Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
I mean, remember, I think it was Staples that had that easy
button. Do anybody remember that back in
the day? You know, and you press the
button, is it that was easy, right?
You know, we don't have an easy button around here, but pastors
are guilty of maybe having Amen buttons, meaning this.
There's certain things that we say that.
Well, we know you're probably going to say Amen if we say it.
You know, we say, hey, around here at Liberty Baptist Church,
we believe in the word of God. Amen.
Yeah. See, that's that was easy.
All right, See, you know, we could say those kind of things
and we know that, you know, we're just going to be able to
get you to say Amen. And you know, what I'm about to
say is not an Amen button, but I do believe it's important for it
to be said this morning. We believe that salvation is by
grace and not by works. Amen.
All right, so I'm not saying that to try to get you to say
Amen. I'm saying that because, well,
it's the truth from the Word of God, isn't it?
And there's probably not a week that goes by that you don't hear
me say something along the lines of the fact that salvation is by
grace through faith. Titus chapter 3, verse 5.
Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but
according to His mercy. He saved us by the washing of
regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.
By the way, that washing of regeneration is not the washing
of the baptism font, as we often see in other denominations with
little children and otherwise. No, no, it's the washing by the
precious blood of Jesus Christ upon a soul.
No, no, it's not by works. Isaiah 64, verse 6.
But if we were to have our work save us, here's the problem.
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness
is a filthy rag. That we do fade as a leaf and
our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
You know you're. Going to hear a lot if you've
been here for any length of time at Liberty Baptist Church about
the issues of Good works not saving us.
Good works didn't save someone in the Old Testament, good works
never saved in one of the New Testament, and good works never
saved anyone today. Nowhere in history are people
saved by good works. But here's maybe a little bit of
a point of contention about making such a big deal about
that every week. And again, it's right for us to
say that because it's Bible. But here's something we need to
be careful of. Good works are still good.
Good works are good. Don't get me wrong.
Good works won't save you. But good works are good.
In fact, it's not the existence of the good works, it's a
problem. It's the order in which they're
accomplished. That good works don't save a
soul, but a saved soul should be doing good works not to be
saved. But because we know Jesus Christ
as our Savior, this morning we're going to look at this
issue of growing in good works. We've been talking about growing
a lot the last few weeks, haven't we, That we're used to
be growing in our Christian life.
And as you are growing, listen, we should be growing and just
doing good works. And often times it's not
something that we think about as we go from place to place and
day-to-day trying to get all of our stuff done and our things
accomplished, that we should be doing good works towards those
who we interact with on a daily basis.
And today we're going to see Peter, who has been doing some
good works, is going to be called to help and aid someone
who also had done some good works over time.
And we're going to see how all of that makes a difference to
us. Here today, would you stand
please? For the reading of God's Word,
where in Acts Chapter 9, beginning in verse #32 We'll
begin in verse #32 and the Word of God says this.
And it came to pass as Peter passed throughout all quarters.
He came down also to the Saints which dwelt at Lita.
And there he found a certain man named Aeneas, which had been,
which had kept his bed rather eight years, and was sick of the
palsy. And Peter said unto him, Aeneas,
Jesus Christ maketh the whole, Arise and make thy bed.
And he arose immediately, and all that dwelt at Lita, and
Sarin saw him, and turned to the Lord.
Now there was Joppa, a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by
interpretation is called Dorcas. This woman was full of good
works and alms. Deeds which she did came to pass
in those days that she was sick and died, whom, When they had
washed, they laid her in an upper chamber, and for as much
as Litta was 9 to Joppa, And the disciples had heard that Peter
was there, they sent unto him two men, desiring him that he
would not delay to come to them. Then Peter arose and went with
them. When he was come, they brought
him into the upper chamber and all the.
Widows stood by him weeping, and showing the coats and garments
with Dorcas made while she was with them.
But Peter put them all forth and kneeled down and prayed, and
turning him to the body of Tabitha, or to the body, said
Tabitha Arise. And she opened her eyes.
And when she saw Peter she sat up, and he gave her his hand,
lifted her up, and when he called, the Saints and widows
presented her alive. And it was known throughout all
Joppa, and many believed in the Lord.
