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Pastor Mike Abendroth - Ephesians 2:1-10: Why Jesus Came to Earth (Part 2)
Of course, every parent knows the child's why game. Please clean up your room.
Why?
Because that's messy.
Because you played with the toys and didn't pick them up.
I don't know, you tell me. And the list goes on and on and on. Why, why, why, why, why, until finally the response of the parent is, because I said so. I told you to. Well, let's have a different why game, although it's not really a game.
If you're a Christian, why are you a Christian? If you're a Christian, why are you a Christian? You said, because I believe.
Good. Why?
Well, someone came along and preached the gospel to me.
Well, they were reading their Bibles, and they got convicted that they should evangelize.
After many, many why questions, the answer is going to be found in the nature and character of God. The answer is not going to be found in us. Why are you a Christian? The answer is not found in you. Why am I a Christian?
The answer is not found in me. If you ask enough why questions, it has to come back to, who is God?
What's He like?
And why does He save sinners like us? Is it, in fact, that He's merciful? Is it, in fact, that He's loving? Is it, in fact, that He is gracious? Is it, in fact, that He is kind? And the answer is, yes, yes, yes, and yes.
Why is your sister not a Christian, and you are? Why is your brother not a Christian, and you are? Why is your parents Christian, and your stepson is not? Or you just fill in the blank? The answer is not found in them.
The answer is found in God. And so if you take your Bibles this morning and turn to Ephesians chapter 2, we're working through one of the most famous passages in all the Bible, taking a detour from the gospel of Jesus according to Luke.
We've been in Luke now for a couple of years, and I thought it would be good for us at this time of year to be reminded why Jesus came, and from the human perspective, because we couldn't save ourselves and needed saving, and from the divine perspective, because God is merciful, kind, loving, and gracious.
Ephesians chapter 2, 1 through 10. And as you know from reading it yourself and from last week, it's a passage of contrasts. We see the blackness of sin and the white light of God's salvation, as it were.
We see our desperate need, our bleak status before God in verses 1 to 3, and then we see God and his nature and his character. And so today, I want to work through Ephesians 2, 1 through 10, and basically, I want to remind you who God is.
And let me just front load it this way. We're talking about salvation here, about God initiating salvation, initiating grace, initiating kindness, initiating love, initiating mercy. But if God is that way when it comes to salvation, I wonder how he is toward you, dear Christian, now that you're a Christian.
In other words, is God less merciful to you as a Christian than he was when you were an unbeliever? As an unbeliever, he gave you mercy. What does God give you now if you're stuck in a sin, if you're dealing with an issue?
If God is gracious to save you, is he still not gracious to deal with you when you fail, when you sin? And the list could go on. If God is kind to you when you were an unbeliever, is God, in fact, kind to you now?
Of course, the answer is yes, he's just as kind, because God doesn't change. One of my favorite preachers was named Richard Sibbes, and he was an Englishman, and he preached back in the 1600s. And he had a nickname, and his nickname was, as some of you know because I've mentioned it before, the sweet what?
The sweet dropper. Who just said that? Nice, of course, Barry.
There you go.
The sweet dropper. Maybe that's our new nickname for Barry Aloisi, the sweet dropper. As a pastor, I have a hard time remembering people's names, because so many of you and everything. So Barry first came to the church 20 years ago.
How am I going to remember his name? Aloisi, Barry Aloisi. So that's how I remembered it.
That's just for free.
Richard Sibbes said, and when we feel ourselves cold in affection and duty, the best way is to warm ourselves at this fire of Christ's love and mercy in giving himself for us. Isn't that good when you're wanting to be more ardent in your zeal for the Lord, when you want to be more prayerful, when you'd like to obey more, you'd like to evangelize more, worship the Lord more?
How do you get that to happen? Just to try harder, work extra. It's all found in studying the person and the work of the Lord Jesus. And whether that's in Luke or here in Ephesians, we're going to see that very thing, and you're going to think, oh, if someone would love me like that, if the God of the universe could love me like that, Lord, help me to respond with zeal for you.
So remember last week, we saw the bad news found in verses 1, 2, and 3. We needed to be saved. We couldn't save ourselves. I could probably entitle this Tales of the Crypt, or somebody's called this Dead Men Walking, Natural Born Killers.
