Trinity Baptist Church

God’s Amazing Grace

Saving Grace

Ephesians 2:1-7

 

There is not greater subject in all the Bible than that of the grace of God.  It is the theme of the Bible. The theme is so big, it would be next to impossible to exhaust it in the short time we have together on these Sunday mornings, but I am praying our understanding will deepen and the grace of God will express itself through us as we live out our faith day by day.   

 

It all begins with “saving grace” and I want us to return today to Ephesians 2 and sort of pick up where we left off last week when I shared with you an acrostic using the word “grace” and what it means. 

 

Listen again to Ephesians 2:8-9 

 

There we discover that God’s grace means salvation is:

 

 

 

Today I want to focus on the verses immediately preceding that text. 

 

Ephesians 2:1-7

 

One of things I enjoy doing when visiting schools and gymnasiums is to look at the trophy cases. 

I like to look at the reminders of championships and tournaments and so forth. 

 

When I was a child, my parents spent a lot of time bowling and in the hallway of our home was a little bookcase with several trophies they had won over the years. 

 

Up in the attic of our home you can find trophies that Lisa and I won back in the day, hers as an athlete and mine as a beauty queen.

 

We’ve got RA racer trophies scattered around that the boys have won, along with scholastic and athletic and band awards. 

We’re familiar with that kind of environment.  We understand that trophies point to accomplishment and success and winning. 

 

Did you know that we ourselves are trophies of the grace of God? That’s what these verses are telling us.  God says there is coming a day when those He saved by His grace are going to be put on display for all eternity as His trophies. 

 

If we are saved, we are saved by grace.  That means we get none of the bragging rights.  It’s all about Him and His grace and His love and His power and He gets the glory.  And in that regard, every born-again believer is a trophy to His grace.   

 

And Paul says through the ages to come, God is going to put His trophies on display for everyone to see. 

Can you imagine that?  The angels will look at you and me and see a perfect example of what the grace of God has done. 

And these first seven verses actually tell the story of the championship God has won in us and it’s told in three parts. This verse actually records the biography of every Christian’s life.  It is an exciting and very personal story because it is a story about you and me.

 

Again, let me remind you tonight Bro. Jimmy will begin some personal evangelism training and one of the techniques he will teach you will follow this pattern as we learn to tell our own story of the grace of God. 

 

It begins with

 

 

Everyone’s story beings with what we were before Christ. 

 

verse 1

 

So here is the story of guilt.  Here is what we were before we came to Christ. Now I’m afraid that sometimes we, as believers, forget what we were before we got saved.  I’m not saying we should dwell there, but we ought never forget from what God has saved us. 

 

We forget what it is like to be lost and not know Jesus.  We forget what our life was like before somebody shared the wonderful transforming message of God's grace.  We forget how we couldn’t sleep at night and feared going to hell.  We forget how the miraculous new birth forever changed our life eternally and completely. And sometimes it helps us to remember what we were because then we can relate and understand people better who have not been saved.

 

So when Paul gets ready to talk about being saved by grace, he first takes his hearers back to life before Christ.    

 

And notice, first of all, he says we were  

 

 

Now the very first thing a dead man needs is life.  Before we every talk to people about having their sins forgiven, we need to talk to them about their need to be made alive.  A dead man needs life. 

 

Listen:  if you are not a believer, if you are not born again, the Bible says you are dead.  And I know what you’re thinking, “Well I’m up walking around and eating food and taking part in normal physical activities.  Obviously, I’m not dead.”

 

No, physically you’re not dead.  But when the Bible talks about death, it’s not talking the separation of the spirit and soul from the body.  It’s speaking of the separation of the spirit and soul from God.  You’re spiritually dead and even though you’re sitting up and taking nourishment, you’re body will catch up with your soul and spirit one day and then you’ll discover just how dead youreally are. 

 

That is why Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3, "He who does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God." 

 

By scriptural definition, any unsaved person is dead.  And what every dead person needs is life.  And the good news is, according to verse 1, those who are saved by grace have been made alive. 

See when a saved person dies physically, they are not really dead.  Jesus said, "Whoever lives and believes in me, thou he were dead, yet shall he live.  And whosoever believes in me will never die." 

 

That’s why Paul would instruct the Thessalonians to not sorrow like those who have no hope.  We may gather at the graveside and cry over our losses, but just as surely as we put the body in the ground, the soul and spirit is forever alive in the presence of God in heaven. 

