Look at Titus, and let me talk
to you a little bit about this. This is a faithful saying, verse
8. This is a faithful saying. This is a faithful saying. It's
full of meaning. That's what it means. It's full
of meaning. It's a faithful saying. And these things I will that
thou affirm constantly, constantly, always, perpetually,
on and on and on, continually, that they, they which have believed
in God might be careful to maintain
good works. And he gives a reason here, because
these things are good and profitable unto men. Faithful saying. Good works. Be careful to maintain them.
Another place in the Scripture we are told to be careful for
nothing. But here we are told to be careful
to maintain good works. And we read in another place,
I believe in the book of I Peter, where we are told that we are
to cast all our care upon Him, for He careth for us. But do not cast off your care
to maintain good works. Now, I know that we have many
cares in this life, many cares. domestic, on the job, in this
world. There's many, many cares that
fall upon us. But don't let care be wasted
on food and clothing and housing. These are temporary things. Let's leave these temporary necessities
unto God. He'll take care of them. He'll
take care of them. This means to maintain, to be
careful. It means sacred, holy cares. It means the cares of holy and
gracious living. It has to do with that. Everyday,
practical living. when we get up of a morning and
enter into this and that and so forth, to be careful, to be
careful and maintain, as the day goes on, not to give reason
for accusations against us. Don't put yourself out there
in precarious situations by your conversation and your actions. Be careful, be careful to maintain
certain high and holy standards and make no compromise. Make
no compromise. Do not give in. Bind your best
thoughts, an old writer said, to the car of holiness. Bind
your best thoughts. Tie your best thoughts to the
car of holiness. Be careful to maintain good works
of every sort and every kind. That's to the believer. He shall
be here to the believers, those who are believers in God. He
makes that very clear. I will that thou affirm constantly
that they which have believed in God, those that believe in
God. And I told you this morning no
man can believe in God apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. I
said you can't honor God without honoring Christ. You can't honor
Christ without honoring God. Can't do it. So be careful to maintain good
works of every sort. That's to the believer, to the
believer. Now, to the unbeliever. Now, I don't know whether there
will be more people in heaven than there will be in hell. I
don't know. It seems to me like there ought
to be more people in heaven than there are in hell. It seems to
me like that way. human reasoning, that there ought
to be more people who are the followers of the Lord Jesus than
there are who just are indifferent and unconcerned, disinterested,
and have built a platform that they can stand on of their own
views and opinions and so-called good works. There ought to be
more that are followers of Jesus than there are of these others.
But I don't know. I don't know. I know he says
that there in the book of Revelation, he said that thousands upon thousands,
he said that comes from every tongue and every tribe, every
nation under the sun, will come. They're his people. He's chosen
them. There's all the babies, all the
babies that die in infancy. I don't think those babies are
going to hell. I believe they're going to heaven. Now, if we take
all them, there's going to be a big crowd there, aren't there? But there's going to be a big
crowd of unbelievers going to the other place, too. Unbelievers
who do not believe the testimony of God concerning the Lord Jesus
Christ, that He's Savior and Lord and Master, Ruler. He's our Ruler and our Master.
We are obedient to His will, or at least we are going in that
direction. I am talking to believers, but
to the unbeliever. I don't have a word to say to
you about good works. I am talking about good works
pertaining to him who believes God's testimony concerning His
Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm talking to that fella. To
the unbeliever, I don't have a word to say about good works
except to remind you, if you're an unbeliever, that you don't
have any good works. You don't have any. Not by works
of righteousness which we have done. You haven't got any. Unbeliever doesn't have any works. The difference here, In the believer
and the unbeliever is the difference between living and dying. A living
soul and a dead soul. Listen, a dead soul, man outside
of the Lord Jesus, woman, boy or girl that's outside, that
has not done business with God in Christ Jesus, has not cried
out for mercy. You could cry out for mercy,
couldn't you? I said, well, a sinner can't pray. Say that to an unbeliever
who can't pray. He can cry for mercy though,
can't he? He can do that. You're interested in a right
relationship with God in Christ Jesus. It's only to be found
in Him. The only way you'll get it is
He'll give it to you. You cannot in any way work yourself
up to cause God to do anything. He won't do it. You can't make
God change His mind. He's immutable. He cannot change. You say, well, if this thing's
all set beforehand and there is such a thing as the election
of grace, maybe I'm not one of God's elect.
