With this heart, for sure. I'm
going to read to you out of Ephesians chapter 2. That last hymn was such a plea of a believer.
Breathe on me, breath of God, fill me with life anew until
my heart is pure. Till I am holy thine, so shall
I never die. Only through our Lord Jesus Christ
can that ever take place. The title of my sermon is, Saved
by Grace, the Gift We Could Never Earn. In Ephesians 2, chapter
2, verses 8 and 9. Oh yes, thank you. Thank you. Ephesians 2 chapter 8 and 9. For by grace are we saved through
faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. What is the best gift you've
ever received in life? Was it a surprise of some sort? Something you would never think
that would be a good gift for yourself? Something personal? I love gifts, but one thing is
common to all real gifts. We don't earn them. Otherwise,
it would be a payment, not a gift. Whatever it was, I can guarantee
it doesn't compare to the gift we're gonna talk about today.
Ephesians 2 verses 8 through 9 is one of the clearest declarations
in all of scripture of how we are saved. Not by our effort, not by our goodness, but entirely
by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And this salvation is
a true gift. Paul says it is by grace have
we been saved. So grace defined is fully unmerited
favor. It means getting what you don't
deserve. You didn't earn it. Can't buy
it. Don't qualify for it. You simply receive it. a true
gift. I will justify my pacing here
for a second. I found that I had wrote two
messages on the same verses. So I'm going back and forth here.
Grace. Drew says, and I can't remember
who was the pastor that came to our church He asked what was
the name of the church and he said Sovereign Grace. Somebody
said, I don't remember who was the pastor, said that's a really
good name for a church. For by grace are ye saved. Now
there's a grace church up the street, by the way. It says Grace
Baptist Church. On our sign it says Sovereign
Grace. There's no denomination if you
want to stick with that and get hung up with that, you can, but
Sovereign Grace, is the only grace there is. There's no grace
that says Baptist. There's no grace that says anything
annotated onto grace. Grace is of God. That's it, period. For by grace are you saved. Any
person that understands the gospel has been exposed by God the truth
of what grace is. And it's by Him. It's only by
Him. Grace is one of the most beautiful,
powerful, and also, if you ask me, misunderstood words in scripture.
Most people don't get it. Humanistically, if you just pray,
or you go to small group locally, I'm talking, or you go to church
today, and you play in a band, or you listen, and that's still
happening up the road here, you are, without a doubt, gonna feel
good when you leave, but you don't understand grace. Grace
is God giving us what we could never earn. It is undeserved,
unearned favor. It is love of the most. It is mercy that runs toward
the undeserving. It runs towards. It is mercy
that runs towards the undeserving. Those of us who understand grace
know that we don't deserve it. But it is still given. And on
the back side is a love that is put in us by Lord Jesus Christ. We often confuse grace with leniency. Grace isn't about God ignoring
sin. It's about him taking the punishment
for it so we could be forgiven. We live in a world that says
that you can get what you earn, but God says, no, you can't earn
this. But, I give it freely. The Lord gives it freely. Turn
to Titus 3. Titus 3 and verses 5 and 6. Titus 3, 5 and 6 reads, Not by
works of righteousness, which we have done, But according to
His mercy, He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost, which He shed. Did we shed it? Nope. He shed
it on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. We're on trial. You're guilty. Caught red-handed. The judge says, you're guilty. And he takes off his robe and
he stepped down and he says, tell you what, I'll take punishment
in your place. That's grace. The judgment of grace says you're
no longer guilty. He has satisfied all punishment.
That's grace. And grace doesn't start when
you start behaving. Romans 5.8 says, but God commanded
his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. You don't have to walk this aisle.
You don't have to live a certain way that makes you go. I don't know. I've only known
this church, so I don't know what they do in the other places.
But in here, we hear the Lord. Before you ever reach for God,
he already reached for you. He found you. My point two is that through
faith, not performance. Through faith, how do we access
grace? Paul continues, through faith. Faith is not a work. Faith is the open hand that receives
what grace offers. Through faith, not through works,
not through ritual, not through church attendance or generosity. Thank you for donating to the
public. No, faith is the key that unlocks the door of grace. Now, how does faith come about?
The Lord Jesus Christ. Even faith is not something we
generate by willpower. It's our response to the grace
of God working in us. With your heart, you believe
and are justified. With your mouth, you profess
and your faith comes true because the Lord Jesus Christ put that
in you. Salvation isn't about cleaning yourself up before you
come to God. It's not about getting your act
together. It's about the Lord turning you
towards Him, trusting Him as the Lord. No resume, I didn't see this sentence here,
no resume is needed to come to God. No, the Lord gives you your
faith. Romans 10, 9 through 10, if you
want to flip there, you can, otherwise I'll read it for you.
