Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  Day 99

April 9;    Titus 3:8;    99/260(II);    ‘Good Works are Good’

Titus 3:8 This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.

Ephesians 2:10 teaches that we were created by the Lord to do good works.  This is where religion has crept in to deceive us.  Religion teaches that our good works save us, or put another way, earn us heaven.  That is absolutely untrue.  Our efforts could never qualify us to go to heaven.  If our good works did qualify us for heaven, the Lord Jesus would never have had to come and die a substitutionary death for our sins and sicknesses.  Sadly, many people believe that our works do earn us heaven.  The Bible clearly teaches that our sins separated us from God the Father and since He is holy, we have no means of approaching Him.  Ephesians 2:8 tells us that we are saved by the Lord’s grace, through believing how we actually are saved from our sins.  The Bible teaches that Jesus Christ died for our sins.  When we believe that and accept Him as our Lord and Savior, we become Born Again and know that heaven is our home.  But what about good works.  This verse encourages us to do good works and that our good works are profitable to others.  That is right.  We do our good works to help others because we sincerely care about them.  God’s love in our spirit creates in us the strong desire to help them any way that we can.  We help them because we genuinely care about them and because our good works can open the door for us to share Jesus with them and lead them to our Lord.  What an incredible feeling to help others, not looking for recognition, but with a genuine desire to bless them.  Our needs are met by the Lord Jesus.  The good works we do out of His love bless others and us.