If you'll stay right there in
Ephesians chapter two, the title of the message is By Grace We
Are Saved. Now you know as well as I do
that most everybody that we know claims
to be saved by grace. Often we sing the same hymns
people that do not really understand grace but you know Amazing Grace
is one of the most popular songs even among unbelievers. They
love to hear it and it's a great song. Amazing Grace how sweet
the sound that saved a wretch like me. I did read in one religious organization who had
changed the wording of that because they didn't like to call themselves
a wretch. Amazing grace, what amazing grace
it is. But they don't want to say we're
wretches. You know what a wretch is, don't you? Well, we're going
to find out here in the first three verses of Ephesians chapter two. Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound that saved a sinner or a person like me. That's what
they said. But these verses, these first
10 verses especially, along with what has been taught and revealed
in chapter one, show us the reality of what real grace is like. And it's easy to go around saying,
well, you know, grace is a free gift. You know, somebody says,
we believe in free grace. Well, there's no other kind because
if it's grace, you know this, you cannot earn whatever it is
and you cannot deserve it. See, that's what grace is. It's
God giving something, blessings, benefits, salvation to people
who don't deserve that salvation and who have not earned it. In
fact, they deserve and earn the opposite, damnation. And that's what this thing of
grace is all about. Sometimes we like to use these,
what they call acrostics, I think. And you take the word grace,
G-R-A-C-E, and people will put different spins on it. Some of
them are good, though, like this one, God's riches at Christ's
expense. God's righteousness at Christ's
expense. It's okay, if you understand
that. But here's what grace really
is. It is salvation with all of its blessings, all of its
benefits, all of its qualities conditioned on one person. And that person is the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's not conditioned on you and
not conditioned on me. If it were, It would fail. It would fail. And you may be
sitting there and you say, well, not me. Oh, well, yes, you. Somebody said, well, I'm trying
to be a good person. Well, that's OK. Try to be a
good person. But you're still not going to
be good enough to earn or deserve grace, salvation. And that's what, I probably quote
this Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 just about every time I preach on
television. Because it says it all, by grace are you saved,
through faith, that's not of yourself. Even your faith. And I'm one who believes that
this faith thing here, ultimately and primarily, refers to the
faith of Christ. His faithfulness to do the work. But it does include our believing. But our believing is a gift from
God, he says. It's not of works. It's not of
your will. You don't just decide on any
given day that you're going to be saved. That's not the way
it works. Read your Bible. And to show that, look at this,
the first three verses. Here's point number one. of God's
grace in and by Christ. Now these first three verses,
what they do is they describe the state of all people by nature. And when I say by nature, what
I mean is as we are naturally born. You see, the Bible teaches
that we fell into a state of sin and death in our forefather
Adam. That's the fall of man. That's
the doctrine of the fall. And brought us into a state of
spiritual death, spiritual death now. We're alive physically,
we have souls, but spiritually, naturally, we're dead, the scripture
says. Now that's why Christ told a
man like Nicodemus, you must be born again, spiritually, from
above. But because of our fallen Adam,
we fell into a state of spiritual death and depravity. Now that's the doctrine of total
depravity. Now what do you think of when
you think of a person being totally depraved? You think of the maniacs
in the prisons or something? They are. But that's all of us
by nature. Look at it. He says, and you
hath he quickened, Now Mark read that, it says made alive. That's
what that means. He made you alive. You who God
made alive. Now that's the new birth. To
be quickened is to be made alive. Born again by the Spirit through
the Word of God. You who have been made alive
before that, in other words, your present state is you're
spiritually alive by the grace of God, by the power of God,
by the will of God, not your own will. You didn't will yourself
into this new state of grace. We're born in the state of death
and depravity, but when we're born again by God from above,
we enter a new state, a new reality of existence, being born again
a believer, a sinner saved by grace. And so, and you who he
hath made alive, Here's what you were before he made you alive.
That's what he's saying in these verses. You were dead in trespasses
and sins. Now, let me describe something
about spiritual death here. It's like you, and we're sitting
here, and you hear what I say, and you may even understand to
a point what I say, but in reality, it doesn't mean a thing to you.
That's spiritual death. You understand that? You walk
away unaffected. You don't really believe it.
It's not life and death. Now why does a person do that?
