made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved!even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved),
25 sermons cite this verse
… what is heaven? Now, on your outline, Ephesians chapter two, verse five to seven says this. It is through grace that we have been saved. And God has given us a place with Christ in heaven. And why has God given us this place with Christ in heaven? Why is he saying that he wants us in his family and we're gonna live with him forever and ever and ever? Well, the rest of the sentence says, to show for all the ages to come God's goodness to us because of Christ. This is the ultimate expression of God's goodness to you. He didn't just say, I'm gonna help you when you're down. I'm gonna give you strength when you're weak. I'm gonna give you the provisions when you lack something. I'll help you when you're in need. When you're scared, I'll be with you. In addition to all those, he says, I want you to live with me after you die forever and ever and ever, and you're never gonna die after that. …
… even while we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. And so friends, listen. I'm going to ask you, no, I'm going to, what am I going to do? I'm going to ask you to remain seated. I'm going to ask you to prepare your heart. I'm going to ask you to not move, not to disrupt. In Matthew chapter 10, verse 32, Jesus said, Therefore, whoever confesses me before men, people, him, her, I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. My goodness, talk about the value of decision. Verse 32 is going to happen someday regarding you, regarding me. Listen, you could be here today and be not a believer at all. He'll answer that in another place. if you do not confess me before men I will not confess you before my father which is in heaven this is serious. You're in the valley of decision right now. Can you literally say from the heart that I believe that Jesus Christ is Lord, that he died on the cross for my sins, he rose again from the dead, I come to him because he forgives my sins, and I give him my life because he and he alone is worthy. Therefore, whoever confesses me before man, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before man, him I will also deny before my Father who is in heaven. What's your decision? You see this? …
… God made you alive in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2.5. When you passed from death to life, from unbelief to belief, from blindness to seeing, from rebellion to submission, when you crossed that line, were you decisive or was God decisive? that's the choice between Calvinism, God is decisive, and the alternatives, man is decisive. And here's something to note. I've watched this now for 40 years or so with kind of a reformed Calvinistic resurgence in America. There are conferences all over the country put on by Calvinists. And they sing their hearts out about the greatness of God in their salvation and the absolute sovereignty of God over the universe. And he is Lord. And they love to exalt the lordship and the power and the sovereignty and the freedom of God. And it makes for such great songwriting and such great singing and worship. there isn't a single conference devoted to celebrating the centrality of man at the point of his own conversion. It's not celebratable. The very thing that distinguishes Calvinism from its alternatives is not celebratable. Like I did it. I was decisive. I got myself into Jesus. …
… but it is all in Christ and through Christ listen to Ephesians chapter 2 verses 4 through 6 but God being rich in mercy because of his 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 raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus we see similar passage in Colossians 2 verses 13 through 14 But catch this, even when we were dead in our sins, God being rich in mercy because of his great love for us made us alive together with Christ. for instance that great doctrine of the believers union with Christ that hangs all over these truths regarding our salvation we have been chosen in Christ and we have been raised to new life in Christ moreover Paul says in verse 6 that God raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. …
… and following its desires and thoughts like the rest we were by nature deserving of wrath but because of this great love for us god who is rich in mercy made us alive with christ even when we were dead in our transgressions it is by grace that you have been saved and god raised us up with christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms of christ jesus in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in christ jesus for it is by grace that you have been saved through faith in this not from yourselves it is the gift of god not by works so that no one can boast for we are god's handiwork created in christ jesus to do good works which god prepared in advance for us to do okay let's go back to this list is a list like this helpful to you on how to be a christian the fuller youth institute thinks that about 50 percent of youth they grow up in the church once they graduate high school about 50 percent stay with the church and about 50 percent leave and a lot of it is because they have been given a gospel that looks like this when i was in high school there was this hardcore band in my in my high school that's like the heavy metal with the screaming, and they were just super devout Christians. Their name of their band was called …
… because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ for by grace you have been saved. That's beautiful. And that, not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works. we cannot earn it 1 John 4, 9 in this the love of God was manifest toward us that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him Jesus loved an adulterous woman who was protected from those who would have stoned her he told her he didn't condemn her and that she should go and sin no more he loved another sinful woman by telling her her sins had been forgiven as she poured out her oil her whole livelihood upon him. An outcast Samaritan woman by offering her living water. You remember the woman in John chapter 4? She came in the middle of the day, in the heat of the day, to draw her water, and there was Jesus waiting by a well in an appointment. …
… in doing so. But that's not what he did. Instead, he heard our cry, and he responded with merciful deliverance. The book of Ephesians chapter 2, verses 4 through 7 tell us, but God who was rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the 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. Yes, thank you Lord. While we were at our worst, Christ died for us. What a gospel this is. Our third point tonight, you can note it down, what we see in verses 10 through 12, is a divine dispatching. A divine dispatching. The text goes on to say in verse 10, Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. …
… Paul writes this, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And we're like, yay, God, because this means the reason we can have a relationship with God is God has given it to us. It is a free gift, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this, this grace and this salvation, this right relationship with God, this was the best part, is not from yourselves. In other words, you didn't manufacture this. You didn't work your way into it. You didn't do any way to earn it or deserve it. It is not from yourselves. It is a gift. The salvation, a right relationship with God is a gift that God gives, not by, and Paul wants to make sure we got it clear, not by works, because that way nobody can boast. In other words, nobody gets to heaven and goes, well, of course I'm here. I mean, did you watch my life? I mean, like I was amazing. …
