What does First B Jackson teach about good works?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on good works starts by insisting on the order: grace, then faith, then works, and never the reverse. Brad Yates preached through Ephesians 2:8-10, the passage a friend used to bring him to faith in 2010, and was clear that good works do not produce salvation, they flow from it. The person who believes that attending church and living a decent moral life is what gets them into God's kingdom is, Brad argued, farther from the kingdom than someone who has never come at all, because the honest sinner is more likely to reach the end of themselves and recognize their need for a savior. Any attempt to tip the scales of justice with accumulated good deeds misunderstands what sin actually does: one trace of it removes a person from the presence of God entirely, the way any metal in a microwave causes a problem. The dose does not make the poison.
Works belong in the picture, but only after the foundation is settled. Ephesians 2:10 describes believers as God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand. The works were always part of the design. But Brad was careful to hold the sequence: works flow from faith, and faith flows from grace. Reverse the order and you get either a self-righteous person looking down on others or an anxious person who can never be sure they have done enough. Galatians 2:20 was brought in as the compressed version of the whole argument, the life now lived is Christ living through the believer, which means good works are the natural outward shape of a life that has already been made new from the inside.
This same emphasis runs through earlier teaching at First B. In the Titus series, Pastor Cody and others kept returning to the same sequence: God saved us not because of works done in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, and the result is that those who have believed are to devote themselves to good works for all people, not only for other believers. The works matter, and they are expected. But they are the fruit of the gospel, not the root of it, and keeping that order straight is something the teaching here returns to consistently.
Taught from Ephesians 2:8-10 · Romans 6:23 · Galatians 2:20 · Titus 3:1-11 · Ephesians 4:12
The passage taught · 1 Corinthians 5
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife.
2 You are puffed up, and didn’t rather mourn, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you.
3 For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing.
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- June 1, 2025 Grace, Faith, Works Brad Yates walks through Ephesians 2:8-10, showing why grace comes first, faith follows, and good works flow from both rather than earning what God freely gives.
- June 1, 2025 Grace Through Faith: It Is a Gift Brad Yates opens Ephesians 2:8-10 to show that salvation comes by grace through faith alone, and that good works flow from that gift, never the other way around.
- June 1, 2025 By Grace, Through Faith A Wyoming pastor walks through Ephesians 2:8-10, showing why salvation comes by grace through faith alone and how genuine good works flow from that gift.
- August 5, 2018 He Saved Us, Not Because of Works Titus 3: Paul reminds us we were once foolish and disobedient, but God saved us by His mercy and grace, not our works, renewing us through the Holy Spirit.
- August 5, 2018 Not Because of Works Done by Us Titus 3 shows that God saved us by mercy and grace, not our works, and calls believers to gentleness, good works, and unity with all people.
Mentioned along the way
- August 12, 2018 Paying Attention to People Pastor A walks through Titus 3, tracing real people in Paul's letters and calling the church to slow down, notice others, and devote themselves to good works.
- July 22, 2018 Gotta Serve Somebody Titus 2 sermon on what it means to willingly serve Christ, live self-controlled lives, and adorn the gospel through everyday work and conduct.
- July 22, 2018 You're Gonna Have to Serve Somebody Pastor Keith works through Titus 2, tracing how God's grace trains believers toward self-control, godliness, and zeal for good works while we wait for Christ's return.
- July 1, 2018 Guard the Deposit Pastor Blake walks First Baptist Jackson through the final verses of 1 Timothy and the opening of Titus, grounding both letters in the real history of the early church.
- April 8, 2018 Dead in Trespasses, Made Alive in Christ Todd Lampa walks through Ephesians 2:1-10, showing how Christians were once dead in sin, deserving judgment, and what God's mercy and grace mean for how we live now.