Good Works Are the Only Real Fruitfulness

Please turn to Titus chapter 3. Titus chapter 3, be looking particularly at verse 14, but I'll read the surrounding verses beginning in verse 12. When you have that, go ahead and stand for the reading of God's word.

I'll also mention by way of introduction that I had meant to name this, good works are the only real fruitfulness. So hopefully that will help you understand what that message is about a little better than the current title.

Good Works as the Only Real Fruitfulness

Good works are the only real fruitfulness. Titus chapter 3, beginning in verse 12. When I send Artemis or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.

Do your best to speed Zenos the lawyer and Apollos on their way. See that they lack nothing and let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful.

All who are with me send greetings to you. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.

Amen.

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we ask that you would open your word to us today. The physical pages are open to us, but only by your spirit may they be open to our hearts. We ask that you would accomplish that for your purposes.

In Jesus' name, amen. So as we've gone through various motivations for good works and we've done that in various segments, this segment that we'll be looking at over the following several weeks is that good works enhance productivity or the relation between good works and productivity.

And today, particularly, that good works are the only real fruitfulness, that there is no other kind of fruitfulness. There's no other kind of activity that would bring fruit. There's only good works.

Now, this passage here, verse 14, you'll recall that we had addressed at a previous time for the phrase, so as to help cases of urgent need. But here, we are particularly looking at the fact that it says that otherwise they would be unfruitful.

It says that they should devote themselves to good works so that they would not be unfruitful. A lot of people look at the blessing of the gospel as something that is very limited. A lot of them see it as something that is only valuable for the next life, or maybe they see it as having some small value in this life as they receive a little reward from it, but they do not necessarily see the great blessing that it is to have the work of the Spirit in their hearts, that they might be a people zealous for good works, as it's described in Titus 2 .14.

It says that the people should be waiting for our blessed, excuse me, I'll read from the beginning of the sentence. It's a long sentence. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works.

The Three Uses of the Law

So just to recap some basic theology around good works and around the law, there are three uses of the law. These are often referred to as a curb, a mirror, and a guide. So the first use of the law, and these are not always numbered the same way, but I think the most common numbering is this way, as a curb, a mirror, and a guide.

So first of all, as a curb, to restrain sin, and this has effect even on the unbeliever, that the law of God restrains sinful activities. Secondly, it is as a mirror. It shows you your true self, that you are not a righteous person who would be able to admit himself into God's court on the basis of your own merit, but rather having fallen short and fall short of God's standard, need the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

You need his forgiveness, and you need his positive righteousness that you might be welcomed in and that you might have on that final day, a glorified existence. So it shows you your need of the Savior.

And third, it is a guide. It shows you the way of life. It shows you how God would have you to live. Now, frequently, the second use is treated as the primary use. If you think about it, the first use, well, the first use is really most necessary in a world that is sinful.

Okay, when do you need to restrain sin in a world that is sinful? So the first use really only has limited purpose in the early state of man in his innocency, and it has limited purpose in the final state of man as he is glorified and has no desire for sin.

The second use has a great purpose in that it reveals our need for Jesus and causes us to be thankful for the wonderful thing that has been accomplished in the gospel. Now, because that is such a wonderful thing, a lot of times you find that that is treated as the primary use of the law.

The primary use of the law is not necessarily to tell you what not to do or what to do, but who you should be thankful to. Now, that is a very good use of the law, but the Reformed tradition, if you go back, and what I believe is most obvious, too, simply from the pages of Scripture and also from reason, is that the primary use is the third use of the law.

The third use of the law shows us how we ought to live, and that is not the primary use because it would merit for us anything before God. It's the primary use of the law because this is God's primary purpose in saving us.

Yes, he saves us that we might be grateful to him, but he also saves us that that gratitude would have a particular shape. That gratitude does not just have the shape of a feeling, but it has the shape of people who are excited and eager to conform to the law of God, walking in his ways.

