I think what I'd like to do this evening, and just by way of explanation in case you're visiting, it is the practice of Reformed churches, churches in the Reformed tradition, to preach on the Lord's Day evening a catechism sermon. Not that we preach the catechism, we preach the Word of God, but we treat the catechism as a summary and as a way of understanding the Word, sort of gathering together what we understand the Word to teach. so I've got three passages that we want to look at but rather than read them at the outset what I'd like to do is read Lord's Day 24 which is Heidelberg 62, 63 and 64 I'm going to read I've been carrying around my little red catechisms for 30 years, I just grabbed those intuitively. Heidelberg, Lord's Day 24, which is Arabic, page 31 in the back of the Blue Psalter hymnal. Why can't the good we do make us right with God, or at least help make us right with Him? Because the righteousness which can pass God's scrutiny must be entirely perfect, must in every way measure up to the divine law. Even the very best we do in this life is imperfect and stained with sin. How can you say that the good we do doesn't earn anything when God promises to reward it in this life and the next? This reward is not earned, it is a gift of grace. But doesn't this teaching make people indifferent and wicked? No, it is impossible for those trapped in Christ by true faith, not to reduce purpose of gravity. Have you ever heard someone say, it's good enough? You ever heard someone say, and no offense to government workers, it's good enough for government work? I suppose If you've ever worked on a construction site, you've ever been a subcontractor or worked with subs, then you may have heard that expression. It's one of my least favorite expressions in all of English language, actually. It's good enough. When I first became a minister, that was one of the first things that I heard. And they weren't saying it was good enough for government work. They were saying it was good enough for church work. partly because that was my vocation. I was offended by that. But I think, and I don't think it's just I, I think actually there's biblical basis for thinking that God is not pleased with that attitude. It's good enough. Good enough, in my response way back when, and it's still my response, is that good enough is not good enough. Good enough is not good enough. And if you've ever, and I'm not a carpenter, my wife, Mrs. Clark, can tell you that. But I have done a little bit, enough to know how it's supposed to be done. And enough to know that I can't do it. And enough to know that she can, so that works out well. I just do what she tells me now, and it works out very well. But God is not pleased with good enough, and we know that, and the first place from which we know that is from Deuteronomy 27, 26, which Paul then quotes in Galatians 3, 10. And the spiritual reason we need to know that good enough is not good enough is because grace and works are two different principles. If you take nothing else away from this evening, from this message, you should take away that truth, that grace and works are two different principles. Okay? Grace and works are two different principles. They cannot be mixed. People try, and they've tried through the whole history of the church, and by that I mean the whole of biblical history and then post-canonical history, and they're still trying, but they really cannot be mixed. And so my argument tonight, or my thesis, the thing I want you to know, is that righteousness and rewards are by grace, And that grace and works are two different principles. Those are the two things, I guess. Righteousness and rewards are both by grace alone. In the Middle Ages, the church said, and actually even before that, the Judaizers and before them the Pharisees said that our righteousness is good enough. But listen to what God's word says in Deuteronomy 27, 26. Cursed is anyone who does not conform to the words of this law by doing them. And all the people shall say, Amen. And Paul picks that up and he quotes that in Galatians 3.10. And he changes it just ever so little by the authority of his apostolic office so that we would understand the import of what Deuteronomy 27, 26 is trying to say. Galatians 3.10 says, For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law and do them. Leviticus 18.5 says something very similar to this as well. And our Lord Jesus picks up on this principle too and he says, do this and live. So there is this principle of works in scripture, works righteousness. There really is a principle of works righteousness. And if you're going to have works righteousness, then the works have to be righteous. I know that's tautological, but it's absolutely true. They can't be partly righteous, they can't be mostly righteous. They have to be absolutely, perfectly righteous for God to accept them. It's important that you understand that for your own sake, for the sake of your family, your children, your