Pt. 20 LBCF Chap 16 Of Good Works

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Spiritual Depression Pt. 21: Final Cure

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Okay, we come tonight to chapter, what is it?

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Chapter 16 of Good Works. Okay, this is a very important chapter.

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Remember, we're still in part two of the

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Confession, which is the Covenant, and we've been in right from chapter 7, which was titled of God's Covenant, and now we're still continuing along.

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So this is still part of an explanation of the Covenant, all right? Chapter 16 of Good Works.

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This chapter has seven paragraphs divided into five parts, okay?

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This is so important because it refutes many errors concerning the role of Good Works, and realize that you have errors on both sides.

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This is one of those issues that you can fall off the horse on either side, or run off the road onto a ditch on either side.

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So you have to take, be very careful in exegeting Scripture when it comes to Good Works, all right?

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It specifically refutes some of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, all right?

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One chapter, one paragraph in particular speaks directly to the

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Roman Catholic view of Good Works. Yet it also highlights the principle of Good Works in the life of the believer.

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It's important because Good Works are an absolute necessity, all right?

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It's not like Good Works is an option. This is not an option. This is part of the Covenant, but how, where you place the

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Good Works and how you view them determines whether you've lapsed into heresy or not, all right?

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So we'll look at first part one, which is paragraph 1a.

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This is just, we're just looking at the beginning. We're looking at Good Works, and it's being defined first positively.

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Good Works are only such as God has commanded in His Holy Word, okay? One of the problems when it comes to Good Works is that men, or quote, so -called churches, have redefined what

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Good Works are. And, you know, for example, you know, works of penance and doing certain things, reciting certain things, these are considered to be

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Good Works, all right? And this first opening clause of the

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Confession makes it very clear. What are Good Works? Only as God has commanded in His Holy Word.

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The Word of God, again, this should not be a surprise to us, but the Word of God defines what

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Good Works are and what those, and how those works should come into the life of the believer. So that's positively stated, all right?

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If you want to know what Good Works are, you go to the source. What's the source? Scripture. Takes you all the way back to paragraph chapter 1, right?

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Remember how we talked about it? Why is Scripture chapter 1 of the Confession?

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All right, go ahead. It's the foundation, all right? Everything we know about God and salvation and Jesus Christ is where?

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Found in the Word. That's the only norm. So any time we want to go back and find something, that's where we go back.

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We don't necessarily go to the Confession. The Confession leads us back to the Word, all right?

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Paragraph 1B negatively states what Good Works are.

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And not as such as without the warrant thereof are devised by men out of blind zeal or any pretense of good intentions, okay?

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In other words, you may have the best motives in the world by telling somebody that if you're a believer, you must do this, all right?

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If it's not specifically contained in the Word of God, it doesn't matter how good your intentions are, it's not biblical

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Good Works. Does that make sense? All right, and just think, if you've grown up in a church, almost any church, if it's not very solid biblically, you've been told many different things that you have to do, you know, in order to be in compliance with the church's policies.

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But if it's not stated in the Scripture, they're not considered Good Works biblically. Does that make sense?

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Okay, all right. So then we go to Part 2, the importance of Good Works.

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And again, this is very, very important, all right?

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This is Part 2, which is Paragraph 2, and we'll look at 2A first, all right?

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Because of their testimony. Now notice, why are Good Works important? These Good Works, done in obedience to God's commands, notice again that phrase, that phrase is very important, done in obedience to God's commandments, all right?

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Are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith. What did

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Jesus say? You will know them by their fruit, all right? If you don't have the fruits of repentance, if the fruits of salvation are not in your life, why should anyone believe that you are, in fact, a true

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Christian? And Jesus gave the analogy, you know, you don't get bad fruit from a good tree, you don't get good fruit from a bad tree, all right?

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So if we are, in fact, true believers, the importance of them is that it's fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith.

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If somebody comes into the congregation, they want to join, they say, oh, I love this church, I want to join, this is one of the things that the elders are commissioned to do, is to examine that person, and then put that person's name out for examination to the congregation.

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Are there, in fact, good fruits? If there's no good works, then we have no reason to believe that salvation is genuine, all right?

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Paragraph 2b, still under the importance of good works, because of their result, all right?

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And look at what the confession says. By them, that's the good works, believers manifest their thankfulness, all right?

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Now I'm going to just pause there for a minute. Notice, manifesting thankfulness. How do they manifest thankfulness?

