• We are told today by the business world it is difficult to hire people to work.
• And we are also told those who are hired it is difficult to get them to work once they are hired.
This is also a problem we have in many churches today.
However, this is not a big problem in this church because we have some very dedicated workers and for that we are truly thankful.
But God is always needing more workers.
One of the problems we have in recruiting new workers for the Lord is that many feel they do not have anything to offer the Lord in Christian service.
Listen, God has used all kinds of people in Christian service.
The next time you feel like GOD can’t use you, just remember...
• Noah was a drunk
• Abraham was too old
• Isaac was a daydreamer
• Jacob was a liar
• Leah was ugly
• Joseph was abused
• Moses had a stuttering problem
• Gideon was afraid
• Samson was a womanizer
• Rahab was a prostitute
• Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
• David had an affair and was a murderer
• Elijah was suicidal
• Jonah was a backslider
• Naomi was a widow
• Job went bankrupt
• John the Baptist ate bugs
• The Disciples fell asleep while praying
• Martha worried about everything
• The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
• Zaccheus was too small
• Timothy had an ulcer...
• Lazarus was dead!
• And did you know in Numbers 22 God even used a donkey
God has used all kinds of people and things in Christian service and God can use you!!!
Let’s look at-
I. THE CHRISTIAN AND HIS SERVICE
Do you know why preachers across this nation preach continuously on the need for CHRISTIAN SERVICE?
Our Christian life obligates us to perform works, not for our salvation, but as an outward demonstration of our love for God.
Illus: Show me a Christian who sits on a pew year after year, never doing anything for the Lord, and I will show you a Christian that is not developing and growing spiritually.
Illus: Did you know if the strongest man on earth was to find a lazy boy chair and sit in it week after week, he will soon dry up like a dried-up prune.
He will soon begin to complain how bad he feels and how weak he feels all the time.
Illus: God designed these bodies to work, He tells us in His Word we are to work 6 DAYS and rest ONE!
The same thing applies to us spiritually we are to be busy every day of the week doing something for the Lord Jesus!
Illus: It will surprise you today of how many Christians that the only thing they do is join a church,
• Find a certain pew and sit.
• And sit in that pew week after week, month after month and year after year.
• And they never do anything in CHRISTIAN SERVICE. NEVER!!!
Note: And MAY I mention once they find that pew do not dare sit in their PEW because they will let you know that GOD has called them to set in that pew and they are going to hold it down as long as they live!!!
When a person accepts Jesus as his/her Savior, they should not waste any time getting involved in Christian service.
God does so much for some, and they do so little Him!!!
WHAT A SHAME!!!
Illus: When the Lord saved that great servant, the Apostle Paul, his immediate response was “And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, WHAT WILT THOU HAVE ME TO DO? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.” (Acts 9:6)
After he was converted, Paul did not waste any time asking:
• WHAT THE LORD WANTED HIM TO DO,
• And the Lord did not WASTE ANY TIME TELLING HIM WHAT HE WANTED HIM TO DO.
Do you really want to stand before the Lord at the Judgement Seat of Christ as a Christian that the only thing you did in life was to live your whole life and did not do anything for the Lord?
Illus: A grandson was going to see his grandmother in a town he had never been in before.
He called her to ask her for information how to get to her apartment in a high-rise building.
She gave him the address and she said when you get there you will go by Walmart.
When you get to the address, I told you very carefully take your elbow and push the door open carefully.
When you get to the elevator step inside and take your elbow and push the fifth button floor.
When you get to my apartment very carefully take your elbow and push the doorbell.
The grandson said, “Grandmother, why do I have to use my elbow, why can’t I use my hands!”
She said, “You are not coming to see your grandmother with empty hands, are you?”
Many will tell you the reason they are not doing anything for the Lord is because they do not know what they could do for Him!!!
Let me give you some suggestions:
• Most of you have back seats in your car and each Sunday when you come, they are empty…why not bring some children to Sunday school.
• Many could watch less television and spend more time in prayer for the Lord’s Work.
• Many could spend less time with their cats and dogs and spend more time with the lost world.
• Many could go to the nursing home and spend some time with the elderly.
• There are all kinds of things that a Christian can do today for the Lord!
Illus: D.L. Moody after he was converted came to his pastor and asked him if he could teach a Sunday school class.
