Even in the book of Exodus chapter 35, we see the Israelites all generously giving the materials and time to build the tabernacle.If any of those people decided to withhold the materials they owned or the skills they had, the tabernacle wouldn’t have come together. The reason is that these things (the truths of the gospel and the good deeds of believers) are good and profitable for men, believers and unbelievers alike. Paul does not mention faith in 3:4-7, because his emphasis is on what God graciously did for us. Salvation is a radical intervention that required the infinite, holy God to send His own Son to be the substitute for sinners. The Son provided His gracious merit to secure our salvation. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture Quotations are from the New American Standard Bible, Updated Edition © The Lockman Foundation, Related Topics: Soteriology (Salvation), Spiritual Life, Grace, Steve served as the pastor of Flagstaff Christian Fellowship from May, 1992 through his retirement in December, 2018. 2:21-3:14): Romans 4:4-5: “Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. Hebrew 9:27 makes this point: “… it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.” That verse refutes reincarnation. 5:22-23) manifested in our daily lives. In other words, remembering God’s abundant grace in saving us is the key for motivation to serve Him. 1:26-31; Gal. He then comes back (3:8) to exhort Titus to speak confidently about these things (the truths of the gospel of God’s grace), “so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds.” These good deeds are good and profitable for men, in that they may be the avenue to lead them to experience God’s saving grace. But that doesn’t make it any easier. I haven’t validated those numbers here, but I do know that there are many who attend here who never get involved in ministry. Some argue that the wicked will be annihilated after a time of punishment. Tellingstories about the good works you or someone else have done can be avery effective way to inspire others and bring glory to God; however,it can also be a very effective way of bringing glory to yourself, toanother person, to an organization, or even to a specific church. English Standard Version So also good works are conspicuous, and even those that are not cannot remain hidden. Every Christian has received the Holy Spirit: Paul says (Rom. Genuine salvation inevitably results in a life of good works.. Those who argue that there is no necessary connection... 3. These things are good and profitable for men ” (Titus 3:8). … It may be that you have trusted Christ as Savior, but you’ve drifted into complacency or carelessness in your relationship with Him. The main evidence will be the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” Our text says that we not only have the Spirit in a small portion, but that God has poured out the Spirit on us richly through Jesus Christ. Most Relevant Verses. Rather, he is dealing with the question, what is true saving faith? We were as active in being born again as we were in being born the first time. For them, going to church once in a while is a nice thing to do. Matthew 5:16 ESV / 51 helpful votes. ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; Revelation 2:19 Matthew 12:22–30. To do that, we must remember that we used to be just as unbelievers around us are (3:3). This means that 80 percent of the people attend church without getting involved in any form of service. The main evidence of the Spirit’s fullness in our lives will not be that we babble in tongues or keel over backwards. Finally. We are heirs, written in the will of God’s Son. Sacrifices Right Sacrifices Do Good! But, I know that there are many that are just cultural Christians. The kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared when Jesus Christ, the eternal God, took on human flesh and entered this world to die as the substitute for our sins. 25:31-46; John 5:28-29; 1 Cor. They would claim to believe in Christ as Savior, but He is not really their Lord. They keep Him compartmentalized in a drawer of their lives and pull Him out whenever they feel the need. You will never understand or appreciate God’s amazing grace until you see that you were a wretched, lost sinner before He intervened in your life. One of the major ways we accomplish this is by doing our good deeds quietly and not as a show to be seen by others. The idea is that believers give careful thought so that they may excel or take the lead in doing good works. For it is God who works in you, both to will and to … Sharing Blessing Others Sacrifice Thankfulness To Others Spreading The Gospel help others Staying Positive helping Helping Those In Need Grace, In Human Relationships Poverty, Attitudes Towards. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”, Clearly, we are saved so that as a result we will walk in the good works that God prepared beforehand for us to do. It is accomplished through the washing of regeneration, renewing by the Holy Spirit, and being justified by God’s grace. Take Home: At the end of the lesson there is a sheet (Daily Prayers to use our words wisely) to help students to pray. Is there some sin in my heart that blocks His fullness? When God saves us, He raises us from spiritual death to life (Eph. It makes them feel good. Lesson 15: Salvation and Good Works (Ephesians 2:10) 1. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so … Paul’s answer is that we must engage in good deeds in our society. Is my focus too much on the things of this world? Have a coffee filter and a flashlight ready to show the children and turn it on when you read this passage. Choose one child to come up and pick a ping pong ball. Commentators debate whether this refers to the same act as the washing of regeneration, or to something separate. It is a picture of how when we were born spiritually, God washed off the filth of our sins. Log in, Resolutions from the Last Will and Testament, Top 5 Articles on Plain Bible Teaching in 2020, Signs of the End Times, Moral Relativism, and Limits on Abortion (02.04.21), Money and Happiness, Trust of Pastors, and Profanity (01.28.21), The First “Abortion-Free” State, the Most Dangerous Countries for Christians, and the Presidential Inauguration (01.21.21), Twitter Bans, Digital Communication, and Herod’s Dance Floor (01.14.21), Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. By ourselves, it is hard to make good decisions, but with Jesus in our lives we are good. It reads (implying a negative answer), “Can faith save him?” For some reason, the translators omitted the Greek definite article before “faith.” It should read, “Can thefaith save him?” in Greek grammar, this is called the “article of previous reference.” It should … God’s grace in saving you was not a matter of His taking a basically good person and giving you a little moral guidance or advice. Our text (and every other Scripture that touches on this topic) shows clearly that there are two and only two destinations after death: eternal life or eternal wrath. Maybe you’re thinking, “But I wasn’t like that! Wisdom Concerning The Secret And Revealed Things, The Net Pastor's Journal, Eng Ed, Issue 38 Winter 