not by works, so that no one can boast.not of works, that no one would boast.Not of works, lest any man should boast.not of works, that no man should glory.
15 sermons cite this verse
for by grace you have been saved through faith not of works lest any man should boast. That's what the Bible says. You should never doubt your salvation. Some would say, well, no one can know that they're saved. People who are Catholic don't have the assurance of salvation because they have to do certain things each week to sort of maintain that favor with God, receive that grace of God. But the believer who understands Scripture can know that salvation is something that belongs to them. How many of you know you are saved? Raise your hand if you know this. You say, but I don't know. Well, you can know and you must know. 1 John says, if we will confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Remember that man? We call him the Philippian jailer. He cruelly mistreated Paul and Silas, threw him into a dungeon. Through a series of events, he realized he needed Christ the apostles. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And Paul said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. So that's how you get it. But the Holy Spirit bears witness with my spirit that I am a child of God. That's one of the things that He does. He also seals us. Over in Ephesians 1.13 we read, in him you trust that after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit, a promise, which is a deposit …
… but based solely on what God has done for me. I live in grace. I live in the grace of God. It's by grace I'm saved through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast. I've been made acceptable in the beloved, the Bible says. On the cross, God treated Jesus as if he had lived your life so he could treat you as if you had lived his life. It's on the screen. This is not original to me. It's a great statement. On the cross, God treated Jesus as if he had lived your life so he could treat you as if you had lived his life. Justification. The resurrection of Jesus assures me I am accepted by God. Number two, the resurrection of Jesus assures me I have all the power I need to live the Christian life. This is called sanctification. We hear these words sanctification, justification, justification, forgiven of your sin just as if it never had happened. Sanctification is different. I play a part in sanctification. This is where I am seeking to live a holy life. You see? And I read over in Romans chapter 8 verse 11, the Spirit of God who raised Christ from the dead lives in you. And just as He raised Jesus from the dead, He'll give life to your mortal body by the same Spirit living in you. So dear Christian friends, you have no obligation whatsoever to do what your sinful nature urges you to do. Get it? Some people say, …
… 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. Some men at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, back in the, I think 1980 it was, I didn't even know they were going to do this. …
… 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. …
… 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. I gave it to you, you go possess it I gave you the land Go take the land You got Jebusites, great, go take them You got Canaanites, fine, let's go take them You got the Hittites, I'm with you Let's go take the Hittites And let's clear this land of everything that's not God Let's wipe out everything in this story that is not Holy Spirit and does not honor Jesus, let's go take the land. …
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. He was a moral teacher. He was a divine prophet. He shifted culture more than anybody. He was a miracle worker, and he was someone that pointed the way. And that's, a lot of religions have that. …
… Because Yahweh gives grace and Yahweh gives glory. It is not by works so that no one can boast. for we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works. I want to make sure we see that today. It's not sitting back in the recliner of grace and doing nothing. No, we're going to do the things which God prepared in advance for us to do, but we're going to see how we do the things that God has prepared for us to do. And it is beginning by grace. It's like realizing that you have a flat tire. I'm coming down the connector years ago, and all of a sudden I have an immediate flat, not one of those that you think is kind of going down. It's like, oh my goodness, I got to pull over right now. 17th Street exit, I pull over, and fortunately I'm off the connector by now. But I mean, the back tire is just done, totally flat, and I'm self-aware in that moment, and I go, wow, this is not going to work. …
… 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. Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be partakers with them, for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light." The transformation is, as I said, everlasting, eternal, comprehensive. …
… 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. …
… 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. Paul is trying to get through to us. He's trying to get across to us in the most vivid terms that the difference between being in Christ and being outside of Christ is a cataclysmic difference. In verse 1, he said, we were dead spiritually. In verse 4, it says, we're made alive spiritually. In verse 3, Paul says of chapter 2, he says, we lived gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature. We were in bondage. We weren't free. …
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. He starts by saying, you were dead in sin. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins. All I want to talk about tonight is what Paul means when he says, you are dead in sin. …
… 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. By grace. Through faith. Unto good works. Now remember that God showed grace to Noah. …
… 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. …