GRACE OF GOD SERIES PART 2 SAVED BY GRACE2007 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching DetailsInformation Icon

Date: 2007-11-25

Title: Grace Of God Series Part 2 Saved By Grace

Teacher: Jerry B Simmons

Series: 2007 Grace Of God Series

Teaching Transcript: Grace Of God Series Part 2 Saved By Grace

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2007.

Last week I encouraged you and I will do so again. If you do not have the book, Why Grace Changes Everything, there is a sign-up sheet on the table, the donut table, and you can sign up to order that. It's $8 for the book and if you want the study guide that accompanies it, that's also $3. You can sign up

The grace of God is with you, Lord, and with your spirit.

As we continue our study looking at the different aspects of God's grace, last week we began this series looking at an overview from Titus chapter 2. And I encourage you, if you did not hear that message, to get a copy of it from the guys in the sound booth or go online and listen to it on our website. But it's an important really outline of the things that we'll be looking at. In Titus chapter 2, verse 11 says,

Paul started out saying the grace of God, which brings salvation. And so this week we are looking at salvation. The title is Saved by Grace, and we'll be studying that from here in Ephesians chapter two, verses one through ten. What relationship does grace have with salvation?

And so here in Ephesians chapter two, we find some great insight about salvation and about the part that the grace of God plays in our salvation. We'll also be looking at a couple other portions of scripture. In fact, if you want to slip your bulletin into Romans chapter three, we'll be referring to that a couple of times throughout the message. And so you'll have quick access to it. Romans chapter three. And here in Ephesians chapter two, we'll spend the bulk of our time.

The word grace, we talked about the meanings of it last week, and really it's one of those words that is difficult to define in a one-line definition. It's really complex, and it includes all types of ideas and principles that we will be looking at over the next several weeks. Essentially, we boil it down to grace is unearned and undeserved favor.

But even that definition, you know, favor doesn't really quite encompass the fullness of what grace is. How can you say, hey, God did me a favor and he saved me? It just it's not weighty enough really for the fullness of the grace of God. We also talked about God's grace being just contentment.

kind of spelled out God's riches at Christ's expense. And if you take the first letter of each of those words, it spells out grace. And so it's a good way to remember God's riches at Christ's expense, that we receive God's riches because of what Jesus Christ did in paying the price there for us on the cross. It was his expense. And that is definitely another great way to look at and understand what grace is.

This morning, saved by grace here in Ephesians chapter two. First of all, I want to look at the question, really. Why is salvation by grace? Why salvation is by grace? We find, first of all, here in verse one, it says, and you, he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins.

Now, I know this is the basics, but for some of you who have been around for a while, hang in there with me, because even though these are the basics, they are essential for us that we never forget the reality of our salvation.

Salvation is by grace. Why? Why is salvation even necessary? Well, because we were dead in trespasses and sins, he says. And you, that's you. This is not just, you know, in general people as a whole. We're doing so well. And so God, you know, died on the cross. No, you died.

individually, personally, you were dead in trespasses and sins. This is why salvation is necessary because I was dead spiritually. I had no life. I was completely dead. And that's why I needed to be saved. That's why I needed to be born again is the way that Jesus described it in John chapter three. Remember when Nicodemus came to Jesus, hey, what must I do to enter into the kingdom of God? And

Jesus says, hey, unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God in John chapter three, verse three, unless you are born again. What did he mean by that? Nicodemus was a little bit confused as well. And Jesus went on to describe that you needed to be born of the spirit of God. There needed to be spiritual life in you because you were dead in trespasses and sins without Jesus Christ.

And so salvation is necessary because, well, we were spiritually dead. There was no spiritual life. And because there was no spiritual life, we could not have relationship with God. We could not have communion with God. We could not have fellowship with God because our spirit was dead. Remember what Jesus said to the woman at the well in John chapter four? God is spirit. Those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Since God is spirit, we must have spiritual life in order to worship him, to relate to him, to have fellowship with him. So salvation is necessary because we were dead in trespasses and sins. But why is it necessary for salvation to be through grace? Well, I know that's pretty basic for us, right? Well, salvation is by grace because we can't earn it. We can't

Do it ourselves. We can't accomplish it on our own. That's why Jesus died there in the garden. He was praying fervently. Drops of blood were were mingled with his sweat as he was intensely praying, asking God three times, Lord, if there's any other way, if there's some other way that Jim can be saved, then don't let me go to the cross.

