You are in Scripture. We know
that life is worth living because he lives. Father, I pray that
you would bring to life all who are a part of our service today.
That you would just reach down into the depths of death. And
snatch out your own. Bring to life those who are lost.
Into the light of your son. Father, I pray that we who are
your children, God, would be rooted deep in the faith that
what we do today is just one step closer in the journey of
maturing in Christ, for we have been raised to life that we might
reflect the glory of the Son. Father, as we look into your
Word, open our ears that we might hear, our eyes that we might
see, our hearts that we might believe. And that all the things
of this world will pass away, that the jealousies of our heart,
that the envy of our mind, that the bitterness, the frustration,
the fear, the hate. It would all be gone. Because
you have redeemed us in Christ. And Father, we pray these things
in his precious name, in his saving name, in the name of Jesus,
we pray. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. If you turn with me to Ephesians,
chapter two. Be in this in this particular
text for the next few weeks. Ephesians, chapter two. I think
it always does us fitting to hear the word of God, so I will
read the first 10 verses of this chapter again. And you were dead in the trespasses
and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this
world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we
all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the
desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of
wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy
because of the great love with which he loved us, even when
we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved
and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. so that in the coming ages He
might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward
us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved
through faith, and this is not of your own doing, it is the
gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may
boast. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand
that we should walk in them." I pray God's Word is a blessing
to your ears, and to your heart, and to your mind, and to your
soul. What we've learned in this letter to the Ephesian church
for so long, over, this is week number 13 of this letter, if
you believe that, is we have learned that there's one central
theme of Ephesians, or to the letter in Ephesians, and that
theme is that God should be praised for His glory in the voice, in
the life, in the mind and the soul of His people. Those people
whom He has saved by grace. And friends, there is no better
place in Scripture for the church to be looking to see how she
ought to reflect God's nature, God's glory, God's saving grace. What we'll see and what we looked
at last week is we saw that the overarching purpose of God's
salvation unto man is that the praise of His glorious grace
might be the outcome. God, as we see Jesus speaking
to the lady from Sychar in John chapter 4, is seeking worshipers
who worship Him in spirit and in truth. When Jesus says in
the 17th chapter of John as He prays, this is eternal life,
that they know the Father, the Lord God, that they know God
and they know the Son whom you have sent. Eternal life is knowing
God. This is what we see as the rebirth. being born again, being a new
creation, a new creature in Christ. Why does God do these things?
Of course, we've looked at Romans 3. We've seen the Scriptures
where it tells us throughout the Pauline Epistles that God
effectually saves His children for the praise of His glory.
That He might be seen as righteous and just and gracious and merciful. We come to this text here, specifically
in verse 4. Look at that as I read it again.
But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with
which He loved us, last week as a review, we saw that God's
love for us is one of the reasons that caused Him to move for us,
and that He saved us because He has a great love for us. Also,
even while we were dead in our sins, we look at the first three
verses, the two weeks prior, knowing that we were unable to
come to faith if it were not for the grace of God. Man in
his core is sinful. Man from conception is sinful. Man does not come to a point
in his life or her life where he decides to become a sinner.
He is a sinner when he is conceived. Therefore, he is in need of a
gracious God who can effectually overcome that sin. And that is
possible and certain through the person of Jesus Christ. Not
only His birth, incarnation, but His life in perfect holy
and righteousness, and His death as a sacrificial propitiation
for those who are lost, for those who are in sin. And so we know
that Christ is the only means through which a man is saved,
by grace through faith. And we will talk about that at
some length today. But the whole purpose of God
sacrificing Jesus Christ is because He has forgiven sins of old.
He has allowed many people, including Adam and Eve, the first people,
as well as the first to rebel against God. He has saved them
by His grace. certainty that one day there
would be a sacrifice worthy of his anger and his wrath that
would satisfy him fully. And that is the person of Jesus
Christ, the perfect God-man who satisfies the judgment of God
against sinners so that God can then still be God, still be just,
and still be righteous, as Paul teaches in Romans 3, that God
put forth Christ in order to display His righteousness. that
God might display His righteousness in forgiving sins of the people
prior to Christ, and He might display His righteousness in
forgiving those who have faith in Christ in the present day.
So God's overarching purposes here, as we see in salvation,
are to the praise of His glory. A recapitulating theme, as we
see in the first chapter of Ephesians. And the term that I looked at
last week, the real truth and the point of worship, the expression
of worship should come from, though we were dead in our sins
and our trespasses and walked in the formal ways of our life
into ignorance of old, like the sons of disobedience, and were
objects of wrath, but God. But God, God does the action
here. God is the central one, the only
one who acts in this entire text. We do not see the actions of
man in any way except that God moves man to move in certain
aspects of his faith. And what we'll see today is that
there are two little words there, so that. What in the world are
we looking at such small phrases? Because these conjunctions, these
phrases move into different aspects of the language so that we might
understand what the Scripture is teaching. We can't just go,
okay, I think that's what it means. No, it either has one
meaning or it has no meaning. And so the Bible cannot be interpreted
from a multiplicity or a multiple realm of ideas, and we can't
have something meaning different to me than it means to you. If
we have different ideas of what the Bible means, then one of
us or some of us are wrong. All of us could be wrong. argues
for itself and it proves itself. It needs nothing else outside
of itself. Prior to my transferring my seminary
focus and my postgraduate work into New Testament interpretation,
I was doing apologetics. And I grew up with this premise
of thinking if I could just get the right argument on the table,
I could move many people to salvation. I learned through the years that
that's not possible. The evidence, if it's placed
to support the Scripture, then the evidence becomes the foundation
of Scripture. And friends, my argument and my evidence is nothing.
