Before we jump in, friends, I wanted to kick us off with a passage that I think is particularly helpful as we consider our sections of chapter 16 this morning. If you would, turn with me to John 15. John 15. We'll just read the first five verses of John 15. This is a glorious passage that highlights the necessity of being united to Christ in order for any good works to appear in our lives. And that's the subject that we'll be digging into this morning, but I wanted to begin us with meditating on the scriptures. This is John 15, we'll just read the first five verses. This is Jesus speaking, I am the true vine and my father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I've spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. That's helpful to orient us for where we're going this morning. This is review. Remember last week we looked at the first two sections of chapter 16 of the Confession, which is dealing with good works. I think I might have put of saving faith. Yep, that's wrong. It's good works we're talking about. This is review. This is from last week. Good works are only such as God has commanded in his holy word, and not such as without the warrant thereof are devised by men out of blind zeal or upon any pretense of good intention. Who remembers the shotgun shell illustration last week? Energy without direction blows up in your face, right? Same thing with blind zeal that has no direction. It's gotta be directed by scripture. Then we looked at section two, 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, adorn the profession of the gospel." What a sweet phrase. adorn their 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. Now we jump into section three and section four. These are, at least this one's lengthy, but we'll work through it. Section three. Their ability, believers' ability, to do good works is not at all of themselves, but wholly from the Spirit of Christ. And that they may be enabled thereunto, enabled to do those good works, besides the graces they've already received, there is required an actual influence of the same Holy Spirit to work in them to will and to do of His good pleasure. Yet are they not hereupon to grow negligent, as if they were not bound to perform any duty unless upon a special motion of the Spirit, but they ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace of God that is in them." This is an immensely pastoral section of the Confession. People who say the Westminster Confession is not pastoral, they don't read it very carefully because the Westminster divines, what they have in mind is the individual believer. the person in the congregation who's wrestling with assurance of salvation, who doesn't see the good works that they want to see in their lives. The divines are helpful here. Let's dig into it. So this first section, their ability to do good works is not at all of themselves, but wholly from the Spirit of Christ. Maybe a quick poll. We've done this before. Has anybody grown up in your youth or previous adulthood believing something different than this, that all good works are from the Holy Spirit and not at all from us? Chuck? Chris? Yeah. Yeah. We live in a semi-Pelagian world. What I mean by that is we live in a world where the church, broadly speaking, thinks that we have something to do with our salvation. Maybe it's not that we meet God halfway, but it's that we have within us what it takes to well up faith inside us, and then God's grace might kick in after that to actually regenerate us and preserve us, but there's something within us. That's not at all what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that there is no one righteous, not even one. that the desire of our hearts, the posture of our hearts are always continually evil in the sight of the Lord. Darryl, you had something. Yeah, I believe that probably most Christians do believe to some degree in that doctrine, in that belief that our good works begin with the Holy Spirit and God within us, but yet day to day as we get busy functionally, we function as if it's all us. I think that's possibly the greater Yeah. Darrell said if we might believe that the Holy Spirit's the one who kind of kicks things off in our hearts, but then it's, okay, we're kind of taking control. We grab the steering wheel and go from there. Now, we want to be clear. There's a part we play in our sanctification, for sure. We're not called to just kind of be covenantal couch potatoes as it were. Boom, you're saved. Great. Now I can just chill, hang out, and do nothing else. Betty Jo, what did you have? In the Christian church slash Church of Christ, we were taught you don't even get the Holy Spirit until you've come up out of the baptismal water. So that was when I came and learned the right way. Completely different. Wow. Something I had to do. Yeah, yeah, there again, it's man-centered. You go down into the baptismal waters. I'm guessing you were dunked. Yeah, and you come up and boom, now you're, yeah, yeah. See, not only are the divines pastoral in trying to help us stir up a love