Would you turn back to Ephesians
chapter two? Tonight, we're going to observe
the Lord's table and we're going to be looking at the 51st Psalm
on what can be done about my sin. And we just read or just
heard a little bit of that Psalm. Son cast me not away from my
presence. Oh God, but what can be done
about my sin? I have entitled this message,
Saved by Grace Through Faith. Now that is a very familiar passage
of scripture with many believers. There's no question about that.
And there's not a more important declaration in all of God's word But I'm going to assume this
morning that nobody's ever heard these words before. And I'm going
to assume that no one knows what they mean. And I'm going to try
to preach that message, this message in that light. For by grace are you saved through
faith. By grace are you saved through
faith. By grace are you saved. Now my greatest need and your
greatest need is to be saved. Notice He didn't say anything
about you saving yourself. By grace are you saved. And in the original, the word
is in the perfect passive. That means this salvation is
an already completed action. And it reads literally for by
grace, you having been saved. For by grace you having been
saved. Saved from what? Saved from what? By grace you having been saved. Saved from what? First, I need
to be saved from God. I need to be saved from God. You see, my sin is against him. David said in Psalm 51, against
thee and thee only have I sinned. Now I love that passage of scripture
and it's very precious to every believer. If God be for us, who
can be against us? But the opposite is true as well. If God be against us, who can
be forced? You see, he has the power to
cast me into hell as an act of his justice because of my sin
against him. Who do I need to be saved from? God himself. Secondly, I need to be saved
from myself. Let me repeat that. I need to
be saved from myself. I am my own greatest I am the problem, not the devil,
not you. I am the problem. I need to be
saved from myself. And listen to me. The worst thing
that could take place with me is for God to leave me to myself. That's the worst thing. I will
destroy myself. I need to be saved from myself. Thirdly, I need to be saved from
my sins. I am the one who has committed
the sins and I need to be saved from my sins. I really am a sinner. When we talk about by grace,
you're saved. Saved from what? Saved from my sins. I really
am a sinner. You know what that means? It means I was born bad.
I was born a sinner. This is the way I was born. David
said, in sin did my mother conceive me. Mine too. That's the way
I was born. Because of that sinful nature I was born with, I cannot
not sin. I cannot not sin. All I do is sin and it's all
my fault. I can't blame anybody or anything
else. It's all my fault. I can't sit in judgment on any
son or daughter of Adam at all. I don't care who they are. I
can't look down my nose at them. And I have no claims, no claims
on God because of my sin. I need to be saved from my sin
and my sins. Thou shalt call his name Jesus
for he shall save, he shall save his people from their sins. That's
what I need. I need to be saved from my sins.
And fourthly, I need to be saved from the circumstances my sin
gets me into. I need for the Lord to do for
me what only he can do. Bring good out of evil. I need to be saved from the horrible
messes my sin gets me into. Saved. Saved. My greatest need and your greatest
need is to be saved. We read in our text, by grace,
Ephesians 2a, for by grace are you saved. By grace are you saved. Grace is not God's response to
you. Do you hear that? Grace. is not God's response to you,
it's his response to himself. He said in his word, I will be
gracious. To whom I will be gracious. God's grace is God's response
to himself. Now the textbook definition of
grace is unmerited favor. If you would ask someone, what
does grace mean? They would answer, well, it means
unmerited favor. And indeed it is. Not only is
grace unmerited, grace is demerited. We have demerited any claims
for it by our own sin. As somebody once said this, and
this was helpful to me, mercy is God not giving you what you
deserve. And grace is God giving you what
you do not deserve. I like that. I do not deserve salvation. I do not deserve to be brought
into heaven. I do not deserve to have my sins
forgiven. I do not deserve to be justified
before God. I do not deserve to have Christ
come and represent me and put away my sins. I do not deserve
any of that. God's grace, God's favor to you
is in spite of you. Look in Ephesians chapter two,
Verse one, and you hath he quickened who were dead, dead in trespasses
and sins. Wherein in times past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, you walked according to the devil,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past. in
the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind. And we were by nature, get that
word nature. This was our nature. We were
by nature, the children of wrath, wrathful children, spiteful,
evil children, even as others, just like everybody else. But
God, there's grace. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love, wherewith he loved us even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace
are you saved. Now the word grace, the Greek
word charis, is translated in the King James Version by these
words which give us some idea of what it means. The word grace
is translated acceptable. Only grace, only grace can make
me acceptable. It's translated by the word benefit
and what a benefit grace is. It's translated by the word favor.