There's all kinds of ways we could describe it. Verses 1, 2, and 3 show our sad state and how we needed to be rescued and why we needed to be rescued. And we used three words to describe that. So just in review, the first word was dead, found right in the text, chapter 2, verse 1.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins. Everyone, before they're born again, is in a state of spiritual deadness. They're alive physically. They're alive emotionally. But their spiritual state is dead, not half dead or semi-dead, not unconscious, but dead, spiritually dead.
No ability, then, to do anything toward God, spiritually unable, lifeless, dead in trespasses and sins, very bleak, but necessary, and very true. In one sense, we don't have to convince people of what we call depravity in theological terms because we all really believe in depravity.
The world believes in depravity in some sense because we don't just have contracts. We have lawyers. We have locks. We have prisons. We realize that the human condition is sinful. And Paul doesn't say here, you were dead in trespasses and messy lives.
That's one of my all-time worst ways to describe sin. Sin causes a mess, but sin isn't messy. Sin is against a holy God. And Paul says, we're dead in trespasses and sins. We have no ability to rescue ourselves.
Jesus said, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. And you are unwilling to come to me that you may have life. See, the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, Paul.
Says in 1 Corinthians 2 .14.
And he rejects them. He says, you know what? I can't understand them.
They're spiritually appraised.
I want nothing to do with them. So Paul is painting a picture of our need so that then when we talk about God's rescue, our praise is going to be great. Our thanksgiving is going to be reflective of God's grace.
There's another word that we used here. And I use the word dominated because it just fit with the alliteration. And this domination is threefold. There's like three handcuffs to this slavery. And it's we're dominated by the world system, Paul says.
We're dominated by Satan. And we're dominated by our own enslaving sins. Do you see it in verse 2? In which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work, and the sons of disobedience, among whom we also once lived in the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.
What a sad state. What a sad picture. You can go back to Genesis 6 .5 and see this very thing, this mastery of sin, this domination of Satan, this enslaving power of the world. Lost, blind, deceived. Jesus said, if you abide my word, then you're truly my disciples.
And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And usually people stop there. But Jesus went on to say this. They answered him, John 8, we are Abraham's offspring and have never been enslaved to anyone.
How is it that you say you shall become free? Jesus answered them, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the what?
Slave of sin.
So we're dead in trespasses and sins. We aren't able to save ourselves. We're dominated by the world, dominated by Satan. He's blinding our minds. Aye. And then also, we're doomed. And then we see that in verse 3 at the very end.
And we're by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. We deserve wrath. All of us deserve wrath because sin is against a holy God. And we sang about that today. And we were doomed. After all, how many times have we.
Sinned before we were a believer?
How many sins did it take for God to banish Adam and Eve out of the garden? How many sins did it take for Ananias and Sapphira to get killed? How many sins did it take for a man saying, you know what, I think I'm going to be a priest and he gets leprosy?
And so we needed help. We needed to move from the thunder of Sinai and the law that says, do this and live, to another mountain called Zion, another hill called Calvary. And now we come to those two words that are wonderful words that you've probably underlined in your Bible.
Verse 4, but God. And everything turns here. Everything turns here. Some of you have maybe watched TV shows, reality TV shows, and you've watched a show. I don't even know what it's called, but it's something about intervention.
And you've got to go in and intervene, because this person cannot take care of their own lives because of the drugs or whatever else they're into. And so there needs to be external means to help this person.
This is the intervention. And that's exactly what's happening here. But God. And of course, with man, things are impossible. But with God, things are possible. God is the one offended, but God is the one that rescues.
God is the one that sins against. But God is the one that comes to salvation. And we see those two words, but God, and everything changes here. We were dead in sins, but God. We were dominated by the world, Satan, and the system, but God.
We were doomed, but God. Now, before we get into this great news about God's mercy and love and grace and kindness, let me remind you why God did not choose you. God did not set His love on you, because He looked down the corridors of time.
You've heard that language used. Somehow, He looks in the future, and He sees that you would believe. He sees that you would get better. He sees that you'd be holy and blameless. No, remember verses 1, 2, and 3, if you're ever thinking about this, or arguing with a friend, or theological conversation comes up.
What prompts God to save sinners? It's not found in them, remember, because if we look at them, we realize dead, dominated, and doomed. If God looks down the corridors of time, what will He see? I'll tell you what He'll see.
He'll see corpses.
He'll see people enslaved. He'll see people in straitjackets spiritually, handcuffs spiritually. And so they can't do anything to do the first step. It's back to that whole idea, who's on first? Who moves first?
