By Grace Through Faith

By Grace Through Faith

By Pastor Matt Black

08 October 2006
Lord's Day morning
Ephesians 2:8

Open your Bible to Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Let’s stand together and read Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 1 through 10. Aren’t you glad that every Word of God is true? What can we do but stand in awe of what God has said? He’s revealed Himself to us. This morning we are in one of the most beautiful passages in all the Word of God. It is such a clear articulation of what God has done. We are going to be looking at the Gospel this morning. The title of this morning’s message is “By Grace Through Faith”.

[Stand and read Ephesians 2:1-10]

Prayer: Let us pray. Our Father, we come to you because of your sovereign omnipotent mercy. Thank you Lord, for what you have done for us. We could not have done it ourselves. It would have been impossible, and it is impossible. It remains impossible for any man to help himself. And so we pray as we come to this exceeding important passage of Your Word, that we would put aside all of the cares of this world—that our hearts would be quieted, and that we would be ushered into your presence, into your Word, into the revelation that you have given to us with open hearts and open ears, and tender wills, so that we might listen, and hear, and obey, and be changed and transformed so that we might be usable—not only that you might redeem us, but that you might redeem others also through the Word which you have given us. We ask in Jesus Name, Amen.

Introduction: This morning we come to nothing less than the revelation of God. What does that mean? When something is revealed it is uncovered. Our eyes were covered with our own sins and lusts and passions. And somehow we came to embrace Christ. We do not pretend to know the mechanics of it—we do not understand the mystery of salvation, and it is not my intent to figure it out this morning. I think that all of us a billion years from now will still be praising God because the mystery will still remain. We will never fully understand the workings of the Spirit of God. We know how we are saved, but we do not understand God’s work in our own heart. Who has been His counselor? Who can understand the Almighty? All we can do is put our hand on our mouth, and in silence confess with our hearts that we have nothing to add to what He has done but to be in awe of all that He is and all that He has given to us.

Therefore we come to the Word of God. I speak not only of this verse, but of the entire Word of God. The entire Word of God is a history of God’s dealings with man. This isn’t a book about how much man loves God. If you read it, and I hope you do, you will see that it is a book of how much God, amazingly and against all human reasoning loves rebellious, sinful man.

We often wonder as we read the record of the Old Testament how people could be so sinful, stiff-necked and rebellious. If you are thinking that, you need to look in the mirror, because it is an amazing thing that the Lord would deal with people as rebellious as you and me. We should stand amazed this morning—not that man is rebellious, but that God loves the rebel.

We come to the New Testament, and we find this same love demonstrating itself in the central event in human history. Both Jews and Gentiles rejected the LORD of glory by crucifying Him on the cross. They demonstrated the wicked intent of every human heart; they showed what we would all do apart from the grace of God. They crucified the omni-benevolent God who is love. He was rejected by man and bearing our sin curse, and therefore rejected by God. And in man’s greatest rejection of God, we find God’s greatest and strongest love for man. “Father forgive them for they know not what they do!” cried the Lord from the cross. The love of God was so strong on the cross; it was demonstrated in such an amazing way that there was nothing more that anyone in the entire universe could do.

“It is finished!” He said. What was finished? Christ had finished His work of opening the door of God’s love to mankind. Justice was finished. Christ drank every drop from the cup of God’s wrath. God’s anger against man’s sin was satisfied. Christ opened the door of God’s love to man. Even in man’s greatest hatred of God, we find God pursuing after man in the greatest manner.

That brings us to Ephesians 2, and we see the clear articulation of the Gospel—that God is ready and willing and able to do whatever it takes to forgive us and to save us, so that God has done all that would be necessary for us.

