In our Bibles this morning in Ephesians chapter two. So Ephesians chapter two. And we'll begin reading in verse eight. This morning, Ephesians chapter two and verse eight. We're gonna read down through verse 10.

So Ephesians two and then verses eight through 10. It says there, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Dear heavenly father, thank you, for this day. Thank you, Lord, for this opportunity, to be here to proclaim, your word and the good news, the gospel. We pray, Lord, that you would work in the hearts of each and everyone who is here, that your holy spirit would take the word of God and that you would bring conviction and challenge and comfort where it is needed in our hearts today and that you would conform us more to the image of Jesus Christ, your son. It is in Jesus' precious name we do pray.

Amen. Alright. So I titled the sermon this morning, any strings attached. You've heard the phrase, there's no strings attached. Okay?

And I've heard that used in reference to the gospel before in our salvation. And as I I thought about that and I thought about this passage and some others, certain things came to my mind that I believe that the Lord would have me to share with you today. And so that's where we're going. Answer these questions. Are there any strings attached?

Last week, we learned that salvation is a what? It is a gift. It is a gift that is bestowed upon us by God, upon those who choose to receive Christ as savior and Lord by faith. A gift purchased by Jesus Christ at great cost to him on the cross of Calvary where he shed his blood and he paid the price and he paid the penalty that was whose? That was ours to pay.

The penalty for our sin. He suffered not for his, but he suffered there for ours to pay to take our punishment, to pay our penalty, to suffer for the consequences of our sin that we might be saved, that we might be redeemed. He purchased for us us there a gift, the gift of salvation and forgiveness for all of our sins without which we would have no hope. But today, we have great hope because of Jesus Christ. Salvation cannot be earned.

It can only be humbly accepted or received through faith in the one who offers it, who purchased it with his blood, and that is Jesus Christ. If you are trying to earn it in any way, then you do not understand the meaning of grace. For by grace are you saved. That's God graciously giving something to us that we did not and cannot earn or deserve, a gift as Paul writes here so clearly. If you're trying to earn it, you do not understand the meaning of grace or the nature of the offer that God has made, and yet there are many people who claim the name of Christ who still think they still have to what?

They have to earn it in order to receive it, but that is not true. Christ earned it for us on the cross of Calvary. But are there any strings attached? Yes or no? Well, no, and that there are no prerequisites to receiving God's gift of grace, but what?

Faith alone. For by grace are you saved through what? Faith and not by what? Not by works. There is no group that you have to belong to.

There is no work that you have to perform in order to be saved. All you have to do is trust in the Lord Jesus and accept his offer of salvation today. And by God's grace, you can be saved and forgiven all your sins and receive eternal life in Jesus Christ. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. No.

There's nothing you can add to what God has done to redeem your soul because Christ did it all where? On the cross of Calvary. There's not a thing you can add to the price that Christ paid because he paid it what? He paid it all. And there's nothing you can add to that to make yourself more saved.

Christ did it all. All you must do is by faith receive his offer and his son. For he that hath the son, the Bible says, he that hath the son hath life. He that hath not the son hath not life. These things, John said, I wrote unto you that have believed on the name of the son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.

However, here comes the however. However, there is something I think we in Baptist circles need to make a little more clear in regards to our glorious salvation. That is this, When you trust Christ and are born again into God's family, when you become a child of God, it makes you a new creation in Christ. It makes you indeed a child of God. It makes you a servant of the king and a disciple of Jesus Christ.

And while this new relationship is offered freely, once we have entered into it, there are certain expectations and obligations which do naturally and justly follow. Salvation is free. Being born again into God's family is free. Eternal life is free. It's not free to God.

It's not free to Christ. He paid for it on the cross, but it is free to you if you will receive it. But once you are born into God's family as a new member of God's family, as a new servant of the king, as a new disciple of Jesus Christ, as a new creation in Christ Jesus, God does have expectations for us. And there are obligations and responsibilities that do follow. So in that regard, the answer is yes.

