Let's read that first six verses
of this Ephesians 1. 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. Always grace comes
before peace. There ain't going to be peace
with God. There ain't going to be peace in the heart. There's not
going to be peace in the home. There's not going to be peace
until you first get grace. Grace comes first. Then peace
will be established. And it comes from God the Father.
and from our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him 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 Beloved. Let's go ahead and read that
in 7th verse 2. In whom we have redemption, in the Lord Jesus
Christ, the one we are accepted in, through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of His grace. I want to get my
subject there in verse six, and it says, to the praise of the
glory of His grace. That's the title of my message
this evening, to the praise of the glory of His grace. The praise
of the glory of His grace. There's no truth, no truth taught
more plainly in God's Word than this, that the salvation of sinners
is entirely owing to the grace of God. And grace, as Old Barnard
defined it, is that God's saving a man in spite of, in spite of
himself, in spite of a thousand things that's against him. God
saves him. Grace does that. And it's entirely
owing to the grace of God. And the scriptures tell us that
men are lost by their own works, lost by their own deeds, lost
by their own efforts. But if they're saved, they're
saved through the free favor, the free grace of God Himself.
And that's why our Lord said, Jesus says, you will not come
to me that you might have life. But they won't come to Christ,
but they'll go about to establish their own righteousness. And
I'll tell you, a man's ruin and damnation is justly merited from
God. But their salvation is unmerited. Men earn the wages of their sin,
which is death. They earn them. But you can't
earn salvation. If you get salvation, It's got
to be given to you. It's got to be brought to you. You cannot earn it. You cannot
merit it. And so you justly, justly earn
your reward, which is death for your sins. But you cannot justly
earn your salvation. And we still get the grace of
God in our salvation justly given to us through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And this plainness, this truth is as plain as it is in
God's blessed words. Men either ignore it or forget
it and seek salvation by some other means, through their self-righteousness,
their moralities, and their goodness. And sometimes, even we as believers,
we will sometimes ourselves, with our self-righteous talk
and our sometimes feel like we're strong in ourselves and we'll
forget that salvation's all over together of the grace of God.
And when that happens, darkness always, always comes upon our
heart. But when it says here in Ephesians
6, to the praise of the glory of His grace, I mean, we see
the glory of God's grace in every detail of our salvation. Every
detail of our salvation. And I mean, there's a lot that
goes on in saving a sinner. Now, as far as we're concerned,
there's a lot that goes on. As far as God's concerned, it
was done before Christ came into the world as the Lamb's slave,
and was done at the cross when our Lord Jesus Christ died. But
for us, there's a lot of things that have to be accomplished,
and it's every detail of our salvation is to the praise of
the glory of His grace. Whether it's predestination,
ain't that what he says there in verse 5, having predestinated
us? being predestinated according
to the good pleasure of His will, being predestinated under the
adoption of sons, being predestinated to the glory of the image of
Christ, being predestinated to eternal life as many as were
ordained to eternal life believe, the same word as predestination.
And so our predestination to the praise of the glory of His
grace, adoption. We were not sons of God by nature.
We were not sons of God by birth. We were not sons of God in any
way, but God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, and
we cry, I'm a father. And since we've become sons and
God adopted us and put us into His family, made us heirs of
His Son and an adopted son as much an heir as the Son Himself. So we become heirs of God through
this adoption. And then he says, we're accepted
in the beloved. It's to the praise of the glory
of his grace that we're accepted in Christ. All these to the praise
of the glory of his grace. I read one time about an old
building that the king made a great, great big building, and when
he built that great building, he put his coat of arms in every
brick that was in that building. Put his coat of arms in every
brick that was in that building. He had his coat of arms in it,
the king did. Well, I tell you what, on every separate brick,
and that's the way it is with our salvation, every bit of our
salvation is stamped with the grace of God and to the praise
of the glory of His grace. Every brick of it, every aisle
of it. And let me show you what it is.
And first of all, our election is to the praise of the glory
of God's grace. Ain't that what it says there,
according as He hath chosen us in Him? You see, God didn't need
sons. He had one Son in whom He is
well pleased. But God chose to make us His
people. God chose us in Christ before
the foundation of the world. Election is one of the most blessed
things in all the Word of God. Oh, what a blessed thing election
is! What a blessing! You know, the old hymn writer
said, "'Tis not that I did choose thee, Lord, for that could never
be. Hadst thou not chosen me, I would have never chosen thee.'"
And ain't you grateful that God in sovereign mercy elected you
and chose you? You know, we would have taken
Nebo. Yes, we would have bowed down
to Nebo. We would have bowed down to Baal. We would have bowed down to our
free will. We would have bowed down to our
works. We would have bowed down to our great efforts. But to
bow down to a great and glorious God who's saved by grace and
because He chose us is the only reason we're saved? You keep
this and look at 2 Thessalonians 2.13. I haven't looked at this
in a while. Let's just look at this. 2 Thessalonians 2.13. I love the election. I love it. And it's unconditional. You know,
some people say, well, it's just that God chose a nation of Israel.
Well, wasn't Israel made up of individuals? And then God said in Romans 9,
verse 11, that the children being not yet born, neither having
done any good or evil, listen to what the next line says, that
the purpose of God according to election might stand, not
of worth, but of him that calleth. He said, the elder shall serve
the younger, and the elder shall serve the younger. And that God, he said, and that
God chose them, that Jacob hath a love, that Esau hath a hatred,
why shall we save him in these things? If God be for us, he
wouldn't be against us. Those children hadn't done anything,
but God said that the purpose of God, He chose Jacob, passed
by Esau. Chose Isaac, passed by Ishmael. Chose Abraham, passed by the
multitude. And oh, bless His name. Thank
God for election. I would have never known anything
about salvation had not God chosen me and made His salvation known
to me in the script. That's why I say praise to the
glory of His grace. Look what he says here now in
verse 13, 2 Thessalonians. But we are bound, 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 13, we are bound to give thanks always to God for you.
Brethren, you know why? Because you're beloved of the
Lord. God loves you. You're God's blessed people because
you're mine. And then he says, this is what
this is evidence that God loves you. Because He has from the
beginning chosen you to salvation. Chosen you to be saved. Chosen
you to salvation. And all that salvation means.
And how did He do it? Through the sanctification of
the Spirit and belief under the truth. And so you see, He chose
us from the beginning. And oh, that's why Lord Jesus
Christ said, I thank Thee, O Father, that Thou hast hid these things
from the wise, and proof has revealed among the babe. Even
so, Father, it seemed good in Your sight. And I tell you, it's
not of works, but of Him that calleth. And I tell you, thank
God for election. Love election. I've got a message
in there on election that I've had for three or four months,
and I mean, It's a good one if the Lord ever blesses me to preach
it. You know, I get a message and hold that thing sometimes
for months. And then when the Lord blesses you, you know, just
don't... But it's a good one. And if God will bless me to preach
it, then it's all about election. Every bit of it. And I'll preach
it one of these days. But look, it's not only to the
praise of the glory of His grace and election, but look at redemption.
There in verse 7. In talking about Christ, in whom
we have redemption through His blood. Oh, redemption. You know what redemption means.
