P5 OF 5 WE ARE SAVED BY GRACE PILLARS OF A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW

Pillars of a Biblical Worldview, Part 5 – February 11, 2024

Biblical Worldview Pillars:
God created all things
Every person has a sinful nature
Every Christian has a responsibility to share God’s message of reconciliation
Everyone lives forever

Ephesians 2:1-10 (NIV2011)
1  As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2  in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4  But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5  made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6  And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7  in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9  not by works, so that no one can boast. 10  For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
 
5th Pillar of a Biblical Worldview:
We are saved by grace through faith
 

Problems with “Good people go to heaven”: The “rules” are ambiguous

 
“Though I am the Apostle of Allah, yet I do not know what Allah will do to me"
Muhammed (Bukhari, Vol. 5, Book 58, Number 266).

Problems with “Good people go to heaven”: God requires perfection

Galatians 3:10 (NIV2011)
10  For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”
 
Galatians 3:11 (NIV2011)
Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”
 
Anyone can be saved

Romans 10:13 (NIV2011)
13 “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Example: 2 Men in a boat

We are saved to new life
 
Ephesians 2:4-5 (NIV2011)
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5  made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.

Romans 6:1-4 (NIV2011)
1  What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?
2  By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
3  Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4  We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
 
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV2011) 

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 

 
Our salvation is secure

Galatians 3:26 (NIV2011)
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith…
Example: Estranged children

John 10:27-29 (NIV2011)
27  My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
28  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
Close: Faith
Example: Elon Musk

