You
Baptist Church. If you would go ahead, find a seat and grab a hymnal. Our first
hymn this morning is number 255, Come and Dine, hymn number 255, 255, Come and
Jesus, all the-
So baying fries come in, pour them basketball, then to them come and die.
There they found their hearts beat higher, red and fished upon the fire.
The sea status finds the hungry every time.
Come and die in the basketball, then come and die.
You may feast at Jesus' table.
Stop this fight!
And then at this time, we'll open with a word of prayer.
If you'll just bow your heads with me.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day,
for another opportunity to gather together,
to sing out praises in your name.
Lord, we just thank you for the blessing of rain
that you've given us over the last few days.
We just thank you also for all the salvations,
all the humble souls that you've been leading this church to.
And I just pray that you would continue to lead us
to those humble and ready to receive your word.
I pray that this service would be done decently
and in order, these things we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
All right for our next song 296 follow on 296 296 follow on
296 we'll start there on the first down in the valley with
Steps to the ground
Get that turd!
and I see you.
have a bulletin please raise your hand and an usher will bring you one. On the front is our
Bible memory passage of the week Galatians chapter number one verse 17 keep working hard on those
Bible memorization verses there. On the inside you'll see our service times Sunday morning at 10 30
a.m. Sunday evening at 4 30 p.m. and our Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 o'clock. Below that we
and our nursing home ministry schedule below that.
Also, you'll see our year-to-date statistics,
77 salvations so far this month and 265 so far for the year.
And I know I mentioned a couple months ago about how our church started a program called the Anchor
SWAT team. That's the soul-winning action team. And basically whenever there's a tragedy in our
community or a murder or something crazy that went on, we like to send soul winners to that area
where it happened shortly after the event. Just because when people are thinking about tragedy
and death, it could often make them more receptive to the gospel. And yesterday we went to an
apartment complex where a homicide took place this week. And it was a complex that we've actually
many times before but we did go there yesterday with five soul winners and had
12 salvations so praise the Lord for that it definitely works seems like this is
making people think about the Lord when these events happen so we do want to
send soul winners there
And, you know, soul winning has been going really well here in Oklahoma City.
I've been kind of blown away at how receptive it is when you go to the right areas.
I've been soul winning some really great places, Detroit, Shreveport, you know, South
Dallas, like really receptive areas of the country.
And really Oklahoma City is right up there with all of those things when you go to the
right area.
So thank God we live in a receptive community.
And you know, I keep detailed statistics of our soul winning statistics.
And I kind of want to just read for you guys where we're at for the year from a day by
breakdown. So for Sundays this year, we have 53 salvations Mondays 22 Tuesdays 37.
So Tuesday is doing great. Wednesday is eight. For some reason, Wednesday has been
a little rough.
Thursday 23, Friday 33, and Saturdays 89.
So if you can only go one day a week
and you wanna pick a day to go soul winning,
Saturday is the day to go.
Super receptive.
I don't know if people are just home more at that time,
but yeah, 89 Salvation for Saturdays, 53 for Sundays.
I think we even have more soul winners usually on Sunday.
So man, I just wanna encourage everyone
to go to our Saturday rally at 10 o'clock.
It's a great time to go soul winning.
upcoming events May 16th through the 18th is the King James Conference at
Sure Foundation Baptist Church. May 31st is the Durant Oklahoma soul-winning
marathon with Steadfast Baptist Church and I already booked my hotel I'm
actually gonna be staying there Friday night you know driving at 4 a.m. 5 a.m.
with the young kids is a little pain so I like to eliminate that and just stay in
a hotel if you want to do that save yourself some time feel free
We do have the Tinker air show June 28th as a fellowship event that day
Followed by the next day brother Ben Naim from steadfast preaching both services for us
August 27th through the 31st is the fire-breathing Baptist Fellowship and Pastor Shelly did recently post a update about this
If you go to the steadfast Baptist Church rumble account, he made a video on there talking about that
So we're looking forward to that and he made another video about the Bahamas mission trip as well on that same channel
That's October 6th through the 11th still plenty of time to get
passports and accommodations, whatever you need to, but we've got a huge group
going out from our church for that and really looking forward to that trip.
If you're a visitor with us, if you wouldn't mind filling out that communication card,
we'd greatly appreciate it. On the back, we do have our prayer list. We do have some updates
there, so make sure you're keeping everyone in prayer on that list. And of course, if you have
any requests, please email the church. We'd be happy to add that for you. I've got some information
about giving below at that QR code. It's going to be it for announcements. We'll go ahead and go to our third song.
Our third song this morning, number 26,
Hallelujah for the Cross.
26, Hallelujah for the Cross.
And if you'll notice on your hymnal, this song is spanned across two pages.
I've heard this song done two different ways.
One where basically this full side of the Hallelujah for the Cross is done,
kind of sing it twice.
That's not the way we're going to do it this morning.
We sing this first page, we go to the chorus, it's just this last two bars where it starts
Hallelujah for the Cross. These last two bars we'll sing on the second page back into the next
verse. So we'll skip that part that's kind of a duet portion above. If you don't know 100%
what I'm detailing, you can just watch me, listen, I'll lead through it. It'll make sense after the
first verse. 26, Hallelujah for the Cross.
On the 26th, hallelujah for the cross, there, on the 1st.
The cost has ended it fast.
Hallelujah.
chapter number
to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers,
but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish,
disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy,
hateful, and hating one another, but after that the meekness, after that the kindness
Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy
he saved us by the washing of regenerations and showing of the Holy Ghosts,
which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
This is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly.
that they which I've believed in God
might be careful to maintain good works.
These things are good and profitable unto men,
but avoid foolish questions and genealogies
and contentions and strivings about the law
for they are unprofitable and vain.
A man that is in heretic
after the first and second ab inition reject,
knowing that
He, that is such, is subverted and sinneth, being condemned of himself.
When I shall send Artemis unto thee, and Tychicus be diligent to come unto Nicopolis, for I
have determined there to winter.
Bring Zenas, the lawyer, and Apollos on their journey diligently, that nothing be wanting
unto them.
and let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses that they be not unfruitful.
All that are with me salute thee, greet them that love us in the faith, grace be unto y'all amen.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thankful to be gathered in your house.
Thankful to have your word, Lord. I pray that you help us this time to focus on the preaching.
Man, all right, we are in Titus chapter number three,
which of course, the book of Titus is a pastoral epistle.
The Apostle Paul is writing this to Titus,
a young man of God, and he's giving him
several instructions throughout this epistle.
And I wanna focus on verse number eight,
where Paul says to Titus, he says,
"'This is a faithful saying, and these things I will,
"'that thou affirm constantly,
"'that they which have believed in God
works. These things are good and profitable unto men. Here we see that the pastor is being
instructed that he needs to constantly preach and constantly affirm to who those who have believed
God's people, the saved, to maintain good works. And so the title of my sermon this morning is this,
get to work. Of course we know that salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ.
You know the Bible says that if you believe in Jesus Christ you're saved.
You know what shall I do to be saved? Believe in Lord Jesus Christ and thou
shall be saved the Bible teaches. And of course we know that the gift that we
receive by putting our faith in Him is eternal life. Once you're saved you're
always saved but after you're saved the command is for you to work. So number one
this morning I want to show you
command to work Titus 3 look at the verse 8 again it says this is a faithful
saying and these things I will that thou notice affirm constantly
So part of the job of a pastor and of a preacher is to just constantly be preaching that God's people should be doing good works like this is just one of the things that the job calls for you need to constantly be telling God's people to do good works.
Notice it says that they which have believed in God.
We're talking about.
the saved. When we go out soul winning to people who are lost to people who are not saved,
what are we emphasizing to them? We're emphasizing the gospel. We're emphasizing believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. We're emphasizing the doctrine of Jesus being the
Son of God and being God in the flesh and that he died for their sins. That if you put your faith
in him, he'll save you forever. Call upon the name of the Lord, you'll be saved. That's what
we're emphasizing to people out soul winning. But when it comes to church, when it comes to
We should be emphasizing good works because notice it says that they might be careful to maintain good works
So just because you have done good works in the past just because I've done something for God in the past
It's not a guarantee that I'm going to do great works for God in the future
Your salvation is secure once you're saved. You're always saved, but you know what your good works for God are not secure
You could be a great Christian
You could be a great disciple of Jesus Christ in
2024 and this year you could totally just drop the ball and stop working hard for God stop doing good works
That's why the pastor has to constantly affirm that God's people
Maintains good works. Why notice what it says these things are good and profitable unto men
See, by you just having faith, but not having works, it's not profitable to anyone else,
but you actually serving God and doing good works for God, that's good and profitable
to men.
