If you would turn to Ephesians
chapter 2 with me. Mr. Spurgeon said one time that
the chariot wheels had came off. He was dragging on the bottom.
I appreciate my preaching brother. I've known Larry since sometimes
in the 90s. Brother Don came and preached
to us, I think, if I'm not mistaken, in the early 80s sometime years
ago. I appreciate the Lord's preachers.
I appreciate that he's still calling preachers to preach.
What a blessing that is to the communities that we see so many
young preachers today. The Lord's calling so sound in
the faith, faithful to the Lord. I appreciate that. Thank you,
ladies, for the good meal last night. Some of my favorite food,
and I know it's Brother Don's favorite food, is hot dogs. Hot
dogs and chili. Oh my. I ate two and I could
have ate more, but I stopped. So thank you for everything.
Thank you for your sweet fellowship. It's been such a joy to be here. In Ephesians chapter 2 in my
text here is taken in verses 8 through verse 10. And my subject this morning is
good works. I want to say just a little bit
about that. In verse 8, the Apostle says this, For by grace are you
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we
are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. God hath created us in Christ
Jesus unto good works. Now I am sure that every believer,
every child of God has good works. The Bible teaches us that. It
was said of Dorcas that she was a lady, a woman that was full
of good works. And when the Apostle Paul was
writing to Titus, Titus, he told him to be careful to be a pattern. of good works. You ladies probably
don't sow much like you used to when you were younger, but
you remember what a pattern is, don't you? And he encouraged
and exhorted Titus to be a pattern of good works. And before he
finished that epistle, he exhorted him to tell those that he preached
to and tell us that to be careful to maintain good works. So a believer has them. He has
good works. Paul also told us of those who
professed to know God, but in works they denied Him. They were
abominable, he said, disobedient, and void as to what a good work
was. So the children of God, I'm certain,
are people who have good works and were told to be steadfast,
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as
much as we know our work is not in vain in the Lord. God is not
unrighteous to forget your work and your labor of love which
you've showed towards His name. You've ministered to the saints,
and you have ministered. And God is not unrighteous to
forget that. He's not unrighteous to forget
that. But having said all of that, I'm sure of this. that
if you and I had the ability to search the heart and see what
good works were there, we'd walk a long way before we found any.
Good works are a very, very rare thing in this world. They're
so rare that you seldom find any. Paul says here that those
that God has created in Christ Jesus He's created unto good
works, and He tells us this, that only those who are in Christ
Jesus, new creatures, can perform good works. Now that eliminates
a lot of works, doesn't it? Only those who are regenerated
by the Spirit of God are capable of doing anything good. And no
one else can do anything good. Somebody says, well we know a
man and his wife, and they're rich, and they give a lot of
their earnings for the good of society. Is that not good? Before the eyes of man that may
be good, but is it good before God? Has God accepted it? Will God look upon it and say,
well done? That's what we're talking about
this morning. Good words, but is it good before God? We know
that a man can give his body to be burned, and not profit
anything. A man may bestow all his goods
to feed the poor. We may cross land and sea to
make one proselyte and still be works of iniquity and not
be any good at all. So what is a good work before
God? And that's what I want to examine
just for a few minutes this morning. And first of all, back to verse
10, the source What is the very source of every or any good work
that's done? Well, he tells us here, it comes
from the hand of God. For any work to be done that's
good, it comes from the hand of God. You are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Only a new creature
that God has made himself is capable of doing any good and
only as God works in him to do good. The scripture says it's
God that works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Before we do anything that's
good, there must be a will to do. If there's not first a will
in mind, it's not accepted. God never accept anything that's
not done willingly. If we give of our substance,
Paul said, if it's not done cheerfully, it's not accepted. God loves
a cheerful giver. And to give cheerfully, we must
give willingly. But how can any man do anything
willingly unless God first works in him to will and to do? How many things have you and
I done against our will? because we thought somebody else.
Surely, they're watching us and we must do it. We've done so
much out of an unwilling heart. But to be good in God's sight,
it must come first from Him. It must come from the heart that
He has made willing. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. I think sometimes we limit that
to conversion, don't we? Thy people shall be willing to
come to Christ in the day of His power. I know that's the
truth. But isn't it that He must first
work in us to do anything, to will, before it's accepted. So first of all here, a man must
have a heart to do good. It must come first from God's
hand to our hearts to will and to do of His good pleasure. And there's something else here
that Paul tells us to be a good work, it has to be what God has
ordained Notice how he said that? Which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. How do we know and how could
it be possible to know what good works God has ordained that you
and I should walk in? How could we know that? There's
but one way that we could know this infallible. There's one
rule that you and I have of faith and practice and we all know
what it is, don't we? That's the Word of God. For something
to be good, it must be done simply because God commands it. You and I are gathered here this
morning, and why are we here? We're here because God tells
us to come here, doesn't He? He tells us not to forsake the
assembling of ourselves together. That's why we come here sometimes
when we don't feel like it. Because we know that this is
our Lord's command for us to come here. And when we come here,
what do we do here? I'll tell you some things we
don't do here. I know there's some things that you guys don't
do here. You don't have a little booth that you've got set up
where Brother Larry gets in one side and you get in the other
side and you confess your sins to him and he absolves you of
all of them. You don't do that, do you? I
tell you something else you don't do, you don't run the aisles.
And you don't shout and scream and clap your hands, do you? And you don't give certain gestures,
do you? And you don't stand up here with
vain repetition and repeat something over and over and over again.
Why don't we do those things when we assemble together? He's
not commanded us to do such things. What do we do when we gather
as we are this morning? Well, we've had the Word of God
read to us. And we've listened to it, I trust,
with a measure of fear and trembling. We've sang with grace in our
hearts to the Lord. We've come here to preach the
gospel, we've come here to hear the gospel, we've come here to
edify one another. Why do we do that? Because this
is what He commands us to do. And when we leave here to live
our daily lives, to serve the Lord, what will we do? What He
has commanded us to do. And if we do anything, out of
some personal conviction or out of some preference that God does
not command. It's nothing but idolatry. It's
not a good work at all. That poor Pharisee, he said,
I fast twice a week. Well, that may be something healthy.
Some of us maybe should try that, I don't know. But where did he
ever get in all the Word of God that God commanded him to fast
twice a week? or pay tithes of the things he
got from his garden, his mint and cumin. Did God commanded
him to do that? He never did, did he? For a work
to be good and not be idolatrous, it must be what God has commanded
us to do. If you love me, keep my commandments. He that hath my word and keepeth
it. He it is that loveth. And think of this thirdly, for
a work to be good, it has to be done for God's glory. Paul mentions this, he loves
this phrase in the first chapter here, he said, to the praise
of the glory. That's what he kept saying. What
makes a work good when it's done for God's glory? One man said
the first call should be for God's glory. That's the only
call. There is no other call to do anything but for God's
glory. The apostle said whether you
eat or whether you drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of
God. Everything we do, if it's good
and acceptable to God, must be done not only because God commands
it to be done, but it must be done solely for His glory. I sometimes wonder if I've ever
done a good work. I wonder how much, and I'll confess
this to you, I wonder how much I've done in my life that I've
done it with a motive of somebody speaking well of me. I wonder how many messages I've
studied to get, how many miles I've driven, how much labor and
toil I've exerted just to get one pat on the back. People are
always telling me, and I glory in this, Bruce, you're such a
humble fellow. And I am. I am such a humble fellow. And
believe me, I know it. I know it. I have said in my
study, and Brother Don can relate to this, and Brother Larry can
relate to this, I have said in my study for hours and hours
and hours, doing nothing but reading the Bible, and how good
books surrounded me, and I've been in there all day, and given
myself to prayer, and I've left that evening feeling that I am
the worst sinner in this world. Because everything I think and
everything I do, I find such self. So much of self in it. And so little of His glory involved
in it. Do you ever feel that way? The Lord Jesus said of this,
and I've often thought of this passage in Matthew chapter 7,
and I think I think this is why good works, what we call good
works sometimes, are so deceitful. And what others call good works
are so deceitful. The Lord Jesus said to those
that stand before Him on the day of judgment, when He shut
the door in their face and wouldn't let them into the kingdom, and
they said, Lord, have we not preached in Your name? Have we
not cast out devils? Have we not done many wonderful
works in your name? Now look how deceitful these
things are. They call Him Lord, Lord. And everything they did, they
did in His name. But it was called works of iniquity. It wasn't done for His glory
at all, yet it was done in His name. How could it be wrong if
it's done in His name, if He's recognized as Lord in doing it? That's how deceitful these things
can be. But those people were trusting
in what they were doing. That was their ultimate motive,
doing them to earn them a place in His kingdom. You say, how
do you know that? Because that's finally where
they ran to. You meet these people, these
free willers that are trusting in the works, and when you start
talking to them, they'll talk to you about grace, until finally
you tell them what grace really is, and then what do they do? They run to their works. Why? Because that's where they're
trusting. And those men stood on the day of judgment, and they
said, let us in, because look what we've done. We've done wonderful. wonderful works in your name. Oh, how deceitful these things
are, what men call good works. If these people's works were
not good, even though they did them in the name of Christ, calling
Him Lord, how much more would those works be rejected by those
who deny the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and they despise the
mention of His name. Everything that's done that's
good has to be done for the glory of God. That brings me to something
else, and I'm sure glad I can add this. For a work to be good,
it must be washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. When
it comes from God to our hearts, it's holy. The work of God in
us is a holy work. But when it comes from us, it's
tainted with sin. And it has to be washed. The
Apostle Paul said, when I would do good, I have it in my heart
to do good. My motives are right. I'm doing
it for God's glory, but when it comes from me, evil is present
with it. He was called up to the third
heaven. Remember this? When the Apostle Paul was called
up to the third heaven. He saw things there he said it
was not possible for me to utter. Sure things. He came back down
to earth and he had received the abundance of these revelations.
The Lord had blessed him above all the other apostles. But then
the Lord had to do something to him to keep him down and to
keep him from getting proud. He gave him this thorn in the
flesh to humble him. Why? We get lifted up. We get lifted up. I do something
that I think is good and I get proud. And then I do something
I think is good and it doesn't go over so well and I get discouraged
and fall into unbelief and I'm just up and down and in and out. But when you come right down
to it, here's the problem with us. Everything we do is tainted
with sin. It has our fingerprints upon
it. And it has to be washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
There was a sacrifice under the Jewish law that the priest had
to offer a sacrifice for the iniquity of the holy things. As they went about ministering
to God, everything they did was tainted with sin. So they had
to bring a sacrifice to wash the sin from that holy thing.
There's an amazing passage of Scripture in 1 John 1 verse 7
that says if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have
fellowship one with another. How sweet that is. To fellowship
with God, the Father with His Son and one with another. But
you know what John says, and the blood of Jesus Christ God's
Son cleanses us from all sin. How could there be any sin in
our walking in the light? Why do we have to be washed if
we're walking in the light? Because when we're involved in
it, it's tainted with sin, so we have to be washed. So what
do we do with our works? We bring them to that fountain.
