Tag: Good Works

“Good Works–God’s Design for Christians“

“Good Works–God’s Design for Christians”

Author and Pastor A.W. Tozer

August 24, 1958

In Pilgrims Progress, the Christian is given certain information, instruction by one of the characters, the Evangelist, or someone else. And he says, these things do make me both hope and fear. And I feel the same way when I come to the Bible, particularly the writings of Paul or the sayings of Jesus. They do make me both to hope and to fear. They both encourage me and make me ashamed.

I am ashamed, for instance, that the man Paul, in prison could write a letter, a brief letter. I think probably, well, it would easily go on two typewritten pages. And yet, pack it so full of truth that it takes me weeks to go over it, and then, I don’t hope to get everything that’s there. For instance, this morning in the third chapter of Titus, or that’s the book I have been preaching from in the mornings as you know and unto which I now refer, the third chapter of Titus, the eighth verse there is a little line in the saying which he simply threw in, Paul just threw that in. If anything, it’s inspired, can be said to be thrown in. I do not mean to slight what he said, I only mean to say that to him, this obviously wasn’t a critically important thing. And yet, I find that I can’t get by it. I have to preach a whole sermon on it. Here are the words: These things are good and profitable unto men.

Now, Paul I say, put that in as a kind of salty saying, and yet, it gives me material for a whole talk. That’s humiliating to me to know that the man of God as he was inspired by the Holy Ghost, can put into a few words that which takes me a whole sermon to fathom.

Well, here we have the saying, these things are good and profitable unto man. Now, what things? Possibly these things that men might be careful to maintain good works, but more likely, all these things from chapter two verse one on, where Paul says, speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, for these things are good and profitable unto men. He said that aged men were to live gravely and temperately and patiently. Aged women were to live in a way that becometh holiness. Young women were to be sober, discrete, keepers at home, good and obedient. Young men were to be sober-minded, that workmen were to work as Christians, and all on down he tells us how we’re to live. And then says, we’re to be subject unto principalities and powers and obey magistrates. Then he says, and then, another thing I want you to keep saying is that everybody that believes in God should be careful to maintain good works. And then, he sort of adds it up at the bottom, because these things are good and profitable under men.

I know that you don’t want a lesson in semantics, nor do you want a lesson in English, but let’s look a minute at that word, good. These things are good. The word good has a long list of meanings in the average dictionary, because it’s one of those workhorse words that you can get on and ride anytime, and because it just means so many things. But here, the thought of morality is not present. When he says these things are good, he doesn’t mean these things are morally good, virtue. They are all right, I suppose if things can be, but that isn’t what he means. What he means is, these things are valuable to you. These things are to your advantage and profit. That’s what he means by good. You’ll find exactly the same Greek word we have in our English, but the same original word where it says, some fell into good ground.

Now good ground wasn’t ground, morally good, virtuous. A hunk of earth can’t be morally good. A turned-over sod can’t be virtuous. But it means valuable and profitable. There is soil so worked out that you can plant something in it, and it will either not come up at all, or if it does, it will be a scrub and it will produce practically no fruit at all. There’s other ground you can see it as you go, say, take a train here and go through Indiana and Ohio. And if you go through, you’ll see the great black fields. Now, those fields were originally buffalo fields probably. And the buffaloes beat with their hoofs over the centuries down into the ground, the reeds and rushes and grass and weeds until it’s literally alive with power and fruitfulness. The result is, they can grow almost anything over there. The great truck farms, that’s at least one of the places where we get our onions and lettuce and tomatoes that we serve on our tables all over the United States. That’s good ground, although it’s not morally good. The idea of virtue isn’t there.

Then we say, they bringeth forth good fruit. There are trees that bring forth fruit that can be eaten, good fruit, profitable fruit. Then, there are trees that bring forth only lumpy, small, sour, wormy fruit that’s no good. And we have the same, where Peter said, Lord, it is good for us to be here. He didn’t mean this is a morally holy place. He meant it’s advantageous. It’s a good thing for us. This is a great place to be.

Now, with that definition, I’ve gone way around Robin Hood’s celebrated barn to get to the meaning. And now, let’s apply that meaning a little. Say, suppose there’s a sick man and the doctor says to him, now, you take this treatment. It won’t be pleasant, but it’ll be good for you. You will be well in 10 days. That is a good thing. It’s good in the sense that it is advantageous. It’s profitable to me. You’ll get well if you take it. we say to a starving child, here, eat this, this will be good for you. The child eats it. It nourishes the little body and pretty soon the eyes begin to shine again and the color comes back into the face. The good food that is advantageous, profitable food, has made the little ones healthy again.

We say to an intelligent young man, it is good for you that you should finish high school. And he comes around again and says, now I’m finished high school, what shall I do? And we say well, you’re intelligent, I believe you’re college material, it’s good for you. Go on, go on to school and learn. We mean not that the college is going to be a morally good place, although it should be that certainly true. But we mean if you study certain subjects, they will profit you. So, that’s what Paul meant when he said, these things are good and profitable unto men. In other words, God always has the good and the profit of people in mind. If you could just put that down. And after you’ve heard that, then if we dismiss and you go home, if you remember that and take that with you and hold that as a tenant of your faith, it will help you in this wicked old world?

