The Bible says, Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive
with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is likened to a man beholding a
natural face in a glass.
For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of
man he was.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being
not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
Now with the book of James, it's a very interesting book of the Bible.
It's a book where a lot of people will get different ideas.
Well, they'll teach a lot of false doctrine, or they'll teach a lot of strange doctrine.
But if we get the context of James, go to verse four here in chapter one.
But let patience have a perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
The whole book of James is written for you to be perfect.
He doesn't want you to be the shallow Christian.
He doesn't want you to just get saved and then do nothing with your life.
Never do any works for God.
Never do anything for God.
No, he wants you to be perfect.
And that's the whole goal of the book of James, is he's trying to perfect you.
He's trying to perfect your faith.
He's trying to show you ways to grow in the Lord.
And we see, he's saying, look, just because you're saved isn't anything special.
If you just sit here and just hear the words of God preached every single time and you
never do any of the work, I mean, nothing's going to happen.
You're going to be a forgetful hero of even what you heard.
You got to do the work in order to grow and to be perfect unto the Lord.
Flip over to one chapter, go to James chapter two.
Look at verse 19, the Bible reads, Thou believeth there is one God, thou doest well.
The devils also believe and tremble.
But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Seest thou of faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?
And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto
him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God.
Ye see, then, how by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
Now what James is trying to teach in James chapter one and two through this whole chapter
is that you need to do some works.
If you're a Christian, if you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, we're not supposed
to just live our lives to ourself.
We're supposed to do work for God.
We're supposed to do work for the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's giving these Christians who
are so lazy, who are slothful, who are not doing the work of God.
He's trying to give them a kick in the pants by saying, look, you need to go do some work.
But of course, today, all the false teachers love this passage of scripture.
They try to teach this doesn't prove that faith alone saves, but you have to do works
to get saved too.
But the Bible is super clear that we're saved by faith alone.
And you know, you take these modern versions and they make it even far worse.
Look there at verse 24.
I'll read for you what the NIV says in verse 24.
It says, you see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
So they take it and they twist the words of verse 24 to say something completely different.
Because some people would say, well, verse 24, it sounds like it's saying that Abraham
was saved by not just his faith, but also his works.
See then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only.
We got to understand, if the Bible has another clear scripture that's saying what seems to
be the opposite, we're probably interpreting the Bible wrong.
If we say that we believe that Jesus Christ gave us this word and man does not live by
bread alone, but by every word of God, then maybe we're misinterpreting the context of
this passage.
I'll read for you from Galatians 2.
The Bible says, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by
faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified.
Now if you take just both of those verses by themselves and isolated them, it would
kind of look like maybe they're contradicting one another or maybe they're saying different
things.
You're saying, well, how does that make any sense?
Well, the Bible makes it clear that we are saved by faith.
Let me give you a couple other verses.
I'll just read you for them, read them to you.
In Romans 3, the Bible says, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law.
Romans 5, 1 says, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Galatians 3, 24 says, wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that
we might be justified by faith.
So the Bible is super clear that in order to go to heaven, we're saved, we're justified
in the sign of God by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, by our faith, by putting all
our faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
That couldn't be any clearer.
So then what is James chapter two teaching here?
Well, let's go back and look at verse 21, it says, was not Abraham our father justified
by works?
So in some way, Abraham was justified by his works.
That's very clear what the passage is saying.
What was the work that he did?
It says when he offered Isaac his son upon the altar.
Now today is Father's Day and we know what could be harder for a father to do than to
offer his own son on the altar, his only son.
We see how much love the father has for us and the fact that, you know, he gave his only
begotten son on the cross to die for us.
But we see, in my opinion, this is probably the greatest work highlighted in the Bible
done by man, is the fact that Abraham did exactly what, you know, a symbol, an ensemble
of what God was going to do by giving Jesus Christ, Abraham was willing to give his only
begotten son Isaac on the altar.
So then in some way, Abraham was justified.
But was Abraham justified for salvation?
No, of course not.
So then what way was he justified?
Look at verse 22, see as thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made
perfect.
So now we see what's happening here.
Abraham's faith was perfected by this work that he did.
So if you never do any big works for God, you're not going to have a perfect and complete
faith.
You might have a small faith that got you saved, you put all of it on the Lord Jesus
Christ, but if you want that faith to grow, if you want to have a perfect faith, if you
want to have a big faith, we have to do the works of God, just like Abraham.
Abraham had a perfect faith because he said, I don't care if it's the hardest thing, I'm
going to serve God.
I'm going to even offer my son on the altar.
Talk about one of the hardest works you could ever even imagine.
Look at verse 23, see as thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made
perfect.
I'm sorry verse 22, look at verse 23, and the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham
believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called the friend
of God.
Now we don't need to pass over verse 23 because I believe it's the key to understanding verse
24.
Look at the first part, Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.
Now that jives perfectly with all the other verses that I showed you, how they were justified
by faith in the sight of God, how they were saved by our faith.
But then it has a colon and it says, and.
So this is something additional, this is something also, this is something extra, and he was
called the friend of God.
Why was Abraham called the friend of God?
Because he had a perfect faith, because he offered Isaac on the altar.
