Welcome to the official podcast of the Church
of Christ Wheeler area. We're so glad that you've
tuned in for today's message. Whether you're
on your morning commute or if you're relaxing
at home, we're here to share the strength and
truth of God's Word with our community. If you're
in the neighborhood, we'd love to meet you in
person. Come see us at 1500 South Allen L. Bean
Boulevard right here in Wheeler, Texas. We gather
every Sunday morning at 1030 a .m. and in the
afternoon at 230 p .m. We meet again on Wednesdays
at 7 p .m. Right now, let's open our Bibles together
and dive into today's sermon. We're studying
these last evening and this evening and probably
the next evening and maybe the next evening salvation
from 30 ,000 feet taking a high view or a high
level view of what salvation is just to try to
get some basics that can give us some perspective
that hopefully can give us clarity upon what
it means to be saved and to also to give us some
perspective to help us to understand some difficulties
and some questions that we may have or other
people might have concerning salvation. We said
last evening in Romans chapter 3 verse 23 that
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God. And so last evening we just started from
the point of being a sinner. And so if you're
here tonight and you are a sinner, what we talked
about last night was you stand before a God who
is glorious and you have fallen short of that
glory. You fell short of that glory today. And
that glory is perfect holiness. It's perfection.
And unless you're perfect like God, then you
are an offense to God and to His glory. And whenever
you behold the glory of God, your reaction should
be the reaction that Isaiah had in Isaiah chapter
6. Woe is me, I am undone. And we talked about
that Isaiah was cursing himself. The word woe
means to be doomed, to be condemned. basically
Isaiah looked at the perfect glory of the Lord
and he didn't say Lord I'm a pretty good guy
he didn't say Lord look at me I'm better than
all of these other people because his mind was
so full of the glory of the Lord that all he
could think about was his doom and his condemnation
and if you're here tonight and you have not obeyed
the gospel and you're not baptized and you're
not in Christ Jesus that is how you stand before
the Lord. Whether you're willing to confess it
like Isaiah did or not, that's where you are.
And we say that not to be mean, we say that not
to be hateful, we say that not to scare you,
but we say that to be truthful. To be truthful.
And every breath that the Lord gives you in your
condition is a breath that you can use to change
your relationship with the eternal, perfect,
glorious God. Do that. Do that. Because as we
talked about last evening, the Lord tonight is
pleading with you out of His love and mercy on
one hand, and then on the other hand he is preparing
his sword and he's getting his bow and his arrows
ready to execute judgment because again our God
is a great God and he can do two things at one
time he can plead with you out of love and mercy
and call you to the salvation of your soul and
also be angry with you and prepare for your judgment
if you're not in Christ that's happening right
now That's happening right now. And so we talked
about how that a sinner had to be justified.
That justification is a forensic or a courtroom
pronouncement that you are righteous. And we
talked about how that of ourselves we cannot
be righteous. There is no way that I can live
perfect. The very first time that I sin or I
sinned or as we said last night, we rang the
sin bell, you can't unring the bell anymore.
You're no longer perfect and you may have it
in your mind, well, if I do more good than I
do bad, I'm gonna be okay with God. No, because
if you do more good than bad, you're still what?
You're still imperfect. You know, judgment is
not, I mean our relationship with the Father
is, you know, okay, we put ourselves in a balance
and see which way the scales tilt. You're one
sin before an infinitely perfect God. condemns
you no matter how much good you can do the rest
of your life. Because once guilty, you're always
guilty. And there's nothing we can do about it.
That's why the apostle Paul says that we're dead.
Now we're not talking about dead in the sense
that Calvinism thinks about being dead, but we're
dead in, again, a forensic sense. In a judicial
sense, we're dead. before God, and dead people
can't do anything for themselves. Whenever a
loved one dies, we don't stand around waiting
for them to get themselves better, do we? Because
we know it's hopeless. There's nothing that can
be done. And you can make promise after promise
after promise, and you can do good after good
after good, but if you still live in your guilt,
you are lost. And so you need to be justified.
