London Baptist Confession 13,16

Well, I don't have a passage for you to turn to, but we are continuing our series in the London Baptist confession. The 1689 London Baptist confession. There was a. An earlier one in the 40s, and there were others, too. There's the Philadelphia.

There's various confessions that the Baptist groups have used over the years. This is one that is more associated with the Westminster tradition. The, the Reformed folks, the Protestants after the. Before, during and after the Protestant Reformation. So we would say carefully, we Baptists who hold to this confession, we would say carefully that we're Protestants, but you have to kind of be careful.

I talked about that in my Sunday school class today. You could call yourself Catholic because the word Catholic means universal. It means the whole church, the invisible church worldwide. But what is everybody going to think if you say you're Catholic? They're going to think you're Roman Catholic.

Right. So you have to qualify words sometimes when you use them. And one of the words that you would need to qualify, and be careful, is the word Protestant. That's why it's good to say you're a Baptist, even though that has its own connotation. So we are Protestant in tradition, but I don't know that we would fit into what most people mean when they say Protestants.

So that's why it's good to have a confession. That's why it's good to kind of get into the things that any particular group believes and whether you associate with them or not. And multiple chapters of the London Baptist Confession are just direct copies of the Westminster Confession of Faith it directly carries over. It would almost qualify as stolen. The Baptists stole the Westminster Confession of Faith and then tweaked some things and Baptistized it.

I know that's not a word, but that's what they did. They made it Baptistic. That's what they did. And so. But the important parts of the confession, like this section here, today's section, is very much.

We're in line with all of our Reformed brothers, all of the Presbyterians and the Reformed folks who hold to the understanding of Scripture and the doctrines of grace. And those things we all very much agree. Even the more solid in the modern evangelical world who have good statements of faith would agree with the things we're saying today. These aren't very exclusively Baptistic. They're just things that conservative Baptists have held over the years.

Well, we've already talked about our sinfulness. That was one of the chapters, one of the sections of the confession. We've talked about our call, the effectual call of God when he calls people to himself. Last time we talked about justification where God declares us righteous. That gets us now down to the subject of personal holiness and good works.

And I said this to you last time, if you notice in your notes or you're paying attention, I left out chapter 13, and I skipped from 12 and did 14 and 15. And that's because chapter 13, dealing with sanctification, in my mind, connects with good works. They're closely related. They're not the same thing. I'll give you the delineation between us two a little bit, but for now, I just.

That's what I'm. It's not an accident. It's not a typo. We did skip 13, and now we're doing 13 and 16 together on purpose because I think they're related. And this is the most important part of this.

Before I begin. Before we begin talking about sanctification, it's very important that you understand what I'm about to say. This section of the confession, both of these chapters are for Christians. Now, I'm emphatically saying that with an attempt at a dramatic pause to make sure we're clear. I have to say this all the time.

It doesn't matter how long you've been studying the Bible or how long you've been teaching the Bible. It is still the tendency of Christians throughout the ages to mix up justification and sanctification. It's still, after all these years, you hear people all the time say, I would be. I know my life would be better if I would do more for the Lord, as though doing more was what was missing. Right.

So let me make it really clear. Have to make it clear all the time. And in fact, you'll see the very first line in chapter 13 of the Confession says it. It actually says it. Everything we're going to say is for people who already have an eternal life relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

So a Christian is not somebody that does the things we're going to say here. A Christian is somebody who has been awakened by God, by His Holy Spirit, to their sinfulness. They have now eyes to see and ears to hear, and they see the glory of God and his righteousness and his holiness, and that his law is perfect and that they have broken it, they have sinned against him and now deserve his anger and his wrath. Okay, so far I haven't even gotten to the Christian part yet. But a Christian is somebody who sees all of that and then God grants them belief and repentance and faith so that they Turn with that gift that he gives them and exercise their faith and put their faith and their confidence in Jesus Christ and his all sufficient work.

So everything that Jesus did for me, lived the perfect life, died a martyr's death. He did all of that for me so that I put my trust in Jesus. I say I deserve to die, but Jesus dies in my place. I deserve wrath. But you poured out your wrath on him instead of me.

So I'm asking God for you to take my wrath and put it on your son. And I'm asking you, God to put his perfect righteousness on me. That is the gospel. And if somebody does that, if they trust Jesus as their Savior, then they are a Christian. That's what a Christian is.

Okay? By definition. Now you all are saying, why are you saying this? Because you go ask 50 people right now what a Christian is and you're going to get 60 wrong answers. People do not know what a Christian is.

It's somebody that is saved, not somebody that is becoming more Christian. I say it all the time and I'm going to say it today about fruit and root. The idea that you can tape lemons to a tree and make a lemon tree is what most people think of Christianity. Most people think Christianity is taking lemons. I have a bushel of lemons.

Do you have bushels of lemons? Basket of lemons, whatever the right unit of measurement is. And I take those lemons and with duct tape I tape them to the branches of a tree and then now I tell you I made a lemon tree. Do you agree with me or do you know better than that? No, it has to be a lemon tree that produces the fruit of lemons.

That makes a lemon tree a lemon tree. Right? That's the same with Christianity. You don't add Christian works to a person and make a Christian. You don't add God's things to a person and make them a Christian.