for Christ, greater love for Christ, but they're pastoral in helping us rightly understand what it means to have the Spirit working within us. Because this is clearly, even today, it's an issue that we don't have a lot of clarity on, broadly speaking, in the broadly evangelical church. So, that they may be enabled thereunto, besides the graces they've already received, there's required an actual influence of the same Holy Spirit to work in them to will and to do of His good pleasure. We've already established, we can contribute nothing to our salvation. Maybe we can say, like one theologian said, the only thing we contribute to our salvation is the sin that made it necessary, right? The sin that makes us need saving. No, the Holy Spirit must first work in our hearts to regenerate us and make us alive. Likewise, we can't simply conjure up good works within us. We can't just manufacture good deeds. Even after first receiving the Holy Spirit. No, no, no, no. The Holy Spirit is the agent of salvation from beginning all the way to end. Any good works that are produced in us, totally and completely because of the Holy Spirit's active working in our hearts. The only good that we have in us is because the Holy Spirit's working. Besides that, it's just we're wretches and we're only prone to do evil. Yes, Bobby. It reminds me of the part that I was taught that I hadn't really thought about it, that when it talks about what God does in and for us, and to use the word that He keeps on keeping us, blah, blah, blah. And that's kind of what the Holy Spirit is and does. He starts it, but He also is the one that keeps it going. Yes, yes. One might say that the Lord's work in our hearts could be described as Him being the author and finisher of our faith, right? Hebrews 12. Yeah, it's so good, Bobby. Yeah, our good works aren't of our own doing, it's all the work of the Spirit renovating our hearts to be fit for following Christ. Let's talk about what these good works actually look like. Who can rattle off the fruit of the Spirit? Galatians 5. Love. All right. KJV, gotcha, yes. Yeah, love. joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Question, does Paul call those in Galatians 5 fruit of our hard work? No, fruit of the Spirit, fruit of the Spirit. Important to remember that distinction, it's the Spirit working even the good fruit of our hearts within us. So question, What then is the believer's role in performing good works? I don't want to use the word perform, in living out righteously how the Lord calls us to live. What is our role? Making ourselves available to the means of grace. Boom, that's great, Vic. Yeah, can you explain that a little bit? Well, I mean, worship, the preaching of his word, the sacraments, prayer, fellowship of the saints, all means of grace. Yes. Strengthens us. Yeah. you know, inclines us to be active in good works. So good. The means of grace. Bobby? We need to cooperate. Yes. Having a heart that is humble and malleable before the Lord. Not being stubborn. A stiff-necked people. Yeah, Lord, keep us from that. Daryl, what did you have? You know, the means of grace are not a result of my good works. And how much more evidence that is that good deeds, good works, are not native to us, right? We can't weld them up inside us because apart from the Lord, all we want to do is evil and just keep on sinning. Chuck, That's good, Chuck. Yeah, kind of going off what Bobby said, we want to pray that our hearts are fertile for the Lord to root good works down deeply in our hearts, really to root a love for Him down in our hearts that produces good works. Very good, Chuck, yes. Our section, our paragraph of the confession gives us some helpful insights when we think about our role in good works. So our good works are only from the Holy Spirit, wholly and completely a product of the Spirit's work in our hearts, yet believers are not hereupon to grow negligent. We're not just to sit back and say, okay, it's just the Spirit, I can relax. No, not at all. As if they were not bound to perform any duty unless upon a special motion of the Spirit. But they ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace of God that is in them. What are the divines saying? They're saying, don't become lazy as if God isn't owed obedience. Question, is God owed obedience? Is he worthy of obedience from Christians? Yes? Is he owed obedience from non-Christians? Big time. Big time. Because can the pot say to the potter, why have you made me this way? I don't want to be this vessel. Make me a different vessel. No, the pot does what its creator tells it to do. Romans 9, right? The Lord molds some as vessels for honorable use, and he molds others as vessels for dishonorable use. We think about God sovereignly electing some and passing over others. That's a hard chapter, but it's clear. What can we say to the Lord? Lord, why have you made me this way? No, universally, all of God's creatures owe him obedience, believer or not. Yeah, Romans 9, the Lord creates some vessels for honorable use, and Paul's talking about