I want you to turn back in your
Bibles to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 2. And I want to begin by reading one
verse. that I'm sure most of you are
very familiar with. It is often quoted, and it is
often misinterpreted. Verse 8, For by grace, are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." The gift of God and the grace
of God are virtually the same thing. I've entitled this message, What's
Your Story? What's Your Story? Everybody's
got a story. And if you ask what one's story
is concerning religion, concerning salvation, concerning being a
Christian, You get a lot of different answers. You'll hear about people
who've had an emotional experience, a traumatic life experience,
people who've had a religious experience. You can hear about
what people used to be as drunks and bums and whatever, and what
they now have, since reforming, become. You hear about a lot
of their decisions in life and in religion. You can hear how
they identify with all the religious organizations that we find in
this world. But what I'm interested in is
what's your experience? And I ask that question because
the man that God used to write this epistle, he described himself
as a pattern. And not only is he a pattern,
but he writes to these at emphasis as if his experience and their
experience is the same. In other words, his story and
their story, and I would dare say that all who truly believe
story It's always the same. There used to be a TV program
that came on, and they would go through it, and at the end
they would say, only the names have been changed to protect
the innocent. And there are oftentimes varying
minor details in the story of God's elect, In truth, they all
confess and say the same thing. You see, if you go back and look
in verse 1 of chapter 1, Paul is not writing this in some
broad and universal way. He's writing it to believers. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to
the faithful in Christ Jesus, to those who truly believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And what they all confess, whether
they're male or female, or young or old, or at Ephesus, or here,
at that time, or at this time, they all confess the same thing. I am what I am by the grace of
God. You see, it is by the grace of
God that we know what we were, and it is by the grace of God
that we know what He has made us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Start to finish, it is all of
grace. We mentioned that hymn that Newton
wrote that we sing often, that is sung often on Wednesday night,
Amazing Grace. And there's a line also in that
song that says this, "'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved." It's always grace. And that is why Paul wrote to
the Corinthians and made the same kind of statement. He says, "...but by the grace
of God I am what I am, and His grace which was bestowed upon
me was not in vain." Most of the grace that we hear about
in this day is simply vain grace, or grace in vain. But God never bestows His grace
in vain. You see, in grace, in what is
called the true grace of God, as we find it in this book, In
grace, God does not simply offer, He really acts. And He does not try, rather He
always succeeds. He does not wish or simply want
to do something, He wills it. and ordains it and accomplishes
it. And he doesn't want men simply
to live better. He gives them life. And we'll see in this second
chapter of Ephesians where Paul sets forth the great contrast
between what these Gentile believers at Ephesus and all believers
are by nature, and then what God has made them by His grace. And it is an amazing contrast. On the one hand, they are by
nature that which can never be improved. You see, that's what
false religion is always wanting to do, improve the flesh. But on the other hand, they are
by grace that which never needs to be improved. Perfect in the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so, what we find in Scripture
to all who would be trying to make flesh improved and call
that grace, we find these words, that which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. And those who know nothing of
what it is to be by nature, surely they can know nothing about what
it is to be by grace." You see, we only know what we are by nature
when God reveals it to us by grace. And Paul tells us in another
place, oftentimes, what he was before. You remember what men
thought he was, and what he even himself thought he was. You can read that in Philippians
chapter 3. Men thought he was a great teacher,
a scholar, a moral man, a religious leader. He thought himself, because
being born a Jew according to the flesh, having sat under the
teaching of a great teacher in his day, Gamaliel. But when the
Lord in grace visited him, he said, I was before a blasphemer,
injurious man, and a persecutor of the Lord's True people. But he only knew that. And he
only confessed that when God met him with grace. As a matter of fact, he was not
looking for God. He's just like every son and
daughter of Adam of which he later is led by the Spirit to
repeat what is said in the Old Testament, that there is none
that seeketh after God. None. Men seek after their own
ideas of God. They seek to find a God like
they would have. They seek someone to preach a
God like they want by nature. But they do not seek the true
and living God. God as He is. And that is why grace is so wonderful. Because God in grace sought Paul
out. as he was then Saul of Tarsus. God sought him out. And that's what we find of all
the Lord's elect. It says they are described as
those who are sought out. They're sought by the shepherd. And God makes all these things
