10250 North Freeway @ West Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
10250 North Freeway @ West
Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
What
We Believe and Why - Vol. II
Written by Dr.
Lester Hutson
Copyright
- Lester Hutson - 1982
This material is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced
without the express written permission of Dr. Lester Hutson.
Chapter Thirty Seven
God Working in You
Part I
"Created In Christ Jesus Unto Good Works"
INTRODUCTION: TEXT: Ephesians 2:8-10
With this lesson we shall introduce one of the more unknown yet massive and beautiful truths of the Bible. These next four lessons will only provide a glimpse of the truth at hand. Like the sailor who sees only the tip of an iceberg, you should bear in mind that far more evidence of "God Working In You" than is visible lies yet submerged in the pages of God's holy, inexhaustible and immutable Word, the Bible, waiting for your discovery.
At the time God makes you a member of His family, He designs you with the expressed purpose of thereafter working in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. As Ephesians 2:8-10 puts it, He saves us from sin's penalty by His grace, apart from our works, and in this new, regenerated state, "We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." We are the "workmanship" of God, especially "created" for the purpose of works being done through us.
I. FOCUS NOW YOUR MIND'S EYE ON THE WORK GOD DID IN YOU TO BRING YOU INTO HIS FAMILY, THIS CREATING IN JESUS CHRIST.
A. When Jesus Christ gave Himself on the cross, He provided the means of our deliverance from eternal ruin and separation from God.
1. We talk to God with the familiarity and casual spirit with which we would talk to any ordinary man.
2. Hebrews 9:12 says, "...by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us."
3. It was on that cross that the Lord Jesus Christ shed His blood in death for the remission of sins, (Romans 3:25), and by that blood, reconciled sinners unto God. (Colossians 1:20-22)
4. At the cross, Christ Jesus performed a substitutionary work for you.
a. Jesus was not a sinner, you and I were, and we bore the awful infamy and condemnation of sin. (John 3:18)
b. But at Calvary Christ Jesus took our curse and condemnation on His own self and suffered our punishment for us.
c. You can see how Christ became our substitute when you read in I Peter 3:18, "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust."
d. You can see it again in Romans 5:8 which says, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
e. Peter wrote of Him, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree...." (I Peter 2:24)
B. Then, upon the strength of that work on the cross, when we believed in Him as Savior, God worked the work of regeneration in our hearts.
1. At belief He worked a new birth in us, for, "whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God," (I John 5:1), and Jesus called that the act of being born again in John 3:3,7.
2. Jesus said that birth is to be "born of the Spirit," (John 3:5), and the apostle Peter continued, "...being born again; not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." (I Peter 1:23)
3. At that point, God worked the forgiveness of sins in us, (Acts 5:31), and imputed the righteousness of His own dear Son to us. (Romans 4:5-6)
C. This work of regeneration, or the new birth, is a completed work that God has wrought in us. It is not being done in us; it is already done.
1. That is why God's Word can say of us in I Corinthians 6:11, "...ye are washed...ye are sanctified...ye are justified...."
2. It is upon the strength of that finished work of God in us that Romans 8:1 can say, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus...."
3. John 5:24 affirms, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life."
4. What a beautiful truth to know that through God's substitutionary work at the cross, every charge and condemnation of God against us has been eliminated, and we stand now and forever perfected before God and "accepted in the beloved," as Ephesians 1:6 so affirms, and as verse 7 continues, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgeiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace." Truly, God already has done a wonderful work in us in creating us in Christ Jesus.
II. AT THE MOMENT YOU BELIEVED IN CHRIST, HE PUT HIS HOLY SPIRIT IN YOU.
A. The unconverted world does not have the Holy Spirit.
1. John 14:17 speaks of the Spirit of truth, "Whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him."
2. Romans 8:9 says, "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."
3. These scriptures make it evident that only the saved of God have His Holy Spirit.
B. Yet of all the redeemed, the scriptures testify that the Spirit is within them.
1. I Corinthians 6:19 asks, "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God?"
2. I Corinthians 3:16 also asks, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
3. Romans 8:11 speaks of "his Spirit that dwelleth in you," and II Timothy 1:14 speaks of "the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us."
4. Jesus promised the believers that the Father "shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever." (John 14:16)
5. Now this Holy Spirit is within you for the express purpose of carrying out the will and work of Almighty God in you.
C. Now you are incapable in your own strength of carrying out the will and work of God.
1. Paul the apostle wrote these sobering words in Romans 12:3, "For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think...." No doubt many times we do think more of our own abilities than we ought. We get the idea that since we are saved, we can get in there and really do the work of God. We think we can do something for Him, administrate His work and do much more. Perhaps we can do all these things and even impress ourselves and other men, but these things never please God, nor count to our credit in His record books.
2. This is true because your own might or power is puny and worthless in God's sight.
a. You, like Paul, must admit, "For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing." (Romans 7:18)
b. All your personal goodness is "as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6) in God's opinion, so that King David wrote in Psalm 14:3, "There is none that doeth good; no, not one."
c. Jeremiah said of human might and power, including yours, "Oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." (Jeremiah 10:23)
3. This gives you some idea of what Jesus meant in John 15:5 when He told His disciples, "Without me, ye can do nothing." Nothing you ever do in your own might will ever amount to anything of the slightest value to God.
4. Here is where so many miss the boat. They think they can do God's work. They think all the excitement and self-destroying involvement of human effort is the way to accomplish God's work. But, dear soul, though you work, in human sacrifice, yourself down to the grave, it will profit you nothing. Humanly speaking, you are weak and vain in God's sight. So anything that has its origin in, and performance out of, you will be of no value to God. Humanly speaking, you cannot draw sweet water from a bitter well or good fruit off a corrupt tree. (Matthew 7:18)
D. But, just because you are incapable of doing any work that would ever please God does not mean that no good, God-honoring work can ever be done through you.
1. God forbid that you should be thought useless because you have no power or ability of your own.
a. A hammer has no power of its own either, yet it could scarcely be considered useless. Likewise a violin, a pencil or fork.
b. You can do nothing of spiritual value through yourself, but God can take you and use you to accomplish any work He might choose, however meticulous, sublime, or elaborate. As the Lord's servant Jonathan could see in I Samuel 14:6, "There is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few."
2. Remember that in spite of your total lack of personal ability with which to serve and please God, your designed purpose is the performance of good works according to Ephesians 2:10.
3. The point is that God doesn't want you trying to do His good work by yourself. Instead He wants you to give yourself to Him to control so that He can do the work in and through you.
III. IT IS WITH THIS VERY PURPOSE IN MIND THAT HE PUT HIS HOLY SPIRIT IN YOU.
A. As a believer, His Holy Spirit is right there within you ready to work the will of God out in your life and to accomplish in you the things you never could accomplish in yourself.
1. You see, though you have no power of your own to please God, nevertheless God has equipped or fitted you with His own power of the Holy Spirit, which power can enable you to do all that you will ever need to do the glory of God. As Paul put it, you are God's "workmanship." (Ephesians 2:10) God took you who were nothing and made something good and useful out of you by putting His Spirit in you. And, in view of His overhauling of you at the new birth, you who were nothing are now a specially built tool, whose designed purpose is to honor God with good works.
2. You talk about grace; it is grace for God to take something that is no good and useless and transform that thing into a beautiful, productive vessel of God. To Him must go the praise for any good that ever comes from that vessel.
B. Having that Holy Spirit living and operating within you transforms everything.
1. He makes possible things that would otherwise be impossible. Whereas without Him you "can do nothing." (John 15:5) You "can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth" you. (Philippians 4:13)
2. Christ, in the person of the Spirit, living in you will work in you "both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)
a. Notice that He will first put the right will in you. A right will is not natural to man, but God can put it in those in whom He dwells. Thus, David could say of such ones, "The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord." (Psalm 37:23)
b. Notice, too, that God will work in you also to "do of his good pleasure." Paul once said in Romans 7:18, "For to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not." Sure he couldn't perform it in his own strength, for the "flesh is weak," (Matthew 26:41), but as he says in Romans 7:25, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." God in him could perform what he, apart from God's Spirit, could never perform.
3. This very apostle Paul, who had to admit that in his flesh "dwelleth no good thing," could also say, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." (Galatians 2:20) He told the Colossian believers that it is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Colossians 1:27)
4. Yes, as a child of God, you are a "workmanship" of God, whose designed purpose is to walk in good works. Before you were saved, you were void or empty of the power to perform any work that would ever please God. But, at the point of faith in Him as your personal Savior, you were regenerated or born again, and God placed in you His Spirit, a power whereby every good and pleasing work to God can be performed. As a Christian, that power or grace whereby you "may serve God acceptably," (Hebrews 12:28), is not your own. No. It is God's. So think not highly of yourself; think highly of Him who lives within you and who is able to work through you that which is precious and well-pleasing in the sight of God.
5. Remember from our text verse that God, at the new birth, has equipped you to walk in good works. You may not now be doing so, but because of what God has done for you, you are capable of doing so. As these studies progress, we shall see the circumstances under which you, as a specially built work tool, can be used to a maximum capacity in the performance of good works, which will not only honor God, but will also bless men in the process.
"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"