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James chapter one and I want to preach a sermon this morning on be be doers of the word be doers of the word. And so I wanted to I just want to preach on that as far as the principle in the Bible of not just hearing the word of God but actually doing it okay. So in James chapter one here look down at verse 19 just to get some context of what's being said here. In verse 19 there it says wherefore my beloved brethren let every man be swift to hear slow to speak slow to wrath for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls but be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves for if any man be a hearer of the word not a doer he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in the glass for he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straightway forgaveth 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 okay. So obviously you know when people go to James they're constantly saying hey you know if you're not doing the work then you're not saved this is not talking about being saved it says that the engrafted word is able to save your souls and he's basically saying that same word though when you hear it you need to apply it you need to do it okay don't be a forgetful hearer don't come to church and hear the word of God preached and then just leave the door and just forget about it okay because basically that's just you're not profiting anything why are you even coming if you're not going to use what you're hearing okay so that's the principle here but notice that even at the end of verse 25 it says this man shall be blessed in his deed okay so the idea is that if you don't forget the word and if you actually apply it and use it you're going to be blessed when you do that okay so there's a blessing in doing the work now go to Romans chapter 2 Romans chapter 2 and verse 13 because the same principle is applying here because it's not enough just to hear the word of God to be blessed by God now in Romans chapter 2 the context of that passage is talking about a Jew that rests in the law okay and the idea of what's being said here is the fact that they have the law but they're not actually keeping the law okay which no one can right because we have concluded that all are under sin you know whether Jew or Gentile everybody has sinned but he's making that point saying listen you have the law you hear the law but that doesn't mean that you're going to be just before God okay spiritually speaking but this also applies to Christians when it comes to someone that's saved and you know obviously not walking in the flesh but walking in the spirit and the idea that when you hear the word of God you know you're not just before God by just hearing it and then going out and just living like you normally were okay which is what James is saying now in Romans chapter 2 and verse 13 it says for not the hearers of the law are just before God but the doers of the law shall be justified so in verse 13 there it's saying that it's just because you hear the law that doesn't mean that you're just before God okay and the main principle that I want to get across here is that we're not just here just to hear the word of God and just increase in a whole bunch of knowledge and not use it for anything okay that's what most churches do today most churches you go into church you hear you hear Bible preach and a lot of times you leave and you forget what was even preached but second of all you don't actually apply it to anything okay because here's the thing I don't believe it's good enough just to hear and remember it okay I think you need to hear it remember and use it okay and using it is how you're going to really retain it because if you don't actually use it you're going to forget it okay and so but if you use something constantly you don't forget it it's like the the the Bible verses that we use out soul winning you know every time you'll have a you'll your mind will blank out that's not what I'm talking about you know where you just kind of blank out and you're like what how's that verse go but most of the time right it's not a matter of like well how's how's Romans 3 23 go you know how's Romans 6 23 go you know you're like you could say it in your sleep and I'll say this if you're if you're ever dreaming about giving something the gospel and you quote them off a verse in your dream you've got that thing memorized who here's been in a dream you know and you're trying to give that you're trying to say a verse or something like that you're trying to find it in the Bible right and the Bible's never like it you open it up and it's like a box of matchsticks or something like that and you're just like you know you never can find what you need to find when you're in a dream right you need a gun but then the gun doesn't have ammo or it doesn't shoot or you shoot somebody or you shoot whatever you're trying to shoot a bear or whatever and it never you know it doesn't kill it anyway I don't know how I got off on that but basically all I have to say is that if you dream about giving the gospel and you can quote it off in your dream you've got that thing down but the reason you have it down is because you're using it week by week right you're just constantly using that thing it's not a matter of like trying to keep it memorized it's there right it's a part of you at that point but in James chapter two go to go to James chapter two so no marvel that James one is is setting you up for James chapter two okay and usually I don't go into James one to explain James chapter two because James chapter two really explains itself but if you're if you look at James chapter one setting you up saying hey listen don't just be a here the word be a doer of the word right be a doer of the work and you'll be blessed in that deed and you know that Romans chapter two talks about hey listen it's it's not you know being a here the word is not gonna you're not gonna be justified before God just by hearing the word okay even in salvation you know you can hear the gospel but if you don't believe on the gospel then that's not gonna justify you right it's it talks about not being mixed with faith and then that heard it right you know it's not good enough that you just heard the preaching of the word or heard the gospel you have to believe the gospel you have to have faith in the gospel but the same thing when it comes to preaching and when you hear the word of God it's not enough that you just hear it and you retain it or you understand it it's the fact that you're gonna actually use it for something okay and so in James chapter two and verse 21 with that in mind when James chapter one says that that if you continue in the law of liberty and you hear it but you also apply it and do a doer of the word notice it says in James chapter two and verse 21 was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar see as thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect and the scripture was fulfilled which said Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness and he was called the friend of God okay and it says you see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only okay now my belief on what James chapter two is talking about that being justified by works is before God but not for eternal salvation right we're talking about being just in the sight of God while we're here on the earth while we're walking in spirit not walking in the flesh and we're gonna be blessed in our deed how is Abraham blessing his deed well his faith was increased and made perfect but he also was called the friend of God okay so he was obviously blessed in his deed because he didn't just hear what God told him to do he actually did it okay and if you remember that story at the end of the story he says now that you did this you know I will he swore unto him he didn't just say it remember that he confirmed it by an oath that's when he confirmed it by an oath was after he offered you know offered up his son Isaac right now go to James chapter two and verse twenty six because the idea here is that if you don't have works you're dead okay now this doesn't mean that you don't you're dead like dead and trespasses and sins now you're unsaved right it just means that you're not profitable okay and not to go into James chapter two all over again but James chapter two and verse twenty six says for as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also so what people do is they