Sola Gratia

Introduction

Well, good morning!

I hope you’re excited to be in the House of the Lord…I hope you’re ready to worship with me through the teaching of God’s Word this morning…but of course before we do that, let’s recite our church memory verse together.

Remember its Acts chapter 2, verses 42 through 47…and we’re taking it in sections as we learn it together this year…and so, this morning, we’re just reciting verses 42 and 43.

If you’re ready…I’ll get us started, you finish us up.

Acts 2:42–43 (ESV)

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

[Prayer]

Alrighty…if you have you Bibles and I hope that you do…keep ‘em open with me to Ephesians chapter 2…I hope you’re taking notes this morning as we walk through this text. Remember the research I shared with you guys last week, we all have this problem of forgetting what we heard…and so, taking notes it really helps us to reflect or to look back so that we can better apply what it is we hear. Amen?

But if you were with us last week…we started this new sermon series looking at the five solas…the five fundamental pieces of Christian doctrine that we must affirm as followers of Christ. Remember, this isn’t about being Baptist…this is about being children of God. And remember these were the five things that essentially split the Catholic Church over 500 years ago during the Reformation, and these are the five things that our Protestant faith was built on. Jesus Himself, He taught these five things to His disciples…and as I showed you last week, the purpose for us looking at these things…number 1, its to remind ourselves of what’s absolutely crucial to our faith…and number 2, to drive reformation around us, right? Because as we saw and as we see in our churches today, we’ve gotten away from these five principles…we’ve gotten away from the idea of the Scriptures alone…we believe we have authority, as man, in the church…we believe we can interpret God’s Word anyway we choose…we’ve gotten away from grace alone and faith alone…we’ve turned our salvation into man’s effort and man’s accomplishment…we’ve gotten away from Christ alone…if we look at what other churches are teaching and affirming today…its not just through Christ…and listen, we’ve gotten away from the idea that it’s all for God’s glory alone…it’s for man…it’s for our pleasure and our joy and our glory. That’s what the global church has turned into…and if we’re not careful, if we don’t constantly remind ourselves of truth, we’ll fall into the same pattern we’ve seen throughout history.

If you remember from last week, we started this series by looking at the first idea…which was the Scriptures alone…or Sola Scriptura. And in that sermon, we looked at 2 Peter and we talked about the importance of constantly reminding ourselves of truth, right? Which we know comes only from the Word of God. If we’re not grounding ourselves there…if we’re not finding authority and sufficiency there, the rest of the stuff we’re gonna talk about over the next four weeks, it’s gonna be irrelevant to you. Our foundation of truth…the only foundation of truth, its in the Scriptures alone…because it was written by those that were present during those events and because it’s literally God’s inspired word to us.

And listen, as we dig into this inspired book…there’s several crucial things it tells us about who we are and about who God is…and ultimately about salvation…things we must understand and affirm. The first of those things, it’s that salvation, it’s through grace alone…or Sola Gratia (Gray-ca). It’s actually one of the hardest Solas for many of us to accept or affirm…but our spiritual life, it’s given to us because of God’s grace alone…it’s not the result of our own achievement or our merit. Grace, it literally means, unmerited favor…its God’s initiative to reach down to man to create, and establish, and regulate a means to graciously and righteously satisfy His judgement. Grace, its about God giving us something entirely different than what we deserve…which is death. Instead, He gave us life!

Listen in the late 1700s and early 1800s, there was a man named Jeremy Benthm (Ben-thm). He was a philosopher, he was the founder of “the greatest happiness principle.” And listen, at his death, he actually left a fortune to this London hospital…and in doing so, he had one condition for all the money he left…that he’d be present at every, single board meeting. Now, I hope you caught the details there…he was dead when that money was donated. And so, reportedly…for more than 100 years, his remains, they’d be wheeled into the boardroom every month and they were placed at the head of the table for every meeting. His skeleton was supposedly dressed up with 17th century attire…and in the minutes to every meeting, there was a line in the notes that recorded: “Mr. Jeremy Benthm, present but not voting.”

Now, of course, this was a joke…he never voted because he’d been dead since 1832…but listen, I bring this story up today, because I think it really helps to put our passage into perspective…it helps us to really begin understanding the idea of grace alone.

