I AM SAVED

EPHESIANS 2:1-101 As for you, you were dead in yourtransgressions and sins, 2 in whichyou used to live when you followedthe ways of this world and of the rulerof the kingdom of the air, the spiritwho is now at work in those who aredisobedient.

EPHESIANS 2:1-103 All of us also lived among them atone time, gratifying the cravings of ourflesh and following its desires andthoughts. Like the rest, we were bynature deserving of wrath. 4 Butbecause of His great love for us, God,who is rich in mercy,

EPHESIANS 2:1-105 made us alive with Christ even whenwe were dead in transgressions—it isby grace you have been saved. 6 AndGod raised us up with Christ andseated us with Him in the heavenlyrealms in Christ Jesus,

EPHESIANS 2:1-107 in order that in the coming ages Hemight show the incomparable richesof His grace, expressed in Hiskindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For itis by grace you have been saved,through faith—and this is not fromyourselves, it is the gift of God—

EPHESIANS 2:1-109 not by works, so that no one canboast. 10 For we are God’shandiwork, created in Christ Jesus todo good works, which God prepared inadvance for us to do.

TWO BASIC CATEGORIES IN

VIEWING SALVATION:

1. WORKS

If not all, religions and spiritualities apart from Christianity, they teach

something called WORKS, and that is you can save yourself by doing certain things and not doing other things, but you can be your own

savior.

EXAMPLES:

CATHOLICISM

Doing good works and faith in

God

BUDDHISM

Ceasing desires saves you.

CONFUCIANISMEducation, self-reflection, self-

cultivation, and living a moral life saves you.

HINDUISMDetaching from your separated

ego and making an effort to live in unity with the divine saves you.

ISLAMLiving a holy life of good deeds

saves you.

ORTHODOX JUDAISMRepentance, prayer, and working hard to obey the law saves you.

NEW AGEISMGaining a new perspective through

which you now see that you’re connected to all things as a divine

oneness saves you.

DAOISMAligning yourself with the Dao to have

peace and harmony saves you. In many people’s minds, simply being a

good person saves you.

2. GRACE

This is what we are, that as a Born Again Christians, we are not saved

by our own works, but we are saved by Jesus’ works.

The storyline of the Bible is that we are in a terrible fate, and there is a sentence of death hanging over us, and we cannot rescue ourselves.

Jesus, our great God and Savior, comes in from the outside, and

He comes to rescue us. He comes to save us, and we are saved by

His works.

He lives without sin, so it’s Jesus’

life that saves, not our own.

He dies on the cross in our place

for our sins, so it’s His death that

saves us, not our own.

And He rises from death, conquering our enemies of sin and death, so it is

His victory and not ours that is the means by which we experience

salvation and are rescued.

Jesus alone is worthy of our faith.

Jesus alone is our Savior.

And if anyone is trusting in anyone or anything other than Him or in addition to Him, they’re trusting in the wrong thing, and they will not experience

salvation.

EPHESIANS 2:55 made us alive with Christ even whenwe were dead in transgressions—it isby grace you have been saved.

EPHESIANS 2:88 For it is by grace you have beensaved, through faith—and this is notfrom yourselves, it is the gift of God—

When the Bible uses the language of grace, it’s talking about Jesus’ works.

When the Bible uses the language of works, it’s talking about our works.

We are not saved by what we do or who we are, we are saved by who He

is and what He does, and that’s GRACE.

It means unmerited favor, undeserved love. This means that God pours out His

affection not just on the undeserving, but the ill-deserving, in fact those who

were previously His enemies.

SAVED IN THE PAST,

IN THE PRESENT, AND

IN THE FUTURE

In the PAST, we were saved from the penalty of sin.

Jesus dies on the cross in our place for our sins. This is the grace of

God through which we are saved.

That means:Jesus died the death that we should have died.Jesus suffered the punishment that we should have suffered.Jesus tasted the wrath of God that we should have drunk full strength.

If you are in Christ, if you are a Christian, if you belong to Jesus, there is no penalty of sin for you,

meaning God does not punish you when you sin.

There may be consequence for your sin, but He’s not punishing you, because Jesus has already been

punished in your place for your sins.

It also means if you are in Christ, once you die, you will not suffer an eternal penalty for your sin, because Jesus already paid for it at the cross. It’s

what it means in saying it’s GRACE.

We didn’t ask Jesus to do that, He just did it out of LOVE.

In the PRESENT, we are saved from the

power of sin.

“Give your life to Jesus and when you die, you’ll go to heaven.”

That’s true! Eternal life does not begin the moment you die, it begins

the moment you meet Jesus.

That’s the beginning of your eternal life, and that you are saved in the past from the penalty of sin, and

you’re saved in the present from the power of sin.

Jesus doesn’t just change you when you die.

He changes you the moment you become one of His.

