"GOOD WORKS" AND "WONDERFUL WORKS."
THE Lord desires that His people shall do good works in this sinful world. By these they are to glorify Him. "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Matt. 5:16. To this end Peter also gives us instruction: "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; having your conversation honest among the Gentiles; that, whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. . . . For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men." 1 Peter 2:11-15. The purpose of our redemption is that God may have a people through whom He can do good works. Christ "gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Titus 2:14. This redemption from iniquity, this purification of the heart by faith, is essential to the ability to do good works. No man can do good works of his own motion. Many people who do not know Christ are very zealous to do what they deem to be good works, hoping thereby to earn salvation. But God does not recognize their works as in any wise to His glory. In these latter times, just before the coming of the Lord, we are to expect "the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish." These works are to be done through men who are deceived with the idea that, because the works they are enabled to do are somewhat extraordinary, they must be of God. The Lord permits them to be thus deceived because they do not accept the truth for the last days that would enlighten them concerning these things. Because they do not believe the truth, they take pleasure in what appears to them good and wonderful, but which God calls "unrighteousness." See 2 Thess. 2:8-12. "The world is full of the manifestations of this "power," these "signs and lying wonders;" and, as it was with Simon Magus, who flourished in Samaria, in Philip's day, the people think that the doers of these wonders are endowed with "the great power of God." But the judgment will reveal the true character of both the work and workers of these deceptive signs and wonders; that, altho they are done in the name of Christ, He does not own them as in any way connected with His work. In the Sermon on the Mount, He tells us of the result of such work: "Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out devils? and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from Me, ye that work iniquity." Matt. 7:22, 23. So much for the character of the "wonderful works" that men who ignore the truth are wont to do in the name of the Lord. It will be noticed that those who are to-day astonishing the people with unusual signs and demonstrative wonders do not recognize the binding obligation of all the commandments of God, which His Word tells us are the truth. See Ps. 119:144, 172. In the same judgment, however, in which the "wonderful works" of men done in the name of Christ are disowned by Him, He tells us what kind of works are acknowledged. "Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was an hungered, and ye gave Me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took Me in naked, and ye clothed Me; I was sick, and ye visited Me; I was in prison, and ye came unto Me." Matt. 25:34-36. Then those who are accredited with such ministrations unto the Lord express surprise, and inquire when such services were rendered unto Him; and He replies, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me." Verse 40. Such is the character of the good works which the purified peculiar people will be zealous to do, and, as the Spirit becomes more and more manifest under the fuller endowment of the "latter rain," the greater will be the zeal of those who love and look for the coming of the Lord.