Almost everybody that comes to us, comes for their own profit. They come to you and these things are good and profitable unto them. If somebody comes to your door selling you something, and it’s because, why if he can make a sale, it’ll be good and profitable unto him. But he’s not thinking about you. It is so with everything. They sing anthems about cigarettes now. And that’s because it’s good and profitable unto the man who is selling the cigarettes; that it gives the man who smokes his lung cancer. That means nothing to them. He’ll have a son who will be ready by the time the old man dies of lung cancer, he’ll have a son whom he’s taught to smoke the dirty things and he’ll be and his family will be good. They know it’s good and profitable unto them. But it’s wonderful to hear it turned around and to hear it said, God always thinks of that which is good and profitable unto us. That when God approaches us with an exhortation, a command, He never comes saying, this will be good for me, but this is good for you. This will be good for you. The whole book of God is like that.

When we rise to the everlasting; when we rise to the eternal, how beautiful and how solemn it all is, so that sick man, though he takes that treatment and gets well, he’ll later died, notwithstanding. And if the starving child eats the food and gets it’s health back, it will die after a while too. The students will wither away and cease to need the learning that he with such great pains managed to get at the college or university. So that’s only for time. We say, go ahead, eat, drink, take care of yourself, learn, read, think. These are good and profitable things. But we realize that we’re thinking in time and talking in time. These things are good and profitable for time.

But when God speaks to a man, He says these things I say to you are good and profitable to you forever. God always thinks in terms of eternity and thinks forever. Isn’t it a solemn and a wonderful thought that you have in your bosom that which time can’t wear out? Isn’t it wonderful that you have in your breast that which the passing of the century cannot diminish or that cannot grow old with the passing of the years?

One of these times when people get back and we’re settled again. We are in our three worst Sundays of the year. But when we get around that we’ll have our people with us, I’m going to start a series, oh, I’m going to call it, A Journey into God. But then, before I get to that, I want to preach a sermon called, “The Space Age Seen from Above.” I’ve heard enough about this space age, and I can only take things so long. And I’ve been kicked around enough about the space-age view. And I’m going to reply now, a Christian is going to reply. What about this space-age business and I’m going to think from the throne down. And when you think from the throne down brother, you’re not the slightest bit worried about vanguards or any of the rest. If they blow up or go up, it makes no difference. Because, you’re thinking from the throne down, but I won’t preach my sermon. I will wait for the time. And you’ll come and hear it.

Now, think about the eternal soul of a man. Here he is, what’s space to that man? What’s time to that man? What’s space or time to that man? What matters to that man? What motion and law and attraction and gravitational pull and zones of radiation and empty space? What’s that to the man? God Almighty made him of a different material altogether. He lives differently. He’s of another matter altogether. It’s nothing to him.

So, God says now here, I’ve given you that which cannot whither, which cannot die, which cannot cease to be at any rate. And what shall it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your soul. God made the earth and He made man upon it. And He wills the good of that man. God’s will vigorously, actively wills the good of that man. If we could get ahold of a half a dozen great ideas and they begin to then get ahold of us, it would change our whole outlook.

One is that God is not passive and sluggish waiting to be stimulated, but that God is the active aggressor, waiting for us to recognize Him. If we could only see that, that God wills actively and aggressively my highest good for the longest time. And he says these things are good and profitable. He means, this will be advantageous to you while the ages roll. This will profit you as long as the stars burn and when I’ve wiped them out as a child wipes out a picture off a blackboard, you’ll still be there eternally profiting by these things. Now, God means the fullest development of my soul and He makes appropriate preparation for it, beyond death and beyond the resurrection and in the heaven above and in the fellowship of God forever.

Now, good and profitable. I think these words could be written over everything that God ever said or did in His relation to man, this is good and profitable for you. If God’s  children would only find that out and stop fighting. You know, there’s a little saying in the world, they say don’t fight it. It sort of a cute little saying people have. Well, don’t fight it. And so, they just give up to the deal whatever it happens to be. But if we could only remember that the will of God is not something to fight, but something to accept joyously, it would change our whole lives.

When God made Eden, He made a garden eastward in Eden. And He said there to the man, now this is good and profitable for you. And He put the man in there and said, this is good and profitable. And he made certain fruits and he said, now these are all for you. Look at them hanging there, all these trees. Here’s one. Don’t bother that. For my own reasons I have proscribed that, but all the rest of the garden is yours. And these things are good and profitable for you.

And then, when man had disobeyed and sinned, God cast him out of the garden, and why? Because it was good and profitable for him that he should not remain in the garden and eat of the tree, that would fix him like a photograph plate so that he never could change. God puts a man out where he could be fluid and malleable and changeable, so God could get hold of him and change him back from his sinful state, back to his back to holiness.

So, God drove him out of the garden. And of course, man mourned. In his trip out of the garden, Milton shows Adam and Eve hand in hand walking away from the gate of the garden, looking pensively back over their shoulder at what had once been their happy home. And then, hand in hand they went out into the world. But it was good and profitable for them that they should. That’s always God motto, this is good for you. This is profitable for you.