And it came to pass that he tarried many days in Joppa with
one Simon, a Tanner. You may be seated.
This morning we're going to see that growing is good and that
growing is for good. That growing is good, but
growing is also. For good.
You are not saved by your good works.
But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't do good works.
In fact, quite the opposite. Our good work should flow from
the fact that we are new creatures in Jesus Christ.
Heavenly Father, be with us this morning as we preach the Word of
God. Lord, help me to be able to say
what needs to be said, but I thank you for each person who is
here. I thank you for those who are
watching online. I think of some who even this
morning have texted me and contacted me that they're ill,
but they're watching. I pray that you would just let
them know our love upon them and that our desire to see them
again soon. May the gospel be proclaimed.
May I say what needs to be said, rightly dividing the word of
truth. And we ask it in Jesus name,
Amen. Well, we see beginning in verse
#32 that Peter is continuing to heal and those good works that
he is doing is causing many people to come to Christ.
And I do think it's interesting that Peter, who continues to
just follow what the Lord has called him to do day by day,
week by week, month by month, is now finding more opportunities
to minister and more opportunities to be a minister
of the Word of God. Listen, that's what growing and
being faithful is all about. You can't just do it all in one
day. You can't just do it all because
you decide today you want to be faithful and tomorrow you get
everything accomplished that God has for you in your life.
You just a little bit at a time, a little bit here and a little
bit there. And before you know it that God
has you where he needs you to be and you're faithful and little,
and then you're faithful and much.
And that's where Peter is right now.
I mean, could we imagine a few months ago when he had denied
Jesus Christ that now people would be healed and that people
would be lining up in the streets hoping there's the
shadow of Peter would cross them?
We couldn't even imagine. But by the way, that's what God
can do. That would have been a good
place to say, man, you know what?
That's what God can do to a life.
He could take someone that's not being faithful and he can take
someone that has had a hard road and he's gonna take someone
that's had some difficulty and maybe is uneducated and all
those things that Peter was. But just when he decided to be
faithful, that the Holy Spirit working within him could do far
more than he ever could have imagined.
And look at Peter now and he sees this man named Aeneas and
he says to him, get up and make your bed.
That seems kind of rude to me. He says, get up, make your bed.
You know, it sounds like kind of what my wife tells me, you know,
get up and make your bed, you know, And so here it is.
He says get up and make your bed.
And there it is. He gets up and he makes his bed.
And it says in verse #35 that all that dwelt and Lita and
Saren saw him and turned to the Lord.
And we find that those good works did what?
It just magnified the name of Jesus Christ, and more people
came to Jesus. This wasn't about Peter
magnifying himself. This is when Peter doing
something good for someone else because he wanted to be a big
shot, or he wanted to have a name, or he wanted to be the
chiefest of the apostles. No, no, he wanted the name of
Jesus Christ to be glorified. And that's what happened.
People got saved right and left because they heard of what had
happened here. But it just so happens that
after this miracle took place that Peter gets word that in a
very close proximity to where he is, there in Lita, that there is
in Joppa a man, or rather a woman who has passed away.
Her name is Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas.
And so I will say this, if your name is Dorcas, you'd probably
rather be called Tabitha, all things considered.
Amen. And so we're gonna stick with
Tabitha here for the rest of the morning because it's just, well,
it's obvious why that is the case.
But there in Joppa, very close to where Litta is, it's about a
space of about 14 miles, give or take, in the seaside town.
It was a land of the Philistines.
In fact, today you can find it on the map.
If you've ever heard of Jaffa before.
Jaffa, that is the biblical town of Joppa.
It's a seaside town that was part of the land of the
Philistines. But after the dispersion that
later on during the Roman occupation of Israel, that it
became part of the land of Israel and they were Israelites
that live there in this place called Joppa.
And so it says that there was this woman named Tabatha, named
Dorcas, and she was a pillar of the church.
And it says two things that she did.
She was full of rather good works and alms deeds, good works
in alms. Now, good works is pretty easy
for us to understand, isn't it? Good works is essentially any
virtuous action that could benefit others and honor God.