known to His people that they might have hearts that are full
of gratitude and thanksgiving and praise for His grace to them,
not only now, but forever. Look back in chapter 1 at verse
6. It says, "...to the praise of
the glory of His grace wherein He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved." Actually what this says, is to the praise of
the glory of His grace, wherein He has graced us." All men can
talk about is accepting Jesus as their personal Savior. When in truth you and I are not
the one who does the accepting, As if we're going to decide whether
or not we're going to accept God as He is or not. He's going to be who He is whether
we accept Him or not. Grace is about Him accepting
us. He has graced us, not in some
universal sense, but He has graced us in the Beloved. in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it says in verse 7 of
chapter 2, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding
riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. You see, I said grace finds us
just exactly as we are and just exactly how we are, and grace
is not surprised. Not surprised. And when God in
grace begins to bring to us the good news of the gospel, And
that's what the gospel is. But when grace begins to bring
to us the good news of the gospel, it comes to us first of all as
bad news. We find we're not nearly so good
as we thought we were. We find that we're not nearly
so close to God as we imagined that we were. We find that our
works that we've done, they're nearly not so good as we thought
they were. As a matter of fact, grace shows
us that they're sin. The best thing you ever did. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. And so when Paul begins in this
second chapter, which is just carrying on of what he said in
those first 23 verses, he reminds them of the state that they were
in. He says, and you, you that are
now saints, you that are now believers, and you, hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins." Isn't it amazing? In the light
of what men stand in pulpits and tell people to do, isn't
it amazing that Paul says that these who have been confronted
with grace and saved by grace that they were dead. You'd think, if there was a word
in our language that we ought to be able to understand, it
would be that word, D-E-A-D, dead. He said, you are dead. And you just have to kind of
ask yourself the question, how dead is dead? You see, he's talking
about how that they were dead spiritually, how that they had
no spiritual life, no true knowledge of God, no righteousness, no
hope. What's the picture with Lazarus?
When Christ came and stood before that tomb, he was dead. What
was the picture over in Ezekiel chapter 16 where the bride of
Christ is first pictured before she is shown in her glory and
renowned, righteous in Christ? What's the picture of her first
of all? A dead, aborted infant, bloody
and laying in a field. Dead. And so that makes all the business
of telling sinners who are dead to do something to get life so
utterly foolish. You see, that's the condition
that grace meets. It meets those who are dead.
They have no life, no spiritual life. And not only that, they're
legally dead having fallen in Adam. They're not only spiritually
dead, but they died in Adam, and they were before God legally
dead, and not only that, they're facing eternal death. In other words, the story of
man apart from grace is dead, facing death, living death, dying
eternally. And without the Spirit of life,
therefore they are unable to think, or to do, or to will anything
that is right, or good, or holy, or acceptable before God." All
these people being told, you need to do something for God.
You don't want anything you got. Everything you and I do, everything
that is connected to us personally and individually before God is
sin, and He'll have nothing to do with it. Filthy rags. And death is that
consequence of sin. He says we were dead in it. Dead in sin. Die? He says, you were dead in trespasses. That word trespass means something
like a fall or a lapse, such as the transgression of Adam
whereby he fell. And then he says, sin, that word
which implies innate corruption and alienation from God. literally airing of the mind
from the rule of truth that is exhibited in acts of sin. There's something the Lord has
to teach us. And that is that we never become
sinners by sinning. We sin because we are sinners. That's what makes the notion
of an age of accountability to be something utterly unbiblical
when he says, we come forth from the womb sinners and we quickly
demonstrate it. We come forth from the womb,
he says, speaking lies. You have had children maybe?
I've had children. Now I have a grandchild. I love
her so dearly, and we've tried to shelter her and teach her
right, and we've never taught her to lie. Nobody's ever taught her to lie.
But she'll do it in a heartbeat. Why? Because she's a sinner. And that's what he says here.
And not only that, look at verse 2, it says, wherein in time past
ye walked according to the course of this world. In other words,
there's the evidence of spiritual death. You walked in that broad
way, that leads to destruction. You walked in that way that seems
right to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death. You walked
in the same way as every other sinner. You weren't walking by
faith. You were walking in sin. In that
way, if you can imagine a grand parade that is A way by which
all the great multitudes are marching. But he says, broad
is the way that leads to destruction, and many there be that go therein. Straight is the gate and narrow
is the way that leads to life, and few there be that find it.
