All right, we are in Titus chapter number three, which of course the book of Titus is
a pastoral epistol.
The apostle Paul is writing this to Titus, a young man of God, and he's giving him several
instructions throughout this epistol, and I want to focus on verse number eight, where
Paul says to Titus, he says, "This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou
affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.
These things are good and profitable unto men."
Here we see that the pastor is being instructed that he needs to constantly preach and constantly
affirm to who, those who have believed, God's people, the saved, to maintain good works.
And so the title of my sermon this morning is this, Get to Work, Get to Work.
Of course we know that salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ.
You know the Bible says that if you believe in Jesus Christ, you're saved.
You know what shall I do to be saved?
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, the Bible teaches.
And of course we know that the gift that we receive by putting our faith in Him is eternal
life.
Once you're saved, you're always saved, but after you're saved, the command is for you
to work.
So number one this morning, I want to show you the command to work.
Titus 3, look at verse 8 again, it says, "This is a faithful saying, and these things
I will that thou, notice, affirm constantly."
So part of the job of a pastor and of a preacher is to just constantly be preaching that God's
people should be doing good works.
Like this is just one of the things that the job calls for.
You need to constantly be telling God's people to do good works.
Notice it says that they which have believed in God, we're talking about the saved.
When we go out soul winning to people who are lost, to people who are not saved, what
are we emphasizing to them?
We're emphasizing the gospel.
We're emphasizing believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
We're emphasizing the doctrine of Jesus being the son of God and being God in the flesh
and that he died for their sins.
That if you put your faith in him, he'll save you forever.
Call upon the name of the Lord, you'll be saved.
That's what we're emphasizing to people out soul winning.
But when it comes to church, when it comes to the house of God, what is it that we should
be emphasizing?
We should be emphasizing good works because notice it says that they might be careful
to maintain good works.
So just because you have done good works in the past, just because I've done something
for God in the past, it's not a guarantee that I'm going to do great works for God in
the future.
Your salvation is secure.
Once you're saved, you're always saved.
But you know what?
Your good works for God are not secure.
You could be a great Christian, you could be a great disciple of Jesus Christ in 2024
and this year you could totally just drop the ball and stop working hard for God, stop
doing good works.
That's why the pastor has to constantly affirm that God's people maintains good works.
Why?
Notice what it says, "These things are good and profitable unto men."
See by you just having faith but not having works, it's not profitable to anyone else,
but you actually serving God and doing good works for God, that's good and profitable
to men.
And really, this is why we're on this earth still.
You know, what's the reason why we're still on this earth?
It's to fear God and to keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man, the Bible
says.
So by keeping His commandments, by doing works for Him, it's going to be profitable to other
people.
Go to Ephesians chapter number two, Ephesians chapter number two.
Some of the most famous verses in the Bible we're about to read here in verse number eight.
Notice the Bible says, "For by grace," now grace is something you do not deserve.
If you are extended grace, it means that you deserve the punishment.
You deserve something bad, but God through His grace didn't give you that.
It says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith," and of course we know from Ephesians
chapter one that faith means to trust.
Salvation is not simply believing that Jesus is a real person or that Jesus existed.
Salvation is trusting that His death, burial, and resurrection paid for all of your sins
and that all you have to do to be saved is trust in Him for your salvation.
That's what it means to have faith in Him.
But if you actually think like, well, I believe Jesus died for my sins, oh, I believe that
Jesus paid my sin debt, but I've got to keep living a clean life to keep my salvation,
you're not trusting in Jesus.
You're trusting in yourself.
And if you are trusting in yourself, let me warn you, you're not saved.
Let me warn you, if you think that your salvation is kept by you living a good life, by you
following the commandments, you are not saved.
You must believe the right doctrine on salvation to be saved.
Notice what it says, "And that not of yourselves."
You know what that means?
You have nothing to do with salvation.
Your works have nothing to do with getting saved.
Your works have nothing to do with you staying saved, and to teach otherwise is to deny
clear scripture.
Notice, it is the gift of God.
"Hey, I have a free gift for you.
All you have to do is pay me a hundred bucks."
Not a gift.
"Hey, I have a free gift for you.
It's called eternal life.
All you have to do is keep all the commandments, repent of all your sins, ask for forgiveness,
go to church three times a week, read the Bible every day, pray, help old ladies cross
the street, save cats out of trees.
Oh, it's just a free gift."
That's not a gift, my friend.
You're not receiving the gift.
You're saying that you have to do works to be saved.
Here it says, "Not of works, lest any man should boast."
If you are asked what it takes to get to heaven and your answer is anything other than
trusting fully in Jesus Christ, let me tell you what you're doing.
You're boasting.
What you're saying is, "Oh, here's how I get to heaven.
I live a good life.
I attend church.
I read the Bible.
I've read the Bible several times.
I go soul winning.
I help other people.
I love others."
What you're doing is you're boasting.
You're trusting in your works.
This is why people who believe that you could lose your salvation are trusting in their
works because they're saying, "Well, I have to keep doing good to stay safe."
And what you're doing is you're boasting.
You need to repent of that and trust fully in Jesus Christ.
But of course, we know we're saved.
If you believe in Him, we're saved.
We have everlasting life.
But notice verse 10, "For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God hath before ordained that we," notice this word, "should walk in them."
What must I do to be saved?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
But what should we do?
We should live a good life.
And you know what?
I want to live a good life.
I want to keep God's commandments.
I want to do good works even though I am fully convinced that I am always saved no matter
what I do.
You know what?
I want to preach the gospel this week.
I want to be here this morning preaching you guys the word of God.
I wanted to read my Bible every single time I picked it up.
I wanted to pray to God.
I want to do good things for God.
Don't we all?
But here's the thing.
People will use this verse to teach, "Oh, you have to do good works to be saved."
You just missed the last two verses, my friend.
No, it's by grace.
It's a gift.
It's not of yourselves.
It's not of works, lest any man should boast.
But He's created us on two good works.
Why are we still here on this earth after getting saved?
It's to do good works for God.
This is the whole point of living after salvation.
I could see why Paul tells Titus, "Look, you need to be constantly affirming these things.
You need to constantly be preaching these things that those which have believed in God
might be careful to maintain good works, for this is good and profitable unto men, unto
other people."
Go to Ephesians chapter four, Ephesians chapter number four.
This in verse 11, the Bible says, "And he," that's Jesus, "gave some apostles and some
prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors, and some teachers."
So God gave as a gift the Church of God all these different types of people.
One he lists are apostles.
Now, apostles do not exist today.
Apostles existed during the time of the New Testament being written.
They were people who are eyewitness accounts of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
They saw the risen Jesus Christ, and they were given special powers and miracles for
the purpose of confirming the Word of God.
As the Bible was still being written, these apostles had special power to bear witness
to the truth of the Word of God.
There's no such thing as an apostle today.
If someone says, "Hi, I'm an apostle so-and-so," let me tell you what they're saying.
"Hi, I'm a false prophet.
I'm a demon.
I'm a devil."
Those people are fake.
They don't give in the New Testament real apostles, like the apostle Paul.
What was Paul's title?
Apostle.
He was an apostle of Jesus Christ and some prophets.
Of course, while the Bible was being written, there were prophets that were speaking by
inspiration of God, and so that's a prophet in a sense.
Also, someone who is a prophet is someone that just preaches the word of God.
To prophesy just means to preach.
It doesn't mean like I'm giving you some sort of future vision or something like that.
Today I am just prophesying you the word of God because I'm preaching the word of God.
And some evangelists, what are those?
People that go around preaching the gospel, getting people saved.
And some pastors, this is an office in the New Testament church who is the human leader
of the church.
