Technical Problems and Bunny Trails

Alright, so let me start by asking the question, are there any questions? Because today's sermon topic is one that, there's some subtlety to it, but you'll note that the danger of relying on our good works, focusing our attention in on our reward, is a form of self-righteousness.

Rick Warren, Purpose-Driven Rewards, and Self-Righteousness

It might be piously covered up to some extent, but I tell a story from time to time of an interaction I had with Rick Warren's personal apologist, a fellow by the name of Richard Abonis. And Abonis wrote a book called Rick Warren and the Purpose That Drives Him, and was on staff at Saddleback for many years.

And when I began publicly critiquing Rick Warren's Bible-twisting, especially when the purpose-driven life and the purpose-driven church were like everything that everybody was talking about. Have you guys noticed that evangelicalism is prone to have fads, alright?

Y 'all remember the prayer of Jabez, you know? Y 'all remember Pet Rocks? Anyway, that wasn't a Christian thing, that was something else. Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, so Josh says he remembers a pastor, a vision-casting leader.

I know the fellow from Texas. He wrote a book called Sexperiment, and so he and his wife, to draw attention to godly sex lives, he and his wife spent a few days on the top of their church's roof in a bed together.

And the intent was to stay there for a week, but he ended up getting a really, really bad sunburn, and the Texas equivalent of snow blindness as a result of it, and at the time I said that he ended up burning his Botox, because this is a guy who's an older fellow who clearly engages in some type of cosmetic cover-ups of his age, it was really crazy.

But all that being said, at the time, Rick Warren was doing a sermon series and talking about kind of similarly that we need to keep our eyes focused on our reward, which is off. Focusing on our reward, I don't even know what my reward's gonna be.

I mean, I might get a park bench, a newspaper, and some puka shells. I'm not sure, that might be even asking too much. But at the time, I put a website together called the Purpose-Driven Heavenly Rewards Calculator, and it was an online spreadsheet that had some kind of macros running in the background, and there was a list of different things, you know, have you learned how to hear the voice of God, have you discovered your purpose yet, have you had your breakthrough, and all this kind of, you know, the language and the jargon they were using at the time.

And at the very end, you hit the calculate your heavenly rewards button, there's a button so you can calculate them, and it took you to a verse in the Bible where Jesus says, and when you have done all that your master has asked you to do, then you are to consider yourselves as unworthy servants because you've only done what you've been told to do.

And Richard Abonis lost his mind. Oh man, was he upset about that. He just thought that was terrible. The point is that when your focus isn't on your reward, your focus isn't on Christ. And talking about focusing in on your reward is a way then of kind of sneaking back into a form of self-righteousness, and Christ is very clear that where your heart is, your is, you know, are you focused on heavenly things, but it doesn't ever tell us to zero in and make our reward the object of our faith.

That's a misunderstood concept there. Okay, what book did he just say? Okay, so the book that Richard Abonis wrote was called Rick Warren and the Purpose That Drives Him. Okay, and Richard Abonis was a fellow, we were both trained, part of my apologetics training was with the same people who trained him as an apologist, so it was just always hard when I would go toe-to-toe with him.

Interpreting Matthew 11:12 by Clear Passages and Study Bibles

All right, MJ says, so at some point, if not now, would you be able to explain the following verse in its proper context? Matthew 11, from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom has suffered violence and the violent take it by force.

Okay, so this is a good question, and then let's see here, I see somebody has, Neah has her hand up. Neah, we'll come back to you in a second. So let me show you what I do when I come up to a passage that doesn't readily have, like when you read it, you sit there and you go, what did I just read?

Okay, so we're going to find the answer together, and I'm going to open up my copy of Lagos, but I'm going to give you a resource where you can go for free. I like to talk methodologically. How do we deal with non-clear texts?

And it's important to note, then, that when we're looking at Scripture, Biblical doctrines, always your clear passages are your governing passages. Lagos is on! So clear texts are your governing texts, and then unclear passages are always interpreted through the clear text.

