1 Th. 1:3
Work of Faith
Pastor Albert N. Martin expounds 1 Thessalonians 1:3, focusing on the phrase "work of faith." He distinguishes between two crucial aspects of faith and works: how a sinner finds acceptance with God (by faith alone, works denounced) and how one knows if their faith is genuine (by works, faith questioned if absent). Martin warns against the errors of legalism (dead works) and dead orthodoxy (dead faith), emphasizing that true faith is a living, working principle sustained by God's promises, even amidst apparent fruitlessness. He applies these truths to the congregation, urging self-examination regarding their reliance on Christ alone for salvation and the evidence of genuine faith in their lives and labors.
Primary Texts
Topics
Outline 10 sections · 41 min
- Introduction: Paul's Thanksgiving for the Thessalonians 0:02
- The Three Jewels of Christian Virtue: Faith, Love, and Hope 2:59
- The Core of the Gospel: The Right Relationship of Work and Faith 5:24
- Faith Commended, Works Denounced: How a Sinner Finds Acceptance 8:14
- The Danger of Legalism: Putting Works Between the Sinner and Christ 13:12
- Faith Questioned, Works Praised: How to Know if Faith is Genuine 18:06
- Avoiding the Twin Errors: Dead Orthodoxy and Uncertain Subjectivism 22:51
- Personal Application: Examining Your Work of Faith 26:49
- Sustained by Faith: Laboring in the Climate of God's Promises 30:46
- Conclusion: A Call to Genuine Work of Faith 38:07
Key Quotes
“For do you know that only a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, will ever make anybody have both of those things and have them in their right order?”
“Faith is the empty-handed embrace of Jesus Christ and his salvation.”
“Any attempt to put any words between the guilty sinner and the free pardon of God, is a perversion of the gospel.”
“And any works that do not flow from faith are dead. They lack the principle of life.”
“The conclusion is, if I profess to believe, but I don't produce works, my faith is what? Dead faith, this passage says.”
“If all we do is feed on the first truth, that we're justified by faith alone... and don't emphasize this second aspect of truth, that if that faith is genuine, it will have with it the fruits of obedience and holiness. You know what you produce? You produce what's called dead orthodoxy.”
“No work is a good work unless it's rooted in faith but their works were carried on in the climate of faith.”
“We walk by faith and not by sight How do I know my labor is not in vain? Because my Lord has said even a cup of cold water in its name will not lose its reward”
Applications
All listeners
- Study 1 Thessalonians 1:2-10 to understand the marks of grace and use it as a rule for self-examination and a model for guiding your life and the church.
- Ensure that your relationship to God is based on a naked embrace of the Lord Jesus, with any works in your life being the fruit of faith, not something added to salvation.
- Examine yourself to ensure your faith is not 'dead faith' – mere notions in the head without living fruit in holiness and works pleasing to God.
- Do not try to 'get better' or add anything (baptism, church membership, prayers, vows) between your guilty soul and the Savior's free pardon.
- If you profess to look only to Christ, but there is little evidence of working for the Savior out of love, question the genuineness of your faith.
- If your trust in Christ does not create a desire to serve Him and find usefulness in His church, question the genuineness of your faith.
- As parents, carry on your ministry to your children in faith, believing God will honor your efforts despite societal opposition and their resistance.
- Come as a naked, empty-handed sinner, resting the weight of your soul upon Christ alone for acceptance with God.
- If you say you've come in faith, ensure that faith is a living principle producing works of holiness and obedience in all areas of your life.
- If you've lost heart or looked too long on the apparent fruitlessness of your labors, remember it's a work of faith, and your labor is not in vain.
A full transcript is available on the tab. 93 paragraphs, roughly 41 minutes.
