Do Good In An Ungodly and Immoral World

well today we live in a very ungodly immoral world but if the truth be known this world has always been ungodly and immoral but it's different today today immorality no longer lurks in the back alleys or dark corners it no longer hides behind cloud closed doors instead it proudly marches right down main street and it flaunts itself for all the world to see and if you don't believe what i'm saying just watch the news or quit going on facebook just for an evening and read the newspaper or sit down one evening and watch tv during prime time and what you'll find is that immorality is the norm in fact it's not even seen as immorality to today by most young people a new gallup poll has revealed that what americans once thought of as being immoral they now accept as normal and it's not just young people who accept it as normal it's also senior citizens today over two-thirds of americans including senior citizens believe that pre-marital sex homosexuality pornography recreational drugs and having a child out of wedlock is acceptable and they no longer think of those things as being immoral from their perspective it's just an it's just a normal part of our culture and they feel that those who do those things shouldn't have to hide it instead they should come out publicly and let the world know that they participate in those things and people that's what's happening today but how are christians supposed to react to all of the ungodliness and immorality in our world that surrounds us do we lash out in righteous anger or do we give in and accept it as just a normal part of our culture do we isolate ourselves so that we're not contaminated by the immorality that surrounds us do we cower in our churches and pray that jesus will come soon and take us out of this perverted world well believe it or not we're not supposed to do any of those things now i'm not saying that we're not supposed to pray that jesus would return quickly we are but we're not supposed to cower in our churches and pray that jesus would return soon out of fear no what god wants is for us to recognize the tremendous opportunity that we have today you see we have the opportunity to bring light into the darkness we have the opportunity to bring life into a dying world we have the opportunity to live like jesus and draw people to god but to do that we have to follow jesus example and we have to do good works you know i tried to think of a sermon that i've heard growing up or even in my ministry of a time when a pastor preached on good works and i couldn't think about it i couldn't think of one example of someone preaching on what we call good works but you know today if we want to make a difference in this world we're going to have to follow jesus example and do good works turn to acts chapter 10 verse number 38 and i'll show you what i'm talking about it says and you know that god anointed jesus of nazareth with the holy spirit and with power then jesus went around doing good and healing all those who were oppressed by the devil for god was with him now i want you to notice that jesus went around doing good and it was his good works that drew people to him and ultimately to god now as christians we're supposed to follow jesus example and go around doing good works in fact let me prove that to you turn with me if you would to the book of ephesians chapter 2 verse number 10. notice what it says for we are god's handiwork now that word handiwork is translated from the greek word poema and if you're pretty bright you know that our english word poem is transliterated from that greek word but i want you to understand that the greek word poema means much more than just a poem back then referred to any great work of art so what this is actually saying is we are god's work of art created in christ jesus to do good works which god prepared in advance for us to do i want you to see that we were created to do good works and not just any good works but specific good works look at the last part of verse number 10 and i'll show you what i'm talking about it says which god prepared in advance for us to do notice the phrase prepared in advance that phrase is translated from the greek word pro-et oi mazzo and it means to predestine so notice what this verse is saying for we are god's workmanship or work of art created in christ jesus to do good works which god has predestined us to do i love this passage of scripture because according to this verse we're created for that purpose we're created to do good works and not just any good works but specific good works we're predestined to do certain things now if this was the only place where the bible mentioned that we're supposed to do good works i would probably blow it off i wouldn't think anything about it but when you read through the new testament you find verse after verse talking about doing good works and i wish i could go through each verse one by one but we don't have time to do that so let me just show you a few verses that talks about our responsibility to perform good works that we've been predestined to do the first one comes from the greatest sermon that was ever preached what was the greatest sermon that was ever preached no it's not from the collection of allah nolan it was the sermon on the mount the greatest sermon that's ever been preached is the sermon on the mount thousands of people came to hear jesus he was in a particular place if you ever go to israel you'll see where it took place it's located in a place where it's almost like a natural amphitheater