As we’ll see in just a moment, we were dead, spiritually…we were present, in this world, but yet we were still dead, we couldn’t experience the great riches of God’s mercy and love, we were fallen…we were present, but we were unable to vote, right? And as we’ll see, because of God’s grace (this passage, its all about Him) because of His grace, He took that spiritually dead heart of ours, and He made it alive again…it began to beat because of His grace. And we were no longer “present but not voting,” but instead, we became people who were present and voting…or present and active in the kingdom of God. And that’s true today because of God’s grace alone.

And so, to help us examine this idea of Sola Gratia (Gray-ca), we’re gonna be digging into Ephesians chapter 2 this morning…and I have three points for you, if you’re taking notes. Number 1, we must be reminded of who we were…Number 2, we must be reminded of who God is…and then finally, Number 3, we must be reminded of who we are. And I hope you’re catching that key word there as we walk through this sermon series…these are constant reminders we need to reflect on as believers.

And so, if you’re there with me this morning, let’s look at this first point together.

We Must Be Reminded of Who We Were (vv. 1-3)

We must be reminded of who we were.

Listen, this whole passage, it’s speaking about, grace alone…Paul’s making a point that salvation, its all a consequence of God’s sovereign initiative…it’s a result of His grace alone. Paul’s showing his reader, the Ephesians here, that God’s rule, it’s independent of any external control…He’s not subjected to human decisions, he’s not controlled by our actions…and our salvation, its the same…its all by the grace of God…but in order for Paul to make his point…in order for his readers to truly grasp the idea of grace here, he has to remind them of who they once were.

Look at the first three verses with me again. Paul says, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

And so listen, in reminding them of who they once were…Paul breaks it down into three categories…their status, their practice, their nature…of course, all of this, it was who they were before knowing Christ.

Look at verse 1…he says, “You were dead in the trespasses and sins.” That was their status…the Ephesians, the people he’s writing to here…they were spiritually dead. They were present in this world…but they were inactive spiritually. And listen, this wasn’t just true of the Ephesians…we were all like this at one point…some of us, we’re still like this without Jesus…we’re dead. We might’ve walked around in this body…but there wasn’t any life…there wasn’t any joy to be found…or purpose…or fulfillment…we were spiritually dead. We were alienated from God…separated…we were excluded from the life of God. We were dead. ..and notice, Paul doesn’t say we were sick or dysfunctional…we were dead. We were hopeless in ourselves because only God can raise people from the dead, right?

And listen, I know this is the complete opposite of what the world tells us about life…about ourselves as humans…it tells us that all humans, we’re naturally good people…if we believe in ourselves, then there’s nothing we can’t do. And listen, spiritually dead people, they might do amazing things…they may make awesome works of art or play sports exceptionally well, or make money and be successful in worldly terms…but they can’t do anything spiritually because they’re not connected to the Vine…to Jesus…they’re dead.

This first verse in Ephesians chapter 2…it couldn’t be any clearer…mankind, we face a sad predicament…we’re not morally good…we’re not even neutral…we’re dead, completely and entirely…because we live in our sins and trespasses…we’re depraved in every way…and for that reason, it impacted our practice before knew Christ.

Look at verse two…Paul says, “You were dead…following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.”

Listen guys, because we were spiritually dead prior to knowing Jesus…there were no godly restraints on what we did. The practice of those that’s dead in their trespasses and sins, it’s to follow the ways of the world…it’s to follow the leading of Satan, whose the prince of this world. And for those reasons, these dead people, they live in disobedience, living a life of spiritual death. That was us.

The Greek word there for “walked” at the beginning of verse 2, it literally implies the “way one conducts their life.” Meaning…what Paul’s saying here, its that those who were once dead, they conducted their life in the ways of the world…which the Bible clearly says is evil, in opposition to God. The unsaved person, whether they admit it or not, they’re controlled by the world’s influences…by the values of the age. They assume attitudes and habits and lifestyles of the culture.

And because we lived in this spiritually dead state, we naturally followed our sinful desires…or our fleshly desires. Every inclination of our heart, it was evil. Moses actually said this about mankind all the way back in Genesis 6:5 where he wrote that “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that EVERY intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” And obviously after the flood, that didn’t change…Paul wrote in Romans 3:23, “23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” He says in Romans 3:9, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

Because we were dead in our sins…no spiritual life…because our heart was twisted and hardened, none of us sought for God…none of us cared to do good or righteousness…and our practice, it was disobedience…it was ungodliness.

Guys, I know that this is a depressing part of the message…but listen, we must be reminded that this was all of us at one point. In fact, you can’t know Jesus without recognizing that Paul’s talking about you and he’s talking about me, personally. This was us…we were dead and we practiced evil.

Part of repentance, its acknowledging this status and practice. But its also acknowledging our nature.

Look at verse 3 again. Paul says, “3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”

Listen, our status and practice they weren’t simply a consequence of our spiritual death…it was both a result and evidence of what we were. We were these things and did these things because ultimately, that was our nature…we were living in accord with it. By nature, we’re all born into sin. We inherited the fallen nature of Adam by which we’re all spiritually separated from God and we’re all subjected to the desires of the world and its way of thinking…its our nature. You see, it’s completely opposite to the world’s way of thinking…we’re not inhertially good, we’re inhertially all wicked…every one of us…by choice and by nature. By nature, we’re all children of wrath…we’re all born deserving God’s wrath…which will be expressed in a very physical way.

Guys listen, by practice or by choice, we’re spiritually dead…but by nature, we’ll all experience physical death. And so, on every side…our lives, they’re marked by death.

And listen, this is important in understanding God’s grace because it completely pushes back on the world…believing that we can somehow save ourselves…that we can be better versions of ourselves. This picture of our pre-Christian state, its devastating to any suggestion that we possess the ability to act or to believe in such a way that saves ourselves. Our practice, its simply to live in accord with the nature we inherit with the rest of the world that’s at odds with God. And the consequence of that, its that we can’t have a living union with Him. By nature and by practice, we’re spiritually lifeless. Our status before God, its that of dead people…present but not voting, right? And listen, this is important because nothing convinces me more of the need I have for a sovereign, loving God in my salvation than the assessment Scripture gives of my inability to save myself. The dead can’t save themselves. And that’s Paul’s point here. We’re incapable…in fact, none of us, without God’s intervention…without the drawing of the Holy Spirit on our hearts…we’re incapable of even seeing our need for God.

We’re dead…that’s who we were.

II. We Must Be Reminded of Who God Is (vv. 4-7)

But praise Jesus, Paul’s not finished here…yes we’re dead…yes we have no ability to come to God on our own…but look at this next set of verses…there’s a “BUT GOD.”

Our second point this morning…we must be reminded of who God is.

Look at verse 4 with me again. Paul writes, “4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

Listen, there’s a lot here that we could discuss for weeks…but the main thing I want you see here…its what Paul tells us about God. It’s the grace He demonstrates…the grace He gives to those that come into knowledge of Jesus. Again, we just saw who we were…we were dead…lifeless…damned to an eternal hell because of our practice and our nature. But despite that…verse 4, it begins with “But God...” Yes you were dead, yes you were unable to do anything about that status…but God…being rich in mercy…He looked down on us, He loved us, He desired to be with us…and so, He did something about our status.

There’s actually two things we see about God here in these verses…we see God’s motive…and we see God’s means.

Why would God look down on dead people…people far from Him…people that had no desire to seek Him or love Him…people that did everything, in their power, to disobey Him. Why would God bestow grace on us? Why would He be so willing to make us alive again? Paul answers that for us here, “Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive…” Guys, this love…it’s not toward the innocent…it’s not toward those that seem to have it all together…its not toward those that seem to be good people…no, on the contrary, God’s merciful love, its expressed to the complete opposite…to those who’ve been disobedient…to those that wanted nothing to do with Him…to those, by nature, that followed the ways of the world and of Satan…to those “God demonstrates His own love…that while they were yet still sinners, Christ died for them or for us.” That’s Romans 5:8.

That’s His motive in our salvation, in our justification. It’s an unconditional love He has for us…that’s the heart of the gospel…that’s why this message should be so dear to us…because we see our own weakness, we see our spiritual deadness…we see our complete failure…we understand that there’s nothing that warrants this kind of love. And listen, this is what the idea of grace alone’s all about. I’m justified, not because of anything I did, but because I’m simply loved by God.

Guys, the Medieval church, they believed in God’s grace…they just didn’t believe salvation was through grace alone…they believed grace was just available in a way where we could just choose it…it was there if they wanted to turn to God…but guys, read this passage. If grace was just available to us…and if we just had to make the decision to receive it, it completely takes away from who God is…and you’re missing the point about who we were.