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Well, if God has commanded you to do certain things, and he has saved you four good works,

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Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, right? He has saved you four good works, then it's out of thankfulness, from a thankful heart, that you willingly do these works, okay?

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So it's, firstly, they manifest their thankfulness. Again, this is all the results. Strengthen their assurance, okay?

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Now, I want to be cautious here, because this is one where you can very easily veer off.

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Because you're doing the good works, doesn't mean that you have great assurance of salvation, but it's an indication to you, all right?

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Your willingness to do the good works, and that helps you to become more assured of your salvation.

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In other words, the works themselves don't add to your salvation. That's where you have to be careful, all right?

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But it's evidence to the person, all right? So, if you've come to a place, you say you're born again, you've confessed your sin, you've repented, and you have no desire to do the things commanded in Scripture, your assurance level is going to be low.

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You're going to question yourself, and we see that frequently in new believers.

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They come in, and I can't tell you how many times this has happened. Somebody will come in, especially in a counseling room, and say,

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Pastor, you know, I just have all these doubts. I don't know if I'm truly saved, and this is one of the places where we can go.

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Well, do you do this? Do you do that? You know, go through the biblical model, and all of a sudden, they say, well, yeah, yeah.

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Do you have a desire to do this? Yes, I have a desire. Do you have a desire to be in church? Yes. Do you have a desire for fellowship?

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Yes. Well, you tell me. Okay, all right?

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Edify their brethren, all right? Good works will always be other -oriented.

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You don't do good works for yourself. That doesn't mean that they don't have a benefit for yourself.

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One of the benefits is the assurance that you'll have, but good works are always outward, you know, looking to edify somebody else.

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So, as you work in the context, especially of a local body of believers, your good works edify, they build up the brothers and sisters in Christ, okay?

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Adorn the profession of the gospel. If people don't see a difference in you, the world in general, all right, what reason do they have to think that the gospel has any power?

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I mean, what do we see when somebody is a believer? Well, what is the very definition of repentance?

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Remember, we've been through repentance. In its ultimate sense, remember, the word for repentance is metanoia, change of mind.

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You're going from one way, you're going, all of a sudden, you're going to go in the other direction. People see the change. If there's no change, then the world has the right to say, what's the difference?

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And remember, it was a couple of weeks ago, I don't remember exactly which chapter we were looking at, and I mentioned the easy believism, okay, and how, you know, it came on the scene and in an effort,

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I mean, again, remember, that came on the scene out of good motivation, just very poor theology. The reason for the easy believism was they wanted to make sure that people didn't think they could earn their salvation, but they went too far, and they negated the role of good works at all, okay, and they said, all you have to do is pray this sinner's prayer, you're in, you don't have to do another thing, and you're guaranteed.

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What does the world see then? Well, you made a profession of faith, but he hasn't changed a thing, still stealing, you know, still, you know, still, you know, profaning

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God with his mouth. I mean, if you don't change, you're not adorning the profession of the gospel.

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In fact, you're actually blaspheming it. Remember what Paul says, because of you, the name of God is blasphemed among the

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Gentiles, okay, so it's to adorn the profession of the gospel, to stop the mouths of the adversaries.

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What's one of the biggest evidence of the power of the gospel? Change lives, all right.

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Once I was blind, now I see. I have a completely different life. People that know, if those of you who have come to faith at a riper age, remember we looked at that last week, at a riper age, okay, one of the things that people will notice is there's a change, all right, and it stops the mouths of the adversaries.

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People say, well, there's, you know, what's the difference between a Christian and a non -christian? Well, look at the difference, okay, and if there is no difference, then something's wrong, okay, all right, and of course, glorify

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God. The changed life, the good works are all done to the glory of God, so it's the importance of good works, right, for the testimony, all right, because of the result, and then because of their role.

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Whose workmanship they are, all right, who ultimately is responsible for the good works.

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Oops, sorry, I clicked the wrong thing. Created in Christ Jesus, that having their fruit unto holiness, they may have the end eternal life.

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The workmanship is Christ working in you. Remember, you are not capable, even in a saved state, you still need the

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Holy Spirit and the work of Christ through the Holy Spirit to accomplish any good works. Remember, again,

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Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, that the good works were prepared beforehand for you to walk in them, all right, so it's not like you have to to come up with these works on your own.

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No, they're there. Christ has laid them out for you, all on the pages of scripture, okay, so because of the role.

