The sermon, delivered by Paul Carrington, focuses on the doctrine of good works as outlined in the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, particularly paragraphs 1-3. The speaker emphasizes the balance between faith and works, urging believers to avoid the extremes of legalism and antinomianism. The sermon highlights the historical misuse of good works, particularly during the Reformation, and stresses that good works should stem from a genuine union with Christ rather than a means of earning salvation. The speaker explains that good works are the evidence of a true faith and are performed in obedience to God's commandments, manifesting thankfulness, strengthening assurance, edifying the brethren, adorning the profession of the gospel, and glorifying God. The Holy Spirit plays a crucial role in enabling believers to perform these works, ensuring that the focus remains on glorifying God rather than self-righteousness. The sermon concludes with a call to action for believers to be zealous for good works, encouraging them to seek opportunities to serve and to live lives that reflect the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Well this evening we find ourselves in chapter 16 of the Second London Baptist Confession. And tonight it's going to be a focus on of good works. And we're going to be splitting up the chapter into two parts. We're going to be focusing tonight on paragraphs one to three, and then God willing next week we'll finish off paragraphs four to seven. But just to remind us of where we're coming from over these last, really I think month and a half or so the way that the Lord has led us through the second London Baptist Confession we've we've looked at the great doctrine of justification and we've looked at things like sanctification repentance and what biblical Repentance really is and so tonight on the back of that all those great doctrines of what it means to be justified and the process of sanctification and so on, we're going to be talking about what it means to walk in good works.

And it just so happens that we're in a very, very practical book as well when we think of the book of James where, you know, James is really commending the people of how they ought to live in a very practical way. And if you look at a lot of the different things, like for example, that Paul focused on, the Apostle Paul a lot of the times was dealing with kind of legalists or Judaizers, people that would go about enforcing and telling people you've got to basically become a Jew in order to be saved. Whereas James on the other hand, he's kind of warring more against this antinomianism that is often a strain within the church as well. This idea of, you know, saying to someone, be warm or be filled. You know, this idea of not actually living as though God has given us a law by which to live by.

And so both are contrary to the doctrine of good works that we're going to be exploring tonight. Both those that are the legalists as well as those that are the Judaizers. And it's a really interesting doctrine. You know, as I was going through this, I was just thinking back over history and how much contention has really fallen around this particular doctrine. This idea of good works.

It's been abused on the left hand, it's been abused on the right hand. Some people say, no, you don't need any works. And other people say, absolutely, you cannot be saved without works. Well, tonight we're going to be looking at it not only from the perspective of what the Bible says but remember what we've been looking at a lot of the times through the time through the lens of the Reformation And when you think of the Reformation, what it actually did with that great doctrine of justification, right, it really burst asunder the bands of Roman Catholicism, that you are no longer made right before God by doing this, this, that, and the other. And it was a tangled mess.

We saw last week when Scott Brown was talking about the idea how repentance had been confused with penance. People thought that if you do acts in line with what the church prescribes, that that is what repentance actually is. And they had a big, big problem with misunderstanding the difference of sanctification and justification if you get those two mixed up what happens you make absolute shipwreck of your faith And so it resulted in a gutted heartless religion. It was far far removed from the foundations of Jesus Christ And it was great for the Roman Catholic Church Why because there was no better money-making business right than selling indulgences that people can't be made right with God except by doing acts of righteousness and you've got things for sale that can alleviate that problem kind of circumvent the system don't worry about true repentance and don't worry about true faith like we heard about Tetzel going around through Germany and other provinces talking about how they could be made right with God through actual payment. That was a great boon for them.