Who causes salvation? If God looks down the corridors of time and sees Mike Ebendroth in 1989, He would see dead, dominated, and doomed. How can I make the first step? So the answer is not found in me.
Somehow I'm going to do something. The answer is found in God. In addition, I don't want you to think this way. God is voting for you. Satan is voting against you. You cast the vote that breaks the tie.
Because dead men, dead women, dominated men, dominated women, doomed men, doomed women don't vote. And if they did, the vote is always going to be no. I don't want God, because sin is so tragic. And I also want you to be reminded that God didn't choose you because you were spiritually handsome, because you were spiritually pretty.
He didn't choose you because you were worthy. You were worthy of something. That's true. I was worthy of something. That's true. I was worthy of death. But God doesn't choose the worthy ones. Extreme home makeovers don't pick mansions to make over.
They pick dilapidated houses, do they not? If you ever want to be on reality TV, and they come to you and they say, oh, we see you walking in the mall here, the Natick Mall, and we'd love to have you as a, we'd like to do your faceover, and we want you to be the makeover person.
You're going to be our makeover subject. You're just basically ugly. But they're the ones that can put the makeup on. And they're the ones that know how to style. And they're the ones, because then everybody's going to say afterwards, boy, they did a great job taking that person that's less than handsome and making them handsome.
But see, we are all so self-centered. I'm self-centered. The world's self-centered. That somehow we think it's in us. And so whenever we think it's in us, remember Ephesians 2, 1, 2, and 3. Remember Romans 1, 2.
First part of chapter 3.
It's going to take the God of the universe that speaks the world into the existence to speak existence into a dead person to make them alive. And I would try to remind you that this gives all the glory to the Lord.
Because as my brother would say, you're not going to get to heaven and fist bump God and say,.
We did it.
Salvation is by God and God alone and His grace. So last time, we looked at verses 4 and following where we asked this question. Why would God save us? We needed saving, verses 1, 2, and 3. But why would God save us?
And it centered around four words. And they were mercy, love, grace, and kindness. Those are good to go over again, especially on the Lord's Supper communion Sunday. Why does God save us? The answer is found in Him.
It's found in His mercy. See it in verse 4? But God being rich in mercy. If you met Paul, the apostle, on Earth, and of course, when you meet him in heaven, and maybe after a million years worshiping Jesus, you might look over and see Paul or something like that.
But Paul doesn't get tired of praising God. He doesn't get tired of celebrating God's mercy. He doesn't say, you know what? I've already learned about mercy. And now I'm off to the next thing. What else can I learn about?
It seems like he goes back over, and over, and over to these characteristics, these perfections of God, the essence of God. And he thinks, you know what? I've never forgotten that. Even earlier in chapter 1, remember, Paul just explodes with fireworks-like praise of God.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you think, you know what, Paul? It's been 25 years since you've got saved on the way to Damascus. You're on your way to Damascus to kill people, essentially, imprison them, take children away from their parents, and incarcerate Christians.
It's been 25 years. By the way, you probably should get over this kind of exaltation of who God is. I mean, mature Christians, we're not really praising. It's the young Christians. You know, they get saved.
They get baptized. They'll grow out of that praise. Did you get what I just did there? Following along? Of course, he doesn't do that. So first, Paul celebrates this great mercy of God. And you see, being rich in mercy.
And mercy is just this generosity of God. It's this steadfast love of God. It's this idea that God looks at us, and he says, they need help. And if you looked at somebody dead, dominated, and doomed, you would say, they need help.
And it's not just they need help. I'm able to give them help. That's what mercy is. He's rich in mercy. The treasury of God's mercy is there for people who are rich in sin. Well, Paul goes on. Secondly, why did Jesus have to come?
Why did God have to rescue? What's in it?
Love.
But God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. And as I said last week, OK, mercy, people need pity. I'll give them pity. But love, sacrificial love, at my cost, I will send my son.
Now, Luke is far from sinless, but I have one son. And do I give my son to rescue his mother? I would do that. Would I give my son to rescue his sister? I would do that, to rescue his wife. But to rescue criminals, to rescue terrorists, to rescue people on death row, would I give my son?
But that's what love is. That's why Paul says, it's great love. It's many loves. For God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son. In this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation, or assuage, the wrath that we deserve for our sins.