 

We have been made alive.  I once was dead.  But I am going to be leaping, walking, and praising God. The Bible says, "He that has the Son of God has life.  He that does not have the Son of God does not have life, but the wrath of God abides on him." 

 

You either have Jesus and you have life or you don't have Jesus and you are dead.  All around this city there are those who are dead.  There may be some right in this auditorium this morning that are dead.  You’re walking and breathing and you think you are living, but you are a part of the walking, breathing, dead.

 

There is no life because there is no salvation, dead in trespasses and sins. 

 

The second thing he says in verse 2 is, not only were we dead, but we were

 

 

So who is the prince of the power of the air?  It is Satan.  Who is it that works in the hearts and lives of those who walk in disobedience to God? 

It is the devil and the spirit of Satan.  So, not only are lost people dead, but they are disobedient and the disobedience is influenced by the devil himself.   They are under the control of Satan and don’t even realize it.

 

It’s interesting how the lost like to talk about freedom and all the freedom they have because they are not a Christian.  They don't have to go to church.  They don't have to give a tithe.  They don't have to read their Bible.  They don't have to pray. 

 

They say, man I am free. Well, the problem with that is they are free to do what they want to do but what they want to do is what Satan wants them to do and ironically, they are not free to do what they ought to do and what God wants them to do because they don't have the power to do it.

 

You see if you are an alcoholic and someone puts a Bible and a bottle before you, which one are you going to choose?  If you are an alcoholic, you are going to choose the bottle rather than the Bible.  You are free to choose what you want but you are not free to choose what you need. 

 

Why is that?  It is because people without Christ are under the influence of Satan and the devil has a way of blinding the eyes of those who aren’t saved.  Listen, whether you believe it or not, if you aren’t saved, you are under the literal, actual influence of the devil and because of that, they are not only dead but they are disobedient. 

 

And the sad thing is they think they are free.  But the Bible says "he that commits sin is the servant of sin."  You are going to be somebody's servant. 

And I would rather be the servant of Jesus Christ than to be the servant of Satan. Jesus Christ is a far better master.

 

Then there’s a third thing that surfaces in the story of our guilt and that is, not only are we dead and disobedient, but we are

 

 

verse 3

 

Here is one of the most unpopular beliefs in our culture and that is that people are born with a sinful nature. 

 

Nobody wants to admit that.  We believe we can educate the sin out of people.  If people are doing wrong, just send them to school, educate them on doing right and then they will do what is right.  Give them better homes and clothes and medicine and then people will straighten up and do right. 

 

Does anybody really believe that? 

 

If you want to see the fallacy of that go no further than today's newspaper and you will see that many people know right from wrong but they do not do what is right. 

 

Some people say the answer is environment. Just give a person a better environment and he’ll straighten up and do right.  But you know what?  You can put a dead person in a room with a lot of live people and it is not going to rub off on the dead person.  He is still going to be dead. 

 

 

I’ve been to a bunch of funerals, all of them attended by live bodies, and not once did I ever see a corpse cease being dead because the environment changed. 

 

That is the way the unsaved man is.  He can work in an office full of Christians and it will be a better work environment, but that won't necessarily make him a Christian.  The environment alone is not the answer because he is by nature the child of wrath.

 

Some people say what people need is encouragement.  You just need to encourage people to be more and expect them to be better and they will be better.  But none of those things work.

 

Why?  It is because of what the Bible calls depravity.  We are sinners by nature.  A sinner is by nature a child of wrath. That’s why you don't have to teach a child to tell a lie.  Instead, you have to teach him to tell the truth.  He will instinctively know how to tell a lie and he will tell a lie when it benefits him. And the reason they do not do right is because they have no power to do it. 

 

Without Christ we are depraved.   We are, by nature, the children of wrath. And I know grandparents don't like to hear that.  They didn’t mind hearing it when their children were little, but they don’t like to hear that about the grandchildren. 

 

But do you know what is going to happen if your grandchildren don't come to know Jesus?  They will spend eternity in hell forever.  They will forever be lost from God because they are by nature the children of wrath. 

 

 

So what does it mean to be depraved?  That means the problem is on the inside.  The heart of the human problem is the problem of the human heart. We are born with a bent to sin, a bent to rebel against God.  And it is only by God's wonderful grace that we are saved and transformed and made the children of God. 