He is the head of the church from a human perspective, of course, underneath Jesus Christ
and his authority.
And teachers, right, men who just preach the word of God.
We have that at our church, men that get up on men's preaching nights and just teach the
word of God.
They are a gift from God, in that sense, when someone is preaching to you the word of God.
That is a gift.
Why did God give us all these people?
So that we could just realize, hey, we're saved and we're just going to sit here and
think about the grace of God and love of God and do nothing else with our lives.
Is that why God gave us these people?
No.
It says in verse 12, "For the perfecting of the saints."
For the what?
Work of the ministry.
For the edifying of the body of Christ.
Why is it that we even have church and pastors and preachers and evangelists?
Is to do work for God.
This is the point is to be doing work and what work are we doing?
Well, you know, we've been given the ministry of reconciliation.
That is the work of the ministry is to go out and preach the gospel to the lost.
And of course, we know it as the great commission that Jesus gave to us to go preach the gospel
to every creature, to get them baptized, and then to teach them what?
All things whatsoever Christ has commanded us.
So that is the mission of the church.
Go to John chapter number five, John chapter number five.
So you know, the work of the ministry, the first thing I think of is preaching the gospel.
I mean, that is such an important work that we should be doing, and it's a command.
Look at John chapter number five, verse 14, Jesus said, "Ye are the light of the world.
A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it give
it light unto all that are in the house."
Notice he's using these carnal illustrations because he's about to give us a spiritual
truth.
When you see a city on a hill, what's the point?
We can all see it.
It's open to everyone.
You know, I think about when I used to live in Boise, Idaho.
There's a beautiful mountain range right off the edge of the city, and there is a ski
resort on the top, and it's always lit up.
And at night, you could see the ski resort from anywhere in the town.
It's lit up.
You could see it from anywhere.
You could see a candle on a candlestick.
You light it on fire.
What's the purpose of it so that people can see it, right?
Then look at verse 16, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good
works and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
There are some works that we should be doing publicly.
Now in Matthew chapter 6, Jesus is going to explain to us some of the works that we should
be doing privately.
You know, the vast majority of the prayer that we do should be private.
You should go into your closet to talk to your Father in secret and your Father that
sees in secret will reward you openly.
When you're giving alms, right, and that's not a tithe, that's kind of just being a blessing
to someone, going above and beyond the tithe.
When you give alms to someone, you're not supposed to let your left hand know what your
right hand's doing.
It's supposed to be something done in secret.
But here in Matthew 5, he's saying, "Look, there's some works that you should be doing
publicly."
You know, soul winning is a public endeavor.
We go out into this community in the public.
Bible's in hand, invite's in hand, we knock on the door publicly and we ask them, "God
forbid if you were to die today, are you 100% sure you'd go to heaven?"
And we're out there, we're preaching the gospel publicly, we're calling upon the name of the
Lord with people publicly.
This is something that we should make super public.
We should not hide our gospel.
If our gospel is hid, the Bible says, it's hid to them that are lost.
So we don't want to hide the gospel.
Look at verse 17, think not that I'm come to destroy the law or the prophets.
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
So notice Jesus did not come to make us not care about the commandments, not worry about
keeping his laws, his statutes.
No, he's saying I came to fulfill these things.
Verse 18, for verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle
shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled.
Verse 19, wherefore or whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments
and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
So if a preacher, if a Christian is going out and he's saved, he believes in Jesus
Christ, he's already saved, but if he's going out and breaking God's commandments and even
teaching people to break God's commandments, I mean that is crazy, right?
I mean I could never imagine someone getting up and just telling people to break God's
commandments, but yet this person is still saved, how do you know, because it says that
he shall be leased where?
In the kingdom of heaven, doesn't say he's going to burn in hell for all of eternity,
he's going to be leased in the kingdom of heaven, and look, Christians and pastors that
get up and don't affirm constantly that God's people should maintain good works are going
to be the least in the kingdom of God, and you know I don't want to sit here today and
spend this short time on earth that I have that's like a vapor doing nothing for God,
getting to heaven be the least in the kingdom of God, or never wanting to make God's people
feel uncomfortable or guilty or ashamed of doing nothing, I care about you being ashamed
standing before the judgment seat of Christ and having nothing to show for yourself, that's
what I care about, and so I want to get here today and be this person, but whosoever shall
do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. See, salvation
is by grace through faith, but after you're saved, it is all about the works. It's all
about the works. And you know, thank God that our church preaches the crystal clear gospel,
and we emphasize so clearly to people that are unsaved that there are no works needed
for salvation, and that is so true. But you know what I always emphasize to everyone who
is saved is to do good works. And I even tell people out soul winning, like, hey, once you're
saved, if you sin, God's going to punish you if you don't do good works, if you break
his commandments. You know, we need to be emphasizing these things to people. We should
never be throwing a wet blanket on the commandments of God. We should never be hiding our works.
We should never be downplaying the importance of works. Look, I'm not trying to hide our
soul winning numbers today. I'm not trying to keep our soul winning numbers out of the
bulletin. I'm trying to tell you, "Here's what we got going on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays.
And if you want to do the most work, let's go Saturday." It's like the best time to
go soul winning. Why? Because it's all about the works. And look, I am not down on people
that live in an unreceptive area and are not having as great of numbers as other places
in the country. Because, you know, God told Ezekiel to preach the word of God against
a impudent and stiff-necked generation that was going to reject him. But he said, "Preach
anyways." And, you know, I believe that God is greatly going to reward Christians living
in an unreceptive area that go out every week and at least warn people about hell and at
least offer the gift of salvation. I believe that those people are doing great works for
God. They are fulfilling God's commandment and, you know, God is going to bless them.
So it's not like I would look down on a church in, I don't know, Finland, Canada, you know,
Australia, some unreceptive place and be like, "Wow, you guys only had like 100 salvations
for a whole year.
Sounds like you're not doing much."
No, if you're going out preaching the gospel, great job.
Praise the Lord.
That's great.
You know, we have great numbers at this church and we live in a very receptive area.
And I'm constantly praying that God would give us more, what?
Laborers.
You know what that means?
Workers.
Why?
Because there's such a big city here of lost people that are so easy to get saved and so
easy to preach the gospel here.
This is the Bible belt and it's the buckle, like Pastor Anderson said.
It's true.
I go out soul winning every week and almost every week of my life, I run into other independent
fundamental Baptist saved Christians out soul winning, both at the door and both also soul
winning from other churches.
We live in the Bible belt.
I'm not here sitting here trying to compare, you know, Oklahoma City to Seattle, Washington.
There's a great group of Christians in Seattle, Washington, going out, preaching the gospel,
getting people saved.
Yeah, they're not going to have as much numbers as steadfast and acre Baptist church, but
hey, they're doing a great work for God and God is pleased with them.
Go to second Corinthians chapter number nine, second Corinthians chapter nine.
We shouldn't hide our good works.
We shouldn't hide the gospel.
We shouldn't hide what we're doing for Christ when it comes to the works we're doing as
a church.
Second Corinthians nine verse eight, notice what it says in God is able to make all grace
abound toward you that he always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to what?
Every good work.
Why is it that God just keeps giving us so much grace?
It's not to us to just realize that we're saved because we already know we have the
grace for salvation.
We already know that we're eternally secure, but God just keeps abounding in grace towards
us and giving us grace.
Why?
So that we can abound in work.
What would be wrong is for us to keep breaking God's commandments, keep being lazy, keep
doing nothing from God for God and just keep taking his grace.
This is like abusing someone's grace and you should not abuse anyone's grace, especially
God's grace.
Notice why God is giving us all this grace so that we would do what?
Abound to every good work so that we would do works for God.