Redemption means that you're in bondage. You're bound. Somebody takes you and holds
you. You're a slave. And in the scriptural term of
it, since you're a slave, and the scripture tells us we're
a slave to sin, and we're held in bondage to sin, we're held
captive by sin. And the justice of God didn't
let us go because of our sin. So God set a price for our redemption. And to redeem somebody means
to pay the price of their slavery, to buy them from their sin, and
to pay the debt due to justice, and it means to ransom them,
and then you rescue them, and after you rescue them, you release
them and you let them go. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ was
made a curse for us to redeem us out from under the curse of
the law. And since we're saved, look in Romans 6. Look in Romans
6. Since we're saved by grace, sin
no longer has dominion over us. And we're no longer under the
law. Look in Romans 6 just a moment. I just thought of this. Let's
look at this together. In Romans 6. Boy, this is busy. He's got my Bible sticking together. Look what he said here in verse
14. For sin shall not have dominion
over you. Why won't sin have dominion over
you? And we're just talking about law setting, and I've used this
illustration so many times. People, for some reason, they
want law. They like law. I see strong. He made fun of people. They sang that song, you know,
free from the law, oh happy condition. Jesus has bled in various remissions. And he made fun of that, said,
these people say free from the law, oh happy condition. He says,
they're fools. He said, they're not free from
the law. Well, if I understand this right, the only way, you
know how, you know, if somebody lays down the law to you, I'll
tell you what happens. It makes you mad. It makes you
angry. Somebody says, you know, I'm
going to lay down the law to you, and you even do it to your
children. You say, now this is what's going to happen, this
is the way you're going to do it, and they'll run off to the room, they'll
run off to the back, the bedroom, and they'll argue with you, and
they'll fuss and fight with you, and if you fellas want to fight,
go home and lay down the law to your wife and say, this is
where it's going to be from now on. And that's the way the Scripture
says the law works wrath. It works the wrath in you towards
God, because you don't do what you want to do, and God says
you can't do what you want to do without paying the price for
it. And so sin shall not have dominion over you. And just as
sure as you find a legalist trying to in a home, in legalism, in law,
in law keeping, and a man trying to keep his wife under obedience
by law, I tell you what, it's a miserable home. And he said,
the law, when the law comes, it makes that sin just to stir
up in you. And he said, sin shall not have
dominion over you, it won't reign over you. Why? Because you're
not under law. You're not under law. God ain't
saying, do, do, do, do, do. God said, He said, if you don't
do this, and if you don't do something else, and if you don't
do this during the day, He said, I'm going to come and knock you
in the head, and you're going to suffer for it. No, He said, you're
not under the law, but you are under grace. Praise God for grace. Let them make fun of us who say
we're not under law. Let them have all the law they
want. If they want law, let them have it. Most of those fellows
end up having nervous breakdowns because they realize they can't
keep it. And I'll tell you something else about illegals. He expects
more from other people than he himself is willing to give. Always
that way. That's what our Lord Jesus said
about the Pharisees. He says, they'll have a burden
on you, and they won't lift one finger. And thank God, praise
God, praise the glory of His grace that He redeemed us out
from under the curse of the law. He redeemed us from the justice
of God. He redeemed us from being held
captive by sin. And redeemed us from our carnality. And then He says, go free. You're
free. You're free to go where you want
and do what you do. Now where do we go and what do
we want to do? We go to worship God. What do you want to do now? You want to praise God. You want
to live to His glory. You want to honor His grace.
The freedom that He gave you now is your freedom to worship.
Freedom to bless Him. Freedom to praise Him. Peace
in your heart. Peace in your home. Oh, the freedom
that we have in Christ now. It's the joyous thing that you've
ever experienced in your life. Oh, can any of us say that we
were worthy of our Lord Jesus' death? And I'll tell you something,
if we'd been perfect and kept God's law, we would have only
done what we should. But pure, free grace brought
Him from the throne of His glory down to that cross to redeem
us and save us by His blessed grace. And I'll tell you, beloved,
you find folks that... And I'll tell you, this is the
thing about people where they have law. They're all the time
talking about living right, living right, living right. Always talk
about living right. I'd like to know what that means.
What's living right mean? Have you ever wondered about
that? I believe fellowship means you
live right. I believe if a fellow's saved
by the grace of God, I believe that Christ keeps him. If you'd have seen Noah, you'd
have said, boy, he ain't living right. If you'd have seen those fellows
in the Scriptures, boy, when Simon Peter died, he ain't living
right. But what I'm telling you is that, see, beloved, we're
utterly and absolutely dependent on the grace of God. And I wouldn't have it any other
way with you. I wouldn't have it any other way. And I take
to the praise of the glory of His grace as our election. Our
redemption and our effectual calling. Oh, our effectual calling. We're called. Look back over
in our text again. Let me see if I can find something
about that over here in Ephesians 1 about our effectual calling.
You know, it says here in verse 12, and oh my, this is the thing, that we
should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in Christ.
in whom you also trusted after you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed. You see, beloved, why do we believe?