And since you can't do it yourself, the Lord
in his grace and mercy sent Jesus who lived as
a perfect man here upon the earth and he went
to the cross and he died a sinner's death. And
whenever he paid that price on the cross, having
no sin himself, what God does in his amazing
grace, whenever you come to him in belief and
repentance, And in obedience to his gospel, he
takes your sins and he places it upon Jesus.
And now he looks at you in the righteousness
of Jesus and he says, you're my child. Don't
you want the God of all creation and the God
of all universe to say, you're my child. You're
my child. And we talked about last evening that
in order for us to die, in order for us our sins
to be given over to Jesus on the cross we had
to die with him and we look in Romans chapter
6 how that we die with him in baptism that whenever
we're baptized into Christ we're baptized into
his death we are in the likeness of his death
And then we talked about how Paul said that he
that is dead is freed from sin. And we talked
about the meaning of that word free means justified.
And so whenever I'm baptized into Jesus' death,
God looks at me in Jesus' death and says, you're
dead with Jesus, you are justified. And we talked
about how that transaction takes place in the
act of baptism. That baptism is not a work of
personal righteousness that we do in order to
try to earn salvation But that baptism is a response
to the grace of God and the gift of Jesus Christ
to receive that gift of salvation and Then we
become a saint if you're in Christ tonight You're
a saint if you've been baptized. You're a saint
now. You may not be living like a saint I don't
always live like a saint but this being a saint
is the work that God performs in baptism to make
us holy and righteous and so you're here tonight
you're either a sinner or a saint and if you're
a sinner you need to be baptized into the Lord
so that you can become a saint and become a child
of God well this evening We want to ask this
question as a prelude into what we're going to
talk about. Why does God want to save us? Have
you ever thought about that? Why does God want
to save us or justify us? You know, and there's
a lot of different answers that we can give to
that question. Well, He wants to save us because
He loves us and He cares for us. An answer that
we'll get a lot of times. Well, He wants to save
us because He wants us to go to heaven. And so
whenever we look at our diagram, a lot of times
whenever we think of being saved, we think of
being saved as just simply going to heaven. Because
isn't that what God wants for us? He wants us
all to go to heaven? I want to make a statement
and hear me out. I like to make some statements
sometimes that can maybe catch your attention
in order for you to really consider what we're
talking about. Whenever you think about salvation,
don't think about going to heaven. You don't
hear too many preachers say that. And the reason
I say that is this, is because whenever we think
that salvation is all about us going to heaven,
who are we making salvation all about? All about
us. And when we make the things, and we take
the things that are about God, and then we make
them about us, we mess everything up. Salvation
is not about us. You see, we want to go directly
to heaven. We want to make salvation all about
going to heaven, whereas God makes salvation
about something different. What about this space
right here? You know the Bible says a lot about
heaven But I think I'm going to be safe in saying
the Bible has a whole lot more to say about what's
going on right here That this right here is if
we look at our progression the next step of salvation
And while we want to skip, as humans are often
times want to do, we want to skip to the good
stuff. Heaven, God saved us for a reason and
a purpose that's not fulfilled right here, but
is fulfilled right here. And when that purpose
is fulfilled right here, then the reality of
heaven is later experienced. You see, salvation
is not about me. Salvation is about God. And
so when I make it about me, I want to go to heaven.
And we all want to go to heaven. But again, salvation
is not about me. It's not about you. It's about
God. Why did God create us? Did He create us
just so He could have a bunch of people that
just do wrong all the time and He just looks
at us and thinks, you know, oh my, what am I
going to do? You know, I've got to get them up
here somehow. No. He created us for a purpose.
And that purpose is to glorify Him. To glorify
him and so whenever we think in terms of salvation
Instead of thinking that salvation is just simply
going to heaven I want to look at a lot of other
things that salvation is about that's more eminent
to our time right now And we're going to get
to heaven later on Now heaven we need to talk
about heaven. We need to study about heaven.