Romans 10, nine through 10 reads, that if you shall confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, the mouth, I'm sorry, let me start
over again. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
That's faith. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth Confession is made
unto salvation. The heart comes first. The Lord
saves through the heart comes first. It's not about saying
the right words. It's about trusting Jesus with
your whole heart and putting the full weight of your hope
on him. Where does that come from? It can't come from us because
we're imperfect. We can't save ourself because
it's imperfect. So therefore, everything, even
when I say things like, Put your whole heart on Him. Where does
that come from? It comes from the Lord Jesus
Christ. The full weight of hope on Him. When we truly believe,
when we put our faith in Jesus as a Savior, it brings change. Real change. Pardon me. This is not of yourself,
it is a gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. A lot
of times we want credit. I do. I know in my own jobs there's
a lot of times where I want to sound like I'm a really good
teacher. I want someone to tell me I'm a really good teacher.
There's a lot of times where I want validation and hear about
my own value. I helped bring something to fruition
in humanistic state. I want to feel good about that.
We want to say I helped. And so there's a lot of times
that you hear, and then I'll go to the most common one, John
3, 16. I've got students right now when
the FCC, uh, FCA, uh, Christian, what have you, a group at our,
at our schools, And they, a lot of times, bring in these sweaters
that say John 3, 16. They have no clue. These poor
children have no clue what that even means. But if they read
it, they get credit. They get credit because that
verse can make you feel really good if you don't know the Lord. If the Lord has not blessed you.
As a believer, we hope, but our sin comes into our fruition,
I helped, I brought something to the table. Paul says no. 100% God's salvation. Why? Because
if salvation depended on you, you could boast. You could walk
into church today saying, I earned this. But God wants no room for
boasting, only worship. Because worship is the natural
response to grace. The Lord asked you to come here.
The Lord knows you'll come here. Why? There is the gospel here. The Lord has blessed you to understand
the gospel. If you could save yourself, Jesus
wouldn't have to die. He died. He sacrificed himself
for his people. We could not save ourselves.
He's the only one that could save us. Salvation is a gift and you don't
pay for a gift. If you do, that's not a gift. We did not die for that gift.
That gift is through the sacrifice of Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 4.12 reads, Acts 4.12 reads,
Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. We don't get to invent our own
path to salvation. God has already made the way,
and the way has a name. It's Jesus. That name alone saves,
not religion. Regardless of what I teach in
my own classroom, not positive thinking, not living your truth,
only Jesus. My last point, the result of
grace the result of grace. Grace changes
a believer. We change. When you first find
the Lord, the scripture changes. It starts
to expose itself to you. You hear the word. You listen
to believers speak. You understand how selfless the
Lord Jesus Christ is. You also understand how little
power you have to salvation, as in none. You also are rested
by the power of the Lord in which that we are humbled and we understand
for we are God's handiwork, Ephesians 2 back to verse 10, created in
Christ Jesus to do good works. which God prepared in advance
for us to do. We're not saved by good works.
We're saved by him. Once changed, once you hear the
word, we understand that the Lord does all for all. Grace works in you and through
you. Once you truly receive this gift,
it changes everything. It humbles the proud, lifts the
broken, and empowers the weak. I was thinking about this as
an analogy, which they can be dangerous sometimes, but think
about a lifeguard. You're flailing in the sea and
you're sinking and a lifeguard dives in and they swim and they
lift you out Wow, did you see how I grabbed the lifeguard's
arm? See how I did that? See how I was saved? You were
dying. The lifeguard rescued you. That's the Lord. That's grace.
You had no control. He leaps in. Maybe you've been trying to earn
your salvation. Lay it down. Rejoice in the gift. Let the truth fuel your worship. Grace never gets old once you
hear it. Serve the Lord. Share the Lord. It's a gift. Let us understand the Lord is
all-encompassing. The Lord has blessed us on so
many levels. For by grace are you saved through
faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Nathan, will you pray? If we did not need complete and
utter salvation, Lord, then what did Christ die for? It is clear that once we were,
or once you revealed yourself to us, how beyond our own capabilities
we were, We weren't floating in the sea,
we were drowning. We could not rise up to the surface,
we could only sink. Lord, may it be that when we
think and ponder and meditate on your works, that we not try
to put in some of ours, that we know in our hearts and will
always be convinced that the work was entirely yours. That
our praise might not be sullied by that. And Lord, we often pray for good
times. will be done.