Because God, we heard the word of truth, and God called us by
thy gospel. You see, it's of grace that the
gospel call goes out at all. If God, you know, and I've always
been amazed at this. I didn't have any problem being
religious. I didn't have any problem preaching. I didn't have
any problem with sin. I didn't have any problem with
so many things until God crossed my path with the grace of God.
And there was a man come to me and told me about grace one day.
And I began to hear about the grace of God. And grace began
to kill all my idols, destroy my idols, destroy all the things
that I did. And it's grace that the gospel
comes out to you or me or anybody at any given time. In fact, we're
so unwilling that the scripture says in the day of His power,
in the day of His power, He makes us willing. There has to be a
day of power. And there's a day that the salvation
of grace becomes ours ourselves. God said to David, David, seek
my face. You know what David said? I'll
do that tonight. I'll do that tomorrow. God said,
seek ye my face, David. That means you call on me and
look to me right now. David said, thy face, O Lord,
I'll seek. I'll turn right now. When God
makes a man seek his face, he goes right then and starts seeking
the face of God. And I'll tell you, it's to the
glory of His grace when He makes the willing unwilling. That's
something. If your father prepares a great,
great supper, and our Lord said that, He prepares a feast, and
He says, go tell all of them that I've invited and I've told
to come, tell them to come on in. I've got a great feast fixed
for them. They didn't come. He said, well, go have some more
and invite some more, and they didn't come. And it would be
grace that you'd have a great feast and invite anybody. That's
great, great grace. But then you go and compel people,
compel them to come in. That's grace upon grace. That's
superabounding grace that calls us and compels us to come in.
I would have never come in and sat down to this feast had not
God compelled me, and you wouldn't either. You all remember very well. Let
me tell you something. Oh, it's to the praise of the
glory of His grace, as the picture called it. And then about our
justification. Oh, to the praise of the glory
of God and our justification. Romans 3. Let's look at that
just a minute. Romans 3. Our justification. Justification
is more than just as if I had not
sinned. It's more than that. Justification.
is an act that God does outside ourselves. It's something that
God does. God is a declaration from God that says, I clear them
of all gambs. I clear them of all response.
I clear them of everything that's against them. I took them to
a court of law, and they had crimes against them. They had
sins against them. And this is how I'm going to
clear them from all that. This is how I'm going to justify
them. And I'm going to do this up here in glory. I'm going to
do this up in heaven. And I'm going to justify them so that
when they come before me, there will be no condemnation in them
because of our sin. Look what he says now. In verse
24, Romans 3. Being justified freely. Now listen
to it. By His grace. We didn't deserve to be justified.
Freely. without any cause being found
in us by His grace, now listen to it, through the payment price,
through the redemption, through the blood, through the doing
and dying that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is how
we know that he was dying, and that his blood was shed, and
that God loved us, and that this salvation and justification is
freely by the grace of God. Because God sent Christ forth
to be a perpetuation, ordain Him, to be a mercy seat, a place
where the blood is shed, a place where we can go, and God sees
the blood, and He don't see us. He sees the blood, and He sees
our justification in death. And Nick Westwhite goes on to
say, through faith in His blood, God said, when I see the blood, he shed his own blood. And oh,
to declare, God says, I'll declare my righteousness for the payment,
the putting away of the sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. To be clear, I say at this time,
God in His righteousness. Now, He's just. How come? Because
He sent Christ to be that propitiation. Sent Christ to die. Sent Christ
to shed His blood. Sent Christ to put away sin.
And that now, since He's done that, God is just. And listen
to this. Justify that man who trusts the
Lord Jesus Christ and believes on Him. Oh, I believe on Him. I believe on Him, huh? And I
tell you, justification and pardon of sin is always, always the
effective place. Sin doesn't deserve to be pardoned,
for sin that deserves to be pardoned is not sin. And oh, God justly
saves us, and it's freely justified by His grace. And then let me
show you something. Go back over in Ephesians 1,
just a minute. Oh, that's to the praise. Wouldn't
you say that's to the praise of the glory of God's grace that
we justify that our sins are gone? What
about our sanctification and our perseverance? Well, our sanctification, beloved,
is, look there in verse four, according he hath chosen us in
him before the foundation of the world. Now listen to it.
that we should be holy and without blame before Him. I'm going to tell you something
about holiness. Holiness is a state of being.