Why? Because Christ is that way. He says in verse 2, you walk
not only according to the course of this world, but according
to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now
works in the children of disobedience. Now every sinner is disobedient.
But what characterizes these who are described as the children
of disobedience? They're those that Paul says,
obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So many people are fretting and
fearful of those that they described as being devil-possessed. Oh, don't mess with that guy.
He's devil-possessed. He's got tattoos all over him,
and he's got this wicked look, and he's this and that and the
other. The truth of the matter is, Paul
tells us, that every sinner outside of Christ is devil-possessed. He's taken them captive at his
will. Read what he wrote to Timothy.
And the only way that they're ever delivered from this, as
these Ephesians were certainly in that category, even though
most often following the devil is following a false religion
or going about to establish for yourself your own righteousness, they're following slaves to Satan
who is himself and all who serve Him transformed as angels of
light, ministers of light. Because the thing that Satan
would have men and women to do most Rather than being concerned
about all these outward things, his desire most of all is to
keep you on that path of going and trying to establish for yourself
that which can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the devil's work. I don't care if you have a tattoo
or not. I don't especially like them, but that has nothing to
do with the ground of salvation. And if we can be centered in
all these things and all the evils that there are in this
world, following after all those things, then He's got us right
where He wants us. According to the Prince of the
power of the air. And men are therefore slaves
and captives, as Scripture says to Satan. And because they are
willingly rebellious against God. And they are called the
children of disobedience, who are given to disobedience in
contrast to those who are described as the children of faith. And
then he says this, "...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. That is, our way of life was
the same as all the children of disobedience, and we were
constantly satisfying the only nature we possessed, which is
the flesh, fulfilling or doing what came to our minds or our
thoughts that were independent of God's thoughts. So the picture
here is, here are all these people at Ephesus. who as far as how
they were, what they were doing, what they were thinking, where
they were going, who they were following, they're all just kind
of cruising along in the same direction. That's my story. That's my story. Cruising along. Sometimes some in irreligion,
sometimes some in false religion, mostly in false religion, but
all cruising along, deceived by the devil, following after
him like a bunch of captives in chains and slaves, walking
everyone in the same direction to eternity without God. He said, you were by nature the
children of wrath, even as others. Now let me tell you this. I'm
confident of this. Not one child of the devil ever
becomes a child of God. That's not what he's saying here.
He says, you were by nature, even as others, the children
of wrath. But God's children have always
been His children. He's not taking the children
of the devil to make the children of God out of them. He's not
taking the goats to make sheep out of them. And as a matter
of fact, grace goes forward to them because they are His children. Though they act toward Him as
enemies, they're His children. Though they have the nature of
the children of wrath, they're still His children. And then grace. He's going to
do for them whatever it takes. You love your children. God loves
His children a lot more. You do anything for your children. Give them anything you have.
Suffer anything for them. Experience anything for them.
You do everything you could to save them. That's God's grace. But the difference is, He can.
He can. All of God's children, they are
each one of them in their nature the same as all the children
of wrath. And nature here implies that
which is in us and increases as we increase in contrast to
grace which is from outside of us. Nature is what we are. Sinful flesh. Grace is what God
does. We were lost. They were lost. Spiritually dead, hopeless, without
God, slaves, sold under sin, and of a people, these Gentiles,
who prior to the coming of Christ had no real outward manifestation
that God was going to show any attention to them at all. No
Gentile prophets. No Gentiles who were bearers
of the Holy Scriptures. No prophecy, it seemed, that
would concern them in any way whatsoever, even though there
were very many underlying suggestives in the Scriptures that he'd have
a people from the Gentiles as well as the Jews. This ought
to be really something to us. I don't believe any of you here
are Jews according to the flesh. And he describes them a little
later in this 2nd chapter in verse 11. He says, "...wherefore
remember that you, being in the time past Gentiles in the flesh,
who are called uncircumcision, by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh made by hand." The Jews called you uncircumcised. But 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. That's what grace meant. And
that's the story of every one of the Lord's people. And that's
where every one of us would remain were it not for the grace of
God. You think we have anything to
boast in? Do we have anything to glory
in? Not one thing. So it takes grace
before we ever know what we are. before we ever know the condition
we're in, or before we ever know what we're saved from. And the amazing thing is, God in grace was preserving us
through all this. Why didn't you die in childbirth?