We need to encourage one another about heaven
But we do that in order to bring us to the point
to where we understand what it is that we're
to do now Look at what Paul says in Romans 6
11 to 13 Likewise you also reckon yourselves
to be indeed dead indeed to sin but alive to
God in Christ Jesus our Lord Paul up and from
chapter 1 all the way up into this time chapter
6 he's been talking about justification and he
talked about how that when we're baptized we're
baptized into Jesus's death and then we are freed
from sin and then he doesn't say reckon yourselves
dead indeed to sin and ready to go to heaven
he doesn't mention heaven in fact whenever you
look at Paul's writing as he lays out the progression
of salvation in Romans chapter 1 all the way
through chapter number 8 you don't get started
talking about heaven till the latter part of
chapter 8 But you've got the rest of chapter
6, you've got all of chapter 7, you've got the
majority of chapter 8 talking about what we are
to do now that we are saved. And he says, Reckon
yourselves indeed and dead to sin, but alive
to God. When you think about salvation, think
about that. If someone asks you, what does it
mean to be saved? Answer them. It means to be
alive to God. Because remember whenever we're
a sinner and we're standing before the perfect
holiness of God, what are we? We're dead people
before God. But whenever we're justified, then
we become alive to God and we become alive to
God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Then he uses the
word therefore. Anytime you see the word therefore
in a text, ask yourself this question, what's
it there for? because when you see the word therefore,
it's pointing back to what has previously been
said and is beginning to build an argument based
upon the truth that has just been explained.
Well, Paul just got through explaining that we're
justified in Jesus Christ. We go from being dead
in sin to being alive to God. Therefore, what's
that supposed to mean to me? That I'm going to
heaven? What does Paul say? He says, when I get
back to him, do not let sin reign in your mortal
body that you should obey it in its lust. Do
not present your bodies as instruments of unrighteousness
to sin, but present yourselves to God as being
alive from the dead and your members as instruments
of righteousness to God. And so what Paul is
saying here is that since you've been justified,
since you have been saved in Jesus Christ by
His blood, this is what you need to do. Don't
let sin reign in your mortal body that you should
obey it in its lust. Present yourself to God.
as being alive from the dead and your members
as instruments of righteousness to God. Whenever
you read on in Ephesians chapter 6 he talks about
how you were a slave to sin and now be a slave
to God. He talks about how that your fruit was
unrighteous and it was unto death and that you
are going to have your fruit to righteousness,
to eternal life. What Paul is emphasizing is,
is that now that you're justified and you're
sitting here wondering what next, it doesn't
mean that we just sit around and pat our foot
till we die so we can go to heaven. No, what
we are called to do is to live out the salvation
we've been given by God. God didn't save you
and He didn't save me just for us to go to heaven.
He saved you and He saved me to live for Him.
That's why He saved you. Because in our living
for Him, we make salvation all about Him. We
bring praise and honor and glory to Him. Notice
Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 to 10. By grace
you've been saved through faith and that not
of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works
lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship
created in Christ Jesus for good works which
God prepared beforehand that we should walk in
them." And so here again, here's Paul talking
about the sinner being saved. Here's Paul talking
about justification of the sinner. And whenever
he finishes talking about justification of the
sinner, what is the very next thing that he says?
Well, the word for. Again, we read these words
and they make clear our understanding of these
texts. The word for is about to introduce a thought
that rests upon the truth and the reality that
just got through being explained. That whenever
Jesus, whenever God saves us by His grace through
faith in Jesus Christ, the reason that He did
that was for we are His workmanship. To make
us his workmanship. Well his workmanship for
what created in Christ Jesus for good works Which
God prepared beforehand that we should walk in
them Whenever God saved you and he saved me He
didn't save you and save me the first thought
on his mind was okay there, you know, we can
get them to heaven now The next thought on his
mind was here's a group of people now that are
prepared and created to walk in the good works
that way yonder back there before time even began
in my eternal purpose, I determined for them
to walk in. And so as people that are saved today,
that's where our focus needs to be right now.
on living as saved people and walking in the
good works that God prepared that we should walk
in Titus 2 verse 14 Paul again he gave himself
for us that he might redeem us from every lawless
deed and purify for himself his own special people
zealous for good works there he is again Paul
He just get okay. God has taken you he has redeemed
you he has purified you He has made you his own
special people so that you can go to heaven That's
not what Paul said Now is that part of it yeah,
that's part of it, but that's in the distance
the more immediate concern of salvation right
now where you are if you're a Christian is that
We're to be zealous for good works. 1 Peter 2,
verse number 9, You're a chosen generation, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special
people, that you may proclaim the praises of
Him who has called you out of darkness into His
marvelous light. That's why God has saved people.
He has saved people so that those saved people
can be brought together in a body to create a
chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a special people to go to heaven. Is
that what Peter said? No. Now that's out there
and that's in the distance and we want to cling
to that hope and we want to preach that hope.
But right now where we are in our salvation We
are to proclaim the praises of him who cowled
you out of darkness into his marvelous life Notice
what he says in verse 12 have your conduct honorable
among the Gentiles that when they speak evil
against you as evildoers They may by your good
works which they observe Glorify God in the day
of visitation in other words as you live out
your salvation The very purpose and the very
reason for which God saved you Is coming to fruition
He will be glorified You know, we're gonna study
about judgment before this is over, but I want
to go ahead and interject this point God's gonna
get his glory from you God's gonna get his glory
from you God's not sitting around in heaven patting
his foot and, you know, and chewing his fingernails
worrying, oh man, I hope he chooses me and comes
and does really good so he can glorify me and
I can be glorified. He doesn't do that. He's
going to get his glory from you. He's going to
get his glory on me. Regardless of the choice
that I make, he's going to get his glory from
me. I can choose to be a Christian and I can
choose to do these good works and glorify God
that way or I can choose to refuse Jesus and
I can choose to refuse God and His grace and
His salvation and you know what? He's still going
to get His glory on me. And so you're sitting
here tonight as a sinner, and we'll talk more
about this whenever we talk about judgment. Really,
your choice is, which way do you want God to
be glorified in your life? Do you want God to
be glorified in your life because you obeyed
the gospel, you were baptized into Jesus, and
you were made right with the holy God, and you
did good works to bring glory to God? Or are
you going to glorify God in the day of judgment
whenever you stand before him and tell him all
the times that you almost became a Christian?
And then he executes his vengeance and his judgment
upon you for all of the heavenly host and for
all of the observers to see that God is glorious
because he does not tolerate sin How do you want
God to get his glory from you? That's your choice
there again the word that he does this so that
we may proclaim his goodness and again Titus
3 7 to 8 being justified by his grace we should
become heirs according to the hope of eternal
life finally Paul says something about it finally
he says something after being justified and having
the hope of eternal life. But then notice the
very next verse. This is a faithful saying and
these things I want you to affirm constantly
and that's what we're going to do tonight. We're
going to affirm this and we're going to do it
constantly. That those who have believed in God
should be careful to maintain good works. These
things are good and profitable to men. Whenever
you look at the word careful there, The word
careful means to give a lot of thought to. It
actually means to be anxious about something.
You know, in many realms and in many circles
of Christianity, the word work has become a four
-letter word. because of a misunderstanding of
how that we're not saved by works, it's almost
that whenever we start preaching that people
ought to work, we're almost apologetic about
it. And we always preface every lesson by saying,
now we know that we're not saved by works. As
soon as you make that statement, what is our
nature inclined to think about doing works? Our
nature is going to be inclined to think, okay,
then it's not that important. You know, again,
I was a school teacher and you're up there teaching
and then you tell the class, now, this isn't
going to be on the test. What do you think they're
going to do? Tell me more. No. They're immediately
going to know, hey, I can check out, you know.
He's just telling this, you know, just... for
whatever reason. And whenever we preface remarks
about how the Christians are to work with, now
we know that works don't save us, we're sending
a message and it's a confusing message. Just
not long ago I heard someone preaching about
it and teaching from Romans chapter 3 and preface
the entire lesson by saying now we're not saved
by works. But if you'll remember last evening,
we talked about what kind of works those were.
