Caleb: Good works in of themselves are not bad words. It's easy to think that because our good works couldn't save us, that they were the problem all along, but they were not. We were the problem all along. The problem was that we were incapable of doing good works, which are good. So good works are very good words because God saved us by his good works.
The following message was recorded at King's Tree Church. May the spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. Join me in the book of Ephesians chapter two verses one through 10. Ephesians chapter two verses one through 10. And if you're wondering why I'm standing here instead of Christopher, last week he announced that for this week and next week he's working on his focusing completely on his dissertation so he asked me if I could preach today and I am very very glad and happy to do so.
So last week pastor Christopher taught us that we are the children of something good enough or because we believed something hard enough or because we keep ourselves clean enough but because in the mystery of his will, our father set his love upon us. In other words, God loves us not because we're good kids but because he is a good father who chose us, adopted us, made us his kids. In fact, this love is the reason that Julia and I are pursuing embryo adoption. We want to show that same love by choosing, purchasing, adopting children of our own who are presently frozen in time. And you see our love for them now doesn't depend on anything that they've done or anything that they will ever do in the future.
It's entirely founded on our own desire and commitment to love them and give them a shot at life or at least a warmer life. Right now they're alive, they're just in a freezer. Now, if God blesses us with children in this way, then we, like all parents, will have zero expectations on their life. They'll be able to do anything they want to do. We couldn't care less how they live, how they act, how they treat people, what they do with their time.
It'll please us just to know that they exist. That's what all parents think, right? No, Absolutely not. That's what you call bad parenting if I can say that. Alright.
So parenting isn't just conceiving or birthing or just having kids. That's the beginning of parenting. The aim of good parenting, at least as far as I can tell, is to take helpless little babies and as much as it is within your power to raise them into helpful mature adults. It's fitting and proper for parents to want their kids to be good kids and to turn into good people. It would actually be very strange and dangerous if parents didn't want this for their kids or didn't expect it of them.
And with God, it's no different. God saved us and has expectations for how his blood bought children live. And we struggle with this sometimes because we know we aren't saved by our good works. We're not saved because we're good kids. But if we're not saved by good works, what role do they actually play in our relationship with God?
Like why would we do them if we don't need to do them to be saved? For me, growing up this idea actually was really difficult to understand. My dad was a pastor, still is a pastor at a church in Des Moines, Iowa and Des Moines has a lot of Catholics. So a lot of people in the church converted from Catholicism and my dad in good faith made it very clear that they could not be saved by their good works. If good works came up in a sermon, it was to say you're not saved by them.
That you are that salvation comes by grace through Christ in in faith alone. But with this emphasis came at least to me, the idea that good works were bad words. That because good works couldn't save and because so many people think that they do, that good works can only be spoken of negatively. Now, talked to my dad about this and he tells me that this misunderstanding came because I didn't listen to his sermons very well and that's true. But nonetheless, that's what I ended up thinking growing up.
And the text we're about to read today blows that understanding of good works out of the water. Good works are not bad words. They're very, very good words. And to prove this, I plan to show you three surprising truths about good works in Ephesians two ten. So I'm gonna read Ephesians one through 10, but we're gonna focus in on that last verse.
And then we'll consider what good works actually are and how we should walk in them. So let's go ahead and start reading from Ephesians two and I want to turn there myself starting in chapter or verse one. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ.
By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Let's pray together.
Father, as we read, you are rich in mercy and full of love and you are righteous and you love righteous deeds. Thank you for saving us even though we were dead in our trespasses and sins and making us now your new creation in Christ. Grant us insight by your spirit so that we can understand good works as you understand them. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Alright. So the first surprising truth about good works in this passage is that God saved us by good works. And you heard me right. I said, God saved us by good works. Now you may say, Caleb, how in the world could you have missed the point of the passage you just read?
We weren't saved by works. And before pastor Christopher or Sean or Chad run up here and rip me from the pulpit on the charge of blasphemy, let me clarify. Obviously, from the passage I just read, God did not save us by our good works. Starting in verse one, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Last time I checked, dead people can't work no matter how much the social security agents think they do.
We continue in verse three, We all once lived in what? In the passions of our flesh. Those aren't good works. Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. Not good.
And were by nature children of wrath, very not good. So God did not save us by our good works because we couldn't do good works. We loved the darkness rather than the light because our works were evil. And yet, the bible tells us elsewhere that good works are necessary for salvation. For who can ascend the hill of the Lord?
Says the Psalmist. And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands, a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully? Even when a rich man asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus answered, well, you know the commandments. Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.
And the rich man said to him, teacher, all these I have kept for my youth. And Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, you lack one thing, go sell all that you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven and come follow me. Disheartened by the saying, the rich man went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. So if good works are necessary for salvation and we are incapable of doing good works, how are we saved? Well, we were saved because God did good works on our behalf.
God saved us by his good works. Just listen to this. God the father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. He predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. He endured our sinfulness with much patience.
He sent his son Jesus to be born of a woman under the law And Jesus who is God emptied himself by taking on the form of a servant. Jesus humbled himself by becoming obedient to God. Jesus committed no sin though tempted by Satan. Jesus gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, healing to the lepers, and he proclaimed good news to the poor. When he was reviled, he did not revile and return.
And when he suffered, he did not threaten like a lamb led to the slaughter. He did not open his mouth. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, was buried in a rich man's tomb, and three days later was raised from the dead. After that, he appeared to the 12 and more than 500 brothers. He ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God where he now intercedes for us.
And that's not all. The father then sent another helper, the Holy Spirit who is God. The Holy Spirit convicted us concerning sin and righteousness and judgment and revealed to us the depths of God by bearing witness to Christ. The Holy Spirit regenerated us, renewed us, and sealed us for the day of redemption. Even now, he distributes gifts among us, empowers us as we use them to build up one another.
He helps us in our weakness, leads us into all unrighteousness or all righteousness and produces in us the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. And finally, he guards the good deposit entrusted to us until Jesus raises us up on the last day, wipes away every tear from our eyes, and dwells with us as our God forevermore. Oh, the good works of God. How awesome are his deeds. They are more than can be told.
Now in our passage, Paul sums up all these good works that God did on our behalf with one word, grace. See in Ephesians two:eight, For by grace you have been saved through faith. Obviously, this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works that is your works so that no one may boast. Now, why can no one boast?
We see at the beginning of verse 10, for we are his workmanship. No one can boast because our salvation was not our works, it was by God's hand. God worked to save you. Your entire existence as a Christian owes to good works. That is the good works of God.
He made you his. You would still be in your sins and without hope in the world if God did if God did not work very hard to cleanse you from your sins and give you hope of eternal life in Christ. And this is the first reason why good works in of themselves are not bad words. It's easy to think that because our good works couldn't save us, that they were the problem all along, but they were not. We were the problem all along.
The problem was that we were incapable of doing good works, which are good. So good works are very good words because God saved us by his good works. Now, second surprising truth about good works, which I hope will now make more sense is that God made us for good works. God made us for good works. Paul explicitly says this in Ephesians two ten.
So if we continue on, he says, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. This is the phrase that made me choose this passage originally because it was the one that I was the most conflicted by. Do you mean to say Paul that God went to such great lengths to save me that he would send his son to die on my behalf just so I would do good things? And Paul says, yes, but not just good things. Gloriously good things.
God made us good so that we could be good like he is good. God did good for us so that we could do good like he does good, which we already just walked through all of the goodness that God is. Every good work that we do now shows the glory of the gospel of the good works of Jesus Christ in a real and tangible way. Alright? And this is significant for at least two reasons.
First, the good works that we do now as Christians are no longer filthy rags before God. They were filthy rags when, before we were saved because they could not earn favor from him. But now, now that he favors us in Christ, our goods, our good works actually delight him. They're the very things he looks forward to do with us and he's pleased when we walk in them. This also means that if we were made for good works, that good works are not optional.
God saved us not so we could sit back and consume his grace, be entertained by his preachers and worship leaders. God saved us literally to put us to work. All right. So think about this. Have you ever rinsed out a paintbrush?
It's not an easy job. Usually it's something you want to skip, but you squeeze Dawn soap onto the bristles and you try to lather them up on your hands and it takes forever if anyway if the paint actually comes off of the bristles. You do the best job you can. So why do you go through all of that effort anyway? Why clean the brush?
