September 15, 2026 - Elder Josh King, Bible study: Ephesians 2 - "Grace is the cause, Faith is the effect"

We are primarily going to be in Ephesians chapter 2 tonight.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

We are continuing the we have gone through these questions regarding predestination and election and what uh what people who do not believe in predestination election believe is wrong with predestination election.

And this past Sunday we started on the idea of the third reason why uh or what people believe is wrong with predestination election is that it conflicts with most Christians' concept of free will, and we labored Sunday to show that man in his lost natural estate does not have free will because the Bible says that his will is a slave.

Well, I want to continue that concept tonight in Ephesians chapter 2 that not only is our free will a slave, or rather, our will is a slave to our flesh, but when it comes to spiritual things, uh we are dead.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

And so what I want to do tonight is I want to give you four statements because sometimes us preachers go all the way around the world and we can never say what we actually want to say, and so I've tried to write these down to be very concise, and I want to give these to you first, and then we're gonna dive into the scriptures.

So I want to give you four statements regarding this.

So, you know, we're gonna look at these tonight in Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Sovereign grace, the first one.

Sovereign grace is the cause, and faith is the effect.

Second statement.

Grace doesn't wait on faith, it produces it.

Yeah, I'll repeat all these.

Third thing, faith is not a contribution we make to save ourselves to heaven, it is a gift of God.

And the fourth statement, and I will repeat all these, the fourth statement, the sinner is dead, so he can't believe first.

The Spirit quickens him, and believing follows as naturally as breathing follows being alive.

So let me repeat those.

I want to give you these four concise statements.

Sovereign grace is the cause, and faith is the effect.

And many of our friends of other faiths and orders reverse that.

The proper order, according to the Bible, is it's grace first, and then faith comes out of grace, and then obedience comes out of faith.

But our friends of many other faiths and orders, they reverse the first two.

They put faith before grace.

Well, biblically, like the first statement, sovereign grace is the cause, faith is the effect.

Second thing.

Grace doesn't wait on faith, it produces it.

Third thing.

Faith is not a contribution we make to save ourselves to heaven, it is a gift of God.

And there are so many people that believe that faith is the contribution that the sinner makes to save himself.

But it's not.

Faith is not a contribution we make to save ourselves to heaven, it is a gift of God.

Fourth thing: the sinner is dead, so he cannot believe first.

The capital S spirit quickens him, and believing follows as naturally as breathing follows being alive.

The sinner is dead, so he cannot believe first.

The capital S spirit quickens him, and believing follows as naturally as breathing follows being alive.

Those are four concise statements about grace and our faith.

And it all boils down to brothers and sisters about this idea that many of our brothers and sisters of other faith and orders, they believe that the champion, that the main thing, is man's faith.

But it's not.

The main thing is God's grace.

And we're going to see that on display tonight in Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Because what we're going to see as we read through about the first 10 or 12 verses or so of Ephesians chapter 2 is that you are going to see that God is doing all the work.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

The sinner, man, is not of his own accord, not of his own volition, not of his own will, because he man does have a will, yes, but his will is in captivity to his own sin, and it is also devoid of godly spiritual things.

Yes, man has a, see, people misunderstand that.

Yes, man has a will, but his will is in captivity to his flesh.

It is not free to make God-honoring spiritual choices because he is a dead alien sinner and does not know and hates the things of God.

So, so we're going to see tonight on display in Ephesians chapter 2 that relationship between grace and faith and how that God is the one who is doing all the work, not man.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

So the champion of salvation is not the quote unquote free will choice that man has to choose God, no.

It is a merciful, gracious God who chose sinful men, and as a result of giving them salvation and showing them grace, faith is the effect that came out of the cause of grace, not the other way around.

So I wanted to get these four statements out of the way, and then we're going to just dive into Ephesians chapter 2, and we're going to spend all of our time here tonight.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

But I just want you to notice as we begin reading in Ephesians chapter 2, I want you to pay special attention to who is actually doing the action.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Who is the one who is the cause?

Who is the one who is doing the work?

And you understand that this is also in the context of what we've already read out of Ephesians chapter 1, that God has chosen us, God has predestined us, God has adopted us, God has blessed us, you know, as a result of his choosing us.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

And so now we come down to Ephesians chapter 2, and Paul continues on the same vein, and he's giving even more clarification to what he's already said.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

So let's just begin in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1, and we'll just dive straight in.

Ephesians 2:1

And please pay attention to who is actually doing the work.

So, Ephesians 2, 1.

And you, and again, he's writing to believers, so he's writing to people that are already born again, and Paul is commenting on what the Lord has already done in their lives.

He says, And you hath he quickened or made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.

Stop.