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So, you see the importance of good works, right, so we've looked at the norm or the definition of good works, and then we see the importance of good works.

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Now, the cause of good works, this is, we're going to piggyback now, we've introduced this already, but look at this.

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Paragraph 3, it's emphatic assertion. What is the cause of good works? The ability to do good works is not at all of themselves.

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So, lest you think that, okay, oh, you know, I've just done this great work for Christ, look at me, give me a pat on the back.

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No, it's not all of, but wholly from the Spirit of Christ. Anything that you wind up doing, all right, post -salvation is still the work of the

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Spirit in your heart, right? Don't think, lest you start boasting.

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What does Paul say? He says, I've decided to boast in nothing but boast in Christ alone. If we conjure up these good works on our own, then who can boast?

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I can. Look what I did, all right, but be careful, that's what

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Nebuchadnezzar did, all right? You don't want to wind up like Nebuchadnezzar, all right?

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Well, the interim Nebuchadnezzar, the later Nebuchadnezzar, yeah, okay, all right, from the

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Spirit of Christ, and that they may be enabled thereunto, all right? Now, notice the work of the

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Spirit does what? Enables you to do these good works, besides the graces they have already received.

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Now, notice that's a very important phrase or clause, besides the graces.

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What does it say? Good works are a grace. It says repentance is a grace.

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Notice how, why as Reformed Christians do we always emphasize the doctrines of what?

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The doctrines of grace, because it's all of grace, okay?

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And so, the grace they've already received, there is necessary and actual influence of the same

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Holy Spirit. Without the influence of the Holy Spirit, what is the Holy Spirit doing? To work in them to will and to do of His good pleasure.

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So, what is your job? Is submitting to the doctrines of grace, to the work of the

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Holy Spirit in your life, okay? So, that's the, and again,

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I love the way Sam Waldron had broken this down. It's emphatic assertion.

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I mean, you can't get any more emphatic than that. You know, the ability, it's not of anything that we can do, all right?

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Holy from the Spirit of Christ. You're enabled to do it. It is a grace of God, and it's necessary, the actual influence of the

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Holy Spirit to work you both to will and to do. So, you wake up one morning and you say, well,

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I've got to work for Christ. What is that? It's the work of the

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Spirit, and then it's common perversion, all right?

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Here's where one of the dangers of having a poor view of works.

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Look at what it says. Yet, they are not hereupon to grow negligent.

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What is the propensity?

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That's the word I was looking for. What is the propensity when you tell somebody, this is all the work of the

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Spirit? Well, I just sit back and do nothing. I'm waiting for the

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Spirit to move me, right? How many times have you heard that, all right?

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Have you ever gone to somebody and said, hey, brother, why are you doing X, Y, Z? Don't you realize that's wrong?

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Well, I haven't been convicted of the Spirit to stop that, or I haven't been convicted of the

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Spirit that I need to do that, all right? Wait a minute. If it's written in the

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Word, you don't have to wait to be convicted. You're obligated to do that, okay?

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So, that's one of the perversions. They are not thereupon to grow negligent as if they were not bound to perform any duty.

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That's why, you know, take something that's, you know, that somebody really just is struggling with.

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He doesn't want to do it, you know? And there's a lot of things in the Christian life. We preach tithing, for example. If you happen to get in a conversation, tell somebody, well, you know, you shouldn't be tithing, all right?

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Oh, I'm not convicted of that. Well, you don't have to be convicted of it, just do it.

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I mean, that's what the Scripture says, you know? It's not a wait and let's, till the

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Spirit moves me in that direction, all right? Unless upon a special motion of the

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Spirit, that's what people are looking for. I'm waiting for the Holy Spirit to move me to do this, okay?

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No, you do it because it's what's commanded, whether you feel like it or not.

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Notice what this, where do you see this a lot, right? Charismatic churches, why?

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Because they're resting on emotion and feelings. I have to feel it.

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No, you don't. You have to obey it. If I stop doing something, if I stop sinning and I'm doing something that I should be doing, but I don't feel like it, what do they say?

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Well, that would make me a hypocrite. No, it makes you obedient. That's not hypocrisy, unless of course you're not truly saved.

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Then it could be hypocrisy. But even there, what you'll see later on, even if you're not saved, you should be doing the right thing anyway.

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And we'll get to that, that's one of the last paragraphs, all right? Unless a special motion of the

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Spirit, but they ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace of God that is in them, all right?

