Good morning. It's a blessing to be with you all and to have so many visitors with us today. We're very glad for your presence among us. Please turn to the book of Ephesians, chapter 2. I'm going to read verses 1 through 10 of chapter 2, and you can find this on page 1343 if you'd like to use the Pew Bible. The translation in the Pew is from the New King James, and that's the same version I'll be reading here. Our congregation has been going through a little series on what are called the Five Solas of the Reformation. This is the 500th anniversary, coming up at the end of October, of the Protestant Reformation, or at least what's usually considered the start of the Protestant Reformation. All Saints Day, what we call Halloween here in our country today, but at the end of October in the year 1517, when Martin Luther nailed the 95 feces onto the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, and began changes that went through Europe and into the British Isles and eventually spread to America, which has had a profound influence on Western culture, on the church, and on all of us in ways that we often take for granted. Sometimes the theologians have summarized the main issues that were at play in the Reformation as the five solas, the Latin term for only. In most cases, these are where a certain doctrine is being put forth in contrast to an alternative. And so the first one we looked at was scripture alone, sola scriptura, which is to say that the Bible alone is our standard for truth and is our ultimate source of where we get our understanding of God and of human beings and of salvation. And that was, some have called that the formal cause of the Reformation because it was returned to Scripture that led to ultimately some of the changes that took place. We also saw last week we had a guest preacher preach on grace alone, solo gratia, that it is God's grace alone that saves us. And we'll touch on that topic again today. But we're looking at the third of these solas today, which is sola fide, or by faith alone. It is by faith, it is not by our works that we are saved. And so I've chosen this passage from Ephesians chapter 2. I'll read from verse 1, but our focus will be on verses 8 through 10 as we look at it in more detail. This is God's Word. Please give it your attention. And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked, according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air, the Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." And there we'll end the reading of God's Word. May He bless His Word to His people this morning. Well, as I said just a moment ago, the concept of Scripture alone was sometimes called the formal cause of the Reformation. But the doctrine of solo fide, faith alone, is what commentators call the material cause of the Reformation. In other words, this was the doctrinal issue that a return to Scripture brought to the front. And this was the issue, the existential issue in the life of Martin Luther that caused him to write his 95 Theses and to begin the process that led to the Protestant Reformation. In the medieval church, there was a system that sort of worked from cradle to grave. And if you did the things that you were supposed to do, you could be pretty well assured that you would get to heaven. And there may be some delay if you had to spend time in purgatory, but there was a system in place. And so when a child was born, if that child was baptized, the baptism would take away the effects of original sin, it was thought. And so that would remove all the sort of natural sin that the child brought into life. And then as the child lived, doubtlessly, he or she would commit additional sins. And those sins would then cause the child to move on to the second plank of salvation, which would be by doing things like penance and confession and participating in communion and things like this, that you would be able to deal with the sins that had come along now after your baptism. And so, again, by doing these things and by following the program, you could have salvation. Well, Martin Luther was experiencing, this is why I say it was an existential issue, because he was finding no peace in a system that was telling him if he did everything just right, he could be saved, because he knew in his heart he couldn't do everything just right. And so as he began to study the Scripture and went beyond what the church was telling him, he became convinced that salvation was not by our obedience or our following a particular set of doctrines, but by faith in the work of Jesus Christ alone. And that truth transformed his life personally. That was the doctrine that gave him peace in his own life. And so he was willing to fight literally to the death for that truth in the church. And so his opposition to things like indulgences or other abuses that had kind of crept into the church then wasn't primarily based on a lot of theory. It was based on his knowledge that if you put anything in front of people, between people in Christ, then you're going to give them in their lives frustration and constant lack of assurance, and this kind of treadmill experience where you're always spinning your wheels trying to do certain things to ensure your salvation. So Martin Luther found this doctrine liberating. And the interesting thing is that even today, this is the default thinking of most people. That I have been good enough, that at least I'm not as bad as other people that I can read about in the newspapers, and I might even know some of them. And so that we have confidence based in our activity, and not in the activity of Christ. And if we do that, it will set us on a course of either being self-righteous, as Elizabeth mentioned, and having confidence in ourself, or being perpetually lacking assurance and always doubting who we are, because we know in our heart of hearts we just haven't done enough. And so I want us to look at this doctrine this morning with the understanding that properly understood, salvation by faith alone gives you true freedom. freedom as a Christian, and also gives you confidence to serve the Lord God. And so I've put in your outline here the main point I want us to see today. In Christ, you are God's workmanship, saved by grace through faith. that you might