What are good works? Some people believe that good works gain us some eternal merit with God but the truth is nothing we do can grant us pardon for sin. In the Second London Baptist Confession chapter 16 it states that only God defines what good works are. This is not something that man thinks up and it is only by the influence of the holy spirit that we take part in good works.

Let's pray. Oh our God, how we desire to live a life that honors you, we desire to be taught of you from your word, how to live in such a way that we would be pleasing to you. That we could do things that people would see and glorify our Father in heaven. Please help us in Jesus name. Amen.

So this is the chapter of the confession of good works. And we're going to start with a little trivia. So who knows to this point in his life how much money Bill Gates has given away? Just venture a guess. Couple billion, higher.

Higher. $30 billion. $30 billion. Billion with a B. 60 Minutes did a piece on this a year or so ago and it just has to be said that the world lapsed this up.

There's this guy who will not acknowledge God really in many ways as a blasphemer but he's giving away billions of dollars for the best of causes for hunger relief for extermination of malaria and he's giving Major amounts of resources. I mean in our lifetime. None of us in this room will give one one-thousandth of what Bill Gates has given. But we don't actually get to define what is a good work. God gets to define it and God has defined it and I'm so thankful for what the confession has done in helping us to think rightly about Bill Gates and his $30 billion and about the smallest things that we might do to honor God for his glory.

Point one in the confession, Good works are only such as God hath commanded in his holy word and not such as without the warrant thereof are devised by men out of blind zeal or upon any pretense of good intentions." So here's where we begin. That the Word of God defines good works, period, amen. It's only the Word of God that defines what is a good work. It says the Word of God and then the confession says the warrant thereof. In other words, good works might not only be things that are expressly commanded in the Bible, but they also might include things that are given to us by pattern or by principle in the word of God, the warrant thereof.

Here's our first attack against this doctrine. The general consensus that whatever is well intended or whatever is quote unquote helpful to another person is a good word. And the problem with this general consensus is that, again, it's another one of these pictures without God. God has been painted out of the picture. Where's the whiteout?

We have to get God out of this picture. And so it is completely isolated to the human plane and has no relationship to the God of the whole universe. But this is the general consensus, is it not? That anything that's well-intentioned or anything that is helpful to someone else is a good word. And the Scriptures actually vehemently contradict this attack.

Micah 6.8, He has shown you, oh man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? The world believes that they understand what it means to do justly and to love mercy. And they have separated it from what he has shown us. He has shown you, oh man, what is good.

And so It is the revealed will of God through his word that shows us what it means to do justly, what it means to love mercy, what it means to walk humbly with our God. Hebrews 13, 21, make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you what is well pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. The component elements of good works are right here in Hebrews 13 21. And that is that we would do His will through the revealed will of God.

And that we would do the things that are well pleasing in his sight through the revealed word of God and that these things would result in him to whom be glory forever and ever on it. If you don't remember anything else from this talk, this is what ought to be remembered, that good works are defined by two things, that they're in accordance to the revealed will of God and that they're for the glory of God alone. If anything is done on this earth and it is not in accordance with the revealed will of God or the warrant that we find through the patterns and principles of the Scriptures and it's not done for the glory of God. It is not a good work. Both of those elements must be present or it is not a good work.

Now the confession says this. There are many counterfeits. There are many things from the outside that look like a wonderful work. But God rejects them. God doesn't think they're a good work.

Because it either is not in accordance with his revealed will or it is not done for his glory. And there are things that are marked by creativity. There are things that are full of human compassion. There are things that emanate out of a zeal that people have. And So the confession is actually identifying the attack against the confession right here within the confession itself.

And it takes us right back to Bill Gates. Things done out of human compassion, things done flowing from the zeal that he has for certain causes, things that are marked by creativity and are completely by his design, but again God is nowhere in the picture. Here's what Paul says, and we keep encountering the same proof text over and over again, but they bear on different subjects and coming from different angles, so it's appropriate. 2 Timothy 3, 16 and 17, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. This is one of the key purposes of the revealed word of God of this scripture that is given by inspiration of God.

