Turn back in your Bibles to that
second chapter of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 2. And hold your place there, and
turn with me also to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15,
and listen to what The Apostle Paul says, beginning
in verse 9, "'For I am the least of the apostles, that am not
meet to be called an apostle, meet or fit, because I persecuted
the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am
what I am, And His grace, which was bestowed
upon me, was not in vain." His grace, which was bestowed upon
me, is not in vain. My message this morning I have
entitled, God's grace is never in vain. And that is in direct
opposition to what is practically preached and practically believed
by most religious people in our day. According to them, God loves
everybody And so, for the most part, in the end, his love will
really be shown to have been in vain. They believe and preach
that Christ died for everybody. And so, in the end, they will
have believed that his redeeming work His blood was shed for the
most part in vain. And they also believe that the
Spirit of God is really trying to save everybody, really trying
to influence some kind of power on men and women so that they
will will to be saved, will have proved in the end that they believed
that the work of God's Spirit was in vain. But Paul writes
in that 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, Paul who says in another place
that he is a pattern, And he says, although I was all these
things and more, though I even persecuted the church of God,
he said, God's grace to me was not in vain. And that is exactly what we find
God Himself saying and declaring when he speaks of his glory to
Moses. I love to read these verses that
we find in Exodus 33 where he says to Moses, be gracious, to whom I will be
gracious." That's not some paltry, weak creature like myself or
like yourselves, but it is God Almighty saying, I will be gracious. to whom I will be gracious."
And that means that God's grace is omnipotent grace, almighty
grace. And in grace, God does not simply
offer, He acts. He acts in grace. And that is
exactly what we are brought to see in that second chapter of
Ephesians, where Paul sets forth the great contrast between what
these Gentile believers at Ephesus, and actually all believers, what
they are on the one hand by nature, and then by grace." And what
an amazing contrast it is. What an amazing thing it is as
to what they were by nature and what they are by God's omnipotent
grace. On the one hand, he says that
they are by nature, Things that never ever can be improved. The description shows them in
themselves as without any hope of improvement. And then he turns
on the other hand and shows what they are by grace, and they are
by grace in Christ, that which never needs to be improved. Just like he says in another
place, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, And that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And you can count on
it that those who know nothing of what it is for them to be
by nature, if we haven't been brought to know something about
what we are by nature, then we surely know nothing about what
it is to be by grace." And so Paul brings us again, brings
these Ephesian believers again, telling them what they were before,
And he, like them, knows that they only know what they were
before, after the grace of God has appeared unto them. This is the same man who, in
his zeal, in his morality, and his religion, so actively persecuted
the church of God, thinking that he knew God, thinking that he
was doing something for God. And yet, when grace appeared
to him, when Christ stopped him on that Damascus road, he then
confessed in grace what he was before by nature. He says, I was before a blasphemer. I was before injurious and ignorant
of all the things of God, and that he knew only by grace. And God makes this known to His
people in order that they might have hearts that are full of
gratitude, that they might give thanks to Him and praise Him
for His grace to them, not only in eternity, but right now. Look back over in chapter 1 at
verse 6. Paul says God has done these
things. He says, "...to the praise of
the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved." Someone said that word accepted there means something
like graced. He's done all this to the praise
of the glory of His grace, and He has graced us in the Beloved,
graced us in Christ. And then when you look here in
Ephesians 2, look at that 7th verse. He says that in the ages
to come, you and I cannot even imagine eternity. worlds without end. And yet He says that in the ages
to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. That in all of eternity, for
all eternity. These that He saves by His grace,
they will be His trophies of grace, if you will, on display
for all eternity in all the ages to come. And so this morning,
I want us to look closely and I want us to be reminded of this
difference that God in His grace makes. Because this is the story
of grace. I could call this message, the
story of grace. But what I want us to consider
this morning is, is this our story? Is this my story? Is the story of grace in Christ
my story? And the only way that that can
happen is if the Spirit of God will draw my mind and my heart
to hear and receive what God says about all of these that
He says by His grace. And the first thing that He does,
the very first thing He does here, is He shows us what we
were and what we are by nature. This is what we are. This is
