The Right Kind of Possession (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8)

Good morning. Would you turn with me to the book of 1st Thessalonians chapter 4 and We will read the text. We will be studying this morning and then our second scripture reading. There'll be a lot of scripture today, which is a good thing.

It's a wonderful thing first Peter 1 13 through 19. So first 1st Thessalonians 4 3 through 8. For this is the will of God your sanctification.

That.

Is that you abstain from sexual immorality that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor? Not in lustful passion like the Gentiles who do not know God and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the Avenger in all those things just as we also told you before and Solemnly warned you for God has not called us for the purpose of impurity but in sanctification.

Consequently he who rejects this is not rejecting man. But the God who gives you his Holy Spirit, but the God who gives his Holy Spirit to you and Then first Peter 3 13 through 19. 1 13 through 19. Therefore prepare your minds for action keep sober in spirit.

Fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ as obedient children. Do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours and will be in ignorance. But like the Holy One who called you be holy yourselves also in all your behavior.

Because it is written you shall be holy for I am holy if you address this father the one who impartially judges according to each One's work conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth.

Knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your feudal way of life. Inherited from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of a lamb unblemished unblemished and spotless the blood of Christ.

Let's pray father all of us are expectant lumps of clay. Knowing that as you pour your son the Lord Jesus Christ out To pay for all of our sins you pour into us your Holy Spirit. To enact in our lives the scripture that we study and understand through you.

This morning might we be ready to receive doctrine correction instruction and reproof From the loving hand of a father who has nothing but the very best in his heart for his children his elect. We thank you that you have saved us.

We have no idea why you did but we are grateful. Might we hear you this morning and if we come away from this Remembering the scripture it will be a morning. Well spent we thank you in Jesus name. So the last time we were together we went through a section of first Thessalonians and and Today's section is I would say a Little bit more pointed and hard and so I would like for us.

Sometimes.

When we have a nice rack of books on each end of those books We will have a bookend on this end and on this end and sometimes they'll have little sayings on them or or pictures or something. And it it it appropriately frames The row of books so for this morning's message I'd like us to start with two bookends that I want you to be thinking about all the way through this met this message.

The first bookend is First Corinthians 6 11 and such were some of you but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God.

That's the first bookend. We need to remember when we're looking through the scriptures and we see Doctrine and correction and instruction we think well that's for them. No, it's for me this was a. Whenever I go through a passage of Scripture, I first think about Where are my failings?

And I can't spend all the time. I need to on that because I'd never get up here. The second bookend is first John 1 9 which is absolutely One of my favorite verses in the Bible. If we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins.

Did you see here that he's faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So with that those two bookends, but such were some of you such were some of us if we confess.

Let's launch into this. So the last time we were together We looked at first Thessalonians 4 1 and 2. Paul had called the Thessalonians who were an exemplary church in Asia Minor. Obedient to the Word of God to excel even more.

I Think I remembered if I remember right I titled that message more, please. They were doing many right things and he wanted more. He challenged them to never settle for good enough. But to always press on for more righteousness more holiness and all things that would be found pleasing to God he continues that plea but in this next section of verses he becomes blunt and more specific.

We leave it. We live in an age where sexual sexual immorality is rife. It is Celebrated and it's even considered part of life's adventurousness if you will. I Had I had to be very careful to try and frame this in a pg -13 message.

Because Paul doesn't and therefore I'm not saying I'm better or smarter than Paul. You all that know me know way better than that. But I wanted to make it so that you would feel comfortable to have everyone here listening to it.

So sexual immorality is considered good. Wholesome and in many respects desired, especially before marriage. That's that's the age we live in. Witness the opening ceremonies of last month's Olympic game.

Well, no don't witness them read about them. But observe. Observe some of the comments maybe that were made this at least one of its Conventions one of the things that was trying to be communicated. There was a direct attack on one of Christian Christendom's most important sacrament the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.

In the Lord's Supper. We celebrate the incredible gift of life the life death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we celebrate the body and the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ recognizing his the significance of his obedience To his obedience to death and the shedding of blood to cover the sins of those who would believe.

