Salvation Pure and Simple - DJ
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00:00There are more than 45,000 self-help books published each year, over 200,000
00:07podcasts in the personal development category. But what if I told you all pale
00:12in comparison to the spiritual development one small book can have on
00:16your life and faith? Just six chapters, 2,000 words and 20 minutes of your time.
00:22Yet its impact lasts a lifetime. It succinctly and powerfully explains what
00:29it means to believe and how to discover God's calling for you. How to find
00:34purpose, overcome obstacles, connect with others, claim a life you love, endure
00:40difficulty, experience the fullness of life, love without limits, and ultimately
00:46be the follower of Christ you've always wanted to be. Join me in God's Word as we
00:52find the proven way to build a belief that thrives, impacts, and endures. A
00:58belief that behaves. It all starts with the book of Ephesians.
01:06Coming up on Turning Point. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch
01:14like me. Paul helps us understand what that wretch thing means. He tells us
01:19that's what we were before we came to Christ, but it was the amazing grace of
01:24God that came into our lives and lifted us up out of that mire of sin and set us
01:30on a solid rock. Discover a belief that restores, relates, rejoices, and behaves in
01:38Dr. David Jeremiah's new book, Belief That Behaves, the book of Ephesians. In
01:43this rich study of Paul's beloved epistle, Dr. Jeremiah explores what it
01:47means to be a follower of Christ in practical terms and how we should act or
01:51behave as believers. Through 19 chapters, you'll discover God's how-to guide to the
01:56Christian life, including resolving conflict with others, successful marriage
02:00and parenting, finding purpose, overcoming spiritual attacks, and praying
02:04effectively. Ephesians has the power to change your life at home, at church, and
02:10at work. Request Belief That Behaves by Dr. Jeremiah when you give a gift of any
02:14amount in support of Turning Point. Or if you give a gift of $75 or more, Dr.
02:19Jeremiah will send you in appreciation the Belief That Behaves set, which
02:23contains his new book, his complete two-volume teaching series on your choice
02:27of CD or DVD, and two correlating study guides. From the first verse to the last,
02:32the truths contained in Ephesians will fill your heart with joy and strengthen
02:36your relationships with others. Request the Belief That Behaves book or study set,
02:40new from Dr. Jeremiah, when you contact Turning Point today.
02:44Thank you for watching Turning Point. And now, here is Dr. Jeremiah with his
02:52message, Salvation Pure and Simple.
02:55What we're about to study in the book of Ephesians, what we're about to explore
03:01together, may be the best explanation of this truth in all of the Bible, and the
03:07most concise presentation of the gospel in all of God's Word. In these verses,
03:14Paul explains to us the plain salvation message, plain and simple. If you want to
03:21know what it means to become a Christian, if you want to know what it means to
03:24experience the blessing of salvation, these verses are the place to look. And
03:29if you're Christians, you need to look back over your shoulder and remember what
03:34God has done for you. Remember what he saved you out of. Think about where you
03:39might be today if it were not for Christ. The passage in Ephesians chapter 2 begins
03:46with the reason we need to be saved, the reason for salvation. Why is it that we
03:51must be rescued by someone other than ourselves? I mean, why can't we as
03:55Christians be like other religions, where we try to do our best and we hope that
04:00we're going to make it, and maybe we're better than others, and we try to climb
04:05up on our good works and ultimately earn God's favor? All of the other religions
04:09are like that. All of the religions of the world are an attempt to reach up to
04:13God, and Christianity is the truth that God has reached down to us. Paul answers
04:20these questions in verses 1 through 3. He's very blunt. He's very focused. Here's
04:27what he says,
04:29"...and you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once
04:35walked according to the course of this world according to the Prince of the
04:39power of the air, the Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience among
04:45whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of the flesh
04:49fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature children
04:54of wrath just as others." Paul said, look back over your shoulder. This is where we
04:58were. This is what it's like before you become a Christian. As I mentioned, these
05:03verses are blunt and they're powerful. Paul takes us through five human
05:08conditions that are true of us before we become Christians. First of all, the Bible
05:16says we're dead. We aren't able to save ourselves because we are spiritually
05:21dead without Christ. "...and you he made alive," said Paul, "...who were dead in
05:28trespasses and sins." According to God's Word, every human being who does not have
05:32a relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ is dead spiritually. You
05:37may be the most alive physical person you know, but without Jesus Christ you
05:43are spiritually dead. Dead toward God. Dead toward the things of God. Deaf to
05:49his voice. The Bible is foolishness to you. You are not spiritually alive. Paul
05:55said we were dead in trespasses and sins. There's a connection between those
06:00concepts. Sin and death are partners. Romans 6 23 says, "...for the wages of sin
06:07is death." Apart from Christ, we are dead in our sins and that condition begins
06:13when we're born. I know it's hard to believe that these beautiful, special,
06:18loving little babies are born with a sin nature, but if you're honest about it, you
06:23won't have any trouble coming up with illustrations pretty much along the way.
