Sermon- Live the New Life (2)

As part 2 of his new series on “Live the New Life,” Pastor Choi talks about the meaning of worship and the meaning of love of Jesus.  The marks of a believer in Christ are to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth and to keep Jesus’ commandments.

Live the New Life (2)

 

 

Following is the sermon script in its entirety:

Live the New Life (2): Worship and Obedience to Jesus

Romans 12:1, John 14:21

  • Romans 12:1
  • The New Life in Christ
  • 12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
  • John 14:21
  • New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
  • 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

Introduction:

My story in 1980 in R.O.K. (Republic of Korea) Army:  A superior of mine hated me for no reason from the day one and persecuted me for the next year to the point where one night he humiliated me in front of everyone.  He landed his fist on my chest several times that night….  To be continued later in the sermon.

Recap: 

  • I spoke last Sunday about us the Christians being in Christ.  If Christ is the book, we are the bookmark.  Whatever happened to Christ, in God’s eyes, it also happened to us.
  • That’s why the Bible says that when Christ died on the cross we our old self died, too.  When Christ resurrected from the dead, we were resurrected, too: being born again as a new creation in Christ.  I said that it is the Christ who makes us a new creation, not us changing our behavior.
  • If you consider yourself a new creation in Christ, check out whom do you serve in your life: Do you serve your selfish desires, your old master?  Or, do you serve the new master Jesus Christ?
  • Remember you are in Christ.  You serve only Christ, not yourself.
  • Let’s go to our first verse Romans 12:1.
  • 12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters,by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Present Your Bodies:

  • Apostle Paul makes a plea for us here in Romans 12:1.  Present your bodies as a living sacrifice to God, holy and acceptable.     He exhorts you and me to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice to God.  The new life in Christ means to worship God every day.
  • Present your bodies:  Do you do that?  Most of us don’t, because we didn’t hear about it before, right?  Do I do that?  Yes, I do.  Why?  First, God commands me to do so.  Next, I think it is a great way to start the day.   It works much better than a morning coffee for me. This is what I do every morning in my bed.   Every morning as soon as I wake up, I say to God, “Lord, I offer myself to you today as an instrument of righteousness, joy, and peace.  Use me for your glory.”
  • Living Sacrifice: Sacrifices had been an integral part of worship.  Where there was worship, there were sacrifices.  We can use a historical understanding of worship here.
  • In the Old Testament days, no one would ever go to God’s temple without sacrifices/offerings.  Of course, you go there to pray and worship; however, you always bring something to God, either animals or grains in the form of sin offering, or peace offering, or even thank offering.  We the people of God in the past two thousand years, inherited and we still continue the tradition; no more animal sacrifices but we bring offerings to God in worship.
  • Offerings were more than bringing animal sacrifices to God back then.  Today, offerings mean more than just dropping a couple of dollars on the plate on Sunday.   It means to give all you have—yourself.  E.g. A missionary to Korea, Horace Grant Underwood: when he was a child, he had no money to give, so he wanted to give himself on the offering plate.
  • Holy and acceptable to God: You don’t want to give God anything that isn’t the best.  You want to present yourself as holy and acceptable to God.  That means, you examine yourself before you give yourself to God.  You repent any sins you have committed and ask God to forgive your sins.

Spiritual Worship:

  • What is worship? Is it to show up, sit up, sing up, listen up, pay up, and stand up?  No, it is much more than that.  Worship is an encounter with God where you offer yourself to God.  That’s why even though you can’t sing, even though you have no money to give, and even though you don’t get a thing from the pastor’s sermon, you still join others to worship God.  The main purpose of worship is for you to come and offer yourself to God.  It seems, though, we do everything in worship but the offering ourselves part.
  • Paul talks about spiritual worship.  What is spiritual worship, then?  It means for us to offer ourselves to God in spirit and in truth.  In spirit means we are not limited to space and time.  Although it is important to worship God with other believers at church, we don’t have to limit our worship services only to Sundays.  We can worship God more than once a week.  God wants us to worship anytime and wherever we are; we can worship in nature (note: it doesn’t replace the regular corporate worship at sanctuary).  We can worship in the car.  We can worship in our private room while praying.  We worship God in spirit, because God is spirit.
  • Spiritual worship also means that we worship God in truth.  In other words, we don’t worship with our feelings alone.  We worship God with God’s Word the truth.  That’s why in the Protestant tradition, the Word of God is so important that it takes up about 1/3 of the worship time.  We Methodists take this tradition of proclaiming God’s Word very seriously.  I will speak more about how important God’s Word is in our life next week.  Let’s move on to the next verse, John 14:21.
  • 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

