(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) Good morning everyone, welcome to Stronghold Baptist Church, if you can grab your hymnals and open up to song number 196, song 196, I will sing the wonder story, song 196, my church, they sing this out on the verse, I will sing the wonder story of the Christ who died for me, how He left His holy glory for the cross of Galilee, yes I'll sing the wonder story of the Christ who died for me, sing it then the saints will hold me, gathered by the Christmas tree, I was lost when Jesus found me, found His sheep that went astray, through His loving arms around me, took me back into His way, yes I'll sing the wonder story of the Christ who died for me, sing it then the saints will hold me, gathered by the Christmas tree, I was bruised when Jesus healed me, because I had many more, because I was gone and He possessed me, but He freed me from their home, yes I'll sing the wonder story of the Christ who died for me, sing it then the saints will hold me, gathered by the Christmas tree, I was lost when Jesus found me, found His holy glory for the cross of Galilee, yes I'll sing the wonder story of the Christ who died for me, sing it then the saints will hold me, gathered by the Christmas tree, I was lost when Jesus found me, found His sheep that went astray, through His loving arms around me, took me back into His way, yes I'll sing the wonder story of the Christ who died for me, sing it then the saints will hold me, gathered by the Christmas tree. Amen. Alright, let's turn to our next song, song 301. Song 301, Sweet Hour of Prayer. Song 301. Let's sing this out here first. And so has often found me here, and of this gate the tenters stand. My life returns, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer. My life returns, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer. My life returns, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, may I thy constellations share. To come thou distant lofty height, I view my home and take my flight. This robe of flesh I'll drop and rise, to seize the everlasting Christ. And shout while passing through the air, farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer. Amen. Alright, great singing this morning. It's good to have you all here with us at Strong Old Baptist Church. At this time we'll go through our announcements. So if you don't have a bulletin, just lift your hand up real high. One of our ushers will get to you with a bulletin. And if you'd open up to the first page, you'll see our service times listed there at the top. As always, Sunday morning at 1030, Sunday evening again at 5 p.m. and then Wednesday night 7 is our Bible study. We'll be in Psalm 88 this week. We've got the soul winning opportunities listed there as well as our salvation and baptisms for the month of January as well as the offering totals on there at the bottom of the page. Let's go ahead and count up if we have, if there's any salvation to report for the week. Just lift your hand up real quick. Yes, ma'am. Two on Friday or? Saturday. Saturday. Saturday, two. Brother Lance? One on Saturday. Saturday as well. Brother Preston? Saturday. Saturday. Amen. One yesterday. Amen. Alright. Saturday. Another one for Saturday. Did you guys all go out together? Yeah. Just add them up. Give me the number as a group. One on Friday. One on Friday. One on Saturday. Amen. Awesome. Did I miss anybody? That's a lot yesterday. So it's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Eight salvations for Saturday. Praise the Lord. That's good. Again, I'll just mention this for people who like to naysay on numbers when they get big and see we had a thousand salvations last year. Eight salvations in one day, but it's one, one, one, one, one, one, one, two. That's the way it works. When you get a lot of people active and a lot of people preaching the gospel and spending many hours, you don't always get big numbers individually, but collectively as a church, we do. The more people who are active and going out and doing this, that's why we have larger numbers of people receiving Christ and getting saved because there's a lot more work being put into it. So I appreciate all the hard work of this church. Let's continue to move forward. And if you have never been, you ever preached the gospel to anyone before? Maybe you have and you've never gone door to door, come out with us this afternoon. We've got a time this afternoon. We have a break after the morning service. There's enough time to go grab some lunch and then meet up back here at one thirty. We'd love to have you join us and you don't even have to really do anything other than show up. We'll send you with someone who's very experienced and you can see how we approach people. You can see how we give the gospel to people. You can see that we're not just pressuring people into a prayer or something like that. You know, there's a lot of different methods that you may have come into contact with out there. But try it. See how we give the gospel to people and understand that look, you know, we can't cram anything down anyone's throat. We only talk to people who want to listen, but we do our best to be very clear and very thorough so that people are understanding what the gospel is and what it is that they're doing. And when they when they decide to put their trust and faith in Jesus Christ, that this is that it's real. Right. So come out. Come on out with us. It is the most important thing that you can do with your time is preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. All right. Let's continue on here with the prayer requests on the next page there in the insert. You can see there are still women who are with child of the next pregnancy that we are awaiting. Here is Mrs. Kubara. Of course, this is Natalie. If you're not if you don't know Natalie that well, her husband, Alex, is the one who helped help install all the cabinets here. And they've actually been coming to our church for quite a long time. But just just be in prayer for her. They live up closer to South Carolina and be in prayer for her pregnancy, as well as the immigration status or their documents and stuff like that. I know we've had many people come through this church who have come from other countries just in general and have been trying to deal with citizenship status and just status to being here in the country and things like that. So please pray that things will go well with that as well to pray for the rest of ladies who are with child. Of course, Mrs. Bacon from Tennessee had her baby last week. So everything went well. Mom and baby are doing just fine. We're happy to hear about that. We added a few people to our list here down at the bottom. Unfortunately, Seth's friend Robert passed away a week or two ago. And we just want to pray now for his wife, Judy, and their family and just make sure that, you know, that God could comfort them through this difficult time as it's not easy to deal with the passing. But the one thing that is makes it easier is the testimony of salvation. So when someone who has their faith in Christ passes away, at least you know that they are truly in a better place. And it is just a temporary parting. But in any case, it still is difficult dealing with the parting. So please pray for his widow, Judy, and, of course, all the others impacted by that passing. Juana Martinez had a car accident on New Year's when she was leaving here. So she was here with us on New Year's Eve. And then ended up, I think, getting rear-ended or something. She went to the hospital that night. Her car is totaled. Thank God she's okay physically. Her health is okay. But that was her only means of transportation. It's totaled. And, of course, you know how it goes. Insurance never wants to give what the car is really worth to you and things like that. So just pray that things will go well for her. I think she's established a ride to her work, to her job. So that is good. But just pray that things will go well with her. She'll be able to get another vehicle and that it will all work itself out. With that, we added Kristen, which is Sister Cindy's friend who, unfortunately, took her own life. So pray for that whole situation with her family and that God will comfort her family. And also, with all the people who passed, we want to pray that some good comes out of this in the sense of people thinking about their own mortality and hopefully their heart being softened to receiving the gospel if they're not saved. And then finally, at the bottom there, we have Vernon Miller, Sr., who had a stroke this past week and was hospitalized. He had a blood clot on the brain. But I just got a text from Brother Vernon this morning that he has been released from the hospital. So that is very good news. I asked him if he had full mobility back, and I didn't get an answer, but I know that he did say previously that he was. Because just like with many strokes, half of his body, he didn't have the function of that. But if I recall correctly, he did say that he did get mobility back previously, but I was trying to verify and confirm that when they released him that he's back to 100 percent full health. I am uncertain of that, but being released is a big step, and I'm pretty certain he did get mobility back as well. So that's also very important. So praise the Lord for answering prayers in general. And this is a good reason why it's good to be on that WhatsApp group that we have for the prayers. So when things happen, especially big events happen in the middle of the week, you can get an update on that and you can pray with the church for people. So if you want to be added to that, just come and talk to me after the service. I could add you to that group, no problem. So we'd love to have more people on that prayer group. But in any case, it's very good to hear that he is being released from the hospital today. And then we have our churches and pastors we're praying for. First Works Baptist Church in California, Pastor Bruce Mejia. Pray that God will bless their ministry. Is there any other updates for people who are on the prayer list as it stands right now? All right, very good. Please take these home with you. Please remember the people who are in need of your prayers and pray for them. On the next page, we are in the middle of the month of January. So it's the Bible reading challenge that we are doing this month. And if you are keeping current with the pace of nine chapters a day, you should be in the book of Romans today. In the book of Romans today, I believe there's still sheets back there. If you want to keep track of what nine chapters a day, you know, where you should be, just in case you kind of lose track or you get off pace. But there's also two grace day periods, too. So if you're doing nine chapters a day, you get this done in 29 days instead of 31. So if you're a little bit behind, don't worry about it. And still, it's what, the 13th or the 14th or something, the 14th today. So there's still plenty of time just spread out. If you want to complete this challenge, just add an extra couple chapters a day and try to get it done that way, and you can do it. So let me, while we have everyone here, because I don't think I actually have enough prizes necessarily for the December challenge. If you completed the December challenge, which is the singing challenge and not listening to worldly music, just slip your hand up real quick so I can get an accurate count for that. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 27. Okay, I'll have to get some more prizes. I was hoping I had enough from the last time I got them. But let's do, I think probably that should cover it. And I'll try to get those divvied up next week. And then we've got the new church plant in Greenville, South Carolina. Please continue to pray for that. We are seeking a place to locate for that and a place that's going to last us for a while with the growth that we are planning on having there, and especially just with the people that have already said that they're planning on attending. So it should be a very successful church plant. Just pray that God will lead us to the right place that we can get started there. Bible memory passage, Hebrews chapter 10, two weeks left. So there's three verses left in Hebrews chapter 10. If you can memorize this and quote it out loud, word perfect to someone else who will check your work, you'll earn a prize for being able to do that. We've got the upcoming birthdays and anniversaries for the month of January, as well as the upcoming events. And so this Friday is that field trip and the movie night. So come on out and join us for that. It should be a lot of fun. And the movie that we're going to be watching is Genesis History. It's a sequel to Is Genesis History. So it's a creation science movie. Some of you might think it's dry. I don't know. I like it a lot. I like the fact that this is different than some of the other creation videos that are put out because it really, they speak with experts in the field regarding these various sciences that literally day to day are doing the work in the science, but they are able to show evidence that supports the Bible, which of course we already know is true, but it's very cool to see that from real science, just showing that everything that we can see in the earth is consistent with what the Bible teaches, which is of course what we would expect anyways. But it's a very good film. I like it a lot. And just a fair warning. It's not like all of those people are fundamental Baptists or KJV only or things like that that are in this documentary, but the whole point is just it's a creation video. It's about that. Don't come into it thinking that this is all like IFB stuff. It's not, okay, but it's still very good information about the science and about geology and all these other things fascinating the work and what the earth really shows us about creation when you study it. So that is this Friday. And then February 3rd will be our next men's preaching class. I don't know if that date. I didn't get a chance to talk to brother Peter about that. Oftentimes we do a song leading class an hour before that. Are you able to commit to that right now or do you want to talk to me about that later? All right. Take a look at your schedule. So potentially we'll have a song leading class that day as well. But for right now, it's the next men's preaching class starts at 1030 and that'll be February 3rd. My goal is try to have these scheduled every month if it's possible. So that one at least the first one is scheduled. And then, of course, May 13th is our camp. And that is about it for our announcement. So I'm going to turn the service back over to brother Peter who can lead us in our next song. Brother off. Brother off. Come on up and lead us in our next song. All right, church. You guys can grab your hidden notes and turn to song 288. That is song 288, I am resolved. Song 288. I am resolved for longer to be where I'm charmed by the world's new light. Things that are higher, things that are nowhere, these have alert my sight. I will hasten to Him, hasten to let it free. Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee. I am resolved to come to the Savior, believe in my sin and strive. He is the true one, He is the just one, He and the words of life. I will hasten to Him, hasten to let it free. Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee. I am resolved to follow the Savior, faithful and true each day. He what He sayeth, do what He willeth, He is the living way. I will hasten to Him, hasten to let it free. Jesus, greatest, highest, I will come to Thee. The Bible says Acts 26. All right, once again, that is the book of Acts chapter 26. As we do customary and strong at Stronghold Baptist Church, we read the entire chapter. Follow along silently as we read Acts chapter 26. The Bible reads, Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand and answered for himself. I think myself happy, King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee, touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews, especially because I know thee to be an expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. Wherefore, I beseech thee to hear me patiently. My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify that after the most straightest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee. And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers, unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come, from which hope's sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews. Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you that God should raise the dead? I verily thought with myself that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth, which thing I also did in Jerusalem. And many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priest. And when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them, and I punished them oft in every synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme. And being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities. Whereupon, as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priest at midday, O King, I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun shining round about me, and them which journeyed with me. And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. For rise and stand upon thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness, both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things into which I will appear unto thee. Delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but show first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance. For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple and went about to kill me, having therefore obtained help of God, I continued on to this day, witnessing both the small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come, that Christ should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and show light unto the people and to the Gentiles. And as he thus spake for himself, Festus said with a loud voice, Paul, thou art beside thyself, much learning doth made thee mad. But he said, I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak forth the words of truth and soberness, for the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely, for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him, for this thing was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, believeth thou the prophets? I know that thou believeth, then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost and altogether such as I am, except these bonds. And when he had thus spoken, the king rose up, and the governor, and Bernice, and they that sat with them, and when they were gone aside, they talked between themselves, saying, This man doeth nothing worthy of death or of bonds. Then said Agrippa unto Festus, This man might have been set at liberty, if he had not appealed unto Caesar. Pray. Father God, we thank you for the book of Acts and for the whole entire Bible. God, we thank you for King James Bible. We thank you for the souls that have been saved throughout this week. And God, we thank you for the future souls to be saved. We thank you for the knowledge that you give us from your word, that we can take in knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. God, feel past the burdens with your spirit. Allow for him to preach for boldness. Allow for this morning to be a powerful word for us to be able to hear and take home with us. We praise you and we thank you for all that you do. We say this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, real quickly, before I start the sermon, I would like to just get a quick show of hands. If your plan coming this Friday, I didn't do a sign-up sheet or anything. I just want to get a rough idea of how many people are going to be eating with us. We're going to be having pizza on Friday night. If you plan on coming for food on Friday night, just slip your hand up so I can get a count. Forty-six, okay. Perfect. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. All right, now getting into the sermon for this morning. If you were a little bit behind, hopefully you followed along reading for Acts chapter 26. You could knock that chapter off your list for where we're supposed to be for our Bible reading challenge. But I'm going to focus in, kind of in the middle of this chapter here, in verse number 19. This is Apostle Paul. He recounts his experience where he, basically he hears Christ and Christ commands him to go. And this is the road to Damascus story where he was going to imprison the believers, the disciples. And then he has his experience where he's confronted with Jesus Christ. And he's told to go into the city. He's going to be told what he needs. And then he gets saved and baptized. And he's recounting this story here to King Agrippa. And in the midst of this, or right after he tells that story, we're going to look there in verse number 19. He says, Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision. And just real quick, you know, again, in the context of this story, the Apostle Paul, through the book of Acts, he's gotten to the point where he started to get persecuted. He went to Jerusalem. People were making these false accusations against him. And then they arrest him. They want him put to death. They want him killed. He finally just appeals unto Caesar and ends up getting sent back to Rome. But here he's standing before King Agrippa. He's like, Well, I'll hear what you have to say. And he's pleading his case a little bit and kind of giving a little back story as to why he's even there. Like what, like, like, here's what's really happening is what he's explaining, right? I was going after these people and then I get saved. I'm totally summarizing. Then I got saved. And now these guys are coming after me. And they're making up lies about me and saying, I didn't do anything. I just believe different than they do. And they think it's heresy. And they think I should be put to death for what I believe. And here's what I believe. And this is what he's explaining, essentially, to just show why he shouldn't be put to death. Because he didn't do anything worthy of death. But in the midst of this, he says there in verse number 20 then, so he says in verse 19, of course, he says, I was not disobedient under the heavenly vision. I wasn't disobedient to Christ, who was telling me that I was going to go forth and be a preacher of the gospel to the Gentiles. And to, you know, and to the world, essentially, that he was being chosen and selected by the Lord Jesus Christ to go and be this vessel to preach the gospel to the world. And he's saying, look, I wasn't disobedient. Verse 20 says, but showed first unto them of Damascus. So he was on his way to Damascus. And that's ultimately where he, you know, he got saved. You know, the veil was removed from his eyes. The blindness, he got baptized. He called on the name of the Lord. And that's where he was. And then immediately he starts showing people that Jesus was Christ. And that they ought to put their trust and their faith in him. So he said he showed first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem. He went back to Jerusalem and was, you know, preaching the gospel there. And throughout all the coasts of Judea. And then to the Gentiles. So he's like, first I went to, essentially he was saying, you know, first I went to the Jews. First I just started preaching where I was, in Damascus. And then I went to the Jews. And then I went to the Gentiles. And that they should, and then he says this, that they should repent and turn to God. And do works meet for repentance. For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple and went about to kill me. So he explained, this is why they're killing me. This is why they want to kill me. Because I went about to Damascus, Jerusalem, all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles. And here's where I was preaching that they should repent and turn to God. And do works meet for repentance. And this is what drove people nuts. And I'll tell you what, this is what drives unbelievers nuts today. And people, not just unbelievers, but people who hate God and hate the gospel. It gets them really furious when you just do these two things. Teach people to repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. Those two things is what ultimately gets people really, really angry. It's not as much, you know, some people get angry about specific doctrines and things like that. But that's, by and large, is not what the biggest strife is. It really is the gospel that turns the most people rabid against believers. And this is what the apostle Paul was doing. And I want to explain here a little bit, the title of my sermon is, Works Meet for Repentance. And I'm going to explain that a little bit and understand what does that really mean. First, I just want to explain the first half, because there's two things here. Repent and turn to God is one thing. There's not three things being stated here. It's not repent and turn to God and do works. The repent and turn to God is one. Now, I know it says, but didn't you just say it doesn't say repent and turn to God and do works? It's not listing them off separate. The repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance, are rightfully here grammatically correct with that comma being in between the two, because these are two things, not three. Repent and turn to God. Repent, literally by itself, is just a turning, right? So you're turning, well, turn to God, repent and turn to God. Change your mind, whatever it was that you were trusting, whatever it was you were believing, whatever it was that you were thinking, you're going to change your mind and think differently. And here he's saying you need to turn to God. And then, of course, the second part, which I'm going to spend more of my time focused on, is do works meet for that repentance, the repentance that you just had of turning to God. And a lot of people have a false understanding of what the word repent means, and I think our church is pretty solid on this, so I'm not going to spend too much time on this, although it is important to just go over this from time to time, because there's many people who have not the clearest understanding of what repentance actually is. There's many people, when they hear the word repent, will just automatically assume that it means repent of your sins, because that has been taught a lot in many churches and many denominations for a while now, at least for our generations, going back maybe for the past hundred years. I don't know exactly how far back this has really been going on. I mean, probably all the way back to the time of Christ, because what that really does, when you think about it, if you actually just stop and think about things, instead of just accepting what you've heard over and over and over and over again, stop and think about what that actually means. So when people say you have to repent of your sins to be saved, you have to stop and ask, well, what does that really mean? What does that mean? If I have to repent of my sins, what would that mean, repenting of your sins? What does that look like? What does that entail? What does that mean? Does that mean you have to not want to sin? Does it mean you have to stop sinning? Well, this means you have to turn from them. Well, how much? I mean, if my sin's right here, do I have to turn, right, 10 degrees, 20 degrees, 30 degrees, 45 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees, you know. Like, what does that mean? Because if I'm turned 180 degrees away from my sin, will I sin? No. So is that part of how we're saved? Do we have to completely be turned 100%, 180 degrees from all of our sins in order to be saved? No, because then nobody's saved. Say, okay, well then how much do I have to, well, if we're going to look at the scripture on how much God wants you turned from your sin, how much is that? 100%, right? You say, I thought you just said you don't have to do that for a second. You don't. But what the Bible teaches about us and sin, God is a very black and white as far as just, Do you sin or you don't sin? And he wants you holy, and he wants you to be perfect. And he wants you not sinning at all. And not only does he want it, he commands it. That's why there's commandments in the Bible. But we're all guilty of being sinners, so does that mean we shouldn't turn from our sins? No, of course you should try to turn from your sins and try not to do wickedly and try not to commit sin, but that is not what the Bible's referring to when it's talking about being saved. That's not the repentance. It isn't the turning away completely of your sins, right? You say, well, that doesn't mean to stop sinning because we know no one can do that. It just means you have to not want to sin. Okay, well, has anyone here ever not wanted to sin then again after you got saved? Just for the entire time after you got saved, you just never wanted to sin again. Can anyone honestly say that, you know, there wasn't any one time in your heart where you actually desired to sin after your salvation? Because I know it's not true of me, and I don't think that's true of anybody. Why? Because we still have this flesh. Now, the new man does not desire sin at all. The new man is born of God. And I don't really want to spend a whole lot of time in this, but 1 John chapter 3 explains this quite a bit about, you know, that which is born of God does not commit sin. And it's talking about the new man, that new creature that's born again inside of you doesn't sin. But we still have this flesh, and the flesh is what causes the sin. In fact, we can't please God in the flesh because our flesh doesn't know anything but sin. So we have this war and this battle every day between our flesh and our spirit, and the spirit wants to do what's right, and the flesh wants to do what's wrong. And we daily have to choose are we going to walk in the spirit or walk in the flesh as saved individuals. But I digress a little bit. Is that what we need to do to be saved, though, is turn from our sins? Even just the fact of not wanting to, I would say no. Now, what do you repent from? Well, it depends on the context in which you're reading it. Are there times where people are returning from wickedness and turning from sin in the Bible? Absolutely. But I would submit to you this, is that verify for yourself is, when you find verses like that, is it talking about a person's soul being saved? Is it talking about someone receiving eternal life? Because I would submit that it is not. Now, what we'll