Okay, well before we pray, I wanted us to open with a passage that I think is one of the most glorious passages in all of scripture that really pertains to our topic this morning. And the passage is Ephesians 2, just the first 10 verses. Glorious, glorious passage. Ephesians 2, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Let's pray. Gracious God, we do thank you once again for another glorious Lord's Day. Any Lord's Day we praise your name for, oh Lord, because it's the day that we get a little taste of heaven and we enjoy fellowship with the saints and we can set aside our earthly troubles and refrain from our regular activities and think and consider who you are and who we are in Christ. Lord, we're thankful for today. We pray that you would bless us. We pray that you'd be with us in Sunday school. Be with us as we move then to the worship service. And Father, we lift up particular prayer requests from our congregation. Specifically, we ask your blessing on Martha Kirby and, well, the Kirby family, and then Martha's sister and her family with the loss of their mother. Lord, we know that death is not, it's not natural. That's why it feels wrong, Lord. It's not what we were made for. And yet it's a result of the fall. It's the result of living in a broken, fallen world. And yet, Father, we praise your name, that Martha's mother was a believer. Lord, how glorious that is. We thank you that she loved you. And Lord, we pray that you would draw near to the family even now. and in the days to come. Lord, we love you. And these things we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, we're back in the Westminster Confession this morning, and we're in chapter 16, the first two sections. And this is the chapter on good works. Remember, the Westminster Confession is a really, really great document that came out of the came out of the English Reformation around the mid 1600s, and the guys who wrote the Westminster Confession, we call them Westminster Divines, they were actually tasked with amending the current documents of the Church of England. But they looked through those documents and said, you know what? We could actually do a little bit better than this. We don't want to just amend. Let's kind of create a brand new thing. And after five, six, seven or so years of deliberation, over 1,000 meetings of the assembly that came up with the Westminster Confession, the larger catechism, the shorter catechism, and four or five other supplementary documents. And they also ordained a whole lot of ministers in the process. They planted churches. They did a whole lot of work in those seven years. But we've been thinking specifically about the order of the confession. Now, remember, the last few chapters, what have they been about? What do you remember from the last few chapters? The topics, what were they? Repentance, yep. Saving faith. What about even earlier? Go back farther. Justification, sanctification, adoption, these rich things that are true about us if we put our faith in Christ. But in these last few sections, we've seen the Westminster divines move a little bit away from what is true about us in Christ, because what God has done completely, now to what does it look like for us to respond in faith? What does that look like? And what does that faith actually look like when it works itself out? So I want to start us off with a bit of a provocative question this morning. Are good works necessary for salvation? Are good works necessary for salvation? Darryl? Yes. Boom. Boom. Nice. Well done. Well done. Yes, yes, Darryl, hit the nail on the head. Lynette, Lynette, you just missed it. Darryl had like a rock star moment in answering a question. You just missed it. Okay, yeah, you're good. It's a good wife. Yes, yes. We'll get into it a little bit more, but are good works necessary for our salvation? Yeah, you betcha. But they're not works that we do. They're not works that we have done to earn our salvation, to merit anything. No, the good works that are necessary for our salvation is the active and passive obedience of Christ, the captain of our salvation, who's secured salvation on our behalf. So we'll get into that a little bit more. But as we move from a loaded question, we talked a little bit about this already, the last few chapters have been about what the Lord has done for us in salvation. He has effectually called us. He has drawn us to Himself by His Holy Spirit and regenerated, made us alive, made new our hearts so we can respond in faith. He has justified us, declared us righteous because of the righteousness of Christ. He is sanctifying us. Not only are we, boom, one time declared righteous, but no, by God's grace, it's an ongoing renovative process in the heart where the Lord renews us in the inner man, the whole man. And now we're in the section of what does it look like for us to respond? Repentance, Vic, that was a good one. Saving faith, Betty Jo, yep. And then here we are into good works. And we'll see how these things connect, but But in our chapter this morning, the confession continues to address man's response to God's saving work, and that is living in righteousness, living in holiness. Well, here's section 16, paragraph one. Good works are only such as God has commanded in his holy word, and not such as without the warrant thereof, without the warrant of scripture, not such as are devised by men, out of blind zeal or upon any pretense of good intention." This will be an interesting section