Ephesians chapter 2 and verse
number 8. I will be speaking concerning
the doctrine of grace and call it the path of grace. As we want
to look at this path all the way down. And this is a fundamental
truth of that of the church. And we can look at it and this
morning see the importance of a correct understanding of that
of God's grace. And we must have a correct understanding
of God from the Scriptures and man from the Scriptures. We must
have an understanding of sin and what it is and redemption. That's some things that we must
understand from the Scripture. Now, the Scripture sets it out
like this. Either we are saved by the grace
of God or we perish. I mean, that's just plain. That's
how the scriptures sets it out. And that the grace of God is
free, is a free grace. And we have to sort of, in our
day, qualify that and what free grace is and sovereign grace
because, as I said a while ago, that everybody talks about grace
is not the same grace. We talk about that free grace
and it comes to us. And it's the source of salvation.
And when we speak of grace, and the scripture speaks of grace,
it speaks of God's work throughout. It speaks of His work. And we
know that grace is that which raises, as He tells us here in
chapter 2, verse 1, quickens us or raises us who are dead
in trespasses and sin. It's grace that does this. And
so, it's that which is, and I guess I can go ahead and say something
about the definition of grace. It's favor to those that are
undeserved or unworthy of what grace is. And so I want to talk
about the path of grace this morning. And if we're going to
talk about grace, we have to talk about it early. Not something
that just came along a few years ago, or a few months ago. But how long has grace been here? And where is grace and where
does it come from? We know it comes from God, but
how long has grace been here? Where is grace? So he's the source
of it. And we have to look at it in
terms of the scripture and speak of it as it comes from eternity,
don't we? We're going to talk about grace.
We've got to go on back. We can't just start at the cross.
We can't start at the birth of Christ. But we can't start with
Israel in terms of those that were believers in the Old Testament,
the prophets. We can't start there. But we
have to start in eternity, don't we, if we're going to talk about
grace, don't we? So here's what the scripture says about grace
and this pathway of grace. And we find it in Ephesians here
in the very first verses of chapter number one. I want you to look
at this. And here is his grace. As verse number six, he tells
us some things that has happened in eternity. Then he turns around,
Paul does, and says to the praise of your grace, doesn't he? So
he's talking about things that have happened. Then what does
he do? He knows they happen because
of grace. And he says to the praise of his grace in verse
number 6. So this pathway of grace, I want
to just lay out a path here, and we're going to travel this
path. What happens first? We're chosen in Christ. Isn't
that the first thing that happens here? Look at verse number four.
As He has chosen us in Him, now when did He do this? The scripture
says before the foundation of the world. That's what the scripture
says. Is that not plain? That's pretty
plain, isn't it? that we should be holy without
blame before him in love, having predestined us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ himself according to the good pleasure
of his will, to the praise and glory of his grace. So we see,
grace goes all the way back before the foundation of the world.
Before there were stars, before there was sun, before there was
a moon, before there was any water or whatever. Grace is before
that, isn't it? It goes back. And we see here,
to the praise and glory of His grace, where He has made us acceptable
unto beloved. And we go on, verse number 11, whom
we have obtained and inherits, being predestined according to
the purpose of Him who worketh all things out of the counsel
of His will. So the scripture teaches us of a personal election. It teaches us here that we're
chosen in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we look at it and we come
to Christ and we will to come to Christ. But that is the fruit
of this right here. It's the fruit of God choosing
us. That's the fruit of it. If you
come to Christ, You look back, and as the scripture, as Peter
wrote, he says, make your calling and election sure, and we'll
look at that sometime or another in this pathway. But we've come
to Christ, and again, that's the ground of grace, isn't it?
It's grace. And we're not chosen because
we're better than others. That's what was wrong with the
republican and the pharisee. The pharisee thought he was better
than everybody else, didn't he? He thanked God that he was this
and that. He's better than everybody else.
It's not because we're better than everybody else. We have
nothing to boast about. It's of grace. And the scripture
says that it's of God's favor. It's of grace. It's not of works.
It's nothing to do with our very works. It's not something that
God foresees. And he foresees that of faith.