Mary found favor in the eyes of the Lord. She found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. It's translated a gift. And what
a gift, unearned, free gift. It's translated joy. You know, it's a joy of God to
give grace. And if you ever did it, it'll
be a joy of yours to receive it. It's translated liberality, the
liberality of God. It's translated pleasure, saved
according to the good pleasure of his will to the praise of
the glory of his grace. You know, the word thanks is
the word grace. It's used to say thank you. Thanks
to God. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable
gift. Thankworthy. Truly, God's grace
is worthy of thanking God. You see, grace is who God is. Now let me repeat that. People talk about the doctrines
of grace. I don't really care for the doctrines
of grace. It's the doctrine of God. It's
the truth of God. Grace is who God is. John 1 17, the law was given
by Moses. Now we know that God inspired
Moses to write those words. That when God the Holy Spirit
is inspiring John, he says the law was given by Moses, but grace
and truth. came by Jesus Christ. Now understand
this, grace is the truth and it comes by Jesus Christ. The salvation of the sinner by
the grace of God is the revelation and declaration of the character
of God Almighty. God is known by how he saved
sinners by his grace. Those who are saved are saved
by grace. Not everybody is saved. You know
that so. There is a place called hell
where the wicked are punished eternally. And I wish I could
say that with a tear in my eye just thinking about it. I hate
when preachers try to do this hellfire and brimstone preaching,
trying to scare everybody. God's not in that. But that doesn't
take away from the fact that there is a place called hell
where God exercises his justice against those who have not bowed
the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ. Not everybody is saved, but those
who are saved are saved by grace. And the fountainhead of that
grace is the Lord Jesus Christ. All grace comes by him, through
him. He is the grace of God. He's called the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. And all of God's grace was given
to all who have it before time began. Let me show you that in
the scripture. Turn to 2 Timothy chapter 1. Paul says to Timothy in verse
8 of 2 Timothy chapter 1, be not thou therefore ashamed of
the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou
a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the
power of God who hath saved us. Now here's what we believe. God saved us. Did he do it all? Yes. Let's go on reading. And called us with an holy call. Now note the divine order. He saved us and he called us. He saved us before he called
us. That's what the book says. He
saved us and he called us. Now, if he hadn't called you,
you don't have the right to even suspect that you're saved. But
when he's called you by his grace, here's what you do. You look
to Christ. He saved us and he called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Now, what is there to argue with? Why would people want to argue
with that in the first place? I like purpose grace given to me in
Christ Jesus before the world began, before I had any good
works or before I had any bad works. You see, God is a God
of purpose and everything he does is eternal. And if you have
grace, let's say, well, I'm afraid I
don't have grace. Well, if you do, you'll find out you do. We're
gonna get more into that in a minute, but it is eternal purposed grace. It's electing grace. Now, if somebody doesn't preach, publicly
and unashamedly, the doctrine of election, God's choice of
his people before time began. They don't preach the gospel. I can tell what somebody believes
about grace by what they believe about election. Well, there you
go, hammering on election again, yeah? I love election. I love
redeeming grace, grace that actually makes payment for the sin. Justifying
grace that makes me just before God, righteous before God. Preserving
grace that causes me to persevere all the way to the end. Grace
by grace are you saved. I love when Paul said in 2 Corinthians
12, 9, when God said to Paul, Christ said to Paul, my grace,
my grace is sufficient for thee. My grace. Nothing else is needed, and you
are content with that if you are a sinner. By grace are you
saved. Well, how can I know if I have
been saved by his grace? Well, that's a good question,
isn't it? How can I know if I have been
saved by his grace. I see the scripture teaches it.
