Sermon
Salvation by Grace through Faith
October 9, 2005
Pastor Leighton Sheley

I'm going to invite you to take your Bibles and open to the Book of Ephesians written by Paul the apostle. Chapter 1 of Ephesians introduces God's plan for salvation sweeping from eternity past through eternity future, and in Chapter 2, which is where I would like to direct our attention today, the apostle Paul describes the process of salvation for an individual from their past through their present to their future.

I'm reading from the New International Version: "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, 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 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 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.

Salvation is from sin. Romans 6:23 says, The wages of sin is death. Romans 3:23 says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Every person who has ever lived or who lives today has been born in sin, lived in sin, and except for the miraculous intervention of God's salvation through Jesus Christ would die in their sin. Romans 5:12 says, By one man (speaking of the first Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for all have sinned.

Now not only does sinful mankind live in the physical realm under the shadow of inevitable death, but in the spiritual realm mankind, sinful mankind, is already dead. Paul writes, You were dead in your transgressions and sins. The word there 'were' is in past tense declaring that the death was already a reality. Every sinful person who is alive today is really a spiritual zombie walking around unaware of their spiritual death.

Now one of the characteristics of death is the body's inability to respond to stimulation. A dead body is insensitive to the circumstances or situation around it. It doesn't matter if it's too hot or too cold, or too wet or too dry. Things that would cause you and I pain or pleasure have no effect on the dead. Someone who is spiritually dead cannot respond to spiritual stimulus.

You can sit and describe with them the futility of life without God, you can describe the goodness of life with God, you can talk about the hope of eternity where there is no death or disease or sorrow and pain, and sometimes you can get frustrated saying, what, are you dumb? Can you not see? And it's not that they're dumb, it's that they're dead. They are spiritually insensitive. They are spiritually nonresponsive.

The word dead in the phrase, you were dead in your transgressions and sin, is in a locative case, which means this; a person does not become a liar the first time he tells a lie, but rather a person lies because he or she is a liar. A person doesn't become a thief the first time a person steals, but rather a person steals because that person is a thief. Committing sinful acts does not make us a sinner, but rather we commit sinful acts because we are sinners.

Jesus said it this way: "Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders." What we do comes from what we are, not to the other way around.

Now trespasses is from paraptoma, which means to sideslip, as in an unintentional error or a willful transgression against a specific commandment. Sin is from the word hamartia. It's the most common and general term for sin. It appears 173 times in the New Testament, and centuries before Christ that term described an archer missing the target bulls eye and thereby missing the prize. Later that term hamartia was broadened to include missing any goal, and every person has missed God's goal for their life.

The same root word is found in Romans 3:23, 'For all have sinned', there hamartano, 'and come short of the glory of God.'

Now John MacArthur wrote...he said all men apart from God are sinful, but that doesn't mean that every person is equally corrupt and wicked. Twenty corpses in a battlefield might be in different stages of decay but they are all uniformly dead.

Death manifests itself in many different forms and degrees, but death itself has no degrees. Sin manifests itself in many different forms and degrees, but the state of sin itself has no degrees. Not all men are as evil as they could be, but all men fail to measure up to God's perfect standard.

We have a tendency to put some people on some kind of a pedestal; you might think Billy Graham or Mother Teresa and think that they worked towards their salvation. Pastor Mark Hinman, who went to be with the Lord just a few years ago and ministered at this church for many years, used to describe any effort on the part of any man to deal with a sin issue is like somebody trying to jump across the Grand Canyon. The record long jump is some 30 some odd feet, I think, I know I can't jump that far, but the Grand Canyon is over a mile wide. Now what does that mean? Well, it just means that jumping the Grand Canyon on our own efforts is an exercise in futility.

The Bible is clear that Mother Teresa and Billy Graham are going to get to heaven the same way you and I do, by the grace of God, not by works. "...you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world..." Now the word for world there is kosmos and it doesn't refer to the physical creation, but rather means an orderly arrangement or the way the world arranges things or orders things. It's a reference to the way the world that does things.

Now since this world, until Calvary, was under the influence and leadership of Satan, God's adversary, the ways of this world or the course of this world is contrary to the ways of God. This world is characterized by a preoccupation with humanism, materialism, and hedonism. Humanism is a worldview that places mankind as sort of the center of the universe. Mankind is deemed as the source of all that is good and bad and the rather flexible standard by which good and bad are measured. Mankind is perceived as a source of authority and by extension that means that every person has the right to do whatever is right on their own eyes. In essence, humanism attempts to elevate mankind into a place of authority that is rightfully owned by God.

Materialism is a preoccupation with the things of this physical world in an attempt to acquire or control as much as possible to contribute to one's own security and power. Money, position, fame, independence from responsibility are among the highest priorities by people who are driven by materialism. And hedonism is just basically a preoccupation with pleasure and with comfort.

