Turn with me, if you would, to
Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. And let's read the first two
verses. 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.
Recently, we've been studying some of the words in the scriptures.
I'm enjoying it so much. Individual words that are written
in the scripture. Last Wednesday night, we studied
the word mercy. And I enjoyed it. I enjoyed what
the word had to say. Not what I had to say, but what
the word had to say. God's mercy. We turned to many,
many verses in the scripture to see what God's word had to
say about mercy. That's the only thing that matters,
is what does God have to say about a subject? Well, this morning,
we're gonna study the word grace. Paul said, grace be to you, grace
be to you. Now, what is grace? What is grace? Grace is probably
one of the most commonly used words in religion that there
is. Grace. Everybody uses grace.
Everybody attaches it to the name of their church. Grace.
What is grace? What is God's grace? We talk about it. We say we believe
it. What is it? Verse 2 tells us
it's something that comes from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace belongs to
God. It belongs to God. It's God's
grace. It's God's grace. an important
place to start. That's a very important place
to start. Verse 6 tells us that it's something
that brings praise and glory to God. It says, to the praise
of the glory of His grace. Grace brings praise and glory
to God. The end of verse 7 tells us that
it's something of great value. according to the riches of his
grace. Great value, infinite value.
We can clearly see that that is the case because chapter 2,
the end of verse 5 tells us that it is the means of our salvation. It's indescribable value which
is the means of our salvation. It says, by grace you are saved. Saved by grace. The means of
our salvation. Verse 8 says, for by grace are
you saved. And chapter 3 continues describing
what grace is to us. If you look at chapter 3, verse
7 says, whereof I was made a minister
according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by
the effectual working of his power unto me who am less than
the least of all saints. Isn't that what a believer cries?
Unto me who am less than the least of all saints. Is this
grace Given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ grace is a gift Grace is a gift it literally
means it translates kindness or favor freely bestowed Kindness
or favor freely bestowed. It's a gift and where do we find
this gift? I How does the gift come to us? In and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. It comes in and through the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look with me at John chapter
1. John chapter 1 verse 17 it says
For the law was given by Moses But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ God's grace is in
him It's in him. It came to us by him and through
him his accomplishment was God's grace to us. Everything he did,
everything he accomplished, that was God's grace to us. His work,
his payment. That was our gift. Now, in order
to enter into the true meaning of grace, We must understand
what the definition of the word is. It is 100% a gift freely
bestowed. That's what grace is. 100%. Every
time, from here on out, every time we see the word grace, may
this trigger in our mind. 100% freely bestowed gift. It's a gift. On our part, as
the recipients of grace, It is the exact opposite of works. If we want to understand what
grace is, what is grace? It is the exact opposite of works. Look at what works is and then
go to the exact opposite. That's grace. Look with me at
Romans chapter 11. Romans 11 verse 6 says, and if
by grace, then it is no more of works. Otherwise grace is
no more grace. But if it be of works, then it's
no more of grace. Otherwise work is no more work. What he's saying is it's either
works or grace. You can't mix the two. That's
what he's saying. You cannot mix the two. You cannot
work for something and earn it by fulfilling what's required.
You establish what's required. This is what you have to do.
And then you do it. And you earn it. You cannot earn
what is required and then call it a freely bestowed gift. You can't do that. That doesn't
even work on our taxes. Well, I'm not going to turn in
the money that came from my employer because that was a freely bestowed
gift. No, it wasn't. That was earned
income. Earned. You earned it. You earned it. You cannot work
for it and call it grace. You cannot work for it and call
it grace. It doesn't work with the IRS
and it doesn't work with God. both of them, at the same point
in time, you cannot receive an absolutely freely bestowed gift
that involved no effort on your part, no expense on your part,
completely purchased and wrought and given to you by somebody
else. You cannot receive that free
gift and then go around telling everybody I earned it. You just
can't do that. You can't do that. I did it. Did you do that? Yeah,
I did it. I built this. I didn't do that. You can't do
it. He said in verse 6, it's either
works or it's grace. And when it comes to our salvation,
we just read it, it's grace. It's grace. By grace are you
saved. That verse went on to say, through
faith, And that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Is he talking about the grace
being a gift or the faith being a gift? Both. It's all a gift. It's all a gift. Every bit of
it is a gift. Go back to Acts 18. Acts 18 verse 27 says, And when he was disposed to pass
into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive
him, who, when he was come, helped them much which had believed
through grace. Men and women will naturally
try to make a work out of everything. Well, now you have to believe.
Now, you at least have to give me the credit that it's my responsibility
to believe. According to the commandment
of God, all of his people will believe. Yes, they will. They most certainly will. But
that ability to believe is God's gift to them. He gives it to
them. It's not a work on their part.
It's something He enables them to do. And He gets all the praise
and the glory for it. Hebrews 12 verse 2 says, He is
the author and finisher of our faith. He is the author. He's the doer of it. He's the
performer of it. He's the finisher of our faith. Yes, we believe God. But we only
believe through grace. We only believe through grace.
This is the message of the gospel. When the question is asked, what
is the gospel? We talk about the gospel. What
is the gospel? This is the message of the gospel. God's freely bestowed
and complete gift to sinners. The gospel is called good news.
Here's terrible news. You gotta go to work, buddy.
Double shift. Overtime. That's not good news. Good news is you just earned
an eternal vacation. Freely bestowed. God's gift to
sinners. Grace. Look at Acts 20. Acts 20 verse 24 says, But none
of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself,
so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which
I have received of the Lord Jesus To testify the gospel of the
grace of God. That's what the gospel is. It's
the testimony of God's grace. If we're going to preach the
gospel, we have to preach God's freely bestowed gift to sinners. We have to preach grace. We have
to preach grace, not what sinners need to do in order to earn what
Christ has already accomplished and already paid for. That's
not the message we preach. It's not now Christ earned it
and Christ paid for it. And now, if you will to. That's
not the message. That's mixing works and grace,
and it can't be done. It cannot be done because God
will not accept it. He will not accept it. Cain found
that out. God said, bring the slain lamb. Cain said, I think I'll bring
the fruit of my hands. And he found out God will not
accept it. Let me show us that in Romans
3. Romans 3 verse 10, as it is written,
there is none righteous, no not one. And that's a sad truth,
but that's a truth. It's written in the eternal word
of God. Righteousness is good deeds. It's something in us worthy. It's something that God says
is right and acceptable. All those things. There's none
righteous, no not one. There is none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. Here's the commandment.
You seek the Lord and you'll find him. The problem for the
flesh is there's none that understandeth and none that seeketh God. This
is where grace comes in. And he goes on to say in verse
12, they are all gone out of the way. They are together become
unprofitable. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. Well, you know, I believe there's
a little bit of good in everybody. There's none that doeth good,
not in themselves. No, not one. Their throat is
an open sepulcher. With their tongues they've used
deceit. The poison of asp is under their lips, whose mouth
is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swept to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. And the way
of peace have they not known. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. That is man by nature. Somebody
might say, well, that's not me. It's me. This is me in my flesh
by nature. Verse 19 says, Now we know that
what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law, and who all does that include? All of us. What things
soever 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. The law was not given to show
us how to earn salvation through our works. All those books of
Moses and everything that he said in the prophets and the
Psalms, these things were not given to show us how to earn
heaven through our works. How do you earn heaven through
works? Well, you do this and you do that and you do this and
you do that and then you get to go to heaven. This law was
not given. This law was not given to show
us how to earn heaven through our works. The law was given
to prove to us that we are sinners. It is true. If you do this, and
if you do that, and if you don't do this, and if you don't do
that, you can enter heaven. But none of us can. None of us
can. We cannot keep the law. If we kept the law perfectly,
God says, welcome in. Only one man ever did that. Only one man did God look upon
and say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. You be,
look at my son. Everybody look at my son. Look
what he's done. We have gotten angry. We just
have. God says it's murder. We have lusted. God says it's
adultery. Galatians 3 says whoever is trying
to earn heaven through the works of the law is under the curse. And the reason is because all
of the law has to be kept. Now do we throw away God's law
that sin may abound, that grace may abound rather? God forbid. This is what the believer wants
to do. I want this in my heart. David
said, I love your law and I can't wait to do it. One of these days
in your presence, that's going to describe me. You want to know
what we're going to be like? Read the law. But if we don't keep all of the
law, and here's what most people believe, well, I haven't done
it, nobody's seen it. Yeah, I did it here and I did
it here, but nobody's seen it out here. If we don't keep it
in deed, in thought, and in motive of the heart, then we've broken
the law. And to break it in one point,
it says, is to break all the law and to fall under the condemnation
of that one sin, which we haven't kept one law. not in deed, thought,
and heart. So verse 20 says, 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. This is what shows us that we
can't do it. Verse 21, but now the righteousness
of God. What is the righteousness of
God? It's not a what, it's a person.
Jesus Christ. He is the end of the law for
righteousness. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. This law and all the prophets
both acknowledge this is the only way. He is the only way. There's only
one reason the story of Noah's Ark was put into this Bible.
It was to show us all those who are in Christ are saved. All
those who are out of Christ are damned. There's only one reason
that serpent was put on a pole and lifted up. It was to show
every sinner who looks to the slain Christ of the cross will
be healed and saved and every soul who doesn't will be lost.
Go through it. Go through every story. All the
law, all the prophets declare He's the way. Verse 21 says,
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith, Jesus Christ it's in Jesus Christ,
and it is a gift that comes from him It's of Jesus Christ unto
all and upon all them that believe that's How you'll know who he
gives it to they believe For there's no difference for all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God now watch verse
24 being justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that is in Jesus Christ, whom God had set forth to be a bloody
victim, a propitiation, through faith in His blood to declare
His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God. What right do you have to enter
into glory? Well, now I did do this and I
stopped doing that. I was, but now I'm not. They
declare His righteousness. What right do you have to enter
into glory? The life of Jesus Christ. Everything
He earned. I enter in on His perfection
that He gave to me by trading places with me. To declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness that he might be just in punishing sin. My sin and his son justice was
done. I deserve to die and justice
was served. He might be just and the justifier
of him that believes in the Lord that he traded places with and
gave faith to believe on him. It's his blood and righteousness
alone. If my deeds are a partial payment
or an additional payment to earn heaven, if I see a cooperation
in this at all, then I'm not looking to the gift of His blood
and His righteousness alone. And here's the thing. This is
what we all need to understand in this. It insults His gift. It insults
His gift. Have you ever given somebody
a gift and they didn't receive it well and you were insulted?
Have you ever done that? We understand that. It insults
his gift, the life he lived, the death he died, the blood
he shed, the body he broke. To say I have to add something
to it is to say that was imperfect. That was insufficient. And in
order for this to be perfect and sufficient, I'm gonna have
to step in and help you out. And God loves his son. And He just said, I won't have
it. He will not have us insulting and dishonoring the gift of His
Son. He said it's grace alone. It's the gift of His perfect
work of righteousness and spotless blood alone. So verse 27 says,
Where is boasting then? And that's what we do in the
flesh. I'm going to go to heaven, buddy,
because I accepted Jesus. You better accept Him too. I
asked him to be my personal savior, you better ask, where's boasting
then? He said it's excluded. By what law? Of works? No. By looking to Christ. The law
of faith. Therefore we conclude that man
is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. That's
grace. That's the kindness and favor
of God's freely bestowed gift. Now turn with me very quickly
to Romans 9. This is something very important
to see about it. Romans 9, in verse 15, he's quoting
Exodus 33, which says, I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Here,
he says the word compassion. He's substituting the word compassion
for grace. It's the same word, same meaning. So verse 15, he says, he saith
to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I
will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then
it is not of him that willeth. Men stand up and ask people,
Won't you accept Jesus as your personal Savior? And people say,
Yes, I will. That's not how it works. That's
not how it works. Verse 16 says, So then it's not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. Boy, he's on fire
for Jesus. Boy, he is on fire. That's not how it works. It's
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy, and I'll have grace on whom I'll have grace. God's
grace is sovereign. God's grace is sovereign. It's
of him It's His to give, and He gives it to whoever He pleases
to give it to. Grace is of God, in His hands. It's sovereign. All right, now
there's a bunch of verses we could look at. So many things we could say about
grace. 2 Corinthians 4 says it's abundant.
If you need God's grace, there's plenty for you. There's plenty. It's abundant. It doesn't matter
how bad your sins are. It does not matter. Where sin
abounded, Romans 5 says grace did much more abound. It's abundant. Second Corinthians 12 says it's
sufficient. He said my grace is sufficient.
Can we really put all of our trust on God's grace? Can we really honestly just rest
on His grace and honestly believe? You mean, are you sure I don't
have to do anything? to go meet God. Are you sure
that I can put all my trust on His grace? Yes, you can. It's sufficient. It's completely
sufficient. There's an endless number of
things we could say about His grace. We're going to spend eternity glorying in His grace, glorying
in His grace. For this morning, one more thing.
It's this. This is something I would want
every sinner to know. The notification through God's
Word, you open up the Word and you read what it says, and at
first the flesh knows it doesn't live up, so it tries to think,
surely this is not saying what it's saying. Can't we get around
this? Can't we explain this away? The
realization of the truth of God's Word. His grace, what he has
to say about his grace. When God gives the understanding
that grace belongs to God, it's his free gift for salvation. All of the time that I spent
unknowingly insulting him, I was thinking I was trying to help
him out, I was thinking I was pleasing to him, but insulting him by
trying to add my work to his grace. I had good intentions
in my heart, but the realization came, God will not have it, he
will not accept it. He's not pleased with it, he's
insulted by it. Now I see my error. And I see
grace's abundance, and I see grace's sufficiency. I now see God's sovereignty in
it, giving it to whom He will. Salvation is in His hands and
not mine. I see that. When a sinner receives
that notification from the Word, when God opens a sinner's eyes
to see that, When a sinner realizes in his or her heart, after the
shock comes and it settles down and the mind thinks and the heart
says, I think I believe it. I think I believe what it's saying.
I believe God is true. When the fear of his sovereignty
immediately sets in, every soul who believes in his sovereignty
has experienced fear. Every soul. When the fear of
His sovereignty sets in, what if He doesn't give it to me? What's going to happen to me?
It's His sovereign grace. He'll be gracious to whom He'll
be gracious. When the heart of a sinner sees it, believes it,
and fears over it, that is God's call of grace. That is God's
call of sovereign grace to that center. That is God's grace overwhelming
the center. I don't have time, but Galatians
1, the Apostle Paul was talking about all of his abounding in
religion and everything he was doing that he thought God was
happy with. Saul of Tarsus, he was a leader of religion. But
he said, when it pleased God, at God's sovereign time, in His
sovereign doing, in His sovereign way, he said, when it pleased
God, He called me by His grace. He revealed His Son in me that
I might stop preaching the works of the law and start preaching
Him among the heathens. And we know when that sovereign
time was. It was when he was on his way
to Damascus to bind and afflict every believer who was a believer
of this way. And God came to him and knocked
him off of his high horse, put him in the dust and said, I am. That was His call of grace. Fear struck Him. Sovereignty
came over Him. That was the moment that God
called Saul to His grace. So, I'm going to close with this. This is my prayer. And I mean this with all of my
heart. I mean this with all of my heart.
This is my prayer for every soul here. Go back to our text. We'll
close with this. Verse two says. Grace be to you. Grace be to you. You know what
the very last word, the very last verse of the Bible says? Revelation 22, 21, the final
verse of it all. It says, the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with you all. That's my deeply sincere prayer
for myself, I pray it for myself, and I pray it for all of you.
God shed his grace on thee. God shed his grace on thee. Amen. All right. You're dismissed.