There are strings attached and that when you become a child of God, there are expectations of you. It's a good thing to know ahead of time. Jesus says to count the cost. Most importantly, Christian, it's a good thing for you to be reminded of today because sometimes we we get so caught up in the things of the world and we think, hey, well, you know, I'm going to heaven. That's all that matters.

Is it all that matters? Is that all that matters to God? Is that the only reason he saved you is give you an escape from hell and that's all he cares about? I don't think so. I think he has greater aspirations for his children than simply escaping hell.

Matter of fact, I know he does. So in that regard, there are, we might say, strings attached. Romans ten nine and thirteen says this, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. What do I have highlighted in that verse?

Lord Jesus and Lord. Notice what we are confessing in faith that Jesus is what? Our Lord, the Lord? And doesn't that relationship indicate some obligation on the part of the one who receives him and confesses him as Lord? I I tend to think it does.

I would like to take just a few minutes this morning to outline some of these obligations and expectations on the part of our Lord, which do accompany the wonderful privileges which we now enjoy in Christ. To remind us who are Christians that we belong to Christ and we are bought with a what? Bought with a price. First Corinthians six twenty one. And are therefore obligated as a matter of love and gratitude, not just duty, love and gratitude, to seek to please our heavenly father in all things and to bring glory to him who gave so much to redeem you, to purchase you back from the ruin of sin where he found you, and to make of us something beautiful once again.

It is the gruesomeness through the gruesomeness of the cross that something beautiful resounds, is made once again in us. But rather than discussing our obligations as a list of do's and don'ts, and we could do that. You have to do this. You have to do this. Have to do this.

You have to don't do that. Don't do that. We're not gonna do that today because well, the Christian life is more about the relationship than it is the list. Okay? It's not a formula.

It's not a list. It's not a religion made up by men of things to make you feel good about yourself or to better your life in some particular area. It is relationship and one which changes your eternal destiny starting with the day that you trust Jesus as Lord and savior of your life. So let's discuss this in relation to those relationships that we mentioned. Let's start with the first one.

The first one is this, God is your creator and you are his what? Creation. Okay? God is the creator and you are his creation. It says in Ephesians two ten that we just read, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

When God first created Adam and Eve, he created them to live to the glory of their creator. Now Adam and Eve messed that up a bit, and we'll come back to that in a minute. But that is a relationship that we share doubly in Christ, for we have been created anew in Jesus Christ. In second Corinthians five seventeen, it says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a what? A new creature, a new creation.

All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Again, you are doubly a creation of God, physically and spiritually in Jesus Christ. He made you for a purpose as an an engineer would would engineer anything for a to to for a purpose to to fulfill a particular need. That purpose was derailed by Satan and sin, but it is restored in Jesus Christ.

You were made in the image of God. You were created in that image to reflect it in your aspirations, your attitudes, and your actions actions to to bring bring glory glory to to your your creator. Like a statue or a painting reflects the heart of the painter or the sculptor, We were created to reflect the heart of our creator God in who we are and what we say and what we do To show forth his glory and who he is that others may look on, not to the praise of the painting or the praise of the sculpture, but to the praise of the painter and the sculptor and the engineer, God in heaven. He made you in the image God that you might have fellowship with God on a level superior even to the angels in heaven in a manner like Adam and Eve when they they just walked and talked with God in the Garden Of Eden before they sinned. Like like he was a friend rather than just the sovereign God.

We were created in the image of God to worship and serve him, not as a matter of duty or obligation, but out of a heart of love and gratitude and even friendship as is echoed in the adoration of the 24 elders in Revelation, likely representing the church in heaven. There we read, thou art worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for thou hast created all all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created. This wasn't something that the the 24 elders in heaven were required to say. It wasn't part of a script that they had to say. It is something that comes from their what?

From their heart. We're not robots. God didn't create robots or or computers that that simply do what they're programmed to do. Thus, the reason he gave Adam and Eve a choice in the garden to choose to follow him or conversely to to turn away. Thus, we are created in the image of God to give glory by choice to the one who made us, to have fellowship and to walk with him, by choice each day to reflect his image so that others might see Jesus in us.