So God is the one who is doing the quickening, doing the making alive.

It is not the lost, unregenerate sinner who in his lost estate just up and decided, today I think I'll choose God, and therefore at that man or woman's point of faith, they chose to have faith in God, and then God struck them like a lightning bolt and borne them again.

No, that is not the order.

You will see that grace always precedes faith, not the other way around.

So Paul is saying, and you hath he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins.

So mine and your condition was dead in sins.

We were spiritually dead, and that was a result of Adam's fall because he transgressed against God.

And so when the Bible says, as in Adam I'll die, you know, and the Lord told Adam, When you eat of the fruit of the tree, you shall surely die.

He didn't drop physically dead.

What that was is spiritual separation from God.

And that's what happened.

And that's what you and I are born into, and we are born dead to the things of God.

So Paul is saying, look, you folks, you Christian folks, at one time you were dead in your trespasses and sins.

You didn't know anything about God, but God has done a work in your life.

He has intervened and quickened and made you alive.

Alive to what?

Alive to the.

So these men were physically walking around, but they were spiritually dead.

But now they have been spiritually awoken to the things of God, which before they were ignorant of.

So that's what verse 1 is talking about.

So he continues with that thought, semicolon.

Verse 2.

Wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world.

So not only do I want to point out to you the actions and the work that God is doing, I also want you to see how man is pictured or portrayed in these verses.

And it's not a pretty picture.

You and I are dead in trespasses and sins, here in verse 2, wherein in times past, yeah and you, walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the heir, that's Satan, the lowercase spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.

So he's saying that not only were we dead spiritually, but we also, before we were born again, we used to walk like everybody else in this world, old fallen, rotten sinners that we were, like everybody else.

See, that's why Christians don't get uh hitty and high-minded, oh, look at me, look at how good I am.

No, you and I used to be just like them.

Well, you and I used to act just like them, because we were one of them.

And it's only by the Lord's grace that he's brought us out of that.

So this verse is actually saying that, that man was dead in sins, and we used to walk according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, that's Satan, the lowercase spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.

He's still working in the fallen folks of the world, colon.

Verse 3, among whom also we all had our conversation, that's our behavior.

Among whom also we had our behavior in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Stop.

So he's talking about Christians.

He's talking about people that are born again.

He's talking about people that are bound for heaven.

And Paul is clarifying to them, folks, I want you to realize who you used to be.

You used to be like everybody else.

You used to be dead spiritually, you used to behave and act like Satan's folks that he's still working in today.

And it says in verse 3 that uh we used to uh in times past, uh, our behavior was in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

We were of the earth earthly, we were of the flesh fleshly.

That's why Jesus told Nicodemus, ye must be born again that you might see the kingdom of God, because in our natural, in this estate right here that you and I were in, we could not see or understand the things of God because they're spiritual.

And you and I were fleshly.

That's why Jesus Christ said, Look, you fleshly, earthly heathen folks, like me and you, had to be spiritually born from above to have our eyes open to be able to see and understand spiritual things.

That's all he was saying.

So, and he says, and we were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

This is not a pretty picture being painted of you and I, and of even Christians you understand.

He's not, brother, as he's writing Ephesians chapter 2, he is not writing to lost folks.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

He's writing to the church.

He's writing to born-again saints that already have their spiritual mind and eyesight opened up, who've already been given the gift of faith, who've been given the mind of Christ to understand.

And Paul is explaining to them the spiritual birthing process that God did, that what God brought you out of, that you and I had no part in.

That uh we didn't do anything to this.

We were the transgressor, we were the bad persons, we were the person dead in sin and acting like heathens, and we were the children of wrath, even as others.

And that's what that's the picture that Paul paints of you and I.

So God's doing all the good work, and you and I are wallowing in the ditch of sin.

That's where we are right here in this picture.

We come to verse 4.

But God, stop.

In the following verses after this, you're gonna again, even in a more clear way, see all these actions, all this work that God is doing.

It's not man.

Man is not of his own accord, of his own choosing, of his own volition, choosing to have faith and serve God in the middle of his lost fallen state.

That is not the picture that is painted here.

Paul is clearly explaining how this spiritual saving transformation took place.

And the first words out of his mouth are, but God.

I love this verse in the Bible because it tells us how bad we are and how, you know, what condition that we're in, and then all of a sudden Paul just throws in this just massive, but God.

Look at what God did.

You know, and I want you to see this is the focus you understand.

Now, and I want to I want to interject something right here.

God does not do anything haphazardly.

Amen.

God is purposeful in all the things that he does.

You know, uh, I'm gonna make a statement here, and it's not supposed to be offensive, but Adam was formed before Eve.

Okay?