And even the civil rulers at the time of the Reformation, they kind of profited. Why? Because people were always kept in a position of being subjugated both to the church and also to the state as well and it's this great great way of motivating men but of course it never set men free it was a terrible way to live you know and we see that the results of that right through history so that when people went to Rome they were shocked at the level of debauchery why because man made religion cannot save and so in all of this what we're gonna be focusing on tonight is really what what the Bible talks about in terms of the heart and our hearts being drawn out to God. I thought it was really worth really looking at the fact that any good works that we do Should flow out of our union with Christ by virtue of our faith in him. It's not Grinding it out.

It's not just doing things and trying to make ourselves please into God that won't work But it's it's really our work springing out of a devotion to God for what He has done for us and who He actually is. And when we have that heart, all of a sudden what happens is we become a people that are zealous for good works. We actually want to do these things because we understand what can I do? What can I render to God for all his benefits to me? Not as a repayment, but how can I express?

How can I put my hand to this wonderful, How can I tell other people about what God has done for me in Jesus Christ? And all of a sudden the life of a Christian becomes what it ought to have been. It's a life, not just a theory. It's an actual way of living because we love. And so Because we're justified, just think about that for a moment, that it's very important we understand we're no more loved.

If you just became a Christian this morning, you will never be more loved by God in 50 years when you end your life. In fact, if you just became a Christian this morning, you're never going to be loved less than the most eminent saint who's ever lived before God. Why? Because all our righteousness, all our right standing before God is not in ourselves, but it's in Jesus Christ. And so don't ever think that works are gonna make us acceptable.

But what they do is it draws out our hearts. That's really the key thing. It really draws out our affections. And so we begin to walk in that newness of life. And I want you to just think about this for a moment right if you if you look at all the biographies that you know think of a person that you really admire you could look at someone in the 20th century like a Cory Ten Boom or you could go back to the early church or you could look at the time of the Reformation or great missionaries that you might admire.

Pick a person in your mind and here's the thing, it's likely not their theology alone that makes them so worthy of study, right? It's not, wow, the way that they explain this particular doctrine, but really what it probably is is how their their theology actually was translated or translated itself into the way they lived how they adorned the gospel of Jesus Christ and so it resulted in wonderful works for his glory and and and when you think of works when you think of of these people that you admire What works actually does is it begs this question? It begs the question. Why? Why would this person sell everything they have and go to this place?

Or why would this person serve among the lepers? Or why would this person go into this slum and preach the gospel? Or it could be something more obscure, just a mother laboring so diligently for the benefit and glory of her family, for the glory of God and serving her family. And so all these things we have to ask ourselves, what is it about these people? And it really lends itself to focusing around who is the object of these works?

Why are people doing these things? It's to glorify or to honor God. And you look at a chapter like Hebrews chapter 11 and you notice every single individual, right, it starts off by faith Abel, by faith Noah. It goes down the line by faith Noah. It goes down to every single individual as we know Rahab and Moses and all these different folks, but what you'll notice is that after it says by faith then there's an action that follows.

For example, by faith Abel offered, or by faith in Noah, he moved with fear, or by faith Abraham went out. There's an actual correspondence because they had faith, something actually happened. And so James tells us in his epistle that faith without works is dead. Works kind of demonstrate something altogether different. It demonstrates a connectedness to something else.

That you're actually connected to something else that's moving your heart. And as we're thinking about it tonight You may just want to ask yourself, you know, how is your faith being exercised in good works? Is the focus of your life to bring glory to God in the way that you live in the way that I live? But We want to be crystal clear because this this doctrine has been so abused We want to be very clear that works don't save us They do not justify us or make us worthy to enter into the presence of God That's been done for us in Jesus Christ But But works are the outflow or the result of what God has done for us in Christ. It caused us to ask the question, how then shall I live?

And a good way to think of it is if you think of some of the epistles that the Apostle Paul wrote, for example, like Romans, right? Chapter 1 to 11 is really him expressing the doctrine of the the Pravity of man he talks about faith and all these different things and then he gets to chapter 12 And he says therefore because of this or Ephesians the same thing chapters 1 to 3 are describing who we are in Christ and then chapter four he starts off by saying therefore as a result of everything that God has done for us therefore let us live in this way that's really how we should be thinking about works and so in these seven paragraphs again we just want to be very careful that we don't fall off one side or the other. On the one side with legalism, on the other side with antinomianism. And if you're coming from any background whatsoever, chances are that you're affected by one of these or another, right? You're either coming from a legalistic background or an antinomian background.

