Did you keep your place in Ephesians
chapter 2? As Brother Lonnie read a moment
ago, I appreciate him reading the chapter for me. The title
of the message is, All of Grace, from Ephesians chapter 2. You
say, well, which verse? Which verse is your text? Any
of them. Any of them, Lewis. All of them. All throughout this chapter,
every verse, every one of those 22 verses speaks of God and His
grace. It seems hardly possible to me
for someone to read this chapter as it stands, reads it just as
it is, and deny that salvation is all by grace. And you may
be thinking to yourself, but men do. They do. I've heard men
read the same verses that Lonnie read a moment ago, being saved
by grace through faith and that not of yourselves, it's the gift
of God lest any man should boast and still some way or the other
come up with salvation not being entirely the work of God alone. Men do that. And the only explanation,
the only way that they can do that, that is deny that the scriptures
here and everywhere teach salvation by God's free grace alone is
that they must be blind. Must be blind. And this is what
we're told in this chapter. We're blind by nature. We're
dead in trespasses and sins and blinded by religion. You remember
when our Lord healed that man that was born blind and the Pharisees
called him on the carpet, didn't like the answer he gave in John
chapter 9 and they excommunicated him? And our Lord found him and
asked him, do you believe on the Son of God? And that man
asked an intelligent question. He said, who is he, Lord, that
I might believe on him? Didn't he, Lord? And he said,
he that speaks to you now is he. And he said, Lord, I believe,
and bowed down and worshiped him. And remember what our Lord
said? For judgment I came into this world, that they who see
might be made blind, and those who are blind might see. And
the Pharisees were listening. And they said, are we blind also?
And he said, if you were blind, you'd have no sin. But now you
claim you see. Therefore, your sin remaineth. In other words, as he said in
another place, using these words, those that are whole don't need
a physician, but those who are sick. Look, if you will, for
example, at verse 8 of Ephesians chapter 2. The title again, I
repeat, is All of Grace. And verse 8 states it very plainly,
very clearly. For by grace are you saved through
faith. and that not of yourselves."
What? The grace, the faith, the salvation? Yes, all three. That not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Oh, but when men read that with
free will glasses on, that's what they see. They see a distortion. They don't see clearly. They
see things blurred, not according to God's Word, but according
to their own preconceived notions. But throughout the Word of God,
the Bible states clearly and plainly again and again, salvation
in its entirety from beginning to end, every aspect of it, is
all of the Lord. Men think otherwise because they
start wrong. They begin wrong. They begin
with man. You've got to go wrong. Lonnie,
begin with man and you've got to go wrong. In Genesis chapter
1, we begin where God begins. In the beginning, God. When it
pleased God, He opened our blinded eyes. Only then do we see. Oh, and we see not free will.
Oh no, that's not what we sing about. We won't divide the glory
between God and man. We give him no credit. Oh no,
not me, not you, or anyone else. Oh no, we sing a different tune. When God has been pleased to
quicken us, as we read in this chapter, we sing something like
this. Grace all the works of the crown.
Through everlasting days, it lays in heaven the topmost stone
and well deserves the praise. Grace taught my heart to pray
and made my eyes overflow. Tis grace that's kept me to this
day and will not let me go. Now that's grace. That's grace. And thank God that's comforting.
Considering as here in verses 1 through 1, 2 and 3 especially,
considering what we are by nature, considering what we read here
as what our condition is by nature, it's of necessity. That being
the case, if a man is saved, if a man as he is in this condition
is saved, it must be a work of God's grace. There's no other
explanation, because it says we were dead in trespasses and
sins. This is not a point upon which
we can agree the difference. There may be some things upon
which God's people can agree the difference, but not this. Not this. Oh, no. The difference
here is vital. The question is, the issue is,
who wears the crown? Who gets the credit? And oh,
Paul said, God forbid that I should glory, save or accept in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, the issue, as I said, is
vital. It's vital to God's glory. to
God's glory. Will a man rob God? Will a man
take credit for what only God Himself could do? Paul said,
you have what? Raised yourself? You that were
dead gave yourself life? That's absurd, but you read it
right here. Our condition by nature, our
condition before God is we're dead in sin, therefore, That
being the case, if we're raised up, He must raise us. If we experience
life, He alone who is the resurrection and life must give it to us.
God's glory is at stake. That's why we won't compromise
this message. We won't budge here. We won't
give an inch. It's not of Him that willeth.
