Please turn with me in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians 2, I'll begin reading in verse 1. And you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His 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 of works, lest anyone should boast.
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Amen. Well, let us pray. Our Father in Heaven, we come before You now and we pray for Your Spirit to be at work in our minds and in our hearts.
God, we confess our sin and we pray for fresh forgiveness through the blood of our Redeemer, Jesus. We pray, Father, that you would give us the mind of Christ and help us to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. We just commit ourselves to you now and we pray that you would guide us and instruct us and encourage us and build us up in our most holy faith. Cause us to leave from this place more in love with the Redeemer who gave himself on our behalf and more desirous to serve you in this world.
We pray, Father, for any and all who do not know you, that you would open their hearts, that you would bring them forth in the exercise of your sovereign will, that you would cause men and women and boys and girls today to know something of their own sinfulness and to see the glory of Jesus Christ as that one alone who can save his people from their sins. And we ask in Jesus' most blessed name, amen.
Introduction: Reformation Day Context
Well, today is a day of remembrance and that for two reasons. First, it is the Lord's Day. We remember in a special way the fact that Christ rose from the dead on that first day of the week. He left the grave.
He left the tomb. The angels rejoiced. He is risen. But as well, secondly, this date is significant in history.
It is not a date where we remember ghouls and goblins and ghosts. But rather, we remember the launch of what has been called the Reformation. The launch officially started on this date 493 years ago in 1517. Now, there were precursors to the Reformation.
There were forerunners, to be sure. But historically speaking, this date in history marks the official beginning of the Protestant Reformation. A biographer by the name of Roland Bainton, in his famous work on Martin Luther, called Here I Stand, begins his work this way. He says, on a sultry day in July of the year 1505, a lonely traveler was trudging over a parched road on the outskirts of the Saxon village of Stoddernheim.
He was a young man, short but sturdy, and wore the dress of a university student. As he approached the village, the sky became overcast. Suddenly, there was a shower, then a crashing storm. A bolt of lightning writhed the gloom and knocked the man to the ground.
Struggling to rise, he cried in terror, Saint Anne, help me. I will become a monk. The man who thus called upon a saint was later to repudiate the cult of the saint. He who vowed to become a monk was later to renounce monasticism.
A loyal son of the Catholic Church, he was later to shatter the structure of medieval Catholicism. A devoted servant of the pope, he was later to identify the popes with Antichrist. For this young man was Martin Luther. Now, lest we fall prey to worshiping or bowing before Martin Luther, I don't bring this up to do that.
In fact, Luther would have nothing of such a thing. When he got wind that certain Christians were calling themselves Lutherans, here's what he had to say. The first thing I ask is that people should not make use of my name and should not call themselves Lutherans, but Christians. What is Luther?
The teaching is not mine, nor was I crucified for anyone. How did I, poor stinking bag of maggots that I am, come to the point where people call the children of Christ by my evil name? He was never one to mince words, as we see in that quotation. Luther accorded all glory, all honor to God Most High.
Luther saw the Reformation in terms of the Word, the power of the preached Word. He said this elsewhere, I simply taught, preached, wrote God's Word. Otherwise, I did nothing. And then while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my Philip and my Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that never a prince or emperor did such damage to it.
I did nothing, the Word did it all. That's what we're here to celebrate. The Word of God's free grace. The Word of God's glorious gospel.
It is no accident that 1570 came on the heels of Luther's exposition of Romans and the first set of lectures that he did on the epistle of Paul to the Galatians. It was the Word that brought freedom to his soul. It was the Word that brought freedom to the souls of the people to whom he preached. And it is that Word that we praise God for on this October 31st in 2010.
The Word of the everlasting Gospel where God in Christ has shown Himself faithful to save miserable sinners. Stinking bags of maggots that we are. Well,
Overview of Ephesians 2:8–10
as we consider the word of God's grace, I can think of no other place to do such a thing than in Ephesians chapter two, specifically verses eight to ten. And this morning we're going to consider this section under two main considerations. The first is the plan of salvation. And then secondly, if we have time, the place of good works.
