The Agreement Of Salvation By Grace With Walking In Good Works

The Agreement Of Salvation By Grace With Walking In Good Works

(No. 2210)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JUNE 28, 1891,

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained
that we should walk in them" Ephesians 2:9,10.

I shall call your attention to the near neighborhood of these two
phrases, "Not of works" and, "Created in Christ Jesus unto good works."
The text reads with a singular sound, for it seems strange to the ear
that good works should be given such a negative description as to the
cause of salvation and then should be spoken of as the great end of it!
You may put it down among what the Puritans called, "Orthodox
Paradoxes," if you please, though it is hardly so difficult a matter as
to deserve the name.

Not long ago, I tried to handle the point of difference supposed to
exist between the doctrine of faith–"Believe, and you shall be saved,"
and the doctrine of the new birth and its necessity–"You must be born
again." My method was on this wise–I did not explain the difficulties
which appear to the logician and the doctor of metaphysics, but I tried
to show that, practically, there were none. If we deal only with
difficulties which block up the way to salvation, there are none. As
for those matters which involve no real hindrance, I leave them where
they are. A rock which is in nobody's way may stand where it is. He
that believes in Jesus is born again. These two things are equally
true–there must be a work of the Spirit within, yet he that believes
in the Lord Jesus has everlasting life.

Now, there is a contention always going on about the doctrine of good
works, but instead of taking one side or the other, we shall try to see
whether there is really anything to quarrel over if we keep to the
Scriptures. We insist upon it, with all our might, that salvation is
"not of works, lest any man should boast." But, on the other hand, we
freely admit and earnestly teach that, "without holiness no man shall
see the Lord." Where there are no good works, there is no indwelling of
the Spirit of God! The faith which does not produce good works is not
saving faith–it is not the faith of God's elect–it is not faith at
all in the Scriptural sense. I have just taken these two points to
bring them forward for the help and comfort of beginners. I seek not to
instruct you who are already well taught, but my aim at this time is to
instruct beginners on this important subject. Salvation is not of
works, but, at the same time, we, who are the subjects of Divine Grace,
are "created in Christ Jesus unto good works." This is plain to the
enlightened Believer, but babes in Grace have weak eyes and cannot at
once perceive it.

Before, in the gracious Providence of God, Luther was raised up to
preach the doctrine of Justification by Faith, the common notion among
religious persons was that men must be saved by works–and the result
was that, knowing nothing of the root from which virtue springs, very
few persons had any good works at all! Religion so declined that it
became a mere matter of empty ceremony, or of useless seclusion and, in
addition, superstition overlaid the original Truth of the Gospel, so
that one could hardly find it out at all. The reign of
self-justification and priestcraft led to no good result upon the
masses of religious people. Indulgences and forgiveness of sins were
hawked through the streets and publicly sold. So much was charged for
the pardon of one sin and so much for another, and the treasury of "his
holiness" at Rome–who might better have been called, "his
unholiness"–was filled by payments for abating penalties in a
"purgatory" of Rome's inventing!

Luther learned from the sacred Volume, by the Spirit of the Lord, that
we are saved by Grace, alone, through faith–and, having found it out,
he was so possessed by that one Truth of God that he preached it with a
voice of thunder! His witness on that one point was so concentrated
that it would be too much to expect equal clearness upon all other

Truths of God. I sometimes compare him to a bull who shuts his eyes and
goes straight on at the one objective which he means to overthrow. With
a mighty crash, he broke down the gates of Papal superstition! He saw
nothing–he did not need to see anything–except this–"By Grace are
you saved through faith." He made very clear and good work upon that
point, faulty as he was upon certain others. The echoes of his manly
voice rang down the centuries. I note that nearly all the sermons of
Protestant divines, long after Luther, were upon Justification by Faith
and, whatever the text might be, they somehow or other brought in that
article of a standing or falling Church. They seldom finished a sermon
without declaring that salvation is not by works, but that it is by
faith in Jesus Christ.