It's not of Him that runneth. But it's of God in every case
that showeth mercy. And whether men realize it or
not, and many don't, for the same reason that they don't understand
the scriptures, because they're blind, but whether men realize
it or not, that's the only message that gives hope to sinners. Oh,
first of all, it's vital that salvation is all of grace to
God's glory. a text message a couple hours
ago. I was looking over my notes,
looking over this portion of God's Word, and I heard my phone
vibrate. That's a text message. It goes,
makes a little noise. Well, I sort of ignored it. And
then when I was done, I looked at it. And somebody had sent
me a text that said, I hope you can help me out. I have someone
coming and they need a place to stay, and I was hoping that
you would let them stay. And it said, their name is Jesus
Christ. If you'll let them come to your
house, if you'll let him come and stay, and you'll pass this
message on to four other people or something like that, in a
matter of minutes, it said, you're going to receive a miracle. In
just a few minutes, if you do this, you'll receive a miracle.
I'll tell you what, if I could get a hold of who sent that,
they would receive something for me and it wouldn't take a
matter of minutes. I don't know how you trace that
down. One of you technical wizards let me know because it didn't
have a name. But that just shows the attitude
of this religious world. That's the attitude that they
have for God. That's the idea they have for
God. It's not that he's high and lifted
up. They brought him down to the level of man. Oh no, they've
taken him even lower than that. He can't do anything. His hands
are tied if man doesn't allow him to do it. My soul. No, thank God that's not true. Oh, this message of free grace,
that salvation is all of grace, not only gives God the glory,
but it gives the only hope to helpless sinners. Dead in trespasses
and sins. You're not going to get any more
helpless than that, Lester. Dead. Adam, in the day you eat
their ud, you're going to die. And you're going to need more
than a little propping up. No, you're going to need life.
If God Almighty doesn't come to where Adam is, he remains
dead and so do we. In Adam, all die. Even God's elect, oh yeah, oh
yeah, we were all represented in Adam. That's why Paul says
here, we were by nature, by nature children of wrath, even as others. And this is the only message
that gives hope to needy sinners and also to God's children. Salvation
is not an isolated act. Oh, no, it's not. That grace
that's called us must keep us. We must be kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation. And the message of God's free
grace tells us exactly that. My sheep, hear my voice, and
I know them, and they follow me, and I give them eternal life. And the great shepherd says,
they shall never perish. That's good news. Thank God for
that power that keeps us through faith unto salvation, eternal
salvation, everlasting salvation that takes us from darkness of
the pit of our depravity and brings us all the way to glory. That's the grace that you and
I need. And that's the grace that we
read of along with Lonnie in Ephesians chapter 2. The other
day, I was speaking to Robin on the phone. I asked her how her therapy session
had gone. And she said, oh, it went real
good. It went real good. The therapist urged me, although
I was a little nervous about it, she said, he urged me to
walk, take steps without my brace. And she did. She took, I think,
40 steps or so without her brace. And she said, Larry, the doctor
didn't think I'd be able to do that. The doctor didn't think
I would progress this far this soon. And I said, Robin, that
doctor is not the great physician. He's not the great physician.
Thank God, what we read up in God's Word, the Lord Jesus Christ,
He's the great physician. He's the one we need. Because as Paul says here, without
Him, without Him, we're dead. We can dress up in religion.
We can act righteous. We can weave our own robe like
Paul did, but that will never bring us into a place of acceptance
with a holy God. Oh, no. For that, I must have
life. I must have Him come to where
I am and breathe on me that I might have life and have it more abundantly. Oh, the great physician, that's
the one I need. That's the only one that'll do
me any good. Not someone who simply offers
to save. What's that worth? Oh, but actually
saves. Doesn't offer to give life, but
actually gives life. I need a great savior, don't
you? Don't you? Oh, if you know what
you are by nature, you do. You remember when our Lord's
birth was announced to Mary? Her conception, rather? The angel
went to her and said, Mary, you'll have a son. Call his name Jesus
in Luke chapter 1. Call his name Jesus. He shall
be He's the great physician. In
Mark chapter 10, in Mark's account of the healing of blind Bartimaeus,
our Lord is on his way to Jerusalem. Matthew and Luke give us the
same story. But in Mark's account, Bartimaeus
cries out, Jesus, have mercy on me. And you know the verse. It says, Jesus stood still. I love that. I love that picture. Jesus stood still. He's on His
way to accomplish eternal redemption for His people. He's on His way
to be made sin for His people. He's on His way to accomplish
everlasting righteousness. And He hears the cry of one poor
blind beggar and He stops dead in his tracks. Bring Him to me. Our master said, and Barnabas
throws aside his raggedy garment, and he's brought to Jesus. What
do you want? What do you want me to do for
you? And he said, Lord, master, that I might receive my sight. You know what the word is? My
great one. My great one. Oh, evidently. He'd heard of Jesus of Nazareth.
