By Grace Through Faith

Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 and 9. For by grace are you saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, that any man should boast. Let's look at that so we can understand this process of salvation. By grace, through faith, you are being saved. The idea there of saved is not something that's already finished, it's something that's already begun. By grace, through faith, you have already begun the process of salvation. The process began by grace, through faith. It began and it is ongoing, and it will continue to go on by grace through faith. You will continue being saved. And I want to make sure that we all understand that some of us here are new, and I want you to particularly understand that if you're new, but for the rest of us, I want us to be able to communicate this to others. So what is this grace of God? Grace is that which is in God's heart to do, that you had nothing to do with. It's just who he is. It is his goodness. It is what he desires to pour out upon men. In the Old Testament, you may have called it favor. He just desires to give his favor to man. He desires to be a blessing. He desires for men to experience his goodness. That's his grace. It's what he wants to do. It's perfect goodness and intention for you. And he gives it freely, but he gives it to the humble. Remember, the Bible says that God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. So how does God humble us? Well, that's a part of his grace. Do you realize most of the time when the word humble yourselves, when we read that in the New Testament, Oral Testament, most of the time it's actually translated be humbled. It's a passive in the sense of it is God who is trying to humble us so that he can pour out his grace upon us. You know, he's wise. If God's blessing and favor were fully upon us when we're doing what's wrong, we'd never change, would we? So in his kindness, out of his mercy, he seeks to correct us. He seeks to lead us through his mercy and kindness to repentance. Now, repentance is just a word that means to change the way you think. God is merciful to us, and he seeks to use his mercy in his kindness to guide us to change us from the way we're thinking, because it's our own thinking that gets us in trouble. When we have the wrong thoughts, we make the wrong decisions. When we make the wrong decisions, we reap the wrong kind of results, and there are consequences. The word sin means to miss the mark. It's an archery term. If there's a bullseye and you're aiming at the bullseye, but the arrow misses the bullseye, you've sinned. You've missed the mark. Well, if God is perfect goodness, what would his mark be? Stead center would be the best for you and I. So he calls anything that is not good for us, anything that he understands, regardless of how pleasurable it is. Remember, I had a good time eating that late night snack, but it wasn't good for me. I sinned. I missed the mark, and it came back to bite me pretty heavily. In the middle of the night, I felt this burning sensation right here, and I couldn't even speak yesterday, so I'm doing well. So God is merciful and things are on the right track, but God in his goodness will call something sinful that is not good for us, and he made us. He understands what we need, and he desires to bless us. He desires us to experience his goodness. So to change the way we think, he intervened in the world. For God so loved the world that he gave, his only begotten son, whose whoever believed in them should not perish and have everlasting life. So he sent his son into the world. Matthew describes it as the people sitting in darkness have seen a great light. The darkness represents their ignorance. They didn't know who God was. Their understanding was darkened, and Jesus Christ was sent by God the Father to set the record straight and to show the world who his Father really was. He didn't send Jesus Christ to establish religion. The world was already full of religion, but religion was full of man's ideas about God, and they were all off. They were all a shot in the dark. Even the Jewish people who God had given the law didn't know him because they weren't really walking in the law in the way that he had said. They had added so many things to it. They become so confused. Even the people of God, the Jewish people at that time, didn't know him. So he sent his son to manifest who he was. And now, why should we, because there are people in the world who think, but how in the world could a supernatural being or God become a man? Well, if we believe that God created man in the first place, in the book of Genesis where it says, let us make man in our own image and likeness, then how hard is it for God to send his son in the image of the man he created in the first place? That's not difficult. You can understand that. So he sent his son to show the world, to speak to men about who the father was. And God did all of this by his grace. It wasn't because men were asking him to send his son. They didn't have that idea. They didn't know what needed to be done. Even the Jewish people had the law. They just thought they should just keep trying to keep the law. And they weren't even doing that well. So God sends his son by his grace. He does it on his own. And by his grace, he comes to his own people, the people of Israel. And God, in his