Grace

We'll turn our Bibles to a very familiar text in Ephesians chapter 2. Must be a text that we should know by heart. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8, 9 and 10. It says, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, God, nor of works, lest any man should boast. For ye are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we must walk in them."

Now, there are three things the apostle mentions there in verse 8. He's talking about grace, faith and salvation, and then he says, “that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God.” So what is not of yourselves? Is it grace or faith or salvation? What is not of yourselves? Well, the salvation which is by grace through faith is not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. I mean, some want to say, well, grace is from God, faith is from you, together it makes salvation. But that's not what it's saying. Salvation which is by grace through faith is a gift of God. It is not something that you earned by your good works, right? So it is

all of grace. Salvation is all of grace is the teaching of Scripture. And so this morning I just wanted to make a few observations on this grace which saves us. Three important observations. Very simple observations and it's very difficult to, you know, reiterate these things before a Calvinist church because they all know it already.

So I'll be saying nothing new this morning. But I'm just reiterating and reinforcing what you already know and believe so that we can worship God together for this grace that he has manifest in our own lives as well. So the first observation I make is that this grace which saves us is free. It is a free grace.

Now, certain expressions in this passage makes it very plain that this grace is free and it is not something that we earned. It is a gift of God. What is a gift? Is gift something that you earn? No. That would be a prize, right, if you earned it. It is not wages. You know, it's not something that you worked for. Salvation is not wages. Salvation is not a prize.

But it is a free gift of grace. So there is nothing that you contributed towards it. There is nothing that you did by which you merited the gift of salvation given to you by grace. It was free grace that saved you. And it's very plainly declared also in verse 9, “not of works, lest any man should boast.” You have no occasion to boast, you have no occasion to glory, because it is not because you merited it by your good works that you were saved. That's very plain from the text.

But to magnify that thought, we need to also understand that it is not of works could have done in fact in order to save ourselves, right? Because that's how this chapter begins. It says he has quickened us, or he has quickened you who are dead in your trespasses and sins. He has quickened you in Christ. Okay, so, uh, the, or he has made you alive who were once dead in trespasses and sins. Quickening is in old King James Version language.

I'm still reading the King James Version. He has made you alive in Christ who were once dead in trespasses and sins. What does it mean when it says we were dead in our trespasses and sins? Why is he using the analogy of death to describe our condition before our salvation?

Well, is used to convey to us that we were in a state where we could not do anything in order to save ourselves. Just like a dead man cannot work, just like a dead man can do nothing, no good, no bad. Okay, but at least as far as our salvation is concerned and our state before salvation is concerned, we were able to do everything that is sinful. We were able to do everything that displeases God, but there is not a single work that you could do by which you could please God to merit your salvation. So you are completely incapable of doing anything that would reconcile you to God and bring you to have peace with God.

So in that sense, you were dead. So it is an analogy. In fact, he's actually saying you were dead in the sense that you were completely incapable of doing anything that is good. He was not saying you're incapable of doing anything at all because verses two and three very clearly says that you walked after the prince of the air, so you are active doing something, but you are doing something in keeping with your own sinful nature. You are capable of doing sinful things.

We must say, well, but unsaved people also do some very good things, don’t they? And Jesus also seems to say, I mean, speaking about parents, he says, “You being evil, know to do, give good things, good gifts unto your children.” So there are, I mean, unbelievers who do very good things to even far surpass the good things which the believers do. We have this saying among us that those people are better than Christians.

Aren’t people doing good? They are. But all of their good works outside of Christ are filthy rags before God, and therefore they cannot be acceptable before God as good works. There are several passages which demonstrate that, but one in Proverbs 21:4, in Proverbs 21:4 it says, “A proud look,” sorry, can you read that? How does it say?

A proud look and a — is it a proud look? The first thing? A high look, okay, a haughty eyes, and then a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord. Now the first look and a haughty look or a proud heart, these two things we know they are sinful before God, but how is the plowing of the wicked sinful before God? That’s a neutral act, right? And in fact the plowing is something which God himself expects we should all be all be doing. I mean, he’s just doing his job, his everyday’s job, which is neutral, I mean, which is not immoral at least, which is not sinful at least. But when the wicked does it, even the plowing of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord.

