Ephesians 2. I want to just begin by reading
verse 11 and verse 12. 11 Wherefore, remember that ye,
being in time past, Gentiles in the flesh, who are called
uncircumcision, by that which is called the circumcision, and
the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers
from the covenants of promise, having no hope without God in
this world." My sister told me a story that she was reading
It's been quite some time now, but I've never forgotten. I don't
recall what the man's name was, but he was a man who was barned
and raised very, very poor. They lived in a dilapidated house,
was poor all through his teenage years. But by the providence
of God, the man became very, very wealthy, built a beautiful
mansion. He and his family lived in it. He sent and had the old house
that he and his family was raised in, and he moved it behind this
big mansion. And from time to time, my sister
said that this wealthy man would go out and sit on the porch of
that old dilapidated house. And someone asked him why he
did that. And he said, I want to remember. I want to remember. I want to remember how poor that
I was, what I have now. Paul says here, remember. Wherefore remember? Remember
what you were. Remember that you was without
a promise. You were without God. You were
without Christ. You were without hope in this
perishing, perishing world. He had just been talking to these
Ephesians. Look over here in chapter 1 with
me. I tell you, they were a rich people. No richer than we are,
but they were so rich. Blessed of God. Rich. Look here how he begins this
epistle in verse 2. Look what he says to them. Look at the blessings of God.
The richness of God's blessing. Grace be unto you and peace. Now I tell you, this is not from
the apostle. This is not from some church
committee. It's certainly not from Rob.
but which is grace to you and peace from God our Father, and
Jesus Christ the Lord. Now if you get a letter, if you
receive a letter that says grace to you, unmerited favor to you,
and peace to you, and that letter's from God your Father, and Jesus
Christ the Lord, you're a blessed man Glenn. You're a rich man,
a rich man. And he goes on here in verse
3, and look what else he says to them. Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heaven with places in Christ. Now you
and I don't realize very many of these, but Paul's going to
give us some of them. He's going to tell them how they're blessed,
and look what he starts with. according as he hath chosen us
in him, in Christ, before the foundation of the world." Now
that's a blessing. That's where God began with us,
to choose us to salvation in Christ before time. Lord, it
was not that I did choose thee. That could never be. This heart
would still refuse thee, but thou hast chosen me. And think
of what the Lord told his disciples. You've not chosen me, but I've
chosen you. And I've ordained you. He hath
from the beginning chosen us to salvation. I tell you, if
you want to know where God begins, where God begins with a man,
then go back there in eternity. and see where He chose him to
salvation. Chose him in Christ. Gave him
to His Son. That's where God begins. What
a blessing. And I tell you, this choosing,
this business of God choosing us, you know that's just as essential
as the cross of Calvary itself. If there's no election, there's
no redemption. No redemption. Election is so
essential. Such a blessing, essential blessing.
And Paul comes here and says, you fellows are so rich. You're
so rich because God has chosen you to salvation in Christ. And
the ends that He's chosen for, look at this, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him. Nobody should kick on election. If nothing else, when they see
the end, for which God's chosen His people, holy and without
blame before Him. You're down on yourselves a lot,
aren't you? You're just like I am. You see sin mixed with
everything you do. But I tell you, before God, you're
holy and without blame in life. And he says here in verse 5,
look here, what a blessing. He's predestinated us. You heard
somebody say, boy, that man is destined. Well, here's some people
that's predestined. And what's God predestined them
to be? His children by adoption, by
Jesus Christ. He's made us His sons, He's adopted
us, and He's given us the spirit of adoption. Because He sent
forth first the spirit of His Son into your heart, crying,
Father, Father. You can adopt a child, but you
can't make that child look like you. You can't give him your
jeans. You can't give him your makeup. Little fella here this
morning, Little Luke was his name. And boy, I tell you, you
talk about a family resemblance. He's so kind. Looks just like
his mom and his mom's family. If they'd adopted that little
boy, they couldn't have gave him that. God not only adopts
us, but He gives us the spirit of adoption. The Spirit of Son,
the Spirit of His own Son. You're rich according to the
good pleasure of His will. And look in verse 6, look here,
what a blessing. To the praise of the glory of
His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved. Accepted of God. Accepted in
His presence, accepted in His favor. And I tell you, someday
accepted in His house. They're accepted in the Beloved. And I tell you, if you're accepted
in Him, you're just as accepted as He is, aren't you? As near
and dear and as accepted as Christ Himself. Because you're accepted
in Him. Father, you've loved them as
you've loved me. Because they're in me. They're
in me. Oh, what a blessing. Accepted
in the Beloved. And he says here in verse 7,
look here, what a blessing. Rich, rich in God's blessing. In whom we have redemption through
His blood. Redemption from the curse of
the law. Redeemed from this present evil
world. Redeemed from all iniquity. Redeemed from the wrath of God. Redeemed by His blood. And look
at this, even the forgiveness of our sins. What does it mean
to you? I've often asked you this question.
