Tonight, I invite you to turn with me to Ephesians. The focus being basically Ephesians chapter 2, 1 to 10, a little more narrowly, verse 10. We're going to pick up our reading halfway through chapter 1. Now that I've confused you with all that, please also turn in the back of the Psalter hymnal, if you would, to page 44, As tonight, we begin the section, the third section of the Catechism on gratitude. Thankfulness to God for what He has done for us. Our scripture reading will be Ephesians 1, beginning at verse 15 through verse 10 of chapter 2. Before that, let's give expression to what we believe concerning Lord's Day 32, page 44, the two questions and answers that we find there. And notice too how question 86 ties together the three sections. Deliverance, from misery, ushering into gratitude. We have been delivered from our misery by God's grace alone through Christ, and not because we have earned it. Why then must we still do good? To be sure, Christ has redeemed us by His blood. but we do good because Christ by His Spirit is also renewing us to be like Himself so that in all our living we may show that we are thankful to God for all He has done for us and so that He may be praised through us and we do good so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits and so that by our godly living, our neighbors may be won over to Christ. Can those be saved who do not turn to God from their ungrateful and impenitent ways? By no means. Scripture tells us that no unchaste person, no idolater, adulterer, thief, no covetous person, no drunkard, slanderer, robber, or the like is going to inherit the kingdom of God. Ephesians 1, beginning in verse 15. You recall, I trust, there's a familiar passage, especially the first couple chapters of Ephesians, and especially that first section where Paul beautifully points out the spiritual blessings that we have in Christ, and then closing the last verses of that first section, talking about the Holy Spirit being our guarantee, a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of His glory. And then Paul continues in verse 15 with this word of God. For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us. to do may god tonight add his blessing to the reading the preaching and hearing of his word beloved in the lord jesus christ it is a matter of courtesy it's a matter of proper etiquette to thank another when they have done something nice for you or given you a gift of some sort boys And girls, I trust with those situations, your parents are teaching you that you are to say thank you. Or maybe to show your thankfulness by giving that one a hug or taking the time to fill out some sort of a thank you card and sending it off. Some sort of expression of thanksgiving. You're being taught in those situations not to act bad toward that one, but to act good toward them. Yet when it comes to each other, even though our gratitude toward one another isn't sincere, it's short-lived or short-lived, however you might say it. The excitement of the gift, the excitement of the gesture that was done soon wears off. It's quickly forgotten. But the Christian life, beloved, because of its very nature, the Christian life will be, it is to be, a perpetual and ongoing life of gratitude and thankfulness. Gratitude expressed and demonstrated by doing good according to God's standard. Now Paul in Ephesians 2 verses 1 through 10 and especially verse 10 helps us to understand the Christian's life of good. Particularly its Christ-centered motivation, its Christ-empowered accomplishment, and its Christ-focused direction. Because apart from Christ, there would be no Christian life. And therefore, as we consider tonight the Christian's life of good, notice first of all, it's Christ-centered motivation. It's Christ-centered motivation because it arises out of redemption. Redemption is Paul's passionate message we know throughout all of his writings, but especially here as well in Ephesians. Again, in chapter 1, as we know, as he rehearses for us the spiritual blessings that we have in Christ, and then again in chapter 2 when he says, it is by grace you have been saved. that message of redemption. And the word saved there, beloved, has the idea of a past act of rescue. The rescue has been done. It's a past act resulting in an ongoing condition of safety. The rescue has been done. And you and I now have rescue from sin as we were reminded this morning. And we have that safety that will never be taken away from us. And Paul makes clear that that redemption is accomplished by Christ. In chapter 1, verse 7, he says, In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace. Redemption through His blood, as Paul says, by His blood, as answer 86 says. When Paul is talking about this being saved by grace, he's talking about the grace of Calvary, nothing else. He's talking about the grace poured out upon you and me even as His wrath was poured out upon Jesus Christ against you and me on Calvary's tree. Yet we are recipients of God's grace. And because of that, we have been brought from death to life. We have been brought from horror to blessing. And Paul points out what we were in the first verses of chapter 2. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts like the rest. We were by nature objects of wrath. That is what we were. That is what characterizes all of mankind and characterize you and me. And again, question 86 beautifully puts the three sections of the Catechism together talking about that we've been delivered from that. We have been delivered from our misery by God's grace alone through Christ and not because we have earned it. Why then must we still do good? We have been delivered, beloved, from a life that was characterized by disobedience as Paul says in verse 2. That was the character of that life. disobedience, and characterized by desires that were rooted in the sinful flesh. Delivered from that to a life of good. A life of good works, the source of which is Jesus Christ. We were spiritually dead with only hate for God, only a desire to offend Him under the curse of God because of sin. and we have been rescued by the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, given new life by the Holy Spirit with a transformed heart. And that, beloved, is a gift of God's grace. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. And this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. Now, I'm in agreement with those who say that the word this here is not pointing back to faith, the word faith. It's not pointing back to grace, but it's pointing back to the word saved. That the word this, this not from yourselves, refers to the entire salvation package. That entire salvation package is a precious gift from God, which then includes the gift of faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to receive all that He has done for us. you see beloved if we are God's workmanship as Paul says and we are then our salvation cannot be of ourselves it is not earned by us our redemption is not accomplished by us but only by Jesus Christ and in the same way then the Christian's life of good is not for salvation we don't present our good to God as a part of our righteousness but our good flows from salvation and is then delivered back to Him out of gratitude. And that gratitude is also then worked in us by Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit who is renewing us, as answer 86 says. Because on our own, we would never see the greatness of God's grace of salvation. On our own, we wouldn't have a clue about that. But this too, understanding that, and seeing that is a part of God's redemption plan. With that new life, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes that we might see the death from which we have been delivered. And as He opens our eyes, then He produces a profound gratitude in your heart and my heart for that totally, completely undeserved gift of salvation, for that precious gift of forgiveness. That He forgives us of all of our sins. That we have committed against Him. And He no longer holds them against us. And even as the Holy Spirit produces that profound gratitude in your heart and my heart, He does so toward a life of good. From that gratitude flows good. He brings it forth Himself from us. That good that delights in God. That good that delights in pleasing Him. And therefore, beloved, the Christian's life of good is not only motivated by the work that Christ has done, but in the second place, it enjoys a Christ-empowered accomplishment. The good that we produce, beloved, is really accomplished by the power of Christ. As we are God's workmanship. Verse 10, for we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. Now, Paul is simply teaching us here that not only is it impossible for you and I to save ourselves. I trust that's clear by Paul's words. That's not just part of our Reformed theology. It's the Word of God. And Paul is teaching very simply that not only is it impossible for us to save ourselves, but also we are not able to respond to God's salvation apart from His power and work through the Holy Spirit. Answer 86 begins, To be sure Christ has redeemed us by His blood, but we do good because Christ by His Spirit is also renewing us to be like Himself. Beloved, this is a joyous confession of what Christ is doing in us by the Holy Spirit whom He has sent. What He is doing in you and me as a new creation from spiritual death that can do no good to spiritual life that will do Christ-empowered good. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8, verse 17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone. The new has come. All this is from God, he says. Beloved, we are God's project. We are God's project. From start to finish. And he will, unlike me oftentimes with a project, I don't finish what I've started. God will finish what he has started. And our comfort is that we have a craftsman who is without defect and who makes no mistakes. And everything good in us, in the sight of God, is God's creation. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, but by the grace of God I am what I am. And John Calvin says, all of our good works are the fruit of regeneration. Therefore, the works themselves, he says, are a part of that grace. Even the works that we perform, beloved, that are good in the sight of God are a part of His grace poured out upon us. Empowered by Christ as we are created in Christ Jesus. God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus. You see, that new life is ours, we know, by faith in Him. Being united to Him through His death and resurrection, by faith through which all the merits of Jesus that He has earned become our very own possession. You see, boys and girls, without union with Christ, without being one with Christ, by believing in Him, we would never be a new creation. We could never be a new creation. We would be stuck in the old. We would still be objects of God's wrath. We would still be headed for hell and eternal punishment apart from union with Jesus Christ. But those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ have been created in Christ Jesus and been given new life and that new life comes with a new pattern. Our pattern is no longer the ways of this world and the cravings of our own sinful nature as Paul says they once were. But that new pattern is the very image of Christ as Paul says in Romans 8, for those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son. And that new pattern is also a glorious pattern as Paul says in chapter 4, verse 24, and to put on the new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. We know that man, we know that Adam was created in the image of God in true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness to do good works in the presence of God. His whole life was to be a good work, we might say. To serve God in perfect love and obedience. Of course, he fell. And we with him. But by the grace of God, we are being renewed and restored and recreated by Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit who gives new life to you and me. That's what He is doing in us. Even at this very moment. We may not feel it. We may not sense it. Sometimes it might be days, weeks, maybe even years between seeing the progression of it. But He is doing it. And He is doing it faithfully. As he renews and recreates and reactivates and restores us unto Christ. Why? To perform good works. Notice verse 10 again. We cannot get enough of it. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. People of God, we are saved for a purpose. It's not life as usual, according again to the way Paul says it used to be in verses 1, 2, and 3. It's not life as it used to be for those who have been created in Christ Jesus. We are saved for a purpose. And that purpose is to do good works, not because of good works, but to do good works. Works prepared for us by God. And Paul says, prepared in advance. Even before God gave us new life in Christ, He determined how the Christian was to walk before Him in this world. He determined what is good in His sight. And isn't it awesome that He tells us? This morning we were reminded from Leviticus chapter 19 that we are called to be holy because God is holy. But isn't it awesome that God doesn't leave it there and leave it to guesswork? Figure it out for yourself? He doesn't say that to you and me. He tells us. Now for you young people here tonight who have a boyfriend or a girlfriend, and for all of us who are married that remember when we were dating our spouse, think back, it might be a few years for some of us, but remember how you wanted to know exactly what it was that would please him or her. And once you found out, you would do anything in your power to do that. To please him or her. You would go out of your way to do it. God has told us exactly what it is that is pleasing to him. In Micah 6 verse 8 we read, He has shown you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Well, what is good? What are good works? Well, question and answer 91 in the next Lord's Day addresses how we know what is good and we'll just mention it here tonight. What do we do that is good? Only that which arises out of true faith conforms to God's law and is done for His glory and not that which is based on what we think is right or on established human tradition. Now you take that along with what we read in Micah 6 verse 8 and notice what is good is not a necessary checklist of activities to do or not to do. God's commands are clear as far as that goes. But what is good in the sight of God, beloved, is defined by how and why we do what we do or how we live. Our motivation. And that how, that why, that motivation sets believers apart from unbelievers who also do what we call civil good in the eyes of men. There are many an unbeliever who are loving and kind and charitable and do not lie or cheat or steal and who give much of their income to help those in need. But what sets believers and unbelievers apart and what makes that good, good in the sight of God, is that motivation, the how. Someone has said that good works are all of the thoughts, words, and deeds in which the righteousness and holiness of the new life manifest themselves. We might add, which are conformed to the holiness of God. And notice too again, these works prepared for us by God, He has prepared for us to do, Paul says. Again, good works are not the cause of being a new creation or a new creature. But good works are the object, the purpose, to which being created in Christ Jesus looked forward to. We have been created in Christ Jesus to do good works, to do them actually, to do them habitually. They are to be done. In other words, beloved, the realm of good that is defined by righteousness and holiness is that domain, that sphere in which our actions are to move, by which we are to regulate our lives and to order our behavior. Paul says, to do, to walk in them. No longer walking in transgressions and sins. That's past. That's been replaced by the power of the Holy Spirit by doing good. And those works prepared for us by God, notice