LBCF Chap 16-17

Okay, we're looking this morning at chapter 16 of Good Works, and again this follows, remember we've already looked at justification, we've looked at saving faith, we've looked at repentance, and now we come to chapter 16 of Good Works.

And this is a rather important chapter because the role of works in the church is one that has been hotly debated for years. So you will find in this section a couple of things that are specifically in there in refutation of Roman Catholic theology.

Good Works as the Fruit and Evidence of Faith

So I want you to keep that in mind that this confession, a good deal of it has been written especially to refute some of the errors that we perceive in the Catholic church. So paragraph one, good works are only such as God has commanded in his holy word and not such as without the warrant thereof are devised by men out of blind zeal or upon any pretense of good intentions.

Obviously, the intent of that is pretty clear. Any good works that we do, and specifically we're talking about good works that are efficacious to us in any sense, all right, are only those works which come from the word of God.

We can't decide that we're going to do something that's not contained in scripture and yet that's considered to be a good work. Okay, and then the confession will, as we go through it, will explain a little bit more about what these good works are.

These good works done in obedience to God's commandments are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith and by them believers manifest their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, edify the brethren, adorn the profession of the gospel, stop the mouths of the adversaries, and glorify God, whose workmanship they are, created in Christ Jesus they run to, that having their fruit unto holiness they may have the end eternal life.

Okay, mouthful again, all in one, I think that's even one sentence, isn't it? They always used to write like that, but anyway, notice good works, only things that are done in obedience to God's commands, okay, and they are the fruits and evidences.

Now, we've talked about this in the past when we talked about saving faith. Remember, saving faith is not an empty faith. It's not just merely saying, yes, I believe. In fact, this ties in very well with the sermon that I'll be preaching later on.

They're merely saying, yes, I believe, and it's not enough to save you. There has to be an evidence that that faith is, in fact, real, and good works are the evidences of that faith, okay? This is, if you remember a couple of weeks ago, I, a couple of weeks ago, I talked about, from the pulpit, I talked about cheap grace.

Remember, the free grace movement, and that all you had to do was say a prayer, etc., and they would discount, they would disagree vehemently with this particular paragraph, because what they started to say was that saving faith didn't have to be accompanied by anything, just your mere profession was enough to save you, all right?

What our confession is saying is, no, it is the works that you do that prove it, not that they, it merits the faith, but that it proves it, and you can see the first scripture proof is right from the book of James, which is what we read, you know, a couple of weeks ago, okay?

So, notice, it's the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith, and by them believers manifest their thankfulness, strength, and their assurance, edify their brethren, okay? Notice what it's saying.

There's a purpose for good works other than even just merely being the evidence, okay? And part of the evidence is it's thankfulness to God. Just think of it this way. If somebody does something very kind to you, and I'm not talking about God, somebody in your family or a friend, they do something very kind, very nice for you, and then they ask you to do something down the road.

You say, no, I'm not going to do that. I mean, what does that show? Number one, it shows we're really grateful in the first place. It's not showing thankfulness of art, and if you hadn't told them how thankful you were for what they've done and you appreciated it, you're certainly not showing appreciation.

Well, it's the same thing with God. God has commanded us to do certain things, and if he has truly saved us, would we not want to offer thankfulness back to him? And one of the ways is by obeying his commandments, okay?

And notice what it says, strengthen their assurance. One of the biggest problems in the church today with Christians who are not living the life that they want to live is they lack assurance. I can't tell you how often people come into the study and they say, you know, Pastor, I just, I'm struggling with the assurance.

I don't know. Am I really saved? That is, it's more prevalent than you would think it is, all right? And especially when you see people who have been in the church and then they stop coming, and one of the things as we reach out to these people, they're struggling with their assurance.

The works, the good works that you do, being evidence of your faith, strengthen your assurance, all right? So, in other words, we're told that when we are saved that we have to put off the old man and put on the new man, right?

So, and that means we start thinking differently besides what we act. If somebody has been saved for five, six, seven years, and they're still thinking the same thoughts that they were the last time they haven't, you know, started producing any fruit for the kingdom, that person will nine times out of ten struggle with his assurance.

