If you’re saved and you know it, your life should show it.

Steve Brown:
If you’re saved and you know it, your life should show it. Let’s talk on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Welcome to Key Life. I’m Matthew executive producer for the program and our host is author and seminary professor Steve Brown. The church has suffered under, do more, try harder religion for too long. And Key Life is here to proclaim that Jesus sets the captives free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If your Bible is close by open it to the third chapter of Acts, we’ve been spending a number of days on this chapter, and I could spend a year on it. I mean, it is just a wonderful story about God’s action and about God getting the credit, about people who are amazed at what God’s doing. God’s still doing that kind of thing in the world. We sometimes miss it and we shouldn’t. And that’s one of the reasons we’re studying Acts. And we’ve seen a number of things. We saw the proximity of the cripple by the church. That’s no accident. We have seen who got the credit. We’ve seen that Peter knew himself. We’ve seen priorities of repentance and then the refreshing that follows. Our powers and our repentance and repentance isn’t negative, it’s positive. It’s agreeing with God. It’s an attitudinal thing, a saying of Bill Bright. And I miss him a lot. Who was the founder and president of a Cru now, used to be Campus Crusade for Christ. He used to have a lecture that he would give on the Holy Spirit and breathing. He said, you breathe out, that would be the sin, and you breathe in, that would be the Spirit and God does really need stuff. Well, that’s a repentance, it’s a confession and agreeing with God and that’s all you do. He does the rest, you don’t. And sometimes he moves quickly and sometimes he doesn’t. But that’s not the issue, the issue is repentance and forgiveness and Christians are called to live a life of repentance. Let me give you the final thing you ought to know, or that I’ve seen as I’ve looked at this third chapter of Acts. I want you to note, the proximity and the importance of both the word and the action. You know, what Peter does in his sermon is that he expounds on the word of God. I mean, this is an expositional sermon about God’s actions as recorded in the Bible, but notice that a man also got healed and so two things are going on there, work and word, and both of them, did you sing that song when you were a kid, if you’re saved and you know it, then your life should really show it. I agree with those sentiments, they are good. Just not what most people mean when they sing that song. If you’re saved and you know it, your goodness won’t show it, but your forgiveness will. And sometimes even your goodness will. In other words, there needs to be an example, that would be you. There needs to be an example, that would be me. But there needs to be credit, also. My wife, Anna is a classical musician and she often talks, and by the way, Jeremy, our producer is also an amazing musician and teacher. And he plays several musical instruments. Sometimes he does it at the same time, which blows me away. But my wife, the classical musician has always admonished me that music is the universal language. And I know what she’s saying, but sometimes, I want to say, no it’s not. Teach me the Graf Wellhausen Documentary Hypothesis with a song, if you would. Sometimes music is really good for the heart, but you need stuff for your head too. And Peter knew that. Healing is good for the heart. Watching a cripple dancing around is a really a good thing, and it ought to be happening in the church all the time. But don’t forget the word, that provides the instructions and the explanations for all of the work that is being done in the name of God. Don’t forget the word, the classical argument in the church, has always been social action or evangelism. You know, some of us say, you know, it’s about them and they’re getting saved and everything else is secondary. And others say, they’re hungry. Feed them for heaven’s sake. That’s necessary, first or they’re not gonna listen to anything you say about Jesus. And I want to say, it’s both. And both are present almost every place you look in the Bible. There is the action, the life, the change, the healing, the forgiveness and then there’s the explanation. And God’s word is the explanation for all of it. Many people say, I will show them my life. Well, it’s cool that you should show them their life. You’ve heard people say, you’re the only Bible that most people will ever read. That sounds nice, but you better occasionally mention the other Bible. Because it’s the explanation. There was a girl who had given her life to Christ, but she had not been baptized. All her life, she’d given it to others in menial tasks. And one of the dear saints in the church, when the girl was on her death bed said to her, dear, you haven’t been baptized. What are you going to say to Christ when you meet him? And she took her calloused, rough and red hands lifted them from under the covers. And she said, I will show him my hands. Oh, that’s good that you show him your hands, but don’t forget the explanation, because a miracle without an explanation is a circus. A miracle with an explanation, praises God and draws people to the source of what he’s done. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve. More great teaching from Steve on Acts 3 tomorrow. Be sure to join us then. Now, you and I may have not met in person, but I’m willing to bet that you have gone through some hard times, the kind of hard times that really reveal who you are, but in those moments, believe it or not, Jesus identifies with you. Why? Because he faced those same moments himself. And that makes all the difference. Well, Steve spoke about this in a sermon called When Tears Are All That’s Left. Take a listen to part of that talk, then I’ll be back to tell you about a special free offer. Here’s Steve.

Steve Brown:
You remember the 11th chapter of John, Jesus is doing what Jesus does. And then we get a message from Mary and Martha, who says the one, your brother Lazarus, the one you love is dying and Jesus shilly shally’s. And the Lazarus dies, and then he decides to go to Bethany and be with him. Martha says to Jesus, if you had been here, this wouldn’t have happened. And then she realized who she was talking to and she said, but, but it’s going to be okay. And then Mary didn’t even correct it. If you hadn’t been here, he wouldn’t have died. And then Jesus goes down to the graveyard. And then Jesus said, come forth. And that did man got up out of the grave and he walked. You’ve been there. But I want you to see the tears of Jesus. In Luke 19 Jesus weeps over the city of Jerusalem. And I’m a patriot, you and I understand. And the only other time, in all of Scripture, where Jesus weeps is in the text that I just read to you. And the question before the house is this, how come? I mean, he was God. Lazarus didn’t have to die. And even if he died, Jesus was going to call him out of the tomb, the dead man was going to get up and walk. Why in the world was Jesus crying? He was gonna fix it. You know, I read The Shack. Have you read that book? You ought to read it. That book will get to you. Or if you read Eldredge’s books, if you read those books, what they do for our minds is they break us out of the mold and we learned to see, there’s something behind the something that we thought was there. Now, this is an interesting description of what goes on with Lazarus. Though what’s really going on, I’ll tell you, it’s a foretaste of a battle. If you had stood on Calvary and your spiritual blindness had been removed, you would’ve gone. Whoa. Wow. Because there would be a cosmic battle going on and one that Jesus and his legions won. And this is a foretaste of that. You know what’s happening in the graveyard in Bethany, Jesus, the savior is doing battle with old man death. I talked to a woman in Dallas this week. In fact, last night, who’s husband died, they thought he had been killed. And then they discovered, he committed suicide and she’s devastated. And all he did was talk about Jesus. He’s been faithful all these years. He’s loved his family. He’s been faithful to the church. He’s given so much and they were very generous to Key Life. And we wept together on the phone. And I thought about Bethany in the graveyard, where Jesus made an obscene gesture at death. And he said, death, be not proud, leave this place. And death fled and Lazarus got out of the grave and he walked. And I think that his way cool. You afraid of death? Well, if you’re not, you’re a fruitcake. You wake up in the middle of the night and say, it’s not my brother and my sister, it’s me. It’s one out of one, and I’m going to die. Some of you young people don’t do that often, but I’m old and cramming for finals. And I don’t even like that thought. The good news is you’re going to heaven, the bad news is you’re going on Thursday. I’m not happy, but I think of the graveyard in Bethany, when Jesus did battle with death. Death, be not proud.

Matthew Porter:
Man, such a powerful word. If you would, please call us right now at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. And we’ll send you that entire sermon on CD for free. You can also e-mail [email protected] and ask for the CD. If you’d like to mail your request, send it to

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