If Abraham had never offered Isaac on the altar, he wouldn't have been known as this
great friend of God, as this father of the faith, as this man that had perfect faith.
So then look at verse 24, you see then how that by works a man is justified and not by
faith only.
Saying what?
Saying after you get saved, it's not like your life's over.
It's not like there's nothing to do.
It's not like there's no work to be done.
You see how with Abraham's work, he was justified to be called the friend of God.
You see, he wasn't just justified by his faith alone.
He wasn't justified the fact that he was saved.
No.
God's also going to judge our works.
God's also going to judge how we live our life, and the only way that we're going to
be justified to be called the friend of God is if we do his works.
So we see it's very clear how he was justified.
It's not talking about salvation.
It's not talking about eternal life.
It's not talking about going to heaven or hell.
It said very clearly that Abraham believed God and it was imputed him for righteousness.
That's how he was saved, and God's not the author of confusion.
God makes the Bible super clear, and if you think you're maybe, you know, confused about
two verses, why don't you get the full context and let the Holy Spirit guide you into all
truth.
Go to James chapter four, if you would.
So in Romans chapter four, I'll read for you, the Bible says, what shall we say that in
Abraham our father is pertaining the flesh hath found?
For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath where of the glory, but not before God.
For what sayeth the scripture?
Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Now to him that worketh is a reward not reckoned of grace, but of death.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith
is counted for righteousness.
So the Bible makes it super clear that even though Abraham was this great man of faith,
did many works for the Lord, even did what's probably arguably the greatest work ever,
it had nothing to do with him going to heaven.
Zero.
No, he couldn't, he couldn't boast before God, he couldn't say that God is saved.
No, it's by his faith that he was saved.
And it's by our faith that we're saved.
And I just want to make that super clear before we get into the sermon.
Because you know, some people would say, well, you know, when you teach a hardcore, we got
to go to work, we got to do some works.
They're thinking, are you teaching that for salvation?
Absolutely not.
We need to do good works.
It has nothing to do with being saved.
I like to say this when I go out soul winning and I'm talking to somebody at the door and
I'm trying to explain this, I say, now if I walk across the street and I follow all
of those person's rules, would that make me their son?
And they're like, well, no, that wouldn't make you their son.
That doesn't make any sense.
And I say, exactly.
What do I have to do to be son?
They say be born.
Yeah, we must be born again by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But of course, we should follow our parents' rules.
Of course, we should do the things that we, we should do the works that our parents have
set before us, but it has nothing to do with whether or not you're a son.
Just as silly as that example is, it would be for someone to say that we're justified
by our works, to be saved.
Now of course, we are justified by our works in another way of getting rewards of God being
pleased with us.
Look at James 4 verse 4, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that friendship
of the world is enmity with God?
Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is an enemy of God.
Now turn to John chapter 15, this is an important point.
The Bible makes it clear that just because you're saved doesn't automatically make you
this great friend of God.
I mean, if you get saved and then you just go back into the world and you're just living
in the world, you're actually an enmity with God in that moment.
You're not, you know, a partaker of his fellowship.
You're not, you know, maybe God's going to withdraw his blessings from your life.
We see how we live our lives is going to determine God's, you know, blessing in our lives.
Go to John chapter 15 and look at verse 14.
The Bible says, you're my friends if you do whatsoever I command you.
Wow, that's, that's not something that most churches teach today.
You're my friends if you do what?
When I commanded you.
So is that just automatically friend because I'm saved.
Isn't that what most, you know, modern liberal churches will teach today that every, I mean,
they'll teach unsaved people are God's friend.
No, you got to do what he said if you want to be his friend.
That's why Abraham was justified to be called the friend of God because he did the works
because he just, he continued in his faith.
He had a perfect faith.
So we see that James chapter two has a lot of meaning.
It has a lot of purpose, but it's not talking about being saved.
It's not talking about, Hey, you got to do works to be saved or to prove you're saved
or if you are saved, it's inevitable you're going to do the works.
Of course not.
And the title of my sermon today is use it or lose it, use it or lose it.
Go to first Corinthians chapter three if you would.
So I was just trying to lay that a little bit of a foundation there before we got to
start in the sermon to see, Hey, we're not saved by how we live our life.
We're not saved by doing the works.
We don't have to do some great, you know, show of our faith to prove that we're saved.
No, we just believe in God and we're saved.
It's simple.
It's as simple as taking a, you know, drink of water, eating a piece of bread, walking
through a door, just calling upon the name of the Lord in faith, like a child and being
saved.
Just like Peter, when he was in the water and just said, Lord saved me and immediately
stretched forth his hand and he saved him.
Wasn't even really the words that matter, was it?
He was just like, save me.
And he's like, done.
Saved.
But look at first Corinthians three verse 11 Bible says, for other foundation can no
man lay than 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 as by fire.
Now this is probably the clearest verse to me to show you could do nothing for God and
still be saved.
It's saying, look, even if you have done only these wood, hay and stubble, you just lived
there for yourself.
He says, all your works are going to be burned up, but at least you're saved.
But there's a key thing here.
It says, uh, in verse 15 in the middle, he shall suffer loss.
So of course going to heaven is not a bad thing.
I don't think anybody's going to be really disappointed that they made it to heaven rather
than hell, but it does say that you could get to heaven and still suffer some type of
loss.
