Ephesians 2:5-9 | By Grace | Kurt Petersheim

[SPEAKER_00]: Ephesians chapter two, if you guys have your bibles with you, open it up there with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you've been here the last few weeks, I know you're probably thinking man, we've read these same verses for a few weeks now, and yes we have, and that's okay, and next week actually we're going to end up this little section next week, just really looking at some stories throughout Scripture, and we have a testimony next week as well, so come for that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just about God's grace, because that's what we've been looking at.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've been looking at it as Paul opens up chapter two to this here.

[SPEAKER_00]: just a grace that God has given to us and it has just been a sort of a burden on my heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think to make sure that before we move on and we're gonna move on and we're gonna get through the rest of Ephesians, I promise.

[SPEAKER_00]: But before we do that, before we start getting to parts of this letter where Paul is starting to kind of tell us how to live that we would make absolutely sure that we stand upon the right foundation that he wants us to stand upon and that is grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's got grace, it's got glory, okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's where we have to stand.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's just been sort of a zeal in me to go, you know what, let's take as much time as we need to through this little section to make sure the foundation is strong for us as we move forward.

[SPEAKER_00]: Quick recap of the last few weeks, really, an Ephesians 2-1.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul tells us as for you you were dead in transgressions and sins twice dead transgressions and sins we've talked through that all these sermons live online so you can go watch if you've you've missed one but we were dead in transgressions and sins in which we used to live we followed the ways the world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air

[SPEAKER_00]: The Spirit who is now at work in those who are disobeyed and we talked about how being dead and sin is to be unfeeling and uncaring towards the things of God, namely, his will, his word, his glory and Christ Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before we are Christians, we don't care about the glory of Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: We just don't.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can be a nice person, me a good person.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can do lots of nice things.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the glory of God and Jesus Christ is not your heart's desire before you're in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so God has to do something to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And second Corinthians 4, 4.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're told that we are blinded, we are blinded by Satan.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you cannot see the light of the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the truth for all who are not in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Dead and sin, blinded by Satan's schemes.

[SPEAKER_00]: John 834, Roman 613 and 14 and Roman 617 say that we are slaves to sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, this is a part from Christ before you know Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we're dead, we're blind, we're slaves.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Ephesians 2, 2 and 3, it's called as followers of the world of the devil in of our own passions.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not a flattering picture of us, okay.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before we know Jesus, this is this is how scripture describes us, how the apostle Paul describes us.

[SPEAKER_00]: before we are in Christ, we are blind slaves.

[SPEAKER_00]: Unable to see the light of the gospel, unable to serve God for His glory, separated from the life of God and rightly called then dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we've been going through Romans five as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So if you make a note on Romans five because it helps us understand this, that the death of Adam, there was Adam and Eve and they're sin in the garden, that imputed, this sort of a theological word, imputed death to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: That means credit to our account, death.

[SPEAKER_00]: In Adam we died, in the garden we died, that was imputed death.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Paul's point in Romans 5 is to show us not through anything that you did.

[SPEAKER_00]: You didn't do that in the garden.

[SPEAKER_00]: Adam did that in the garden, but death was imputed to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: In the same way, you didn't do anything on the cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: Christ did that on the cross.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's Paul's point.

[SPEAKER_00]: So righteousness and life is imputed now to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: The same way that death was given to us and credit is our account, and Adam, life is given to us and righteousness, credit to our account in Christ Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the gospel, and it's by grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: So let's go into Ephesians 2, 5, once again.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says,

[SPEAKER_00]: God made us alive with Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even when we were dead in transgressions, it is by grace you have been saved.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is by grace you have to say.

[SPEAKER_00]: So I want you to hear a few times as we read through this section here.

[SPEAKER_00]: The active verbs that Paul uses in this section.

[SPEAKER_00]: I told you a couple of weeks ago, it's good to know your grammar.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it really is good to know grammar.

[SPEAKER_00]: We should learn grammar mainly so that we know the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why kids should learn grammar.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why it's important.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you know the gospel and you know how to read the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm serious about that, even though there's all sorts of things to read in the world, this is the most important thing, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: And so if we know how to read it, we can understand.

[SPEAKER_00]: What does he say here?

[SPEAKER_00]: We were made alive.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where's the active verb land there?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is it land on you or does it land on God?

[SPEAKER_00]: It's on God, God made you alive.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't say you created for yourself life.

