9/14/02 Working our Hardest for Satan!
Introduction… Many people are working themselves straight into Hell, and of course satan is standing their cheering them on…
The well known words of W.E. Henley go something like this..
“I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul..”
There is something intensely individualistic and ego affirming in the idea that you make your own way.. We would like to think that we can just take charge of our own lives and make our own destiny..
There is an old story that tells of a man who was traveling on his donkey when he came upon a small fuzzy object lying in the road. He dismounted to look more closely and found a sparrow lying on its back with its scrawny legs stretched skyward. At first he thought the bird was dead, but closer investigation proved it to be very much alive. The man asked the sparrow if he was all right. The sparrow replied, “Yes”. The man asked, what are you doing lying on your back with your legs pointed upward like that? The sparrow responded that he had heard a rumor that the sky was falling, and so he was holding his legs up to catch it. The man responded and said, “You surely don’t think that you’re going to hold it up with those two scrawny legs do you?” The sparrow, with a very solemn look replied “One does the best one can.”
Our problem and the problem of many of those around us is much like the problem of the sparrow…
We might try to do the best we can, but our best is not good enough. Indeed, our most noble efforts seem altogether puny compared with what is really needed.
When the sky is falling, our reaction might be to lift our hands to stop it, but it will do us no good.
The issue today of course is not the falling sky, but the falling of God’s judgment.
And mans natural response is not to lift his arms and his legs, but to lift his good deeds in an effort to save himself.
Now, I believe that most each and every one of us knows of someone who falls into the category of a person working themselves straight into hell.
But I will venture to guess that we know many more people than we think, that are working themselves straight into hell and we just don’t realize it….
And guess what….
We are right along side of satan himself… cheering these people into hell..
“Well, I wouldn’t do something like that…. I don’t want any one to go to hell….”
Hey, if that’s how we feel, then we need to prove it… We can not sit around afraid to tell people the truth just because we think it may offend them.
I would rather offend someone than have them go to hell wouldn’t you??
Take your Bibles this morning and turn to Ephesians chapter 2.
Read Ephesians 2:1-10
Illustration… a few months ago, read an article in the Readers Digest Magazine where they interviewed Mohamed Ali, the man considered to be one of if not the greatest boxer that ever lived. At the least he is a legend with many movies books and articles about his triumphs in life.
The article discussed how Ali is such an inspiration to so many other people, and that he has devoted his life to helping other people.
Of course, Ali claims the Islamic religion as his “Faith”.
So the interviewer asked him about his faith and about how he felt about the acts of terrorism from September 11th.
Ali vehemently condemns the acts of aggression and stated that the Islamic faith is a faith of peace for all people.
I disagree with that statement, but that is a message for another day…
The interviewer turned then to heaven, and asked Ali about how to get there..
Ali said that you spend you life trying to do as many good works as you can.. and when your life is all over, and you look back, if you have more good works than bad works, or if the scale tips just the slightest bit on the good side… then you will have earned your way into heaven..
I told my wife Denise about the article after I read it, and she said, well, it must be nice for someone like him who has a lot of money… they can give their money to the poor and call that good works… but how about the poor people…. What do they do..
Well, we will all agree that things happen in this life that are not fare…. But it sounds like for the Islamic religion, and others just like it, that the lack of fairness caries over into eternity also.
Transition… Of course, most all of us in here today would stand up and say that Good works will not get you into heaven!!!
But do we truly believe that??
I mean, we know what James said in James chapter 2
Read James 2:14-26
James is talking about faith without deeds, or works… he said our faith in Jesus Christ, if it is a true and living faith, will produce deeds in our life…
We can not walk by someone who is out on the street in the dead of winter with no shoes on their feet and no clothes on their back and say to them “I am a Christian and I will pray that you will be warm and well fed” and then just leave them there to starve and freeze…
James said in essence… if you can do that… you had better check you faith!!
Yes, James said, faith without works is a useless faith, and he was absolutely right..
Friends, if we are not working in the name of Christ, our faith is dead….
Remember that statement..
If we are not working in the name of Christ, our faith is dead….
But the problem is, that some people try to work, because they think they should…
They believe in morality.. so they do good works…
They believe in helping others.. so they do good work….
They believe in a “higher being” so they do good works…
Well, that sounds ok , but remember, James said that even the demons believe in God and shudder….
Jesus said in John 15:5… John 15:5
5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Now does that mean that without Jesus Christ we can not do good deeds…..
NO…. but it does mean that without Jesus Christ we can not do good deeds for the Kingdom of God…
We can not do any good deeds that will have eternal consequences…
An organization of Non Christians that feeds the hungry feeds the body…. An organization of Christians that feeds the hungry feeds the body and the soul… and that my friends, that has eternal consequences….
We can work our hardest, we can work our best, we can devote our time and our energy for a good cause, but if we are doing it without the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ friends it is for nothing…..
You say well we are Christians, why are you talking about this to us…
Friends, we are watching people work themselves straight into hell……..
We all know of those religions that do good…. They sound good, they are family oriented, they will send you a free Bible and they will even use the name of Jesus Christ….
