Welcome to a firm foundation presented by Princeton ministries with Dr. Ken Smith. This is Carol Smith, Ken’s wife. Please enjoy.

When we come to God’s word, there is a portion of verses that in their own way are the Everest of the scriptures from the book of Ephesians, chapter two, verse eight, nine and ten. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. This portion of scripture has been responsible through the history of the church for great revival, for a great turning of lives that were caught in various patterns of sin to turn to Christ. We read that it is by grace. The word grace is one of the most fascinating and powerful words in the scripture.

I think if I were asked what single word is unique to the scripture, it is grace. Grace can be imagined as a large lake. The scriptures tell us that it is the lake of God’s love. And if were to attempt to measure that lake, we would find that its length cannot be measured, its breadth cannot be measured, its depth cannot be measured. It is the grace of God. It is a lake that is crystal clear that God, who is holy without sin. As we would look on that lake, we would see there to the very bottom, if it had a bottom. And we would be able to see clear through to the other side if there were another side. But it is so vast, so enormous the grace of God, that it can’t be measured.

We are told that grace comes to us through faith. Now there are many understandings of the word faith. Most of my life, I thought faith just simply meant wanting something enough to have faith, to see it happen. But then we see in scripture that even that understanding that somehow, I conjure up inside of me faith is against the teaching of scripture. Because we are told that we are saved by grace through faith, and that neither grace nor faith is our own doing. The reason for that is that there are two ways of understanding faith. The first is God’s action in the faith. And as we look at that vast sea of God’s love, God has tubes running out pipelines from that sea of grace, and he directs them at various people for his own reasons.

And that pipeline that comes from the sea of God’s grace and flows into a person’s life is an act of God. It is not something that we do, but rather it is something that we receive. That is one side of faith, but the other side of faith is our observing God and understanding that he, in his infinite grace, has called us to follow him. In the summer. We’re all familiar with people who go to the pool and take a big float. And carefully, if they don’t want to get wet by the cold water, they pull that float over to the side of the pool and then gingerly, gently slip onto that float and maintain their balance, lest they should fall one way or the other into the cold water of the pool.

Faith is like resting totally on that float, that it is our total assurance that we are resting only in Jesus Christ. We read that we are saved by grace through faith, and that is not of ourselves. Imagine being invited to the home of a wealthy family in Princeton. They escort you into their large room and there everything is perfect and you are their guest. Why? Simply because they love you. And a present is brought to you, a large covered box. And you begin to open it. This is for me? Yes, for you. Why? Because we love you. You begin to unwrap that box and you find inside a beautiful clock worth thousands of dollars. And your friend looks at you with eyes of deep love and concern as he has given this treasure to you.

Then you say, well, I feel that I must pay something. This is not deserving for me. And so you reach into your pocket and you find some change and you pull it out and you say, here, can I give thirty six cents for this great gift that you’ve given me? For I must do something. And what pangs that would cause the one who gave you the gift say, no. Keep your 36 pennies, for this is a gift that I give you freely. There is nothing that you can do to deserve this gift. I give it to you freely. And that’s what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. He has given the most precious gift that he has, his son. And he says, this gift is for you. Take it.

And we think to ourselves, there must be something that I can do to pay you. And God says, no. Don’t you understand? It is by grace that you are saved through faith. It is not your doing. Why is that? Because we are told it is the gift of God. How many are there today who think of God not as a friend, but almost as an enemy. They think of God as someone who would never do anything good or kind or merciful for them. I remember reading several years ago about a young man who had a falling out with his father and he left home. Several years passed. He never wrote a letter, never called if gifts were sent. He returned them back home. Then one day the news came that his father was ill and was dead.

And the young man came back to stand with the family at the funeral. And he said, I had no grief standing there in the funeral home. I had no emotion even when they lowered that coffin into the ground. But after the services, the lawyer called together the family, and he read to them the will. And listed among the top names was the name of his son. And the young boy broke down and cried and realized that his father really did love him. And he said, I never knew that my father thought so much of me, that he would have named me in his will.

We are told that God the Father thinks so highly of you, of me, that he had a gift that he freely has given, that it would be freely received, and that this gift is by his grace alone, that he gives it through faith, that there is no act that we can do to receive it, that we should realize that it comes from the hands of a loving father. But once we have received the gift of grace, of the forgiveness of our sins in Jesus Christ, then begins a new point in our lives as Christians, and we might ask ourselves, why did God save us? Often, we truncate these verses of Ephesians two, eight and nine, and do not go on to read the very next verse ten.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. The word workmanship is very interesting. It can be translated poem that we are created by God to receive eternal life, his grace. Why that you and I might be a poem of God, a workmanship of God, a piece of furniture in God’s house that is useful for service. He did not save us simply so that we would be able to say, I am going to heaven, and then begin to live the rest of our lives without ever again speaking about the work that Christ has done for us. No, he says that we are his workmanship and that he created us in Christ Jesus for good works.

We have looked at the subject of the sovereignty of God and seen that God is a God who needs absolutely no input from outside of himself. He is totally capable of sustaining himself, of acting himself, of being himself. And the scriptures teach that he needs no help from man to be God, and that God is able to control the coming and the going of the tides, that it is God who is able to control the coming and going of the seasons and the sequencing of the days. That it is God, according to scripture, who has established the number of days that you and I shall live. It is God, according to scripture, who holds the heart of the king in his hand. God is a sovereign, mighty, self contained being. And yet we read that he created us for good works.

