Catechism Lesson #88-89
Catechism Doctrine • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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The Culture of Works
The Culture of Works
Q88: Is any man able to keep the commandments of God?
A88: No mere man, since the fall, is able in this life, perfectly to keep the commandments of God, but daily breaks them in thought, word, and deed.
Q89: What then is the purpose of the law since the fall?
A89: The purpose of the law, since, the fall, is to reveal the perfect righteousness of God, that His people may know his will for their lives and the ungodly, being convicted of their sin, may be restrained therein and brought to Christ for salvation
Main Proposition:
Statement of Doctrine or Application (SILVER BULLET)
We are called to live a life that is God centered
The main thing
Intro:
Statement of proposition
Here is what we know:
Nobody is perfect
Nobody is going to keep the law
Everybody needs Christ
Other texts that support:
20 For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. 21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Why does this matter?
Why is this important for us to understand as people that live in the year 2024?
Works based salvation was as prevalent in Moses and Paul’s times as it is now
Regardless of people and where they stand people want to feel that they are attributing to their salvation.
Michael, I could be a lot worse then I am. Yes, we all could, but it is only by God’s grace that we are not.
You might say: I go to church most Sundays, I read my Bible most days, I pray most days, I help my family do chores most days, I don’t show my parents that much attitude.
Compared to some people I am not that bad….
Let me ask you this question: How do you know that you are saved?
Some people will answer that: I am a good person, I know that I have a relationship with Christ, The good works I do outweigh the bad that I do (net positive), I grow up going to church and reading the Bible
The only answer that is acceptable to God is: Because Christ took on my sins and died on the cross for me.
People always want to go back to “I”: I do this and I do that, but that has nothing to do with salvation. Your salvation has nothing to do with you and everything to do with Christ.
Is your salvation God centered?
As we know in God’s perspective there are NO good works outside of having saving faith.
I think we see this in the world today: People that are not true believers trying to do “good” from a worldly perspective, but when God sees a nonbeliever doing good for a wordly perspective he is not congratulating them, because all of the works that those people are doing is man centered.
God wants glory
God gets glory when a sinner a fallen person comes to saving faith in His Son.
Nothing before that matters
And we do not have to fix ourselves or do anything special for God to say okay “homie has done enough I am going to call him to me”
God calls us when we are in rebellion of him.
There are no good works that a man can do without Christ
People look at the Commandments and think of it as a bullseye
I need to be as close as possible to perfection
the law = salvation
In reality the law points us to?
Christ
As believers we need to have a God Centered Life or Salvation
What is the difference between a God Centered life and a Man Centered life? (Whiteboard)
Main Point #1: God Centered prayer life
Main Point #1: God Centered prayer life
Statement:
Our prayers must be God centered
Prove
How can our prayers be God centered? (whiteboard)
As we know the first catechism question: What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy him forever.
Newer students will pick up on this
Why is it important as believers to have our prayers be God centered?
What is the danger if our prayers are man centered?
God turns into magic genie rather than the creator of everything
What is the heart posture of your prayer?
I know I get into the habit of praying for things for myself, but we have to be reminded that our prayer life has to be more then praying for “a neighbor that is sick” Is she a believer? Instead of praying for a specific sports event pray that no matter the outcome my actions will glorify God, win or lose.
I pray for my neighbor that is sick and does not yet know you Lord, I pray that through this tough time she will come to a saving faith in you.
When you are stressed or anxious: Lord, I pray that I can meditate on your words, that I can focus on your strength, providence and will and no matter what I know that you will be glorified.
We cannot just focus on “Me centered prayers”
God does want to hear from us and be close to us and this is how we communicate with God, but if our prayers are only “I need a fix in my life” What does that say to God?
Flowers in texts
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
“The religion of most men lies in the marketplace and in the view of others; their hearts, their closets are not privy to any secret transactions between God and their souls, and in the praise of men they have their reward. But the thriving trade of Christianity is the secret trade. Christians be most in those duties which men least observe and chiefly excellent in the invisible part of your visible work. Public duties are most honorable, but secret duties the most gainful.” Bartholomew Ashwood
Not all public prayer is bad, Jesus did not condemn all public prayer what Jesus is concerned with here is one’s internal motivation as the central concern.
Jesus is also talking about the mindless repetition, that flows from a worshipping heart.
I feel like there is pressure when there is prayer that they have to use these big to sound more intelligent: Like omnipotence and omnipresence that somehow my prayer is better than the next.
But what is the most important thing for us to realize?
It all starts with faith in Christ
Illustrations:
Catholic Church praying the rosary for the forgiveness of sins.
Apply or Confront
Main Point #2: God Centered Actions
Main Point #2: God Centered Actions
Statement:
God centered actions begin with faith in Jesus Christ
Prove
Without Jesus Christ’s atonement, imputation and resurrection none of what we talk about matters.
This is the foundation of our faith.
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; 11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
Here we have Paul quoting Psalm 14:.
Human beings do some things that seem to be good, but these actions prior to salvation, are still stained by evil because they are not done in God’s glory and do not come from faith
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good. 2 The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction:
By God’s saving acts in Christ, humans stand in the right (justified) before God.
Apart from the law
Righteousness is not based on obeying the law, it is about having true saving faith in Christ and everything flows out of that.
Why or why not does someone who does works before being saved not counted as “good”or “righteous”?
Because those works are centered around the glory of the individual and not God.
We can only be God centered, Christ centered when we come to that saving faith
It is like Abraham and faith: Abraham did not come to faith based off of good works and we see that in Romans 4.
13 For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. 14 For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. 15 For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
Paul is taking the Jewish Christians back to the very beginning. The father of Israel: Abraham.
He did not want there to be any doubt that if someone were to keep the commandments, keep the law, that they could somehow earn their righteousness.
8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Point back to their lives
Illustrations
Apply or Confront
Main Point #3: God Centered faith
Main Point #3: God Centered faith
Statement
God centered faith is faith that is only centered around the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Not ourselves.
God centered faith looks at faith as something that only the father can choose by faith through the Son by means of the Holy Spirit
Not by the works of fallen, sinful men.
Prove
When I think of having God centered faith I think of the Apostle Paul
When we look at the Apostle Paul’s life before coming to saving faith what do we see?
Saul and Paul (Whiteboard)
We see someone who was persecuting Christ’s Church, killing christ’s people, but even at what we can call the lowest part of Paul’s life on the Road to Damascus Christ calls Paul to Him.
It didn’t matter what actions were done in his prior life, there was true repentance
Here we have someone who was actively against Christ and His Church and yet because of God’s grace, love and faith he gave Paul a new heart.
A heart that was beating for himself and his glory for a heart that beats for God’s glory.
A lot of people think that they need to cleanup their act so they can become worthy and some people think the opposite that their works will save them and I can say very confidently that both of those thought patterns is false.
They will look at the Commandments as a target to reach a level that God deems worthy for salvation and that is just not the case.
We have to look at God Centered Faith as God’s Glory and the total surrendering of ourselves.
Having God centered faith means look at Christ not just as your savior, but also the Lord of your life.
Flowers in texts
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.
Illustrations
Apply or Confront