find, and we'll go into this kind of at the end of the sermon, too, is that there's a difference between how God judges an entire nation or group of people versus an individual soul's salvation entrance into eternal life, into heaven, and being with the Lord that way. So there's a difference that way, because almost everybody would tell you, every Christian denomination today, almost all of them would tell you, oh no, salvation is by grace through faith. Right? And that's what we believe. Amen. Because that's true. Which is why you have to be on the lookout for people trying to add works to salvation and try to explain, well, no, no, no, it's not just, you know, like, and they start adding more things and more, you know, it's like, well, hold on a second, is it by grace through faith or not? But the way that God will judge a nation all throughout scripture is, look, when nations are just doing really wickedly, God's going to judge them and that's that. And if they can repent, then God may not judge them and he'll show mercy. And there's plenty of examples of God showing mercy to people that are doing wickedly and then change what they're doing to do more righteously by God, and then God does not cast judgment upon them. Again, that's different than how an individual soul is going to be granted entrance into heaven. Jesus probably died for all the individuals, for the penalty of sin that you would be responsible for for yourself. He paid that debt for you personally, but he wasn't paying this debt for, like, entire groups and nations and all the sins they could ever do and just not receiving any judgment or not reaping what they sow here on this earth. Right? He paid the debt for your soul when it comes to that. So, when it's talking about repent and turn to God, I say, what does that mean then, Pastor? What does it mean, repent and turn to God? Well, very simply, what is it that person has to do to be saved? As Acts 16, the man asked the question, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, repent means a turn, repent means a change, change your mind. What that means is you're just changing your mind about what you had believed was required for salvation. Because, I don't know about you, but before I got saved, you know, I believed that I had to be a good person to be saved. So, I had to change my mind about that. I had to put all my trust in my Lord and Savior for Jesus Christ to be saved. And it's different than what I was believing, because I was believing, you know what, I'm pretty good, I'm okay, I'm not that bad. Yeah, of course I've done wrong, but I'm not that bad. I'm not out trying to hurt people, I'm not, you know. This was my mindset. That mindset had to change. I had to realize that, wait a minute, I'm actually a sinner, that I can't just brush that aside as not being a big deal, because maybe I'm acting a little bit better than 51% of the people in the world or something like that. You know, whatever the standard is that you want to give yourself of why you're a good person and why you should go to heaven, and start seeing things from God's perspective, where he's saying, look, you know, if you're guilty of one point of law, you're guilty of all. And so realizing that, you know, all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. So it's kind of like, look, have you ever told a lie? Yeah, I have. Well, look, you're guilty now, and God has a hell punishment on that. So now you have to deal with that and say, wow, I didn't realize that when I was sinning, I was actually committing something that was that bad in God's eyes. You have to realize that it is that bad, and that there is this penalty, and there is this punishment, and then you're like, well, what do I have to do? Well, almost nothing. But you do have to put all your trust in Jesus Christ. But you yourself can't do anything, because you're already damned, you're already condemned. You're condemned already. But once you put your trust in Jesus, well, now what you do, well, you change your mind. Wherever your faith was previously, now you're putting it in Jesus Christ, and you're turning to God. Right? Because you weren't trusting, and, you know, people will say, I believe in God. Look, I would tell you, too, I believe in God. Before I was saved, I would tell you, yes, absolutely, I believe in God. I believe it's real. I would even say, I trusted God. You know, I would say all these things, but I wasn't saved, because I didn't turn to God as my Savior to save me, and only trust in Him as my Savior alone. That's what it means to repent and turn to God. So your repenting is changing your mind on what you believe, but you've got to believe in the right thing. You've got to believe in Jesus. And Jesus is God, by the way. So when we read, when we see what the Apostle Paul was teaching, he's telling people to turn to Jesus. He's also telling them to turn to God, because Jesus is God. So he was teaching that, and we know, look, the Apostle Paul was an evangelist. He was a missionary. He's going out. He's church planting. He's getting people saved. Of course, that's what he's talking about here in teaching that they should repent and turn to God. But then he didn't just stop there in his teaching. He didn't just be like, all right, that's it, they're saved. He continued to teach. He says, and do works meet for repentance. So not only should you get saved, but hey, you should also change your life. You should also start doing works. That word meet just means like suitable or appropriate. So because now you've changed what you believe, now you ought to actually start doing things different. You should change your life to reflect that change in your belief. Now, I mean, you believe the word of God. You believe that these things are true. Why don't you start living your life now to show that you actually do believe these things are true, that you do have respect for God's law, that you do understand the penalty, and that you're going to change your life and do these works that are meet for repentance. And look, it's not enough for a ministry to only preach one thing and not the other. You need both. And this is clearly taught in, especially in what we consider the Great Commission at the end of the Gospels, where Jesus is commanding, hey, he's done what he's supposed to do. He came, he died, he rose again, and he's giving his instruction to the disciples to continue on. I'll read these for you. If you want to, you can turn to any one of these. I'm going to Mark 16 first and Luke 24 and Matthew 28. And we're going to see it's essentially, he's essentially saying the same thing, but there's some different wording. He said all of these things, of course. They're not just different summaries or something. He said all of these different things. And what's recorded in each Gospel is a little bit different, different sentences, different words. We get the whole picture here. In Mark 16 verse 15, Jesus said, go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. OK, that that's one command that he gave for him to do. And of course, we're trying to follow that by preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And in Luke chapter 24, I'm going to read from verse number 45, the Bible reads, Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And that is preaching the Gospel to every creature, by the way, is that repentance and remission of sins. Repentance is putting all of your trust in Jesus Christ, changing what you believe, changing specifically for what a lot of people taught at that point, especially the unbelieving Jews, was believing that they had to follow the law of Moses in order to be saved. Instead, they need to change their mind and realize you can't be saved by the law of Moses. You can't be saved by the Ten Commandments. You can't be saved by obeying the law because you've already broken it, because you're already guilty of the law, which means you'll be judged by the law. The law is great and it is good and it's perfect, but it's only good for you. When it comes to salvation, it's only good for you until you break it. Because once you break it, man, it doesn't matter. If you keep following the law, you still owe for what you've broken. Keeping the law doesn't pay for the time that you broke the law. Does that make sense? You're supposed to always keep a law, so once you break it, it's like, well, I'm going to keep following the law, but that doesn't pay for what you've done. It doesn't make up for it. It's like if you're just a citizen of the United States, the state of Georgia, and you're following all the laws of the state of Georgia, and you've always followed all the laws of the state of Georgia, and then one day you broke a law, but then you say, well, I'm still going to keep, the rest of my days, I'm going to follow all the laws of Georgia. You still have to pay for the crime, whatever it was that you broke. It doesn't just get you off the hook. And in God's eyes, it's the same thing. It doesn't get you off the hook just by obeying the commandments. You still need that sin to be paid for, which is what Jesus Christ does for you, of course. So repentance and remission of sins, the payment of the sins, the doing away, the wiping away of the sins is what needs to be taught. That repentance, hey, turn to Jesus, receive the remission of sins. It should be preached in his name among all nations. And he says, beginning at Jerusalem, start right where you're at, start in Jerusalem, and now just spread out and make sure it's taught to all nations. It wasn't designed for just one particular group of people. It's for everybody. And then Matthew 28, of course, verse 18, the Bible reads, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations. You know, again, he's saying essentially the same thing here, but now we see another little bit more information being added, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Lo, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the world. So in Jesus' ministry with his disciples, did he only ever only talk about the gospel of the disciples? No, of course not. He taught on many things. Now, when he was going out and healing and teaching people, he primarily, I'm sure, focused on the