Christians’ Responsibility: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 Uh, we’re going to be talking about Christians’ responsibility. Matthew 5:14-16: “You are the light of the world,” talking to us, and as they say down south, “A city that is set on the hill cannot be hid.” Why are Christians hiding out? They hide out in their homes, they hide out in the church. They’re worthless. “Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a bushel. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. They put the lamp on a lampstand so it gives light to all that are in the house.” He’s just using a natural illustration; that doesn’t make the book an allegorical book. He’s just given us natural illustrations to understand spiritual things. “Let your light shine before men.” So what is our responsibility? To let our light shine. That is our responsibility. You accept Christ, you accept salvation, you accept eternal life, He puts a responsibility on you to let your light shine before who?

▶ 1:07 Men, you see. And He tells us what that shining of the light is: “that they may see your good works.” That’s the shining light. These politicians that say, “I don’t wear my religion on my arm, on my sleeve”: that’s ridiculous. People should see our religion. Right here it says it. Hallelujah. And if you do that, He said those men that you do good works before will give honor to your Father in heaven. Now, do you want the world giving honor to God, or are you looking for honor? So.

▶ 2:00 Who’s the light of the world? Those of us who are following Jesus. What does the light of the world do? Good works. And who is to see our good works? Men. Now, grace and faith and works do not conflict with each other. We need to get this clear. There is so much emphasis on grace and faith and no works. I want you to get this in your head, your cranial vacuum; I want to fill it up with some truth right now. All right. “It is by grace that you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves.” Nothing you could do about it. “It is the gift of God.” God freely did it.

▶ 3:00 “Not by works, so that no man can boast.” I can’t win enough souls to get into heaven. I can’t pray enough hours to get into heaven. I can’t take communion enough to get into heaven, to be saved from my sin. There’s absolutely nothing, for my point, that I can do besides believe the gospel, accept His favor, His death on the cross for my sins. Is that an amen? It’s free. Now, “not of works.” Now, if they would just continue reading, the subject hasn’t stopped yet. He’s still talking about salvation. “We are God’s workmanship.” He’s fashioning us.

▶ 3:52 See, He’s fashioning us into what? A people that are created, they that in Christ Jesus are what? A new creation. Okay, this grace and faith that brought salvation also is the thing that got us born again, made a new creature. Do you see that? We are a new creature, old things passed away, all things made new. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do what? But we just read, “not by works,” but we were created to do what? Good works. We have a responsibility to do good works. “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your” what? Good works. And it’s right here in the Scripture, that they eliminate works.

▶ 4:59 And people go to church and they hear the same dumbbell things every Sunday, and they just take, they don’t get into the Word for themselves and ask Jesus to open the Word up to them, and they don’t go at the outside sources to get the Word, and so we just wind up with a bunch of dumbed-down Christians. No, we can’t get saved by the works, but because we’re saved, He created us to be people that have our light shining by doing good works, so people can see the difference and bring honor to the God that we give credit to for the way our life is now. Folks, that’s good stuff. Hallelujah. Good works is not just helping the poor, giving medical attention to people that are sick, giving clothing to the naked. Show me one place in the Bible where Jesus gave any clothing to anyone.

▶ 5:59 Show, show me one place in the Bible where Jesus gave money to the poor. Show me one place in the Bible where He stopped everything He was doing to go visit all the sick people. I got you thinking. See, if we’d learn how to read this book, we could separate ourselves from these dumb authors of the day that are imprisoning our mind. Yes, we’re supposed to help the poor, the Bible says that, but Jesus never took it out of His priority schedule to do it. His priority was to save souls. Isn’t that right? To bring the gospel to people. That is the priority of the church, to get the gospel out to people who need to get saved, and not leave the other undone. Are you with me?

▶ 7:10 Working and providing for your family is a good work, folks, scripturally a good work. Work is Bible. You don’t put a burden on your community. Abstaining from sexual activity till married, and married to the opposite sex, not the same sex, places no burden on the community. That’s a good work. And also we avoid sexually transmitted diseases that 50% of Americans have. Abstaining from alcohol and drugs puts no burden on the community for the medical attention, and the legal problems, and the law enforcement to try to take care of the problems, and the job-related downtime. That’s a good work.