It will not bring faith. Paul, God, that's okay. Paul
is not God, but Paul's words are God's words. So God's word
teaches us in Romans 10, verse 17, that faith comes through
hearing. Hearing comes through the words of Christ. through the words
of Christ. And so the apostolic authority
is the only way, the hearing of the Word of God is the only
way in which a sinner can come to faith in Jesus Christ. No
one can be reborn except Jesus' words dwell richly in his soul
and bring him to life. And so with this, we see now
this little phrase, so that. So that God, being rich in mercy,
made us alive. He raised us when we were dead.
He made us alive with Christ by grace, have been saved and
raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places.
Verse seven, so that. so that in the coming ages He
might show." Who? God might show the immeasurable
riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Now, verse 7 is about five sermons. I promise you they're in there.
Five hours of teaching, verse 7, holds that much meat. But for today, we're going to
try to segue from verse 7 to verse 10, and then next week
we'll pick up again and do one little thing dealing with the
exercise of faith and effectual faith and understand that more
clearly. But today we want to focus on
God's purpose to the praise of His glory in salvation. Here,
God is the one doing an action again. And the end of His action
is so that God would be seen gracious. God is the center of
His joy. Let me tell you, one of the greatest
things that I've ever said from my mouth that caused the greatest
frustration in all the churches that I've ever said it in is
saying that God loves Himself more than He loves anything else.
And the first time I heard that, my little brother said that in
the pulpit of one of our student ministries, and I thought I was
going to jump out the second story window. What are you saying? But as I began to really think
about it, I came to understand that it has to be true, that
God alone is the only one who is worthy to be loved fully. And that if God loved me more
than he loved himself. then he probably would not be
worthy to save me, because that would mean that I was more worthy
than he was. So God's love cannot be diminished
toward us, but oh, God is satisfied with himself. It sounds maniacal.
It sounds self-centered. It can be in the humanistic way
of thinking. It is when we allow sin to filter
through theological truths. But God is pleased. The Scriptures
say that God is fully pleased in the Son. The Scriptures say
that God is joy. He is light. He is love. So therefore,
God is content with being self-existent. He is the I Am. He is not one
that needed to create people to keep Him company. He did it
so that He might reflectively see His own work and be pleased
with Himself. And it's going to be difficult.
I probably should have dropped that bomb without making that
point of the sermon. But friends, this is what we
see Paul teaching here. That God saved, that we might
praise Him. That God does what He's doing,
His actions here, so that the outcome of these actions of God,
or the consequences of His actions, is that He would be praised.
See, the primary motivator is the purpose. So when we say,
why did God save me? Yes, He saved me out of the love
He had for me, but He saved me for the purpose that I might
be to the praise of His glory. He saved me for the purpose that
He may be glorified in all that I do. That is a command of Scripture.
We ought to rejoice. We ought to be thankful. We ought
to give glory to God in all things. Those aren't options. Those aren't
suggestions. Those aren't desperate needs of God. Those are things
that God said His children will do. And they will do that. We
will do that in the power of the Spirit through the revelation
from the Word. And we will do that from a new
regenerated heart, not one that is wicked and lost and in love
with the world. And so His glory is seen, what
Paul is saying here is that His glory is seen in His mercy toward
us. And again, this is His action. His love toward us. His kindness
toward us. So the question is, how can He
truly be kind toward us? When we know who we are, who
were once dead in the trespasses and sin against Him, we are sinners
not worthy to be saved, but yet good. God in mercy and in love
toward us, and in kindness in Christ Jesus, is able to have
mercy and love. How can God do this? Because
of Christ's sufficient life, of His death, and of His resurrection. And there's a little phrase there
that I wanted to touch on. That's not really part of this
argument at this point. But it is the phrase, in the
coming ages, if you look right there in verse 7, so that in
the coming ages, He might show the immeasurable riches of His
grace and kindness for us in Christ Jesus. That is the purpose
for which God moved to salvation. of people. And so now we see
that there is a time frame for that in the coming ages. Some
people like to really start to dissect and I would say not even
dissect, but almost chop up the grammar here and chop up the
Greek and remove it from the theology of Paul's entire epistle.
And so we have to be careful not to do that. What it's saying
plainly, and you need to prove this to yourself in your own
study, not just take my word for it, is that God is saying,
that Paul is saying, that God is teaching that His mercy and
grace and His purpose for salvation will be seen from now and forever. It's not talking about the eschatos.
It's not talking about a specific dispensation of time. He's talking
about the ages to come, all eternity, from now until the rest of forever. God is going to display His mercy
and grace toward us to the praise of His glory. You see the whole
purpose here. God isn't going to be worshipped for a season,
for a short time, for a millennia, for 10,000 years, for a million
years. He's going to be worshipped forever. Always and forever. And so now, in this coming ages,
this is every future time eternally. God's glory and praise and righteousness
revealed in His primary motive. His expression of compassion
through love. The cause of love. His affection
motivates Him. His glory fulfills Him. Understand
that. God's glory and praise are His
primary motive. Listen to the expression all
throughout the New Testament, and actually all throughout the
Scripture, of how God expresses His mercy and His grace towards
sinners. Matthew 5-7, Blessed are the
merciful, for they shall receive mercy. A reflection of God's
nature in that we who are His also should show mercy. Matthew
9-13 says, Go and learn what this means. Quote, I desire mercy
and not sacrifice, for I come not to call the righteous, but
sinners. In Matthew 11, 28-30, it says, "...Come to Me, Jesus
speaking, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle
and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for
My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Matthew 9, when He
saw the crowds, He had compassion on them. because they were harassed
and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. We see all throughout
Scripture, we see in the Gospel of Luke, and Jesus said, Father,
on the cross, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Friends,
this is an expression of God's mercy. Why does He do that? To
the praise of His glory, that He might be fulfilled in His
own worthiness, His own holiness. That He can forgive sinners,
because in Christ, now, righteousness has taken the place of wickedness.
