Turn in your Bibles to Ephesians,
the second chapter. Now, you might have already concluded
that after what has been read and what has been sung, that
I'm going to have something to say this morning about grace. You read where Paul spoke about
The ministry that God had given him was to testify of the gospel
of the grace of God. And then we sung that hymn, Marvelous
Grace, of our loving Lord. And then that most famous, and
I'm sure most underappreciated and misunderstood, O Him amazing
grace. But my subject this morning is
why we must be saved by grace. Why must we be saved by grace? And I'll begin reading in Ephesians
2, with these words that Paul first wrote to some people in
a place called Ephesus. "'And you hath he quickened,
who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye
walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prints of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich
in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved, and hath
raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the
exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through
Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye 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." why we must be saved by grace. You see what the Apostle Paul
is led by the Spirit of God to say about these Ephesian believers
can be said of all that God saves, will be said of all His elect. Because the salvation that he's
talking about here is not a temporal salvation, but it's salvation
from our sins. It's what Peter called the salvation
of our souls. And their condition and ours,
described here in part, And in many other places in the Scriptures
is the condition that grace meets. And it is why their salvation
and our salvation must be all of grace. Paul said that of his
own self. Listen to what he says in 1 Corinthians
15 and verse 10. He says, "...but by the grace
of God I am what I am, and His grace which was bestowed upon
me was not in vain." God's grace. which he bestows upon his people
is never bestowed in vain." As a matter of fact, in grace, God
does not simply offer, He acts. And we see this in this second
chapter of Ephesians, where Paul sets forth the great contrast
between what these Gentile believers at Ephesus and all believers
are in themselves, first by nature, and then what they are made by
the grace of God. And what a contrast it is, an
amazing contrast. On the one hand, they are by
nature that which can never be improved. And then on the other
hand, they are by grace in Christ that which never needs to be
improved. You see, it's just like our Lord
tells us, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that
which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. And those who know nothing
of what they are by nature, they surely can know nothing about
what it is to be saved by grace. And Paul tells us what he was
before in another of his epistles, knowing what he was before only
after the grace of God appeared to him. He never knew before. And God makes this known to His
people in order that He might in them create hearts that are
full of gratitude, thanksgiving, humility, and praise for His
grace to them in them both now and for all eternity. As a matter of fact, look back
in Ephesians 1 and verse 6. He speaks of all that He has
done before the world began, and as the world continues, and
as all things will be in eternity, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."
I'm told that in the original, what that says is something like
this, He has graced us in the Beloved. And then also in this
second chapter, it is, he says in verse 7, that in the ages
to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. In other words, grace, the grace
of God, always glorifies God. It will eternally glorify God. And he shows us the reason why
we must be saved by grace and the reason why God in grace gives
all the glory for Himself. It is, first of all, because
of what we were and are by nature. In other words, grace is necessary
because of our condition. Look back in verse 1 of chapter
2. He says, "...and you," and if
you notice, that next phrase was added by the translators,
He says what he says there in another verse later, but he begins
with this, "...and you who were dead in trespasses and sins."
In other words, the first word that is used to describe those
that God saves is the fact that they were dead. not dying, not
very sick, absolutely nothing less than dead. That's exactly what grace means. And that is, we were dead spiritually,
with no spiritual life, and with no knowledge of God, and with
no righteousness, and with no hope in ourselves. D-E-A-D, dead. And it is being dead to God as
He really is, and dead to His truth, and dead to everything
that is truly right, legally dead in Adam, facing eternal
death, and without the Spirit of life, which renders us unable
to think or to do or to will or to in any way imagine anything
that is good or holy. Look over in Ephesians 4 at the
18th verse. He describes us in this way,
having the understanding darkened. children of darkness in ourselves,
having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life
of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the
blindness of their hearts." Our understanding. That is, the basis
upon which we judge or reason or think about things, our view
on everything, because of our condition, everything we think
about and look at and would have understanding about, he says
it's darkened. Why? Because we're dead. And that death is the consequence
of sin, and if you notice, he says here that we were dead in
it. Not just dead, but dead in sin. Dead in trespasses. And that word trespass, has something
to do in expressing a fall or a lapse, such as the transgression
of Adam, whereby he not only fell, but we fell. He said, you're dead. You weren't
in just bad shape, you weren't just hurt bad, you weren't just
really sick, you weren't just in a difficult situation. He
said we are nothing less than dead. in trespasses and sins. Turn over to Romans chapter 5,
because this is exactly what Paul is talking about, him being
the author of what is said here in Romans chapter 5. Look down
in Romans 5 at verse 6. He says, "...for when we were
yet without strength, In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Now, you won't find a descriptive
name of any kind concerning those that God saves, viewing them
in themselves as they are in themselves, and as they became
in Adam. You won't find anything glamorous
at all or appealing. ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
Look down at verse 10. For if, when we were enemies,"
and he goes on in Colossians to describe what kind of enemies
we are. He said, we were enemies in our
own minds by wicked works. In other words, we show ourselves,
not that God is an enemy to His people, but we by nature show
ourselves toward Him as enemy, trying to present to Him and
claim salvation in some work of our own, which He calls wicked
works. enemies in your mind. For if,
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life."
