Timothy then Titus, Titus chapter
four. And there's a verse of Scripture
there in verse eight that says this, This is a faithful
saying, And these things I will, that thou affirm constantly,
constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful
to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men. Good works. Good works. Why? Well, because the Bible
said to. God said to. But let me say at
the outset this, that the Word of God teaches that all Christians,
all believers, do good works. There's not one that doesn't
have them. They do them, they have good works, and they maintain
good works. You know the scriptures tell
us in Ephesians 2, 8, For by grace are ye saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we were created in Christ
Jesus, now listen to it, unto good works, which God hath before
ordained, that we should walk in them. Now, if God foreordained
us to walk in good works, you reckon we won't? And you know,
see, it's just as much as we were foreordained to walk in
good works. It says we were predestinated
and foreordained to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself. We were predestinated to be conformed
to the image of God's blessed Son. And it also says, as many
as were ordained to eternal life believed, And we rejoice in all
these blessed things, these spiritual blessings that we have in our
Lord Jesus Christ. But just as much as we foreordain
to these things, we were also foreordained to good works. And yet, at the same time, there's not a believer that I
know of would have a hard time telling
you what good works he's done. You'll have the hardest time
in the world, or try to explain to me, or even to yourself, what
good works you've done. Ain't that right? What good works have you done?
I ain't done nothing. But yet, good works, good works
is the natural outcome of a spiritual life, of being united with the
Lord Jesus Christ. Look here in Titus chapter 3
and verse 4, look what it says. After that, the kindness and
love of God our Savior toward man appeared, and it appeared
to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, our salvation is not
by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to
His mercy He saved us. He did it by the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior. that being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
So he starts out telling us how our salvation is accomplished.
God appeared to us in kindness and love and grace, and then
He regenerated us by His mercy, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
He justified us by His grace and made us heirs according to
the hope of eternal life. And then he turns around and
says, now this is what I want you to tell them. I want you
to affirm this and do it constantly, that they which have believed
in God might be careful to maintain good works. Now, turn with me
back over to Matthew chapter 7. Good works, good deeds are
the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Matthew chapter 7. Good works, good deeds are the
fruit of the Holy Spirit. They're the outcome, the outflowing,
the outworking of the love of God in our hearts, shed abroad
by the Holy Ghost, in our hearts and love for our souls, for our
Master. And look what our Lord Jesus
Christ said in verse 16. He said, You shall know them
by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns?
If you go to pick grapes, you don't go out and pick them off
of blackberry bushes, thorns, or you don't get figs off of
thistles. Even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit,
but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot
bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth
good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire, wherefore
by their fruit you shall know them. Now, you see, you know
a tree by its fruit. And you see, the thing is, is
that God's people, the works that they do, they don't do them
to be saved. They don't do them to be blessed.
They don't do them to be accepted of God. They don't do them for
a reward. We do what we do because we have
been saved. because we have been accepted,
because we have been blessed. That's what is the natural outcome
of something already done for us, not to get anything done
for us, but because that something's already been done. Now, look
back over here in Matthew 6, and let's just see what our Lord
says about good works, see what our Master says about it, about
ours. And alms in the margin there
says, take heed that you do not your alms, Matthew 6, 1, that
you do not your alms before men to be seen of them. In the margin
it says you're a righteousness. Don't do what you do to let men
see how righteous you are, to see how good you are. And
the thing he does when he starts talking about teaching and regarding
the doing of good works, the first thing he does is he gives
a warning. He said, take heed. Take heed. Watch out. Be aware of something. Well, what you going to be aware
of? Be aware of what? That you don't do your all before
men to be seen of them. That you don't do your righteousnesses. You don't do your good deeds.
And I hear people talking, and I'll set this straight right
now, that they say that, you know, we've got the righteousness
of Christ computed to us. And then we have a righteousness
of our own, and you've got to balance these two out. There
ain't but one righteousness before God, and that's the righteousness
of Christ. I'll never ever in my flesh do
a righteous deed, and my righteousness before God is Christ and Him
alone. But then he says here, but when you do a righteousness,
don't do it before men to be seen of me. Don't do something
so folks will glory in you and brag on you. And don't do good
deeds so that people will think that you know he's really a spiritual
person. He's a special kind of Christian.
