Welcome the Bowmans back today from their distant travels. We're able to hear a bit of a report about what they have been doing over there in Liberia, the work there this past Wednesday. I don't know if you're expecting to talk any more about that tonight or that was it. If you missed it, I'm sorry, that's it. One and done. But it was good. It was good to hear about that work there and everything that God is doing there. I think the rest of you know this already, but to bring them up to speed since they've missed these last Sundays here, we've been going through some of the confession of faith. It's really just a general overview, reading the text there and looking at some of the scriptures. Last week was chapter 15 of repentance unto life, and we've gone through, of God, His providence, the fall of man, our need for a Savior. Christ as our Redeemer, justification and then a couple of weeks there on adoption and sanctification and then this past week on repentance, repenting from sin. And so this is the beginning of a section here of good works and then the assurance of grace and the law of God. So this chapter doesn't actually get into as much of the actual good works that we are supposed to do, but it begins that topic. This was a bit of a longer chapter, a number of verses, so I almost divided it into two, but decided we'll just try to go over as much as we can here today in the next 30 minutes. And rather than reading through the whole thing as I did last time, we'll just read each section or a couple of sections together and then talk about some of these verses, point out why these men have brought these things together. So of good works, section number one, good works are only such as God hath 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. really begins where it needs to begin, of God. As we're talking about good works, how do we know anything about what is good? We have to begin with who is good. We're reminded in Jesus' response to the rich young ruler, good master, what must I do to inherit the works of eternal life? His response begins with that question, why do you call me good? Who is good except God? That's where we must begin with any discussion of what is good, what are good works, and what should we be doing? So good works are such as God hath commanded in his holy word. We see this in Micah 6, 8. He has showed thee, O man, what is good. And what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? And we'll go over the rest of that. in this later chapter, the law of God, and summarizing that in loving God with all of our hearts and loving our neighbor as ourselves, we find these in God's holy word, and that is the place we should go to when we are trying to determine what we should be doing. We repent from our sin, what do we turn to? What are these good works? God has showed us that. He hasn't left us in darkness. So we'll go over what exactly that entails later on, or some of what it entails later on. But not what is devised by men out of a blind zeal or upon any pretense of good intentions is the way this finishes. And we'll just read two verses here. Certainly we would think of the Pharisees in the New Testament as examples of those who would set up their own words, their own teachings above the teachings of God. So Matthew 15, nine, but in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And then we'll actually turn to, this is a good example as well that they have here, 1 Samuel 15. This is part of the passage, Saul defeats the Amalekites. We recall Saul was commanded by the Lord through Samuel to destroy the Amalekites, to wipe them out completely, kill everything that was living. Saul goes to war, he goes to battle, he follows some of what God has told him to do, but they don't completely follow that. We see in verse 9, but Saul and the people spared Agag, who was the king of the Amalekites, and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatlings and the lambs and all that was good. and would not utterly destroy them, but everything that was vile, they destroyed utterly. And we'll go down to verses 20 to 23 of 1 Samuel 15. Saul said unto Samuel, yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep, and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king. So we see there Saul, and whether this was truly why they saved these alive, to sacrifice them, or whether they saved them for other reasons, and then came up with an excuse to try to justify that once they were caught, whichever is the case, at the very least he uses this argument, well, we were going to do something good with this. He disobeyed the clear voice of the Lord, the clear teaching. And he was judged for that. We're not to devise our own good works with any pretense of good intention. It's something that we might look at that and say, well, that's obviously something we would never do. I would just look back at my own childhood and see it's something that at the very least we are certainly tempted to do. Young people, as we're finishing our school and going off into work and working for someone who doesn't believe God and doesn't honor the Sabbath day, that was an area where we were strongly tempted to not honor the Sabbath. You go to work, you tell your boss, I'm happy to work for you, I'm going to work hard. But in this particular job, I don't feel I shouldn't work on the Sabbath. You can sign me up for Saturdays, but I'm not going to work on the Sabbath day in this particular line of work. This isn't a necessary or a work of helping or healing. And the next thing you know, your boss is calling to say, hey, we really need someone on Sunday. And we could justify our breaking of the Sabbath by saying, well, this is going to help me to get ahead in this job, or it's not a serious thing, or if I'm making more money, I can give more to God. We're doing the exact same thing that those people there did, that Saul did. Those are areas we can sin as well. And so we don't just look back at the Old Testament, look at these sins that they did, and say, well, those people were terrible. We'll judge them for that and pat ourselves on the back for... Obeying God 100% of the time, we don't do that either. And so those are all areas where we must examine ourselves and be certain that we aren't, out of a pretense of good intention, breaking the clear command of God. And in many other areas we could see that in, but just a few thoughts there. So that's number one. God's works, good works, are only such as God hath commanded in his word. Point 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, 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. That's really a wonderful passage there or section there. It's really just taking a number of different verses and you could see, I think we could recognize some of that, stopping the mouths of the adversaries, glorifying God whose workmanship they are. And so we'll go through a few of these here this morning. So backing up here, These good works, done in obedience to God's commandments, are the fruit and evidence of a true and lively faith. As a reference, we could use essentially the whole book of the Epistle of James. There are a couple of verses listed here. James 2.18, yea, a man may say, thou hast faith and I have works. Show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works. And then verse 22, seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect. These are the evidence of a true and lively faith. We went over that before in one of the previous, in some of our previous sessions there on sanctification. These things flow out of a true faith. By them, believers manifest their thankfulness. And we see in Psalm 116, verse 12, what shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me? And then verse 13, I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. And also in 1 Peter, chapter two, verse nine, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation, a peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." So those are all things that, all reasons that we do these good works, that we pursue these good works. They should strengthen our assurance. We see this in 1 John 2, 3. Hereby we do know, we know him if we keep his commandments. And again in verse 5. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected. Hereby we know that we are in him." And we think about that and think of the reverse of that. Oftentimes when we're suffering from a lack of assurance, it's because of the sin that we are being afflicted by or pursuing at that time. How do we then pursue this assurance of faith? It's by the pursuit of good works. So they strengthen our assurance. They edify the brethren. Let's read this entire section here. Edify the brethren, adorn the profession of the gospel, stop the mouths of the adversaries, and glorify God. And just one verse that we'll read here, Matthew 5.16, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Living the Christian life, balance isn't necessarily the right word. We're not supposed to balance sin and goodness, or two types of sins. We're to have a balance of the right kind of, or a combination of the right kind of holiness following God's teaching and his word. We are to be humble. We're not to show off our good works, but at the same time, we don't hide them. We're not supposed to hide the light under a table or a chair or a veil. We should be open in our good works to glorify God, the goal of glorifying God there. adorning the profession of the gospel. We see that in Titus as he's exhorting servants. I exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters and to please them well in all things, not answering again, not purloining, but showing all good fidelity that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. So those are some of the reasons for the reason for our good works. Good works are defined by God. They're things we pursue for these reasons. And then section three goes into our ability, and starts off their ability to do good works, theirs as in believers, their 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, besides the graces they have 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 they are not thereupon to grow negligent, as if they were not bound to perform any duty, unless by a special motion of the Spirit, but they ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace of God that is in them. So this begins with our ability. Ability and, so the quotes there, to work, requiring an actual influence of the same Holy Spirit to work in them to will and to do of his good pleasure. The reference here is John 15 in verse four. Abide in me and I in you, the words of Jesus. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. So that's where, that is our ability. It's not of ourselves, it's of Christ and of the Spirit of God. And we see that as well in Ezekiel 36, 26 and 27. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments and do them. And so that's where we have the ability to do these things. That again should keep us from becoming puffed up, from becoming proud when we are doing good works. That ability is not from ourselves any more than Lazarus' ability to walk out of the tomb was of his own power. He was raised by the power of God, by the power of Christ. He was enabled to do that through him, through the word of Christ. Again, this balance, the next phrase is, yet are they not, yet are we, not hereupon to grow negligent as if they were not bound to perform any duty. unless by a special motion of the Spirit, but they ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace of God that is in them." And we spent a little bit of time talking about this before. The new life that we have, we talked about, as we talked about regeneration and the work of God. We made the point that that new life is not because of anything that's within us. That is entirely the work of God. And we use the phrase or use the term monergism. Mono is one or alone. Erg is work. So it's the work of God alone in us. We bring as much to that as Lazarus did. in His resurrection, He brought a dead body, and that was it. There was no ability there. God raised Him of His own power. In the work that we do, though, in the life of a believer, God has changed us. He has given us a new heart and a desire to please Him. So we don't just sit back and wait. We don't just sit back and wait for the Spirit to move us, these good works to just somehow naturally flow out of us. We just go sit on the couch and hope that we do something good in the next couple of minutes, next hour, and the rest of our lives. Any more than if you were trying to grow vegetables in a garden, would you just look at the ground and hope something good happened? You have to work. You have to work at it while at the same time acknowledging that the fruit from that is of God. We must be diligent, we need to be diligent in pursuing these things and pursuing the means of grace, being in His Word, being constant in prayer and encouraging one another, being at the Lord's table, being present in the Lord's house. All of those things, seeking after the good things that we can do. And I think I had a passage here, a couple of passages. They reference Philippians 2.12, wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Could be easy to be confused by that passage, work out your own salvation. We've already dealt with that though. trying to work out how we're going to be saved. It's God that does that. We've established that already. But it's really working out our sanctification, if I can put it that way, seeking after that goodness, that godliness that we need, that we desire. And then Hebrews 6, and I'll actually turn over there, Hebrews 6, 6-11, 6-11 and 12, and I'm going to back up a little bit and we'll start at verse 9. Hebrews 6 and 9, he's just written to them, the writer of Hebrews has just written to them about these people who have fallen away or turned away. Verse 9, but beloved, we are persuaded better things of you and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. So this, he's not expecting, not persuaded that they will turn away, but that they will continue in these things, in these good works that he's spoken of. Though we thus speak, for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward his name, and that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. That you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. That's the main point I would take away from there. We're not to be slothful. We're not lazy. We don't just wait around for something good to happen. We need to be seeking after it, seeking after these good works. Sections four and five, we'll read together, we'll combine these two, they're really talking about the same subject here. So, good works are defined by God, they're done in obedience