just they just tag on to this and they just make up whatever they wanted to say but they missed chapter one where it's talking about the fact that he's talking to brethren and the ingraphic word which is able to save your souls he's basically saying take that same word that saves your soul and hear it and use it right and you'll be blessed in your deed it didn't say and you'll be saved from hell okay it says you'll be blessed in your deed right and so we need to remember that hey listen after we get saved that's not the end okay we're supposed to hear the word about there's a lot more in here besides salvation besides the gospel okay there's a lot more that we need to learn but I what I don't want you to think is that well it's just all about learning and that's it right we just learn the Bible learn every doctrine and then we can just go home and you know live our merry lives right the idea is that why are you learning all this the reason why you're learning it is so that you can use it okay this isn't just soul winning right you you hear a sermon about marriage right about having a good marriage what do you do you take those principles that the Bible says and you use it right you apply it you hear a sermon about child rearing and disciplining what do you do you take those principles and you use it okay and that's not being a forgetful here that's being a doer of the work and that man's gonna be blessed in his deed okay but the foolish man is the one that looks at his it's kind of like this if you looked into a mirror and you saw this big splotch of like mustard or ketchup on your face and then you just walk away and don't do anything about it that's kind of the principle like you look at that and you see the natural man and then you just walk away saying you know and you just forget about it okay and so you know that's how foolish it is to basically look at the law of liberty and then just not do it it's kind of like when people don't take your advice right and I'm talking about people that ask for your advice right they ask for your advice they say you know can I have your advice on this and you give them your advice and then they don't take it and then they end up messing up you know or they do this or that and then and then they come back and be like oh I messed up and you're like yeah you should have listened to me you know now anyway that's kind of the same principle as that goes now Revelation chapter three Revelation chapter three is dealing with the church at Sardis and this principle I believe Sardis and here's the thing all the churches in Revelation all seven churches are legitimate churches with saved preachers the angels of those churches I believe are saved people and some of the churches have problems some don't but each church kind of has different issues okay and in verse one there with Sardis what's their issue well I believe Sardis is like what James 2 is talking about right as far as being having faith without works and being dead you know being a dead as a doornail church pretty much and verse one here says and unto the angel of the church and Sardis write these things set he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars I know thy works that thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead so it's basically like you used to have you have a name that you live meaning this is that you're basically holding on to the past of what people did before you as far as you know you're living and you're doing right and it's like that's a good church over there well it used to be you know that name is still good in the eyes of most people because they remember what was done there right but now you're dead really you're just kind of holding on to the name of what you used to do and you can see this a lot of times in Baptist churches will be like you know they'll call into people that did revivals back in like you know the 1800s or something like that or the early 1900s it's like do we need to pull that far back into history to find some great works of God or you know like well you know back then a lot of people were getting saved well why not now you know why can't we just pull back and say hey you know what last year you know when we did the soul winning mega marathon we saw tons of people saved or we just we went to Pittsburgh and saw a lot of people saved or we you know we just saw a lot of people saved the last year just with every week's soul winning and you know we don't need to pull back the curtain as far as back into the early 1800s and be like well they did that it's like that's that's basically having a name that thou livest and art dead meaning that you're like well I'm holding on to the past of what my church did a decade or two decades ago now what are you doing now okay and notice what it says in verse two it says be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die notice this for I have not found thy works perfect before God okay so what's the problem they don't have perfect works before God remember therefore how thou hast received and heard and hold fast and repent so it's basically saying remember what you heard what you received and do something with it it's pretty much what he's saying right you you know it's not that you don't know what you should do right and a lot of these churches that that are out in the world and listen this is a this is a precautionary thing to our church too meaning that I believe that we're a living church we're winning people to Christ we're doing what we should be doing for the most part as far as as hard as we can but we don't want to become a church that's like well look at all that stuff we did at the beginning when we started the church and we we did great exploits for God but now you know we're just gonna kind of ride the wave right and I feel like a lot of good preachers that preached hard did great things and then they're just riding the wave of what they did in the past and I believe that that that's where Jesus is saying listen you better you better watch you better repent because if you don't then I'm gonna come and basically you know either take away that candlestick like he said it with emphasis or you know basically have some harsh punishment coming on that and so basically hold fast repent if thou that if if therefore thou shalt not watch I will come on thee as a thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee and then in Titus chapter 3 and verse 8 it says this says this is a faithful saying these things I will that thou affirm constantly they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works these things are good and profitable on the men okay so what's the point of doing works it's profitable you'll be blessed if you do it okay so don't be a forgetful here you know basically look into the perfect law of liberty and continue therein and you'll be blessed in your deed you know the the person that does that that's a doer of the work is going to be blessed in their deed okay now and by the way this isn't double-sided I just ran out of paper so don't get nervous man we're going to be here for a while well listen I you know I got to make up for lost thought no I'm just kidding go to Hebrew chapter 5 Hebrew chapter 5 Hebrew chapter 5 and this is what I believe about this and you say well what's the point of preaching this because our church likes doctrine I love that because I like doctrine right and sometimes I'll preach a sermon it'll just be this heavy doctrinal sermon and I'm like man I hope everybody doesn't fall asleep I hope people like this because I think it's super interesting and I like getting deep into doctrine and figuring out complex things and I've never had anybody complain about actually most people are like I like those sermons you know and so that being said we have a church that loves doctrine and that's a great thing okay but here's the thing I believe that there's a cap to the knowledge God will give us if we don't do the work okay meaning this is that there'll come a point where it's just like God's gonna be like I'm not giving you any more okay and I'll say this I'd say I'd say that with our church and you know and I'm bragging on our church a little bit but I look at our church as a very knowledgeable church in doctrine and you know I would say that that's higher than most churches in the way I mean so if we didn't increase anymore it'd be kind of like well you've already kind of attained a lot more than what most churches like members of