Lord, if there's some other way that that Rosie can be saved, that she can enter into eternity, then then let it be that way. I don't want to die on the cross. But your will be done. Not my will be done. And he died upon the cross. Why?

Well, because there's no way for you to be saved other than Jesus Christ, other than what he accomplished for us upon the cross. We can't work for it. We can't earn it. We can't do anything to accomplish this salvation on our own. And nobody else can save us. Only Jesus Christ. So salvation is necessary and it's necessary that it comes by grace because we can't do it.

Last night I was spending some time with my family. My parents were down and so we went to my cousin's house and all of the whole family came down. There was like 21 or 25 people or so in the house and lots of kids and it was crazy and wild and we had a great time together. And one of my cousin's daughters, her name is Katie Ann, she's so cute, and she came and she was showing this picture to me.

It's a picture from when she was a little baby. She's the second child of my cousin. And so there's an older brother and he was in the picture and

He was several years older than her, probably three or four years older than her. And then here's Katie, and she's a little baby in this picture, all bundled up, you know, like the child in the manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. I mean, she's just wrapped up in this blanket. All you can see is her face. But...

The interesting thing about the picture, and as she's showing this to me, she has this mortified look on her face. Like, look what's going on in this picture. And so we're looking, trying to figure out what she's so freaked out about. And so there she is in the picture on top of toy railroad tracks.

She's laying there and the railroad tracks, not like the little, you know, electrical train set. I mean, the railroad tracks are probably like a foot wide and and there's this big toy train, probably a couple of feet off the ground. And who's pushing the train? Of course, it's her big brother, Timothy. And so he's pushing the train around the corner and coming on the straightway. And there she is laying on the tracks on the straightway with the train coming down. And the biggest thing that mortified her and she said, look,

This is, you could just see part of it, but this is my dad's arm. He was there watching my big brother try to run me over with the train. And there she was, bundled up in the blanket on the railroad tracks. And it reminded me of that classic scene, right? It's like in all the westerns, you know, there's the damsel in distress and she's laid across the railroad tracks and there's nothing she can do and the train's coming and then, of course,

you know, whoever it was, John Wayne or whoever, came and saved her, right? And so that's the picture. And that's really what salvation is all about. Whoa. I think, I think. There we go. All right. That's what salvation is all about. I'll try not to get so excited. We're like that. We're bundled up. We're on the train tracks. We're dead in our trespasses and sins. There's absolutely nothing we can do for ourselves. We can't roll off the tracks. We can't get out of the way. We're dead. All we can do is,

Let's cry out to the Lord. That's it. He offers to us salvation and we receive it. And that's it. It had to be by grace because we were completely helpless. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. Think about it another way. In John chapter 11, remember the story of Lazarus. He was a friend of Jesus, brother of Mary and Martha. And Lazarus died as a result of a sickness.

Jesus, wanting to show the glory of God, went several days after his death and raised him from the dead. Now, we're talking about physical death and physical resurrection when we're talking about Lazarus, but it relates to spiritual death and spiritual life. Could Lazarus do anything to change his condition while he was there in the tomb?

Could you imagine saying, well, yeah, I mean, Lazarus, he works really hard, but he was dead. What do you mean he worked really hard? Well, no, he did a lot of good works, but he was dead. What are you talking about? He couldn't do anything. All he could do was, well, lay there. If that he was dead, he was gone. He was completely helpless. Jesus came along and raised him from the dead. Spiritually speaking, that is the same thing that happened. That's why good works can't save us.

Because we're dead without Christ. There's nothing that we can do. We were dead in our trespasses and sins. That's our state without Jesus Christ. Dead and helpless.

And that's why being a good person cannot save you. That's why good works cannot save you. And that is why we need salvation. And that is why salvation must come by grace. You see, everyone, there's not a single person that does not need God's grace. Look at verses two and three here in Ephesians chapter two. It says,

In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. Verse three. Among whom also who we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature children of wrath. What does it say next? Just as the others. We need salvation.