what we were by nature. He says in verse 1, "...and you
hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." He does
not say sick. He does not say weak. He does
not say in bad shape. He says, "...and you hath he
quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins." Now this is what he
says concerning those he saved, not only here, but everywhere
in this Bible. Listen in Isaiah 51. Hearken
to Me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord, look unto
the rock which you are hewn." Imagine yourself as a piece of
rock that has been hewn or cut out of a bigger rock. And here
you are, a separate rock from that bigger rock now, but don't
you ever forget the rock or the pit from whence you are digged. You are from that same fallen
race of Adam. You are from that same people,
the most of them will be perishing in their sins for all eternity. You have been picked out and
chosen of God out of this mass of fallen humanity to be the
objects of His grace. He's graced you. And then again
in Isaiah 23, he says, "...the Lord of hosts hath purposed it
to stain the pride of all glory." God will stain the pride of all
the imagined glory of humanity, he says, "...and to bring into
contempt all the honorable of the earth." You see, there is
no level in Adam's fallen race. He says, "...all in Adam sinned,
all fell, all died, all are lost, all are sinners, having come
short of the glory of God." And so the very first word that He
uses to describe us in our natural condition is dead. Nothing less than dead. And of course, he's talking about
being dead spiritually, though physically alive, having no spiritual
life, no knowledge of God, no righteousness, no hope. Because this being dead means
dead to God, and dead to truth, and dead to everything that is
right. God said to Adam in that very
first command broken, He said, in the day that you eat of that
tree in the midst of the garden, you will surely die. And so when we go on and read
of what took place there in that garden, Adam eating of that fruit,
of that tree, and yet remaining alive physically, only to die
later physically, but it was as just as God said in that moment
when he disobeyed God, he died. You say, how do you know he died?
Well, I know first of all because God said that he died. But I know also by the evidence
that he gave in that hour that he was dead, when he no longer
sought fellowship with God, when he went and hid himself from
God, when he began to lie to God, when he began to try most
of all to cover his own nakedness before God. That is the evidence
of spiritual death. He died as we all did in Him
legally. He then was facing eternal death
and separation from God. Because without the Spirit of
life, therefore all are unable to think, or to do, or to will
anything good, anything holy, and because death is the consequence
of sin." He said we were dead in it. Hold your place there
and look over in Ephesians chapter 4. Paul goes on and he describes
it later in verse 18 in this way. He says, having the understanding
darkened. That's what spiritual death is
in part. Our understanding is darkened
or we're in darkness as far as any real understanding is concerned. He says, being alienated from
the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the
blindness of their heart. You see, the heart is willfully
blind. The heart is willfully blind
because the heart, the natural man, is enmity against God. And so he says we are dead in
trespasses and sin. That word trespass, meaning something
like this, it expresses a fall or a lapse. especially such as
the transgression of Adam. We fell in Adam. And then he says, sins, and that
word in the original implies an innate corruption and alienation
from God. That is a natural corruption,
which is a natural enmity against God, whereby we therefore err
in our minds from the very rule of truth, and we also exhibit
acts of sin. We sin because we are sinners. We do not become sinners because
we sin. We do not, as some claim, reach
some age of accountability, and therefore, from that time on,
our sins are counted against us. We come forth from our mother's
womb speaking lies. We are, as David said, born in
sin and shapen in iniquity. dead in trespasses and sins. And then look at what he says
in verse 2. He says, "...wherein in time
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." That is, this was another evidence
of our spiritual death. We walked in that broad way that
the Bible says leads to destruction. That wide, broad way that leads
to destruction. We walked in that way that the
writer of Proverbs says several times, that way that seemed right
to us. There's a way that seemeth right
to a man, but the end thereof is the way of death. That's the
way we walked in. We walked in the same way as
every other sinner. Whether they be an irreligious
sinner or a religious sinner, they all of themselves against
God seek to do their own will and establish, if you would,
some kind of righteousness before God. And then he says, "...we
did so according to the prince of the power of the air, the
spirit that now works in the children of disobedience." And
the apostle here, he proves this evil to be universal because
all men in themselves and by nature, they act and operate
as the slaves of Satan. You see, those Israelites in
Egypt, they were the slaves of Pharaoh, and they had to be redeemed,
they had to be delivered by God. That's our state as sinners. You see, we do the pleasure of
this prince, and therefore we're slaves or captive to Satan, because
we are by nature willingly rebellious to God. And they're called here
the children of disobedience, who are given to disobedience
because they're in contrast to the children of faith, the children
of God. And the truth is most in this
character. If we know anything about what
the Bible really says and how it describes Satan and his emissaries,
who are described as those who would appear as angels of light. Satan deceiving in the areas
of false religion more than the things that he has attributed
to him, which are simply natural acts of our flesh. People look
out in this world and they say, well, the devil is really at
work. If you look at all the crime, if you look at all the
immorality, if you look at this and that and the other, the devil
is really at work. Well, he is, but that's not his
great field of work. That's not the emphasis of his
work, because Satan is of himself a deceiver, a counterfeiter. And his great field of deception
is not in the murder and the crime and such as that. His great
field of deception is in religion. He sets himself up contrary to
God. He says, the spirit of disobedience
now works. John said, there are many antichrists
now among us, and they deceive men. and they deceive women,
because that's the work of Satan. And any work apart from that
work of Christ is described, therefore, as a dead work. What does that mean? It means
it will bring forth death, eternal death. And it means that any
work apart from Christ, any work to gain God's favor in ourselves
apart from the mediatorial work of Christ is a dead work, has
not the life of God in it, is contrary to the truth of God. Everything except that one finished
work by Christ He describes as a dead work, brings forth death. And that's why Paul describes
all of his works prior to grace. All of his doing, all of his
efforts, he describes himself as a blasphemer, and in Philippians
3, he calls them what they are before God, and in themselves,
he says, they're nothing, I counted them as nothing but done. Nothing
but done. Dead works. So he writes in Hebrews
9, he says, "...how much more shall the blood of Christ, who
through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God,
purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?"
You see, we naturally are always somehow falling back, if you
would. to this flesh, to something done
by us, to something we abstain from doing, to something that
we feel. It's like somebody described
us, every believer is a recovering Pharisee. That's what Paul is
saying. He said, you were dead in trespasses
and sin. And he says, you were doing all
these things willfully rebellious, deceived by Satan, following
the leading of his spirit, dead in trespasses and sin. He says
to Titus, "...for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish,
disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another." And
He puts every one of us in the same boat. He says in verse 3,
"...among whom also we all." 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 all, Jew or Gentile, He says,
our conversation or our way of life was the same as all the
children of disobedience. We lived our lives satisfying
the only nature we possess, flesh. He says, fulfilling or doing
what came to our mind or our thoughts to do anything and everything
independent from any thought of God." That's us. That's everyone
by nature. And that's what he says. He says,
"...and we were by nature children of wrath, even as others." Now,
I don't think there are a lot of people that understand what
is being said here. He does not say that God's people
were ever the children of wrath. Salvation is not God taking us
from being a child of the devil and making us a child of His
own. God does not change. And these children, these He
describes, because of what He says in that first chapter, we
know that before the world ever was, They were the children of
God. But, though they were the children
of God, though God's children have always been His children,
they were by nature, by nature, the children of wrath, even as
others. That is, as Paul says, they were
by their nature the same. They were, as he says in another
place, enemies in their minds by wicked works. And nature here
implies that which is in us and increases as we increase in contrast
to grace which is from an outside influence given to us. Nature is us. Grace is God. Nature is what we are in ourselves. Grace is what God is in Himself. Nature has to do with how we
are and how we do. And grace has to do with God
as to how He is and what He does. That's what we are by nature. Nature is inherent sin which
deserves wrath. And grace is given that is bestowed
upon us and saves from wrath. We, by nature, deserve wrath. But God, in grace, saves us from
wrath. And so John writes in his first
epistle, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us. We didn't deserve it. We didn't
merit it. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it knew him not." We are of ourselves lost, dead,
hopeless, without God, slaves, sold under sin, and we must be
saved. We must be saved. And so here we are in this state,
Here we are in this condition. Here we are in this standing
in ourselves and in our sin. Here we are dead, evidenced by
the way we go, the course we take, the things we trust in,
the things we love. And then there is a big but. But. Look at that fourth verse. But God. but God, who is rich
in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us." Now,
let me just make sure we understand this, that if left to ourselves
as a multitude of sinners will be, if left to ourselves in this
state, in this condition, deserving these things, doing these things,
being deceived by this one, following the course of this world, if
left to ourselves, if God doesn't do anything, we'll perish. If his grace is merely his kind
of favoring something, or wanting to do something, or trying to
do something, or offering something, if that's all it is, we'll perish
with the rest of Adam's race. But Paul says, but God. God. That is, God's nature contrasted
to ours. In other words, what he's about
to remind them of and what he's telling us is this, that God,
in the exercise of His grace to His people, He interrupts,
He intercepts, He intrudes. And when he does this, his people
are glad that he does. They're glad that he does. You
know, the whole notion of fallen man, deceived and loving to be
deceived by religion, is that man is such an independent creature. He is such a being that God,
in His dealings with him, He would do just about anything
rather than to intrude in his imagined free will. They say
God loves you, God has a wonderful plan for your life, God has made
so many things possible for you, if you would only let Him. If you would only accept Him. If you would only allow Him. But such a notion denies the
very state that God says we're in. D.E.A.D. Dead. We need more than a Band-Aid. We need more than a trip to the
hospital. We need a little more than a
repair or, as is offered most often, some kind of reformation. We need life. We need Almighty
God to interrupt us. Can you imagine Paul describing,
as he often does, what happened to him as, well, I heard Stephen
preach, and I got to thinking about it, and I just made my
decision for Jesus. I decided I'd accept Jesus as
my personal Savior. The foolish words of our day,
can you imagine Saul of Tarsus saying that? He wasn't seeking
the Lord. In his blindness, in his being
Satan-deceived, he thought he knew God, and he was full of
this zeal to do something for the glory of God. And so he's
on that horse riding to Damascus. Cleaner, as we say, than a houndstooth
morally. Smart. versed in the Scriptures,
Pharisee of the Pharisees, strict law keeper, zealous to the point
of now with letters from the priests going to bind into prison
these Christians. But God unhorsed him. He intercepted
him on his beeline to hell. That's what He has to do to all
His people. If you're ever saved, it'll be
because God interrupted your plans for destruction. It'll be because God butted into
your life in order to save you. I know what I'm talking about.
It will be because God stepped in to the affairs of this world,
and to your affairs particularly, and saved you from yourself,
from your sins, from Satan, from the destruction of this whole
world. You see, He contrasts here God's
doings compared to ours. Our nature makes us unable to
do anything to save ourselves. His nature enables Him to save
us. God is love and God is plenteous
in mercy. Mercy takes away misery. Love confers salvation. But only in Christ and only through
His death can His mercy and love be demonstrated in a manner consistent
with His righteousness and His justice. You want mercy? You
need mercy? I need mercy. I need grace. But you see, it says that grace,
Paul says this in Romans 5, he says that grace has reigned in
righteousness. There is no grace apart from
righteousness. God cannot be gracious to sinners
at the expense of His being unrighteous in the doing so. But he says
grace has reigned in righteousness, ruled, shown itself, displayed
itself. This grace that acts, this grace
that saves has done so, God has done it in a way that His grace
is consistent with His righteousness. Because you see, only in Christ
could He have loved us. Do you ever think about that?
Here is the holy God, and here is a sinner directly the opposite
against Him. Here is a sinner that not only
it says He loved them in time, but that He loved them with an
everlasting love. How can He do that? Only in Christ. And not Christ in some kind of
mystical fairytale way. You know, sometimes we love our
children and our grandchildren and all. We love them, but we're
kind of willing to forget what we told them. We're kind of willing
to gloss over what they've done or said or failed to do. God
can't do that. He can't do that. And so he found
a ransom, it says. He said, deliver them from going
down to the pit. I found a ransom. And so he says
through the psalmist in Psalm 85. You ought to go home and
read this. Psalm 85. I will hear what God
the Lord will speak. For He will speak peace unto
His people, 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 listen
to this. Mercy and truth are met together. Never outside of Christ have
two things been any more mutually exclusive. Truth can have nothing
to do with mercy. Mercy can have nothing to do
with truth, except in Christ crucified. Mercy and truth are
met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. 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." You see, God
demonstrated His grace to us, and for us before He ever does
in us. Grace in salvation precedes us. He says in verse 5, even when
we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
ye are saved. Not you can be saved. You are
saved. You are being saved. So grace in salvation precedes
us, purchases us, and produces life in us. And for that reason
in grace, we have no room to boast and only reason to praise
Him. Those saved by grace. Paul said
there is no boasting. Well, can't we just have... No.
