I don't know if I've preached
a whole lot from this message. I've often referenced it, or
from this passage, often referenced it in different messages. But never, I think, one message
I've done all the time I've preached from this passage. And Lord,
just put this on my heart. Wonderful portion of scripture.
As I said, I've referenced it many times in other messages.
Ephesians chapter two, we're going to look at verses one to
10. And I titled the message salvation by sovereign grace. And that's, that's the truth
of it, isn't it? Our salvation is by the sovereign
grace of God. As we saw on Sunday school, the
work of salvation begins in us by the Holy spirit of God. He's
the one who does the work. He's the one who regenerates
us. Before we ever believe on Christ, you must be born again,
our great God and King said. And so, regeneration must precede
faith. And faith is a gift of God, as
we saw in verses eight and nine of what Brother Brian read there.
It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And
so this is the wonders The thing about salvation is here we are,
people we are going to see in our natural state so undeserving
of this wonderous grace, of this wonderous mercy that we receive
in Christ Jesus. As a matter of fact, if we got
what we deserve, we'd all be in hell. But it's amazing that
God saves his people in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
God. God incarnate in the flesh, sent by the Father. And in the
Son sends the Spirit. Absolutely amazing. And never,
never put the work of the Father or the Son ahead of the work
of the Holy Spirit. Remember the three are one. They
all have a part in our salvation. The Father chose us in eternity. The Son redeemed us in time and
space at Calvary. And the Holy Spirit regenerates
us in our time of love. And we're born again. And we're
never the same again, are we? We're never the same after that.
One preacher told me, once you hear Sovereign Grace preaching,
it ruins you for everything else. And it's so true. And you're
ruined to the world now, too. Because the world's lost its
luster. The world's lost that which enamored
us. And now, We who are the born
again blood washed saints of God, now we're enamored with
Christ. He's amazing to us. And so I
pray that we can leave here today rejoicing in the fact that salvation
is all by sovereign grace, all by the sovereign grace of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit of God. And we will see
here by inspiration of the Holy Spirit of God, because remember,
remember Paul's writing this, but remember, remember who the
true author of these words are. The true author of these words
is God, the Holy Spirit that we see here before us. And we're
going to see that in this portion, but again, by inspiration of
the Holy Spirit of God, that the apostle Paul magnifies the
grace of God against the blackness of who we are by our nature,
who we are born into this world. You know, you go into a store,
I've not done this a lot, but I've done it a few times, you
go into a store and you ask to look at a diamond or a diamond
ring, and they bring this pitch black felt out, and they put
it down. And then there's the diamond
just shining, they put the diamond down, and it just makes the diamond
just pop. You see, the blackness of our
sin in our natural state. When the Lord saves us by His
grace, His grace is like that diamond, just so beautiful, stands
out against the blackness of our sin and who we are. And that
leaves us in awe, doesn't it, of the grace of God. Leaves us
in awe of who He is and the fact that He had mercy upon us and
the fact that He purposed and planned and willed to have that
mercy and that grace be bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus our Lord. We're going to see in verses
one to three here that he describes what kind of people we are by
nature. What kind of people we are by
nature. Then he's going to, in verses four and five, he's going
to relate, Paul's going to relate to us what God has done for us
in Christ. And then lastly, he observes
our present and future blessings in glory. which is brought forth
in verses six to 10. And again, as we look at these
verses, let us always remember that the true author of these
words is God, the Holy Spirit. And then what comfort can be
found in that fact for us, that these are not the mere words
of man, but these are God's words to we who are his people. And this epistle was written
to God's church at Ephesus. to the born again blood-washed
saints who struggled with sin just as we struggle with sin,
struggled in their time on this earth just as we struggle in
our time on this earth. So there's nothing new under
the sun, right? Solomon wrote. So whenever we read scriptures,
always remember that, that our brothers and sisters are struggling
with the same things that we struggle with. And if we all
got together and shared some of the things we struggle in,
if we find out, it's all the same. It's all the same. So, let's look at verse 1. It
says, And you, Hathi Quicken, who were dead in trespasses and
sins. Here's our natural state put
right before us, clearly and plainly. Every man and woman
is by nature born into this world, dead in trespasses and sins,
separated from God, as we see in verse 12. Look at this. of
the same chapter, 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. Now we know that God knew his
people, and that he always watched over us, but this is talking
about us, our experience here. We had no hope. I had no hope
before the Lord saved me. I didn't even think about God,
did you? I had no hope at all. I hoped in myself. which left
to myself would have led to my doom, but praise be to God that
God intervened in my life and in yours too." So this is our
natural state, separated from God. Without Christ, we do not believe
in Him. We had no desire to know Him.