In the FUTURE, we will be saved foreverfrom the presence of

sin.

GENESIS 1:3131 God saw all that He had made, and itwas very good. And there wasevening, and there was morning—thesixth day.

It said that God made everything and it was “very good.” There was no sin, there was no sickness, there was no

suffering, there was no disease, there was no decay, and there was no death. Everything was perfect. It’s the world that, down deep in our heart, we all long for and yearn for. We have a

sense that it was lost and we want it back.

And there will be a day, just as Jesus rose, we too shall rise. And the Bible

says that we’ll be totally new, thoroughly new, and that sin will be no

more.

There’ll be no suffering, no sickness, no sin, no death, no devastation,

no destruction.

It will be the world as God created it before sin corrupted it.

It’ll be the world as Jesus remakes it by His own glory, and that’s called the

Kingdom of God.

That’s called the Kingdom of God, and in the Kingdom of God we’ll be

saved from the presence of sin.

CHRISTIANS

HAVE BEEN SAVED,

ARE BEING SAVED,

WILL BE SAVED.

ARE YOU SAVED?

WE ARE SAVED

FROM WHAT?

SIX THINGS YOU

ARE SAVED FROM:

EPHESIANS 2:1-31 As for you, you were dead in yourtransgressions and sins, 2 in whichyou used to live when you followedthe ways of this world and of the rulerof the kingdom of the air, the spiritwho is now at work in those who aredisobedient.

EPHESIANS 2:1-33 All of us also lived among them atone time, gratifying the cravings of ourflesh and following its desires andthoughts. Like the rest, we were bynature deserving of wrath.

1. WE ARE SAVED FROM DEATH.

DEATH is the result of sin. Where there is no sin, there is no death.

That’s why in the Kingdom of God we will not die because we’ll be saved from the presence of sin and death

will be no more.

Let’s say it’s your phone or your laptop. You plug it in, it’s powered up, you unplug it, it lives, but only for a while and then it what? And

then it dies. You and I are like that.

We’re not independent; we’re dependent beings. We’re made by the living God, and when we sin against

Him, it’s as if we are unplugging from the source of life.

The result is that we are still alive, but we’re in the cycle of death, and

eventually we die because we’re disconnected from the Source of life.

And so you can be living, physically, while yet dead spiritually. And in the process of dying physically, to then

stand before God to experience eternal death, which is living forever under punishment and not blessing, separated from the grace of God, not

connected to the grace of God.

2. WE ARE SAVED

FROM TRESPASSES

AND SINS.

Sin includes our thoughts, our words, our deeds, our motives.

It includes sin of commission where we do bad things, sin of omission where we don’t do good things.

God’s Word is filled with laws, boundary markers, and when we

cross one, we’ve trespassed.

We’ve crossed a line. We’re in a place where we’re not supposed to be

doing a thing we ought not do, and there’s consequence for that.

Where have you trespassed?

Where are your sins?

Oftentimes, we are far more

aware of their sin than our sin.

Take that understanding and then think of your relationship with God:

•That we’ve all stepped over the line •That He is the One who is offended •He’s the One that we’ve sinned against•He’s the One that we’ve disobeyed and rebelled against.

WE ARE ALL SINNERS.

3. IN WHICH YOU ONCE

WALKED, FOLLOWING

THE COURSE OF THIS

WORLD

“The world, in its wisdom, does not know God.”

Morality is not determined by the majority.

4. FOLLOWING THE PRINCE OF THE POWER OF AIR, THE SPIRIT THAT IS NOW AT WORK IN THE

SONS OF DISOBEDIENCE

Not only are there God’s people, there are Satan’s people.

Not only are there those who are empowered by the Holy Spirit, but those

who are empowered by demons.

5. AMONG WHOM WE ALL ONCE LIVED IN THE

PASSIONS OF OUR FLESH, CARRYING OUT THE DESIRES OF THE

BODY AND MIND

PSALM 37:44 Take delight in the LORD,and He will give you the desires ofyour heart.

6. AND WE WERE BY NATURE CHILDREN OF

WRATH, LIKE THE REST OF MANKIND

By nature, what that means is you were born apart from God with a sin nature.You need to have a new nature, and out of a new nature will come new desires

and a new mind.

When the Bible speaks of God, it does say that He is love. The most often

attribute of God referenced in Scripture is that He’s holy.

The Bible does speak about God’s salvation, it also speaks of damnation. Jesus speaks of hell and heaven more

than anyone in the whole Bible.

And when it comes to the wrath of God, it’s mentioned with about two dozen words in the Old and New Testament combined, and the wrath of God is spoken of about six hundred times.

And the wrath of God is to create in us a sense of urgency that we’re

under a death sentence, that the clock is ticking, that after this life there is no

second chance.