How can it be that a sovereign God who is self contained needs us to work for him? There are some who look at this and they say, why? Here is a contradiction. The two cannot be correct. If God is sovereign, then he will do everything that he wants to do. There are those, on the other hand, who say, God is not sovereign. It is man who is totally responsible for himself. And that battle has waged for the centuries that the church has been existence and people have swung from one extreme to the other. Reading an interesting book called Evangelism and the sovereignty of God, the author says that there is a word that would help us understand this. It is called antinomy. An antinomy is an apparent or seeming contradiction between two truths.

But as you look at each truth separately, both of them seem totally true. An antonymy. The Bible is full of antinomies. We find that the apostle Paul talked often about being sorrowful and in the same phrase, saying, yet rejoicing. We find the apostle Paul telling us having nothing and yet possessing everything we find in scripture. The antinomy of, when I am weak, then am I strong. Two seemingly opposing concepts. And yet Jesus, over and over again taught these two sides, almost as though that he never attempted to join them together, but simply let each of them stand as they were. That there is a sovereign God totally in control of everything, and yet you and I are totally responsible for our actions. And if we swing one extreme or the other, it is to our hurt.

But we must see that the teaching of scripture has both of these and that we must live with both of these. We are told that God saved us by grace, and he had a very particular reason for doing that we would do the good works which God had prepared for us from the beginning of time. What are these good works? Jonathan Edwards studied this question long and seriously, one of the greatest theologians that this country has ever produced, and he distinguished between two good works. He said that there is an inner good work and there is an outer good work. An inner good work would be an example of a person who has a personal reverence and awe for God. An inner good work would be a person who thinks to themselves, I will love God and follow goodness.

An inner work is an example of a person who says, I will love my neighbor. Edward said, though, that alone is not the complete picture of what God wants. From us in good works because he wants us to show that inner good work outwardly. And so a person can say, I have reverence for God, but they never come to church. They are never to be found in the fellowship of God’s house. Edwards would say, then that is no good work at all, no matter what you may think internally, until it shows externally it is merely a deception. The person who says, oh, yes, I love my neighbor, and yet battles with his neighbor, or will not forgive his neighbor or will not serve his neighbor, or will not witness to his neighbor, the outward good work is not there.

And Edward says, watch yourself, guard yourself. Do not deceive yourself thinking that you only have inner good works. They must be seen by other people. We are called to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ. An ambassador goes in the name of Christ and shares the invitation that Christ has come into the world and he wants to make your life different. I’m afraid some of us, rather than being ambassadors for Christ, are more like secret agents for Christ, that we go out into the world come Monday morning and we put on the outfit of the world, hoping above hope not to be detected as a follower of Christ. And then we wonder, why is it that no one comes to Christ because of me? Sometimes we are frightened to show the external working of Jesus Christ.

And like some superman, Clark Kent, each day of the week we are a mild mannered reporter, and no one would guess what we do on the 7th day and the things that we say. And we come out of our telephone booth fully dressed as a super Christian, and then come Monday morning, back into the closet, mild mannered, and no one would ever guess our other identity. We were saved to do good works in the name of Jesus Christ. They can only be done if we are ambassadors for Christ, not secret agents. We are told in scripture over and over again that we are to go, that our task as Christians is not to come so much as to go. Jesus underlined that as he left this world and he said, you shall be my witnesses.

A witness is someone who speaks about the things that they have seen and experienced. You and I are called to be witnesses for Jesus Christ. We are called to do good works, to go in the name of Christ, if we do not go. And even Edwards would say, don’t deceive yourself. You must go. You must be a witness for Christ. I remember several years ago reading an account off the shore of Maine. Apparently, there were rocks that were under the surface of the water just off the coast, undetectable by the eye. And ship after ship would come thinking that they were making safe harbor only to be dashed on the rocks and then to find those ships sinking. Well, finally the state of Maine decided that they needed rescue parties to be posted.

And so they trained a number of men with lifeboats and all of the safety devices. Their task, when a ship would rack itself against those rocks, that they were to get into their little launches and go out and to save those men. And that was their task. That was their assignment. And so all of the training was done. The men waited. The first time that a ship came and got caught on the rocks, a mighty storm began to blow and the waves were tremendous and the men began to take their little launches. They tried to get off of the shore and the young boatman came to the lieutenant in charge and he said, sir, we will never be able to get to that boat. It is impossible. And then the lieutenant said, our orders are that we must go. So let’s man the boats.

And in they went and they began to pull the oars to find that the tremendous waves some 15, 20ft in the air were continuing to push them back. And then the young boatman came again to the lieutenant and he said, sir, we cannot go. We will not be able to reach them. And even if were able to reach them, we would never be able to get back. The lieutenant looked him in the eye and he said, friend, our orders are not to come back. Our orders are to go. And you and I, as followers of Jesus Christ, have been given the same commission, not to be frightened about the way we will return from the battle. But we are called by Jesus Christ to a divine commission to accomplish the good works that he has set for each one of you.

Are you accomplishing those works? Are you doing those works? Do others as they see you know of the external good works that you have been called to do? For I would remind you, we are saved by grace through faith. That is not our own doing. It is a gift from God. Lest any of us should boast that God created us as his workmanship, his poem, that we should accomplish the good works that he prepared for us from the beginning of time.

Thank you for listening to a firm foundation presented by Princeton Ministries. This programming is supported by you, the listener. You may go to our website, princetonministries.org, or send your donation to Princeton Ministries, post office box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. That’s Princeton Ministries, post office Box 2171, Princeton, New Jersey 8543. The Lord bless you and Dr. Smith looks forward to hearing from you. We would like to thank Rones web development company for making this webcast possible. You can find their link at the bottom of our website, princetonministries.org.