Now Satan is the archon, which means the first in rank or power; also translated chief, magistrate, prince or ruler. Satan is a ruler over this world system that runs contrary to God, and to live according to the ways of this world or the course of this world is to think, act, and speak following of the godless philosophies and values that are taught and modeled in public schools and through mass media and such as television, movies, and so forth.

Now all of us lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Now by reminding us that we also lived among the rest of the world, as Paul does several times in this very passage, Paul is reminding us that there is no room for any arrogance on our part. We were just like the rest of the world and if it were not for the grace of God in our lives we would continue to be just like the rest of the world.

Cravings or desires is from epithumia, which encompasses a strong appetite or an inclination of any type, not just related to a sexual appetite. By nature mankind is driven to fulfill selfish desires and thoughts, the appetites of the flesh and the mind. The flesh, sarx, denotes a near human nature, the earthly nature of man apart from divine influence and therefore prone to sin and oppose God. The mind, dianoia, is defined as the faculty of moral reflection, and in this context reflects the natural inclination of the mind to process decisions in a godless fashion. So this passage serves in part as a suitable introduction to a passage later in this book found in chapter 6 were Paul describes the spiritual battle and the preparation and participation of the believer in that battle, and every believer is involved in the spiritual battle whether they want to be or not.

And it's not a battle for the faint of heart, because believers are under continuous attack from inside and outside. Believers are spiritually attacked from within in their mind and in their flash. Believers are spiritually assaulted by the world around us, the systems of the world, in general, and sometimes by a specific and concerted effort on the part of the devil or his demons.

Now like the rest we were by nature objects of wrath. Now there's a popular philosophy in society today, it parades under various manners; you have heard some of the phrases, 'you know we are children of God, we're all children of God,' 'God is love,' as though suggesting that God could not possibly condemn His children to any kind of thing like hell. Now if you were to follow that line of reasoning in this worldly philosophy, it logically moves to the conclusion that if there is no hell then there is no need of salvation. If there is no need to salvation there is no need for a savior. If there is no need for a savior then Jesus was just a mere mortal with delusions of grandeur.

That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches clearly that apart from reconciliation to God through Christ all mankind are objects of the wrath of God under His eternal judgment and condemnation, and it was to provide a means of escape from this eternal judgment that Jesus came to this earth to provide salvation for all that would believe because of His great love for us, God who is rich in mercy. God's mercy is plousios, rich.

Now recently I had an opportunity to watch one of the outstanding Bible teachers of our day illustrate God's mercy, and what he did is he reached over to a table and there was a pitcher and glass and he started talking about God's mercy, and he said, this is God's mercy. He started to walk and he started pouring the water from the pitcher into the glass. I thought, okay, well the glass is pretty full. He needs to stop, and he didn't. He just kept pouring. The water hit the brim and I said, you better stop it, it's at the brim, and he didn't. It washed him over his hand and running down his arm and into the carpet, and he just kept walking and pouring. He said this is God's mercy; this is an example of God's mercy.

There was more water in the carpet than there was in the glass. And he said, you know, I have to apologize because this really isn't a significant enough illustration. You see this is the problem, I only have a pitcher, God has oceans. God is plousios; He is rich in mercy. It means abundantly overflowing. It doesn't mean just overflowing. It means abundantly overflowing. What does that mean to you and me? It means that no matter what the degree of our spiritual deprivation, God's mercy is greater because God is rich in mercy.

And He has made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by faith that you have been saved. He is doing a contrast here. You see sin brings death; we were dead in our transgressions and sin. Sin brings separation; we were separated from God. And so what Paul is doing here is he is contrasting our previous state from our current state. He is saying where once you were dead you are now alive, where once you were separated you are now with Christ; you are alive with Christ! Amen? Amen. There is no more separation, no more death, and this occurred while we were dead in our transgressions. We were unable to assist our self.

You know I saw this I was thinking about driving Skyline the other day and there was a skunk in the middle of the road. I don't recommend this, but if you were to go to a skunk, sitting in the middle of the road that had been run over and was dead, it wouldn't...you could say, mister skunk, I need to let you know that there is a car coming and you need to get out of the road. That skunk is not going to get out of the road because it's dead. It can't help itself. And we were dead, and we couldn't help our self, and while we couldn't help our self God did. That's what it means.

And raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. Now seated there is in the Greek aorist tense, which is translated in the past tense and basically there are several ways the scholars have described it. I like this way. Have you ever sat with someone that you know is a trusted friend and you say, hey, could you take care of such and such? And their response is something like, it's as good as done? It's as good as done. They are using done in the past tense to describe something that hasn't occurred yet. Why? Because they are going to make sure it happens. It's going to happen.

Now all of us, even with the best of intentions, can sometimes not fulfill our promises. There was a time when I was younger I said, okay kids, on such and such a date we are going to go and we're going to go to such and such a theme park. And when I made that promise I didn't know that on that day that theme park was closed, and I couldn't fulfill a promise. That was an unforeseen circumstance.