Mr. Moody had a real grammar problem, and the pastor was reluctant to give him a class. But to pacify him he said we have a big basement and if you want to start a Sunday school class there that would be find.
He accepted the challenge and in a short period of time God used him to reach hundreds in that class.
Illus: Several decades ago, we had a young man in his teens who loved the Lord and wanted to do something for the Lord, and he would take notes from my sermons and go out and gather children from the neighborhood the following week.
He had his mother to make some cookies and kool aid and he gathered the neighborhood children in their double garage and filled it with boys and girls and taught them the gospel.
After accepting the Lord Jesus as their Saviour, every born-again believer should waste no time asking THE LORD WHAT WOULD HE HAVE THEM TO DO FOR HIM.
Illus: I was driving down the road recently and I saw a group of young healthy men just sitting around under a shade tree in the middle of the day.
I could not help but to think what a waste, God has given them healthy bodies and they are wasting their life away!!!
WHAT ASHAME!
The same thing can be said of God’s church. It is filled with people God has given them good healthy bodies and they are wasting their life away.
WHAT ASHAME!
WHY DOES THE LORD WANT YOU TO BE DOING SOMETHING?
Because of two reasons:
1. If you are not obeying the great commission for the Lord, the lost will perish. Family, friends and co-workers will go to a Christless eternity because you chose not to be involved in CHRISTIAN SERVICE.
2. If you are not doing anything for the Lord in Christian service, you are not going to grow spiritually!
Activity is a must for spiritual and physical growth.
lllus: One of the reasons grammar schools give children recess and PE, is because they recognize that a child cannot grow up to be healthy by just sitting at a desk every day.
Likewise, when a Christian gets involved in spiritual activity, they find that the MORE they get involved, the MORE they benefit from this involvement.
Illus: Do you know who gets the most out of a Sunday school class every Sunday? It is the teacher who studies God's Word all week, and then stands before the students and teaches what he/she has learned.
Why?
Because the teacher puts more into the class than anyone, and the teacher receives more from it.
Illus: Charles Atlas and Paul Anderson did not become the he-men they became by just laying around. They became physically involved, and the more they did, the stronger they became.
We have looked at THE CHRISTIAN AND HIS SERVICE.
But let’s take a few minutes and look at…
II. THE CHRISTIAN AND HIS SCRIPTURES
Paul clearly preached how we acquire salvation.
Look at Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by GRACE are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
Notice one of the reasons we are saved by grace is “…NOT OF WORKS, LEST ANY MAN SHOULD BOAST.”
God knows how much us mortals love to brag!
Let me illustrate:
• A Japanese man was boasting about how his country had such advanced medical technology. He said, "We take the lungs out of a man, perform an operation, put the lungs back in, and in 4 weeks, the man is looking for work."
• An Englishman said, "We are far more advanced than you. We can take the heart out of a man, perform surgery and have him ready for work in just 3 weeks."
• The Irishman says, "That's nothing; we can take a kidney out of a man, put into another man's body and have them looking for work in 2 weeks."
• The American says, "That's nothin'. We can put an idiot in the Whitehouse and half the country is lookin' for work!"
There will be NO ONE IN HEAVEN BOASTING THE REASON THEY ARE THERE IS BECAUSE OF SOMETHING THEY DID!!!
We are saved by the AMAZING GRACE OF GOD.
• Paul makes it clear WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE ALONE.
• Our WORKS is not our salvation; out WORKS is our rewards in heaven.
But as we read our Bible and see what Paul and James taught to acquire salvation, we have a conflict.
We must confess, on the surface there are some scriptures that might seem like James is contradicting what Paul was teaching.
Let me share with you some of those scriptures that we find in the book of James that seem like he is contradicting what Paul taught about acquiring salvation.
For example:
I have to admit, reading some of the scriptures from the book of James it sounds on the surface that he is teaching salvation by works.
(1) Look at James 2: 21-22, “Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?”
Again, it sounds like salvation by works, and ...
(2) Look at James 2: 24, “Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.”
These verses make it seem like Paul and James taught two different things about salvation.
lllus: Almost everyone knows that Martin Luther, the reformer rejected the Book of James, calling it an “epistle of straw".
Do Paul and James contradict each other? NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST!
In fact, both are saying the
They are approaching salvation from TWO DIFFERENT ANGLES.
• PAUL was clearly saying that works have nothing to do with one's acquiring salvation.
• JAMES says, that is absolutely correct, but if you have been saved by God's grace, the evidence will be seen in man’s eyes the fact that the saved one will have works to prove they are truly born again.
But we Christians who know the Bible know we are not saved by our works.
Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Many think they know what the word GIFT means but they do not.
For example, the confusing come because each Christmas we give gifts to each other.
But we really are not giving GIFTS to each other, what we are doing is we are SWAPPING GIFTS with each other.
If you look up the word Gift you will find it is a NOUN which means “Something voluntarily transferred by one person to another without compensation.”
When the Lord paid for our salvation on the cross of Calvary the last thing He said, IT IS FINISHED!
In other words, he paid the full price for our salvation and there is not one thing you and I can do to earn salvation.
It is an insult to the price Christ paid for our salvation to think we can do anything to earn our salvation.
Judaizers - right from the beginning the church age struggled with how:
• Gentiles needed to be circumcised
• They needed to keep the dietary laws
• They needed to observe the Jewish Holy Days in order to be truly saved.
They reduce the Gospel from salvation by grace through faith to salvation by keeping the rules.
These people exist today - and not just in the most obvious forms. If anyone comes along and adds some work to the Gospel, they are false teachers.
• Some add baptism is a must for salvation,
• Some add speaking in tongues is a must for salvation,
• Some add church membership is a must for salvation,
• Some add their own set of rules is a must for salvation. (like a woman must not cut her hair or wear any make-up).
Anything which adds to the Gospel must be rejected entirely.
HOW DO WE KNOW THAT JAMES IS NOT CONTRADICTING PAUL’S TEACHINGS ON SALVATION BY GRACE?
Because James wrote his epistle about 20 years before Paul even got saved, so there were no writings to be contradicted.
Paul and James do not CONTRADICT each other; their writings COMPLIMENT each other.
• PAUL was talking about JUSTIFICATION BEFORE CHRIST.
• JAMES was talking about JUSTIFICATION BEFORE MAN.
• Paul was concerned about the ROOT of justification by faith.
• James was concerned about the FRUIT of justification by faith.
James is saying as a man I cannot look into the heart of man and know you are saved. He is saying as a man you have got to SHOW ME SOME CHRISTIAN SERVICE or else I will not know you are saved.
Ilus: For example, someone said this about James. If he was living today and did not see any CHRISTIAN SERVICE in the life of some who profess to be saved, he would assume they are not saved by the grace of God;
Our life should show that we are saved FROM SOMETHING, FOR SOMETHING.
Illus: James 2:14-18 What doth it profits, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.
If you want, to grow in the Lord, it is a MUST that you find the niche God has for you if you want to be justified in the sight of men.
Let me give you several reasons:
What would cause us to dedicate our life to Christian service.
1. OUR LOVE FOR THE LORD JESUS
2. OUR LOVE FOR LOST SOULS
3. OUR REWARDS
Illus: There is a saying that if it were a crime to be a Christian, it would be hard to get enough evidence to convict many who profess to be saved.
Conclusion:
I challenge you to show me one mature Christian who is not involved in some area of CHRISTIAN SERVICE.
We have looked at:
I. THE CHRISTIAN AND HIS SERVICE
II. THE CHRISTIAN AND HIS SCRIPTURES
We Baptist believe that we are saved by GRACE ALONE and when God saves us He gives us ETERNAL LIFE BY GRACE ALONE.
When God saves us from our sins, He saves us from our:
• Past sins
• Present sins
• Future sins
HE SAVES US FROM ALL OUR SINS AND HE GRACIOUS GIVES US THE GIFT OF ETERNAL LIFE.
But there are others come along and they want to mix GRACE AND WORKS TO ACQUIRE SALVATION.
Illus: This is why the Jehovah Witnesses and the Mormons go from house to house they are trying to earn their salvation.
We Bible believers know they teach a false teaching but also anyone else who mix GRACE AND WORKS also are teaching a fasle religion.
FOR BY GRACE ARE YOU SAVE THROUGH FAITH IN THE SINLESS SON OF GOD. And now because you are saved you should be finding something you can do for the LORD everyday, He gives you to live on God’s earth.
