Good morning. Let's open this
morning's service with hymn number 28 in your soft spiral gospel
hymns hymnal, number 28. And let's all stand together.
Number 28. ? God has mercy on whom he will
? ? And whom he will he hardens still ? ? To whom he will he
gives his grace ? ? And when he will he hides his face ? ?
Let none despise God's sovereign throne ? ? He does what he will
with his own ? It is his right to save or kill according to
his sovereign will. Yes, God saves some and others
leaves to reap the fruit of their own ways. In the eternal ages
past, God made his choice and it stands fast. Aware that I'm
a guilty man and that I'm in God's sovereign hand, Prostrate
I fall before his throne, a wretched, helpless, guilty one. Lord, if you will, you can, I
say, take all my guilt and sin away. A guilty sinner at your
throne, I beg for mercy through your Son. Now trusting Jesus
Christ, God's Son, I know that I'm his chosen one. And God's
eternal sovereign choice makes this poor sinner's heart rejoice. Please be seated. Good morning. We're going to be in the fifth
chapter of the Gospel of John, John chapter five. Let's pray together. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
thank you for bringing us here this morning. Thank you for putting
into our hearts a desire to worship Thee. Thank you for the promise
of your Holy Spirit Lord, you said where two or three are gathered
together in thy name, there you are in the midst of them. Lord,
might we, by the power of your spirit, be mindful of your presence.
Might we, Lord, forget about ourselves and have our hearts
turned, Lord, that you would set our affections on things
above where Christ is seated at thy right hand. Lord, we pray that you would
open your word, reveal more of the glory of thy dear son, cause
us, Lord, to find our rest and our hope, our comfort, and all
our peace in him. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. you have your Bibles open to
John chapter five, we're going to be looking at two verses,
verses 28 and 29 in John chapter five. If we were ever looking
for a proof text to support a works gospel, it would be this verse of scripture. And I'm sure that anyone who
wanted to prove a works gospel would be very happy with this
verse. But as with all the scriptures,
we must interpret scripture by scripture. And to make this verse of scripture
a proof text would be to take it out of context. It would be
to put all the emphasis on what's being said here without any consideration
for what the Lord has given us in the rest of his word. And
so we're going to look at this verse, but we're going to understand
it by God's grace in light of the rest of scripture. Verse 28. John chapter five,
marvel not at this for the hour is coming in the which all that
are in the grave shall hear his voice and shall come forth. They that have done good unto
the resurrection of life and they that have done evil unto
the resurrection of damnation. You see what I'm saying now? If the Lord tarries and we die
before his return, we have the hope of the resurrection. Some will be raised, according
to what the Lord clearly says here, some will be raised to
everlasting life. others will be raised to eternal
damnation. I want to understand what this
verse means. I want to understand what it means to do good and
to do evil because I want to be a part of the resurrection
of life. Paul tells us in Romans chapter
7, in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. The Lord tells us in Genesis
chapter 6 that when he looks down from heaven and he looks
into that open sepulcher of our throats, He sees that every imagination
and the thoughts of man is only evil and that continually. When the rich young ruler came
to the Lord Jesus, he asked him, good master, what must I do to
inherit eternal life? What good thing can I perform
so that when The resurrection happens, I can be raised to everlasting
life. And the Lord Jesus responded
to him by saying, why callest thou me good? There is none good but God. And we know that what the Lord
was saying to that rich young ruler, you think that you can
do something good to inherit eternal life? There's none good
but God. Do you realize that when you
called me good master that you are ascribing to me the only
one that can be called good? This is why, left to ourselves, we stand in the presence of a
holy God as evil, left ourselves. And if we are ever by God's grace
to have an encounter with him and see a glimpse of his glory,
a glimpse of his goodness, we will come to one conclusion.
Behold, Job said, I am by. The prophet Daniel, when he saw
the Lord Jesus and it was but a vision of him, it was but a
small glimpse of who he really is. Daniel confesses, my comeliness,
my beauty, my strength, my goodness has been turned in me into corruption. In light of who he is, I've come
to this conclusion, in me. There is no good thing. When Isaiah saw the Lord high
and lifted up in Isaiah chapter six, the first words out of his
mouth is, woe is me, I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips. Everything
that comes out of these lips just reveals me to be for what
I am. My eyes have seen the king. I
live among a people of unclean lips. There's no one else that
can help me. How can I possibly stand in the
presence of a holy God and have any hope that he will resurrect
me to life because I've done something good? Now, the opinion of the world,
the opinion of man is that good people go to heaven and bad people
go to hell. And you could take this verse,
as I said, completely out of context and come to that conclusion. When in fact, in context of the
entire scripture, the opposite is true. Bad people go to heaven. Good
people go to hell. Those who trust in their own
righteousness, those who are looking to something that they
have done for the hope of their salvation, will find out that
their righteousnesses are as filthy rags. Those who are bought
by the grace of God before God and come to the conclusion that
everything about them is sinful will have the goodness of Christ
to look to for all the hope of their salvation. So how is it that I can have
the goodness of Christ as the evidence and the things
from which I'll be judged? Well, Hebrews tells us that without
faith, it is impossible to please God for they that come unto him
must believe that he is And that he's the rewarder of them that
seek him. Not the rewarder of them that
have earned favor with him by something good that they have
done, but the rewarder of them that are looking to him and depending
upon him for their goodness before God. That's faith. And then the scripture tells
us this. Whatever is not of faith is sin. The only way that I can have
any goodness before God is by the free gift of faith. in Christ, that I've been brought
to this conclusion, that Christ is all the hope of my salvation,
he's all my righteousness. Now, in faith towards Christ,
do believers do what God calls good works? And yes, they do.
