“Saved Through Faith”

Ephesians 2:4-9

4) But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

5) Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

6) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

7) That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

8) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Introduction

V

ictory only comes through one’s confidence in the Word of the Lord. Triumphing over every situation in one’s life is as simple as agreeing with all that He has said!

Not agreeing with the Lord changes nothing about what has been done. However, what it does change is whether or not we will be blessed by what has been done.

Main Thought

In order to be victorious over the enemy of our souls, we must know who he is and how to defeat him! In most of our cases, we do not know who our enemy truly is. Generally, we blame the devil or “manufacture” imaginary enemies.

In our personal cases, since we make our own decisions and only listen to ourselves, then we are the “enemy” that we must avoid. Now, it stands to reason that if our own “counsel” gets us into trouble, we must begin to get our direction through faith—and the only way to do this, is to get it through Jesus!

As we now know, the mistake that all human beings make is to “process” whatever information that is received through their five senses. All that can come from human assessment is that which is human. As long as we insist on believing that which is spiritual can be understood, we will remain outside of God’s blessings.

Once we say that we “believe God,” then we must follow our faith with our actions. There is no room in faith for “handicaps” and “limitations.” Since God is not limited, if we say that we believe Him, then we are to accept no limitations!

Now, along with the requirement to accept that “we can” with God, we must also accept that before we will be “able to,” we will be required to “go through” something. How else will we be able to be effective witnesses to the power of God?

Unfortunately, when we conduct ourselves as human beings, our first instinct when threatened is to run away in order to protect ourselves. Such a possibility exists in the human mind, only. You see, when it comes to the Lord, there is no “escape” from that which He sees is necessary for us to be successful.

It is ironic that Man continually shows that he has more faith in himself and his “kind” than in God. This, despite the fact that Man has shown that he can do nothing consistently, while God has shown that He has done all things.

The existence of sin is something that Man is going to have to stop ignoring and excusing and begin to reckon with. Very few of those in sin know—or if they knew would believe—that they are dead. Today’s “church world” is so fabricated” that not only do many believe that their sin is “hidden” from their fellowman, but from God, as well.

The Church is in such “bad shape” that for some people, it is good enough that they will not immediately die, so because of this, the sin does not really matter. All of this ignores the purpose for which Jesus was born, suffered, and died.

Whereas we were born physically in order to die physically, Jesus was “God born in a body of flesh” that He would be able to die physically—so that we would not be required to.

We are part of a culture that believes that one’s age is an indication of one’s faith. Not so. We are neither to have hope or confidence in the fact that we are granted “old age,” for the quality of life is determined by neither health nor possessions, but rather, “How much of your life has been lived for God?”

As we examine our scripture text for today, in verse 6 we must understand that before one can be “raised up” with the Lord, he must first be “put to death” with Him. When we are told this, all human beings can visualize is what they will have to “give up” as opposed to what will be gained.

First of all, what we “have” is only because of whom Jesus is—and if we belong to Him, then what we “have” is His anyway! Though all men want increase, one will be able to realize nothing from the Lord outside of dealing with all things spiritually.

If we are to be “saved through faith,” then we will have to exercise it! We must reckon ourselves as little children, who are willing to take their parents’ promises at “face value” and begin to rejoice even for what they do not have. So, if the Lord says that we are healed, we must be willing to praise Him for it—with abandon. If He pronounces deliverance upon us, then we must abandon ourselves to praising Him for it. Of one thing we can be certain: God must be glorified and He must be praised. Therefore, He will always do those things that are able to elicit that praise. This, alone, will ensure that the blessings “keep on flowing.”

Of all the things that we “cheat” ourselves of, what should not be included are the blessings of God. We are good at “blaming” others for what goes “wrong” in our lives, but when we want an excuse, we will use others as an excuse for our lack of blessing.

We ought to be ashamed, for no human being should be allowed (by us) to “cheat” us out of God’s blessings. We should have more respect for Him (as well as for ourselves), than that.