Saved By Grace Through Faith

Introduction

Very pleasant good morning to all and a cordial welcome to those who are visiting in our audience today. We’re certainly glad to have you come on a beautiful Lord’s Day that it is. If you’re visiting with us, and may I explain that this last month, all of our lessons at this hour that Brother Creel and I both have been speaking have to do with the theme of grace. And saying it in a way that really that grace is not cheap. Brother Creole began by the first lesson on John using John 316 as a text, a great passage often described as the miniature gospel. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

And as it’s stated, could we with ink the ocean fill? And were the skies of parchment made, and every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade. To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.

But understanding really what is involved in the gift of God’s Son is a subject that many verbalize but do not fully comprehend. Why was the death of Christ necessary? And in our lesson number two, we talked about from Romans chapter 3 and verse 25 that God set forth Jesus to be the propitiation for our sins. We described the word propitiation as meaning that appeasement of God’s wrath against evil. For men who are sinners have been separated from God, and therefore God made the atonement and paid the judicial penalty, that is, of death, that we all might have that promise of life everlasting made possible to us. And then a lesson last Sunday, Brother Creel preached again concerning the suffering of Jesus Christ, that even as the serpent was lifted up during the time of the children of Israel in which they needed the deliverance from the wrath of God, even so Jesus Christ lifted up that we might have the wrath of God removed.

He suffered in our place. As we’ve just been observing the Lord’s Supper as a memorial of that suffering. The one who gave his life for us. What does that really mean to you? I want to start this morning by this picture of a man. You may have seen it before, or perhaps through email or through the internet. Name is Mike Mansur. Mike Mansur gave his life in the Iraq War. But it was kind of an unusual in the sense that Mike Mansur, when a live grenade was thrown and within his reach, he jumped on it, covering it with his body. Forty-five other Navy SEALs were spared death by what he did. The word came across the email, and I think touched the hearts of many, many people in our country who saw it.

What a gift. His funeral was in San Diego, was buried indeed the National Cemetery there. And it is said that as friends and family and crowd were gathered together, the 45 Navy SEALs whose life had been spared by his sacrifice were also there. And as they carried his casket to the gravesite, lined up on either side, of course, were family and friends. And with each Navy SIL that was passed, there was a clicking sound. For each Navy SIL took what was called a trident pen and knocked it or embedded it into the top of the casket. And in fact, it was said that you could hear each of the 45 slaps across that cemetery. That actually what was then seen, the 45 Trident pens, was actually as though a gold trident pen that indeed as he would put it in there would step back and salute this man who had spared their lives.

What a tribute. And well worthy, right? But how many of us would think what a great gift he did to save the lives of 45 other Navy SEALs? But what we observed this morning was one who gave his life not for just 45 others, but for all the world. For you and for me, and for all who have sinned against God. In fact, uh, in Romans chapter 5, it stated very clearly about the gift that Christ made. And somewhat different, really, from what Mike Monsor did. You see, Mike Monsor knew that one day he must die, as we all know. It is appointed a man once to die, and after this the judgment. It is just simply that we say, well, he died sooner than he would have had to have died had he not jumped on that grenade.

But Jesus Christ did not have to die. In fact, in John chapter 10, the scripture says that Jesus Christ himself claimed he had the right to lay his life down or to take it up. He gave willingly because he loved as well. The fact is, Mike Monzer died for some good men, his fellow Navy SEALs. But Jesus Christ died for his enemies. As Romans 5 in verse 6 begins, when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man, some would even dare to die, as Mike Monsor did. But in verse 8, God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

1. Dead in Trespasses and Sins

Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Indeed, what a gift that Jesus Christ gave to you and to me and to all others who’ve walked the face of this earth, that we might have the promise of life everlasting. You see, when we talk about the cross of Christ, we start and say, Well, well, why? Why was it necessary for Christ to die? We have to then look at what was the condition of man. When Christ died for us, why did he die for mankind? If you have your Bible, I’d like for you to turn also with me to Ephesians chapter 2.

For in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 10, I believe summarizes the great gift of God by grace. When it says in verse 1 of Ephesians 2, you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit who now walked works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, 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 in his 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 of works, lest any one should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. You notice, first of all, in the first three verses, he describes the condition that man was in, much like we read in Romans 5 that man, man indeed was the enemies of God. Men were ungodly, and because of that, the scripture there says we were dead in our sins.