So how do you know you're not one of God's elect? You'll never
know whether you're an elect of God or not until you come
to Christ. If you come to Christ, then He
refuses you. But He has said, All that the
Father giveth to me shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise refuse, or cast out, or sever. Isn't
that what He said? Under no circumstance. You could
cry out, couldn't you? You say, I don't know anything
about the Scriptures. Do you know your soul is in jeopardy?
Do you know that? Do you know that you have no
relationship with God? And you want to have a relationship
with God in Christ Jesus. You're a sinner, you know you're
a sinner. You could cry out for mercy, couldn't you? Let me cite
you two biblical references to that. The thief on the cross. There he hung. I mean, he was
a thief. He was a thief and a murderer
and no telling what all that man done. He is a sinner by nature,
a sinner by practice, and a sinner by choice. And they had him nailed
to that tree. And he rolled his head over and
looked at that one that hung between two thieves, that blessed
Lord Jesus Christ. He just looked at him. What did
he see in him? Another man. How could He help
him? His hands was nailed to the tree
and His feet was nailed to the tree and He has lacerated His
head and His back and the wound in His side. He didn't look like
anybody could save. He couldn't even save Himself.
That's what the Pharisees said. They said, if you are who you
say you are, save yourself. Save others. Come down from the
cross. But if He'd come down from the
cross, there'd be no salvation for us, because He's dying as
a substitute. He's dying to satisfy, He undertook
to fulfill all the demands of God on our behalf. He comes down,
what do we do? We're without hope, without God
in this world if He comes down. Thank God He stayed on that tree.
Thank God He stayed there and He suffered the just For the
unjust, that's me, the unjust. He suffered for me, suffered
my place, bore my penalty. He's my obedience to God's holy
law. He satisfied God's inflexible
holy justice. He called me, made me acceptable
in Himself. Oh my God, I can't help but trust
Him. I can't help but believe Him.
With all the steam and strength of my soul, I believe in Him.
My only hope, I got no other hope. I can't turn to my works
because it's not of the works that we have done. I've got none. Got to go to Him. See what I'm
talking about? You could cry out for mercy.
That thief looked at him. He's seen something in the Lord
Jesus Christ that nobody else in that crowd's seen that day.
He's seen a Savior. He's seen a dying Savior. He's
seen God manifest in the flesh. And he knew he had a kingdom.
He knew that he was a king, that he had a kingdom. And he looked
over to Him, and all he could say was, he said, Lord, remember
me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. And our Lord turned
to him and said, Today, shout, I'll be in my kingdom. You could
do that, couldn't you? Are you interested? Listen, if
you continue going like you're going, and this thing's all over
with, and you stand before God, you'll not be able to say, well,
no one ever told me. No one ever told me. I'm telling
you now. You could cry out. You could cry out to God for
mercy. What about that poor public? That poor publican was hated
by everybody in the country. Everybody in Israel and the hills
of Palestine hated that fellow, the tax collector, and he cheated.
He cheated. Cheated people out of their money.
And he knew what he was. And there was two men, our Lord
said, went up to the temple to pray one day. I said, your sinner
can't pray. Well, he did. He did. Well, he said the sinner's dead
in trespasses and in sins. He still is. But that sinner
who was dead in trespasses and in sins, who was far off from
God, who was disobedient and foolish and who had been deceived,
he went up there and stood far over on the other side of the
platform. He stood over there and he smote
his chest and he said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Religious man. That religious
Pharisee, he said, I thank God. He prayed. He said, I thank God
I'm not like that fellow. I'm not like he is. One of those men went down to
his house just to pray. That's what the Bible says. And
it wasn't that praying Pharisee. It was that fellow over there.
God, that's all he had. It was his prayer. God be merciful
to me, a sinner. That's all He's saying. You can
do that, couldn't you? Well, you see, I'm not trying
to be mean when I say this about unbelievers. I say that they've
got no good works. I'm saying the same thing about
myself. God made Himself known to my poor soul. I had no good
works then, and I don't have many good works now. And what
I'm saying here, I'm saying it more to you than I am to... more
to me than I am to you. When it says, this is faithful
saying, and I firmly, constantly let you maintain good works,
I'm talking to myself. Maintain good works. I haven't
got many. When you know it's a good work,
it probably isn't. Huh? Yeah, when you know it's a good
work, well, it probably isn't. Because if you've ever done anything
good, you'll forget about that. You won't even remember it. There'll
come a day when we all stand before God, and He's going to
say, when I was hungry, when I was hungry, you gave me eat. You gave me bread when I was
hungry. When I was in jail, you visited me. When I was sick,
you ministered unto me. And they said, Lord, when did
we ever do that for you? They didn't even know it, did
they? They forgot all about it. That's the way it is most of
our works. My God, he remembers it. Well, listen, you cannot work
that which will please God if you are without faith in God. Faith is an absolute, indispensable
foundation of good works. As there is no coming to God
in prayer without believing He is the rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him. Living works must have living
faith. Loving works, for God, must have
loving faith. When we know, Paul said, I know
some things. I know whom I have believed,
Paul said. I know. I know. I know. That's what he said. Folks, you
can't know. But the Bible says that Paul
said, I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him against the day of judgment. I have that certainty, Paul said.
When we know and trust the living God, when we know and trust Him,
know who God is, How do we find out who God is? Find out who
Jesus Christ is and you'll find out who God is. Because all of
God's in Christ and all of Christ's in God. God is in Christ. I tell you, and the only God
you'll ever see when you go out in this world is going to be
the Lord Jesus Christ. The only God you'll ever see
is Him. He is God. Rest assured, I'm
telling you the truth tonight, that He is as much God as if
He is never man. He is God, over all and above
all. And when we know and trust the
living God with a holy intelligence and confidence, only then can
we work His pleasure and please Him. God wants no slaves at His
throne. God's people are not slaves. They're not slavish. Slaves in
a sense, but not in this sense. You see, good works must be done
freely. Freely. He seeks not from us
the forced work of men in bondage. Our work is spontaneous. It's a spontaneous zeal to do
His will, to do His good pleasure, to be obedient. It's spontaneous
zeal, not forced labor like they had in the concentration camps
in Germany. They got those Polish people
and those Jewish people, those Hungarians and Croatians, all
the people they didn't like, and put them in those camps.
Force labor out of them. Ours is not like that. We labor. We labor. Our labor is a labor
of love to Him who rescued us. Oh, my soul. He desires this
spontaneous zeal of consecrated souls who rejoice to do His will
because they're not their own. They bought with a price. The
price of redemption is His blood. And therefore, that's what they
have in mind. Well, listen, those of you here
tonight who are believers, never let the ungodly say that we who
believe in free grace think lightly of holy living. Never give occasion
or reason for the unbeliever to put the finger on you and
say, You are a believer of free grace, but you think little or
nothing in regard to holy living. That's the reason Paul said, Be careful to maintain good works. He says, because these things
are good and profitable unto man. You and I who hold the truth,
you and I who know that salvation is not of man or of man's work, those of us that know it's not
a merit, those of us that know that salvation is but of the
mercy of God, and not of ourselves, but of
God alone. Those of us that know that, those
of us that hold this truth, we should be right in our practice,
in our living, as well as our doctrine. Our doctrine. Our doctrine is free grace forever
and ever and ever and ever. Free grace. You can't buy it. You can't conjoin God and put
Him in a box or in a corner and make Him give it to you. It's
all of God is free grace, free, free, free, forever free. And we ought not to give occasion
for men to say that we who believe in free grace. don't believe in holy living.
See? Well, listen to this. I know what I'm talking about
here. Dogs. I have a dog. Fine dog. Dogs will open their mouths. Every one of them will open their
mouth. But don't find bones to feed
them. Enemies of God, enemies of free
grace is looking for an occasion to accuse you. Don't put wood on the fire. Don't put bones in the dog's
mouth. Okay? Be careful. Know what it
says, Pat? Be careful. Be careful to maintain
good works. Be careful. I'm amazed at what
professing Christians will do. I'm amazed. I was looking at
the television there the other day, and they come on this Channel
6 in Clarksburg, I believe it is. They call it the Christian
Channel. And they have a fellow on there. I know what his name
is, but I can't think of it. But he's been on there for several
years. And he makes a good living. He drives
a great big car. Someone was telling me the other
day he built a great new home. He left his wife, divorced his
wife there not too long ago, and maybe got married again.
I don't know. But he's on the television every day, and he's
always wanting money. He doesn't preach no gospel.
He's never said in his life one sentence about free grace, because
he don't know anything about free grace. He knows a lot about
works, but nothing about free grace. I'm amazed at what professing
Christians will do. Beg money. Beg money over the
television. Beg money every time they're
on. They say, we've got to have,
we're having a something, and we've got five, we need $5,000
before Monday morning to pay our bill. We need $50,000 this
month to maintain our, pay our bill. I was in the car the other day,
turned the radio on, couldn't find nothing but one station.
And I think it was over in Hancock, Maryland, or Hagerstown, or somewhere
over in Maryland. And they talked about this program
called the Living... Ah, I don't know what it was.
Living Radio or something. Anyhow. They talked for the longest
time. And they said they wanted people
to send in money so they could get another radio station in
Johnstown, Pennsylvania. I heard another fellow from down
at Clark Square on the radio. And all he done was played hymns. Played hymns. That's all he done
was played hymns. And he said, now, if you want
to be a contributor to this program, send in your money to me, and
I'll send you one of my famous self-addressed envelopes to return
your pledging. I'm amazed! so-called professed
Christians will do. If their God is not big enough
to maintain them, I'd say quit. Well, let me say this and then
I'll quit. Stay with me just a second here.
Maintain good works. What is that? Well, it's works
of righteousness. And the works of righteousness
that we maintain are the fruits of God's salvation. I told you this morning that
the root must come before the fruit. The root is Christ. The foundation is Christ. Works of obedience are good works. Obedience to the Word of God.
Works of charity, that's good works. Works of kindness. That's
good words. Works of reverence. To reverence
God. To reverence His holy name. What
do you think about that fellow I was telling you about that
plays basketball for Providence College, Providence University?
His name is Sham God. That's his last name. And when
he come to college, he had a regular name. I don't know what it was.
It didn't say. But he had a regular name. But
when he come to college, He thought it best that he change his name
to God, God Shamgah. That's what he calls himself,
God Shamgah. And these highly paid, skilled
announcers on CNN and CBS, they make light of it. They talk about,
there's God going to work a miracle and things like that. Throw that
ball behind his back, he's God. Listen, let me tell you this.
If you don't hear anything I say tonight, remember this. Anytime
that you attribute something to a man that belongs
solely unto God, that's blasphemy. That's blasphemy. God is God. There's something in it. I'm going to call my name God.
I'm God, Sham God. Well, works of obedience, works of
charity, works of kindness, works of reverence, works of holiness,
what you, when you do that which God bids you to do, that's a
good work. That's a work of love for Him. The common actions of everyday
life when they are well done, not with a view of reward or
merit, but out of gratitude and thanksgiving unto God. That's
a good work. Any work, anything that you do
or say or think that redounds to the glory of God Almighty,
that's a good work. That's a good work. Whether we
eat or drink, whatsoever we do, Do all to the glory of God. Maintain good works. See to it. Lord bless us. Let's stand and
we'll go home.