Not only that, that we would abound to every good work.
You know that means we should constantly be striving to do more work.
Every year we should look at ourselves and this is why I recommend that you personally
track your individual soul winning numbers and your individual Bible reading plan and
the things that you're doing for God, track those things yourself because the Bible says
we're supposed to be abounding to every great, every good work.
Us as a church, you know, if we had, you know, we had, I think like 560 salvations last year,
I want to get to the end of this year and see how are we doing and praise the Lord.
We're on track to destroy that number this year.
Praise the Lord.
And I'm praying for more laborers, more soul winners.
Why?
Because I want to do what God said to abound to every good work.
Go to second Timothy chapter two, second Timothy chapter number two.
Now there's been a lot of talk recently about this word sanctification and sanctification
just means to set apart, to make holy sanctific excuse me, sanctification sometimes in the
Bible can be referring to the sanctification that happens at salvation, right?
Second Thessalonians two talks about how we're sanctified through the spirit talking about
from a salvific point of view, but also talks about it from a cleaning up your life point
of view.
In Timothy verse two, verse 19, nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure having
this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his and let everyone that named the name of
Christ notice, depart from iniquity.
Hey, we're saved.
We named the name of Christ today.
I am a Christian.
I believe in Jesus Christ.
But you know what we should do after that is we should depart from iniquity.
We should try to clean up our lives.
We should try to do more work for God.
We should try to deal with the sins in our lives that we struggle with knowing, of course,
we're never going to be perfect.
This old man is always going to sin.
We are always going to have sin in our lives.
The Bible says that the thought of foolishness is sin.
You even just having a foolish thought is a sin.
We're never going to be perfectly holy in our flesh.
But you know what we should be doing?
We should be constantly trying to depart from iniquity.
It says in verse 20, but in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and of
silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor.
Not every vessel is created equally.
You know, people have sometimes a collection of fine china, where it's very nice dishware
and plates and cups to present to guests at a really fancy dinner.
Everyone has that really nice fine china, and then everyone has the sippy cups for their
toddlers that are full of gunk and dirt and just abominations.
What are these things?
And these are not created equal.
I mean, if you are presented a nice Thanksgiving dinner on fine china with some sparkling cider
and a really elegant cup, you're going to like that.
You're going to say like, "This is great, but what if I, you know, we had the Valentine's
Day banquet and I just gave you my kids sippy cups, like here you guys go, would that be
a vessel to honor to you or to dishonor?"
And here's the thing, it's the same thing with Christians.
All Christians who are saved, you're all a cup, but you know what, you're not all the
same type of cup.
And there's a Christian to honor and there's a Christian to dishonor.
There's a Christian that's meat for the master's use and there's one who's not as meat for
the master's use.
Look what it says in verse 21, "If a man therefore purge himself from these," what
does that mean?
If you're purging yourself from iniquity, if you are repenting of your sin, if you are
trying to do good work, the Bible says, "He shall be a vessel unto honor," here's that
word, "sanctified and meet for the master's use and prepared unto every good work."
So notice, the ones who actually clean up their lives, who are trying to follow the
Bible as best as they can, who are separating, those people are the ones who are sanctified.
No, it's not once sanctified, always sanctified.
Those who are departing themselves from iniquity, those are the people who are sanctified, meaning
set apart, holy, and meet.
What does that mean?
Fitting.
The Christian who is separating himself, living a godly life, keeping God's commandments,
this person is fitting for the master's use, the Bible says, and prepared unto every good
work.
See, there are some works that all Christians can do.
There are other works that have direct qualifications in the Word of God.
For example, a pastor has qualifications specifically laid out in the Bible.
In 1st Timothy chapter 3 and in Titus chapter 1, the Bible gives very specific qualifications
of a bishop.
And guess what?
If you are not separating yourself and purging yourself, you are not going to be prepared
to that work.
You can maybe be prepared for some things.
Hey, if you're saved and you know how to get saved, you can get someone saved.
You can go preach the gospel.
But you know who's going to be used mightily to preach the gospel?
Who's going to be being filled with the Spirit of God and doing great exploits for the Lord?
It's the person who has sanctified himself.
It's the person who has separated himself.
It's the person who's constantly trying to abound in good works.
Not just sitting here and saying, "I'm saved, so I don't have to worry about the commandments.
I don't have to worry about the works of God."
No, you should constantly be worrying about it if you want to be used by God.
If you want to be doing something great for God.
He gives another example.
Look, verse 22.
"Flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with them that call
on the Lord out of a pure heart."
How are you going to be used mightily of God and do great works for him if you're not fleeing
youthful lusts?
What are some youthful lusts?
What do young people get caught up in?
Doing drugs, drinking alcohol, sleeping around, being whores and whoremongers.
You mean to tell me that like, "Oh, you know, don't worry about your sanctification.
Don't worry about the commandments.
No big deal because once you're sanctified, you're always sanctified."
No, no, no.
If you want to be sanctified, if you want to be meat for the Master's use, if you want
to be prepared to every good work, you better flee youthful lusts.
You better not be committing fornication.
You better not be drinking alcohol.
You better not be being a lazy bum.
That's something that youthful people do, right?
Laziness.
That is a lust of the flesh, very common to young people, and it seems like some Christians
are just getting lazy now, where we just stop worrying about the works, stop worrying about
the commandments of God.
No, how about we flee those youthful lusts and be prepared unto every good work?
Go to Titus 2, Titus chapter number 2.
There's just so much Bible.
I could go on all day long showing you commandments in the Bible for us to work.
It's crazy.
Titus 2, 6, "Young men likewise exhort to be sober-minded."
So they're supposed to be reminded.
They're supposed to be told.
They're supposed to be encouraged to be sober-minded, and in all things, showing thyself a pattern
of good works, in doctrine showing uncrumpness, gravity, sincerity.
Flip the page back to Titus chapter 3.
Let's just look at a few verses on this.
Verse 14, "And let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be
not unfruitful."
See, when you're not doing good works, you are not going to be fruitful.
You can be saved, and you can sit there and do no works, and you will still be saved.
But if you want to be fruitful, if you want to do stuff for God, you must be doing good
works.
Go to James chapter 4, James chapter 4, let me just speed read a few verses while you
turn there.
Hebrews 10, 24, "And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works."
James 3, 13, "Who is a wise man and a dude with knowledge among you?
Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness and of wisdom."
You know, I've heard a lot of talk recently about how, well, you know, we shouldn't really
worry about, you know, the works and the pietism and the commandments.
Not really a big deal.
But, of course, we should worry about wisdom.
You know, wisdom would tell you, "Wisdom says do good works.
Who is a wise man and a dude with knowledge among you?
Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom."
So number one, we saw the command to work.
Number two, the purpose of works.
The purpose of works.
James 4 verse 8, the Bible says, "Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded."
Here's one reason why we should do good works, it's to have a close relationship with God.
And sometimes preachers, this annoys me so much, they'll discard works, they'll discard
hard preaching, they'll discard the commandments and tell you, "No man, just focus on a relationship
with Jesus."
Just focus on having closeness and communion with God, knowing the grace that He has for
you, knowing that He saved you, knowing His love.
But how do you actually draw an eye to God in a practical way?
How do you actually do that?
It says, "Draw an eye to God and He will draw an eye to you.
Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded."
See, this is a command because this is not something that happens automatically.
It's not saying, "Cleanse your hands from a salvific point of view," because you don't
have to be told to do that, because once you're saved, you're always saved and your sins are
already forgiven.
Past, present, future, from a salvific perspective, you already are clean.
You already are forgiven.
But once you're saved, you're instructed to do something, to cleanse your hands, to purify
your heart.
