Notes of Faith April 23, 2025
Alive, Not Dead
Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die, for I have not found your works perfect before God.
Revelation 3:2
Christians will one day stand before the Lord to have their works examined (Romans 14:10; 1 Corinthians 3:10-15; 2 Corinthians 5:10). How would you feel if He had not one good thing to say about your works?
In the fifth letter, written to the church at Sardis, Christ had nothing to commend them for. They had a reputation for being an “alive” church, but Christ said they were “dead” (Revelation 3:1). If they would not “wake up,” He would come in judgment “like a thief” at a time they would not suspect (verses 2-3, NIV). The church at Sardis could have benefitted from the words of Hebrews 10:24-25: “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Are you part of a community of believers in which you are continually “stirred up to love and good works”? If not, begin searching for a local church today.
Good works are the fruit of saving faith.
R. B. Kuiper
Most people don’t understand “works” or “good deeds”. There is nothing that God calls good before a person comes to true faith in Jesus. Those good deeds that make us feel good for helping someone, serving at a food kitchen, etc., bring a temporal reward of hope in ourselves, our doing good. But after coming to Christ, the “good deeds” are done because of Christ and for Christ and in His name. These will be rewarded as said above, “the fruit of saving faith”! We all should love as God loves, sacrifice for the sake of others as Jesus did, and do it all through the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within us, for we most likely would only do things for ourselves without that pure and holy influence. Praise God! Do good! Wait expectantly for the return of your Lord and Savior!
Pastor Dale