Well, is it just to put the brush back in the drawer never to be used again? No. The time and energy and elbow grease that you put into cleaning that brush would be completely worthless. You could have just as easily thrown the brush away. You cleaned that brush so that you could use it for the next paint job.
You see, God washed us from our sins because he intends to use us for his purposes. He didn't rinse us off just to throw us in the junk drawer of Sabina, Ohio which is not a junk drawer or even to put us up on a mantle as part of some weird paintbrush collection. He cleansed us so that he could use us for his good purposes. He made us for good works. But this but it's not just any good works that he saved us for.
The third surprising truth about good works is that God gave us his good works to carry out. God gave us his good works to carry out. Look again at Ephesians two ten, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Just as God chose us before the foundation of the world, he also preordained good works for us to walk in. So what exactly does this look like?
Is it like a video game where there are like predetermined achievements that every Christian needs to do in order to finish the game? Or at some point is God gonna download into my brain a very specific do to do list that I check off as I go? Or do I just float around hoping that good work hoping that the good works that I'm doing are the ones that he actually prescribed me? Like, maybe I was supposed to give that home homeless man all the change I had left and now I'm out of sync with God's will. I don't think any of these are what Paul intended.
Scripture doesn't mention a set of hoops that every Christian needs to jump through to get to the gates of heaven. He doesn't promise to tell us by his spirit exactly what to do at every moment in our life and whatever this phrase means, it definitely shouldn't leave us living hopelessly as if we can never know if we're doing what God wants us to do. So I believe Paul included this phrase for at least two reasons. First, he says that God prepared good works beforehand because it shows that the good works we walk in are not our own. They're God's good works.
Just as we could not boast in any good works before we were saved, so we cannot boast in any good works after we're saved because they belong to God and God carries them out through us. So think of that paintbrush image again. Who gets the glory for painting Mona Lisa? Is it Leonardo da Vinci or is it the animal hairbrush that he used to paint her? Or who gets the glory for the Hallelujah Chorus?
Is it George Frederick Handel or is it the orchestra he hired to perform it? The paintbrush and the orchestra were integral parts in making those works, but indeed the works belong to da Vinci and Handel. We literally call it Handel's Messiah. It's His work. In the same way, God has many works that he wants to carry out and he graciously chose us to carry them out through.
He gets the glory of doing magnificent things and we get the pleasure of working with God. Second, the reason why Paul says God prepared good works beforehand is to show that despite how it may look or feel, the good works we carry out are not merely random acts of kindness. They're deliberate works of God. You were not saved accidentally and your life is not a coincidence. God plans to glorify himself through you in ways that are unique to the gifts that he's given you and exclusive to the people he has put around you.
So the good works that we do by God's hand are not random, they are purposeful from him. I hope by now that I've convinced you at least that good works are not bad words. They're very, very good works. God saved us by his good works. He made us for his for his good works and gave us his good works to carry out.
So if good works are so good, what are they? Well, first, I want you to notice in this passage that good works what what good works are not. And this is actually this was disappointing to me when I came to this passage. I chose this passage thinking good works were one thing and then I after doing the study, I'm like, well, those are not that's not what good works are. There's something even more specific.
So, Paul does not say in Ephesians two:nine that God created us in Christ Jesus to work well. It says for good works, not to work well. God commands us elsewhere that whatever we do, we should do all to the glory of God. But here, he has specific works in mind. God did not save us merely to work in a certain manner, but he saved us to do specific things.
And as we'll see, those specific things are also not just any work that's done exemplary or any exemplary work. I can do a good job brushing my teeth. I can do a good job cleaning my room and I can do a good job mowing my lawn. But the New Testament reveals that good works are more than just a job well done. So what characterizes the good works God has prepared for us?
To answer that, I want to take you to a passage that I think summarizes every type of good works. So let's move from Ephesians to Matthew chapter 25 and we're gonna read verses 31. I can't remember exactly where I'm gonna stop, but the passage starts. Matthew 25 starting in verse 31. So again, I'm bringing you here because I believe what's listed here are all the types of good works and we're gonna see what characterizes all of them.
