Grace Through Faith

Most of you probably have been to a funeral at least once in your life, by this point in your life.

It's always a sobering thing.

There's a sense of finality.

And especially if it's a loved one, the sense of loss is very real, right?

Even if you know that that person is in heaven.

But I suppose to ease our grief, when funeral homes take the corpse in, they try to kind of mask the harsh reality of death, right?

So I don't know if you've been to a funeral where they have the viewing of the deceased.

They leave the coffin open so they can see the deceased.

And of course, they're not leaving the corpse unadorned and decaying in the coffin like they put makeup on it.

And maybe even close the eyes, right?

And just put the hair done right.

And so everything, the person actually looks quiet, content, alive.

Going through and viewing the deceased.

But the truth is, of course, even though that corpse is dressed in her best clothes and has makeup on and all of that,

there is no life at all in that corpse.

The corpse can't lift a finger.

The corpse has no will of its own.

You can't think.

You can't do anything.

The heart has stopped beating, right?

So it's no longer supplying oxygen to its body cells.

The calcium has leaked into its muscle cells, causing bigger mortis.

So the body's stiff.

There's no will.

There's no brain activity.

So there's nothing that the corpse can do.

She is completely disposed to the will of others.

In this passage we just read, Apostle Paul tells us about the spiritual condition of people outside of Christ.

But unlike the funeral homes that dress up the dead body, Paul doesn't dress up his truth at all.

He tells us that we are spiritually dead.

And the reason why he's so grim is because we can't grasp, we can't understand the exceedingly great reality of God's salvation in rescuing us unless we get the gravity of the condition we were in.

That we were dead in our trespasses and sins.

That we were hopeless.

Of course, he's not referring to a physical death.

But in a similar way to the physical death, there's nothing that spiritually dead people can do to save themselves.

They can lift a finger to save themselves.

And this is hard for us to admit, right?

People are willing to admit that, oh, you know, I was foolish and immature when I was young.

Oh, maybe I was a little sick, maybe spiritually sick, ill.

But, you know, but that's not what Paul says.

That's not enough to admit that you were maybe a little wrong, had a little error, maybe had a little sin.

What Paul wants us to get is that we were dead in our trespasses and sins.

And there was nothing we could do to save ourselves.

And to that end, Paul first describes our hopeless condition.

And then secondly, he describes God's merciful action.

And then third, he describes God's ultimate purpose for his saving action.

In order to teach us, and this is the main point of this passage, that God saves hopeless sinners to display his sovereign grace.

God saves hopeless sinners to display his sovereign grace.

So let's turn first to verses 1 to 3, which tell us about our hopeless condition.

Verse 1 tells us that we were dead in our trespasses and sins.

Trespass, another translation says transgression.

It's a violation, transgressing of a standard that God has set.

Boundaries that God has placed around us and we transgress and we go beyond it.

The same thing, sin, likewise, is a word that refers to a violation of God's commands.

His explicit commandments in his laws, we violate it.

And at the heart of every sin and every transgression or trespass is unbelief and pride.

And we see that in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sin against the Lord.

It's that we disbelieve, we doubt God's word, we disbelieve his word and think that we know better.

So there's unbelief, there's pride, and we rebel to do our own way, to pursue our own will as opposed to being submitted to God and living according to his will.

And Romans 6.23 teaches us that there's only one lawful consequence to that kind of activity, to sin and trespass, and that's death.

The wages of sin is death.

That's why it says in verse 1 that we were dead in our trespasses and sin.

And then in verses 2 to 3, Paul tells us what our spiritual death looked like with three descriptive phrases, participative phrases.

First, we were following the course of this world.

Second, we were following the prince of the power of the air.

And third, we were carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

So this is what theologians have historically called the world, the flesh, and the devil, the three enemies of the soul.

Now let's take a closer look at the first description in verse 2.

It says that we were once following the course of this world.

It literally means following the age of this world.

It refers to various non-Christian or anti-Christian ideologies, values, philosophies, systems, fashions, pressures that govern our world.

Worldliness.

And there's only two courses you can follow.

You're either following the course of God, the heavenly course, or you're following the course of this world.

And Jesus says in Matthew 12, 30, whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

Right?

Even if you pride yourself in being different from the rest of the world, even if you stick out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the world, if you're not following God, then you're squarely in the pattern of this world.

You're like everybody else following the course of this world.

