Good afternoon, brothers and sisters, Pastor Danny here, welcoming you to our second service here on Sunday, January 3rd, 2021. The last month plus, we have been having to pre-record this short service, just due to the restrictions that we have. We are unable to get into our chapel, we don't own it, and so we have to follow the the various guidelines and health orders and so forth that our landlord follows as well. So bear with us and thank you that you have been. If you're a member of the church or you're a regular attender and you're on our email list, you received an email this week with the liturgy for both services. And if you have that open in front of you or you have your phone out or your computer, You can find that PDF file that's in the email. You'll find there the Second Sunday Service liturgy. Let's spend the next 30 plus minutes or so focusing our hearts and minds in a time of prayer, and then we'll look together at the Word of God and focusing our hearts and minds this afternoon on the wonderful doctrine of the relationship between justification by faith alone and Our good works. How do those two things relate? How do they work together? Before that though, let's spend some time in prayer. And the Apostle Paul says this in Philippians chapter three, verse three, we are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. And so we've come to declare that our hope is in the name of the Lord, our help is in his name. We don't glory in ourselves, we glory only in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has on the cross been cut off for us, circumcised, so that we might be circumcised in him. by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so let's respond together to this wonderful promise of the gospel. Praying responsibly, I'll pray the normal printed verses and words. If you would join me in praying where you're at, the bold printed words. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth your praise. Make haste, O God, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me. Praise the Lord. The Lord's name be praised. We normally pray together by singing through the Psalter or the Psalms of the Old Testament. That's been done for millennia. And at the time of the Reformation, the daily office, as it was called, of the monks who chanted and prayed and sang through the Psalms every month, that work of the monks was given to, brought back into, the corporate worship of the church. And so all of God's people at the time of the Reformation in Reformed Protestant churches would sing and pray through the psalter. And we do that as well. Just because of our limitations, I'm going to read through, praying through Psalm number 135. I encourage you to be reading along with me or listening in a prayerful manner. as we hear, not only hear, but as we also say these words as a prayer to the Lord. Praise the Lord, Psalm 135 says. Praise the name of the Lord. Give praise, O servants of the Lord, who stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing to his name, for it is pleasant. For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel as his own possession. For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Whatever the Lord pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth, who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from his storehouses. He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and beast. who in your midst, O Egypt, sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants, who struck down many nations and killed mighty kings, Sihon, king of the Amorites, Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan, and gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to his people Israel. Your name, O Lord, endures forever, your renown, O Lord, throughout all ages. The Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants. The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak. They have eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear. Nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them become like them. So do all who trusted them. O HOUSE OF ISRAEL, BLESS THE LORD! O HOUSE OF AARON, BLESS THE LORD! O HOUSE OF LEVI, BLESS THE LORD! YOU WHO FEAR THE LORD, BLESS THE LORD! BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD FROM ZION, HE WHO DWELLS IN JERUSALEM! PRAISE THE LORD! We hear these beautiful and wonderful words of our great Lord, our great God, above all gods. Let's give Him praise together. The ancient church would recite and sing and chant the ancient hymn, Gloria Patri, glory be to the Father, to the Son, to the Holy Ghost. Let's say those words out loud together, where you are and where I am. with one heart and voice, saying, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Amen. Let's pray this afternoon. This is a Sunday in which we remember the circumcision of Jesus Christ. New Year's Day, in fact, January 1st, is the festival of the circumcision of Christ. And if you go on to our YouTube page and you just look for that sermon from this past week on Friday, January 1st, a short little meditation and homily on that day of circumcision. Let's also pray that prayer again. and if you would give a hearty amen at the end. Almighty God, who caused your blessed son to be circumcised and obedient to the law for humanity, grant us the true circumcision of the spirit, that our hearts and all our members, being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, we may in all things obey your blessed will. Through your son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, and all of God's people say, amen. Let's pray the short prayers for the evening service that we use in our church. These prayers come from