And then we get this idea nowadays that we should never make God's people feel bad about
not doing works.
We should never make anyone feel guilty about not doing something for God or about not cleaning
up their lives.
But notice, we just saw, how do we get close to God?
How do we have a relationship with Him?
We purify ourselves, we cleanse our hands.
And then what is the emotion that God instructs God's people to have in this event?
Well, look at verse number nine, "Be afflicted and mourn and weep.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness.
Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He shall lift you up."
Oh, you should never feel guilty for any of your sins.
You should never feel bad about anything that you're doing.
That's a bunch of garbage.
The Bible's literally saying, "If you want to draw nigh to God, you've got to draw nigh
to Him.
You've got to clean yourself up.
You've got to purify your hearts.
You've got to clean your hands."
And you know what you should do?
You should feel bad too.
You should mourn sometimes.
Look, sometimes you should sit there and realize how much your sin offends God and
actually love Him enough to care that you've offended Him.
But it's the person that doesn't love God, that doesn't care, that uses the grace of
of God for lasciviousness and abuses the grace of God
that just sins with impunity and doesn't care
and thinks that God looks down at our sin
and just completely doesn't give a crap about it.
You know what?
That's garbage.
You should sit there and every once in a while
be afflicted and mourn and be sorry for the fact
that you've offended a righteous, holy God.
And look, thank God that we're saved.
Thank God that he's forgiven us for all of our sins.
But you know what?
To have a close relationship with him,
you know what I've got to do?
I've got to do works.
I've got to clean up my life.
I've got to stop sinning.
You know, if you go out as a safe person
and you go commit adultery,
if you think that God is not angry at you,
let me tell you, you're wrong.
He's angry at you.
He's going to punish you.
And guess what?
It's not just adultery.
The Bible goes on and on about all sorts of sins
that make God angry.
And you know what?
When you do that, you should be sorry.
You should ask God to forgive you, not to be saved,
but to have your fellowship with him restored.
That's what you should do.
You should feel bad.
You should feel guilty every once in a while.
And I'm not saying that you have to live
in this perpetual state of guilt, because guess what?
If you're cleaning up your life,
you're gonna have a lot less to feel guilty over.
But the person who is just living a raunchy life
is gonna feel a lot more guilty.
At least you should.
And when someone just has no guilt at all for their sins,
it makes me wonder if someone's even saved.
It does.
Because it's like, someone who's saved,
the Holy Spirit is inside of them,
and one of the roles of the Holy Spirit
is to convict of sin.
That's what the New Testament teaches.
And let me tell you something,
if you could just sin and you don't even feel bad,
I wonder if you're even saved.
That is a normal reaction for the Holy Spirit
to be rebuking you, correcting you when you sin.
The Bible says, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God."
You know, you are grieving the Spirit of God
when you are sinning.
Go back to, or go to 2 Corinthians chapter number five.
2 Corinthians chapter number five.
You know, Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart,
"for they shall see God."
You actually want to have a close relationship with God.
You actually want to have a deep, personal connection
with the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's the pure in heart.
And it's funny, people love
just talking about relationship, relationship,
but how you actually get that relationship
is by reading the Bible every day,
by praying to God, by going to church,
by cleaning up your life, by going soul winning.
The people who do the most works are the closest to God.
Don't sit here and tell me, "Oh, I'm so close to God,"
when you're doing nothing for him.
You're a liar.
You are a liar.
The people who have the closest connection to Jesus Christ
are the ones doing the most works.
Second Corinthians chapter five, verse nine,
the Bible says, "We, wherefore we labor,
"that whether present or absent,"
notice, "we may be accepted of him."
Recently it's been said like,
"Oh, you know, the devil's gonna tell you
"that you have to do good works to be a disciple
"or to be accepted of him."
What?
What are you talking about?
"We labor, that whether present or absent,
"we may be accepted of him."
Do you want to be accepted in the eyes of God?
Do you want God to look at you and say,
"I am pleased with my son and my daughter,
"how they are living their life.
"I am pleased with their heart towards me."
Or do you want God to look at you and say like,
"This person's rebellious.
"This person doesn't care about my word.
"This person isn't doing anything
"that I've told them to do."
You're not accepted with God
when you're living a wicked life.
Those who labor are accepted with God.
Notice, "For we must all appear
"before the judgment seat of Christ,
"that everyone may receive the things done in his body.
"According to that, he hath done
"whether it be good or bad.
"Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord,
"we persuade men.
"But we are made manifest unto God,
"and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences."
Oh yeah, we should never use fear
to motivate people to do work for God.
We should never use fear
to try to get God's people to clean up their life.
I mean, it's literally saying,
"Knowing the terror of the Lord."
You know, the Bible says that God is a terrible God.
It doesn't mean that he's bad.
Doesn't mean that he's wicked.
Terrible meaning able to invoke terror, able to scare us.
That is the God of the Bible, my friends.
And it's like, why do people get saved?
'Cause they're afraid of hell.
It's like, fear of God doesn't just stop when you get saved
because God's gonna punish us.
And we're gonna talk about that in tonight's sermon.
But go to John chapter number 15, John chapter number 15.
But think about how stupid this is,
this idea of how you can have a relationship with no works.
How does any relationship in your life work?
Does anyone have a relationship in this life
where there's no works whatsoever?
You know, you could have a wedding ring
and you could have a document that says you're married
and you're legally married and you are married.
But imagine it's like, you never talk to your spouse,
you never have a meal with them,
you guys never come together,
you guys never have any relationship whatsoever.
She'd be like, I'm so close to my spouse.
We just have such a great relationship.
No, you know how you have a great relationship
with someone, work, work.
Now here's the thing, being born,
that takes the work of the mom,
doesn't take any of the work of the kids.
The kids can be born and can be a child without any work.
But if the kids wanna have a good relationship
with their parents, they've gotta work.
They've gotta obey the commandments.
They've gotta do that which is pleasing
in the side of their mother and their father.
To be married, hey, you just gotta get married.
But to have a great relationship after marriage,
you have to put in good works.
To have a friendship, you know what it takes?
He that hath friends must show himself friendly.
To have a good relationship with friends,
it takes work, it takes talking to each other,
it takes doing things together.
That's what a friend is.
This idea of having a relationship with God
with no works is so stupid.
It doesn't exist in any other relationship,
and let me tell you, it doesn't exist with God.
You do not have a close relationship with Jesus
if you're not working.
Verse 11 of John 15.
These things have I spoken unto you,
that my joy might remain in you,
and that your joy might be full.
There's a lot of talk about,
oh, don't worry about the commandments,
don't worry about works, just focus on joy,
man, joy of the relationship.
Okay, what Jesus is about to tell us,
the Bible says, is gonna make us joyful.
So you want joy, you want a relationship,
here's how you get it, verse 12.
"This is my commandment, that you love one another,
"as I have loved you.
"Greater love hath no man than this,
"that a man lay down his life for his friends.
"Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you."
You know, people today wanna act like
they're so cool with Jesus, like they're so tight with Jesus.
And everyone thinks like, oh yeah, Jesus is my friend.
I'm so close with Jesus.
You know what, very few people are Jesus's friend.
Very few people are actually the friend of God,
because to be his friend, he's like, you're my friends,
if you do whatsoever I command you.
Those who actually wanna be friends with him
are not gonna just downplay works, downplay commandments.
They're gonna be constantly saying like,
man, we need to up our game,
'cause Jesus said if we wanna be his friend,
we've gotta do whatsoever he's commanded us.
Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends.
If you wanna be the friend of Jesus Christ,
you know what you should do?
You should offer your body as a living sacrifice.
You should not esteem your life.
Neither count I my life dear unto myself.