Modern demonic media did everything they could to blaspheme that incredible remembrance. Now imagine yourself living in a time That was worse than what we are living in today where every second woman you saw on the street was someone else's mistress.

Where pedophilia was commonplace and celebrated? Transvestitism was common and even expected in one's journey into adulthood if you chose to become somewhat moral in this society and Expected to marry a woman who was the same you were expecting the near-impossible.

It was into this society that the gospel came to the through the Apostle Paul and The gospel raised expectations to the level of the impossible. We understand that the standards of God that God requires of his people are not attainable.

Without the indwelling Holy Spirit. We also understand that he will not require What he cannot provide. The Thessalonians would have seen much of what Paul was saying is completely impossible to attain.

It is only through the changed life that comes from regeneration. Trusting in Christ and cooperating with the indwelling Holy Spirit that the Thessalonians would have any chance To represent the kind of lifestyle that Paul preached about and Paul was not suggesting this.

He was demanding it. He was commanding it and So it is in these next ten verses. We won't hit all ten today, but in these next ten verses Paul becomes a bit focused about some of the difficulties that would have been experienced by the Thessalonians living in this incredibly depraved time.

Culture. So verse 3 says for this is the will of God. Your sanctification that is that you abstain from sexual immorality. People wonder what the will of God is. You've heard it asked. What do you think the will of God is?

Well, what is what is the will of God for my life? Note that here. There's no article in the original Greek before the word will so this is not saying that this is the whole will of God, but this is one of the aspects God's will is encapsulated throughout his word and that requires that we study all of it as You learn of his character and his desires for his children step by step you begin to walk in his will.

Which is in obedience to his precepts. It starts very early on when we see God approve of Abel's sacrifice. But not Cain's. He disapproves of Cain's sacrifice when he gives specifics. We would do well to pay attention.

Commentator Leon Morris put this way he said thus a process has begun in which the old ways and the old habits are increasingly done away and Replaced with new ways that fit the service of God. This is a long and Necessary process and much of the New Testament is taken up with the instruction as to how it may be furthered.

Here Paul lays it down firmly that it is God's will that God's people live in God's way. Then we see it again later in Genesis. When we discover that one of the aspects of the will of God is for us to believe what he has said and trust him.

For it just as Abraham did in Deuteronomy. We are reminded that there are certainly secret things that we cannot know about. But there is plenty that is revealed that we can observe and do. I'm trying to remember the old saying there's much in the Bible That I don't understand and there's much in the Bible that I never will understand.

But there's plenty in the Bible that I cannot miss understand. Start there beloved start there. Deuteronomy 29 29 the secret things belong to the Lord our God. But the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever that we may observe all the words of this law.

So this is a study in itself and it's just a few things to note later in 1st Thessalonians. We will discover that one aspect of the will of God is to in everything give.

Criticism oh.

Wait a minute. That's what we learned about this morning. I Didn't plan this. David in everything give thanks. Are there things in your life that are happening right now that you can't give thanks for.

That's where God is focusing in that give thanks and everything give thanks. Psalm 40 verse 8 we discover that the will of God is encapsulated in his law. In John 4 34 Jesus remarks that my food is to do the will of him who sent me.

So we can truly say here. What would Jesus do? It's it's a proper statement here and look at the many things that he did throughout his incredible life here on the planet and To the degree that God's Spirit enables us copy them.

Romans 12 tells us that doing the will of God is refusing to be conformed to the world. What does the world require for you to get along now, this is not a litmus test. But it's appropriate to think through that likely God's will is for us to do the opposite of what the world requires us to do especially in these days.

Colossians chapter 1 reminds us it increasing in the knowledge of God being steadfast and patient in joy is the will of God. There's there's no dearth of information in God's Word about what his will is and His will is good and just and perfect and as his people serve him in following his will.

They discover that and they show it to the world. 1st Peter 4 to stipulates that whatever men inappropriately lust after. This is not the will of God. Ephesians 5 calculates that some of the aspects of the will of God are found in speaking to one another biblically.

Making melody in our hearts to the Lord and always giving thanks for all things simple but not necessarily very easy and here directly stated. The will of God is our sanctification. That that is our day-to-day growth and the knowledge of the king and our living out of that knowledge.

