Very, very rich blessing for
me to be with you again this morning. I just look forward
to this whole weekend, our time together. Pray the Lord continue
to enable us to worship Him and hear His Word. If you would,
open your Bibles with me to Titus chapter 3. Titus chapter 3. I've titled the message this
morning, Six Gospel Truths. And it is impossible for us to
preach or to believe the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ without
preaching and believing these six truths. And it has been my
prayer that the Lord will enable me to preach this message in
such a way that when I'm done, you don't just know these six
truths. You don't just know what the
gospel says, like, you know, points of the gospel that you
know and memorize, like you memorize from a textbook in school or
something. My prayer is that we'll know Christ, who the gospel
declares. These six points and all of the
gospel, you know, this will only benefit our souls if the Lord
uses it to show us our need of Christ, to show us who he is,
to show us his glory, to show us our need of him so that we
depend on him and we depend on him alone. You know, I don't
ever want to fall into the trap of preaching the gospel in such
a way to say, look how that differentiates us from the Armenian or the Catholic
or people in different false religions. We're to preach the
gospel for this reason, that our Savior will be so glorified
that sinners believe Him, that sinners come to Him, And I woke
up yesterday morning thinking about this message. And that's
what I was thinking about. I pray the Lord will enable me
to preach it that way and you to hear it that way. So that
when we're finished, every last one of us leaves here depending
on the Lord Jesus Christ. So my first point is this, the
gospel, the gospel of God's grace teaches man's total depravity.
And I don't know your story. I know many of you have grown
up hearing the gospel of God's grace like I did. And you know,
I've always been a Calvinist. Chris, I've been a Calvinist
from the time I could understand language. I've been a Calvinist.
But I didn't know the Lord. And you know, I believed in man's
total depravity. I mean, just as much as I believe
the sky is blue. But you know what I didn't believe?
I'm totally depraved. When I talk about our total depravity,
I want you to understand, I'm not talking about the world out
there, because I'm not preaching to them, I'm preaching to you.
I want us to know we are totally depraved. Look at Paul, or Titus,
Paul, yeah, Paul says here in verse two of Titus chapter three,
to speak no evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing
all meekness unto all men. Now why should believers be meek
people? Why should we be people that
don't speak evil of one another and look down and be so critical
of one another? Not just one another, but how
about unbelievers? Why shouldn't we vilify and make
fun of people who are in false religion? It's because we have
the same nature they do. We have the same sinful, depraved
nature that they do. All men are born with it. A totally
depraved nature is standard equipment that every child conceived in
the womb. It's the nature that every one
of us is born with and we still have, believer and unbeliever
alike. And we've got this nature in
us that's been ruined in the fall of Adam. Paul calls it here
a foolish nature. We're so spiritually foolish,
we don't have any spiritual understanding. It's no wonder people out there
in false religion are doing so many wild and crazy things trying
to please God, trying to earn something from God. It's because
they don't have an understanding. They don't understand who God
is. They don't understand who they are. They don't understand
how God saves sinners. My advice is don't make fun of
Him, but pity Him. And remember this, the only reason
you and I are right with Him It's God's grace. It's the only
reason. Paul calls our nature a disobedient nature. Boy, doesn't
that describe us? We're disobedient. I mean, you just tell me I can't
do something. Now, I may not have wanted to
do it before you told me I can't do it, but you tell me I can't
do it? Boy, I'm going to show you. We're disobedient. Our nature
is not capable of obeying God's law. And not only are we disobedient
to God's law, you know what's worse? We're disobedient to God's
remedy for sin. We're disobedient to God's law
and God in his untold mercy and grace has provided a remedy for
sin for his people. and we refuse to bow to it. We're
so disobedient. By nature, no man will bow to
Christ. By nature, none of us will repent
of our sin. Our Lord summed it up when he
was talking to the Pharisees, but he may as well have been
talking to you and me by nature. He said, you will not come unto
me that you might have life. He says come and we're disobedient,
we won't. We refuse. Paul said about his
kinsmen after the flesh, but it's true of our nature too,
we're going about to establish our own righteousness and we
refuse to submit to the righteousness of Christ. And my advice is don't make fun
of the legalist. Pity him. Really, pity him. The only reason we're not right
there with them under that bondage of the law that they put themselves
under is God's grace has kept us from it. That's the only reason.