gospel when he was going out abroad and just kind of traveling from place to place because he's bringing the gospel, he's bringing the good news. But when he taught his disciples, as we see when we read the Bible, he's teaching them and expounding on more scripture and teaching them more truths and just opening up God's Word to them more fully. And he's saying, look, you need to teach them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. So the commandment of Jesus Christ, as we can see from the end of all these gospel accounts, is that you're supposed to preach the gospel to every creature. You're supposed to do that by preaching repentance and remission of sins, beginning at Jerusalem and going out into all the world, and that you're supposed to teach and baptize and teach about everything that Jesus taught. He's saying just teach him everything. Isn't that what the apostle Paul was doing? That's consistent with what Jesus told him to do. It's exactly consistent. So turn, if you would, now to Matthew chapter 3. Essentially, the commandment is get people saved, get them baptized, and then teach them how to live a godly life. This is also what John the Baptist was teaching. Now, it's worded just slightly differently what we read about John the Baptist, but it's, I would say, still essentially the same thing. Not exactly the same thing, but essentially it is the same thing. The apostle Paul said that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance, and John the Baptist says this when he was out. We're going to start reading verse number 5 of Matthew 3. The Bible reads, Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. So John the Baptist, when he came out on the scene, he had a very far-reaching ministry, because people came to him, it says, out of Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan. So there's a lot of people kind of coming to hear John the Baptist and coming to be baptized of him, and they were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins. It says, But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? So basically what he sees is some false prophets that have also come out to see what he's doing. And he knows the false prophets. He's just like, well, that's why he calls them a generation of vipers. They're snakes, right? They're not truly interested in what he has to say. They're there because they're false prophets, and they want to naysay and, you know, try to subvert the people who are coming to him. And he knows this. He's calling them out. He's calling them snakes. And he's saying, really? You're here? Who warned you about the wrath to come, huh? Like questioning whether or not they're receiving his preaching about salvation. Because then he says this in verse 8, Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance. And fruits and works are not exactly identical, but they're very, very, very similar. The fruits meet for repentance, he says, and think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father, for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And this is that thought that many people had, and many people may still even have to this day, that somehow it matters whether or not you're physically a seed of Abraham. The Jews at that time, especially, and I would say saved and unsaved alike, had a misunderstanding on the importance of what it meant to be a physical descendant of Abraham. Now, there was some importance to that in the establishment of Israel and being the nation that was going to be bringing forth the word of God, and specifically the Levitical priesthood, right? But when you read the book of Acts, you could see that even believers were a little out of line in how they dealt with that difference. Where they made it where you couldn't even go and eat with someone of like another nation. And you see that when Apostle Peter goes and preaches to Cornelius, he's an Italian, and God's telling him, no, look, go and preach to him. But you see that common, you see that with Barnabas, and you see that with James, you see it with other people where they're kind of still clinging to this superiority of the Jews over other people. And that wasn't right. And God corrects them, and it was good biblical doctrine to show that they've gone a little overboard on some of their beliefs, but by and large, still, they got corrected on that. And, man, how did I get off on this rabbit trail? And I'm trying to bring this back to where I started in Matthew chapter 3. Abraham, yeah, Abraham's seed. So, thank you very much, because he's saying here, and this is the teaching, right? And John the Baptist knows this. He's saying don't think that we have Abraham to our father, right? Don't think that somehow you got a special pass just because you're descended from Abraham. He's saying God's able to have these stones to raise up seed in Abraham. And you know what? Christians need to understand that today, that just because there's people that claim to be of the physical seed of Abraham and living in a land called Israel, that somehow they get a free pass because they don't. Because there's nobody in this world that gets a free pass. Everyone that wants to be saved needs to put their trust in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And if God's not a respecter of persons, it doesn't matter who they descended from. So, don't just think that the Jews get some extra special status in God's eyes and that you need to bow down to them or bless them or something when they haven't received Christ. We just need to preach them the gospel, and they need to get saved just like any other sinner needs to get saved. So, he's explaining that to them because, look, that's one of the things they need to change. That's something they need to repent is that belief and that trust. Well, we're Abraham's seed, and we can show you our genealogy. That doesn't matter. Bring forth fruits, meet for repentance. Show me that you're not trusting in those things. That's what he wants to see. That's what he wants to know. Don't have your trust in just being a descendant of Abraham. Verse 10 says, And now also the ax is laid under the root of the trees. Therefore, every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. And he references trees here, and I'm not going to go there for sake of time because I'm already spending more time on this than I wanted to. But bringing forth fruit, Jesus talks about that in Matthew chapter 7. And, again, he's warning about false prophets. Here we see John the Baptist confronting false prophets. The Pharisees and the Sadducees were these prophets. Prophets, people who bring forth proselytes, people who reproduce after themselves are the ones who are bringing forth this fruit. And that's why the Bible says, look, you know, because a good tree can't bring forth evil fruit, an evil tree can't bring forth good fruit. And he's saying all the evil trees, you know, if you're a tree, if you're a prophet, and you're not bringing forth good fruit, then you're going to be hewn down and cast into the fire. And this is, you know, John the Baptist saying this to these Pharisees and Sadducees. This is not John the Baptist saying that, well, I need to check all of your lives, now everyone that I'm baptizing, to make sure that you're doing good things or else you're not really saved. That's a man-made doctrine that's not found in Scripture. Now, let's get to verse number 11. Now, just to be clear, turn if you would to Acts chapter 19. We saw in Acts 26 the Apostle Paul recounting what he was commanded to do. Teach people to repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance. We see John the Baptist is teaching, hey, get saved by putting your faith in the one who's coming after me, which he always was pointing people to Jesus. He was pointing people to the Lamb of God that was sent to take away the sins of the world. He was teaching a gospel of faith alone in Christ. That's what he was teaching. And then he talked to these false prophets saying, hey, bring forth fruits meet for repentance. And look, still, even if you want to say, well, the fruits and the works are the same thing, fine, because that's still part of the message of what everyone should be doing anyways, even if you want to take that understanding of that passage. Everyone ought to be bringing forth fruits that are worthy of to show that you've changed your mind about something. We all ought to do that. Everyone ought to do that. That's how we ought to live. And in fact, that's going to be taught and commanded. And that's why in our church, you know, while, yes, we preach the gospel and yeah, that's going to be a big focus. That's not the only thing we're going to teach on. Bring forth fruits or bring forth the works meet for repentance. Which means if you believe that Christ is the only way, then why don't you tell others about it since he commanded you then to tell others about it. If you believe that Christ paid the penalty for all of your sins, why don't you respect God and respect his word enough to try not to add insult to injury as far as, you know, cleaning up your life, right? And not continuing just live this sinful life just because you're saved. And in Romans 3, I have you turn into Acts chapter 19. Romans 3, the scripture popped into my mind as we were reading the Bible scripture before the sermon. The Bible says this in Romans 3 verse 1, What advantage then hath the Jew or what prophet is there of circumcision, much every way, chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God? For what if some did not believe? Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? So he starts off saying, Well, what is why is there an advantage or what's the profit of being a Jew versus anyone else? What's the difference, right? He said, Well, there is an advantage because the word of God came to Jews, right? God delivered his word and used prophets in Israel to deliver his word. So there's, of course, a prophet for just being born even into the land of Israel because you're close. You're really close to the word of God. This was advantage to that just as much as there's an advantage today for children who are born into Christian households. You've got the advantage of being really close to the word of God and having that taught to you and being readily available as opposed to someone. So there is an advantage, right? And this is what's explaining. But then he says, Yeah, but what if, you know, the oracles of God were committed unto the Jews? But what if some didn't believe? Is the unbelief then? And what if all of them didn't believe, right? Is their unbelief going to make the faith of God then without effect? He says, God forbid. Yea, let God be true, but every man a liar. So look, it doesn't matter how many people believe that doesn't make what God is saying true or false. God is true. And even if everybody rejects it, well, hey, then every man's a liar. But God's still true. God's word still stands. So even if the entire nation of Israel rejects the word of the Lord, that doesn't make the faith of none effect. Because God's word stands and will stand alone. God forbid ye let God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings and mightest overcome when thou art judged. But if our unrighteousness commend the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? I speak as a man. God forbid. For then how shall God judge the world? So he's saying if our unrighteousness, our sins, commend the righteousness of God. And it's kind of hard to follow, but basically, because he's talking about what if we don't believe. But then he's like, OK, well, that just proves God's righteousness, not that his word fails. OK, well, then if our unrighteousness commends God, because he just got done saying that, he's saying then is God unrighteous then for taking vengeance? Because us being unrighteous is supporting more God's glory. So then why would God judge us? Do you see what I'm saying? Why would God judge us if we're just commending his righteousness even more because we're unrighteous? It's like, no, because God is the judge. He's the judge of the whole world. You can't take that mentality. And then he goes into what I was trying to get to here in verse number seven. For if the truth of God hath more abounded through my lie unto his glory, why yet am I also judged as a sinner? And not rather as we be slanderously reported and as some affirm that we say, let us be evil when good may come whose damnation is just. So through all of this, he's just saying that God is true no matter what. And the fact that God is true sometimes can be magnified because we are sinners and we're so far from his holiness. But his word still stands. And he's saying, OK, well, then if the truth of God is even abounds more because I lie and become a liar, he's saying, well, then why am I also judged as a sinner? And then and not as we slanderously be reported and some say, let us do evil that good may come whose damnation is just. Some people were saying that his teaching of faith in the word of God, the word of God is true, we're all sinners. And just believing on Christ is. And as we see also in Romans Chapter five, because he continues this thought, the Book of Romans continues with this for quite a while. Many people are saying, look, if you. If your sins then just magnify God more, then just keep sinning, right? It's kind of like, hey, we're sitting in bounds, grace that much more about. Well, then let's just keep on sitting and let's just have this grace and let's just exalt the Lord because he's so much better and more holy than we are. So let's just bring ourselves even lower to put God that much higher than us. He's like, no, that's not what we're teaching and it's not what we're saying. Right. God is already up there. God is already magnified above us and we are absolutely guilty and worthy of any punishment and we're unrighteous. But we're not saying that we should just continue that way. Of course. And some people and some people will try to say, why am I even bringing this up? Because there's so many people that will say, oh, you guys, you believe this one saved always saved. You're just going to go out. You're going to say that you believe you're going to pray some prayer and then you're going to go off and just live out of your life. You're going to live like the devil. You know, like, no, that's not what we're saying at all. That's not what we believe and that's not what we teach. And, you know, maybe there are some people who act that way or even believe that way and just, you know, just like, look, we teach repentance and faith turning to God, putting your trust in Jesus Christ to be saved. And we also teach that you should bring forth works meet for that repentance, for the change in your heart, that you ought to do that. We teach both. But the salvation stands on its own. It's separate from the works. We teach that you should do both. But the salvation happens, it either happens or it doesn't, based on whether or not you put your faith in Jesus Christ and that's it. Even if someone doesn't follow the teaching to bring forth the works meet for salvation doesn't mean they didn't get saved. Which is why you need the teaching for people to do the works. Because if it just happened automatically, you wouldn't even really need it, now would you? And seriously think about that because some people will tell you, you know, like, oh, then you just definitely would. No, you don't automatically do anything because God's not just controlling every aspect of your life and you still have the flesh. So you wouldn't have the teaching to, hey, walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh, if you could just automatically do it. Acts chapter 19 is where I had you turn, though. We see exactly a record of what John the Baptist was teaching when he preached the baptism of repentance, when he was telling people that they needed to repent. What do you mean by that? Look at verse number 1, Acts chapter 19. And it came to pass that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper coast, came to Ephesus and finding certain disciples, he said unto them, Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed? And they said unto them, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were you baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. So they come across these guys and Paul's saying, hey, have you received the Holy Ghost? And they're like, Holy Ghost, what are you talking about? So now he's starting to question, going, well, wait a minute, what were you baptized unto then? You know, and this is, I think, more evidence that, you know, we baptized people in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. And to not even know, like, anything about the Holy Ghost was just a little suspect, a little suspicious, going like, well, you don't even know about the Holy Ghost? Like, what were you baptized unto then? And they said, well, unto John's baptism. And then he explains, then said, Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. So what happened here is these guys, they ended up showing up to an event and they got baptized. But they didn't get saved. They didn't get it. They didn't fully understand, which happens. There are people who show up, and they even show up to good churches and whatever, and they end up getting baptized. But they weren't really saved because they didn't really get it, right? And this is what we see happening here, and then he explains, well, wait, wait, let me tell you a little bit about what John the Baptist was saying, what he taught and what people ought to do. He preached the baptism of repentance, saying, and what did he say when he preached the baptism of repentance? Saying that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. That was the baptism of repentance that he taught and that he was preaching was that people need to believe on Jesus. Not that they needed to give up all their sins and live this holy life in order to be saved. No, the baptism of repentance of the changing of their mind that they needed to do was to believe on Jesus Christ. I mean, that's literally what the Bible says. This is the account that we see from the Apostle Paul saying this is what John taught and this is what you need to do. And then they're like, oh, okay, and then they get baptized again because they realized that they need to put their faith in Jesus Christ and then they got baptized again. Churchwood Ephesians chapter 2. Now there's no way I'm going to get through all this scripture. Sometimes I find it difficult preaching through this repentance subject because there's such a strong false teaching out there. On repentance. So I end up spending a lot of time trying to combat that false teaching but then not really getting into as much of the right teaching as I just want to. Of like, look, we don't believe that the works save at all and that even if a person gets saved and doesn't show you that they're doing any good works it doesn't mean that they're not saved. But we are commanded and we are taught and what the whole ministry is about is to teach that, okay, here's how you get saved and here's how you live righteously. And you ought to bring forth those fruits. You ought to do the work. That's suitable because you change what you believe. You know, it's like people change what you believe. You ought to not go to, for example, a Catholic that gets saved, stop going to a Catholic church. You don't believe what they teach anymore, right? You're believing in faith alone. You're not believing in the work salvation. Stop going there. And on and on and on. You can go through every commandment, everything on how we ought to be living and this needs to be taught forth. And Jesus said that in Matthew. We see that this was the command for the apostle Paul very clearly. We see that also in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 through 10. Look at where the Bible reads, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. Amen. Not of works, lest any man should boast. But what we see connected with this as we have with all these other references that we brought up, You have your repentance towards God, right? That faith, that salvation. And then it's tied in with then the good works, which is verse 10, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Your salvation is free. It's gift. It has nothing to do with your works. It is received. It's by grace. It's through