I. Let us first notice in this text, the Intervention of God in our lives. Notice the words of verse 8, “For by grace are ye saved”. Drink in those words, “by grace…” It is on the basis of grace. Grace! God’s grace! What is God’s grace but His intervention into our lives to save us? His intention was to save those who were unsavable apart from sovereign love and sovereign mercy. Grace is seen in God’s intervention. He has done all that was necessary to save us. We have done nothing and could do nothing to save ourselves. “By grace are ye saved”. Grace tells us what God has done FOR us, the demonstration of sovereign love and favor to unworthy man.

How can a person be a slave to alcohol, have a foul mouth, have a bitter heart, or how a person can be so self-righteous one day, and then somehow in the days to come something happens that is utterly amazing? The cursing person stops his cursing. The drinking man no longer depends on his drink; he no longer cares for it, no longer wants any part of it. The self-righteous person is humbled to the dust. What is it that does that? It is some great power, some exertion on God’s part. We call it grace. And we call it sovereign grace. Why do we call it sovereign grace? Because this unmerited favor proceeds from an omnipotent God. It is God alone in His omnipotence that can save us. Man cannot save himself. We have not assisted God in any way. There is nothing within us that appeals to God. Grace—God’s sovereign unprovoked love toward unworthy sinners is what Spurgeon called “the source and the fountainhead of salvation.” Grace is the spring of everything good in your life.

So where does grace come from? Man is not seeking after God, and therefore, God must reveal Himself to man.

A. God’s Revelation of Himself to man.

1. God is first revealed in Creation. We met last night for our Family Harvest event at a beautiful location. Did you notice the trees, and how beautiful the colors were with the leaves changing—the reds and the yellows and the oranges? I didn’t design that. Brother Mike Larsen didn’t get on his CAD program and design the trees. He didn’t say “Well I think they should change about this time.” Yes, we can design human things, but human things rot away and break and eventually return back to dust. But only God can create that which is living and changing and constantly reflecting His likeness. “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1)!

We must understand that if God is to be known, He must reveal Himself to man. Man can never know God simply by natural means. This is proven by the fact that God is revealed in creation—that is, he is revealed in laws of nature, laws of logic, and laws of science. No one can deny that you cannot have a round circle. No one can deny that if step off a building that you will fall to the ground. These are irrefutable. These are what we call universal laws.

a. Universals and constants proceed from God.

We see the revelation of God in creation. What is it that makes that law constant? What is it that makes that law universal? The only answer is God and the law that proceeds from Him. The Bible I hold in my hand is square. It is not round. God cannot make a round square. It is impossible. We call these kinds of laws logic. The Bible is a book. It is not a human being. It is not a car. A chair is not a giraffe. That’s logic. It is called the law of non-contradiction. A cannot be non-A. B cannot be non-B. So since God cannot contradict Himself, that law proceeds from Him, and therefore anything that breaks the laws of logic is what we call foolishness or absurdity. That is universal and constant. It has always been that way and will always be that way.

b. The atheist’s argument comes to nothing.

Why do we have universal and constant laws? The atheist says that it is simply because we’ve all agreed upon them. We’ve all agreed that a square cannot be a circle, right? Is it true that we have laws simply because we have agreed upon them? Is it true that we as humans have put our marvelous minds together and said this is what logic is, and this is what science is, and this is what morality is? Is it true that we should not kill one another simply because we’ve all agreed that it would affect our happiness? Is it true that the only reason we have laws of logic, morality, and science is simply because we have all reached a consensus on these issues? No! That is humanism. Murder is wrong for everyone in every circumstance in all times because God who is unchanging has given a universal law that reflects His character and said, “Thou shalt not kill”. It depends not whether man is happy or in agreement with it or not. The murderer is happy when he murders. So you see the argument from humanism falls to absolutely nothing. The murderer says, “Well, it makes me happy, so therefore I should be able to do it.” The truth is that if you don’t believe in God, you have no defense against murder. Without God, there is no defense against being illogical. Without any absolute standard that is universal and constant, there is nothing to say that someone is wrong for being illogical or immoral. But if you believe that God is the foundation, that God is the Creator, that God is the Designer of all things, and that all laws of science and logic and morality proceed from Him, then are standing on solid ground. Christian theism is the only logical and coherent worldview that exists in the world today. God is revealed to all men in Creation, specifically in all laws of logic, science, and morality. It is undeniable. We cannot deny the universality of these laws. If these laws are constant, then God’s existence is undeniable. Yet man looks at this and sees the revelation of God, but he is constantly suppressing that revelation.