He used that term, thou son of David. He believed that he was
the Messiah. Oh, my great one, open my blinded
eyes. And he is indeed the great one. Nothing less than he will do. In Ephesians 2 again, let's look
at the patient. Let's just look at the patient
as he's described. Let's diagnose him. Not as modern
day religion does, but as God's Word does. Look at verse 1. You had he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. D-O-A. Dead on arrival. That's the diagnosis. As we said
a moment ago, in Adam, all died. Paul said, sin reigned unto death
without exception. Without exception. There's nobody
exempt from that truth. In Adam, we all died. We were represented by him. Whatever
happened to him in the garden happened to you and I. He died
in that day that he disobeyed God, and you and I died in him. And if God doesn't take the initiative,
we remain in that condition. But he did. He did for Adam. Where art thou? Who took the
first step? Adam, all his steps were away
from God. He went and hid from God. He
heard the voice of God, that which was once his delight, his
greatest joy. Oh, that God would come to him
in the cool of the day, in paradise, and walk with him, and talk with
him, and have fellowship with the God of heaven. But now? Something's
happened. Adam doesn't even act the same.
He hears the voice of God and fear fills his heart and he runs
away and he's so ignorant now. He is so ignorant, so blinded
by darkness, he thinks he can actually hide from God. He thinks
God doesn't know where he's at. What happened to him? He didn't
stomp his toe. He died. Oh, my great one, come
to where I'm at. Only you can. Without spiritual
life, there can be no spiritual acts. We're dead. Paul diagnoses
us as spiritually dead before God, and we proved it. We proved
it. the way we live. Look at verse
3, among whom also we all had our conversation. That's not
how we talked, how we walked. In times past in the lust of
the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature children of wrath even as others. We were
dead men spiritually and we acted like dead men spiritually. We
just follow this world and without spiritual life, Without spiritual
light, there can be no spiritual acts. There can't be faith. There can't be repentance. There
can't be a willingness to come to Christ and to bow to Him,
begging for mercy until there is life first. It's got to come
first. And that's what Paul says. You
were dead, but He's quickened you. The word is, He's given
you life. He's made you alive. God asked
the prophet, over that valley of dry bones, Ezekiel said, oh,
there were very many, and they were very dry. And God said,
Ezekiel, can these bones live? Can they live? And Ezekiel said,
Lord, God, thou knowest. They can only live if you're
pleased to give them They can only live before you if you breathe
on them the breath of life. Only then will they become a
living soul. Oh yes, these things like repentance,
faith, willingness to come to Christ, these are the acts of
a renewed man, a regenerated man. People say believe and you'll
be born again. No, no, no. That's exactly wrong. The Bible teaches the very opposite.
You must be born again first. You must be given life first. Life must come first. If not,
we can't believe, we can't repent, we can't come to Christ until
He gives us life first. That's why Paul said, he's quickening
you, that we're dead. Oh, these things are the acts
of a renewed man. Lazarus, come forth. Well, now,
Lazarus came forth. Oh, but he was given life first,
wasn't he? He was given life first, Louie,
when our Lord said to him, Lazarus, come forth. He came forth, but
life had preceded that command, or went with it, if you will,
enabling Lazarus to do that blessed, blessed thing. Oh, and it's that
same grace of God. God, we're told in verse 4, who
is rich in mercy. Look again at verse 4 of Ephesians
2. After diagnosing our case, telling
us what we are by nature, oh, but here we have the good news.
But God. But God. That's it. Oh, but God. That makes the difference. That makes all the difference.
But God, who is rich, rich in mercy for His great love with
which He loved us even when we were dead. Not when we wiggled
our way out of the tomb. Oh, no. When we were dead in
sins, have quickened us together with Christ by grace, ye are
saved. Oh, repenting, believing, coming
to Christ, it's a result of God giving us life and enabling us
to do so. Those blessed, blessed truths,
those blessed, blessed fruits of God's amazing grace have in
our day been made to be nothing at all. Believing is just agreeing
with some facts when some soul in her butt holds you. Do you
believe in Jesus? Repentance is no more than this.
You don't want to go to hell, do you? Coming to Christ has
been reduced to be no more than moving your feet, coming from
that spot up to a so-called altar. That's not what the Bible means.
