Greetings to you, my friend. I’m Mack Lyon. The program is a Bible study called In Search of the Lord's Way. We’re glad you have chosen to study with us today. We pray we’ll both be blessed.
Thank you, thank you, friend, for inviting us into your home by means of your radio or your television to study the Bible with you In Search of the Lord's Way-- to be saved and to live your life with Jesus Christ. Or, maybe you're not at home today; maybe it's your hospital room or hotel room. I had a doctor tell me once as he made his Sunday morning hospital calls, all up and down the hallway, from every room came the sounds of this program, at this time. And some of you have written us that while you were flat of your back in the hospital, or sitting with a loved one in the hospital, you heard our program and you were turned to the Lord. Well, we're glad; and thank you for listening today wherever you are.
If you would like to write us for any reason, our address is In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. We would love to hear from you, but we're not asking you to send money. We're here through the love and generosity of some members of some churches of Christ in the area of this station, who would really like you to come and pay them a visit. Our e-mail address is searchtv@searchtv.org; and our toll-free telephone number is 1-800-321-8633. Or, you might want to visit our website, too; and that is at searchtv.org.
Because he wrote so much about grace, the apostle Paul is sometime called "the apostle of grace." In his writing and preaching, he sometimes referred to his message as "the gospel of God" as he did in Romans 1:1. At times he called it "the gospel of Christ" as he did in Romans 1:16. Three times he spoke of it as simply "my gospel" and three times "our gospel." In his farewell to the elders of the church in Ephesus he called it "the gospel of the grace of God" (Acts 20:24). Of course, it was the same gospel that he preached everywhere. But in different places there were different needs, so he gave special emphasis on these certain features or facets of his good news message wherever it applied. Indeed the gospel of God and the gospel of Christ and the gospel of the grace of God are all of one and the same. Well, Ken Helterbrand’s going to lead us now as we sing, then I’ll be back for the message.
We are reading today from the book of Ephesians, chapter 2; and we will begin at verse 4 and read through verse 10. “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love wherewith 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 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 all His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Let’s go to God in prayer now. Our Father who art in heaven, we bow before You in the name of Jesus and give You our thanks and praise for Your mercy and Your grace shown toward us in that while we were yet in our trespasses and sins and living a lifestyle like that, that by Your plan and Your grace we are saved. And we are thankful. Amen!
Our word "grace" comes from the word from which we get a number of other English words, such as "charity," "charm" and "charisma," some others. It sometimes means "beauty" and sometimes it means "thanks," and that may be the reason that, and probably is the reason, that some people talk about saying "grace" at the table before eating. Sometimes "grace" means a "gift." Barclay says it’s an “undeserved gift.” Paul often refers to his calling as "the grace given to me" as he did in Romans 12 and 3. Usually in the context of Christianity, we think of it as an “undeserved gift”-- and it really is an undeserved favor bestowed upon us by our heavenly Father, and upon us as holy and sinful man in the gift of salvation.
When God created man, He pronounced him "very good" (Genesis 1:31). The man and the woman were different from all the other creatures that He had made, not just in physical appearance or features, but, they (and only they) were said to bear His likeness-- or His image (Genesis 1:26). They were His offspring (Acts 17:28). He loved them and came and walked with them and talked with them in the cool of the evening as His children in the garden (Genesis 3 and 8). While we may not fully understand all that verse, we can know that it conveys the idea of love and perfect closeness as the parent-child relationship that existed between God and man. That's undoubtedly where C. Austin Miles received the inspiration for his beautiful hymn, I Come to the Garden Alone.
Then one day all that was suddenly interrupted by sin. The Bible says that sin is disobedience or transgression of God's law (1 John 3 and 4). And if man had sinned, then that is what he had done-- he had transgressed God’s law. God had given the man and the woman every necessity of life and even more-- He had splashed it with beauty-- full color. But, they disobeyed Him and they were driven from the garden-- from God’s presence. However, God immediately announced His plan for reconciliation with man. It's recorded in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. It was part of His "master plan of creation" that he had made even before He began the work of creation. The plan was that when man sinned, He would send His only Son into the world-- through Him man could be saved, reconciled to God (John 3:17).
Now, centuries later, comes the apostle Paul to say in Romans 5 and 12, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death is passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." No, we are not all dead because of Adam's sin; we don’t inherit together his sin, no, the verse says, "death has passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." And in 2 Corinthians 5:17 through 19, we are taught, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation;” (I really like the old King James Version there. It says, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature;”) “old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Christ Jesus, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, to with, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself...”
But, why would our holy God send His sinless Son into the world to die by crucifixion as He did for us rebellious sinners? “Well,” you can say, "God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And you would be correct in that; that's the motivation alright-- His great love for us. But the doing of it is "grace,” undeserved favor. Our text says, "By grace (the undeserved favor of God) have you been saved.” But Paul, if salvation is offered the human race by grace alone, as we are told, then why are not all men saved? Well, I'm sure the apostle of grace would come back with the answer: "I did not say, ‘By grace alone have you been saved;’ I said, ‘by grace you have been saved through faith (or by your faith).’"
The message is that those Ephesians who had become Christians were formerly children of wrath just as the unconverted are today. But God, being rich in mercy, as He is revealed in the Bible, had reversed their inevitable rush to self-destruction, and by His grace, He rescued them. He saved them! Paul is saying that God, who is highly incensed with sin, is also a God of grace. He is saying, "By grace (the grace of God, of course) have you been saved through faith." And, not only that, it is not because of, or by any plan for reconciling yourself to God that it’s achieved. It’s God, not you, who devised the way of reconciliation of the sinner with God. It’s God’s plan of aggressive action, even before He created man. When the time was come, He sent His Son Jesus Christ to accomplish it. It is God’s doing; not man's. God created and God spoke. And God acted in giving His Son to bring about sinful man's reconciliation with Himself. Jonah (you remember, you remember old Jonah; he said) "Salvation is of the Lord" (Jonah 2 and 9), and that’s what Paul is saying in Ephesians 2:8 and 9. We teach our children to sing, “God is great! God is good!” And so He is, my friend. And we can’t say it too often.
However, there are some essential conditions on which man can be peacefully reconciled to God. One of those is acceptance of His only begotten Son. Believing on Jesus Christ as the Son of the living God is absolutely essential. “Oh,” someone says, “but there are no absolutes.” Alright, have it your way, but in spite of public opinion, you would be lost, too. Awhile ago we read from 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 17 and 19, through 19, that reconciliation with God is in Christ. Jesus Himself said in John 8:24, "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am He, (that is the Son of God) you will die in your sins." He said, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe in Him is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." And that is in John chapter 3, verses 16 through 18.
Well, the apostle of grace wrote, "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is the word of faith which we preach); that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and if you believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:8 and 9). You see my friend; you must believe something about Jesus to be saved. You must believe in His deity-- that is He is the Son of the living God. Of course you can be a member of many man-made churches without believing anything for that matter, but you can't be saved without believing in Jesus Christ, and obeying Him, being His disciple. Jesus told the disciples, if they wouldn't confess Him (as the Son of God) before men, He would not confess them before the throne of God (Matthew 10:32).
Jesus also taught repentance as a condition of salvation. He told the people of His day, "Unless you repent, you will all perish" (Luke 13:3, and 5). After He had been proven to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead (Romans 1 and 4), He charged His apostles saying, "That repentance and remissions of sins should be preached in His name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem" (Luke 24:47). Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son (we call him the prodigal son) in Luke 15 constitute some of the best loved reading from the teachings of Jesus, and all of them teach repentance. All of them, friend! People are misled into believing that there's nothing they can do-- nothing's required of them in the process of their salvation, that it is entirely by the grace of God. Of course there is, or, by the great grace of God all men will be saved-- that is those who will be saved.
When Jesus had been raised from the dead, He commissioned His chosen apostles to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." He said, "He who believes, and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned" (Mark 16, verses 15 and 16). And you know, when the apostles received the Holy Spirit and began to preach under that commission, as they were inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit, they began immediately to tell the people to "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." That is Acts 2:38. In the process of his conversion Paul, “the apostle of grace” himself, was asked, "Now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord" (Acts 22:16). And he arose and was baptized immediately. Why? To wash away his sins!
Oh now wait a minute. Are we saying the water of baptism washes away sin? No, no not at all, friend! Absolutely not! Only the blood of Jesus Christ can wash away a person's sins. The Scripture says, He "loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood" (Revelation 1:5). And in Revelation 7, verse 14, those who were seen arrayed in white garments were those who had come out of the great tribulation and "washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb." Well, as we learned earlier, by the grace of God, Jesus shed His blood in His death (John 19:34) and a person is baptized into His death (Romans 6:3 and 4), and it is at that time that His blood washes away sins as we are calling on the name of the Lord. Saved! And that is a glad message, isn’t it?
On the part of God, salvation is by grace. It was God who was sinned against, and it was God-- not man who designed the plan for reconciliation. And that’s what Paul is saying in Ephesians 2:8. On the part of man, salvation is through faith. The plan included the gift of God's Son, and man's acceptance of Him-- on conditions that were not self-glorying. That's what Ephesians 2:8 to 10 is saying. Let us pray. Thank You, Lord, for this message and the assurance that You have made the arrangements-- Christ is procured our salvation, and demonstration of the great love wherewith He loved us. Thank You, Thank You, Lord, in the name of Jesus. Amen!
After the creation, before sin entered the picture, God came down and walked and talked with the human family. As I said before, from that verse we get the idea of a very close relationship and fellowship that existed between God and the human family. And while that was lost in man’s sinfulness, because of God's grace sinful man can be reconciled to God and that communion can be restored-- in Christ. “God is in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:17 through 19). And He says, "You are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (Galatians. 3:26-27). So to be reconciled to God, a person must come to Christ. The question about Christ was and is today is He who He said He was the Son of God? During His earthly ministry "many believed on Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; (they would be disfellowshiped by their fellow Jews) for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God" (John 12:42-43).
Thank you again, my friend, for being with us today. I pray if you're not already a Christian-- by the grace of God, redeemed by Jesus' blood, you will be before the day is over. And if we can help you, it would be a pleasure and a blessing to do so. Call or write us. Our address is In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Our e-mail address is searchtv@searchtv.org. And our toll-free telephone number is 1-800-321-8633. Visit our website, too, will you? It’s at www.searchtv.org. You may use the same address or telephone number to request a free audio cassette tape or a free printed copy of today's program, too.
We are here, free of any appeals for money because of the love and generosity of some of your friends, some of your neighbors across the street, up the street, down the street-- some people who are members of churches of Christ in the area served by this station. Say, we would like it so much if you would pay them a visit real soon. If you need help in locating such a congregation, please let us help you. Use that same address or telephone number. We won't pass your name on to anyone else, accept with your permission. We will be back next week. We hope you can, too. God bless you. We love you.
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