A mother was driving home from Vacation Bible School with her little daughter Melissa and they were about to go by the library, and Melissa said, “Mommy, the library is still open. I’d like to go into the library.” “Why do you want to do that, Melissa?” “Well, my teacher told us that the only way we can get to heaven is if our name is in the Lamb’s book of life and I’d like to see if my name is in there.”
I’ve never seen that book, but I would like to look at it. And I would like to look under “D” for Don. God probably goes by first names, I don’t know. And I would like to see if my name is in the Lamb’s book of life. That would just be so good if I could look down there and there it is. Born in Hartford City, Indiana; yep, that’s me. My name is right there.
Since we can’t look in that book, how do we know we’re saved? Is there a way to figure that out? Well, there honestly is. In our scripture reading today, Ephesians chapter 1. I’d like for you to look at that very carefully. Ephesians 1, beginning with verse 3. It says, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be the adopted sons of Jesus, in accordance with His pleasure and will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us”, He has lavished His grace upon us, “in the One He loves.” In Him we have redemption through His blood. “The forgiveness of our sins in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us, with all wisdom and understanding.”
Wouldn’t it be nice to have that knowledge that you are saved. That your name is there. That you are going to be in heaven. You know, we’re saved by God’s grace.
Look at Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8. “It is by grace that you have been saved, through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not by works so that no one can boast."
So what is the yardstick that we measure our salvation by? It’s grace. We’ve been saved by grace. Not by works.
Just what is grace? Somebody made an acronym of G-R-A-C-E.
God’s
Riches
At
Christ’s
Expense
That’s grace. That’s pretty good. I like that. God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. We’ve got free access to God's vast heaven because Jesus Christ paid it, and He paid it fully, the total price on the Old Rugged Cross.
When I went to college at Andrews University, my Greek teacher was a fellow by the name of Ivan Blazen. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of such a name. And he was a great Greek teacher. And Ivan Blazen defined grace as God’s unmerited favor given to us. That’s pretty good. And he went on. In other words, grace is the rich flow of God's wealth and covenant blessing to all who accept by faith the merits of Jesus Christ. You’ve got to accept it.
All that God and God’s justice requires, has already been supplied by Jesus Christ. By His life, and His atoning death, and His resurrection.
Somebody asked an old Christian gentleman to describe how salvation worked. And the old wrinkled fellow said, “Well, I’m as old as dirt, but I’ll try. It is something... for nothing. It’s something, for nothing.” That’s grace. God’s riches at Christ’s expense.
Now, this may seem difficult for us to accept, that we get something for nothing. Especially in this modern age. We’re saved by grace, not by our own works.
There was a major cake company and they made cake mixes. And they came up with this fantastic cake mix. It was marketed several years ago and it required the housewife to only have to add one ingredient. And that one ingredient was water. That’s all you have to add is water, and it made a beautiful cake mix, and a beautiful cake. And prior to that time cake mixes were no where near complete. Most people had their own recipes, but they did not like that cake mix. And after several months they were not selling well. And the company did intense research. The cakes were great. And after much investigation, it was found that women felt uneasy about a mix that did not require them to do anything. It just was too simple. And they felt that they themselves had to do something. And so the company changed the formula where the housewife only had to add water and one egg. And the things sell so good. The company was successful.
We live in a do-it-yourself, Home Depot age. We like to go to Lowes or Home Depot and these places because we like to do it ourselves. We enjoy that. I did it myself. But when it comes to being saved, we can’t do it ourselves. We can add nothing to our salvation. There’s not one thing that we can do to add one smidgeon to our salvation. Because Jesus completely provided our salvation for us on the cross.
I’d like for you to look at Galatians 2, verse 16. It says, “Know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.” Galatians chapter 2, verse 16. “So we too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by”, what? “By observing the law. Because by observing the law, no one will be justified.” You’ll never be in the new Jerusalem because you observed the law.
Martin Luther used to believe in Home Depot religion. One day Martin Luther was sitting there in the monastery which was a jail-like cell, it had bars on the window, and he’d been studying Romans 4. In fact, let's go over to Romans chapter 4. And he looked through the iron bars of his monastery cell and saw a pear tree. And he was deep in study, trying to figure out salvation. And he remembered standing there underneath that pear tree talking to a friend who said, "You just wait on God, and God’ll help you. You will arrive at the answer."
Luther studied for weeks and weeks. He was studying Romans chapter 4. And finally he fainted and they actually had to break open the door of his cell and give him water and sustenance. And after several more weeks of study, one day he was reading Romans chapter 4, and verse 5 again.
Now I want to begin with verse 3. Romans 4, verse 3. “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. When a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited to him as righteousness.”
As Martin Luther read this again, quickly his vision cleared. And he could see what Paul was talking about. For the first time in his whole life, it all became clear. Paul was not speaking of the righteousness of a God who was seeking retribution upon him, but of a righteousness which is freely imputed to anyone who believes. Luther saw that God was willing to give His salvation to him.
And by God's grace, God regards you as if you were already righteous, even though you aren’t righteous of your own works. The gift of righteousness cannot be earned. There’s nothing you can do add to it. It cannot be infused by Roman Catholic sacraments. It is totally, absolutely free. And all you have to do is accept it. It won’t be yours until you accept it. And when Luther discovered that, a peace came upon him like he had never experienced before. A great load of guilt was taken off of his shoulders, and he began what is known as the protestant reformation. The Seventh-day Adventist church; you are a Seventh-day Adventist. We are protestants. We believe in salvation by grace. Righteousness by faith. We do not believe in salvation by personal working. We believe that we are saved by faith.
Look at Romans chapter 3. Romans 3, verse 21. “But now a righteousness from God, apart from the law, has been made known, to which the law testifies.” Basically. Verse 22, ”This righteousness from God comes throught faith in Jesus Christ to,” who? “To all who believe.” Verse 23, “for all have sinned and fall short,” continue to fall short, is what it means, in the present continuous tense, “fall short of the glory of God”, verse 24, “and are justified freely by His grace.”
An old man got up in church one day. They were in a meeting and he said, “You know, I’ve been 42 years learning three things, spiritually." Well, everybody sat up. You know if you can learn in one minute what somebody took 42 years to learn, then you’re ahead of the game.
He learned these three things: Number 1, he said, spiritually, I can do nothing toward my own salvation.
Number 2, God does not require me to do anything.
And number 3, Jesus Christ has already done it all.
That’s pretty simple, isn’t it? If that’s the case, then let’s give up trying to save ourselves. Let’s give up trying to add to our salvation. Let us just simply accept by faith the free gift of salvation.
Salvation is by grace, plus; nothing! Nothing.
All of our good works, all of our righteousness is as what? Filthy rags. Is that what the Bible says? Filthy rags. You can't add anything to your salvation.
It’s like trying to polish the mirror in your bathroom. Have you ever tried to do that and you did such a good job, and then you looked at it from a different angle, and there’s streaks all over it. You can’t get your life clean, with your own works. And imagine trying to polish that mirror with a dirty rag. It’s not going to work. You can’t add anything to your salvation. It’s already provided. So how are we saved? What is our part? What do we have to do?
Number 1, surrender your whole life to Jesus, and just accept His righteousness, accept His salvation.
John helps to make it very clear. Come over to John 19. John 19:30. Somebody might have even been born in that year. John 19:30. Jesus was on the cross, and Jesus mentions three words. Three words. Jesus said, "It is finished!" What was finished?
Well, before James Hudson Taylor's conversion, he happened to be reading this very verse. 75 miles away from that very moment his dear mother was impressed to pray for him. And he read Jesus’ words, “It is finished.” And he thought, “What was finished?” And later he wrote, “All at once I verbalized a full and perfect atonement for sin. The debt was paid completely for my sins. Not just for mine, but for the sins of the whole world.” And there came a further thought, “If the whole work was finished, and the whole debt was paid in full, what is there left for me to do? It is finished!”
So right there he gave his life to Jesus and forever did, in appreciation, wonderful works for the Lord all the rest of his life. You accept it and you praise the Lord for it and respond to His love with your life.
It is finished! The Greek word is tel-es-tai. Now archaeologists have found the Latin equivalent of that word many, many times in their diggings, and it’s in the tax receipts, and it just simply means "paid in full”. That’s all it means. “Paid in full.” That’s what it means. It is finished. Jesus paid for your salvation. He paid your ticket to heaven, that day, on the old rugged cross. Your debt was completely wiped out. Paid in full. You can’t do it. You can’t pay something that’s already been paid. All you can do is accept it. And believe it. And respond to it. Respond to it.
You know, if we ever get to heaven, it’ll be on the blood-stained back of Jesus Christ. You won’t be in heaven on your own works. We were saved two thousand years ago. “It is finished” was written back then.
Look at Galatians chapter 2 again. Galatians 2. I love Romans and Galatians. Galatians 2, verse 21. “If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.” If you could do it yourself, then why did Jesus die?
And First Peter 2, verse 24. “He Himself bore our sins, He Himself bore our sins”. We don’t bear our own sins. “He bore our sins in his body, on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” Two thousand years ago you were healed. By His wounds, not your wounds.
We’re not saved by our sweat, we’re saved by His blood. We’re like that sheep caught in the thicket. There’s nothing we can do to save ourselves, except say “BAAAAA”. That’s all you can do. And when the Saviour comes, don’t run away from Him. Accept Him and stay close to Him, and love Him, forever more.
You know, if my salvation depends on me being like Jesus, then I’m lost, because I’m not like Jesus. I’m a human being, I live in Collegedale. I am human. My performance is not the key to my salvation, and neither is yours. If so heaven would be empty. Our deeds are simply the fruit that is produced when we come to Jesus and fall in love with Him and appreciate what He did for us.
Signs of the Times, July 4, 1882. "Perfection”, now this is a dangerous topic. “Perfection”, she says, “through our own good works we can never attain.” You can’t do it. You can’t do it.
We’ve already been saved. 2000 years ago. Jesus is the Saviour. I’m not my own saviour.
Ephesians 2, verse 5. “It is by grace that you have been saved.” We already possess salvation. Already. In the book of Ephesians salvation was in the past tense. It’s not our work, it’s His work. Our part is to accept our Saviour. And to live a life to honor Him, in gratitude and love, for His salvation. We’ve been saved by faith. By our faith, we accept that salvation.
Righteousness by faith. Faith is the key. Now I hold in my hand some keys. You might say, “Well, what do those keys go to?” Well, if you’re trying to open a certain object, there’s only one of these keys that will fit it. Would you agree with that? They’re all different. And you’ve got to know which key fits what. What is the key to heaven? The key to heaven is faith. Faith is the key that will get you into heaven. Faith in Jesus. Faith in Jesus. The correct key to heaven, is faith. Accept Jesus, believe in Jesus. Nothing else will work. Nothing.
We are saved by grace, plus nothing.
Grace is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense! Home Depot type religion will not get you the first inch toward Heaven. You can’t save yourself. So I appeal to you, as a minister of the gospel, and what is the gospel? The gospel is the good news that Jesus has already saved you. I appeal to you to accept that salvation, and to just fall in love with your Saviour and you will soon find out that you will have more works than you could ever muster up the old way. Works of appreciation are far better than works that you believe you have to have.
Look at the crews that pick up the trash along Lee Highway. And they put this trash in orange bags. Are they out there feverishly working? Are they doing that because they appreciate the beauty of that highway? They’re out there because they have to be out there. The best works are done by somebody that loves what they’re doing. And appreciates. And when you as a Christian accept Jesus as you Saviour, and you appreciate Him forever more, the works will flow that will be beyond your imagination.
Will you accept Jesus as your Saviour? Will you? How many of you would like to stand, say, “I accept Jesus as my Saviour”? Would you do that? “I accept Jesus as my Saviour. I’m not my Saviour. I accept Jesus as my Saviour.” If you can stand, stand!
Let’s bow our heads together.
Hymn of Praise: #25, Praise The Lord, His Glories Show Scripture: Ephesians 1:4-8 Hymn of Response: #109, Marvelous Grace
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McDonald Road Sermon transcribed by Steve Foster 4/23/07