Good morning. Today, I'm going
to deliver a message from Ephesians chapter two. The title of today's
message is Why is the gospel offensive to some? The true gospel
is the gospel of God. It's the gospel of God's glory. It's the gospel of God's grace.
Some people call it sovereign grace. And let me tell you, once
you get to the heart of the subject, sovereign grace is offensive
to the non-believer. Each human being in their natural
state, not called by the grace of God, whether preaching in
the pulpit, sitting in the pew, or out there in the world, whether
religious or not, is offended by God's sovereign grace. He is offended. There are several
things that offend them. Now, people don't object to God
ruling the waves, ruling the wind, or ruling the world, but
they object and they're offended when we say that God's sovereignty
reaches to salvation. When we say that God is not only
sovereign in creation, but he exercises his will, and his purpose
and his sovereignty and all of those that he has chosen to save.
I had a conversation with a friend of mine a few weeks ago. During
that conversation, we talked about God and we talked about
Christ. He said that he believed in a sovereign God and agreed
that the God talked about in scripture is a sovereign God.
But we started talking about salvation. And he said that people
have to reach out their hand. They have to take that step. They have to take a first step.
They have to do their part. They have to do good works. But,
you see, that wouldn't be descriptive of a sovereign God. Sovereign
means sovereign. And if God isn't sovereign in
one thing, like salvation, then he's not a sovereign God. In
Romans 9, verses 15 and 16, it says, for he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
Now that scripture right there is where men are offended. It's
saying that God will make the choice when it comes to redemption
and salvation. It says, hey, I'll have mercy
on whom I will have mercy on, and I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion on. It's God's choice. It says it
right there. You know, election is so offensive,
just the word, that most preachers will not even use that word.
They say it's not fair. It's just not fair. They say
that everyone deserves a chance at salvation. They always say
it's just not fair for God to choose one person and pass by
another. But it clearly says in Romans
9.21, and listen carefully to this scripture, it says, hath
not the potter power over the clay? of the same lump to make
one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor. Right here, the
Apostle Paul is explaining the sovereign and unlimited power
that God has over his creatures. In this passage, God is described
as a potter. Man is described as the clay. And God created the clay. Now
we all know what a potter does. He takes a lump of clay, and
he forms it. So God, according to the scripture
right here, God has all power over the clay to form and shape
it the way he wants. He either forms the clay into
vessels of honor or vessels of dishonor. But the key here is
that God decides what the outcome is. He decides what he's forming.
The clay cannot decide or make the potter do anything. He puts
it on the wheel and it comes out exactly the way he wants
it. It's all in the potter's hands. Now people always say,
Christ came, Christ died, he even rose from the grave to make
salvation possible. But leave some part of that salvation
to the will and the work of a sinner. They don't give Christ all the
glory. They want everyone to decide whether his atonement
was effectual. Let's decide whether or not his
work at the cross is sufficient, but that's not how it is. Christ
did the work, he died on the cross, and he satisfied the sin
debt that was owed. There's no more work to be done.
Today, my plan is to show you from this chapter in Ephesians,
chapter two, the foundation of the whole problem. I'm going
to discuss three reasons why I believe that every non-believer
has a problem with salvation by grace. They don't understand
three things and I'll go over them. First, most people don't
understand what really happened in the Garden of Eden. What really
happened there? What took place? How did it affect
us and how did it leave us? Second, most people don't understand
and they don't know what happened on the cross. When Christ died
on that cross, what really happened? And third, what happens in a
sinner when God saves him? When God does a work of grace,
what happens? So we'll go over the first part.
What happened in the Garden of Eden? This is what most people
don't know. What really happened? Listen,
if we find out what happened in the garden, we'll find out
what sin is. If we find out what happened
on the cross, we're gonna find out what redemption really is.