That we better get this thing straightened out with Jesus right now while there’s still time because it’s a fearful thing to

fall into the hands of the living God. A sense of urgency, a sense of urgency

ROMANS 2:55 But because of your stubbornnessand your unrepentant heart, you arestoring up wrath against yourself forthe day of God’s wrath, when Hisrighteous judgment will be revealed.

God tells us about the consequences of His wrath so that we will have a

sense of urgency, know that we’re in dire need of a Savior, and invite Jesus

to come and rescue.

JOHN 5:2727 And He has given Him authorityto judge because He is the Son ofMan.

Saved by what? How does this work?

EPHESIANS 2:4-54 But because of His great love forus, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 madeus alive with Christ even when wewere dead in transgressions—it is bygrace you have been saved.

Dead people don’t make decisions. Apart from Jesus, you’re spiritually

dead, but God makes us alive in Christ. God puts life into us.

God brings us from separation to reconciliation.

That’s what God does, and then we respond with faith, but the faith is in

evidence of our salvation.

If you’re a Christian, God has made you alive in Christ.

“Made us alive together with Christ”

Saved by what?

“Grace.” It’s a gift.

What’s the greatest gift you’ve

ever received?

God gives us God. God gives us

Jesus Christ. It’s grace. We’re not

just undeserving, we’re ill-deserving.

We didn’t ask for it, we just got it.

God gives us His forgiveness, His love, His righteousness, His truth, His Holy Spirit, the Scriptures, the

church. God gives us God.

EPHESIANS 2:8-98 For it is by grace you have beensaved, through faith—and this is notfrom yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one canboast.

It’s not works, it’s grace. Grace is Jesus’ works for us.

Saved by what? BY GRACE: GIFT OF GOD

SAVED FOR WHAT?

EPHESIANS 2:6-106 And God raised us up with Christ andseated us with Him in the heavenlyrealms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order thatin the coming ages He might show theincomparable riches of Hisgrace, expressed in His kindness to usin Christ Jesus.

EPHESIANS 2:6-108 For it is by grace you have beensaved, through faith—and this is notfrom yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one canboast. 10For we are God’shandiwork, created in Christ Jesus todo good works, which God prepared inadvance for us to do.

If you are in Christ, there is a seat in the Kingdom of God with your name on it

and a reservation set. When you die, you will be absent from the body and present

with the Lord. And that seat is guaranteed.

You’ll sit there with Jesus and His people and rejoice at the wedding

supper of the Lamb, a great feast where we sing the praises of Jesus.

That’s where you’re going.

Christians aren’t better and Christians aren’t smarter.

Christians are blessed.

“In Christ Jesus for” Good works, which God prepared

beforehand, that we should walk in them

Jesus’ works save us. He works in us as His workmanship, and then works through us as an act

of worship.

So, our works are the result of His works, unlike religion that teaches, or

spirituality that teaches, or morality that teaches, “Here are your works and they

will save you.” NO. Jesus saves you.

You’re saved by His works. He works in you.He works on you.

He works through you to do good works as an act of worship.

SEVEN THINGS

ABOUT

GOOD WORKS

1. All works by God’s grace for God’sglory are good works.

All work done unto the Lord is good works. God has things for you to do. Your meaning, and your life, and your

value, and your purpose is all empowered by the grace of God.

It’s not that we’re saved by works, but rather we’re empowered by grace to do

good works. So, works and grace are not against one another. God’s grace forgives our sin. God’s grace also empowers our works. So you can do good works by the

grace of God to the glory of God.

“By the grace of God, I was able to do the good works that God prepared in advance

for me to do.” So, God’s grace empowers you to do good

works. And any work, all work by God’s grace for God’s glory are good works.

2. Most of Jesus’ good works were as a carpenter, not a preacher.

God isn’t calling you all to be deacons.

God isn’t calling you all to be elders. But God’s calling us all to good

works.

The good works are all things that Jesus has laid out for us to do, and

whatever those are for you, those are the things you should be doing by the

grace of God.

3. There’s no such thing as sacred and secular work for Christians.

1 CORINTHIANS 10:3131 Whatever you do, do it all for theglory of God.”

4. Some of you need to discover the good works God has set before you.

Sometimes young people get way too far down the road.

They start thinking about what they’re going to do in sixty years.

5. Some of you don’t need new works—you’ve got way too much to do—but to infuse your current works

with grace.

6. We are not saved by our works, but we are saved to our works.

Religion says you’re saved by your works.

Jesus teaches and demonstrates we’re not saved by our works, we’re

saved to our works.

They’re not the root of our faith, they’re the fruit of our faith.

They’re not what bring us into relationship with God, they’re what

come out of those who are in relationship with God.

7. God does not need our works, but our neighbor does.

CONCLUSION

We are all bound to hell

but Jesus rescued us because

of His great love for us.

EPHESIANS 2:8-98 For it is by grace you have beensaved, through faith—and this is notfrom yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one canboast.