He says, how do I know I'm saved? Well, one of the reasons, one of the ways you know that you're saved is that you're changing the way you're thinking. Your desire is to please God. You're not going to do it perfectly, but your desire is there, and you actually start doing good works, and the works specifically commanded in Scripture, and that gives you assurance.

Yes, I can see I've changed, you know? I mentioned, I think, in a previous class how my wife and I, being avid moviegoers, and we recommended a movie to somebody that we saw 20 years ago, and then when we saw it ourselves, we were mortified that we recommended that movie because we've seen a change in our thinking.

I mean, we were Christians then, but we were new Christians, and certain things that you saw didn't bother you, but now, you know, 20 years later, your conscience is more attuned to that, and so you're laughing.

It just must have been so funny once you realized, like, oh yeah, oh yeah. In fact, somebody was just talking about, they recommended that movie, My Cousin Vinny. They'd only seen it on TV. Well, that movie is riddled with cursing and whatnot, and the woman recommended it to another lady friend of hers, and then when she saw it, she was mortified, but that happens, you know, but that's evidence of your sanctification, all right?

Edify the brethren. When you're doing acts of obedience, you know, good works, it will edify the brethren. Adorn the profession of the gospel. In other words, when you make a profession of faith, and it's a public confession, and then people see you change in accordance with it, that helps, and look, the next thing is it stops the mouths of the adversaries, you know?

When I got saved, I was already a police officer for a good number of years, and one of the guys that worked with me after I was saved, he says, you know what? He says, I know you still got it in you.

I'm going to be around when you fall, all right? In one sense, I took it as a compliment because he saw the difference, you know? I'm not the same person that I used to be. On the other hand, it encouraged me.

He said, all right, I can't fall because, you know, if you continue in your sanctification, you're going to stop the mouths of those who are against you, all right? And, of course, it glorifies God and the rest of the paragraph, okay?

Sanctification by the Holy Spirit and the Limits of Human Merit

So, still talking about good works here, all right? Their ability to do good works is not at all of themselves. That's something that we really need to understand. Even our ability to do these things, to obey the commandments, comes from God, and that's important.

But holy from the Spirit of Christ, and that they may be enabled thereunto, besides the graces that they have received, there is necessary an actual influence of the same Holy Spirit to work in them to will and to do His good pleasure.

In other words, the very fact that you desire to do these works is evidence of your salvation. Again, that's why this goes hand in hand with assurance of salvation, which we may even get to today. It's chapter 18 of the confession.

But the good works accompany salvation. It gives you assurance that, yes, I am saved because I can even see the difference in myself, and you should be able to see that, all right? There should be a marked difference, all right?

But even that is the work of the Holy Spirit, to will and to do His good pleasure, yet they are not hereupon to grow negligent, as if they were not bound to perform any duty, unless upon special motion of the Holy Spirit, but they ought to be diligent in stirring up grace of God that is in them.

This is another one of those things that we call a mystery. We know that the work of salvation is totally a work of God. So is the work of sanctification. Some people say, well, no, it's a dual. We have to cooperate.

No, we're told to cooperate. We're told that we must work out our sanctification with fear and trembling, yet we also need to understand that that, too, is wholly a work of grace. That's one of those mysteries.

How does that work? I don't know, all right, but that's what we're told. The Holy Spirit actually gives you the will to change, and plus the ability to do so, yet you are responsible for it. So, all right, does everybody follow that?

It's, again, it's, remember, there are certain things in the Scriptures that are mysteries. Mysteries are not contradictions. It's just that we don't necessarily understand how God works that out. But if you fail in your sanctification, it is your fault.

It's not God's, okay? But when you succeed, God gets the credit. Yes, that's exactly right. All right, all right, this paragraph here is one of those that work specifically to nullify some of the doctrines of the Church of Rome.

The Rejection of Supererogation and Treasury of Merit

They who, in their obedience, attain to the highest height which is possible in this life are so far from being able to supererogate and to do more than God requires as that they fall short of much in duty they are bound to do.

Okay, let me explain this one. Roman Catholic doctrine says this. There are certain people who ultimately become saints. You notice that the Roman Catholic Church canonizes certain people, all right? Mother Teresa was one of the most recent ones who was canonized.