And then, come all down through the Scriptures, when God instituted sacrifice, and redemption. He said, here slay this animal. Put the blood on the altar. Confess your sin, for that’s good and that’s profitable for you. Later on, when the time came, Mary, as the little song says had a baby. And they named his name Jesus. All across the world, God wrote, this is good and profitable for you. This is good and profitable, and when Jesus opened his mouth and taught them, it was to their good and their profits. And when He died on a cross, if they’d had eyes to see, they could have seen written in letters of fire: this is good and profitable for all men, for God means it always to be so.

It is the devil’s libel that God looks upon men seeking to find fault and to punish and to harm. The devil brought that dirty, scandalous libel to Eve and got her to sin and he’s been telling everyone of Eve’s children from that hour to this, their sits God on the throne, the great bully. And your weak and helpless and short-lived, and He’s got eternity to throw His weight around. And so, they turn the minds of people against God forgetting that God gave man free will and said this is good and profitable for you. God gave man the world and said it’s good and profitable for you. God sent His Son to die and raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand and said this is for your profit. This is for your good. If we can only remember that and know that always God is thinking of our good and our profit.

Let’s suppose it’s a little baby. Let’s think it’s a little baby. There he lies, or she. There they lie face down, cheeks red, hair, one sock kicked off, the other one still on. Indeed, in restful, healthy, slumber. And the parents pass by and tiptoe in and see. What do they think about? And they go out again smiling. Are they going to plan how they can get him? How are they going to harm him? Are they going to sit out in the living room and plan the blocks, the hindrances they can put in his way? Are they going to teach him evil and harm him? No. You know better than that. Every father that’s normal, the abnormal few, I can’t tell you about them.

But every normal father thinks about his family, every normal father. Well, I remembered, this wasn’t a spiritual thing to do, but it was a perfectly normal thing to do. If I would have been more spiritual I wouldn’t have done it. But being just where I was, I did it. And it was perfectly normal. I used to think of my six boys. And they used to think if I should die or something should happen to me, what would happen to them. And I used to wake up in a state of panic way back there, I got over it, but it was normal. I was thinking of the welfare of those boys.

And every normal father or every normal mother thinks only of the welfare of their children. And if ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will your heavenly father give good things to those that ask Him? Because God is aggressively determined that He will give you that which is good for you; that which will profit you the longest time.

So, God sends these things to us, the promises, the warnings, the exhortations. There they are. Some of them are pretty severe. But if you will notice and read the fine print, you will see there, this is good for you. This is profitable for you. And then when it comes to the things we don’t like, sorrows and pain and loss and tribulations, nobody ever will love them yet. Nobody ever rushed headlong into pain deliberately yet. Even the man who takes a gun and puts it to his temple knows he’s going to cause himself sharp pain, but it will only be for an instance and his pain will be over, so he thinks though he’s trying to escape pain, not trying to run into it. And yet, when God allows them to come, he says, this is good for you, and I’m thinking of your profit.

Did you ever have anybody in your family take piano lessons. You know, the easiest thing in the world, is to get them to start and the hardest thing is to keep them at it. The easiest thing in the world. It’s a romance, Oow, I’m going to take piano, so off they go. And for the first week, you can hardly get them loose from the piano. Second week, they take off. The third week, you have to keep reminding them. The fourth week, threatening them. And then after that if you’ve got good sense, you call the whole thing off. Because you know, if you have to drive into the piano, they’ll never be a Horowitz anyway. Well, the point I’m trying to make is that God has to make us do some things sort of. I know we’re free will. But sometimes the Lord puts a little pressure on. And when we look up into His face questionly, He says, now this is good for you. This is profitable for you.

When I was a small boy, I used to have the unfortunate habit of picking apples off the tree before they were ripe and eating them, with the result that you can easily get, but which I for certain reasons I’m not going to go into. And of course, I’d be sick. I’d be in bed, cramps and miserable. And my mother would go to the doctor. Now personally, I think that probably the doctor gave the same powders.They tasted the same and looked the same no matter what I had for the first 14 years of my life. The same doctor brought me into the world, fed me this white powder. And I think it was probably the same stuff. But at least the point was, my mother thought it was good for me and so she made me take it. It was bitter. The idea in that day was, the worst it tasted the better it would be for you. I think that that probably was taught in the medical schools at that time. Now, I don’t know whether that’s true. But I do know this that sometimes God gives you bitter medicine and you might just as well face up to it. It’s a modern notion that Christianity is one huge Sunday school picnic with a swim thrown in. It’s all wrong.

The Christian life is a reasonably happy life and if you live close to God, a very happy life. But a life shot through and through with sorrows and hardships and pains and tribulations, and these sorrows and tribulations are not God’s highest will, for they’re not going to be any of them in heaven. But in this mixed up world where we are now and with us in the shape we are, they’re necessary tools. So, the Lord gives us the bitter medicine and says, now this is good for you. This will be good for you. Take it and thank me for it. It’s good for you. Now, he says, good works, good works, that God’s people should maintain good works. This is good for you. Do it. Do it.

I want to ask you a couple of questions and then I’m going to close. I want to ask, why is it, that it’s so hard to get people to do the things that are good for them and so easy to get them to do what’s sweet and pleasurable for them whether it’s good for them or not? I wonder why? Why is it hard to get people to do the things that are good for them? Why is it so easy to get people to do the things they like to do? Even though they know they’re not good for them? Why is it that when it’s a choice between the flesh and what’s good for us, ninety-seven times out of 100 Christians will choose the flesh? Why is it when God gives a choice between time and eternity, the vast overwhelming number of people will choose time? Why?