What does it mean to you to know that all your sins, all your
sins of thought, motive, words, deeds, it's all forgiven? What does that mean to you? To
have God to say to you, I'll be merciful to your unrighteousness
and your sins and your iniquities. I'll never remember against you
again. Oh, I hate that. That's rich,
ain't it? Oh, a blessing. A blessing. Rich in God's blessing. I've often thought and I've often
said this. When I was lost, when I was growing up, so often, I
could never remember my sins. And if I did begin to remember
them, I'd put them out of my mind as quick as I could. But
God always remembered them. He always held them against me.
But now, I can't seem to forget them. But God never remembers
them. I never will, He said, didn't
He? Never will. For Christ's sake, for His blood's
sake, He's forgiven us. All are saved. Oh, you're rich,
Paul said. You are rich. You are rich. And he said here in verse 9,
having made known unto us, and I love to read this like this,
making known unto us the mystery of his will. I like to read it like that,
making known, because you know he's still making known his will
to us. He has made known unto us, but you know we're still
learning about his will. It's a mystery to us, ain't it?
When He first saved us, He made known His will to us, that it
was His will to save us for Christ's sake. I kept trying to save myself
and thought it was God's will for me to help Him save myself.
And I'd done everything I knew to do in order to earn God's
favor and help somebody atoned for my sin. And I found out it
was God's will to save me in Christ and for Christ's sake. He died for our sins. according
to the will of God. But you know, as we grow in grace
and knowledge, don't He show us more of His will? You know
more of His will now than you did when He first converted you.
You've read some verses that really reveal to you the will
of God. You've read that verse in John
chapter 6 that says, This is the will of my Father that sent
me, that all He's given me. I should lose nothing. And you
looked at that, and He revealed the will of God to you. It's
a mystery before then. You see more and more of God's
will and what a blessing it is. And may he show us more and more
of his will before we leave this world. And look what he says
here in verse 11. I like this. In Christ also we
have obtained an inheritance. being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who works all things at the counsel of
his own will. He's predestinated into the adoption
of children. And Paul says, now we've obtained
this inheritance. We've predestinated it to that
kingdom, that everlasting kingdom. Come, you blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the world ever
was. And Peter says it like this.
He says, you have an inheritance reserved for you in heaven. Paul
says, you have obtained, and Peter said, it's reserved, it's
yours, and it's undefiled, and it fadeth not away, reserved
in heaven for you. What a blessing. And look what
he says here in verse 13, and I love this. He says here in
verse 12 that we should be to the praise of his glory, to the
glory of God, who first trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted. Now that's a blessing there,
to trust Christ. There's a time when you didn't
trust Him. There's a time when you didn't know how to trust
Him. There's a time you didn't know who to trust. Isn't it a
blessing to trust Jesus Christ? To trust Him with your soul's
salvation? To trust Him to get you through
this weary, sin-tossed world? to get you through all the trials
and the troubles of this life. I love that passage of scripture
over in Psalms of Solomon 7. Who is this that comes up out
of the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Well, that's me.
