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Jun 25, 2023

From Death to Life

From Death to Life

Speaker: Matt Petty

Series: Together | In Him & For Him

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: church, faith, jesus, sermon, christian, scripture, hope, sermons, paul, ephesians, jesus christ, lord, christianity, bible study, transformed life, bible teaching, 2023, burnt hickory worship, burnt hickory baptist church live stream, bibly study, worship, bible, christ, new testament, grace, salvation, life, holy spirit, death, glory, the bible, christian life, eternal life, free, moving, emotional, life after death, death to life, worship songs, glory of love

This week, we continue our Ephesians sermon series, called Together in Him and for Him, by looking at the second chapter the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Ephesus. We learn that while sin is an action we commit, it is also a condition that we are born into. When we live like we are the God of our life, we replace living for God's glory inside His authority with living for our own glory by following our sinful desires. From this passage, we find that the four key elements of our salvation are the foundation of our salvation (grace) , the means of our salvation (faith), the effect of our salvation (good works), and the promise of our salvation (whatever God starts, He finishes). Faith is not a religious feeling; it is a belief that Jesus has done it all, it is all finished, and that salvation happens just like He said it would.

Well, good morning, church, and happy summertime to you. I heard this morning something that just kind of disturbed me a little bit, and that is that we're already halfway through summertime already. Just thought I would bring that up for all of you students that are out there. But no joke. It is going to be a great couple of weeks as we have the back half of summer. And here's my prayer is that the back half of Summers ministry would be as strong as the front has. I don't know if you've been really paying attention to what God has been doing around Burnt Hickory over the last couple of weeks, but it has been incredible to watch whether it was VBS or middle school, high school camp or all of the other ministries that are taking place. But God is doing some incredible stuff even in the middle of what is supposedly like vacation season. All right. Hey, if you weren't here last week on Father's Day, there was a lot of brunching going on. I get it. But if you weren't here, do me a favor. Go back at some point this week and watch last week's service. Out of all the services that I can remember, last week was one of my absolute favorite services that we have ever done here at Burnt Hickory. From Josie's interview on explaining what it looks like to see 99 students our kids come to know Jesus, or whether it was seeing all of the kids line up here and sing last week, which by the way, gets all the parents to church on time. Amen. Also, third, just having the Father's Day panel up here and listening to people's stories about what it looks like for dads to pour into the lives of sons and daughters. All of that put together was an incredible just snapshot of what ministry looks like here at Burnt Hickory. Also on top of that, what you may not know is even right now, we've got over 20, 25 people that are walking through our Discover Burnt Hickory class to see if this is the place that they want to plant their families.

It has been an incredible summer walking through the book of Ephesians and seeing life change happen here. Speaking of Ephesians, this week is week number four in our series. Let me walk you back through because I know everybody is kind of in and out a little bit of Athenians, but today we're going to pick back up in Ephesians. But if you will go back with me, when we opened up this book, we said that we wanted to look through the lens of what it is to be in Christ and for Christ. And we've watched the Apostle Paul walk us down this journey of what it looks like to be a follower of Christ. The first chapter of Ephesians opened up by showing us our stance before God. It showed us that God has chosen us and God has adopted us and God has redeemed us and God has marked us. And we said because of all of that, Ephesians one, we know that we can stand before God being saved by grace, being saved by Jesus, and that we can stand assured that we know Christ. The second week we saw Paul challenge all of us and the Ephesians that we are to ask God to open the eyes of our hearts.

Now a lot of focus we have is on our spiritual eyes, but God said that we need to have spiritual sight into who we are in Christ, into the power that is available in Christ and into the fact that we are the treasure of God. We saw that in chapter two last week. We fast forwarded from chapter one all the way to chapter six. I could just see the tics in all of the type A people knowing that we skipped four chapters. But last week on Father's Day, we watched Paul challenge children to obey and honor, but challenged fathers and mothers to teach and instruct. And we saw this message that we all play a part in the family of God, and all of us functioning together can live out the Christ following life.