Why didn't you run out in front of a car Five years old. Why didn't this happen to you
when you were driving foolishly as a teenager and almost wrecked
your dad's car and killed yourself? Why didn't you die in this state
and condition when you were off in some war zone somewhere as
a military person? Why? Grace. Grace preserving us. You look
back over your life and you think about a million close calls. What brings you from one country
to another? Grace. You see, God in His gracious
providence is always being gracious, moving His people, protecting
His people, bringing them to this hour, And that's what it
says in verse 4. But God. Many years ago I preached on
a message and I entitled it, The God That Buts In. Now I hear
these preachers talking about how delicate God would treat
man. not wanting to intrude upon his
so-called free will, not wanting to do anything that would make
him appear to regard them as some kind of robot, or all these
foolish things. But the story of every one of
God's elect is that he buts in. Because we are brought by the
Apostle to show what we have been made and what we shall be
by grace, but God." And the thought is here in this fourth verse
that there is some kind of inclusion of the three persons of the God
here. Godhead here. God the Father,
God the Son, God the Spirit. This one God. They're all involved. You see, God's nature here is
contrasted to ours, and God's doings are compared to ours. And our nature makes us unable
to do anything to save ourselves, and His nature enables Him to
save us, and to do so in one who is called the wisdom of God. butted in. That's what he did
to Saul of Tarsus. Saul of Tarsus was a man as zealous
as any in his day, and he's riding along, and he's on his way to
Damascus. to cast men and women into prison,
to have them stoned for following and believing in and preaching
this Jesus Christ, and he thinks he's doing God a favor. No doubt
in his mind. If anybody's going to heaven,
he is. Other people look at him, they
say, if there's anybody that makes it into glory, he will. I saw recently where somebody
had died and someone had made that comment that often is made
about individuals. We're sure that they're in heaven.
If anybody's going to heaven, they are. That was Saul of Tartus. But while he's going on that
road to Damascus, God in the person of Jesus Christ stops
him in his tracks. Men say, well, God doesn't want
to butt in. He doesn't want to offend. He
doesn't want to do anything that would be intrusive. You're crazy. He's been doing it since before
the world began. And He stops Saul of Tarsus on
that road That road that was headed not only to do destruction,
but headed for his own destruction, and he stopped him so clearly, so unmistakably powerful, that when Saul got half his senses
back, He acknowledged whoever it was that stopped him as the
Lord. Who are you, Lord? And he said,
I'm Jesus Christ whom you persecuted. You're on your way to persecute
my people. You persecute them, you persecute
me. And he stopped him, and as we say, he knocked him in the
dirt. He unhorsed him. That can be a tough experience. But the truth of the matter is,
if you're lost still in your sins and you're one of God's,
He'll do it. He'll do it. He'll bring us bowed
down in the dust before the Lord Jesus Christ, acknowledging that
it's Him, that it's His way, that there's no other way, that
we're lost, that whatever He says, that's what we want to
believe? Except you and I are not likely
to be riding a horse, are we? The names have been changed.
The details have been changed. We're just cruising along in
life, got a nice family, good job, happy. No cares in the world. And He
just stops us. That He might be gracious to
us. It's like somebody's throwing
rocks at you. They're shooting a gun at you.
They're throwing knives at you. And you wade through all that
just so you can hug them. Be gracious to them. That's why we call it sovereign
grace. The One who show in the grace
is the absolute sovereign of the universe who does what He
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
men, and there's not anybody that can stay His hand. We're
saying to Him, what doest Thou? You say, well, you mean He'll
save somebody against their will? Everyone He saves, He has to
save against their will. He has to make them willing in
the day of His power. So he stopped him. Paul says,
"...but God, who is rich in mercy for His great love wherewith
He loved us." He butted in. And he butts in with us when
he brings us on that collision course with the gospel. And when we hear the gospel,
We don't know everything there is to know about it. We have
to grow in grace. We have to be taught of God a
multitude of things. But He makes us to know in the
Gospel that it is God who saves and not man who saves himself. Whoever it is, I can remember
When the Lord first confronted me with the truth, it wasn't
a bright light, I wasn't riding a horse. It was in like a quoted
verse of Scripture. And it's like I saw that verse
for the first time, though I'd read it a hundred times. And
then it was like the Bible just kind of rolled open. And I saw
God for who He is, and for the way He saves us. and for us as
we are, and why we need His grace. You see, this grace is grace
that is consistent with all that God is. And this is how grace,
Paul says, has reigned in righteousness. Turn over to Psalm Psalm 85. Psalm 85. Verse 7. He says, Show us thy mercy, O
Lord, and grant us thy salvation. I will hear what God the Lord
will speak, for He will speak peace unto His people. and to
his saints, but let them not turn again to folly. Surely his
salvation is nigh them that fear him, that glory may dwell in
our land." Now look at that tenth verse. Mercy and truth are met
together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Now just stop and think about
those four things spoken of in two groups and how outwardly
opposite they are. Mercy and truth. How can God show mercy to me
in a way consistent with how He is and with how I am? the truth. Righteousness and
peace have kissed each other. There's somewhere, some way in
the wisdom of God that these things come together. He's merciful
yet truthful. He's righteous and He makes us
righteous. How can that be? It's in the dying of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He says, "...Truth shall spring
out of the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.
Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good, and our land shall
yield her increase. Righteousness shall go before
Him, and shall set us in the way of His steps." That's why Paul says in 2 Corinthians
5, verse 21, he says, For He hath made Him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. And that's why he says in Romans
5, verse 21, that this is the grace that reigns in righteousness
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 5, Even when we were dead
in sins, have quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are
saved. Now, if I'm not mistaken, That
takes place before you and I are ever even born. He says, even when we were dead
in sins, He made us alive together with Christ. Now how did He do
that? Well, He made us alive in Christ
when He chose us in that everlasting covenant of grace before the
world began. when Christ stood in that hour
as our surety. And He made us alive when we
died in Christ and with Christ, and God raised Him from the dead. And He comes to us in our spiritual
death by His Spirit, and He quickens us, or makes us alive, and raises
us up to spiritual life which is manifested by faith. You see, God's grace and salvation
precedes us and purchases us and produces life in us. Paul
said, but God commended His love toward us in that while we were
yet sinners, Christ died for us, much more than being now
justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." So here is the picture, as we
say the big picture. Here we are, dead in trespasses
and sins, just like all Adam's race, held captive by Satan,
blind, and he comes, and by grace, brings us all the way to where
we are pictured as being seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. From that low state to that high
state. And he hath raised us up together,
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." All
of this by viewing us, by putting us in Christ, in His grace, and
saving us all together from start to finish. And that's the story
of all the Lord's people. And what are we by grace? If
we were that awful, sinful creature by nature, what are we now by
grace? Children of the living God. Just
like these Ephesian believers were saints. No pope in Rome
will ever confer sainthood on not one single person. But God
counts all His people as saints, followers of the Lamb, called
the righteous, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, called
the bride of Christ, the friends of Christ, the servants of God,
the soldiers of the King of kings, the true worshipers, the redeemed
of the Lord. Believers. Believers. Paul says in Romans 4 and verse
16 that the promise is through faith. Where does faith come
from? True faith. He says here it's
the gift of God. But he says it's all through
faith that it all might be of grace. It's not my part and God's part. It's all His part. And that's
why He gets all the glory. I was texting a brother who conducted
a funeral this past week, and in his text he gave me is the
biblical text that he spoke from. And it was Psalm 18 and verse
46. And blessed be my rock, and let
the God of my salvation be exalted." That's what all the Lord's people
say. Our story is a story of grace. Our story is of a salvation that's
in Christ and only in Christ. That's all of grace. That's all
of God's glory. And so we say, let the God of
our salvation be exalted. That's my story. And I'm sticking
to it. I'm sticking to it. Father, this
day we give praise to Your name for Your goodness and Your mercy
to poor sinners such as we are, such wretched and unworthy creatures,
such natural rebels and sinners, so vile and unholy. And yet you in your grace, free,
sovereign grace, being gracious to whom you would be gracious, chose to be gracious to us in
your Son, And we thank you. And we know
that you sought us out. We did nothing but the sinning. You did all the saving. And we
are yet, even at this hour, being saved by your grace. Being brought
on this life's road to the consummation of grace which is glory. that You've graced us and brought
us to this state of grace in our precious Savior and Redeemer. Teach us and help us to tell
our story and to praise You and thank You all the days of our
lives. Make our prayer through our great
High Priest, through our Savior and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen.