Turn to Ephesians chapter 2. There it is. Ephesians chapter 2. And look down at verse 1. Ephesians 2, 1. The Bible says, "...and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, where in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved." And I want to preach to you today on why is it good to be saved. Father, I come before You now and I ask You to please help. Please fill me with the Holy Spirit, Lord, and I pray, God, that You'll give these folks what they need, Lord. I pray that it will be an uplifting sermon, something that gets down into the souls of Your people, the hearts of Your people, Lord, and helps them, Lord, to draw closer to You. and to appreciate what salvation is, Lord, and how blessed we are to have it, God, to be able to receive the free gift of salvation and what it means in our lives. Father, I ask that You'll please speak through me. Give me right words. I love You and I pray all this in Your Son's name. Amen. Now, growing up in church and spending my whole life listening to preachers and other people, they get up here and they say, well, it sure is good to be saved. Sam Gipp will get up and he goes, good to be saved, right? Good to see me, right? He always does that joke. But he always asks, they say, is it good to be saved? Well, it's good to be saved, and that's true. But one day I heard it, and I remember thinking to myself, yeah, but why? Specifically, and I'm not asking why in a weird way, I'm asking it in a rhetorical way. I'm asking, like, to think about it. What is it about salvation that makes it so good? So what we're going to do today, and this will be an expository sermon for you guys. I'm teaching how to put together sermons. Everything I'm going to preach is going to be found in Ephesians 2. We're going to expose the passage. But we're going to look over this chapter and pull some things out, and I want to answer the question of why is it good to be saved? And I want to give you some real encouraging answers. I'm hoping this will be an uplifting kind of thing. Now, let me start by saying this, because I don't know everybody in here. The question should be, first off, are you saved? Have you been born again? No one is born into this life a Christian. I've gotten that answer more times than I can tell you. You saved? Yeah, I was born a Christian. No, that's not a thing. You weren't born a Christian. You have to become saved. You have to become a Christian. Here's some scripture for you. Exodus 15.2, the Lord is my strength and song and He has become my salvation. I know that's Old Testament, but you can make personal application, spiritual application. Psalms 118.14, the Lord is my strength and song and is become. My salvation has to happen. It has to be received. Psalms 118.21. I will praise thee for thou has heard me in art become my salvation. Isaiah 12.2. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also is become my salvation. So I can't talk about why it's good to be saved if you're not. Are you saved? I'm about to preach a whole sermon on this thing. It would be an awful shame if Jesus hasn't even become your salvation yet. Let this one great, gracious, glorious fact lie in your spirit until it permeates all your thoughts and makes you rejoice even though you are without strength. Rejoice that the Lord has become your strength, become your song, and has become your salvation. This sermon here today is going to be aimed at Christians, the whole thing. And it's an attempt here. As your preacher, I'm trying to encourage you today. But if you're not saved today, you can't get any encouragement from it. It won't apply to you. You're going to be missing out on the most important thing, the most beneficial gift of eternity is getting saved. Look at verse 8. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Salvation is a free gift. Now that should be clear, but all the religions mess it up. I heard a fellow here just the other day who believes you have to work for salvation. He said, more people have gone to hell on Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 than any other verse in the Bible. You go to hell trusting in a free gift? You're going to stand before God and quote Ephesians 2, 8, and 9? And he says, no, no, no, I didn't really mean that. And put you in hell? Stinking devil. There's only two things you can do with a gift. You can receive it or you can reject it. That's it. You cannot work for a gift. It ceases being a gift when you have to work for it. Then it's a wage. It's something you earn. Folks, salvation would be worth working for if you could attain it that way. Think about that for a minute. If it was attainable in that way, then it'd be worth working for. The salvation of a soul is worth a man going around the whole world on his hands and knees. Crawling up every mountain. Slickering there through every river, man. Crawling across every desert. If that was how you could attain it. Any manner of hardship would be worth it if you could attain it. But you cannot get it that way. It has to be received. It is to him who believes on Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ did all the work and he offers you all the benefits, but you have to receive it. And he puts it