▶ 7:59 Not to have anything to do with alcohol and drugs, is that an amen, church? That’s a good thing. See, these people want to do their things and then they want us to foot the bill to get them out of their problem, and we’re spending billions and billions of dollars correcting these problems after they happen, instead of putting restraints on them to prevent the problem. Christians today are shacking up sexually, cooking up sexually, drugging up; they get high on marijuana and alcohol; they really are up on welfare and not working; they like the tobacco and dying early; divorcing or not marrying at all is the way our society’s going. Okay, and Christians are doing that. Is that a good work? Is divorce a good work? No. Is not getting married a good work and just shacking up? No, it’s not good works. And preachers need to tell the congregation the truth. Can I hear an amen? They may not like it, they may leave. Well, they shouldn’t have been there in the first place if they’re not going to accept Jesus’s gospel and change their life.

▶ 9:16 What are the works that we are not saved by? “Not by works, so that no man can boast.” What are these works that we’re not saved by? Isn’t that a good question? All right. Galatians 2:16: “A man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of” who? Jesus Christ. See, so the works we’re not saved by is what? Works of the law. Romans 3:28 says, “A man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” Okay. I go back to the law and I read, I read in the law: “The Lord thy God is one God. Thou shalt have, make no graven images in heaven and earth below, earth, or in the middle of the earth, or whatever, anything in the earth. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Thou shalt remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy, and you shall work six days and keep the seventh day a day of rest and a day for God. Thou shalt honor thy mother and thy father. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery.

▶ 10:29 Thou shalt not defraud your neighbor,” greed. “Covet.” “And thou shalt not bear false witness.” So what they’re saying is, I don’t have to keep those laws. I can have an idol, and the Catholic Church has all kinds of them. See, I don’t have to take a day, I don’t have to work six days, and I don’t have to give God any debt, and I can take God’s name and I can live any way I want and bring [unclear] to His name. I can kick my parents out of the house and take the house over. I can go murder, I can go steal Mr. Barnes’s new car. He got, “I’m not under works, brother, I want your car.” Does that make sense to you? See, there’s no sense when you’re throwing out good laws.

▶ 11:44 So what laws is he talking about? What part of the law are we not saved or justified by? Hebrews 10:1: “The law was a shadow of things to come.” A what? Shadow of things to come. Now, honoring your parents, is that a shadow? No, that’s definite. Not stealing, is that a shadow of things to come? No, that’s definite. That’s a civil law; that’s treating people right; that’s under the law of love your neighbor yourself. Verse 4 of Hebrews 10: “It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.” So what works of the law is he talking about? The shadow laws that are illustrating what Christ was going to do when He come to really save people. And so yes, the shadow law has been done away with. You see, we can eat shrimp today because it’s a shadow of holiness to come. We live right now, we do good works. Hallelujah. Got it.

▶ 13:12 Now, what are good works that obtain eternal life, that give you salvation? There’s good works. So this guy comes, this rich guy comes, and he asks Jesus, “What good thing shall I do?” He didn’t ask what shall I believe in. He says what good thing, because we’re supposed to do what? Good works. What good work shall I do that I may have eternal life, which is knowing Jesus, if you will enter into what? Life. What of the grace and faith thing? He didn’t say that, did he? Did he? “If you want eternal life, you want to possess it, then keep the commandments.” And so the guy is a smart aleck and he says, “Well, which ones? Which commandments? There’s a whole lot of them, you know.” That’s us, you know, we’re always trying to trap the preacher and trap the Bible. “Which one?” And Jesus said, “You shall not murder.” So what’s He quoting? The Ten Commandments, which are civil laws that stay with us. We still work the civil laws. You can’t commit adultery: sexual immorality, including homosexuality, including sex with animals, including orgies, and including incest. This word encompasses it all. You can’t steal, nor bear false witness, lie, blame somebody for something they didn’t do. “Honor your father and your mother.” It doesn’t say if they honor you. It says honor them. “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

▶ 15:04 Now, He substituted “love your neighbor as yourself” with the covetous law, the last six commandments, and He substituted “love your neighbor,” which is the second commandment. Got it? Now, folks, we got to still do these. These are works that obtain eternal life. These are good works, aren’t they? They didn’t stop. I don’t have a right to say I’m saved to sin, and even Romans said it plainly: “Am I saved to sin?” Then he said, “God forbid.” What? [unclear] Are Christians responsible to do good work too? All right. Isaiah 60:1: “Arise, shine, for your light has come.”