Yes, they do. but not apart from faith. No child of God will stand before
him and say, but Lord, we did many wonderful things in thy
name. The Lord will say to them, depart
from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you. But does that mean that we don't,
you remember when Mary, In Bethany, we looked at Bethany Wednesday
night, what a blessing that was just to consider all the things
that the Lord did in Bethany as compared to Jerusalem. And Mary and Martha and Lazarus
lived in Bethany. And you remember the story when
the Lord was there in the house of Simon the leper and Mary took
a very precious, very expensive alabaster jar of perfume and
she broke it open and she anointed the Lord's feet and wiped them
with her hair and the disciples particularly Judas, complained
that, you know, this could have been sold for much money and
given to the poor. Oh, what self-righteousness was
in that statement? And here we are. This is contrary to nature because
even as believers who are looking in faith to Christ, is there
not Is there not a self-righteous Pharisee in every one of us that
needs to be reminded, needs to be reminded that all of our righteousness
is in Christ? These disciples got caught up
in that. And the Lord said, leave her alone. Leave her alone. She's done a good work. For she's anointed me for my
burial. She's done a good work. She did it in faith. She did
it not in hopes of reward. She did it not in hopes of earning
a right to be raised to everlasting life. They that have done good
shall be raised to the resurrection of life and they that have done
evil to the resurrection of death. She did it in faith, looking
to Christ. Turn with me to the book of Titus. 1 2nd Timothy, Titus chapter two. We're gonna read several verses
here. We'll begin in Titus chapter two at verse 10. Now Titus had been left in Crete
to pastor the church that God had raised up on the island of
Crete. And... In order to get the context of
what Paul is instructing Titus to do, Paul's writing to Titus
this letter, we have to go back to chapter one and look at verse
12. One of, I'm sorry, verse 11. Verse 10, for there are many
unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision,
whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching
them which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. One of themselves,
even a prophet of their own said, the Cretans are always liars,
evil beasts, and slow bellies. And then Paul, under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit says, this witness is true. The people of Crete had a reputation
of being liars, fleshly, evil. They had this reputation about
them. And so now Paul is writing to Titus and instructing him
on how to help these men and women who are coming out of that
of that very pagan godless culture on how to walk and how to live
the Christian life. And so he says to them in chapter
two, beginning at verse 10, not purloning, but showing all good
fidelity that they may adorn the doctrines of God, our savior
in all things. instruct them, Titus, that their
behavior needs to be that which adorns the gospel. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us, here's what
the grace of God teaches us, that denying ungodliness and
worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly
in this present world. looking for that blessed hope
for the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ. He's talking about this life
that we're to live. But if you notice, with every
admonition that's given, there's a reminder of the motivation
behind that admonition. Not in order to be commended,
but because, and to earn salvation based on something that good
you've done, but because what God has done. looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior
Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us
from all iniquity and purify unto himself and be cool. You're
people zealous of good works. In light of what God has done
in saving us by his grace and meriting to our account the righteousness
of Christ and putting in our hearts a desire to see Him and
to be with Him. This is what motivates the hearts
of the people of God to be zealous for good works, good works. These things speak and exhort
and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee. Remind
these Cretans of this. Remind them of who they are in
Christ and what he has done for them. And that this pattern of
living that they've been in all their lives and the culture in
which they still live in, in Crete with these godless people. Remind them that God has made
them to differ. put them in mind, to be subject
to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready
to every good work. These people were rebels by nature. They rebelled against authority, to speak evil of no man, tell
them to guard their tongue and to be not brawlers, Don't be
looking for a fight, but be gentle, showing all meekness unto all
men, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient,
deceiving, serving divers lost in pleasures, living in malice
and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that the
kindness and love of God our Savior toward all men appeared,
Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy, he saved us. He didn't save us because we
did something good. He's not gonna judge us based
on what we've done good. Our judgment is in Christ. Not
by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to
his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. which he shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace. We're not gonna stand before
God on the day of judgment and be raised to life or be raised
to condemnation based on the good merits of our good deeds. But being justified by his grace,
we should be heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
This is how we're justified, by grace. Notice now, watch carefully,
verse eight. This is a faithful saying, and
these things I will that you affirm constantly that they which
have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. You see that, what the Lord's
saying? We're not careful to maintain good works that we might
be rewarded for what we've done. We're careful to maintain good
works because of what He's done. But it does work in our hearts
to make us careful and zealous. Turn over just a few pages to
Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. Verse 13,
for if the blood of bulls and goats, yes, and the ashes of
a heifer sprinkled the unclean, sanctifying to the purifying
of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ through the
eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God. So the Bible talks about good
works and dead works. Good works are those things which
are done out of love, in faith, not for reward, but out of gratitude
and for the glory, not for the glory of the one performing them,
let not the right hand know what the left hand's doing. You tell
someone what you've done, you think it's a good work, you just
got your credit. You know, it just, Oh, and that's
evident that what you thought was a good work, you just made
it a dead work. You just made it a dead work.