You should be willing to lay down your life
in a metaphorical sense as far as prioritizing God,
doing the things that God wants you to do
rather than the things your flesh wants to do,
and possibly even in a literal physical sense,
laying down your life for Christ.
You know, people who have died as a martyr in history,
those are the friends of God right there.
William Tiddale, that was a friend of Jesus Christ.
That was a man who was burned at the stake
for translating the word of God into English.
And you know, he prayed as he was being burned to death.
Lord, open the King of England's eyes.
And less than 100 years later,
we got the translation of the King James Bible.
William Tiddale is the friend of God.
Your liberal, skinny jeans, glass pulpit, purple lights,
new evangelical pastor that's telling you,
oh, relationship, bro, oh, joy of Christ, bro.
When he's not keeping the commandments
and not preaching hard on sin
and not telling his flock to go work for Jesus Christ,
you're not the friend of God.
And let me tell you this,
independent fundamental Baptist pastors
that are downplaying works, downplaying the commandments,
downplaying the judgment of God,
those are not the friends of God either.
And I wonder people who actually think
like no big deal when you sin, no conviction, no problem,
I wonder if that person's even saved.
Because what I've shown you this morning is Bible.
Am I preaching my opinion or am I preaching the word of God?
How many verses do we need to go to?
It's the whole Bible.
Go to James, or I'm sorry, go to John 21
before we go to James.
John 21, few pages to the right, John chapter number 21,
talking about, oh, you wanna love Jesus.
You wanna have a good relationship with Jesus.
You wanna be close to Jesus.
Well, let's look at what Jesus actually said
you have to do to be there.
Verse 15, so when they had dine,
we sang a great song about this this morning.
Jesus sayeth to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas,
lovest thou me more than these?
He said unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
He sayeth unto him, Feed my lambs.
He sayeth to him again the second time,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?
He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee.
He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me?
Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me?
And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things.
Thou knowest that I love thee.
Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
See, it wasn't good enough for Jesus for Peter just to say, Oh yeah, I love you.
I love you, Jesus.
I love you.
He's like, Do you love me?
I love you.
Do you love me?
And the third time, I love you.
Okay, well then feed my sheep.
What's that?
That's work.
We know that Peter became a pastor and the job of a pastor is what?
To feed the flock of God that Jesus Christ purchased with his own blood.
You know that that's work?
You know the Bible calls it the work of the ministry?
You know the Bible says that when you desire the office of a bishop, you desire a good
work.
And someone who actually wants to do a lot of work for Jesus is the same person that
loves him.
And the person who doesn't want to do works for Jesus, that doesn't want to go to church,
doesn't want to read the Bible, doesn't want to go soul winning, doesn't want to pray,
doesn't want to support the church of God, that person does not love Jesus Christ.
You could be saved, but you don't love Jesus if you're not working.
Go to James 2.
Here's another reason why we should do works.
We talked about, you know, the purpose of good works.
What is it?
To be close to God, to have a good relationship with him.
And I want that and I hope you want that too.
But here's another very important reason to do good works and that's to profit other people.
We already saw that in Titus 3, how by preaching good works, it's good and profitable to men.
Also this is taught in James chapter 2, which a lot of false prophets wrongly teach, that
this passage teaches that you have to be saved by works.
That's not true.
But it does teach that you have to have good works to profit other people.
Look at James chapter 2 verse 14, notice this word, "What doth it profit?"
You know what that means?
What does that benefit?
What does that help?
What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith and have not works,
can faith save him?
Now here's the thing, you have to understand that in the Bible, salvation, saved, save,
these words are sometimes used in a spiritual sense as far as going to heaven.
Oftentimes, the word saved or salvation is being used in a physical sense.
And this is talking about a physical salvation.
And I will prove that because the Bible is literally about to give us an example that
it's talking about something physical.
It says, "If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you
say unto them, 'Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled,' notwithstanding, you give them
not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit?"
I mean, this is a pretty striking example.
Someone comes up to you naked and destitute of food.
You know what is about to happen?
This person is about to die.
If you don't have clothes and you don't have food, you are about to die.
Imagine someone comes up to you, they're naked, they're starving, and you're like, "Be he
warmed and filled."
Is your faith going to help that person?
No, it's not.
It is not going to profit.
It's like, can faith save him from a physical perspective?
No, of course not.
If someone is dying, if someone is starving, if someone is naked, and you're just like,
"Be he warmed and filled."
Is that going to help them?
Is that going to save them?
No.
It's like by us, not doing good works.
By us just being lazy, is our faith going to profit anyone on this world?
No, it's not.
But by doing good works, your good works for God are profiting God, but it's also always
profiting other people.
You reading the Bible, you may think, "How is me reading the Bible profiting other people?"
Because you're getting the knowledge of God and the wisdom of God that you might be able
to help someone else with someday, or teach your children someday, or learn how to preach
the Gospels.
You could share that with others someday, and oh, how does going to church help someone
else?
You're provoking one another to love and to good works by you showing up at church.
You're profiting other people.
You're encouraging me.
You're encouraging your brothers in Christ, praying.
You're supposed to be praying for other people.
That's blessing other people, making a meal for someone who's sick or who had a baby.
It's profiting other people.
Your works profit other people.
Verse 17 says, "Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead."
Being alone.
If you have a car with a dead battery, the car exists, the car is real, but the car is
not going to profit you.
It's not going to take you from point A to point B.
Just like a faith with no works, it's still there.
It still exists.
Faith alone saves you and will take you to heaven, but faith alone with no works is not
going to profit anyone else while you're on this earth.
Verse number 18 says, "Yea, a man may say thou hast faith and I have works.
Show me thy faith without thy works and I will show thee my faith by my works."
This is what Jesus was trying to get Peter to do.
Oh, you say you have faith.
Oh, you say you love me, but how you actually show your faith and actually how you show
your love is by doing works.
And just like I said, those who actually love God, they're the ones doing the most work
for God.
And here's the thing is, those who actually love other people are doing the most works
for other people, are doing the most works in general because it profits others.
And if you actually love God and you love people, is that going to lead you to sit here
and be like, be warm and filled?
No.
If you actually love God and love other people, you're going to be like, hey, I want to serve,
I want to help, I want to do stuff, I want to labor because that's going to be a blessing
to other people.
Verse 19 says, "Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well.
The devils also believe and tremble."
You know, you have idiots that use this verse to say, "See, you're not saved by faith alone
because the Bible says that even devils believe."
Notice what the devils believe.
They believe that there's one God.
No one teaches that you get to heaven by believing one God exists.
You know how you get saved is that you believe that Jesus is the one God and that He died
for your sins, that He was buried, that He rose again, and that if you put all of your
faith in Him, He saves you for forever.
Devils don't believe that, folks.
Devils believe that one God exists.
And so, yes, devils believing one God exists, they tremble.
That does not mean that, oh, well, that means salvation is not by faith because the devils
believe.
You just didn't even read the verse, man.
The Bible didn't say that they trusted in Christ, it just said they believed that there
was one God.
Verse 20, "But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?"
And you know, we sometimes get a little unbalanced, especially in passages like this where we
go to these passages and we're constantly teaching what it doesn't say because there's
so many false prophets out there that twist James chapter 2 and we're constantly having
to tell you, "This doesn't say anything, you have to do works to be saved."
But we don't want to lose the sight of what it is saying though.
What it is saying is that faith without works is dead and you should internalize that to
yourself and say, "Do I have a dead faith today?"
Because if you're not doing works, if you're not keeping God's commandments, though you
have faith, your faith is dead and it's not profitable to God and it's not profitable
to other people.
Again, I think about the parable of the talents, the master, he gives his servants five, three
and one and he was really pleased with the servants that made a profit and he was really
angry at the guy with one talent that just buried it in the earth and didn't do anything
for it.
