For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God,for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
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But if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart, you will be saved. Ephesians 2.8, Paul said this, this was the verse that brought me to Christ. For it is by grace, God's unmerited favor, by his grace you've been saved through faith. It is the gift of God, not by works. In other words, you're never saved because you're good enough. You're never saved because you're holy enough. You're only saved because Jesus was good enough. He was perfect. He was without sin. He shed his blood. The Lamb of God, the innocent one, died in your place. So when God looks at you, he doesn't see your sin. He sees his son. You're declared righteous because just like when the prodigal son came home, smelling filthy because he'd been living in sin, the father put the robe over him. When the father looked at him, he saw the robe. You have the robes of righteousness of Jesus. You are in Christ. When God looks at you, he sees his sinless son. …
… For what? Ephesians 2.8 says, salvation is this and this only. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And that, check it out, not of yourselves. it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So if your answer for how you are saved is I go to church, I read the Bible, I do good deeds, I mow my lawn, I walk little ladies across the street, I never cheat on my taxes, I have integrity, I'm an American, I have an American flag, I drink Bud Light or don't drink Bud Light. Like if it has anything to do with Bud Light, you're not a Christian. if it's your John Deere tractor no listen salvation is grace or you're not a believer you can only receive Christ God's riches opened up to you at Christ's expense if it's Jesus on the cross and nails through his hands and nails through his feet and your sin on his shoulders and you without one plea just saying I was blind and now I'm found I was lost but here I am I couldn't see, but now I see because you saved me. If it's not that, you are not in Christ. The only way to have salvation is to admit you don't deserve salvation. To think you deserve it automatically means you don't have it. You will not meet one person in heaven that you need to ask, how'd you get here? The answer will always be for every single one of us, Jesus. It will …
… It is God's grace. For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. not of works, lest any person should boast. Our hope and prayer is that you've heard the gospel today in a manner that brings absolute clarity. You see, at some point, all of us need to leap from the burning building into the safety net of God's loving arms. Well, today, we wrap up our quick four-day series called Not All Roads Lead to Heaven. And we presented what many feel is a lightning rod subject, what I've called the intolerant Christ. Look, at Pathway to Victory, we refuse to walk back our commitment to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. And we've been doing so for 30 years. And I suspect that's what draws you to this ministry because you too are unwilling to deny the truth of the Bible. If you share our passion and commitment, would you be willing to become a Pathway partner today? …
… Let me help. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8. Make this your purpose. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship. His, the word is poem. He wrote us. He's writing the story, folks. created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Do you have a prophetic word in your life? These are things that are meaningful to me and I'm sharing them with you. Do you have a purpose? Christian, you should be able to write down what is your purpose given to you by God. Number two, what's the prophetic word in your life? The prophetic word meaning what is it that is the standard? It's the bar. For me, it's this. It's Jeremiah chapter 1, verses 4 through 9. Then the word of the Lord came to me saying, by the way, I didn't make this up myself. …
… Listen to how the Bible talks about this. Turn to Ephesians 2, verse 8. Paul says it this way. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not as a result of the works, so that no one may boast. Or if you look at Philippians chapter 1, verse 29, he says, For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake. You hear that? Granted to you. See, in both letters, look what Paul is doing here. Paul is saying faith is something that is granted. It's given. It's a gift, right? And when you think of that, that makes, okay, like 1 Corinthians 2, that makes a lot of sense. When you think of verse 14 where it says, The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him. …
… 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 Paid in Blood, and they were, they loved a checklist like this. In fact, one day, the guitarist gave me and a friend a ride home. We went to different churches, and the guitarist said to this young woman, hey, are you going to youth group tonight? And she said, oh, I can't. …
… We know these texts like the back of our hand, most of us. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, the gift of God. Amen. Not by works so that no one can boast. Hallelujah. Praise God. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus, say it with me, to do good works. Let's try it again. Say it with me. To do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Philippians 2, same idea. Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name, that's Jesus, It is above every name that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge or confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, comma, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, not done yet, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed not only my presence, but now much more my absence, continue to work out your salvation. …
… 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. …
… You see, the truth is we can never be good enough or religious enough or consistent enough to earn favor with God. The apostle Paul declares in Ephesians 2, it is by grace you have been saved through faith. It is the gift of God by grace through faith. Grace literally means gift. It's a free gift for you because Jesus paid for it fully through his death and his resurrection. these wise men recognized that Jesus was the true gift, which is what led to joy upon joy upon joy and an extravagant outpouring of worship and gifts. You can know that joy this weekend also. Sadly, however, the response of the wise men was not the only response to the birth of Jesus. Matthew records two other responses there in Matthew 2. And he does this because, hear me, In these three responses to Jesus, you will see the entire race, the entire human race, you will see the way the entire human race has responded to Jesus. …
… Ephesians 2, I love what Paul says here too. It says, for it is by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not from yourselves. It is not your gift. It is the gift of God. Not by works, not by theatrics, not by performance so that no one can boast. Paul isn't rejecting boasting here. He's redefining it. He's saying in the old system, earning and performance, boasting is pride in what we did. But in the grace system, boasting becomes joy in what God did through us. See, we don't have to earn this. We don't have to perform for him. we already have him. We already have him saying, I love you. I choose you. I accept you. I know you. In Luke, in the chapter of Luke, there is a story of the prodigal son. It's one of my favorite pictures of grace where the father, he is standing at the edge of his property, looking and longing and waiting for his son that squandered his inheritance and his wealth and left and he spent it all, but he's looking and he's longing for his son to come back home. …
… let me make a case for this one. Ephesians 2, verse 8. For it is by grace we have been saved through faith. And this is not of yourself. This is the free gift, gift of God. Not of works, lest anyone should boast. I like that last part, lest anyone should boast. Because we live in L.A. and people love to boast. In L.A., people are like, oh yeah, you know, I was just with so and so. Oh, let me pick up that name you just dropped. I'm so sorry. Wow, amazing, wow. Aren't you special? And you know, I just got my new car. It's a Lamborghini. We just love to boast. We love to brag. We love to look at social media. Look at me, all right. And he says, not of works, lest anyone should boast. The law creates religious people. Grace creates relationship with Jesus. the law will get you boasting that look at how much i pray look at how much i read look at how much i serve look at my morals and my ethics and my standards look at me grace says look at jesus isn't he amazing isn't he radiant isn't he glorious he saved A wretch like me. …
… of people leaves us with growth in the favor of God. Now, of course, we can't grow in God's favor by ourselves. God's grace and mercy, they come as a gift. As Ephesians 2.8 reminds us, we're saved by grace alone. It's not of ourselves, lest we should boast. But can we grow in that grace? Absolutely. We grow in the appreciation of that gift of grace. We grow in understanding that grace is entirely God's doing, and it's his reason for saving us. You know, when we're children, we ask for forgiveness, and we promise to not do that particular sin ever again. And being young, we might get the wrong idea that it's because of our promise that we're forgiven. But as we grow older, we grow in understanding the nature of grace. That sin that we promised would never happen again, well, it comes back. But God's grace endures, and we grow in understanding that God forgives us by grace, not because of any promise that we make. He forgives us purely by his grace. We still desire to stop that sin, of course, but we grow in our knowledge that God's grace has covered us and cleansed us entirely for the whole of our lives. Grow in this knowledge of the grace of God that alone saves us. Paul put it briefly this way. We know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus. So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ. …
… If you're wondering how salvation works, let me just break it down for you real fast. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. So let's just break it down real fast. Grace, by the way, is not a principle. It's a person. His name is Jesus. So for it is by grace. It is by Jesus you have been saved through faith, your faith in Jesus. So before you showed up, God showed up. While you were a sinner, Christ died for you. So it's by grace you've been saved through your faith in Jesus. Anybody here believe in Jesus today? And anybody thankful that Jesus died on the cross for your sins? For it is by grace you have been saved, through your faith in grace, through your faith in Jesus, not by works, lest anybody should boast. What's it saying? You can't work your way into heaven, and you can't work your way into being good with God. God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. …
… expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved. There's our word, Jesus saves through faith. And this is not from yourselves. Remember the teacup. It is the gift of God, not by works so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork. This is next week's talk. I'm so excited about it. This is that sanctification word created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. It is by grace you have been saved. That's why we're calling this collection Jesus Saves. every faith, every religion has somebody in it. And that somebody is most likely a moral teacher. a divine prophet, possibly a culture shifter, culture thinker, potentially a miracle worker, someone who points to the way every religion. You're going to find some central character who is known as or claims to be a moral teacher, divine prophet, a culture thinker. Maybe that movement has somebody who does miracles. I know mine does, Jesus. Someone who points to the way. Jesus was all those things. …
that's it well certainly i bring my faith no you bring faith that you borrowed from god ephesians chapter 2 makes that clear for our grace have you been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is a gift of god not as a result of work so that no one can boast even the faith that you placed in jesus christ was a gift to you from god and the evidence that you are among the elect is that you have that gift of faith. Amen. That is why even those who believe in the doctrine of election still preach the gospel and say repent and believe. Well, why would you do that? If they're elect, then they're going to be saved. If they're not elect, they're not going to be saved. Yes, but God has chosen to use the foolishness of preaching. And he calls all men everywhere, repent. Believe! now I'm aware of the fact that even that is a gift that God gives but just like the prophet in the valley of dry bones those of us who proclaim the gospel say Lord please cause your wind to blow and make these dry bones live Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith. …
… And what he's been telling us all through this text is that it is a gift. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. He said it a different way, for it is by grace you have been saved, Paul wrote, through faith. Grace through faith. And it is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. It's not by works. That's not how you get the access. That's not how you get the right standing. That's not how you get justified. That's not how you get the righteousness. That's not how you get peace with God. You don't get those things by works. They are a gift. 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. So he does want us to live a great life, but you don't get saved by living a great life. You get saved through faith. It is a gift of God. …