What it means by being dead, of course, not physically, but spiritually. We were separated from God. God who created man and gave man every opportunity to serve him and to be his own, yet even in the garden of Eden, set forth the law of God concerning sin. For he told Adam and Eve, in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die. And what God did with Adam and Eve was first of all, he put them out of the garden of Eden, that they could not eat the tree of life and live forever. So physical death began. But more important than that, there was the spiritual separation from God. And in that sense, the spiritual meaning of death is separation. We’re without God. We’re without hope.

We are as sinners as ungodly, even as the enemies of God because of sin, and God’s judicial wrath against us. His law must be upheld, will be death. In Isaiah 59, in fact, the scripture plainly says, the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save. Neither is ear heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear. The fact is the consequence of our sin is spiritual and really eternal death. But God so loved that he made a possible means of a new birth. In fact, that passage we just read in Ephesians 2, verses 4 through 7, he made us alive. In his mercy, God did not give us what we deserved.

2. Why the Cross? That God Might Be Just

What we deserved was death. But in his mercy, by grace, he provided what we could not do for ourselves, and therefore through Jesus Christ made us alive again. It is that gift of God of salvation. Once dead, now alive, if we come to the Lord. But again, we may raise the question, well, why the cross? And this perhaps goes back to the lesson that we talked a couple of weeks ago, where in Romans chapter 3 the scripture speaks about how that Jesus Christ died as the propitiation for our sins. You know the skeptic, in fact, often the one who would ridicule the whole scheme of God’s redemption will say, Why was the cross necessary? Don’t you know that God, if you believe, could create the heavens of the earth, and he could form man from the dust of the ground, as you believe in God?

Couldn’t he save man some other way? Why didn’t he just say, Well, you know, just as I moved or made Adam from the dust of the ground, I’m going to provide forgiveness. I have the right. I’m sovereign. Could not God find some other means in some other way. I’ll tell you, those of you who are parents, if someone were to ask you, would you give your child for an enemy, so that that enemy might be saved or released from whatever judgment was against him, you would say, Well, you know, I love my child. And this enemy of mine isn’t worthy of my child, not even my friend. As Romans 5 says, some would even dare to give his life for a good man. But Jesus Christ died for even his enemies.

So if God is all powerful and all strong, why was it necessary that Jesus die on the cross? And I believe that verse 26 particularly emphasizes, and as we as we taught on that day, that it was that God might be just. The word justice means that his law is upheld. The majesty of God’s law. That God might be just is the idea of grace. We didn’t deserve this. In fact, what we deserve was death. But Jesus Christ died in the place of those who have sinned. And therefore, that God might be just. But the passage also says that he might be the justifier. And here’s an important key. As the scripture would say, he died because God, who is love, God who is full of mercy, God is just.

But therefore he set forth by his law also those by whom could be saved. He’s the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. Here then comes again the passage that we’ve just read from Ephesians chapter 2. Here it is that by his grace. Ephesians 2, verses 8 through 10. By his grace we’re saved. By grace you’ve been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. One of the greatest themes of the Bible, and certainly the greatest story of the Bible, is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. But the theme in which we have been trying to preach these last few Sundays is that we are saved by grace through faith.

3. Not Saved by Grace Only

I’d have to say, though, that this is a passage, Ephesians 2 in verse 8 and 9 particularly, that are often misused and misunderstood. There are those who want to talk as though we’re saved by grace only. We hear some who say, and particularly reading verse 9, when it says not of works, lest any man should boast, there are those who say, well, see that God so loves us, and he is by his grace, he’s provided a gift. Man doesn’t have to do anything. Consequently, there are many people who have gone their way thinking, oh, you know, everybody’s going to go to heaven. You know, if we die, that’s a good, that’s a person that God loves, and God loves all, and therefore God loves all, and his grace is for all.

You know, in a few days he’s going to be looking down from heaven on us. And that’s the thinking of a lot of people in our nation now. It’s from false teaching from many who call themselves preachers of the gospel. You see, the fact is, grace is God’s gift. But to say that everybody receives grace regardless of what man does is really, it is really to make God a respecter of persons. First of all. For you know, we all know Jesus said that there is a place that is like hell. In fact, he said, enter in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate and broad as the way that leads to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat. Jesus didn’t promise everybody to be saved.

So who’s saved from whose lost? God has made the distinction between the saved and the lost. His grace is upon everybody, but not everybody will be saved by his grace. God wants all to be saved. And the Christ died for all that all might be saved, but he’s the justifier of those who believe in Jesus. In fact, if you have a Bible, turn with me to Titus chapter 2. In Titus chapter 2, verses 11 and 12. There the apostle, I think, identifies in a very clear way what’s involved in being saved by grace. It certainly doesn’t sound like it’s grace only. When he says in verse 11, the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us.