That would be sort of Ridiculous in a way if he foresees faith
when he's a giver of it, wouldn't he? He's a giver of that, of
faith. And it's not that he foresees
or a foreknowledge that one would believe and accept Christ or
one would reject Him. If that's the case, it'd be all
up on man, wouldn't it? But salvation's of God. It's
of Him. It's of His giving. And He saves
by His purpose. And I heard something Brother
Wallace say one time also in thinking about this. It just
comes to my mind. He says people talk about being
saved by chains and so forth like that. He says, hey, wouldn't
you rather be saved by purpose? And that's how we're saved. It's by purpose. It's God's purpose. His eternal purpose. And it's
all through the Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son, And he's in
his death and burial, his resurrection, and he is exalted at the right
hand of the Father. And what the Scripture speaks,
that he chose a church, or a body, and that body's in Christ. It's
Christ's body. It's Christ's church. Now, when
you come to that of election, if it's denied from the scripture
and distorted, what you do, you lose all the great doctrines
of salvation by grace. You lose that. You lose the truth
of total depravity. That is that you present everything
contingent upon that of the will of man. That man has not fallen
that far. He, as somebody, one of the teachers
in school said one time, said, man's done more than just sort
of stumped his toe. He is faithful. And if you lose the truth of
toad depravity, you leave some goodness and virtue in man and
wisdom to make that of the the right choice in man. And he didn't
fall very far. And you leave it in man's hands. Another thing that you do if
you deny that of election, you deny the truth of the vicarious
atonement. That is, Christ dying is a substitute,
dying in our stead. And certainly that's what the
scripture speaks, doesn't it? He died in our very stead, he
died as a substitute for us, and that those that he died for,
certainly they're justified and reconciled to God. If that's not the case, what's
the accomplishment of that of the atonement, of the substitutionary
atonement? As he died, he died in our very
state, he died in our very place. Now, it's evident today that
all is not saved, so the conclusion is this, that if you look at
it and think that he died and you come to this, well, he didn't
really pay for sins indeed. If all men is not saved, and
if you believe all men are not saved, and yet he died to save
all men from their sins, well, his work didn't accomplish anything.
That's what you end up with. So he didn't pay the penalty.
So you lose that of the vicarious atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. I say unto you today, either
he paid or he did not pay, one or the other. And the scripture
says he paid it all. He paid it. So that's what the
scripture says. So it is a vicarious atonement.
It is a substitutionary atonement. He died for that of his people. He died and he took the wrath
upon himself. He freed his people from their
sins. And sins is put away. Then, if
you deny this election, you deny what we find here in verse 3
of the first chapter, that he hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. Now, here's the blessings and
how they bestowed upon us. They bestowed upon us in Christ
Jesus. It says here, he hath blessed
us. It's not that he's going to, and if you let him, he's
going to. That's not what it says. Paul
writes and says, he hath blessed us, doesn't he? He hath. It's in the past tense, and it
says all spiritual blessings. So, in Christ, there's the calling. There's faith, all these are
spiritual blessings, justification, sanctification, preservation,
perseverance, all these. So if you deny that He hath done
this, you're saying it's not of grace, but it depends upon
man and man's will and man's doings. So there you go again. So, our
blessings flow from that of Christ Jesus, and it flows from the
sovereign election of God, is where the blessings flow to us
from. And if you deny that of election,
everything is man-centered instead of God-centered. Now, that's
what you come to in our society, in our preaching in our day,
as well as other days, It's not God is everything and man's nothing,
but it's man's everything and a little God. You turn everything around. You
turn around. God is everything. Man's nothing. Have you ever thought about God
that created this heavens and the earth and put all of this
into a being? The greatness? And we'll talk
about reconciliation in a few moments. He's the reconciler.
God is. And if you turn everything around,
you put man upon his boasting, upon his goodness, upon his works
and so on. And the truth is that we bring
nothing to God. And what are you going to bring
to Him? He gives all. That's the greatness
of it, isn't it? He gives it all. We don't bring
anything to Him. Everything that you have spiritually
is given to you. It's given. It's of grace. And
as that comes to us, He gives all. Therefore, the glory is
His. And now, this doctrine, let's
think about it. There are those that hate the
doctrine, those that deny the doctrine, but it brings comfort
to that of sinners. Comfort. Those that are seeking
souls, those that are hungry, those that are thirsty, those
that are weary and heavy laden, God's going to receive them,
isn't He? Those that desire His salvation, He's going to receive
them, isn't he? He's going to save them. So it's
comfort to those that repent and those that are hungry and
thirst and weary and heavy laden. And those that have nothing,
it's comfort that they look to Christ for everything. And He
gives everything. For those that desire Christ,
those that take Christ, believe upon Him, trust Him, All of that
is the fruit of election, isn't it? It's the fruit of it. So if you desire Christ, if you believe upon Christ, you
trust Him, it's because God has, in His grace, has chosen you. Isn't that the way it is in Scripture? And if you desire Him, you want
Him, It's because he's already done something and he's doing
something out of your life. And amidst all of this, his work
will not fail. His church will be gathered.