churches do okay but is that the goal or do you want more you know it's kind of like when you go to the gym you're like have you ever gone to the gym be like you know I'm strong enough you know I think I look good enough in shape you know or whatever the case may be you know you're never like satisfied with it you're like I want more I want to get stronger I want to I want to increase in that I want to know more and more and more and that's the way it should be but I do believe there's a cap to it if we were to stop working I believe God's gonna basically put a cap on and be like all right no more information then no more nuggets of truth no more you know you have what you have but you know and you're and you know what I believe also is that he'll cause you to forget what you've already known okay and so Hebrews chapter five verse 11 here I believe he's he's not talking to unbelievers here okay he's talking to believers and notice what it says okay verse 11 it says of whom we have many things to say and hard to be utter talking about Jesus being the the high priest after order milk his deck notice is seeing your doll of hearing okay for when for the time you ought to be teachers you have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not a strong meat so you're basically saying you should be teaching people right now but you need milk right now okay and your doll of hearing meaning that you're just not retaining anything that that's being said you're just not understanding it okay because doll of hearing doesn't mean that they don't they can't actually hear is the fact they can't actually understand what's being said okay and I believe you're talking about believers here because notice what it says in verse 13 it says for everyone that uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe okay so it's not saying this person's unsaved it's just saying he's a babe in Christ okay they say you should be a teacher by now but what's the reason why can't they handle strong meat notice in verse 14 for strong meat belong to them that are a full age even those who by reason of use have their their senses exercise to discern both good and evil so why can they handle strong meat because they use it see that little bit of milk that a new believer gets if they use it guess what God's gonna give them more because it's the use and the exercising of that that's going to you know make you able to handle the strong meat okay people that don't go out soul winning you know every week or churches that don't do soul winning listen they're struggling with the gospel half the time right they're struggling with like oh you know what's repent mean and we you know you know repentance of sins and all this stuff and some of these people aren't unsaved they're just like they're not doing the work you go out soul winning and you're saying John 3 16 John 3 36 John 5 24 you're saying Ephesians 2 8 9 and you're saying that over and over and over and over and over again you're not gonna come back and say well is it repent of your sins show me a repent of your sins preacher that's actually doing good soul winning okay because most time these were you got two camps here you got the repentance of sins preachers that say you got to have a seven week Bible study or you can't be saved that's the heretic reprobate you know let them burn in hell let them be accursed okay but then you have the repentance of sin preacher over here they're just praying prayers with people and going through this shallow soul winning but then they got to say you repent of your sins but they're just being semantically wrong about it does that make sense but then you have the good soul winners that are actually going out and going through eternal security they're being diligent and they're going into the verses that are actually explained to them what salvation really means and they're saying that all the time they're not just doing you know two verses here or there no it's like verse after verse after verse after verse and every week multiple times during that week I mean think about it who here is giving the gospel more than once in one outing and soul winning okay and that's happening every week multiple times during the week whatever it may be and so you know what salvation is pretty hardcore drilled into your head right you don't come back from soul winning be like well I wonder you know are we really right about this every time I come back from soul winning I'm like yeah we're right about this completely right about this and there's no doubt about it but see try not going soul winning for a month try not going soul winning for two months yay for a year guess what you're gonna start doing you start doubting if we're actually right about that I'm not saying you lost your salvation but you become a forgetful here and you know what's gonna keep you from being a forgetful here doing the work okay and you know what the Bible says that you can you're gonna become as such as have need of milk you know that it's possible to go from eating strong meat to needing milk that's what he's saying here listen you've become such as have need of milk and not a strong meat and you basically you know what you did you didn't do the work and God allowed you to forget a lot of the stuff that you used to know you know there's a lot of stuff that I'll like really listen to a sermon up you know a lot of times I'm like preaching a sermon or I'll preach a topic again I'm like I don't want to preach the same sermon so I'll like look back at what I preached before and be like well I want it to be you know kind of a different perspective and I don't want to just you know recycle sermons right and I'll preach and I'll look at something like man that's a good point I forgot all about that you know and it really comes down to this is that there's so much in the Bible and when I when I write a sermon I'm seeing little things and I'm writing things on there and you're kind of in the zone right when you're writing it but even as a preacher I don't retain it all okay so guess what I'm sure that's gonna be the case with people in the pews if I'm the one writing the sermon and I'm forgetting certain things that I preached before okay and obviously you're talking about like nuggets of truth here there you know you're not talking about like main doctrines right but what I'm saying with that is that if you're not using it all the time you're gonna end up forgetting about it that's why it's important to keep reading your Bible I don't care if you read through the Bible 40 times you don't read through the Bible 40 times to be like all right I'm done for the rest of my life you know what you're gonna do you're gonna forget it that's why it should be every year you're reading through the Bible at least once and yay multiple times a year because you're gonna forget and there's time you know I've read through the Bible quite a few times and I still read through the Bible like man I never saw it's almost like reading a new passage right you're like man that's a cool point right that I've never even noticed that and you know why because the Bible is a big book and to say that you have it all down pat you know every little jot and tittle in there good luck with that because even if you memorize the whole Bible good luck retaining it all okay and those that have memorized books in the Bible know that hey listen you don't end up keeping it a hundred percent and you have to go back and rekindle that and get get back on track with their memorization so the big point with this sermon if you get anything out of it is that if you're a forgetful here if you don't do the work you're gonna end up forgetting what you already knew and I also believe that God's not gonna give you the strong meat if you can't even handle the milk right now and the reason that people can't handle strong meat is because they're not doing the work listen what when it comes to preaching someone's hard to our deep doctrine you know who can always handle it soul winners I've never run into someone that goes soul winning all the time they can't handle strong meat doesn't mean that you're always gonna agree with you on every little point but they can handle it because you don't have to explain to them salvation although you're not like trying to clear up these little things on salvation you know they've already got that handled so you can go into like James 2 or you can go into these passages they're already like yeah well