Ephesians chapter 1. Now let
us beg the Lord to open His Word to us and bless it, bless the
reading and hearing of it. Our dear Lord, we open again
this day your holy word together. We come to this hallowed portion
of holy scripture, so memorable in our minds and
in our hearts. Oh, the first time we ever did discover what this
chapter is really about. Salvation is of the Lord, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Words could not be plainer nor
more powerful. the one set forth in this portion. Oh, dear Lord, if our eyes have
not yet been opened to this glorious Scripture, would it please you
to do so this evening? Right while we're reading and
hearing these words read, open these things our understanding,
in our souls, in the depths of our being, to perceive your grace, your
mercy to poor sinners in the Lord Jesus. What words these are! Such weight the importance we
little know. Father, bless your word, we pray, and
your gospel in this place and in every place on this globe
where the true gospel is preached and believed. Help us, one and
all. most of all myself, how easy it is to be the reader
and not have a true sense of the words being read. Help me
and help us, I pray, for Christ's sake. This passage perhaps stands alone in the way
that it treats the subject of God's saving mercies. And it is put in a very short
compass. The actual section itself is
only verse 3 through 14. But we'll read the chapter so
that we can see both what precedes it and what follows it. Trust the Lord to bless it to
our understanding. Our subject this morning is our
subject this evening. Salvation is of the Lord. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, This letter is addressed to the saints which
are at Ephesus. All believers are saints and
to the faithful in Christ Jesus. Christ is our faithfulness. All
believers who are in Him are faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace
be to you and peace. from God our Father and from
the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's that section of verses,
verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places or in the heavenlies in Christ. And I meant to mention when we
started verse 3 that we have the beginning of a sentence that
will not end until we get to the end of verse 6. So you notice the punctuation
after 3, there's a colon. We're going to hear some more
about these blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ. Here they are. According as He
has chosen us in Christ, before the foundation of the
world. Long before Adam was ever made,
this choosing on the part of God has occurred. That we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. Here's the second blessing, verse
5. having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to
the good pleasure of His will." Some people don't like predestination,
but that sounds pretty good to me. Predestined to the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ? Notice we've had no end to suggest
by punctuation that we've reached the end of the sentence. So here's
verse 6. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. All of this is to that end. To
the praise of the glory of God's grace. Wherein, in that grace,
in that glorious grace, wherein God has made us accepted in the
Beloved, period. That's one sentence. That's the
glorious work of God the Father in gospel grace and mercy in
Christ. Now we come to God the Son. Verses
7 through 12 is one single sentence. Speaking of our Lord Jesus as
the Beloved, Verse 7 says, in whom, in the Beloved, we have
redemption through His blood. It is not the possibility of
being redeemed. We have redemption through His
blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His
grace, wherein He has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. having made known unto us the
mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he
has purposed in himself. That in the dispensation of the
fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in
Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even
in Him, in whom, same sentence now, in
whom also we have obtained an inheritance. We are heirs and
joint heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ, being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him, of God, who works all things after the
counsel of His own will, still did not reach the end of the
sentence. Verse 6, verse 12, and verse 14 are sometimes called
the chorus in these statements. As you'll notice, it is very
similar to the one in verse 6. Verse 12 is, that we should be
to the praise of His glory, the praise of His glory who first
trusted in Christ. I believe it was Hawker who asked
the question, just who did first trust in Christ? If I remember
right, it was on his deathbed and somebody was reading this
text at his request and he interrupted and said, now who first trusted
in Christ? God did. in the covenant of redemption.
The Lord Jesus promised to be our surety, our savior, our substitute,
our representative. God first trusted in Christ.
Now we have the glorious privilege of trusting in Him as well. All
right, verse 13 and 14. Here's the third sentence. In
whom? In Christ. You also trusted When
does a sinner trust Christ? After that you heard the word
of truth. We have to hear the truth to
be saved. God does not use unholy means
to accomplish holy purposes. If he did, why would he do it?
