It's wonderful to be here with all of you today, and we just
have a wonderful crowd for which we're thankful.
And as always is the case, I do consider it an honor to speak
concerning the Word of God. I hope that what we had to
consider for a little while today from the masterful sermon
the Lord preached a long time ago when He preached on the
Sermon on the Mount. I hope this portion today would
be edifying and encouraging to you in some way.
These are things that are so important to us because these
are very, very practical and they apply to every one of us as
we continue that great sermon that Jesus preached so long ago.
We're now to chapter 6 and Matthew chapter 5-6 and seven is
the Sermon on the Mount and we finish chapter 5.
You remember in chapter 5, at the latter part of chapter 5,
Jesus deals with enemies and he talks about two things about
enemies. One, your reaction to them when
he talked about going the second mile where he encouraged certain
restraints. And then he went into our
actions. What are we going to do about
our enemies? And Jesus says you got to love
them. And then he said, the way that
you do that is you do good to those that hate you.
But now we come to chapter 6. And what a masterful part of
this sermon as Jesus goes to chapter 6, because now he's
going to talk about the motive behind the ACT.
He's going to talk about the spirit of how we do things and
we do them for God and we don't do them for the praise of men.
In Matthew chapter 6 and verse one, Jesus says take heed that
you do not do your charitable deeds before men to be seen by
them, otherwise you have no reward from your Father in
heaven. Now we know this.
I got to say something about works.
I know sometimes people that you talk to, they get kind of messed
up when you say works. It's because they misunderstand
the kind of works that we believe in and the kind of works
that the Bible clearly talks about.
You might remember 2 weeks ago when I talked on my last sermon,
we did mention the passage in James when James said that faith
without works is dead. In fact, James said show me your
faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my
works. So we've talked about works,
we're talking about obedient works, we're talking about works
of obedience. Those works are very important.
But let me say this too, works alone have absolutely no benefit
and no value at all. If the motive behind the ACT is
wrong, if the attitude behind the ACT is wrong or not what it
should be, it makes the work of none effect.
Attitude is everything. In fact, what Jesus is going to
talk about here is attitude is just as important as action.
You've heard me say this and say it again.
Attitude is the aroma of your heart.
I don't know. I don't know about you.
I don't like hanging out with people with bad attitudes.
I just don't. It's depressing.
Attitude is everything, but attitude is about perception.
It's like that story and it went viral and you probably heard it
and I know I probably said it, but that story a long time ago
where that young boy with Down syndrome accomplished some great
thing. I can't remember what it was
that he did, but he really over achieved, did a great thing.
He's being interviewed by this guy and the guy says do you
think Down syndrome was a handicap to you or a disability?
What a terrible thing to ask somebody.
I'm glad he did though, because you know what the answer was?
This little fella stood there on his own 2 feet and looked him in
the eye and he said the only disability in life is a bad
attitude. And that's true attitude.
Is everything OK when Jesus is speaking these words in Matthew
chapter 6 and verse one? The remote context really does
go back to Matthew chapter 5 and verse 20.
Don't turn there, just stay with me.
I'm going to mention some stuff. In Matthew chapter 5 and verse
20, Jesus says a very remarkable statement.
He said unless your righteousness exceeds the
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no wise
enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
Why is that a remarkable statement?
You know why? Because the scribes and the
Pharisees were the most religious people in all the
world. And Jesus says unless your
righteousness exceeds their righteousness, you can't go to
heaven. What was the problem?
The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was summed up by
Jesus because he was saying this.
Everything they did was all about form and no substance, how
it looks on the outside. But that's not how they were on
the inside. You know, in Matthew chapter 23,
it was the last sermon the Lord ever preached.
And you want to talk about a scathing rebuke?
You know, people talk about Jesus love and yes He is.
But Jesus rebuked them and for a reason.
The first sermon he ever preached is this masterful
Sermon on the Mount, The last ones found in Matthew chapter
23. Remember what he says.
He said woe to you scribes and Pharisees, and he calls them
hypocrites. Why?
They were all about form and no substance, had no meaning.
You remember my sermon when Jesus talked about justice,
mercy and faith? He was talking about them.
He said, you know what you're doing, what you do is use
scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites.
You take the tithe requirement and God required in the Old
Testament that they would take a tenth of all the land produced
and give it back to God. What they did is they took it to
the NTH degree and they even took it to the point of they if
they regulated it even with their kitchen spices. 9 for me,
one for God, 9 for me, one for God, 9 for me, one for God.
