Good evening. It is good to be with you in the house of the Lord. My soul did rejoice when they said, let us go to the house of the Lord. This evening, we're going to continue looking at Paul's letter to the Ephesians. If you'll turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2. I'm going to read the first ten verses with you. I'm going to look, as the Lord wills, tonight at 8, 9, and 10. But I want to read chapter 2 with you. This is the Word of God. Here ye him. Adieu, hath he quickened. We were dead in trespasses and sins. Wherein, in time past, ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come ye might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them." As far as the reading of God's Word, let's seek His face and ask His blessing upon it. Our God in heaven, hallowed is Your name and great are You. Above all, there is none like You in heaven or on earth or beneath the earth. We ask You, Lord, that You would be pleased to meet with us now to enlighten our eyes in the knowledge of Christ, to help us to see, to help us to know You and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. We ask it for His sake and in His holy name. Amen. You may recall when the Lord promised Isaac and Rebekah That they would have children fulfilling, continuing the promise that he had made to Abraham. You may recall that. In that history. They had two sons. And she suffered a bit of a. trouble while carrying them. And she went to seek the Lord about it. She asked, if this is so, why is it like this? And the Lord answers her and tells her that there are two nations in your womb. And the elder shall serve the younger. And He tells them this. And Paul picks up on this when he comes to Romans 9. When he's continuing to Press the. Doctrine, the biblical teaching that it is God's election which must stand and that salvation is by God's sovereign, omnipotent hand, and. He points out that God promised to Isaac, the elder shall serve the younger, and then he even capital at Paul capitalizes on that by. Quoting. Another prophet and saying, Jacob, have I loved Esau, have I hated if I'm not mistaken, that's from Malachi and. Paul establishes that before either of the children were born, God had established his purpose and he's revealing it to the parents. This is what I'm going to do. Not because Jacob. Is, was or will be. Great man. In fact, it's not that he was. He hadn't been born yet. And all we have to do is read an account of his life to find out he didn't turn out to be such a hot guy either. In fact, as we read through the patriarchs, one of the things we find is that if not for God's grace, we can say that about most of us, though, can we not? If not for God's grace, there would be nothing left of us. But even still returning back to Ephesians, where you might say, well, we're not in Romans, we're in Ephesians. But it's interesting because as we begin this book of Ephesians, as we began it, the Presbyterians have a tendency to look straight to the book of Ephesians to prove the doctrines that we hold. The sad thing is the doctrines that are contained in the first two chapters of Ephesians then get branded, sadly, as Calvinist or Presbyterian doctrines. Now, I'm not ashamed of that branding, but I must argue that it is not a Calvinist doctrine. It is not a Presbyterian doctrine. It is a biblical doctrine. It is found in the Word of God. And therefore, it belongs to the church of God. And what's interesting, the reason I began with Romans is that I have heard numerous occasions where men who would say, and this is not me speaking against them, out of their own lips, they would say something to the effect of, I am no Calvinist. And as they would work through the book of Romans, they would come to chapter 9 through 11 and give it the greatest leap Of. Passing by is the best way I can put it, because they cannot answer. Having considered that the doctrines of election and predestination and such things are Calvinist doctrines, and I am no Calvinist, therefore, I cannot hold to that. It's either the logic. But I begin with this because I want to encourage you that these are indeed scriptural biblical doctrines. It may be uncomfortable. We may not like it at first. I remember reading, actually hearing R.C. Sproul Sr. on the radio and thinking, this man was out of his mind. I can't believe the things he's spouting on the radio. I remember reading John Calvin's book concerning the eternal predestination of God and hating the things he had in that book. And what was even worse than what he wrote was that I could not argue with him because he would take you to passages in the Bible and prove his point. Now, why am I stressing this? Well, because we're coming to a portion in Ephesians that's so often quoted, for by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. And we Presbyterians and Calvinists love this verse because it stands out. A flame, a bright torch amidst the darkness of bad doctrine that says it's by grace, it's through faith, it's the Protestant, the Reformation principle. And that it is. But I want to contend I want to submit for you this evening that as salvation is of the Lord and that it is predestined, it is according to his