Why are you saved? The answer is found in God and his love, not in you. It's not found in me. We love because he what? First loved us. Paul goes on. Verse 5, not just mercy, not just love. You ask the why question, why are you saved?
Answer, God's merciful, God's loving, and number three,.
He's gracious.
Even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, so we don't forget, made us alive. Peter says, caused you to be born again with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. So Ephesians 2, we're dead, now we're made alive.
God has to do that. Even our language of being born again is language of passivity. You don't bear yourselves. I say it many times, even in my own mind. On May 12, 1960, I did not bear myself. I was born.
It happened to me, the passivity of salvation, because God gets the credit for it. He's the one that does it all. Same thing here, God made you alive. He had to because you were dead. It's not like the illustration of people in a boat and someone's drowning and you go over and you throw them a life preserver and they grab it and swim over.
That's not the illustration here. The illustration here is you could see to the bottom of the lake, 20 feet down, and all you see is bones. And God causes those bones to come together. And you think of Ezekiel, even, and dry bones and dead man's bones.
It comes together and God makes alive. It's all of God's work. Paul doesn't want any credit to go to anyone for their state before God. And when I say grace and I say mercy and I say love, I hope you're not thinking about abstract theological things apart from who Jesus is.
When you see Jesus and you would describe Him in many ways, of course you would describe Him as, I've never met anyone so merciful. I've never met anyone so loving at their own expense. I've never met anyone so gracious.
We're talking about the Lord Jesus. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Next verse, being justified as a gift by His grace. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. But don't miss verse six.
Some people skip verse six because the other stuff is so good and raised us up. So He made us alive. He raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in heavenly places in Christ. We'll say, I didn't feel that when that happened.
This is not something that you feel. This is just a truth. This is a truth and it's called union with Christ. This is a truth that what God did in Christ, He did for you. And we were buried in the grave as it were and we were raised with Christ.
Christ was resurrected and then ascended and we were with Him. It's called a spiritual truth, union with Christ. We're with Christ. We can't see this truth, but it's true. Maybe the easiest way to think about union with Christ, the story of Jesus is your story.
Died to sin, raised a newness of life. That's why we celebrate baptisms here. Died to sin, raised a newness of life. Jesus didn't pay for His own sin. He paid for our sins, but then raised a newness of life.
Our sins paid for, raised a newness of life. Victory guaranteed. And now we come to the last word, kindness. Found in verse seven, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ.
Jesus, kind.
Sometimes when you do word studies, they don't really help you. What's this word mean 2 ,000 years ago? If you study this word, it will help you. It's got no sharp angles to it. It's only got kindness, generosity, gentleness, goodness, no edges.
But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, Titus chapter two. It's in Romans chapter two. Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness? It's just kind of a sweet word.
It's a nice word. God is kind. So once again, just to remind all of us, why did God save you? Why did God save anyone? Because they were so wonderful, He couldn't help Himself. Because He saw how much they worked and said, I need to reward their hard work.
He saw that, you know what? Look at these people over here. Some of those people are just better than these people. And these people that are better than these people, they deserve a reward for that. They need to be given something.
You know, these people over here, they go to church. They've been baptized and they've been confirmed and they try to serve. And since they do that and these other people, they're out who knows doing what on Sunday morning, let's help them.
Let's help the good people. Can you see anything in verses four, five, six, or seven that say anything about how good we are? All I see is we're the recipients of divine grace, mercy, love, and kindness.
Why would God do all this?
Well, because it's who He is. And also verse seven tells us, because He wants to show people. He wants to demonstrate to people. Now, when I was a kid, we would bring things to school. I went to a school called Master's, they were the Master's Monarchs.
Had nothing to do with Master's Seminary, but it's called the Master's Monarchs. And we were tough, as our mascot would tell you. And of course, when you're a kid, you have show and tell and bring and brag.
And you bring something really cool and you'd stand up and you talk about it. You know, one says it's kind of good because you have to learn public speaking. And I've told you many times before, my favorite thing that I ever brought was I brought chicken feet.
Because I figured out if you took chicken feet and at the end of the part that you cut off the ankle area, whatever a chicken's ankle area is called, if you pull the tendon, the feet move. It was perfect for doing to girls' hair going down the street.
There's an anger that's sinful anger, but there's an anger that's righteous. We know that. And there's a boasting that's sinful in this sinful boasting world. Boasting about ourselves and our accomplishments and what we do and our CV and our resume.