Let me give you an example of what a fool man can be, choosing the immediate short range profits instead of the long range profit. I came out of the United States Army as a young man. The United States government at that time had on every one of their men, they had a $10,000 insurance policy. One day, I got a letter from the government as all us men did. The letter said this. Now, you can take your choice, we will give you, I think it was $150 veteran benefits, now in cash. Or we will give you your paid up policy for life. We’ll just hand it to you. You don’t have to pay a dime and it’s yours. If you live to be 108, when you die, your relatives will get $10,000. I was a young struggling preacher in my first pastorate, getting about $3.48 a week as a salary. I was superintendent of Sunday School, the janitor, chairman of the board and was the board and was just generally everything. What I didn’t do, my wife did the rest. And you know what I took? I took the short range $150 instead of the $10,000 I might have had this government to pay my descendants.

Now, that’s an illustration. God says, now, you can have your chooce, time or eternity. Get the short range thing or take the long range thing and wait for it. Almost every time we take the short range pleasure and lose the long range benefits. Why? Why is it when it’s a choice between God and the flesh, almost every time the flesh wins and God loses? Why is it when God runs on a ticket against flesh, why it must almost always it be that the flesh defeats God in the choice. It’s because we’re so badly fallen. It’s because we’re so deeply, incurable dense. And it’s because only now and again does God find one bold enough and faith-filled enough that he’ll turn short-range benefits and take the long-range profits. Moses was one. He despised the court of Pharoah that he might claim the long range promises of God.

Go to the 11th in the Hebrews and you’ll see it, a long list of them, short range benefits and took eternity and the long, long profits that God gives to men. Always remember God gives you choices and then says, now, this isn’t so good, but this is good and profitable unto. For God’s sake, my brethren, let’s learn to take the thing that’s good for us rather than the thing we like. Let’s learn to suffer it out and batter it through.

People are suffering in this city of Chicago tragically and won’t get one little bit of blessing out of it.  Old Andrew Murray said, it’s shocking to think how much suffering some of God’s people can do to not profit by it. I hear and see and meet many people whom I talk every week almost. I have interviews in which people pour their sorrows and griefs out to me. And they without seeking it get sorrows and tribulations and hardships that Christians don’t have and won’t take and if God offered it to them, they wouldn’t accept it. They’d escape it and plow around it to get away from it. It’s too bad.

Who has done this? I think an enemy has done this and I think I know his name. I think I know his name. He has done this. The devil has done this, that evil one who hates us. Always remember, if it’s the world of the flesh and the devil and they make a proposition, always remember, it’s for your pleasure for a short run. And God sets over against that something that isn’t so pleasant. But, it’s for your good and your profit while while the ages roll.

Young people, learn to choose the hard way if it’s God’s way, for its good and profitable unto you. You can start in the beginning, God made the heaven and the earth and end up with, even so come quickly, Lord Jesus, amen. And all the way through, this is good for you and profitable unto you. I recommend you go into this and let it slice you and chew you and grind you and soften you and prepare you for eternity. Because you’re going there one of these days. You’re going there either having lived a life of artful dodging of the cross, artful escaping of tribulation, the easy, fleshly way, or you’re going there, like the Christian on his road to the Celestial City wearing his armor and carrying his sword and with his roll under his arm, ready to face any dragons or lions or devils that are in the way. Always remember whatever the devil says, and when God speaks it’s good for you. And when God speaks, it’s good, good and profitable for you.

So, if you don’t like to do it, do it anyway and thank Him. Don’t grumble. Don’t complain. Don’t pull a poor mouth and go through life gloomy. Thank Him for everything and say Father, this isn’t particularly enjoyable, but I’ll enjoy it anyway, knowing that you sent it and it’s good and it’s profitable for me. Amen.

“Good Works–The Proof of Salvation“

“Good Works–The Proof of Salvation”

Author and Pastor A.W. Tozer

August 17, 1958

Now this as you understand, represents stages in the journey. This is about twenty-some sermons that I’ve preached on it and we’ve arrived at verse eight, chapter three. This is a faithful saying and these things I will, let thou affirm constantly. That they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto man.

Now, this little phrase, this is a faithful saying, it’s really a sentence, is characteristic of Paul, in fact, peculiar to Paul. And commentators don’t quite agree; they don’t disagree, they just don’t quite agree about whether Paul meant, this the foregoing is a faithful saying, that after the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, and so on, or whether Paul meant, the following is a faithful saying. You can’t judge by the way it’s versified, for the versification was not the original. Mott translates it, it is well said and I would have you dwell on it. That those who have learned to trust in God saw it.

So, I think and believe that Paul meant, the following is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou constantly affirm, namely, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. Now, this phrase is used by Paul in the Bible and by nobody else but Paul. The nearest to it comes in that passage, two passages in Revelation, these are the truth sayings of God, and these words are true and faithful. But no place else does anybody say, this is a faithful saying. That was Paul’s phrase.

