Join us for an enlightening discussion on God’s sovereignty and how it plays out in our daily lives. Dr. Kyle elaborates on the doctrine of compatibilism, illustrating how humans maintain moral responsibility while God remains sovereign over all. Through Passionate exposition, learn the incredible eternal rewards for a life filled with godly works and spiritual fruit as evidence of our faith.
Welcome to Expository Truths, where we exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with Dr. John Kyle, pastor of Faith Community Church in Vacaville. As Christians, we’re called to know the truth and be able to proclaim it. We can know truth when we know the Word of God, which is precise, without error, and powerful and effective for both salvation and spiritual growth. Enjoy digging deeply with Dr. Kyle as he takes us verse by verse through the powerful book of Ephesians, giving us a marvelous summary of the good news of Christ and its implications for our daily lives.
SPEAKER 02 :
Please turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10. Ephesians 2, 10. The letter of Ephesians was written by the Apostle Paul to the faithful saints living in the city of Ephesus. Paul wrote this while he was under house arrest in Rome in about AD 62, and he wrote it to lay a proper doctrinal foundation for these believers so they could then live out those doctrines for the glory of God. We’re now in the doctrinal section of this book that’s found in chapters 1 through 3. If you remember, chapter 1 was basically two long sentences. The first sentence showed us the many amazing reasons that we can and should bless and praise our amazing God. And the second sentence was a prayer by Paul for the Ephesians that we today should be praying for ourselves and for one another as we earnestly pursue the things that we’re praying for in our own lives. Chapter 2 began by telling us that we were all dead before God saved us. But good news, really good news, God is rich in mercy. He is great in love. He made us alive because He’s incredibly gracious. He also raised us to life and gave us His divine power for victorious living. And then to top all that off, He will show us His abundant grace and kindness for all of eternity. but god and he changes everything see it’s all him it’s all his grace so that means that there’s no boasting on our part right no our only boast is in him okay now what verse 10 let’s look for we are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works which god prepared beforehand that we should walk in them Now, as we look at this verse, there are four wonderful truths that jump out at us. The first is this, that we are God’s workmanship. That leads to our second point, that we’re created in Christ Jesus for… For what? What does this tell us? It tells us that God didn’t make you His masterpiece for nothing. No, He wants you to show forth His artwork of you, which then reflects Him. How? How? Good works, right? Look, we are created. We are newly created. Speaking of our spiritual creation, when He saved us and gave us eternal life, we were created in Christ Jesus. So we are now His. We are united with Him. We belong to Him. We’re secure in Him. We’re accepted in Him. We have assurance in Him. His victory is our victory. And look, just as He went about doing good for the glory of the Father all His days, so too must we who are in Christ do good. Good works. What are good works? The good works spoken of here are godly works. Works that glorify and honor your King. Works that are the result of Christ in you. Works that have eternal value. True good works according to God. You could also call this spiritual fruit, same thing. So here’s the thought. That because we’ve been saved by God’s amazing grace through faith in Christ alone, and because we are now His masterpieces, that we then will bear the fruit of that salvation, we’ll now live in a God-honoring way as His children, by doing good and God-honoring works. which will reflect the work of the Master in our lives. That makes sense. And while works have nothing whatsoever to do with salvation, we need to be clear about that. Hey, now that we are saved, works that honor Him from a heart of love are what it’s all about. I mean, that’s what it says. We were created in Christ Jesus for… Good works. So again, works don’t mean a thing before you’re saved. And our own works have nothing whatsoever to do with our salvation. But now that we have been saved, works matter greatly. For they are the proof, the outflow, the fruit of who and what we truly are. And so, just as a seed that you plant will grow into a tree that bears fruit according to its kind, so genuine saving faith will produce good works. That’s how it works. And note that these works aren’t tacked on to saving faith, no, but instead they’re inherent to saving faith. In other words, they stem from its very nature. Look, when God imparts salvation to a sinner, He not only gives us life, but He also changes our heart, right? And as the Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5.17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he’s a new creature. The old has passed away. Behold, all things have become new. So when God truly imparts new life to us, we are then changed from within. That must then express itself from without. Right? You now love Him. And love must show itself forth with action. See, words mean nothing unless actions back up the words. Look, believing sound doctrine alone is insufficient for salvation. Genuine saving faith is always connected with the new birth, with new life in Christ that necessarily results in a life of spiritual fruit, of godly works and deeds which prove who and whose we really are. So genuine saving faith necessarily results in a life of good works, compelled by love for the God who saved you from eternity in hell. James adds these words in chapter 2, verse 26. For as a body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. That’s pretty clear, isn’t it? I mean, if you see a body that’s not