Good morning. Good to see you
all this morning. If you would, open your Bibles
with me to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians chapter 4. Before we begin, let's bow before
our Lord together in prayer. Our Father, how thankful we are
that you have given us another day that we can meet together
and worship your matchless name. Father, I pray that you would
enable us this morning to truly worship, to worship you in spirit
and in truth. Father, give us a word from thee
this morning. Father, speak to us through your word. Don't let
the people that you've gathered here this morning just hear the
words and ideas and thoughts of a man, but Father, speak to
us through your word. Enable us to by faith see the
Lord Jesus Christ and believe on him. to have our souls thrilled
with another view of Christ our Savior. Father, comfort the hearts
of your people. Strengthen the hearts of your
people by the preaching of your darling son this morning. We
pray, Father, that you would comfort the brokenhearted, that
you'd strengthen those that you've brought into the dark days and
deep waters of the trials of this life. We pray you'd be with
them in a mighty and special way. Father, bless us in this
hour. Don't let us meet here in vain. Don't let us just go through
the motions of religion, but Father, meet with us. Enable
us to learn more of Christ our Savior. Of course, in his precious
name, his glory, we pray, amen. I taught our lesson this morning.
He gives gifts to men. We looked last week at how it
is that the Lord Jesus Christ earned, bought the right to be
able to give these gifts to men. He did it by accomplishing the
salvation of his people when he descended into the earth as
a man. As a man made under the law,
Christ our Savior obeyed God's law perfectly as the representative
of his people. His obedience to the law is the
obedience of his people. Now that's how sinners are made
righteous. It's not by us keeping the law. It's because Christ,
our representative, kept it for us and we kept it in him. Then
Christ descended even further. When he was made sin for his
people and he suffered and died to put that sin away. He actually
died. The son of God descended so far,
he went to the tomb and he laid there for three days to show
everyone he truly died for the sin of his people. He satisfied
the law's last demand that there be death for sin. That's what
the three days in the tomb shows. But the sword didn't end there,
did it? Christ arose from the dead. He came out of the tomb
and he arose from the dead for this reason. His sacrifice put
away the sin that demanded his death. All the sin that had been
laid on him, the sacrifice of Christ put it away. is gone under
his blood, so death could not hold him. He had to rise again.
And the resurrection of Christ is the evidence his sacrifice
did what it was supposed to do. His sacrifice put away the sin
of his people. He justified his people by his
sacrifice for them. Paul wrote to the church of Rome,
he was delivered for our offenses. He was raised again for our justification. He was raised again as the proof
His sacrifice truly justified his people. Then 40 days later,
Christ had descended to the earth. Now, 40 days after his resurrection,
he ascended back to the father to sit on his father's right
hand on the throne of heaven. And Christ ascended back to the
father because all the work the father gave him to do was done. Christ had already finished the
work. He did everything that was required to save God's people
from their sins. Now that's the gospel of Christ
in a nutshell. We looked at that last week.
Now, since all that is true, Christ, when he descended, he
accomplished the salvation of his people. He ascended back
to the father as a successful savior. Since that's true, Christ
has earned the right to give gifts to his people. That's what
verse seven of Ephesians chapter four says, but unto every one
of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of
Christ. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended
up on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now what are these gifts? These
gifts that Christ gives his people that Paul's talking about here.
You read a lot of the writers and they tell you he's talking
about the gifts of preaching. And I know why they think that
because in just a couple verses, Paul talks about the gifts that
God gives to preachers and how God called out some prophets
and apostles, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, but
that can't be what Paul's talking about in verse seven. It can't
be because he says these gifts are given unto every one of us,
unto every one of us. There's not one person here who's
a prophet and apostle or an evangelist, not one. There are a few pastors
and teachers around, but all of us aren't pastors and teachers,
so Paul can't be talking about the gifts of the ministry because
these gifts that he's talking about are given to every one
of us. Then other people think that Paul's talking about the
gifts that were in the early church, the gifts of the spirit
that the apostles had. They say Paul has to be talking
about the gift of tongues and the gift of healings, those kinds
of gifts that the early church had. Well, again, That cannot
be what Paul's talking about here in verse seven, because
he says these gifts are given unto every one of us. There's
not one person here has the gift of tongues or healing. Not one. And you don't know anybody anywhere
else that has them either. If you have the gift of tongues,
I sure wish you'd tell me, because I like to schedule a trip to
Mexico. You can go with me and translate for me. I like to go
back down there and preach to those brothers. I need a translator.