So the plan of salvation and then secondly, the place of good works. And as we consider this plan of salvation, there's four things in particular that we need to look at.
First Point: Origin of Salvation
The first is the origin of salvation. He says, for by grace you have been saved. That's the origin of our salvation. He is developing what he's already mentioned in verse five.
Notice in verse five, even when we were dead in trespasses, God made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. He is amplifying what he has said in verse seven. that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. So verse 8 naturally follows as an amplification or an explanation of these two verses.
Notice that God has exceeding riches of grace.
Grace Alone as the Source
He doesn't meagerly apportion it. He isn't a miser with reference to its distribution. God has exceeding riches of grace for his people. And we need to understand our salvation does not come first and foremost because of us.
It is by grace we are saved. It is by grace alone, as the Protestant reformers maintain, that they insisted on. And notice what he says, for by grace you have been saved. Not that you are being saved or will hopefully one day be saved, but by that grace, when you believe the gospel, you have been saved.
You have no condemnation. You have peace of conscience. You have the ability to worship God through Christ. You have the Holy Spirit as that gift, as that guarantor, as that seal of your final inheritance.
As John Eady so rightly points out, when a man is pulled out of the water and placed into the lifeboat, he has been delivered. He has been saved. It's not a matter of if he continues. It is a matter that God, in fact, has saved us by his grace and for his glory, for by grace you have been saved.
Never forget that. If anything, that ought to promote humility among the people of God. Very early on in the history of the church, men acknowledge grace, but they also acknowledge works. They acknowledge the merit of their performance.
And so grace began to take a backseat with reference to the plan of salvation. Unfortunately, it didn't die out in the early centuries. It continues with us today. One of the biggest sins in your heart and mind is self-righteousness.
We want to be the captain of our own destiny. We want to be the one who gets the glory for the good things that we do. But this grace humbles us. This grace lays us low.
This grace shows us our absolute dependence upon God Most High. And as well, this grace highlights the fact that God saved us out of His mere good pleasure. He wasn't beholden to any of us. He didn't owe any of us.
If we got what God owed us, each and every one of us would be in the lake of fire right now. Be very careful about asking God to give you what you deserve. Every sin deserves God's wrath and curse, both in this life and that which is to come. Be very careful to ask God to give you what you deserve.
The wages of sin is death. That ought not to surprise us in a universe governed by a God who is holy, holy, holy. The free gift of God is eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ ought to make us stand in wonder and awe and amazement at the wondrous love that our God has for such wretches like us. By grace, you have been saved.
Let that affect you when you live in this world, when you shine as a light in a crooked and perverse generation. You're not a Christian because you perform better. You're not a Christian because you do good works. You're not a Christian because you're smarter than your neighbor.
You're not a Christian because you got lucky. You're a Christian by grace alone to the sovereign hand of God alone. Let that humble you and let that make your invitation to others that much broader and bolder and wider. God is gracious.
God does save sinners. God is not miserly. He has exceeding riches of grace to all who come to him through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So the origin of this plan of salvation is God's grace.
Second Point: Objects of Salvation
Secondly, notice the objects with reference to the plan of salvation, for by grace you have been saved. So I think Luther got it a little wrong here. We're worse than a stinking bag of maggots. This is where I come to offend you.
What did you hear at church today? I heard I was worse than a stinking bag of maggots. Wow, where's that church? I don't want to go there.
That doesn't sound like it'll build me up. Stinking bags of maggots do what stinking bags of maggots are intended to do. Human beings have gone astray. Human beings raise their fist at God.
Human beings take the Decalogue and trash it under their feet. God says, have no other before me. So what do we do? We seek out every other thing we can to worship it and serve it.
God says, don't make idols. You say, well, I don't make poles or rocks or anything like that. You idolize yourself, generally speaking. God says, don't misuse my name.
Render it in a holy way. It's a filler today. It's a curse word today. God says, remember my Sabbath day to keep it holy.
Oh, no, not us. We got to have just, you know, one hour. We'll give you God. We'll apportion that up.
And then the rest is for me in my house. God says, honor your parents. I think extends to lawful authority everywhere. We've got a problem with authority.
We have a real ax to grind with anybody who would ever get in our face and tell us something we don't want to hear. God says, do not commit adultery. Do not commit murder. Yeah, we may not have physically went out and put a knife in somebody, but we have hatred in our hearts and we've not dealt with it.
God says, do not commit adultery. Or perhaps maybe you have restrained yourself externally. Jesus said, if you look upon a woman to lust, you have broken the law. God says, don't steal.
God says, don't lie. God says, don't covet. Who of us could stand here today and claim perfection before the bar of God? You see, the stinking bag of maggots didn't do that.
Doesn't defy God. They grow to be flies and then they go out and spread more larvae and then more maggots come about and the cycle continues on. They're doing what God intended. We're worse than that.
Look at how Paul describes us in chapter two, verses one to three. and you He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins. You see why it had to be grace? You see why it cannot be works? You see why it cannot be moral reform?
We are dead men and women. We are dead in our trespasses and sins. This puts the nail to the coffin of any synergistic approach to acceptance with God. That means me and God for my salvation.
No, it is God alone or we are dead in our trespasses and sins. You're dead. If you are here this morning and you don't know Jesus Christ, you are dead in your trespasses and sins. I cannot wake you.
I pray to the Holy Spirit of God to come and powerfully arouse you from your death. That same power that Jesus issued forth when He told Lazarus to come forth from the grave. Dead in our trespasses and sins. Do you see that?
This is the condition of all mankind everywhere. Your next door neighbor doesn't just have a little worse life than you. He's dead in his trespasses and sins. Look at what he goes on to say.
In which you once walked. You once walked in your trespasses and sins. Everything about you was oriented toward your trespasses and sins. This is why the psalmist can say the wicked man devises evil in his bed.
You look at that and you think, man, the guy's waking up in the morning and instead of hitting the snooze button or instead of praying to God that I'll have the spirit as I go to worship, he's devising evil in his head. Why is that? Because he walks in trespasses and sins. That is his orientation.
Notice verse two, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. Later in this epistle, Paul will say, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. We have unseen forces. We have invisible forces calling the shots.
We have a real devil. Of whom Jesus said to certain men in his time, the religious leaders, you are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. You know, oftentimes I hear, oh, I'm demon possessed. Or you hear about demon possession.
A person outside of Christ is under the sway of the devil. That's the biblical answer. Do I have a spirit of anger? Do I have a spirit of this?
If you're not in Christ, you're under the sway of the devil. Believe on the gospel and he will break that power. He will free you. Notice what he goes on to say, the prince of the power of the air, the spirit and now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves.
Paul is not saying this is only a Jewish problem. This is only a Gentile problem. This isn't only a problem for the Ephesians, but Paul wants himself in here. He says this is a universal issue, as he does in Romans chapter one, chapters one through three.
He summarizes his whole argument there by saying that all the world has become guilty before God. There is none righteous. No, not one. Paul needed a savior.
Paul needed blood atonement. Paul needed the gospel. Paul was a wretch. who stood in need of grace, and he throws himself in this before picture, and he says, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. So in summary, Paul says you were lifeless, you were helpless, and you were hopeless.
That's the objects in this plan of salvation. Remember what Jesus said, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The gospel is not for the polished, it's not for the beautiful, it's not for the upright because there is none. It is for sinners that Jesus came to save.
Lifeless ones, helpless ones, hopeless ones. That's the recipients of God's grace. You see, it is not by works. It is not by performance.
It is not by merit. It is not by a combination of those things, plus faith in Christ. It is grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, or else there's no salvation. So Paul, having described our state, goes on in verse four to say, but God.
Go somewhere online and find Martin Lloyd Jones's sermon on but God, you'll be happy you did. And just listen to a whole sermon on two words, but God. I'm not going to duplicate that here. But
But God: The Divine Initiative
look at what he says, here's what you were, but God, isn't what the gospel is all about, but God. Isn't that the thrust of Ezekiel chapter 16, when God is rehearsing Israel's history? He says, when I came to you, you were in your blood. I said, live, live.
I decked you with ornaments. I put earrings in you. I put nose rings on you. I made you beautiful.
