WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.600 We are in a series on Paul's letter to the Ephesians, and Paul wrote this letter sometime 00:00:07.600 --> 00:00:15.359 between the year 60 and 62 in the first century, and he's writing to a church that he had planted. 00:00:15.359 --> 00:00:19.420 But a lot of people in the church had become Christians after he had left, and so he's 00:00:19.420 --> 00:00:23.679 hearing about their faith, and now he's writing them a letter, and he's writing a letter 00:00:23.679 --> 00:00:30.439 to a church, to the church, to us, and in it he's telling us all about what it means 00:00:30.439 --> 00:00:35.399 to be a Christian, and he's really answering the question, who is the church? 00:00:35.399 --> 00:00:36.600 Who are you as a Christian? 00:00:36.600 --> 00:00:38.320 How did you become a Christian? 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:43.840 And he's told us all about how God sees that, what God's been up to in our lives ever since 00:00:43.840 --> 00:00:48.519 the foundation, before the foundation of the world, all the way into your life right now. 00:00:48.520 --> 00:00:52.720 And so Ephesians 2, this chapter, we've been looking at these first 10 verses for a little 00:00:52.720 --> 00:00:53.720 while. 00:00:53.720 --> 00:01:00.000 It's actually the heartbeat of Christianity, and it's all about what it means to become 00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:07.640 a Christian, and so Paul has said in verse 1 to 3, every single one of us, no matter 00:01:07.640 --> 00:01:13.480 where we were born, when we were born, our age, stage, socioeconomic status, our class, 00:01:13.480 --> 00:01:16.280 our nationality, no matter what, we are dead. 00:01:16.280 --> 00:01:22.879 We were dead, spiritually dead, in trespasses and sins, and then in verses 4 to 9 he says, 00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:27.200 but God, these great prepositions we looked at last week, but God, even when you were 00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:32.200 dead, God came in and made you alive through Jesus Christ. 00:01:32.200 --> 00:01:38.920 And then lastly today, verse 10, and now go and do good works. 00:01:38.920 --> 00:01:44.200 And so today we have a rare opportunity, which is to just look together at one verse, I never 00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:45.200 get to do it. 00:01:45.200 --> 00:01:46.519 So today we get to do it. 00:01:46.519 --> 00:01:51.879 One verse, one verse only, verse 10, and it's so important that Paul puts verse 10 where 00:01:51.879 --> 00:01:57.799 verse 10 is, that good works come at the very end of this long section talking to us about 00:01:57.799 --> 00:01:59.640 God's grace in our lives. 00:01:59.640 --> 00:02:00.799 And so let's think about it together. 00:02:00.799 --> 00:02:03.079 We're going to think about what Paul says. 00:02:03.079 --> 00:02:08.759 He says we need to know the place for good works and the definition, then what is a good 00:02:08.759 --> 00:02:13.879 work, and then how can we grow more and more into people of good works. 00:02:13.879 --> 00:02:14.879 So let's think about that. 00:02:14.879 --> 00:02:18.359 First, the place for good works. 00:02:18.359 --> 00:02:22.799 The order, like I just mentioned, the order is everything in the way he outlines. 00:02:22.799 --> 00:02:27.199 He teaches us here in Ephesians 2, 1-10. 00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:29.799 What is unique in all the world is the Christian message. 00:02:29.799 --> 00:02:33.560 And as we looked at last week, what's unique about the Christian message from all the world 00:02:33.560 --> 00:02:39.359 religions, all philosophies, all worldviews is the idea of grace. 00:02:39.359 --> 00:02:44.280 That God, God, despite your qualities. 00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:45.640 God, despite the conditions. 00:02:45.640 --> 00:02:50.039 God, despite your performance, is willing to love you all the way to the point of the 00:02:50.039 --> 00:02:51.920 death of his son on the cross. 00:02:51.920 --> 00:02:53.319 That's grace. 00:02:53.319 --> 00:02:57.280 It's what makes Christianity different from every other religion, everything else on offer 00:02:57.280 --> 00:02:58.800 in all the world. 00:02:58.800 --> 00:03:04.159 And the order here is so important to know that verse 10 comes at the very end. 00:03:04.159 --> 00:03:09.400 And you can see that, again, verses 1-3, you were dead, verses 4-9, grace. 00:03:09.400 --> 00:03:10.400 God's grace entered. 00:03:10.400 --> 00:03:14.400 In verse 10, now he says, you are his workmanship. 00:03:14.400 --> 00:03:18.960 And again this week, like last week, the prepositions are everything. 00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:24.240 So remember last week, it's by grace through faith that you're saved. 00:03:24.240 --> 00:03:28.840 And this week, the preposition in verse 10 that we have to pay attention to is he says, 00:03:28.840 --> 00:03:33.319 we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. 00:03:33.319 --> 00:03:37.280 And then here's the preposition for good works. 00:03:37.280 --> 00:03:42.280 And let's say something incredibly boring for a moment so that we can make a very good 00:03:42.280 --> 00:03:43.400 point. 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:49.000 And that's that when you read the commentators on this little preposition that we were created 00:03:49.000 --> 00:03:55.039 in Christ Jesus for good works, they will tell you that this is a directional preposition. 00:03:55.039 --> 00:03:59.400 That means it can be translated something like, we were created in Christ Jesus which 00:03:59.400 --> 00:04:02.319 leads us to good works. 00:04:02.319 --> 00:04:05.120 Another way to translate it is unto good works. 00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:10.080 So when grace comes into your life, he's saying this little directional preposition has got 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:11.080 to be there. 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:17.120 That you know that Paul is telling you that you're saved unto good works, not by good 00:04:17.120 --> 00:04:19.000 works. 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:20.319 And the preposition is everything. 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:21.480 The direction is everything. 00:04:21.480 --> 00:04:22.560 The order is everything. 00:04:22.560 --> 00:04:26.360 If you flip it upside down, you've lost Christianity again. 00:04:26.360 --> 00:04:28.360 And so it's so important. 00:04:28.360 --> 00:04:32.920 And so he's talking to us about something very simple but very, very important. 00:04:32.920 --> 00:04:39.280 And that's that we can never say, we can never say that we achieve God's love. 00:04:39.280 --> 00:04:40.840 We become Christians. 00:04:40.840 --> 00:04:47.640 We receive forgiveness because of our faith and our good behavior and our good deeds. 00:04:47.640 --> 00:04:52.960 And instead what Paul is trying to get us to see is God's grace enters our lives and 00:04:52.960 --> 00:04:55.800 even faith is a gift. 00:04:55.800 --> 00:05:01.639 And then when we have justifying faith, that gift of faith, then we become people that 00:05:01.639 --> 00:05:03.599 are called to good works. 00:05:03.599 --> 00:05:04.599 That's the order. 00:05:04.599 --> 00:05:08.839 Now, there are two ditches that he's trying to talk to us about. 00:05:08.839 --> 00:05:14.000 I think subtly that you can fall into on either side of this path. 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:15.000 Two ditches. 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:20.919 The ditches on the one side is he's warning us against the possibility of legalism creeping 00:05:20.919 --> 00:05:22.519 into our lives. 00:05:22.519 --> 00:05:23.919 And what is legalism? 00:05:23.919 --> 00:05:28.199 Legalism is when you begin to think, when anybody thinks that it's my performance, my 00:05:28.199 --> 00:05:32.759 good deeds by which God will love me. 00:05:32.759 --> 00:05:33.759 That's legalism. 00:05:33.759 --> 00:05:37.839 And on the other side of the ditch is a little bit of a more difficult word but a simple 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:39.639 idea, antinomianism. 00:05:39.639 --> 00:05:42.039 Antinomus in Greek means law. 00:05:42.039 --> 00:05:44.680 And so antinomianism is anti-law. 00:05:44.680 --> 00:05:47.919 So legalism is nominism, lawism. 00:05:47.919 --> 00:05:50.800 And on the other side of the ditch is antinomism. 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:54.639 So you can get caught in the trap on the one side that you say, it's my faith and my good 00:05:54.639 --> 00:05:55.959 deeds. 00:05:55.959 --> 00:05:56.959 That's religion. 00:05:56.959 --> 00:05:57.959 That's legalism. 00:05:57.959 --> 00:05:59.199 No, no, no. 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:01.839 Verse 10 is where it is for a reason. 00:06:01.839 --> 00:06:05.359 But then on the other side of the ditch is anti-lawism which says, you know, if it really 00:06:05.359 --> 00:06:10.000 is God's grace from top to bottom, I can do whatever I want and God's going to forgive 00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:11.000 me anyway. 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:12.199 I've got grace in my life. 00:06:12.199 --> 00:06:13.680 It doesn't matter how I live. 00:06:13.680 --> 00:06:15.919 And he's saying, no, it's neither of those things. 00:06:15.919 --> 00:06:20.319 He's saying instead, if you're a Christian today, what's happened to you? 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:21.599 Grace has come into your life. 00:06:21.599 --> 00:06:26.560 You've got the gift of faith and you've been set apart for the rest of your life to be 00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:29.600 a person of good works, of good deeds. 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:32.160 It's not your good deeds that justify you, not at all. 00:06:32.160 --> 00:06:36.560 But once you're justified, God has said, now you're called to a specific life, a life that's 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:39.160 been transformed and changed. 00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:40.280 And so this is how he says it. 00:06:40.280 --> 00:06:44.519 Verse 10, he says at the very beginning, we are his workmanship. 00:06:44.519 --> 00:06:48.840 And that's a word that summarizes everything that we've been talking about so far. 00:06:48.840 --> 00:06:51.319 It's a great word, workmanship. 00:06:51.319 --> 00:06:58.519 If you translated this literally, it would say, for we are his doing, or for we are his 00:06:58.519 --> 00:06:59.920 making. 00:06:59.920 --> 00:07:02.839 And in Greek, it's the word poema. 00:07:02.839 --> 00:07:05.439 And it's where we get our English word poem. 00:07:05.439 --> 00:07:06.439 Poem. 00:07:06.439 --> 00:07:09.039 I never feel like I can say the word poem correctly. 00:07:09.039 --> 00:07:10.039 I don't know. 00:07:10.039 --> 00:07:12.399 You can tell me after what you think about that. 00:07:12.399 --> 00:07:13.399 Poem. 00:07:13.399 --> 00:07:16.959 We are his workmanship, his poem, his poetry. 00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:18.319 That's another way of saying it. 00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:23.159 Now he's combining two ideas into this. 00:07:23.159 --> 00:07:25.000 The order even in verse 10 is everything. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:28.279 We are his poema, his doing, his making. 00:07:28.279 --> 00:07:33.079 And he's talking there about both creation and artistry at the same time. 00:07:33.079 --> 00:07:37.039 And he's saying that when you become a Christian, when you receive God's grace in your life 00:07:37.039 --> 00:07:41.959 and you believe it, you are now his masterpiece. 