Did you have any desire to know Christ before the Lord saved
you? Did you have any desire at all to know Him? Maybe a Christ
we manufactured in our imagination, right? who we could control and
who we thought would weigh our good and bad, but not the Christ
of the Bible. We were completely deprived of
any spiritual ability to do anything good. Turn if you would to Romans
chapter 3 quickly. Romans chapter 3. This is so
clearly bought forth in Romans chapter 3. And then we'll go to Romans chapter
5 right after that. Romans chapter 3, look at this
explanation of how we are by nature, without Christ, and you
know, people, you talk to people and you say, well, we're all
a bunch of sinners, and a lot of people will right away say,
well, I'm a good person. What does the scripture say,
right? See, everybody always thinks better of themselves than
what we really are. Look at this, Romans chapter
three, verses 10 to 12. As it's written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. So that means there's not one
of us who can make ourselves righteous before God by anything
we do. In our natural state, we are
unrighteous. And then it says, there's none
that understandeth, there's none that seeketh after God. See? The time that we start to seek
after God is when we're made willing by the Holy Spirit of
God. I believe we're already born again. And he's making us
willing to flee to Christ. But before that, there's none
of us that understand the things of God. And even after we're
saved, we still just know so little, don't we? We only know
what God reveals to us. But in that little bit that God
reveals to us, my oh my, it's absolutely amazing, isn't it?
It's just incredible. But in our natural state, there's
none that understand it. And there's also none that seek
after God. I can attest to this. This was me in my natural state.
I had a God of my imagination. I was a Catholic, and I thought
I knew who Christ was. But I had no idea who the true
Christ of the Bible was. I had no clue. I had cooked up
a God in my own imagination who was not God. Not at all. The Christ that I knew was controlled
by his mother. Isn't that awful? That's awful,
isn't it? The God of the universe who created
Mary was controlled by me? That's what the Catholic Church
teaches. It's horrible. But see, I had this God that
I had cooked up in my imagination, but I wasn't seeking the one
true God. And then it says, they've all
gone out of their way, they've all become unprofitable. There's none that
do it good, no, not one. Look at that, what a statement.
Unprofitable servants. My, that's a pretty dark place,
isn't it? That's a pretty horrible place.
And what's the cause of the spiritual death that we're born into? Turn
to Romans chapter 5. And here again the scripture
brings it forth so clearly. When Adam fell, beloved, we all
fell in him. Romans 5 verses 12 to 19. Wherefore,
as by one man, that being Adam, sin entered into the world, and
death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for what? All have
sinned. So someone tells you they're
not a sinner, they're lying. Because the scripture plainly
declares that all have sinned, all of us. I was born out of my mom's womb,
I was a sinner since I came into this world. Did I know I was
one of God's elect? I didn't have no clue. As a matter
of fact, I had no clue in my teens. I had no clue in my 20s. I had no clue in my 30s. But praise be to God, the Lord
saved my soul. Now I know. And therefore I preach
the gospel to everybody, right? Because I don't know who God's
people are. Whosoever will, let them come. Let them come. My. So sin entered the world by Adam's
transgression, and now we're all born sinners. For by one
man's offense, death reigned by one. Look at this, so here
we go. Much more, they which receive
abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness shall reign
in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offense
of one, judgment came upon all men, condemnation, even so by
the righteousness of one, that's Christ. The free gift came upon
all men into justification of life. Isn't that wonderful? Justified in Christ, as we've
been looking at in the book of Galatians, study in Sunday school.