… Even your faith is from God. For it is by grace you have been saved through your faith in grace. And most people are like, look at my faith. I got tons of faith. Yeah, just let me pray for you, man. I got faith. Okay, buddy. Calm down. I'm more impressed with grace. grace comes first for it is by grace you have been saved through faith in grace not of works lest anyone should boast you cannot work your way into being righteous with god you cannot earn it or deserve it grace by definition write this down your notes it is undeserved blessing it is unmerited favor it is undeserved blessing and unmerited favor let me say it again it is undeserved blessing and it is unmerited favor. Why is this so important? Because religious people always want to trace their blessing back to them. Religious people always wanna go back, you know why I got that, it's because you know, like six weeks ago I tithed $5. …
… mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in sin. It is by grace you have been saved. so the operative agent in salvation is the love of God who is rich in mercy the operative agent in salvation is the love of God who is rich in mercy the operative agent in salvation is not the effort of man who is rich in works. It is the love of God who is rich in mercy. Jesus said in the most famous verse in the Bible and the two verses after it, who need to become the second and third most famous verses in the Bible, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believed in him shall not perish but have eternal life. That's the verse everyone knows. We all need to learn this verse. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. God did not invite you to church today to condemn you. …
… of forgiveness today. But the great conjunction of grace because of his great love for us, God, whose rich in mercy made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in our transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace. Remember last week. Can you say it with me? By grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God. It is not by works. You didn't do it. so that no one can boast for we're God's handiwork. created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. You might have to build a boat, but God will protect it in the waters for 40 days and 40 nights. …
… And he gave to me the power, the life, the victory that was his when he did all that. It is by grace you have been saved. In other words, you didn't do it. If you did it, you're not saved. because it is by grace you have been saved. And it is not any footnotes on grace. He gave me grace, but I also did a pretty good job and was a pretty nice person and I did my best and I went to church and I read my Bible and da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da. No footnotes on grace. He did it. It's by grace that you have been saved. Praise God that the greatest thing that happens to a human being happens by grace. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace. In other words, this is not a one-time story. When I was 11, I put my faith in Jesus and by grace I was saved. That's what happened. No, he said there is an unfolding story of grace that is going to be seen into the coming ages that we're going to understand in heaven more of the grace of God than we understand right now. We're going to see more of his kindness in grace than we understand right now. We're just scratching the surface of grace and it's …
… he says in Ephesians 2, but because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. That's why you'll hear us saying around Passion City Church, we went from death to life. It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. In order that in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. In the revelation, we see the throne of thrones and the one seated on it. And Paul is saying, when you went from death to life by putting your faith in Jesus, he raised you up right then and there spiritually and seated you. with him. Where? In the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. So spiritually, where he is, you are. What he has, you have. And so when he says all authority has been given to me in heaven and earth, now I'm sending you. He's saying, I'm sending you with all the authority that's been given to me. And if there's any one thing that should happen to you and me, reading something as profound as this, we ought to start taking authority over our lives, over our minds, over our thoughts, over our bodies, over our families, over our neighborhood, over our cities, communities, and nation. We ought to be carriers of the position where we now sit …
… Again, everything is divinely designed, planned, initiated, and achieved. 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." This is a description of our salvation and its security. Look at it. God, out of His mercy, out of His love, made us alive with Christ by grace. We have been raised up with Christ. We are seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ, which means we have a place in heaven. That's what Peter meant when he said, we have an inheritance waiting there. That's all said and done. And in the ages to come, the Lord will pour out surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ." So that's the reality of our eternal salvation. …
… 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 a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Ten verses that describe the dramatic, permanent, eternal, comprehensive transformation that salvation makes in a person's life. Over in the fifth chapter, we have another section that looks at this transformation. Chapter 5, verse 5, For this you know with certainty that no immoral or impure person or covetous man who is an idolater has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. …
… And then you have the salvation note in verse 4, 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. This is the transformation of salvation. As a result of it, go down to verse 10, for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. change from all those connotations and directly identified categories of sinfulness in verses 1 to 3. We pass into the section on salvation, and out of it we arrive at verse 10, and we have a new creation. This is God's masterpiece. That's what the word workmanship indicates. Created in Christ Jesus, the result is good works. This is a dramatic change. This is a miraculous change. …
… tombstone. Verse four, but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us. Even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. Look at verse 7. That in the ages to come, you might know the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Okay, catch the phrase. In the ages to come. Okay, now think with me. 2,000 years ago, Jesus hung on a cross and was crucified on our behalf, not opening up one of the many ways to God, but opening up the only possible way to God. God would not require something so brutal of his own son if it were not the only possible solution. So Jesus dies a brutal death, and at the end declares it is finished. And when he declares it's finished, his job literally was done. What he did in that moment is he purchased for us everything that we would ever need, not only in this life, but also in the life to come. …
… 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've been saved. That's my prayer, you know. I'm not up here bragging like, oh, look, I overcame. No, I'm saying I would have done the same thing. I would have been following Satan too, doing what I wanted to do. But then God, because of his great mercy, he entered into me and made me alive in Christ. And I am praying that for APU for every single one of you. Get alone. Take that life jacket off. if you can't swim. Figure it out today. Amen. See ya.