And really, this is why we're on this earth still.
You know, what's the reason why we're still on this earth?
It's to fear God and to keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man, the Bible
says.
And so, by keeping His commandments, by doing works for Him, it's going to be profitable
to other people.
Ephesians chapter number two, some of the most famous verses in the Bible.
We're about to read here in verse number eight.
Notice the Bible says four by grace.
Now grace is something you do not deserve.
If you are extended grace,
it means that you deserved a punishment.
You deserve something bad,
but God through His grace didn't give you that.
It says for by grace are ye saved through faith.
And, of course, we know from Ephesians chapter 1 that faith means to trust.
Salvation is not simply believing that Jesus is a real person or that Jesus existed.
Salvation is trusting that his death, burial, and resurrection paid for all of your sins.
And that all you have to do to be saved is trust in him for your salvation.
That's what it means to have faith in him.
Oh, I believe that Jesus paid my sin debt,
but I've got to keep living a clean life to keep my salvation.
You're not trusting in Jesus.
You're trusting in yourself.
And if you are trusting in yourself, let me warn you, you're not saved.
Let me warn you, if you think that your salvation is kept
by you living a good life, by you following the commandments,
you are not saved.
You must believe the right doctrine on salvation to be saved.
Notice what it says, and that not of yourselves.
You know what that means?
you have nothing to do with salvation.
Your works have nothing to do with getting saved.
Your works have nothing to do with you staying saved
and to teach otherwise is to deny clear scripture.
Notice it is the gift of God.
Hey, I have a free gift for you.
All you have to do is pay me 100 bucks, not a gift.
Hey, I have a free gift for you. It's called eternal life.
All you have to do is keep all the commandments, repent of all your sins,
ask for forgiveness, go to church three times a week,
read the Bible every day, pray, help old ladies cross the street,
save cats out of trees. Oh, it's just a free gift.
That's not a gift, my friend. You're not receiving the gift.
You're saying that you have to do works to be saved.
Here it says, not of works, lest any man should boast.
If you are asked what it takes to get to heaven,
Your answer is anything other than trusting fully in Jesus Christ. Let me tell you what you're doing. You're boasting
What you're saying is oh, here's how I get to heaven. I live a good life
I attend church. I read the Bible. I've read the Bible several times.
I go soul-winning. I help other people. I love others.
What you're doing is you're boasting. You're trusting in your works.
This is why people who believe that you could lose your salvation are trusting in their works.
Because they're saying, well, I have to keep doing good to stay saved.
And what you're doing is you're boasting. You need to repent of that and trust fully in Jesus Christ.
But, of course, we know we're saved. If you believe in Him, we're saved.
We have everlasting life, but notice verse 10.
For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus on two good works, which God hath before
ordained that we, notice this word, should walk in them.
What must I do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
But what should we do?
We should live a good life.
And you know what? I want to live a good life.
I want to keep God's commandments.
I want to do good works even though I am fully convinced that I am always saved no matter what I do.
You know what? I want to preach the gospel this week.
I want to be here this morning preaching you guys the word of God.
I wanted to read my Bible every single time I picked it up.
I wanted to pray to God.
I want to do good things for God, don't we all?
But here's the thing people will use this verse to teach. Oh, you have to do good works to be safe
You just missed the last two verses my friend. No, it's by grace. It's a gift. It's not of yourselves
It's not of works. Let's any man should boast but he's created us on two good works
Why are we still here on this earth after getting saved? It's to do good works for God
This is the whole point of living after salvation
I could see why Paul tells Titus, look, you need to be constantly affirming these things.
You need to constantly be preaching these things that those which have believed in God
might be careful to maintain good works, for this is good and profitable unto men, unto other people.
Go to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter number 4.
Notice in verse 11 the Bible says, and he, that's Jesus,
Gave some Apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and some teachers so God gave as a gift
the church of God, all these different types of people.
One he lists are apostles.
Now apostles do not exist today.
Apostles existed during the time
of the New Testament being written.
They were people who were eyewitness accounts
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
They saw the risen Jesus Christ
and they were given special powers and miracles
for the purpose of confirming the word of God.
as the Bible was still being written,
these apostles had special power
to bear witness to the truth of the word of God.
There's no such thing as an apostle today.
If someone says, hi, I'm Apostle so-and-so,
let me tell you what they're saying,
hi, I'm a false prophet.
I'm a demon, I'm a devil, those people are fake.
But God did give in the New Testament real apostles.
Like the Apostle Paul.
What was Paul's title?
Apostle, he was an apostle of Jesus Christ.
And some prophets, of course,
while the Bible was being written.
There were prophets that were speaking by inspiration of God and so that's a
prophet in a sense. Also someone who is a prophet is someone that just preaches
the word of God to prophesy just means to preach. It doesn't mean like I'm giving
you some sort of future vision or something like that. Today I am just
prophesying you the word of God because I'm preaching the word of God.
And some evangelists, what are those people that go around preaching the gospel, getting
people saved?
And some pastors.
This is an office in the New Testament church who is the human leader of the church.
He is the head of the church from a human perspective, of course, underneath Jesus Christ and his
authority.
And teachers, right? Men who just preach the word of God.
We have that at our church. Men that get up on men's preaching nights and just teach the word of God.
They are a gift from God in that sense. When someone is preaching to you the word of God, that is a gift.
Why did God give us all these people?
So that we could just realize, hey, we're saved and we're just going to sit here and think about the grace of God and love of God and do nothing else with our lives.
Is that why God gave us these people?
No, it says in verse 12, for the perfecting of the saints.
the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ. Why is it that we even
have church and pastors and preachers and evangelists it's to do work for God.
This is the point is to be doing work and what work are we doing? Well you know
we've been given the ministry of reconciliation.
That is, the work of the ministry is to go out and preach the gospel to the lost.
And of course, we know it as the great commission that Jesus gave to us.
To go preach the gospel to every creature, to get them baptized, and then to teach them what?
All things whatsoever Christ has commanded us.
So that is the mission of the church. Go to John chapter number five.
John chapter number five.
So you know, the work of the ministry, the first thing I think of is preaching the gospel.
I mean, that is such an important work that we should be doing.
and it's a command look at John chapter number five verse 14 Jesus said ye are
the light of the world a city that is set on an hill cannot be hid
neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick and
it give it light unto all that are in the house. Notice he's using these carnal
illustrations because he's about to give us a spiritual truth. When you see a city
on a hill, what's the point? We can all see it. It's open to everyone. You know I
think about when I used to live in Boise, Idaho. There's a beautiful mountain
a ski resort on the top and it's always lit up and at night you could see the ski resort from
anywhere in the town it's lit up you could see it from anywhere you put a candle on a candle stick
you light it on fire what's the purpose of it so that people can see it right then look at verse 16
let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father
which is in heaven there are some works that we should be doing publicly
Now, in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus is going to explain to us some of the works that we
should be doing privately.
You know, the vast majority of the prayer that we do should be private.
You should go into your closet, you know, to talk to your Father in secret, and your
Father that sees in secret will reward you openly.
when you're giving alms, right?
And that's not a tithe,
that's kind of just being a blessing to someone,
going above and beyond the tithe.
When you give alms to someone,
you're not supposed to let your left hand know
what your right hand's doing,
it's supposed to be something done in secret.
But here in Matthew 5, he's saying,
look, there's some works
that you should be doing publicly.
You know, soul winning is a public endeavor.
We go out into this community in the public.
Bibles in hand, invites in hand.
We knock on the door publicly and we ask them,
God forbid if you were to die today,
are you 100% sure you'd go to heaven?
And we're out there,
we're preaching the gospel publicly,
we're calling upon the name of the Lord
with people publicly.
This is something that we should make super public.
We should not hide our gospel.
If our gospel is hid, the Bible says,
it's hid to them that are lost.
So we don't want to hide the gospel.
Look at verse 17,
think not that I'm come to destroy the law or the prophets.
