Good, But Not THAT Good #2a

The best of what we do as Christians in this life are not equal to the glory of Christ. And if they're not equal to His glory, then we can say this, there may be good works in our lives, but they're not that good. When you do good works as a Christian, do you thus have grounds to be proud of yourself? Not according to scripture. And on this edition of the Truth Pulpit, Pastor Don Green will show you why.

Hi, I'm Bill Wright. We're moving further into our series, Breaking the Bonds of Legalism, with more of Don's message, Good but Not That Good. So far, we've learned that obedience should flow from a heart of love and gratitude rather than guilty compulsion. Also, our good works don't earn us extra points toward salvation. Only Christ's works count. In today's program, Don will provide more reasons to stay humble rather than proud.

So have your Bible ready as we join our teacher now in the Truth Pulpit. What we said is this. It's very crucial for us all to keep these things in perspective and to keep them in balance.

You need two wings on either side of the fuselage of the plane for it to fly properly, and that's true of what we're talking about here. If we keep these things in perspective, it will keep us from falling into that sense of legalistic pride that boasts in what we do and in our life and develops in us kind of a simmering sense of entitlement. Look how good my life is. God owes me. No, he doesn't.

He doesn't. And it is foolish for us to think our behavior somehow puts God in our debt to give us what we want. That's not the grounds, that's not the terms upon which we come to Christ. On the other end, we said, a right view of good works will protect the tender heart from a sense of despair and that oppressive sense of guilt that says, I know I don't measure up. Yes, yes, yes, the thoughtful believer, the understanding believer is sensitive towards sin in his life. Yes, there is a sense in which we recognize our spiritual bankruptcy, and when we sin against God, we feel it, we mourn over it, but a proper sense of this idea of good works helps us on that end as well.

When we recognize our sin and we're trying to live for Christ, we recognize something very important. We realize that our works may be good in a comparative sense, but they're not that good. They're not so good that they pay for our sins.

They're not so good that they earn us anything with God. And so the thoughtful believer who recognizes the work of Christ on his behalf says, can say freely, you know what, I realize that my life is not perfect. I realize that what I do does not meet God's perfect standard. I realize that what I do is tainted with sin, but that does not cast me into despair. That does not cast me into a sucking cycle of despair and guilt because I understand that my ground of acceptance with God is found in someone outside of me. It is found in the shed blood of Christ. It is found in his righteousness. It is because Christ has loved me and given himself up for me that God accepts me at all. And my total ground, my complete and exclusive ground of acceptance with God is found in Christ alone. That understanding, that fundamental principle changes everything. And it helps us to recognize that while we may do good works, so-called, as Christians, they're not that good, and here's what we mean by that. I'm going to give you four things, one by way of review of what we said last time. When we say that our good works as Christians are good but they're not that good, here's what we mean by this given in four points here.

Point number one, which we mentioned last time, I'm just going to mention it by way of context. Your good works do not merit pardon of sin. Your good works do not merit pardon of sin. And what we mean by that is this, your good works as a Christian do not offset any sins that you commit as a Christian. Your good works do not bring God into your debt, whereas if suddenly He owes you. And now that He's looking at it from God's perspective, oh now that He's done that, I have to forgive His sins.

It's not like that. Beloved, as we've said so very many times and we'll say so many more times if God gives us breath, the only ground for the forgiveness of your sins is found in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that blood is of infinite value. That blood is the blood of incarnate God. That blood is the blood that Christ voluntarily shed in love to save you because you could not save yourself. And the blood finds its merit in the person who shed it, in the perfect life that led up to its spilling.

Think with me, beloved, just think with me. Have a right and proper view of Christ, a right and proper view of that which motivated Him to lay down His life for you. Recognize the infinite value of His person, the infinite wonder of His life, and that that blood was the price of your redemption according to an eternal plan by which Christ was slain before the foundation of the world in the mind of God. Understand from that high and lofty perspective and realize in comparison to that, there's nothing that I could do that could pay for one of my sins, let alone the endless multiplicity of them that I've committed.

Your works may be good, but they're not that good. Nothing that you do could possibly compare to the infinite merit of the blood of Christ, which alone is the payment for sin for sinners of all times in all places. And so your good works do not compare to that.

That shed blood is the price of the pardon of your sin, and the best of what we do in this earthly life as Christians doesn't compare in value to that precious blood. And therefore you have it in your mind, oh, my good works could not be the basis upon which God accepts me. It could never be that way because my good works are done in the presence of something of greatly infinite value by comparison.

There is no comparison. So my good works do not merit any pardon of sin. They don't earn me any kind of forgiveness whatsoever. You must first be reconciled to God through Christ before you could do any good work at all. And so when we talk about good works, we're talking about the lives of Christians here, alright?

That's very important. Secondly, and this one stings a bit, but it's just the truth, your good works are stained with sin. Your good works are stained with sin. When we talk about doing good works as Christians, we should realize fundamentally in humility that our good works are still not without blemish. Psalm 130 verse 3 says, If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? We've quoted from Isaiah 64, all of our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.

Many commentators have pointed out that the word used there is the same word used for a woman's menstrual cloth. These are not so intrinsically pure and pristine and perfect that they somehow qualify in the presence of God. The New Testament says, If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1.8. And James chapter 3 verse 2 says, We all stumble in many ways. Beloved, you know that by experience, even if you sometimes have a disconnect between your sense of your good works and your sin. One of the reasons that Jesus commands us in the Lord's Prayer to confess our sins is because we as his disciples need that as an ongoing part of our lives. Now, if the good works that we do are mingled with this kind of sin, what can we say except that they're blemished?

That they are not absolutely pure. Even the Apostle Paul lamented his own spiritual struggle. Look at Romans chapter 7 with me.

Turn there in your Bibles with me, if you will. Romans chapter 7 in verse 21. Let's go back to verse 18. Paul says, I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh.

He's using the present tense here in contrast to past tense forms he was using earlier in the chapter, indicating that he was describing the present reality of his life as a mature believer, writing as an apostle. He said, I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. For the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. What does he conclude from this inward struggle that he describes? I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God and the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.

Wretched man that I am, who will set me free from the body of this death? He says, I see this conflict in me. Even as a Christian I find this battle going on between the remnants of sin in my life and the desire that I have as a new creation in Christ to obey God and to glorify Him with my life.

There is a conflict going on. There is a battle within me. And if that is the case, beloved, then here's what we need to think and what we need to realize. Think about it from the perspective of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He never had that battle internally. Oh, he was tempted in all ways as we are, but scripture says he was without sin. He did not know a principle of evil within him that was motivating him to evil like we do, which we know by revelation and by experience. And so if, as we are offering our good works, we're doing so from the mixture of evil that is within us, what can we say except this? Whatever else we say about our good works as a Christian, whatever else we say about them, we can at the very least say this in humility in the presence of Christ. The best of what we do as Christians in this life are not equal to the glory of Christ. The best of what we do is not equal to His glory. And if they're not equal to His glory, then we can say this, there may be good works in our lives, but they're not that good. When Christ is at the center of your thinking, at the center of your mindset, at the center of your affections, you realize by comparison that my life, however much I might try to live it to His glory, it's not equal to His. I still fall short of the glory of God. At the very least, beloved, wouldn't it be true to say that in your good works, they're stained at least some of the time with impure thoughts, with impure motives, with a sense of external compliance, but your heart is cold and not invested in what you're doing?

Isn't that true? Don't you come to church like that sometimes, maybe today? You know, it's good for us to continue on to persevere in those things, but the point here today is simply this, is to recognize that we need to view the good works of our lives with a measure of humility that says they may be good, but they're not that good, and if I had not been saved to begin with, I never would have been doing them in the first place. If Christ had not saved me personally, Don Green, several years ago, I would not be preaching His Word.

I take no credit for this. My preaching is flawed. I do it to the glory of Christ, but I realize that compared to Christ, this is nothing. If Christ were here to preach, we would see that clearly by comparison. He would preach with a unique power, a unique purity, a unique clarity from an undivided heart, utterly indifferent, completely indifferent to the fear of man or the desire for the praise of men. I say that simply to illustrate that we must think Christ-centered thoughts as we're thinking about our good works, and when we see Him and His glory, we realize He was without sin, and then we look at what we do, we say, you know what, it may be good, but it ain't that good, and that helps us to see that since God requires absolute perfection, it could not be my obedience, which is the premise and final foundation of my relationship with Him. And we remember what 1 Samuel 17 verse 9 says, God looks, man, we remember what God said in His Word in 1 Samuel 17, 9, man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. And we realize even as believers that there is a mixture, there is impurity mixed with what I do so that, so that I don't make claims in the presence of God that He owes me for what I've done. He could not possibly, from His position of perfect holiness, He could not possibly be relating to me on the basis of what I do, because what I do does not measure up inside or outside. And so our thought in this context is this, we know that we owe our obedience to Christ from His Word, we gladly give that obedience, it is the greatest privilege of our life to live in obedience to Christ, but we recognize that it comes with pockmarks at best, it comes with flaws, it comes with defects, it comes mixed with remnants of sin, so that we have the right perspective, Lord, I offer this to you, yes, I offer it to you gladly, yes, but I offer it to you in the recognition that it is not all that it could be or should be, because the best of my good works are stained with sin. Now thirdly, these things get even more compelling as you go along, thirdly, some fundamental theology here, thirdly, your good works do not add anything to God, your good works do not add anything to God, and here you need some very basic foundational theology to inform your thinking so that you're thinking rightly about these things.

Look, and we've studied this in our series in systematic theology over the years, God is independent, God is self-existent, God had no point of origin, He is perfect in wisdom, perfect in knowledge, perfect in power, God has no need whatsoever, and I want to show you a couple of passages of Scripture to ground your thought in this and then we can draw out right implications from it. Psalm 50, turn to Psalm 50 with me, if you would. Psalm 50 says this in verse 10, God is the speaker here and He says, every beast of the forest is Mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird of the mountains and everything that moves in the field is Mine.

If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is Mine and all it contains. All of creation belongs to God because He is the Creator, and He created it according to His own wisdom without consultation from anyone outside of Himself. Creation is His, it belongs to Him because He made it. Creation is His because He sustains it. Creation is His because He is the owner of it all, and it is all made ultimately to reflect back to His glory. Sun and moon and stars and their courses above to His glory because He put them there. The earth and all it contains belonging to Him. He knows the birds by name, He rules over when a sparrow falls, He knows the number of hairs on your head. Beloved, in light of that aspect of the transcendent nature of who God is, what could you or I possibly do that adds anything to that when He already owns it all, when everything already is designed for His glory?

Anything that we do is within an ecosystem that is already completely His. Look at Acts chapter 17. Acts 17 in verse 24.

Acts 17 verse 24. The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is He served by human hands as though He needed anything since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things. And He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us, for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, for we also are His children.

Beloved, the world is God and it all belongs to Him. He is the one who gives life to every creature on earth. Every creature on earth is dependent upon Him for their life and being, including us as Christians. He needs nothing from us.

He already has it all. He already has a perfect essence which makes Him utterly dependent of anything else and He has nothing that He needs from outside to contribute to His continued existence. That's how great and how transcendent He is. Nothing we do adds to His being. Our good works as Christians don't give Him something that He didn't already have. Our good works do not give Him something that He is lacking because He lacks nothing. Look at Job chapter 38, prior to the book of Psalms.

Job 38. You'll recall that Job was wrestling with questions related to his profound suffering. He wanted to argue with God. He wanted to state his case before God.

He knew he was blameless. God Himself testified to that in the first two chapters of the book. Out of this blameless life, great suffering came. God now speaks to Job to clarify their relative positions in the order of the universe. And in Job chapter 38 verse 1, Scripture says this, the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Now gird up your loins like a man and I will ask you and you instruct me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me if you have understanding. Who set its measurements since you know? Or who stretched the line on it? On what were its bases sunk or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

Verse 8, who enclosed the sea with doors when bursting forth it went out from the womb? When I made a cloud its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band and I placed boundaries on it instead of bolt and doors and I said thus far you shall come but no further and here shall your proud ways stop. And he goes on in the rest of 38 and 39 and 40 and 41 declaring his great transcendence in a way that leaves Job utterly humbled. He says I've spoken without knowledge.

I did not realize just how great you were. Good, but not that good, is the title of Don's message, part of our current series, Breaking the Bonds of Legalism. Don will have the final installment of his lesson on our next broadcast, so plan now to be with us.

Right now, though, Don's back here in studio with some closing thoughts. Well, hello, my friend. I want to thank you for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Thank you for being a student of God's word.

You are the reason that we do these things. We want to bring God's word to you in a way that makes it alive and applicable to you and brings you into a deeper knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, if you've benefited from this broadcast, we just ask you to do a simple thing. Go to our web page or go to our Facebook page. Look us up on Facebook and just drop us a little note, just a word that would let us know that you've appreciated today's broadcast or the other aspects of our ministry. We would love to hear from you. Thank you for listening to The Truth Pulpit.

We are grateful to Christ for you. Thanks, Don. And friend, remember also to visit TheTruthPulpit.com, where you can learn more about podcasts and free CDs of Don's teaching. That's TheTruthPulpit.com. Now for Don Green, I'm Bill Wright, inviting you back next time for more from The Truth Pulpit.