do the good works that God has given you to do. And there is an outline that's in your bulletin if you'd like to follow along. There's a couple of cross-references too on the back that I'll be referring to. Children, if you're going to draw a picture this morning, I've asked you to draw just a little picture about sort of how is it that you are saved and why is it that you are saved? What is it that God has in mind for you if He brings you into a relationship with Himself. And see if you can draw a picture that would illustrate that. The first thing I'd like us to see this morning is that you are saved by grace. You are saved by grace. We're focusing our attention on verses 8 to 10. And you see in verse 8, for by grace you have been saved. His major concern here is how is it that we are saved? And we have to pause at this point and say, this should be your major concern. Your major concern shouldn't be what type of an education I'm getting, how good is my job going to be, am I going to get married, am I going to have children, where am I going to live? It's all these things that we're quite concerned about. But the major thing you need to be concerned about is your salvation, your eternal soul, and what your relationship with God is going to be. And the reason this has to be a concern is because what we read back in verse 1 of this chapter, you He made alive who were dead in your sins and trespasses. You and I are spiritually dead by nature. And so this is the question, how is one saved? And Paul says we are saved by grace. And this is another way to say we are saved by God. And if you go back and read the first chapter of Ephesians, you'll see that Paul labors there to show that it's God the Father who chooses to save. some people, and it's God the Son who comes and purchases their redemption, and then it's God the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who comes and works salvation in people's lives so that they come to Christ and they trust in Him. Salvation is by grace, means it's by God. Theologians define grace as an unmerited favor. And that's a good handy definition, but I have to understand here that it's not that we're saying God saves you and you don't deserve to be saved. What it's saying is that God saves you and you deserve the opposite of being saved. You deserve condemnation. So it's God's favor to you when you're in a state of demerit. When you deserve the opposite of His favor. You deserve His anger and His wrath. It's quite amazing to me that, you know, people are just wringing their hands, they're shocked, they're shocked that there's a Hollywood producer out there who's a serial abuser of women. You know, I scratch my head, really, is that, that's really surprising to you that you can see all the filth that comes out of Hollywood all the time and we're amazed that a Hollywood producer would actually be engaged in that kind of activity on his own. But of course, you know, the people in that world are sort of feigning to be shocked because they fancy themselves as the moral arbiters for the rest of us. And so it's really not good for business to have this kind of thing revealed and the curtain drawn back just a little bit. And recognize, what's the response to this, right? So this man is in treatment now. If you say you're in treatment, what does that imply? It implies that you have an illness, that something has happened to you that you cannot be blamed for. And this is, of course, the way of the world. And I have you consider whether this is the way of your own heart as well. Because each one of us, according to the scripture, is every bit as guilty and responsible for our sin as this Hollywood producer is. And we can't chalk it up to our upbringing or to our circumstances or to an illness that we may have. And God says we're responsible. And it's as if God takes a person like this producer who's worthy of condemnation and probably of a prison sentence, and God brings people like that out and gives them the keys of the city and honors them. And that would be a great, great travesty of justice if a human judge did that. But God does that because He punishes fully and completely every sin of His people in the person of Jesus Christ. And this is what Paul's saying to you and to me. You're saved by grace. You're saved as a gift, a gift of God. Now, Paul goes on to make this point about the fact that this is a gift. He says in verse 8, You've been saved by grace through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." It's very interesting. Here he doesn't contrast being saved by grace with being condemned, which might be a comparison we could make, but he compares being saved by grace with boasting. and taking credit for our salvation. Because Paul knows that that's a temptation that you and I struggle with regularly. And even Christians who believe in this doctrine, right, find themselves thinking, oh no, I need to do my Bible study this morning or else God won't love me as much. Thinking that you can do things to make God more pleased with you. And if that happens, if that creeps into your life, you're going to put yourself onto this treadmill. You're never going to be able to do enough, and you're always going to be wondering. Paul says, there's no place for boasting, it's a gift. And what do you do with a gift? You receive a gift as a gift. I put in your outline Romans 11, 6 where Paul says there, if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. We receive a gift as a gift. And this is what it was that finally freed Martin Luther from the bondage that he was in. I mean, you realize he was a monk and he earnestly sought, he has a quote that is quite humorous to our ears, but he says, if ever a monk could be saved by his monkery, it was I. I did everything they told me to do. I slept on the floor in the middle of winter. I denied myself food for days. I prayed and I prayed. I spent hours in the confessional. And I never ever had peace because I knew I was a sinner. And he was in bondage to that. And it was only when he came to understand, no, it's the righteousness of Christ that comes through faith as a gift that saves me. I have to receive the gift that his life was changed and that he went from being a man who actually wrote. There were times when he was so angry at God that he said he hated God, to being a man who was willing to stand against the world for this truth of God's salvation being by grace. So, if you're a Christian this morning, this is because God has given you a gift. And you need to constantly be reminded of that. So you're saved by grace. And secondly, we see here that you're saved through faith. Paul goes on to explain more what he's talking about in verse He says, you've been saved by grace through faith. And you think, well, what does that mean? This is actually a place where the prepositions are important. Because we're not saved by our faith, he's trying to say here, we're saved through our faith. And some commentators call faith the instrument of our salvation. It's the channel through which God's grace is flowing to you. Recognize this would be sort of like the surgeon who does an operation. And we praise the surgeon. We do not praise the scalpel. The scalpel is the instrument that the surgeon uses. It's critical. He can't do it with his finger. He can't get out a pair of scissors and do it. He needs the scalpel. It's critical, but it's the thing that connects the surgeon and his skill to your body. And that is how we are to think of faith. Faith is what connects you to the grace of God. and to the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And this is where there's a lot of confusion, because faith is not feeling like we're okay with God. It's not wishful thinking. It's not positive mental attitude. It's not something that's a part of our feelings. It's a confidence and a hope in the Word of God. Hebrews 11.1 says, Faith is the substance the substance, the reality of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And this is why we say it's believing in the promises of God, even when what's in front of your eyes might tell you something different. Theologians sometimes talk about faith as having several components. It is knowledge of the truth. It is understanding of the truth. So you've heard it. You understand it. But those things aren't enough, right? It requires this third component, which is trust. I've put my trust in this. In reading, we have a guy who's just come back from Sonoma, so he can fill us in quite more on what's been happening with the fires. But I read a story, you know, that the fires burning in California came so fast that people literally had, in some cases, minutes or less to make decisions about what they were going to do. And a story about a guy, you know, looking up, oh, I think I've got some time going and doing and then looking up and no, I have no time at all. It's grab your family, it's get in the truck and it's drive. And if your truck doesn't start or it doesn't work, you're dead. Now, understand, you might have knowledge that, you know, I have a truck, you might have understanding how it works, you know how to start it, you know how to put it in gear, you know these things, but it's only when you jump into it, when your life literally is in the balance, that we see if that's where your trust has been placed. And if the truck was out of gas, that was it. You put your faith in the wrong thing. This is what Paul's talking about. It is the trust that throws us onto Christ. But it's not just the trust, right? You're not saved just because you have faith. People think that's good. You know, have faith means that I'm optimistic about the future. I think it's all going to work out. That doesn't save you. That's like jumping in the car with no gas. There were people that jumped into swimming pools. But you know what? There's too much smoke and you die anyway. The issue isn't just having faith, it's what do you have faith in? And this is why this doctrine is saying to us, not just faith, but faith in Christ. It's faith alone that saves us. There's only one way to be saved. We have to put our confidence and our trust in the right thing, in the person of Jesus Christ, the only one who can save us. So, salvation is by grace. It's through faith. That faith that trusts in Christ. And thirdly, I want you to see that your faith is not a work. And here we have to address another common confusion in our day and age. Because some people think about their faith as something that they bring to the table. Right? I bring my faith, and then God, You save me. And there's this transaction that goes on, and by doing that, they turn faith into a sort of work after all. Because the faith is something that I'm ginning up, I'm generating. But what does he say in verse 9? He says, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. And this is why it's probably more helpful to think of your faith as coming to Christ expressing your emptiness. John Calvin says it this way, and I put this quote in your outline, Faith then brings a man empty to God that he may be filled with the blessings of Christ. And this is an important concept to get. Paul says in our text, this is not of yourself. And he's speaking there of the whole process of salvation, but clearly he's speaking of faith. And if you look in the original language, he says, you're saved by grace through faith and this is not of yourself. This faith is not something you produce and bring to the table. It itself is a gift of God. And what we're saying here, what Paul is saying is that the Holy Spirit has to work in your life to enable you to trust in Christ. I put in your outline a shorter catechism question that defines a doctrine called effectual calling, but this gets at what we're talking about here. Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit whereby convincing us of our sin and misery, enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ and renewing our wills He does persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely offered to us in the Gospel. I think that's a helpful way to think about it. Faith is embracing Jesus Christ. And notice, we're not saying that the Holy Spirit embraces Christ for you. You have to embrace Christ. It's you that have to trust Christ. But what this is saying is you can't do that unless the Spirit works and gives you a new heart that wants to trust Christ. But the response that's required is that you reach out in faith, bringing nothing. Calling for Christ. Some scripture from other parts of the Bible that support this, I put in your outline, John 6.44, Jesus says, No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. You can't do it. You cannot come unless the Father draws him. And that word, draw, by the way, is the same word in the original language that was used to describe what they did to Paul. when the mob attacked him in Jerusalem, right? This is not like saying, come over here, Paul, or the way I try to call my puppy, which does not work very well. This is grabbing the man, lifting him up, and bringing him out of the way. And this is the word that's used here. God has to bring you to this point before you can embrace His salvation. Or in Acts 16.14, where it tells us about how Lydia responds to the preaching of Paul. Now, a certain woman named Lydia heard us She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira who worshipped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul." This is the idea. The Spirit works. And our response then is to embrace Christ as He's freely offered to us in the Gospel. There's a famous hymn called Rock of Ages that was written back in the late 1700s. It says, nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling. And this is the idea, that we cling to Christ, not because we've offered something as an exchange, but because that's the only hope that we have. And the Spirit has allowed us to understand that truth. I think what's encouraging to you and to me is that if you have put your faith in Christ, Recognize that this is not because you were more clever than the person around you You had better parents than the other people around you or you're just a good good person, right? but the Holy Spirit has worked and has enabled you to embrace the Savior and to be saved and that's really encouraging to us because We don't have to worry about maybe I'll stop believing this someday. I I was never the person who created this faith in the first place. It was the Lord. And we can have great confidence that we will continue in the faith because it is His work. Of course, the other side of that is if you haven't come to faith yet, the response isn't to say, well, I'm just going to sit here and wait for the Spirit to work. No, the call is repent and believe the Gospel. And today is the day of salvation. And if you hear the Lord calling to you, it's incumbent upon you to come to Christ, to say, Lord, I embrace You as my Savior, and I want my sins forgiven by You. So you are saved by grace through faith, and this faith is not a work, it is a gift of God. And then fourthly, we see that in fact, you are saved as a good work of God. In verse 10, Paul says, we are His workmanship. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. And the word translated workmanship actually is the Greek word from which we get the word poem today. It's interesting because this word can have the meaning of a creation, right? Something that's made, a form of this word is used to describe God's creation of the world. But it also can sort of hint at the creation of a great work of art. And it's almost as if what he's getting at here is that God is recreating you through Christ to be a great work of art. A work of art. a testimony to His glory and grace. And that is a true blessing to think about. I put in your outline, actually I didn't put this one in your outline, so you just have to listen. 2 Corinthians 5.17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. This is what he's saying. When God gets a hold of you, and gives you this faith and changes you, you are being made into a great work of art, a masterpiece of God's glory. Yesterday morning, I was driving down from Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania down to Pittsburgh. So going about an hour south right along the river. And so we're driving right about sunrise and you have the sun coming up and the leaves are all turning. And you've got the river valley and the fog sitting down in the valley and the sun coming up over the hills. Absolutely spectacular. And two pastors in the car. So you know it was impressive because we both stopped talking. And just look, just soaking it in. You say, wow, that's incredible. And I think it's right for us. We have these moments when we see things like that and we think, look at what God has made. And we should respond that way. That's the right response. But what Paul is saying is that when you look at a man or woman or child redeemed from their sin, and brought to salvation. That's a far greater masterpiece than any sunset, or mountain, or ocean, or whatever it is you like to look on. A redeemed sinner. A person with an eternal soul who is headed for destruction, turned into a worshipper of God. That's a masterpiece of God's grace. And if you're here this morning, As a Christian, you need to remind yourself, I am a masterpiece of God's grace. He has made me this way. This is what Paul's saying, you are God's workmanship. And he's speaking about the redeemed sinner. What an incredible thing that we are masterpieces of God's grace. So you are saved by grace, through faith, a faith that's not your own. And you're saved as a good work of God. And then finally we see in this text, that you're saved to do God's good works. And you see how verse 10 ends. So he says, we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. For good works. Anyone who teaches salvation by faith is going to come up against this little problem. If you tell people they're saved by faith and it's Christ's righteousness, how are you going to motivate them to be good little girls and boys? I have this question myself. When the gospel was first explained to me, I said, well, if that's true, I can just go live however I want. It shows that I didn't really understand what they were saying. But this is the criticism. This is the criticism in Martin Luther's day. You can't tell people this. They're going to think they can live any way they want. It is ironic, right, that there are some branches of the Protestant Church that do exactly that, right? This idea that we're saved by faith, this blessed condition, we can sin all we want and still have remission. That's a non-Christian view, right, that we're free to sin now. The whole chapter of Romans 6 deals with that. But it is a question that we need