election before the foundation of the world, and if that is the case, and it is, then so also are the good works of his people to be considered before the foundation of the world appointed for them to walk in them. And I see now I'm stepping on the other side because we're talking about good works. And so, the Calvinists and the Presbyterians want to stop and say, wait a minute, we're talking about grace. Yes, we are. And Lord willing, we will continue in that by His grace. So, the first thing I want you to notice is that in the passage before us, let me just recap briefly and do it this way. In chapter 1, Paul pointed to us that salvation, every benefit we have of the new covenant, is in Christ before the foundation of the world. And much like Jacob and Esau, we did nothing to earn it. For before we were born, yea, before the earth was formed, God had an elect. He had a plan. He had a purpose. And we see it working out in due time, Christ dying for the ungodly, the righteous for the unrighteous, bringing about God's purposes. And what he does and what Paul does in the first chapter of this letter to the Ephesians is he takes all of human effort away. He says, you did not in any way, shape or form attain unto this righteousness, this salvation, these blessings. Did God choose you? It wasn't because you did anything good. It was because God set his affection upon you. Are you justified before God? It's because he gave his only begotten son. Are you children of God, adopted? It's because God chose you and loved you and set his affection upon you. And we see that that in the dispensation of the fullness of time, we see over in chapter one, verse 10, that he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both of which in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. You see, God has a purpose. And Paul even tells the Ephesians. I have heard of your faith. In fact, he puts such a spin on it, I guess spins a bad word. He puts the words together in such a way that he almost bursts in the in the faith of the Ephesians, saying that it's as if the angels in heaven have heard of the faith of the Ephesians, that all of Christianity, all of the church Worldwide, we've heard of what's going on there and what a testimony that is to the Ephesians. And then he begins explaining to them in chapter two that they did not attain unto it. He kind of goes into more detail. He points out that you were dead. And this is where, if you recall, I reminded you that unless we want to redefine what dead means, which we have to do if we want to deny election and predestination, Unless we want to redefine that, we have to assume that dead men do not attain unto righteousness. They don't do anything. And so Paul has made it quite clear time and again, salvation is of the Lord. And that's the first thing I want to look at just in verses eight through ten this morning and this evening. And I want to point some things out to you. If I may for by grace, are you saved through faith? He's already mentioned the fact that we are saved by grace. He's already mentioned and pressed the point that salvation is of God. But here he does something quite interesting by grace. Here he gives the terms by grace, he gives these words in such a way that he expresses to the readers that grace is the means. whereby they are saved. It's the means whereby they are saved. And if you look there again, for by grace are you saved. The means, grace through faith. And he presents this in the letter in such a way that the readers know that this is the instrument of salvation. So grace is the means and faith is the instrument. Now, what I want to point out is that's a bit of a struggle for me to kind of differentiate between what is an instrument and what is a means. And the best I can do is to present it this way. Suppose you have a pianist and she wants to learn one of Mozart's piano pieces. Well, as she sets about to learning that, hard work is going to be the means whereby she learns it. And the instrument, why, that's pretty easy. What's the instrument? The piano. Why? Because it's a musical instrument. That brings another point. An instrument, you see, is designed for a particular task. Musical instruments. Why do we have musical instruments? To produce music. Why do we have surgical instruments? To accomplish surgery. So any instrument that's used, a potter's wheel is an instrument to create pottery. It has a particular task in mind. But we also have the means. The means in this case, in the Mozart piece, would be hard work. It would mean the elbow grease. It would mean the sweat. It would mean the frustration. It would mean the diligence. It would mean the discipline. It would mean everything that entails learning that piece. The means. It's kind of the context in which you would use the instrument. So here what you have is Paul saying that grace is the means. Faith is the instrument. Then he does something neat. By grace, the means, are you saved through faith, the instrument, and that is not of you. The question is, which of those things is not of you? The means, the instrument, or the accomplishment, salvation? Paul explains to us in Romans chapter 11 that if salvation is by works, then it cannot be grace. For if it's by works, then it can't be grace, because in that case, grace ceases to be grace. You have two incompatible ideas. Grace, in fact, means and carries with it the idea that you have not obtained what you were after. It means you have not reached the level that you were seeking. It means that, actually, you might even suggest that grace implies guilt or failure. I'm giving you grace. When the professor says, I'm giving you grace, you have an extra week. It means I haven't accomplished what I needed to do. I have an extra week to accomplish it. When we read that God gives us grace, what does it mean? It means He is not punishing us. He's not treating us as we deserve, but He's treating us according to His patience and loving kindness. So, we know that the means cannot be of our doing because that would completely redefine grace, wouldn't it? Well, what about the instrument? See, there's the thing. If you believe... I'm the one who believes, right? Well, there's a tough one. But you see, you can't separate means and instrument in this case quite so easily. If the means is God's grace. Then what Paul is saying is the entire context of your salvation is dependent upon God. Not you, if my faith. If the faith comes from me, then what happens is God's purpose is accomplished by me. The context is no longer grace. It's something I've done. I've believed and therefore I get to take credit for it. But where is boasting when it comes to our salvation? Paul has actually already pointed out to us that it's not of our doing. In the first chapter and a half, two chapters, or two and a half chapters here, removing human effort. We have by grace, through faith, not of you. I'm going to contend that what Paul has in mind that is not of you, is the means, the instrument, and the fruition that salvation is accomplished by God. If you go back and you look at verse 4 of chapter 1, according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, long before I believed, He chose. Long before Jacob and Esau did anything, He chose. And because of God's choosing, because of God's intention, then we have the outworking of His plan of election. So the first thing is, He says, salvation is of the Lord. It's by grace. It's through faith. It is not of you. Neither the grace, nor the faith, nor the salvation is something you have manufactured. It is all of God. And isn't that exactly what he says? By grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. Now, here's another point where we have to redefine a word, if I'm going to say that my salvation is because I conjured up enough faith, because I produced my faith, you'll notice I'm not saying is not by faith. That's not the point. By grace through faith, it is that. I'm saying, whence cometh the faith? Did I come up with the faith or is that the gift of God? And that's the point. It is the gift of God. And that's what he states directly. No ifs, ands or buts. Now, the interesting thing here is that in verse eight, by grace are you saved through faith. When you see that by grace are you saved or by grace you are saved or you have been saved, that phrase You have been saved or you are saved. Do you know what the primary verb, the primary action is there? It's that of being. You are, you exist. And the accompanying thought that finishes it is have been saved. And he puts that in such a way that he says you were saved by a past action that has present consequences. Or in this case, we can say a past action that gives us present blessings. What's he talking about? Well, to be quite blunt, to be quite candid with you, he's talking about an action that occurred a long time before the Ephesians, ultimately God's electing grace. And then specifically, as God worked in them. Well, that's what he says in chapter two. You who were dead in trespasses and sins, God hath quickened you. He hath given you life. You were dead and now you're alive. Dead men don't exercise faith. See? So what we've come to the conclusion of is that salvation is of the Lord. The grace, the means, the context is of God. The instrument that we use, by which we exercise Take hold of Christ. It's the gift of God. Dead men don't exercise that. And it's not of yourselves. Neither the means, nor the instrument, nor the end result. But what we do see is secondly that salvation is the gift of God. It is not of works. Let's define what he means by the gift of God. It is not of works. If it's by works, it is no longer of grace. Now, it's almost like Romans 11, that whole portion where Paul says if it's of works, it can no longer be grace, because then grace would not be grace. It's like Paul puts it all into this one little verse right here. It's the gift of God in verse 9, not of works. There you have a summary. It is not of works. You cannot attain to salvation by doing. And this evening, we've looked at The law of God, for by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified in his sight. And if we were to find righteousness by doing something, verily, it should have been by the law. But as it is, no flesh is justified before God by keeping the law. Why? We might ask. Well, because you're dead in sins and transgressions, you cannot find righteousness by keeping the law if you're a dead man. So if you say, well, then God gave me life, so. You see, but then you didn't attain to life by keeping the law. God gives you life, and as we're going to see, for the purpose of keeping His commandments. So salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is the gift of God. It's not of works. It precludes any boasting whatsoever. You see, here's the problem. When we read this, if we want to redefine grace, we want to redefine dead, We want to redefine election and we want to redefine predestination. That's what you have to do if you want to say it's not a Presbyterian or Calvinistic doctrine and reinterpret it in a way that makes you feel better. What happens when we look at this, we see what God's saying is that it is the gift of God. It's graciously given. You didn't earn it. You could not earn it. And it's not of works, lest any man should boast. Now, if I say, I have believed and because of my exercising faith, I have come to Christ, guess what I get to claim? I exercised something. God is now owing me my salvation because I have exercised this condition. However, if we take the biblical expression of it, that we exercise a faith because God has both given us the life and the faith through His grace, by the means of His grace. Then when we say, I exercised faith, that's what? Christians, praise goes where it should. Did you exercise faith? Thanks be to God, I did. But it is God who works in me, you see. Now, to be sure, it is men who must believe. Paul did not tell the Philippian jailer when he said, what must I do to be saved? Well, pray that God will believe for you. He said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing wrong with urging men to believe and urging them to hear the word. But you see, Christians, we have to recognize that faith itself is a gift of God. I know that's something simple that most of you know, but because of the hardness of our hearts, we have to continually hammer this in our minds lest we get taken away by a slight wind that wants to say, I wasn't good enough. Well, of course you weren't good enough. But God has given His Son. You see, salvation is the gift of God. By grace, you are saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. So that way, the church then turns and says, if I have believed, it is because of God. And therefore, if I am saved, it is because of God. Salvation is the gift of God, not of works. Dead men do not work. Dead men, in fact, don't boast. But look what he says in verse 10. For we are his workmanship. Now, when he says not of works in verse nine, you need to understand what he's telling you is it's not of your works. It's not of men's works. It is the work of God, the gift of God. It is the working of God. We are his workmanship, he says in verse 10. That means that it is God who has worked every detail to bring about your salvation. And this he's already explained to us in the first two and a half chapters. Or the first chapter and a half, all through chapter one. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. And as I've shown you time and again, I'll remind you that all of chapter one continually repeats in him, in him, in whom? In Christ. Why Christ? Why does he continually mention Jesus Christ? Because he was obedient. Because he was obedient unto death. Because he was obedient unto the death of the cross. And why? For you. For me. Salvation is wrought in Christ. One of the most astounding discoveries a Christian can make when he's being hammered with, salvation is not a matter of works, it's not a matter of works, is this, it's not a matter of my works. It is a matter of Christ's. See, that's why for us, it is a gift. For us, it is free. That's why Christ can say, come to Me, all you who are weak and heavy laden. I will give you rest. How? I will accomplish what you cannot. And doesn't Paul say that very same thing in Romans 8? There is therefore no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. God doing what the law could not do and that it was weak to the flesh. God did by sending his son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. He did what we could not. It is the work of God, it is the active and passive obedience of Christ that Jesus Christ perfectly kept the law. And that he was submitted, that he submitted himself, subjected himself to death, that he laid down his life, that he underwent, that he was kept under the power of death for a time. What we have is then with the resurrection of Christ. The dead given life. We have. Dead men recreated. We are His workmanship created in Christ. See, this is the other half of the coin of election and predestination. And I must say that if you take this side of the coin off, I'm not quite sure how you can have a coin with one side. Even if it's the same printed, you know, well, it's a coin. It's the same on both sides, still has two sides. I don't understand how you can do that. And you can't. The point being this, that if God has elected us and he has, God has worked it out by through Jesus Christ. He has given us life and he has recreated us in the image of Jesus Christ. Why isn't that what he says? We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. With His life, we have life. You were dead. In Him, now you live. Behold, I was dead. Behold, I live. But notice what happens in verse 10. We are His workmanship created in Christ to Jesus, Son to good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Do you see what the Apostle has done? He has pressed the point that human effort is removed in the first chapter and he has taken. Salvation all the way back before the foundation of the world to say that it's God's electing power, that it's God's prerogative, that his sovereign choice, that he has predestined you to be adopted as sons, that you should be called the sons of God, that you should partake of the benefits of the family of God. All of this has been done sovereignly, graciously before the foundation of the world. And then he says we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. That is, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. That is, He died for you and I. And the Spirit then coming to us and reviving us, giving us life, and then sealing us, making us His. But then He says, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. In the same way that He elected you, your salvation was predestined. so also that you should walk in newness of life. And that doesn't mean coasting along doing nothing. We are His workmanship. Let me do it this way. What is the chief end of man? Everyone knows the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Can you glorify God by doing evil? Someone commits murder and says, I did this to glorify God. We're abhorred. How do you glorify God on earth? How do you manifest the workmanship of God in your hearts? How is it that Paul heard of the faith of the Ephesians? He says this, not just to the Ephesians. He said this in other letters. But let me ask you, how do you hear faith? How do I hear of the faith of Bridwell Heights? How do I hear of the faith of God's elect? Because they are actively working and doing good works. Because why? Not because they're earning God's favor, but because they've recognized that they have God's favor and that you cannot have one who is born again, who has been recreated in the image of Jesus Christ and yet who refuses, does not continue in all things that God has given him to do to magnify his glory and his grace. This is why. This is why John says that you cannot be a Christian and continue sinning when he writes in 1 John. This is why James writes and says, you say you have faith, that you have faith without works. He says, show me your faith without works and I'll show you my faith by my works. You see what James is saying? That the righteous man, the just shall live by faith. Living by faith doesn't mean just standing there and going, look, I'm a Christian. It means being diligent. It means putting your hands to the plow and not looking back. Do you ever notice the interesting thing that when Jesus started attracting disciples to himself, you would think if your point was to gather disciples, you probably wouldn't want to do things to turn them away. But one man comes and says, I'll come and follow you if you let me go bury my father. You'll let me go take care of this matter of a funeral. Jesus says, let the dead bury the dead. Another says, I will follow you anywhere. And Jesus says, the birds have trees, the foxes have holes, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. And right after he tells them this, Jesus leads his own dear inner circle of apostles onto a ship in which they come face to face with the tempest and which they say, do you not care that we're about to die? You see, what happens in those gospels is Jesus is telling them, you've got to put your hand to the plow. He who loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. It's not a harsh thing to say if you're trying to convince people to follow you. Do you understand what he's saying? It's that Christ loved His bride so much. Do you see the beauty of Genesis? For this call shall a man leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife. Do you see the beauty, how that expresses Christ? Philippians 2 where it talks about Christ who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, He was obedient unto death. Why? Because of his bride. That he held nothing back for her. And if you are conformed to the image of Christ, then you must be diligent to be obedient. You must be diligent to seek Him. And see, this is not just an academic matter. This is not a splitting of theological hairs. This is simply applied Christianity. It's the same as election and predestination. That's not an academic subject. It's right here in chapter one of Ephesians. It's right in chapter nine through eleven of Romans. It's a Christian doctrine. James spends so much time in his epistles saying you need to do these things, do these things, do these things. It's not the hearers of the Word, but the doers of the Word. Don't be hearers only, but be doers of the Word. It's not academic. It's not something we can go, Well, that's interesting. And go home and forget about it. If you are Christians, you are called after Jesus Christ. You are the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus for the purpose of magnifying God upon the earth that you should do good works. If you've been predestined and elected by God, you have also been appointed unto good works. You can't have one without the other. Understand what I'm saying. You don't do good works so that you can be eternally elected. It goes the other way around. But this is why Peter tells us, make your calling and election sure. Do you understand, Christians? What is the fourth commandment? Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. There's a man, when we were in Mississippi, I got to meet him. He used to work for the elder at the church in Mississippi. And the elder was telling me that this man, it didn't matter what the prayer was about. It didn't matter what it was concerning. When whoever was praying said, Amen, the man said, and remember this Sabbath day to keep it holy. You see, that's an obligation put upon those who are called to reflect God's glory. On the Sabbath day, we rejoice in what God has wrought, what He has worked in Jesus Christ. And we rest in Him. Isn't that a beautiful thing? I mean, what a job description. You want to be a Christian. You've been elected. You've been predestined. God has accomplished all for you. What you have to do is on the Sabbath day, remember that He has done all for you and rest in His finished work. And worship and rejoice in Him and sing praises to Him. Sign me up. You see my humor there. Sign me up. The thing is, before the foundation of the world, that's a thing that God has done. That's the beauty of the thing. So then, how do we apply this? How do we make use of this? Well, I would say to you that you make every diligent use of the blessings God has given to you. You have access unto the Father. Make use of the means He has given you, the ordinances. Pray diligently without ceasing for one another, for your church. I'll never forget reading when I was working in Johnson City. Some people were talking to me about things they expected me to do and I was reading about the duties of a minister and the first point of encouragement was if you want your minister or your elders to do, if you want better ministers and better elders in your church, you should pray for the ones that you have. Beautiful. Pray. Take advantage of the access you have to the Father. It is the Sabbath day. Keep it holy. Begin it and end it with worship. Do not allow the opportunity and the privilege to gather. Even as the writer of the book of Hebrews says, do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together as is the habit of some. That's not to pick on conscience, but that is to say, take advantage of the opportunities that God has graciously given. Works, you see, are bound up in your salvation, not earning your place unto it, but proceeding from it. You are children of God. Show me your faith by your works." And that's what I want you to hear in this passage. He is saying, by grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You cannot get any plainer than that. Your salvation is all of God and He has accomplished it. He ordained it before the foundation of the world. For we are His workmanship. God has accomplished it. He has wrought it. Created in Christ Jesus. unto good works. Jesus told the Pharisees, When Jesus healed the man at Bethesda, the man took up his bed. And this was a man who had been ill for 30 plus years, longer than our Lord had been upon the earth. And he was carrying his bed for the first time. And the Pharisees saw him and said, you can't carry your bed. It's the Sabbath day. And he says, but the man who healed me said I should take it up. They completely didn't even hear that. They kept, well, who told you to do that? Well, he finds out. Jesus comes face to face with the Pharisees, and Jesus says, My Father is working, and so I am working. And if we are to imitate Jesus Christ, then it kind of works like this, doesn't it? The Father is working, and therefore, the Son is working, and therefore, His people are working. If you are the body of Christ, then be His hands that reach out with the Gospel. Be His feet. Be His arms. Be His mouth. Show that your election stands, make your calling and election sure. Show me your faith. Let the angels of heaven hear and see the faith of Bridwell Heights. Let all the world see and hear the faith of Bridwell Heights. And they will look and marvel at what a great thing God has done here. And you can say, Amen, God has done it. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that from before the foundation of the world you have given to us life. Appointed us to be children and heirs of your kingdom. That before we were born. You decreed that we should be born again. We rejoice in this and we pray that each day you would continue to strengthen us by your Spirit, by whom we've been sealed. We pray that you would work in us that we might indeed show the works of Christ in us, the work of your Holy Spirit. And so we pray then that you would grant us to show the world our faith, that we would make it visible, that we would make it audible. that we would seek with all diligence to perform them and thereby to glorify you. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.