives.
Now go to 1 Corinthians chapter 4.
Let me give you an example of some things that are just unprofitable and vain doctrine,
and it really fits in hand in hand with a lot of these scriptures that I'm going to
turn to in a moment.
But this whole Baptist bride doctrine, I know a lot of you have heard of it, maybe some
of you have not heard of it, but this Baptist brighterism, okay?
It's this sort of unprofitable, navel-gazing, just nitpicky, strange doctrine that does
not profit.
It doesn't get anybody to heaven.
It doesn't get people on fire for God as evidenced by the churches that believe in this, okay?
Now if you stop and think about it, and I'm just going to explain to you briefly what
this doctrine is, but this Baptist bride doctrine says that most churches, even if
they preach the true gospel, even if they preach correct on salvation, the Baptist bride
doctrine teaches that most churches are not real churches.
They're not true churches.
They're not the Lord's churches unless they have this pedigree or genealogy where that
church goes all the way back to John the Baptist and can demonstrate that, basically,
that they have historically been baptized by somebody, who was baptized by somebody,
who was baptized by somebody, who was baptized by somebody, all the way back to John the
Baptist, and the church has to have been started by another church that was a true church,
that was started by another church that was a true church, that was started by another
church that was a true church, and it's these brighter churches.
So basically what you end up having is these few churches in the American Baptist Association,
or ABA, that say, we're the Lord's true churches because we go back to the Waldensians and
the Huguenots and the Anabaptists or whatever historical groups they would point to, and
they would say, we're the only true churches because we have this historical pedigree that
that's where we came from.
Now genealogies fits that perfectly because a genealogy could be my father was this person,
his father was this person, but that could also be a history of churches for hundreds
of years, you know, demonstrating our spiritual pedigree as a church or my spiritual pedigree
as far as my baptism, who baptized me.
Well, you know what?
I know who baptized me.
It was Pastor Armour at Citadel Baptist Church in Sacramento, California, but you know what?
I don't know who baptized him.
I guess I better find out because according to the Baptist brideers, unless I've been
baptized by one of their special unicorn American Baptist Association or, you know, historical
Baptist, then I haven't been scripturally baptized and supposedly I'm not going to be
a member of the bride of Christ.
You know, so the bride, to be a part, these Baptist brideers teach that in order to be
a part of the bride of Christ, you have to be a member of one of these special independent
Baptist churches, or you're not a member of the bride, you know, independent or ABA or
whatever.
Now there are different people who are into this doctrine in various degrees.
Some people say you just have to be a member of an independent Baptist church.
Any independent Baptist church will do.
Others say you have to be a member of one of these special independent Baptist churches
and have the pedigree and the history and everything.
Look, it's all foolish and wrong, and nobody can show you this in the Bible.
It takes them like an hour to explain it to you.
And we should base our beliefs on a clear scripture, okay?
And something as big, and here's the thing, the people who are into this Baptist bride
thing, it's all they want to talk about.
They want to talk about it all the time, so it's a big deal to them.
Well, let me ask them, if it's such a big deal, why didn't God give us any clear scripture
on it?
Now, salvation's a big deal, tons of clear scripture.
The virgin birth is a big deal, tons of clear scripture.
Second coming's a big deal, tons of clear scripture.
Inspiration of the word of God's a big deal, there's a ton of clear scripture.
Look, beware of doctrines that have to be explained to you over a course of an hour
with all these logical leaps, well, we know this, and so therefore this, and then that
leads us to this, and then, you know, and then an hour later you're like, oh, I see
it now, we're not part of the bride unless we're one of these, you know, special churches.
But this is unprofitable and vain.
Now what I want to point out to you is that James 2 and these other scriptures are basically
telling us that there are a lot of people who talk a real big talk, and they talk a
lot of fluff and a lot of nonsense and a lot of babble, and then there are the people who
have the real works to point to.
The works are what are profitable to man, pontificating about, oh, we're the only true
church and these other churches are not true churches, we're the true church because we
have this chart on the wall and we have this historical pedigree.
That's not profitable unto anyone.
But what's funny about it, look if you would at 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 18, it says,
Now some are puffed up.
What's puffed up mean?
Prideful, arrogant, full of themselves.
He says, Now some are puffed up as though I would not come to you, but I will come to
you shortly if the Lord will, and will know not the speech of them which are puffed up,
but the power.
