back to index2015-10-04 Faith Without Works is Dead
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"But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself 00:00:18.000 |
on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one 00:00:22.000 |
according to his works, to those who by patience and well-doing 00:00:26.000 |
seek for glory and honor and immortality. He will give eternal life, but for those 00:00:30.000 |
who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, 00:00:34.000 |
there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress 00:00:38.000 |
for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek. 00:00:42.000 |
But glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first 00:00:46.000 |
and also the Greek, for God shows no partiality." Let's pray. 00:00:54.000 |
we thank you so much for this morning. We thank you for your living word. 00:01:02.000 |
where the body of Christ can come together, Lord God, and to express our 00:01:10.000 |
you would constantly keep our hearts and minds 00:01:14.000 |
fresh, that your word would speak to us and it would have its effect 00:01:18.000 |
that you've desired. So we ask for your blessing and your anointing over this time. 00:01:22.000 |
In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Now as you guys know, this week there was 00:01:26.000 |
a lot of news going on because of the shooting that took place in Oregon. 00:01:30.000 |
And again, this is happening so often now that we can 00:01:38.000 |
also read the news that this man was particularly 00:01:42.000 |
targeting Christians. And we don't know exactly what his state was and what the reason was. 00:01:46.000 |
But every time this happens, there is a debate, political debate that gets stirred 00:01:50.000 |
up. Like we need to have some more regulations on firearms. That we need to 00:01:54.000 |
change the leadership. And we need to do this and we need to do that. 00:01:58.000 |
And I think we need to be careful that we don't get caught up with the rest of the world 00:02:02.000 |
thinking that if we somehow change policy, that if we change leadership, 00:02:06.000 |
if we change our tactics, that somehow we are going to eradicate this kind 00:02:14.000 |
has been reminding us through the book of Romans, the ultimate problem of man is not 00:02:18.000 |
external. That these things are not happening 00:02:22.000 |
because the world is bad and you just happen to step in it and 00:02:26.000 |
things are bad and just bad things happen to you. Jesus 00:02:30.000 |
clearly said, "It is not what you put into a man, but it is what comes out of a man." 00:02:34.000 |
The problem is not policy. Not to say that we 00:02:38.000 |
shouldn't make an effort to have a better government. That we shouldn't have better laws 00:02:42.000 |
to protect people. Not to say that those things don't matter. But 00:02:46.000 |
ultimately, the problem of mankind is not policy. 00:02:50.000 |
It's not about certain laws. It's not if we change 00:02:54.000 |
our leadership, somehow we're going to have a utopian culture. And every year, election 00:02:58.000 |
year, we have people pounding, saying that if you elect me, I'm 00:03:02.000 |
going to change things. We're going to make things much better. We're going to have a better economy, better world. 00:03:06.000 |
Our children are going to be educated better. And everybody promises, but again, 00:03:10.000 |
if you've lived long enough, there's a reason why people don't trust politicians. 00:03:14.000 |
Because they make all these promises, and every year, those promises 00:03:18.000 |
don't come true. Because the answer is not in man. 00:03:26.000 |
these tragic things happen, it's a constant reminder to us that we live in a 00:03:30.000 |
fallen world. These are the symptoms. And again, it's 00:03:34.000 |
not going to be the last time. It's not the first time. 00:03:38.000 |
But then as Christians, we ought to be reminded that this is why 00:03:46.000 |
we proclaim Christ, and this is why we gather together, and this is why we have hope 00:03:50.000 |
in Him. That it's a reminder why you and I need to be committed to the Gospel 00:03:54.000 |
of Jesus Christ. Paul introduces to the book of 00:03:58.000 |
Romans of the necessity of Christ. And that's 00:04:02.000 |
what he's going to be, he's ultimately talking about by the time he gets to chapter 00:04:10.000 |
pound to these Christians already, who are already 00:04:14.000 |
believers of Jesus, but to pound in them the necessity of 00:04:22.000 |
in this setting, where probably, you know, maybe not everybody is a Christian, but 00:04:26.000 |
the majority of you in this room have already confessed your faith in Jesus. 00:04:30.000 |