You're worldly in the most profound sense of that word.

But a Christian follows another way.

And the phrase age of this world highlights the radical break that takes place when a Christian gives himself, his life to the Lord.

When he's united with Jesus.

Because a Christian no longer belongs to this age.

The priorities and the values of the Christian shifts so drastically that it's almost as if the Christian no longer belongs to this age.

No longer belongs to this world at all.

What would be some examples of following the course of this world?

Right?

For one, the pervasive materialism of our age.

People don't pay attention to God and his word.

People are walking in the course of this world are blind to the eternal spiritual realities and are fixated on the temporal, physical realities.

They're more concerned with their physical appearance than their spiritual character.

They're more concerned with their material possessions than their heavenly treasures.

They're more concerned with their opinions of their online virtual friends that they don't ever see than the verdict of their creator.

Another example is deep-seated naturalism of our culture which tries to explain away everything with natural causes without any acknowledgement of God anywhere.

So then people lose sight of their ultimate purpose as people who are created by God for his glory.

So we live with the worldview that's men-centered, not God-centered.

And so in everything we do, we live without reference to God.

We seek to accomplish everything through human planning, through human ingenuity, through human power, and through human programs.

Without relying on God and His power.

Our world is, the diamond worldview of our age is godless.

There's no place for authority of God's word.

And because beliefs in God, in spiritual truths are considered or basically demoted and relegated to the realms of private opinions.

There's no central anchor that holds us together.

We drift in the sea of relativism.

I mean, I can name, you guys can name a lot more.

I can name a lot more, right?

You see, in our world, people divide along various lines of identity and disdain those who don't belong to that identity or share that identity.

Whether it's systemic racism or ethnocentrism that leads to ethnic cleansing in places like Myanmar.

Or just classism here in Cambridge and Boston.

The course of this world wrongly devalues people who are supremely valuable because they're created in the image of God.

And we divide and disdain and dispute.

In these ways and more, we were all once following the course of this world, the age of this world.

And the second way in which we were dead in our trespasses and sins, as Paul describes, is that we were, in verse 2, following the prince of the power of the air.

What does that mean?

This sounds like some kind of sci-fi supernatural stuff, right?

The prince of the power of the air.

The next clause gives us a clue.

The prince of the power of the air is described as a spirit.

In the same Greek word that means spirit can also be translated as wind.

The wind is in the air.

And the kingdom of the air is the invisible world of spirits, which people in this age largely saw as the realm above.

The airy realm, they called it.

And he is called a prince because he can only act within the bounds of God's ultimate sovereignty.

He still has a sort of a rule over this world.

And John describes him consistently in his gospel as the ruler of this world.

Satan is his name, the accuser.

And these forces are in the air, so to speak.

It's pervasive.

It's pervasive.

But this is often overlooked.

Why?

Precisely because it's the realm of the air.

It's invisible.

You don't see it.

It's like carbon monoxide poisoning.

Orderless.

Tasteless.

Colorless.

You die killed by it without even knowing that you are being killed by it.

Spirit.

Satan.

Demons.

And this is so important for us to recognize whether you're a Christian or not here at this place.

I mean, when you see, read in the news about human trafficking, right?

People being enslaved, abducted, enslaved, and sold for, and used, abused.

We are rightly indignant.

And we want to right that wrong.

And we want to see the evildoers punished.

But when it comes to Satan and his minions, they are doing this every day.

We are spiritually abducting, abusing.

And yet, we don't even protest.

If we knew that, if we lived with that reality, how different would our posture be toward people who are being dragged to hell and enslaved by Satan?

And the consequence is eternal death.

Separation from God.

As Christians, to use the modern slang, we need to stay woke about that reality.

That's the ultimate reality that we need to be aware of.

As Ephesians 6, 12 says,

We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness,

against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Are you aware of the spiritual battles that are being waved in and around you right now?

The pervasive and insidious influence of the prince of the power of the air.

That's the second way.

We were dead and not trespassed in sin.

And the third way in which we were dead and not trespassed in sin is in verse 3.

It's that we live in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

Paul's not condemning all passions and desires that we have, right?

But he's referring to everything within us that is inclined toward evil and toward rebellion.

That's contrary to God.

It's what God described in Genesis 8, 5 before he sent the flood judgment.

He said that every intention of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually.

That's what it's describing here.

Those passions of the flesh.

