Sola Gratia – Saved By Grace Alone

Good morning everyone. Hope you are doing well. We will continue our studies on the five solas. We’ve been studying on the five solas which we see as the foundational teachings of the Protestant Reformation, and we will also do this next week on the glory of God alone, and today we will look at sola gratia, that is, by grace of God alone. But for that we will turn our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. And we will read verses 8, 9 and 10. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8, 9 and 10.

We’ll read it together. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8, 9 and 10. I am reading from the NASB version. If you’re using another version, try to follow me. Okay, Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8, 9 and 10. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are the workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Dear Lord, we thank you for this morning. We commit ourselves in your hands as we study this precious truth. We pray God that we may understand this truth from your scriptures, from the word, and we pray God that these truths be formed as strong biblical convictions in our hearts, and also we pray that this truth would really affect our lives as well, O Father. We pray that we may see, Lord, the grace that you have showered upon us and may you lead us to live lives full of gratitude, O God. Give us grace, Father. In Jesus Christ name we pray.

Amen. These doctrines or these teachings that we have been going through past couple of weeks have been recovered from the distortions of the medieval church. And these truths, I mean especially this truth that grace, salvation is by grace alone, it shows that salvation is entirely dependent on God’s grace alone, or God’s unmerited favor. We do not — which means that when we, when we speak about unmerited favor, it means that we do not earn God’s favor, but God has sovereignly showered uh grace upon us, or um he has shown mercy upon us, or grace, he was gracious to us. And we can also say that he was, he gave something that we do not deserved. So when we say that we are saved, it is something that God has done in

us which we do not deserve. It is not earned, not deserved, not achieved, but freely given by a sovereign and merciful God. As we saw last week, the Roman Catholic Church believed that the justification is by faith, but they also teach that it can be lost and therefore it should be preserved by uh the system that the Roman Catholic Church has developed. It should be preserved by sacraments and penance and other things. And Roman Catholics agree that salvation is by grace alone, but it must be maintained through true merit received from the system of the Roman Catholic Church.

But we see that you don’t earn merit. And if you don’t earn merit, you can lose salvation. So that’s the fundamental teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. And good works done in grace can earn eternal life, and believers can merit for themselves and others an increase of grace.

That’s according to the again the Roman Catholic Church teaching. Why we are referring back to the medieval church or medieval church history. The funny thing about history is history repeats itself in different ways. And you read church history or any history, you see that those things have been repeated over the years and in different ways, um and the problem with this truth was not just a medieval church period. So when we were talking about reformation, it was in the uh early 1500s and 16, then later 1600s, but that you see that how the history repeated itself in the medieval period, because this was not just a medieval church issue.

It existed even before the medieval church period. And also you see that it is also a problem today. And we need to time travel to the mid fourth or centuries also to see a kind of a problem which uh existed during the medieval church or resurfaced during the medieval church. A prominent theologian lived in those times in the mid fourth and the early fifth centuries. His name is Augustine. Saint— is also called as Saint Augustine of Hippo. He was quite an influential theologian. He authored a book called The Confessions.

It’s a wonderful book, you must read it. It was his autobiography. And there is prayers to God, mostly prayers to this God. And the Confessions was a personal biography that was infused with Bible verses and also theological reflections. It was a prayer to God to bring glory to God and also to instruct those who read that book.

Christian lived a promiscuous, immoral life. His mother, Monica, constantly prayed for him. Later, he was taught and mentored by his pastor, Ambrose. In Confessions, Chapter 8 verse 12, he describes the crisis movement of his conversion. There he was sitting in the garden and he, and he tries desperately to solve his inner conflict, and he suddenly hears a mysterious voice. It was not mysterious but a girl’s voice, that was a child’s voice, calling out, “Take up and read, take up and read,” and he picks up the letter that’s before him, and that’s, that was Paul’s letter to the to the Romans. And reading through the book of the epistle of Romans he came to Romans chapter 13 verses 13 till 14, and as he