Love of Jesus:

  • Does everyone love Jesus?  No, not really.  I got that.   What about you?  Do you love Jesus?  If you say, “Yes, I do,” have you thought about what you mean by that?  Is it that fuzzy and cozy feeling that you have toward Him?  Is the love of Jesus arbitrary that it changes often depending on whose definition of love we go by?  E.g.  A popular song I used to hear on radio in 1970s:  “Love is feeling, feeling is love.”
  • Let’s hear what Jesus says about the love of Him.  He says, if anyone loves Me, s/he will know My commandments and keep them.  His love language is action, not just words.  E.g. Gary Chapman’s “5 Love Languages”: words of affirmation, quality time, gifts, acts of service, and physical touch.  Obviously, the love language for Jesus is action.  Love is a verb.  Jesus says, “Show your love through keeping my commands.”  We would be a hypocrite if we confess that we love Jesus and yet don’t keep His commands.  E.g. “I love Jesus to death, yet I will not forgive John Doe.”

Revelation of Jesus:

Remember when Jesus revealed Himself to you?  I do.  I am sure you too can share with everyone how Jesus appeared to you.  Of course, Jesus can use different venues to appear to us; dreams, visions, written words, prayers, and circumstances; however, there’s a common denominator:  Jesus reveals Himself to those who obey Him (differently put, to those who keep His commandments)—that coincides with the Bible:  E.g. My experience in the ROK Army (Part 2).  On the following day after this private lynching in front of everyone, he came up with a bad gum infection that made his mouth swollen twice bigger than normal.  He couldn’t eat or chew anything.  He was lying down in his bed that day.  As soon as I heard the news, I said, “Hallelujah!  Praise the Lord!  The Lord finally avenges for me!”  Well, that joy didn’t last long.  A minute or two after the celebration, the Lord quietly spoke to me saying, “Go and pray for him.”  I said, “No, I don’t want to!”  Of course, you know who won.  The Lord convicted me with the verse where He says, “Love your enemy (Matthew 5:43) and “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head” (Romans 12:20).  So, that afternoon, I visited him with a loaf of soft bread and a carton of milk.  I also prayed for his healing.  After he got better, he changed 180 degrees!  My worst enemy became my best friend.  From then on, every Sunday morning, he ordered everyone under him to go to church.  I couldn’t have dreamed of any other better way!  I have experienced God’s promise fulfilled here: When a man’s ways please the Lord,
He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
 New King James Version (Proverbs 16:7). Jesus also revealed to me through my obedience to His commands.

  • All of us want to experience Jesus in a real way, not a superficial way, don’t we? In reality, though, many of us know Jesus only through our head knowledge: we read devotionals and commentaries or we hear someone else’s testimonies.  Jesus too wants you to know Him in person.  He wants you to experience the living God, the Almighty God, in a tangible way so you can say to everyone that you know God and Jesus.
  • So, how do we fulfill our desire to know Jesus personally?  By fulfilling the prerequisite first, that is keeping His words.  Let’s say you want to take a course “Economics 201” in college.  Now, you are told that you have to take Economics 101 first before you take this class.  Same with experiencing God.  You have to love Jesus first through keeping His commandments before you expect Him to appear to you.  When you love Him, He promises that He will love you back and reveal Himself to you.
  • Remember: To love Jesus boils down to know Jesus’ commandments and keeping them.  I will speak about this more next Sunday.