Jesus says by doing that you're neglecting the weightier matters
of the law, and that is justice, mercy, and faith.
And everybody gets that all out of whack.
If you don't believe me, just Google it.
You get all kinds of interpretations on what that
means. Jesus was not saying that the
details don't matter. He was not saying obedience does
not matter. He was not saying that worship
it does not matter. He wasn't saying that at all.
What he was saying is by doing what you're doing and being
formed without Septus, you are doing this.
You are neglecting the weightier matters of justice, mercy, and
faith. And I'll just sum it up like
this. When you are doing that with
justice, mercy, and faith, it means this.
You're keeping the commands of God, which are the details, but
you're doing it with the right attitude, the right spirit, and
the right motive that is formed with substance.
In Matthew chapter 23, what else did Jesus talk about?
He talked about humble service, humility.
You know what? They were concerned with titles
like Rabbi and Master Raboni. They also wanted the chief seats
in the synagogue. What else they want?
They wanted the best seat of the feast.
But Jesus taught about humility. They were formed without
substance. They wanted the praise of men.
So here's the point though. Sadly, in seeking after the play
the fleeting accolades of men, the people that Jesus was
talking about had missed out on God's eternal reward.
So Matthew chapter 6 and verse one, Jesus says this.
As a result, take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds
before men, OK? Good works are not for show.
They're not. Religious leaders in the Lord's
Day were giving to the poor, and they were giving to God in the
treasury to be noticed publicly, to be seen by men.
I'm going to quote my dad in a minute again.
And you know, I quote my dad a lot.
Didn't think I was paying attention.
I was paying attention. Apparently my dad used to always
say, son, the mark of what you really are is really
proportionate to what you will do when nobody's watching and
you get no credit. So if you go do something,
great, So what he said, what if nobody gave you credit and
nobody saw it? Because that's the real you.
What Jesus is saying here is take heed that you do not do
your charitable deeds before men.
In other words, he's not condemning their works.
He's condemning their attitude or their motive behind it.
Because it's not wrong, by the way, to do things publicly.
In fact, when things are seen in public, the actual act or the
actual work is a good thing. Watch Matthew 516.
Jesus said this too. Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father,
which is in heaven. So sometimes you will do a good
deed and everybody sees it and God gets the glory and that's
wonderful. The point is you can't do it for
the reason that you want to be seen of men and receive the
accolades and the praise from them.
That's the point. But sometimes a good deed or a
good work that you do in public that everybody knows about is
wonderfully encouraging. In fact, the Lord used somebody.
He used an example. He used an example of a
precious, precious widow in the last days in the life of Jesus,
the last week in the life of Jesus.
Jesus is there. You know the story.
I'm not going to it. Mark chapter 12 And he's sitting
there by the temple treasury and he's watching all the rich
people come and they're putting all this money in.
And they had those 13 trumpet shaped coppers and each was a
reason they had words written over them for what this was and
for what this purpose was. And this purpose was and so
forth. Here come the rich people.
They're putting in the money. And then Jesus says there was
one widow and she does this. Then 1 poor widow came and threw
in two mites, which makes up a quadrants.
What's that? Well, some scholars say that
it's impossible to know for certain because the monetary
measures and monetary things change over time, right?
Well, I've deduced it like this. This is an approximation.
But a quadrant that she put in two mites, regardless of what
the large sums that other people put in, you know what that
actually adds up to in today's money?
That's about 1/4 of a penny, about 1/4 of a cent.
Now remember, Jesus is going to use her as an example.
So he called his disciples to himself and said assuredly, I
say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those
who have given to the treasury, all the ones combined.
She gave a quarter of a penny and it was more than all the
others combined. And he's going to say why in
just a moment. What's he doing though?
She didn't do it to be seen by anybody.
And you know what? I got to add a little side note
here. Nowhere in the Scriptures does
it say that anybody else recognized or realized or saw
what she did. All we know for sure is that the
Lord saw it. Isn't there a picture there?
You could do something privately and quietly, and nobody knows,
and maybe the only one that knows is the Lord.
And He gave Him credit for it. He said she gave more than all
the others combined, and This is why.
For they put it out of their abundance, but she out of her
poverty, put it all that she had, her whole livelihood.
Wonderful passage. And just remember this.
When we do give, remember one thing.
I'll say this as a reminder. Sometimes we think that when we
give, we're giving back. We're giving to God what's ours.
So we're giving a percentage of what's ours or part of what's
ours. Please understand, when you
give, understand this, you're not giving that which is yours.