Kind of a standard way of doing hermeneutics, but let's take a look. So I've got to go to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 11, and I'll show you a resource that I have, and if you have an analog version of this, it was, I won't say the name, I recently was asked by somebody, you know, that they had been invited to a Roman Catholic baptism, you know, a friend of theirs, and they asked me, you know, what would be an appropriate gift to give, you know, a Roman Catholic child who's being baptized, and I said the Lutheran Study Bible.

So I did do that once, by the way, not with a Roman Catholic, there was a couple that got married that were, hello, I just lost my internet, all right, I think it's time to anoint our router with oil, that'll help it.

Come on, that's always the way that you get rid of demons, you anoint things with oil, so we've got to anoint our router, our Wi-Fi router with oil. That'll do it. Sorry about that, in case you haven't figured out, the internet just died.

Okay, so those of you physically present, we're going to go analog, I'm on my Wi-Fi for my cell phone hotspot. Okay, so coming back to the question then, and let's see here, it was, I got to find the verse now.

Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Anaya, I did see your hand still raised. MJ, I lost your question because I got disconnected, what was the verse in chapter 11 again? All right, so, okay, so I'm back, MJ, what was the verse in chapter 11 again real quick, because your comment got deleted when I got disconnected.

The declaring work, oh, Lily, yeah, Matthew 20, 211, 12. Let me find Matthew 211. Matthew 11, verse 12, here we go. So what I was saying is that when you come up against a text, it doesn't readily lend itself towards understanding the gist of it.

And sometimes that's the case, you get an idiomatic statement that is from a different culture. So when we talk about idioms, I remember years and years ago, we had a family friend come from Germany and spend some time with us.

And he pulled me aside privately, he says, I do not understand what you Americans mean when you say somebody has a leg up on another person. And he sounds like something that a dog does to a fire hydrant.

I said, no, no, no, no, no. I said, no, it's talking about, if you think of a ladder, a leg up means you're a little higher up than somebody. And he went, oh, yeah, and you kind of had to help him out.

And so the Bible has idioms that are similar. And so coming back then here, you'll note that in this particular case, we're going to take a look at the Lutheran Study Bible, which I have as a resource on my Logos, which is why I came here.

Hold on a second. That's my Launida. Let me, it has the same color cover. My apologies. Okay, so when we look at the note for verse 12, so, huh? Oh, we're back. Okay, hold on a second here. Can I switch internets without losing it?

All right, freeze tag. All right, so that, hey, Steven Adelaide's still there. He's still moving now. All right, okay. I just feel like I just, you know, you know, did an evil Knievel jump over the Grand Canyon, you know, and then did it without any broken bones.

That's hilarious. Okay, and let me stop sharing for a second here and then reinitiate my sharing. My apologies for all of our technical issues today. Alas, it is what it is. All right, so then, okay, y 'all can see me there.

So here's what verse 12 says in the Lutheran Study Bible. Kingdom of heaven has suffered violence. So John experienced violence. Jesus and his disciples expected violent opposition as they carried out their mission.

The violent take it by force. And then it says, see the note on Luke 16, verse 16. So let's go there and see what it says. So the law and the prophets, okay, good news of the kingdom, forces his way into it.

Jesus seems to complain about the violent reaction people have to God's word. The Pharisees abused the proclamation of the gospel. In fact, they hate it. Just as they abused the law and the prophets, they even rejected John, who prepared the way for God's rule in Christ.

So one way of looking at this, and the Lutheran Study Bible, this is a lay level commentary, if you would, gives us just a basic understanding that, you know, talking about, you know, Christ complaining about how violent people, or people react violently to the gospel, which tends to make sense.

Now, I'm going to show you another website. And I've shown this website to our catechism classes before, but it's kretzmannproject .org, kretzmannproject .org. Now, a little bit of a note. The people who put this together were pastors and laymen who clearly are not web developers, okay?

I don't know anybody who programs and frames anymore. But it is, as ugly as it is, it's still a legitimately good resource. And what it is, is this is a digital version of Paul Kretzmann's popular commentary, which was written in the early part of the 20th century, and is technically in the public domain.

But his work is really well done. So we're going to take a look at the Gospel of Matthew. We're going to go to chapter 11. And then you'll note, hang on a second here. I have to make this so that I can actually read it.