Good works can't be boasted in. Good works can't be gloried in. Good works can't be promoted
to man or to God. That's the very nature of a good
work. That's a dead work. that men look to in hopes that
because of what they've done, they're going to be raised to
life. Now the outward appearance of
a dead work, the outward appearance of a dead work may seem to be
very noble. It may even be sacrificial. And
it may even be very beneficial to the person that it's being
done for. It may be very profitable. But if the person doing it thinks
in any way that it's going to merit him favor with God, a dead work. Our conscience has to be purged
from dead works to serve the living and true God freely, gladly,
lovingly. What is the pain of conscience
associated with a dead work? Well, if I'm looking to something
that I did for my merit with God, and I've got a shred of
honesty about me at all, I don't know if I've done enough. I don't
know if I did it right. I don't know if I was really
sending you my conscience. You see, if we hang the hopes
of our salvation on our dead works, our conscience is always
convicting us. Our conscience is always condemning
us that we need to do more. We need to do more. Have I done
enough? And the only thing that will
purge the conscience of dead works and set us free to serve
the living and true God is the free gospel of God's sovereign
grace in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then
we're free. And where the Spirit of God is,
there's liberty. And if the Lord has set you free,
you're free indeed. And if you know the truth, the
truth has set you free. Oh, what liberty there is in
Christ and what bondage there is under the law. Now does conversion bring about
a change for good in a person's life? Of course. Of course it
does. But we must also be careful,
don't we? Because religion can bring about
the outward appearance of change in a person's life. Religion can be a very powerful
motivator. The social norms of a religious
group can be a very powerful motivator. The law can be a very
powerful motivator and the threatenings of the law can be a very powerful
motivator so that the outward appearance And the pattern, not
just the outward appearance, but the pattern of a person's
life can become drastically changed as a result of religion and the
law and peer pressure. A person can stop doing certain
things and start doing other things and dress a certain way
and say the right thing. None of those things can change
the heart. Can't change the heart. Man can clean up the outside
of the cup. He can't get rid of the corruption
that's on the inside. Man can whitewash the tomb, but
he can't get rid of the dead man's bones that are on the inside.
That's a work of grace. You see, we can't be looking
at outward appearances. We must judge righteous judgments
not by appearances. Lord, I need you to do work of
grace in my heart. Now, if a person who is living
a profane, immoral life, God has grace on them and changes
their heart, is that life gonna change? Of course it will. Mary
Magdalene, the scripture says the Lord cast seven demons out
of her. I mean, we can only imagine the
kind of life that she was living. She's the first one at the tomb. Mary, oh, rabboni, and she clung
to the Lord. Lord, don't ever leave me again. Did he, was her life, the man
in the Gadarenes who was possessed with a legion of demons and a
Roman, a Roman legion was over 6,000 soldiers. And when the
Lord rebuked these devils and they asked, he asked him what
their men, this is the one where you remember he cast them into
the swine, the swine ran off into the, now he's clothed, he
was naked, now he's clothed. Now he's free, there's no more
chains. He was chained. Now he's in his right mind. He
was insane before that. And he wanted to go with the
Lord. He just said, Lord, let me just go with you. And the
Lord said, no, you go back and tell your friends and your family
what great things the Lord has done for you. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. Old things are passed away, yea,
all things become new. All things. And the flip side to that coin
is that when a self-righteous, outwardly moral, respectable
person is converted, their heart is
changed. Their heart is changed so that
they no longer... Saul of Tarsus is the best example
of that, isn't he? Paul, the apostle, said this
of himself before he was converted. Concerning the law, I was blameless. I wasn't like those cretins. I was almost straight and narrow. I was respectable. No one could
charge me with lawless living. What happened? What happened
to the Apostle Paul when the Lord arrested him on the road
to Damascus? That which I thought was gain,
I know now was my loss. And I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. My
righteousness is in Him. It's in Him. Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews,
outwardly, living a life that no one could condemn, but he
had to be made new. He had to have his art changed.