That's me. I'm leaning upon Him, resting
the weight of my soul, putting my trouble, rolling my burdens
upon Jesus Christ. Don't you trust Him? Isn't it
a blessing? You couldn't get through this
world. The more you find out about yourself and this world
and its burdens and trials and heartaches, and the more you
find out about Him and how good He is and how gracious and kind,
the more you want to trust Him. The more a man trusts Him, the
more he wants to trust Him. What a blessing to trust Christ.
Don't you feel sorry for those who don't trust Him? They don't
know Him. And I tell you, if you don't
know Him, you can't trust Him, can you? But the more you find out
about Him, how strong He is, how gracious He is, I tell you,
you can just cast the weight of everything on Him. Everything. I trust Christ. I trust Christ. And He says here in the last
part of verse 13, look at this. After you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation, and whom also after that you
believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise."
Sealed, confirmed, preserved, kept. Sealed by the Holy Spirit
of promise until the day of redemption. Sealed. He'll never come unsealed. A lot of us used to do a lot
of canning, and a lot of our canning work came unsealed. Go
downstairs and there they'd spew mold all in it, and you'd just
open the can and pour it out. It's a mess. It's a mess. Lost
it all. And that'll be said about God's
little people whom the Holy Spirit sealed. They're sealed until
the day of redemption. And look what he says in verse
14, which is the earnest. This Holy Spirit is the earnest
of our inheritance. This is the down payment of our
inheritance. Now, what's he saying here? The
down payment of our inheritance. Is he saying here that our inheritance
is going to be a spiritual inheritance? We know in some sense it's going
to be physical because there's going to be a new heaven and
a new earth, and that's real. That's going to be a real place.
But he seems to be saying here, since the Holy Spirit is the
earnest of our inheritance, I tell you, the main aspect of our inheritance
is spiritual. We're going to inherit Him? Is
that what he said? He's given us a down payment,
and He is that down payment, and we're going to inherit the
fullness of the Spirit? Wouldn't it be something, brothers
and sisters, to have a glorified body instead of blood, running
through our veins as it is now, to have the Spirit of God to
fill our beings. Wouldn't that be amazing? I mean,
you've known something, just something, a little bit of His
presence haven't you? We've known just a little, an
earnest, we've got such a small portion of Him, the Spirit of
God. Wouldn't that be something? to
receive Him as our inheritance and to be filled and possessed
of that third person of the triune God. Is that what Paul is saying?
It seems to be what he's saying. If that is, you talk about a
blessing. You talk about a rich, rich blessing. How rich these
Ephesians were. And you know something, brothers
and sisters, if we're in Christ, we're just as rich as they were.
They've got nothing on us, have they? And Paul comes here and
he tells us, just like he told them, wherefore remember. Remember. Remember what? Well, look here
in verse 1 of chapter 2. Look at this. Remember in time
past. And that's what he says here
in verse 2. We're in in time past. Remember the time past. Not that you may glory in it,
but you may be ashamed of it. Not that you may boast, but it
may humble you. If you think, as you read chapter
1, that you're deserving of any of these blessings, then remember,
time passes. Remember your poverty. He tells
us in verse 1, you have to equip them who were dead, and he goes
on in verse 2 and verse 3 and tells us what it is to be dead.
What's it like to be dead in trespass? Remember what it was
like, brother, to be dead and sick. Look what he says about
it here. In time past, look at this, you
walked according to the course of this world. What does that
mean? To walk according to the course
of this world? Well, look over here in chapter 4. He tells us
what this means, to walk according to the course of this world.
Look what he says in verse 17. Chapter 4 and verse 17. I say,
therefore, and testify in the Lord They henceforth walk not
as other Gentiles walk, as you used to walk, in the vanity,
in the emptiness, in the uselessness and unprofitableness of your
mind. Do you know what an unregenerated
mind is fit for? Spiritually speaking, nothing.
