Scott Brown's sermon on 'Learning to Maintain Good Works' emphasizes the importance of understanding and performing good works as part of a faithful Christian life. Using Titus chapter 3 as a foundation, the sermon outlines the necessity of learning and maintaining good works through the ordinary means of grace. Brown underscores that while we are not saved by works, they are vital indicators of true faith and are expected to bear fruit in the Christian life. The sermon contrasts good works, which are defined by obedience to God's Word, with bad works, which arise from divisiveness and strife. It also delineates two types of judgment: the great white throne judgment for unbelievers and the judgment seat of Christ for believers, where their works will be tested by fire. Brown challenges believers to engage in good works, such as prayer, generosity, hospitality, and resisting temptation, as they will be rewarded by God. The dominion mandate, which includes being fruitful, multiplying, filling, and subduing the earth, is presented as a framework for understanding good works. Brown warns against a pietism that neglects the physical aspects of life and urges believers to integrate their faith into all areas of life, emphasizing that good works should flow from genuine faith and adherence to Scripture.

Please open your Bibles to Titus chapter 3 and find verse 9. It's always thrilling and such a joy and encouragement to have in our hands the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter-than-honey word of God. Let's read it, verse 9. But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and useless. Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.

When I send Artemis to you, Ortychicus, be diligent to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. Send Zenos the lawyer and Apollos on their journey with haste, that they may lack nothing, that our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your word.

Thank you for leading your sheep. We pray that you would come and shepherd this flock, that you would tend this vine, that you would care for these who love you, that you would also open the eyes of those who do not and save their souls. Amen. Please be seated. The primary focus of this message will be the importance of learning to maintain good works.

That's from verse 14. This is a major theme in Titus as you've been with us for many, many weeks in this letter. There is learning and there is maintaining. These are the two things that Titus is advocating. And you know, at the same time we've been extolling the the quiet rhythmic faithful Christian life that trusts in the ordinary means of grace that we are not only saved by grace but grace is our lifelong teacher through the ordinary daily drip of the ordinary means of grace, this life that Jesus Christ has defined for us as we gather together to worship God on the Lord's Day, as we open up our Bibles during the week, as we sing together, as we pray in this church, as we celebrate the Lord's Supper, as we fellowship together.

These are the ordinary means of grace that God has designed to grow us all up and he does it slowly and incrementally what a blessing it is to be under the hand of God. But it's a life of learning but at the same time the Bible says that our work will be tested by fire. This theme of good works is critical and it should be understood in the whole context of the word of God, but scripture makes it very clear that there will be at the judgment seat of Christ, a testing of every person's work and it will be tested by fire. This is found in first Corinthians 313. Each one's work will become clear for the day will declare it if Anyone's work which he has built on it endures He will receive a reward if anyone's work is burned He will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved yet as through fire.

Of course there are two judgments in the Word of God at least that the great white throne of judgment where the unbelievers and the devil and Satan and will be thrown into the lake of fire that is the great white throne judgment at this judgment it is believers who stand before God before the Lord Jesus Christ Now have you been watching the news about the the fires in Canada all over the news this week? Massive fires have been burning across Canada. They've burned so far about seven million acres and the smoke has traveled all even as far as Virginia I was speaking to people around the country and they were being affected by it in the Midwest in the mid-atlantic you know a thousand miles away the burning smoke has spread and There there will be a fire at the end of the age some of our works will turn out to be wood and hay and stubble And there will be the smoke of the works tested by fire. And in that burning, there will be a recognition of things that time that's been wasted, activities that were unprofitable and things like that. And that's why this whole admonition here in Titus is critical.

Learning to maintain good works will mean that the Christian life will bear fruit. Jesus said some 30, some 60, some a hundred fold. But that fruit bearing, it creates a culture. It creates the culture of a church and it produces a culture that really clashes with the culture of the world. But this life of fruit bearing, it's an expansive life.

While it's a quiet life, it's an expansive life. It's a life of activity. It's a life of rising up and taking dominion. And this life of course is created by the work of God in the soul of man as he as he works with you daily and pours out his spirit upon you. But these good works what are they?

Well they are things that God delights in. Our Baptist confession makes this very clear. The 1689 Confession, Chapter 16, says it like this, Good works are only those works that God has commanded in His holy word. Works that do not have this warrant are invented by men out of blind zeal or a pretense of good intentions and are not truly good. In other words, the good works that God speaks of are the good works that God has already defined.

This is not necessarily random acts of kindness. These are the things that actually flow out of obedience to God. Think about the one another's in the Bible. There are over 50 of them. The one another's really define the relational fabric of this good of these good works.

How we operate with one another. We forgive one another. We love one another. We speak to one another. We edify one another all these all those things.

These are good works and there's so many if you look at the ethical commands of the Bible, you'll see what those good works look like You can go back and look at our church covenant. Our church covenant contains dozens of those good works and they're listed by scripture references. But these good works they spring from something real. They're not just invented, they come from the works of grace in the believer's life. And so I want us in no uncertain terms to make it very clear that this quiet life of the ordinary means of grace we are advocating is a dominion taking life.

It is an activist life and If you've not been born again and the ordinary means of grace is not the energizing motivation, then your works will be godless. You might be a conservative, but you'll be a godless conservative. But so in these final words of Titus, there are two kinds of people. There are people who do good works and people who do bad works and so We have this profile of this of this life that actually arises out of the faith of God's elect. In chapter 1 verse 1 in Titus is really sort of the keystone of the entire admonition and that is it is according to the faith of God's elect according to the acknowledgement of the truth which accords with godliness and right at the beginning of Titus there's a very clear acknowledgement that this is distinguished from the unconverted.

There are those who in chapter 1 verse 16 they profess to know God but in works they deny them. So you have in this text a picture of bad works and good works. Let's start with the bad works in verse 9 And you have a simple outline in front of you if you have it. There are three points I want to make this morning. First, don't let divisive people dominate your church and your life.

And secondly, learn to do good works. And then third, remember the judgment seat of Christ. So that's really a very simple way that to understand what I'm trying to communicate today. So first of all don't let divisive people dominate your church or your life but avoid foolish disputes genealogies contentions and strivings about the law for they are unprofitable and useless. Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned." I won't spend too much time on this.

I treated it briefly in a previous sermon, but some of the men at our men's Bible study wanted me to talk a little bit more about it, so I'm going to do that. What is being exposed here is a reality that every church and every person will experience from time to time. There will be people who will find themselves at odds with some aspect of the church or some aspect of someone's life and their criticism spreads to other people and their divisiveness actually diverts the focus of the church on God and the gospel and good works. So I think that's what's happening. It sucks the joy out of a church as well.

And the teaching here is that you just can't let it, you can't let it go, you can't leave it alone, particularly those who have authority to deal with it. There's a process that is spoken of here and it should be a swift one. There are four words that paint the picture of what's happening. Foolish disputes. He uses a word that we get our word moron from, foolish.

And then genealogies, speculative conclusions, and then contentions you know what contentions are and then strivings about the law So those are the four categories that he lists. I'm sure there are more. This is not a comprehensive list. We need to be very careful to say though, this is not a prohibition of doctrinal debate. It's not a prohibition of working through differences of opinion and disagreements.

We can do that in this church. But there's a line that can be crossed into this kind of behavior that's categorized. Now remember who the apostle is writing about. He's writing to Cretans, and we all know about Cretans. There were a bunch of belligerent, macho, brawling, liars, evil beasts, and lazy gluttons in Crete, and the people in this church came out of that culture and they certainly would have been affected by that in the church.

So when these people show up here's what you do. You avoid them. You see the word there in the scriptures? Avoid. That means turn around, that word literally means turn around and go away.

Don't fraternize with them. Secondly, reject. Repudiate them. The language that the apostle used, if you look at the background of the language, it's like saying, may I be excused? I'm leaving.

I'm moving on. It's like guests at a dinner party begging to be dismissed. I'm going now. There's a parallel passage in Romans chapter 16 verse 17, now I urge you brethren to note those who cause divisions and offenses. In other words, take note of them contrary to the doctrine which you learn and avoid them.

For those who are such do not serve the Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. So there are two steps in both of these passages. First of all, you attempt to change the minds with an appeal. There's a first and a second warning in Titus. And then you contain the poison.