You believe in Jesus. You believe in the Gospel. And that's why you're here. 00:04:34.000 |
That's why you're worshiping. So why do we need to hear, again, 00:04:42.000 |
you and I have a tendency, because we live in this world 00:04:46.000 |
and what we tend to believe in or trust in are the things that we can 00:04:50.000 |
touch and taste and see. And obviously the things that 00:04:54.000 |
we profess to believe are not things that can physically touch. 00:04:58.000 |
So if we're not careful we can easily drift in and our values 00:05:02.000 |
become no different than the world. Even though theologically that's not what we believe. 00:05:06.000 |
But in practice we're no different than the world. 00:05:10.000 |
So what He's been doing in chapter 1, 2, and 3 00:05:22.000 |
Why Jesus had to die. It wasn't like, "Oh, He did such a 00:05:26.000 |
great thing, you know. He's such a good God because He 00:05:30.000 |
allowed us to have the easiest way to Heaven." 00:05:34.000 |
He came because He had to. There was no other way. 00:05:38.000 |
You and I have absolutely had no hope without Christ. 00:05:42.000 |
And so He pounds over and over again in chapter 1, 00:05:46.000 |
verse 18, all the way to chapter 30, is why the wrath of God 00:05:50.000 |
is being revealed today. Why whenever you see things like that, 00:05:54.000 |
the shootings and the beheadings and the hatred and all these things, why this 00:05:58.000 |
is happening? He said, "Because the wrath of God is being revealed." 00:06:02.000 |
He said, "Because God revealed Himself and mankind 00:06:06.000 |
chose to worship the creation rather than the Creator." And as a 00:06:10.000 |
result of that God gave them over, it says, to their lustful passions, 00:06:14.000 |
sexual immorality, to all kinds of rebellion against God. 00:06:18.000 |
He said He passed them over. And He said last week 00:06:22.000 |
that, "Do you not realize," in verse 4, "that it's His kindness 00:06:30.000 |
Every single one of us who've heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and repented 00:06:34.000 |
is because God had mercy on us. It wasn't because you had made the right 00:06:38.000 |
decisions. It wasn't because you were smart enough and you made the right friends and 00:06:42.000 |
chose the right church, or you studied the Bible and you were smarter than the other people. 00:06:46.000 |
He said it was completely by the mercy of God. 00:06:50.000 |
He was kind to you. He somehow orchestrated your 00:06:54.000 |
lives so that you may hear the Gospel. He orchestrated certain people in your lives that 00:06:58.000 |
may be a witness in your life. It's His kindness that 00:07:06.000 |
is again an ongoing indictment against these self-righteous 00:07:10.000 |
hypocrites. And He says, "But because you don't recognize that that's exactly what 00:07:14.000 |
it is, that God's kindness leads you to repentance, but because of your heart 00:07:18.000 |
an impenitent heart." In other words because you refused to repent. 00:07:26.000 |
your need for Christ. He said, "For yourself on the day of wrath." That you are storing 00:07:30.000 |
up wrath for the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed. 00:07:38.000 |
recognizing it is God's kindness that's leading you to repentance, and you're going to rely 00:07:42.000 |
upon your own self-righteousness, He says in verse 6, "He will render each 00:07:54.000 |
Again I wouldn't even call it a joke, but you know to 00:07:58.000 |
live all your life thinking that if I'm good enough that 00:08:02.000 |
somehow when I die God's going to be fair and allow me to get into Heaven. 00:08:06.000 |
And there's again when we talk about religion 00:08:10.000 |
versus Christianity, if there's one fundamental distinction 00:08:14.000 |
between not just religion but secularism versus Christianity 00:08:22.000 |
that when we die the just thing for God to do 00:08:26.000 |
is to allow us to get into Heaven. But the problem with that 00:08:30.000 |
is just like we talked about last week and what I said in the beginning 00:08:34.000 |
that sin is not something that you just step into. 00:08:38.000 |
That we're all born neutral and somehow if you make the right decisions 00:08:42.000 |
that somehow you're going to be able to be free and live clean the rest of your life. 00:08:46.000 |
That's not what the Scripture says. It says it's what comes out of 00:08:54.000 |
And again anybody who's raised children you know 00:08:58.000 |
exactly what I'm talking about. You know you don't teach children how to sin. 00:09:02.000 |
You have to teach them how to restrict themselves from sin. 00:09:06.000 |
You have to teach them the punishment of sin. 00:09:10.000 |
You never taught them that. You didn't teach them to steal. You didn't teach them to lie and to cheat. 00:09:14.000 |