But they do not know the Christ of the Bible…
We all know of organizations that promote helping your fellow man, they say that they believe in a higher being but they do not want to offend anyone by putting a certain name on that being so they just use a generic term….
But they do not know the Jesus Christ of the Bible….
There is a very popular daytime program on T.V. and this show has a spiritual moment on their program… they tout the belief in a higher being weather you want to call him Buddha, Mohamed, Heavenly creator, God or whatever, they say as long as you believe in a higher being , then you are all right…
But they do not know the Jesus Christ of the Bible..
They do not know the Christ who is part of the triune God…
they do not know the Christ who equally created the heavens and the earth….
They do not know the Christ who paid the sin debt for all mankind.. not just by dying on the cross, but by becoming our sin and having his heavenly father separate from him for a time because he could not look upon sin…
They do not know the Christ that defeated death and arose on the third day….
They do not know the Christ who is seated at the right hand of the father…
They do not know the Christ who is our only mediator between us and God..
They do not know the Christ who said in John 14:6 I am the way and the truth and the life, no one…. Listen to me now…
He said NO ONE comes to the father except through me…..
Friends, people that believe anything other than this are going to Hell…..
Yes, good, honest, hard working, moral, law abiding, friendly ,giving, compassionate, loving, caring, wonderful people are going to hell if they do not accept Jesus Christ as the only way to get to heaven…
And if we have friends out there that feel that way then we are watching them, no we are cheering them on as they slide right into hell unless we tell them the truth..
Lets go back to the main passage of scripture we are looking at this morning..
Ephesians 2:1-10.
Read Ephesians 2:1-3
Folks, we were dead.. spiritually dead, living the desires of this world, walking according to the sins of the devil, …. We were dead…..
And what can a dead man do for himself….
Can he do any kind of good works that count for anything….. NO
Well , the world admires morality….. the world admires religion to a point….. people even have the idea that morality and religion are Christian by nature….
But let me tell you this…
You can not live a life for God, until you receive a life from God….
We were dead…… all those without Christ are dead in their sins and in their transgressions, they can not do anything for the kingdom of God..
I don’t care how good they look outwardly, or how nice they seem to be if they do not know Jesus Christ they are dead and their works are fruitless…
H.A. Ironside put it like this “ You can not live a life for God, until you receive a life from God”..
And there are so many people out there that have never received a life from God…because they have not put their faith in Jesus Christ…
And that brings us to the next part of the verse.. look with me again at verse 4… Read verses 4-8
God gives us life, but it only comes through Christ Jesus….no other way..
Christ is the door,
Christ is the narrow gate..
Christ is the answer..
These verses tell us that God gave us his grace when we did not deserve it..
God gave us his mercy, when we did not deserve it..
God gave us his love, when we did not deserve it..
Why would he do such a thing…
Well verse 7 tells us that he did this in order that in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus….
He did it so that thorough out all eternity, he can show us his grace and kindness and love toward us….
He loves us…..
And he clearly stated in verse 9 read verse 9
He stated that it is not a result of works…. There is nothing we can do to become good enough to go to heaven…. But there is nothing we can do to be bad enough to go to hell….
Why???
Because Christ has already made the sacrifice… all we have to do is accept his sacrifice…
That way… the availability of entering heaven is equal to all people.. no matter what race, no matter what religion, no matter what creed, no matter what iq range, no matter what social status, no matter what amount of wealth, the only way is through Christ Jesus…. So that no one could boast…
You see, Ali could boast about his wealth and how much he gives to the needy people….
But as Christ stated in Matthew…. The only reward that will get him, is the praise of men here and now….. nothing more than that..
Then verse 10 says Read verse 10
OH, I think those are beautiful words..
We are GOD’S workmanship…… created in Christ Jesus TO DO GOOD WORKS….
Yes friends, we are created to perform good works…. But first and foremost, we must be made alive in Christ before we can do any kind of good thing….
Would you bow your head please….
Friend, you may be out there this morning and you may be saying,
“I know I need to come to Christ, but first I need to clean my life up, I need to get rid of some of my sin,”
Friend, you are in essence saying.. I need to work my way to Christ…. And it just does not happen like that..
Then there are those of us who know some wonderful people, people that are moral, just, upright, would do anything for anybody,.. but they do not believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven, they do not believe in the Jesus Christ of the Bible… but they are such good people that we don’t dare say anything against them…
Then friends, we are cheering them on as they go to hell..
Then there are all of those good organizations…. Those that claim to be involved with the benevolence of mankind.. those that help others and truly do provide when a need arises… they must be good right??
Well, I have a sure fire test for you….
Think of that organization or that person for that matter and answer this question…
Do they bring Glory to Jesus Christ????
Do they honor the savior???
Do they give and do and help in HIS name???
If not my friends,… we need to rethink their stand….
I truly feel like we as Christians are at times causing part of the problem… I truly do..
You see, we have spent a lot of time trying to introduce others to Christianity…..
When what we should be doing, is introducing others to Jesus Christ….
Christianity is a religion…Jesus Christ is a person…
Lets start introducing others to the person of Jesus Christ shall we?? Prayer……
