Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Like to welcome you to our program
today. Glad you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'll be preaching from the book of Ephesians in
the New Testament, Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus, chapter
two. And I'm going to be preaching
on some verses today that I quote constantly on this program. If
you watch this program, any at all, you probably heard me quote
this verse, especially verse eight of Ephesians chapter two,
for by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
Well, I'm going to start at verse eight. I'm gonna go through verse
10 and maybe a few more verses, but the title of the message
is God's workmanship. God's workmanship. And these
verses state out in the clearest way some of the most fundamental
principles of the Bible, of salvation itself, of the gospel, the heart
of the gospel. And it is that salvation, the
salvation of sinners, And that's what we all are. We all quote
Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. And that's the glory that can only be found fulfilled in
Christ. We always fall short of that,
even at our best. But God saves sinners, not by
their works, but by his free, sovereign grace. Amazing grace. And grace is a term that we need
to understand in the scriptures. For example, whenever we talk
about grace, people will say, well, it's a free gift. Well,
what does that mean? Because you see, a lot of people
are deceived on this issue about grace. For example, a lot of
people claim that grace is God helping us do what we need to
do in order to attain or maintain salvation. But that's not true.
That's what one old preacher called a cleverly disguised system
of works. You'll hear the phrase sometimes,
the saying, God helps those who help themselves. Well, that's
not in the Bible. And certainly as we go through
life and our jobs, our families, and our responsibilities, we
are to do our best to help ourselves. But when it comes to salvation,
we will not help ourselves in the right way. Man by nature
is spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. And he cannot do anything
to gain or maintain his own salvation. And spiritual death, I preached
on that a few weeks back here in Ephesians chapter two and
verse one. Look at it, it says, and you
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now what
is that quickening? It's the giving of life. Here
it's the giving of spiritual life. You see, the Bible teaches
us that man fell in Adam into sin and death. a state of sin
and death and that's what we're in by nature as we are naturally
born into this world we are in a state of sin and death and
that death is not just physical death it's also spiritual death
and spiritual death is the absence of spiritual life and what that
means is that the greatest evidence of spiritual death being dead
spiritually is that we have no knowledge of, no desire for,
no ability to lay hold of and believe and live by the things
that glorify God, especially in the salvation of sinners.
We all want salvation. Even spiritually dead sinners
want salvation, but they want it their own way. We want it
our own way by nature, not God's way. because God's way doesn't
give us any room to boast. And I often make the distinction
between the true gospel, the true gospel of God's grace, and
all false gospels by using this. The true gospel teaches us salvation,
all of salvation, every aspect of salvation is conditioned on
Christ. and Him alone, and He fulfilled
all those conditions and ensured the eternal salvation of all
for whom He died under glory. All false gospels teach salvation
at some stage, in some way, to some degree, conditioned on man. To where man can boast, I made
the difference. And they may say, well, God did
98% of it, but I made the difference with my 2%. And that's what this
verse is telling us. By grace are you saved. Through
faith, you say, well, you must believe. Yeah, through faith,
but that's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. And so in order to be saved by
grace and understand grace and lay hold of grace, we have to
be quickened. And you have he quickened. That
quickening there is the giving of spiritual life. It's the new
birth. You remember Christ said, you must be born again or you
cannot see the kingdom of heaven. You can't see it. You can't understand
it. The natural man will not receive the things of the spirit
of God. Neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. And so all he can do is live
by what he knows, and all he knows is salvation conditioned
on himself. And so, whenever we come to this
issue of grace, there's several things that we have to understand
about. If salvation is by grace, then that means, number one,
we cannot earn it. This is not a wage. We quote Romans 6.23 all the
time. for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Eternal life is not
a wage that we earn. It's a gift from God. So number
one about grace, you cannot earn it. And then secondly, you can
never deserve it. Grace is not deserved. Grace
is for the guilty. You see, Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners, those who cannot earn it and cannot
deserve it. So when it comes to salvation
and all of the blessings of salvation, by grace, I cannot earn or deserve
the least of God's blessings. And the third thing you need
to understand about grace is that it comes to God's people
on the basis of the justice of God satisfied by Christ. In fact, we could just say it
this way, all grace for God's people is in and by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Romans 5 21 says that as sin
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness. Now, what is righteousness? That's
justice. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life. That is, God justly gives somebody
eternal life, but not based upon their works, not because they
deserve it or earn it, but grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. There is no grace from
God to sinners apart from Christ. We could say the same thing about
mercy. Mercy is undeserved and unearned.
If you can earn it or deserve it, it's not mercy, it's not
grace. And we can say the same thing about God's love. God's
love is unearned and undeserved. People today have the impression
that God loves everybody because everybody deserves to be loved.
When in fact, none of us deserve to be loved. We're all enemies
of God by nature. And so he loves his people. First
John 4 10 says, here in his love, not that we love God, but that
he loved us and gave his son to be the propitiation, the justice,
satisfying sacrifice, who made satisfaction, the propitiation
for our sins. And that's talking about God's
people, believers. You see, I've often talked about
God's hatred on this program, and I know people don't like
to hear, but God's hatred is not a sinful hatred. It's simply
God giving some sinners what they deserve. And that's God's
prerogative. He told Moses, he said, I'll
have mercy, I'll be gracious to whom I will. Now, do you want
God's mercy? Do you want God's love? Do you
want God's grace? can only be found in Christ.
