If you would, turn back to Ephesians
chapter 2 with me. Let's read verse 8 of chapter
2. For by grace are ye saved through
faith And that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." The Apostle
Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesians and he said, by grace
are ye saved. The ye, the you that he's talking
about, says in verse 1 of chapter 1, he said, that he was an apostle
of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints which are at
Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus. The saints are
the ones that God sanctified. This is not written and applied
to every man alike. This thing of grace, this thing
of faith and salvation is all of the Lord. And I pray that
the Lord will show us that, that it's all of the Lord. This thing of grace, that's how a man is saved. That's
what it says here. By grace are we saved. It's free, unmerited love and
favor of God. God didn't have to bestow any
grace upon us. He chose to. And he chose to bestow it upon
undeserving sinners. Undeserving. It's free unmerited love and
favor from God to undeserving sinners. And as I said, Paul wrote, he
wrote much about grace. When I pulled up the word grace
and just did a word search, It was all through the epistles.
But the Apostle Paul, as Saul of Tarsus, he was a Pharisee
of Pharisees. He went about trying to destroy
the Lord's work. He thought he was doing the Lord's
work. He was living under the law, which he said is not according
to knowledge. But the Lord stopped him. The Lord saved him. If you would, turn back a few
pages to Galatians chapter 1. Paul told of this when he was
writing to the Galatians. He said there, he said in verse
13, For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion,
how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted
it, and profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals
in my own nation. being more exceedingly zealous
of the traditions of my father's. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the
heathen, Paul knew something of this grace,
like all of God's chosen If he's chosen us, revealed himself in
us, spoken to us, we'll see his grace. We'll see his grace in
everything. He called us by his grace. Philippians 3, he also makes mention of this. He speaks
of his qualifications as a Pharisee. He tells us that he was circumcised
the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin
and Hebrew of Hebrews. As touching the law, he was a
Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting
the church, touching righteousness, which is in the law, he was blameless,
what he thought. But he said in verse 7, what
things were gained to me, one of those I count at loss for
Christ, yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things and do count them but done, that I may
win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness.
That's a complete 180 for the Apostle Paul. He went from trying
to establish his own righteousness to seeing that God was his righteousness. It was by God's grace that he
saved him. This grace, this thing of grace,
this thing of salvation, and this thing of faith, it's all
in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all in a person. God chose
the Lord Jesus Christ to come save his people so he could be
gracious. That faith is of Christ. That
salvation is of the Lord. I had three questions that I
wanted to ask this morning. And when I was researching this,
these questions kind of kept coming to me when I was looking
at this verse. Whose grace is this? Who is saving grace for? And who receives this grace? The first one is easy. It's God's grace. God's grace. God told Moses, he said, I will
be gracious to whom I will be gracious. This grace is from
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God's grace. God is a just God and He can
only justify men through the Lord Jesus Christ. Back over
in Ephesians 1 here, verses 6 through 10 tell us about
this being God's grace. It's to the praise of the glory
of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."
It doesn't say anything about us doing anything there. It says
it's to His praise. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. And He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. In whom we have redemption through
the blood. That's how we're redeemed, is
through the blood. The forgiveness of sins. Because
Christ paid for our sins, we're forgiven our sins, and it's according
to the riches of His grace. Wherein He hath abounded toward
us all wisdom and prudence. And it's wisdom and prudence,
not the Lord Jesus Christ in us. Having made known unto us
the mystery of His will according to the good pleasure which He
hath purposed in Himself. This is all of the Lord. Every
bit of it. We're told his grace is great. And Paul wrote in Romans 5. He
said worry worse sin about it. Grace did much more found. Grace
did much more. There's no. This this thing of
grace that the Lord Jesus Christ bestows upon us and he is the
grace of God. is greater than all of our sins,
greater. There's no, if he saves a man, that man's
still a sinner, but he has two persons in him. He has the Lord
Jesus Christ, but he still has that man of flesh. And they're
at war with each other. They are at war. Just trying to study and prepare
for this. The world wants to enter in. Have to pray more. Pray more.