grandchildren. It's also important for you to know this, that when you talk to your friends, neighbors, relatives, co-workers, and they say, you know, at the end of life, I think the good will outweigh the bad. How many times have people said that to you? People have said that to me many times. That won't cut it. What they've just said to you is, well, I think it's good enough. And good enough is not good enough. God is not in the business of accepting your best efforts. So if you're here tonight thinking that the good you hope will outweigh the bad, you are toast. You are lost. You are hopeless. I'll be even bolder, and I don't mean to hurt your feelings, but I get paid what little I get paid to tell you the truth. And the truth is this, if that's what you think, God hates you and his wrath is on you and you better not get hit on the way home and die because it won't be good if that's what you think. You better not have a heart attack just now. I'm trying my little bit to give you one maybe. God hates that. He hates that with a burning, fiery, absolutely holy and pure and righteous hatred. Because there's no part way with Him. There's no part way with Him. He is completely just. And He does not look at you and consider how hard you've tried. He doesn't grade on a curve. Either you meet the standard or you don't meet the standard. And just in case you're new, or what I'm saying to you is new, or you've never thought about it this way before, not only is it the case that you haven't done it and that you won't do it, it's that you can't do it. You were already born condemned. You were born condemned. Well, let me explain how that happened. The way it happened is this. Adam, the first human being who represented all of us, was created, as we say in the catechism, in righteousness and true holiness. There wasn't anything wrong with Adam. Medieval church tried to fiddle with that some, and even some Protestants have struggled with that from time to time. But the biblical truth is that Adam was created in righteousness and true holiness. There was nothing wrong with Adam. He could have obeyed. He had the ability to obey. There was nothing keeping him from obeying. He freely chose, mysteriously, we will probably never know why, but he freely chose to disobey. God said, the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die, and by implication, do this and live, is what he said to Adam. Don't eat. Obey me. Keep my covenant. And enter into eternal blessedness. And we in him, all of us in him, would have entered into eternal blessedness. but the evil one came and offered a competing alternative covenant and said, listen, I can do you one better. I'll offer you more than eternal blessedness with God. You can be God. How's that? And remarkably, we took him up on that offer. I say remarkably because it came via a snake. And, of course, all my experience with snakes is after the fall, but if a snake comes to me, only two things are going to happen, and one of them is going to involve a shovel. Listening is not going to be part of the deal. But it was early days, and so I'm not always sure what to make of what she knew when she heard that and what he knew exactly. But we do know this. They knew what the law was, and they knew what the condition was, and they knew what the offer of blessedness was, and they chose not to. And so we all now are born corrupted. We are all now born corrupted. So that all of our thoughts are corrupted, all the things we choose are corrupted, all the things we love are corrupted, and if you doubt me, then clearly you don't get out much. Because the evidence that what I just said is true is overwhelming. find three people anywhere. Just listen for five minutes and then come back to me and tell me that I didn't just tell you the truth. That what we love is corrupted, what we choose is corrupted, and what we think is corrupted. All of our faculties. Nevertheless, there have always been those who have thought that, well, good enough is good enough. And so, as I said earlier, the Judaizers, the Pharisees, And then their successors among the Christians, the Judaizers, said, well, yes, Jesus is great, and grace is a good thing, but you have to do your part in order to be received by God, and we just happen to know what that is. You can always tell when it's a Judaizer, when they're selling the gospel for $29.95, slightly higher west of the Rocky Sun, now before midnight, no COD. Click now on this link. Flashing, flashing, flashing on your screen. Click now. And I'll tell you the secret of salvation. Well, it's not a secret. Salvation's not a secret. It's free, and it's by God's unconditional favor, which Christ earned for us, and it's given freely to us, and it's received only by resting, receiving, trusting in Jesus and in his finished work. But the Judaizers tried to change that story and to say, well, no, it's by God's favor, yes, but we have to do our part, and our part involves keeping Jewish ceremonies, washing