In this sermon, the speaker discusses the nature of good works and their inability to merit pardon of sin or eternal life. Good works are done in obedience to God's commands and are fueled by a lively faith. However, our best works cannot earn us forgiveness or eternal life because of the great disproportion between our works and the glory to come, the infinite distance between us and God, and the fact that our works are defiled and mixed with imperfections. Our ability to do good works comes entirely from the Holy Spirit, and our salvation is by grace alone through faith in Christ.

There are no special acts that we can do that give us extra credit. There are no special acts that we can do to bring us to a more perfect state than others. No one can even keep the basic commands that God has given to us, much less keep them perfectly. Only Christ did this. Before we move on to today's paragraph, I want to review briefly here what we have learned about good works.

What are they? Good works, again, are done in obedience to God's commands. And first of all, you actually have to know God and know what his commands are to obey them. They're done from a true and lively faith, meaning that These are done by people of faith. They are done in a right manner.

And they are ultimately done for the glory of God. Also, our ability to do good works comes entirely from the Holy Spirit working in us, not of ourselves. Now, for our paragraph today, our focus is on the inability of our best works to merit pardon of sin or to merit eternal life at the hand of God. The confession gives us six reasons why this is so. We cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin or eternal life at the hand of God by reason of number one, the great disproportion that is between our good works and the glory to come.

Number two, the infinite distance that is between us and our God. Number three, our good works, we can neither profit nor satisfy for the debt of our former sins. Number four, when we have done all we can, we have done but our duty and our unprofitable servants. Number five, our works are good because they proceed from the Holy Spirit. And finally, number six, 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 let's take these one at a time. Number one, we cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin or eternal life because of the great disproportion that is between our good works and the glory to come. Remember what we learned in the chapter on sanctification. Everything that we do, everything is tainted by sin. All our good works, all our righteous deeds, all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in Isaiah 64.6.

Paul tells us that by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in His sight, Romans 3.20. It is not by our deeds nor our works that we are saved. For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. If you could imagine earning your way to heaven, your deeds would have to be marvelous indeed and infinitely worthy to measure up with the glory to come.

The glory to come is eternal life with God in heaven. No more sin, no more sadness, no more hatred, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away." Revelation 21, verse 4. There's nothing in our lives that compare with what awaits us in heaven in glory. Paul writes to the Philippians, for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.

Yet which I shall choose, I cannot tell. I'm hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better." Philippians 1, 21 through 23. It's interesting here that Paul actually expresses his desire to be in a better place, a far better place. Paul recognizes that what is before him is so awesome that he wants to go to Christ to be with him in glory in heaven.

But God had important work for Paul. And it's easy for us to think that Paul was so much better, so much more holy than we are, that he had it all figured out, that he didn't have those struggles that you and I seem to face each day. Meanwhile, Paul wrote a good chunk of the New Testament, yet we find Paul lamenting his own struggles with sin in Romans 7, 18 through 25. For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me.

But how to perform that which is good I find not. Now if I do that, I would not. It is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find in Allah that when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into the captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members.

O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin." The reality is that even our good works, even the works of the most sanctified people you've ever met or who've ever lived, even the disciples, their good works are his filthy rags. There is a great disproportionate, a huge imbalance in the value of our good works and the value of the glory to come. Number two, we cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin or eternal life because of the infinite distance that is between us and God.

God created the heavens and the earth. To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal, says the Holy One? Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these?

Who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing." Isaiah 40, verses 25 and 26. God created us, man, in His image. We are the pinnacle of His creation, yet we are still His creatures, His handiwork. We remember at the end of Job, God finally speaks and challenges Job with a series of questions.

Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? In 38 verse four, can you do this? Can you do that? Who did this? Who did that?

Many questions. It spans two chapters of questions regarding creation details of the earth and life and other things. Moreover, the Lord answered Job and said, shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? He that reproveth God, let him answer it. Then Job answered the Lord and said, behold, I am vile.

What shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth. Job 40, one through four. Job acknowledges how he stands in relation to God. I am vile.

We are all dead in trespasses and sins, Ephesians 2.1. We are all as an unclean thing, Isaiah 64.6. For there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not, Ecclesiastes 7.20. How can we, who are vile, who are unclean, who are filled with trespasses and sins, How can we do anything that would warrant the forgiveness of our sins or earn eternal life? We can't.

And Paul drives this point home. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works?

Nay, but by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." Romans 3, 27 and 28. Number three, we cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin or eternal life because by our good works we can neither profit nor satisfy for the debts of our former sins. The use of the word profit here is in the sense of doing something that would benefit you or bring you to an advantage. The word satisfy is used in the sense of paying to the full extent of the claims upon you.

Let's look at if you're building a house for someone. You would owe a debt to the laborers for their skill and for their time they've put into the job. You would owe a debt to the supply companies for material and deliveries. You would owe a debt to the city or county for permits and inspections. You would owe a debt for many, many more things that I can't think of.

But once all of those debts were paid in full, you would have satisfied the demands of those debts placed upon you during construction. Whatever is left over is the profit. In our statement here, there is not enough even to pay the debt that we owe. Specifically, what is the debt that we owe for our sins? The penalty for not perfectly following God's commands is death.

Romans 6 23, for the wages of sin is death. So to whom is the debt to be paid? It is owed and to be paid to God the Father. So can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself? A question Job makes in 22 two.