Then Paul says our fallen nature is deceived. And the word means,
it doesn't just mean to be tricked. It means to wander. Wasn't that
us? We wandered away from God. We've
wandered into the wilderness of sin because we've been deceived. We've been deceived by our own
fallen nature. We've been deceived by false
religion. We've been deceived by Satan just like our mother
Eve was. Well, don't make fun of somebody wandering out there
in left field because they just wandered so far away. pity him. Jason and I were sitting on his
deck yesterday, talking yesterday evening, or two evenings ago,
whenever it was, and we were talking about folks that just,
I mean, it's unbelievable what they're in. And I was so glad
Jason said, he said, that's so sad. It's heartbreaking. That ought to be our attitude,
not make fun of them. I mean, we'd be right there with
them, wouldn't we? It wouldn't for God's grace. And then our
nature serves diverse lusts and pleasures. Now I know that means
all the different pleasures and lusts of the flesh, and you know
the first thing that goes through our mind when you hear that phrase,
we think about sexual sins, and I'm sure that's included. But
you know what Paul primarily means there? the biggest lust
of our flesh is self-righteousness. The thing our flesh lusts after
more than anything is glory and credit for doing something for
God. Nothing brings this flesh more
pleasure than self-righteousness. Thinking I've done something
to make God happy with. I've done something somebody
else hadn't done. Nothing gives this flesh more
pleasure than that. Now we all know that the self-righteous,
We all know ourselves. Self-righteousness is alive and
well in every last one of us. Now don't make fun of him. Don't
make fun. Pity him. Because the only reason
you and I aren't trusting in our works and ourselves right
now is God's grace. He's kept us from it. And then
our nature, Paul says, is full of malice and envy. Boy, and
that didn't, I mean, that happened almost immediately. But I had
to make that fruit. God told him not to eat it. He
became hateful. He hated God. He hated his wife.
He just became hateful. And that's us. You know, here's
where you got to start. We hate God. Our nature hates
God Almighty. And I know people say, I love
God and I love Jesus. And I don't doubt that they mean
what they're saying, but they love the God of their imagination.
They're not saying I love the Lord Jesus. I'm not loving the
Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not trusting the Christ in
this Bible. It's the one that I've made up by nature. We hate God. And here's how,
you know, we hate God. We hate his crown rights to do
with us as he pleases. I mean, we've sinned against
God. We've rebelled against Him. We've declared war on God. Now
we're in His hand to do with as He pleases. He can save us
or He can damn us. And He's right to do either one. Now our nature hates that. Our
nature hates that. We want to have a chance, don't
we? If God shows you anything about yourself, about your fallen
nature, you won't want a chance. You won't want any of this thing
left up to you. You want God to save you. You want him to
do all the saving for you. We hate God and we hate others. I mean, has the world ever been
a more hateful place than our society? I mean, people are so
hateful. And for the believer, you know,
I can't say anything about the world in general. I can't really
fix that. But here's when a child of God, a believer, becomes unforgiving
and hypercritical of others. You know where that always starts?
When we forget our own fallen nature. That's when that starts. So that's our fallen nature in
a nutshell. And that nature can never produce
salvation, never. It can never, it can never, produce
righteousness, it can never produce anything to please a holy God,
because everything we do is sinful. But look what Paul says here
in verse 4. But after that the kindness and love of God our
Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which
we've done, But according to his mercy, he saved us by the
washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which
he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Now that makes it sound like
there's hope for sinners in there. But before I'm gonna rejoice
in that hope, before I'm gonna lay hold on that hope, this is
what God's got to teach me. The Lord's got to teach me my
sinfulness. Not just the total depravity
of man, my total depravity. If the Lord ever teaches me that,
I'll gladly depend on Christ more than that. All right, here's
the second point. The gospel, the gospel of Christ
teaches full and free salvation in the blood, in the blood of
Christ. Now God promised salvation in
the blood of his son. And then he gave us the Old Testament.