Well, this morning we're going to be in Ephesians chapter two. We're going to come back. We're going to pick up where we left off after taking a break last week. In fast forwarding, we're going to be in Ephesians chapter two this week. And as you're finding it, let me just tell you a couple of things about the passage we're going to look at. The passages we’re jumping into today quite possibly are held by many scholars to be the single most important passage in all of Paul's letters. Now, in many ways I can feel the tension in that you're like, Oh, Matt, what about Romans 12? Or what about a couple of the other passages? I feel that, but I think what you're going to see in today's passage, if you'll just kind of lean in with me, is to see that today what you will see is that it serves as kind of a litmus test or a test to see if we truly understand the gospel. See, today's passage is all wrapped around the gospel. It's all wrapped around this idea of what Christ wants to do in us in today's passage that is going to explain to us what it truly means to be saved. It's going to explain what this word saved means. Ephesians 2:1-10 describes this word and introduces this word that has been used in Christendom for centuries. As you know, a lot of us Christians, we will use this word saved, right? To do what? To describe who we are and Jesus to describe what Jesus has done in us. But the fact of the matter is, to a lot of the world, this word saved is kind of a weird word. It's kind of a Christian ease, if you would.

They don't really know what we're talking about when we say that we are saved. Many of them would look at it as you're saved from what? You're saved for what? Many of us, even when I say the word saved, it brings back these memories of being a kid in a small church with a pudgy pastor with a bad suit yelling this word over us over and over and over again. And we just don't know what it means. For some of us, this word saved is just this big ole picture on a bulletin board going down towards South Georgia and into the beach. It always has flames behind it. It always asked this question, Are you saved? And you're looking at it going, I'm not sure. It's 16 miles to the next rest stop. I might not be? But this word saved is what Paul is going to lean into today. And what he's going to have to say today is that while salvation may seem like an old fashion or fundamentalist or outdated or uneducated word, church, there's really no better way to describe what happens to us when we meet Jesus. There's no better way to describe that we need saving.

So before we jump into the passage and I explain what saving looks like and what Paul tells us about that, I want us to debunk two cultural misconceptions about evil that Paul would say leads us even into this conversation. He's going to debunk these in the passage. Just want you to have them in your mind. They're not in your notes, but I just want you to think about these things. The first kind of misconception that we have about evil that leads us down towards this word saved is that our main problem many of us would think in the world is other people. You know, we don't say this out loud, but we live this kind of lifestyle in a lot of ways that many of us think that the main problem in the world is just other people out there. You know, everybody kind of agrees that there is evil in the world, but most of us would also agree that it's someone else, right? That's why we put locks on our doors. That's why we lock our cars. Right. We're always kind of in this agreement that it's somebody else. And it's not us. It's always somebody that's not like me. The second kind of cultural thing that we're going to see in this, Paul debunks, is that many of us would also say that deep down I'm really not that bad. We would look at the world and kind of put ourselves in this fake scale of where I'm living and where it's living, and we would look at ourselves and go, Well, hey, based on where the world is, I'm not really a bad person. Really and truly, I would look at myself. Most of us would say as a person that it is kind of maybe every now and then confused, or maybe I get off track a little bit, or maybe I just lose my way a little bit. Well, Paul, when he describes Saved in just a minute in this passage. Paul in chapter two is about to show us that both of those myths are incredibly untrue. He is about to drop the bomb on both of those, and he's going to show us why we need to be saved.