Still be upset that you didn't live for God.
Have a realization that man, I wish I had spent more of my time serving God.
I wish I had done more works for God, but we see that the whole point of our life after
we get saved is to lay up gold, silver and precious stones, but no other foundation can
be laid.
We can only do these works if we're saved, if we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Go to Revelation chapter two, if you would.
I'll read for you in John chapter 12, the Bible says, he that loveth his life shall
lose it.
And he that hated his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
You know, it's an interesting dichotomy as a, as a Christian, you kind of have to make
a reversal in your mind from the carnal world because the carnal world, they live for today.
They have to live for themselves because they say, YOLO, you only live once.
So I better gratify all the lust of my flesh.
I better live for myself completely.
But God says, as a Christian, we should be willing to give up all of those things.
And guess what?
We're not going to, we're not going to end up losing that.
We're going to keep it unto life eternal.
We're going to have something even greater in the future.
Look at Revelation chapter two, verse one, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write,
These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the
midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
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 has found them liars,
and has borne and has patience, and for my name's sake has labored, and is not fainted.
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember, therefore, whence thou art fallen, repent and do the first works, or else I will
come unto thee, and I will remove thy candlestick out of his place.
Except thou repent, but this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans,
which I also hate.
He that hath been here, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To him that overcometh will I give, to he to the tree of life, which is in the midst
of the paradise of God.
So you see, Jesus Christ is writing unto these early churches, and he's saying, hey, y'all
are doing a lot of good things here, but you've left the first works.
And when you leave the first works of God, when you're not using what the Bible say in
the gospel, because the first works is clearly the gospel.
You can see in Mark chapter one, the first thing that Jesus did in his ministry was to
preach, repent ye and believe the gospel.
What was he doing?
He was preaching the gospel.
We see what was the first thing that Christ commanded them, to go ye out in the whole
world and preach the gospel.
The first works is so clear that it's preaching the gospel, that it's getting people saved,
that it's going out into the highways and hedges and compelling them to come in.
But we see if a church, if they're doing everything right, they've got the King James Bible, they're
independent, they're fundamental, they got the right doctrine on the wall.
I mean, they're doing all these good works.
They hate false doctrine, but then they forsake the soul winning.
Look what it says here.
It says in verse five, and I will come unto thee quickly and I will remove thy candlestick
out of his place, except thou repent.
Flip back one chapter real quick.
You say, well candlestick, what does that mean?
Is it they're just not going to have lights in the building?
Is he not going to pay their electric bill anymore?
No, that's not what it's saying.
Look at Revelation one verse 20, the Bible says, the mystery of the seven stars is they'll
saw us to my right hand and the seven golden candlesticks.
The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which
they'll saw us are the seven churches.
So the Bible's saying he's not going to remove their candlestick like a figurative candlestick
or a literal candlestick.
He's saying them is a church.
They're not going to be a church unto God anymore.
And God's eyes, when they come together, they're no longer a church because they're not preaching
the gospel.
And I preached a sermon a little while ago about what separates a church from a social
club.
If you're not preaching the gospel, you've removed yourself from being a church and now
you're a social club.
And there's so many churches today, they won't go out and preach the gospel.
They won't even walk out the door.
They won't even go down the aisle and just talk to the new visitor and try to give him
the gospel.
Well, God says, look, I'm going to come and do you and remove that.
Because why?
If you don't use the gospel, you're going to lose the gospel.
And this is so applicable in every part of our life.
We see that the church that refuses to go out and preach the gospel, refuses to go and
get their neighbors saved, refuses to go and knock on doors, they're going to lose
their place as a church.
There's no middle ground, there's no middle way, there's no gray area with God, no, it's
black or white.
Either you're going out preaching the gospel and you have blessings of God or you stop
going out and preaching the gospel and he's going to remove even that which you have.
He's going to take away all that you have.
Go to Matthew chapter 21, Matthew chapter 21, you see this is something that's so common
in all places of the Bible.
But it's so important as a church, as anybody that wants to be a part of a church, that
you're going out and you're preaching the gospel, that you're keeping the first works.
And he says, look, I won't do this if you repent.
I mean, if you backslide and you start going back, well, now we're going to go back soul
winning.
Now we're not going to have the winner.
Hey, if they decide to get back on God's plan, he's going to come right back and be with
them.
He wants these churches to succeed, he wants to help them out and preach the gospel.
But if you just refuse, if you're a wicked and slothful and lazy servant, God's not going
to just help you do it.
He's not going to make you do it.
No, we have free will.
Look at Matthew 21 verse 32.
The Bible says, for John came unto you in the way of righteousness and you believed
him not.
But the publicans and the harlots believed him and he, when he had seen it, repented
not afterward that you might believe him.
Here another parable, there was a certain householder which planted a vineyard and hedged
it round about and digged a wine press in it and built a tower and let it out the husbandman
and went into a far country.
And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandman that
they might receive the fruits of it.
And the husbandman took his servants and beat one and killed another and stoned another.
Again, he sent his other servants more than the first and they did unto them likewise.
But last of all, he sent them to them his son saying, they will reverence my son.
But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, this is the heir, come,
let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance.
