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. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. Now today, I'm going to continue
a series of messages that I've been preaching through the book
of Ephesians chapter two. I've been going through this
wonderful chapter of God's truth, the Paul's epistle to the church
at Ephesus and the second chapter. And I'm gonna finish up the chapter
with two messages. And these messages, part one
and part two, are entitled, The Salvation of God's Church. The Salvation of God's Church. This lesson will begin in verse
11, but I want to give you the context of everything leading
up to this to talk about the salvation of God's Church. The Apostle had begun this chapter,
and of course you know the Bible was not originally written in
chapters and verses. That was added later on, even
after the first translation of the King James Version. And I
hope you are like me, I'm glad they did divide it into chapters
and verses because it makes things easier to find. But you understand
that Paul didn't sit down and say, well now I'm going to write
chapter one. of Ephesians, of this letter to the Ephesians,
and then chapter 2, verse 1. He didn't do it that way. It
was just a letter. Just like you get a letter in the mail
and you read the letter. But this chapter 2 begins with
talking about a quickening. In fact, in the first part of
this chapter, you have the words quickened. used twice and the
first time is in verse one where Paul writes, and you hath he
quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Now, as I mentioned
in the last lesson, I believe, the last message, if you look,
if you have an authorized King James version of the Bible, you
might notice that the words hath he quickened are in italics,
which means that in the original Greek manuscripts, of the New
Testament, those words weren't there, but they were supplied
by the translators to give it meaning, to understand the meaning,
and they got it right. It would read, literally, it
would read, and you who were dead in trespasses and sins,
wherein in time past you walked, and he talks about before their
conversion, before they were born again. You see, the point
of this passage concerning the salvation, you know, he talks
about how by grace are you saved. And grace is something that we
do not deserve and do not earn. Salvation, grace is salvation
conditioned on the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, the Messiah,
the Savior, And he, the gospel of grace, shows us how Christ
fulfilled all the conditions that God required for the salvation
of His chosen people, which we're going to see is His church. Christ
redeemed His church. This salvation by grace involves
not only what Christ has done for his people on the cross in
fulfilling all the conditions and the requirements. We could
summarize all the conditions and requirements of the salvation
of his church in one word, and that's the word righteousness.
You hear me talk about righteousness on this program quite a bit.
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believeth, to the Jew first, the Greek also, for therein is
the righteousness of God revealed, Romans 1 16 and 17. And that righteousness is perfect
satisfaction to God's law and justice. And that's what's required. Somebody, I asked someone one
time, I said, what is the condition of salvation? They said faith.
Well, it's true that we who are saved must believe, but that's
not the condition that God requires for salvation. The condition
is satisfaction to His justice summarized in the word righteousness. That's what Christ came to do.
And that's what He did for, and I emphasize the word for, His
people on the cross. You see, I had nothing to do
with that. I did not meet the condition.
Christ did. God sent Him. Somebody, I think,
wrote down the acronym GRACE, G-R-A-C, God's Righteousness
at Christ's Expense. And that's a good one. So Christ
is my righteousness. That's why when we talk about
the cross, We're talking about righteousness because the cross
is His death. Paul wrote, God forbid that I
should glory, boast, have confidence, except in the cross. What Christ
did for me. I didn't do that. Christ did.
And that's important. That's when we talk about His
blood. What is His blood? That's His
death. What does His death equal? Righteousness. God says he's
going to judge the world in righteousness, you see, according to that man
whom he hath ordained and that he had given assurance unto all
men and he raised him from the dead. Christ is my righteousness. Now, salvation not only involves
what Christ did for me on the cross, which is the ground of
salvation, it also involves what Christ does in me experientially,
spiritually, by the Holy Spirit in the new birth. You must be
born again. Now that's the fruit and the
result of salvation. You see, being born again is
not the cause of salvation. Quickening, that's what that's
talking about. And you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses
and sins. Now that quickening is not by
my power, it's not by my goodness, it's not by my decision. That
quickening is by the power and the goodness and the will of
God. And that quickening, that new birth, is sure and certain
for everyone for whom Christ died, and that's His church.
So He begins talking about the quickening of the new birth.
You were dead, that's what we are by nature, as we are naturally
born into this world, fallen in Adam, ruined by the fall,
And then if we're one of God's chosen, we're redeemed by the
blood, the blood of Christ, that's righteousness. And if we're redeemed
by the blood, as a result, we'll be regenerated, quickened, made
alive by the Holy Spirit. And the evidence of all of that,
you know what it is? Just like the evidence of physical
life, when that baby comes forth from the womb, That baby breathes,
breathes air. And his breathing air is not
the cause of life, it's the evidence of life. Well, in the new birth,
when a sinner is born again by the Spirit, quickened by the
Spirit, he believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, resting Christ. Now his believing is not the
source or the cause of spiritual life, it's the evidence. So that's
the first quickening. And then he uses the word quickened
again in verse five. He talks about God's mercy, God's
love, and he says in verse five of Ephesians two, even when we
were dead in sins hath quickened us together. Now, in the process
of time, in the process of time, in each successive generation,
all whom God chose before the foundation of the world and gave
to Christ, all for whom Christ came to earth to redeem by his
obedience unto death, all for whom he died, in the process
of time, they will all be quickened in the new birth. But they're
not quickened together. For example, Abel, remember Abel
back in Genesis chapter four, he was a believer, he was quickened
by the Holy Spirit. based upon the promise of what
Christ would come in his future and do. That's the glory of that
promise. It was so sure and certain to
happen that the power and the fruit of it was applied to Abel
in his day. But Abel was quickened back then.
