lives. God would have us to understand that we are to be a people zealous of good works. Then you'll see also in chapter 3 verse 1, put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers to obey magistrates and to be ready to every good work. In verse 8 you'll see Paul speaks and this is a faithful saying and these things I will thou affirm constantly that they might that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works be careful about this thing to maintain good works in verse 14 he will say this and let ours also learn to maintain good works for necessary uses, that they be not unfruitful." So Paul is not saying anything contradictory to what James is saying and James is not saying anything contradictory to what Paul is saying. Paul will teach us about the source of justification. It is by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. James is talking about the evidence that we have indeed been justified by God's grace, that we have been made to be a new creature in Christ Jesus. And so James will tell you that faith alone, if it were possible for a man to have, and if there are those who do have some kind of faith, even the demons, Paul James will tell you, they believe God and they tremble. But what work do they have? Now, then that points out to us that there are evil works and there are good works. In the book of Galatians, Paul will talk to us and tell us what some evil works are. Galatians chapter 5 and verse 16. This I say then, walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So there are two kinds of works. There is the works that are prompted by the flesh, self-desires, self-ambition, and then there are works that are prompted by the Holy Spirit of God. The question is, what am I doing? What I'm doing, is it prompted and is it according to the Word of God? Is it that which the Holy Spirit of God leads me to do, enables me to do, and my trusting solely in God's grace to do that? Paul will tell you in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians about his works. He will point out to you that his works were wrought by the grace of God in the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians and verse 10. By the grace of God I am what I am, but his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored. more abundantly than they all, yet not I." Wait a minute, Paul. I read about you doing this and that, and I read you telling me about you fighting with wild beasts, and I read about you suffering shipwreck and all that, but that's not what Paul wants to point out to us. What Paul wants us to know, he says, it was not I, but the grace of God, which was with me. Good works are the product of God's grace working in the heart and life of a child of God. Now, Paul will tell you here in Galatians chapter 5 then what the works of the flesh are, verse 19. The works of the flesh are manifest of which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variances, emulations, wrath, strife, sedations, heresies, envions, murder, drunkenness, revilings of such like, of which I've told you before, as I've also told you in the time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. He says that those who are living that lifestyle, who keep on in pursuing that lifestyle, they shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Now Paul will tell you also in First Corinthians he's talking to the church of Corinth and he describes some of the same characteristics and he says and such were some of you but you've been washed, you've been sanctified. Well, Paul will point out to us regardless of how terrible and how great our sins are, God's grace and God's mercy is sufficient to save us from the worst of sins and all of our sins were paid for on the cross of Calvary. What Paul here is talking about is the kind of lifestyle that the ungodly pursue and follow after. That's the bad evil works that's prompted by our flesh. Even the good things that some people do are prompted by the flesh and they're not the product of the Holy Spirit of God. The Bible tells you the plowing of the wicked is abomination unto God. The prayers of the wicked are abomination even unto God. If a man is living or a woman is living the kind of lifestyle whereby that they're living for themselves to please themselves to receive all honor and receive all the glory then it's not by the Holy Spirit of God. Verse 22 of the fifth chapter, but the fruit of the Spirit is love. Now the Bible will tell you that God is love. The Bible will tell you that we love Him because He first loved us. So what is the source of genuine love? What is the source of the child of God or a person having genuine love toward God? It is because God first loved us. And because His love is made to be factual in our heart and lives by the Holy Spirit of God, we then are moved by the Holy Spirit of God to love Him. The same, my friend, is true of faith. Paul will talk to you about this. Joy, and peace, and long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, and faith, meekness, temperance, against sense there is no law. All of these things are the characteristics of good works. But the source of those good works comes from the Holy Spirit of God working in me. producing these kind of good works in my heart and my life. Now, if that's not true, if it is not true that God's people are to live the kind of life that they manifest good works, that they manifest these characteristics, love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, and faith, meekness, temperance, if it's not true that we are to do those things, then we might as well close the book up. and forget about going to church because that's what God has established as a means of teaching us. The Word of God is God's roadmap, God's manual, how we are to live. In the book of Colossians, Paul will talk to us some about this in Colossians chapter one, chapter two of Colossians rather. I want to get a reading, it's chapter one, I'm sorry, chapter one of Colossians. Verse 21 of Colossians, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now have you reconciled. Now let's just talk about this verse here for a minute. In fact, it's better in Ephesians chapter 2, Paul says that we were all by nature the children of wrath. And that we all walked according to the course of this world, according to the principality of the air of the spirit, that we're the children of disobedience. Now let me just express this to us. Brother David said something a while ago, and I appreciate it, and what he said was exactly