.  Living Hope Fellowship Church....Sermons by the Pastor 

WORKS TO DO

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

The Word of the Lord tells us that works cannot save you.  You cannot get “good enough” through works or rituals.  When you say yes to Jesus, He saves you.  He did the work at Calvary 2000 years ago. 

Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “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.” 

2 Timothy 1:9 says, “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,”

You can tell your sinner neighbors or family members that you are now saved, but they are looking at what you DO.  How you live, and do, and work in God’s kingdom is your witness to the world.  An effort is required on the part of the believer!  Faith without works is dead!

Genesis 6:8 says, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”  Verse 9 says, “. . . Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”

God instigated a covenant with Noah, but Noah had to obey.  Noah knew the flood was coming, and he had faith in God, but what if he had drug his feet so long that time ran out and the flood came before he got done?  He would have drowned with the rest of the people!  God requires certain things of us.  Faith without works is dead!  Building the ark was God’s plan and order to Noah.  God gave him the dimensions, and strength, and He caused him to understand, but Noah had to obey! 

There has to be obedience on the part of the believer.  Obedience is a sign through works that we believe God!  Before you get saved, your works are worthless.  Once you are saved, if you don’t have works, your faith is worthless.  You can’t, by working, get good enough to get saved, but once you get saved you are not too good to work.

The Bible says God will judge us according to the deeds done in this body.  (See 1 Peter 1:17, Revelation 22:12, Revelation 20:12-13, and Romans 8:13.)

Jesus said in Matthew 24:37-39, “But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.  For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”

If I told you it was going to rain, and God told me to build an ark, yet I never drove one nail, you wouldn’t believe me.  Noah’s ark was a manifestation of his evangelistic calling and missionary work, and his faith drew his family into his activity.  It’s like when Jesus said in John 14:11, “. . .  believe me for the very works' sake.”

Once you get saved, there are things you have been called to do.  When God gives you a vision or a plan, He also gives you instructions.  Your part in it may be large or small, but the rewards hold true for everybody that has a part in it. 

The first ark of a covenant was actually the ark Noah built.  He was a preacher of righteousness, and he became a priest to the whole wide world.  If they had believed and entered into the covenant with God with Noah, they would have been saved and blessed as Noah was.  Noah obeyed God in his works.  Had they also obeyed, they also would have been saved.  

Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.”  I see people working like crazy, trying to satisfy something that’s driving them, yet they work and work and attain to nothing!  If you get in line with God and commit your works to Him, you’ll have a focus, a purpose, and a walk pleasing to God.  You’ll be able to sleep at night. 

James 2:14-16 says, “What doth it profit, 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?” 

James 2:17 says, “Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”  God will never let faith be alone - He wants works along with it!  The proof of the matter is in James 2:18 which says, “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.” 

James 2:22 says, “Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?”  Working in obedience to God in the Lord’s kingdom with a church or ministry works your faith, tests your desire, and tells your motivation.  It proves to the sinner and the saint that you mean business with God.  Assist them rather than just hang around.  God said to pray for laborers not loafers in the harvest.

Luke 10:2 says, “Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.”

            Let’s be faithful in all that God has called us to do, because Revelation 22:12 says, “And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.”