00:07:41.959 --> 00:07:43.039 You're his artistry. 00:07:43.039 --> 00:07:44.279 You're his poem. 00:07:44.279 --> 00:07:45.279 He's writing you. 00:07:45.279 --> 00:07:46.279 He's sculpting you. 00:07:46.279 --> 00:07:47.279 He's painting you. 00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:48.279 He's repainting you. 00:07:48.279 --> 00:07:52.679 So he's picking up here on an idea that comes to us all the way from the book of Genesis. 00:07:52.679 --> 00:07:58.599 And in Genesis 2, when God first made Adam and Eve, we get the same ideas. 00:07:58.599 --> 00:08:02.239 We get that God raised up Adam from the stuff of the earth. 00:08:02.239 --> 00:08:06.000 And the verb that's used there is an artistic verb. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:10.479 It's the verb that's normally used for a potter raising up, using clay from the earth to make 00:08:10.479 --> 00:08:11.479 something. 00:08:11.479 --> 00:08:17.159 And it says God made Adam poema, like his poetry, like a piece of art. 00:08:17.160 --> 00:08:20.800 And then when you jump down to Genesis 2.15, it talks about the making of Eve. 00:08:20.800 --> 00:08:23.400 And it uses even a greater artistic term. 00:08:23.400 --> 00:08:25.000 He fashioned her. 00:08:25.000 --> 00:08:29.760 It's an architectural verb for designing a palace or a great piece of a building that 00:08:29.760 --> 00:08:31.360 he uses for the making of Eve. 00:08:31.360 --> 00:08:36.639 See, Paul's leaning into creation, language, to talk about your salvation. 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:41.399 And the reason he's doing that is because, remember last week, let me ask you again, 00:08:41.399 --> 00:08:46.519 when you were born physically, when you were your birthday, when that came about, you know, 00:08:46.519 --> 00:08:49.279 how much did you contribute? 00:08:49.279 --> 00:08:51.159 What did you do on the day you were born? 00:08:51.159 --> 00:08:54.159 We said last week, it was all your mother, right? 00:08:54.159 --> 00:08:55.759 You didn't do anything. 00:08:55.759 --> 00:08:56.759 You received it entirely. 00:08:56.759 --> 00:09:02.559 And he's saying, remember, from the very beginning of human history, you are fashioned by God. 00:09:02.559 --> 00:09:04.199 You didn't do anything. 00:09:04.199 --> 00:09:05.759 He raised you up from the dust. 00:09:05.759 --> 00:09:08.919 You are his painting. 00:09:08.919 --> 00:09:16.279 But then when salvation comes into play, oh, you see, verse 1 to 4, you rejected that. 00:09:16.279 --> 00:09:20.360 All of us, we walked away from the path of God's artistry. 00:09:20.360 --> 00:09:25.600 We were made to be a masterpiece, a masterpiece of God's love expressed into the world. 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:26.600 And we walked away from it. 00:09:26.600 --> 00:09:28.039 We rebelled against it. 00:09:28.039 --> 00:09:31.959 And God is saying, what salvation is, is recreation. 00:09:31.959 --> 00:09:35.399 It's God coming into your life and saying, I want to make you into the poetry you were 00:09:35.399 --> 00:09:37.319 always meant to be. 00:09:37.319 --> 00:09:39.159 You walked away from it, but I can remake you. 00:09:39.159 --> 00:09:44.360 You see, every single human is like a defaced masterpiece. 00:09:44.360 --> 00:09:49.600 Have you ever seen, you know, maybe on Twitter, Instagram, on YouTube, somebody that is protesting 00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:54.200 or something like that, and they go and they throw paint all over a great piece of art? 00:09:54.200 --> 00:09:59.399 And there's a real tragedy in that because it really can't be recovered. 00:09:59.399 --> 00:10:04.159 And what he's saying here, when he uses the word workmanship, is we are defaced poetry, 00:10:04.159 --> 00:10:07.960 defaced art by our sin, by our doing, by our rebellion. 00:10:07.960 --> 00:10:12.560 And salvation, the grace of God comes into your life that says, now I'm going to chisel 00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:18.079 away all the bad parts of the sculpture until you're beautiful. 00:10:18.079 --> 00:10:22.079 Now before we move on, you've got to see something even deeper than that because this language 00:10:22.079 --> 00:10:29.199 of recreation, another way to translate this is, for we are his artistry recreated in Christ 00:10:29.199 --> 00:10:31.319 Jesus for good works. 00:10:31.319 --> 00:10:32.919 That's what he's saying there. 00:10:32.919 --> 00:10:37.599 But how do you get past legalism and antinomianism? 00:10:37.599 --> 00:10:40.359 How do you avoid ever thinking that your good works will save you? 00:10:40.360 --> 00:10:45.279 How do you avoid ever running away from the path of good works and good deeds and love? 00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:48.080 Because you think, well, grace is just going to get me out of this. 00:10:48.080 --> 00:10:49.080 How do you do that? 00:10:49.080 --> 00:10:55.480 And what he gives us here in verse 10 is this little preposition in Christ Jesus. 00:10:55.480 --> 00:10:57.919 He says, this is the antidote. 00:10:57.919 --> 00:11:01.440 The antidote to really see the grace that work in your life and the fact that you've 00:11:01.440 --> 00:11:04.920 been set apart is God's masterpiece for good works. 00:11:04.920 --> 00:11:07.840 Is to realize that this is all about relationship. 00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:10.200 It's all about being in Christ or with Christ. 00:11:10.200 --> 00:11:12.680 It's all about the relationship you have with Jesus. 00:11:12.680 --> 00:11:17.600 And if you go back to creation language again, workmanship ideas, creation ideas, artistry 00:11:17.600 --> 00:11:22.920 ideas, one of the things we see throughout the Bible is this idea that God made the world 00:11:22.920 --> 00:11:26.480 good, beautiful, perfect. 00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:31.960 And by our sin, we in a sense unmade the world. 