Well, good morning to everyone.
If you would open your Bibles with me to Ephesians chapter
2. We'll continue our study in Ephesians chapter 2 this morning. Before we begin, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, how thankful we are
for this morning that you have appointed to us to be able to
gather together to worship your matchless name. Father, I pray
that is what you would enable us to do this morning, to worship
you. Father, I beg of you that you
would deliver us from just going through the motions and the habit
of religion and to truly worship thee. Father, bless us with your
spirit. Bless us with your presence.
Mix faith with everything that is said and done here this morning,
that we might believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, Father, I
pray his name would be exalted, that he would be lifted up and
magnified, that you give your people eyes to see, eyes to look
to Christ and to see him and believe on him. Have our hearts
comforted and assured and calmed, and not looking to the things
of this world, not looking to the activity of our flesh, but
looking to the Savior. Cause our hearts to be like the
disciples of old who were on that see, tossed to and fro,
but when they saw the Savior, all was calm. And while we pray
for ourselves, Father, we pray for your people, wherever they
might meet together today. Bless your word, Father. We pray
for your glory and for the good of your people. Show us your
glory in this dark, dark day, and especially in this hour,
we pray. For it's in Christ's name, for his sake and his glory,
we pray. All right, I've titled our lesson
this morning, Created on Two Good Works. In our text, we're
just gonna look at one verse, Ephesians 2, verse 10. For we
are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus on two good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Now, sovereign gracers like us get very reluctant to talk about
good works, don't we? We want to be very careful, that
we don't start trusting any of our salvation, earning it or
keeping it, to our good works. We're very reluctant to talk
about our good works. And we should want to be very
careful not to give somebody the impression that some part
of our salvation is dependent upon our good works or comes
from our good works. We know this. If God has saved
you, you know this. None of our salvation, before
conversion or after conversion, none of our salvation is because
of any good work that we've done. None. And every work that we
do, if we're doing a work trying to make ourselves more righteous,
or more saved, or we're trying to do a good work to put ourselves
on a higher spiritual plane, you know that's not a work of
righteousness at all. That's not a good work at all. You know
what God calls it? A filthy rag. A rag that's polluted
with our sin. A rag that offends God. Those
works we do trying to make God happy with us, they don't make
God happy with us. They offend God. They make Him
angry. And here's why. Because if we're
doing the work trying to make ourselves more saved, or we're
doing the work trying to make ourselves more blessed of God.
Oh, if I do this, God will bless me. Or if I do this, I'll be
more accepted of God than I would otherwise. You know what that's
saying? That's saying Christ alone is not enough to save me.
Christ alone is not enough to cause God to bless me. Christ
alone is not enough to make me accepted of the father. So we
should be careful and, and you know, uh, sovereign gracious
are careful when we talk about good works. We don't want to
take any credit for them, but we shouldn't shy away from good
works either. Look at Titus chapter three for a moment. You know,
good works are an important part of the believer's life. And Paul
tells us here that God's servant should preach that truth. Look
what he says, Titus three, verse seven, that being justified by his grace,
that's how we're justified. That's how we're saved. That's
how we're made without seeing is by God's grace. We should
be made heirs according to the hope, not something we've earned
the hope, the expectation of eternal life because of what
Christ has done for us. This is a faithful saying, and
these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which
have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.
These things are good and profitable unto men. Now Paul says here,
God's servant, if he's God's servant, should constantly affirm
these things. Number one, we're justified by
grace. That's what you are constantly to affirm this truth. We're justified
by grace without our works. but the believer should also
be careful to maintain good works or to do good works with the
right attitude and the right motive. Now if the Lord saved
us, there's gonna be a difference in our lives. And of course it
won't be perfect. Nobody's saying you're perfect.
We talk about the believer having two natures, one that's totally
sinful and one that's perfectly righteous, perfectly holy and
can never sin. Of course, nobody in their right
mind is saying that makes the believer sinless or able to do
something perfectly. We're not perfect, we're still
in this body of flesh, this body of sinful, vile flesh. But if God's caused a new man
to be born in us, there will be a difference. There will be
a difference. We won't be, we're not gonna
be perfect now, but we won't be what we once were. We won't
be, it's impossible. Now, let me take this opportunity
to warn you. There will be a difference. If God saved you, there'll be
a difference. But don't look for evidence of your salvation
in your good works. Don't ever say, oh, I did that.