the 1662 edition of the Book of Common Prayer, a prayer for peace. O God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do proceed, give to us, your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey your commandments, and also that we, being defended by you from the fear of our enemies, may pass our time in rest and quietness through the merits of Jesus Christ, our Savior, and all of God's people say, Amen. Let's also pray this prayer for aid against all perils. Enlighten our darkness, we beseech you, O Lord, and by your great mercy defend us from all perils and dangers of this night. For the love of your only Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and all of God's people say, Amen. Let's also spend a few moments here praying a prayer of intercession for our church, for the needs of the world around us. We thank you, we bless you, we love you, our wonderful Heavenly Father. For your love, we love you because you first loved us. Lord, we bless you for loving us by giving your only son up for us. And we love you and we bless you, our Lord Jesus, that you so willingly and wonderfully came down from heaven to earth. I have come to do thy will, O God. You prayed, you prophesied of yourself in the Psalms. You've come to obey for us. You came to live under the law, to be circumcised as a Jew, to live under the laws of God, to obey them all in thoughts, words, and deeds, not only for the benefit of those under those laws, the Jews, but also, Lord, for the benefit of the world, for all those, Lord, who are under that law of the conscience and the heart that you've put in us, even at our beginning of creation. We pray, Lord, blessing you, O Holy Spirit, that you're the one who has given our eyes that were once blind, sight you've given to our hearts that were once hard, life and flesh you've given to our ears that were once stopped up and plugged up. You've given them openness to hear your wonderful words. You've given to our lips that were once mute to give our lips praise of your amazing grace. You've bent our wills that were so willingly in our fallen Adam and so daily we bent our wills and upon ourselves in our sins and Lord you by your Holy Spirit have have so gently, and even yet so powerfully, have bent that will back outward from ourselves to you, so that we now look not upon ourselves, not into ourselves, in which we find nothing but sin, we look outward to you and Jesus Christ to find life, to find health, to find peace with you, our great God. We ask, Lord, that you would bless our congregation. Give us growth. Lord, give us vibrancy. Grant to us, Lord, a joy in the Spirit. Give us a unity of the Spirit, Lord, that is supernaturally given. Give us a love for one another, even as Jesus taught us, that love for each other would be the mark to the world outside as they look upon us, that you are real, that you sent your Son, O Lord. Grant to us All the needs that we have individually, Lord, there are so many burdens and cares and concerns and sorrows, and we've taken them up together as a congregation. And Lord, we pray for brothers and sisters who are in any way afflicted in their minds, bodies and their situation in life. For those, Lord, who are in need of financial and tangible blessing and provision, we pray for them. For those, Lord, who are struggling emotionally and mentally, psychologically, even spiritually, Lord, we pray for your healing. We pray for those, Lord, who are sick and those who are away from us, those who are not able to make it to us, Lord, during these last many months. And we miss them. We long to see them, Lord, to embrace them once again. And Lord, we do pray, Lord, that you would minister to everybody in this extraordinary time. Continue to minister to us, Lord, in the way that we need so that no matter where we are at this week, as a body, as a church family, we would be knit together. And even as we hear this message and this word today, that you would join our hearts together in faith, hope, and love. We ask, Lord, now that you would Bless abundantly the reading and preaching of your word, not only here, but also across the whole world. No matter where your church meets, Lord, high on mountains, low in valleys, under trees and some oasis in the desert, in grand cathedrals, small chapels, homes, caves, workplaces, Lord, wherever it might be today, meet your people powerfully through your word. because, Lord, you have said to us that the Lord is near by his word, that we don't need to go into heaven to grab, hold, and bring you down, or go into the abyss and draw you up, but the word is near you. It is on your lips. And Lord Jesus, be present amongst us. You be the speaker, Lord. You be the one who proclaims to us. You be the one on center stage. And so, Father, we pray that all of us, myself included, that we would decrease and you, Lord, evermore would increase in grace and in power and in majesty and in glory. We ask this, Lord, not because we deserve it, not because we are so eager, not because we are so good, not because we pray with such great faith, but because you have promised that if we pray to you in simple faith, that you'll hear us and give to us the things that we desire for your glory, for our good, and the world's salvation. We ask it all in Jesus' name and all of God's people say, Amen. There's finally a short prayer of Thanksgiving that we pray every Sunday in our Second Service. It's called the General Thanksgiving. Let's pray that prayer together. It's a great way of summarizing, not just the prayers that we've prayed here, but also our own personal prayers, and just a great way for us to thank the Lord for everything that he's given to us and to remind