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In other words, if you know that something is right, and you should be doing something that is good, all right?

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It's up to you to stir up the grace in you to do it. Just the old expression, what was that?

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Would the Nike just do it? Okay, okay.

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Any questions on this? Notice the confession takes into consideration what the sinful response is going to be.

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And we move on to part four, the limitations of good works, all right? And this is very important.

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Works of super irrigation are impossible. All right, we're not talking about lawn sprinklers here, okay?

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Super irrigation, not putting it into the biblical context, just the word itself, super irrigation means paying back more than you owe, or doing more than you are required to do.

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I mean, it's a word that the Roman Catholic Church uses, but it's also a word that's in general use.

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It's not strictly a theological term. All right? But this is one of those paragraphs that I was talking about that specifically refutes some of the doctrine of the

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Roman Catholic Church. They who in their obedience attain to the greatest height, which is possible in this life, okay?

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In other words, let's say that you are one of those people, and you do the best you possibly can.

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You are just soaring in your Christian life. You're doing good works one after the other. People are sitting back and amazing, look at that guy, look at that girl, look at them go, okay?

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So far from being super irrigated and do more than God requires, they fall short of much which is in the duty they are bound to do.

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In other words, when you've done, if you're looked upon by people in this earth, and you're saying, that guy's like, he's a super Christian.

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He's a superstar. You're still falling short. You're still an unworthy servant, okay?

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Now this was, this paragraph is put up here specifically to refute the doctrine of Rome.

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What the doctrine of Rome teaches is this, that saints, those people that they confer sainthood on, all right, have done good works that are over and above what they need to get to heaven.

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Now notice, notice the presupposition there. You can do enough works to get yourself into heaven.

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That's one of the presuppositions. Our whole confession has rejected that. There's no, there's no way you can ever earn yourself.

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It's all by the grace of God. It's the finished work of Christ. But doctrine of Rome says that if you, if these saints, they do works of super irrigation, in other words, they've done more than they need to get into heaven.

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Those works are taken and put into the treasury of merit, okay?

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In other words, they're put in storage, okay? And that treasury of merit grows every time they make a saint, you know, they determine that this person got into heaven based upon their merit, and they've got works that they can put them in there.

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And then what you can do is when you go and to confession and through indulgences and other means like that, you can tap into that treasury of merit and apply that to one of your dead relatives who's in purgatory.

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This is what started, well, one of the catalysts for the

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Reformation, all right? Remember Johann Tetzel? He comes along.

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Do you remember why, what Tetzel was raising money for? Building St. Peter's.

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So it was a building project that ultimately started the Protestant Reformation, all right?

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And what does he do? He comes along and he's selling indulgences and indulgences are exactly that, tapping into the treasury of merit.

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And for a certain fee, you can buy some of these indulgences and get your dead relative out of purgatory.

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But he made it even worse because he had that little jingle that goes with it, you know, when a coin in the coffer springs a soul from purgatory springs.

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So that's what this is refuting. There are no such things.

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Works of super irrigation are impossible. The most godly person that has ever lived the face of the earth still needs the grace of God to get into heaven.

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And anything that they've done never have earned more merit than what they needed, okay?

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Still under limitations, paragraph five. This one has two paragraphs to it.

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Works of merit are also impossible, all right? Notice the difference between works of merit, works of super irrigation, a little bit of a difference, but it works down to the same thing.

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And look at what it says. Works of merit also are impossible. We cannot, by our best works, merit pardon of sin or eternal life at the hand of God.

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So that just lays it straight out. Your best works, no matter what you do,

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I don't care how good it is, nothing will merit the pardon of something.

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What's that? It was a bug? Okay, all right. I was just hoping it wasn't my eyes.

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All right. Now, why is it that your best works, you can try everything you can, you know, by reason of great disproportion that is between them and the glory to come.

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No matter what you do on this life, there is so different from what you're going to be experiencing in heaven that it's just so disproportionate that you could never earn what the reward is that Christ is giving to you by grace.

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Okay. And the infinite distance that is between us and God, an infinite distance, and it's not talking, you know, physical distance, miles.

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It's talking about the spiritual distance between God and man. All right.

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All right. So whom by them we can neither profit nor satisfy for the debt of our former sins.

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You can, I don't care how old you are when you're saved. All right. I don't care if you came to Christ when you were six, seven years old.

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You and you've done, and you do all these good works for the remainder of your life.

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With all of that time, let's say you had 70, 80 years as a Christian, all of the work that you do, all the good works, and praise

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God, there are people who are doing marvelous work. None of that would make up for the three years, four years, five years of sin.

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That's what it said. Because no good work can ever make up for the sin. Okay.

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But when we have done all we can, we have done but our duty and our unprofitable servants.

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We know where that comes from. It comes from the parable of Jesus. Remember? Okay. And because as they are good, they proceed from his spirit.

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Now, here's the other thing. When you get to the place in your sanctification, and you do begin to truly do good works, why are they considered good works?

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Because they're emanating from the spirit of God who's prompting you, enabling you to do them anyway. Does it make you kind of feel like a worm?

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It should. Because you realize just how much we rely upon Jesus Christ.

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It's his finished work and his finished work only. 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 punishment.

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Even the best works that we do are still mixed with sin and weakness.

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So, this whole idea of works of merit, works of super irrigation is ludicrous.

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There's no such thing. Okay. So, that's the limitations of good works.

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The acceptance of good works. Paragraph six. This, we're going to see this in two paragraphs now, the acceptance of good works.

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First, the good works of believers. Yet, notwithstanding the persons of believers being accepted through Christ, the good works are also accepted in him.

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Why are your good works accepted? Because we are accepted in him.

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All right. Remember, when God looks at us, what does he see? He sees Jesus Christ.

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He sees his righteousness. And the good works, it's the good works of Christ. So, our good works are also accepted in him.

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Not as though they were in this life wholly unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight, but that he, that's

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God of course, looking upon them in his son. It's crucial.

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It always comes back to Christ. He is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere.

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Now, notice now, this again is another important. Sometimes you can miss it if you don't stop and pause.

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What have we just seen about these good works? How responsible are you for these good works? Not much.

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Yet, look at what this phrase says. You're rewarded for them. Even though it's prompted by the

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Holy Spirit, enabled by the Holy Spirit, and you're accepted in Christ, he still rewards you.

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That's grace. You see why we emphasize the doctrines of grace.

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That's why I very seldom use the word

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Calvinism unless there's a specific reason to put those five points.

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I love to refer to our doctrines as the doctrines of grace. Because just, it's all through it.

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It's all of grace. And although accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections.

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So, even when you're doing good works and they're not as good as they should be or could be, they're still going to be accepted in him, in Christ by God the

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Father. Is this blowing you away? I hope so.

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All right. And then we come to the last part. Still the acceptance of good works, but the last paragraph, the good works of unregenerate men.

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Now, again, this is important. Works done by unregenerate men.

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That sets it up. Although for the matter of them, they may be things which

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God commands. Now, this is talking about, remember, God has given even unregenerate men a certain amount of common grace.

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All right. An unregenerate man can read the Bible and understand that there's certain things that he shouldn't do.

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You don't have to explain to somebody after they read the Ten Commandments, you know, you shouldn't kill somebody. They understand that.

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Okay. All right. And they know that there's certain things in the scriptures that they should be doing.

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You know, they should be kind. They should be generous. And there are unbelievers who are kind, who are generous.

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All right. And of good use both to themselves and others.

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That's what we're talking about. An unregenerate man can see this. And quite frankly, because of the common grace of God, most of us live in neighborhoods where that's exactly what we see.

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We see neighbors, you know, that we can live with. We don't have, I mean, the neighborhood

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I live in, I'm not worried that one of my neighbors is going to break in my house at night. In fact, just the opposite. We look out for each other, you know.

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And if something's going wrong, I'd warn my neighbor, he'd warn me. You know, it's just a relationship we have.

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However, 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, which is the glory of God, they are therefore sinful.

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So, the old grandma, gray -haired grandma who lives down the street, who bakes chocolate chip cookies for the neighborhood kids and gives them out, it's a sinful act.

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However, confession is not finished yet. And cannot please

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God, nor make a man meet to receive the grace from God.

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But look at the last clause. Yet their neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing to God.

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In other words, gray -haired grandma, she should be, what's that?

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Well, that might be acceptable to God. So, gray -haired grandma should be passing out those cookies to the kids, all right?

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Because if she doesn't, and that's something she should be doing, it's more sinful. But it's not going to give her any grace with God.

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It's not going to merit her any favor with God, etc., etc. Saving grace.

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It's not to say that she might not get common grace and more common grace in this life, but we're talking about for life and salvation.