The Gift of Faith

0:16Thank you for listening to the Sermon Audio Podcast for Crossroads Bible Church in Rockdale, Texas. Crossroads Bible Church is a Reformed Confessional Baptist Church that meets every Lord's Day at 10 a.m. for Bible study and 11 a.m. for corporate worship. For more information about our church and for directions, you can find us online at www.crbcrockdale.org. Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Good morning. I want to say a quick word about pulpits before we begin. I'm going to read very briefly from Nehemiah chapter 8, verses 2 to 4. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women, and all who could understand what they heard on the first day of the seventh month. He read from it facing the square before the water gate from early morning until midday. And the presence of the men and women and all those who could understand, and all the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra, the scribe, stood on a wooden platform that they had made for that purpose. There is a long history of these set-apart places where the word of God is to be spoken from. The importance of a strong pulpit is that it shields the preacher and it puts the focus solely on the word that is spoken. In the negative sense, many modern churches abandoned the pulpit in favor of a little side table so that you can see the preacher. Skinny jeans and all. And desire a proper and a beautiful place from where it may be proclaimed. Further, this pulpit in particular was made by a dear Christian brother and a friend from Houston who made this one specifically for us. So this is a one-of-one special, meaningful place where the Word of God will be proclaimed. So, yes, we are we are making pulpits great again. That's it. Chapter 2. We didn't get to 8 yet. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 to 10. That's where we are this morning. The objective from our text this morning, Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 to 10, is to see that faith along with grace is a gift from God. Faith along with grace is a gift from God. Our theme then is in the recognition that salvation through faith is the gift of God. We deny any ground for boasting. And we walk in the wonderful works that God has prepared for us, His handiwork. There is a lot to get to this morning. And since I've already used now a chunk of time with this introduction about pulpits, we're going to jump into the text, but I'll say this for us this morning. I desperately want us, by the illumination and help of the Spirit, to see today that these doctrines that we will cover and that we have been covering, that we have been laboring on are indeed marvelous. And when rightly understood, they help us not to just live an assured life, though they do, knowing where we are going, but to leave live a deep, rich, beautiful, and fulfilling life.

5:00The good shepherd comes that we may have life, that we may have life abundantly.

5:07Again, I say I don't stress that salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone, for any reason other than it is the truth. And this is the truth that sets us free. May we all for the first or the thousandth time this morning receive this gospel of grace. Given as a gift. Thanks and praise be to God. That whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Let's stand then as we sing. Read. I just want to keep singing. We read our text this morning. Starting in verse 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no man may boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. This is the word of the Lord. Thank you for your grace. We thank you especially this morning for the faith that you have given to us to believe, to trust in the work of Christ. We pray and ask now that you would speak for His sake. And it is in His name, Christ Jesus, that I pray.

6:47Amen. For by grace you have been saved through faith.

6:59We've heard that first part before, right? Remember last week when we emphasized but God. We wrapped up that in his amazing grace in salvation, we are saved by grace. This was the theme of last week. We have been saved by grace. Or by grace you have been saved, the text said. At least the speaker. It is from the unmerited favor of God, who in the display of the riches of his grace has saved us by the will of God in Christ Jesus. And this morning, then Paul adds to that phrase to give us some further clarity. He says, For grace you have been saved through faith. The addition there is through faith. So that is where we will zoom in on for a moment. And I am going to get a little technical with the wording because there is certainly more here than just a surface reading as the text, which is generally always the case, but especially this morning. First, this word through. By grace you have been saved through faith. This is the word dia in the Greek used in words like diameter. You know this word diameter, the measure through a circle. But also in English words like distribution, which imply an allotment. It can be translated as by, meaning the instrumental or secondary cause of something, or because of, as it is often translated in the New Testament, as a resource I was reading, Word Studies in the New Testament says, this explains that as an implication of some secondary agency, because of faith. We are saved by grace, because of faith. Meaning then that by grace we have been saved because of or by means of faith. That puts a significant emphasis on faith, then, doesn't it? As that secondary agency of salvation. So we must look very carefully then at what faith is and where it comes from. Those are important questions, yes. I love watching debates. Y'all know this about me by now. Possibly because I love watching heretics get absolutely owned by the Word of God. That is one of the reasons. But in one particular debate we are watching, uh Cade and I, and there's, I think the family was with us at this point, this is a few months ago, there was one of the best moments in a debate I've ever seen. A Christian man was squaring off against an atheist and was arguing from a presuppositional stance that man knows that there is God, but because of the sinfulness of his heart, instead of believing in the true God, he trusts in false idols. He puts his faith in false gods, or his faith is in this no-god delusion or this evolution delusion, to which the atheist responded, he doesn't have faith in evolution. He simply has confidence that those things are true. Confidence, the Christian debater repeated a couple times before he said, from the root con. For those who speak Latin and or Spanish, con means what? And fidence, which is the form of the Latin word fide, which from our solos, we know fida means what? Faith. So confidence means quite literally with faith. Don't let anyone tell you they don't have faith, that they just have confidence, because confidence is with faith. So then back to our text. And this is where the rubber kind of meets the road right here. We are saved by grace because of what? Faith. And faith is confidence, it's assurance, it's conviction in what? In God's grace shown to us in Christ. This is what we trust in. Our confidence is in the gospel. Our confidence is in the unmerited favor of God. Our confidence is in Christ.

12:19That really does mean something for us.

12:23Just as the atheist demonstrated in that debate, where our confidence is, where our faith is, our lives and eternity follow. Our faith, then, which is the secondary agency of our salvation, is nothing else but the grace, but in the grace of God shown to us by his will through the person and work of Jesus Christ.

12:57This is the essence of the gospel.

13:01That you were dead in your trespasses and sins. You were alienated from God with no hope.

13:13Not seeking, utterly lost but God. He showed up. He showed up not when you were at rock bottom. He showed up when you were dead. And because of his great love and mercy, he resurrected you from the grave. He gave you life. He gave you an eternal future. So our confidence then, our faith is in nothing but God's grace.

14:03We have no hope. But that God has been and continues to be gracious towards us.

14:13It was God's grace that saved you. And will only be God's grace that keeps you. That is where true faith is. True confidence is.

15:08But how can one possess that faith? How does one receive this salvation? That is a big question. Look at the text again, and I want you to see something. This is in verse 8. For by grace you have been saved, and then there's a period. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God. Do you see there that after that, by grace you have been saved, there is a period, even though it continued with the word and, and that seems like bad grammar. Yes? I mentioned back when we were covering chapter one. When you see something that looks grammatically wrong in the text, it almost certainly is for one reason or another. And perhaps your translation doesn't have the period and then the and. But according to the Greek, that is the faithful way to translate that. Because here in the Greek, there is a break in the sentence, which groups that first statement, for by grace you have been saved through faith as a whole unit or a whole concept. That is to say, that we are supposed to take that whole first statement, for by grace you have been saved as one complete thought. And the and that serves to transition and to a continued statement and to clarify it applies to the whole of what came before. So the and this applies to, for by grace you have been saved through faith. Essential to our reformed understanding of salvation by grace and faith. Because we don't separate those things from one another in any way. That is to say, we don't conclude that salvation is by grace from God, but faith from us. We do not conclude that. And none of that is our own doing. It is all a gift of God. And that is what the this then is referring to. What is not our own doing then? For by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not our own doing. Going back to then again to that atheist debate, we all want to maintain some measure of confidence, right, in faith in both ourselves and anything else other than the sovereign God. Who from his will and his love and his mercy and his grace has ordered and decreed whatsoever may come to pass.

18:42And it's not with bad intentions that I think some do want to maintain some measure of self.

18:54Some genuinely desire to ensure that man maintains his responsibility for his sin, and to that I say, Amen. But in doing that, we can't deny the perfect clarity of the text. We just can't. How you reconcile, how we reconcile God's sovereignty over all things, including salvation, and how we reconcile that with man's moral responsibility for his own sin is secondary to the biblical truth that we are saved by grace through faith, and that is not our own doing, it is the gift of God. Both grace and faith, that is the primary and secondary causes of our salvation are gifts from God.

19:55Why is that important?

20:00Let's say I can convince you fully, although maybe you already are, that salvation is by grace through faith, and that is all a gift from God. Why does that matter? I think the rest of the text helps us answer that question. Verse 9. Not a result of works, so that no one may boast. But what is important for you to know is that the tense of that verb in Greek communicates a definitive, completed action. May boast is a definitive completed action. Let me explain. In the verses previous, we saw that God the Father, it says, made us alive, raised us up, and seated us together. This is the same verb tense. These are definitive actions from God. Similarly, then may boast is the same tense, communicates definitively that man has no grounds for boasting ever. Ever. You could also say that the definitive action of boasting is completely voided on account of God doing the work, gifting salvation to us by grace through faith. You could say Further, that God has designed redemption. God has accomplished redemption in such a way that it removes all ground for boasting forever. All efforts, all works, or anything else that could ever merit us salvation are in no ways the means of salvation. Rather, it is fully and completely on God's grace and faith in Christ. Both gifts. Have I said that before? Such that Him being the full and complete source of salvation. And if that is true, which it is, church, where is our boasting?

22:49Where is our boasting?

22:55We want to hold on to our libertarian free will so deeply, and we say, Yeah, but I chose him. I trusted him. This is very close to boasting, if not boasting. This is at the root saying that you did something that others haven't. So I ask you then, why are you saved and someone else isn't? According to that theology. Why are you saved and someone else isn't? You have to say then it is because that you made some decision that others didn't, or you placed your faith in Christ because you were obedient when others weren't. You were humble enough when others weren't.

23:54That is by definition grounds for boasting. I don't want to labor the point too much.

24:03This is important. If we do not fully and completely surrender our salvation by grace through faith into the hands and the will of a sovereign God, we will forever be in grave danger of the prayer that Jesus condemns in Luke 18. The Pharisee, this is Luke 18, the Pharisee standing by himself, prayed thus, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men, extortioners and unjust and adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get. Thank you, Lord, that I've trusted you, he says. Thank you, Lord, that I'm a good person and that I placed my faith in you, he says. Careful, church. Instead, be like the humble tax collector pleading for mercy. God, have be merciful to me, a sinner. This is his prayer. It's always telling to hear people give God all of the credit for their salvation. And then when they give a testimony where they say that their life finally turned around when they made a decision for Christ.

25:34When they made a decision.

25:43Romans 3, verse 25. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he passed over our former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting?

26:08It is excluded, Paul says.

26:31So that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus. Let me repeat that. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. The final nail in the coffin for boasting as if it needed a final nail. 1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 6. I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos, Paul says, for your benefit, brothers, so that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written. That none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. For who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? Martin Luther says, faith receives, it does not achieve. That's good to remember. And I'll say it again, because God could have saved man in a million different ways. Couldn't he have? God could have saved man in a million different ways. He could have done an infinite number of varied things with his creation, but he didn't do an infinite number of varied things with his creation. As far as salvation was concerned, he did one thing. He sent his son, God in flesh, to earn in his flesh the righteousness that we need, but could never attain, and to submit to the cross, that in his perfection he might bear the sins of the world, satisfying the wrath of God and securing salvation for his people. He did that, all of it. And then it is him alone who effectually calls man to himself, taking out that dead heart of stone and putting in a heart of flesh, replacing it, renewing our wills and our spirits that we turn to him in faith. This is a gracious act by him. And he did it precisely that way, so that we as his creatures stand fully dependent upon him. And in this way he definitively obliterates all ground for boasting forever.

29:32Did you not receive salvation as a gift from God? If you received it, why do you boast it as if you did not receive it? Good question from Paul.

29:51Finally, then I'll conclude by demonstrating with the rest of the text that there is a beautiful reason why God did it this way and not any other. Verse 10 for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. If you've ever played golf, you know the feeling of having a long struggle day. I know Brandon knows this feeling well. Just joking. But when you hit that one shot that's so perfect and so pure, you're motivated to just keep coming back and playing again, right? That one shot energizes you. This verse, verse 10 of Ephesians chapter 2, is that shot that keeps you coming back. And we'll look at it. We are his workmanship, it says. We are his workmanship. I don't want to keep quoting the Greek here, but it's important. If you looked at a Greek interlinear Bible here, you'll see that workmanship is translated literally as masterpiece. We are his masterpiece. The Greek word here is poema. It's where we get our English word poem from. We are the living poem of God. This is why it's so beautiful and so necessary that we understand these doctrines and not boast in anything but God, because it is by his hands that he is fashioning a poetic masterpiece in you.

31:51This is what he is doing. Think about it like this.

31:59What pot ever boasted in itself after having been made by a potter? Or who sees a beautiful painting like Van Gogh's Starry Night and marvels at how well the oil paints were able to make a decision to arrange themselves in such a breathtaking way? Rather, we see these masterpieces and we marvel at the creator of such creations. Sure, the works themselves are beautiful, but they are only beautiful because of the hands of the master worker. That's what a good artist does, right? By pouring himself into his work, he brings to life unseen things, even capturing emotions into still life. That's what Shakespeare says in A Midsummer Night's Dream. He says, quote, the poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling, doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven. And as imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown, the poet's pen turns them to shapes and gives to Ari nothing a local habitation in a name. This is what our God is doing.

33:29This is what he is doing.

33:32From nothing, he painted the universe with splendor that declares his glory. From dust, he formed man in his image, and though marred and distorted by sin, he redeemed that image through his son. And he is forging again, he is reshaping and remolding you into the perfect beauty of his beloved son. He is doing that. Every hammer blow, as we talked about this morning, though painful at times, every brushstroke, every day, every trial, every triumph is him at work fitting us for glory. We are the craft of the gracious hands of God. We are the living poems of God's grace, made not with ink, but with flesh and spirit, not put upon canvas or page, but carved into history with a purpose.

34:41And that is to be the window of his goodness and his grace.

34:48I think we can be assured of this truth because the text says that as his masterpiece, we are created in Christ Jesus. Created in Christ Jesus for good works. We are being remade in Christ for good works. That is, to bring glory to God through the visible manifestation of his goodness and grace through our good works. The good works then are prepared that we may walk in them.

35:20Not so that man can marvel at us or talk about how wonderful the pots are.

35:30No, these works are prepared beforehand that we walk in, so that the world may see these vessels of God's mercy and his handiwork and marvel at the hands responsible for such beauty. And when we walk in those good works that he has prepared with complete surrender and humility, the world will not look at us as the end in and of itself. But through us they will see and they will know the beauty of God's grace. This is the point of these doctrines. Point everything back to God's grace and his glory. That's why I don't want credit for anything. Lord help us. You don't want credit for anything, so that all may know that it is his hands that formed you, that it is his grace that has saved you, that it is his spirit that is keeping you, that it is his power that is leading you, that it is his mind that is forging you, that it is his love that will ultimately bring you to glory. It is all him, all for his glory, all his gift to you, given according to his will, that you may walk in those things. This is what's given to us in our text. It's always grace first, for by grace you have been saved. The primary cause of our salvation is always grace. Secondarily, there is always faith. From that grace, our souls are made alive, and our response is faith, confidence in his appointed means of salvation, namely the person and work of Jesus Christ. It is by grace that we trust in Christ alone. Again, that's his work. And finally, there are good works. Those things that follow, which also have been prepared by God, that we may walk in them to display his image and his goodness and his glory and his love to the world. This is always the order. The gift of grace, which is regeneration, the gift of faith, which completes justification, and then good works to image our loving Creator. All Him, all a gift, all for His glory. And don't you feel the freedom in that? Doesn't that spur you on and empower you to say, Lord, do something in me. Not for my sake, but for your glory. It's all you, Lord. I'm just the clay. Make something beautiful from me. That's where your heart is. I hope this morning, church. And in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And through his power and authority, I say, lay down all your boasting. Surrender yourselves wholly to him. Receive this morning salvation by grace through faith as a gift. And in that he will indeed do something beautiful with you. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this wonderful gift of faith that you have shown us through your word, Lord. We thank you for the grace, Lord, and we thank you for the works that you have prepared for us that we may be reflections of your beauty and your goodness and your mercy and your grace, Lord. Work something in us, Lord. We love you so very much and thank you for all the goodness that you do for us, Lord. We commit ourselves to you. We lay down all our boasting before you, trusting in you alone. Our confidence is in you, Lord. Help us. Ask all these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.