WESTSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH
PASTOR: TERRY VAUGHAN
SERMON TITLE: SELF PORTRAITS
“For God so Loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth in Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:16-18
TEXT VERSE: Matthew 12:34-37 “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”
This is a very powerful verse. Jesus started out kind of bold. That’s what some preachers problems are, they aren’t bold enough.. They try to doctor the word up and make it sound pretty to people’s ears and they want to hear that they are doing a good job. I heard a few on the radio today and don’t get me wrong...there are some good ones. When you can feel the power and the Spirit of God and you can see it changing people’s lives, you know it’s right. But there is also some bad ones. They are misleading people. More of us preachers need to be bold and to be Holy and to stand on the blessed word of God. But Jesus in this scripture started out bold by saying, “O generation of vipers.” If that’s not bold, I don’t know what is. Here’s what I want you to catch though. He said, “How can ye, being evil, speak good things?” Often times we’ve preached messages on our language and our speech and how we’re not supposed to use it to condemn othersand on how we’re supposed to uplift people. But tonight God showed us something different and I want to preach to you tonight on Self Portraits.
Jesus said, “How can you being evil, speak good things. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.” Notice that what you have on your heart is what comes out of your mouth. There’s a lot of Christians today that don’t study the word of God enough. You can hear some things come out of their mouth that let’s you know real quick what’s in their heart. I can’t look on your heart but whatever you have in your heart is going to come out your mouth. I’m not talking about how you talk to others. A lot of Christians today think just because they say something right, that their living a good Christian life. Just because of what you speak, it is not the self portrait of who you are. A Self Portrait is not only what we speak but how we live. Anybody can speak good. A lot of people can have good lip talk but it takes a lot for a person to have some good heart talk. I could stand up here and tell you that I was a Doctor of Theology or a Brain Surgeon but that doesn’t mean that I am one. If I don’t live it, why should I talk about it? But there’s a lot of Christians that the Bible calls them fair speeches. I want you to notice tonight how important it is for us to have things right in our heart and for that to come out of our mouth. Because of being around other people who want to know about us. If you tell them that you’re a Christian, you better be living like one. If I’m going to be a Pastor and a Preacher then I better be living like one. If you’re a Deacon you better live like it if you’re going to tell people you are one. Paul said if I’m going to preach the Gospel, I better live the Gospel. So every time we speak we’re painting a self portrait of ourselves to other people. Everything that comes out of our mouth is painting a self portrait of who we really are. The abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. There’s a lot of corruption coming out of people’s mouthes. They don’t realize what’s causing it. If you’ve got corruption on the inside....corruption will come out on the outside.
Ecclestias 5:6 says “Suffer not your mouth to cause your flesh to sin.”
Let me give you an example. I’ll use Peter. Peter was the very one that was in the boat. He’s the very first disciple that Jesus called. He had been out fishing and Jesus went to him and his brother and Jesus said, “Come and follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men.” The Bible says that Peter and Andrew left their father, their nets and their boats and they followed Jesus. And Peter was with Jesus all the way. But when it came to the end here’s what Peter said, “Lord, though all men forsake thee; I will never forsake thee.” Then Peter said, “Lord, though all men deny thee; I will never deny thee.” That’s some bold speaking isn’t it? Is that what he had on the inside? Because I want to tell you what Jesus said to him. Jesus said, “Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.” If Peters going to boast and brag that he’ll never leave him or deny him.....if you’re going to make a vow with God you better keep it.
I can be around Christians and I don’t care if I’ve known them for years or for one week....I can tell what kind of Christian they are just by being around them for a little while. If you don’t never hear them talk about God...I wonder if they have him on the inside. I’m not judging people. The Bible says you’ll know a tree by the fruit it bears. If it isn’t bearing the fruit, it don’t have the root. If it’s got the root it will have the fruit.
Now let me tell you about Jesus when he was talking about the scribes and the Pharisees in Matthew 23:3 “...do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.” That’s the way some Christians are. They tell God what their going to do for him and what they want God to do for them and what their going to do for the church and the Pastor and their families and the community and for the lost world and they never do any of it. You know why? Because they don’t have it on the inside. Just because you can talk good, it doesn’t mean you can walk good.
Turn to First John 2:4 I want you to notice the first three words....”He that saith.” “He that saith I know him and keepth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.” Just because they say they know him it does not mean they are keeping his commandments. But look at verse 5 “But whoso keepth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.”
Titus 1:16 “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” God don’t want you to tell him how good you are. God wants you and me to show him how good we are. God doesn’t want us to tell him how we can reach out to the lost. God wants us to show him how we can reach out to the lost. I believe that’s why James said that faith without works is dead. Now look at First John 2:6 “He that saith he abide in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” Notice the first three words again. He that saith. See we’re talking about self portraits. He didn’t walk like us. He didn’t talk like us. We have Christians today that are so mixed up in the world that you can’t even tell that they are Christians. It’s depressing to see Christians and the condition they are in. Satan has such a hold on them that they don’t even know it’s happening to them. They don’t think anything’s wrong. The true gospel in this world is never going to win any popularity contests. Just because a church has 10,000 members, it doesn’t mean they are all where they need to be with God. I’ve seen many church members that profess to live a Godly life and I’ve gone down the road and seen them coming out of a liquor store with bottles in their hands. I stopped one time and confronted a person doing this. He was rather embarassed but it’s not me has to worry about. I went to a church one time for a Bible conference and I left the conference and was going down the road and a car load of men pulled up beside me at a red light. They had been at the same conference (these were deacons and preachers) and they rolled down their window and asked me if I knew where some bar was. I said, “you’re not going there are you?” They rolled their window up and drove off. I guarantee you that’s where they went and they didn’t get what the Bible conference was meant for. It wasn’t the churches fault. It was their fault. People want just enough of Christ to get them to heaven but they want to live for the devil while they are here. Jesus said if you’re ashamed of me, I’ll be ashamed of you before my father which is in heaven. He also said to let your light so shine before men that they might know your good works that it might glorify your father which is in heaven. Everything we do, we should do for him. If the devil starts coming at you telling you to go to some bar you better get off somewhere and begin praying. Churches across the land are suffering because of Christians that say I know him and aren’t bearing the fruit. I will not condone nor hang around any member of this church that lives for the devil during the week and only has God on Sundays.
Now in verse 9 it says “He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now.” We’ve got more Christians fighting and battling than world war two ever did. They run one another down, talk about one another. We’re serving the same God and we ought to be able to get along. If you go on and read the rest of these chapters you’ll find that it says, “How can you love God whom you have not seen and hate your brother whom you have seen?” The greatest two commandments is to love him and then to love your neighbor. It says love your neighbor because everybody may not be your brother but everybody will be your neighbor.
Now look at First John 1:7 “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another....” Just because you say that you’re following Jesus doesn’t mean that you are. Too many Christians say they are abiding in the light and they aren’t. They are painting a self portrait of themselves by what they are saying and doing. I don’t want you to misinterpret what I’m saying. I don’t want you to leave the house of God and get in your car and say I heard the word and I made a mistake last week and I said something I shouldn’t have said and I don’t want the devil to get in the car with you and say, you’re still lost. That’s not what I’m preaching about. If you’re saved, you’re saved. You’re sealed till the day of redemption. But if that is happening to you then your heart just needs a little cleansing. The Psalmist David prayed for God to create in him a clean heart. If you’ll keep your heart clean God will use you to win other people to Christ.
Joyce and I the other day was sitting in the bedroom and I won’t say what we were talking about but I’ll say this it wasn’t good. We were in the complaining mode. And about that time my eldest daughter came in and her boyfriend had just left and she said, “Daddy, I have to tell you this. I was reading the Bible to Rob and I found out that he’s never been to church before. I read him John 3:16 and some other scriptures and he told me he wants to come back and study the Bible with me more and that he wants to get saved when the Lords calls upon him.” And I’m sitting back there complaining. God will speak to you. He spoke to me. If it can happen to me, it can happen to you. If it can happen to Peter and Paul, it can happen to us. We need to paint a self portrait of ourselves to others.
Ezekiel 33:31 “And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness.”
Proverbs 14:23 “In all labor there is profit: but the talk of lips tendeth only to penury.”
What kind of self portrait are you painting? Recently when God showed me this, he showed me what kind of self portrait I was painting for my children. So I started spending more time with them. I want to paint a good picture for them. I won’t always be around but I want them to remember that I did my best to live that Christian life in front of them. That’s the kind of picture I want to paint.
LET US PRAY: Father, forgive me for always using my mouth but not living what I say. I pray God that you would cleanse me from all unrighteousness and restore the joy of your salvation unto me. Create in me a clean heart. A new heart. A heart that will not only say that I am a Christian but a heart that will live it too. Give me what I stand in need of to do your service and to live that life that you would have me to live. In Jesus name I pray. amen