Not the speech, but the power.
For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.
It's not about just talk and words and blah blah, no, no, it's about the power.
He says, What will ye?
Shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love and in the spirit of meekness?
Now listen to me, here's my question for these so-called Baptist bride churches that say
that our church isn't a true church or some other independent Baptist church is not a
true church because it's not a brighter church.
And somebody even said that about us like back about seven, eight years ago, a guy started
coming to our church and he got all excited about it.
He said, man, it's a great church.
The preachy's great, the soul winning's great, the fellowship's great.
And they said, is it a brighter church?
Well no.
Oh, well then it's not a true church.
Well let me ask you this, what do you think is the best way to identify the Lord's true
church?
It's where the power is.
It's where the works are being done.
When God looked down from heaven at the seven churches in Asia, you know what he said?
I know thy pedigree.
To all seven churches, what was the first thing he said, those of you who know the Bible,
Revelation 2 and Revelation 3, the message to the seven churches, I know your baptism.
I know your communion practices.
I know your communion.
I know your baptism.
I know your pedigree.
I know your genealogy.
Is that what he said?
No, no, no.
Every single one.
To Ephesus, he said I know thy works.
To Smyrna, he said I know thy works.
To Pergamos, I know thy works.
To Thyatira, I know thy works.
To Sardis, I know thy works.
To Philadelphia, I know thy works.
To Laodicea, he said I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot.
How does he know if you're cold or hot?
By the works.
How does he know whether you're a true church?
By the works.
How does he determine whether you still have the candlestick or whether the candlestick's
been removed?
By your works.
Not by some blowhard getting up and talking about, well but we have the history and the
tradition and the blah, blah, blah.
No, no.
Where's the work, buddy?
Where's the power of God in your church?
Look, if the power of God is present, that's the Lord's true church.
And if people are being saved, and if people are being baptized, and if people's lives
are being changed, and if the Word of God is going forth in mighty power, that's the
Lord's true church.
It's not hard to identify.
Know it by their fruit.
You'll know them by their fruit.
You'll know the church by the works.
That's how God looks at it.
That's how I'm going to look at it.
That's how the Apostle Paul looked at it.
That's what the Bible says.
But this unprofitable, vain thing of Baptist bride, and let me ask you a question.
What do Catholics, Roman Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Jews, Protestants, and Baptist
brideers, what do they all have in common?
This is a riddle.
Go to Roman Catholics, East Orthodox, Jews, Protestants, and Baptist brideers.
You know what?
They all want to tell you, we're the chosen ones because of a genealogy.
All of them.
We're the chosen ones because of history.
We're the chosen ones because we inherited it.
That's what they want to tell you.
The Catholic church will tell you, we have an apostolic succession all the way from Peter
all the way until now.
The Orthodox will tell you, the Orthodox church is the first original true church of
the apostles all the way until now.
The Protestants will tell you, we go from the church fathers all the way to us right
now.
The Baptist brideers will tell you, we're an unbroken chain, and don't let it bother
you that there's only eight people in our church.
Don't let it bother you that we don't go soul winning.
Don't let it bother you that we're liberal and watered down, but we're the true church
because we're the bride because we have the unicorn baptism or whatever.
The Jews.
What do the Jews say?
Do they say we're the chosen people because of our faith and doctrine?
No, no, no.
They say we're the chosen people because of our ethnicity.
That's what they say.
So they're basing it on a genealogy, that they inherited it.
But God said that a genealogy doesn't make you a son of Abraham.
He said if you have the faith of Abraham, you're a son of Abraham.
You don't need a genealogy to prove that.
And you know what?
I'll say to the Baptist brideers, if you have the faith and works of John the Baptist, then
you're a son of John the Baptist.
You want to know who the real Baptists are?
The real Baptists?
It's the ones who are like Jesus and the apostles and John the Baptist.
That's the real Baptist.
And it doesn't matter what name they called it or where they came from or who they got
baptized by.
Look, we by faith believe that we are the spiritual descendants of John the Baptist,
of Jesus Christ, of the apostles, because of our faith, because of our works, because
of the power of God that's upon our church.
That's how we know God's pleased with us, because God uses us, because we do great things
for God in the power of the Holy Spirit, not in our own strength.
