Alright, if you'll take your
Bibles and turn with me to Ephesians, and my text will be found in
verse 8 through verse 10. The Scripture says, "...for by
grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." For
we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them."
Now, the title of this message this morning is, The Grace That
Saves. The Grace That Saves. Now, the
apostle had begun this chapter with the great and wonderful,
blessed doctrine of election. He says in chapter 1 and verse
3 that all spiritual blessings in heavenly places are given
to us only in Christ Jesus. And that these blessings were
given to us according as God hath from the beginning chosen
us. specifically by Christ Jesus. Before the world began, we were
accepted in Christ Jesus. Then we read of what Christ has
done. He says, "...in whom in Christ
having redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sin
according to..." What? "...the riches of His grace."
Then what? Having made known unto us the
mystery of His will. This is the power of the Holy
Spirit making known unto us this mystery that God by Himself only
knew in eternity. Now it is manifest by the coming
and dying of Christ and it is manifest to us by the Spirit
of God working in us and saving us. And He describes this in
verse 18, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. That you may know what is the
hope of His calling, what is the riches of the glory of His
inheritance of the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness
of His power. This salvation is the working
of His grace and His power. This is what our eyes are enlightened
to see. And then in verse 2, chapter
2, verse 1, he begins now to describe the experience of it. This was the doctrine of it.
This is the truth of it. Now then he's going to bring
it down and show us the experience of every believer. He says, And
you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. What is he doing here? He is
describing our natural condition. The natural condition of all
those chosen, of all those redeemed, of all those who will be enlightened,
and all those who by the exceeding greatness of His power are saved,
this was our condition. We were dead in trespasses and
sins. He's describing the nature of
all men, all men, that we are at enmity. against God. Now listen, he's not talking
about outward people rioting against God or anything. This
enmity is something natural. This enmity is something we are
born with, the nature, our very nature is against the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and we're by nature the children
of wrath. even as others." Now that word,
children of wrath, it doesn't mean that's not talking about
God's wrath. That's talking about ours. We were at enmity against
God. Children of wrath. Now what does
this manifest? It manifests the hopelessness
of our condition. It manifests the hopelessness
of man to save himself. Man cannot save himself. Do what you will, you cannot
save yourself. And then he turns to show us
some light. I'm so thankful that the gospel
doesn't leave us in this hopeless condition, but gives us the light
of hope in two words, but God. Now if those two words were not
there, we should have no hope, but God. who is rich in mercy. These words are so vitally precious. But God. You know what this means? This is saying, but God. Had
God not done something, had God not purposed, had God not acted
in sovereign grace and mercy, had God not come in mercy, we
should none of us have ever lived. The only hope for a dead sinner
and a child of wrath that stands under the condemnation of God
is what? The mercy of God. But God who
is rich in what? Mercy. Mercy. It's the mercy of God to act
and to raise us from the dead, to quicken us from our dead state,
our dead and meaningless existence, To do what? He hath quickened
us together with Christ. By grace you are saved. He hath
raised us up together and made us to sit in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. He's quickened us in Christ. What does this mean? It means
that salvation is only by a vital union with Christ. This is the
only way God saves, is by a union. with Jesus Christ as a representative
and high priest. Without union with Christ, there
would be no salvation. But you remember that this union
was what was God's purpose of obtaining all spiritual blessing.
Remember, all spiritual blessings for us are in Christ Jesus. according
as He had chosen us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of
the world. Therefore, when Christ came to
redeem, He came to provide righteousness. We were in Christ by the mercy
of God. Now consider that. As Jesus obtained
righteousness, as Christ Jesus obtained redemption, as Christ
Jesus obtained justification and is risen from the dead, even
so by the mercy of God we were in Him. seated now in the heavens
with Christ Jesus. How? By grace you are saved. By grace you are saved. This
was in Christ Jesus, a vital union. Now behold, Paul, he shows
that deadness of our nature by this as well, the inability.
You know when a dead man has no ability, does he? No ability.