Christians, the elect, and some vessels for dishonorable use, and those are the reprobate, those whom the Lord passes over and gives them over to themselves in judgment. and that's part of God's sovereign decree. Who can plumb the mind of God? Yes, Betty Jo. It's a humbling verse. Again, what can the pot say to the potter? Yeah. and causes us to praise God all the more that He would choose us. A sinner like me, a wretch, boy, what grace. So we don't become lazy as if we didn't owe God obedience. We don't wait for the Spirit to move in us to kind of, oh, now I feel a prompting of the Spirit to do good works. That's what the divines are getting at right here, a special motion of the Spirit. No, we don't just kind of sit around and say, all right, Holy Spirit, Do your thing, I'm waiting, I'm ready." It's like, no, the Lord calls us to obedience and we're to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. So we're not just to sit on our behinds, but because God is Lord of all, we owe him obedience. What do you think this means right here, we ought not to grow negligent? grow negligent. Any thoughts about that? We don't say, I'll glorify God with my mind, but not with my body. No. Wholly devoted to the Lord. Yes. Yes, John? Or taking it for granted is a good way to put that. Yeah, we don't grow negligent in saying, great, it's cool that the Lord saved me. Doesn't make much difference in my life. I'm just going to keep on doing what I want to. Yikes, you might not be saved if you think that way. Yeah, that's a good point, John. Or believers who become indifferent, grow apathetic. We'll talk about that here in a second. Thank you for bringing that up. Talk about that, Mark. It's foolishness for us to not seek the Lord with our whole hearts. Foolishness to allow ourselves to grow apathetic. And that goes back to what Daryl was talking about. There are things that we are responsible for in Well, in stirring up the grace of God that is in us. That's good. Yep. Yeah, it's like trying to swim upstream in a river. If you quit swimming, you might think you're sitting still, but the river's actually pushing you backwards and you don't even realize it. That's so good. Yeah, and why does David pray in Psalm 119, keep me from presumptuous sins? It's because David knows that's his tendency. He's prone to sin in ways that are just native to him and doesn't think much about it. But if the Holy Spirit is a renovating spirit, then he's not gonna be finished with us until the day of Christ. He's gonna keep working in us to will and to do what is good. Yeah, another reason the divines are saying don't grow negligent is because it's easy to grow negligent. It's easy to slip. It's easy to say, I've been working hard. Paul reminds the Galatians in Galatians 6, do not grow weary of doing good. Because it's easy to grow weary of doing good. It is really difficult to swim upstream. But Paul says, if we don't give up, we will reap the reward of our good works. Think of Jesus at the Sermon on the Mount. Repeatedly, Jesus will say, honor the Lord, honor your Father, because your Father in heaven sees you, and you will receive your reward. There's a reward to finishing the race well, to fighting the good fight. So Paul says, don't grow weary of doing good. So, obedient. No, go for it. Pastor Cliff reminded us last week that our doubts are sin within our hearts, and unless we are actively fighting against rather than negligent. Yeah, that's good, Jim. We don't want those doubts to begin to get comfortable in our hearts. They're not guests. They're trespassers. As is all sin in the heart. It's a trespasser in the heart of a believer. Folks are trying to break down the door, right? Folks are trying to... There's a prayer that I read recently that talks about, oh, it's so good, Lord, the enemy is within the gates. The enemy is within the gates. He's already inside the citadel, and he was speaking about indwelling sin in his own heart. The enemy is within the gates. Protect me. Keep me from presumptuous sins. So the divines say, don't grow weary of doing good, riffing on Paul, but instead, seek to be diligent in stirring up the grace of God that is within us. What in the world does that mean? How in the world did we do that? Okay, that makes sense, Westminster divines. But how did we do that? It's a bit of an aside, but I think it's an important aside. Anybody ever feel like that your affection for the Lord waxes and wanes? you're a Christian, we've all felt that, right? That's not uncommon for the believer. In fact, one of the reasons that we know that's going to happen for Christians is because of the repeated commands we see in Bible to be steadfast, to hold fast to the Lord as He holds fast to us. So it's common for the Christian for our affection for the Lord to wax and wane. Well, what then do we do when we feel ourselves lacking in affection for the Lord. We've talked about making ourselves available to the means of grace. That was really good, Vic. What else do y'all think? How can we stir up affection in our hearts for