...By Grace
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Good morning, welcome to Dishman Baptist Church. Please take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians 2, Ephesians 2.
We will close out our study of this beautiful passage that Paul has written this morning. In verses 1-3 he painted the entire human race into a position of condemnation. We were dead in our trespasses. We were by nature hostile and rebellious toward God. We desired not only nothing to do with Him but in fact we wanted Him dead and desired our own way and to be the rulers of our own lives. Because of this condition we resided under the just condemnation and wrath of God. And we deserved it - we were at enmity with God.
Last week we started to examine the work of God to remedy this condition. He chose to do so of His own volition. He moved out of the richness of His mercy, the abundance of His love and the beauty of His grace. He made us alive with Christ - and then He raised us to the Heavenly places with Christ, seating us with Him there as we intimately commune with Him as a loving Father. While Paul hints at the beauty of grace, this week he will expose this facet of the diamond of the Gospel to greater light.
Bekah and I have been looking at some property that we may buy for a get-away. It is one thing to look at the property on a two dimensional map and to get some idea of the lay of the land. It is quite another to use a computer modeling system to examine a property as we are given a three dimensional view and can see the lay of the land in greater detail. It is finally a much better thing to drive out and actually walk through the property - in this passage so far Paul has given a two dimensional and maybe the hint of a three dimensional view of grace. This morning he will take us into this beautiful doctrine that is so key to our salvation and allow us to get the lay of the land. Let’s be prepared to see what the Holy Spirit has to say to each of us as we look and walk through this doctrine today. Read in your Bibles with me - Ephesians 2:1-10.
And you were dead in your trespasses and sins
in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us,
made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—
not from works, so that no one can boast.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
Oh what a beautiful passage that we have been working through. We have been saved by grace.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
This morning we will examine this grace as Paul presents it in this passage through the glory of grace, the antithesis of grace and finally the purpose of grace.
The Glory of Grace
The Glory of Grace
Returning to the thought that interrupted him at the end of verse 5, Paul now explores more deeply the vehicle of this great salvific work that has been accomplished on behalf of mankind.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord grants favor and honor; he does not withhold the good from those who live with integrity.
300 Quotations for Preachers from the Modern Church (“What Glad Tidings for the Undeserving!”)
Grace is the first and last moving cause of salvation; and faith, essential as it is, is only an important part of the machinery which grace employs.… Sound forth those words as with the archangel’s trumpet: “By grace are you saved.” What glad tidings for the undeserving!CHARLES SPURGEON
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;
they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Donald Grey Barnhouse, one time pastor of Tenth Presbyterian in Philadelphia, told this story to illustrate grace
Ephesians: An Expositional Commentary (All of Grace)
During the last century, in the worst slum district of London, there was a social worker whose name was Henry Moorehouse. One evening as he was walking along the street he saw a little girl come out of a basement store carrying a pitcher of milk. She was taking it home. But when she was a few yards from Moorehouse she suddenly slipped and fell. Her hands relaxed their grip on the pitcher and it fell on the sidewalk and broke. The milk ran into the gutter, and the little girl began to cry as if her little heart would break. Moorehouse quickly stepped up to see if she was hurt. He helped her to her feet, saying, “Don’t cry, little girl.” But there was no stopping her tears.She kept repeating, “My mommy’ll whip me; my mommy’ll whip me.”Moorehouse said, “No, little girl, your mother won’t whip you. I’ll see to that. Look, the pitcher isn’t broken in many pieces.” As he stooped down beside her, picked up the pieces, and began to work as if he were putting the pitcher back together, the little girl stopped crying. She had hope. She came from a family in which pitchers had been mended before. Maybe this stranger could repair the damage. She watched as Moorehouse fitted several of the pieces together until, working too roughly, he knocked it apart again. Once more she began to cry, and Moorehouse had to repeat, “Don’t cry, little girl. I promise you that your mother won’t whip you.”Once more they began the task of restoration, this time getting it all together except for the handle. Moorehouse gave it to the little girl, and she tried to attach it. But, naturally, all she did was knock it down again. This time there was no stopping her tears. She would not even look at the broken pieces lying on the sidewalk.Finally Moorehouse picked the little girl up in his arms, carried her down the street to a shop that sold crockery, and bought her a new pitcher. Then, still carrying her, he went back to where the girl had bought the milk and had the new pitcher filled. He asked her where she lived. When he was told, he carried her to the house, set her down on the step, and placed the full pitcher of milk in her hands. Then he opened the door for her. As she stepped in, he asked one more question, “Now, do you think your mother will whip you?”He was rewarded for his trouble by a bright smile as she said to him, “Oh, no, sir, because it’s a lot better pitcher than we had before.”
No matter how much we have tried - and will continue to try - to put our lives together we will always fail. Just as this little girl’s efforts - and the man’s efforts - we ineffectual in putting the pitcher together we will never be able to put our lives together using our own abilities. But God - through Christ - has given us a better pitcher, a better salvation than we could ever have imagined.
“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
And yet grace is not the only gift spoken of in this paramount verse. You see grace is of course a gift - it is the unearned favor of God done of His own volition. To say that we are saved by grace and then highlight the fact that this is a gift would be redundant. Paul is speaking here of the faith that is given to believers enabling them to respond appropriately to the work of Christ.
Simeon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ: To those who have received a faith equal to ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
For it has been granted to you on Christ’s behalf not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him,
This faith does not stand apart from Christ - faith is ineffectual unless it is placed in the right object. Muslims have faith in Allah. Atheists have, in some measures, a greater faith in evolution than we exercise in Christ - yet neither of these are saving faith because the object of their faith is ineffectual.
300 Quotations for Preachers (Not Faith that Saves, but Christ through Faith)
It is not, strictly speaking, even faith in Christ that saves, but Christ that saves through faith. The saving power resides exclusively, not in the act of faith or the attitude of faith or the nature of faith, but in the object of faith; and in this the whole biblical representation centres, so that we could not more radically misconceive it than by transferring to faith even the smallest fraction of that saving energy which is attributed in the Scriptures solely to Christ Himself.B. B. WARFIELD*
This is not to say that we have no responsibility to exercise our faith. You could enter the worship center this morning and claim to be given faith that the chairs will hold you as you sit in them - that they will not fall over. But until you exercise that faith by sitting in a chair - your faith is meaningless. The same with our faith in Christ - having been given the gift of faith through the regenerative work of the Holy Spirit we must exercise our faith through confession and as we will see later in this passage through works. This is the paradox of Christianity - salvation is all of God and God receives all the credit for it but we must also act in response to the faith gift we have been given. It is beyond my capacity to explain it - which is fine because it is also beyond your capacity to comprehend it. It is simply something we must accept.
Faith is exercised through confession
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Faith is exercised through sanctification
Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose.
We are expected to work out our salvation - to exercise our faith as evidence of our salvation - the mistake we make is that instead of exercising faith as an evidence of salvation we fall into the trap of exercising faith and working as a means of salvation.
Now if by grace, then it is not by works; otherwise grace ceases to be grace.
The Antithesis of Grace
The Antithesis of Grace
We know intuitively that we cannot earn our own salvation, but we are so fickle though, so foolish that Paul has to be explicit that there is nothing that we can add
Verse 9, in no uncertain terms, puts to rest the idea that we synergistically offer anything to our salvation.
not from works, so that no one can boast.
And yet we still think that we can somehow earn our way there. A great concern of mine regarding the modern church is this notion that if we just do all the right things, if we just present the right image and participate at the right times then we will be saved.
On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’
Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’
We must renounce and repudiate this mindset and instead become completely destitute before Christ recognizing our own inability and ineffectiveness in being able to secure our own salvation through works. We must recognize our poverty before the throne of God
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.