This is how we know that God approves of faithful word Baptist church.
We don't need somebody to tell us historically why.
We just get it straight from the Bible, and that's how we know.
And somebody needs to explain that to the Jews today, that being a son of Abraham is
meaningless.
I mean, Jesus said, think not to say within yourselves we have Abraham to our father.
I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
And so being a Jew or being a part of some church that's been around forever, that's
meaningless to God.
It's who believes in him now.
Who's serving him now.
Who's obeying him now.
Who's got the power of Christ resting upon them now.
That's all that matters.
The proof is in the pudding.
And so 1 Corinthians 4.19 where we were, you know, I don't want to know the speech of them
which are puffed up, but the power.
I don't want to listen to some Baptist brighter, one of the frozen chosen out in the middle
of nowhere telling me how we're the true church.
No you're not, because you're not soul winning.
No you're not, because you're not seeing throngs of people saved, because you're not doing
great works for the Lord.
The Catholic church will tell you, we have an unbroken succession from Peter and they
list all the names going back to Peter.
But here's the thing about that, Peter didn't wear a funny hat.
Jesus didn't wear a funny hat.
John the Baptist didn't wear a funny hat.
You know, in the Garden of Gethsemane, why didn't Judas just say, it's the one with the
funny hat?
Why did he say, it's the one that I kiss?
Judas had to give him that kiss of betrayal because he wasn't wearing a funny hat.
Otherwise he would have said, okay, see the guy with the long flowing robes and the weird
hat and the scepter with all the gold and jewels on it and he's doing a princess wave?
That's the one.
Go ahead and arrest him.
How can you be the spiritual son of Peter when Peter said, silver and gold have I none
and the Roman Catholic church is filthy rich?
All decked in gold and silver and precious stones and pearl.
Decked up like the spiritual prostitute that she is, all painted and decked out.
You know, why aren't you anything like Peter, Pope Francis?
If you're the spiritual, it's because you're not the spiritual.
You know who the spiritual sons of Peter are?
We are.
Look, Jesus didn't wear long robes.
He preached against those.
He said, beware of the scribes that love to go in long clothing.
Beware of those that wear the long robes and then they paint pictures of Jesus with a long
robe and they wear a long robe and they put on a funny hat and they put on gold and jewels
and all these things that Jesus didn't do, the apostles didn't do.
Hey, John the Baptist was clothed in a leather girdle, right?
General's hair, he was not a smooth man, he was a rough man.
And his sons are the rough preachers, not the smooth preachers.
The Roman Catholic church, the East Orthodox church with all of their pomp and circumstance
and they look like a Freemason lodge and they sprinkle poo-poo dust all over the place and
they go around in their weird hat that looks like something out of ancient Egypt.
It's out of Babylon and Egypt.
And the priests are like Sodom.
And then we're supposed to believe that, well, but we're the true church.
Why?
Why are you the true church, Roman Catholics?
Is it because you're biblical?
No, no, no.
It's because we've inherited it.
Why are you the true church, Orthodox believers?
Is it because you're biblical?
No, no, no.
It's just we inherited it.
Why are you the true church, Baptist bride church?
Is it because you're winning souls and because you're on fire for the Lord because you're
experiencing royal?
No, no, no.
It's because we were started by an ABA church that was started by an ABA church that was
started by an ABA church that goes back to some, the pilgrims or whatever, you know,
Baptists that came amongst the pilgrims or whatever.
You say, well, you're messing up the history.
I don't care.
You know what?
It's unprofitable and vain.
You know, I mean, to me, what's the guy's name?
Roger Williams, the first Baptist in America.
You know, I don't Roger Williams or Robin Williams.
I don't give a rip because I can figure out where the true church is.
My friend.
It's the guy who's preaching the Bible.
It's the guy who's doing the soul winning.
It's the one who has the power of God.
Don't come at me with the speech.
Come at me with the power.
Here's another way that we could say the same thing.
Don't tell me how to do it.
Show me how to do it.
There are a lot of vain talkers today, a lot of puffed up people who have great faith and
great doctrine and they're so doctrinally correct.
And my statement to them would be, okay, you've got your faith and your doctrine and you've
got all these wonderful beliefs.
Well, why don't you show me your faith by your works?
Show me that faith without works and I'll show you my faith by my works.