Sadly, God was robbed of that in the garden by Satan and Adam and Eve's disobedience, marring in man that beautiful image and damaging man's ability to perform as God had created him too. But yet in Christ, that image is restored. That we who are thus created in Christ Jesus, who are born again, might once again live to bring glory to our maker by his grace and his power. That is relationship number one. Let's move on to relationship number two.

God is your father and you are his child. John one twelve, but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name. And he's not just talking to men, by the way. Sons there could be translated children. He's talking to men and women.

He's talking to all of us. Okay? It's not gender specific there. As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the children of God, even to them that believe on his name. If you have believed on his name, you have become a child of who?

Become a child of God. You are a child of God. First John three one says, behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore, the world knoweth us not because it knew him not. Behold what manner of love the father has shown.

He has opened wide his arms and bestowed upon us, brought us into the family, to God's family, to be a child of God. He gave up his son to this earth to make it possible that you might become his children also. Ephesians one. If you you're still in Ephesians two, just turn back a page to Ephesians one, and let's read starting in verse three. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who have blessed us with all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ.

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Having predestinated us under the adoption of the children of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, that is in his family, In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. And we could continue reading down through the rest of the chapter. It goes on and on and on, all of the privileges and the blessings that we have, the benefits of being a child of who? A child of God.

And if you are a Christian, if you have received Christ, you've been born again into God's family, you've been adopted into God's family, what a wonderful thing. We who were once outcasts and orphans, estranged from our father in heaven by our sin have now been welcomed into the beloved. God's family whereby he has become our father and indeed we have become his children. Now we understand to some degree or another the obligations and responsibilities of a child toward their what? Of children toward their parents.

Are there responsibilities children have towards their parents? Responsibilities which hopefully flow not merely out of duty, but naturally from a heart of love and gratitude. Actions and attitudes which need not be performed or expressed in attempt to gain the love of their parents, but in an attempt to express their love for their parents. This surely is the case with our heavenly father. If you have received Christ, you've received the love of God and the Bible says that nothing can separate you from the love of your new family and your new father.

You do not need to earn his love. He he offers it freely. But do you want to show him your love for him? Says in in John John, it writes, we love him because he, what, first loved us. It's our opportunity to show our love for him.

God will will love you whether you are an obedient child or a difficult one. I love my children when they're obedient and cooperative and when they're not. Because I'm human, sometimes I get a little bit frustrated sometimes. But they don't have to earn my love because they are my what? My children.

We don't have to earn his love. We are his children. Nothing the Bible says will separate us from his love. Neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. If you have accepted God's love and his offer of salvation, you become his child and nothing can separate from his love.

But don't you want to be an obedient child? Don't you want to take the opportunity to show your love? Don't you want to please and make happy your heavenly father? Don't you want to be a loving child? To be a respectful one?

Honor your what? Father and mother? Does not our heavenly father deserve that honor? Don't you want to be a gracious one? A faithful one?

Don't you want to please and make him happy? Don't you want to be a child like Job of whom the Lord could look Satan in the faith face and say this, hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him in the earth? A perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and showeth thee. That was God's words to Satan concerning his servant Job. Don't you wanna be the child whom God can say that?

Wouldn't that be wonderful? Does he not deserve it? Malachi one six, Malachi wrote, a son honoreth his father and a servant his master. If I then be a father, where is mine, what? Honor.

Said to Israel, you call me father. Where's my honor? I don't see it. You're you're not serving me with a whole heart. You're just kinda playing games with me.

You're going through the motions. You're you're you're not doing your best. You're doing your least. Where is my honor? I think God might say that to Christianity in general today.

Where is my honor? We're we're more concerned about things that are passing away about getting to see the TV show or the ballgame or who wins this or who wins that or or whether which, you know, iPhone I have or or who likes me and pats me on the back and all of those things than our father in heaven. Jesus is your king and you are his one. You are his servant. First Timothy one seventeen, now unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be glory forever and ever.

Amen. Matthew twenty five thirty four, then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. He is your king. Does he deserve your allegiance? He does.