And if we find out what God does when he saves a sinner, we're
gonna find out what salvation really is. So beginning in Ephesians
2, verse 1, It says, and you hath he quickened who were dead
in trespasses and sins. The word quickened here means
to make alive. So it says, and you hath he made
alive those who were dead in trespasses and sins. We all know
what it means to be physically dead. A dead person has no sight. They have no hearing. They have
no thoughts. They have no life. They have
no warmth. They are physically dead. So
what does it mean to be dead spiritually? They cannot see. They can see physically, but
not spiritually. They cannot hear. They can physically
hear, but they cannot spiritually hear. In Mark 8.18, Christ said,
having eyes, see ye not, and having ears, hear ye not. And
do you not remember? Christ said they have eyes and
they do not see. They have ears and they do not
hear. I'm going to skip ahead. I'll come back to this verse
again later on, but I'm going to skip ahead to verse 12 of
Ephesians 2. It says that at that time you
were without Christ being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel
and strangers from the covenants of promise. having no hope and
without God in the world. This tells you the state of a
spiritually dead sinner without Christ, without hope, and without
God. And we all know that sickness
and disease and physical death are the result of sin. We die
physically because we are sinners. But Adam's fall in the Garden
of Eden was a spiritual death for all of mankind. In John chapter
3 verse 2, Nicodemus came to Christ and said, The same came
to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou
art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles
that thou doest, except God be with him. And Christ said to
him in verse 3, Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. Christ told him right there,
verse three, that unless you're born again, you cannot enter
into the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus said to him in
verse four, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter
the second time into his mother's womb and be born again? Nicodemus
is asking how can a grown man be born again? Can he go back
into his mother's womb and be born again? And Christ responded
and said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born
of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that
which is born of the spirit is spirit. Christ is saying that
if a person is born of the flesh, then he is flesh. And if a person
is born of the spirit, they're of the spirit. That's the distinction
between a physical birth and a spiritual birth. And that's
what we're talking about here. We weren't dead physically, but
dead spiritually. And that's what happened back
there when Adam fell. The whole human race was without
God, without hope, and without Christ. We died spiritually. And here's the result of that
death. Ephesians 2.2, it says, wherein in times past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. A man is a man. Sin is in our
nature. Can a zebra change his stripes?
No. Can the leopard change his spots?
No. You can cut off his fur, and
it'll grow back, and he will still be spotted because it comes
from within. It's in his nature. We cannot
do good in God's eyes. We're sinners by nature. It says
it in Romans 3.10. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. Christ said in John 8, 44, you
are of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father you
will do. He was a murderer from the beginning
and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him. When
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar
and the father of it. We hear all the time that it's
second nature to think bad things. But as a matter of fact, to be
honest, it's first nature. It's first nature because that's
in our nature. That is our nature. We're all
sinners. And Ephesians 2, 3 then says,
among whom also we all had our conversation in times past, in
the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. We were left spiritually dead
in the Garden of Eden, without God, without Christ, without
hope. We're physically alive and naturally
alive, but dead spiritually. And that's what happened in the
Garden. When Adam fell, death passed upon all men. Eventually,
we will all die physically, and by nature, we don't have spiritual
life without Christ and his effective work of redemption on the cross. Walking down an aisle and shaking
a preacher's hand won't save you. Being baptized won't save
you. Turning over a new leaf won't
do it. In Ephesians 2, 4, it says, but
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us. It said, but God, not but you
or but me. It says, but God, who was rich
in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. We didn't love him. Do I love God? And I'm going
to be honest with you. I don't love God like I ought
to or like I want to. Nobody does. But that's not the
issue that we're talking about here. It says, but God who is
rich in love for his great love, rich in mercy for his great love,
wherewith he loved us. He loved us. He chose us. He's the one that set his love
upon us. He purposed to save us. Now listen to verse five of Ephesians
two. Even when we were dead in sins,
have quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you saved. It says that even when we were
dead in sin, God made us alive with Christ. Then it says, by
grace are you saved. When Christ lived, we lived. When he died on that cross, we
died to sin. When he was buried, we were buried. And when he arose, we arose. God did that. Verse six says
that, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus. When did God do that? In Romans
8, 29 and 30, it says, for whom he did foreknow, he also did
predestinate to be conformed in the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
did he predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called,
them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. So the question is, when did
God do this? He did this back in eternity,
at creation. This right here can get kind
of mind-boggling because the human mind cannot really grasp
what eternity is and how far back that goes. This is one of
those things that I can't really explain well, but I'll try to
illustrate a little bit further. In Revelation 13, 8, Christ is
called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. So in
the purpose and the mind of God, in the covenant of God who declares
the end from the beginning, Christ was already the Lamb slain. That's
the only way that God could love us, that God could accept us,
and God could choose us. He chose us in the Redeemer. A Redeemer is one who has redeemed. So Christ was already crucified
according to the will, the purpose, and the plan of God. But Christ
had to come and be born of a woman, live in this world, and he had
to die on that cross. God decreed it, and God purposed
it. And God's purpose, it was done,
but it had to be completed in time. Christ had to ascend and
sit at the right hand of God and be our mediator. So even
though God decreed it in eternity and the purpose and mind of God,
it was as good as done, Christ came to fulfill the promise. 2,000 years before I was born,
I was justified by the blood of Christ. Let's read on in Ephesians
2.7. It says that in the ages to come,
he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. He is going to show us his faith.
