Word of Salvation – February 2025

 

Good Works

 

Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp on W.C.F. ch.16 & Isaiah 48:17-19

Reading: Isaiah 48:12-22; Westminster Confession – ch.16:1 & 2

 

Singing:        BoW.161       God Himself is with us
–                      BoW.369       Now thank we all our God
–                      BoW.467       Rock of ages, cleft for me
–                      BoW.426       When peace like a river

Theme: The blessedness of the good works that are in obedience to God’s will and flow from true saving faith.

 

Introd:  It is glaringly obvious that good works are absolutely essential for Christians.

It is even more obvious that Christians must avoid all evil deeds.

The West. Conf. gives six different reasons why good works are important for Christians.
For the moment I’ll just single out one of them: Good deeds silence the critics.
Let me illustrate that for you both negatively and positively.

 

First negatively – sinful deeds do not silence the critics but give them ammunition to use against us.
A sceptic once used the story of David and Bathsheba to mock Biblical religion.
He said: Look David was supposedly a child of God, yet here is adultery and murder.
But someone replied: By mocking our faith for David’s sin you are fulfilling prophecy.
Because Nathan told David: By doing this you’ve made God’s enemies show utter contempt.

Today sinful deeds by Christians still give the Christian faith a bad name.
You only have to think of the sexual abuse of children by priests and clergy.
Of course the media that is critical of Christians are having a field day.
Child abuse is bad enough at any time but especially when it’s by so-called Christian leaders.

 

But now think of it the other way around: good deeds silence the enemies of the gospel.
In some areas of Indonesia’s Ache province Muslims were persecuting Christians.
But when the 2004 Tsunami struck, Christians were the first to give aid.
And many Muslim leaders had to grudgingly admit that Christians were compassionate.

There was once a Christian who was having a really tough time in the army.
One particular fellow in their unit always singled this Christian out for abuse.
He seemed to get great delight out of tormenting this soldier for his faith.

But then of a morning the tormentor began to find his boots cleaned and polished by his bed.
Eventually he found out that the Christian had been secretly doing that day after day.
Those good works very effectively silenced the ridicule of the mocker.

 

A]        GOOD WORKS AND GOD’S COMMANDMENTS.

 

1. The West. Confession gives us two criteria for good works.

IOW: Something is only a good work if it measures up in two ways.

The first criterion is that: something is good only if God says that it is good.
And God has told us.  We are not left ignorant about what constitutes good works.
God has very clearly spelled out for us what good works are.

 

This first criterion is important because we human beings can get it wrong.

Earlier in Isaiah the prophet lamented how far Israel had gone down the gurgler… morally.
They called good evil and evil good (5:20).  So what is good?  How do you define it?
And the answer is: We don’t define it, God does…!  Only that is good which God thinks is good.

 

The West. Conf. puts it this way:
Good works are only those works identified as good by God and commanded by Him in His Word.
But talking about what God commands in His Word it is not just talking about the Big Ten.
By God’s commands we mean all that God has revealed of His will.  Everything!

 

There are two warnings in the Bible that we must not add anything to the God’s Word…
nor may we take anything away from God’s Word. (cf. Deut 12³², Rev.22¹⁸).

 

That doesn’t just mean adding pages to the Bible or removing pages.

What it means is rejecting or ignoring some parts of the Bible… or adding our own ideas to the Bible.
IOW – the whole Bible… and Bible alone… is God’s instruction to us.
God does not leave us ignorant about how He wants us to live.
In Scripture God defines for us what is good… what pleases Him.

 

That’s obvious in Isaiah because the prophet repeatedly calls Israel to do good.
Already in the opening chapter: Seek justice, defend the orphan, plead for the widow (1:17).
And that sort of teaching about good works goes right through to the last chapters.
In 56:1 Isaiah is still saying: Preserve justice, do righteousness.
Through Isaiah God repeatedly spelled out to Israel what was good.

 

In our text in 48:17 we see that very clearly in a number of ways.
First, God says that he is teaching them what is good… what is best for them.
He actually instructs them in doing good works.
Secondly, He goes even further and says that he directs them in the right way.
God actually leads them in the way they should go.
And then thirdly, in vs.18 God speaks of Israel paying attention to His commands.
God never leaves His people in doubt about what is good and right and just.

 

1. But we also need to consider the other possibility.

Both Deut.12 and Rev.22 not only warn against taking things away from God’s Word.  Ignoring them.
They also warn against adding to the Word.  Introducing added, man-mad regulations.
If it is God and God alone who defines good works then we may not add to God’s Word.
Here the West. Conf puts the whole matter very strongly:
They do not include other works, no matter how well-intentioned or how zealously promoted by men.

