Our scripture reading today will be from Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 10. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 10. I must confess it might be one of my favorite scriptures. I have quite a few favorites, but this is one of them I would say. Ephesians 2, 1 through 10. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins. in which you once formally 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, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, but God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he has loved for us. Even when we were dead and our trespasses made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing. It is a gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Well, today is our second sermon in the series of the five solas. The Protestant Reformation happened in the mid-1500s, early to mid-1500s, mostly mid. In 1517, Martin Luther was a very important figure in the Reformation. And one of the terms that was really a popular term in that time was post-tenebraeus lux, which means after darkness, light. You see, the church was coming out of what we call, even still today, the dark ages. And in that time, there was many things that were confused about the word of God and different things. And the average person sitting in the pews of churches in the middle ages didn't really understand all that was going on because what was preached was not even in their language. What was sung was not even in their language. They didn't have a Bible in front of them like we do today. You see, they were kind of even in the dark a lot and spiritual too. But this time of this reformation, and I must say that Martin Luther wasn't trying to break away from the known church at that time. He was trying to just do some, to get back to some of the things that he thought was very important, but it turned into a reformation. And in this reformation, even today, we talk about these five solas. Sola means alone. And last week, Pastor Lucas preached about scripture alone. Then there's grace alone. Faith alone, Christ alone, and for the glory of God alone. I love the Reformation song we start out with because the chorus is the last one, the glory of God, and then it goes through the other four verse by verse. What a wonderful song. Sola gratia is what we'll talk about today. Grace of God alone. Grace alone. We are saved by grace alone. Not of works, lest any man should boast. We've heard that many, many, many times, haven't we? We are saved by grace alone. Not of works, lest any man should boast. Today we'll be talking about grace a whole lot, and we see it so plainly in Ephesians 2, verses one through 10. I tell you, I've been going to preach this for several weeks. And so it's been on my heart, Ephesians 2. And I knew because pastor preached out of Titus 3 last year, another great scripture that's very parallel to this one on grace. And so I've been studying this for a couple weeks. And Monday, I was at one of my grand, with my grandchildren, my son and daughter-in-law and my little two-year-old grandchild. And when we get together, we play ball a lot. We throw and kick a ball. He has ball. He has all kinds of different balls that we play with. He brings them all out, too, when we play. And we have a real fun time playing ball. But another thing we do is read books sometimes. And he would bring me a book and I would read a page or two and then he would take it away from me and go get another book and bring it. I just get a page or two and he would take it back. But then he brought the third book to me and it was this book right here. And I want to read it together to start off our sermon today because it's called His Grace is Enough. And it really touched my heart. It's amazing what God will do when you're studying something, isn't it? And how he speaks to you. But this little book, and it says, it's written, I think it's written for three to six year olds, had the clearest message of what we're gonna talk about today. And then I'll say some things too. But I wanted to read this book, His Grace is Enough. It's written by Melissa Kruger and illustrated by Isabel Lundy. Let's go ahead and read it. We'll come to the top. You're hiding from me and look so upset. Did you do something wrong that now you regret? Oh, don't run away. Come sit over here. Let's talk together. You've nothing to fear. I've something important to tell you today. It's true and it's hopeful and helps guide your way. God's grace is enough. It's so big and so free. His grace is enough both for you and for me. If you make a big mess or tell a small lie. If you're lazy with chores and don't even try. If you get, and my grandson said, fiery mad. That was so cute. If you get fiery mad and hit someone hard or cheat a good friend as you play in the yard, if you steal someone's toy or say something mean, what can you do to make yourself clean? Running and hiding away from the light Will that be enough to make it all right? I'll tell you again, for you need to know, never forget this wherever you go. God's grace is enough. It's so big and so free. His grace is enough for both you and for me. You might try to hide by doing what's good, trying to fix it, if only you could. You clean the whole house and work super hard, take out the trash