You mark them and you avoid them. And so these these quarrels, these dissensions that take place, they are in sharp contrast to learning to maintain good works, which is what I want to focus on now. So learning to do good works. There's an important word here, to learn. We're all in a process of learning.

You think about who you were before you were a Christian. You think if you've been a Christian for 10 years, think about how different you are today after 10 years. You know, so many of us here in this church, you know, who've been here for a decade, a decade and a half, we've changed and we're continuing to change and that's really a blessing. To learn means that you're not done growing and every believer just needs to recognize that you know God is not finished with them yet. Believers you know are humble people because they realize that they haven't arrived.

But learning means to keep on expanding. When you're learning something new, you're acquiring additional information and that's that's what learning is all about. Maintaining has to do with keeping up the good works you know the many good works that are done through you in the world and in this church. Just keep them up you know learn to maintain the good works well they say they say that you can't teach a dog new tricks but you can teach a Christian new tricks. And that's what he's saying here.

Children, do I have your attention for a second? I'd like to talk to your children. Think about good works. Think about how many good works you can do while you're growing up in your parents' home. Think about all the different things that happen every day.

Think about how many good works you can do. You think about kindness toward your siblings. Is that a good work? Well the Bible says it is. How about helping around the house and being obedient to your father and mother?

Well the Bible says that's a good work. You know, doing your chores faithfully. How about you kids, when you do a job, do you do a half job? Do you finish your work? I mean, look at the book of Proverbs.

All over the book of Proverbs, you'll learn that it's a good work to do your work faithfully the Apostle Paul said to do your work as unto the Lord all of your work no matter what you're doing do it all Let the kindness of God flow to your siblings. Let faithfulness be the mark of your life. The faithful children will become faithful adults and they will be given much. If you're faithful and little the Bible says you will be faithful and much and that's really really important. Now so I'm gonna give you assignment.

Kids are you ready? Are you still with me? Did I have a lascia yet? I'm gonna give you an assignment. I want you to write down three good things you can do for your siblings and I want you to write down three good things you can do for your siblings and I want you to write down three good things you can do with your parents in your house while you're growing up okay that's your assignment okay now good works are mentioned six times in these three chapters six times in 33 verses and I'm gonna speak about them but in Titus 2 11 we learned that good works are the fruit of grace the good works are the result of being taught by God according to the ordinary means of grace the singing that we've been doing the the praying the great admonitions we've heard this morning from our brothers from this platform.

I mean, these are words of grace for us. And they were so helpful to me. But the Apostle Paul in Titus 2 11 says that the good works are the fruit of grace. Verse 11, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts and he goes on and then he says to purify himself his own special people zealous for good works so it's all these things that we've even been doing this morning that we should be doing during the week these These are the things that make us zealous for good works. And I hope, here's my prayer for today.

I pray that you and I, all of us together, today when we're done with this service, we would be more zealous for good works than we were when we came in. We're going to have a time of fellowship together. I hope you're more zealous today than you were last Sunday because you've heard the word of God. So faith comes first and then the works come second. Now I want to I want to narrow the discussion down a bit to the six things we learned about good works in Titus.

Now we could go all over the Bible I have gone all over the Bible but let's narrow it down just to what Titus says here. First of all good works are the evidence of true faith. You have the person who professes to know God but their works make it clear that they don't know God. That's in chapter 1 verse 16 and it says that they are disqualified for every good work. In other words, a true believer has works that actually affirm their faith.

The second thing we learn is that Paul commands us to make good works a habit. In other words, make them happen. Don't just do them once and forget about it. Keep it, keep the good works rolling. In Titus 2.7 he says, in all things, showing yourself to be a pattern of good works.

In other words, a rhythmic pattern of good works. You know the power of habits. Habits are the things that make you successful on autopilot. And make yourself a pattern of good work. So there are habits that we should get into.

There are ways of being a blessing to those around us that should be just part of everyday life, the habits of our life. The third thing we learn is that actually God saved us from our old works for good works. He saved us from our bad works for good works, Titus 2, 14. Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed to purify for himself his own special people zealous for good works that's why he saved us God has desired and he has designed and ordained that there would be a people in the world who were zealous for good works. Next, good works for those over us in authority are commanded and this would mean you know your parents your bosses your government and all other authorities Titus 3 1 remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities to obey to be ready for every good work and whatever authority you're under everybody's under a number of authorities All of us are under multiple authorities.