And here's the issue, the antinomian doesn't need to become more legalistic, and the legalist doesn't need to become more antinomian in us. What we need to understand is more of the gospel of grace and the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we're gonna just get up paragraph one here and in paragraph one really kind of focuses on good works, what they are and what they're not. And it's a very, very simple paragraph. It says this, it says, good works are only such as God has 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." And so that first part, good works are only such as God has commanded in His holy word.

And when you look back into the book of Acts, one of the most fascinating things is, do you know what the people, the Christians were called before they were actually called Christians? When you look in the book of Acts over five times, I think six times actually, before they were called Christians they were actually called those of the way. It was this idea that this was a life to be lived. They had entered in through the narrow gate through Jesus Christ, through faith in him, and were now walking on the narrow way. It was this entire life bound up and following.

It wasn't just a theory or some sort of thing that they would prescribe and say yeah I can I can believe in that but it was an actual way that they ended living and if you compare that Every single individual in the world is on a path or on a way Every single person but there is only one way that leads to God and that is the way which is Jesus Christ which we know but if you think back to even something like Pilgrim's Progress right when here was Christian walking and making his way he'd already passed through the Wicket gate and all of a sudden he looks over to his side and he sees two men formalist and hypocrisy jumping over the wall and They were from the land of vainglory and here they were and they joined him on the path and here they are walking together and Christian says, what are you doing? You just jumped over the wall. He said, well it's too much trouble to walk around and actually enter into the narrow gate. We're on the same path, we're heading to the same place, we're going to the celestial city.

We're just as good as you. We're on the same exact footing as you. Well, of course, not too long in the distance, there comes a fork in the road, and they end up going in a way that they end up being destroyed. Why? Because they never entered in through the narrow gate.

And so we need to understand that the entrance into the narrow way is also through the gate or the straight way is through the gate. It's very important. And another principle that we want to just make sure we understand is that it's not just a creed, right? But our creed undergirds how we now are going to be living. And so this is what this particular verse talks about, or this particular paragraph talks about, the good works are only such as God has commanded in his Word.

And that's what Micah chapter 6 verse 8 talks about, right? He has shown thee, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God? The person of Christ shows us who God is. The fact that Christ came, he was incarnate, and now his life actually speaks and tells us how we ought to live rather than than us trying to justify ourself for going above and beyond what God prescribes is that even possible is it possible to fulfill God's law and then try to even do more than God has asked of us.

Well that's what we do when we find the people at the time of the Pharisees where they had been a people at one time where when they first started it seemed like very worthy intentions. They had started off with this intention never ever ever to enter again into exile. So how do you avoid exile? Well, you don't only do God's commands from your perspective, But you then build a buffer around God's command. So you do in your own mind more than what God prescribes.

But that was never the case. They could never actually keep God's commandments. But what they ended up doing was simply formulating commandments of men. And so you think of a man, for example, like when the Lord Jesus talked about the parable, the parable of the Pharisee and the publican going up to the temple. And there there was the Pharisee saying, I fast twice in the week.

Well, where does God ever say You should fast twice in the week. It's not an actual command of God, but he was doing this to vaunt himself. In his zeal, you could say, like the second part of this says, this warrant thereof, they're devised by man out of blind zeal, or upon any pretense of good intentions. They had all sorts of other things they would do like external washing, right? They would wash their hands, their whole body after they're coming back from the market.

