Her message is found in Ephesians
chapter one, if you'd like to turn there. Ephesians chapter
one. We just finished up Galatians.
For those of you who don't know, we were trying to determine,
I was trying to determine where we were meant to go next. And it was pressed upon my heart
to go into Ephesians. So pray the Lord will bless it as he
did Galatians. Ephesians chapter one. Paul starts
this epistle, much like all of those that he writes, that is
spirit-inspired. He tells us who he's writing
to, for what purpose he's writing. He's telling us who the letters from, who the
letters to, and the purpose of him writing. So who the letters
from is not him. He's saying this is of the Lord. This isn't
just my words. He tells them I'm an apostle
of the Lord Jesus Christ by him. He's saying this is my pedigree.
It's not a choice that I made to become an apostle. God called
me. And so now I'm relaying this message to you from him. And
then he tells us why he's writing them all together. And so, let's
read this, Ephesians chapter one, verse one through nine.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints
which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus,
grace be to you and peace from God, our Father, and from the
Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath 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 unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ himself according
to the good pleasure of his will. to the praise of his glory, of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved, in
whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of
sin, according to the riches of his grace, wherein he hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of his will, according to the good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself. I forgot to say the title. The title of this message is,
What is Grace? What is Grace? And I haven't preached a message
on what is grace. I remember talking about this
last Sunday, but this marks our third year in this building.
I can't believe it's been that long, but I can go back and look
at all the titles of the messages preached. I never have answered
that question. We've answered the question,
but it haven't actually spent time specifically looking at
what is grace. So this time that we have, I
pray the Lord would be pleased to cause us to not only understand
what grace is and what the Lord accomplished by grace for his
people, but also have a deeper appreciation for what grace truly
has done in our lives and is doing now. It's amazing, the
Lord's grace. And the vast majority of people
that say they believe in grace, or that salvation's by grace,
add something to it, which completely negates it being grace. Paul said it clearly in Romans,
if it works, it can't be of grace, and if it's of grace, then it
can't be of works. In this book, Paul, by God's
will and purpose, he summarizes, he defines, he proclaims what
the grace of God is and what it accomplished. The grace of
God accomplished. A lot of people preach grace
as something you can acquire, or you can merit, or you can
earn, as in the favor of God. And that's what grace is, is
the unmerited favor of God, many would say. You and I can't merit
it, we can't earn it, yet men will say, well, salvation's all
by grace, but you have to do something. You have to do, and
that's, there's a interesting thought is that Men say do, which
is works religion, but God said it is finished. God says done.
And so they're missing two letters. D-O-N-E. They're missing the
N-E. If they had the N-E, they would
have it right. It is done. No, they say do. And that negates
grace altogether. Grace is what God gives freely
to his people. The unmerited, undeserved, unearned
favor that he shows towards his people. Paul begins this, and
I'm going to call this a overview, I guess, for the first couple
of verses, the intro to Ephesians, because it's important. He begins
his letter by telling us his office, as I mentioned before,
his office as apostle, how he became an apostle. It says, by
the will of God, not by my will, not by the will of man, nor by
the will of blood, but of God, he's the apostle. Then he tells
us, whom He is writing. Look it with me if you would
in verse 1, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God
to the saints which are at Ephesus. Now the word saint, this is very
important, the word saint means those that are sanctified. Those
that are sanctified. And that word has two meanings
in our Bible, sanctified. One means holy, And the other
one is set apart. Now here, it means both. The
Lord has made his people holy and set them apart according
to his good pleasure and will, according to his own purpose.
He set them apart unto himself. But one way that set apart, I
can give you an example where set apart's used, would be in
1 Corinthians 7, 14, when it says that a non-believing spouse
is sanctified by her believing spouse. So what does that mean?
Is she made holy by the believing spouse? No, that's not what he's
talking about. Not that she's converted by the
spouse's faith. Instead, it means that the marriage is considered
legitimate before God. It's legitimate. It's set apart
before God, meaning their children are not going to be viewed as,
well, we're all evil by nature, but they're not going to be viewed
as, wrong to have children with her
because or him because they're not a believing spouse is what
I'm trying to say. So there's where it says set
apart. Now here It specifically means
those that are holy in Christ Jesus and those that have been
set apart in Christ Jesus. That's what he's saying here.