Works that were personal, works that denied the
grace of God, and works that come from no faith
in Jesus Christ. The works we're talking about
tonight, if you try to apply Galatians chapter
2 and Ephesians chapter 2 to these works, your
Bible interpretation is not sound. You're comparing
apples to oranges. You're comparing apples to
oranges. And so I want us to understand that
the things that we're talking about tonight,
whenever Paul says that you're not justified
by works or you're not saved by works, he's not
talking about these types of works because these
works are the fruits of salvation. These works
are the works that God saved us for. And they're
not window dressing. They're not optional. They're
not good if you can do it, but if I don't do
it, I'm still gonna go to heaven anyway. No!
No! These works are the works for which you and
I were saved to do. We've been justified to walk
in good works and bring glory to God and I got
ahead of my slide here We're not justified by
personal works of righteousness apart from God's
grace and faith in Jesus But we are justified
for works of righteousness by Jesus Christ that
abound to the glory and the praise of God And
if I am not involved in these works and I am
not bearing the fruit of these works, then I
am not fulfilling the purpose for which God saved
me and God saved you. So if you're sitting here
tonight or you know, and and I've been this way,
you know, it just seems so confusing You know
all of these weren't You know, we want to this
we want to speak clearly about these things.
These are Necessary and it is for these works
that you've been saved Because these works bring
glory to God Colossians 1 verses 9 and 10. Notice
here Paul had heard of the faith of the Colossians
and he writes this epistle to them and he says
for this reason we also since the day we heard
it do not cease to pray for you and to ask that
you may be filled with the knowledge of his will
and all wisdom and spiritual understanding that
you may walk worthy of the Lord. That statement
you may walk worthy of the Lord implies that
there is a standard of worthiness for our walk
Fully pleasing him that implies that there is
a standard for pleasing God and being fruitful
in every good work and increasing in the knowledge
of God. Paul's prayer for the Colossians, Paul's
prayer for me, and Paul's prayer for you is that
we be fruitful in every good work. How anxious
do you get about that? You know, Paul said to
be careful, and the word careful again means
to give thought to, to get anxious about it.
to be intentional about it. When was the last
time you looked at your life and asked this question,
am I producing fruit for the Lord? And intentionally
planned to go produce fruit for the Lord because
of your faith in Jesus Christ in carrying out
the purpose for which you were saved. You know
a lot of times we'll do a work if we kind of
stumble upon it. You know? We might do a work
if all the stars line up and we meet a poor person
with a few dollars in her wallet. And, you know,
if you meet a poor person with a few dollars
in your wallet, help them. But I'm talking about
just really sitting down and asking yourself,
what works can I do to glorify God? Who are people
that I can go see? Who are people that I can
go talk to? Who are people that I can visit?
Who are people that I can encourage? Who are
people that I can lift up? How can I put myself
out there in the service of the Lord to fulfill
the purpose for which I was saved? Our young
people today studied about Lord make me a servant
And that's what we're talking about. John 15
verse number 8, by this my father is glorified
that you bear much fruit so you will be my disciples.
In the upper room talking to his apostles he
makes this statement which I think is something
that can be applied to all of his disciples is
that the father is glorified when we bear much
fruit. God's glory in the life of a Christian
is manifested through the work and the fruit
that is born and Since that's the purpose for
which I was saved and you were saved then we
are to be careful We are to be intentional in
carrying that out Philippians 1 verse 11 Paul
says being filled with the fruits of righteousness
which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise
of God Whenever people look at your life and
people look at my life, can they tell that we
are Christians? Can they tell that we are saved?
Can they see the work of salvation manifested
in our life through the works that we do because
of the grace that God has given to us? Matthew
516, let your light so shine before men that
they may see your good works and glorify your
Father in heaven. Look in all of these verses
how that works is directly tied to the glory
of God and to have in our mind, in our imagination
anything that would minimize the importance of
works in our service to the Lord. We need to
understand that what we're doing is minimizing
the importance of the glory of God Do you think
glorifying God's important I Mean not a one of
us here tonight would say no, it's not important
Well, if it's important then we have to be doing
the things that are necessary For it to be real
and that is to be fruitful Titus 3 14 and let
our people also learn to maintain good works
To meet urgent needs that they may not be unfruitful.
You know the Bible talks about unfruitful Christians
And whenever you look at being unfruitful in
the scripture, it's not something that the Lord
is neutral about Remember the time whenever the
Lord was walking into Jerusalem in the last week
of his life and he saw a fig tree and it had
leaves on it and then he looked at it from afar
it had leaves and seeing those leaves from afar
would lead a person to think okay there's fruit
on that tree and so then he walks to that tree
in anticipation that the fruit is there and then
he looks and that there's no fruit. What did
Jesus do? Well I guess I need to go find another
tree. He didn't do that. He said to that tree,
no more fruit is growing on you. And then what
did the fig tree do? It withered away. Jesus
and God take a very firm disposition towards
unfruitfulness. That where there is supposed
to be fruit, if there's not fruit, The Lord is
not going to look at it and say oh, that's okay.
I'll take you to heaven anyway. No That's not
gonna happen We have to have the fruit of salvation
notice again Matthew 13 verse number 7 talking
about the parable of the sower fell among the
thorns in verse number 22 that seed choked the
word and it became unfruitful And again, this
is typical of so many Christians today, typical
of myself, that we get caught up in the cares
of the world and the deceitfulness of riches,
and notice where the emphasis is. The effect
that the cares of the world and the deceitfulness
of riches has. It is on the Word. It chokes the
Word. Because as we're going to look at here
in just a little while that word the word is
necessary for your fruit Choke the word and it
becomes unfruitful in John 15 verse number five
I'm the vine you're the branches he who abides
in me and I and him bears much fruit Without
me you can do nothing if anyone does not abide
in me which If you don't abide in him, watch
him plight in the verse, then you're not bearing
much fruit. He is cast out as a branch and is
withered and they gather them and throw them
into the fire and they are burned. Now imagine
yourself being one of the one of the disciples
in the upper room of Jesus and he tells you if
you don't bear fruit you're going to burn. That'd
get your attention wouldn't it? And again, we
don't like to hear that because we've been conditioned
to think that works, they're good and we need
to do them. But when it comes to going to heaven,
it's just you don't really have to have them
because we're not saved by works. The scripture
is very clear. About the importance of fruitfulness
and works notice Matthew 7 19 every tree that
does not bear Good fruit is cut down and thrown
into the fire notice again Anytime we're in these
verses whenever we read about unfruitfulness.
What else do we see in the text? fire Fire you
know and you may sit there know what he's just
trying to scare us Yeah, that's exactly what
I'm trying to do. I'm trying to scare you and
I ain't afraid to admit it. Do you think that
Jesus gave those words to his disciples to give
them the warm fuzzies? He gave those words to
his disciples to put the fear in them. For them
to understand that if you are a disciple of Jesus
if you are saved in Jesus Christ you are to be
fruitful to the glory of God and if you're not
fruitful you're not glorifying God and who in
this building tonight is going to say that you
can go to heaven without glorifying God Being
fruitful in the word Colossians 1 we read this
earlier Notice that whenever Paul was praying
for them to be fruitful in every good work He
prayed before that you be filled with the knowledge
of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding
In order for us to be fruitful we have to have
a relationship to the word And if you want to
look at your fruitfulness and I look at my fruitfulness,
engage the fruitfulness of our lives, the very
first place we need to begin is by looking at
our relationship with the Word. Because that's
where all of our fruit comes from. If I don't
hold the Scriptures in high regard, if I don't
look at the Scriptures as the inerrant truth
of God, if I don't look at the commands of the
Scriptures as necessary and essential, if I don't
cling to the promises of the Scriptures and relish
in them every day and stand in them every day,
I'm not going to be a fruitful Christian. So
rather than just trying to sit down and make
a list of all of the things you do The very first
thing you need to ask yourself is what's my relationship
to the word? Because all fruitfulness comes from
the word comes from knowledge of his will That
we may walk worthy of the Lord notice what he
said in Luke 8 again the parable of the sower
This is on the good ground. They heard the word
kept it and bare for bore fruit Okay, so we've
got the bearing fruit over here. Where did all
of that start? Over here with the word. What's
your relationship with the word tonight? What's
my relationship with the word tonight? Psalm
1 verses 1 to 3, Blessed is the man that doesn't
walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands
in the paths of sinner, nor sits in the seat
of the scornful. His delight is where? It's in
the law of the Lord. And he meditates in it day
and night, and he shall be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water that brings forth its
fruit in its season. I'm not going to listen
to the counsel of the ungodly. I'm not going
to stand in the pathway of the sinner. I'm not
going to sit in the seat of the scornful. I'm
not going to listen to all of that noise. But
my focus is going to be on the law of the Lord.