Not one part. Grace and love equal the cross,
death of Christ, and all other boasting is excluded. Excluded. Now, I want you to
listen to this verse. You can turn there. Romans 5.
Romans 5. And verse 8, here it is again,
"...but God." Paul says, I was in this awful state, dead in
trespasses and sin, but God, His grace to me was not in vain. He says to these Ephesian believers,
you were dead in trespasses and sin, deceived, captives of slaves,
but God, saved you by His grace." Now listen to Paul in Romans
5 and verse 8, "...but God commendeth His love toward us." You see,
that's the difference in the love of God that this world talks
about. Just a feeling, just a helpless
emotion, just a general benevolence. But he says here that this love,
God commended His love toward us in that while we were yet
sinners. That means that while we were
not yet existing in this world. When we did not exist in human
flesh, we were yet sinners. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. That's love and grace in action.
Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified
by His blood. That means declared righteous
by God through the shed blood or the death of Christ. we shall
be saved from wrath through Him." Now, I don't know about you,
but that's about the best news I ever heard. Because He has
loved us, demonstrated that love toward us, giving His Son to
die for us, and on that basis declaring us righteous, we're
going to be saved from wrath. I'm not going to go to hell.
I'm not going to go to hell. Though hell is exactly what I
deserve, I'm not going. And I'm not going to be treated
like some stepchild in some corner of heaven with a lesser place
or standing than some other one God saves. We're all saved by
grace. We're not going to hell. We're
worthy of it. We were certainly in a dead race
for it, but God, in His grace, saved us. We shall be saved from
wrath. How do you know that? Because
if Christ died for me, then divine justice now requires that I be
saved from wrath. He says He quickened us, that
is, made us alive. He made us alive when He raised
us to life in Christ when He was raised from the dead. And
He makes us alive in our experience of that life when we are born
of His Spirit. Verse 6, he says, He has raised
us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ. Grace has done all these things
for us all in Christ. You say, where does that put
you today, preacher? Well, by grace. I'm actually
already in heaven. I'm actually already in heaven.
Because it says here that He has raised us up together and
made us sit together in the heavenlies. Actually, it's what that is,
the heavenlies. in Christ Jesus. He's the head. We're the body. And if the head
is safe in heaven, the body is safe on earth. And if the head,
if the representative is already into glory, then all His people
in Him, they're seated with Him in the heavenlies. What are we
by grace? He says, children of the living
God. Saints. followers of the Lamb,
made righteous, heirs of God, joint heirs with Christ, the
bride of Christ, the friends of God, the servants of God,
soldiers of the King of kings, true worshipers, the redeemed
of the Lord, believers, believers. Because he says, for by grace
are ye saved through faith. We lay hold of this salvation. We receive this salvation. It's like here, we are in a desert
place, and there's a big tank of fresh, cool water. And so,
He comes and He puts a conduit to it, a pipe. And out of that
pipe we drink. That's what faith is. It's God-given. It's not of ourselves. It's the
gift of His grace. It's not of works, lest any man
should boast. And so He gives us faith by which
we have this God-given conduit, which enables us to drink of
the water of life freely. So what do we do? We begin now
what we'll do for all eternity. We praise Him for His grace,
that it was effectual, irresistible, almighty grace. We can never
use that as an excuse to sin. We can never use that as an excuse
to obedience. Well, I'm saved by grace. I'll
just do that. Oh, no. I'm saved by God's wonderful
grace in Christ. Therefore, I must do this. Therefore,
I pray for grace not to do this. His grace is never in vain. Father, this day we give You
praise and all the glory for Your grace to us in Christ Jesus. We praise You for that grace
that chose us in Christ before the world began. We praise You
for the grace of the cross. for that grace that therein reigns
in righteousness. That you are pleased to impute
to us the very righteousness of your Son. That He is the Lord
our righteousness. We have no other. We praise you
for that gift of righteousness. We praise you for your omnipotent
Spirit by whom you interrupted us and intercepted us. Reveal to us the wonders, the
good news of your grace in Jesus Christ our Lord. We praise you. All praise belongs to you for
your grace. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.