I do not censure them for a moment! Far rather do I commend
them–better too much than too little upon the central doctrine of the
Gospel. The times needed that point to be made clear to all comers and
the Reforming preachers made it clear. Justification by Faith was the
nail that had to be driven home and clinched–and all their hammers
went at that nail. They were not nearly so clear and specific upon many
other doctrines as they were upon this, but then it was a foundation
stone and they were occupied in laying it–and they did lay it and laid
it thoroughly–and laid it forever. Still, they would have more fully
completed the circle of revealed Truth if Sanctification had been as
fully apprehended and as clearly explained as Justification. It had
been well if the legs of the Gospel of the Reformation had been equal,
for one was a little longer and a little stronger than the other and,
therefore, there was a limp–a halting like that of victorious Israel,
as he came from Jabbok–but still a limp which it would be well to
cure.

We have passed beyond the stage of dwelling too much on that cardinal
doctrine and I greatly fear that in these times we do not have enough
preaching of Justification by Faith. I could wish the Lutheran times
back, again, and that the old thunders of Wittenberg could be heard
once more. And yet I shall be glad if everything that is practical in
the Gospel shall also have its full sphere allotted to it. The
duties–let me rather say, the high and holy privileges–which come to
us as children and servants of God–these should be maintained and
fully preached, side by side with the blessed Truth of God embodied in
those lines–

"There is life in a look at the Crucified One! There is life at this
moment for you."

I shall dwell, first of all, upon the first point of the text, which is
this, "Not of works," or, the way of salvation. "Not of works" is a
negative description, but within the negative there lies very clearly
the positive. The way of salvation is by something other than our own
works. Secondly, I shall speak about the walk of salvation. We who are
saved, walk in holiness, for we are, "created in Christ Jesus unto good
works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them." It
is a decree of the Sovereign Lord that His chosen should be led to walk
in holiness!

I. First, then, THE WAY OF SALVATION is negatively described as, "Not
of works." To this many take exception, but that we cannot help–the
Scripture is plain enough. We are told that we ought not, on any
occasion, allow persons to sing–

"Sinner, nothing do, Either great or small, Jesus did it, did it all,
Long, long ago."

Great exception has been taken to that expression, but I believe that
if the same Truth of God had been expressed in any other words, the
same objection would have been raised, for it is the Truth that is
objected to, rather than the words in which it is set forth! My text
itself would be, to such persons, very objectionable–"Not of works."
They are ready to rail at Paul for speaking thus evangelically. They
hate the doctrine of salvation all of gift and not in the least of
merit–a doctrine which we love! We preach salvation, "not of works."
We repeat the teaching again and again, and mean to repeat it
continually till we die! Salvation is of the Lord's mercy and not by
works of the Law.

If we were to preach that salvation is of works, we should please many
fine folk; but as we do not know that it would be at all to their
benefit that they should be pleased, we shall not brush one hair of our
head in a different way from that in which it grows, to please
them–much less shall we keep back, or explain away, the fundamental
Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ–and that for several reasons.

If we were to preach to sinners, dead in trespasses and sins, that
salvation would be by their own works, we should be setting aside the
way of salvation by Grace. There cannot be two ways of salvation for
the same people! If we take to the one, we practically deny the other.
It cannot be questioned that a guilty man, if saved at all, must be
saved through the

mercy of God. It cannot be denied, also, that our Savior and His
Apostles taught that we are saved by faith. A man must shut his eyes if
he does not see this to be their teaching. If, then, I teach men that
they can be saved by works, I have practically told them that salvation
by Grace is a myth, a mistake, a mischievous error! I have set it
aside, for, as I have said before, there cannot be two ways to
Heaven–there cannot be more than one. If I set up the way of works, I
shut up the way of Grace. If salvation is of merit, it is not of mercy!
And if there is no salvation of men by the pure mercy of God, what an
unhappy case are we in! To deny Grace is really to deny hope. Where,
then, would there be any Gospel, or glad tidings, or good news?

The way of salvation by works is not "news." It is the old way of man's
devising which is the general and well-known error of all the ages.
Moreover, it is not, "good news," or glad news, for there is nothing
good or glad in it. That we shall be rewarded for our works is nothing
more than the heathens taught! Justification by religious performances
and meritorious deeds is nothing better than the old Phariseeism with a
Christian name stuck upon it! It is not worth revealing by the Spirit
of God, for it is to be seen by the light of man's own candle. That
doctrine makes the Lord Jesus Christ to be practically a nobody, for if
salvation is of works, then the way of salvation through faith in our
Savior is superfluous and even mischievous.

Next, to preach the way of salvation by works is to propose to men a
way in which they have already failed. If you are to be saved by works,
you must begin very early–you must begin before you sin–since one sin
decides the matter. But already you have commenced to break the Law of
God. I am not addressing persons who have yet to start upon the way,
for they have started already. You are a good way on the road, one way
or other, and since you began in the way of works, what a failure you
have already made of it! Is there anyone here who can claim that he is
already saved by works, as far as he has gone? Has anyone among you
been without sin? Look at your lives! Examine your consciences! Observe
your words, your thoughts, your imaginations, your motives–for all
these come into the account!

Is there a man or woman here that does good and sins not? Scripture
declares that "there is none that does good, no, not one." "All we like
sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his own way." The
way of salvation cannot, therefore, be by following a road from which
we have already so sinfully and steadily departed. If you were perfect
as Adam was before he sinned, you might follow the way of works and be
safe–but you are not in that condition. If I could be sent to an Adam
and an Eve altogether unfallen, I might propose to them the way of
salvation by obedience to the Law–but you have fallen and your nature
is inclined to forsake the right way. The very garments that you wear
show that you have discovered your shame. The daily labors which weary
you prove that you are not in Paradise. The very preaching of the
Gospel implies that you are in a sinful world! You are not possessed of
an unbiased will, or inclined to that which is good–you have chosen
the evil and still continue to choose it–therefore I should only be
proposing to you a road in which you have already stumbled. And I
should be setting you a task in which you have already broken down.

And, next, I think it will be admitted by all, that the way of
salvation by good works would be self-evidently unsuitable to a
considerable number. I will take a case. I am sent for, in an
emergency, and it is the dead of night. A man is dying, smitten
suddenly by the death-blast. I go to his bedside, as requested.
Consciousness remains, but he is evidently in mortal agony. He has
lived an ungodly life–and he is about to die. I am asked by his wife
and friends to speak to him a word that may bless him. Shall I tell him
that he can only be saved by good works? Where is the time for works?
Where is the possibility of them? While I am speaking, his life is
struggling to escape! He looks at me in the agony of his soul and he
stammers out, "What must I do to be saved?" Shall I read to him the
Moral Law? Shall I expound to him the Ten Commandments and tell him
that he must keep all these? He would shake his head and say, "I have
broken them all; I am condemned by them all!" If salvation is of works,
what more have I to say? I am of no use here. What can I say? The man
is utterly lost! There is no remedy for him. How can I tell him the
cruel dogma of "modern thought" that his own personal character is
everything? How can I tell him that there is no value in belief, no
help for the soul in looking to Another– even to Jesus, the
Substitute? There is no whisper of hope for a dying man in the hard and
stony doctrine of salvation by works!

If salvation had been by works, our Lord could not have said to the
thief, dying at His side, "Today shall you be with Me in Paradise."
That man could do no works! His hands and feet were fastened to the
cross and he was in the agonies of death. No, it must be of Grace,
all-conquering Grace–and the modus operandi must be by faith, or else
for dying men

the Gospel is a mockery! The man must look and live! The expiring
sinner must trust the expiring Savior. As life ebbs out, the penitent
must find life in Jesus' death. Is it not clear that the Gospel of
works is unsuitable in such a case as this? Now, a Gospel which is
unsuitable to anybody is not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes,
I put it plainly. A Gospel that does not suit everybody does not suit
anybody–and if it suits any class and condition really and truly, it
must suit all classes! I think I have told you that, on one occasion, I
had a letter which was intended to be very irritating to me, from some
rather eminent, aristocratic gentleman who said that he had read some
of my sermons when he was out on the coast of Africa and he found that
certain black fellows out there–certain, "niggers"–delighted in them
very much. He wrote to inform me that I was a very competent preacher
for "niggers."

I accepted the assurance at once as a very high compliment! I felt
that, if I could preach to "niggers," I could preach to anybody and
that, if the Gospel that I preached was suitable to the natives on the
coast of Africa, it would certainly suit the people in London! If those
who are afar off could understand it, you, who are near, could also
understand it! The Gospel was not sent into the world to be a patent
medicine that could only be purchased by the wealthy, or a spell that
could only be uttered by Latin scholars. It is a Gospel for all ranks
and conditions of men–and if I prove that what you call the Gospel is
unsuitable for the dying, or is unsuitable for the ignorant–it is NOT
the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The Gospel of salvation by Grace, through
faith, is suitable for every class of persons that we have to deal
with! Sinful habit has bound in iron fetters many of our fellow
citizens and the Gospel can free them! Be the habit drunkenness, or
profanity, or what it may, the habit holds them fast–and the Prophet
says, concerning habit, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the
leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, that are accustomed to do
evil."

To what purpose, then, do I cry to the leopard, "Change your spots," or
to the Ethiopian, "Change your skin"? I must bring a superior force to
bear upon the leopard or the Ethiopian before this can be accomplished!
And there is no force in mere exhortation. You may exhort a blind man
to see as long as you like, but he will not see. You may exhort a dead
man to live as long as you like, but he will not live through your
exhortation! Something more is needed! The forces of natural depravity
and the acquired habits of sin in many cases–I think you will admit
it–put the doctrine of salvation by works out of court! And if out of
court as to one, it is gone as to all, for there can be but one Gospel.
Go through your convict settlements. Go through your jails and just see
what you can do with a doctrine of salvation by good works! You will
come home disappointed, however earnest may be your address. But go
there and tell of Free Grace and dying love–and pardon bought with
blood–and eyes that stream with tears, confessions of sin and cries
for pardon will tell you that you have not spoken in vain!

Further, dear Friends, if we go and preach salvation by works to men,
we are preaching to them a way of salvation impossible to all because
of the perfection of the Law. What are the good works that can merit
Heaven? What are the good works that can ensure eternal life? These are
not the easy things which some seem to imagine. They must be perfectly
pure, continuous and unspotted. "The Law of the Lord is perfect." It
condemns a thought and even the glance of an eye, as an act of
criminality. "Whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed
adultery with her already in his heart." The Law of God in 10 commands
means much more than the bare words would imply–it deals with the
whole range of moral condition, motive and thought. Dream not that its
sweep includes only external acts–indeed, it does include externals,
but, in very deed, the Ten Commandments are spiritual! They go right
through the heart and search the inward parts of the spirit. The more a
man understands the Law of God, the more he feels condemned by it–and
the less does he indulge the dream that he, as he is, shall ever be
able to keep it intact. With such foul hands as ours, how can we do
clean work? With hearts so polluted, how can we be "undefiled in the
way"? Nature rises no higher than its source and that which comes out
of the heart will be no better than the heart–and that is, "deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked."

The Law of God is one and if you break it in any one point, you break
it altogether. If, in a chain of 100 links, 99 should be perfect, yet
if a single link anywhere in the chain should be too weak for the
weight placed upon it, the load will fall to the ground quite as surely
as if 20 links were snapped! One breakage of the perfect Law of God
involves transgression against the whole of it! In order to be saved by
works, there must be absolutely perfect, continuously perfect obedience
to it in thought, word and deed. And that obedience must be rendered
cheerfully and from the heart–for this is the heart of the first
table–"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with
all your soul, and with

all your might." Can you keep that? Vain-glorious man, have you
measured your moral strength against requirements so great and yet so
just? Have you proved yourself equal to the task?

Here is the heart of the second table–"You shall love your neighbor as
yourself." Have you ever tried to do that– to love your neighbor as
yourself? You have been a little kind and sometimes generous, but the
standard of loving your neighbor as yourself–have you ever reached to
that? Has your charity been equal to your self-love? I do not believe
that it has ever gone even half the way. Now, "What things soever the
Law says, it says to them who are under the Law," and if it says all
this to you and you cannot answer to its demands, how can you hope that
you shall live by it? When a man fails to keep the Law of God, it
condemns him! And its penalty–in other words, its curse–falls on him
as justly his due. He that is under the Law is under the curse. All
that the Law has to say to you is–"You have broken me and you must die
for it." Read the curses written in the Book of Deuteronomy and
remember that all these are pronounced over your head–

"Look to the flames that Moses saw, And shrink, and tremble, and
despair."

And again, dear Friends, if we preach salvation by works, we shall take
the minds of men away from a sense of their great need. Here is a
person who has a terrible disease. He can be cured. The knife must be
used, but if, instead thereof, I lay down for him rules of cleanliness
and of general hygiene, I may do him some sort of good, but meanwhile
he will neglect the chief evil, his disease will spread and will become
fatal. What am I to do, if I am a surgeon? Must I not impress him,
first, with the conviction that a serious operation is required, and
that it must be submitted to? All the rest will be proper enough and
even necessary, in due time, but I must do nothing to take his mind
away from the great master evil that is destroying his life!

The sinner must be told that he must be born again, that his nature is
corrupt, that this corrupt nature must be destroyed, that a new nature
must be created in him–to all this his mind must be turned! He must be
made "a new creature" in Christ Jesus. And if I stir him up to eternal
action, with a view to his salvation by it, I shall be taking his
thoughts away from the inward evil of sin which is the very essence of
the matter! O Sirs, if you had committed an offense against the
government of your country and were found guilty and condemned to die,
my first business with you would be to entreat you to ask pardon of
your queen! I might come into your cell and say that I would have you
dressed more respectably; would have you read such a book, or learn
such a science–and this might be all very well–but the first thing
you need is to have the sentence of death repealed! I will exhort you,
my dear Hearers, to do everything that is honest, right and good, but
there is something needed even more than this! You need to be cleansed
from sin by the precious blood of Christ. You need to be renewed in
heart by the Holy Spirit and you must turn your thoughts to these
things! You first and most of all need the Lord Jesus! Look to him, I
pray you! I dare not exhort you to do this work, or to do that, lest I
distract your mind from Christ.

The preaching of legal justification has no power over men.
Congregations thus instructed are usually careless, worldly and devoted
to carnal amusements. Those who hear about works feel as if they had
now done enough and do not need to practice them. There is nothing in
such doctrine to awaken anxiety, or move desire, or stir the depths of
the soul. It has nothing Divine about it, nothing supernatural, nothing
which can really raise the fallen, cheer the faint, or inspire the
gracious. Without unction, life, or fire, a legal ministry is mere
fiddling a tune to lame men, or setting forth a course of living action
for a vault full of corpses. This point we know to be fact and,
therefore, we shall not repeat the experiment.

I am afraid that if we began to preach salvation by works, we would
encourage pride in some and create despair in others. Many would think
that they had done pretty well, as compared with other people–they
would, therefore, right speedily wrap themselves up in a false hope.
But others, knowing that they had not done well, as compared with other
people, would think that there was no hope for them and so would sit
down in despair. What practical purpose could this serve–to be making
some more proud and others more wicked through the influence of despair
upon them?

But the very worst matter is that it would be taking them away from
Jesus. Our business, my Brethren, is to hold up Jesus Christ! To what
end did He die if men could be saved by their own works? It was a
superfluity that He should hang upon the Cross if our own merits can
open a way of salvation. How could the great God permit and even ordain
such a death if we could be saved by our own merits? Why that bloody
sweat? Why that nailing of the hands and feet? Why that, "Eli, Eli,
lama Sabachthani?" if, of yourselves, you can be saved? But it is not
so! You cannot save yourselves by efforts of

your own and, therefore, we have to come to you, shutting you up to
only this one thing–that you must be saved by faith in Him whom God
has set forth to be a Propitiation for sin! You need the love of God!
You need the power of the Holy Spirit! You need to be quickened into
newness of life! You need to be helped to run in the ways of
righteousness! In a word, you need everything until you come to Christ
and everything that you need you will find in Him, and in Him, alone.

Within yourselves there is nothing that you need. You may search, look
and turn the dunghill of your nature over and over again, but you will
never find the jewel of salvation there! That pearl of great price is
in the Lord who assumed human nature, lived, loved, died and rose
again–that He might redeem men from the Fall and all the sin
consequent thereof. Oh, that you would look away from self once and for
all! God forbid that the preacher should ever hold up anything else
before you except the Crucified Savior, as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, bidding men look and live!

To talk to unbelieving men about the possibility of salvation by their
own works would keep them from eternal life. All that the life of
nature can do will never suffice to produce a higher nature. Let the
natural exert itself as it may, it will never rise to the spiritual!
The best working horse does not, thereby, become a man–the best
unregenerate man cannot, thereby become regenerate! There must be a new
birth–and that comes by faith–not by works. To believe in Jesus is
the entrance gate of the new life and there is no other door! If we, in
any way, set you hunting about for another way, we shall cause you to
miss the only one entrance and that will be to your soul's eternal
loss! As we dread this, we more and more resolve to hold up the Cross
and the Cross alone, and again and again we cry, "Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." God forbid that by our essays
upon virtue, or, "the enthusiasm of humanity," we should distract you
from hastening to the Lord Jesus, that He may give you rest, life and
holiness! We want you to let your thoughts run, all of them, to Calvary
and to that wondrous Person whose wounds upon the tree bleed healing
for the wounds of sin– and whose death is, for Believers–the death of
the great evil power which once held them in bondage!

Thus much upon a topic which we shall never wear threadbare and which
we shall always continue to insist upon while life or breath remains,
because it will always be needed while sinners remain on earth needing
salvation.

II. But now we come to this second most important part of the subject,
namely, THE WALK OF SALVATION. Those who have believed in Christ and
have been the subjects of the Spirit's work, are now, "created in
Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that they
should walk in them." God desires that His people should abound in good
works. It is His great objective to produce a people fit to commune
with Himself–a holy people with whom He can have fellowship in time
and in eternity! He wishes us not only to produce good works, but to
abound in them–and to abound in the highest order of them. He would
have us become imitators of Himself as dear children, possessing the
same moral attributes as the Father in Heaven possesses! Is it not
written, "Be you perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is
perfect"? Oh, that we came within measurable distance of this blissful
consummation!

Note in the text, first, that there is a new creation. One of the poets
said of old that, "an honest man is the noblest work of God." That is
not true unless we add to the word, "honest," an emphatic spiritual
sense. A Christian man, however, is the noblest work of God. He is the
product of the second creation. At first, man fell and marred his
Creator's work, but, in the new creation, He that makes all things
makes us new! Now, the objective of the new creation of our race is
holiness unto the glory of God. You are not new-made in the image of
the fallen Adam, but in the likeness of the second Adam! You are not
new-created to sin–this cannot be imagined! The new creature sins not,
for it is born of God. The new life is a living and incorruptible seed
which lives and abides forever.

The old nature sins and always will sin, but the new life is of God and
it strives daily against the sin of the old nature and perseveres, and
pushes forward towards everything that is holy, upright and perfect.
Its instincts all run towards perfect holiness. The old nature does not
care to pray, but the new nature prays as readily as we breathe. The
old nature murmurs, but the new nature sings and praises God from an
impulse within. The old nature goes after the flesh, for it is fleshly,
but the new nature seeks the things of the Spirit, for it is spiritual!
If you have been born again at all, you have been born unto holiness!
If you have been new-created, you have been created unto good works! If
this is not so with us, our religion is a mere pretence.

This new creation is in connection with Christ, for we read in the
text, "Created in Christ Jesus." We are the branches; He is the Vine
out of which we grow! Your life and all your fruit-producing power lie
in your union to Christ. You are

not merely new-created, but you are created in Christ Jesus! It is not
merely a change from a lower nature to a higher, but from separation
from Christ to union with Him! What a wonderful thing that is–that you
and I should not only be creatures in the world, but new creatures in
Christ Jesus! Creatures we were in the first Adam, but our new
creatureship is in the second Adam. Beloved, if you are what you
profess to be, you are one with Jesus by that vital union which cannot
be dissolved–and good works follow upon that union! Joined to Jesus by
faith in Him, love to Him and imitation of Him, you walk in good works!
Your creation to holiness is your creation in Christ Jesus. As you
become one with the anointed Savior, His anointing ordains you to
service and His salvation leads you into obedience. There cannot but be
fruit on that branch which is vitally joined to that fruitful Stem,
Christ Jesus, who did always those things which pleased the Father!

Our good works must flow from our union with Christ by virtue of our
faith in Him. We depend upon Him to make us holy. We depend upon Him to
keep us holy. We overcome sin by the blood of the Lamb. We reach after
holiness by the constraining love of Jesus. Love to Christ is the
impelling cause of putting away first, one evil, and then another–and
the energy enabling us to follow after one virtue and then another.
Love to Christ burns like a fire in the breast that has conceived it
and, as it burns, it makes the heart to glow and to become transformed
to its own nature. You have seen a piece of iron put into the fire, all
black or rusty, and in the fire it has gradually become red with heat
and, as it has reddened, it has thrown off the scales of rust until, at
last, it has looked to be, itself, a mass of fire. The effect of the
love of God, shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit, is to burn
off the rust and scales of sin and depravity–and we become pure love
to God through the force of the love of God which takes possession of
our being!

Moreover, that love moves us to patient imitation of Christ. Do you
know what that means? "The Imitation of Christ" is a wonderful book
upon the subject which every Christian should read. It has its faults,
but its excellences are many. May we not only read the book, but write
it out anew in our own life and character by seeking in everything to
be like Jesus! It is a good thing to put up in your house the question,
"What would Jesus do?" It answers nine out of 10 of the difficulties of
moral casuistry. When you do not know what to do and the Law does not
seem very explicit upon it, put it so–"What would Jesus do?" Here,
then, stands the case–by your creation in Christ you come to exhibit
faith in Him, love to Him and imitation of Him–and all these are the
means by which good works are produced in you! You are "created in
Christ Jesus unto good works."

Notice that creation unto these good works is the subject of a Divine
decree–"Which God has before ordained that we should walk in them."
This is God's decree! Am I ordained to eternal life? Answer the other
question–"Am I ordained to walk in good works?" If I am ordained to
good works, then I do walk in them and the decree of God is manifestly
carried out in me! But if I make a profession of being a Christian,
attend a place of worship and compliment myself upon my safety–while I
am living in sin–then evidently there is no decree that I shall walk
in good works, for I am living otherwise than that decree would have
caused me to live. O Beloved, it is the eternal purpose of God to make
His people holy! Agree with that purpose, with the freedom of your
renewed will and with the delight of your regenerated heart! Concur in
the will of God. Yes, vehemently desire, heartily pant after perfect
holiness in the fear of God! Then may you, in the midst of severe
struggles against temptation from outside and from within, fall back
upon the decree of Predestination. Since it is God's decree that, as
being new-created in Christ, I should be full of good works, I shall be
so despite my old nature and despite my spiritual weakness! The decree
in the new creature of God will be carried out despite my surroundings,
despite the temptations of my circumstances, despite the opposition of
the devil. God has before ordained that we should walk in good
works–and we shall walk in them, sustained by His holy Spirit!

So, then, dear Friends, these good works must be in the Christian. They
are not the root, but the fruit of his salvation. They are not the way
of the Believer's salvation–they are his walk in the way of salvation.
Where there is healthy life in a tree, the tree will bear fruit
according to its kind. So, if God has made our nature good, the fruit
will be good. But if the fruit is evil, it is because the tree is what
it always was–an evil tree. The desire of men created anew in Christ
is to be rid of every sin. We do sin, but we do not love sin. Sin gets
power over us, sometimes, to our sorrow, but it is a kind of death to
us to feel that we have gone into sin. Yet it shall not have dominion
over us, for we are not under the Law, but under Grace and, therefore,
we shall conquer it and get the victory!

The outcome of our union with Christ must be holiness. "What concord
has Christ with Belial?" What union can He have with men that love sin?
How can they that are of the world, who love the world, be said to be
members of the Head

who is in Heaven, in the perfection of His Glory? Brothers and Sisters,
we must, in the power of the text, and especially in the power of our
union to Christ, seek to make daily advances in good works which God
has before ordained that we should walk in them, for walking means not
only persevering but advancing. We should go from strength to strength
in holiness–we should do more and do better. What are you doing for
Jesus? Do twice as much! If you are spreading abroad the knowledge of
His name, work with both hands! If you are living uprightly, seek to
put away any relics of sin that abide in your character that you may
glorify the name of God to the utmost.

And, lastly, this should be our daily exercise–"That we should walk in
them." Good works are not to be an amusement, but a vocation. We are
not to indulge in them occasionally–they are to be the tenor and bent
of our lives. "Oh," says one, "that is a hard saying!" Do you think so?
Well, then, this displays and sets in clear light the first part of my
subject. You see how impossible it is that you should be saved by these
good works, do you not? But if you are saved–if you have obtained a
present salvation, if you are now a child of God, if you are now
assured of your safety, I charge you, by the love you bear to God, by
the gratitude you have to His Christ–give yourself wholly to
everything that is right, good, pure and just! Help everything that has
to do with temperance, righteousness, truth and godliness! And "let
your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and
glorify your Father which is in Heaven."

May the Spirit of God seal this sermon upon the hearts of His people,
for Christ's sake! Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Ephesians 2.