And they caught him and cast him out of the vineyard and slew him.
When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?
They say unto him, he will miserably destroy those wicked men and will let out his vineyard
unto another husbandman, which shall render him the fruits and their seasons.
Jesus saith unto them, did he never read in the scriptures, the stone which the builders
rejected the same is become the head of the corner.
This is the Lord's doing and is marvelous in our eyes.
Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation
bringing forth the fruits thereof.
This couldn't be clear that if you either use it or you lose it.
These guys, they weren't doing anything and they weren't producing the fruit and the vine
and the vineyard.
They were doing a parable saying, hey, here's some farmers, they're supposed to be producing
fruit and they won't do it.
And every time I send a servant or I send my son, they're just killing him, they're
just lazy.
And the Bible says in verse 41, he will miserably destroy those wicked men.
It's wicked for a Christian to just refuse to grasp the whole thing, to refuse to get
people saved, to refuse to produce fruit.
It's wicked.
And we see with Jesus Christ in his ministry towards the end, he's walking and he sees
a fig tree and the fig tree has the figs on it, it doesn't have any figs on it.
What does he do?
He just grabs the tree or he touches the tree and he just withers and dies.
And that's what Christ is gonna do to all these independent fundamental Baptist churches
that refuse to go preach the gospel.
We see that they're dying and withering and producing no fruit and they're just gonna
perish.
And you know what Christ said in that tree?
He said he'll never produce fruit again.
He didn't say, well, maybe, okay.
No, I think that there's thousands of churches in this country that are dying and withering
and perishing.
Christ has already moved the candlestick from them and they're never gonna produce fruit
again.
We need new trees to be planted.
We need new fig trees to go out to do the works of God.
But those that are doing the works of God, those that are going out to preach the gospel,
we should have a clear warning that, hey, if you decide to stop, Christ is gonna make
sure to take away what you have.
You can't go, you can't stop and just be in this middle ground forever.
No, you're either going forward or you're going backward.
And you're either gonna use it or lose it in every area of your life.
I think to myself whenever I was younger, my parents always made me play piano.
I always played the piano.
I got lessons.
I played it hours a day.
I went to all these kinds of recitals.
I learned so many songs by heart.
I could play all kinds of classical, you know, piano.
I was very good.
And then by about the age of like 14 or 15, I was a freshman in high school.
And my teacher said, you know what, you've learned a lot, you're really good.
At this point, I don't feel like you're progressing very much with me as your teacher.
I think it'd be better for you.
You can grow a lot better if you find somebody that's a little bit more professional, a little
bit more skilled than I am.
And we live in a smaller area, so it was kind of hard.
And I just told my mom, can I just please quit?
Like I don't want to play piano anymore.
I don't like it.
I don't enjoy it.
It's just because I'm a selfish little brat.
All I like to do is play video games.
I just love to live for myself.
And she let me quit.
She let me stop playing.
And I never played the piano again for probably like 10 years.
I mean, every once in a while, I might just, you know, jam it, but like seriously never
practicing, never really trying to play songs.
And every single song that I ever learned was gone.
I couldn't play a single one.
And I basically had lost everything because the only thing I had even worked on was memorizing
those, you know, certain classical pieces or having those memorized.
I mean, I was basically like starting over.
Why?
Because if you don't use it, you'll lose it.
I even know when I was going back to another church back in Texas, they didn't have, you
know, dedicated soul winning.
So I just basically had to drag myself and whoever I could take with me.
And I took them kicking and screaming.
I just, just come with me.
I'll bite you alive.
Just come on, let's go.
Because I just liked having that silent partner.
And when I would go and I'd preach and there was a time where I went, didn't go for like
two or three weeks.
I can't remember the exact time.
It was about two or three weeks where I just hadn't gone in between.
And I noticed the first door that I knocked, I wasn't very sure.
I couldn't remember the verses as well.
I was kind of stumbling through it.
Even somebody that's preached the gospel for a while, if you just stop going, you're going
to, your dolt, your blade's going to get dolt.
You're going to lose it.
Everything in this life.
Don't take anything for granted.
I know that before I moved here, I had memorized like 10 chapters of the Bible.
And today, if I had to try and quote those 10 chapters, I'd probably fail at a lot of
them because I haven't been diligent in continuing to memorize them and continue to repeat them
and continuing to quote them.
If you don't use it, you will lose it.
Everything in your life.
You know, they say, well, it's like riding a bike.
Yeah, it might be a little bit easier, but that's not a good way to live your life.
If you don't use it, you're going to lose it.
And today we think about Father's Day, right?
There's so many people today where they grow up in a single parent home or they grow up
with just their mom.
And I think it's because these fathers, they're not fighting for their families anymore.
And so they lose it.
If you don't use it, you lose it.
If you're not paying attention to your wife, if you're not paying attention to your children,
if you're not giving them attention and affection and fighting for them, you'll lose it.
Because they'll say, well, I'll just find some guy that will provide somewhere else
and she'll just walk away.
Now that's a really wicked and, you know, godless thing for a wife to do.
We should never, you know, depart from our spouse or, you know, divorce or anything like
that.
The Bible says it's very clear that divorce would be a sin.
But we see just in the carnal, you know, heart and what's reality when a guy's not willing
to provide, when he's not sticking around, when he's not giving attention to his kids,
the wife starts to depart.
She starts to depart in her heart.
She starts to depart in her mind.
She doesn't want to do these things.
And as men, we ought to fight for our family.
We ought to fight for our children.
We ought to fight for our wives.
And even if they don't physically depart, we see a lot of times these families, they
spiritually depart.
We see these guys, they're not giving their kids the attention of the Bible.
They're not teaching them any of the word of God.
They're not teaching them medical soul winning.
They're not teaching the fundamentals of the faith.
You go to these independent fundamental Baptist churches and you talk to the generation that's
my age and they don't know any of the Bible.
They don't know any of the doctrines of the Bible.
They don't know why they're King James only.
They don't know why soul winning is important.
They're probably not even saying why because the fathers aren't teaching their children.
They're not doing what God's given them.
They're not using the role that God gave them as a father.
If you don't use the role of your father, it's going to be taken away from you.
You know it's going to be replaced with the school.
It's going to be replaced with the government.
It's going to be replaced with this world because children are going to find their father
figure.
Meaning what?
They're going to find the person that they look up to, the person that encourages them,
that teaches them.
Every single person has this, whether or not it's a physical person or it's just the idea
of like the world or they'll look to a super, you know, uh, athlete or the look to a musician
and they look at this person, this person's my role model.
It used to be great when I was a kid in school and you'd have like the fifth five year olds
or the six year olds, first and second graders and you'd have, who do you want to be when
you grow up?
It used to be, they all said they wanted to be their dad.
It used to be, Hey, I want to be a fireman like my dad, Hey, I want to be a carpenter
like my dad.
Hey, I want to be like my dad.
He's the greatest person that I know.
But I guarantee today, if you ask the five and six and seven year olds of today, a lot
of them wouldn't say that.
A lot of them say, I want to be, you know, a professional basketball.
I want to be Lebron James and I want to be, you know, this professional movie actor.
I want to be, uh, any of these Hollywood celebrities.
I want to be Donald Trump.
What a horrible thing for a kid to want to desire to be.
But if you don't use your role, you're going to lose it.
And we see it as important as a father to make sure that we're using our role or we'll
lose it to something else.
Our kids will check out.
They won't be interested in us.
They won't pay attention to us.
Even as the, as the husband to our wives.
Go to, uh, go to Matthew 22.
Look over there.
We'll see the same thing.
It says in Matthew 22 verse nine, go either forward to the highways and as many as you
shall find bid to the marriage.
We see that it's our job as a Christian to go out and preach the gospel.
Go to, uh, second Samuel 18 if you would.
Second Samuel 18.
I'll read for you a couple of other places and Matthew 28 the Bible says, go either forward
all to go either for and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and
of the son of the holy ghost.
Mark 16 15 and he said to them, go you in the old world and preach the gospel to every
creature.
We see that the Bible makes it clear.
We need to go out and preach the gospel and these churches that just refuse to do it.
You say, well, if the scripture is so clear, I mean if there's all these places and they're
well in verses, what are these churches doing to kind of fill that void?
What they often do is they're raising money to send out missionaries to send out these
new and that's what they think is the great commission is to just pile a bunch of money
together and just send some guy out to Africa or some, you know, foreign country and that
guy is going to get the gospel out.
But you know, they'll get up and I've been in, I've been in so many services where they're
singing this song.
I don't know the name of it, but it was like just one more soul and the whole songs about
like just one more soul coming down the aisle and it's all worth it.
My whole life's worth it and everything I've ever done and all the work I did this week.
It's worth it if we just have one more soul, but they're not willing to just walk across
the street and talk to the guy at the first door and give him the gospel.
They'll get on their knees and they'll pray and they'll sing all these songs and they'll
say, just one more soul, it's just so important, but they can't even just walk across the street
and talk to one person, give them the gospel.
It's so ridiculous.
It's so much hypocrisy and of course we shouldn't even be satisfied with just one more soul.
That's stupid.
The Bible says, he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come
again with a joy scene, bringing his sheaves with him.
Not sheaf, not one, no sheaves.
Why?
Because anybody that goes out and goes soul winning, anybody that goes out and preaches
the gospel, you can tell you're going to get more than one person saved.
If you're preaching the gospel faithful, people are going to get saved because the gospel
has power.
There's no other book that has power like this book.
And you say there's 7 billion people in the world.
Why are you so worried about that one soul?
That just seems stupid.
That seems foolish.
How are you going to get 7 billion people saved if a church of 500 people is just hoping
one person gets saved a week?
That sounds really desperate.
That sounds really ridiculous.
I'm not going to go through the example, pastor Anderson preaches a few times, but we see
if one person, one soul winner got just one person saved a year, and then you go to the
next year and those two people got somebody saved and you keep multiplying and growing.
So when the person that gets saved wins one person as well.
So imagine I was saved and I got brother Caleb saved.
One year.
Then the second year, Caleb got Brandon saved and I got brother Charlie saved.
Now we have four people saved.
And you keep going by that rate, by the 33rd year, you would have 8.5 billion people saved.
Now of course we're not going to get the whole world saved, but it just goes to show in 30
years, you can hypothetically get every person saved.
