Created for Good Works

If you have your Bible with you this morning, I hope you do. Turn to Ephesians
Chapter 2.
I shared this with you last fall, but I'm going to share it again. It was 25
years ago that I was given the opportunity to provide the commencement address at
what was then Walnut Valley Christian Academy. In fact, this was the last year that
Walnut Valley was Walnut Valley Christian Academy. I was the chairman of the board
of trust at the time, and it was just a couple of weeks after I gave this.
And so as a result, what you say needs to be short, and yet you want it to be
meaningful. You want to say something that you hope will stick with some of these
students, because this is a milestone event in their life, and you'd like to say
something that would be meaningful in this milestone. But, I mean,
if we're honest, anybody here remember who spoke at your high school graduation, or
even if there was a speaker or what they said? Most of us don't. So I had to
calibrate and go, okay, I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, but I don't know that
anyone will remember it. I
Some of them had been there since kindergarten, and I talked about what they had
experienced. And then I spent the second half, after looking back, I spent the
second half looking forward and just talking to them about what I called my seven
irrefutable truths. And I've got this picture up here because I gave each of them,
in fact, I still have mine, let me show you. I gave each of them a laminated card
with my points on it. I thought they're not listening tonight, so maybe this will
do. So everybody got a card that looks like this. Okay, and that's what it looks
like up there. And my seven points in six -point font are on the back, very tiny.
And here were my seven points. I told them there is a God and it's not them. I
told them that life is about God and others, not about them. I told them that God
is holier than they imagine. I told them that they are more wicked and sinful than
they think they are. I told them that being a Christian means that every day you
must re -believe,
so I can refer to it from time to time. And over the years, I've had occasion to
zero in on number six up here. When I've had conversations with people who have
asked me, whether it's young people or middle -aged folks, who are thinking, what am
I supposed to be doing with my life? What should my career choice be? What do I
major in in college? What path should I follow? How do I chart my course? And I've
always come back to this one principle, which is figure out what God made you good
at, what passions and gifts he's given you, and then ask yourself, how can I deploy
how God has made me for maximum impact for his kingdom?
And that principle of deploying your life for maximum kingdom impact is what's at
the heart of the verse we're going to be looking at this morning in Ephesians
chapter 2. This is the last verse, the closing verse.
and sins. You would see that God has made you alive in Christ, and that you would
understand that it is by grace that you're saved through faith, not of yourself,
lest anyone should boast. And then he gets to this last point saying,
keep in mind your salvation is not of any goodness or merit of your own, so
there's no boasting aloud. But then this morning we'll see that he says, and God
has saved you with a specific assignment in mind. He has a purpose for you.
He has a job for each of us to do. And while there's no merit or no good works
that bring us to salvation, that earn us a place at God's table or a place in his
family, when God does a transforming work in our lives, one of the results of that
transforming work is that we will do good works that are the evidence of the
transformation that is taking place. Works do not cause our salvation,
but salvation invariably causes good works. So we're going to read again verses 1
through 10 of Ephesians chapter 2 so we can see this in context and then we'll
focus in on verse 10. Let me pray before we read God's Word, Father,
we need you now to be our teacher to speak to us through your word by your
spirit, and we ask that you would prepare our own hearts, soften our hearts that we
might hear clearly from your spirit what you would want to say to us this morning
and help us not just to be hearers of your word, but doers as well.
We ask it in your name. Amen.
Ephesians 2 beginning at verse 1. You follow along as I read. This is the Word of
God for the
by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in
the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the
immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus for by grace
you have been saved through faith and this is not of your own doing it is the
gift of God not a result of works so that no one may boast.
going to simply walk us through this verse this morning and make five observations
as we go through the verse about what this passage is saying to us. First,
it says, it starts by saying it's not just you, but it's we. It starts with a
plural we. Secondly, it says we are God's workmanship. Third,
it says we've been created for good works. Fourth, it says these works were prepared
beforehand. And fifth, it says we should walk in them.
kids, and our kids played together, and one of those kids who lived next door to
us grew up, and he is now an associate professor of theological studies at Dallas
Theological Seminary, and is on the staff there. He's also a computer whiz. His name
is John Dyer. He is Dr. John Dyer. And last year, our friend Dr.