All right. So let's jump into the passage. Ephesians chapter two. We're going to walk through it. We're going to pull some key principles out of it. But I'm going to tell you, for you just kind of rigid people, that those principles are going to be very late in the message. All right, don't get antsy on me. Don't think, Oh, guys were never getting the lines. They're going to be at the very end. I want to say that. So I want to give the caveat that it's going to get really heavy. Okay? It's going to get really, really heavy on this end. But on the backside, as heavy as it is on the front side, is going to be that joyous on the backside. Right. I just want to tell you, those things are in the beginning. All right, here we go. Ephesians chapter two, verse one. Let's watch what Paul says. He says this As for you. You were dead in your transgressions. And since I told you it's about to get heavy, right? Really out of the box. No intro. There it is. Right. As for you. Now, the first thing I want you to do is notice this word. You. It says you were dead in your transgressions and said, I know it's hard to believe this, but Paul is talking about you. He's talking about me. He's talking about you. He's talking about all of us. So don't see this primarily through the lens of other people. See it through you. Why? Because there is only one category of people that have ever been born on this Earth, post Garden of Eden. And that is the category of sinner. You and I have all been affected by sin. Sin universally affects all mankind, and it is a fatal disease. That's what Paul is saying right here. It causes the hearts of mankind to be led to death. You. But notice the second word that kind of sticks out is the word dead. It's the word dead. And I look at the text Ephesians 2:1, as for you, you were dead. You were dead in your transgressions and sins. Now this challenge is the core of who culture says that most people really are right because why? Because our problem is not that we're good people who occasionally do bad things. Actually, we are spiritually dead people who have nothing to offer. That's what Paul is saying here. You see most of us in our kind of theology of sin. Can I kind of put it like that in our minds? In our understanding, that's an easier way. In our understanding of sin. Most of us, when we look at sin, we see sin is only the bad actions.

That happens in our life. Kind of like stealing, lying, cheating. And yes, those are sin. That is sin. But what Paul is showing us here through this word dead is this principle right here. I want you to write it down to help us understand it. The principle is this: While sin is an action, it is also a condition. While sin is an action, it is something that we do. It is also from the Garden of Eden on. From the time that we walked away from Christ, our forefathers did until now, inviting sin into the earth. Sin is also a condition of our hearts. Think of it like this. Our bad actions are symptoms of our dead condition. Now, I know that's a little bit heavy, but I think you can understand it right? Our. Our bad actions are symptoms of our dead condition. Let me give you an example. This. You see, you don't you don't have a cold because you have a cough, fatigue and a headache. You have cough fatigue and headache because you have a cold. Does that make sense? I know that's like, oh, man, I'm back in philosophy in college again, right? No, no, stay with me. Right. Because this makes sense. We are not sinners because we sin. That's what I mean by that, right? We sin because we're sinners. We are born into sin. Every parent knows this, don't you? You know that we're born in so how do we know that? Why? Because nobody had to teach your kids how to sin. Nobody did. Nobody sent them to sin camp. And they came back a little terrorist, that's this tall. No. They were born that way. They were born sinning. They were born prideful. They were born with a world that all revolves around them. Nobody had to teach them how to do that.

In fact, praise God or that little or they'd overtake the world, Right? They don't learn this from their environment. My boys didn't see Melissa throwing a tantrum when they were infants and learn how to cry. No, she did that in the back. No, I'm just kidding. Now, she didn't. They were born like that. They were born. So it was inherent in them, you see. So in the matter of our hearts it's a condition that we're born into. Its we're born into death. Paul says it really closely. Hear that we are dead in our sins. What does that mean? That no amount of religious activity can fix that. We have to deal with our souls.

We're all dead. To which I say it well Matt, I sure am glad I came to church today. Crack about saying I'm way better right? But no, stay with me. Because listen, I want you to know it gets worse, but it's going to get better. Paul says that we were dead. We were dead. We weren't floating. We weren't drowning and needed a life vest. No, we were facedown in the world. Dead, needed resurrecting. That's what Paul's saying, But keep reading because Paul begins to unpack what our spiritual deadness looks like. But Boy says, No, it's good. Says, That's for you. You are dead in your transgressions and sins. In which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. Who's he talking about there? He's talking about Satan. He's talking about you and me and Satan, right? Paul says, Bad news. Bad news Here is bad news. You were a follower of Satan. You are now on that. I never carved that on my arm. I never killed a cat. I never even wore that T-shirt. No, no, no, that's not what he's saying he said you were a follower of Satan. You heard it right. Why is that? Well, because when you look at Satan's lives, it's exactly where all of us were born into and what pulled at our hearts. You say Matt, what do you mean by that? Here's what I mean. Isaiah describes Satan having five different “I wills”. Do you remember these? I will ascend to heaven. I will set my throne on high. I will sit on the mount of Assembly. I will ascend to the heights. I will, Satan said, make myself like the Most High. So here's what I mean by this. Here's what it all means by this.