Believing faith is a miracle of God's grace. Repenting is
an act of a man who's been renewed to see his sin. Like it was in
our bulletin this morning, no man wants a new heart until he
already has one. God's already given him life.
Therefore, he longs for God's forgiveness. He longs to turn
to God, and he does so because God's given him life. Oh, you
had he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. Jeremiah
lamented in his days, saying they've healed. The false prophets
have healed only slightly. the wound of the daughter of
my people, saying, peace, peace, when there is no peace. That's
what false religion does. That's what the gospel of free
will does, that so-called gospel. It just puts a bandage on the
wound. It doesn't heal. It just addresses
superficial things. I need life. I need life. And all the doctors of theology
in the world can't do it. They can't do it, Lester. Oh,
but their great physicians can. Their great physician can. I
remember years ago, Roger had gone with a friend, a neighbor
next door, his little buddy. They're only six or seven years
old. Perhaps I shouldn't have let him go. But he went to this
church that his little buddy went to, and he came back. I
said, how was it? It wasn't a service. It's something
that's happened. But anyway, he said, Dad, we
played games, had a good time. And then this man came in, and
he held up a dollar bill. And he said, who wants this dollar
bill? And nobody knew what to say.
And finally, one little boy said, I want it. And he said, well,
come up here and take it. So he come up here and took it.
And he said, now that's how you're saved. Anybody in here want Christ,
you just take Him. You just accept Him. Roger looked
at me and said, Dad, that's not right, is it? That's not true,
is it? That's not what we believe, is it? And I said, thank God,
Roger, I'm glad you know that. No, we don't. No, we don't. Oh, no. No, no. We want the great
physician to do the work. We don't want a cheap imitation,
but we want him. So much about the diagnosis.
We've looked at the patient. Oh, now look at the great physician.
You had he quickened, Paul said. Oh, our great one. Let's look
at him. more pleasant picture. Look at
Him. Oh, yes, we see our loved ones
just like us. I'm afraid it's true. My children
are chips off the old block. They've inherited my nature. I know that. They're dead in
sin because they inherited my nature. Oh, but allow me by grace
to look away. Look away from them and look
to Him who said, I'm the resurrection and the life. He that liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. Martha, your brother is
going to rise again. Do you believe me? He said, do
you believe that, Martha? She said, oh, yes, Lord. I believe
one day out there somewhere, sometime, somehow, in the sweet
by and by, my brother will rise again at the last day in the
resurrection. And he said, Martha, I'm the
resurrection. The resurrection's standing before
you. The resurrection is not a cold, dry doctrine hanging
out there somewhere in the future. The resurrection is before you
now. He that speaks to you is the
resurrection. And he took Martha's idea of
just a vague theological point and said, look at me, Martha.
Look at me. I'm the resurrection. And I'll
tell you what, when he went to the tomb of Lazarus, Martha and
Mary's dead brother, dead four days, he told his disciples,
Lazarus is dead, but I'm going. But God, but God, there's hope
now, but I'm going that I may awaken him out of sleep. And
he's standing before that tomb. Oh, glorious redeemer. Look at
him. Look at him. What power. What manner of man is this? What's he going to do? Roll that
stone away. Roll it away. Move that stone.
Father, I know that you hear me always, he prayed. But for
the sake of those who stand by, I'm asking this. And then we're
told he spoke in a loud voice. Oh, majestic sweetness sets enthroned
upon my Savior's brow. His head with radiant glories
crowned, His lips with grace overflowed. King Jesus says,
my Great One says, Lazarus, come forth! And lo and behold, Lazarus
comes out of the tomb. Still got on the grade cloth.
And what did our Lord say? Take them off of Him. Take them
off. They're not fit clothing for
Him now. He was dead, but now He's alive
again. That's Him. That's the resurrection
and the life, Jesus Christ Himself. The Father looked for that prodigal
son day after day, did He not? The rumors kept coming back to
the house. Not good. He's gone downhill
fast. He's wasted everything. The last
we heard, he's working feeding swine, and he's even eating what
he feeds them. And the father was on the rooftop
every day looking down that road. God in grace brought that prodigal
son to himself. And he said, man, what am I doing?
I'm going back to my father. And here he comes down the road.
Oh, my son, famished, skinny, raggedy, but the father sees
him. And we're told when he was a
great way off, the father ran to him. before the boy could
hardly get the words out of his mouth. I've sinned against the
old father. I'm not worthy to be called your son. He said,
shh. Bring forth the best robe and put it on him. Go kill the
fatted calf. Put that ring back on his finger.