They would go so far as to wash all their pots. They had this doctrine called Corbin which really means temple treasury and what that meant was you could actually tag some of your resources to say well this is preserved for the temple therefore you know mom and dad I can't really support you because this is dedicated to the temple so they would basically override God's commandments and Establish their own and of course we know what happens Jesus Christ himself condemns them for that particular thing And so if I do a thing that I'm not commanded to do Do I obey in doing it it really right you're going above and beyond but you're not really obeying what God has told you to do. And so these ideas, you get all sorts of extremes in Catholicism. I've read stories of where, you know, monks in monasteries, they'll go out in the middle of winter and they'll stand in a river to mortify their flesh. You know, they're basically almost freezing hypothermia, but they're punishing themselves for their own sin or they're trying to build up good works and do these different types of things, but God never prescribed that.

And so that's what the second part is really dealing with. And this show, this kind of will worship, this idea of self-imposed religion that leads to false humility, really has absolutely no value. And this was so important at this time because the entire system of Catholicism was based on going above and making man's commands preeminent over God's, making the doctrines of the church over the doctrines of the actual Bible itself. And so all these things happen. And so the authors here are very careful to identify what good works are.

They're not of our own concocting, but if God is the source of all good things and He is the one that determines what is a good work. And so they start here. Let's not let our wicked hearts begin to determine what is pleasing to God. You remember the story of King Saul. And King Saul was there, you know, he was sent out to destroy and kill the Amalekites and also destroy King Agag.

And so here comes Samuel along the way. He catches up with Saul as he's putting the finishing touches on a monument to himself for his great victory over the Amalekites. And there he was Under the pretense of good intentions. He says you know Samuel comes up to me says blessed Are you of the Lord I have performed the commandment of the Lord, but Samuel said What then is the bleeding of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of oxen which I hear? Right, he didn't, he was under the pretense saying I have done all that God wanted me to do.

But in reality, he had totally, totally disobeyed God and done his own thing. And so very, very important, our hearts can be so evil and wicked to the point where the Pharisees ended up killing the Prince of life, thinking that they were doing God service. That's how twisted our own hearts can be. But when we begin to realize what God has done for us in Christ, it takes on a whole other meaning altogether. And so paragraph two is really where we're going to spend the most of our time here.

It says this, 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 they strengthen their assurance edify their brethren adorn the profession of the gospel Stop the mouths of their adversaries and glorify God whose workmanship they are created in Christ Jesus thereunto That having their full their fruit unto holiness they may have The end eternal life And so the idea is what is the relationship between between faith and works and we really want to make sure that because works have been abused right just like the doctrine of the Holy Spirit has been abused that we don't run all the way to the extreme and say well therefore works are totally unimportant. Remember when the Lord Jesus Christ when he was walking amidst the the seven candlesticks of the churches of Asia what was the thing he said to every one of those churches? The very first thing in fact he said I know your works and even in the book of James he talks about pure religion at the end of the chapter that we're going to be ending in a couple weeks and you know in the chapter 2 he talks about this idea of what true faith really is it results in a way of life and so it's not just merely Intellectual we're justified by faith alone, but true faith is never alone And that's why Ephesians chapter 2 says this it says for by grace You have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works lest anyone should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

And so again, I just want to make sure we're understanding that good works are the fruits or the evidences. That's what they're emphasizing right here. Never forget that. Spurgeon said this, he says, one might better try to sail the Atlantic in a paper boat, then try to get to heaven on good works. You have a better chance of doing that than you wouldn't standing before God on that final day.

And so these good works, one of the things that's important to realize is that they're done in obedience to God's command. It kind of hearkens back to the previous paragraph that we looked at, and it speaks of works done by a regenerated heart that are in accordance with what God has shown us. And so these are the things that they go through. There's about six or seven I think of them, I think, when you go through them. And number one is really they manifest their thankfulness.

See, by doing good works, what are you doing? You're manifesting your thankfulness to God. And you think of one of the characters or the people in the New Testament. You remember the woman with the box of alabaster? And there she was.

She took about a year's wages and she broke that box and she began to anoint the Lord for his burial. And it was all because she had when Jesus looked at her she was in the house of Simon and Simon was there looking at her and he said if you knew what kind of woman that was you wouldn't be allowing her to To do what she's doing But the Lord Jesus turned it around and he told he asked Simon in question and it ended up saying he that he that loves much he that has been forgiven much the same loves much there's this outpouring what can I do what can I render to God she wasn't paying for her salvation but she took the most precious thing she had to manifest her thankfulness towards God? It wasn't, well what can I find like we heard about in the book of Malachi, get a dead lamb or almost dead lamb from the stall and give it to God but there's this heart of gratitude for what God has done another thing It does is it strengthens? Their assurance or our assurance right with the more that you walk in this newness of life the more you make your way along this pilgrim's progress and you begin to see those little buds of fruit begin to bud where before all it was was death and destruction your own ways leading you further and further afield and you begin to see little buds and then giving way to a little bit more visible fruit and then the full fruit over time.

Who could it be but the Lord's working in your life and you begin to get encouraged and you begin to develop an assurance because you begin to see, look how God's beginning to change my affections, not only toward Him, but even towards others. And you begin to take pleasure in His service and in being useful to Him. And a lot of times what happens is some Christians, some People have no assurance, largely because they don't have any works going alongside of it. And so of course there's not going to be any assurance. But you don't want to look at your leaflet in the Bible, inside of your Bible, to a date where you wrote down when you were baptized or when you made a decision or walked an aisle for your assurance.

Neither do you want to rest your assurance on your works, you rest your assurance on Christ. But these these works that you're doing just give added assurance to you that you're walking in a way that's pleasing to God. It's like what we heard today. It's not this constant playing, you know, he loves me, he loves me not, because you know who you are in Christ. But the walking in faith does such a wonderful thing.

And it doesn't only benefit you, but it goes on to say this, that good works edify the brethren. It's this idea of let's go to the work together. Let's put our hands together to the plow to push forward God's kingdom while we have life and breath. And you see that even in the book of Malachi where in the midst of all this apostasy there was this little remnant of people that spoke often one to another you know Ecclesiastes says it like this he says two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor for if they fall one will lift up his companion but woe to him who is alone when he falls for he has no one to help him up and so there's this idea of working together going to the work together strengthening one another in the work of God. And not only that, but it then goes on to say that by them, by good works, believers adorn the profession of the gospel.

And so, know this, that before God, right, you're adorned by the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is your righteousness, your road before God is your righteousness in Christ himself. But here below, the righteousness of Christ affects those around us by the way that we live. And so we become adorned. And you can again think of all the people that you've read about or the people in the Bible that have been changed by faith and how their life begins to manifest a whole different thing altogether and it also stops the mouths of adversaries Adversaries And this is what first Peter says he says for this is the will of God that by doing good You should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.

What can they say? They can only Misspeak or they can only slander or they can only falsely accused but they can't actually Accused you for doing evil why because you're going about doing good And it leaves men who are antagonistic against the church or against Christ with very, very little. Even when they came to accuse Christ, it basically said they couldn't even get their story straight, right? Because what are you going to accuse them for? And so they couldn't even put together a worthy prosecution against them.

And in this particular area, it's interesting, When you look at the SLBC, one of the scriptures that they refer to is this one here in regards to Titus where it says to young women, it speaks to them of loving their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. That's how you can stop the mouths of adversaries even as a homemaker. Your lifestyle can overthrow the insinuations and false accusations of men because men are constantly, if you've been a Christian for any length of time what you'll find is men are constantly looking for breaches in what you profess and and and What you claim to know and how you live they're constantly looking to pick holes. Huh? You said you're a Christian there's a hole and they'll exploit that in order to make themselves feel better.