Nothing. It knows nothing of God. It knows
nothing of the things of God. It's sterile and totally unprofitable. It's vain, empty, useless. That's what it means to be dead
and trespassing. See? Having the understanding darkened,
darkened by the devil himself, darkened by our very natures,
darkened by prejudice, Being alienated, foreigners, from the
life of God. Dead in sin means you don't have
life. Dead in sin means you're separated
from God. Through the ignorance that is
in them, that was in us, because of the blindness, the hardness,
the ignorance, and the Greek says the stupidity of your hearts,
their hearts. That's what it means to walk
according to the course of this world. Useless, profitable, unprofitable. And look what else he says in
chapter 2 and verse 2. Look at this. Not only the mind,
our mind, but look what else it means to be dead in sin. You
walk not only according to the course of this world, The world
that's at enmity against God. But according to the prince of
the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience. Not only were we in the world,
our eyes were blinded, but now he says here we're ruled, we
were ruled by the devil and fallen spirits themselves. Under God,
as God allowed them. But I tell you, they ruled us,
didn't they? Our hearts was His palace, and He kept it well. He defended it well. And look
what else he says here in verse 3. Among whom also we all had
our conversation, our manner of living, our lifestyle, and
time passed. Look at this. And the lust of
our flesh. What is the chief characteristic
of this flesh? If you had one word to describe
it, what would it be? Lust, wouldn't it? Lust. That's all it's fit for. All it ever does. Lusting against
the Spirit. Fulfilling the desires of the
flesh. And a man may subdue the flesh.
There's plenty of people who do that. People shut themselves
away in a monastery somewhere. and subdue that old flesh and
keep it in check. They don't let him steal. Don't
let him kill. Don't let him rob people. Don't
let him rape and murder. You can do that. People can do
that. But I'll tell you something you
can't do. You can't go into that mind and subdue it. It's not
only the fulfilling of the desires of the flesh, but the desires
of the mind. And that's where our trouble
is, ain't it? It's the mind. It's the mind. and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others." Commentators see two things in this, and some
say there's just one thing, and some say another, and some say
both of them are true, and I imagine both of them are true. Some say
this children of wrath by nature means the wrath of God was upon
us when we were unbelievers, when we were lost. And others
say that this means that our mind was full of wrath and enmity
towards God. And you know, I think both of
those are true. Look over here with me. Mark this scripture
down. If you ever talk to anyone about this, you can take them
and show them this scripture and see what they think it means.
Look in Isaiah 54. I heard a man preach one time.
I heard a friend of mine. He's a pastor. He said a fellow
came to his church and preached. And said he preached God's elect,
was under God's wrath until they believed. And he ran him off.
Said, I'll never have that guy back again. And I love that old
man. I love him dearly. So I never
even questioned him. I just went on. But I'd like
to question him on some facts. I'd like to ask him what he says
about John 3, 36. He that believeth in the Son
hath life, and he that believeth not in the Son shall not see
life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." I asked one of my dear
brothers that one time, and he said, I think that's just a statement.
I said, yeah, it is, but what does that statement mean? He
that believeth is not condemned, but he that believeth not is
condemned. Who condemns the unbeliever?
God does, doesn't He? It's the wrath of God upon us
until we come to Christ and believe in Christ. Well, look here what
he says in Isaiah 54. Look here in verse 4. Fear not, for thou shalt not
be ashamed, neither be thou confounded, for thou shalt not be put to
shame, for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt
not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy
maker is thy husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and thy
Redeemer the Holy One of Israel, the God of all the earth shall
he be called. For the Lord hath called thee,
and when he called thee, look at this, he was a woman forsaken,
you were grieved in the spirit, a wife of youth, when thou wast
refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken
thee, But with great mercies will I gather thee, and look
at this, in a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment."
Is the unbelieving elect of God under God's wrath? I think so,
but it's only for a moment. Don't forget that. It's not eternal.