Introduction: Paul's Thanksgiving for the Thessalonians
The quality of this tape is poor, but we decided to leave it in the series since most of it is understandable and it is an essential part of the exposition. I would advise you to turn with me again this morning to Paul's first letter,
the book of 1 Thessalonians. Having previously considered the birth of this church, how it came into being, and the great lessons it contains for us concerning the whole matter of how churches, true churches, begin. Having considered the senders of the letter, Paul and Silas and Timothy, those who speak to the Thessalonians, the apostolic greetings, grace be to you and peace. We looked last week at what Paul, the Christian doctrine of thankfulness,
where Paul begins what is really one entire paragraph, verses 2 to 10, by saying, We give thanks to God. All is for you all. You in our prayers. Now we come this morning to consider the specific things for which Paul gives thanks.
That's the fact that he does give thanks to God, and the great lesson that this burst of thanksgiving contains for us as God's people. What is it which causes Paul to give thanks to God? Well, verses 2 to 10 are a description of those things which Paul...
He lifts up his soul in exaltation and to bless God for the work of his grace at Thessalonica. Therefore, if you want to know what are those particular marks of the work of grace, you study verses 2 to 10. If you want to have a rule by which to examine yourself, if you want to have a model by which to guide you in framing your own life and in the life of the church, we look at verses in them. We have those.
Those factors which occasion praise in the heart of God's servant. Now it's interesting.
Being good in the tendency of God and the influence of being great upon the men in general. No, it's interesting. When Paul thinks of a church and what he says in the church in a spiritual way, his evaluation is so different from what we would normally think of the blessings of God. Now in our text today, verse 3, we have at the very beginning of the list of things for which Paul thanks God, three distinct things.
The Three Jewels of Christian Virtue: Faith, Love, and Hope
Notice them. Remembering without ceasing your, number one, work of faith, number two,
number three, patience of hope. Then he mentions the source out of which they flow,
Christ, and the climate in which they are carried on in the sight of God, and our... our Father.
So in a very real sense, in verse 3, where we have these things mentioned, your work of faith, labor of love, and patience of hope, we have those three great jewels found in Christian virtue. Faith, love, and hope. You remember in several other places, the Apostle Paul mentions these as some of the great jewels of Christian virtue. In Colossians chapter 1, we have a little bit of this, verse 1, and in verse 4,
the Apostle says, we pray for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and the love which you have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven. So you have these three things again, faith, hope, and love. That classic passage, 1 Corinthians 13, verse 13, but now abideth, these three, faith, hope, and love, which then is love. Just as all the colors that adorn the bodies here this morning, and there are many, I see some pink, yellow, well, I don't know what I'd call some of them, sort of half mustard browns, and all the rest, but all of those colors,
if you broke them down, could all be traced back to what? Red,
yellow, and what? Blue, the primary color, and all the colors that are here this morning, and all the variations can be traced back to those three primary colors. So in a very real sense, all that characterize the children of God by virtue of their union with Christ can be traced back to faith.
The Core of the Gospel: The Right Relationship of Work and Faith
And so the apostle mentions them at the very outset as though they were these primary colors, and then all the other colors of Christian virtue flow out of faith, of hope, and of love. This morning, we're going to look at the first of these, remembering without ceasing your work of faith. Now I had hoped to get all three of them, but as I studied this and pondered over it, I realized that if we could just come to some understanding of what Paul was thanking God for in those three little words, your work of faith, this would be an accomplishment. This is what caused Paul to rejoice,
and thank God, was that when he heard the report of those apostles, saw them in his original ministry to them, he saw in them these two things, a work which was rooted in faith. If they had only had work without faith, it would have caused Paul great grief. If they professed to have only faith without work, that would have caused him grief. If they had, had faith and work, but had them in the wrong relationship, that would have caused him grief.