That we would be thoroughly equipped for good works. That's why we have the word of God. That's one of the key reasons why we have the word of God, is that we would be taught what it means to do good works and we'd be equipped to do those good works. John 16, 2, Jesus says, they will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers to God a service, that he offers God service.

And so here's another spot where we see so blatantly that people are going to have in their minds, I'm doing something good. I'm doing God a service. And it might even be killing the saints. So this would let us know that we are prone to deception. Human beings are prone to think wrongly about good works.

And we might do things that are an abomination in God's sight. And we'll be thinking all the while, I'm doing God a service. That's what John 16, 2 says. And so it deals with our good intentions. And brothers and sisters, God Almighty is not impressed with our good intentions.

He just isn't. He wants us to obey Him. He wants us to act in accordance with his revealed will and for his glory. Here's a great example of this. 1 Samuel 15, 21 through 23.

But the people took of the plunder, sheep, and oxen, the best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal. So Samuel said, as the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord, Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he also has rejected you from being king. God wants obedience to his word.

We want to offer substitutes. This is what the whole counsel of God reveals to us over and over and over again. God is requiring things of us and we have a better idea. We have a substitute to offer in its place. So here you have this thing.

God has commanded his people that they would sacrifice to him as an act of worship. But in this instance, when they sacrifice to him, he says that it's rebellion. And he says that it's a rejection of the word of the Lord. And he says to obey is better than sacrifice. I don't want your substitute.

Just obey me. And this helps us to think rightly about good works and the substitutes, the alternatives that we might dream up and offer to God and demand of him that he would accept the substitute and the alternative, God will have none of that. Here are a couple of areas where the Christian community does this. Missionaries routinely and for decades have sent their children off to boarding schools so that they can focus on the work of the Lord. Having an express command to bring up their children in the training and admonition of the Lord.

To walk with them, to disciple them, we have decided that we have an acceptable substitute for that. And so we set aside the revealed word of God for an alternative. And then we ask God to bless it. It's beautiful to hear Paul Washer talk about this, because of me, it can just be said that I'm an armchair quarterback. I have no experience on the mission field and so missionaries can just dismiss me, they can just push me off to the side and say you've not shed that sweat or that blood or those tears but they can hardly do that to Paul Washer.

He has the blood and the sweat and the tears. And he is seeing the explicit commands of God be pushed aside by his brethren in favor of something else. And he is saying very powerfully, I'm so thankful for what he's doing there. Here's another one. Historically, churches have given big percentages of their budget to the care of widows and orphans.

Historically, 25% or something in that range of church budgets would not be uncommon at all to see that to go to the care of widows and orphans. Today, that same percentage of the budget now goes into youth ministry, The youth building, the ping pong tables, the Xboxes. And you can't find a church that has a widow on the list. Where's your widow's list? My what?

Where's your youth building? What's out back? Titus 2, 5. It's at the end of the instructions of older women teaching younger women. And it says this, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the Word of God may not be blasphemed.

Now this is talking in a very narrow area, it's talking to older women teaching younger women, but it gives us a principle that we can apply very broadly, which is this. When we set aside the things that God has given us for the things that God hasn't given us, we cause the Word of God to be spoken against, to be blasphemed. And this is what we see. The church in many instances has set aside the revealed word of God for what we believe are acceptable substitutes. And the church has lost her voice.

The world doesn't even engage the church anymore. It just dismisses the church, and this is why. Because the church has dismissed God. Point two. These good works done in obedience to God's commandments are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith.

And by them, believers manifest their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, edify their brethren, adorn the profession of the gospel, stop the mouths of the adversaries, and glorify God whose workmanship they are. Created in Christ Jesus thereunto. That having their fruit unto holiness, they may have the end eternal life. What the confession is teaching here is that real good works done in obedience to the revealed word of God for his glory, and yes, I'm going to keep saying that over and over and over again, flow from saving faith. Real good works flow from saving faith.