faith. But then what do you do with that? Well, you were created under good works. Now that you're saved, bring forth that fruit. Bring forth those works that are meet for your repentance that you received by grace through faith. Create in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before deigned that we should walk in them. So you've got the teaching of both there also in Ephesians chapter 2. The Bible says this. Turn, if you would, to Titus chapter 1. In fact, Titus is full of this teaching. Titus 1, 2, and 3. We're going to be looking at all three chapters regarding this teaching. Of course, Jesus taught. I'm going to read for you from Matthew chapter 5, verse 14. He says, Yea, the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. We receive the light of Jesus. When you get saved, that light of Jesus Christ, the light of the word of God, illuminates you. And he says, Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men. Let your light. So he's saying, don't cover up your light. It needs to be made known. Hey, you're the light of the world. Jesus Christ was the light of the world, and now he's given you that light. You need to go forth. You need to shine that light. But he says this. He says, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works. That they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. You're saying, you're already children of God. You're children of light. You need to walk as children of light. But let that light shine through your good works. Let people know about it. Titus 1, verse 15, the Bible says, Unto the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure. But even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient and unbeknownst. They are rejected. They can't bring forth any good things. They can't bring forth any good things, which is similar to what John the Baptist was talking to. He's talking to the false teachers, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and they'll profess that they know God. They'll say that they know him, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient on every good work. Reprobate, meaning they're rejected. They can't do the good works. Now as a believer, you ought to not fall in the category where someone might think that you're some reprobate, that you can't do anything good, because you're not doing anything good. Right? You don't want to be misunderstood as being someone who just never does anything good at all, and that will maybe, hey, you profess that you know him, but do you really? Right? And this is, you know, I don't want to open up the can of James Chapter 2, I guess, but, you know, James Chapter 2, it's not difficult to understand, but many people do get confounded by it, and that's where people will teach a workspace salvation, and will say, you know, if you're not familiar with James Chapter 2, it says faith without works is dead, and it goes on to explain, well, hey, you know, you have faith and I have works, show me your faith without your works, I'll show you my faith by my works. Are you saying, like, this is how we show people, this is how we're going to show the Word of God is through our good works, and it's what's going to be a benefit unto other people. It's one thing just to say something, it's another thing to do it. Right? And you need to live your life that way that would be appropriate as a believer, that someone who truly has, I put my faith in Christ, well, I'm going to live that way, too. And I'll warn you about this, too, if you have, like, no good works, if you're not really following the Bible as a believer, it's going to cause you to doubt your own salvation. And I could speak this just from experience, because I got saved when I was younger, I got saved when I was 20 years old, and for a long time, you know, I was saved and doing nothing for the Lord, and just completely living out in the world, and sinning, and sinning even worse than I had before I was saved. And it came to a point where I was still questioning, I was just going, well, how can I say I believe the Bible when I know what the Bible says here, here, here, and I'm doing the exact opposite? And that was a low point in my spiritual life, just knowing those things. I was still saved. I was choosing to walk in the flesh and not fear it, but was vexing to be someone, just to have, just be confronted with your own hypocrisy of how can I say I believe this when I'm not doing this? Right? And it's just a total hypocrite. But it doesn't mean my faith was not genuine, and it doesn't mean I didn't have eternal life, and it doesn't mean I didn't have the Holy Ghost. It doesn't mean I didn't have the new man, because I did, because I genuinely put my trust in Jesus Christ to save me. It had nothing to do with my own works, my own, anything that I did. It was a complete trust in Him. But that will cause trouble in your life when you're not doing the second part of bringing forth works meet for repentance. And it does cause doubt, and a lot of people's doubt stems from them not bringing forth those works that are meet for the repentance that they had in their heart. And it's logical to think that way, right? Just going, well, wait, did I even really believe, because why would I be living this way? And that's the way I thought. Which you shouldn't let yourself even go down that path and just start changing your life to, as the Bible says here in Titus 2, verse 7, in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works, in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you. So we ought to live our life, bring forth works meet for repentance by showing yourself a pattern of good works. Because there's going to be people that oppose you, those who are on the contrary part, those that want to deny the truth of salvation by grace through faith, those that don't like the Gospel of the Lord, they're going to try to then say evil things about you and be like, oh, yeah, you're going to listen to this guy? And look, if I would have been trying to preach Jesus as someone who was a drunkard and a fornicator, you would be like, well, who's this guy? Well, you're going to listen to this guy tell you about the Bible? Look at him, look at his life, right? And you're going to destroy, even though you might be saying what's true, you're going to destroy that testimony. Because who wants to listen to you? You're just a big stinking hypocrite. Oh, yeah, I can see the, I can see how real powerful God is in your life. That's what people are going to say. And it doesn't change the fact that what you're saying is true, but no one's going to want to listen to you. And that is critical, right? Because we're commanded to preach the Gospel to every creature. We're commanded to go forth and teach, hey, look, you've got that hope that's within you. And you need to be able to answer everyone that asks you of the hope that is within you. Showing ourself a pattern of these good works. Jump down to verse number 11. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation at the pure to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity. There's the redemption he gave himself. It's the free gift. He made the payment and purified unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. Just like Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10 say, hey, you're saved by grace. It's what Jesus did, but you're created unto good works. And here God wants, he saved you so that now we can have this peculiar people, these people who are different from the world that are going to be zealous for good works. Unfortunately, not everybody that gets saved becomes zealous, meaning on fire, you're fervent, man, I want to do what's right, I want to live godly, I want to change my life. Not everybody does that, but they ought to. They ought to. And you know what? What's going to help with that? Is hearing preaching from people who are following, who are obeying what Jesus was saying. Hey, preach the gospel unto them and teach them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. We need both. When we get people saved, we need to try hard to get them to come in and receive the teaching and to grow and to be discipled, because that is what's going to help them also to become established in their Christian faith. It would have done me, I'm sure, wonders to be plugged into a good church right after I was saved instead of waiting many years before I finally got into a good church. Because I would have been ready, I was excited about it, I remember, I literally remember the day after I got saved, I started telling my friends about it, my roommates. First people are closest to me, hey man, I'm saved. I couldn't explain it really well, they're like, what are you talking about? Well, I'm saved, I mean, you just prayed, you're like, yes, that's what I did. But I'm saved, look, and I could not explain it very well. I wasn't good at being able to express, but I did, and I would tell some friends, but then after a while, right, you kind of get back into the flesh, and that desire subsides. Or at least it did for me, this is my experience, right, not everyone's experience, it could be identical. But what a great thing that would have been to get into church now and say, hey, look, now, look, you're saved, brother, look, now start bringing forth works, meet for your repentance. You believed on Christ, now, stop going out to the bars, stop being a drunkard, live holy, live soberly, live righteously, and you ought to be ashamed if you're not. And hearing that, and hearing the preaching, and hearing the power from the Word of God is transformative in your life. I mean, there's a reason why I ended up changing my life, it wasn't just because I did all this stuff on my own, it's because I finally did get plugged into a good church, and started hearing powerful preaching from the Word of God, and the Word of God finally bringing forth what it ought to have been the whole time, but I was kind of resisting it to bring forth changes in my life, and look, we need that, and that needs to be taught, it's taught throughout Scripture, this is what God wants, he wants a peculiar people, he saved you to serve him, he saved you to bring forth good works, he wants a people that's peculiar, that's zealous of good works. Flip over to chapter 3 in Titus, verse number 4, the Bible reads, But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. So there it is again, the clear teaching of not by our works of righteousness, he saved us through his mercy, he saved us through his grace, he saved us through things that were unmerited of us, it's through Jesus Christ and washing us in the blood of Christ. Very clear, every single time, separating the two, what comes first, that free gift of salvation. But let's keep reading, verse 7, that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. It's all by grace, it's not your works of righteousness, none of that saves you, but look, everyone now that has believed in God, you need to constantly affirm these things that they are careful, look, everyone of you be careful to maintain good works. Keep bringing forth good works in your life regularly. This is what we're called to do. We need to get the sin out. We need to turn from our sins. We don't do that to be saved, but look, we need to do that to be sanctified in the eyes of other people, and to be following the word of the Lord, and to do what's right. We need to get the sin out of our life. It's not that I'm against turning from sin, I'm just against saying that that's the requirement for salvation. I'm a very big proponent of turning from sin. We ought to do it every day. We ought to maintain good works, because the opposite of sin is going to be not sinning. So if you're turning from sin, you're turning from sin to not sinning, which is what? Turning from sin to the law. The law of God, because sin is a transgression of the law. And that's why, again, I'll just reiterate, watch out for the people who are telling you you have to turn from your sins to be saved, because, oh no, you turn from your sin to the Savior, but that's not how it works. If you're turning from sin, you're turning to the law. Because turning from sin to the transgression of the law, well, I'm going to stop transgressing the law and follow the law. That's how that works. And we ought to do that. But you can't do that to be saved, because then it would be your own works-based salvation. He reiterates that in verse number 14 about maintaining good works, these things are good and probable to men. Verse 14, and let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful. Because that's what's going to happen, is when you don't have the works, you're not going to be very fruitful as a servant of Christ. You're not going to bring forth good fruit. Now, it doesn't mean you're going to bring forth bad fruit, as in, like, bad converts or something like that. You can't do that if you're a good tree, but the good works are necessary for you to be fruitful and to be profitable, to be doing good for the kingdom of God. 1 Peter chapter 2, last place I want you to look, 1 Peter chapter 2, I've already hit my limit here. 1 Peter chapter 2, look at verse number 11. I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your conversation honest among the Gentiles, that whereas they speak evil against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. Your good works, what you do, should be a glory to God. The God that saved you, right? The God that cleansed you and gave you the free gift of eternal life. How about we show honor and respect unto Him by bringing good works in our life. The good works should be following the Bible, living a life consistent with the cleanness of following the word of God, not getting into sin, not getting into sin and making it known that you're just known to be someone who believes the Bible and it's demonstrated through your actions. And how is that going to be different? How are you going to stand out from anyone else? How are you going to be a peculiar people? Because if you actually implement God's law into your life, you will be different than the world. Guaranteed. Guaranteed. One, you shouldn't be having all of the same interests of being involved in what the world is putting out. Because the Bible says if any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Love not the things of the world. The Bible says that the lust of the eyes and, yeah, good night. Okay, draw on a blank. The lust of the, thank you. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. It's not of the Father, it's of the world. The lust of the flesh was just like, why is that not? Anyways, the things that are of the world are not of the Father. So when you start living a life that is consistent with the Scripture, you won't be involved with the things of the world. You know, unsaved people, there's people in general out there in the world, they love all the things the world puts out. All the music, all the media, all the popular things in the world, just in general. In general. Are of the world, it's not of the Father. So people will willingly put wickedness and sinfulness in front of their eyes. Well, if you really want to be careful to maintain good works for the Lord, you shouldn't be interested in defiling yourself with the sins and the wickedness of this world. And not being influenced by all the garbage that's put out there and all the bad philosophies and all the nakedness and all the sex and the drugs and all the other garbage that's out there being promoted. All the softening of sin and not being so hard and, oh, it's love, it's not fornication, it's an affair, it's not adultery. And just being inundated with all these concepts, all these thoughts, the softening of sin, it's not really that bad, it's not a big deal, what are you freaking out about? No, it is a big deal. And when we read the scripture, we can see clearly what a big deal it is, so we need to separate ourselves from the world in the sense of what the world does. Obviously we're in the world, but we're not supposed to be of the world. And we ought to be different, we ought to live different, we ought to care about the commandments of the Lord, to implement them in our life, and to do them. So not only are you going to be different by the way that you live, cleaning up your life, not being involved in wicked things, but also by service to God. And I know many people already, it's like, you get the questions, you get the looks, you go to the, wait, you live where? And you're going to church here? Why in the world would you do that? I mean, how many churches are there in between where you live and there? I mean, is there something you can find closer to home? Why would you do that? Why? Because the teaching from the word of God, you care about different things, you care about the soul winning, you care about whatever it is that you care about that you can't find in churches that are a lot closer to home. But you actually care about it, so you put forth the effort. Or even just going out and preaching the gospel to people. Oh, that's just kind of weird. You mean you just approach random people? Like, isn't that weird? I guess it is a little bit weird to people who don't do that and people don't care about whether or not someone's going to die and go to hell. It might seem a little weird. But it's not weird to someone who loves God and loves people and loves the Bible and knows the truth about heaven and hell and knows that there's a free gift that's awaiting people. That if they just put their trust in Jesus Christ, then they can avoid an eternity of torture and torment and hell? Yeah, I mean, that matters. And I believe that for myself, so why am I not going to go and share that with other people? And of all the things, of the works that you can bring forth that meet or are suitable for repentance, that should be the number one biggest thing. I mean, if you truly believe that if you hadn't put your faith in Jesus Christ that you would die and go to hell, I mean, if you really believe that, why wouldn't you want to tell other people about that? At the very least, why wouldn't you want to go around and just tell people, hey, look, here's how you get saved. I may not be anything special, but here's, look, I don't want you to go to hell. I know I didn't want to go to hell. And when I found out that I was a sinner and I was hell bound, but Jesus paid the price for me, amen, that's great. I'm happy about that. And I'm going to share that with other people because I really do believe that, and I'm not going to be ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't get messed up about people who have a false view of repentance, one. And two, you know, if you believe we ought to also then bring forth fruit, bring forth works that are meat for your repentance. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for saving us. We thank you for giving us the free gift of salvation. Lord, I pray that you would please work through our church. Help us to do what's right. Help us to bring forth the works, bring forth the fruit that's meat for our repentance, dear Lord. And I pray that we would just be pleasing in your sight. Lead us and direct us. God, help us to do all things righteously as your word prescribes. We love you. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, we're going to sing one last song before we are dismissed this morning. Brother Peter, will you please lead us? All right, church, you can grab your hymnals and open up to song number 264. Song 264, Once for All. Song 264. All right, church, let's sing this out with a verse. Once for all, O sinner, receive it. Once for all, O brother, believe it. We do the cross, the word, and we'll fall. Christ has redeemed us once for all. Now we're free, there's no condemnation. Jesus provides a perfect salvation. Come unto the old years to fall. Come, then he saves us once for all. Once for all, O sinner, receive it. Once for all, O brother, believe it. We do the cross, the word, and we'll fall. Christ has redeemed us once for all. Children of God, O Lord, he is calling. Surely his grace will keep us from falling. As he will grant you life as well. Bless his salvation once for all. Once for all, O sinner, receive it. Once for all, O brother, believe it. We do the cross, the word, and we'll fall. Christ has redeemed us once for all. All right, church, great singing. Thank you so much for coming, you guys. Thanks. .