In the book of Isaiah chapter
48, I read these words because they, I believe, because they go along
with the verses that we read out of chapter 1 in the book
of Ephesians. For my namesake, verse 9, says,
will I defer mine anger for my namesake. We all recognize that
God is a God of purpose. and that when God would defer
his anger from the natural man, when God would spare the natural
man, when God would be pleased to show favor unto the natural
man and to enable him to find grace in his eyes, The Lord does
that for His own namesake. For His own namesake. Not because
of who you are. Not because of human merit or
human privilege. Not because of anything you've
done or not done. He's done it for His own namesake.
Now these that our Lord was talking about, they were called transgressors
from the womb. They were treacherous of heart.
and they were great sinners, but no greater sinners than what
we are in a state of nature. No greater sinner than what we
were when we came into this world, having come forth from our mother's
womb and having a father, an earthly father, and having it
passed on to us, their sinnerhood passed on to us, and tracing
all the way back to Adam. and we're lost because of our
connection with Him who represented us in the Garden of Eden, and
that was Adam. And for my praise, He said, will
I refrain for thee. He said, I will defer mine anger
and I'll refrain for thee for my praise. I mean to do this
that I would be praised, that I would be glorified. He said,
that I cut thee not off. I cut thee not off in order that
my name would receive praise. You know, it's a wonderful thing
that God has not cut us off. It's a wonderful thing, and you
can think back of some times when surely you felt yourself
worthy of being cut off. Surely you felt that if God had
taken notice, and that if he was numbering your iniquities,
that you had filled to the full your iniquity and that God should
have cut you off. And I think every one of us here
can feel that. We can feel that. That we ought
to have been cut off. but that a God of grace and a
God of mercy has refrained, he deferred his anger, and for his
own praise he cut us not off. For his own praise he left us
in the land of the living until the full hope of the gospel could
come into our breast. until we could see clearly our
title clear to mansions in the sky. God was merciful and gracious
and did not cut us off. He says, Behold, I have refined
thee, but not with silver. He said, I have chosen thee in
the furnace of affliction. He said, I brought you into great
affliction. And there, in that furnace of
affliction, I have chosen you and I've refined you. I brought
you at last to myself. I brought you. In affliction,
he said, I brought you to your senses. And like the prodigal
son in the hog pen, when God brought him to his mind, to his
right mind, and until he was able to go home to the father's
house, until he discovered his terrible, terrible state. And
then he left the hog pens and went home to his father's house.
And so sometimes, you see, the Lord allows us to get into the
place of affliction. And in that place of affliction,
He exercises His sovereign choice of our souls and delivers us
out of our pitiful state and delivers us by free grace into
the full hope of the gospel. And he said, for mine own sake,
in verse 11, even for mine own sake will I do it. For my own
sake. You see, I'm God. And he says
that a little later on. He says, I'm He. I'm the first,
I also am the last. I'm the Alpha and the Omega.