He moved the spirit, moved the writers of the Old Testament
to give us the whole Old Testament full of pictures. There's redemption
in the blood. There's redemption in the blood.
There's redemption in the blood. Somebody's coming. Somebody's
coming. My wife, Janet, for many years
taught little ones. She started teaching the three,
four, and five-year-olds in Sunday school. And this is what she'd
always tell them. The Old Testament was saying,
somebody's coming, someone's coming, someone's coming, someone,
just like a train going up, someone's coming. And then one day, Christ
appeared. Here he is. He's come. Now I see. Now I see what Moses
was writing about. Now I see what Isaiah was saying.
Now I see what Malachi was, now I see, here he is. God's kindness
and love toward man appeared. Now that word kindness, it means
more than gentleness and goodness. The word means usefulness, usefulness. God's son appeared in the flesh. Now there's a useful man. He
appeared and he was obedient to the law of God. He obeyed
it in every jot and every tittle. And his obedience is the obedience
of his people. By his obedience, his people
are made righteous by what he did. Now I'm telling you, that's
useful. Can you think of anything more
useful to a sinner than righteousness? I mean, we're totally depraved.
We're ruined in sin. Can you think of anything more
useful than righteousness? This man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is useful. He produced an obedience for
his people, and then he put their sin away by the sacrifice of
himself. See, he can bear the weight,
the burden of the sin of his people. He can bear the curse
of the sin of his people. He's so useful, His blood put
away all of the sin of all of His people. And it's because
of whose blood it was. See, He's so useful, it's the
only perfect blood that ever was. It's the only blood that
the Father would ever accept. Now, what's more useful to a
sinner than being forgiven of your sin? The Lord, Tommy, could
tell that man, your sin's forgiven, because just in a little while,
He's gonna shed His blood to put them away. What's more useful
to... I mean, what would that man rather
have? Would he rather have his sin forgiven or be given lace-cut
moths? Our Lord is so gracious, He gave
them both. He gave them both. When Christ appeared in His usefulness,
we see God really does love sinners. God says He loves sinners. Here's
how I know He does. He must. He must love sinners. Look what He put His Son through.
in order to redeem him. Look what he did to his son.
He must love sinners. If sinners are gonna be saved,
the son of God's got to appear, human flesh only. He's got to
appear to be the second Adam, to put away the sin of his people,
and he's got to appear to be the lamb of God, who by his sacrifice,
who put away the sin of his people. And I want you to think about
what he endured. in order to do that. He didn't just wave
a magic wand to make it happen. He didn't just get out his pen
and write a presidential pardon and we're gonna pretend like
it didn't happen. In order to make his people perfect, the
holy son of God had to humiliate himself time and time and time
again. He had to humiliate himself to
be made flesh. Can you imagine the humiliation?
How far down The Son of God came to be clothed in our flesh, to
be clothed in the flesh of His creatures, and then to be made
sin. Now sin's all we know, isn't
it? It's all we know. We don't know anything else but
sin. But for the Holy Son of God to
be made sin, that was so humiliating. It was so painful to his soul.
He sweat blood. Blood started, I don't know how
it happened, flowing backwards, flowing, but blood came out of
the pores of his skin at just the thought of being made sin
for his people. And he didn't run from it. He
didn't run. He willingly suffered all of
that. And you know why? Because he
loved the people. He had a bride, he loved her,
and he's gonna redeem her. He's gonna have her for his own. This man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is useful. He's useful in his life, he's
useful in his death, he's useful in his resurrection. By his life,
his death, and his resurrection, he's so useful, he redeemed a
number no man can number. I mean the blessing of being
redeemed, being bought back from the law, being bought back. God
had a price of justice over our heads, and Christ came and redeemed
his people. He bought them back from that.
He purchased them to be his own, set free by his own blood. Now we've got good news to tell.