… 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. This threat of grace, it does not run through any other religious system on earth. …
… 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 …
… If you go back to chapter 2 and remind yourselves of those very familiar verses, verse 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. 1 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. Just as much as God elected your justification, He elected your sanctification. You have been chosen and ordained to good works, and those good works were ordained before time began. God ordained that believers would be marked by righteousness and holiness. Go back to chapter 4 and verse 24, put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. All of these things describe what it means to be a child of God. We are beloved children. We are to walk worthy. We can walk worthy. …
… This is kind of a launch point for us. In verse 8, familiar verses, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God beforehand prepared so that we would walk in them." So there you have the connection back to what Jesus said in Matthew 7. We have been chosen for transformation. By grace you have been saved, and you have become His workmanship. That is, God has recreated you. You have been born again unto good works. You are now a good tree, producing good fruit. Paul in Romans 6 says, you were a slave of sin, now you're a slave of righteousness. So how do you tell a true believer? Not by a profession, but by the production of spiritual fruit. It could be attitude fruit, love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control, fruit of the Spirit. …
… 10. 2, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. And then 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. That is an absolute statement of fact, that if you have come to Christ for salvation, you have been created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Or in the language of chapter 4, verse 24, you have been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth in the likeness of God. In other words, you take on the character of God, you take on the character of Christ, which manifests itself in righteousness and holiness and truth and good works." Christians are known by the transformation of their lives. It was what Jesus intended when He said, by their fruits you shall know them. So we're learning here where the great transformation shows up. …
… 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. …
… us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that you may boast, but look at verse 10. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for what? For good works. Now look at this. Which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. You talk about the sovereignty of God in your salvation, that's the sovereignty of God in your sanctification. Do you know He has foreordained your good works? He has foreordained your life. He has foreordained your preaching, your praying. He has foreordained every expression of love toward Him, every act of worship. He wrote it down before you ever existed. His sovereignty covers our lives. So that if God has given you a sovereign salvation, He has also given you a sovereignly designed sanctification. There shouldn't be any mystery about who's a Christian. But part of your responsibility as a pastor is to know that and help people know that. …
… And tonight we're going to look at the end of it. Let me read Ephesians 2, verses 8, 9, and 10. This is God's word. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this not from yourselves. it's 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 You know, like most passages in Paul's teaching, this passage we've been looking at, chapter 2, verses 1 to 10, is so full of profound theology, and yet it's really basically got a very simple objective. It's here to tell you, it's here to define what a Christian is. And we saw in the first seven verses, Paul is saying a Christian is someone who's gone through a momentous, cataclysmic change. Verses 1 to 3 is before the meeting with Christ, and verses 4, 5, 6, and 7 is what happens afterwards. We saw we've gone from death, spiritual death, to life. We've gone from bondage, slavery, the things that we desired had us by the throat, to a place of freedom, where the things that we desire can be used by us, but they don't use us anymore. …
… 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. …
… 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. …
… 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. …
Now, here's what it says. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are what? His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Those are great verses. And there are three prepositions in those verses. And if you keep those three prepositions in your mind, you'll never get mixed up. You'll never get confused about how to be saved and the relationship of faith and works and see how God's grace is so wonderful, so amazing, and so magnificent. What are those three prepositions? For by grace. The first preposition is by. For by grace are you saved through faith. The second preposition is through. By grace, through faith. Now in verse 10, unto good works. Unto good works. All right, now here it is. Now watch it. By grace, through faith, unto good works. By, through, unto. …
… WE'VE DONE, BUT ACCORDING TO HIS MERCY HE SAVED US. THE BIBLE SAYS IN EPHESIANS TWO, VERSES EIGHT AND NINE, FOR BY GRACE ARE YOU SAVED THROUGH FAITH, AND THAT NOT OF YOURSELVES. IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD, NOT OF WORKS, LEST ANY MAN SHOULD BOAST. AND PAUL SAID IN ROMANS 11, SIX, AND I LOVE THIS, HE SAYS, AND if by grace it is no more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. And if by works it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. That sounds like a, some sort of a little conundrum, a little riddle. But what's he saying? He said, you can't mix grace and works. You just have to make up your mind. Either you're saved by the grace of God, or you're saved by self-effort. But yet here comes James, and say, and James says, that faith without works is dead. Now, are, are James and Paul having an argument? No! They are in agreement. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. What James and Paul are talking about are heads and tails of the same coin and they're exactly what Jesus is talking about when he says, whosoever hears these sayings of mine and does them is like a wise man that built his house upon a rock. …