Our “I problems” in this world are Satan problems. Our “I problems” in this world are when you and I rebel in the same way Satan has, and we are shaped by Satan, and we begin to follow the ways of Satan by taking God off the throne and putting myself on the throne with all of my I will lifestyles. Instead of God will. You say, Man, I get that for other people, but not me. Okay, fair enough. Look at verse three and see what Paul says about it. Verse three starts off with all of us. That says some of us. Does that say people who are bad, as I say, the murderers, the child molesters, the rapist? No, no. All of us also lived among them at one time gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following his desires and thoughts. So what does that mean? That means that God's will at one time in our life was not our highest pleasure. That God's glory at one time in life was not what held the most weight on my life. That God's glory was not what I pursued, and other things became my master. Paul is describing to us what it looks like to walk away from God's will and walk into my will. And we as human beings were created to carry out the will of God. But instead of doing that, we obeyed our urges, my desires, my wants, my mind and my body. We said things like, Hey, I'll just lie, because who knows who's going to care? We said things like, Take it easy. So we became lazy. We said things like, Yeah, I'll date them. I don't care where they are. We said things like, Yeah, I'll have sex with him. It doesn't matter where in marriage we say things like, Yeah, I'll lie to get ahead, I'll cheat, I'll steal because nobody knows and doesn't hurt anybody else. We made decisions. We did things our way. We fulfilled our dreams and we obeyed our dead minds and bodies. And as a result of that blatant disregard for God in our I will attitudes, Paul says, verse three, Like the rest. We were by nature deserving wrath. I told you, it's heavy. It's heavy. But Paul is doing this for a reason. But. But I can hear the kind of banter back and forth in my mind. Here it is.

Well, come on Matt, Paul is surely overstating this a little bit. I mean, I've made some questionable decisions. But a dead follower of Satan? I just lied. I didn't do any of that stuff. Yeah, you lied. But you see, the lying is secondary. What's primary is that we've taken God off the throne and we've put ourselves on the throne. See, that is the blatant walking away from who God is, that is cosmic treason. And a loving God, a just God can not allow that to happen and be just. He can't. You lie, but that's not the point. The point is, you've taken God off the throne. We've put ourselves on the throne and our will has been way bigger than God's will. In fact, write this principle down. It's kind of clunky, but I hope it helps you understand this. Here's the principle. We live like we are the God of our life when we replace living for God's glory inside God's authority with living for our glory by following our desires. And listen, that is cosmic treason. And church, listen closely. That's why we need to be saved. That's it. Why? Because we've all lived that. That's Paul in another place in Romans three says we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So listen closely. So if you've already read ahead, congratulations. But before we get to verse four, let this sink in. You and I deserved at one time the wrath of God. We earned it. We deserved it. We were born in it. We enjoyed it. And our blasphemy against God deserves eternal punishment of hell. Of hell. Now get it, man Matt, I just wanted to talk about Psalms today a little bit. Right. I get that. I feel. I feel you in it. Let's go to Proverbs next summer please. I know I feel you in it. I do. I know a lot of churches don't like to talk about this, but listen, Jesus believed in it. And spoke about it. Paul believe is obviously teaching about it, and here's why. In order to really understand the gospel and the value that the gospel has on my life and your life, we have to understand what we're saved from. We got to understand that. And I'm not sure if anybody's ever taught us this. We have to understand it. We can't always jump into the good news without wrestling through the bad news.