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
So notice Jesus did not come to make us not care
about the commandments,
not worry about keeping his laws, his statutes.
No, he's saying I came to fulfill these things.
Verse 18.
For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle, shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Verse 19, wherefore, or whosoever therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
So, if a preacher, if a Christian is going out and he's saved, he believes in Jesus Christ,
he's already saved, but if he's going out and breaking God's commandments and even
teaching people to break God's commandments, I mean, that is crazy, right?
I mean, I could never imagine someone getting up and just telling people to break God's
commandments.
But yet, this person is still saved.
How do you know?
Because it says that he shall be leased where?
In the kingdom of heaven.
He doesn't say he's going to burn in hell for all of eternity.
He's going to be least in the kingdom of heaven.
And look, Christians and pastors that get up and don't affirm constantly that God's
people should maintain good works are going to be the least in the kingdom of God.
And you know, I don't want to sit here today and spend this short time on earth that I
have that's like a vapor doing nothing for God, getting to heaven to be the least in
the kingdom of God.
or never wanting to make God's people feel uncomfortable or guilty or ashamed of doing nothing,
I care about you being ashamed standing before the judgment seat of Christ
and having nothing to show for yourself.
That's what I care about.
And so I want to get here today and be this person, but whosoever shall do and teach them.
The same shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.
See, salvation is by grace through faith,
but after you're saved, it is all about the works.
It's all about the works.
And you know, thank God that our church
preaches the crystal clear gospel,
and we emphasize so clearly to people that are unsaved
that there are no works needed for salvation,
and that is so true.
But you know what I always emphasize
to everyone who is saved is to do good works.
And I even tell people, out soul winning, like, hey, once you're saved, if you sin, God's gonna punish you if you don't do good works, if you break His commandments.
You know, we need to be emphasizing these things to people.
We should never be throwing a wet blanket on the commandments of God.
We should never be hiding our works.
We should never be downplaying the importance of works.
Look, I'm not trying to hide our soul winning numbers.
Today, I'm not trying to keep our soul winning numbers out of the bulletin.
I'm trying to tell you, here's what we got going on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays.
And if you want to do the most work, let's go Saturday.
It's like the best time to go soul winning.
Why? Because it's all about the works.
And look, I am not down on people.
that live in an unreceptive area and are not having as great of numbers as other places in the country because you know God told
Ezekiel to preach the word of God
Against a impudent and stiff-necked generation that was going to reject him
But he said preach anyways, and you know I believe that God is greatly going to reward
Christians living in an unreceptive area that go out every week and at least warn people about hell
and at least offer the gift of salvation.
I believe that those people are doing great works for God.
They are fulfilling God's commandment
and you know what, God is going to bless them.
So it's not like I would look down on a church
in, I don't know, Finland, Canada,
you know, Australia, some unreceptive place
and be like, wow, you guys only had like
hundreds of salvation for a whole year.
Sounds like you're not doing much.
No, if you're going out preaching the gospel.
Great job praise the Lord. That's great. You know, we have great numbers at this church and we live in a very receptive area
And I'm constantly praying that God would give us more what laborers. You know what that means workers
Why because there's such a big city here of lost people. They're so easy to get saved
And so easy to preach the gospel here. This is this is the belt the Bible belt and it's the buckle like Pastor Anderson said it's true
I mean, I go out soul-winning every week and almost every week of my life I run into other
independent, fundamental Baptist saved Christians out soul-winning both at the door and both
also soul-winning from other churches.
We live in the Bible Belt.
I'm not here sitting here trying to compare, you know,
Oklahoma City to Seattle, Washington.
There's a great group of Christians in Seattle, Washington
going out preaching the gospel, getting people saved.
Yeah, they're not gonna have as much numbers
as Steadfast and Anchor Baptist Church.
But hey, they're doing a great work for God
and God is pleased with them.
Go to 2nd Corinthians chapter number nine,
2nd Corinthians chapter nine.
We shouldn't hide our good works.
We shouldn't hide the gospel.
We shouldn't hide what we're doing for Christ when it comes to the works we're doing as a church.
2 Corinthians 9 verse 8.
Notice what it says in God is able to make all grace abound toward you.
That ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to what?
Every good work.
Why is it that God just keeps giving us so much grace?
It's not to us to just realize that we're saved because we already know we have the grace for salvation
We already know that we're eternally secure, but God just keeps abounding and grace towards us and giving us grace
Why so that we could abound in work?
What would be wrong is for us to keep breaking God's commandments
Keep being lazy keep doing nothing from God for God and just keep taking his grace. This is like abusing someone's grace
and you should not abuse anyone's grace, especially God's grace.
Notice why God is giving us all this grace,
so that we would do what?
A bound to every good work.
So that we would do works for God?
Not only that, that we would a bound to every good work.
You know what that means?
We should constantly be striving to do more work.
Every year we should look at ourselves and this is why I recommend that you personally track your individual soul winning numbers and
Your individual Bible reading plan and the things that you're doing for God
Track those things yourself because the Bible says we're supposed to be abounding to every great every good work
Us as a church, you know if we had you know, we had I think like five hundred and sixty salvatians last year
I want to get to the end of this year and see how are we doing?
And praise the Lord, we're on track to destroy that number this year.
Praise the Lord and I'm praying for more laborers, more soul winners.
Why? Because I want to do what God said to a bound to every good work.
Go to Second Timothy chapter two, Second Timothy chapter number two.
Now, there's been a lot of talk recently about this word sanctification
and sanctification just means to set apart.
to make holy, sanctification sometimes in the Bible can be referring to the
sanctification that happens at salvation, right? Second Thessalonians 2 talks
about how we're sanctified through the Spirit, talking about from a salvific
point of view, but also talks about it from a cleaning up your life point of
view. Second Timothy verse 2 verse 19
Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them
that are His.
And let everyone that name the name of Christ, notice, depart from iniquity.
Hey, we're saved. We named the name of Christ today. I am a Christian. I believe in Jesus Christ
But you know what we should do after that is we should depart from
Iniquity we should try to clean up our lives. We should try to do more work for God
We should try to deal with the sins in our lives that we struggle with knowing of course
We're never going to be perfect this old man is always going to sin
We are always going to have sin in our lives. The Bible says that the thought of foolishness is sin
You even just having a foolish thought is a sin.
We're never going to be perfectly holy in our flesh.
But you know what we should be doing?
We should be constantly trying to depart from iniquity.
It says in verse 20, but in a great house,
there are not only vessels of gold and of silver,
but also of wood and of earth,
and some to honor and some to dishonor.
Not every vessel is created equally.
You know, people have sometimes a collection of fine china
where it's very nice.
dishware and plates and cups to present to guests
at a really fancy dinner.
Everyone has that really nice fine china
and then everyone has the sippy cups for their toddlers
that are full of gunk and dirt and just abominations.
Like what are these things?
And these are not created equal.
I mean, if you are presented a nice Thanksgiving dinner on fine China with some sparkling cider
and a really elegant cup, you're going to like that.
You're going to say like, this is great.
But what if I, you know, we had the Valentine's Day banquet and I just gave you my kids sippy
cups like here you guys go.
Would that be a vessel to honor to you or to dishonor?
And here's the thing, it's the same thing with Christians.
All Christians who are saved you're all a cup, but you know what?
You're not all the same type of cup and there's a Christian to honor and there's a Christian to dishonor
There's a Christian that's meat for the master's use and there's one who's not as meat for the master's use
Look what it says in verse 21
If a man
Therefore, purge himself from these.
What does that mean?
If you're purging yourself from iniquity,
if you are repenting of your sin,
if you are trying to do good works,
the Bible says he shall be a vessel unto honor.
Here's that word, sanctified and meet.
for the master's use and prepared unto every good work.
So notice, the ones who actually clean up their lives,
who are trying to follow the Bible as best as they can,
who are separating, those people are the ones
who are sanctified.
No, it's not once sanctified, always sanctified.
Those who are departing themselves from iniquity,
those are the people who are sanctified,
meaning set apart, holy, and meet.
What does that mean?
The Christian who is separating himself, living a godly life, keeping God's commandments,
this person is fitting for the master's use, the Bible says, and prepared unto every good work.
See, there are some works that all Christians can do.
There are other works that have direct qualifications in the Word of God.
For example, a pastor has qualifications specifically laid out in the Bible.