But there's another way to look at this. A dead man also has
no feelings. We were dead in trespasses and
sin by nature, born this way. We had no ability to come to
Christ. Jesus said, No man can come unto
me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him. But we also
had no desire, no love. You have a dead man and you lay
him out, you can embrace him, you can weep over him, you can
love him, you can touch him, you can caress him, but he can
feel none of these things. He feels nothing. Even so, one
who is spiritually dead cannot feel the weight of his sin. Wasn't
this true of us? We could not feel the weight
of our sin. We heard people talk about sin
and how guilt and shame and sorrow. And we tried. We might have even
tried to feel guilty for our sin. It may have lasted for a
little while. We may have gotten afraid of
death and hell and we might have gotten a little scared and we
felt guilty of our sins, but that just goes away. Why? Because
you don't have any real feelings. Men by nature don't feel their
need of Christ. You know, they cannot receive
the love of God. I mean, we talk of the love of
God and how great the love of God, how immutable the love of
God is, how God sent His only Son into the world to save sinners,
and yet that gospel has no effect. You could preach, I could be
able to preach, and I know I can't, but suppose that I could preach
it well. Suppose that I had the ability
and great oratory skill and mastery of the language, I still cannot
affect the dead. Not until what? Until God acts. Until God gives life, there will
be no effect. This gospel will have no effect
but to condemn you. It will not save you except God
give life. Man could not be moved by the
message of the cross, nor could he fear the justice of God unless
God Almighty gives life, quickens him, draws it, which life was
ordained for the elect. God purposed to give life to
the elect. He purposed to. Christ came and
purchased this life for the elect. And the Spirit of God will come
to every elect sinner and He will give them life. And Jesus said this, that none
of them will be lost. Not one that the Father gave
me shall be lost. All of them will come to life.
How then does He come to life? Look at our text. For by grace
you are saved. By grace you are saved. Paul here in verse 8 begins to
show He begins to show the effect of God's resurrection, that this
is something everyone who is raised from the dead knows and
understands completely. If any one of you are listening
and you are saved, this is something you know, that you are saved
by grace. You are saved by grace. Everyone's
quick and understands. And what does grace mean? We
all understand the definition. We've heard it a thousand times.
Unmerited favor. That's what grace is. It's unmerited.
It's unwarranted. It's undeserved. All we deserved
was hell. All our works in religion merit
is hell. And that's offensive to man.
You get a man who's been religious all his life, and he dresses
up, and he's got the pious robes, and all of the ordinances, and
he's done the best that he could, and you tell that man that all
of his works are meaningless, and he's going to be offended.
But someone who knows their condition, who understands their nature,
is not offended because it's true. Paul said, I count all things
loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. I count
them but dung that I may win Christ. That's someone saved
by grace. It's unmerited favor. What God
gave us instead of what we merited is grace. Grace. The terms free
and sovereign grace, we use that a lot. But really it's redundant,
isn't it? We're being overly redundant
because grace by its very nature is both free and sovereign. Otherwise it's not grace. Otherwise
it's not grace. If grace is not free and sovereign,
it's not grace but merit. It's not grace but works. This
verse states clearly, plainly, and manifestly that salvation
is not based on works or merit, but solely based on the sovereign
will and the sovereign act of God's grace toward sinners. You see, God alone has both power
and will to save. He alone possesses power and
the will to save. He alone as sovereign over all
creation, listen, He can either quicken the dead or pass them
by. As a sovereign right. Now if
you say, well, that's not right, then what you're asking for is
merit. And again, who's merited such
grace? No one. No one has merited such grace.
Look over in Romans chapter 9. Paul plainly describes this in
these two children. Romans 9 and verse 11, Jacob
and Esau being in the same womb of the same mother, being born
roughly the same time. And what does it say? The children
not yet being born, neither having done good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, listen, not of works,
but of Him. that calleth. It was said unto
her, The elder shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob
have I loved. In the womb, before they have
done anything, is there a righteous? God forbid you should even think
such a thing. God forbid. For he told Moses
this, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, I will have
compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then, salvation,
election, is not of him that willeth nor him that runneth,
but God that showeth mercy. This is grace, friend. Therefore,
all who are saved by grace, we confess with Jonah, don't we?
What did Jonah say? Salvation is of the Lord. That's what grace is, what Paul
is saying. If we're saved by grace, we are
saying this, salvation, all of it, every part of it. is strictly of the will and the
power of God without... You understand how modern religion,
they say saved by grace. Modern religion will never say
that they're not saved by grace. They're not being honest. They
say grace is a force that God has spread over all men. And
in order to obtain it, all you have to do is reach out and get
it. If you just reach out and grab grace, you can bring God's
grace to yourself. You can obtain it by action or
by will. But what does that do? It destroys
the very definition of grace. If you have to do anything for
it, it's not grace, it's work. God is never, God's grace is
never moved by the will or actions of another. But by definition,
grace is a free act of God And grace is not offered, friends.