Others are under eternal wrath. And they may be under temporal
mercy, but eternal wrath. But the elect of God, they're
under everlasting mercy. Just temporal wrath. For a moment,
a little wrath, I hid in my face. But with everlasting kindness
will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. Everlasting
kindness. Temporal wrath. And I felt it
in my conscience. Didn't you feel it? Didn't you
feel God's displeasure with you? I did. And I thought, I tell
you, I thought, I thought really, I thought I was a goner. Didn't
you? I thought I was a goner. I was in trouble. I was like
Joseph's brother when they went up there before him. Boy, we're
in trouble now, they said. We're in trouble now. But little
did they know. Little did they know. And we
know that If Paul's meaning here is our minds were full of wrath
towards God and enmity, that's so too. That's so too. But he's
saying here now, you Ephesians, you remember. You remember. Time passed. Remember what you
were. You were dead and trespassed and sinned. You were without
God and without hope and without Jesus Christ in the world. Don't
forget that, he said. Don't forget that. Now he comes
here in verse 4, look at this. He comes here to verse 4 and
he says, but God. I heard Brother Jim Byrd preach
a message one time on the God who buts in. The God who buts
in. And he butted in. You were dead. You were God's enemy. Walking
according to the course of this world. But God. What about God? Well, He's rich in mercy. He's rich in mercy. Somebody
said they were defining mercy, and somebody defined it this
way. They said, mercy is God not giving us what we deserve. I like that, don't you? What
did we deserve? What does a man dead in trespasses
and sins deserve? A man that's walking with this
world and being a friend to it and hating God, what does he
deserve? A man that has a companion of
the devil and fallen angels, and don't seem to mind it, and
is following them along willingly, what does that man deserve? He
deserves to be damned, don't he? And he would have been if
it hadn't been for God's mercy. He's rich in mercy. Brothers
and sisters, don't trace your preservation in your lost estate
Don't trace it to some accident. Don't trace it to luck. Don't
trace it to good misfortune, good fortune. Don't trace it
to anything but the tender, rich mercy of God. Why did you live,
Glenn, until He called you? Mercy wasn't in you. Mercy. All
of us look back on it. Why don't you look back on your
lost life? Can't you see mercy? That's all we trace it to that.
Mercy. And I tell you, there's some
lost people in our midst that come here, that's been coming
here off and on. Some here this morning. Lost people. And my
heart is so heavy for them. Because I know this. If God don't
keep them by mercy, they're going to be lost. And they're going
to drop off into hell just any time. Just any time. And the
only thing that's keeping them out of hell right now is mercy. Mercy. Someone said, wrath was pleading
for our overthrow. Death was gaping at our heels.
Hell had opened its ugly jaws. And why didn't we drop into it?
Mercy. Mercy. And look at this. Not only mercy, but for His great
love. Wherewith He loved us. When did
God love us? After we loved Him. Why did He
love us? Because we first loved Him. Herein
is love. Not that we loved God. But He
loved us. But when did He love us? Even
when we were dead in sin. Knowing what you know about God
today. How holy He is. How sovereign
He is. How independent He is. He don't
need anything, does he? He's wholly, eternally, thoroughly
independent. He needs nothing. He don't need
you. He don't need me. And to look
upon us when we were walking as we were walking, dead in trust
prices and sin, and tell us when you were in that condition, I
loved you. I tell you that's more than my
poor heart can get a hold of. We look at ourselves today. The
lost world goes around hollering about God's love. Oh, God's love. And they don't doubt His love,
do they? Everybody you run into. Oh, God loves me, why wouldn't
He? Why wouldn't He? And here are you and I, trying to convince ourselves
and trying to believe God loves us. But He does. And not only does He love us
now, but He loved us when we were dead in trespasses and sins. That's amazing, isn't it? Amazing
love. How can it be that Thou, my God,
hast died for me? Loved us. Loved us. And here's
the evidence of it. Look at this. He loved us in
verse 5. And here's the evidence that
He loved us. And here's where we found out that He loved us. He has quickened us together
with Christ. He's made us alive. He's given
us life. As the Father raises the dead,
and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth who He will.
The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God. And they that hear, they're going
to live. And he said, look it here, that
he's quickened us together with Christ. And there's two or three
different opinions on this too, but here's one of the best I've
found, and I've jotted what this commentator said about this.