It has the connotation of toil, meaning that it was something
that cost her personally in finances and physicality.
And we know that's the case because there were some women
that said she made us coats. She made us these little coats
that we could work wear. And of course, we understand in
our day and time that if you need a coat, you go to
Burlington Coat Factory, you go to Savers or you go to Amazon or
wherever it is and you get yourself a coat.
It wasn't that way back then. And of course many didn't have
the finances to be able to have someone make them a coat or to
buy one at market. And so here is a woman that her
good work is to be able to help those who are in need.
And beyond that it says almsdeeds.
Now, good works and almsdeeds do go hand in hand, but there is a
little bit of a difference. Remember that those women who
received the coats were widows, the Bible says.
And almsdeeds are often works that are done for the poor and
the widows and the afflicted. Good works and alms deeds go
together. And alms deed is always a good
work. But a good work isn't always an
alms deed. Does that make sense?
These alms deeds are for the poor and for the widowed and for
the afflicted or the orphan. The Bible talks much about
taking care of those who are in those situations in the New
Testament as well as in the Old Testament.
So here is a woman who had done many good works.
She had done many alms deeds. But there's a problem.
She's dead. You know, so often times you
hear people say, well, why do bad things happen to good
people? And certainly Tabitha would have
been one of those good people. You know, we don't always know
the answer to why God does what he does.
I wish I could tell you today why you?
Go through the difficulty that you go through in your life.
And I wish I could explain to myself in the quietness of my
heart why some of the difficulties I've gone through,
our family has gone through, why we go through those.
And I'm not arrogant enough to try to explain away why you go
through the difficulties of life.
But I will say that I will say this, that even through the
difficulties of life, God is good.
It's easy for us to say that God is good when things are good.
In fact, you know, things are going well.
You just got a promotion at work.
You know, you got plenty of money.
Your health is good. You say, hey, how are things
going? God's good.
Listen, if you don't get a promotion, maybe you got laid
off. If you don't have money in the
bank, or maybe your health isn't.
Listen, someone asked you how you're doing.
The answer is still, God is good because it's the same God of the
good times, which is the same God of the bad times.
And so here's a woman who seemingly didn't deserve to have
what happened to her. You say, pastor, that's not
right to say that. No, I know that in God's master
plan, what happened should have happened, but seemingly to the
outside, if anyone should have died, it shouldn't have been
Dorcas. It should have been someone else
because this is a woman that was full of good works in Olmsted's.
So what do we see through this? Well, there's a few things that
we see here I find interesting. The first is who they requested.
Well, they realized when she died, they needed to get Peter.
Peter wasn't that far away. He was in Lita, as I mentioned,
about 14 miles away, away from where they were.
And they said, you know what, We know Peter has done good works.
We know Peter's. Doing good works.
And so we need to get Peter to help us, to help this woman
who's been doing good works. You know, it's amazing to me
that. People typically know who to
call. When they need help.
Isn't that true? You know, back in the day before
the Internet. And yes, I remember what life
was like before the Internet. Believe it or not, if you needed
some guidance about who to call, you would get out the Yellow
Pages. I mean, you remember the Yellow
Pages? Wow.
All right. Wow.
You're all old. OK.
Yeah, I remember the Yellow Pages too, Right?
You would look it up to be able to see, oh, we need a plumber.
Well, here it is. We need an electrician.
Here it is. We need a moving company.
Here it is. We're looking for a church.
Here it is. And they would push people to
get the large advertisements, the Yellow Pages, because if you
had a large advertisement, you'd probably get a lot of business.
If you had one of those little advertisements, nobody's going
to call you because that's what the Yellow Pages were for.
And if you couldn't use the Yellow Pages, you could dial 411
and they would say, what do you need?
And you'd say a name or you say a number.
Listen, I was so lonely when I started Bible.
Knowledge sometimes I'd go to the pay phone and just dial 411
just to find someone to talk to. All right.
And so I was like, Hey, he's like, what number do you need?
He's like, Hey, where do you live?
But, and you know, that's anyway, I'll move on from that.
But we know who to get a hold of, don't we?