You didn't teach them to be selfish. You're trying 00:09:18.000 |
really hard. In fact some days you feel defeated because you're working so 00:09:26.000 |
But they came into this world with that instinct. And that's 00:09:30.000 |
you and I. Every single one of us. We came into this world with the instinct to be 00:09:38.000 |
And as a result of that He says there's condemnation. 00:09:46.000 |
who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, there will be 00:09:50.000 |
wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human 00:09:54.000 |
being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek." It says every 00:09:58.000 |
evil deed. When's the last time you considered sin 00:10:14.000 |
In God's perspective in His holy, holy, holy eyes 00:10:22.000 |
against God. And therefore in His eyes it is evil. 00:10:26.000 |
In Matthew 12, 36-37 it says, "I tell you on the day of judgment 00:10:30.000 |
people will give account for every careless word they speak. 00:10:34.000 |
For by your words you will be justified and by your words you will be 00:10:42.000 |
If you and I were to come before God and to be judged 00:10:46.000 |
by our deeds, He says not only will you be judged by whether you 00:10:50.000 |
committed an act of adultery or whether you stole and lied, He says every 00:10:58.000 |
tight-lipped than others, you know. And I confessed to you before that this is 00:11:02.000 |
probably one of the main things that I repent of more than anything else. 00:11:06.000 |
At night before I sleep, "Stupid dummy, why did you say that?" 00:11:10.000 |
"Oh, you're trying so hard to make yourself look better than you are." 00:11:14.000 |
And you say, "I mean I see it, I see my sins." 00:11:18.000 |
But no matter how tight-lipped you are, it's not even just about what you say, it's the 00:11:22.000 |
thoughts that you have. It's anger, the lust. 00:11:26.000 |
Imagine if we stood before God, a holy God who is omniscient and omnipotent 00:11:30.000 |
who knows everything and says, "Ok, now come before me and I will 00:11:50.000 |
will not be judged. That when we come before God, the blood of Christ 00:11:54.000 |
covers us. That our faith, our salvation is not by our works. 00:11:58.000 |
And if you've, again, been to church for any period of time, you know that that's true. 00:12:02.000 |
That's Christianity 101. If those of you are members, if you didn't 00:12:06.000 |
know that, you would have failed BCC and you wouldn't be here. Right? That's 00:12:10.000 |
Christianity 101, that you and I are not saved by our works. Thank God that 00:12:14.000 |
God doesn't judge us according to our works. It is absolutely 00:12:22.000 |
"He will render each one according to his works," also says 00:12:26.000 |
in Romans 3.23, "For we hold that one is justified by faith 00:12:30.000 |
apart from the works of the law." That's the same guy. 00:12:34.000 |
The same guy who wrote this text is the same guy who wrote that. Romans 9.30, 00:12:38.000 |
"What shall we say then, the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have 00:12:42.000 |
attained it." That is a righteousness that is by faith. 00:12:46.000 |
And again, in another text, in Ephesians 2.89, 00:12:50.000 |
you know that passage, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, 00:12:54.000 |
and this is not your own doing. It is a gift of God, 00:12:58.000 |
not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." 00:13:02.000 |
Now, it is the same author. It is the same author who said, 00:13:10.000 |
good works, seek glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal 00:13:14.000 |
life." And he is the same guy who said, "But glory and honor and 00:13:18.000 |
peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek." 00:13:22.000 |
How do you reconcile that? Because in this passage it seems like he is saying 00:13:26.000 |
those of you who are doing good works will be saved, and those of you who are not doing good works you are going to face 00:13:30.000 |
tribulation. Did something happen between chapter 2 and chapter 3? 00:13:34.000 |
Did he have a new revelation from God? And he said, "Ok, I changed my mind." 00:13:38.000 |
You know I know I told you just three paragraphs before 00:13:42.000 |
that you have to have good works to be saved, and then Azor has nothing to do with good works. 00:13:50.000 |
Obviously not. What I want to talk to you about today for the rest 00:13:54.000 |
of this time that we have, maybe about 20-25 minutes, 00:13:58.000 |
is this relationship between faith and works and why this is not a contradiction. 00:14:06.000 |
that we are saved by faith and not by works. In fact 00:14:10.000 |
if you add works to your faith you are perverting the Gospel. 00:14:14.000 |