We say, look at myself, look at me, look at what I do, propelling ourselves up, pushing ourselves up. But there's a good boasting. There's a good boasting that we do. Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.
There's a boasting that should not be in our riches or in our wisdom or with our strength. It should be knowing God, Jeremiah says. But the ultimate good boasting is the boasting that God does himself.
God shows off. It's show and tell with good motives. I wouldn't say bring in brag because brag is pretty much negative all the time, but it is a demonstration of God's great grace. And of course, it's holy and right to do.
God wants to show what he can do with dead people, dominated people, doomed people, and how he can turn them into saints and worshipers. And so everybody goes, do you know what? Who can do that? Who can make these people, who can make Saul the Christian killer, the apostle?
Who can do that? Now, just as a side note here, I wonder if there's someone in your life that you'd really like to get saved, you'd like to see them saved. Someone, maybe it's a wayward child or a grandchild, somebody at work, and you think, Lord, they don't know where they're headed.
They don't know the eternal lake of fire. They think it's some kind of game and they're just caught up in life and everything else. And I would so love to see them get saved. I would so love to see them be forgiven, reconciled to you.
If, in fact, we're waiting for something in them to happen, for them to take the first step, for them to bear themselves out of the womb of God, as it were, for them to say, you know what? I'm going to start doing better.
I'm going to be the one that's going to start doing all these things. If we're waiting for them, what kind of hope do you have? But if you say to yourself, the same God that can save me in an apartment in West Los Angeles in 1989, the same God that can interrupt and intercept and intervene, that same God who saves, it's his nature to save.
It's his nature to show goodness and kindness and love. Then we start having hope. We start thinking, God, you can save. And you begin to pray through these theological convictions like this. Not, well, Lord, I want you to let them make the first move.
We don't want you to break in on their vaunted free will. And we don't want to coerce. And we don't want to do this, that or the other. That's not how you pray for your loved ones. How do you pray for your loved ones?
Save them. Interrupt them. Don't let them run off the cliff. God, I know you're kind. I know you're gracious. I know you love. I know you have mercy. Would you save? And then when they say they're saved, if God is so gracious to condescend and save, we all say that's the surpassing riches of Christ Jesus.
I know we don't clap much of this church. People are like, well, why don't you clap in the songs? There's some psalms that say clapping. Well, if I'm being kind of pastor, not Pastor Mike, but just kind of mean Mike, I say, well, there's 150 psalms and only five are clapping.
So let's clap five out of 150 times. But why do you think we clap when people get baptized? I think we almost can't help ourselves because it's a demonstration of the riches and the surpassing glory of Christ Jesus.
It's not that they're performing well. It's just, yes, it's just like built in. And so God, one of the reasons why he saves is because he's a savior. Another reason is he wants to show forth his glory.
He wants to show forth who he is. I love the psalmist who says in Psalm 115, not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name, give glory for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness. We boast with bad motives, but if your motives are good and God motives are good, and for us, if the object of our boasting is God, it's fine.
We don't boast in ourselves.
We boast of the Lord and he boasts of himself. I like Isaac Watt's words here, not to our names, thou only just and true, not to our worthless names as glory do, thy power and grace, thy truth and justice claim immortal honors to thy sovereign name.
I read this week, how to stop bragging. What's the best way to stop bragging in yourself? I thought this is pretty good. This is good advice. The best way to stop bragging is to focus more on other people and conversations.
Sounds good. The best way to boast in the Lord is to focus on him. I thought to myself the other day,.
I was working through this.
I'm a boaster. What do I like to boast in? I probably could think about pretty long list. I have a wife, 35 years, four children, three grandchildren, 20 more on the way. For a while, we had pretty good sports teams around here.
I guess the Celtics probably still pretty good. If you like 53 point shots every quarter.
I knew Rick would like that one.
When have I just said, Oh God, you're just so great. I'm so thankful. Sometimes I just need a quick refresher course in the doctrine of hell, the doctrine of God's wrath, the doctrine of God's holiness to be reminded.
What was my state? To think with a massive hordes of most every person in this world. If I die, I'll go to a better place. And if you're not a believer, that is a tragic, tragic lie. To think that you're finally, after all the cancer has been affecting you and your mind, you breathe a sigh of relief, thinking you're going to go to the better place and then wake up in the presence of a holy God.
How awful that must be. Eternity on every chain in hell. It's been said that this word forever. And I think I don't, I deserve to go to hell and I get to go to heaven. I get to go to heaven. Because I'm better?