She's got a, she's a saint according to the Roman Catholic Church. What Roman Catholic doctrine teaches is some of these people do so many good works in this world that they, they have done more works than they need to gain them entrance into heaven.

So, they have a doctrine, it's called the treasury of merit. All these works of supererogation, that's where that word comes from. These works of supererogation, in other words, over and above what they need are put into the treasury of merit.

Okay, and then when you pray to the saints, you have somebody, a loved one who dies, and they're bound for purgatory, and so if you, by your acts of penance and, you know, acts of those nature, you can actually take some of the treasury of merit and apply it to the departed one to get them into heaven and lessen their stay in purgatory.

But that's where they, it comes from is they claim that some of these people have done more works than they're necessary. What our confession is saying, no matter how good, even if, even if you were able to live a perfect life after you were saved, all of the good works you do still don't merit you into eternal life, nevertheless, be accrued to somebody else.

Okay, why? Because it is not based upon our works, it is based upon faith alone. So, you can see how these things work together. Does that make sense? Because that one, a lot of people don't understand, but that's why that section, that paragraph is in the confession.

Paragraph five, we cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin or eternal life at the hand of God by reason of the great disproportion that is between them and glory to come and the infinite distance that is between us and God whom by them we can neither profit nor satisfy for the debt of our former sins.

But when we have done all we can, we have done but our duty and our unprofitable servants. And because as they are good, they, as they are good and proceed from his spirit, and as they are wrought by us, they are defiled and mixed with so much weakness weakness and imperfection that they cannot endure the severity of God's punishment.

All right, basically that's saying what I had just said before. No matter what you do in this life, because it's coming from an imperfect will, it's never going to accrue anything towards heaven. Salvation is by grace through faith alone.

And all your works, necessary as they are, they accrue you nothing to get to heaven. That is strictly by the grace of God. But they are necessary for the other reasons that we just talked about. Edification of the saints, assurance of your own salvation, all right, to shut the mouths of the adversaries.

Okay, make sense? This is important because this is one of the major differences that you're going to come across from people on both sides. We kind of are in the middle. You have the church in Rome, which says that, you know, you're saved by faith plus your good works, all right.

And then you have the cheap grace people on the other side who say, oh, no, no, you can't add anything. You know, it's faith, faith alone. And if you try to add works to that, you know, it's wrong. Both are wrong.

That's the two extremes. In the middle, it's not faith plus works, it's works that proceed from your faith, the evidence and the fruit. Questions? Okay, paragraph six of the confession. Yet notwithstanding the persons of believers being accepted through Christ, the good works also are accepted in him, not as though they were in this life wholly unblameable and unreprovable in God's sight, but that he, looking upon them in his son, is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, although accompanied by many weaknesses and imperfections.

All right, that's the other side of the coin. We just talked about how they're not going to accrue anything for salvation, yet in eternity, you will earn rewards for what you do in this life. And again, don't ask me how that works.

Okay. But I mean, that's what Jesus said, you know, lay up your treasure in heaven. All right. And we know that there are, we teach also that there's grades or levels in heaven as there are in hell. So what you do here will accrue for eternity.

And that's what I'm saying, even though it's coming from your weakness, if it's done in Christ's name, you will accrue a reward in heaven. Scripture is very clear on that, that, you know, that you do accumulate reward in heaven.

And again, don't ask me how that works. Okay. Then paragraph seven is the last paragraph of this chapter. Works done by unregenerate men, although for the matter of them, they may be things which guide commands and of good use, both to themselves and others, yet because they proceed, not from a heart purified by faith, nor done in a right manner, according to the word, nor to a right end, the glory of God, they are therefore sinful and cannot please God, nor make a man meet to receive grace from God.

And yet they neglect, the neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing to God. Okay. Let's take two men. One's a multimillionaire who's a believer in Christ. One's a multimillionaire who's not a believer in Christ.

And they both give to the same charity, whether, you know, a good work, let's just assume that the work is a good work that needs to be done. They both donate exactly the same amount of money. The man who's a believer is laying up treasure for himself in heaven.