06:28In the long history of the human race, there have been three basic views of
06:33human nature. Kent Hughes says those three natures are man is well, man is
06:39sick, or man is dead. If the first one is right, the proponents of that view says
06:46you're alright, just get on a diet, do a little exercise, take some vitamins, you'll
06:52be fine. The proponents of the second view agree that man is sick, maybe even
06:57mortally sick, but his situation is certainly not hopeless. But the biblical
07:02view is that man is dead in his trespasses and sins and all his self
07:07help will avail nothing for him. You can go to the Arlington Cemetery and play
07:11Reveille from morning till night, and I promise you nobody's coming out of the
07:15grave. And the same thing is true for those of us who may not know Christ. We
07:20might be good people, I'm not saying that we're not, but as far as God is concerned,
07:25that part of your life is dead. It's not active, it has no possibility. You
07:30understand what other people are talking about when they talk about their faith
07:34in Christ, but if you don't have faith in Christ, you don't have the frequency that
07:40you need to be on to talk with Almighty God in heaven and have a relationship
07:44with him. Paul's first blunt statement is, if you don't know Jesus Christ, you're
07:48dead spiritually. And then he says you're deceived. We are deceived if we don't
07:54know Christ. Not only are we spiritually dead before we encounter Christ, but we
07:58are deceived. We're living out a lie. Having already mentioned our trespasses
08:03and sins, Paul added, in which you once walked according to the course of this
08:08world, according to the prince of the power of the air. Because we were dead in
08:13our trespasses and sins, according to Paul, we walk according to the course of
08:18this world. That means we walk within the guidelines and boundaries of the system
08:25that operates our world today. We're like zombies, dead men and women walking
08:29around, living our lives according to whoever the ruler of the world is and
08:33whatever it is they want us to do. And that brings up an interesting question.
08:37Who is the ruler of this world? Oh, you say, Pastor, everybody knows that. God is.
08:42In a technical sense, that's the truth. But God is sovereign over the entire
08:47universe. He's the creator and sustainer of all things, which means he does have
08:50control over all things. On the ultimate level, he is in charge of our world. But
08:55on a practical level, as you know, Satan is control. The demons are his command,
09:00and he is the prince of the power of the air. Satan has a whole system of evil at
09:06work in the world today. In fact, when you read the book of Daniel, you get the
09:10impression that there are demons assigned to specific nations and regions
09:15all over the world. So, the system and the machinations of our world are currently
09:20ruled by evil forces, and we were a willing participant in that system
09:25before we became saved. Most of us didn't realize what was going on. We thought
09:29we're just living our lives, trying to do our best. But we were participating in a
09:34Satan-led rebellion against God. We were deceived. And then Paul says, not only are
09:40we dead and deceived, we're disobedient to God. At the end of verse 2, he mentions
09:44the Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. Before we encountered Christ,
09:51we actively and willingly rejected, often, what we knew was right. Before salvation,
09:57we wanted to have it our own way, do everything the way we wanted to do it,
10:03including our eternal destiny. And that's why you still have people walking around
10:06today saying, I deserve to go to heaven because I'm a good person. I'm a good
10:13husband. I'm a good father. I give money to charity. Those who are outside of God's
10:19plan are desperate to create their own rules, and so they come up with their own
10:23plan of salvation. Unfortunately, it's not real. It's not true. When Paul talks
10:32about the sons of disobedience, he wasn't referring to our disobedience against God.
10:36He was referring to our failure to meet even our own standards. See, the problem is
10:41you can say, well, I don't need God to go to heaven. I can go to heaven on my own.
10:44I'll just be good. Well, how good do you need to be? You need to be perfectly good.
10:48I like to tell people as often as I can, God is not great on the curve. You have to
10:53be perfect. You have to be holy as he is. None of us can achieve that. We need
10:58something from the outside to enter into our lives, and we know that that something
11:03is a someone who is Jesus Christ who reaches down to bring us up out of the
11:08misery of our sin. We're dead, deceived, disobedient, and the Bible even goes
11:13further and says we're defiled. Among whom we also once conducted ourselves in
11:18the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Now,
11:23he's talking here not just about sexuality. Oftentimes, that's what we
11:27think. Lust is just sexuality, but it's not that at all. It's throwing ourselves
11:31into doing whatever we want in any number of circumstances. How many people
11:36today do you see living for themselves and caring only for their own selfish
11:40needs? That's the way we were until God got a hold of us. We didn't see life
11:45outside of ourselves. We saw only ourselves. But the worst part of this
11:49list that Paul makes in the first three verses of the second chapter is we're
11:53doomed. Now, at this point in the message, I can imagine you might be feeling
11:58discouraged, maybe even upset. Maybe you're thinking, I didn't come to church
12:01to have you tell me I'm dead, deceived, disobedient, defiled, and doomed. I
12:06understand that. And the very good news is that you and I are none of those
12:12things if we're Christians, not any longer. Remember, Paul was describing what
12:17the Ephesians, and by extension, what we were before we experienced the blessing
12:22of salvation. Why is he doing that? He wants people to understand why it is
12:26they need to be saved. My father was a pastor, and he used to tell me all the
12:30time, David, the hardest thing about preaching is getting people lost first
12:33so you can get them saved. So many people come to church, and they think they're
12:37okay. You know, we used to ask this question when we would talk to people
12:42about their faith. If you were to stand before God today, and he were to say to
12:45you, why should I let you into my heaven? What would you say? And I've asked that
12:49question probably thousands of times, and the answers are almost inevitably the
12:55same. A long list of everything we think we have done that gets us into heaven,
12:59which might be good if you could get to heaven by doing good works, but you can't.
13:03And even if you're the best of good workers, you can never be perfect. And the
13:09Bible says if you break the law in one place, you've broken the whole law. The
13:12law is like a chain. Take one link out of it, and it all falls apart. What Paul has
13:18to help us understand, what we all need to understand, if you're here today, and
13:22you don't know Jesus Christ, you say, well, I'm in a program. Well, good luck
13:26with that. The program won't get you anywhere. You need a personal Savior who
13:31can come and live within your heart and lift you up above all of that, because
13:36the Bible says that without Jesus Christ, this is who we are. We're dead. We're lost.
13:44We're without hope. Whenever you feel tempted to take pride in the fact that
13:49you're a Christian, remember where you came from. Look over your shoulder and
13:55look at what you once were, and thank God for what he's done for you. Some of us
14:02may have grown up in good families, Christian homes, and we became Christian.
14:06Thank God for what you've been saved from. That's the reason we need to be
14:11saved. That's the reason for salvation, but now it's the good news. You know, the good
14:14news always comes after you understand why you need the good news. Ephesians 2
14:194, but God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love, has loved us. In your
14:27Bible, if you mark your Bible, circle the words, but God. I love the way Paul starts
14:33this section of his letter. In verses 1 through 3, he's described all the reasons
14:38why we have no hope apart from Christ. We were afloat on an ocean of our own
14:43sin with no way to get ourselves back to the shore. We were done, but God. In many
14:49ways, these are the two greatest words in the Scripture. You could say these two
14:53words summarize the entire theme and message of God's Word. Adam and Eve were
14:58lost forever because of their sin, but God. Noah deserved to be drowned along
15:03with the rest of the world, but God. Jonah did nothing to deserve a second
15:09chance, but God. Humanity deserved complete and total wrath after crucifying
15:16the Savior of the world, but God. You see, take any situation you want, as bad as it
15:21is, insert God in the middle of it, and everything changes, but God. The late
15:27James Montgomery said, if you understand those two words, they will save your soul.
15:32If you recall them daily and live by them, they will transform your life. God
15:38is the difference maker in the situation we're in apart from God. There's only one
15:43answer. You need God. You need Jesus Christ. It says in verses 4 through 9,
15:49but God, who was rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us,
15:53even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By
15:58grace you have been saved, raised us up together, and made us sit together in the
16:02heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come we might show the
16:06exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ. For by
16:10grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is a gift
16:14of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Now, I'm going to give you a quick
16:19little tutorial on what it takes to be a Christian. That's what Paul does next. He
16:27uses phrases that we know, but he puts them in the right progression. Here's the
16:33first one. Rich mercy. Say that with me. Rich mercy. But God, who is rich in mercy.