That's blasphemy. Basically what it is, it's like well you know I'm going to 00:14:18.000 |
take the work of God and then I'm going to add some of my work. 00:14:22.000 |
It's offensive to God. If there was any other way that we can get 00:14:26.000 |
to Heaven by our works, to say that, "Oh, Jesus was 00:14:30.000 |
just one of the ways that I could have gotten to Heaven. He needed my help. 00:14:34.000 |
The God of the universe did His part and now I've got to do a little bit of my part." 00:14:38.000 |
It is absolutely ridiculous. That is not what the 00:14:42.000 |
Scripture teaches. The Scripture is clear on that. It is by 00:14:46.000 |
faith and by faith alone. The whole book of Hebrews 00:14:50.000 |
is to teach us that. It is by faith and by faith alone. 00:14:54.000 |
If there was any confusion about this, again I think 00:14:58.000 |
come and talk to us we'll try to clarify it. But again the Scripture is not ambiguous 00:15:06.000 |
Christians can debate about but this is not one of those things. This is not a debatable issue. 00:15:10.000 |
It is by faith and faith alone. But then if that's the case 00:15:14.000 |
what does Paul mean here? How can he use this language? 00:15:18.000 |
"To those who by patience and well-doing seek glory and honor and 00:15:22.000 |
immortality He will give eternal life." It sounds 00:15:26.000 |
like you are earning your salvation. What could he possibly mean? 00:15:34.000 |
point, again because this is the main point, I want you to turn your Bibles to 00:15:38.000 |
John 6.29. Some of you guys are very familiar with this 00:15:42.000 |
text because I've gone through it before. But John 6.29. 00:15:50.000 |
between faith and works. And why faith and works 00:15:58.000 |
Again you guys say, "Well that sounds blasphemous." But I'm going to 00:16:02.000 |
show you why. Even though the Scripture clearly says that we are saved by 00:16:06.000 |
faith alone, but why faith and works cannot be separated. 00:16:14.000 |
passage I'm going to read are these 5,000, probably the real number is about 00:16:18.000 |
20,000 including women and children. They are 00:16:22.000 |
the ones who ate the miraculous bread and fish, and 00:16:26.000 |
they are the people in the feeding of the 5,000. After they are fed 00:16:30.000 |
Jesus goes to the other side of the lake and they say, "Where is Jesus?" So they go look 00:16:34.000 |
for Him. They finally find Him and they encounter Him. And 00:16:46.000 |
that they are following Him for the wrong reason. So He is going to call them out. And that's the 00:16:50.000 |
text that we are looking at in verse 25. "When they found Him on the other side 00:16:54.000 |
of the sea, they said to Him, 'Rabbi, when did You come here?'" And Jesus doesn't 00:16:58.000 |
answer. He goes, "I came yesterday." No small talk. He just jumps right in. 00:17:02.000 |
He said, "Truly, truly I say to you, you are seeking 00:17:06.000 |
Me not because you saw a sign, but because you ate 00:17:14.000 |
"You are coming to Me not because you recognize who I am. You know the 00:17:18.000 |
signs that I gave. You said I'm the Messiah and so we are coming because 00:17:22.000 |
of the promise and you are the Messiah. That's not why you are 00:17:26.000 |
coming. You are coming because you ate and you are full and you want more." 00:17:30.000 |
So He corrects them and He says, "Do not labor for 00:17:34.000 |
the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life." 00:17:38.000 |
So Jesus is saying, "Don't work for temporary things. 00:17:42.000 |
Work for eternal things, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on 00:17:46.000 |
Him God the Father has set His seal." Right? So again 00:17:50.000 |
He is correcting their defected faith. He says, "You are seeking 00:17:54.000 |
for temporary things like food, but what you really need to be seeking is eternal 00:17:58.000 |
things." Right? That's what you need to be doing. Then they said to Him, 00:18:02.000 |
"If that's the case, what must we do to be doing the works of 00:18:06.000 |
God?" Say, "We are doing the wrong thing. You should do the right 00:18:10.000 |
things. So what is the right thing that you want us to do?" Verse 29, "Jesus 00:18:14.000 |
answered them, 'This is the work of God, that you," what? "Believe." 00:18:18.000 |
"That you believe." He said, "Well what should we 00:18:22.000 |
do? You ought to do what is right." "Well what should we do?" "Believe," 00:18:26.000 |
He says. In fact He says that over and over again. He says that 00:18:34.000 |
"Jesus said to them, 'I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to Me shall not 00:18:38.000 |
hunger. Whoever believes in Me shall never thirst.'" Again He says 00:18:46.000 |