So people want to act like, oh you know the new IFB and the pastors in the new IFB, they're
so hateful and if they're not three to thrive, and I even heard this, if they're not in church
serving 24/7 then we're going to say that they're wicked or if someone's not three to
thrive, you know, we're not even, we don't even care about ministering to them, we don't
even want them here because they're probably going to bounce anyways, you know that is
a bunch of bull crap and a bunch of lies.
Here's the thing, I don't expect every single person in this world to be a five talent
guy.
I don't expect every single person in this world to be a three talent guy.
Some people are going to be one talent guys, but you know, you one talent guys, you should
still make a profit for the Lord.
And you know what, I want you to be three to thrive, I want you to go soul winning
as much as you can, I want you to serve the Lord as much as you can, but look, let's just
be honest, there's going to be some people that come to our church that are going to
be Sunday morning only, and you know what, I want you here, I want those people here,
I want these people serving.
You okay, you work a crazy job, you know you made some decisions young in life, before
you were saved, or before you were on fire for God, and you got into a career where it's
like you can't go to church all the time, you can't go soul winning all the time.
It's like okay, that's not ideal.
If someone was young, I wouldn't recommend that they follow in your steps, but you're
in that situation, I'm not going to sit here and bash you or make fun of you or say you
should never come to church because you're not free to thrive.
No, we still want you to come, we still want you to do works, because if you're doing nothing
your faith is dead.
If you've just got five talents and you do nothing with it, you're unprofitable.
If you've got three, one, you do nothing with it, you're unprofitable.
So yeah, there's going to be the special forces that do more work than other people.
And I think that people should strive to be that.
I think you should strive to do the most works for God as possible.
But look, there's other people, and I even use the silly example.
I'm not going to sit here and act like pregnant and nursing women should be out soul winning
as much as the single guys in our church.
But here's the thing, praise the Lord for the single guys that are doing that.
Like our Tuesday numbers are awesome.
Why?
We've got some on fire single guys that are trying to serve the Lord with all their heart
that are taking of their time, their effort, their energy, their money to preach the gospel
to make a profit for God.
Amen.
That's great.
But I'm not going to sit down here and say like, oh, you have health problems, you're
super old, you know, you're pregnant, you're nursing, you've got five other kids.
Why aren't you soul winning as much as the single guys?
No one says that.
It's a straw man.
You know, they hear us preaching hard about doing good works for God and be like, yeah,
you know, we don't even care about people that aren't free to thrive.
We don't even want to minister unto them.
Lies.
Bullcrap.
It's disgusting.
Look at verse 21.
Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the
altar?
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect?
How was it that God saw that Abraham actually had all this faith was when he went to offer
his son Isaac.
He went to do it.
He had the knife.
He was ready to offer his son Isaac.
He believed that God was able to raise him again from the dead and it was through his
work of doing that that God saw, "Oh, he actually has a lot of faith," right?
It wasn't just Abraham saying, "I believe."
It was the fact that Abraham trusted in God.
He had called upon the name of the Lord, but his faith was made perfect in the sense that
he was doing work and he was doing a really big work.
And notice what it says in verse 23, "And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, 'Abraham
believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness.'
And he was called," notice, "the friend of God."
Not everyone is a friend of God.
A lot of sacrifice goes into being the friend of God.
A lot of Bible reading, a lot of prayer, a lot of works for God, a lot of soul winning.
That's what it takes to become the friend of God.
You're not the friend of God just by being saved.
In fact, the Bible says, "Friendship with the world is enmity with God.
Whosoever will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God," the Bible says.
So you can even be saved and be an enemy of God.
Then you can be kind of in limbo where you don't really have a great relationship.
He knows you, you know him, you're saved.
But if you want to actually be the friend of God,
you've got to be doing a lot of works.
You've got to be faithful.
You've got to be cleaning up your life.
And let's just go really quickly to Romans chapter four.
This is just a good verse to talk about
what we're talking about, James chapter two,
because man, people just don't get it.
They'll hear everything I preached.
They'll see what James two said,
and they'll still think that you have to do works
to be saved or that you have to do works
to keep your salvation.
Or if you stop doing works, you'll lose your salvation.
Or if you start sinning, you'll lose your salvation.
Notice what Romans chapter four verse five says.
But to him that worketh not.
This person does zero works, folks.
They're not reading the Bible.
They're not repenting of their sins.
They're not asking for forgiveness.
They're not doing anything good.
But to him that worketh not.
But believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly.
His faith is counted for righteousness.
If you believe in Jesus Christ, God looks down
and sees you as 100% righteous in the new man
because God, Jesus Christ, took our sin.
Jesus gave us his righteousness.
Even if you don't do any works for God in the future,
you are still saved.
But you're not the friend of God.
And your faith isn't gonna profit other people.
Go to John 15.
Here's another reason why we wanna do works
is to bring forth fruit.
And really what I'm talking about is getting people saved.
Getting people to believe on Christ
and to be going to heaven when they die.
John 15 verse one says this.
I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit,
he taketh away.
And every branch that beareth fruit,
he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit.
So God's desire for us once we're saved is to work,
is to bring forth fruit.
So he's going to purge those branches
so that we could bring forth more fruit.
Just like with a tree, you'd cut off some limbs,
especially ones that aren't producing well,
so that the nutrients can be flowing to the branches
that are producing fruit, the branches that are doing work.
It says, "Now ye are clean through the word
"which I have spoken unto you.
"Abide in me and I in you.
"As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
"except it abide in the vine,
"no more can ye except ye abide in me.
"I am the vine, ye are the branches,
"he that abideth in me and I in him
"the same bringeth forth, notice, much fruit.
"For without me ye can do nothing."
God's desire is for us to bring forth fruit,
yea, much fruit.
That's why we're here on this earth.
It's so that we can be close to God,
so that we can profit other people,
and the biggest way to do that is to get people saved.
This is why he's saying like,
"Hey, you wanna be a disciple?
"You wanna follow me?
"Okay, I'll make you a fisher of men."
He wants us to go out and to be a fisher of men.
Go to Revelation chapter two.
So number one, we saw the commandment of work.
Number two, we saw the purpose of work.
Number three, the judgment of work,
God's judgment of our works.
Revelation chapter number two,
the Bible says this in verse one,
"Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write,
"these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars
"in his right hand, who walketh in the midst
"of the seven golden candlesticks."
Notice this phrase, "I know thy works,
"and thy labor, and thy patience,
"and how thou canst not bear them which are evil,
"and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles
"and are not, and hast found them liars."
If you look up that phrase in the book of Revelation,
over and over and over, Jesus is saying,
"I know your works, I know thy works,
"I know thy works," he's constantly talking about the works.
Verse three, "And hast born, and hast patience,
"and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted.
"Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee,
"because thou hast left thy first love."
"Remember therefore, from whence thou art fallen,
"and repent, and do the first works,
"or else I will come unto thee quickly,
"and will remove thy candlestick out of his place,
"except thou repent."
You know, it sounds like God's trying
to motivate us with some fear.
It sounds like Jesus is trying to use fear
as a tactic for us to do good works.
Sounds like God is judging our works.
He's looking at the churches.
He's constantly saying, I know thy works,
thy works, thy works.
You know, God today is looking down
at Anchor Baptist Church, and he's looking at our works.
You know what's gonna keep our candlestick shining bright
is by doing works.
Is by not forsaking the first love,
which is winning souls to Jesus Christ.
God is making sure that our church is doing that.
And if our church stopped preaching the gospel,
if we stopped going out and going soul winning,
if I stopped emphasizing soul winning,
you know what God could do?
He could just make this church not exist.
