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Your Holy Deeds Are Not Filthy Rags · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Holy works in filthy rags comes up time and time again,
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  Speaker 1: and it's the topic of a question from Hanley in
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  Speaker 1: New Zealand. He's onto this topic and as a timely
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  Speaker 1: one is he reads Niamiah thirteen and as many of
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  Speaker 1: us read Niamiah thirteen to finish out the book in
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  Speaker 1: our Bible reading today. Here's his email. Hello Pastor John,
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  Speaker 1: I'm a young believer from New Zealand and I thank
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  Speaker 1: God for his work through you. I am confused as
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  Speaker 1: to why the saints of the Old Testament regularly pray
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  Speaker 1: to God to regard them according to their own righteousness,
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  Speaker 1: Most notably for me right now are Neamiah chapter thirteen,
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  Speaker 1: Verses fourteen, twenty two, thirty, and thirty one. Is this
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  Speaker 1: a practice for us today? Do we bring to God
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  Speaker 1: our righteous deeds and ask him not to forget them?
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  Speaker 1: I've never prayed that way, never even considered it. I
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  Speaker 1: guess my default is to think of all my righteous
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  Speaker 1: deeds as filthy rags Isaiah sixty four to six. Do
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  Speaker 1: you remind God of your righteous deeds? Should we? And
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  Speaker 1: why do we need to?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, Henley, let's buckle up, because I'm gonna pack a
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  Speaker 2: lot into a very short space. Here a kind of
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  Speaker 2: mini theology of good works, how they relate to faith,
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  Speaker 2: how they relate to rewards, how they relate to prayer.
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  Speaker 2: So let's start with Isaiah sixty four to six. You
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  Speaker 2: are not alone in thinking that this verse teaches that
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  Speaker 2: all Christian good works are filthy rags in the sight
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  Speaker 2: of God. That is a profoundly mistaken reading of that verse.
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  Speaker 2: The verse just before sixty four to five says you,
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  Speaker 2: Oh Lord, meet him who joyfully works righteousness those who
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  Speaker 2: remember you in your ways. This is a commendation of
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  Speaker 2: righteousness in the people of God. God does not despise
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  Speaker 2: the righteous deeds of his children done by faith. What
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  Speaker 2: verse six is referring to in calling righteous deeds filthy
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  Speaker 2: rags is the hypocritical works that flow from nothing. They
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  Speaker 2: have outward show of righteousness, but inside dead men's bones
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  Speaker 2: rooted in pride, just like Jesus referred to it. That
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  Speaker 2: misunderstanding of Isaiah sixty four to six has caused many
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  Speaker 2: Christians to believe that it is impossible for a Christian
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  Speaker 2: to please God if their best works are filthy rags,
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  Speaker 2: there's nothing they can do to please him. This is
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  Speaker 2: a profoundly unbiblical notion through and through. For example, consider
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  Speaker 2: how Paul commends the Philippians in Chapter four, verse eighteen,
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  Speaker 2: I have received from Epaphroditis that gives you sent a
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  Speaker 2: fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. Their
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  Speaker 2: generosity to Paul was pleasing to God. It was not
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  Speaker 2: filthy or Hebrews thirteen sixteen. Do not neglect to do
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  Speaker 2: good and share what you have, for such sacrifices are
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  Speaker 2: pleasing to God. Hebrews eleven six holds the key. Without faith,
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  Speaker 2: it is impossible to please God. But Christians have faith.
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  Speaker 2: We have faith, and that faith in God's blood bought
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  Speaker 2: grace with all its fruits. The fruits of faith and
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  Speaker 2: grace pleases God because it depends on God, not self,
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  Speaker 2: for doing good. Think what a horrible thing it would
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  Speaker 2: be to say that the fruit of thee Holy Spirit
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  Speaker 2: in the Christian life is filthy rags. I can hardly
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  Speaker 2: stand even think about it. They are not filthy rags.
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  Speaker 2: They are God's precious gift and work in us. Let's
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  Speaker 2: take it a step further. If God, in fact, in
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  Speaker 2: his grace and power, enables us to do things that
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  Speaker 2: are good he is going to reward them, not ignore them.
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  Speaker 2: He's going to say, well done, good and faithful servant.
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  Speaker 2: Matthew twenty five twenty one. Works of faith are going
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  Speaker 2: to be rewarded, not thrown away as filthy rags. And
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  Speaker 2: God intends for us to hope and expect these rewards
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  Speaker 2: Sewo Corinthians five ten. We must all appear before the
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  Speaker 2: judgment seed of Christ, so that each one may receive
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  Speaker 2: what is due for what he's done in whether good
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  Speaker 2: or evil. Or consider Matthew ten forty two. Whoever gives
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  Speaker 2: one of these little ones even a cup of cold water,
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  Speaker 2: because he's a disciple. Truly, I say to you, he will,
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  Speaker 2: by no means lose his reward, or if he's in
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  Speaker 2: six ' eight, whatever good anyone does this, he will
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  Speaker 2: receive back from the Lord. There's no thought in these
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  Speaker 2: texts of anybody earning salvation or even earning rewards. The
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  Speaker 2: idea of earning is not present. In order to earn something,
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  Speaker 2: you supply some labor that someone needs so that they're
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  Speaker 2: now in your debt to pay you wages. God has
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  Speaker 2: no needs, and he pays no wages among his people.