In 1 Timothy chapter 3 and in Titus chapter 1, the Bible gives very specific qualifications of a bishop.
And guess what? If you are not separating yourself and purging yourself, you are not going to be prepared to that work.
You can maybe be prepared for some things.
Hey, if you're saved and you know how to get saved, you can get someone saved.
You can go preach the gospel.
But you know who's going to be used mightily?
to preach the gospel, who's going to be being filled with the Spirit of God and doing great exploits for the Lord.
It's the person who has sanctified himself.
It's the person who has separated himself.
It's the person who's constantly trying to abound in good works.
Not just sitting here and saying,
I'm saved, so I don't have to worry about the commandments.
I don't have to worry about the works of God.
No, you should constantly be worrying about it if you want to be used by God.
If you want to be doing something great for God.
He gives another example. Look, verse 22.
Flea also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
How are you going to be used mightily of God and do great works for Him if you're not fleeing youthful lusts?
What are some youthful lusts? What do young people get caught up in?
Doing drugs, drinking alcohol.
Sleeping around, being whores and whore mongers.
You mean to tell me that like, oh, you know, don't worry about your sanctification.
Don't worry about the commandments.
No big deal because once you're sanctified, you're always sanctified.
No, no, no.
If you want to be sanctified, if you want to be meat for the master's use,
if you want to be prepared to every good work, you better flee youthful lusts.
You better not be committing fornication.
You better not be drinking alcohol.
You better not being a lazy bum.
That's something that youthful people do, right?
Laziness.
That is a lust of the flesh very common to young people,
and it seems like some Christians are just getting lazy now,
where we just stop worrying about the works,
stop worrying about the commandments of God.
No, how about we flee those youthful lusts
and be prepared unto every good work?
Go to Titus 2, Titus chapter number 2.
There's just so much Bible I could go on all day long
showing you commandments in the Bible for us to work.
It's crazy.
Titus 2 6 young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded so they're supposed to be reminded
They're supposed to be told they're supposed to be encouraged to be sober-minded and in all things showing thyself a pattern of
good works
Indoctrines showing uncruptness
Gravity sincerity flip the page back to Titus chapter 3. Let's just look at a few verses on this verse 14 and let ours
Also, learn to maintain good works for necessary uses that they be not unfruitful.
See, when you're not doing good works, you are not going to be fruitful.
You can be saved, and you can sit there and do no works, and you will still be saved.
But if you want to be fruitful, if you want to do stuff for God, you must be doing good works.
Go to James chapter 4.
James chapter 4, let me just speed read a few verses while you turn there.
Hebrews 10, 24, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works.
James 3, 13, who is a wise man and a dude with knowledge among you,
let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness and of wisdom.
You know, I've heard a lot of talk recently about how, well, you know, we shouldn't really worry about
You know, the works and the pietism and the commandments.
Not really a big deal.
But of course we should worry about wisdom.
You know, wisdom would tell you to do it.
Wisdom says do good works.
Who is a wise man and a dude with knowledge among you?
Let him show out of a good conversation
his works with meekness of wisdom.
So number one, we saw the command to work.
Number two, the purpose of works, the purpose of works.
James four, verse eight, the Bible says,
draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners,
and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.
Here's one reason why we should do good works.
It's to have a close relationship with God.
And sometimes preachers, this annoys me so much.
They'll discard works, they'll discard hard preaching,
they'll discard the commandments and tell you,
no man, just focus on a relationship with Jesus.
Just focus on having closeness and communion with God,
knowing the grace that He has for you,
knowing that He saved you, knowing His love.
But how do you actually draw an eye to God
in a practical way?
How do you actually do that?
It says draw an eye to God and He will draw an eye to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners.
purify your hearts you double-minded. See this is a command because this is not
something that happens automatically.
It's not saying cleanse your hands from a salvific point of view because you don't have to be told to do that
because once you're saved, you're always saved and your sins are already forgiven.
Past, present, future, from a salvific perspective, you already are clean.
You already are forgiven.
But once you're saved, you're instructed to do something, to cleanse your hands, to purify your heart.
And then we get this idea nowadays that we should never make God's people feel bad.
about not doing works.
We should never make anyone feel guilty
about not doing something for God
or about not cleaning up their lives,
but notice we just saw
how do we get close to God?
How do we have a relationship with Him?
We purify ourselves.
We cleanse our hands.
And then what is the emotion
that God instructs
God's people to have
in this event?
Well, look at verse number nine.
Be afflicted
and mourn
and weep.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up. Oh, you should never feel guilty for any of your sins
You should never feel bad about anything that you're doing. That's a bunch of garbage
The Bible is literally saying, if you want to draw night to God, you've got to draw night to Him,
you've got to clean yourself up, you've got to purify your hearts, you've got to clean your hands,
and you know what you should do, you should feel bad too.
You should mourn sometimes.
Look, sometimes you should sit there and realize how much your sin offends God,
and actually love Him enough to care that you've offended Him.
But it's the person that doesn't love God, that doesn't care,
that uses the grace of God for lasciviousness and abuses the grace of God
that just sins with impunity and doesn't care.
And thinks that God looks down at our sin and just completely doesn't give a crap about it.
You know what? That's garbage.
You should sit there and every once in a while be afflicted and mourned
and be sorry for the fact that you've offended a righteous holy God.
And look, thank God that we're saved.
Thank God that he's forgiven us for all of our sins.
But you know what?
To have a close relationship with him,
you know what I've got to do?
I've got to do works.
I've got to clean up my life.
I've got to stop sinning.
You know what?
If you go out as a saved person
and you go commit adultery,
if you think that God is not angry at you,
let me tell you you're wrong.
He's angry at you. He's going to punish you and guess what?
It's not just adultery.
The Bible goes on and on about all sorts of sins that make God angry and you know what? When you do that, you should be sorry.
You should ask God to forgive you, not to be saved, but to have your fellowship with him restored.
That's what you should do you should feel bad
You should feel guilty every once in a while and I'm not saying that you have to live in this perpetual state of guilt
Because guess what if you're cleaning up your life, you're gonna have a lot less to feel guilty over
But the person who is just living a raunchy life is gonna feel a lot more guilty at least you should and
When someone just has no guilt at all for their sins. It makes me wonder if someone's even saved
It does because it's like someone who saved the Holy Spirit is inside of them
And one of the roles of the Holy Spirit is to convict of sin
That's what the New Testament teaches and let me tell you something if you could just sin and you don't even feel bad
I wonder if you're even saved
You that is a normal reaction for the Holy Spirit to be
Rebuking you correcting you when you sin the Bible says grieve not the Holy Spirit of God
You know you are grieving the Spirit of God when you are sinning
Go back to or go to 2nd Corinthians chapter number five
2nd Corinthians chapter number five, you know, Jesus said blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God
You actually want to have a close relationship with God?
You actually want to have a deep personal connection with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the pure in heart
And it's funny, people love just talking about relationship, relationship, but how you actually
get that relationship is by reading the Bible every day, by praying to God, by going to
church, by cleaning up your life, by going soul-winning.
The people who do the most works are the closest to God.
Don't sit here and tell me, oh, I'm so close to God when you're doing nothing for him.
You're a liar.
You are a liar.
The people who have the closest connection to Jesus Christ are the ones doing the most
2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 9, the Bible says,
wherefore we labor, that whether present or absent,
notice we may be accepted of him.
Recently he's been said like, oh, you know,
the devil's gonna tell you that you have to do good works
to be a disciple or to be accepted of him.
What?
What are you talking about?
We, labor, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him.
Do you want to be accepted in the eyes of God?
Do you want God to look at you and say,
I am pleased with my son and my daughter,
how they are living their life,
I am pleased with their heart towards me?
Or do you want God to look at you and say like,
this person's rebellious,
this person doesn't care about my word,
this person isn't doing anything that I've told them to do?
You're not accepted with God.
when you're living a wicked life.
Those who labor are accepted with God.
Notice, for we must all appear
before the judgment seat of Christ.
That everyone may receive the things done in his body.
According to that, he hath done,
whether it be good or bad.
Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord,
we persuade men.
But we are made manifest unto God, and I trust also are made manifest in your
Consciousness. Oh, yeah, you know, we should never, you know, use fear to
motivate people to do work for God. We should never use fear to try to get God's people to clean up their lives.