So that means I'm saved. No, sir. The only evidence we
have of salvation is faith in Christ. The only evidence you
have of salvation is looking to Christ. He is all of our salvation. But still yet, if Christ has
saved us, now we're not looking to our changed walk for evidence
of salvation, but if Christ has saved us, there's gonna be a
changed walk. There has to be. Paul said in verse one, you were
dead, now you're alive. Well, a person who's living does
something very differently than a man that's dead. There has
to be a difference if God made you alive. In verse two, he said,
you used to walk after Satan. Now you're following Christ.
Now you're looking to Christ. There's got to be a difference.
Christ and Satan are opposite ends of the spectrum. If now
you're following Christ, there's going to be a change. In verse
three, Paul said, you used to have your citizenship in the
lust of your flesh, but now you're a citizen of the kingdom of God.
There's got to be a difference. Got to be. He also said in verse
three, you used to be children of wrath. You used to be children
that deserved God's wrath, and you used to be children that
hated God. Now by God's grace, you love God, don't you? You
love God. Then there should be a difference. You know, if you're
controlled by hate, you're doing something very differently than
if you're directed by love, aren't you? So there has to be a changed
walk. And if you look at Mark chapter
14, before we look at our text, I
want to show you something. This is the one and only thing
that our savior ever called a good work while he was on earth. Mark
14 verse three and being in Bethany in the house
of Simon, the leper, as he sat at me, there came a woman having
an alabaster box of ointment of spike nerd, very precious.
And she break the box and poured it on his head. And there were
some that had indignation within themselves, and said, why was
this waste of the ointment made? For it might have been sold for
more than 300 pence, and been given to the poor. And they murmured
against her. And Jesus said, let her alone.
Why trouble ye her? She hath wrought a good work
on me. For ye have the poor with you always, and whensoever you
will, you may do them good. But me, ye have not always. She
hath done what she could. She has come beforehand to anoint
my body to the bearing. Verily I say unto you, wheresoever
this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this
also that she hath done will be spoken of for a memorial of
her. Our Savior called what this woman
did a good work. First thing about this work.
This woman took this precious ointment. What is a good work?
What is this? This tells us what a good work is. She took this
precious ointment and she poured it out on the body of Christ,
our savior. And the Lord called it a good
work. A good work is done to something it's done to help the
body of Christ. And who is the body of Christ?
His people. A good work is something that
you do to help God's people. Number two, the Lord said, I
just love this. He says, she did what she could.
Maybe she couldn't do a lot, but she did what she could. And
the Lord called it a good word. Now, if the Lord lays something
on your heart to do, do it. Don't overthink it. Just do it.
Don't think, oh, you know, people think that's dumb. People think
that's not enough. There's so much more that needs
to be done. That's not enough. People think that's not enough.
People murmured against this woman, too, didn't they? Don't
worry about that. Don't worry about what people
think. Do what you can. Don't worry about what you can't
do. Do what the Lord has enabled you to do. I promise you, it'll
be a blessing to somebody. Third, this woman did what she
did, the Lord said, to anoint his body for burial. She knew
she wouldn't be able to later. Now, this is very interesting.
How often had the Lord talked about his death? Often had he. Matter of fact, he told him it
was going to happen this very weekend. That's why we're going to Jerusalem
on this trip, the son of man. It's going to be delivered over
to the hands of the Jews and the Romans and be crucified. Rise again the third day. He
told him it's going to happen this weekend on this trip to
Jerusalem. And it seemed like nobody, none of the 12, you know,
you think, oh, these men, you know, they're so learned. Not
one of those 12 seems to understand the Lord's getting ready to die.
But this woman does. How does she know that? How does
she know to come and anoint the Lord's body for burial because
she's just certain she won't be able to later? It's faith. She listened to what the Savior
said and believed Him. That's what faith is. A good
work is a work done in faith. By faith in Christ, not trying
to gain something for yourself, it's faith in Christ. Love for
Him and love for His people. Now I know this, salvation is
by grace. It's by grace without our works. Our works do not contribute to
it in any way whatsoever. But if God saved you by His grace,
He's given you new nature. And that new nature will have
a desire to work and to serve in the kingdom of God. It sure
will. Look at Matthew chapter five. And it's all right to feel
that way. It's all right to feel like,
you know, I want to do something to help the ministry, to help
spread the gospel. I want to do something to help
God's people. It's good you feel that way,
because that's what the Lord told us to do. Whatever it is
you can do by faith in Christ, do it for his glory, not yours.
Look what the Savior says here, Matthew 5, verse 16. Let your light so shine before
men. that they may see your good works and glorify you for doing. It's not what says, is it? The
savior says, let your light so shine before men that they may
see your good works and glorify your father, which is in heaven. See the motive for a good work
is not our glory. We're doing something. So people
say, look what a good Christian they are. Look how loving they
are. Look how accepting they are. It's not a good word, but
if the motive for our good work is the glory of our safe, The
Lord says, that's a good work. And the Lord will accept it as
a good work. And it will be a blessing to somebody else. All right,
now back to our text. That's what the scripture teaches
about good works. Now let's look at this, the verse
in our text, word by word, and see if we can't learn something
about good works. First, verse 10, Ephesians 2.
Paul says, for we are his workmanship. Now that word workmanship, It
means a work of God as the creator, as the creator. John Gill says
that the word has to do, the primary meaning of the word has
to do with the poem. Now I couldn't find that anywhere,
in the interest of full disclosure, I couldn't find that anywhere,
but John Gill said it, so I tend to believe it. A believer is
God's creation, and it's a beautiful creation. Just like a poem is
just, you know, a beautiful poem is a, It's the work of the creative
mind. I don't know anything about.
I can't hardly rhyme two words together, you know, but somebody
that can write a beautiful poem, it all fits together. It's a
beautiful thing. And that's what God has done in the salvation
of his people. This is a beautiful work and
it is the creation of God alone. God's the one who elected a people
to say, we didn't choose God. He chose us. That's a beautiful
work, isn't it? God is the one who loved the
people. We didn't love God. The only reason we love God now
is he first loved us. God is the one who redeemed the
people. God is the one that justified the people. Christ paid the debt
for his people with his own precious blood. He obeyed the law for
his people. God's the one who redeemed his people. God's the
one who justified themselves. Our works can't contribute to
be justified, be made without sin, because all we do is sin.
God's the one who regenerated His people. God's the one that
caused those people to be born again and to give them life.
Your spiritual birth is the same way as your natural birth. What
did you have to do with either one? Your natural birth and your
physical birth is all the work somebody else did to create you. God did that. And God is the
one who calls His people to Himself. The preacher can tell you to
come to Christ until he's blue in the face. The only reason
we ever come to Christ is the Father draws us to Him. He calls
us and draws us to Christ. And God's the one that preserves
His people, protects His people, and keeps His people. We didn't
do that. If God take His finger off of
us, we'd fall away in a heartbeat, wouldn't we? If we're kept, it's
because God kept us. If we're kept at the end, it's
because God brought us all the way to the finish line. And when
it's all said and done, God's the one that's going to glorify
His people. And we're going to look back and say, we didn't
do anything to contribute to any of this creation. God did
it. All we're going to do in eternity
is praise God for what He's done. We're going to sing, He loved
us. He washed us. He redeemed us.
He generated us and He glorified us. Praise ye the Lord. He did it all. We're His workmanship. And here's why God did all of
this. He allowed Adam to fall and all of his race to fall in
him so that Christ could come and redeem them. Their dead in
sin, Christ came to give them life. He redeemed them and he
glorified them. The reason God did it all is
throughout eternity, he can show all creation his workmanship,
his trophies of grace. And he's gonna say, look what
I redeemed. Look what I made. All the glory is going to go
to him where his workmanship. So he gets all the glory. All
right. Number two, a believer has been
created, created in Christ. Jesus Paul says now believers,
a new creature, a new creation. He's a brand new man, a new nature. Who's never a new man. Who's
never existed before. Born of the spirit of God, just
like Our babies are born. Lord willing, in a few weeks,
double G. That's what his papa calls him,
double G. Grayson Grubb is gonna be here.
Now he's not somebody who existed before, made into a little baby
and cuttin' up. He's a brand new person who's
never been here before. That's who he is. The same thing
happens when a believer's born of God. It's not this flesh remodeled. It's not like, Some old shows
Janet watches. I like flipping houses. They
knock down a few walls and paint a few walls and put in some new
furniture. That's just a remodel. God does not take this flesh
and remodel it. He doesn't do it. This flesh
is nothing but dead flesh and it can't be anything else. If
God saves His people, He leaves this flesh alone. That's why
we're going to put it in the dirt someday. He leaves this
flesh alone and He creates a brand new man. born of his spirit,
born of his seed, the seed of the word of God. And that new
man has a brand new nature. He's got the nature of Christ,
been made partakers of the divine nature. This word created, created
in Christ Jesus, is the same word used in the New Testament
to describe how God created the world. Now, when God created
the world, did he take a lump of mass that was already there
and kind of, you know, change it and shake it up and make it
something. No. Space was an empty void. A black hole, I guess,
if you will. And God spoke the world into
existence. And something that was there
was never there before. God spoke and animals were created. They were never here before.
He just spoke them out of thin air. God spoke and animals appeared
and plants appeared and they never were here before. He didn't
take them out of dirt and make them into something else. No,
he spoke them into existence. That's creation. The same thing's
true, the new nature that's in a believer. God speaks it into
existence and was never here before. Let me show you that
in 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5. And verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. He's a new, that word is often
translated creation. He's a new creature. He's a new
creation. And since he's a brand new creation,
old things are passed away and behold, all things have become
new. See that, that new creature has, has new loves. His new faith, the flesh can
only trust in the flesh. This new man can only trust in
Christ. He's got new life. Everything's new. That's why
I said there's got to be a difference, doesn't there? Because this new
man, he's brand new. What a miracle that God would
do this in the hearts of his people. We're created in Christ
Jesus. Now, please don't ever forget
this. Salvation is a work that God does for us. and in us. And it takes both. It takes both. People would say, well, God only
did it work for me. He didn't do it work in me. I'm sorry. God hadn't saved him. If God saves people, he does
it work for them and in them, in them. So the believer is a brand new
creature. He's new nature and he's got new ways. And that brings
me to the next thing Paul says. Back in our text, Ephesians 2
verse 10, we're created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Not by good works now, unto good
works. Sinners are saved by grace, aren't
they? They're saved by the work of
Christ, his obedience, his death, his work for us and his work
in us. And that salvation is received
by faith without our works. That's the theme of the whole
letter. to the church at Rome, isn't it? Salvation is received
by faith without our works. That's the theme of the whole
letter. So God's people are saved without our works. But Paul says
here we're created to work, to work in the service of God. God
has left his people in this world to be lights of the world. That's
why the Savior said, let your light shine before me. And this
is a dark, dark, dark, dark world. Let your light so shine before
men. Do what you can. Do what you can to help others
hear the gospel. Do what you can to support the
gospel so that others can hear of Christ. Has it made a difference to you
to hear of Christ? Huh? Is it the best news you
ever heard? I mean, does it make a true difference
to your heart? Well, do what you can so others can hear of
Him. Do what you can. God has left his people in this
world to be the salt of the world. And salt is a preservative. You know why this world is preserved?
I mean, how often, I mean, maybe I'm the only one that does this,
but how often do I wonder, why has God put up with this? I mean,
why didn't he just destroy this place? What's he waiting on?
It's for the elect's sake. is for the elect to say, God
does not destroy this world for the sake of his elect that's
in it. He cannot destroy this world while his elect are in
it. Just like that angel that laid hold, and that angel was
Christ our Savior, laid hold on Lot and told him, get out
of this place. I'm going to destroy this place,
but I can't destroy it while you're in it. You've got to get
out of here. God doesn't destroy this world for the sake of his
elect who aren't born yet, that he has ordained. to give life
and faith in Christ. He can't destroy this world till
his purpose is done. God's elect are the salt of this
earth, the preservative. But you know, salt also makes
food taste better. It's very interesting to me. When you make a cake, it's sweet,
but you put a little pinch of salt in that thing. to make it
taste better. Salt makes food taste, not just
your eggs, not just your beans, not just, salt makes food taste
better in every way. Brethren, you're the salt of
the earth. Do what you can to make this horrible world taste
a little better to those around you. I mean, this world is a
tough place to live. Isn't it tough? I mean, oh, it's
brutal, especially for the believer, especially for the believer.
Do what you can to make this place a little more tolerable
for your brethren, for your sisters. You're the salt of the earth.
My dear, dear friend, Jim Meadows, I mean, I wish I had nickel for
every time Jim said this. I don't know why when Lord saved
me. He didn't just take me out of this place. I'm so done with
this place. I don't know why the Lord would
just leave me here. It's so miserable. Why didn't
the Lord, when He saved me, just take me out of this place? Take
me to be with Him? I said, Jim, I know why. Me and Janet need
help. We need help fixing up this house.
God's left you. This is why God left you here.