A Christian only is somebody that is only and completely saved by the grace of God. Now the question is, what comes next? Once somebody has trusted Christ, what comes next? That's what these chapters are about. They're about next steps.

They're not about becoming a Christian, they're about living as a Christian. So we're clear, because so many people think Christianity is about being good and being churchy people and Bible people and go to get baptized and give money in the offering plate and wear the right color tie and all that. That is not what being a Christian is. It's somebody who has been forgiven of their sins. And these Chapters are for people for whom that has already happened.

It's already established. You've already been saved. You already have a date where you. Well, most people have a date. I don't remember the date I was saved.

But you might. Where you know that you turn from darkness to light. You were lost and now you're found. You were a slave and now you're free. All the language of the Bible.

Okay, so make sure we're clear that this section, what we're going to talk about, is about for Christians to become more personally holy in their lives and do the good works that God calls them to do. Let's pray and we'll dig in together. Father, these things can be confusing. They don't need to be, but they can be. Because we don't work like you do.

We are capricious and we expect things and we think we have the answers and know what's best. But if we will humble ourselves and learn from your Word, we understand that there is no way we were ever going to be good enough to earn your favor, that we need grace. And you gave us that grace in your son. Those of us who have trusted Christ as our savior. And now, Father, I'm asking that we would learn the lessons of sanctification, what it means to be more like him, to grow into Christ likeness, to grow in our personal holiness.

It's something, Father, that doesn't seem to be very popular to talk about these days. So please help us be faithful as we talk about it. In Jesus name, Amen. Well, the word sanctified or sanctification, the word itself means to set apart. That's what the word means.

Holy, sanctified. They're synonyms. They're sort of. In fact, the Greek word is one word for those two things. It's hagia.

So the idea is, and I always, this is fun when I do discipleship and I talk about sanctification. I was. Because the reason it's fun is because I've started a lot of domestic issues. Because I ask a question and something that is an innocent question turns into fights between husbands and wives. Here's why.

Because I'll say, have you ever seen those plates you use at the barbecue that have the dividers in them? Right? And so you can have your food separate. You can have your corn here and you can have your potato salad here and you can have. Right.

So you all know what those are like, right? So I ask the couple, which what type of person are you? Are you the type of person that has your mashed Potatoes here and your corn here. Are you the kind of person that can mix them together and eat them? And I literally had a couple where I had to stop them from fighting because he makes me crazy.

He has it all separate. Like, it's a. So the illustration was fun, but they were missing the point, which is. No, no, no. I'm just talking about the separation.

The idea of separating the corn from the potatoes is what I'm talking about. I didn't mean to cause a fight in a couple, you know, but. But the idea is that separation. You think of that line in there, that. That separates one thing from another.

That's what the word holy means. It means to separate. It means to be distinct. It means to be different. Okay?

So when we talk about sanctification, you can literally say holyfication. That's the idea. You're becoming holy. You're becoming more and more separate from the things that are against God, against sin, against the world. Right?

You're becoming more and more like. And close to God. You're. You're. Now one thing I'll say too, especially to you young people, if you listen to modern Christian music, you have to watch out for this subject, because holiness in modern thought right now, and it's everywhere, it's pervasive.

Holiness is the idea that God is special. Like, it's specialness. And the idea is that we really love God because he's really, really neat and he's holy. And that's what they mean when they say holy. They.

They mean some more formal, really, really neato. That's the idea. But that is not the meaning in Scripture. The meaning in Scripture is he is not common, he is not normal. He is absolutely above and different than everything else.

And then he says to his people, because I'm that way, and I've given you my son, and I've given you my spirit, and you're now one of My children. You have to be that way, right? So again, we're already his children. Now that we're his children, he's saying to us, go, be separate, be different, be. This is my favorite word, other.

You're not common. You're not profane. You are not what everybody else is. God has separated you. Now be other, be different.

Ephesians 2:10 is a wonderful verse. Even though it doesn't specifically talk about holiness, it actually fits chapter 16 more. I'll quote it again a little bit. But I do like the idea that we come out of that Grace of Ephesians 2, 8, 9. For by grace, you're saved through faith that not of yourself, gift of God.

Right. Not lest anyone should boast. The idea is there's no boasting for our salvation. But then the very next words are, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in Him. We're going to talk about the works in a bit, but for now I just want you to see that the salvation we're giving, given from God has an effect.

It has an effect, it has a result. And that result is what we're talking about here. So first thing is, is the confession is what I was talking about. Look at the very first line, if you have it. If you have the confession.

Chapter one, paragraph one. I mean, chapter 13, paragraph one says, they who are united to Christ effectually called and regenerated. And then it goes on after that. So this is what I'm saying. You cannot be sanctified and grow in holiness unless you're a Christian.

You don't become a Christian by being sanctified and growing in holiness. That's the cart before the horse. That's the lemon in the lemon tree. Okay? So you have to have the root of Christ.

And that's exactly what we mean. We'll talk about virtue here in just a second. It goes on to say, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them through the virtue of Christ's death and resurrection are also farther sanctified. So what the confession is saying is that God plucked you out of darkness into light. He separated you once.