And it's amazing to me that when there are people that go through
difficulties, they knew who to get a hold of.
Listen, when you're going through difficulties, maybe
there's someone in the church that, you know, I need to talk
to them. I need to see if they can pray
with me. Let me ask you this, have you
lived your life in such a way that you're a person that
someone would call? Have you lived your life in such
a way that people know the good deeds you've done?
Who'd say this? Boy, I'm struggling right now.
I think I'm going to call so and so.
Well, I don't know which way to turn.
And I know the Lord will give me the answer, but He's also given
us brothers and sisters in Christ to be able to talk to as
well. I think I would talk to would
someone call you like they called Peter?
Well, they called Peter because he was a man who had done good
works. Now we'll tell you this, Good
works give opportunity for you to do good work for God.
I'll say that again. Good works give you opportunity
to do good work for God, just as you are being faithful and you
do good for others. God seeing your faithfulness
will give you the opportunity to be a blessing to other people,
even in ways you hadn't imagined, even in ways you
hadn't think would be possible, that God will do that.
So it's interesting who they requested, but also what they
requested. It wasn't just who they
requested, but why they requested or whether what they
requested. Have you thought about this?
Why do they want Peter? Why do they call him?
She was, well, dead. Look again in.
Verse #38 verse #37 Rather start there.
It says. It came to pass in those days
that she was sick and died, whom, when they had washed, they
laid her in an upper chamber, and for as much as little was
night of Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter
was there. They sent unto him two men,
desiring that he would not delay to come to them.
They said this, We need Peter and we need him right now.
Now. Why would they have had such
great urgency to call Peter to the bedside of a woman who is
dead? I think the answer is obvious,
and this is this. They believe that Peter could
bring her back to life. This is beyond anything Peter
has done before. This is beyond anything that
Peter has seen accomplished before.
Certainly he's seen Jesus Christ do such a thing.
But I want to focus on this in just a moment.
There weren't as many people that were resurrected perhaps
maybe as we think in the word of God.
There was course was Jesus Christ and we know Jesus Christ
needed no power from anyone else to be resurrected because Jesus
Christ was resurrected by well his own power because he was
God. If he needed someone else's help
to be resurrected, he wouldn't have been God.
And so we know he resurrected. But if he through the Bible,
there was the widow of Zarephath son, there was the Shunamite
son, there was the man who was tossed into a tomb and remember
his body hit the the bones of Elijah and then all of a sudden
he just woke up like hey, I'm awake.
Could you imagine that was Elijah rather the widow of name
son in Luke Chapter 7, Jarius's daughter in Mark 5, Lazarus and
John 11 one of my favorites when Jesus said open the tomb and
they said but Lord we can't he stinketh.
No we don't love the King James stinketh but of course Lazarus
came forth. We know there are those who were
raised after Jesus death in Matthew chapter 27.
They said that there were some that that the graves open and
they walk the earth the right after Jesus was.
Jesus died on the cross. Well, I believe Paul
resurrected. He was alive again after being
stoned. In Acts chapter 14 you'll find
out that he was left for dead. I believe he was dead but then
was alive again. Eunuchus.
He fell out of the window because Paul kept preaching.
You think I preached a long time?
This guy preached so long. Paul did that.
A kid fell out of a window, hit the ground and died.
You're lucky we're on a first floor building here, all right,
And came back to life. But you know what's interesting?
That every single one of those times that I just mentioned,
really in none of those did someone request that the person
be resurrected. You could maybe make an argument
for the widow of Zarapath son and the Shunamite son.
Those women got Elijah and Elijah in separate situations,
but they didn't necessarily ask that what happened would take
place. You could look at a Lazarus, but
even then Mary and Martha said, well, we know you could have
made him better if you would come when he was alive, but now
that he's dead, it's too late. That's what they said.
It's too late. Now we know we'll see him again
in the resurrection. But what's so interesting about
this is these folks got Peter and by faith they believe if we
get Peter and quickly. Bring him here.
There's a chance Tabitha will be alive again.
We see here that there was a bold request that these
believers made to Peter. Why?
Because they've seen the works he'd done in the past.