And there are responsibilities that we have to those authorities, whether they're our government, we have a responsibility to do good works in the civil realm. It's actually a good work to be involved in good things in politics or you're in your family. Good works under the authority of your parents. Wives are under the authority of their husbands. They have good works to do.

All of us are under authorities whether they are teachers or whether they are bosses and then he uses another word to further define this he says to be careful to be careful to ponder it. Titus 3 8 those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men. So there's a carefulness that the believer has. You know, a believer's not just running around like a chicken with his head cut off going in every direction.

He's careful to focus his life on things that are good. And then he speaks of meeting needs, Titus 3 14, and let our people learn to maintain good works to meet urgent needs that they may not be unfruitful. So there in our lives typically there are urgent needs around us. You know some urgent needs that I don't know about. There are often urgent needs in a church and to meet urgent needs is critical.

Why? That they may not be unfruitful. Titus clarifies something very important that everybody knows here. No one is saved by their works. Titus 3 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us.

So Titus is teaching us the importance of good works but we are not saved by good works but by the mercy of God. Now open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2. I want you to look at a couple of verses there. Ephesians chapter 2 and find verse 8 because this is this this whole matter is is one of the great reasons for why Jesus Christ opened your heart and turned you to him. He saved you particularly for this reason.

Ephesians 2 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith that not of yourselves is the gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast. But look at verse 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And so you have God as the creative force behind our good works and he created us so that we would be under that energetic force to do good works. There are many, many places we could go.

But just to make it very clear, the quiet life is not quiet. It's an activist life and it's also a skill. We are to learn to do good works and to be doers of the word and not hearers alone. Now there's an unhealthy and unbalanced pietism, I think, that's crept in to the modern church. It's an error that I think has crept into evangelical Christianity regarding good works.

Piatism, it's a kind of pietism that, you know the word piety, piety actually is a good word, we should all be we should all be pious in a sense but there's a pietism that ignores the physical aspects of life and it and it and it emphasizes spirituality and knowledge but not much activity It produces a faith of personal devotion but it often ignores the public face of Christianity. Jay Chase Davis says it like this, Piatism began as a spiritual renewal movement emphasizing Bible reading, personal holiness, and heartfelt devotion. Publicly, however, it devolved into a theology of retreat. It created a posture of withdrawal from public theology and formal ecclesiology. I'll say that again a withdrawal from public theology how it relates to culture and politics and everything else, and formal ecclesiology and also the actual duties of the church, what the church actually does.

And of course the ordinary means of grace speak loudly about that. So this unhealthy pietism focuses on personal faith, personal holiness, Bible reading, heartfelt devotion, all these things are good, but they can become a privatized faith, simply a subjective faith. It's a focus on the inner person of the heart but includes a withdrawal from the physical activities of life and actually a diminishing of the importance of the physical aspects of life that God has given us through actually commands in his word. The pietist can be more easily focused on his feelings rather than what he's doing. That's why James said faith without works is dead and he does not see his spirituality in his work this is his secular this is my secular job by the way there's no such thing as a secular job.

All of life is under the authority of Jesus Christ. A wife might not see the spiritual work in her cooking when she's actually providing for her family or in leading or in driving or in fixing faucets or in changing diapers or in building buildings and architectural drawings and dealing with permits all these these are the things of work that God has actually commanded and you can you will find modern Christians they think in their hearts it doesn't matter what happens on earth because heaven is my real home. But actually this world is your home for now and you have direct commands for how to operate in this world. And the first place I think we go to is the dominion mandate and Genesis 128 where God makes it very clear right at the beginning that your work is your life and you work six days and you rest one and your work is not a non-spiritual activity it's spiritual activity just as much as everything else we've talked about this before you have this idea in evangelicalism the center of God's will and you picture your life like it like a target and at the center of God's will are the the pastors and the missionaries and the full-time Christian workers okay they're in the center of God's will and then And then in the outside circles are the lesser spiritual things.

And then you have, so you have this spiritual work in the dead center and you have the unspiritual work on the outside. The Bible doesn't talk like that. The Bible actually makes it very clear that as you're taking dominion in the earth it's a work, it is something that God has commanded. Just like the Baptist Confession has said, there are works that are commanded. The dominion mandate is one of those works.