Now, he said in 1 Timothy 1:15. This is a faithful saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of which I am chief. He said in 1 Timothy 4:9, bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable for all things. And he says in 2 Timothy 2:11, is it? 2 Timothy 2:11, if I have it right, if isn’t, I will not bother to look for it. But yes, he says, it is a faithful saying, for if we be dead with Him we shall also live with him. If we suffer we shall also rein with Him. If we deny Him, He will also deny us. Then, he uses it again in the text of the morning.

Now, I think this needs to be explained a little bit. Not that any great world-shaking matter hangs upon it. But it’s good to know what a man means and why he said it, even if it is not the most important thing that he ever said. The using of the phrase, this is a faithful saying, doesn’t make the Bible any less true or any more true. But we’re interested in this man, Paul. We owe more to him than to anybody else except Jesus Christ, and perhaps, David.

So, we’d like to know why he said this? No, I give you, my explanation. I think that the fact that it’s stated in simple non scholarly language doesn’t make it any less true. And if I were to encumber it with learned jargon, it wouldn’t make it any more true. So, here’s the explanation, that in the early church before the epistles were written, there were many sayings that came from Jesus our Lord and from his apostles that had not got written yet. And they were sung as snatches of hymns. They were repeated often among the people such as some of our phrases, Jesus never fails and God answers prayer and so on, or trust and obey. Phrases that are not biblical, but that sums up biblical truth simply, and you hear it often.

You many times hear a preacher say, we sing, and then he’ll quote part of a hymn and say, this is truth. Well now, that’s what Paul meant here. The people of Paul’s time had a little saying among themselves that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. He said, now that’s true. That’s a faithful saying, that you hear it and it’s so. Then, bodily exercise profits little, but godliness is profitable unto all things. He said, now that’s true. You hear this said and that’s faithfully said. And then, this about Christians, all Christians are to maintain good works. You hear that said often. The preachers say it often, and it’s come down to us from our Lord. Now, he said, that’s a faithful saying. That’s the explanation. And that’s why he used it.

Now, he said, I want you to affirm this constantly. Keep saying this. Dwell on it said the translation read before, dwell on this. They had been saying it, but he said, now, I want you to know that it’s true. And therefore, keep saying it. This is more than a good thing. It’s so true, that it’s divinely true and it must be repeated. You must keep bearing down on this. And I will that you affirm it constantly. See, preachers are supposed to have nothing much to do but sit around and then appear in the pulpit on Sunday. But the simple fact is, to keep a balance between unnecessary repetition and sufficient repetition to make the thing work, takes a lot of prayer, and a lot of hard thought. Some brethren just repeat continually until I don’t know where I could go to sleep better than sitting in the third roll back in their church. Because they won’t say a thing that I haven’t already heard. And they won’t even say it in a different way.

But there is another matter, and that is that if you don’t keep hammering on it, people will forget it. If you don’t keep saying it, it won’t have any dynamism in it. So, he said, I want you to affirm constantly. So, if you want to pray for your preacher, you pray that he will know how to say it often enough, and emphatically enough to detonate it and set it off and cause a moral explosion, and yet, not saying it to say it so dully that people go to sleep under it. Keep that in mind. young preacher there. That’s a job we have to do.

Now, what is this saying that he said he often heard it. He said, you often hear they say it among the brethren and I want to assert it that it’s true. I want you to keep saying it because it’s of God. It’s this, now they which have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. They which have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works.

I want you to hear this little phrase, they which have believed in God. What did he mean by this anyway? They would have believed in God. You will have to admit it’s not very plain because Parsis believe in God, and the Hindus believe in God, and I can say by saying simply that every religion known to man except perhaps Buddhism, and there’s an argument over that, and Confucianism and Confucianism is not religion, but the philosophy. So therefore, every religion known the man believes in God. And every praying person believes in God. And everybody believes in God. So, he says, they which believe God should maintain good works. Now, that’s making it pretty broad.

Do you know my brethren, that we can know what is meant by knowing who said it? Often times, a man will say a thing, a lot of things. And it’ll be ambiguous, which means it can be taken two or three ways. Two ways, but often more than two ways. And he doesn’t make it clear. But you can know what he meant by knowing who he is, by knowing his testimony, by knowing what his past life has been.

Now, there are men in this city, and I’m not going to dignify them by mentioning their names, or degrade myself. But there are men in this city, who are so liberal and modernistic in their view, that when they say I believe in God, you don’t know what they mean, because they are Mr. Facing both ways. And they balanced themselves on the tightrope carefully, and are careful to please everybody. And the result is when they say they, they that believe in God, you have no remote idea to whom they refer, because they have no sure convictions themselves though they use the phrase loosely and carelessly, but never did Paul. Paul said, they that believe in God ought to maintain good works. He’s writing to a church, and he was an apostle.

Now, it is the same with anybody that’s known across the street. If he speaks ambiguously, don’t write him a letter scolding him. Know what he means by what he believes. The man Paul, you know what he believes? Believing God, he said. What did that mean to a Jew who had become a Christian? What did that mean to a man who was a believer in the Messiah? You know what it meant?

