This is kind of an unusual time for me. I'm preaching to an empty congregation. There's nobody here at the church. But I felt it necessary to record
this message, which I titled, A Word to a Dear Friend. And I hope you'll take time to
turn in your Bibles and read these verses with me before I
get into the message. In Ephesians chapter 5 verse
1, it reads, Be ye therefore followers
of God as dear children. and walk in love as Christ hath
loved us and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice
to God for a sweet-smelling savor. But fornication and all uncleanness
or covetousness, let it not be once named among you as becometh
saints. neither filthiness, nor foolish
talking, nor jesting which are not convenient, but rather giving
of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger,
nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater, hath
any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no
man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh
the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore
partakers with them. I'm seeing in recent times things
that are very disturbing to me. Seems almost to be a trend of
sorts in churches all across the world. Churches that I'm
aware of, churches in which I know people and correspond with. I'm
seeing men and women who have professed faith join themselves
to local assemblies and have been there for quite a while. people I have known and loved
and still do. I'm seeing them in this trend,
ignoring the Holy Scriptures, treating the Bible as though
it didn't exist, ignoring the commandments of
Christ, which are plain and taught clearly, and ignoring the warnings
of faithful pastors and leaving their churches to go about to
enjoy some temporary pleasure, some pastime, some arrangement,
some opportunity, some new job, and ignoring all the things that
they had professed to love. There's nothing I fear more than
what Paul said to Timothy, Demas hath forsaken me, having loved
this present world. He said this again to the Corinthians. He said, but I keep my body.
That is, I keep watch on my body. I keep an eye on my body. And I bring it into subjection. lest that by any means, when
I have preached to others, that I myself should become a castaway. When such things come about under
my pastorship, I'm told in meekness to instruct those that oppose
themselves, if peradventure God will give them repentance to
the acknowledging of the truth and so I engage myself in this
message today. I see these things taking place
under my ministry and it just breaks my heart to see it. I'm responsible for those who
come in here to hear me. I'm responsible for those who
sit under my ministry. I watch for their souls as they
that much give an account. And I assure you that this message
is not coming from some holier-than-thou attitude. I'm not looking down
my nose at anyone. Rather, it's coming from one
who has experienced the same thing and suffered for it. I
know what it is. And not to mention the damage
it did to my own children. my family and my wife, to my
witness to men. And I don't know if any will
listen to what I have to say, but I feel compelled to say it
anyway. And I only pray as I do that
God will enable whoever listens to this to hear. There are two
things emphatically stated concerning the salvation of chosen sinners
in the scriptures. First, that salvation is by grace,
through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Our reconciliation
is based solely on the work of our Savior, has nothing to do
with us, has to do completely with Him. Our righteousness and
our justification is entirely owing to Him. These things were
accomplished long before we were born. His person, his obedience,
his death. These are the things that constitute
our justification before God and the salvation of our souls.
God said, I shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied,
not mine, but his. So salvation by grace alone,
not of works, lest any man should boast. That's emphatically stated.
It's taught throughout the scriptures. And the second thing stated just
as clearly, just as emphatically as the first, is that every believer
is his workmanship. His workmanship created in Christ
Jesus unto good works. which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them." Faith is not a secret work. It's not a mysterious work that
cannot be seen. It's not hidden from the eyes
of men. It's a divine work which it shows
in the fruit that it bears being grafted into Christ. In Matthew 5, 16, our Lord said
to his disciples, let your light, this gospel light, this light
of the glory of God, let your light so shine before men that
they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which
is in heaven. What are these good works? Well,
these good works, which were ordained to walk in, begins with
faith. Faith is the first fruit of regeneration. It's the first apple on the tree,
the first grape on the vine. It's the first fruit. And the
Bible says that faith is the substance. It's the reality.
It's that by which this thing might be known. It's the substance
of things hoped for and it's the evidence of things not seen. That which proves the work. Leaves
no doubt as to the reality of it. So this is the first work. The first fruit of regeneration.
The first apple on the tree is faith. And the second is love. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. For God is love. John said, Beloved, let us love
one another. For love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. What other work is he talking
about here? Prayer. Prayer. When God sent Ananias down to
see Saul of Tarsus, he sent him down and he said to him, behold,
he prayeth. Do you think the Apostle Paul
had never before uttered words to God? He was a Pharisee, of
course he did. He prayed all the time, so he
said, but he didn't pray. He just mumbled words. Prayer
is a word that only saints can offer. It is a divine work in
you. It's that which we're ordained
to do. Prayer. Prayer is an inward work
of the Spirit causing our hearts to call on God. Sometimes in
words uttered, sometimes in mysterious ways, ways we can't even detect. And anybody can say words, only
believers can pray. Only believers have a way into
the holiest of all, where their words can be heard. And then
worship is another word. We're the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit. We worship him in the spirit,
understanding who he is. and why he came, and what he
did, and where he's at, and all the future intentions of God,
all of the things which he does in the church, as I speak, we
worship God in spirit, and we worship him in truth, and we
rejoice in Christ Jesus, having that understanding, as we worship
God, we can rejoice in Christ Jesus. and we have no confidence
in the flesh. We worship God in the full assurance
of understanding. And then he tells us this, the
fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. And if we live in
the spirit, Paul said, Let us also walk in the Spirit. James asked a question in James
2, verse 14, a question which we all need to ask ourselves.
