Good morning. It's not on. Everybody hear me
all right? I think so. All right, let's
turn to Ephesians 2, please. And let's seek the Lord's blessing. Father, we ask that you would
be pleased to bless all the preaching here this morning and tonight
and Wednesday evening. Father, we ask that you would
bless all the preaching for all your preachers of grace today. Lord, please magnify Christ set
him evidently before us, Father. We just want to see Christ. Please
show us that he is all we have, he's all we need. In Jesus' name,
amen. Ephesians 2. Now Paul has just
declared very richly and very plainly in the previous chapter
of what these Ephesians and by extension
all of God's saints have and are in Christ. He says they're endowed with
all spiritual blessings. They are chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world that they should be holy and without
blame before him in love having predestinated us. We are accepted
in the beloved redeemed by his blood, forgiven of sins, and
it's all according to the riches of God's grace, and sealed with
the Holy Spirit of promise. And now, beginning in chapter
two, in verse one, for the next few verses, Paul reminds us who
we were outside of Christ. Before we tasted of the grace
of God, he says, and you were dead in trespasses and sins,
that's what he's really saying, those words hath he quickened
are italicized, they're not really there in the original although
it's still just as true. I mean if we were dead in trespasses
and sins it means right now we're alive in Christ and that can
only be so if he hath quickened us. Sinners we are, but dead
in sins we're not. He's quickened us. Now is there
a better definition of man in his natural state than dead in
trespasses and sins? And the passage that comes to
my mind that I think really brings this out is the raising of Lazarus,
who himself is a type of the believer dead in sins before
Christ quickened him, quickened us. He needed Christ to come to where
he was. He couldn't walk to Christ. He
couldn't get to Christ. He was dead. And he didn't even
possess so much as the will to desire to come to Christ. He
was dead. An invitation to come forth wouldn't
have done it. He needed Christ to call him
by name, command him to come forth. And the mere offering
of life would have still seen him dead. He needed Christ to
quicken him bodily, to give him physical life, and how much more
do sinners, dead in sins, need Christ to quicken them spiritually,
give them spiritual life. This was our state before Christ
quickened us, dead in trespasses and sins. And here's the next
thing Paul says that used to be true. Wherein in times past
you walked according to the course of this world. Now there are
two walks. There's walking in Christ, that
is walking by faith. And there's walking the course
of this world. And what is the course of this world? It's really
nothing less than salvation by works. It is that broad path
that leads to destruction. See, you can take all these religions
in this world and you can lump them together. And that's really
the broad path that leads to destruction. And what they all
have in common is salvation by something you do. Now, if I could
hang a sign over the entrance of this broad path, I would write,
not Christ. Not Christ, because that's what
it is. You can pick your religion, you can pick your poison as it
were, and it's not Christ. There's a way which seemeth right
unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death, and the
way that Always, every time seems right to natural man is any other
way but Christ. Now if I could hang another sign
over that narrow path that leads to eternal life, it would say
Christ only, Christ only. It's too narrow for anything
else and Christ alone is enough for the believer. But you and
I were surely on that broad path on that broad course before grace
found us out. Now the course of this world,
it's according to the prince of the power of the air, this
is of the devil himself, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. I know this is all negative right
now, it'll get good in just a moment. In just a bit we've got another
verse to go through and then it'll get really good. Now here's
a sobering thought and one that should, well, hopefully ought
to instill in us some level of compassion and sympathy, but
you know, everyone we come in contact with who is not of the
household of faith is still unwittingly treading that broad path, and
they're here designated the children of disobedience, verse three. among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past. And you know what our conversation
was? It was really idol worship. That was our manner of life.
It wasn't just something we did here and there, it was who we
were. Now the religious person who attends his free will church
once a week or even less, he's still an idol worshiper 24-7.
And in such things were you and I before the grace of God sought
us. And we were in the lust of the
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.
Now the flesh has two components. There's the base immorality,
which is the things we usually think of when we think of our
sins, lying and stealing, breaking the Ten Commandments, and pure
thoughts and such. But that really pales in comparison
to that other aspect of the flesh, which you know what it is, it's
self-righteousness. It's self-righteousness and what
people, what most people do Sunday mornings, engaging in self-worship
is far more evil than what they do Saturday night, some immoral
act or what have you. The demons of self-righteousness
are far stronger than the demons of carnality. We might be able
to kick a bad habit or see some immoral behavior on our own,
but it takes the grace of God to cause a man to stop looking
to his own righteousness and to look to Christ alone and to
seek his righteousness. You know it's not a man's sins.
It's not a man's sins that will keep him from coming to Christ.
Publicans and sinners came to Christ, but who would not come
to Christ? It was the self-righteous Pharisees.
Jesus said, you will not come to me that you might have life. And now this last phrase of verse
three. You see, their problem was their will was bent towards
self-righteousness. It was bent towards increasing,
towards acquiring more of their own righteousness. fulfilling the desires of the
flesh and of the mind, it's just wanting to get more and more
righteousness, your own righteousness. The last part, and we're by nature
the children of wrath even as others. Now this doesn't mean
that we were the children of God's wrath, that can't be. We
just read in Ephesians 1 that All of God's people were chosen
in Christ. There was never a time when they
were subjected to or the objects of God's wrath. But what it does
mean is that we were wrathful towards God. We were wrathful
children. We were haters of God. And that's what self-righteousness
breeds. A love towards yourself and a
hatred of God. It says, he must decrease and
I must increase. Well, Now, this has been a pretty
bleak picture so far of man outside of Christ. And the question that comes to
my mind is, how do I know that I'm not still dead in sins, trespasses
and sins? How am I to know that I'm not
still walking the course of this world, hand in hand with the
children of disobedience, treading that broad path, puffed up in
my own righteousness, and still hating God. Well, just two words, just two words
give me all the comfort I need. Verse four, but God, but God. You see, our God is not like,
our God is not the God of man-made religion. Because our God is
an intervening God. Has the Lord quickened you and
made you to see Christ as all your salvation? Has he caused
you to walk in Christ? How do I know? I don't know if
I do. Well, do you trust in Christ alone? And has he caused you
to love him? Now, I know we don't feel like
we don't love him as we are. I know that. Has he given you
a love where there was only hatred before? And really, where else
are you going to go? Where else are you going to go?
For the believer, Christ is all we have. Peter said, Lord, to
whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. The grace of God has already
caused the believer to turn to Christ. And the grace of God
constrains him to look to Christ only. He has nowhere else to
turn. If this is true for you, then
you can say, but God intervene for me. Now I want to read some
passages that deal with this turning point of this, but God,
we won't turn to any of them, but I just want to read them.
And the first one that comes to mind is of Noah. But Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. which could be just as
easily stated, but God showed Noah grace. And he was no different. He was lumped in with all those
others who the imaginations of the thoughts of their heart were
only evil continually. But grace was the distinguishing
factor. But God made the difference. Here's another one. Ye thought
evil against me. But God meant it unto good to
bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. What Joseph is telling his brothers
here is, yeah, it was your will to sell me as a slave in Egypt.
But first and foremost, it was God's will, because God meant
it for good. Peter says in Acts 2. You have
taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.' You meant
it for evil but you know what the first part of that verse
says? Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God, God meant it for good. It was man's will to slay Christ,
yes, but it was God's will to slay Christ. The difference was
that the intentions were diametrically opposed. And what I think is
amazing to think about is that while we were slaying Christ,
something we're all guilty of, slaying him in spirit, wanting
to do away with him, God was right there slaying his son for
the salvation of his saints. We meant it for evil, but God
meant it for good. We were doing this as an evil
act against God, but God was doing this as an act of good
towards his people. Now the scriptures speaking of
David says, And Saul sought him every day, but God delivered
him not into his hand. But God will redeem my soul from
the power of the grave. My flesh and my heart faileth,
but God is the strength of my heart. But God is faithful, but
God has called us to peace. But God gave the increase, but
God chose the foolish things of the world. You were dead in
trespasses and sins, but God quickened you. See, all these
but gods, they are in reference to deliverance, to salvation.
Now, I did see one verse that says but man. Job 14.10 says,
But man dieth and wasteth away, yea, he giveth up the ghost.
Where is he? You see, if we are to be saved,
we need God's and not man's intervention. Verse four, but God who is rich
in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us. Here's how he intervened. and great love and mercy. And
when did he do this? Was it when we believed? Was
it when we confessed our sins? Was it when we did anything?
Fill in the blank? No. Verse five, it was even when
we were dead in sins. Paul says in Romans five, While
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. This is
when he intervened, not when we did anything. And I can't
understand this, it doesn't make sense. When we were dead in sins,
that's when God quickened us. See, natural man would think,
well, you've got to do your part. I had someone tell me a while
back, we're not robots, God is waiting on us to come to him.
Essentially saying, you just got to do your part before God
will do his part. But if God did not intervene,
When I was dead in sins, then I'm still dead in sins, because
religion would have us believe that there's still something
we have to do. There's still some part we have
to play, even though we can't, because we're dead in sins. Well,
when he was raised from the dead, I was raised in him. And how
was this done? By grace you are saved. Grace
is the overarching theme of salvation. What has God done in our salvation
that he is not done by grace alone? Nothing. Verse six, and
hath raised us up together and made us sit together. I love the togetherness. that the believer has with christ
and i love all these prepositions in christ together with christ
verse seven says through christ they all speak to the union that
the believer has with Christ in Revelation 321 Jesus says
to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me and my throne
when Christ is sitting in his throne you know who else is also
sitting in his throne you and me and we are sitting in heavenly
places in Christ the believer is in two places at once he's
on the earth But how much more truly is he in heaven right now? And when we die and we behold
the Lord's face, we're going to think, well, we never left
this place. We're going to feel like we've
always been there. These things, the quickening,
the raising up, the sitting together in Christ, they all took place
before the foundation of the world. Verse seven. that in the
ages to come he might show forth the exceeding riches of his grace
and kindness towards us. And the ages to come was when
Christ came into this world. John says the law was given by
Moses but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And I think
kindness is a good synonym for God's grace. If you want God
to be kind to you plead grace, plead what his son has done because
it's only through Christ that God displays his kindness, his
grace. Now, if God has not, if Paul
has not made it clear enough in these last four verses, he
reiterates what he just said, and repetition is always a good
thing, especially when telling sinners how God saves. Verse
8, for by grace are you saved. Grace is that which saves, and
he could have just stopped here, but he adds, I like what he says,
through faith. Faith is the product of grace,
and faith is the means by which we're enabled to believe in salvation
by grace, and that seems obvious enough. We wouldn't know what
grace is except through faith, and these two can't be separated.
Whenever you find a man with faith, you'll also find a man
to whom the Lord has bestowed much grace. So the scripture
has clearly defined how God saves, and now he builds the walls to
keep out anything that's not salvation by grace he says for
by grace you're saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
What is not of grace but anything that is offered from us to God
for salvation what the Lord does not allow and the salvation of
a man is anything that comes anything that would come from
himself. And there is a whole lot of trying to mix self and
grace and works and faith and religion. Most religious people
might welcome a message that speaks to the necessity of Christ's
righteousness, but they're deep down absolutely horrified at
the prospect of being stripped of any of their own righteousness.
They might welcome a message of Christ's righteousness, but
they feel the need to mix what he has done with what they themselves
have done. They can't just have Christ alone.
They can't just believe in salvation by grace alone without offering
something of themselves for salvation. But the scripture says, It's
not of yourself, it's the gift of God. Both the grace and the
faith and everything else, it's the gift of God. What do you
have that you have not received? And here's another thing that
salvation is not of. It is not of works. There goes
another section of the wall. You know, I love the knots of
scripture. I love them just as much as I
love the yeas and the amens. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
which believe on his name, which were born not of blood and not
of the will of the flesh and not of the will of man, but of
God. I love that salvation is not
of him that willeth, and it's not of him that runneth, but
it is of God that showeth mercy. I love that salvation is of grace
and that it's not of ourselves. What part of salvation has God
not performed or what part of salvation is God looking to us
to perform? Absolutely nothing. The city
of salvation is built on grace alone. But it's erected walls
to keep out anything else that's not of grace. You try to come
with your works. You try to come with your will. You try to come
offering something of yourself to God. You won't get in. But
if you come with nothing, if you come just pleading grace,
just pleading what Christ has done, the gates will open wide.
Come on in. There's room for you. There is
room in the kingdom of God for nothing's and nobody's. If salvation
is not of works, if it's not of will, if it's not of yourself,
what could it possibly be but of grace? It's none of those
things. Verse nine, lest any man should boast outside of those
walls. There's a whole lot of boasting
going on, people boasting in their works and their will and
themselves. But the man who has been quickened in Christ. May
given a new walk, made to walk in Christ, been given love towards
God. He knows there's no way he could
ever possibly boast in anything he's ever done. The thought is
repulsive to every believer. That is not something any of
God's saints want to be found engaged in. Paul says in Romans
three, he says, where is boasting? It's excluded. By what law? Of works? No. Works will only
cause you to boast in yourself. But of faith. Faith always boasts
in what the Lord has done. And may the Lord give us all
the grace to stand within those grace walls, to stand in Christ,
and to boast in him who by himself purged our sins. Thanks, man. Glad you enjoyed
it.