All right. Thank you, Brother
David, for reading for me. We're going to be there in Ephesians
chapter 2. I'm really going to hone in on
one verse, but you've got to take it into context because
that's the only right way to deal with the Word of God. And
it's the only right way to understand what's being taught here. The
title of the message is from a phrase in verse 10, Unto good
works. And I want to talk a little bit
about good works. It's so much misunderstanding. in the religious
world about good works, the place of good works, what they all
mean. And what happens here in the first part of the book of
Ephesians, chapter one and the first part
of chapter two leading up to verse 10, the Lord through the
apostle Paul makes it so clear and precise that we are not saved
by good works. We're not saved by our works
in any fashion. And I always, I like to use language
that we can all understand without fail. And you know, you'll hear
me preach and some of the men preach here. We'll talk about
conditions, conditional salvation, things like that. Most people
believe that salvation in some way, at some stage, to some degree,
is conditioned or it's founded upon what men and women do for
God or what they choose, what they do, however you want to
put it. But the gospel, which is the
preaching of the terms of a covenant of grace shows us that all of
salvation for every sinner saved is by grace conditioned on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that He, in the glory of
His person and in the power of His finished work, He came to
this world and He fulfilled those conditions which involved His
obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, to pay the
price, the debt, of the sins that were imputed to him, that
the Father imputed them, charged them, accounted them to the Son,
and He paid that debt in full. That's called redemption. That's
the ransom price. And the price was His blood,
which means His death. And in that death, He accomplished
so much. On the cross in John 19.30, he
said, it is finished. It's concluded. In other words,
what is he talking about? I've preached on that before
and had several points that you could deal with, but the main
thing for our sermon, our message today, is that he finished all
the conditions that God required to save and to preserve and to
glorify His people. And so the Bible says in passages
such as in the Old Testament, Daniel 9 and verse 24, that He
made an end of sin. Sin cannot condemn us because
it cannot be charged to our account. The Bible says, who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? Our sins were charged
to Christ, our sin debt. And He paid that debt. He finished
the transgression. I believe that's referring back
to the fall. What Adam brought in, we fell in Adam into the
state of sin and death, depravity. Well, Christ finished that. In
other words, He didn't let it finish us. He finished it. He gained victory over that transgression
that Adam brought in. And then it says He brought in
everlasting righteousness. That's what God requires. Grace,
when we talk about, look at verse 8 of this passage. Ephesians
2. For by grace are you saved. And over in Romans 5 and verse
21 it says grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life. And here's the key, by Jesus
Christ our Lord. Grace doesn't reign because you've
done anything or because you've chosen anything. Grace reigns
is because Christ did it all. From start to finish. And He
sealed up the vision and the prophecy and entered into the
Holy of Alls. That's what Christ did. And that's
what He's talking about in this passage. The very first thing
that is said here in verse 10, look at verse 10. Number one,
for we are His workmanship. That's a beautiful statement.
That speaks of God as the source and the origin and the security
of the salvation of His people who themselves are His workmanship. In other words, if we're saved,
It's not because we made ourselves that way. It's not because we
made a choice. It's not because we did anything.
It's because God made us. He's the source of our salvation.
He's the origin of it. And then He's the security of
it. God's good works, now we're going to be talking about good
works. Good works are works that God has foreordained, we're going
to see that. You know, we're created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, and I'll go back over this, which God
hath before ordained or prepared that we should walk in. We're
His work. And if you look over in Ephesians
chapter 1, look at verse 3. I preached a message for TV on
this one long sentence that goes from Ephesians 1 and verse 3.
over to Ephesians 1.14. And it's speaking of the work
of the Father in our salvation, God the Father, work of God the
Son, and the work of God the Holy Spirit. And it says in verse
three, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good
pleasure of whose will? His will. We are His work. If you're a
sinner saved by grace, you're the creative act of God, the
creative power of God, the creative grace of God. He made you what
you are. And how is that the security
of our salvation? Well, Philippians 1 and verse
6 says it. Being confident, here's what
it says. Being confident of this very thing that He, which hath
begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. God is the origin of it, He's
the protector of it, He's the keeper of it in Christ. and he'll
bring us to glory. So think about, we're his workmanship,
not our own. Do we understand how blessed
we are in that transaction? God's workmanship. That's a sinner
saved by grace. And how did he do it? Well, look
at the next one. Here's number two, verse 10. For we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. Now as the first sentence or
the first phrase, we are his workmanship, speaks of the source
and the origin and the security of salvation, the second phrase,
created in Christ Jesus, speaks of the way and the ground of
salvation. Now jump back over to Ephesians
chapter one and look at verse six. Now he talked about the
good pleasure of God's will. Look at verse six, chapter one. to the praise of the glory of
His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."
Now the Beloved there is Christ. This is my Beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. Hear ye Him, God said. Verse
7, "...in whom we have redemption." Now what is redemption? Well,
that's the payment of a price that buys His people back out
of the, you might say, the slave block of sin and death and depravity. in whom we have redemption, and
what was the payment price? Through his blood, his death. The forgiveness of sins, that
includes the forgiveness of sins. God forgives us our sins on the
basis of a just grant, the blood of Christ. And it's according
to the riches of his grace wherein he hath abounded toward us in
all wisdom and prudence. Think about the wisdom of God
in this. You know, as the disciples asked, who then can be saved?
And Christ said, with God all things are possible. Salvation
is the wisdom, the power, the goodness, the grace, the mercy,
the justice, the righteousness of God. And it's the mystery
of His will. What does God want to do? What
is His will? Well, it's according to His good
pleasure which He had purposed in Himself His purpose, now this
destroys the idea, you know people talk about election and they'll
say sometimes that God looked down through the telescope of
time and He foresaw what you or I would do and therefore made
His choice. No, He purposed this in Himself. God didn't go outside of Himself
to perform all this, to will all of this, to purpose it, to
do it. It's all within the glory of Him whom to know is life eternal. And he says in verse 10, that
in the dispensation of the fullness of times, that is in each successive
generation, he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him,
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, again that's
not what we earn, that's what God has bequeathed unto us upon
the death of Christ, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."
What a glorious salvation. We can be saved only because
God is gracious and God is merciful. He's designed a way for us to
be declared righteous. Paul wrote, blessed is the blessedness
of the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works.
You see, God doesn't impute righteousness to us. Based upon our works,
it's all in the work of Christ. Christ was made sin for us. How? By the charging and the accounting,
the reckoning of the debt of our sins to His person. And we're
made the righteousness of God in Him. By the accounting, the
charging, the reckoning of His righteousness to our person.
That's the great exchange. That's the wisdom of God. So
here we have the source, the origin, the security of salvation,
for we are His workmanship. Here we have the way and the
ground of salvation, created in Christ Jesus. And now look
at the fruit of salvation. Look at the next line in Ephesians
2.10. Unto good works. Unto, not because of, not in
light of, but unto good works which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them." Now what are these good works?
Well, think about it this way. Before we are regenerated and
converted, before we're born again by the Spirit, some people
would say, well, before we're saved spiritually in time, our
works are all done in the flesh and cannot please God. Even our
most religious works, our most sincere, moral, charitable deeds
fall short of His glory. And they are actually called
evil deeds, works of iniquity, fruit unto death. Look over at
Romans chapter 7. And this is something that the
natural man will not receive and believe. It takes the Spirit
of God to bring us to admit this when God gives us the gift of
faith in Christ and repentance. And that's what those are, those
are gifts. But look at verse four of Romans chapter seven.
He says, wherefore my brethren, you are also become dead to the
law. Now what that means is the law cannot condemn you. You're
not under the law. And we know why, because there's
no condemnation to them which are in Christ. So how did I become
dead to the law? It says, by the body of Christ. It was by His death. He offered
up Himself without spot unto God on the cross. His perfect, sinless humanity,
without spot and without blemish, offered up unto God. as the sacrifice,
the substitute, the surety, the offering for the sins of
his people. He laid down his life for the
sheep. So it's by the body of Christ that you should be married,
united to another, even to him who is raised from the dead,
united to Christ, that we should bring forth what? Fruit unto
God. Now that's the good works. But
look at verse five. For when we were in the flesh,
when we were unregenerate, when we were lost in our sins, when
we were enemies of God in our mind by wicked works, the motions
or the passions of sins which were by the law. Now that specifically
speaks to those who are trying to be saved by their works. They
had a passion and we know people like this. They have a passion
which is motivated by the law. And they'll say that it'll come
in many forms. Salvation conditioned on the sinner. Some will say
it this way. They'll say, well, we're saved
by grace, but we're kept by our works. Or in order to go to heaven,
I've got to be good. I've got to do right. Like one
song says, where I come from, we're working hard to get to
heaven. Well, my friend, that's not gonna get you there, because
that's a passion that is inspired by law and not by grace. And he says, did work in our
members to bring forth fruit unto death. Fruit unto death
refers to the works of men and women that is motivated by law. And what is it to be motivated
by law? Well, it means this, it means you're motivated by
fear of punishment, If I don't do better, God's gonna get me,
God's gonna punish me. Or it's motivated by what I call
mercenary promise of earned reward. If I do well, God's gonna give
this to, I'll tell you one of the most popular false renditions of this. That if you,
you know, you're saved by grace, but if you work hard, you're
gonna get more in heaven than those who don't. That's rewards
in heaven. That's motivated by mercenary
promises of earned reward. That makes you what? A mercenary. Not a willing, loving bond slave
of Christ. You say, that makes you a legalist,
is what it does. So when it talks about unto good
works, think about it. All of this from God, based upon
Christ. Brother David read it over here
in Ephesians 2. What happens to, you know, we're
born into this world spiritually dead, depraved in our sins. And we cannot do anything. We're
born in unbelief, cannot do anything to please God. Without faith,
it's impossible to please God. And he describes us here in Ephesians
two, we were dead in trespasses and sin, verse two, in time past
walked according to the course of this world. Now understand
now, that includes the religious course of this world. The world
has many courses. Some walk in the ways of immorality,
no conscience, that kind of thing. Most people walk in the ways
of salvation by works. That's the course of this world.
According to the prince of the power of the air, that's Satan.
You know that seeking salvation by works of the law is a goal
that's inspired by Satan. Remember Christ told the Pharisees,
you're of your father the devil and the works of your father
you do. He was a liar from the beginning. The spirit that now
worketh in the children of disobedience, that's an unbeliever. Verse three,
among whom we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of
our flesh. What is the lust of our flesh
there? It's any unlawful desire. And my friend, there's no more
unlawful desire than to desire salvation based upon what you
do. Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and
we're by nature, that is as we are naturally born, the children
of wrath even as others. The children of wrath are the
non-elect. who live and die in unbelief. And what he's telling
us is that before we're being brought forth here, quickened,
regenerated, converted, brought to faith in Christ, we're no
different. Whether we're religious or not. But look at verse four. Now here's where he begins to
delineate this salvation by grace. But God who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, Unconditional love
towards the sinner. Even when we were dead in sins. Now what works could we do when
we're dead in sins? None. And he's quickened us together
with Christ. This is speaking of the resurrection
of Christ, who as the representative, the surety, the substitute and
redeemer of his people, he was risen from the dead, and as our
representative, we were risen with him. and hath raised us
up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches
of his grace. Now that's what we preach. The
exceeding riches of his grace toward us through Christ Jesus
and then he goes into this capsulated sentence, word. For by grace
are you saved. Some translations say this, for
by grace have you been saved. And that would include being
saved. You're saved by grace. You're kept by grace. You'll
be glorified by grace. And it says through faith. Now
what is faith? What's believing in Christ? Resting
in Christ. But that's not of yourselves.
Preachers today tell people that all you have to do is basically
muster up enough faith to believe and He'll save you. No. Faith
that brings me to believe in Christ comes with that grace. It is the gift of God. Do you
hear that? I mentioned this in the earlier
message. A preacher told me one time, he said, that's not talking
about faith, that's talking about salvation. I said, it's talking
about all of it. It's talking about salvation
and everything that's included. It's talking about faith, that's
the gift from God. It's not of yourselves, lest
any man should boast. Verse nine, not of works. The
gift of faith, the gift of repentance, the gift of perseverance, all
come from God, for we are his workmanship created in Christ
Jesus unto, not because of, unto the fruit, the product, unto
good works. So when the Holy Spirit brings
us under the gospel and gives us spiritual life from the dead,
the Bible calls it a new heart, a new spirit, a new life. He gives with it the gifts of
faith in Christ, the gift of repentance of dead works, works
aimed at establishing our own righteousness before God, So
although we cannot be saved by our good works, when we're saved,
the Bible teaches, God will produce good works within us, and we
will bear them as the branches bear fruit from the vine. Salvation
is by grace, not by works. Good works do not produce salvation. Good works are the product of
salvation. We read it in the opening. Christ
said, let your light so shine before men, before others, that
they might see your good works and do what? Glorify your Father
which is in heaven. Good works are not works that
come from our flesh. And here's one thing that you
need to understand about good works. They do not add to the
righteousness of God in which we stand in Christ, that righteousness
imputed. Our good works do not add to
that. Nothing adds to that. That's complete. A completed
work of Christ. Our good works have absolutely,
though they be good, because God calls them good, because
God has ordained that we should walk in them, because God produces
them within us, the scripture says, It is God that worketh
in you, both to will and to do his good pleasure. Our good works
do not merit or earn any part of salvation for us. Somebody
asked me, said, what are you talking about merit? Well, have
you ever been a Boy Scout or a Girl Scout? You ever seen those
sashes they wear and they got these little badges on them?
They're called merit badges. And each badge you get, you have
to do a task in order to earn or merit that badge. Well, that's
not what good works are in the sight of God. Good works are
works that God does in and through His people, again, saved not
by these works, but by His grace in Christ, based on His works. And there is this, I'll say it
this way, Even though these works, God does them through us, and
we do them, they're not really our works in the sense that we're
the source and the power of them. God is. They're God's work in
us through him by his spirit according to his work. And these
works are the operation of God and the fruit of the spirit,
not our flesh. As produced by God, they are
good works as they are fruit unto God. and as they are motivated,
not by law, but motivated by grace, motivated by love. The Bible says in Galatians chapter
five that faith worketh by love. In other words, this is not the
work of a forced slave, but it's the work of a willing, loving
bond slave of Christ. You know what a bond slave is?
You can read about this in Exodus chapter 25. A bond slave, is
one who worked for seven years and his debt was paid, and he
chose to stay with his master because he loved his master.
Well, our debt, if we're a believer, if we're his workmanship, quickened
by the Spirit, our debt is paid, but we didn't pay it. Christ
did. He, in essence, in typology,
worked the seven years. That means His work is perfect.
He worked it, we're set free, and He brings to make us willing
to serve our Master. Not to be saved, not to merit
or earn His blessings, but because we're already saved by His grace. And we already have all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's what
the scripture teaches. Paul said in Galatians chapter
two and verse 20, listen to this. He said, I'm crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live. I died with Christ, but now I
live. In other words, when Christ died under the law of God for
my sins imputed to him, I died with him. He's my representative.
He's my surety. He's my substitute. He's my redeemer. But now I live, I've been quickened
by the Spirit. I've been given spiritual life.
Yet it's not me, not I, but Christ liveth in me. In other words,
I'm not the source, I'm not the power, I'm not the goodness of
this life that I have, Christ is. And the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me. I love this passage here. This is Philippians chapter two
and verse 12. And a lot of people read verse 12 without reading
verse 13. And you should never do that.
Because a lot of people, you know how they, Brother Mahon,
you say they got verse-itis. They pick out a verse and they
try to build a denomination on it. But listen, this is Philippians
2 and verse 12. He says, wherefore my beloved,
as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now
much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear
and trembling. Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling. Some translators say what that
means is work out of your own salvation. In other words, because
you're saved. But look at verse 13, it puts
it all in perspective. For it is God which worketh in
you both the will and to do his good pleasure. Do you realize
that? When you seek in your mind, and
we're to do this now, when you seek in your mind, when you determine
in your mind to do a good work, a work of faith, a work of love,
a work of charity, a work of obedience, a work of sincerity,
any, when you determine in your mind to do that, Do you understand
that that's the fruit of a union of grace with Christ? This is
not what you're doing to try to earn your way into heaven
or God's favor. Good works are the fruit of our union with Christ,
of being brought by God to faith in Christ, from which these works
spring forth as fruit unto God, as opposed to the works of unbelievers,
which are fruit unto death. What do we want to do in all
things that we do to please God? We want to glorify God, motivated,
again, by grace and gratitude and love for Christ, not by law.
I heard a man say one time, he come out of a church service,
and he said, well, the preacher gave me a good whipping today.
Well, I know there are times we have to be admonished, corrected. We do. And we may walk away feeling
like we've been whipped. I don't know. But that's not
the purpose of the gospel. The gospel is to comfort God's
people. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.
Not in order to inspire you to forget about good works or to
sin as much as you want to. But that grace which is so prevalent
in the word of God and in our union with Christ and in our
salvation is a dynamic that grabs hold of our hearts and draws
us to him and to his word. Think about it. Good works are works presented
unto God as acceptable and pleasing unto God because as believers
we're accepted and identified in Christ. I'm washed in His
blood. I'm clothed in His righteousness. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. We run the race of grace. That's
a good work. How? Looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. Knowing that our sins, which
are so prevalent in our lives, are not charged against us, that
we have a perfect standing before God and our works are not, have
nothing to do with that as far as the ground or the cause of
it, it's all Christ. Think about it, that's a gift.
For by grace are you saved, through faith, that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God. Peter wrote this in 1 Peter 2
and verse 5. He said, you also as lively stones,
living stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices, worship, praise, obedience. That's good works. But they're
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Do you realize that without Christ
there'd be no good works at all? None at all. Before God. So good
works are aimed towards the glory of God in Christ. They're not
aimed at bringing glory to ourselves or even bringing attention to
ourselves. Good works will always, ultimately,
point sinners away from us and to Christ. That's our goal, isn't
it? That's what he meant in Matthew 5 when he said, let your light
so shine before men. The light there is not the works.
The light there is the gospel. that point sinners to Christ,
the gospel of God's grace. We want people to know, if they
see us do anything good, and of course, here's one thing we
know, that the natural man doesn't even know what a good work is.
But we want them to know this, if they see us do anything that
they call good, and it may be good, may be good works in God's
sight, acceptable to God in Christ Jesus. We want them to know this,
don't we? We want them to know, hey, that's
not my salvation. That's not part of the righteousness
which justifies me. That's all Christ. So let your
light so shine before men. He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. And those good works, of truth
and grace and love and kindness and compassion and forgiveness,
patience and faithfulness. You know what we hope? Is that
God will use those things to get sinners to listen to the
gospel of God's grace that we believe and that we trust in
Christ for all salvation. We want those works to support
our profession. That's what James was talking
about, and I'll be dealing with that in James chapter two when
he said faith without works. That's what he's talking about.
He's talking about the vindication and the genuineness of our claim,
our profession of faith in Christ. We'll deal with that later on,
okay.