read those words in Romans chapter 13, verses 13 to 14, all things suddenly became clear. There was a strange calmness in his soul. Augustine recognized that his salvation is totally dependent on God's grace, and the come and the Confessions also narrates this grace, emphasizing that salvation is a miraculous, undeserved intervention by God that that can alone break sin's power. And there are also shifts focus from self to God, right? And during this time, during the mid 4th century and the early 5th centuries and till a long time, there was no printing press, right? Printing press came much later, and people

even they wrote their own, wrote on scrolls, and they were copied, they did multiple copies of that to preserve the writings. So there, and people didn't have easy access to these books which were written, so they used to organize public reading events. And uh, Augustine also organized a public book reading event in the city called Rome. And uh, you see there that uh, um, uh, when he organized this public reading in the city of Rome, a monk came to that reading. Even he actually visited Rome. He was a Welsh citizen, and he came to Rome, and he saw that many so-called

professing Christians lived a promiscuous, his immoral lives. And he attended this book reading, he heard a lot, uh, he heard a lot of things about this great theologian, uh, Augustine at the time. And uh, and Augustine read the book, uh, in that book reading event. And uh, this monk's name was, uh, name is called Pelagius. Uh, and as Augustine was reading the book, Pelagius could not agree with Augustine. He disagreed with Augustine. And later that sparked into a controversy called Pelagian Controversy. The key statement that irritated Pelagius was, Augustine read these words, these are the prayers to God.

these are addressed to God, and he says in that, “Give what you command,” is to say to God, “and command what you will,” right? Meaning God as sovereign, he commands whatever he wishes, and as fallen humans we must also, he must also give the ability to obey. This irritated Pelagius. Augustine's claim that God should command what he wills is not problematic. God has every right to require us to lead the obedient lives and moral lives. However, the second part of that statement, that he should give what he commands, is where issue arise. Why? Why? Because this statement says that God gives the command and also the ability to carry it.

It was unconvincing to Pelagius, and Pelagius rejected this idea of God granting the repentance at the time of conversion. He also propagated that the kind of grace as taught by Augustine leads to moral laxity or immoral lives. And there was a debate between Augustine and Pelagius, and Augustine was very compassionate, kind to Pelagius, and Pelagius also, then Augustine came to understand the theological standpoint of Pelagius. He understood that Pelagius believed that there was no original sin, which means that Adam's fall did not affect the rest of the humans. Pelagius believed that Adam's sin affected only Adam, right? And that was, that was clear contradiction of the Bible's teachings. And he also believed that man is born, every man, every person is born in a state of righteousness, and they just believe that every human being is granted free will in the same way

that Adam and Eve were granted in the garden and he thought that humans had free will apart from divine grace. They can choose God at their own discretion and reject him at their own discretion. And Augustine couldn't tolerate that heresy. He condemned that heresy. And there were councils also, church councils, which gathered together to hear both Augustine and also Pelagius. And there was another early church father, his name was Jerome. He translated the Bible in the Latin language. That's called as Latin Vulgate. And he also attacked Pelagius. And Jerome also disagreed with the Pelagian view of original sin and also his free will.

Jerome also wrote treatises against the heresies of Pelagianism. And finally, after the death of Augustine, Augustine died in 417. In 418, there was a council at a place called Carthage. That council condemned Pelagianism as a heresy and also condemned Pelagius as a heretic, but he had many supporters throughout Roman Empire. And later in the, at the Council of Ephesus in 431, uh, this was finally condemned as a heresy, and uh, Pelagius was condemned as a heretic, and whoever would follow Pelagius would be condemned.

But this couldn't eradicate the problem fully. Many forms of Pelagianism spread throughout that period. There came a person by the name John Cassian who propagated a view which was later called as semi-Pelagianism. research that while human nature is weakened, he agreed with human nature, he said that human nature was weakened by original sin, but humanity can still take the first step towards God, need not do anything in us, humans can freely choose God. And it teaches that humans have, the fallen humans have the capacity or the capability of initiating that process of seeking God, and in that process they can be saved.