00:11:31.960 --> 00:11:33.040 We undid it. 00:11:33.040 --> 00:11:34.040 We decreated it. 00:11:34.040 --> 00:11:38.060 You see the language here, he says, you are his doing, his making. 00:11:38.059 --> 00:11:41.319 But by your sin, you unmade it. 00:11:41.319 --> 00:11:45.439 You rebelled against him and you became the person you were never meant to be. 00:11:45.439 --> 00:11:50.359 Not by God's creation order, not by what he made us to become. 00:11:50.359 --> 00:11:54.079 And you see this language all throughout the Bible, this idea of decreation. 00:11:54.079 --> 00:11:58.639 It's a reversal of creation and images all because of sin. 00:11:58.639 --> 00:12:00.439 Think about the 10 plagues. 00:12:00.439 --> 00:12:04.959 If you look at each, every single one of the 10 plagues that came down upon ancient Egypt, 00:12:04.960 --> 00:12:08.240 facing one of those is reversing creation. 00:12:08.240 --> 00:12:11.080 It's making something into what it shouldn't be. 00:12:11.080 --> 00:12:12.680 Rivers aren't meant to be blood, right? 00:12:12.680 --> 00:12:14.360 They're meant to be water. 00:12:14.360 --> 00:12:18.759 But God made the water to blood because it's not what should be and he was showing what 00:12:18.759 --> 00:12:20.639 you're doing, how you're behaving Pharaoh. 00:12:20.639 --> 00:12:23.519 It's not the way the world should be. 00:12:23.519 --> 00:12:25.680 And one of the plagues was darkness. 00:12:25.680 --> 00:12:30.540 I remember darkness fell upon the land that in the beginning of creation there was darkness 00:12:30.540 --> 00:12:33.680 and God shone the light into the world. 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:37.120 Do you remember what happened at the cross? 00:12:37.120 --> 00:12:41.279 Darkness fell upon the land when Jesus was at the cross. 00:12:41.279 --> 00:12:42.279 Why? 00:12:42.279 --> 00:12:45.239 Because he was being unmade. 00:12:45.239 --> 00:12:46.739 He was being decreated. 00:12:46.739 --> 00:12:48.199 He was being undone. 00:12:48.199 --> 00:12:53.799 He is the great piece of art that God put into the world, the image of God himself, the 00:12:53.799 --> 00:12:55.479 masterpiece. 00:12:55.479 --> 00:12:58.000 But he was ultimately defaced. 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:05.519 Why so that you and I could be remade, recreated, redone, that we could become the great masterpiece 00:13:05.519 --> 00:13:06.519 of God. 00:13:06.519 --> 00:13:09.879 And so here's the idea that Paul is giving us and we'll move on. 00:13:09.879 --> 00:13:15.919 It's this that when you realize what grace says, grace says that God looks at you in 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:20.519 Christ, meaning when he looks at you, he sees Jesus. 00:13:20.519 --> 00:13:27.039 And when he looks at Jesus, he sees you to the point where he says you're beautiful long 00:13:27.039 --> 00:13:29.199 before you ever actually are. 00:13:29.199 --> 00:13:32.199 See, that's workmanship. 00:13:32.199 --> 00:13:38.679 When his grace enters your life, he says, I see you as a masterpiece, forgiven, clean, 00:13:38.679 --> 00:13:44.240 washed, purified, full of love, even though you're not yet. 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:45.240 That's grace. 00:13:45.240 --> 00:13:46.240 That's forgiveness. 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:48.199 That's what we call justification. 00:13:48.199 --> 00:13:51.759 And then he says, now go and be beautiful. 00:13:51.759 --> 00:13:56.719 Go and chisel away the bad parts so that you can become the masterpiece that I've pronounced 00:13:56.720 --> 00:13:59.639 you to be in Christ Jesus. 00:13:59.639 --> 00:14:00.639 What is that? 00:14:00.639 --> 00:14:01.639 What is a good work? 00:14:01.639 --> 00:14:04.000 Okay, let's think about it secondly and briefly. 00:14:04.000 --> 00:14:11.399 A good work, this next thing he tells us is after we are his artistry, his poem, recreated 00:14:11.399 --> 00:14:13.519 in Christ four good works. 00:14:13.519 --> 00:14:19.120 And then he says this, we're four good works and God prepared these works beforehand that 00:14:19.120 --> 00:14:21.560 we should walk in them. 00:14:21.560 --> 00:14:24.320 What's a good work? 00:14:24.320 --> 00:14:29.800 Yes, Oliver O'Donovan, a theologian, a scholar that worked at New College across the street 00:14:29.800 --> 00:14:31.760 here that passed away a few years back. 00:14:31.760 --> 00:14:35.760 And he helps me a lot on understanding what Paul means here. 00:14:35.760 --> 00:14:41.680 When you first look at this idea of God has made good works beforehand, made them ready, 00:14:41.680 --> 00:14:45.360 there's another way to translate it, that we would walk in them, it sounds at first 00:14:45.360 --> 00:14:51.520 like God has prepared very, very specific individual good works for every single one 00:14:51.520 --> 00:14:53.280 of us Christians. 00:14:53.279 --> 00:14:57.120 And he made them for you beforehand that you at some point in your life should walk down 00:14:57.120 --> 00:14:58.639 that road and do them. 00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:01.799 And there's truth in that, God's providence, he's prepared everything we're going to do 00:15:01.799 --> 00:15:02.919 in our lives. 00:15:02.919 --> 00:15:07.079 But O'Donovan is very helpful because he says what Paul is actually talking about here is 00:15:07.079 --> 00:15:12.079 that God has made the path called the good for us. 00:15:12.079 --> 00:15:17.759 In other words, in a simple language he's saying God made a world and there is such a thing 00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:19.600 called good. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:21.679 There's good and there's bad. 00:15:21.679 --> 00:15:23.919 God prepared it at the beginning of creation. 00:15:23.919 --> 00:15:25.000 What is good? 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:30.000 It's what God says about the world and we are meant to walk down that path. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:33.799 And so when you've come to see the grace of Jesus and faith in your life, you've been 00:15:33.799 --> 00:15:40.319 set apart to walk down the path of creation order, goodness, that God had originally 00:15:40.319 --> 00:15:42.799 set out for us, the life of love. 00:15:42.799 --> 00:15:47.599 Now that's a simple thing to say, but let me just say it is so important for us to say 00:15:47.600 --> 00:15:52.840 that that there really is such a thing as the good. 00:15:52.840 --> 00:15:58.800 There really is a path, a way of being that is good, and to veer off that path is bad 00:15:58.800 --> 00:16:01.680 and evil that really exists. 00:16:01.680 --> 00:16:06.480 And maybe there's never been a more important time than 2024 to say that there really is 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:09.040 such a thing as the good way, the good path. 00:16:09.040 --> 00:16:10.279 And that's what he's talking about here. 00:16:10.279 --> 00:16:14.399 God made ready the good path for every human to walk down. 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:18.840 And in Christ we get to be put back on that path to walk down it once again. 00:16:18.840 --> 00:16:24.399 Now it's so important to say that in 2024 because of many, many people, maybe you're 00:16:24.399 --> 00:16:29.079 here today thinking this, you're not sure what to think about the idea of the moral 00:16:29.079 --> 00:16:30.079 order. 00:16:30.079 --> 00:16:32.039 So is the good a real thing? 00:16:32.039 --> 00:16:33.439 Is it something that actually exists? 00:16:33.439 --> 00:16:40.120 So one of the most famous thinkers of our time, 19th century philosopher was Friedrich Nietzsche. 00:16:40.120 --> 00:16:45.200 And he was an atheist, probably the most famous atheist perhaps that's ever existed, ever lived. 00:16:45.200 --> 00:16:51.399 And Nietzsche, when he thought about this, he said that in an age where less and less 00:16:51.399 --> 00:16:56.759 people are believing in God, he said that we'll realize what he believed. 00:16:56.759 --> 00:16:57.759 And this is what he said. 00:16:57.759 --> 00:17:03.480 He said, the idea of good works, that you can walk down a path called the good life, 00:17:03.480 --> 00:17:07.480 the good, and that that would please God, that is entirely for Nietzsche. 00:17:07.480 --> 00:17:09.519 He said, a construct. 00:17:09.519 --> 00:17:13.160 So it's something that humans have created that we've invented that we've gathered together 00:17:13.160 --> 00:17:17.519 in our society and decided that we're going to believe in a moral order and we're going 00:17:17.519 --> 00:17:19.039 to create laws. 00:17:19.039 --> 00:17:23.519 And Nietzsche said that that's a construct, the moral of the good life, good deeds, it's 00:17:23.519 --> 00:17:24.519 something we invented. 00:17:24.519 --> 00:17:29.240 And he said, but actually, even if you don't believe in a God, he said, you still have 00:17:29.240 --> 00:17:31.599 to have some form of values. 00:17:31.599 --> 00:17:36.160 So Nietzsche said, we need to replace this idea with a new form and realize actually 00:17:36.160 --> 00:17:37.279 what we've done. 00:17:37.279 --> 00:17:38.279 And this is what he said about it. 00:17:38.279 --> 00:17:44.440 He argued that the law, the moral, the good doesn't actually exist, but it's important 00:17:44.440 --> 00:17:46.720 for us to create it. 00:17:46.720 --> 00:17:48.240 And who does the creating? 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:58.200 He says, aristocrats, the nobility, and the geniuses, sometimes, or maybe the aristocrats. 00:17:58.200 --> 00:17:59.399 Aristocrats or cats. 00:17:59.399 --> 00:18:03.720 The geniuses, the smart people, these are the people that create the moral. 00:18:03.720 --> 00:18:05.720 They construct the good, he said. 00:18:05.720 --> 00:18:06.720 Why? 00:18:06.720 --> 00:18:12.720 And Nietzsche's argument, he says, we have to create good or values, and it's the nobility 00:18:12.720 --> 00:18:14.559 that has to do with it, the upperclassmen. 00:18:14.559 --> 00:18:15.559 Why? 00:18:15.559 --> 00:18:22.360 To keep the lower class and the inferior, those with less education in order so that 00:18:22.360 --> 00:18:27.519 we can be free, be free to be what, well, for him, he called it to be a superman, a 00:18:27.519 --> 00:18:31.200 superwoman, to rise above the common. 00:18:31.200 --> 00:18:34.079 And he said, that's what the moral is, that's the construct. 00:18:34.079 --> 00:18:39.359 It's that those in power create rules to keep the lower in check. 00:18:39.359 --> 00:18:43.839 Now let me ask you, if you don't believe in God, what are you left with? 00:18:43.839 --> 00:18:48.799 Is there such a thing as the good, the path, the right, the way to walk? 00:18:48.799 --> 00:18:49.799 There is. 00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:53.439 And all of us feel that, no matter what you believe today, you know that maybe you're 00:18:53.439 --> 00:18:59.759 here today exploring it, because you know that atheism really falls flat here, that 00:18:59.759 --> 00:19:01.119 there must be a good. 00:19:01.119 --> 00:19:06.519 There must be something, there must be a reason I can look at what Hitler did and say, that's 00:19:06.519 --> 00:19:07.519 evil. 00:19:07.519 --> 00:19:10.079 Otherwise, Nietzsche says it's just a construct. 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:14.199 It's just the powerful creating an idea to control people. 00:19:14.199 --> 00:19:17.759 And God says here, no, there really is a good, and it's because God created it. 00:19:17.759 --> 00:19:18.919 What is it? 00:19:18.919 --> 00:19:24.639 And if you read across Paul, he's pretty clear that the good, the good life, the path, what 00:19:24.639 --> 00:19:31.000 we call good, is God making the world in the image of his own character. 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:32.000 Good is truly good. 00:19:32.000 --> 00:19:33.000 It's God. 00:19:33.000 --> 00:19:34.000 It's his character. 