My eyes are too old for this small stuff. Okay, all right. And I'm even looking through my bifocals here. So coming to verses 7 through 19, let's see. Verily, verily, so here we go. Verse 12. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.

For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. Notice here, prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, to which it was to come. So since the time that John preached his message of preparation, it is possible to get possession of the kingdom of heaven.

Yea, the violent actually take hold of it with a stormy hand, with a sure grip. The whole movement was a convincing argument for the earnestness of the power of John's message. So in Kretzmann's view, as he's kind of exegeting this passage, he's looking at this specifically and basically saying, talking about how the violent have taken hold of it with a stormy hand, that that actually is a testimony to the fact that what he was preaching was true.

So talking about the violent opposition that he had. While the tax collectors and the heathens whom the scribes and the Pharisees think have no right to the kingdom of the Messiah. Let that sink in for a second, because that actually kind of plays into our gospel text today.

The Pharisees think that the tax gatherers, the heathens, have no right to the kingdom of the Messiah. So they are filled with holy zeal and earnestness. They seize at once the proffered mercy of God, and so take the kingdom by force from those learned doctors who claim for themselves the chiefest places in that kingdom.

And when you see here, when you kind of understand what's going on in this text, you can actually see the relationship between that and the parable that Jesus told in Matthew 20, which we looked at today.

So you get the idea. So the question was a really good one in that, so if you ever run across a passage you're not sure what to do with it, number one, my first question is, have you got yourself a Lutheran study Bible yet?

Yeah, that's a great place to go. You sit there and go, well, I'm new to this Lutheran thing. It's still the best study Bible out there. It's better than the ESV study Bible. It has, the notes are just far superior.

And then, and then crestmanproject .org. That's a good place to start. Yeah. On the ALTS website. Okay, good. So on the AALC website, which portion of the website? ALTS. Oh, the American Lutheran Theological Seminary website.

So my alma mater, American Lutheran Theological Seminary, on their website, they also have a list of free resources. And Crestman's commentary shows up as one of the resources that you can go to. It's called the Wartburg Center.

The Wartburg. Okay. Got it. Okay. So the Wartburg Center portion of the website for American Lutheran Theological Seminary has a list of free resources. All right. Very good. Okay. So then coming back around, Naya, you had a question.

Did you want to unmute yourself or would you like to, to actually, you know, say it and hear where we can all hear you? Let's see what Naya says. Well, I'm not hearing her. Do you hear her, Stephen? You do?

I can't hear her. Huh. Yeah, that's my, that's my question. Next question. Because we, hang on a second here. Let me hit my MacBook speakers and see what that does. All right. Try again, Naya. Let's see if I can hear you.

Proverbs, the Sluggard, and Salvation by Works

Can you hear me now? I can hear you now. That's right. Sounds like a Sprint commercial. So, all right. So yes, what's your question?

Proverbs, let me see. I have it here. Proverbs 24 from 30 to 34. Hold on a second. Has to do with working our salvation. Because I heard a pastor, one that's good, saying that this refers to our salvation.

And I was a little bit confused.

Proverbs chapter, what's the reference again? 24. Proverbs 24. 34. 34. Okay. Well, Proverbs 24, 34 says, and poverty will come upon you like a robber. 30 through 34. Okay. I passed by the field of a sluggard, by the vineyard of a man lacking sense.

And behold, it was all overgrown with thorns. And the ground was covered with nettles. And its stone wall was broken down. And then I saw and considered it. And I looked and received instruction. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest.

And poverty will come upon you like a robber and want like an armed man. Okay. So now let me ask you a question. You actually had a pastor who said that this has to do with salvation by works?

Yes. I was listening to a podcast. I can't remember his name. It's the pastor who does the World Watch thing on YouTube.

Okay. This text has nothing to do with salvation. Not at all. Okay. So let me explain, you know, what's actually happening here. So, because, you know, we got to back up and look at the maneuver. Okay.

So I talked about the fact that clear passages always govern unclear. Okay. Clear passages always govern unclear. Now, already we've got a problem. And that is that Proverbs themselves, the book itself is a book of what I would call third use of the law.

