We're gonna be in Ephesians chapter two. The book of Ephesians chapter two. Our topic this morning and our title is How God Saves Sinners. How God Saves Sinners.

Before time, the elect of God, the bride of Christ, was given to Christ. beautiful, spotless. And then in time, shortly after it was created, she fell into sin and into despair, according to the purpose of the Lord, that he might redeem her back to himself. These is the ones that God had set aside in his creation to redeem. These are the ones that he chose to save by grace.

You imagine walking with the Lord in the cool of the evening, talking with Him like you and I, like I'm talking right now, hearing His voice. And all of a sudden, that's taken away from you because I made a bad decision or you made one wrong choice. There's only one wrong choice that can be made in the garden. I find that interesting, don't you? Only one choice, and they chose that choice. I mean, that's us, isn't it? That's me.

Well, What happened, they were cursed and death was the curse. Great was the fall of man. It wasn't a fall, the tripped and fell fall. It was a fall all the way down to the very bottom. It's called the pit. That's why the scripture says that the Lord had found a ransom to deliver your soul from going down to the pit. That ransom is the Lord Jesus Christ, his precious blood.

But man in his sinful state, was unable to do anything to make themselves presentable back to God, to please God in order to be redeemed, to please God in order to be made righteous. It had to take the act of God. That's why I've titled this message, How God Saves Sinners. That's what we're gonna look at this morning.

We were dead without hope of fixing it in trespasses, and in sin, trespasses and in sin. But before this fall ever happened, our God purposed to redeem her. He purposed to save his people from their sin. He had purposed to save his bride, to save his bride.

Let's read this together. Our title's How God Saves Sinners. Ephesians two, verse four.

But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up together and 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, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God. Not of work, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.

How does God save sinners? For by grace are you saved through faith. in that not of yourself, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. That's how God saves his elect sinners. It's not complicated. It's just impossible to believe unless the Lord calls us to. The Lord doesn't enable us by giving us faith, saving faith. We will never be saved, we'll never believe. It has to come from him. That which God requires, he must provide. He only accepts what he provides. He only accepts what He provides, because He's the only one that produces what He accepts. He's the only one that produces what He accepts. So if it's faith that I must have, it has to come from Him. It has to come from Him, and that's what He does, is He gives faith freely by His grace. This salvation is all of grace, and without that faith, it cannot be believed.

How God saves sinners is by His divine choice. his divine purpose, his sovereign right as God to determine to save a people. How he saves them is he became a man to die in their room instead. To be his bride, his elect, to die in their place. Taking away the penalty, do us, by taking it unto himself. Taking our sin unto himself and making us the very righteousness of God in him. There's a word for that, it's called imputation. The Lord, he imputes righteousness to his people. It's not earned. It's not earned. Neither was our sin given to him earned. Therefore, he was made to be. He was not made a sinner that would attain to the sacrifice. No, he was made to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. How God saves sinners is according to his power, his purpose, his will, and for his glory. It's not according to my purpose, it's not according to my power, it's not according to my will, and it's certainly not for my glory, it's for his. How God saves sinners is all for his glory.

Paul said in Romans 3 verse 27, where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but the law of faith. Boasting is excluded. Why? Because God gives faith by grace. We don't boast in grace. We rejoice in it. We don't boast that the Lord chose to show favor to us that was unmerited. We rejoice in the unmerited favor God chose toward us. He chose to show it. We rejoice in the fact that we're the recipients of grace. You don't boast in grace. If it was of works, then we would boast. That's what he says right here. Not of works, lest any man should boast. If it was of works, very first thing that we do when we do something, I don't know how you men are, and I don't know how you ladies are, but the very first thing I do after I finish a project or something, I'm like, hey, babe, come over here and look at this. Look, I just did this. And sometimes, hopefully she doesn't critique it. Hopefully she's not like, well, you missed a spot, or you didn't do this right, or you didn't do that right. Most of the time, it's like, oh, wow, thank you so much for doing that, and I'm getting praise.