They'd seen the good works he had done, and they were
compelled by the good works that she did.
You know, they saw what Peter had done and they knew what
Tabitha had done. And they said, Lord, can you do
something even greater that we could possibly imagine?
And so it's interesting who they requested and what they
requested, but. But why did they request it?
Why did they make this request? I don't know that I can tell you
for certain, but we can see what the Bible says here.
It says in verse 39 that Peter arose and went with them, and
when he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber.
All the widows stood by him, weeping and showing the coats
and the garments which Dorcas had made while she was with him.
It's obvious that this woman had had a great impact on the
church, that she wasn't just a Pew sitter, she wasn't just
someone who came in and came out.
This was a woman, woman who there in her church says I'm
going to make an impact the best that I can.
And for her it was something as simple as this.
I'm going to make garments, I'm going to make coats, and I'm
going to help some people who have needs.
Often times we think that doing good works is getting up in
front of a pulpit and preaching A sermon.
We think a good work is standing up and singing a song or playing
an instrument or working in a junior church or, or doing
something that's official or doing something that's big or
doing something that puts you on a list in the glass room.
So you can go in the glass room and look where you are in the
list and then, you know, forget you were on the list of the
glass room and then, you know, any of those things.
You know, that's what happens sometimes, isn't it?
But those are the people who are really doing stuff, right?
I mean, those are the people who are really working those people
on the list, those people in the ministries.
I don't know that Tabitha's on a list.
I don't know that she was part of the Ministry of Sewing.
For the Ministry of Garment Making, I think she saw some
people had a need and did some good works.
We're going to look at this tonight as we go back to Acts
Chapter 6 and we look at some men who were called to be
deacons. They were table servers.
Just means this. They're just going to serve and
that's what they were going to do.
They were going to serve. Does have to be official, does
have to be in a certain capacity, but everyone can do
good for someone else. We get so caught up in reminding
you that good works can't save you.
And we have to remind you that good works can't save you.
But we also need to remind you that good works are good once
you are saved. In fact, it's part of growing it
that we look around and see who we can be a help to.
We look around and see who we can be a blessing to.
We look around and find where the needs are, not just inside
the church building, but outside the church building as well.
And here are these people. They say Tabitha was such a
blessing to us. The widows are crying.
They're saying look. At what she did.
The good works that she exerted herself physically and
financially, the alms deeds that she helped those who had no one
else to help them. We want you to bring her back to
life. It was a unique request for a
unique woman. It was a woman who did much, but
yet they believed that God could bring her back to life.
You know, as we look at the other folks who were raised from
the dead that I mentioned, some of them just a few moments ago,
we really don't know a lot of information about them, do we?
But we know a lot about Tabitha. We have this information about
her. Now, why is that?
And I think maybe it's the reason why is because the power
of good deeds, the power of good works is one of the greatest and
sometimes most ignored powers that we have as believers
because we feel like we have to do something official to be
really serving God. And part of just being a
Christian is I want to find reasons to do good to everyone
around me. That doesn't mean just handing
everybody money everywhere you go.
I mean, I could do that wouldn't last very long Hand everybody
money everywhere I go and like, what's 10:00 and I'm out of
money. All right, that's a.
That's not going to last very long.
I've heard churches before that have have gone to a gas station
and from the times of let's say 7:00 in the morning, 8:00 in the
morning and they do it unannounced, but they say
everybody that comes through the the church is going to pay for
your gas and give you a credit or not a credit card.
Yikes. Give you a a a a tract to be
able to tell you about the Lord. Listen, if a church can do that,
that's great, but that's not what necessarily needs to
happen. Good works aren't measured by
the bigness that a word or smallness of them.
Good works are measured by whether you're doing good or
not. A lot of times we feel like
we're not really doing a whole lot.
Unless our good works are big and they're recognized and
people need to know. Well, the Bible says the right
hand ought not to know what the left hand is doing.
That's talking about giving. But I would say it also goes
with this as well. Not just giving of money, but
also giving of ourselves. But maybe it's best the.
People in the church don't always know everything that we
do, but we do it because it's right.