And secondly, who is this saving grace for? Well, 1 Timothy 1
verse 15, Paul said, this is a faithful and true saying that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Save sinners. This is for sinners. This saving
grace is to all that the Lord shows are sinners. Every man's
a sinner, but you'd be hard-pressed to go out here in the world and
find one. Ephesians 2, 1 through 3, Paul
gave a description of our sin. He told us, he said, we're 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, we all walked according to the course of this
world until God changed our path, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature
the children of wrath even as others." And the next verse,
but God. He chose a people. He applied
his grace to them. They found grace in his eyes. It was unmerited. It was undeserving for us. But
He showed mercy on us by His grace. Turn with me to Isaiah
59. I heard a message by our pastor
that was a radio message. And I have to look into this
passage. And this passage tells exactly what we are in God's sight until
He does something, does a work in our hearts. Verse 2, he tells us, he says,
your iniquities, our sins, have separated between you and your
God. Your sins have hid his face from
you. That's exactly what happened
to Adam when he sinned. He could no longer look upon
God. When he chose to disobey God, and all men are the same
way, we can't look upon a holy God. Only through the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our hands are defiled with blood,
our fingers with iniquity, our lips have spoken lies, our tongue
hath muttered perverseness." Down in verse 7, Telzer says,
their feet run to evil and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of
iniquity, wasting and destruction are in their paths. There's nothing
good about man. Nothing good in man. But verse
one, the Lord started this way off before he told about who,
what man's condition was. He said, behold, the Lord's hand
is not shortened that it cannot save. Neither is his ear heavy
that it cannot hear. The Lord's hand, the Lord Jesus
Christ. sent him down here to do the
work of salvation and he said it was finished. He said it is
finished. God purposed it. It was finished
before the foundation of the world. Christ shed his blood so that
God could have grace on his people and mercy on his people. And
then we see who receives this grace. Well, it kind of goes
hand in hand trying to talk about the sinner and Christ. But who receives this grace? Who receives this grace? Well, John 6 said, Christ said,
all that the Father has given me shall come to me and I shall
lose none. And this is the Father's will
that sent me. that of all he's given me, I
should lose none. So everyone that the Lord, that
God gave Christ, that's who's going to be saved. Everyone.
Right down to the last one. None can be lost. Ephesians 1. We have to go there
to see it. Verse 4. starting in verse 4 anyway, he
said according as he hath chosen us there again the us is the
saints and the Lord Jesus Christ the faithful in Christ Jesus
according as he hath chosen us before the foundation of the
world that we should be holy and without blame before him
in love having predestinated unto us
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to
the good pleasure of his will. This is all of the Lord. He chose
a people. That's what he told us right
there. He chose a people. Man tries to deny election in
the Bible. It's there. It's written. God
said it. To deny is to deny God. But if our God makes us willing,
We will love this. We will look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. I want to look at some instances
of grace in the Bible, but the first one I want to look at is
Genesis chapter 6. The first time that the word
grace appeared in the Bible was Genesis 6. And it says here in verse five,
it says, God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth.
And at every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually. And the Lord said in verse seven
said, I will destroy man whom I've created from the face of
the earth, both man and beast and the creeping thing and the
foul there for it repented him. for repent of me that I have
made them." And verse 8 says, but Noah was different. No, that's
not what it says. It says, Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. Noah was just like the rest of
these people. He was a sinner. That's who Christ
came to save, was sinners. This was a sinner that the Lord
chose, that the Lord showed his grace to, showed his mercy to,
put him in the ark, shut the door, told him how to build it, put
him in it, he sealed the door. Noah couldn't leave if he wanted
to. He couldn't have left that ark
if he'd have wanted to. The Lord put him there, and that
was where he was to be, in Christ. The ark represents Christ. But
that's not the first time that someone found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Adam and Eve directly disobeyed
God. He said, do not eat of this fruit,
and they did. They went. They decided, they
actually decided not to. They did it according to his
purpose. But they rebelled against God. They sinned against God.
That's what David said. He said, against thee and thee
only have I sinned. Every one of us that's sinners,
that have sinned, that God reveals that to, we've sinned against
God. A holy God, we need a savior
in the Lord Jesus Christ. But the first thing he did was
the Lord came to Adam and Eve and told them of the womb and
seed of Christ that would come, that would crush the head of
the serpent of sin. And then he killed a lamb. and he covered them from their
sins. He covered their bodies, which
is a representation of the Lord Jesus Christ as our substitute,
as our sacrifice, covering by his blood, covering our sins. Abel, Abel came to the Lord with
a sacrifice. That's the only way we can come
to the Lord. is with a sacrifice. That is
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our sacrifice. He is the sacrifice that the
Lord chose to put away our sins. It's under
the remission of sins for Him that Christ died on that cross.
Turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter 9. This is a picture of God saving
his people. This is the story of Moshe Febosheff. David, here, is a picture of
God. He says, that I may show him
kindness for Jonathan's sake. Our God did it for Christ's sake. He did everything for Christ's
sake. Mephibosheth was lame. He couldn't come if you called
him. He couldn't have got there if
you'd have wanted him. But the king sent and had him
carried and set at the best table, set at the best table, restored
everything to him. But this was, like all sinners,
the Lord comes and has to carry us. He has to do everything for
us. He has to save us. He has to
give us the faith to trust in Him. He has to make us seek Him. We will, of our own, we will
not. We will not seek the Lord. And then In John 8, the woman
that was taken in adultery. It's another picture. Christ. Christ there. These men, they thought they
were doing the bidding of the law, but they were doing the
bidding of the Lord. They brought one of his sinners
to him for him to save. They brought her. She was taken
in the act of adultery. which according to the law meant
being stoned. But the Lord Jesus Christ had
grace upon her and saved her. He said, thy sins are forgiven. Go and sin no more. And this thing of by grace, that's
how we're saved by grace. And this thing of being saved,
we need to be saved from our sins. And the only way we can
be saved from our sins is by His grace being bestowed upon
us. That's the only way. And this thing of faith. This says here, right after,
through faith, and that not of yourselves. I must confess that
I've always read that as that this faith was not of yourselves. studying for this, researching. That, that it speaks of, that
not of yourselves, is speaking of grace, saved, and faith. All three of them are not of
ourselves. We're saved by grace through faith. This faith is
the Lord Jesus Christ. That grace is the Lord Jesus
Christ. That salvation is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because it goes on to say it
is the gift of God. But this thing of faith, Hebrews 11, 1 gives a description
of that. It says, the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Our faith is not ourselves. It's
looking and trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe God. Faith, believe God. The Philippian
jailer, he saw his need being saved. He realized he needed
to be saved from himself, from God. He needed to be saved. And he asked what he needed to
do to be saved. Believe with all thine heart. He said, believe with all thine
heart. That's what we need to do. And
we can only do that if that faith is given to us. If that faith
is given to us in a measure, we will. In Matthew 9, the woman
with an issue of blood, the Lord had done something for
her, obviously, before this, but she believed that by touching
Christ's garment, that's all she believed was she needed to
touch Christ's garment. She didn't need to go to him
for anything other than to just reach out and touch him. She
believed and Christ said, her faith hath made thee whole. Her Christ made her whole. And yet the disciples, these
were men that walked with Christ, talked with Christ, were taught
by Christ. They're on a ship in a storm.
Christ is below sleeping. These men got to looking at themselves
and became fearful of this storm and called for Christ. And he
said, oh, ye of little faith. In ourselves, we have no faith. We have nothing to justify ourselves,
nothing that can help us in this thing of salvation. It's all of the Lord. We need
to look to the Lord. We need to believe God in all
things. Act 6, when Stephen Before Stephen's
message, the Lord had written of him, said Stephen was full
of faith and power. He was full of Christ and power. Christ was there with him delivering
that message while he was being stung. And he saw Christ sitting
at the right hand of the Father. Look at Romans, this thing of
faith, look at Romans 8 verse 29 Romans 8 29 we're told that for whom he did foreknow
he did predestinate he knew us before he predestinated his people
to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the
firstborn among many brethren Christ was the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
those he chose before, them he also called. He didn't just stop
at the fact that he predestinated us. He called us. And whom he
called, he justified. And whom he justified, he also
glorified. In Christ, we're just. Habakkuk
2. Paul may mention a couple of
places of this, but in Habakkuk 2, verse 4, it says, the just
shall live by his faith. His faith. We can only be just
in God. Our faith is of him. We look to his faith. He is the
one that's faithful to keep us. It's not of ourselves. It's a
gift of God. I wanted to read Hebrews 11,
a few of these, about the faith. But instead of the word faith,
I'm going to substitute it with the word Christ, because Christ
is our faith. And it was these men's faith.
These men, this was their faith. It says in verse three, it says,
through Christ we understand that the worlds were framed by
the word of God. By Christ, Abel offered unto
God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. By Christ, Enoch was translated
that he should not see death. Verse six, but without Christ,
it is impossible to please him. Christ is all in and all. We cannot please God with our
faith. We cannot please God with our
righteousness. We need to believe God, not believe
in God. It says the devils believed in
God. They believe in God. It doesn't
do them any good. We need to believe God. Everything
he says, he says that he is angry with the wicked every day. We
need to believe that. He said he loved Jacob. We can believe that. He loves
his own. He sent Christ to die for his
people. He sent his preachers to declare
that. And he sends the Holy Spirit
to convict us of that, to convict us of that. Going down in verse
33 of chapter 11 there, Hebrews, it says, who through Christ subdued
kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the
mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the
edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant
in fight, turned to the flight, the armies of the aliens, women
received their dead raised to life again, others were tortured
not accepting deliverance, all these trials Christ was in these people and
kept them and it was all because they preached Christ. They preached
Christ and Him alone And these things were done. This thing is a gift of God.
All the faith, this grace, it's undeserving. We're told to stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord. It's not of works. That's what
verse nine says in our text. It says, it's not of works, lest
any man should boast. If we have something to do with
our salvation, we could boast, but not before God. That's what
the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans about Abraham. He said if it
was anything to do with Abraham, he said he could boast, but not
before God. But this thing is not of works.
There's nothing we can do. We are his workmanship, that's
what it says in the next verse, there in verse 10. We are his
workmanship. All that the Father gave the
Lord Jesus Christ, they're his workmanship. He's the one that
lived the perfect life by the law, kept the law of God. He's
the one that went willingly to sacrifice himself laid down his
life for his sheep, and he's the one that raised
himself from the dead. Everything is through the Lord
Jesus Christ. And if we are his workmanship,
we're created unto good works. Our good works will not save
us. Nothing we can do. There's no hope in it. But because
we're his workmanship, we want to do good works. We fail. We strive. We fail. But we're
his workmanship, and it's his faith that saves us. That was what Jonah found was
Jonah, the Lord told him to do something. And he tried to run
from God. He tried to run. If you're God's,
you can't run. But God prepared a great fish
to swallow him. That's about as physically low
as you can go. I mean, you think the depths
of the ocean. The Lord's hand is not short.
The Lord's hand is not short that he can't save. But it was all done to show Jonah. And he said it in chapter 2 in
his prayer. Salvation is of the Lord. It's
all of the Lord. Nothing to do with him. He couldn't
have saved himself if he'd have wanted to. Our God is gracious, merciful,
and faithful to save all those he loves. And Jude tells us that Christ
is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before
the presence of his glory. Salvation, grace, and faith. all are found in Christ. Christ
is all in all. I hope that helps. Thank y'all.