Now hold your place there in
Matthew chapter 19 because I will be coming back to that. But I
want us to go to 2 Timothy chapter 3 to begin. What I want to talk
to you this morning about is the reality of good works. The reality of good works. You remember a couple of weeks
ago I preached a message from this passage in 2 Timothy chapter
3 entitled furnished unto all good works. That's the last line
of verse 17. And it's here where Paul writing,
Paul the elder statesman, the elder apostle, the elder evangelist. He's in prison at Rome and he's
writing to a younger man named Timothy who was a preacher of
the gospel. who was a companion of Paul,
who was sent by Paul to various Gentile churches. Probably some
believe that Timothy was in Ephesus at the church, the Ephesian church
at this time. And Paul was writing to him.
But verse 16 there, you remember, he says, all scripture, that's
the written word of God, scripture. is given by inspiration of God,
literally God breathed. We can't overstress that, can
we? That this Bible is the book of
God. It's not the book of man. I know
it's an amazing thing to study how the scriptures came together. That over 40 different men were
used of God to write the books of the Bible from Genesis to
Revelation over a span of a thousand years or so. And you see their
personalities coming through in many ways, but it's always
the same truth. There's never contradictions
or disagreements. I know from personal experience,
I spent a lot of time, wasted time in my life trying to disprove
the Bible and show contradictions in it. But it's not there, that's
just in the minds of men. But this is the inspired, verbally
inspired, inerrant word of God. And the more I study it, the
more I see that. Don't you all, when you study
the word of God, it's just, it's amazing to me. I read a lot in college and in
high school, and I've never seen, there's nothing like the Bible.
Nothing like the Bible. And so, inspiration of God. And
so he says it's profitable for doctrine, that's the teachings,
that's the truth, that's the doctrine of Christ, the doctrine
of God. It's profitable for reproof,
that's showing us what's wrong. I've heard preachers say, well,
we don't need to talk about what's wrong, we just need to talk about
what's right. Well, the Bible says we need
to talk about what's wrong too. It's profitable for reproof,
that's what that means. And for correction, that's showing
the right way. And for instruction in righteousness,
that's the Christian life. Instruction in righteousness.
How am I righteous? I'm righteous by the grace of
God in Christ. How do I follow after righteousness?
I follow after Christ. I trust Him. And so, verse 17,
that the man of God, remember who the man of God is, that's
a sinner saved by grace. Every man, every woman is not
a man or woman of God. God justifies the ungodly, we're
told. That's what we are by nature.
And he justifies them by grace through Jesus Christ. So if I
am a man of God, you understand I'm not a self-made man. If I
am a man of God, it had nothing to do with anything in me, of
me, or from me. It's totally by God's free and
sovereign grace in Christ. That's it. When God described
the conversion of Abraham, the call of Abraham. Abraham was
an idolater in modern-day Iraq, the era of the Chaldees. That's
where he found him. His family was an idolatrous
family. But God, Abraham found grace
in the eyes of the Lord, just like Noah did. So the man of
God is a justified sinner. He's a saint. That doesn't mean
that he's attained great heights of morality and miracle. It just
means he's a sinner saved by grace, set apart by God. So the man of God may be perfect.
Now that's complete. That's what he's talking about.
I need to be complete. Now in myself, I'm incomplete.
But in Christ, remember I read Colossians 2 verse 9, for in
Christ dwelleth all the fullness. And that fullness is related
to this completeness. All the fullness of the Godhead
bodily in Christ and ye are complete in Him. So my completeness is
not in myself, it's in Him. So that the man of God may be
complete and then throughly or thoroughly furnished unto all
good works. I need to be furnished. God has
to furnish me. And that means to be fully equipped,
fully fitted. for good works, unto all good
works. Now, what he's saying here, and
the scripture's very clear on this, is that salvation in no
way is by good works. And I'll show you that as we
go through some points here that I wanna bring out. But we're
talking about good works, and I wanna talk to you about the
reality of good works, but understand now, 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. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto, not because of, but unto good works. All
right, that God before ordained that we should walk in them.
So we have that distinction made. Now, what I wanna do is give
you just a few points here about about goodness, really. That'll
show the reality of good works. It'll put things in perspective.
