Ephesians 2-1, and you hath he
quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Quickened is not a
word that we commonly use. Now it just simply means made
alive. He made you alive, which were
dead. Paul is still describing God's
salvation. He began in chapter one with
God's choice, grace, the choice of his love. And from election,
he progresses through that chapter through predestination, adoption,
redemption. And then he arrives later in
the chapter at our trust in Christ. All part of God's salvation. There's not two parts to salvation,
our part and God's part. Jonah said salvation's of the
Lord. There's just one salvation. Just one part to it. It has many
aspects to it. There's not God's part in our
part. Our part is we need it. Our part is all we like sheep
have gone astray, which is not really a part in it, is it? That's
kind of part of the problem, not part of the solution. God's
part is, He hath laid on His Son the iniquity of us all. We need it. And He freely gave
Himself to save us. And this is part of His salvation
here too. In verse 15 of the previous chapter,
He mentions the faith of those to whom He writes, Again, part
of God's saving grace. And he exalts Christ as the one
by whom all of the blessings that he prayed for them must
come. They must come by Christ, because
of Christ, through Christ. And so you see in the last few
verses of Ephesians 1 that soaring language exalting the Lord Jesus
Christ for who he is. And now in the beginning of chapter
2, Paul is going to elaborate more upon the experience of salvation. Trust in faith. What about that? What about that experience? There's
what God did for us before we were ever born. He put us in
His Son. From the beginning, He chose
us in Christ Jesus. Before we were ever born, not
before Abraham was born, but before we were born, he sent
his son to die on the cross for our sins. But there's also what God does
in us, the salvation of God in us, and that's what he elaborates
on here. He mentions their faith in the
previous chapter. We're going to find out more
about that, our experience of salvation here in the beginning
of chapter two. We believe on Christ, we trust
Him, but there's more to it than that. You see, as Jonah said,
salvation is of the Lord. And that's clear to see in the
election. It's real hard for man to say he's only a part of
that. Before either were born or had done any good or evil
as the purpose of God according to the election might stand God
declares his love for one and his hatred for the other Jacob
and Esau So that's clear now that to see that salvation in
that aspect of it is of the Lord in predestination It was pre
us when he predestinated us Redemption We didn't have any part of that
When Abraham pictured that with his son Isaac, he said, me and
the lad are going to take care of some business and then we'll
come back and visit with you again. That was between the father
and the son, wasn't it? That was something that happened,
a transaction that took place between the father and the son
on Calvary. That wasn't an offer to man, that was an offering
to God on behalf of his people, his sheep. So we can see that But sinners
in our experience of salvation, now when God comes where we are
in time and quickens us as we read in our text and gives faith
and gives His Holy Spirit and opens our eyes, sinners like
to start thinking that we can get some glory there, you know,
that we have a lot to do with that part. Yeah, you know, God
made salvation possible, He made it available, but ultimately
it's up to us to avail ourselves of it to choose God, to believe
on Him. We'll see about that in our text.
Let's see if that's what's being taught here concerning this salvation
of God. You hath He quickened. You hath He quickened. Now this
is the experience of salvation, wouldn't you say? When somebody
that's dead comes to life, that's an experience that we experience. Lazarus experienced life. Now
he quickens us because he loved us. He chose us and predestinated
us and all that because he loved us. And he quickened us because
he loved us. We're going to read that in Ezekiel in a little while.
But think about this with me, you hath he quickened. It was
no idle threat when God said to Adam and Eve in the garden,
in the day that you eat thereof, thou shalt surely die. You're
gonna die now, in that day. That wasn't an idle threat. They
didn't only die when they got old later, you know. They died
in the day that they sinned, just like God said they would.
They died spiritually. And spiritual death is not hard
to really grasp because we understand physical death. We've seen people
die. And we know what that means.
And regarding spiritual death, it's pretty much the same as
physical death except it regards spiritual things and not physical
things. Not only physical things. A dead
person, what have you observed about dead people? Well, they
can't move. They just lay there, don't they?