Dyer, I still see him as like a seven -year -old in our backyard, but he released a
version of the Bible that is called the Y 'all Bible. He did this because,
in English, you can't tell whether it's you or Y 'all. So he released the Y 'all
Bible so that when the second person plural is being used, you can tell that it's
second person plural. So in his version, Ephesians 2 reads like this, and y 'all
were dead in your transgressions and sins in which y 'all once walked. Now,
that's obviously kind of a southernized version. In the online version of the Bible,
you can actually change whether you want it to say y 'all, or if you'd like it to
say use guys, you can have it to say that, or yin's or use, okay? Now,
he's not just doing this to have fun or be cute, although I'm sure his sense of
humor is factored into this, but he's doing this because he wants to help us see
when his
going to see as we move along, we'll get to it next year. But as we get into the
next section, it's all about how God takes two parts of his body and makes them
one. It's the combining together. And I'm making the point of this shift from second
person plural to first person plural, in part because I want to remind us that our
salvation, our walk with Jesus, is not designed by God to be a solo endeavor. It's
not a solo project. Paul David Tripp years ago did a teaching series that he
titled, Your Walk with God is a Community Project. And he's absolutely right.
We hear a lot today about people needing to have a personal relationship with Jesus,
and you do. That's right. Each of us needs to decide that we're going to walk with
him, follow him, commit our lives to him, be his disciple. But in the same way
that a newborn baby or a young child cannot serve.
to church on Sunday morning, although that's a good starting place, but we need to
have relationships in the body of Christ that are the core relationships in our
lives.
I was doing a class at 10 Fitness, and there was a new trainer doing this class,
and it turned out I was the only one that showed up for the class this day, so
it was just he and me, and I never met him, but I did notice he had a cross on
his forearm, a tattoo of a cross, and so while I was doing the class, I said,
tell me about your...
Do you think that people who come here to the gym on their own, without a coach,
without a trainer, not going through the classes, do you think they get as much
physical benefit just doing the workout on their own than the people who come to
the class or have a trainer? Now, what's he going to say? I mean, his job, he's a
trainer, right?
And so, yeah, he looked and he said, no, I think it helps people. You don't have
to have one, but it helps to have one. I said, well, same thing's true with our
spiritual fitness. If you don't have a trainer, if you're not a part of a class,
if you're not doing this together with other people, it's not going to be as
spiritually healthy for you. So we need to understand verse 10 here says,
we are God's workmanship together. It's not just you are God's workmanship,
we are God's workmanship, and that's a together point. This is true for all of us
together. God's workmanship. We'll talk about it next, which is what we're going to
talk about. It's happening in our lives both individually and corporately. It's on
display differently in both settings, but his workmanship can be seen in both
settings. We see God's workmanship on display in our lives as individuals,
but we also see God's workmanship on display in the life of the church as a whole.
You're his workmanship, I'm his workmanship, together collectively. We are
We are his workmanship. So let's look at that. Let's look at what that means when
we say we are his workmanship. The first thing he's talking about here is that
those who are in Christ Jesus. So he's differentiating all humanity from those who
are in Christ Jesus. When he says we are his workmanship, he's implying that
something is true about us and our relationship with God and what he's doing in our
lives, that's not true about all of humanity.
So this is a uniqueness to being in Christ, a special designation for those who are
in Christ. Let me back up for just a minute. God is a creator God. It's one of
his attributes. It's how he's known. God is the God who created the heavens and the
earth. In fact, that's how in the Old Testament, God was often described. The Jews
would declare that their God.
he has created. The heavens declare the glory of God. We see his glory in the
spacious skies, the amber waves of grain, the purple mountain majesties, the fruited
plain, right? We see his glory on display in all of his creation. We see his glory
on display in the animal kingdom. All God's creatures,
great and small, display his glory. Think about this. There are 34 ,000 different
species of fish.
You look around the heavens to clear, you go, God is great. But then you look and
you say, human beings are amazing because not only are they created by God,
but they mirror his image. What we mean by that is that as human beings,
we have a soul. We have higher level thinking capabilities.
We have a mind. We have emotions. We can make decisions based on cognitive thinking
and reason.
God's creation, out of all of God's creation, the Bible puts human beings in a
category by themselves. All of God's creation speaks to his glory. Human beings are
the pinnacle of his creation.
But the Bible tells us that when Adam and Eve in the garden created as the
pinnacle of God's creation, when they wandered, when they sinned,
when they rejected God and turned away from him, they distorted and marred the image
of God.
You remember two years ago when vandals broke in to the Louvre Museum and they
splattered pumpkin paint on the Mona Lisa? You remember that? Do we have a picture?
Did I bring a picture? Yeah. They broke in and they splattered now there was a
cover in front of the Mona Lisa, so it was protected. but they were seeking to
deface Da Vinci's majesty. Well, when humankind sinned,
that's what we did. We marred the image of God. We destroyed God's masterpiece,
the image of it there. We did damage to it. But here in verse 10,
what Paul is telling us in Ephesians 10 is that when God rescues us and saves us,
redeemed men and women are his restored workmen.