Titus 2 .14, he gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. This is God's purpose for us, that we be a people who are zealous for good works, and the more that we understand this, the more that we will be motivated to pursue the good works that God has given us.

Titus as a Pastoral Epistle About Good Works

Just to consider some of the context of this letter, the letter of Titus is written by Paul to Titus. It is one of the three pastoral epistles, those being 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. A pastoral epistle is an epistle written to a pastor.

Timothy is a pastor, Titus is a pastor. Most of the epistles are written to congregations. These epistles are written to pastors, so they have particular pastoral concerns involved in them, and Titus is being instructed in how he should teach the people and why he should teach the people.

He should teach the people the gospel and he should teach them the law in order that they might be a people who are zealous for good works. Most of the epistles, if not all the epistles, are broken down into two sections, the first primarily being doctrinal, the second portion being primarily application, so you have theory and practice.

So if you just walk through the first part of this, the theory, in Titus 1 .16, it speaks of false teachers, and it says, they profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.

Okay, so false teachers are not capable of real good works. And then he addresses true teachers. He says to Titus in verse seven, show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching, show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned.

Okay, so Titus is supposed to be a model of good works, whereas false teachers are unfit for them. And then he explains all of this summed up in that purpose of verse 14 that I've already read, that he has made a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

Why are false teachers bad? Well, because they are unfit for good works and not able to be an example of good works. What should Titus be? An example for good works.

Why?

Because God has made a people for his own possession to be zealous for good works. Okay, so that's the theory half of the epistle. Now the practice half, as he explains to Titus what he is supposed to do, he tells him in verse one of chapter three, remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient and to be ready for every good work.

Okay, so what's he supposed to teach them? He's supposed to teach them to be ready for good work. Now he explains to them an important distinction in verse five, says he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.

And then in verse eight, this saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. Okay, so he says, what are you supposed to teach them?

To be ready for every good work. And you're supposed to insist that they know the gospel, that he saved us not because of our works.

Why?

So that they will be careful to devote themselves to good works. Teach them good works. Teach them that God didn't save them on the basis of the works.

Why?

So that they will do good works. Okay, this whole epistle is very focused on good works, and it is a pastoral epistle explaining what the pastor's job is and how to teach the people to be ready for good works.

So this final statement here in Titus 3, 14 is not irrelevant. It is, in fact, very much part of the whole purpose statement of this epistle. And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful.

Fruitfulness, Unfruitfulness, and the Profit of Good Works

Okay, what does unfruitfulness mean? Unfruitfulness is simply not bearing fruit. You see this word used in a lot of other passages. There's the parable of the sower where unfruitfulness is described where it's used to describe the seed that falls on the path because it does not spring up and bear any fruit.

It is also used in Ephesians 5 to describe deeds of darkness as being unfruitful. It is used in 1 Corinthians 14 to speak of the mind as one prays in tongues and does not pray in a language that he understands, that his mind is unfruitful.

Nothing good is coming from it. And then also, unfruitfulness is used in 2 Peter 1 to describe what happens when there is no virtue in the Christian's life, that if they are not cultivating virtue, then it does not result in any kind of fruitfulness.

He had said in verse chapter, or excuse me, he said in verse eight of chapter two, excuse me, verse eight of chapter three, this saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things so that those who believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.

These things are excellent and profitable for people. So this gospel is excellent and it is profitable because it results in works that are likewise excellent and profitable. Okay, in what ways are good works excellent?

In what ways are good works good? Well, they are certainly good for others. It says in verse 14, so as to help cases of urgent need. There are others who need help. Good works help others. It builds up the whole body.

But good works are likewise excellent for the self. They, as you walk in the ways of God, refine you to be more mature, to be more filled in Jesus Christ, that he would more and more be filling the whole body to match his own image.

There's a wonderful thing in having accomplished good works, having the sense of accomplishment and having the ability to boast in the Lord, not as an abstract boast that is distinct from yourself, but as one that is boasting of the work that God has done in you.