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:36.880 And he's made the world to be like him in that way. 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:41.160 And so whatever is good is whatever conforms to God's character. 00:19:41.160 --> 00:19:46.319 God created the good, the good path, good works, and we've been called to walk on it. 00:19:46.319 --> 00:19:50.119 Now the last thing, and we'll move to the final point, is to say, what does he say? 00:19:50.119 --> 00:19:55.160 He says that we, God created the good that we should walk on it. 00:19:55.160 --> 00:19:59.640 That's the last thing Paul tells us here, that we should walk in these good deeds. 00:19:59.640 --> 00:20:00.640 What is he telling? 00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:04.800 He's saying, look, every single one, there's an object of reality, the good, the good path, 00:20:04.800 --> 00:20:06.680 that love is real. 00:20:06.680 --> 00:20:07.680 Where do you find it? 00:20:07.680 --> 00:20:12.000 Look at the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the command to love God and love 00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:14.120 your neighbor with all of who you are. 00:20:14.120 --> 00:20:17.200 This is the good path that's described for us all across the Bible. 00:20:17.200 --> 00:20:18.840 It's written into our conscience. 00:20:18.840 --> 00:20:21.800 But he says, but there's also a subjective side. 00:20:21.800 --> 00:20:26.040 And the subjective side is God is saying to you, when you become a Christian, when you 00:20:26.040 --> 00:20:30.520 see the grace of Christ brought into your life and you're forgiven, he's saying, now 00:20:30.519 --> 00:20:32.359 go and walk on it. 00:20:32.359 --> 00:20:34.559 You should, you can. 00:20:34.559 --> 00:20:36.480 Go and walk down the road the good path. 00:20:36.480 --> 00:20:42.319 You see what he's saying to us, if you put it all together, this whole theology of salvation, 00:20:42.319 --> 00:20:48.000 Paul is saying, even good works are God's gift to you. 00:20:48.000 --> 00:20:49.160 You are his workmanship. 00:20:49.160 --> 00:20:51.720 You know, he's beautifying you. 00:20:51.720 --> 00:20:54.720 He's taking that chisel and chiseling away the bad parts. 00:20:54.720 --> 00:20:59.480 It's actually even the good things you do in your life are God's work through you. 00:20:59.480 --> 00:21:01.039 It's the Holy Spirit. 00:21:01.039 --> 00:21:03.680 And you should walk in them. 00:21:03.680 --> 00:21:06.240 Meaning and you've got to go and be active. 00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:09.599 And you've got to go and get serious about walking down the path of good works, good 00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:11.279 deeds, love, the life of love. 00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:16.000 He's saying grace is all God, salvation and justification. 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:21.079 It's all God and you go and get serious about the life of good works simultaneously. 00:21:21.079 --> 00:21:22.200 You see, it's both. 00:21:22.200 --> 00:21:23.720 It's passive and it's active. 00:21:23.720 --> 00:21:26.759 It's both at the very same time. 00:21:26.759 --> 00:21:30.879 And so he says, in other words, we've got nothing to boast in. 00:21:30.879 --> 00:21:35.319 If you're a Christian who's lived a life of good deeds for the Lord, you've done great 00:21:35.319 --> 00:21:38.160 things for God, you've got nothing to boast in. 00:21:38.160 --> 00:21:41.799 But if you're a person coming today saying, you know, I'm a believer, I am a Christian, 00:21:41.799 --> 00:21:46.200 I do have faith, but I've not done great things for the Lord. 00:21:46.200 --> 00:21:49.400 Remember there's nothing to boast in. 00:21:49.400 --> 00:21:53.079 Today's the day where you can remember that you're saved by grace through faith and come 00:21:53.079 --> 00:21:56.440 back to the path that God set apart for you. 00:21:56.440 --> 00:21:58.680 So let's close by thinking about that. 00:21:58.680 --> 00:22:01.960 How can we grow in the life of good works? 00:22:01.960 --> 00:22:03.360 The final thing. 00:22:03.360 --> 00:22:11.799 Francis Schaefer says that when you're born or you're born again in Christ, now it's time 00:22:11.799 --> 00:22:13.840 to go and live. 00:22:13.840 --> 00:22:18.880 When you've received grace, you've been born again, but now you've actually got to go live. 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:21.200 And good works is the path that we live on. 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:27.120 So let's think for just a second, a few helps maybe for how to grow in a life of good works 00:22:27.120 --> 00:22:29.480 in the light of the gospel. 00:22:29.480 --> 00:22:35.160 The first thing we learn here is that you can only do a good work, a good deed that 00:22:35.160 --> 00:22:36.799 truly pleases God. 00:22:36.799 --> 00:22:39.360 This is not a generic word, good works. 00:22:39.360 --> 00:22:40.920 It's a precise word. 00:22:40.920 --> 00:22:47.400 If you have had your heart changed by Jesus Christ, your motivation, your heart actually 00:22:47.400 --> 00:22:53.080 has to be in a posture to actually be doing works of love for the Lord to be good works 00:22:53.080 --> 00:22:54.080 before the Lord. 00:22:54.080 --> 00:22:55.080 All right? 00:22:55.080 --> 00:22:56.880 So it's not generic. 00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:00.200 Everybody in this world does good things all the time. 00:23:00.200 --> 00:23:01.920 Civic, good things. 00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:04.400 People love each other all the time. 00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:07.320 But Paul's talking about something more technical than that. 00:23:07.320 --> 00:23:12.560 He's saying a good deed that truly delights the Lord is one that begins with a heart that's 00:23:12.560 --> 00:23:14.560 been changed by God. 00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:19.119 And maybe if you've been around the past couple of weeks and you've been looking at this heartbeat 00:23:19.119 --> 00:23:23.039 of Christianity, this idea of being saved by grace through faith, one of the things I 00:23:23.039 --> 00:23:30.359 think that may come into your mind, may pop up for some people, as you might say, look, 00:23:30.359 --> 00:23:36.279 we've said over and over, we're saved by the grace of God through our faith. 00:23:36.279 --> 00:23:39.279 And I want that. 00:23:39.279 --> 00:23:40.279 I want that in my life. 00:23:40.279 --> 00:23:47.680 I want to receive the forgiveness of the cross, but I just feel like I'm not sure if I really 00:23:47.680 --> 00:23:51.399 believe that it comes and goes for me. 00:23:51.399 --> 00:23:54.039 I want to be a person of faith, but I don't know if I am a person of faith. 00:23:54.039 --> 00:24:02.359 And let me say today, if you're coming and saying that, then that means that God is at 00:24:02.359 --> 00:24:06.599 work in your life giving you right now the gift of faith. 00:24:06.599 --> 00:24:13.719 You are in process of awakening to that because dead people don't say that. 00:24:13.719 --> 00:24:16.439 Dead people don't come and say, I really want to be a Christian. 00:24:16.439 --> 00:24:18.959 I just don't know if I truly believe. 00:24:18.959 --> 00:24:22.199 But if you're saying that God's working in your life, don't lose heart. 00:24:22.199 --> 00:24:23.359 Keep going. 00:24:23.359 --> 00:24:28.599 Keep walking down that road of awakening to God's grace through faith in your life. 00:24:28.599 --> 00:24:30.000 And then become a person of good works. 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:35.000 You've got to have your heart changed by faith in order to walk down this path of good works. 00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:36.000 Don't lose heart. 00:24:36.000 --> 00:24:38.720 Secondly, of just four helps. 00:24:38.720 --> 00:24:44.680 Secondly, the other side of it is that you only have a good work, Paul teaches us, when 00:24:44.680 --> 00:24:49.359 it's done from a heart that's been changed and when it's done from the motivation for 00:24:49.359 --> 00:24:51.480 God's glory. 00:24:51.480 --> 00:24:58.079 So a nice thing, a kind thing to be exactly what Paul's talking about here is something 00:24:58.079 --> 00:25:02.960 from a regenerate, a change, a born again heart and with the motivation that you actually 00:25:02.960 --> 00:25:08.200 want to do it because of the gospel, for God's glory, that the gospel is the motivation for 00:25:08.200 --> 00:25:11.440 the reason that you're wanting to do a good deed. 00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:13.200 How do you grow in that? 00:25:13.200 --> 00:25:19.360 And the simple answer, I think, in a very brief time we can give is look at the cross, 00:25:19.360 --> 00:25:23.440 look at Jesus every single day. 00:25:23.440 --> 00:25:27.160 If you, in other words, I think Paul's calling us here to say, if you want to be motivated 00:25:27.160 --> 00:25:32.799 more and more to a life of love, you've got to wake up every day and look once again at 00:25:32.799 --> 00:25:34.839 the grace of the Lord, at the cross. 00:25:34.839 --> 00:25:36.399 You've got to cling to the cross. 00:25:36.399 --> 00:25:37.559 You'll never be changed. 00:25:37.559 --> 00:25:43.279 See, if you don't do that, you'll drift back into performance and then your good works 00:25:43.279 --> 00:25:47.359 will actually be about your being a good person. 00:25:47.359 --> 00:25:49.839 And so every single day we're being asked, you've got to wake up and you've got to look 00:25:49.839 --> 00:25:55.359 at the cross all over again and say, I am not saved by my good works but by Jesus' performance 00:25:55.359 --> 00:25:58.759 in order to actually be free of yourself. 00:25:58.759 --> 00:26:03.559 In other words, a life of true good works is actually a life where you forget about everything, 00:26:03.559 --> 00:26:07.680 yourself, your works, and you just love people. 00:26:07.680 --> 00:26:10.200 That's the heartbeat of the true life of good works. 00:26:10.200 --> 00:26:14.839 And so every day it's about waking up and clinging to the cross and seeing it all over 00:26:14.839 --> 00:26:17.440 again once more. 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:23.680 The third thing of four is to have a bigger vision for good works. 00:26:23.680 --> 00:26:26.839 What are good works, good deeds, the life of love for in the Christian life? 00:26:26.839 --> 00:26:32.639 One of the things that this is for, growing and growing in a life of love, is it's for 00:26:32.639 --> 00:26:39.079 signposting and witnessing to the life that is to come in the future. 00:26:39.079 --> 00:26:43.879 If you read all across the Gospels, some of the New Testament scholars will say that Jesus' 00:26:43.879 --> 00:26:49.319 miraculous deeds in the Gospels were not so much for showing that he was the Messiah 00:26:49.319 --> 00:26:55.079 in the moment, but many of them were about pointing people to the life he's going to 00:26:55.079 --> 00:26:58.000 give us when he comes again. 00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:04.319 So when he makes hungry people not hungry because of bread, multiplying bread, he's 00:27:04.319 --> 00:27:06.079 saying, I'm going to give you something. 00:27:06.079 --> 00:27:08.240 I'm going to give you bread forever. 00:27:08.240 --> 00:27:12.679 When he raises up Lazarus from the dead, he said, I've come to give you life forever. 00:27:12.679 --> 00:27:18.480 And in the same way the New Testament teaches that our good works are about signposting 00:27:18.480 --> 00:27:24.839 a life that is to come, a life that is better, better than the idols of this world, better 00:27:24.839 --> 00:27:29.839 than power hunger, better than chasing after sex, money and power. 00:27:29.839 --> 00:27:30.839 And how does Jesus put it? 00:27:30.839 --> 00:27:35.599 He says, go out into the world, Christian, and be salt and light. 