Every Good Work

Transcript

Alright thank you very much, and hello again radio friends. How in the world are you? Doing Alright today? Well, of course I wait for you to answer, you know that. Oh, I think about, so many of you whom I do know, and the circumstances in which you’re living and my heart goes out to you and longing that God’s touch of blessing may be upon your lives and for those many listeners whom I’ve never met and probably won’t meet until we get to Glory. I just want you know that I think about you as well and pray that God may touch your life today with His blessing and that these moments we invest together, we don’t just spend them, we invest them don’t we? These moments we invest together around the Word of God may pay out in blessed dividends of blessing all day long, for you.
We’re looking at Colossians 1, Paul says, “I’m praying for you people at Colossae that you might be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, and that you might walk”, that means live every day, “worthy of your Lord, unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might”, so on.

Last time we got together we talked about the worthy walk, didn’t we? Walk in newness of life, walk by faith, walk in the Spirit, walk worthy of the vocation of the believer, walk in love which involves forgiveness, walk circumspectly, which means look around, be alive, life doesn’t have to take you by surprise, and walk in the light that God gives you, that is never let a moment pass. If you are aware of getting out of the will of God, plead the merits of the precious blood of Jesus, ask for forgiveness and cleansing and go on walking in God’s will, that means walking in the light.

Then he says, “Being fruitful in every”, every that is, “good work”. Fruitfulness has the idea of the of success as we think of it, and it also has the idea of dynamic reproduction, doesn’t it? If you plant a tree, let us say, and you have to wait a while till it grows up and gets to the age where it can bear fruit, but then you look for it to be fruitful, what does that mean? That it will, it will bear fruit in the natural process of reproduction. Jesus said, “You have not called Me, but I’ve called you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. Abide in Me and I and you”, said He, “so shall ye bear much fruit”.

Now this matter of fruitfulness than in every good work. That’s what we’re talking about here, fruitfulness in every good work. What’s involved? Number one, I think a choice is involved, that is to say, you have to decide whether or not you’re going to specialize in good works or not. Does that seem strange and we should raise the issue? Well, strangely enough many a religious person has never decided that the number one priority in life is to do God’s will and to do good works. Many a person lives for money or for influence or for leverage, as we say, popularity, pleasure, family or all of the above. Many a person I say who professes to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ does not have his or her priorities lined up in terms of doing the will of God as the Bible says, “From their heart”.

So, being fruitful in every good work means that you’re going to give thought first of all, to the idea of good works, and then give thought to the idea of fruitfulness in good works. How is this going to pay off in terms of honoring my Lord and bringing people closer to Him?

Some of you’ve listened to the broadcast over a period of years and remember that some years ago I told you about the time when I was in high school and the one desire of my life, at that time, was to get a little box camera. It was a camera that was offered if you if you sent in a million box tops plus two dollars, you know that kind of an offer? A little pop bottle lens, little brownie box kind of a camera, it was a film pack box camera, as I recall, and I had the idea that if I only could get that, life would be complete.

So, I had to get the two dollars, I had the million box tops more or less, but I had to get the two dollars. Now, I was working on my father to get those two dollars. Well, he made all of $28 a week as a laboring man. We were poor, and so two dollars was a huge sum, comparatively speaking, but I just had to have that camera!

So, I gave in this impassioned pitch about how necessary was for me and how I could use it in preparing my schoolwork and this and that. When I got done and paused for breath he looked at me and smiled, he said, “That sounds like a good idea, boy. Have you figured out how to use it to win souls yet”? Win souls? I was probably going to take a picture of the blonde down the block, who knows? Win souls with it. I hadn’t thought about that.

Well if that seems a little far-fetched to some of you practical minded people, let me remind you that the fruitfulness of your good works depends upon their influence in bringing people closer to Jesus Christ. You don’t go around preaching a lot of sermons .Jesus said, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven”. The light that shines from your life happens to turn out to be good works. Your light equals your good works and that in turn directs people’s attention to your Father, which is in Heaven.

To be fruitful in every good work means to evaluate, it means a choice, you’re going to choose a life of good works and then it means to evaluate every action on the basis of the question, “What is this going to do in bringing people closer to my blessed Lord”? You follow that? How does this action win souls, in other words? “A good idea, boy”, he said. “Have you figured out how to use it to win souls yet”? Well, no I hadn’t, but it made me think then and today, a good many years later, it still causes yours truly to pause and say, I better evaluate what I do in the light of its impact upon other people, in bringing them closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. Fruitful in every good work. The results of what I do that is good will accrue in terms of eternal value.

Our Lord Jesus used this illustration of doing good things when He spoke of the surprise with which some people will greet our Lord, when He will say, “Come, ye blessed of my Father. I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me drink, naked and you clothed me, imprisoned and you came to me, sick and you visited me”, and they say, “Lord, when did we do that?”, He said, “You do not one of the least of these my brethren, so you did it to me”. What you do for God’s people and what you do for people around you, in Jesus’ name, is taken as a good work done for Him and has eternal value.
Now, try something, try and experiment for yourself beloved. You don’t have to talk to anybody about it, just try it for yourself. The next time you do something, it may be on the job or at home or whatever, but it’s a duty that you have to do for other people. Maybe it’s a report you have to get out for the boss, or maybe it’s something you have to do for a family member, whatever it is, is something you have to do, and it’s a good work, it’s something that’s necessary. Before you do it and during the time when you are performing that action, whisperer a prayer and say, “Lord Jesus, I’m doing this for you”. You will be delighted, I promise you, with the blessing that comes to your heart as you do the ordinary for the sake of your extra ordinary Savior.

Now, this perfectly scriptural, isn’t it? “Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily as for the Lord and not just for people, knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ”. Paul the apostle tells us there in that Colossians 3 verse, that we’re to do what we do in word or deed, we’re to do it for the Lord Jesus, not just for people. Being fruitful in every good work. “We bring forth fruit unto God “,Romans 7:4, “and these fruits are the fruits of righteousness, which come by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God”. There is a blessed result of God’s bestowed righteousness that shows up in your conduct in character. People are not sinners because they sin, people sin because there sinners at heart, and when my heart is changed and God puts His righteousness in my heart, by faith in Jesus, my conduct is going to change and I’ll bring forth the fruits of righteousness. That’s the sense of that verse in Philippians 1:11, “Being filled with the fruits of righteousness”.

Okay? Now he says, “Being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”. When you find a conjunction, as you do here, and you know that there is a connection in the thought that these two belong together, “being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”. I have to tell you that when you do something for Jesus and tell Him so, you will have a heightened sense of the Presence of God in your life at that moment.

Now, all you have to do to prove the truth of what I’m telling you in these matters is to try it for yourself. When you do something for the Lord Jesus and tell Him so, in prayer and in faith, you will have immediately a heightened sense of the Presence of God and you will then understand what Paul meant when he said, “Increasing in the knowledge of God”.

To know God better, I suppose is the goal of every one of us believers. We want to know our Lord and serve Him and love Him better, right? Well, one way to do it is to obey His leadings in this matter of good works. This is part of His eternal plan, “We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should live every day in them”.

Dear Father today, may we do good works for Thy glory. Amen. Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!