Ephesians 2, verse 8. I want to just read this one verse
to you. Ephesians 2, verse 8. For by grace are you saved, for
by grace you are saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift Now, most of you can quote that this morning.
I bet if I come around to each one of you, most of you could
quote this passage. Among us, it's probably one of
the most familiar verses in all the Bible. And there's three
reasons I want to look at it this morning. I hope that God
will give me grace never to be weary of on occasions going back
and taking this verse of Scripture and preaching from it. And there's
three reasons that I want to preach this verse to you this
morning. One is, I need to be saved myself. I have learned through the years
to value my soul. We may not look much, but you
know the Lord Jesus said we're worth more than the world. If
a man loses himself, he's lost the most precious thing that
he has. I don't want to lose myself.
I want to be saved. This verse tells me how I'm saved.
By grace are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. Secondly, if you're here this
morning and you don't understand this, I want you to know We sometimes
sing the same songs over and over again, and we don't get
weary of that. But sometimes we're apprehensive about preaching
from the same passage of Scripture. But there are so many that have
never heard this. If you're here this morning and
you don't know what it means to be saved by grace, you don't
know what this verse means, I hope this morning when you leave,
you say, I not only know what that means, I believe And thirdly,
and lastly, I want to preach this this morning because this
is obviously for the glory of God. By grace are you saved through
faith, and not of yourselves. It is the gift, the gift of God. I think if we say something about
the gift of God, then God will be glorified. What a precious
gift to be saved. The greatest gift that God could
give you and me is to save us by His grace. We've got so much
in our day. It means little to us when somebody
gives us a gift. But I tell you, there's no gift
like this. The gift of God. The gift of God. And first of
all, let's look at it this way. I want to first of all begin
to look at this verse in the whole context, in chapter 1 and
in chapter 2. One of the things that free will
often does, they have a few choice texts that they go to that they
like to prove their free will doctrine and their ideas. And
they'll take that one little text out of context, and they'll
try to prove their system of theology. But when you and I
look at a verse like this, we take the whole context and prove
what this verse is saying. And I think when we look at chapter
1 this morning and see the greatness, just quickly, first of all, see
the greatness of the blessing, and then ask ourselves, what
brought these blessings? What is it that brings these
blessings? And the answer will be grace. And when we see the
greatness of the blessing, hopefully we'll see the greatness of the
grace. So let's look. Take your Bibles
and keep your Bibles open on your lap. And if you don't have
one, you'll find one there in the pew. And let's look in chapter
1, first of all, and let's see the blessings that grace brings
to us. I hope these blessings are in
your heart this morning. And you're never weary of going
back here and reading about it because you want to grasp the
moment. These are heavenly blessings,
eternal blessings. Look what he says in chapter
1 and verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places. The eternal God can bless you. He can bless you. Nobody can
bless like God can. Javis prayed that great prayer,
Lord bless me, and the scripture says the Lord heard his prayer
and blessed him. I want to be blessed by God. Here he says that he hath blessed
with spiritual blessings. That's what I'm concerned about
this morning. Spiritual blessings. And look what he says in verse
4. He begins here to list these
blessings and who they're for. What's the first blessing that
God hath bestowed upon you, dear child, this morning? Look what
he says. According as he hath chosen us,
chosen us to salvation in Christ, before the foundation of the
world. Where did God begin to bless
you who believe this morning? When did He begin to bless you?
He began to bless you before you ever believed, even before
you had a being. He set you aside and chose you
to these blessings. Oh, that verse of Scripture,
that song that I often quote, "'Twas not that I did choose
thee, for, Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, but thou hast chosen me.'" Listen to what else Newton said
in that song. "'Thou from the sin that stained
me hast washed and set me free, and to this end you chose me.'
You ordained me that I should live to Thee. To a sovereign
mercy called me and taught my opening mind, or the world had
else enthralled me to heavenly glories blind. My heart owns
none above Thee, for Your rich grace I thirst, this knowing
if I love You, You must have loved me first." When did he
choose us? Before time ever was. You have
not chosen me, the Lord Jesus said. I chose you. I have chosen
you. Ain't that a wonderful truth?