[SPEAKER_00]: You didn't make yourself alive.

[SPEAKER_00]: You were made.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are passive in this.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I just wanted to see this as we read through it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You were made alive.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the active verb is on the part of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is the active agent.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're made alive.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is again.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not describing someone who was mortally ill.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's not describing someone who's on their deathbed, and like God walked up and handed them a little vile of medicine.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like God's doing most of the work, he walks up and gives them a little vile of medicine, and he puts it up to your lips and he goes, okay, now if you will, if you will drink it, you'll be healed.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel is the person's dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not alive, there's no action on that person's part.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's God's initiative, God's action, God's will, who does this work in us.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is not a drowning swimmer who got them throws the lifesaver out to them and just goes, okay, you're drowning, grab hold of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: The gospel is, you drown.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're on the bottom of the ocean.

[SPEAKER_00]: He jumped in, he went to the bottom, he scooped you up, he brought you to the shore, you are dead, he didn't resuscitate you, he resurrected you, there's a difference.

[SPEAKER_00]: Resuscitation is, you were close to death, and I brought you back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Resurrection is, you were dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now you're alive, that's the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: You were made alive.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus did not resuscitate Lazarus.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: four days, and Jesus didn't walk up to the tomb and say, hey buddy, if you would like to come alive at some point, if you just want to do that, I'll be out here waiting, if you just want to hang out like whatever time, like I'm good, whenever you're good, it's not what he did.

[SPEAKER_00]: What do you do?

[SPEAKER_00]: Walked up to the mouth of the cave and he said Lazarus, come out.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a command from your Lord.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are no longer dead Lazarus like it or not.

[SPEAKER_00]: and he walked out of the two.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: We were made a lot.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus doesn't ask permission.

[SPEAKER_00]: He asked Lazarus's permission.

[SPEAKER_00]: Made us alive.

[SPEAKER_00]: Increased.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why is that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because if Jesus asked our permission, what would our answer always be?

[SPEAKER_00]: Answer is always, no, from a person dead in sin, from a slave to sin, from a person blinded in sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our will always stays dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: unless he makes us alive.

[SPEAKER_00]: He made us alive.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he says, what?

[SPEAKER_00]: And he says, we made us alive in Christ, even when we were dead in transgressions.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is by grace you have been saved for six.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, God raised us up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, we're passive here.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is active.

[SPEAKER_00]: God raised you didn't rise up.

[SPEAKER_00]: That if you ever think about the gospel and think about how you rose up and accomplished whatever you want to accomplish and pull yourself up by your bootstrap at that point you can know you're not thinking about the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're thinking about works.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're thinking about the American way of thinking and doing things.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's the gospel that says, no God made you alive and raised you up.

[SPEAKER_00]: Raised us up, he says, with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realm.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he made us alive and then he raised us up.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's two other times.

[SPEAKER_00]: and the New Testament, both are in Colossians, that Paul uses the same phrase, raised up, and it's in Colossians 2-12, it's in Colossians 3-1.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is about signifying having our having been made alive and then resurrected to new life in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is new identity.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what this raised up is about.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not just now alive, you have a new self, you have a new heart, you have a new mind, you have a new identity in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: You were dead now, you're alive, you were blind.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now you see, you were a slave, now you're free.

[SPEAKER_00]: You were a child of wrath.

[SPEAKER_00]: He told us at the beginning of Ephesians 2.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now you're a child of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: How?

[SPEAKER_00]: By grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: By grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: Again, we are passive.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is active here.

[SPEAKER_00]: He made us alive.

[SPEAKER_00]: He raised us up.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then here it is again.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he seeded us with him, seeded us with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: God said, sit down, I've made you alive, I've raised you up with Christ, resurrecting now, sit, dance, God doing the work.

[SPEAKER_00]: He seats us with Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, in the heavenly places,

[SPEAKER_00]: You're made alive, you're raised up, and you're seated.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is about abiding, identity, and relationship.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the seeding is.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's sitting you down with Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, abide in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have a relationship with Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know him.

[SPEAKER_00]: He knows you, you are his.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is yours.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is fellowship.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is our word coin and me being in Christ, living in Christ and enjoying communion with Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, in Ephesians 1, at the end of chapter 1 here.