You. Today. We're finishing up the series we've been in now for a number of weeks called pillars of a biblical worldview. We're clarifying those biblical truths on which a biblical worldview rests. And one of the reasons we're doing this is, as I shared with you before, of a study came out in 2022, two years ago that found that only 6% of professing Christians in the United States actually have a biblical worldview. See the world and see life through the lens of the Bible. One of the challenges that I think Christianity faces today is that we oftentimes think the Bible says something because we want the Bible to say that something. We believe in biblical truths that are not biblically true. Let me give you examples of this. There are many. I've chosen three of my favorites. First, God helps those who help themselves. Okay. I mean, that's a nice statement, but it's not biblical. I mean, the Bible doesn't teach that. In fact, God often helps those who are unable to help themselves. Here's another one. God won't give you more than you can handle. Well, I wish the Bible said that. The Bible doesn't say that now. The Bible says you won't be tempted beyond what you can handle. But sometimes God allows things in our lives to come that are bigger than we are, that drive us to the presence and power that only he can provide. Here's probably my favorite. More than anything else, God wants you to be happy. God wants you to be happy. That's his goal for you. Well, if you were with us last Friday night for our amazing love and laughter date night, this point was made. God does not call us to happiness. God calls us to holiness. And sometimes our pursuit of hope, of holiness, is in direct conflict with our pursuit of happiness. What I'm saying is, when we build our worldview on biblical truths that aren't true, our biblical worldview is distorted. And we see the world through a lens that does not accurately reflect what's really going on around us from God's perspective. So we've been clarifying the pillars, the pillars upon which a biblical worldview rests. Very quickly, by way of review, God created all things, and we've talked about the enormous implications of that biblical truth. Every person has a sinful nature, a biblical truth that flies in the face of much of what people believe in our culture today. Number three, every Christian has a responsibility to share God's message of reconciliation. And then last week, everyone lives forever. Everyone lives forever. That truth alone radically changes the way we think about and live this life. Today we're going to look at the fifth pillar of a biblical worldview, and it's found in Ephesians chapter two, very well known, very important passage of scripture in the New Testament. I'm going to read the first ten verses of Ephesians chapter two. Paul writes, as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom, of the heir, the spirit, who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus, verse eight. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Church the fifth pillar of a biblical worldview is this. We are saved by grace through faith. We are saved by grace through faith. In other words, our Reconciliation with God is not something that we can win or earn. It is a gift that we can only receive. Now, this stands in stark contrast to the other religions of our world. Basically, every religion of the world has the same aim or goal. Every religion tries to tell you how you can be reconciled to whatever notion of God they have, how you can get to some notion of heaven. And here's what every other religion in the world will say. Good people go to heaven. In fact, this goes beyond just those who espouse a certain religion. Most many people believe that today, good people go to heaven. Go. Maybe as an experiment this week, strike up a conversation about heaven with someone you know, and ask them, how do people get to heaven? Nine times out of ten, you will hear something like, well, I'm a good person. People have to be a good person. People have to be good to go to heaven, because heaven is where good people go. Good people go to heaven. All right. The Bible does not teach that. In fact, the Bible teaches the opposite of that. And not only does good people go to heaven not make biblical sense, it doesn't make common sense. Let me just take a minute and share just a couple of problems with this idea that good people go to heaven. The first big problem is that the rules are ambiguous. The rules are ambiguous. What do I mean by that? Okay, if good people go to heaven and no one's perfect, what that must mean is that people who do more good than bad go to heaven. So people live by a scale, a moral scale, in their life. They believe good people go to heaven. And the goal to go to heaven is to make the good side of the scale weigh more than the bad side of the scale. The problem, of course, is there's no way to know how much good and how much bad weigh on the scale. For example, if I tell a little white lie, if I tell a little white lie, that obviously goes on the bad side of the scale. Okay? What do I have to do that's good? That offsets that. That counterbalances that little white lie? Do I have to give $10 to the cause of Christ? Or do I have to help someone across the street or say a nice word? What do I have to do to offset that sin? Or what if someone murders someone? Certainly that must weigh more on the bad side of the scale. But how much more does murder weigh than a little white lie? And by the same token, what act of good counterbalances that kind of sin? You see, the problem with this idea that good people go to heaven is that the rules to determine what's good, what makes a good person good, and what makes a bad person bad. Those rules are ambiguous. So if you espouse to that, you must conclude what the founders of these other world religions have also had to conclude. I'll just quote one for you. Muhammad founded the religion of Islam, and I want you to listen to his words. Here are the words of Muhammad. Though I am an apostle, the apostle of Allah, his notion of God, yet I do not know what Allah will do to me. What's Muhammad saying here? He's saying, I have done the very best I can, but at the end of the day, I don't know if the good side of my scale is tipping more than the bad side. But there's a bigger, even bigger problem with this idea that good people go to heaven, and it's this. God doesn't require good. God requires perfection. You can't be good enough because good enough to God is perfect. Paul makes this case in Galatians, chapter three. And I'm just going to read a couple of verses. Here's what he says there. Verse ten for all who rely on the works of the law. In other words, all of those who try to be good enough to do what God expects them to do. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse as it is written. Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. In other words, what Paul's saying here is if you're trying to be good enough to go to heaven, you always have to do everything perfectly. So obviously, Paul in the very next verse makes this conclusion. He says, clearly, no one who relies on the law is justified before God because the righteous will live by faith. Paul says, look, it's not works that work. It's faith that works as we try to make our way to heaven. You cannot be good enough to go to heaven. We are saved by grace, God's unmerited favor through faith in what Jesus has done to reconcile us back to the God our sin has offended. Now, in the time I have left, I want to share some implications of this, because the implications are huge. The first implication of this biblical truth is that anyone can be saved. Anyone can be saved. If salvation is not based on what you do or what you're able to do, then good people and bad people can be saved. And in fact, this is exactly what the Bible teaches. I'll share one example in the New Testament, Romans, chapter ten, verse 13, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Not all the good people who call on the name of the Lord shall be saved or not all those people who do more good than bad in life. No, everyone, good and bad. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. The only criteria for being saved is calling on the name of the Lord in faith. Let me give you a picture of why this is true. Okay, let's suppose there's a small fishing boat that is stranded out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, hundreds of miles from coast. Small fishing boat stranded there in the middle of the ocean. On board this fishing boat is two men or two men, and those two men could not be more different. One of those men is the Olympic gold medalist in swimming. He is the best swimmer in all the world. The other man in that same boat has never exercised a day in his life. In fact, he has no idea how to swim. Two very different people, physically speaking, two very different people in this stranded boat in the middle of the ocean. Okay, here's what I want you to notice. Both of those men, regardless of their ability, both of those men are desperate, equally desperate for the same rescue. Even the very best swimmer in the world cannot save himself from that predicament. The Problem is too big for him. Both the swimmer and the one who can't swim, both of them are desperate to be saved by the same person or the same thing. See, one of the objections to Christianity is this, I've messed up too badly to be saved. I've done things in my life that disqualify me to be a Christian. Okay? This biblical truth tells us that regardless of how well we swim or don't swim, we all equally need the same rescue in the same measure. No matter who you are or what you've done, you can be saved because what you contribute to your rescue matters not. Here's something else important about this pillar. We're saved to new life. I want to reread verses three and four from ephesians two. Because of his great love for us, God, who's rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved. One of the reasons many reject this idea that we're saved by grace through faith and not by works is because they say you Christians believe that because it's a great get out of jail free card. All you got to do is place your faith in Jesus and then you can do whatever you want to do. You can live any way you want. I mean, what a deal. You just profess faith in Jesus and then just live however you want to live. But listen to what Paul says about this in Romans chapter six. What shall we say then? Shall we Christians? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means. We are those who have died to sin. How can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We therefore, we were therefore buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life when we accept Christ as our savior, when we place our faith in him, we become permanently identified with Christ. We are joined to him and we are raised to new life. Paul will say in another place, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come, the Old has gone, the new is here. See, salvation is not about doing it's about becoming. When we place our faith in Christ, it's God who does the work, not us. God does the work to make us brand new. And in doing so, he gives us a new nature. Just as a butterfly differs in its nature from the caterpillar it used to be. A person who is transformed by placing their faith in Jesus has a different nature than they had before. We are saved to new life. Finally, one more important implication of this biblical truth. Our salvation's secure. Our salvation's secure. There are some who believe that once someone places their faith in Jesus and have been raised from death to life, that an act of sin can undo all of that, that they can once again become lost after they have become saved. But I want you to notice this is nothing more than salvation by works working in reverse. If you can't do anything to earn your salvation, then you can't do anything to lose your salvation, because your salvation is not based on what you do. We are saved by grace through faith. It's based on what God does in you when you place your faith in Jesus. Let me ask you just a question. What kind of savior would we have if after giving us the gift of salvation, he demanded it back? Have you ever had somebody give you a gift, say, this is yours, and you receive that gift, and then they demanded to have it back? What kind of savior would we have if that's what Jesus did? The New Testament language that describes those who have been saved by grace through faith pushes hard against this idea that once we are saved, we can once again become lost. Let me read one verse out of the New Testament to you. Galatians 326. So in Christ, you are all children of God through faith. In fact, over and over again in the New Testament, that picture of a parent and child is used to describe the new relationship we have with our creator. When we place our faith in Jesus, okay, we become God's adopted children. Now, in our christian life, there may be times when we fall out of fellowship with God. In fact, one John chapter one speaks of this. If we as christians fall out of fellowship with God through sin, we should confess our sin and he will forgive us for those sins. Our fellowship with God as a believer can be broken, but your relationship with the father cannot be changed. Tragically, sadly, I know many children who are estranged from their parents. They don't get along. There is a rift in their fellowship. But no matter how large that rift may be, it can never change their relationship. Those children are still their parents'children. Fellowship can be broken, relationship cannot be broken. Jesus said these words. My sheep know my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My father, who has given them to me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of my father's hand. We can't lose our salvation for the very same reason we can't earn it. It has nothing to do with what we do. It's a work of God done in those who place their faith in Jesus. Now, I want to close by saying just a little more about the linchpin word in that verse. We've been talking about. Faith. What is faith? If we are saved by God's grace through our faith, what is meant by that word? Faith? Okay, let me just clarify that. Faith is more than just believing in something. Say, Pastor Jeff. I believe in Jesus. I believe he died and was buried and rose again. I believe all of that. You can believe in Jesus and all of that without placing your faith in it. I'll give you an example. I'm fascinated by these rockets that are taking off from Cape Canaveral down in Florida. I believe in those rockets. What do I mean by that? I believe that if I were to climb up into the cockpit of one of those spacecrafts, that spacecraft could effectively and safely take me to outer space. You know why I believe that? Because I've studied about them. I've watched other people experience that very same thing. I believe in rockets. But notice that I have not placed my faith in one until I actually crawl into the cockpit, strap myself in, and trust that rocket to do what I believe it can do. You can believe in Jesus without placing your faith in him. Placing your faith in Jesus means strapping your life to his accomplished work on the cross when he died. And then he rose again to be able to cleanse you from your sin, trusting your life to what Jesus has done for you. So obviously I want to close with this question. Have you placed your faith in Jesus? Have you been saved by grace through faith? As I said earlier, anyone and everyone can be saved. And that means you, heads are bowed, eyes are closed. If you've never placed your faith in Jesus, I'd like to lead you in a prayer where you can do that once and for all. You might cry out from your heart to your creator, something like, God. I recognize that my sin has separated me from you. But I believe Jesus, your son, died and rose again so that my sin could be washed away. And right now, I am placing all my faith, all my trust in what Jesus did for me, to rescue me from my sin, and to make everything right between you and me. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. Everyone looking this way. If you prayed along with me, that was your heartfelt prayer this morning. I'd love to be able to share some literature that takes some next steps with you that more fully explains what it means to place your faith in Jesus. That literature is available for you as you leave today. It's over in the grand foyer. At guest services, they have that literature prepared for anyone and everyone who comes by and requests it. So please receive it from us. If you're watching online and you placed your faith in Jesus just now, I'd love to send you that same literature. We've set up a website just for you. It's called I made a decision. I made a decision. If you go to that website, you'll find many helpful resources to explain what it means to place faith in Jesus. You'll also see there a place where you can provide your mailing address to us. If you do that, we'll put that same literature we're giving away this morning in the mail to your home this coming week. Thank you for watching this video on First Redeemer's YouTube channel. If you enjoyed it, click like below and leave us a comment. And if you'd like more content, tent like this, click subscribe and turn on your notifications. Thanks again for watching.