Here's what he said. He's quickened us together with
Christ. He said this, there's such a
connection between Christ and those whom the Father has given
to him that his resurrection from the grave involved their
resurrection to spiritual life. It was like raising up the head
and the members, the whole body together. Everywhere in the New
Testament, the close connection of believers with Christ is affirmed. We are crucified with Him. We
died with Him. We raise with Him. We live with
Him. We reign with Him. We suffer
with Him in this world. We are joint heirs with Him. And we shall share with Him in
His future glory. With Him. With Him. And then He adds this. Look at
this. By grace are you saved. And you know when we start considering
some of these things, how could it be anything else but grace?
Somebody give a good definition of grace. And they said it was
this. They said it's God giving us
what we don't deserve. Mercy is Him not giving us what
we do deserve. Grace is giving us what we don't
deserve. And what's He given us? My goodness, look at these
blessings. All spiritual blessings and heavenly pleases. I didn't deserve mercy, did you?
But he gave it to me. I sure didn't deserve his love,
but he gave it. I didn't deserve life, but he gave it. I didn't
deserve being saved. But by grace are you saved. And
here in verse 6, look at this. Here in verse 6. He continues
the thought, I think, that he had there in verse 5. And I don't
know how you and I can understand this if we don't look at it from
God's perspective. I don't know how else to get
a hold of it. Because it's said here that God has raised us up
together and made us set together in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. Now how are you going to understand
that if you don't look at that from God's perspective? Look
at it from God's perspective. And I think if you look at it
from His perspective, we can understand it. And when we believe
it as we should, we can rejoice in the assurance and the joy
of it. What does this mean? Look at
it from God's perspective. What's the believer's position?
He's in Christ, ain't he? Everywhere in the New Testament
we read that, don't we? He's in Christ. He's chosen in Christ. We have redemption in Christ.
We're accepted in Him. And now he says, here we're in
Christ. Well, where's Christ? Could somebody tell me where
Jesus Christ is? He's in heaven, ain't He? And you know what the
scripture says? You're in Him. If He's in heaven,
where are you? He said, Bruce, I don't feel
like I'm in heaven either. But what does God say? You're
dead and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who
is our light, shall appear, we'll appear with him in glory. Our
conversation is in heaven, from which we look to the Savior.
Where's the believer? He's in Christ. Where's Christ?
He's in heaven. So is the believer. I don't know how else to look
at that view. Look at it from God's perspective. that in the ages to come. Boy,
you talk about secure. I mean, if Christ is in heaven,
and a man is in Christ, then he's secure, ain't he? Look how
secure he is. Paul gives no chance of this
man ever being lost. A Christian is warned. We're told to be sober and diligent,
be careful. Warned of so many things. But
I tell you, the Scripture does not teach that a believer will
never be lost. He'll never be plucked out of
Christ. When Paul says, you're in Christ and heavenly places,
he says in verse 7, that in the ages to come, he might show the
exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through
Christ Jesus. I wonder who he's going to show
this to. He's going to show it in the ages to come. He's going
to show. I imagine probably He's going
to show it to the angels. They just aren't going to look
into this thing. And it may be that He's going to surround all
His church. He's going to take all of His
body, that innumerable company, and He's going to put them on
display before those holy company of angels. And He's going to
say, look at my kindness. Look at my grace. Look what I've
done. You fellas know. You're wise
enough to know. You saw where these had fallen
into. And yet, look where they are
today. And what brought them here? Grace. Kindness. Well,
He's going to show it to one another, ain't He? He's going
to show it to you. Church, He's going to show them one another.
Now, I'm going to look at Glenn Whitehead. I'm going to say, My Lord, Grace.
Oh, how kind you've been to Glenn. Look at him. Just look at him.
I knew him on earth. I knew his weakness. I saw him
in the flesh. I knew he was still a sinner.
But look at Glenn Whitehead now. Look how glorious he is. Looks
like Christ himself. He's going to show the church,
you Glenn. And you can bet he's going to
show us too. He's going to show you. Yourself. He's going to open your heart
and enlarge your understanding and you're going to know him.
You're going to know His saving attributes like you never could
know Him in this world. Your heart's going to be enlarged.
You're going to know even as you're known. Adam was a very
smart man. I'm amazed how smart that man
was. Me and Brother Lawrence talked about before how smart,
how brilliant that man must have been. There's never been a man
since him, an actual man that was as brilliant as that man.
But I tell you, he knows nothing. And what the saints of God will
know in their glorified state. Because they're going to know
those saving attributes of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mercy, love,
and kindness, and goodness. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that not of yourself. Pulled
by grace, not by merit, because we had none. He reminded us that
we fulfilled the lust of the flesh. Not by our power, because
we were dead and trespassed and sinned. But by unmerited, unearned, free,
sovereign favor of God. And he says you're through faith.
Pulled by grace, or you're saved through faith. You know what's
the first evidence of life? It's the first evidence, I guess,
of life. I know it's the first evidence
of the new birth, and you know what it is? It's faith. It's
believing. First evidence of it. He that
believeth on the Son, he hath. He hath already got life. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ, he's already born again. As many as received him, to them
gave he power to become the sons of God, even those who believed
on his name, which were born." Our old-timers used to say that
faith was the fruit of regeneration. You can't hardly separate them.
I know you can't. But I'll tell you this much. We can't be saved
apart from faith. We know that. But there's no
faith apart from life. There's just no faith apart from
life. At the same time, we tell sinners to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. We know they have to be
given life, don't they? And verse 8, look at this. By
grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves? It
is the gift of God. What is the gift of God? Well,
salvation is the gift of God. But you know, faith is the gift
of God too, ain't it? And it's not only a gift of God,
but it's a great mystery. One of the mysteries was that
God is believed on in this world. Do you realize how faith can
come to you? It's a mystery, isn't it? And people accuse us sometimes
of saying that we believe God believes for us. We never say
that. But we do say this. He's got as much to do with our
believing as we have. We believe with a heart. Man
believeth in the righteousness. The whole person believes. The
whole heart believes. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Who? You. You. Believe on Him. But you
know God has something to do with our believing too, doesn't
He? This is the work of God that
you believe on Him. I ain't believing a mystery. Is it our work? Yes, it's ours. And we call upon men to do it.
And they must do it to be saved. And yet at the same time, this
is the work of Him that sent me that you believe. It's a mystery,
Amy. It's a mystery. It's given to
you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell myself, almost
daily I have to remind myself, just believe the Lord. Don't
wait on Him to believe for you. Believe in yourself. And then
when you believe, you'll know that He's given you grace to
believe. It's His work, and yet you're doing it. That's a mystery. I don't know how else to explain
that. It's a mystery. Well, look here at this verse
10. Salvation, I tell you, is a dramatic
change, and it's not just turning over a new leaf and certainly
not just starting to come to the worship services and make
amends in your life or join the church or being baptized. I tell
you, salvation is a dramatic change. We are his workmanship. God's put his hand. The potters
come to us and he begins to farm us in the image of Christ. It's
God's workmanship. Created, it's God's creature. A new creature that never was
before, never existed before. God's creature. Just as God said
in the beginning, He comes now and makes a new creature, a new
creation. He has created us in Christ Jesus. And look at this, unto good works. Ain't that amazing? We used to
fulfill the lust of the flesh. Walked according to the course
of this world. And now what? What do we do? Good works. Good works. Dramatic change.
And it's all going to the grace of God. Father in heaven, we do thank
you for so great a salvation. Thank you for so great a grace
and so free of mercy. Oh, you are rich. You're rich
in grace and rich in mercy and great in your love. Oh, our Father
in heaven, we thank you for your word. Thank you for your people. Thank you for your kind providence.
We pray for those who are sick, those who are weak and suffering,
that you would be kind and tender and gracious to them. We pray
for the lost. Lord, if it please you, have
mercy upon the lost. Give them no rest. Disturb them
in the night season. Begin a work of grace, a work
of fear in their hearts. Grant them no rest until you
grant it to them in the Lord Jesus. O our Father, we ask these
things in his precious name. Amen.