It is because of your nature that your acts are either rendered good or bad before God. And because you are sinful in your nature, the amount of good that you do does not make you good. You still remain evil before God. And so you are absolutely incapable of doing anything by which you can merit any good before God by which you could be accounted worthy of being saved.

So the analogy of death is perfectly fitting when the apostle as you were dead in your trespasses and sins. Okay, and so that’s where God makes you alive and makes you capable of doing everything that pleases God. We generally hear this kind of a gospel call where it says, “You take the first step towards God and God will take the remaining 99 steps towards you.” You know, but the point is you are incapable of making that first move towards God. You can’t take that first step. And therefore the gospel is that God takes that first step to take those remaining 99 steps towards God.

So people in their own opinions and own understanding of the gospel have actually reversed the teaching of scripture. It’s not you who take the first step, it’s God who takes the first step and makes you alive and then gives you all the strength you need to walk the remaining 99 steps to complete that distance between you and God. And so salvation was completely free. There was nothing that you could do in order to save yourself. Many other passages in scripture which demonstrates the same idea, that salvation is free because you could not do anything about saving yourselves. How about this? When the gospel was presented you, it made sense to you, responded to it, and therefore you were saved. That is true, right? But how is it that

it made sense to you, how is it that you began to respond to it? Were you better than others? Were you more kind-hearted than others? Were you more smarter than others, that you could figure out things better? Did you already have a heart of that you could respond better than the others?

No, in fact, the scripture assigns a different reason why you are able to believe and others are not able to believe. In fact, in John chapter 6 and verse 44, a familiar text again, John chapter 6 and verse 44, Jesus says, “No man can come to me except the Father which sent me draw him.”

No man can come. It's impossible that he can come in your natural state. No man can come, period. That's it. But how is it that we came to Christ? How is it that we responded to the gospel that was presented to us? How is it that we could yield obedience to the gospel when the gospel call came to us?

Well, the answer is in the same words. We came to Christ because the Father which sent him drew him to us. Right? What is drawing? People say it’s like attracting, you know, the Father which sent me has to attract you to come to me.

But how can a dead man be attracted with something? So this drawing has the connotation of applying force, in fact. The Greek word helko, which is translated in other places. Actually, in John chapter 21 verse 6, when it says they drew the net to the shore, which was full of fish. How do you draw a net full of fish to the shore?

Do you attract it to the shore? The same word helko. So can you render it attract there? No, you have to apply a lot of force to draw a net from the sea to the shore, which is full of fish, right? And they needed help from people in the other boats to do that as well. So, drawing exerts a lot of force and God had to forcefully draw you to Christ in order that you could respond and yield obedience to the gospel. So, it didn’t happen by your willing choice because you had no will, you were dead as far as willing to choose God is concerned.

You could not come to Christ. That was your state. And God made it possible by forcefully drawing you to come to Christ. And when we say God applies force, God does it by the power of his grace, then people say, well, but that’s violating man’s will, right? No, but God doesn’t violate man’s will. God subdues man’s will, which is destructive to him, which is rebellion against God, and gives him a willing heart so that when man comes, he comes willingly. He doesn’t come kicking and crying against his will into the kingdom of God. No, he doesn’t come that way, but he comes very willingly and submissively and lovingly, and it is an act of his own choice when he comes, but he was made willing and he

was made to choose by the power of God, by subduing his rebellion and subduing his, you know, will which was at rebellion with God. Now he does that by force and people don’t like that when we say that. No, no, how can God, you know, defy man’s will? How can God work against man’s will? He has to work in cooperation with man’s will and can’t really violate man’s will in that sense. And they give us some crazy analogies. They say, well, see, I heard of a preacher where in a Q&A session, there was this question asked. The question was, we hear of demon-possessed people in the Bible, right?