kindness, demonstrates his power, his wisdom, his understanding, and his goodness. And he calls to himself, you know, Jesus called himself disciples who could witness this, who could see it. Because God wanted to do what he did with witnesses. He did it in public. He taught in public. He did miracles in public, because he wanted eyewitnesses to what he did. And those eyewitnesses to what he did all by his grace. All that he did was by his grace. Those eyewitnesses became those who gave testimony. They were witnesses of the fact. And when they gave testimony, the Bible calls that sharing the good news. The good news is just the testimony that the witnesses witnessed, those who heard Jesus teach, those who saw the miracles he did became his witnesses. And they begin to proclaim, to testify, to witness to what Jesus said and did. And that became the gospel. And through the gospel, something happens for by grace, because all that God did, all that Jesus taught, because remember, Jesus said he only did what the father showed him to do. And he only said what the father told him to say. All of that was God's grace. And when the witnesses, the eyewitnesses who heard him teach and saw what he did, when they began to testify to that, it became the good news. And that became hearing for by grace, through faith, you're saved. Well, we know that the Bible says that faith comes by hearing. See, God's grace did everything necessary for our salvation. He sent his son into the world. He filled his son with the Holy Spirit. He led his son and showed him what to do and gave him power to do it. And he orchestrated that even men would be involved in arresting him and crucifying him, all to fulfill what God intended to do by his grace, to pay the penalty for man's sin, because God had declared an oath that the soul that sins shall die, the wages of sin is death. So God had to fulfill his own oath. And he did so by, through Jesus Christ, dying on the cross, by God's grace, he tasted death for every man, every one of us was given God's grace through Jesus Christ. And as we hear the good news about what God has done, faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word, the good news that the apostles, the eyewitnesses of the Lord Jesus, the good news that they share, and they taught because Jesus told them to, right before he ascended into heaven, he told his disciples, go into all the world and make disciples from all nations and teach them to obey all things, whatever I've commanded you, you teach them to obey. So the early church was formed after Jesus rose from the dead and ascended back to the father. Jesus told his disciples, stay in Jerusalem because you're going to need something first in order for you to be my witnesses in the way that is going to transform the world, you need power. So the early disciples waited in Jerusalem and they were together praying after Jesus ascended back to heaven, they were praying for 10 days. And while they were praying, God granted them a unified spirit. They were all together, they were in one heart and one mind, and they were praying fervently, waiting for the promise of God, because the promise of God was something new. God had already had an earlier covenant, but that covenant was with the people of Israel. And that covenant was based upon law, the commandments. And so for some of you who are new, let me explain. You know about the 10 commandments. The 10 commandments are actually in the Hebrew, it's the 10 sayings. The 10 commandments are the 10 things that God himself declared out loud to the people that were assembled at the base of Mount Sinai. The only nation that was there was the people of Israel and a few of Moses' relatives, some Midianites that were relatives of Moses' family. But the 10 commandments were God's own words to the people of Israel. And God's voice was so loud. In the situation, the manifestation of God was so terrifying because the mountain was quaking, it was on fire and billowing with smoke. And here's this loud voice declaring the 10 sayings of God that the people begged. The people begged Moses to have God stop speaking because they were afraid they were going to die. And the people said, Moses, have God speak to you, tell you what to do, and we'll listen to you and do it. And the Lord said that was good. So Moses, God called Moses up on the mountain and Moses took, God told him to take two tablets of stone. And Moses carried two tablets of stone. And God wrote on those two tablets of stone, the 10 sayings, the 10 things he had said. And you know about the story. The first time, the first set of those tablets didn't last because when Moses came back down the mountain after 40 days, the people thought they had given up. They thought something had happened to him. And they decided they'd make themselves another God of gold. And they were worshiping and having this terrible celebration. And Moses saw it in anger and broke the first set of those stone tablets, the 10 commandments. And it took him going back up the mountain a second time. And God again wrote on his second stone tablets the 10 things he had said. But those are just the 10 commandments. God had many other instructions for the people of Israel. They were only given to the people of Israel. The instructions weren't for the other nations. He always said, speak to the sons of Israel and say to them. So the 10 commandments and the other things that God spoke to Moses were written down in a book. Not everything was written down. Only the 10 commandments were written down on stone. Moses wrote in a book the other instructions from God. I think if people have counted them and they say there's about 618 laws in all, along with many instructions. Instructions about the priesthood. Instructions about the tabernacle. Instructions about even how to order your society. Instructions about family. Instructions about how to treat your neighbor and your foreigner and your slaves. Instructions about how to treat your animal. Instructions about annual feasts. Celebrations that would help them remember things. All of these were written down in the book of the law. That the 10 commandments and the book of the law were the laws of God. And this was the basis of the covenant. God wanted the nation of Israel to be his very own nation. Out of all the nations of the earth, they were chosen by him to be a people set apart. Special to him. They would have these special laws to live by. The 10 commandments and these other laws would be their laws. And if they followed those commandments and laws that the Lord gave them, things would go well for them. God would be their God. They would be his people. His blessings and his favor, you might even say his grace, would be poured out upon them. But the people never stayed in that covenant very long. The people didn't keep his laws and his decrees. They continually conformed to the practices of the nations around them. They would see how they worshiped their gods. They would see how they, maybe the way they did things in their cultures. And they would mix what God said with the way that the other nations that didn't have these special laws did things. And so they became corrupt. And this happened over such a lengthy period of time. Now and then, God would raise up someone special. And that person would have a heart to guide the people to return to live according to God's law. And they would for a short season. Sometimes it would only last though during the lifetime of that person. It's like more they were following that person than really following God. Because as soon as that person died, they went right back to their old ways. And this happened so long that the Lord said through one of his prophets, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to make a new covenant because I'm not pleased with the people of this covenant because they don't continue in my covenant. And this was said to the prophet Jeremiah. You can read it in Jeremiah chapter 31. He said the days are coming when I'm going to make a new covenant with the house of Israel. And it's not going to be a covenant like the first covenant that I made when I brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and brought them to Mount Sinai and declared my 10 sayings and instructed Moses about all the other instructions that he wrote down in the book of the law. It's not going to be that way because the people had never really been faithful to that covenant. You know, the only way the next generation can continue to be faithful to a covenant is that fathers and mothers are faithful. And if they faithfully teach their children and raise their children up to be faithful to what they've been taught. And those children have to be faithful to what they're taught, grow up, have children, and pass that faithfulness down. It never happened. Well, that's the only way that the first covenant was to be learned. You were to talk about them and teach them and learn them and be sure to memorize them and be careful to do them. But since the people wouldn't do that, it never stayed. There were now and then God would raise up someone and stir up the people, but it was only temporary. So what is this? How is the new covenant different? God said he's going to make a new covenant. It's not going to be like the first one. Well, here's the first thing that's different. Instead of having his laws written on tablets of stone and in a book that you're supposed to read and to learn, God said, I'm going to make sure that it gets where it needs to get. Mom and dad didn't get it where I wanted it, but I'm going to write it right where it needs to be. I'm going to write my laws on their hearts and their minds. And how does God do this? God does this by his spirit. The spirit of God is the mind of God. He knows the very deep things of God. So the spirit of God comes to live inside the believer. And in that process, it is if God is downloading his own nature and character into us. Our first nature was corrupted by sin, but now through God's spirit, he is imparting to us his thoughts, his heart, his goodness. The New Testament calls this partaking of the divine nature, God's own nature. So now or as before, and Paul is the one who explained this. Paul was a very devout Jew, but Paul came to understand, and you can read about this in Romans 7, that the law never worked because it was crippled. And the reason the law was crippled is because when Adam sinned, the nature of Satan, I just call sin the nature of Satan, entered into the world. Paul says in Romans 5, sin entered into the world through one man's disobedience. And it made, when sin entered the world, it came to everyone in the world. And every one of us has been corrupted by sin. It's that