If you got the gift of tongues, we'll get on the plane and go.
but nobody has that. We'll leave that to the native
pastors who already speak that language. If you had the gift
of healing, I know several brethren right now who sure would appreciate
a visit from you if you got the gift of healing, but you don't
have it. If people really had the gift
of healing, King's Daughters Medical Center would be empty. So that can't be what Paul's
talking about here. Because Paul says these gifts
that he's talking about are given unto every one of us. So try
to show you what these gifts are not. Now let me tell you
what they are. These gifts are gifts of God's
grace. Gifts of his grace that he gives
to every single believer. These are the spoils of Christ's
victory. When he led captivity captive,
he got all the spoils and he gives his people the spoils of
war. Everything that he conquered
for his people, they're gifts. They're gifts of grace. Now you
can't earn these things. You can't do something to earn
these gifts from God. They're gifts of God's grace.
And I thought of eight, well I thought of more than that,
but for time's sake, I'm going to mention eight gifts of God's
grace that every believer, I don't care where you find them, every
believer has received these gifts of God's grace. Now eight points
sounds like a lot for me to cover in about 20 minutes. I think
I can do it, but this is kind of be like Christmas time. You
ever have those Christmases where the presents don't fit under
the tree? That's the gifts of God's grace. There's so many
of them. We can't talk about them all. Can't talk about them
all, but let me give you these eight. Number one, look at Romans
chapter five. The first one is the gift of
justification. Romans chapter five. Verse 15. But not as the offense,
so also is the free gift. For through the offense of one,
many be dead. Much more, the grace of God,
and by the gift of grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ hath
abounded unto many. Now this is a free gift. Verse
16. And not as it was by one that
sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment was by one to
condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses, unto justification. Justification is a free gift
of God, free gift of his grace to God's people. And I'm telling
you what a gift that is, because justification means to be made
without sin, to have no sin. And that's an amazing gift, because
all you and I can do is sin. All of our motives are sin, all
of our thoughts are sin, every action, it's all sinful. then
how can sinners like you and me be made without sin? If everything
we do is sin, how can we be made without sin? Well, it's not by
what we do. No, it's by what Christ has done
for us. Hold your place there, Romans
5. We'll come back there in just a second. Look at Galatians chapter
2. Sinners are not made justified,
made without sin by what they've done. It's what Christ has done
for us. Galatians chapter 2. Verse 16. So this gift of justification,
it's been accomplished by the faithfulness of Christ, and we
receive it by faith, by trusting Christ. It's not by our works,
it's by faith in Christ. That's what Peter said when he
was preaching in Acts chapter 13, verse 39. He said, and by
him, all that believe. Not all that keep the law, not
all that follow all the ceremonies of religion, not all that follow
after the Jewish traditions, all that believe are justified
from all things from which you could not be justified by the
law of Moses. Justification is a free gift
of God's grace that every believer has. All right, now look back
at Romans chapter five. Here's the second one. It's the
gift of righteousness. Romans five verse 18. Therefore,
as by the offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
even so by the righteousness of one. The free gift came upon
all men under justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. That as sin hath reigned under
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness. unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now righteousness is obeying
God's law perfectly. That's what righteousness is.
Now again, we're all sinners. The only thing we can do is sin.
That makes it obvious we can't earn a righteousness by keeping
God's law. We can't earn a righteousness by anything we do. If we're gonna
be made righteous, God's gotta give it to us as a free gift
of his grace, doesn't he? Because we can't earn it. If
we're gonna be made righteous, somebody else is gonna have to
make us righteous, because we can't do it. And that someone
is the Lord Jesus Christ. When He came, like I said earlier,
when He descended in the flesh, made under the law, He obeyed
the law for His people. He obeyed it as their representative.
And He made them righteous. Now here's the thing about righteousness.
It goes a whole lot deeper than a legal standing before God.
A whole lot deeper than that. The obedience of Christ did give
his people a legal righteousness. That has to be done. This thing
has to be done legally. The obedience of Christ did give
his people a legal righteousness. But if you and I would be accepted
of God, we have to be made righteous. Not just legally, but personally
made righteous. And in order to make his people
righteous, you know what Christ had to do? He had to take the
sin of his people and his own body on the tree. He had to be
made sin and he had to suffer the punishment and the death
that the sin of his people deserve. And that's exactly what he did.
And by his sacrifice, he made his people righteous. Paul tells
us that in 2 Corinthians 5.21, for he hath made him sin for
us. Him who knew no sin, that we
might be made righteous, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. And we quote that verse a lot, but that's breathtaking. That
a sinner can be made the righteousness of God in the Lord Jesus Christ
because of what God has done. In order to give his people the
gift of righteousness, Christ had to suffer and die in their
place. And that's what he did. So he could give this gift to
his people, the gift of righteousness. And every believer has it perfectly
righteous before God. All right, now look for the third
thing across the page of Romans chapter six, verse 23. Every
believers received the gift of eternal life. For the wages of
sin is death. Now that's what we've earned.