and mow the front yard. Make straight A's in school and never complain. Not even when lunch is soaked by the rain. You try and you try, you try hard as you might. Will that be enough to make it all right? My child, here is the truth from God. You can't hide. He sees what you've done. He knows what's inside. But please don't despair. There's good news, I say. Whatever you do, God's grace makes a way. Yes, his grace is enough. It's so big and so free. His grace is enough for both you and me. Here's how it works. Jesus died on the cross. We gain new life because he suffered loss. Though we don't deserve it, our God is so kind. That's grace, pure and simple, the best thing to find. So just say you're sorry. It's amazing. You see, he paid the full price. Now we can be free. Not free to sin more. He doesn't want that. Free to live free. And that's a great fact. Believing in Jesus, he gives a new heart and forgives all of our sins so new life can start. So there's no need to hide and no need to run. Now you can serve him with gladness and fun. I love you so much. I want you to know cling to this truth wherever you go. His grace is enough. It's so big and so free. His grace is enough to change you and change me. What a beautiful message, isn't it? It's the message that Paul says here in Ephesians. chapter two, verses one through 10. It's an amazing thing. And so as we go through the message today, I'm going to use three words to guide us. Three words that are very plain in here. There's the problem and there's a provision and there's a purpose. God's grace is amazing. First, let's look at the problem. The human condition, we see in verse one through three. The human condition, let's read that again. There's a problem here. It's the condition of the human nature and the human heart. Let's read it again. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince and power of the air, the spirit that now is at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. See, there is a problem. This problem is sin. The Bible says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, Romans 3, 23. All have sinned. In Isaiah, Isaiah says, all we like sheep have gone astray and went his own way. You see, there's a problem in his sin. I could, we could probably go around each person here and say, do you think you have a problem with sin? And most of us would say, yeah, I do. I have a problem with sin. But sometimes we see, treat sin as it's just some little problem, like something we can cover up with a bandaid or something that it's just like, we're a little sick, but we're not as sick as that guy. But notice the problem here that he says, you were dead. and trespasses and sins. The problem, the human condition, we're dead in trespasses and sin. Paul states that they were previously dead because of their sins. This explanation establishes the need for salvation that would be provided by someone or something else other than ourselves. You see, a dead man can't help himself, can he? A dead man doesn't get healed. He's dead. A dead man can't do works to make himself better. You see, we have a problem and it's sin, and it's a very serious problem. We're dead in our trespasses and sin. This condition of death offers a rationale why Jesus' death and resurrection were necessary. We lose track of this in our modern day, I think. I can imagine growing up in the Old Testament time, in the New Testament, early New Testament times, Old Testament times, when you would make a pilgrimage with a little lamb and the little lamb was slaughtered. It might've been even a lamb that you have seen been raised for several years. And you would ask your mom and dad, mom and dad, why do we have to do this? And they would said, because God is holy and we are sinful. And we have to, there has to be a price paid for sin. And this little lamb is the price. Dear friend, sometimes we lose the fact, the very fact in our life that sin is a problem. And it's a serious problem that because of sin, there had to be death. The Bible says in Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is dead, and that's 3.23, 6.23, for by grace, somebody tell me real quick, 6.23. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. You see, we gotta remember that this sin is very serious. Notice that Paul says this was a lot of the readers previously state. This was our previous state of alienation from God. You see, when we're in this state, when we're dead, you know, it alienates us from God. These trespasses we see, we're dead in our trespasses and sins. He gives two kind of classifications here, trespasses and sins. Trespasses draws attention to the acts of sin, the actions of sin, specific things that we can look at that we did, that we shouldn't have done, that was against what God tells us to do and not to do. You see, these are the acts of sin, these trespasses. But he also says sins here, this is a more comprehensive account of the human evil, of human evil. The Bible teaches us that we're not only sinners by action, we're sinners by nature. We are born with the sin nature that alienates us from a holy God, even before we are old enough to do an action. You see, sin is the problem, and it's a very Serious problem. We were dead in our trespasses and sin. We were alienated from God because of these acts of sin. And not only that, because of the human evil, this evil nature that we're born with, the sin nature. But not only do we see death here, we see those disobedience. In verse two, he goes on to say that, that, um, 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 and the sons of disobedience. Satan is described as the ruler of the air, who is influencing those who are rejecting the ways of God. Paul describes those being influenced by the devil as sons of obedience here. He says that we were following the course of the ways of this world. You know, it's not just one act, it's the whole lifestyle that we're in. We're dead in our trespasses and sins. It's a lifestyle. 