But the fact that they had both, they had work and they had faith, and the fact that they had them in the right relationship, this caused him to lift up his heart that there at Thessalonica, there is a work of faith. There is work, there is faith, and there is work in their right relationship. For do you know that only a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, will ever make anybody have both of those things and have them in their right order? If God leaves you at the mercy of what you had by virtue of your natural birth, if God doesn't give you a spiritual birth
and spiritual eyes and spiritual insight, you'll either live utterly indifferent to work in the sense that Paul uses it, and faith, or you'll be all occupied with just faith or just work, or you'll have both of them, but in the wrong order. And Paul said they had both and they had them in the right order because this is the very core of the Gospel, to bring a man to see the relationship of work and faith and to have them in their right order. So let's consider those two things, works and faith, and if we can come to some understanding of why Paul would say we give thanks to God
Faith Commended, Works Denounced: How a Sinner Finds Acceptance
because of your work of faith. Now the first set of verses, are those verses which faith is commended and works are denounced. Will you turn for a few moments to several passages which can be classified under this general heading faith is commended works are denounced. Romans chapter 4 How long is the wording in this passage?
Romans chapter 4 verses 1 to 8 What shall we say then that our Father Jesus has redeemed us? For this is what they are saying. If Abraham were justified by works, he had whereof to glory, but not before God. What saith the Scripture?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of death. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness even as David also. also describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom God will not impute sin. Now in this passage, you have faith commended, works denounced.
Galatians chapter 2, Galatians 2, 16 and 17. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin, God forbid.
Now here we have again, faith commended, works denounced. Very well known passage, Ephesians, 2, 8 and 9. For by grace you stayed through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Titus 1, I'm sorry, Titus 3, verse 5.
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. Now, indeed, where faith is commended and works denounced, what is the question that the apostle has in his mind? Now listen carefully. I've spent many hours trying to get this simplified, and try to get it down to where we could get hold of it in terms of a question, an answer, and a conclusion.
And I trust you'll listen and think with me. The question that Paul is answering in each one of these passages that I've read is this. How does a guilty sinner, condemned by the law of God, how does a guilty sinner who is under condemnation find acceptance with God? That's the question Paul is answering.
How? How does a guilty sinner get accepted with God? Now, what is the answer in each one of these verses? It's the word Savior plus nothing.
Faith is the empty-handed embrace of Jesus Christ and his salvation. So in all of these verses, Paul is commending faith. What is faith? The empty-handed embrace of Christ that I might be accepted with God and anything that we would bring in our hands.
Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die. The question then in these verses is, how does a guilty sinner find acceptance with God?
What is the answer? The answer is by faith plus nothing. Plus nothing. What's the conclusion then?
The conclusion is this. Any attempt to put any words between the guilty sinner and the free pardon of God, is a perversion of the gospel. If you put circumcision, tears, obedience to the law, prayers, vows, anything, Paul says, anything that stands between the empty-handed and the free pardon of God, the guilty sinner, is an abomination. It's a travesty on the gospel.
The Danger of Legalism: Putting Works Between the Sinner and Christ
It's a perversion of the truth of God. When Paul thinks of those people at Thessalonica, he says, I give thanks because, basically, all of your relationship to God is that there is a work of faith. You're not putting your works between you and the living Christ and His salvation. You're not putting your works there as adding to, but any works that are in your life are the fruit of faith.
Your relationship to God is based upon this naked embrace of the Lord Jesus, Jesus Christ, as He's offered in the gospel. Now, when Paul saw that, he rejoiced, but where he saw people who put anything between themselves and Christ, he cried out in horror. Listen to his words in Romans, where he says, concerning his own countrymen, the Jews, he said, they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves, to the righteousness of God. He preached to these people, you're guilty,
you're condemned by the law. God has provided in Jesus Christ a full and perfect faith. They said, oh, that's too simple. And they went back to circumcision and the ceremonial law and doing this and doing that, and Paul was free.
Some people came to the church in Galatia, where Paul had preached this message saying, you're condemned by the law, you're guilty, there's no hope. But, God has sent His Son, and God sets Jesus Christ before you as the only hope of sinners. Believe on Him, trust Him, commit yourself to Him. And many people had come into the blessings of the Gospel, but after Paul left, some people came down from Judea and they said, now look, that guy Paul, he took you as far as he could, but we want to take you a little further.
This believe is all right, but we want to put a little plus sign. You see, Paul, he ended the sentence too soon. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, period, change that period, put a little loop on it, make it a comma, and say, plus, be circumcised, and keep the law. He wasn't heard about.
He wrote back in horror. He didn't even give the normal greetings that he usually gives to his disciples and that which we've preached unto you. Let him be accursed. Galatians 1, verses 8 and 9.
He said, let anyone be accursed who put anything between the guilty sinner and the willing and offered Savior. Anything. Anything that would stand between the son and Christ. So as he thought of the Thessalonians and his own ministry, when he preached to them that salvation was to be found in Jesus Christ, received by faith alone.
Remember, I'm putting all the richness of the Bible concept into that word. It involves repentance, turning from sin, and all the rest. Those of you who come here know we're not using that word in its cheap, present connotation, but in its biblical sense of the whole response of the whole man to Christ. And those Thessalonians embraced it.
And then word came from Timothy that they weren't putting anything between themselves and Christ. They were standing as needy, guilty, helpless, condemned sinners whose only plea was Jesus Christ and His righteousness. And Paul says, I give thanks to God. For though you're working, and though you're busy, and though you're active, and though you have many works, all of them are works of faith.
They're rooted in sin between yourself and the Savior. You see, one of the areas in which men must repent, Hebrews 6.1 says that we must repent of dead works. Well, what are dead works?
A dead work is getting hooked in and connected with a living root of faith. You see, works must flow out of faith. And any works that do not flow from faith are dead. They lack the principle of life.
Just as surely as when you sever the roots of a tree. That tree is devoid then of life. So, when the soul seeks to work and labor, but it doesn't flow from a living root of faith, those are dead works. Now, there are another set of passages where faith is questioned or even ignored and works are praised.
Faith Questioned, Works Praised: How to Know if Faith is Genuine
The first set of passages, faith is commended, works denounced. The second set of passages, faith is questioned or ignored or almost overlooked and works are praised. Well, you know the most well-known of these passages is in the book of James. Now, let's look at it for a moment.
James, chapter 2. James, chapter 2, verse 14. What does it profit, my brethren, though a man say he have faith and have not works? Can faith save him?
The original has another word in there. Can that kind of faith have him? That would be a better translation. Is a man of God a kind of faith save him?
Then he gives an illustration of how empty it is. Verse 17. Even so, faith, if it hath not works, is dead. Verse 19.
Thou believest that God is one, thou doest well. The devils also believe and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he delivered up, offered up Isaac his seed?
Or offered up Isaac his son upon the altar? Then he goes on and brings the conclusion in verse 26. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead. Now, this is something different.
In the first set of passages, faith was commended, works were denounced. In this passage, and in others we could quote, but faith is questioned or ignored, and works are praised. Now, why? Well, you've got a different question.
The question over here was, how can a guilty sinner find acceptance with God? The question in these passages is entirely different. Here's the question now. How does a man know if his faith is genuine?
Well, that's a different question. See the difference? Here the question is, how does a sinner find acceptance with God? Now the question is, I profess to be accepted by faith, how do I know if my faith is genuine?
One is a question, how do I get rid of my sin? The other is a question, how do I know that my faith is real? And what's the answer to these passages is, genuine faith will always produce as its fruit, works of obedience and holiness, done in the power of a new life, done out of love to Christ. If ye love me, he said, ye will keep my commandments.
So you've got two different questions, two different answers, and then two different conclusions. The conclusion of this first question, if the question is, how do I find acceptance with God? And if the answer is, by faith alone, the conclusion is obvious. Anything that we put in between faith and the Savior is a perversion of the Gospel.
Here the question is, how do I know if my faith is genuine? The answer is, if your faith is genuine, it will produce works of obedience and holiness. The conclusion is, if I profess to believe, but I don't produce works, my faith is what? Dead faith, this passage says.
Wilt thou not know, O vain man, that faith without works? Yes. So the Bible teaches, dead works, dead faith. And both of them are terrible maladies of the soul.
The person over here, who will not simply rest the faith of his guilty soul in the hands of Christ, believing on the Lord Jesus, but thinks he's got to be baptized, thinks he's got to do this and do that, thinks all those works are dead works, they're an abomination to me. But what about the person over here? He says, oh yeah, I believe, I'm not trying to work my way to heaven, I'm trusting Jesus. There's no works of obedience, no works of holiness, no works of true biblical piety, and faith is dead faith.
It's just a bunch of notions in the head, for if it were living faith, it would have some living fruit in holiness and in works that are pleasing to God. So that's why Paul in Galatians 5, 6 says, Faith worketh by love. Faith, true faith, always works. True faith is always a working principle.
Avoiding the Twin Errors: Dead Orthodoxy and Uncertain Subjectivism
So when Paul over here sees people putting any kind of works between the guilty soul and the Savior, he cries out in horror, he does the same thing when he finds people who say, oh well, I believe, but they don't produce works. What does he say? Listen to him. Titus 1, 16.
They profess that they know God, I believe, but in works, he says, they deny Him, being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work reprobate. Now, the importance of this distinction cannot be emphasized too much. If all we do is feed on the first truth, that we're justified by faith alone. And that's a wonderful, glorious truth.
Once I begin to see what a sinner I am, I don't want to be saved with anything that has to do with me. The longer I live as a Christian, the more I learn to sing and say, just as I am without one plea, but that Thy blood was shed for me. I sing that far more now and with far more understanding. I can say now in a way I couldn't say a year ago.
Nothing in my hands I bring simply to Thy cross. When I leave here today, my heart will condemn me. You know what for? For the fact that I've been able to face never dying immortal souls and not feel more the reality of these things, so that there's something of sin mixed even with my preaching.
So what's my only plea? My only plea is Lord Jesus. It's Thy blood. Thy blood is righteousness.
That's a wonderful truth. But if we feed only on that truth and don't emphasize this second aspect of truth, that if that faith is genuine, it will have with it the fruits of obedience and holiness. You know what you produce? You produce what's called dead orthodoxy.
People who understand the gospel, they know the talk and they can spout the language, but there's no living, throbbing, vibrant Christian experience. And whole denominations are cursed with dead orthodoxy. People who say, sure we believe, faith alone, faith alone, faith alone. And everybody sits around supposedly believing and that's what they do.
They sit and sit and sit. On the other hand, if all we emphasize is this second aspect, that if our faith is genuine, it will produce works and we ought to examine ourselves to see if our faith is genuine. If all we emphasize is that subjective, you know what that produces? I've seen that as well.
That produces a kind of uncertain subjectivism where people are all the time just looking in and looking in and looking at their failures and looking at their sins and looking at the weakness of their faith and they can never rejoice that they're accepted in the beloved. They can't do it. Now do you see why Paul rejoiced? Because these people hadn't fallen into one or the other of those two errors.
He said, remembering your work of faith. They had faith. They weren't putting anything between themselves and the Savior, but it was a living faith. It was producing works of obedience of holiness.
You read the rest of the chapter as we'll do. The Word of God was sounding out. They were an example to all the believers. They had turned from their idols.
They had all kinds of fruits of faith but they were just that. They were the fruit of faith. They were not trusting in these things. Their heart and their lives were trusting only in the merits of God and the merits of Christ as offered in the gospel.
Personal Application: Examining Your Work of Faith
So Paul rejoices that when the preaching of the gospel came they welcomed it as the message of grace but having been brought into the possession of life they loved the Savior and having loved Him they now seek to serve Him and he rejoices in that. Now, in applying this principle let me ask you a question this morning. Supposing that I knew you as well as Paul knew the people at Thessalonica and I think I know you that well and maybe even better because he was only with them a period of a few months.
I'm writing a letter to you at church. Could I say greetings to all of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank God for you all. Remembering before God your work of faith.