If you want to. If it helps you to take notes and you want a couple of big words, they're not that big, but they're helpful if you want some categorical thoughts in your head. When God saves you, that is called positional sanctification. That's what that's called. Your position was in Adam, now it's in Christ.

That's called positional stuff. He takes you out of Adam and separates you from the world. And then the other is practical sanctification. So what we're talking about, we're progressive. You could talk about that too.

The idea of progress and growth. So God separates us, but then he goes on to say, and that's not all he does. He still sanctifies further. That doesn't mean we become more saved. It just means that the work of sanctification continues.

It's ongoing. It's. It's a progress. It's mo. It's got movement in it.

And then it has these, these little qualifier at the end of that, it says, are also farther sanctified, really and personally. This, if you want a simple way of saying that is, we are actually sanctified. We are for real, changing and growing, or should be in our personal holiness. Paul, in his careful, strong words for the Corinthians at one point says, we are all with unveiled face, beholding, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. I are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.

The idea is that once somebody becomes a Christian, they begin this journey of becoming further sanctified, practically not more saved. You can't be more saved. I always say it. I'm sorry if it's crude, but saying you're kind of saved or partially saved is like saying you're kind of pregnant. You can't be kind of pregnant.

You're either pregnant or not. And that's what. You're either a Christian or you're not. There isn't an in between. Being a Christian is not a journey.

Being a Christian happens in a moment when somebody believes in Christ. But then this is saying, but that's not all that happens. It says, through the same virtue, the same power, the same Holy Spirit, the same truth of God, the same thing that God used to save you in Christ, he uses to empower you to become what he wants you to be. Then there's an interesting phrase there. It says, by His Word and Spirit dwelling in them.

So those who are saved, the Word and the Spirit are working inside of us to make us sanctified, holy. Now, if you only have the Word and no Spirit, all that is is rationalism, all that is is academic, all that is is scholasticism. But if you go the other way and only have the Spirit, like, you know, people who really, really feel it, people who don't read their Bibles, but they think they're really close to God. If you only have the Spirit, then you are a mystic, right? So you have to have both.

The confession makes sure that, yes, you are led by the Spirit. But that's not you guessing what he says. You go to His Word and find out what he says. So the Spirit and the Word working together. Paul says, if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will leave. Live by the Spirit. Jesus says, sanctify them by your truth. Your Word is truth. So both of those are necessary to be saved.

To be sanctified, you have to be in the Word and, and being led by the Spirit. Those two work in tandem together. And then the substance of sanctification has two parts. And this is important too. This, this, this part can.

We can get so emphatic on one that we miss the other, we can neglect the other. And it kind of depends. I find this, over the years, I've found it to be personality driven. Meaning if you are, like me, a person who's prone to being low in countenance, depressed, you know, self deprecating, you think low of yourself, you're likely to be one of these. But if you're the other kind of person who thinks kind of highly of yourself and that you're doing okay and you got it all together and you have things figured out, you don't need a lot of help, you're probably prone to the other one and making an error in the other direction.

So here are the two things. The first one is the part of sanctification is the putting off of the old man. Meaning the idea is mortifying. The deeds of the flesh, the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified. So I'm the kind of person who says, and I don't like saying that I'm the kind of person, when I say a me, I mean that low person.

I'm the kind of person who thinks that maybe you can't ever break free from the dominion of sin. But our confession just says we can, we absolutely can. Yeah, we do. The things and the lust and the sin are more and more mortified. They're more and more weakened.

When you grow in your progress, sin is shrinking in your life or should be. Right? So that's the idea. And then the other one is something that you might, we could take for granted. And that is the positive side.

So the negative side is the dominion of sin being mortified. And then the positive side is cultivating grace. And they more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces to the practice of all true holiness. So no, it is not that we're okay and doing fine. It's that we're empowered by God to do what he wants and he gets the credit for that.

That's different. Those two are not the same thing. There are people who look like they're doing great on the outside. And they might not have any sort of appearance of struggling with sin or any sort of weakness or doubt or fear or obedience. They look like they have it all together.

They look obedient, but they're not this kind of obedient. They're not the kind of obedient that is quickened and strengthened by grace. They're doing it in their own power. And usually when that happens, you'll see that there will be a, like a nice, what looks like an incline in progress and then boom, a fall and discouragement and wanting to give up and quit. Because they were doing it in their own strength.

They weren't doing it by the grace of God, celebrating what God was doing, his motivation and strength. And yeah, I struggle with that now. It goes on to say, without which this sanctification we're talking about empowered by God, where you're putting off sin and all that without it, no man shall see the Lord. So the question would be for you tonight as we go through this, how essential to the Christian life is sanctification? There are people who believe that you can be saved, have your sins forgiven, have your place in heaven, be on your way to heaven and have zero change in your life.

The people who believe that Jesus can be Savior, but not necessarily Lord. You have to watch out for that. Because the confession and we agree, I'll just read it from Hebrews, pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one will see the Lord. That's in the New Testament, that without holiness no one's going to see the Lord. So holiness is essential to Christian belief.

Essential. There is no becoming a Christian and not becoming more practically holy in your life. You should always worry if you see people say they're a Christian but not have a changed life. If God touches somebody, they change. I mean, can you imagine, I always use the example of Lazarus.

Can you imagine Jesus going to the tomb of Lazarus and saying, lazarus come forth. And Lazarus saying, no, I want to stay dead. No, if God touches you, you're touched. God doesn't touch somebody and they stay the same. So you might have made some, had some desire to want heaven or want the blessings of God.

Or maybe we always say, like our friend Mike Gendron would say, people become a victim of sinners prayers. In other words, they pray to prayer and they think the prayer saved them. Not the Lord of the prayer, but the prayer itself. Right. And that confidence they'll have in a prayer, but that's not safe.

The Lord saves and holiness is a fruit of that of being saved. Once he changes the root, the lemons come on the tree. If you don't see any lemons, you should worry. So let's talk about some distinctives in paragraph two and three. It's a struggle.

The confession is honest about the Struggle of sanctification because of what they call remaining sin or remaining corruption. I'll read it. This sanctification is throughout the whole man, yet imperfect in this life, there abideth still some remnants of corruption in every part. I talk about this. It's not a big deal.

What I'm about to say is not a big deal. You don't have to take it with you. But I say it because I like it. It's a preference of mine. The Southern Baptists use different language than other Baptists.

The Southern Baptists have historically, instead of saying what we often say, which is the old nature or sin nature. Right. That's the way we say that. We're very. It's very common to us to say sin nature.

The Southern Baptists don't usually say that. They say indwelling sin. And you say, well, what's the difference in that? Well, if you want to get technical, doesn't Paul say that before the Ephesians were saved, they were by nature children of wrath? Doesn't he say that that means in their sin they were children of wrath?

They had a sin nature. But what happens when we get saved? We have a new nature. We're now separate, sanctified and holy. We're a new creature.

So I think we should try harder to identify as what we are now in Christ rather than what we were in Adam. And so this language, if I say indwelling sin, that sounds to me like somebody has some sin left over, not like it's their nature and they can't do anything about it. So sometimes I think people say, oh, it's just my sin nature. They're essentially saying, I can't change, I can't grow. I can't overcome that.

It's my nature, after all. So if you take away that idea, like the idea, no, no, I am a Christian. I was a slave of sin, but not anymore. Now I'm a Christian, right? That has a victory to it.

So it's just a preference. You take that with you and as an encouragement and not a rebuke. If you still use sin nature language, I don't mind it. As long as you understand that you've been set free from sin, you're a new thing. As long as you understand that.

If you get the doctrine right, I don't care the words that you use. But I like to try to have the words because it helps me. Because if I'm only ever talking about the weakness and the struggle and the difficulty, then I'm not talking about victory and Overcoming and becoming more sanctified. But he does say it's imperfect. In this life, we still got corruption, as the confession says.

We still have some remaining corruption. It goes on to say, whence ariseth a continual and irreconcilable war? Have you ever been involved in spiritual warfare where you're battling and just trying to maintain, and you have weakness and you have doubt and you have sin and you struggle and you think, man, I don't even know if I'm saved. And then you might be prone to say, why is it like this? And what's the problem?

And where is all this coming from? And why can't I overcome? And you're going to be prone to either blame God or blame the world or blame something else. But then James tells us, where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure, that war in your members?

It's us. I've seen the enemy and the enemy is me, right? I'm the problem. And the second you admit that, if you say, I have a. I still love the old indwelling sin, I still love my past, I still want. Maybe I want to go back to Egypt for vacation, even though I've been rescued out of Egypt, and you say that, then if you admit it and confess it, then you can get help for it.

But if you say, it's a mystery, I don't know why I keep falling. I don't know why I keep falling to the same sins. I don't understand what's going on. I can't seem to overcome. And you're always in that language.

That isn't forgiveness language. Then there's no wonder you can't overcome. You've made a monster and the monster is stronger than you. But if you say, I am weak, I have doubt, I have fear, I have lust, I covet, I've lied. If you say what it is, then you can say, lord, forgive that.

Forgive that lie. Forgive that covetousness. Forgive that lust. And then you know, because he promises that if you say that, he forgives you. But, man, there's a war, it's a battle.

I think everybody in here understands some version of that. He goes, the confession goes further. The flesh lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. So there's these two things at war, right? You have the spirit, the new spirit, the spirit of God in you, the invisible part of you that wants to please the Lord, right?

And then you got this old thing attached to you, the old tent that just wants to be satisfied. It wants its itches scratched, you know? And so the confession says, just like what Paul does for the flesh, lust against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. Paul knows us, doesn't he? He says that of himself in Romans 7, but now he says it in Galatians, like, I know the truth.

Like, if Paul were here, he would say, I know you want to serve the Lord. I know you want to please the Lord. But I also know you're battling the flesh and you're fighting it, and you're fighting discouragement and you're fighting sin. And so it is hard. It's a war.

Sanctification isn't easy. If it's easy, you're probably not growing that much. Because you'll probably notice when you did have your seasons of growth in your Christian life, you went through some challenges. Like, oh, I had thought one thing, now I see it's different. I thought I was in control in this area, and God has changed, and I have a sinful attitude or a sinful desire there, and God had to change my heart, so I become more holy.

So when you're in spiritual war, the bullets are flying and it hurts. Confession goes on to say, even though it's slow, even though it could even appear to have almost not be going anywhere, it's going somewhere. There's always movement, always progress, even if it's inch by inch. In which war. Listen to the language.

I love the confessions language here. In which war. Although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail, it may look like sin has won in your life. It may look like that you've been defeated, right? Yet through the continual supply of strength from the sanctifying spirit of Christ, the regenerate part doth overcome man.

That's powerful. Our confession says, yes, the battle is real. Yes, it's hard. Yes, it's even slow. It might even be for a very long time that somebody who is saved is what we call.

The old Baptist used to call backslidden. Remember that word where they have fallen back, what looks like into sin, and you might even wonder, are they actually saved? But God is working on them. God isn't done with them. He saved them and he's working on their heart and he's drawing them to himself.

He might even be taking away some of the things they were counting on, right? Like maybe it was alcohol or maybe it was sex or something else, something that they thought was going to make them happy and they were depending on it. And God takes that away, their health. You see that sometimes too, that God sometimes will take a very healthy person and bring him down a few notches so that they'll rely on him. Right?

So these are things that God does that through the war you might come out the victor. There are people that seem to be like, it looks like we've lost troops. There are no lost troops in God's army. There are fallen, there are wounded for sure, there are weak for sure. But there's never a lost soldier in God's army.

He wins every time and protects them every time. If you see people completely abandon the faith, I think we all understand what that means. They were never the real thing, right? If anybody can sin with a clear conscience, can blaspheme with a clear conscience. They don't care what God thinks about their bad behavior.

You can wonder if that person has ever even been saved, if they've ever even had salvation or sanctification in any way. So I really like that language that even though it's hard, even though it's slow, even though there's a battle, even though you grunt and groan and it can be painful, there's still victory. And it goes on to say there's a guarantee of progress. And so the saints grow in grace, perfecting, holiness and the fear of God pressing after an heavenly life in evangelical obedience to all commands, which Christ the head and king in his word and hath prescribed them. That's one of the favorite things we, we often talk about eternal security in doctrine, right?

And of course our church believes in that phrase. The way most people mean it that you, once you're saved, you're always saved, right? We don't believe that anybody can lose their salvation. No self respecting Calvinist would ever believe you could lose your salvation. But I would add that eternal security might not be strong enough for phrase.

I prefer the phrase perseverance of the saints. And the reason is because perseverance intimates war and we're at war and it's not easy. And there's stuff coming from all sides that would make us quit. I always quote C.S. lewis, paraphrase C.S.

lewis. He's not the best theologian, but I always loved that line in the Screwtape Players when he says nothing is so bad for the devil, the thing the devil hates. The worst Christian looking around in the world and finding no reason to obey God and obeying him anyway. Man, I love that. So you could be as down, as broken, as weak, even as backslidden far in the dirt, away from the Lord.

How much further away can you get than Thomas or Peter? Like denying and blaspheming the name of the Lord at the night of his crucifixion. And what does the Lord do? Restores him. And so don't ever give up.

You don't give up on you, but also don't give up on other believers. Make sure and understand sanctification is real. And you can be in prayer and you can support people and you yourself grow in your own personal holiness to encourage them and to be ready if they need your help. That you're a strong shoulder to depend on. So that is sanctification.

The question this morning and my wife gets. I think I said she gets a passing grade. She just shook her finger at me. You can shake your finger at me. Just get you sitting in the back.

Our anniversary is coming. We need to talk.

So what's the difference between holiness and good works? Why did I connect them? And is there a distinction between the two? Here is the difference. Holiness deals with holiness.

Sanctification deals with personal holiness before the Lord. In other words, me becoming more Christlike in my holiness, in my distinction, in my otherness, I am becoming less and less profane, less and less common, less and less sinful. Right. I'm becoming more holy. But good works deals with obedience, with the actions associated with the Christian life.

One of them deals with the disposition and the character of the Christian life. The other one deals with the behavior and the actions associated with Christian life. So now we look at chapter 16, and this is really where that Ephesians 2, 10 works the most, which is where his workmanship created for good works. So sanctification deals with personal holiness and Christ likeness. And now we talk about outward obedience in chapter 16.

Now what is a good work? This. This with the. I mean, I still have a lot to say, but this, what I'm about to say to me is very important. It's something where I actually do see people get either confused or they.

Maybe they haven't defined their terms, or maybe they're operating under assumption and they haven't really given this a lot of thought. But I am. If I were to ask you what is a good work, you might think you know that. And people do think they know that. But let's see what the confession says, because I think it's very helpful.

It's instructive, actually. So what is a good work? And he says in chapter 16, paragraph 1, good works are only. Listen to the language, only Such as God hath commanded in his holy word. Now, deep down, this deals with some, with something called the regulative principle of worship.

We used to say rpw, if you're fancy, if you want to hang around the theologians, you say, what's your rpw? They might know what you're saying. But we used to say that in school. The regulative principle of worship. What is the principle that regulates worship?

That's the idea. The regulative principle of worship asks what principles do you use that operate or help, you know, and how to regulate worship? There are essentially two. There are varying degrees of these. But I'm going to just give you the two basics.

The two basics are, one is, if God didn't say no, his answer is yes. So did God say I can't have electric guitar in church? Now you might say yes to that. And even pj, who plays electric guitar, I have one in pieces on my table at home right now. I'm working on building.

I might say yes, he's okay with electric guitar in church. But what I can't say is there's a command forbidding it. And since there's not a command forbidding it, that might mean it's allowed. Right? So that's one way, one principle by which you regulate worship.

If God didn't say no, the answer is yes. But then the other side, my view and the confessions view that they just stated, they just said it right there. My view is that if God didn't say yes, the answer is no. If God didn't tell us what to do, then we don't make up things to do. So that's my principle.

And just so you know, I have thought a ton about this. I think a lot about it. I think about it when it comes to our online presence, I think about it when it comes to this thing. Did you ever hear that Paul preached on one of these things? Not once.

So why is this okay? Why is this okay to have a chunk of wood up here that makes me look important? Is it alright? Is it okay that I'm standing higher than you? Do you ever think about that?

That I'm up here on this platform? Doesn't that make me special? So these are the things that I actually think about. Like, hey, are we allowed to just do things without thinking about them and trying to find any sort of, you know, commending in scripture of that thing? So the regulatory principle of worship says in the Baptist confession anyway, that if God didn't say it, it's not a thing that we should do look at the next part of it.

It goes on to say, and not such as without the warrant thereof, are devised by men out of blind zeal or upon pretense, good intentions. Did you catch that? It's saying that people might have great ideas on what they think worship should be. And a good work is. This is about good works.

What is a good work? A good work is what God commands. And let me tell you what it's not. It's not what your feelings say it is. That's what the confession is saying that you don't determine by your feelings and zeal and emotion what is a good work in God's eyes, even if you have good intentions.

This is the thing that is a real problem where people think, well, I think this is good. It makes me happy. So it must be a good work to God. They're not even consulting His Word. And that's dangerous.

That's dangerous because then you might be doing things that you haven't even asked God if He's okay with, and you're doing them as though they're an act of service and obedience to him, only to find out later he was displeased with that thing. I've literally had people tell me God wanted them to get a divorce. Like they felt led by God to get a divorce. You mean the thing that he says he hates in the Book of Malachi that God told you to do positively something he negatively hates? And they put words in God's mouth and say, well, no, I.

This is what I felt. This is my zeal. This is what I care about. No, no. Good words or good works are what God says.

They are not what we feel. They are not what we guess they are. And by the way, they're also not our own additions to God's word. We don't get to say, well, as Baptists, we believe this. These are the 10 things a Baptist must do.

You can't watch that kind of movie. You can't listen to that kind of music. You can't drive that kind of car, you know, and we start adding commandments to God's word. No, no, no, no. Confession says only what God commands is a good work.

So God owns good works. They are good when he says they're good. Remember, when Jesus says, many good works, I have shown you from my father. What was the response of the religious leader to Jesus doing God's works? They wanted to kill him.

They didn't like it. The Book of Acts says that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Those are the kinds of things that are good works. Jesus kind of things. What the apostles were doing, what we see in the New Testament, the saints in the New and Old Testaments.

Why are works important? Why should we be? Why should we care that we're busy doing God's things first? Because they are fruits and the evidences of a true and lively faith. It's actually how you know you're a Christian by doing good works.

This is what James says, doesn't he? Doesn't he say that you'll know them by their works? You show me your faith without your works, I will show you my faith by my works. That goes back to what I said earlier about being a Christian. I will show you I'm a Christian by my Christian behavior.

I'm not becoming a Christian with my Christian behavior. I'm showing you I am one. I'm living my faith out. My good works tell you what's happening on the inside. Because out of the heart, the mouth speaks.

They manifest their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, edify their brethren, adorn the profession of the gospel, stop the mouths of the adversaries, and glorify God. All that comes from growing in good works. When you do the works of God, all of those things happen. You, you make, you help thankfulness because you're serving God's people. You strengthen people when you stand for the Lord yourself and you do what God wants.

There's people. I still have examples right now. I always want to tell you the examples, but I have to name names of just valiant stands for the Lord of people. I know in our church who quietly, with no audience, stood and did the right thing in the face of adversity and are faithful. And so they did a good work.

And what does it say would happen? It would strengthen their assurance. They're assured. And I'm assured. It edifies the brethren.

Yeah, I was edified by that. I was strengthened by their obedience. And it makes me, as a pastor, want to be a good pastor. Like I want to fight for the sheep, you know, because if the sheep are going to stand like that under opposition, I want to stand with them. There's.

There's just mutual strength that comes from when you do God's things. And sometimes I think people miss that. Let your light shine before men. I think some people think that the only thing that matters in Christianity is that you feel Jesus loves you and that you love him. We're not working out our salvation.

It's not coming out of us. It might be if you don't feel fruitful in your Christian life, that you are not workful, that maybe you're not doing the things of God that would bear fruit. Maybe you're the person that doesn't water and doesn't plant and doesn't till and doesn't cultivate and doesn't prune and you're still waiting for a good crop. And we're supposed to be busy doing the things of God and letting our light shine before men and it bears fruit unto holiness that they may have the end, eternal life. This is the assurance that if you do God's things and you do God's work, you know for sure the end of that.