That's not what it's about. And lots of people do good works
to be good in the eyes of other people. Celebrities, politicians,
Christians, so-called Christians in that they go to soup kitchens.
And why in the world would you think they have cameras going?
Why do you think they want people to see them doing that? Why do
you think they want people talking about it? You know, and they
give to charities, and they have benefits. They have great big
benefits, so they can raise money. Say, look, what a great benefit
I have, so I can raise the money for this, that and the other.
And it makes people very popular. It's a status symbol to some
people. But our Lord said, you don't
do that. Don't do that. Don't never do anything to be
seen of men. That's what he's saying, to be
seen of them. If we do anything thinking that this is going to
impress somebody, that somebody wants to be seen, that I want
people to see me do this, I want them to know that I've done that.
Unless they say, take heed, don't you do that. And then he says,
take heed for yours. What's it on? Well, it's an act
of devotion. And religious duty that conforms
to the will of God in the margin says you're righteous. And he
says this, he said, if you do it before to be seen of men,
otherwise you have no reward of your father, which is in heaven.
If you want to do what you do so somebody will see what you
do, brag about you and let everybody know. Now, this is another thing. I mean, you know, we just talk
plain language. I've seen this happen all the
time. then maybe I'm the one wrong about it. But I see folks
all the time, a whole bunch of them, especially in public. And
they're coming, they all got to let everybody know that they're
Christian by praying. You know, a whole bunch of them
get around, they don't even hold hands and things when they're eating
out. And they want folks to know that this, that I'm a Christian.
Do you reckon just praying like that makes them know you're Christian?
I've been in airports before where those fellas get out their
little old rugs and land down in the middle of the airport
and point towards some other place and go to give it a try.
Does that make you a Christian? Praying in public don't make
you a Christian. Holding hands and praying don't make you a
Christian. And if I don't see anything down in the world, that
could be a good work. What's a good work about praying? You know if you don't pray, what
are you going to do? But folks have what they want
to do. They want everybody to know, yes, I'm a believer here,
and so we're going to hold hands and let everybody know that we're
Christians, and we go to church, and we're not a bunch of heathens,
and we want everybody to know nobody else in here is a Christian,
but we're going to. We used to go to Stodd's Motel
up in Fairmont. We first started going up there
back in the early 80s. And they had a restaurant or
something, and then they called it a Christian restaurant. How do you have a Christian restaurant? They serve fish and food. That's
what I'm talking about. See how absurd it is? That's
what our Lord's saying. They put that up, everybody sees
that, and they get their reward. And they get their reward. And
all beloved, and all of us, all of us are tempted at times to
do what we do. If we want to do it in front
of somebody, we'll get their applause and their approval and
their respect. But God help us to be careful
not to give in to this temptation. And we may have the applause
of men, and if that's what you want, if that's what we want,
we'll lose the approval of God when we get the approval of men.
And our Lord Jesus Christ said here that to do your alms to
be seen of men, they're worthless. They don't mean anything. And
then he says in verse two, how do you do it? How do you do it? Therefore, when you do, when
you do, first thing he tells us, don't sound the trumpet before
you. You know, when there was a time
and I guess there's still places where they maybe do it. When
someone or something important was coming along, or something
big was going to happen, or something important, they'd start sounding
a trumpet. And they'd blow that trumpet, and everybody would
give attention to the fellow blowing the trumpet. They'd blow
that trumpet to get people's attention, and an announcement
was about to be made. And they would look up and they'd
listen carefully to see what the announcement was going to
be, or the person they was going to announce. And our Lord's saying
here, don't do that! When you get ready to do something
for somebody, you see a need somewhere, you want to meet that
need. You see something that you'd love to do for somebody,
you'd love to do for the church or something like that. Don't
sound the trumpet. Don't say, look, look, look.