Who was this man Paul? Oh, my brother, he was one who would go all over Asia Minor preaching one thing, God is and Jesus Christ is the Messiah. God the Father is, and Jesus Christ is His Son. He’s been in jail and out of jail. He’s been stoned and cuffed and kicked and starved and tramped upon and shoved around and lied about and maligned. And he had to endure all that because he loved God and Jesus Christ, His Holy Son, and everywhere he went, he went quoting the Old Testament Scriptures. Jehovah, Great I Am by heaven and earth confess.

So, he didn’t have to write a whole page to make them know. They knew what he meant because they knew who sent it. So, my friend, it’s possible for you to live a life that you can keep pretty tight-mouthed and still have a mighty good testimony. Everything you say they won’t misinterpret you, they will for a little while. But as soon as they get to know you, they won’t misinterpret you. You only half say it. They’ll know what you mean. Tom Hare could come here and talk for half an hour and never mentioned Jesus and go way, I wouldn’t worry about it. I would if some men did, because I know the context, as they say, would indicate they didn’t want to mention it. But Tom Hare lives in his heart so much all of the time he takes Jesus Christ for granted and so did Paul. And so when Paul said they that believe in God, everybody knew what he meant. He meant trusting Jesus Christ, who is the way unto God and who God made manifest to dwell among us, mysteries of Godliness.

Now, Paul used this same thing before. Paul would have been flunked out of Wheaton or out of Nyack or the Moody Bible Institute for this one. Paul said, for I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day. Now, he said that. That’s there in print in English, and it’s a good, fair, close representation of what he wrote in the Greek. Now, he had been flunked out. They would have written in red pencil across the top, unclear. Your pronouns have no have no antecedent and they’d have marked him down to 55 on that paper and send it back at the old man of God. That was the last book he ever wrote, that second Timothy.

So, he said, I know Whom I have believed, and he didn’t say whom the Whom was. He didn’t put any name there you see. I know Whom and some Jew could say, I know what he means, he means Jehovah and a Parsi could have said he means Zoroaster, and somebody else could just put his god in there. But they’d have arrested Paul’s language to their own destruction because Paul never meant anybody but Jesus Christ as Lord. He was the one who went around turning the world upside down by what he had to say about Jesus Christ. He was the one who said that I count my life but nothing that I may win Christ and be found in Him.

So, when he said, I know Whom I have believed, he didn’t need to put the antecedent to the pronoun in. The pronoun was Jesus. It’s possible to live so that when you use a pronoun and say He, people know who you mean. You don’t have to ask to explain it. It takes a little living to get there, but after a while you can get there and Paul was there brother. He was there. It takes a little living to get to a point where you just raise your hand and folks know what you mean?

Ah, God has His people. He has them. I saw some of them out at Summit Grove, the first meeting, I was there. I got there Tuesday, and they introduced me, or just before they introduced me, they said, Brother Olin Jones will lead us in prayer. Well, I didn’t know Olin Jones, but the man, a young fellow about my age got up to lead in prayer. And oh, brother, what a prayer. And I said to the District Superintendent afterwards, I said, is that man as good as he sounds? Oh, he is, he said, he just walks with God. What a prayer. It was worth my going over there to hear that man pray. What up prayer. Well, so childlike. So reverent. So deeply sincere. So radiant. He just talked to God as if he just was addressing Him face to face. And then he quietly sat down. Well, that’s the meeting up for me. I didn’t have to have anybody sing the girl’s trio after that. I was already set up for the sermon. Just to hear that man pray. Now, that man after that could say anything he wanted to say. And I knew what he meant, because I knew who he was. So, Paul said, I know Whom I have believed, and of course the whom is nobody else but Jesus.

And I know that He’s able to keep that which I have committed unto Him. Now, what’s that? There’s no antecedent there. That relative pronoun has got to have something back of it, but it doesn’t have anything back of it, Paul. Well, Paul said, I was so wrapped up in God that I forgot to be grammatical. So, he’ll keep that which I have committed unto Him.

What’s that which he’s committed? Oh, my brother, I just wish we could just read all of Paul’s epistles and his sermons in the book of Acts and see, everything Paul had. Hope for the future, his glorious crown, his heaven, his Father’s house. Everything that Paul had lived for and was doomed to die for. That’s what Paul had in mind. He didn’t have to make a grocery list here or a bill of lading to tell us what he meant. He said, that which I’ve committed. Knowing Paul, we know what he meant. And I repeat that you’d better get fast to a place where you can keep still and still give your testimony. You better get there quick to a place where you don’t have to spell it all out for people to know what you mean. They know what you mean.

You’ve got people in this church, who get up and pray never mentioned Christ’s name and sit down, and I knew what they meant and God knew what the meant. A theologian or the Bible students, particularly the freshman, would condemn them out of hand. God knew what they meant just as they knew what Paul meant. He knew who Paul meant. Then he said, He’d keep that which I’ve committed unto Him against that day. And he didn’t say what day. What day, somebody’s birthday? Christmas? Easter or what day? Paul didn’t say what day. So, you see, Paul made three errors there. School marms would have turned him down. But Paul’s life was his grammar.