▶ 15:55 That’s present tense. You got it? Wake up. “Your light [unclear]. What are you looking for? You got it. The glory of the Lord is risen upon you.” His glory is His presence. Okay. “Darkness covers the earth and thick darkness the people.” Number one, your light shines to the peoples. Peoples: different society levels, different races, different colors, different languages. “The Lord will rise upon you and His glory appears over you; nations,” now, we got a whole conglomerate of people in America. You got all races, you got languages, you got different cultures, you got different levels of society and all the rest. That’s a nation. “Nations shall come to your light,” and what’s this one? “Kings,” civil leaders, “to the brightness of your dawn.” Dawn is that gradual light. See, yes, you may not be, as a young Christian, very bright in your light shining, but this word “dawn” is what gives you the understanding that yes, my light’s a little dim, I’m young in God, but I’ve been promised my light will go brighter and brighter and brighter and brighter until the complete day, until I’m completely shining. And that’s important for you to know.

▶ 17:27 Do civil leaders need to hear or need to see our good works? Yeah. Did hear this gospel of eternal life through faith and grace and keeping His commandments? Yes. And who has the responsibility to hit these civil leaders? We do. We can’t get in our little hurt churches and our little houses and just stay there. Are you with me? Now, what else is light besides good works for peoples, nations, and civil leaders? John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God.” “In Him,” the Word, “was life.” In Him, Jesus, the Word was life, and that life was the what? “Light of men.” Okay. John 6:63: “The words I speak to you, they are spirit, and they are life.”

▶ 18:26 Life in Jesus, and the Word is life, and life is the light. So the Word spoken is the light. You got that? The spoken word is the light, as well as you back it up with your lifestyle. Is that correct? Do you see that? Now, it’s also truth. John 1:14: “The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. We beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and” what? Truth. So see, Jesus was God, Jesus was life, Jesus was the Word, and Jesus is light. So the Word is light, and the spoken word is what brings light to people.

▶ 19:32 Now, is that clear? See, we need to get studious. We need to really learn how to learn. And we go to church and we just sit there: “When’s he going to get over with? When’s he going to...?” We’re not even paying any attention. We need to learn. “Sanctify them through Thy truth. Thy word is” what? Truth. So the Word is truth, life, life, it’s Jesus, and so forth. Now look at this one, Acts 13:46: Paul and Barnabas answered the Jews boldly, confidently, “All right, we had to speak the word of God to you first.” What did they do with the Word of God? They spoke it. And he had to speak it to you first, because that’s what Jesus told him: “You go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” That’s what Jesus told them. So they obeyed, and the Jews were rejecting it, and so he says, “We have to speak the word of God to you first.” See the light, we gave you the light first.

▶ 20:38 “But since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we turn to the Gentiles.” See, they reject it. People are going to reject the Word. They’re going to reject the Word and still claim they’re going to heaven. This is what these Jews did right here: they rejected the Word and still claim to be believers in God and going to heaven. Do you know people like that? They’re not obeying the Word at all; they just want to go to heaven the way they are. No change, no new creation, no born again. “For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles.’” Okay. Jesus told us back there that we were the light of the world, to do good works that they might what? People would honor God.

▶ 21:31 Now here He’s saying, “I’ve made you a light,” to speak the Word. What word? “That you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.” What’s the word they’re speaking? The word of salvation. Say it: salvation. You know, in the church we got family seminars, we got financial seminars, we got, you know, divorce recovery seminars, we got all the things. The thing that’s going to save the world is this message of what? Salvation. “The word of the Lord spread through the whole region.” What word spread? The word of salvation. That who spoke? Paul and Barnabas.

▶ 22:30 The thing that’s going to revolutionize people’s lives is this message of salvation. It’s real. We can be born again, we can become new creatures in Christ Jesus, we can be restored when we fall backward. These things are for us, and it’s in the message of salvation. Hallelujah. You can’t substitute this with other stuff. John 3:19: “This is the verdict.” Now, is there a judgment being made here? That’s a powerful word. Here’s the verdict, I’ve made the decision, this is my judgment: “Light has come into the world, but men love” what? “Darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.”

▶ 23:23 Does that mean we stop preaching that word because people don’t want to hear it? That’s what the American church has done. “Everyone who does evil hates” what? “The light.” See, when you say you’re a Christian and you are committing homosexual sin or sexual sin or stealing, your acts, your behavior tells us you hate the light. How can you say you’re a Christian when this Scripture says if you do these things, you hate the light? You’re a hater. See, when you reject the light, you hate Jesus, you hate the Word, you hate truth. “They will not come to the light.” See, they won’t come to Christianity, they won’t come to Jesus, they won’t come to the Word, for fear that their deeds will be exposed. They want to be told they’re wrong, so they find a church that tells them they’re okay. The blind lead the blind and they all fall into the ditch. Yeah, if you want to go to the ditch, then follow these dumb ministers.