that's open for sin and uncleanliness. And we say, Lord, we prayed. Wash our prayers. Lord, we've
repented. Wash our repentance. Lord, we've
come to worship. Wash our worship. Wash our service. Wash everything we do and present
it to God holy and acceptable. It must be washed in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God is determined that His children
will never trust in what they do to be saved. He's going to beat them off from
trusting in anything they do. So what He does, He just lets
them see the sin that's involved in everything they do. Then they
bring it to the fountain. And say, wash it. Lord, wash
it. When you've done that which is
your duty to do, say, we're unprofitable servants. It must be washed. Good works. And lastly is this. Consider this. Back in our text,
look how the Apostle Paul says this in verse 10. We are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which
God hath before ordained," now look at this, "...that we should
walk in them." Good works is not so much as doing this thing
or that thing. It's that. We know it doesn't
exclude that. But good works is more than anything
this. It's a way of life. It's a way we live. It's a walk. We walk in them. And how do we walk? We walk by
faith. We walk by faith and not by sight. And as the Christian lives his
life by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, these good things that
he's done is more or less spontaneous. Paul said, the life that I now
live in this flesh, I live I live my daily life by faith. We have some dear brethren that
tells us that the rule of faith is not a sufficient rule for
us to live our life by. That we have to have the law
of Moses. Brothers and sisters, if faith
is not a sufficient rule to live by, then there's no use of going
to the law of Moses. If we walk by faith, we do good. When we walk by faith, we love
our wives, we love our spouses. When we walk by faith, we work
a job. When we walk by faith, we support
our family, we teach our children. When we walk by faith, we let
no corrupt communication come out of our mouths, but that which
is good to the edifying. When we walk by faith, we don't
steal, but we work with our hands to provide to those who have
not. When we walk by faith is when
we walk pleasing unto God. Our dear old forefathers of old,
They were so cruel to those fellas. Those dear men and women were
told they lived in caves and dens of the earth. They took
their property away from them. Some of them, they cut their
heads off. They wandered about just wherever they could find
a place to settle. They were despised of the world.
But you know what the Bible says about those dear old people?
They all obtained a good report through They just lived their lives by
faith. They trusted God. They depended
upon Him. They looked to Him to supply
their need for everything. And as they did, God looked upon
them and He said, that's good. That's good. A fellow told Brother
Don one time, He told Don, Don asked him something about praying
over his food out in public at a restaurant. And he told Don
he wanted people to know he was a Christian. And Don said, you want people
to know you're a Christian? Live by faith. Is that what you
told him? Live by faith. That's when we
do good. in them. And we do good when
we walk in love. He tells us that in the fifth
chapter of this book. Walk in love. Look over here
how he says it in the fifth chapter. In verse 1. Ephesians chapter
5 in verse 1. Look at this. Be ye therefore
followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ hath
loved us. and hath given himself for us
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savior."
Walking in love. I tell you, it's hard to beat
love for a rule to walk by. You know, if you love people,
there's certain things you won't do to them. The love of Christ
constrains you, and you will not hurt somebody you love. You
sure won't commit adultery against them. Love is the fulfilling
of the law. You won't bear false witness
against somebody you love. You won't speak evil of them.
You sure won't steal from them. You won't steal their reputation.
You won't steal their good name. You won't do anything to hurt
somebody if the love of God is shed abroad in your heart. And
there are certain things you will do. If you see your brother have
need, I mean you see it. It's not something you're in
doubt of. You know it. You see your brother or sister
have need. You're aware of it. And what
do you do? You'll supply that need. You have these bowels,
John calls them, bowels of compassion. And I tell you, you just can't
shut them up. They're just always bursting open. Your brother has
need of fellowship. He has need of a phone call.
He has need of a visit. He has need of clothes or something. And you know it. And what do
you do? You open your heart to him. Why? You love. You're walking in love. And it's just spontaneous. Good
works are more or less spontaneous. It's just a way of life, a way
of living. Don't you imagine there's going to be a lot of
people on the Day of Judgment. They have done great things.
They have built huge cathedrals. They have done wonderful things
and the world has recognized them. Even the church may have
recognized them. They have patted them on the
back and they have gloried in them. But when they stand before
the Lord, it will be all for naught. And then there'll be
some old widow there that's given her last mite. She's just lived
by faith and she's walked in love. And the Lord will say to
that poor woman who was never recognized in this world, Come
you blessed of my Father. You've been faithful over a few
things. Just a few things. Enter thou
into the joy of the Lord. Good works. Good works. They must come from God's hand
to our heart. They must be done for His glory.
They must be washed. They must be what He commanded.
And it's simply a way of life, a way of living. God bless His
Word. Thank you, Pastor.