I. SALVATION IS AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW.
"By grace ARE YE SAVED through faith."
Definition of "salvation."
Salvation can be a PRESENT POSSESSION.
Paul writes to the Ephesians . . .
"By grace ARE YE SAVED through faith" (v. 8);
"By grace YE ARE SAVED" (v. 5);
In other words, "YOU ARE ALREADY SAVED."
He did not say . . .
"You may be saved";
"You will be saved";
"You are partly saved";
He said, "You are already saved."
At this moment all of us here are either saved or unsaved.
II. SALVATION IS BY GRACE.
"BY GRACE are ye saved through faith."
Definition of grace
Salvation must be by grace because we are all sinners.
"All have sinned" (Romans 3:23).
"All we like sheep have gone astray" (Isaiah 53:6).
There is no other salvation except that which begins and ends with grace.
A. It Is "Not of Yourselves."
1. You do not deserve it because of who you are.
2. You cannot earn it by what you’ve done.
What we deserve is hell. "The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).
God saved us in spite of ourselves. Look back at verses 1-3. Man deserves nothing from God but punishment.
B. "It Is the Gift of God."
1. It is free.
A gift is free.
2. It is forever.
Charles Spurgeon, "If my Lord Jesus gives you salvation at this moment, you have it, and you have it forever. He will never take it back again; and if he does not take it from you, who can? If he saves you now through faith, you are saved—so saved that you shall never perish, neither shall any pluck you out of his hand" (from his sermon, "All of Grace").
Salvation is given to us; it is not earned by us.
Salvation is not of us; it is of God.
"I am what I am by the grace of God."
III. SALVATION IS THROUGH FAITH.
"By grace are ye saved THROUGH FAITH."
Definition of faith: "Forsaking All I Take Him."
Every person lives by faith:
• How many of you drove over a bridge to get here this morning? How many of you got out of your car to examine whether or not it would support your vehicle?
• How many of you ate something out of a can this week? How many of you had that food tested to see if it was safe to eat.
• How many of you ate at a restaurant this week? How many of you went to the kitchen to see if your food was being prepared properly?
Faith is not the cause of salvation; Christ is the cause of salvation. Faith is but the instrument through which salvation comes to me. Faith does not save; Christ saves.
Salvation is entirely the result of God’s work. "We are his workmanship" (v. 10). We don’t make ourselves Christians; it is God who makes Christians.
A. It Is "Not of Works."
1. Salvation by works is not good news.
a. It is not "news."
b. It is not "good."
2. Salvation by works is unsuitable to many.
a. It is unsuitable to sinners ready to die.
A man is dying. His family asks that I go see him. I sit at his bedside. He has lived an ungodly life, and he is about to die. Should I tell him that he can only be saved by good works? There is no time for good works? There is no possibility of them? While I am speaking, his life is struggling to escape him. He looks at me in the agony of his soul, and he stammers out, "What must I do to be saved?" Should I read him the Ten Commandments and tell him that he must keep them all? He would shake his head and say, "I have broken them all; I am condemned by them all." If salvation is by works, what more have I to say? I am of no use here. What can I say? The man is completely lost. There is no hope for him.
If salvation is by works, our Lord could not have said to the thief, dying at His side, "To day shalt thou be with me in paradise." That man could do no works. His hands and feet were fastened to the cross.
A gospel that does not suit everybody does not suit anybody.
b. It is unsuitable to sinners aware of their sinfulness.
Spurgeon said, . . . go through your jails; and just see what you can do with a doctrine of salvation by works. You will come home disappointed, however earnest may be your address. But go there, and tell of free grace and dying love, and pardon bought with blood, and eyes that stream with tears, confessions of sin, and cries for pardon, will tell you that you have not spoken in vain (ibid.).
3. Salvation by works is impossible for all.
The law of God is like a chain. If just one link of the chain be too weak for the weight place upon it, the load will fall to the ground just as surely as if twenty links were snapped. If you break a chain in any one point, you break it completely. The Bible says, "Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all" (James 2:10).
"By the deeds of the law shall no man be justified in his sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:20).
The story is told of a man who came eagerly but very late to a revival meeting and found the workmen tearing down the tent in which the meetings had been held. Frantic at missing the evangelist, he decided to ask one of the workers what he could do to be saved. The workman, who was a Christian, replied, "You can’t do anything. It’s too late." Horrified, the man said, "What do you mean? How can it be too late?" "The work has already been accomplished," he was told. "There is nothing you need to do but believe it" (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Ephesians, 61).
"It is finished."
B. It Does Not Give Us Reason to Boast.
The only thing a person can do that will have any part in salvation is to exercise faith in what Jesus Christ has done for him.
"Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law" (Romans 3:27-28).
There is a story in 2 Samuel 9 that illustrates the grace of God.
It was the custom of that day for a new king to put to death all contenders to the throne. But instead of executing Mephibosheth, David showed him kindness.
MEPHIBOSHETH’S CONDITION PICTURES THE SINNER’S CONDITION.
A. He was hopeless.
He was living in "in Lo-debar" (v. 4). "Lo-debar" means "without pasture." Psalm 68:6 says that "the rebellious dwell in a dry land."
B. He was helpless.
He was "lame on both feet" (v. 13). Romans 5:6 says, "When we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." A child of God recognizes that he is a cripple in God’s sight.
DAVID’S LOVE PICTURES GOD’S LOVE.
A. His love was spontaneous.
It was the voluntary impulse of a kind heart. First John 4:19 says, "We love him because he first loved us."
B. His love was gracious.
It sought out the undeserving. It offered kindness to an enemy. Romans 5:10 declares that "when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son."
C. His love was self-sacrificing.
David said, "I have given . . . all that pertained to Saul and to all his house" (v. 9). This was a great gift. But in John 3:16 we see a greater gift: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. . . ."
MEPHIBOSHETH’S FAITH PICTURES THE BELIEVER’S FAITH.
A. He believed the message.
He proved his faith by obeying the call. "He came unto David" (v. 6).
B. He humbled himself.
"He fell on his face" (v. 6). He confessed himself to be as a "dead dog" (v. 8). Ephesians 2:1 says that the sinners is "dead in sin"—worse than a dead dog. James 4:10 says, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up."
C. He was accepted.
David said to him, "Fear not: for I will surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy father’s sake" (v. 7). God has shown us kindness for Christ’s sake. Ephesians 4:32 tells us that "God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you." And Ephesians 1:6 says that God "hath made us accepted in the beloved."
D. He was adopted.
David said, "He shall eat at my table, as one of the king’s sons" (v. 11). "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God" (1 John 3:1). We read in Ephesians 1:5 that God "predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."
E. He was made an heir.
David said, "[I] will restore unto thee all the land of Saul thy father" (v. 7). Mephibosheth went from poverty to plenty because of the grace of the king. But the love of God is far greater than the love of David; therefore our blessings are greater than the blessings of Mephibosheth. Romans 8:16-17 says, "We are the children of God, and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ."