too, are works performed that have been performed by Christ. They are works performed by Christ as our righteousness. He alone is the one who lived and walked this earth as a perfectly righteous one. by which he was qualified to go to the cross and with which his righteousness, with which we are righteous before God. Beloved, his pattern of righteousness, his walk of life is our pattern as those who are being renewed in his image. Jesus Christ in whom we live and move and have our being makes us partakers of his gifts and of his virtues. Jesus Christ Himself is found in the Christian's life and walk so that His holiness and His purity and humility and gentleness and goodness and tenderness and kindness and all that He is shine forth in the Christian's walk. In our walk of life, that walk of the Christian's life of good, our pattern is Jesus Christ. He is to be our pattern of love and kindness and patience and forgiveness toward one another. He is to be our pattern of turning the other cheek, of selfless sacrifice, and of never giving in to temptation. And Paul makes it clear to us too that these works prepared for us by God, these works performed by Christ for us, are to be works for life, even as the Catechism says, so that in all of our living. You see, this is the gratitude that is worked in our hearts and lives for Jesus' sake by the power of the Holy Spirit making us able to do good, that which is pleasing to God, and that gratitude, that thankfulness, beloved, is to be as lasting as that for which we are grateful. Not like our human gratitude to each other that soon loses its zip. And it loses its excitement. But that gratitude that we are to have for God is to be as lasting as that for which we are grateful. And you know what that is, that never-ending salvation. Our gratitude ought never grow cold to God. And may we never take that salvation for granted. O beloved, the Christian's life of good not only has a Christ-centered motivation and a Christ-empowered accomplishment. But in the third place, notice it's Christ-focused direction. And that Christ-focused direction is seen in God's glory. Answer 86 begins again, To be sure, Christ has redeemed us by His blood, but we do good because Christ by His Spirit is also renewing us to be like Himself so that in all our living we may show that we are thankful to God for all He has done for us and so that He may be praised through us. Thankful to God that He might be praised. The Christian's life of good is first of all to be directed to God. He has given us that gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. He has rescued you and me from that greatest danger and brought us into that impenetrable safety. He has given to you and me that undeniably greatest gift that one could ever, ever receive. He alone deserves our life of gratitude following the image of His Son. And therefore, the good works that flow forth from our gratitude, beloved, are to show forth the riches of God's grace and kindness to us in Christ Jesus, as Paul says in verse 7. They are to point to Him. You see, beloved, we are called to be monuments. For Him. Boys and girls, you know what a monument is. Some of you just saw the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. And there are other monuments, I think, of Mount Rushmore. We are called as believers to be monuments to be seen for Him. Monuments of His love and mercy and grace and of His condescending tenderness of which we are and forever will be the recipients. We are called to be monuments in all of our lives, with every activity of life and every place of life, every thought, every word, every action. The Christian's life of good, beloved, is evidence of God's work. It is evidence that it is understood by you and me. And that life of good simply says thank you to Him. All of the glory goes to Him. That's why our Reformed confessions help to keep us properly focused against unscriptural teachings that have arisen throughout history and even today unscriptural teachings that try to give some credit to man. It all belongs to God. But notice that Christ's focused direction is also felt in the believer's assurance. The catechism, and I believe rightly so, points to further blessings for us of our gratitude and life of good. And we do good so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits. You know, that sounds simple, but what a powerful blessing from God that He gives to you and me assurance of Christ's work for us, applied in our life by the Holy Spirit, by the fruits of our faith. Because as question and answer 87 say, Can those be saved who do not turn to God from their ungrateful and impenitent ways? By no means. Scripture tells us that no unchaste person, no idolater, adulterer, thief, no covetous person, no drunkard, slanderer, robber or the like is going to inherit the kingdom of God. That is from the very Word of God itself, pointing to those who remain in those things and do not turn to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith. But instead, for you and me, our God gives us assurance of our faith by its fruits. And the catechism is not talking about some sort of self-assurance. It's not talking about some sort of self-confidence, thinking that my good somehow adds to God's favor of me, but simply the assurance of faith. Giving me assurance, giving you assurance, as we see the