2021. And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds. In the New Testament, baptism happens after the new birth, as a picture and testimony of what God did in saving us: He washed us from all our sins. 11 Psalms 107:8–10, 14. From 1977-1992 he was the pastor of Lake Gregory Community Church in Crestline, California. We each need to examine our own hearts. Apart from His sovereign intervention, none of us would have believed, because we were dead in our sins. Bible verses about good deeds to go to Heaven. But in Matthew 25:46, Jesus c… The Father took the loving initiative in our salvation. While God creates the new nature by the power of His Spirit, we must walk in the Spirit and be transformed through God’s Word in order to experience this ongoing renewal. Next read Matthew 5:14-16. The fact that He loved sinful rebels such as we were shows the magnitude of His great love. Write the word self-control on the ping pong ball with the sharpie marker. It also shows us that sound doctrine is not for useless speculation, but for practical application. Mark 3:1–6 How can we gain a platform to tell this world about God’s great love as seen at the cross of Jesus Christ? There could be multiple causes. Every pastor can tell you about the 80/20 rule in the local church. So you must ask yourself honestly, “Is Jesus Christ my Lord?” If He is not, you also need to ask, “Is He truly my Savior?” Have I trusted in His blood to deliver me from the wrath of God? Martyn Lloyd-Jones brings this out in his exposition of Ephesians 2:14-16, which states that Christ is our peace, who reconciled us to God through His death. Honor is similar to glory, and focuses on the approval that God will give us in contrast with the scorn that the world gives us now and the eternal disgrace that God will pour out on the wicked (1 Pet. Is it medically safe to engage in ten days of total fasting monthly taking only water. Jehosheba risked her life to save prince Joash and his nurse. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.”, Romans 9:11-12, “for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, ‘The older will serve the younger.’”, 2 Timothy 1:9: God, “who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.”, Ephesians 2:8-10: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. It is the foundation for everything that he says. Luke 6:27-31 Bible Truth:Treat others how you want to be treated. In Ephesians 4:23 and Colossians 3:10, Paul refers to putting on the new man, who is being renewed according to the image of the One who created him. Paul’s overall concern in these verses is the church’s witness to a pagan world. Why must sound doctrine (3:4-7) be the foundation for good deeds (3:8)? Is Jesus my only hope of heaven? It is the eternal peace of “deliverance from sin and its conflicts” (James Boice, Romans [Baker], 1:227). In Titus 3:5, Paul may have been thinking of Ezekiel 16:4, where God speaks metaphorically of Israel’s birth as a nation: “As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths.” He goes on to say that no one took pity on her, but she was thrown in a field and left to die. When Jesus commands us to love our enemies and do good (Luke 6:35), He adds as the reason that the Most High “Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.” In the next verse, He commands, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” So the foundation for our showing love, kindness, and mercy to others is that we know the love, kindness, and mercy of the Father. The Priest and Levite used excuses to avoid helping the man. In Romans 12:2, this renewal of the mind is the ongoing process that takes place after we present our bodies to God as living sacrifices. Why is that? 16:6), God passed by and saw her squirming in her blood and said to her, “Live!” Later (16:9) He tells how he bathed her with water and washed off her blood. Faith and Deeds 14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? But, we all have the same number of hours in a week, so it really boils down to priorities. Salvation is totally of the Lord. Our good deeds encourage and build up the saints. We personally experienced His mercy—His compassion on our pitiable condition—when He saved us. As Paul says here, justification comes to us by God’s grace, and thus it is in no way merited by our faith. 2:5). That would make us, not God, the cause of our salvation. Jesus does not save you so that you can relegate Him to a drawer of your life, to pull out and use whenever it’s convenient. One of the major themes of the Bible is to find out what God says and obey Him. As Romans 3:10-12 describes the human race, “There is none righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.” You were not the first exception to those verses! GO AND DO LIKEWISE On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. To be justified is for God to declare the sinner righteous because He imputes the righteousness of Jesus Christ to us at the instant we believe (see Romans 3 & 4). Galatians 6:9 - And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we … Serving Him is just not a priority. “God wants us to have a life full of virtue, knowledge, and self-control, but first we must put our faith in Him. If not, first make sure that you’re trusting in Christ as Savior and Lord. Have the child drop the ping pong ball into the glass jar. Eighty percent of the work gets done by 20 percent of the people. Why are the “good deeds” of those in the cults worthless? If not, why not? He’s telling us, “It doesn’t matter what someone else does to you. The word “but” that begins verse 4 takes us back to verse 3, which we studied last week: “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.” That verse described Paul before his conversion (“we”) and it describes every person before conversion. With food salt is good and with Jesus we are good. Jesus gives this instruction in the midst of his teaching to love our enemies. Those who teach that you may be a Christian without having the Holy Spirit are mistaken. Here are just a few (see, also, 1 Cor. The more usual word is, agape, which occurs in the familiar John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” The reason that God loved this evil world and sent His Son was not that the world was so loveable! It is all from God, and not at all from us. But, having said that, we all need to ask ourselves, “Do I experience this?” Do I know in my daily walk the fullness of God’s Spirit? They want to be positive. It is possible to want to... Ready for Every Good Deed. “This is a trustworthy statement” occurs four other times in the Pastoral Epistles (1 Tim. Paul wants Titus to continue speaking these truths with confidence, so that believers “will be careful to engage in good deeds.”. And so we come back to the question, why is that? It also takes a swipe at the false teachers, who loved to speculate on worthless things that did not lead to good deeds (3:9). Then he gives us an extended sentence (3:4-7) extolling God’s great love and mercy in saving us. Discuss: Jesus frequently focused on the fact that the Pharisees' made up rules about what was right often got in the way of actually doing good.
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