Turn in your Bibles then to, first of all to Titus 2 verses 1 to 11. It's good to see so many of you out tonight. I thank God for your presence here, not for my sake but because I know it's pleasing to Him. Paul's letter to Titus chapter 2. But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine, that the older men shall be sober, reverent, temperate, sound in faith, in love, in patience. The older women, likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things. that they admonish the young woman to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. Likewise exhort the young men to be sober-minded, in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works." Notice that again, the emphasis on good works. in doctrine, showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you. Exhort servants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well-pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pulfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Saviour in all things. For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. Speak these things, exhort and rebuke with all authority, that no one despise you." And then to go back to Ephesians 2, For we want to complete our study on the first 10 verses of chapter 2 and particularly verse 10 tonight, but I read again verses 8 and 9. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. God bless to us our reading and our meditation on his word. We don't hear much preaching these days on good works. When was the last time you heard an exposition or a sermon on the Christian doctrine of good works? Tonight then we want to come back to Ephesians 8, 9 and focus our attention especially on the sequel, verse 10. For in the first nine verses, as we saw this morning, the apostle has been at pains to tell us that a person can only be saved from the spiritual death and enslavement of sin by God's grace. And by God's grace we saw this morning that Paul means the spontaneous, generous initiative God has taken in love and mercy to rescue sinners from hell who are not only undeserving, but thoroughly ill-deserving. Salvation is the gift of God received by faith. It cannot be merited or earned by any effort on our part. For by nature we are all morally corrupt and any deed that we do through that corrupt nature is rotten to the core. But that's only one side of the coin, and the wonderful thing about the Bible is that it is balanced. So having taught us that we are not saved by works, Paul now goes on to teach us that we are saved for good works. Good works, friends, are very important to God, because it is only by good works that we can bring glory to God and blessing to one another and the world around us while we are in this life and able to do it. And so for that reason, Paul wants balance to his teaching. And in verse 10 he utters these marvelous words, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Just as God created bees to produce honey and cows to produce milk, so God creates every Christian man and woman with a new nature that is specifically designed for good works that glorify Him and bless our fellow men and women. It's a wonderful verse, friends, and it tells us that, first of all, every Christian is a creation of God. And I want to stress this point because Paul is reiterating here in that statement, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. Paul specifically reiterates this truth because he wants to confirm what he has just said in verses 8 and 9. He doesn't want us to get away from that, but he has something additional to say. But he comes back to what he has said in verses 8 and 9. And by this phrase, for we are his workmanship, what he is saying is what he said in verses 8 and 9. God is the workman. in our creation, in our salvation. We are the object of his workmanship. A Christian, he is saying again, he doesn't get tired of it, is not self-made. There is no other way to account for the existence of a Christian except that he or she is a miracle. God is the creator And we are the creatures He has created in Christ Jesus. So we are not the workmen, but we are only God's workmanship. We are not the Creator. We are only the creatures He has created. And I say again, the Apostle cannot be more explicit about this. The work is God. It's not ours. And verse 10, I say, is consistent and it is confirming verses 8 and 9. Now, this is radical thinking indeed. For every religion devised by man is based on the belief that we must make ourselves better while we are in this life. so that we can enjoy the next life. The Christian religion is the only religion in the world that says salvation is the work of God and of God alone. It is not the result of evolution or of self-reformation. And to quote Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, he says, A Christian is a new creation. Behold, old things have passed away, all things have become new. So to become a Christian, I say, is to experience a supernatural, a miraculous spiritual transformation by the almighty power of God that makes us something we never were before. I can just imagine you're saying, I've got the point, but I am laboring the point. because Paul has laboured the point. You see, not satisfied with already having stressed this and stated it in verses 8 and 9 that salvation is the gift of God, it's all of God to sinners who don't deserve it and cannot earn it, he goes on here in verse 10 categorically to state that if we have been saved, We are God's workmanship, the object of his creation. And a sinner can no more contribute to his salvation than a creature can contribute to his creation. Or a workman's workmanship can contribute to itself. And the reason Paul was inspired to press this point, to labour this point, is that it is very crucial in our understanding of the Christian doctrine of good works. So if you think I'm labouring the point, bear with me as you bear with the Apostle Paul. Because although Christian works, good