I mean, it's literally saying knowing the terror of the Lord. You know, the Bible says that God is a terrible God.
It doesn't mean that he's bad. It doesn't mean that he's wicked. Terrible meaning able to invoke terror.
able to scare us that is the God of the Bible my friends and it's like why do
people get saved because they're afraid of hell it's like fear of God doesn't
just stop when you get saved because God's gonna punish us and we're gonna
talk about that in tonight's sermon but go to John chapter number 15 John chapter
number 15 but think about how stupid this is this idea of how you can have a
relationship with no works
How does any relationship in your life work? Does anyone have a relationship in this life where there's no works whatsoever?
You know you could have a wedding ring and you could have a document that says you're married and you're legally married and you are married
But imagine she's like you never talk to your spouse. You never have a meal with them
You guys never come together. You guys never have any relationship whatsoever. She's like I'm so close to my spouse
We just have such a great relationship. No, you know how you have a great relationship with someone work
Work.
Now, here's the thing.
Being born, that takes the work of the mom, doesn't take any of the work of the kids.
The kids can be born and can be a child without any work.
But if the kids want to have a good relationship with their parents, they've got to work.
They've got to obey the commandments.
They've got to do that which is pleasing in the side of their mother and their father.
To be married, hey, you just got to get married.
But to have a great relationship after marriage, you have to put in good works.
To have a friendship, you know what it takes?
To have a good relationship with friends, it takes work.
It takes talking to each other.
It takes, you know, doing things together.
That's what a friend is.
This idea of having a relationship with God with no works is so stupid.
It doesn't exist in any other relationship.
And let me tell you, it doesn't exist with God.
You do not have a close relationship with Jesus if you're not working.
Verse 11 of John 15,
that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full.
There's a lot of talk about, oh, don't worry about the commandments,
don't worry about works, just focus on joy, man, joy of the relationship.
Okay, what Jesus is about to tell us, the Bible says, is going to make us joyful.
So you want joy? You want a relationship?
Here's how you get it, verse 12.
This is my commandment that you love one another as I've loved you.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever, I command you.
You know, people today want to act like they're so cool with Jesus, like they're so tight with Jesus.
And everyone thinks like, oh yeah, Jesus is my friend. I'm so close with Jesus.
You know what? Very few people are Jesus's friend.
Very few people are actually the friend of God
because to be his friend, he's like,
you're my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you.
Those who actually want to be friends with him
are not gonna just downplay works, downplay commandments.
They're gonna be constantly saying like,
man, we need to up our game
because Jesus said if we want to be his friend,
we've got to do whatsoever he's commanded us.
Greater love has no man than this
that a man lay down his life for his friends.
If you want to be the friend of Jesus Christ,
you know what you should do,
you should offer your body as a living sacrifice.
You should not esteem your life, neither count I my life dear unto myself.
You should be willing to lay down your life in a metaphorical sense
as far as prioritizing God, doing the things that God wants you to do rather than the things your flesh
wants to do and possibly even in a literal physical sense
laying down your life for Christ. You know, people who have died
martyr as a martyr in history, those are the friends of God right there.
That was a man who was burned at the stake for translating the word of God into English and you know
He prayed as he was being burned to death Lord opened the King of England's eyes and less than a hundred years later
We got the translation of the King James Bible William Tyndale is the friend of God
Your liberal, skinny jeans, glass pulpit, purple lights, new evangelical pastor
that's telling you, oh relationship bro, oh joy of Christ bro,
when he's not keeping the commandments and not preaching hard on sin
and not telling his flock to go work for Jesus Christ, you're not the friend of God.
And let me tell you this, independent fundamental Baptist pastors
that are downplaying works, downplaying the commandments, downplaying the judgment of God,
those are not the friends of God either.
And I wonder, people who actually think, like, no big deal when you sin, no conviction, no problem,
I wonder if that person's even saved.
Because what I've shown you this morning is Bible.
Am I preaching my opinion, or am I preaching the Word of God?
How many verses do we need to go to?
It's the whole Bible.
Go to James.
Or, I'm sorry, go to John 21 before we go to James.
John 21.
A few pages to the right.
John chapter number 21.
Talking about, oh, you want to love Jesus, you want to have a good relationship with Jesus,
you want to be close to Jesus, well, let's look at what Jesus actually said you have
to do to be there.
Verse 15.
So, when they had dying, we're saying a great song about this this morning, Jesus saith
to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these.
He said unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
He saith to him again the second time,
Simon, son of Jonas, Lovest thou me?
He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
He saith unto him the third time,
Simon, son of Jonas, Lovest thou me?
Peter was grieved because he said unto him
the third time, Lovest thou me?
And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep." See, it wasn't good enough for Jesus,
for Peter just to say, oh yeah, I love you. I love you, Jesus. I love you. He's like,
do you love me? I love you. Do you love me? I love you. Do you love me? Again, the third time,
I love you, okay? Well then, feed my sheep. What's that? That's work.
That's work. We know that Peter became a pastor and the job of a pastor is what to feed the flock of God
That Jesus Christ purchased with his own blood. You know that that's work
You know the Bible calls it the work of the ministry
You know the Bible says that when you desire the office of a bishop you desire a good work and
Someone who actually wants to do a lot of work for Jesus is the same person that loves him
And the person who doesn't want to do works for Jesus that doesn't want to go to church,
doesn't want to read the Bible, doesn't want to go soul-winning, doesn't want to pray,
doesn't want to support the church of God, that person does not love Jesus Christ.
You could be saved, but you don't love Jesus if you're not working.
Go to James 2. Here's another reason why we should do works.
We talked about, you know, the purpose of good works, what is it?
To be close to God, to have a good relationship with Him.
And I want that, and I hope you want that too.
But here's another very important reason to do good works and that's to profit other people.
We already saw that in Titus 3 how by preaching good works it's good and profitable to men.
Also this is taught in James chapter 2 which a lot of false prophets wrongly teach that
this passage teaches that you have to be saved by works.
That's not true.
But it does teach that you have to have good works to profit other people.
Look at James chapter 2 verse 14.
Notice this word.
You know what that means?
What does that benefit?
What does that help?
What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and have not works,
can faith save him?
Now, here's the thing, you have to understand that in the Bible, salvation, saved, save,
these words are sometimes used in a spiritual sense as far as going to heaven, often times
the word saved or salvation is being used in a physical sense.
And this is talking about a physical salvation.
And I will prove that because the Bible is literally about to give us an example that
it's talking about something physical.
and destitute of daily food.
And one of you say unto them,
depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled,
notwithstanding you give them not those things
which are needful to the body,
what doth it profit?
I mean, this is a pretty striking example.
Someone comes up to you,
naked and destitute of food.
You know what is about to happen?
This person is about to die.
If you don't have clothes and you don't have food you are about to die and imagine someone comes up to you
They're naked. They're starving and you're like be he warmed and filled
Is your faith going to help that person?
No, it's not.
It is not going to profit.
So it's like, can faith save him
from a physical perspective?
No, of course not.
If someone is dying, if someone is starving,
if someone is naked and you're just like,
be you warm and filled, is that going to help them?
Is that going to save them?
No.
And it's like, by us not doing good works.
By us just being lazy, is our faith going to profit
anyone on this world?
No, it's not.
But by doing good works your good works for God are profiting God, but it's also always profiting other people
You reading the Bible you may think how is me reading the Bible profiting other people because you're getting the knowledge of God and the
Wisdom of God that you might be able to help someone else with some day or teach your children some day or
Learn how to preach the Gospels you could share that with others some day and oh how does going to church help someone else?
Well, the Bible says it's provoking one another to love and to good works by you showing up at church
You're profiting other people. You're encouraging me. You're encouraging your brothers and Christ praying
You're supposed to be praying for other people
That's blessing other people, making a meal for someone who's sick or who had a baby.
It's profiting other people. Your works profit other people.
Verse 17 says, even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
If you have a car with a dead battery, the car exists, the car is real, but the car is not going to profit you.
It's not going to take you from point A to point B.
Just like a faith with no works, it's still there, it still exists.
Faith alone saves you and will take you to heaven, but faith alone with no works is not going to profit anyone else while you're on this earth.
Verse number 18 says,
Ye 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. This is what Jesus
was trying to get Peter to do.
Oh, you say you have faith.
Oh, you say you love me.
But how you actually show your faith
and actually how you show your love is by doing works.