So the person asking the question asked the pastor, when this demon entered into this person, did it take the man’s permission? Did it? It did not, right? So if the demon can enter into somebody without his permission, why does God need somebody’s permission to enter into their heart? That was the question. And you know what was the answer?

The man said, the pastor said, see, the devil has no manners. But my God is a gentleman who is very well mannered. So he’ll just stand at the door and knock, knock, knock. And if you open the door, he’ll come in. Really? Okay, let me ask you this. Who opened Lydia’s heart?

Who opened Lydia’s heart? Who is Lydia now? You’ll find her in Acts chapter 16 and verse 14, which will also tell you who opened her heart. And God opened the heart of Lydia. God opened the heart of Lydia. So was he not that gentleman, well-mannered, standing at the door, knocking, knocking? Doesn’t seem like that, right? It was God who opened the heart of Lydia. See, the point is, suppose I’m held up in a house which is shut, where there’s a fire accident, and you want to save me. What would you do?

Stand at the door and knock, knock, knock until I open. Because you’re a gentleman, you see. You can’t violate your good manners. And if I come and open the door, then you’ll ask my permission and then rescue me. Is that how you rescue somebody who’s in danger? No, you’ll break open the door and bring that man out of that danger by force if need be.

Okay, I mean, if you use analogy, I’ll use a counter analogy. That’s no big deal. You come up with logic, I’ll come up with counter logic. But let’s talk scripture. What does the scripture say, isn’t it? That’s the whole point. So is it, you know, bad manners all the time to break open somebody’s door?

Not. And if there is one thing we will be thankful to God for in all eternity, it will be because God used that force and saved us against our will. Because if we waited for us to respond out of our own will, He would have waited for all eternity and we would never respond.

And God rescued me out of that danger and whatever force it took for Him to apply to bring me to this knowledge of saving grace, I should be thankful for it for all eternity. There is no other way I could have been saved.

Right? And there are so many other passages in scriptures which teaches us. I mean, why is it that when you look at scriptures, you begin to love the things that you read there. It communicates to you. You know that God is speaking to you through his word. When you look at Jesus Christ, he’s a new person to you than how the world looks at him. He’s not that religious teacher who is a good man, who has set a good example, but he is the Lord of glory. You can see all of that glory in him when you think about Jesus Christ.

But others are not able to see that same glory in Jesus Christ, which you are able to see. What do you think is the difference? The same gospel that was presented to you and to them, you know, First Corinthians chapter 2 and verses 8 and 9, it says, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God had prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.” Verse 14, “But the natural man received not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned.”

So a natural man, any man who is not saved is a natural man. He is in his natural condition and he cannot know the things of God. He cannot see, he cannot hear, his heart cannot perceive. But I am able to see, I am able to hear, my heart is able to perceive.

Because the spirit of God makes that difference. Who makes you to differ from another? And what have you which you have not received? And if you have received it, why do you glory it? So all of it was freely bestowed upon you. It was not because you were smarter than others that you could figure out the gospel and understand it. It’s not that it made sense to you because your heart was a heart of flesh already.

No, but God removed that heart of stone and gave you the heart of flesh and therefore you can understand it. And why all that? In fact, to make it very simple, there was one instance where the disciples came to Jesus in Mark chapter 10. I’m sorry, there’s no Mark chapter 20. Okay, so Mark chapter 10 and verse 27. Okay, verse 26 is where they ask him this question, who then can be saved? The question was directly about salvation, about entering into the kingdom of God. That was the context.

It is impossible for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. It’s talking about salvation. It’s talking about eternal life. And the question was, who then can be saved? And what was the answer? Said. With man, this is difficult? Was it difficult or impossible? Impossible. If Jesus said with man, this is difficult, maybe, I mean, no matter what amount of difficulty it was, we would have somehow surmounted it and tried to get salvation by facing all of that difficulty. But Jesus didn’t say salvation is difficult for man. He said, with man, this is impossible, but with God

all things are possible, including saving souls. So it is only for God that saving souls is possible, and therefore salvation is of the Lord is the message of the Bible consistently. Therefore it cannot be that we earned our own salvation, it cannot be that we merited our own salvation, it cannot be that we have any occasion for glorying, because of our completely given to us freely by the grace of God. We did nothing to merit it. Okay, so that’s the first observation I wanted to make.

Salvation is free. Okay, but when I say all this, there is another question that comes to your mind. If that is true, if salvation can happen only when God works, if it is God who does all of this and man can do nothing about it, then why doesn’t he save everybody?

Why doesn’t he save all? Because it is a gift and no one merits it. No one can earn it. Everybody is in that state of death. And you’re brought to life only when God takes that initiative and does that work of salvation, accomplishes that work of salvation by his spirit. It’s he who should cause your eyes to see, ears to hear, heart to perceive.

Why doesn’t he do that with everyone, right? And that brings us to the second observation about grace, that grace is sovereign. Grace is sovereign. Okay, it is very plain in scripture that God does not save everybody. It is plain also in our experience that God does not save everybody. We know that the gospel is presented to so many people, but all of them don’t respond. There are many who also rebel against the gospel. There are many who mock the gospel. There are many who reject the gospel and fight against it.

Whereas there are those of us who have submitted to the gospel and understood the gospel, and it is God who is doing it. It is God who is making that difference. That we have seen very clearly. No man can come to the understanding of salvation and the free gift in Christ, except through God drawing him to Christ, right? And so if that has happened to us, then it is God who made that difference. He is not making that same, he is not working out the same grace in the hearts of other people. So it is God who is making that distinction, very plainly.

Why does he do that? Because grace is sovereign. Because grace is sovereign. And is there evidence of that in scripture? Oh yes, there is plenty of evidence of that in scripture. You know, we read of — another familiar instance is in Acts 13, verse 48, when the gospel was presented to the Gentiles. The second part of the verse says, “whoever was ordained unto eternal life,” and “everyone that was ordained unto eternal life, believed,” right? So look at that verse and

cut it whichever way you want, it will always come out with the same meaning. It doesn’t say whoever believed were appointed to eternal life. But it says whoever were ordained to eternal life believed. So who were the ones who believed? The ones who believed were the ones who were ordained to eternal life. So what was the cause of their believing? The cause was that they were ordained to eternal life and the effect was that they believed as a result of that.

When we talk about being ordained to eternal life, when we talk about God’s election, God’s — we know that there is God’s election and there’s God’s calling, but all of that is restricted to the ministry. Some special work that he assigns to people in the economy of salvation in the church and wherever it might be, where human instrumentality is involved. There are some people who are specially gifted to be specially used of him. And so in the ministry, there are people who are called. In the ministry, there are people who are elected.

But there’s no such an election as far as salvation is concerned. There is no special election unto eternal life. This text say? What were they ordained unto? Unto a ministry? No, they were ordained unto eternal life. And therefore they believed. The reason they believed was because they were ordained unto eternal life. And all who were ordained unto eternal life believed.

It cannot be that, you know, God is offering his salvation and is trying to save people whom he has ordained unto eternal life. And some of them can reject. No. life believed. That will be the outcome of the ministry of the gospel everywhere.

Okay, so why do the ones who believe, believe? Because they were ordained to eternal life. Who ordained them to eternal life? God ordained them to eternal life. Okay, why do the people who don't believe remain in their unbelief? Well, there is also a text which talks about that. We'll read that in John chapter 10.

John chapter 10 and verse 26. There Jesus is speaking to the unbelieving Jews and he says, “You do not believe because you are not my sheep.” Now I want you to observe that, observe the language there. He says, “You do not believe because you are not my sheep.” He doesn’t say, “You’re not my sheep because you don’t believe.”

That would have made sense to us, right? “You’re not my sheep because you don’t believe,” yeah? So if I believe I will become his sheep, that makes sense to me. But that’s not how Jesus puts it. Jesus’ words. He says, “You do not believe because you’re not my sheep.” The reason you do not believe is because you’re not my sheep.