I'm going to meditate in it day and night. And
when I do that, I'm going to be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water that brings forth fruit.
2 Timothy 3, 16 to 17, all scriptures given by
inspiration of God, profitable for doctrine and
reproof, we understand that, go all the way to
the very end, thoroughly equipped for every good
work. So whenever we look at the scriptures,
the scriptures equip us for good works. They
not only tell us what the good works are, but
they equip us for doing those good works. And
so if we have a marginal relationship with the
Word, we can only expect at best marginal fruitfulness.
But if we have a passion for the Word, the power
of that Word will produce what God saved us for.
The fruitfulness of the Christian life is not
self -generated. It's a result of God's Word
being planted, nurtured, believed and obeyed
from the heart. That's what we're called to as
saved people. That's living out our salvation.
You know, we might think to ourselves, well,
you know, if I go, if I'm fruitful, but what
if I sin? What if I sin while I'm, you know,
seeking to be fruitful, you know? Well, whenever
we look at this Paul or rather John tells us
if we walk in the light as he is in the light
We have fellowship with one another and the blood
of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all
sin That if we put our focus and we put our intent
on being fruitful in our life Doing the works
of the Lord as we walk that path as we walk in
that light When we do sin the Lord sees us being
fruitful He's going to be faithful to cleanse
us of our sin. You know Jesus said in John 15
verse 2, every branch in me that does not bear
fruit he takes away and every branch that bears
fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit.
See if you're bearing fruit the Lord will prune
you. You know what the word prune literally means
there? To be cleansed. to be cleansed. Being
fruitful and doing good works does not mean that
we don't sin. Being fruitful and doing good works
does not mean that we don't stumble. But if we
show ourselves faithful to God, as John goes
on to say in 1 John, that if we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us of our
sins. If we're seeking to live out our salvation
and abound in the work and the fruits of our
salvation to the glory of God when you sin, He'll
cleanse you. So whenever we look at our diagram
of salvation, we're a sinner. And as we said
last evening, if you're here tonight and you're
a sinner, come to the cross. Come to the cross.
Because as you sit here tonight and you don't
respond to the cross, you're basically telling
the Lord, Lord, I don't want to glorify you.
You know, we'll sit there and think, well, this
is about me, so I'll do it whenever I'm ready.
But it's not about you. It's about God. And as
you put it off, you're just saying to God, God,
I don't want to glorify you. Be buried with him
in baptism become a saint Not by personal works
of righteousness and then after you become a
saint be fruitful to glorify God Be fruitful
to glorify God And how are we fruitful to glorify
God after we're we're saved for works of righteousness
that glorify God We have a relationship with
his word In our relationship with that Word then,
as the power of that Word works within our lives,
then we become fruitful and we bear fruit that
abounds to the glory of the Father. In all the
time that we're being fruitful whenever we sin
and whenever we stumble, that cross that we trusted
in for forgiveness over here is ever present
with us right here. And so as we look at this
high level view of salvation, salvation from
a high level view, number one is being justified,
and then number two, being fruitful to the glory
of God. You know, I've talked to people and maybe
you've heard people say it a lot of times, they're
real concerned and they'll say, you know what,
I just don't know if I'm doing enough to go to
heaven. I can't think of any time I've heard
someone say, you know what, I just don't think
I'm doing enough to glorify God. There's a big
difference. One of those concerns is about me.
The other concern is about God. What's your concern
tonight? Thank you for listening to today's sermon
from the Church of Christ Wheeler area. We hope
this message encouraged you and strengthened
you in your faith this week. Don't forget the
doors always open at 1500 South Allen L. Bean
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