Let's pray, please. Father in heaven, thank you for giving us the light of your holy word. May our hearts accept and receive its truths with faith and love. Lay them up on our hearts and practice them in our lives. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Please turn your Bibles to Romans chapter four, two passages, two scripture readings, and we're gonna walk through both of these, but we're gonna read them in reverse order so you don't have to turn back to Romans here. Romans four, 14 to 16 is our first scripture reading. Romans 4, 14, this is God's Word. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise is nullified. For the law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there is also no violation. For this reason, it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. And then back in Ephesians, so turn to the right there to Ephesians chapter one, and that's where we'll start our biblical exposition, Ephesians one, three through six. Ephesians 1 3 through 6 Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3. This is God's Word 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 would be holy and blameless before him In love, he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved. May God bless the reading of his holy word. There's a series of children's books I'm sure some of you are familiar with, if you have kids, and they're called Amelia Bedelia, and one of them is to me, at least, hilarious to read. And one of them, Amelia Bedelia, is hired as a maid of the wealthy Mr. and Mrs. Rogers to do household chores while they go out for the day. And she's told to change the towels in the bathroom. So to change the towels in the bathroom, she takes scissors and cuts the towels up to change them. She's told to dust the furniture. So she throws dust powder all over the furniture, hence dusting the furniture. She's told to draw the drapes when the sun comes in, and so she gets out a piece of paper and draws a picture of the drapes. She's told to put the lights out in the living room, and so she unscrews all of the light bulbs and hangs them on the clothesline in the backyard. She's told to dress the chicken for dinner, so she catches it and puts a little outfit on it. My father could identify a little with Amelia Bedelia, as my mother left him home with me all day once when I was about six months old, so the story I've been told goes. My mother had errands to do all day long and she put a fresh diaper on me in the morning and told him, Howard, you're probably gonna have to change him later. And when she arrived home that evening, I still had the same diaper on and it was about to explode. And she said, why didn't you change his diaper? And he said, the box says the diapers are good up to 12 pounds. My mom said, yeah, a 12 pound baby. not in the diaper. Now, there's a reason I'm sharing these goofy illustrations with you. What do we mean when we say we're saved by grace? What are we talking about when we say that? In the 16th century Protestant Reformation, the issue that tore Christianity apart was not the question, are we saved by grace? The issue also was not, is Jesus Lord? Nor was the issue, is Jesus our Savior? Dear congregation, the issue that fractured Christianity was, what does it mean when we say we're saved by grace? What do we mean when we say Jesus is Lord? What do we mean when we say Jesus is our Savior? So many today are confused because you can sit down with a member of the Roman Catholic Church, or an Arminian, or a Mormon, or a Jehovah's Witness, or even a Muslim, and all of them will say, we believe we're saved by grace. And they will even say that they believe we're saved by grace alone. And what I hope to show you from scripture this morning is that our understanding of grace Our understanding of the biblical concept of grace and the understanding of Rome and the Arminians and the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons and the Muslims have about as much in common as Amelia Bedelia's understanding of her household chores and my dad's understanding of diaper instructions. To simplify the debate between Roman Catholicism and Reformation biblical Christianity, here's the difference. Y'all ready? Here's the difference. Rome teaches that grace is an aid that God makes available to help us save ourselves. That's what they mean by grace. You know who else teaches the same thing about grace? The Armenians, and the Mormons, and the Muslims, and the Jehovah's Witnesses. Same exact doctrine of grace. What is grace? It is an aid that God makes available to us to help us save ourselves. The Bible and the Reformation teach that grace, contrary to that, is a disposition within God whereby He acts in our behalf in Jesus Christ to save us. You see the difference? In one scheme, our salvation is made theoretically possible. If we will do this, this, this, this, and this. In the other scheme, God does it all. To simplify it a bit more, Rome teaches that grace makes salvation possible. The Bible teaches that God's grace actually saves us. And this morning's two passages teach the biblical doctrine of grace with wonderful clarity and precision. In the first passage, Ephesians 1, 3 through 6, teaches that grace is unconditional election. It is unconditional election. We'll talk about what we mean by that a little bit more here in a moment. God's choosing of certain individuals by name from eternity past, from before the foundation of the world, meaning that from before God created the universe, that is what grace is. That's where we were chosen and God predestined us to be adopted and to go to heaven. If your understanding of Christian theology does not have the doctrine of unconditional