Well, please remain standing now. We're going to come to our scripture reading this morning, which comes from Ephesians 2, verses 1-10. Ephesians 2, verses 1-10. And so, here now are the words of the Triune God. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. following the course of the world, following the prince of the power of the air, and the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. and raised up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast, for we are his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated. Well, the English word gospel comes from the Greek word evangelion, which means good news. Evangelion might sound a little similar to evangelism or an evangelical. And the reason is because evangelion is related to those two English words as well. It means to evangelize, or the word evangelism means to share the good news to others, to be an evangelical means to believe in the good news of Jesus Christ. And I mention this because the word gospel is so often used in everyday Christian vernacular from Our books that we write from conversations in our church, in Bible studies, we might even hear the word gospel on news networks and have a Christian just say the word itself. And what many think is that because we use it so much that this Greek word Evangelion was invented by Christians. The truth is that it wasn't invented by Christians. In fact, the word Gospel or Evangelion in the Greek actually predates Christianity and the birth of Christ. The Roman Empire used it frequently, this word Evangelion, to make pronouncements of festivals that were happening within the region. They also used this word, evangelion, to describe and pronounce and proclaim the victories in battles that would happen to certain providences. The word evangelion was also used in celebration for the emperors of the Roman Empire, the emperors who they believed were gods. And so all these gospels, the way in which it was used, these were edicts. The politicians and people who were involved in the higher echelons of the Roman Empire would go out and declare and proclaim and explain these gospel edicts. And I want us to look at one, or rather hear one this morning. In 9 BC, there was an inscription that was written about the Emperor Octavian, or rather Caesar Augustus. And this inscription reads, The birthday of the God, Augustus, was the beginning of the world good news, which has been proclaimed on his account. I'll read that again. The birthday of the God, Caesar Augustus, was the beginning for the world good news, which has been proclaimed on his account. And so according to the Roman Empire, the birth of Augustus was good news to the world. It was a moment in history where things changed according to them. In the inscription too, they also believe that Caesar Augustus was a god. And it's also here that we see that it was good news and it was proclaimed and it was explained to the Roman Empire and to the providences. And I mention this inscription because it has astounding similarities to the first verse in the Gospel of Mark, which is the first gospel that was ever written in our New Testament. And in Mark chapter one, verse one, It starts with this, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And I mention all this at the outset of our sermon this morning. Because it is Christians taking this word gospel and applying it to the true good news. The true moment within history that changed everything forever. This first verse is declaring that it is actually this historical event, that the birth of Christ, that this is the event that changed the whole world. And it's also this proclamation that it's actually the beginning of the true Son of God, Jesus Christ, which is good news. And dear saints, it is this good news, this gospel, that Christians have been proclaiming and explaining now for over 2,000 years. gospel of Jesus Christ. The proclamation and explanation of the gospel is the primary mission of the church. It is the reason why the Williams Reform Church exists. It's not simply about community. but it is also about and most significantly about discipleship in the gospel and the proclamation of the gospel. This is something that the church has been doing for now 2,000 years. And the reason why that we do it is because it is the message of the gospel that is the power of salvation for all men. The sharing of the gospel in and of itself, as Paul would say in Romans, is power. It is that way, it is the normative way in which God draws sinners unto salvation. And it is also the Christian's peace and hope in this life, both in life and in death. And I explain all of this this morning and say all of this to ask a question. If someone asked you, what is the gospel, could you proclaim it and explain it? If someone asked you, what is the gospel, would you be able to articulate it? If we don't know the gospel, how are we to share it? This is the hope for all sinners, this message. And it's something that we have, once again, been proclaiming for now over 2,000 years. I've often heard, both on TV and even from some churches, that the gospel is, God wants you to live your best life now. That is not the gospel. I've also heard the gospel being presented like this. God wants you to know that he exists and loves you. But that is not the gospel. Some people will say that the gospel is that God helps those whose helps themselves. That itself is not the gospel. I would even go so far as to say that sharing your testimony is not the gospel. Now the gospel could be in there, but the testimony, your testimony, is not the gospel. And even inviting people to church itself is not the gospel, although they will hear the gospel within church. But I say all this because the gospel is so important and fundamental to the life of the church. It is what we know, it's how we live, and it's what we proclaim, and we'll continue to proclaim until Christ's return, and we ought to know it. This sermon, we'll start our sermon series on Matthew in the book of Matthew starting next week, but Juan Carlos said, hey, just pick a text and just go with it, wherever you feel led. And I just really feel that Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 10, this is a passage that clearly outlines essential truths of the gospel. And it's a way that we could be reminded and also learn what the gospel is and what it isn't. And so our outline this morning going through Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 10 is twofold. the bad news and the good news. Very simple. And so beginning with verse 1, let us now just dive into our first heading, the bad news. Verse 1 reads, and you were dead and the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. And now there's nothing special about the Greek word dead. The Greek word dead means dead. But it's not talking about a physical death. What it's talking about is a spiritual death, a state that one is in outside or apart from Christ. And what does this mean? Well, simply put, what it means is that we cannot hear see, touch, taste, or smell the things of God. From birth and apart from Christ, apart from the Holy Spirit, there is no love from the Father. We are blind to Christ. We are deaf to the voice of the Holy Spirit. And when the Apostle Paul says in verse one that we're dead in our trespasses and sins, what the Apostle Paul is getting at here is that he's describing a state of being, not an action. In other words, we're not spiritually dead because we commit sins, but rather we sin because we are spiritually dead. That is our natural disposition. apart from Christ. This word trespass in the Greek, it means to slip, to fall, to deviate. So we are to apply this word into this state of being, to be spiritually dead is to deviate from the law of God, to deviate from the things of God. The word sin in the Greek means to fall short, or to miss a certain goal. It was often used to describe archers and how they would fail to miss their targets. And in the very same way, Christians fall short to the glory of God. Once again, this is our natural disposition. To be spiritually dead means to hate what God loves and love what God hates. To be spiritually dead means to worship the creation rather than the creator. To be spiritually dead means to be enslaved in sin. And all of this started at the fall because of our first parents in paradise and their disobedience. It was through Adam's disobedience in the garden that all of humanity, all of his posterity, all of creation was plunged into sin. And it is all we know straight from the womb. And so for lesson one here, apart from Christ, what we see in verse one is that we are spiritually dead. We'll continue now to verse 1 and 2. I'll read verse 1, but I'll also add verse 2. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. And here, we're going to add two layers to this spiritual deadness. In the New Testament, the word world, or the concept of the word world, is supposed to be something that Christians abhor and reject. It's something that we are to avoid. It describes the spiritual realm, the thinking of the world, the thinking of sinners, their philosophy, their patterns, their lifestyles. And it's something, once again, that we should avoid, something that we should reject, something that we should abandon. 1 John 2, verses 15-16. The Apostle John writes, Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all this is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life. These things are not from the Father, this is from the world. And so apart from Christ, we are not spiritually dead, but we are alive in the sense of alive and walking with the world. We are quite literally the walking dead, following the world's thinkings, patterns, behaviors. Apart from Christ, we are the walking dead, affirming the world's value systems and goals and purposes. And some of these values and purposes, if we just name a couple, one would be humanism. or now known as transhumanism, right? That the man is at the center and is at the source of all humanity. It is this belief that we are actually good and we need to remove the systems of this world in order to walk righteous and upright. It places man at the center of all creation. We even look at things like materialism. This is another way in which the world thinks and it's the way in which the world, people go apart from Christ, which is materialism. Materialism is the possession. of physical comfort as being more important than spiritual values, or more important than Christ, more important than religion. And you also have this idea of secularism as well, secularism, which is this belief that we should move God from the public square. And I mention all this because this is really the heartbeat of our culture apart from Christ. It does not want God, it does not thirst for Him, and if left to our own, we would go into this humanistic way of thinking and we would embrace secularism. These are just some of the ways in which people follow the world. The third lesson that we see here is that apart from Christ, and this could be very jolting for some, but it says that we follow Satan. And what it's not saying is that we are possessed by Satan, but rather that we are oppressed by him, that we are influenced by Satan and his realm, which is in the world, either willingly or unwillingly. And in the New Testament, for Christians, there's so many exhortations. about avoiding the temptations of the devil or avoiding the devil himself because he is the ruler of this world to some degree. In Ephesians 4, verse 27, the Apostle Paul would write, Give no opportunity to the devil. In Ephesians 6, verse 11, he will also write, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. In 1 Peter 5, verse 8, the apostle Peter says, your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him. If these warnings are for those who are in Christ, how much more for those who are apart from him? It might be a little bit jolting to say, apart from Christ, we follow the world and we follow Satan in the sense that we are influenced by him, but it is true. Moving on to verse 3. The Apostle Paul writes, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. And here we add the fourth layer, or the fourth lesson. The bad news is not only that our natural disposition is towards sin, it's not only that we follow the world, it's not only that we are influenced by Satan, but it's also that we are influenced by our own flesh. Life apart from Christ is controlled by our sinful and lustful desires, our self-gratification. We become more selfishness. There is also a desire for self-applause. There is a hedonistic lifestyle, which is this belief that the ultimate good in this life is to seek out pleasure. Pleasure is the ultimate end for human behavior. For people who fall into this hedonistic lifestyle, who truly believe this, right, if you were to ask them what is the chief end of man, the answer would be to glorify myself and enjoy myself forever. rather than the Westminster Shorter Catechism, which, when we ask Christians that, it's, you know, what is the chief end of man? We would say to enjoy God, to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever, right? The flesh desires me, myself, and I, and it is controlled by the dark realm, which is the world and Satan, along with our sinful disposition. But this isn't even the worst of it. As the Apostle Paul would go on to say, at the very end of verse three, we learn another lesson about the bad news, which is that apart from Christ, mankind are children of wrath. What this does not mean is that man in and of ourself have a disposition or are wrathful, even though some of us may be because of our sin. What it actually is saying is that we are the objects of wrath. That is that we are the object of God's wrath because our sinful state following the world, the flesh, and the devil, all of humanity is rightly the object of God's judgment. The Old Testament and the New Testament teach very, very clearly that in the last day and that everybody's end, because of sin in this world, we will be held accountable to our sin. We will face God ultimately in judgment. The consequence of sin is death, not only physical death, but also spiritual death as well. And God is such a holy and righteous God. Because he has said that the consequence of sin is death, and because that is his word and he cannot go back on it, sin must be punished. He cannot sweep it under the rug. That is a righteous and holy And so the bad news, because of our sin, because of our disposition towards sin, because we are enslaved to sin, because we are influenced, that's all that we can do is sin apart from Christ, the reality is that we are not made right with God. And our greatest concern is truly God himself in judgment. And it's one of the reasons why David would say or write in Psalm 130 in verse 3, he says, if you, Lord, should mark iniquities, who could stand? In other words, if I stand before you with all of my sins before you, the ones I know of and the ones I don't know of, how can I withstand this judgment? And it is a rhetorical question. The answer is ultimately nobody, right? You could not stand by yourself in the presence of God's judgment. And this is the bad news. And it's something that we ought to reinforce, and even though it might be comfortable, mention when we evangelize and also whenever we are bringing up the gospel. And so why is this important for the gospel? Well, first, I think we need to remember that as Christians, this is the way we once walked before Christ. This should actually give us a sense of humility. We did not save ourselves, and for the person who does not believe in Christ yet, you cannot save yourself as well. We are ultimately dead and it takes an act of God to give us the gift of faith and to make us alive, right? A corpse cannot make himself alive. A corpse cannot call out to be revived. And there's a very good illustration of – that is often used in theology, which is there's many people who think that, you know, sinners themselves are floating out in the water and asking for help and, you know, a boat comes along and throws a raft And all that the sinner needs to do is grab the wrath, grab the reef, and grab it in order to be saved. But the reality is that all of us apart from Christ are dead. We are drowned at the bottom of the ocean. And it does take a miraculous work of somebody coming to get us in order to save us. This was all of us at one time and should ignite in us a sense of humility. and also knowing that God's judgment is coming and the eternal state is ultimately judgment in hell, this should ignite our evangelism. One famous atheist, and I forgot where this was in a podcast, but he says, I understand the gospel, I understand what it is. When I'm around Christians, and if they don't share the gospel to me, I know they don't love me. which is a stark and challenging and convicting thing for all of us Christians to actually hear. Because he goes, if you know that I'm heading towards this direction and you truly do believe in the judgment of God, and you only believe that the only hope for me is Christ, then I ought to expect every Christian to share it, right? And so it's understanding this bad news that I think that should embolden us to actually be bold to proclaim the gospel. And lastly here, what I'll say is that understanding the bad news is important, and I've often said this from the pulpit. This is the reason. Until you recognize the corruption and consequence of sin, you will never see your need to have a Savior. Unless we understand the consequence of sin and our utter corruption, we will never see our need for a Savior. People will never see their need for a Savior. It's often presented, the gospel is that Christ loves you, and as one theologian said, well, that's perfect news for everyone, because the majority of everybody already loves themselves pretty well. Right? And so it's important to mention the bad news, and you could come at it very winsomely. But nevertheless, in order for people to understand the good news, they ought to understand the bad news. And this is something, this is the state in which we all were apart from Christ, and it's something to remember. Now moving to our second heading here, the good news. We read verses 4 and 5. It reads, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. And I want to hone in here on this first sort of phrase here which says, but God, and this is a wonderful statement. This phrase, but God, indicates a shift in direction. It indicates a turning point with reference to the hopelessness and helplessness of verses 1 through 3. And this phrase, but God, often appears even in the Old Testament. When we look at some of the Psalms, we see David lamenting in absolute despair because all of his enemies surround him, because lies and gossip are prevailing. And he's anxious. He's tormented even by his own sin. But in many of the Psalms, he would say, but you, O Lord, are enthroned forever. In other words, that is our only hope, despite the circumstances. And it's interesting because he does this in Psalm 130, verses 3-4, the psalm that we just read. When David, in despair, asked, It is a rhetorical question, which is nobody. But the next verse, which is in verse 4, he says, but with you there is forgiveness. But with you there is forgiveness. What is humanly impossible for man is not impossible for God. automatically goes to the attributes and the character of God. When all is in despair, when all seems that all hope is lost, he focuses on God's sovereignty. And when he is crushed by the weight of his sin, the first thing he thinks of is God and his willingness to forgive. I said this in Sunday school and I said this during our time of confession, but we ought to remember that God is more willing to forgive than we are to confess and repent. And Paul does the same thing here. He says, but God, there is a turning point, there is a shift in direction, and what he mentions is not God's sovereignty, he doesn't mention God's forgiveness, but what he does mention is his richness in mercy. When we think of mercy, this is the withholding of what sinners rightly deserve. That is, in essence, what mercy is. And he even gives us the reason why he does it in Christ. And the simple answer is God's love. When we ask the question, why does God save people, the answer is ultimately because of God's love. And when it is, when you might ask the questions, I've asked this question very often, well, why did he love me? The simple answer is because of the love of which he loved us. That is the answer. It is simply because of his love. God does not choose to save because of our looks, because of our intellect, because of our ethnicity, because of our genetics, or what family we come for. It is simply because of the love with which he loved us. That is ultimately the answer. And we even see here the grace of God. He's not only merciful, he's not only a God of love that does not leave sinners in despair, but he's also gracious. He chooses to save us even when we were dead in our trespasses, is what it says. This is a gracious God. This is another way of just conveying what grace actually is. And when we're thinking about how