It’s exactly the opposite of what we read in Acts chapter 13 and verse 48. The reason somebody believes is because they are ordained to eternal life. The reason somebody does not believe is because “you’re not my sheep.” Now, am I saying this? Or am I making up anything here? Or am I just quoting scripture? I’m just quoting scripture, right? I’ve barely interpreted it. I haven’t said anything other than what the scripture says. I haven’t quoted John Calvin. I don’t have any intentions to quote him. Although I know this is — we all know that this is labeled as Calvinism. Although poor Calvin had nothing to do with it. He simply did what I am doing this morning, simply read out from the scriptures what the scriptures had to say on this. Okay. You believe because you are ordained unto eternal life. Somebody doesn’t believe because

He is not of God’s sheep. That’s right. And when is it that God ordained you? When is it that God ordained you? Did it before the foundation of the world, right? Ephesians chapter 1 and verses 3 to 6. Very familiar text again. “He has chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him, in love having predestinated us to the adoption of children in Jesus Christ, His Son, to the praise of the glory of His grace.” Okay, so it is out of love that He has predestinated us, but that love is determined by the counsel of His will.

Okay, so before the foundation of the world God has chosen those whom he intended to save. That’s in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 3 to 6. Okay, but what do you read in Proverbs chapter 16 verse 4 as a contrast? Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 4 is also a very familiar text for those who have read anything on reprobation and even sovereign reprobation.

I don’t want to define it, reprobation, but if you know it, praise God. What does Proverbs 16:4 say? “God hath made all things unto himself, even the wicked, unto the day of doom.” So there are those whom God has elected to be saved. There are those whom he is left of as vessels of wrath for the day of doom.

So does the Bible teach all of this very plainly? Yes. So we see the sovereign hand of God, right, in all of this. You know, when we heard the gospel, we could yield obedience to it because that was within God's plan of election.

Because it was God who elected us into eternal life, therefore we could believe when the gospel was presented to us. In 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13, it says, “We are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved of God, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation by the belief of the truth and sanctification of the Spirit.”

God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation. But about those who stumbled at the hearing of the gospel, what does the scripture say? In 1st Peter chapter 2 and verse 8, “they stumbled at the word unto which they were appointed.” They stumbled at the word unto which they were appointed.

About those who were convicted in Peter’s preaching on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, it says they were pricked in their hearts and they asked, “Brethren, what shall we do to be saved?” And they were presented with the gospel and 3000 of them believed and they were saved, right? They were pricked in their hearts, they were convicted, they were moved to ask for that way of salvation and they yielded obedience to it.

Okay, but what about the scriptures, what about the scripture which talks about, you know, instances like Eli’s sons? Do you remember in 1 Samuel 2, the sons of Eli who were disobedient to the word of God and to the words of their father?

And in verse 26, verse 25, I suppose, 1 Samuel 2 and verse 25, and the last part of it, it says, “they would not hearken unto their father because it was of the Lord to slay them.” How will you understand those words? They would not hearken unto their father because it was of the Lord to slay them. The Lord wanted to slay them and therefore they would not hearken unto the voice of their father.

I'm just bringing scriptures, set of scriptures which contrast one with other. One showing the state of God’s elect and another showing the state of those who are God to see his sovereign hand in salvation very, very plainly and clearly. All of this is scripture, right? And it shows the sovereign choice of God in salvation. He has elected some unto salvation. He has not elected everybody unto salvation.

And therefore we say the grace which saved us is sovereign, and how much ought we to be thankful for it? Isn’t it? The scripture plainly declares, “Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated,” and people are surprised at the statement. How can God say, “Esau have I hated”? But that’s not the surprise, that’s not the point that should surprise you. I mean, God hated Esau because Esau deserved the hatred of God. Esau deserved the wrath of God, the punishment of God, and there is nothing surprising about that. What is really surprising about this whole thing is that God loved Jacob, God loves me and God loves you if you are saved, and that’s what should actually surprise us.

Why should God love me? Why should God love you? Why should God love anybody for that matter? Because they don’t deserve to be loved by him, right? Right? And so then this question of unfairness comes in. You know, but then somebody might accuse God of saying, well, I’m not saved because you didn’t save me.

Had you saved me, I would have responded to the gospel, right? Had you quickened me by your spirit? If you had only made me alive by your spirit, I would have responded to the gospel. But the point is, God is not obligated to do that to anyone.

And no one deserves that from the hand of God. God is not a debtor to any man that he should save them. It was not even necessary for God to make a way of salvation unless that he had desired to make his grace and his mercy manifest by the vessels of mercy that he’s chosen unto salvation. There was no necessity on God’s part to actually save anybody.

The moment man sinned, all of them were deserving of God’s wrath and God’s destruction. And even if he had made no provision for anyone’s salvation, no one could accuse God or question him. But now, so do we question him because he has made that provision for some, although he has not made it for all?

There is no question of unfairness because if you talk about fairness, then all you deserve is God’s wrath and God’s justice and God’s punishment. And somebody can still question God because gospel rejecters always want something by which they can convince their own conscience that they are not at fault. So they can say it is God’s fault and they can say it is God who is actually damning them and therefore they are not saved, but it is their own sin and they deserve it fully. Their damnation is something that they deserve fully and it is just and fair and they can still keep complaining against God for all eternity and go to hell for it.

But God doesn’t owe an explanation to anyone for why he does what he does with the souls of anyone. That’s how sovereign God is. All we know from scripture is that he is just and fair, but his justice and fairness does not depend on whether you certify him to be just and fair. He is perfectly just and fair even if he intends to damn you.

And just because you question him, you know, that doesn’t and he doesn’t owe you an answer and he can still simply vindicate his justice in damning you simply for rebelling and questioning against him. But the mark of God’s elect is that when you hear this, when you see the sovereign hand of God in scripture, as you read all of this plan of God in salvation, you will be led, you will be moved to humble yourself before God and say, “Lord be merciful unto me as sinner.” Because if you pass me and if this grace which has passed by many passes me by then there is nothing that can save me I will move you to cast yourself to the mercy of God and depend on his grace for salvation but if this hardens you and if it turns you to

rebel against God then that just confirms that you know that is what you are appointed unto. I mean they stumble at their stumbling stone the scriptures has. But it’s not going to change anything. It’s not going to change God’s fairness and justice. It’s not going to change God’s love and grace. Nothing is going to be changed. Okay. And so just because you can raise an objection and just because you can question God on this, it doesn’t mean he owes you an answer because there is no unfairness on God’s part when he does this.

Okay. And so we perfectly understand that God is absolutely sovereign. Okay, so when we say this, I mean God, the grace of God is absolutely free. The grace of God is sovereign, which has saved us. Uh, how thankful ought we to be for this, right? Because we didn’t deserve it. It’s — it’s not because of our response, it’s not because we cooperated with the gospel, it’s none of us, it’s all of God by which we are saved. Okay, but there’s another question that comes. Okay, so God has chosen you to be saved. Very good. You’re freely saved. You’re sovereignly saved when somebody else is not.

And therefore, you can live like the devil and still your salvation is secured because God has pre-planned all of this for you. God has planned this salvation from all eternity. So because your salvation does not depend on your good works, because your salvation does not depend on how you live, therefore, this is a doctrine that teaches licentiousness.

This is turning the grace of God into lasciviousness. There’s another objection that comes. There’s another objection commonly made against whom they call Calvinists. You know that this is teaching to pervert grace and to use grace as an advantage to sin and get away with it. But that’s not what the Scripture says. As we have read so many passages already, we very plainly observe that the purpose of saving, salvation, it’s not so that you can continue to sin without the fear of hell and without the fear of punishment. But because God has chosen you to salvation from your sins, therefore it is not possible that you can continue in your sins.

And that’s very evident. I mean, look at the passage before us, first of all, in Ephesians chapter 2, if we come back there. And verse 10. It says, “For ye are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we must walk in them.”

So that brings us to the third point, the third observation regarding grace. That grace is holy and grace is pure. The grace of God is holy. Firstly, we saw that the grace of God is free. Secondly, we saw that the grace of God is sovereign. And thirdly, we find that the grace of God is holy and pure.