00:27:35.599 --> 00:27:38.720 Signpost a better city, the city of God. 00:27:38.720 --> 00:27:42.480 We've got to have a bigger vision, a vision for what good works are really all about. 00:27:42.480 --> 00:27:49.679 And then the last thing, and we'll close with this, is just to say the Gospel changes everything. 00:27:49.680 --> 00:27:55.840 And that means every single day it really is about the pattern of confessing our sins, 00:27:55.840 --> 00:28:01.320 clinging to the cross, and stepping out with a renewed vision to be people of love, conforming 00:28:01.320 --> 00:28:03.160 to the image of the Son Jesus. 00:28:03.160 --> 00:28:08.640 I want to close with Martin Luther's story for a second. 00:28:08.640 --> 00:28:11.000 This is what happened to Martin Luther at the beginning of the Reformation. 00:28:11.000 --> 00:28:16.799 So Luther was a Catholic priest, and he was a legalist. 00:28:16.799 --> 00:28:18.960 He was full of religion. 00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:21.640 He didn't understand the Gospel at all. 00:28:21.640 --> 00:28:26.240 And we talk about what happened to him in his tower experience is the way people talk 00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:27.240 about it. 00:28:27.240 --> 00:28:29.160 And what happened is, I'll paraphrase his own words. 00:28:29.160 --> 00:28:36.799 He says, I was a monk, and I was never sure if God loved me, and I was constantly troubled 00:28:36.799 --> 00:28:39.000 by my performance. 00:28:39.000 --> 00:28:42.400 I was never sure if God could be satisfied with me. 00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:46.000 And he says, so I worked, and I worked, and I worked, and I tried to love, love, love, 00:28:46.000 --> 00:28:48.960 and do everything right all the time, and obey the Ten Commandments, and the Sermon 00:28:48.960 --> 00:28:50.640 on the Mount. 00:28:50.640 --> 00:28:57.519 And his priest, his own priest in the monastery tells the story of how Luther would come to 00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:03.400 confession every single day to the point of exhausting all the priests, hearing six hours 00:29:03.400 --> 00:29:07.799 he would sit in the confession booth, going through every little detail of every little 00:29:07.799 --> 00:29:10.720 lie, every little selfishness, every little thing he did. 00:29:10.720 --> 00:29:12.960 He said, I tried so hard. 00:29:12.960 --> 00:29:15.480 I tried to live a perfect life. 00:29:15.480 --> 00:29:19.039 And I realized every day in confession how far away I was. 00:29:19.039 --> 00:29:21.440 And so he says something very extreme. 00:29:21.440 --> 00:29:26.160 When he realized that he said, when I read the Bible and I realized the truth that my 00:29:26.160 --> 00:29:31.880 performance was so weak, even though I was trying so hard, he said, I began not to love, 00:29:31.880 --> 00:29:37.599 but to hate the just God who punishes sinners. 00:29:37.599 --> 00:29:41.400 He said, I hated the justice of God. 00:29:41.400 --> 00:29:46.040 And then he said, but then I realized what Paul was saying in places like Romans and Ephesians, 00:29:46.040 --> 00:29:52.080 and he writes this, that the just God is a merciful God who forgives us not because 00:29:52.080 --> 00:29:56.400 of our performance, but because of the justice of Jesus Christ at the cross. 00:29:56.400 --> 00:30:00.400 He said, I realized that it wasn't me, it was Jesus. 00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:05.040 And at once he writes, I felt as though I had entered paradise itself. 00:30:05.040 --> 00:30:06.680 I had been born again. 00:30:06.680 --> 00:30:10.440 I had been made new. 00:30:10.440 --> 00:30:12.840 They call it Luther's breakthrough. 00:30:12.840 --> 00:30:15.039 Today you've got to break through. 00:30:15.039 --> 00:30:17.680 You've got to see it's not your performance. 00:30:17.680 --> 00:30:20.640 But when you look at the cross of Christ, you're freed from that so that you can actually 00:30:20.640 --> 00:30:23.039 go and love people. 00:30:23.039 --> 00:30:26.680 And that's Paul's invitation for every single one of us today. 00:30:26.680 --> 00:30:27.680 Let's pray. 00:30:27.680 --> 00:30:34.080 Father, we thank you for the beauty of the gospel, that we are your masterpiece, not 00:30:34.080 --> 00:30:38.600 because we deserve it, not because we're actually beautiful in our moral condition, 00:30:38.599 --> 00:30:40.799 but because you have decided to make us so. 00:30:40.799 --> 00:30:43.519 So thank you, Lord, for beautifying us. 00:30:43.519 --> 00:30:48.159 And then we just pray today for somebody that they would see the breakthrough that they 00:30:48.159 --> 00:30:52.919 need, that they would need to see that it's not about subjectivity or feeling or even 00:30:52.919 --> 00:30:54.199 the power of our faith. 00:30:54.199 --> 00:30:57.000 It's all about Jesus's work. 00:30:57.000 --> 00:31:02.039 And so I pray for many in this room that we would be reignited by the beauty of the gospel 00:31:02.039 --> 00:31:03.039 this morning. 00:31:03.039 --> 00:31:07.000 And then lastly, Father, we do ask that you would send us out from this place as people 00:31:07.000 --> 00:31:13.839 who are full of good works, not for our sake, not for our glory, not for our achievements, 00:31:13.839 --> 00:31:18.400 but because we want to conform to the beauty of Christ Himself. 00:31:18.400 --> 00:31:22.400 So motivate us, Lord, by your glory today. 00:31:22.400 --> 00:31:23.400 Change our hearts. 00:31:23.400 --> 00:31:27.200 Give us desire for the good things and the Sermon on the Mount and the Ten Commandments 00:31:27.200 --> 00:31:32.440 and the great works you've laid before us on a good path that we really would want to 00:31:32.440 --> 00:31:34.119 walk in them. 00:31:34.119 --> 00:31:36.440 And that you would give us a lot of joy in that, we ask. 00:31:36.440 --> 00:31:37.440 And we pray this in Jesus' name. 00:31:37.440 --> 00:32:06.440 Amen.