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{Sermons on John 1:47
The Doctrine Confirmed
The Principles and Doctrines of Godliness are Not Fantasy
Of Good Works
Good Works Are Necessary}
Good works are necessary. They are necessary for salvation; although we will not be saved by our works, we cannot be saved without them. He who does not work will not eat bread in the kingdom of God (2 Thessalonians 3:10). The everlasting rest is not for loiterers, but for laborers. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in Heaven will enter” (Matthew 7:21 NASB). Faith cannot save us without works. The apostle tells us, “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:20). And a dead faith cannot bring us to life. Therefore, the apostle Paul so vehemently charges, “The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people” (Titus 3:8 ESV). Observe in here the preface to the charge, “The saying is trustworthy.” It is a true saying, a great truth, a worthy saying, worthy of strenuous delivery, and worthy to be received. “I want you to insist on these things” means to teach constantly or resolutely and not be beaten off from it. Why, what is this great truth? Why, this is it: that those who have believed in God, to the degree that they desire that their faith would do them any good, must be careful to maintain good works. They are not only to do good works, but to maintain, excel, and abound in good works. These things are good and profitable to people.
Now let me demand of all the world: where does the fanaticism lie in any of all this? Which of these doctrines is it that is just imagination? Is it this, that Christians must not only be believers, but must do good works? Is it this, that they must work with all their might and must continue their work without intermission; that is, that they must bestow none of their time on the devil, but all on God? Or is this the imaginary thing: that this well-doing is necessary to our well-being? Let it be granted that there is no fantasy in all of this, and I have at once dispatched my whole undertaking, and if I had no more to say, I have sufficiently proved to you that strict godliness is no fantasy. For this doctrine of good works that I have laid before you is godliness, godliness in the greatest severity and strictness of it. Grant a necessity of such a life as this, and you grant all that is desired. And can any of this be denied? Must we serve the Lord? To be doing good181 is the same as serving God. Must we serve the Lord openly and wholly? May not sin claim a share, and now and then something be done for the devil? Must we serve the Lord with all our might or may less serve? Consider the Scripture, “So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done’” (Luke 17:10 NASB). When we have given to God all that we owe Him, then let the flesh and the devil take “what is left over.”
Beloved, consider what I have said and observe whether or not all of the diligence, faithfulness, zeal, tenderness, and preciseness that the strictest Christians either practice or profess is included in these three things:
To serve the Lord with all of our might
To serve the Lord to the end of our days
To serve the Lord in a constant and continued course of godliness
Christians! Now that you see, from this discussion so far, what little weight or reason there appears in this charge of the world against us of fantasy, let us be encouraged to hold fast and to hold on to our holy course. Let our practices be exact according to our principles, and let our principles plead for themselves by themselves. God will plead for them against all the world. Let us not give occasion to evil men to charge us with looseness, and then we may give them leave to charge us with overmuch strictness.
But oh, how much reason we have to blame ourselves on the one hand while they wrongfully blame us on the other. They say we are too strict, too precise, and too painful in the work of the Lord! But oh, how sadly deficient we are! How spare are our duties! How little is our care! How uneven are our goings! We need not fear any excess while we feel so many defects. Oh, how scanty are our services for our God! How barren are our fields! How thin do our good fruits spring up! Sinners, charge us with our barrenness, and we will join you in the charge. The Lord pardon us, it is only a little that we have brought forth. Our good fruits are only like the gleanings of the harvest: here and there an ear or a poor handful or like the gleanings of the olive tree in Isaiah 17:6: two or three olives in the top of the uppermost bough and four or five in the outermost fruitful branches. Blessed be God for anything, but woe to us that there is no more; it is just a little here and there; here a line and there a blank that we have to show. Oh, how many voids and empty places there are to be found in our course. How many empty hours and empty days we have lived, concerning which, if we would have asked, “Oh, Soul, what have I done today?” Soul, what account can you give of this day’s work? Instead of submitting a timesheet, we must submit a blank, and write down nothing but “I am ruined! I am ruined! I have lost another day.” Oh brethren, let us take heed of submitting any more such blank timesheets, lest from our “I am ruined!” we should at last come to write down, “I perish! I perish! I am lost, I am undone. I have lost so much time that now I am afraid I have lost my soul.”
Beloved, while others bespatter our diligence, let us bewail our negligence. Let us bewail it and amend. If to be strict, watchful, and fruitful is to be contemptible and foolish, let us resolve with that holy king that we “will be more contemptible than this” (2 Samuel 6:22). We will be more foolish than this. If this is folly, then when people charge that our practice of Christianity is fantasy, we have no way to vindicate it and prove it a reality, except by being more Christian and more strictly and fruitfully so. Our fruitfulness in good works will be the proof of our sincerity and will silence our adversaries’ calumnies.
181Recall Alleine’s four criteria for good above.
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