hands and circumcision and the like. in the medieval church we tried to change the story in a very similar way remarkably we said that our righteousness is by grace and cooperation with grace and our theologians actually said it just that way and of course the Protestants said well that cooperation that is works and Paul says in Romans 11 which we'll get there we can take a peek now but Paul says in Romans 11 6 that grace and works are two different principles. God's favor, which is what Scripture means by grace, his approval of us is one thing, and works are something else. In Romans 11, 6, but if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. That's why I said that grace is one principle and works is another principle. And the only thing that we're earning now by works, you and I, is death. You know about works. Show up and don't do your job and see what happens. In the Great Recession, employers figured out that they could live without 10% of us. And there was a 10% basically across the board cut in employment from which... Anyway, there's a 10% cut across the board. And that's because your job is a covenant of works. It took me a long time to figure that out. I'm a little slow on the uptake, so I'll tell you so that you don't have to wait so long to know this. Your job is a covenant of works. You have to show up and do your job, and you have to do your job in a satisfactory way, and if you do your job, then you've earned your wages. That's a covenant of works. That's not grace. If you meet the contract you have with your employer, that's a covenant of works. You obey the speed limit, that's a covenant of works. you break the speed limit, you've broken the covenant of works. About the only place you find real grace is right here in this place, in this assembly. What a marvelous thing that makes this assembly. That we receive one another not on the basis of works, we receive one another on the basis of grace. Because we've been received by grace. That makes this assembly in which you and I are participating tonight a remarkable, marvelous, and truly unique assembly because there isn't any other one like it in any other place you'll be. Because your family judges you by works. Even when they don't mean to, they are. Go to a family reunion. Go to a high school reunion. What's the first thing you do when you get the high school reunion thing? Oh my, I need to lose some weight. I need to do some exercises. I need to get plastic, whatever. I need to get some hair. I need to change my clothes. I need to pretend I have a good job. All these things that start running through our minds because we know that we relate to all these people on the basis of works and accomplishments. But if you're visiting here tonight, I want you to know that we don't accept you on the basis of your works and your accomplishment. We don't really care about that. What we care about tonight is whether you have received the only one who ever kept all the laws that God ever established, and that's Jesus Christ. If you put your trust in Jesus, that's what we want to know. Do you know that you're in trouble by nature with God and that Jesus is the law keeper in your place? That's what we want to know. That's really the only thing we care about. And then after that, we'll talk to you about some other things. There are consequences to that, but that's where we start. so how your lawn looks those new pipes you just put on the exhaust that's all nice and interesting and we'll talk about that until you feel comfortable but what we really want to talk about is Christ where are you with Christ where are you with God are you clothed in the righteousness of Christ by his grace alone through faith alone good enough is not good enough And that's what we are saying in Heidelberg 62, that our acceptance with God is on the basis of the righteousness of Christ and nothing that we do can contribute to it whatsoever. The righteousness that can stand before the judgment seat of God must be perfect throughout and entirely conformable to the divine law so that even our best works in this life are all imperfect and defiled. And of course, that's exactly what Scripture says. Isaiah 64, verse 5 says, You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. God accepts people who are righteous, perfectly righteous, Isaiah says. And he goes on to say, just in case you didn't get the point, he makes it even a little more graphic, and this is a family show, so I'll watch my language, but if you look at Isaiah 64, 6, in an older translation, you'll get a sense of what he's up to here. All our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. And, of course, you're old enough to know that polluted garment is a specific sort. Isaiah is very pointed here. So when you say, my good works, I think, balance out, Isaiah says, get out of here with your good works. They don't balance anything. They just add to the other side. All that good stuff you think that God approves of, it's just adding to your judgment and your condemnation. if that's how you intend to present yourself to God. Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything which is written in the book of the law to do. Not to think, not to intend, not to plan. Well, it's on my calendar. I'm scheduled to obey three days from now, from 1045 until 1115. It's right on my phone. It's going to flash. Obey the law. We get a little text message. Second thing. Okay, so if we're supposed to do good works, which we are, are they worthless? I mean, how does this work? I'm sorry to use the same verb. I couldn't think of another word. How does this function? If we're supposed to do good works, why should we do them if there's no relationship between what we do and the reward we get? And again, this is a minefield we could spend a couple of weeks on this question, but really it's not that complicated, and I love the simplicity of the answer here in 63. The reward comes not of merit but of grace. Take that. Because we always want to turn everything into a covenant of works. Even we who believe, we want to turn rewards into a covenant of works. And so many folks have turned it into a covenant of works that some people have said, well, we don't believe in rewards at all. but Scripture clearly teaches some doctrine of rewards, and we can't just ignore that, so how do we think about it? And the answer is, they come not by works. There's no correlation between what we do and the rewards we get. If you say that, you've turned the covenant of grace into a covenant of works. If you think that you've been good enough to merit war crowns or jewels or whatever, you don't understand the difference between works and grace. whatever rewards God gives you are by grace and grace means God freely gives them unconditionally gives them means there's no relationship between anything you've done and anything you receive that's grace there's no relationship between anything you've done and anything you receive if you set up a relationship if you try to strike a business deal with God about rewards you've turned grace into works and it can't be done Whatever rewards there are, are by grace. Which is why I wanted to get to Romans 11, 6. But if it is by grace, then it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. If it's by anything that we do, if we can leverage God. Well, you know, back in 1973, I did X. If that's the kind of thing you're thinking, back in 86, back in 92, if that's what you think, that's works, that's not grace. Here's what Jesus says, so when you have done all that you were commanded, say, we are unworthy servants, we have done only what was our duty. When we do good works as believers, it is not to leverage the favor of God, the approval of God, or even rewards. We do it because we were freely given. And now, as a consequence of having been freely given, we respond and we say, in the words of Bob Dylan from 1981 or 1982, what can I do for you? That's a fundamentally Christian question. What can I do for you? How can I respond? And that's why we do. God is graciously putting to death in us the old man, graciously making alive the new, and out of that comes a desire to obey, to serve, to love. It's an imperfect desire. It's a broken desire. But it's beginning to happen within us by his grace. and he graciously decides to reward that. But there's no proportion. There's no relationship. That's why it's grace. If there was any relationship, it wouldn't be grace. It would be words. And then the last part here in 64, then if you say it that way, that it's all by grace, salvation, right? Your justification, your sanctification, it's all by grace. It's only by grace alone, through faith alone. If you say that, and if there's no proportion, no relationship between our good works and rewards, if you say it that way, won't that make people careless? And of course, that's the Judaizing question. That was the medieval question. That's the Roman question. That's your pagan friends and neighbors and loved ones. Do you have any of those? I do. That's how they think. They think it's by works. That's the natural assumption. Dr. Horton likes to say we're wired for works. He's exactly right. We have to be rewired, to use the analogy or the metaphor, for grace. That's what the catechism is trying to do, rewire us to think in terms of grace. Does not this doctrine make people careless and profane? And the answer is no. Because sanctification is, as Marshall said, a gospel mystery. And this wonderful analogy that we use, that we get from Scripture, We teach it in Belgic 24, and it's in Matthew 7, 18. We use this wonderful metaphor of a tree. In Matthew 7, 18, our Lord says, A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Good trees produce good fruit. The Judaizers and the medieval church and moralists of all kinds always want to turn this relationship around. They always want to say it's the fruit that makes the tree. I've had this conversation