The long story short, there was again, there was a council that is called the Synod of Orange in 529. That synod or that council condemned Pelagianism as a heresy. And during the medieval church period and afterward, according to the Council of Trent, that is a Roman Catholic Church council, Roman Catholic Church held a view of salvation that is not biblical. The Council of Trent viewed salvation as a process, not a single event, which begins with God's grace that can be merited but is received through faith and also by good works.

Salvation for them is a lifelong process in which the individual cooperates with divine grace to remain in the state of grace. Therefore, it is necessary for them to receive the sacraments, especially baptism, penance and the Eucharist or the Lord's Supper, to stay in the state of grace.

How is the state of the church today? How is the state of the church today? If you survey the kind of preachers that we have today, the popular preachers, where thousands of thousands of people throng to these churches, and most of the preachers in this region of Andhra and Telangana believe in a form of religionism. There's a guy who is very popular these days among the Telugu people. He does not believe in the original sin, and there are many preachers like it. There are mentors to them as who do not believe in the original sin. And recently Praveen was talking about him, that he does not have janma papa. So yeah, there are preachers like that in our land, and many

many Christians also believe in a semi-Pelagian view, right? And many Christians believe that Christians are, people are, humans are fundamentally good, fundamentally good. And in one of the sermons, R.C. Sproul mentions about a survey or a poll, which was taken back in 2005 or 2007. It’s called as George Barna poll.

More than 70% of professing evangelical Christians in America expressed the belief that man is basically fundamentally good, and more than 80% articulated the view that God helps those who help themselves. To say that we are basically good is the Pelagian view.

Even in our country, people haven’t learned to think scripturally. We elevate pastors to celebrity status and treat them like demigods. Christians behave like mobs who won’t allow their beloved leaders to be questioned. Why are they following these leaders? And most of the Christianity in our nation is confused. It’s confused because it’s not guided by the scriptures. It is not rooted in the scriptures, but it is guided by the celebrity pastors who do not know their Bibles.

And it is essential for any Christian to understand what the Bible says and we must interpret the Bible in Bible’s own terms. We cannot give our own meanings to the scriptures, but understand what the Bible actually says. So today we are talking about the saving grace. What is saving grace?

The saving grace is a gift of God’s Holy Spirit that enables His people to believe for salvation, primarily through faith which involves accepting and resting on Christ alone for justification, sanctification and eternal life. That grace is merited to us by Christ, through Christ.

So now why is it necessary for the Holy Spirit to work in us before we can believe? Why is it necessary? Such a work of God is necessary because of the condition that the entire humanity is in. We were in a sinful condition.

Okay, what is that sin? What is that condition? How does that condition look like? Before Martin Luther came to believe the gospel, Martin Luther had a very low view of sin. He struggled with sin. He saw sin as some huge weight that drags him to hell, which is true, but it is not the complete picture of sin. He didn’t see sin as a deep, fundamental, hard problem. As a Roman Catholic, he believed that one can be made right by doing righteous deeds. And grace can be merited by praying to the saints who achieve righteousness by living a good life.

They believed that these dead saints have reserve of grace which they can merit to these people, mediate that grace, which can boost, which can be like a boost for them to be on this pathway of righteousness. Is God going to make us righteous because of our righteous deeds? Is God going to make us righteous because someone else was righteous? That is anti-gospel. Luther, as he studied the scriptures, he found something. The Lord opened his eyes to see something beautiful. He realized that we are not called to look to God for some assistance for our righteous deeds, but we must entirely look to Christ who is righteous. He understood that Christ worth it all, his righteousness will be imputed to us.

As we have seen last week, we stand on the righteousness of Christ. We stand on the soil, or we are, we are, we are, we are engraved in the righteousness of Christ. That righteousness of Christ credited into our lives, into our account. God creates new life in us. Faith in Christ justifies us because Christ is now our righteousness. God’s grace is Christ himself. He has united us with Christ Jesus through the Spirit. And Martin Luther realized that there is nothing in us that can ever merit such righteousness. He realized that we are far away from that righteousness. We could have never measured up to that standard or to that righteousness of God.