And just like I said, those who actually love God,
they're the ones doing the most work for God.
Let me tell you this,
those who actually love other people
are doing the most works for other people,
are doing the most works in general
because it profits others.
And if you actually love God and you love people,
is that gonna lead you to sit here and be like,
be warm and filled?
No, if you actually love God and love other people you'll be like, hey, I want to serve. I want to help. I want to do stuff
I want to labor because that's gonna be a blessing to other people
verse 19 says thou believest
That there is one God
Thou doest well
The devils also believe and tremble.
You know, you have idiots that use this verse to say,
see, you're not saved by faith alone,
because the Bible says that even devils believe.
Notice what the devils believed.
They believe that there's one God.
No one teaches that you get to heaven by believing one God exists.
You know how you get saved is that you believe that Jesus is the one God and that he died
for your sins, that he was buried, that he rose again and that if you put all of your
faith in him, he saves you for forever.
Devils don't believe that, folks.
Devils believe that one God exists.
And so, yes, devils believing one God exists, they tremble.
That does not mean that, oh, well, that means salvation is not by faith,
because the devils believe.
You just didn't even read the verse, man.
The Bible does not, didn't say that they trusted in Christ,
it just said they believed that there was one God.
Verse 20, but wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead.
And you know, we sometimes get a little unbalanced,
especially in passages like this,
where we go to these passages
and we're constantly teaching what it doesn't say,
because there's so many false prophets out there
that twist James chapter two,
and we're constantly having to tell you,
this doesn't say anything you have to do works to be saved.
But we don't want to lose the sight
of what it is saying though.
What it is saying is that faith without works is dead and you should internalize that to yourself and say do I have a dead faith today?
Because if you're not doing works, if you're not keeping God's commandments, though you have faith, your faith is dead.
And it's not profitable to God and it's not profitable to other people.
And again, I think about the parable of the talents.
Or, you know, the master, he gives his servants, you know, five, three, and one, and he was
really pleased with the servants that made a profit, and he was really angry at the
guy with one talent that just buried it in the earth and didn't do anything for it.
And, you know, people want to act like, oh, you know, the new IFB and the pastors and
the new IFB, they're so hateful.
And if they're not three to thrive, and I even heard this, if they're not in church
then we're gonna say that they're wicked
or if someone's not three to thrive,
you know, we don't even care about ministering to them.
We don't even want them here
because they're probably gonna bounce anyways.
You know what, that is a bunch of bull crap
and a bunch of lies.
Here's the thing, I don't expect every single person
in this world to be a five talent guy.
I don't expect every single person
in this world to be a three talent guy.
Some people are gonna be one talent guys,
but you know, you one talent guys,
you should still make a profit for the Lord.
And you know what, I want you to be three to thrive.
I want you to go soul winning as much as you can.
I want you to serve the Lord as much as you can.
But look, let's just be honest,
there's gonna be some people that come to our church
that are gonna be Sunday morning onlys.
And you know what, I want you here.
I want those people here.
I want these people serving.
You, okay, you work a crazy job.
You know, you made some decisions young in life
before you were saved or before you were on fire for God
and you got into a career where it's like,
you can't go to church all the time.
You can't go soul winning all the time.
It's like, okay, that's not ideal.
If someone was young, I wouldn't recommend that they follow in your steps, but you're in that situation.
I'm not going to sit here and bash you or make fun of you or say you should never come to church
because you're not free to thrive. No, we still want you to come. We still want you to do works
because if you're doing nothing, your faith is dead.
If you've just got five talents and you do nothing with it, you're unprofitable.
If you've got three, one, you do nothing with it, you're unprofitable.
So yeah, there's going to be the special forces that do more work than other people.
And I think that people should strive to be that.
I think you should strive to do the most works for God as possible.
But look, there's other people, and I even use the silly example.
I'm not going to sit here and act like pregnant and nursing women
should be out soul winning as much as the single guys in our church.
But here's the thing praise the Lord for the single guys that are doing that
Like our Tuesday numbers are awesome.
Why?
Because we've got some on fire single guys that are trying to serve the Lord with all
their heart that are taking of their time, their effort, their energy, their money to
preach the gospel to make a profit for God.
That's great.
But I'm not going to sit down here and say like, oh, you have health problems, you're
super old, you know, you're pregnant, you're nursing, you've got five other kids.
Why aren't you soul-winning as much as the single guys?
It's a straw man, you know they hear us preaching hard about doing good works for God like yeah
You know, we don't even care about people that aren't three to thrive. We don't even want to minister unto them lies
Bull crap. It's disgusting
Look at verse 21 was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar
See us now how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made
Perfect. How was it that God saw that Abraham actually had all this faith was when he went to offer his son Isaac?
He went to do it. He had the knife
He was ready to offer his son Isaac.
He believed that God was able to raise him again from the dead
and it was through his work of doing that
that God saw, oh, he actually has a lot of faith, right?
It wasn't just Abraham saying, I believe.
It was the fact that Abraham trusted in God.
He had called upon the name of the Lord,
but his faith was made perfect
in the sense that he was doing work
and he was doing a really big work.
And notice what it says in verse 23,
and the scripture was fulfilled, which saith.
Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called, notice, the friend of God.
Not everyone is a friend of God.
A lot of sacrifice goes into being the friend of God.
A lot of Bible reading, a lot of prayer, a lot of works for God, a lot of soul winning.
That's what it takes to become the friend of God.
You're not the friend of God just by being saved.
In fact, the Bible says friendship with the world is enmity with God.
Whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God, the Bible says.
So you could even be saved and be an enemy of God.
Then you could be kind of in limbo where you don't really have a great relationship.
He knows you.
You know him.
You're saved.
But if you want to actually be the friend of God, you've got to be doing a lot of works.
You've got to be faithful.
You've got to be cleaning up your life.
Let's just go really quickly to Romans chapter 4.
This is just a good verse to talk about
while we're talking about James chapter 2
because, man, people just don't get it.
They'll hear everything I preached.
They'll see what James 2 said and they'll still think
that you have to do works to be saved
or that you have to do works to keep your salvation
or if you stop doing works, you'll lose your salvation
or if you start sinning, you'll lose your salvation.
Notice what Romans chapter 4 verse 5 says.
But to him, that worketh not.
This person does zero works folks. They're not reading the Bible. They're not repenting of their sins.
They're not asking for forgiveness. They're not doing anything good, but to him that worketh not, but believeeth
on him that justifyeth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
If you believe in Jesus Christ, God looks down and sees you as 100% righteous in the new man
because God, Jesus Christ, took our sin, Jesus gave us His righteousness.
Even if you don't do any works for God in the future, you are still saved.
But you're not the friend of God and your faith isn't going to profit other people.
Go to John 15.
Here's another reason why we want to do works is to bring forth fruit.
And really what I'm talking about is getting people saved.
Getting people to believe on Christ and to be going to heaven when they die.
John 15 verse 1 says this,
And every branch that beareth fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
So God's desire for us once we're saved is to work, is to bring forth fruit.
So he's going to purge those branches so that we could bring forth more fruit.
Just like with a tree, you'd cut off some limbs, especially ones that aren't producing
well, so that the nutrients can be flowing to the branches that are producing fruit,
the branches that are doing work.
Through the word, which I have spoken unto you,
Abide in me, and I in you,
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
Except it abide in the vine,
No more can ye, except ye abide in me.
I am the vine, ye are the branches,
He that abideth in me, and I in him,
The same bringeth forth, notice, much fruit.
For without me, ye can do nothing.
God's desire is for us to bring forth fruit.
Ye much fruit.
That's why we're here on this earth.
It's so that we can be close to God,
so that we can profit other people,
and the biggest way to do that is to get people saved.
This is why he's saying like,
hey, you want to be a disciple?
You want to follow me?
Okay, I'll make you a fisher of men.
He wants us to go out and to be a fisher of men.
Go to Revelation chapter 2.
So number one, we saw the commandment of work.
Number two, we saw the purpose of work.
Number three, the judgment of work.
God's judgment of our works.
Revelation chapter number two,
the Bible says this in verse one,
unto the angel of the church of Ephesus,
write,
These things say, if he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks,
notice this phrase, I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil,
and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars.
If you look up that phrase in the book of Revelation over and over and over, Jesus is saying, I know your works.