so he would be able to just elevate or project his voice and everyone would be able to hear him and he presented what is considered by theologians to be the greatest sermon ever preached and in that notice what he says matthew 5 16 he says let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works don't hide it do them out in the open and they'll glorify your father which is in heaven in first timothy chapter six verse number eight paul was writing to timothy and this is what he told him you tell them talking about his congregate congregation to use their money to do good they should be rich in good works and generous to those in need always being ready to share with others in other words you tell the rich people not to use their money to acquire material things but to use their money to do good to be generous to those who are in need that's what god considers to be good works he also wrote to timothy another letter this is second timothy chapter 3 verse 17. now you really need to go back and keep this in context in verse 16 because he's talking about the word of god but here's what the word of god will do so so that the servant of god may be thoroughly equipped for every good work god wants to equip us to do good works and then paul writes in the book of hebrews chapter 10 verse number 24 let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works you know our staff takes us very seriously in fact when we're having staff meetings we think about ways to motivate you to do acts of love and good works we think about what our church can do to minister to this world and minister to others now people i could go on and on giving you verse after verse that mentions mentions doing good works but you get the picture as christians we are supposed to do good works and the reason we are is because that is god god's antidote to the immorality in this world now everyone knows what the word antidote means right an antidote is a remedy to counteract counteract the effects of a poison or disease and immorality is a poison it's a disease that's infected our whole world so what i'm telling you is this doing good works is god's remedy for counteracting the effects of the immorality that's in this world in fact it's what draws people to god notice what jesus said one more time in matthew chapter 5 verse number 16. he says let your light so shine before men you know we sing this in the children's church this little light of mine i'm going to let it shine we probably should be doing it in the adult services because the majority of us don't allow or don't let our light shine but how do we let our light shine what does he mean by that he says let your light so shine before men that they see your good works our light shines when we do good works now why does god want other people to see our good works well he tells us in the end part of that verse he says that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven you see we either turn people off from god or turn people away from god by what we do or we draw them to god by what we do and that's what jesus was talking about when he said let your light shine by doing good works so when men see them the glorify god now i keep talking about good works but does everyone know what i mean by good works more importantly does everyone know what the bible means when it says good works because picking up the trash on a sidewalk wouldn't qualify as good works according to the bible's definition and neither would reducing your carbon footprint by driving an electric car those might be good things but that's not what the bible is talking about when it says that we should be doing good works so does everyone know what the bible is talking about when it says we should be doing good works well if you don't mind let me explain what the bible means by good works turn with me if you would to the book of titus chapter 2 and let's read verses 11 through 14 but before i do that let me kind of set the stage let me give you the context of this titus is preaching on the island of crete and of course the cretans were very ungodly and immoral and as a result paul specifically sent titus to the island of crete to set things in order and get the churches to do what they're supposed to do but as he's writing this letter he tells them a little bit about the grace of god that brings salvation and he says this grace that brings salvation should change a person's life it should make them want to live differently it should make them want to live a sober life a righteous life a godly life it should make them want to commit to doing good works and if it's not doing that they're probably not saved now knowing that let's read verses 11-14 it says for the grace of god that brings salvation has appeared to all men not some men not just the men the calvinists say that god predestined to go to heaven no this refutes calvinism this is salvation that brings or this is grace that brings salvation to all men and then it goes further this grace teaches that us that denying ungodliness a worldly lust we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present age in other words it should change your life but then it goes further looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great god and savior jesus christ it should make you want jesus to come back something is wrong with the church today because i believe that the majority of us don't want jesus to return there's an internal problem when you don't want jesus to come back so this gospel this grace it should bring salvation it should change