Don't make an announcement about it. Don't get paid for attention
to it. Don't blow the trumpet, is what our master said. And
then look what else he says. Do not sound the trumpet before
thee as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets.
You know what a hypocrite is? A hypocrite was an actor. An actor. Ain't that right, Gary?
An actor. You know, they say, boy, he's a good hypocrite. That
means he's a very good actor. A hypocrite was an actor. It
describes somebody who had a role in a play, a dramatic play. It
was a person who impersonated another person, who assumed the
role of another person. And that's what our Lord said
here, don't play the actor. Don't play the role. Don't assume
the role of something or someone that you're not. Don't play a
role. He said, you know, you're not
on a stage, you're not around, and don't play this role. Don't
assume a character that you don't have. And I tell you, beloved,
it's easy to impersonate somebody else. There's folks that make
a fortune at it. Impersonate somebody else. I'm pretty good
at impersonating Scott. Because I love him. It's a wonderful thing, such
an endearment. I love him. But I'll tell you,
beloved, I can't be Scott. And I certainly don't want to
be up here playing a role in front of you all. Pretending
to be something that I'm not. Believe something I don't believe.
Act a way that's not real? That would be horrible, wouldn't
it? And that's what he's talking about here. Don't play a role. Don't be a hypocrite. Don't play
a role. Don't assume a role of somebody else. Don't assume a
role of being a Christian. Don't assume the role of being
a believer. Either you do or you don't. And I tell you, it's
easy to pick up the language. It's easy to pick up the language.
You know, you get around people for a while, and you can pick
up their language. You can pick up how they talk, the words they
use, their mannerisms, particular things to that particular
group. It's easy to do that. But our
Lord here is talking about the scribes and the Pharisees. Whenever
they would enter into the synagogues, they'd make a grand entrance
in. And all they'd come in, walking in, their long robes flowing,
and all eyes watching them pretending to do good deeds when they come
in there. It was the ultimate act of hypocrisy. And then when
they got in the streets, they'd go down through the streets,
letting everybody know the good things that they were doing,
and doing things for this one and that one. And look what it
says here, that they may have glory of men. Glory of men. You know, let me, you keep Matthew
6, and look Matthew 22 just a moment. Matthew 22, in verse 17. You know, that they can have
glory of men. I remember years ago, I was around
some folks, and boy, they would wait until
the service was going good and all that, and then all of a sudden,
they'd come in with a lot of people, several places we'd been. They'd come in with a lot of
people and direct the service. They'd come in with four or five
people following them so that they could make a grand entrance.
So let everybody know they arrived. They wouldn't show up on time
like everybody else. They wasn't married to hear the
gospel like everybody else. They wasn't married to sit down
and hear the scriptures read like everybody else. They wasn't
married to hear the other fellow pray. They'd wait till things
were just right, and then here they'd come walking in. Everybody
had to look. And that got old quick. Only
done that about twice, and then folks started saying, we don't
have that around here anymore. It's awful, isn't it, that people
do that? But people do it. People do it. And look here in
Matthew 22, 17. Here's this man, this lawyer,
talking to Christ. Tell us there, what thinkest
thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not? But now listen.
This is what I want you to see. But Jesus perceived their wickedness
and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites? You're just putting
on a role here. You're playing a role. You're
assuming something that you're not real about. You're play-acting
here. You don't care about Caesar.
You don't care about tribute money. You don't care about any
truth whatsoever. You're putting on a role. You're
just playing here. You're just letting everybody
see how religious you are by talking to me. And all they have glory of men,
and our Lord condemned him." Our Lord said one time, He said,
you hypocrites, He said, you can discern the face of the sky.