And I can feel the tension. Get to the good stuff. Get to the good stuff. But now we can't. Here's why. Because we got to know the problem before we knew the diagnosis. We got to know the diagnosis before we knew the cure. And that's exactly what Paul is walking us through. The sin to death problem is for all of us, if we don't wrestle with it, we will never love the gospel. We will never want others to hear the gospel. We will never live our lives for the Gospel. We will never share the Gospel because we don't understand the And without the gospel, we are doomed. We're doomed. That's what Paul's explaining. Let me just be transparent for a minute. Just say this. Believing and living in the gospel is incredibly inconvenient. Now don't pull that as the YouTube clip of the week. All right, Please don't. Here it is, But here's what I'm saying. It's incredibly inconvenient. I mean, think about it with me. It puts demands on you that nothing else does as demands. It wants you to use your time in ways that nothing else wants you to use your time like that. It asks you to give your money in the way that the world thinks is incredibly crazy. It asks you to talk to people you don't want to talk to. It asks you to meet people you don't want to meet. To be nice to people. To forgive people that you don't want to forgive. It makes you go places on missions that you don't want to go. If you don't understand what Jesus has done for you and what he wants to do in you, you will never cherish the grace he has given you.

That's the point. In fact, I wasn't sure I was going to use it. But I'm going to use it. Listen to this from Charles Spurgeon. It's long and I didn't put it in your notes. Listen to how he says it. He says the reason you think too lightly of the Savior is that we think too lightly of sin. Only he who has stood before his God feeling the rope of God's judgment around his neck will be the man that weeps for joy when he is pardoned and to hate the evil that he has been forgiven of. Hear me, you and I were dead without Christ. We were dead. The problem students, listen. The problem is not your environment. It's not a confusion. It's not a view of yourself. It is not your poor self-image. You are dead. That's the problem. We're by nature children of grab. We're sons of disobedience, followers of Satan. We listen to culture and that's why we need to be saved. There's no better way to say it. I've tried to come up with all the code language and I can't. Why? Because I don't need a life coach to help me be better. I need a resurrected savior to raise me to life. That's what Paul's saying.

That's why he starts with the bad news. But thanks for hanging in there. Because the first three verses are rough. But watch what happens right here. Verse four is probably the best conjunction in the whole Bible. It starts with “But God.” But God, I love it. But God. Two of the greatest syllables ever spoken in the English language.

But God let that sink in with me for a second before I read the verse. In fact, say it with me. Say the words but God. Ready? One, two, three. Say it with me again. You are hopeless. You are helpless. You were deserving of wrath. You were dead. You had no meaning. You were dead and Christ started living. That's the gospel. That's the gospel. Now look at verse four. Oh, here it is. I've been looking for this all summer. Can't wait. I will retire from my summer preaching. I'm not going to do it, but watch it. Here it is. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ. Man, so often do we think about salvation through sterility or just historical teaching. But God saved you. He wants to save you. God loved you, and it was God's mercy that reached down into the deadness of this planet to give us life. I hear people all the time will say well Matt, if I were God, I would be so much more merciful than God. Two problems with that. Never assume you're God, that's dangerous. We saw that in the Old Testament a couple of times. The number two, you would not be even as close to merciful as God if you could see humanity like God sees it. You think it's bad watching the news? What if you knew everything? Amen. You'd have nuked this planet, like 12 times already, right? Every time God's mercy is compared up against man's mercy in the Bible, God's mercy is exponentially stronger. He is way up here. But yet we're like, Well, if I were God, I would be.... No! God in his mercy. But God. It's what we've just seen. Go back to the verse. But because of his great love for us, I'm not sure you've ever seen God as a God of love, but maybe this morning is the first time you have because you're recognizing the condition that you were in. But because of his great love for us. God, who was rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions.

It is by grace that you have been saved. Now, notice right here. Notice the past tense language tenses matter in the Bible. I know it's summertime, but they matter. Paul is referring to here what Christ has already done on the cross. On the cross Jesus became our sin. Jesus died the sinner's death. Jesus was treated by God how we should have been treated as a follower of Satan. He bore my sin, He took my place. This is why I can say the gospel can be summarized in Jesus in my place. Listen to me. Jesus didn't just die for me. I get that sentiment. He died instead of me. That's what he's saying right here. Keep reading. And God raised us. You see it? He raised us up with Christ. He seated us with Him in the heavenly realms of Christ Jesus. Now, this past tense again, is still in the past. Is God going to raise us one day? Yes, He will raise us one day. Is that what he's talking about right here? No, it's not. Here's what he's talking about right here. He's saying that God has Jesus has risen us and he has seated us in the heavenly realm. And listen closely to me when God sees you now, He doesn't see you as a sinner deserving wrath in his kingdom. He sees you now, if you are in Christ as a son and daughter of the King, who has been forgiven, who has been raised to new life, who's been given new meaning, who's been given a new life to glorify him. That's what Jesus did for our dead selves. He gave us life. He gave us hope. He gave us a promise. If I prayed 100 times a day, gave 100% of all that I have to the Lord and served on every service team here. I'm still just a child of the King because of what Christ has done for me. Now you want to talk about confidence? This is confidence. I can be assured of heaven because like Christ has done for me, as Jesus was assured of heaven. Why? Because I'm seated with him.