your life it should make you want jesus to come back and then it goes further in verse 14. talking about christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people totally committed to doing good works now i love this passage of scripture because it tells us that when we get saved we should be totally committed to doing good works now that phrase good works is translated from two greek words kalos ergon if you're taking notes write that down kalos ergon ergon simply means works or deeds but kalos is a very unique word it can mean different things based on how it's used in other words it has several nuances or shades of meaning and but when it's used to describe works or deeds it means pure of heart morally upright and altruistic now does everyone know what altruistic means altruistic means that you're being or acting unselfishly out of concern for the welfare of someone else or the well-being of someone else so for something to be classified as good works it must be done with a pure heart in other words with the right motive it must be morally upright and it must benefit others at the expense of self and that's what the bible means when it talks about good works kalos ergon it's an act or a deed that's done with the right motive it's morally upright and it benefits the other person at the expense of yourself now let's look at each of these components because most of you think you know what good works are but you don't if it doesn't consist of all three components it's not considered to be good works at least not from the bible's definition so let's look at all of these components first of all it has to be done with the right motive in other words we must be doing it for the right reason we can't be doing it so other people will see how good we are or so that others will praise us or give us accolades or think better of us we can't be doing it so the other person will owe us well if i scratch their back they'll scratch mine or maybe we think well they're in this position where one day i might need them so i'm going to do good things for them so that if i ever need them they're going to feel obligated to do something for me kind of like the donald trump theory hillary comes because i gave money right you don't know what's going on put down facebook and start reading the paper anyways we must be doing it because it's the right thing to do and it's what christ would do secondly it has to be morally upright i'm sure that there are people who work for planned parenthood that think that they're helping others and their motive for working there might be pure but what they are doing is morally wrong it's sad today but many people in the church today are liberal and they don't understand that life begins at conception if you don't believe that life begins at conception you're not reading your bible just read through the book of psalms david talks about god weaving and forming us in our mother's womb before there's even organs before plant parent planned parenthood could even sell those things as a result of abortion god is there and he's moving in the process because the bible makes plain that life begins at conception and the reason i'm telling you this is someone might be working at planned parenthood and think they're helping people they might be doing it with the right motive but the problem is it is morally wrong so according to the bible what they're doing would not be classified as good works in order for it to be good works it must be morally upright according to god's standards not man's standards and last but not least it must be altruistic in other words i must be more concerned about your welfare than my welfare and more concerned about helping you than helping myself now this is where god places his stamps on a deed and verifies that this truly is considered to be or categorized as a good work a kalos ergon now listen to me because this is very important it's impossible to do the good works that god wants us to as long as we're walking in the flesh and not in the spirit because the good works that god wants us to do are contrary to our nature in other words our sin nature turn with me if you would to the book of galatians chapter 5 verses 16 and 17 and i'll show you what i'm talking about you got to remember that the galatians were very carnal they went from one extreme to the other they were either carnal or they became legalistic we're not supposed to be carnal but neither are we supposed to be legalistic and paul writes this letter to the galatians and notice what he says this i say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you want in other words what the flesh wants is totally contrary to what the spirit wants and what the spirit wants is totally contrary to what the flesh wants that's why there's this battle that normally goes on inside of us we know what we ought to do but we don't want to do it how many of you ever been there yeah paul talked about this in the book of romans chapter 7 verses 15-21 i want you to take note that i'm talking about chapter 7 why because he's going to give us the answer in just a few verses down and i want you to remind you that we're reading this out of romans chapter 7 this is verses 15-21 notice what it says i don't really understand myself anyone been there for i want to do what is right but i don't do it instead i do what i hate but if i know that what i'm doing is wrong the shows that i agree with the law agree that the law is good in other words when we do the things that we know are wrong it means that we understand there is