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. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today I'm glad you could join us and if you would like
to follow along in your Bibles with the message that I'm going
to preach today turn to Ephesians chapter one Ephesians chapter
one in your Bibles and the title of today's message is the gospel
of your salvation the gospel of your salvation. And I took
that title from Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13. And I've been preaching through
this chapter concerning the sovereign predestinating purpose and work
of God, the Godhead actually, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
in the salvation of His people. And the first part of this chapter
spoke of the work of the Father. Now, and I've said this before
on this program. Now, we who are true Christians,
we believe that there is one God who exists and subsists in
three persons, not three gods. We believe in one God. and monotheistic, that's what
we say. We're not polytheistic, you know,
many gods. I know the Muslims, they accuse
us, or some of them accuse us sometimes of being polytheistic
because we believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
But that's the Trinity. And the Bible reveals God in
the Trinity of His persons. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit, And it's one God in three persons. Now,
the problem that we have with an understanding of that is that
it's just a truth that is so high above our human intellectual
limitations that we cannot explain it. And really, there are no
illustrations that adequately describe it so that we can pin
it down, bring it down to our level. But there is one God and
He reveals Himself in the Trinity of His persons, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit. So the first part of this chapter
speaks of the work of the Father in salvation. The Father representing
the sovereignty of the Godhead and how He purposed before the
foundation of the world to save a people of His choice That's
election and I know people don't like that and he predestinated
them To be saved and he predestinated all things for the purpose of
his glory and the good of his people And that doesn't that
doesn't give you or me or anybody an excuse not to seek the Lord
or anything like that because we're not God we live in our
realm and so God the Father is the source of of all of salvation. Salvation is of the Lord and
it's by His grace. And then we come to the work
of the Son, God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now everything
that God has for His people as far as salvation and blessedness
and a right relationship with God comes through the person
and work of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God manifest
in the flesh. So that the only way that a sinner,
and that's what we are, the only way a sinner can find salvation
is by coming unto God, begging for mercy in Christ as he is
identified and distinguished in the Bible. in the revelation
of God. That's what the Bible is. And
it tells us that in Christ, the God-man, that's who Christ is,
sinners find salvation, blessedness, acceptance with God based upon
His finished work as the surety and substitute of God's chosen
people. Christ came into this world to
die for the sins of his people. He died, he was buried, he arose
the third day. And what was he doing? Well,
he was paying the sin debt of his people. He was providing
a propitiation, turning back God's wrath because it fell on
him as the surety and substitute of his people. All of their sins
had been charged, accounted, imputed to him. And His righteousness,
which is the result of His work, His finished work on the cross,
is imputed to them so that they stand before God justified, not
guilty. That's an amazing thing. It's
amazing grace. And out of Christ's work, as
indicated by His resurrection life, having put away the sins
of His people, having redeemed them by His blood, comes spiritual
life in the new birth, and that brings us to the work of the
Holy Spirit. And that's where we come to in
Ephesians chapter one, where he's talking about the sovereign
glory and grace of God. Verse 12 says that we, that is
believers, we should be to the praise of His glory who first
trusted in Christ, And that trusting there means to hope in Christ.
And a lot of people, when he says, who first trusted in Christ,
I believe Paul was referring there to the first believers
in the new covenant. And then look at verse 13. He
says, in whom, that is in Christ, you also trusted. After that,
you heard the word of truth. Now that's key. You can't trust
in a lie and claim to be saved. Now you can do it, but it's a
false claim. There's a lot of people who claim to be saved
based upon untruths, okay? So he says, after that you heard
the word of truth. And what is that? The gospel
of your salvation. That's why I titled this message,
The Gospel of Your Salvation, in whom also after that you believed
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. And then verse
14 says, which is the earnest, or the down payment, sort of.
The work of the Holy Spirit in us, in the new birth, what does
he do? He providentially brings us under
the preaching of the gospel, And then he imparts life from
Christ, spiritual life. You see, over in Ephesians 2,
it talks about how, in verse 1, and you hath he quickened,
given life, who were dead in trespasses and sin. By nature,
you see, that's the issue. We fell in Adam into sin and
death. Adam was appointed by God to
be the representative of the whole human family. the whole
human race and we fell into sin and death and as a result of
that we're born dead dead spiritually now not dead physically see we're
not still born physically if we're alive if we have physical
life but spiritually and that means spiritually we do not have
the knowledge and the desire for the things of God We do not
have a heart from God. That's why in regeneration, in
the new birth, it says in the Bible, he gives us a new heart,
makes us a new creation. Say new from the old, the old's
dead. That's spiritual death. And the
new is spiritual life. He gives us spiritual eyes and
spiritual ears. And what that is is that when
we hear the gospel, in the power of the Holy Spirit, the gospel
of our salvation, we see it in a different way. Before, we didn't
see it as life and death, as the only way of salvation. But
now we do. We see it differently. He's given
us eyes to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Christ is all my salvation. Christ is all my life. He's my
hope. All of my eternal wellbeing is
in His hands. He's all my righteousness. I
stand complete in Him and worship Him. And that's not, I didn't
do that before. Now, let me be quick to say,
Before, I did think I was doing worshiping Christ and following
Christ, but it was a false Christ. How do I know? The gospel of
my salvation. We're gonna get to that in just
a moment. He gives us ears to hear. Remember, Christ talked
about the Pharisees. He said, hearing they hear not.
They hear my words, but they don't believe him. They don't
hear him the way that they ought to hear him, that they need to
hear him. You need to hear, these are, Peter said, when Christ,
when the multitudes left him, And he turned to his disciples,
and he said, well, you go away also. Peter said, Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of life. We've
got no choice here, you see. This is the gospel of my salvation. People ask me sometimes, why
do you preach the gospel so much? Because it's the gospel of my
salvation. Is it the gospel of your salvation,
or do you believe another gospel? That's the thing we're asking
here. Well, the Holy Spirit, when he does his work, he indwells
the people of God and he's the earnest of our inheritance, verse
14 of Ephesians 1, which is the earnest of our inheritance. The
inheritance is the blessings of salvation. We've already seen
back in Ephesians 1, 3 that they are all in Christ. We don't earn
God's blessings and we don't deserve them. It's all freely
given in Christ by God's grace based on His righteousness imputed
to us. And so he says in verse 14, which
is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession under the praise of His glory. Now the redemption
there is talking about final glory when Christ comes again. and he takes what he bought,
the people of God, to himself and were glorified. The purchased
possession. Who is that? That's his church.
That's his bride. That's his elect. That's his
sheep. You see, that's his brethren. He laid down his life for his
brethren. And so he says in verse 15, he says, Wherefore I also,
after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto
all the saints, Now faith is the gift of God, he's going to
say over Ephesians 2. Faith does not come from your
inward spark of goodness. You don't have that. That's a
lie. I don't have that, you see. Somebody
says, well, everybody's got a little spark of goodness and we just
gotta fan the flame. I believe everybody has a natural,
some semblance of a natural spark of benevolence, but that's not
spirit, you'll see. That's conscience. But when spiritual
life comes, you'll have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and
love unto all the saints. That's specific Christian love
now that binds Christians together in the truth. A saint is a sinner
saved by grace. And so Paul writes in verse 16
that he ceases not to give thanks for them, for you making mention
of you in my prayers. And then I'm gonna stop there
and go back. Now the gospel of your salvation, And what I want
you to consider today is this, what is the gospel of your salvation? What is the gospel of my salvation? Now, my friend, there's only
one gospel. Now, if you look around, and
this is so confusing to many people, and I understand why
it's confusing. There are so many different denominations,
so many different churches, Now let me tell you, let me let you
hit on something here. And I'm telling you this because
this is what the Bible teaches. All true Christians, notice I
said true Christians, all true Christians believe the same gospel. There's not one gospel for this
set of Christians. and another gospel for this set
of Christians. There's only one gospel which
all true Christians believe. So, one of the grand pursuits
of your life ought to be climbing into the word of God to find
out what the gospel is. Now, a lot of people today, they
go to passages like 1 Corinthians 15. And they say, well, now there's
the gospel. And it is the gospel, but they
say the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Now let me tell you something
about that. The gospel includes the historical fact of Christ's
death, his burial, and his resurrection. You cannot believe the true gospel
without knowing the fact, the historical fact, that this is
really true. That Christ, Jesus Christ, died
on the cross, was buried, and arose the third day. But if all
you know is the historical fact of the death, burial, and resurrection
of Christ, then you don't know the gospel. Why did Christ die? Now here's where we're getting
into the gospel. The good news. That's what gospel
means. Why did he die? What did he accomplish in his
death and his burial and his resurrection? What does his resurrection
mean? Okay? That's what, when we find
the right answers to those questions from the Bible, then we'll know
what the gospel is. Well, I would direct your attention
back to the book of Romans, chapter 1, because, and we could go to
so many different scriptures here, but here's the thing about
it now, you've got to understand, you remember Paul wrote in Galatians
chapter 1, if they come preaching another gospel, let them be anathema,
there's only one. Well, listen to what the Apostle
Paul, by inspiration of the Spirit, wrote in chapter 1 of the book
of Romans. In verse 1, he says, Paul, a
servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto
the gospel of God. Now, it's the gospel of God.
It's not man's gospel. Man didn't originate this message,
or he didn't create this message. This came from God. And it says
in verse 2, which God had promised before by His prophets in the
Holy Scriptures. This is the same gospel that
all the prophets preached and believed, the Old Testament.
And listen to what he says in verse 3. Concerning His Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power
according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the
dead." Now the first thing he tells us about this gospel, and
this is the only gospel of salvation, if this is not the gospel of
your salvation then your salvation is just a mere false profession.