Could I rejoice that these two things were manifest in your life as they were here. To make it more personal suppose everybody in this assembly and I did this last week in another connection and I want to do it again. Suppose everybody in this assembly had as clear an understanding of the place of faith and the place of works and the relationship to each other as you do and as clear an experience of faith and works as you do. Would this cause the heart of a true servant of God to rejoice?
Are you trying to get better before you come? Are you trying to get better before you embrace the Savior? I fear that some of you may be. That somehow you feel well the standard is so high I just can't believe that God will accept the likes of me with all my sin and failure and wickedness simply by trusting in the Savior.
That's too good to be true. No, not baptism, church membership and circumcision but prayers and vows and all the rest. Nothing should stand between the soul in all of its guilt and the Savior in all of his forgiveness. The scripture says worketh not but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly.
He justifies the ungodly as ungodly when they look away for grace and for mercy. There are others of you who make that profession that you look only to Christ but there's precious little evidence that you're working for the Savior out of love for him. Paul was not writing to people who'd been around for 20 years. They were babes in Christ and yet listen to what he could say to them.
He said, Ye became in samples to all the believers. Verse 7 Verse 6 Ye became followers of us and of the Lord. Verse 8 For from you sounded out the word of the Lord. Your faith is spoken everywhere.
Is that said of us? Some of you should have real grounds to question the genuineness of your faith because you have no real appetite for labor for the sake of Christ whom you say you love and whom you say you trust. If your trust in Christ does not create in you a desire to serve him and find a place of usefulness in his church I question the genuineness of your faith. How can you say you believe in a Savior who's blotted out your sin without wanting to pour out in his feet some labor of love?
Sustained by Faith: Laboring in the Climate of God's Promises
It's a serious question. And so the Apostle could rejoice that these people at Thessalonica had works, they had faith, and they had them in their right relationship. And so the whole basis of all their works was this relationship of believing and trust in the Lord Jesus. And then there is this last thought that I'd like to bring to you this morning that not only were their works rooted in faith and that's what made them in the truest sense good works no work is a good work unless it's rooted in faith but their works were carried on in the climate of faith.
It was not only a work of faith tracing it back to faith as its root but it was a work of faith in the sense that faith is what produced the work in the present and gave it life and life. Let me explain what I mean by turning to another very familiar passage of Scripture 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 58 because the same word work is used here Be therefore steadfast, unmovable, always abounding here's that word always abounding in the work of the Lord
for as much as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord Now let's ask a couple of questions I'm to be steadfast, unmovable always abounding in God's work Why? Because I know something Paul says the reason you can abound in God's work is because you know something and here's what you know Your labor is not in vain in the Lord Now how do you know that? How do I know my labor is not in vain in the Lord? How do I know that those hours spent in everything from Greek lexicons to dusty old commentaries to mental sweat and sometimes agony How do I know they're not in vain?
Are all of you converted? I don't believe so All of you come to the door and hug me and say oh is this the most wonderful thing? No On some occasions they thank you I appreciate that How do you know your labor is not in vain in the Lord? How do you know?
He says be steadfast, unmovable, abounding in the work of the Lord You know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord Well how do you know that? You don't know it by what you see Looks like you're pouring out your labor like pouring water out on the ground only to have it sucked into the ground and taken out of sight and it seems that all your labor is gone How do you know your labor is not in vain? You witness to that neighbor You try to have some kind of a a godly influence upon your children and all it seems that the more you try the more they resent it How do you know your labor is not in vain? How do you know that?
Or do you know it? You won't know it by looking and gauging by what you see All that tells you is you're you're pretty much a total flop Isn't that right? This is what happened to Paul Well how do you know this? Well there's only one way you know it The scripture says in 2 Corinthians 5 We walk by faith and not by sight How do I know my labor is not in vain?