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  Speaker 2: He bought us by grace He sustains us by grace.
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  Speaker 2: He enables us to do good work works by grace,
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  Speaker 2: and we do the works trusting that grace, and in
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  Speaker 2: that way we confirm, as Peter says, our calling and
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  Speaker 2: our election. Now we're in a position to see what's
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  Speaker 2: really going on in the Old Testament when over and
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  Speaker 2: over again God's righteous servant pleads his own integrity, his
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  Speaker 2: own uprightness to claim his help from God. I think
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  Speaker 2: Psalm twenty five is one of the best places to
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  Speaker 2: see what's going on in the psalmist mind concerning his
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  Speaker 2: own integrity and his own righteousness, his own upright behavior.
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  Speaker 2: In verse twenty one of Psalm twenty five, he says,
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  Speaker 2: may integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you. Now,
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  Speaker 2: clearly he does not think that his integrity and uprightness
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  Speaker 2: are filthy rags, and he doesn't think that they are
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  Speaker 2: performed in his own autonomous strength, because he says, because
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  Speaker 2: I wait for you. The essence and root of his
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  Speaker 2: integrity and his uprightness is that he's looking away from
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  Speaker 2: himself to the mercy and the power of God. He
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  Speaker 2: is not sinless, though verse seven, remember not the sins
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  Speaker 2: of my youth or my transgressions verse eleven. For your namesake,
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  Speaker 2: Oh Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great. Verse eighteen,
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  Speaker 2: consider my affliction and my trouble, and forgive all my sins.
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  Speaker 2: And after confessing his sins three times, at least I
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  Speaker 2: think there's one more verse verse twenty one says, may
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  Speaker 2: integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.
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  Speaker 2: He's just confessed his sin three times. He called his
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  Speaker 2: transgressions great. There is real sin left in the lives
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  Speaker 2: of the saints, in all of us. There is also
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  Speaker 2: real contrition and real confession, and real forgiveness, and real
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  Speaker 2: lives of integrity and uprightness. And David prays and asks
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  Speaker 2: that his integrity and his uprightness would preserve him. So
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  Speaker 2: when Namiyah finally got to your text, when Namiah prays
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  Speaker 2: four times something very similar about his obedience to God's commands,
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  Speaker 2: here's verse twenty two. He's doing something similar to what
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  Speaker 2: David is doing. He says, remember this also in my favor,
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  Speaker 2: oh my God, and spare me according to the greatness
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  Speaker 2: of your steadfast love. He's not doing anything essentially different
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  Speaker 2: from what David in the Psalms or doing anything different
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  Speaker 2: from the way the New Testament treats our good deeds
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  Speaker 2: as Christians. He's saying, I'm not perfect, but I have
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  Speaker 2: trusted you, and I wait for your steadfast love, and
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  Speaker 2: I have acted in my integrity, and I have sought
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  Speaker 2: to be obedient to your commandments. May this be remembered
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  Speaker 2: before you at the day of salvation. Should we pray
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  Speaker 2: that way? Should we call to mind regularly our integrity,
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  Speaker 2: our uprightness before God. And here's a guideline that I
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  Speaker 2: would say, because I don't do that very often either,
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  Speaker 2: just like you, I think a safe guideline for when
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  Speaker 2: we should pray this way is that this kind of
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  Speaker 2: praying comes to the four in times when we are
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  Speaker 2: embattled and accused of things that we did not do.
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  Speaker 2: So we pray, Oh Lord, you know my heart, you
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  Speaker 2: know I am being accused unjustly. I pray that you
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  Speaker 2: will remember my integrity and my truthfulness and vindicate me
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  Speaker 2: before my enemies, and if not in this life, Oh God,
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  Speaker 2: vindicate me and reward me according to your mercy in
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  Speaker 2: the last day, when you remember how I walked in
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  Speaker 2: my integrity. So I think that's the way we should
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  Speaker 2: pray from time to time when we are embattled the
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  Speaker 2: way the psalmists and the way Neemiah.
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  Speaker 1: Was, Thank you, Master John, And of course some twenty
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  Speaker 1: five has such a special place in Pastor John's ministry
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  Speaker 1: and a special place in the history of this podcast.
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  Speaker 1: Even it's a psalm all about integrity, but it's also
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  Speaker 1: a psal about overcoming indecision and of finding guidance in
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  Speaker 1: life and purpose for life. You want to see how
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  Speaker 1: richly the psalm has been used in the podcast, see
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  Speaker 1: My Little Digests the Aspastor John Book. If you have
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  Speaker 1: a copy of the APJ book, see pages seventy and
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  Speaker 1: seventy one. Thank you est for John. And speaking of
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  Speaker 1: finding purpose, how do we Christians define success at work?
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  Speaker 1: On the job site, in the office? Nine to five.
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  Speaker 1: That's up next. I'm Tony Raik. We'll see you on Thursday.