I can't move. Well, neither can a spiritually
dead person. Can't move. Can't lift a finger
toward God. Can't think, can't act. Romans
5-6, for when we were yet without strength, not weak, not tired,
not impaired, without strength. Without it. Without energy. A
live body is energized. A dead one's not. A spiritually
dead person is like that physically dead person. Without strength. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. We're described as without strength
and ungodly. Same person described in two
different ways. We're spiritually dead, which
means we have no strength, no energy, no ability. That's why
our Lord said, you can't come to me unless my father does something
for you. You're spiritually dead. You're
without strength. Job deals with this in Job chapter
26. And I want you to turn there because this is, I think, I think
this is very clear about this. This reveals now what's going
on in our religious age, and I suppose in everyone, not just
now. It's always been works of grace,
hasn't it? Always, from the start. And what
do they say now? God's done all he can do, and
now it's up to you. Well, how does that work out
for somebody that has no strength? How does that work out? I'll
tell you how. Listen to what Job said. Job answered and said,
and he's talking to his friends now that have told him that if
you weren't such a bad person, God wouldn't be doing this to
you. Okay? Basically self-righteous, free
will, if you just do, you know, God would bless you and not punish
you like this. But Job answered and said, how
hast thou helped him that is without power? What good is your
gospel to somebody that can't take the first step? You ever
wondered that? How savest thou the arm that
hath no strength? You say, if you'll just reach
out to God, God will reach out to you. What about somebody whose
arm doesn't have any strength to reach out to God? Have you
ever thought about that? Are you that bad? What good is it going to do somebody
like that? How hast thou counseled him that hath no wisdom? If you'd
just change your mind, you know, and just Get on the right track,
turn over a new leaf for God. Make a decision for Jesus. What about somebody that has
no wisdom, and every decision he makes is a wrong one? What good is your gospel to him?
That's a pretty good question, isn't it? And so current, so
appropriate to our day. And how hast thou plentifully
declared the thing as it is? You see, if you're telling a
dead man that he needs to take the first step, you're not telling
it like it is. You're not telling the whole
story. You're not revealing the truth about man and about how
God saves a sinner by his grace. How hast thou put, and to whom
hast thou uttered word? Who are you talking to? When
you tell somebody, you just take the first step and God'll meet
you, you know, halfway, who do you think you're talking to?
You're talking to a dead man. To whom hast thou uttered these
words? Do you have any idea who you're talking to? When you present
that nonsense that passes for a gospel? And whose spirit came
from thee? Who are you speaking for? if
you're not telling what God said. You see, those are pointed questions,
aren't they? In what spirit are you speaking? You know, the Holy
Spirit takes the things of Christ and reveals them. And Christ
saves dead sinners, dead ones without strength. This is a question
for the free will Pharisees of our day. How have you helped
the sinner that can't do what you call it on him to do? God says I'm dead and you're
saying take a step. It just doesn't jive, does it?
The Lord Jesus said I cannot come to him unless the Father
which has sent me draw him. I want to hear about this God
who can save me right where I am, don't you? I want to hear about
the good Samaritan that comes where the sinner is and does
everything for him. Because I'm that kind of sinner.
I'm that far gone, are you? If you can't tell me about him,
you're not any help to me. I'm a real sinner. You say exercise your free will,
but Job said, how have you helped him that hath no wisdom? Every exercise of my will is
foolishness until God does a work in my heart. How can you say
to a sinner that doesn't know up from down spiritually, just
exert your will? It's a mockery, it's what it
is. A dead man can't move, a dead man can't see. And our Lord said
of the spiritually dead, they're just like their idols. They have
eyes, but they can't see with them. They have ears, but they
can't hear with them. Dead man can't hear you. He can
hear Christ, but he can't hear you. So when you're speaking,
What you think and what you say and what you believe and your
opinions, that dead man's just going to lay there. But when
you say what God said, when you speak for God, he said he'd speak
through us when we do that. With power. The gospel, the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation for him who has no power. Same with the spiritual that
in Matthew 13 the Lord said to his disciples blessed are your
eyes for they see and your ears for they hear and he told him
why He told him why they see and hear unto you It is given
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven and to them.
It's not given That's why This explains how the believers
at Ephesus could see God he had quickened them and This explains
their faith and trust. God had given them eyes to see.
God had given them life from the dead. They trusted Christ.
How? Life. And he didn't do it because of
anything in them. Why them and not somebody else?