Now if we're going to preach the gospel, we've got to preach
our total depravity, don't we? But aren't you glad our gospel
doesn't end there? We have good news to tell. Sinners are redeemed
by the blood of Christ. Nothing but the blood. Nothing
but the blood. Under the blood of Jesus. That's
what we sang last night. Under the blood of Jesus. Now,
if Lord ever teaches me that there's redemption in the blood
of Christ, I'm gonna depend on Him. All right, here's the third
thing. The gospel teaches the new birth,
teaches regeneration by the Holy Spirit. Paul says in verse five,
not by works of righteousness, which we've done, but according
to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and
the renewing of the Holy Ghost. Now, Paul talks here about the
washing of regeneration and what he means there is being born
again. Now, regeneration does not happen by the washing of
water, H2O, water. You know, a lot of people take
this, say, well, you're not cleansed from your sin until you're baptized.
The waters of baptism don't wash anybody's sins away. All it can
do is get our skin wet, but it can't reach our soul. Baptism
is a confession It's a confession of what God's already done. It
doesn't wash away our sin, it's a confession of what's already
happened. God cleansed me from my sin in
the blood of Christ. But what Paul's talking about
here is the Holy Spirit. Throughout the scriptures, the
water is often a picture of God the Holy Spirit because it's
pure water that can wash away the filth of the flesh. But the
Holy Spirit does something better than pure water does. He washes
away the filth of our souls. He makes our souls clean. And
here's how he does it, by causing a new man, a new nature to be
born in the hearts of his people, a man who never existed before,
a brand new man, a brand new nature. Now I know this from
what the Lord told Nicodemus, we must be born again. We must
be born again, going back to my first point, because we're
ruined in sin. We're totally depraved, so we must be born
again. Something that's ruined can't
be fixed up. It can't be remodeled. If it's
ruined, it's got to be thrown away, and we're going to start
over. That's what the new birth is. The new birth is the birth
of a new man who's born just like the old man was, except
he's got a different nature. He's got a different nature because
he's got a different father. He's got a different nature because
he's born from different seed. The new man is holy and he cannot
sin because he's born from the holy seed of the word of God. What we're doing right now, the
preaching of God's word, If the Holy Spirit takes that and plants
that seed in your heart, you'll have life. And it has to be holy,
doesn't it? If it comes from this book, if
it comes from this seed, the seed of the word of God. If the Lord causes you to be
born again, you're gonna start to understand something about
a civil war. I mean, that old man is not gonna
change. He's not going to weaken. He's
not going to give in. And the new man won't either.
And they're going to fight. I mean, they're going to fight
with everything they've got for the rest of your physical life.
But when you take that last breath and this body dies, this fleshly
body dies, that new man is going to immediately go to the presence
of our Savior. Now we can't make ourselves be
born again. We can't make ourselves be born again any more than we
can make ourselves be born physically. The new birth is something that
God the Holy Spirit sovereignly gives to whom He will, when He
will. Let me show you that in John
chapter 3. I want to show you this to show us how dependent
we are now in this matter of the new birth. John chapter 3. In verse six, our Lord tells
Nicodemus, now that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and
that's all it ever will be. The only thing it ever will be
is dead, sinful, rotten, decaying, depraved flesh. That's all it
ever will be. And that which is born of the
Spirit, of God the Holy Spirit, is spirit, and that's all it
ever will be, spirit. So marvel not that I said anything,
you must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth. Now thou hearest the sound thereof,
but you can't tell from whence it cometh and whether it goeth. So is everyone that's born of
the Spirit. You know after the fact it's
happened, but you didn't see it coming. You didn't know where
it came from. He's sovereign. The Holy Spirit
sovereignly gives life to whom he will, when he will. Now don't ever be mistaken about
this. The work of the Holy Spirit in salvation is just as important
as the work of the Father and the work of the Son. That's why
our Savior said, you must be born again. See, in order to
be saved, we know this. God's got to choose us, don't
He? He has to choose us. We know our sins got to be put
away. It's got to be blotted out by
the blood of Christ. We've got to be made not guilty. But if
a sinner is made not guilty, all his past sins are put away,
and we're not given a new nature, a new nature that cannot sin,
we're gonna make ourselves guilty all over again, won't we? So
we must have our sin put away, but then we must be given a new
nature. And that's the nature that God
the Holy Spirit gives in the new birth. He gives that nature,
the nature that God accepts, the nature that will walk straight
into the presence of our Savior when this flesh dies. Now, if
the Lord ever teaches me I'm dead in sin and I need him to
give me life. I can't have spiritual life unless
he gives it to me. I'll be dependent on him. All right, here's the fourth
thing. The gospel teaches a living hope. Back in our text, Titus
three. Paul says in verse seven, that
being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. Now that word eternal life there
means a living hope. Now this often confuses people.
We're talking about renewing, the renewing of the Holy Ghost.
Now that doesn't mean the new birth is the renewing of the
old man. The new birth is not the flesh
somehow being given light, somehow being given, being brought back
from being spiritually dead in some sort of spiritually living
state. Now that can't be so. If that was so, that means we're
not totally depraved. If that was so, that means we
didn't die in Adam. If our flesh could somehow get
light, could somehow believe God, trust Christ, that would
mean we really didn't die in Adam. If the flesh could be renewed
into spiritual life, well, that has to mean there's some hope
in our flesh. And brother, that's not so. That's not so, it can't
be. Our Lord said, we just read it,
that which is born of the flesh is flesh. All it's ever gonna
be is dead flesh. So this renewing that Paul's
talking about here, it's a refreshing. It's the refreshing, the strengthening
of the new man. And you know how that new man
is strengthened? The same way he's born of God. It's by the
preaching of the Word. It's the preaching of the Word
that gives life, isn't it? And it's the preaching of the Word
that feeds and strengthens that new man. And I'll use this as
an example to those of you who believe, you'll know exactly
what I'm talking about. Particularly on a Wednesday night, you've
been out there in the world, you've just been busting the
gut trying to make a living, haven't you? And it gets to be
Wednesday night, and you're so beaten down by the world, all
the trouble that you've had at work, all the trouble you had
with people around you, you're so tired. And spiritually, you
feel dead, you feel cold, and you think, at no point in me
going to service tonight, I'm never gonna hear a thing. But
you go, you drag yourself in here, and you come sit down,
and you listen. About 40 minutes later, you walk
out the door, and there's just a little bounce in your step.
What happened? Your soul was refreshed by the
preaching of Christ. You were fed on Him, and you're
strengthened. One of our dear men back home,
very, very often, not every Sunday, but very often, on a Wednesday
night, he'll come out the door, and he'll grab my hand. He'll
say, thank you. I believe I can make till Sunday now. And then
on Sunday he'll grab my hand and say, thank you, I believe
I'm made to Wednesday now. It's refreshing, isn't it? It's refreshing. Oh, how we need that. I hear
the gospel of Christ preached. Somebody holds up Christ crucified
to me. And even though this flesh is
so dead and I'm so tired, God gives me a glimpse of him. And
just a glimpse of the Savior. I keep going a little bit longer.
I keep going a little bit longer. See, the hope that a believer
has, it's a living hope. It's a hope that gives life,
but it's a hope that sustains life, that sustains us through
this journey through the desert here below. See, the gospel that
we preach, it's not a set of dry, dead doctrines that we're
just to memorize. We have a living hope. A living
hope because our Savior died, was buried, and rose again for
us. And if the Lord ever teaches me that, then all of my hope
is in Him. That the only way I'm gonna be
saved, the only way I'm gonna be comforted, the only way I'm
gonna be fed, the only way I'm gonna be encouraged, the only
way I'm gonna be taught is by looking to Him. I'll depend on
Him. I'll depend on Him. And here's
the fifth thing. The gospel of God teaches that
salvation is by grace and grace alone. Paul says in verse seven,
that being justified by his grace, by his grace. Look back at the
second Timothy chapter one. We can't say this one time too
often. Salvation is by grace. Second Timothy one verse nine.
who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not
according to our words, but according to his own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now, grace is God giving us what
we do not deserve. Now, salvation is by grace. I
mean, you can't think about this for a minute. If salvation is
by grace, then salvation cannot be earned by some work we've
done, can it? Can't be, not if salvation is
by grace, because we can't do anything to deserve it. Salvation
by grace means this. God gives his people what they
do not deserve. You know what he actually gives
them? God gives his people what Christ deserves. God gives his
people what Christ earned by his perfect obedience, his obedience
unto death. So we know we haven't earned
a righteousness by our obedience. We haven't been obedient to God
for one second of our lives. Then why does God call his people
righteous? I mean, even after God saves
you, you know this, you've never done one righteous thing ever,
have you? No, even after God saves you. Then why does God
call his people righteous? Because that's what Christ made
them. Christ earned a righteousness for his people, and God gives
it to them freely. That's why he calls them righteous.
All we deserve is eternal damnation, eternal wrath. Well, why doesn't
God give that wrath to his people? Why doesn't God damn his people
then if that's what we've earned by our works? Because God's wrath
against the sin of his people was already poured out on Christ
our substitute. God poured out His wrath, God
the Father poured out His wrath against the sin of His people
upon His Son. And He didn't quit because the
Son died and couldn't take anymore. Christ suffered until that wrath
was gone. The Father's wrath quit because
there's no sin left. So God says, there's no more
fear left in me. He's not mad at His people anymore. The blood
of Christ took away the sin that made God angry. So He's not mad
anymore. Salvation is by grace. By grace. Can you think of anything more
undeserved than the Son of God suffering for your sin? Taking
the punishment and the death and the separation from the Father
that you deserve? Can you think of anything more
gracious than that? I mean, I don't care where you find Him. God's
people love to talk about grace. They love to hear about grace.
They love to sing about grace. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound. Tell me again. I love the sound.
Tell me again. Grace is a charming sound, harmonious
to the ear. It was grace that kept me to
this day, and it's grace that will not let me go. I'm saved
by grace alone. That's all my plea. Jesus died
for sinful men. and Jesus died for me by His
grace. Now salvation is by grace. Only God can give it. And if
God ever teaches me that, I'm gonna be dependent on Him and
be glad to do it. I told you last night that I
have prayed that Lord bring someone here who does not know Him, who
does not yet believe on Christ. in a crowd this size, undoubtedly,
that's so somewhere. There's somebody here that doesn't
trust Christ. If that's you, friend, let me
tell you something. Will you listen to me for a minute? Salvation's
by grace. Salvation's by grace. Now, I
know that means there's nothing I can do to make God save me. There's nothing I can do to get
God to save me. I understand that. But don't you think that
means there's nothing you can do? You know what you can do? Go beg Him for it. And don't
let nothing stop you. Those four men bearing that,
they didn't let nothing stop them from getting to Christ,
did they? I mean, they tore the roof off to get to Him. You go
to Christ and you beg Him for mercy. You beg Him for grace
because salvation is by grace. Now here's the last thing. The gospel of God's grace teaches
us that salvation produces good works. Now listen to me, I haven't lost
my Calvinism and I'm not contradicting my last point, salvation is by
grace alone. Look what Paul says in our text,
verse eight. Now 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. Now believers are careful to
maintain good works. Now a good work is not what false
religion tells you, it is. A good work is not something
that we do that doesn't have any sin in it, so it's good,
no. You know, everything we do is
mixed with sin. This is such a struggle for believers
because we know that. We know you go and you serve
someone and you just really give to help them out. You really
do something to help them out. And in the back of your mind,
you know, that's not good enough. I mean, there's sin mixed with
all my motives and everything I do. Here's what a good work
is. It's a work of faith. It's a
work of love. And these works, a good work.
Now, a good work is not something that you do to make God happy
with you. If that's your motive, it's not a good work. A good
work is not something that you do that makes you more savable
than somebody else. A good work is not something
you do, why do all these works and now God's gonna bless me.