By nature, we won't come to Christ. We have to be quickened. So have
I been quickened? Well, do I love God's grace?
Do I love the preaching of God's grace? Do I believe God's grace?
Well, he says in verse 8 of Ephesians 2, for by grace are you saved.
Well, does that mean I don't have to do anything or I don't
do anything? No, he says it's through faith. Now, that's by
means of faith. How do sinners realize the grace
of God? It's through God-given faith.
And that faith is the gift of God. It's not of ourselves. Preachers
today, false preachers, They act as if everybody has some
spark of goodness and all they have to do is be eloquent enough
or emotional enough or persuasive enough to fan that spark and
get them to make the right decision. And so they devise all kinds
of what they call evangelical methods to get people to respond
to their preaching in a positive way, get them down the aisle,
say this prayer, pray this prayer after me, and then get them into
the baptistry and baptize them and tell them they're saved.
But that's not biblical. My persuasion is not going to
persuade you to believe what I know to be true. It's going
to take the, it's the work of God. And that's why I called
this message God's workmanship. But God gives faith in the new
birth. The Bible over in the book of
John, if you want to look there with me, in John chapter one,
it talks about receiving Christ. And that's one of the ways that
the Bible describes a believer. He's one who receives Christ
in the truth and the glory of his person and the power of his
finished work. And it says in John 1 11, talking
about Christ, it says, he came unto his own and his own received
him not. Now that's man by nature. If
left to ourselves, without the work of God, the sovereign work
of God, the Holy Spirit, giving us spiritual life, quickening
us, we will not receive the true Christ. We'll receive a counterfeit
who saves us with our help. We'll receive the one who'll
give us what we want based upon our decision, but we won't receive
the true Christ. But in verse 12 of John 1, it
says, but as many as received him. Now there are some who receive
him. There's some who will not receive
Him, and there's some who will receive Him. Some who will not
believe in Him, some who will. What's the difference between
those two people? Well, the one who will receive
Him is a better person, maybe. Or maybe they're more persuaded,
or they're less obstinate, less rebellious. Is that what the
Bible teaches? The answer is no, for by grace are you saved. So what does it tell us here?
Look at John 1 12. But as many as received him, to them gave
he power to become the sons of God. Now that word power does
not mean ability. There are times in the New Testament
when the word power does mean ability. Like for example, in
Romans 1 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it is the power of God. That where we get our English
word dynamite. But now this word here, power,
means the right or the privilege to be called a son of God. I'm
a child of God, a son of the Most High. What right do I have
to make that claim? I have no right based upon anything
I've done. I have no right to make that
claim based upon anything I deserve or have earned. Well, it says,
but as many as received him, to them gave he power, the right,
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. What is my right to call myself
a child of God? I believe on his name. Now his
name is that which identifies and distinguishes him from all
idols. He's the God of this universe.
He's the God who created this world. He's the God of salvation
who saves by grace. He justifies the ungodly. Now, as I quoted that passage
in Romans 1, for Romans 16, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. For it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, the Greek also.
Verse 17 says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live
by faith. That term, the righteousness of God, is His name. Christ is
Jehovah Sid Canu. That's the Hebrew alliteration,
you might say, or not alliteration, but the transliteration. of that
term in Jeremiah 23 and Jeremiah 13, which is the Lord our righteousness. What is righteousness? Well,
it's perfect satisfaction to God's justice. Where am I gonna
find that perfect? That's what God requires. God
requires perfection, the perfection of righteousness. And where am
I gonna find that? It's not in me. There's none
righteous, no not one. I can't perform enough, well
enough to get it. Where am I gonna find it? In
Christ. In Christ I find the perfection
of righteousness that God requires. And in Him it's full. I didn't
contribute one iota to that righteousness. It's His righteousness imputed,
charged, accounted to me. Now that's His name. And so back
here in John 1, in verse 12, where he talks about even to
them that believe on his name, look at verse 13. He says, to
them that believe on his name, which were born. Now what birth
is he talking about? Well, he's talking about the
new birth, and he says, which were born, not of blood, not
of physical birth, nor of the will of the flesh. That's the
works of the flesh. nor of the will of man. It wasn't
by our own free will that we were born, as preachers will
tell people, but born of God. We're God's workmanship. Now
go back to Ephesians 2, verse eight again. For by grace are
you saved, but it's not grace in an unjust way. It's given
to sinners who don't deserve it, don't earn it, based upon
the righteousness of God's Son. based upon the work of Christ,
the merits of Christ, his righteousness imputed. Where God imputes charges,
accounts that righteousness to his people through Christ, their
surety, he will give them life. He will quicken them and give
them faith. And so that's not of yourselves, it's the gift
of God. Now let me give you, before I go on, let me show you
one more thing. Many preachers who want to say that faith is
a condition that we made of our own free will, will say that
when it says, and that not of yourselves, that goes back to
salvation and not to faith. Well, that's a lie. First of
all, it does go back to salvation. For by grace are you saved. Salvation's
not of yourselves. But salvation, my friend, includes
believing. It includes faith. That's not
of yourself either. There's no rule of biblical interpretation
that would allow me to honestly separate salvation and faith
here. It's all of God's grace, not
of works lest any man should boast. Now go to verse 10. Here's
the summation of it, right here. Here's what puts it in perspective.
