A question goes through our heart
over and over and over again throughout our lives as Christians,
throughout our lives on this world and this world. Can somebody
close the back door, please, before the winds catch that? Paul even thought the very same
thing when he thought to himself, how can God save a wretch like
me? How does God save sinners? It's a good question, isn't it?
Something we think about often. How does God save sinners? from this passage in Scriptures,
if you'd like to turn in your Bibles to the first chapter of
Ephesians, more than once over the last five years. But just like it was for our
brother Tom Sawyer, it's never a passage of Scripture that gets
tiresome. It's like a diamond. You take
a look at a section of Scripture and then you turn it a little
bit, you know, you got that eyepiece and you turn it a little bit
and you look at a different side of it. And here's another beauty
to that sparkling diamond. I've heard a man preach from
this very section of scripture three messages in one week using
the exact same scripture referring to the exact same scriptures
that he had in his notes, but completely different in all three
messages. His name's Todd Nyberg. God has
blessed him a great deal with the ability to do that. I don't
know that I could do that, but he did it very, very well. He
just happened to be one step ahead of Kathy and I as we were
traveling to different churches. And I had tuned in and listened
to him preach there at the church. And sure enough, he used his
very This very section of scripture right here, he brought three
different messages, three different days from the same message. Today, I want to answer with
God's Word how God saves sinners. And I thought about this, a three-point
outline. We try to make an outline of
what the message is going to be. What a great three-point
outline this is. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit. You can't get any better than
those three points when it comes to salvation. I pray the Lord will be with
us again. I may give it reverence, as this
Scripture deserves. Begin, if you would, with me
at verse 2. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 2. The first thing we see is grace
to you. Paul is speaking to the saints. He says there in verse 1, to
the saints which are at Ephesus, God's people, and to the faithful
in Christ Jesus. He says, grace be to you. If salvation is yours, it is
only in grace. Unmerited favor, that's what
that word means. You know that. We love the word grace, don't
we? Grace is such an easy thing to receive. It's not something
that we have to do anything to earn. You can't. If you earned
it, it wouldn't be grace. It's not anything that you can
deserve. Tell me if this is not true.
When you hear those who talk about their salvation, who believe
in their free will, who believe that they made a decision at
one time in their life to follow God, tell me if this is not true,
if you've heard this. Well, I turned myself over to God in
2004, or whatever date you want to throw it. or when I found
myself drunken, or whatever reason, I turned myself over to God. I made a decision to follow the
Lord back when. Doesn't it grab ahold of you
that their decision, their turning themselves over to God is giving
them glory? Doesn't it grab ahold of you
as though Well, what are you doing? Are you saying that you
deserve God's grace because you've done something? Because that's
what they're doing. I know this because some of us
used to do that, didn't we? I see heads bobbing up and down.
Yep, I was there. That was me. I did that. Grace is unmerited favor. You can't earn it. You can't
deserve it. You can't say to God, well, I did this, so you
have to do that. No, God's people know this. I'm
this. And if you're anything to me,
it's because of grace. Aren't you thankful he doesn't
give his people what we deserve? Grace, Paul says, unto you. Listen to these words from Jeremiah. Jeremiah 24, verse 7, we read,
and I will give them at heart to know me. It's important that we understand
what the Word of God is saying. It's saying God will give. His people, out of grace, a heart to know Him. That I am the Lord, it goes on
to say, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. for they shall return unto me
with their whole heart." Well, yeah, John, that's one
verse. Okay, let me give you another
one. Jeremiah 31, verse 33. But this shall be the covenant.
the agreement, the pact that I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in
their inward parts and right in their hearts and will be their
God. And they shall be my people. What do you think of a God who
says something and then it couldn't happen? You wouldn't think much
of that God, would you? What a weak God that is. Folks,
the God of scriptures, the God of all of this creation is not
weak in any way. All power belongs to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And if all power belongs to him,
who's going to stop him from doing what he's purposed to do?