I was quickened later on. So Abel and I were not quickened
together. But in verse five of Ephesians
2, he talks about a time when all the people of God, and he's
talking about the whole church, the church of the living God,
are quickened together with Christ. Now, what's he talking about?
Well, he's not talking about the new birth there. He's talking
about the believers, the church's union with Christ on the cross. He says in verse five, Ephesians
two, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ by grace, you say, and hath raised us up together. What's he talking about there?
He's talking about the resurrection of Christ and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's Christ ascension
to the father. Remember in Acts chapter one,
how he ascended to the father. He went to the father and he's
now seated at the right hand of the father. But you see, all
of that that Christ did on the cross, He didn't do it as a private
person. He didn't do it for Himself.
He did it as the representative, the federal head, the old theologians
called it, the surety, the substitute, the mediator, the high priest
of His whole people, the elect of God, the Church. Christ did
it for the Church. and they're one with Him in the
eyes of God's law and justice. Christ was set up before the
foundation of the world to be the representative of His people.
And in the covenant of grace, He took responsibility to pay
the debt of all their sins. Their sins were imputed, charged,
accounted to Him. He said, put it on my account,
I'll pay the debt. And what was the debt? It was
the death of the Son of God. And that's why He had to come
to earth and take into union with His deity, a human nature,
without sin. The Word made flesh. God manifest
with us, among us. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh without sin. And as the representative
and substitute of his church, his bride, what the scripture
calls it, his church, his betrothed, having their sins charged to
his account, reckoned to him, imputed to him, he suffered,
he bled, he died. He was wounded for our transgressions. Now who's the our there? It's
his church. It's not everybody without exception,
friend. That's not what the Bible teaches.
Preachers will tell you that, but it's not. Preachers will
look at you and they'll say, oh, God loves you and Christ
died for you and you make the difference. Oh no, that's not
the gospel. That's not what this book teaches.
I'm telling you, listen and read. You say, but it says he died
for the world. The world there is not every individual without
exception. It's the world of his people.
It's God. People argue about this, about
mankind. Well, mankind is a genre, is
what you might say. It's a group of people. But how
many people does it take to save mankind? You know? You don't have to save every
human being to save mankind. The race of man. But just some. And we'll talk about that later.
But here's the thing about it. When Christ died, all his people
died with him. Not personally, but in him. When
he was buried, his people all were buried with him. Again,
not personally. When he arose again, they arose
again. Now that's what a believer confesses in believer's baptism.
that Christ did it all for me. How do you know He did it for
you? I believe in Him. I rest in Him. He's my righteousness. I repent of ever thinking that
anything that I could do could recommend me unto God. I have
one plea before holy God for my justification. And that's
the imputed righteousness of Christ. That's the blood of Christ.
That's the death of Christ. That's the cross of Christ. It's
what He did. What He accomplished. What He
finished alone. Nothing added to it. Not even
my faith. My faith is the fruit of what
He did. And my faith does not empower
Him. It doesn't make it worth anything.
Listen. What He did makes my faith in
Him to be effectual. And so when he says that, he
says in verse 8 of Ephesians 2, for by grace are you saved
through faith and that not of yourselves is the gift of God.
The gift of God. Now some commentators say, well
that gift there is not referring to faith but the whole of salvation.
Well, if it's referring to the whole of salvation, friend, it's
referring to faith too because that's part of salvation. It's
all of grace. Listen, when God chose me before
the foundation of the world, it was by grace. It wasn't God
looking down through a telescope of time and foreseeing what I
would do or what I would believe or if I would or not. No, that's
not scriptural. That's a lie. That's a false
gospel. It's unconditional election.
When God sent the Son of God here to redeem me from my sins,
it was all of grace. when God quickened me, regenerated
me by the Holy Spirit under the preaching of the gospel. It wasn't
because of my will or my decision. It wasn't because I have some
spark of goodness within me that enabled me to rise above the
rest of humanity who would remain in unbelief. No, it was grace. And God keeps me by grace. God
will bring me to glory by grace. And if He removes His hand of
grace from me at any moment, I'll fall. Here's what I always
say to people right now. If God were to ever judge me
based on my best efforts to keep the law or to obey Him or to
worship Him, I would be damned forever. You see, God sees me
in Christ. I'm washed in his blood and clothed
in his righteousness. And that's what he means. Verse
nine, not of works, lest any man should boast. I don't have
anything to brag about in me or from me. My whole ministry
by the grace of God is bragging on Christ. I wanna tell you about
him. I don't wanna bore you or impress
you with stories about me. I don't want to write my biography.
Right here's my biography. Quicken together with Christ.