You can look at the sky in the evening and say, boy, it's going
to be a pretty day tomorrow. You hear that south wind start blowing,
you say, we're going to have some heat. You see some clouds
coming out of the west, you say, we're going to have rain. He
said, you're right. You can do that, but you can't
discern nothing else. You can't discern nothing about
yourself, nothing about the Word, nothing about God. But you can
tell the weather, but you can't tell nothing else. That's all
you know anything about. You don't know God, and you can't
talk about Him. And they weren't doing their
alms because others needed them. They were giving their alms not
because they felt led of God, felt impressed to the Lord to
do something. They were giving their alms so that they would
get the treasures that they cherished most. That was the praise and
glory of men. And you know, and I tell you,
you see all these award shows and banquets and award shows
and they give things away and all that for being the best and
giving. You know why they do that? So they can be seen of
men. That's one reason they do that. So they can be seen of men. And
let me tell you this, beloved. If all a man wants out of life
is the praise of men, They've got their sights set really,
really low, ain't they? Really, really low. To have one worm to prove of
another worm. Doesn't amount to much, does
it? Oh, what did we just sing in
that hymn? And it just stayed with me since we sung it. All
around I change and decay I see. O thou who changest not, abide
with me. Abide with me. One thing I don't
want to do, and I don't believe you do either. That's why I'm
talking about these things tonight. We don't want to be playactive. Don't want to put on a role.
Don't want to put on a show. Want to be real. Want to be real
before God. Want to be real before one another.
Want to be real when we're in the world. I want to be real. And, oh, beloved, if that's what
a man wants, most appraised of men, they'll get it. And they'll
get the reward. And when they face the Lord,
the Lord says, you got paid in full. But how does our Lord tell
us how to do good deeds? Look down here at verse 3 and
4. Matthew 6. That when you do your arms, when
you do righteousness, you do these acts of devotion and these
works, Let not your left hand know what your right hand does.
Don't let your right hand know what your left hand does. You
know what that means? That means that you're not debating. You're not even thinking about
it. You're not even considering doing something. It's just your
right hand just does something, and your left hand's not conscious
of it's going to do it. It's a spontaneous thing. It's
an instant thing. Something happens, and you just
automatically, the right hand does it. Me and Mary had the
awfulest time with the right-hand, left-hand thing. And why I say
that is, I'll do something, and she'll say, I done done that.
I'll say, well, that's right-hand don't know what the left-hand
is doing. One time we were somewhere, I went one place and bought something,
and then she went the other way, and we got back there, we both
bought exactly the same thing. She said, I worked for the right-hand
didn't know what the left-hand was doing. We'll come in here
and they'll have something, somebody selling cookies, and I'll buy
a whole bunch of cookies and we'll get on and say, why in
the world did you do that? I done done it. Right hand don't know
what the left hand's doing. You do it without thinking, you
do it with spontaneity. If the Lord's in anything, I
mean, it just happens like that. You don't think about it, you
don't debate it, it's just done. The Lord lays it on your heart,
it's done. And then you don't tell anybody about it. You know
why? Because you've done it spontaneously. You don't make a spectacle out
of it. And this is, don't let your left hand know what you're
doing. And how else do you do them? Look in Philippians 2.13.
How else do we do them? How else do we do good works?
Look over here in Philippians 2. With me just a moment. Philippians 2.13. This is how
they're done. How does our Lord tell us to
do them? Don't tell anybody about it. And oh, and your Father will
see in secret, and He Himself will reward you openly. Huh? He'll reward you openly. Look
here in Philippians 2.13. He said, This is how we do good
works, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do
of his good pleasure. As far as anything come out of
us is any good at all, it's God that works it in us to do it.
So if we do anything and anything's accomplished and any goodness
is done to anybody else or kindness or mercy, it's the Lord that
causes us to do it. We're all by nature's lovers
of self. And how do we do them? We do
them through the grace of God working in us. And that's why
Peter says, you know, and I read to the men in the back, and I'll
just quote it to you, Wherefore let aside all envy, malice, and
envious and evil speakings, desire the sin-sealed milk of the word,
you may grow thereby, seeing that you've tasted that the Lord
is gracious." Now, you take that start there in verse 3. Seeing
then that you've tasted that the Lord is gracious, then lay
aside all envy, lay aside all malice, lay aside evil speakings. Desire, as newborn babes, the
sin-sealed milk of the word. And that's what happens if you've
tasted the Lord's gracious. But if you ain't tasted the Lord's
gracious, you're not going to lay any of those things aside. And I'll tell you how else we're
going to do them. Like Paul said, you know, he said in 1 Corinthians
15, 10, by the grace of God, I am what I am. That's what we
are. By the grace of God, we are what
we are. God made us the way we are. If
we have any love, any grace, any mercy, any faith, generosity,
any kindness, it's God that works it in us. And then how do we
do them? Not only because God works in us, by God's grace,
but by faith. But you've got to have faith
before you can ever do anything. You've got to have it first.