Why did he give life to them? Verse 2. When in time past you
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, you,
me, them, all of us, had our conduct, our conversation, our
walk in times past. We walked in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
We had no thought for God, no desire for God, no love for God,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. He quickens you. Why? It wasn't
because of you. You were just like everybody
else that's still dead, even now. They're still, they're still
like they were. But you hath he quickened. Though
there was no difference whatsoever between you and them. As he said
in Romans 3, Even the righteousness of God which is by the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ Unto all and upon all them that believe for
there is no difference What did he say right there the righteousness
that saves us? Had to be his The righteousness
which of God which is by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ
Unto all and upon all them that believe How come he did it that
way? Because there's no difference
in you. You're not going to distinguish yourself from other men by believing
on him. So salvation doesn't come by you and your acts of
righteousness, but by his. Because there's not any difference
in you. The difference is him and what he did. And God applying
that to you. The righteousness that saves
us is his. We're all the same. We're all
dead. We all had our conduct. just like everybody else in this
world the loss of the flesh and of our mind but he didn't do it because of us
now we're dead I didn't even talk about how dead people are
nasty and despicable disgusting we didn't even talk about that
the person that I love the most in this world and cherish and
want to be with and spend time with and be close to. Once they're dead, I don't want
them near me. How about you? I don't want them anywhere near
me. And this is our condition spiritually.
Unclean and corrupt and vile. And in the language of verses
two and three, you get some sense of what we must be like to God,
don't you? Dead, lusts of our flesh and
our mind and children of wrath, God's wrath, is against us now as we are by
nature. That's talking about us by nature. God has always loved his sheep,
but by nature we're children of God. That's talking about
what we are, not God's thoughts towards us in that particular
spot. And yet, though we are vile and wretched and defiled
and repulsive, just like everybody else, and yet we have verse four,
but God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead. That makes a difference
to me, but not to him. But he's not gonna leave us that
way. Even when we were dead, hath quickened us together with
Christ, By grace are you saved. And I
don't want to add to scripture, but that parenthetical statement
there, it's almost as though Paul's saying, in case that wasn't
clear enough, let me just spell it out for you. You're saved
by grace. It had nothing to do with you.
You were laying there dead and God gave you life. What was Lazarus'
part when the Lord said, Lazarus, come forth? What was his part?
He just needed it. He was just dead and he needed
life. Even when we were corrupt, even
when we were repulsive, even when we were unclean. And we
have this picture now in Ezekiel 16. I want you to turn there
with me too because the scripture sheds light upon scripture so
much better than we can ever. Ezekiel 16 1 I Want to read a
pretty good passage here, and I want you to see our text in
it. It won't be hard to do But but more than just on the surface
of it may God give us eyes of faith to see this the truth of
it Again the Word of the Lord came
unto me Ezekiel saying son of man caused Jerusalem to know
her abominations and I want them to know how sinful they are,
and how wretched they are, and how helpless they are. And say,
thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, thy birth and thy
nativity is of the land of Canaan, a cursed people. You're under
the curse. You're cursed of God. We were
by nature the children of wrath, even as others. You see that?
He's telling his prophet, I want my people to know how horrible
and nasty and disgusting and rough. I want them to know the
depth of the desperation of their case before me by nature. And
you know what he does? He shows them how dead they are.
He shows them the same thing Paul talks about. He talks to
them about being dead. And under the curse, dead spiritually,
under the curse. And tell them that. And thy father
was an Amorite and thy mother And Hittite, you're not any different.
You think you're better than other people because you were
born a Hebrew of the Hebrews? Paul thought that for a while,
didn't he? No, your mother, you were born
of the same rotten, stinking flesh that everybody else was
born of, under the curse of God. And for that nativity, verse
four, in the day that thou was born, This has been true all along,
hadn't it? We didn't become a sinner at
the age of accountability. Thy navel was not cut, neither
was thou washed in water to supple thee. Thou wast not salted at
all, nor swaddled at all. None eye pitied thee to do any
of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee. But thou wast cast
out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the
day that thou wast born. What a graphic picture, a baby
that nobody wanted, that's just hated and despised. Just get
this thing away from me. I'm going to throw it out into
a field and let it die. Covered in its own blood and not swaddled or cleaned or washed. But then here comes God. But God, you see our text in
this? You were dead. But I passed by you. Remember
what it said about the good Samaritan? The law passed by and avoided
him, the man that was dead in the ditch, that was dying there. And the Pharisee, he didn't want
nothing to do with him either. Religion didn't have anything
to help him with. But then the good Samaritan passed
by and had compassion on him. And I saw you. I didn't have
any illusions, but I saw you polluted. The Lord Jesus Christ,
he didn't have any delusions about what you were, even when
you were dead now. Not because you were better or
had distinguished yourself in any way. I saw you polluted and
despised and wretched and vile, polluted in your own blood. This
is all significant, isn't it? I said unto thee, when thou wast
in thy blood, live. And you hath he done what? Made
alive. When God says live, you're made
alive. When God says be not faithless
but believing, you have faith. When God says come, you come.