again He says, "For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who 00:18:50.000 |
looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life, and 00:18:54.000 |
I will raise Him up on the last day." Verse 47, 00:18:58.000 |
"Truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. 00:19:02.000 |
I am the bread of life." So, what is Jesus doing with these people? 00:19:06.000 |
They are coming and they are exerting a lot of energy to come 00:19:10.000 |
to Jesus, but they have a defective faith because they don't recognize who He is. 00:19:14.000 |
He says, "You are working for things that are going to rot, and it's going to mean 00:19:18.000 |
nothing. So, you need to work for things that are eternal. What should I do? What is the work 00:19:22.000 |
of God?" He says, "You must believe." And He repeats this over, and over, and over, 00:19:26.000 |
and over again to get His point across. Now to fully understand 00:19:30.000 |
the result of this belief in His teaching, after 00:19:34.000 |
Jesus says this, and this is where He recognizes that 00:19:38.000 |
they are not His. They are coming to Him for all the wrong reasons. 00:19:42.000 |
So, He basically shuts the door on them by telling them that if you don't 00:19:46.000 |
drink of My blood and eat of My flesh you cannot be My disciple. And so, they are like, 00:19:50.000 |
"What? Like cannibalism." He doesn't explain Himself. 00:19:54.000 |
So, basically what Jesus is doing He is shutting the door because He sees 00:19:58.000 |
that they are coming to Him for the wrong reason. He doesn't see the faith. 00:20:02.000 |
So, He turns to His disciples and He says, "Are you going to leave too?" 00:20:06.000 |
And look what they say. Starting from verse 66, 00:20:10.000 |
it says, "After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him. 00:20:14.000 |
So, Jesus said to the twelve, 'Do you want to go away as well?' Simon Peter 00:20:18.000 |
answered, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 00:20:22.000 |
and we have believed and have come to know that you are 00:20:26.000 |
the Holy One of God.'" What was the difference between the disciples and the people turned away? 00:20:34.000 |
And as a result of that, because of their unbelief, they turned away from God. 00:20:42.000 |
did the disciples understand what Jesus was saying? They didn't get it either. 00:20:46.000 |
You know, they say, "Oh, you've got to drink My blood and eat 00:20:50.000 |
My flesh." I'm sure the disciples are like, "What? What did He say?" 00:20:58.000 |
I don't get it. I don't get what you are saying. And that's why 00:21:02.000 |
they didn't get it. When Jesus said He was going to go to the cross He said, "I don't get that. 00:21:06.000 |
You are the Messiah. I'm convinced that you are the Messiah. You are the Holy One of God. 00:21:10.000 |
Why would you go to the cross? That doesn't make any sense." But they didn't leave 00:21:14.000 |
Him because they believed. The difference between 00:21:18.000 |
again what Jesus is saying here is that you and I, again in 00:21:22.000 |
our generation we have a tendency to separate 00:21:30.000 |
anything that you say, "Well, Christians ought to do this." It's like, "Oh, that sounds like legalism." 00:21:34.000 |
You know, that's not God because the Gospel of Jesus Christ says it's by faith alone. 00:21:42.000 |
something we automatically have a knee-jerk reaction. That's why when we read passages 00:21:50.000 |
How can He possibly say that? How can He possibly tell us that our works matter? 00:21:58.000 |
life and what we did didn't matter because we're saved by 00:22:06.000 |
And yet the Scripture is so crystal clear on this subject. 00:22:14.000 |
to them, He says, "Yes, you do need to seek for eternal things, but 00:22:18.000 |
again, but the greatest of these things that you need to do is to believe because it is belief 00:22:22.000 |
that causes you to work. It is belief that causes you 00:22:30.000 |
"You have faith and I have works. Show me your faith apart from the works and I will show you 00:22:34.000 |
my faith by my works. You believe that God is 00:22:38.000 |
one, you do well, even the demons believe and shudder." 00:22:42.000 |
In other words, what James is saying is you guys are all good at professing, 00:22:46.000 |
but when it comes to evidence there is none. Faith without deeds 00:22:50.000 |
is useless. That is not saving faith. He says, "Even the demons believe that God is one, 00:22:54.000 |
they shudder." In fact, in Jesus' ministry it was the 00:22:58.000 |
demons who first recognized Jesus, not the disciples. Demons 00:23:02.000 |
are the ones who came and knelt before Jesus, you know, and they were 00:23:06.000 |
in terror because they recognized who He was. The disciples were like, "Great, 00:23:10.000 |