Can I tell you one of the greatest privileges that I have
as a pastor is I get to know when someone in the church
blesses someone else. A lot of secrets I've had to
keep over the years when someone helps someone else in a way that
is to me extravagant but is a blessing.
And it constantly blesses me that there are people who look
out for the needs of others within the church body.
By the way, that's not always money.
That's not always someone handing someone $100 bill and
saying this is what you need. But by the way, I mean that that
would probably help a lot of us about saying that's bad.
But boy, helps a lot more than that, isn't it?
Good deeds are a lot more than that.
Good deeds is lady sitting down with another lady that's
struggling and maybe hugging her and crying with her, praying
with her. Say, when would I do that?
You could do that before church, you can do that after church,
you can do that at the invitation, You could do that
during the sermon, as long as you don't, you know, cry too
loud. But that 'd be a blessing.
You know, guys, you can help one another by doing good works, by
taking a guy off to the side and just tell him, hey, I know
you're new at this. Can I just share some things
that God's done in my life over the years?
He said, oh, I couldn't do that. Why?
I'd sound so arrogant. I'd sound so prideful.
Well, not if you say it in an arrogant and prideful way, but
if God commands the elder to teach the younger, then there
has to be some of those conversations that take place.
Do you realize some of the greatest teachers of biblical
truth are those who are sitting in the pews and not the pastor?
I, I, I'm glad to be able to preach biblical truth that
that's the calling that God's placed upon my life.
But I would also say this, that if it's just me giving it, if
it's just me preaching it, then it's not enough.
It has to be a church who is living out as the hands and feet
of Jesus Christ that each and every one of us for each other
and for a lost and dying world. Listen, revival took place in
the church when good deeds were done and people got saved
outside of the church when good deeds were done.
Listen tracks are good. They're good.
Sharing the gospel is good. It's good.
But listen, you have to show Jesus Christ, not just tell
about Jesus Christ. If you live like the devil and
hand someone a track, listen. You've done more harm than good.
In fact, leave it in your pocket so that someone else later can
follow up and truly plant and water.
So God give the increase to the pastor.
You you're trying to say we shouldn't give a track.
No, I'm saying this is that good works help us to be able to have
someone listen to us who maybe wouldn't listen to us before to
be able to be a blessing to someone.
It's this all goes back. I don't have time to turn there.
I wish I had time to turn there. James chapter 2.
You know what? We have time to go there.
James chapter 2. Ah, forget it.
All right. James chapter 2 is a
foundational text in the word of God.
And if you've read it for the first time, you probably get
nervous because it sounds like James is saying you got to work
to be saved. But one of the principles of
Bible study is this is that the Bible harmonizes with itself,
that the Bible may be 66 individual books, but it's one
book with one message. And so if there's a place that
seems a little bit confusing, but it is seemingly in
contradiction to all of the other known scriptures in the
Bible, we say this, well, this isn't in contradiction.
We just have to see how it harmonizes with the rest of the
Bible. What I'm saying is this, if
James chapter 2 seems to say we're saved by works, but we
know the rest of the Bible teaches that we're not saved by
works, then do we need to adjust our theology or do we need to
say this? I just need to understand what
this is saying because the. Bible does not contradict
itself. So if you would go to verse #14
what does it profit, my brethren?
Though a man say he have faith and hath not works, can faith
save him? Now you say, Oh no, this isn't
good. All right, just just hold on,
OK? Don't get nervous on me.
If a brother or sister be naked or destitute of daily food, and
one of you say unto them, depart in peace, Be warmed and filled.
Notwithstanding you give them not those things which are
needful to the body, what doth it profit?
Listen, he gives an example of dead faith.
First of all, he says this. If you see someone who is
hungry, if you see someone who needs to be warmed, and you say
to them, Hey, be warmed and filled, and you walk.
Away. You've done Nothing reminds me
the story of the Baptist Church that had missionaries over.
And of course, this is timely with us having missionaries on
Wednesday night. And you were very generous to
the missionaries. We had a Wednesday night and I'm
so thankful for that. But the missionaries came by,
and of course, missionaries often travel from church to
church and need support and finances.
