Now, back in the book of Colossians
chapter 1, this morning I want to deal with this subject, the
foundation and heart of good works. Now, as you know, I've
been preaching in the past several Sundays, several messages concerning
good works, what they are, what they're not, how they come about,
who they come from, all of this. Basically, what I'm going to
do is conclude this. I had planned on, when I first
started this series, I had planned on concluding it with an exposition
of Galatians 5 on the fruit of the Spirit. But since we're going
through the book of Galatians in our 10 o'clock hour, I'm just
going to let that be part of it because I'll be coming to
that and be dealing with that on the fruit of the Spirit and
deal with that subject then. So this will pretty much conclude
what I have to say on the subject. And you understand, you know,
whenever you go through the New Testament, the New Testament
epistles, that's exactly what we're doing. We're studying Christ
in his person as God in human flesh. We're studying his finished
work because that's the ground and the basis. We're talking
about the foundation of good works. is what Christ accomplished
on Calvary as the savior of his people, our surety, our substitute,
and then the heart of good works. That has to do with our motive,
has to do with our goal for good works. When you go through the
New Testament epistles, that's really what we're studying right
there. That's what it is. A lot of times people will come
to you, especially if, If you preach salvation totally, 100%
by God's free and sovereign grace in Christ, they'll approach you
with questions like this, well, why don't you all ever preach
on good works? Well, we do. But the problem is, is if we
don't have the foundation and the heart of good works, we don't
recognize them. We can't see them. Because to
most people, the preaching of good works is nothing more than
legalism. I mentioned in the 10 o'clock
hour that most preaching today, whether it's stated or implied,
is nothing more than legalistic threats of punishment or mercenary
promises of earned reward. And that's kind of like the atmosphere. Because whenever you place salvation
conditioned on a sinner, that's the only place you've got to
go. You don't have any other place. And like I said, most
of the time that's unstated because people aren't going to say that.
They're not going to say, well, I'm glad all you mercenaries
came out this morning. Or I'm glad all you legalists
came out this morning. They're not going to do that.
But it's a veiled system that they have. But the scripture
has a lot. There's no doubt the scripture
has a lot to say about good works. I could go into all kinds of
scriptures. We quote, for example, Ephesians 2 all the time, verse
8, for by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves.
It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
But then he goes on in verse 10 and says, for we are his workmanship. A believer, a sinner saved by
grace is the workmanship of God. He says, created in Christ Jesus,
there's the basis, there's the foundation of salvation, the
new creation. which can be said to be the collective
body of God's people or an individual believer, either way, is the
creation of God in Christ Jesus. Now that's the first point of
this. The foundation of our good works is our union with Christ.
And we'll talk about that in just a moment. But he says, created
in Christ Jesus, and then it says unto good works. It never
says because of good works or based on good works. We don't
have any good works as sinners. Even as sinners saved by grace,
the good works are not the cause. It's unto good works which God
hath before ordained that we should walk in them. So there
we learn that the good works are the foreordination of God.
And you can't argue with that. We could go on to other passages.
We started out in 2 Corinthians 3 where it talks about that the
man of God may be complete, perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all
good works. That's why the scripture was
written, that to bring sinners to Christ and to make them walking
miracles of God's grace and witnesses for Christ. But we could go on
and on with that. But look here at Colossians chapter
1, look at verse 10. He's talking about, he's thanking
God in this salutation, he's thanking God for God's grace
in saving them and bringing them together as a church in their
community, however small they are. You know, the scholars who
believe that it was a small church that met in Philemon, they may
be totally wrong. I have a tendency to agree with
them based upon what I've read, but they may be wrong, but it
doesn't matter. Paul is thanking God that he saved their souls
by his grace and brought them together in this community. And
he says the purpose of this is verse 10, that you might walk
worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing. We have a desire to please God.
That's a God-given desire. Now we have other desires that
aren't God-given, desires that are natural. And our desire to
please God and our natural desires cause us to be in a warfare within
ourselves. It's all too many times that
I want to please Bill, not God. And I have to fight. That's part
of the warfare, the flesh and the spirit. But we do have a
desire to please God. And that comes in being fruitful. Now you notice the word there
in verse 10? Fruitful. And that's such an important
truth in the Bible. That the life and walk of a believer
in this world is never represented in scripture as a condition that
we must meet in order to attain or maintain salvation, or as
a cause of salvation, or even blessing. Now, I'm not saying
there's not blessings connected with obedience. There are, but
the obedience doesn't earn the blessing. That's just the way
it is. That's the way God has set forth.
