Chapter 16
Of Good Works
- Good works are only such as God hath
commanded in His Holy Word,1 and not such as without the
warrant thereof, are devised by men, out
of blind zeal, or upon any pretence of
good intentions.2
- These good works, done in obedience
to God's commandments, are the fruits and
evidences of a true and lively
faith;3 and by them
believers manifest their
thankfulness,4
strengthen their assurance,5 edify their brethren, adorn
the profession of the Gospel,6 stop the mouths of the
adversaries, and glorify God,7 whose workmanship they are,
created in Christ Jesus
thereunto,8 that
having their fruit unto holiness, they
may have the end eternal life.9
- Their ability to do good works, is
not all of themselves, but wholly from
the Spirit of Christ;10 and that they may be
enabled thereunto, besides the graces
they have already received, there is
necessary an actual influence of the same
Holy Spirit to work in them to will and
to do of His good pleasure:11 yet are they not hereupon
to grow negligent, as if they were not
bound to perform any duty, unless upon a
special motion of the Spirit but they
ought to be diligent in stirring up the
grace of God that is in them.12
- They who in their obedience attain to
the greatest height which is possible in
this life, are so far from being able to
supererogate, and to do more than God
requires, as that they fall short of much
which in duty they are bound to
do.13
- We cannot by our best works merit
pardon of sin, or eternal life at the
hand of God, by reason of the great
disproportion that is between them and
the glory to come, and the infinite
distance that is between us and God, whom
by them we can never profit nor satisfy
for the debt of our former
sins,14 but when we
have done all we can, we have done but
our duty, and are unprofitable
servants; and because as they are good,
they proceed from His Spirit,15 and as they are wrought
by us, they are defiled, and mixed with
so much weakness and imperfection, that
they cannot endure the severity of
God's judgment.16
- Yet notwithstanding the persons of
believers being accepted through Christ,
their good works also are accepted in
Him;17 not as though
they were in this life wholly unblameable
and unreprovable in God's sight; but that
He looking upon them in His Son, is
pleased to accept and reward that which
is sincere, although accompanied with
many weaknesses and
imperfections.18
- Works done by unregenerate men,
although for the matter of them, they may
be things which God commands and of good
use both to themselves and
others;19 yet
because they proceed not from a heart
purified by faith,20 nor are done in a right
manner according to the Word,21 nor to a right end the
glory of God,22
they are sinful, and cannot please God,
nor make a man meet to receive grace
from God;23 and yet
their neglect of them is more sinful,
and displeasing to God.24
Footnotes:
1. Mic
6:8; Heb 13:21.
2. Mt
15:9; Isa 29:13.
3. Jas
2:18,22.
4. Ps
116:12-13.
5. 1Jn
2:3,5; 2Pe 1:5-11.
6. Mt
5:16.
7. 1Ti
6:1; 1Pe 2:15; Php 1:11.
8. Eph
2:10.
9. Ro
6:22.
10.
Jn 15:4-5. 11. 2Co 3:5; Php 2:13.
11.
2Co 3:5; Php 2:13. 12. Php 2:12; Heb
6:11-12; Isa 64:7.
13.
Job 9:2-3; Gal 5:17; Lk 17:10.
14.
Ro 3:20; Eph 2:8-9; Ro 4:6.
15.
Gal 5:22-23.
16.
Isa 64:6; Ps 143:2.
17.
Eph 1:6; 1Pe 2:5.
18.
Mt 25:21,23; Heb 6:10.
19.
2Ki 10:30; 1Ki 21:27,29.
20.
Ge 4:5; Heb 11:4,6.
21.
1Co 13:1.
22.
Mt 6:2,5.
23.
Am 5:21-22; Ro 9:16; Tit 3:5.
24.
Job 21:14-15; Mt 25:41-43.
©1998 Limerick Free
Baptist Church
|
Free Baptist Church of Limerick