Seriously, just do something. Okay, good morning. We're gonna
get started. All right, our text this morning
is Ephesians chapter two, and we'll be looking at verses seven
through 10. And what the Apostle by the Spirit
is doing is he's expounding to us the grace of our God which
is freely given to his children through the Lord Jesus Christ. And what the people of God are
learning is that Christ really is all our salvation. And what
he reveals to us is just how exceedingly kind and gracious
our God is in his salvation. And so, this text here, the Lord
is revealing to us the riches of his grace toward us in our
Savior, Jesus Christ. These are rich blessings out
of the riches of our God in Christ Jesus in heavenly places. And
so what Paul is led to bring out here, for example, is the
kindness of God. As we grow in our Lord, as we
read his word, as we hear his gospel preached, as the spirit
takes us through various trials and through just the things that
reveal to us how dependent we are upon God, how he shows us
our weakness, how he bears long with us. We see through that
just how kind our God really is toward us. When you think
about the enmity that we are against him by nature, and how
he bore long with us. It's like having, this is a bad,
not quite the example that gets it, but it's like having a neighbor
who just despises you, and you do nothing but show them kindness. When they're away, you take care
of their property for them, you see their hoses running and you
shut it off for them, you see someone breaking into their house
and you call the police, and all the while they're despising
you and calling you horrible names and they just hate you. And yet, you show them kindness.
Well, in the same way, our Heavenly Father, He makes the rain to
fall upon the good and the evil. He makes the sun to rise upon
the good and the evil, and we come to know just how kind and
gracious our God is to us. Then he speaks of the gift of
faith. He speaks of faith whereby we
receive and enjoy this knowledge of what our God has done for
us in Christ. Faith is that conduit, that hose,
if you will, that communicates to us what our God has done for
us in Christ, that we know these things and gain a greater understanding
of that. Then we see how that our salvation
is not conditioned on the works of this flesh. This is what he's
revealing to us here in our text, that it's not based on our works
of this corrupt flesh, but rather we see that he's delivered us
from this body of sin. He's destroyed this body of sin
wherein we were held in bondage, but now we are free to serve
our God in spirit and in truth. And then we see that by his Holy
Spirit, not through the corruption and the weakness of this flesh,
but by the Holy Spirit, our Savior bears fruits of righteousness,
which glorify our God and declares to the world just what great
salvation our God has worked in us. And so all these gifts
are the result of the exceeding riches of our God to us toward
toward us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I've titled this, Exceeding
Riches of Grace. Exceeding Riches of Grace, all
right? So let's first begin with kindness,
kindness. Under the arms of grace, we discover
the immense kindness of our God toward us. Look at verse seven,
Ephesians 2.7, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding
riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. So, what our God did for us,
it reveals incredible grace. It reveals just how kind our
God is to us. When we see What He has done
for us, even though we are what we are in nature, how weak we
are, how indecisive we are, how cruel we are, how undisciplined
we are, how easily we're turned from our God, how how quick we
could have one thought where we think we're going to do something
for the Lord or in the name of the Lord. I've had so many times
in my life where I couldn't wait to get home to open the Bible
and to read it and to seek the Lord only to be taken up in the
flesh as soon as I got there and everything that I had planned
to do was just forgotten. And I say that to my shame. I see how fickle and weak I am
in this flesh. How willing the spirit is, but
how weak this flesh really is. And so our Lord, He shows us
in grace. He's unfolding to us just how
dead this flesh really is. And how willfully ignorant we
are. And how willfully ignorant we
were before His Spirit of Grace came upon us and overtook us
and delivered us from darkness and that bondage. As we grow in the Lord, one of
the things He shows us is just how spiritually dead this flesh
is, how far we were from God. We didn't inch our way to God. We didn't do things that brought
us near to Him and evoked some favor from God for us. It wasn't
us that did it. But as far away as we were, it
was the grace and kindness of God that reached that reached
unto us, that came to us and brought us near to Him. Look
back in verse 5, Ephesians 2 verse 5. He says, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened, or made us alive together with
Christ, by grace ye are saved. And that being made alive means
that our Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, He died in our stead. He had to put away our sin in
which we were held and separated from God. Christ had to give
His life He worked righteousness for us. He bore our sin. He went to the cross and as a
sacrifice, the sacrifice for us, He gave His life. He shed His blood. He became
what we were before the Father, that He might be a perfect and
fit sacrifice unto God to put away our sin perfectly, to remove
the stain of sin so that when our God looks upon us, He looks
upon us delighted, pleased, satisfied with what he sees. That's what
your Savior has worked for you. Look back at Ephesians 1, verse
20. Ephesians 1, 20. These read very
nicely with Ephesians 1, 20 to verse 5 to verse 6 in chapter
2. So verse 5 says, even when we
were dead in sins, he quickened us together with Christ, Then
verse 20 says, which he wrought in Christ when you raised him
from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly
places. so that we see the salvation
accomplished for us in Christ. Now Ephesians 2, 6, and hath
raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. So that not only is Christ our