Galatians 5, 19, 21 gives us some examples of these passions of the flesh.

Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

And people sometimes think that indulging these desires of the flesh and living without any kind of constraints from God's word as freedom.

Living it up.

You have only one life to live.

Do what you enjoy.

Do whatever you want.

But that can't be further from the truth.

There's no freedom in that kind of a lifestyle.

There may be the sensation of freedom, but there is no life there.

It's a sign of death, as Paul described.

It's not unlike, I hope no one in this crowd does this, but it's not unlike climbing, rock climbing while unroped, right?

Climbers call this free soloing, right?

And those who do it mention getting hooked to the adrenaline rush, right?

The sensation of being free from any constraints, being alive.

But if you climb anywhere above 30 feet,

you mess up and it's death.

And so if you look up the statistics on climbing,

the fatalities from free soloing is disproportionately high.

And the list of top world-class climbers who have died free soloing grows every year.

Sure, wearing a harness and being tied to a rope and using an anchor might feel like inhibitions,

but it's these safety mechanisms that enable climbers truly to enjoy their climb,

to climb freely without fear of exchanging a thrill for death.

Similarly, indulging in the passions of our flesh may offer a sensation of freedom and life,

but there's no life there.

It's death.

And some free soloing climbers survive,

but sin has 100% fatality.

And this is how we all once lived.

There are no exceptions.

Look at verse 3.

Among whom we all once lived,

in the passions of our flesh,

carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,

and were by nature children of wrath,

like the rest of mankind.

There's no exception.

Every single one of us,

no matter your upbringing,

no matter your heritage,

no matter your background,

we were all once dead in our trespasses.

And so we were objects of God's wrath.

And God's wrath,

don't think of it as this capricious,

you know,

this arbitrary,

maybe anger,

or pitiful,

you know,

petty anger of the pagan gods,

of the Greco-Roman world.

This is the expression,

God's wrath is a manifestation of His commitment

to His holiness,

and justice,

and righteousness,

and it is just anger,

righteous anger,

wrath that we fully deserve

because of His righteous judgment.

All of us were dead like that,

and some of us

are probably still dead

in our trespasses.

And what is required then

is not a partial renovation,

but a radical new birth.

J.C. Ryle,

a 19th century Anglican pastor,

writes,

puts it this way,

it's not a little mending and alteration,

a little cleansing and purifying,

a little painting and patching,

a little turning over a new leaf

and putting on a new exterior

that is wanted.

It is the bringing in

of something altogether new,

the planting within us

of a new nature,

a new being,

a new principle,

a new mind.

This alone,

and nothing less than this,

will ever meet the necessities

of man's soul.

We need not merely a new skin,

but a new heart.

All things must pass away,

and all things must become new.

Man must be born again,

born from above,

born of God.

The natural birth

is no more necessary

to the life of the body

than is the spiritual birth

to the life of the soul.

And if you are not a Christian this morning,

you have a tremendous opportunity

this day to be born again

from death to life.

And don't despise

your desperate need for salvation

by pointing to

and comparing yourselves

to weak, feeble,

hypocritical Christians

that you see in your life.

Sure,

they may be less accomplished

than you.

Sure,

they may appear

even less moral than you.

But there is

an unsurpassable gap

between the Christian

and the non-Christian

because the one is alive

while the other is dead.

The magnificent sculpture

of David by Michelangelo,

even though it looks

in every appearance

to be alive

and it's beautiful

and it's magnificent,

but even that

does not compare

to this feeble

and weak life

of a child

born prematurely

in a neonatal cato unit.

Why?

Because that statue is dead,

but that baby is alive.

The weakest member

of God's family

has more life in him

and thus,

therefore,

more precious to him

than the most successful,

beautiful,

athletic,

intelligent,

and moral unbeliever.

So you need Jesus today.

You need to be born again.

But how can that which is dead

be brought to life?

What can those who are dead

in their trespasses

and sins do?

To be short

and blunt,

nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

There is nothing you can do.

That's what death means.

The dead tell no tales.

The dead can't save themselves.

Christian author Paul Tripp

compares putting on

the appearance of life

on oneself

apart from Christ

to trying to staple apples

onto a dead tree.

Sure,

it might look great

for a little bit,

but there's no life

to sustain

and nourish that fruit.

We may be able

to change

some of our habits,

but we cannot

change our hearts.