Because my Lord has said even a cup of cold water in its name will not lose its reward He's promised in due season we shall reap if we what? If we faint not So the only way I can know that my labor is not in vain is by embracing the word of his promise and the God who gave that word and saying Lord in spite of what I see in spite of the lack of evidence Lord I believe that work done in your name done to your glory done in the power of the Spirit in due season it shall cause its reaping Thou shalt cause it to be reaped And so these people at Thessalonica
for remember they were a persecuted crowd The whole city hadn't been converted They were getting kicked around for the sake of Christ And yet Paul says You've learned the secret This is why you're able to continue to work Even when men oppose you Even when it looks like there's no success He said you've learned that your work is a work of faith You don't labor in terms of what you see You labor in terms of what God has said As he said So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth It shall not return unto me void But it shall prosper in the thing whereunto I have sent it As he said it Then Lord so be it So be it Thou wilt honor thy word As he said In due season we shall reap
If we faint not Then Lord by your grace I will not faint I shall reap I don't see much harvest coming to fruition But Lord this is what you've said It becomes then a what A work of faith That's what puts life into your labor As a parent you pray over your children You try to teach them some of the basic Biblical concepts of decency And morality And ethics And responsibility And submission to authority And everything in society Militates against it And you feel at times it's a losing battle What's the use A work of faith Carry on in faith That God who put you as the parents over those children Is going to honor your ministry to them
And you believe God in spite of what you see And then maybe twenty years later Has been my own dear mother's experience One by one As kids come back and beat a path to her door And say oh mom thanks so much For not giving in to our stinking foolish whims If I had parents who gave in to every whine and whim I wouldn't be here I'd probably be in hell Humanly speaking And parents who had principles and concepts That were part of the what A work of faith They looked down the road to that time When God would lay hold of that life And then we'd come back and say mom and dad Thanks so much For standing true to your principles
When we chafed And when we complained And when we balked And when we hollered It was a work of faith A work of faith Parents that's the only thing That will keep you going It's a work of faith A work of faith Not only rooted in faith But sustained by faith And that's what gives you the nerve To continue to press on That's what gives you some measure of joy In the midst of it That's what will be one of the things You kids don't listen to this now That's one of the things That will be an arrow of conviction In the heart of your own children When you don't get flustered when they bawl You say God's going to do His work Oh how it used to go
Conclusion: A Call to Genuine Work of Faith
Like an arrow to my heart But the way my mother said it I just knew Maybe she's right That it was said in faith That those tears And those hours before God Would not be lost It's a work of faith And Paul rejoices That in these people He saw evidence Of the work of faith The Lord willing next week We'll take up the theme The labor of love And the patience of hope But in conclusion Let me ask you again this morning Do you know anything Of the work of faith Have you come first of all
As a naked empty handed sinner And saying oh God In answer to that question How can a guilty sinner like I Be right with you There's no way But through the merits of Christ And having a sinful naked trust Rested the weight of your soul Upon Christ in Christ alone If you haven't Forget works They're all dead works Until you've come in faith Then I'd ask a second question You who say you've come in faith Is that faith a living principle That's producing works of holiness And obedience in the home In the shop Out amongst men Amongst women Is it If not It's just a dead faith
And you better repent of your faith And get the real kind You better cry to God For that faith which is his gift Which not only brings the soul Into sweet relationship to the Savior But sets the shoulder to his yoke And gets him to work for the Savior Not to earn his favor But to express gratitude for his favor And then in whatever our hands are doing If we've found we've lost heart If we find that we've looked so long On the apparent fruitlessness Of our labors Ah, let's remember It's a work of faith Your labor's not in vain And the only way you'll be abounding In the work of the Lord
Is if you know That it's not in vain And the only way you'll know it Is if it's God's So may God grant That we shall be a people Marked by the work of faith And if so We are singularly blessed For only the Holy Ghost Can work both in any individual way And in their rightful nature May God grant That they shall be found Let us pray together
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Passages Expounded
This verse is the central text, specifically the phrase 'your work of faith,' which the sermon expounds in detail.
Texts Expounded
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