This verse doesn’t mean those who are weak in spirit, but those who have recognized their own poverty when it comes to good works capable of securing salvation. Our sins are like Everest, our good works and ant hill.
All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.
Our society would encourage us to cultivate a healthy self-esteem. But the Gospel tells us something different. In fact - we have too healthy of a self-esteem to think that we can somehow earn our way to Heaven. We cannot have any faith in ourselves - instead all of our faith must be in Christ.
300 Quotations for Preachers from the Modern Church (Renouncing One’s Own Merits)
None can trust in the merits of Christ till he has utterly renounced his own.JOHN WESLEY
The law was never meant to bring us to salvation - even if we were perfect in keeping it. Because if we were perfect in keeping it we would fall short of the first commandment because we would be prideful that we were keeping the law.
For no one will be justified in his sight by the works of the law, because the knowledge of sin comes through the law.
Paul, a former Pharisee, knew very well what it meant to attempt to achieve your own salvation through the law - and he was very good at it
although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more:
circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee;
regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.
And yet he knew that being blameless in regard to the righteousness that is in the law was not enough to secure his salvation because he was still not righteous, still not blameless in God’s sight. And so he could not be justified by the works of the law.
and yet because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.
If we could somehow be saved as a result of our own works we would most certainly take the credit. Even if it were 99.9% God and only .1% our efforts we would still seek to take the credit for what God has accomplished. But we did not initiate the process of salvation - we couldn’t we were dead in our sins. God did. Remember the great statement from last week…but God. Not only were we incapable of initiating the process, we were not capable or even desirous of earning salvation therefore we wouldn’t choose the deeds necessary to save us to begin with.
The Letter to the Ephesians (3. God’s New Creation, 2:8–10)
If salvation is not because of human initiative (v.8), then neither is it a reward for good deeds. And since there is no room for human merit, there can be no grounds for human boasting.
So there is no room for boasting. If we could earn salvation on our own merit it would prove to be the very antithesis of grace. And yet we are saved for a purpose. That purpose being the closing thought of Paul’s presentation of the Gospel.
The Purpose of Grace
The Purpose of Grace
We were dead and God performed the most amazing miracle by raising us to life. You see we are His workmanship. We are created, actually recreated, in His Son. And this is all to a purpose - the purpose of Grace. Paul hinted a bit at this purpose in the preceding verses.
so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
But this is now and we are here and we are here for a purpose - that His grace might be revealed in us through our good works. And these are not to produce salvation but rather are to be the evidence of salvation.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
We are commanded to let our light shine before men - and really there is no other reason for us to be here once we’ve been saved. Think how much easier our lives would be as Christians if we were immediately taken to Heaven - sort of like beamed up like Star Trek - the instant we repented and put our faith in Christ. Think how much more of a witness that would be to the world. And yet we are left here to serve, to testify to what God has done for us.
This is also support for what James wrote that faith without works is dead.
In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself.
But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works.
Paul is saying that you were saved through faith for a purpose - and that purpose is for good works that were apportioned to you by God from before time. Now it will not surprise any of you for me to say that the greatest work that has been apportioned to any of us is to share this glorious Gospel with the world we come in contact with. But there are also the good works that are necessary for the support of the body of Christ that build and develop the body. Serving in sunday school - or life groups, making a meal for a family in need, greeting those who come through our doors, shoveling snow when the winter comes, serving on a ministry team, and even just prayerfully supporting those who are more physically able than you are to do those things is a good work that has been given to us by God for completion. These works bring praise to the One who paid so much, so dearly to purchase you.
300 Quotations for Preachers from the Early Church (Do Good Works for the Praise of God)
Let Him be praised in you who works by you. Therefore do not work the good you do for your own praise, but to the praise of Him from whom you have the power to do good. From yourself you have the ill doing; from God you have the well doing.AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
Conclusion...