… which is a chapter we've been looking at for a while. And I'm going to read to you the latter section of this section of chapter 2. Ephesians 2, verse 4 to 10, it's printed in your bullet. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. This is God's word. We've said that chapter two is actually a before and after picture of the Christian. It shows us what our lives are like before we encounter the living Christ and after. …
… been seeing. So if you don't mind, I'm going to do a little bit of that as well as push forward our progress a bit. Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 10, is a before and after picture of a Christian. Ephesians 2, 1 to 10, is trying to show us the momentous change that Jesus makes when you have an encounter with him as a living person. I'm glad how many people are surprised and stunned and changed and helped by looking at this passage. Many of you see Christianity as being a kind of round of duties or a process, and you don't realize, until you look at this, that Paul expects that meeting Christ makes this momentous change, a watershed, a continental divide. Becoming a Christian, meeting Christ is sort of like Pike's Peak, because one inch to the west of Pike's Peak, little raindrop goes all the way to the Pacific Ocean. That's what they tell me when I go there. And one inch on the other side, that little drop of water goes all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. …
… Let's look at this passage. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. that's God's Word. Well, let's see what we can do. We said Ephesians chapter 2 is actually a before and after picture. It's a before and after an encounter of an individual with Christ. In verses 1, 2, and 3, which we didn't read tonight, but which we've looked at for a couple of weeks, you have the before picture. In verses 4 to 10, you have the after picture. …
… as well. You've got before pictures and you've got after pictures. Being a Christian is a monumental change. What you have here in Ephesians 2 verses 1 to 5 is you've got a BC and an AD. You've got a before and an after picture. We've been looking at the before and starting last week and continuing this week, we're looking at the after picture. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air and the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of the great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. …
… Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. but because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace that you have been saved. Now, we've been looking for a couple weeks at the first part of this passage, which is verses 1, 2, and 3. You were dead in transgressions and sins. Verse 3 last week, all of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful flesh and following its desires and thoughts. And we've been looking at this. There's no reason to try to continue on that. Last week, we talked about the word flesh. What does the word sinful flesh mean? And we learned in the Bible, a very important thing. In fact, at least I want to repeat this from last week because it's so absolutely critical. Whenever the Bible says the flesh wars against the Spirit, do not do the works of the flesh, but do the works of the Spirit. The works of the flesh are gossip and malice and violence and sexual licentiousness, but the works of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, gentleness, self-control. …
… but because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace that you have been saved. Now we're looking at a classic text on sin, classic. I'm not going to be able to spend as many weeks on it as I like because I'm getting bored with spending so much time on the same verses all the time, and I hope I want to be tedious to you. But I want you to know that these first three verses has got almost everything you need to know about the biblical doctrine of sin. It's all in there. We won't even get into it, but in here you learn about the nature of God's wrath. You learn about original sin, which we will mention tonight. You learn about the nature of sin. You learn about total depravity, which is a theological term for the results of sin, which is spiritual death. You have the relationship between the world and the flesh and the devil, all mentioned here. …
… But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions and sins. It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus for it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast, for we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. A treasure chest? Let's take a look. I'd like to just look at the first three verses. For you who were dead in transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air and the spirit who is now at work and those who are disobedient, all of us lived also among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. My, what a downer. That's the way Paul starts talking about salvation. …