Welcome to Reign of Grace. This program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And now for today's program. Welcome to our program today. I'm glad you could join us.

If you'd like to follow along in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from Ephesians chapter 1, beginning at verse 14. Ephesians 1 and verse 14. And the title of the message is The Greatness of God's Power. The Greatness of God's Power. I take that title from verse 19. which speaks of the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe according to the working of His mighty power.

Now, one of the attributes of God, when we speak of the attributes of God, we're talking about His character, His nature in deity, and we're talking about His glory. Who is God? What is He like? What does He do? And you know, you'll hear a lot of people joke about this, and they shouldn't, but they'll talk about things like, you know, can God do anything?

Well, the Bible tells us about God working within the parameters of His nature. For example, God is truth and He cannot lie. God cannot lie, the scripture says. The Bible also tells us that God cannot change. He is immutable. That's mind-boggling. The Bible tells us that God is love, God delights to show mercy, but it also tells us that God is just and righteous and true to himself. And that's why one of the main issues in salvation that we need to consider according to the Bible is how God can be just and righteous and true to himself, his nature, his character, and still save sinners like us. Does he just look over our sin and forget it? No. Sin has to be dealt with. And that's one of the main issues of the Bible. That question was asked by Job and some of his friends. You go through the book of Job. How can a man be just with God? And what he's talking about there is a sinful man.

Because God told Adam in the garden, he said, in the day that you eat thereof of that forbidden fruit, you shall surely die. And what God has shown there is that the just and righteous penalty for sin is death. We quote all the time passages like Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin is death. Now we all go on in that verse, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So the wages of sin is death, that's the justice of God. The gift of God is salvation through Jesus Christ. That's how God can save sinners like me, or you, or whoever he saves, and still be just in doing so. So the gospel answers the question, how can God be a just God and still be a savior?

You know, if you committed a crime and you were guilty of that crime and you go up before a judge, And that judge, let's say that judge may be your father or your grandfather or a relative. And the judge may look down and he said, well, since I love you, I'm just going to let you go. So just don't do it again, that kind of, well, you might like that. And I admit I would like that, but justice was not served. justice in that case was perverted because justice says if you do the crime you do the time. Well God cannot pervert justice in order to save me. He must be just.

So what we're talking about and we can you know if you go to a book a volume of theology, it might list the attributes of God, all the good attributes of God. And so one of the things that we learn from the scripture is that if you want to see all the attributes of God revealed and honored and glorified and working consistently together, you'll see that in the salvation of sinners by God's grace through Jesus Christ. because grace reigns through righteousness, justice satisfied by Jesus Christ our Lord. So that's what it's talking about. Well, one of the attributes of God is His omnipotence, which means He is all powerful.

Now, does that mean that God can do anything? Well, he cannot lie now. He cannot change. You know, I've heard people, they'll say, well, can God create a rock that he can't move? And the answer is no. The answer is no. But think about it this way. That's just silly people talking about things they don't know anything about. But look here.

Here in Ephesians 1, he started off with what we can call one of the longest sentences in the Bible from Ephesians 1.3 all the way to Ephesians 1.14. And he's talking about salvation there.

Salvation as it pertains to all three persons of the Godhead in the Holy Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And again, that's not three gods or three different gods. It's one God in three persons, subsist in three persons and revealed that way. when he comes to the work of the work of the father in in electing grace and the uh the sovereign of the covenant of grace chose a people before the foundation of the lord gave them to his son jesus christ christ the son of god who is the uh the keeper, you might say, the fulfiller of all the covenant stipulations. Christ did the work. Christ is God and man in one person. he's the one who did the work of redemption.

He came to this earth and entered the womb of the Virgin and was born grew in wisdom and stature and then he came on the scene and he kept the law perfectly and went to the cross. He was the the surety having the sins of his people charged to his account, imputed to him. He was the substitute. He came and actually, as God-man took the place of his people under the law, made of a woman, made under the law, and went to the cross and suffered and bled and died. to put away sin, to satisfy justice and work out a perfect righteousness whereby God could be just and justify the ungodly.

And then the work of the Spirit in the new birth. The Spirit is the applicator, you might say, the purveyor of spiritual life from Christ to each and every one of God's people in time. And that's what this is talking about. is showing the power of God to do all this and accomplish all this and fulfill all this to the max to where nothing's left undone and the salvation of all of God's people, whom He chose before the foundation of the world and wrote their names in the Lamb's Book of Life, gave to Christ, who Christ came to suffer and bleed and die for and be raised again the third day, and who is now seated at the right hand of the Father ever living to make intercession, and that the spirit is sent to apply in the new birth, you must be born again, that all of them shall be saved to the uttermost, not one of them shall perish.

And that's what he's talking about. Well, God is powerful enough to do that and he did it. And look what he says, he talks about the spirit of promise in verse 13, look at verse 14. He says, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory. And what he's saying there is the spirit coming in the new birth.

You must be born again now. All whom God chose before the world began and gave to Christ, all whom Christ redeemed by his obedience unto death on the cross for whom he was resurrected from the dead, all whom the spirit comes to that that's all the spirit will come to them and he will enter their lives he will give them spiritual life in the new birth give them spiritual eyes to see spiritual ears to hear spiritual minds and hearts to receive Christ. That's what the Bible teaches. You see, the new birth doesn't come about because of our works or our wills.

Let me show you that real quick in John chapter one. This is John one and verse 11. And it says, but as many as, or it says in verse 11, he came unto his own and his own received him not. Now his own there refers to his Jewish brethren in the flesh. The vast majority of his Jewish brethren in the flesh rejected him, would not receive him.

And we need to understand that that's the plight of all of us by nature. If left to ourselves, you see, we fell in Adam into a state of sin and depravity, spiritually dead and dark and unbelief. And if left to ourselves, we will not choose Christ. We will not believe in Him. We will not receive Him. So if we do receive Him, We don't have anything to boast in over those who don't receive him. And if we do receive him, we don't have anything to boast in ourselves.

And here's what he says. He came unto his own and his own received him not. But look at verse 12 now of John one. But as many as received him, to them gave he power. to become or to be called the sons of God. Now the word power there is not ability. The word power there is the right, the privilege. If I claim to be saved by the grace of God, meaning that I claim to be a child of God, a son of God, or if you're a daughter of God, what right do I have to make that claim? See? Is it because of my good works? Absolutely not. Is it because I made a decision and walked an aisle and got baptized? No. And that's what he says here. Look at it.

Verse 12, But as many as received Him, to them gave He power, the right to become or to be called the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. Now that means they've been given the gift of faith, for by grace are you saved, through faith that not of yourself, it's the gift of God.

It comes by the Spirit in the new birth. And it says in verse 13, which were born, not of blood, not of our natural birth, nor the will of the flesh, that's the works of the flesh. The new birth didn't come about because you worked hard. And then nor of the will of man, Wasn't your free will decision, as people say, that caused you to be born again and receive Christ?

If you've received the true Christ of the Bible according to the word of God, that means you've been born of God, born from above. Look at it, verse 13. They weren't born of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. So go back to Ephesians 1, 14. When the Spirit comes and gives us new birth, spiritual life from above, He actually enters our hearts. He dwells within us, spiritually speaking. Christ dwells in us by His Spirit and by His Word, and that's what this says. He is the earnest of our inheritance.

He's like the down payment, the guarantee. that we will persevere in the faith and continue unto glory. And he says, until the redemption of the purchased possession. That's what that is. That redemption is the final redemption. We were redeemed if we're believers. If we're born again by the Spirit, that means that God chose us and Christ died for us. We're already redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, purged from all our sins, righteous in Him, but we're going to be redeemed from this evil world, redeemed from this life as He brings us in the end into glory. And it says, unto the praise of His glory. God gets the glory. It's of His power, it's of His goodness.

Look at verse 15. Wherefore, for this reason, Paul writes, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not, verse 16, to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. I thank God for you, Paul says. I don't thank you. You know, a lot of people, you know, there's nothing wrong with being grateful unto people for doing things for you, giving things to you. I mean, our life ought to be marked by gratitude, but when it comes to salvation, when it comes to salvation, all the glory, all the gratitude goes to God.

And I look at my brothers and sisters in Christ, few though they may be, and I thank God for them. And you know what else? They all, how do I know they're brothers and sisters? Because of their faith in the Lord Jesus. And here's the thing, I always make sure that I make this point because it's so vital today. There's so many different varieties of what we look at and see as Christianity.

And that's tragic. The Christ, if you claim to believe in Christ, the Christ that you believe in, is he the Christ of the Bible? And you may say, well, that just goes without saying. Oh, no, it doesn't, my friend. It doesn't go without saying at all, because there are counterfeit Christ. And you can see that all through the Bible.

One of the places that you see it is in the book of 2 Corinthians chapter 11. And here the apostle Paul, he is chiding and admonishing the Corinthian church because many of them had gotten their eyes off of the true Christ. look to others that were being preached by false preachers and Listen what he says look at verse 2 of 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 Paul says For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy for I have espoused you to one husband That I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ the Christ of the Bible Who is Jesus Christ? What did he do? What did he accomplish?

But he says in verse three, but I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. And that word simplicity means single, singularity. It means your mind being corrupted from the fact that all of salvation is singularly in the glorious person and the finished work of Christ as revealed in the Bible.

And he goes on, he says, verse four, he says, for if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, And that Greek word there for another is another of a different kind, not another of the same kind. Another Jesus. You mean another Jesus? Yeah, in fact, the most popular one today is the one who came and died for everybody, making salvation merely possible if sinners would cooperate, even for those in hell. That's a false counterfeit Jesus. And he said, so they preach another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you've not received, another spirit is a spirit that leads you to look elsewhere other than the true Christ, or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might well bear with, and Paul means me there, bear with him. Don't put up with these false preachers. That's what he's saying. And what Paul does is he shows the difference between the true Christ and a false Christ.

So back in Ephesians one, now he says in verse 17, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. And that is to acknowledge him But you can only acknowledge Him as you know Him by the revelation that He gives you. And it's in His Word, in the power of the Spirit, through Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory. Christ is the power of God unto salvation, as He's revealed in the Gospel.

And so he says in verse 18, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. Now, who does the enlightening there? God does. That you may know what is the hope of his calling. Now, what is the hope of his calling? The hope of his calling is salvation conditioned on Christ, the God-man. as my surety substitute as my Redeemer to ensure my eternal life and glory forever and ever with God." That's the hope of his calling.

It's not he made it available if you want it because by nature you don't want it. By nature I don't want it. If I want it, it's because the Spirit has given me the desire for it, revealing unto me my situation, that I'm a sinner. Like that old publican in Luke 18, God, be merciful to me, the sinner.

The Bible says the Spirit convicts us of sin and of righteousness and of judgment, that we might come to Christ. And that's the power of God. That's the power that God has to those who believe. And he says that you may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And what is the riches of his glory in the inheritance? An inheritance is not what you work for. An inheritance is what you're born into. You see, it's by grace through Jesus Christ. And he gives us the inheritance. He fulfilled all the conditions for the inheritance.

And it's in the saints. He mentioned saints back up in verse 15. Saint is a sinner saved by grace. It's not a special class of Christian. It's not somebody who the clergy appoints and tests and goes through and then deems them so. No, if you're saved by grace, if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you've been given the gift of faith in Christ, submitting to His righteousness and repentance of dead works, you're a saint, you're sanctified, you're set apart by God, by the power of God.

And he says in verse 19, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us for it. See God's power is not in His trying to save everybody. God doesn't try to do anything. God fulfills His purpose and His will, His will be done. The exceeding greatness of His power to us who believe, because it is by His power that they believe.

And so He saves them according to the working of His mighty power or the might of His power. And listen to this, now let me show you how far this power goes in verse 20. This power, the might of His power, which He wrought, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places, in the heavenly places. The same mighty power that raised Christ Himself as the surety, the substitute, the redeemer, the preserver of his people from the dead is the same power of God that raises his people from spiritual death to spiritual life in the new birth. Isn't that amazing? So being born again is the equivalent of being raised from the dead.

Now that's why by nature, the natural man, as he's born into this earth in Adam, dead in sin and trespasses and sins, will not receive the things of the Spirit of God. A dead man can't receive the things of life. A dead man can't muster up faith in himself. Faith is not some dormant seed within your mind that some preacher can fan and set it on fire or get it to grow.

No, faith is the gift of God. It's according to his mighty power. And he works it, just like he worked in Christ to raise him from the dead. and set him among heavenly places, far above all principality and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come." That's the exceeding mighty power of God to save His people from their sins. through the power of Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh.

I hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening today and may the Lord be with you.