No, No matter how hard we try, no matter how many ways we try to make it happen, it's impossible. Ligonier Ministries comments here, this failure to live up to the standards of the divine law in turn makes us seek ways to repay the debt we owe to the Almighty. And the history of the world, the history of the world religions is the history of human beings trying to come up with the methods that will pay the debt we incur to God. Various forms of penance, pilgrimages, fasting, and so forth are commonly found in the religions of the world as means to pay the debt of sin in a tone for falling short of the Creator's law. The problem with all these attempts is that they do not take the difference between the Creator and the creature into serious consideration.

We can pay the debts we owe to other people for breaking human laws, but how can a finite individual pay the debt owed to the infinite God? We have transgressed the standards of our infinitely holy creator, which means that the debt we owe is infinite. We cannot hope to pay this debt ourselves. Our only hope for repaying our debt of sin to our infinitely holy God is for another to pay it in our place. Only the infinite God himself and the person of Jesus Christ can repay this debt we owe.

Because Christ is truly God, His suffering is sufficient value to satisfy our debt against the Lord. If we are in Him by faith alone, our debt has been paid and our sins are no longer held against us. Number four, we cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin or eternal life because when we have done all we can, when we have done but our duty, we are unprofitable servants. Where would we be if we did do the best possible, even to the point of doing all the things commanded. The gospel of Luke addresses this in chapter 17, verse 10.

When you shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, we are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our duty to do, but yet we are still unprofitable servants. What is an unprofitable servant? John Gill offers an explanation of this. We are unprofitable servants, not in such sense as unregenerate men are, who are disobedient to every good work, reprobate and unfit.

Or is this slothful servant, who did not what his Lord commanded, nor is the sense that they are unprofitable to men, for they may be, and are very useful and serviceable to men and to the saints, but that they are so to God, they're unprofitable to God, by whose grace and strength they are what they are and do what they do and can give nothing to him but what is already his own and his due. And so can lay under him no obligation to them, no merit anything from him, no not even thanks, and much less heaven and eternal life. And Dr. Sproul further comments here, if we serve out in an effort to earn our way into the kingdom of God, we deceive ourselves. The motivation for Christian service is love for God.

We serve not to earn salvation but because Christ already has purchased salvation for us. That truth lies behind the Verse in Augustus, top lady's great hymn, Rock of Ages, that says, "'Nothing in my hand I bring, "'simply to the cross I cling.'" Top lady understood that after we have done our best deeds, we remain unprofitable servants. No matter how exemplary our service, we gain nothing by it that we can offer to God to procure his favor. Number five, we cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin or eternal life, because our works are good because they proceed from the Holy Spirit. Last week the confession taught us that the ability to do good works comes entirely from the Holy Spirit, not at all from ourselves.

For it is God which worketh in you both to will and do of his good pleasure, Philippians 2 13. We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them, Ephesians 2 10. We were created in Christ Jesus for good works, good works that God had prepared beforehand. How can we merit something from what is not ours to begin with? It is God that is working in us.

We can profit to Him nothing. We can earn nothing. We can't even do our duty in reality. We can't do even what is required of us. Well, praise God that our redemption doesn't rely on our own works, but by grace and grace alone because of the atoning work of Christ who is the only profitable servant.

And finally, number six. We cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin or eternal life because 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. Our ability to do works comes from the Holy Spirit, not of ourselves. Our good works are good because they proceed from the Holy Spirit, and we can try to live a good life, doing the best we can. In fact, we can compare ourselves to others and feel a bit prideful on how good we look as compared to those we might see on the news.

The reality is all our good works are as filthy rags. Paul reminds us that there is none righteous, no, not one in Romans 3 10. And that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, Romans 3.23. The psalmist writes, enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified, Psalm 143.2. John Gill comments on this.

God is a judge, and there is and will be a judgment, universal, righteous and eternal. And there is a day fixed for it and a judgment seat before which all must stand and a law according to which all must be judged. But the Psalmist knew he was but a man, and he could not contend with God, and a sinful creature, and could not answer him for one of a thousand faults committed by Him. And though His servant yet an unprofitable one, His nature, His heart, His thoughts, words, and actions would not bear examining, nor stand the test of the holy law of God, nor was he able to answer the demands of divine justice in his own person, and therefore pleads for pardon and acceptance through Christ and his righteousness, and entreats that God would not proceed against him in a judicial way now nor hereafter. For in thy sight shall no man living be justified.

I'd like to end with the reading of the lyrics of the hymn I mentioned just before, Rock of Ages, penned by Augustus, top lady back in 1776. Rock of ages cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed Be of sin the double cure, save from wrath and make me pure. Not the labor of my hands can fulfill thy law's demands.

Could my zeal no respite know, could my tears forever flow? All for sin could not atone, Thou must save and now alone. Nothing in my hand I bring simply to the cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress. Helpless Look to thee for grace.

Foul eye to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die. While I draw this fleeting breath, when my eyes shall close in death, when I rise to worlds unknown, and behold thee on thy throne, rock of ages, cleft for me. Let me hide myself in thee. This is a great song.

The words are just amazing. Not the labor of my hands can fulfill thy laws demands. This is what we're talking today. Nothing in my hand I bring, nothing. There's nothing that we can bring.

Simply to the cross I cling. And where do we look? We look to thee for grace and we hide ourself in thee. There's nothing you can do, no good works, no righteousness that can merit either the forgiveness of your sins or eternal life. We must look to Christ, the profitable servant.

It is through his good works and his works alone where we find our redemption. It is by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone that we are saved. And it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Amen.