Could God be any more holy than He is? Could the Lord Jesus Christ
be any more holy than He was? Holiness is a state of being.
You don't get more holy at one time than you do at another.
And if we're in Christ, then we're holy. And that's what God
said. He said, they're without blame,
holy and without blame before men. Holiness is a state of being.
If you are trying to be more holy, then you've missed the
boat. And that's what, you know, people
talk about holiness, holiness, holiness. Be holy as I am. How are you going to be as holy
as God? Unless you're in God, unless
you're in Christ. That's why we don't believe in
progressive sanctification. We believe in God and grace.
Oh yes, we grow in grace. We grow in the knowledge of Christ.
We grow in the grace of God. We grow and we learn more and
more about Christ. We grow in our understanding.
We grow in our patience. We grow in our love. We grow
in our appreciation for one another. We grow in the understanding
of what Christ did for us. We grow in the way we treat other
people. But beloved, I'm telling you
that growing in grace, And holiness is two different things. Christ, God made Him unto us
wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification. In God's Son, you cannot be more
holy than the Holy One. And that's why he says, and let
me say, not only that, but perseverance. Look up here in verse 1 of Ephesians
1. He says, Paul, an apostle of
Jesus Christ, by the will of God, to the saints which are
at Ephesus, and to the faithful. Where do you get your faithfulness
from? In Christ Jesus. Oh, that's to the praise of the
glorious grace. Oh, how are you going to persevere?
Do you know how you're going to persevere? And that's all
Paul's writing to, is the faithful. That's in Christ Jesus. And so,
you see, Faith in Christ and Christ in us, that's what keeps
us keepin' on, keepin' on. Oh my, that's that little Ruth
Walls last night, she sung, Marisa Montgomery's niece, and she sung
last night a song she wrote, and she said, God loves me even
when I fall. And she wrote some of the most
beautiful lyrics to that, that even when I fall, yea, the righteous
fall a seventh time, but the Lord holds him up. My foot will
not slip, but thy mercy heal me up." You know why we persevere? It's because we're preserved. And it's God working in us, and,
beloved, we want to be worked in. And, ah, beloved, we have
no claim upon God to keep us from sin, but He keeps us from
ourselves and keeps us from sin and keeps us from our self-righteousness.
But by His free grace, He keeps us from fault. And I'll tell
you something, beloved, there is no point, no point in a believer's
life where his own strength, his own merit helps him and keeps
him. No period in his life when he's
saved by the grace of God with his own strength rescues him
from any troubles he's ever in. It just never happens. Paul said,
I am what I am by the grace of God. It's grace that makes the
dead soul of life, and when that grace makes the dead soul of
life, it's grace that keeps that living soul alive. And it's grace
that takes a black soul and washes him white, and it's grace that
keeps that soul from going back to its filthiness. Grace, grace
of the praise of the glory of His And let me give you this in closing,
huh? Look, this old heaven, that borrows
all of our salvation to the praise of the election, to the praise
of the glory of His grace. Essential calling to the praise
of the glory of His grace. Justification to the praise of
the glory of His grace. Sanctification to the praise
of the glory of His grace. Perseverance to the praise of
the glory of His grace. Everything to the praise of the
glory of His grace. Redemption to the praise of the
glory of His grace. Let me show you some peculiar
glories of this grace. You know what makes grace so
precious to us and peculiar? Is this grace is sovereign. It's
sovereign. That's why we call it sovereign
grace. Sovereign grace. And it's glory to God that His
grace is sovereign. Our Lord Jesus said in Matthew
24, 15, is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my
own? God said, Moses said, show me
your glory. You want to know what my glory
is? I'll have mercy on whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion
upon whom I'll have compassion. God does according to his will
in the armies of heaven among the inhabitants of the earth.