And when he says go, you go. I said unto thee, live yea, I
said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, even when we were
And even as I said unto thee, Live, I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen
great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breasts are fashioned,
and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee and
looked upon thee, Thy time was the time of love. That's why he said live. That's
back to chapter one, isn't it? You hath he quickened. How come?
Because before you was ever born, he chose you in Christ. He said,
so that the purpose of God, according to election, might stand. He
said, Tommy, have I loved. Thy time was the time of love. And you experienced that in his
time. And I spread my skirt over you,
I covered your nakedness. That's what happened in the garden.
Do you see the gospel all in there? And our text, the same
gospel. Yea, I swear unto thee, I entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine. You know, we were his from eternity,
but aren't you, do you remember? I don't remember a specific day,
but isn't it wonderful when you came to know that you were his. You became in your own experience
his. His forever, only his. Then washed
I thee with water, yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee,
and I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered
work, and shod thee with badger skin, and I girded thee about
with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk, and I decked
thee also with ornaments. I put bracelets upon thy hands,
and a chain on thy neck, The jewel on your forehead, the earrings
in your ears, a beautiful crown upon your head. Thou wast decked
with gold and silver, and thy raiment was of fine linen and
silk, embroidered work. And thou didst eat fine flour
and honey and oil, and thou wast exceeding beautiful. And thou
didst prosper into a kingdom, the kingdom of God, the kingdom
of his dear Son. And thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness. Which I had put upon thee, saith
the Lord God, my comeliness. That's in the next verse of our
text, isn't it? With Christ, in Christ, in Christ Jesus. That's His comeliness. We're
beautiful, we're perfect, righteous, holy. We were in our own selves
by nature the children of wrath, polluted and vile and dead. Now
we're perfect and beautiful and spotless before God through his
comeliness in Christ as our righteousness, as our sin offering, as our representative. You see our text in that passage
there in Ezekiel 16, the time was the time of love, so I quickened
you who were dead. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love, wherewith he loved. What time was it? What
time did God save you? I don't remember the day, but
I know what time it was, don't you? It was the time of love. For his great love, wherewith
he loved, as he quickened us together with Christ. You see
that he didn't say in Christ there he said with Christ and
there's significance to that and we don't have time to see
everything here but notice with Christ and compare that to Ephesians
1 verse 17 look at this these two passages shed light upon
one another verse 17 you remember this part that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in 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 saints and what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us who believe according to the working of his
mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him
from the dead. When he raised Christ from the
dead, he raised me from the dead in Christ. We're quickened together
with Christ. and set him at his own right
hand in the heavenly places. He set Christ at his own right
hand, and in our text, he's gonna say we're sitting together with
him. You see how those two patches, they shed light upon one another.
Verse six, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. You see how that
refers back to what we just read? He set his son on his right hand,
and when he did, guess where I am now? I'm seated in heavenly
places in Christ. That in the ages to come he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace. That's what we're
talking about. That's the title of the message
this morning. That's the subject of this whole, the exceeding
riches of his grace. He's gonna show it. In his, how
does he show it? In his kindness toward us. by having mercy on you by raising
a dead vile wretch like you from the dead how does he do that
through Christ Jesus how can he have mercy on a worm like
me and still be God through Christ Jesus through the redemption
that's in Christ there's so much here isn't there it's just like
looking into a treasure chest full of beautiful precious stones
and not being able to take your eyes off of one to look at another
and then when another one catches your eye There's just so much
here. In Christ we are alive. In Christ we are sitting with
him in glory on the right hand of the throne on high. In Christ we are eternal monuments
to the great love. Didn't he say that he might show?
We are the monuments of his love and grace for all heaven and
earth to see. Everybody's gonna look at you
and me And what he did for us and glorified him. They're gonna
say, how gracious is God to save a wretch like that. The angels
are interested in that. They've never been wretched like
us. They were never redeemed with precious blood like us.