But perhaps the most important part of this whole paragraph ends here. It says, by them, by good works, believers glorify God whose workmanship they are. And this is the idea of what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. And I was reading in the Fox's Book of Martyrs, has a litany of men and women who have been faithful all the way through. And one particular story that stood out to me was the story of a man in the time, in the 400s.

He lived at the tail under the Roman Empire. His name was Telemachus. And here he was, He was kind of a hermit living way, way out in the middle of nowhere. And he made a pilgrimage to Rome. And as he got to Rome, he saw these masses of people thronging to the Colosseum.

And so what did he do? He said, well, let me go, what could be drawing so many people together in one purpose. So he ends up going along to the Colosseum and as he's there he's watching this debauchery as people are being slain and things are going on right there and everyone's cheering, they're eating, it's just total mayhem and he's sitting there and he can hold himself back no longer So what does he do? He jumps out of the seat into the into the sand and he goes between two gladiators that are in mortal combat trying to kill each other and he stands between them. He says, he basically rebuked one and rebuked the other, and everyone starts screaming at him, over 20, 000 people.

Starts screaming at this one man as he's there in the middle of the field. And it drowns out anything that he's saying. And so these men begin fighting again, and he stands he gets in between them again Well one of the one of the gladiators Stabs him and kills him right there on the floor and everyone begins to hurl any projectile food and any stones or whatever they could down towards this man and he'd up dying right there on that field. But for 500 years, this had been the practice of the Roman Empire for 500 years. But the emperor was there that day and he looked at this man and he began to wonder, well what are we doing?

What have we become? And this man's willingness and desire to glorify God and to say you do not well because God has spoken otherwise. Life is precious. That was the last time that those games ever went on. And he glorified God.

He died, but he glorified God. And I say that to say this, that might not be your calling, But remember this, that discipleship is costly. To follow after Christ, if you're looking to do it, if you're asking yourself, well how can I be a Christian and have it not cost me anything? Then we're probably asking ourselves the wrong question. But what is it that we can do to bring glory and honor to God?

If you think about how many millions of gallons of blood had been spilt right there in that sand, but one man's blood willing to stand for the truth and to declare what God has said to preach the gospel not only in his words but in his life that was something altogether different something that they had never seen before and it causes men to ask that question why either we're wrong or he's wrong and then your conscience begins to be stirred and that's exactly what happened and he glorified God and so we got to ask ourselves that if glorifying God right is our main purpose and good works glorify God then good work should be a major part of our lives. And it's a good question to ask ourselves to say, you know, does my life, like the woman with the alabaster box say, he is worthy? If someone looks at my life or looks at your life is that kind of the same thing they they deduce that I Don't know a whole lot about what they believe, but I know That whoever they serve that God is worthy based on the way that they're living is the promotion of the glory of God an object of highest regard to you and to me." It's really worth pondering these things.

And so we end with paragraph 3 tonight. It says this in paragraph 3. It speaks about their cause. What is the cause of good works? Well, it says this, their ability to do good works is not at all of themselves, but wholly from the Spirit of Christ, and that they may be enabled thereunto besides the graces they have already received, there is necessary and actual influence of the same Holy Spirit to work in them to will and to do and of his good pleasure.

Yet are they not here upon 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." And so we'll start with that first part. Their ability to do good works is not at all of themselves, but wholly from the Spirit of God. And this is coming from the parable, the last parable that the Lord spoke in John chapter 15 or when he says I am the vine and you are the branches and one of the things he says there he says I'm the true vine he says you are the branches and what he says a little further on in verse 4 he says 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 This is really speaking to our moral Inability there's nothing good that we can do we're totally depraved, but it's very freeing to no longer have to look to yourself for righteousness, but to look to another.