I'm the beginning and the end. I'm the author and the finisher
of all true gospel faith. And he said, for mine own sake,
even for my own sake, he said it two times. Will I do it? Will
I do it? I'll do it, but it's for my own
sake. You see, it's not that God, number
one, is going to do it just because of who you are or because of
something that you might render to Him in the future in the way
of obedience or in the way of some highly spiritual life which
will maybe give him some degree of praise, but you also would
maybe share in that praise. But he said, for my own sake,
even for my own sake, he said, I will not give my glory unto
another. I will not give my glory unto
another. The glory belongs to me. I've
done this, he said, I've done it for my own sake. I saved you,
I chose you, and I saved you and called you for my own sake. And you belong to me. You're
all souls of mine, but especially those For whom Jesus died those
souls belong to him and I'll not give my glory unto another
well turn back with me if you will to the first chapter of
the book of Ephesians the first chapter of the book of Ephesians
and we read to you this morning and this chapter, and there's
some great and wonderful things here that I believe that the
Lord will be pleased to bless our hearts as we acknowledge
them this morning. To the praise of the glory of
His grace, look in verse 6. It says, To the praise of the
glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. In whom? You see, the Beloved
is a person. The Beloved is a person, and
it says, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of His grace. I want to talk
a little bit this morning about to the praise of the glory of
His grace. I do hope that most of you will
be able to rejoice somewhat as we call to your attention a few
things that I believe will be edifying to your hearts. Now
in this chapter, this first chapter of Ephesians, at least three
times Paul talks about the purpose of God in the salvation of our
soul and says it's to the praise of the glory of His grace. It's to the praise. The purpose
of God in the salvation of our souls is exactly what God has
told us there in Isaiah 48. when he said, My glory I will
not give to another, for my own sake, for my own sake will I
do it. God says, through Paul here,
that the purpose of God in the saving of the elect is to the
praise of the glory of His grace. And you know this song that we
just sang unto Him who hath loved us? That last verse. It says,
Aloud in His praises our voices shall ring. so that others believing
this new song shall sing unto him who hath loved us and washed
us from sin unto him be the glory forever amen and so beloved as
we look at this this morning we see that God's purpose then
in saving us is that his grace would be glorified that his grace
would be exalted and that God's own name would be exalted in
the earth Now then, there are other attributes that are manifest
in the salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ. We know that the
wisdom of God devised the plan of redemption. The wisdom of
God devised the plan of redemption. You know, no man could have come
up with the gospel, with the truth of the gospel, and with
the plan that God ordained to our salvation. And then we know
the power of God accomplishes the work of regeneration. These are attributes of God.
And we also know that the immutability of God, the unchangeableness
of God, secures our salvation. Beloved, if God were to change,
you and I would be goners. But it's because God remains
the same. Jesus said that he was the same
yesterday, today, and forever. That he never changes. God does
not change. God said, I am God, I change
not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. I'm God. I'm immutable. I will
not change. I never will change. I will stand
by my covenant. I will remember my covenant that
I made with your representative, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
will remember it. I will not change. My mind will
never change. I will stay the same forever. Now, beloved, that guarantees
our security. In fact, all of the attributes
of God are displayed in the salvation of sinners. But grace, grace,
is the fountainhead of salvation. Grace, my friend, is conspicuous
throughout the whole work of redemption. Grace is, I said,
conspicuous throughout the whole work. Let me point out a few
places where that we can see this grace Very evident. And Paul says our salvation is
to the praise of the glory of His grace. Well, grace is to
be seen, first of all, in our election. The Bible says in the
book of Romans that there is a remnant according to the election
of grace. I like what the Bible has to
say there in Romans 9 about Jacob and Esau. that before they'd
ever done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand of grace and not of works, he said the
elder shall serve the younger. God chose Jacob and he bypassed,
he left, Esau, and he said, and he made that choice before they'd
ever done any good or evil. He said, I've done that that
the purpose of God, my purpose might stand of grace, that my
purpose of election might stand of grace and not of works. And
so it's very clear that our election, that the grace of God is evident
in it. And then also the grace of God
is evident in our redemption. We have been justified, Romans
4 says, freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. We've been justified freely by
His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So redemption,
my friend, is a product of the fountain of grace. We're redeemed
because God has had favor toward us in His Son, the Lord Jesus. Now grace is also the very basis
of our calling. The Bible says that God has saved
us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. So our calling is
all of grace. God has called us. Salvation
is a call from God. Have you heard from God in your
soul? Have you know that God has laid hold of you? You know,
I believe that it's to be absolutely necessary that God, that He visits
us, and that we hear from God. And when a man is saved, he has
heard from God. God has called him. Paul says,
"...who hath saved us, and called us according to his purpose."
Now then, also, certainly all who are born of God know that
their justification, that they're being pardoned, they're being
adopted, they're being accepted of God and blessed of God according
to the riches of His grace toward us in Jesus Christ, that this
is all of grace And this is to the praise of God's grace. Do you know you're justified
this morning? Do you know that God has placed you on a standing
before Him and with Him that is just as if you'd never sinned?
Do you know that? If so, it's a pure grace, a pure
grace. And then pardoned, as God pardons
you, like a man who was on death row and the governor would come
and knock on his cell door and said, I've got something for
you and stick his hand through the bars and here's a pardon,
a full pardon. Do you know that God has pardoned
your sin? Well, my friend, if He has, it's
of grace. And then adopted. Adopted into the very family
of God. To be a member of the many-membered
family of God. To be in God's family. To be
treated like a son of God. To be treated like somebody that
was a true an heir of the family, to be a son of God, to be able
to say, Abba, Father, my Father, my God, my Father. And so this
adoption is grace, accepted and blessed of God according to the
riches of His grace. This is all, my friend, it's
all because of God's mercy and favor which He's shown us in
Christ. So I see a golden thread of grace that runs through the
believer's whole history. If you'll read the word and study
the word and meditate upon it, you cannot help to see this from
his election before the world began that we read about in Ephesians
1 and 3. To our final admission into eternal
glory in heaven all along the way, grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life. There is no point, listen to
me now, in the history of a saved man or woman, a boy or girl,
upon which a man can put his finger and say, I did that. This part of my salvation was
my own doing. It was my own work. I had this
day my own merit. Every blessing we receive from
God in time or eternity comes through us through the channel
of free and sovereign grace in Jesus Christ. And you mark that
down. And if you can't write it down,
you make a mental note of that. There's nowhere in the history
of a child of God where you can say, I had a part in my salvation. Nowhere where you can put your
finger and say, I did this, I did that. It's all through the channel
of God's free and sovereign grace in Jesus Christ. Boasting excluded,
the song says, pride I abase. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. So all boasting is excluded.
It's all of grace from the beginning to the end. Now boasting is excluded
because all human merit is excluded. You see, if human merit was involved
in any way, shape, or form, if it was not just for his own namesake
and for his own glory, that He saved us, then of course there
would be room for boasting. But in the vocabulary of God's
people, merit is to be an unknown word. It is to be banished from
our vocabulary forever. Our only shoutings over the foundation
stone and the top stone are grace, grace unto it. because all of
our salvation is free, freely provided, freely bestowed by
our Lord Jesus Christ in His planning, in His purchase, in
His performance, in His preservation, and in His perfection. Our salvation
is all to the praise of the glory of His grace. How wonderful this
truth is. And if you ever get it fixed
clearly in your mind that He said, I'm not going to give my
glory to another. Well, I'm going to save a people. I'm going to
have a people. I'm going to have a family. God
said, my son's going to have a bride and the Holy Spirit's
going to have a temple. But there isn't anybody going
to get any glory for it but me. It's for my own namesake. For
my own namesake I'm going to do it. And I'll not give my glory
to another. It's to the praise of the glory
of my grace that you've been saved and accepted in the Lord
Jesus. So it's all of grace. I want
you to turn with me to Romans chapter 11. turn to Romans chapter
11 and I want you to look at verse 6 and I do wish that you
could write these verses down on a piece of paper or a card
and put them in your paper or put them in your pocket put this
piece of paper in your pocket and memorize these verses how
important they are listen to it and if by grace then is it
no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be
of works, then is it no more grace, otherwise work is no more
work. This is a tremendous verse here,
the salvation of God's elect. It tells us this is all of grace
and grace alone. Now when we speak of salvation,
I want you to understand clearly what we're talking about. I mean
the whole work, the whole work of grace, all that is revealed
in the scriptures and all that is experienced in the soul concerning
the bringing of our lost and ruined soul from the dung heap
of fallen humanity to the enjoyment of heavenly glory in the presence
of God. That's what I'm talking about
when I'm talking about salvation. Let me give that to you again.
When we're speaking of salvation, we mean the whole work of grace.
All that's revealed in the scriptures and experienced in the soul concerning
the bringing of our lost, ruined, soul as a sinner, as a son of
Adam, from the dung heap of fallen humanity to the enjoyment of
heavenly glory in the presence of God. That salvation is all
of grace and is accomplished by the grace of God alone. It's
all of grace. I just want to make that clear.
Now, how do we see this? We see this, first of all, as
the universal testimony of the Word of God. This is the universal
testimony of the Word of God. Now, I wish I could preach to
the whole world this message. Because there are so many people
that are ignorant of the Bible and ignorant of what the Word
of God teaches. But the universal testimony of
the Holy Scriptures is that salvation is by grace alone from the beginning
to the end. Now in Ephesians 1 we read all
this chapter. We read the chapter a few minutes
ago, and then I quoted to you 2 Timothy 1 and 9, where it says,
"...who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." And
then I read to you Romans 11, 6, which makes it clear that
it's either got to be of grace or works, and it can't be, if
it's of one, it can't be of the other. So the scripture universally
testifies that no aspect of salvation ever, ever is once ascribed to
the work and will and worth of the sinner. Neither repentance,
faith, nor conversion, justification, regeneration, nor sanctification,
election, redemption, nor perseverance, growth and grace, peace with
God, nor any reward in heavenly glory are ever ascribed to men
in any degree in the Bible. These are all the gifts and works
of grace. The salvation of God's elect
was planned by God the Father in eternity. It was purchased
by God the Son on Calvary, on Mount Calvary, and it was performed
in the souls of God's people by the Holy Spirit, who dare
lay any claim to this being in any way, shape, or form, anything
other than a free, sovereign grace. Who could ever lay claim
to anything other than this? Well, I trust you'll be able
to make it up okay. Larry, you want to see if he needs any help
there? Second thing we learned, first
thing was that the universal testimony of the scripture is
that salvation is by the grace of God alone. Now the second
thing we learned is, and we all know that salvation is all of
grace and by grace alone because this is what we've experienced
in our own souls. This is what we've experienced
in our own souls. If we were to understand clearly
what took place in our souls when God saved us and what he's
been doing in our lives since he saved us, then we would all
say amen. Amen. Salvations of grace and
of grace alone. We were helplessly lost sinners. We were just like those that
in Isaiah 48, our name was transgressor, our name was sinner, We were
sinners. We were born into this world
dead in sin. We were born into this world
alienated, cut off from God. And we were without Christ, without
hope in the world. And going astray from God from
the day we were born. We began immediately when we
were babies, lying and deceiving. And we've been doing so ever
since. This is the nature. When a baby starts crying like
there's something the matter. When really all they want is
attention. That's deception. And they learn it early. They
learn it very early. And so we all start out. The
Bible says we go astray from our mother's womb. We went astray. Because we're all born with a
nature that is sinful. Now then, but God intervened
for his own namesake. But God intervened to save us,
He stopped us in our mad rush for hell, He gave us life and
faith in His Son, and the confession of every sinner that's saved
by grace is By the grace of God I am what I am. I'm by the grace
of God, I'm what I am. Anything there is here is all
because of God's pure and sovereign grace. Now this is so important
for us to see. Now I want you to take a look
there in Ephesians chapter 2 and see this because you know verses
1 through 6 of Ephesians 2 is a description of every one of
us. when God met us on our road to
hell. And He quickened us, first of
all, and He raised us to life. We were dead. And then we were
walking according to the course of this world, according to the
prince of the power of the air. And then, in verse 4, but God
God intervened. God intervened. God stepped in.
God said, I'm going to arrest that sinner. He said, arrest
that sinner to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came and arrested
the sinner and brought him to himself. God who is rich in mercy.
For His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, quickened us together with Christ, by grace are you
saved, hath raised us up together, made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might
show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus. Isn't that a marvelous, marvelous
statement? It's a wonderful statement of
Scripture, and I trust this morning that we'll be able to see that
our own experience, not only is it clearly taught in the testimony
of the Word of God, but in our own experience, we all know that
salvation is by grace. We know we made no contribution.
And anything we've done since the Lord saved us You know, most
true believers, real, genuine, born-again, spirit-filled believers,
they don't even give one thought daily to what they've done in
regard to good things. in regard to what some people
would term to be good works or they're going to be like those
that our Lord talked about in Matthew when he said you visited
the sick, you did this, you did that, and he said well when did
we do that? They didn't make any record. They didn't have any book down
where they had all their experiences in life and all the contributions
they had made and the visits they had made to the sick and
to the elderly. They didn't do all that. When did we do that?
When did we do that? And Jesus said, well, you've
done it to me. And they said, well, when? And
they said, well, when you've done it to the least of mine, you
were doing it to me. But they didn't remember. And that's the
way it's going to be, brother, sister, and that's the way we
are today. We know by experience that we've made no contribution.
We're not thinking about it. We know it's all of grace from
the beginning. We know that it's but God who
is rich in mercy. We know that that was the point
when this thing turned around with us. But God. who is rich in mercy. All right,
so then we learn two things. It's the universal testimony
of scripture that salvation is to the praise and the glory of
His grace and secondly that it's the experience of all souls. who are properly, who are saved
and are saved and are properly taught in the word of God that
we are what we are by the grace of God. And then the third thing
is that we learn by this we know that salvation is by grace alone
because our salvation in Christ is a present reality. A present reality. Now what do
I mean by that? Well I mean that every believer
is perfectly saved right now. I mean as Paul said in Colossians
2 10 let me just read it to you quickly in Colossians 2 and verse
10 it says this and ye are complete in him which is the head of all
principality and power you're complete in him so if you're
in Christ you are complete that's the way I understand those words
if you're in Christ You are complete. There's another verse that we
read here. It's that verse there in Ephesians 1 and verse 4. The very last part of that verse
says that he, the first part says he chose us before the foundation
of the world. And it is to the end that we
should be holy and without blame before him in love. that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love. I say that salvation is a present
reality because it is of grace. Now this is so important to see.
Our salvation is immutably secure right now. Now beloved, that
is a very important thing for us to see. That our salvation
is immutably secure, unchangeably secure right now. Right now. Remember those two words, right
now. Because most people think that it's yet to be determined,
it's yet to be decided whether they're saved or whether they're
lost. Most people think, oh, you know, I'm working toward
heaven. I'm working my way toward heaven. And I hope, finally at
last, that the Lord will say, welcome home. Welcome home. Come
in, thou good and faithful servant. Come in. Come in. at last but
let me tell you this true bible salvation salvation that's a
great is immutably secure and it's certain right now if you've
got it you've got it by grace and you've got it and it's secure
as it will ever be it can't be any more secure because it's
based and bottomed on the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and we are
without blame before Him. We are holy and without blame.
That is our standing and position in the Lord Jesus Christ. We
are complete in Him. Our standing before God can never
change. It can never change. Now, can
you accept that? You say, well, I don't know whether
I can accept that or not, that my standing can never change.
Well, beloved, if you believe what the Bible says, that we're
accepted in the Beloved, and that our salvation and standing
is the standing or the salvation that Christ has provided, Let
me say that again, I'm distracted. There's a lot of things going
on and I'm distracted. But let me try to get myself
together here. Let me make this point, that
if our salvation depends entirely upon what Christ has done, entirely
upon Him, and if God has accepted us on the basis of Him and His
work, and has not given any fault, as it were, to my works and to
who I am and to what I am, then, beloved, my salvation is secure
right now as it ever will be. Because it's not based on me.
It doesn't have nothing to do with me. My standing will never
change before God. If salvation were in any measure
dependent upon human merit and human works, if it were not all
together by grace alone, then it could not be perfect and it
could not be secure while we are in the world. And so do you
have, are you saved? Do you have, in reality, salvation
this morning? Have you experienced full salvation? If you have, then right now,
It's a reality with you. It's not ever going to change.
And you're as much saved right now as you ever will be. Because
the basis upon which God saves sinners. Now you have it any
way you want. You talk about it any way you
want to talk about it. But the basis upon which God
saves sinners. Is there something we can do
for you?