And the dominion mandate requires a person and a realm of rule and authority. It's taking authority over the things that God has put in your hands and it's also called the cultural mandate. There are four elements of the dominion mandate and all of them I believe are under this whole matter of good works. I think we should think about good works more broadly than just reading your Bible, praying, and going to church. The Bible gives you a much richer picture than that.

I'm gonna give you four elements of the dominion mandate where our, and it is spiritual work and it is physical work. First be fruitful and multiply. That's the first command of the dominion mandate to reproduce and multiply families. You know that means that every person who names the name of Christ should be reproducing. They shouldn't be sitting around being passively entertained and wasting their lives.

They're improving things. The single person who's not married shouldn't be waiting around. They should set themselves to fruitfulness. That means marriage is pivotal. That means prioritizing marriage as a young person is pivotal.

Prioritizing children is pivotal and it means establishing a distinctive family culture of working together and establishing God's authority in this realm, this rulership called called your family. I mean in the fall we're gonna have in this church as we have before a financial intelligence conference and one thing you will you might hear me say at that conference, because we want particularly our young people to come to this, and that is this, if you're a young person make yourself ready for marriage as early as possible. And don't be surprised if I say it again work and money should be prioritized if you're a young man you should be making yourself ready at the conference you might hear me say I just want to encourage you young men to be ready financially to get married by the time you're 20. Now, it might not happen, but let me tell you, if that girl comes along and you're 20 and you're not ready, it's going to be a big hassle for you and a lot of other people. So make yourself ready.

Don't do what everybody else is doing and waste their lives playing games. Get yourself ready. Get yourself early. And I'm just going to throw it out there now. If you come to the conference, you'll hear it again Make it your aim to be ready by age 20 So that when the woman your dream shows up, you're ready to go The second is fill the earth Fill the earth This has to do with geographical domination, hegemony.

It has to do with taking control of your space, taking dominion over your physical domain, having mastery over the things that God's given you whether it's your house your car your tools whatever it is to take dominion over over those things and that that includes all kinds of things probably from the education of your children to taking care of your yard to fixing your car it's actually maintaining the thing you're taking dominion over what God has put in your hands. The third is to subdue the earth, and that's to harness the earth's resources and opportunities. Do you think it's spiritual to do that? God does. He originally commanded it at the beginning.

It's spiritual work and we should be very careful not to make this terrible distinction that when you walk out of this church building you're now in the secular world. You're not. You're in God's world and He has authority over everything. And this includes, you know, the use of the earth for good purposes, the use of the land, the use of technology, the use of machinery, you know, to subdue the earth, to take nature's bountiful blessing, so many secrets embedded in nature, take them and use them, use them for the glory of God. And then next to actually to have dominion to exercise authority and stewardship over your life, your work, your vocation, your medicine, your engineering, your construction, your farming, your education, whatever it is.

This is the world that God made you and he made you as a holy person to invade each one of those areas. They themselves are not secular when you show up. They're physical. I think we should always remember the men in the Bible, they were workers. Our spiritual heroes, they weren't monks sitting on a mountaintop staring into heaven.

I mean Adam was a caretaker of a garden. He was a farmer. Noah was a man of the soil. He was a shipbuilder. He planted a vineyard.

Abraham was a landowner and a herdsman and a creator of a military. Joseph was a slave and a prisoner and he was finally a ruler. This was all spiritual work. Moses was a shepherd and a prophet and a military leader. Joshua was a father and a spy and a general.

David was a shepherd and a warrior and a songwriter. You get the idea? You know Amos was a fig picker. Daniel was a government official. I mean You could just go on and on our spiritual hero or heroes were actually earthy men That's why when j.i packer wrote his book about the Puritans.

He called that he called them earthly Saints Because that's what they were So when we think about doing good works, those good works function within all of the things that we just talked about, all of the things that people think are things that people think are secular. Now there are two final judgments in the Bible. One is the great white throne. Before the throne, it's spoken of in Revelation 20, I saw a great white throne and him who sat on it from those whose face The earth and heaven fled away and there was found no place for them And I saw the dead the great and the small standing before God and the books were opened This is the final judgment of the wicked Here before the throne there are no other considerations. There's nothing more to learn there are no exits this is the great white throne And the book is opened and those who are guilty are in the book and they're thrown in the lake of fire.

And then you have the judgment seat of Christ. That's a different throne. And this is where works will be tested by fire. Now, 2 Corinthians 5, 9. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done whether good or bad and then first Corinthians 3 which we already read a portion of.

For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one's work will become clear, for the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test each one's work what sort it is if anyone's work which he has built on it endures he will receive a reward If anyone's work is burned he will suffer loss but he himself will be saved so as through fire." Now this judgment will be fair because Jesus Christ is perfectly just. This judgment will be individual for individuals and it will be thorough whether good or evil says the text. Works are done whether good or evil and the question is what will be left? How much silver and gold will be left in your life, in my life.

How much wood, hay, and straw will be burned up? How much smoke will our works produce? And rewards will be given for specific good works, and I'll just deal with six of them here that the Bible explicitly speaks of. First, the Bible makes it clear we will be rewarded for works of genuine, secret prayer. Matthew 6, 6.

But when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door pray to your father who is in the secret place and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly. There's some kind of reward for secret prayer. Second, you'll be rewarded for works of generosity. Matthew 6 verse 3, but when you do a charitable deed do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret for your father who sees in secret will himself reward you openly. And then third will be rewarded for works of hospitality.

Luke 14 12. Then he also said to him who invited him, when you have a dinner or a supper do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor your rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back and you be repaid. But when you give a feast invite the maimed, the lame, and the blind that you and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. And listen to this, for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just." And then fourth, there will be rewards for works in resisting temptation. James 1 12, blessed is the man who endures temptation for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love him and then fifth we will be rewarded for loving our enemies Luke 6 35 but love your enemies do good and lend hoping for nothing in return and your reward will be great and then six and finally from this list you'll be rewarded by working heartily in your daily tasks." Colossians 3 23.

And whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. For you serve the Lord Christ, but he who does wrong will be repaid for what he has done and there is no partiality so there's there's actually reward and I would just say gold and silver for working hardily in your daily tasks. Everyday matters. So this teaching on good works maybe can be summarized like this. First we're not saved by good works.

Christ redeemed us to be zealous for good works. We should be careful to do good works. Good works means that we are meeting real needs and that we'll be judged at the judgment seat of Christ for our good works. So I want us to just think very carefully, be thoughtful about our good works and how God has actually designed them to be diffused through every single part of your life and they arise They arise out of a true heart that has turned to Jesus Christ for salvation and for his authority and they're continually stimulated by the ordinary means of grace. So those fires in Canada, seven million acres, And they remind us of the enormous quantities of material that can disappear in fire.

What took years to grow were reduced to ashes. So in the day of Christ he will declare what our lives were made of and it will be at the judgment seat of Christ. Each one's work will become clear for the day we'll declare it, 1 Corinthians 3.13. And any of us may have a great forest of accomplishments, of filled with activity and possessions and ministries and plans and labors. But we have to be careful to understand that all of our labors will be evaluated by Jesus Christ.

We're not saved by our works, but we're saved because Jesus Christ already endured the fire of God's judgment for the works that we have not done because we've been saved by grace though we should build very carefully and build according to the Word of God and the question won't be how much did you build But it will be why did you build it and what did you build with? Did it arise out of faith? All that is not faith is of sin. Did it arise out of a sufficient Scripture that guided you through your life or were you just freewheeling your way through life? You know this morning I got up in the morning and I read this in Isaiah 40 or Psalm 40 verse 8, I delight to do your will, oh my God, your law is within my heart." I think that's really the heart of all these things.

So remember those fires, maybe you can smell the smoke, but may there not be too much smoke that arises as a result of the judgment seat of Christ in our lives. There will be smoke in my life for sure. There will and it's hard to think about all that as I have all week long but learn to maintain good works to meet urgent needs that they may not be un fruitful that's the foundation that will endure you know there's a there's a famous benediction that we speak quite a bit here in this church. In Hebrews 13, 21, now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great shepherd of the sheep through the everlasting covenant make you complete for every good work, working in you to do his will, which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. So let's keep learning and let's keep maintaining.

Let's pray.