to God's commandments, they strengthen us, they edify us, they edify our brethren. Section four then moves on to four and five. They who in their obedience attain to the greatest height which is possible in this life. The most holy people that we might know now or in the past are so far from being able to supererogate and to do more than God requires as that they fall short of much which in duty they are bound to do. It's a little bit of a difficult phrasing there. We might re-say this. They, who in their obedience attain to the greatest holiness, which is possible in this life, are so far from being able to supererogate, and they define that as doing more than God requires. as that they fall short or because they fall short in that they fall short of much which in duty they are bound to do. Five, we cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin or eternal life at the hand of God by reason of the great disproportion that is between them and the glory to come and the infinite distance that is between us and God whom by them we can neither profit nor satisfy for the debt of our former sins. But when we have done all we can, we have done but our duty and are unprofitable servants. And because, as they are good, they proceed from His Spirit, and as they are wrought by us, they are defiled and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection that they cannot endure the severity of God's judgment. These two parts, first part is really answering the Roman Catholic doctrine. Roman Catholics place a great deal of weight on our good works in the area of justification. And again, we've dealt with that already, justified by our good works. The Roman Catholics, in their doctrine, place a portion of that, a portion of our justification before God, we're declared righteous before God because of our works, and they teach that some people who can do such good works, they teach they're able then to apply those, those could be applied to the debt that some of the rest of us owe. And it's a misunderstanding of the height of his law. He says, God says, as I am holy, We can be very close to that. And God requires to be able to do, do enough to give of our good works to someone else. We can't even pay for our own sins, let alone anyone else's. And so here we had just a couple of verses and just, We could read the book of Romans, but just a few verses from that. Romans 3.20, therefore by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. And Ephesians 2.8, for by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And Titus 3.5, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. There's no verse we can point to to in any way support that idea of being able to produce more, to have better good works than what God requires of us. So the main, the primary verses that I selected there to review. Moving on then to Section 6, and we could spend much more time there, that Section 5, a number of other points that they made. But for time's sake, we'll move on to Section 6. So we've established in that section that our good works don't merit pardon of sin or eternal life, and we've dealt with that before. Section six, yet notwithstanding the persons of believers, so we could ask, why are we doing these things? And if we don't merit, if this doesn't merit us anything, if we rephrase it that way, yet notwithstanding the persons of believers being accepted through Christ, their good works also are accepted in Him. not as though they were in this life wholly unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight, but that he, looking upon them in his son, is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, though accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections. And just a quick note there about the, even though in this life they were, not as though in this life they were wholly unblameable and, or unblameable and unapprovable in God's sight, We see that repeatedly throughout the Scriptures, people that are held up as... men of faith, women of faith, we still see them, we still see their sins. People who are called righteous, we could see the words of Job, a man who was called righteous, Job 9.20, if I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me. If I say I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse. We are, we can't, our own works are imperfect, but they are accepted through the work of Christ. And we'll read Hebrews 13, verse 20. to show this. Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ. To whom be glory forever and ever, amen. So he's working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ. That is how God accepts that work. It's through our Lord and through the work that he has done. And then finally, point seven. Works done by unregenerate men, though for the matter of them they may be things which God commands, and of good use both to themselves and others, yet because they proceed not from a heart purified by faith, nor are done in a right manner, according to the word, nor to a right end, the glory of God. They are therefore sinful and cannot please God. or make a man meet, or appropriate, to receive grace from God. And just one verse here, Hebrews 11, 6, but without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Sinful people who are unconverted don't, as they point out here, even when they do right things, they're not doing it for the right reasons. They're not doing it to glorify God. They may do it to glorify themselves as sinners. They point out in one of these other verses the hypocrites sounding the trumpet so that people will see them when they give alms, when they give money. It's good to give. We should give. We should care for people who are poor. That on its own would be a good deed, but it's not something that they're doing to glorify God, and so it's not of any benefit ultimately to them. and certainly not something that would pay for their sins. So that is the chapter of good works. In a couple of chapters, we'll again come to some of what are those good works, what are we to be doing, and go through some of the law of God. I just wanted to finish, I chose Psalm 23 this morning. to sing, and we'll just read that one portion again there from verse three. He restoreth my soul, he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. That really summarizes much of what we just read. It's the Lord who leads us. These paths of righteousness, these are things we should be pursuing. And it's for the glory of God, it's for His namesake. That should be our prayer and our goal in our daily lives. And as we turn away from sin, as we repent, as we repent daily, turn to Christ and turn to the righteousness that is of faith. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that Again, that we can worship you. We thank you that we can gather in your house, that we can hear your word. We thank you, Lord, for these passages that can encourage us, that strengthen us. We do ask, Lord, that you would bless us more and more each day. Help us to be a light, to be a light before men, to be encouragements to one another, to glorify you, Help us to seek after these paths of righteousness. We do pray for the services that are to come today, Lord, and we pray again that you would help us to take joy in your day, to find true joy in it, that you would accept our praises, help us to Rejoice in you more fully, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.