If it was of works, we would say, look at this. Look at this. That was the problem with Cain. Cain said, look at me. Look at what my hands have done. Look at what I have accomplished, which was really foolish because he didn't make it grow. God had to give the rain. God had to give the sunshine. And God had to make the soil able to take. If you've done gardens, you understand exactly what I'm talking about. Sometimes the soil's not good. You have to, you can send it off to get it tested from my understanding. But the point I'm making, Cain couldn't do that. God had to make that soil good and teach him how to make a garden to begin with.

But that didn't stop Cain from being like, look at this, what I've done, this fruit of my hands that I have worked for, that I have nurtured, that I have grown. Cain, you didn't grow it, God did. You might have watered it some from whatever, a bucket or whatnot, but you didn't grow it. God has to give the increase. That's what Paul is talking about in preaching. He said, I sowed, Apollos watered, but God had to give the increase when it comes to the gospel. Taking root in a believer's heart has to be the Lord.

The reason Cain's mistake was so hideous or horrendous was because he was saying, no, I don't need the lamb. Here's the fruits of my hands that I have grown. I don't need the blood. Here is the sacrifice that's pleasing to me that should be pleasing to you. Look at me, look at what I have done.

How God saves sinners is by dramatically changing the way that they think about how God saves sinners. God makes us see that in my hand, nothing I can bring will do me any good before God because he had a perfect sacrifice in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why would he settle for something less if he already has a perfect sacrifice?

How God saves sinners is he gives repentance. Repentance is a changed mind. that God has to give. And I'm not talking about thinking differently than we used to think before a little bit. I'm talking about a radical change mind on how God saves sinners. We completely believe that if God doesn't save us 100%, we will not be saved. If God does not do the work, we cannot be saved. We won't be. We will choose our own way. We will choose according to our own nature. We will choose self. And we will say, look at me. And even when we stand before the judgment throne of God, outside of Christ, living our life, thinking that we're living good, we'll say, look what I have done in your name. I've cast out demons. I've done all these wonderful works. Some people will say I'm a missionary. I'm not picking on anybody. I'm just telling you that's what we would do by nature.

But here's the good news. God saves sinners. He saved his people from their sin. That's the good news. And how he did that, how he does that, is he gives them repentance about who they are, who he is. We totally don't see God the way we used to see God. Totally don't view him the way we used to view him. Then He gives us faith. We don't see Jesus Christ like we used to see Him either, do we? We believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as all of our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. We don't just look at Him as baby Jesus, meek and mild in a manger. We see Him as the Son of God. We see Him as the fullness of the Godhead bodily. We see Him as King of kings and Lord of lords. Even the man, Jesus Christ, in the flesh, on the earth, we see Him as King of kings and Lord of lords. He is the walking wisdom of God. He is the walking word of God. That's who he is. We don't see him like we used to see him. He reigneth.

That's why he will not share his glory. He said in Isaiah 42, I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another. That's why Cain's offering was so repulsive. Cain wanted glory. And you and I would want glory as well if God doesn't give us repentance and faith. But he tells us that it's not of works, lest any man should boast. He warns us that if it's of works, we're going to boast about it. And that's true, isn't it? Everything that we do with our hands, we look for praise, or we look for validation, or we look for gratification, gratitude, something. We're looking for something whenever we do things. It's just how it is. How God saves sinners is by revealing there's nothing we can do, nothing we can bring, nothing we can produce that God would be pleased with. Nothing that we can do in ourself, nothing that we can bring of ourself, and nothing that we can produce in ourself that God would be pleased with. that he would accept because he requires perfection. Just to put it plainly, he requires the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who he requires. And so anything less than him, he's not going to accept. He made the Lord Jesus Christ, the purpose of him coming was because he was the perfect a vessel of honor that was going to redeem his people back to God. He was the one chosen that he might take away the sin of the Lord's people. I said he was chosen, he agreed is what I should have said.