to talk about. So how does this impact the way we live? How do we live in light of this doctrine? And Paul addresses it right here. He tells us that you are saved, this whole work of God making you into His masterpiece is done so that you can produce good works. Your good works don't save you. You can't do anything that will make God love you any more than He does already. But because He saved you, this is the thing that causes us to do good works, because we're new people, because we've been saved from judgment and from destruction. And the motivation is gratitude, it's not a desire to earn favor or standing with the Lord. And so children, this tells you why you've been saved. So that you will walk in God's good works, that you will live according to His Word. that you will serve Him all of your lives. And notice, there's something else fascinating in the text, because it says about these good works, these are good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. That to me is a mind-bender, right? This is saying that before you were even made, right? Before God's plan had unfolded to create the world, He had you in mind. And He had in mind that He was going to save you for a particular purpose, to walk as His servant in a particular place in this world. in a particular time. That's all part of God's plan for you. He didn't save you so you could walk in your sins. That's not the purpose. The purpose is that so you would do the good works that He had ordained from all eternity, that you would do. And so in this way, it's sort of a restatement of what He said earlier in Ephesians 1 verse 4. And I did put this in your outline and you can turn back to it. In chapter 1 verse 4, he said, just as He that is the Father chose us in Him that is the Son, Christ, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. This is the proper relationship between our faith and our works. James says that faith without works is dead, and this is what he means, that a living faith, a changed heart produces works out of gratitude for a God who has made us, made us with the purpose that we would do good works. And you see how if you grasp this teaching, it gets you off the treadmill of constantly trying to earn God's favor. You can't have any more favor than you already have through Christ. That's not why you live a certain way. It also gets you out of the pitfall of constantly doubting your relationship with God, because you know you haven't done enough. You have your faith in Christ. And God says, I'm working a great work in your life. I've prepared beforehand that you would be in this place at this time and that you would serve Me in this way. What confidence that gives us to live then. It frees us to live. Not as people constantly weigh down with guilt and with doubt, but with joy and confidence that we might serve the Lord. There's a little shop over in the chemistry department on campus that a lot of people don't know about. There's a guy in the shop there who's a glassblower. Why do we have to hire a glassblower? Well, this man, just one guy, produces all the glassware, the specialized glassware, for our university and the different campuses and other universities actually use him as well. And the scientists come to him and they say, I need something that are going to do this application. We've got to separate these chemicals. And so he makes, he heats, he pulls, he twists, he builds the glass into these intricate configurations so that it will do some purpose. And he doesn't do it so that these things can sit up on the shelf and people go in and say, wow, what an amazing skill you have, what an amazing piece of art. No, it's taken to a lab. It has tubes and wires hooked up to it and it's used. And this is what Paul's saying is true about you. God in heaven, the all-powerful God, made you for a particular purpose. Not so that you could be some kind of hothouse flower in a display, right? So that you can do things. He made you beautiful. You're a masterpiece of His work because He saved you from your sins. And He's given you a new heart and He's enabled you to trust Christ. But the reason is so that you will fulfill His purposes in the world. What an incredible thing that He's made you just the way you need to be made to do the work that He has for you to do. Only through Jesus Christ. Only through Jesus Christ. This is the doctrine that freed Martin Luther, that freed Europe, that freed the British Isles, that has freed people, men and women and children, for centuries. coming to understand we're saved by grace, through faith in Jesus alone, and saved in such a way that we can serve God freely and confidently, doing the good works that He has prepared for us to do. May you, this week even, serve the Lord, doing the works that He has called you to do. And may we pray and ask Him to help us do that. Heavenly Father, we confess that it's very easy for us, even though we know these truths, we've studied these things, it's very easy for us to fall back into thinking that we're saved by some activities or commitments or efforts on our part. We pray that you would remind us afresh each day that we are only saved by our trust, the faith that we have in Christ, which comes to us as a gift from You, a free gift. Lord, we thank You for Your love for Your people. We thank You that You have made us in such a way that we could be redeemed by Christ, and that we could walk in the good works that You have given us to do. You've taken us from those who are walking enslaved to sin which we read about in the beginning of this chapter, to those who are walking in the good works that you prepared beforehand that we would do. Lord, that's not something we accomplish. That's what you have done for us. And we pray, Lord, that each one of us would be living our lives by faith alone, trusting in you alone for our salvation, free and confident and enabled to serve You and to do the works You've prepared us to do. Lord, none of us does these things like we should, and we pray that You would forgive us for Christ's sake, but that You would continue to work in our lives and help us grow in our faithfulness and service to You, that we would be trophies of Your grace and would give You glory and praise. For we pray this all in Jesus' name, Amen.