And it's really only for Christians. And it shows Christians what good works are. But it also demonstrates what good works are by looking at the opposite of what foolishness looks like. So those are your main themes.

You know, what does it mean to act in wisdom? Okay. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And then foolishness. The fool is the one who says in his heart, there is no God. Now, as Christians, then, we do good works because we are saved.

And it would be foolish to be a sluggard. Okay. And so that's your presenting issue. This isn't about salvation. This is about some yahoo who thinks that, you know, I know I got work to do, but I think I'm going to take a nap.

And I'm, you know, I'm just, I'm too busy sleeping. I don't want to get out of bed. And, you know, this is the person who sleeps in. Rather than going to work, they call in sick and they're not sick. And they just, this is the sluggard.

This is the sin of being a sluggard. Okay. And, you know, talking about the fact then that his property gets overgrown with thorns, covered with nettles, things falling apart, a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands, and poverty will come upon you like a robber.

Now, this is in an agrarian context then. So there's no, there's no welfare. There's no, you know, if you don't plant your crops, you ain't going to have a harvest. Okay. If you don't take care of your animals that you're going to then slaughter in the fall for the purpose of having meat during the winter, you don't do that, you're not going to have nothing.

All right. So this is talking about poverty. But here's the thing. The person who takes this text and says that this has to do with salvation is trying to smuggle in salvation by works by taking an off-topic text, making about a topic that it isn't about, and then overturning clear passages.

Okay. So you can't do that. That's forbidden, if you would, by just sound biblical hermeneutics. So, you know, for the person who says things like that, I would just basically go, okay, well, all right, let's take a look at a clear text that's actually talking about justification.

And I would either go to Galatians 3, Philippians 3, or Romans 3. The three threes there are always super helpful. So in Galatians 3, we have a passage that specifically says the opposite of what this fellow is trying to make that passage from Proverbs say.

So Paul writes in Galatians 3, oh foolish Galatians, who's bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. So let me ask you this. Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

What do you think the answer to that question is? By hearing with faith, right? He says, then are you so foolish having begun by the Spirit? Are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain if indeed it was in vain?

Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and work miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Again, those are your two options. And the answer is by hearing with faith, just as Abraham believed God and it was counted or credited to him as righteousness.

No then, it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. The scripture seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, and you shall all the nations be blessed.

So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. And then watch this, for all who rely on works of the law. Now, do Christians do good works? Yeah. Do we rely on the law, not for salvation?

But I do rely on the law to instruct me as to what a good work is. So I don't have to go invent my own, all right? So the idea then is that this reliance that's being referred to here is a reliance for the purpose of being justified in God's eyes.

All who rely on works of the law are under a curse for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law. And keep on doing them. That's kind of how the Greek goes there.

Now, it's evident that no one is justified before God by the law. That's a clear text. No one is justified before God by the law, all right? So real quick quiz question for you, Nea. Are you ready? It's open book too.

You can cheat. How many people are justified before God by keeping the law? Zero. Well, it's Christ. Yeah, he was, yeah. For the righteous shall live by faith. The law is not a faith. Rather, the one who does them shall live by them.

So Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanging on a tree. So in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith.

So here you have a text that says no one is justified before God by the law. So you're going to know here. In Galatians 3, I have a clear passage. It's unambiguous. I don't have to interpret it. It means what it says and it says what it means.

And it's on topic. It's actually on the topic of justification and salvation. That being the case, if when I go back to the Proverbs text, hang on a second here. Did I even keep that open? I probably didn't.

But when I go back to the Proverbs text talking about the sluggard, is that talking about justification?

No. I never thought it was until yesterday when I was conceived. Yeah.

So do me a favor. Send the link to the Sunday school class to the guy who taught that. We'll have it posted by this afternoon. Send him the link and say, Pastor Rosebro says that that Proverbs text has nothing to do with justification.

Okay. So it's not about that. All right. And we'll see what he says. He might not like me for this, but okay. Yeah. All right. Yes. Okay. So Genesis 10, chapter 10 through 20. Genesis 12, verses 10 through 20.

Abraham believed God and was credited to him as righteousness. No. What's the text say? Got it. Okay. So you see a parallel between this and the exodus? And you should. Yes. Yes. So you have noticed a similarity in the types and shadows in this section of Genesis and in the story of the exodus.