works, are not the reason for our salvation. They are the necessary result of our salvation and the evidence and proof of our salvation. A man or a woman cannot enter the kingdom of God on account of them. Nor can he or she enter the kingdom of God, listen, without them. That's the first thing our text says, and I say Paul is at pains to labour it, because he has spent so much time on the grace of God that brings salvation. Now the second thing verse 10 says is that a Christian's good works are the trademark of the divine worker. As you know, every craftsman throughout the ages, every artist has authenticated their work either with a signature or with a hallmark or a trademark. It is a mark that certifies that that particular work is genuinely theirs. Well, Paul is saying here in verse 10 that the good works for which God has specifically created us are the trademark to show that His workmanship in us is genuine. It's His. Because righteous thoughts Righteous deeds, righteous words are not possible from a human being in their own strength. They are God's trademark. And when I speak of righteous, I mean right in relationship to other people. When the Bible speaks of godliness, it is speaking of behavior and conduct which is pleasing to God. It's godly because it's like God and it's pleasing to God. But when the Bible speaks about righteousness and righteous acts and thoughts and deeds, it's speaking about behavior and conduct which is right. Because it treats our fellow men and women rightly, justly, not wrongly or unjustly. And righteous thoughts, works and words and deeds are God's trademark because God alone is righteous and only He can produce these things. through those in whom he is present and working. Now, I am stressing this, brothers and sisters, because there are some Christians, more than we really think at times, who are very afraid to speak about the Christian doctrine of good works. because they feel it encourages people to become proud about their good works or to draw false comfort about their salvation from any good deeds they do. And I am sure you have met church goers who derive much satisfaction from the money that they give to charity and from the hard work and the many hours they put into volunteer services. Well, because of the danger of becoming proud of one's good works and thinking that a person can be saved by them, I say there are many Christians today, and it's quite prevalent in reformed churches, who don't want to talk about the Christian doctrine of good works. They only want to talk about the grace of salvation. But Paul won't have it. After stating so clearly the grace of God in salvation, he moves straight on into the Christian doctrine of good works. And he tells us in verse 10 that the purpose of salvation is to produce good works through the objects of God's creation and saving grace. He created us in Christ Jesus, says Paul, for good works. They contribute nothing to our salvation, but they are the very thing for which our salvation was designed. Now this is true in nature, as well as in grace. God made the sun to shine, but sunshine does not make the sun. God created flowers to be fragrant, but fragrance does not make a flower. You can get canned fragrance, can't you? In the same way, God creates every Christian to do good works. But someone doing good works does not make them a Christian. Let me put it this way. Although a man may be an agnostic and an atheist, he can, the Bible tells us, by God's common grace, still have the milk of human kindness and go about the world doing works of philanthropy. Albert Schweitzer, the great philanthropist, organist, inventor, and missionary is a case in point. He did not believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, but he wouldn't kill a fly or a mosquito And he did marvelous work among lepers on the mission field. But he was not a Christian. A man can be a millionaire and feed the poor. He can be a surgeon and spend every vacation giving free treatment to those in the third world who don't have any care. But whatever kindness an atheist shows to the needy, he is still an unbeliever. And in the words of Bishop J.C. Ryle, who has written some wonderful books, his best works are little better than splendid sins. Good works, you see, are not just works of human kindness. They are works of godliness. They are pleasing to God. And they are works of righteousness. They do what is right by our fellow men and women. And therefore, they have to meet three criteria. Listen carefully. First, they must measure up to God's standard. The standard God has laid down for all behavior, for all conduct, first in the Ten Commandments, then in the Sermon on the Mount, and then, of course, in the ethical teaching of Christ's apostles. So they must first measure up to God's standard of behavior and conduct. Secondly, they are to be done from the right motive. And the motive, the Bible says, which must govern all our behavior is love first and foremost for God and also for our neighbor. I cannot say I love God, says John. and not help my neighbor. On the other hand, I cannot help my neighbor and say that proves I love God. I must both love God with all my heart and all my soul and my neighbor as myself to meet this criterion. And then thirdly, good works are to be done from or for the right purpose. And the Bible tells us the right purpose for which we should do every good work is to bring glory and honor to God and blessing to our fellow men and women. Now only Christians can do such good works because only Christians have been spiritually recreated with a good heart, a holy heart, a righteous heart that can meet these criteria. So I want to say tonight to be absolutely clear, I cannot lie and I cannot steal in order to help others. We must meet God's standards if our works are going to glorify Him. Again, we cannot obey God's law and do good if we do not love Him with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves. And