you know, we get free food. You know, when you go to Heaven, you know, can I 00:23:14.000 |
sit on the left or the right?" The demons recognized Him first. 00:23:18.000 |
They don't fully open their eyes until His death and resurrection. 00:23:22.000 |
So he says, "If it is simply a profession that Jesus wanted, 00:23:26.000 |
then the demons should have been saved." See, the faith that Jesus 00:23:30.000 |
is referring to is a faith that causes them to follow Christ 00:23:38.000 |
defected faith that these people were coming to Jesus 00:23:42.000 |
that caused them to turn away from Christ. Now what does this have to do with the passage? 00:23:50.000 |
If you see the difference between 7 and 8, it says verse 7 is 00:23:54.000 |
in reference to Christians, and verse 8 is in reference to non-Christians. 00:23:58.000 |
So I want you to see the difference between the Christian and the non-Christian. 00:24:06.000 |
for glory, honor, and immortality, He will grant eternal life. 00:24:10.000 |
But a non-Christian, but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the 00:24:14.000 |
truth but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury." 00:24:18.000 |
So the distinction between a Christian and a non-Christian, they are 00:24:22.000 |
both seeking. Right? In most of your translation, the word 00:24:26.000 |
is translated "seek." So a Christian is seeking glory, honor, 00:24:30.000 |
and immortality, which is going to lead to eternal life. And that's why they're going to 00:24:34.000 |
persevere in their good works. A non-Christian is self-seeking. 00:24:38.000 |
So therefore, they're not going to obey the truth and obey unrighteousness. 00:24:50.000 |
Both of them are seeking life. A non-Christian, the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian 00:24:58.000 |
So therefore, if I work hard enough, make enough money, make proper decisions, put away 00:25:02.000 |
enough money, then my life is going to be good, and I'm going to have a better life. 00:25:06.000 |
So they're self-seeking. They're trying to exalt themselves, 00:25:10.000 |
which is at the core of their rebellion against God. Refusing to 00:25:14.000 |
acknowledge God as Lord, and decided to worship the creation 00:25:18.000 |
rather than the Creator. Now what creation does he worship? 00:25:30.000 |
So he is seeking glory, honor, and immortality. And as a result 00:25:34.000 |
of that, he will receive eternal life. So a Christian is an individual 00:25:42.000 |
And because I find life in Christ, I seek to be where Christ is. 00:25:46.000 |
I seek to do what Christ does. I seek to go where 00:25:50.000 |
He goes. Because I find life in Christ. That's the distinction 00:25:54.000 |
between a Christian and a non-Christian. It is not a difference between coming to church 00:25:58.000 |
and not coming to church. Someone can come to church 00:26:02.000 |
and be completely self-seeking. It's about them. 00:26:06.000 |
As soon as I don't get what I want, this church 00:26:10.000 |
doesn't do anything for me. Because even in the context 00:26:14.000 |
of Bible study, even in the context of serving the church, it could 00:26:18.000 |
be self-seeking. You just happen to find a different avenue. 00:26:22.000 |
See that's why Scripture says in 1 Corinthians chapter 00:26:26.000 |
13, He said, "Without love it is nothing." Because all of these 00:26:30.000 |
things, even me preaching up here, it may seem noble 00:26:38.000 |
And that happens all the time. People go into ministry for self-seeking reasons. 00:26:42.000 |
People go evangelizing for self-seeking reasons. People serve and give to the church 00:26:46.000 |
for self-seeking reasons. The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian 00:26:50.000 |
is what he believes is going to bring life to him. 00:26:58.000 |
and that now we are hidden. Our glory is hidden in 00:27:02.000 |
Christ. And we will be glorified one day when Christ comes and He is glorified. 00:27:06.000 |
And we will be glorified in Him. Therefore, I am investing 00:27:14.000 |
He says an individual who is patient in doing good, 00:27:18.000 |
who perseveres in doing good. Why do you have to persevere in doing good? 00:27:22.000 |
Because you don't see the payoff right away. If your good 00:27:26.000 |
works automatically lead to something good for you, you don't need to be patient. You just need to 00:27:30.000 |
do the work and tomorrow you get payoff. The reason why you need to be patient in doing 00:27:34.000 |
good is because the payoff or the reward is later. 00:27:38.000 |
Satisfaction comes later. That's why he says the one 00:27:42.000 |
who is patient in doing good is because he is seeking 00:27:46.000 |
glory, honor, and immortality. And as a result of that 00:27:54.000 |