And Paul’s known message, what he stood for, what he lived in, what he assumed to die for, said what he didn’t say and couldn’t say in print. What day is it? The day of His appearing. It’s the day of His appearing. The day when He shows us and walks down the sky and shouts with a loud voice that’s heard around the world and wake from the dead, every sleeping saint and glorify every living one. That day, Paul looked forward to that day. We’re so learned in some evangelical circles now that we are ashamed to admit we believe in that day, but I still believe in that day. I haven’t got it all straightened out as I used. But I believe in that day. I believe in the coming of the day. And that’s the only day that a Christian lives for anyhow. He lives for that day. Paul said, that day, he didn’t have to explain it everybody that listened to Paul knew. They knew that he had written, he had preached, he had prayed, he had exhorted, he had labored with that day in view. So, he didn’t need to say what day.

Now he said, they that believe in God should be careful to maintain good works. Now there’s confusion, and this will be repetition, because it’s occurred before. But let’s hope instead of it being repetitious, it’ll turn out to be just underscoring for emphasis, the confusion about good works in the church. Incidentally, I got another letter last week. Some weeks go by and I get nice letters and others go by and I don’t. This last week wasn’t my week. I should have stood in bed. But, a second lady wrote me and she also scolded me for about three solid, finely written pages, because of what I had said that not all faiths please God. Well, poor lady, she’s in, of course, confused because her teachers have taught her wrong. Some have taught error about this, that good works are meritorious. Jesus said after you have done all you can do and have done the best you can do, say, I’m an unprofitable servant. That’s what Jesus thought about good works.

And Paul went to great pains to teach that you couldn’t be saved by good works. But some people have taught that you could. They have taught that salvation is achieved by good works and that grace is a supplement to good work. There’s a place for grace, but the grace merely comes in and pays out what you can’t pay. You pay 75% of your way to heaven by doing good and grace comes in and graciously helps you with the other 25%. Now, that is taught in some circles, not of course in that rather ridiculous way, but they teach it.

Now, this of course, is in violent contradiction to the teaching of the New Testament. The hymn says, could my tears forever flow, could my zeal no respite know, these for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone, and that is a faithful saying, and worthy of much repetition. But others have gone in the opposite error. Always remember that the human race very rarely stays in the middle of anything, except when they’re caught in the middle. They’re moving from one extreme to another constantly.

For instance, dresses, but we won’t go into that. After the First World War, I saw the girls walking around dressed just as they’re dressed today. The pendulum has swang once more. Well, have your fun girls, have your fun. But the pendulum is swinging from one extreme to another. And the other extreme is, and it’s the extreme we’re in danger of in our school of thought. We so fear the first error, that salvation is by good works that we’ve ruled out good works as a part of the Christian system. There’s a great danger there my brethren. Yet, through the atonement in Christ’s blood, here’s the formula and this is a faithful thing and worthy of much repetition. That through the atonement in Christ’s blood, we are saved by grace through faith unto good works. There’s your formula. You can put that down. Through the atonement in Christ’s blood, we are saved by grace through faith unto good works.

Now, the New Testament says, 2 Corinthians 9:8, that we are to abound in every good work. Hebrews 13:21, Paul prays, or the writer prays that God will make us perfect in every good work. Acts 9:36 says, Dorcas was full of good works which she planned to do. Am I accurate? Dorcas was full of good works which she planned to do. Is that right? What did it say? She was full of good works, which she did. I like that. Again. Nobody put that in. I’d rule that out of course. Anybody who would be correcting papers would rule it out. But the Holy Ghost said, Dorcas was full of good works which she did. But many of us Christians are full of good works, which we hope to do after vacation is over.

And then Ephesians 2:10, we’re created in Christ Jesus unto good works. 1 Timothy 2, women should not adorn themselves with outward adorning, but rather with good works. 1 Timothy 5, let not a widow be taken in. Now, remember, this was the old folk’s home in the early church. And when a Christian woman came to the door with her application blank, they said, who have you got for a reference. They said, well I’ll give them my pastor and Paul knew me and Timothy knew me. They checked with Paul and Timothy and they said, did she do good works and did she wash the same feet? And if they said yes, they took her in. If they said no, they said, we’re sorry grandma. But we can take you when you have got a life of good works back of you. Can you imagine that? Wouldn’t that empty some of our old folks’ homes? The only thing, the only qualification to get into the average denomination old folks’ home is just to be old. It’s all you have to be, just be old and you can get in, if you have the money.

But their qualification was they had to be filled with good works and had to have a record behind them of having served the saints and looked after the church and prayed and loved and labored in the kingdom of God, else they wouldn’t take them in. They didn’t believe they were Christians. They could carry their big Bible under their arm, but they still didn’t believe they were Christians. They said, no, we’re sorry. A Christian is one who is saved by grace through faith unto good works. And good works is the only part you can see you know, everything else is submerged, invisible. Grace is invisible. Faith is invisible. How do I know you have faith? You say you have. How do I know you? You say you believe in the grace of God? How do I know you do?

There’s only one proof–good works. Paul didn’t say, don’t take any old lady in unless she testified that she was a believer, it didn’t say that. He said don’t take her in unless she has a record of good works behind it, she’s been a hard-working Christian. Because you see, if you come to be 65 or 70, or 80, or whatever it is years old and you’re ready to retire and go to a home, if you haven’t shown the last time by your works that you’re a true believer, you’re not a true believer. That was Paul’s argument.