 

So that’s where the story begins.  It is a story of guilt seen in what we were, dead, disobedient and depraved.  But ours is also

 

 

verses 4-6

 

Don’t you like the way that verse begins?  “but God"

 

Those two little words make all the difference.  There are a lot of times in the Bible when you find that little contraction, "but God". Many things would have been a disaster but God stepped in.  Many things would have ended in defeat but God stepped in. 

 

And here we find in the most important need of our life, God stepped in.  Now when God got involved, three things happened. 

 

First, we were

 

 

We were dead but God stepped in and made us alive.  You see, Jesus wasn’t the only one resurrected.  We were also.  And when a human dead man is resurrected, it has to be by grace. 

 

 

A dead man can't do it by himself.  It is not going to help a dead man to show him a picture of what live people are like.  It is not going to help him to roll the casket into a room full of live people.  It’s not going to help him to take him to class and set him behind a desk.  It is not going to help him to encourage him and tell him about the power of positive thinking.  He is dead. 

 

And the only way he can come to life is to have a resurrection.  Jesus raised three people from the dead in His ministry.  And God gave that as an example of what He does for every person spiritually.  When we are saved we are resurrected.

 

The second thing is, we are

 

 

Verse 6 says, "He has raised us up together.”  Not only have we been resurrected, we’ve been raised.  To be raised, means God elevated our position.  Raised means He gives our life meaning.  We were in bondage, but God stepped in and gave us liberty.  By God's grace, I not only have life, but I have liberty to be what God wants me to be.  I have real freedom.  Not only have I been given life, I have been given a lift.  I was dead, but I didn't stay in the coffin.  I got out of the coffin and I began to walk and talk and follow the will of God.  I was raised.

 

And number three, we have been

 

 

 

 

We are seated in heavenly places.  Right now every one of us who are born again are not just in this auditorium, but we sitting, literally positioned, at the right hand of the throne of God.  The Bible says that when Jesus had by Himself bore our sin on the cross that He went back to heaven and He sat down on the right hand of the throne of God.

 

Why did Jesus sit down on the right hand of the throne of God?  Why didn't He stand at the right hand of the throne of God?  Why did He sit down?  He sat down because He was finished with the work of redemption. 

 

When He died on the cross, He said it is finished.  The plan of salvation has been completed.  And now He has done His work.  And what do He do after He finished the work?  He did the same thing God did when He finished His work of creation.  He did the same thing you do when you finish your work.  He rested. 

 

He is resting at the right hand of God and in Him, we rest also.  We talked about that last week and I illustrated with a bulletin in my Bible that covers all my sin. 

Well guess what?  If I’m in Christ and He’s sitting at the right hand of God, guess where I’m sitting?  I’m there also!  

 

Listen:  you are not under the circumstances.  You are on top of the circumstances.  The Bible teaches that in Christ, we sit in heavenly places because we are in Jesus.  And when He sat at the right hand of God, we sat at the right hand of God.  We are sitting up there right next to Jesus.

 

 

If all things are under His feet, then all things are under my feet as well.  Whatever problem you are going to face this week, whatever problems you are going to face on your job, whatever need you are going to have in your life, it is under your feet because that is a part of grace.  You have been raised, resurrected and now you are resting at the right hand of God.

 

The Apostle Paul wrote Ephesians from a Roman prison cell and yet when you open the door to Ephesians you don't get the smell of a musty, dirty prison, but the sweet fragrance of the heavenly throne of God.  Paul may have physically been in a prison, but spiritually he was at the right hand of God in heaven.  He turned his prison into a palace through praise and through prayer.

 

The Bible says all things are under His feet and that means we walk in victory.  By the grace of God, we live in victory.  By the grace of God we conquer in victory.  By the grace of God we are victorious over every problem, every sin, every difficulty, and every thing the devil could do to come against us.  We are on the winning side!  We are at the right hand of the throne of God. 

 

That is the story of Grace!  I was dead and disobedient and depraved, but I’ve been resurrected, raised and I am resting in Christ my Lord!