I mean, there's just no, this is it. It's what the Bible teaches. By grace he is saved. Now, how
can I know if I'm somebody who has been saved by that grace? How can I know if he has extended
his favor toward me? I repeat, not everybody is saved
by grace because not everybody's saved. How can I know if I have
been saved by his grace without it being an act of presumption
on my part? How can I know that he's bestowed
his grace upon me? Well, let's go on reading verse
eight. For by grace are you saved through
faith. For by grace are you saved through
faith. The only, and let me emphasize
that word only. Let me put a big black line underneath
it and put a red round circle around it. The only evidence
that the saved sinner is faith. For by grace are you saved through
Faith. So what is this thing of faith? Well, somebody says faith is
belief. I agree. Believe what? Believe what? Somebody says,
well, you need to believe that you're saved. You can't hanker
down to the devil making you doubt. You need to believe you're
saved. You need to really believe. that Jesus Christ died for your
sins and put them away. You need to really believe that
God has done a work of grace in your heart and that you're
changed and you're different and you're not what you once
were. You really need to believe all of those things. There are many in hell who believed
all those things I just said. It's a sobering thought, but
it's true. There are many in hell who really
believed they were saved, who really believed that they'd received
the grace of God, who really believed that they were different
and that they were better than they once were. Would you turn with me to Acts
chapter 16 for a moment? Acts chapter 16. Here is the most important question
you or I could ever deal with. That's not hyperbole. This is the truth. The most important, you young
people, you young people. You people who have not yet confessed
Christ in believer's baptism, you need to listen to this. This
is the most important question you can ever consider. Here it is in verse 30. And he, the Philippian jailer,
brought them out and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? The question is important to
understand what he's asking. He does not say, what must I
do to save myself? That's out of the question. That's
out of the picture. There isn't anything you can
do to save yourself. What must I do to be saved? What must I do to be saved? I heard a preacher say to his
congregation, for you to be saved, you must turn from your sins
and trust Christ. What if Paul would have said
to this Philippian jailer, when he said, what must I do to be
saved? You must turn from your sins
trust Christ. You remember when the nobleman's son or daughter, I
can't remember which, was sick and the Lord said, believe only
and she shall live. What if he would have said, turn
from your sins and believe and she shall live? You see, this
message actually is confounding what faith is in the first place.
Turn from your sins and trust Christ. Might as well say, keep
the Ten Commandments perfectly and trust Christ, because that
is a message of salvation by works. It's not the gospel. If
a preacher makes that proclamation, it's because he doesn't really
believe the gospel. He is afraid the gospel will
Encourage sin and make people think sin's okay. So he's afraid
to preach the naked gospel, so he says, turn from your sins
and trust Christ. And all you're left with is a
message of salvation by works. If you put anything before trust
Christ, you have missed the message. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Believe. of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be saved. I realize that there's people,
if they would hear this message, would criticize it. And they're
saying, well, you're encouraging people to sin and think it's
okay to not turn from your sin. Well, you can think that if that's
what you want, but I'm preaching the gospel is what I'm doing.
And if somebody abuses that, I can't help that. My job is
to preach the truth, not try to make sure people don't mess
things up, just preach the truth. What must I do to be saved? Believe,
rely upon the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Now, if you find assurance of
your salvation by how you're living, I'm different. I used to be this way and I'm
this way now. I must be saved. I'm different.
There's been a change. If you find assurance of salvation
from something like that, It's a false assurance. And if God
doesn't grant you repentance, you'll go to hell with that assurance.
That is not salvation. That is not believing the gospel. Whoso believeth that Jesus is
the Christ is born of God. And let me say this. Faith has nothing to do with
what you believe about yourself. I want you to stew on that. Saving
faith has absolutely nothing to do with what you believe about
yourself. It has wholly to do with what
you believe concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you believe
He is the eternal Son of God? Do you believe that He's God's
Christ, God's prophet, the very Word of God, God's priest? If
He brings you into God's presence, you must be saved. God's King,
the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the one who controls,
has sovereign authority over everybody and everything. He's
the King. What do you believe concerning
Him? The evidence that God has given
you grace is if all you have is Christ. You've got nothing
else. And notice Paul doesn't end there.
Back to our text in Ephesians 2. This is an important part of
this verse because I don't know how many times over the years,
I'm talking about in the last 40 years, I wonder how many times
I've heard somebody tell me, I believe in salvation by grace
through faith. I believe that. I believe in
salvation by grace through faith. That's what my church believes.