The other man is sinning by doing the same thing because he's not doing it for the glory of God. He can't because his heart has not been redeemed. Yet, if he didn't give it, it would have been worse. That's what the confession is saying.

The only works that are accountable for anything to God are those that come from a regenerated heart and are done for the glory of God. Notice, too, that even a regenerate man can do good works that are not effective for anything in eternity.

Remember what Jesus said, you know, what about the Pharisees? They do it to be seen by men. They have the reward. Same thing for a Christian. If a Christian is doing his work to be seen by men, you got your reward.

You got it right here. It's not accruing anything for heaven. Make sense? Okay. Final thoughts or questions on chapter 16? No? Okay, we're back on the air. Chapter 17. Chapter 17 is the Perseverance of the Saints.

This is another important doctrine, and again, this is one that has been perverted on many different sides. There are a good branch of evangelical Christianity today, especially on the Pentecostal side, teaches that you can lose your salvation, okay?

Then there's the Arminian side. They also teach that you can lose your salvation, but a lot of the dispensationalists, who are not Calvinists, teach a doctrine that they call eternal security, which is different than our doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints, because that comes from the cheap grace camp.

Once saved, always saved, they say, all right? You don't have to see any evidence. You prayed that prayer. You're in. Don't worry. You can't lose your salvation. Our doctrine is called the Perseverance of the Saints, and it's different.

If you have been saved, you are truly saved, but how do you know that you are truly saved? It's those who persevere, all right? So, let's take a look at this. I'll just put up the scripture proofs there.

Those whom God has accepted in the beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his spirit and given the precious faith of his elect unto can neither totally nor finally fall from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end and be eternally saved, seeing the gifts and callings of God are without repentance.

Whence he still begets and nourishes them in faith, repentance, love, joy, hope, and all graces of the spirit unto immortality. And though many storms and floods arise and beat against them, yet they shall never be able to take them off the foundation and rock, which by faith they are fastened upon, notwithstanding through unbelief and temptations of Satan, the sensible sight of the light and love of God may for a time be clouded and obscured from them.

Yet he is still the same and they shall be sure to be kept by the power of God unto salvation, where they shall enjoy their purchased possession being engraven upon the palm of his hands and their names having been written in the book of life from all eternity.

Boy, they had a way with words, didn't they? All right, what is it basically saying? If you're truly saved, if you come to the place where God has called you, you repent of your sin, you can never lose it.

That's the upside of the whole thing. But it also recognizes that even true believers may for a time appear to fall away, you know, through the trials and temptations of the world, etc. So, you can lose, you know, the countenance of your salvation, all right?

And as the confession puts it, the sight and light and love of God may for a time be clouded and obscured. Yet, if you are truly saved, you can never ultimately be lost. Does that make sense? And if you remember, you know, our sanctification is like this.

It's going up and down. In fact, I once heard the doctrine of sanctification be described as like a man playing with a yo-yo walking up a flight of stairs, all right? In other words, our life is going to go up and down, but as he's walking up the stairs, pretty soon the down parts are higher than the higher parts were, all right?

You're going to have ups and downs in this life. It's never going to just go straight up. But even in those down times, even when it may seem like, you know, God is distant, he's not. It's your perspective of it, all right?

And that's what this is really saying. So, and it will, there's only three, I think there's only three paragraphs in this, so we want to look at all of them pretty much right away. The perseverance of saints depends not upon their own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election.

The only way you can really hold to this position is to understand that it was God who called you. He's the one who chose you and has promised that he will never let you go. If you came of your own free will, then of your own free will, you could turn around and walk away, all right?

But that's why it says, it's not depending upon your own free will, but upon the immutability of the decree of election. Flowing from free and unchangeable love of God the Father upon the efficacy of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ in union with him.

The oath of God, the abiding of his spirit, and the seed of God within them, and the nature of the covenant of grace from all which arises also the certainty and infallibility thereof. In other words, the reason you're not going to fall away, it's all of God.

Because of the covenant of grace, the oath that he made, he gives you his spirit as a pledge. When you're saved, you have the Holy Spirit who promises that he will not let you go. And even the prayer, the high priestly prayer that we're studying in the Sunday morning service, Jesus prays for all of his elect, all right?