The end result. Not end result of the good works, but the end result of the faithfulness is eternal life. We should never feel confident when people struggle with their conscience and they're not living for the Lord. One of the best things for assurance is to be busy doing God's things. It's really good for assurance when you know, like, I'm serving the Lord.

God knows I love his people. He knows I'm praying for them. I'm serving them. I'm doing evangelism. I'm sharing the gospel with my family.

I'm doing these things. God sees me. He knows it. That gives you assurance. When you're doing God's things, you can know you're walking well in the faith.

Well, let's talk about the cause of good works. This is something where we can lose perspective and think that we are good and God owes us. Well, let's just get that straight. Their ability to do good works is not at all of themselves, but wholly from the Spirit of Christ. So if you ever thought it was you, now you don't have to.

You don't have to worry about that. If any good thing, really good thing, happens from you, it will be because of the Spirit of Christ. He works in them to do his will and good pleasure. That's a quote from Philippians 2. Sometimes people do this thing and you could do it too.

I don't mind if you do it. If you need to do this for yourself, then do it. But I just want you to know with me, you don't need to worry about it. If you ever feel the need to do this with me, I'm letting you off the hook. But people will say out loud that they're trying to keep their ego or pride in Check.

Right. They'll say, you know, I don't want to. I don't want to appear proud when I say what I'm saying. I don't want to brag about what I'm doing. So in other words, they need to qualify their humility.

Just need you to know I never ever thought it was done in your strength. So just so you know, you never need to qualify that for me. You might have thought it was done in your strength, but I know the truth. So if you never need to tell me you don't want to appear proud, people even do that with me. Like, I don't want to give you a big head.

Hey, time out. You don't have to worry about me having a big head. I have a Bible. It tells me what I am. I'm a worm.

I'm a weak, worthless worm. So you don't need to tell me, keep your ego in check. I've seen Jesus raised from the dead. I don't have any ego. Okay?

Now, it's alright if you think I'm proud and you want to confront pride, but if you think you have to build in this humility where we have to say we're humble, we have to say we're not proud, then you need to be in the Bible more. Because I think the most mature Christians know for sure it's the spirit of Christ that's causing the good work. They're not wrestling with it. They know who's doing it. That's the Lord working through me, and I'm thankful for it.

I always say that humility is not a pretty girl saying she's ugly. I stole that from CS Lewis too. It's not if you say I'm. If I happen to be beautiful and I say, no, no, no, I'm ugly. That's what people think humility is.

That's not true. I can. I can play guitar. That's a fact that Johnny Sloan can play guitar. I don't think I'm any good.

Okay, But I can play guitar. It would be stupid of me to say I can't play guitar at all. You should hear so and so. No, I play guitar. I know where I stand.

But what would it say if I said, no, I can't play at all. But I can now. I'm spitting in the giver's face of the gift. So you got to be careful there. You don't need to act humble.

Just know that if any good thing happened, God gets the credit. Give him the credit. You don't have to fight for it. You just need to say it. You, glory to God and you say all that.

But the whole self tempering and humility, maybe you need that. I don't. I feel bad when people do that to me. I don't want to. I don't want to act like I have a big head.

Hey, don't worry about it. I know who you are. I know what we are. I know we're all worthless in Adam and we're only what we are because of the work of Christ. You know, you don't need to tell me.

I mean, wretched man, doesn't sound like somebody who thinks too highly of themselves. You know, when Paul said that there are limitations of good works, this next one is something that might be helpful to you. This one might actually be helpful. Good works and the value of good works. First of all, if you have an ego that thinks that you can do enough good works that God owes you something wrong.

God does not owe you something. Good works can never equal or exceed our duty to God. We cannot by our best works merit pardon of sin or eternal life at the hand of God by reason of the great disproportion that is between them and the glory to come and the infinite distance that is between us and God. So you're never going to do good enough works that God owes you anything, right? In fact, you are not even able to do good enough works to break even with God.

Meaning you can't do any good for yourself. Jesus did all of the good for you. And so when you start doing the works, the reason that might be helpful is because sometimes people think that they're paying God back for his grace. He's done so much for me. I owe him so much.

So I feel like I'm trying to pay back my debt. Hey, if you could pay it back, Jesus died for nothing. What you do is you say, thank you for paying my debt. I love you and I want to show it by my obedience. Those aren't the same thing.

You feel guilty and you obey God because you feel guilty for how much he gave you. That's not accepting grace for what it is. He wants to the praise of the glory of his grace. He wants his grace magnified. And you magnify his grace by saying, I had nothing and you gave me everything.

You don't say, oh, I got to try harder to pay you back. Are you that person that if somebody gives you a gift, you're like, no, no, no, let me pay you for it and you don't accept the gift you rob them of the blessing of giving you a gift. Don't do that to the Lord you can't pay back. That's called the debtors ethic. Don't.

You're never going to pay God back. And to that you say hallelujah, Hallelujah. I don't have to pay him back. I just accept his gift of paying my debt. Goes on to say that those who their good works are also accepted in him, but that he looking upon them in his son, that God accepts your good works.

And you say, yeah, but I only gave him a couple of pennies, man. If he gave those pennies by faith, he loves them. I know people usually quote the widow's mite story. I'm not quoting that story. I'm just talking about even if you're giving him small praises, small glory, small obedience, no one's looking.

But he saw you pick up that thing at the church on the ground. No one's looking. But he saw you do that little bit extra for the boss at work because you know that the Lord was watching you. Nobody saw it. That small little thing like my son in law earlier filling the water in the nursery.

I was staying quiet in there while I was reviewing and thinking, man, I'm so thankful for that, that just heart of service that he's helping out. He doesn't want me mentioning that. He'd be mad that I mentioned it. But that idea of a good work, serving the Lord, serving his people is acceptable to him. Can you just imagine him going, ha, that's my son right there.

That's my daughter right there. Look at her. Look at her praying for her kids. Look at her taking care of her family. Look at him going to work every day and knowing that he's not going to be appreciated at work.

But you know the Lord is watching and honoring your hard work. Oh man, come on. It doesn't get better than that. Maybe I'll say it like the Pentecostals that'll preach.

Last section, I think. Well, the major, last major section is what happens with supposed good works. What happens when unbelievers do good works? Well, I emphasized a thousand times tonight or something like it that you can't earn heaven, right? Have I said that enough times tonight that you can't make a lemon tree by sticking lemons to a tree?

So what happens if somebody does stick lemons to a lemon tree? Do they get credit for trying to make a lemon tree? Well, the answer is no. And not only do they not get credit for doing good works, so let's say somebody helps the old lady across the street, right? You have two people.

There's two old ladies and two guys. Okay? Old ladies are twins, and the guys are not. They both need to get across the street. And the two men that are going to help them, the Boy Scout type men who are going to step in and help them, one of them is a believer, one of them is not.

The believer says, God made this woman. I want to honor her. She's in need. And I want to help people in need to show the love of Christ. The other one says, it makes me feel good to do good things for people.

Nobody knows any of this. It's all happening on the inside. They help both ladies across the street. What are the standing of those good works in the eyes of God? You might think that it's good and not so good.

No, it's good and evil. It's evil if you do the works of God and God doesn't get the credit for it. It's evil if you do it. And it's not a heart of faith. It's evil if you do it and rob God of the glory that he would get if you gave him the glory for empowering you to do the work and taking care of the person that he made.

Do you think I'm making that up? I'll read it to you. First of all, the confession says, works done by unregenerate men. Although for the matter of them, they may be things which God commands, the good works, they may look like the works of God that He commands and of good use, both to themselves and others. Yet because they proceed not from a heart purified by faith, nor are done in the right manner according to the Word, nor to the right end, the glory of God.

They are therefore sinful and cannot please God, nor make a man meet to receive grace from God. And yet their neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing to God. Afterward tonight, ask Marcia about her lesson that she did about the filthy rags for her Sunday school class. Because that's the passage I have here, that our righteousnesses, Isaiah says, are like filthy rags. Isaiah does not say our sinfulness is.

It is our righteousness. Amos talks about God saying, I despise your feast days. I despise your sacrifices. Wait a second. Those are good works.

Sacrifices, feast days, those are good things. If I do good things for God, he owes me. Wrong. Not only does he not owe you, but he will judge you for those things, thinking that somehow you have the audacity to say he's obligated to you. All of a sudden, you become God in that scenario, who deserves honor.

So watch out for that. If you hear people, you say, I've heard people say this, like my grandma or my aunt. I told you the story about my friend who said his mom should have been saved, not him, because she's such a nice person. That helped lots of people, and he was a recovering addict. You know, wrong.

You're making the mistake of thinking that mom's works count before God. They only count if they come from God. They only count if they come from a new heart. They're only God's works. If God is the originator of the work, and then he gets the glory and credit.

That's why I say you don't have to work on your humility like that. So sanctification is personal holiness, becoming more dispositionally free from sin, pure, righteous, free from sin. Good works are the behaviors associated with people who have a new heart, the obedience, honoring God by keeping his commandments. Good works are what God says they are. And maybe that would be a thing to pay attention to this week.

Maybe ask what you're doing in your life and your behavior and the things you got going on, and ask, is this a good work? I need to check it. I need to take this thing I think is important to me, and I think it's good because it makes me happier, it gives me fulfillment or makes me feel productive or whatever, and I need to shine it under the light. Where's the commandments related to this thing I thought was a good work? So you can examine it, make sure you're doing good works, right?

You don't just want to be busy in your life and be like those hypocrites that get to heaven and say, lord, I did so many wonderful things. And the Lord's gonna say, where? Well, I did the thing where I took care of this and I did that at work, and I accomplished this and I got this degree and I did these things. The Lord's gonna say, when did I tell you to do that? When did I tell you in my word that that's what I wanted?

Because my word was supposed to inform your good works. So let's go do good works this week. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the work of Christ, saving us so that we can do good works and become more holy. And now I'm just asking that we would.

It would be encouraging. Sometimes, Father, we can feel that holiness is tough and we grit our teeth and it can become hard and we make it seem like a battle uphill. But we also see, Father, that we're guaranteed victory when we submit to you. So would you please help us? Would you help us enjoy the process and love becoming more like Jesus?

And then we'll honor you and glorify you for it. In Jesus name, amen.