salvation is full and free eternal that's obviously not what it's saying so let's get into this right you don't have they're not just struggling with that the whole time okay now go to 1st Corinthians chapter 13 1st Corinthians chapter 13 1st Corinthians chapter 13 and in the big key with this is that I want to I want us to be a church that knows the Bible in and out I want to be a church and I want to be a Christian that knows more than anybody listen we should all have that goal that that's the case but listen that knowledge is nothing if we don't use it okay imagine if we all just had every jot until we just knew everything in the Bible but we never told anybody about it or we never used it in our lives what good is that right and in 1st Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 1 here it says though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not charity I am become a sounding brass or a tinkling symbol and though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not charity I am nothing right so they say you know it all right you know all the mysteries you know I have all the knowledge you even have faith that you can move mountains right but you don't have charity hey what's charity it's love okay and charity is it's an interesting word because it's basically just it's just a noun right love can be used as a noun and a verb right but it's kind of like belief and believe and faith faith is just a noun right you don't faith something right you just have faith okay so charity is kind of same thing right faith and believe are the same thing charity and love are the same thing okay charity is just a noun though so you can't use it as like I charity to this person okay but all that to say is that what are you talking about love okay if you don't have love then it's worthless it doesn't matter how much knowledge you have it doesn't matter how if you know every single doctrine in the Bible if you don't have charity it profits you nothing and you are nothing right isn't that what Paul says I am nothing right notice in verse 3 it says and though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to be burned and have not charity it profiteth me nothing notice why because charity in verse 4 charity suffered its long and is kind charity envy if not charity vaunteth not itself it is not puffed up doth not behave itself unseemly seeketh not her own notice this this is actions that it's doing right is not easily provoked thinketh no evil rejoices not in iniquity but rejoices in the truth bear with all things believe with all things hope with all things endure with all things charity never fails but whether there be prophecies they shall fail and whether there be tongues they shall see and whether they be knowledge it shall vanish away and the principle I want you to think about that is that listen you could have all the knowledge in the world but as soon as you die guess what your knowledge dies with you so what good is that knowledge if you keep it under a bushel right and this can apply into the world but this could just apply to your family and to yourself right because if you don't apply the knowledge that you have with what the Bible is teaching then it's not gonna profit you right if you're not applying it go to 1st Corinthians chapter 8 1st Corinthians chapter 8 1st Corinthians chapter 8 and verse 1 it says now as touching things offered unto idols we know we we know that we all have knowledge knowledge puffeth up but charity edify it and if any man think that he knoweth anything he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know but if a man if any man love God the same is known of him so you know the people that think they know everything about the Bible or anything in particular they're just like yeah I know it I know that thing in and out they don't know anything like as they ought the more you know the more you realize you don't know with any subject right you dive deep into any subject and you start getting into all the little details of everything you'll realize hey I don't really know as much as I thought I knew and that's that's where you need to be though because you know what that's gonna do it's gonna keep you humble okay because the moment I think I know everything about the Bible is the moment I need to just get back and read it and get off my high horse okay and that doesn't mean that you can't be confident about what you believe either okay when it comes to salvation listen you can say I know salvation I know that in and out but when you start saying I know everything about the Bible I know everything that God knows right you have all the knowledge in the world give me a break because even when I'm talking to somebody about the Bible I'm like listen I don't know everything okay but I do know this salvation is by grace through faith and you know I do believe I know a lot of what the Bible is going to teach on this subject that subject but listen I'm I'm fallible I could be I could be wrong about something and so you know here's the thing prove me wrong you know show me where I'm wrong and most people can't because they don't know the Bible at all anyway but listen there's been times where I've had a certain view on on a passage and then someone came by and said hey I think it's actually this and I'm like yep you're right and you know and it doesn't take much I mean there's been times where I'm just like yep you're right you got it I was wrong and but you listen I don't have a you know I I'm losing the terminology the idiom I'm looking for but basically it's no skin off my nose if if or off my back however that works man I'm losing all the idioms in the world that that I'm thinking of anyway all I have to say is that listen the Bible's right I'm wrong if I if I'm disagreeing with what the Bible teaches or if I'm wrong about something then you know what I'm just gonna say well the Bible's right now go to John chapter 14 John chapter 14 because this idea of charity edify right because love is not just a feeling it's not just an attribute necessarily it's now it is those things right but at the same time it's also something we do okay when you love somebody then it's an action that you're doing okay and that's why it says basically you know if you're not loving people then what's it worth you know that you do all these things right you give your body to burn but you're not loving anybody right you did it for yourself you know it's not gonna profit you anything because people say well you gave your body to be burned you gave to the poor yeah but the person that gave it to the poor sounded a symbol when he did it because he wanted self-recognition be like ah who does that everybody on Facebook that ever gives to the poor people that videotape video when they give someone a big tip right you know that that's what that's talking about you think that's charity or is that profiting you you're trying to profit yourself in this world and what it's basically saying is that that's not profitable you in eternity you've got your reward okay now in john chapter 14 notice what it says in verse 15 it says if you love me keep my commandments so if you want to say that you love god then you need to keep his commandments you need to be a doer of the work okay this is why you know people say well you need to love god to go to heaven no we love him because he first loved us that's what it says okay we don't love him to go to heaven we believe on him to go to heaven and then if you want to to love him then you need to keep his commandments go to uh verse 23 there verse 23 in the same chapter he says jesus answered and said unto him if a man love me he will keep my words and my father will love him and will and we will come unto him and make our abode with him he that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings and the word which he here is not mine but the father's which sent me okay so he's basically saying if you keep my word then that means you're loving me okay but see that's an action you're doing you're keeping his word go to first john chapter five first john chapter five just to show you know what's the love of god because first john really hits on this a lot you know in chapter at the end of chapter four it's basically saying if you say that you love god and hate your brother you're a liar okay because how can you love him him he hath not seen if you don't love him whom you have seen and so in verse one of chapter five it says whosoever believeth