then again, our good works are not good works if they are aimed at gaining recognition from the world, which may be the aim and the goal of some of the billionaires in our country, who are spending not a million, but millions of dollars in Africa, bringing medication to cure AIDS, who are spending millions now in Haiti, people who perform on a telethon and yet their life blasphemes God and Jesus Christ in their songs and in their acting and yet they are involved in this humanitarian work. But if it is aimed at impressing men and women and the world and not glorifying God It is not a good work in the sight of God. Now having made that clear, it is also important to point out that a Christian's good works must never be minimized. We must not relegate good works to a minor position in Christian doctrine and in Christian life. Again, let me go to the simple analogy of nature. Because honey cannot produce a bee. We don't minimize the value of honey, do we? Honey is both delicious and beneficial for God, who created the bees, and for us, who enjoy what the bees produce. And you know, in just the same way, although good works do not make a person a Christian, they are important. because they are the purpose for which God created and designed us in Christ. They are the trademark, I say, of the divine worker, the sign that a genuine work of God has been done in your life and mine. For only God can bring this kind of good fruit that meets these three criteria out of a barren, and sinful soul. Now thirdly, and I want to spend the rest of our time on the way God produces good works in us, and this is the wonderful part of the text and I have not really read or heard very much on this particular aspect of Christian truth. And it's very important, and I would urge you to listen carefully to what the Apostle Paul has to say. The words you see created in Christ Jesus are the key to understanding how God produces good works in us. For by the Christian being a new creation, He or she receives new divine spiritual life to do these good works. In Christ, you see, is the Apostle Paul's term for being united to Jesus Christ. to sharing his risen life through the indwelling presence of the dear Holy Spirit. An unbeliever cannot do good works that are pleasing to God because he or she has no such spiritual life. As Paul says in verse 1 and again in verse 5, they are spiritually dead in trespasses. The Christian, however, is very different. And so in verse 5, to go back again to what we were looking at this morning, he says, God, even when we were dead in trespasses, notice, made us alive together with Christ Jesus and raised us up together in heavenly places. So The secret, the way, the chief way by which God enables us to produce good works is by giving to us this new life, this new supernatural power. by which we can do them. United to the risen Christ, we have become partakers of the power of His resurrection and thereby we are enabled to live a life of good works that glorify God and bring blessing to our fellow men and women. And I say again, Jesus Christ is the very life of every believer. In Colossians 3 verse 4, Paul writes of Christ, who is your life. In Galatians 2.20, he speaks of Christ, living in me. And that's how God produces good works in the life of a Christian. And I emphasize that because we must remember that it's all of God again. And you know, Jesus emphasized this in a wonderful way in his parable, or allegory if you want to call it, of the true vine. In John 15 where he says, I am the true vine, abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. That means you cannot do anything that is godly and righteous in the sight of God. You cannot do true Christian good works. So Christ's life in us, I want to stress again, is the chief way, the supreme way in which God produces good works in the lives of his people. But now I want you to see that Paul has something additional to say, and this is where it gets very interesting. He says that these good works are works which God prepared beforehand, NIV, in advance, that we should walk in them. Now how does God do that? Well, go back again to John 15, that wonderful illustration of Jesus, where he says, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser, NIV, the gardener. It's not enough, you see, that the branches draw life and succor out of the vine and out of its root. The ground around the vine needs to be dug and loosened, watered and fertilized if good fruit is to be produced. And then again, to go back to the analogy of the vine, the branches also need to be prepared beforehand. Not afterwards, but before it bears fruit. As Jesus says, The vine dresser has to come along and prune the branches, however painful it may be, and cut the branches back, so that more life from the vine can go into the fruit, and not into the branches and into the leaves. And then again, Branches need to be cleared of all the pests that would come and sting the fruit and destroy it. I say all of this has to be done prior to the fruit being produced. It's an analogy and it can be applied spiritually and in a spiritual sense God has also had to make advanced preparations in your life and in mine for us to do good works. For we live in a godless society that is not conducive whatsoever to the production of these good works. The world, the flesh and the devil as we saw this morning are enemies of good works. What then has God done in advance to prepare the way for a Christian to do good works? Well, God has prepared the Bible in advance to explain what are the good works, to show us how we can do them, and encourage us and exhort us and challenge us to do these good works. He has prepared the Bible hundreds and thousands of years ago. Again, he has prepared a good evangelical church to nurture our spiritual life so that we are able to do these good works. For if our spiritual life is weak and anemic, we cannot do these works. The Bible says, the more