dozens, hundreds of times. The fruit doesn't make the tree. That turns the whole thing into a covenant of works again. It's not a covenant of works, it's a covenant of grace. The tree produces the fruit. A good tree produces good fruit. It's no more simple than that. You've got some orange trees out front, and you've got a tangerine tree in the back, And when they give fruit, it's because they're alive. And they're good trees. And that's why they give good fruit. And the grapes on the side of the house have apparently gone bad. And it's a bad vine, and now they give bad fruit. Little shriveled up grapes. Not the grapes that make the vine. It's the vine that makes the grapes. Good tree produces good oranges, good avocados, good almonds. I said almonds. Did you notice that? and a bad tree produces bad fruit you take the bad fruit off the bad tree you take the peel off you bite that's bad why is it bad because the tree is bad the tree is not alive the tree is not healthy why is the tree alive then to stretch the metaphor because God graciously gave it new life by his powerful Holy Spirit and just in case you missed that you're the tree and he made you alive and that's why you produce fruit. It's evidence that you're alive and it brings glory to God. So of course good trees produce good fruit. It's impossible that a good tree wouldn't produce fruit. It's not that we better produce fruit or God won't love us. It's, how can we not produce fruit? We're already producing fruit. Here's the thing. You think you know what the fruit is. And if you paid attention to Galatians, you'd have some idea. But you don't know what the Holy Spirit's doing in you. And so tonight, if you're a Christian and you're thinking, I don't think I'm very fruitful. Well, okay. Welcome to the Christian faith. Repent. Believe. Die to sin. Live to Christ. But the reality is the Holy Spirit is at work in you, is producing fruit in you, in his own mysterious way and mysterious time. The fruit that is occurring in your life is the product of grace, not of works. Works are the fruit of sanctification. Works aren't even sanctification. It's remarkable how hard it is to get that right, but it's so very simple. Sanctification is a work of God's grace that the Holy Spirit is doing in you. You're not sanctifying yourself. God the Holy Spirit is sanctifying you. And you're producing good works, good fruit. And just because you can't see the kind of fruit that you want, doesn't mean that it's not happening. So be encouraged tonight that God the Holy Spirit is at work in you. He is producing fruit in you. If you are alive, if you are united to Christ, if you are believing, that's really what it all comes down to. Do you believe? And if you believe, it's because God the Holy Spirit has given you new life, has raised you from the dead, and united you to Jesus, who is the true vine. So we believe in righteousness, real righteousness, not good enough righteousness. We believe in rewards that are by grace, not by works. And we believe in a spirit-wrought response to God's grace. That's the whole Christian faith there. And you've heard it a million times, but it's my job to remind you of these things. But you ought to treasure this tonight. Just to help you, give you some context, I remember I was teaching at a well-known evangelical college many years ago, and just reflexively, I took a marker and I wrote G, G, G on the board, and then I wrote in guilt, grace, and gratitude, and they gave a little 10-minute talk on the basic structure of the Christian faith. You know what? Those kids almost fell out of their chairs. I kid you not. We almost had a little revival right there in the room, despite my best efforts to suppress it. Hey, we're reformed. We don't do that. I get too excited here. These kids wanted to have an altar call. They wanted to come down. They thought that was the greatest thing they'd ever seen, guilt, grace, and gratitude. You've grown up with it, some of you. Most of you, I suppose. This is powerful stuff. If you'll trust this, if you'll believe it, if you'll let it permeate your life. And trust that it's really happening in you tonight. So be encouraged tonight as you go out. Let's give thanks. Our God and our Father, we give you great thanks in the name of Jesus tonight that, in fact, he did accomplish our righteousness for us. So help us, O Lord, to learn to say, as Luther said, for me, for me. And then let us also learn to say in me that as a consequence of all that Jesus did for me that the Spirit is at work in me and that we really believe that it's all by grace and not by works. That Jesus did the works and that as a consequence good works are coming out of us as fruit and evidence of all that you have done for us and all that you are doing in us. Hear our prayer tonight. Forgive us our unbelief. and continue to work in us by your powerful, mysterious, sovereign Holy Spirit to the glory of your name and the upbuilding of your church. For Jesus' sake, Amen.