mediator, the God-man mediator, seated upon the right hand of
the throne of God. Not only is he exalted to that
most honorable position, but we as the bride of our Lord,
as his bride, we too are seated with him in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus, so that we now dwell together with him. and
we shall dwell together with Him forever, for all eternity,
in that bliss and peace, with the greatest, clearest understanding
of how gracious and kind our God is toward us." Verse 7 says
again, Ephesians 2, 7, that in the ages to come, He might show
the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us, through
Christ Jesus. Now, some have thought, is he
speaking of the gospel age? Is he speaking of the time of
the church now? Or is he speaking of eternity,
when all of this shall be done away, and we shall dwell in new
heavens and a new earth in the presence of our God? The answer
is yes, both. Both are true in the ages to
come that he should do these things for us. And so he's revealing
to us even now by the power of God which raised Christ up from
the dead, he's making this known just how kind he is to us. How
undeserving we are in the flesh and yet your God loves you and
has been kind to you. Has put away your sin and revealed
himself to you. So we see what kindness our God
shows in grace to sinners who are by nature enmity against
him. Those who rebelled against him
in the garden, those who had their fist held high in his face,
just with clenched teeth and gnashing at him and angry and
despising him. Yet your God has been gracious
and kind to you that now believe, rather than destroy you and squash
you and do the worst of the worst things to you, he's been kind
to you, though we didn't deserve any of it. Next we see, in keeping
with our Lord's grace and kindness, he's blessed you with a knowledge
of these things. He does not leave his children
in darkness to what he's done. We all have a measure faith which
he's given to us but all of us have to some degree and knowledge
of what our God and Savior has done for us and he does this
through the gift of faith the gift of faith look at verse 8
for by grace are you saved through faith and that that faith not
of yourselves it is the gift of God and so salvation is is
a thing which the saints receive. We receive this gift, right? We're given this gift. We receive
it. Our God gives each one of his
children faith whereby we look to the Savior, whereby we learn
and understand and have a knowledge of what our God has done for
us through his son, so that we receive comfort through this
gospel. We receive hope through this
gospel. We're grown in love for our God
and his people through the faith which he's given to us. And so
we, by this faith, we receive those things which God has done
for us, freely done for us in his son. And with an understanding
now that it's by grace, we see and learn more and more. It really
is a part from my works and from my contribution. and apart from
me having done something to earn my God's favor. He's done this
work for me. And so, because it's a gift,
it affirms to us more and more that it's not of this flesh. Faith is not a product of the
flesh. Faith is not what man in his
flesh contributes to his salvation. Faith is a fruit of the Spirit. It's not of the flesh of man. Faith is not something that's
common to all men. There is a faith that's common
to all men. It's a belief, it's a system
of belief which is common to our human nature. It's spoken
of in movies and people encourage people with it, you just gotta
believe, just keep on believing. Believe what? What are they talking
about? It's not the faith that's spoken
of in the scriptures which is the gift of God. And faith is
not the product of man where now he's faced with a proposition
to make a good decision for Christ or you'll go to hell. It's not
about our decision that is the determining factor whether we
go to hell or not. Faith is the revelation that
God has delivered us from death. Faith is what God the Father
gives to his children, whereby we know and understand what our
God has done for us. And so this faith that we have
in Christ, it's owing to the gift of God. We have faith because
God gives faith to his children. You that believe and look to
Christ have only God to thank for, because it's the gift of
God. Paul said over in 2 Thessalonians
3.2, he said, for all men have not faith. All men don't have
this faith, which is the gift of God. God gives it to you,
his chosen saints, his children, whom he foreknew, whom he created
in eternity. When he chose you, he set you
apart. Our being born was determined
back then when God foreknew you, when He loved you and chose you
in His Son, Jesus Christ. All right, so faith is not of
man's flesh. And when the apostle says concerning
our faith, I just wanna show you this, where he says at the
end of verse eight, that not of yourselves, it is the gift
of God. That's another way of saying, look at verse 19 in chapter
one. Look at Ephesians 119. He says,
what is the exceeding greatness of his power, all right, speaking
of his grace toward us, who believe, right, who believe through faith,
and that faith is according to the working of his mighty power. Or another way to say, it's the
gift of God, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. So you
could interchange both of those, both of those two phrases there,
right? You could say for by grace, you're saved through faith. And
that, none of yourselves, it's according to the working of His
mighty power." Or, it's the gift of God. It's just another way
of saying that. So what we see is all this salvation,
every facet of it, is according to the mighty power of our God. It's according to the gift of
our God. all the features of salvation
right and you could you know have you ever bought something
that you were just so enthralled with that you just just loved
every facet of it you know the color of it the accents and the
highlights of it the sounds that it makes or or what it accomplishes,
what it does. We refer to that as bells and
whistles, right? As bells and whistles. And we're
delighted with those things. And as we discover more and more,
look at what this thing does here. Oh, and it does that too.
And it does this over here. And you're amazed by it. Well,
in a crude sense, that's our salvation. We keep learning and
discovering everything that our God has done for us. in kindness
and in grace. And it's revealed to us through
the faith which he's given to us. And we see more and more,
Lord, I thought you did a lot before. Now I see how much more
you've done for me. For me, a sinner, worthless sinner,
not deserving of this kindness and grace. All right? Now turn
over to 2 Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians 2. look at verses 13 and 14 where Paul here says that we're bound
to give thanks all the way to God for you brethren beloved
of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit meaning that his
Spirit separates you apart from the inhabitants of this world
and separates you unto himself and belief of the truth, meaning
that he's going to reveal the truth to you through faith, whereby
you shall lay hold of it, receiving it, believing it, holding on
to it through that faith. And so, then he says, whereunto,
verse 14, he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, He's going to
cause you. He's going to give it to you
to look to Christ and to hope in Him. If you're still looking
in yourself for confidences and for hopes, you're going to have
a tough time seeing it. There's very few times in which
we see the revelation of God powerfully working through us
so that we have any confidence or assurance. Our God in grace has been so
merciful and kind to us, and the very fact that you look to
Christ, that you continue to hope in Him and walk in faith
looking to Him, that's the revelation that God has separated you unto
Himself, and that He is keeping you and holding you. He's the
one who's working the salvation in you, all right? Now, because
our salvation is a work of grace, there's a deliverance from the
bondage of the law, from looking back to the law to try and sanctify
ourselves, to make this salvation more effectual for us, and to
find assurances in the things which we do, all right? He delivers
his people from that bondage. He says in Ephesians 2.9 that
it's not of works. lest any man should boast. You
could even say it's not of works lest every man should perish
because if it was according to our works, according to the law,
we would all perish because we don't keep the law perfectly
and we're very blind to the things that we don't do perfectly. We're usually very blind to that. So the death of Christ delivers
his people from the bondage of the law, whereby we are held
in fear, and in fear of retribution, in fear of punishment, in fear
of hell. Our Savior delivers us from that
fear to know and to rest in Him, believing that He has put away
our sin and made us acceptable unto our God. The law wasn't
given because we can keep it perfectly. You've probably heard
that before. I've heard it before on the radio
and things like that, when I used to listen to Christian radio
and such. And I would hear that, men say that God wouldn't have
given the law unless you could keep it. So therefore, because
he gave it, you must be able to keep it in your flesh. Now
get at it, get working. But that's not why the law was
given. In fact, the Lord tells us exactly why the law was given
over in Romans 3, verse 19 and 20. Paul writes, Now we know
that what things whoever the law saith, it saith to them who
are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all
the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds
of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For
by the law is the knowledge of sin." And so, by the law, when
you look into the law, and you're diligent to try and keep it,
the mouth, if you see it rightly, if you hear the law rightly,
the mouth is stopped, and by the Spirit, the ear of faith
is open to hear what the Lord is saying. When the Lord delivers
us from that bondage, our mouth closes, so we stop boasting and
declaring what we've done to others. What we've accomplished
for the Lord, and the ear of faith is open, whereby we hear
what the Spirit saith unto the churches, and we look to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so our God, our Savior, He's
pointing us to Christ. He keeps raising him up and lifting
up Christ so that we see our deliverance, the one whom God
has provided for his people that we should be delivered, escape
the wrath of God which is coming upon the inhabitants of this
world. And that's what Romans 3.25 says, whom God hath set
forth a propitiation. The deliverance from your punishment
that you and I have earned and deserve because of our sins,
because how we've rebelled against God and our hardness against
him. God sent his son to be a propitiation,
to take the place of his people, to set them free, to deliver
them from that punishment which comes upon the inhabitants of
this world. All right, so we set him forth
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. There's our
confidence. The blood of Christ has been
shed to pay the price of my sins, to put away my sin, to declare
his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God. All right, so that we're justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. Christ paid the price that we owed to God. He paid
perfect righteousness. He paid the debt of sin that
we owed. He paid the debt of righteousness
that we owed to God, to the Father. And He bore the punishment of
our sin in His own body. All right, now, because of His
mighty grace that we are not saved by our works of righteousness,
He tells us that we shall bear fruits of righteousness. He will
work righteousness in his people. He will turn them from sin. He
will turn them from loving this world. He will bear those fruits
of righteousness. Now he says in verse 10, back
in our text, Ephesians 2.10, for we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. your God has left nothing to
your flesh to accomplish. Nothing to your flesh to accomplish.
And yet, what He does is He works that hope in us. He works love
in us. He works that faith in us, whereby
we look to Him and trust Him, believing Him. And that tastes
for the world. We're delivered from that love
of the world. We're delivered from those things
which corrupt and defile. We still struggle with sin, we
still find ourselves weak and indifferent to the things of
God, but in kindness and in tenderness, He comes to His people and He
turns them from this world and from trusting this flesh and
enjoying the things that this flesh lusts for, which is contrary
to the things of our God. And so, He gives us the Holy
Spirit whereby we're sealed. with that promise of our God,
that He shall work in us mightily, and keep us, and cause us to
walk toward Him. Turn to Philippians 1, go there,
Philippians 1, 9. These are the things which your
Savior is working in you, you that believe. This is what He's
working in you, and revealing in you, by His Spirit. Philippians 1 9 Paul says this
I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge
and in all judgment right your God shall increase your knowledge
of what he's accomplished and that word judgment is he shall
give you the sense of what he's accomplished just what danger
we are in by by by nature right according to this flesh We have
a great sense of what He's delivered us from, and how great His salvation
is toward us, who are His people. How much the wrath that we deserved,
He's put it away in His Son. That ye may approve things that
are excellent, that ye may be sincere and without offense till
the day of Christ. So that He shows us our hypocrisies. He shows us where we err. to a great degree, and He turns
us from it. He gives us a desire that He
should be revealed in us more and more so that we are sincere,
that we're not using the righteousness of Christ as a cloak of unrighteousness
to fulfill the lusts of this flesh, but that we would look
to our Savior and we cry out to Him, Lord, have mercy upon
me. Deliver me from these things that this flesh would do. All right, that we would not
lash out at our enemies, that we would not repay their cruelty
with cruelty again, but that we might be kind and merciful
to even our enemies, all right? And so the Lord leads us and
he keeps us walking, looking to Christ. Verse 11, being filled
with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto
the glory and praise of God. And so the only fruit that your
God requires is that fruit which your husband bears in you. Our husband, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And those are the things which glorify our God. The patience
he works in you, the hope he works in you, they're all the
fruits of your Savior. And that's what it means when
he says that we are his workmanship. We are created of him. Everything
we bear, the fruit and the product of our Savior. All right, now
fearful man, the one who's still trusting in the flesh, he's striving
to sanctify himself unto the Lord. He's still looking to add
his works to please the Father because Christ is not enough
for him. But let's let's just close with
Romans 2 28 and 29. When we sanctify ourselves, when
we seek to work a righteousness for ourselves, that's equivalent
to cutting the flesh. That's equivalent to circumcision,
right? And trying to cut things out
and to add other things to make ourselves more righteous to the
Father, more acceptable to Him. But in Romans 2, 28 and 29, Paul
says he's not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither is that
circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew
which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is
not of men, but of God. And so faith trusts the salvation
God has provided. Faith trusts that Christ is sufficient,
that He's provided everything we need. And so faith rests in
Him, and that's all out of the riches of your God in grace toward
you in the Lord. Jesus Christ. So brethren, these
are the exceeding riches of his grace. I pray the Lord bless
that word to your hearts. That's closing prayer and will
be dismissed. Our gracious Lord, we thank you father for your
riches, your riches of grace and your son, Jesus Christ to
one deserving sinners. Lord, only you can teach us this
in the heart. Only you could help us to hear
what the Spirit says to the churches. Only by your grace can this depart
from just being a head knowledge, just a religious letter, and
to be a living faith whereby we know our God and have fellowship
with Him. Lord, teach us these things in
the heart. Help us to live upon our Lord and Savior, the living
bread from heaven. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. All right, brethren, so 15 minutes.
We'll start at two after.