He came to the Lord by night because he was in the dark spiritually. He didn't know anything about
God. The Lord talked about being born again. He didn't have a
clue what he was talking about. Matter of fact, he came up with the
most stupid conclusion. How can I go back into my mother's
womb and be born again? Oh, Nicodemus. Not what I'm talking
about. Why would you even ask such a
question? That which is of the flesh is flesh, but that which
is of the spirit is spirit. It's the spirit that give it
life. And Nicodemus, who was a member
of the Sanhedrin, he was a member of the ruling class of the Jewish
Pharisees, came in the darkness of night. to ask the Lord questions. He
didn't want anybody to see him. He didn't want his peers. He
didn't want those religious men to know that he was going to
talk to this Jesus of Nazareth who was reported to be the Christ. He valued his reputation and
the opinion of those men. And then what happened after
the crucifixion? he and Joseph of Arimathea went
publicly in the middle of the day to Pilate and plead for his
body. Nicodemus stands up for the gospel
later with the Sanhedrin and obviously breaks away. You see,
now the opinions of my peers are, does the gospel change Unimmoral
man's life, yes. Does the gospel change a moral
man's life? Yes. Yes. You remember when Mary and Joseph
brought the Lord to the temple to be circumcised and Simeon,
the priest, saw the Lord Jesus and Simeon's Eyes were opened
and he knew that that was, as he referred to, the consolation
of Israel. There's the Christ. I've been
praying and waiting and God told me that I was gonna see him before
I died. And now I've seen him. Lord,
I'm ready to die. I'm ready to go be with thee. Turn with me to John chapter
three and we'll close. John chapter three. They that have done good will be raised to life. They
that have done evil will be raised to damnation. John chapter three, verse 19. And this is the condemnation.
Light, that's the Lord Jesus, In him is life and the life is
the light of the world. Light has come into the world
and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. You see, the outwardly immoral
man hates the light because his deeds, he doesn't want to change. And the outwardly moral man doesn't
want to bow to the righteousness of Christ because what he's trusting
in for his righteousness is evil before God. For everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light. There's a very interesting distinction
made in the original language between verse 19 and verse 20. The word evil is a different
word in the original language. The word evil in verse 19 translated
means many labors, full of labor. And the word evil
in verse 20 means worthless. We think of We've all experienced
enough evil in our own hearts to know that we think that evil is just those
shameful things that we don't want men to know about. But when we seek favor with God, when we seek
the hope of the resurrection of life based on the good things
that we have done God calls that evil, it's full of labor, worthless. Everyone that doeth evil, hateth
the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should
be reproved, discovered. You see, we come to the light,
the light reveals that all of our goodness, is full of labor and worthless
before God. But he that doeth truth, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
rest in Christ. He that doeth truth, cometh to
light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they were
wrought of God. I am what I am by the grace of
God. And if the Lord has enabled me
to do anything profitable, let us always divert any glory to
him. One more passage of scripture
I want you to look at with me in closing. I know I just said
that. I mean it this time. Matthew
6. Matthew 6. Verse 22. The light of the body
is the eye. Now the Lord's going to compare
the physical eye to the spiritual eye of faith. The light of the body is the
eye, if therefore the eye be single, thy whole body shall
be full of light. But, if thine eye be evil. Now I don't mean you're looking
at things you don't want people to know, I mean that's evil.
But this word evil means full of labor. It means full of labor. And so if my eye is looking to
those labors that I have performed as the hope of my resurrection
to life, if the eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full
of darkness. You see, now it's become a dead
work. Now my conscience is convicting me always, and I have no light.
Everything's dark. I'm looking in the wrong place.
But if thine eye be single, You see the rest of that verse? If
I'm looking to Christ alone for my righteousness before God and
for all the hope of any change that the Lord would by his grace
make in my heart and life, then the whole body shall be
full of light And look at verse 23, I know
I've quoted these out of order. But if thy be evil, thy whole
body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is
in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness. There's no
darker place to be. No darker place to be than to
think that you can see when you can't. To believe. If what I'm looking
at with an evil eye which is full of labors for the hope of
my resurrection before God is my hope, and to rest your hope
in that, the whole body's full. There's no greater place, no
darker place to be. No darker place to be. What a
blessing it is when we look over there And the
Holy Spirit convicts us. And we can't find any hope, any
rest, and any peace. And we're brought by the power
of God to rest all of our hope in Christ. All right, let's take a break.