You're giving back to God that which already is his.
Everything you have is from God, all of it.
So when we do give, like in the contribution, we're giving back
a portion of what God has already blessed us with.
And by the way, it's all His anyway.
Here's another example where somebody did something good for
the right reasons and they were used as encouragement for
somebody else. Paul used the Macedonian
churches as a public example to encourage those in Corinth in
Second Corinthians chapter 8. Here's the point.
These examples were used not to receive the praise from from
men. They were used because they were
done properly to get the praise of God and encourage others to
be godly as well. OK, So what does this mean here?
Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before
men, and then it says to be seen by them.
You just said preacher, you just said that it's good when people
see your good deeds, so what's the point?
There's no contradiction here. What does this mean?
This phrase to be seen by them, by the way, is the same basic
meaning as our modern word theatrical.
In other words, don't be theatrical when you do it.
Robertson said it like this. Like actors on a stage, these
men Don masks of piety and parade their works.
They seem unaware that God looks not on the outward appearance,
but on the heart. Verse 10, verse 16, and verse
seven. Another scholar went on and said
something else about that. I'll get back to that later, but
let's just go back to chapter or verse 2, please.
Verse 2 Therefore, when you do your charitable deed, do not
sound a trumpet before you, OK, This phrase do not sound a
trumpet. If you look up different
commentators and you look up different scholars, OK, they
have all manner of interpretation.
Some take a very literal interpretation about sounding
the trumpet like JW Mcgarvey. And there's a reason that some
people take a literal interpretation of this, because
the custom of the rich back then was whenever somebody would go
and they would give, they would bring a trumpeteer and the
trumpeteer would be there and the trumpeteer would blast to
get everybody's attention that that person is giving.
So JW Mcgarvey says when Jesus says when you do your charitable
deed, don't sound the trumpet, and that's a literal
interpretation of that. OK.
Still others hold to the blowing of trumpets when they fasted and
when they had other religious things going on.
By the way, you know what Jesus says when you do your fasting,
implying that you will fast at some point?
He said, don't make your face look like you're sad or
miserable on your face. Do your fasting so that nobody
knows you're fasting and the only one that knows that you're
fasting is God. It's a form of humility.
You are humbling the Spirit when you pray and it's and it's very
important to do that from time to time.
OK, back then some blasted the trumpets when they fasted or on
other religious occasions. Some people think, according to
Vincent, that the illusion here is to the 13 trumpet shaped
coffers in the treasury. Still others think it's
hyperbole. Here's the point.
It really doesn't matter. This is whether literal or
figurative. Here's the point.
When you do something good, when you do something good, do it
quietly, do it quietly and don't try to draw attention to
yourself. Then he gives this example as
the hypocrites in the synagogues and the streets, as they do
that, they may have the glory for men.
You know, Jesus reserves the harshest criticism for religious
leaders, and I think that's very important.
When you are a leader, people follow you.
May I just say how important it is?
And I'm not talking about people that are considered leaders.
Sometimes we have in our mind what a leader is.
But have you ever stopped to consider that you are all
leaders of someone? There's somebody that is
following you. If you are a parent, for
example, you have a little one, that little one is following
you. Like that old song, Walk a
little straighter, Daddy, walk a little straighter.
I used to preach on that a lot because somebody is following
you. Jesus reserves the harshest
criticism for religious leaders. You know why?
Because they were the ones that were about forming those
substances. They were the ones that were
really hypocritical. And what does the word hypocrite
mean? It denotes acting.
Robertson said This, it carries with it the idea of pretending,
feigning or wearing a mask. In other words, they were pious
pretenders. In addition to this, one scholar
further said, like actors on a stage, these Pharisees pose as
godly performers. Their show is spectacular.
But backstage, behind the curtain, their director is
Satan. Wow, Jesus says this.
When you do things just for the glory of men, you have your
reward. You know a better translation
really is this. It means you have your full
reward or you have in full your reward.
What does that mean? JW Mcgarvey says this, implying
that the praise of men is the only reward that they will ever
receive. So instead of seeking God's
approval, these religious leaders chose the fleeting and
fickle praise of men. And I thought of this the other
day, and I want to share it with you because I think it applies.
I think there's a parallel in our life.
And sometimes it's done innocently, but it does happen.
And how do I know what happens? Because it happened to me.
When you are young, really young, the only one that you
want praise from is your parents.