Because without Christ, we're dead. We're helpless. There's nothing we can do on our own. And it has to be by grace because we can't accomplish it in our strength or our merit. Not only that, we're not alone in this, but everybody needs grace. Everyone needs this salvation by grace. Why? Because we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh. We were by nature children of wrath, just as the others did.

Paul's making it clear there are no exceptions. Whoever will be saved will be saved by grace. There's no other way to be saved. Everyone who will be saved, it will be as a result of God's grace and nothing else. Because without Christ, we are all in the same condition. Now, that's easy to understand intellectually. I think we have a good concept of that and a good grasp of that.

But we need to be reminded of this because, well, sometimes we forget that we need grace as much as everybody else. It's easy to become self-righteous. It's easy to have an attitude of, well, sometimes we think of it this way, although we won't say this. But, you know, grace is really good because, you know, it's by God's grace that I was saved. And it was by God's grace that I was able to say the sinner's prayer.

But, you know, after that, then I got pretty good after that. You know, then I didn't need much help from God. Then, you know, God got me going and he got me a good start. And I was pretty good after that. But grace is not limited to the sinner's prayer. Being saved by grace is not limited to the time that you gave your heart to the Lord. Being saved by grace is really a constant and continual work in our hearts.

It's something that happened past tense in the sense that God has declared us to be righteous and we'll get into that. But we still struggle in the flesh, don't we? He says we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh. But we know there's still that war that goes on between the spirit and the flesh. The struggle that we have with our sinful nature. And we need to remember that without Christ, we are all in the same condition.

Without Christ, you are no better off than the worst of the worst, because without Christ, we conduct ourselves in the lust of the flesh. Without Christ, we are by nature children of wrath. Let me tackle it from a different direction. We talked about this last week. God does not play favorites, right?

Although grace is God's favor, he doesn't play favorites. Now, if any group was going to have an advantage when it came to salvation, it would be the Jewish people.

If there was ever going to be a people or a group that that had some type of leg up on us or or were able to to accomplish salvation easier than the rest of us, then it would be the Jewish people. They were God's chosen people. He gave his word to them. He entrusted them with his word and and with sharing the gospel to the entire world.

He blessed them abundantly. He made his covenants through them. And not only that, but the Savior was sent through the Jewish people. But remember what we talked about last week with Peter in Acts chapter 15, verse 11. When Peter stood up in the whole debate of whether Gentiles had to become Jews to be saved, he said, Hey, we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved in the same manner as they. So for a Jewish person,

salvation comes by grace, just like everybody else. For an American, salvation is only by grace, just like everyone else. No matter what race, no matter what people you're from, no matter what background or upbringing, salvation is by grace. Now, if you've already got your bulletin there in Romans chapter 3, turn there quickly with me. Romans chapter 3.

In Romans chapter three, Paul is talking about the righteousness that's from God. And we'll get into that in a little bit. But verse 22 says, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. And then what does it say? For there is no difference. There's no difference in what? Why is there no difference? Verse 23 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

In talking about the righteousness of God, Paul says it's by faith in Jesus Christ for there's no difference. There's no difference between any person. We all stand in the same status, and that is we've fallen short of the grace of God. We've sinned and we don't measure up to God's standard. We need salvation.

And that salvation is needed in the same way by every person. We could look at a good person and say, well, see, they don't need salvation as much as, you know, this other person who's really bad there. It's easier for God to save one over the other. Well, that's not true. It's just as easy for God to save you as it is for him to save Osama bin Laden or anybody else.

You receive salvation the same that they would if they would receive it. There's no difference. They wouldn't have to pay more penance or work harder or do these certain things. But you and I and everyone else on the face of the earth, we are under the same canopy. We've sinned. We fall short of the glory of God. There's no difference between us.

We were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. We all once conducted ourselves according to the lust of the flesh. Whether we were raised in America or Iran, whether we've gone to church all our life or never have gone once, whether we're a good citizen or frequently visited the county jail, we've all fallen short of the glory of God. Everybody needs God's grace because we've all sinned and we all fall short. And the only thing that can change that is

Is receiving God's grace by putting our faith in Jesus Christ. And then when we do that, we are saved by grace. Salvation is necessary because we were dead and it's by grace because we were helpless. There was nothing we can do. And everybody is under that condition. Salvation is a simple condition.