You know, and quite honestly,
there's churches in this Metro that are doing the work.
They're going out and they're knocking doors.
They're trying to get people safe.
They're trying to get people to come into church.
And it's like, we want God to bless us.
We got to really be emphasizing works.
And you know, I don't want to just hand a door
and what's it called, little door hanger.
I don't want to just hand out a track.
I don't just want to get kids on the bus to come to church.
Like I want to preach the full clear gospel.
I want people to call upon the name of the Lord.
I want to get people saved right there at the doorstep
and not just bring them into church.
And look, praise God for any work
that any church is doing for Jesus Christ.
But I want to take this warning and say, okay,
let's take the work of God seriously.
Let's take the first work seriously.
Let's take the first love seriously
and let's fear God and his judgment against us.
Lest he look down from heaven and says,
anchor Baptist church, where's the work?
Where's the work for God?
Oh, great, you're sitting here just thinking of the joy
and the love and the relationship.
It's like, where's the work?
It doesn't exist the job where your boss is just like,
I want you to think about the joy of your job
and the relationship that you have with me.
He wants work.
He wants profit.
And it's like, look, we're saved.
We're going to heaven, but why are we here on this earth?
So that we will do work, so that we will produce fruit,
so that we will get people saved.
Go to 1st Corinthians chapter number five.
You know, Hebrews 13, four says marriage is honorable
and all in the bed undefiled,
but whoremongers and adulterers, God will what?
Judge.
God's looking down at the saved and the unsaved
and is judging our works.
And he's ready to punish a church
that's not doing the right works.
He's ready to punish individuals
who aren't doing the right works.
Think about this.
If sin was not a big deal,
if we don't really have to worry about the commandments,
if we shouldn't ever be using fear
to get people to do the right things,
like why is 1 Corinthians five even in the Bible?
Why can we as a church make judgment
where we exercise church discipline
for someone not doing the right works
for being in these grievous sins
if we're just not supposed to worry about it,
we're not supposed to judge,
we're not supposed to care about it.
Look at 1 Corinthians five verse 11.
It says, "But now I have written unto you
not to keep company if any man that is called a brother
be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer
or a drunkard or an extortioner
with such and one know not to eat."
The Bible's commanding us that look,
there are certain sins that we cannot even tolerate
in the house of God.
Explain to me how I'm supposed to get up here and say,
oh, you know, once you're saved,
you don't need to worry about the commandments.
Oh, you should never let anyone make you feel bad
for anything that you're doing.
Well, that doesn't jive with scripture.
And again, I want to read a quote from Pastor Joe Jones,
who I mentioned a few weeks ago,
because he's kind of just unfortunately doubled down
on this insanity that he's been preaching.
And this is a quote from him.
It says, "We are not only free from that sin,
but you are free from the guilt and the tyranny
that people try to put on you
for not doing things that we know we ought to do."
So like, you're saved, therefore,
you're free from any guilt or tyranny
that anyone wants to put on you
for not doing the things that you ought to do.
Okay, well, let's go to our logical conclusion of this.
What are some things we ought to do?
How about abstain from fornication?
How about not worship idols?
How about not be adulterer?
Well, you know, don't let anyone tell you
or make you feel guilty of not doing the things
you know you ought to do.
Why is 1 Corinthians 5 in the Bible then?
Like, we're supposed to make that very clear.
That's not allowed.
This is wicked.
This person's gonna get called out.
This person's gonna be made known
before the whole congregation for their sin.
How does that jive with this?
He says you are free from that.
You should never, ever, ever tolerate somebody telling you,
you know, you don't come to church this many times
and you don't do this and I do all this.
No, that is so un-Christ-like.
It's not even funny.
That is so wrong.
It's like, well then why does Titus 3 tell the pastor
to be constantly preaching for God's people to do good works?
That it's good and profitable to men.
That to be the friend of God, you've
got to be doing good works.
And again, this is kind of a straw man
because I've made it clear, hey, there's five talent people,
three talent, one talent.
I'm not treating the praying women the same way
as I'm treating the single guys.
We are loving in this church.
We are welcoming of people at different spiritual walks.
But when I'm behind this pulpit preaching the word of God,
I am going to make you feel bad for not doing
the things you ought to do.
Because that's God's judgment.
That's God's word.
And you know what, you're failing as a pastor
when you're not doing the instructions
of Titus chapter three.
It's ridiculous.
Then he reads Romans six two.
You know, what shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
God forbid.
For how shall we that are dead to sin
live any longer therein?
Romans chapter number six.
And he says, you know what that means?
It's impossible.
That's the interpretation being preached.
That continuing to live in sin is impossible
according to Pastor Jones.
He said it is impossible.
There's no way you are not living in sin.
You're not.
You might be doing some things that are considered sinful,
but Christ, he looks down on you and he's like,
that's my child, that's me.
And God the Father's like, oh yeah, that's the son.
So no matter what you're doing,
no matter what sins you're committed in,
you're involved in, no one's allowed to look at you
and make you feel bad or make you feel judged
for not doing the things that you ought to do.
And in fact, you can't even continue in sin.
He even went on to say, you can't make mistakes.
He said that Romans 6.2 teaches
that you basically can't make any mistakes.
So no matter what you're doing,
I mean, you could be in the act of fornication
and God just looks down and says, that's my son.
That's the logical conclusion of this crap.
And that's why we have to talk about it.
That's why we have to preach against it
because this mentality will hurt Christians' lives.
This will keep people from being profitable.
This will keep people from being close to God.
This will keep people from winning souls
because isn't it just nice for the flesh to hear
like you don't have to do anything.
You're always pleasing to God no matter what.
Don't worry about the works.
Don't worry about the soul winning numbers.
Oh, it's so on Christ like to judge sin.
What are you talking about?
And it's like, I got this weird feeling that I'm like,
I don't even, I thought I knew this guy.
I was this person's friend.
I loved this person.
I helped this person.
He was a blessing to me at times.
And look, I want the best for him.
But I'm just thinking like he's changed.
He's completely different.
This isn't the same person.
And he's even in his sermons made it very clear.
Like I used to be this way.
I used to preach this certain thing.
And now we're changing the culture.
We're changing this.
Look, we gotta make sure that we don't allow the culture of this church or churches that
are friends with us go into this new evangelical, liberal, do nothing garbage.
You wanna know why I love the new IFB?
Hard preaching.
You know why I love the new IFB?
Soul winning.
You know what I love about the new IFB?
Preaching about not just the love of God, but also the hatred of God against wicked
people and against wicked sins.
And you know I love that the new IFB is hardcore and I want it to stay that way.
I am not interested in becoming like every other watered down, do nothing church.
They're a dime a dozen.
Go pick a Baptist church in this area, they'll probably be saved.
But you know what?
I doubt that they're going to apartment complexes where a murder happened last week and pulling
12 people out of the fire.
I doubt that they're getting people saved even in the parking lot after service, dragging
them in here and getting them baptized.