For this my son was dead and is alive again. Oh, my great
one, he can do for my sons and your sons and your daughters
what he did for that prodigal, what he did for Lazarus because
he's the same. He changes not. Martha, do you
believe that? Do you believe that? Oh, bless
God. Help us to honor Him by believing
that. Oh, I see another picture with
the great physician in Luke chapter 7. Our Lord is coming with His disciples
into a city called Nain. And just as they approach the
city gate, here come some people from the city. They're coming
in, the Lord and His disciples. And this widow following a beer,
this stretcher type thing, open coffin with her son lying on
it, her only son. And she was a widow. And she's
following behind this funeral procession and much people were
with her, we're told. Here comes death. The wages of
sin is death. Ezekiel, can these bones leave? But here comes the resurrection
and the life-long. And we're told when the Lord
saw her, He had compassion on her. He was moved with compassion. And He said, stop. And He went
over and touched the beard. You know the story. And he said,
young man, I say unto thee, arise, arise. And we're told, he that
was dead sat up. He sat up. And our Lord took
him by the hand. He stepped off that deer and
our Lord, we're told, presented him back to his mother. Oh, amazing grace. That's amazing
grace. That's grace that Bobby sang
about a moment ago that reaches deeper than the stain is gone,
that does whatever's necessary to save his people from their
sin. Oh, my great one. My great one,
hallelujah, what a savior! And dear dying lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed church
of God be saved to sin no more. We looked at the patient, oh,
but we looked at the great position. Let's wrap this up by looking
at our position now. Look, if you will, back in Ephesians
chapter 2. The position of the children
of God, made so by His grace, verse 11, wherefore remember,
Remember, God help us to remember, that ye being in times past Gentiles
in the flesh who are called uncircumcised by that which is called the circumcision
in the flesh made by hands, that at that time you were without
Christ. Oh, horrible, horrible words.
Without Christ. Without Christ. being aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants
of promise, having no hope, how could we have without Christ?
Without God, yeah, without Christ in the world. Oh, but there's
that sweet, sweet word again, but, but, but now, brothers and
sisters in Christ, take that promise to yourself, but now,
Right now, regardless of what else may be taking place in your
life, now in Christ Jesus, nothing that happens to you can affect
this. Nothing can change this. Now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes
were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Oh, near,
so very near to God, nearer I cannot be, for in the person of God's
dear Son I am as near as He." Oh, the Great Physician, the
Great Physician. Oh, we're setting now like Lazarus. been given life by the touch
of the master's hand. And in chapter 12, we see Lazarus,
where is he now? He's sitting at the table with
Jesus, with his feet under the table, eating at the master's
feast, coming down. That reminds me of David when
he asked, is there any of the house of Jonathan left? You remember
that. In 2 Samuel chapter 9. Jonathan's
gone, but is there any left of Saul's household that I, for
Jonathan's sake, whom I loved as a brother, that I might show
mercy to? Is there not one left?" And the
serpent said, yeah, there's one. There's Mephibosheth. And David
said, go fetch him. Go fetch him. That's the same
word, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. I'll draw
him. Go fetch him. And he went and
got Mephibosheth. He was crippled. He was scared
to death. He thought, well, David's wiped
out the household of Saul. And now I'm the only one left.
He's going to take me. And he came in before the king,
David. Oh, it was grace that taught
my heart to fear, wasn't it? And David said, for Jonathan's
sake, for the love I had for Jonathan, You're going to eat
at the king's table the rest of your life. Mephibosheth fell down and said,
who am I? Such a dead dog am I that you
should look upon me. And we read on down in the chapter
that Mephibosheth all the days of his life ate and was supplied
with every need. at the King's table. That's where
we are, made nigh by the blood of Jesus Christ for our great
Physician, our great Physician. Let's close. Will you turn with
me to Psalms 86? Let's read one of the Psalms
and we'll close there. Psalm 86. On down in the chapter of Ephesians
2, it talks about our resting place, that solid foundation
of the prophets and apostles. The same foundation, we're told,
Jesus Christ himself. He comes before us tonight and
says, upon this rock I'll build my church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. Psalm 86, verse 8. Among the gods there is none
like unto thee, O Lord. Neither are there any works like
unto thy works. All nations whom thou hast made
shall come and worship before thee, O Lord, and shall glorify
thy name. For thou art great and doest
wondrous things. Thou art God alone. To God be the glory. God bless you. Brother Lloyd,
lead us in a closing hymn, would you?