Now, have you ever heard the term relativism? You ever heard that? I'm not
trying to be just real smart or anything like that. I just
want to make a point here. Relativism. And that means everything,
those who buy into relativism, they believe everything is relative.
In other words, there's no absolutes. There's no absolute truth. For
example, there are people who believe that all truth is relative.
It'd be kind of like this. You say, well, I believe this.
And I say, well, I believe that. And you say, well, what's truth
for me may not be truth for you. And what's truth for you may
not be truth for me. I'll tell you who expressed this
in the New Testament was Pontius Pilate. The Lord was standing
before him on trial and the Lord began to talk about truth and
Pilate asked this question. He said, well, what is truth?
And what Pilate, he was expressing a philosophical idea there called
relativity. Nobody knows what truth is. We'll
all find out in the end. We have all those songs, we'll
know it all by and by. Nobody really knows what the
truth is. Brother Wages was talking to me about a fella that I think
heard him preach a message. And the fella told him, talking
about the Bible. And he says, he thinks it's a
marvelous thing that people can read the Bible and get different
things out of it, get different truths out of it. And we don't
believe the same thing, but I read it and that's what it means to
me. And you know what, that's relativism. That's why you have
so many denominations now. And that is not scriptural. The
scripture deals with absolute truth. And what I wanna show you this
morning is the absolute truth that is only to be found in God
concerning this thing of goodness, good works, goodness. And the
first thing that we need to understand, I want you to turn back to Matthew
19. First thing we need to understand
is this. There is a vast, vast difference
between what man calls good and what God calls good. A vast difference. Now what I'm talking about is
scriptural testimony. So what I'm talking about is
not how we relate to each other and how we see each other and
how we judge each other. I'm talking about this is God's
truth. And it's found here in this little
episode where the Lord confronted a rich young man. He's called
a ruler in another passage. I can't remember if it's Mark
or Luke, a rich young ruler, which would probably indicate
that this man was someone who had been, a ruler back then was
somebody in the Jewish community who had risen to the Sanhedrin
court, the Jewish high religious court where they would judge
people. according to the law of Moses. So he was a religious
man and he was interested in eternal life. This was not an
atheist now. This is one who's interested
in eternal life. Look at verse 16, he says, behold,
one came and said unto him, good master. Now he called the Lord
good master. Now that indicates that he sees
Jesus Christ not as God in human flesh, God incarnate. not as
the Messiah, but just as a good teacher. He's a good religious
teacher, a human being, merely a good human religious teacher. And he says, good master, what
good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? What do I
have to do? Now people are, by nature will
ask that question. What does God require? And so
here's the thing. Now listen to how the Lord responds
to him in verse 17. And he said unto him, why callest
thou me good? There's none good but one, and
that is God. None good but God. Now what Christ
is doing, he sees that this man has, he's involved in relativism. He's got a low standard of goodness,
a human standard. You look at a person who, a man
for example, who's trying to be a good husband, a good father,
a good worker, and on this plane of the earth and our standard,
we say, well that's a good man. And especially if he goes to
church. And especially if he's given his heart to Jesus and
gotten baptized, that's a good person, we'd say. Or you look
at a woman who's trying to be a good wife, a good mother, all
of that good work, say the same thing. So this man looked at
Jesus of Nazareth and saw something in Jesus of Nazareth that he
would call good. But he doesn't believe that Jesus of Nazareth
is God incarnate, Emmanuel. Remember the angel, his name
shall be called Jesus for he shall save his people from their
sins. His name shall be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted
God with us. This man doesn't see that. Here's
a good master, that's a rabbi, a good teacher. who does good
to others. He's a kind man. He's a generous
man. He's a gentle man. And he says, good master. And
he shows that his definition of goodness is lower than what
God's standard of goodness is when he asks this question. What
good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life? And Christ
says, well, first of all, why do you call me good? You know,
the Bible teaches that. The Old Testament teaches there's
none good but God. We're sinners. All have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Now, according to God's
standard of goodness, his absolute standard of goodness, that cancels
out any goodness on our part, even the best of us. Remember
the two Psalms that says, I mean the Psalm that says, says man
at his best state is altogether what? Vanity. So even among the best of men, there's none good, no not one,
but there's only one good, and that's God. That's what he's
saying. Now, the rest of this, you remember
Christ told him. Now, he says, verse 17, but if
thou will enter into life, keep the commandments. Now, believe
it or not, there are commentators who say, well, Christ is showing
that we can get to heaven by our works. No, that's not what
he's doing. He's showing that we can't get to heaven by our
works. He's showing that we cannot be saved. All right, here it
is, here it is. All right, if you wanna know what good thing
you must do to enter into eternal life, keep the law. Now listen,
he didn't say keep part of the commandments. He said keep the
commandments. And what do the commandments
say? The commandments say do and live, disobey and die. Well,
how much can I get away with? Commandments don't say that.