Sanctification is a direct result of salvation. It is one of the proofs that one has been saved. Paul takes it one step further though when he gives the Thessalonians always want to start out and call the Thessalonians the Thessalonians the Thessalonians he gives them a specific application run from sexual and immorality.

The word for sanctification in there is the Greek word for holiness as well. It comes from the concept of being set apart for a purpose a good purpose. This is what God has done when he saved you. He set you apart to become holy like his son is holy.

Like he is holy and to glorify him in all you do. But in Thessalonica Paul specifically applies the idea of sanctification to the incredible sexual immorality that permeated Greek culture in that day in First century Rome the Greek here.

The Greek word is pornea and it's a general term that covers all. Deviation from sexual purity that God demands in the life of a set-apart Christian. The first century Thessalonians did not see sexual immorality as sin.

They didn't see it as sin. They were comfortable with it. It was the way it was it was good and.

And.

Make no mistake any culture that that begins walking that path. Sin is never static. It is always moving in one direction or another. It's always getting worse and worse or if God has come into your life. It is becoming less and less.

They didn't see it as sin. They saw it as a normal part of everyday life. They did not have the benefit of several generations of Christianity. To create what we had in the Western mindset as a concept of morality.

To them it was moral to have a mistress. Demosthenes said it this way. This is what Demosthenes said about the culture he lived in. We keep prostitutes for pleasure we keep mistresses for the day-to-day needs of the body.

We keep wives for the beginning of children and for the faithful guardianship of our homes. It's disgusting to me to read that. That is pretty perverse. Brothers and sisters, that's where we're headed.

That's where this nation this world is headed here. Paul uses the word for abstain he says abstain. From sexual immorality which means to be distant from to. To maintain a distance from distance from to get away from it to be completely.

Disassociated with the idea is complete abstinence in first Corinthians 618. He uses the word flee. The best way to get away from something and to put distance between it and you is to flee from it run.

Don't look back like lots wife in that verse in first Corinthians. Paul also warns the Corinthians that every other sin one commits is outside the body. But sexual sin is a sin directly against the body.

It's against one's health. It's against one's future relationships. It's against purity. It violates in a special way the oneness that was designed to occur between a man and a wife. That no other sin can if you're stupid enough to steal your wife's laptop.

It will lessen her trust in you. But if you steal her right to own your body in a way that God designed the one flesh relationship to be it will destroy. That relationship in a way that no other sin has the potential to do now.

Remember the bookmark. If you confess your sin He is faithful and just faithful and righteous to forgive your sin and cleanse you from all it and righteousness. I want to keep going back to those bookends because this is a difficult passage of Scripture.

It's very telling it's very pointed. And whatever God wrote through Paul to the Thessalonians. He wrote to us. So first Corinthians 6 8 says flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body.

But the immoral man sins against his own body. And what is the sexual immorality that Paul is commanding them to abstain from all of it? Pornography adultery incest pedophilia transvestitism premarital sex proof post-marital abuse self-abuse.

I thought this thesaurus is going to get really boring really quick and really so just fill in the blank. All of it all of it. The word is it's comprehensive. The victory that Christ brings into the individual life.

Over sin is intended to be comprehensive in the same way. Paul is warning the Thessalonians and by Extension us to flee from every sin type of sin like that. The victory that Christ brings is over every one of those over every one.

Paul here is echoing a teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew. Matthew chapter 5 27 and 28. Jesus said you have heard that it was said you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that He everyone who looks at a little woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Jesus is looking at the heart. This is what this kind of sin does it destroys the heart? Now when I say destroy I didn't say annihilate. Remember first John 1 9. So this is hard work, this is inside work Holy Spirit work.

It's about behavior to be sure but it's not just about behavior. It is about the desire and the delight to do what is right and to live in that doing refusal here is Likely a demonstration that one is not a believer.

If you refuse to heed this verse 3 I would take Serious account of my own salvation. I'm not talking about the occasional deviation that happens in the life of a sinner saved by grace falling repenting and then getting back up to battle again.