true. That God has always loved his people, and that we were never the children of the devil, or children of his wrath. Paul here is talking about, he says here, that we were enemies in our mind. Remember what Paul says in Galatians, or in Romans chapter 8, the carnal mind, the natural mind, is an enemy against God for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. The natural person has a mindset concept, a philosophy, a heart that is contrary to the will of God and never will be brought in submission to the will of God apart the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit of God. The natural mind is at enmity against God. That's what we all were born with. That's the reason why we all go astray. That's the reason why we all go our own ways. It is because we have a carnal mind, a mind whereby that we live for self. We were born in the kingdom of darkness. by our natural birth but by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit of God we are given a new nature a new birth from above whereby we are translated as Paul says into the kingdom of his dear son. Now here Paul says in Colossians 2 verse 21 you were at some time you were alienated you were strangers and enemies in your mind by wicked works that's what our lifestyle was I've said to you before, when you look at people and see people living in very wicked lives and behaving themselves in a very ungodly way, don't come down on them and say, oh, they're a terrible creature. Well, they may be doing terrible things, but rather we ought to say, but for the grace of God, that would be me. Because we all have the very same nature. I have a dog that I'll say he's half trained. He doesn't always behave exactly like I want him to, but he's pretty well very good. My neighbor across the road has several cats. and you know the characteristics of cats and dogs. Now, when I first got my dog, he loved to chase those cats. They'd come over to our yard and, man, I'd see him and the cat running and he's chasing the cat back across the road. Well, I have no objection to him chasing the cat back over to the other yard, but the problem was I was afraid that he would run the cat or he himself would run out into the road and get hit with a car. And so I had to scold him and train him that that's not what you're to do. And so he doesn't do it anymore, at least as far as I know about it. He doesn't chase cat. Now, why does he not chase cat? Well, because I trained him or I rebuked him and corrected him for doing that. But his nature is No one had to tell him and teach him to chase that cat. His nature is to chase cats. Well, my friends, that's the nature that we all were born with. Not necessarily cat chasing, but we're born with evil nature. We inherited from our parents and we live that kind of lifestyle. And only by God's grace and by God's mercy are we doing anything else but living a wicked life. So Paul here says, you were in your mind, you did wicked works, yet now have thee reconciled. Oh, what a beautiful word. The word means to be brought into harmony. It means to be brought into unison. The Holy Spirit of God reworked in our hearts and our lives to regenerate us and we were born from above by the Holy Spirit and there was imparted to us a new nature, a different nature, a divine nature, godly nature whereby that now we live in harmony and want to be in harmony with the Lord. Now we are not always perfect at that. but it is a desire of our hearts to live for the Lord, to be submissive to his will, to seek his guidance in all things that we not follow after evil works. In verse 22, in the body of his flesh through death to present you a holy and unblameable and unprivileged in his sight. That's what God has done in Christ Jesus for us. He's reconciled us unto himself and he will present us holy and without blame. In verse 23, there's a word there, if, if, you continue in the faith, if. Now, the word if in the old English had a much stronger meaning than what today's English means. Today's English will tell you it's a possibility, if, if, it's a possibility it might be some other, if, if, if it's, you know, It might rain today if the clouds get right, you know. But the old English word would be better translated, since. Since you continue in the faith. Now, I don't want to argue so much about the word if, because I want to tell you and say to us all that the evidence that we have been born again is that you do continue in the faith. The Lord himself said, that those that endure to the end shall be saved. It's not the enduring that saves you, but rather it is the evidence that you're a child of God that we endure to the end. It is God working in us that we have this characteristic. What? That we continue in the faith grounded and settled and not moved away from the hope of the gospel. That's the evidence of the inward working of the Holy Spirit of God and that evidence manifests itself in the godly lifestyle that James is talking about, that Paul is talking about, that we live the kind of life whereby that we do good works. Now what's those good works? Well I've already read to you from Ephesians chapter 5 what some of those good works are but there are other good works the Word of God sets forth to us. I will tell you the very first good work that God would have us to do is to first of all is to repent. Repent of our sins. That's the evidence of faith in God. Paul will talk about it this way. He says he declared faith toward God, repentance of God and faith in Jesus Christ. Those two evidences Those two things are genuine evidences of an inward working of the Holy Spirit of God that we repent toward God and we have faith in Jesus Christ. That's because of God working in our hearts and our lives. In Acts chapter 2 you have Peter preaching on that day of Pentecost And he preaches to that congregation, large congregation, and he charges them with being guilty with putting Christ to death. Him being delivered by the determined counsel of the four daughters of God, ye have taken and with wicked hands have crucified the Lord of glory. And he preaches that sermon, and when he, as he's preaching the word of God says, the Holy Spirit of God has pricked their hearts. those hearts were pricked and they said to the apostles men and brethren what must we do and Peter said repent and be baptized every one of you in view of the remission of your sins. So the first evidence of one being born again of the child of God and having genuine saving faith is that there is an evidence of repentance toward God. Oh, it's not a one-time repentance. It's an ongoing, constant repentance. Not that we are trying to continue to get saved, but rather it is what we want to draw nearer to the Lord. I'm not happy with what I am as a Christian. I will tell you I'm not and I don't think if you're a child of God you ever will come to a place where you're totally completely satisfied with who you are. You want to draw closer to the Lord and you want to get rid of sin in your life and you want to get away from sin. Paul would tell you Romans chapter 12. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God and that you be not conformed to this world. Oh! Can you imagine a child of God anywhere at any time wanting to be conformed to this world? Wanting to set their lifestyle at the pattern of the world that we live in? I will tell you, my friends, if there is in your heart not a dissatisfaction with the world that you're living in, if you feel at home in this world, if you feel comfortable in this world, if you feel comfortable among your ungodly friends, you've got a problem. You've got a problem. Go up to Walmart, and I'm not knocking Walmart right now, but just go up to Walmart and just watch the people coming and going in and out. Look at the dress style. I hate to encourage you to do that because many times I've seen people walk around and I've had to look away because I didn't want to look at the ungodly dress style of some of the women going in now. Is that the dress style that you're comfortable with? Is that the way that we want to live? Not only to the ladies, but to us men. Do we want to have the language that the rest of the world has? Do we think about everything, ungodly things, like the rest of the world does? When we're at work, when we're out in the world, when we're with other people, when we're alone with ourselves, what is it that fills our mind? Is it a thinking about ungodly things? Or is it, I want to think about the Lord. I want to draw closer to the Lord. That's the evidence of a genuine saving faith in the heart and life of an individual. Their mind is conforming unto Christ. Be not conformed to this world, but rather be you transformed by the renewing of your minds. That's the work of the Holy Spirit of God. It gives us a different mindset. makes us to be new creatures in Christ Jesus and that new creature in Christ Jesus drives us, motivates us, moves us, steers us, guides us to come closer to the Lord. Oh to be more like Jesus day by day. Is that not the passion of a child of God? And so that's what James is talking about. Merely faith alone Oh, I got baptized. Yeah, I remember the church down so and so. Yeah, I go to church down there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What's the evidence of you being a child of God in your life? Paul will tell you in 2 Corinthians. Paul will say to us all, examine yourselves. Were you being of faith or not? Lest you be a rapper bait. What a bad word. Oh, it is. Because reprobates are destined to judgment. But he's saying to us all, let us manifest, examine ourselves. Oh God, give me the witness, give me the evidence, give me the assurance and the peace to know that by your grace and mercy I am indeed one of yours. And then give me of your spirit that I would live the kind of life that I would show others that I'm a child of God. That's what James is talking about. He's talking about we're justified in the eyes of the world. We're justified by our conduct. So the first evidence of that genuine saving faith is repentance towards God. And Peter then mentions the second, and that's scriptural baptism. Following the Lord in baptism. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, if you've known Him as Lord and Savior, you want to follow Him as a pattern. He set it forth by scriptural baptism. And then we want to do what He did. His kind of faith imparted to us causes us to live in a life of obedience. in the 16th chapter of Romans. Paul talks about this. He says to us in chapter 16 of Romans, and I won't read all of the chapter to you, but I want to get the last two verses of that chapter. Paul will say in verse 25, unto him that is of the power and to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation from the mystery which was kept secret since the world begun, but now is made manifested by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known unto all nations for the obedience of faith." For the obedience of faith. You see, the evidence of genuine saving faith is a lifestyle of obedience. Our Lord said, they that love me keep my commandments. We were sitting at breakfast table this morning And for those of you who may not aware of it, yesterday my wife and I were blessed to celebrate our 61st wedding anniversary. I thank the Lord for the blessing that God has given to me and the Christian wife that I have. She is a great asset to me. She is a wonderful wife and much better than I would ever think that I would ever deserve. So I really am thankful to the Lord for my wife. So we were sitting at breakfast this morning and I said to her, She'd fix my breakfast. I said, 61 years now, how many breakfasts do you think you have fixed for me? How many meals have you fixed for me? Well, she didn't even start to think about them. And she said, well, I've enjoyed them too. But I said, yeah, but how many have you fixed for me? Now, I know there probably were some times that she just really didn't want to do it. 99% of the time, she did it because she loved me. Well, I would say every time she ever did it, she did it because she loved me. You see, she didn't say, hey, I fixed breakfast. That's tomorrow's your time. Get up now and fix breakfast. No. Of course, I fixed breakfast for her at times, and I'm glad to do it. It's just that she does a much better job than what I do, you know. That's the reason I'm glad to let her do it. But you see, Whatever we do for our spouses, it's not because we have to, it's because of our love for them. We love them. We want to do things for them. We like to please them because of inward love that we have for them. The same is true, my friend, even in a more genuine way in our living for the Lord. If you know the Lord and love the Lord, God's given faith to you is the kind of faith whereby it produces obedience in your life. I just want to read some scripture verses to you right real quick. I'll read first of all 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 8. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse 8. Paul was talking about the coming of the Lord. He says, In flaming fire, take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, it's been preached, it's been declared, it's been published as far as humanly possible into the air. Everybody everywhere ought to have heard the gospel. I know that there's some who have not, and we are anxious for them to hear the gospel, the glad tidings of Jesus Christ. But there are many people today who have heard, and they say, I've heard that story so many times, I don't want to hear it again. Get out of these preachers. Get rid of these preachers. In fact, my other son, we're talking about burning down the churches. Why? Because they don't know the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Paul says, when the Lord comes, he will take vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ. Second Thessalonians. Chapter 3 and verse 14, if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no company with him. That's not who your friends are to be. I'm not saying you're not to have some friends outside of church, that's not what I'm saying, but it is your close friends, the friends that guide you and encourage you. It's not to be those who have a worldly philosophy, but those who have a godly philosophy. Hebrews chapter 9, chapter 5 and verse 9, Talking about Christ, Him being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him. Now, obedience does not accomplish, it does not procure salvation, but obedience is the evidence of it. As we say about baptism, baptism is not procurative, it does not secure one thing. Catholics call it a sacrament because they say it's a way that we receive a blessing. No, it does not procure any special blessing. It is only the evidence that you are a child of God. It is a declarative. 1 Peter chapter 4. Now here's an important verse. Chapter 4 of 1 Peter verse 17. For the time is come, and that word there is, for the time is now come, that judgment must begin at the house of God. And if it first began at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ? Well, I read to you in Thessalonians what the end will be. Jesus Christ will come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, but obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction. I thought that I might title my message today, what are you going to do when the fire comes? Now, I'm thinking and I'm planning, Lord's willing, to speak next Sunday on the three baptisms. And I'll give you a hint about the third baptism. That's the baptism of fire. We'll talk more about that, Lord's willing, next week. But there is a fire coming. Now, there is a fire coming, I believe, at the hands of the world. The world hates God's people. And the person who said, I'm going to burn down the churches, they're just expressing what the world's animosity is towards Christian people. They want to destroy our churches. They want to burn our Bibles. They want to destroy our nation. Why? Because it represents a Christian principle throughout our nation. And so their hatred and animosity towards God's people is that they want to destroy everything Christian by burning it up. And there has been, many Christians have been put to death by fire. One of the times when I was in India, I had just been there, I was there about a week after this event happened. There was a man, he and his wife were from Australia. They were missionaries from Australia and they were working in India. And this man was in the northern part of India. He had been up there on a preaching trip and he had his two sons with him, two young sons. I don't think either one of them was more than 15 years of age. And on the way back home from the trip, preaching trip, A group of Muslims surrounded the car, stopped it, started beating on the car, and finally set the car on fire and burned to death the man and his two sons. Terrible thing that they did. Of course, it's no more terrible than many other things that have been done by the world against God's people. By the way, the wife of that man, Went on national television in India and I was there when she did this She went on national television in India and she said and the and people were that great outcry They wanted to punish those people and rightly so But she said I have forgiven him I've forgiven him Because we want to be witnesses of God's love in our lives Well, it made national news. She had forgiven these people. Rather than crying out for vengeance and justice, she said, I've forgiven the people. But that is the world's attitude today. It has always been. Hatred towards God's people. And I want to tell you, friends, in America, I believe there's a fire coming of persecution against God's people. And the question is, what are you going to do when the fire comes? But there is a fire coming from God, whereby the wicked will be cast into eternal punishment and hellfire. What are you going to do when the fire comes? There's only one hope, and that's Jesus Christ. There's only one comfort, and that's Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died to save us from the judgment of our sins. He bore the punishment and the guilt of our sins on the cross of Calvary. And the evidence that we've been born again, that we've been justified by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, the evidence of it is we live for the Lord. Not because of who we are, but because of God's grace in our heart and our lives. And I trust that God, the Holy Spirit, encourages you to stand faithful to the Lord, to serve the Lord, to be zealous of good works, not because your own abilities, not in your own ability, but rather because God's grace works in your heart and your life. And you are a witness to the world that we live in. Our Lord said, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify you. That's not what he said. That they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven because you are different from the world in which we live. And may God bless us to that end. Our Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. We thank you that we have a God who keeps his people. We thank you that we have a salvation in Christ Jesus, whereby he stirs us and moves us to live godly and not like the world that we're in. Forgive us of our trespasses, dear Father, and help us to draw closer to our Savior day by day. In Christ's name, I pray and ask it, and amen, amen. Have faith in God. When your pathway is, and I've forgotten my number. I have faith in God, it's 364. You want to stand with me while we're singing number 364.