How much of the law must I keep? Well, the Bible says all of it. How well must I keep those commandments? The law says perfectly. I remember
years ago, I was having lunch with a fellow who was a son-in-law
of one of the members of her church here. And he was talking
about a lady he believed was saved because she did what was
required. And I asked him the question,
I said, well, what is required? And he said, well, I really don't
know. I said, well, I'll tell you what the Bible says is required. He said, what? And I said, perfect
righteousness. And he looked at me, his eyes
got about to, he said, well, nobody can do that. I said, that's
right. And I said, that's why salvation
is by grace through Christ and his righteousness and not by
our works. So Christ is showing this man
that you can't do it. And the man said, well, which
commandment should I keep? Now Christ quoted him what we
call the second table of the law, the two tables of the law.
The first four commandments has to do with man's relationship
to God. And then the last six has to do with man's relationship
to man. And the reason he quotes the
second table is because, you know, it's easy for religious
people to go around talking about how much they love God. I'm telling
you, that's easy to do. Oh, I just love God. Now I know
people by nature even get mad at God, you know, something happens
in their life and they, why God did you do this to me? But on
the whole, and generally speaking, it's pretty easy for a person
to go around talking about how much they love God, because they
don't see him. They don't have to live with
him day to day. But when it comes to your neighbor, that one you
have to deal with every day, that boss, that husband, that
wife, that child, that friend, that relative, that enemy. How do you stack up then? Do
you ever get angry? Do you ever wish ill will? Have
you ever wished ill will on your worst enemy? Have you? Well, if you have,
you haven't kept the law. That's right. That's how you
say, man, that's pretty, we're talking about God's standard
of goodness, see. Not yours, not mine. Man's standard
says do the best you can. And that'll count for something. God says absolute goodness, absolute
perfection, every jot and tittle. What did Jesus Christ come into
the world to do? To keep every jot and tittle
of the law. What did Jesus Christ come into
the world to do? To establish perfect righteousness. And you know how he did it? By
his obedience unto death. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. That's justice. That's not God being arbitrary
or too strict or throwing a temper tantrum. That's justice because
of his standard of goodness. And so Christ shows him. He said,
he quotes the second table law, thou shalt not commit murder.
And you understand now what the Lord taught in the Sermon on
the Mount about murder, that it's not only a sin to actually
physically murder someone, it's a sin to be angry enough to murder
someone. You ever been angry enough you
wish that person would fall off the face of the earth or never
been born or something happened to him that God would snuff him
out? That's murder. Remember, he taught about adultery.
It's a sin not only to commit the act, but to lust in the heart. That's a sin. That's the strictness
of God's law. And he goes through, and then
this fellow said in verse 20, the young man saith unto him,
all these things have I kept from my youth up, what like I
yet? And so Christ said, well, this fellow thought that he had
kept the law. Well, what does Christ do next?
He says, well, okay, let's test it. If you say you've kept the
law perfectly, without any sin, any selfishness, let's put it
to the test. Go sell everything you have and
give it to the poor and follow me. In other words, you say you've
done all this in the second table of the law. Now let me summarize
the second table of the law for you. Love your neighbor, does
it stop there? Goes on, doesn't it? As yourself. In other words, whatever you
would want your neighbor to do to you, you do to them. Now that kills me. And I know
it kills you whether you admit it or not. I know most of you
will admit it. But he says, and the man walked
away sorrowful. Christ put him to the test and
he failed. That's what we all do. You see,
there's a vast difference between what God calls good and what
we call good. So here's the second point. Turn
over to Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three. Here's the second point. There
are none among fallen humanity, man or woman, who are good in
God's sight. Christ said, there's none good
but God. You say, well, what about that? Well, look at Romans
3 in verse 10. Here's what he's saying. As it
is written, there's none righteous, no not one. Now, we all, and
listen to what I'm saying, we all should try to be the best
person, people we can be in every way. There's no argument there. I'm not gonna sit down and debate
that with anybody because it's foolish. If two people are married,
that man should strive to be the best husband that he can
be to his wife. And that wife should strive to
be the best wife to her husband. And if they have children, they
ought to strive to be the best parents, raise those children
the best they can be. If you've got a job, you ought
to be the best worker you can be. I don't care if you hate
your job, you still ought to be the best worker you can be. That's
what the scripture teaches. But here's the point. Your seeking
or my seeking to be the best I can be will not make us righteous
before God. It will not wash away our sins.
We sing it. Do we believe it? What can wash
away my sins? Trying to be the best I can be.
No, nothing but the blood of Jesus. You see? Verse 11. There's none that understand
it. There's none that seeketh after
God. What was it the rich young man didn't understand? He didn't
understand who God is. And he didn't understand who
he is. And he didn't understand the only way that God can justify
the ungodly, the righteousness of another, a God appointed,
God sent, willing substitute and surety, Jesus Christ. There's
none that seeketh after God. Now this, you could say rightly
that this young man was seeking after God, not the true and living
God. You see, he had a misshapen understanding
of who God is. The God that he was seeking was
one who would accept him and save him based upon good things
that he'd done. That's an idol, my friend. The true and living God of the
Bible will not accept or receive or save sinners based on anything
less than absolute goodness, perfection, righteousness. And then verse 12, they are all
gone out of the way. That's God's way. We have our
way of goodness naturally, but God has his way of goodness and
his way of goodness is goodness in Christ. They're together become
unprofitable. Christ spoke of the unprofitable
servant. He said, after we've done everything
we're supposed to do, then you understand now we haven't
done everything we're supposed to do. After we've done everything
that we're required to do, what is this? Luke 17, I think it
is, but I'm not sure, you look at it. After we've done everything
we're required to do, which we haven't done everything we're
required to do, but after we've done everything we're required
to do, we're still what? Unprofitable servants. God still
doesn't owe us anything. And so he says, they're together
to become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good, verse 12,
no, not one. Now that's God's standard of
goodness. And so there's none among fallen
humanity. You see, God measures all goodness
by His standard of holiness, His glory. And we're sinners. Listen, we're sinners. We fell
in Adam. Part of Adam's sin was elevating
himself to be equal with God because he felt like he could
set the standard of good and evil. That tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, that represented God's sovereign right to say
what's good and what is evil. And Adam elevated himself. And
that's what people by nature do in religion. Oh, I know he's
good enough to get into heaven, huh? You've just aligned yourself
with Adam and Satan when you say that. Because none of us
are good enough to get into heaven. That's right. Well, how are we
gonna get there? Only through he who is absolute
goodness, Jesus Christ, the Lord our righteousness. That's the
only way. Here's the third thing. Now this
means it's impossible for us to do good in God's sight. Now
look down at verse 19 of Romans 3. He says, now we know that
whatsoever things the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God. Now that means deserving of condemnation.
That means if God ever gave me what I've deserved and what I've
earned, it would be condemnation. Verse 20, therefore, by the deeds
of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. Randy
preached last week in his sight. Now that's what we're talking
about, God's sight. What's good in God's sight? Not
in my sight or your sight, but in God's sight. He said, for
by the law is the knowledge of sin. The wise man in Ecclesiastes
chapter seven verse 20 says this, he says, for there's not a just
man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. What's the definition
of doing good there? Sinning not. In other words,
to do good according to that standard, there can be no sin
at all. So it's impossible for us to
do good in God's sight. Here's the fourth thing. This
certainly means that we cannot be or do good enough to save
ourselves or keep ourselves saved. As we read there in verse 20,
therefore by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified in God's
sight. No amount of good works can absolve
us from sin or acquit us from the guilt of sin and no amount
of good works can make us righteous before God. We cannot. Christ told the disciples
when they were amazed at what he told this young man, they
said, who then can be saved? He said, well, with men it's
impossible. Salvation conditioned on men is impossible. But with
God, all things are possible. So here's the fifth thing. Therefore,
in order to have anything called good works, We have to be what
Paul told Timothy. We have to be made complete,
perfect, and furnished. Fully equipped, fully fitted.
We can't do it ourselves. We can't make ourselves complete.
We cannot furnish ourselves. In order to be fully equipped,
fitted for good works, we must be made perfect, complete. And so no amount of work, good
or bad, will equip us or fit us for goodness, nor do they
make us perfect. Let me show you something about
good works. That which is called good works, and I'm gonna go
on with this message next week and later messages. Good works
cannot save us. Now you understand what I've
been saying so far, that by nature we don't have any goodness, no
good works. But even if we could say we have good works, and we
as Christians, true believers, can say we have good works. But
good works, they didn't save you. Good works cannot cleanse us
from sin or make us righteous before God. Good works cannot
make us accepted with God. Good works cannot fit us or qualify
us for glory. Good works cannot balance the
scales of divine justice. You hear people say when they
get to judgment, God's gonna weigh your good works with your
bad works. Well, good works cannot balance those scales. Good works
cannot contribute to the payment of the debt that I owe to God's
law and justice. And then good works cannot earn
God's favor and blessings or rewards here or in glory. So then how can we be furnished?
How can we be made complete? Where can we find goodness? Well, goodness before God can
only be found in God himself. And to find goodness for sinners
in God himself, God has sent his son into the world made of
a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law. We were ruined by the fall. The only goodness that
we can experience and find as sinners is to be redeemed by
the blood. Again, what can wash away my
sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. To be complete and furnished,
God does two things for us. Look back at Romans 3. The first thing he does for us
to make us complete and furnish us unto all good works has to
do with the ground of salvation. And the ground of salvation is
the work, the merits, the righteousness, the goodness of the Lord Jesus
Christ alone. Look at verse 21. But now the
righteousness of God, now there's my goodness, That's your goodness
if you're in Christ. Without the law, that is without
my works, is manifested, it's made known. Being witnessed by
the law and the prophets, Moses wrote of me, Christ said. Isaiah
spoke of Christ to come. Verse 22, even the righteousness
of God which is by faith of or the faithfulness of Jesus Christ.
Listen, I believe in God. I believe in Christ. But my goodness
is not my believing in them. My goodness is Christ himself
in whom I believe. And it's unto all and upon all
them that believe, for there's no difference off sin and come
short of the glory of God. Verse 24, being justified, being
not guilty, having my sins washed away, being declared righteous
freely, unconditionally without a cause by his grace, unearned,
unmerited favor. Based on what? through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation,
a sin-bearing sacrifice who made satisfaction to the law, a propitiation
through faith in what? His blood, not in my works, not
even in my faith, in His blood, to declare His what? His righteousness,
His goodness, His perfection, His completeness, for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare,
I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. I am complete in Christ. I am perfect in Christ. I am
righteous in Christ. You understand? That's the ground
of salvation. The second thing that he does
to furnish us unto all good works has to do with the fruit of salvation. Not the cause, not the ground,
that's the righteousness of Christ freely imputed and received by
faith. The second thing is the fruit,
and that is regeneration by the Holy Spirit. That's the new birth. Wherein God imparts within his
people spiritual life, spiritual knowledge, a new heart, new motives,
new goals, new understanding, so that we might serve the Lord,
not in order to be saved, not trying to make ourselves righteous
by our works, but because we already are in Christ. And that's how he furnishes us. Peter said he gives us all things
that pertain to life and godliness by the precious promises of the
God of all grace. He gives us that which we need
to serve him and follow him again, not to save ourselves, not to
keep ourselves saved, but because we're secure in Christ. Our righteousness
before God, our goodness before God is never our works. It cannot be. Well, what are
these works? Well, we'll be talking about
that. We'll go into that from the scripture. But it's basically
called bringing forth fruit unto God. or the fruit of the spirit. You see, it's not the cause of
salvation. It's not the grant of salvation.
That's the work of Christ alone. It's the fruit of his work. It's
the fruit of the life that he's given us. What he earned, what
he deserves, not what we earn or deserve. All right.