Guys, there’s people all around the world…and there’s always been people all around the world who were born into this world, sinful…who lived their entire lives, choosing to rebel against God’s goodness…who die and go to an eternal hell…these people, they never had the ability to just turn from their sins…these people, they never sought after God…because grace wasn’t just available to them. You understand? That’s why the Bible says, “Blessed are those that take the gospel…because how will people know if they aren’t told…if the gospel isn’t preached?” That’s why we pray for the unreached…that’s why we give and go to the unreached…so that they might turn to Jesus…so that they might have an opportunity. The reality is, in our lifetime, there’s billions of people who will never even have the opportunity to repent and believe. But guys, the fact that we were born in a country that allows us to hear the gospel (you didn’t choose that)…the fact that we heard the gospel and were able to respond to the gospel…the fact that we’re here this morning…its all because of God’s sovereign grace alone…it has nothing to do with us at all.

This passage, it says we were dead, unable to do anything…and in God’s mercy for us…He extended grace. Our salvation, it’s through grace alone…meaning He reached out and He chose us…not the other way around…and in salvation, through grace alone, He maintains what He’s given us…why? Because its all about God’s motive…it’s not about us. In fact, its despite us.

And listen, this isn’t a Calvinistic idea…or an Arminius idea…listen, we like to fight over the idea of God’s sovereignty or man’s freewill, right? But it’s not about that…its all about who God is and who we were. If there’s no grace…if there’s no God’s sovereignty…there’s no freewill. We’ll talk more about this next week with the idea of “Faith Alone.” The two, they come together. The faith part, that we’re gonna talk…because our salvation, its also through faith alone…that faith part, it always follows the repentance part which is initiated because of God’s grace alone. You can’t come to faith without grace.

Guys, this idea of grace alone…its what every Protestant church was built on…Martin Luther Himself, the Father of the Reformation, the father of the Lutheran church, He affirmed these ideas…He even wrote in one of his commentaries, “If the Pope would concede that God alone by His grace through Christ justifies sinners, we would carry him in our arms, we would kiss his feet.”

And so, why do we fight about these things 500 years later? Because we’ve gotten away from what we talked about last week…the Scriptures alone. We’ve gotten to a place where we only care about us and what we think. But Grace Alone, it’s all about who God is and its about His motive in saving us. Its about things a lot of us refuse to learn about or try to understand…its about things like election or predestination…its about the idea of perseverance. Again, read this passage…we were dead…and so our salvation, it’s all dependent on God and His sovereign power to save those that were lifeless.

I mean, think about it another way…how much decision…how much power did Lazarus have before Jesus rose him from the dead? None…its the same for us spiritually. And when you begin to understand you’re saved because of grace alone, it’ll change you’re whole perspective on the gospel and hopefully it’ll make you feel this overwhelming emotion of gratefulness.

But listen, our salvation, it’s also about His means…how did He save us through grace alone? Well, again it wasn’t through us…it doesn’t say because we would make some decision or that somehow He knew we’d pick Him or any of that…Paul shows us here that God’s means to our salvation, it was through Christ…look at verse 5 again…he shows us again that we were dead in our sins but that he made us alive together…with what? With Christ, right? And then verse 6, he reiterates that statement again, “by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Again, by grace He did these things and through Christ He did these things. There’s nothing about anything that we did or have to do…its all about God and His Son, Jesus. That’s His means. By His power and by the work of Christ, He gives eternal life…its through grace alone.

And listen, I love verse 7…why did He do it again? So that in the coming ages, our salvation, it would demonstrate the immeasurable riches…of ‘WHO’s’ grace in kindness toward us? God’s, right? It’s not about us…and He says, again, it was all because of Jesus.

And so, what’s this passage tell us about God? Salvation, it belongs to the Lord. Our salvation, our spiritual life, its because of God’s grace alone.

And so, that’s the second point…we must be reminded of who God is…that He alone has given us salvation.

III. We Must Be Reminded of Who We Are (vv. 8-10)

And then the third point…we must be reminded of who we are…what’s the purpose in this spiritual life we’ve been given?

Verse 8, it says, “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Two things we see here when it comes to the purpose of our salvation…we see our confidence…where it should be placed. And we see His aim in our salvation.