I died with him. I was buried with him. I was
raised again with him. I'm seated in the heavenlies
in him as my representative and surety and substitute. I want
to point you to Christ. I don't want to point you to
me. My old pastor used to say, preach Christ and then get out
of the way. That's what it's all about. John
the Baptist, I always talk about John the Baptist, how he pointed
sinners to Christ, not to himself. He could have really bragged
about himself, but he didn't. He said, Christ must increase,
I must decrease. That's what it's all about. And
then in verse 10, now listen to what he says here. He says
in Ephesians 2.10, for we are his workmanship. Who's the we
there? Sinners saved by grace, both
individually and collectively as the church. He says we're
created in Christ Jesus. The creation of the church, the
creation of a sinner saved by grace is not by his works or
his decision or his will, it's in Christ Jesus. It's what Christ
did. There's the source of salvation. God's mercy and grace and the
ground of salvation is Christ. And he says, created in Christ
Jesus unto good works. In other words, good works, which
incidentally are the work of God and fruit unto God. If you're
saved, you're not the source of that or the power of that.
It's the fruit of the vine. Christ said, I'm the vine, you're
the branches. In other words, it's unto good works, not because
of good works. And he says, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. That's the work of God. Now he's talking about his church,
the salvation of God's church. Now, the term church in our day
has been so abused, misused, and misunderstood. You drive
by a building that's a religious building. It's got maybe a cross
out front or something or a sign. You say, well, there's a church.
Well, technically speaking, that's not a church. The church, now
think about it. The word church comes from the
Greek word ekklesia. You know what it literally means?
It means called out ones. Church is made up of a chosen,
redeemed, regenerated people who have been called out of the
world and into the family of God. They've been quickened by
the Holy Spirit. And that's evidenced by their
belief of the truth. Now there are some places in
the world, some places in this town, that call themselves a
church, but they don't believe the truth. They are a false church. Over in the book of Matthew 13,
you don't turn there, but I'll just refer you to it. You remember
Christ was giving the parables of the new covenant, the ministry,
the ministry of the gospel. And one of the parables was the
parable of the tares. And what is a tare? Well, a tare
is a false church. Satan sowing the tares. Back
then tare was a plant that looked like a wheat. It's called darnel.
And it looked like wheat, but it wasn't. And I think that some
of them said it was poison. Well, as Christ goes about sowing
the seed and bringing his people into the fold, establishing his
churches, plural, where the truth is preached all over the world,
Satan is going about sowing his tares. And that's the false church. So one of the things that's impendent
upon us when we go to church, as we say, or we join a church,
or look for a church, is are they preaching the scriptures?
Are they preaching the gospel of salvation by grace? Some who
call themselves church, they preach salvation, claiming it's
by grace, but they'll add the works of man, Christ plus this,
grace plus this. Oh yeah, it's all of grace, but
you have to do blah, blah, blah, and all that. And that's Satan's
false church. Christ, now listen to it, for
whom did Jesus Christ die? Who did he redeem? Who is he
going to save? His church. Over in the book
of Acts chapter 20, listen to this, this is Paul. talking to
the elders at Ephesus, the very letter that we're reading here.
And he says in Acts 20 in verse 28, listen to this. He says,
take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the
which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, talking about
the pastors, the elders, to feed the church of God, which he hath
purchased with his own blood. Christ purchased the church,
and that's who he died for. God chose them before the foundation
of the world. The Bible says their names were
written in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation of
the world. The Lamb that was slain. And
Paul writes in Acts 20 in verse 29, he says, for I know this,
that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among
you, not sparing the flock. Verse 30, also of your own self
shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples
after themselves. You see, God's gonna save his
church. Christ redeemed the church. They're
justified in Christ. They stand before God in righteousness,
not their own, but one that was imputed to them. Now go back
to Ephesians two. When Paul writes in verse 10,
for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
He's talking about individual believers, but he's also talking
about the church collectively. And that's proven in the next
verses. Now I'll go over them in detail in the next message,
the salvation of God's church part two. But just listen to
this, look at verse 12, verse 11. He says, wherefore remember
that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision,
that is not Jews by nature in ethnic Jews, national Jews, called
uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in
the flesh made by hands. Verse 12, that at that time you
were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel
and strangers, foreigners from the covenants of promise, having
no hope and without God in the world. And then verse 13, he
says, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were sometimes were far
off are made nigh, near by the blood of Christ. You see that? What he's talking about there
is how the church, the true church, the elect of God, That's who
the church is. Am I a member of his church?
You say, well, I grew up in this church. I grew up in that church. And we always think of churches
as being denominations. And I've heard people say, well,
I believe there's saved people in every church. Well, how do
you know that? Are you going by the word of
God? Let me tell you something. If you're sitting in a church,
what you call a church, where a false gospel is preached, there's
no salvation there, there's no life there. And I'm not just
being judgmental, it's just the fact. That's what God's word
says. The people of God are saved under
the preaching of the gospel. But what he's saying here is
that the church of God, the elect of God, the sheep of the Lord
Jesus Christ, chosen before the foundation of the world, and
then fallen in Adam. Who are the individuals that
make up the church? They're sinners saved by grace. Now we'll talk more about that
next week, but 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.