Rochester Conference Part 1: The Corporate New Man in Ephesians (1996)

You are the gift of God. It is not ‘it is the gift of God’; you are the gift of God. …that not of yourselves, the gift of God. It could be that the faith is the gift of God. Either one of them, you’re in your great company. Yes, brother, it could very easily be the faith. For that faith is not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Or, it’s not yourselves; you are the gift of God. I’ll take either one; I’ll take both. Faith and righteousness are the gift. Okay, we’ll take the gift as being faith. Why not? That I cannot even faith Christ. He has to give that to me. Alright, “not as a result of works that no one should boast.” And brother, I’m going to give you one and not back out this time; I’m not lying to you, brother. You have one, and it’s clear that no one person can boast. Let’s give him a hand, he’s got one.

There are brothers and sisters in a body of believers who will boast. I’m just going to get off the subject here and talk. It’s just one of those things I’ve noticed. Did you know egomaniacs don’t last long in church life? And they just wander the world telling everybody about how great they are, (singing) “how great I am, how great I am…”

I heard a Chinese brother talk about a brother in China who had been saved, and he was someone who smoked opium. That’s the greatest single addiction in the world, I believe. And he, if you came into his house, he’d immediately show you a picture of himself smoking opium, and he was an emaciated person, and then he became a Christian, and he would show you how he looked, the pictures of himself, and how he recovered, but he wouldn’t stop, he just kept on talking about his conversion and his conversion and his conversion until finally you began to realize that he was not talking about the Lord at all; he was simply a boastful person.

Well, that’s not what this passage is about because those kinds of people don’t normally survive in the church, but it is a warning to you and me to not boast that we have gained God’s favor. You did not get God’s favor, and there’s nothing you’re gonna do that’s going to make Him cuddle up to you. And if you give a lot of money, that’s not going to affect God’s relationship to you at all. And if you bring a great message, that doesn’t make God say, “Wow, I like him.” And if you stop smoking cigarettes, you haven’t won God’s favor, and anything you do – this is important, because outside these walls, most Christians are doing what they’re doing, trying to carry the favor of God, to get God’s attention away from their sinfulness, and their present state, their guilt. The Catholic Church has been raised on people giving money in order for God to like them. I’ll give money and build an entire cathedral if you’ll do seven Hail Marys for me for the next thousand years in hopes that all these things I’ve done will get me out of purgatory a little sooner. That is carrying the favor of God.

Brothers and sisters, you can’t get any more favorable in the sight of God. You’ve been His favorite since before creation. You can’t get any better in your relationship to God than you are right now. And if you don’t believe in the safety of that, then think of how much you put up with your own kids, and this merciful Lord of yours, this merciful, merciful Lord of yours, settled this before you were created.

Now the score is now in reality one to forty-seven, but we’re giving you four, just to keep the theologians off our backs. I just want to read this passage again. I’m going to read verse 7. In order that in the ages to come, He might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For we are His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand. I don’t want to read any further. I’ll come back. I just want to read the parentheses. “For by grace you all have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. That faith is the gift of God.” Okay? “And it is not a result of your works, therefore, don’t boast about in yourselves.” Alright, I think we’ve counted everything up to half of verse 10. Is that correct? Okay. For we are His masterpiece. We are one masterpiece, saints: that’s a corporate “we”, saints. We were created inside of Jesus Christ for good works.

Now, now, now, now immediately, Gene, you said over there, we were not, and not, and we’re not. But here it says good works. What? What? Gene, what? What are the good works? And oh, what am I supposed to do? And what if my works aren’t good? And oh, I’m in big trouble again. And I just got out of grace and worked. And then he just blows your little efforts high in the sky and says this. He predestined that you were going to do those good works, and the good works are not of you either; they were predetermined before creation. Now stand up and boast about what you have done for Jesus. He predetermined, He foreknew, He decided beforehand that you were going to do the good works you did. Isn’t that wonderful? I mean, how liberating that nobody said to me, don’t ever let anybody say to me, but Gene, you have to do good works; no, I don’t. I have been predestined to the good works that I will do, and that I have done, and so have you. Isn’t it wonderful? Praise the Lord. Let’s give the Lord a hand. He is very good.

For we are His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which He prepared beforehand that we would walk in them. 48. And now I want to ask you a question. Who does the good works? It is a corporate working of good works predetermined that we, the church, would walk in them in Christ. Therefore, when someone says to you, ‘Do good works,’ you say, ‘No, sir, not me.’ We, a body of believers, do good works. Last week, someone was sick, but I was out of town. You took care of them, but we did good work. This week, I am really mad at half the brothers and sisters of the church. I’m living in sin, I’m not speaking to any of the sisters, and not half the brothers. Therefore, I am in my flesh, and I’m not having anything to do with any of you this week. That’s because I’m immature, sensitive, and unforgiving, but that week, the church did good works. Next week, I’ll catch up on it, I’ll repent hopefully, and I’ll speak to the sisters but not the brothers. We, a body of believers.

Now, if this does not give you a new Christian faith, a new Christian law, a new Christian something or other around, and this is the only way any of us should have ever understood the scripture. I look at that passage, and I think of what has been drained out of that thing, and been put on God’s people individually, and I am in awe of the brutality that we have wished off on one another. I have not been predestined to any works; I’m not going to walk in them. I am part of a girl. She’s got to do good work because she was predestined to it; she’s going to walk in that by nature. It is her nature to do, sir. Thank God.

Now, brothers and sisters, if you could just watch her move, she just does it. Saints in Orlando, someone wrote me a letter the other day, and there was a sister, and she said, The brothers have meetings on Sunday morning. Sometimes they go a long time, and when we see that they’re getting close to lunch, sisters all get together, put a meal together for them, and we leave our houses, we get our food together, and we all walk it to the brothers. We put the food down on the floor for them, and the brothers eat lunch. You belong to a church like this, that happens to you all the time. That’s just she being a she. That’s a girl. The sisters just get together and put a meal together and serve it to the brothers, but who did the good work? She did. Why did she do that? Why? She was predestined to be that way. She can’t help it. It is a biological drive. Do you have any biological drives? You have a biological drive, a biological drive to eat, a biological drive to sleep, and other things, and she has a biological drive. She was predestined, predetermined. That’s just the way she would be.

Brothers and sisters, if you live a thousand years, you won’t hear anything more wonderful, and it’s liberating and it’s beautiful; that’s the way it is. I don’t have a biological drive to good works because I’ll run myself into the ground and have a complete physical breakdown trying to live up to all this stuff. I cannot live the Christian life, and I cannot do good works, but when I become part of this girl, she does so much.

Just recently, I was in a doctor’s office and got to know one of the ladies on the staff there really well. She’s a Christian. She’s telling me what she did, what was going on, and the more she talked, we had a long conversation, and she was killing herself and quoting verses about how it should be. I said to her sister, You need to take a vacation from being good to other Christians and helping them and she almost went into a spasm. No, I am dead serious. There was terror on her face, and she said, “Oh, I could never do that.” And I thought, “Oh, how sad that you can’t lay down your compunction, your compulsive drive to do good works.