2. Man’s Suppression of God’s revelation. Romans 1:18 tells us that all of us by nature suppress the truth in unrighteousness. We hold down the truth, suppressing it. Why does man suppress the truth?
Why doesn’t he want to agree that God has created all of these things? Because of his separation from God.

3. Man’s Separation from God. Man by nature is dead in his trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). We see that man is always running from God. We see that in the Garden. Adam was not looking for God after he took the fruit. Adam was hiding behind a tree, dressed in his own design of leaves, a picture of his own righteousness. He had lost his right standing before God, so he tried to make his own covering and pretend like he had some kind of a righteousness, and what did God have to do? God sacrificed the first animals and covered Adam and Eve in those animals skins which was a picture of the spotless righteousness of Jesus Christ. You see man was not looking for God. God called out, “Adam, Where art thou?” And what was Adam doing? Adam called back, “I hid myself because I was afraid!” Man is always running from God. And that is where all men are by nature. They are hiding. They are suppressing the truth—the truth of God’s control over their lives, and the truth of their own sinfulness. They’re hiding—they’re covering it up in self-righteousness or the denial that evil is even evil. That is where we all are by nature, and that is the very backdrop of God’s sovereign grace. Adam was hiding, but God knew where Adam was. Truly, if God would never have sought Adam, then man would have died without ever seeking God. If Adam would not have been sought of God, there would have been no redemption for Adam or even one of his descendants. But God did seek Adam. Adam certainly did not seek after God. That is true of all of us. Romans 3:10 tells us, “There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” That brings us to God transcending time and space to seek after man.

B. God’s Action on Man’s behalf. “By grace are ye saved…”! If anyone here will be saved, you must yield to God’s action on your behalf. It goes all the way back to the Garden. We are all hiding. We are all covering up our own sin with the filthy rags of human works-righteousness. God must intervene; He must pursue us; He must call out after us; He must ask us, “Where are you?” And we must admit where we are. This is the demonstration of God’s grace. God puts the spotlight on us. At that point we must admit that we have been running from Him and we are far away from Him. And He has caught us in His sites. Justice at that time—at that time that God pursues us and overtakes us—justice cries out for our death. Hell and all the demons—even those who are now chained in darkness according to Jude—those demons cry out, “To the fires with the sinner!” God’s conviction falls upon us, and we begin to speak the truth about ourselves as we are shown how vile we really are by the pure Spirit of the Living God. God’s Spirit comes and enlightens our heart and shows us where we are. God intervenes. We have to confess that we are here in the wasteland of sin because we have chosen to be here. We are here because we have loved that which God hates. In grace, God begins to reason with us. God says in Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.”

So we see the intervention of God on our behalf. That is grace—it is the favor of God, the free love and mercy of God given to whomever He wills.

II. Secondly we see man’s Perception of God through faith. God reveals Himself to us, and there comes a time when we begin to perceive what God has done on our behalf. This is the only way that a person can be saved. We call that “faith”. Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace are ye saved through faith…” Faith is the channel that takes in God’s grace to the soul. We perceive, not with our physical eyes—we can all look at a piece of paper and read it and memorize it. Many children who have memorized great portions of Scripture have grown up and denied the Scripture that they knew so well. Those souls are in hell today. Jesus said, “If you deny me, I will deny you.” It is not simply perceiving with your eyes or with your mind, but it is the whole person understanding with the heart.