Why would you do that when you know that the only way of salvation
and eternal life is in the gospel of God's grace? Why would a person
turn that down? I'll tell you why. It's because
we're all spiritually dead. Now why would a person believe
it? Because God has made them by grace and his power spiritually
alive. Hold your finger there and turn
over to 1 Corinthians chapter one. Let me show you another
verse that describes this state of spiritual death and depravity.
It's 1 Corinthians chapter one and verse 18. It says, for the preaching of
the cross. Now the preaching of the cross
is a way of stating the preaching of the gospel that is wrapped
up in the glorious person and the finished work of Christ.
Who is Jesus Christ? Why he came to this earth, what
he accomplished, why he did it, where is he now? We read it,
there is a fountain filled with blood, that's the blood of Christ,
his death to satisfy God's justice in order to be merciful to his
people. It's the forgiveness of sins on a just ground. So
the preaching of the cross, he says, for the preaching of the
cross is to them that perish, or literally who are perishing
in a state of perishing, it's foolishness. Now, it's foolishness
because they don't believe it. But unto us which are saved or
are being saved, it's the power of God. That's the difference. Look back
at Ephesians 2. You were dead in trespasses and
sins. Born that way. Everybody. And here's the way
you gotta look at it if you're gonna read the Bible properly.
If you're gonna understand what it means. This verse, when he
talks about those who were dead in trespasses and sins, that
is the natural state of all people from the best people to the worst
people and everybody in between. You take the best person that
ever lived on earth who lived and died in unbelief. You know, there are people who
are unbelievers who are moral, dedicated, and loyal in the sight
of people, but they don't believe in the gospel. They don't believe
in Christ. Well, this describes them. Look at verse two, he says, where
in time past you walk. Now this is how they walk. This
is the conduct of their lives, the course of their lives, according
to the course of this world, this unbelieving, sin-cursed
world, tied to the world, a citizen of the world, worldliness. And
that's not just immorality, that's the world's religion too. Understand
that. It's that religion that conditions
salvation on sinners and measures righteousness and holiness on
that sliding scale, comparing each other with each other and
feeling good about how you come out of that measurement. That's
what it is. And so They walked according
to the course of the world. That doesn't refer only to the
bank robbers and the drug pushers. They are in that state. But it
refers to the best of the best that man by nature can do. And he says, according to the
prince of the power of the air, that's Satan, the devil. A lot of people today believe
he doesn't exist. Well, He's won the battle there,
hasn't he? That's the best thing he can
do, get victories, is to have you deny him. Do you know that
false religion is satanic? It is. Do you know that? I mean, you know, they talk about
Satan worshipers, and they make movies about Satan worshipers,
and they all got, you know, they wear black robes and kill cats
and sit around a cauldron and all. That's myth. The best place that Satan wants
to find people is sitting in a religious organization listening
to a false gospel of salvation by works. He's deceptive. The high school that I went to
back up in Kentucky was called Russell, and our mascot was the
Russell Red Devils. We used to chant R-U-S-S-E-L,
Russell, Russell, give them. That was our chant. And in the
gym, there was a big wooden cutout of a devil, red with a forked
tongue and a pitchfork and a tail. That's the devil. No, 2 Corinthians
chapter 11 tells us that Satan and his ministers appear as angels
of light. It's deceptive. Satan is a religious
devil. Don't ever forget it. And then
he says, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Now in the Bible, a child of
disobedience is an unbeliever. I understand that. Any unbeliever, I don't care
who they are or what they're trying to do, they may have the
Ten Commandments hung around their neck. If they don't believe
in Christ, they're a child of disobedience. And he says in verse three, among
whom also we all had our conversation in times past. This is true of
all of us, even those who are now quickened. This is what you
were. In the lust of our flesh, Now
what is lust? Now we always always think of
lust as sexual, unlawful sexual desire, but it's more than that.
It's any unlawful desire. The desire for salvation based
upon our works is an unlawful desire. Did you know that? Now
why is it unlawful? Because God commands us to seek
salvation not by our works, but in Christ, by his grace. Do you understand that? He says,
fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. That's
the natural mind. And look at this, and we're by
nature, that is as we are naturally born, the children of wrath even
as others. What that's saying, a child of
wrath is a person who goes through this life in unbelief and dies
in that state. I made mention in the funeral
message yesterday, Mike, and you remember this. There are
only two ways to die. Did you know that? Oh, we can
talk about cancer and heart disease and all of these things and accidents
as we see them. We can talk about all, but in
reality, when it comes down to the nut of the matter, there's
only two ways to die. You either die in your sins and
perish, or you die in Christ and live forever. And that's
it. I want to die in Christ. I want to stand before God washed
in his blood and clothed in his righteousness. And you know why
I desire that? Because God gave me that desire.