He does. We serve the king of kings and Lord of Lord, and that is an exalted position. Indeed, it is. As such, we who were once were aliens and not citizens of heaven and kingdom and of Christ's kingdom, who had no place or privilege standing or rights as citizens of the kingdom of God, now have great privilege, protection, and an inheritance in heaven that fadeth not a way reserved in heaven for those who know Christ. Paul put it this way in Colossians, giving thanks unto the father which made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints and light, who have delivered us from the power of darkness, who have translated us into the kingdom of his dear son, whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins.

You are a servant of the king of kings and Lord of lords. Not a bad title. What are you doing with it? The Bible says in first Corinthians four two, it's required in stewards or servants that a man be found what? Faithful.

Does that ring true with you? Are you focused on being faithful to the one who is faithful to you? Are we just kinda spinning our wheels saying, hey, I'm going to heaven. That's all that matters. It's not all that matters.

We have responsibilities as children of the king. And then lastly, he is our creator, our father, our king, and he is our master, our Lord, and we are his disciples. Jesus said it this way to his disciples, if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Christ said, if you're gonna follow me, you're gonna have to set some of your own ambitions and and desires. You're gonna have to set them aside to pick up the ones that I have for you and then follow my lead.

If you're going to be a disciple that's worth their salt, that counts for something, then you're gonna have to set aside some things that the world treasures that are passing away to adopt some eternal things and follow Christ. That's going to mean following his example and not the example of the world. That's going to mean adopting his teachings and laying aside the teachings and philosophies of the world, renewing your mind in the word of God, adopting his goals and his purpose. It'll mean enduring some trials as he did for us. It's going to mean spending time with him, reading his word, and talking with him in prayer because you are his what?

His disciple, his follower. Today at the conclusion of the service, we are having a baptism. Those who are participating do signify by their baptism today not only their salvation in Christ, but their desire as new disciples of Christ to follow the Lord closely, to walk with him daily, and to serve him with all their heart. Paul wrote in Romans six four, therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. What baptism signifies is a death to the old self and a resurrection with Christ to a new life in him.

A life newly created in Christ Jesus under good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. A life as a child of our father in heaven who we honor and adore and obey. A life as a servant of the king, a blessed servant, to spend much of our time serving him and bringing glory to his name. A disciple of Jesus Christ following him daily. In closing, Paul pleaded with believers in Rome not to stop short in their Christian life of following through in obedience and service.

Obedience and service which Paul claimed is their what? Their reasonable service, and it is. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. Reasonable why? Because he gave his life for you.

Because he picked you up out of the mire and muck of sin. Because he forgave you of all of your sins. Because he has given you the gift of eternal life all by his grace, all because he earned it, not you, and all because of his love. Are you endeavoring daily by his grace to follow our your Lord? Are you endeavoring daily by his grace and strength to serve your king?

Are you endeavoring daily by his grace and strength to obey your father and glorify your creator. If not, shame on you. You should be. Repent. Confess.

I think maybe sometimes we have taken our responsibilities as Christ's children way too late. He deserves better. Maybe you've lost sight of these things. Maybe you need to have a talk with him today. Now would be a good time.

And maybe you're here today and you've never trusted, never received Christ's offer of salvation. As we sing a hymn of invitation this morning, I plead with you, come. If you'll come as we sing, I'll meet you right down here. We'll share with you today how you can be saved in knowing. Let's pray.

Dear heavenly father, we thank you, Lord, for Jesus Christ, our savior, for what a privilege it is to be children of the king of kings, to be servants of the king, new creations in Christ Jesus, disciples of Jesus Christ. Lord, I fear we have taken that responsibility way too lightly. And, Lord, we we haven't endeavored to show out of a heart of love and gratitude how much we do appreciate what you have done for us. Lord, forgive our sin and our selfishness, our shortsightedness today. Lord, help us to keep our eyes focused on you and being better servants of Christ and children to our father in heaven.

And we pray if there's one here today that is yet to trust in the Lord Jesus and receive him as Lord and savior of their life, they would come as we give this hymn of invitation today. In Jesus' name, we do pray. Amen.