the Lord? What are ways y'all think we can do that? Fellowship, worship, reading. Sit with the Lord in His Word. Sing hymns, confess our sin, sing hymns. Means of grace stuff, yeah. Almost like the Lord's given us exactly what we need to grow and stir our affections. I wanted to give us maybe just some brief bullet points, a lot of which we've already just said. A few biblical ways to stir up God's grace within us. One way is just asking the Lord to grow your affection for him in prayer. Lord, make me increase my faith. Make me love you more than I love anything else. A simple prayer that the Lord answers. Another way is to meditate on scripture. A good thing to meditate on is the Psalms. Glorious, it's David pouring out his heart God in His Word that we have written down for us. It's a divinely inspired prayer and we can read through those, meditate on those, chew on them, marinate in them. That's very helpful for stirring up our affections. Reading soul-stirring literature. Now the Puritans are really, really good here, really, really helpful. A couple resources I brought to to bring that out. One is, most of y'all, you might be familiar with the Valley of Vision. So, so good. Convicting out the wazoo. But boy, will it stir your heart for the Lord. In fact, the prayer I was reading that deals with the enemy within the gates, that was one of the prayers in here. I forget. It was a prayer entitled mourning. This is the section right here. Defend me from assailing foes, from evil circumstances, from myself. My adversaries are part and parcel of my nature. They cling to me as my very skin. I cannot escape their contact. In my rising up and sitting down, they barnacle me. They barnacle me. They entice with constant baits. My enemy is within the citadel. come with almighty power and cast him out, pierce him to death, and abolish in me every particle of carnal life this day. Wow. Oh, if we prayed like that every day. Another resource, this is a book of Puritan devotionals called Voices from the Past. Voices from the Past. Really helpful. It's a collection of one-page devos from Puritans that gentleman Richard Rushing has compiled. Very, very helpful. I don't have it, but Samuel Rutherford's letters. Phenomenal. Torrey has a copy. He's got 365 letters, a letter a day. Very helpful devotional literature. And Samuel Rutherford, Pastor Cliff did some extended study on Rutherford. He, you just gotta read him to understand his love for Christ. You just gotta read him. There's a little book called The Loveliness of Christ that Rutherford, it's a collection of brief but punchy sayings from Rutherford's letters. Super, super helpful. And we might not always have a lot of time to do these things, so having a few that are easily accessible will be helpful. A couple more, singing good hymns or psalms that rouse you to thankfulness to the Lord. Singing psalms, there again, we're singing divinely inspired prayers, right? It's glorious. And then reminding ourselves of who we are in Christ. Reading confessions can be helpful. What's true about me? lastly, asking others to pray for you and remind you of who you are. Yeah, Mike? David says in Psalm 16, that the sorrows of those who run after other gods will multiply. What other gods might we be running after? News, phone usage, sports, other thoughts that invade our brains that are not honoring to the Lord. Could be a whole host of things. That's really helpful, Mike. Taking inventory of what is keeping us from these things to rouse our affections for the Lord. That's good. We don't have much time, we only have another minute or two, but perhaps... Yeah, I don't know if we're gonna get through all this. We'll try, we'll see how far we get. Last section, they who in their obedience attain to the greatest height which is possible in this life are so far from being able to super irrigate, that's a wild word, and to do more than God requires, as that they fall short of much which in duty they are bound to do." Super irrigate. What do you have for us, John? That word means to actually, what it says, store up more than you can. In the Roman economy, you can borrow from the saints a treasury of good merit. Saints that have gone before you have built up good works that you can kind of pull from their bank account a little bit. Right, yeah, as long as the check clears. And of course, the divines are writing against Roman Catholic tendencies in the mid-1600s. So supererogate simply means what the very next thing says, to do more than God requires. It means to go above and beyond what the Lord has called you to do. We've already established there's no good in us. How in the world could we do more than what the Lord has required? We can't. We can't. I think we saw an example of that when the angel Gabriel came to Zechariah and to Zechariah did not believe God through the message of Gabriel. So what did Gabriel do? He shut him up, right? And I connected that just in my thinking, and I think this works with the verse in Psalm 46, be still and know that I am God. So in effect, Gabriel