Well, he's also told us that it's just to Ephesus, but here's the
good news. This is also to all the Lord's people. Look what
the rest of it says, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Now,
anybody in here without answering, answering your heart, do you
consider yourself faithful to God? you consider yourself 100%
faithful to God. I would hope and imagine that
everybody would say, no, actually I don't feel faithful at all.
That's good because we need to substitute. It's not our faithfulness
that merits anything from the Lord. It's the faithfulness of
Jesus Christ. So if you're the faithful that's
in Jesus Christ, the reason that you're faithful is because you're
in Christ Jesus. And who did that? Did I do that?
Or did you do that? No, certainly not. That's the
work of God by grace. And that's what Paul is getting
across to these Ephesians automatically. He's saying, okay, first of all,
I'm an apostle by the will of God. Second of all, I'm writing
to those who are in Christ that are made holy by His sacrifice
alone, and to all those that are faithful because they're
in Christ. This is who I'm writing to. This is who the entire book
is written to. This Bible is not written to everyone. This
Bible was written to the Lord's people. It's a love letter from
our Heavenly Father to his bride. So he's writing to the saints,
he's writing to the faithful in Christ. These are they which
have been made to know what the grace of God truly is, to experience
grace, to see the Lord's grace, to thank God for his grace. These are they that appreciate
the Lord's grace. Well, I guess you could call
that the introduction to Ephesians. Now, The message this morning
is, what is grace? What is grace? I have three things that I want
to show you, what it is, what it's done, and what it's doing.
Grace very simply is God's unearned, unmerited, undeserving favor. It is his choice to show mercy. It is his choice to redeem those
which otherwise could never be redeemed. It's his own purpose,
by his own will, that he bestows eternal life all by his grace. That's what grace is, and that's
what grace has done. It is grace whereby God chose to
elect and predestinated the people, just as we're about to read,
or as we already have read. It's grace that redeemed us. It's grace that keeps us. It's
grace that calls us. The Lord's grace is essential. That's why our sign says, Holy
Grace Church. The scripture even tells us,
in another place in Ephesians, for by grace are you saved through
faith, in that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. So what is grace? Well first,
Grace is the unearned favor of God, and it exceeds time. It exceeds time. Look what he says in verse four.
According as he hath chosen us, the saints and the faithful in
Jesus Christ, the elect of God, he hath chosen us in Christ before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. having predestinated us to the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to
what purpose? The good pleasure of his will. This is what the Lord did all
by his grace before time ever began. Before time ever began. I noticed verse four, I didn't,
mentioned this a second ago, but at the end it says that we
should be holy. Remember we're talking about
being saints. And this is interesting because we are taught in the
scripture that whenever we are born again by God's spirit, we
are new creatures, old things pass away, behold, all things
become new. And yet we still have this flesh. So now we have
two, we have this physical and we have the spiritual, we have
this nature and we have the spiritual nature that the Lord gives us
freely by his grace. But the interesting part is, The new
man created in righteousness in Christ Jesus is completely
100% holy before God. God sees him in Christ Jesus. When he sees him, he sees perfect
righteousness. This flesh is still in the flesh,
so we're still sinful. in this nature. We haven't got
rid of this nature yet. The Lord didn't change this nature.
So what does he mean that we would be holy? Well, he didn't
come to save the flesh. He came to save the souls of
men. He didn't come to redeem or make
our flesh better. Somebody said, well, I'm getting
better on the outside. Nobody's getting better. We may morally
improve, but in God's eyes, we're all vile creatures. We're all born in sin and shapen
into iniquity. We're never going to attain righteousness
before God based upon what we do or don't do. It's going to
have to take the work of God. This is the glorious part about
grace is that that's how it happens. The Lord chooses to save. The scripture tells us, call
his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. That's the glorious news about
grace as God does all the saving, all the calling, and all the
keeping of his people. What is grace? Well, grace is
God choosing to have mercy on a sinner like you or I, instead
of leaving us to ourself. Instead of leaving us dead in
those trespasses and in sin, he chooses. He chooses to have
mercy. He told Moses, he said, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy and whom I will, I'll harden
it. See, he's God. He's the sovereign creator of
the universe, and he can do what he wants to with who he wants
to. Thank God he chose He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world. He chose before time ever began.
That's grace. He chose us before the world
was ever created. We were chosen in Christ Jesus. The Lord favored, He chose, and
He predestinated His people to be conformed to the image of
His Son. See, if we present our image
to God, we're in trouble. We're in trouble. If we offer
ourselves up to God, we're in trouble. There's an article I
wrote, it won't be in the bulletin this Sunday, but it says, whether
you believe you can or you can't, you're right. If you believe
you can, I gotta make sure I say this
right. Whether you believe you can or you can't, you're right. So if a man believes he can do
good works according to the flesh, he's right in and of himself,
but he's not right before God. And if a man believes he can't
do good works in his flesh, he's right before God. I'll let you
read the article later to make more sense. That which we do
in the flesh, there's none good, no not one. The scripture says
the flesh shall not please God. The flesh is enmity against God.
So we can't work the works unto salvation in this flesh. It has
to come freely by the Lord's grace. That's why we're thankful
this morning that the Lord predestined us to be conformed to the image
of his son. Be conformed to the image of
his son. Turn with me to Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight, look at
verse 28. And we know, that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are thee called according
to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren." I'm going to
stop there just for a moment because this is important. That word foreknow
does not mean the ones that he knew we're going to choose him.
That's not what that means. This forno is the same word that's
used when it says, and Jacob knew his wife. Do you understand
what that means? He knew her. So intimately, this
is talking about the love that God had towards his people. Those
whom the Lord loves he predestinated, that's what this is saying. To
be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the
firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we
say then to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him
up freely, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies." So
those that he foreknew are those that he loves, he predestinated
to be conformed to the image of his son. So what about everybody
else? Well, he leaves them to themselves. He leaves them to
themselves. See, he favored some. He didn't
favor them based upon themselves. He didn't favor you or me based
upon you or me. Or it wouldn't be grace. It would
be works. If he favored me or he favored
you based upon you, it would be works. It would be outward
showings of things that we can do that please God. But they
that are in the flesh, and that's what we all are, cannot please
God. It takes the Lord to please the
Lord. God is the only thing God accepts
and everything he required, he provided in the Lord Jesus Christ
on the cross of Calvary. When the Lord Jesus Christ died,
it wasn't an offer to man. It was an offer to his father.
His father was well pleased, well pleased. Notice what his
electing grace accomplished here. Again, verse 29, for whom he
did foreknow, then he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
then he called. And whom he called, then he also
justified. And whom he justified, then he also glorified. That's
all past tense. Did you know that? I love that,
don't you? It's all past tense. It's already
been done. The Lord justified his people,
he's called his people, and he glorified his people, all because
he predestinated his people. Now what part of that was our
responsibility? That's the question I have for
us. What part of it was our responsibility? What part did we have to do in
the predestination? What part do we have to do in
the calling? What part do we have to do in the justification?
What part do we have to do in the glorification? None. Salvation
is of the Lord, all by grace, all by grace. This is what grace
has done. This is what grace has done.
This is what grace is and what grace has done. Now, something important, election
doesn't mean God tries to do something, it means God chose
to do something. That's a really big difference.
Just changing that one word changes everything. God didn't try. He
didn't elect to try to accomplish something. He elected unto eternal
life. When God chooses to do, none
can stay His hand or say unto Him, what doest thou? Who has
known the mind of God? Who can challenge God? Men go
around talking about God as if He's helpless and powerless,
and He's pacing the floor, wanting men to let Him have His way,
and He's bound by man's will. He can't overcome man's will.