election in it, you don't have the doctrine of grace in your theology at all. The second passage, Romans 4, 14 to 16 teaches, the reason justification before God must be by faith alone, completely apart from our works is so that it would be by grace. If we get into heaven, or are in some way justified by our works, or our works in some way are decisive in getting us into heaven, it's not grace then. It's not grace anymore. Remember Paul's argument? We looked at it in Galatians 2.21. Remember how he summarizes his whole argument? He says, I do not destroy the grace of God. I don't nullify the grace of God. For if justification comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing, in vain. The moment the sinner's works become decisive in salvation, grace is nullified, the gospel is destroyed, it's another gospel, let him be anathema. I mean, that's the teaching of scripture, that's what the apostles taught. Faith in Jesus, by definition, is an abandonment of all trust in ourselves, our works, or anything done in us or by us. Faith in Jesus simply receives and rests upon Christ alone for salvation as he's offered in the gospel. The reason that the Apostle Paul was so strident, so utterly intolerant of the sinner's works playing any role of any kind in justifying us, or saving us, or getting us into heaven, was that the intrusion of works into our salvation destroys the concept of grace. If our works do it, or partially do it, or sorta do it, or just a little bit do it, you don't have grace anymore then. It's not a gift then. It's just like trying to pay for all your own birthday gifts. If the person that gives you the gift accepts payment from you, is it still a gift? No. It's the same way with salvation. It is the gift of God, not by works lest anyone should boast. The gift of God is eternal life. If your understanding of how we're saved nullifies grace and destroys grace, then you're not saved then according to scripture. That's why Paul wrote Galatians the way he did. He even says at the end of the book, he says, stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Don't let anyone add anything to simple faith in Jesus as the way of salvation. He says, indeed I Paul say to you, if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. You trust in anything that you're doing. You try to work for heaven, Christ is not gonna help you. It's either he does all the saving or he's not in the picture at all. He says, and I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised, he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You have become estranged from Christ. You who attempt to be justified by works of law, you have fallen from grace, he says. For salvation to be by grace, it requires two truths, unconditional election and justification by faith alone or by faith apart from works. Lose either one of those and biblical grace is nullified. Lose either one of those truths and you don't have the biblical understanding of grace anymore. That's what the Protestant Reformation was all about. And it is amazing and it's heartbreaking to me how many heirs of the Reformation today, how many people who claim to be in that stream either don't understand or don't care about these truths anymore. This is what we fight and die for when it comes to the revealed theology given to us by God and scripture. Without unconditional electing grace and justification by faith alone, there is no understanding of grace. Lose either one of these or lose both, you've lost Christianity altogether. And dear ones, I have to tell you, what our Reformed forefathers fought for and paid for with imprisonment, starvation, torture, and death was these very doctrines. These doctrines I'm talking to you about from these two passages this morning, these doctrines that today seem to mean so little to professing Christians. If we would be true Christians, we must fight and suffer for and defend these same truths. It really doesn't matter if people say the words, we're saved by grace, or Jesus is Lord, or Jesus is my savior. Or even if they say, I believe in justification by faith alone. The only thing that matters is what do we mean by these things? What are we talking about? Jay Gresham Machen, a guy I've been talking to you about a lot lately. Jay Gresham Machen fought doctrinal heresy and apostasy that was just as serious, just as earth-shattering and essential as the Reformation itself. In the introduction to his classic book, Christianity and Liberalism, published in 1923, a hundred years ago, listen to what Machen says, quote, The type of religion which rejoices in the pious sound of traditional phrases, regardless of their meanings, or shrinks from controversial matters, will never stand amid the shocks of life. You hear what he's saying? You find out what your theology is made of when the bottom falls out of your life. And he says, in the sphere of religion, as in other spheres, the things about which men are agreed are apt to be the things that are least worth holding. And the really important things are the things about which men will fight. In the sphere of religion, in particular, the present time is a time of conflict. The great redemptive religion, which has always been known as Christianity, is battling against a totally diverse type of religious belief, which is only the more destructive of the Christian faith because it makes use of Christian terminology. This modern non-redemptive religion is called modernism or liberalism. And today, what's it called today? Progressivism. Is progressivism that we see in some of the larger denominations, is it any different from what Machen thought? No, it's the same stuff. Same exact stuff. Same arguments. Please