A. The Constitution or nature of Faith. Let me explain exactly what faith is. There are really three aspects to faith.

1. First, there is intellectual ascent. We say to the lost, “You are a sinner. You have broken God’s law. You are a lying, thieving, adulterous, blasphemer in your heart. Is that true? We are all law breakers. We have all mocked the Lawgiver. We would never dare do that with our mouths, but with our lives we scream out, “He’s a fraud! He’s a fraud” every time we continue in sin. And then we come to the Scripture, and we begin to understand that we have sinned, and we ascent to this. We are sinners. And we ascent to the fact that Christ has died for sinners. Christ came to save the ungodly! We understand it. This is good that we understand. Yet we cannot be content to leave it there. You see there are a great multitude of people, both saved and lost people, both angels and demons, who ascent to these facts.

2. Then there is emotional agreement. There are some among those mentioned above that even go a step further. They seem to not only know the truth, but they seem to respond to it in an emotional way. They actually begin to experience joy over this, that I am a sinner and that God has made provision for sinners. There are many who have joy in this fact. These things are good, but if that is all that you have, then you are no better than the demons who are on their way to hell. James congratulates this kind of person in James 2:19. He says, “Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.” When Jesus was on the earth there were people who were possessed with demons. And the demons would speak to Him. And on one occasion in Luke 4:41, we read that the “devils also came out of many, crying out, and saying, Thou art Christ the Son of God.” I would venture to say that demons in many instances have more faith than humans. They have more faith than human beings because they cried out, “Thou art Christ the Son of God,” and the Bible says, “he rebuking them suffered them not to speak: for they knew that he was Christ.”

So you agree with what you have heard of the Gospel? Good. You believe that you’re a sinner. Good. You tremble and you joy at the prospect of salvation. Good. But if you stay there and do not move forward, it is not good. If this is where your journey stops, you are still on your way to an eternity away from God. Because you see, there is a third aspect to saving faith, and that is not only ascent and agreement, but…

3. Thirdly, there must be an act of the will—that is, there must be the force of conviction that moves the will. Obviously the demons fear God. They know that they will be judged. They believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Yet, by no means are they on their way to Heaven. What we must do is we must do better than the demons. We must be convinced and convicted that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and we must act on it. What is that called in the Bible? Jesus’ first words in the Gospel of Mark were, “Repent!” “Repent and believe!” Turn from all that you have ever known in this world. Turn from it, and keep on turning! Run from it and keep on running! Embrace Christ, and keep on embracing Him, and never let Him go. Be in unity with Jesus Christ. That is faith. You may see the world, and you may even begin to turn away from it. But until you have broken away from the world and cast yourself completely on Jesus Christ, you have not experienced genuine faith. You may be a member of this church. You may have experienced baptism. You may be faithful in all of the activities of this church. You may seem to have more faith than anyone in this church. But this church is not the judge of your heart or your salvation. God is the judge. Are you in union with Jesus Christ? Are you having faith in Him—mind, will, emotions, the whole being? If your faith has not brought you into union with Christ, then it is no faith at all but demonic empty faith—a counterfeit. We must embrace Christ with our whole being.

How exactly does all of this happen? It happens at the free movement of God in His perfect and unchangeable plan and out of His free love and mercy that compels Him to save His elect people by working in the hearts of His people. Let me say it again. If God does not save man, there is no salvation. Man cannot help himself. So we see…

B. The Concern or necessity for Faith. Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace are ye saved through faith…” If man is to be saved, he must be saved by God’s grace through faith in Christ.

Yet, we know that man has no ability to perceive the things of God. Job 14:4 asks, “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.” Can we make ourselves righteous? Impossible! Paul is even clearer in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” There is no natural perception in man, and so God Himself must work in the heart through a spiritual birth. We read in John 3:6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.” God must by His Spirit deal with man. Paul tells us in Romans 10:17, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” When we hear the Word of God, the Spirit of God goes forth and enlivens the Word of God, and begins to grant us spiritual perception, revelation, and wisdom and all these things that Ephesians 1 tells us that the Christian has. But he does not have those things by his own nature. Those are all gifts of God. Indeed this is what the text states exactly.