As believing in Jesus Christ. As I said, it's as easy for God to save you as it is for him to save anyone else. The difficult thing in salvation is not on God's part. It's on our part. Finally surrendering to him and receiving what he's offered the whole time. But as far as God's concerned, they're no more difficult than you or I. We're saved by grace. Go back to Ephesians chapter two. Understanding that we are saved by grace and why salvation is necessary and why it must be by grace.

Let's move on now in verses four through seven and talk about what the saved by grace mean here in verses four through seven. We find out what saved by grace actually means. Verse four says, but God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead and trespasses made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved.

Here in verses 4 through 7, we'll look at four things about salvation, about what it means to be saved by grace. Four things that God's grace works in our lives when we are saved.

He's already painted the picture bleak and black as it can be. We were dead. We were helpless. We needed a savior. And then here comes our hero in verse four. But God, who is rich in mercy because because of his great love with which he had loved us, his mercy, his love, his grace. These three are all intertwined in God's relationship to us. We're looking at the grace of God here.

As a whole, but you can't really separate God's grace from his love and his mercy. Love is God's motive in saving us. It says because of his great love with which he loved us because he loves us. That's why he deals with us according to grace and mercy and not according to what we deserve and what we earn. And so because of his great love, he offers to a salvation. What does that salvation entail? Well, first of all, we see.

Saved by grace means that we are forgiven. He says we were dead in trespasses because of our sin. We owed a debt to God. We violated his commands. We violated his rules, his principles. And so there needed to be justice. Things needed to be right there. There was a debt that we owed to God as a result of our sin. Just as a criminal in our society.

owes a debt to society because of their crime. Sometimes for lesser crimes, a person is given the opportunity to have or to serve in community service in order to pay back the debt that they owe to society because of the crime that they committed. So in doing this service, they're able to

Help the community and kind of offset what they did in taking from the community or the crime that they committed against the community and thus fulfilling the debt that they owed to society.

Now, when you and I as Christians begin to think that our sin is minor, when we begin to really lessen our sin in our mind and think, well, it's not such a big thing, then we begin to think along those terms. Well, see, I just need to do a little community service for God and then I'll be OK. That'll kind of take care of my sin. You know, if I do enough good, then that will appease God. And there's that mentality among Christians as well as nonbelievers, right?

That, well, hey, you know, I understand, but as long as my good works outweigh my bad, you know, there's that community service. I've paid back my debt, and so I'm okay. I'm taken care of, and that's fine. But community service is not good enough when it comes to our sin.

If we think that it's because we don't really understand the gravity or the magnitude of our sin against God, the debt that we owe God because of our sin is too great for us to be able to pay it off with our good works. We can never even come close to earning forgiveness from God. We could spend the rest of eternity trying to pay that debt, trying to earn that. But we could not because our sin against God is great.

The debt can be paid, though, just not through our works, not by our goodness, not by our community service. But that debt can be paid by God's riches. Verse four. But God, who is rich in mercy, God's rich. You have a big debt, but God is rich and he is able to pay that debt. He is rich in mercy. Ephesians chapter one says,

Verse 7 tells us in him that is in Christ Jesus, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. So we have God who is rich in mercy. We also have God who is rich in grace. And that's the kind of God that I want. The God who is rich in mercy and rich in grace doesn't deal with us according to our sins.

but deals with us according to His own goodness. In Him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. We are forgiven.

The debt is paid because of the riches of his mercy and the riches of his grace. Made possible, of course, by Jesus Christ dying on the cross for us. We can't earn it. We don't deserve it. But he offers it. Why? Because of his great love with which he loved us. It's all God. He saw our condition. He knew where we would be. He knew the need for a savior. And so he went and

And took care of it for us so that he could pay our debt with his rich mercy and his rich grace. We're forgiven the debt that we owed. We were dead in our trespasses, but he has forgiven that debt, paid it off completely so that you and I no longer owe that debt in Christ Jesus. The second thing we find about saved by grace and what that means. First of all, we're forgiven. But second, we're accounted righteous, right?