Because he cannot save men any other way? He has to resort? to methods that are not honoring
to himself and exalting to his character, in whom you trusted after that
you heard the word of truth, described in the next phrase,
the gospel of your salvation, after that you believed. Let's
see, I missed something there. in whom also, after that you
believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased
possession." Here's the chorus, unto the praise of His glory. That chorus is repeated three
times, verse 6, verse 12, and verse 14. Now, beginning at 15,
Paul tells the Corinthians what he's been asking for them in
prayer to God. Wherefore, I also, after I heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in
my prayers. Here's what he asks, 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 Christ, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you might
know three things. Number one, what is the hope
of God's calling? God has called us by the power
of His grace to faith in Christ. That fact alone ought to give
the believer hope. The second, what? What the riches
of the glory of God's inheritance in the saints. Not our inheritance,
His inheritance in His people. Amazing, amazing indeed. The
third one, verse 19, what is the exceeding greatness of God's
power to usward who believe. The exceeding greatness of God's
power to people who believe, here's that power described. According to the working of His
mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him
from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly
places. That's what it takes to bring
us to faith in Christ. It ain't walking a church aisle.
It ain't taking a preacher's hand. It ain't none of that stuff
whatsoever. This is divine. This is almighty
grace. Verse 21, speaking of setting
Him at His own right hand in the heavenlies, 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, and has put all things under Christ's feet, everything
is subject to the Lord Jesus. I mean everything. You can't
name one thing that isn't. Everything. And gave Him to be the head over
all things to the church. The church which is His body,
the fullness of Him that fills all in all. Salvation is of the
Lord. If that ain't what that chapter
says, I don't know what it says. Glorious indeed. Now hang on
to Ephesians. Right now we're going to look
at chapter 2. But I want to read you a statement by Mr. Spurgeon on these words, salvation is
of the Lord. Oh, to know the full meaning
of the words, salvation is of the Lord. The Holy Spirit alone
can beat this truth into men's minds. A man will lie broken
at the foot of a steep cliff, every bone dislocated by his
fall, and yet still hope to save himself. That's us. Piles of sin will fall upon him
and bury him, and still his self-trust will live. Mountains of actual
transgressions will overwhelm him, and floodwaters of guilt
will surround him, but he will still entertain thoughts of delivering
himself. Though crushed to atoms, every
particle of our nature reeks with conceit. Though ground to
powder, our very dust is pungent with pride. Only the Holy Spirit
can render the sinner utterly helpless and make him receive
the humbling truth, salvation is of the Lord." That's well said, well said. All right, let's work on this
salvation is of the Lord. I want to give you four statements, four stubborn statements that
put it in such a form as to cause us to truly think and try to
determine which is it that I hold to be the truth. The salvation
about which we read in chapter Is that salvation, God's salvation,
is it a gift of God or is it an offer from God? Is God offering
men salvation or is He sovereignly giving us the gift of salvation
in His grace as described in the first chapter of this book?
You'll turn in Ephesians 2 down to verse 8. Let's look at these
three verses. We looked at the first three
this morning. In fact, let's pick up at verse 4 since we stopped
at verse 3 this morning. Ephesians 2.4, But God, who is
rich in mercy, oh how rich He is, infinitely rich, for His
great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in
sins, has quickened us together with Christ. by grace you are
saved, and has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come," you want
to know God's motive? Here it is. Here's the reason
He saves sinners in the manner and way in which He does. Verse
7, that in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches
of His grace, God's putting the riches of His grace, the exceeding
riches of His grace on display for all this world, all heaven
and all hell to see, to show the exceeding riches of His grace
in His kindness toward us through Jesus Christ. Now let's answer that question.
Is salvation a gift? Or is God simply making us an
offer and it's up to us? For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that, that faith, not of
ourselves, it is the gift of God. Well, not only is faith
the gift, but Christ in the gospel is the gift of God. His grace
is a gift. Grace cannot be anything but
a gift. If we can earn it or merit it, it is no longer a gift. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are God's workmanship
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before
ordained that we should walk in them." Everything God does,
He purposed it in eternity. Everything. Everything. Nothing
except it. Everything. All right, how about
turning to 1 Corinthians chapter 1, and I won't If I can help
it, I won't make you the promise I did this morning to look at
only one scripture for each point I was trying to make. So I need
two for this one. The first one is in 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. Once more, we need to reflect
on what we've read concerning this salvation, particularly
those verses in Ephesians 1, 3 through 14. Here's the question. Is salvation by divine, sovereign,
free grace? Or is it somehow by chance? People just happen to get saved. I don't even like that term,
get saved. No. God saves us. Let's answer that from the Scriptures.
By divine choice or by chance? 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses
26 and 27. For you see your calling, brethren,
the call of God, that irresistible call that we spoke about this
morning. You see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. I'm pretty sure the governor
probably goes to church somewhere, but I guarantee you it ain't
here. And the politicians as well.
But I don't think you'll find them where the gospel is preached.
For the most part. There are exceptions, I'm sure.
I just don't know who they are. But that doesn't make any matter
that I don't know who they are. Just look around you. Not only
here, but elsewhere. People that you know. that God
is truly converted by the power of His grace in Christ. See if
you find many of this number. Not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble are called. Well, who does God
call? Verse 27, that God has chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. He's chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty. and base things of the world and things which are
despised has God chosen, yes, and things which are not to bring
to nothing things that are, all to this end that no flesh should
glory in his presence." All the glory belongs to our precious
Savior. One more scripture in this regard,
2 Thessalonians. Chapter 2, just one verse. Is salvation by a divine choice? Does God really choose whom He
saves? Or does He just leave things
at random, letting, as we say, the chips fall where they may?
Look at verse 13, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. The apostle is writing
now to another congregation. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you brethren, beloved of the Lord. How does
he know this? Because God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation. The Lord doesn't take his pool
of chosen people and throw some out and add some more. This choice was made in eternity
past in that blessed covenant of grace because God has from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
Spirit. That is, by the regenerating
work of God the Holy Spirit in the new birth and belief of the
truth, of the truth. Preacher, surely there's people
saved in these other churches. Well, do they believe the truth?
If they are, if they do, they are. But I'll warrant you, they
didn't hear it where they're attending, at least not in the
places that I know of. I can't speak of all others and
wouldn't even try. It's truly amazing that we know
and believe this to be the truth, that God has preachers that we
ain't never heard of right here in this very state. I do believe
that. I would love to meet them, but
so far I haven't. Norm Wells was telling me about
a fellow whose father was in their congregation in Oregon
and had just died. And the son was a pastor from
Tennessee, Baptist Church in Tennessee. So he comes to Oregon
for his father's funeral, and his father wanted his son to
bring a message at his funeral. And, you know, Norm was on pins
and needles. He didn't know what to do. He
said when that guy got up to speak, all of his fears were
put to rest. This old boy was pastoring a
church, he got kicked out of a church in Tennessee. One of
his deacons told him right out plainly, I do not believe the
Bible is the word of God. So the pastor brought it before
the other deacons and was going to bring a motion before the
church to remove the man. Instead of removing him, they
removed the preacher. Best thing that ever happened to him. Norm
was on cloud nine, I tell you, he was truly, truly amazed. All right, here's the third thing.
Is salvation by the will of man or is it by God's will? And the
easiest answer to that, the simplest answer to that is in John chapter
1. And I must confess that for many
years I knew verse 12 of John 1 was
in my Bible, but I did not know that verse 13 even existed. Isn't
it amazing how we can read our Bibles and see one statement
and just ignore the next one when they're connected? If you
look at the punctuation at the end of verse 12, you cannot leave
verse 13 out. It's mandatory. All right, verses 12 and 13. After having said, he came unto
his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received
him, to them gave he power or authority to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name. which or who were
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the
will of man, but born of God." Born of God. The new birth is
not man's work, it's God's work. Not of blood, doesn't matter
who you're akin to. nor of the will of the flesh.
The sinner has no will to be saved. He's against salvation
and against Christ until God conquers it by the power of His
Spirit and grace. No matter how many other people
want this man to be saved, it is not of the will of man, but
it is solely and only and truly of God. Can't be any otherwise. I know
you know these things, but we do need to be reminded. One more
scripture. Goodness, I'm all finished earlier
than I planned. I might have to read you something
else. Acts chapter 13. Acts 13. Toward the end of chapter 13, particularly from verses 44 and
following, Paul and Barnabas are preaching
the gospel of Christ in a place called Antioch of Pisidia. It
started back in verse 14 of this chapter. Let me start reading
at verse 44. And the next Sabbath day, the
previous Sabbath, now Paul is preached in the Jewish synagogue.
And there were right many people there and some who weren't Jews
were there. And the next Sabbath day came almost the whole city
together to hear the Word of God. But when the Jews saw the
multitudes, they were filled with envy and spoke against those
things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming
Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said, it was necessary
that the word of God should first have been spoken to you. But
seeing you put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of
everlasting life, lo, we turned to the Gentiles. For so has the
Lord commanded us, saying, I have set you to be a light of the
Gentiles, that you should be for salvation unto the ends of
the earth. And when the Gentiles heard this,
They were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. This simple
little statement that will either bless you or curse you, one or
the other. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life believe. The question is, are we ordained
to eternal life because we believe? Or do we believe as a result
of being ordained to eternal life? It's obvious it is the
result of being ordained to eternal life. If we could ever get one
thing truly fixed in our understanding, God does not react. Reaction is, oh, is a response to something unexpected. There's nothing unexpected on
the part of God. There's no surprises. I don't know if I can say this,
but I must. Not even any disappointment. The Lord is pleased with what
he's purposed for making this world and putting the human race
on it. and letting that race fall in
the first man that was ever created. This is his plan. This is his
purpose. And it's being worked out with
the passing of every day. And everything that takes place
in this world is subservient to that purpose. It's either
for the glory of God or the good of his people, and those two
things are virtually just one thing. They're the same. They're
the very same. As many as were ordained to eternal
life believed. I brought with me tonight, I
didn't know if I'd use it or not, but I'd like to read this
to you. You've probably seen a copy of it somewhere along
the way. That little book, What Think Ye of Christ, was written
by a man by the name of Milford Hall, Sr. And he wrote another
book, entitled Two Worlds, in which he gives, in the first
chapter that's about 50 pages long, he gives a brief description
of his experience and how he came to know the true living
Christ. God's mercy and grace in him.
So I'll just read it. Try not to comment. Father taught
me to be honest, truthful, and sober. But alas, much of his
teaching after marrying and leaving his roof, and especially after
the death of my wife, very few months after her death had elapsed
before I fell in with some wild boys and men, and I went to excess
in drinking and carousing. I had wild blood in my veins.
I thought I had found a way to drown all my troubles. I sinned
against all the laws of God and man. I soon became the worst
outlaw of my riotous company. This is leaving out a lot. This
is just a summation. I saw that something was radically
wrong, but I could not tell what was wrong with me or what to
do about it. Here I stood, hopeless and helpless
on the brink of eternity. I felt forced to believe and
plead that a soul could in some way or other be saved by good
works. You know anything about that?
I had a hope, though a faint one, that I could somehow atone
for my sins by keeping the law, thus meriting the grace of God. I was trying to work my passage
to heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments. I gave alms to
the poor, hoping to atone for my sins thereby. Finally, after
many sad failures to act perfectly to God's holy law, It began to
dawn on me that I must look elsewhere, some kind of power to save. I saw that to be saved by the
works of the law, we must be as holy as the angels and be
as pure and immaculate as Jesus. And he's dead right. The law
requires perfection. It won't take anything less.
Never has, never will. I had tried every plan upon earth
that my poor mind could conceive and had experimentally found
out by many trials that my strength was just as deficient and rotten
as my righteousness was filthy and imperfect. I had been about
this solemn business now about six years, six years with no
success. I saw very clearly felt keenly
that everything depended solely upon God's manifesting or concealing
his power, but nothing depended on me." He's come a long ways. I was
now thoroughly converted from my righteous self. I could no
longer wear or admire my garment of self-righteousness. I had
proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the poor returning prodigal
need not look for mercy upon the ground of his good works.
Yea, moreover, I saw that God had in the person of His Son
finished the redemptive work on the cross and that there was
nothing left for me to do as the ground of my acceptance with
God. Suddenly and very unexpectedly,
one day while despairing of any hope forever, A great peace came
over me. Now all my sins and guilt were
gone. I knew not where. Now I was free and happy because
of this undeserved and unexpected clemency. I felt like a bird
let out of a cage. I was born again. Thanks be to
God through Jesus Christ, I could never lay hands on those old
burdens of sin again. Now I was shining in the borrowed
righteousness of my substitute and sponsor. Now I was very,
very happy and completely clad in His robe of perfect righteousness.
I was born again into the spiritual world. I had on the best robe.
Now I saw that God's mercy in Christ has no motive but His
own will. Now I saw that if God showed
mercy for any foreseen works, mercy would then be turned into
justice and would lose both its name and its nature, I saw very
clearly that self-righteousness is the secret curse of Christianity
and the root of all our sins." My friends, that says it. It says it. Mr. Hall lived from 1891
to 1971.