Let me tell you again, let me illustrate why this is so important. 00:28:02.000 |
talk about following Jesus Christ, we automatically 00:28:06.000 |
compare it with whoever we are around. So a certain 00:28:10.000 |
culture, so if you are a member of a community church, there is a certain culture that is required of you. 00:28:18.000 |
we feel okay. So it's like how are you doing spiritually? Ah, you know 00:28:22.000 |
I did the Bible study. I haven't done this. I haven't done that. Whatever is the cultural norm of 00:28:30.000 |
something defected in their action, whether it was the disciples or 00:28:34.000 |
the villages that He went to, He recognized a defect in their faith. 00:28:38.000 |
He said, "Ye of little faith, why couldn't you trust Me?" 00:28:42.000 |
When they were afraid, He said, "Oh, why are you afraid?" He said, "Ye of little faith." 00:28:46.000 |
When a centurion came, He said, "You know what? Send them. I have servants that follow 00:28:50.000 |
Me." He said, "Oh, you have to descend. I believe that you have that authority." He said, "This man has 00:28:54.000 |
great faith." In other words, what was Jesus saying? 00:29:02.000 |
be fearful or not fearful. It is your faith that's causing you to be 00:29:06.000 |
disciplined or not disciplined. It's faith that's causing you to value Christ over 00:29:14.000 |
That's why in Hebrews chapter 11, 6, "Without faith 00:29:18.000 |
it is impossible to please Him." Because what God is looking for is not 00:29:22.000 |
just somebody to jump through the hoops and do the right thing. He says 00:29:26.000 |
without faith, just like all the people who are coming to Jesus, superficially 00:29:30.000 |
you would think that, "Wow, look at this crowd, 20,000. You know, they're 00:29:34.000 |
coming to Me. That's great. We have a successful ministry." But He looked right 00:29:38.000 |
through them. He says, "No, this is not real fruit. They're coming to Me 00:29:42.000 |
for all the wrong reasons. You must first believe. Without 00:29:46.000 |
faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw 00:29:58.000 |
"Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest." 00:30:02.000 |
That you believe that Jesus is your rest. Not your 00:30:10.000 |
Not to Jimjilbang and rest or whatever you may think. 00:30:14.000 |
Jesus is our rest. When Jesus said, "If you drink of this water 00:30:18.000 |
that the world gives you, you're going to be thirsty again. But the water I give you, 00:30:22.000 |
you'll never thirst." And because you believe that, and you believe that He is, 00:30:26.000 |
so you continue to come to Him and drink. That you recognize your 00:30:30.000 |
hunger. There's something that you're missing. And so when Jesus says, "If you 00:30:34.000 |
eat of this bread you will be hungry again. But the bread that I give you, 00:30:38.000 |
you will never hunger again." And you believe that. And because you believe 00:30:42.000 |
that you come and you eat of Christ and you drink of His blood. 00:30:46.000 |
Because that's where you and I find life. That's what He means. If you don't 00:30:50.000 |
believe that, there's no way for you to please God. He who comes 00:30:54.000 |
to God must first believe that He is and He rewards those who 00:30:58.000 |
seek Him. See that's the connection to what He's saying in verse 7. 00:31:02.000 |
Those who are seeking Him, they seek honor, glory, 00:31:06.000 |
and immortality. And they will get eternal life. That because you believe 00:31:10.000 |
that He is and He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. 00:31:14.000 |
Paul is not contradicting himself. What Paul is saying 00:31:26.000 |
that again that we get into sometimes. Because we get, you know, 00:31:30.000 |
"Ah, you know works and knee jerk reaction. That's legalism. That can't be from God. 00:31:34.000 |
That's not the Gospel." Let me tell you why it is 00:31:58.000 |
If you wrote a story. I mean you can understand like, "Oh, there's a great movie. 00:32:02.000 |
The king comes off his throne and he lives with the peasants. Like, wow!" 00:32:06.000 |
You know, really some king actually would do that? 00:32:10.000 |
These aren't just any peasants. These are the peasants who rebelled against him. These are the peasants 00:32:14.000 |
who are constantly attacking him, cursing him, and wants to destroy his 00:32:18.000 |
kingdom. It's that that king instead of being angry decided to come 00:32:22.000 |
down and live among them and have mercy and sacrifice. And not only did he love them 00:32:26.000 |
so much that he would sacrifice his son to win them over to bring them 00:32:34.000 |
That really happened?" Say, "Yeah, okay. That's maybe in Hollywood." 00:32:42.000 |
to believe is that it wasn't the king of some nation, 00:32:50.000 |
