Why We Believe Our Works Dont Earn Anything (Luke 17:7-10)

I. Introduction. A. Orientation. Two weeks ago, We started a mini-series Within our current series On why we believe what we believe To follow up On what we saw three Lords Days ago When we considered again the Reformation And what the Lord used To begin that Reformation about: Namely, Luthers reaction To the churchs teaching on indulgences. Indulgences, remember, Are basically credits for the Church Militant (us here on earth) and the Church Suffering (the poor souls in purgatory) from the spiritual storehouse that is the Catholic Church. Saints throughout history have offered up their sufferings, mortifications, alms, and good works as capital in the Churchs spiritual warehouse. And it is all there for OUR benefit. As I mentioned last time, Jesus merits are also in this treasury, As well as something I didnt mention Those of the Virgin Mary,

2 Whose prayers and good works are, according to the Roman church, truly immense, and even pristine in their value before God (CC 1477).

The Roman church makes a distinction, As weve seen, Between the guilt that is yours For committing sins, And the temporal punishment That is due to you for those sins.

They believe Jesus sacrifice cancels out all our guilt In their view, If one receives baptism, Regularly partakes in the Mass or communion, Makes confession, and receives absolution But the satisfaction He makes For our temporal punishment Though infinite and inexhaustible Isnt applied directly to us. Rather, its stored in the treasury of merits, Along with the excess merit of Mary and the saints Their sufferings, mortifications, alms and good works And dispensed through the church By means of indulgences.

3 Why doesnt the Roman church If they really believe this to be true, And believe they have the authority To open this treasury, Simply open it And let the poor souls Suffering in purgatory Come out, And keep the souls of the saints From entering there in the first place?

In the best light, Its because they want to use this treasure To encourage Gods people to do good works. We read in the Catholic Catechism under indulgences, An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins. Thus the Church does not want simply to come to the aid of these Christians, but also to spur them to works of devotion, penance, and charity (1478). Theyre basically saying That if the church made it too easy To go to heaven, It would encourage us to ungodliness Rather than godliness.

We should question Whether this is a better motivation Than the love we should have For the One who has cleansed us of all our guilt And made full satisfaction for all our sins!

Weve already seen That the Bible nowhere teaches That there is a purgatory Waiting for us after death, Where we will have to make satisfaction for The temporal punishment due for our sins And be purged of all our impurities.

Rather, it teaches us that when we die If we have turned from our sins And trusted Jesus Christ We will immediately go Into the presence of God. Paul writes, We are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8). There are many other places in Scripture That tell us the same thing, But Ill have to refer you to our study from last time,

5 If you want to review them.

B. Preview. Lets move on now to challenge Another part of this teaching, Namely, whether there is such a thing As merit or excess merit: Whether a believer could ever Satisfy for any of the punishment due, Or do more than is required, So as to have some left over To be dispensed to the needy saints In this world or in purgatory.

II. Sermon. A. First, lets consider what the Roman church means by merit.

Merit refers to something that is owed: You do something, you get something. If I promise to pay you $10 For a particular job And you do that work for me, I owe you $10. This is something you have merited or earned Under the given conditions

6 Its not a reward, Its not a gift, Its not grace, But something that is due.

Second, merit can be positive or negative There are merits and demerits You can earn rewards or more punishment Depending on whether What you do is good or bad.

Third, apart from Gods grace, You really cant positively merit anything. We read in the Catholic Catechism, With regard to God, there is no strict right to any merit on the part of man. Between God and us there is an immeasurable inequality, for we have received everything from him, our Creator (2007). The merit of man before God in the Christian life arises from the fact that God has freely chosen to associate man with the work of his grace. The fatherly action of God is first on his own initiative, and then follows mans free acting through his collaboration, so that the merit of good works is to be attributed in the first place to the grace of God, then to the faithful (2008). But fourth, once that grace is given We can merit or earn additional grace So that we might become more sanctified And help others to do the same. Since the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace, no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the

7 graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life (2010).

Notice that we dont gain eternal life We dont get to go to heaven Simply by trusting Jesus Christ And receiving His righteousness and forgiveness.

In Romes eyes, We receive the beginnings Of the justification Necessary to go there Through the sacraments Our guilt is forgiven But we must work off The temporal debt we owe to Gods justice Through our good works, Realizing that the grace we need To do these good works Is itself the gift of God. God works in us To help us achieve eternal life.

Those who do just enough work, Who receive just enough merit,

8 Will enter into heaven When they die.

Those who do too little Must go to purgatory Or receive enough of an indulgence Before they can enter into heaven.