Remember in the session yesterday, we looked at the very first verses of Paul to the church at Thessalonica, 1 Thessalonians 1. And he's praising them for their work of faith. He's looking at their lives, their pattern of life. And he say, I see this work, I see these things that you're doing according to the revealed work of God and I see it being done to honor God and I know that's originating from something. That is flowing from something, your work of faith.

A lively faith, as the confession says, works its way out into things that honor God. Could anything be more logical and intuitive than that? And this is what the confession is teaching. Here's an attack on that. Grace, grace, grace, grace, grace, grace, grace.

You speak to me of works, you Pharisee. Now, don't get me wrong. There's nothing I enjoy more than preaching the grace of God. And we ought to revel in it. So I have no problem with grace, grace, grace, grace, grace.

But we need to keep it where Scripture keeps it and never disjoining it and never make it a grace that is impotent and never results in anything. I'm sure we've already used this a couple of times this week as well. James 2, 17 and 18. Thus also faith by itself, If it does not have works, it's dead. But someone will say, you have faith and I have works.

Show me your faith without your works and I will show you my faith by my works. Of course, this is not workspace righteousness. It's just an acknowledgment that lively faith, that real faith, actually produces things. And so it is with good works. Matthew 7, terrifying words.

Matthew 7, 21 through 23. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, cast out demons in your name, and done many wonders in your name. And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from me you who practice lawlessness. Were these not good works?

Prophesying, casting out demons, doing many wonders. Now all of these things have warrant in the revealed word of God, don't they? And they're done ostensibly for the glory of God. We did them in your name, in your name, in your name. They're done for the glory of God.

The problem is I can fool you and you can fool me, but neither of us can fool God. We can erect a banner that says Jesus Christ and set up shop and do all our things right here under the banner, but God knows the truth of whether they're really done for his glory or whether they're not. We are not saved by good works, but we are saved unto good works. And it's real good works. It's good works that flow from a lively faith.

That's what the confession is teaching. Next, These good works are an outworking of thankfulness, and they result in assurance. Believers love much because they've been forgiven much, And it makes them really humble and thankful. And they are in their hearts, in their saner moments, bowed down before God Almighty in thankfulness that he has redeemed them from much, that He has forgiven them from much. And they love Him because He's forgiven them of much.

And so they're thankful. And it makes them want to do things that honor God because their sins that have been forgiven are before their eyes and they're so glad to be free that they're doing things to honor God. Their eyes aren't on themselves. These are not self-seeking works at all. They just love God because he's forgiven them.

And so they want to honor God with their lives. And it results in assurance of salvation. So here's an attack, false evidences of assurance that abound in the church today. You think back where an emotional experience was imposed upon you, so you went down to the altar because they weren't going to stop playing the music until somebody else came down and That is your assurance. You logged the day of your baptism in your Bible when you were 12 years old.

Only a false gospel was preached and you didn't really receive it anyway. There was no repentance that came out of that. But you still think you're saved. First John addresses this. Now by this we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments.

He who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. I think sometimes we look at verses or texts like this and we're thinking about the prohibitions of Scripture. So when it says, you keep His commandments, we think about all the things that we're not doing.

But love is the fulfillment of the law. Most of what the Bible compels us to isn't the things that we don't do. It's the things that we do do. Love is the fulfillment of the law. And so good words are in response to the commands of God.

1 John 3, verses 18 and 19, my little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this, we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him. Last week as I was preparing to do this talk, I was called by a young man in our congregation who said, I'm struggling with assurance of salvation. And I said, well, I don't know all of what to tell you, but I'm studying on this right now. Here's something.

Honor God with your life. And the more you honor God with your life, in accordance with his revealed will, your assurance will grow and grow and grow. We have this promise. Next, the confession says this. These good works build up other believers.

They're actually an encouragement to other believers. They speed along the gospel and they silence our enemies. Hebrews 10 24, and let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. You've heard of vicious cycles, right? It's the downward spiral where it just gets worse and worse and worse and bad leads to worse.

This scripture is actually here giving us a virtuous cycle, an upward spiral where my brother does something in accordance with the revealed will of God and for the praise of his glory. And I see it. I want to honor God like that. He's not more thankful than me. I'll be more thankful than him.