Peanuts characters down there in the end. So Charlie Brown says, did you know that
a falcon costs less per pound than a good hamburger? And Snoopy says happiness is 3
,130 pounds of good hamburger, because that's what he's thinking about. So that's the
ad for the falcon when it first came out. Here is Scott's Falcon that he is
working to restore. Pretty nice, right? Looks good.
It has a history. There was a design team that put this car together.
There was a manufacturing team at the factory that built this car. And then, over
the years, it deteriorated. And Scott has been spending hours restoring it to its
original glory. And we can admire the car, but what we ought to admire is the
designers who put it together, the manufacturers who built it in the first place,
and Scott, who is restoring it. Because you and I, who are in Christ, our
restaurant
to what Scots do in here, from one degree of glory to another. We are his
workmanship, the glory of the original design, should be emerging in your life more
and more every day. We talked last week about how when God saves us,
he forgives us and transforms us. John Stott says, God is responsible for creation,
for recreation, and for new creation.
And the transformation process is at work in us if we are in Christ. That's what
it means that we are his workmanship. He is doing the renovation project in our
lives that he saved us for in the first place. When people see you,
when they see Christ in you, it's because God is at work revealing his glory
through you. And just as the Ford Company had a purpose in mind for the Falcon
when they built it, that it would be a vehicle for transformation from one place to
another, God has a purpose in mind in restoring you as well. He's restoring you to
do the work we were created to do, the good works that he prepared for us to do.
Last week in verse 9, we saw that salvation is by grace alone. It's not of works,
and I made the point that your good works do nothing to earn you your salvation.
but look the very next
We add nothing to God's grace for our salvation. That's one danger. The other danger
is those who say, well, my good works don't really matter. I don't have to worry
about that. I'm saved by grace. I can live however I want. That's called
antinomianism. Some people call it easy -believism. Just pray the prayer,
and then nothing else matters after that. You don't have to worry about doing
anything. But God is saving you and restoring you for a purpose. No, he's got
something he wants you to do. His design for your restored life is that you will
honor and glorify him, that there will be good works that point people to him from
your life. Now, what are these good works that Paul has in mind?
I'm going to give you just a few categories, and this is not a complete list, but
this will help you think about it. If I'm supposed to have good works in my life,
what should those good works be? Well, first of all, the first category is that God
is calling us to put his glory on display by living righteous and holy lives.
That's the first category of good works. Now, we get a little afraid when we hear
the word righteousness because we think righteousness means self -righteousness. It
doesn't. The Bible differentiates between being righteous and being self righteous.
Righteousness really simply means living the right way. It's right living.
It's living your life according to the specs, the design, the way you were created
to live your life. Righteousness is living God's way.
You can go your own way. You can call it another lonely day or you, I'm sorry, I
had to do that. Or you can live life God's way and experience
you live your life in a way that honors God's design and honors him in thoughtward
and deed, that is, that's good works. There's a second category of good works. You
do good works when you advance the kingdom, and I'm thinking primarily here of
evangelism and discipleship. When you are engaged in sharing your faith with others,
sharing with them and helping them come to know Christ and then helping them grow
in their relationship with him, those are good works that we've been called to do.
Jesus said, the last thing he said, is go and make disciples of all nations. Teach
them about what I've done. Teach them everything I've commanded you. Teach them what
it looks like to know me and to follow me. So it is a good work for us to tell
others about Jesus and to evangelize and disciple.
those who were in need and they were doing it for me. The goats, they didn't do
those good works. They didn't care about me. Galatians 610 sums this whole thing up
when it says, so then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone,
especially to those who are of the household of faith. Mercy ministry is doing good
to those who are around you in need, especially those in the household of faith.
When you show love and kindness and mercy to those in need around us, you're doing
good works. The final category we'll talk about today, and again, this is not
comprehensive, but this moves from what our general categories to a more customized
category, and it lines up with the sixth irrefutable truth I was talking about. It
is deploying your personal spiritual gifts, talents, and abilities for maximum kingdom
impact. So you have specific good works that God
assignment based on our gifting and based on our interests, our passions,
our desires, which God put in all of our hearts, that these will lead us into the
specific way that we are to glorify Him by doing our good works. The Bible talks
about spiritual gifts in a variety of places. In fact, later on in Ephesians, Paul
is going to talk about how God gave some for evangelists, some as teachers,
some as...
Along with the general good works we've talked about, we should be asking ourselves
the question, how has God gifted me? What has he made me to do? What am I here
for? And then how do I deploy those gifts, desires, and passions in order to
benefit the kingdom? How can I use my gifts to serve others? I don't know if you
know what your spiritual gift is.