And we also see this expressed in God's purpose. The prophet
Isaiah, as God speaks through him, he says, for my own sake,
for my own sake, he repeats that in Isaiah 48, 11. I do it, for
how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another. God does not share His glory.
And the prophet Daniel, he says, O Lord, hear, O Lord, forgive,
O Lord, pay attention and act. Delay not for your own sake,
O my God, because your city and your people are called by your
name. In Hosea 14, verse 4, I will heal their apostasy. I will love
them freely, for My anger has turned from them. Have you seen
this? Do you hear the words of God? Do you hear the actions
of how God is doing? God is looking at the apostasy
of the world. He's looking at the apostasy
of the church. He's looking at the apostasy
of all unbelievers. And He's saying, I will heal
them. I will save them, not for their
sake, but for the sake of My good name. For the sake of My
glory. But God shows His own love for us in this, that while
we were still sinners, Christ died for us, Paul says in Romans
5. And 1 John, we see the Apostle saying, in this is love. Not
that we should have loved God, but that He first loved us and
sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. And earlier, as
we looked months ago into Ephesians 1.4, it very clearly teaches,
even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love, he predestines,
and he goes on, he chose us to be adopted as sons. So all of
this here, and Paul's heart and mind as it explodes, it explodes
in one expression, for by grace, for by grace, for by grace, Paul
continues to express that and to show that and to teach that,
which is a recurring explanation of what Paul has already shouted
and exclaimed through the doxology. See, proper doctrine creates
right worship. And that's what Jesus teaches
when He talks to the woman in John 4 when He says the Father
is seeking worshipers who worship in spirit and in truth. We cannot
worship with an expression unless we have truth to feed that expression.
Why do we love God? Why are we thankful to Him? What
is it that we're doing? Why do we want to serve Him?
Because of who God is and what God has done. Not because of
what He's given us, but because of who He is, because of what
He's done, and because He alone is worthy to be praised. Paul
expresses this truth. In church, we should express
this truth as well. Not only from our mouths, but
most importantly from our mouths, but also, as important, with
our lives, with our hearts, with our passion, with our compassion,
with our mercy. Are we expressing the grace that
God has given us as giving it to others in our lives? Those
who persecute us, those who we don't love, those who are the
unlovable, those who are wicked. Are we expressing mercy? Are
we giving grace? Are we showing that God has actually
done a work in our lives? Or do we hold ourselves in contempt
by thinking that we're better than others? Do we hold ourselves
under God's judgment because we think that I'm glad we're
not like those people across the street who act and live this
way? We see the only example, well, we see many examples, but
we see an explicit example of Jesus teaching that in the parable
of the Pharisee and the publican. The Pharisee thanks God. He's
worshiping God for all of the great fruit that is in his life.
Thank you that I'm not a cheater. Thank you that I'm not a liar.
Thank you that I'm not a sinner like that guy because you've
putting me in a different place. He was joyful and thankful for
what God had done, and he was actually celebrating what God
had done in his heart and in his life. But he held himself
in contempt and he held himself under judgment because he compared
himself to that man who beat his chest and would not even
look to heaven and tore his clothes and said, have mercy on me, O
God, a sinner. And Jesus says that the Pharisee went home damned,
but the publican went home justified. There's a big lesson to be learned
there, and that's a whole nother sermon in itself. But now we
see this phrase by grace through faith. Look at that. And oh,
goodness, I'm already in the wrong chapter here. Hold on.
So that in the coming ages, here it is for by grace, for by grace,
you have been saved through faith. So by grace through faith, I
want you to put your eyes on this and I want you to keep it
in your heart. It's always been there. There's very few people
in the church, especially if you've been sitting under my
teaching for any time. You know that text. You understand that
that's what we believe as evangelicals, as Baptists, as Reformers, as
whatever you want to call us, Protestants. We believe that
it is by grace through faith. We don't hold, as the Catholic
Church do and as the cults do, that there's a works to salvation.
We don't hold to say, OK, we can do these things and thus
be justified before God. We understand that if God does
not act, we are helplessly in despair without hope in the world.
And so put our eyes on this and put our hearts on Christ, please.
Put your hearts there. Now watch how this text plays
out perfectly. Not only is it a great apologetic,
but it's an absolute truth that comes from the Word of God. We
now see that grace, the actions of God from last week, God is
acting. He's raising us up. He's bringing
us to life. He's seating us in the heavenly
places. He's doing all these things while we were what? Dead
in sin and trespass against who? God. We were trespassing against
God's holiness. And God in His rich mercy and
in His love toward us and kindness in Christ Jesus, He caused us,
I like the way Peter says it, He caused us to be born again
to a living hope. Blessed be the God and the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ who has caused us to be born again to a living
hope. Not a perishable one, but an imperishable one. And what's
the expression? You know what Peter says in 1
Peter there? What's the expression? What's the outcome of such grace?