We're counted righteous. Forgiveness is one thing. So we're forgiven of our sin. The debt that we owed is canceled. But then God takes it a step further and declares us to be righteous. So I owed my parents a great deal of money for quite a while. Some reaping of what I had sown during some rebellious times in my life. And I

A while back, my parents came after I'd been paying them and paying them, it seemed like forever. And they had felt impressed by the Lord to tell me that, hey, the amount that you owed us, you no longer owe us. You've been paying us $400 a month for quite some time now, and you don't owe us anything anymore. The debt, the rest, it's canceled. It's paid off. It's gone. It's obliterated. You no longer owe this debt. Right?

That's forgiveness. I was forgiven of that debt that I owed to my parents. If you have experience, hopefully you don't, but if you do, with overdraft in your bank account, forgiveness is taking you back to the zero balance. Getting rid of that negative. It's just taken care of. Forget about it. It's forgiven. That amount that you owed has been canceled. But that's forgiveness. Now,

Accounted righteous is a different thing. That would be as if my parents said, OK, you're forgiven. You don't owe any more. Not only that, but here's our debit card and it has infinite resources and use it as much as you want on whatever you please. Now, they didn't do that, but that's what it means to be accounted righteous. These are banking terms. Righteousness was credited to our account. Whose righteousness? We'll go back to Romans chapter three.

Romans chapter three, look at verse twenty one. Romans chapter three, verse twenty one says, but now the righteousness of God, whose righteousness. Now, how much righteousness does God have? All of it, right? He is righteous. He is holy.

His righteousness, what does it say? The righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, verse 22, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. The righteousness of God is accounted, imputed, it's credited to the account of all who believe through faith in Jesus Christ.

Jumping down to verse 24, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Justified freely by his grace. That word justified means to be declared righteous. We're declared righteous. We're declared to have the righteousness of God, to be completely holy, to be as righteous as Christ is. It's imputed to our account.

So God doesn't just see us as those who are dead in trespasses any longer, but he's forgiven us by his grace, his grace and his mercy. And those we find redemption, we find forgiveness. The debt is canceled. But along with that, he also, by his grace, accounts to us righteousness. So we have a status now in Christ as being righteous with no debt. Righteousness.

No balance owed, nothing being held against us. But instead, God sees us in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And this is what grace is all about. By faith in Jesus Christ, we have the fullness of his righteousness. So could Jesus have been any more righteous? No. You sure? Could you be more righteous than Jesus? Could you say, well, if I was Jesus, I would have done it this way. It would have been better. You can't say that completely.

Completely righteous. That's how God sees you. His righteousness is imputed to you by your faith in Jesus Christ. This is what grace is all about. You have the fullness of God's favor by faith in Jesus Christ. Just as much as he favored Jesus Christ, he favors you by faith in Jesus Christ.

By believing what he said, by believing what he did for you upon the cross, by believing in Jesus Christ, we have right standing with God the same as Jesus Christ. That's amazing. Salvation by grace means that we are forgiven. It means that we are counted righteous, but it also means that we are given spiritual life. Jump back to Ephesians chapter two, verse five. Even when we were dead in trespasses.

Made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. We've been given spiritual life. See, sin separates us from God. Sin is what puts us to death.

But when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we are justified. We're declared righteous. We have the same status as Jesus Christ as far as his righteousness is concerned. And so our relationship with God is restored because now there's not a debt that we owe. And because now we have the righteousness of Christ. And so now we stand in right relationship with God. The Holy Spirit dwells within us.

Giving us spiritual life. And that is why you must be born again. You must be born of the spirit. Because without the spirit of God, you cannot have relationship with God. You cannot have fellowship with God. You do not have spiritual life apart from God's grace. Saved by grace means that you have a spiritual life. It means that you have communion, communication, fellowship, relationship with God. Real relationship. Right?

Not theoretical, not, well, you know, it exists and one day, you know, we'll really find out about that. But no, right now, God offers to us relationship because we have spiritual life. Before, our spirit was dead. We were dead in trespasses and sins. But he took care of that. He forgave us. He accounted us righteous and made us alive so that we could have relationship with him, that we could walk with him.

That we could be restored in a relationship with him. But it doesn't end there either. And we could go on and on about these things. But the fourth thing about what grace, what saved by grace means for us is that we were also given eternal life. That's what verses six and seven are talking about. And raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Being saved by grace means that you have eternal life, that you have been made to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come for the rest of eternity, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness towards you in Christ Jesus. Eternal life given to us by grace.

Titus chapter 3 verse 7 says, Having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. We have an eternity in store for us. An eternity of learning about God's grace. Of marveling continually over how good he is. What he has done for us. And that we can be saved by grace. What does being saved by grace mean? It means that we're forgiven.

It means that we're accounted righteous. It means that we're given spiritual life and it means that we're given eternal life. We have the hope of eternal life, the hope of eternity with God, the hope of heaven. So how is this salvation attained? That's what verses eight and nine is talking about. How to be saved by grace. We know it's necessary. We know it must be by grace.

We know what it means if we're saved by grace, but how do we be saved by grace? Verse 8 says, How do we be saved by grace? Grace is the core of the gospel message.

Jesus Christ, being God, became a man and died on the cross for you and for me, for my sin, because I owed a debt that I could not pay. But by believing in him, I am saved by believing in him. You are saved.

That's what Jesus said in John 3, 16. For God so loves, there's his motive again, he loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. This is grace. God did all the work. He saw the need. He loved us. He sent his son. His son died. And if we will just receive that, if we will believe that, we will not perish but have everlasting life.

How do we be saved by grace? How do we receive the salvation? Paul says it's by grace through faith. Faith is how we receive the gospel message. It's faith, though, that's not our own. It's faith from God. He says, for by grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. What is the gift of God? The faith.

That is necessary in order for you to be saved is a gift of God. Again, salvation is God's work from beginning to end. He saw the need. He loved us. He sent his son. Jesus died on the cross. He accomplished it, said it's finished. It was all taken care of. Everything was set up ahead of time. It was all set up in advance. And now he gives you and I the faith to believe this message, the faith to believe in him.

And all we need to do is act on the faith that he has given to us. We don't have to work up our faith. We don't have to generate our faith. We don't have to do anything as far as faith is concerned, except receive God's gift. Receive what he has given to us. Romans chapter 12, verse 3 tells us that God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. Again, we are all on the same playing field.

Now, in our heads and in our minds, we categorize people. Well, this person's worse than that one. And this person's worse than that one. And I'm better than all of them. And and that's that's how we are. That's how we look at people. And so it must be harder. You know, God has to reach down farther to grab this person. No, we're all in the same pit. We're all in the miry clay. We're all stuck in there, dead in our trespasses and sins. But we all have. God has dealt to each one the measure of faith.

God extends the offer of salvation to every person, regardless of what they've done or how they lived or where they grew up or who they know or anything else. We all stand in the same place. We all have the faith necessary to receive salvation. It's just whether or not we cry out to God, whether or not we put that faith to use and to use and believe God at his word and receive the message of the gospel.

Grace is the core of the gospel message. God did it all. All you need to do is believe in Jesus Christ. We talked about that last week. You can't tack on things. Well, you need to believe and then you need to do this. Well, then you become in a legalistic relationship. Now it becomes works based. Now it's not grace anymore. Jesus dying on the cross wasn't enough. Well, you have to do these things and do those things and accomplish those things. That's not true.

Faith in Jesus Christ is enough. It's all that is necessary to have right standing with God. Right relationship with God. Salvation. Forgiveness. Eternal life. You receive it by faith. Not your own faith. You don't have any credit for salvation. I can't say, well, I'm saved, but it's because I have such great faith. Hooray for me. No. God gave me faith.

He did it all. He accomplished it in my life. Just to make sure it's clear, just to make sure you understand, just to make sure that we don't confuse what Paul is saying here. He says in verse nine, not of works, lest anyone should boast. It's not of works. It's not of works. By faith in Jesus Christ, you have right standing with God. You have his favor. By faith in Jesus Christ, you have the fullness of his grace.

What does that mean? That means I didn't read my Bible today. I must not be in God's favor. False. That's not true. We tell ourselves that and we find ourselves trapped in that mentality, but it's not true. God does not relate to us based upon what we do. God relates to us based upon our faith in Jesus Christ. Man, I really blew it today. I shouldn't have talked to my wife that way. I woke up today. I didn't even care about God, you might say. I'm kind of on, you know,

I might. Yeah, OK, I'm saved, but I'm kind of like way down here on the list as far as, you know, God's not real pleased with me right now. Understand, you can't do things to earn God's favor. And because you do things, you don't have more of God's favor. Well, look how blessed George is. Well, you know, it's because he's so faithful and so holy and so skinny. And so he's blessed. No, God does not relate to us.

Based upon our works. It's not of works, lest anyone should boast. Well, that's just salvation. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Right now, you're saved. How many of you, by a show of hands, have done anything since you made the proclamation of faith and since you said the sinner's prayer? How many of you since then have done things that should put you in the pit of hell? We're saved by grace.

We stand in right standing with God. We have the fullness of His favor. We have the fullness of His pleasure because of our faith in Him, not because of what we do. Now, there are things that

We should do and there are there's works and faith and works go hand in hand. I'm not going to deal with that right now. If you want to get into that, you can get into that. Read the book of James and there's there's much to be learned there. But but let's just remove from our minds and and rip it out of our hearts that we have to do all these things in order to be pleasing to God.

God can't bless me because, you know, I'm a bum and because I don't you know, I was supposed to serve in children's ministry and I forgot and I missed. And so, you know, that's why my tire blew on the freeway the other day. You know, God does not he doesn't relate to us that way. He's not trying to get us back. He doesn't want to keep track of all the things that we do, because that's a long list.

We'd be paying for it for a long time. He does it. We can't earn it. We can't take away from it. We just receive it by faith in Jesus Christ. Hey, God wants to bless you. He wants to pour out blessings in your life. Now, we're not talking about everybody should be healthy, wealthy and wise and and, you know, ask for whatever you want and God will give it to you. God has your eternal best interest at heart and in his mind. But he wants to bless you.

He wants to work in your life. He wants to use you to minister to other people. Don't disqualify yourself saying, well, you know, I'm not this or I'm not that or blah, blah, blah. Whatever excuse we make up, you have the fullness of God's favor. You're saved. You have right standing with God. You have full access to his throne. You can pray for someone with the same authority as I can or anyone else can. You can spend time in God's presence with intimacy, love.

Just the same as everyone else. No matter how you've lived this week. No matter how faithful you are in the things that God has called you to do. He does not relate to us according to our works. It's not by works lest anyone should boast. Well, I have such a great relationship with God because I'm so faithful in all that I do. It's not by works lest anyone should boast. There's nothing we can boast about.

There's nothing that I can say, well, I'm a pastor because, you know, from a young age, I did this and I did that and my parents did this. Hey, God's grace, I'm saved. It's not of works, unless anyone should boast. Whether it's an area of service, whether it's salvation in general, whether it's God's blessings, whether it's bad things, God's grace is extended to us on the basis of our faith in Jesus Christ.

Romans chapter 4 verse 4 says, Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. That means if we're working and our work accomplishes us something with God, then it's no longer grace, but now it's a debt. God owes us. Well, he has to bless me because I've been doing this for him. He owes me because I've been so faithful to, you know, over the years and and and.

And sometimes we can get confused and say and get upset with God. Well, how come God's letting this happen in my life? I mean, there was so many years that I was faithful to my wife, but I didn't want to be. And it was hard. It was difficult, but I was faithful. And now why is God letting this happen? Look how faithful I've been. That's us thinking the mentality. God owes me a debt because I've done all these things to him who works. The wages are not counted as grace, but as debt. God does not relate to us. He doesn't deal with us on that basis.

but on the basis of grace, us receiving. Not that he owes us. We owed him, but he took care of it. He accomplished it. We have right standing, the fullness of all that God wants for you by your faith in Jesus Christ. It's really all about him. It's not about our works. It's not about our faith. We simply receive what he did for us, believing in him with the faith that he gave us.

And in that we are saved. The fullness of what he wants for us. The fullness of his blessings. The fullness of God's favor. We can't add to it with our works and we can't take away from it by falling short. It's simply received by his grace. By his goodness. As we receive what he has done for us. Man, God's grace is amazing. We need it. Everyone does. It means for us forgiveness.

And that we're accounted righteous. And that we have spiritual life. And that we have eternal life. And much more. There's much more that we could get into. And we'll cover some more things in the weeks to come. But it's all received by faith in Jesus Christ. The faith that he gave us. And that's it. Nothing else. Nothing can add to it. Nothing can take away. Amen?

So let's praise the Lord about that. Can the worship team come up and lead us in one last song?