we are sanctified, the more God can use us. That is why Paul prays that God will cleanse him as a vessel and make him, that God will sanctify his vessel and make it fit and meet for the Master's use. And then again, because God is sovereign, God has prepared the way for us to do good works by putting us in the right place at the right time to do and say the right thing for His glory. I wonder if you've ever noticed that, have you? How when you least expect it, any day in your life, God suddenly puts you in a situation where you can speak a word, do a deed that brings glory to his name, and blessing not only to his people, but to all your neighbors. God's providence, you see, covers everything. He is in control of our domestic situation, our work situation, our social situation, our physical situation, whether we are homebound or not. God is in control of all of those things. But because He prepares these works in advance for us to do, He puts us in the right place at the right time to do the right thing. In these ways and many others, I say, God has prepared the way in advance for all of us to do good works. We have His word to tell us what to do and to encourage us to do it. He puts us in the place where we can do them. And most important of all, He has given us in Christ the strength and the power of a new life through the Holy Spirit to do them. And so in Philippians 4, Paul can say, in the most difficult situations, he's in prison, he's confined, he's bound, he cannot preach. And yet he says, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Not all things without exception, as many people will expound these words. That would be a ridiculous claim, wouldn't it? Paul could not do all the miraculous good works that his master, the Lord Jesus, did. He couldn't walk on water, and he couldn't help other people to walk on water. He couldn't change water into wine, nor could he multiply a small amount of food. Five loaves and two fishes. into enough to feed 5,000 men, never mind the women and the children who were there. No, what Paul means is surely this, that he, even while he is in jail, even while he is prevented from going and visiting the churches and doing good by preaching and counselling and encouraging and helping them, he still can do all the good works that God prepared beforehand for him to do, knowing that at this time he would put him in prison. And friends, what Paul can claim, you and I can claim. Everything has been prepared in advance to ensure that we live a life of good works, because God has specifically designed us, by creating us in Christ, for these good works. Just as God designed every fish to swim and every bird to fly, He has designed every Christian to do good works. And yet how often people will say, well you know there's not much I can do, I don't really have anything that I can do, that I can help the cause of God. No, when God creates something, He designs it perfectly for the purpose for which He has created it. And dear friends, you and I as Christians are no exception. We are God's workmanship and our good works, I say, are the hallmark, the trademark of His workmanship. So as I close, I just want to ask a few questions by which you and I need to examine ourselves this evening. Can we say that we are God's workmanship? Is there any evidence that our Christian life is producing good works that are glorifying to God and helpful to our fellow men and women, that bring glory and honor to Him? Are we aware of God's providence preparing everything around us every day from the tiniest little thing to what may be a very important thing, but God is preparing everything around us so that we can do good works. Has he put us in a Christian home? Given us a Christian spouse who can help us? Or are we making the most of being in an evangelical Bible expounding church where the Word of God is faithfully taught and we can become, in the words of Paul to Titus, a people zealous for good works? Do we read the Bible every day so that we might be challenged more and more? to do good works? Are we eager to do works that are holy and loving, works that are both pleasing to God and helpful to others? The Christian life, you see, is not just about forgiveness or justification. It is also about holiness and sanctification. When God looked upon us before the foundation of the world and set his love upon us, Paul says in Ephesians 1 verse 4, as Chip read tonight, he chose us in Christ to be holy and without blame before him in love. The proof of faith is good works. There is no value, my friends, in a profession of faith unless it is accompanied by the desire to be like Jesus and go about every day doing good. Has God's hallmark of good works been stamped upon your life and mine? It's the only proof. that we are His workmanship. Thank you for your earnest attention. Let's ask the Lord's blessing upon His Holy Word. Our Heavenly Father we thank you that if we are Christians we were not only created physically in Adam, but recreated spiritually in Christ for good works. And we thank you that because we are your workmanship, you have perfectly suited us to live a life of good works, just as you perfectly designed bees to produce honey and cows to produce milk. O God, help us not to fail you here in our Christian lives. It's so easy to work just for our own interest, to go about every day just doing the things that we think are important to us, and not for the glory of your name and the good of others. So, help us, Lord, we pray, to be what you created us for, a people zealous for good works. By your grace may we take advantage of the circumstances you put us in every day to do the works you have prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And Father, if somehow we do not see any evidence of your workmanship in our lives, be gracious to us and help us tonight to put our faith in Jesus Christ so that we might become new creatures in him. For his name's sake we ask it. Amen.