What does it teach us? Denying ungodliness and worldly lust, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age. You see, therein is a change in a man’s life. It has to do with obedience. First of all, if we deny ungodliness and worldly lust, that involves itself repentance. God wants all men to be saved, but he is the justifier of those who believe, and believing we will turn back from sin. The adulterer doesn’t continue in his immorality if he’s a Christian. The man who really wants to serve the Lord is going to deny ungodliness and worldly lust. But what does he do? He turns and lives soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. There’s some action of obedience. Coming to Christ. It’s not just turning to him to see all that we may receive.

You stop and think there may be those who want to become a Christian because of what they think they’re going to receive. Have you ever thought about what it costs in order to be a child of God? If he denies ungodliness and worldly lust, he’s going to make a commitment to God. If he’s going to live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world, he makes a commitment to God. Jesus summarized it in Luke chapter 14 and verse 26. If anyone would come unto me and hates not his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yea, in his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. You think about how stringent that is. Serving the Lord is not a matter of just whatever’s convenient and doing whatever we want to do.

4. Nor Are We Saved by Faith Only

It involves submission. A grace that saves is a grace that denies ungodliness and worldly lust and lives soberly and righteously and godly, and it puts God first. It puts the Lord first. In fact, in Luke 14, 33, he that does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. That’s really why in Ephesians 2 and verses 8 and 9, he says, For by grace through faith are you saved. By grace through faith. And faith that does nothing is dead faith. In James chapter 2 and verses 14 through 23, there the inspired writer describes faith without works as dead. Faith that is saving. Faith is the kind that says, Lord, thy will be done. And upon understanding the will of God will obey the will of God.

Faith involves action. I sometimes say many have been deluded by thinking John 3.16 summarizes everything there is about belief. God so loved that he gave his only begotten Son and whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And yet it is in that same book in John chapter 12, where there the Lord describes some who were believers that were lost believers. John 12, 42 and 3 it says there were many rulers who believed on the Lord, but because of the Pharisees they would not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue. For they love the praise, they love the praise of men more than the praise of God. John 3 16 says nothing about repenting. John 3 16 says nothing about confessing.

But who would turn to John 12 42 and 3 and say those rulers were saved because they believed? We’re not saved by grace only, nor are we saved by faith only. It is a faith that is willing to obey, to turn from ungodliness in the world of lush, to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world. That simply says we’ll obey. You see, in Ephesians chapter 2, when the scripture says, not of works, lest any man should boast, verse 9. I believe what the apostle there in that context is saying that when you talk about the gift of God when the sacred Jesus was sacrificed, man had done nothing to deserve it. It was solely by the mercy of God that he by grace provided this gift.

5. Through His Blood We Are Justified

Not of works. What had we done to say, well, he died because we deserved it. When we understand the scripture, we’d say we were enemies. We were sinners, we were ungodly. Not of anything we did did he die. Ephesians 2, in fact, though, describes how that God indeed gave. It was by grace. It is by grace through faith. And as the scripture even says, really, it is through his blood that we are justified. Blood? Justified? You see, the judicial penalty is paid by his blood. I shudder to think that there are some who call themselves preachers of the gospel who even do not understand how that we’re saved by his blood. Some 46 years ago, Arlene and I moved to Sydney, Australia, in 1967. For two and a half years there, we labored to establish a congregation of Lord’s people.

We hadn’t been there very long until it was widely announced that Billy Graham was going to come to Sydney in one of his famous crusades for Christ. And there was much door knocking at that time. Different denominations throughout that city were all knocking doors, all joining together to get ready for Billy Graham to come in his famous crusade. It hit front page headlines. When there was a man who called himself the Reverend Ted Knopf, opposed Billy Graham’s coming. The fact is, Ted Knopf was a name that had already become familiar to us. He was a praise for as being a man who worked in the red light district down in King’s Cross area. What a godly and good man he was, because he helped those prostitutes and those drug addicts, and what a good man for the Lord he was.

And for him to oppose Billy Graham’s coming, it really caught the attention of all.

I particularly wanted to hear this debate. And it quite surprised me when Ted Knopf’s excuse for opposing Billy Graham was that he preached blood salvation. Here was a man who thought only by doing good works that wouldn’t please God, he had no way of understanding how blood was involved in the salvation that all that God has given or has prepared and made possible for all. You see, when we understand that Christ died to pay the judicial penalty, death was the penalty for sin. But death in Leviticus chapter 17 and verse 11, life is in the blood. We understand that principle. If you wrap a string or a tight band-aid or uh I mean or some kind of ribbon around your finger and you cut off the flow of blood, it’ll soon die, won’t it?

It’ll perish. Life is in the blood. Jesus Christ gave his life, he shed his blood. That God might be just, the judicial penalty is paid. And that is why even Jesus Himself, when he instituted the Lord’s Supper, he took the fruit of the vine. You know his words recorded in Matthew 26 and verse 28. This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins. Jesus understood that his blood was his life being given. He was paying the penalty of death. And it was for the forgiveness of the remission of sins. Even in Revelation chapter 1 and in verse 5, as Jesus is introduced along with the Father and the Holy Spirit in introducing the revelation letter, that he’s described as one who washed us from our sins in his blood.

6. Baptized Into His Death for the Remission of Sins

Now, literally, of course, we don’t have the blood of Christ, but we understand the principle that there is the blood of Christ essential for salvation, and thus the language, loosed, one translation gives it, or washed from our sins in his blood. He gave his blood for the remission of our sins. It is here that sometimes men do not understand. For we hear some who say, well, baptism is not necessary. The preachers who come to Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 8 and 9, and they read verse 9 and says, You see, then, not of works, lest any man should boast, and we don’t have to do anything. And particularly they say that because they want to deny the importance, in fact, the essentiality of being baptized. And they say, not of works.

Well, the fact is, if you understand verse 9 as describing that which led up to the crucifixion, there was nothing man did to deserve his death. But to say man does nothing this side of his death in order to be saved, misunderstands how that is we’re saved by grace through faith. Grace on God’s part, faith on man’s part, a faith that obeys does not nullify God’s grace. A faith that obeys is made perfect through obedience. What God has said is what man must do. In fact, we read in Galatians chapter 3, verses 26 and 7 that says, For you’re all the children of God by faith. Oh, and by faith, it’s not the word only there. You’re the children of God by faith. And you might ask the question, just stop if that’s all there was and say, Well, who is it by faith that is made the child of God?

And you’ll answer the next question, the next verse. You’re all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Obedience, having put on Christ. Why does the Bible say it that way? Only when we begin to understand passages like Romans chapter 6, where in Romans 6 verses 3 and 4, the scripture says, Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, we’re baptized into his death. That’s where his blood was shed. And therefore it is in his death that we reach the blood, the blood by which we are justified. Is there some action on our part? Yes, it’s not salvation by grace only. It costs God a great deal, but it costs our commitment to obey him.

And it’s in baptism that we have the remission of our sins. I found it interesting, especially when the subject of what’s the purpose for baptism. And we go to Acts chapter 2 and verse 38 on the day of Pentecost when Peter stood up with the eleven and he preached about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, that fulfilled even the promises and the prophecy of God. And when those people there were pricked in their hearts, came to a sense of understanding and believing, they asked, What shall we do? Peter answered, Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Did you notice in this? The expression for the remission of sins is the same expression, and really in the Greek as well as in the English translation.

Matthew 26, 28, when Jesus said he shed his blood for the remission of sins. And we’re to be repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. Baptism is not an act to show I’ve already been saved, but it’s in order to reach his blood. It’s in order to reach the forgiveness of our sins. Because by baptism, we’re baptized into his death. In fact, in Revelation 1 and verse 5, where the scripture there indeed introduced Christ as having washed us or loosed us from our sins in his blood. Find it interesting. When Saul of Tarsus, who we better know as the Apostle Paul, when he explained and ascribed his own redemption, when he said in Acts 22, when Ananias, who was sent by the Lord came to him, Ananias said, Why tarest thou?

Conclusion

Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. He had been praying for three days. And he had repented, shown by his fasting. He was a believer, no doubt, for he had obeyed the vision, had gone to Damascus to await the preacher of the Lord sent to him, but he needed to have his sins washed away. I appeal to you, dear beloved. If you believe in the grace of God, the love of God that made that possible. If you believe in the death of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins for the remission of sins, I ask, what have you done about it yourself? As we draw this lesson to a conclusion, I ask, have you been washed in the blood of Christ?

Our invitation song this morning is number 307, and it goes like this. Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in his grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? His cleansing blood. Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? I know there’s some in this audience this morning. We’ve talked about it. You know you need to be immersed. You need to be each the blood of Christ for forgiveness. If you understand that truth, if you believe that truth, why not today yield your lives in humble obedience? God so loved you. Can you say you don’t love him enough to obey him?

That’s a pretty serious response. Why reject? Why not obey? Have you been washed in the blood of the Lamb? If you’re subject to that invitation, we bid you come even right now while together we stand while we sing.