In the Psalms of Grace hymn book,
hymn number 51, God our Father rules over all things. We'll
sing that to the tune of Love Divine, All Loves Accepted. God our Father rules over all
things and takes care of our affairs. Our mighty Lord, the
King of kings, bids us cast off Him our cares. Wondrous grace, so full of comfort,
Grace to meet our every need. Jehovah is faith's sweet resort. Trusting Him, from care we're
free. Children of the glorious Sovereign,
trust His gracious providence. Bow to God's almighty just strength
with implicit confidence. He will keep you and defend you
as the apple of His eye. God will never, never leave you. He is always by your side. I will trust and not be fearful. Though my path be rough and dark,
For my God is ever faithful, He secures my weary heart. Every promise must be fulfilled,
Every word from God will send. Hush my troubled heart, now be
still. God my Father's in command. Amen. What a blessed song. And
that's a blessed truth, brethren. Now, that's not just something
we sing just to sing a pretty hymn or anything. That's the
truth of the scriptures. Our God is ruling over everything.
He's in control of everything, governing everything. And if
we are the elect of God, we are the apple of His eye. We are
His love. We are His people. And He does
care for us and He takes care of us and watches out for us
and provides for us. And the scriptures say that all
things work together for good to them who are the called. And
so we know that He has our interest in mind. And so we just trust
that, that even though it doesn't seem good at the time, that it
is good. He does all things good, right?
Is there anything that He doesn't do that's not good? I mean, He
does all things good, right? Well, if He does all things good
and if He is all wise, then everything He does in your life is good
and wise, right? The most wisest thing. So even
when we go through hardships and he brings us through that,
that is the most wisest thing that could ever happen for you
at that point in your life, according to your God who is doing all
things for your good. All right, turn if you would
now over to the Gatsby hymn book, over to 326. Him number 326. After we sing
this, if anybody has a request for one, we'll take a few requests,
if you have any. Him number 326. Our weakness
and Christ our strength. We'll sing this to the tune of
Just As I Am. Let me but hear my Savior say,
Strength shall be mine. equal to thy day. Then I rejoice in deep distress,
leaning on all sufficient grace. I glory in infirmity, That Christ's
own power may rest on me. When I am weak, then I am strong. Grace is my shield and Christ
my song. I can do all things, or can bear
all sufferings. If my Lord be there, sweet pleasures
mingle with the pains while His left hand my head sustains. But if the Lord be once withdrawn,
And we attempt the work alone, When new temptations spring and
rise, we find how great our weakness is. Obviously, you can see the Lord
had something on this morning when we were looking at the hymns.
Just so oftentimes, we're discouraged and even frightful because of
the things we go through. And whenever things don't work
out the way we want them to work out or we're going through hardships
or whatever, sometimes the Lord doesn't seem near to us and he
takes us through those times. And we realize that that's whenever
we realize how weak we are, but we realize that it's all on him.
We trust in him more. and we come out better for it
at the end. All right, anybody have a song
or hymn, a spiritual song? Anybody else have a hymn that
you'd like to sing? 10? 10 in the old school? of how I love Jesus. There is a name I love to hear,
I love to sing its worth. It sounds like music in my ear,
the sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because He first loved me. It tells me of a Savior's love,
who died to set me free. It tells me of His precious blood,
the sinner's perfect plea. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because He first loved me. It tells me what my Father hath
in store for every day. And though I tread a darksome
path, Yield sunshine all the way. Oh, how I love Jesus! Oh, how I love Jesus! So, how I love Jesus, Because
He first loved me. It tells of one whose loving
heart can feel my deepest woe, Who in each sorrow bears a part
that none can bear below. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because He first loved me. Amen. We'll continue on this morning
in our study. And if you want to go ahead and
be turning over to Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians
chapter 1. We're going to be concluding
today look at the doctrine of overcoming grace. We've looked
at that the last couple weeks now and what a blessed what a
blessed doctrine this truly is. It's a doctrine of hope really
when we look at it. I guess every doctrine is a doctrine
of hope but Whenever we look at the fact that we have been
plunged into sin and death, and that our nature is one that cannot
do anything that pleases God, that is not a spiritual nature,
but a natural, fleshly nature that cannot do anything spiritual,
and that the requirements to be with God is perfection. It's holiness. It's righteousness. All of which
we are devoid. That's the news. That's the hard
truth is that we have no righteousness of our own. And so, whenever
we look at the doctrine of overcoming grace, in my mind, at least now
as I see it, as the truth reveals it, as the Scriptures reveal
it, Whenever I look at that, I see what a blessed mercy that
God has given to us in giving us that grace of overcoming that
nature, giving us a nature that can be receptive to spiritual
things. And again, I hope this isn't
blasphemous to use this analogy or anything, but I always think,
and whenever I'm thinking of overcoming grace, I'm always
picturing some novel or story or maybe even
a movie or something to that effect where there is this person
that is destitute, that doesn't have anything, that needs help
and there's this benefactor that is secretly behind the scenes
providing help and this person, you know, because of this benefactor's
help, begins to become better off and their life becomes changed
and they begin to become successful and all these things and eventually
becomes a very prominent working person in our society with a
life that's got everything, basically. And the whole time they were
coming up in this situation, they were despising certain people,
you know. And then they find out at the
very end that behind all that, the benefactor that helped them
to achieve that place was the one who gave them all that thing.