Why? Why? Because our nature is fundamentally sinful and is rotten in the eyes of the Holy God. And everything that comes out of that rotten, sinful nature is rotten before God. This message is offensive to many people today because we live in an optimistic culture, an inclusive culture where people believe that we are mostly good people and we have the capabilities of being good people. But who defines what is good? Who defines what is good? And what does the Bible mean when it says we are sinners and could never measure up to God’s standard? Before we understand the grace that God had to shower on us for us to be made righteous, we need to understand the deep sin issue.

It’s in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1, 2, and 3. Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1, 2, and 3. Let’s read them. Paul says these words, “and 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 air — prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” You see here that Paul describes us, the humans, as people being dead, being dead in our trespasses and sins. That is a condition, that

is a condition. What does that mean here? The Paul says we are dead in our trespasses and sins, we walked a course of life, lived a life, and we were the children of wrath, and you come down to verse 5, you observe the contrast there. We were dead in verse 5. Paul says that now we are made alive in Christ Jesus. God made us alive in Christ Jesus. These two contrasts, this contrast is really important.

We were dead and now we are made alive. And how were we made alive? How can a dead person become alive? And all this indicates that we were, and all unbelievers are, spiritually dead in the sight of God. We might have an excellent moral upbringing, but we are dead in our relationship with God. We were lifeless and unresponsive to God. And how did we all end up in this situation?

Romans chapter 5 verse 12, Paul says there, Romans chapter 5 verse 12, Paul says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” And how did this Pelagius view come into existence? How are people still proclaiming that view today that there is no original sin? How could they say that Adam’s sin did not affect us? Bible is very clear. Who do you want to believe? The scriptural testimony or fallen man’s testimony? In the testimony. Scripture says that one man sinned and from that one man sin entered the world and sin reigned through death and that death spread to all men because all sinned.

That sin has affected all human beings. So the disobedience of Adam and Eve cost a lot. It impacted the entire human race. All humans come from one man and one woman. It confirms that the human race is a unity. Human race is a unity, whether you’re dark or white or yellow, whatever you are, whether you are a Brahmin or a Kshatriya or whatever you are, whether you’re an American or an Indian, whatever you are, there is no biological, theological basis for racism.

We all come from one couple, that is Adam and Eve. So there is no, no group is superior to the other. Right? Each group may have different moral standards, moral upbringing, and based on that, they behave the thing differently. But fundamentally, we are all one, we are all the same. Right? So, so no group, no people group can claim that they are untouched by sin. The moment Adam and Eve sinned against God, they died.

They were the life of God. And that separation, that separation from the life of God entered all humans. That entered into this world. And generally we see death as an event. That is true. We physically die one day, but according to the Bible, death is also a state of existence. Right from our birth, we existed in that state. Separation from God, from the life, from the, from the grace of God, and it is a sign of spiritual death. Adam sin, we were counted as sinners in Adam, and in Adam we also died. We are also separated from God and we live in that state of separation from God.

And in the separation of Adam from God, all his posterity, all his offspring was separated from God. So the doctrine of original sin is that Adam committed the original sin that all humanity sinned in and along with Adam. Adam is our federal head, or representative. Now we all sin when Adam sins. That’s what Bible says. Read Romans chapter 5. Read Romans chapter 5. That’s what Bible says. There are two federal heads, Adam and Christ. In Christ all humans are affected by sin. His sin is imputed to us, his sin is credited to us, therefore we are sinners at the, at the time of our birth. That’s the reason David confesses in Psalm 51, “in sin did my,” but we are sinners at the time of birth. And the prophet Isaiah says this and Paul reiterates that when teaching of the universal, universality of the

sin in Romans chapter 3, he says that all have turned away, all that turned away, there is no one righteous, no one seeks after God. Right? All have sinned and have fallen short of God’s glory. And what Paul says in Romans chapter 3. So our, we sinned, his sin is imputed to us, we become sinners. He died, we died, which means he support, he was separated from the life of God, we were all just separated from the life of God. Let’s come back to Ephesians chapter 2 verse 1. You see there, I trust you see the words trespass and sin. Trespass is generally the violation