That's most important. You want the praise of your
father. You want the praise of your
mother. But something happens and you
start seeking after the fickle, fleeting praise of your friends.
All of a sudden you want your friends to be proud of you.
So sometimes you stop being who you really are just so that your
friends will praise you. That's what we do.
You might say. I didn't do that.
Well, good for you, I did. Good on you, I did.
But isn't that exactly what happens when we forget about who
we are? We forget about the praise of
our Heavenly Father. The praise of our Heavenly
Father all of a sudden doesn't, in practice, become as important
as our praise of our peers. And we can fall into the same
trap. You know what's funny though?
When you get older? Oh, you want the praise of your
parents again. You want the praise of your dad
again. Your mom again.
But somewhere in between. Sometimes we just want the
fleeting accolades and praise of our peers, and sometimes we even
put on a false veneer or facade in order to achieve it.
I think the same is true today. The word hypocrite is the most
overused word in the English language.
It really is. And I will say this to you, that
sometimes people that don't want to be religious and some people
that don't want to be Christians and they don't want to be a part
of any kind of organized religion, what they'll say is I
don't want to be a part of that because there's hypocrites in
the church. How many times you heard that?
Oh, there's hypocrites over there.
I don't want to do that. OK.
And while all that's being true, and it's true that somebody that
makes a mistake is not a hypocrite, even though they get
branded as one hypocrite's a play actor pretending to be
something they never intended to be, all that's true.
But I want to Fast forward to this statement here.
While all those things that I just said are 100% true, there's
something else that's true too. If somebody really is a
hypocrite, it doesn't take long for people to see through their
veneer. And you know what happens?
They don't even get the praise of men anymore either.
They lose the praise of God for being hypocrite, obviously, but
when people see through their veneer and see who they really
are and they're not really genuine, they lose the praise of
men too. I think that's the point.
Jesus is saying his statement may be intended to remove that
veneer, thus removing all reward.
OK then we go to the next verse. Jesus says, But when you do your
charitable deed, now this statement here is a statement
not of possibility. It's a statement of fact.
It's a statement of certainty. Jesus assumes that his followers
are going to be charitable people and they're going to
give. In fact, God has always been
always expected his children or his people to be benevolent,
going all the way back to the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament, it encouraged benevolence or giving
alms or giving gifts or helping others.
Not only did it encourage it, it also regulated it.
In the Old Testament, it's always been that way.
Sometimes we think that the rule is changed in the New Testament,
and now here's the way we have to be.
And in the Old Testament it didn't matter.
That's not true. God has always required His
people to be good to others and help others.
Give you 2 Old Testament passages in Leviticus 25 and 35.
If one of your brethren becomes poor and falls into poverty
among you, then you shall help him like a stranger or
sojourner, that he may live with you.
Another passage, Deuteronomy 15 and 11.
For the poor will never cease from the land.
Therefore I command you, saying, you shall open your hand.
Why? To your brother, to your poor
and your needy in your land. OK, what about New Testament
times? In New Testament times, the days
of the early church continue with the same spirit.
Bear with me, I got to set this up in Acts chapter 2.
It was the day that salvation came.
It was the day that the church was born, and it was a day when
there was a pattern for Christians helping Christians.
The very first gospel sermon was preached in Acts chapter 2 with
the opportunity to respond to it.
You know, scholars tell us there was over a million people
perhaps in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, Over a million
people on Pentecost day, 50 days following the Passover, this
religious Jewish day, a million people are there.
And Peter and the apostles, divinely inspired by the Holy
Spirit, began to preach the gospel.
And when the gospel was preached, you know what they
said? Finally, men and brethren, what
shall we do? We need an answer.
What do we do now? We're lost.
We rejected Jesus, God made him Lord in Christ, the one that we
crucified. What do we do now?
Verse 38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized,
everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission
of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, for
the promise is unto you and your children, and all that are afar
off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
What do we know so far? Salvation was had, and baptism
for the remission of sins. That's what a person is saved.
What else do we know? What we know of this too in Acts
242, what did they do? They immediately worshipped,
praising God and having favor with all the people, and the
Lord added to the church daily those that were being saved.
Verse 47 What did the church do? Verse 42, It continued
steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and
breaking of bread and in prayers.
Wonderful stuff. They were saved, they were
members of the church, they worshiped God.
And do you know what they did? Because of those 3000 that had
travelled from all over the world, Guess what?
They had to turn their back on their former life, their former
sense of values, maybe even their families.
Maybe they were alienated and ostracized because they gave up
Judaism for Jesus. And guess what?