on you. God gives you a free will to either accept or reject it. Imagine someone doing all the work for you to get a million dollars and then just says, well, you got to receive it. And you go, no, thanks. I'd rather work for it. You lost your mind. Charles Spurgeon said it like this. This is the doctrine that we preach. If a man be saved, all the honor is to be given to Christ. But if a man be lost, all the blame is to be laid upon himself. That's it. You'll find all true theology summed up in these two short sentences. Salvation is all the grace of God. Damnation is all the will of man. And that's it. And if you aren't saved, please just don't let your pride get in the way today of receiving that free gift. Because it will. I'm a pretty good person. I've been to church my whole life. No, He paid all of it. And you have to take His life. He sat there, what is it, Isaiah 53 says He poured out His soul unto death. He didn't just give His physical life, He gave the whole bit for you. And you ought to consider the benefits of that today. Now here's what you Christians ought to take from this thing, and I'm going to give you a couple points here. Why is it good to be saved? Well, the first point, it's good to be saved because you're passed from death to life. Look at verse 1. and you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." That quickened isn't talking about fast. I think in the 90's they made a Western called, The Quick and the Dead. They're trying to take it from the Bible. That's talking about quick is alive. Look at verse 4. But God who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ. He didn't make you faster, okay? He brought you to life. That's a resurrection there is what's going on. John 5.24 says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life. Hath, present tense, right now you got it. Hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. I'm going to get into some stuff on why you can't lose your salvation in a little while, but that's enough right there. Past. That's past tense. You've already passed from death to life. You've already got it. Now, folks, it's good to be saved because you're already passed from death to life. Before you ever breathe your last breath, you're already passed. The wages of sin is death. Yep, got that. But the gift of God's eternal life. That's an important thing. If the Lord doesn't come get us out of here one of these days, your flesh is going to rot and die. but you're already passed if you're saved. Isn't it good to be saved? You're already passed from death to life because you're saved. You've already got the eternal life. It's already on your soul. And this thing is going to die, it's going to rot. I heard Brother Peacock saying something like that. As you get older, those bruises last longer. And the body doesn't heal as quick and it starts to go down. Yeah, but your soul's already passed, man. It's already passed from death to life. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 54 says, So when this corruptible... That's what it is. It's getting corrupt. It's going down. When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? One of these days, death could come your way and knock on your door and it'll say, all right, it's time. We've got to go to hell. Come with me. And you can say, pass. No, you go ahead. You go knock on somebody else's door. I'm already passed from death to life. My ticket's already been paid for because of Jesus Christ. I've got to pass when I die. I'm going straight upstairs. I'll just leave this old course behind right up to the Father and home. Simple as that. Up there at Niagara Falls, those waters crash down over 160 feet down, and it's something like 1,400 tons a second. Not 1,400 gallons, 1,400 tons of water comes down every second. But there's a place, they call it the cave of the winds. It's not ours, OK? It's in Niagara. And this cave of the winds where they'll take you, they got to put you in rubber suits and stuff. And you can shimmy back in there with a guide. And you can go, and you're not just behind it. You're underneath that waterfall as it's coming out like this. And that thing is dropping 84,000 tons of water a minute down there in front of you. And if you were to just take a few steps, that thing would hit you and crush you and murder you and just splatter you all over the place. But instead, because you're here, it passes over you. Now you know what that is? That's a picture of Jesus Christ sitting there holding that thing back. And all of hell and all of death might crash around you. It might even get close to you, but it can't touch you. The sting of death can't even get close. It'll fall down on the jagged rocks all around you, but you're safe. It just passes right over. That's a good reason to be saved. Amen? Alright, here's the second one. Why is it good to be saved? It's good to be saved because you were a child of wrath, and now you're a child of God. Look at verse 2. where in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince and the power of the air." That's one of the names of the devil. "...the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature." That's your flesh. That's right down to your biology. That goes right down into your soul and your spirit that aren't redeemed yet, were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Look at verse 18, for through Him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. And when you get saved, you go from being a child of the devil to being a child of the Father. You say, I was a child of the devil when I was lost? That's what Jesus said in John 8, 44. He says you're a child of the devil before you receive Christ. And when you receive Christ, the Bible says you're brought in by the spirit of adoption, Romans chapter 8. Adopted from what? From your father the devil. That's what's going on. What a trade-off, man. That old father of yours was abusive. He was hateful. All He wanted to do was drag you to hell because misery loves company. And He would just drag you right down into hell, but because of salvation. It's good to be saved, amen. Because of salvation, the Lord steps in between you. He steps in between you and your old father and says, you don't belong to Him anymore, you belong to Me. Puts His hand up and says, don't you even touch Him, He's mine. You can't touch His soul. That's my kid. And He can never touch your soul again because of it. Back in early American history, there was a military man named Colonel Byrd of Virginia. And he was captured by some Cherokee Indians there, and they were about to kill him. And in that tribe, there was a chief who had been his friend some time ago. And when he recognized his friend, that chief ran over there as the executioners were about to kill him. He ran up there, and he spread himself over the colonel like this. And he looked up, and he said, this man is my friend. If you want to kill him, you're going to have to kill me first." And because of that, the colonel lived. And folks, there was a time when you were bound in sin, and you belonged to the devil. He was heading your way, and he was going to drag you down to hell with him, and you had to call out to a real friend. And you called out to Him and the Lord came and He spreads Himself over you. And He says, you get back from Him. You don't touch her. She's mine now. If you want to get to them, you're going to have to go through Me. And the devil goes, okay. He steps back from the chief of the universe and says, okay, I'll go find somebody else. It's good to be saved. Here's another reason why it's good to be saved. It's good to be saved because you were eternally saved and you could not lose it if you wanted to. Look at verse 5. Even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ. Folks, eternal life is not based on you, it's based on Him. He has eternal life, and when you get saved, the Bible says you're put into the body of Christ, you're one with Him, He's one with you. The Bible says you're in Him, and the Bible says He's in you. You're with Him, and you can't lose Him. And I know there's all kinds of religions out there that say you can lose their salvation, and I could give you all kinds of doctrinal problems with that thing, but one of the main issues is that the Bible, listen to me, the Bible calls it eternal life. Okay, if you have eternal life and can lose it, it's temporary life. It's not eternal. Jesus says over there, what is it, John 3.36, He calls it everlasting life. Okay, well it can't be everlasting if it can be taken away and stop lasting. It's either eternal like He said it was, or He's a liar. And I don't know about you, I don't think He's a liar. It's eternal life, it's not temporal. Look at verse 8. Verse 8, for by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Okay, now here you go. If you can lose this gift of salvation, then God's an Indian giver. I know you're not supposed to say that stuff anymore, but I say it. Indian giver is, I want it back now. So He gives you eternal life, and then you mess around, and you don't treat it quite as good as you're supposed to, and He comes over and says, that's actually mine, I take it back. No, He's no Indian giver. And folks, if God can take it back, then it's not a gift. Now listen to me. That verse just said, not of yourselves. You know what the problem with these guys who say you can lose your salvation? They have salvation right up to salvation. They'll say you've got to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's not your works, it's just Him, da-da-da-da, and then you get it, and then they say, now you have to do good works to keep it. Okay, then it's not a gift! I have to continue doing things to pay for something that He said He already paid for? Doesn't make any sense. It's a gift. And if you have to keep on doing good works for it, then it's works that keeps it. And then it's not of yourselves. Verse 9, not of works, lest any man should boast. Now, let me show you something else. Look at verse 19. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. No more strangers. Well, that means you can't lose the thing. You're a fellow citizen and of the household of God. That means you're a part of his family now. And no one can ever change that. Not even you. Some religions teach that. That's a bunch of bunk is what it is. And the reason some Christians start doubting their salvation is because they're struggling with some sin they can't get victory over. And so they get in their own head and they say, well, I must have either never got it or somewhere along the line I lost it. No. You are conflating salvation with sanctification and they are not the same. Okay? Salvation is all Him. Sanctification is what you then do after salvation through Him. But they're not the same. You can be saved and heaven-bound and still live a life that isn't sanctified. That's why He says, Be holy as I am holy. Well, that's after you're saved. He takes care of the whole thing. He pays the whole thing. And then He asks you, are you going to try to be like Me now? Are you going to try to live a life that's sanctified? You can still live like the world and be saved. You'll be miserable, but you'll be saved. I've seen it said like this, Listen, sanctification grows out of faith in Jesus Christ. Listen, holiness is a flower, not a root. Sanctification is a flower, not a root. It is not sanctification that saves, but salvation that sanctifies. That's what you have to get. The salvation can help you get victory over that sin, but sanctification can never help you get saved. It's all on Him. It's an aftermath. The root is salvation that grows into the flower of sanctification. And some Christians just seem to struggle with this thing more than others. I've found it over the years. They come to you and they worry and they get anxious. And you know what you have to do eventually? You just have to take God's Word on it. And you have to stop basing it on how you feel. Because feelings do this right here. God's Word is just steady, man. Now, either he's a liar or you can take him at his Word and he promised that he'd take care of you. Look at v. 12. "...that at that time ye were..." Past tense. "...ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now..." Notice what it says. "...in Christ Jesus." Ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Folks, He does all the work. And then He covers you in His blood, and you're going to have to just settle it in your own heart, purpose in your own heart that you're going to rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ. And that it's all on Him. And the best evidence of salvation in the whole world is that you have God's Word on it. And it doesn't matter that you mess up sometimes. I'm sure it matters as far as fellowship, but not relationship. And I'm going to get ahead of myself. I'm going to talk about that here in a second. But what you have to do in your own heart is say, did God say it? Then I believe it, period. I just trust Him. And I believe a multitude of Christians are being deceived by the devil, and they have no assurance of salvation just because they're not willing to take God's Word on it. They lean on their own feelings about it. Well, my heart feels like I don't have it. Your heart's wrong, and the book's right. God's Word says that if you're saved, you're safe in Him, in Christ. Over there in John chapter 10, some of my favorite verses in the whole Bible talks about how I'm in His hand, and no man can pluck me out of His hand, and He says, I'm in the Father's hand. That's some pretty strong grip there, don't you think? You think you're going to pry yourself out, do you? No way, man. We listened to that sermon here a few weeks ago from the chalk talk and Dr. Ruckman said, safe forever. And that thing has been bouncing around in my heart for the last couple of weeks. I've thought about that thing. It just warmed me, man. Just such a beautiful way of looking at it. You couldn't do anything to get out if you wanted to. You're safe forever. You say, well, what if I mess up and I sin? Sin can cause a breach in your fellowship with God, but not in your relationship. He doesn't stop being your Father when you mess up. And folks, listen to me, He does not stop being your Savior when you sin. He'd be a pretty lousy Savior if He did. And people get all bent out of shape. I can't tell you how many people I've dealt with over the years, and they start worrying about sin in their life. And normally what happens is they start worrying about sin in somebody else's life. Well, they couldn't be saved and do that. Okay, why don't you look in the mirror, buddy? But they're out here going, well, that guy couldn't be saved. Look at that sin. He couldn't be saved because of that stuff. Isn't he a Savior? Can't he make the vilest sinner clean? They'll sit there and they'll say, well, surely that kind of sin, they'll lose their salvation. Surely you can't curse and swear and be saved. Well, Peter cursed and swore. He was saved. So you're telling me people who steal and rob can be saved? Yeah, the thief on the cross, he got saved. You're telling me somebody can be a murderer and be saved? Yeah, Paul was a murderer and he got saved. You're telling me somebody can be devil-possessed and get saved? Yeah, Mary Magdalene was devil-possessed. She got saved. Saved, saved, saved, man. Saved by His power divine. Saved a new life sublime. Life now is sweet and my joy is complete for I'm saved, I'm saved, I'm saved. I'm saved from my past sins. I'm saved from my present sins. I'm saved from my future sins. I'm just saved, man. Clean slate. Saved. When you get saved like that. You say you're really saved from all those sins, even the future ones, you're really saved from those? Yeah. Romans 8, 38 and 39, For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is, where is it? In Christ Jesus our Lord. The whole connection is where you are. Are you in Christ or are you out of Christ? You can't be separated from the love of Christ when you're in Him. It's good to be saved, isn't it? Because you're eternally secure. My fourth point, my last point. Why is it good to be saved? It's good to be saved because you're on your way to heaven and you're not going to go to hell. And it's just as simple as that. Look at verse 5. Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace are ye saved. And here's one of the most confusing verses in the whole Bible, and I believe it because he said it. And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. It says we're already sitting up in heaven together. Now my guess as how to doctrinally apply that thing is that I'm one with him and he's up there, so a part of me is there because he's there, but I don't know how to explain that thing. Seated together. So I'm up there sitting with my dad, I don't even understand it. Maybe he does, I'm guessing he's got it all worked out actually. Got the mind of Christ and all that stuff, but then it talks about the ages to come. And that means for ages and ages Christ will be showing us the exceeding riches of His grace. I guess it would take Him that long. And eons, a billion years. So I guess a couple billion eons will go by and He'll just keep saying stuff and we'll just keep going. Man, I didn't realize how deep that love was. I didn't understand your grace. I didn't get your kindness. I had your book. I read it and I just still didn't quite get it. Can you tell me a little bit more? And you just never get tired of it. But it's better than just It's better than just not going to hell. You realize? I mean, that's an amazing thing right there. Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels, and heaven was prepared for Jesus Christ Christ. And I don't have to go there. I don't have to go and suffer pain. I don't have to go down there and torment and suffer for rejecting Christ. But then on top of that, I don't have to stay here on this planet? You ever think about that? Worrying about assassination attempts and all this craziness? Worrying about Biden getting back in, or whatever, or Kamala, or what's her name anyway? All that mess. I was talking to a Christian fellow this week, and I said to him, I said, you know, there won't be one gravestone in heaven, let alone one cemetery. And his eyes got real big. He goes, whoa. Then I said to him, I said, not one hospital in heaven. Be a whole bunch of extra room. There won't be any nursing homes up in heaven. No DMV. No dumps, no trash. That's a crazy thing, man. Look at verse 6. It says, "...raised us up together, made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Look at verse 19. "...Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God." If you've got any family or friends that are out ahead of you up in heaven, it's sure good to be saved, isn't it? Isn't that a blessing? We don't have to sorrow as those without hope, the Bible says. You get to see them again. If they pass because of sickness, there won't be any more sickness. If they pass because of old age, there won't be any more old age. The former things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Isn't it good to be saved? Those are some real simple things just found in this passage here. It's good to be saved. You can look out past this life and whatever trials you have. You know what's going to happen? You're going to get up to heaven and realize there wasn't one trial you weren't supposed to go through. There wasn't one trial too many when you get up to heaven. And it's all taken care of. I'll close with this. There was a little girl who was walking through the countryside with her mother. She'd never been out there before. And she's looking up at that night sky and the beauty of that thing. And those lights just flickering back at her and the beauty of that thing. And she said, oh mother, if heaven is so beautiful from the wrong side, what must it be like on the right side? Now that's it. It seems real good from this side. It's going to be a lot better on the other side. And that's why it's good to be saved. Amen? Alright, let's all stand for prayer. Just take a minute here. There's nothing real convicting about this, but if the Lord has dealt with you at all, maybe you ought to just come thank the Lord for that salvation. Night, night for me Sweet. Amen. All right, we got some good food. If you got any visitors in here, we got plenty. So please stick around with us here. And this afternoon, we're going to have a prayer meeting. We did that last time with Brother Donovan, the revival meeting before he came, and I thought the Lord got in it. So what I'd like to do is we're going to do like we did last time. We're going to come in here and have a handful of us pray and put some prayer on this meeting before Brother Colvin comes to visit us. Brother Terry, can you please bless the food here served for us? Hey my lord