Action Points:

  • Say a daily prayer to offer yourself to God as a living sacrifice.
  • Dust out your Bible and put it in the most visible place.  Start using it.  Download the Bible on your smart phone.  In fact, next Sunday, I want everyone to bring your personal Bible to church.  Invite your friend to bring the Bible to church, too.
  • Amen.

 

 

Sermon: Live the New Life

Pastor Choi started a new sermon series today “Live the New Life”:  Today he talks about what and who makes a person a new creation.  It is not what we do or say that makes us a new creation in Christ.  It is “being in Christ” that makes a person a new creation.

Live the New Life

 

Following is the sermon script in its entirety:

Live the New Life                            2 Corinthians 5:17, Galatians 2:20

2 Corinthians 5:17

New King James Version (NKJV)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Galatians 2:19-20

New King James Version (NKJV)

19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Let me begin my sermon with a definition of Christian: a follower of Christ.  This definition comes from Christ’s own words in Matthew 10:38: He said, “and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (New Revised Standard Version).   In Mark 8:34, Christ said to the crowd and His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (New American Standard Bible) .

  • You are not a Christian if you don’t follow Jesus.  And, you can’t be a true follower of Jesus until you deny yourself, take up your cross, and live a life where your old self is dead.  Neither can you claim that you are a new creation until your old self is dead and gone.  Without the old self passing away, there’s no new creation.
  • Irony: A vast majority of Americans claim that they believe in Christ.  Today I see so many crosses that are abandoned by so-called “believers” and strewn along the path to heaven.  There are so many “church goers” who never deny themselves, either, that means, their self is still well alive and kicking, yet they all claim that they are Christians.   Are we not kidding ourselves?
  • Listen to the Bible truth: it says that your old self is already dead, because you too were crucified with Christ.  “Wait a minute,” you might say, “I have never died, let alone being crucified!”  Yes, you heard me right.  Let me say it again: your old self is dead, because you have been crucified with Christ.  Yes, you too died when Christ had died two thousand years ago at the cross.  Hard to understand?  Let me explain to you what I mean by that.  I must go back to today’s verse: 2 Corinthians 5:17.
  • Listen again what it says: if anyone is in Christ, s/he is a new creation, behold the old has passed away (like people passing away) and the new has come.  It is absolutely crucial for you to understand this verse so that you may realize what makes you a new creation in Christ.  It is not what you do and say that makes you a new creation.
  • The Bible doesn’t say: if anyone prays, s/he is a new creation.  It doesn’t say: if anyone goes to church, s/he is a new creation.  It doesn’t say: if anyone reads the Bible, s/he is a new creation.  It, rather, says: If anyone is in Christ, s/he is a new creation.  The old has passed away and, behold, the new has come.  What’s that supposed to mean?
  • The key phrase here is “in Christ.”  Let me explain the meaning of being “in Christ”—bookmark (I owe this understanding to Watchman Nee, the late Christian leader in China).  Consider that Christ is the book and that we are the bookmark in the book.  Whatever happens to the book also happens to the bookmark: if it goes in the water, the bookmark too gets wet.   If the book goes through fire, so does the bookmark.  Everything that happens to the book also happens to the bookmark.  Same way with Christ and you: since you are in Christ, whatever happened to Christ, it too happened to you in God’s eyes.  Therefore, when Christ died to pay the wages of your sin, since you were in Him, you too died.  When Christ resurrected three days later, since you were hidden in Christ, you too were resurrected as a new creation.  That’s what it means in Christ you become a new creation.