Because the purpose of showing you grace, to be saved from your sins, is in order to make you holy, not in order to make you a pervert, to turn the grace of God into lasciviousness. So the scripture condemns anybody who does that. There are reprobate who want to play the elect in the church.

There are those who have crept in unawares and who have learned to bleat like the sheep, but they are not. Okay, but if you are truly saved by the grace of God, then you will begin to see the fruit of it in transformation in your life. And there is a progressive sanctification, for you’re God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Not because of good works, not because of the merit of your good works, but unto good works, so that you can walk in those good works which God has before ordained that you must do. I mean, so God intended that you must walk a righteous walk before him and live a righteous life before him.

And that is the purpose with which he has saved you. And that is demonstrated in many other passages also. I mean, none of the passages we read teach that you can be saved willy-nilly. You can be saved, you know, even having to do nothing with submitting to God’s holiness and living according to those standards. In fact, quite to the contrary, if you look at Ephesians 1:3–6, it plainly says, God has chosen us in Christ in order that we must be holy and blameless before him. So that was the purpose with which God saved us, that we must be holy and blameless before him.

So let me ask you this. If God had a purpose in doing something, do you think God will accomplish it or God will fail in accomplishing that purpose? Does God accomplish his purposes or does God fail? He accomplishes his purpose. If it was God’s purpose that we must be holy and blameless before him by virtue of the salvation that he works in our lives, do you think he will accomplish that?

Yes. As a result, anyone who is truly saved will live holy and blameless before God. And what does 2 Thessalonians 2 and verse 13 say? “God has from the beginning saved you to salvation.” How? By the belief of the truth and the sanctification of the Spirit.

It is not without the use of those means that God has chosen that you should be saved. It is by the belief of the truth and sanctification of the Spirit that God intended that you should be saved. So it cannot be that somebody has truly experienced the saving grace of God and can continue to willfully live in sin and find pleasure in it as he did before.

Because the transforming grace will always teach him to deny ungodliness and to live holy unto God. The grace of God has appeared unto all men to teach us to deny ungodliness and to live holy unto God. That is the purpose of the grace that is revealed.

So if it is true that God has saved us sovereignly, if it is true that God has saved us freely, then it is also true that God has saved us to accomplish the purposes with which he has saved us. And one chief end by which God glorifies his name is by sanctifying us and bringing us closer and closer to the conformity to the image of Jesus Christ. That is the purpose in calling us, isn’t it? In fact, in Romans chapter 8 and verses 29 onwards, it says, “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.”

“predestinate, then he also called, and whom he called, then he also justified. And whom he justified, then he also glorified.” What does being glorified mean? To be glorified is to be brought to the conformity of the image of Jesus Christ. That is the end with which he has foreknown us, right?

And so, we have this hope that when Jesus Christ appears, if we are truly saved, we have this hope as we read in 1 John 3 and verse 2, that when he appears, we will be like him also. Again, verse 3 says, “Whoever has this hope in him purifies himself and lives even as he lived.”

So this commitment to live as Jesus lived, this commitment to purify myself because I have this hope that I will be brought to the conformity or the image of Jesus Christ, who is truly saved because that is what God is accomplishing by his spirit in his heart. It is God who works to both will and to perform of his good pleasure in us. And his good pleasure in us is that we should walk according to the principle of sanctification, which will eventually glorify us and bring us to the conformity to the image of Jesus Christ.

And that’s what we will be found doing if we are truly saved. So that’s the real question by which to examine ourselves. Have we truly been brought to Christ in such a way that we have been saved from our sins? Not saved in our sins, but saved from our sins, so that we don’t love our sins anymore, that we love God’s holiness and the good works that he has prepared for us before, which he has ordained that we must walk in them? Are we a people zealous unto good works whom God has saved for himself?

And what are those good works, by the way? The good works which God has taught us in His word, which we must do as His people. Not the good works which this world teaches us. And so are we zealous unto those good works? Do our hearts incline towards God’s holiness? Does it frustrate us when we see sinful nature fighting against us? Do we have that restlessness until we come to Christ and find that washing and cleansing from him again and that reconciliation and peace? Do we know anything of fighting sin in our lives? Do we have that mark of sanctification, which is the mark of God’s elect? Then we have every reason to

be thankful. So here are three important observations about grace that we have learned today. Firstly, grace is free, so you can’t earn it. You’ve done nothing to merit it. It has been given to you freely. And how much thankful we ought to be for it.

Secondly, grace is sovereign, so that God was not obligated to give it to you. And yet he gave it to you as a free gift. When we say it is a free gift, it is not just free in the sense that it didn’t cost me anything. I got it freely without costing me anything.

aspect we are supposed to understand. Also understand that it is a free gift also from God's side. God gave it to you as a free gift. He was not under any obligation to give it. If he gave it under obligation, then it was not a free gift on his part, right? He gave it out of constraint.

And because he was obligated. No, but he gave it freely. And it was his sovereign choice which caused him to give it to you. And it does not violate his justice while it manifests his eternal love. Okay, and finally, the outcome of that grace which saves is that you would find the fruit of transformation in your life, that you would find yourself zealous unto good works, which God had before ordained that you should walk in them.

So does the scripture teach all of this? Yes it does. So should I allow somebody to deceive me into thinking that this is a non-essential aspect of scripture which I need not believe or contend for or stand for and I can take liberty to believe it this way or some other way? Or should I believe it as the scripture presents it?

I think I should believe it as the scripture presents it. It's not non-essential. God wasn't taking pains with all of these scripture passages to demonstrate this truth throughout his scripture to bring to light a non-essential aspect of the truth. I think this is fundamental. This is the gospel. The gospel is that it is not of me. It is completely of God.

And if somebody is teaching a gospel which is 1% of me and 99% of God, in whatever sense and however he presents that, he is preaching another gospel. It is a perverted gospel. “If anyone preaches any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be anathema.” Let him be accursed.

You say, “Oh, but you are saying only Calvinists are Christians, others are non-Christians.” Well, I am not saying Calvinists, non-Calvinists. You are saying that who is opposing me. You want to label me a Calvinist, I have no problem. But I will continue to believe what the scripture believes. And I believe that whoever believes the scripture and stands with it is a Christian. And others can play the Christians, they can bleat like the sheep, but they’re not.

So what is our conviction of the gospel? Is it free? Is it God’s sovereign grace? And is it a holy grace that saves, which also makes us holy? Or do you have some other idea of the gospel? And no wonder Charles Spurgeon said, “Calvinism is destined as the name for the gospel.”

When you listen to all of this. But I'm talking about Calvin and Spurgeon right towards the end. Because I don't want our faith to be based on the wisdom of men. Or on church history. Or on what others have contended. And on the wisdom of other people. And because a lot of well-meaning Christians have believed this. But that's not the reason why we should be believing it. Does the scripture teach all of this? And if the scripture does teach, then we are obligated to be Christians. We are obligated to be biblical.

Okay. And so, although I’m sure most of us have these convictions here, but there can be, you know, those questions that some of the people, I’ve, I’ve met some, some good, you know, friends from some good Calvinist churches who tell me that all of this is non-essential stuff, you see. This is non-centric.

It sounds to me like non-sensic when they say that. I mean, who gives you the right to make something centric and non-centric? Who has made you a judge over scripture to decide what is essential and non-essential? Whatever the scripture teaches should be essential for every believer, right?

Okay, and so let this be the firm conviction that the gospel is all of the Lord and none of me. Not even 1% of me. Okay, but if there is any contribution from men that is acknowledged in any preaching of the gospel, then they are preaching another gospel. So let's be committed to this pure gospel and let's be thankful to God that's how we were saved and there is no other way we could be saved.

And let's fear when we think of the fact that, you know, this grace could have actually passed by me, but it did not. And let it fill our hearts with love for God by which we will practice holiness out of love for God because it is by grace and by His love that He has saved us. May God give us the grace to live as living witnesses to this grace that has saved us and has called us to be zealous unto good works and to live for God's glory. May God bless us to it.