In Hebrews 10:24, the Holy Ghost says provoke unto love and good works. And that’s what I’m trying to do this morning. I’m provoking and I may provoke some of you too, but you’ll get over it. And Acts 10:38 says that God anointed Jesus Christ of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power, who went around doing good works; doing good and healing all the effects of the devil.

Now, I gave you some Scriptures here to show, nine of them, plus the text. We can find many, many more to show that while nobody is saved by good works, everybody is saved unto good works. And if we’re not saved unto good works, we’re not saved at all. Could my tears forever flow? Could I go into the desert and starve to death in the cave? Would I give my body to be burned? Could I contribute all my goods to feed the poor? If I have not faith in Jesus Christ as my dying Lord and risen Savior, I’d perish. Could I preach a lifetime? I’d be a castaway myself unless I’ve trusted in the merits of Jesus’ blood alone for my salvation. Grace is a charming sound, harmonious to the ear. And how sweet it is to know that the grace of God saves us without works and without merit. But the devil gets behind that. And, from behind that he whispers, now look out for good works. Watch it. Watch it. Watch it! Don’t do any good works. It’s enough that you go to church and sing.

The Bible teaches that if you’re saved by grace through faith, you’ll do good works. What kind of good works? Well, of course they vary with the age in which you live and they vary with the opportunity. But I’m quite sure it isn’t putting your money in the basket. That’s one of course. I believe that God’s people ought to be the busiest helpers in the whole world. I think that we ought to be. But as long as we think that salvation is by grace through faith unto sitting down, why we’ll have to have outside help.

A French or Swiss writer, I think he writes in French, a Swiss writer, by the name of Rougemal has said a very beautiful and wonderful thing. I bought his book the other day and I’ve only read two or three pages, but I got this out of it, he said, God Almighty says, I am He that is. And the devil says, I am not. He says, God works by asserting His being and the devil by denying it. So, he says, the devil gets hold of us by denying He exists. And so, why be afraid of a non-existent thing? Why be afraid of someone that’s merely an old wife’s tale, or a ghost or a spook.

The devil hides behind not anonymity, but non-existence, and whispers I don’t exist and goes to work on people. Oh, I believe the devil has been busy behind his screen of non-existence as we people so learned and so sophisticated that we don’t believe in the devil. I believe the devil has gotten his work in so that Christians are not doing good works. Paul said they should be. And Paul set an example by using threads and needles. Dorcas said it’s by using threads and needles. Others went about giving of their goods. The centuries have shown how the church can labor and work.

My dear friends, you ought so to live that somebody, somewhere will have you to thank at the end of the day. You should so labor and work and sacrifice, pouring your money and your sweat into something helpful to mankind to alleviate human suffering, assuage human grief and give light to the blind. You should so live that in that great day, they’ll know you’re a Christian. They won’t have to say are you a believer? Have you got the right doctrine about grace? They look at your good works and know that anybody that wasn’t saved by grace through faith would never live like that and they would say, okay.

Faith saves you by grace through the blood of the lamb that after you’re saved, not to sit down on what the old country people called “the stool of do nothing.” You’re to get up and get busy. Dave Lutchwiler wrote an article saying that Christianity was a layman’s movement. He said that every Christian ought to be active. I’ve already gotten a two-page blitzer on that. A two-page blitzer but I still believe it. I read the article, made a few suggested changes and printed it. Every child of God should be busy at something. If you can’t sing, don’t try to sing, please. Don’t try to sing. So many of God’s people want to be used of the Lord but they want to sing. Well, if you can’t sing don’t try to sing, but there’s something you can do. You can turn the pages for the organist. You can do that. You can do something. Find out what to do and don’t say, oh, there’s nothing for us young people to do. You don’t have to organize things. Do them Brother, do them. You’re intelligent Sister. You read up; you know you’re alive in the world. You’re a 20th century person. You know where the needs are. And if you don’t know where they are, you know how to find out where they are.

Therefore, see to it that you work in the name of Jesus Christ, a labor of love. Get good works behind you. The only way we’ll know you’re Christian, you know you’re a Christian you say, by your faith and by your witness. Very good and I believe in both. But we’ll never be sure you’re a Christian unless we see you laboring for the Lord Jesus Christ in faith and love. So, while we can have good works of a kind, as I’ve said, without being saved. You can’t be truly saved and not have some kind of good works.

Over at Summit Grove, I met a man 48 years old, a Mr. Henry P. Kirks, a photographer by trade or profession, whichever that is. He’s been living that way and he’d come to the camp meeting for the purpose of taking down sermons on faith. And as soon as he could get to me, he said, do you Brother Tozer, I’ve been converted just a year and a half. And you know how I was converted? I was converted by hearing a tape recording of a sermon you preached. You know, now the tape recording of course, I might have been asleep at the time he was hearing that. But while that tape recording was being made, I was pouring something into it. And before it was being made, I was getting ready for it and pouring something into that.

So, I think that when the Lord comes to give every man according to the deeds done in the body, he won’t give that reward to a hunk of celluloid. He will know somebody was back of that praying, laboring and preparing. I hope to meet a lot more like that. I hope you’ll meet a lot like that. And I believe you will. I believe you will. I don’t mean to scold you. I believe you will. But some of you need to be provoked, because you just sit around. In God’s name, brethren and sisters, let’s hear this faithful saying that he that believes in God should be careful to practice good works. Amen.