of sanction law, and sin here is the missing of the mark. So the transgression and sin that characterize our fundamental nature. We have a faulty nature which is contrary to God's nature, which is always missing the mark. No matter what, the best you do, it will always miss the mark. It will always be, we miss them out. That's a fundamental faulty nature that we have. And no matter how much good we do, we will always keep missing the mark. We will always fall short of God's glorious standards. We could never have measured up to the standard of God. And Romans chapter 8 verse 8, Paul

says and those who are in flesh, that is in the sinful nature, cannot please God. Cannot please God. And here in Romans chapter 8, the word flesh is synonymous with sinful. And all the descendants of Adam, by default, are born with this sinful nature. And anyone who are born in this sinful nature cannot please God. The word cannot signifies or talks about our ability. We lack the ability to please God. No matter what you do it, we cannot please God. Martin Luther's thought that by climbing the steps at Rome he thought he could please God, and he went a step ahead and said he kissed each step. He was on his knees, he climbed all

the steps on his knees, kissing each step. He thought that kissing would please God. No, nothing would please God. Nothing is please, can please God. And this is called as the total depravity. We are totally depraved. Jeremiah says in Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, is desperately sick. Who can understand it?” It is desperately sick. Hear the words of Jesus in Mark chapter 7 verses 21 to 23. Mark chapter 7 verses 21 to 23. He says, “For from within, out of the heart of human, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander,

pride, foolishness. All these things, all these evil things come from within and they defile the person.” Jesus was countering a religious system who were doing acts of righteousness, who was trying to show that they are righteous by their acts, by their deeds. Jesus is countering man saying that you're not righteous because you have done something righteous dear, or you look morally righteous. Jesus is saying that the thing that needs to be fixed is the heart, because evil flows from the heart, right? Defilement of a person comes from within, not from outside, right? So man's problem isn't that his actions are wrong, it's that his heart is impure. If someone's hands are dirty, they can wash them. But how can you wash the heart? How can you cleanse our nature? Look at what prophet Isaiah says in Isaiah chapter 64 verse 6. He says, “For all of us become

like one who is unclean, all of our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment.” Look here, even when people have done righteous deeds, even when people have done good deeds, they are considered filthy before God. They are considered filthy before God. So when we speak about total depravity or radical depravity, we must understand that not all unbelievers might commit worse crimes. Many live, if you look at an average unbeliever in your society, in your neighborhood, many live decent lives, right? They live decent lives with integrity. But however, the issue isn't about values or actions. It's about our hearts, our nature.

When our nature is radically depraved, it means imagine the worst human being, who lived the dirtiest life on the face of this earth, who has committed horrible crimes that all humans detest. Imagine such a person, right? So total depravity means our human civil nature, which means every human has the potential for every wicked thing under the sun.

That means every person has that potential to commit the worst crime. They it, they may not commit, that's a secondary issue, but every human has the potential to do that, because every human has the potential, a sinful potential. It has a sinful nature that is fundamentally different. If I ask you, can you kill a person? Can you kill a person? Do you have the ability to kill a person? Yes. But will you kill a person? No. But do you have? Yes. But will you? You will not, you may not. So the point is, we all humans have the that potential to do the worst crimes. That is totally depraved. So totally depraved is misunderstood that

when some theologians say that man is totally depraved, they say that man is incapable of doing any good. That's not the point. People can still do good things, can do righteous deeds, but we have a faulty default nature, which is sinful.

and those good deeds cannot be accepted by God, right? And this is the inherent nature of every human being. This nature is separated from God, and with that nature we cannot do anything that pleases God. And in Ephesians 2, deadness is our lostness or our separatedness from God and his truth. We are naturally blinded to him. We by ourselves cannot know him. Our sin separates us from him. Generally, a dead person is lifeless. He cannot move, he cannot talk, he cannot respond. He may call his name, but he will not respond. He may hold his favorite food up to his nose, but he will not eat.

it. That's why the greatest brains of this world, genius people of this world who have discovered many things, were still unsaved, cannot fathom the greatness of God. Why? Because they are fundamentally dead in their relationship to God. They are separated from the life of God to them. Then some greatest minds of this world are agnostics or atheists. Any talk about God to them is foolishness.