This is how Paul speaks of boasting in the Lord. On one hand, he says in both Corinthian epistles that the one who boasts should boast to the Lord. But then when he speaks of his boast repeatedly, his boast is not just God is good, it is particularly God has been good in me and through me.

So even that accomplishment, that ability to boast in the Lord in a more personal and meaningful way, and then beyond that, there's whatever reward that God would grant in this life, and most certainly the rewards in the next.

But also, good works are not unprofitable. Good works are profitable. When it says these things are excellent and profitable, good works profit. If there's no loss that happens when someone does good works.

A lot of times people think that way. They think, I am sacrificing this one good thing for this other thing that is a little bit better. That is not the way to think about good works. Instead, you should think about sacrificing something that is worthless for something that is good.

Philippians 3, seven through eight says, whatever gain I had, I counted it as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord.

For his sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ. All the other things that you may pass up in order to pursue the way of Jesus Christ, in order to follow in the path that he has given you, all the good works that God has prepared beforehand for you as it talks about in Ephesians 2, 10, those are all, it is no real loss.

You know, when Paul says, whatever I gain, I counted as loss, he's not saying that I lost those things so much. He explains that in a minute, but he is saying that even the gain itself was lost because in gaining those things, they were not actual accomplishments for the sake of Christ.

This is all worth losing for the sake of Jesus Christ. Now, certainly there are things that you can receive in this life that are not always particularly used on the Lord or that someone might not use for the sake of the Lord that are good because they can be used for the sake of the Lord.

But apart from that, they are just loss. They are nothing. If you think about the nature of fruit itself, what kind of work do you do to plant a tree? You put a seed in the ground. And if it is tended for sufficiently, if it's in good soil, if there is a climate that would bring rain on it, if there's sunshine, if all those things in place, all you do is plant a seed in the soil and it bears fruit season after season after season, turning dirt, turning literal dirt into bright, flavorful food.

It really is an incredible thing. I don't know if you've ever stopped to think about just how wonderful that is, that in God's providence, he's made these little things called seeds you put in the ground.

And out of that, it is a machine that turns dirt into food. It's just a really incredible thing. It is incredibly profitable, right? If someone spends in their business, let's say they spend $10 ,000 to make $20 ,000, that's a pretty good profit.

Here, we're talking about spending nothing, spending stuff that is worthless, that is actively harmful in some ways, for something much better. You're talking about infinite or even beyond infinite. If you're speaking of something negative, return, reward, this is the ROI, the return on investment, if you don't know that acronym, the ROI is incredible.

It is profitable to pursue good works. But while the fruitfulness of good works is to be desired, the fruitfulness of good works requires, as the passage says, good works, it requires good works. Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful.

What's the alternative? Well, if you're not devoting yourself to good works, you're not going to be fruitful. There are several kinds of good works someone might do, or excuse me, several kinds of works that someone might do.

First of all, there's evil works, okay, that's obvious. Manifests, law-breaking, right? The murderer, the thief, et cetera.

Excuse me.

These are all doing evil works, okay? That's one kind of work. Next kind of work is a false work. This is a work which is, that someone might say is good, but it's not good. You see this, all kinds of penance that people do, right?

Maybe they are told that if they crawl on their knees and pray at this particular location, it would bring them some good. Okay, these are false works. These are not things that God in his word has called good.

Those are not true good works. Next there are dead works. These are works that are outwardly according to God's law, but are not met with the right kind of faith and zeal that God would have of a work that is truly good, that's truly submitting to him.

And lastly, there are good works. There are good works that are met with the right kind of faith. It is not any of those other works that are truly fruitful. They might bring some kind of outward good in this life, especially the dead works, right?

The dead works that are the ones that outwardly conform to God's law. It's good when people, even unbelievers, outwardly conform to God's law. That's a lot better than them not outwardly conforming to his law.

However, the true fruitfulness, the fruitfulness that will last forever, that which is really good and going to bring good to the self and to others and to the whole kingdom of God only comes through true good works, not just outwardly obeying the law of God, but inwardly following after that.

This is the condition that is necessary to be met in order for there to be real fruitfulness. A lot of people think that they can have fruitfulness just by pursuing their own ways and not submitting themselves to God.

Haggai chapter one, verse five says, now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have sown much and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough. You drink, but you never have your fill.

You clothe yourselves, but no one is worn. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. What was the problem in Haggai's time? The people were not supposed to be building up their own houses.

They were supposed to be building up the house of God. And they were neglecting the house of God for the sake of their own houses. So even though they were trying to go about things their way, even though they were trying to be fruitful, going about things that were outwardly good in some ways, because they weren't met with the right heart and were neglecting the actual things that God had given them to do, all their effort was not producing anything.

It was as though they had holes in the bags where they're putting their food. Imagine you are gathering something and there's a hole in the bag. And by the end of the hard day of labor, you have nothing in it because it's all just been coming out of the bag.

This is how life works, apart from serving God with a whole heart the way he has called. How is that possible? That is possible through the gospel of Jesus Christ, because in that gospel, he has not just forgiven us of our sins.

He has not just promised a future glorious state, but even in this time, he has given us his spirit. He left and he sent his spirit. He is in heaven, and as he went in heaven, he sends his spirit. Now his spirit, on one hand, omnipresent, everywhere at all times, but in a particular way is active in his people with an intense measure since the time of Pentecost, since the time that Christ ascended and the people waited and he sent his spirit.

This is what was promised. As Christ left, the spirit would come, and so it is today. Christians, by virtue of the work that Christ has done in salvation, have the spirit of God in order that they might not continue in deeds of darkness or even dead works that outwardly conform to his law, but aren't inwardly pleasing to him, might actually do that which is truly fruitful, might do that which is for their good and for the good of others.

The idea here is not simply the statement, do good works because they have good results. The point is you are in an incredibly privileged position where you are able to because of the work of the spirit.

Because Christ has sent his spirit, you who have trusted in Jesus Christ have the ability to do the actual kind of good work that would be fruitful. Everyone else is dwelling in an unfruitfulness. They might have some outward appearance of fruitfulness, but as far as the eternal blessings that are to be had in being fruitful, no one can have those things.

You have access to that by the power of the spirit. And so to not take advantage of that is to miss out on the goodness of the gospel. A lot of people see the law as being contrary to the gospel. And certainly if you're using the law as a standard to merit standing before God, it is contrary to the gospel.

But as the law gives us the way that we ought to serve God, having been enabled by his spirit, it is the outworking of the gospel that we might enjoy all the blessings of the gospel by virtue of the spirit that he has freely given us.

This is the whole of it. Now, what's the alternative? The alternative here is not that, okay, well, if I do something different, then I get a different kind of good thing. Now, good works are a really good thing, but if I invest in myself in other ways, then I get some other kind of good thing.

That's what a lot of people imagine. A lot of people kind of divide up their life into this religious half and this non-religious half, and they invest in this portion, they don't invest in that portion.

And if you are thinking about this just in terms of things directly related to the church and not, that kind of division might be okay. But if you are dividing up into your life into the parts that God owns and then the parts he doesn't own, then you are missing it.

Okay, he owns your whole life. He owns your whole life. And there is no alternative kind of thing that you can invest in that would be fruitful. There are works that are, whether they be in your own personal life or whether they be in relation to the church, there are things that are truly according to God's will and with the right heart that are truly fruitful.

And then there are the ways that you might engage and indulge yourself or try to build up things for your own reasons or on your own power. And none of those things are fruitful. There is no alternative fruitfulness.

A lot of people will speak of good works as though they're something you're supposed to take a break from from time to time. Okay, good works are good for a little while and then you take a break from them and then you go back to good works.