Verse 8 and 9, it literally tells us, word for word, that our salvation…it has absolutely nothing to do with us. It’s not about works…meaning, its not about anything we did…its not by a decision we made…Paul tells us here, our salvation, its by grace alone, through faith. And the faith part here…its faith in God as He’s described here in this text…its faith that God is all powerful and sovereign…that He has the ability to restore and redeem through His grace alone…again, we’ll talk about faith alone more next week…but listen, this statement, its meant to give his readers confidence here. God gave salvation this way so that no one could boast. I can’t walk around bragging about my salvation because I didn’t do anything. The only thing I can do is brag about Jesus, because He did it all…He came and dwelt among us…He lived a perfect life…He took my place on the cross…He died and rose again. He drew my heart to Him through His Spirit…He did it all…and He alone deserves all the praise and all the glory. I can’t boast in my salvation because I didn’t do anything. And that gives me great confidence because it shows me just how secure I really am. If it was all because of His power…I’ll be maintained and I’ll be completed because of His power. My confidence, its not in man…its not in me…its in the One that saved me when I was completely lifeless. And so, the purpose in my salvation, its to constantly praise Jesus…living in complete humility, remembering who I once was…and who I am now, through Christ…my purpose, its to boast in Him alone because of His grace alone.

And then real quickly…his aim in our salvation…its to be His workmanship…which Paul says He prepared beforehand…meaning before He saved me…my salvation, and my sanctification…the change He does in me…the good that He causes to come out of me…its all meant to demonstrate His grace alone to the people around me. My salvation…your salvation…its proof to others that God is a gracious God. Its proof that no matter who they are…no matter what they’ve done…God can extend that same grace to them. Our salvation, its meant to glorify God in every way…to exalt Him…all for His glory. It’s meant to show people around us, through God’s grace, you can have faith in Him…you can have faith in His promises. You can be different…you can have spiritual life.

Closing

And so, in closing…do you reflect on who you once were? Are you reminded just how separated you were? How lifeless you were before Jesus? Do you understand that because of God’s grace alone…the gospel, it came to you?

He gave you life through grace alone. And listen, this is important for us to remember, because it keeps our eyes solely on Christ, instead of arguing about what we think we did ourselves…because if that’s where our focus is at…we’ve already missed the point in everything God’s done for us. Sola Gratia, it keeps our eyes on the only thing that matters…the person and work of Christ Jesus.

And so listen, as you reflect on this passage and this thought this morning, would you bow your head and close your eyes with me?

Listen, if you know Jesus…if you’ve been given spiritual life…you’ve turned to Him…would you just reflect on His grace this morning? I want you to think about how God’s grace alone has changed your life. Think about what He did…think about who you were and who you are now.

Guys, that thought…that memory or reflection…it should cause you to praise Him here this morning. You heard the gospel…you were able to believe it, ultimately because of His grace.

And so listen…that’s exactly what I want you to do. As you think about that in your own life…would you do that this morning? Would you praise Him? Would you humble yourself and boast in what Jesus has done in your life? That’s the purpose of your salvation. To boast in Jesus.

But listen…if you haven’t turned to Jesus. If you’ve not been given spiritual life, you just heard the gospel through this message…maybe you’ve been here for some time and you’ve heard it over and over again. You’ve heard about God creating us…and you’ve heard about man’s rebellion and sin…you understand the death and separation it brings on. You know about Jesus and the death He experienced so that you might be saved. You understand that all you have to do is turn from yourself and turn to Him…you know its about faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

Listen, if that’s you…understand that its not an accident you’re here this morning. It’s by God’s grace. And even now, His Spirit…because of His grace…it’s drawing you…its tugging on your heart…its telling you that everything I’m saying this morning, its all true…He’s giving you every ability to trust in Him this morning, to place your faith in Him…He’s telling you to respond.

And so listen, would you do that this morning? It doesn’t matter who you are…it doesn’t matter how old you are or how long you’ve been coming here…it doesn’t matter who you’ve been or what you’ve done…if you hear this message of the gospel…and if you understand it…if you feel that tug on your heart…all you have to do is turn and believe. He will justify you, He’ll save you because of His grace alone, through the faith He enables.

Would you do that this morning?

Listen, the praise team, they’re gonna play this morning…and if that’s you…if you feel that tug, I want you to come talk to me. Let me share with you…let me help you turn to Jesus.

And listen, whoever, whatever the Spirit’s doing in your heart right now…you respond…you come. Use this time…use these steps as your altar.

And so, you respond, and I’ll close us in just a moment.

[Prayer]