And the most religious people on this earth are dead to the reality of the true God. All that they have is a false notion of who God is. So, now let's turn our Bibles to Romans chapter 8, verses 7 and 8. Romans chapter 8, verses 7 and 8. It says, “because the mind set on the flesh” — again, the word flesh here means sinful nature — “is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” See, the mindset, the mindset of the flesh, or the mindset of the person who is in the flesh according to verse 8, or who is in the sinful nature, is enmity against God. That those in the flesh do not honor God as God. They do not value him as

worthy of worship, right? But like Paul says in Romans chapter 1, they worship the creature than the creator. And how is the hostility explained here in verses 7 and 8? Look there, verses 7 and 8. It says that they do not submit to God's law, which means that they cannot come under God. Not only are they unable to come under God's law or to submit to it, they lack the ability to do so. And whenever you read the word cannot, it talks about our ability. They do not have, they do not have the ability, do not have the, they do not possess the

ability to please God. No matter what they do, God can be, cannot be pleased by the people in the sinful nature. The objects of God's displeasure. And the word here, pleased, in the Greek language, the tense indicates an indefinite time frame and it provides a holistic view, which means that they can never please God. All possibilities are eliminated. They can never please God. So according to verses 7 and 8 of Romans 8, what is true of those whose minds are set on the truth? Ephesians chapter 2, verse 4, it says, but God. We were dead, we walked the course of life, we lived in a way of life, a way of life, we were dominated

by the lusts of this flesh. We were the, we were, we were the object of God's love. But verse 4 says, but God, but God, but God, “who is rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us.” That's the only hope for us. Why did God do something to save someone, for help our sinners? God's motivation for redeeming a people or reaching down to deliver hell-bound sinners is not found in any of us. It was in himself. It is his mercy, the conscious great love. God's mercy is hidden, withholding his anger is

wrong that we deserve the, for he withheld it because of his great love towards us. And when it, when it, God choose to love us? Not when we became good, not were not, when we are doing acts that are pleasing to God. Look at verse 5. He says that even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, we were there. When did God set his heart upon us? While we were still dead. Not when we were doing good or deciding to do good, right? But we were still dead, we were still cut off from the life of God. God has set his heart upon his people

and God's act of mercy is this. God's act of mercy is providing his son to die in our place. To suffer for our sins. To suffer under God's severe wrath. To pay for our penalty by a substitutionary death. Then he rose again from the dead to make us right with God. Like the unrighteousness or sin was imputed from Adam to the rest of the humans.

Christ's righteousness will be imputed to his people. God providing his son is his mercy. Look at verse 5. He made us alive with Christ. He made us alive with Christ. We come to life from the state of being dead by the same spirit of God who worked in the resurrection of Jesus. Romans chapter 8 verse 11. 11 the same spirit who worked in christ who rose jesus christ from the dead now works in us to give us life to our mortal bodies he gives life in us so that we are made alive to god we can have our living relationship with god a vibrant relationship with god now

God is a reality. God is a reality. It's not a myth anymore. Others cannot understand that because they're still dead. The gospel should dawn upon them, right? We haven't done anything to earn this. We do not deserve anything to earn this. But God made it to us, God gave it to us. That is God's grace. That's the reason we are saved by grace alone through faith alone. God demonstrate this saving grace on whomever he wishes. This offended Pelagius. Now this is also called as effectual calling. This saving grace is calling, which means that God calls his people through his gospel

God saves his people through his gospel. Jesus was in the temple and the Jews gathered around him, asking him to tell them if he was a Christ. As if they, if they wanted to believe him. No, they didn't want to believe him, they wanted to crucify him, they wanted to find a reason to crucify him. And Jesus, knowing their hearts, he responds to them in John chapter 10, verse 25. “But you do not believe because you are not my sheep.” He says, “my sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me.”

