Precious gifts sometimes come wrapped in small packages, and glorious stories may be told in but a few words. Such is the inspired record that outlines God's gift of saving grace in the personal history of every Christian. It begins with our dreadful state of spiritual deadness and sin. It then records our rescue by God's grace and granting us new life and pardon from sin in Christ Jesus. And it concludes with us realizing the purpose for which God saves us, and that is glorifying our Savior here and forever hereafter. I invite you to open your Bibles with me this morning to Ephesians chapter 2. Please follow with me as I read the first 10 verses. And when you are dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prints of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, 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. in order that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works that no one should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." We're going to be considering verse seven this morning. And all the verses in our Bibles, verses one through seven, are one long extended sentence in the original, commencing with our terrible plight in sin and concluding with God's glorious purpose in his people for all eternity. Now today, as we begin wrapping up our series on heaven, we return to where we began, Ephesians chapter 2. We opened up our study by looking at the now heaven in verses 5 and 6, being raised up with Christ and seated with Him in the heavenly places in Christ. And today we are privileged to ponder God's glorifying design in our salvation, beginning before time and stretching down to the endless corridor of eternity, that in the ages to come, as Paul says in verse seven, He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. I was actually put on to this verse thinking it was very appropriate by one of the brothers in the congregation said that he had been speaking with his family from verse seven about the glorious salvation that we have because of God's riches of grace and mercy in Christ Jesus. Now, as we open up verse seven this morning, we're going to consider six points. We're gonna look at the gracious God who bestows his kindness, the declarative purpose of his kindness, the unlimited wealth of his kindness, the unlikely recipients of his kindness, the glorious mediator of his kindness, and the endless display of his kindness. Verse seven, in order that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. This is a real theological mouthful, and I wish to unpack it under these six points this morning. Notice first, the gracious God who bestows his kindness. It is God the Father. It is He. It speaks of His kindness. Now, brother, right away, we should see that it is amazing. It's an amazing thing that the God of glory stoops to show His kindness to sinful creatures like you and me. We meet him at the beginning of chapter one. He is the blessed God, even the father who chose and elect people in love out of the mass of sinful humanity before the foundation of the world. There never was when he did not love us. And in love, he predestined us to adoption as his sons, according to the good pleasure of his will. He chose to redeem us if we are His people. He chose to redeem us with the precious blood of His beloved Son. There's no higher price that's ever been paid than the price of the blood of the Son of God to pay for His people to purchase them from their sin. As His purchased people, we belong to Him as His special possession. As the father of glory, he gives us the spirit of wisdom and knowledge in revealing these things to us. That is the very knowledge of Jesus Christ. And he sends into our hearts his spirit, which is for us the spirit of adoption by which we cry out to him, calling him our father, as Paul teaches in Galatians chapter four. And it is by his spirit that he seals us as his possession for the day of redemption. This is the God who so loved the world that he gave his own beloved son to die in the place of perishing sinners to deliver them from the wrath of God by experiencing the wrath of God on their behalf. This is the God who reveals Himself in saving kindness to sinners like you and like me. Notice, secondly, the declarative purpose of His kindness. It is wrapped up in one little Greek word. It's translated in English, in order that He might show He did these things for sinful people in order that he might show himself to be this kind of God. You see, God's great goal in redemption is not manward, but ultimately it is Godward. His great goal in redemption is not just to save sinners from their sin and hell and to make them heirs of glory as wonderful as that is. God has a still greater, even grander purpose. And that purpose is through our salvation, He would bring everlasting glory to Himself. Now, if we were to recast the first question of the good old catechism as viewed from God's vantage to reflect the doctrine taught in Ephesians 2 and verse 7, we would ask, what is the chief end of God? And the answer would be God's chief end is to glorify himself