a law there is a code of morality there is a standard this is right this is wrong so he says but if i know that what i'm doing is wrong this shows that i agree that the law is good so i'm not the one doing wrong it's sin living in me that does it and i know that nothing good lives in me that is in my sinful nature i want to do what is right but i can't i want to do what is good but i don't i don't want to do what is wrong but i do it anyway but if i do what i don't want to do i am not really the one doing wrong it is sin living in me that does it i have discovered this principle in life and i like this principle here it is that when i want to do what is right i inevitably do what is wrong and paul becomes so frustrated because his flesh is keeping him from becoming the person that he wants to be he screams out who will free me from this sin nature and then he realizes it's jesus jesus can set him free and enable him to live the life that he wants to look at romans chapter 7 just a few verses down because he screams out in frustration and he wants to know who's going to set him free and notice what he actually says in verse 24 in the first part of verse 25 this is what he says oh what a miserable person i am anyone ever gone to a party and you know you got to talking and before you knew it you said something that hurt someone's feelings or you said something that uh made someone else look bad or maybe you brag or whatever you go home you go oh why do i do that that's paul oh what a miserable person i am who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death wait a minute thank god the answer is in jesus christ our lord only jesus can set us free from the flesh that keeps us from doing what god wants us to but only if we truly allow jesus to be lord of our life and we choose to walk in the spirit because it's a choice several months ago i taught you how to walk in the spirit there's certain triggers that tells you when you're walking in the flesh usually it's vain imaginations when you want to tell your boss offer you want to say a cuss word or you imagine yourself doing something that is sinful like punching your boss out that's a trigger that you're not walking in the spirit that's what the bible calls vain imaginations and corinthians tells us that we're supposed to cast down vain imaginations and every high thing that means egotistical thing you know where we want to be the good guy we want it to be all about us we're supposed to cast that down and we're supposed to bring in the captivity every thought under the obedience of jesus so we say god i know that's sinful i know that that's wrong i'm going to bring in the captivity every thought under the obedience of jesus christ and we begin to think about who we are in christ and what we have in christ and we realize when we do that who we are in christ as we are the righteous of god in christ jesus because in christ we were crucified in christ we went to hell in christ our sins were paid for in christ we were resurrected and the same spirit that raised christ now dwells within me and i sit there for a second and i think about the holy spirit being in me and then i feel him and then the holy spirit tells me what i should be doing and i choose to walk in the spirit you see jesus has allowed us to choose whether we want him to be lord or not whether we want to walk in the spirit or not but if we choose to do that we can walk in the spirit now from a moral perspective america is a cesspool and most people are being swept up and influenced by the cult by our culture and it's leading them to hell but this is a tremendous opportunity for us to bring light in the into the darkness to bring life to their dying world and to live like jesus in order to draw people to god but to do that you have to go all the way people there is no middle road most of us want to be christians but we don't want to be fanatical christians most of us want to go to heaven but we don't want to have to live a godly life listen to me there is no middle road you cannot straddle the fence jesus is either lord of your life or he's not lord at all and if he's not lord of your life you are unfit to do the good works that god wants you to let me share one last scripture with you and it is a doozy and it will explain why america is no longer a christian nation it will explain why we no longer are a godly nation why we are no longer a moral nation this is in titus chapter 1 verse number 16. again let me kind of explain something about titus the cretans as i said were a very ungodly immoral people and when it came to sex everything went premarital sex homosexuality extramarital sex which means affairs uh prostitution was rampant and so what happened when paul went there and spread the gospel of jesus christ is that people got saved but the only problem is they wanted jesus to be their savior but not lord and so their life didn't change at all they claimed to be a christian but they didn't live like a christian they lived just like their old sinful buddies and so paul sends titus to the island of crete because it's gotten back to them the church is just as ungodly and immoral as all the people living on the island and paul says that's not right titus here's what i want you to do you go there and you set things in order and then he writes this letter to him to them and notice what he writes in titus chapter 1 verse 16. such people claim that they know god but they deny him by the way they live ooh indictment towards christians in america they are detestable and disobedient now