16:41The first ingredient in God's recipe for salvation is mercy. Paul reminded his
16:47readers that God is rich in mercy. He's got enough mercy for everybody. Here's
16:54the wonderful Psalm that speaks of that. Psalm 103 verses 8 through 12. The Lord
17:00is merciful and gracious. He's slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not
17:07always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us
17:11according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the
17:15heavens are high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward those who fear
17:20him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions
17:25from us. What is mercy? Here it is. Mercy is God withholding from us what we
17:32really deserve. I hear people all the time say, well, I just want justice. I
17:37don't want justice. I need mercy. If we got justice, we would get just what we
17:43deserve. But God is rich in mercy. I like what Pastor Dane Ortlund says about this.
17:48He said, the Bible says that God is not tight-fisted with mercy. He's open-handed.
17:53He's rich. Not frugal, but lavish. Not poor, but rich. That God is rich in mercy
17:59means that your regions of deepest shame and regret are not hotels through which
18:04mercy passes, but homes in which mercy abides. It means the things about you
18:10that make you cringe the most make him hug the hardest. It means his mercy is
18:17not calculating and cautious like ours. It is unrestrained, flood-like, sweeping,
18:22magnanimous. It means our haunting shame is not a problem for him, but the very
18:27thing he loves most to work with means our sins do not cause his love to take a
18:33hit. Our sins cause his love to surge forward all the more. Almighty God is
18:38rich in mercy. I want to tell you that today. Whoever you may be, whatever you
18:42think is beyond the pale of God's ability to touch you, here's what the
18:46Bible says. The Bible says God has got so much mercy, nothing you could ever do
18:51would keep you from that supply. God has mercy. He keeps from us what we deserve.
18:59And then the Bible says he has great love, but God who is rich in mercy
19:04because of his great love. Why has God given us his mercy? Because he loves us.
19:10Why does he love us? Because God is love, not because we've done anything to make
19:14him love us. Remember, it's not because of what you do, it's because of what he's
19:19done. You and I don't deserve to be loved, not by God, but he loves us anyway.
19:23Scripture makes that clear. The world's most famous Bible verse, everybody pretty
19:28much knows, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that
19:33whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And
19:36Romans 5 8 says, but God demonstrates his love toward us that while we were still
19:41sinners, Christ died for us. And 1 John says, in this the love of God was
19:47manifested toward us that God sent his only begotten Son into this world that
19:52we might live through him. And this is love, not that we love God, but that God
19:56loved us and sent his Son to be the satisfaction for our sins. You see the
20:03reason why we aren't stuck in our death and disobedience and defilement? No, we
20:07aren't stuck because God's got a lot of mercy and God's got a lot of love. Here's
20:12the third one. He's rich in grace. Now, let me just show you the difference
20:16between mercy and grace. It's real simple. Listen to this. Mercy is God withholding
20:21from us what we deserve, and grace is God giving to us what we don't deserve. That's
20:27what happens when you become a Christian. He covers your sin with mercy and he
20:31gives you eternal life, which you don't deserve, which I don't deserve. That's
20:36God's grace. Ephesians 2 5 says, by grace you have been saved. In verse 7, that in
20:42the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace. Those of
20:47us who are Christians, we love to sing the song we sing almost every week here,
20:51Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. Paul helps us
20:58understand what that wretch thing means. He tells us that's what we were before
21:02we came to Christ, but it was the amazing grace of God that came into our lives
21:08and lifted us up out of that mire of sin and set us on a solid rock. Rich mercy,
21:14great love, rich grace, and number four, free gift. For by grace you have been
21:22saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. I know
21:28it sounds too good to be true. I know we've been told over and over that
21:32there's no such thing as a free lunch, but the reality remains the same. God has
21:36offered the gift of salvation to any of us who will receive it, including you and
21:41me. He has offered it to us for free. An ad for the U.S. Marines pictured a sword
21:47and beneath the words, earned never given. The message, if you want to become a
21:52Marine, you have to earn it through sacrifice, determination, and hard work.