There have been times when I've made a promise to the kids - okay, we're going to do such and such, what ever, go to dinner--and I reached in my pocket and there were no resources, there were none in the bank either, and I wasn't able to fulfill my promises. You know God doesn't have a problem with resources or circumstances. There are no unforeseen circumstances to God. You can't surprise God. Don't ever try to throw a surprise party; you cannot surprise God. Okay?

God knows the future. He can't say, well you know I didn't know that was going to happen so I can't keep My promise. And as for resources, God doesn't have a problem with that because He can create anything out of nothing. If He needs a resource, He'll make it! The Bible says God is not a man that He should lie. If He says He'll do it, it's as good as done. And someday we are going to be seated with Christ in the heavenly realms...it's as good as done. It's in the past tense.

"...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." Now because we look at things from our human perspective we might think or be inclined to think that the salvation is for us, but it's not really. I mean, yes, we get a benefit from the salvation process, but primarily the salvation process is to bring glory to God-not us. And this scene is described in Revelation. What does it say? Glory belongs to the one who sits on the throne-that's not us-and to the lamb. Glory belongs to the Lord.

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast." You know, the only part in which we can participate in salvation is by responding to the invitation, and even our ability to respond to the invitation is a gift from God.

Faith doesn't come from our own resources. It doesn't come from our own effort. If it did then God's glory would have to be shared and thereby diminished because we would have in some small part contributed by our own works to the process of salvation, but even our ability to respond to the invitation of salvation is a gift from God.

Philippians 1:29 says, For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the privilege of suffering for Him. It's a gift.

Now there's a lot of unnecessary confusion about the source of salvation, even among Christians, some think that it's somehow related to baptism or confirmation or taking communion or keeping the Ten Commandments or church membership or church attendance or giving generously or being a good neighbor or these kinds of things, but none of these things brings salvation. The only thing that brings salvation, the only thing that we can participate in, in the salvation process, is responding to the invitation and even the ability to respond to the invitation is a gift from God. And because of that no one can boast, and no one should.

When an evangelist gives the gospel presentation and invites people to come and receive Jesus Christ, they are quickened, they are made alive, they know that they need salvation, they need the Savior, they come forward...the evangelist shouldn't receive the glory- God should.

If the passage were to end here and begin with some new subject, then some people might mistakenly think there is no place for good works in the life of a Christian or a believer, but Paul wants to make sure that that's not misunderstood and that there is a relationship, and he writes this, "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

So, although good works serve no benefit in acquiring our salvation, they serve a great benefit in fulfilling part of the purpose for which we were saved, because we were saved for good works.

James writes faith without works is dead. In other words a living faith should produce works. Now Jesus described works as fruit in John 15:1-5, Himself as the true vine, and believers as branches. He says, I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful apart from me. Yes, I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who remain in me and I in them will produce much fruit, but apart from me you can do nothing. My true disciples produce much fruit and this brings great glory to my Father.

You know when we produce much fruit, the Father, the heavenly Father is glorified. But it's not the branch that produces the fruit; it's the vine that produces the fruit. The fruit comes out of the branch because the branch is plugged into the vine. There is an intimate relationship between the branch and the vine. You know a branch that's out walking around the vineyard doesn't produce much fruit, even if it has a casual relationship with a vine - Hi, beautiful day. There needs to be an intimate relationship, and I know that word can cause some discomfort to some of our men, but that's the only way I can describe; there has to be an intimate relationship between the branch and the vine for the life that flows through the vine to flow through the branch and produce fruit.

The branch can't produce the fruit. Some people say, well, I've got to produce some fruit - got to work at it. There's nothing we can do to produce fruit. All we can do is be plugged into the vine, allow the life that comes through the vine to come through us and it will produce the fruit.

Knowing about Christ is not enough. Knowing Christ, that is being plugged in, is essential for bearing fruit. And lest we think that bearing fruit is unimportant, Jesus said this, He said, anyone who parts from me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. That doesn't sound optional to me. It's not optional to produce fruit. We were created for good works.

If we are not doing good works then we're not doing what we were created in Christ Jesus to do. Good works do not produce salvation, but salvation should always produce good works. Amen? Let's bow; let's pray.

Lord we are so thankful for Your word that makes things so clear to us. We are thankful Lord that our salvation is not dependent upon us, because if it was then each and every one of us fail You each and every day, and that would mean that each and every day we'd have good reason to question whether or not salvation was real. But Lord You have provided salvation from a to z, and we thank you for doing so. And we thank You Lord that You have made it possible for us to produce fruit, not by any effort of our own, but because of Your life flowing through us. And Lord, we want to bear much fruit.

Lord as we go forth from this place this day we ask You to bear fruit in our lives at home, at work, at play, wherever it is that we might be, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. God bless.