For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. So the one
who's born dead and trespasses in sin, the one who we're going
to see later quickened by God, is made righteous in Christ.
Because we saw there's none righteous, no not one, right? So in a natural
state we can't make ourselves righteous. A dead man can't make
themselves righteous, can they? We saw in Ephesians 1 that we're
dead. And that's graveyard dead in the Greek. So a dead man can't make themselves
righteous. But as I said in Sunday School,
that which is impossible with man is possible with God, right?
And he makes us righteous in Christ. Oh, it's so wonderful,
beloved. So wonderful. And this corrupt
state of sin and spiritual deadness is continued through reproduction
as we're all born sinners. Listen to what Psalm 51.5, behold,
I was shaped in iniquity and sin did my mother conceive me. Psalm 58.3, the wicked are estranged
from the womb, and they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking
lies. Did I have to teach my kids to
lie? My two kiddos, I didn't have
to teach it. As a matter of fact, I tried to keep them from lying.
But what happened? They're just like their dad,
a liar, right? My, oh, my. And so they started
spouting lies. My, oh, my. I ain't lying about
this, though. This is the truth. This is the
truth. We know that all men are liars,
but this is the truth right here. This is true, because it's God's
word. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that absolutely wonderful?
My, oh, my. So we see in verse 1 of Ephesians
chapter 2, And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins. So quicken there is, would be
born again, born again by the Holy Spirit of God. But, but
again, look at our state, dead. So the Holy Spirit is setting
before us here because he's the true author of these words. He's
setting before us our unregenerate state and the fact that we were
hopeless and helpless to save ourselves. See, this is what
makes God's grace and God's salvation so absolutely incredible. Because we lacked any ability
to save ourselves, we were dead. Graveyard dead. We were a corpse,
beloved, a carcass. And as a corpse, I cannot receive
the things of the Spirit because they are foolishness to me. I
can't make myself believe what the preacher's saying as a corpse,
because I think they're a bunch of foolishness. I remember when
I was younger and guys used to come up and tell me about Christ
and I thought it was just, I did, I thought it was foolishness.
It's like, get out of my way, I don't want you around me. My
oh my. But that's our natural state,
isn't it? That's who we are by nature. And if one's dead, we
can't be pushed, or motivated, or coaxed, or enticed into spiritual
life, right? Because we're dead. We're dead. See, decisionism
has replaced Holy Spirit regeneration nowadays. People say, just pray
this prayer, or walk the aisle, or do this. There's no regeneration
there, beloved. There's no Holy Spirit regeneration.
And so some folks call it decisional regeneration. Because a corpse
cannot make themselves alive. So this is the state that the
Lord finds us in, dead. Unrighteous, dead, spiritually. Because we transgressed the law
on Adam. Now let's read in verses two
and three here. more of who the people are that
God saves. Who are the people that God saves?
Look at this. Where in times past ye walked
according to the course of the world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversations
in times past in the lust of the flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others." Isn't this amazing? The Holy
Spirit is setting forth here the kind of people that God saves. Sinners. to the core. Remember our Lord said, I didn't
come to save the whole. I didn't come to those who already
feel themselves as righteous by their own works. He came to
save sinners, didn't he? That's who he came to save, beloved.
Sinners. And sin and evil are the path
or the road or direction in which all unbelievers walk. They're
the road that I walked in, in U2 before conversion. We all
walked in these roads. The first guide we see in our
text here that we walked with was according to the course of
this world. We walked, our guide was the course of this world.
Whatever the world was doing, we wanted to do it too. And we
follow right along with it. We follow right along with
it. According to the corrupt course
and custom of the world, the customs, the manners, and the
way of life, our fallen flesh determined our thoughts. Our
values, our conversation, we walk not in the Lord's way, but
in our own wicked way. See, we were guided by a dead
nature, right? Luther wrote a book called The
Bondage of the Will. If you ever get to read it, I recommend it
because it tells us how we were in bondage to our will. If you
have a dead nature, you're in bondage to that nature. See,
we're born again now. We have a new nature now as believers,
right? We're guided by that nature now,
but before we were guided by a dead nature that wanted to
do the things that the world does. Wanted to satisfy the lust
of the flesh, the desires of the mind, but they were all corrupt
because they come from a corrupt nature. Our thoughts were not of the
Lord, but they were all about us. Because the world told us
to look out for number one, didn't it? Look out for yourself. The pride of life, we were led
by the pride of life. We used to walk as carnal men
and women walk, not as spiritual men and women walk. So this is
the type of people who God saves. Saves sinners. Are you a sinner? Oh, praise God, I'm a sinner
saved by grace. Can you say the same? Isn't it
wonderful? If you can, it's absolutely wonderful. The second guide we had before
the Lord saved us was we walked according to the prince of the
power of the air. That's Satan. who's called thus
not because of any power he had over our minds, or the winds,
or the storms, or the weather, but because he's the prince of
a legion of demons and evil spirits who have residence in the spiritual
realm. And he has great power to blind men's eyes. He even
has his own preachers. Let's say salvation is not of
the Lord, it's by something you do, along with believing on Christ. It blinds a man's eyes, fills
their hearts with evil, and leads them into great sin. Turn, if
you would, to John chapter 8. Here's an incredible portion
of scripture in John chapter 8, which will bring this forth,
this fact forth. Men walk after him and they imitate
him. And you know, he now reigns in
unbelievers. Just remember how we used to
think before the Lord saved us and how we think now, what we
think now of God and what we thought of God before the Lord
saved us. What we think of sin now and what we thought of sin
back then. Sin didn't bother us then, did
it? Scripture says we drank it like water. I can attest to that,
can you? My! Look at this though, in John
chapter 8, verses 39 to 47. And a little further down, the
Lord says, before Abraham was, I am. He revealed to them who
he was, and they picked up stones and they wanted to kill him after
that. But I say that because he mentions Abraham here. John
chapter 8, starting verse 39, they answered and said unto him,
Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto him, if you
were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.
What did Abraham do? He believed, didn't he? He believed
what God said. And it was counted to him for
righteousness. Beloved, he believed on Christ.
My. And it says, but now you seek
to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth. which I have heard
of God, this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father,
and they said to him, we be not born of fornication, we have
one father, even God. Now here it is, here's the word
of God, right? Sent by the father to save his
people from their sins. And look at his answer. Jesus
said to them, if God were your father, you would love me. Right? He who honors the father, or
honors the son, honors the father, right? Yeah. If God were your father, you
would love me, for I proceed forth and come from God. What
a statement. Neither came I myself, but he
sent me. Look at that. Sent by God. Sent by God to save his people
from their sins, beloved, on a divine mission. on a divine mission. Why do you not understand my
speech? Remember what we looked at in Romans? There's none that
understandeth. Even because ye cannot hear my
word. Ye 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, none
at all. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. And because
I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Which of you convinces
me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do
you not believe me? He that is of God heareth God's
words, ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. My goodness, what a statement. So the only reason we hear the
words of God, beloved, is because we're God's people, we're his
elect. were the ones who Christ redeemed on Calvary's cross.
Now, do I still preach the gospel to everyone? Absolutely. Absolutely. Let it fly. God's word will go
forth and do what it will, what he wills it to accomplish. Do
we pray for salvation of others in other countries? Absolutely.