I want to honor God that way. And I do a good work. This is what the writer of Hebrews is talking about. We're spurring one another on to love and good works. We consider one another.

And when I do something in accordance with the revealed will of God for the glory of God, it may be seen by other brothers and sisters. And it will cause them to want to honor God also in their lives. 1 Peter 2 verses 12 and then verse 15. Having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may, by your good works which they observe glorify God in the day of visitation. For this is the will of God that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." The confession actually puts forth good works as a defense against charges of hypocrisy.

That when they charge us as being hypocrites, these good works will be standing in opposition to that to cause them to maybe begrudgingly glorify God and it will stop their mouths. It'll put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Now here's an attack against this doctrine, an exclusively verbal gospel. An exclusively verbal gospel is an attack against the doctrine of good works. And what it says the purpose of good works is, which one of those purposes is that outsiders will see and glorify our God in heaven.

Matthew 5, 16. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. The gospel is to be adorned, that's what the confession says. This is something that good works adorn the gospel. In sort of a similar way to Jesus when he preached.

He did these mighty works of mercy. Now, we're not able to make the blind see or to make the lame walk. But We are given something that we can do in a similar category. We can do things for the honor of God that will cause people to say, there's something about that gospel. It is producing fruit.

These people aren't just flapping their gums, but it's leading somewhere in their lives. God intended it to be that way. And I think an exclusively verbal gospel may be a reaction to the opposite error, which is exclusively lifestyle evangelism. You're all familiar with that term, right? Lifestyle evangelism.

Just be a really nice guy and then people will say, what must I do to be saved? Not true. Not true. We don't want to fall off the horse on either side here. We don't want to have an exclusively verbal gospel, nor can we think that people will be saved just because we're nice.

Both of those things are false. But I think there is an over-rotation against lifestyle evangelism, which is all learning and all talking, and knowledge puffs up, but love builds up and love adorns the gospel. Good works adorn the gospel. They authenticate the gospel. Next, the confession says this.

These good works glorify God, and we were actually created for them. We were actually created for these good works. God prepared in advance that we should walk in them. Oh, here's a modern attack on this. Joel Osteen is the one man attack on this.

His blockbuster bestseller, Your Best Life Now, his newest book, every day a Friday. For you, brother. Every day a Friday. Now you would hope for a Christian, if you were going to write a book like that, it would at least be every day a Sunday. Every day the Lord's Day.

You know, more of the Lord's Day. Joel Osteen wants more of Friday. But his God is here for him. It's here for his life. It's here for his Friday.

It's here for his weekend. But We are here for the God of the Bible. Joel Osteen has made a God and it's here for him, but we're here for the God of the Bible. And on the great day, God will sort out who is who. We are here for him.

Ephesians 2 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. Now this is an amazing statement, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So we ought to just catch this glorious vision that God would be pleased to take vile sinners and save them into these good works that he'll convert these blasphemers and he'll allow them to enter into his labors so that they honor him then. They're taken from this one pole and they're brought all the way to the other pole.

We're blasphemers, we're raging against God and then we're transformed And we're over here on the other pole. We're living a life to honor him. This is the story of redemptive history. Point three, their ability to do good works is not at all of themselves, but holy from the Spirit of Christ, and that they may be enabled thereunto, besides the graces they have already received, there is necessary an actual influence of the same Holy Spirit to work in them to will and to do of his good pleasure. Yet, they are not hereupon to grow negligent as if they were not bound to perform any duty unless upon a special motion of the Spirit.

But they ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace of God that is in them. Just a point about the confession. Have you noticed as we go through how much they actually draw from the language of Scripture? A lot of these phrases are taken directly out of text. That's beautiful.

So point three begins by saying that God is at the root of every single good work that has ever been done, that is being done now, that will ever be done in the future. Any good work, God is the source of it. God deserves all the praise for it. God began it. God sustained it.