come back to church tonight. I have a couple more Machen stories for you. Roman Catholicism is not liberalism. It wasn't back then, although it certainly looks like it today with the current Pope, but that could change with the next one. It's not liberalism, it was an entirely different kind of heresy. But why did the Roman church in the 16th century have the gospel so wrong? Because they denied what we looked at last week. What do they not believe? Sola Scriptura. They don't believe in Sola Scriptura, that the scriptures are the only God-breathed source of truth that the church has. Rome had elevated its unbiblical, anti-biblical traditions to a higher authority than Scripture itself. Thus, to this day, Rome's gospel is a false gospel that is no gospel at all, according to Galatians 1, 6-9. Its doctrine of grace is also in grave error. But I want to look at the passages. I want to let Scripture do the talking to you this morning. So let's look at Ephesians 1, 3-6 and go phrase by phrase through it. Unconditional election is essential to biblical grace. So before we start walking through it, just a couple words of introduction. When the 17th century heresy of Arminianism reared its head and denied grace, its primary author, James Arminius, he defined election and predestination like this. These are his words, quote, This decree has its foundation in the foreknowledge of God by which He knew from all eternity those individuals who would, through His prevenient grace, believe, and through His subsequent grace, would persevere." End quote. In this system, the choice of election of sinners is ultimately not God, but the sinners themselves. independently of God, sinners elect themselves by believing. What do you see? How does grace function in that system? It makes it possible for the sinner to do something to save themselves. See, remember what I said at the beginning? And God knew from all eternity which sinners would do this with the help of his assisting grace. So in that system, grace does not accomplish anything except to make believing possible. You see the difference between biblical grace and this idea? The Bible teaches that God's grace actually saves sinners. Arminians, Roman Catholics, and a thousand other groups teach that God's grace makes the salvation of sinners possible if only the sinners, independently of God, will do something to save themselves. What's amazing to me is while these debates don't seem to bother people as much today, our Reformed forefathers in 16, 18, and 19, you know what they ended up doing to the Arminians? They threw every one of them out of the church in the entire country. And they said, you guys are taking us back to Rome. We just had a reformation. We're not going back to Rome. In the synod of Dor said this, quote, here's what election is in scripture, quote, election is the unchangeable purpose of God, whereby before the foundation of the world, he has out of mere grace, according to the sovereign good pleasure of his own will, chosen from the whole human race, which had fallen through their own fault, From their primitive state of rectitude into sin and destruction, God has chosen a certain number of persons to redemption in Christ, whom he from eternity appointed the mediator and head of the elect and the foundation of salvation. Now listen, this elect number, though by nature neither better nor more deserving than others, but with them involved in one common misery, God has decreed to give to Christ to be saved by him. and effectually to call and draw them to his communion by his word and spirit, to bestow upon them true faith, justification, and sanctification, and having powerfully preserved them in the fellowship of his Son, finally to glorify them for the demonstration of his mercy and for the praise of the riches of his glorious grace. As it is written, and here's what they cite, Ephesians 1, 4-6, Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him, in love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. And elsewhere, the Council Fathers also cite Romans 8.30. And elsewhere, moreover, Romans 8.30. And these whom he predestined, he also called. And these whom he called, he also justified. And these whom he justified, he also glorified. Our Reformed forefathers responded to the Arminian claim that predestination is God simply knowing ahead of time who would use their free will and cooperate with this partial work of grace to save themselves by citing this passage in Ephesians 1 and saying, that's not what scripture says. The Bible doesn't say that. So let's walk through it. Look at verse three, Ephesians one, verse three. 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. Okay, stop there. What a verse. What a Bible verse. All of humanity is conceived and born under the divine curse of God. We're not born neutral. We're not born undecided. There are no fence walkers. All of us were conceived in rebellion against God and we would have continued in that rebellion all of our lives had God not chosen to redeem us in Christ. Because of Jesus' great death on the cross, that curse bearing death, we ourselves are no longer cursed but blessed. For this reason, once a person is born again and their heart is changed by the Holy Spirit, they no longer curse God but bless him. This is why Paul blesses God. Look at the opening words of verse three again. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see a person who's unregenerate and their heart is still hard, they curse God. They don't want anything to do with God. But when a person's redeemed, now the one they once cursed, they bless and they love, and now they curse their sin and hate their sin. We who once hated and cursed God, we now love and bless Him. And Paul is here seeking to stir up this gratitude in the hearts of the Ephesian Christians. So he engages in personal worship of God right here in the letter for all of the ways that we're blessed in Jesus Christ. And notice the last two phrases of verse three there, you see it? Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. So I ask you, how many spiritual blessings does the believer have in the heavenly places in Christ? All of them. Every spiritual blessing. When I was in college, the various Christian circles that I lived in and ran in would sometimes bring up the question, I was asked the question, have you experienced the second blessing? And I thought, what in the world is that? What is the second blessing? What they were referring to was the unbiblical notion that sometime after you believe and are saved, you can, through a subsequent act of surrendering or abiding or something, you get a second work of grace and you enter into this higher spiritual life of sinless perfection. The Bible doesn't teach this idea. This notion of a second blessing is neatly refuted by the statement in Ephesians 1 through. which informs us you already have everyone. You have every spiritual blessing in Christ. Every one of them. The second, the third, the fourth, the fifth, all of them. The grace of God is on full display here in the opening chapter of Ephesians. Nothing stirs the heart of a redeemed Christian person more to gratitude than the contemplation of the greatness of divine grace. And when the gospel of God's unconditional electing grace and how we're justified by faith alone, how we are once and for all eternity secure, justified, adopted, and accepted into the family of God, when that grips a person's soul, they will never embrace new doctrines which diminish the magnitude of the true grace of God. Paul will go on to teach in Ephesians 2 that while we were dead in our transgressions and sins, God by his singular power and divine grace made us alive in Christ, a spiritual resurrection from the dead. Who does God make alive in Christ? His chosen ones. How are they made alive and granted saving faith and repentance and united to Christ? Look down at verses 13 and 14 of the same chapter. Look at Ephesians 1, 13. Listen to this. In him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise. who was given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of his glory. When the elect of God, when the chosen of God hear the gospel, sometimes after they've heard it many times, and maybe have grown up and it never really took root in their heart until sometime later in life, in God's decreed, planned, and appointed time, that gospel becomes the gospel of their salvation. You see that in verse 13 again? When you heard, after listening to the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, he says. What is that gospel that we eventually are brought by God to believe? It is that heaven is a free gift. And we are justified and saved from God's wrath against our sins solely by trusting in his finished work. And that's why Paul begins Ephesians 1.3 with an explosion of praise, blessing God for every spiritual blessing that we have in the heavenly places. If you're a Christian and you have Jesus Christ and you're hidden in him, you have every spiritual blessing, every one of them. What are some of those spiritual blessings? Election, effectual calling, justification, adoption, a purpose for all your pain and suffering and heartache, sanctification, assurance of God's love, joy in the Holy Spirit, an increase of grace and perseverance there into the end. The righteousness by which you are clothed and will pass the very judgment of God is reserved in heaven. It's at God's right hand in Jesus Christ. It can't be soiled with our works. It can't be stained with our sins. Paul wrote in Colossians 3 pointing out the same thing to them. For you who are a believer, for you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Is that not a great promise? All those blessings are in Christ, and those who are in Christ have them all. When you believe, you are moved by the gracious hand of God from being in Adam to being in Christ. He moves you out from under the old federal head from whom you can only get damnation and hell and sin and judgment, and he puts you under the heading of Christ where you get life, forgiveness of sins, salvation, adoption. If you're repentant for your sins and you trust in that finished work of the Lord Jesus and not in your works, listen, You have every spiritual blessing, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places already. You have what money cannot buy, what works can never earn, and what power or strength could never accomplish. You have the fruit of what Jesus came into the world to accomplish. He did this for his people. You have every spiritual blessing. And the Holy Spirit continues, look at verse four. just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. Okay, stop there. The time when our election unto salvation took place proves that it's free and entirely gracious. What works did we have and what could we merit or have earned before God even created the universe? For the person who claims that God's choice of us is based on what he foresaw that we would do, I simply ask the question, where does the Bible say this? Where does the text of scripture ever say anything like this? God is the subject of the verb, choose, in that sentence, exalexata. God chose the direct object, us. God chose us. The Armenians then, and today, have tried to say, I've dialogued with them and argued with them, well, God chooses Christ, and then by our free will, we get into Christ. Look at verse four again, he chose us. Not Christ, he chose us in Christ, but the direct object of the verb is us. And there's nothing about free will here. What is the direct object of choose? It's us, not Christ. God chose us in Christ. Now, what does it mean that he chose us in Christ? Listen, that is a reference to the pre-creation covenant of redemption, where God the Father gave the church to the Lord Jesus. And Jesus references this many times in the gospels. When he prayed his final prayer before he went to the cross in John 17 too, he's praying in the garden of Gethsemane. With blood sweat coming down his forehead, he prayed, even as you have given him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him, he may give eternal life. He's praying, I'm about to do it. I'm going to accomplish it. I'm going to give eternal life to every single one you gave me. That's a reference to the ones chosen in him before the foundation of the world. John 6 37 all that the father gives me will come to me and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me this is the will of him who sent me that of all he has given me I will lose nothing And then John 10, the great shepherd, good shepherd discourse. My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life. They will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. My father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand. So who are these people chosen in Christ? They're the ones the father gave him. gave Him before the foundation of the world. He chose us in Him. See verse four there again? He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. Before God created, He chose by name who He was going to save and gave them to Christ. And in the fullness of time, Jesus came to save his people from their sins. That was his mission, not to lose any people whose salvation was entrusted to his care. And notice the rest of verse four there, to see the purpose of this unconditional election. You see it? Here's why God chooses us, that we would be holy and blameless before him. Election predestination is unto being holy and blameless. As sinners in Adam, we're unholy and blameworthy. When we believe the gospel and we are taken out of Adam and united to Christ, we become holy and without blame before God the Father because Jesus's death pays for all of our unholiness. And we're clothed in his legal righteousness like a robe to cover our unrighteousness and our blameworthiness. God chooses his people in Christ out of his mere good pleasure and grace before the foundation of the world so that we would be accepted as holy and blameless before God. Now, what about foreknowledge? People will immediately throw in, well, doesn't Romans 8.29 say, those whom he foreknew? Doesn't 1 Peter 1.20 say that we're elect according to the foreknowledge of God? What is this talking about? When scripture says that we're foreknown, and then predestined, called, justified, and glorified in Romans 8.29 and 30. Listen, please, y'all need to remember this. What is foreknown is individuals, not their actions. When you look at foreknowledge, you look at the verb, what is foreknown is individuals, people, not their actions. When the Arminians claim that God predestines the heaven, the one that he learns ahead of time and foresees will believe in Jesus, the fact is there is nothing in scripture that says that. Or implies that. It is anti-scriptural. There are no texts in scripture that teach this. Those whom he foreknew, it says in Romans 8, 29, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. Those whom he predestined, he called. Those whom he called, he also justified. Those whom he justified, he also glorified. God foreknows people, individuals, as people and individuals. That's what the verb progenosko, foreknow, means. It means to choose beforehand. to choose beforehand. God does not look down the corridors of time and learn things. He doesn't look down the corridors of time and go, whoa, no way, they believed. He doesn't learn anything. He doesn't react to anything ultimately. This Arminian doctrine, not only does it destroy grace, it destroys your doctrine of God. Now you got God sitting back and taking in knowledge of things? Impossible. He already knows everything. Why does God know the future? Because He is its architect. He decreed it. Look at verse five. He predestined us, the last two words of the previous verse, in love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will. Out of the overflowing, glorious, and altogether gracious love of God, he predestined his chosen people to be adopted into his family through Jesus Christ. And why did God do that? He did that in love. He did that because of his love for them. He also did it, it says there in the text, according to the kind intention of his will. Some translate that as the good pleasure of his will. Remember question 20 of the shorter catechism? It asks that heartwarming and wonderful question. Did God leave all mankind to perish in the estate of sin and misery? You realize, of course, there would have been nothing unjust if the answer to that question had simply been yes. He left everybody to perish in the estate of sin and misery. We'd have no grounds for complaining. That's not fair. That would have been fair. But it doesn't, thankfully. It says, God having, out of his mere good pleasure, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer. Think about that. Why did God choose to save some people instead of giving them the justice that they not only deserved, but wanted? Why do you do that? The kind intention of his will, the good pleasure of his will, because God wanted to glorify an aspect of his own nature, his love and his mercy. And look at verse six, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved. Why does God not allow the whole human race to go its own way and go straight to hell with hearts of stone, cursing and blaspheming him? Because in love, God was kind to these undeserving sinners. God's good pleasure toward them was to save them in order to glorify his grace. Notice the second half of verse six. You see it there? Which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved. What's that talking about? God gives this gracious election and predestination to adoption and salvation in heaven itself freely. What does freely mean? It means without cost. It means without any consideration of what we would do or our works or anything like that. And we're accepted, we are brought into God's family being accepted in the beloved. What is that talking about? Who is the beloved one? That's Jesus. We're made accepted in the beloved one. Remember what God the Father spoke from heaven at Jesus's baptism and at his transfiguration? Over and over again. In fact, it's eight times in the Gospels. He says, this is my beloved son. And then he says what? In whom I am what? Well-pleased. Well-pleased. My beloved one, we are made accepted in him. This is a major emphasis of the New Testament. Why is Jesus constantly called by his father, my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. This is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Because Jesus as a man is the only human being in the history of the world, past, present or future about whom God can say that. He can't say that about me or you or anyone. God is not pleased with us unless we are hidden in Christ and clothed in His divine righteousness and forgiven by His shed blood at the cross. Remember Romans 8, 8? Those who are in the flesh, those who are unconverted and unsaved cannot please God. But Jesus did. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. That's why when we're taken out of Adam and put in Christ, we are now accepted in the beloved one. Now we're pleasing in His sight, because our covenant head, our surety, our Savior, He's pleasing to God, and therefore, because I'm hidden in Him, so am I. So we see here, God, out of the kind intention of His will, out of His good pleasure, to the praise of the glory of His grace, chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. That is unconditional election, and that is essential to New Testament grace. And dear ones, you have to get this. Why? Do so many people sit and hear the same messages, the same gospel, the same things, and someone repents and believes and the other one doesn't? What's the difference? What's the difference? As I've told you before, I thought they're just, they're idiots and I'm smart. I'm better. I'm more spiritually sensitive. I'm not as hard hearted. I resisted less. And then you finally get called up short looking at scripture. No, it wasn't that. is that God chose to open your eyes. It was that God chose to give you grace instead of fairness. He chose to change you instead of giving you what you wanted, which was to go your own way, to go off into sin, and to bury yourself up to your eyeballs in sin. He said, no, I'm not gonna let you do that, I'm gonna change you, I'm gonna save you. Westminster Confession, chapter three, glorious statement of faith, listen. Our election, our predestination is out of God's mere free grace and love, listen, without any foresight of faith or good works, or perseverance in either of them, or any other thing in the creature as conditions or causes moving him thereunto, and all to the praise of his glorious grace. And I would ask the question, if God did look down the corridor of time, if he did look down the corridor of time to see what we were gonna be like, what would he have seen? sin, rebellion, hatred, pride, envy, lust, selfishness, and the positive existence of total resistance to Him. In the end, either God does all the saving or we are lost. I still remember the first time I ever heard what Martin Luther said about this in his book, The Bondage of the Will. Luther said that, I thought this was like, this is overkill. And now it's one of the greatest sentences in theology I've ever read. Luther says, quote, if any man would ascribe even the smallest part of his salvation to his free will, he knows nothing of grace and has not learned Jesus Christ, end quote. And you might think, well, that's just that German reformer, you know, being crazy and weird like he always was. But it's not, he's right. If we think the decisive factors in us, we don't understand grace then, not biblically. Okay, turn over to Romans 4, and we'll try to wrap this up with some brevity here. Romans 4, 14 through 16, I want you to see this here. This is really kind of the crux of Paul's argument about how we're justified and how the law is of no value to us in trying to be right with God. Look at verse 14 there. He says, for if those who are of the law are heirs, meaning heirs of eternal life, faith is made void and the promise is nullified. Okay, stop there. Now, who does those who are of the law refer to? That's anyone that was trusting in their own works, their own law-keeping, to get them into heaven. And the argument that Paul makes here is that if they are heirs, if people that are trying to be good enough to go to heaven, if they're actually heirs of eternal life, then faith in Jesus is destroyed, rendered void, made of no effect, and so is God's promise of salvation. And here's the thing you've got to get if you're a Christian. In the eyes of God, a person, a sinner is either saved and justified entirely and only by their own law keeping or by trusting in the finished work of Christ. Those are the only two paths available. And I want to encourage you not to try the first one because you will go to hell. Any attempt to mix those two paths, any attempt to mix faith in Christ with law keeping, destroys the gospel. Christ is of no benefit to that person. They're severed from grace and they also will go to hell. Does that sound harsh to you? Does that sound like, wow, that's like the road is, it's just as narrow as Jesus said it was. Remember he said narrow is the way that leads to life. The fall of man into sin has made justification getting into heaven by our own law, keeping our own fruit, our own works. It's impossible, it can't happen now. Therefore, the only way a sinner can get to heaven is by not working for it and believing in Jesus to do it all for them. Look at verse 14 again. For if those who are of the law are heirs, meaning those trusting in their works for salvation, faith is made void and the promise is nullified. Faith in Jesus is pointless if one's own works can save them or even partially save them. God's promise that he made to Adam and Eve and the serpent there in the Garden of Eden long ago is nullified. What did God tell them? The seed of the woman, the Messiah, the Savior is gonna come, he's gonna crush the serpent's head. Not that we would do it ourselves or that our own works or sufferings would play a part in that, but that the seed of the woman would do it alone. Remember what we saw in Ephesians 1.6. Why does God choose us? Why does he predestine his church unto adoption? To glorify the richness of his grace. Listen folks, if our works play any role whatsoever in saving us, then God's redemption of his chosen people in Christ is not to the praise of the glory of his grace. Is it? The fact that we're saved by grace, by definition, excludes our works. And I want to tell you, Rome's errors, the Arminian's errors, the Mormon's errors, I've even heard the Muslims say it the same way. They're all the same. They try to mix what you cannot mix. You can't mix grace with works, and it'd still be grace. And that's what the New Testament belabors the point. I have wondered, is there any other ways Paul could have said this? Or the New Testament writers could have said this? If we're saved by grace, we're not saved by works. He even says it, Romans 11, 6. If it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. And so many say, no, no, no, it's by grace and works. And Paul says, if it's by grace, it's not by works. Otherwise, grace isn't grace. The moment you add anything, anything at all from us as being decisive, grace is gone. It's gone. And folks, this is not me being a rock-ribbed Protestant or anything like that. This is what the text says. And this has always been true. You can't mix works with grace and it'll still be grace. It's like oil and water. Have you ever had oil and water in a jar? I mean, you can shake it all day long. When you set it down, what do they do? They separate. Works and grace don't go together. So why do we do good works? Gratitude, thankfulness. That's what motivates it. The moment our works enter the salvation equation, grace is gone. Salvation's by grace, it's not by works, otherwise grace isn't grace. So why can't the law and our obedience to it play any role? Look at verse 15, here's the answer, verse 15. The law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there is also no violation. He adds that because when did Abraham live? He's talking about Abraham here as his example. He lived before the written law of God was even given. And yet it still was the case, Abraham could not be saved by his law keeping. He couldn't be saved by his own works. He was saved by believing the promise, the promise of God. And that brings us to verse 16. I believe it's one of the clearest explanations of the wedding of faith and grace in all scripture. Seeking salvation by the law always brings the wrath of God because we can't obey it to the satisfaction of God's holiness. Look at verse 16, you see it? For this reason, It is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace. so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. Now let's go through that one phrase at a time. Look at verse 16 again. For this reason, it is by faith. For what reason? The law brings about wrath. See verse 15? The reason the law can't help us, it always brings about wrath. Why? Because we are always falling short of it. Because the law brings about wrath on those who seek salvation, justification, and heaven. By keeping it, justification, salvation, and heaven can only be by faith in Jesus in order that it may be in accordance with grace. No works done in or by the sinner can play any role whatsoever in our legal verdict before God on the day of judgment. Why? So justification and salvation would be by grace. You see, if we're justified, or we get into heaven in some way, even a tiny way, by our works, we've destroyed the concept of grace. That's Paul's argument. Therefore, it's by faith, so that it would be by grace. If it's by something in addition to faith, it's not grace. If it's by something alongside of faith, it's not grace. If we get into heaven, at any degree, by what we do, we have destroyed the biblical doctrine of grace. Justification is by faith so that it would be by grace. And look at the rest of verse 16. So that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the law, Jews, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, Gentiles, who is the father of us all. Now reflect on that. Justification is by faith and not by the works of the law. It's by faith alone in Christ alone. And this is why salvation is guaranteed. This is why we can have assurance. Insofar as your understanding