I made you my own. And then what did you do? You went a whoring from me. You went and engaged in all manner of sin.
Those translations do not translate Ezekiel 16, 25 literally, because it's so offensive. The New American Standard captures the literal nature of it. God says to Israel, you spread your legs to every passerby to multiply your harlotry. That was their conduct.
And then He goes on to say, you're not like other harlots. Most harlots receive payment for services rendered. You know what Israel does? Israel pays the boyfriend to violate her.
You know what God does? Nevertheless, nevertheless, I'm going to show mercy. That's the God of grace. That's the exceeding riches of grace.
That is the beauty and the glory of the Gospel. Not that men have somehow desired to accept Jesus, but that God, through Christ, is reconciling the world to Himself. Not that somebody in this state made up their mind for Jesus, but that God has accepted us freely in the Beloved. That's the objects of this plan of salvation.
Worse than a stinking bag of maggots. Sinners. who violated God's law every step of the way, under his wrath, under his curse, and justly so. When God came to us, it should have been, depart from me, you curse it, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. God says, come to me, come through Christ, believe on the Lord Jesus with the faith that I give you and the repentance that I give you.
And I will confer on you a kingdom. I will give you my spirit. I will give you entitlement to everlasting life. I will give you the very peace of Canaan itself.
That's our God. That's our God.
Third Point: Instrument of Salvation
Notice, thirdly, the instrument used with reference to this plan of salvation. For by grace you've been saved through faith. Through faith alone, as the context makes very clear. Notice it's not because of faith.
It is not, I believe, therefore God save me. No, God gives me the gift of faith. If it is not clear here, it is clear in Philippians 1 and verse 29, where Paul says it has been graciously given to us, not only to believe in His name, that's an incidental statement, but also to suffer for His name. It's through faith.
It's not through works. It's not through merit. If you are here this morning, the answer of God to your desperate condition is to believe the gospel. Not go out and do better.
Well, I better stop this. I better stop this. I better go here. I better go there.
I better commit to church attendance. I better read my Bible. I better pray. I'm not saying those are bad things.
But in terms of acceptance with God, it is through Christ alone. He is the ground. He is the basis. His living, His dying, His rising.
All those ingredients necessary for the salvation of His people. You see, we needed a righteousness which would avail with God. Jesus satisfies that. We need a sacrifice to take away our sin.
Jesus avails with God. We need Him raised up because of our justification. Paul says in Romans 4.25, Jesus avails with God. It is through faith.
Faith as Self-Renouncing Gift
I love what John Murray says. He says, faith is self-renouncing. You should never congratulate yourself because you have faith. Saving faith is a gift of God.
If your parents give you a gift, you don't congratulate yourself because you have the gift, you can be happy, you ought to celebrate, you ought to be joyful, but you shouldn't pat yourself on the back and say, wow, am I not a great guy or girl because I got this gift because of something I did. He says faith is self-renouncing. Works are self-congratulatory. Faith looks to what God does.
Works have respect to what we are. It's been very interesting. On Wednesday night in our Bible study, we're in the Hall of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11. We just got to that section where it's post-Moses.
We're seeing the judges of Israel. Any of you who have read the book of Judges at times have probably raised an eyebrow or two and said, how did this fellow make it in Hebrews 11? Because God looked at their faith, not at their works. They were vitally connected to God through faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord.
That's why Samson will be at the marriage supper of the Lamb. That's why Jephthah will be at the marriage supper of the Lamb. That's why Gideon will be at the marriage supper of the Lamb. That's why we'll be at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
Not by works, not by our merits, not by our law keeping, not by our performance, but by God's grace alone. to faith. Faith is the instrument by which we are joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. The text is specific. It is definite.
It does not say, on account of faith. It's not as if we muster up faith and then God rewards us. The faith here is not faithfulness or obedience or loyalty, but it is a belief in the truth of God's Gospel of the saving work of Jesus Christ our Lord. That's the faith in view here.