God saw it through to completion. It is God's at the beginning and at the end. Ezekiel 36, verses 26 through 27. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. Love is the fulfillment of the law and as we're fulfilling the law we can be assured from the word of God, from the prophet Ezekiel that he has caused us to walk in his statues. The good that we're doing is not our good. God has caused us to walk in his statues. John 15 verses 4 and 5, Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine.

Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For without me you can do nothing.

I think we could stop here actually. I think we could stop here. The bearing of fruit is wholly dependent upon God. He is the vine. We're the branches.

Without him, we can do nothing. Paul in 2 Corinthians 3, 5. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. Paul to the Philippians, Philippians 2, 12 and 13. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence.

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do, for his good pleasure." Whenever we are disposed to pat ourselves on the back. We just have to hit the reset button. We can't think like that. That is completely contrary to the teaching of the Scriptures. There is no room in either our justification or of our sanctification or of any good works that we'll do in this life that we can attribute to ourselves.

All good things, God is the author of them, the sustainer of them, the completer of them. And we'll never have a time where boasting will be appropriate. These things are of God. Next the Confession teaches that this fact doesn't relieve our duty in the slightest. That it's all God so far from relieving our duty actually increases it in some ways.

The Confession says that it shouldn't require a special motion of the Spirit. In other words, Christians are people who sit around waiting to be jolted out of their chair by a special motion of the Spirit. But we've been forgiven much, and so we want to honor God with our lives, and so we're looking for excuses to honor God with our lives. This is what the Confession is teaching. We're not waiting around for a thunderbolt or a special motion of the Spirit.

But we're looking for excuses to bring glory to our Father who has redeemed us. We ought to be diligent, not less so because God is the author of good works. But more so, we ought to have hope that he desires to be honored. He created us that we might walk in these good works. And so we ought to be walking with the eyes of faith wondering what God might be pleased to do for his own honor for us.

And we're on the edge of our seats wondering what God might want to do to bring glory to himself through us. And we're looking for any excuse to live a life that leads to his praise. Point four, they who in their obedience attain to the greatest height which is possible in this life are so far from being able to superarrogate and to do more than God requires, as that they fall short of much which in duty they are bound to do. In other words, none of our works ever qualify us for wages. We're not working for wages.

We've not been hired to be paid. We've been redeemed. That's very different. And it brings us to this term super-arrogate. This is not something you do to your lawn.

It's spring. It's time to super-arrogate again. No. This means to do more than expected. To pay back more than you owe.

And the Confession wants us to know what the Bible teaches us to know, which is the absurdity of that thought. We cannot do what is expected. We cannot pay back what is owed. So it is absurd to even entertain the notion that we could do more than is expected. We can't even do what's expected.

Or that we could pay back more than we owe. We can't even pay back what we owe. So the attack on this is every other religion on the face of the earth, including Catholicism, which really is another religion with another God. That places good works versus sins in the scales. And man, they're encouraging you.

You better get more good works on there. You got a lot of sins And you need at least one more good work than you got sins. The day of judgment is not going to be pleasant for you. What could be more contrary to the teaching of scripture than that? Psalm 130 verse 3, If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?

Psalm 143 verse 2, Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight no one living is righteous. Ecclesiastes 720, for there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin. Wow. It singles out the just men to talk about. And it takes the just men and it says there's not one who does good and does not sin.

Romans 3 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Finally Luke 17 and this was spoken about yesterday but we'll read it and touch on it briefly. And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, come at once and sit down to eat. But will he not rather say to him, prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk and afterwards you will eat and drink. Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him?

I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do. In all of our good works we do not add to the economy of God's household. We have not given him anything that he needs.

And this goes right to the heart of our view of God and our view of man. The view of God in the Bible is of a great and mighty Creator to whom all things are due and the view of man is that he never does what God is worth, ever does what God is worth because God is worth so much and because man is so defiled. And so to think that when we come in from the fields that we have a right for God to say, oh come and sit down while I serve you dinner is absurd. That's what Jesus is saying in Luke 17. Point five of the confession.

We cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin or eternal life at the hand of God. By reason of the great disproportion that is between them and the glory to come. And the infinite distance that is between us and God. Whom by them we can neither profit nor satisfy for the debt of our former sins. But when we have done all we can, we have done but our duty and our unprofitable servants.

