God's Artwork on Display, Part 2

Just after Chuck Swindoll officiated the memorial service for an American sports icon, he delivered the message you're about to hear today. Tom Landry was the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys and a committed follower of Jesus Christ. His legacy of grace and integrity provided a living illustration for the passage in Ephesians 2 that we're studying right now. Paul said, For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. From the series in Ephesians called Becoming a People of Grace, Chuck presents today's message, God's Artwork on Display. I can tell you from a few years experience knowing Tom Landry, the late great Tom Landry, that he walked the walk whether it was laughing on the shoulders of his team when they when they beat Miami in January of 72, just as he walked the walk when he wept alone over the grief of the loss of his daughter Lisa to liver cancer after the birth of her little baby. I thought several times in the many meetings that I attended before we had the final memorial for him, I thought I think Tom Landry would stand up right here and say, Stop!

Quit talking about me so much. Talk about the one I loved and believed in. Because he, like all who become God's workmanship, was saved by grace through faith and it wasn't of himself. See verse 8?

What a great reminder. It's all by grace. By the way, it's by grace through faith, but the faith is an unseen journey. By God's grace, since we are all, verse 1, dead in trespasses and sins, verse 2, walking according to the culture that's lost its way, since we are all in that category of lostness, only grace would cause a loving holy God to reach down into the ranks of humanity and pick us to be one of his own. Only grace would give his spirit the empowerment to give you the ability to say, Yes, Christ.

Yes, Lord. Only grace. So when you believe, just as when Landry believed it was a private journey, but it leads to a public walk, saved by grace through faith. That's when he started to walk the walk. Until then, he only walked the talk. But when Christ came to live in his life, Randy White couldn't look the other way. And believe me, there are those who watch us more closely than they'll ever read a gospel account of Christ.

A little challenging, isn't it? Well, was it because we started going to church or because we began to do a Bible study or because we decided to quit swearing or because we decided we would be faithful to our mate? Was it because we were christened or dedicated or... No, no, no.

Look at it. We're saved by grace through faith, not of yourselves, not as a result of works. It didn't start within yourself and it didn't come because you worked at it. It's all of grace. Look at the words, not one, not as a result of works so that no one may boast. Not even Tom Landry can boast. Not even Mother Teresa could boast. Not even your good godly mother can boast. Not even your faithful father can boast. The best pastor, the most sacrificial servant, the most significant missionary. None will ever be able to walk like a peacock around heaven or pound their chest saying, I did it, any more than you and I could walk off an airplane and say, I flew here on my own. You don't get from there, from here to there like that.

No one may boast. By the way, if it were based on works, stop and think, how many? When would you know you had worked enough?

Okay, let's go there. Three a day. I think three good works a day ought to be enough to expect of anybody. If you're busy, two.

Two good works. No, you say that's not enough. How about six? Six is a lot. I'd say maybe six. Do I hear 12? Some of you would say 12. I've done 12.

15. How about 30 a month? That's only one a day. Maybe it ought to be 120.

See where I'm going with it? How about enough giving? How about 50% of what you make? Is that enough? Well, that means you kept 50%. That's not enough. How about 75%? Is that enough?

That doesn't work right. What if you live under a bridge and you don't even own a home so that you give everything you've got. You don't even have a home. Is that enough?

Well, you're still wearing those clothes, aren't you? Oh, don't go there. I mean, how much is enough for you to say I earned my way? And if you did it, there's another guy who lives across the tracks who doesn't have the benefits you've got, and he won't be able to do what you did because he didn't have a chance to do. We're not all created equal. As much as I love the man who wrote that, you know that's not true. Now, we're all created at the same level, but equal we're not. We don't all have the same breaks. We don't all have the same intelligence. We don't all have the same gifts. We don't all have the same skills. It's not equal. It's not an equal playing field.

We're all equal as sinners. That's why the gift works. Got it?

Got it? If I come to you and say, here's a gift, don't do anything for it, just take it. Just take the gift. It's your ticket. You get to make the flight. You take the gift, you got the flight. You didn't earn it.

If you earned it, it's a wage. Speaking of which, turn from Ephesians to Romans 4. It's one of my favorite two verses in Romans.

This is so good. Romans 4, 4 and 5. He's just been talking about Abraham who came by faith, even Abraham. And he says, as we compare a wage with a gift, look at verse 4 and you'll remember your job. Now to the one who works. His wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. Stop. Don't read any further. If you work, you earn a wage. It's due you.

I've never seen anyone nor have I ever at the time of getting my paycheck said, Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I am so grateful for this gift.

They would look at us like we were from Jupiter. You didn't. It's not a gift. You earned it. It's your wage. It's your check. Take it.

Well, that's right. I earned it. To the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor. It's not a favor. I'm not doing you a favor, paying you $20 an hour for your work.