They were poor and they had nothing.
You know what they did? They did this Acts 242 and sold
their possessions and goods and divided them all among them, as
anyone had me. This is not a command for today
that we sell everything we have and divide it among everybody.
This is an example of what they did.
My point is this, they were benevolent.
They took care of each other in First Corinthians 16-1 and two.
Now concerning the collection for the Saints, the needy Saints
in Jerusalem, as I've given order to the Church of
Delacious, so you must also do on the first day of the week.
Let each one of you lay something aside, storing up for
me, prosper that there be no collections when I come.
Another passage. Galatians 2 and 10.
They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very
thing which I also was eager to do.
All right. Christians today need to be the
same kind of people, the same kind of mindset.
First John chapter 3 verse 1718 Whoever has this world's goods
and sees his brothers in need and shuts up his heart from him,
how does the love of God abide in Him?
My little children, let us not love in Word or in tongue, but
in deed and in truth. Perfect example of giving is
obviously John 316 the greatest gift of all.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life. OK, I got to say, I must say
that I do believe that most Christians are good and most
Christians are are generous. I believe that they are.
We just need to be reminded sometimes.
But I'm going to make another very bold statement too.
I'm going to take it further. I believe that the world is also
filled with people that are good and people that are generous
too. And I've been the recipient of
such goodness and kindness in life, of people from every walk
of life. It frustrates me so much when
people are negative about other people all the time.
And it frustrates me when people say, oh, man, the world's on the
guy yesterday. Oh, the world's just rotten.
OK, there's some bad everywhere, but no, there's a lot of good in
the world too. There's a lot of wonderful, good
people in the world. And even if they're not
Christians, it just means they don't know Jesus yet.
Oh, but there's good in the world.
I'm going to tell you something. It frustrates me and then I I'll
say it and it annoys me when people are just negative all the
time. I just, I just hate it.
There are people that I know that are absolutely depressing
to talk to. I just avoid them.
Oh, I got to get out of here, man.
The eor Sky's falling and it makes terrible know when I said
that I quote my dad a lot. There's one thing I say that my
dad said all the time. Let's say it again.
But I'm going to tell you the circumstances behind why he said
it in just a minute. And may I just say this about
repeating what your parents say? I think my father, who passed
away 21 days after Tanner was born.
I think my father would be happy to know that I quote him.
I still was going to get back to this.
You know, it's easy to quote my father.
You know why? Because I remember what my
father said. Because my father believed that
you only retained 1/3 of what you hear.
So he told me everything three times.
Annoyed me to death. I think maybe I've become a
little annoying to my kids too, somewhat, and my family.
But it's annoying. But it's true.
But I remember everything he said and one of the things he
said and I quoted all the time, but now I'm going to give you
the circumstances behind the quote and then I'm going to tell
you what he said. Years ago, I was going into my
senior year in high school and I had a friend, his name was Billy
Cowgill. And Billy was a pretty negative
guy. And one day my dad picked up me
and Billy. And he said, you're going to go
with me, guys. We're going to spend all day.
We got this thing we got to do. We got to pick up this big
trailer. And everything went wrong that
day. I mean, everything, the tires
were flat, the thing collapsed, all kinds of things.
This guy wouldn't let us in the gate.
He was, he was rude. It was just one thing after
another all day. But we persevered and we got the
task done and we got it done. And we're in the truck and we're
feeling pretty good about what we accomplished.
And of all the things to talk about, you can think, man, let's
talk about how we we made it through, right?
No, not Billy. Billy starts in.
What a lousy day. What a lousy time.
Look at all the things that happened.
That guy was rude. That guy was a jerk, this and
that and all went on and on and on.
And I went and I know my dad really well and I went, it's
coming. And I just thought I was going
to be quiet. And I was kind of smiling,
thinking, I I know it's coming. Bob's going to say something.
My dad says nothing. He just stares like this driving
down the road, looking straight ahead.
He lets a little time go by and it's dead silent.
And he just said, boy, you're a real downer.
Nobody likes that guy. Let's not be negative about
people. There's a lot of wonderful
people in the world. Going back to our passage in
verse 3, Jesus says don't let your left hand know what your
right hand is doing. This is the same style as verse
2. He's using exaggeration because
your hand cannot think and your hand cannot know.
Hands only act as the mind directs them.
So the words of Jesus obviously are figurative.
What he's saying is when you give alms or you give gifts, do
it in private. And I got to tell you, do you
know that phrase? Don't let the left hand know
what the right hand is doing. It is a common phrase.