He's going to show us his love. And then Ephesians 2, 8, and
9 says, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that
not of yourselves. It's the gift of God. not of
works, lest any man should boast. We are his workmanship. And he
who chose us and loved us and redeemed us in Christ, he is
going to call us. Here on earth, we have a physical
birth where we come from our mother. But this new spiritual
life that we're talking about here is created by God. and is
given to us as a gift. By grace are you saved. Let's move on to verse 10. It
says, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. What happened on the cross? He
redeemed us, justified us, What happens in a sinner? God makes
him a new creature. The sinner is regenerated. God
gives the sinner spiritual life. In verses 11 through 13 say,
Wherefore remember that you being in time past Gentiles in the
flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh made by hands, that at that time you were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God
in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you
who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
It says, remember, you used to be Gentiles in the flesh. You
were apart from Israel, strangers from the covenant of promise.
You had no hope, you were without God. And remember what God did
now in Christ Jesus through Calvary's cross, through his obedience. It says you that were one time
far off, how far off? dead, without hope, without God. But it says you were made nigh,
you were brought in, made closer by the blood of Jesus. That's
what happened on that cross. Listen, Christ didn't try to
save anybody. He actually saved them. Christ's
blood atoned, His blood cleanses, and His blood redeems. In Ephesians
2, Verses 14 through 19 say, For he is our peace, who hath
made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even
the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in
himself of twain one new man, so making peace. And that he
might reconcile both unto God in one body, by the cross, having
slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you
which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him
we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. Now therefore
you are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens
with the saints and of the household of God. It says that Christ is
our peace, who made both Jew and Gentile one. He abolished
the Mosaic law. Christ is our tabernacle. He
is our Sabbath. He is our sacrifice. It says
that we are no longer strangers, but fellow citizens with the
saints, and we are members of God's house. Verses 20 and 21
say, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles, and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all
the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in
the Lord. God has a temple, a building. He laid the foundation. Christ
Jesus came into this world. He is the foundation. He is the
chief cornerstone And he is going to build on that foundation a
holy temple to the Lord. And let me tell you something.
Every part, every brick, every stone, every door, every window,
and every wall is already marked according to his plan. That's
right. The whole building is already
marked. Every stone is chosen and it
is perfect. It is a temple created in Christ
Jesus. Look at verse 22. In whom you
also are building together for inhabitation of God through the
Spirit. Now I'm going to finish up here. In conclusion, an unbeliever
will never agree that Christ completely finished the work
of salvation at the cross. They may say that they rest on
Christ and Him alone for their salvation, but once you get to
the root of the subject, once you get deep down to the heart
of the matter, they'll always rest on something other than
Christ alone. They'll rest on a decision that
they made, a profession of faith, a baptism, or good works. You see, these things don't take
sins away. Only the blood of Christ can
wash away sin. If a sinner has to do anything
to be saved, anything that comes from them, then Christ died in
vain. A sinner has to realize what
happened in the Garden of Eden. When Adam sinned, all of humanity
was charged with sin. It was imputed to man. Spiritual
death was charged to every human here on earth. until a sinner
is blessed by God to show them what Christ did on the cross,
what he accomplished, they're resting on false hope. They have
no hope, no Savior, and no Redeemer. His death made it possible for
sinners to be reborn, to have a spiritual birth. A person also
has to understand what happened on the cross. They must understand
that Christ's death made it possible for a sinner to be reborn, his
blood redeemed. We're all born spiritually dead
and must be born again. Only God can give a spiritual
birth. And a sinner needs to know and
understand what happens when God saves him. When God does
a work of grace, what happens? They're made righteous in God's
eyes. They're imputed with a righteousness that they can never attain based
on anything they can do. The gospel, the truth, is offensive
to those who have not been blessed with spiritual life, but not
to God's sheep. A message of grace, the message
of Christ establishing righteousness at the cross is a message of
good news to the believer. Amen.