That was the very person that they were fighting against. And
I just kind of think of that, that whenever they come to that
realization that all this time, that the reason that I am what
I am, the reason that I've become what I've become, or have anything,
is because of that benefactor. And I never even knew that I
was in desperate need, that I needed a benefactor, and I didn't know
that that benefactor was the one doing that. That's how I
kind of picture overcoming grace. All along I thought it was up
to me to make the choice. It was up to me to pull myself
up by my bootstraps. Even though people were telling
me, you don't pull yourself up by your own bootstraps and that
you can't do nothing on your own. Apart from me, you can do
nothing. That was the thing I heard all
the time. uh... hearing that uh... uh... that
uh... god has to do it all you know
i hear that all the time as i was being brought up and and even
as i was preaching the truth of that to rest in that to really
trust that was far from it because i believe that you know i had
to choose i had to study i had to you'll get out and do these
things and uh... what what's the difference between
doing them in the flesh and do them in the spirit how did i
know that i was doing these things in the spirit and not in the
flesh and i i don't know I mean, whenever I go and help somebody,
I mean, Brother Larry was talking about picking up a hitchhiker
today. That's a good deed that he did
this morning. Okay, that was a helpful thing
to somebody. You know, he may have been entertaining
an angel unaware. He don't know. But how does he
know, or any of us know, that what he did this morning for
that guy was a work of the flesh or a work of the spirit? How
can we pinpoint that? We don't know that, right? We
don't know. We don't know. We're just trusting
that the Lord is doing those things to us, right? And so,
with my life in the past, I, you know, I was getting out,
doing all those things, thinking, well, the Lord's, you know, these
are good works, and obviously, if I'm doing anything good, that's
the work of the Lord. But if I do something bad, that's
the work of Mike. Well, the Bible says that even
our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, not unrighteousness. So,
In all that, you know, I thought I was having to do all this and
all along behind there's a benefactor that did everything for me that
I needed and I didn't have to do anything. And then whenever
He revealed His Son in me, revealed His truth to me and I knew what
the truth was as far as the Gospels concern, that it was all of Christ,
that the righteousness was imputed to me without any effort on my
part, then what a freeing thing that was. And then I come to
find out that all along behind this is I was a rebel against
God who never was coming to Him. I was always told to come to
Him, to choose Him, to want to, to all this kind of stuff, but
I found out I might have been coming to religion, but I wasn't
ever going to come to Him. And that if He had not first
exerted grace in my heart, changed me, then that never would have
happened. And He did it without asking
me. He did it without my permission. And I'm grateful that He did
because I never would have given Him permission. I never would
have asked Him. I never would have thought that
I even needed it. Again, I'm reminded of the Pharisee and
the sinner that was praying there. The Pharisee didn't think that
he needed it. I thank you, O God, that I'm not like this sinner.
I'm keeping your law, writing it on my forehead, putting it
on my hand and on my forehead, walking around with these little
scrolls in boxes on my forehead and on my wrist. I'm keeping
your law. I'm doing your law. And remember
the rich young ruler when he came to Jesus and Jesus said,
you know, do this. He said, all those things I've
kept from my youth, I've done all that. Been there, done that,
still keeping them. No, you haven't. Whenever the
Lord gives you a new heart, you realize I haven't been keeping
those things. I am a sinner. And that's where
that sinner cried out, be merciful to me, a sinner. See, to know
that you are a sinner, not to say that you're a sinner, okay?
That's two different things. To know that you're a sinner
and to say that you're a sinner is two different things. I can
read this book and I can see the knowledge that's contained
therein and say, the Bible says that I'm a sinner. But to have
the weight of that and to know that in my heart that I am a
sinner and there is absolutely no willing, no doing, no nothing
that I could ever do. That's when we know that we're
a sinner. That only comes through overcoming grace. And so overcoming
grace is a beautiful, wonderful, hope-filled doctrine because
we know that because God is sovereign, He can exert that overcoming
grace on whomever He wants. There's nothing that keeps that
back. You know, I hear people often, and I've probably said
it before in my life, you know, I'm, you know, I'm too far gone
for God to ever save me. Well, you are, you know, you're
presuming upon God's sovereignty that He's not sovereign enough
to save you. I've heard people that believe the doctrines of
grace say that kind of stuff, you know. But God is sovereign. To say that I'm too far gone
that God wouldn't save me is to impugn God's sovereign grace. To say that, you know, I'm too
good, I don't need to be saving, we'd all say, ooh, that's bad.
But to think that someone is too hard, too evil, too wicked, you know, even too mentally unstable, too
young, too old. I mean, you put it on there,
whatever the scenario, then we are saying that God is not sovereign
to save. God's overcoming grace can overcome
anything it wants to in saving his person that he has chosen. And so we see that overcoming
grace isn't this big, nasty, old, mean doctrine of a spiritual rapist, as Norman Geisler
says. I don't know if you know Norman
Geisler, quote-unquote, theologian of our day on the semi-quasi-Armenian
Calvinist persuasion. He thinks he is of that persuasion,
I guess. They say that God is a cosmic
spiritual rapist whenever there is overcoming grace or irresistible
grace. But brethren, no man can come
unto me except he is drawn by God. That word drawn, when you
look at how it's used and translated in other portions of the King
James Bible, you'll see that that word is dragged. Whenever
they said that they dragged them out into the street, the apostles,
or the disciples, and they dragged them out into the street, that word is drawn. Same word
behind drawn is dragged. And so unless God drags us, Unless God brings us, unless
God changes our heart, we'll never come. Now, let's look at
a few verses and continue on in seeing some scripture that
teaches these very things. This morning, look if you would
at Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 18. Does anybody else have any illustrations
of irresistible grace that maybe I've not brought up? Brother
Larry or Mark, you guys have any other ways that you, I know
Brother Larry's come from a really strong Armenian background, hyper-Armenian
background. How was there ways that that
was looked at from your vantage point back then or their vantage
point even now. Anything different than God's
an ogre who makes people do what they don't want to do? And that's
how I was taught growing up. I don't mean to put you on the
spot, brother, but... Well, no, I think you're right on. In other
words, I'm like the fellow that called me one time saying that
God is more sovereign by giving the person free will and that
He cannot He cannot take away a person's ability to choose
whatever they want or whatever that might be. But I think last
time he really pointed out that in John 6, that whole chapter
just confirms the fact that it's all God. It's all overcoming
grace. Yes. And, you know, like you
said, I was so ingrained with that, the realization that, after
looking back on it, I realized that I wasn't ever taught grace. I was taught words with a little
grace and sparsity with it. In other words, if you do these
things, then you might get some grace. But until you do these
things, grace won't avail itself. Yeah, see that's the way that
I've, at least now I realize the inconsistency that I had
is God wants to give you grace But if you don't do this, this,
or this, then He's restrained from giving you grace. Well,
that's not sovereignty. And that's not God being more
sovereign. Like you said, I've heard that
too, that God in His sovereignty gives us the right to choose. So God is more sovereign in giving
us the ability to choose because He controls No matter what choices
we make, He's able to control everything, no matter who chooses
what. He's able to bring that to make,
you know. Again, here's this illustration
that I keep getting in my mind is, here's God, this big goalie,
that all these things are coming at Him, all these choices from
people, and He's just batting them back into play and making
them fit His purpose after the fact. That's not a purposing
God, that's a responding God. Again, all these doctrines are
so interwoven that no matter where you come from, if you're
preaching Arminianism, if you're teaching Arminianism at any point,
that fails in some area when it comes to the doctrine or the
gospel of imputed righteousness alone, by the blood of Jesus
alone. And so God isn't this goalie
that's out there knocking everything back in His will. He's purposed
everything that will take place. And it is only whenever you see
all these things in the perspective that the Bible teaches it that
you really have a cohesive, non-contradicting, message that you have a Bible
that from cover to cover you don't have to worry about oh
well I just don't know about that I don't know how to explain
that you know there was areas that whenever I would read and
say well this is what I you know I think it says and then come
over here and then I read something that says well that really pretty
much says the opposite of what that says and doesn't fit but
whenever I begin to see the doctrines of grace Whenever I began to
see first and foremost absolute predestination, to me, whenever
I began to see that, everything began to really smooth out as
far as the bumps of contradiction, the bumps of this tension between
God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. You know, I hear that in Calvinist
circles all the time. That we've got to toe the line
of maintaining the balance between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility. That, again, comes from theologians
and seminaries. Okay? The Bible doesn't teach
that anywhere. No, what does it teach everywhere?