To be chosen. You know that's essential. You
know only the elect obtain these blessings. Only those he chose
to these blessings. He prepared the blessings and
he says, I chose those whom I'm going to bless. Oh my, ain't
that serious? Isn't that serious? I want to
know I'm one of those, don't you? And look what he says, he
goes on and he mentions another blessing in verse 5. Now look at this. Having predestinated
us. unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ unto Himself. He set us aside for a specific
blessing and purpose. And what was it? To adopt us
as His children. You know when a parent goes to
adopt children, sometimes they'll find the prettiest ones They'll
find one that appeals to them. You know the Lord never did that.
He never looked down through time and said, oh, look what
a pretty little fellow Larry Baker is. Or there's his wife
Sue. I think I'll just predestinate
them to adopt them as my children. You know He never does that.
We do that because we're natural. But you know He never did that.
He did it according to the good pleasure of his own will. And he says here that he predestinated
them to adopt them as children. And Paul tells us, you've not
received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you've received
the spirit of adoption. And you cry, Father, Father,
Father. He sent forth the spirit of his
Son into your heart. And why did he do that? Why did
he do that? Because he predestinated you
to that end, from the very beginning of time, to adopt you as children. Now, I ask you, isn't it a wonderful
thing to be a child of God? To be adopted as a child of God
and have the spirit of His Son in your heart, saying, Father,
Father? Well, isn't it wonderful that He predestinated you for
that blessing to begin with? And what is it that brings that
blessing to you? Is it not grace? Oh, then grace
must be something, isn't it? By grace are you saved. And notice
the last portion of verse 5 and verse 6. He gives the reason, he gives
the cause of God predestinated us into the adoption of children.
And he gives two reasons for it. First of all, he says it's
according to his own will. Look at the last portion of verse
5. According to the good pleasure of his will. It was his will. His mere, sovereign will to do
it. If somebody wants to know why
God did this, attribute it to His will. His will. You know,
I spent the first 23 or 24 years of my life and I didn't know
God had a will. I didn't know He had a will. And then I began
to see it in the Word and I thought, my, He not only has a will, He
has a sovereign will. And He not only has a sovereign
will, He exercises that will. And he not only exercises that
will, but he does according to his will in the armies of heaven. I want to be saved according
to the will of God. Don't you? How do you know you're
saved? I'm saved according to God's
will. And he has quite a bit to hear in this chapter to say
about God's will. But look here what he says about his will.
Look here in the last portion of verse 5. According to the
good. His will is good, ain't it? There's
nothing wrong. Brothers and sisters, please
don't be afraid of the will of God. Don't open up your Bible
and be scared to see what God's will is. The greatest blessing
that you can have in your life, dear child of God, is for God's
will to be done with you. The greatest blessing known to
this world would be for God's will to be done. We're to pray
to that end, Father, not our will, but Your will be done in
heaven as it is in earth. The will of God is good. Everything
contrary to that is evil. It's good. It's good. And notice
what else he said, not only the good will, but the good pleasure,
the pleasure of His will. God takes pleasure, Glenn, in
His will. Whatever he wills to do, he takes great pleasure in
accomplishing that will. And it's a wonderful thing when
he brings you and I to take pleasure in his will, whatever it is. Not my will, not the world's
will, not the church's will, but may your will be done. And look what he says here about
his will in verse 9. Look what he says in verse 9.
having made known unto us the mystery, the mystery of His will."
The will of God is something that He has to make known to
you. The first thing you and I find
out that it's His will to save us. That's the first thing we
find out. Oh, how wonderful it is to know
it's God's will to save me. And then when he begins to tell
me that it was his will to choose me, it was his will to predestinate
me to the adoption of children. Oh, what a blessing that is.