May God bring a revival, as Brother Brian prayed, to this country,
to every country around. That's what our hope is. And
may He revive us again too, right? My! Now let's go back to our text
in Ephesians chapter 2 and we see here in verse 3 that He keeps setting before us our
natural state and what kind of people we were. What kind of
people God saves. Among whom also we all had our
conversations in times past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others." My, oh, my. The apostle says that in this
condition, conduct, and state, we all, Jew and Gentile, including
himself, lived and walked. That's how we walked. That's
how we lived before we were saved. The Holy Spirit is setting forth
before us, whether people believe it or not, our natural state. That was us. And note the course of our life
was in the lust of the flesh. And this has mainly to do with
the body, its appetites, its corrupt desires, and sensual
delights. We fulfilled the desires of the
mind. Desires here is the will and thoughts of our evil minds. And not only is our flesh corrupt,
but also our affections, our understanding, and our wills.
We sinned because we willed to sin. We walked in darkness because
we love the darkness. And the reason we did these things
is that we were children of wrath by nature. And this is the root
cause of our sin and misery and slavery. From conception to birth
to cradle, we are children of wrath, God's wrath. Oh, what a wretched state this
is. There's no hope, is there? It seems like there's no hope.
Because of being dead, we couldn't do anything about this, could
we? What a wretched state. We're hopeless to save ourselves,
hopeless to make ourselves fit for heaven. And it seems like
darkness is closing about us when we read these verses that,
oh, there's no hope. But praise be to God, the next
verses, we see God's sovereign, unmerited mercy and grace brought
before us and set right down in front of us. Again, this letter's written
to God's born, again, blood-washed saints by Paul, by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God, again, who's the true author of these
words. So let us now read verses four and five. There is not hopeless,
helpless estate, no hope, dead, two words, but God. Oh, my beloved. Verse four. two of the most beautiful words
in our language, in the human language, of this grace, because
it comes from our great, merciful, loving God, who has loved us
from before there was ever anything made. That love for us has never
changed. It has always been set upon his
people in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of this, too. Nothing about
us or done by us is the cause of grace. Dead things can do
nothing. They cannot perform anything. Here in these two words, we see
again the cause of God's grace. It's found in the source of the
heart and love and will of the God of all grace. Note this blessed
descriptive conjunction, but. But. But God. We cannot be the cause of grace.
But God can be and is the cause of this grace, which comes from
our great God, all through his merciful love. We see he's rich
in mercy. You can't plumb the depths of
his richness. You take all the money in the
world, all the riches in this world, and put them all together
in one big heap, and they don't even come close to the richness
of our God. He's made the universe. All that
we can see and can't see, it's all His. He owns it all. This world that we live on, the
beauty of it, all comes from Him. He's made it. We're going through the change
of seasons now. Vicki and I took a drive up north to see the,
just up to the top of the thumb to see the change of the colors
and everything. Absolutely stunning. And we were
just marveling at what the Lord's done. It's all Him. And then He allows us to witness
it, to see it every year. And in that snow, I'll tell you
what, I love snow when it's fresh. I just like that fresh snowfall.
And I love how it hangs on the trees. But winter is winter,
right? We've gotten used to it. You
get used to it when you live in it. I lived in Canada. I got
used to the winter. It's snow everywhere. And so
you just learn to live with it. And it has a beauty all of its
own, doesn't it? It really does. Just like every
season that the Lord puts before us. But he's so rich in mercy for
us. And his mercy is so sufficient it can cover the worst of the
worst of the worst of the worst sinner. It saved me. I like what John
Newton said, the Lord saved me, he can save anyone he pleases
to. Amen to that, brother. The Paul was murdering Christians,
the Lord saved him. David committed adultery, and
the Lord saved him. Do you know there's a people
in the Scriptures, I've told you guys about these guys before,
Scripture says that in Christ there's neither Jew nor Gentile,
Barbarians, Scythians, bond nor free, the Scythians, they used
to drink blood out of the heads of their victims after they took
them off their body. They were just absolute butchers. Barbarians, Scythians, bond nor
free. The Lord saved some of them too.
Isn't that amazing? Oh my beloved! He's the God of
all grace and all mercy. He's rich in mercy. No matter
how undeserving and how sinful we are, if He has marked us for
His mercy, oh, that mercy will never be
denied. And that mercy can never be drained,
no matter how much of a sinner we are, and we're, my oh my,
I just think back on my sin, no matter how sinful I was, or
still am, because I'm just a sinner saved by grace, his mercy cannot
be drained. It cannot be diminished, beloved. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Immanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that
flood. Why? Lose all their guilty stains. Zacharias said there's a fountain
open for uncleanness. Well praise be to God. That's
the blood of Christ. That's the blood of Christ. My,
and his love, oh beloved, his love is true love. It's not a
50-50 love of human love, right? Because we can love someone and
get real mad at them, and then we can even sometimes
unfriend them, right? Just not in a Facebook way. I
just mean just have no desire to be around them anymore. Why? Oh my, our love is so fickle. But God's love is expressed in
the salvation of his loved ones, in those he chose in Christ,
those he gave to Christ in eternity. It's expressed by the fact that,
as we read in those words of John 8, that Christ was sent
by the Father. That's the Savior and I, beloved.
That's his whole mission, the whole reason he came here. was
to save us from our sins, to redeem us with his precious,
precious blood. And it says wherewith he loved
us in the scripture, right? That's from eternity. That's
the correct tense because he's loved us from eternity, beloved.
It's not something that just happened. God didn't look down through
time and see who would choose him, no. If God looked down three times,
He'd see us just as a mess of sinners, wouldn't He? But He
chose us in Christ, beloved, we who are His people. What grace,
what mercy we've received. And God's love is expressed in
the fact that He saved us from our sins. And His love is an eternal, unchanging
love. It will never change, beloved.
It'll never change. And mercy is an attribute of
God as well as righteousness, justice. Mercy is plenteous,
we see, and free and infinite in Christ. You can't measure
it. His great love and mercy to his
chosen people are from everlasting and arise out of himself, not
because of anything in us. It arises purely out of his free
and sovereign grace. There's absolutely nothing in
us that would cause Him to love us. And yet He does. That's God's amazing grace, beloved. That's God's sovereign grace. Look at verse 5 now. It says,
Even when we were dead in sins, He hath quickened us together
with Christ. By grace ye are saved. So again, he goes back
to our natural state, even when we were dead in sins, our natural
state of deadness. And we see he made us alive.
We were quickened together with Christ. As we saw on Sunday school
this morning, Galatians 3.3, having begun in the spirit, are
you now made perfect by the flesh? No, the Holy Spirit began the
work in us. And then as we saw in Philippians chapter one, I
believe it was verse six, that the Holy Spirit is the one who's
going to finish that work. And remember in the Greek word,
it said to be brought to completion, to be perfect. He's going to
do that in us. See, we're being conformed to
the image of Christ, beloved. While we're upon this earth,
we're being chiseled on. and worked on by the master sculptor, where stones are being made ready so that when we get the glory,
not a sound of a hammer, we're going to fit right in. Isn't
that amazing? It's absolutely incredible. Just as those stones being made
for the temple were cuing and made a far off, and all that
was done, and so that not even a sound of a hammer, when they
bought that stone to fit it into the temple, there was not even
the sound of a hammer. That's us. We're being chiseled
and worked on a far off in this world. So that when we get the
glory, we're going to fit right into the, it's just absolutely
incredible, beloved. It's absolutely amazing. Let us consider two ways, two
ways here it says, even when we were dead in our sins. When
our Lord lived in this earth, you know we lived with him, beloved?
We were in union with him. We were in him. When he died,
we died in him. When Christ arose, we ascended
with him. And we are now seated in the heavenlies with him. In this sense, we were quickened
with Christ, which it says there. And then the other quickening
is regeneration. We're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. Made
alive in Christ. New creature in Christ. We have
a new heart now, don't we? Which becomes a new creature.