of grace, you have yourself relying, even a tiny little bit, on your faithfulness, your works, your fruit, your whatever, it's not gonna be guaranteed then, is it? It's not gonna be sure then, is it? Justification is by faith alone, so that justification would be by grace, so we could know that we're gonna go to heaven. You realize that is the normal estate of a Christian, is to know they have eternal life. It's God's will for us to have that absolute assurance, that infallible assurance of faith. And people have said, so you really do think you're going to heaven? Yeah, I do. So you're absolutely sure? Absolutely sure. Boy, you're arrogant. Why would they say that? Because they don't understand what grace is. He said, well, you must think you're really good. No, no, no. It's the fact that I know I'm not really good. In fact, I know I'm really bad. And I'm trusting in someone who has been good for me. And it's a gracious salvation. And it doesn't depend on how well I'm walking with Jesus day in and day out. Because if it did, I'm not going to heaven. So many people who think that they believe in Jesus, they don't understand this. Justification is by faith alone, so it would be by grace, so it would be guaranteed, it'd be certain, so we could know we have it. Even when we're having a bad day, or a bad week, or just committed one of our besetting sins, or we feel like we're a failure at everything we try to do. You can still know you have eternal life. Your salvation is accomplished outside of you. The righteousness by which you enter heaven is in Jesus Christ at the right hand of God. It doesn't depend on me. All of my sins and all of my attempts and failures, they were nailed to the cross and we bear them no more. Isn't that glorious to know that? Now finally, point number four there on the outline. What does it mean when a Christian confesses to be saved by grace alone? In Acts 13, 48, the scripture says, now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. When they heard the gospel, they were excited and praise be to God. And it says, and as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed. Isn't that easy to understand? That verse was like a two by four upside my head about 23 years ago. How do you understand that? As many as have been appointed to eternal life believe. Wow. So there are those who are appointed to eternal life. In God's appointed time, when they hear the gospel, they will believe it. If God left humanity alone, all of us would gladly die in our sins and go to hell because there would never be a desire in us to turn from sin and love God. That desire does not grow down here in nature's garden. While a true believer may not fully understand grace at the moment they're saved, they will never trust in anything other than Jesus to be saved. And as they grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ by studying the Bible, they will learn more and more that the reason they repented and believed was God chose them and loved them before the foundation of the world. And we really, really didn't deserve it. Grace alone, sola gratia, as the reformers put it. Unconditional election before the foundation of the world, and then irresistibly, affectionately called in God's appointed time, and then justified by faith in Jesus apart from works. If you lose any of those things, any of those revealed biblical doctrines, you don't have a grace of salvation then. You don't know what biblical grace means. Why do we choose to believe in Jesus? I remember when I first heard these things, I thought, well, no one, nobody made me believe. I'm the one who repented and believed in Jesus. I am the one that did that. But why? Why did I do that? And so many of my friends I grew up in church with, they haven't, and they still haven't. The difference is God's unconditional electing grace. When that really grips your soul, what place could there be for arrogance or pride in our lives, in our marriages, with anybody? What saves us? The blood and righteousness of Christ. What are we relying on to get us into heaven? The finished work of Jesus, his death for our sins, his righteousness accepted by God. You know, Paul thought about this truth all the time, and it wasn't a source of divisiveness. It was a source of praise and strength as he faced death at the hands of his persecutors. In his final letter, in 2 Timothy 1.8, Paul wrote this, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began. For I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. Predestination, election, it's not a source of, let's get together and be divisive and yell at each other. It was, this is why I know I'm going to heaven. I am fully convinced. He started this work, he'll carry me all the way there. I am convinced what I've entrusted to him, namely my eternal destiny, he'll take me all the way there. Because he started it, and eternity passed, and he'll love us all the way into eternity future. God initiates, God finishes what he starts, and he saves us by grace and grace alone. And dear ones, my final word to you, that's why we can have assurance and that's why salvation is guaranteed. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord and God, thank you. Thank you for not leaving us to die in the estate of sin and misery. Thank you for electing some, giving them to Jesus, and commissioning our Almighty Savior to come into the world and save them. And we who know Jesus, we are truly grateful to you, that you did not leave us in our sins, but that you made the gospel come alive in our hearts. We pray for those that we love that don't yet know Christ. We pray that every single one of them would come to know him too. We ask in Jesus' name, amen.