I didn't desire that naturally. And what he's saying here is
that those who were quickened, made alive by the Spirit to know
Christ, that by nature, as we were naturally born, we were
no different than the children of wrath. We're no more deserving
of God's grace than those who live and die in unbelief without
Christ. You see what, this is grace. Now, beginning in verse four,
he shows us secondly, the exceeding fullness of God's grace in and
by Christ. How far does God's grace go?
How deep is it? How high is it? What's the width
and the length and the breadth of it? Well, look at verse four,
he says, but God, who is rich in mercy, God loves to show mercy. He's a merciful God, but not
at the expense of His justice. There's mercy from God. There's
grace and love, but only in Christ. Based upon His blood, His satisfying
justice. And it says, for His great love
wherewith He loved us. That's undeserved love. And my
friend, I'm sorry. I'm not sorry, it's just true.
It is not given to everybody without exception. It's given to his children, his
chosen people. And it's in Christ. You say,
well, where's there any hope for me? Look to Christ. That's where your hope is. And
all who do can enter into this great love wherewith he loved
us. That's what he says. No greater
love. God who sent his Son into the
world, how shall he not freely with him give us all things?
And he says in verse five, listen to this now, this great love
wherewith he loved us, this richness of mercy, even when we were dead
in sins. Now what does that tell you about
his love? What does that tell you about his mercy? What does
that tell you about his grace? Even when we were dead in sins,
that means we didn't earn it, we didn't deserve it. We didn't make a decision to
get it. You see what I'm saying? We didn't walk an aisle and get
baptized and give our hearts to Jesus in order to get God
to do all this. Or to make Christ's work effectual.
That's not how it happens. Even when we were dead in sin,
and what did He do? Hath quickened us together with
Christ. Now, the quickened, being made
alive here, has to do with our identity and unity with Christ. This is not talking about the
new birth. Now there is the new birth, and that's what verse
one, you hath he quickened, made alive. That's the new birth.
That comes later in the preaching of the gospel when God appointed
a time for his people to come to know him and to bring them
into the kingdom. But this quickening happened
when Christ died. When Christ was buried. When
Christ arose again. Now how do you know that? Three times you see this word
here, together. Now there are people here this
morning who have been born again by the Spirit. I believe I'm one of them. I'm
not gonna go around and point each one out and say who is and
who's not today. But here's the point. We were
not born again by the Spirit together. It happened to me sometime
back in the late 70s. It happened to some of you later
on. That wasn't something we experienced
together. Paul said it this way, at God's
appointed time, he said, when it pleased the Lord to reveal
His Son in me. So there's an appointed time
for each one of Christ's sheep that God's going to send the
Spirit, bring them under the preaching of the gospel, and
they're going to be born again by the Spirit. That didn't happen
to all of us at the same time. But what he's talking about here
is being made alive judicially, representatively in Christ. Quickened us together with Christ,
And it's put in parenthesis here, I don't believe the parenthesis
was in the original language, but what he's saying here, by
grace you are saved, by grace we're saved. If this happened
together, even before we were born, is there any doubt that
it's by grace? You say, well now God looked
down through a telescope. I hear preachers say this all
the time, it makes me sick. They say, God looked down through
a telescope of time and he foresaw what you would do. Now my question
is this, is that the God of the Bible? The answer is no. What we read over in Ephesians
chapter one, the God who determined and works all things after the
counsel of his own will, that's the God of the Bible. And look
on, look at verse six. He says, and hath raised us up
together. Now, when did he raise us up
together? Judicially, representatively, when Christ arose. When Christ,
what the Bible teaches about the elect of God, God's people,
who will in time be born again, that when Christ died, they all
died, he was their representative. He was our surety. Our sins had
been imputed to him. And he came as our surety, our
substitute, and our redeemer. You know, back in the Old Testament,
when the high priest of Israel was getting ready to go into
the holiest of all with the blood of a lamb, representing the people,
he had to put on garments, and on breastplate he had 12 names,
six on each side, and it was the names of the children of
Israel, the tribes of Israel. And that's who he went into the
holiest of all for. Well, the Bible says that before
the foundation of the world, God chose a people and wrote
their names in the Lamb's book of life. And that's the Lamb
that was slain. So when Christ went on that cross,