And because as they are good, they proceed from his spirit. And as they are wrought by us, they are defiled and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection that they cannot endure the severity of God's punishment. So this is a take off on the previous point that good works do not offset sins. It is not an offset situation. One sin is sufficient to damn us to hell forever because God is holy and there's no making up for our sins.

And furthermore, the confession says all the things that you do are puny. The chasm between your little good works and the glory of God is too immense for you to consider them and that these things are our duty, and that the good part of them, the praise is to go to God, and the defilements, the censure is to go to us. This is to think of our good works rightly, to know that every single one that we'll ever do is polluted, And the good part of it has originated out of the work of the Holy Spirit. And the bad part of it is wholly due to us. We're the ones that defile these quote unquote good works.

Here's an attack on this doctrine. The broad based lack of awareness that everything that we think, everything that we say, everything that we do is tainted with our sin. We are sinful. Yes, redeemed by Christ, Yes, born again and yet still defiled in so many ways. Everything that we say or do or think is tinged, tainted with sin.

So we have nothing pure even in our redeemed state aside from Jesus Christ. We have nothing pure with which we can offer. We saw this verse yesterday, Isaiah 64, 6. But we are all like an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away.

Romans 4 6. Just as David also described the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. Our works do not add to our righteousness. The only righteousness that we'll ever have is the righteousness that has been imputed to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. Anything that we put along with that just defiles it.

It doesn't add to it. It detracts from it. Point six, yet notwithstanding the persons of believers being accepted through Christ, Their works are also accepted in Him. Not as though they were in this life holy, unblameable, and unreproveable in God's sight, but that He, looking upon them in His Son, is pleased to accept and reward that which is sincere, although accompanied with many weaknesses and imperfections." Our good works are defiled because we are defiled. We defile them.

But they are accepted not because of the purity of the work itself. They're accepted in Christ. So the confession is saying it's not just your persons that are cleansed and accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's also your works are cleansed and accepted in the Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1, 6 through 7, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the Beloved.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. So the confession is saying when we see this term accepted in the Beloved, It's not just our persons. It's everything about us. It's all the works that we'll do. It's the life that we lead, all of it accepted in Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 2, 5, this makes this so abundantly clear. 1 Peter 2, 5, you also as living stones are being built up into a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. This is how we should think of all of our good works. That they are spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Isn't that a brain shift?

We were so proud of our good works coming into this, all of it being demolished. Praise the Lord. May we be laid low and made thankful by God that all things dealing with us, pertaining to us, are acceptable to God, not because of anything we can offer, but because of Jesus Christ. We had a cat growing up, Puff the cat. I think Puff wanted to be named Aslan or something like that.

She thought she was a lion, but she was just a little house cat. Every once in a while, Puff would sneak up on a bird and kill it. And she would just bring it and dump it right in the middle of the living room, which my mother found completely disgusting. It's a bad analogy, but it's an analogy, right? Puff would parade around the house for days on end after dumping a cardinal on the living room floor.

And was so proud of this thing that everybody in the house found disgusting. And I wonder if our good works aren't a little like that. We have something inside us that wants to parade about this and God is so unimpressed with the dead bird on the living room floor. Point seven. Works done by unregenerate men, although for the matter of them they may be things which God commands and of good use both to themselves and others.

Yet because they proceed not from a heart purified by faith, nor are done in a right manner according to the word, nor to a right end the glory of God, they are therefore sinful and cannot please God or make a man meet to receive grace from God. And yet their neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing to God. We'll just call this the Bill Gates clause. And we'll wrap up Bill Gates and his 30 billion dollars under point seven of the confession. That these works are actually sinful and sustain men in their rebellion to God.

They sustain men in their rebellion to God. Any time we're doing things to remove the curse that God would bring to people who are rebellion to them And we just sustain them in their rebellion to God. And we call it a good work, where the privation that God had brought upon them might actually have caused them to turn their eyes to heaven. The confession acknowledges that these things might actually have a good result on the human plane. They might actually relieve suffering.