But those who do more than is needed Have their excess merit/earnings Placed in the treasury of merit, Along with Christs and the Virgin Mary, Where it will be dispensed by indulgence To those who have too little.

In our view, Rome confuses Justification and sanctification Our being declared righteous By the imputed righteousness of Christ, And our becoming more like Him By working together with Gods grace. Justification Gods declaration That we are just On the basis of Christs righteousness Is all we need to get to heaven.

Our becoming more like Jesus Is merely the evidence That must be there, by the way That we are justified. We are not saved because we are personally righteous, But we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ, And by His grace become personally righteous. As Paul writes, Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness (Rom. 4:4-5). B. Lets consider secondly, What the Bible has to say About merit and excess merit. Are we able to do what God requires Or to go above and beyond what He requires In any area?

We agree with Rome That Jesus not only has excess merit, But that His work has infinite value.

We would also agree with Rome That apart from Gods grace We can do nothing good. Paul writes, There is no one who does good,

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There is not even one (Rom. 3:12).

But we would disagree That Marys prayers and good works are, truly immense, and even pristine in their value before God (CC 1477). They believe this because they believe She was immaculately conceived That she was conceived and born without sin. They believe that this makes everything she does better Because its not mixed with sin And more than she needs Because she isnt under the obligation To make satisfaction for sins Because she never sinned. Lets lay aside for now The fact that Mary was a sinner Like all the rest of us, And take that up at a future date.

And we would disagree That what we do After receiving grace Is good enough To earn anything in Gods eyes.

11 By themselves, Our works only merit further judgment.

In our passage this evening, Jesus tells us That the slave who does everything He is commanded Isnt even worthy of a thank you, Because he is only doing What he is commanded. In the same way, Jesus says, 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 (v. 10).

Hes not talking here of unbelievers, But to His disciples. He tells them that even if they did Everything that they should And by extension, if we did All that we should We would not even be worthy of thanks. We would be unworthy and unprofitable servants Because we had only done The thing we were already bound to do As creatures made by God.

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What is it that He commands? Jesus says, You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Matt. 5:48). Thats what we already owe God. Can we do more than that? If we could, we wouldnt even be worthy of thanks. But we cant be perfect Which is why we need The perfect obedience of Jesus Christ.

Maybe we would see this more clearly If we understood more fully What God requires of us.

For us to do something perfectly, We would have to do it according to Gods standard According to His Word, His holy and righteous Law. We would have to do it for His glory and honor alone Not for God and us, Not with an eye to Gods honor And an eye to our own. And we would have to do it with a perfect heart Solely and purely out of love for Him.

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We might be able to something according to His standard. Even unbelievers can sometimes do that. But we could never do it with a perfect heart For His honor alone, Out of a pure love for Him only. We always look At least to some degree To ourselves. We always have some self-love In what we do for God.

We have never, for one moment, Loved the Lord our God, With all our heart, With all our mind, With all our soul, And with all our strength (Mark 12:30). And because we havent Nothing we have done, Even with the help of Gods grace, Has ever been acceptable by itself to Him.

But remember, even if we could Do everything perfectly,

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We would only be doing our duty, Which means, we would not be worthy Even of a thank you!

We might ask, If thats the case, Why does God reward us For what we do at all?

Its because God is gracious: He has given us a Mediator Who is able to cleanse our works From the impurities of our self-glorification and self-love, And make them acceptable to God.

We arent able to do truly good works By Gods grace, as Rome believes What we do is accepted by God Only because He has given us a Mediator Who makes what we do acceptable.

The rewards we receive will be all of grace, And will have nothing to do With any merit on our part! Our best efforts dont merit anything except demerit. They place us further in debt to Gods justice.

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The only reason we will inherit eternal life, The only reason we will arrive in heaven, Is because of the perfect work of Christ Not only the obedience He offered while on earth, But His continuing intercession for us in heaven.

Paul sums it up in this way: For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast (Eph. 2:8-9). But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace (Rom. 11:6). The works we do are the result of His grace: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Eph. 2:10). But again, the rewards He gives us for them Are purely of His grace.

And so do you need The treasury of merits In order to get into heaven? You dont need the one Rome has. All you need is Jesus Christ: He has done everything To cleanse you of your sins, To satisfy for all the punishment due to you,

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And to provide you with a perfect record of obedience.

All you need to do to receive what He has done Is turn from your sins And trust Him to provide these things for you. If you do, He will give you all that you need.

Let me close with what Paul said About his own works And his need for Christs. For we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith (Phil. 3:3-9). Do you want to inherit eternal life To enter in heaven at last when you die? Then turn to Jesus Christ, And trust Him to get you in. He is all you need. Amen. http://www.graceopcmodesto.org