It is a privilege and a pleasure to fill the Bridwell Heights pulpit this morning. At the same time, I am humbled. It is a weighty matter to rightly divide the Word of God. So let us pray together. Lord, I pray that you would grant me the lead and direction of your Spirit, that you would bless the proclamation of your Word this morning, and open our hearts and minds to receive that which you would teach us this day. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. The Reformation solas are five Latin phrases from the 16th century Protestant Reformation, which summarize the basic biblical truths about salvation, which are essential to faith and practice in the Christian life, and which were and remain in opposition to the prevailing teaching of the Roman Catholic Church and indeed to most mainline Protestant denominations today. The Latin word sola means alone or only. They are sola scriptura, by scripture alone, sola Christus, by Christ alone, sola fide, by faith alone, sola deo gloria, for the glory of God alone, and sola gratia, by grace alone. These five alone teachings are complementary to each other and not exclusionary in any way, as might otherwise be implied. By Scripture alone means that God's salvation is revealed only in the Bible and not in the tradition or some other writings or inspirations. By Christ alone means that salvation is only through Christ and not through something or someone else. By faith alone, means that we are saved only through faith, not by works as well. For the glory of God alone means that salvation, the redemptive plan of God, is established by God for His glory. And for the purpose of all life lived under the Lordship of Christ is to glorify Him. And by grace alone, our sermon topic for today means that salvation is a free gift of grace from God and not based on anything present or foreseen in human works, desire, effort, or merit. Although addressed in many places in Scripture, chapter 2, verses 1-10 of Paul's letter to the Ephesians, particularly articulates the doctrine of salvation by grace alone most clearly, powerfully, and comprehensively. Before we get into our Scripture text this morning, want first to look at its context and briefly look at verses 3 through 14 in the preceding chapter 1 of Ephesians. In simplest terms, grace is unmerited favor or the provision of God of something we don't deserve. Divine grace, in essence, is an attitude in God towards sinners but cannot be fully understood or appreciated unless we have a knowledge of and a commitment to certain fundamental and foundational biblical truths, heavenly realities, doctrines which support, characterize, and indeed magnify divine grace. In Ephesians chapter 1, Paul presents these fundamental doctrines and truths which will provide us that perspective and understanding to our text this morning. So please open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1, Ephesians 3-14. Hear the words of the Holy Spirit writing through Paul to the church at Ephesus and indeed to each of us today. Ephesians 1-14 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him. In love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through the blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which He made us bound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in all one things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession through the praise of His glory. In verses 3 to 14, we have this extraordinary statement. It's one long, simple, complex sentence that summarizes almost the entire body of Christian doctrine. The near complete encyclopedia of Christian faith and Christian truth is here in these 12 verses. These verses are a feast of teaching, a stunning panorama of the landscape of God's redeeming grace. It's not my intention this morning to do a thorough verse-by-verse exegesis of this text, nor an in-depth study of these truths. I do want to make you sensitive to the presence of these truths as we proceed, to show you the beauty, the harmony, and interrelationships of these doctrinal truths those heavenly realities and how they all come together comprehensively in the final simplicity of grace alone. Among the doctrines foundational to the understanding of God's grace alone, which are either specifically or generally found in this text and in our sermon text for the day, are first, the doctrines of grace, referred to with the acronym TULIP. Look for total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace, and perseverance of the saints. The five salvation solos, Christ alone. Note that what we just read in verses 3 through 14, the phrase in Christ is repeated eight times in these verses. By grace alone, through faith alone, by scripture alone, And look at verse 13, the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and for the glory of God alone. We'll look at the purposes of God. Think about the purposes of God. The phrase through the praise of His glory is repeated four times here in verses 3, 6, 12 and 14. Election. Look at verse 4. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him. Holiness, righteousness in verse 4. Predestination in verse 5. Redemption and forgiveness in verse 7. The sovereignty of God. Look at verse 11. Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will. All the elements of the ordo salutis, the progressive redemption plan of God applied to each of His own, you and me, are found in this text. Election, predestination in verses 4 and 5. Effectual call is found in verse 13. Regeneration, conversion, faith, and repentance are found in verse 13. Justification in verse 7. Adoption in verse 5. Sanctification in verse 11. And glorification in verse 10. And finally, the doctrine of the love of God is particularly meaningful. Look at verses 4 and 5. In love, the end of verse 4, in love He predestined us according to the purpose of His will. The purpose of His will alone, His free and sovereign choice directed Him. But what is it that constrains and compels God's elective choice? The answer in these verses is love. He chose you before because He loved you. He chose you before the worlds were made. And there, He loved you. He was compelled to choose you, but because of His infinite love for you. And not because you were lovely. He loved you simply because He loved you eternally. As Christians, we are humbled by the reality of God's personal and intimate love and grace to us through eternity. You and I belong as a child of God. And here we are utterly secure, chosen in the love of the Father from eternity past, purchased by the blood of the Son in history, drawn by the power of the Holy Spirit in our experience, and kept by Him for future glory. And the people of God say, Amen. Having identified the heavenly realities of many biblical doctrines which are foundational to understanding of divine grace, Let's now look specifically at salvation by grace alone in Ephesians 2, verses 1-10. Ephesians 2, verses 1-10. And you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved by faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. In this text, Paul applies the heavenly realities of chapter 1 to our individual Christian lives. In verses 5 and 8, he stresses twice the fact that it is by grace that you've been saved. The grace of God is evident in salvation when God makes the dead alive in Christ. To appreciate fully the grace of God, let us consider from this text what it means to be dead. Reading once again verses 1 through 3. And you, He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others." From this passage, consider who are the dead. They include the Ephesians. Verse 1, you were dead in trespasses and sin. They include Paul. and his fellow Jews. Verse three, we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of the flesh. In fact, they include every man, woman and child in Adam. Verse three, we were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. The dead is inclusive of all humanity, you and me. Adam's fall into sin resulted in humanity being plunged into spiritual death. In spiritual death, there is no fellowship with God. We are all born with original sin, which causes us to follow after all sorts of sin. We are corrupt. We are guilty. When you're physically dead, there is no life in your body, a lifeless corpse. Spiritually dead means that your spirit is like a corpse towards God. There is no ability to respond to God. No desire to respond to God. No capacity or inclination to come to God. No strength to obey God. And no desire to believe in God. So what does it mean to be dead? Paul points out three things in this passage. First, it means to be under condemnation. Before Christ, we were dead in the trespasses and sins in which we once walked. Death, God told Adam in Genesis 2, is the penalty for sin. When we violate the law of God, we stand guilty before this holy God, accountable to His justice. Second, to be dead means that we are under the yoke. We serve three masters. Look at verse 2. The world, according to the course of this world, the flesh, Look at verse 3. We conducted ourselves in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And then finally, in the devil, in verse 3, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. In addition to being under condemnation and under the yoke, to be dead means that we are under wrath. Look at verse 3. We were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. We were justly subject to the holy displeasure of God for our sin. It was our life, our custom, our thinking, and our behavior. We were this way by nature. In other words, we were born into this condition. It is clear. We were dead in sins and transgressions, enslaved in our sinful passions and desires, and by nature, children of wrath. We weren't just helpless victims of sin. No, we loved the darkness. We hated the light. We were unable and unwilling to please God. Our will was not free. It was held in bondage to sin. We were pleasing ourselves and not God. quite willing to walk on the road that leads to destruction. And if left to ourselves, we were headed to hell and eternal judgment, and we in ourselves could do nothing to change that. Many do not accept this teaching, assuming that people are basically good. They tend to believe that if we give people the right education, the right examples or laws, they will follow the right path. Just laws, noble examples, and proper education are worthy. But they are powerless to change a heart committed to rebellion against God. Inside the church, many have said and still say that people are just sick. However, in most churches today, these sick people are still said to have the ability to respond to and cooperate with the grace of God. But Paul here, and the Scriptures in many places, does not say we are sick. It says that apart from Christ, we are dead. Spiritually speaking, we are corpses in the ground without Jesus. We can no more draw near to God than a corpse can summon the strength to get out of his grave. This is how hopeless and helpless our situation is outside of Christ. It is here, then, that Paul abruptly changes subjects and gives us one of the clearest presentations of sola gratia, by grace alone, found anywhere in Scripture. Look at verses 4 and 5. But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. We were everything that was said about us in verses 1-3. We were dead in sin, enslaved to sin, active in sin, and under the wrath of God. We were helpless and we were hopeless. But God came to us and saved us. He took the initiative. We were dead, we were defiant, we were doomed. Then look at verse 4. What does it say? But God, but God who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, Even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. Now that, my fellow Christians, is grace. Why did God love us? It was not because God was obligated to save us. Rather, because God is rich in mercy. He loved us while we were still sinners. While we were rebellious. While we were despicable in His sight. That's how great God's love is. Can you see that grace is entirely a free act in the being of God? We don't deserve to be saved and God was not obligated to save us. That's what makes grace, grace. As Jesus called Lazarus forth from the tomb, a man who had been dead for four days and was totally incapable of doing anything to cooperate and save himself. So too, God makes us alive in Christ when we were dead in sin. And this is what we mean when we speak of grace alone. How on earth do dead men and women make themselves alive? Can they cooperate with God's grace? How do dead men and women do their part so that God can supposedly do His? Free will and our salvation is sheer nonsense. It is because God calls us forth from death through His Word and only because God calls us forth that we embrace Jesus Christ through faith in the first place. God alone. Grace alone. Let us now consider verses 6 and 7. And God 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 in Christ Jesus." In verse 5, we were taught that God first made us alive together in Christ. Now in verse 6, Paul adds secondly, He raised us up with Him. And thirdly, He seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. God saved us. He made us alive together with Christ. He not only did that, but He raised us up with Christ in a reference to the ascension of Christ and seated us in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. And so, Paul is explaining to us how this magnificent redemption that has been given to us by God in Jesus Christ. In the Apostles' Creed, after we confess, He was crucified. dead and buried and descended into hell. We're going to say three more things about him. We say that he rose again from the dead on the third day. That he ascended into heaven. And thirdly, he sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. Paul doesn't simply say that Jesus was raised and ascended and is seated at the right hand He says that you have been raised from the dead and you raised up into glory and you are seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty even now. The Holy Spirit has united you to Jesus Christ so that everything that is Christ is yours. Christians, that's salvation. In His mercy, He saved you by giving everything that belongs to Christ to you. He's given you the benefits of Christ's death and burial and resurrection. He has given you the benefits of Christ's ascension. He's not only saved you from sin and from the condemnation of sin, but this magnificent redemption has given you all the benefits that flow from what Jesus has done on your behalf. His story becomes the story of your life. His blessings become your blessings. But Paul doesn't stop there. He goes on in verse 7 and tells you why God did this. That in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Let's go back to verse 4 and look at verses 4-7 together. We're going to skip a few verses to make the point. When Paul tells us, because of His great love with which He loved us." Then look at verse 5, "...made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved." And then up to verse 7, "...that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Why did God do this? Because of God's mercy, His love, His grace, and His kindness. Because of these things, God did it. In other words, these benefits which have accrued to us for our salvation are all due, not to anything in us, but to God. It's Him reaching out to us in mercy, love, grace, and kindness. That's the motivation. But that's not all. Paul goes on in verse 7 to tell us what God's purpose was in doing this. And he tells us that the goal, His purpose, His end, was the everlasting display of His grace. Look at verse 7 again. That in the ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. On the last day, God will declare that in each one of the great multitude of witnesses, He has displayed His love, His grace, His mercy and kindness. They are the evidence. We are the evidence. The public witness and testimony that He is a God of grace and mercy. And so God will be exalted by this display of His grace and mercy. We are living testimony that God is merciful even to sinners like ourselves. We are the display of His workmanship and salvation. And He's done this for His own glory so that His grace might be displayed in us for all time. Now let's go to verses 8 through 10. For by grace you've been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Let's look at verse 8. Reading again, for by grace you've been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. The antecedent of the of the word that in that in the phrase and that not of yourselves refers to the nearest noun, and that is faith. The teaching is this. Even faith is not from ourselves. It, too, is God's gift. The origin of our faith in Christ is not our own choice, but solely in God's grace. We owe to God the entirety of our salvation, both its provision by God and Christ, and its appropriation unto ourselves. From our being made alive in Christ, to being saved from God's wrath, to being raised in Christ, and even now, our being seated in the heavenlies with Him, it is God's doing, not ours. The fact is, Paul says that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ alone, and the whole thing from the beginning to the end is a gift. And then in verse 9, he goes on to say that salvation is not of works, lest anyone should boast. What Paul just said positively, he now says negatively. It is all by grace. Or in other words, it's not our achievement. Works here means simply human effort or human achievement. From beginning to end, it is God's doing, not ours. That is why the gospel excludes boasting. There is nothing of ours in our salvation that we can make the basis for self-congratulations. The only thing of our own that we contribute to our redemption is the sin burden from which we need to be redeemed. We have been saved from God. We have been saved by God. And it is God's grace that has saved you. And my friends, that fact is absolutely essential for the Christian life. But Paul doesn't want us just to know what we've been saved from and how we've been saved. He wants us to understand to what end have we been saved. For what purpose has he saved us? And that's the subject of verse 10. For we are his workmanship. created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." Now, he said previously that we've been saved so that we can be the display of God's grace. We are also going to be those who show our love to Him in responding to His grace by joyfully embracing His will as taught in His Word. And so we're going to be saved not by our good works, but we are being saved to good works. So the good works are the result and not the cause or basis of salvation. We are saved wholly and only by the grace of God through the work of Christ. so that we