  • Now, with that understanding, let’s go to Galatians 2:20.  Paul says here that he has been crucified with Christ.  Do you understand now what he’s saying here?  He’s in Christ, therefore, when Christ was crucified, so was he.  When Christ resurrected from the dead, so did Paul.  No longer is it I who lives, he declares, but Christ who lives in me.  He recognizes the very important spiritual truth here that his old self is dead.  His old self, his old master, is dead and gone forever.  And, behold, the new master, Christ, has arrived.   The old master has passed away and the new has come.
  • Let me reiterate what it means that your old self is dead.  It means it is dead.  It means it’s gone forever.  It means you are no longer in charge of your life.  You no longer serve the selfish desires of your old self.  Your old self no longer calls the shots.  Instead, you now listen to your new boss who’s in you (remember Christ is in you?  Revelation 3:20).  His name is Christ.  He calls the shots in your life: in all you do and say.  Not you.  But He.  By the way, don’t worry.  He is not a cruel dictator who takes advantage of you and serves His own needs at your expenses.  Some of us have that kind of misunderstanding of Jesus (E.g. my high school friend).
  • Listen to me again.  You never meet such a wonderful person as Jesus.  He, the new boss, is the Savior who loves you so much that He died for you.  He laid down His life for you.  He always means nothing but the best for you: both in this life and in the life to come.  That’s what Paul means when he says Christ lives in him and he lives for Christ.  Do you hear him here?  He says, he wants to serve his new boss voluntarily and willingly, not reluctantly or under compulsion.
  • Remember this spiritual truth: the selfish old master is out and the benevolent new master is in.  You’d better celebrate this change of ownership in your life.  E.g.  A certain prison inmate hated himself all his life.  His trouble began as soon as he was born.  His mother was involved in adulterous relationship and gave birth to him.  Discovering that the boy wasn’t his own, the husband always hated the boy, although he never divorced his wife.  As the boy was growing up, his stepfather would abuse him both verbally and emotionally everyday by calling him “You carry the dirty blood in you, you son of a bitch!”  All his life, the man desired to replace his “dirty” blood if possible.  He actually did when he met the Lord Jesus.  He replaced his dirty blood with Christ’ blood and replaced his old master with the new one.  He had a complete transformation and became a new creation in Christ.  E.g. 2.  Imagine at the center of your heart, there’s a throne: whoever sits on it calls the shots in your life.  When Christ sits on the throne, and you listen to Him, everything is in order.  When your old self sits on the throne, and Christ serves as a “Genie in a bottle,” everything in your life is in chaos.
  • Closing: Who makes a person a new creation?  Christ.  There’s no other way for you to become a new creation but being in Christ.  You must deny yourself.  Your old self must be crucified.  If your old self is still alive and kicking, you are not “in Christ,” then Galatians 2:20 doesn’t mean anything to you.  2 Corinthians 5:17 doesn’t apply to you, either.  If your old self is still alive and kicking, you still serve the old master, you.
  • If you want a new life, listen to what Jesus is saying: deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Me.  Your old self, your old master, must pass away so that a new master may arrive.  It is only possible in Christ.  There’s no other way.  Amen.

 

 

Sermon: What We Believe (4)

Today Pastor Choi concludes his mini-sermon series on basic Christian beliefs: in today’s sermon he talks about what it means to be a child of God, believing and receiving Christ, and having daily communion with Christ.

What We Believe (4)

 

 

Following is his sermon script in its entirety:

What We Believe (4)                                                    John 1:12, Revelation 3:20

 

  • John 1:12 (NRSV: New Revised Standard Version)
  • 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,

 

Revelation 3:20 (NRSV)

  • 20 Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you with me.

 

Recap

  • Jesus came to call the sinners to repentance.  He didn’t come for those who consider themselves righteous enough that they don’t need a Savior.
  • We cannot earn our salvation no matter how hard we try.  Salvation is a gift of God, given to us absolutely free, by God’s grace.  We receive God’s salvation through our faith alone.
  • Faith and works are inseparable. Faith goes first, works follow. Faith is the only thing required for salvation.  Works is not.  What is works, then?  It is not the condition for salvation but the fruit of our faith. We are called to demonstrate our faith through good works not to gain salvation but to bring glory to God and His name.

Child of God

  • One of the misused phrases among people today (both in the church and outside the church) is: child of God.  Without a proper understanding of the Scriptures, we tend to say that everyone is a child of God.  Sounds wonderful and very inclusive.  Yet, if you listen to what God’s Word says, it is a quite different story.  The Bible is very clear on this: Not everyone is a child of God. In fact, God doesn’t mind calling some folks children of wrath, children of darkness, and even children of the devil (1 John 3:10).  E.g. Jesus called some Pharisees children of the devil (John 8:39, 44).
  • Yes, everyone is created in the image of God, but that doesn’t mean that everyone is a child of God. God loves them all, He’s gracious to all even to the evil ones (by giving them life, health, and etc.), and He wants everyone to come to repentance, yet when it comes down to who’s a child of God, God is very peculiar.
  • Who are the children of God?  Only those who are born into God’s family through faith.  Born again, born anew, and born from above mean the same of spiritual rebirth.  Only those who satisfy the condition of spiritual rebirth in Christ are His children.  E.g. I love children, however, that doesn’t mean that every child in the world is mine.  Only the one that was born into my family through either natural birth or adoption is my child.  Same with God and His children.  Becoming children of God requires birth into God’s family.
  • So, how can one be born into God’s family?  By believing in Jesus and by receiving Him as Savior and Lord.  Only those who believe in the name of Jesus and what He has done for humanity (John 1:12) and only those who receive Jesus as Savior and Lord become God’s children.

Believing and Receiving

  • Let’s talk about believing and receiving business.  To believe in Jesus means to receive Him as the Lord and Savior.  They are one thing.  Two are the same.  Yet, not everyone does believe/practice so.  In fact, some believers think and treat believing and receiving as two separate things.  In other words, they intellectually agree what Jesus has done (that is believing), yet in real life, they take Jesus not as Lord and Savior but rather as a servant or even an insurance policy (this is receiving).
  • E.g. Calling Jesus Lord (intellectual agreement) yet not doing what He commands (not taking Him seriously): 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ 23 Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’” (Matthew 7:21-23).
  • E.g.2. Charles Blondin–a French acrobat walking on a tight rope over Niagara Falls.   —-“crossing the Niagara Gorge (located on the American-Canadian border) on a tightrope, 1,100 ft (340 m) long, 3.25 in (8.3 cm) in diameter and 160 ft (49 m) above the water, near the location of the current Rainbow Bridge. This he did on 30 June 1859, and a number of times thereafter, always with different theatrical variations: blindfolded, in a sack, trundling a wheelbarrow, on stilts, carrying a man (his manager, Harry Colcord) on his back, sitting down midway while he cooked and ate an omelet and standing on a chair with only one chair leg on the rope.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Blondin
  • Story goes on when the acrobat asked if anyone was willing to ride in the wheelbarrow, no one wanted to take a chance.

Dine with Jesus

  • Imagine: Jesus standing at the door and knocks.  We hear His voice and open the door.
  • He’s still knocking:  Do you hear His voice?  Not many of us hear His quiet voice speaking to us.  Why?  Because, there are too many distractions and too much noise going on in our lives that drown Christ’s voice.  We need a routine for your soul to catch Christ’s calling.  E.g. Worship on Sunday mornings is a good start.  E.g. 2.  Spend time with God’s word and in prayer (15 minutes a day means 1/100th of time given to Jesus).
  • If anyone: everyone is invited to salvation.  No exception.  No discrimination against any personal background.  Jesus knocks at everyone’s heart.  God invites them all.
  • Opens the door is to ask Him in.  If you invite Him in, He will come in.  If you don’t invite Him in, He will not come into your life.  Jesus is very gentle and mild.  He is so polite that He never forces us to do anything that we don’t wish to do.
  • Once you invite Him in, He comes in and dines with you:  Dining with Him means to commune with Him.  It means a close relationship with Him.  It means to talk to Him, listen to Him, and to walk with Him.
  • Communion with Him is a daily thing: not weekly, not monthly, not even yearly thing.  Yet, to some of us, it’s been years since we talked with Him.  Having Jesus in our heart and yet never talking to Him is like inviting a guest to dinner; once the guest is seated at the table, you never talk to him/her and never pay attention to the guest.  Worse, you even don’t know that the guest is still there.  It is time to restart our communication with Jesus.  Every day.  More than once a day.
  • You will never be disappointed.
  • Once the salvation is given, it is not taken away from us, unless we ask God to do so.  You have eternal life in Christ.  John 5:24: 24 Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life (NRSV).  Amen.

 

Sermon: What We Believe (3)

Pastor Choi explains that no human merits can buy or earn God’s gift–salvation.  We are saved by God’s grace through our faith alone.

 

  What We Believe (3)

 

Following is the sermon script in its entirety:

What We Believe (3)                            Ephesians 2:8-9, Titus 3:5

 

  • Ephesians 2:8-9
  • New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
  • For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
  • Titus 3:5
  • New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
  • he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

Recap:

  • Repentance is the beginning of our relationship with God.
  • All have sinned and need salvation.
  • Definition of sin: violation of any God’s commandments.
  • Wages (consequences) of our sin were paid by Christ that proves God’s love for us.

Saved not by works but by faith:

  • We are saved through Christ’s merits not by our own.  Let me tell you a story of a man whose name was Martin Luther: He hoped that his act of penance (through climbing stairs on his bare knees) would count something in his salvation.  Later he realized that that’s not the case.  He also said that the practice of buying indulgences for loved ones in purgatory was unscriptural.  He declared that salvation is not earned by his good deeds, in fact, by any human good deeds. Nor can it be bought with money.  Salvation is, rather, a gift of God attainable only through faith not through our works.  It is our faith in Christ, not our own good deeds that counts in our salvation.  “Luther wrote to Melanchthon on the same theme: “Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides.”(Martin Luther, “Let Your Sins Be Strong,” a Letter From Luther to Melanchthon, August 1521, Project Wittenberg, retrieved 1 October 2006).
  • Indeed, that’s what the Bible says: we are saved by God’s mercy and grace not by our own deeds.
  • What about James, then, some might argue, who says that faith without works is dead? (James 2:26) If faith is all we need in our salvation, then, we don’t have to be good, right?  No, you still ought to be good and will be, not for the salvation but for the glory of God. The fact that we don’t need human works or good deeds for our salvation, or the truth that human merits is not the necessary condition for our salvation, doesn’t mean that we are exempt from living a moral life.  Let me repeat what I have said: works don’t get us into heaven; they are not the necessary condition for salvation, either.  What are they, then?  They are a result of our faith and a fruit of our salvation.  E.g. Horse and a cart: they go together, yet, you always put the horse before the cart, not the other way around.  The horse here is faith and the cart is works.  Faith goes first, and works follow.  Anyone who claims to be a believer in Christ will demonstrate good works as a fruit of his/her faith.   In other words, God only requires us to bring faith into salvation, yet He expects us to live out our faith through our good works to bring glory to His name.
  • When it comes down to salvation, I am so glad that God doesn’t require us to bring any human merits to the salvation table.  Any human merits such as education (B.A.), money (million dollars), physical condition (6 foot tall), beauty, age, race, sex, can never buy salvation.  We can’t fully satisfy any of them, either.  So, God came up with another perfect solution: faith that believes in Jesus and what He has done on the cross.  In my humble opinion, that’s the perfect and the fairest solution for all to satisfy in salvation.  E.g. A street vendor who accepted Christ.  E.g. 2. Criminal crucified at the same time with Christ.

Created for Good Works

  • So, do we still have to be good even after we believe?  Yes, we still need to live the moral life.  We are the children of God, created for good works in Christ (Ephesians 2:10).  We are the salt and light of the world (Matthew 5:13, 14).  We are the children of light.  We are to demonstrate how great our God is through our good deeds (Matthew 5:16).  Works are not the condition for salvation but they are the demonstration of your faith in Jesus (E.g. helping the homeless, helping Sandy relief).

Closing:

  • Freedom from God’s punishment cannot be purchased with money.  God’s grace cannot be earned.  No one is justified with his/her own works and merits.  Salvation is by God’s grace through faith alone.
  •   For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8,9).
  • he saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy” (Titus 3:5).
  • Amen.