God makes known the mystery of his will. And then in verse 6,
look in verse 6, he gives another reason for predestinating us
unto the adoption of children. Now look at this. to the praise
of the glory of His grace. That's why He did it. You know
God is out to get a great name for Himself. Now, that's amazing
to me. And you think if He's going to
do that, He'd limit Himself to the angels in heaven. He'd get
them all around. He said, now listen, my elect
angels. I want you to worship Me and adore Me and bow down
and worship Me. But you know when he goes to
get himself a great name, you know who he goes to? People like
us? Well, you go and dig up a big
bucket of worms and try to teach them to bow down and worship
you. I don't have any need for worms to worship me. But you
know, ain't it amazing that the eternal God condescends for worms
to worship Him and to praise Him for His grace? to the praise
of the glory of His grace. That's why He's ordained these
blessings, for a host of Adam's fallen race. And look what else
He says here in the last portion of verse 6, "...to the praise
of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved." Now, in verse 4, He says He chose us that we should
be holy and without blame before Him. Now he comes here in verse
6 and he's going to tell us how we're going to be holy and without
blame. When God brings somebody to Himself
and He says that person has to be holy and without blame, how
does He do that? You know what He does? He puts
them in Christ. Isn't that what you said? He puts them in His
Son. Then he accepts them with the
same love and the same adoring as he accepts his son. They're
there in Christ. And if you're in Christ, you're
a new creature. And you're holy. As holy and
as near to God as his own Son. Wherein he hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. Well, this is a question that
arises then, doesn't it? How does Christ make us holy?
How does Christ make us holy? If we're holy because we're in
Christ, how does Christ make us holy? Well, He tells us here
in verse 7, look at it, "...in whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sin." It's through His blood,
through His death. He's our sin bearer. He took
our sins to Himself and suffered the just penalty of God's law. He met the demands of law and
justice on our behalf. He brought in a righteousness
to clothe the shame of our nakedness. He poured out His blood to cleanse
our conscience from its sin. He loved us and washed us from
our sin. And when He does that, you know
something? We're holy. We're holy. If you've been washed
from your sins in His blood, you know something? You have
no sins. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us from all sin. You say, Bruce, I feel my sin.
I see my sin. I see it. Well, listen, are you
going to take his word for it or your own personal feelings?
If he says the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin,
are you going to believe that? If the prophet says he clothed
me with the robe of his own righteousness, are you going to believe that?
When He says that God has made Him to be sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,
are you going to believe that? Brothers and sisters, the Son
of God came to this world and took our humanity to Himself.
And when He was finished upon the cross and His blood had been
poured out, He had obtained a perfect and eternal redemption for us. who are in him. He makes you
perfect and holy and without any blame before God. Ain't that
a blessing? Ain't that a blessing? All spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. What motivated
the Lord Jesus to do it? Look in the last portion of verse
7. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of sins, according to the riches of his It goes back to grace,
doesn't it? To the praise of the glory of
His grace, the riches of His grace. You know the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Though He was rich, yet for your
sakes He became poor. Why did He come? Why did He leave
heaven's glory? Why did He leave the worship
of those angels? Why did He come to be despised and rejected and
die upon the cross? His heart was full of grace.
Grace. That's it. Now look in verse
10. Look at this in verse 10. This
tells us that God's purpose is unfolding in the very day we
live in. His purpose is unfolding. And
look what He's doing. That in the dispensation of the
fullness of time, times He might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are in earth,
even in Him. God's purpose is unfolding, and
you know what He's doing? He's reconciling angels in heaven
and glorified spirits in heaven with the church upon this earth.
He's bringing us all together. And soon, when His purpose is
finished, there's going to be perfect harmony in this world
and in heaven among men and among angels. Look at the discord in
the world today. Wars and rumors of war. Look at the Middle East. That
thing is going to blow up just at any time. Look just south
of the border, down in Mexico. 53,000 people have been killed
and many of them beheaded. They don't know which nation
is going to rise and overthrow which nation tomorrow. But you
know, that's coming a time when all that's going to end, and
there's going to be perfect harmony, perfect peace. When? When God
has gathered all things together in Christ. When He says, My purpose
is finished, I've accomplished it. And now look at the harmony. Oh, what a blessing that will
be. What a day that will be. What a day that will be. Glorious. No wonder the Apostle Paul said,
Come, Lord Jesus, come. Bring peace to this earth. And
look in verse 11 right quickly. I've got to hurry on. Look what
else. Look at this blessing. Look at
this blessing. In whom also, in Christ also,
also. Why did he use that word also?
We have obtained an inheritance, been predestinated. Well, he
just got finished in verse 5 to say that he's predestinated us
into the adoption of children. Now he says he's done something
else. He's predestinated us into something else. He has predestinated
us to obtain an inheritance. It is not only what the Lord
has redeemed us from, it is what He has redeemed us to. It is
wonderful to be saved from, but oh, it is just as glorious to
be saved to. He has predestinated us. He set
us aside to obtain an inheritance. All of us know what an inheritance
is, don't we? When the parents have some property,
they have a house or money or something they want to leave
the children that's valuable to them, who do they leave it
to? The children. The children are the heirs. The
heirs. And they make up a will beforehand.
The will is made up beforehand. And this is what the Lord did.
He made up His will beforehand, even before the world. And He
says, I'm assigning this kingdom I'm willing my kingdom to them,
my children, my heirs. And you know, someday he's going
to say, the Lord himself is going to say to these same people,
come, you're blessed with my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you. Inherit the kingdom. Oh, it's
an everlasting kingdom. It's incorruptible kingdom. It's
an undefiled kingdom. It can never fade away, and it's
reserved in heaven for you. For you? For you. Who? Those
that God has predestinated to that end. And I tell you, brothers
and sisters, down here when the parents die and they leave their
family, they leave their children a few acres of land and a little
house, they go to court and they start fighting over it. We're
going to probate this. We're going to argue this. You
know in heaven there's no probate courts. When the Lord wrote it
down on His will, He said, it's fixed. It's fixed. It's yours. It's yours. Oh, ain't
that a blessing? Ain't that a blessing? Oh, what
a blessing. Come, ye blessed of my Father. In verse 13, look at this. Paul
reminds them here in Ephesians, these Ephesian believers, that
some of them was now beginning already to partake of these blessings.
Look how he says it in verse 13. In whom you also trusted,
you trusted Christ, after you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation. in whom also, after that ye believed,
ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." These people
had heard the gospel, and what had happened? Well, the spirit
of adoption had come to their heart. Now, now, they had begun
to cry. What God had already told them
before the world was, they were going to cry, Father, Father,
Father, Father. The spirit of adoption. Notice what he says here about
the spirit. He calls him the sealer. After that you believed
you were sealed. All of us know what that means.
You don't even have to go look it up in your dictionary. Especially
you who can a lot. We go to the garden or down at
the farmer's market and get some vegetables or fruits, and we
cook and we put them in jars and we seal them, don't we? We seal them. We seal them to
a certain time that we open them up. Do you know the Holy Spirit
seals every believer? And he can never be opened up
until the day of redemption. He's the sealer, the sovereign
sealer. And he calls him something else here in verse 13 and verse
14. He calls him the spirit of promise. In verse 13, you were sealed
with the Holy Spirit of promise. Now, that means two things. First
of all, if you begin to read the Old Testament, when the Lord
called Abraham, he said, Abraham, I'm going to bless you. And all
the nations of the earth are going to be blessed. I promise
you that. And you know one of the blessings was this. I'm going
to send the Spirit. And all through the Old Testament,
we have that emphasized. The coming of the Spirit. And
the Lord Jesus, before He went to the cross, He told His disciples,
it's essential for me, for you, that I go away. If I don't go
away, the Spirit will not come. But if I go away, I'll pray the
Father, and He'll send you the Spirit." There's the Spirit of
promise. And on the day of Pentecost,
the Spirit of promise came, and He filled their hearts, and He
filled the house. That's the Spirit of promise.
And Paul said, when you heard the gospel, and you believed
the gospel, the Spirit of promise came to you. But you know it
means something else, too. The Spirit of promise means this.
Look in verse 14. What is the spirit of promise?
Look at this, which is the earnest. That's the down payment of our
inheritance. You know what you do when you
make a down payment on the house? That secures the house, doesn't
it? You make a down payment on a car, that secures the car. It secures the purchase. And He gives you the Holy Spirit
in your heart, and He's just a down payment on that inheritance
that is to come. If you have the Spirit of Christ
this morning, you know something? He won't deny you the inheritance.
If He's done giving you the down payment, He's not going to deny
you the inheritance. But look at what else He says,
which is, "...the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption
of the purchase Possession. What is that? The purchased possession. Do you know what that is? It's
the body. Sometimes when we think about
redemption, we just think about the soul. Well, that's true. The life of the body is in the
blood, isn't it? And the Lord said, I've given
you the blood. Because it's the blood that makes
redemption for the soul. But you know the blood of Christ
redeemed more than just our soul. It redeemed the body. The whole
body. Our eyes, our mouth, our ears,
our arms, our hands, our legs. The whole body has been redeemed. Jesus Christ is the Savior of
the body. I love my body. Our bodies are
a vital part of us. I don't want to die. I can say
that when I'm good and healthy. I'll really say it when I'm sick
and ready to die. I don't want to die. But you know something?
The believer has the hope that someday his body is going to
be raised and it's going to be changed and there's going to
be a glorious body like in the Son of God. You know why? Because
Jesus Christ has purchased the body as well as the soul. See? He'll have the whole man. He's going to have the whole
man. He didn't redeem just the part. He's got the whole man.
He redeemed the whole body of His elect, and He redeemed all
their bodies. Perfect body. We're having parts
taken out here, aren't we? Some of us have quite a few taken
out. We're going to have some more taken out before we're over
with probably. But you know something? They'll be restored someday.
And your body will be glorified. And we've received the earnest
until until the time of the purchased possession. Now, brothers and
sisters, aren't these wonderful blessings? And what is it that
brings these blessings? Thy grace. Are you saved? If you want to see the greatness
of grace, then look at the greatness of these promises. Secondly,
let's look at grace like this. Let's look at it like this. And
the Apostle Paul begins here in the second chapter. And unless
these Ephesian believers begin to hear of these blessings and
think, now, I'm worthy of that. I earned some of that. I'm a pretty good fellow anyway.
Boy, he begins in verse 1 through verse 3, and he tells them of
their miserable, fallen, perishing condition. Let me read it to
you. Look at this. you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sins. For in time past ye walked
according to this world, according to the prince of the power of
the hour, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. Among whom also we all had our
conversation in time past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath even as others." If you had to define
grace, how would you define it? You know, we go to our dictionaries
and Webster defines grace as unmerited favor, unearned favor. But you know, that's not saying
anything, is it? You know, the Bible, to my knowledge,
never defines grace. You never go to the Bible and
it says grace is this or grace is that. But you know what the
Bible is always doing? Illustrating grace. And here
it gives us an illustration of the preciousness and the power
of grace. What kind of grace would you
call it that came to a man who was dead in trespasses and sin
and gave him life? That's amazing. That's life-giving. If you went to a funeral and
a fellow is down there in a casket dead, and somebody came in the
door and went and laid their hands on him, you've raised death.
Why would you think of somebody like that? Oh, you're a sovereign. What do you think of grace that
will come to a sinner who is dead and sins and gifted? Oh,
that's sovereign grace, isn't it? That's life-giving grace. What do you think? of a grace
that will come to a man or woman or boy and girl who is in the
kingdom of darkness, the kingdom of Satan. And he loves it there. Satan has this little hook in
his nose and is leading him around, influencing him to do, and whatever
Satan influences him to do, that's what he does. And grace comes to that man.
and that woman and that boy and that girl, and takes them from
the kingdom of darkness and puts them into the kingdom of God's
Son. What do you think about a grace like that? To say it's
unmerited and unearned, that's just not sufficient, is it? What would you think about grace?
What kind of a grace is it that will come to a man and a woman,
boy and girl, and they're walking after the lust of their flesh?
That's their motive for everything they do. It's the lust of the
flesh. John said there's three things
in this world. The lust of the eyes. Oh, ain't that awful? Ain't that awful? You know what
that is, don't you? The lust of this flesh and the pride. I still go around. I thought
I got over this years ago. Not long after the Lord saved
me. They hired a bunch of women where I was working, and I saw
them come in the door, and I sucked my big fat tummy in. And the
verse came to me, every man walketh in a vain show. And I've tried
to be careful with that, but I was out yesterday, and I met
a pretty nurse walking down the hallway at the hospital, and
you know what I did? I sucked my stomach in. I still
ain't gone over the pride. The pride. What is it that motivates
us? Lust of the eyes. Lust of the
flesh. and the pride of life. But you
know what Paul said here? Fulfilling the desires of the
flesh. But he didn't stop there, did
he? If you could take a little newborn
baby and you thought to yourself, I'm going to train up that child
and I'm going to keep that little baby from the lust of the flesh. I've got a private place built
over here and he's never going to see anybody. He's never going
to be around any rock and roll music. Never going to see any
movies. Never going to have an iPad.
Never going to be on Facebook. I'm going to keep him from everything,
and I'm going to feed that little fella every day. I'm going to
take his meals there to him and feed him. He's going to be shut
up by himself. And I'm going to deliver him from the lust
of the flesh. But you know something? You may deliver that child from
the lust of the flesh, but you know something? You can't deliver
that child from the lust of the mind. That's what we're born
with. Now what would you think about
a grace that would come to people like this and make them a new
creature? Deliver them from walking according
to the course of this world and put them followers of God as
dear children. How would you define a grace
like that? You can't define it, you just have to illustrate it.
It's too amazing to define. And what would you think about
a grace that come to an enemy of God? One whose mind and heart
was filled with wrath against God. Disobedience towards God. Children of wrath. I hate God. I hate who He is. I hate what
He is. I hate His Word. I hate His people. I hate His
gospel. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. What would you think about a
grace that comes to a person like that? And subdued that person. and made him a friend of Christ.
That's wonderful, isn't it? That's wonderful. When you think,
when you think of the only thing that can save people like this,
you have to agree with the Apostle, for by grace are you saved. Nothing else can do it. Free will may save some little
Pollyanna. It ain't going to save sinners
like us. It ain't going to do it. It takes grace. And you put
whatever definition you want to on it, I tell you it's marvelous. It's marvelous. Thirdly, let's
see this right quickly. Right quickly. Be patient. Be
patient. Let's see the source of grace. Because the Apostle Paul tells
us that here. The source of grace. The source of grace. This is
wonderful. We were out in California years
ago. Brother Donny Bell and I had been invited out to Great Falls,
Montana to preach out there at John Mitchell's. And John said,
I want to take you fellows rafting on the Missouri River. And I
remember very well saying, John, what is the Missouri River doing
in Great Falls, Montana? And he said, this is where it
heads up. He said, if you get back on the Missouri River, out
east somewhere in the Midwest, and you just stay on the river,
it will head up here in Montana. And he took us up there where
it headed up, and my, it's one of the most beautiful places
I've ever seen in my life. The Missouri River. The fountainhead
of the Missouri River. That's what Lewis and Clark followed
it. From all the way out in the Midwest, all the way to Great
Falls, Montana, where it heads up. The Missouri River. Where
does this grace head up? If you get in this stream of
grace, and you go upstream and upstream and upstream, and you
found a fountainhead of it, what would that look like? Look here
at what the Apostle Paul said in verse 4, chapter 2. But God,
who is rich in mercy, for His great love, wherewith He loves. You know where this grace heads
up at? Not only in the heart of God, but in the heart of His
love. Oh, in the heart of His love.
Why did He choose us to begin with? Love. Why did He send His
only dear Son to redeem us? Love. Why did He call us? Love. Why did He save us? Why did He regenerate us? Love. Love. Love. Oh, that angel showed John, there
in Revelation 22, he showed him a pure river of water. A pure river. One of the purest
rivers I've ever seen was out on a mountain in Yellowstone
National Park. It literally comes off the mountain
up on Yellowstone National Park. That's the most clearest, beautiful
river I've ever seen in my life. It doesn't compare to this river.
A pure river. And where was it flowing? From
the throne of God and of the Lamb. That's where grace heads
up. And it flows from that throne
to poor sinners like you and like me. A pure river of grace. A pure river of love. Let's look at this right quickly.
Let's look at this. What about this channel? How
does grace come to us? If there's a fountainhead of
grace and it has to get to us, then what is that channel? I remember when my brother was
in Panama, stationed down in Panama, way down in South America. He used to tell me that he could
swim in the Atlantic. and in the Pacific Ocean in the
same day. Just about 50 miles from the
Atlantic to the ocean. He said it's very strange to
do that. And I started studying a little bit about the Panama
Canal. Sometime around 1880, 1881, you
children check me out on this in your world history. The France,
America took it over a little bit later, but they wanted the
East to trade with the West. Back in the 1600s, 1700s, and
1800s, even up into the 1900s, if the eastern country wanted
to trade with us, and even if you were in New York City and
you wanted to ship something to San Francisco, California,
if you couldn't ship it across land, you know how you had to
get there? You had to go all the way down
underneath South America. And there were some rough waters
down there. I wrote this down because I never can remember
Cape Horn. Cape Horn is the name of it,
but it's the Straits of Magellan. The Straits of Magellan. And
it's called the Sailor's Graveyard. I've seen pictures of that place
and it's scary. It's very narrow where they had
to sail through those places. The current is strong. The winds
shift. There's icebergs. There's a lot
of fortunes down in the waters of the Straits of Magellan where
those ships sank. So they said, we've got to do
something, so they went up to Panama and they dug a channel
from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean. And now the eastern
nations and the western nations can trade and ship their goods
through this channel. We've got a channel that will
get God's grace to us. I tell you, you've got to have
a channel. And you know what it is? Look here in chapter 2.
And look here in verse 7. That in the ages to come, God
might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness
towards us. Look at this. Through Christ
Jesus. He's that channel, is He not?
How's God going to get this rich grace to us poor sinners? God
cannot approach unto us. He just can't come down and say,
I'm going to be gracious to you. No, there has to be a channel.
And oh, thank God there was a channel. The plowing of the Savior's back,
there's the channel. The holes in his hands and the
holes in his feet and the holes in his side, that's the channel.
This channel is full of blood and it's full of water from the
Savior's body through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, somebody said,
I'm going to navigate my own waters. I'll tell you what, you
think the Straits of Magellan is bad. You start trying to navigate
your own way to God. I'm telling you, those are dark
waters, and those are rough waters. And I tell you this, nobody's
ever navigated it before. We've had plenty to try, but
they never made it through those straits, did they? There's but
one channel in which God can come to us and save us by His
grace, and we can go to Him and worship Him as our Father. I
am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. It's in the Lord Jesus. Oh, the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And one more thing. One more
thing, and I'll close with this. What's the means? If we've got
a fountainhead, we've got a channel that this grace flows down, this
river of life flows to us. How do we get out on this river?
If you get out on a river, you've got to have a boat, don't you?
Oh, here's the boat. By grace are you saved through
faith. That's it. That's the only way
to get on this. Not of works, lest any venture
go. You know why it's of faith. You
know what faith does. One man said, I never will forget
this man saying this. I had to chuckle. It was so serious,
but I still chuckled. He was really into it. And he
said, you know what faith is? He said, faith is self-enaction. Faith is self-enactment. You
know that's just not so, is it? Not of yourselves. The Lord said,
I'm going to make this by faith. And, boy, when faith comes in,
self is put down. Not of yourselves. We get out on this channel of
grace by putting self down and looking outside of ourselves
to Jesus Christ. We believe that He has finished
the work. It's His blood that cleanses
us. It's His obedience that saves us. And faith in Him is the channel. You remember Abraham. You can
read this sometime. I won't turn over there. In Romans
chapter 4, The Lord had promised Abraham
that he would have a son. Abraham, you and Sarah are going
to have a son. But boy, I tell you, year after year kept passing. Twenty-five years passed. And
now Abraham was 100 years old. And Sarah was 90. Too late. Too late. Too late. But you know what Abraham did?
The Scripture says he considered not his body. He said, if this promise is going
to be fulfilled, it cannot be accomplished by me. He considered
not his own body now as good as dead, nor yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb. He was strong in faith, giving
glory to God. being fully persuaded that what
God had promised, God was able to perform. Now, do you believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ this morning? Do you believe that
God sent His Son from heaven? Do you believe on the cross the
debt of sin was fully paid? Do you believe Him? Do you believe
He did it? He did what you could never do? Do you trust Him? Have you acknowledged, I can't
do it, I can't save myself, but have you put all your trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you believe in Him? That's the only way you can be
saved. There's no other means of getting out on this river
of grace, but by faith. I'll do this or I'll do that.
That ain't the means. You can't get there from here. Faith. If you're at the end of yourself,
dear soul, this morning, and you're a poor sinner, I mean,
you're a poor sinner. You're the sinner like Paul describes
here in verses 1 through 3. If you're ever saved, I assure
you, it's going to be you, in your heart of hearts, trusting
the Son of God to save you. Put in all your trust in Him. That's the way you're going to
be saved. That's your ship that will get you on this channel
of grace. And you get on that ship and you go right up to the
heart of God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. God bless His Word. Let's pray.