An inexpressible joy. In the midst of what? Death.
In the midst of physical death, there's an inexpressible joy.
Though you do not see Him, you love Him. Though you do not see
Him now, you love Him with a love, with a joy, with a gratitude.
You love Him. And there's nothing that can
take away that love, like Paul says in Romans 8, 38 and 39.
We can never be separated from the love of Christ for what God
has done. He will complete those whom God has given to the Son.
Jesus says, they will never be cast out of my hand. No one can
pluck them from me. They are mine. They've been given
to me by the Father, and all that the Father gives me come
to me, and all who come to me I will never cast away. And so
you have security in your salvation, not because of what you see in
your life, not because of what you've done in your life, not
because of the strength of your faith, because your faith may
fail you, but because of the absolute sovereign will and purpose
and pleasure of God and His gracious promises. And there are several
things that God cannot do, and one of them is lie, and He has
promised to save His people. And so if you are a child of
God, you are saved. God's rich mercy and his rich
love while we were still enemies did something. Look back at that
text there. What is it? What did he do? This is sort
of review. He says this. Made us alive with Christ. Raised
us up with Him. Seated us with Him. With who?
With God in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So we are in
these places. We are in these positions. We
are in this essence as children of God. What does this mean?
Well, there's a lot here and I'd like to to take just a second
to explain this as I move down into the grace by grace through
faith. We have been seeded by God. We've
been made alive together with Christ. We've been raised up
with Christ. Look at the life of Christ. Christ, who was the
Creator, created the womb from which He came. And He was born
into the creation as a created substance, if you will. I hate
to say substance because it sounds sort of mystical. But Jesus'
body that He had on earth was not a divine body. It was not
a body that He had in heaven. It was not a body that He had
on His throne, if you will. It was a body that He created,
that He put Himself into in the incarnation. That's what that
means. That God became flesh. Emmanuel, the totality of the
God-man, is that He's fully human and He's fully God. That is hard
to understand. It's called the hypostatic union,
if you want to look it up in theological journals or whatever.
But God became a man. But he did not become just like
every man. He was born divinely, conceived
of the Holy Spirit. He had no earthly father, but
had a vessel named Mary, whom God favored, as we see in the
first portion of Luke's Gospel. And God found favor and chose
Mary. And through Mary, Jesus was born. And Jesus had been promised in
the very beginning of time when Adam and Eve fell on the day
that they were born and fell against God and were closed away
from God's presence. God promised a Savior to save
them. And so He's made us alive with
Christ. Christ became like us. And though He was equal with
God, He did not take equality with God something to be grasped,
but He made Himself a slave. The word there, doulos, in some
forms, diakonos, means slave. Someone who's owned, told what
to do. Made Himself a slave. Not a servant like a server at
a restaurant, but a slave. So He made Himself a slave and
was obedient unto death, even death on a cross. And there's
a big difference than just dying and dying on a cross. Not only
is it horrific, The word crucifixion is where the word excruciating
comes from, which is the highest level of pain. Excruciation means
from the cross. And so when you look at what
Christ did, he died a criminal's death as an innocent man, as
the creator of all men, by the hands of men, by the will of
the Father to display his righteousness, to the praise of his glory, so
that he might create a people for himself, to the praise of
his glory. Friends, this is just a beautiful thing. I hope you
can see it. But He made us alive together with Christ. So Christ lived a perfect
life. Then He died as a perfect sacrifice,
and He was raised to life. Not only was He raised to life,
He didn't get the old corruptible body, but He got the glorified
body. Now, there are a lot of different positions on the resurrection.
Some people believe it's a spiritual resurrection. Some people believe
it's an immediate resurrection that becomes at the moment of
death, and you're given a glorified body in heaven. Some people believe
there's a spiritual essence to eternity, and then one day Christ
comes back and recreates the world. Wherever you fall in that,
I will tell you this, you are going to be glorified in your
body. And quite honestly, this sermon's not one to argue the
differences. Because Christ was glorified in a physical body,
I believe we will be glorified in grace, life, and a physical
body. A body that will never die. A body that will never sin.
A body that will never hurt. And some children used to always
say, can we fly when we're in heaven? Are we going to be able
to fly? I don't know, maybe. I don't know. I don't really concern
myself with that. All I worry about is what are we going to
do? When do I get there? And I'm going to praise Christ.
I want to see Him face to face for all of eternity. That's the
heart of what a child of God desires most. And so now we know
that God has raised Christ up, so God will raise us up. Now
in the flesh have died. We who are in faith in Christ
have died with Christ. Do you ever know what that means?
It's not a figure of speech. It's a literal positional justification
that God has given by His command, by His decree. God has said,
you who are in My Son, I put your sin on My Son and I killed
it so it's atoned for. Now you are righteous before
Me. But yet the corruptible flesh that we still live in, the corruptible
mind that still occupies our thoughts, has to continually
work itself into sanctification, never perfection, but always
walking closer and closer to Christ as we grow and mature.
That's why we have a church. We don't have a church to do
cool stuff, to get people excited about cool things. We are the
church so that we might grow into maturity, that we might
glorify God. Nothing glorifies God about doing
cool stuff. The only thing that glorifies
God as a church is when we grow in maturity. We learn to love
each other when we find it difficult to do so. We learn to care for
each other when we don't have the means to do so. We learn
to worship God even when our children die before our eyes.