was telling Zechariah, be still, you're not going to talk, and you're going to know that I am God. So, difference in believing in God and believing God. Yeah, that's good. What was David's thrust in that section? Trust God. What was Zechariah not doing? He wasn't trusting God's Word. Yeah, that's a good connection, Jim. So supererogate just means to do more than you're asked to do, go above and beyond. No one can do that. Perfection isn't possible in this life, but the divines are saying that even those who reach the greatest heights, which is possible in this life, the holiest Christians you can think of, even they are unable to actually do what God requires. So they fall short of much in which they are bound in duty to do. I'll close with this. Remember what God told Adam in the garden? We call it the covenant of works. Obey and live is how you could summarize what God told Adam. Obey me and live. Disobey and you'll die. You'll surely die, right? Adam, did he keep it? Nope, Adam failed. And we know that that God will always require, he required from Adam, perfect, perpetual, exact, and entire obedience. The confession will use that language. Perfect obedience, perpetual obedience, entire, you don't skip out on anything, and exact, you do precisely what God commands. Adam failed. Does that mean that God no longer, does God no longer require perfect, perpetual, entire, and exact obedience? No, it's still a requirement. A requirement that we can't meet, even with renewed hearts, because we know perfection's not possible in the sight of heaven. This is kind of a dismal note to end on, so I think the question is, where does that leave us now? Where does that leave us now? J. Gressam Machen. has a famous quote, a famous quote, where he talks, J. Gresham Machen was a professor, founder, Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia. In 1929 is when he founded the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 1936 or so. Got kicked out of the liberal Presbyterian Church, liberal Presbyterian denomination. He says this about the work of Christ. Look at what he says. The covenant of works was a probation. That is, if Adam kept the law of God for a certain period, he was to have eternal life. If he disobeyed, he was to have death. Well, he disobeyed and the penalty of death was inflicted upon him and his posterity, his children. Then Christ, by his death on the cross, paid that penalty for those whom God has chosen. Praise God. Well and good, Machen says, well and good. But if that were all Christ did for us, do you not see that we should be back in just the situation in which Adam was before he sinned? We'd be right back in the same place. We would still have to perform perfectly before the Lord, which we're not capable of doing. The penalty of his sinning would have been removed from us because it had all been paid by Christ. But for the future, the attainment of eternal life would have still been dependent upon our perfect obedience to the law of God. We should simply end up in the same probationary place Adam was in the garden. This right here is what led J. Gresham Machen on his deathbed. to send a telegram to his friend John Murray, another professor, saying, I'm so thankful for the active obedience of Christ. No hope without it. No hope without it. You see, friends, without the Spirit working within us, if Christ simply dies for our sins, that's great, the penalty's removed, but we still owe God obedience. Praise the Lord that Christ not only died for us, but lived the perfect, perpetual, exact, and entire obedience that we couldn't live. That's the beauty of the active obedience of Christ. That's a hinge of the gospel, right? Praise God for the active obedience of Christ. So what can we say? Where does this leave us now? We can praise God for the active obedience of Christ. He secured eternal life for us. and that's worthy of praise. We're at time, let me pray for us, and if we wanna keep discussing before the service, we can do that, but let me close this in prayer. Let's pray. Gracious Father, we thank you for such a way to enter into the worship service this morning, being thankful for the active obedience of Christ on our behalf. Lord, as Machen said on his deathbed, there is no hope without it. No hope. We can't perfectly live out the demands that you've called us to. Adam couldn't even do that. How much less hope do we have? No, oh Father, we need the Lord Jesus not simply to die for us, but to live perfectly for us. Oh Lord, it's a double penalty Christ paid. And it's a double blessing for us. Father, how thankful we are for the Lord Jesus. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your kindness in bestowing gospel grace on us through Christ. Lord, allow this, this Sunday school, to stir up affection for you in our hearts as we go into the worship service. Lord, help us to offer you praise, render you the praise that is due your name. And Father, we pray, use the ordinary means of grace to strengthen us, increase our faith. These things we ask in Jesus' name, amen.