To be able just to get around where they need to go.
And so the missionaries are maybe expecting to have a a
little bit of a love offering or something to help them along the
way. And the pastor walked them out
to their car. The pastor shook the
missionaries hands and said this.
God bless you. And walked away.
And so the missionary started driving down the road and they
realized they needed gas. They have a lot of money.
So the husband got out and he opened the gas tank and he
cupped his hands and he put it right up into the mouth of the
gas tank. And he said.
God bless you. And he told his wife.
Nope, that didn't fill the tank. That's what it's saying here,
that that your faith ought not to just make you give religious
platitudes about helping. You ought to actually help
somebody. Hey, hope that works out for
you. Well, can you help it work out
for them? Then do what you can.
Now, we can't always do that, but if we can, and within your
power, we'll see here, then do it.
Verse 17. For Even so, faith, if it hath
not works, is dead, being alone. Yeah.
A man may say, thou hast faith and I have works.
Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my
faith by my works. Thou believes there's one God
thou doest. Well, the devils also believe,
believe in tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man,
what that faith without works is dead?
Now again you say, pastor, it's saying to have faith you have to
have works. No, no, that's not what it's
saying. It's saying that living faith
produces works just like a living apple tree produces
apples and a living Grapevine produces grapes.
That if you are alive in Christ, if you've been born again, then
good works on a spring from within your soul to be able to
help other people. No, those good works don't save
you. Nowhere in the Bible doesn't say
that. But if you're saying there ought
to be good works that flow from you, and that's what it says.
It mentions Abraham, the example of living faith, a patriarch.
He was a man who was willing to sacrifice his son, but no, that
God was just trying to to be able to help him to understand
his own faith. And Abraham believed, Lord, if I
slay my son, I believe you'll resurrect him.
Hebrews chapter 12 teaches that that he had faith that if he was
to slay the child of promise that he would be alive because
God made a promise. You know what that's called
faith. There's a patriarch.
But he also gives the example of a prostitute, Rahab.
She hold a She put a cord, a red cord, a scarlet thread, by the
way, a picture of the blood of Jesus Christ to come hung that
scarlet thread outside of the wall of Jericho where she lived.
And because she did, everyone inside lived, by the way, and
this is what it's teaching. Did she live because the thread
saved her? No, the thread was a
representative of what had happened inside of her life,
just as good works is a representative of what happens
inside of you. Yes, good works have a way of
making a larger difference than we realize.
You can't measure what good works will do.
You say, well, it's small, it's not much.
Don't measure the size of it, just measure it by whether it's
good or not and leave it in the master's hands.
Some of the strongest memories I have in my life are people that
help me in times when I needed it or we as a family needed it
the most. When we graduated Bible college,
we decided that we were going to drive straight from Oklahoma
City to Tampa, 22 years old. We had Bethany, Diane was
pregnant with Kaylee, and we had a cat even back then.
And that cat was on a leash. And we would take it.
The rest stops, we would take the cat out.
And we were a mess even back then, you know, And that's just
the way it was. And I remember our boss in the
cafeteria, he still works there. He's been Beethova's boss the
last couple years and Terry Miller said don't, don't travel
all the way home. It's not safe.
I pressed an envelope in my hands was enough for us to get a
hotel, which was a blessing because I got very, very sick
and had to go to the emergency room on the way home.
Never would have made it. Never would have made it.
I think of back in Florida when we didn't have a reliable car
and a family in the church said retired couple said come
outside, I want to show you something.
And they showed us a Ford Windstar van.
And my love hate relationship with Ford started right then and
there. And yeah, we should have the
invitation right now. You know, they said do you like
this fan said, we sure do. We needed a van that what's
yours. Sergeant Hitchcock, he worked
for the Judge Advocate General when he was in the military.
He retired and he had after been out of the Judge Advocate
General, a retired, went to private practice and retired
from that and he said I don't, I don't need this work van
anymore. The most beautiful work van I've
ever seen. It was just given to us, signed
it over to us. When my mom was sick with cancer
and we knew she was going to pass.
We had to go back and forth. The very first year the church
opened, where were we going to get the money for that church
was so young for the Jim's here. He remembers all of that.