We learn to live for His purpose and His glory. We share our faith.
We teach others the Gospel and we do it together. When we discipline
one another, when we encourage one another, when we rebuke one
another, we are glorified. growing into the head who is
Christ. And if there is a church who
is not doing that, that church is Ichabod. And if you don't
know the Old Testament history, Ichabod means the glory of God
has left, has departed. And friends, I don't want God's
glory to leave the body. And quite honestly, I would suggest
and I would argue that God's glory never leaves the true church,
never will. The problem is we have a lot
of people who say, Lord, Lord, and Jesus will say to them, depart
from me. And the argument that we see in scripture is that we
know you and Jesus will say, but I don't know you. He seated us with Him in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We've died with Christ. We've
been raised with Christ. Christ is the head of the body.
And we one day will return to an immutable, not return, but
we will be transformed as Christ returned to an immutable glorified
body. We will be like Him, perfect, sinless, with a resurrected body.
And we will be with God eternally. See, God's grace here overflows
through Jesus Christ. This superfluous grace. This
immeasurable riches of His grace. Look at those adjectives. The
immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ
Jesus. That's a big breath. You have to take a breath after
that. But it just can't be measured. No one can see what God has done.
You can never get it all. You can never just say, OK, let
me step back and take a picture of it. You can't. It's all over. And God's grace overflows through
Christ Jesus. God has acted as His children
receive His glorious affection over and over and again. We see
John in the prologue of his Gospel. And from His fullness, we have
seen God's glory. Glory of the only Son, full of
the Father, full of grace and truth, which is where this church
gets its name. And from this fullness we all receive grace
upon grace. Why the recapitulation? Why the
restatement? Because that's the Semitic way
of showing the absolute importance of and the immeasurable expression
of. So it could be read this way.
Grace upon grace upon grace upon grace upon grace. And 405,319,000,000
trillion pages later, grace upon grace. You could never stop.
So we just say, let's just say it twice. and get over with it. We know what it means. It's never
going to stop. God's grace is powerfully overflowing. I mean, look at the examples
of this. Now, the law came to increase the trespass, but where
sin increased, grace abounded all the more. And the peace of
God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your
minds in Christ Jesus. I love Paul's writing to Timothy.
And he says, "...and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me
with the faith..." This is good. "...with the faith and love that
are in Christ Jesus." Look at that. God's grace. The grace
of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that
are in Christ Jesus. You notice who is effectual in
giving us faith and love? It's Christ. This love and grace
of God overflows from God into us and from us into others. And here's a little application
for us, church. Is the grace of God really strong within us?
Is it strong and overflowing from without into others? Paul
teaches in the Church of Corinth, I'm acting with great boldness
toward you. I have great pride in you. I am filled with comfort
in all our affliction. I am overflowing with joy. Listen
to what he teaches to the Thessalonians as we pray most earnestly night
and day that we may see your face, see you face to face and
supply what is lacking in your faith. and to esteem them very
highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.
We ought to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, as
is right, because your faith is growing abundantly and the
love of every one of you for one another is increasing. And
so the expression of God's grace flows over into relationships.
God's grace ought to be evident in our lives, not because of
our demeanor, although it should be, not because of our attitude
or what we hold in or the expression of our being able to fight the
temptation to outwardly display our sin. But most importantly,
are we loving each other? What does Jesus say? The greatest
of all commandments is to love the Lord your God with all you
got. And second, but of equal standing to love your neighbor
as yourself. Because you cannot say you love
God if you do not love all of your neighbors, all of them,
especially those who are in the church. And that's hard, but
God's given us the grace to effectually do that, to effectively do that.
For by grace, you've been saved through faith. Now, let's get
back to what we're talking about. And this is not of your own doing.
It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no
one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand
that we should walk in them." Now, we understand the grace
of God in some aspects. We understand the grace of God
in the aspects of salvation. But let us look at this text
in such a way as it's written And let's look at faith. We all
say faith alone in Christ alone. Solus Christus, sola gratia,
sola fide. There it is on the right over
there. Faith alone in Christ alone. We believe that salvation
comes through faith alone in Christ alone from the Word of
God alone for the glory of God alone. By grace alone. We say that, but yet that in
our actions and in our approach and in our worship, sometimes
we think differently. Let's look at this text and see
exactly what it is that Paul's teaching. Faith is not an action of the
will. I want you to understand something
here, and we have to go to John and if any of you like start
to shudder in your boots a little bit, I'd be glad to talk about
this is not a dividing issue, although it is something that
needs to always be strongly taught and debated in the church. Faith
is not an action of the will. It's not a determination of the
mind. John very clearly says that in
his Gospel. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God, and He was in the beginning with
God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not
anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life
was the light of man. The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness is not ever coming. The true light, it talks about
John the Baptist in verses 6-8 in John chapter 1 and then in
verse 9 it says, the true light which enlightens everyone was
coming into the world. He was in the world and the world
was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came
to his own and his own did not receive him, but to all who did
receive him. Now listen to the words receive,
receive, receive. And I'm going to show you what
that means in the language. How many of you have ever gone
to a grocery store and said, I'm going to receive my food? How many of you have ever gone
up to your boss and punched a time clock and said, I'm here to receive
my wages? How many have ever done that?
How many of you go to the subway and say, yeah, do you need to
order something? Yeah, I need to receive my food. I'm here to
receive my food. Can you receive? Show me the
action of receiving, show it to me. No, a recipient is the
one who gets the reception. The giver is the one who gives. Receiving something is the action
that happens when someone else puts forth the action. Watch
this. To all who did receive him, he
gave the right, I can't even find my place, to become children
of God who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God. And so we know that faith
is not an action of the will. It's not my neighbor being stupid
and me being smart. It's not me coming to my senses
and going, you know, I think I'll give God a try. We can't
give God a try. It's not somebody else preaching
that's more effective than mine. And it's not somebody else's
parents who raised them a little more godly than the others. It's
God and His grace. If so, if faith was, mine to
claim, if I could say, why am I saved? Because I believe and
I chose and I have faith that I can stand before God and put
my finger in his face and tell him the exact same thing. And
theologically, he must follow suit and say, OK, then you have
eternal life because you acted in that manner. We have to be
careful. We have to be very careful what
the scripture teaches about faith. It's not something, it is an
action. It is something that is a response of man. It is something
that takes place in the heart of mankind. However, it's not
something that is the causal agent of salvation. By grace
you have been saved through faith. We could say you have received
by faith. By faith you have believed. By
faith. We see Hebrews chapter 11. And we'll talk about faith
completely next week. Faith is not just an action.
It's not just an attitude of God, if you will. God is not
this grace. Sometimes people say, well, God's
grace is what he does is he offers, he lays out this table and he
goes, now, look, everybody come to the sun. Look at him. And
people look at the sun and they go, nah. See, that happens. We
see that happening in the world. We see and we talked last week,
I think, about this common grace that's all over the world that
God gives to every human being. However, this is not what it
means by grace you have been saved. By grace you've been saved. It doesn't mean by faith. It
doesn't mean that God is just offering grace and holding His
fingers like this and hoping you'd come. But what it does
teach is that God is effectual in faith. As true as it may sound that
man must meet God in faith, and even though the Scriptures do
call men to repent and believe, Paul teaches that faith right
here itself is the work of God. That's what it means by grace.
And not only does he teach it, it's very clear that we have
for so long been blinded. Let me show you, church. We have
been blinded by the traditions of the Americanized church and
the evangelistic efforts of the church over the last, I'd say
115 years, 125 maybe. That's where the church today,
if you look at the model church, if you call our associations
all across the country and tell them to send you the list of
their top three churches, they'll send you the list of the churches
that have the most stuff going on, the most people, the most
money, and the most baptisms. And I'll show you that those
people who give and those people who are wet are just that, wet
givers. And not only I don't have to
show you because the data has already been done. The Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association shows that less than three percent of people who are
members of Southern Baptist churches actually can give you the answer
of to answer the question correctly. What is the gospel? Willow Creek
Community Church did a study about five years ago of people
who had been in their church for 20 years, 10 years, five
years, one year. And less than 10 percent of those
people could give you any doctrine at all. But yet, how do they
know they're saved because of something they did to be saved?
It's a tragedy. And so their answer to that,
of course, was to bring in somebody who who just sort of changed
the program in a little bit, changed the thinking, the philosophy
a little bit. The same thing being with with with Ray Comfort,
the way of the master and a very effective evangelist, I mean,
probably. Shares his faith more than anybody
that's ever been alive. I mean, he's probably right now
sharing his faith with somebody. I believe he was in a, you know,
a toilet stall with somebody and. and an earthquake, he'd
probably share their faith. He'd probably have them beating
his face into the side of the toilet by the time it was over or they'd
be repenting or having a conversation or something. So either way,
this man knows what he's talking about. He did a study saying
that 80% of all young people who come out of evangelical churches
in America leave the faith never to return because the gospel
has been adjusted. We've given people the opportunity
to do something that God could not do for them, and they're
fine with it. And then when they realize that they were the ones
in control, they're helpless to do anything else, so they
move and they walk away. See, Paul teaches that faith
itself is the work of God. Look, for by grace, you have
been saved through faith. Now, what's the next word? And
this. And this what? The object of
this is faith. It's not grace and grace, no. And this, what is this? You have
been saved through faith and faith. We could just substitute
it there. And faith is the gift of God. That's exactly what Paul's
saying in the grammar. Look at it in the Greek. There's
an object of that, this, the object refers back to faith.
Faith is the continuation, and this is the continuation of the
statement faith, through faith, faith and faith. And this is
the gift of God. This refers to faith. Paul is
showing that faith is, what does he say? He clarifies it. Not
of your own doing. It is the gift of God. He qualifies
what I'm teaching you and proves this argument by the next statement.
He says not as a result of works. Because it's very easy for us
to just stop right there. You are saved by grace through
faith. Okay, God's gracious toward us, and then I'm going to respond
the way I think I should, and I'm going to say the right words,
and I'm going to be like Harry Potter and wave my magic wand
and do the incantation, and then God's going to move on my behalf,
and then I become a Christian, and when God asks me why, I have
eternal life like He's going to. But if He ever did, I could
say because I believed. Believed what? Not everyone who
says to me, Lord, Lord, when in the Kingdom of Heaven. It
does not work that way. This is not a result of work.
If man could boast, if we could boast in our own faith, friends,
then we have a claim against God. We have a claim that Christ
and God must act on man's actions. Then man becomes the controlling
agent of God's actions. Man then directs God. Then who
is God? Me or God? Verse 10 lays it out perfectly.
All good works in the lives of God's children are given by grace
before the world began, so that what? Quote, we should walk in
them. This includes faith. All good works are countless
nothings. We know what the Scripture teaches about the works of man.
The righteousness of man is like filthy rags before holy God.
We all know that there is no boast except in grace and God
and Christ, the works of Christ. We who are in faith in Christ.
Christ is the one who matters. See, good works are countless,
except those that are in God alone. God's work matters. Man's
does not. God's work redeems. Man's work
condemns. Don't believe me? Listen to this.
For by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his
sight, since through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Romans
3 20. Galatians 2.16, yet we know that a person is not justified
by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus.
So we also have believed in Christ in order to be justified by faith
in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of
the law, no one will be justified. Then what becomes of our boasting,
Paul says in Romans 3.27? It is excluded. By what kind
of law? By a law of works? No. But by
the law of faith. See, our boasting is by the law
of faith that God has wrought as His own work. Who gets the
praise for that? God does. He has given faith. Faith isn't what gives life.
Life gives faith. Life giving faith. Our boasting
is by the law of faith that God has wrought. So that it is written,
let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord. In Matthew 25, when
the righteous will enter and say, Lord, when do we see you
hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? And when
do we see a stranger and welcome you or naked and clothe you?
And when do we see you sick or in prison or visit? You know
what Jesus says when you did not do it under the least of these,
my brethren, you did not do it under me. You know what's crazy? Just like
Cain and Abel, Cain gave a worthy offering to the Lord, the firstfruits. But Cain's heart hated God. He
hated Abel because Abel was righteous. Where do you get that? Because
that's what Paul says. And I mean, that's what John says to. First,
John Old Testament theology is defined and understood and interpreted
through New Testament apostolic authority, authority, not the
other way around. So what we learn here is that
even those righteous works, even those works of kindness and benevolence,
even all these people who are lost without hope in the world
and they do all these good things and people say, how can God send
those people to hell? They're not even going to remember those
works. When did we ever do this stuff? When did we ever do anything? So our works, friends, are rejected
for justification. They hold no merit because they
were created through God's grace in Christ. Why would God give
us credit? for taking credit with what He's
done. Psalm 100, verse 3, Know that the Lord, He is God. It
is He who made us, and we are His. We are His people and the
sheep of His pasture. In John 3, Jesus speaking to
Nicodemus, He says that, I say to you, truly, truly, I say to
you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of
God. Speaking directly about himself, you can't see me. Nicodemus
made a profession of faith that Jesus was divine, and Jesus says,
you're lost. You can't see Me unless I give
you new life, new birth. Jesus in John 15 says, I am the
vine and you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in
him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me he can
do nothing. See, Jesus is divine. A branch
cannot produce itself. It cannot produce fruit. It cannot
produce work. It can't wave. It can't grow.
It can't do anything. It rots on the ground. It turns to nothing.
It turns to dust. For who sees anything different
in you, Paul asked the Corinthians? What do you have that you did
not receive? If you received it, then why
do you boast that you did not receive it? What is he talking
about? God's grace, the salvation of the gospel, faith. Like faith
you have? Why do you act like you didn't
receive it? Like you had it all along. Like it's something that
you found and you did and you picked up and you decided on.
See, gifts are given. They're not deserved. Jesus is
saying that all you have has been given to you. So therefore,
we as a church must stop boasting as though we've done something
on our own. We can't boast and brag about what we've done in
order to be saved. Receive means that we've been
given something. It never means to go and find it or to go and
take it. That's a wage or a thief. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,
he's a new creation. The old has passed away and behold,
the new has come. See, in Christ. It's a recurring
theme here in this text, and I'm almost done. In Christ. It just reminds us as we read
it, and as we see it, as we hear it, as we meditate on it, that
in Christ, that Christ alone is the only means through which
a man can be justified. He is the only possible certainty
that any person has to be saved. It is Jesus who prepares the
way of God's children in righteousness and in faith. Jesus is the model. If I then, your Lord and Teacher,
have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
For I have given you an example that you also should do just
as I have done to you." And Jesus washed the feet of one who hated
Him. Judas Iscariot. For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example,
so that you might also follow in His steps." 1 Peter 2.21 See,
remember, in love He chose us. Why did He choose us? What's
the outcome of His calling? What's the cause of His choosing?
That we might be holy and blameless before Him. Ephesians 1, I think
it's verse 4. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control against such things. There is no law. Why? Because
it's God's fruit. God is not subject to his law
for he's righteous. Christ is not subject to the
law because he is righteous. The law holds no bearing. He's
fulfilled it. But he did become like one of
us to be subject to the law, and yet he perfectly fulfilled
it. Tempted in every way. And so now we understand that
works are rejected. Why are they rejected? Because
God creates good works in the life of the church. We don't
do them and then say, look at us. We do them because God does
them in us. And works are rejected because
they belong to God. But not only that, they're expected
of believers who walk toward maturity in Christ. How is it
when Jesus even, I should have thought about this, but Jesus
tells the story about the wage. And the slave who's working out
in the field, and he's sort of sarcasm. In the context of the
literary style, it's sarcasm. He says, so here's the slave,
and out there working, and when you come into the house, I'm going
to say to you, you've worked a hard day. Why don't you put your feet
up? I'm going to say, no, cook my supper. That's the words of Christ. Because
a slave has to do what he's supposed to do and there's nothing else.
I'm not going to thank you for cooking my supper. No, it's what
you're supposed to do. That's what Jesus says. A slave cooks.
I'm not going to thank you for cooking. That's what he says.
Now, that's not the attitude in which we approach things.