i love this last part and it's the part that we're going to concentrate on they are worthless for doing any good works you want to know what's wrong with america today christians are living like non-christians but the reason they're living like non-christians is because they want jesus to be their savior but not their lord they want to walk in the flesh and not in the spirit and according to titus people who live that way are detestable just sounds bad doesn't it you are detestable then he goes further disobedient because christians are not supposed to live that way and the grace of god titus chapter 2 verse 11 through 14 teaches us to deny ungodliness and to live soberly righteous and godly in this present world but those who live like jesus as their savior but not like their lord are not only detestable but they're disobedient and then he goes further he says they are worthless for doing any good work now what does he mean they're worthless does he mean that they can't do good works no because they can do good works how many of you know people who are not born again in fact man they're really ungodly people but they do good works according to the bible's definition i know people like i know people that go to the bars every night and i want you to understand by the bible's definition they do good works what's the bible's definition first of all it has to be pure of heart in other words it has to be for the right reasons they're doing it the right motives so they do things many times with the right motive secondly what they do to help someone is morally upright actually they might not be living right but when they come to help someone what they're doing is morally upright according to god's standards and last but not least it's altruistic they literally are denying themselves to help people they hear that someone's house burned down and they're in the bar someone passes the hat and they go man i was in a place like that they pull out their billfold they give twenty dollars and then a couple of people say you know tomorrow we're gonna go and we're gonna try to help them clean up that maybe get rid of that so the insurance can come in and help them they didn't have enough to really cover the cost they show up the next morning they help out now according to the bible that's a good work but you know what's interesting that does not draw anyone to god why because if our lifestyle is not consistent with christianity we can do good works but it does not produce the same effect we have to have the lifestyle and the good works to draw people to god we know a lot of immoral ungodly people that are doing good works but they're not drawing us so to god some of you wonder why when you do these good works people don't want to come to your church they want to listen to you when you quote a bible verse i'll tell you why it's because your life doesn't line up with the word of god and people just instinctively know that if you don't live it you're worthless to do those good works that's what paul was telling titus because titus had the ability to come and teach and preach to his church and tell them we need to do this we need to be the light and all the people would get worked up they go let's go do it and they actually would do a good work the problem is it didn't draw anyone to god because they didn't live the lifestyle and that's what paul means they are worthless for doing any good work what's wrong with america today is the church does not have the lifestyle along with the good works if we want to change america let me tell you what's going to have to happen we're going to have to live like jesus is lord of our life we're going to have to apply the word of god we're going to have to love people we're going to have to be consistent in the way we live we can't live like the world and then we're going to have to do good works you know it's kind of interesting but there's a few people in my life that i look at and i go you know what they really performed good works and it's kind of sad because i'm a pastor and there's just a few people that i can think of like that bob cunningham was one my mom is another and then i start thinking real hard and i even look at my life and i say lord i want jesus to be lord i want to walk in the spirit and then i want to do good works that draws people to god and that should be our desire but that's what's wrong with america let me tell you something the world has always been ungodly the world has always been immoral but it's different today today immorality is not ashamed immorality does not lurk in the back alleys or dark corners it doesn't hide behind closed doors it proudly marches down main street but i'll tell you why it's because there isn't a church that salt and light we become like the world in fact you're seeing it every day because churches are beginning to turn and they're beginning to accept homosexuality as alternative lifestyle they're beginning to accept couples living together they're beginning to accept and even promote recreational drug use we are no different than the world and when we do good works we wonder why it doesn't draw people to god it's because we are worthless for doing any good works now let me be honest with you i was not saved until i was 20 years old now i can remember three distinct times before i was 20 that i said the sinner's prayer that i walked down an aisle how many of you remember walking down an aisle we still take a lot of flak because we don't ask people to walk down the aisle honey you don't you don't get saved by walking down