breathing, you can conclude that it’s a dead body. In like manner, if you see faith that doesn’t produce any good works, you can conclude that it’s a dead faith. So faith is the root, and good works are the fruit of saving faith. And so, now that we’re Christians, we’re to be all about good works. Not empty good works, the empty good works of the world, no. But godly works that reflect his reality in our life and that have eternal value. Is that what you’re about? Hey, it’s not about pleasing yourself. It’s not about giving your children everything they want. It’s not about making more money or advancing your career or getting a bigger house or getting a nicer car or any other fading thing of this short life. It’s not about that. It’s about glorifying God with the short precious time that you have left. And the way to glorify God is to do good works that honor Him and to bear spiritual fruit. That’s it. What about you? Or are you wasting your life away? We’ve talked about this before. It’s good to look at it again. 2 Corinthians 5.9 says this. Therefore, whether present or absent, we make it our aim to be well-pleasing to God. Why? For we all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. What does that mean? It means that as Christians, we will answer to God for how we live out our faith. For how we live out our saving faith. Now please understand that judgment for a Christian and judgment for a non-Christian are radically different. See, the judgment for the non-Christians, which is called the great white throne judgment as described in Revelation chapter 20, is that judgment where non-believers will stand before God, where the books of their life will then be opened up, and where they will then be held accountable for their sin and for their rejection of Christ, which will bring condemnation and eternal judgment upon them. That’s not the judgment that Paul’s talking about in 2 Corinthians 5, but instead, this is a judgment of evaluation for the Christian, for how he or she lived out their faith. It’s a judgment for the works of the Christian, the fruit of the Christian. See, this matters. How you live matters to you, and it matters to God. Look, the word judgment seat is the Greek word bima, which literally means step as in a raised platform or seat. This was where a Roman magistrate sat to act as a judge. The Bemis seat was an object of reverence and fear for all the people, especially for those who stood before it. See, a person who stood before this Bemis seat would have his or her deeds examined for the purpose of either indicting them or for rewarding them. And so… what we find is that in like manner, we as Christians will stand before God and give an accounting for how we lived out our faith. Now please understand again that this isn’t a judgment for sin, since every sin of every believer was judged at the cross when God punished Jesus for all that sin in our place. Also, this isn’t a judgment of condemnation, since there is now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. But rather, this beam of seat judgment is simply a judgment of evaluation and eternal reward. So again, let me be clear. This needs to be clear. No, as Christians, we are no longer standing condemned in our sin because of the cross. Anybody? Praise the Lord. However, we will still be held accountable for how we lived out our faith, and then we will be rewarded for that accordingly. Note that every Christian will appear before this judgment seat, this Bema seat, and no one will escape it. We’ll all give an accounting and in that day the full truth about our lives, our character, and our deeds will be made clear. Each will discover the real verdict of his life, ministry, service, and motives. As one says, all hypocrisy will be stripped away. All temporal matters with no eternal significance will vanish like wood, hay, and stubble. And only what’s to be rewarded as eternally valuable will be left. In other words… Your life as a Christian, your fruitfulness as a Christian, your stewardship as a Christian, your works as a Christian will be accounted for before God. They will indeed be evaluated and rewarded. And this truth should be an encouragement for all of us in our service in the Lord. And it should remind us of the principle. It should remind us of the principle in Hebrews 6.10, which says, For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shown toward His name, and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. In other words, God won’t forget, right? He sees. God knows. He knows your heart. He sees your works, your sacrifices, your service, and He will not forget. And when you stand before Him, He will not forget, and He will reward you accordingly. Right? In other words, again, how you live as a Christian matters, and it reaps eternal reward, it reaps eternal blessing. And you can waste your life away on wood, hay, and straw, the things that burn away, the things that mean nothing to God and that have no eternal value, empty works, or… You can live for gold, silver, and precious stones, which represents the things that have eternal value. What you do for God and what you do for the glory of God. Good works are, again, spiritual fruit. Like what? Anything that’s a result of Christ in you. Anything that you do that honors and pleases God. That includes a fruit of the Spirit, right? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That’s spiritual fruit that has eternal value. But it also includes tangible results like serving Him and serving in the church and giving to God and to the people of God, sharing your faith, saying no to sin, battling sin. Showing Christ to others, to your family, your kids, your spouse. Growing in Christ. Obeying Him from the heart. Christian fellowship and encouragement. Reading His words so that you can then put it into practice. And prayer. Living for His glory, honor, and pleasure. All those things. And all those things will be rewarded by Him in the future. That’s an amazing thing to think about. So again, how you live out your faith matters to you and to God greatly. So here’s a question. How much fruit will be in your spiritual account that will be rewarded by God on that day? What’s the reward? Hey, heaven’s good enough for me. Anybody? I mean, that’s free. That is unearned. Every Christian goes to heaven. That’s good enough. But look, rewards come in addition to eternal glory. So what is it? My thought is very simple. The Christian’s greatest reward is knowing and feeling the pleasure of God. Right? I picture it like this. Going and standing before God on this day, before this beam of seat judgment and saying one of two things. Here, Lord. Here’s a basket of fruit. I did it for you, Lord, because I love you. Or this. Here, Lord. Here, Lord. I did it all for you. I did it for you because I love you. Hey, bring in the truckloads. Right? And the truckloads of fruit are brought in and they’re laid down before the Lord as a way to honor Him and as a way to show my intense love for Him and He smiles. Come on, that is the ultimate reward. Well done. Good and faithful servant. But here’s the truth. We are indeed created for good works. And our works that we do as a result of our faith and flowing out of our love for Him, they matter. And they have eternal value and they greatly please God. And that’s what we were created to do, to please and glorify Him. And they will be rewarded by Him. What great incentive to do good work. This pleases God. Third, God prepared this beforehand. Look. Which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. What does that mean? Well, it clearly says that God prepared these good works before the believer was saved and as part of his plan in eternity past. This phrase corresponds with 1.4 where it states that God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. Why? In order that we might be holy and blameless before Him in love. So God not only chose His own before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame, but He also prepared good works beforehand for them, for us, and some of those good works are spelled out for us in the application portion of Ephesians chapters 4 through 6. So look, before being given life and coming to faith, people exist in the sphere of bad works, and they were objects of God’s wrath. But when they’re given life and they come to saving faith in Christ, look, they aren’t left in a vacuum of no activity, no, but instead, they now have works already prepared by God in eternity past. So according to Ephesians, not only did God predetermine eternal glory for believers, but He also prepared beforehand good works for their present life. Now what does this show us? That God’s grace to us, His beloved children, extends to all the way back to before the foundation of the world. It’s very clear. It’s also seen in everything that we do in this present life. And then it will extend all the way into the future and then on throughout eternity. It’s all the grace of God. Now, some might look at this and use it as an excuse for their lack of fruit and good works in their own life. They say, well, if God prepared my good works beforehand, then my lack of good works and my lack of spiritual fruit really isn’t on me. No, it’s on God. Because he’s the one who prepared it for me. I mean, if he wanted me to do more good works, and if he wanted me to bear more spiritual fruit, then he would have prepared more works for me to do. Wrong. That’s not an excuse for spiritual laziness in your life. Look what it says. Which God prepared beforehand, what? That we should walk in them. See, it’s all grace, and all the glory goes to God, and any good thing that we do in this fading life goes to Him alone, His grace. However, we still have a responsibility to live out our faith with passion, love, obedience, and conviction, and we’re accountable to God for how we do it. This is one of the great mysteries in the Bible, how God’s sovereignty works with man’s responsibility. And while it seems to not make much sense to us how God prepared good works beforehand for us, and then how we’re called to walk in them, which we’re fully responsible to do, look, us understanding this isn’t the issue. Why? Because God has it handled, and it’s not an issue at all for God, and our call is to trust Him and to lovingly obey Him. So here’s a biblical truth. God is sovereign and humans are responsible and accountable for how they live out their lives. And both of those things are biblically true. Let’s look at this for a second. What is the sovereignty of God? A.W. Pink says that when we talk of the sovereignty of God, we mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the Godhood of God. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is the Most High, doing according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that none can stay His hand or say unto Him, What are you doing? To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is the Almighty, the possessor of all power in heaven and earth, so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will.” To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is the governor among the nations, Psalm 22, 28, setting up kingdoms, overthrowing empires, and determining the course of dynasties as pleases Him best. To say that God is sovereign is to declare that He is the only potentate, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, 1 Timothy 6, 15. Such is the God of the Bible, and that is absolutely correct, and it’s important for us to understand that our God, the God of the Bible, is a sovereign God. He’s our Creator. He’s Lord of heaven and earth. He’s in charge. His hand of providence rules over all things. See, He answers to no one. He is above all. He always gets His way. He’s not merely first among the gods, but He is the one and only true God who is sovereign over all things. Sovereignty means that there are no limits to God’s rule. That he is sovereign over the whole world and everything that happens in it. That he’s never helpless, never frustrated, and never at a loss. That he’s never backed into a corner where his only recourse is to do something that he hates to do. No, he does whatever he pleases, and whatever he does is always right. And nothing can stop what he wants to do from happening, even enemies, even sin. In Acts 17, Paul says that God has determined people’s pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings. So it’s God alone who determines these things. This tells us that an all-wise, sovereign God has a predetermined plan for this world, including you. Pre-appointed times refers to the fact that God’s in control of the rise and fall of nations and cultures. See, He orders it, He decides what’s going to happen, He arranges it. God is also providentially governing the world in which He has set man’s boundaries. That means that He has determined where people will live and how long they’re going to live there. He also determines the geographical boundaries of every nation for He’s sovereign over all, including salvation, which we’ve already seen very clearly in the book of Ephesians. That said, please note this, that while God is sovereign, at the same time, humanity is fully responsible and accountable to God. See, God’s sovereignty doesn’t cancel out human responsibility, not at all. Remember the story of Joseph? Joseph, one of the sons of Israel, is betrayed by his other brothers and he’s sold into slavery. He ended up in Egypt. After serving in the house of Potiphar, he was unjustly accused by Potiphar’s wife and he was thrown into prison. Ultimately, he was delivered from prison by God, and he was raised up to be the one through whom God rescued Israel and blessed the nations during the famine. Look what Joseph said to his brothers when they came to him looking for food and didn’t recognize him yet. Genesis 45, 4 through 8 says this. So Joseph said to his brothers, Come near to me, please. And they came near. And he said, I’m your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into slavery. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourself because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will neither be plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it’s not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord over all his house and ruler over the land of Egypt. Later on, Joseph said these words to them in Genesis 50, verse 20. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. And here we see both God’s sovereignty and human responsibility being played out. Clearly in this event, God is sovereign over all things, and yet human beings are completely responsible for their sinful actions. This doctrine is called the doctrine of compatibilism. And it shows us again that while man retains human freedom within their nature and moral responsibility, at the same time, God retains His sovereignty over all. You say, okay, what about sin? Yeah, God’s sovereign over sin. That doesn’t mean that God’s the author of sin, because God is not the author of sin, even though God made humanity with the possibility of sinning, and even though God knew that sin would come. See, biblically, God doesn’t lead anyone into sin, God never tempts anyone to sin, and God hates sin, and yet, God is still God overall, using all of it for His eternal and sovereign purposes, even… The evil that man does. See, sin is still sin and evil is still evil, but guess what? God is greater than the evil and God is determined to and He will accomplish His sovereign purposes through it all. See, sometimes in His sovereignty, God chooses to allow things that He doesn’t directly cause. That’s called God’s permissive will. And look, all of that fits into God’s sovereign plan. Again, even sin, even evil, even Satan… God is certainly sovereign over all things, even evil. And it’s not an interruption into His eternal plan. No, it fits into it. And good news, it ends well for those of us in Christ. But note again this. That God’s role with regard to evil is never as its author. He simply permits evil agents to work, and then He overrules evil for His own wise and holy ends. Ultimately, He’s able to make all things, including evil, work out for our good and for His own eternal glory. Even that wretched thing that happened to you. God can even work that out for your eternal good and His eternal glory. Our God is indeed sovereign and at the same time, we are responsible and we are accountable to live out our faith with love. We are responsible, we are accountable to live out our faith with passion as we earnestly pursue good works and as we earnestly pursue spiritual fruit. And that’s our call as Christians. How are you doing? Hey, God does His part very well. Thank you very much. But what about you? How both of these two realities are true simultaneously can’t be understood by the human mind, but they are biblical and true nonetheless. And we’re called to take them in faith and then to get on with glorifying God with the precious time that we have left. So get on with it. Walk in them good works. Bear spiritual fruit. Passionately pursue good works that honor your King. Redeem the time. Live like the masterpiece that you are.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thanks for joining us for today’s exposition from the book of Ephesians on expository truths with Dr. John Kyle. Continue on with us next week at this same time. And to find this sermon in its entirety as well as other sermons, visit vacavillefaith.org. Faith Community Church seeks to exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with a commitment to glorifying God through the pure, deep, and reaching message of the gospel through faithful exposition. Pastor John is the preaching pastor at Faith Community Church of Vacaville, a seminary professor and a trainer of preaching pastors overseas. Join Faith Community Church for worship Sundays at 9 and 1045 a.m. located at 192 Bella Vista Road, Suite A in Vacaville. To learn more, visit vacavillefaith.org or call 707-451-2026. That’s vacavillefaith.org.