And God has given many graces to relieve suffering. And so the Confession doesn't deny that at all, that people are actually helped, that hungry people are actually fed, that people with malaria, There's less of them because Bill Gates gave 30 billion dollars to confession. Doesn't deny that. But it does say that because it didn't proceed from a heart of faith that it is actually sinful. These works are not good, not accounted to Him as righteousness, but they're accounted to Him as sin.

18th-century, atheists all over the country have been buying up billboards, putting signage on buses, good without God. There is no such thing as good without God. Things that do not proceed from a heart of saving faith are not good at all in the eyes of God. And his eyes are the only ones that will ever count. So here's an attack on this, the social gospel.

The end thereof is social justice. And social justice is the tree, not the fruit. I think we should be for social justice, as long as we define it the right way. I think we should be all for social justice, but not as the tree, as the fruit. And so for us, I think maybe we would engage from time to time in areas of social justice.

But the thrust of our lives will be the gospel, because the gospel, God, is the center of all things. And we know the more of the gospel there is, the more of God there is, the more of this fruit of social justice. That's how we get there. Not by spending our lives on the fruit, but by spending our lives on the tree. And the social gospel is a perversion of the true gospel.

Matthew 6, verse 2. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. Jesus was so familiar with the counterfeits and the reasons why people come forward with the counterfeits. They want to be seen by men.

They want to be praised. And they get their praise and that's all they'll ever get. Philippians 1, 15 through 18. Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from good will. 19.

The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely supposing to add to the affliction of my chains, but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. What then? Only then in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached. And in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice." Here Paul puts two things side by side. They're exactly the same to me and you.

The preaching of the gospel and the preaching of the gospel. Exactly the same things and yet one is done for the glory of God, One is done not for the glory of God and one is a good work, the other is the evil work. Both are within the providence of God. And so Paul rejoices. So the fact that there are all these counterfeits shouldn't put us off or make us act as if the providence of God weren't the providence of God, we can rejoice even when right things are done for the wrong reasons because all these things are part of the outworking of our Father's plan.

Hebrews 11 verses 4 through 6, By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts. And through it, he being dead still speaks. By faith, Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death and was not found because God had taken him. For before he was taken, he had this testimony that he pleased God. But without faith, it is impossible to please him.

For he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Enoch was not pleasing to God because he piled up a heap of good works. Enoch was pleasing to God because he had faith and he lived a life of honor to God. And I bet Enoch did pile up good works. I bet he did.

Heaped them up. But it was to the honor of God. And that's what made him pleasing to God is because it was by faith. Romans 14, 23. That he who doubts is condemned if he eats because he does not eat from faith for whatever is not from faith is sin.

So here we have both sides of the coin. Two things done externally exactly the same. Faith makes one a good work. The other side of that is two things being done, one not from faith. And though it looks good on the outside, though it's so helpful on the outside, because it's not done from faith, it's sin.

Our works are either one or the other, brothers and sisters. It's either a good work or it is sin. And faith is the distinction. In the conclusion, the confession gives this glorious vision of God. Good works are about God.

It gives us a glorious vision of God who takes sinners and justifies them and adopts them and sanctifies them and gives birth to all manner of good works for his honor in them. And all of these things are to his praise. God is the whole picture of good works, the whole picture. And all the counterfeits diminish God and exalt man. That's what the counterfeits do.

They make God so much smaller as if he could be made smaller. They make man so exalted as if man could be exalted and I'm so thankful that the confession with such laser-like precision comes and helps us to think rightly about good works and sin. Let's pray. Oh Father, oh Father, we love your Word. Your Word helps us to think rightly about things that we're so tempted to be derailed by our own thoughts and inclinations.

Oh God, help us to be people that know that we've been forgiven much and so we love you and we live a life to honor you. Maybe so, in Jesus' name, amen. For more messages, articles, and videos on the subject of conforming the church and the family to the Word of God, and for more information about the National Center for Family Integrated Thank you. Family-integrated churches in your area, log on to our website, ncfic.org.