How God saves sinners is about, is making us realize with repentance that we're not sort of sinful. That we're sinners from the top of our head to the bottom of our feet. It's to strip every bit of the hope that we have in and of ourself about what we do and who we are. You say, well that's, That's kind of sad if I'm left completely empty, the Lord only uses that which is empty to fill it. Think about that. He will not fill something if it has something in it already. It has to be empty. Furthermore, it has to be broken. It has to be broken. The Lord said this to the children of Israel, you committed two evils. He said, you have cisterns, broken cisterns. You've forsaken me, the fountain of living water. And you have hewed out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. That's the two evils of the flesh. We, uh, we forsake God. And then we think that we're getting, uh, by our good deeds, we're getting water, but it's just got holes in it. And I'm going to do this in the good. What did the Lord say? I'm going to make you a vessel of honor. I'm going to, I'm going to make you a new creature. I'm going to completely change you. And then I'm going to show you that you're changed and you're going to see me entirely different than you ever did before by my grace alone, by my grace alone. That's what the Lord does.

How God saves sinners is about changing their mind about who God is and who they are. He makes our only hope to be Christ alone for our righteousness. Before, we didn't have Christ. He shuts us up to the Lord Jesus Christ. What do I mean by that? Meaning we have nowhere else to go. The Lord said to the disciples, will you leave me also after everybody else had forsaken him? He says, there's 12 disciples are left. He said, you're gonna forsake me also? He said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life. There's no one else that we can get this from. You are the fountain of living water. You are the bread of life. You are life. and his life is our light. There's nowhere else to go. There's nothing else to look for but him, him alone. If I say he's enough, that's an understatement. He is infinitely enough, more than enough.

Lord makes us see Christ as our righteousness, as our only hope because he's made us see our filthy rags that we have. It's all we have as our righteousness.

God's elect sinners are made to cry with Paul, in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Can you say that? In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.

We may realize like David, whenever Nathan came to him and told him the story about the lamb, that the rich man took the little, the ewe lamb belonged to a poor man and he raised it as his own daughter. The rich man came and rather than taking one of his animals from his flock, many flocks and many herds, he took the little lamb and he killed it and they didn't eat it. And David was angry.

And you know, I say this about every time I use that story, but I love how the Lord can get ahold of us the way that he does. He might do something to you that might not faze me as much as it's phasing you or it bothers you. It caused you to run to him.

He made David confess, that man deserves to die. That's what he said. And Nathan looks at him and says, and you know, a lot of times in false religion, preachers preach down on people. That's not what Nathan did. Nathan said, David, you're the man. You know, he said it in love. You know, he did. He was the messenger of the Lord. He said it in love to him.

Oh, and David was pricked in his heart. And he said, behold, I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan said to him, Fear not, David, for the Lord hath put away your sin. You shall not die. That's how the Lord saves sinners, freely by his grace.

David was in sin, had committed that. Now there was consequences for it. The sword never left his house. His house was divided. The terrible things happened. But on his deathbed, he said this, even though it be not so with my house, yet the Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things ensured. This is all my hope and all my desire, even though he make it that not grow. The Lord was faithful to David to the very, very end.

Lord saves his people. By coming to where they are, and showing them what they are, and drawing the confession, I am the sinner. Have mercy on me, the sinner. Because unless the Lord reveals that we're the sinner, we cannot believe that we're the sinner like we are. Like we are.

We can have an idea, you know, I've sinned, so that makes me a sinner. And a leper, you can tell a leper, yeah, I have a little bit of leprosy. Well, you're a leper. I'm talking about covered from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet. That's what we're talking about. That's how all of us are by nature.

Oh, the Lord makes us be like Job after he spoke to him out of the whirlwind. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the world? Where were you when I hung the stars in the sky? When you and I fastened the planets on nothing, Job said, I'm going to put my hand over my mouth after I say this, but I'm not going to speak anymore. Behold, I am vile. I'm vile. Is that you? That's me. That's me.

How God saves sinners is by revealing to us that we're vile. We're vile. Like blonde, made to be blonde Martimeas, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And they can tell us to shush all we want, all they want to. We're not going to stop. Why? Because I've got to have him. That's why we come here. We've got to have him. And so we're crying from the heart. Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me right now. Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.

And the Lord said, fetch him, bring him to me. And he left his robe behind, which is a picture of his righteousness, those filthy rags we were just talking about. That's how the Lord saves sinners, is he strips us to nothing. And then he draws the confession, what would you have me do? My sight, I'm blind, I'm dead, I'm lame, I'm dumb, I can't see. Do anything. I need you to do everything. You're gonna have to. And he says, I already have. I already have. He did it on the cross of Calvary, didn't he? And he reveals it by giving repentance. When we're quickened, as we heard the first hour, he gives us repentance and faith, and we see that it is finished. Not because we did something, but because he did something. That's the glorious part about how God saves sinners.

And just like Bartimaeus, We're found like that maniac, clothed, seated, and in our right mind. We no longer think like we used to. How God saves sinners is radically changing their mind about how God saves sinners. We now say, this one thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see. How do you know you're a believer? Well, I believe. Help my unbelief. I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. I believe that he died for his people and he was successful in redeeming them. And my only hope is that he died for me. And if he didn't, I have no hope. I believe that. Why do you believe that? The Lord has to give faith to believe that. He has to, or we won't believe it.

How God saves sinners is he reveals that they were elected before time, saved in Christ before the world was ever formed. Lord had the Lamb's Book of Life. Remember when John saw in heaven, he saw the Lamb's Book of Life and it says, who is worthy to loose the seals and open the book thereof. And they looked and none was found worthy in heaven and earth and under the earth. And I, John, he says, begin to weep. But the elder touched me and said, weep not John for behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of Jesse hath prevailed and is worthy to open the book and loose the seals thereof." That was the wrath of God, the seals. That's what they represent in Revelation. Why was he worthy? He was purposed. He was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. He was God and manifest in the flesh. That's why he was worthy. God's only pleased with himself. And that's who Jesus Christ is.

How God saves sinners is we no longer think of Jesus as just baby Jesus, meek and mild. We see him as Alpha and Omega. We see him as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We see him as totally different than we used to see him. We see the Lord now as if he were to throw us in hell, we would know that that's exactly what we deserve. But we also rejoice in him giving grace and mercy that renews every single day. And we see his son as our substitute surety. That is our only hope. That is our only hope, the one that was worthy.

Before the world ever was, before any choice on our part could be made, before we could even have an input, God chose to save his people from their sin. He didn't make it possible. It's as certain as he is God. It's as certain as he is God, this salvation. How God saves sinners is by the sacrifice of himself. When the fullness of time had come, God was born of a woman, born under the law to redeem them that were under the law. He was robed in the likeness of sinful flesh, and because of sin, he consumed sin in the flesh. He lived the perfect life that you and I could not live, honoring the Father and everything in our room instead. He went to the cross of Calvary and he died the perfect death that you and I could never die. He shed his blood, the blood that would be the atonement for the Lord's people on the cross of Calvary. That's the only blood that God would be pleased with.

You remember all those lambs in the Old Testament? Think about how many thousands, maybe millions of animals that were sacrificed and not one sin was removed. Not one sin. He said, take a lamb of the first year without spot and without blemish. And yet that innocent lamb did not please God to put away sin. It pointed to the spotless, sinless lamb of God, who was a foreordained that he might bear the sin of his people on the cross of Calvary by his own determinate counsel, by his own determinate counsel.

He stood trial in our place. Did you know that? He stood the judgment, the judgment of man and the judgment of the father. He took our judgment. We should be standing before God, if but for the grace of God, we would be standing before God by ourself without an advocate, without a representative, without a surety, without a substitute. We would stand before God ourself and have to tell God, Lord, I've done this and I've done that knowing good and well, now that we've heard the truth that nothing we're saying is going to work. We know that there's nothing we can do. That's good. The Lord's given us repentance. We understand that. Thanks be to God.

If any man sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous who went to the cross in our room instead as his elected bride. And he bore our sin on his, in his body on the tree. Receiving the judgment that was due us, endearing the wrath that was due us, satisfying justice that we could never satisfy. No matter how much we had tried or what we did or don't do, it's not going to change anything. Well, it'll add to the mountain of iniquity that we have that the Lord hates. But he was made sin for us on purpose that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. It wasn't an accident what he did. It wasn't a, I'm going to try my best and hopefully this works out. This is God that's dying. And when he died, it's going to accomplish something. And it did. It's how God saves sinners.