I knew a guy and he was a professed atheist, and that's a
whole other story. I don't believe that because you
know what, if your loved one was dying and you knew I was a
Christian or a preacher, I think you'd want me to pray for him.
And if you do, you're not an atheist.
You're not. That's convenient talk.
But this guy was a professed atheist.
And you know what I heard him say one time?
Don't let the left hand know what the right hand is doing.
Oh, you just quoted Jesus. That you don't believe in Jesus
is using exaggeration meaning this.
Don't let people know what you're doing for that purpose.
And you know, under certain circumstances, the receiver may
never even know who the donor is.
And I had that happen to me. I did when I had cancer.
People were so kind to me. And most people, I knew what
they did so I could thank them. But some of you may remember the
story. I was really sick and somebody
rang my doorbell and I opened the door and I could hear a car
going around the corner, but I couldn't see who it was.
I opened up an envelope that was sitting there at my feet with
$600 in it with a note that said here's just a little small
token. We hope that this will help you
a little bit and your family and your time of need.
I was diagnosed with cancer on at 2:30 PM on a hot July
afternoon on a Thursday. I had my last cancer treatment
at 9:00 AM, January 31st, 2011, and to this day I don't know who
that was, but I got to tell you, the Lord knows He saw it.
That's great gifts. So in summary, it's not wrong
for others to notice your giving, it just can't be our
motivation. And finally, he says this, that
your charitable deed may be in secret and your Father who is
seized in secret will reward you openly.
Jesus is making a contrast between the secret giving and
the open reward. Now, he's not saying that you're
going to be rewarded openly by people in the world patting you
on the back with praise. That's not what he's saying.
So what's the reward that Jesus has to be talking about?
He's got to be talking about an eternal reward of the only
reward that really matters. He's talking about heaven.
But folks, how can the reward be open?
The Judgement Day will be public and open.
When the child of God receives an eternal reward in heaven,
it's public and open. And I think that's what Jesus is
saying here. What, Gee, what God sees in
secret will reward you openly. Let me give you one final
passage to support what I'm saying.
Do you remember when Jesus gave the parable of the tares?
Remember that. Let it all grow together, and at
the end, what's going to happen? Then the righteous will shine
forth. Shine forth openly.
Wonderful stuff. Do your good deeds that others
may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in
heaven. And don't do it to be seen by
men because Jesus says you haven't fooled your reward.
And you know if you remove the veneer of falsity and hypocrisy,
people see through that to go and get the praise of many of
her. So do it for the right purpose
and the right motive and God will reward openly.
I'm finished. We never close a time when we
teach them the word of God without extending an invitation.
The steps to become a Christian are simple.
You got to hear the word of God in Romans 10/17.
So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
After you hear the word of God, you have a choice to make.
Hebrews 11 and six says I have to believe with all my heart,
but without faith it's impossible to please him, for he
that comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a
rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
What else is necessary? I got to repent of my sins.
Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands
all men everywhere to repent. All that means is this.
I've been going in One Direction.
I'm a change. I'm a change today.
Not going to be perfect, going to make mistakes, but I'm a
change now. I'm going to live for God.
I'm going to go toward God and stop the ways that I've been
living. That's what repentance means.
It just means to change You change your heart, which is your
mind. It changes your life, which
changes your relationship with the Lord.
Then what? Then you got to be willing to
make this confession that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Acts 837 Then Philip said, if you believe with all your heart,
you made. And he answered and said, I
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
All these steps are prerequisites to go to the point
of salvation. But the point of salvation is
baptism for the remission of sins.
Mark 1616. He who believes and is baptized
will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.
And this word belief means this having the force to obey, not
just simply believing that Jesus is the Son of God, having the
force to obey the Lord. That's what that word belief
means. Maybe you've taken those steps.
Maybe there are things in your life that aren't what they
should be or could be. Maybe you've been away from the
Lord. Bible talks about what to do.
James 5/19/20 Brethren, if any among you do wanders from the
truth and someone turns him back, let him know that he who
turned the Sinner from the error of his way will save his soul
from death and cover a multitude of sins.
How do you do that? I love this passage.
First, John 1:00 and 9:00. If we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. That means it never happened.
That means it's gone. Confession means confession with
repentance and godly sorrow. It's gone forever.
What else? James 516.
Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one
another that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of
a righteous man avails much there one.
If there's anyone here of either class, please come forward while
we stand and while we see.