 

That’s why the story of salvation is not only the story of guilt and grace, but it is  

 

 

verse 7

Here we discover

 

 

God's purpose is to put us on display that throughout eternity we can praise God for His kindness to us and the riches of His grace.  One day, all of those in heaven and on the earth and under the earth are going to bow in honor and confess the wonder and glory of God, and the reason they will do it is because they will see you and me in heaven!  How in the world did somebody like that make it to heaven? And the answer is, “God’s grace!”  

 

But we also see

 

 

God's purpose is to demonstrate in the ages to come His grace. And God’s plan is inseparably linked to His purpose.  The plan is that God will get the glory.

 

verses 8-9

 

Listen, in heaven, nobody get’s bragged on except God.  I promise you heaven would be a terrible place if Baptists could boast.  I get sick of Baptists boasting in all the meetings I go to sometimes!  Sometimes, we don't boast in the Lord, we just boast in how many of us there are. 

 

But in heaven, nobody will be able to boast. Nobody will say, “I got here because I was a wonderful preacher; I got here because I was a wonderful singer, and I was a wonderful deacon!”  Everybody in heaven will be doing nothing but glorifying and praising Him for His grace throughout all of eternity.

Now there are three words in Ephesians 2:8-10 that we need to keep clear and I promise, it you’ll keep your understanding of these three words clear, you’ll never be confused about how we are saved. 

 

The first word is "by". The second word is "through".  And the third word is "for".  We are saved by grace.  We are saved through faith.  And we are saved for good works. 

 

We are not saved by “good works”.  We are saved “by grace”.  We are not saved “through good works”.  We are saved through faith. 

 

We are saved by grace through faith for good works.  Our works are important, but they are not the root of salvation.  They are the fruit of salvation.  We serve God not in order to be saved; we serve God because we are saved.

 

And in the ages to come, when salvation’s story is told, while it may mention me, it will only be to tell of the great sin that was forgiven by the grace of God so that praise will be given to Him. 

 

There is not an American hymn writer that is more loved and respected than Fanny Crosby.  Blinded at the age of six by an inept doctor, she composed, over the course of her more than 90 years of life, more than 8,000 texts, many of which have been set to music and are today our favorite hymns of the faith.

 

Hymns such as "Praise Him! Praise Him!," "Tell Me the Story of Jesus," "I Am Thine, O Lord," "Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross," "Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine," "All the Way My Savior Leads Me," and "Jesus is Tenderly Calling" are among the best known. 

One of the most recognized of her works is "To God Be the Glory".  It was written around 1872 and first published in 1875 but didn’t catch on here in the states.  But Evangelist Ira Sankey included it in the British editions of his famous song books and it gained popularity in America when Cliff Barrows used in a Billy Graham Crusade in Nashville in 1954. Since that time, it has become one of the most well-known and loved of songs.

 

While most would acknowledge that it is first and foremost a hymn of praise, I would suggest it is more a hymn of grace.  Several aspects of this beloved composition set it forth not only as a hymn of praise, but also as a hymn of grace.

 

From the opening line, Fanny ascribes all credit to God for His work ("great things He hath done"), with no role for man’s efforts in God’s great plan. In the first stanza, it is Jesus alone who opens the lifegate of salvation, so that all have the opportunity to be saved. This is a clear message of grace, in contrast to the idea that man must prove his worth before eternal life is granted.

 

However, it is in the second stanza that Crosby most clearly sets forth the conditions for entrance through this gate—faith, and faith alone. She points out that redemption is promised to "every believer", regardless of the magnitude of one’s sins, even "the vilest offender" who puts his or her faith in Christ,

will immediately receive pardon from Jesus.

 

The third stanza and chorus continue to bring this point of grace home, proclaiming that it is God who has done great things, and the One to whom praise and adoration belong.

Listen again to the words and let them speak to your heart: 

 

    To God be the glory, great things He hath done;

    So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,

    Who yielded His life, an atonement for sin,

    And opened the life gate, that all may go in.

 

    O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,

    To every believer, the promise of God;

    The vilest offender who truly believes,

    That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.

 

Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done,

    And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;

    But purer, and higher, and greater will be

    Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see!

 

    Refrain:

    Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,

    Let the earth hear His voice!

    Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,

    Let the people rejoice!

    O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,

And give Him the glory, great things He hath done!

 

That is the story of every child of God.  It is a story of guilt, crace and glory.  And if you’ve never accepted God’s free gift of salvation, today it can be your story as well. 

 

Let’s pray.