And then look down at that 12th verse. Wherefore, as by one man
sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sin." Now, what he's talking
about here is the same thing he's talking about there in that
first verse of Ephesians. when he says that in our father
Adam, in that place that is called in Scripture the Garden of Eden,
something happened, something in what he did that was translated
to every person in his race, so that in Scripture it says
that all who are in Adam all do what? Die. They died. They fell into a state of sin
and death, so that if you hear what he says here in that 12th
verse, it says that by one man, this one man's sin entered into
the world, death by sin, and death passed upon all men, for
that all sinned. You say, how in the world could
I have sinned then when I wasn't even born? We sinned in that
man that represented our race, this man Adam, by one man. Dead in trespasses and sin. And then look down in verse 17,
the first part of that verse. He says in verse 17, For if by one man's offense,
death reigned by one." How did sin enter in? Not only into the
world, but us. How did this consequence come
on us? How did this that he's calling
here, this offense, he says, is one by one man's offense. Death reigned by one. Go to the next verse, verse 18. He says, to condemnation. Condemned in
Adam. Condemned before God in our head,
Adam. That didn't change what we were
in Christ, but condemned in Adam who represented us. And then
if you look in verse 19, he says, "...for as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners." You see, when Adam died, And the
death that he died was not a physical death, although it did finally
bring about physical death. But in the day that Adam ate
of that tree, God had already said that in the day that you
eat of that tree, you will surely die. And he died spiritually. He died to God. You say, how
do you know that? Because he began to run from
God. He began to go and hide himself from God in the trees. He began to try to piece together
those aprons of fig leaves to make himself a covering before
God. He was dead in trespasses and
sins. And unless we get a grip on that,
unless we're brought to understand that, that we are sinners not
only because of what we do, but because of what we are, and we
are what we are because we all fell in this man Adam, and we
are in this world as those who are dead in trespasses and sins. And all throughout the Old Testament,
I've been thinking about this for about two weeks, all throughout
the Old Testament, the descriptions, how could we ever imagine that
we could ever be saved, that we could ever find favor with
God, that we could ever do anything that would be good or right in
His sight, that we could ever do anything for which He'd bless
us in light of what all of Scripture says about us. Let me read you
some verses. In Genesis it says after this,
"...and God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually." He didn't just have a bad day once in a
while. No. Every thought. Every imagination,
which, by the way, is the very heart of where all idolatry comes
from. He said, it's only evil continually. That's it. That's what he says.
Listen to what he brings to be said in Job 15. He says, what
is man that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman,
that he should be righteous. Behold, God puts no trust in
His saints, yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight. How
much more abominable and filthy is man who drinks iniquity like
water." We're talking about in God's sight. And I wonder how
we just look at ourselves, if left to ourselves, and we're
just like the little nursery rhyme about the guy who stuck
his finger in the pie and pulled out a plum and said, oh, what
a good boy am I. That's right. He says, how much
more abominable. whenever even those who are saved
by Him in His own sight and what they are in their selves, they
are not clean in themselves. He said, how much more abominable
and filthy is man who drinks iniquity like water. Again in Job, in chapter 25. can man be justified, that is,
declared righteous by God? Or how can he be clean, that
is, born of a woman? Behold, even to the moon, and
it shineth not, yea, the stars are not pure in his sight, how
much less man, that is, a worm." That literally says a maggot.