Everywhere it's pointing us to Him. Everywhere it's telling
us to focus on Him, upon His work, upon His workings. It's not about His glory, about
His praise, about His worship, about talking to Him. I had this
conversation with a guy across a Facebook comment this week,
you know, and he made a statement after something that I've made,
a comment that I've made, and he basically said, you know,
we've got to You know, we got to keep in mind that we can err
in both directions given, you know, harboring too much on God's
predestination and sovereignty and not speaking enough of man's
responsibility. And I just said, you know, if
I err, I'm going to err on giving more to God and abasing man than
I'm going to do pumping man up and saying he has to do this
or do that. And the reason I say that is not to just be flippant
about what the Bible admonishes us. I'm not, you know, disregarding
admonishment. But what I'm saying is, is I
know that when a person is born again, there is that inward power
and working of God that will bring those to the admonishment
side. So I don't have to worry about
you and what you're doing because God is the one who's working
in you, not working in me to tell you how to work for God. See? If we will just preach the
Bible, teach the Bible, if we will just trust that God is doing
the work in His people and everything, we don't get into all these complicated
issues of man's responsibility. Because as soon as you start
preaching man's responsibility, again, I'm not saying that man
is not going to be accountable before God, but man is not going
to do anything that God has not worked in him. Man is not going
to do anything that God has not restrained him. Okay? God is
restraining and God is bringing. Bringing and restraining, bringing
and restraining. God is doing it all. And so, I'm not saying
that we're not going to be accountable before God. Man will be accountable
before God. But to say that we have to hold
out this whole thing of responsibility and keep preaching and teaching
all this responsibility of man. Brother, when I meet people who
truly know the Scriptures and truly know God's predestination
and His sovereignty and things like that, I don't see that that's
necessarily always a problem. You know, we don't have to all
the time in our churches preach on sin, sin, sin, sin, sin. We
do preach on sin, and I think as we go through the scriptures,
we deal with those things. And that must be confronted.
But brethren, listen, I have somebody a lot better than all
of you in me telling me when I sin. Matter of fact, God designed
for the Holy Spirit to be the one who convicts men of sin. And so there's a better convictor
in me than you. Now, I don't know if you were
making reference to the church lady a while ago when you said,
well, isn't that special? But there's a lot of church ladies
in churches around, and I'm not just saying ladies as ladies.
People saying, you know, you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong,
you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong, you need to do this, you
need to do this, you need to do this. A lot of people telling
each other what they need to be doing. Again, I'm not saying
that we shouldn't go to a brother that's in sin and rebuke that
brother or sister. There is that time. But brother,
listen, if I just preach Jesus, and the gospel, and teach this
word as it's laid out for us and open it up, tell them what
it says. The Holy Spirit does a pretty
good job of doing that. And over the course of the years
since we've been together, we've seen that the Holy Spirit brings
people to realize things, know things. See, there's not enough,
there's not enough relying on God's work. We try to put the
hand to the plow ourselves and do it ourselves and think that
we're going to be able to get all the stuff done and get everybody
right and straightened out and all that kind of stuff. But I
found that it's a lot sweeter whenever the Holy Spirit does
that and whenever we try to force that. And you know, I may be
wrong on that. You know, I'll be glad to take
correction on that. But anyway, I don't know how
I got on that soapbox. But look with me, if you would,
in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 18. Of course, the first part of
this chapter, we have spent hours and countless times of re-quoting
and re-quoting, but in verse 18 it says, "...the
eyes of your understanding being enlightened." So let's just stop
there, and we see that the eyes of understanding, unless it's
enlightened, is not going to understand. Now that's what I perceive that
to be saying. It says, starting in verse 17, that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Him. That's
what preceded that. Paul is praying that God would give these people A spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Now that's what we pray for each
other, right? I pray that all the time for our church here.
Lord, teach us. Minister to us. Come, meet with
us and reveal Your Word to us." Those are different phrases meaning
the same thing. Give us knowledge of You. Give
us understanding of You. Give us wisdom in the things
of God. Give us wisdom in Your Word and
how that is applied in our lives and how it works and what has
been done. All these things. Give us wisdom
and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And then he says, the eyes of
your understanding being enlightened that ye may know. See, unless the Spirit gives
us enlightenment of this knowledge, gives us enlightenment of this
wisdom of Jesus Christ, we won't know. We won't know. We might know something else
contrary, but we might not know the revelation that God gives. A lot of people have a revelation
that a preacher gives, or a commentator gives, or a creed gives, or a
confession gives. They might have an understanding
and a knowledge and wisdom of a seminary, but only God gives
this kind of knowledge and wisdom. It only comes from Him. And if
I speak the truth today and you learn something today, that's
because God taught you that. And I'm just, all I'm doing is
a voice that's confirming the truth of God. I'm not making
the truth of God and I'm not definitely working in your heart
to make it effectual in your heart. No, that's the Spirit
Himself too. If you look at that and say,
what Brother Mike is saying is the truth, or you've learned
something new and say, I didn't realize that. You know what?
That was the Holy Spirit that taught you that. It wasn't Mike.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may
know what is the hope of His calling." See, without our eyes
being enlightened, that's overcoming grace. The Spirit has to, what did it
say in the previous verse? "...given to you the Spirit of
wisdom and revelation." The eyes of your understanding being enlightened
that you may know what is the hope of His calling and what
the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to usward who believe." To usward who believe. To usward who believe. See, this
is for those who are Christ. Those who belong to Christ. And
what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe? That part there. The exceeding
greatness of His power to usward. Overcoming grace. But we don't
even know that unless the Spirit given to you, wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of Him in the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened that you may know. Know what? What is the hope of
His calling? What is the riches of the glory
of His inheritance in the saints? And what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to us who believe according to the working of His
mighty power? The doctrine of overcoming grace is not going
to be believed, received, or understood unless one is born
again. Unless one has been born from
above and made spiritual so that they might even understand that.
So to go out with the five points, and I see a lot of people, and
I've done it myself, you know, trying to, you know, shove these
five points down people's throats and everything, and especially
the ones that are the most hated, like irresistible grace or overcoming
grace, and we just think, you know, if they will just get this
knowledge, then they'll, You know, they'll see that the Bible
teaches that. Oh, if I can just prove that that's all throughout
the Bible, then they'll have to believe it. And, you know,
you're not saying anything different than the Armenian says. If I
just preach it just right, if I just, you know, get them to
agree to it, then they'll believe it and all will be good. Now
listen, I can take the, I can outline these five points and
give even more scriptures than I've been doing in this whole
series and give that to somebody. That book that we have out there
on the gospel difference, probably one of the best books I've ever
seen in the defense of the five points of the doctrines of grace,
and it's all scripture. That whole book out there is
nothing but scripture. You can give that to somebody
and they can still reject that and go away, walk away. Listen,
just having those facts presented to you is not going to change
you. Right here, the only way that
we're going to believe overcoming grace, irresistible grace, the
work of the Spirit of grace, effectual grace in the heart,
is only going to come when the Spirit gives wisdom and revelation
and the knowledge of Christ. Our eyes of understanding are
enlightened so that we might know what is the hope of His
calling, what is the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the same, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power
to us who believe." Long story short, we won't know
the working of His mighty power unless we've been born from above. This same power, by the way,
which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and
set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places." Wait a minute.
Doesn't the Bible also say that we are going to be raised to
life? And that we are sitting at the right hand of God in heavenly
places even now? Why did Paul all of a sudden
put that in in speaking of what he was talking about about what
the Spirit is doing to us. To realize that whenever Christ
was brought back from the dead by his own power and now is seated
in the heavenlies at the right hand of God that the exact same
power that did that is exerted upon us. That's the power that
we're talking about. If you don't think overcoming
grace is powerful, then you don't understand the resurrection.
If you don't think that overcoming grace is a mighty work of God,
then you don't understand The resurrection. The resurrection
was an exerting of power over that which was dead, raising
it to life and seating it with God, next to God, seating it
at His right hand. And the Bible says that we have
been raised with Christ Jesus and that we are seated with Him
in the heavenlies. That didn't come by any effort
on anybody's part. Nobody raised Jesus from the
dead. He raised himself from the dead. God raised Jesus from the dead. Jesus ascended and is at the
right hand of God. The only way that you're getting
there is if God does that power in you. far above all principality,
and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come, and
hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the
head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all, and in all." This is the mighty power
of God. It's His overcoming grace. Look, if you would, down in the
second chapter. Look at verse 5. Well, I'll tell you what, let's just
start back. We read these verses already, but let me go back to
verse 1 and let's read down so we get the context because I
just was... shouting these verses out and let me just read through
them so you can actually see. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sin. So first quickening must take
place for us to know any of these things, okay? And you hath he
quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin, wherein in times past
ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lust of the 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." He's
made us alive with Christ. Isn't that what he just said
in chapter 1? That that same power raised Christ from the
dead and has seated Him at the right hand of God? Okay, here
we see we are included in this. We have been quickened together
with Christ. And He says, by grace you are
saved. You notice that He says that there first before He says
it in verse 8. He says it there first and that's
not equated with our faith in verse 5. Even when we were dead in sins,
have quickened us together with Christ, by grace you are saved.
That's what saved us is Christ. Christ, and us being in Christ,
being quickened when Christ was quickened, being brought to life
when Christ was brought to life, 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 towards
us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves." Okay? The grace isn't of yourself,
and neither is the faith. It's not of yourselves. It's
a gift of God. Now I would say if we go back
to the context, we'll see here that it is in verse 17, where
the Spirit gave wisdom and revelation, the knowledge of Him, the eyes
of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the
hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His
inheritance in the saint, and what is the exceeding greatness
of His power to us who believe according to the working of His
mighty power." That's the context that we're looking at here, brethren.
For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
It is a gift of God. The work of Christ on your behalf
is a gift of God. You come to know that by the
Spirit of God who quickens you and brings you to the understanding
of wisdom and knowledge of Him who did that. That's how you're
saved. You're saved not by believing,
trusting, receiving. Those things are talking about
how we are in this time, how we are brought to the experience
of that salvation. And I kind of go around and around
with guys all the time about this whole thing because they
always say, you know, that we're saved when we believe the gospel and,
you know, the Bible teaches these things and there are some ways
that the word saved is used when talking about these things. Whenever
I read the scripture and I see what it says about certain things
and admonitions and different things like that, and I do those,
guess what? I've been saved from the results
of what could have been if I had not. Okay? That's what I'm talking
about. You know, that's what we're saved
from a lot of things because we believe the scriptures. But
brethren, what was the basis upon which you were imputed the
righteousness of Jesus Christ was not your believing, was not
your faith. You were not justified because you at some point in
time believed. You were justified because Christ
died for you. Your sin was forgiven in Him,
His blood purged you from sin, His blood purged you from wrath,
His blood give you the righteousness of God. That's what saved you. That's the basis upon which all
of your salvation came is that work of Christ and that alone.
Everything as far as eternity is based upon that. Everything
that is in time is based upon that. Our experience and the
purpose and the decree and the covenant of God. The covenant
of God being before the foundation of the world, outside of us,
having nothing to do with us, was based on the finished blood-shedding
work of Jesus Christ. Us receiving that in time through
quickening, belief, trust, obedience, those things, all is based upon
the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. and we receive the application
of what all He purchased. That is the basis, the foundation
of all things. And so here, Paul is saying that
by grace we are saved. It's not of ourselves, not of
works, lest any man should boast. So we see here that we have been
given this, that faith is not something that we have that can
just reach out anytime our mind has been changed, we're given
more evidence, we're given more compelling evidence, the preacher
preached just right, the worship band played the song just right,
the lights were dimmed just good, and the fog machine worked really
well, you know, whatever the case might be, you know. They
get me in that environment, I'm lulled to sleep is what I'm usually
in. Turn out the lights, put on the
fog and put on some nice worship music and I'll go right to bed. No, we are saved by the work
of God and that is something that is a gift of God. I can't
stop somebody from buying me a gift. I can't stop somebody
from giving me a gift. So, all right, let's stop right
there and we'll take a break and we'll come back in for the
next session here in just a few minutes and we will look at a
few more verses and we'll conclude today.