And you know what Galatians 5, 6 says? Faith works. But how does it work? By love. By love. By love serve one another.
Huh? With Anything that's not a faith
is a sin. And then, beloved, how do we
do these good works out of love? Do you do what you do in your
home out of duty, because you have to do it? Do you cook a meal because you
feel like it's your duty to do it? Do you buy something for your
children because you feel like it's your duty to do it? No, you do it because you love
it. Because you love it. And beloved out of love for God
our Father, that's why. The love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. Oh, my. We work out of the love
of God our Father. We want to live to His glory.
And out of love for our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you love me? Oh, I do, Lord. Do you love me?
Oh, Lord, I do. Master, you know. You know. You
know. And look back here to your left
in Ephesians chapter 6. Just right back to your left. Ephesians, you go right back
to your left just a little bit and you read back in Ephesians.
Just turn the page once. Look here. And then we, out of
love for God our Father, love for our Lord Jesus Christ, and
love for God's people. Look what he said here. In Ephesians 6, 24. In verse 23, start there. Peace
be to the brethren in love with faith, from God the Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look what he says in verse
24. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in
sincerity. My, my, my. That's something
you can't fake. And then love for the Lord's
people. Paul told the Galatians, and then just look a little there
in Galatians. Go back to your left again. Galatians 5 to you.
Look what he says to do. No, excuse me, Ephesians 6.10,
not 5.10, Ephesians 6.10. As ye have therefore opportunity,
let us do good unto all, especially unto them who are of the household
of faith. Do good to all, but especially
them who are of the household of faith. And so how do we do
them? God works in us by God's grace,
by faith, out of love. and then moved by the Holy Spirit.
God's people don't have to have recognition. They're satisfied
to live before God, walk before God, for God to see them and everything
about them, and everything open before Him. But there's two classes
of people that I read there tonight in Matthew 6, the hypocrite and
God's people. Unconverted folks and converted
folks. The hypocrite, he loves to do
to be seen of men. He loves to play a role. But
God's people, their left hand don't know what their right's
doing. They don't know. And they don't want to know.
And I tell you what, you just go through life and life will
take care of it for you. Ain't you grateful that that's
the way it is? I could have got up here tonight and got all over
y'all. When all I've done is made you mad. That's what I was
talking about today. Let me tell you all this and
I'll be through. Talking about, you know, whenever you start
laying down things for people to do, unmotivated by grace and
love, and without motivated in the work of the Holy Spirit in
you, you know what will happen? It will be like somebody trying
to stay, stay under the law and trying to live by grace and law
at the same time. And what will happen is that
you'll find that that law will be stronger than your flesh. It's like when somebody says,
well, I'm going to go on a diet. I'm going to start tomorrow.
I'm going to really lose weight. I'm going to drop 30 pounds.
If you say that, you know what you'll do today? You'll eat everything
that ain't nailed down. You know why? Because you always
mean to do it tomorrow. Just the intent, the intent makes
you give in. And that's the way the law is.
The more you say, I'm going to, the stronger it gets a hold on
you. Ain't you grateful that we live under grace and not under
law? Ain't you grateful that God works
in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure, that he
ordained these things to be? And what He ordains to be, it's
going to happen. And you know how folks are going
to know more than anything else that we're God's children. It's
not what we do, but how we act when we're around Him. Are we
kind? Are we gracious? Do we say God
good words to Him? I mean, I don't care if you're
ordering a hamburger. You treat that person serving
a hamburger to you with respect, thankfulness. They're out there
working, making a living. I appreciate what you're doing.