You come to worship God, you receive a blessing. Now, you
didn't earn a thing. by coming here. You didn't earn
anything by coming here. It's our privilege to do so. And it's the fruit of his grace. And he says, in every good work,
being fruitful in every, so good works are the fruit, the effect,
not the cause and the ground, and increasing in the knowledge
of God. Now, being fruitful in every good work is connected
with increasing in the knowledge of God. Peter put it this way,
growing in grace and in knowledge of Jesus Christ. And then he
says in verse 11, strengthened with all might, that's power.
Where does the power of good works come from? Well, it comes
from the same power of God to save a sinner. Look at it, according
to his glorious power, not yours, not mine, his power. So good
works are the power of God brought through a believer. And he says,
unto all patience, now patience is endurance. That's what that
means. It doesn't mean sitting in a
waiting room. It means endurance. And that is perseverance. We
persevere, we cling to Christ, we follow him, not in order to
be saved, not trying to make ourselves righteous. That would
be against his promise. You see, we're not trying to
establish our own righteousness before God. We're already righteous
in Christ and we endure in him by his power and long-suffering,
and that means we put up with a lot. Somebody said, well, I'm
tired of putting up with you. Or you're tired of putting up
with me. It's like the mama who was trying to get her boy to
get up and go to church one morning. And he said, I don't want to
go. And she said, why not? And he said, because I don't
like those people, and they don't like me. And she said, but you're
the pastor. We put up with a lot. We suffer
long. And you know, look, these last
two words bring me to conviction. We suffer long with what? Do
you see it there? Joyfulness. I can say by the grace of God
I suffer long. I'm not always happy about it.
And you're not either. And that's to our detriment.
That's why we like Paul, oh wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death. You know Paul in that Roman 7,
I'm not gonna get off on Roman 7, we don't have time. But you
know, not only does Paul say, I don't have the ability to do
good, now what he's talking about is the perfection of righteousness. He said, not only do I not have
the ability, he said, I don't even know how to do that. I don't
even know how. And I tell you, I mean, I know
these false preachers, they write all these how-to books, step
one, step two, step three, but I wanna tell you something, only
the Spirit of God can change the nature of man, and give us
a heart to desire these things. So look at verse 12, he says,
giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meek. You
see, it's God the Father, through Jesus Christ, who has made us
qualified for this inheritance, to be partakers, fellowshipers
of the inheritance of the saints in love. We are in fellowship,
And we are all, we who are in Christ, we who are saved by the
grace of God, we who are washed clean from our sins in the blood
of Christ, we who are righteous in Him, we who are regenerated
by the Holy Spirit, we are partakers, fellowshipers, and qualified
for the same inheritance by the grace of God in Christ. It's
called the inheritance of the saints in life. Saint is being
sanctified one. a sinner saved by grace. And
verse 13, it's God who has delivered us from the power of darkness
and translated us into the kingdom of his dear son. Well, go down
to verse 18. Now what I've been describing
to you basically has to do with the foundation and the heart
of good works. And I'll delineate it here. But
look at the last line in verse 18. It says, that in all things,
or in all, he, that he there is Christ, might have the preeminence. In other words, whatever he's
talking about here has nothing to do with us. and having any preeminence for
us. It's all that he might have the
preeminence. So let me go to that. I've got
two points. The foundation and heart of God works. Point number
one is this. The foundation of good works
is our union with Christ. Our union with Christ. And then
point number two. The heart of our good works is
the motives of love, grace, and gratitude so as to glorify God
and not ourselves. Here's the foundation, there's
the heart. Now let's look at the foundation, and I want you
to turn to Romans chapter 7. Look at Romans chapter 7. The foundation that God lays,
both in His purpose, His way of salvation, and then in the
heart of a sinner, is union with Christ. In other words, what
I'm saying is this, good works are the fruit of our union with
Christ. Now look at Romans 7 in verse
4. Paul writes here in verse 4, he says, wherefore my brethren,
you also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. Now,
you've heard this many times. What is it to be dead to the
law? It means number one, that I cannot be charged. with my
sin. The law cannot condemn me for
my sin. Now why is that? Is it because you made a decision
for Christ? No. Is it because you've turned
over a new leaf? And you've suddenly stopped doing
this and started doing that? Is it because you got baptized?
Why is it the law cannot condemn a sinner saved by grace? It's because of our union with
Christ. It's because it condemned Christ in our place. Christ was
charged, accounted with our sins. He was made sin. That's what
that means. And David, we sing with the psalmist
David, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. I'm dead to the law. Law cannot
charge me. It charged Christ, my substitute. He's my surety. That's what suretyship
is all about. The debt of sin that I earned,
he said, put it on my account. And God put it on his account
before the foundation of the world. He was set up to be my
substitute and surety. I was chosen of God in him. That's my union with Christ.
And he came to this earth, it says, by the body of Christ.
Why does it say by the body of Christ? Because that's talking
about God in human flesh, a human body, who bore my sins in his
body on the tree. That is, here He came, God the
Son, and He took on Him the likeness of sinful flesh, without sin,
a human body, and He bore in that human body, He bore my sins. What does that mean, He bore
them? They were charged to Him. They were accounted to Him. And
He drank damnation dry. He paid the debt in full. Jesus
paid it all. And so that I am in him, united
with him, in union with him, I'm washed clean in the blood
of Christ. That's what that metaphor means.
It means that I cannot be charged. And it means that I stand before
the law of God justified, not guilty, but righteous before
God because I have his righteousness charged to me, accounted to me. Now that's what it means to be
dead to the law, I'm justified. You know, Paul in Romans 4, he
commented on David's statement in Psalm 32 when David said,
blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes not an end. And
he interpreted it this way, and he did this by inspiration of
the Spirit. That means blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes
righteousness without works. That's what that means. That's
what David meant when he said that, when he wrote that. So
I have a righteousness that answers the demands of God's law and
justice. I stand before God without sin legally, not without sin
personally. I'm still a sinner now. But I
cannot be charged. I'm justified. That's what it
means to be saved by grace. That's what it means to be justified.
That's what it means to be graced, accepted in the beloved. So look
at it again, verse four. Wherefore, my brethren, you also
are become dead to the law by the body of Christ. Now, does
it stop there? Is that all up? No, it goes further. It says that or in order that
you should be married to another. We're gonna be married to Christ.
That's what that means. That's part, that's another part
of that union. What I believe that he's talking
about here is when the Holy Spirit in the power of his work Regeneration
and conversion, the new birth, brings us to be personally united
to Christ by faith. Married to Christ in that sense.
We're united with him, in union with him before the foundation
of the world. We were united with him on the
cross. He died for me. When he died, I died. When he
was buried, I was buried. When he arose, I arose. He's
my substitute, my surety, my representative, my mediator.
And sometime in this life, God's going to bring his people to
be married to another, that's Jesus Christ. Going to be united
with him by faith. Even to him who's raised from
the dead, does it stop there? Am I to spend the rest of my
life just talking about that time when the evangelist came
to town and I walked an aisle and gave my heart to Jesus? No.
No. That's not even biblical. that
we should bring forth fruit unto God. Now that's the life and
the walk of a believer looking unto Jesus, the author and what?
Finisher of my faith. That's what that is. That's walking
in the assurance of grace. That is seeking to obey God,
to worship God, to serve God. Again, not to be saved, Not to
establish a righteousness, I can't do that. You can't either. It's
self-righteous for us to think we can. It's even unbelief. But
because Christ is my righteousness. And so there's the foundation
of good works. Now he said, look at verse five
of Romans. He says, for when we were in
the flesh, now that means when we were unregenerate, when we
were unbelievers. We still have the flesh to contend
with, don't we? You know it. If you're a believer,
you know it. If you say you don't have the
flesh to contend with, then you don't have any struggles within
with sin, but you do, if you're honest. So when we were unregenerate,
the motions, that word motions means passions, you may see that
in your concordance, the passions of sin, the desires of sin, which
were by the law. Now, how were passions of sin,
by the law, did work in our members, the members is our physical,
our hands, our ears, our eyes, our tongue, everything, that's
the members, did work in our members to bring forth fruit
unto death? And as I've told you, that works
in one of two ways in people, by nature. The law either stirs
up abject rebellion, or it stirs up in self-righteousness trying
to establish their own righteousness. Either way, it's fruit unto death,
because that's the way it's gonna end if it doesn't change. But look at verse six. He says,
but now we're delivered from the law. That is, it's condemnation,
it's requirement of righteousness, that being dead wherein we were
held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in
oldness of the letter. Now, that brings me to the second
point now. But let me say this before I
get there. Here's what he's saying. Righteousness cannot come from
our works. Cleansing from sin cannot come
from our works. Not even what the Holy Spirit
does in us can cleanse us from sin or make us righteous before
God. The foundation is laid in the
fact that even as a sinner, I cannot be charged with my sin. I'm in
union with Christ. Christ took my sins, gave me
his righteousness. The foundation is laid in that
I'm already righteous in Christ, as righteous as I will ever be
in God's sight. Not as righteous as I'll be in
myself now. I can't even imagine what it's
going to be like to stand before God in myself sinlessly perfect.
You can't either. That's what John said. John the
Apostle said, it doesn't yet appear what we shall be. Right now, I'm still a wretched
man. Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this
body of death? Right now, I still fall short
every, listen, every good work. that comes through me becomes
in some way contaminated by the remaining flesh. I have a desire,
you know, Paul said this, I have a desire to do good. Now you
understand, when Paul said that in Romans 7, he wasn't saying,
I have a desire to do the best I can. Nothing wrong with desiring
it. I want to do the best I can.
I want to be the best preacher I can be, the best pastor, the
best husband, the best father, the best grandfather. But that's
not the goal. That's not the standard of perfection.
You understand that. When Paul said, I desire to do
good, I desire to be like Christ. But I can't. because the flesh
is still in me. Sinful desires mar everything
I do. Do you know this? Let me show
you this scripture. Turn to 1 John chapter 3. Let me show you this. Do you know that even our best
works have to be cleansed by the blood to be accepted with
the Father? Look at 1 John chapter 3. Look
at verse 11. He said, For this is the message
that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
Now you know the standard of that love is shown in Christ. Love your neighbor as yourself. And always when you see that,
if you want to deal with reality and not just some self-righteous
pipe dream, Always include the worst enemy that you've ever
had on earth, the one who would do you and yours the most harm
as your neighbor. Now that shows you something
of the standard of righteousness that God requires. That shows
you something of why we need salvation by grace. But he says
in verse 12, not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew
his brother. And wherefore slew he him, or
why did he slay him? Because his own works were evil,
and his brother's righteous. That is Abel's works were righteous. Now, it's true Abel's works were
bringing the blood of the Lamb. That's what it was. But what
is showing there is that not only did Abel's person have to
be cleansed by the blood, but his work had to be cleansed by
the blood. All of us, we have to be cleansed by the blood.
Now, Christ laid the foundation in his obedience unto death on
the cross. God the Holy Spirit lays that
foundation in our hearts when he brings us to Christ and gives
us the faith to believe. And so our faith is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, do I believe in him? That's
the question. Have I repented of my dead works?
Do I have the assurance that only comes from Christ? Well,
a good work is one that's done in God's power and grace within
a justified, redeemed, regenerated person. Now, back in Romans 7
there, you remember he said in verse six, But now we're delivered
from the law, that being dead when we were held, that we should
serve in newness of spirit and not in oldness of the living.
Now what is that newness of spirit? Well, over here in Colossians
1 in our text, here he brings forth the heart of our good works. The foundation is our union with
Christ. The heart of our good works has
to do with two things, our motive and our goal. And this is laid
in the hearts of God's people when God the Holy Spirit convinces
us of sin, that we have no hope of salvation through our works,
through our own righteousness which we don't have. And that
we have no hope of salvation but God's grace in Christ. And
when the Holy Spirit brings us to see what Christ has accomplished
in our behalf, what he did for me, He lays in my heart that
foundation, or that foundation of my hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And that's what establishes the
motive and the goal. Now, what is our motive in good
works? Well, look at verse 12. Here it is. It's expressed in
this way, giving thanks unto the Father. And that giving thanks, good
works in God's sight, are works that are motivated by love and
grace and gratitude. Giving thanks, that's what it
means. Love and grace and gratitude. That's our motive. Paul said
in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, he said, the love of Christ constraineth
me. When he described his struggle
with sin, his own struggle, in Romans chapter 7 verses 14 and
on. And he come to this conclusion,
he said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from
the body of this death? The next verse, what did he write? He said, well, I'm just going
to try to do better. Now, should Paul try to do better?