A Refusal to abstain indicates that one is deceived about what it means to be a sanctified believer. This is the kind of things that proves one is not an inheritor of the kingdom of God as Paul said in 1st Corinthians 6.

He said in 1st Corinthians 6 verses 9 through 10. He said or do you not know that the righteous the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do you not be deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor homosexuals nor nor thieves nor the covetous?

Nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. So here Paul is talking about specifically secular immorality in 1st Corinthians. He's talking about all the other sins. They're all.

Barriers.

To God barriers to coming into to your sanctified life in God. Later in 1st Corinthians 10 Paul Recounts the sin of Israel Moses while Moses was receiving the Ten Commandments and he remarks that one cannot partake of the cup of the Lord and The cup of demons in one sitting at the same time First Corinthians 10 21 you cannot drink the cup of the Lord in the cup of demons you cannot partake of the cup table of the Lord and the table of demons.

Much of what men do in the Realm of sexual wickedness is truly demonic. It never stays simple. Just looking at pornography for example. It always moves in the direction of more or less if controlled by self and lust it will move in the direction of more and more filth until one is openly demonic if Under the control of the Holy Spirit.

It will become less and less and one will begin to resemble the Lord Jesus Christ more and more in their life. Sin is never static. It's never static it is always on the move here and again. In 1st Corinthians Paul warns the believers He wants them to completely abandon these activities run from these thoughts to inculcate the words of Scripture into their hearts and minds.

As one writer put it Christians are To have a clean cut from sexual immorality of all kinds and the only thing That can do that for you is the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. You can't do it yourself.

Accountability is necessary. Yes. But in the end, it's God's Word. It's God's Word and the Holy Spirit Verse 4 that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor. It is unfortunate that both in Paul's time and today people live so completely under the control of their emotions.

All you got to do is go on Facebook for 10 seconds. And you can see it in the responses the comments or even the what's it called the op. What's that mean original post? Did I get that right? Hey, i'm a facebook guy.

Wow. Okay. So decisions are made on how one feels about something. Whether it's a decision to buy a house A car groceries or get involved in an affair. People make decisions very often solely on how they feel about.

The decision what paul is talking about here is that we must develop. Get this. Develop the skill of controlling our bodies in sanctification and honor. It's a skill like using a power tool correctly which has Harnessed certain kinds of electricity and power to do a thing which if used incorrectly will harm you.

Ask me how I know. Later, so we're looking at very specific words here that in context paint a wonderful yet difficult picture. From the time of augustine on interestingly enough and possibly even a little earlier to some of the research I did.

Many commentators reviewed the word vessel as one's wife. So what they would say was for each of you to know how to possess his own wife in sanctification and honor. I want to talk to you about that. I think that's incorrect.

I believe that's incorrect. Numerous commentators as well as a cursory study of paul's use of the word for wife indicate that this is Very likely incorrect. I believe it is Paul's teaching and christianity in general Produce a very high view of marriage.

In marriage the man of the women the man and the woman are equal heirs. Of the grace of god to reduce the word vessel here to simply means one's wife to simply mean one's wife. Wife has several problems.

Some people refer to first peter's reference to peter's reference in first peter to the wife being the weaker vessel. That's not what is at point here? Further this verse was written to the church at large in thessalonica.

It was written to the men and to the women and probably to the children who would understand it. The command to know how to possess his own vessel should be considered to be directed at the entire congregation not just the men.

Remember both men and women are the vessels of the holy spirit. So the word translated vessel Skew us is often used in the new testament in new testament for utensils Romans 9 21 or does not the potter have the right over the clay to make from the same lump of one vessel skew us For honorable use and another for common use.

It's also used Of implements in second corinthians 4 7, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels. So that the surpassing greatness of the power of god will be of god and not from ourselves. And of implements or tools, excuse me, that was implements or tools as in second timothy 2 21.

Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel For honor sanctified useful to the master prepared for every good work. Other often rabbis use this word to denote the body.

So paul here is instructing the thessalonians to exercise proper proper skillful control Over their own bodies to produce by the power of the holy spirit in their lives. Sanctification and honor. What a great concept what a wonderful what a wonderful.

I mean we get to be sanctified By the sovereign of the universe to begin to resemble his son. He got a really bad deal with me, but some of you are doing just fine. Don't let it go to your heads.

So anyway.

Um a thoughtful manner that exudes the dignity that the holy spirit brings into one's life. God will use his holy spirit through his word. To make you a proper vessel. Skillfully use his word to make you a proper vessel.

Verse five. Not in lustful passion. Like the gentiles who do not know god, so it was common for the greeks in the day of paul's time. Of the thessalonian time to whom paul is writing to give into their passions.

It was even looked at as part of the worship of their pantheon of gods. And so it was good it was good these things were considered not just acceptable but actually good desirable. Paul is reminding the thessalonians here that those kinds of actions and lifestyles are commonplace among those who do not know.

Yahweh. Who do not know him? Unregenerate people have an uncontrolled desire for sexual gratification. It consumes them. It defines them and they require others to recognize their deviance as their personality.

This happened in thessalonian times. Do you know my pronouns?

I hope not.

That's what's going on today. That is such a consuming thing that it forces. It doesn't force. They require others to participate in it. Because it's good to them. It's righteous to them. Today it plays its ugly destruction out in the lives of especially young people who think they must give in to the spirit of the age and adopt the opposite sex as their identity.

Because apparently the sovereign god of the universe wasn't smart enough to know what he was doing when he bestowed upon them their sex. When I say it like that, it really sounds stupid, doesn't it? Newsflash it is.

But it consumes them. They need the gospel. Oh brothers, they need the gospel. So these filthy passions produce the parades that one sees in places like san francisco and portland. Where people march down the streets of those degraded cities in various stages of undress as though it's correct.

They are completely controlled by their passions and not by the holy spirit. That's an understatement. Have you ever noticed how incredibly angry they are as well? Has that ever? I it's just one of the things i've noticed.

These the two words used here, by the way are the opposite sides of the coin of self-gratification. I was going to bring a coin for it, but you all know what a coin looks like. So you don't need that.

The word translated here as lustful denotes an active pursuit of wrong desires a knowing. Active pursuit of wrong desires. The word that's the working part of this wickedness. The word translated as passion not in lustful passion.

Signifies an overmastering feeling in which one is born along by evil as though one is a passive instrument of that evil. But they're never passive because there's an active part. It is the feeling part of this deviance combined.

Combine these two things. Result in the decided the decided surrender of one's faculties to the wicked activities that result. These are people that paul said and has said and I repeat myself who do not know god.

They do not know god. Verse six and know that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the lord is the avenger in all these things. Just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you.

It's not like this hasn't been warned before. Paul is warned. God is warned throughout the old testament. The warnings are there. Some believe by the way that this is a change of subject in this section.

And that now we are talking about business matters. Paul went from sexual sin to financial insecurity. No contextually, I think this is incorrect. One can defraud one another in the matters of sexuality.

The word defraud means to swindle someone out of what is rightfully theirs. To selfishly greedily take for personal gain and pleasure at someone else's expense. In the matter of sexuality one can take from someone's future marriage partner.

The sexual purity that was their right to receive when they get married to that individual. One can take the innocence and purity from a child in the same way. This was so serious that the lord jesus christ gave an ominous warning To any who would do that in matthew 18 6 and 7.

He said. But whoever causes one of these little ones to believe in me who believe in me to stumble. It would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck and to be ground in the depth of the sea.

Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks for it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come but woe to that man. To whom the stumbling block comes first john 1 9. Beloved first john 1 9. That's our bookend one of our bookends.

Remember that. So this is the defrauding that paul is speaking of. It has nothing to do with silver and gold. It speaks of premarital promiscuity horrible horribly improper visual gratification that we call pornography and a host of other things.

That seem to be proliferating then and proliferate today in today's world. And then paul says that the lord is the avenger. The lord is the avenger that is the punisher of all these things. This alludes to future punishment as well as temporal punishment.

Bodily destruction results from much of the depravity that these activities. That comes from these activities. That the thessalonians were engaging in and that what people engage in today, but future permanent.

Eternal destruction awaits those who never repent of and walk away from those activities. We should upon regeneration discover a whole new world of service to god. And delight in it. It should be a blessing as we grow closer to him to serve him and to do things that bespeak his sovereign glory.