For we are his workmanship. Now who is we there? That's believers.
sinners saved by grace through faith, which is not of themselves,
neither the salvation nor the faith. Both are the gift of God,
not of works. So the we here is believers.
It's not all without exception. If you don't believe the true
gospel, don't include yourself in the we. For we, and what are
we? We are God's workmanship. Not our own, we're not self-made
people. We're not people who helped God make ourselves. God didn't do his part and then
we do ours. God did it all. Salvation is
of the Lord. The righteousness in which I
stand before God is the righteousness of God. Meaning it's the entire
merit of the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ as my
surety, my substitute, and my redeemer. That's what it is. I didn't contribute to it. I
don't put it into effect by my believing. In fact, my believing
is the fruit and the result of His righteousness. The Bible
teaches, you can read all this in Ephesians chapter one. that
God chose His people before the foundation of the world and gave
them to Christ, turned their entire well-being eternally over
to Christ, placed all of their sins on Him, imputing our sins
to Him, the debt. He became the surety of the covenant
of grace. The enactment, the establishment
and the fulfilling of the terms of the covenant of grace were
squarely on Christ, not on me and not on you. And that's what
he did, that's the covenant of grace. And God who chose us sent
Christ to die for the sins of his sheep, his chosen people,
his church, because justice had to be satisfied. God is a loving
God. He is a gracious God. He is a
merciful God. But not at the expense of His
justice. His justice must be satisfied. God must punish sin. And He must punish sinners to
whom sin is imputed. And that's why David cried out,
as quoted in Romans 4 and verse 6, when he described the blessedness
of the man. to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness
without works. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. So we are His workmanship. A sinner saved by grace is the
workmanship of God. The true church of the living
God, made up of individuals saved by grace, is the workmanship
of God. Now how did he create us? Look
at it in verse 10. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus. That's how. It's by virtue of
Jesus Christ, who is none other than God, manifest in the flesh. It is by virtue of Jesus Christ
who is the Lord my righteousness. It's based upon His blood to
put away all my sins. That's what it is to be justified
over in Romans 117 when it says the just shall live by faith.
The justified shall live by faith. And so when God sent His Son
into the world to die for the sins of His sheep, That's what
Christ was doing. He was shedding his blood unto
death as the complete and total payment for all the sins of all
for whom he died. And then, at his death, he fulfilled
justice. He satisfied the law. And he
brought forth everlasting righteousness that would enable God to be just
and justifier. That's how we're created in Christ
Jesus. And then somebody may ask, they
say, well, where do good works come in? Where do what we do
come in? Where does that come in? Well,
listen to what he says. For we are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. Now usually when I quote that
verse, I'll say unto, not because of. In other words, good works
is the product Good works is the fruit, the result, the effect,
not the cause. There's no merit in good works
because all the merit is in Christ, for by grace are you saved. We're
God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus. Good works, what
would that include? Well, that would include faith
in Christ. That would include repentance
of dead works. You say, what is a good work?
Good work is that which is motivated by God the Holy Spirit, presented
to God under the blood of Christ. Acceptable to God in Christ Jesus. And so, the good work here is
faith in Christ, repentance of dead works, and perseverance.
Continuing looking to Christ. Walking in Him. Walking by His
Word. Seeking to be conformed to His
image. Fighting the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. And
that's the result, the fruit, the effect, the product of God's
grace in Christ, of His righteousness imputed. And it says here, look
here, it says, for we are His workmanship created in Christ
Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, prepared,
that we should walk in them. This is not something that takes
God by surprise. This is not something that God
is in heaven, just looking down on earth, just hoping that you
will cooperate or you will do. Listen, the salvation of His
people, based upon the righteousness and the blood of His Son, that
will bring them to saving faith, that is give them life and bring
them to faith and repentance and perseverance, this is all
the foreordination of God. That's right. Read Ephesians
1, read the whole chapter. Go back to Romans 8 and 9. That's
what it is. This is something that God has
ordained for His people. It's not, if they will. It's,
they will. That's the nature of the covenant
of grace. God says, He doesn't say, I will
if they will, or I will if you will. No, He says, I will and
they shall, you shall. This is God's work. We're God's
workmanship. We're not self-made people. We're miracles if we're saved
by the grace of God through faith unto good works. We are miracles
of God's grace based upon the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And everything that's said in this book about the eternal spiritual
salvation of a sinner is founded right there. I don't care what
it is, when it talks about good works, when it talks about obedience,
when it talks about blessing, that's what it's about. We're
God's workmanship. Hope you'll join us next week for another
message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7, contact us
by phone at 2-2-9-4-3-2-6-9-6-9, or email us through our website
at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today, and may the Lord be with you.