Are Good Works Enough?

Apologia Studios

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How many of you have even been on a missions trip? You've actually given up time in your life and money to serve

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Jesus on a missions trip, and while you're there serving the Lord, you've sinned on that trip. Daniel, good job, thank you, man.

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See, even the good things that we think we're doing before God, even those are tainted with our own pride, our own selfishness, our own sin, our own falling short.

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There's nothing that we have before God, no status. We're completely dependent upon His mercy.

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The people who come to God and know God truly are those who recognize, like children, they have no status and they are fully dependent upon the mercy of God.

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They come to Him with nothing. All they are is receptive. All they can do is receive.

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They have nothing to offer. They have nothing to give. So when these disciples, and this is where we're wrapping it up, when these disciples come to Jesus and they say this, who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

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They want status. They think they have something to offer on those thrones.

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They think that they have some ability to convince and have power and to convey some spiritual higher purpose.

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They have something to offer God's kingdom, and Jesus says the first thing you need to recognize is that you have nothing.

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You are completely broken. You have no status. You are dependent upon mercy. Come to me like a child, and then

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Jesus starts to push even more on this point. He says, come die, take up your cross, give up everything, sell what you own, give it to the poor.

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Come follow me naked, and I want to say this. My story is not that important, but I believe that I had a false profession of faith early on in my life, and it wasn't until I came out of my addiction to drugs and alcohol and the life of sin that I was pursuing that I began to reexamine the scriptures, and I was seeing in the text of God's word all these calls to come to Christ like a child, to turn and become like a child, to humble yourself, to give up everything, to turn from sin, to abandon everything, to come to Christ whole in him.

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I heard the gospel before in the way that it's preached commonly today, and it was this.

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You're a sinner, God isn't. You want to go to heaven and not burn in hell?

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Okay, pray this prayer. Great, congratulations, you're saved.

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You prayed that prayer. I even heard somebody suggest that people get saved, you need to invite friends to church, because when unbelievers come to church, if they sing the songs, if they sing the lyrics that are on the screen, then

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God will save them, because they've been professing true things in a worship service, and God will redeem that, because he says, believe in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, you'll be saved. They said those words on the screen, they're probably saved now they came to a Christian worship service.

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That's the context I was in. And when I began to reexamine the scriptures,

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I saw that Jesus had a different message altogether. He had a message that said, you come to him and die.

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And that began the course where I began to look at my own heart to question whether I'd ever actually turn to Jesus.

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I had what seemed like affections for God and a love for his word, but there was nothing in my life that looked like turning and becoming like a child, total dependence upon Christ and his lordship.

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And so my question to us today, when you think about the humility that Christ calls us to, becoming like a child and coming to God, have you taken up the cross?

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Have you come to die, or are you still seeking to save your life? Have you come to die and rise again?

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Or is this life the most valuable thing to you? Have you denied yourself?

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Have you given up what you love, what gives you pleasure, what gives you joy, but is dishonoring to God and not pleasing to God?

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Have you denied yourself? Have you turned to God? Have you had a change of heart and had a change of mind?

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Are you coming to God, putting things before him that you think merit salvation?

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Or are you coming to God like a child, only receiving? You see, those who are saved, who know

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God in scripture are receiving. Their mouths are open to receive living water from God.

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Their hands are open, nothing to bring. From the beginning of the

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Bible to the end of the Bible, you see this thread, and it is the grace of God.

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He's the giver, he's the doer, he's the one that can boast. We have nothing.

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And so the question that should snap us to attention is have you become like a child to receive him?

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Now, there's a danger in this. I'm a fallible person,

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I am only human. I'm still being sanctified as a pastor.

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I can't always communicate God's truth in a perfect way. And I can't always communicate

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God's truth in a way maybe that's winsome or powerful or amazing.

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You know, everybody wants that sermon. Everybody wants that sermon. Everyone who wants status wants that shocking youth message from Paul Washer, right?

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Some guys are like, you know, they're building their life off of being able to preach that sermon that becomes the shocking youth sermon of Paul Washer, right?

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Some guys live their lives like that, trying to preach sermons like that. But I just wanna confess,

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I can't always preach the message that's gonna change the world, I can't. It's not in me. I have no power to do it.

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And there's a danger in a message like today, and this is the danger. You can hear all these things, all very true things about Christ, about humility, about becoming like a child, about taking up the cross.

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You can hear all of it and you've heard it before and you think that you've contemplated it or meditated on it appropriately and well enough.

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But there is a real danger to being in a Christian communion and being very comfortable with all the spiritual things that you hear.

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If you're just accustomed to it, it's natural to you. And if you've been an apology at church for any time, you're probably a person that's heard this message preached a number of times.

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Things like this, take up your cross, deny yourself. But can I just be just intensely personal with you for a minute?

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Have you examined yourself to see whether you're in the faith?

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And I'm not asking you this. I'm not asking you if you've had what seemed like spiritual experiences in your past.

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That's not what I'm asking you. I'm not asking you if you've served God in some ministry somewhere. I'm not asking you if you have theological books on your shelf.

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I'm not asking you if listening to Christian sermons gets you excited. I'm not asking you if you have what seem like affections for God and so I feel like I'm all good.

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I'm asking you, have you ever truly come before the Lord and examined yourself and asked

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God to open your heart, to open your eyes to him, to expose yourself, to expose you, who you really are before him?

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Have you ever come to God and actually said, Lord, here I am, expose me.

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Is there any false way in me? Have I come to you in a way that is not true?

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Like I'm so scared for Christian kids. I am. Kids raised in Christian homes. I am,

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I'm terrified for children raised in Christian homes because I feel like there's a danger to children being raised in Christian homes that they will go through their lives assuming they're

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Christians because of their surroundings. Assuming they're Christians because mom and dad are.

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Assuming they're Christians because there's a Bible. Assuming they're Christians because they've gone to youth group. Assuming they're Christians because they had some mountaintop experience at a youth camp.

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Assuming they're Christians because they are comfortable with the Christian culture. And that terrifies me that there are children, maybe even in this church, that have been around the

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Christian faith. They love the message of Jesus, but they never actually gotten on their knees and asked God, God, do

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I truly know you? Have I truly turned from my sin to trust in Jesus? Am I depending totally in you?

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God, expose any wrong way in me. There are people in this room, no doubt about it.

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There's no question that there are people in this room that have had an experience with Christ in the past, have turned to a life of sin today and love their sin more than they love

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God and are just hiding out in church. Why?

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Well, it's like insurance, right? I have all of the marks of what looks like a

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Christian, but my heart hasn't been truly transformed. I wanna say this, this might seem like a hard message to preach, right?

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It's not a comfortable message, but the loving thing is the Christ thing. And Christ actually confronted crowds of people by actually exposing where they were.

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He says things like this, if you don't pluck your eye out and throw it away, you won't enter the kingdom of heaven.

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If you don't turn and become like a child, you won't enter the kingdom of heaven. If you don't hate mother, father, sister, brother, wife, even your own life, you're not worthy of being my disciple.