Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / Why Can’t Our Good Works Save Us Titus 3:4–7, Part 4

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Why Can’t Our Good Works Save Us Titus 3:4–7, Part 4 · Pastor John Piper's answers

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: This is our fourth session on Titus three four to seven.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Two times ago we spent time unpacking what it means
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: to be saved. Last time we observed that there are
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: thirteen or so diamonds in the chest of salvation, salvation
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: being the big term, and all of these details of
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: how we got saved unpacked the content of how God
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: did it, And so we're going to take these as
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: they come. Now, he saved us. So when the kindness
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: and benevolence of God, our savior, appeared, he saved us.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Now how did he do it? All of these ways? First,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: the negation not because of works done by us in righteousness,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: but according to his own mercy. Stop right there, Father,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: why is it? Would you show us that Paul contrasts
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: our doing works in order to be saved versus your
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: doing mercy in order to save us, make us to
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  Speaker 1: feel Lord the wonder of your merciful heart. And why
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: this would be a hopeless strategy to get right with you?
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: I asked this in Jesus name. Amen. The reason I
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: pray that way and ask that question is because in
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: other places the contrast of not by works is but
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  Speaker 1: by faith, not by works. Are we saying but by
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: faith are we saved. There's there's not a word about
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: faith in this paragraph. He contrasts it. Instead of saying
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: not because of works done by us in righteousness, but
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  Speaker 1: by means of faith in Christ, he doesn't say that.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: He says, not because of works done by us in righteousness,
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  Speaker 1: but because of mercy. So, just to show you what
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  Speaker 1: he didn't say, if he's just two, by grace, you
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: have been saved through faith, that's true. Paul believes that
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: with all his heart. That's absolutely essential. And that's what
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  Speaker 1: he did not say. This is not your own doing.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: This is a gift of God, not a result of works.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: He said that. But the contrast here is not between
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: works and faith, but between works and God's mercy. Not Paul,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: with all his heart. Even in the pastoral letters first
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: and two Timothy and Titus, that package of beautiful little letters,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: he believes in the necessity of faith in order to
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: be saved. For example, in one Timothy one sixteen, I
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: received mercy for this reason that in me as the
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: foremost Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: example to those who were to believe in him for
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  Speaker 1: eternal life. That's how you get eternal life. And remember
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: here in our own text, the hope of eternal life
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: is the end of all these means of salvation. And
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: if it's by faith that we get eternal life in
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: fir Timathy one to sixteen, it is certainly by means
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: of faith that we get eternal life. Here, it's just
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: not what he's focusing on. So that's the first thing.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Paul is bent on celebrating what God did, what Christ
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: did to save us. Yes, this is why it's so
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: crucial because we are so prone when we talk about
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  Speaker 1: if you ask somebody how did you get saved? They
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: might say I trusted Christ and that would be right.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: But what if you asked him how did God save you?
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  Speaker 1: Lots of people would be stumped. They wouldn't know what
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  Speaker 1: to say when you put the question like that. And
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  Speaker 1: I think that's the question we ought to say, because
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: my believing is not the gospel. God's acting is the gospel.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: So I want to ask baptismal candidates, for example, not
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: what did you do? Right as that is we need
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  Speaker 1: to know what they did, did they believe or did
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  Speaker 1: they work? But rather what do you believe God did?
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  Speaker 1: What did God do? How did he do it, and
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: then you find out if they know what the gospel is.
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  Speaker 1: But according to his own mercy, mercy is a very
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  Speaker 1: big term that's a little different from grace. I think
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: mercy probably is big and includes grace, But grace correlates,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: especially in Paul's mind, with the legal problem of failing
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: to be innocent in the courtroom of heaven. We need
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  Speaker 1: to be declared just, and that correlates with grace because
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  Speaker 1: grace is God's kindness towards guilty people. Mercy is God's
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  Speaker 1: kindness towards miserable people, and you can see miserable certainly
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  Speaker 1: includes guilty. But the focus is if you are a
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  Speaker 1: beneficiar of grace, you know yourself absolutely guilty before God
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  Speaker 1: with no hope of salvation unless there's a way that
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  Speaker 1: God could declare you just and righteous in his courtroom.
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  Speaker 1: So when he says it's according to he's choosing the
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  Speaker 1: big overarching term where God shows favor kindness toward miserable
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  Speaker 1: and helpless people, which certainly would include guilty people, but
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  Speaker 1: also people who are hell bound and in bondage, all
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  Speaker 1: kinds of things we need to be delivered from. And
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  Speaker 1: mercy is enough for all of them. So it's mercy
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  Speaker 1: not works. Now, let's just linger here from and ask
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  Speaker 1: why not? Why not? I mean the whole world. Most
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  Speaker 1: other religions I've adventured to say, all other religions besides Christianity,
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  Speaker 1: would say that the way to get right with a deity,
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  Speaker 1: however they conceive it is to do the right things.