that jesus the christ is born of god and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him so he's basically saying listen if you if you love god that means you have to love the children of god if you don't love the children of god guess what you don't love god okay in verse two it says by this we know that we love the children of god when we love god and keep his commandment so when we're keeping his commandments that's how you you're going to see that that this unfeigned love of the brethren that the bible talks about it talks about you know you've been purified by the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently right so it's basically saying you have this underlying love for the brethren right and you all know this right i don't have to really explain this to you but you run into someone that says i believe salvation is by grace through faith by the blood of jesus christ you can't lose your salvation there's an automatic love for that person you know you never met this person you don't know this person from adam but you just automatically have this love for your brother or sister in christ okay but it's also possible to hate your brother so that's why it's saying listen love with a pure heart fervently because you have this underlying love but here's the thing when you're keeping god's commandments which means you're walking in the spirit guess what you're going to know that you love the brethren okay this is the same thing when it talks about the spirit that dwells our spirit bears witness with his spirit or maybe it's the other way around the spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of god right and the idea is that when you're walking in the spirit you're keeping the commandments these things are evident right like i love the brethren and you know you're just going to know that from the experience of keeping his commandments now go down to and i'm sorry uh yeah so in verse two there he says but by this we know that we love the children god when we love god and keep his commandments verse three for this is the love of god that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grieving so what's the love of god how do you how do you have charity like paul is saying in first corinthians chapter 13 you keep his commandments so you can have all the knowledge in the world you can know everything about the bible you can give your body to be burned and you can have faith to remove mountains but if you don't keep his commandments it's not going to profit you anything if you're if you don't have love toward the brethren or toward the world to give them the gospel it's not going to profit you anything okay and and second john kind of reiterates that second john in verse one i'm sorry verse six second second john of verse six it says and this is love that we walk after his commandments this is the commandment that as you have heard from the beginning you should walk in it notice that walk right if we received him even so walk ye in him if you live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit you know you are the children of light walk as children of light right it's this constant like you're saved you have you have salvation but you need to walk in the commandments you need to walk in the spirit and that's how you're going to be blessed in the lord okay and you know we sing that song trust and obey okay now you can obviously take that song in the fact that well trust and obeying the gospel and that would be salvation but listen it's the only way to be happy in jesus you know i know that song gets a bad rap and i and and i'm like on the edge with that song because of the association that i've had with that song it's not a bad song okay but i've been in a repentance of sins church where they use that that song to say well you need to have obedience for salvation right as far as like keeping the law or whatever and that's the proof that you're saved but in all honesty the song is really talking about walking in the lord and being blessed you know it's it it's the only way to be happy in jesus meaning like in this life if you want to be happy and have you know be in a sweet harmony with the lord jesus christ is because you're keeping his commandments because guess what if you're not keeping his commandments guess what's coming after you the rod okay so you're not gonna be happy in jesus when he's when he's spanking you okay i'm not saying that you know you shouldn't still rejoice in your salvation but you're not happy when you're being chastened are you i mean i don't think any of my children would say they're happy when they're being chastened so uh that's the idea with that song but go to uh go to jesus chapter 30 because the next thing that i want to get to when it comes to this is that one of the best ways of learning is through experience okay and so that means you got to do the work so there's been a lot of passages in the bible that through work and through experience it's opened my eyes to the understanding of it okay and and if you don't go through that experience then you're not really you're not really seeing it fully like you normally would i think of this you know like that you remember where uh saul asks whose uh father david is right it says you know who is who's the father of this this lad right well in the passage before that passage before that we we know that david was playing his instrument before saul right so you're like well how does he not know who this guy is right how does he not know who david is until you realize that he's a king over a whole nation and then try to remember everybody you see okay and being a pastor of a church you know people remember you necessarily because it's like one person you remember one person but try remembering everybody you've ever met and there's still people that come into our church that have been here many times that visit and i'm just like what is their name and i'm like looking at my cards i'm like is it chad is it you know who you know and i'm like it knows one of those and i'm like waiting him for those to say their name to somebody else you ever do that game right you're like just say your name to that person so i know what your name is right and uh so but see experience with that will help you understand hey well yeah he i mean he's the king of israel and he's seeing thousands of people all the time doing all these different things just because he once met this guy or was using this guy for something or whatever here and there it doesn't mean you're going to remember that person's name okay or remember who he is or whatever but that takes experience you know just going through certain things to be like oh yeah that's what that that's why you know that would make sense but people use them to be like oh there's a contradiction in the bible you should have known who david was or who his father was you know whatever but in genesis chapter 30 and verse 27 this is dealing with laban notice what it says here so genesis 30 verse 27 it says and laban said unto him i pray thee if i have found favor in thine eyes terry for i have learned by experience that the lord hath blessed me for thy sakes and notice that laban is saying i know from experience that god is blessing me because of you okay and so experience a lot of times is going to speak louder than uh the learning that you hear just from hearing okay who here learns more listen i learn more from mistakes than i do from doing things right it's like that mistake you're like that's never going to happen again you remember that okay and you know what that's what a lot of people are they're afraid to go out and do the work because they're afraid of making a mistake right like i'm going to mess up i'm going to do this or that and i appreciate the heart because obviously you want to do right and you don't want to mess up for the lord you want to be you want to do everything the way that god wants you to do it but also know this that those mistakes that you make are going to be better teachers than maybe a lot of the sermons you'll ever hear you know there's been many times where i've said something wrong or i did something wrong or whatever out soul winning and i'm like i'm never going to forget to do that again right and it just it ingrains into your mind because that because experience is one of the greatest teachers okay and you know a lot of people that come out of school they think they're ready for the workforce listen most of the