So starting in Matthew 25 verse 31. When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations and he'll separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He'll place the sheep on his right but the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me.
I was in prison and you came to me. So what do all these acts have in common? I believe it's that they all satisfy basic human needs, survival needs. Not simply felt needs, but things essential for survival, Food, water, shelter, clothing, health. However, there is one that stumped me.
Jesus includes, I was in prison and you came to me. This seems to line up with other lists in the New Testament that include hospitality as a good work. But does does like what need does visiting someone or being hospitable someone to someone satisfy? Like, don't have people over to my house to give them food because I don't think they don't have food at home. But that's still a good work somehow.
And I think it's because companionship is a basic human need. So visiting someone in prison is because they're alone. Being hospitable to someone is to show that they're welcomed, that you are that you love them. So even God said at the very beginning that it's not good for man to be alone. And the preacher in Ecclesiastes agrees saying, woe to him who is alone for when he falls and has not another to lift him up.
And if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? So I'm convinced that at least in this passage and in other passages that we'll see later, that God sees companionship, the need for being with one another as basic as a human need as food, water, and all the rest. So with this in mind, a good definition of a good work is any practical act of self giving that meets the needs of others. So a good work is any practical act, anything that you can do of self giving of some giving of yourself that legitimately meets the needs of others. And as you can imagine, there are many acts that can fill this definition.
Even acts that we witness among us all the time. One of those acts, happens every week is tithing. The church budget is designed to meet the needs of many different people. Our missionaries, our pastors, our staff members like myself, church members who fall into seasons of distress, and all the needs of those who benefit from the good works of those who benefit from the budget. So when you tithe, you're giving of yourself to satisfy the needs of others.
You're doing a good work. Another good work is raising children. Paul encourages the church to show honor to the widows who have a reputation for good works and the very first example of a good work that a widow could have done is that she has brought up children and this makes complete sense. I don't know of any type of person who can't satisfy their own basic human needs less than a baby or a child. So when you raise children, you're giving of yourself to satisfy the needs of others.
You're doing a good work. Other examples include bringing a meal to a family who's down and out, letting a traveler stay in a spare room, or helping somebody move into a new home, maybe donating your old clothes to goodwill or to a family that you know that needs them, maybe visiting someone in the hospital before they have a major surgery, or even because of companionship, just going on a walk in the woods with someone who's lonely. All these things and more are practical acts of self giving that meet the needs of others. They're good works. So if those are good works, how should we walk in them?
Is there anything that I need to do to prepare to do good works? And the answer to that question is actually yes. There is some things that you need to do to prepare to do good works. Even just in the book of Titus alone, God commands us several times to be ready for good works. That is to ready ourselves and be prepared for when good works come our way.
Titus three:one says, remind the church to see to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work. Titus three:eight, I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. And then Titus three fourteen, And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works so as to help cases of urgent needs and not be unfruitful. So it's loud and clear. God wants us to devote ourselves to good works, to be ready for every good works.
So how do we ready ourselves? Well, I found at least seven steps. And if you find more, you'll get extra points. But I found seven. So I'm gonna give you these seven just as a very good starting place for you to start aiming your life toward satisfying the needs of those around you.
First, believe in Jesus. Believe in Jesus. Jesus teaches that every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy cannot bear good or a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. So you must be a healthy tree before you can bear good fruit.
And diseased trees can only become healthy trees if they're planted next to the river of life which flows from Christ. So if you are a diseased tree hearing me now, believe in Jesus for it's only by his wounds that you are healed. Second, the second step in readying yourselves to do good works is to cleanse yourself from sin. Paul explains why this is necessary. I'm just gonna read it for you because I can't do a better job than him.
In second Timothy two, he gives an example. Now in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. So how do you cleanse yourself?
Well, ask God to examine your heart and mind, confess whatever sin he reveals to you, and ask forgiveness from those whom you've wronged. Then set the Lord always before you and turn your eyes from looking at worthless things. So the second step is to cleanse yourself from sin. God wants to use clean vessels. The third step to do good works is to pray for strength.
Pray for strength. You can do nothing apart from Christ because it's him who works in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure. So don't go about doing good works alone. Ask him to strengthen you by his grace so that you may walk in the good works that he prepared for you. You must have him working in you and you can't make him work in you, but you can ask him to do so and he's promised to do exactly that.