He made man out of the dust of the ground. He can control man. None can stay His hand or say
unto Him, what doest thou? Man's will is not free because
it's bound by his nature, this fleshly, sinful nature. We're
bound to it. If anybody has seen the truth
and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, you've been given repentance
and faith, you know exactly what I'm talking about when I say
you're bound to this nature. You hate it. Oh, wretched man that
I am, not that I was, the wretched man that I am, only this flesh,
this body of death, I'm bound to this nature, and this nature
serves self. We'll never come to Christ. We'll
never come to Christ. Here's the good news. The Lord
said, but you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sin. Well, how did he do that? By grace, by grace. So it's by grace that we're saved.
It's by grace that we're called and it's by grace that we're
kept. Can you imagine bearing the image
of the Lord Jesus Christ to be conformed to His image. Well,
John chapter three tells us this, behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. Brethren, now are we the sons of God, and it doth
not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as
He is. Then he also tells us another
place as he is so are we in this world that's that's the inward
man we see that we just can't see it flesh can't see it. This is all what the electing
grace of God looks like an accomplished according to his will and purpose
now let's go back to Ephesians one. So I told us what grace was. It's the unmerited, undeserving
favor that God chose to show to creatures of dust before time
ever began. That's grace. Make them the very
righteousness of God by the sacrifice of his son on Calvary's tree.
washing them in his blood without my contribution, without our
interaction, without our anything. That's grace. That's grace. Look
at verse three here, Ephesians chapter one. Blessed be the God
and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ, according as
he has 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 unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ 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. What is grace? Grace is how God
chose to save his people. Grace is how God predestinated
those people. Grace is how the Lord regenerates those people
in time. That's the second thing is how
he justified. How he justified. Grace is how.
For by grace are you saved through faith. It's not us that does
it, it's God. And how does he do it? By grace.
He does it without our permission. He does it without our acceptance
or rejection. He does it without our knowledge. He just lets us know about it.
See, salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is eternal. It happened
in eternity before the time ever began the election of God, and
then in time when Christ Jesus died on the tree, we see that
the Lord successfully redeemed those that he loved, those whom
he died for on that tree. He successfully redeemed them. Look at verse seven. In whom
we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins
according to the riches of his what? Grace. That's how we have
forgiveness of sins. That's how we were justified,
is all by grace, freely. Now you got people that have
things on their sign that says reformed Grace Church. Grace
don't need to be reformed, it just needs to be declared as
it is, plain and simple. Grace is what God does to save
sinners. Grace is what God does to save
sinners, because we can't save ourself. Grace is what God does
in pleasing himself on our behalf because we can't please God in
and of ourselves. This is what grace is and what
grace has done. It is by grace the Lord chose
to redeem, to justify, to sanctify, to glorify. It's all by grace.
All by grace. We use a term called sovereign
grace. That's the only kind they are. There is no other kind of
grace besides sovereign, holy, perfect grace, because it comes
from God. Anything that comes from God
has to reflect his character, his person, his nature. His nature
is holy, and so it can't be anything other than holy coming from him,
and right, and just, and true. His grace is good all the time. Grace is the only way God can
be just and justify his people as we read over in Ephesians
8. Grace is the only way that we can become as holy as he is. Because otherwise we wouldn't
be holy at all. Grace is the only way that we can become alive.
I asked somebody recently, they were talking to me about, we
said with being dead and trespasses and sin, as the scripture says,
you're born dead, literally, you're dead and you're spiritually
dead without hope, without the ability to come to God in any
way, you're dead. How can a dead man make a choice?
Or how can a dead man do that which is pleasing in God's eyes?
How could a dead man merit anything before God? But the good news
about it is, by grace you hath he quickened. He chose you in
the covenant of grace, then he calls you and the covenant of
grace. And then he brings you to the
knowledge of the truth, calls you out of darkness into his
light, and then he glorified you. And now you're seated at the
right hand of God in Christ Jesus, all by grace. When was all that accomplished?
When was, is any part of salvation, whether it's justification, whether
it's redemption, whether it's sanctification, whether it's
glorification, whether it's us being made the righteousness
of God in Christ, when did it all happen? Or is it still happening?