do you define grace, Some have defined it as undeserved favor or undeserved or unmerited favor. And I would argue, and we talked about this in Sunday school, that really the grace that God shows sinners in saving them is not undeserved favor, but rather it is demerited favor. That is to say, or just to use an example here, unmerited favor is giving someone $100 for no reason. Demerited favor gives someone $100 even though they burned their house down. It's not that we are just neutrally in our sin and we're trying to find God and look for Him. Rather, it is that actually He decides to show us grace even though we're continually rebelling against Him and straying away from Him. This is the type of favor and grace that God has shown us. It's easy to love people when people are meeting your expectations. And God decided to show us love when we were not, miserably. Right? This is grace. Even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, God showed to love us in which the great love that He loved us. He decided to pour out richly His mercies upon us. And it's why Paul writes in Romans 5, verse 8, once again, but God shows his love for us in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. There is something about the death of Christ and him sending his son that expresses this wonderful and amazing act of love to save sinners. And this is where I really want to get into answering the question, what is the gospel? And it's this, it is the message that despite our sin, God sent his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to live the life we could not live and die the death we deserved in our place so that we might have eternal life through repentance and faith in his son. I'll often use that when I'm presenting the gospel. Someone's gonna tell me, what is the gospel? I said, it is that Christ came to live the life that you could not live and die the death that you deserve. And that takes a little bit just to unpack. But what I mean by that Christ died the death that we deserved in our place is that when He went to the cross, He died to not only remove our sin, both past, present, and future, but He also took the rightful wrath of God that we deserved, right? On the cross, not only is there an atonement and an expiation and a removal of sin, but He also experience the wrath of God and the punishment that we deserved in our place. 1 Corinthians 5, verse 21 would say that he, meaning God or Christ, who knew no sin, God made sin. in order that we might become the righteousness of God. This is this idea of substitutionary atonement, right? That Christ is bearing our sins on the cross. He has satisfied the wrath of God, and in exchange, by faith, we are given not our own righteousness, not the righteousness of the best Christians, but actually are given the righteousness of Christ, and we are clothed with it, and that is the righteousness of God. And so, dear Christian, if you have faith in Christ, right? It's such a wonderful thing to know that not only are your sins are removed and that you have peace with God because your judgment that actually should be out in the future has already taken place on the cross. And it's for that reason you could say, I have peace with God and there is now therefore no condemnation. My judgment has already took in place at Calvary. But it's not only And that's not only a wonderful message, right, that our sins are removed and the wrath of God is satisfied. The other beautiful thing is that Christ lived a life that we could not, right? Being in this dead, sinful state, we could not earn our own salvation. When you start reading Romans 1-3 and it talks about the weight of sin and the judgment of God, it really feels like a noose is being put over your neck and it's starting to be tightened. And it leaves many people going, well, what hope is there? And ultimately, the answer is Christ. And the basis for God declaring us justified is the righteous life of Christ, right? It's not simply good enough to have your debt removed. You also need a righteousness that is not your own. And that righteousness comes through faith in Christ. It's the imputed righteousness of Christ. And so when we're thinking about what the gospel is, right, to bring it back, right, it's not that God loves you and wants to live your best life now, right? The gospel is not this message of just believe in God. Theism does not save you. It's simply, it's more objective than that. It is actually the faith in the person and work of Christ for you and for your salvation. It is declaring what Christ did at the cross, what He accomplished, and believing in that and placing your faith in that for salvation. Christ came to save sinners. That's another way to mention the Gospel. Apart from Christ, God is our greatest concern, but He is also our greatest hope. This is for those who are not Christians, this morning. And I want to remind you that even though you might have the weightiest of sins, there is no sin too heavy that God cannot lift, no sin too wide that he cannot cover, and there is no person so far gone that he cannot save. The gospel is for everyone. And I also want to mention, because we see this in this verse as well, that the proclamation of the gospel is the power for all men unto salvation. When the Apostle Paul is doing evangelism in the book of Romans when he's saying, I'm excited to go to Rome. He doesn't say, I'm excited to go to Rome to preach the gospel because I have great oratory skills, because I'm the brightest and I am the smartest. The reason why he wants to go to the epicenter of all civilization is because there are sinners there and he knows that it is the proclamation of the gospel that will ultimately draw people to saving faith. It's not power within him, but it's actually in the power of God's gospel, this gospel that Christianity has been proclaiming for over the last 2,000 years. And it has power to make people alive, is what Ephesians 2, verse 4 is saying here. When we're thinking about what this actually looks like, or to use an illustration, the perfect person to look at is Lazarus. When Lazarus was dead for three days, and Jesus didn't come to revive him, finally when he arrives, Mary and Martha are in utter despair. And they're saying, you could have been here, you could have saved him. All that it took was Christ saying, Lazarus, rise. And it was that call that made Lazarus alive from the dead and walk out of the tomb. In the exact same way, that is what the gospel does. In God's providence, when we proclaim the gospel in his sovereignty, he will effectually call sinners to saving faith. Our job, ultimately is to be faithful to that call, right? So long as we're faithful to God, we have nothing to worry about in the sense of proclaiming this gospel. In His timing, right, He will draw His elect, His people, to saving faith, right? I've heard it put very wisely by an apologist. He said, every time we share the gospel, we do bring people to Christ. It's afterwards. that I have no control over, I have no idea what happens, right? There are many times and many testimony of Christians just simply sharing a slight, just simple message of the gospel, and that is the linchpin that draws someone to saving faith, right? My question is, are we going to be faithful to that message? Do we know the gospel, right? If we don't know it, we are not fulfilling our purpose as a church, We would get caught up in all other sorts of stuff, but the gospel is vital and it is the heartbeat to the Christian faith, life, and practice. Do we believe it and do we know it? And we ought to know it because it makes people alive. And so looking now to verse 6 through 7, another wonderful truth here. Paul writes, And suffice to say, simply to put, what we see here is union with Christ. It's not only that God declares us righteous before Him, imputes His Son's righteousness towards us, we're clothed with the righteousness of Christ, that we are forgiven of our sins, the wrath of God is satisfied, but we are one with Christ, right? If we look at some of these prepositions here, it says that everybody who comes to faith in Christ, that we are actually raised with Him, that we are seated with Him, that we are in Christ. and that he has shown his kindness towards us in Christ. We use these prepositions, right? When I say that we're here in Collins Intermediate School, right? We know that, okay, we're in here in the cafeteria. Well, in the exact same way for the Christian, right? We're not simply those who, people that follow Christ. That's often a way in which Christians will describe themselves as a Christian. But more specifically and more fundamentally, I truly believe this, that if you were to ask the Apostle Paul, you know, What are you, right? What would you call your religion? What is the epicenter of it? He would say, I am a man in Christ. And so should it also be with all of us today, right? We're not simply those who follow Christ, but because of our faith in Christ, we are united to him, right? We are ones that have been raised with him in his resurrection. We are those who are at the present, seated at the right hand of God with him, right? And this is the idea of eternal security, but we are one with Christ. And the last thing I want to mention here in this verse, verse seven, it mentions that in the coming ages that he might show the immeasurable riches and grace of kindness towards us in Christ. And what many theologians and scholars believe about this is that even though we have experienced the grace of God through the gospel and his love and his kindness and mercy, we will never plunge the ends of that grace, mercy, and love towards us in eternity, right? Our hope is also in eternity. And so, what does union with Christ mean? Well, to be united to Christ doesn't only mean redemption, but it also means that Christ is our sanctification as well. Because the Holy Spirit is a gift that comes to us by faith, sanctification is also something that is working with us. I heard a professor of mine one time say that the Holy Spirit is sent And our union with Christ is so important because God cares about our sanctification more than you. He not only saves us from the penalty and the punishment of sin, but He will one day destroy the presence of it in our lives. And the Christian life is a walk because of our union with Christ. where we are more and more dying unto sin and living more and more unto righteousness, right? Because of our union in Christ, we should be killing sin, we should be repenting of sin. This is also a fundamental message of the gospel, right? It is one of repentance and faith. And here we go to verses 8 through 9. Apostle Paul writes, And so how are sinners saved? It's simply by faith. And it's not a subjective faith. Many people might use the term faith in a very abstract way, but the faith that the Apostle Paul talks about, the faith that the New Testament talks about is an objective faith. And this faith is a resting and receiving in the person and work of Christ for salvation. If you believe that Christ died for your sins, that he lived the life that you could not, in order for you to be reconciled to God, you are saved, right? There's no works added. Faith in the personal work of Christ in salvation, this is the faith that it's talking about. And we also notice here in this verse that faith is actually explained as a gift from God, as a gift from God. If you were to get a paycheck from your employer, And he would say, this is your gift. You ought to look at him a little strangely, because you would have to say, well, this is actually something that I am due. This is something I've worked hours. I've actually worked this job. I've actually earned this. How can you describe this as a gift? And the Apostle Paul is really getting to that just by simply mentioning that faith is in itself a gift. It's not something that is earned. The reason salvation is a gift, it's also explained, is that nobody can boast, right? And this is a litmus test for the gospel. Many people will present the gospel as Christ being necessary but not sufficient, right? And I'll repeat that again. Many times the gospel is presented as Christ being necessary but not sufficient. In other words, you need to have faith in Christ, but you also have to do these other things. right? The gospel is simply that by faith we are made right with God. Faith alone is the instrument whereby we receive salvation and all the benefits of Christ. And now we go to verse 10. For we are his workmanship, God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And so if verse 8 through 9 is saying that salvation is by faith in Christ alone, verse 10 is saying salvation gives a faith that is not alone. I repeat that again, verses eight and nine say that salvation is by faith in Christ alone, but verse 10 is making it abundantly clear that salvation gives a faith that is not alone. John MacArthur said, no good works can produce salvation, but many good works are produced by salvation. In other words, it's not faith plus works equals salvation, but rather it's faith equals salvation and works. That is the way salvation works. God gives a faith, this gift is faith that justifies us, but it isn't a faith that is alone. Faith in Christ not only grants us eternal life, but also to live unto the Lord. And one thing that has always been striking to me about verse 10. that man cannot boast in his salvation, nor can he boast in his good works that we do. Because as the text says, even our good works are are predestined. Even our good works are prepared beforehand, right? We are God's workmanship in faith and in life, right? If our sanctification was left up to us, we would be lost, right? And so this is something to just uphold as well, relying on the power of the Holy Spirit. And so to conclude here, dear saints, never grow weary in learning the depths or being reminded of the gospel. There is a famous pastor and theologian who said this quote, and I think it's so, so true. He says, the church is in the most dangerous not when new truths begin to rise, but when old truths fell to wow. I'll repeat that again. The church is not in the most danger when new truths begin to rise, but when old truths fell to wow. Dear saints, if we forget the gospel or we become tired of it, becomes tired of hearing it. Martin Luther and his congregation, they would often come to him and say, why are you always preaching about justification? Why are you always emphasizing the gospel in every sermon? We need to learn something else. We need to learn something else. And of course, the church's duty is, there's more than just the gospel. But his point of always emphasizing the gospel in his sermons was for this reason, right? If we fail to know the gospel, if we forget it, That is truly when we begin to fall into danger. We are prone to forget and leave the God that we love. And so when we think of what is the gospel, dear saints, here it is. It is the message that despite our deadness and sin and rightful deserving of God's wrath, God sent his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to die the death we deserve due to us because of sin and live the perfect sinless and blameless life that we could never live in our place so that we might have eternal life through repentance and faith in Him. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray, Lord, that we would not forget the gospel, that we would know it, that we would be bold to declare it, declare its truth, And Lord, just ask that we would be emboldened to continue to do that here in the community of the Woodlands, Lord, both in life and also in death, Lord. This is our only hope, Lord. And Lord, may we just reflect on this sermon, may we reflect on these truths. And we thank you, Lord, for sending your son, Lord. Help us to plunge the depths of the gospel, be reminded by it, to learn it. And we ask all these things in Christ's name, amen.