And they're looking into that. The exceeding riches of his grace. Do you see that in our text and
in the scriptures? Do you see how exceedingly rich
his grace is that he would love and save a wretch like me? That
reveals the exceeding riches of his grace, the object of his
grace. That's what he just said. In his kindness toward us, people
are gonna look at us and say, look, God was kind and gracious
to even a worm. And that's going to show the
exceeding riches of his character, his grace, his love, his mercy. Do you see the exceeding riches
of his grace in the scope of the work? Chapters one and two
the scope of his saving you see the exceeding riches of his grace
in that in the magnitude of it He loved me He chose me he predestinated
me and in predestinating me. He predestinated everything about
me and around me and The end of that is that I'm
gonna be exactly like his son I He redeemed me with his precious
blood, not with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but
with the blood of Christ, the precious blood of Christ as of
a lamb without blemish and without spot. Do you see something of the exceeding
riches of his grace in the price that he paid that he might show
grace toward me? Does that not show something of the riches
of that grace, that the very blood of God was shed, that I
might have mercy. And then he quickened me together
with Christ, and as we're gonna see in the next verse, as part
of that same saving grace, the same riches of the same grace,
he gave me faith in Christ. Just gave it to me. Same salvation,
Same work. And the magnet, the scope of
it is, it's all encompassing in it. Salvation's an eternal
work. And every aspect of it is wrought by God. That's what
Jonah meant. That's what he said. And he meant
what he said. Salvation is of the Lord. For
by grace are you saved through faith. By grace are you chosen By grace
are you loved, and predestinated, and adopted, and redeemed, and
quickened, and given faith. Because that's not of yourselves. Did you really think that? Did
you really think that God would love you, and choose you, and
adopt you, and redeem you, predestinate you, and quicken you, and then
leave salvation up to you, who had never done anything right
yet? It's not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. It is the gift of God. That's what a dead man needs.
He doesn't need a chance. He needs a gift. He needs powerful
grace. He reveals this so clearly Here,
so that sinners, and he tells why, so that sinners won't, in
considering the experience of salvation, so that they will
not be able to think that they have something to do with it.
He clearly says why he did it the way he did it and revealed
it plainly so that you'd shut up about what you did. So that sinners will be forced
to say salvations of the Lord. so that they won't be able to
get any glory. But wait a minute, Christian
sinners do boast in their salvation. Not all of them. And the ones that don't, he reveals
this so that they won't. It doesn't have much to do with
everybody else. They do brag about their free
will. Not all of them. The ones that he gave faith to
don't. By his grace, they don't. Every picture of salvation in
this book, we're talking about the exceeding riches of his grace
now. And when you're looking at that, you can't look at yourself. Boasting is excluded. Every picture
of salvation in this book gives all the glory to God alone, to
Christ alone. You think about it. We read in
Ezekiel there, I said unto thee, live. We made reference to this one
too. Lazarus, come forth. What do you think that's teaching
there? Stretch forth thy hand. The Lord
Jesus Christ commanded that man to do the one physical thing
that he couldn't do. Why do you think he did that? Lest any man should boast. He walks up to the pool of Bethesda
and picks one out and says, will thou be made whole? And the man didn't even ever
say yes, and he still made him whole. And then he started saying
yes to everything the Lord said. Why do you suppose he showed
that picture? Why do you think he did that? Damsel, I say unto thee, arise. Who's he talking to? A dead woman. A dead woman. A dead girl. Remember that centurion? Lord,
just say the word. Say the word. I'm not worthy
that you should come under my roof. But I know a little something
about authority. I have people under me and I
have people over me. And the ones under me, I say
to them, go and they go. And I say, come and they come.
And I'm not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but I know
this, all you have to do is say the word. Say the word. And my servant will be healed. Every example. Lord, if you will, You can make me clean, if you
will. So why don't we shut up about
what the sinner will do and talk about what God will do. If this old wretched leopard
could see that, I pray that God will reveal that to us, that
salvation is by the will of God, not by the will of the flesh.
