Revelation: The Evidence of God’s Grace & Our Salvation  | May 1, 2023

Sunday’s Sermon Implications:

1. It is important that we learn, honor, and uphold sound doctrine.
2. Rules without relationship will always equal rebellion.
3. Without good works, we are not saved.
4. As a result of God’s work in our lives, our first good work is how we treat others.

Implication number 3 can cause us to bristle. Let’s review what we discussed last week:

Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

We are not saved by works, but we are saved for good works. It is God’s saving grace that motivates us to serve one another in love. Read that again. 

 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16 NIV)

When we truly understand the grace we have been given—that our salvation cannot be earned, it is a free gift of God—we cannot help but serve one another in love; we cannot help but respond by loving others.

1 John 2:5b-6

This is how we know we are in him: ⁶ Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

1 John 3:16-18

¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? ¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

James 2:14-26 Faith and Deeds

¹⁴ What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”

Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

²⁰ You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless^[d]? ²¹ Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. ²³ And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,”^[e] and he was called God’s friend. ²⁴ You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

²⁵ In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? ²⁶ As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.

As we begin a new week, dwell on Ephesians 2:8-10. Meditate and memorize God’s truth and watch and see what happens.