[SPEAKER_00]: really verses 13 through 23.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul prays.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says we were included in Christ and then he prays that his readers, the Ephesians and as we read the Scriptures here he prays that we would know the hope of the hope that we have in Christ the inheritance we have in Christ and the power that is ours in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was praying for all those things at the end of chapter 1.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now, well then, he told us at the very end of chapter one, here's what he says.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of everything, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now he tells us that by God's grace and through faith,

[SPEAKER_00]: We are made alive.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are raised up.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are seated with Christ in heaven.

[SPEAKER_00]: He told us in chapter one, Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And He is above all things, all powers, all rulers, all authorities in the heavenly realms and over all the universe.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now He's telling us that we're seated with Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all, listen, that means not even though you used to be dead in sins,

[SPEAKER_00]: You are now alive, but not only are you alive, you are raised to a new identity and any eternal destiny in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: And not only that, but right now, your soul is sealed in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sealed in Christ Jesus, seated with him on the throne of heaven, at the right hand of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is your life, your identity, your inheritance,

[SPEAKER_00]: And the power of Jesus is yours because you are in him and he is in you by the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, don't ever think that the gospel is just Jesus died to forgive my sins.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes it is that!

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes and amen, Jesus died to forgive us of our sins, but also he was raised to life, to seal victory over sin and death, and he sits at the right hand of the Father to seal his power and authority over all things, and then give freely give his righteousness to the unrighteous.

[SPEAKER_00]: His mercy to guilty sinners, His resurrected life to the dead, His inheritance to the poor and needy, His hope to the hopeless, His power to the powerless.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are His, He is ours.

[SPEAKER_00]: All that belongs to Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: All that is His has been given to us in Christ Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: How, by grace, by grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: And He says in verse 7,

[SPEAKER_00]: In order that, listen to this, in order that, here's why he's done this, in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why does God save us by grace?

[SPEAKER_00]: so that forever and ever and ever, for all time and in all the universe, we, who used to be just dead sinners and slaves, now made alive and made righteous in Christ, can display.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can display the riches of the grace of God over all the universe for all eternity.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you hear something like that and just think, how could that be?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what I mean?

[SPEAKER_00]: How could it be that God would consider us worthy of such an honor, that we are the ones, the saints, in Christ Jesus, the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are the ones who will be the testimony of the grace of God forever over the entire universe.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, and his point here is that when the prince is in the powers and the principalities of the heavenly places, when Satan and his demons ask how do we know God, how do we know that you really are God, how do we know that you really are good?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what God's going to say to him, look at my church.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's how you know.

[SPEAKER_00]: That I am who I say I am and I do what I say I can do.

[SPEAKER_00]: When all the rulers and the kings and the kings of this earth ask, how do we know that God is good?

[SPEAKER_00]: He will say the same thing, look at my church.

[SPEAKER_00]: How do we know God that you're gracious?

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at them.

[SPEAKER_00]: How do we know that you're merciful?

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at them.

[SPEAKER_00]: How do we know that you're rich in grace?

[SPEAKER_00]: Rich in mercy and love and goodness.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at them.

[SPEAKER_00]: How do we know that you're holy and just and righteous?

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at them.

[SPEAKER_00]: How do we know that you're God?

[SPEAKER_00]: And God will answer.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at my church.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are the display, the testimony of my goodness, my grace, my power.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are His legacy, church.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are His proof, the authentic witness of His grace, the display of His goodness and glory.

[SPEAKER_00]: Not our glory, His glory.

[SPEAKER_00]: The house doesn't have glory in and of itself.

[SPEAKER_00]: The house glorifies who, the builder and the owner.

[SPEAKER_00]: The house, when you see an amazing house, it's glorifying to the builder in the owner, and that's God.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're the house where His house, and He's created us in Christ Jesus, and so that all the universe will know.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is God.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is good.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is holy.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is gracious.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is our inheritance, and our privilege, and our purpose forever, to show the glory of God, and the greatness of His grace, which He has shown to us in kindness.

[SPEAKER_00]: And listen, it is our privilege and our purpose today, not just for eternity, not just one day, right now, it is our privilege.

[SPEAKER_00]: You all listen, this is why you have a brain.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why you have a brain, so that you can think and meditate upon the grace of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why you have a mouth.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you can say it, sing it, teach it and proclaim it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Your mouth is not for lying, cursing, arguing or boasting.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is for glorifying God and telling of His grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is why you have hands and feet.