The flesh profiteth nothing. Lord, you spoke the truth. I'm a dog. And it wouldn't be
right for you to have mercy on me. But I sure do need a crumb. I
sure do need a crumb from the master's table. Can you turn anywhere in this
book and not see the exceeding riches of his grace in Christ
Jesus? Verse 10, for we are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. Do you see how he's still talking
about salvation? He's still talking about what
God does. All the way from His choice of us in eternity to you
this morning worshiping Him. Worshiping God, if you are worshiping
God, you know that's a good work. That's a work of faith. You can't
worship Him except by faith. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. But that's a good work. Is that
you doing something for God? It kind of sounds like from verse
10, that's God doing something for you. That's what it sounded
like to me, didn't it, you? We are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus by God unto good works. From his choice of you
into eternity, before you were ever born, to everything that
you do for God, to every thought that you have about God that's
right, to every action that you do that's relatively, if you
took your sin out of it, would be a good work. All of it is
the work of God's saving grace. It is the exceeding riches of
his grace displayed in you. All of it, and everything in
between that. Do you see that here? Two thoughts on this. First, as I've already said,
and I just want to make it clear, even the good works that we do,
which are works of faith, because of Him. He loved us, He chose
us, He predestinated us, He adopted us, He redeemed us, He gave us
faith, He quickened us, and every other grace He gave us, and He
works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. That's
salvation. He's still saving you. He's still
saving you. You worshiping Him this morning,
Whatever love you have for Him this morning, you know what that
is? That's Him saving you. Do you
see that it's all one work of God? It is the exceeding riches
of His grace being displayed in you. That's how Barnabas saw
the grace of God. He saw God saving some people. The evidence of it through their
works. He gave us faith, and he works
in us. Philippians 2.13, both to will
and to do of his good pleasure. Did you want to worship him this
morning? I hope that's why you're here, not because you felt like,
boy, if I don't, you know, if I'm not at church this morning,
you know, that's a bad mark on me before God. Or are you here
because you wanted to worship him? God worked that both to
will And are you doing it? That's God too. You're not getting
any glory. Is that alright? Is that alright? Not getting any. Not an ounce. Me neither. It's God. And I'll tell you this, if that
makes me a puppet, well then I'm the happiest puppet you ever
saw. The truth is, that doesn't make us puppets. You know what
it makes us? It makes us His. It makes us saved to the uttermost. It makes us safe. I'm glad that
God doesn't leave me to myself, aren't you? It makes us able
to rest completely in Him. When He chose me in eternity,
my salvation didn't have anything to do with me. And this morning,
When I, by His grace, desired to come worship Him this morning,
and am able to do so, you can't attribute that to me. That's
the exceeding riches of God's grace displayed in me. And He's gonna make it known
throughout eternity, in His kindness toward us, And boy Where you are right now
what you're doing? That's his kindness toward you
don't ever think that you doing anything for him And the second and final thing
is this notice the word for you will not boast for You're not
going to get any glory. And here's the reason I An elect,
redeemed, chosen, quickened sinner is a creation of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is something that did not
exist before God gave him life. Do
you see that there? He is a creation of Christ. He of whom it is written, without
him was not anything made that was made. That includes the new
you. the new you, the new man, created
in Christ Jesus unto good work. And that's why you're not getting
any glory. What did you have to do with it when he created
this world? That's just exactly how much
glory you're gonna get in salvation, right there. You're not gonna
boast because we are his workmanship. He's gonna get all of it. And
by his grace, as part of his saving us, we're gonna give him
glory. If we're His, we're gonna glorify Him this very morning. Something that didn't exist before.
Some would have us believe that once we have experienced the
salvation of God, that the only difference in us now and us before
is that we know some things that we didn't know before. But the
Bible says we are something that we were not before. All things are become new by
virtue of our union with Christ and our life in him. We are utterly
transformed according to the scriptures. I'm waiting for another
transformation. Aren't you? I'm expecting and
waiting for another transformation when he shall change my vile
body and fashion it like unto his glorious body. But I thank
God also right now that I'm not what I was. Thank God for that. That's according to the exceeding
riches of His grace now. I'm not what I was, and I am
what I am by the grace of God. I didn't believe God, but I do
now. Help my unbelief. I didn't love God, but I do now. Lord, thou knowest that I love
thee. I didn't worship God, but I do now. Just learning some
facts, Can you account for that now? You're a new creation. My
flesh didn't never start believing God and loving God and worshiping
God. Did yours? This is life from the dead we're
talking about. This is a creation. And creation,
now making something is one thing. I may take a piece of Play-Doh
and make a horse out of it. I made a horse, but I didn't
create that horse. Creation is making something
out of nothing. That's what happened when God saved me. Only God can create and only
God can quicken. That's why, you know what they're
singing in heaven right now? And this is why, what we're talking
about this morning. Here's their song, salvation
and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's how
this book started, the book of Ephesians. Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according as he hath
done all of this. Oh, the exceeding riches of His
grace. May He show us something of the
exceeding riches of His grace to us were in Christ that we
might worship and praise Him as we are and serve Him as we
are. Amen. Let's pray.