This is Us // Grace for Works

Saved by Grace for Works

Ephesians 2:8-10 September 13, 2020

I. Introduction:

A. It was the first day of training camp. The year was 1961. Thirty-eight members of

the Green Bay Packers football team arrived to start a brand new season. The

previous season ended horribly for the Packers as they squandered away a lead

late in the fourth quarter to lose the NFL championship to the Philadelphia Eagles.

1. To open up the camp the coach, Vince Lombardi, stood up holding a football

and said this, “Gentlemen, this is a football!”

2. Lombardi’s methodical coverage of the fundamentals continued throughout

training camp. Each player reviewed how to block and tackle. Max McGee,

the Pro Bowl receiver for the Packers said, “Uh, coach, could you slow down

a little? You are going too fast for us!”

3. Six months later the Packers won the NFL championship 37-0

4. The Packers won five championships over a seven year period

5. This is an iconic story of the importance of fundamentals!

6. Knowing well the fundamentals, the basics, the ABCs of anything is

foundational to doing that thing successfully.

B. Today we are going to look at the fundamentals, the basics, the ABCs of our

salvation. The better we know that and the deeper it is engrained in our hearts the

more successful we will be in the Christian life.

1. Why is that? – Because the same way you are saved is the same way you

walk in the Christian life.

2. So if you get this one right, then your foundation will be right for your entire

Christian walk. If this fundamental is off your entire Christian walk will be

off.

C. So let me start with this: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is a Bible!”

1. Billy Graham said this, “God wanted to speak to us in words we could

understand–and the Bible contains those words.”

2. It is called the Word of God because that is what it is. It is not man’s words

or thoughts but it is God’s words and thoughts!

• So this morning turn in your Bibles to Ephesians 2:8 where we will see what God

says about another fundamental of the faith. That we are…

II. Saved by grace and not by works

A. To be saved means to be delivered from danger or suffering just like a fireman

saves a person out of a burning building

1. We learned last week in Ephesians 2:3 that before we knew Jesus we were

children heading for wrath, just like the rest of the world.

a) Read v3c

b) So mankind because of their sin is heading towards an eternity of God’s

wrath.

2. Then the most important three-letter word you will ever read, tells us about

the most important intervention that ever took place in mankind.

a) Read v4a

b) The word but introduces for us a total change of direction from what we

learned about ourselves in v1-3

c) It all happened not just because of the love of God but because of the

great love of God.

d) Listen as I read v3c-5

B. At the end here, there is a little parenthetical statement that is like a side bar that

departs slightly from the theme to further amplify or explain something regarding

it!

1. That little phrase, the fundamental we are going to look at this morning is this

(by grace you have been saved)

2. He picks up on the same idea and develops it further in v8-9. Read v8a

C. We are going to learn in this passage just how a person is saved and we will see

that our salvation is based upon grace (that simply means a gift that God gives us

that Jesus paid for with His life) it does not come from us or anything we can do.

1. Watch for all of this as I read v 8-9

D. Let me point out a few things in v8-9.

1. By grace you are saved – grace means gift! So to be saved is to receive a

gift from God.

2. Through faith – this is the way that a person receives this gift. Faith, belief,

trust and rely are all synonyms of each other when it comes to the Bible.

a) Just like I am believing, trusting, relying upon and having faith right now

that this stool will support the entire weight of my body

b) So biblical faith is when I am believing, trusting, relying upon and

having faith that what Jesus did on the cross paid for my personal sins

and not just the sins of the world and His resurrection gives me a brand

new life that is eternal

3. Then we see that this whole salvation through faith thing does not come from

yourself but it is a gift God gives us. It does not come from any good, moral,

or religious work we can do. reread 8b-9a

4. Finally, he says so that no one can boast.

a) One of the best explanations I ever heard on this came from my mother.

b) When I first came to Christ, I so badly wanted to share the gospel with

my parents. They backed me off very quickly by telling me this is just a

fad and if I am still walking with Jesus in twenty years then they will

listen to me.

c) Fast-forward twenty years later I reminded them of the conversation and

asked them if I could share the gospel with them. They said yes.

d) Both of my parents declared that day their trust in Christ. To seal the

fact that they understood this I asked my mom. Why do you think it

says, “so that no one may boast”?

e) She said if our salvation was based on anything we could do then we all

would brag about what we did to be saved, but since there is nothing we

can do but accept God’s gift by faith, then there is nothing we can brag

about! Bingo! Right on!

E. Opportunity to trust Jesus

1. How would you answer the question of boasting regarding your salvation?

2. If you were sitting around a table and people were talking about why they

should go to heaven – would your answer have anything to do with you and

what you have done either morally or religiously? Or would it be the

admission I have nothing to brag about except Jesus and what He has done

for me when He died to pay for my sins and rose from the dead to give me

eternal life!

3. If you and what you have done is your answer then you need to transfer your

trust and your bragging from yourself to Jesus and what He has done for you!

F. The start of the next verse he explains this idea that it does not come from

anything we do just a bit further!

1. Read v9 -10a – for/why because …

2. It is not our works that make us new creatures in Christ! We are not the

creator of this new life but the new creation! We are not the producer of it

but the product.

• Then he continues on in the rest of this verse to say that while we are not saved by

any good works we can do but that we are …

III. Saved for good works

A. Verses 8-10a go through great pains to let us know that our works have nothing to

do with why we are saved, but v10b makes it clear that we have been saved for

good works.

1. Read v9-10b.

B. So those of us that are saved feel like we just need to get out there and start doing

good works so our light will shine before a lost world. So we can do what we

were saved to do. So let’s brainstorm as a church, come up with the best ideas

and start doing them!

1. Watch for this in the text as I read v10

2. Did you see there the need to get out there and just start doing good works?

Reread v10b-c

C. God has already prepared beforehand for you and me, for us as a church; good

works that He wants us to do. We need to focus upon and walk in the very works

God has for us

1. Listen to what Jesus said about his own works, John 5:36

2. John 17:4

a) Jesus said He accomplished/completed the work the Father gave Him to

do!

b) This is true even though there were people who were not healed, saved

or helped! He helped some but not all!

c) He did the things God gave Him to do, He did not just go out and do, but

rather only did the things the Father had given Him to do

3. This should relieve guilt about not doing enough in a world full of pain and

restore the joy and excitement of seeing what good works God has prepared

for me and us to do!

4. That is why like Jesus we need to come to the Father in prayer daily so we do

not operate on our best ideas about what we should be doing but rather the

will of God!

D. Story of Beth

1. I remember a number of years ago praying specifically that God would show

me in the next five days any good works He had prepared for me

2. By the fourth day, a Saturday, nothing out of the ordinary happened. I

expected someone to have a flat tire or something like that. I had helped my

wife whose arm was hurting her that week and thought that maybe this is it.

3. Late Saturday afternoon I had to leave a family birthday party to go home

and prepare for my sermon the next day. As I got out of the car and headed

for the door the neighbor girl, yelled to me, “Mr. Peglow, can I talk to you?”

“Sure, come on over.”

4. We sat on our front stairs as she shared with me the deep hurt and confusion

she felt because of her difficult family situation.

5. I realized at that moment this was the work God had prepared for me, as I

was able to be Jesus to her by sharing love and encouragement with her even

though I had no answers to her hard questions about why her mom and dad

would abandon her at a very young age!

6. Eventually this young girl moved in with us and lived with us for two years!

7. This was clearly a work that God had prepared for me and for every one of us

in our family as we shared our house and life with her.

IV. Closing challenge

A. I want to challenge you to pray as an individual, family, and as small group

simply … “God show me/us the good work you have prepared for me this week.

B. Prayer -