I love the fact that he died our death. He was buried in our grave. He went to our hell on the cross. We never have to face any of those. He conquered them for his people. We never have to do any of that. We were raised with him and in him whenever he was resurrected. This signifies we've been justified freely by his grace. He did all the justifying. Do you love the Lord's truth that he did all the electing? all the redeeming, all the calling, all the saving, all the keeping everything. He did it all.

I love that because in no other, no other, uh, there's no other gospel. There's only one gospel, but there's no other gospel that I've ever heard that declares God as the successful sovereign savior of anything. It's always, if they do say that he was successful, it's contingent upon something, it always is. And they throw in isms and shisms and all kinds of things that you have, they throw a bunch of things, it doesn't even matter. I'm telling you, he was successful in redeeming his people. That's how he saved sinners.

How God saves sinners is by causing them to believe that when he said it is finished, he meant it. He meant that he wasn't just saying something from the cross that didn't mean anything. He was, that was a confirmation to you and I that he finished the work the father gave him. He finished it, completely done. How do you know? Because he's seated at the right hand of God right now. As our high priest, our representative, if he was not finished, he could not have sat down because the work would not be done. In the temple, that was one piece of furniture that was missing was the chair. Priest work were never done. Every day, day in and day out, sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice. And what that signifies is if that's how we're going to live our life in order to please God under the law, if you're going to The work never ends you're never going to get you're never going to be your sins never going to be remitted.

But you are saved looking forward to the cross is that that that lamb represented by faith by faith. Oh, he meant it when he said it is finished. The work was done. The veil was rent from top to bottom, signifying that we can come boldly to the throne of grace, that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. That's the holiest of holies. We can go, we can enter there. Why? By his own blood, his blood. What does his blood do? It makes us holy, holy as he is, the new man. It's exactly what it does. Thereby, we can enter in into the very presence of God and not be destroyed.

How God saves sinners is by the foolishness of preaching, the scripture says. He chooses to have a man preach the gospel and he chooses to send his spirit. When he sends his spirit, he calls his bride to rest in him as everything, as everything. Christ is all.

How God saves sinners is by the preaching of his gospel, that he is the successful, sovereign redeemer of his people, and that it was impossible for him to fail. Then, now, or ever, he's successful. He's not frustrated. If somebody's preaching to you saying God wants to do something, but he can't unless you let him, they're talking about a frustrated God. That's not our God. That's not our God. Our God's seated, sovereign, reigning. He will be forever. He's God.

How God saves sinners is at the appointed time. With his mighty spirit, he calls them out of darkness. He comes to where they are and shines his light, commands that light to shine out of darkness. He quickens them by his power, makes them alive unto him, give them repentance and faith to believe that Christ is all.

I love what we said earlier. He animates us and conjoins us. So it's, we awaken. Bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. That's what that means. Now we always have been, but we didn't know about it until it causes us to wake up. Isn't that what Adam called Eve? That's what the picture is there. It took the rib out of Adam to make Eve. Said, she's now bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.

This union we have with the Lord was all because he chose to become our substitute. He chose to become our surety. So now when we are awakened, when we are born again, we see that we're joined to him. And I don't know if the word holy matrimony is the right word there or not, but we're joined to him. There's gonna be a marriage supper of the lamb, so. We are quickened together with Christ, being one with him.

This is the amazing power of God that brings life out of death, brings light out of darkness, brings good out of evil, makes righteous that which once was utterly sinful. the very righteousness of God. I used to be very, completely, utterly sinful. Now I'm the very righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. Think about that. That's how he saves sinners.

This is the revelation that Jesus Christ is all of our wisdom, all of our righteousness, all of our sanctification, all of our redemption, that he is all. And lastly, but certainly not least, How God saves sinners is in verse 8. By grace are you saved through faith, in that not of yourself it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

He saves by his grace. He gives faith, faith to believe, faith bestowed, faith that he supplies. Not of self, lest any man should boast. We would brag about it. If it was faith we exercised, if it was our faith that did something, we would brag about it. But it's not about us, it's all about Him. And this is all for His glory. Everything He required, He provided. His elect are now saved in Christ. And in time, He calls them out of darkness into His light. This is how God saves sinners.

Let's pray. Father, cause us to believe, help our unbelief, bless us to our understanding for your glory in Christ's name, amen.