“I give them eternal life to them, and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand.” There is an effectual calling. There is per se perseverance of the saints in this text. It can offend us, but this is what the Bible says. You know, when I first came to the reform understanding of the scriptures, I was a strong Arminian. I fought with people, argued with people, when, you know, I said words against people. But I've been a man who took me to his home and daily sat with me to study the scriptures. He taught me to read the scriptures according to his own terms, and when we came to passages like this, he would say, “What does the Bible say?” And I would reason up, man.

You would say, man, I don’t want your reasoning. It may be beautiful, I don’t want it. What do the Bible say? Look into it, look into it. I would reason out. Brother, stop that. I don’t want your prayer. Look into it, what does it say? I would look into it. I would read it out. You would ask, what does it mean? No, tell what does it mean. That’s it. That’s it.

And we did that for a couple of days. And finally, had to surrender to the Scriptures. John chapter 6, verse 44, Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” God’s work is effective in his sheep. They will not resist. They were dead. And how can dead people resist? This is also called as the irresistible grace. The grace that saves us is irresistible grace. We cannot resist the grace. How can that people resist this life? Look at Romans chapter 8, verse 30, says, these whom he predestined he also called, and these whom he put

it called he also justified, and these whom he justified he also glorified. This is also called as the golden chain of salvation. This is intact. One sudden others follow. If you’re predestined, your will, you will be called. You will be justified. You will be glorified.

Effectual calling. God calls his people through the ministry of the gospel. And the Spirit of God works in them. And conversion. The regenerated person. Responds. Consciously with faith and repentance. The Holy Spirit imparts new life, freeing the will from the bondage to sin. If you can, you can read the book written by Martin Luther, the abridged version, that is Bondage of the Will. This entire act of God is the act of God. The entire work of is the act of God. And it is His grace. It is his favor upon us. Ephesians 2:8 and 9. Now with this understanding, read these words, right? “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” How does it work? God chose to work on you, save you and pull you out, give you life. By faith. By what

do you mean by faith? By faith in the work of Christ Jesus. Not by your works, but faith in the work of Jesus, in the finished work of Jesus. According to his righteousness, Christ, God is going to impart his righteousness into your life so that you stand righteous before God and you are engraved into the righteousness of God so that upon the soil of God’s or Christ’s righteousness you work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Sometimes your sanctification may be weak but God will see through that. You grow. If you are disobedient, if you are hard, if you are continuously rebellious, God will see through that. He will discipline you and he will bring you back to the fold. God will not leave you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Right? By grace you have been saved through faith. And this

is not for of yourselves. It is a gift. It is a gift of God. It is a gift of God. Not a result of what, so that no one may boast. Philippians 1:29 says, “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake.” It is, it has been granted for Christ’s sake. It has been granted. Again the same word grace is used here for granted. Grace is given as a favor. It is an unearned favor. This is salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ Jesus alone. We are not saved

by any of our merit or good works. We are saved for good works. We are saved for good works, right? And these good works are not, we should not misunderstand that these good works are charitable works, but these are works with God before and they’re going to verse 2, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 2, there before and what ordained for us to walk in them. And these good works are outcome of salvation that sets us on the pathway of holiness. And according to Ephesians chapter 4, we walk worthy of by embracing humility, gentleness, kindness, forbearance, forgiveness and life without bitterness. It is the Spirit enable life

for the glory of God. That is the life, that is, that is in the words that we have to walk. If you call yourself a believer, you must be on the pathway of holiness. You must be on the pathway of holiness. You struggle, but you are on the pathway of holiness. You fall. But tomorrow you rise. You are on the pathway of holiness. If you are not. If your affections aren’t changing.