Jesus prays that we would be one, prays that none would be lost. His prayers are always efficacious. So the fact that Jesus is our mediator and he's praying for us, the spirit has been given to us, God had promised it, there's no way that you can be lost.

That's why you want to make your calling and election short.

Okay. And that goes for believers in every denomination, right?

Oh yeah, yeah. Whether they understand it or not. There are people who have absolute assurance of salvation and they think they can lose it. But it's not up to them. Like I have many Pentecostal friends, you know, and Pentecostal pastors who I'm close with and they're great men of God, you know, but they believe they can lose their salvation.

And I say, well,.

It's not up to what you believe. What are some of their scripture proofs for that?

They'll look at the ones, well, I think one of the biggest ones, and it's a complete mistranslation, is in Revelation chapter two, where Christ writes to the church in Ephesus and he says, I'm going to remove your lampstand.

All right. They take that to mean removing salvation. All right. There's also portions where it says the name would be blotted out of the book of life. They look at those as they're talking about salvation being removed.

It's not. Firstly, in the book of the Revelation, it's talking about whether the church ceases to be a light. And it says it has nothing to do with personal salvation. They miss some of the cardinal rules of hermeneutics, and that is when you have clear, concise, what's the word I'm looking for?

Explicit portions of scripture. They take precedence over those that are obscure. So, where Jesus says, of all that the father gives me, I will lose none, but will raise him up on the last day. That's clear.

That's unambiguous. That's where you get your doctrine from, not from maybe a lampstand will be removed, which is subject to interpretation. I mean, the interpretation's right in the book of Revelation, because Jesus is walking through the lampstands in the beginning of the book, and that means your light's going to go out.

You're going to cease to be a church. All right. So, but that's where they get it from. It's really poor hermeneutics. Okay. All right. And paragraph three. And though they meet the temptation of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of means of their preservation, fallen to grievous sins, and for time continue therein, whereby they incur God's displeasure and grieve his Holy Spirit, come to have their graces and comforts impaired, have their hearts hardened and their consciences wounded, hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves, yet shall they renew their repentance and be preserved through faith in Christ Jesus to the end.

This is one of those cases where you have somebody who was in the church, functioning in the church, and then fall into grievous sin. It has happened in our church. It happens in every church. You know, maybe somebody moves into adultery or some other grievous sin, and it seems like they're lost.

All right. Yet, if they are true, and it's possible for a true believer to sin that grievously, yet if they are a true believer in Jesus Christ, they will be restored because of the promise, because of the covenant, because of the prayers of Jesus, because they are sealed with the Holy Spirit.

During that time, they grieve the Spirit. They're not susceptible to them, but they will be restored. Okay? Questions on that? Because this is a big one, and in fact, we're actually addressing this in the sermon today.

I'm going to be addressing the Joshua Harris situation. All right? And basically, I'll give you a little heads up. Basically, I'm going to tell you, I don't know with him. At this point, he should be treated as an apostate.

All right? But he should be prayed for. Has his apostasy gone to the point where he cannot be restored? If that's the case, then he was never a true believer. All right? If he is a true believer, he will be restored.

But meanwhile, he should be treated as an apostate. Any other questions?

Somebody in leadership, if they were to fall into some kind of a grievous sin, shouldn't probably be restored back to a leadership position, even though they're restored? Yes. I think of Jim Swagger and people like that.

Yes. Those are horrendous, horrendous examples. You know, when you're forgiven, you're restored back to your original standing as far as being in the body of Christ is concerned as a true believer. All right?

But there are temporal consequences that follow. For example, just look at David. David was restored. All right? But in his restoration, Nathan told him that the sword's not going to depart from your house.

And, you know, the sin that you've committed is going to continue in your household. Temporal consequences. But I mean, David's salvation was not in jeopardy, but his kingdom certainly was, and his household.

Okay? So, yeah. And that's one of the problems that people do. I mean, somebody falls and says, oh, well, he's very gifted, talented. Well, so what? You know, God, I think that demeans, you know, the ministry, demeans the church.

All right.