who created the world. The very oxygen that you and I 00:32:58.000 |
rebelling against decided to take on human flesh 00:33:02.000 |
and he walked among us. Not only did he walk among us, 00:33:06.000 |
he was humiliated. He was beaten. He was mocked. 00:33:22.000 |
As fantastic as that is, this is not a story a human 00:33:26.000 |
being would make up. Because you wouldn't possibly think, "Who would believe 00:33:30.000 |
this? If I made up a story, even if I told you a king did that, I don't know if 00:33:34.000 |
they would really believe that. Let's make it realistic. 00:33:38.000 |
Let's make it realistic that they were cute orphans and it wasn't 00:33:42.000 |
really the king. It was just a jester in the court. That's more 00:33:50.000 |
For them to make up a story about a God who did that? Who would believe this story? 00:33:54.000 |
And yet, you and I believed it. And we were changed. 00:34:02.000 |
And we sing these songs. We memorize scripture. 00:34:06.000 |
We tell other people about it. And so we believe this fantastic story. 00:34:10.000 |
Professing we are saved because of it. And then 00:34:14.000 |
we hear a passage, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, 00:34:18.000 |
and all these things shall be added unto you." It's like, "Ugh, that's hard to believe." 00:34:30.000 |
of what we profess. The magnitude of the gospel that you and I 00:34:34.000 |
profess to believe. And the day-to-day unbelief 00:34:46.000 |
inconsistent a life that doesn't produce works and the faith 00:34:54.000 |
And that's why he says in Romans 8.32, "He who did not spare his own son, 00:34:58.000 |
but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all 00:35:02.000 |
things?" If you believe that he would give his only begotten 00:35:06.000 |
son, and we profess this every single Sunday, 00:35:10.000 |
and then to leave this room saying, "I'm not sure if he would 00:35:14.000 |
take care of my bills. I'm not sure if I pick up my cross 00:35:18.000 |
and follow him that he has my best interest. I mean, I say it, but I don't know if I really believe 00:35:22.000 |
that." That's just like if I was a manager of a bank 00:35:26.000 |
and you came into work and said, "You know what I'm going to give you the keys to this vault 00:35:34.000 |
and I'm going to entrust you with this key." And it's fantastic, 00:35:38.000 |
but don't ever touch this cash register. We have 00:35:42.000 |
about $300 of cash in there and I don't trust you enough. 00:35:46.000 |
You know, I said, "What? You wouldn't trust me with this vault, but you won't 00:35:50.000 |
entrust me with this cash register?" Something's off. 00:35:54.000 |
Something about that guy's faith doesn't as well. Maybe the vault really doesn't 00:35:58.000 |
have the money. Maybe the real money is in the cash register, and that's why you're saying this. 00:36:02.000 |
See, something is off. See, a Christian who professes 00:36:06.000 |
to believe this grand story of the God of the universe 00:36:10.000 |
would give his only begotten son and to receive that so 00:36:14.000 |
flippantly and say, "Yes, I believe that. Of course, no problem." And then to struggle 00:36:18.000 |
every single day to follow Jesus because I don't believe 00:36:34.000 |
Christ. If you believe that Jesus is the living water, 00:36:42.000 |
If you believe that He's the bread of life, you really truly believe that, 00:36:46.000 |
why would you not eat of Him? If you believe that life is found 00:36:50.000 |
in the Word of God, and you profess that, why would you not come 00:37:06.000 |
and then the rest of it we're just kind of wrestling with, "Maybe I need to be more disciplined. 00:37:22.000 |
And my encouragement to us this morning is, "Do you believe?" 00:37:34.000 |
If you believe that you're satisfaction in Christ, 00:37:42.000 |
thirsty, and you feel something off, you know what, life isn't what you thought it 00:37:46.000 |
was, and you graduated, and life is hard, and things are difficult, and something 00:37:54.000 |
there's a spiritual hunger, that you haven't been walking right 00:37:58.000 |
with God, there's a spiritual thirst, and you believe that 00:38:02.000 |
the only one who can quench that, and you believe that, is Jesus, 00:38:14.000 |
is why, again, when we talk about prayer, prayer is a privilege, it's an opportunity 00:38:18.000 |
to come to a holy, holy, holy, omnipotent God, 00:38:34.000 |
as an opportunity to meet God, we see it as a 00:38:38.000 |
duty to do, because that's what a good Christian does. 00:38:42.000 |
You see the difference between believing and not believing? 00:38:46.000 |
Not believing, and going through the motions, 00:38:54.000 |
if you believe that He is the living water, the closer