What We Believe About Salvation Series

I have several items of good news and bad news for you today. I'll start with good news. The good news is I went to find some good news, bad news jokes to start my message and just decided to skip that part all together. They were all horrible and I knew y'all would appreciate me leaving those out. So, let me give you some bad news. The bad news is that humanity is born into this world with a void, something missing. And people try to fill that void with all sorts of things that don't work. On one hand, people try all the usual fleshly things: sex, drugs, alcohol, blah, blah, blah. On the other hand, some people try to fill the void with religion and good works.

The problem with living a life of sin is that it always ends in death, Hell and eternal separation from God. The problem with human religion and good works is that it always ends in death, Hell and eternal separation from God. The drunk, the drug addict, the prostitute, the child molester, the rapist, the murderer, the thief, the homosexual and every other kind of sinner you want to mention is going to Hell. But, so are the people who are trapped in the false religions of the world. Regardless of how sincere they may be in their belief system, those who have nothing more than religion are headed to Hell. Whether they are Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, Humanist, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, or any other religion that does not go through Jesus to get to the Father, they are lost and headed for judgment.

You want some more bad news? You can be a really good person and not live any of those lifestyles I just mentioned and do lots of good things and be very moral and still go to Hell if you don't have a relationship with Jesus. In fact, (so here's more bad news and I promise I will get to the good news in just a minute) God says we are all sinners and we all deserve to go to Hell. (Romans 3:23 and 6:23) Now that's some serious bad news.

Now, to get to the good news that I promise is coming, I want to start with the good news and bad news that Paul gives us in Ephesians chapters 1 and 2. Don't worry. I'm not going to read it all. I can sum up the first chapter by saying the good news is that Jesus is awesome! That's not Paul's word for it but that's basically what he is saying. He talks about the grace of Jesus, the love of Jesus and the power of Jesus. Ephesians 1 is all about how good God is through Jesus and Jesus is just awesome. Then in chapter 2, Paul gives us the bad news. You ready? We are dead. Yep, we are all dead. Not only that but God is mad at us. The words Paul uses to say that are, "objects of wrath." We'll see it in just a second. That's bad news. We're dead and God's mad. So, there ya go. The bad news is we're dead and God's mad. The good news is I don't have any jokes. So, thanks for coming. See ya later.

But I'll tell you what, let's just turn to the book of Ephesians and let's see if we can't find some good news in there somewhere. I bet we can if we turn to Ephesians chapter 2. The book of Ephesians is in the New Testament between Galatians and Philippians. There is some serious richness to all those books. And while there is some bad news in there, Paul writes all those books to tell the really, really good news and we will see that in just a second. I promise. We are continuing our study on what we believe and we have come to Ephesians to see what we believe about how we are saved. You can call it becoming a Christian or starting your walk with the Lord or being born again or several other names but it all means the same thing. Let's see what we have to do to go to Heaven. Just how good do we actually have to be? How do we know when our good deeds are more than our bad deeds? And, are those even good questions to ask? Let's see in Ephesians 2:1-10. Our main focus will be on verses 8 and 9 but let's read this whole paragraph to get the context.

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. 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 objects of wrath. 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. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 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.