would be obedient, joyful Christians, delighting in the law of God, loving to do good works, to love God, to love our neighbor, to care for one another, to show the love of Christ in every facet of life, to show real gospel humility, to show a heart for evangelism. We're saved for all these things, not by them. And finally, We're not only saved from God and by God, but we are saved for God. Prepared beforehand means He ordained all this before the foundation of the world. The salvation of each believer and the good works they would perform. He saves us so that we might commune with Him and walk with Him. So lastly, let's compare verse 2 to verse 10 to understand where grace has brought us. The passage began with our walking according to the influences of this world, according to Satan, and indulging the desires of the flesh. Now see the ending in the work of divine grace. Our old manner of life apart from Christ was walking in the way of unrighteousness and disobedience. Our new manner of life because of the grace of God is walking in obedience, doing good works, loving God, and loving our neighbor because of the grace of God. In this great text, we have the manifesto of the Protestant Reformation. In essence, the Reformation was a rediscovery of the grace of God. All great revivals in Christian history have been rediscoveries of the grace of God. Rediscoveries of salvation is God's free gift to undeserving sinners. Repeatedly in history, this fact about salvation has been lost in the church, buried in indifference, in self-confidence, and in false teaching. First subtly, then publicly, and then defiantly, salvation becomes to be thought of instead as a cooperative effort between God and man. with man playing the decisive role. This is what repetitively happened in the history of Israel. This is what happened again at the time of Jesus and the apostles. It was the same view of salvation based on human achievement and merit that Paul had been taught in the Judaism of his day. It was this view he championed until he became a Christian himself. It was the same view of salvation that it is a reward for man's works, his religious devotions, His conformity to the requirements of the church that had once again become the theology of the Christian church in the age prior to the Reformation. And it has become overwhelmingly prevalent view of the church in our day. The substance of the many forms of this heresy that man is, in some significant part, his own Savior, is that God makes salvation a possibility, but man must make it a reality. in his own efforts. It was against this heresy that the prophets of the Old Testament, that Jesus, that Paul, that the Reformers protested. And it is against this heresy that the Reformed church today protests. This cycle so regularly repeats itself, seemingly confirming the default theological position of the human heart is salvation by works. And this tendency to self-confidence before God always reasserts itself unless strong conviction founded on the truth of Scripture is present. Controversy and confusion about what it means to become a Christian accompanies these cycles. When the church drifts from a clear and proper understanding of the gospel, being a Christian can mean nothing more than being a member of a church without regard to any sincerity of one's faith in Christ. It can come to me no more than someone is a reasonably good person, which is what it means in so many so-called Christian churches today. The grand. life transforming realities of divine grace to dead sinners, of new life being given to the spiritually dead, of faith in Christ now working itself out in love through every part of the believer's life. All these are forgotten, if not positively dismissed in unbelief. Rather, attention falls on outward acts, on conformity to alternative standards of behavior and of thought, and on assimilation of contemporary cultural norms. But then, in God's purposes and timing, and by the grace of God and the working of the Holy Spirit, the truth about salvation begins once again to dawn in the heart of the church. A rediscovery emerges that we owe our salvation from sin and death and judgment to God entirely. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. In these truths we learn how we ever became Christians. And that knowledge is foundational to everything else in the Christian life. Paul spoke in the first chapter and a half of Ephesians of all the stages of salvation. God setting His love and choice upon the elect before the foundation of the world. Christ winning for them their deliverance from sin and death on the cross. and the Holy Spirit bringing them into the actual possession of this great gift by working faith in Christ in their hearts. And his point is to demonstrate that from the very beginning of our salvation to its completion on that great day, our salvation is God's love, God's plan, God's work, God's gift, and God's achievement. When a person grasps the grace of God, their whole life must change. and will change. To realize that before the foundation of the world, God loved me and you. That thousands of years ago, Jesus Christ gave himself for me and you. And that in our day that the Holy Spirit came to me and you and awakened us from the spiritual death in which we live and would have lived forever is to see one's life in utterly different terms. To see one's purpose now to give glory to God, to see one's daily calling to live so as to honor and please the one who loved me and gave himself for me. When one person grasps the grace of God, a life is transformed. When many grasp it at the same time, the world is transformed. Let us pray. Lord, we are amazed and transformed to know that you have gifted us with your grace in your sovereign, redemptive plan. We thank you for your eternal love for us, your every provision for us, and your faithfulness to us. We thank you that you have removed the impossible burden of works righteousness In response to your grace, may we ever honor and glorify you in word and deed through eternity. Lord, we pray that your kingdom would come, that you would, in power and your grace, bring revival to all nations, so that your name would be exalted in the whole earth. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.