results of that faith in our lives. in spite of my continual struggle with sin, sometimes in the very midst of my continual struggle with sin. And that assurance of faith that God gives to you and me is that we recognize the mighty and the gracious work of God in my life. For example, that I have a sorrow for sin. That I know that I need to confess my sin to Him. That He gives to me a profound sense of the certainty of His forgiving grace. I know it. That He gives me a delight in doing what pleases Him. That He has blessed me with a desire to keep from sin and to fight temptation. And He has replaced the hate in my heart with a love for God and for my neighbor that I've never known before. Oh, again, we don't demonstrate these things perfectly, but there again, our comfort is in Jesus Christ alone, isn't it, whose blood covers all of our sins. But along with that blessing of having the assurance of our faith by its fruits, with that assurance of our own faith and our salvation, then the Christian's life of good finds its Christ-focused direction sought in the neighbor's evangelism. And so that by our godly living, our neighbor may be won over to Christ. Indeed, because we know the catechism is not lying when it says in question, answer 87, that these will not inherit the kingdom of God. Paul says that in his letters very clearly. And you and I as believers need to take that to heart. And so that by our godly living, our neighbor may be won over to Christ. May, not will. We don't know. It's up to God. But beloved, it is to be our desire, as our Lord said in Matthew 5, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise. Who? Not you. Not me. But praise your Father in heaven. May it be our desire, beloved, that our neighbors see our lives, our thoughts, our words, our actions, that our lives are ever, only, all for the glory of God. May they see us as monuments of the incomparable riches of God's grace expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. May they hear that in the conversations we have with them. May they experience that in the helping hands we give to them. May they witness that among us in our worship as we are devoted and dedicated on the Lord's Day to the worship of our God. Young people, may they witness that as we participate in athletics. That they recognize that we do so with a motivation that's not for ourselves, first of all, but for the glory of God. May they witness that as we conduct our business affairs in all of life. May it be our desire, beloved, that our neighbors be won by God by means of the clear evidence of God's power in our lives, making us different than the world, that they see that we have a confidence and an assurance and a joy and a hope even in the midst of hardship and difficulty that's completely foreign to them, yet is attractive to them. And we hope that God would bring them to ask about it. Our dear people of God, who is sufficient for such a Christian life of good? Not me. And I suspect you will say, not you. We are weak, but God is oh so strong. In us, we must confess, there is much stumbling, there is often a lack of fruit, there is much carelessness. As Isaiah says, even our best works are as filthy rags. We must confess that we are often ashamed. Deep down, we are often ashamed of our good works because we know that they are lacking love and compassion and selflessness and are often filled with the very opposite. Yet, beloved, our confidence is not that we are saved because of our good, but we are saved in order to do good because our salvation is in the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. by his blood and righteousness we are saved, because of which he has begun a good work in us. Oh, we are works in progress. But he has given to us the confidence that victory will come, as Paul continues to say, he will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. It's true, moral and spiritual perfection are to be our goal, even here, that is to be our goal. We will never achieve it in this life. Praise God, the Holy Spirit is busy and active, and He will complete it. And we are promised that this perfection will be our portion in the life to come for the glory of God, all because of Jesus Christ. By God's grace alone, through Christ, we have been eternally delivered from our eternal misery. And dear people of God, there is no greater reason for gratitude to God there is no greater motivation to do good for Him and praise be to God that He continues to work in us through the power of the Holy Spirit to bring forth from us that life of good that very life that is pleasing to Him Amen let's pray together Lord God our Heavenly Father we thank you so very much that our salvation is all of your work and we thank you so very much humbly that even in that gratitude that you desire from us you work that in our hearts and you bring forth the good from us that you desire, that is pleasing to you. We thank you for your work, which you are busy doing even now. And Father, we do humbly ask that you would make us aware of it more and more. And we thank you for your promise that you will not leave it incomplete, that you will bring us that day of glory that we might be perfect in your presence so that when we see you as you are then oh Lord we will indeed praise you as we ought we praise your most holy name in Jesus Christ alone Amen