▶ 24:35 If you want to be delivered, if you want wisdom and understanding, if you want to be a real, committed, true Christian, then find you a teacher of the Word and get that Word in you, and that Word will set you free and deliver you and heal you and do everything that it says it would do, including grow. “But whoever lives by the truth,” see, that’s the good works people, “they come to the light,” see, “and the light exposes, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” See, we don’t have a problem with the light because we want to be like the light. Even if we are not there yet, we come in with confidence that He’s going to finish the good work He began in us. So we come to the light, we don’t have a problem being exposed. We want to be exposed, we want to be changed, we want to come to repentance in every area so that we can have a light that shines completely, not just the dawning light. Amen.

▶ 25:39 Yes, so don’t ever feel bad about your dawning light. You got a little light, that’s okay. It’s going to grow, it’s going to keep growing, but you got to be in the Word for it to grow. Now, I’ve said this many a time, and let me tell it to you again. Jesus, who did good works from the time He was born till He was 30 years old, He never sinned, He never disrespected His parents, He worked at a job, never committed adultery, never lied.

▶ 26:30 And not one person was saved, not one person was healed, not one person hated Him and wanted to kill Him. The good works didn’t save anybody. It brings honor to the Father, but it’s the spoken word of salvation that brings salvation. And Jesus’ first words were what? “Repent, believe the gospel, get baptized for the remission of sin.” That was His message. Now, do we need both light shining in our life? People need to see the good works and bring honor to God who gave us the power to do that. Isn’t that right? But they need to hear the Word if they’re going to get saved.

▶ 27:42 And sitting in our homes and being a nice, quiet Christian isn’t going to cut it. Sitting in America and not speaking out on political issues, right issues, moral issues isn’t going to cut it. Christians are the light of the world by doing good works, and our opponents will give honor to God. Christians are the light of the world by speaking the word of truth, and people will get saved. Christians are the light of the world by speaking the word of truth, by speaking to peoples the word of truth, nations and kings. And Christians, Acts 9:15, the Lord said to Ananias, “Go your way, for Paul is a chosen vessel unto Me to bear My name before” what? “The Gentiles,” the unbeliever, “the kings and the children of Israel.”

▶ 28:46 Acts 26:17: “I’m sending you to open their eyes, turn them from darkness to” what? “Light, and from the power of Satan to the power of God.” You know, the Bible says that He has the power to perform what He promised. Acts 24:25: Paul reasoned of “righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come.” Now, here is the converting gospel, right here. Paul was before Felix, the governor, of the government, and he told Felix, he reasoned, he used logic, he logically presented the truth in an orderly manner. Righteousness, number one: repent from sin, turn to do right. Number two:

▶ 29:41 Self-control. You got to put some effort into this, you got to put some work into this. And these people that say “not by works,” if you don’t put work into it, you’re not going to conquer it. You got to say no to sin, you got to use self-control to get to church, to learn the Bible, you got to bring some discipline in your life. Can I hear it, amen? This is the power of the converting gospel. Paul’s got it right here, summed up for us. And “the judgment to come”: Felix, if you don’t repent and turn and do right, if you don’t use self-control, you’re going to burn. There’s a judgment coming, and you’re going to burn.

▶ 30:30 And Felix, what? Shook in fear. You ever seen anybody shaking in fear? And this is something missing in the church. You know, we’re not getting saved from the fear of the Lord, from a jarring experience of God, that if we don’t change our life we’re going to go to hell. God’s displeased with us. Now, I think this is plain, folks. The converting gospel is righteousness, self-control, discipline: yourself, stop doing bad things. Don’t wait for God to call you from heaven. And he’s also telling the king, that’s a way, you better rule, you better rule with right laws, you better teach people to control themselves, and if they don’t, they’re going to be punished, because you’re the king. It says Bible morality is the proof that we are Christians.

▶ 31:28 Didn’t Jesus say, “You will know them by their fruits,” not their faith? You know them by what? Their fruits. You see, how can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit? Jesus said, say, you know the root of the tree by the fruit. And Bible morality is speaking it, and speaking it to everyone shows we care. They’re totally wrong, we’re not hating people by telling them the truth. We care for them, we have a compassion for them, and gives them an opportunity to what? Convert and change their life. How many can raise your hand, say you agree this is the gospel that needs to get out to America? Yes. How many really believe God will back up that gospel with His power and actually convert people?