stuff i know now is from experience or learning on the job and you know that's the case in a lot of case you know basically you know what college and and uh and school does for you it prepares you to start learning the job right it's kind of like a like here's some information to to help you get started on your learning experience when it comes to whatever job you're doing okay because you're not going to know everything and also experience just going through it and i think about this too with you know i praise the lord that our church has men that can step up and preach and and basically church services last week we're just going through like normal and that's a great thing to see okay and that you know that helps me realize is that we don't have we have a self-sufficient church we have a church that's not just let it's not just a one-man show it's a lot of people it's all of us that are working together and you know what though when it comes down to it um you know you think about the live stream stuff you think about little things or that and it's better a lot of times just to let things happen let things get messed up and this is hard okay because being a project manager and just you the hardest thing is delegating work and knowing that certain things are going to get messed up because you're not the one doing it right but you know what those mistakes are some of the best things to happen because guess what you're going to remember how to do it next time because you weren't like no one held your hand through it okay the more someone holds your hand through something and you don't have to actually learn it yourself the hard way is why you don't end up retaining it or you don't being good at now this is another thing to think about with our children because a lot of our a lot of people in here are first generation christians right but our children are going to be second generation or maybe third wherever you're at right but let's say most our children are going to be second generation christians and you know what that means is that they don't have to go through a lot of the the hardships to figure out the information that you did okay this is why sometimes when it comes to raising our kids we need to let them learn the hard way right let them you know figure it out themselves right now we can help them and give them guidance but experience in that is going to help and listen this is a hard thing for me to do because i just wanted to get it done right like no this is how you do it and you know when it comes to even things that aren't even biblical like fixing something right and i think about like my dad teaching me how to fix things and there's just times where you just got to let them do it and let them figure out the hard way how to do it and they mess up but you know what that's a lot better than just like holding their hand to where they don't figure out the wrong things you know things that you know they're not supposed to do now if it's electrical stuff right you don't want to get like electrocuted i'm not saying just give them knives and figure it out you know and you let them play with electricity um obviously that's not what i'm talking about what i'm saying is that they're going to learn through experience a lot more go to roman chapter five roman chapter five so what we learned so far basically the fact that if you don't do the work you can end up forgetting a lot of stuff that you already have attained when it comes to knowledge if you don't do the work god will put a cap on what you're going to learn okay so does it marvel you that people that the churches that are soul winners end up knowing more about doctrine than anybody and can can give you uh you know all the answers as far as biblical verses and all this stuff as far as why they believe certain doctrines it's not a marvel because i believe that god is opening up your mind to what the bible teaches i believe god is giving you all that information and you know i'll preach sermons and i'm like i never even saw that and a lot of the sermons that i preach on wednesday night a lot of the stuff that i'm bringing out is stuff i just saw and i don't believe that's on accident because i believe that god is showing me more information show me little nuggets show me things that that attach here or there and you know what if we weren't soul winning and we weren't doing the work i believe that that wouldn't happen i believe i'd probably be preaching the same things i've heard in the past and just preaching the same you know like just preaching what it says and not really seeing all the other things now now don't get me wrong don't get don't think that every sermon is going to be filled with like all these little nuggets and like things like that but what i'm saying with that is that i believe god blesses a church that doesn't work now in roman chapter 5 verse 1 here it says this it says therefore being justified by faith we have peace with god through our lord jesus christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of god and not not only so but we glory in tribulations also you're like what in the world why would you glory in a tribulation right you'd be like i don't want tribulation i don't want trouble right knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope and hope making not ashamed because the love of god is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy ghost which is given unto us and so notice that that hope only comes after you've gone through tribulation and patience and experience okay now that doesn't mean that you don't have hope to begin with or you can't have hope without it but listen you're going to have a lot more hope than the person that didn't go through that experience and anytime you you know our church has gone through tribulations or you've gone through tribulations when something else comes up and you're like this is hard to be like yeah but i remember that time you know that was harder and it just makes it a lot easier or you just have experience to be like yeah i went through that it turned out all right right because when you go through tribulations the first time if you go through a tribulation for the first time you're like this is never gonna end this is gonna be the rest of my life i'm never gonna get out of this and i'm gonna always be in this state and i'm gonna be worried about this forever and then you get out of it you're like yeah that was kind of foolish to think i'd be worried about this for the rest of my life and then i would just be like dealing with the rest of my life you know what the next time you go through and be like yeah yeah it'll pass and i remember when our church was getting some persecution by uh by the lgbtq aarp plus two minus one um that i remember talking to pastor menez because you know he kind of told me that too he's like you know it'll pass he's like it may take a long time but he's like it really tested him because with his he probably got the worst than anybody else because they were there for three months like protesting three months and he literally said he's like he's like is this going to be the rest of my ministry like he literally came to the conclusion he's like i think they're going to be out here for the rest of my ministry but he's like you know what eventually they gave up and you know what i guarantee it if he ever has protesters again he'd be like well remember that time it was three months long right be like what's enough what's a day what's a week you know compared to that why because the experience of that will give you hope but listen i don't have that experience right i i didn't i've never had we haven't had protesters like outside our church building and we haven't had it for three months right and so i don't have that experience so guess what i don't have the hope that he has okay it's not because of lack of knowledge or reading it's because he went through an experience and tribulation that i haven't gone through okay and that's why you know you could glory in that why because ultimately it gives you hope and that's why you want the experience right but if you don't do the work guess what you're not going to get that experience but yay that all that live godly in christ jesus shall suffer persecution okay so if you're living for jesus and you're keeping his commandments guess what you're going to suffer persecution and what's that going to do that's going to give you patience which is going to give you experience