Engelsma: God’s beauty shines in everything fair in creation, and we give Him the glory for it when we view it. But to move from that to the proposition that God also shines with His grace, in what is supposed to be fair in the lives of unregenerated people, is a huge, and unwarranted, leap, and it is really to beg the question; the question is – Does scripture reveal that there is anything fair, in the judgment of God, in the life of one who is alienated from him and opposed to him? With regard to the question – ‘ What does God delight in? ‘ Scripture itself answers that in much along the lines of, at least obliquely reflecting upon, a notion that God takes delight in the putts of Tiger Woods, or the fastball of Hal Neuhauser, or the home runs of Sammy Sosa, scripture says ” God does not take delight in the legs of a man, but He takes delight in those who fear Him .”[ Psalm 147: 10 , 11 ].
Engelsma continues: It is our position that in as much as whatever the unbeliever does, he does not to the glory of God, but at the very most for the glory of humanity or the welfare of humanity, and ” comes short of the glory of God “. That activity of the unbeliever is abominable in the sight of God. It’s abominable, that, if that’s the case, as I assume it is, Sammy Sosa hits sixty home runs this year, for his own glory, and not to the glory of God , that he hits home runs, no matter how prodigious those home runs may be. Not to mention here, that the fact that the activity of the wicked is sin, and therefore not delighted in by God, does not imply that the products of the activity of the wicked , we think are sinful and off limits, not at all . If Beethoven was an unbeliever, it was sin for him when he composed the Ninth Symphony , and especially because he thought to encourage the unity of the human race apart from Jesus Christ . But once that symphony has been produced, as a beautiful piece of music, a Christian, who has a taste for that, may certainly hear that, and enjoy that, and by his own use of that, because Beethoven, of course , was working after all with the laws of God in creation , having to do with music, the Christian glorifies God by his hearing of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and if he doesn’t glorify God with it, he ought not to be doing it . Because whatever we do, even eating and drinking, we ought to do it ” all to the glory of God ” [ 1 Cor.10:31 ].
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Jason Robertson is a husband and a father and a pastor. He is dedicated to leading and equipping his the Church with God’s word and biblical theology for life ministry, using a combination of pastoral, church planting and evangelism experience. He holds a Master of Divinity from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. He is experienced in church planting, evangelism, missions, and the training of pastors and Bible teachers.
Jason has been preaching the gospel since 1985, serving the first ten years of ministry as a Southern Baptist itinerant evangelist out of Milldale Baptist Church in Zachary, LA which ordained him in 1993. He has preached in hundreds of churches in over 30 States and 4 countries. He planted churches in Siberia, Russia in the summers of 1993 and 1994. He founded Murrieta Valley Church in California, which he planted in cooperation with the SBC NAMB in 2001. He also teaches ministry students at California Baptist University.
You can hear his sermons and read his manuscripts on sermonaudio.com. Just follow the link to "sermons" at the top of this page.
“Works done by unregenerate men, although for the matter of them they may be things which God commands; and of good use both to themselves and others: yet, because they proceed not from an heart purified by faith; nor are done in a right manner, according to the Word; nor to a right end, the glory of God, they are therefore sinful, and cannot please God, or make a man meet to receive grace from God: and yet, their neglect of them is more sinful and displeasing unto God.” (Westminster Confession 16:7; cf. Baptist Confession of 1689)
One of those paradoxes, all “good works” done by an unbeliever are sinful, yet to neglect them is even more sinful.
If the sinful works a believer are “burned up” as dross and do not follow him into the consummate kingdom, how can we expect the works of an unbeliever to be found there?