[SPEAKER_00]: to serve, and to work, and to move wherever you go, doing whatever you do for that one purpose to show the greatness of His glory and grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: So why you were made, everything else is sinfulness.

[SPEAKER_00]: If we are not living for that purpose, to that end, to show the greatness of God's grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so He says, verse 8, it is by grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says it again, He already said this.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is by grace you have been saved.

[SPEAKER_00]: through faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: We talked about that last week.

[SPEAKER_00]: Grace through faith is my grace you've been saved.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that word saved, the word salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of an umbrella term in the New Testament, the word salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: Salvation really includes all the other things that we talk about as far as us being made new in Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: It includes, salvation includes regeneration, being made alive, salvation includes justification, being made right with God, no longer condemned, but made righteous.

[SPEAKER_00]: Salvation includes redemption, being purchased out of slavery of sin and into freedom by the Holy Spirit.

[SPEAKER_00]: Salvation includes adoption, you are now God's child.

[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.

[SPEAKER_00]: God is our father.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are His children.

[SPEAKER_00]: Salvation includes that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Salvation includes sanctification, being made like Christ day by day by day by the power of the Spirit and the Word of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's sanctification.

[SPEAKER_00]: Salvation includes that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Salvation includes resurrection, physical resurrection, that will happen spiritually, we're already raised up and seated with Christ.

[SPEAKER_00]: There will come a day when you will physically be reserved.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can you all imagine that day?

[SPEAKER_00]: Can you all wait for that day?

[SPEAKER_00]: Good, and it's gracious.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go watch the news for 10 seconds and wait for that day.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, cannot wait to the day that Jesus just returns and we are resurrected to new life, new glorified bodies and glorification, glorification is included in salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why, as you read through the New Testament, you'll see salvation, spoken of past, present, and future.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's happening, it's happening and it will happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all of those ways, we are saved, we're being saved, we will be saved, because that's an umbrella term and includes all of those realities for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is by grace you have been saved, all of that that I just named everything is by grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: None of it by your own merit, none of it by your own power, it's not 50, 50 you and God working out your salvation like that, it's not 80, 20, it's not 99, 1.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's 100% grace and 0% merit or human willpower.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says, he goes further and he says, this is not from yourselves.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is the gift of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's talking about salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's even talking about faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: Faith is the gift of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even faith is not a work that you created in yourself.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because you were dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, to be made alive first, it's by grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then we, yes, we cling to Jesus in faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: We old fast to Him and we walk with Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, this does not excuse me.

[SPEAKER_00]: It does not excuse you from responsibility or accountability.

[SPEAKER_00]: We will still be called to be active participants in our discipleship, as we see in Ephesians, that's why I said up front, we're going to see that.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to see Paul tell us to do things today, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: But before we get there, we have to get here and stand on the foundation of grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: God's grace produces our salvation and faith and good works.

[SPEAKER_00]: It all comes from His grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: It all starts with Him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And our good works are the evidence of God's grace that produces our faith, and produces our good works.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul says in Philippians 213, it is God who works in you to will and to work.

[SPEAKER_00]: So God's working for us to work, we do work.

[SPEAKER_00]: You will work, and we're gonna talk a lot about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We will work, Christians should be the hardest working people on the planet, but it's not, it's not for earning sake.

[SPEAKER_00]: We don't earn salvation by our works.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can put forth all the effort, but we don't earn.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we know that we stand on what grace upon grace, upon grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that Paul says, no one can boast.

[SPEAKER_00]: No one boasts of their own salvation, not rightly anyway.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't.

[SPEAKER_00]: talking about boasting.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thinking about, because I don't know, I read the Bible like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you guys do.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just, I like to ask questions.

[SPEAKER_00]: I like to kind of think and read between the lines a little bit and think about, especially Paul, Paul, this guy who wrote Ephesians who wrote 13 letters in the New Testament, the bulk of our New Testament teaching comes from Paul, the Apostle.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why did God choose him?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, now you ever think about that?

[SPEAKER_00]: It was just wonder about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why did God choose his name was Saul of Tarsus, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why did God choose Saul of Tarsus as the apostle to the Gentiles?

[SPEAKER_00]: As the greatest church missionary church planter in all of his, this is the mission's month, he's our great granddaddy, okay?

[SPEAKER_00]: He's the first missionary, he's the greatest one ever.

[SPEAKER_00]: And why did God choose him?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why was it him?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, maybe because he was smart, he was very smart.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was very well-educated, well-educated, and logic, and rhetoric.

[SPEAKER_00]: He would be well-qualified to write letters like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: He'd be well-qualified to write Romans, for instance, which is literally even today, study by law students is one of the most brilliant treatises ever written, legal documents ever written, absolutely flawless, absolutely brilliant.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's a brilliant guy.

[SPEAKER_00]: Spoke multiple languages.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, verse, you would be somebody who could easily

[SPEAKER_00]: arguments in the way people thought about things and show them how God was really the true God and how this law really made sense and how Jesus really was.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not like he would certainly be able to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was also influential and he was powerful.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was trained under Gamelio.

[SPEAKER_00]: Gamelio was a very influential Pharisee in his own right.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the same hedgerin leaders Paul was trained disciples specifically under this rabbi would make him a great candidate to be somebody who could

[SPEAKER_00]: He was also a Roman citizen.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a big deal.

[SPEAKER_00]: He had rights.

[SPEAKER_00]: He had rights in the world that he lived in.

[SPEAKER_00]: He could travel easily.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he had a knowledge, not just of scripture, but also of the culture that he lived in.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we see that in the book of Acts.

[SPEAKER_00]: You see Paul have a deep understanding of the way people lived and the cities that he visited.

[SPEAKER_00]: He could easily talk to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe all of these are the reasons that God picked Saul.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't think they're the reasons.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think all those things helped qualify him, helped prepare him to go and do the things that he did.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I don't think any of those are the reason that God picked Saul of Tarsus.

[SPEAKER_00]: God chose Saul of Tarsus because Saul of Tarsus was a persecutor of the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: He was the persecutor of the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Luke describes him as ravaging the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: dragging men, this is in the book of Acts, chapter 7, dragging men and women out of their houses to imprison them or put them to death.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: Luke also describes him as breathing threats of murder against the disciples.

[SPEAKER_00]: That means hatred, violence, and even murder were the breath that Saul bereaved.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is who he was.

[SPEAKER_00]: An Acts chapter 7 through 9.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: There's this narrative that starts with this guy named Stephen.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stephen was the first martyr that we know of in church history.

[SPEAKER_00]: First person to die for his Christian faith, that we know of in church history.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was Saul.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was Saul who presided over the execution.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those who killed Stephen laid their cloaks at Saul's feet, like he was their god, and this was their offering to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know why they did that?

[SPEAKER_00]: Saul would have told him, take off your cloaks, you know why?

[SPEAKER_00]: So you can lift bigger stones, throw them harder, and more accurately, to kill this man.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was Saul, it was Saul who stood there as they laid their cloaks at his feet.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then there was Stephen.

[SPEAKER_00]: A servant of the church, a man full of the Holy Spirit, and grace, and faith, and power, and wisdom, as Luke describes him in Acts.

[SPEAKER_00]: A man who lived for the glory of God and the gospel of Jesus, has your Stephen was.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as this righteous mob governed by Saul, rushes him and drags him outside the city and the way that they would do this was, because they were good Jews and they don't kill people inside the city.

[SPEAKER_00]: They dragged him outside the city and they would naturally the way they would do this was they would find a place to not come over like a little cliff so that he would fall down here and then they would take their cloaks off.

[SPEAKER_00]: They would lay them at the feet of Saul, pick up the biggest stones they could carry.

[SPEAKER_00]: and they would begin to drop them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if the first one didn't kill him, everybody else would join him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as that righteous mob did this to Stephen, Luke writes this, that he had the face of an angel.

[SPEAKER_00]: And with this final breath, Cial, he doesn't cry, he doesn't complain, he doesn't curse, he doesn't fight back, he prays.

[SPEAKER_00]: Lord do not hold this sin against them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stephen died praying that Saul of Tarsis would be forgiven of his sins.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a prayer that God answered.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stephen never got to see it.

[SPEAKER_00]: but God did forgive Saul of his sins.

[SPEAKER_00]: Saul, as we know, Acts chapter 9 becomes a Christian.

Acts 9 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus makes him alive.

[SPEAKER_00]: He unblines his eyes literally blinds him and then unblines his eyes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Bring some to faith in Jesus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Turns his heart from hatred of Christ and of the church to love for Christ and the church.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus calls him then to go to the Gentiles and preach the gospel and Saul of Tarsis.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then begins to go by his Greek name Paul, the Apostle.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he starts to plant churches all over the Roman world.