The wages of sin is death. But the gift, the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now eternal
spiritual life is a gift. It's a gift of God's grace. We
can't earn it because we're already dead. We already died spiritually
in Adam. We're dead. Dead people can't
do anything but stink. They can't do anything for themselves.
So if we're going to be made alive, somebody else has to give
us life, don't they? Somebody else has to make us
alive. And that's what Christ has done for his people. But
this eternal life comes through Jesus Christ, our Lord. In order
to give his people eternal life, Christ had to die. He had to
die the death that his people deserve so they can live. Now,
since Christ has already died, he died as the substitute for
his people. The father has given him the
right to give eternal life to his people. Before he went to
the cross, in our Lord's great high priestly prayer in John
17, there was not a doubt in his mind, his sacrifice was going
to be successful. His sacrifice was going to be
accepted by the father, and it was going to get the job done.
Because this is what he said, John 17 verse two, as thou hast
given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. He's gonna give eternal
life to his people because he died for them. And if you wonder
what this life is, he told us, and this is life eternal, that
they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast seen. If you trust Christ, first of
all, if you know Christ, you trust him, don't you? If you
know him, you have eternal life. All right, here's the fourth
thing. Look at Ephesians chapter four.
It's the gift of holiness. The gift of holiness. Ephesians
four, verse 24. And that you put on the new man,
which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. This is true holiness. This is
not some fake veneer. This is not just some shuffling
of paper that where God calls you righteous, but you're not.
This is true holiness. And just like righteousness,
holiness cannot just be a legal state before God. It can't be. If we would be accepted of the
holy God, we must be holy. We must have a holy nature. Well, our old sinful nature can't
be made whole. Our Lord said that which is born
of the flesh is flesh. That's all it ever will be, is
flesh, dead, sinful, rotten flesh. So God, the Holy Spirit comes
and he causes a new man to be born in the hearts of his people. And that new man is holy. He
is holy. That's his nature. He has a holy
nature. because he has the nature of
his father. He has the nature of his heavenly father. Just
like when we're born in the flesh, we bear the nature of our father.
Our father in this life, and we certainly bear the nature
of our father Adam, no. Well, that new man is born of
God, and he has the nature of his father. It's a holy nature. Now that's a gift. The gift of
holiness. And it has to be a gift, doesn't
it? Because that holiness is not something that we can produce
on our own, but that God has given his people the gift of
holiness and made them holy. And that's the nature. When this
flesh dies, that's the nature that'll go be with God. You talk
about a gift, God's given you the nature that he'll accept.
So that when this body dies, you can go be with the Lord.
That's a gift, isn't it? And without that holiness, no
man shall see the Lord. So God's given his people this
gift of holiness. Now here's the fifth thing. Look
back at Galatians chapter four. I kind of try to take these in
chronological order, but I want to deal with these next two together. Galatians chapter four. It's
the gift of adoption. Galatians four verse four. But
when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son
made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were
under the law, that they might receive the adoption of sons. Now, in order for God to adopt
some of Adam's race into his family, he had to send his son
to get him. His son had to go get him. I've
used this illustration before, but I'll use it again because
I think it's good. as far as I know, don't have
orphanages like they used to have some years ago. But you
imagine in those days where there's an orphanage. There's all these
little rugrats in the orphanage. They're abandoned. They're not
taken care of really very well. They're dirty, not clothed very
well. But every once in a while, a
couple will come, and they'll look over all them kids, and
they'll pick one to adopt and take home with them. Boy, when
that day comes, you know all those kids get out there and
they try to look their best. They try to act their best. They
want to be adopted. And if that happens, you know
what's going to happen. You know who they're going to adopt, don't
you? They're going to adopt the littlest one. They're just so
cute. They're little. They want to adopt the little
one. Well, there's a sullen teenager. Been through this routine. How
many times? 100 times. 200 times. Who knows how many times? This
is what he knows. I'm not getting adopted. I'm
not as cute as that baby. I'm not as cute as that toddler.
Nobody's gonna adopt me. He's a solid teenager. And a
young couple comes in. Big, tall man, dark suit, white
shirt, nice, perfect tie. Wife in this beautiful dress
and her heels and pearl necklace can come in. And this teenager,
I'm not getting up and presenting myself to them. It's a waste
of time. And I look over all those little
kids, and they set their affection
on that sullen teenager. And they take him home. They
adopt him. They take him home. They say,
here's a room. We've got a bedroom. He's never had a room by himself.
Here's your own bedroom. Nice bed, clean sheets, new wardrobe,
everything provided. And he has to wonder, why me? That's the story of the life
of God's people. Why me? You know what David said? Who am I? What is my house that
you make such gracious promises to us? The father said his love
on a sinful, vile, ugly people. He set his love upon them. He
determined to have them, and he sent his son to adopt them.
And Christ came. In order to adopt those people,
he had to redeem them. There was a price on their head.