No, because God's merciful. He's loving. He's gracious. And he's kind. And he shows it to people. What do you think heaven will be like? Heaven will be the eternal display of God's grace in saving sinful men and women.
No wonder the angels are stooping in first Peter chapter one, longing to look what's going on because there's never been a redeemed angel. Angels fell. They were sealed in their fate. The angels that didn't fall are sealed in their glory.
But neither of them know anything about grace. I don't usually recommend the life application Bible commentary, but they nailed this one. When you see a turtle on a fence post, you know he didn't get there by himself.
Andrew Smith, that's the only thing he'll remember the whole sermon.
Just kidding.
Paul is just, it's just in him, swelling up wave after wave. He just, he knows it has to be the glory of God. It has to be the grace of God. And if it hasn't dawned on you, does the, do these doctrines not tell you the exclusivity.
Of the God of Israel?
There's not five different kind of gods out there.
We're not talking about Allah.
And what Buddha says and Confucius and all that. We're talking about monotheism, God and God alone. Jesus is the only way. S. Lewis Johnson. I think one of the most wonderful things about heaven is going to be the revelation and manifestation of all the wonderful ways in which God has shown grace to the saints of God.
And you're worshiping the Lord Jesus and you're meeting all these people. And Paul gets converted on the way to Damascus. The thief gets converted when he's got his hands crucified. There's nothing he could do with his hands.
His feet are up there, nailed. There's nothing, nowhere he can go to do good religious works. And you think, can you just give me more? I want to know more about this. Give me more proof that it's by grace and grace alone.
And that's exactly what Paul does. Verse eight, to demo God's grace. We need to be reminded again that there's nothing in us. And so Paul says, for by grace, you've been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing.
It's the gift of God, not a result of works that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship.
Created in Christ Jesus.
For good works, which God prepared beforehand.
That we should walk.
In them, Paul, come on.
Didn't you already say it in verse five? By grace, you're saved through faith. I get it. But it's like Paul will not let us forget it because it's built into our system works righteousness. Why are we celebrating the Lord's Supper today?
Many reasons. Here's one. You're standing before God,.
Dear Christian,.
Is not based on your holy living. You're standing before God. This moment is not based on your sanctified life. You're standing before God. This moment is by grace and by grace alone. And Paul repeats it.
You've been saved by grace.
By grace, you've been saved. He's giving more evidence. How do you know you're a Christian?
Why are you a Christian?
Paul says you've been saved. Spurgeon said this. Paul knew that he needed to repeat himself or people would forget what he taught.
It's true.
So Paul tries to make sure we realize that it's grace and not work. So what does he do? He gives kind of four reminders. We'll just get through a couple of them.
Verse eight.
You've been saved by grace through faith. So what's Paul doing? Paul is making sure you don't think it's anything in you. It's not anything in me. There's no merit. There's no works. There's no goodness.
Nothing in me. So he says you're saved through faith. What if he said you're saved because of faith? Now, he doesn't say that. He says through faith. What's the big deal? I mean, when I was a kid growing up, I could care less about prepositions.
Prepositions matter. Words matter. Theology matters. And if Paul says you're saved because of faith, then that means that's the cause. Because of faith. But did he not say earlier in chapter two, verse four, it's because of God's love.
So the cause is love. And we're receiving grace through faith. And so Paul says through to make sure you realize it's not a condition. Receiving faith is you're passive. You're receiving. It's a gift that's given to you.
And it's not the ground. It's called an instrument. There's no merit here. If you were saved because of your faith, your faith would have to be perfect because God accepts nothing less than perfection.
But if you're saved through faith, that's language that basically Paul is telling you it has nothing to do with you coming up with your faith.
True or false?
Faith is a gift.
True.
He's going to say that later in this verse. But Philippians chapter one, verse nine, verse 29 rather, Acts chapter 18, believe by grace. So Paul says you're saved through faith because he's trying to be technical so that all the glory goes to God.
By the way, if you have a little faith in the right object, is that enough to save? The answer is yes. Faith isn't a work. We contribute nothing. God doesn't believe for us. We believe, but it's God causing us to be born again.
And we respond with faith. Does not the Holy Spirit create faith, give faith as a gift? The answer is yes. He keeps going. So to make sure that we realize it's by grace and grace alone. And that not of yourselves.
Just in case anybody says, by the way, it is a little bit of my faith. I did come up with it. By the way, if you would have asked me in 1989, why did God save you? I would have said I believed because I thought I believed and then that let God save me.
But of course, Paul wouldn't have any of that allowed. And he makes sure of that right here. And that not of yourselves. That not of yourselves. People like, well, there's some grammar issues here. And what does that refer to?
Does it refer to grace? That's not of yourself. That's true. Faith, that's not of yourself. That's true. All of salvation. That's true. When it comes to salvation, nothing is of ourselves. Oh, sorry, I forgot.
There is one thing of ourselves, sin. Paul wants to make sure it's all of grace. So it's through faith. That not of yourself. What's the next thing? He just piling it on. It's the gift of God. Salvation is a gift.
And then what does he say at the end? Not as a result of works. Probably in the context of ceremonial, religious, confirmation, baptism. I mean, Paul wasn't thinking of confirmation. But circumcision, anything like that.
Not of works. Paul, you've forgotten that we have a very famous American that said, God helps those that help themselves. Not of works. Warren Wiersbe said, since we have not been saved by our good works, we cannot be lost by our bad works.
That's a different sermon. But that's worth thinking about. And what's this all lead to? Verse 9. We're going to have to end here. We're going to talk about good works next week. Verse 9, not a result of works that no one should boast.
That no one should boast.
Because it's all grace.
It's not of ourselves. I, God, am a Christian because I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps. God, I'm the one that pulled myself out of the quicksand of sin. I pulled myself out of the muck and mire.
I like Judges chapter 7. Lest Israel become boastful, saying, my own power has delivered me.
We don't want to do that.
My own power has delivered me. One of the things I notice about little boys, probably girls do it too, but little boys especially.
You build up blocks.
And the game with me, with my children and my grandchildren now, is how high can I get the tower before Mr. Destructo comes by? I want to see how many I can get up there. Just coming to just to demolish it.
What is it in a young little boy that just wants to demolish? But in a good way, Paul is demolishing anyone that would have one little bit of, I did something in my salvation. I did something to cause God to save me.
That no one would boast before God. Paul's writing to these Gentiles in Turkey. Crazy goddesses everywhere, Diana especially. And how many hours does it say in Acts that they were worshiping Diana? Great is the God of Diana.
Great is the God of Diana. Great is the God of Diana. It is a praise-filled world. People are born praisers. You're born praisers. There's nothing wrong with saying, I praise God for my grandson or this, that or the other.
But you're meant to praise. It's built in. And if you won't praise the Lord, you'll praise something else, someone else. And the world praises sex and every drug and every other thing over and over and over.
You can see it's built in. They can't stop themselves.
And God would say, I am the Lord.
No idolatry. Worship me because I am worthy.
Because you believed?
Oh, I'm glad you believe. But why did you believe?
Because someone came and preached the gospel to me.
Great.
Told you the good news about the resurrected Jesus who pays for sinners' sins. Why did they do that? And the answer to all these why questions. Have you ever thought of it this way? How can praise in heaven be eternal?
Because the praise will be for God who is eternal.
Think about that.
The praise will be eternal because God is eternal. And his attributes are infinite. And his perfections are wonderful. And you'll just forever and ever think to yourself, I cannot believe that this has happened to me by grace and by grace alone.
So we're going to celebrate the Lord's Supper.
And here's what we're going to do.
I'm not going to give another sermon. What else could I say? During the bread, I want you to remember God is merciful and loving. And then during the cup, I just want you to remember he's been gracious and kind.
And I want you to think about for you. I don't want you to dwell on hell for the whole rest of the service. But why would Paul even say, you're dead in trespasses, sins dominated, and doom? Is it any good for a Christian to look back to see what he was like?
The answer is yes. And then you say, it's to God and God alone. And God, in light of that, would you stoke my heart, the coals of my heart, so I might worship you better. I might evangelize more, that I might do better works and good works because I am the recipient of sovereign grace.
So let's pray.
Thank you, Father, for your word. Thank you for what you've done. And now when it comes to remembering Jesus, which we've done now for 45 minutes, would you remind us, especially those that are here today that are cold in their love for you, that need to warm themselves at the fire of your love.
Would you do that as they remember the Lord Jesus? And Father, for those that are overtaken with sin and realize that they need to confess it, if you are merciful to us when we were saved, won't you be merciful to pardon them today?
We know the answer to that. So may they confess those sins in Jesus' name.