21:55But if you want to become a Christian, you have to flip the script. You have to
21:59switch the first and third words of the Marine slogan. You see the message of the
22:03gospel is given never earned. You cannot earn your salvation. It's a gift. Becoming
22:10a Christian is not like becoming a Marine. You can't save your soul through
22:14sacrifice and determination. This is not a medal to be earned. It's a gift to be
22:19received. Have you received the gift? So, how do we accept it? What does that look
22:24like? Well, God's remedy for our lives is rich mercy, great love, rich grace, free
22:30gift through faith. We receive the gift of salvation through faith. We cannot
22:37receive that gift by works, by our own efforts. Paul went to great lengths to
22:41explain that truth to the Ephesians. He said, for by grace you have been saved
22:46through faith, and it is not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
22:51works, lest any man should boast. We say, Dr. Sherman, that's all great, but what is
22:56faith? How does that work? That's coming to a place, if I can use these words
23:02carefully, that you bet your life on Jesus Christ. There's a little acrostic I
23:08used to explain what faith is. It goes, forsaking all, I trust him. That's what
23:16faith is. Faith is turning away from anything else you might hope to be
23:20putting your faith in to go to heaven, and realizing the only hope you have to
23:24go to heaven, the only hope you have to be saved, is in Jesus Christ. It's not Jesus
23:29Christ plus this. It's not Jesus Christ in a catechism. It's not Jesus Christ and
23:33do the best you can. It's only Jesus Christ, nothing less, nothing more. Faith.
23:40Charles Spurgeon described it this way. He said, our condition is like that of a
23:44child in a burning house who, having escaped to the edge of the window, is
23:48hanging on by the window seal, and the flames are pouring out of the window
23:52underneath, and the poor child would soon be burned or falling, be dashed to pieces.
23:57He therefore held on with the clutch of death. He did not dare to relax his grasp
24:01until a strong man underneath said, boy, drop, drop, I'll catch you. Now it was no
24:09saving faith for the boy to believe that the man was strong. That was evident. That
24:14was good help toward faith, but he might have known that and still have perished.
24:18It was faith when the boy let go and dropped down into his big friend's arms.
24:25There you are, sinner. Cling into your sins and your good work, said Spurgeon.
24:29The Savior says, drop, drop into my arms. It's not doing. It is leaving off from
24:35doing. It's not working. It's trusting in the work which Jesus has already done.
24:39Trust. That is the word. Simple, solid, hardy, earnest trust. Trust, and it will
24:44not take an hour to save you. The moment you trust, you are saved. The moment you
24:50let go of all of the things you've been trusting in before and trust in Jesus
24:55Christ alone for salvation, you become a Christian. That is our remedy for
25:02salvation. Those are the ingredients, rich mercy, great love, great grace, all
25:06wrapped up in a free gift that we receive through faith. As you can see,
25:11salvation is all about God, purchased by him, offered by him, and our only part is
25:18to receive it. I want to ask you today, are you willing to trust him? You say, well,
25:24let me think about it. There's nothing to think about. Either you'll trust him or
25:28you won't. You say, well, I'm not going to make a decision today. If you don't make
25:31a decision today, you have made the decision. Make the decision to trust him.
25:36There's never going to be a time like this.
25:42Thank you for watching Turning Point. When you give a gift of any amount in
25:51support of this program, Dr. Jeremiah will send you in appreciation his new
25:56book, Belief That Behaves, The Book of Ephesians. And if you give a gift of $75
26:02or more, Dr. Jeremiah will send you the Belief That Behaves set, which contains
26:06his new book, his complete two-volume teaching series on CD or DVD, and two
26:12correlating study guides. Thank you for your support. Request these resources
26:16when you contact Turning Point today.
26:21Thank you for joining us on Turning Point as Dr. Jeremiah taught from the
26:25Book of Ephesians and shared the many blessings that believers have through
26:29Christ. But if you have never put your faith in Jesus Christ before, Dr.
26:34Jeremiah would like to help you take your first steps by sending you two
26:37resources. The first is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point, which will
26:42help you begin your relationship with Christ. And the second is our monthly
26:46devotional magazine, Turning Points, to give you encouragement and inspiration
26:50throughout the year. These resources are yours completely free when you contact
26:55Turning Point today.
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27:29Next time on Turning Point. True believers in Jesus Christ have been
27:34given a gift by Almighty God. A God-given ability for doing something for His
27:39kingdom. And that God not only gives you the gift, He gives you the love for that
27:44gift when you begin to utilize it. Thank you for being with us today. Join Dr.
27:50Jeremiah next time for his message, Created for Good Works, here on Turning
27:58Point.
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