It's given. It's given. If God ever has grace
on you, He'll give it to you. He'll give it to you. If you have the grace of God,
He'll give it to you. Grace is given, and listen, grace
is also applied. That's how we know we have grace,
isn't it? It must be applied, and you hath he quickened. Now
then, there's an application of grace. There's one who knows
his election. You've had people ask, how do
I know if I'm one of God's elect? Have you been quickened? Listen,
have you been quickened? Have you been given life? That's
the only evidence of having the grace of God. Having the grace
of God, you could have riches, you can have health, you can
have... None of those are evidence of God's grace. None of them.
The evidence of God's grace is life. Life and faith. Faith, and we'll get to that
in just a minute. Saved by grace, we must... this power is of God. If grace were a free offer, listen,
none of us would be saved. That's right. None of us would
be saved. Grace must have power behind
it, or it's of no value. I'm going to illustrate this
very simply. If I were to have someone I love die, have someone
I love die, no matter how much grace I pour out on them, No
matter how much affection I pour out on them, my grace is valueless
to them. Because they need something,
my grace cannot give them. But that's not true of God. You
see, God, His people are dead, yet when He pours out His grace
on them, there's power to give them what they need. They need
life. They need life. So praise be to God for He is
not only willing to have grace upon unworthy sinners, but that
His grace also has power to regenerate, to save, to bring us from death
to life. His grace has power, power behind
it, not only desire. Armenians believe God has a will
to save. They just don't believe He has
power to save, unless you do something. Unless you accept
it, or receive it, or that God's holding. He's withheld by you. No. No, when God wants to save
you, He will save you. Not Satan, not sin, not death,
not hell. Nothing will stop God from saving
one He has grace on. Nothing will stop. Matter of
fact, everything's moving toward it. Everything's moving toward
it. So this grace then is manifest
in a believer who is raised spiritually, delivered from darkness to life.
It is manifest in our hearts. And we know this, when one is
raised from the dead, we see the greatest manifestation of
grace where? Not really in our experience.
We see the greatest manifestation of grace in God's Son. Because
that's where the faith looks. It looks to the Son. We see the
greatest manifestation of the grace of God in the cross in
verse 7 of chapter 1, "...in whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to..." what? "...the
riches of His grace." There's the manifestation of grace. It's
when God sent His only Son to save sinners. Now, for a person
to say, I have grace, is one thing. But God manifest this
grace, accomplished this grace, that all that was necessary to
bring us to glory was accomplished by God before we ever received
it. Isn't this a wonderful manifestation
of grace? That God said, He spared not
His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. That's a manifestation. That's the grace that we look
toward for our salvation. In His grace, He spared not Christ,
but made Him to be sin for us, and delivered Him up to His own
justice for our sins. In an act of free grace to save
us, He gave His Son. The only way to save us, He gave
His Son. How rich is the mercy of God,
how rich and full is the grace of God, sent forth His grace
in giving us His Son to die for such sinners. Therefore, all
who are saved by grace confess salvation is by grace. We confess
it all of grace. So now when Paul sets forth the
contrast, look at this, he sets forth the contrast, for by grace
you are saved, and what's the contrast? Verse 9, Not of works. By grace or all of works, but
it cannot be of both. It's either or, but not of both.
What does Paul say? Salvation is by grace and not
of works. You can see grace and works can
never be mixed. Go to Romans chapter 11. Paul's
going to explain this very clearly here in Romans chapter 11. Look
at verse Verse 5, but I'll give you the
background here. He says that, speaking of Elijah,
Elijah, he was out there by himself. He said, They killed your prophets,
they dig down your altars, and I'm left all by myself and need
to bail, even so. Then at this present time there
is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by
grace it is no more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if
it be of works, it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more
work. Paul says, even so, just as God
reserves those 7,000 men that did not bow the knee to Baal,
even so now, as in all times before, God has a remnant according
to election of grace. You see, election is of grace.
God choosing a people was His right, His privilege, His honor,
for He being God does whatsoever He pleases. Isn't that right?
God says, I reserve them, they're mine. I have a remnant, they're
mine. I did it for my own namesake.
