Living Hope Fellowship Church

 WORKS TO DO

Training Material

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

WORKS TO DO

Preface

(works are important - after salvation)

The Bible tells us that works cannot save you.  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.” 

          How you live and work in God’s kingdom is your witness to the world.  I see people working like crazy, trying to satisfy something that’s driving them, yet they attain to nothing!  Commit your works to God, and He will satisfy your heart.    

Noah proved that he believed God.  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! 

          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.” 

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, what you “work”.   

How you live, and do, and work in God’s kingdom is your witness to the world.  It’s easy for anybody to say they are a Christian, but Jesus said by their fruit you would know them!  Fruit doesn’t just grow itself; there must be pruning and cultivation.  An effort is required on the part of the believer!  Faith without works is dead!

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

How would you know if somebody did something if they just said they did it?  There have to be works.  Genesis 6:10-12 says, “And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.  The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.  And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.”

God spoke to Noah, because he walked righteously before God.  Verse 13 says, “And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”

Verse 18-20 says, “But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.  And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female.  Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.”

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 not had works?  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, God gave him strength, and God caused him to understand.  However, there had to be obedience on the part of Noah. 

There has to be obedience on the part of the believer.  Obedience is a sign through works that we believe God!  To obey is even better than fasting 40 days and 40 nights, because He said to obey is better than sacrifice. 

A centurion, who was a man under authority and saw that Jesus was under authority, came and wanted Jesus to pray for his servant.  People told Jesus that this man was worthy, because he had built them a synagogue.  That’s works. 

There was another man who was over an Italian band of soldiers.  He was a prayerful man, and Acts 10:3-4 says, “He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius.  And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.”  The Lord spoke to Peter through an angel to go preach to him.  Works can get God’s attention!

However, you’ve got to be saved or 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.

Some people think they don’t have to do anything, and that they can just live like the devil, saying once they are saved they will always be saved.  Works won’t save you.  Living like the devil and having works like the devil won’t save you either!  The Bible says God will judge us according to the deeds done in this body. 

1 Peter 1:17 says, “And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear:”  (See also 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.”

When John the Baptist began to preach in the wilderness and baptize in the river Jordan, many came to his baptism.   The scribes, and Pharisees, and hypocrites came also, because they didn’t want to be left out!  You know a tree by its fruit, not by its gifts.  You should be able to tell the difference between a rotten apple and a good apple at a glance.  If you stay in prayer, people won’t confuse you anymore.  John the Baptist called the hypocrites vipers!  He said in Matthew 3:8, “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:” meaning that they should prove by their works that they meant business with God!

Noah proved that he believed God.  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 world wonder!  That was God’s intention so that everybody would hear the gospel at least once and have a chance to receive it.  Noah’s work in operation was a manifestation of his evangelistic calling and missionary work.  He didn’t have to hunt people in the highways and byways; they came to the ark just to look at that thing. 

You will come into the very thing that you are building.  Genesis 7:1 says, “And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.”

How did He see him righteous?  Noah obeyed God.  How did he show forth that he obeyed Him?  It was by works.  That is how you show other people that you believe God and are obeying Him!  God saw it in his heart, but He also saw that Noah was willing to lay his reputation on the line and build something ridiculous in order to obey God.  Not only was it a humbling experience, but it also prepared him for things to come. 

God told him and his whole house to enter in, and they did.  Genesis 7:15 says, “And they went in unto Noah into the ark. . . .”  Look at how it’s worded.  Noah’s faith drew them into his activity.  It’s like when Jesus said in John 14:11, “. . . believe me for the very works' sake.”

You have to follow the plan of God.  He tells you to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and to receive Him.  It doesn’t get any simpler than that.  He’s always drawing you and making it easier.  However, once you get saved there are things you have been called to do.

Genesis 7:24 says, “And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.”  Genesis 8:1 says, “And God remembered Noah, and every living thing. . . .”   God looked on the earth that He had made.  There was nothing but water, and He saw that His judgment was complete.  However, He also saw a little speck about 45 feet high and about 75 feet wide and 450 feet long sitting on a 25,000 mile circumference!   

What got Noah there?  God and Noah’s works got him there.  A true Christian can prove the Lord Jesus Christ is alive by doing the works that He did, the works of God.  It is something we can accomplish!  God will pour out a blessing from heaven if we will just do something on earth to show Him we mean business!

It can’t be something you dream up.  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.  Noah’s wife, sons, and daughters-in-law got the same reward he got. 

They didn’t have to shut the door, because the Bible says the Lord shut the door.  God had to seal it.  It was a supernatural event.  God took something that a man built and turned it into something supernatural. 

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 built the ark.  He obeyed God in his works.  Had they also obeyed, they also would have been saved.  

Genesis 9:8-9 says, “And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;”  God had spoken only to Noah, and he had spoken to them, but because they entered in and helped him, God began to talk to them instead of just through the preacher. 

God talked to Noah.  He built the ark, his family went in with him, and God remembered Noah because of what he did.  God was gracious, yes, but also He had a man that earnestly desired to obey Him. 

It wouldn’t have taken that man and his sons a hundred years to build the ark if they would have had help, but He used the time to preach to more people. 

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 unto Him, you’ll have a focus, a purpose, and a walk pleasing to God.  You’ll be able to sleep at night. 

Even though you are working on something natural, it’s for eternal purposes.  The ark was natural, but it was for eternal purposes; it saved the world. 

James 2:14 says, “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?” 

James 2:15-16 says, “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.” 

If you’re a sinner you can’t do (work) enough to get God’s attention.  Your works don’t count.  You have to call upon His name when He’s drawing you.  Then you can obey God, and He’ll work with you.  There is no blessing better than knowing what you’re doing is for the Lord!

 James 2:19-22 says, “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.  But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?  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?”

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.”

James 2:26 says, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

          According to Scripture, if I can’t be faithful in some natural things, I’ll never be ruler in spiritual things.  Luke 16:11 says, “If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?”

          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.”

CONTACT INFORMATION:

PASTOR KEVIN BADGLEY

LIVING HOPE FELLOWSHIP, P. O. BOX 111, GRAND CHAIN, IL  62941

CHURCH / FAX (618) 634-2541

E-mail  livinghopefellowship@lazernetwireless.net

These condensed Bible studies have been published to help new Christians in their new walk with the Lord.  Kevin Badgley, the author, is the pastor of Living Hope Fellowship Church.

This is a Living Hope Fellowship publication.