the aisle you get saved by putting your trust in your faith in jesus christ but that's the way we've always done it pastor allen i walked down the aisle three times as a child and three times i said the sinner's prayer but i always knew inside i wasn't saved and i'll tell you why it's not that i didn't believe in jesus i believed in jesus but i wanted jesus to be my savior i just didn't want him to be my lord because let me tell you i'm a sanguine personality and i love life school's starting back and i loved school because i had a captive audience in the classroom i'd go into class and the teachers would say oh no it's alan nolan i've heard about him and all the other students would go all right that one's in the class because we were going to have a good time see i wanted jesus to be my savior but i didn't want him to be my lord and when i was about 20 years old i realized i'm not saved this is why i never had assurance for salvation and i knew that if i died in that condition i would go to hell and at that point i made jesus lord i've struggled with it just like you have i vacillated with it i get in the flesh but i truly wanted jesus to be lord and at that point i was saved and the grace of god that brings salvation to all men began to teach me not to live ungodly but to live a sober righteous and godly life in this present world and i began trying to do that i really didn't know how to walk in the spirit i had to learn how to do that by studying the word of god but i mean jesus lord of my life and because of that there's that assurance of salvation but not only that i want to do good works i think there's a lot of you that are just like i was you've made jesus your savior but you've not made him your lord you want to go to heaven but you don't want to live the way god wants you to that's between you and god whether you're saved i believe in lordship salvation i believe that if jesus isn't lord you're not saved and i believe that because of romans chapter 10 verses 9 and 10. romans chapter 10 verse number 9 says if thou shalt believe in your heart that god hath raised him from the dead and confess with your mouth that jesus is lord thou shalt be saved and then it goes on and explains that for with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation what if they can't speak it simply means you've got to confess in some way that jesus is your lord it's one thing to believe and that faith brings righteousness but we must also make jesus lord of our life and when jesus becomes lord i truly believe that's when we're saved but that's what's wrong with the church today in the next few weeks i'm going to be talking about good works but this is where it starts it starts with us saying we're not going to be like the cretans we're going to accept the book of titus what it says and we're going to realize that if we don't make jesus lord we are detestable we are disobedient and we're worthless for doing any good works and we're not going to live like that jesus is going to be lord and normally i would ask you to stand but every time i do that people just so stay seated if you're here this morning and you've not made jesus lord you might have assurance that you're saved i don't know but i will tell you this the bible says that we're we're to confess that jesus is lord and the reason tells us to confess it is because what we confess we're committed to and the bible wants us to commit to jesus being lord of our life if you're here this morning and you never made jesus lord of your life i'm going to give you that opportunity i'm going to say a real simple prayer and if you say pastor alan i've been like you i wanted you to be savior but not lord this morning i'm going to say a prayer that allows you to make jesus lord want everyone to bow their heads close their eyes if you want to receive jesus as your lord make him lord today you just repeat this prayer god i know i'm a sinner and i know that my sin has separated me from you but god i believe you love me and because you love me you sent your son jesus to die for my sin and i believe that jesus so went to hell to pay the penalty for my sin but i also believe that when all my sin was paid for you raised jesus from the dead and jesus i've always wanted you to be my savior i put my trust that you did that for me in you but i never made you lord and this morning i want you to be lord of my life i no longer want to be detestable in your sight i no longer want to be disobedient in your sight i no longer want to be worthless for doing any good work because even when i do good works my lifestyle doesn't support it and people aren't drawn to you today i want you to be lord now god i know it's going to be tough because i have an ungodly mind i have ungodly desires i'm like paul in romans chapter 7. but god i'm putting trust that thank you you are the answer and as i want you to be lord you're going to speak to me you're going to convict me and you're going to lead me and you're going to help me to continually have this desire that even when i fail i still want you to be lord and i'll repent of it you

Channel: Cornerstone Fellowship

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Keywords: pastor allen nolan, allen nolan cornerstone, allen nolan bible study, allen nolan explained, allen nolan sermon, cornerstone church allen nolan, cornerstone pastor allen nolan, allen nolan, with pastor allen nolan, cornerstone fellowship, cornerstone tahlequah

Id: KJwEAylZO2k

Length: 39min 30sec (2370 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 09 2021