And he says, if by grace, then there's no more works. This,
you see, God purposed salvation by grace. God accomplished salvation
by grace in Christ. God applied salvation by grace
by the Holy Spirit. And so, it's all of free grace. Now I'll tell you what, free
will religion, if they would, go back to your text, look at
this text, and this is how free will religion should read this
if they were honest. They should read it like this,
for by works you are saved through free will. Through free will
faith, which is of yourself. It is a gift of man to God. and not by grace, so that every
man may boast in his free will." Now that's how Arminians should
read that text. That's how all free will, works,
religion must read it, because that's how they believe. Listen, grace and merit can never
be mixed, therefore salvation is either by grace or by merit,
but not by both. And I know men try to mix it.
They say, yes, salvation is by grace, but you have to fill in
the blank, something. You have to do something. Salvation
is by grace, yes, but you have to work it. No, you've just ruined
it. You've just missed it. Salvation
is by grace. Now then look at this second
part, through faith. Salvation is by grace. but never apart
from faith, never apart from faith, never without faith. God's grace in this present experience
of salvation is always accompanied by faith. We don't make light
of faith. I tell you this, you can claim
to be alive in Christ, spiritually alive, but you don't have faith
in Christ, you are not alive. Faith is the very breath of spiritual
life. It is necessary. Faith in Christ. And that's what I'm talking about.
Not just faith. Not faith in your faith. There's
a bunch of people that have faith in their faith. That is useless.
That is no good. I have faith in Christ plus what
I've done. You're useless faith. If you're
saved by grace, you have faith in Christ. What does that mean?
You believe He's the Son of God. You believe that He's God manifest
in the flesh. You believe He was sent to accomplish
salvation for all that the Father gave Him. You believe He actually
accomplished salvation by His death and by His righteousness. You believe that He was raised
from the dead for our justification. He is now ascended to the throne
of heaven where He sits on that throne. And what is He doing?
He is now calling all of His elect. that He might give life. That's
what He said in John 17. He said, Thou hast given Him
power of all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many
as Thou hast given Him. That's what He's doing. And all
faith believes that, believes Him. And Paul says it plainly, Without
faith it's impossible to please God. You must have faith. But
the grace of God does not teach the power of faith. to merit
grace. That's backwards, isn't it? It's
backwards. The grace of God. The Scriptures
do not teach that faith is the applying force of salvation,
but the faith is a gift of God's grace applied by the Spirit of
God with life. They come together. They come
together. Faith is not generated by the
will of man. Remember, man spiritually is
dead. He cannot have faith, cannot
come to Christ, because he has no spiritual life. But these
come together, life and faith, as the work of God the Holy Spirit. Remember, faith is the fruit
of the Spirit in Galatians 5 and verse 22. It says, but the fruit
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith. Faith is a fruit of the Spirit. Now listen, you that are lost
will not believe unless the Spirit of God gives you both life and
faith. You will never, never believe. You will never come. Why faith
is just as much a gift as life. Look at your text. Look at the
text. Go back there. For by grace you are saved through
faith and that not of yourselves. What is that? What's the antecedent
of that? Faith is the antecedent of that.
So you read it through faith and that faith not of yourself. Faith is a gift of God. and not of works." It's a gift
of God's grace. Modern religion makes faith a
work. They make faith a work and not
a gift. That if man act, they make faith only an act of
the will, and thus providing life by some outward decision
or profession. But this is not only against
our text, it's against the whole Word of God. Against the whole
Word of God. John 1. John 1 and verse 12. Turn there. John 1 and verse
12. Let's read this. This is vitally important. John
1. Look at verse 12. This is faith
here. "...but as many as received him."
That's faith, isn't it? Faith receives Christ. It's like
you take water and you drink it in. That is what it is to
receive. It is to drink Him in. He said,
any man eat my flesh and drink my blood. What is that but to
receive Him? As many as received Him, to them
gave He the right, the power to become the sons of God, to
them that believe on His name. You believe on His name? Yes. How did this happen though? What's the manifest cause of
such receiving Him? How could one who is dead receive
Him except first he have life to receive Him? That's what he
goes on to tell you. Verse 13, "...which were born."
Let me tell you how this happened. How'd this happen? Scott, how'd
it happen? How'd it happen? You weren't a believer and now
you are. How'd that happen? You couldn't receive Him and
now you can. What happened? "...which were
born again." They're born in spiritual birth. "...not of blood,"
not because you're parents. "...not of the will of the flesh,"
not because you willed it. "...nor of the will of man,"
not because some other man willed it. but the will of God. This is the grace of God. Now listen, we preach a general
call. I preach this to everybody, and
you should take heed. You should hear me. Come to Christ.
Don't wait. Come now. Don't wait till you're
better. Oh, don't do that. Don't do that.
Please don't. Please don't wait till you're
better. Come now. Come with all your sin. Come
with all your grief. Come with all your sorrow. Come
now. Come in the door. Door's open.
Come in. Come in. We preach this to everyone.
We long for everyone to come in. Come in. Come freely. Come without merit. Come without power. Come without
strength. That's the only way anyone's
gonna come anyway. Come as a leper came. Remember that leper he
came? He said, Lord, if you will, you can. He knew something about
grace, didn't he? He knew something about grace,
if you will. That Canaanite woman, she said, Lord, I know I'm a
dog, but I know this, I need crumbs. And he said, I ain't
seen faith like that. That's faith. That's one to receive. That's how you receive Him. I
preach this to everyone. Anyone can make a profession,
but true faith comes seeing its need of a Savior. And true faith
receives Christ as all its salvation. Through, for by grace you are
saved through faith. Where? In Christ Jesus alone. It is laying your whole soul
out on Christ. As all merit has all hope of
ever being cleansed and accepted of God. That's what faith does. It sees Christ as all. It's opened
His eyes. That's what He said in our text
back in chapter 1, that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened.
You understand who you are. You understand who He is. And
by the power and grace of God, you now are able to receive Him. True faith is embracing Him. When I came to Christ, it was
because that was all I could do. When a man is saved by grace
and he comes to Christ, it's because it's all he could do.
He's got no place else to go. Isn't that what Peter said? Lord,
to whom shall we go? The other people, they left Christ.
They had someplace else to go. Peter understood this. I've got
no place else to go. You're it. You're the Christ. You're the Son of the Living
God. You have the words of life. And that's what faith does. It
embraces Christ. It's like Lazarus. Lazarus, when
he said, Lazarus, come forth. Was that a choice? Was he asking? He was commanding. What choice had Lazarus? But
I'll tell you this, as soon as Lazarus opened his eyes and heard
Christ say, come forth, you know what? It was his will. It was not only by power he was
raised, it was his will to come to Christ. And that's what happens
when one is saved by grace, by faith, he embraces, he is made
willing. Psalm 110 verse 3, Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. Like I said, do you have to command
a child to breathe? If he's living, you don't! Do I have to command you to breathe?
No, you want to breathe! You want to! "...lest any man
should boast." You see, salvation is by grace through God-given
faith, so that the promise to all of God's elect should be
and must be sure. Go to Romans chapter 4 and verse
16. Romans chapter 4 and verse 16. Paul explains it like this. He says, Why is it by faith? And that grace, remember faith
is a grace given of God. Why is it by faith? Look at chapter
4 and verse 16. Therefore, it is of faith, righteousness,
salvation, is of faith, that by grace, you see those words
in italics? Ignore them. Ignore them. Therefore, it is of faith, and
what? That by grace. Faith is what? How? By grace. By grace. Salvation is how? By grace. For
what purpose to this end? That the promise might be sure
to all the seed. The promise might be sure to
all the seed. Praise God, He made salvation
sure. He made it sure to all the seed. How? By grace through faith and
not of works. You know what's most unsure?