It's really one of those things. I remember years after I had become a Christian and you know I had always had this burden. I didn't understand how it is that God is sovereign in salvation. I just didn't quite fully grasp it, you know. And I remember one time I was there and I was speaking to a couple of brothers and we were talking about 2nd Timothy where it talks about this idea that the man of God must be apt to teach, patient and goes on instructing those who oppose themselves per adventure in the King James or per chance God may grant them repentance and I remember just feeling like a load lifted off of me that it's not up to me it's not like I have to figure out a way to position the gospel well it's the same thing here right it's this idea to the carnal man this is terrible news that it doesn't rest on me but to a man who's been regenerated it can add such life because you're no longer resting on yourself but rather resting in Christ for everything that he does within you and then it says this and that they may be enabled thereunto to do good works besides the graces they have already received there is necessary and actual influence of the same Holy Spirit to work in them to will and to do of his good pleasure.

And so the necessity of the Holy Spirit is really being conveyed here. It's not only must we be regenerated but even the works that we do We have to be enabled to do them. We're kept. It's God doing all of these things in us, working in us. And so the question we can ask, not only regarding our salvation, but in regards to our works, where is boasting?

Where is boasting? It is excluded, right? Because even the good works we do, we've been given the ability to do them in Jesus Christ. It's a wonderful thing to understand that according to his good pleasure, but it ends with this. It says, Yet are they not here upon to grow negligent?

God is the one it does all his works in me So the temptation might be to grow negligent if I don't feel God moving That's what the lazy man says I'll sit and wait until I feel moved upon and then I'll do something. Well, they are not hereupon to grow negligent as if they were bound or not bound to perform any duty and less upon a special motion of the Spirit, but they ought to be diligent in stirring up the grace of God that is in them. And this idea is that even after hearing of good works, right, a lot of times we're so wayward in our own hearts that we don't really rely on God and if we do, you know, we'll wait to be moved upon as opposed to going out in obedience and trusting that God will work in us. We should be a people that are praying and looking for opportunity because oftentimes the thing you pray for is the thing you actually see. If you're praying for God to help you to minister to this particular person, then you'll see ways develop that will open up a way to do that because you're praying about it, but you're never at any point to just only wait for God to move, but to move in obedience.

And one of the best ways to think about this as we end here is to look at at the parable of the sheep and the goats this is probably you know this again is basically Matthew 25 the Lord has spoken about the parable of the virgins the parable of the talents and then he ends with this parable that can be terrifying but it can also be very encouraging. Where he comes, it talks about his coming at the last day, where he separates the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. And he speaks to the sheep, he says, Come, you blessed of my Father. And he goes down the line of different things that they did. I was thirsty.

He says, I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you took me in. I was naked And you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me I was in prison and you came to me then the righteous will answer and say Lord When did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink?

When did we see you a stranger and take you in or naked and clothe you? Or when did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the king will answer and say to them, assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren you did it to me and this idea that This there's a connectedness between the Lord Jesus Christ and his disciples They were feeding on Christ and so what happened by virtue of that their lives reflected the spirit of their master. Do you see that? The Spirit of Christ came upon them, and as a result of that, it brought glory and honor to God.

But on the other side, you have those that are, Lord, When did we have opportunity? When did we actually have a chance to serve you? And because they didn't do it, even to the least of these, my brethren, they did not do it unto the Lord. And so it's really worth pondering all of these things, because here's what David Platt says. He says, the cost of discipleship is high, but the cost of non-discipleship is even higher.

May God help us, may he move upon us to be a people zealous for good work, zealous to give glory, honor, and praise to his name. So let's let's pray and ask the Lord to help us Father we we come before you here this evening Lord. We thank you for this doctrine father We pray that we would accurately Understand it and believe it and and glorify you Lord in the way that we live. We pray for opportunity Lord that you would give us to walk and to be light, to show forth your light to the world around us and to work while we have opportunity oh Lord. We do pray that we would be a people zealous of good works when we see our neighbors, when we see our co-workers, wherever we are, Father, we pray may Jesus Christ be glorified.

Amen. Amen. So, I don't know if we have...