That's what we stand for. I believe that. I've heard that
so many times and yet people stop there. And you don't have
any of it if you don't have this. Ephesians 2 verse 8, for by grace
are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Now here's what people mean When
they say, I believe in salvation by grace through faith, and they
leave out this part. They say, what they mean by that
is salvation is all by grace. God offers you his grace, and
you by faith accept it. That is a fair representation.
God offers you his grace. He puts it out there, but it's
up to you by faith to accept it. Now that's neither grace
nor faith. Doesn't have anything to do with
what that passage of scripture means. The faith that you have, if you have it,
is not of yourselves. It didn't come from your will.
It didn't come from your decision to receive the offer. Faith is
the gift of God. If you have it, he gave it to
you. It did not come from you. It's his supernatural gift. It's
a part of that great salvation, which is by grace. It's a part. of that great salvation, all
of which is of grace. That faith is the gift of God's
grace. You can't take credit for anything
in your salvation. It's the saving gift of God given
to his elect. If you have saving faith, you
know it's the gift of God. And you know the reason you have
it is because God gave it to you. You know it didn't come
from some act of receiving or decision or will upon your part.
You know that. And note what he says in verse
nine, not of works. If you believe that your faith
comes from you, you believe in salvation by works. Does it say
anything less? Not of works, lest any man should
boast for we are his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus into
good works, which God had before ordained that we should walk
in them. I'm going to deal with that next week, Lord will, if I'm still
alive. That's what I want to deal with, that verse 10th. But
right now, by grace, are you saved? Through faith, through looking to Christ only,
and that faith is not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Now, if a man or a woman believes
free will, and that's a given with most people, of course we
have a free will. If you believe in free will, you do not believe
in grace. You don't believe salvation's
by grace. You think your will can trump God's will. You think
your will is over God's will. Well, I know salvation's by grace,
but I accepted it. And my neighbor didn't. You believe in works just as
much as anybody else if you think you're the difference between
you and your neighbor. That is works. That's a ground of boasting.
Look what it says. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. Be bright. Take credit. where credit is not due. Turn
with me for a moment, and this is what we're going to close
with. 1 Corinthians 1. Verse 26. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 26. For you see your calling brethren, not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, powerful men, not many noble, noble born are
called. You know, I don't see any famous
politicians or superstar athletes, which some of you might think
you are, but how come you're not playing pro if that's the
case? That's the way I am. I always thought I'd be a pro
baseball player. I didn't have a chance, but I always thought
I'd be. Not many folks like that. Not
many movie stars. Not many superstars. Not many
of the wise and admired of this world. Verse 27, but God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. And God
hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things
which are mighty and base things of the world and things which
are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not,
nothing, to bring to naught things that are for this purpose, that
no flesh should glory in his presence. Now, do you hear that? No flesh
is going to glory, boast, have confidence in his presence. I love the, when we go on, we're
going to consider this next week, but it says we're here, his workmanship
created in Christ Jesus to do good works. And that word workmanship
is where we get the word poem from. We're his poem. We're his
poem. My favorite line of poetry is
the way a crow shook down on me. The dust of snow from a hemlock
tree has given me a change of mood and save some part of a
day I drewed. I love that line. You know who
wrote it? Me. That's a lie. Robert Frost wrote that. And
if I took credit for it, what am I doing? It's a crime, isn't
it? That's what it is to boast. You're
taking credit where there's no credit due. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 29, that
no flesh should glory in his presence, but of him are you
in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. That's everything, isn't it?
And God made him that to us. We didn't have any hand in this
work. Verse 31, that according as it
is written, he that glorieth. Let him glory in the Lord. By grace are you saved. Through faith. That not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not of works. Lest any man should
boast. Let's pray together. Lord, we ask that your spirit
would be our teacher. and cause us to know that by
Your grace we're saved. We've been saved. We're being
saved. We will be saved all by Your
grace. And teach us what it means through
faith. Teach us what it is to look to
Thy Son only and find complete rest and confidence in Him that
He is all you require. He's all we have, He's all we
need, and we don't want anything else. And let us understand that
even the gift of faith is not from us. Deliver us from believing in
any way to any degree that salvation is by works. Lord, allow us by
your grace to be your workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which you have before ordained that we should walk
in them. In Christ's name we pray.