The puffed up blowhard loudmouths on YouTube, I want to see their works.
The guys who are out in the woods with a camcorder, the guys who are in their mother's basement
with a camcorder and they're correcting everybody and setting everybody straight and telling
us all what the real doctrine is.
Okay, I want to know how many people they've won to Christ.
I want to know how many people have been baptized.
I want to see how many people God has gathered together at that gathering that are fired
up, working, soul-winning Christians.
Don't tell me how to do it.
Show me how to do it.
There are plenty of people who criticize our church's soul-winning program.
And you know what?
Any church or any preacher who criticizes our soul-winning program, my challenge to
you is show me how to do it better.
There are plenty of people who looked at what we did in Botswana and criticized it.
Okay, a plane ticket to Botswana is not that expensive.
Why don't you hop on a plane and you show us how it's done?
I'd love for you to show us how it's done.
Look, if somebody wants to do better than we did in Botswana, I'll buy their plane ticket
for them if I actually believe they were going to do better.
They have my blessing.
And anybody who goes there and does better, I'll retroactively pay for their ticket.
So if you're Mr. Know-It-All, buy yourself a ticket on a credit card, go there, reach
more people with the Gospel, accomplish more than what Faithful Word Baptist Church did,
and then by the time your payment comes due, I'll pay it for you.
But it's all talk.
It's all the Monday morning quarterbacks and the backseat drivers and the Know-It-Alls
who they know how to...
But it's all talk.
And we need to beware of the vain talkers and deceivers and the puffed up.
The Bible says that the beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but
inwardly they're ravening wolves, and you shall know them by their fruits.
You know who's the false prophet?
Well, let's check the fruits and see who the false prophet is.
And when these guys have zero fruits, when these guys are just a fruit down in their
mother's basement or a fruit out in the woods somewhere with a camcorder, there's nothing
to show for it.
It's vain.
Show me a Baptist bride church that's a fired up, soul winning church.
Show me a Baptist bride church that's turning their city upside down with the Gospel.
Show me a Baptist bride church that has the power of God resting mightily upon it.
It doesn't exist.
I've never seen it.
If it does, then show it to me and I'll stand corrected.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, 1 Corinthians chapter 2.
So we need to beware of doctrines that have no benefit, doctrines that have no gain or
advantage spiritually.
We need to be aware of just unprofitable doctrines, vain babblings, things that don't matter,
things that could waste our time, and we should focus on doing real work for the Lord, real
work for the Lord.
Working in a church that works for the Lord and doing real work for the Lord in our lives.
Now many people, this type of a sermon does not really resonate with them because they're
lazy.
See, there are some people in this building right now probably that are thinking to themselves
like, I don't really like this sermon.
Yeah, that's because you're a non-worker.
See the people in this church building right now who actually go out and do real work for
the Lord, who have actually won someone to Christ, who actually opened their Bible and
show people how to be saved, who actually go out and preach the gospel to every creature,
who actually go out at least as a silent partner or a talker, just are involved in soul winning
in some way, shape, or form.
The people who are actually contributing something to this church and doing something and being
a part of the church and working for the church, you know, those people love this sermon.
And they're saying amen and thinking, yeah, let's do some real work for the Lord.
Unlike that church down the street where they sit around and just talk and it's us four,
no more, high steeple, few people, sit around and do nothing, you know.
But the people who don't do any work, this hits where they live.
They don't want to be told that they're unprofitable servants.
They don't want to be told that faith without works is dead and that basically they are
a dead Christian and a church with no works is a dead church.
Now that doesn't mean they're not saved.
It doesn't mean that they're not going to heaven, but it means it's dead.
And it's so funny how these churches, they talk so much about revival.
We need to pray for revival.
Yeah, you need to be revived like a person who's flat lining on a hospital bed needs
to be revived.
That's why they need so many revivals because they're so dead and they want to keep, they
keep coming out with the paddles and they bring in the next, you know, evangelists to
come in with the paddles and then they, it's like spiritually, there's like a line of doctors
outside this hospital room.
The patient's just dead on the table and then they bring in the next doctor like, all right,
see you next year.
Back in a year with the paddles again, couple of weeks later, Oh man, we're having another
revival and the heart beats like twice just from the electricity hitting again, but the
person is still dead and they bring in the next guy, see you next year.
And here's, that's what's going on spiritually.
You know, this whole thing of revival, revival, we need to pray for revival.
We need to have a conference on revival.
Oh Lord, revive us again.
Pray for revival.
You know what?
God's up in heaven just like, what are you talking about?
Praying for revival.
What do you keep asking me for?
What do you want?
Oh God, send revival.
Oh God, what do you want us to send?
What are you talking about?
It must be frustrating for him.
Oh God, send us revival.
Hey, then Faithful Word Baptist Church comes to their town and wins like 300 people to
the Lord and they're like, Oh, stay away from that guy.
We come into their town.
We come into Atlanta, Georgia.
We come into Boston, Massachusetts.
We come into Portland, Oregon with our church people and we bring revival with us and we
show up and we win hundreds of people to the Lord and then all their church members are
being told, Oh, stay away from that event.
Stay away from that guy.
Come over to my house and pray for revival with me.
These people wouldn't know revival if it slapped them in the face.
We have revival here every single week.
In fact, we don't even have revival because we didn't die.
We don't have revival.
We just have vival.
This is vival Baptist.
Vive, Faithful Word.
Baptist Church of Life, look, we have 100 people saved like every week.
Why?
Because we have hundreds of people out soul winning every week.
I mean, on Wednesday we'll have 40 some people out soul winning.
Sunday, how many people are usually in your group soul winning, Scott?
20 or 30 people come soul winning for several hours on Sunday.
How many people are usually in your group?
10 people in the Gilbert group on Sundays.
There's about 40 people who come on Wednesdays, 30 over here.
What about Monday nights?
13 people or something.
We have soul winning on Monday.
We have soul winning on Tuesday.
We have soul winning on Wednesday.
We have soul winning on Thursday.
Well, I don't think we have anything on Friday, do we?
But we have soul winning on Saturday and Sunday and all these other days and we have all this
soul winning and because of all that work that gets done, we end up getting like about
almost 100 people, excuse me, 100 people saved every week because we have 100 and some
people going out and putting in hours of work.
See, they didn't, praying for revival doesn't make sense.
What they ought to do is get on their knees and say, oh God, help me to stop being lazy.
That would make way more sense.
Oh God, I'm lazy.
Make me work.
Teach me to work.
Teach me to go door to door soul winning.
But I just heard about a church in this area, an independent fundamental Baptist church
that's supposedly a soul winning church.
Their soul winning program consists of handing people a map with like a few houses shaded
in, eight houses shaded in, in a super unreceptive area.
They knock those houses in like 13, 14 minutes and then they go home.
That's just going through the motions.
That's not what God, you know, that's just playing with soul winning.
But I bet you they're praying for revival though.
I'll bet you they're bringing in evangelists to come have revival.
You know what we need if we want to have revival?
We need hard Bible preaching and we need profitable doctrine coming forth and we need people to
work and do works and get involved.
That's revival.
It's not some magical, mystical glitter that's going to be sprinkled on us.
That's the way it sounds when these guys talk about revival.
You know, and we don't know when it's going to come folks, but we just got to be ready
when God sends that revival.
And then they tell you some story from the 1800s.
They literally have to go all the way back to the 1800s to tell you about it.
Why?
Because that's before there was technology to record anything.
So they believe all these lies about fake things that happened in the 1800s that didn't
even really happen.
All these weird miracles and fake things that never happened.
They have to go back to the 1800s to point to revival.
I have to go back about 18 hours.
I'll go back 18 days and show you revival.
These people are living in the past.
It's unprofitable.
It's vain.
It's babbling.
Talking about revival is babbling.
Blah, blah, blah.
Why don't we just, I mean, literally, why don't we just grab that guy and say, Hey,
let's go to a poor area of town and let's go soul winning right now for three hours
and see if revival happens.
Or why don't we take your church of 300 people and get 80% of them out soul winning and see
if revival happens.
But in the average church of 300, less than 10% of people are going soul winning and they're
going through the motions.
Our church, 80% of the people go out soul winning.
That's revival.
And you say, well, you know, what, what about, what about your pedigree?
You know, what about, what about this doctrine that you have on the sodomites that's just
over the top, but you know what I say to these bunch of vain puffed up talkers who want to
talk about how loving they are.
Okay.
You have love and we supposedly have hate, right?
We're supposedly a hate group.
Okay.