They had to be redeemed so that they could be adopted into God's
family. Now, what a gift that God, first
of all, would adopt anybody into his family. anybody, but of all
the people God could have chosen to adopt. He chose to adopt sinners. I mean, the worst bunch of dirty
ragamuffins you've ever seen in your life. That's who God
sent his son to redeem so they could be adopted into his family.
And when he adopted them, He made those sinful men and women
to be truly His sons and His daughters. That's how He loves
them, because He adopted them. That brings me to the sixth thing,
very closely tied to the gift of adoption. It's the gift of
the new birth. Look at 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. Verse three. Blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again. He's caused us to be born again.
He's begotten us again into a lively living hope by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. God, when he adopts his children
into his family, He adopts them, so they legally bear His name. And He also causes them to be
begotten again, causes them to be born again, so they've got
His nature, the nature of the Heavenly Father. And don't miss the magnitude
of this gift. And I think you can calculate
the magnitude of a gift by what it costs, don't you think? This
is what this gift costs God. In order for these people to
be born again into God's family, God's son had to suffer and die. Can you think of anything more
precious, more costly than the blood of Christ? That's what
it cost. It cost the blood of God's own
son in order to cause his people to be born again. See, before
they can come into God's family, they've got to be justified.
Where I looked at the gift of justification, the only way they
can be justified is by the death of Christ. The only way they
can be made righteous is if Christ has made sin for them and suffers
and dies for them. The only way they can be made
fit to be in the family of God is the death, the suffering,
the humiliation of God's only begotten son. Now that's a gift. Oh, what a precious, expensive
gift of God's grace. The gift of the new birth. Now
seventh, look back at Colossians chapter one. Colossians one verse 14. It's the gift of the forgiveness
of our sin. In whom we have redemption through
his blood. Even the forgiveness of sins. It's like Paul just is writing
just it. You just can't even believe it.
Even even the forgiveness of sins. Now God has forgiven the
sin of his elect. All of our sin. Is open. rebellion against God Almighty. All of our sin is shaking our
fist in the face of God saying, I won't. I won't obey you. I won't bow. I won't submit.
All of our sin is open rebellion against God himself. And God
has forgiven that sin. He's forgiven it. He's forgiven
it freely, freely. Now, what that means freely is
at no cost to you and me. But that doesn't mean that forgiveness
of sin was free. In order to forgive the sin of
his people, God's son had to pay a steep cost, a steep cost. In order for God to forgive the
sin of his people, that sin has to be paid for. You know, somebody
does something, you know, to us, they sin against us and we
say, I forgive you. Well, it just means we're not
going to bring it up anymore. The sin's still there. The fault's
still there. It hasn't been paid for. It hasn't
been taken away. We just say, I forgive you and
I won't bring it up anymore. A holy God can't do that. So
that sin's got to be dealt with. So in order for God to forgive
the sin of his people, the sin debt's got to be paid. It's got
to be paid. And the only way that debt can
be paid is by the blood of Christ. So the son of God became a man
and he willingly shed his blood to put away the sin of God's
people and to make that sin to not exist anymore. And now that
sin's gone under the blood of Christ where the father says,
I don't see it anymore. I don't remember it anymore. I don't
remember it because it's gone. There's nothing to remember.
Now God in justice can forgive the sin of his people and not
punish them for it because Christ has already paid the debt. Now
that's a gift, isn't it? A gift of God's grace that he
would forgive our sin by punishing Christ our substitute. Oh, that's
a gift. Then here's the last thing. It's
the gift of saving grace. Ephesians 2 verse 8, Paul says
for by grace, by grace, by grace, by grace. It's not by works,
it's by grace. Are you saved through faith?
And that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. From beginning
to its ultimate completion, salvation is by grace. Now, again, a gift from God to
sinners like you and me, by definition, has to be gracious, doesn't it?
It's a gift. Not something we earned. It's
something God gave to us, even though we don't deserve it. That's
grace. There's God's electing grace,
where God chose a people to save that didn't deserve it, who would
never choose Him. God's redeeming grace, where He sent His Son
to pay the redemption price for a people who have sinned against
Him. There's God's calling grace. He called a people that didn't
know him, that wouldn't come to him until he called them first.
He called them, called them to Christ. There's regenerating
grace where God gives a dead sinner spiritual life. In that
life, they have faith to believe Christ. There's preserving grace. For God keeps and preserves His
people. We fall away in a heartbeat every second of every day of
our life, but God preserves His people by His grace. And one
day, this is something none of us have tasted yet, but we will,
glorifying grace, to wake up in the presence of Christ our
Savior, be made just like Him, worship Him face to face for
eternity. Now that's a gift. A gift of
grace that we don't deserve. Not one person here deserves
that. But God gives it to his people richly anyway. That's
the gift of grace. All right, hope I'll be a blessing
to you.