us that every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights. Let's pray. Almighty God, Father of all mercies, We, your unworthy servants, do give you most humble and hearty thanks for all your goodness and loving kindness to us and to all men. We bless you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life. But above all, for your inestimable love in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. And we beseech you, give us that due sense of all your mercies, that our hearts may be sincerely thankful and that we may show forth your praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives, by giving up ourselves to your service and by walking before you in holiness and righteousness all our days, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you in the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory, world without end. Amen. If you have a Bible, I encourage you and invite you to join with me turning together in the Word of God, your Bible, to the Book of Romans. We're going to look at a couple of verses here this afternoon and also some questions and answers from our beloved Heidelberg Catechism. So turning together to the Book of Romans, chapter number five. Words that are probably somewhat familiar to you. Down towards the end of that chapter 5 at verse number 18, here the apostle is comparing and contrasting Adam with Jesus. What Adam could not do and did not do and what Jesus has done and what that means for us. And so he says this, As one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous. The law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. So that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And here comes this very famous question. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means. How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. And all of God's people say, amen. Well, in our afternoon service we've been, or as I have been preaching on the Sundays where it's my turn, we've been using for the last year And now here going into our second year, I believe it is, using the Heidelberg Catechism as a guide for our thoughts in these sermons. And so these are somewhat more doctrinal sermons, the things that we believe, but also how we practice, how we live, and why all these things are so important for us. It's important for us. to regularly go back to those basics of the faith, the ABCs, the one, two, threes. It's important for us to always become like little children, as Jesus taught us, that we might enter into the kingdom. We are to constantly become like little children and to have our hearts and our minds low and to think of the Lord's goodness and his kindness and his gentleness towards us. So as we continue this afternoon in the Hatterberg Catechism, we're gonna look at Lord's Day number 24, and we'll turn it in just a few moments. But if I was to say to you, God is righteous, what would I mean by that? God is righteous. What would I mean by that? If I was to say as well, in connection to that, you and I are sinful, what would I mean? You and I are sinful. What do I mean by that? God is righteous. He is the standard of perfection. He is the one who's given the laws of God. And so he's the one not only who gives the laws, but he himself is upright as righteous. And of course he demonstrates that to us in Jesus, in his life, in his ministry, that he's righteous. So God is the standard of perfection. But you and I are sinful. You and I break those laws as we pray often in our thoughts, in our words, and in our deeds. You and I are sinful. So how can you and I as sinners be accepted by a righteous God? Or in other words, how can a righteous God accept you and I? Not just that how you and I can find acceptance, but how can God be reconciled to us? How can God bring us into his everlasting arms? And the answer that we saw a couple of Sundays ago as we thought about justification, the answer is by faith in Jesus Christ. How is it that you and I as sinners can find acceptance with God, a righteous God? The answer is by faith in Jesus Christ, and we call that justification. We call that the doctrine by which God forgives us of our sins, but also grants to us the righteousness of Christ in the place of our unrighteousness, so that we can in his righteousness stand before God, who is himself alone the righteous one. And so we are justified by faith, and we saw the importance of that language of faith alone. faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, apart from all of our works, apart from all of our obedience. But the objection to that is this, and here's where we want to pick up this afternoon. But doesn't God command us, you and I, doesn't God require us, you and I, to do good works. So if we are justified, that is, that we are acceptable to God because of Christ's righteousness received through faith alone, doesn't God though command us and require us to do good works? If we are acceptable apart from those good works, what role do those good works play? That's why Paul asks that very important rhetorical but very practical question If God's grace super abounds above all of our sins, what then shall we say to these things? Should we go on sinning? Because if God's grace overwhelms our sins, should we go on sinning to get more grace, to experience God's grace, to know his grace, to feel his grace even more? So doesn't God command us and require of us to do good work? So, in other words, if justification is by faith alone, then what about my good works? The first thing I want you to see here this afternoon is why can't my good works help me? Why can't my good works help me? If you have the Hatterberg Catechism, we're gonna look here