C. The Conferment or impartation of Faith. Spiritual perception is a gift from God. Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God…” Turn over to Romans. I want you to see how this progression takes place. Romans 8:28-30, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God…” Ah, so man is dead in his trespasses and sins, but there are there those on the earth who love God. Well, how did that happen since we know it is an impossibility for man to love God in his original corrupted nature? Well it continues, “to them who are” what? To them who are “the called according to his purpose. 29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called…” You see a sinner must be called into God’s kingdom. God in His calling grants that man spiritual perception by sovereign grace. John 6 tells us that unless a man is drawn by Christ that he cannot perceive spiritual things. This calling imparts to the sinner this ability to begin to perceive the Gospel. The text goes on, “and whom he called them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.” So God takes away all of our sin and makes us perfectly righteous before God—body, soul, and spirit, in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That is glorification. That happens after time is over. But the calling here is in time. The time element is very intriguing in this set of verses.

· The predestination and election occurs before time.

· The calling occurs in time.

· Justification occurs in time. A man is not justified until he exercises the faith that he has in Christ.

· And then glorification occurs after time is over.

III. Thirdly, we see the Conviction that comes to the heart touched by Grace. Ephesians 2:8-10, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves…” This is the bedrock conviction of grace, that we come to God with nothing in our hands. Without that conviction, you do not have faith. Without that conviction you do not have grace. Without that conviction you do not have a Gospel—you have a counterfeit, and you cannot be saved. There is no hope unless you come to God with nothing.

Nothing in my hand I bring. Only to thy cross I cling!—that is the Gospel!

This verse is speaking about the weakness and inability of human nature. This has not been accomplished in ourselves. There is absolutely nothing we can do, and we ought to take this very seriously.

God takes our sins very seriously. Sin put our Saviour on the cross. And yet as Christians we do not walk like we should. We must walk today with the same conviction that we had when God first saved us. We must demonstrate the grace of God in our lives. Ephesians 2:8-10, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves…”

We see those examples of those who lived by this conviction of faith.

A. Abraham: Where would Abraham be without the grace of God? He would have died in Ur as an idol-worshipper.

B. Adam: Where would Adam be without the grace of God? He would have died in the Garden without any salvation.

C. The Apostles: What about any of the apostles—were any of them seeking after God? Were any of them seeking after Christ? No, Christ sought them. He said, “Come and follow me!” We can look at Peter and see ourselves so clearly. Time after time, Peter kept wanting to turn back. On one occasion Jesus said, “Get thee behind me Satan!” Peter denied the Lord even at His crucifixion. And yet God pursued him.

It was not of Peter; it was not of Abraham, it was not of Adam, and it is not of you and I to add anything to our salvation. We must come to God as beggars—those who have absolutely nothing.

IV. Finally, we come to the Reception of Grace. We come to that beautiful portion of the verse. Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God…” It is a gift! “That” not of yourselves—the word “that” in this verse has had much controversy swirling around it. What does that refer to? Is it referring to faith? Is it referring to grace? Is it referring to our salvation? Actually the words surrounding the “that” are all feminine in gender, and the word “that” is a neuter pronoun. Now this is not improper grammar. This is a way of showing that what it is referring to is active and intimate. The laws of grammar in this text demand that the closest word to the “that” is it’s antecedent. What is that word? (By the way, it’s not only correctly translated in English, it was written that way when it was first penned). What does the “that” correspond to? It corresponds to “faith”! Faith! Do you know that the testimony of the earliest writers on this verse all the way up through the Reformation, they have an almost unified testimony.[1] Do you know what they’ve said? The word “that” refers to “faith”.

