Open your Bibles, if you would, to Ephesians 1. The name of the message is, Why God Saves Sinners. Why God saves sinners. Now, we who are the redeemed of the Lord, we rejoice in our great God, and we rejoice to know that God saves sinners. That he saves sinners.

We rejoice to know that, don't we? Because here we are now, we're born again blood-washed saints of God, and we rejoice that God saves sinners. Oh my. And that's the message we proclaim out to the world, right? God saves sinners who come to him through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Yeah?

That's the only way for a sinner to be saved. No other way. No other way. My, and Paul's writing to God's born-again blood-washed children in the city of Ephesus who have been saved, have been born again by the power of God the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, which proclaims redemption through his blood, that the only way a sinner could be saved is through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and they're clothed in his righteousness.

It's amazing. He lived the perfect life that we might be clothed in His righteousness. God became a man. The Word of God left heaven, came to this sin-cursed world, and died and bled on Calvary's cross to save His people from their sins. We don't know who those people are, so we preach to everyone. And God, the Holy Spirit, what does He do? He draws them to Christ. He takes the words of the preacher, the preaching of the gospel, and somewhere between my mouth and your heart, He makes it effectual.

Isn't that beautiful? Because He made it effectual for me. I can't tell you about someone, I can't tell you about someone unless He saved me. I can't tell you about Christ unless He saved me. And I'll tell you what, praise God, He saved my soul. He saved my soul, all mine. We're gonna read three different verses here in Ephesians chapter one. And these three verses tell us why God saves sinners. It's beautiful. It's so packed right there. There's so much right there. And this is the answer to why me? Why? Why me, Lord? Why did you save me? Well, here's the answer to that question. Oh my.

Ephesians 1.6, we'll start there. Look at this. to the praise of the glory of His grace? There's the answer. We are saved. Why does God save sinners? To the praise of the glory of His grace. Oh my. That's why Paul said in the last message there, I glory only in Christ alone. I don't glory in myself. I don't glory in what God does with me. No, we glory in Christ alone, don't we? It's all about Him. It's all about him, look at this.

Ephesians 1 says, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us, he made us, accepted in the blood, that's accepted in Christ. And why? To the praise of the glory of his grace. Now, let's read a little bit further down, verse 12, that we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ, Oh, my. Are you trusting in Christ? Are you trusting in Him alone and His redeeming work and through His blood and righteousness? It's to the praise of God's glory. That's why. That's why He saved us. Oh, it's beautiful. Look at verse 14. Ephesians 1, 14. Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory.

Why does God say sinners? To the praise of his glory, beloved. Oh my, oh my, it's wonderful, I'll tell you what. So we rejoice to know that God says sinners, such as we. God says sinners. Oh, we rejoice to know that God says sinners through the merit and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. That's the only way.

Oh, God incarnate in the flesh. We rejoice that God became a man, because God can't die. So he becomes man, the God-man, so that he can die in our room and place. And then he's risen from the grave on the third day for our justification. And where is he right now? Seated at the right hand of the Father.

Praise his mighty name. To the praise of the glory of his grace, beloved. Oh, let us proclaim it. Let us proclaim it. And you know God's grace is eternal and immutable. It's unchanging. It's unchanging. For by grace are we saved. That's unchanging grace. Through faith. That's a gift of God. Not of works. Lest any man should boast. To the praise and the glory of our great God. Oh, I'll tell you what. It's something to get excited about. It's something to get excited about, beloved. Oh my.

Why does God save sinful man? Well, I think of this. He didn't have mercy on the angels that fell, did he? No. No. But then he's gracious to us, to his people. And Paul here gives us the answer repeatedly in these three verses, doesn't he? Isn't that amazing? The Holy Spirit makes it clear to us why we're saved. Doesn't he? He's the true author of these words. He makes it clear to us in plain language. I love verse 6 there. To the praise of the glory of his grace. A bunch of one-syllable words, isn't it? Oh yeah. Isn't it wonderful? Oh my. He gives us the answer.

To the praise of the glory of his grace. that we should be to the praise of the glory of His grace, that we should be the praise of His glory, unto the praise of His glory. And we're gonna praise Him forever, beloved. We praise Him while we're here on earth now, when we never used to, and we're gonna praise Him forever in glory. Why? For the praise of the glory of His grace. Isn't it wonderful? We're receivers of this blessedness, salvation through Christ alone, to the praise and the glory of God's grace. Who gets all the credit? Who gets all the merit? Who gets all the praise? To the praise and the glory of God's grace. God gets it all. God gets it all.

It's so different. It's so different than what the world tells you, and so different with what religion tells you. I get to praise God. Isn't that wonderful? You get to praise God, beloved. It's a privilege. And then we get to praise God forever in glory, all to the praise of the glory of His grace. Oh, I just want to keep repeating it and repeating it and repeating it. Oh, my. Here are three points for us to consider why God saves sinners. Three points. God saves us, number one, because it was his eternal pleasure to bless us with his grace.

It's all according to his eternal pleasure, to the praise and the glory of his grace. Isn't that wonderful? There was nothing in us that would cause him to love us like he does with his everlasting love. It's all to the praise and the glory of his grace. And we boast in Christ, don't we? We boast in him. Oh my.

God passed by the angels that fell, but he blessed us. He blessed us. God passed by multitudes of fallen men, but he blessed us. And the cause of God's blessing upon us is not in us, but it's in himself. It's in himself. It's in himself alone. And every sinner knows and acknowledges that that's saved, knows and acknowledges that fact that's truly saved. We acknowledge that fact. who are saved to the praise of the glory of God's grace in and through the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

My. My, oh my. Why this? And think of this, we do not deserve this mercy. We do not deserve this grace. But you know what? Oh yeah, he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy. To the praise of the glory of his grace. My oh my. Second point, God saved us so that we might praise him. We might bless him. Bless his holy name.

Look at what Paul writes in Ephesians 1.3. Now remember, Paul was a waster of the church at one time. He hunted Christians down. And look what he says here. Now he's a praiser of God. Blessed be God and the Father. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Ephesians 1, 3, who had blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Look at that, a former blasphemer now blessing God, now praising God.

Oh, do you know we add nothing to God's glory? We add nothing to his happiness. We add nothing to his majesty. God is totally independent and self-sufficient. Self-sufficient. And we can bless God, though, can't we? We can praise His name. We can praise His name. We can speak well of Him who has blessed us. And we bless God by faith in His Son. Do you know that? By trust in His Son. With God-given faith. We bless God simply trust in Him. We bless God by celebrating His His many glorious attributes, His holiness.

Oh, my, He's so holy. His majesty. He's the King of kings and the Lord of lords. He has no beginning or end. My, my, oh, my. And we praise God for His greatness, His greatness. which is truly incomprehensible, right? We think of Him with our little minds, our finite minds. He's really incomprehensible, and yet He reveals Himself to us. To the praise and the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the blood.

That's Christ. Oh, my. My. We also bless God by faith in His Son. The Word of God who came to this earth to save His people from their sins. My, that's what He did. How? By the shedding of His blood. The shedding of His blood on Calvary's cross. He ransomed our eternal souls, beloved. He obtained eternal redemption for us. He did it all. He did it all. And we praise God, the Holy Spirit, for regenerating us, for giving us faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, for making us new creatures in Christ.

So let us bless our great God in our thoughts towards him, in our thoughts about him. Let us bless our great God with our tongues. Let us sing praises to his name. And you can sing anytime you want, beloved. Anytime you can sing when no one's around, you can sing in the morning, you can sing at night, you can sing laying on your bed, in your heart or with your lips, in your tongue. Oh, let us praise him. Let us praise him for the great mercy he's showing us and saving us through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so let we who are the redeemed of the Lord gladly testify of his saving power to save sinners. Remember that Gadarene demoniac wanted to go with Christ? And what he said? Go and tell the great things the Lord hath done for you. What?

He saved me to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made me accepted in Christ. Oh, my! Let me tell you about my Saviour. He's the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and He became a man to save me from my sins. Oh, trust Him. Trust Him. Cast your soul upon Him. He's the only Savior of sinners, the only Savior of sinners.

And number three now, God saved us to the praise of the glory of His grace. The ultimate end of all things, beloved, is the glory of God, the glory of God. He could as well be glorified in our damnation as in our salvation. Oh yes. Remember Pharaoh? We could have been monuments of his glory by the justice of God. But no, we've received mercy. Vessels of honor receive mercy. And they're only vessels of honor because God chose us in Christ. God made us to differ. Oh yeah, that's the only reason. That's the only reason. Bless his name. Bless his name. God chose to save us that we might be to the praise of the glory of his grace. I shared this scripture with Zane.

Turn, if you would, to Psalm 106, verses 8 to 10. We're going to close with this. This is wonderful. This sums it up. We're saved to the praise of the glory of God's grace. Psalm 106, verses 8 to 10. Nevertheless, he saved them for his name's sake. This is talking about Israel coming through the desert. being delivered from Egypt and coming through the desert to come to the Red Sea. Oh, my. Listen to this. Nevertheless, Psalm 106, verse 8, Nevertheless, he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his power to be known.

He rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up. So he led them through the depths as through the wilderness, and he saved them from the hand of him that hated them. and redeem them, oh my, from the hand of the enemy. And what do we say? Oh, we say praise God. We're saved for the glory of God's grace. May God give us grace, even now, to praise and magnify his great mercy, his great grace, oh my, and may we praise the name of Jesus, amen and amen.