Show me your love without your works.
And I'll show you my love by my works.
Think about that.
Thou has, thou has faith and I have works, right?
Show me your faith without your works.
I'll show you my faith by my works.
Oh, you have love and I've got works, right?
Well, show me your love without your works and I'll show you my love by my works.
What's the loving church.
I say the loving church is the one that goes out and preaches to the lost.
That's the loving church and you can get up and talk about how you love everybody with
your sloppy agape and every, every homo and every pedophile.
You love them so much.
We've accidentally given the gospel to more pedophiles than you've given on purpose.
We've accidentally given the gospel to more sodomites than these bunch of bleeding hearts.
It's the truth.
You need to learn to identify the truth from error based on the works and based on the
power, not based on a bunch of talk.
You know, it's easy to talk about love, but the Bible says, brethren, let us not love
in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
Did you hear that?
Let me quote it for you again.
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
How do we love?
Biblically, in deed.
What's another word for deed?
Deeds and works are used interchangeably in the Bible.
He said, you can tell who has love by their deeds, but yet today with any Bible believing
soul-winning church that preaches hard on sin is called a hate church, a hate group,
even though they love the lost.
Who's the hate group?
I'll tell you who the hate group is.
It's the ones who sit on their rear ends and don't go out soul-winning.
They're the ones who are hateful.
And the Bible says that a lying tongue hated those who are afflicted by it.
So actually preaching lies is hateful.
Preaching the truth is love.
Preaching lies is hateful because the lying tongue hated those who are afflicted by it.
That's what the Bible says.
Let's go to 1 Corinthians 2 verse 4.
And my speech and my preaching was now with enticing words of man's wisdom.
Not just a bunch of talk, not a bunch of fancy words, but in demonstration of the Spirit
and of power.
I want to see a demonstration, not just a bunch of talk.
And that demonstration of the Holy Spirit's power is number one, through bold preaching,
and number two, through people being saved.
That's the evidence of God's power in the book of Acts.
They spoke the word of God with boldness, and people are being saved en masse.
Multitudes save both the men and women.
That's where God was at work, when people were being saved, and when bold preaching
was going on, and when people had guts.
Look at Acts 20, 20.
Acts 20, 20.
And then after Acts 20, we're going to go to 1 Corinthians 10.
Acts 20, and then 1 Corinthians 10.
We started in James chapter 2, and James said that faith without works is dead, and that
if we're going to show others our faith, we've got to show them based on our works.
They can't see our faith.
We can say that we have faith, but we demonstrate that with our works.
And again, it has nothing to do with whether or not you're going to heaven.
It has to do with showing other people.
But you know, when you're a pastor, or you're a deacon, or you're an evangelist, or you're
some kind of a person who holds a position in the church, or even if you're a mother
or a father, you're a leader.
And if you're a leader, and you want people to follow you, you can't be all talk.
You have to show them the deeds.
You have to show them the works.
And those who are puffed up are the ones who basically have no deeds, no power, but they
pick apart the people who do the real work.
The Bible says in Acts 20, verse 20, and how I kept back nothing that was what?
Profitable.
What are you talking about?
What is a prophet?
I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you
publicly and from house to house.
Notice how he was profitable unto them by showing them, not telling them, showing them,
and by preaching from house to house, taking the Gospel from house to house.
That's soul winning.
Go if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter 10.
1 Corinthians chapter number 10, the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 33,
Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many,
that they may be saved.
So the Bible is saying here, I'm not trying to seek my own profit.
I'm not pleasing men in order to seek my own profit.
That would be like if you got up and preached lies and preached what people wanted to hear
so you could take in a big offering and have a big church.
He said, no, I'm not seeking my own profit.
The way that I please people is only that I might get them saved.
You know, he said I've become all things to all men that I might by all means save some
of them.
Under the Jew I became as Jew, under the Greek I became as Greek, under the barbarian I became
as a barbarian.
But he said I still follow the laws of Christ.
I'm not going to become a drunk to reach the drunks, you know, basically.
But he's saying I want to seek the profit of others that they may be saved.
Go to chapter 12, verse 7, 1 Corinthians 12, 7,
But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit with all.
Why does the Holy Spirit give gifts unto us?
Why does He work in our hearts that we might profit others?
He says, For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of
knowledge by the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another the gifts of
healing by the same Spirit.
Now stop and think about that.
Just focus on that for a second, the healing, okay?
Let me ask this.
Did people in the Bible who had a gift of healing, did they heal themselves or did they
heal other people?
I mean do we have examples of people, the gift of healing is they just keep healing
themselves.
They were like a comic book character where every time they get wounded they self-heal.
That's their magic.
No, no, no.
When people have the gift of healing in the Bible, they're healing other people.
Well guess what?
All the other gifts are for other people too.
It's about profiting other people.
It's about helping other people.
It's about getting unsaved people saved.
It's about teaching people who don't know the Bible what the Bible says, teaching them
biblical doctrine.
It's about getting a person who's not baptized, baptized.
It's about helping someone who has a bad marriage and teaching them how to have a biblical marriage
and so on and so forth.
So he says here the gifts of healing by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles,
to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues,
to another the interpretation of tongues.
But all these work at that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will.
Flip over to chapter 14 verse 6.
First Corinthians chapter 14 verse 6.
First Corinthians 14 verse 6 says,
Now brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you?
Except I shall speak to you either by revelation or by knowledge or by prophesying or by doctrine.
Now, I don't know about you, but this word prophet seems to be coming up a lot.
I haven't counted how many times we've seen in the scriptures we've looked at, but it's
in a lot of verses, isn't it?
Profit, profitable, unprofitable.
This is a key theme in the New Testament.
Why?
Because God cares about us, spending our lives on things that matter, that have some
gain or some benefit or some advantage to others.
So the whole point of this sermon is basically this, is that it doesn't matter how good
our doctrine is or how smart we think we are or how we have the greatest church ever or
I'm the greatest Christian ever.
You know what?
That's all just a bunch of vain, puffed up nonsense if you're not profiting other people.
That's what we ought to be asking ourselves.
What does it profit?
This is a good question.
Instead of asking, well, what's the best church in Phoenix?
What's the best church in Phoenix?
Who's the best preacher?
That's just a vain, unprofitable question.
You know what we ought to ask is, which church is profiting Phoenix the most?
Which church is actually reaching Phoenix with the gospel the most?
Which church is actually seeing the most people have their lives changed?
And you say, oh, well, you're just puffed up about your own church.
No, no, no, because if there's another one, show me.
You know what?
If I find out that our church is the second best church in Phoenix, I'll rejoice at that.
I mean, that'd be the best news I've heard all day, that there's some awesome church
in Phoenix that's even greater than Faithful Word.
Wouldn't that be good news?
You think I'd be disappointed to hear that?
I'd be thrilled to hear that.
But what I see around me, and I'm sorry that I have my eyes open, what I see is a bunch
of fundamental Baptists around me that are scaling back soul winning, that are going
through the motions, that are watered down, that are scared of their own shadow.
That's what I see.
And they can hate on us and criticize us and say whatever they want about us, but at the
end of the day, what does it profit?
That's what we ought to ask ourselves.
What does Faithful Word profit, and what does the church down the street profit?
That's the question that matters.
And you know what?
We can sit here and on a personal level think to ourselves that we're such a great Christian
or look down on the person next to us or look down on someone else in the church that doesn't
have it together like we do, but you know what?
If you're not winning people to Christ, what does it profit?
I mean, I don't care how nice you're dressed this morning, I don't care if you're wearing
a three-piece suit and it's Italian and it's tailor-made and your shoes are shined and
you walked in saying, God bless you, praise the Lord, hallelujah, with a Bible under your
arm and everybody looks perfect.
But let me ask you something, what does it profit if you don't have the works to go with
it?
You say, well, I've read the Bible 15 times, covered in God.
Okay, what does it profit if you're not using the Bible, if you don't have the works to
go with it?
The guy who's read the Bible only once and is using it is doing more for God.
I mean, there are people who spend hours a day studying the Word of God, but if they're
not putting it to use, they're spiritually obese.
They're taking it all in and they're not putting out the calories and the jewels of energy
through work.
What does it profit, the fact that you grew up in a Christian home and have been saved
for 20, 30 years, what does that profit your neighbor that lives on your street?
What does that profit this church?
What does that profit the people around you?
Works are what's going to bring the profit.
Works.
Okay, let's take a business standpoint.
How do businesses make a profit?
What do they have to do to make a profit?
Work.
Or is it just by having a nice building?
You could have the fanciest building.
You could have the fanciest uniform.
You could have rule books and policies and charts and plans, but what actually brings
in the profit?
Work.
Now we're not going after a financial profit.
We're seeking the profit of many that they might be saved.
So everything we do should be geared toward making not a financial profit, but a spiritual
profit of souls saved.
And not just souls saved, but people baptized.
And not just people baptized, but people who are learning to observe all things that Christ
commanded.
That's the profit.
And you know what?
At the end of the day, at the board meeting in some corporation somewhere, they don't
have a board meeting and say, look everybody, it was a great year.
Did you see the uniforms?
Oh man, we had a great year.
Have you seen our new facilities?
Oh man, it was such a great year.
I mean, did you see that great commercial we put out?
Wasn't that funny?
Remember that Super Bowl halftime commercial?
No, no.
When they get to the board meeting, you know what they say?
It was a great year because we made a profit.
And they say it was a bad year because we did not make a profit.
We had a loss.
And God didn't use the word profit by accident.
God used the word profit for a reason.
And obviously we know he doesn't mean a financial profit.
But what is he talking about?
Again, the dictionary definition of profit is advantage, benefit, gain.
You know, when we have an increase in people being saved, we have an increase in baptism,
an increase in people living for God.
Because not just baptisms and salvations matter, it also matters that we're living a godly
life.
We need to fire on all three barrels of that great commission in Matthew 28.
But this is the question we should ask ourselves.
I'm going to close with this, 1 Timothy 4.
1 Timothy 4 is where we're going to close.
This question needs to be burned into our minds.
What doth it profit?
Hey, can I tell you about this Baptist bride doctrine?
It's like, whoa, buddy.
What is that profit?
Hey, can I tell you about this flat earth theory?
What is that profit?
It doesn't edify anyone.
It doesn't profit anyone.
It's a bunch of navel gazing, hey, have you heard about geocentricity?
That's unprofitable in vain, is babbling, not interested.
You say, well, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, it's profitable.
Yeah, it's all profitable that you'd be thoroughly furnished unto every good work.
Okay, so don't just say, well, it's all profitable and stop there.
No, no, no, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, it's profitable for doctrine, why?
That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, that's why.
It all points to the work.
Eventually, it's all pointing to the work.
Jesus said, I know thy works, to every church he talked to.
I know thy works.
Why is Jesus looking at the works?
Why did Jesus say, you know the false prophet, buy their fruit?
Why did Jesus say that faith without works is dead?
Because works are really important.
Not to get us into heaven, but to be a good Christian.
It's all about the works.
It's all about work.
A lazy man is not blessed by God.
First Timothy 4.13, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, neglect
not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by the prophecy, with the laying on of
the hands of the presbytery, meditate upon these things, give thyself holy to them, here's
the key, that thy profiting may appear to all.
It all is going toward profit.
Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine, continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt
both save thyself and them that hear thee.
See it's not just about saving ourself, getting ourself on our way to heaven by believing
in Christ, getting ourself baptized, getting ourself in church, getting our own marriage
straightened out, getting our own life on track, raising our own, no, no, it's about
saving both ourselves and them that hear us, because what does it profit is about others,
not about us.
That question, what does it profit?
The context is, what does it profit other people?
And we should ask ourselves that question constantly.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for our church, Lord, and Lord, I thank you that our church
is a church that we can point to as being a place where great work is being done.
And it's not one person or three people or ten people who do the work of Faithful Word Baptist Church.
There are hundreds of workers in this church, Lord, I thank you for that.
And Lord, I pray that those who go to our church and don't do any work, I pray that
Lord they would get involved, that they would show up at a soul winning time, that they
would start to roll up their sleeves and get some of the work done, Lord, and be a prophet,
Lord, and to profit those of our city and to profit the people around them, Lord.
And Lord, thank you that we have a church where we can stand up and say, hey, come with
us and see our zeal for the Lord.
We can stand up and say that we are not in need of revival.
We can cancel the revival speaker because we're not dead.
And Lord, I pray that these churches across America would wake up from this fake revival
preaching and actually just get out and do some work for the Lord.
And thank you so much, Lord, that our church is a working church, Lord.
It's good to be around people that motivate me and we motivate each other.
And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.