If that's your goal, now that's work, isn't it? That's work,
it's not grace. Good works are something that
God's people do out of a heart, that new heart that God gives,
a heart of thanksgiving, because God has already saved me. He's
already saved me. The only thing our Lord ever
called a good work was when that woman came and anointed his body
for the burial. And she put that expensive ointment
on him, you know, and the disciples were like, oh, you know, that
money could have been taken and sold, you know, and given to
the poor. And what Judas really meant is, you know, I could have
skimmed a lot off the top of that. And the Lord said, you leave her
alone. That's a good work. A good work done on my body.
Now we don't have the fleshly body of our Lord here, but I
see his body. I see his body. And if you have
the opportunity to serve one of these folks, do it. If the
Lord lays it on your heart to serve one of these folks and
help them, do it. Do it. That's a good work. And
believers are careful to maintain those good works. But now listen
to me. Here's the other thing about these works. A true believer
is careful not to trust in them too. We do them, careful to do
them. Like look for opportunities,
but careful not to trust in them too. Any salvation that comes
from our works, that's not salvation. But any salvation that does not
produce good works, that doesn't produce a heart of love and caring,
that's not salvation either. That's just as wrong. God's salvation
produces a new man that loves God, that has faith in Christ. And true faith produces good
works every time. True faith in the heart affects
the actions of a believer. Let me show you that in closing,
James chapter two. James chapter two. Beginning in verse 17. Even so, faith, if it hath not
works, is dead, being alone. Yea, man may say, thou hast faith,
and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy
works, and I'll show thee my faith by my works. Thou believest
that there is one God? Well, that's just a fact. Thou
doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know,
O vain man, that faith without works is dead? The devils believe
there's one God, and they tremble, but they don't come asking for
mercy. They don't come begging for grace, are they? Was not
Abraham our father justified by works? And what that means
is his faith was justified. His faith was made evident by
his works. When he offered his son Isaac
upon the altar, seest thou how faith wrought with his works?
And by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled
with saying, Abraham believed God. And he was imputed unto
him for righteousness. And he was called the friend
of God. You see then, how that by works a man is justified and
not by faith only. And what that means is this.
How do you know Abraham believed God? How do you know Abraham
believed God? God told Abraham, Messiah's coming
through this soon. And before he had any children,
God said, kill him. Now, how do you know Abraham
believed God? He raised that knife to kill that son. In his
heart, he killed his son, because he knew this. God's going to
keep his promise. Whatever it's going to take,
God will raise him from the dead if he has to, but the Messiah's coming
through. I believe God. That's what Paul's saying here. Likewise, verse 25, also was
not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received
the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body
without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. You know how I know Rahab believed
those spies? You know how I knew she believed God? When those
spies crept out, and they snuck away, and they said, now, when
we come, we're gonna come destroy the city. When we come, you hang
this scarlet line out the window. She didn't wait till Israel was
marching around Jericho for seven days, did she? She hung out that
line right now. I believe God. Now I know I can't
do that. I can't trust the Lord. I can't
keep trusting Him. I can't serve you with any care
and love and pity. I can't do that. If Lord ever
teaches me that, the only way I'm going to be able to do that
is by the Spirit of God. He's got to enable me to do it.
He's got to make me want to do it. He's got to enable me to
do it. If Lord ever teaches me that, I'm gonna live dependent
on him, just like Abraham was, just like Rahab, but live dependent
on him. Now that's the gospel. That's
the gospel of God that the scriptures teach. We were talking about this this
morning at breakfast. You know what I'm gonna do this afternoon,
Chris? You know. I'm gonna think, should have said that different.
I should have said that better. I wish I'd have said it this
way. But it's my prayer, I mean my
earnest prayer, that despite the stumbling and
the bumbling of the cracked clay pot, that God the Spirit will
move in power and cause us to hear these things so that we
trust Christ, so that we leave here this morning dependent on
Him. I want that for you, and I want
that for me. If Lord be pleased, we'll be
mighty thankful. I thank you all. Thank you, and pray the
Lord bless you.