to dig into because this would be really, really helpful for the church broadly speaking today, I think. Good intentions, you know, do the ends justify the means with what we do? Why do we do what we do in worship? That's huge. This is really, really helpful as we think through those things. Let's dig into the first section, the first part. Good works are only such as God has commanded in his holy word. How do we know how to please God? I think there's a children's catechism question about that. How do we know how to please God? We go to his word. and we see what the Lord has laid down for us in His Word, so that we might walk with Him in the most blessed manner that we can, in obedience, in obedience. Question, what did believers of old do when they wanted to obey God before the Bible was written? Think of Adam. Adam didn't have the Bible, not as we have today. How did he know how to obey God? God spoke to him. So he did have God's Word. It was God's spoken word. God's word hadn't been written down yet. But did Adam know right from wrong before he committed sin? You betcha, yeah. Adam, do this, this is right. Don't eat of this tree, that's wrong. So a little diatribe. Were Satan's words, you will be like God, knowing good from evil? you eat of this tree." Was that actually true? No, Adam knew good and evil already because God had told him. God had told him. Satan seduced him, and sure enough, Adam took it hook, line, and sinker. But had he just thought through, wait a second, serpent, I already know what God... God has already told me what's good from evil. You're lying to me. Stomp, crush, you know, crush the serpent's head. So yes, Adam and all the other patriarchs who didn't have God's written word, they had God's word already. It was oral, it was spoken, but they knew the difference from right from wrong. They knew what it meant to obey the Lord, what he had commanded. Notice also from this section of the confession that what God has commanded is good. I mean the chapter is entitled of good works. What God commands is good. I think oftentimes people think there's silly rules in the Bible that God is just a big killjoy, wants to ruin my fun, doesn't like it when I go off and do things that I want to do. No, he's just telling me what I can't do. I've been reading through Leviticus recently for class, but I've been doing it as a devotional time as well. And what is so striking about all the prohibitions in Leviticus is that God is prohibiting things that would be for Israel's harm. You know, don't go off and sleep with the foreigner who doesn't know Yahweh. That's not going to be good for you. They're going to draw you away from your Lord, and they're going to make you worship their pagan gods. It's not good for you. It's not in your best interest. The prohibitions that we see in Scripture are not the Lord just bringing the hammer down. No, it's the Lord telling us the way to the blessed life. And it's in accordance to what He's commanded. It's in obedience to His Word. And it's actually for our good. It's for our benefit. Not only are they for our good, but the good works God commands in Scripture. actually reflect His good and gracious character to us, don't they? We learn more about God based on what He calls us to do, and consequently what He says don't do. We learn more about who God is because of what He calls us to do. One of my favorite psalms, Psalm 119, longest psalm in the Psalter, longest chapter in the Bible. Anybody know how many verses Psalm 119 is? Yeah, there are, yes, stanzas, yes. 176 verses. Daryl, maybe you can come back next week with Psalm 119 memorized for us. Since you're clearly such a rock star. Psalm 119 is remarkable not only because of its length, but it's remarkable in its content. It is essentially 176 verses of pure love poetry about God's word. Lord, I love your law." How in the world could someone say they love God's law unless they view God's law as a blessing, a blessing and not a hindrance, not just pure prohibition? Well, what can we learn from this particular section? Well, easy takeaway is that God's law for us is a blessing and not a burden. God's law is a blessing and not a burden. Obedience to God's law is what we owe Him. It's not legalistic to say, obey God's word. It's not legalistic. That's actually encouraging someone to live the best life they can. You know, you've heard some popular preachers say, live your best life now. How do Christians live their best life now? They obey God's word. And they live in conformity, more and more in conformity to what God has called them to do. Jesus himself says in John 14, 15, if you love me, you'll do what? You'll keep my commandments. If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. And we obey those whom we love, don't we? Most of the time, yes. If our baby boy, when he comes, if he has any love for us, we pray that he'll obey out of love. that the Lord would have his heart from a young age, and that he would love to obey his parents, and by extension, ultimately obey God, obey his heavenly Father. We obey those whom we love. Do we love the Lord? Then we obey his law, and we receive the consequent blessing that follows. That's the blessed life, obedience to God's law. Next section. Not only are good works such as God has commanded in his holy word, But it's also not such as without the warrant thereof that are devised by men out of blind zeal or upon any pretense of good intention." Translation, unless it's given in scripture, we don't impose anything else on other people. We don't impose any other law or do any supposed good works out of blind zeal or with good intentions behind it. Okay, pause. This raises a question. What about the civil magistrate? What about laws imposed upon us by our local government? Are they wrong to impose things that are not specifically written in the Bible upon us? What do y'all think? What do we do with that? Go ahead. Red lights are aggravating, but it sure makes traffic run better. It does. It does. Chris, what were you going to say? Yeah, I've always thought it came down to love your neighbor as yourself, and civil laws expound on the second table and help us make sure that we're not accidentally stepping on our neighbor's toes and things like that. So it's not actually something necessarily outside of Scripture, but it's just Sure. And it can be done wrong. Sure. But there's also a right way to do it. Yep, I like that. I think Alex. I mean, Scripture explicitly commands us to obey our civil authorities that God has put over us unless it's contradictory to any of his other laws, so you wouldn't really be able to extricate one from the other. Bingo. You obey them to please the Lord. Yeah. Were you gonna say something similar, Rod? Well, Calvin in his Institutes deals with that a bit. He distinguishes, he says, okay, there are commands that are directly from God. Then there's the command to honor the civil magistrate. He then has the authority So it's kind of a two-level distinction. Yes, yes. Alex was saying the Bible tells us to actually obey, right? Rod is saying, well, Calvin kind of expounds on that a little bit and says, well, there's God's law. God's law says obey the civil law, and if the civil government says, yeah, these things are good and helpful for ordered society, then those are good. And Chris was saying similar. And Darrell, you had a question or thought. In a general sense, That's a good observation. Yeah, that's a good observation. Really, when we're trying to answer the question, what about the civil law? Does that contradict what the divines are saying right here? Not at all. Where do we go? Romans 13. Romans 13. Obey your civil authorities. So long as they don't cause you to sin. So long as they're not asking you to blatantly go against the rest of what God's Word says. Obey your civil authority. And remember, the divines will get into this in later chapters. But if God is a sovereign God and overrules and orders every single thing that happens, governs and preserves all things, all creatures and all things, then that means that God is sovereign over civil government, even a corrupt government. And the government is put in place because God is seeking civil leaders to preserve His people, to preserve His church. And you see, these are really helpful things to inform us how we ought to be thinking about the relation between church and state. The men's group, we're going through a little book called Empowered Witness by a guy named Alan Strange. Maybe some of you have heard of that name. He's an OPC pastor, remarkably gifted in this area. But we're drawing out principles for how to engage in the world, having our identity in Christ. and letting that inform how we view things in the political realm, things in the social realm. Our identity in Christ is really where we must start. So all that to say, God is in complete control and God gives us local government for the sake of preservation of life, ought to be, and for the propagation of his church, for the good of his people, his covenant people. Now, when that doesn't happen, what we need to do is remind ourselves and remind others that, hey, God is still in control. So-and-so isn't on the throne, but the Lord Jesus is on the throne, and he will preserve his people, even through suffering. Yeah, good discussion, good conversation. Okay, let's think about this phrase, blind zeal. I don't, maybe some of you can relate. I grew up in Virginia and did a lot of hunting with my dad and my granddad. A lot of bird hunting and we would use either 20 gauge or 12 gauge shotguns is what we would use. And something about a shotgun shell It has little pellets, little BBs in the front. Behind it, it has the gunpowder. And it's got a few other things in there to direct it. And then it has the primer at the end. The primer is hit. The gunpowder explodes and shoots the BBs out if the BBs have a direction to go. If they're in a firearm, they'll go through the barrel. It'll operate properly. But what do you think happens? If that shotgun shell is just sitting in my hand and all of a sudden goes off, is it gonna go in one direction? It's gonna explode everywhere and really, really hurt, be really painful. That's kind of what the divines are getting at when they're talking about good works are not to be done out of blind zeal, blind zeal. It's not this energy that's just kind of pent up and explodes with no direction. No, that's actually harmful. Like a shotgun shell going off in my hand, it's harmful for me, it can harm others. In the same way, if we have this zeal for God's law, but aren't kind of directed by the rest of the Bible, we're gonna explode like a shotgun shell and really hurt ourselves or hurt others. There's a, Well, we'll get into that in a second. We could say potentially zeal without knowledge is like energy without direction, or like a shotgun shell without a barrel. It doesn't do much good, and it could hurt others in the process. Wanda? Yeah, Wanda said that lots of times that is the mistake that new converts or young Christians make, is that they're so gung-ho about honoring the Lord, but they don't quite know what that looks like yet. They just know they love Christ, and they have some growing to do in reading their Bible, learning how to actually live as a Christian, and it can be potentially damaging sometimes. Daryl. more than the truth or effect of what you do. As long as you do it with all your heart and mind, heart and soul, I won't say mind, then that is considered a righteous person. Yeah, it's damaging, isn't it? Let's think about this. This kind of, this is an example that I think encapsulates both both works that are devised by men, done out of blind zeal, and are done upon pretense of good intention. Anybody remember when we, from our Middle Ages Sunday School series back in the summer, we studied a man named Bernard of Clairvaux, Pastor Cliff taught on a man. What was his big uh-oh that he is known for? Better remember? Endorsing the Second Crusade. Endorsing the second crusade. Evangelization of the nations by the sword. No bueno. Not good. Where in Scripture are we commanded to slay the infidel unless they convert? Even if you think of the Old Testament, which is a different era of redemptive history, so we shouldn't apply it to us the same way. But even if you think about the people of God in the land of Canaan, Were they called to pronounce good news to those wicked, disgusting nations? No. No. Those people in the land of Canaan, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the whole-ites, they were incurring their penalty for 400 years of immorality. God had actually worked with them and given them 400 years to repent, and they didn't. So the Lord leveled judgment upon wickedness. So nowhere, like we think about the Crusades, nowhere are we commanded, certainly not as New Testament, New Covenant Christians, to lay the hammer down, lay the sword down for the sake of bringing the gospel to the nations. No. Nowhere are we commanded to do that, and the Crusades, even today, remain a stain on the church. So you see how good intentions can really get you in a bad spot. Bernard of Clairvaux, what did he want to do? He wanted people to know Jesus. I think he did. He seems to convey that in his writings and biographies that are written about him. Man, Bernard really, he was a faithful guy. He loved preaching. He was a faithful preacher, yet boy did he have some wacky views of bringing the gospel to the nations. Rules or works devised by men, done at a blind zeal, or done upon pretense of good intention can be very, very harmful if they're not rooted and grounded in the Scriptures, the truth of God's Word. What does this mean for us? May we have our principles, our zeal, our intentions, and all of our desires be informed by scripture alone. We should pray often, Lord, help even my desires to be conformed to what you say in your word. Help me not just to be a rogue follower of Christ. No, but Lord, help me to love you and love your law, because your law is given to me for my good. my good. May our desires be informed by and conformed unto Scripture alone. Second section, we're plugging along. These good works, done in obedience to God's commandments, are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith. And by them, believers manifest their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, edify their brethren, and adorn the profession of the gospel, stop the mouths of the adversaries, and glorify God, whose workmanship they are, created in Christ Jesus thereunto, that having their fruit unto holiness, they may have the end, eternal life." Let's look at this first section. These good works done in obedience to God's commandments are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith. So going back to our opening question, Daryl did a great job answering it. Are good works necessary for salvation? Yes, in the sense that Christ alone is the one who has secured our salvation by his perfection, his perfect life, purely righteous, actively passive, actively obedient, passively obedient. But then what does that mean? What role do good works play in the believer's life? Well, we learn in the New Testament, James gets into this, and even Paul in places. Paul, who is the justification by faith alone guy. Our good works, if we are Christians, confirm our faith, confirm genuine faith, and they're evidences of true salvation. A popular a PCA pastor, Kevin DeYoung, says that when people in his congregation, he pastors in Charlotte, when people in his congregation are lacking in assurance of their salvation, he takes them to First John, where John says, he takes them to First John 2. Go ahead and open up there if you want to. First John 2. 1 John is towards the way, way back. Yeah, before 2 John and right after 2 Peter. 1 John 2. We'll look at verse four, look at verse four and following. Whoever says, I know him, but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. Verse five, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly is the love of God perfected. By this, we may know that we are in him. Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which Jesus walked. How can we be sure of our salvation? Well, do we strive after God's law and do we seek to honor the Lord with everything that we do, even imperfectly? Do we seek to obey the Lord and do we have a genuine desire to put off sin and put on righteousness? That's a really helpful way for us to think about assurance of salvation. The divines don't get into this here, but that's really helpful. If we ever feel doubtful about how well we're walking with the Lord, may we remember the new desire the Lord has placed within us to obey His law and to love Him, or rather, to love God and show that by obedience. Right? If you love me, you will keep my commandments. If you love me, you'll keep my commandments. Bobby, you have something? A lot of times in the last few years when people have asked my advice, especially if I know they're a believer, I've gotten to where I'll say, choose God's best for you. I don't necessarily answer the direct question in terms of But encouraging them that you know through God in your life what God's best is for you, really, if you will ask for that. Yeah, what does James say in James 1? If anybody lacks wisdom, ask for it, and God will give generously. Where do we find wisdom? Well, God's Word. Yeah, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the foolish are the ones who despise instruction. How do we fear God? Well, we learn about Him in His Word. Yes, yes, that's a good point, Jim, and a good point, Bobby. And that's also, by the way, why it's so important for us to know what the Bible says, so that we can discern the wisdom that we receive from others. If somebody tells us, oh, well, the Bible says, you know, the Bible says that you should have three kids and no more. Well, if I don't know my Bible, I'm gonna say, oh, yikes, I don't remember that verse, but if you say so, I'm not gonna have more than three kids. The Bible does not say have three kids and no more. But if we don't know our Bibles well and aren't inundated with the scriptures, we will likely heed bad counsel that we receive. So it's important for us to understand what the scriptures say and know what God's word says so that we can discern not only our own situations, but the wisdom that we receive from others. That's a good thing, Bobby and Jim. To put it differently, we are saved through faith alone, but that faith is never alone. That faith always comes with good works. as some have said it. We are saved through faith alone, but that faith is never alone. Genuine faith is evidenced by the obedience that follows. That's why we read Ephesians 2 there at the outset. Remember, the very end, Ephesians 2 outlines the glorious work of the Lord in our hearts. We were dead, God made us alive. Remarkable. But verses 8, 9, and 10 get to the core of the issue. For by grace you've been saved through faith, as we've just seen, And this is not your own doing, it's the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one can boast. Boom, there's our faith works, there's our faith works separation right there. Saved through faith alone, not by works. Till we get to verse 10. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. You see, Paul is all about confirming good works, good works that confirm our faith. Okay, quick question. What do you make of the phrase, true and lively faith, true and lively faith? Anything odd or striking about that to you? Maybe not. I was struck by the term lively, a lively faith. It's a picture of, I think Wanda, you hit this on the head, you hit the nail on the head, it's the picture of the Christian who has a real zeal for the Lord, but their zeal is directed in complete obedience to God's laws. That's a lively faith, because boy are they all about obeying the Lord and living for the Lord, but they know how to do that. They have the knowledge that goes with their faith, a lively faith. It's an exciting faith. Yes, that's good, Jim. Yeah, it could just say these are the fruits and evidences of faith, but true and lively give us some helpful descriptors, don't they? For sure, for sure. What can we take away from this? We're almost done. What can we take away from this? Well, we can take heart, because the Lord will produce in our lives works that confirm our salvation. We read in Philippians 1 that, Philippians 1.6, Paul says that he who began a good work in us is just going to leave us hanging? We'll bring it to completion in the day of Christ, in the day of Jesus Christ. we can take heart, the Lord will produce good works in us. Let's see, we might blitz through this last section, these last couple sections. For this section, by them believers manifest their thankfulness all the way down. I simply want to give us a few supporting scriptures for all these benefits of good works, these blessings, the results of good works. For this first section, believers manifest their thankfulness. We can think of Psalm 116, verses 12 and 14. What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me? I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. And the context is making vows before the Lord in order to obey him and say, I will do what the Lord has said. Romans 12.1, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. The context is sacrificing our lives to the Lord in thankfulness for His mercy. By the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice. this next section here, strengthen their assurance. Good works will help us strengthen our assurance. We looked at 1 John a second ago. This is 1 John 2 verse 3. By this we know that we've come to know him if we keep his commandments. If we keep his commandments. By this we know that we've come to know him if we keep his commandments. Edifying the brethren, supporting passage, Matthew 5, 16, in