I know thy works, I know thy works.
He's constantly talking about the works.
Verse three, and has borne, and has to patience.
And for my name's sake, has labored, and has not fainted.
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee,
because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen,
and repent, and do the first works.
or else I will come unto thee quickly
and will remove thy candlestick out of his place,
except thou repent."
You know, it sounds like God's trying to motivate us
with some fear.
It sounds like Jesus is trying to use fear as a tactic
for us to do good works.
Sounds like God is judging our works.
He's looking at the churches.
He's constantly saying, I know thy works,
thy works, thy works.
You know, God today is looking down
at Anchor Baptist Church and he's looking at our works.
You know what's going to keep our candlestick shining bright is by doing works, is by not
forsaking the first love which is winning souls to Jesus Christ.
God is making sure that our church is doing that and if our church stopped preaching the
gospel, if we stopped going out and going soul winning, if I stopped emphasizing soul winning,
you know what God could do?
He could just make this church not exist.
You know, and quite honestly, there's churches in this metro that are doing the work.
They're going out and they're knocking doors.
They're trying to get people saved.
They're trying to get people to come into church.
And it's like, we want God to bless us.
We got to really be emphasizing works.
And you know, I don't want to just hand a door, what's it called, little door hanger.
I don't want to just hand out a track.
I don't just want to get kids on the bus to come to church.
Like I want to preach the full, clear gospel.
I want people to call upon the name of the Lord.
I want to get people saved right there at the doorstep
and not just bring them into church.
And look, praise God for any work that any church is doing for Jesus Christ.
But I want to take this warning and say,
okay, let's take the work of God seriously.
Let's take the first work seriously.
Let's take the first love seriously.
And let's fear God and his judgment against us
lest he look down from heaven and says,
Anchor Baptist Church, where's the work?
Where's the work for God? Oh great. You're sitting here just thinking of the joy and the love and the relationship
It's like where's the work?
It doesn't it doesn't exist the job where your boss is just like I want you to think about the joy of your job and
The relationship that you have with me
He wants work. He wants profit and it's like look we're saved
We're going to heaven, but why are we here on this earth so that we will do work,
so that we will produce fruit, so that we will get people saved?
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number five.
You know, Hebrews 13.4 says marriage is honorable and all in the bed undefiled,
but whoremongers and adulterers, God will what?
Judge.
God's looking down at the saved and the unsaved and is judging our works and he's ready to punish a church
that's not doing the right works. He's ready to punish individuals who aren't doing the right works.
Think about this, if sin was not a big deal, if we don't really have to worry about the commandments,
if we shouldn't ever be using fear to get people to do the right things, like why is 1st Corinthians 5 even in the Bible?
Why can we as a church make judgment where we exercise church discipline for someone not doing the right works?
For being in these grievous sins, if we're just not supposed to worry about it, we're not supposed to judge, we're not supposed to care about it.
Look at 1 Corinthians 5 verse 11.
It says, but now I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called
a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner
with such and one, know not to eat.
The Bible's commanding us that, look, there are certain sins that we cannot even tolerate in the house of God.
Explain to me how I'm supposed to get up here and say, oh, you know, once you're saved, you don't need to worry about the commandments.
Oh, you should never let anyone make you feel bad for anything that you're doing.
Well, that doesn't jive with Scripture.
And again, I want to read a quote from Pastor Joe Jones, who I mentioned a few weeks ago,
because he's kind of just unfortunately doubled down on this insanity that he's been preaching.
And this is a quote from him that says,
we are not only free from that sin,
but you are free from the guilt and the tyranny
that people try to put on you
for not doing things that we know we ought to do.
So like, you're saved, therefore,
you're free from any guilt or tyranny
that anyone wants to put on you
for not doing the things that you ought to do.
Okay, well, let's go to our logical conclusion of this.
What are some things we ought to do?
How about abstaining from fornication?
How about not worship idols?
How about not be adulterer?
Well, you know, don't let anyone tell you
or make you feel guilty of not doing the things
you know you ought to do.
Why is 1 Corinthians 5 in the Bible then?
Like, we're supposed to make that very clear.
That's not allowed.
This is wicked.
This person's going to get called out.
This person's going to be made known
before the whole congregation for their sin.
How does that jive with this quote?
He says, you are free from that.
You should never, ever, ever tolerate somebody telling you, you know, you don't come to church
this many times and you don't do this and I do all this.
No, that is so un-Christ-like, it's not even funny.
That is so wrong.
It's like, well then why does Titus 3 tell the pastor to be constantly preaching for
God's people to do good works, that it's good and profitable unto men, that to be the friend
of God you've got to be doing good works?
I've made it clear, hey, there's five talent people, three talent, one talent.
I'm not treating the pregnant women the same way as I'm treating the single guys.
We are loving in this church.
We are welcoming of people at different spiritual walks.
But when I'm behind this pulpit preaching the word of God,
I am going to make you feel bad for not doing the things you ought to do.
Because that's God's judgment.
That's God's word.
And you know what?
You're failing as a pastor when you're not doing the instructions of Titus chapter 3.
It's ridiculous.
Then he reads Romans 6 to
You know, what shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may bound God forbid
For how that we how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Romans chapter number six and he says you know what that means
It's impossible
That's the interpretation being preached
That continuing to live in sin is impossible according to Pastor Jones. He said it is impossible
There's no way you are not living in sin. You're not
You might be doing some things that are considered sinful,
but Christ, he looks down on you and he's like, that's my child.
That's me. And God the Father's like, oh yeah,
that's the Son.
So no matter what you're doing, no matter what sins you're committed in, you're involved in,
no one's allowed to look at you and make you feel bad
or make you feel judged for not doing the things that you ought to do.
And in fact, you can't even continue in sin.
He even went on to say, you can't make mistakes.
He said in that Romans 6-2 teaches that you basically can't make any mistakes.
So no matter what you're doing, you could be in the act of fornication
and God just looks down and says, that's my son.
That's the logical conclusion of this crap.
And that's why we have to talk about it.
That's why we have to preach against it.
Because this mentality will hurt Christians' lives.
This will keep people from being profitable.
This will keep people from being close to God.
This will keep people from winning souls.
Because isn't it just nice for the flesh to hear like,
you don't have to do anything?
You're always pleasing to God no matter what.
No, no, don't worry about the works.
Don't worry about the soul winning numbers.
Oh, it's so on Christ's like to judge sin.
What are you talking about?
And it's like I got this weird feeling that I'm like I don't even I thought I knew this guy
I was this person's friend. I love this person. I helped this person
He was a blessing to me at times and look I want the best for him, but I'm just thinking like he's changed
He's completely different. This isn't the same person and he's even in his sermons made it very clear like I used to be this way
I used to preach this sort of thing and now we're changing the culture. We're changing this look
We got to make sure that we don't allow the culture of this church or churches that are friends with us
go into this new evangelical liberal do nothing garbage.
You want to know why I love the new IFB? Hard preaching.
You know why I love the new IFB? Solaning.
You know what I love about the new IFB? Preaching about not just the love of God, but also the hatred of God
against wicked people and against wicked sins.
And, you know, I love that the new IFB is hardcore and I want it to stay that way.
I am not interested in becoming like every other watered-down, do-nothing church.
There are a dime a dozen.
Go pick a Baptist church in this area, they'll probably be saved.
But you know what, I doubt that they're going to apartment complexes where a murder happened
last week and pulling 12 people out of the fire.
I doubt that they're getting people saved even in the parking lot after service dragging them in here and getting them baptized.
I doubt that their pastors are preaching all the capital punishment laws that the Bible teaches.
I doubt that their pastors are preaching as hard on sin as we do at this church because we fear God and we love God and we want to keep His commandments.
Let's not let this culture change and I will not allow the culture to change.
If I am the pastor here, the culture here is going to be works.
It's going to be hard preaching.
And look, if you're offended, be offended.
You're welcome to stay and grow.
But if you want to change the culture here, you might as well leave.
Oh, I want you to change the doctrine.
I want you to change the culture.
I want you to stop yelling.
Just leave.
Just go to different church.
I am not interested at growing a church at any and all costs.
I am interested in preaching the Word of God,
and I would rather get more people saved with half the people that love God,
that want to keep His commandments,
than a bunch of manly, pamby, weak, pathetic Christians.
And look, I don't hate you if you're weak.