He gave his life. He became my salvation. And now when I approach God, when I approach God, I am approaching God through Christ Jesus. I'm not approaching him as a broken down sinner in need of a Savior anymore of Christ as my King. I am approaching him as if I were Christ approaching God. Let that sink in for just a minute. You do know that when you pray in Jesus name, you know that little tagline we add on the backside of every prayer to tell God that we're done? That's not what it is for, right? You know, when you pray in Jesus name what you're doing? You are recognizing that in that very moment you are agreeing that you are standing in the seat of authority with Jesus and praying through what He's done for you. That's what it means. So now when we pray, we come to him knowing what he has done and you are his and he is yours, and that's that Jesus saves you. He saved you. It's going to get even better, though. I told you it's going to get bad, but it's going to get. Really, really good right here. Watch this.

Verse eight says, for it is by grace that you have been saved. Hallelujah. Through faith. It is not from yourself. It is a 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. And how can we close this up here? There's so much in it that could be a whole summer series right there. But here's what I want to do. I want to give you the four key elements of salvation that you can celebrate over your life if Christ is your King. Paul just gave us four key elements. Number one, here it is. Here it is. The person. Number one, the foundation of our salvation is grace. The foundation of our salvation is grace. Pretty easy to see this one and is pulled straight from verse eight. It says this for it is by grace that you have been saved.

This phrase has been a passive phrase and it's kind of nerdy, but that just means this. You did nothing to save you. God did it all. You didn't earn it, you didn't buy it, you didn't live a good lifestyle. So we decided to give it to you. The word grace just means the unmerited favor of God. You didn't deserve it, but he gave it to you. It means that based on this, there's nothing that you did, nothing good about you that kind of made God do this for you. It was a gift. So salvation is not a reward for good behavior. It's not a He chose you because you were less bad than somebody else, or you have a great heart or have a great potential. Your salvation is based on this message right here. That God loved you. He loved you. He loved you enough that even when you walked away from him. He pursued you through grace. Through grace. In fact, look at verse eight again. It says for his by grace, you've been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is a gift from God. This word, this that I just read actually points to both words grace and faith. That means that grace is the gift of God. And faith is a gift of God. Faith is not something you just can't drop and have happenstance. Get no God gave you the ability to have faith. So really, even that faith you have is a gift from God.

So salvation is all done at his base, by God. For God, He gave you the desire to know one. He gave you the desire to draw to him. He gave you the ability to believe in him. And we simply have to just decide to invite him to make him ours, to make him ours and to submit. Grace is the foundation, the unmerited favor of God. I didn't earn it. I didn't deserve it. It is by grace. Here's number two. The second element is that the means of our salvation is faith. The means or maybe need. In other words, that's kind of clunky the way to or the instrument or the mechanism. I looked up a bunch of them this morning. That's all I got, right? That is the means to our salvation is faith. Paul says that salvation comes through faith. Verse eight, for it is by grace that you have been saved through faith. It's only grace and only faith. Here's what it means. Faith is a weird word that all this kind of knows what it is. But I kind of don't know what it is. Let me explain it with this principle. Write this down. Faith is not a religious feeling or a virtue.

Faith is a belief that Jesus has done it all. It is all finished and all salvation happens just like he said it would happen. That's what faith is. You see, faith is believing that Christ is who he said he is. He's done what he said he's going to do. He will do what he said he is going to do. He is given to you forgiveness and life and hope. And he is now at the right hand of the father. Church, when you believe this, when you submit your soul to this faith, Christ's salvation is given to you. It's not like he kind of just decides at that moment. I kind of liked him. No, no. He's been pursuing you. You were dead, and now he picks you up and breathes life into you because you have faith. Faith is more than a feeling. Faith is when you realize that all of Christ has done all the things that you need and you can fully trust him. Your hope is in Jesus, your present is in Jesus. Your past and your future is in Jesus. Faith is the instrument to salvation. I want you to feel this because it's not about you doing good. It's not about you trying to learn something new. It is about you realizing the grace and the love of God and hanging your faith on that forever.

See, the foundation of our salvation is grace. The mechanism or means is faith. But watch this. Number three. It's logical. The effect of our salvation is good works. It's what Paul says it's good works. Once again, I just want to open this section up by saying that you are not saved by good works. You are saved by grace through faith. But if you are saved you will have works. Look at verse ten. Here's why. For We are God's handiwork. Created in Christ Jesus to do good work. So it's logical, right? When God truly saves, here's what He does. He unites my broken heart into a new heart. He removes my heart of stone. It gives me a heart of flesh. He gives me his heart. He unites me to Jesus. Jesus infuses himself into my life. And there is no way on this planet to be hit with that kind of grace, that kind of love, that kind of power that is working in us and not have it change my desires. That's the point. Paul echoes this in Second Corinthians 5:17 where he says, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation is gone. Come, the old has gone and the new is here. He literally changes us. Salvation is founded by grace and faith, but there's no way it doesn't produce work.

If there's no good works, there's no way Christ has changed you. It's what he says. It just doesn't make any sense to say this. Let me just say it out loud so you can kind of hear what happens in our minds sometimes. It doesn't make any sense to go hey yeah God, I understand the grace you gave me. I understand what it cost you, Jesus, to me. Life. I understand what it cost you to give me your love and your grace. But, God, that's not going to change what I do. You see how it sounds when you hear it out loud, it just doesn't make sense to say I understand it. Let me ask you, for those of you that never seem to point to Jesus. Have you really experienced the life saving power of Jesus? How can you say that you understand the Gospel, not live for Jesus? I'm not saying you're not going to mess up and you're not going to stumble. How can we say we love Jesus when most of our lives point to what held him to the cross? That's the point, you say by faith alone through grace alone. But faith never stays by itself. Always leads into works. You're not saved by good works. I think it's six times I wrote in here to say that because I don't want you to think this thing is on works. It's not. It's through Christ alone. But the effect of salvation is that your life will change. The base is grace. The mechanism is faith. The effect is good works. And here's number four. It's short, but it's profound. The promise of our salvation is that whatever God starts, God finishes. He finishes it. This brings us from the past into the now and into eternity. You see, salvation really has three times and locations. God has saved us from our past. God is saving me in the right now. He is holding me up. And listen to this one. He will always hold me up in the future. He's got a plan for me. He's got a purpose for me. He's got works for me, He has joy for me. He has a life for me. God not only exists in all the three places at one time, but he has also secured them all for me. He's also me apart in all of them. Look at verse ten, it says, For we are God's handiwork, that word is poema not to get off in this, we've got to roll.

But here's what that means. That means you are the creation. You're a beautiful creation. It's where we get a word poem from, of God. There's a start, there's a middle, there's an end. You are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works. For which God prepared in advance for us to do. Man, there's so much to that. But here's the implication. I just want you to see that God is making and God promises to never give up making us into something that He loves, and he's setting us up for his glory. That's what he's doing. You know what my role is? It's just to walk in it as a resurrected person spiritually from being dead to life. My role now is to get up every single day and go, Yeah, Lord, you're the Lord of my life today. And I just say yes. I want to walk in what you got planned for me. I want to walk in what you have down the road for me. I want to say yes to what you have for me today. It's the same message Paul gives in Philippians one six. I say it all the time, being confident in this that He who began a good work in us will be faithful to carry it on until the completion, unto the day of Christ Jesus. Believers, what an assurance that we have? What an assurance.

While our past deserves death, our future can be in Jesus. While our past is floating face down, dead in the sea of life. We have a savior who did something about it to give us life. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, the wages of that sin is death. The gift with God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. It starts to build off the grace and love that God gives us. It has worked out through the faith that He allows us to have to proceed into him. It works its way out through what we do because we've been changed. And then it settles into the fact that we have an eternal God that bought us with His blood, with his power and will never let go of us. Believers, here's the encouragement today. Are you living in this power? You live in It or is it just another day in another Sunday and come on Matt, get us back to Psalms? Secondly, this morning, I just want to ask you this.

For some of us, have you ever received this gift of salvation? Have you given your life to Jesus? Has there been a moment in your life where you look back at your life and go, I am a sinner. I'm dead deserving death, but Christ is offering me life. Has it been a moment in your life where you've invited Christ to come into your life, to forgive you of your sins, to become your Lord? Has there been a time where you've surrendered your heart to him? Well, yeah Matt, I grew up in church. That isn't what I'm talking about. Yeah Matt, I was baptized as a baby. That's now what I'm talking about. Yeah Matt, I've been to LifeGroup like, at least 60% of the time. And that's like an A-plus. Christian. That's not what I'm talking about. Have you given your life to Jesus? In fact, would you bow your heads with me this morning? You know, I just wonder, just in the quietness of the building today, maybe, just maybe, God's knocking on the doors of some of your hearts this morning. And while you've heard the words saved a whole bunch of times, maybe today you finally realize that you need God to save you. Is that you today? Is that you? In fact, maybe you would be so bold today with nobody looking but me just to just to slip your hand up in this room this morning and go, Hey, Pastor Matt, I'm not sure I've ever done this before, but I know today I know today that I need to trust Christ and give him my life. If that's you today, would you just raise your hand? Nobody's looking but me. I just want to be able to kind of put a face with a prayer. Who are you? Are you out there? Maybe you would be bold today and just say that's me, man, I need him to save me today. Anybody today? Hmm? Thank you. Anybody else? Go yeah, that's me, Matt.

If that's you today, would you just simply just say this to the Lord? Doesn't have to be these words, but say, Lord, I gave you my life today. All of it. Forgive me of my sins, come into my life and be mine. You're my savior. You're my Lord. Listen, if that's you today, welcome to the Kingdom of God. Welcome to coming out of death into life He'll hold you from this day till eternity. You didn't do anything to earn it. You can't do it and give it back. He's yours. He's yours. In just a second, when we sing. If that was you today, there were some of you around. I just wanted to stand up from where you are. And just a second. Just meet me over here. This next steps banner. We just want to pray with you. Just for a minute and encourage you. For some of the rest of you today. It's been a long time since you looked back at what you were saved from maybe today during this next invitation time that you can just say, Lord, yeah. Thank you. And you can make a covenant with the Lord to move forward in what it looks like to walk out your faith.

Lord Jesus, move in this place in these next couple of minutes. Move in hearts today like you're the only one that can show us what it looks like to move from death to life and to live as your handiwork. Lord Jesus in your name. Amen.

Let's stand and sing together. I'll be right Over here if that's you, let's talk.

Follow Along with the Message

From Death to Life

June 25, 2023

Ephesians 2:1
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.

PRINCIPLE: While sin is an action, it’s also a .

Ephesians 2:1–2
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 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.
Ephesians 2:3
All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.

PRINCIPLE: We live like we are the God of our life when we living for God’s glory inside God’s authority with living for our glory by following our desires.

Ephesians 2:4–5
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved.
Ephesians 2:6
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:8–10
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
4 Key Elements of our Salvation

1. The of our salvation is grace.

Ephesians 2:8
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God…

2. The of our salvation is faith.

Ephesians 2:8
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith…

PRINCIPLE: Faith is not a religious or virtue. Faith is the belief that Jesus has done it all, it is all finished, and all salvation happens just like He said it would.

3. The of our salvation is good works.

Ephesians 2:10
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

4. The of our salvation is that whatever God starts, God finishes.

Ephesians 3:10
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Philippians 1:6
Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
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