You earned it. We agreed on the fee and you earned every bit of that for the last 30, 40 hours you worked. It's a wage. But verse 5, to the one who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

Oh, is that a relief? God is not walking around heaven looking for great wages, people who are earning their way up there. He is not doling out paychecks because you have earned your way in. Our God puts it all on the same level. He gives you eternal life as a gift and you take it or you leave it. One man paraphrases it this way. If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay.

We don't call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do and you trust him to do it, you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked. Well, that trusting him to do it is what gets you set right with God by God. Sheer gift.

I love that. Sheer gift. The result is when we stand before our Lord in heaven, back to Ephesians chapter 2, when we stand there we will say like everyone around us, I am here by the grace of God. My name on earth was, but I am here as a recipient of grace. I only lived five years on earth, but I got here by the gift of grace. I lived 87 years on earth and I am here because of grace.

I ran Xerox Corporation. I ran the largest, I was a pastor of the largest church in the United States and I'm here by the grace of God. I blew it as a pastor and I'm here because I believed in Jesus Christ and I'm here by the grace of God. I never pastored a church larger than 40 people throughout my ministry and I'm here by the grace of God. I'm the wife of a difficult man to live with, but I'm here by the grace of God.

I'm the wife of a name everybody in this place would know and I'm here by the grace of God. You got it? You see it? It's all a gift. Now having established that, are there no works? Since we're not going to walk around heaven bragging and strutting and it's all an act of grace, are there no works?

Wait a minute. There are no works to get you in, but there are works that prove you're in. Okay, works-based theology has this equation. Faith plus works equals salvation.

Grace-based theology teaches faith equals salvation followed by works. How do I know that? Look, you'll love the way it reads.

Look at that connective. It's explaining no one may boast. For we are his workmanship. Aren't you glad?

It's not even politically correct. It doesn't say workpersonship. It says workmanship. I love that. We are his workmanship.

I'm really getting crotchety in this age of my life. I read that and I thought, that's great, God. You didn't change it.

You left it workmanship. We are God's poiema. P-O-I-E-M-A.

Poiema. We get our word poem from it. We are God's poetry in motion.

Don't you like that? Well, I think it was F.F. Bruce who said, we are God's work of art, God's masterpiece.

Wow. That means when I get in and snap on a seat belt by faith, I become on my journey toward glory, his workmanship. And on this flight called the Christian life, I began to live out the works he created and prepared beforehand that I would walk in them.

Look at how it reads. We are his workmanship. It means that which God is creating, that which God is building, it's like we're on the canvas, sitting on the easel, and each one of us has its own canvas, or her own canvas, and God takes out his brush, chooses the paint, and selects them to look just uniquely like us. And we live that out. Some are in dark and somber colors. They're difficult days and even years. Some are written in suffering and loss and sorrow. Some include tragic disappointments, and some look like they're just one success after another. Some are economically well off.

Some are economically strapped, and some pictures have difficult sicknesses and diseases connected to them, and others are the picture of health. You didn't paint that. You're living out his workmanship.

Isn't that great? How about the little shading of disappointment? It's in there. It's right there where he painted.

You can't figure it out on this side. It's like appreciating a tapestry from the underside. The old poet says, not till the loom is silent and the shuttles cease to fly will God unroll the canvas and explain the reasons why.

The dark threads are as needful in the weaver's skillful hands as the threads of gold and scarlet in the pattern he has planned. This canvas, this has a wonderful Christian couple, but they're painted individually, and God does one thing in her life and another thing in his life. Together they go through things in the disappointment with their children or the heartache or the great experience of achievement.

Can you imagine the parents of Tom Landry, if they were alive, how they would feel with their son? So painted in their canvas is God's grace for that boy who grew up like that. Each one, individual canvas, each child's canvas is painted in their own way. Each one, individual canvas, each child God gives you has an individual canvas. Each one is God's workmanship. Don't raise them just alike. No, no. Worst thing you can do is raise all the kids the same. I mean, are you just like your brother or sister?

No. Each one has been created a certain way. Wise is the parent who makes a study of each child and adjusts and adapts the training accordingly. One doesn't need as many spankings as another one.

Now the one who gets more won't think that's fair, but it'll take a while for him to understand he's on a different canvas. One will be very coordinated and gifted and able and up front and able to handle. Others will be quiet and dreamy and artsy and I could go on. That's another whole subject. But we're all his workmanship.

Treat them with dignity. It's God's work in progress. We're poetry in motion.

Masterpieces. Think of that. And God's the artist. Look at who created it. It's created in Christ Jesus for good works. He thought it up.