internal nature of Satan. I call it Satan's spiritual virus. It's the virus, and I guarantee you, it doesn't matter if you raise your family in church, the virus is there. It doesn't matter if you tell them what's right or wrong, the virus is there. And that virus, Paul said in Romans 7, produces all kinds of corrupt desires. And it's what causes men to wrestle with themselves. Paul loved God's law, and he wanted to obey the law, but he found himself disobeying it. There were things he didn't want to do because he knew God's law said not to do it, and he found himself doing it. And it was that struggle that caused him to realize, wow, that's happening because there's sin dwelling in me. The law of sin, the nature of Satan, producing all kinds of selfish, deceitful desires. Desires that, some Bible, we call them lust. But lust and desire are the same thing. Lust is just a strong desire, and sin produces desires for wrong things. And that's why the law was weak, because of sin in the flesh. So God knew in the new covenant, something else had to be done. Now, the first thing that had to be done is he had to find a way to forgive all the sin that was in the world, because the entire world was sinning. And the wages of sin is death, and he had to fulfill his word. And from the very beginning of creation, he could foresee that this was going to need to be done. And he sent his son, and his son lived a perfect life. And John the Baptist, the forerunner, the one who was filled with the spirit from his mother's womb. You remember what John said of Jesus when he saw Jesus? Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so Jesus first came to take away the sin of the world. And that's how most of us, that's what most of us first heard. We heard that God so loved the world that he sent his son. And he demonstrated that love for us by having Jesus die on the cross for our sins, so that our sins could be, he paid the debt. He took our penalty upon himself so that God could forgive us. And that's the first good news that we heard. And when we heard the good news, what did we do? We believed. Grace, Jesus doing that, God doing that with Jesus, that was his grace. But hearing what God did allowed us to respond in faith. By grace, through faith, salvation began. We were forgiven. The guilt for what we've done is suddenly set aside. We're free from that guilt because, and we are touched by the goodness and the kindness and the mercy of God, because we believe that Jesus died on the cross so that we could be forgiven. Salvation began. We were forgiven. But that's just the first part. Forgiveness is just the first part. There's more good news. And that's why by grace through faith isn't just the start. It is the way we continue to be saved. There is more grace than just forgiveness. Many of us, maybe you wouldn't even realize it, many of us have thought that grace and forgiveness is the same thing. They're not. Forgiveness is one form of grace. Grace is everything that comes from God's heart. Instruction, help, power, comfort, protection, many more. Forgiveness is part of that. And it's wonderful part. The grace is much more than just forgiveness. When Paul was wrestling with a spirit that was buffeting him from Satan, a messenger of Satan that was tormenting him, remember the story, he wanted the Lord to take it away. And the Lord said, no, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. And that's where we learn that God's grace gives us power. And this is what we need to continue being saved. Because that law of sin, we are forgiven. We are forgiven for what the sins we have committed. When we hear the good news about Jesus dying on the cross, and we look in faith and receive his forgiveness, salvation begins. But there's something else we need to learn. There's more good news than just forgiveness happened at the cross. Something else happened at the cross. Paul said that we were there at the cross with him. And that our old man, the person that we were, that was controlled by sin, that person, through faith, can be united with Jesus. By faith, we can be united with Jesus in his death on the cross, so that the body of sin might be rendered powerless. So that you and I no longer have to be a slave to sin. We become a new creation. We now receive the spirit of God. And by partaking of God's nature, the Holy Spirit gives us power to begin to live a new life. Here's how I explain it. And you've heard me say this before. The law of gravity is similar in a way to the law of sin. It pulls things down. It pulls things down. And the law of gravity is constant. And every day, it's holding us right now. It's why we're able to sit here, even though the earth, this part of the earth is spinning at over 700 miles an hour. You don't feel it, do you? And we're flying through space at a great rate of speed as well, as the earth orbits the sun. But we don't feel that. It's because the gravity holds things down. But is there a greater law than gravity? Can gravity be overcome? Yes. It's overcome every day. That's how planes take off the runway. It takes a greater power than gravity for gravity to be overcome. And just like planes, because of the power that man has been able to harness and use, just as planes can overpower the law of gravity and safely fly many destinations, they do it thousands and thousands of times a day, every single day. In the same way, when you and I perceive the Spirit of God, His power in us, God now working in us, overcomes the law of sin. As long as we're walking in the Spirit, as long as we're being led by the Spirit, we're overcoming the law of sin. It's there. It wars against the Spirit, Paul said in Galatians, the flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. But we're not, we don't have to live by the flesh. We don't have to live by sin. We simply need to learn to live by the Spirit and keep in step with the Spirit. Because Paul said, if you walk by the Spirit, you do not fulfill the desires of the flesh. You see what I mean? By you do not fulfilling them, he's saying you're going to feel them. You'll still sense them. You'll still deal with them, but you don't have to follow through. You can stop. You can say, no, I'm not going to follow through with that. Instead, I'm going to follow the Spirit and do what's right, rather than follow the flesh and miss the mark in sin. This is called life in the Spirit. And this is what I want us to learn. How do you learn to walk in the Spirit? Because this is the whole new covenant. This is the difference. The people in the old covenant, they had the set of laws. They were to learn the laws, memorize the laws, teach the laws to their children, and be careful to do the law. And they never did, did they? Because of sin that was in them. So now the difference for you and I in the new covenant is we must learn to live by the Spirit of God, to receive his help and his ability. Because the Greek word for power is dunamis. It's where we get the English word dynamite. It means an ability beyond men. Dynamite was actually invented by Alfred Nobel, who we have the Nobel Peace Prize named after. He was a scientist who worked with nitroglycerin, which was so volatile that there was many dangerous accidents and explosions that took many people's lives. So he worked with nitroglycerin and was able to make it more controllable and manageable by forming what's called dynamite. Power beyond men. And so that men were able to move mountains that they couldn't make machines big enough to move. See, there are things that God's Spirit can do that no other man can do for you. And we need to learn to draw from God's Spirit living in us so that we can live a godly life. That is part of New Testament salvation. So how do you and I learn to live by the Spirit? Let's go back to what Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says, because if we were being saved, if we began the process of being saved by grace through faith, don't you think we're going to continue the process of being saved by grace through faith? So you know what grace would mean now? Is God's continued help through his Holy Spirit. He provides his Spirit. He provides the church. He provides Christian fellowship. He provides instruction. He provides teaching. He provides preaching. And his Spirit living inside you is there to be with you. And this is what's beautiful. God's Spirit, which has God's mind, because the Bible says, Paul said this, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. But the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. So the Spirit knows even the deep things of God. And guess what? Every single one of us here who's a believer, you have the Holy Spirit. So you have the Spirit of God living in you, and the Spirit of God knows the deep things of God. So you know what you and I need to learn to do? We need to learn to live by the Spirit. Because your pastor, I can't be with you everywhere. I'm with you today. I'll be with you after service. I could be with you Wednesdays. Other days we work together, I'm with you. But the Spirit of God who lives in you goes with you everywhere you go. He never leaves you. He is God in you. It is the life of God, God's nature in you. You have God's Spirit in you. And this is that part of the new covenant that he said to the prophet. He says, I'm going to write my laws on their hearts and on their minds. And then he said this, and then no one is going to even need their neighbor to tell them, know the Lord. But they're not going to need some man to teach them, because every one of them is going to know me from the least to the greatest. How is it possible for every single one of us to have our own personal relationship with God? Because it's not all dependent upon a preacher, or a missionary, or a prophet, or a priest. Every single one of us have God's Spirit. And the Spirit is there to teach us. And this is a key. Learning to live by the Spirit is learning to be taught by the Spirit. Listen very carefully. How does the Spirit teach us? He's Spirit. He's not flesh. I am flesh and blood. So you're hearing sound come from my mouth. And it's coming into your ears. But the Holy Spirit is not flesh. So that's not the way he's going to communicate. So how is the Holy Spirit going to communicate with you? How do you hear the Holy Spirit? What are you listening for? I'll give you a hint. How many of us have ever said, or ever been in a place where we said, it was so loud in there I couldn't even hear myself think? Hear yourself think? You mean there's something you can hear that doesn't come from your ear? There's words and truth that you don't need to hear through your ear? Hmm. Yes, there is. What does the Spirit communicate to you with? He communicates the thoughts of God. The Spirit speaks to you in your spirit, God's thoughts. And as you and I learn to hear God's thoughts, that the Spirit is speaking to us, faith comes by hearing. You see, when you're tempted, when you have thoughts that are not God's thoughts, because God's thoughts are not the only ones in the world. The devil has thoughts, and evil spirits have thoughts. A lot of people in the world have thoughts. And it creates a lot of noise. A lot of noise out there. How do you know which thoughts to listen to? As you learn to discern the thoughts of God, you're hearing God's thoughts. And as you believe what God is speaking to you by the Spirit communicating his thoughts, faith in what you're hearing happens. And by faith, you follow those thoughts. That's by grace, through faith, you're saved daily. Let's say you're being tempted to be upset. You're facing a difficult situation at work or in your marriage or as a parent. And you're under attack. And most of the time, if our thoughts are agitated, if we're disturbed, our bodies can get very involved very quickly. Because difficult thoughts are accompanied by difficult emotions. And when you get thoughts and emotions stirred up, it even affects your body, doesn't it? You can measure blood pressure. You can see it in your eyes. You can see it in the muscles of a person's face. You're in that situation, you're under attack. And there's all kinds of thoughts going on in your head. Many of us know those thoughts. You know why we know those thoughts? We're having imaginary conversations, aren't we? We're thinking about what we might say. We're thinking about what we would do, or we're thinking about what that person did. And in the midst of all of those thoughts, there will come a thought that's pure, peaceable, peaceful, full of mercy, and good fruit, impartial, sincere. There'll come a thought that has come from the heart and mind of God, that the Spirit is bringing to you, making you aware of it. You don't hear it with your ear, but it will suddenly be there. And if you and I will learn to recognize it, to receive it, and to act on that thought, you know what we'll do with the other thoughts? We'll take the other thoughts captive, and we will tell them no. We will resist the thoughts coming from the devil of the world, and we will follow the thought of God that the Holy Spirit is bringing to us. And by following that thought that we're hearing in our spirit, we have faith. And by believing the thought of God and acting by faith, we continue to experience salvation. That's the way it works. And the more sensitive you become to recognizing the thoughts of God that the Holy Spirit brings to you, internal. It's interesting, you can, most of you know, you can at least remember a dream you had. Do you hear things in dreams? Yeah, you hear people talking, but you're not hearing them with your ears, are you? It's just as real as my voice you're hearing now. So you, God can, God is spirit, and God speaks to you in spirit, in your spirit. And let me tell you what helps, because oftentimes when we need to hear the voice of God, we can help, we can learn, we can train ourselves, because the Bible says that those who are mature, they've trained their senses to discern these things. They've been through some training. And here's what I've learned. When you get stirred up, you feel kind of stressed, you kind of feel the storm starting in you. Here come thoughts, upsetting, and irritated, stirred up, danger, danger, warning, a warning should go off. Don't be quick at the storm. Look, and when you're on the plains in this season of spring and early summer, and there's severe weather, what do you look for? What do they tell you to do if there's potential of damaging weather, severe and threatening storm? What do they tell you to do? Seek shelter. Is there a shelter we can seek spiritually? Yes, there is. It's called quietness of soul. Something David the psalmist said, he learned how to do. He learned how to tell his soul to be quiet and still, because your soul can act like a spoiled brat, throwing a tantrum when it doesn't get its way. And if you will learn to tell your soul, be still. And you quiet yourself. What are you looking for? What shelter you're looking for? You're trying to get away from that storm and attack of thoughts. And what are you listening for? You're listening for the thoughts of God. You're listening for what the Spirit will bring to your mind to guide you. That's the way it works. That's the way we continue to grow in our salvation. We learn to keep in step with the Spirit. We learn to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit. And He stays with us. And if I can help you, we can help one another learn this, I've done my job. Right? You've got it. You know the Spirit of the Lord is with you. You know His voice will be there in every single temptation. You know that when you need it, He's going to be right there. You just need to learn to hear it. Need to learn to listen for it. Don't give in to those first emotions. Don't give in to those first thoughts. Learn to hear the Spirit. Follow the Spirit. And you won't fulfill the desires of the flesh. The law of sin won't hold you down. You'll overcome by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ. Okay? Think about these things in the Lord to give you more insight.