Do things that tell the world about who jesus is who the father is who the holy spirit is? But it is also good to be warned of the great danger. That awaits those who will not put off the wickedness of their former life and put on the garment of holiness.

That garment is the birthright of all who have been born again. If you are not disgusted by your sinful behavior if you are not distraught when you sin. If you are not energized to do better when you fail.

You should question yourself as peter said judgment should begin at the house of god. That's one of the applications of that verse. We need to look at ourselves and make sure that we're disgusted by sin and let me tell you something that's that's a Good news bad news.

The good news is as you become more and more.

Uh.

Devoted to the word of god and to it excising the sin from your life. That's a good thing. The bad news is as you become more and more devoted to the word of god you find Out just how bad you really are and that's a good thing, too.

So it's.

Tantamount and personal. It's it's personal. I should say beloved. There isn't any question about what paul is speaking of here. He speaks of it much more horrifyingly in romans chapter one, which matt read to us at the beginning of this, uh beginning this morning.

Um.

So therefore god gave them over in the lust of their hearts to impurity. You have that verse before. We have that verse before us this morning. The people who do not know god will continually exchange the truth that god gives for the lies that confirm their passions.

We will always exchange if we are if we are Following sin if we are not obeying god. We will continually exchange the truth for what confirms the things that make us feel good in life or that we think make us feel good.

These people serve themselves and worship themselves. Therefore as it talks about in romans they spiral into a continual lifestyle. Of degrading wickedness that includes sodomy which is homosexuality and is very close very clearly spoken of here in romans.

It seems that this particular sin is the underpinning for what most of what went wrong with the thessalonian roman society. And what is going wrong in society today? I'm, not of course saying that this is the only sin we need to be on the lookout for.

But it is certainly a foundation for much of the teaching of the spirit of the age today. That is destroying our youth our marriages and thus our society. First john 1 9. I'm going to keep telling you first john 1 9.

Be warned.

Paul says Those who practice these things god will avenge them. Avenge and he will avenge today and in it and in eternity and in eternity. For god has not called us to the purpose for the purpose of impurity but in sanctification.

So this command in verse 7 Is to live in purity and possessions of one body skillfully living a life that honors god. And this warning to those who would not do that fits perfectly into the general purpose for which god has saved the elect.

He did not call us for the purpose of impurity. That is lustful profligate living. He called us to be set apart Holy effective in propagating the gospel and demonstrating that his will is good. Profitable and profitable as it says in romans chapter 12.

This reminds us also that none of this rests on human initiative. Did you save yourself? Did you seek god all by your lonesome? You know, you didn't.

Neither did I.

He sought you.

And.

In that seeking when he regenerated you and turned you to him. The next step is he also provides Your sanctification. He is sanctifying you. He is sanctifying us. Whenever I do whenever I mouth things that I didn't have down in my text here. I lose my place.

So give me a second here. So this does remind us that none of this rests on human initiative but rather on the call of god. We did not seek him in a life of sexual purity rather he called us to it and what he calls us to He will accomplish.

He will supply. And it will be in sanctification that is in personal holiness resulting in an effective life that lives out the good and perfect will of god. Philippians 1 6. Another great verse that I I suppose we're not supposed to have favorite verses, but I do have a few.

For I am confident of this very thing that he who began a good work in you will perfect it into the day of jesus christ. He had to drop it. I'm going to read some more scripture. Regarding sanctification because this is what this section is really about.

Philippians 2 12 and 13. So then my beloved just as you have always obeyed not in my presence Only but now much more my absent work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is god Who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure?

John 6 28 and 29. Therefore they said to him what shall we do so that we may work the works of god? Jesus answered and said to them. This is the work of god that you believe in him who is he has sent.

Who did he send. He sent jesus. Ephesians 2 4 through 10. But god being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions. Made us alive together with christ by grace.

You have been saved. And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in christ Jesus so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in christ Jesus for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of god not as a result of work so that no one may boast but for we are his workmanship. Created in christ jesus for good works, which god prepared beforehand. So that you would walk so that we would walk in them.