[SPEAKER_00]: He takes the gospel even to Rome itself.

[SPEAKER_00]: He writes 13 letters, which are now our scriptures.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in every one of them, every letter of that Paul writes, he writes these words at the beginning.

[SPEAKER_00]: Grace and peace to you, a prayer for the church that he wants persecuted, that he wants killed, grace to you.

[SPEAKER_00]: He became known as the Apostle of Grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: He prayed for and preached and wrote about and glory in the grace of God more than anybody else.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why?

[SPEAKER_00]: Because he knew who he was.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul knew who he was when he was Saul.

[SPEAKER_00]: He knew what he had done.

[SPEAKER_00]: Y'all, he was a monster.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't monster.

[SPEAKER_00]: The chief of sinners, he actually calls himself that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But more than that, because of that, he knew what God's grace really meant.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what Paul knew.

[SPEAKER_00]: Paul understood, Grace is not alone, Grace does not come with interest, there's no repayment plan, there's no fine print, there's no strings attached, Grace is a free gift.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think God chose Saul of Tarsus to become Paul the Apostle, because of who he'd been, because of what he'd done so that he would write a verse like Ephesians 2 8.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is by grace you've been saved through faith, not from yourselves, it is a gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast.

[SPEAKER_00]: No one knew that better than Saul, better than Paul the Apostle.

[SPEAKER_00]: He knew that he would never stand on his own two feet or boast of a single molecule of his own merit in the universe of God's salvation.

[SPEAKER_00]: He knew he had nothing to stand on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing but grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's all he had.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why he preached the way he preached.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why he wrote the way he wrote because of God's grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why God shows him because he knew Saul would never boast, except in his grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: He knew that he would go about giving his life to tell the world of the riches of that grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think, because I do,

[SPEAKER_00]: Do you think that Paul Everford got Steven's face?

[SPEAKER_00]: You think Paul Everford got his prayer?

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think so.

[SPEAKER_00]: I bet he thought about it every day after his conversion.

[SPEAKER_00]: He knew he had murdered a brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't think he Everford got the grace of God that he saw in Steven's face and heard from his mouth that day.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so here's the application for us today, three things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Depending on maybe where you are right now and maybe all of these apply to you in this moment, but three things, one, give the grace of God like Stephen.

[SPEAKER_00]: No matter what this world throws at you and I don't mean that to be funny, like throws at you, he's getting stoned to death.

[SPEAKER_00]: and how did he respond?

[SPEAKER_00]: Grace, literally his face, shown like the face of an angel, the grace of God was on his face and his mouth spoke a prayer of forgiveness.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: You never know what Saul in your life needs to hear that from you, forgiveness and mercy and grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: They may never read it in the scripture, but they can hear it from your mouth.

[SPEAKER_00]: give grace, let it be on your face, let your mouth be full of it, grace upon grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: And to receive the grace of God, like Saul, of Tarsus, receive it.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you've heard today that Jesus is who he says he is, that he's done what he said he is done.

[SPEAKER_00]: that he is offering to all men and all women who would come to him by faith.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's offering grace upon grace, upon grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: That there is no sin to big, to wretched, no sinner to broken, to dead, for God to resurrect, and offer and bring forgiveness and redemption and adoption to receive it.

[SPEAKER_00]: receive the grace of God like Saul.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then live the grace of God like Paul.

[SPEAKER_00]: Same guy, Saul and Paul, but receive it and then live it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then you'll get the opportunity at some point to give it again.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Paul gave grace and Paul wrote of grace and Paul preached of grace.

[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, this month is Missions Month and I'm listening.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want to be ministers and missionaries here at Easterage, but I will tell you this.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can go on your own strength, and in your own willpower, and try to be a missionary out in the world, and you're going to be real self-righteous as you do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or you can go in the grace of God.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you can be the kind of missionary that God's created you to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: Somebody who just stands upon the foundation of His grace, who knows who we've been, who knows what God has done, who glories in Him, and then just wants to go and hold out what we've received, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: We just want to go give what we have freely been given.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a missionary.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a minister of the gospel.

[SPEAKER_00]: So let's go be that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go be people who have been changed by grace, and go and give it freely.