We may be able

to take up

a new lifestyle,

sure,

many people have done that

without Christ,

but you cannot

take on a new nature.

Only Christ can do that.

I hope

you will crush

this morning

because that's what

I'm trying to do.

Crushed every dash,

every last bit of hope

that you have in yourself

because there is no hope

apart from Christ.

And the reason

why I do that

is not so that

we can be depressed,

but so that

we can appropriate

and appreciate

God's mercy.

That brings us

to our second point.

Notice the descriptions,

notice the important word

in verse 2 to 3,

we were once

dead.

Right?

There's hope.

There's some

in our midst

who are no longer

dead.

That's the description

of their past.

It's our past,

not our present.

Why and how

did that happen?

Verse 4,

read it with me.

But

God,

that has to be

the most glorious,

hope-filling,

and life-infusing

use of the

adversative conjunction

in literature.

But,

there's hope,

but

God.

It doesn't say,

but we pulled ourselves

up from our own

bootstraps.

It doesn't say,

we labored diligently

and earned our salvation.

It says,

it's not we

who worked hard

to perform good works

to become alive

in Christ.

It says,

but God

saved us.

Not you.

Not me.

Why?

Read the verse

4 to 4 to 5 with me.

But God,

being rich in mercy

because of the great love

with which He loved us,

even when we were dead

in our trespasses,

made us alive

together with Christ.

By grace,

you have been saved.

And notice the jarring

contrast between

verse 3,

which talks about

God's wrath,

that we are objects

of God's wrath,

and verse 4,

which talks about

God's mercy

and His love.

Right?

Paul puts them

intentionally side by side,

and the contrast

is not a contradiction.

God still

resolutely opposes

and condemns our sin

and judges us

for our sin,

but not unlike

a parent who,

while simultaneously

despising

the willful rebellion

of their child,

still loves them,

still corrects them,

and instructs them.

So God's wrath,

God's mercy and love,

they coexist.

God loves us.

It's because of

His love for us.

It's because of

His mercy

that though God

has wrath toward us

in our sin,

He provides the means

for us to be rescued

and delivered

from that wrath.

That's incredibly good news,

and that's how He makes us

alive together

with Christ.

And that phrase,

with Christ,

repeated emphatically

three times,

verses 5 to 6,

these are the three things

that God does for us

that correspond

to the three ways

in which we were dead

and our trespasses and sin,

the world,

the flesh,

and the devil.

This is what God does first.

God made us alive

together with Christ.

Second,

God raised us up

with Him.

And third,

God seated us

with Him

in the heavenly places

in Christ Jesus.

God made us alive

with Him,

raised us with Him,

and seated us

with Him.

All of God's

saving activity

happens

with Christ.

So there's no salvation

apart

from Christ.

And what this means

is this,

why with Christ,

with Christ,

what He's saying

is that we're

participating

in Christ's death

and resurrection

and ascension

and session,

His reign,

being seated next

to the Father's right hand

and reigning over

all authority,

rule,

and power,

and dominion.

We get to be partakers

of that

because as we were singing,

He took our place.

He took the punishment

that we deserved

as sinners

so that we can take place,

His place,

as the righteous,

beloved Son

of the Father.

that's what baptism

represents

and signifies.

That's why that's

the sacrament

of Christian initiation.

You go into the water,

that signifies

your death.

You're buried,

you're dead to sin,

and you rise again

with Christ

in His resurrection

power,

with new life,

being born again

in the family of God.

That's why we do baptism.

So how specifically

did He deal

with those three things?

Look at verse 5.

First,

He deals with the passions

of our flesh.

He says,

He made us alive

together with Christ.

Right?

So the fact that

we participate

in His resurrection

means we participated

in His death.

Galatians 5,

24 to 25

puts it this way,

those who belong

to Christ Jesus

have crucified

the flesh

with its passions

and desires.

Since we live

by the Spirit,

let us keep in step

with the Spirit.

The passions

of our flesh,

crucified,

nailed on the cross.

Now we're dead.

We were once dead

in our trespasses

and sins.

Now we are dead

to our trespasses

and sins.

I hope you guys

think about it this way.

There's a radical break

that we're Christians.

That's no longer

who we are.

That's not how we live anymore

because that doesn't

define us anymore.

I mean,

that's a very powerful

idea,

mentality to have.

I mean,

think about it.

Sometimes when

my elder daughter

asks me to spoon feed

her food

for her meal,

I tell her,

girl,

you gotta feed yourself

because you're not

a baby anymore.

You're not a baby anymore.

And that often works

for her

because she thinks

about it for a second.

Oh yeah,

I'm not a baby anymore.

Yeah,

so I should feed myself.

It's like,

that's what my baby sister

does.

I mean,

it's recognizing,

no,

we are born again

into Christ's righteousness,

into His kingdom.

We are no longer

defined by our trespasses

and sins.

So why linger then?

Why live in it?

That's not who we are.

We're new people.

We have a new father.

We have a new family.

We have a new identity.

And there's so much power

in appropriating

that grace of God

in Christ

for ourselves.

Some of us wrestle

with guilt,

lingering guilt

a lot of times

and you wrestle

with a lot of sins

that you have,

seem to have no power

to kill.

And maybe you're

telling me at this point,

well,

you might say that

we're dead to trespass

and sins,

but my sins and trespasses

seem alive and well

in my life,

right?

And if that's the case,

then this illustration

might be helpful for you.

When you're farming

or doing gardening work,

right,

you have to take care

of the weeds.

I do this every week.

And you have to

uproot the weeds,

right?

And once you take them out

and remove the root

and you take the weeds out,

they will still,

for maybe a day or two,

still have a semblance

of life in them,

right?

It'll still be green.

It'll still be a little

flexible,

has some water left in it.

But that's a dead weed.

There's no way

that weed survives.

It's dead

because it's uprooted.

It's just a matter of time.

In the same way,

when Christ decisively

defeated sin

on the cross

on our behalf,

He killed it.

He was victorious.

And it's just a matter

of time

before we're fully

delivered from even

the presence of sin

in our life.

That's why increasingly

every believer's life

is characterized

by sanctification,

becoming holier

day by day,

year by year

because sin is dying.

It's dead.

This is how Christ

deals with our flesh,

but He doesn't stop there.

He also deals

with our world

because as participants

of His death

and resurrection,

we're also participants

in His ascension.

It says in verse 6

that God raised us

up with Christ.

And because

we have been raised

to new life

above with Christ,

we no longer live by

or are defined by

the age of this world.

Our hope is not here anymore.

It's in God's kingdom.

It's with Christ.

1 Peter 1, 3-4 says,

God has caused us

to be born again

to a living hope

through the resurrection

of Jesus Christ

from the dead

to an inheritance

that is imperishable,

undefiled,

and unfading,

kept in heaven

for you.

That's what we look forward

to and live by.

That's our hope.

This world tells us

that wealth

will bring us happiness.

happiness.

You should accumulate

more and more

and more

so you could spend

more and more

and more

and be happy.

But because

we have been raised

with Christ

above this world,

we no longer

lay up for ourselves

treasures here on earth

where moths and rust

destroy,

where thieves break

in and steal,

but instead we lay up

our treasures in heaven

where moths and rust

do not destroy,

where thieves do not

break in and steal.

This world tells us

you are what you eat.

Eat organic,

stay fit,

so you can be healthy

and look good

and attract the other sex.

But 1 Corinthians 6.13

tells us

food is meant

for the stomach

and the stomach

for food

and God will destroy

both one and the other.

The body is not meant

for sexual immorality

but for the Lord

and the Lord

for the body.

Eating well

and exercising

are good things,

sure,

but that must never

be the driving concern

of our lives

because we have been

raised with Christ

above the course

of this world.

There's more to us

than our bodies

and more to life

than enjoying food

and sex.

So not only does Christ

save us from the flesh

and the world,

He also deals

once and for all

with the prince

of the power

of the air.

He does this

by making us

participants

in His session.

His ascension

and His session,

He's being seated

at the right hand

of the Father

which means

He's enthroned

and He's reigning

over all authority,

rule and power

and dominion.

We now reside

with Him

and reign with Him.

That means we are

no longer

under the tyrannical

reign of Satan

in our lives.

Remember from last week

that Christ is above

every name that is named

so we don't have to name

any other name.

That's us.

And for the Ephesian

believers who

at the time

were living

with perpetual fear

of what these

aerial spirits

can do to them,

this is a liberating reality.

You're not under

His dominion anymore.

So stop doing

His being.

You're not a slave.

You've been free

at the highest cost

of the blood

of Jesus Christ.

God's a complete sinner.

He delivers us

from the world,

the flesh,

and the devil

but that leaves us

one lingering question.

What's in it for Him?

Why?

Our final point,

God's ultimate purpose

but before I get

to God's ultimate purpose,

let me tell you

about God's

penultimate purpose.

It's still one of His purposes

but not the ultimate purpose,

the purpose just before that.

And He says,

we all once walked

in trespasses and sins

in verses 1 to 2

but now He uses

the same word walk

and it says this

in verse 10,

we are His workmanship

created in Christ Jesus

for good works

which God prepared beforehand

that we should walk

in them.

Note the repetition

of the word walk.

So we used to walk this way

but God saved us

so that now we walk

this way differently

for good works

as God's workmanship.

That word means

it's creation.

That means we are

God's new creation.

He created us

for His purpose

and as created beings

we serve the will

and desire

of the Creator,

His purpose.

And what this means

is that contrary

to what a lot of people say,

oh if God saves you

freely by God's grace,

well then you don't need

to do any good works.

No, God saved us

for good works.

What do you mean

we don't do any good works?

And that's what

every Christian does

because that's what

we've been saved for,

that's what we've been

consecrated for

so we live

and do good works

every day.

So if you're a Christian

and that's the thought

that you have had

and if in your life

you do not give evidence

of the fact

that you have been

transferred from this

kingdom of the dominion

of Satan

to the dominion of Christ

through your good works,

through your life,

then you're still dead

in your trespasses and sins.

If you don't give evidence

of the fact

that you have,

you're dead

to your trespasses and sins,

that you no longer

follow the desires

of the flesh

but you follow the desires

of your Lord Jesus Christ,

then you are not

alive in Christ.

The true Christians

must show evidence,

show proof

of their salvation

in the way they live

because that was the purpose

for which God saved us.

Saved us for good works,

not by good works.

The prepositions

are so important

when it comes to talking

about these theological issues.

We're not saved

by good works.

We're saved by grace

through faith

but we have been saved

for purpose,

good works.

But that's only

the penultimate purpose

and the ultimate purpose

is this,

God saves hopeless sinners

to display

His sovereign grace.

See this clearly

in verse 7.

So that purpose,

in the coming ages,

He might show

the immeasurable riches

of His grace

in kindness toward us

in Christ Jesus.

That's His ultimate purpose.

He wants to show

case to all the generations

for eternity,

His grace

and kindness toward us.

He continues this thought

in verse 5.

Paul says,

by grace

you have been saved.

And then now

he repeats that

in verse 8

and then explains

what he means by that.

For by grace

you have been saved

through faith

and this is not

your own doing,

it is the gift

of God.

Salvation is a gift.

Do you really believe that?

Can you imagine

getting a gift

from someone

and then

a week later

getting a bill?

Come on.

That's not a gift.

It's in the very

definition of a gift

that it is freely

given

with nothing

expected in return.

So why

do we live

with insecurity

like God gave us

a loan?

Oh, here's a loan.

Now you do

everything for me.

If you don't

I might take it back.

Why do you live

like you owe Him

something

when He gave it

to you freely

and said

this is a gift

because I love you

because I want to

show you my grace

and kindness.

That's why I saved you.

Why do you live

like you owe Him

something?

Sure,

in love

we owe Him

everything

but you don't

have to pay

anything back.

God paid for it.

It's a gift.

And that brings us

to another one

of the five

core principles

of the Protestant

Reformation.

Grace alone.

we're saved

not by our works

but by grace

alone.

We're not saved

through penance.

We're not saved

through the sacraments.

We're not saved

through our good works.

We're saved

by grace

alone.

And don't be

misled into thinking

that it's our faith

that saves us.

Remember I told you

the prepositions

are important.

We're saved

by grace

through faith.

Faith

is the instrument

of our salvation.

It's not the cost.

It's not the basis

of our salvation.

Let's say this.

Let's say you apply

to an incredibly

prestigious law firm

that you're completely

unqualified for

and have no business

applying to.

But let's say

that your dad

is the president

of this law firm

and he makes

all the hiring decisions.

Well of course

you're going to get in.

Did you get in

because your application

was stellar?

No, you got in

because of your

father's grace.

The application

was just the means.

It was not the basis

of your entry,

of your induction,

of your acceptance.

So then

as

those who

were once dead

but made alive

in Christ

by God's grace,

it's appropriate

for us as people

to display

his sovereign grace,

the ultimate reason

for his saving us.

And that's why

God saves us

by grace

through faith

so that we don't boast

but that God

gets the glory for it

because if God's

completely responsible

for our salvation

from the beginning

to the end,

there's nothing

we can do

to exalt ourselves

in God's,

before God's throne.

As verse 9 implies,

it says,

if our salvation

were a result

of works,

then we could boast.

Then we'd have

something to boast about.

We deserve some

credit and glory

but it's because

our salvation

is not a result

of works

but the gift

of God

we may not boast.

Well,

going back to the illustration,

if you had graduated

as a valedictorian

from Harvard Law School

and you aced

your bar exam,

well,

when you get

into that firm,

who gets the credit

for that?

Well,

you do

because everybody

sees it and says,

oh,

you are eminently

qualified.

it's when

you have

no qualifications

but you get in

because of your

father's grace,

that's when he gets

the credit.

Of course,

in that example,

he'd also be accused

of nepotism probably

but that's not

the point of the analogy

because our salvation

is not a result

of works.

Church historian

Richard Loveless

writes this,

that he said,

many Christians

below the surface

of their lives,

they are guilt-ridden

and insecure

and draw the assurance

of their acceptance

with God

from their sincerity,

their past experience

of conversion,

their recent religious

performance,

or the relative infrequency

of their conscious

willful disobedience.

when we do this,

when we rely

on our own sincerity,

on our own past

experience of conversion,

on our own recent

religious performance

or experience,

or on our relative

infrequency of sin

in our lives,

then we're robbing

God of his glory

because then when

we are relying on that,

we're saying to ourselves,

well,

God loves me

because I do my

devotions every day.

Well,

God saved me

because I was more sincere

and full of faith

than those people.

Well,

God loves me

because I haven't

sinned that badly

in a long time.

Stop robbing God

of his glory.

When we say to ourselves,

God saved me,

a hopeless sinner,

utterly hopeless sinner,

not because I'm great,

but because his love

is great.

When we tell others

in our lives,

God saved me,

a hopeless sinner,

not because I was

so deserving,

but because of his mercy,

that gives glory to God.

That's why he saves us

by grace through faith.

Does that seem too good

to be true?

It's true.

I have one last story

to tell you

that hopefully drives

that hopefully drives

this home for you.

I had a professor

at seminary.

His name was

Haddon Robinson.

He just recently passed away.

He was a preaching professor.

He was once

a president

of Denver Seminary.

And while he was

president of Denver Seminary,

he did what presidents

are supposed to do,

which is fundraise.

And in that particular time,

he had to fundraise

about $20,000

for a new phone system

for the seminary.

And he had this golden

opportunity

with a very wealthy

Christian businessman.

And the businessman

cut right to the chase

when they met

to talk about this.

He says,

so how much would you

like me to give you?

Haddon Robinson

didn't want to be

presumptuous,

so he said,

how about $1,000?

A lot of money

for most of us.

And it wasn't

a lot of money for him.

He didn't bat an eye.

He cut a check

for $1,000

and handed it to him

right away.

And as he did that,

he told him this.

You insulted me.

The comment stunned Robinson,

and so the businessman

continued,

you asked me for $1,000,

but you needed $20,000.

Either you felt

that I wasn't able

to give you that much money,

in which case

you underestimated

how I'm doing financially,

or second,

you believed

that I had the money,

but didn't think

I would give it,

in which case

you insulted

my generosity.

Do you think

that God's grace

for you is too good?

Are you doubting

the rich reserves

of God's mercy for you?

He's rich enough

in mercy for us,

all of us,

no matter how deep

we have sinned,

no matter how lost

we have been.

Or do you doubt

his generosity,

that he's willing

to forgive,

that he's willing

to give,

but he doesn't want it?

He has great love

toward us,

great love,

rich in mercy,

great love toward us.

Ask,

and it will be given

to you.

Receive,

and you will find.

Knock,

and the door

will be opened to you.

Ask today

for much grace,

and receive it from him.

As God saves

hopeless sinners

to display

his sovereign grace.

Let's pray together.

Father,

humble us as your people,

so that we make much of you

and your grace and salvation,

and not much of ourselves.

so that having received

mercy,

grace,

great love toward us,

we may be stirred up

and grow

in our love for you,

and our love for us.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.