In James 2, verse 14, he said, what does it profit, my brethren,
though a man say he hath faith and hath not works? Can faith,
this workless faith, This kind of faith, can faith save him? Verse 17, having given a couple
examples of what he's talking about, he said, even so, faith,
if it hath not works, is dead. It's dead being alone. It's nothing
more than words, just an idle doctrine. It bears no fruit. No evidence of a divine work. It's like seeing a picture of
a car. You pick up a magazine and you
look in there and there's a picture of a car. And it's great to look
at, but it won't take you anywhere. Because faith is God's work,
he's gonna have all men to glorify him for it and in it. Abraham's faith was justified
when he offered his son upon the altar. It didn't justify
his soul, it justified what kind of faith he had. Rahab's faith
was justified when she received God's messengers into her house
and helped them escape their persecutors. And then finally, James concludes,
for as the body without the spirit is dead, I came back from my
sister's funeral not long ago. And there I looked into a coffin
at a body that I recognized, a body that I've known since
I was a small child. But that body was dead, had no
spirit in it, had no life in it. It was motionless. It just
lay there in a casket with some semblance of who she was. James concludes, for as the body
without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. It's nothing more than a lifeless
corpse. And here's another thing. In
Romans chapter six and verse 16, Paul's talking about this resurrected
life of the believer. We're raised together in Christ. seated with Him in the heavenlies,
called out of darkness, shown His kindness and grace of God
in Christ. He said, Know ye not that to
whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, His servants ye are
to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto
righteousness? But God be thanked that you were
the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from
sin, you become the servants of righteousness. These verses
tell us of our former self, of our former state before God.
Sinners, all of us, sinners, fallen, depraved rebels, enemies
of God, walking according to the course of this world, just
like everybody else walks, thinking like everybody else thinks, talking
like everybody else talks. We walked according to the course
of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
deceived by the same anti-Christ religion as everyone else, among
whom we all had our behavior in times past, in the lust of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. We did whatever we wanted to
do. And what we wanted to do is to
love darkness rather than light. We served ourselves in satanic
religion and loved darkness. And then we heard the gospel. We heard the good news of Christ
and of God. that he came into the world to
save sinners, that he died the just for the unjust, that he
might bring us to God. And we saw the love of God manifested
in a bleeding Savior. We saw the Lord of glory take
on Satan and his demons single-handed, single-handed. And we saw him
reconciling us to God. We saw ourselves being made free
from sin, not from the nature of it and not from the corrupt
heart left by it or vain thoughts or sinful words or even sinful
deeds, but from the damning power of sin. Sin brought condemnation
upon all men. The scripture said, by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men, the condemnation. But Christ
has the, he bore the execution of this condemnation on the cross. And hence we're free from it.
And we'll never be brought under it again. Christ said, he that
heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from
death unto life. Seeing our sins justly punished
in Christ and God's justice satisfied, we're free from the guilt of
sin. My sins have been paid for. And
seeing Christ our Lord and King, we're freed from the dominion
of sin. Sin no longer reigns unto death
in us, but grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. God's people have been called
out from the world, separated from them, set apart for divine
use. We're a chosen generation, Peter
said, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that
we should show forth the praises of him who has called us out
of darkness into his marvelous light. In time past, we were
not a people, but we are now the people of God. In time past
we had not obtained mercy, but now we have obtained mercy. We're strangers and pilgrims
in this world. Our hearts are devoted to another
citizenship. Paul said our citizenship is
from heaven from whence we look for our savior. We were dead, now we live. We're blind, but now we see. But we still have a few years
ahead of us, a few years to live in this world. We've been left
here to participate with our God in the calling out of his
saints. And oh, what a blessed privilege
this is. Seeing all these things as they
are in Christ, coming to us by the grace and mercy of God, We
willingly bow to Him. We see that authority of God.
We see that God hid in Him. Him seated on the throne victorious. And we bow to Him. And His love
constrains us from the day we first heard and saw who He is. We see by way of His death that
we cannot any longer live to ourselves. but unto him which
died for us and rose again. And lastly, these works are not
works to justify our souls. That work is by Christ alone.
Our good works are to justify our faith, and they're done not
to gain a righteous standing before God, but out of love for
him who gave us a righteous standing before God. And if these works
are not done, then we can assume that the greater work has never
taken place. And that in itself ought to make
the hair on our necks stand up. Brethren, we're not our own.
We've been bought with a price. We're debtors to God and everything
we do and say reflects on our God and on our Savior. It's not
our names that we bring a bad reputation upon, but on the name
of our God. We're members of a local church
and this church is the pillar and ground of the truth in these
in the community where it's established, yet we live and do things that
makes its ministry a laughingstock to the world without any regard
of why we're here. We bring shame and reproach and
greatly hinder our ability to minister to men by our activities. And this is not even to mention
the commandments of our Lord. We're commanded of God to forsake
not the assembling of ourselves together, and yet this seems
to be the first thing we do in order to take part in some worldly
event, in order to satisfy some craving for earthly pleasures.
The very first thing we do is we forsake the assembling of
ourselves together. We're commanded again to be swift
to hear and slow to speak and slow to write. And yet we break
those commandments by what we do. We are to be examples of
His grace, not examples of our sins. And us men, us husbands, those
of us fortunate enough to have a family, blessed of God, we're
to be priests to our families. And what kind of testimony does
this priest have if I forsake all the commandments of God and
all the things that I'm trying to teach my children? I say these things out of love. I say these things because I
love you and because I care for your souls and because I see
a danger that you obviously don't see. I'll close with just a few verses
from Ephesians chapter 3. Ephesians 3 verse 20. Now unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according
to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the
church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.