I doubt that their pastors are preaching all the capital punishment laws that the Bible
teaches.
that their pastors are preaching as hard on sin as we do at this church because
we fear God and we love God and we want to keep His commandments. Let's not let
this culture change and I will not allow the culture to change. If I am the pastor
here the culture here is going to be works. It's gonna be hard preaching and
look if you're offended be offended you're welcome to stay and grow but if
you want to change the culture here you might as well leave. Oh I want you to
change the doctrine I want you to change the culture I want you to stop yelling
just leave just go to a different church I am not interested at growing a church
at any and all costs I am interested in preaching the word of God and I would
rather get more people saved with half the people that love God that want to
keep his commandments than a bunch of mamby-pamby weak pathetic Christians and
look I don't hate you if you're weak I want you to grow and be strong I want
you to be strong in the Lord and do his commandments but don't you dare try to
change the culture don't you dare try to teach me oh no you just gotta accept the
joy and the love and the grace no you don't know the Bible why don't you
listen to a pastor who's been ordained who's read the Bible 23 times cover to
cover and why don't you let me set the culture because I actually know what the
Bible says go to first Corinthians 6 then he said to understand what these
verses mean he said let's start off Romans 6 verse number one Paul says this
and this is right after he's basically said hey you're saved forever you
basically can't make any more mistakes it's Jesus did it all for you it's good
to go that was a quote from passage O Jones no you can't make any more
mistakes you're good to go I mean no matter what you're doing you're just
good to go okay first Corinthians 6 verse 1 dare any of you having a matter
against another go to law before the unjust and not before the Saints oh I
thought we can't make mistakes oh I thought we can't ever make anyone feel
bad for what they're doing oh I thought we can't ever judge someone meanwhile
Paul's like how dare you dare any of you that's what he's saying how dare you
dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and
not for the Saints do you not know that the Saints shall judge the world and if
the world shall be judged by you are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters
know you not that we shall judge angels how much more things pertaining to this
life if then you have judgments of things pertaining to this life set them
to judge who are the least esteemed in the church oh oh verse 5 I speak this to
your shame is it so that there's not a wise man among you no not one that shall
be able to judge between his brother shame can be a positive motivator and
you know it's funny I preached a few weeks ago not even knowing all this crap
was gonna happen a sermon called the shame of sin and sin is shameful and we
should make sin exceedingly sinful we should not downplay sin we should not
say oh you could be doing things that are considered sinful but no worries you
can't even make any mistakes you're good to go that is not gonna be the
preaching at this church no rather we're gonna take like Paul said he's like how
dare you he's saying like I literally he said I speak this to your shame you
have someone in your church no one in your church can judge righteously I
speak that to your shame what a shame it would be if us at anchor Baptist
church like we don't know the Bible we don't even know the doctrine we can't
even judge things no no you should know the Bible you should be knowledgeable in
the scriptures you should be able to judge according to the word of God and
if you can't that's a shame and you should work on changing that and it's
not like oh you know you can't be here if you're haven't gotten to our level
you know we're all at different levels grow but realize like if you can't judge
with the scriptures that is a shame and you should change that go to 1st
Corinthians chapter number 3 what are we talking about how that God judges our
works God judges our works here's a pretty scary way that God is gonna
judge our work someday is 1st Corinthians chapter number 3 verse 11
says for other foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is Jesus
Christ now if any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones
wood hay stubble every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall
declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every
man's work of what sort it is if any man's work abide which he hath built
thereupon he shall receive a reward if any man's work shall be burned he shall
suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire know you not
that you're the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you if any
man defile the temple of God him shall God destroy for the temple of God is
holy which temple ye are look God is judging your works right now and someday
when you stand before the judgment seat of Christ God is not gonna judge you
then as to whether or not you're saved because the saved are already saved you
know what he's gonna be judging he's gonna be judging what you've done in
your body he's gonna be judging your works and those who have built you know
gold and silver and precious stones by doing the things that we talked about
today they're gonna receive a reward but those who have built their life on the
sand those who have not followed God's commandments those who have not worried
about doing works for God those that didn't worry about prioritizing church
prioritizing soul winning prioritizing the work of God they've just got wood
hay and stubble all that stuff is gonna be burnt up and they're gonna suffer
loss they're gonna suffer the loss of the opportunity of rewards that they
could have gotten if they were doing works for God but the Bible says but he
still saved so as by fire look there's gonna be people in the kingdom of God
that are at different levels there are gonna be people with more rewards who
have done more works and there's gonna be people who are the least in the
kingdom of God those are the people that break God's commandments and teach men
to do so and so now in this life is the only opportunity that you get to decide
which one you want to be because if you wait until that day it's too late your
short life that you have on this earth is the only time that you can do works
for God to be able to get a reward at the judgment seat of Christ and our life
is a vapor it goes by so fast and you just have to realize that everything
else is vanity your car is vain house is vain your vacations are vain and look
I'm not saying you can't have those things or enjoy those things but you
know what just the focus of your life should be Jesus Christ the Bible says
Jesus Christ which is our life you know Paul he's going to do works for God he
knows he's about to receive persecution he's like neither count I my life dear
unto myself he's not thinking about himself he's thinking about the word of
God the work of God and winning souls to Christ you know those who want to be
rewarded greatly at the judgment seat of Christ are gonna be those who do the
most work so we saw number one the command work number two the purpose to
work number three we see God's judgment to work I want to close on one final
thought this morning go to Hebrews chapter 6 which is the theme chapter of
our church Hebrews chapter number 6 Hebrews 6 verse 9 but beloved we are
persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation though
we thus speak for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and
labor of love which you have showed toward his name in that you have
ministered to the Saints and do minister and we desire that every one of you do
show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end that ye
be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit
the promises you need to remember that God is not going to forget your work
and it doesn't matter if you're doing something publicly or you're doing
something in secret and you think to yourself does God even care am I even
getting reward for this is God even pleased with this the Bible says God is
not going to forget your work so you know that means that every meal you make
for a pregnant lady or someone that just gave birth or every time you help
someone who's sick every time that you're in your closet in secret and
you're praying for your brothers in Christ praying for your pastor praying
for evangelists are panic praying for you know men of God praying for more
laborers for our church every time you open your mouth and share the gospel
with someone even if it's not in front of any of us and you're just you know at
the gas station you just win someone to Christ every time you make a stand for
Jesus Christ at the workplace every time you stand up for the Word of God with
your family every time you open your Bible every time you show up to church
every time you help in the work of God of this ministry God's not going to
forget it's not in vain it's not meaningless in fact it's the only thing
that has meaning in his life is doing work for him and that's why verse 12 the
call to action that he has is that you be not slothful but followers of them who
through faith and patience inherit the promises it's funny people ought to look
to Hebrews 11 which it's like they're doing these things through faith but
what are they doing through faith they're doing all these great works for
God through faith and he just got you know in Hebrews 11 he's talking about
all the great works they do and it's like hey we want to not be slothful we
want to be doing good works for God but followers of them the great examples
that are listed to us in the Word of God who through faith and patience
inherit the promises you know what that should be our goal in life is to not be
slothful to not be an unprofitable servant to not be someone that takes the
talent that God gives us and just buried in the earth but to do everything that
we can to make a profit for God and you know what that's gonna look differently
for me than it will for you we've all got a different race to run but you know
what run your race don't sit here and just sit on the sidelines and do
nothing as this world passes you by you've got a short life to live for
Jesus Christ and weeks are going by months are going by years are going by
what are you doing what are you doing for Christ because there is a real day
coming where you will look your Lord in the eyes and he will judge you according
to your works and you know I as a pastor do not want to stand before him and
wonder if I preached to my flock no big deal you're never in sin we're never
gonna judge anything you should never feel bad for anything or do I want to
at least say like hey I did my part I tell I told them to go I went myself I
told them to go and you know what you will have to give account for yourself
not your husband not your wife not your soul winning partner not your pastor
you you will stand before Jesus Christ be judged according to your works so
with that let's get to work let's pray Lord we thank you for your word we thank
you for the command to work Lord I pray that none of us would ever be weary of
well-doing that we would always be zealous for the work of God that we
would keep in remembrance the good works that we're supposed to do that we
would realize that we're going to fail but that we would get back on the horse
that we feel sorry for our sins and ask you to forgive us to restore our
relationship and help us every day to push towards the mark and do great works
for you as a church in Jesus name we pray amen