which is going to give you hope okay but if you don't do the work guess what that all that's all just null and void right you're not going to get the tribulation you're not going to get the experience and you're not going to get the hope that comes from all of that okay second corinthian chapter 12 you know paul was talking about the fact that you know he had this infirmity and basically he wanted it being taken away he besought the lord thrice for it but notice that the conclusion of the matter in second corinthian chapter 12 and verse 10 it says this it says therefore i take pleasure in my infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distresses for christ's sake for when i am weak then am i strong okay because really when you think about it in all the cases in the bible when you see great exploits being done are the people in the strongest state physically or emotionally right when it happens no they're usually like all hope is lost all hope is lost but that's when god comes in and shines in all those cases even the tribulation what's the end you know like all hope is lost basically everything everybody's being killed everything's going just you know everything's going awry but then what happens you know lift up your head look up for your redemption draweth nigh right that's when jesus comes in is when everything you think all hope is lost everybody's doomed all christians are doomed but that's when jesus comes in and that's why you know when you're weak then are you strong and we need to remember that when it comes to keeping the commandments because listen when you keep the commandments listen you will have persecution you will have tribulations and your faith is going to be tried but what comes after that is what you need to be thinking about okay what you got to be thinking about is like okay i've been reading my bible i've been doing all this i've been doing the work it's time to get some experience it's time to get some some hope and some and your faith to be built because of that now go to luke chapter 12 luke chapter 12 now you think about ecclesiastes where it says he then increases knowledge increases sorrow i kind of think about this when it comes to this because the more you know the more god expects from you it's a two-edged sword right because the less you know the more you can mess up and be in ignorance right and you're going to mess up your life because you're you're just in ignorance of what the bible teaches but the more you know the more god expects you to do it okay so this is very important because you got to think about the fact that if if god has given you so much then you need to be using that or god could take it away right not salvation but he could take away that knowledge you could forget it all and in verse 42 it says the lord said and the lord said who then is that faithful and wise steward whom his lord shall make ruler over his household to give them their portion of meat in due season blessed is that servant whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing of a truth i say unto you that he will make him ruler over all that he hath but and if that servant say in his heart my lord delayeth is coming and shall bring or i'm sorry begin to beat the the men servants and maidens and to eat and drink and to be drunken the lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him and at an hour when he is not aware and will cut him in sunder and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers now here's the dichotomy of saved and lost people here but that terminology is also used with sardis if you remember right you know if you don't watch i'm going to come on the end an hour when now look it's not for me so what you got to understand is that in the end times and i'm just kind of explaining this so you don't get confused on this in the end times what you have is say people that are looking and waiting and watching and then you have say people that are in the flesh and not looking and waiting and watching and then you just have the unsaved that are just in darkness right but if you're saved and you're not walking in the truth and you're not looking you're not watching guess what you're in darkness because you're in the flesh okay but your soul is ready it's willing right and so nothing it's not like you're going to be cast into outer darkness okay but the principle is that if you're a christian in the end times and you don't know what's going on and you're not privy to what's going to happen guess what you're going to end up being the first one to be beheaded because you're not watching and waiting you're not looking for the signs of the times you're not looking for any of that right and but the idea that the principle that i want to get to is in verse 47 so this would apply to people in hell i do believe meaning that the people that knew the truth and knew what needed to go how to go to heaven that their punishment is going to be worse in hell but i do believe that there's a another secondary meaning here dealing with christians dealing with believers on the level of if you knew what you should do and don't do it compared if you didn't know and and didn't do it right in verse 47 it says in that servant which knew his lord's will and prepared not himself neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes but he that that knew not and didn't and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes for unto whomsoever much is given of him shall be much required and to whom men have committed much of him they will ask the more okay so both are getting beaten right so think about this in a christian aspect right let's say you're ignorant of the bible right but you're a believer and then you mess up and you're breaking your commandment right but you didn't know that you were guess what you're going to be beaten with few stripes that doesn't mean there's no punishment but just like in the old testament there is this the the sin of ignorance compared to the the presumptuous sin right the presumptuous sin got the death penalty the sin of ignorance had to do like an offering and you know whatever so the idea is that you know those that know the truth you're going to tend to be doing it presumptuously because you knew that you shouldn't have done it does that make sense and so the punishment meaning that the chastening of the lord is going to be harsher on you because you knew better okay don't you do this with your children right like you're a lot easier on the child that's a lot younger because you're like they don't know as much right but the older child that knows better you're like you should have known better you're getting punished for this and the other one you may say give them a little grace right you may be a little easier on them with their punishment okay and so we do this with our children and the same thing would apply meaning this that if you're a babe in christ and you're not doing what you should be doing guess what you're still gonna be chastened of the lord because you're not doing what we should be doing but how much more but how about the person that's an adult in christ that has the strong me and then they're not doing what they should be doing and then see see the difference there and the fact that hey you know in a church like ours where people are know a lot of doctrine guess what there's a lot of responsibility that comes with that and so we're you know increasing knowledge there's increase of sorrow in that aspect and the fact that you know better or you should know better and i'm going to end with this i had another point basically you know second peter talks about adding to your faith virtue and knowledge and all that and not falling from your own steadfastness okay so the idea is that it keeps you safe from falling into sin or just falling from being unfruitful and so you can look at second peter for that the other thing i wanted to mention is the fact that i believe that the church that the learning of the church and the increase in in knowledge of the church is dependent upon the work that's being done okay and i kind of already made that point eph according to the effectual working in the measure of every part make an increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love okay so why does the church increase in knowledge because it's working the effectual working of the church right these are hand and glove right now i also believe that if you don't teach the church the work isn't going to be as good too okay so it's kind of this that you know circular thing that's going on right you teach you feed the flock and then the flock does that goes out in the work god's going to give them more you know it's just it kind of works on it feeds on itself right and so if our church were to not be a working church i believe you know you're not going to be able to retain as much doctrine and if i didn't do the work either then i'm not going to have enough i'm not going to be retaining more knowledge and the sermons are going to get really bland and lame and you know like the doctrine is going to be lacking and it's going to just be uh you know so when you go to a church and you hear you hear some dead as a doornail preaching right it's just boring as all get out and you're just like ready to just like beat your head off the wall you're like stop telling me the the plan of salvation right it's just the same thing over and over again there's no new information you're not learning anything look at the soul winning you're like well they don't have it my point exactly so or look at this they're soul-winning but how many people go soul-winning it's like the pastor and one other guy right and that will tell you something about the church okay because the pastor may be preaching on milk because the congregation can't handle anymore right he preaches a doctoral sermon and then they're just like they have all these questions are confused and she's like man i better just tone that back a little bit i guarantee that happens and they're just like what was that you know and then they get confused on salvation right because you're talking about some deep doctrine you're like well i better not touch on that they'll get confused but when you have a church that's out soul-winning every week and the majority of the people go soul-winning listen you don't have to worry about that i never look at them and be like that's too deep never right you know everything that i've ever i've preached as deep as i can imagine preaching so if you want deeper i'm sorry i can't do it right i'm just not that i'm not smart enough to go any deeper than that so it's really just the fact that i don't i don't worry about that that i don't think about well you know they're not gonna be able to handle that no i think that our church can handle all that deep doctrine but if we were to stop working i don't believe that would be the case all right go to matthew chapter seven matthew chapter seven i want to end with this matthew chapter seven what i'm going to read to you is the end of the sermon on the mount so the sermon on the mount the famous you know beatitudes all that stuff starts in chapter five of matthew and goes to chapter seven so that's all one sermon this is the conclusion of the sermon and by the way i know i preached through matthew matthew that that sermon on the mount was two believers okay that's why people get so messed up on there like oh he's telling them they need to be the light of the world that's how you get saved he's talking to believers okay just as much as i'm talking to believers right now when he preached that sermon on the mount he's talking to the sage and then he would put in some points about reprobates because guess what judas iscariot was there okay so that's why those points were being brought up because there's going to be wolves among you okay that's why he ends it with that right actually he's talking about wolves being amongst the sheep but in verse 24 this is the conclusion of his sermon verse 24 therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them i will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock and everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it so as he concluded the matter he said listen you better do what i'm telling you to do and if you don't do it you're a fool if you do it you're wise so don't be a forgetful here and how profound is the sermon on the mount right so if if there's ever a sermon that you should remember that's the sermon you should remember i know you like matthew 23 i do too okay but the sermon on the mount was two believers okay and he's saying listen if you just hear this and don't apply it don't do what i'm telling you to do then you're liking unto a foolish man that builds his house on the sand luke's chapter 6 is a parallel passage to this and the the just one point i want to be made with this because instead of talking about the the house on the the sand he kind of goes into the foundation itself and the fact that not only did he build it on the rock but he dug deep okay notice the verse 46 of luke chapter 6 it says why and why call ye me lord lord and do not the things which i say whosoever cometh to me and heareth my sayings and doeth them i will show you to whom he is like he is like a man which built in house and digged deep and laid the foundation on a rock and when the flood arose and stream beat vehemently about the house and could not shake it for it was founded upon a rock okay so we get a little more information about building on a rock listen they dug deep you know what that takes work that takes you basically saying you know what i'm gonna pull up my sleeves i'm gonna do some work because doing a deep foundation is always harder than doing a shallow foundation every contractor would be like please tell me we don't have to do deep foundations because it costs money and it takes time and it's a big hassle to do okay but if you don't do it guess what you're gonna have a back up or the the building will fall apart if you don't have a good foundation but digging deep in the work that you do meaning that you just you you retain it but you use it and guess what that takes work that takes effort you can't be lazy when it comes to that and so we need to remember as it says in james chapter one in verse uh verse uh 21 there or i'm sorry 22 if i can get my page here it says be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving your own selves notice in verse 25 but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continue therein he being not a forgetful here but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed and we need to remember that that it's great to come to church and hear good doctrine and hear you know all kinds of truths about the bible figuring out doctrine and all that that's that's great but don't forget the fact that you need to use it okay because you'll be if you don't you know there's a there's there's punishment that can come from it you get into forgetting what you learn and then god may not give you any more information above that okay and so be doers of the word not hearers only and that's what we need to remember to do and i believe our church is a doer of the word but we need to remember that we don't want to become a sardis we don't want to be a sardis where we had a name that we were living right we did these great exploits before now we should be pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of god and christ jesus we should be trying to get do more work and i believe every year we have done more work and and it comes down to this that we have more people going right you increase in people you increase in the amount of work that gets done and you know you also as you go through with life you you know basically uh round the edges of the rough things in your life and you can be more efficient and all these different things right and i believe here's the thing when it comes to all the knowledge that we learn when it comes to the expository preaching ultimately when when i preach those sermons or when you hear it you should be saying how can i use this okay it's fun to just learn some cool things in the bible okay but ultimately you say how can i use this can i use this out soul winning can i use this in my life you know and that's what we should be thinking about when we're thinking about these sermons or just thinking about our church in general is how we're going to use it for the glory of god so let's end with the word prayer daily father we thank you for today and thank you for everything that came out and we'll just pray to bless the time of fellowship but also lord the time of soul winning and lord just help us to uh to find people that are ready to hear the gospel uh and lord that uh we have the right words to say and that obviously we use your word and lord we we just pray for many to be saved and lord we just love you and pray all this in jesus christ name amen