You know, you need to invest in yourself. You need to cultivate yourself in order to do good works. That's a lot of times how this is framed as though the cessation from good works is cultivating yourself for good works.

You know, what you place on a tree or on a plant in order to make it more fruitful, I would call all of what they're describing as manure, right? It really is a false idea, a false idea of fertilization of the tree.

So it's important to understand rest correctly because that's often what happens here. It's not just that good works are needed, but a devotion to good works are needed. Once again, our passage. And let the people learn to devote themselves to good works so as to help cases of urgent need and not be unfruitful.

The reason why a lot of times people think about good works as something that you would do occasionally and not something that you should be doing constantly is because they are thinking about good works in terms of the spiritual disposition and the spiritual activity as though it were something physical.

Your body, when you act, it needs rest, okay? When you work all day, you need to sleep. You can't just go and not sleep. That's an impossibility. And then one can make an argument, and I think there's a pretty compelling case for it, both scripturally and scientifically, that the body needs rest weekly, once a day.

And that is the day that the Lord has given us to worship him with. So the body needs a certain kind of rest. The question is, does the spirit need that kind of rest? Okay, your body does good work, and then it sleeps.

It does good work, and then it sleeps. Should you think about your spirit in the same way so that, okay, I need to do a little bit of good, and then I cease from good, and then I do a little bit of good, and then I cease from good?

Is that how you should think about it? Consider the angels. They don't grow weary. The spirits, a spirit does not grow weary. That is a feature of the body, to grow weary. You are not to grow weary and doing good, as Paul commands twice over.

The spirit is not something that grows, that is supposed to grow weary like that. That is more a feature of the body. In fact, to the contrary, taking rest from good works, taking rest from obedience to God does not produce a higher capacity of strength and energy to do good works.

It saps from it. Proverbs 19, 15 says that slothfulness casts into a deep sleep. Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep. Someone might think, okay, well, if I'm lazy, then I'm going to be ready for more work later on.

That's not how it works. If you're lazy, you are ready to be lazy more, and lazier, and lazier, and lazier. That's how that generally works. I think vacations are a very good illustration for this, and I think most people will have experience that resonate with what I'm describing.

People will take vacations in order to rest, quote, unquote. Now, certainly, if you have been working very hard, the body actually does need rest, and vacation can be helpful for that reason, for maybe a day or two.

But beyond that, for vacations to be truly fruitful, there would have to be some kind of purpose behind it, whether it be purposes for the good of family, or for your own personal development, or other things.

But if you combine these ideas too much, if you conflate physical notions of rest with what the spirit needs, what people end up doing and justifying is incredibly lazy, extended vacations that are indulging in unfruitfulness for some supposed sake of recharging.

And then what do they say at the end of these vacations? Almost everyone says, because they're not allowed to say otherwise, that yes, I feel very rested. Oh yes, I'm ready to go back to work. But then what's going on in their heart, if they're honest, or if they're speaking to friends that they're willing to be honest with, they're thinking, man, I do not wanna go back to work.

Enough slothfulness, if that's the kind of vacation you're having, instead of one that has more of a purpose that is in line with God's will, but if it's just to engage in slothfulness for a long period of time, does the opposite of what people describe it as doing, because they're conflating the notions of bodily rest with spiritual rest, right?

They're thinking that, oh, if I can engage in a lot of unfruitfulness, that will prepare me for fruitfulness. If I engage in the cessation from good works and obedience to God and pursuing the things he's called me to, that will prepare me to pursue the things he's calling me to.

That is, it doesn't work that way. The analogy between body and soul is not so, is they are not such similar things that they work in that way. We are commanded twice over in the epistles of Paul, Galatians 6, 9, 2 Thessalonians 3, 13, he commands us twice at the end of these epistles, do not grow weary in doing good.

The body is permitted to grow weary and then rest. Okay, Jesus said the flesh is weak, right? The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. The body will grow weak, that is fine, but we are not to grow weary in doing good.