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  Speaker 1: Just do the work, know the right things to do.
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  Speaker 1: That's what's done in righteousness means I know the right
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  Speaker 1: things to do, I'm going to do them. If I
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  Speaker 1: do the right things, I'm going to be saved. And
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  Speaker 1: he's saying that's not Christianity. Now why not? Why is
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  Speaker 1: that rejected? Let me give you two reasons, and maybe
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: that's as far as we'll get in this session. First,
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  Speaker 1: you can't work perfectly for God. You always fail. Here's
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: First John one eight. If we say we have no sin,
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  Speaker 1: we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
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  Speaker 1: That's talking about Christians, not just pre Christians, not but people,
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  Speaker 1: not just people before conversion, but people who are saved,
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  Speaker 1: who in fact are walking in the light, according to
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  Speaker 1: First John one seven. So it can't be done. And
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: if it can't be done, here's what James says, whoever
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  Speaker 1: keeps the whole law but fails in one point has
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  Speaker 1: become guilty of all. And you might think, well, yeah, right,
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  Speaker 1: I'll always fail at something, but ninety nine percent I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to be a good person. I'm going to do
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  Speaker 1: ninety nine percent of what I'm required to do. And
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  Speaker 1: James says, well, you probably won't. But even if you did,
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  Speaker 1: it wouldn't be enough. For he who said do not
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  Speaker 1: commit adultry also said do not murder. If you do
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  Speaker 1: not commit adultry, but you do murder, you have become
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  Speaker 1: a transgressor of the law. In other words, the point is,
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  Speaker 1: if you fail in one thing, you offend an infinitely
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  Speaker 1: worthy God, and you are guilty before him, so it
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  Speaker 1: cannot be done. Works are rejected because if you go
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: that route, you fail. You fail because you can't do them.
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  Speaker 1: Nobody can. So if you're going to be saved by works,
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  Speaker 1: you're not going to be saved. Here's the second reason
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  Speaker 1: why it doesn't work. And this is why we need
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  Speaker 1: to realize. Even though faith isn't mentioned here, faith is
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  Speaker 1: essential in order to have eternal life. According to Paul's
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  Speaker 1: teaching in the Pastoral Letters, Verse Timothy one sixteen. If
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: it is impossible to please God without faith, that's Hebrews
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: eleven six. Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
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  Speaker 1: There's no number of works. There's no amount of works
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  Speaker 1: you could do that would result in pleasing God, because
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: the only works that would please God are works that
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: come from faith, not the works that precede faith and
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  Speaker 1: get you right with God, which means you've got to
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: come to faith first. Faith unites you to Christ. That
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: union justifies you and makes you right before God. And
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  Speaker 1: now as you stand right, loved, accepted forgiven, you are
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  Speaker 1: able by faith to do works that actually please God.
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  Speaker 1: But those works do not save you in the first place.
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  Speaker 1: They don't make you right with God. Here's what Romans
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  Speaker 1: fourteen twenty three says. Whoever has doubts is condemned if
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  Speaker 1: he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For
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  Speaker 1: whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. If faith
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  Speaker 1: isn't already in place, then the works that you're doing
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  Speaker 1: are just going to be more unacceptable efforts to get
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  Speaker 1: right with God. To climb the ladder of morality into
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  Speaker 1: favor with God, faith has to precede and empower work
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: so that they're not sin Here's the way Paul said
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  Speaker 1: it in One Timothy. The aim of our charge is love.
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  Speaker 1: So that's the lived out good works of love that
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  Speaker 1: issue from a pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith.
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  Speaker 1: This love comes from faith. Faith precedes, It unites you
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  Speaker 1: to Christ. It provides union with Him and justification in Him.
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  Speaker 1: And now that you are right with God by faith,
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  Speaker 1: good works of love can follow in their called works
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  Speaker 1: of faith. Herein First Desalonians, we remember before our God
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  Speaker 1: and Father, your work of faith. That's what they're called.
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  Speaker 1: Now Christians do works. God is pleased by these works.
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  Speaker 1: The reason he's pleased by these works is that they
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: are not works to get right with God, but because
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  Speaker 1: by faith we are right with God, they are works
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  Speaker 1: of faith. So there are two reasons at least why
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  Speaker 1: Paul says don't try to get right with God by works. One,
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  Speaker 1: you'll never be able to do enough works, you can't
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  Speaker 1: pull it off. And second, which is a species of
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  Speaker 1: the first argument, if you try to work without saving faith,
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  Speaker 1: without justifying faith, you simply pile up more guilt because
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  Speaker 1: those kinds of works do not please the Lord. Faith
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  Speaker 1: comes first. Faith justifies as a justified, accepted, loved forgiven
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  Speaker 1: child of God. We then find the resources in the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit and this renewal to do these kinds of
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  Speaker 1: works in righteousness. But they do not set us right
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  Speaker 1: with God. They flow from being right with God through faith.