This is why He hadn't taken you to glory yet. So you'd be the
salt of the earth. Take that seriously. Do what
you can to make this place a little easier, to make this journey
a little easier for your fellow pilgrims. And you know what? Not only will
it be a blessing to them, you'll find it'll be a blessing to you.
Sometimes it's hard to tell who gets the greater blessing, the
one being helped or the one that the Lord's enabled to be the
helper. Sometimes it's hard to tell, isn't it? That's not the flesh. That's
not true of the flesh. It's true of the spirit. All
right, here's the fourth thing about good works. God has ordained
good works for his people. Paul says, which he and God have
before ordained that we should walk in them. Now God saved his
people by his grace, but he's ordained them unto good works. Now you notice the order? First
comes salvation, doesn't it? Then comes good works. Good works
are not the cause of salvation. They're the fruit of it. They're
the result of God's salvation. And say we do a good work. Say
we do a good work. We can't take credit for it,
can we? Because God's the one who ordained we do it. So we
can't take credit for it. And every believer thinks I can't
do good works. I mean, other people can do good
works. Other people, they have more resources. Other people,
they have more skills and talents and things. They can do good
works, but I can't. You know what? If God's ordained
you to do them, you will, you sure will. And you're going to
do it by his power and his might, not your talent and not your
resources. Let me show you that Philippians chapter two. Philippians 2 Verse 13 For it is God Which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure if you have
any desire to do something helpful God put that desire in you didn't
he and if you have any ability to carry it out God gave you
the strength to carry it out See, it's done by the will and
the strength of God, so we just can't take any credit for it,
can we? No, God's ordained that we should do those things. And
then here's the last thing. A believer is to walk in good
works. God hath before ordained that
we should walk in them. Now don't think if I can find
one good work to do, one way to help out, my work's done. Well, once in a while, you know,
I'll try to do some. A believer is to walk in good
works. Remember how Paul said before,
we walked in sin. We walked after the course of
this world. We walked after the prince of the power of the air.
All we did was sin. All we did was try to find new
ways to sin and new ways to satisfy that lust to sin more. Well,
now by God's grace, you new creature. You got a new walk, don't you?
You got new desires. Well, walk in righteousness.
Walk in good works the same way you used to walk in sin. Walk
in good works all of the time, seeking out new ways to be helpful,
seeking out new ways to help God's people, seeking out new
ways to help the gospel. Now, let me give you this in
closing. Look at Matthew chapter 25. Here's the thing about good works,
and this is a good way to kind of end and remind us of this. Do you know people who have truly
done good works? Do you know they don't know they've
done them? They don't know how many good works that they've
done, because they're not keeping score. The people who are keeping
score are the unbelievers, who depend upon their work. The believers
not keeping track of their good works, They're not depending
on them, they're depending on Christ the Savior. They do good
works simply to be helpful, simply because they love their brethren
and care about their brethren. Let me show you that, Matthew
25 verse 31. When the Son of Man shall come
in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then shall he
sit upon the throne of his glory. And before him shall be gathered
all nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd
divided his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on
his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the king
say unto them on his right hand, come you blessed of my father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. For I was in hunger and you gave me meat. I was thirsty
and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took
me in, naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited
me. I was in prison and you came
unto me. Then shall the righteous answer, Answer him, saying, Lord,
when saw we thee in hunger and fed thee, or thirsty and gave
thee drink? When did we ever see thee a stranger and took
thee in or naked and clothed thee? When did we see you sick
or in prison and came unto thee? I don't remember doing any of
those things. And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily
I say unto you, and as much as you've done it unto one of the
least of these my brethren, unto my body, you've done it unto
me. See, the righteous didn't do
these things in order to be saved, did they? They did these things. That was the evidence God had
saved them. But look at verse 41. Eventually he say also unto
them on his left hand, depart from me. He cursed into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was in
hunger and he gave me no meat. I was thirsty and he gave me
no drink. I was a stranger and you took me not in. Naked and
you clothed me not. Sick and in prison and you visit
to me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when
do we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick,
or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Lord, Lord, we've
done many wonderful works in your name. They kept score, didn't
they? They knew how many times they'd
done those things, because they're dependent upon them. And then
shall he answer them, saying, verily I say unto you, inasmuch
as you did it not unto one of the least of these, you did it
not unto me. Now that's what a good work is.
I pray God give us the spirit to do that with the right attitude
and the right motive for one another. All right, the Lord
bless you.