Christ is our life. He's the author, the cause, and
the source of life for us. And it's all a gift of his grace,
and his mercy, and his love. Turn, if you would, to Galatians,
Chapter 4. And we'll see why God sent his
Son into the world. And then we'll see why we are
regenerated, why we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. Again,
our Lord said you must be born again, right? And we know it's
an operation of God. It's not anything we do. It's
an operation of God. Galatians, Chapter 4. Verses 1 to 7. Now I say that the heir, as long
as he is a child, differed nothing from a servant, though he be
lord of all. So in our natural state, you
cannot tell the difference between a sheep and a goat. You just
can't. Before the Lord saved me, I acted
like a goat. I did everything that a goat
did. I did. Is it so for you? Dave, we talked
about that, how we were before. You couldn't tell. If anything,
if anything, I was one of those fellows that somebody probably
said, well, there's no way the Lord will save that fellow. I
was wicked. And if we're all honest, we were
all wicked, weren't we? before the Lord saved us. You
can't tell the difference between an heir and a servant. But it's
under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father.
Look at that. There was a time appointed of
the Father that we would hear the gospel. The time of love
where we would hear the message. Look at this. Even so, when we
were children, we're in bondage under the elements of the world.
So that's our state there. That's what we saw in Ephesians
chapter 2 verses 1 to 3, right? We saw that state. And it's a
horrible state, in bondage to the elements of the world. Now
look at this. But when the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under
the law. So again, we see here that God
sent forth his son. Just as the Lord said, he said,
I was sent here. God, in his love and mercy, sent
his son forth to save his people from their sins, those who could
not save themselves. And this is even before we were
born, beloved. Right? Made of a woman, made under the
law, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Now why did he
come? To redeem them that were, what? Under the law. And that's where we were. We
were under the law. It had a claim on us, it just
had us locked down, beloved. It had a claim, the law of God
had such a claim upon us. That if we were left where we
were, we'd have perished and went right to hell. But we don't
get what we deserve. Why? Well, because Christ came
to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive
the adoption of sons. Now look at this. And I love
this verse six. Look at this. And because ye
are sons. Now, how are we sons? Do we make
ourselves sons? No. We can't make ourselves sons. We were dead, right? We were
dead. We can't make ourselves alive.
We can't, how can we make ourselves to be adopted by God when we're
dead? But look at this, because we
are sons, because we were chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world, let this just sink in. Let this just sink in in
awe, because we know how undeserving we are of this grace and this
mercy. We're hopeless and helpless before
the Lord saves us. But then after he saves us, we're
so undeserving of this grace and its amazing grace. And because
we were sons, Because we're sons. Because God chose us. We didn't
even have any clue that He chose us. Because He chose us. Because we are sons. By the grace
and mercy of God. God has sent forth the Spirit
of His Son, that's the Holy Spirit of God, into your hearts, crying
what? Abba Father! Now we call God our Father. He's our Father, beloved. He's
wonderful. My. So we see here, and then
it says, wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son, and
if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. That's what we
are. We don't feel like that, do we? But that's what we are, beloved.
It's absolutely wonderful. And God sent His Son, the Word
of God, the second person of the Trinity, to die upon the
cross to redeem His people from their sins. How? By the shedding
of His precious blood. And because we are His sons,
He regenerates us. He sends forth the Spirit of
His Son into our hearts. He does it. Notice He does it. We don't ask the Holy Spirit
to come in and regenerate us. What mercy and grace, God sends
the Spirit of His Son to us. And we're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. And then we believe because we're
given the gift of faith, aren't we? It's absolutely incredible. Do you see how salvation's all
of God? It's all of the grace and mercy
of God. And it's sovereign grace, isn't
it? It's sovereign salvation. Because it's Him that does it
all. And we're born again. We see
here we're born again because we're sons. We're chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world, all according to God's
will and purpose. So because of the will and purpose
of God, we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. What comfort
this brings to us. We're saved because of the plan
and purpose of God in Christ. That's amazing. All before we
ever were, there was ever anything. Oh my beloved, never forget Christ
is the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.