Works. Today you do them, tomorrow you
don't. Today you might be happy, tomorrow you're not. Our works
are so frail and full of sin, they're not to be trusted. The law could never secure salvation
but only condemns. The works of man are nothing
to be sure of. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the laws
and knowledge of sin there's no help in the law, there's no
help in your obedience. Why, cursed is everyone that
continueth not in all things written in the book of the law
to do them. And the Pelagian doctrine of decision regeneration
is nothing more than will worship. That's all it is. The worship
of man's will and not God's. It is the boasting of man's work
and will, and not in the accomplished, finished work of Jesus Christ. Faith embraces the surety of
our salvation. Remember what the law says? All
those priests, Paul said, all those priests did daily, standing,
ministering daily, those sacrifices, which could what? Never take
away sin. But what did he say? But this
man, but this man in whom we have faith, this man, after he
had offered one sacrifice for sin, sat down how long? Forever. expecting till God make
his enemies his footstool, having perfected forever them that are
sanctified by his one offering." You see, faith, by grace, makes
salvation sure to all the seed. It's sure. Why? Not of works. That's why. It's sure because
it's not of works. In salvation, God then gets all
the worship, all the glory. Romans 3, 27, where then is boasting? It is excluded. How much boasting
is excluded? All of it. Grace excludes all
boasting. Is it excluded by the law or
works? No, law or works encourage boasting. How is it excluded? Not by the law or works, but
by the law of faith. By the law of faith. And in verse 10, he says, we
are his workmanship. Now then, this is how it all
comes together. We are his skilled craftsmanship. You understand that? Created
in Christ Jesus. When you create something, when
God created something, He created it out of what? What did God
make the world out of when He created something? He created
it out of nothing. It's exactly what God did in
you. He created something out of nothing. He created in you
a new nature, brand spanking new, totally new creation. This is how you could believe,
is only by being His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. on two good works. It is the
new creation that God in Ezekiel promised. He said, I will give
you a new heart and put within you a new spirit. Paul says, therefore, if any
man be in Christ, he is what? A new creation. Paul says in
Ephesians, we are created after God in true holiness. So, salvation is what? It's by grace. It's through faith
and not of works. Why? Because it's a new creation. It's something God created out
of pure, free grace. He created in us a holy nature. Now what does this mean? It means
that then there are two natures abiding in everyone that is saved
by grace. A holy nature that cannot sin
and an old nature that can only sin. Therefore we are in constant
warfare with ourselves. Who's your greatest enemy? You're
saved by grace. Who's your greatest foe? Is it Satan? He's a great foe. He hates you. The world, they're
a great foe. But the greatest foe is self,
flesh. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing, O wretched man that I am. What hold would Satan or the
world have over me if I had not the old man? He is the greatest
foe. Therefore, we are encouraged
in this, we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus, listen,
unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them. Works have nothing to do with
my salvation. But I'll tell you this, everyone
who is saved are ordained, just as much as you were ordained
to life, you were ordained to good works. What is a good work? I mean, is it taking out your
neighbor's trash? That's good. It's a good work. Building houses
for the poor, it's a good work. For a man, that's a good work.
But anybody can do that. What is a good work that God's
people do that others can't? Here it is. The just shall live
by faith. Anything done in faith is a good
work. Anything done in faith and love,
anything done in faith and love is a good work. The believer
in Christ, we are ordained to good works. Paul says in Romans
12, he said, I beseech you because of the mercies of God. present
your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto the
Lord. Be not conformed to this world, be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and
acceptable and perfect will of God. What is that good, acceptable
and perfect will of God? It is your election, it is your
redemption, it is your calling, it is your keeping, it is the
gospel. You prove the work of God. How? Good works. James said, look, you show me
your faith without your works, I'll show you my faith by my
works. I'll close with this. Go to Titus. Titus chapter 3. I think Paul
sums it up here really well. In Titus chapter 3 and verse
3. He said, "...we ourselves were
sometimes foolish, disobedient, serving divers' lusts, pleasures
living in malice, envy hating one another." What is that? We
were dead in trespasses and sins, walking according to the course
of this world. enemies of God, but after that the kindness and
love of God our Savior appeared toward man. What is this? Sending of Christ into the world
to die for our sins, to provide us righteousness and atone for
our sins? For what? Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. When Christ died, what did He
do? He saved us. But then, the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost, that's for by grace you are saved
through faith, that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast, which He shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Lord, that being justified by His grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
This is a faithful saying." What? All that he said before, that's
a faithful saying. And these things I will that
you preach constantly, affirm constantly. For what purpose?
That they which believe in God might be careful. to maintain
good works, these are good and profitable to men." See, believers
in Christ, listen, we're good and profitable to this world.
Don't you know that you are the salt and light of this world?
You don't know that this is the means that God has used to call
His people by grace, is preaching the gospel? Should we not then
be at our Father's, about our Father's business? Yes! We should
be devoted to our Father's business. Why? We were saved by grace.
Is there any greater motive to good works? Listen, salvation is by good
works. That's no motive to good work, because you won't ever
get it. But if I'm saved by grace, then I'm free to good works.
I'm free. I'm not messing up. I'm not worried
about messing up when I do a good work. Why? I'm not saved by that
work. I'm saved by grace. do pray that God would comfort
us in this, encourage us in this, that we are saved by grace, through
faith, and that's not yourself, it's a gift. Why? So we don't boast. So that all
the glory then belongs to God. Salvation is by the grace and
power of God. I'm comfortable with that, aren't
you? I find peace in that. I find joy that you can't find
in any other thing else in this