the same way, this is Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, remember, in the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Our good works actually edify other believers. And we could even say our good works edify non-believers. What are Christians called to be in this life if not salt and light to the world? Our good works, this next section, I'll get to it. In fact, this is a great segue. Adorn the profession of the gospel. What beautiful language. Of course, the divines are just riffing off of Scripture, off of Titus, but our good works adorn our profession of the gospel. Think about that for a second. Our good works done in faith will be like the wedding dress that the beautiful bride wears on her wedding day. Does a wedding dress exist to call attention to itself, the dress itself? No. The bride wears the wedding dress as an adornment to the bride herself. The wedding dress calls attention to the beauty of the bride. You don't see brides getting, often, you don't see brides getting married in just a bunch of ratty, tattered clothing. No, they get married in beautiful, beautiful wedding gowns, even simple wedding gowns. It's beautiful and it draws attention, not to the dress itself, but to the one wearing the dress. In the same way, friends, our good works put on display the Savior we profess. That's remarkable. adorn the profession of faith that we have. Paul says in Titus 2, Paul's speaking specifically of bondservants, that bondservants are to show all good faith so that in everything they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior. Stop up the mouths of the adversaries, 1 Peter 2, 15, for this is the will of God that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Then lastly, and similarly, good works glorify God. 1 Peter 2.12, keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. Contrary to what's in that statement about adorning, so the bad works that we do degrade our profession of the gospel. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great observation, Jim. Great point. And you see the positive and negative there in obedience and disobedience. Yeah. Both have consequences. That's good, Jim. Hopefully this has been made clear, but what does this mean for us? It means that good works done in obedience strengthen our faith and increase our witness to others. Good works done in obedience strengthen our faith and increase our witness to others. We got to knock this out. Last section. We want to glorify God, whose workmanship they are, or we are, created in Christ Jesus thereunto, that having their fruit unto holiness, they may have the end, eternal life. The divines simply want us to remember that, after all, we belong to the Lord, who is the master potter, right? Molding and creating us as the clay into the vessels that he calls us to be. For we are his workmanship, like a master potter crafting his workmanship. And we'll close with this. As we grow in holiness, as we see more good works manifested in our lives by God's grace, we actually are more and more attaining the goal of our salvation, which is heaven, eternal life. the more we grow in holiness, the more we grow in good works, the Lord is actually making us more and more fit for heaven. It's almost Christmas time, there's a hymn that people aren't a huge fan of because of one line, away in a manger, folks don't like the no crying he makes, Jesus was a baby, he was a human baby, very likely he cried when he first came out of the womb. But there's a line at the very end of that hymn, where the hymn writer prays, Lord, fit us for heaven to live with thee there. And that's what the Lord does as he produces good works in our hearts over time, more and more, for his glory and for the increase of his kingdom. Question? that there's not a secular, sacred divide in our good works. Even the machinist machining parts or the corporate person doing their corporate job, those works are also good works in the sense as church work gets done as before the Lord, the faithful heart. Great point. Works done unto the Lord. Can the bagger at Publix glorify God by bagging groceries? Absolutely. You betcha. Can we glorify God as we we, as Tori and I, you know, change dirty diapers. Praise God, yes, it's not mundane work. Yeah, it's God-glorifying work. We're at time, friends. Any final thoughts, comments, questions? John? Yeah, classic. Well, friends, let me close this and then we can head over to the service. Let's pray. Gracious God, we do give you thanks and praise that you are a God who does not simply save us and then leave us where we are. No, Lord, you're a God who's more committed to our sanctification than even we are. And Lord, we give you praise for that. We thank you that you work within us good works, Lord, that you will bring to completion the work that you began in us at the day of Christ. Lord, help us to meditate on how you work good works in our hearts. Father, help us to be more obedient. We want to love you more, and as a result, obey you more. And Lord, we don't want to be legalistic about it. We wanna be faithful. We just wanna be faithful because we love you and we're thankful for what you've done for us. Lord, thank you for giving us your son, the Lord Jesus. Help us to meditate on these things as we go to the service, oh Lord, and render to you praise for what you have done, your mighty works of salvation. Oh Lord, we love you. Increase our faith, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.