I want you to grow and be strong.
I want you to be strong in the Lord and do His commandments,
but don't you dare try to change the culture.
Don't you dare try to teach me. Oh, no, you just got to accept the joy and the love and the grace
No, you don't know the Bible
Why don't you listen to a pastor who's been ordained who's read the Bible?
23 times cover to cover and why don't you let me set the culture because I actually know what the Bible says
Go to 1st Corinthians 6
Then he said to understand what these verses mean
He said, let's start off Romans 6, verse number one, Paul says this, and this is right after he's basically said,
hey, you're saved forever. You basically can't make any more mistakes. It's Jesus did it all for you. It's good to go.
That was a quote from Pastor Joe Jones.
No, you can't make any more mistakes. You're good to go. I mean, no matter what you're doing, you're just good to go.
Okay. First, Grand Theon 6, verse one, dare any of you
Having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints?
Oh, I thought we can't make mistakes.
Oh, I thought we can't ever make anyone feel bad for what they're doing.
Oh, I thought we can't ever judge someone.
Meanwhile, Paul's like, how dare you?
Right.
Dare any of you?
That's what he's saying. How dare you?
Dare any of you.
Having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints.
Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world?
And if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
Know ye not that we shall judge angels?
How much more things pertaining to this life?
If then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life,
set them to judge who are the least esteemed in the church.
Oh, oh, oh, verse 5, I speak this to your shame.
Is it so that there is not a wise man among you?
No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brother.
Shame can be a positive motivator.
And you know, it's funny, I preached a few weeks ago,
not even knowing all this crap was going to happen.
A sermon called The Shame of Sin.
And sin is shameful, and we should make sin exceedingly sinful.
We should not downplay sin.
We should not say, oh, you could be doing things
that are considered sinful, but no worries.
You can't even make any mistakes.
You're good to go.
That is not going to be the preaching at this church.
No, rather, we're going to take, like Paul said, he's like, how dare you?
He's saying like, I literally, he said, I speak this to your shame.
You have someone in your church, no one in your church can judge righteously.
I speak that to your shame.
What a shame it would be if us at Anchor Baptist Church like, we don't know the Bible,
we don't even know the doctrine, we can't even judge things.
No, no, no, you should know the Bible.
You should be knowledgeable in the scriptures.
You should be able to judge according to the Word of God.
And if you can't, that's a shame.
And you should work on changing that.
And it's not like, oh, you know, you can't be here.
If you haven't gotten to our level,
you know, we're all at different levels, grow,
but realize like if you can't judge with the scriptures,
that is a shame.
And you should change that.
Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number three.
What are we talking about?
How that God judges our works.
God judges our works.
Here's a pretty scary way that God is going to judge our work someday.
This is 1 Corinthians chapter number 3 verse 11.
It says,
For other foundation can no man lay,
then that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Now, if any man build upon this foundation,
gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble,
every man's work shall be made manifest,
for the day shall declare it,
because it shall be revealed by fire,
and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved.
Yet so hath by fire.
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.
If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.
Look, God is judging your works right now.
And someday, when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ, God is not going to judge
you then as to whether or not you're saved, because the saved are already saved.
You know what he's going to be judging?
He's going to be judging what you've done in your body.
He's going to be judging your works.
And those who have built gold and silver and precious stones by doing the things that we
talked about today, they're going to receive a reward.
But those who have built their life on the sand, those who have not followed God's commandments,
those who have not worried about doing works for God,
those that didn't worry about prioritizing church, prioritizing soul winning, prioritizing the work of God,
they've just got wood, hay, and stubble, all that stuff is going to be burnt up, and they're going to suffer loss.
They're going to suffer the loss of the opportunity of rewards that they could have gotten if they were doing works for God.
But the Bible says, but he's still saved, so as by fire.
Look, there's going to be people in the Kingdom of God that are at different levels.
There are going to be people with more rewards, who have done more works,
and there's going to be people who are the least in the Kingdom of God.
Those are the people that break God's commandments and teach men to do so.
And so now, in this life, is the only opportunity that you get to decide which one you want to be.
Because if you wait until that day, it's too late.
Your short life that you have on this earth is the only time that you can do
works for God to be able to get a reward at the judgment seat of Christ and our
life is a vapor. It goes by so fast and you just have to realize that everything
else is vanity. Your car is vain, your house is vain, your vacations are vain,
and look I'm not saying you can't have those things or enjoy those things but
you know what? Just the focus of your life should be Jesus Christ. The Bible
You know, Paul, he's going to do works for God.
He knows he's about to receive persecution.
He's like, neither count I my life dear unto myself.
He's not thinking about himself.
He's thinking about the Word of God,
the work of God and winning souls to Christ.
And you know, those who want to be rewarded greatly
at the judgment seat of Christ
are going to be those who do the most work.
So we saw number one, the command to work.
Number two, the purpose to work.
Number three, we see God's judgment to work.
I want to close on one final thought this morning.
Go to Hebrews chapter six,
which is the theme chapter of our church.
Hebrews chapter number six.
Hebrews six verse nine.
But beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak,
for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love,
which you have showed toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.
and we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full
assurance of hope unto the end that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who
through faith and patience inherit the promises. You need to remember that God
is not going to forget your work.
And it doesn't matter if you're doing something publicly or you're doing something in secret
and you think to yourself, does God even care? Am I even getting reward for this?
Is God even pleased with this? The Bible says God is not going to forget your work.
So, you know, that means that every meal you make for a pregnant lady
or someone that just gave birth or every time you help someone who's sick
Every time that you're in your closet in secret and you're praying for your brothers in Christ,
praying for your pastor, praying for evangelist or bannock,
praying for men of God, praying for more laborers for our church,
every time you open your mouth and share the gospel with someone,
even if it's not in front of any of us and you're just at the gas station, you just win someone to Christ,
every time you make a stand for Jesus Christ at the workplace,
Every time you stand up for the Word of God with your family,
every time you open your Bible,
every time you show up to church,
every time you help in the work of God of this ministry,
God's not going to forget.
It's not in vain.
It's not meaningless.
In fact, it's the only thing that has meaning in his life
is doing work for him.
And that's why, verse 12,
the call to action that he has is
that you be not slothful.
But followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. It's funny people look to
Hebrews 11 which it's like they're doing these things through faith, but what are they doing through faith?
They're doing all these great works for God through faith
And he just got you know in Hebrews 11
He's talking about all the great works that they do and it's like hey
We want to not be slothful. We want to be doing good works for God
But followers of them the great examples that are listed to us in the Word of God who through faith and patience
inherit the promises you know what that should be our goal in life is to not be
slothful to not be an unprofitable servant to not be someone that takes the
talent that God gives us and just buried in the earth but to do everything
that we can to make a profit for God and you know what that's gonna look
differently for me than it will for you we've all got a different race to run
but you know what run your race
Don't sit here and just sit on the sidelines and do nothing as this world passes you by
You've got a short life to live for Jesus Christ and weeks are going by months are going by
Years are going by what are you doing?
What are you doing for Christ because there is a real day coming where you will look your Lord in the eyes
And he will judge you according to your works
And you know I as a pastor do not want to stand before him
wonder if I preached to my flock no big deal you're never in sin we're never
gonna judge anything you should never feel bad for anything or do I want to
at least say like hey I did my part I tell I told them to go I went myself I
told them to go and you know what you will have to give account for yourself
not your husband
not your wife, not your soul-winning partner, not your pastor, you.
You will stand before Jesus Christ and be judged according to your works.
So with that, let's get to work.
Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word.
We thank you for the command to work.
Lord, I pray that none of us would ever be weary of well-doing,
that we would always be zealous for the work of God,
that we would keep in remembrance the good works that we're supposed to do.
that we would realize that we're going to fail but that we would get back on the horse,
that we feel sorry for our sins and ask you to forgive us to restore our relationship
and help us every day to push towards the mark and do great works for you as a church.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
We'll sing our last hymn for the morning service. If you grab your hymnal, turn to number 263.
Hymn number 263, verily verily. Sing it out nice and loud. 263, 263, verily verily.
in 263 on the verse.
Oh what a Savior that He died for me
From condemnation He hath made me free
He that believeth of the sun said,
Be hath ever lasting by
The message ever knew,
He that believeth on the Son is true.
Thank you very much.
You are dismissed.