There is only mere intellectual assent. But your affections are not changing. You are still loving the sin. You are not guilty when you sin. You are not grieved at the act of sin. Probably you are not saved. You are not saved. Maybe some of you are not believers. If your affections are not changing, if you are not making changes, then you may not be a believer. You do not have heart for God. You do not have heart for knowing God or studying God’s word or praying. It’s a drudgery for you. Maybe you are not saved. You are not saved, brother. You are not saved, sister. It’s time to understand the gospel and be saved. I think even those who are members of the church might not be believers, because you can’t keep pushing yourself to do the right thing all the time. There will be times of

struggle, but not all the time, right? You can’t forgive your fellow brother and sister. Maybe you’re not a believer. You hold on to bitterness and look for opportunities to seek revenge. Maybe you’re not a believer. Maybe you didn’t understand the grace that God has showered upon us. You find fault in every small thing. Maybe you’re not a believer, because you didn’t understand the grace, the unmerited grace, the grace that we do not deserve, the grace that God showered. And that we do not deserve.

God freely merited to us. Freely forgave us. Freely let us go. Maybe you didn’t understand this grace. That’s the reason you forgiving your fellow brother is difficult for you. Maybe you didn’t understand that. It’s okay. Then living in the deception that you are a believer.

Like Paul exhorts in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, chapter 13, why it says that, “Test yourselves, examine yourselves to see if you’re in the faith.” Examine yourselves, see if you’re in faith. If you’re not in faith, the only proof that you’re on faith is your affections are changing, you’re on the pathway of holiness, your that your life may be weak, but you’re on the pathway of holiness. You may be falling, but you will rise. You are on the pathway of holiness.

If we are believers, know this. God’s grace is effective in our lives. Not only to save us, but also to sanctify us. But also to sanctify us. Titus chapter 2. We’ll read this. Chapter 2 verses 11 to 13, one of my favorite verses in the Bible. Titus chapter 2 verses 11, 12 and 13: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing” — that grace which brought salvation, instructing. I like how the NIV puts it, “teaching us to deny ungodliness, worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.”

The grace that saves us is the same grace that also to which God instructs us and enables us to say no to ungodliness, say no to worldly desires, say and also enables us to live sensibly, righteously, godly in this present age. This is a life that is saved by grace and shaped by grace. Now, one day I was standing at a parking lot at a fellowship, backslidden, struggling in my Christian life. I was questioning my own salvation, not knowing what to do. And suddenly someone sent me this text. I got an SMS, and that reading of that text, I read it in NIV.

That liberated me. That filled me with great joy. I went home weeping. Throughout my. I was. I traveled in the bus. I was weeping in the bus. With this scripture liberated me. And the way we live. Should bring glory to God also. The grace that God manifested. In our life. Should be magnified. That’s what Paul says in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5. He says that, “He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.” Verse 6, he says that, “to the praise of the glory of His grace,” to the praise of the

glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us the beloved, which He freely bestowed on us and sisters, if you are saved by God’s grace and if your life is shaped by God’s grace, God’s grace should be glorified. There should be praise of the glory of His grace.

His grace of God magnified in your life. Therefore, brothers and sisters, be humble in your spiritual life. Never boast of anything but of God’s grace alone. Your salvation and sanctification are the fruit of God’s grace alone. Whenever you fail, remember we have the mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, who seated at the right hand of God, right hand of the Majesty, as the eternal God and the eternal high priest who mediates for us. Even and John says, “If we confess our sins, He is just and righteous and faithful to forgive us of our sins.” If you sin, confess your sins and repent. If you doubt, look into the Scriptures, trust in the mediation of Christ alone. That will sanctify your lives. What an

incredible gospel we believe. Such good news and a message of grace that affected us, and also we have this message of grace to proclaim to all the nations. Do not be silent, but proclaim the gospel even if people look down on you. Maybe gospel will work in their hearts, because it’s only to the gospel God will save His people. Let’s pray. Father, we pray, may our lives be shaped by Your grace. May as we are saved by grace, may we be shaped by Your grace. God, give us grace, oh Father, to press on in our Christian lives. In Jesus Christ, and we pray, amen.