I think spiritual gifting is a compounding factor. when I read these lists of
spiritual gifts.
the body to build up one another. 1 Peter 4 says as each has received a gift,
use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. 1 Corinthians
14, since you are eager for manifestations of the spirit strive to excel in building
up the church. That's why we have these good gifts. You're to employ your gifts and
serve one another. This is by God's design how we grow individually and it's how we
God's called you to. And we remember that he looks at her and he says, he says,
when I run, I feel his pleasure. God made me fast. God made me to be a runner.
And when I run, I feel his pleasure. Your gifting may have more to do with running
than it does with preaching. All of us are missionaries, but it could be. He was a
missionary in the Olympics as he did is running. Using your spiritual gifts to serve
the body as one way that you glorify God, but the final way we're going to look
at is you use your own vocation, your job or your calling, you do it heartily as
unto the Lord as a way to glorify God. That's a part of the workmanship he's
called you to. Your job, how you earn a living or how you invest your time
throughout the week, your talents throughout the week, these are some of the good
works that God has created for you to walk in. If you're a barista at a coffee
shop, you should serve your customers to the glory of God. The same goes for being
an Uber driver or being an auto mechanic or a physician or a stay -at -home mom.
Whatever you spend your time doing, you do it mightily, you do it heartily as unto
the Lord in a way to glorify God, and that's a part of the good work that God
created you to do. I've shared this quote before from Dorothy Sayer, but I keep
coming back to it because it's just a great quote. She was a novelist and a
writer, and she said, she was talking about vocation, and she said, the church's
approach to dealing with an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to telling him
not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours and to come to church on
Sunday. But she said what the church should be telling him is that the first demand
his religion makes upon him is
wants to accomplish his purposes through you, he prepared them beforehand, but he
also knew beforehand whether you would walk in that way or not. And he had, God
has plan B's all over the place, not because he doesn't know what's going to
happen, but because he does know what's going to happen. He calls you to do this,
but if you stumble, he'll still get the job done. Marianne and I watch this week,
the movie that some of you have seen the best Christmas pageant ever and in that
movie there's a there's a girl who has been assigned to play the role of Mary in
the Christmas pageant Imogene Hurdman and the question is is Imogene gonna show up
at the last minute they're not sure the pageant's getting ready to start she's not
there and and so the director has a plan B calls on another girl you need to be
ready to step in and be married because we don't know if Imogene's gonna show up
and spoiler alert Imogene does show up okay I mean And
according to that plan, God's still going to accomplish his purposes in us.
And you say, well, how do I know what the plan is that he prepared from
beforehand? How do I figure out what God's plan for me is? Here's how you do it.
You walk in the plan you know and God will direct your steps. Say,
I don't know if I'm supposed to do this or do that. Okay, just do the part you
know. Be holy, be righteous, evangelize, disciple, serve others, do mercy ministry and
just ask God to reveal the next step to you.
walk in love, walk as children of the light. You do those things, and God will
make his specific path for you clear. The point here is God saved you for a
purpose. He has an assignment for you, and it's the path that he's set for you.
You're to walk in that path. The gospel is not something you simply believe in, and
then you're saved as a result. Believing the gospel and experience God's grace in
your life is going to lead to a new path, a new way of living, a complete re
-prioritization of your life. Grace changes everything. And I'll wrap this up with a
quote from Rick Phillips, the pastor in South Carolina, who I quote often, he says,
a good way to assess your spiritual state is how you respond to a teaching like
this. Do you resent being told that salvation involves good works and a changed
life. Would you prefer the salvation that delivers you from the penalty of sin,
but not from sin itself? What's your attitude toward holiness?
Do you want a pure, more godly, more loving heart, or are you happy with the one
you have?
I've referred referred to Ephesians 210 as an assignment from God, the work he's
given us to do, but it is more than an assignment. It's an adventure that God's
called you to. The God of the universe who sent his son to rescue you and ransom
you from your sin has a plan set for your life that he's calling you to walk in.
You are his workmanship. He is restoring and recreating you with the purpose in
mind. He is creating you in Christ Jesus for good works.
that we would be excited about the adventure we've been called to, that we would
understand that we have a purpose and that you want us to serve you with our
lives. And so, Lord, I ask that you would do a work in us today through the power
of your word, by your spirit,
to realign our lives so that we may walk in the good works that you prepared
beforehand for us. In holiness and righteousness, evangelism, evangelism, discipleship,
service and mercy ministries, in the specific calling you've called us to, in the
vocation you've called us to, help us to honor you with our lives and do our work
hardly as unto you to put your glory on display. Lord, I pray for any here this
morning who don't know you personally, who have never responded to Ephesians 2,
8, and 9.