If even my faith is a gift, what shall I say then? What is our response to this? Well look at verse 9. Ephesians 2:8-10, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.” There is nothing for us to boast about. Do you know what faith is? Faith is the exact opposite of works. Faith is simply saying, “I have nothing to boast of.” What is it that changes the spiritual perception of the heart? If it is true that “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:14), if they are utter “foolishness unto him”, and if he is unable to “know them”, then what is it that makes him to see himself as he is and simply plead the mercy of God? What is it? It is the principle of grace converting the soul. We call it conversion for a reason. There is a change. There is an instant where a man is utterly a rebel to God, and then in an instant, by God’s grace and mercy the man is converted. We can’t explain it. I cannot give you a mechanical understanding of it. I don’t understand it, and I never will understand it. I simply have to praise God for it. I don’t know why I’m saved. “Jacob have I loved, but have a hated.” The amazing thing is not that God hated Esau. God’s hatred should rightly abide on all of us, and the Bible says that if you are not in Christ, the wrath of God abides on you (John 3:36). That is not a very pretty picture. But the amazing thing in that verse is that God loves Jacob. And it is amazing that God loves any one of us. Ephesians 2:8-10, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

“Not of works” is saying the same thing as having faith. If you have faith, you don’t have works. That is exactly what Paul explains in Romans chapter 4. If you have faith, you don’t have works of man, you have a work of God in the soul to change the heart! Is that you today? That is our great salvation. Aren’t you glad that God pursues us—that He intervenes in our lives? We cannot change ourselves. We cannot save ourselves. It is not of ourselves. It is “by grace”. It is by God’s intervention into our lives.

Conclusion: I want you to look up at me, and I want you to recite with me John 3:16, because John 3:16 is exactly parallel with this verse. Say it with me, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” There’s a word in there—“whosoever”. Won’t you come to Christ today? You say, “I don’t know if God has plans for me”. You are so confused if think that. Listen to what Spurgeon said:

'These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name." Look to him, blind eyes; look to him, dead souls; look to him. Say not that you cannot; he in whose power I speak will work a miracle while yet you hear the command, and blind eyes shall see, and dead hearts shall spring into eternal life by his Spirit's effectual working'

We hold the Word of God in our hands. If you are here today without Christ this Word that you have just heard, believe it! Believe it! “Whosoever will” may come, and “let him take the water of life freely” (Revelation 22:17). Let this word and the promise of God’s grace make your heart alive. Do you sense God’s presence? Do you understand the conviction of the Spirit? Are you ready to forsake all and follow Jesus Christ?

I’ve spoken to unbelievers, but now Christian, I hope you’ve never gotten over your salvation, because there is no salvation if you’ve gotten over it. You’ve never possessed it if you are able to forsake it. Salvation never stops. God’s grace and His conviction, and that principle of life that comes in the Spirit, and by Word of God never ceases. Otherwise you would cease your union with Jesus Christ! Do you understand that salvation is not a day—it is an eternity! So therefore, believe, have this faith, and keep on believing, and keep on clinging and keep on trusting.

And if you’ve not done that today, whosoever will may come! Come to Jesus. Believe on Him! Do you think that He’s not able to bear your burden? Do you think that He’s not able to bear your sin? But He took the infinite wrath of God upon Himself. His atonement is infinite. He took enough wrath not only to cover you sin, but the sins of an infinite number of people. You may feel that your sin is greater than the combined iniquity of all the devils in hell. You may feel you are unsavable. If you believe that, you are actually on good ground, because no man believes that apart from the Spirit of God. And if you believe that then all you can do is cast yourself upon the infinite mercy of the Saviour—the One who has given His blood. The life is in the blood, and His blood can make you clean and whole and take away all of your sin. The Gospel never gets dull. It’s always fresh and real. Praise God. Ephesians 2:8-10, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Closing Hymn: 410 ‘Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus

[1] Interestingly, it was John Calvin himself who deviated from this understanding and said that the “that” in the verse referred to both faith, grace, and our salvation. That would be a legitimate interpretation.