Instead, we are to learn to devote ourselves to good. You know, another illustration, there was one time I knew of a church that took a Sabbath, a quote unquote Sabbath, for a month. Now, biblically, the Sabbath is the first day of the week, et cetera, but they decided to take a Sabbath for a month and what that meant is the pastor was going to bring in a lot of guest preachers, which there could be all kinds of valid reasons for that, but he was gonna bring in a lot of guest preachers, so he was gonna preach that month and then they were canceling all their prayer meetings and everything, so they weren't going to be praying, they were just gonna be praying by themselves, they weren't gonna be praying as a church together and they were just gonna have everything bare minimal.

Now, there's something to be said for bare minimal word and sacrament ministry, but to cancel the prayer meetings out of a notion of rest, it really did strike me that the idea behind this was not various good motivations that could justify that sort of thing.

Oh, you know, it's people are traveling, et cetera, but it seemed like the idea was, well, you prepare yourself for good works by ceasing from good works and this is just not the way the soul works. We are to not grow weary in doing good, we are to devote ourselves to good works.

You must learn to devote yourself to doing good works. It must become a habit. Now, the notion of habit in theology, if you've never heard this before, and this goes way back to older writers, a lot of the medieval, but the Puritans talk about habit also, is that good works need to be a habit.

They are not just to be something you do occasionally, they need to be instinctual and become part of your own nature. If you think about how Ephesians describes putting off and putting on, it's talking about cultivating a habit, cultivating something that becomes part of your nature.

First John 3 .6, a lot of people get confused by this. This is explained if you understand the notion of good works being a habit, being habitual. First John 3 .6, no one who abides in him keeps on sinning.

No one who keeps on sinning either has seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

The reason the son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.

Now, that is all very surprising. Believers can't sin, anyone who sins is not a believer. That sounds pretty stark. And didn't John say at the very beginning of the epistle that anyone says he doesn't have sin is a liar and the truth is not in him?

How do those go hand in hand? Well, they go hand in hand when you have a category for good works being a habitual thing, for righteousness being a habit, being something that is deeply ingrained within you.

What he's describing is not perfection. He's not saying that believers are all perfect. He's saying that what marks a true believer is that good is part of their nature, that righteousness flows forth from them, not as something that they might occasionally do outwardly as they feel like it, but it is habituated into their nature.

If you struggle with any kind of sin, this is necessary. You must, as Ephesians 4 and 5 describes, put off and put on. You must not only cease from doing the sin, but you must actively engage in righteousness repeatedly, daily, over and over and over so that it is habituated, so that it's part of your nature.

If you have put on Christ, which the believer has, this is something that is part of your nature and needs to become more manifestly so part of your nature. It's something that is to be habituated. And a lot of these passages in Scripture cannot be understood rightly, or they end up giving you some kind of false gospel of perfection if you don't have this category of habit.

1 John 3, 6 through 9, how do we understand that? Through habit, good works must be habituated. You must learn to devote yourselves to good works. It's not learn to do good works occasionally, learn to devote yourself to good works.

A lot of people want to live a stagnant life that is not really concerned with the things of God and have it occasionally be punctuated with some good. What instead you should have is a life that is habituated with good works, that is characterized by good, and then is punctuated with items for pruning.

That is what the Christian looks like. It looks like it is completely reversed from what many people imagine that it should be. Many people imagine, okay, I'll do my good work for the week, et cetera.

This is not a fruitful way of going about things. And then moreover, the good works that you would do on that rare occasion are not going to be truly good if they're not coming from a real nature that is desiring to do good, right?

That's going to be a dead work. It's very much like a plane. If you get the plane going fast enough and get it off the ground, it will go at incredible speeds. If you keep it on the ground and you just give it a little boost every now and then, it's not going to do much.

There's going to be a lot of friction. Good works need to be something habitual. They need to be something constant. You do not grow weary in doing good. And that will be like the plane that is smoothly sailing.