Fourth Point: Character of Salvation
And then fourthly, terms of the plan of salvation. Notice the character of it. So that Paul can summarize and exclude once again the place of works in our acceptance with God. Notice in verse 8, for by grace you've been saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. It's almost as if he's anticipating the Pelagian controversy and the Arminian controversy. It's almost as if he's anticipating the things that would happen in the church. Oh, yes, we believe it's by grace, Paul, but we also want to attach our works and our merits and our performance and our subscription to a sacramental system.
No. How many more times can he say it to make it crystal clear? It does not depend on what you do. Do any of you for a moment think that there's something you contribute to your acceptance with God?
If you do, please listen, because you haven't been for a long time. It is not what you do. Augustus Toplady. We sang 440.
What a beautiful hymn concerning justification by faith alone. Toplady nailed it in certain of his hymns. What a theologian. Who wrote the hymns back then?
Theologians and pastors so they could educate the people in singing sound doctrine and fulfilling Ephesians and Colossians. What we're really supposed to do when we sing. It's not so I can be so caught up only in myself, but I can worship my God and edify my brethren by singing truth. What else did Top Lady write?
Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Shall I to the fountain fly? Wash me, Savior, or I die. I hope that was Top Lady, I'm not going to look it up.
It's either Watts Top Lady or one of those dear brothers that were all pastor theologians that wrote good hymns. You hear that? Nothing in my hand I bring. In our acceptance with God, we don't bring anything.
We have nothing. Remember again that scene in Zechariah three, where Joshua, the high priest, is not only standing before God, but before or representing all of Israel. And he's filthy, he's vile, he's dirty. The text used in the word used describing what Joshua is wearing, it's the same word translated in other parts of the Old Testament for feces, for vomit, What we have there is not a picture of a guy who's a little soiled, who's a little bit off on that particular day.
We're not talking about a man who walked to church and he happened to have a bit of cream cheese on his tie. We're talking about a man who went through the sewage pit, who stinks and who is foul. The Lord God Most High is there. Satan is there, ready to accuse Joshua.
He can't even open his mouth and the Lord God says, the Lord rebuked you, Satan. I don't need your testimony. I don't need you to accuse him. I see what a filthy pile of mess he is.
God saw Joshua in all of his stench and filth and grossness. There was nothing he had to present before God. Joshua didn't say we've been faithful for this amount of time. We've obeyed in this amount of ways.
We have these few works that we can present unto you. God says the Lord rebuke you, Satan. He issues another command.
Justification: Clothed in Righteousness
Take those filthy garments off of him and clothe him with new garments. That's justification. God pardons all our sins and accepts us as righteous in His sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. You see, up to this point, Paul has not spoken one whit about good works.
The flow of the passage is clear. Good works follow our salvation. Good works are not the reason for our salvation. Good works are a fruit of our salvation.
Good works evidence that we have believed the gospel. But up until this point, notice, he says, for by grace you've been saved through faith that not of yourselves. There's a question here. Does that mean the faith or does it mean the grace? good man who differ on both sides, I'm going to take the approach that says it means the whole thing.
The whole kit and caboodle. The grace through faith salvation. That is not of yourself. The grace, the faith, the salvation is not of you.
It didn't originate with you. Perhaps at a time you didn't even want it. God has made you willing in the day of His power. Praise His name. that for by grace through faith salvation.
It's not of you. It's the gift of God. Isn't that beautiful? The gift of God.
Take this gift. You receive the gift. Don't boast because you received the gift. Don't boast because you merited the gift.
It is a gift. It is grace. It is unmerited. God should send you to hell, but He has given you the salvation. for by grace, through faith.
Grace, Faith, and Repentance as Gifts
Faith is a gift. Acts 13, 48. Acts 15, 9. I already alluded to Philippians 1, 29.
Repentance is a gift. Acts 5, 31. Acts 11, 18. 2 Timothy 2, 25-26. The point of the passage, my dear brothers and sisters, is to show what we were and what God has done in Jesus Christ.
He has poured out on us the exceeding riches of His grace. It is displayed, exemplified, published, and portrayed in this gracious, through faith, salvation that we possess in Jesus our Lord. Praise God, not for Martin Luther, the man, but for the doctrine that he preached. Praise God for John Calvin and the doctrine that he preached.
Praise God that men took theology seriously in those days and would willingly die, would willingly suffer, would willingly part with everything for this truth that we sit as benefactors out of today. Shame on us that we hold it with such a limp wrist. Shame on us that we are not earnest contenders for the faith. Shame on us that we don't take Jude 3 seriously and contend for that faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
It wasn't just Luther battling Rome at the time. It wasn't just Paul battling Galatians at the time, or heretics plaguing Galatia at the time. There are heretics today. There are people denying the grace of God today.
There are people in so-called evangelical churches preaching a synergistic acceptance with God, meaning that man and God participates in his salvation. No, God alone saves us. God alone gives gifts. God alone translates us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the son of his love.
It is by grace alone, through faith alone. Salvation does not originate from man. It is neither our works, our merit, our faith that sets forth the cause of salvation. Salvation is of the Lord.
Paul is simply repeating what the Bible emphasizes over and over again. Way back in the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 45 and verse 22. Look to me and be saved. All you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.
You know anything about that verse in the history of the church? That was the verse God used to save Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Spurgeon, it was a snowy day, couldn't get to the church that he normally attended. So he went into this village church.
And he said the main pastor preacher wasn't even there. He said a stupid preacher was in the pulpit. I'm sorry if the language offends you. This is in his biography.
It was a stupid preacher. All he could do was repeat that text. Look to me and be saved. All the ends of the earth.
He alighted on Spurgeon. He looked him in the eyes. Young man, are you saved? Look to me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other." God used that stupid preacher to call a man out of darkness into marvelous light who would be the means of bringing great blessing upon countless multitudes.
I want to meet that stupid preacher when I get to heaven. I want to meet him and praise God for him. You see, it's God who saves. It's God who initiates, it's God who seeks, it's God who finds.
Is that the whole point of the Zacchaeus narrative? The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. He's not frustrated in that task. He's not upset in that task.
He is successful. He is victorious. We sing amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. We don't sing, it's pretty OK, because it helped me to be all I can be.
The church is sounding like a military. It was the Army's slogan, be all you can be. Isn't that what Joel Osteen says? Be all you can be.
Aim high, United States Air Force. What are you hearing churches say? Moralism. Aim high.
Do a bit better. You know what, brethren? You try and aim high, but you must always look to the cross. It's all about Jesus.
Having read a bit about Luther this past week, one of his early influence was Stoppets, probably butchering the name in German. But he was a monk that actually seemed to have the seed of God in his heart. And Luther said something, too, about confessing his sins. You've heard the story.
Martin Luther used to be in the confessional for several hours at a time. As R.C. Sproul says, one wonders what he had to confess. You know, I coveted Brother Philip's role at dinner.
I mean, what kind of trouble do you get into in a monastery? Well, we all know. It's right here. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
But he comes to Stoppard and he mentions this. And Stoppard says, you know what I've learned? I've learned all of my confessions, all of my pouring out, all of my sins doesn't help me deal with sin at all. Look to the wounds of Jesus.
Praise God. Look to the wounds of Jesus. That's what it's about. That's what differentiates the Christian from the non-Christian.
It's Jesus. It's not what my hands can do to save my guilty soul. It's what God in Christ has done at the cross. It's what God in Christ has done in all of His redemptive work.
In the sending of His Son. In the fullness of the time, God sent forth His Son. Born of a woman. Born under the law.
To do what? To redeem those under the law. Not to be our example. Not to be our pal.
Not to be our buddy. But to be our bleeding, substituted Calvary. To be the wrath bearing, curse bearing propitiation for our sins. Remember that scene that we've looked at?
I know we've looked at it recently on a Wednesday night. I think we looked at it last year in our pulpit ministry. Genesis 15. When God makes that covenant with Abraham.
He tells Abraham to cut the pieces of the animals and put them in two. Got half an animal here, half an animal here, all the way kind of down. Abraham goes into a deep sleep. He awaits and he sees the smoking furnace, this lighted torch passing between these animal carcasses.
That's the Romans 8.32 of Old Covenant Bible. God was showing in that display that he is the covenant head. He is the covenant keeper. It is unilateral.
It wasn't God and Moses walking between those pieces. It was God alone. What was the symbolism? As the parties to the covenant passed through these animals, what they were saying by this display was that if I break covenant, may what happened to these animals happen to me.
God is taking on Himself a malevolent curse. See, God is faithful to his covenant. He walks through those pieces. He does not have to be destroyed because he broke covenant.
But you know what's beautiful? God himself walked through those pieces and took our obligations, too. Such that as he walks through those pieces, because we broke the covenant, because we violated God, because we raised our fists against him. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.
Christ took the obligations that we had, and because we broke them, he suffered for them. So that ceremony was fleshed out at Calvary. God indeed took upon him, in the person of Jesus Christ, the curse of the covenant. He exhausted the damnation of God on our behalf.
Dr. Davis was speaking about Rabbi Duncan. Rabbi Duncan was a preacher, a Presbyterian, and a teacher of theology. One day he's talking about the atonement.
He's talking about the atonement to his class of students, and he's talking about the fact that it was damnation lovingly spent. Damnation, lovingly engaged in. You see, Jesus did this for the joy that was set before Him. When Rabbi Duncan falls on his seat, he said it was damnation, lovingly entered into.
Brethren, that's what Calvary is all about. By grace, you've been saved. Not your works. Not your merit.
Not because you, a bag of maggots, have attempted to do good, religious, holy, pious things. Let's give the glory to God, to whom it belongs. This passage in Paul in Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 and 9 echoes the prophet Jonah. Didn't Jonah say salvation is of the Lord?
Isn't this a foretaste in Ephesians 2 of what the saints in heaven do according to Revelation 5 and 7? What do they confess when they're before the throne of God and the Lamb? They say salvation belongs to our God and to the Lamb who sits upon the throne. It's by grace alone, through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone.
The Place of Good Works
Well, we won't get to the place of good works. Maybe we'll look at that tonight. But just suffice it to say, look at verse 10. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.
We're saved for them. We're not saved because of them. We're saved in order to do them. Not saved because we have performed them.
He goes on to say, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So good works are a necessary fruit. They follow a legitimate profession of faith. We believe the truth of the gospel.
We come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. And we are God's workmanship, carrying out those good works that He has purposed that we should walk in. Gordon Clark captures the sentiment very well when he says, what passes so apparently as good works are not good unless they are preceded by justification. There's a lot of people doing a lot of good things out there, but they're not biblical good works.
Not saying everybody should go out and kill each other and, you know, do all sorts of manner of evil, but a biblically defined good work has as its first reference the glory of God and then the good of others. Very often when we do good works that are not such as the Bible defines, it's all for us. It's all for us. So Clark says what passes so apparently as good works are not good unless preceded by justification.
And if a claimed justification does not inevitably produce good works, it simply was not justification. You see, you can't divorce verses 9 and 10. You're saved. It is a gift of God.
It is this way so that you won't boast. It's not by works, but you are saved so that you can go do good works. Love God, love men, serve men, care for people, be compassionate, be kind. Paul emphasizes this throughout.
Some people have said that James and Paul are at odds. No, they teach the exact same thing. James teaches sovereign grace of his own will. He brought us forth by the word of truth that we should become the first fruits.
It's after establishing that that he then starts hammering a congregation because they're not loving their brethren. They're not engaged in good works as a result of having been saved by grace. Paul emphasizes good works just as much throughout the corpus. He wants you to believe the gospel.
And when you believe, you will love, you will care, you will be kind, you will be compassionate. You will put others first. You won't continue to live for yourself. You'll see God as most important.
You'll see others as most important. You'll take Paul's words seriously in Philippians 2. Let each esteem others as better than himself. You're not the end.
You're not the universe. You're not the center of the universe. You're not the focus of history. Jesus is.
And others before you. So, good works follow in our salvation.
Application: Gratitude and Hope
By way of conclusion, brethren, we need to remember to be grateful to God. Grateful. We need to be thankful. A popular author in our day has sort of minimized this in the place of the Christian life.
I'm not saying this is the only thing, but it certainly ought not to be minimized. For you see, Ephesians 1 begins with this emphasis. Ephesians 1, Paul says, 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. Ephesians 1, 3.
That's his topic or opening sentence. He says, blessed be God. He says, praise be to God. He says, worship and gratitude be given unto God.
Thankfulness be poured out to God. Speak well of God. Sing praises to God when you gather on the Lord's Day, visit him with with with worship and adoration for who he is and what he's done. And then he details the persons of the Godhead and their various functions within redemption.
The Father chose us, predestinated us unto adoption as sons. It is Jesus in whom we have redemption through the shedding of his blood. It is the Spirit who seals us and is the guarantee for our final inheritance. All of this causes Paul to say, blessed be God, praise be to God, thanks be to God, worship That is an appropriate response when we consider Ephesians 2.
And I don't think it's ungodly or unholy or illegitimate to thank God that in the history of His church, He has raised up men to fight against the establishment for the truth. For the good Word of God Most High. Praise God that He used those men. As messed up as they may have been in many ways.
Just listening recently, John Calvin was about to die. He calls for the elders of his church. He has them come in. He confesses sin to them.
Recent biography by Robert Godfrey talks about Calvin had a bit of a hot temper. There's a bit of encouragement there for some of us to be Calvin struggled to not that we should hide behind that. So God Calvin struggled so I can be, you know, a jerk for Jesus. No.
But he called those elders and he confessed that sin to them. And he says, but as far as I have been able, I have preached faithfully and accurately the Word of the living God. That's all we want. That's all you should ever want.
Yeah, men that live faithfully and righteously and adorn the doctrine of God Most High, to be sure. But men who preach faithfully. It is the Word of God upon which our souls hang. It is the word of God which informs us concerning the mind of God, the way of salvation, acceptance with God.
We don't want men who handle inaccurately the word of truth. I love that statement. There was a time when Calvin was preaching expositionally through, I think it was Deuteronomy. And he had to leave.
I get my things mixed up. He was either in Strasbourg and had to leave to Geneva or vice versa. But he was gone for a period of a couple of years. And when he came back, he picked up the exposition at the exact place that he left off.
That's awesome to me. He didn't have a topical series on what it was like to suffer for the cause of Christ. What's going on with Eilat and the children? No, he picked up right where he left off because he knew and understood that the Word of God is what the people of God most desperately need.
We ought to be grateful. And then finally, This is a real finally, not a preacher's finally. The blessed hope in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you are not in Christ today, if you are not a Christian today, if you have not believed, don't get upset and say, wow, they worship Luther there.
Wow, they've got an axe to grind against Rome there. Listen to the text. God is gracious. God is merciful.
God is kind. God loves sinners. God says when you believe the Gospel, the good news concerning His Son, you will be saved. There's great hope.
Great encouragement. Great cause for joy. Dancing. Holy jigs in the presence of our triune God.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You are lifeless, helpless, hopeless sinners. who can find life, who can find salvation, who can find more hope than you know what to do with by coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not tarry. Do not wait.
Do not play games. Realize, now is the acceptable time. Today is the day of salvation. Believe on Jesus and you will be saved.
Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank You for the Word of God, and we thank You for the clarity of the plan of salvation here in Ephesians 2, 8-10. I just pray that we would appreciate afresh, God, what You have done for us in our Lord Jesus Christ. That we would appreciate afresh the electing, predestinating grace of God, the blood atonement of Jesus Christ, the powerful work and ministry of the Holy Spirit, that we would cry with the prophet and with the angels and the saints in heaven that salvation is of the Lord from first to last, and that, God, we would be able to rest in this truth and find that comfort that Paul sets forth to us in so many places in the Bible. God, I pray that we would just go now, that our hearts would be refreshed, that we would be encouraged by the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
And for those who do not know you, we appeal to sovereign grace and sovereign power to work in hearts today. Here, Father, and in other churches here in Chilliwack, we pray wherever this gospel is preached, that your word would not return unto you void, but it would accomplish the purpose for which you sent it. And we ask through Christ the Lord. Amen.