Hey, cook for slaves. Because we're supposed to be slaves to
others and lay our lives down for others. The point is that
we are to do what we're supposed to do. And when we do what we're
supposed to do, we're not going to get rewarded for it. For Pete's sake. So when we're holy, we're not
going to be rewarded for it. But we are going to be condemned
for not being holy. The one time. The one thought. The DNA at the core of our conception. They're expected of believers.
Sanctification and good works are prepared beforehand for us
to walk in them. God has purposed them in us,
and in fact, has called all men to be holy. Why then on the occasion
we find ourselves working in righteousness, do we really expect
to gain favor with God for doing something that we're supposed
to do? It's like our children. I don't know about y'all, but
sometimes our children, I won't say which one. Look, I brushed my
teeth today. Good, you're supposed to. That's
a big deal. Cleaning rooms. Wearing seatbelts. We're all adults. We're not all
of it. I hate that beeping noise. And when we buckle our seatbelts,
we're not supposed to get accolades. We're obeying the law. And I'm sure of this, that he
who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in
the day of Jesus Christ, even as he chose us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless
before him. In love, he predestined us. Ephesians 3, we're not there
yet, but listen to this. And to know the love of Christ
that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the
fullness of God, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry.
Ephesians 4, 12, for building up the body of Christ. And Ephesians
4, 13, until we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge
of the Son of God to mature manhood. To the measure, listen to this,
to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. See,
our works are supposed to continue to emulate Jesus, the righteousness
of God. By grace through faith and faith
is a gift of God, not of work, so that no man can boast next
week. We'll deal wholly on the matter
of faith. We'll deal with the issue of trusting and knowing
and believing and seeing and savoring, adoring, living and
holding fast to the work of God. Listen to these words in John's
gospel as we close. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish,
but have eternal life. For God did not send his son
into the world to condemn the world, but in order that through
him the world might be saved. Whoever believes in Him is not
condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the judgment." These are the words of Jesus to Nicodemus.
The light has come into the world. And people love the darkness
rather than the light, because their works were evil. For everyone
who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to
the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does
what is true, listen, Whoever does what is true comes to the
light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been
carried out in God. God is the acting agent and the
effectual agent of faith. And if he's not, I'm lost and
so are you. So what does it mean to have
faith? Everything that God has just taught us, we trust in that. It's not me, it's not what I
do, but it's what you've done, Father. That's faith. It's a daily thing. It's not
a one time thing. It's every second. When you feel
sin crouching in around your throat, you have faith in Christ
because you know that if it weren't for His grace, that sin would
choke you to death. When you stumble and you willfully
rebel against God, you fall on your face and repent because
you repent. You need to repent every day. Even the sins you
don't know of, you need to repent of them. Why? Because you know
and very clearly see in your life that if it weren't for God's
grace and if it weren't for the perfection of Christ, that no
body in this world, if God condemns every human being for eternity
twelve times over, it would not satisfy His holiness. Because
we aren't even a worthy sacrifice. Do you see that? There's no punishment
we can endure for any amount of time that could satisfy God's
judgment because He is holy. We are not. That's what faith
is. We trust in what God has said
and what He has promised and what He has done and who He is. And next week, I will unfold
that very so carefully so that we can see it. It gets very philosophical
in nature when we start thinking too much. But we ought to think,
and it's going to shake us up some. But we've got to grow,
and in order to grow, we've got to tear some things. And some
of those things, we've got to tear our beliefs. And some of those beliefs
will heal back stronger, and some of them we realize they
need to stay torn. But where we're going to find that truth
is through the Word of God, and we're going to passionately battle
with the Word of God. so that we can compassionately
breathe grace out into the lives of the people around us. So my
prayer for you, Church, is that you would just really hear what
I've said today, that you would hear the words that God has put
through me, and I pray that anything that I've said that should not
have come to your ears, that God would strike it from your memory. But in the heart of His children,
even you young ones, look at these young ones doing so well. Would God just plant that truth
in their hearts? That it would have effect in our lives that
we might live as people. That we've been saved to be.
Let's pray. Father, we're just overwhelmed.
That seems to be the word that I have right now. I'm overwhelmed
with everything. Most importantly, I'm overwhelmed with your grace.
Overwhelmed with your love toward us. God, I thank you for this
opportunity to worship together today. God, I thank you that
we've been able to just Just hear the words of Scripture. Lord, though it's a lot to soak
in, a lot to take in, Father, we're just thankful that You've
given us the grace to hear it and to sustain our presence underneath
the Word. Lord, I thank you for everyone
who's here today. I pray for those who have not been able
to join us to just be with them, be with those whom we prayed
for, those who have cancer, those who are dealing with restless
children, those who are dealing with rebellion, those who are
dealing with depression, financial failure, marriage problems. God,
whatever it might be, Lord, I pray you know who they are. You know
who we are thinking of in our own hearts and minds. God, work
in their lives. Bring joy to the surface of what
seems to be irreparably broken. Or we again, thank you for the
ability to be here to join together in this place, in this building,
father, that you might call many to faith. That we all might grow
into maturity. Father, hold us and keep us as
you promised to do, it seems redundant sometimes to pray for
what you've promised, but Lord, I believe that the scripture
teaches us to pray. You promised our daily bread, but Jesus says
to pray for it. So we pray for the bread of life every day and
we thank you for it every day. Continue to work with faith and
repentance and belief in our hearts every day. We pray these
things in Christ's name, Amen.