The fourth step in preparing to do good works, and this one's gonna take a little bit longer, is study scripture. Now this one's incredible to me. Paul teaches in second Timothy three that all scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. So look at this magnificent logic in this verse. God breathed out all of scripture.
Why? To teach us. Why teach us? Well, that we may be complete. And what does it look like for us then to be complete?
Well, to be equipped for every good work. The end for which God breathed out his word and gave it to us, at least in this verse, is to equip us for every good work. So, in order to be equipped for every good work, you must study scripture or at least understand it or be taught scripture. And there is a lot to study, even just about good works. There are so many questions I wanted to answer in this sermon, but I had to set them aside because I also have another job and I just didn't have enough time to go through them.
So I'm gonna give you just a lot of different questions that you can pursue in scripture on your own. I'm gonna put these in the newsletter on Thursday as well and put verses. So if you wanna study them for yourself, you can or come with me, come to me and maybe we can walk through them together. So questions like, should I do good works before others so that they see them and give glory to God or in secret so that God who sees in secret will reward me? Should I only do good works when I feel like it since God loves a cheerful giver?
What's the line between providing for my household and giving beyond my means like the impoverished Macedonian Christians? How do I choose which works to do? Like there's so many. Even this week, like you could have given to families impacted by the floods in Texas, or you could have given to your father's kitchen, or now you could give to this couple in the church who's pursuing some embryo adoption thing. So there are so many works, which ones do I choose to do?
Other other questions include, should I do good works for for people who aren't willing to work or who are idle? Should I go into debt to do a good work? And this one's I really wanna study this one. Is it evil to profit from a business that meets the needs of others? All these things scripture has answers for and God tells us to study scripture so that we will be equipped when every good work comes our way, so that we will know what to do and what not to do.
So that's the fourth step. Study scripture or come and ask your pastors all the questions that you have. Fifth. The fifth step in preparing yourself to do good works and this gets into the more nitty gritty practical things. If if a good work is giving of yourself that is out of the abundance of God's grace that he's given you to satisfy the needs of others.
Then fifth, you need to consider the abundance of God's grace in your life. What do you have a lot of from God that you don't need to use to keep your own self alive. Maybe God has blessed you with an incredible ability to cook delicious food. Maybe God has blessed you with a large house with many rooms. Maybe God has blessed you with an overflowing wardrobe.
Maybe God has blessed you with medical knowledge and skill. Maybe God has blessed you with a lot of time or a listening ear or a shoulder to cry on and maybe he's just blessed you with a lot of money. Whatever it may be, God has graciously given it to you and he's given it to you not only for you to enjoy with thanksgiving and he's certainly done that, He's also given it to you to share with others that they may benefit from the same grace of God in your life. Alright. So now that you see the abundance of God's grace in your life, what you have overflowing, sixth, you need to consider the needs of others.
What do other people not have that they really need? Make it a habit to ask, is anyone around me hungry or thirsty? Is anyone around me destitute or homeless? Is anyone around me sick or lonely? If so, consider what would actually satisfy those needs in their life.
Look to see if you have those things. And seventh, give of what you have in abundance to meet the needs of others around you. Now, are still many other things to consider, like God could have could give you a strong burden for a particular type of need and therefore you work hard to get in abundance of that thing to satisfy that need. And there's other things to consider like the like I said, there's character or lifestyle of the needy that God actually brings into mind in the scriptures. But for now, I want you to know that these are good first steps to living a life that is ready for every good work when it comes your way.
And probably the best part about preparing this sermon for you is that I got to think of you. That is King Street as a whole because I know the good works that flow freely from you. God has so clearly poured out his grace in abundance here And you are so quick not to hoard it for your personal gain, but to share it with others that all may benefit. So I hope that you receive this sermon as a confirmation that God is pleased with you and that he wants to show you even more how beautiful the works you do by his strength that are his, how how how beautiful those actually are. They're more beautiful than we could ever know.
Thank you for listening to this message from King's Tree Church in Sabina, Ohio. To see more of the beauty of God and the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10AM or visit our website at kingstreechurch.org.