No man can stay his hand or say what he does. In the heavens
and the earth and the sea and all deep places, God does what
He wills. And so this grace is sovereign grace. That's one of
the peculiar glories of it. And another glory of the grace
of God is its freeness. Is its freeness. If it wasn't
free, it wouldn't be grace. If you had to do something for
just a little of it, it ceased to be grace that quick. Man's
never expected to earn or obtain the grace of God. Who maketh
you to differ? God said, out of the same love,
he made vessels of honor and vessels of dishonor, vessels
of mercy and vessels of wrath. But it all comes out of the same
love. How come he said, well, I'll make this a vessel of honor
and I'll make this a vessel of wrath? Who made the decision
to do that? I certainly didn't. Who said I'll make this in here
a vessel of mercy? And I'll make this in over here
a vessel of wrath? And this in here? Oh, I'm going
to bless this. I'm going to honor this with
grace and mercy and Christ and salvation. And I'm going to put
my praise in their mouth, my love in their heart, and shed
it abroad. I'm going to do... I'm going
to make that in a vessel of... I'm going to make this in over here a vessel
of dishonor. Who makes that decision to do that? Oh, God in His grace does that. And that's why Hosea said like
this, I will love them freely. And I'll say another peculiar
of the glories of this blessed grace of God. Here's this fullness. It's never just a little grace. It's never just a little grace.
It's always full grace, free grace. It's always the fullness
of God's grace. You know how full God's grace
is? Grace to cover all of man's sins. Grace to keep him day in and
day out. Grace to keep him through his
trials. Look in Isaiah 43 and verse 25, and I'll see if I can
get this thing done. Oh, my. I love to talk about
it. I love the word grace. I just
love to talk about it. I love to hear it. I love the
sound of it. Grace, grace, grace. I heard
a fellow preach one time. He said, grace, God's riches at Christ's
expense. God's riches for us at Christ's
expense. And look what he says here in
Isaiah 43, in verse 25, talking about our sins. God's grace is
always full. It's never just a little grace.
Do you ever say, Lord, just give me just a little bit of grace?
God says, I'm going to give you just a little bit of grace. No,
no. See, when he talks about grace,
in Romans 5, he says, grace abounded where sin did not were sin abound,
and grace did much more abound. And look here at verse, what
did I say, verse 25? Look what he said, I, even I, am he that
blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not
remember thy sins. I did it because I would. And another fake glory of unfaithfulness
is the disgrace of God. is its unfailing continuance.
You know, when God gives grace, He never, ever takes it back.
People can give you something and say, well, I'd like that
back. I didn't mean to give you that. I just, I made a mistake.
And, you know, somebody can give you something and they put conditions
on it. But when God gives us grace, there's no conditions
on it. And He never, ever says, well, I gave you too much. I
need to take some back. I gave this to you and I didn't
mean to, now you need to, I gave you so much, now you earn the
rest of it." No, no, when He gives grace and He never, ever,
it never fails. It's there all the time, continually,
constantly. And whom He once loves, He never
leaves, but loves Him to the end. His mercy endureth forever. And I tell you what, in the ages
to come, He's going to show us exceeding riches of His grace. And, oh, I'll tell you something
else about the grace of God that makes it peculiar and also glorious. It's unmingled, it's unalloyed.
You know, an alloy is where you take two or three metals and
put them together. Well, you can't mix nothing with grace.
It's unalloyed. And it's unmixed, it's unmingled.
It's pure grace. Pure grace. We don't mix nothing
with it. It's not nothing mixed with it
at all. No worse, no worth. Grace! Grace! Grace alone! And then last of all, let me
tell you this. Grace never interferes with the
other attributes of God. God is just? Yes. But because
of His justice, He provided grace to satisfy that justice provided
Christ. He won't kill the clearly guilty.
No. And He'll give justice to every
man all of his due. But do you know where He gave
us all of our due? Where He didn't even clear us
of our guilt? Christ in His own body bore our
sins to the tree. He was the just for unjust like
us. He was the innocent put in the
place of the guilty like you and I. And He became guilty so
that we could have His innocence and His righteousness. And God
gave us everything. So, you see, He gave us grace
because He paid for all of our sins in His own blessed Son. That's why it's free. That's
why it's free.