Series: Ephesians
Title: Praise the Glory of
his Grace
Text: Ephesians 1: 6
Date: March 3, 2013
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Ephesians 1: 3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ: 4 According as he hath chosen
us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
without blame before him in love: 5
Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace,
wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Title: Praise the Glory of his Grace
Proposition: Everything God the Father does from
beginning to end is so that every last child he brings to glory shall praise
the glory of his grace.
The Spirit of God moved
Paul’s hand to write some of the most blessed words in all of scripture in the
four verses we just read. God the Father
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. This was done according as God chose us in
Christ before the foundation of the world.
God did it that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. In
love, God predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself according to the good pleasure of his will, wherein he has made us
accepted in the Beloved, Christ Jesus.
In addition, God has
revealed many divine attributes in the salvation of sinners by Christ: his
wisdom, his power, his immutability. We
see the glory of his justice, his longsuffering, his goodness and truth, his
great forgiveness. But he says here in
the 6th verse that God the Father would have the crowning honor of
all to go the “glory of his grace.” I
like how he says “the glory” of “his grace.”
Indeed, it is glorious grace!
Paul can’t exalt it high enough and we can’t praise it enough.
Spurgeon: “When God glorifies his grace, he glorifies his whole character;
[by grace he exhibits his perfections]; grace becomes a light which shines upon
all [his perfections,] and they, albeit bright enough in themselves, seem to be
doubly bright when they glow in the brilliance of grace.”
What does this word “grace” mean? By grace, is meant the free and sovereign
favor of God the Father given to guilty and helpless sinners. Every detail in a
sinner salvation—from his election to the final act of carrying him into the
glory of heaven—is all by the grace of God.
If any sinner can lay claim to one little detail and pat himself on the
back then all ceases to be grace. Grace and works are opposites in salvation. They
cannot be combined together. Nor is salvation partly of grace and partly of
works.
Romans
11: 7: And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more
grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no
more work.
“For
by grace are ye saved…Not of works, lest any man should boast.” (Eph 2: 8-9)
The only boasting in heaven
will be to praise of the glory of his grace.
“Boasting excluded, pride I
abase,
I’m only a sinner, saved by
grace.”
I. THE EVERLASTING COVENANT IS A
COVENANT OF GRACE.
Ephesians 1: 6:…to the praise of the
glory of his grace.
We
see in verses 4 that by grace, God the Father elected a people unto salvation
in Christ Jesus. Our text tells us it was by grace. That is when God the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit entered into covenant to save those the Father chose. It is a covenant revealing and promising to
his child that salvation is by grace, because there was nothing left in the
hand of those he chose. Therefore, it is
a covenant of grace. This is the new
covenant—the promise that our salvation is finished—which he makes with his
child in the heart. David said,
“Although my house be
not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in
all things, and sure: for this is all my salvation, and all my
desire, although he make it not to grow.” (2Sa 23:5)
Ps 89:28 My mercy will I keep for him for evermore,
and my covenant shall stand fast with him.
Application: When you hear about salvation all of
grace—ordered and sure—mercy and grace kept forever for you—all accomplished
entirely by God—does that sound good to you sinner?
Isaiah 55:3: Incline your
ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an
everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
II. GRACE IS SURE BECAUSE GOD THE FATHER
GAVE HIS SON AND HIS SON JUSTIFIED ALL THOSE GIVEN TO HIM ON THE CROSS.
Ephesians 1:
7: In whom we have redemption, through his blood, even the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches of his grace.
All
those he chose to save are sinners. You
have to meet that requirement before you can be saved. Paul is writing to those chosen by grace.
That is who Christ died for. They knew they were his elect because they met the
requirement—they were guilty, helpless, worthless, vile sinners. But they had redemption, free forgiveness, because
God’s own Son gave his life in their place and by his blood God the Father was
just to forgive them.
Isn’t
that amazing! Justification is freely
given by grace—by God’s free favor. “A
leper came to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto
him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.” And the Lord healed him. You have
to come believing he can if he will, and you have to come with nothing to
add—casting all into his hands to justify you, if he will. All those he justifies by grace, he justifies
freely, it means they come confessing they can’t be justified any other way, than
by his grace. They come empty. The publican smote upon his breast, saying,
“Have mercy on me a sinner.” The Lord said he went down to his house justified.
Romans 3: 20: Therefore by
the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the
law is the knowledge of sin. 21
But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being
witnessed by the law and the prophets; 22
Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the
glory of God; 24 Being justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the
remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; 26 To declare, I say, at this time his
righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus.
The
reason this justification is free is because Christ Jesus paid all the debt his
people owed. It is by grace that God might get all the glory for justifying his
people freely by his grace. Remember, grace is the opposite of works.
Titus 3:7:…That being justified
by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
III. IF YOU CAN COME THIS WAY IT WILL BE BY HIS GRACE.
Ephesians 2: 3: 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. 4: But
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5: Even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye
are saved;) 6 And hath raised us
up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus: 7: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8: For by
grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the
gift of God:
Those
who truly believe on Christ don’t boast in themselves—you won’t hear a believer
bragging about his faith. One who truly
believes, knows God saved him and called him BY GRACE or he would have never
known it, and never had any interest whatsoever. Faith is the gift of grace.
2 Timothy 1:9: We are saved and called with a holy Calling,
not according to our Works; but according to his own Purpose and Grace,
which was given us in Christ, before the World began
“It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth; but of God, that sheweth Mercy, for he said, I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious.” (Romans 9:16.).
Romans
4:16 Therefore it is of faith, that it
might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed;
IV. IF WE CONTINUE IN FAITH IT WILL BE
BY HIS GRACE.
Paul
was saved by grace. He went forth
laboring in the gospel—he was beaten, shipwrecked, thrown in prison, but he
continue laboring in the cause of Christ. He said,
1 Corinthians 15:10: But by
the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was
not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the
grace of God which was with me.
Application:
Brethren, aren’t you glad that God continues to keep you by his grace? We have two nations warring with each other
within us. Then we have every other army
waging war against us without. Paul was in prison facing execution when he
wrote the Philippians saying
Philippians 1: 6: “He which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ… 1:7 Even as it is meet for me to think this of
you all, because I have you in my heart; inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in
the defence and confirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace.
He
was trusting in Christ risen in power to keep him by his power—the weaker we
become in our flesh the more thankful we are for that resurrection glory—Paul
said,
Philippians 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his
resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto
his death;
Hebrews 4:16 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne
of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
This is why Paul was continually ending his letters
like this,
Romans 16:24 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with
you all. Amen.
V. WHEN HE BRING US HOME TO GLORY IT
WILL BE BY GRACE
The
first living stone was brought by grace so the very last stone in the building…
Zechariah 4:7: he shall
bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.
It
shall be seen in the end that, indeed, “grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life.”
Peter
began his first epistle, saying
“Wherefore
gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace
that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;” (1Peter
1:13)…And he ended it saying, “But the God of all grace, who hath called us
unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while,
make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” (1Peter 5:10)
This
is why both now and forever we praise
the glory of his grace, saying,
“Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto
thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake” (Ps. 115:1).
Amen!