I remember one time we knew we had to go down.
It was going to be serious. We knew what it was going to be.
We didn't have the money. And all of a sudden, the pastor
came into town named Aaron Denson, that we've heard him
preach here before. And he decided to go meet us.
And we met at a Dunkin' Donuts because, you know, we live in
New England. That's what you do, right?
And we had a good fellowship with him.
He was in town and they were taking a road trip.
And on the way out, he handed me an envelope and he said, I don't
know if you need this or not, but just the Lord impressed on
my heart and you need this. It's exactly the gas money that
we needed to get to Florida and back.
Now our good works always money. I want to be careful about this.
They're not. I think of my friend Jeff Abels,
who's going to be here in a couple weeks.
I don't know that I had a better friend than Jeff Abels when I
had my surgery. They was calling me before and
after, just checking on me, making sure I was OK, send a
little gifts here and there, Just send a text of
encouragement. I needed that because I knew how
bad I was going to be. I think of my friend David
Corley, my best friend who over and over just finds little ways
to be a blessing to me. Now those are not all related to
money, just good works. God created you to grow into
good works. You know, James, chapter 2 is
not about you getting working to get saved.
It's about getting saved so you can get to work and doing good.
What can you do? Well, it could be mad at random
acts of kindness. You might be, have a, you might
have a $20 bill in your pocket at all times, just there's
someone at need at church or you're visiting or you see a
need that you can help. And, and by the way, I know we
had to be careful with panhandling and stuff like that
today because oftentimes if you hand someone money, you could be
feeding an addiction and you want to be careful about that.
But so, so often we get so caught up in that, that we go so
far the other direction that we don't help somebody who the Lord
lays on our heart. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit
when it comes to those things. It could be writing a note of
encouragement, they could be writing.
It could be taking the garbage bins back for your neighbor.
They could be over tipping. The server at the restaurant had
a conversation with them. You found out a little bit about
their needs, and you felt that maybe 15 or 20% wasn't enough.
And you tipped far beyond that. Could be cooking a meal.
It could be mowing an elderly family member's grass or raking
their leaves this time of year. It could be offering to watch a
a friend's children for an hour so they can run an errand or
catch a break. What is it?
It? It could be anything.
It doesn't have to be money. But I will say this, if you're
Christian, we should be the ones that are doing the good works.
Why? Well, I'll show you why we'll be
done. Matthew, chapter 25.
Turn there quickly. Matthew, Chapter 25.
The verse #35 Matthew 2535, it says this.
And if your Bible is like mine, it's got red letters in it.
So that means Jesus is speaking right now.
For I was hungered, and you gave me meat, I was thirsty, You gave
me drink. I was a stranger, and you took
me in naked. And he clothed me.
I was sick and he visited me. I was in prison.
And he came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer
him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee, and hungered and fed thee,
or thirsty, and gave thee drink, When saw we thee a stranger, and
took thee in, or naked and clothed thee?
Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto
you, In as much as you've done it unto the one of the least of
these, my brethren, you've done it unto me.
When you do good, even to the least, you're not really serving
them, you're serving Jesus. You're not serving them, you're
serving Jesus. Why is that so important?
Well, Acts 1038 Paul said this or Peter said this rather how
God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with
power listen it and went about doing good.
Jesus Christ who went about doing good.
Now we also know he went to seeking to save that which was
lost, didn't he? But he did good.
He could have saved people without healing him physically,
but he did good. He could have saved people or or
brought this the life giving message to them without doing
any of the number of things that he did like feeding the 5000 but
why? Why did he do it?
He did good. It's who he was, and by the way,
it's who he is. So if he went about to be good,
then what do we need to do? Well, we better be busy about
our master's business. He did good so you could be
saved, and he saved you so you could do good.
He did good so you could be saved.
And he saved. You so you could do good this
week as we continue to grow, find excuses to do good for
people around you say, well, I don't like them very much.
Well, you're you're you're you're not doing it for them.
I think we just read Matthew 25. You're doing it for Jesus.
So do it unto Him, the author and finisher of our faith.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.