 

I could give you several examples where people made that mistake.
I think particularly of King Saul when he was commanded to deal with the Amalekites.
He was told to wipe them out for the evil that they had done.

But Saul spared their king and he kept some of the best livestock to sacrifice to God.
He thought he was doing good but then Samuel came and said to Saul:
  To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams (1Sam.15:22).

 

We human beings have this tendency to want to be wiser than God.
And that was a problem too in Isaiah’s time.
If you turn a moment to Isaiah 29 you’ll see this same mistake.
There were well-intentioned good deeds that went beyond the revealed Word of God.
<<< Read Isaiah 29¹³ >>>
The Lord says, “These people come near me with their mouths and honour me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.  Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men,”

 

Here are people with the best of intentions and they are very zealous about it.
But God rebukes them for keeping human traditions while paying mere lip service to Him.
When it comes to good works, good intentions are not enough.
And zeal is not enough.  What matters is obedience to the Lord.

 

In today’s culture, decisions are often based on feelings.  Do it if it feels good.
And Christians can get side-tracked into that way of deciding what is good,
Other Christians take a pragmatic approach: Do it if it works.
I recall an article (Christian Courier) in which a man wrote about women elders and preachers.
This author claimed that women were good at it and then made this telling remark:
We know this because we have experienced it. 
            Our experience gives us knowledge that it is right for us to include women. (May 2 ’05)
We don’t base decision on our experiences.  God’s Word teaches us what is good and right.

B]        GOOD WORKS DONE OUT OF TRUE FAITH.

 

1. But there is a second criterion by which we must measure good works.

Not only must they conform to God’s commands they must also be done out of true faith.
And good deeds are not good deeds if they do not flow out of our faith.
They must arise out of a personal relationship with God.

 

Obviously if that’s the case then we are talking about the good works of Christians.
The West. Confession devotes a separate section to that in section 7 of this chapter.
There it makes some interesting observations about the deeds of unbelievers.
It agrees that the deeds of unbelievers may be helpful to themselves and to others.
And that it is more displeasing to God for them not to do them.
But what we are talking about this evening is the good works of Christians.

 

Obviously that’s also where the emphasis lies in Isaiah and in the rest of the Scriptures.

God repeatedly addresses His own people.
That doesn’t mean God isn’t concerned about the behaviour of other nations.
Of course He is.          Why do you think God sent Jonah to Nineveh…?
Why did he overturn the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah…?

Yet despite that… over and over, it is the deeds of God’s people that are addressed.
Because it’s only people in a faith relationship with God who can do good works.
Good works must flow from our faith.

 

Notice how that comes out already in Isaiah 48.
First:
Back in vs.12 Israel is spoken of as being the people called of God.
IOW These people Isaiah is speaking to are God’s special people.
Second:
In vs.17 of our text it speaks of God being their Redeemer… their Saviour.
So these people are His saved, redeemed people, brought into fellowship with Him.
Third:
That same verse says that God directs (or perhaps more correctly leads) them.
So the imagery is of people who by faith follow the leading of their God.
At least – that’s the way it is supposed to be.
People in a faith relationship with God paying attention to God’s commands.

 

1. Do you see the important connections between faith and good works?

The relationship is like the relationship between a tree and the fruit.
Some years ago I planted an apple seed which eventually sprouted and grew into an apple tree.
We eventually planted it in our backyard.
But it wasn’t a good tree… the little fruit that was on it was lousy to look at and not good to taste.

So if we wanted good fruit we had to make the tree good.  And we did.
We cut the tree back and grafted two kinds of good branches into it.
And the result was that a couple of years later we finally had some good apples.
They were not only nice to look at, they were tasty to eat.

That is exactly the point Jesus made to His disciples in the Sermon on the Mount.
A good tree produces good fruit a bad tree produces bad fruit.
Good deeds are the fruit of a living faith.  They are the evidence of faith.

 

On the basis of that we can draw two conclusions.

First this – that the works of the unbeliever are different from the works of Christians.
It’s not that what they do isn’t nice… or helpful… it just has no spiritual value before God.
They are not done in obedience to God’s commands and for His glory.

That’s why the Westminster Confession says in section 7:
Since these folk are not spiritually reborn… their deeds do not flow from a heart purified by faith.

 

The second conclusion we can draw is that good works therefore lead to eternal life.
At this point many Christians get confused.
We’ve had it drummed into us that we are not saved by works.
We’ve stressed that they do make even the slightest contribution to our salvation.
It’s not that Jesus saved us for 99% and we have to now do the 1% by our good deeds.
No Jesus did the whole 100 percent.

 

Yet at the end of section 2 our Confession has no problem linking good deeds to eternal life.
It says: We do good works “…because their aim is that holiness which leads to eternal life.”
Why does it say that?  Because our deeds demonstrate the genuineness of our faith.
The good apples are evidence of a good tree.  No apples, means a bad tree.
So good deeds are evidence of a life of faith in God.
No!  We are not saved by good works we are not saved without them either.

 

All of this shows us why things were such in a mess at the time of Isaiah.
It shows us why the nation ended up in Exile in Babylon.
And why in the end only a remnant is saved.
It was precisely because many in Israel were not living by faith in their God.
That’s why things were mess.
The good works were missing… missing because faith in God was missing.

 

C]        THE BLESSED BENEFITS OF GOOD WORKS.

 

1. I began by saying that it is glaringly obvious that good works are essential for Christians.

Not only because God commands that we do them.

Not only because they very naturally flow from a life of faith.

 

There are some other reasons why good works are so obviously necessary.

And that’s because of the blessings that flow from our good works.
I don’t mean that these blessings come because we do good deeds so perfectly.
I’m talking about blessings that come from our good works despite their imperfections.

 

Let’s first look at some of the blessings Isaiah highlights.

 

First Isaiah clearly indicates that good works are for our own benefit.
Sure… they are done in obedience to God and for His glory.
But doing what God wants and what honours Him is also good for us.

Notice how Isaiah phrases this in verse 17.
I am the Lord your God who teaches you what is best for you.
Or more literally: who teaches you to your profit.
Often we look at the commands of God and we think: all those requirements..?!
But as God leads us in the way we should go… that is precisely what is best for us.

 

There have been times when we have started out doing something good only out of sense of duty.
But in doing it we discovered that we were blessed in doing it… it was God’s best for us.

 

Isaiah spells that out a little further in vs.18 in a way we can all relate to.
If you had paid attention to my commands your wellbeing would have been like a river.
That’s saying much the same thing but in a more explicit way.
God teaches us for our profit… He instructs us in what is best for us.
So that we will enjoy peace – the Hebrew word is ‘shalom’ – wellbeing.

 

So a blessing of obedience is wellbeing… peace… and then not like the water in a fishpond.
Peace, not even like the water in stream… but like a river pouring into our lives.
It’s this verse that led the songwriter to write:
When peace like a river flows all through my life…!
But the context is that this peace comes by our obedience to God’s commands.
So if there is a lack of peace in your life, check out how it’s going with your obedience.

 

Isaiah adds that then their righteousness would be like waves of the sea.
Righteousness and justice that is as limitless as the waves of the ocean.
And that too is found in the way of obedience to God’s commands.

 

In vs.19 there is a special blessing that at first glance seems to be for Israel alone.
Because of their disobedience they face seventy years of Babylonian exile.
Because of their lack of good works there will only be a remnant that returns.
But if there had been obedience then it would have been different.

Then the promises made to Abraham in Genesis 15⁵ would have been fulfilled,
The nation would have become like the grains of sand on the beach.
And they would not have been cut off as is now to happen.

 

1. Well, what other blessings come to us as a result of good works?

If God is still teaching us what is good is best for us then what other blessings may we expect?

 

The W.C. lists six more blessings.
I don’t have time to take you through each one in detail.
So let me take you on a very quick Cook’s Tour of them.
’Just to help you appreciate that God’s requirements for good works are for our profit.

 

1)  By them believers show their thankfulness to God.
We have a marvellous God who has wonderfully saved us from eternal destruction.
And we long to express our gratitude to God for such a great salvation.
Well… we do that in the good works we do… they express our thankfulness for Jesus.

 

2)  Through them we are increasingly assured of our salvation.
As we experience ourselves doing good we are reminded of that tree with good fruit.
We realise more and more that the good we are doing flows from our faith
And our doubts begin to disappear… and our assurance of our faith grows,

 

3)  Our good works build up (or edify) other believers.
God’s teaching is not only for our good… it’s also for the good of those we serve.
And as we see them blessed we become even more delighted in the way faith works itself out.

 

4)  They adorn the adorn the gospel.  IOW: they make our message more attractive.
I already gave some examples of that earlier – in the compassion shown to tsunami victims.
The cleaned boots of that soldier made the Christian message more attractive.

 

5)  As we saw – those good deeds do indeed silence the critics and enemies of the gospel.

 

6)  They glorify God as folk see our good deeds and praise Him for His goodness and love.
What a powerful witness Christians have in good deeds of love.

And maybe here the words of verse 19 of Isaiah 48 to Israel are applicable to us after all.
Because today Abraham’s spiritual children are still being gathered in as sand by the seashore.
And that happens as our neighbours are won for Christ…
also by the good deeds that flow from our faith.
Let’s go into this new week then with renewed determination to do what is good.                Amen