1 John 2 verses 15 through 17 says this. Do not love the world and the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life is not from the Father, but from the world. And the world is passing away with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. You see, this disobedience leads, keeps us in this state of death. We're not only following the course of this world, we're following Satan, the very prince and power of the air. Second Corinthians four, three and four says this. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel and glory of Christ, who is the image of God. You see, in this state, we're dead, we can't, we're following this course of the world, we're following state and the prince of the air, and we're even blinded to the things of God. And then thirdly, we're following our sinful desires. He says there, we're following not only the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air, we're following our sinful desires. Galatians 5, 16 through 21. But I say, walk in the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. And then he reminds us what the desires of the flesh are. The desires of the flesh are against the spirit. And the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that you want to do. But if you are led by the spirit, you're not under the law. Now, the works of the flesh are evident. And he lists them here. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the things like these, I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Disobedient. We're dead. We're disobedient. And the third thing I want you to see here is we're doomed. We're doomed. The Bible here, Paul says in verse three, we're children of wrath. will children of wrath." The disobedient in the previous verses are now children destined for wrath, which is rightly deserved. It's rightly deserved. He is right to condemn us in our sins. Paul said in the Ephesians, walk according to the ways of the world, Satan. And in verse two, three, he echoes the same sentiment, but includes himself. Here, he says, he now describes the former conditions of living and the desires of the flesh. He skips you, you, and now he says, and we. Here, you see that. We all are this. We can't point our finger. We can just say, praise God, by the grace of God, I'm not who I once was. He concludes this section by stating that due to this, The sins, due to these sins, they were children of wrath. Children of wrath. Ephesians 5, 6 says this, let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. The wrath of God must come upon the sons of disobedience. That's why Paul calls us the children of wrath, or we once formally were children of wrath. So here we see there's a problem. Do you see it? The problem is sin. The problem affects us all. We're all sinners by nature and by choice. This is, and we're not only dead, we're disobedient. and without some intervention, we're doomed. It's a very dark place, isn't it, where we're at now? But in that dark backdrop, we get to verse four. Verse four is like the sun coming up on a dark morning. It's like a sunrise, isn't it? It's like a spotlight that hits right at Jesus. We see the provision. Oh, let's go back to verse four. We once were dead. We're children of wrath. Then verse four. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he had loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Let's stop there. On that dark backdrop, this is like a hopeful light that shines. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love for which he had loved us, even though we were dead and our trespasses made us alive through Christ. You see, when we look at this, the provision, the means of salvation, we see a loving God right off the bat, but God who loved. being rich in mercy and his great love. Having laid out this condition of humanity in the first three verses, Paul now shifts to an explanation of God's solution to the problem. Yes, we had a problem, but God provides a solution here. God in his great love extended mercy and provided Christ as means of our salvation. Paul has demonstrated the great need of humanity in the first three verses. And in verse four, he begins this explanation of God's remedy. God loves his people. And this is the basis for which rich mercy he provides for humanity. You see, mercy is kind of along the same lines as grace. Grace is God giving us something we don't deserve, favor. Mercy is God's withholding from us, our judgment. See, they go hand in hand. And here we see that this act of mercy is needed based on the wickedness of humankind, which deserves lasting punishment. We see here that the Apostle Paul, in the same breath, can affirm the wrath of God and the love of God. He affirms both here. He affirms the wrath of God and the love of God. In fact, you can't fully understand one without the other. Listen to Psalm 103, verse eight. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. Wow, what? God's love becomes so much more real when we remember the problem that we had. The provision is so much more praiseworthy because of the problem. that we had. This verse continues Paul's presentation on God's mercy by explaining that this mercy was provided while humanity was still in the state of sin. God did this while we were still dead in our trespasses and sin. He chose us mercy even while we were still children of wrath. Romans 5, 8 says this, but God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Oh, that's the love of God. Before we could try to do anything for ourselves, before we could even say we're sorry, Christ provides salvation for us. You see, this reminds me, didn't put it in the songs today, we did at the cross, but that last verse of at Calvary I love so much. It says this, oh, the love that drew salvation's plan. Oh, the grace that brought it down to man. Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary. You see that love? You see that grace? The Bible says that there's a holy God over here and there's sinful mankind over here and nothing we can do. There's no way that gulf can be filled except through Christ Jesus. It's almost like the cross of Jesus Christ lays across that great gulf fixed and becomes the way that we sinners can be made right with holy God. What a beautiful picture, that's grace, my friend. Not only do we see in this provision, a loving God, we see a sufficient sacrifice here. A sufficient sacrifice, who of course is Christ Jesus, our Lord. He's all sufficient. He's the only sacrifice that's sufficient. As Christ was raised from the dead, we see in the chapter before this in Ephesians, chapter one, verse 20, So Christians are raised from their place of previous death. This same Christ who was raised from the dead is the same Christ that causes death, those who are dead in their trespasses and sins to be made alive through Christ Jesus. We are made alive with Christ and we're raised up with him. The believer who has been made alive with Christ is also raised with him and given an eternal dwelling with him. Because believers are made alive with Christ, they will have seats in heaven with him. There is an intimate connection between the person of Christ and the new life we have with him in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5, 17 says this. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is passed away. Behold, the new has come. The old self of being dead in our trespasses and sin is now passed away. That's kind of play on words there, isn't it? And we have new life through Christ Jesus, our Lord. The new has come. Christ Jesus is God's perfect gift that brings salvation. I wanna remind you something about this sufficient sacrifice in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus, never sinned, we're told. That made him the only person ever who has lived to be able to pay the sin debt for the rest of us. But not only did he never do the action, he didn't have the sin nature that we have. We don't have time, but that's the glorious thing about the virgin birth is that Christ Jesus is the sufficient sacrifice because he was not a sinner by nature, nor a sinner by birth, and not a sinner by action. You see, he is the only sufficient savior. Christ Jesus is God's perfect gift that brings salvation. This is the scripture I couldn't remember a minute ago, and I know it very well. Romans 6, 23 says, for the wages of sin is death, but, The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Because of this perfect, sufficient sacrifice, God can be just and be the justifier of sinners like me and like you. And he has to be both because he's perfectly both. You see, because Christ Jesus was God's perfect gift that brings salvation. In justice, he can justify us and pardon us from our sins. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. We got to remember it's a free gift. We're talking about grace alone here. There's nothing we can do. It's all been done by Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. It's a free gift. We don't deserve it. It's a gift given by him through his grace and his mercy. Romans 5, 15 through 17 says this, but the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, he's talking about Adam here, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. For if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who received the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. You see, because of this, Holy God can look at a sinner like me and say, not guilty. Not because of anything I have done, but because of the grace of God through what Christ has done on my behalf. Does that make sense to you? What a beautiful message that is. But not only I didn't wanna leave it there, I wanted to say something since this sermon is about grace alone, about this unmerited favor. And the beautiful verses in verse eight and nine. Let's look at those now. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing. It is a gift of God. not a result of works so that no one may boast. This unmerited favor by grace, you have been saved. In these verses, Paul expounds on the thought he briefly mentioned in verse five. In verse five, he does say, by grace, you have been saved. It's almost like he couldn't hold it back. He just said it early on, but then he goes on to expound it here in verses eight and nine. He reminds us, he goes on to say, by grace, you have been saved through faith. And he reminds us, it's not anything you can do. It is a gift of God, not of the works. He makes that very clear so that no one may boast. Because humans are dead in their sins, the first three verses, there is a need for an outside assistance to be restored. This help cannot be based on good words because humanity is incapable of such goodness. Thus salvation is only possible through God's grace, which is not earned, but is freely given. Paul explains in this verse that salvation is based on grace and that people are only saved by grace through faith. The word saved here is in the past perfect tense, meaning something that has been accomplished in the past. Christ already died, but which continues to have results in the present and future. Dear friend, God's grace is, you don't just rely on it the day you were saved. You don't just rely on it for salvation. You rely on it the rest of your life. God's grace is ever present with you. I hope you realize that, that grace gives us, only by grace can we learn to live a life like Christ wants us to live. Only by grace can we serve God the way we should as Christians. We're not only saved by grace, we're secured by grace. The same grace that saves us, keeps us in Christ Jesus. The Bible says that no one can pluck you out of my hand or the hand of my father, which sent me. You see this same grace that saves us, secures us, it strengthens us through our walk here on earth. The apostle Paul said he had a problem and he had this thorn in the flesh and God told him, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in your weakness. You see, Grace is not just a past tense in the believer's life. No, it goes on for here and praise God. One day we will stand before Christ faced or God face to face. And we can stand there because of the grace of Jesus Christ, the grace of God. We will be glorified one day in heaven through faith, not on your own doing. It is a gift of God, not of works so that no one may boast. Paul continues his explanation of how salvation is provided to believers. He has established that it is based on grace through faith. But now he delves into a partial rationale of this understanding. I want to say something before I go on. It says you are saved by grace through faith, that not of yourselves. That is That is encompassing everything that was before. The salvation is not of you, it's not of me, it's of God. The grace, this unmerited favor, we don't deserve it. God mercifully gives it to us. But the faith too. A lot of people look at salvation like, oh yeah, God gives grace and I respond, with my faith back to God. Dear friend, you have no faith without God giving it to you. That's how much we owe to God for salvation. Many people think that just because I have faith in God, it's kind of like a work. Oh, I remember when I, early in ministry, I did music and student ministry early on, of course, And like many music ministers did. I love those days. I love the teenagers. The teenagers that we had in our first church have older grandkids than I do, you know, because we were just 22 and some of them were 18 and 19. And great, great people I still have a lot of friendship with. But I remember one girl got saved. through something we were at. And I was talking about grace and how it's unmerited favor. And she was like, she couldn't get it. She said, no, I deserve salvation. And I said, well, I don't understand. What do you mean by that? When you say I deserve salvation, she said, well, I deserve it because I asked for it. And I said, well, that's not exactly means you deserve it. You asked for it, yes, but you're still undeserving. of salvation, you're still undeserving of grace. Praise God. You saw that you were a sinner, but you need to understand because you were a sinner, you were condemned to death. And Christ Jesus, through his grace and mercy, provides a free gift of salvation to you. I remember that very well. But sometimes even still today, we think about that. Dear friend, Pastor Lucas will preach on faith, I think next week, Faith Along. So I don't want to say much about it. But faith is just a conduit through which God sends the power of salvation to us. It's a conduit. It's nothing, no work that we've done. We have nothing to boast about. Salvation, don't boast of salvation. We boast in Christ. Grace can't boast, it's unmerited. We boast in God, gracious and mighty God. Our faith, we can't boast about it unless God gives it. Your salvation, unless God took the initiative to draw you to himself, we would die in our trespasses and sins. It's all because of grace. It's all a gift of God, not a result of anything we can do. so that we have no reason to boast except boast in Christ Jesus, our Savior. Some have a clear understanding that grace is a gift, undeserving, given to mankind as a gift from God, but mistakenly believe that faith is our contribution to the process. No, faith is given by God. And it's the avenue through which grace and salvation flow to undeserving sinners. Faith is best understood as the conduit through which God power flows. You see, God in his grace sent Christ to live the perfect life that we could not live. Christ died the death we should have died, paying for our sin, and was raised so that we could experience new life today and eternal life with him in heaven. God raised Christ with us, or raised us with Christ, and he has seated us in the heavens and will dispense his grace on us forever. Praise the Lord. The glory goes only to God for our salvation. Titus 3 verses 4 through 7 says this, But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works we have done in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Which leads us right into the last point. the purpose, the result of salvation. He kind of mentions it in verse seven once again, so that in the coming ages, he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Jesus Christ. But then we get to the verse 10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in him. The final work of grace here that Paul notes is future orientated. He says, God will dispense grace forever to us in Christ. In verse seven, it's almost like we're to be like a trophy that shows the grace of God in life. Tony Murata explains, once this life is given and believers are made into people of God intended, then the expectation is that they will produce good works. Good works are not possible without Christ, so salvation is based on grace and faith is necessary. Once this is provided then, the expectation is that Christians will demonstrate their new life through outward expressions. The good works come, but only after salvation. He says here that we are his workmanship. This very word workmanship is where we get our English word poem. The life of his people are God's work of art. This word was not just used for poetry. It was used for any work of art, a statue, a painting, a building. It was a work of art. We, our Christ, are God's work of art. We are the ones that should show, once we're saved, God's grace to others. We are saved, and now comes the works, good works. We are created in Christ Jesus for good works. Having said that works no way help one gain and acquire salvation, Paul went on to affirm that works in the believer's life do express salvation. They don't bring it. They express this salvation that has already been given. Because we are God's workmanship in Christ Jesus, people should see our works and say, that's a work of God. Listen to Jesus's words in Matthew 5, 16. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. See, works come once we're saved. We have a new walk. Works prepared beforehand, he says, that we should walk in them. In closing, I just want you to see three things here. The prepositions in these verses, for by grace you have been saved, through faith, for good works. Do you see that? The purpose is good works. It's not what brings salvation. The book we read earlier, there at the end, remind you of the words. So there's no need to hide and no need to run. Now you can serve him with gladness and fun. I love you so much and I want you to know, cling to this truth wherever you go. His grace is enough. It's so big and so free. His grace is enough to change you and change me. Do you know this grace today? Have you experienced this amazing grace that God offers? We're saved by grace alone. If so, you can identify with John Newton, the author of the great hymn, Amazing Grace, who said this, I am not what I ought to be. Ah, how imperfect and deficient. I am not what I wish to be. I abhor what is evil and I would cleave to what is good. I am not what I hope to be. Soon, soon shall I put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and imperfection. Yet, though I am not what I ought to be, not what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say I'm not what I once was, a slave to sin and to Satan. And I can heartily join with the apostle to acknowledge, by the grace of God, I am what I am. Near the end of his life, and while preaching one of his last sermons, he had two deacons stand on each side of him so he wouldn't fall over. John Newton said these words. Although my memory is fading, I remember two things very clearly. I am a great sinner. and Christ is a great savior. Let's pray and then we're gonna stand and sing amazing grace. Lord, we thank you for this message today. I thank you that you've dealt with my heart with it for a few weeks. Lord, I pray that as we just are reminded that we're saved by grace alone. Lord, that we give you all the glory and praise. Lord, we pray that we would forevermore boast because of Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior, who was the only sufficient sacrifice to provide salvation to those of us who were dead in trespasses and sins. We thank you because by the grace of God and through the The part of the life of Christ and death and resurrection of Christ, we can have new life through Christ Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Lord, I pray that this message would sink into our hearts this week and that we would evermore praise your name. And we ask this in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand.