How Sweet It Is Series

B. We are not saved by “works” but we certainly were saved For good works!

Paul doesn’t want anyone to misunderstand: we’ve never done anything to come close to deserving this salvation! God has

done it all; ‘this is not from yourselves’. Salvation is not by works but the evidence that it is real in our lives is demonstrated by our Good Works.. He created us in our mother’s womb; he re-created us in Christ– we are his creation, his ‘workmanship’ (poiema- from which we get poem) . . . we’re His work of art! . . . Sculpted, painted, crafted TO DO GOOD WORKS! A life being lived ‘in Christ’ is a life that is ’purposeful’ ...always on the lookout for good works.

Conclusion: Is your life characterized by obedience & good works?

It strikes me that many people have trouble in the Christian life because either . . .

(1) they’ve forgotten ‘How Bad it Was’

(2) they don’t appreciate ‘How Sweet it Is’

If we’re really honest with ourselves, I don’t believe many of us really believe our situation was as bleak as Paul says. I don’t

know about you, but I saw myself as a pretty good person. I never murdered anybody and was polite to my elders and tried to basically be nice to people. I went to church every Sunday or else!

But I also did some things I’m not proud of and most importantly, I didn’t know God. And I didn’t know that I was dead in my sins! But, I was! My situation was as bleak as the murderer awaiting execution on death row!

Your neighbors around you may be pretty good folks. They keep the yard cut, they love their kids, they’re good citizens. But do they know God? Do they have a relationship with Him? A famous TV preacher is known for saying, “Before you can get a person saved, you’ve got to get him lost.” There is tremendous truth to that! Before individuals make a decision to follow Christ, they’ve got to be convicted that they need Christ!

That’s exactly what happened at Pentecost when Peter preached to the crowd and Luke tells us that when they heard Peter’s sermon ‘they were cut to the heart.’ They were convicted and responded by asking, “What can we do to be saved?”

Have you ever really been convicted that your life WITHOUT Christ was dead? You’ll never appreciate ‘How Sweet it Is’ (in

Christ) until you remember ‘How Bad it really Was’ (without Christ).

Another problem many have is in truly taking hold of just how good it is to be in Christ! Can it be THIS good? Isn’t this just too good to be true? The answer to that, of course, is NO . . . it IS true-- when you’re talking about a loving God who would rather die than spend eternity without you.

“It is by grace you have been saved through faith - and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God– not by works, so that no one can boast.”

What good news! Have you been saved from death this morning?

God is telling us today here in His Word that living apart from Jesus Christ is like the person I mentioned at the beginning today who was, in essence, medically dead and it was just the machines making her organs work.