Sola Gratia #2

Solar brought a tear emphasizes that God saves us from his own mercy, not because there was anything desirable or worthy enough, the power came from God alone, not from our dead hearts were so glad you joined us on the truth with John Green, founding pastor of truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio hi Bill, right, and continuing our series. The five solos with part two of the message.

Solar Gulati by grace alone. Last time Don told us of the need for grace alone by describing from Scripture are hopeless, sinful condition, one of spiritual slavery today. Our teacher will concentrate on the provision of grace alone, you'll gain a better appreciation for the fullness of God's love for all believers. So, with your Bible in hand, let's join John Green now in the truthful God does not save sinners because he is obligated to do so with seen sinners deserve judgment. He does not save them because they merit salvation by any good works that they've done we'd seen clearly from God's word that there are no such good works. They do not exist. They are a fiction. They are a figment of unsaved man's own imagination to think that he is done something that earns heaven for himself. No, no, the testimony of Scripture is that if any sinner is saved, God has saved them even though they do not deserve it he saves them, despite the fact that they are undeserving. He saves them because it pleases him to do so because it's a manifestation of his own attributes of love, grace, mercy, kindness and patience. That's why God saves any of us is because it pleases him as the sovereign to put his attributes on display toward us in the Lord Jesus Christ to show mercy on us, that we might come to love him and know him for who he is is a God of mercy and God of grace and I get to worship and serve him even though I deserve the exact opposite from him. Look at Ephesians chapter 2 chapter 2 verse one you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power the year of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the last of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest on a horizontal, purely human level.

This was absolutely hopeless.

There was no escape possible and that's why we rejoice in grace that is now we come to the provision of solar brought Tia look at verse four with me and see this great contrast. Martyn Lloyd Jones at one time in his exposition of Ephesians preached an entire message on these first two words but God but God. By contrast with the sinful undeserving state of all men, but God not by what man has done. But God not because man is deserving, but God is done something else but God what what could God possibly do in the midst of that massive spiritual destitution verse four but God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, what you gotta be kidding me when I deserve condemnation when I've been hateful toward God when I've rebelled against him are you kidding me when I was dead and transgression dominated by the devil. And I love the loss of my flesh when it was my lips that blasphemed his great name. When is my drunkenness that distorted the image of God that I was supposed to bear. Do you mean to tell me that when I was like that God was like this rich in mercy, great in love even when we were dead in our transgressions, then what you're telling me is is that God gave me a love and mercy and kindness that I didn't deserve precisely. You couldn't have deserved this. Not only did you not deserve this.

You deserved the opposite. You deserve condemnation and look at what God did what God did for you. Look at what grace alone does against the black velvet backdrop of the darkness of your sin that provides the context for us to see the sparkling flawless diamond of God's grace.

In contrast to it and we give no glory to the dark black velvet. We adore the glory of the diamond of God's grace, rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and he raised us up with him seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ, not just for this life.

No. In fact, it has an ultimate purpose of far transcends anything that is connected with our 70 years here on earth. Verse seven, so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. What does it mean to be saved.

What does it mean to be justified. What is salvation will beloved just never separate your understanding or your discussion of that term with the condition from which you have been saved, you must keep both in mind in order to see the glory of grace alone. What is salvation.

Salvation is the spiritual deliverance of sinners from guilt and condemnation. If you have been saved in Christ you have been delivered. You have been rescued from all of that death and separation and condemnation.

The Scripture says was true about you, what is it mean to be justified.

It means that God hardens all of our sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight solely for the sake of Christ.

In other words, the glory of the gospel, the offer of the gospel is this God will forgive all of your sins.

All of them without exception. God gives new life to sinners. That is unlike the dead life that they knew before God rather than continuing in the righteous separation from us that our sins required in deserved were separated from God rather than continuing in that state of alienation. God accepts us the holy creator of the universe, the God of our and father of our Lord Jesus Christ accepts us, welcomes us in the language of first John three the daring language of first John three goes so far as to say we have become children of God. That's undeserved favor undeserved grace all of your blasphemies all of your lasts all of your drunkenness. All of the wickedness inside all of your hateful attitudes all of your hateful words all of your divisive spirits from time gone by in Christ God pardons them all. God says their sins and their lawless deeds. I will remember no more.

Psalm 103 verse 12 what does that mean that means when you die. When Christ returns. When you stand before Christ in judgment. God is not going to hold any of those sins against you, not one of them. Not one of them. The blood of Christ was so rich and full in its efficacy that it that it clinched all that guilt it washed it all away all of the wrath of God formally abided on your head was absorbed in Christ at the cross of Calvary as he hung between heaven and earth. As darkness descended and he cried out my God my God why have you forsaken me biblically, the answer to that question is, Christ was forsaken, so that you could be forgiven the Christ bore all of the judgment of all of the sins of all of the elect of all time so that we could be pardoned that we could be accepted so that we could be declared righteous.

He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Beloved, as we've explained in the past. The reality of justification is is that God treated Christ as though he had committed every sin that you ever committed. Never will commit at the cross, and punished him with a punishment that that had all of the dimensions of infinity, upon because that your guilt was infinite. The punishment that you deserved was infinite and Christ is the eternal son of God, the God man absorbed all of that for you.

All of that infinite guilt in response and in exchange perhaps better stated, God now treats us, accepts us, views us as though we were the full righteousness of Christ. He he counts that to us. He imputes it to us. He credits it to us as a gift has as something un-deserved. Don't you see beloved that solar gratitude grace alone, rightly understood rightly rightly appropriated leads you to a place were not only do you not want to cling to your pride. You actively hated you actively despise it you reject it you say no I can't let thoughts of self, of of of self-righteousness have any place in defining my view of the world. I want to slay that for the sake of the real righteousness of Christ. The real glory of God. I want to deny myself and pick up my cross and follow after him because he alone is worthy based on this grace that he is shown in his will see in a few weeks as we consider soulless Christos but Christ alone. God is gracious to us in his son Jesus Christ. The two sweetest words that human language will ever know Jesus Christ. Look at Ephesians chapter 2 verse five and look at how in this great passages Paul is declaring the glories of salvation, how often he is referring to Christ directly referring to them with a pronoun in him look at it with me. Ephesians 25 he made us alive together with Christ. He raised us up with him. He seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Verse 10 we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works is just in a few short verses there you just see how how this passage drips with is saturated with the glory of Christ in and attributes the fullness of our salvation to Christ alone, by grace alone. Think about it a little further, no disco, going back to the fact let's think about it through in some details here about it. You know Scripture declares that God appointed us for these riches before the foundation of the world.

Ephesians 13 and four. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who chose us in him before the foundation of the world before you were ever born before you done anything good or bad, God had determined to show this kind of grace to you. This was his eternal plan from the beginning thing about it from another perspective before you were ever born, Christ was born of a virgin in a land far away. It humbled himself before you were ever conceived in your mother's womb he had humbled himself and left the glories of heaven taken on human flesh.

Apart from anything that you ever did before you were ever born. Jesus Christ lived a sinless life and offered that life of his as an atoning sacrifice on the cross to pay the infinite debt of your sin, you realize blood think about a chronologically with me.

This was 2000 shares ago Christ was doing this for you multiplied generations before you were ever even thought of long before whoever first came to America came here long before that Christ had done this in his grace in his mercy he executed the redemptive plan with his life. With his death and with his resurrection so that the full price of your salvation had been paid long before you were born without any prompting from you without any suggestions from you about how this plan of salvation might work out.

Think about it you know we are the eternal beneficiaries of this great grace of God he didn't consult with us one bit before he planned it for he carried it out before Christ came.

This is all of the genius loving mind of God we can contribute a single idea to it, let alone a single act of righteousness to it without any prompting from us without any assistance from us. God raised Christ from the dead raised him from the grave raised him from the tomb proof that the payment had fully been made.

Death no longer had claim on Christ nor on any who are in Christ without your assistance. Christ ascended to heaven and now sits at the right hand of God gladly interceding for you. Gladly, representing you, before the holy Shekinah glory of God thing. Father those belong to me.

He's mine. God and God accept you in Christ.

Let's look at that passage in Ephesians chapter 1 verse three through 14, 202 Greek words of praise. This is one sentence in Greek from verse 3 to 14 won't look at all of the pulses. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see these truths lead you to bless his name and my Savior not my truly Christian or not they start to say well you know what kind of fruit do I see in my life and my avoiding Sandra my doing this or that you know what, if you truly say they're going to be something in your heart.

Hey, a predominant strain in your heart in response to the provision of grace alone is going to be something in your heart that joins with the apostle Paul says all Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is going to be a tone of praise.

If God has done this in your life that your response to that is one of adoring worship to him if that note of worship is absent from your heart and yeah you got problems far greater than any sins or committing because the one who is truly been saved and has some kind of understanding of it is drawn upward to give worship in response. What else could you do in response guilty and condemned.

Now accepted and pardoned, declared righteous.

Look at verse three 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, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, you know, up 11. It was even grace that gave you the power to come to Christ in the first instance. John 644 says no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him and through all of this when you look at the, the need for solar to the sinfulness of man your own sinful, depraved nature, you look at what Christ has done. You look at the benefits of being in Christ.

You see the love, grace, mercy, patience and kindness of God that that reveals and you say salvation finds its cause in God's sovereign grace alone. It was his plan was the father's plan. It was the son's blood.

It was the spirits application to your heart that is put you in a position to be here. If you are in Christ, if you're in Christ is because there was a Trinitarian work of grace that was done to secure your eternal redemption that you absolutely did not deserve. But the God absolutely was pleased to do for his own glory. Apart from the grace of God. Apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.

No one would be saved again. James Montgomery voice. I quote he says human beings are not capable of winning, seeking out or even cooperating with God's grace.

It is to grace alone expressed through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, that brings us to Christ, releasing us from our bondage to sin and raising us from death to spiritual life were completely humbled and were completely overjoyed so solo brought to you at the risk of repeating myself here emphasizes that God saves us from his own mercy, not because there was anything desirable or worthy in us the power came from God alone, not from our dead hearts and that's why go back to Ephesians chapter 2. That's why these verses. These two verses are justly and rightly famous now with a fresh and informed understanding these familiar verses should leap out for the page into our hearts into our minds and lead us to adoring worship of this God who is blessed. Verse eight for it is by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

See the absolute statements again no one can boast. This salvation is a gift from God that something that you did on your own.

Not sure when we been born again. When God imparts a new nature to us. We live a different life we do good works. We live from a transformed nature, verse 10 we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. But, beloved understand this does good works in your subsequent life after you have been converted bring no merit to the table for you to be saved. They play no part in your justification is not that you are saved by faith plus works and that brings about justification you are justified by faith alone. Based on the righteousness of Christ alone. By the grace of God alone, to the glory of God alone. It is solely and completely for the sake of Christ alone of Christ's righteousness alone that God accepts us. The fact that it's not attributed to our works precludes posting and beloved.

I know some of you really need to hear this because it's not about your works, but the righteousness of Christ.

That means that you can rest in Christ say God accepts me in Christ despite my sin, even though I have fallen short of the glory of God. It is by grace alone that he accepts me. I rest in Christ I trust in Christ alone and to know the liberty of the position of the children of God, that we might have that blessed acceptance from God that we completely do not deserve. And yet we have. It is our eternal possession secure never to be taken away by asking my friends that you trusted in Christ alone for this kind of grace and forgiveness. Have you forsaken your own claims to self-righteousness and rested in Christ alone. Grace is amazing. That kind of grace, that kind of love that kind of mercy that kind of patience demands your life soul we can add nothing to the grace of God in salvation either before or after we come to Christ. And so we've discussed the second Sola solo Grazie pastor Don Greene will move on to the next of the five solos on our next program and we hope you'll join us then here on the truth pulpit right now though Don's back here in studio with the resource offer will my friend. I am committed to the dynamic of verbal preaching. I love to preach and speak. I think there's a dynamic when a preacher opens the word of God to hearers that that the audio component of that is a means that God uses greatly in the lives of those who here but I also understand that sometimes you want to go back and study what was said more closely. We have transcripts of all of my full-length sermons available on our website and I would encourage you to go there to find them and to be able to study the messages more closely through the written word as you've also enjoyed it through the spoken word. Thanks, Don and friend to find those and all our resources. Just visit the truth. Pulpit.com that's the truth.

Pulpit.com. I'm Bill Wright inviting you back next time. When Don Greene presents more from the truth.

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