he went there having the names of his people, his sheep, he
said, the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep, having
the names of his sheep written on his heart. Written on his shoulder, he bore
their sins. It is all conditioned on him. And he fulfilled the conditions
for them. And look on, he says here, verse 6, and hath raised
us up together with Christ and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. If you're a believer, do you
know you're right now sitting in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus? Well, how? You're sitting here
in the pew. How? As Christ is your surety,
your substitute, your redeemer, your representative, your life
giver, your sustainer, your intercessor, He represents you. Our sins were imputed to Him,
charged to Him, and His righteousness is imputed to His people, charged
to His people. We are in Christ, you see. And
all of this, look at verse seven. That in the ages to come, he
might show the exceeding riches of his grace. You see, none of
this can be conditioned on us. And that's the exceeding riches
of his grace. The Bible says that Christ died
for us even when we were yet enemies of God. That's the kind of folks God
saves. that he might show the exceeding riches of his grace
in his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. Outside of Christ, there's nothing
but wrath from God. But when we stand before God,
washed in his blood, what can wash away my sins? Nothing but
the blood. That's what this wine in the
cup that we have, symbolizes the blood of Jesus Christ. There
is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel, that's God
with us, that's Christ, his veins. And sinners plunge beneath that
flood, lose all their guilty stain. He died for my sins. And I stand before God in his
righteousness charged to me. And so this last part, shows
us the summation of God's grace in Christ. You see, we had our
need in the first three verses, our need of God's grace in Christ.
In verses four through seven, the exceeding fullness of God's
grace in Christ. Now here's the summation. Look
at it, verse eight, for by grace are you saved through faith. The Bible represents God-given
faith. as that which first applies to
the Lord Jesus Christ himself in his faithfulness to fulfill
all conditions that would ensure the salvation of his people. It's through his faithfulness
that we're saved. And then it also includes the
fact that God in the new birth when the Holy Spirit gives us
life, quickens us, makes us alive, how the Holy Spirit gives us
the gift of faith to lay hold of Christ, to grab hold and hold
on for dear life, to believe in Him. Now, the new birth is the work
of God, not our work. So how are we to approach this
truth? and deal with it. Are we to sit
there and say, well, then it doesn't matter what I do, if
I believe it'll be God. No, we're to believe in Christ. That's our command. That's the command that God gives
us rather. Seek the Lord. And he says, for by grace are
you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. Some commentators
say, well, that just refers back to salvation and not faith. It
refers to all of it. Yes, all of our salvation is
not of ourselves. Faith, repentance, perseverance,
it's all of grace. And he says, not of ourselves,
it is the gift of God. Do you know what a gift is? A true gift in the Bible is one
given to a person who doesn't deserve it and cannot earn it. A true gift. And he says in verse nine, not
of works, lest any man should boast. But what are we gonna
boast in? What are we gonna brag about?
Galatians 6, 14, Paul wrote, God forbid that I should glory,
that is boast, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians
3.3 says, for you are the circumcision, which means spiritually circumcision
of the heart, quickening. We are the ones who are born
again, which worship God in spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. That's the same word as glory
or boast. We boast in Christ and have no
confidence in the flesh what we can do. And verse 10 sums
it up, for we are his workmanship. We're not self-made people. God made us, His church collectively,
and each member in it. We are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus. That's the basis, that's the
foundation. Christ is the glory of His person,
the power of His finished work, unto, not because of, or for
good works. Good works are the result, the
fruit, the product, Not the cause, not the ground. We don't earn
anything by good works. We don't deserve anything by
good works. All good works do is testify
of what God has already made us in Christ. And he says, which
God hath before ordained, prepared, foreordained. that we should
walk in them. And what is it to walk in good
work? It's to walk in faith in Christ, looking unto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. And yes, it requires a warfare
between the flesh and the spirit, seeking to be good people. Not because we have the ability
to make ourselves so, but that which is through Christ and Him
alone. All right, we're going to take
the Lord's Supper and then we're going to sing a closing hymn.