We looked at that in Friday night's Bible study. He says in Matthew
chapter 16, he said to Peter, he says, upon this rock, the
rock of Jesus Christ being the son of the living God. Upon that
rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not
prevail. Why? Because it's God who's saying
it, that's why. And when he says, I shall be
their God and they shall be my people, there's nothing gonna
get in the way of it, is there? This is that diamond that we're
looking at in Ephesians. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we're
reading here in chapter one, verse two. Jeremiah 32, verse
38, and they shall be my people and I will be their God. Ezekiel
37, verse 23, neither shall they defile themselves anymore with
their idols, Well, wait a minute, I've never carved an idol. I've
never put up a little thing in front of me and worshipped it
like some kind of, oh yes you have. Those who worship their free
will, their decision, have made themselves to be their
idol. I'm so thankful that I made a
decision to follow after Christ. I've heard that from members
of my own family. God's people cry, I'm so thankful
that God is gracious and merciful. And he'll be merciful to whom
he'll be merciful to. Isn't that the word of God? Aren't
we thankful for that? Oh, I know they are. Neither shall they defile themselves
any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things,
nor with any of their transgressions, but I will save them out of all
their dwelling places wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse
them. So shall they be My people, and
I will be their God." Zechariah 8 verse 8, and I will bring them
and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and they shall
be my people, and I will be their God in truth and in righteousness. Did you notice how he put that?
He added that in Ezekiel there, in truth and in righteousness. Folks, our Lord is truth. He
doesn't save in lies. Now, that doesn't mean that you're
not gonna hear truths from people who speak lies. The Lord used a lot of the Old
Testament kings to speak the truth. In Ezekiel 36 verse 27 he says,
I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statues
and you shall keep my judgments and do them. Mark your place
in Ephesians, turn over to John chapter 3 if you would. Grace, it says in Ephesians 2,
be to you. And peace. And there's only one
place that grace and peace, true peace, can come from. See, folks,
free willism means you have to keep doing this. You have to
keep doing that. You have to do it more. That's
why the priests, the Old Testament priests, they could never sit
down. Every year the sins were renewed. They had to go into
the holiest of holies and sprinkle the blood of the animal on the
mercy seat. Why every year? Because the blood
of animals never did any good. It never saved anybody. The only place grace and peace
can come from is from God, our Father, and from the Lord Jesus
Christ, and that is truth and righteousness wrapped up in one
blanket. Over in John chapter 3, at verse 3, we read these words,
and Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, except a man be born again, He cannot see the Kingdom of
God. You can read these very words
that we read in Ephesians over and over and over again, and
you're not going to get anything out of them in truth and in righteousness
unless God gives you life to see it. Verse 4, Nicodemus saith unto
him, and this is a natural question to ask. This is the most common
sense thing to say right here. Listen, how can a man be born
when he is old? What are you talking about, Lord?
How can I be born again? I was born 40 some odd years
ago when I heard these words. When I heard with the ears of
the heart. How am I gonna go back into my
mother's womb? Go on with it. How can I enter a second time
into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered and
said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That
which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
And thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth." Now look at this last verse,
this last part of the verse. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit. Turn back to Ephesians now if
you would. Folks, the Word of Truth tells
us this. In Romans 8, verse 6-8, we read these words, for to be
carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life
and peace. The question we have that we're
looking at here is, how does God save sinners? And the first thing we've read
here is that grace must come, peace must come, from God our
Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ there in verse 2. It goes on to say, because the
carnal mind is enmity against God in Romans 8, for it is not
subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be, so then they that
are in the flesh cannot please God. In our natural state, we
will not come to Him. That's what it says in John 5,
verse 39-40. It says, search the Scriptures,
For in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they
which testify of me, and ye will not come to me that ye might
have life." As God's children, we know we
wouldn't have, don't we? That's not what most Christians
think. That's not what we used to think,
those of us who called ourselves Christians before the Lord saved
us. The truth of God's grace cannot
be seen by natural man, that's what the Lord tells us. And we
know that, don't we? Once we were blind, as the world
is blind, But now we see why. Because of God's grace. And only
because of His grace. We were talking a bit this morning
about the love of God for His people. Do you understand the
depth? No, you don't. You can't. The depth of God's love for His
people. There's a day coming. Bill Silva
knows it. I listed off some others who
know it. Virginia Mayor, she knows it. They're in the presence
of the Lord right now, and they understand it perfectly. But
for right now, you and I look through a glass darkly at what
our Lord is telling us. And we believe because he has
given us the gift of faith. Not because of some wisdom that
you think you might have, but because of his love for us. God's grace cannot be seen by
natural man. Can a dead person see? Well,
that's what we are in our natural state, spiritually dead. God
must come in grace and give spiritual life. That's what John 17, verse
2, the Lord is praying to the Father. He says, Thou hast given
Him, the Lord Jesus, power over all flesh, that He should give
eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. With that in mind, look with me at Ephesians 1,
verse 3. God saves sinners by His own
sovereign and eternal purpose of grace. Look at verses 3-6
and tell me that's not what this is telling us. Verse 3, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who have blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places." Where? Is it because of something we've
done? No, it's because of Christ Jesus. In Him we are blessed. All of our blessings from God
come through Him. He saved sinners by His own sovereign
and eternal purpose. Look at verse four. According
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him. We should be holy and without
blame before Him. How does God save people? By
giving sinners to His Son that who His own sovereign, eternal
purpose and grace has saved them, look what it says next, 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 blood. How does God save sinners? Point
one, God the Father. predestinated to give His Son
a people according to His purpose. And He did it in love. Because of His love. Point one. Here are five things God did
for all of His elect in Christ before the world was created.
He blessed us with all spiritual blessings. That's what we read
right there in verse three. In Christ, all of God's elect
have every spiritual blessing there is. Do you realize that
that means that everything that was created was to bless his
people? Everything. Including wars, John? All things are for the good to
them who are called to them who love God. All things. All things are a
blessing to you and I. Sure don't feel like it sometimes.
No, we don't. But somehow God says it is. Could you imagine a child who had been raped by their father ever thinking, how is that for
my good? God said all things. And then he gives us the ability
to believe it. The ability to trust in it. Could you trust in it? If it
wasn't for his gift, I couldn't. I couldn't. Secondly, he chose us in eternal
election. God's ultimate end in our election
is that we, the object of his love, should be perfectly holy
and blameless. in His sight. Isn't that what
it says there in verse 4? That we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. I know we can't see it now. We come to that table of remembrance
to remember why God looks at you and I with no blame. His Son was blamed for us. He wasn't just blamed, He was
made sin that we would be made the righteousness
of Him, of God in Him. He chose us to eternal election,
He predestinated us to His own As dear children, He adopted
us into His family. Having adopted us, God sovereignly
predestinates all things for us, securing our eternal salvation
in His grace. He accepted us in the Beloved.
Isn't that what it says down there in verse 6? Wherein He hath made us, accepted
in the Beloved. Who is the Beloved? The Son of
the Living God. The very one who humbled himself
and walked in the flesh and made himself of no reputation. The very one who became a servant. Christ became a servant for us. That's who we're accepted in.
That's the grace that I mentioned a moment ago that Paul is pleading
for God to grow, to manifest in you. Grace be to you and peace
from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ to you,
his people, to the saints, the faithful in Christ Jesus. We
are accepted in His Son, not in anything that we do. Secondly,
God saves sinners by the legal and effectual blood atonement
of His Son. Look at verse 6 through 12 with
me, if you would, to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein
He has made us accepted in the Beloved. How? In whom we have
redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according
to the riches of His grace. Oh, how rich is God's grace to
His people! How rich is it that He would
send His Son to be our propitiation, our payment? Why? Because He's gracious. Verse
8, wherein 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 purposed in himself. That in the dispensation of the
fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, and even
in him. in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
All of those who were chosen by God in eternity that we read
about in verses three through six were in time redeemed by
the blood of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, his Son. In
great wisdom, prudence, and grace, God found a way to be both just
and the justifier of His elect. Again, help mark your place.
We'll come back one more time to Ephesians, but I want you
to turn to the left to Romans chapter 3. Beginning at the 23rd verse,
of Romans chapter 3, we read these words, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Being justified freely,
there's that word, that's without cost. That means we can't deserve
it. That's grace. There's no charge
to us for it. You can't pay for it and you
can't earn it. Freely, by His grace, through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That's what we read a
moment ago, that we were redeemed by his blood. Verse 25, whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation, that's a mercy seat, a passing
over, a payment through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. It was Christ who walked this earth perfectly, fulfilling
all of the desires of God the Father that establishes a righteousness
for us. There's nothing we can do. All
we can do is mess up His perfection. Go on, if you would, to declare,
I say, at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and justifier. Oh, was Christ a just one. So
just that God the Father said, this is my son in whom I am well
pleased. And the justifier. Folks, God
could not charge his son He could not charge his son for
something that was not his. I don't understand the depth
of what it means. And I know there's men who do,
and claim they do, and try to describe it. But when God made
his son sin, Christ, who never sinned, ever,
owned it. He owned it. And he went into that grave owning
our sin. And took the wrath of God that
we deserve. Took it just as we had deserved
it. And satisfied the wrath of God
in himself. How does God save? God the Father
gave His Son a people and God the Son perfectly established
a righteousness for us and then was made sin, our sin, and took
it into the grave. That's how. Back in your text. Back in your
text of Ephesians chapter 1. He made Christ our substitute,
charging Christ with our sin and punishing Him for it. God
fully redeemed and forgave all of His elect when Christ died
in our place. And then thirdly, at point two,
three-point outline, God the Father, God the Son, and now
let's talk about God the Spirit, shall we? And I'll wrap this
up. God saved sinners. by the irresistible power and
grace of the Holy Spirit. Look at verses 13 and 14 of our
text in Ephesians. In whom ye also trusted, after
that ye heard. Now we're speaking about Christ. I'm sorry, where did I start,
13? I meant to start back at 12 again.
That we should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted
in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after
that ye heard the word of truth. How are you gonna call? Didn't
the scripture tell us, whosoever calls upon the Lord Jesus, didn't
that what the scripture says? But how are you gonna call on
one you've never heard of? How are you gonna believe in
one that you've never heard the truth about? What did it say
there? In whom ye also trusted after. Did you catch that? You gotta hear the truth first.
He's not gonna preach, he's not gonna save you under lies. He's
gonna bring you out of those lies, just like He did many of
us, and bring us to the truth. After that you had heard the
word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also
after that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit
of promise. How does God save sinners? God
the Father. God the Son, and God the Holy
Spirit. Look at verse 14, which is the
earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession unto the praise of His glory. In the fullness of
time, every sinner chosen by God and redeemed by Christ is
called by the Spirit of God through the preaching of His gospel,
who are called Believe. All who believe are sealed by
the Spirit, and all who are sealed will enter into eternal glory. The Lord's Spirit witnesses to
us as we walk this pilgrim walk that we have through this valley
of death, and that's exactly what it is for those who are
lost and will go through that door in unbelief. That's the
unforgivable sin. That's why we plead. We plead
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. To those who God has given the
gift of belief, it is nothing more than a shadow of death. No more than a shadow. We see
it, but it cannot hurt us. We sing the song, turn your eyes
upon Jesus. Look full on his wonderful face.
and the things of this world will turn strangely dim in the
light of His glory and grace." I love talking about grace. I
remember sitting in the pews listening to our pastor talk
about grace, and I loved it then. Oh, how I pray the Lord is causing
you to love it today. His grace. You know what? We got a minute.
There's five minutes still. Let's do this. Let's turn over
to John, but I want you to hold your place here one more time
in Ephesians. We're going to come back for
just a second. But before we do, turn over to John chapter
14. John chapter 14. Look at verse 15. John 14, verse
15. If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and
he shall give you another comforter. We're talking about the third
point. There's a three-point outline of how does God save
sinners. We saw how God the Father gave
a people to his son, point one. Point two, God the son gave himself
for that people to cleanse them and make them clean, point two.
Point three, here we come, the comforter. And I will pray the
father and he shall give you another comforter that he may
abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him." We're talking about grace, folks. This is the world right
here, who seeth him not, neither knoweth him. But ye know him,
for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless.
I will come to you, yet a little while, and the world seeth me
no more, but ye see me, because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that
I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath
my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me,
and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will
love him, and will manifest myself to him. One more, if you would
turn over a couple of pages to the right, go to John chapter
16. Nevertheless, it says in verse
7, John 16 verse 7, nevertheless I tell you the truth, It is expedient
for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto thee, unto you. But if I depart, I will
send him unto you, and when he is come, he will reprove the
world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin, because
they believe not on me. Of righteousness, because I go
to my Father and ye see me no more. Of judgment, because the
prince of this world is judged. I have set many things to say
unto you, but ye cannot hear them now. Howbeit, when he, the
Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth,
for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear,
That shall he speaketh, and he shall show you the things to
come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and
shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath
are mine, therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall
show it unto you. Now, go back one more time to
Ephesians, and we'll bring this to a close. Look at verse two
again. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. How does God save sinners? God
the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.