Yes. Should you try to do better? Yes. Should I try to do better?
Yes. But that's not what he wrote. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I'm gonna go get baptized again.
I'm gonna rededicate my life. I'm gonna get on my knees and
pray out, no. Now, should we rededicate? Every day. I didn't have to come in spring
and the fall walking down an aisle. That's just religion. Yeah, rededicate every day. Get
up in the morning, rededicate. Should we be baptized? We should
confess Christ before men. And that's what that means. That's
what baptism is. Not 20 times either. And not
under a false gospel. Yes. All of these things. But what did Paul write? He said,
I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. And then he went on.
I know there's a chapter division there. What did he say first? He said, there is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ. He laid that foundation
which brought about that motive of love and grace and gratitude. It's not God I'll do this if
you'll do that. It's God thank you for everything
that you've given me. I'm blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I have all things in Him and
I didn't earn a bit of it and I don't deserve any of it. It's
all grace, everything that I have. And I realize this, and I guess
as I'm getting older, this is what kind of really grabs me. I'm realizing more and more that
even the good things of this life, I didn't earn them and
deserve them either, not even the next breath I take. That's
a gift from God. Do you realize how rare it is
to be able to sit under the consistent preaching of the gospel. And
we take it for, I take it for granted, I'm the preacher. We
all do. But it's a gift, it's such a
gift. An inheritance, he says here. Listen, I'm qualified for
an inheritance of saints Well, I thought that was just somebody
that was canonized, you know. He did some miracles and lived
a life of self-denial and service. No, no, that's a sinner saved
by grace. That's you and me if we're in
Christ. See, our union with Christ establishes
the motive. Paul said, Oh, that I might know
Him and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faithfulness
of Christ. And then the second part of this heart of good works
is our goal. And what is that goal? Well,
it's stated in verse 18 of Colossians 1, the last line, it's really
stated all the way through, but this sums it up, that in all
things, he might have the preeminence. We quote Matthew 5.16 all the
time when we're talking about good works. Let your light so
shine before men that they may see your good works and do what?
Draw attention to you? Give praise to you? No. Give
glory unto your Father which is in heaven. Christ must have
the preeminence. That's our desire in good works.
Not that men will just see us or draw attention to us or praise
us or applaud us, but they might look to Christ for salvation. I want you to know that when
I stand here and preach a sermon on Sunday morning, this makes
up, this preaching that I'm doing, even though it's true, it's biblical,
I believe that with every fiber of my being, but I want you to
know that this makes up no part of the righteousness by which
I stand before God. I want you to know that because
I'm preaching to you today, I still don't deserve the least of God's
blessings and favor, and I still have not earned them. I want
you to know that it's all Christ crucified and risen. That's what
I want you to know. And I always think about old
John the Baptist. Boy, what credentials. Think about somebody who had
credentials. The last of the Old Testament prophets. John
could go back to the Old Testament, read a verse and say, hey, fellas,
that's talking about me. Could you imagine that? And listen to the words of the
Savior. There's none greater born of woman than John the Baptist.
And he wasn't talking about what John earned or deserved. He wasn't
talking about John's person. He was talking about John's message.
The last of the Old Testament prophets. What credentials? Man,
you talk about a billboard. Talk about a TV program. Listen
to this fella. He's the last of, he's prophesied. The Lord said he's greater among
women. John didn't say anything about himself. He said this,
he said, I'm not the light. I can't save you. He said, here
comes one who is the light. Behold the Lamb of God. He said,
I'm not even worthy to untie his shoes. He said this in his
final analysis. He said, I must decrease, Christ
must increase. You see it? that he might have the preeminence. That's the whole ball of wax,
isn't it? Our union with Christ, our motive
of love and grace and gratitude, and our goal of glorifying Him
in everything that we think, say, and do. That's the issue.
All right.