If it's not the gospel of my salvation then the same thing. What is the gospel of your salvation? That's what Paul's been talking
about. Well, the first thing he tells us here about the gospel
is the gospel concerns a person. Now who is this person? Well,
he says he is Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed
of David. according to the flesh. Now,
what does that tell us? That tell us that Jesus Christ
is fully, perfectly man, human, without sin. He was made of the
seed of David. His birth, you know, people this
time of year are talking about the birth of Christ. Well, His
birth was a miraculous birth. He was born of a virgin. without
the aid of man. He was conceived in her womb
by the power of the Holy Spirit. He was called that holy thing. The Bible says, unto us a child
is born, and this is Isaiah nine and verse six, a child is born,
unto us a son is given. The child refers to his humanity
here. Made of the seed of David, that's
talking about the prophecy of the royal covenant. And he was
even prophesied even before then by Jacob back in Genesis chapter,
I believe 48, when he was on his deathbed and he talked to
his son Judah. He said, the scepter will not
depart from Judah until Shiloh, Shiloh meaning peace, which is
Christ, comes. Christ to establish his kingdom.
Christ had to become a man in that sense without sin. And he
was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. So this
person who is my salvation is fully man, fully human, but without
sin. He was a sinless human being,
a sinless man. Now that's mind boggling, but
it's true. He knew no sin. He was made sin,
which means the sins of his people, his sheep, God's elect, were
imputed, charged, accounted to him. But he knew no sin. So somebody says, well, I heard
a man say one time, talking about Christ going through the temple
and losing, what he said, losing his temper. And he said, I'm
glad that's recorded because it makes him more like me. No,
no, no, no. He didn't lose his temper when
he drove the money changers out of the temple. What he expressed
was true, righteous indignation. He wasn't just throwing a temper
tantrum. You see, he's the sinless, perfect
man. But he's not only man, look at
verse four again. It says, verse four of Romans
one, he was declared to be the Son of God with power according
to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.
Now he was made the seed of David according to the flesh, that's
his humanity, his sinless humanity. But he wasn't made to be the
Son of God, he was declared to be what he always was. He's the
Son of God, the second person of the Trinity who has no beginning
and no end, the Alpha and the Omega. He is God in human flesh
without sin. He's God-man. Great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. He shall save his people from
their sins. His name is Jesus, God who saves. And it says, his name shall be
called Emmanuel, which being interpreted as God with us. He
is God-man. Now that's another mind-boggling
truth. So that's the person of Christ. Now over in Romans 1
and verse 16, look at this. Here the Apostle writes by inspiration
of the Spirit, Romans 1 16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, this person, for it is the power of God unto salvation. This gospel now And what he's
talking about is in the hands of the Holy Spirit, by the power
of the Holy Spirit, this gospel is the power. We get our English
word dynamite from this Greek word, power. It is the dynamite
of God, the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. In other words, if you believe
it, that's the power of God and the salvation working in your
life. It's not the power of your free will. It's not the power
of some spark of goodness in you. It's the power of God. Faith is the gift of God. Somebody
said, well, if God's gonna give me faith, he'll give it to me.
If he won't, he won't. Well, that's true, but that doesn't
relieve your responsibility to seek the Lord, to read the scriptures,
to find out what is the gospel of your salvation. You see, if
God gives you faith to believe, then you know of his working
power. And this gospel in the hands
of the Holy Spirit is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believe, to the Jew first and also to the Greek or the
Gentile. In other words, Paul's making
the point, this is not just for the Jews. This is for God's people
all over the world. Anybody. Christ said in John
6 37, all that the father giveth me shall come to me. And him
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. No matter if
you're a Jew or a Gentile, black, white, male, female, anything.
If you come to God, pleading the merits of Christ, he will
receive you. And the Bible says, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, man
by nature will not call upon the name of the Lord. They'll
call upon the name of their God, their ideas, but not the true
God through the true Christ in the true gospel. So he says to
the Jew first and the Greek also, and then look at verse 17. He
says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. From faith to
faith, as it is written, the just, the justified shall live
by faith. Now, if the gospel of my salvation,
of your salvation, is the true gospel, then it's been made the
power of God unto my salvation, brought me to faith in Christ,
in the revelation of this righteousness of God. What is the righteousness
of God? Well, over in Romans chapter
three, he tells us in verse 19. Now
listen to this, Romans 3, 19. He says, now we know that what
things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty, subject to the judgment of God. Guilty before
God. You know what he's telling us
there? He says, all the law can do for you is condemn you. Now,
why is that? Well, he tells us later in verse
23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. What
is the glory of God? Well, it's the righteousness
of God in Christ. We're gonna see that. Now, he
says in verse 21, or verse 20 of Romans three, therefore, by
the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his
sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. You cannot
be justified. Now, what is it to be justified?
It's to be not guilty. It's to be righteous in God's
sight. How can I attain that? How can
I be not guilty and be righteous in God's sight? Well, not by
works of the law. All the law can do is show me
my sinfulness. And so he tells us there, he
says in verse 21, but now the righteousness of God without
the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, there's
no difference. The righteousness of God is the
righteousness, the merits of the finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ to save his people from their sins. You see, the
gospel is not what Christ tried to do, it's what He did do to
ensure the salvation of His people. We'll continue this, so I 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
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today and may the Lord be with you.