and to enjoy himself forever. Now, if we think that God's chief end is somehow selfish, that it is beneath His dignity, we show that we really don't understand God's overarching purpose in the world, and especially in salvation. If we find no fault in being commanded to do all we do to the glory of God, why should we think it demeaning for God to seek His own glory in all things? God is jealous for his own glory. Our chief failure as sinners, and we have many, many of them, but they could all be wrapped up in the fact that we do not live to the glory of God, but rather we live to glorify ourselves. I say this reverently. that God would be acting beneath His infinite dignity if He did not seek His own glory in all things and above all things. He would derogate His glory if He didn't seek His glory in all things and in our lives and in all of His creation. He would fail at doing what He commands of men and of angels. God gives his glory to none, but demands and deserves it from all of his creatures, especially those that have been redeemed by the precious blood of his beloved son. God cannot but glorify himself. He is all glorious, and all he does is glorious. He saves sinners to bring glory to himself. And brethren, that in itself is glorious. God showcases his infinite glory and displays his matchless beauty in every sinner that he saves. The story is told of a Roman mother when asked, where are your jewels? That she called her two sons and pointing to them answered, these are my jewels. God, as it were, points to his redeemed people as his glorious jewels. He shows them off as trophies of his amazing grace. If you're a Christian, you are a living testament of satisfied divine justice and of adopting love. Brothers and sisters, you advertise God's kindness and patience toward unworthy sinners, and by doing so, you encourage other sinners to seek God's mercy in Christ. Paul thought so. 1 Timothy 1 and verse 16, he's giving his testimony. And yet for this reason, I found mercy. as the chief of sinners, he had just called himself, in order that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate, there's the same word translated show in Ephesians two and verse seven, that he might show, that he might demonstrate his perfect patience. Paul had just spoken of himself as a blasphemer, as a godless man, though very religious, that he might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life. If God can save me, he can save you. I'm the chief of sinners. And if God can have his gracious way with me, he can also with you. So we've seen the gracious God who bestows His kindness and the declarative purpose of His kindness. Notice, thirdly, the unlimited wealth of His kindness. The unlimited wealth of His kindness. You think about the richest people in this world, that they have very deep pockets. Well, God possesses not just the cattle on a thousand hills, the earth and all that it contains, the whole universe, it all belongs to Him. He made it and He uses it to show His glory. The surpassing riches of His grace in kindness. And notice here how Paul heaps one descriptive term upon another to describe the unlimited wealth of God's grace. He doesn't just speak of his grace, he speaks of the riches of his grace. And he doesn't just speak of the riches of his grace, he speaks of the surpassing riches of his grace. And then he describes how it is demonstrated, the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness. Surely that's not an exaggeration of God. This is the God with whom we have to do. Paul is the only New Testament writer to use this word kindness, though it is often found in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It describes an attitude of gentleness. a disposition to do good to others. And that's why it is a fruit of the spirit, because it is a communicable attribute of God. That is, God communicates by his spirit this grace of kindness to his people. We're like God when we show kindness to other people. Speaking of God, Paul appeals to the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience in Romans 2 and verse 4 as a compelling reason for us to turn from our sins in repentance to receive God's pardon. the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience. He doesn't give us what we deserve, but He offers us what we don't deserve. Paul speaks of the surpassing riches of God's grace in kindness. In 2 Corinthians 3, he describes the surpassing glory of the new covenant over the old. In 2 Corinthians 9, he uses this word to describe God's surpassing grace as evident in the members of the Corinthian church. Three times in the Ephesian epistle, Paul employs this term surpassing to describe various aspects of God's greatness. First, he speaks of the surpassing greatness of his power toward believers, which is in accordance with the working of the strength of his might in chapter one in verse 19. And then of the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge in chapter three in verse 19. It's so great, it can't be found out. The depths of it cannot be plumbed. And here in chapter two and verse seven, of the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness. This is a superlative used of a super great God. He has no bounds in his greatness. Now, when we use a superlative to describe some characteristic of mere men, we must always be guilty of exaggeration. but not so with describing the perfections of God Almighty. We cannot overstate His perfections, the glorious attributes and acts of an infinite God. They're beyond exaggeration. You can't exaggerate God in His greatness and His glory, of His goodness and His kindness to sinners. The writers of scripture thought this way. Psalm 145 verse three, great is the Lord and highly or greatly to be praised and his greatness is unsearchable. You can't find its dimensions. They're infinite. Job. Speaking of God, chapter five, verse nine, who does great and unsearchable things, wonders without number. That can't be said of any mere man, it can't even be said of an angel, it can only be said of God. As with the riches of God's grace, so also with the riches of His mercy." They are both expressions of His great love with which He loved us. You see, God has an infinite, overflowing abundance of mercy and grace in kindness to bestow upon poor, needy sinners like ourselves. It therefore is the fool who refuses to enrich himself upon God's bountiful grace and mercy, who instead look contemptuously upon and snub the riches of God's kindness offered to sinners as unworthy of consideration. Ah, these might be fine for somebody else, but not for me. Paul speaks of such in Romans 2 and verse 4. Or do you think lightly, literally though means to think down upon, to despise, or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? You see the kindness of God. He's showing mercy to you. He hasn't cast you into hell. He causes the rain to fall and the sun to rise upon you. He gives you fruitful seasons and satisfies your heart with food and with gladness. And all of these things take you by the hand to lead you to God, to repentance because of his kindness. Ah, but we snub it. We think it's beneath us to reach out and take it. Oh, what fools we are by sin. Notice fourthly, the unlikely recipients of his kindness. In order that in the ages to come, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us, toward us. Who are the us? Who are the ones to whom God shows the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness? He may be surprised. Is it good people? No. There are no such good people. God alone is good. Oh, maybe it's deserving persons. No again. You see, what we deserve is justice, not kindness. Well, who then is the us? Well, notice how Paul describes them in the previous verses of Ephesians 2. Verse 1, they were spiritually dead, utterly unable to help themselves. They were spiritually corpses. They had body life. They had what the old writers called animal life, but they don't have spiritual life. Verses two and three, they were characterized by wickedness, those things which are offensive and an abomination to God. First of all, they followed the dictates of this godless world. They danced to the tune of this world. They loved the world. They had love of the world, but not love of God. Furthermore, they were willing captives to the schemes and lies of the devil. They were led about captive to do his will, not against their will, but his will and their will were one. Further, they pandered to the lusts of their wicked flesh. They gave in to their base desires. They indulged the wicked desires. They gave vent to carnal lusts. They did all things for their own physical satisfaction, or they wanted to satisfy their thinking. They indulged wicked thinking about themselves and about other people and about God. They were evil on the outside. They were evil on the inside, Paul says. There wasn't a molecule of their flesh, not part of their body that wasn't involved in sin from their body to their mind to every aspect of their being. That is why thirdly, they were characterized by disobedience. Paul calls us before God saves us, sons of disobedience. You're sons of your parents. You show a likeness to them. We're sons of disobedience. We show in our attitudes and our actions that we are disobedient. We are like our father, the devil. And as a result, we were destined for hell, children of wrath. That is what we deserve. That is where we were going. And that is what we would experience for the rest of eternity. We were children of wrath. We were born for wrath. It's not a very pretty picture, is it? This is one reason why it's very evident that the Bible wasn't written by carnal men, but men inspired by the Spirit of God. We would never say these things about ourselves, would we? No. It doesn't make us feel good about ourselves. But God is honest with us. This is an honest book. We need honest words from an honest God, and that's what he gives us. Notice the extent of their malady. It's universal. You, among them, we too, Paul says, among the Gentiles, we too, we Jewish people, we were children of wrath, even as the rest. There was none that could run and hide from this indictment from God. So what is the result? We were utterly helpless. We were completely hopeless. We were absolutely unable and unwilling to save ourselves, to obey the gospel, to believe upon Jesus and to repent of our sins. That's why it has to be by grace that we're saved through faith in that, not of ourselves. It's the gift of God, not as a result of works that anyone should boast. We're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. So that is very bad news. Bless God that the story, our story doesn't end at verse three of Ephesians chapter two. If it did, we would be miserable for time and worse for all eternity. Bless God the story doesn't end there. There is good news. God doesn't leave sinners as he finds them. Paul first shows us our terrible plight in sin. And then he describes in glorious terms, our gracious rescue by God in Jesus Christ. Notice first our great surprise at the display of God's mercy and great love for help deserving sinners. Verse four. Ah, the bad news, it can't get any darker than verses one through three, but a shaft of light comes through the dark clouds. But God, but God. How glorious is Paul's abrupt, but God. Notice second, the infinite treasury of God's mercy and his great love to sinners like us in verse four. Just how do we quantify God's love and mercy? We can't. It's great love. We know this, his riches in mercy exceed our debt in sin. His grace is greater than all of our sin, Paul says in Romans chapter five. Notice third, the shocking extent of God's mercy and love in verse five. Even when we were dead in our transgressions, God didn't wait for us to get good before he would show mercy to us. We couldn't do it. God reached out where we were and showed mercy to us. Well, just how do we show that we're worthy of God's mercy? We can't. We must not be surprised if God loved us if we were good. Oh, we might be surprised that a great God loves us who are good, the creator of the creature. Ah, but no, he loved us as miserable, rebellious sinners. He loved us when we were morally putrid, stinking of sin and death. living lives of open rebellion, living to transgress His law. God said, do, and we said, don't. He said, don't, we said, we will. Brethren, that God loves us in this condition is amazing grace indeed. Paul thought so, Romans five and verse eight, but God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Notice forth the powerful display of God's love and mercy. God didn't simply pity us as sinners. His grace is all powerful. He didn't say these people are without a hope. I can't do anything to save them. No, he rescued us. He gave us life. He caused us to be born from above. How does the apostle put it? At the end of verse five, in the beginning of verse six in Ephesians 2, God made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. Before God visited us with new life, we were spiritually dead in sin, and then he caused us to be born again. Born from above. Born by the Holy Spirit, new. This is true life, eternal life, both in its duration and all of its fabulous benefits. Notice fifth, the heavenly elevation resulting from God's love and mercy. Second part of verse six, God who raised us from the spiritual grave elevates us to glory. God seated us with him that is with Christ in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We're seated with God in Christ. We're not only risen with Christ, we're also ascended with Christ, and not merely risen and ascended with Christ, we're seated with Christ in glory. Brethren, how awesome is this? Ponder again the identity of those on whom God bestows His blessings of mercy and love. Brethren, we are described in very unflattering terms in verses one through three, but God, but God, those two words are gonna be rising from our hearts and from our lips for all eternity, but God. Desperate depravity is answered by infinite kindness. John Newton understood this. The old converted slave trader wrote of his own experience, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. Notice, fifthly then, the glorious mediator of His kindness, and that is it's in Christ Jesus. God mediates His mercy and His grace and His kindness and His love to us in Christ Jesus. You see, all the riches of God's surpassing grace come to us in and through Christ. All are mediated through Him. In fact, God bestows no saving love and mercy other than through His beloved Son. All of the treasures of God come through Christ to us. The amazing blessings of salvation come to us from God, but only through Jesus. How does Paul put it in Romans 8 and verse 32? He speaking of the father who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How will he not also with him freely give us all things? All of God's treasures are in Christ and it's through Christ that we receive them. And so we are taught in the first chapter of Ephesians, from our election and predestination by the Father in eternity, to the accomplishment of our redemption on the cross, to its application by the Holy Spirit, all center in the person and work of Jesus Christ. You can't have Christianity without Christ. Christ is Christianity, you see. He is the glorious mediator of all of God's blessings as the only Redeemer of God's elect. Note particularly that God mediates His mercy to us in Christ Jesus. God's mercy alleviates our misery. His mercy comes to us only in Christ. God mediates His grace to us in Christ Jesus. Grace is God's undeserved favor toward hell-deserving, undeserving sinners like ourselves. He demonstrates His grace to us in Christ. God mediates his love to us in Christ. God's love is the inexhaustible fountain of his mercy and love and grace, and it all flows to us through Christ. God mediates his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. And what is God's kindness but the consummate benefit and practical expression of his mercy and love and grace? Of all New Testament writers, as we noted before, only Paul informs us of God's kindness. Doesn't mean it's not there in their writings. They just don't use the word. Paul does. We are saved because God is kind to sinners. He doesn't give us what we deserve. He gives us what we don't deserve because he gave Christ what he didn't deserve. He gave him our wrath so that he might give us his grace. Notice in another place where Paul joins God's love and mercy and grace together as the expression of his saving kindness in Jesus. Look at Titus chapter two, beginning in verse four. In the first three verses, especially verse three, we have almost a carbon copy of what we have in Ephesians 2, verses one through three, and we have a but in verse four. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, that being justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. We see God's kindness and his love and his mercy and his grace. All of these things express the kindness of God to us. And then we come finally to consider the endless display of God's kindness. We've seen the gracious God who bestows his kindness, the declarative purpose, the unlimited wealth, the unlikely recipients, the glorious mediator, now the endless display of his kindness. And when is that? It's in the ages to come. Some hunters display their trophies on the wall to remind them of a special hunt or to give them bragging rights of their skill. Or when an artist wishes to display his creations for others to admire or maybe to purchase, he places them in an exhibition for all to see. And so God will forever exhibit the trophies of his saving kindness in Jesus Christ to display his glory before the adoring universe. So when do the ages to come begin and when do they end? Well, we know that the ages to come will never end, but when do they begin? Commentators argue about this. Do they begin when Jesus returns? Do they begin with the arrival of the new heavens and the new earth because it's spoken of as the age to come? Well, I think Paul indicates that the coming ages that will never end have already begun. The age to come has visited itself, it's cast its shadow into this present age. He wrote to Christians in the Corinthian church as those upon whom the ends of the ages have come. And I think that informs our understanding of these ages to come, that they've begun now. Well, if the ages to come have already begun, how and where does God put his kindness to sinners on display? Where does he show off the trophies of his grace? Where are the portraits of God's kindness displayed? Well, I suggest that this happens every time God breathes new life into a spiritually dead sinner. when a son of disobedience is made obedient to the gospel, and a child of wrath is now made an heir of heaven, when a sinner is saved by grace, raised up with Christ, and seated with him in the heavenly places in him. In other words, God's saving grace is showcased when regenerated sinners display the marks of the new birth, when old things pass away and new things come, when those formerly on the wide road to destruction begin their journey on the narrow road that leads to life. when former haters of God become lovers of Christ, and when they show that they are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Each time a sinner is brought to repentance, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God. Each time this happens, a former child of hell becomes a citizen in the now heaven. So all of these things in Ephesians apply to him. At this very moment, beyond the skies, in what we've called the next heaven, God's trophy room, as it were, in glory, is being adorned with perfected saints, conquered by God's grace in Jesus Christ. And then when the new heaven is inaugurated, when Jesus returns, God's crown will be filled with all of his jewels, Showcasing God's kindness and grace will be his regenerated, his resurrected, his glorified saints throughout the endless ages of eternity. God will point to them and show off his grace and kindness in Christ. Now, before we come to a few concluding words of application, let me ask you, are you a trophy of God's saving kindness in Jesus Christ? Have you experienced your own but God moment that marked your change from being a child of wrath to becoming a child of God? Let me ask you, with Judgment Day honesty, answer this question, are you headed for heaven? Let's consider the abiding message. Four things and we'll be done. First of all, let us marvel at the kindness of God that saves wretched sinners like us. Bless God for but God. It's an amazing thing, brethren, that God loves us, especially while we were spiritually dead, we were disobedient sinners, we were children of wrath. He didn't just let us go, He interposed by His grace through Christ and saved us, plucked us as brands from the burning. We cannot begin to appreciate God's kindness displayed in Christ and demonstrated on the cross until we see our own vileness and sin. Only when God raises us up in Christ do we begin to see our wretchedness. Only then do we gain a glimpse of God's glory in Christ. Only then do we begin to taste and see that God is good. You see, God must open our eyes to see these glorious truths. And until then, as the hymn writer observes, we are to heavenly glories blind. He must grant us faith before we will turn from our sin to Jesus and from love that centers on self and sin to love for Christ and his righteousness. You see, as long as we continue to madly serve self and sin, we will never embrace the kindness of God that he holds out to sinners like us. If you have turned to the Lord, bless his life-giving name. Salvation is of the Lord. Secondly, let us entrust our souls to the God of exceeding kindness through Jesus Christ. Paul teaches us that God takes great delight in showing his exceeding kindness to exceeding sinners. He shows that the most miserable and wretched may experience the infinite riches of God's grace in Christ. Please understand, friends, that no matter how wicked you are, no matter how far you have gone into sin, remember that God saved the chief of sinners. God's grace in Christ is greater than your sin. Let me ask you, what is keeping you from salvation? It isn't God. He urges you, he calls upon you to come. You see what's keeping you from salvation isn't God, it's your own unwillingness to come to Jesus that you might have life. Fact is, God shows saving kindness to great sinners that he might convince you to seek him for salvation. Remember Paul's testimony, 1 Timothy 1.16, and yet for this reason, I found mercy in order that in me, the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life. Look to Paul and look through Paul to Jesus. He saved him, he'll save you. Thirdly, let those saved by God's amazing kindness strive to glorify him in their lives. Brothers and sisters, the God who saved us continues to demonstrate his surpassing kindness to us. Let us not rob God of the glory He so richly deserves, but let us strive by our words and by our actions to call attention to His amazing grace and kindness in Jesus Christ. We are the light of the world. He's to set us upon a hill and we're to beam the glorious free salvation in Christ to those who are yet in darkness and deadness in sin. That's why he saved us. That's why he keeps us here. He could have saved us and brought us straight to glory, but he saves us here as our brother reminded us to be a witness of Christ. To point to his sufferings and point to his glory and point to the so great salvation that's available through faith in him. Finally, let the trophies of God's amazing kindness anticipate the glory awaiting them. What are the brightest evidences of God's grace in us here? What are they? They're the first flickers of everlasting glory. You see, what only sparkles in us now ablaze in glory, all for the glory of God who saved us. It's His reflected glory in us that shows the wonderful grace and salvation that God has provided in Christ. What is our contemplation of shining as an everlasting trophy of God surpassing riches and grace and kindness in the new heavens and the new earth? What is the contemplation of that but a foretaste of glory? That should send us in a glory fits. Lord, you've done this for me, and this is only beginning. There's a glorious end, the depths of which I've only begun to taste, and I'll drink to their full and glory. Oh, glorious God, be magnified in my life. So what is the proper response to this glorious prospect? How did John Newton put it? But when we've been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Oh, may God begin that work of grace in you today. Might you taste and see that God is good. Might you be nourished by his grace that you might be an heir of glory. Let's pray. Our Father, these things are almost beyond comprehension in their beauty and glory, that you, the great, awesome, glorious God, perfect in all of your righteousness and justice and mercy and love and kindness, that you should show such mercy and kindness to us. Oh, Lord, might we seek to begin even in this life to show that we are trophies of your grace in Jesus Christ, that we might recommend the saving grace of Christ to others who are yet dead in trespasses and sins. Lord, make us to be that kind of people that recommend your grace, that we might see them in glory. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Yeah.