Is it going to happen? When did it all happen? Because
there's a lot of issues with people who believe the only way
that they can be saved is if they do something. If that's
the case, Christ didn't accomplish anything on the cross. You did,
whenever you accepted him or rejected him. But the truth of
the matter is this, salvation was accomplished on the cross
of Calvary when God became a man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and lived
33 years. all the miracles that he did, testifying that he was
the son of God, drank of the cup of the sin of his people,
went to the cross of Calvary, and God poured out his eternal
wrath upon him. Why did he do that? To accomplish
salvation for his people. Those who he foreknew, those
that he elected, those that he loved, he saved his people from
their sin, once and for all. They are now sanctified, they
are justified, they are glorified, All of it, every bit of it. He
just brings us to the knowledge of the truth whenever he says,
live, and we become alive by his spirit, all by his choice. And you know how he does that?
By grace. By grace. Let's understand something
very important. Grace is not something that we
earn. Grace is something that We are given freely by what it
cost the Lord Jesus Christ. A debt had to be paid in order
for us to have the grace of God. See, the Lord's not going to
acquit the guilty if there's but one sin. In us, when we stand
before God, we're guilty of all of it. We're guilty of everything.
A lot of people believe that sinning is what we do, which
is true, but we sin because that's what we are. We're sinners by
nature, sinners by practice, sinners by choice. I use this
example with my girls, and some of y'all remember me saying this,
but a dog doesn't become a dog when it makes its first bark.
It's a dog because it's born a dog. It's going to do things
of the nature of the dog. Scripture said, we're gonna talk
about this next hour too, but it says, can the leopard change
his spot or the Ethiopian change his skin? No. No, the Lord has
to do the work. He has to make us alive by his
spirit and blow upon us. And the only way he does that
is by grace alone. Not by our choice, not by our
works, not by our merit, not by our life, not by our morals,
not by our code of conduct, not by how we treat others. The only
way that we can be made alive is if God says, live. live. You remember Ezekiel, the prophet
Ezekiel, the Lord met with him, took him to a valley of dry bones.
It says it was in a desert. And he said, behold, they were
very dry. That's us. That's us by nature. We're very
dry. Have no hope of life. We're just very dry bones, spiritually
speaking. And the Lord asked Ezekiel, he
said, can these bones live? And I love Ezekiel's answer.
He said, Lord, God, thou knowest. What that means is, he said,
Lord, if these bones are gonna live, you're the one gonna have
to do it, because I can't do it. No matter what I do to these
bones, they're not gonna live. You're gonna have to do it. And
you know what the Lord did? The Lord told him, he said, prophesy
unto the wind that it may blow upon them. That's a picture of
the Holy Spirit when he blows upon the dead bones of this this,
the new man, he blows upon the dead bones that's in the inward
parts that we're born with. And what happened? Well, they
stood up and they got sinews, the muscles and skin, they became,
the wind blew into them and they became alive, the same as he
did when he formed Adam out of the dust of the ground, breathe
into his nostrils, man became a living soul. That's the breath
of life that only God can give. That's how the Lord does it.
That's how the Lord calls his people, by breathing life into
them. Grace is not something we earned,
it's given freely by what it crossed the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's by God's choice in every way, not ours. It's by God's
choice. Why would God choose to choose
a wretched, vile sinner and make them a token of grace, make them
a vessel of honor, make them his prized possession, his beloved,
God is beloved. Why would God choose to take
a dead dog sinner and sacrifice his son to make them the righteousness
of God in him? Why would he do that? Grace.
Grace, there's no other explanation. His love, he knew what must be
accomplished, because he's God, he doesn't plan, he purposes. People talk about God, plans
can fall apart, no purpose, if God purposes it, nothing can
change it. He purposed the salvation of his people, and he accomplished
that salvation. He knew what must happen, and
it was agreed upon that it would happen, and it happened. That's
what we keep saying, for by grace are you saved. The only way that God could choose
to choose to save a sinner like me or a sinner like you is by
grace alone. And the only way he can save a sinner like me
and a sinner like you is by grace alone. What is grace? Well, it is how
God saved his chosen people. It's how God saved his people
from their sin. It's how God made his people the very righteousness
of Christ. I keep saying similar things
over and over again, because it's glorious. It's glorious.
The Lord Jesus Christ laid down his life for the purpose of redeeming
us back to God by grace. And that's exactly what he accomplished.
Grace is the how of salvation. How did God save his people from
their sin? By grace. That's the how of salvation. How can that which is unholy
be made holy? How can that which is unclean
be made clean? Job said it this way, how can
that which is born of a woman be made clean? That puts us all
in the same category, doesn't it? How can we be made clean?
But for the grace of God, the blood of Christ was shed for
the remission of the sin of the Lord's people. And lastly, what is grace? Look at verse eight and nine.
Wherefore, he hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence,
having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according
to his good pleasure, which he hath purpose in himself. So grace
is how the Lord elected and predestinated. Grace is how the Lord redeemed
and justified his people. And lastly, grace. By grace,
he makes known unto us the mystery of his will. And I've already
been talking about this, but this is the regeneration. That's what we call it, regeneration.
He regenerates his people at the appointed time. At the appointed
time, he regenerates. This is the holy calling that's
found in 2 Timothy 1, 9, where it says, God hath saved us and
called us with a holy calling. Not by our own works, but by
his purpose and grace, which was given to his people before
the time ever began. God saved us, then called us.
It's by grace that God would choose to call us out of darkness
into his light. It's by grace that he would choose
to say, live to these dead bones. Lord's people love it that way.
He chose to cause these dead bones to live. What hope did
I have? of coming before the throne of
God and having anything but wrath and judgment, anything but eternal
torment and torture because of what I am, I had none. So what's my only hope? Grace.
That the Lord would give me that, that I don't deserve. And mercy
is, just goes hand in hand with that, Lord not giving you what
you do deserve. So he shows us mercy by not sending
us to hell and gives us grace So he gives us Christ, Christ
who is our righteousness. There's no reason in us whereby
we deserve such glorious grace that God by his spirit would
choose to regenerate us, choose to save us, choose to elect us.
There's nothing good in you and I that would cause that to happen,
but oh the goodness of the Lord. It's beyond understanding the
beauty of Christ and what he accomplished on the cross and
hand saving his people. What a glorious hope that we
have in this grace that the Lord gives freely, freely. God's grace is inexhaustible.
It's higher than we can imagine. It's deeper than the lowest hell.
It's farther than the east is from the west. Can you imagine
if you had been given the Lord's grace, but you could exhaust
it? One day, you wouldn't be under
grace any longer. That'd be miserable, wouldn't it? But it comes from
Him. It's everlasting. You're never
going to see the end of God's grace towards his people because
we've been accepted in the beloved. Who's the beloved? The Lord Jesus
Christ. When he sees me, he sees the blood. He sees the Lord Jesus
Christ. He doesn't see me as wretched
and vile, but he sees his people as worthy, worthy, and not as
we are. See, this is what grace accomplished. This is what, that's what grace
is, is what grace accomplished. Lord's grace is exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think because, and I love this, I said
this just a second ago a little bit, but not only can it not
expire, but it can't change. Scripture says, I am the Lord,
I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. If it could change, that wouldn't
do us any good either, would it? But it can't change. God's
grace is sufficient now, and right now, and right now, and
it'll never stop being right now. Time and eternity, God's
grace is sufficient. Thank God for his amazing grace
whereby he chose to elect a people, where he chose to justify those
people, redeem those people, sanctify those people, cause
those people to be glorified. And then by his grace, he calls
them out of darkness into his light, regenerating those people
at his appointed time. What a glorious gospel. This
is what his grace is and has done. And we have grace for today. We were given grace to get here
safely, weren't we? We're given grace to hear the
truth. Lord gives you ears to hear,
that's because of grace. It's not what we didn't choose
to hear. He calls us, the Lord's given us grace right now. Do
you see what, it never ends. Our life is gonna be full of
the Lord being gracious and merciful to us, his people. He made us
to know the mystery of salvation, that salvation's all of the Lord,
and it's all by grace alone. Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would take these words and bless it to our understanding.
In Christ's name, amen. Let's take a break.