And the gates of hell shall not overwhelm his church or prevent
his church or anything. And as Romans, the 8th chapter,
Paul ends up in the 8th chapter, he says that there's nothing
that can separate us. from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus. Nothing. And he also goes through
the whole category of everything there. And he says it shall not
separate us. So in this pathway of grace,
this is what we see. I will give you one other verse
found in Timothy. I have to do this while it goes
on. I'll do it right now. In the
second chapter of Timothy, or second, not second chapter, second
epistle of Timothy. Chapter 1, verse number 9. Look at this verse. And he says,
Who has saved us? It's 2 Timothy 1, 9. And called
us with a holy calling. Now you can look at the order
if you want to there. The order is correct. It's correct. The order is. Don't just leave
it like it is. It's correct. Or it wouldn't
have been written like this. Okay, who saved us, and He called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose, and what? And what? Grace. Now, when was
it given to us? In Christ. When? Before the world
began. Isn't that plain today in the
pathway of grace? That's where it starts. Next,
we had to be reconciled. Turn with me to Romans, the fifth
chapter in verse number 10. It says, for if when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. What? What does that verse tell
us? We were enemies. Well, An enemy has to be reconciled. God's the reconciler. All right? It says here that we were reconciled
to God, but left as his son, much more being reconciled, we
shall be saved by his life. So God himself is the reconciler. And scripture talks about God
who reconciled us to himself with Jesus Christ. It tells us
you were sometimes alienated in your mind by wicked works,
now hath he reconciled, and so there's reconciliation, and God's
the author of it, and it's a divine work, and we see when he does
it, for we are enemies, and he does it through that of his son.
Now, I want you to think. There's two aspects of Christ
being put on the cross, and I'm going to give you one of them.
Who put him there? enemies. Who are these enemies? Sinners. Now, what are we? Sinners. Who put Him there? Sinners. Now, we see what God has done. God hath to reconcile us unto
Himself. And he didn't have to reconcile
himself to us, he had to reconcile us to himself. And he's reconciled. And it's spoken out as a fact
as we read that verse, didn't it? That's a fact. We were reconciled. We were enemies. We are now reconciled.
And it's finished, and it's finished once for all at the cross. So
here's the work of God that he's translated us from the state
of enmity and that of wrath and estrangement from him to the
state of favor, and that of eternal favor and friendship by the removal
of sin. And it's done by His grace, isn't
it? Grace, and this is what reconciliation
is, is the restoring of an existence existing relationship. If you're
going to be restored, there has to be that bond to start with,
doesn't it? And that's what reconciliation
is, it's restoring what has been lost. It's what calls to unity and
so forth, it's restoring that. So God's reconciler is after
that of his love and his grace and his abundant mercy. And the
Bible tells us he loved his people while they were what? Enemies. So God, and again we look at
grace and what it is, how he loved his people from when? He
loved them from eternity, didn't He? Didn't He love His people
from eternity in that of the covenant of grace? He loved His
people. And as we talked about a while
ago, His eternal purpose. He loves His people with that
of an eternal love. And He's never ceased to love
that of His people. Though your sins become as scarlet
and they're red like crimson, And what he's done in grace is
reconciliation. He restores that of his people.
Now, it's like a father, and the son would grievously sin
against him, but what happens? He still loves that of his son,
doesn't he? And he receives him. And when
he returns, and that's sort of the picture that we have here,
there's his love, We went astray, everyone to his
own way, and he still loves that of his children, and when they
returned, there was this reconciliation. Now, reconciliation also speaks
to us that the parties are their birds, and that the relationship
has been disturbed for a time, and there's been separation.
That one of the parties has been offended. And we know that who's been offended. God's been offended because of
sin. As we become sinners and alienated. Scripture speaks of being alienated.
So in Adam, there was this violation. And we become guilty, become
enemies before God. We forfeit all the rights of
God's favor and love. And worthy of condemnation in
which we're condemned and damnation. And here's something else. Now, you can do something against
me by the dawn and I can just say, I forgive you. But that's it. But God, He couldn't
do that. He couldn't say, I just forgive
you and that was it. He's different. He cannot simply
forgive and forget. The cause has to be removed. And so that it's no more. And the question is, how can
our sins, isn't that the cause? How can they be brought it, brought
it, brought, blotted, I'll get it right in a minute, blotted
out, blotted out. How can they be blotted out?
How can they be removed? How can the guilty become righteous? How can the object of wrath return
to favor? Now the answer to that is an
atonement for sin. That's the answer to it. The
answer is that God's justice has to be satisfied. One must be declared righteous
before God. And the answer to that is atoned,
isn't it? Atoned. That's the only answer.
And we can't pay for our sins by our good works. And the sinner's
case is much worse than that. He's dead. He's dead. And he can't do any good. He's an inmate. His nature is
corrupt. The scripture says he loves darkness
rather than light, and he doesn't seek God, and he doesn't care
about reconciliation, and so this reconciliation can't be
of man, but it has to be of God, and it's of God's grace. So God
reaches down, and it is out of his strong arm, and he reaches
down and he removes that estrangement and restores friendship through
the Lord Jesus Christ, through Him. We look at grace and we
have to think about the cross, don't we, when we look at grace
and say that God is reconciling us to Himself for the death of
His Son. So the Son, He brought sacrifice
that was necessary to blot out our very sins. And he also brought
an obedience that was necessary to clothe us in righteousness
everlastingly. Because he could do so. There's none other. Angels couldn't
do this. There's no man capable of doing
it. The only one was a lamb without spot and without breamish. And
that's exactly what was taught us in the Old Testament to bring
out of the lamb without spot and without breamish. Christ
did so willingly. He suffered the very punishment
of our sins. He bore the very wrath of God.
He stood in the place of judgment. And He took all of the wrath.
As I said a few weeks ago, the very dregs and the very vows
of wrath, He took it upon Himself when He was made sin for us,
the one that knew no sin. And the end of that was, it is
finished. A complete sacrifice was made. It removed sin. It obtained righteousness. And
we see that God raised him from the dead and appointed him the
head of the church. He's always been the head of
the church that which he has redeemed. So, this reconciliation
is by grace. We had to be reconciled. Enemies
had to be made friends. I like that statement found in
the scripture and God said it. He said, Abraham is my friend.
Well, that's something to be recorded against one's name,
isn't it? For all eternity. Abraham was my friend. That's
exactly what he said. Abraham was redeemed by the blood
of Christ. He saw Christ, didn't he? That's
what the Lord said of him. He saw him. They saw Christ. They said, well, you're not even,
what is it, 40 years old or 50 years old? You're not even there.
How did you see Christ? He saw him in the faith, didn't
he? He saw him up on Mount Moriah, didn't he? And offered his son. So, Christ. He's the Redeemer. We're reconciled. And it's of grace. We didn't
deserve it. Enemies, what do they deserve? They don't deserve
this, do they? It's of grace. It's of God's
favor. It's that of free grace. He has
no restrictions put upon him. What he does is free. It's a
free love. It's a free grace. And the gospel
proclaims that of reconciliation. It tells us that we are ambassadors
and that we speak that God is a reconciler. And we say this
in His name. And the scripture will go forth
and say, be ye reconciled to God. And we are sent to bring
that message before that people. He sends it by that of his preacher,
and it's as though he's speaking himself. He says, we're ambassadors,
be ye reconciled. And that is by his grace. So, there's that of the blood
of Christ, there's that of reconciliation, and we look at it, and there's
the wonderful work of God, his work and what he's done for us,
There's that path of grace which starts it, and there's the path
that it's on. We're chosen in Christ, and you
can look at it, and if you perceive Christ, you believe upon Christ,
you desire Christ, you can say, I'm His. You believe upon Him,
He is. And so, there's that pathway
where it starts. We look back, and again, we give
Him the glory. If we see that salvation is something
we think is something that we've done, and we've accomplished
it ourselves, it's done by our works and our being good, and
it's not any other, we give ourselves all the credit. I've heard people
boast of how wise they are, that they're wise in this world, and
they're wise. But if we see it where it started,
How it comes to us and it's all in Christ, we give Him the glory. He gets the glory. And so this
is the pathway that it starts on here. And Lord willing, we'll
follow this next week with more in detail of how this grace comes
to us and what our response and so forth. And I hope to end up with a message
on the end of it, where it takes us in the victory, physically. Our Father, thank you for the
word. Thank you for the grace that you've shed upon us and
brought to us through the Lord Jesus Christ, who is grace and
truth. Bless us, we pray, and we thank
you for each one that's gathered here We just, you know how to
bless each one and we just bring it before you to speak to every
heart and bless every heart here. We thank you and we praise you
and we know that we're nothing without our everything. And we
just praise you that you sent your favor to us in Christ's
name. Amen.