And when you have 6,000 churches with hundreds of people in them, we're not starting from
one person, but we see that they're not churches.
Why?
Because they're not using the gospel so they lost it.
And that's why these independent Baptist churches, they're mixed up on the gospel.
They're mixed up on repent of your sins, they're mixed up on lordship salvation, they're mixed
up on dispensationalism, they're mixed up on all this junk because they're not preaching
the gospel.
If the person in the pew is going out and clearly getting somebody saved, he's not going
to get confused when the guy gets up there and preaches a false gospel or a false salvation.
He knows what it is.
He uses it.
But we see the problem today, and I have three short points, is that what I call is hand-foot
mouth disease.
That's the problem that these people have.
You know it's kind of like a play on words, but it's like the hand-foot mouth disease.
You know and I think a lot of them, they pretty much when it comes to the hands of preaching
the gospel, they're pretty good.
They're friendly.
You go to these churches, these people are friendly for the most part.
They like to welcome people.
They're willing to give them a track in many cases even.
You know there's a lot of churches that do what's called visitation, where they'll go
and they'll hand somebody a track.
But then the second point is a foot.
Now this is where a lot of, you get a big separation from these churches.
So pretty much every independent Baptist church, I believe if you walked in the door, they
will talk to you, they'll give you some information about the church, they'll hand you some information.
I mean that's probably just a given, right?
That's not really where the disease is starting.
It might spread all the way to that point, but usually most of them will do the hand.
But when it comes to the foot, that's where there's a big division already.
Go to 2 Samuel 18, look at verse 21, then said Joab to Cushai, go tell the king without
seeing that Cushai bowed himself unto Joab and ran.
Then said Ahimez, the son of Zadah, yet again to Joab, but howsoever let me, I pray thee,
also run after Cushai.
And Joab said, wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing that thou hast no tidings ready?
But howsoever said he, let me run.
And he said unto him, run, then Ahimez ran by the way of the plain, and overran Cushai.
And David sat between the two gates, and the watchman went up to the roof, over the gate
and into the wall, and lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold a man running alone.
And the watchman cried and told the king, and the king said, if he be alone, there is
tidings in his mouth.
And it came apace and drew near.
And the watchman saw another man running, and the watchman called unto the porter and
said, behold another man running alone.
And the king said, he also bringeth tidings.
And the watchman said, me thinking the running of the foremost is like the running of Ahimez,
the son of Zadah.
And the king said, he is a good man and cometh with good tidings.
And Ahimez called and said unto the king, all is well.
And he fell down to the earth upon his face before the king and said, blessed be the Lord
thy God, which hath delivered up the men that lifted up their hand against my Lord
the king.
And the king said, is the young man Absalom safe?
And Ahimez answered, when Job sent the king's servant, and me thy servant, and I saw a great
tumult, but I knew not what it was.
And the king said unto him, turn aside and stand here.
And he turned aside and stood still.
So it's here in this story, we see in this conflict, there was a conflict between David
and his son Absalom.
And Absalom was trying to take the kingdom, he had set up his kingdom in Jerusalem and
David had fled.
And then there was this war where Joab was going out to try and defeat Absalom.
And it comes that they end up dew killing Absalom and defeating the, they kind of win
the battle.
There wasn't really a lot of bloodshed, but they just kind of defeated the leader of that
movement Absalom.
And so this guy Cushai, he really just wants to be the one that runs.
But he's not that interested in the tidings, he doesn't care that he doesn't have any tidings.
He just wants to run.
He just wants to go and do the running, but then when he gets there, he has nothing to
say.
And the Bible says, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace.
And we see even from the carnal mind, or it's not necessarily the carnal mind, but this
is obviously also true in the carnal mind, that when somebody comes through the door
and knocks on it or gives you some information, they probably have something to say.
I mean, that just seems obvious.
Look at verse 25, there is tidings in his mouth.
Look at verse 27, and cometh with good tidings.
He's expecting this guy that's coming to tell him something, to give him some kind of information.
And wouldn't you expect for a Christian, if he comes and knocks on your door to probably
tell you something.
But we see a lot of these churches, all they do is lift, you know, put a little door hanger
or put a little visitation on the door and they just run away scared.
And we see that they just turn aside.
He's like, I'm not interested in this guy.
And he let the other guy give him the news.
You know, the church that I was going to, they had no soul winning, but they did have
a once a year visitation, what they call friend day, where they just got the whole church
together to meet on a Saturday and gave them all these door hangers and they just went
and just put a door hanger and they just ran away.
I mean, that's not preaching the gospel.
That's not using the gospel.
And God doesn't look down at that and say, well, that's good.
No, because they have to preach the gospel too.
So the mouth is usually where we have the final point.
I would say most of these churches that got the hand, most of these churches, and then
there's a small number of churches that at least go out and do something.
But then we see they've got the mouth disease.
The mouth is really where the problem is.
Go to, uh, go to Acts chapter eight, Acts chapter eight.
The Bible says in Acts chapter 10, it says, and then Peter opened his mouth and said of
the truth, I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.
When Peter was going to preach the gospel to a group of Gentiles for the first time,
the Bible makes a clear mention to say he opened his mouth.
He came, he used his feet, but guess what?
He didn't have to open his mouth to preach the gospel.
We see in Acts chapter eight verse 35, then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same
scripture and preached on Jesus.
We need to always be those that would be willing to open our mouths to preach the gospel.
And Matthew five, two, it says, and he opened his mouth and taught them saying, Jesus Christ
opened his mouth.
Second Corinthians six, eleven, the Bible says, O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open
unto you and our heart is enlarged.
Go to Ephesians chapter six if you would, Ephesians chapter six.
We'll look at one other example.
So here we have the famous scripture about the whole armor of God, look at verse 13,
wherefore take you the whole armor of God?
Look at verse 14, we have our loins geared about with truth, we have the breastplate
of righteousness, look at verse 15, your feet shod with the preparation.
So we have the feet, we have the people going out, look at verse 16, taking the shield of
faith, 17, having the helmet of salvation, the sword of the spirit, which is the word
of God.
We should pray with all prayer and supplication, but look at verse 19, so as for me that utterance
may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
We see that it's so important, look at verse 20, for I am a bastard in bonds that there
and I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
It's a command of God for us to go out and to preach the gospel, not to just put a door
flare, not just put a hanger, and I was talking to a young man that was pretty interested
in things of God, I thought.
I took him to lunch, I was trying to get him to go soul-winning with me, and I said, look,
I can go on Saturdays, I would love you to come, you don't even have to say anything,
just be myself as a partner, come with me.
Well, I kind of see myself as this lifestyle evangelist, you know, this person that just,
you know, by how I live my life that other people are going to want to come to me and
then I can talk to them and I can, no, that's not what the Bible says.
We need to have the hand and the feet and the mouth.
We need to go out and be friendly and then just preach the people the gospel, and you
know what?
I find it 10 times harder to get someone saved that I know than that I don't know, so it
seems really foolish to say, well, let's start with the people that we know, because many
times, you know, if the person already knows you, they don't take you as serious or they
don't see, you know, the power of God, the Bible says a prophet is not without honor
saving his own country.
We see that there's something to be said about a guy who just comes up to you and with boldness
preaches you the gospel, just opens his mouth boldly, I have good news to bring to you.
I was thinking about an example, imagine that there was a farm and we had this guy had two
sections of his farm and in this first section, he planted a bunch of trees and they sprouted
up, they sprouted up real easy, he didn't even have to put any water on him, they were
real straight looking, they're real pretty, they're real nice, I mean, these trees have
got it together.
I mean, you didn't have, he hardly had to put any work into them.
But then on the other side of the section of this field, these trees struggled to sprout,
to come out of the ground, he had to put a little extra effort in them and when they
come out, they were a little crooked, so then he had to, you know, tie them down and embrace
them and help them kind of grow a little bit straighter and he had to give them more water
because it looked like they were withering a little bit.
But then when it came to harvest, all these difficult trees that he had to put all this
work in, they produced the apples, they produced the fruit and these trees that looked so nice,
they sprouted up real easy, there was all this maintenance, there was no fruit on them.
It would just be immediately obvious to every single person that he's just going to destroy
this one field and plant it with the trees that actually produced the fruit, even though
it was more work, even though it wasn't as perfect and that's the same way God looks
at the Christians today.
When he was looking at the churches, if they had something a little off or a little wrong,
he wasn't threatening to take away their church.
But if they had the gospel wrong, he was going to take away their church and it just makes
complete sense that when you're growing anything or you're producing fruit, if it's not producing
the fruit, if it's not getting to the end goal, does any of the other stuff matter?
I mean, I've been to churches where man, they've got the King James Bible, they're set apart,
they're tithing, they have a fancy building, they're singing praises, they hold all these
conferences and fellowship, they have people serving in all kinds of offices in the church.
I don't think it's right, but they had a nursery, they have a choir, they have all these people
playing the piano and the organ, all these instruments, they have this beautiful choir.
I mean, they're holding all these meetings, they have a prayer meeting, they have Sunday
school, they're doing all these works, but then they're not preaching the gospel.
They have all these things right, and we see the church at Ephesus, man, it was doing all
these good things, it was doing all these right things, but it had the gospel wrong.
That's the thing that the church should make sure, hey, no matter what else is happening,
let's get the gospel right first, that's the most important thing.
You know, when a church maybe starts out, it might not have everything right just at
the very beginning.
It may struggle, but as long as it's producing fruit, God's going to use that tree, God's
going to help that tree grow, and He's got that tree, you know, grow into even a bigger
tree, and to produce more fruit, and He's going to purge it, just like the Christian
life.
God doesn't use perfect Christians to go out soloing people to Christ, no.
He wants to continue to purge you, and clean you up, and make you a cleaner vessel, so
that when you go out and preach the gospel, you can be used more effectively.
But the person that's not, you know, just being a forgetful hero, that's not going out
and doing the work, they're going to lose everything that they have.
And I think there's probably a lot of grace of God when it comes to people that get saved,
that maybe they don't immediately aren't soul winning and doing all the right things, that
He's long suffering towards them.
But those that actually have the truth, those that actually know soul winning, those that
have actually gone out and won souls, if they decide to get out of church, if they decide
to backslide, if they decide to stop doing the works of God, we should be greatly fearing
of God that He would come and take all the things out of our life, that He would destroy
even our physical life on this earth.
Why?
He did it to the bed tree, He did it to the Jews, He did it to all the people that would
just refuse to do His work.
He took away the church.
And how much more, you know, go to Romans chapter 2, go to Romans chapter 2 if you would.
How much more should we, you know, that are saved and have done the right things and have
been given all this knowledge, make sure that we continue in the things of God.
Look at verse 11,
For there is no respect of persons with God, for as many that sin without law shall also
perish without law, and as many that have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law.
For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.
Sounds familiar, huh?
Sounds exactly like James chapter 1 was saying.
Look at verse 14,
For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in
the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the
law written in their hearts, and their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the
meanwhile accusing of us excusing one another, in the day when God shall judge the secrets
of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.
So you see, God's going to judge us by our works, and we should not just be hearers of
the law, but we need to be doers also.
Why?
So that when we stand, we don't suffer loss.
So we stand there, God's not, you know, judging us, and we have nothing to show for it.
Go to Romans chapter 11 now, we'll kind of close there.
The Bible says, For with stammering lips and another tongue will we speak with this people.
The Bible says, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labors are few.
The Bible talks about the Christian life as being a race that we need to run.
The Bible says in Acts chapter 5 verse 42, And daily in the temple and in every house
they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
But look at Romans 11 verse 18 says, Boast not against the branches, but if thou boast
thou bearest not the root, but the root thee.
That will say then the branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.
Well, because of unbelief, they were broken off, and thou standest by faith.
Be not high minded, but fear, for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he
also spare not thee.
What is he saying?
Look, the Jews, they rejected the Messiah.
They rejected Jesus Christ, and they were, you know, broken off as it were.
They were no longer going to be this nation that God was shining his light on.
He was going to give it to a new nation, to a nation that's bringing forth the fruits
thereof, but a nation that wasn't really a nation in the sense that it was gathered under
one place.
It's like Russia or China.
It's a heavenly nation.
It's a nation made up of all believers.
But he's saying, you know, we shouldn't just be boasting ourselves against the Jews and
saying, well, I know that it took it away from the Jews, but he'll never take it away
from us.
You know, we can't lose it.
No, he says, look, they lost it because of their unbelief, and you're standing in faith,
but be not high minded, but fear, for if God spared not the natural branches, take heed
lest he also spare not thee.
If we reject the gospel too, if we stop going out and preaching the gospel, if we stop fulfilling
the works of God, God will take it away from us too.
So we need to be careful as men.
And I think as men, you know, when I think about Father's Day, men have been given a
lot of control in their family.
I mean, they are the ones that are to lead their wives.
They're the ones that are supposed to train up their children.
The Bible says, train up a child in the ways you go, and when he is old, he will not depart
from it.
It's the man's responsibility to keep things in place, to not lose them.
We need to be careful in our churches that we don't lose the gospel so that we don't
lose our church.
We need to be careful to not lose our wives, to not lose our children.
Why?
Because we need to use it.
We need to be the person that's taking the lead.
We need to be an example under the flock, unto the other believers in our house.
We want our children to look at us and be like, I want to be like Dad, look at the example
he's setting for.
Look at him going out soul winning.
It's so important.
I love taking my children soul winning when they're one and three.
And my three year old, he's always like, are we going to go soul winning, Dad?
Are we going to go soul winning?
I can't wait to go soul winning.
He loves to go soul winning.
He calls me the soul winning Dad.
And that's not to lift myself up or say that I'm some special person.
Anybody can be a soul winner.
Anybody can go out and do it.
It just shows you that even at a young age, they're soaking everything up.
They're getting it all in their mind.
It's so important to use the gospel so that we don't lose it.
So that we teach our children to go out and preach the gospel.
It's not just about me.
It's not just, how many people can I get saved?
I'm just going to spend all my time only thinking about myself.
No, it's also important for me to get other people to go out soul winning.
To get my children to go out soul winning.
That I teach and raise a godly generation after me.
So that we don't lose that too.
We see that the generations that are older than us, they're losing it.
Because they're not going out and preaching the gospel.
It's super clear.
I mean, is soul winning something that's just happened across this whole nation by every
church?
Of course not.
That's why they're losing the church.
That's why they're losing the doctrine.
That's why they don't have the blessing of God in their church.
Because they're not using it.
And if you don't use it, you'll lose it in every area of your life.
If you don't use your skills, if you don't use the gospel, if you don't use the responsibilities
that God has given unto you as a man.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you God so much for your clear word.
Thank you for dying on the cross and giving us the free gift of eternal life.
So that we can then go out and preach the same gospel.
And I thank you that, you know, our labor is not in vain, but that you reward us according
to our work.
I pray that we not be slothful and lazy and wicked, but that we go out and do the work
so that we could never lose it.
And I pray that you would bless every person in this church that would go out and do the
works.
That you'd be with them, that you'd fill them with your spirit, that we'd go out in the
mite.
And I pray that we would not only just the things that you've given us spiritually, but
even in a carnal sense, our families and our children, that we would not just forget them
or forsake them, that we'd also use all the responsibilities that you've given us so that
we would lose nothing.
In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.