And you should. Pharaoh's afflicted with plagues. But here's the interesting bit. So here you have the wife of Abraham, you know, in a precarious situation because her husband lied. But by the way, which, you know, doesn't really make Abraham out to be a good guy.

He sounds like a sinner who needs to be saved by grace too. But all that being said, the picture then is that Sarah then becomes a stand-in for the bride of Christ, the children of Israel who are in slavery in Egypt, in the book of exodus.

You can talk about them like being the bride, okay, because you can pull other passages in. So yes, there is a connection type and shadow wise there between the two. So I agree. All right. Let me scroll down here.

It sounds like we're doing Bible Answer Man today and that's okay. So anoint the laptop with oil. I always anoint this with oil once a week whether it needs it or not. This is hilarious. So I've been accused now of baptizing people on the internet and it's like, what?

I baptize people on the internet? It's like, no, I can't do that because my electronics don't get along really well with water. I think that would be a shocking experience. So I assure you, I've never baptized anyone via the internet.

I will say this, if you need baptizing and we talk, I'm going to show up at your house with my truck camper. So that's how that works. All right. Let's see here. Okay. All right. Freeze tag. Okay. We have Hispanic, Negro, Negra.

Okay. Nothing to do with skin color. Interesting. Okay. I didn't know that. All right. Jen, I've been called on it. All right. What's that website? Okay. Yes, we can hear. Okay. Okay. So the, so somebody put, Stephen Elliott put the link to the alts thing in the chat.

All right. So the, oh, the what people, when we understand the text, they're Calvinists. Yeah, I'm surprised that he did that because I didn't, I did not think that the, when we understand the text guy actually taught salvation by works, that doesn't sound right.

So they disabled comments from their recent YouTube videos about Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So, so here's the issue here. Here's the issue. And Calvinism, Calvinism has a different view of the sacraments and the means of grace than Lutherans do.

They understand the gospel, but because they deny that God is doing anything in baptism and they deny that Christ is offering us anything in the Lord's supper, and they don't even practice an absolution.

The only thing that they can look to for assurance of salvation is some kind of progress in their sanctification. And this is kind of the, this is, this would be, you know, one of my criticisms of Calvinism because they've, they've taken, they've taken away the biblical understanding of the sacraments.

They, they end up terrorizing people on several different levels. Number one, am I, you know, did Christ even die for me is a question because they believe in limited atonement, you know, and then, and then when you're left with that, the idea then is, is that the only assurance I can have that I'm saved is by looking back in, in kind of navel gazing and looking, am I holier today than I was yesterday?

Maybe. And there are days when I can say no. You know, there, and so the problem is, is that our sanctification is in a straight line. There, there are times and seasons when we are sorely oppressed and tempted by the devil, the world, and our own sinful flesh.

And it just seems like they all conspire and get the upper hand for times and seasons. And it takes a while to work through all of that. Maybe over a long course of time, I can look back and say, I, yeah, I believe that the Holy Spirit has done a good job of mortifying my sinful flesh.

I, I, you know, but then again, I always like to say this, I'm 53 years old. I don't suffer from the same sins I had when I was 16 because I'm just tired, you know, just, I'm sorry, but the idea of going out and chasing girls right now just does not sound appealing to me, you know, it may not be the Holy Spirit.

Maybe I'm just old and tired, you know, so it's, it's hard to, it's hard to, it's hard to sit there and do that. So that, that's part of the problem. But the, the concept of the sluggard, then the whole book of Proverbs is really, again, it's, it's a book that is about third use of the law.

It shows us what good works are and gives us very practical things that, that as Christians, where we are to, to mortify our sinful flesh for the purpose of, of serving our neighbor in love for his sake.

So, but I think you get the idea. All right, so Jen says, Luther says, faith makes a man a believer and justified and also makes his good works. Exactly. Okay, so the important thing is the Lutheran, we always get accused of somehow preaching against good works.

It's not true, okay? It's just, it's patently false. So we, we are, the Lutheran position is that good works are absolutely necessary. If you don't have any good works, you're not even a Christian, all right?

You know, but then the question comes up, what is a good work, right? What is a good work? Answer, we look at the scriptures for that. So, you know, I, I, you know, a good work has nothing to do with, you know, you know, maybe invent some kind of a good work here.

You know, people are doing this all the time. I think when I was in Nazarene, it was don't dance, don't drink, don't smoke, don't chew, right? You know, do Christians drink alcohol? Yeah, Jesus drank alcohol.

You know, so you'll, when you're inventing your good works, you, you, you got a problem. You know, you think of like Islam, it's just chock full of manmade works, you know, pilgrimage to Mecca and, you know, you know, saying this particular prayer five times a day and all this kind of stuff.

And the scriptures don't talk about any of those things. And here's the other thing. Our good works are for our neighbor's sake. They're not for my sake. And as soon as you're like, you're doing your good works with this idea, I'm going to do my good works so that I have a bigger reward, so that I can, you know, can add, you know, somehow, you know, contribute to my justification.

It ceases to be a good work at that point, because you're not doing it for your neighbor's sake, you're doing it for yours, you know? So I always liked, you know, the analogy I use, and, you know, I've beaten this one, you know, the horse is dead on this one, but I'll use it anyway, is that just like, you know, the reason why cows moo is because they're cows, dogs bark because they're dogs, in the same way, Christians do good works because they are Christians, all right?

And what's fascinating is that talking with people who've come out of really, really, really bad, you know, purpose-driven type preaching, I've seen so many people that have expressed feelings of being unburdened, because they were always kind of taught that a good work is something super extraordinary.

You know, I've got to go to Africa, and I've got to dig freshwater whirls, I have to end world poverty, I have to, and so, by the way, helping the poor, that's a good work, helping somebody get clean water, that's a good work, there's nothing wrong with that, but the issue is that they miss the obvious, all right, the obvious, you want to know what a good work looks like, changing diapers, that's a good work, and as a man, we get double points for that, by the way, you know, helping your kids with their homework, going to work at the office, you know, these are good works, and how do I know that answer?

It's actually quite simple, you know, always and again, we don't invent our own good works, that's just dangerous stuff, but in Ephesians chapter 5, it starts off kind of the way Galatians does, talking about what isn't a good work, and then you can work out from there what is a good work, so you'll note that Ephesians, which so clearly says, in fact, let me back up in the context just a little bit here, you'll note that the Apostle Paul, who so clearly affirms salvation by grace through faith apart from works, teaches works, okay, in a very, very measured way, watch, so Ephesians 2, you were dead in 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 we were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind, if this hurts your feelings, you need to pay closer attention to your guilt here, because that's all of us, none of us is good, and then we got these wonderful verbs, I always like pointing this out, but God, and so God here in the Greek, theos is in the nominative, which means it's the subject of the verbs that come up, and there's three that come up, 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, so made us alive together with is one verb, God's doing the doing, God made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, raised us up with him, that's your next verb, God is the one who raised us up with Christ, and seated us with him, that's your next verb, Christ, again, God did the work, he did the doing, he made us alive together with Christ, he seated us with Christ, he raised us with Christ, and you'll note that in the midst of that, you get that, by grace you have been saved, okay, raise us up with him, seated us in heavenly places, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus, and then you get the passage that a lot of people know by heart, but oftentimes they will know eight and nine by heart, and kind of skip ten, which you need to put it all together, because the idea then, this is a book-ended thought from the first three verses that we read in chapter two here, you know, you were dead in trespasses and sins, and when she once walked, so the book end of this, now that we've been made alive by God, is that by grace you have been saved through faith, it's not your own doing, well if God did all those verbs, raise us with Christ, seated us with Christ, you get the idea, then of course it's not our own doing, it's God's doing, it is the gift, and gift here is a gift, it is the gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast, and here come the works, for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, you do your good works because you is a Christian, not in order to hopefully be one, all right, and here's the thing then, and this is where you get the warnings from John in first John, also the warnings from James, James is going after a Gnostic sect, the Nicolaitans, and who basically said, you know, I don't have to do any good works, because you know, I'm saved by grace, it's like, what, okay, are you kidding me, right, so we are God's workmanship, we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, and God has prepared them beforehand that we should walk in them, but then you want to know what a good work is, answer, it's actually quite simple, all right, so we'll start with what isn't a good work, we are to be imitators of God as beloved children, not as hopeful adoptees, you know, so when you think about the concept of adoption, scripture is very clear, because of what Christ has done, we've been adopted, and we are the adopted children of God now, because of sin we were conceived, we were children of the devil, and because of Christ's great work, we have now been adopted, we are, this is not Little Orphan Annie, where we're hoping that Daddy Warbucks will pull the trigger and say, yes, I'm going to adopt you, okay, so you're going to know, as beloved children, already now, okay, we are to be imitators of God, you know, learn to be like your father in heaven, walk in love as Christ loved us, and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God, and you're going to note that this totally comports with what you read in Romans 12, that, you know, in light of the mercies of God, offer yourselves as a living sacrifice, your good works are not for you, they are a sacrifice, an offering of a worship, if you would, for the purpose of serving your neighbor, you are already a child of God, so what does that mean then?

Sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among the saints, let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, or crude joking, these are out of place, instead let there be thanksgiving, so you're going to note here, you want to know what a good work looks like, let's start here, okay, we don't need to invent good works, we need to pay attention to what scripture says are good works, so that you may be sure of this, everyone who is sexually immoral, impure, or who is covetous, that is an idolater, that has no, that person has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God, so let no one deceive you with empty words, and I think that this is a great admonition here, okay, let's talk about the off-the-rails, the protestant churches here, because, you know, we can point all kinds of fingers at, you know, different denominations, but the reality is, is that the deception is like all over the place, I always like to remind people, the dragon has 10 heads, okay, so, you know, he's going to be popping that up ahead, and, you know, all over the place, but in the ELCA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, which is neither evangelical, it's not Lutheran, it's not a church, but it's in America, okay, for now, you know, they ordain impenitent practicing homosexuals, they marry homosexuals and claim that God blesses that union, that's sexual immorality, it's so clearly taught as sexual immorality in scripture, so what does Paul says, don't let anyone deceive you with empty words, all right, so the person who's wearing the clerical collar, putting on the beautiful vestments in the ELCA church, the pastrix then who says, God blesses same-sex marriage, these are empty words, this is deception, and Christians cannot walk in this, so let no one deceive you with empty words, because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience, therefore, don't become partners with them, at one time you were darkness, but now you are light, notice it doesn't say you potentially could become light someday, okay, you is light now, all right, so, but you are light now in the Lord, walk as children of the light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good, and right, and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord, don't make stuff up, by the way, if you want to discern what's pleasing to the Lord, see your Bible, okay, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, instead expose them, and boy, do people get mad when I do that, it's shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret, but when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light, therefore, it says, a waco sleeper, arise from the dead, Christ will shine in you, so look carefully, then, how you, what does the word say, walk, okay, now, it's a weird word, it's a Hebraism, in the, you see this throughout the Hebrew Old Testament, and the Hebrew word is halakh, but it just means walk, but in this particular context, it means how you conduct your life, so look carefully, then, how you conduct your life, not as unwise, but as wise, this is where Proverbs, then, comes into play, and you're going to note here, Paul's writing this to Christians, why, because you still have your old sinful nature to contend with, and it battles against you, have you ever noticed that you actually have evil desires that do not have their origin on television or the news or a commercial, but you have sinful desires that burbled up all by themselves from within you, where'd that come from, your old sinful nature, so you'll note, then, as Christians, when it comes to our good works, and this is where we have to point out the work of the Holy Spirit is critical, you do not have the strength in and of yourself to mortify your sinful flesh, and in fact, a really good book, if you want to see what the church fathers write along these lines, is a book written by Augustine, and the name of the book is on the letter in the spirit, on the letter in the spirit, you can find it online at advent .org, that's a Roman Catholic website, but it's a great book, it's absolutely stellar, and Augustine lays out the fact that in our sanctification, the person who thinks that they can somehow pull it off on their own, they become intolerably and insufferably arrogant and proud, and that that's not how sanctification works.