He's got the game plan in mind. He's putting us together just as he would have us go together. It's wonderful. God's indescribable gift given to us in Death Valley. We wind up Mount Whitney enjoying the view by the grace of God. Our whole life begins to be transformed and we begin to live out that life for his glory and by his strength and power. And it's amazing if we walk the walk. Now I'll tell you the problem because we are around a lot of humanism. The problem is people will see the greatness and they'll think you get the credit. They really will.

The world watches a life, sees a remarkable example of integrity and faithfulness and discipline and passion and intensity and determination and love and forgiveness, no hypocrisy, free of bitterness, these inescapable qualities of Christ-likeness. And they say, oh, I'm going to get control of my life. You can't. You can't do it. You can't do it. That's flying from here to there on your own. It's silly.

It's impossible. You start with the gift. Remember? Whoops.

You start with the gift. Oh, I did something. Everything OK? Good. I'm getting electronic things.

I tend to get shocked. You start with the gift and you go from there. You don't start with the works and earn your way in. One man put it this way. I like the way this is written. James Montgomery voice. Before we saw with our eyes physically, but we were spiritually blind. Now we see with spiritual eyes and everything seems new. Before we were spiritually deaf. Now we've been given ears to hear.

We hear and respond to Jesus teaching. Before our thinking was darkened. We call good. We call the good bad.

We call the bad good. Things of God were foolish to it. But now our thinking has been changed. We evaluate things differently.

Our minds have been renewed and are being renewed day by day. Before our hearts were hard. We hated God. We did not even care very much for others. Now our hearts are softened because our hearts have been remade. We now give food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, homes to strangers, clothes to the naked, care to the sick, and comfort to those in prison. See, that's how it works. It's not because I'm a do-gooder that's trying to earn my way in so that my good works will outweigh my bad works. We're sunk if that's the way. It's a gift to get in.

Now living out the life is where the works come in. We said goodbye to one of God's masterpieces this week. I wish you could have been with me through the scenes of those men in that reunion. It was a wonderful thing.

Have you noticed, not even in the press, not a hint of criticism? It's amazing. People have thanked me for the words I give. Please. If you can't do that service, you need to hang it up. I mean, good night. I mean, that's easier than falling off a log.

I just got out of the way and let the man who walked the walk tell the story. That's what you want, isn't it? That's what you want.

That's what I want. Take the gift. Walk the walk. You're listening to Insight for Living. Please stay with us because we've set aside several minutes to hear Chuck Swindoll conclude our time together in prayer. To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. Just as Tom Landry left a legacy of faithfulness and integrity, at Insight for Living Ministries, it's our passion to do the same.

Christ established the perfect model for us, filled with grace, mercy, and kindness. To that end, we're calling on friends like you to join us in the all-out effort to bring God's message of grace to all 195 countries of the world. We've dubbed this mission Vision 195. With boldness, we're calling on you to join us.

Together, we can implement the great commission of Jesus Christ by making disciples through the radio, our website, the mobile app, CDs, books, DVDs, the podcast, live streaming, and more. Whatever amount He prompts you to invest in Vision 195 will truly make a difference. To give a one-time contribution today, call us. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888. Or one of the best ways to leverage your giving is by becoming a monthly companion. In this relationship, you automate your monthly giving, having 12 times the impact over the course of one year.

To become a monthly companion, go to insight.org slash monthly companion. You know, Chuck has a voracious reading appetite, and he's come across a book he's highly recommending to you. In a day when it's easy to feel fearful and overwhelmed, Take Cover offers a clear path to finding peace in God's protection. It's written by fellow pastor and radio Bible teacher Philip de Courcy, who's heard on the daily program called Know the Truth. You can purchase a copy of Take Cover by going to insight.org slash store or by calling us.

If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888. Now, once again, here's Chuck Swindoll. Join me in a few moments of prayer, will you? Father, we will never get over the wonder of your grace. We thank you for it. No wonder we call it amazing grace, because you have taken us just as we are, and you have made us like Christ, and your plan is to spend eternity with us.

And we're so grateful we haven't earned our way in, because had we done that, we would be boasting over it. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I am found.

Was blind, but now I see. Thank you for every person listening today, Father, and for the matchless grace you have applied to their lives, each one of them. May they come to realize it more and more, that this magnificent message of grace never ceases. And as long as this good news of Christ is reaching out to the world that's lost its way, grace comes in its wake, ready to accept whoever, just as they are, by your grace. And so we live with gratitude because of your grace, and we anticipate that day when we will see you because of your grace, and you will accept us faultless before the presence of your glory, with exceeding great joy. And when we've been there ten thousand years, bright, shining as the sun, we'll have no less days to sing your grace than when we first begun. We love you, Father, and we thank you for your amazing grace. In the name of Jesus, our Savior. Amen. Be listening Friday when Chuck Swindoll continues his study in Ephesians called Becoming a People of Grace, right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, God's Artwork on Display, was copyrighted in 2000, 2001, and 2009, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2009 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.