It's absolutely amazing. And because of God, we are redeemed
by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, according
to the will and purpose of God. And what do we say? Praise his
mighty name for that. That's absolutely wonderful. Now let's read verses 6 to 10.
We see our present and future blessings and glory, which is
brought forth in verses 6 to 10 here. and hath raised us up
together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches
of his grace and his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained,
that we should walk in them. I put a really good article in
the bulletin specifically about verse 10 if you'd like to read
it. It's by Tim James. It's a very, very good article.
And so just for your reading when you get home about how we
are his workmanship. We're created in Christ Jesus
unto good works, which God hath ordained before that we should
walk in them. So we see in verse six and seven a spiritual resurrection
from the dead, that God has raised us up together and made us to
sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We're raised
from the dead, beloved. My oh my, isn't that wonderful?
That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace and kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. Do you
know I'm looking at a bunch of folks who are monuments of God's
grace. We don't feel like we're monuments,
do we? But we're monuments of God's
grace. Look at this. That in the ages to come, he
might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. A bunch of monuments. That's
wonderful. To the grace of God. Isn't that
wonderful? That's incredible. That's absolutely
incredible. Throughout eternity we will be
displayed as trophies of God's grace. My and the angels and
the elect men and women will forever praise the Lord for his
mercy and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Verses 8 and
9 says, For by grace are you saved through faith, and not
by yourselves. It's a gift of God. Not of works, lest any man
should boast." So we're being reminded here, we were dead.
We were absolutely graveyard dead. We're saved by grace through
faith. Again, that faith is a gift of
God, it says here, and not of yourselves. How can a dead man
have faith? It's impossible, isn't it? It's
impossible. We can't have faith. Dead person
can't pray. They can't do anything. Can't
do any work. Can't do nothing. And look at that. For by grace.
We're saved by grace, beloved. God's grace. God's mercy. all
because of God's great eternal love for us. Through faith, then
again, a gift of God. And that not of yourselves. That
means nothing of us. That means nothing we do. Absolutely
nothing. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but what? But according to his mercy he
has saved us. By the washing and regeneration
of the Holy Spirit of God. We're born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. We can't save ourselves by anything we do.
And he brings it forth here again. Verse 5, he had already said
that we're saved by grace. Right? Tells us again here. In verse 9, for by grace are
you saved through faith. It's all God's grace. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. Because, you see, if there was
something we did to save ourselves, let me tell you, every one of
us would boast about it. Me included. We all would. But who do we boast in now? Amen. We boast in Christ. We boast
in what he's done. We praise his mighty name for
his great work. We are redeemed from death and
sin to life and glory by the free grace of God, beloved. election,
redemption, calling, repentance, faith, sanctification, eternal
glory are all ours by the free grace of God in and through the
Lord Jesus Christ. Faith in Christ is the way, means,
or instrument by which we receive and enjoy salvation, and thus
saving faith is not the product of man, but as we see in verse
eight there, it's a gift of God. It's a gift of God. It's not
a product of anything we do. And we receive salvation by faith,
and we give all glory to God, and any works of righteousness
which we've done are not ours, but it's all by the grace of
God. Look at verse 10, we're finished with this. For we are
His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus under good works, which
God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Yeah. My, oh my, it's all Him. Salvation's
of the Lord, beloved. Our calling's a holy calling,
isn't it? And our Father, he's a merciful and loving God. And
he's expressed that love. And he's shown us grace by sending
his son to die for us on Calvary's cross. To redeem us from all
our sins by the shedding of his precious blood. And you know
what? We'll be forever grateful, won't we? We're grateful now
that we're here on this earth, but in glory, we'll have no more
sin, and we'll be grateful in a sinless, perfect way, beloved,
all because of the grace and mercy of God and his great love
wherewith he's loved us. My, oh my. My, oh my. Brother Neil, can you finish
us in prayer, please?