That's one of the things that we view as the very worst, most
putrid, most awful, most vile, most defiled thing on this earth. He uses it to describe us. The psalmist takes this same
thing, all of these individuals led by the Spirit of God. He says, "...behold, thou hast
made my days as a hand-breath, and mine age is as nothing before
thee. Verily, every man at his best
state is altogether vanity." You say, well, I'm somebody.
Yeah, you're zero. I'm zero. And how we can ever
develop elements and stratas in social society, imagine that
one is higher, better, or in some way improved over the other,
I don't know. Each and every one, their best
state is altogether vanity. That means nothing. Emptiness. Psalmist again in Psalm 53, God
looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if
there were any that did understand, that did seek God. Every one
of them is gone back. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Why would you ever imagine that
you've got a little niche carved out in this world, in the eye
of Almighty God, and imagine that you've done good? I've done
good. He said, there is none that doeth
good, not one. That's why we need grace. Psalm
62, surely men of low degree are vanity. Well, everybody will
agree to that one. And men of high degree are a
lie, because God hadn't raised any of them to imagine that they
could be a high degree. They're a lie. To be laid in
the balance, they're altogether lighter than vanity. That means less than nothing.
You say, well, preacher, you're not very good for my self-esteem.
I'm not worried too much about people's self-esteem. Not when
it comes to God. They'll walk around here before
men and look pious, and try to appear humble, and they'll hang
their head, and they'll speak in this real mushy language,
and they'll talk like honey's dripping off their lips, and
they'll say, oh, you do this, I'm nothing. But before God,
They think they're something. You say, how do you know that?
Because they will not be saved by grace. They will not look
to the Lord Jesus Christ for all righteousness. They will
not confess themselves sinners before God. Ecclesiastes, he
says, for there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good
and sinneth not. Not one. Not one single one. We can look over in a foreign
country and see somebody that looks different, talks different,
dresses different, got a different religion. Some may imagine we're
better than them. No, we're not. We all can trace
our lineage back to the same family tree, Adam. Here's what God says in Isaiah
1. Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the
whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even
to the head there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores, they have not been closed, neither bound
up, neither mollified with ointment." You know what he's picturing
there? Leprosy. Total leprosy. Some people say,
well, we believe in total depravity, but we also believe in free will.
No, you don't. Or they'll say when they're speaking
of the grace of God and what some people call the doctrines
of grace, they say, well, we believe in this point and that
point, but we don't believe in limited atonement or particular
redemption. No, if you believe the first
point, That makes all the others necessary. Total depravity. That doesn't mean that we're
as bad, that everyone is as bad as they could be. God has restrained
His grace, restrained men. in His mercy so that we're not
all what we could be and what we would be. I used to say something
like this, oh, we all have the potential to sin. My friend,
it's more than the potential. God lifts His hand one second. We'll show ourselves worse than
the devil himself because of what we are. wretched, vile,
God-hating sinners. Oh, I don't hate God. Yes, you
do, by nature. The carnal mind, the natural
mind, this same apostle says, is enmity toward God. Well, I'm doing the best I can.
It ain't good enough for God. Turn over to Jeremiah chapter
13. Not only are we such in ourselves,
we can't change ourselves. We can't do anything to improve
ourselves. Do you ever wonder why, after
every election, when we've been promised all these things, and
all these years have gone by, and we still not only have trouble,
it gets worse and worse and worse. Why? Because all we've got to
offer is sinners. Listen to what he says in verse
23. Can the Ethiopian change his
skin? Can that person change his skin
whose skin is dark or black? Or the leopard his spots? You say, well, they've made a
lot of progress in doing such things, changing skin color and
all. He says, can he change it himself? He said, if he could,
then may ye also do good that are accustomed to do evil. All through the Old Testament.
That's just a few. There is not a nice description
of man who is a descendant of Adam anywhere. And then when
he comes to the New Testament, the Apostle Paul in the New Testament
here, he continues in verse 2, he says, wherein in time past
you walked according to the course of this world. In other words,
this was the evidence of this spiritual death. You walked in
that broad way that leads to destruction. You walked in that
way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is the way
of death. You walked the same way as every
other sinner after the flesh, walked in sin. He says, according
to the Prince, of the power of the air, the spirit that now
works in the children of disobedience. And he proves this evil to be
universal because all act and find themselves, whether they'll
admit it or not, as slaves of Satan." Oh, so-and-so is devil-possessed. Every person apart from grace
is devil-possessed. Described by the Spirit of God
as being held captive by the devil, due to the pleasure of
this prince. Men are therefore slaves and
captives to Satan because they're willingly rebellious against
God. They're called the children of
disobedience who are given to disobedience in contrast to the
children of faith. Christ looked at those Pharisees.
He said, you're of your father, the devil. They said, how do
you know? Because you're of a lie just
like he is. Verse 3, he says, "...among whom also we all."
You see that we? You see, the child of grace never
ever would refuse to bow and confess themselves for what they
are. We're in the same bunch, in the
same condition. apart from grace, among whom
also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of
our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
I told somebody recently, there's one thing I know that I've learned.
I hear people all the time giving every excuse why they can't do
this and why they didn't do this. But I know this, you do what
you want to do. Because you show me and you show
yourself and we all show each other that we do if we have something
that the flesh wants to do. You do it. Never too sick to
do it. Never too poor to do it. Never
too weak to do it, never too busy to do it. You do what you
want to do. And apart from grace, you always
will. And he said, you were by nature the children of wrath,
even as others. Now, the children of God, they've
never been the children of wrath. They didn't come into this world
the children of wrath, and then all of a sudden they do something
and become the children of God. They didn't come into this world
as the children of wrath, and then all of a sudden God did
something and they become the children of God. He says they
were by nature the children of wrath. They have the same nature. We all, Jews or Gentiles, Our
conversation, that is our way of life, was the same as all
the children of disobedience. And we satisfied the only nature
we possess, fulfilling or doing what comes to our mind, and our
thoughts being independent of any thought of God's. For we
are by nature. Nature is inherent sin, which
deserves wrath. But grace is given and bestowed
upon God's elect, and He saves from wrath. I like what John
says in the same vein that Paul was talking there in 1 Corinthians.
He said, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us. Grace is bestowed upon God's
people. He bestowed it in old eternity
on them. He bestowed it on them in Christ.
He bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore,
the world knows us not because it knew Him not. We were just
lost, dead, hopeless, sinners, slaves, without God, sold under
sin. Look down at verse 11. He says,
"...wherefore remember that you, being in time past Gentiles in
the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh made by hands, that at that time you were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers
from the covenant so promised, having no hope, and without God
in the world, but now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were
far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." How far off
were we? We were just as far off as any
other son or daughter of Adam in ourselves. We're so far off
from God that we would never ever have known anything about
the true God, or His mercy, or His Son, or His salvation were
it not for His grace. You can go over and read Romans
chapter 3. And what you'll find is that
the New Testament writer takes up the same thing that the psalmist
and others did in the Old Testament, and he says, there's none righteous,
none that seeketh after God, none that doeth good, no, not
one. That's why we have to be saved
by grace. Omnipotent. Almighty, sovereign
grace. Because we can't save ourselves.
We can't please God of ourselves. We can't do anything that would
be considered righteousness. We cannot do anything. We must be saved. But look back in Ephesians 2
at that fourth verse. But God, There are some reasons
that we must be saved by God's grace. He says, but God, that
is, God's nature is contrasted to ours, and God's doings are
also contrasted to ours and compared to ours. That's what we did.
This is what God did. I wish we could, in our minds,
have a list of what we do, What God's done. And just let them
fall like Paul is setting them forth, side by side. Compare them and contrast them. He says, but God, who is rich
in mercy for His great love, wherewith He saved us. He didn't help us save ourselves.
He didn't do something to make us savable. He saved us. Because that's what grace does.
Our nature makes us unable to do anything to save ourselves.
His nature enables Him to save us. I can't save myself because
of what I am. He can save me because of who
He is. You see, in everlasting love,
He conferred salvation on a remnant of Adam's fallen race, on a people
that He gave to His Son, and chosen him before the world began. You see, God's grace is only
in Christ. Only in Christ and only through
His death Can His mercy and His love be demonstrated in a manner
that's consistent with His righteousness and His justice? We can't do
anything to satisfy God. Nothing. And you see, salvation
by grace demonstrates that it is what God does and what He
does in Christ that saves us, and never at any point what we
do. This is how grace has reigned
in righteousness, And only in Christ could God have ever loved
us, and only in Christ could a just God save us. And He saved us through and in
one outside of ourselves. Something in the flesh. When
we read that passage in Romans 5, and He's telling us of all
the things we became and all the things we did in that one
man Adam, that kind of goes against our grain. The flesh just kind
of rises up and says, wait a minute, that's not quite fair. But the
glory is He dealt with us in that way so He could deal with
us in another. Look back at Romans chapter 5
again. Look back at that 18th verse,
at the second part. He says, "...even so, by the
righteousness of one, the free gift came upon all men unto justification
of life." Through the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Those
in Him which were Jew and Gentile, a people out of each people,
He says that they, this free gift came upon them whereby God
is just to give them life. He wouldn't be just if He didn't.
Why? Because Christ has died for them
in their place. Look at verse 19. Second part,
so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. I believe
in the original there's a definite article connected to that many,
the many. Who's that? The many in Christ.
Just like the many in Adam, the many in Christ. And it says that
by one man's obedient act. What was that? Well, he was obedient
to everything, but what he's talking about there is that death
on the cross. He became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. And then also in verse 20, he
said, "...by the one man shall many be made righteous." He said,
"...but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." That's
what I'm interested in, super abounding And then verse 21,
he says, "...that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might
grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord." Grace reigns as dominion through righteousness. eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. By that one man who's called
the, not just second Adam, but the last Adam. For those who
are in that last Adam, there isn't going to be any more Adams.
Grace has reigned through righteousness in him. Then if you look over
in Ephesians 2, just again a bit, he says in verse 5, even when
we were dead in sins, you mean he didn't wait for somebody to
make a decision or act their free will out or do something
good to deserve it or make a decision or something like that? No. even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,
by grace ye are saved." What that says there is, by grace
you have been saved. By grace you are being saved. By grace in Christ you shall
be saved. grace from beginning to end. You see, the triune God is the
Savior of His people. The Father in that everlasting
covenant purposed to save a people, and He put everything in the
matter of their salvation into the hands of their surety, the
Lord Jesus Christ. They'll always be saved by one
outside of themselves. Christ the Son came into this
world And as a man, a perfect, sinless man, he died before the
justice of God on that cross established righteousness so
that God did right in setting His people free. And then God
the Spirit, on the basis of that just work, on the basis of that
righteousness established, He brings to them this good news
and life and faith, so that in a sense, before the world began,
we were brought to life in Christ by the Father. When Christ came
and He died on that cross and was buried, when He rose from
the grave, we were raised to life in Him. And when He comes
to where we are in our miserable state, and opens our eyes, and
gives us life, and raises us to spiritual life, which is demonstrated
by faith in Him. He quickens us. Somebody said
God's grace in salvation precedes us, purchases us, and produces
life in us. We are saved by grace. Therefore, we have no room to
boast, and only reason to praise Him." When he writes to Titus,
Paul says it like this, he said, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His own purpose and grace,
He saved us. All men and women are always
in disputes about what happens here and what happens there,
and when does this happen, when does a person say, God, the eternal
God, He lives in that eternal now. And He saved us. He saved us. And He raised us
up together with Christ. And He raises all His children
up together as one in Him. and seats them in the heavenlies.
Verse 6, He hath raised us up together, because He made us
to be one with Christ, put us in that grace union with Him,
never to be separated from Him again. And He raised us up together
and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. In the ages to come, He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. Where is grace? In Christ Jesus. Where is the favor, kindness,
and goodness of God? It is His grace through Christ
Jesus. And as soon as we find this out,
as soon as we find ourselves to have been saved by grace,
we'll start praising Him and thanking Him, and we'll quit
talking about I, me, mine, what I did and free will and such
stuff as that, and we'll have nothing but praise for the glory
of God's grace in Christ. I'll never forget the woman that
asked me that time, she said, do you mean to tell me? This
was a very self-righteous lady, and the last time I saw her,
she was the same way. You mean to tell me I had nothing
to do with my salvation? I said just one thing. You did
the sinning. God has to do all the saving,
and God doing all the saving is what grace is. Father, we
ask this day that You would make known to Your people this salvation
by grace that You have made to be in Christ Jesus, that we might
be enabled to believe the gospel of the grace of God. that we
might see that you've saved us by grace, that we have no reason
to boast in ourselves, but attribute every detail of our salvation
to God our Savior. Help us, we pray, for we ask
it all and we thank you and praise you in Christ's name. Amen.