at questions and answers 62, 63, and 64 this afternoon. It's called Lords Day number 24. It's online. The website is 3-T-H-R-E, three forms. F-O-R-M-S, threeforms.org. You'll find there the official versions that we as U-R-C-N-A pastors and elders and churches use for the Heidelberg Catechism, threeforms.org, or if you have a copy of the hymnal or this little Creed's Confessions book, you can turn there and find it with me. So why can't my good works help me? Notice the question that we want to look at just for a few moments here, question 62. But why can't our good works be our righteousness before God, or at least a part of our righteousness? Why can't our good works be our righteousness? But if not our entire righteousness, why not even just a small part? And the answer goes back to, again, what we've seen before, that God is righteous, because the righteousness which can pass God's judgment must be entirely perfect and must in every way measure up to the divine law. In other words, the reason is because of God's own righteousness. Why can't my good works help me because of God's own righteousness? He's a perfectly righteous God and he requires a perfect righteousness that conforms in every way, outwardly and inwardly and so forth, to his righteous laws. So my good works can't help me for my standing before God because of who God is himself. As Paul tells us, thinking about the law and thinking about God's righteousness and our own sinfulness, Paul tells us, for example, in Romans 3, verse 20, by works of the law, no human being will be justified in God's sight. By works, no human being will be justified in God's sight. Again, Galatians 3, verse 10, for all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, in fact. cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, and do them." In other words, Why is it that my righteousness can't be helpful to me in my standing before God? What this answer is telling us in terms of God's own righteousness is that you, in a sense, you, as it were, must score a perfect 1600 on your SAT every day you wake up. You must always throw a bullseye in darts. You must always strike every frame in bowling. You must always score a perfect ten if you are a diver. You must make every shot if you're a basketball player and never give up a basket to the one that you're defending and so forth. You get the point? The point is that you must be perfect. In every little realm and area of your life that relates to God, you must be perfect. Because God is. Why can't my good works help me? Because of my own sinfulness. God's righteousness, but my own sinfulness. Again, question 62, the Heidegger Catechism goes on to say this, but even our best works in this life are all imperfect and stained. with sin. So my good works can't be my righteousness, the whole of it, or even just a part of it, because first of all of God's own righteousness, and then even if, even if I were to begin to score on a scorecard my best works, my best works are all tainted and stained and imperfect in this life. Now, one of the verses that is quoted here, or the only verse really, in fact, that's quoted there as a proof text, or as a verse that substantiates and gives reason for why we would say that, is the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 64, at verse number six. If you have a Bible open, you can turn there. I'm just gonna read a couple of notes here for you, but guide you through that text here quickly. Isaiah 64 at verse six, we have all become unclean. all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment." Now here the prophet is speaking of a ritual uncleanness that made the Israelites unfit for fellowship with God and excluded them from fellowship with the community. So when he speaks there of we have all become unclean, that language of unclean is the language that's used throughout the Old Testament, especially in the language of Leviticus, of the ritual uncleanness that separated one from God, first of all, and secondly, from the community. If you were unclean, you could not approach God at the temple, the tabernacle. If you were unclean, you could not be a part of the community. You had to be outside for a while, for example, if you had some kind of a discharge and so forth. So we have all become unclean. We've become ritually unclean. We are unable to have fellowship with God and with one another. All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garments. All the righteous acts that the Israelites did according to the law, all the sacrifices that they offered, were like menstrual rags, literally a garment of times. A garment of times, it's a way of speaking of the monthly, or the time of the month, the monthly period that a woman has. All our righteous acts are like menstrual rags, a garment of times. In other words, sin therefore decays. The prophet goes on to say, we all fade like a leaf. Because of our righteous deeds that are like menstrual rags, this means that sin decays our lives. We all fade like a leaf that becomes dry, it becomes brittle, it becomes dead, it becomes lifeless. Therefore, the prophet also says that sin destroys, sin destroys our iniquities are like the wind that take us away. Now here in Southern California we have the Santa Ana winds. These very hot, typically dry, dusty wind that comes from the east. It comes from the desert. And when it comes through, it oftentimes does so with great force and it blows things away. We even had a little bit of a Santa Ana wind here very recently, and that's typically when we'll see dry brush or tumbleweed, or some kind of a desert scrub brush that's dead, it's still though in the ground somehow, but a hard wind, a Santa Ana wind blows it, and then you'll see the bush tumble down the street, right? It's dead, it's lifeless, it's destroyed. Sin does that. Our righteousness is like filthy rags, he says, that is like a lifeless leaf, like a destroyed brush that is blown away by the wind. So why can't my good works help me? Because God is righteous. Because I'm not. My good works can't do anything for my standing before God. But the objection is this, secondly, but God promises to reward my good works. But God, in his own word, promises to reward my good works. Notice back to the Heidelberg Catechism, question answer 63 for a moment. Question answer 63. How can our good works be said to merit nothing when God promises to reward them in this life and the next? This reward, the answer says, is not merited. It is a gift of grace. Now just for a moment, we have to step back because this language of merit Merit is a just reward, a just payment for the performance of something. So, it's the just desserts, as we might say, for obedience. Now, in the medieval church, the church just prior to the Reformation, the language of merit and the doctrine of merit was developed in a very intricate way, and so our medieval forefathers typically gave a distinction in merits between two kinds of merits. There was what they called a congruent merit. These were human works as Christians. You do good works, you do your best. They were kind of like half good works. But there was also another kind of merit called a condign merit, and this was the work of the Holy Spirit in a person's life that actually was meritorious, that actually earned, that actually merited to that person everlasting life. So your own good works, they would have said, your own good works, they're human works, they're stained by sin, they're half works, but the works that the Holy Spirit produces within you These are fully meritorious and God can look upon them and give you the just reward, just dessert for that. Our modern Roman Catholic friends, in the modern Roman Catholic catechism written by Pope John Paul II, simplified this doctrine, this language, and it actually focuses so much more simply on grace, in fact, which is interesting. I'm just going to read a couple of lines here from the modern Roman Catholic Catechism. Listen to what these phrases say and just the emphasis, interestingly at least in part, we'll see, on grace. Quote, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man. There is no strict right to any merit on the part of man. So God is the creator, we are the creature, what can a human being merit before God? Nothing. Quote, in the Christian life, God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace. So, God has ordered it in such a way that good works do something, okay? Good works do something. Now, that is called a work of grace. Again, quote, the merits of our good works are gifts of the divine goodness. The merits of our good works are gifts of the divine goodness. So, even the reward is a gracious thing. according to the modern Roman Catholic Catechism. But there's still this underlying problem that is a part of the whole theology and structure of the Roman Catholic Church. Although human beings can't merit the initial work of God's grace to forgive them of their sins. So God comes in grace and initially does a work to forgive. So although human beings can't merit that initial work of grace to forgive, afterwards, as a believer, as a Christian, quote, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and listen to this, and for the attainment of eternal life." Now again, the Catholic Catechism and the Catholic Church and your Roman Catholic friend would probably say something like, well, but it's all a gracious work. The difference though is that they redefine this language of grace or gracious so that human works, even the best works as we saw from our catechism that are tainted, those are meritorious, to attain to everlasting life. Now, we would say, in contrast, as our catechism, the Heidegger catechism says, God promises to reward our good works in this life and the next. Yes, we believe that. Yes, we believe God promises to reward good works in this life, in fact, but especially the life that is to come. Jesus said that. Blessed are you when others revile and persecute you, Matthew 5. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. Hebrews 11 verse 6 tells us, whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. How do we understand that? How do we make sense of that? God doesn't owe us. We owe Him. That's the big difference between us and our Roman Catholic friends. God doesn't owe us. We owe Him. We owe Him. The parable of, found in Luke 17, you'll notice in the catechism there, one of the texts that are cited is Luke 17, verses seven through 12. And the illustration is given by Jesus of a master and a servant, of a master and a servant. So turn there in your Bible for just a quick moment to Luke chapter number 17, and verses seven through 10. Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, come at once and recline at table? Will he not rather say to him, prepare supper for me and dress properly and serve me while I eat and drink and afterward you will eat and drink? Notice verse number nine. Does he thank the servant because he did what he was commanded to do? Does the master thank the servant for doing what he was commanded to do? Notice the parallel between a master and a servant, but God and us. So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, implied by God, say, we are unworthy servants. We have only done what was our duty. When you've done what God has commanded you to do, you are merely to say we are unworthy servants. We have only done our duty. God doesn't owe you anything. You owe God everything. God does not owe you even the next breath that you take. You owe him your life, and you owe that life to him forever, for eternity. John Calvin said whenever we meet with the word reward, Let us realize that it is the height of the divine goodness toward us that, although he has us completely in his debt, yet he condescends to make an agreement with us. So yes, God does promise in his word to reward our good works in this life and the next. The difference is that reward is gracious. It's not meritorious in any way whatsoever, whether the half merit of the medieval church or the full merit of the medieval church. No, it's all of grace. We are like servants to a master saying, we've only done what was required of us. We've only done what you commanded us to do. We give God the glory. We give to him our obedience and our love and God in his amazing grace says that he will graciously crown those works. So, do my good works matter? So, my good works don't help me in terms of my standing before God, my righteousness. My good works are not meritorious. They are crowned by the grace of God. They are acceptable to Him in Christ, and He does reward them graciously. So, do my good works matter? Should I even try to do them? This is Paul's great objection, isn't it, in Romans chapter 6 that we read. Should we go on sinning that grace would abound? If my sins are overwhelmed with the grace of God, should I not go on sinning even more so that I would get more of God's grace? Why would I even try to do good works? I should want to sin more to get more grace. No, Paul says, no, you've died your sins. You've been buried, you've been raised. You have had your sins put in the tomb and you've been lifted up in newness of life. Now serve God, he says. Question 64 from our Catechism asks it like this, question 64, but doesn't this teaching make people indifferent and wicked? That was the great objection of the Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church. No, it is impossible for those graven into Christ by true faith not to produce fruits of gratitude. It is impossible for those who are plugged into Christ, grafted into Christ, like branches to a vine, not to produce good fruits. Should I go on saying that grace would abound? Absolutely not. God has planted good seeds into good soil. God has produced good roots in us that lead to a good trunk. that leads to good branches and eventually that leads to good fruit. What role do my good works play in my justification? None. They play no role in my justification. What role do my good works play in this life and the life to come? God says by his grace he will reward them, he will crown them by his own condescension. What then should I go on doing? Do my good works have a role in my life? If they don't give me more standing with God, initial standing, justification, if they're not meritorious, what role do they play? Our good works, we're gonna go on to see. These are the response of the heart that's been made new. As Paul says in Romans 6, we've been buried with Christ in our sins, but we've been raised to newness of life. Newness of life. How can we go on in sin? How can we go on thinking that our good works have no role in our lives? How can we go on thinking that our good works mean nothing? Our good works are commanded by God, and we are to, as servants, say, Lord, you've commanded us to do these things. We've only done what you've commanded, Luke 17. Our good works are the response of the justified person. Our good works are the response of the grateful heart. Our good works are a response of a heart that's been born again and given new life. Our good works are the response of joy and of overwhelming sense of our own unworthiness. That our good works, even the best of them, are tainted by sin and that God is the great righteous God. Our good works are the of the overflow of our hearts to this overwhelming sense that this righteous God would accept me, unrighteous sinner. Let's give our lives to God. Let's give our hearts to Him, our words, what we look at, what we listen to, how we seek to serve our neighbors. Let's go forth, let's go forth knowing that God looks upon our good works in Jesus Christ, He accepts them just as He accepted us. He looks upon us as sinners, but he sees us in Christ. And even now, in Christ, when our own sins taint our good works, even our best works, like those filthy rags, he accepts them in Christ. He accepts us. He accepts them. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for your amazing grace that you not only save us, but you preserve us. You not only have ordained the end of our salvation, but the means and the way to that end. You not only, Lord, have justified us freely of grace apart from all of our works, but now that we are in you, we are found acceptable in Jesus Christ. You accept even our feeble efforts, our feeble efforts to come to you and to fall down and say, Lord, we've only done what was commanded us. Lord, give us a sense of joy. Give us a sense of overwhelming and sheer awe at who you are so that we would go out and want to serve you and to love you and to be kind and compassionate to the world around us, to our neighbors, to our friends. Lord, forgive us for ever thinking that our good works mean nothing. Forgive us for ever thinking that we should go on sinning that grace would abound. But Lord, fill us with the Holy Spirit. to serve you all the days of our lives. We ask it in Jesus' name and all of God's people say, amen. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Amen. Have a wonderful week, loved ones, brothers and sisters. God bless.