God made Adam first, and then uh and he uh and then he made Eve out of Adam.

And therefore Adam was the head, head of the family.

Uh he was the head of Eve, and he had authority over Eve in that sense.

But with that also came Adam became the one who was responsible.

But what I want you to see is that that order isn't reversed in the scriptures, that Adam was first.

I don't tell you that to say that, oh, men are better than women.

That's not what I'm saying at all.

I'm just saying that in Scriptures, God is purposeful in the order that he puts things, because all these scriptures are inspired by the Holy Spirit of God.

And so as we go through this chapter and we see that God is doing work, but we see that man is bad, and then we get here to verse 4, and then it says, but God.

The focus in this passage of scripture is not on, hey, look at man and look at the fact that he made a wonderful and wise, saving choice, and he saved himself out of a devil's hell by the faith that he had.

That's not what this chapter is about.

This chapter is about look how you and I were shipwrecked and destined for hell, but God intervened and saved our terrible selves.

That is the focus.

You see that?

That's the emphasis in this passage of scripture.

And I don't understand how people get this part wrong.

I guess people just choose not to preach on this passage of scripture very often, or they don't want to navigate it, or they don't want to deal with it, but this is beautiful.

So look at who is doing the work beginning in Ephesians 2.4, but God who is rich in mercy.

And I want to show you that's so that's the first thing we're seeing.

That about this thing that we're fixing to talk about, salvation, the first thing that Paul's telling us is that look, you know, we're bad, you know, we were like the people of the world, but God who is rich in mercy.

In other words, God be the glory, that he's a merciful God.

Why?

Because we needed that, because we were terrible people.

So we needed mercy.

For his great love, wherewith we were really, really wise and chose him.

Is that what he says?

No.

For his great love, wherewith he loved us.

The focus is on God, the focus is on his rich mercy, the focus is on his great love, wherewith he loved us, and he did all of that, even when we were righteous folks, that he looked down through time and saw that we would choose him and make a wise choice, and therefore he chose us.

That is not what it says.

It says instead, even when we were dead in sins, just like all these scriptures that have gone before, God did not look down through time and see righteous men that would choose him, and then therefore God said, Oh, look at those good folks that are making a godly choice, and then I'm going to choose to save them, because see, the Bible says even in Romans chapter 5 that Christ died to save sinners.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

He didn't die to save righteous folks, he died to save sinners.

And so God did not look down.

The idea of predestination, election, and foreknowledge in the Bible is not the idea of God looking down through time and seeing people who would make a godly and righteous choice to choose God, and then therefore God chose them.

That is not the picture painted.

Instead, it's more beautiful than that.

It's more beautiful than that.

It's wicked, terrible individuals like Paul and like me and like you who didn't deserve it.

We deserve to go to hell and God, but God, for his great mercy and his great love, chose heathen folks like me and you.

And it's a more beautiful picture than that.

That's grace, brothers and sisters.

And that grace is what produces in us humbleness and thankfulness all the days of our life because we don't deserve not a drop of it.

Amen.

We don't deserve a drop of it.

And this is the love of God that constraineth us to want to serve and follow Him.

Well, Brother Josh, if I believe the way y'all did, that we're just predestinated and elected, that I could just go live like a heathen.

No, we won't.

I don't want to live like a heathen, brothers and sisters.

I believe by God's grace that I have been predestined to salvation, and God did all that.

Does that give me license to want to go and just live like the worst man in the world?

No, it doesn't.

Instead, it birthed me again and made my eyes open to see the things of God.

Therefore, my wants now are different than they were before.

My wants before I was born again were fleshly, they were earthly, they were sinful, they were lustful, all the terrible things mentioned here.

But my wants now are different.

I have a different set of wants.

I want to honor God, I want to love my wife, I want to love my children, I want to be a faithful Christian.

Now, do we realize that you and I are dual people, whether we still have the old nature and we have the new nature and we fight against that?

Absolutely.

That's a struggle that you and I will have our whole lives.

But again, you and I are supposed to feed the spiritual nature, as the old preacher said, feed the white dog and starve the black dog to death.

No, y'all have heard that before.

And that's what we're talking about here.

But I have a new set of wants, brothers and sisters.

I don't want so, well, if I just believe the way you live, Brother Josh, I can just go out and live like the devil.

I don't want to live like the devil.

I want to live like Christ.

I want to follow him.

Why?

Why do I want to live like that?

Why do you want to live like that?

Because you've been born again.

Amen.

Because your eyes have been spiritually opened.

Your mind has been spiritually opened to the Lord.

You are a different person, and you didn't do that.

God did that in you.

You and I were wicked, and he was good, and he showed terrible folks like me and you mercy.

That's what this passage of scripture is all about.

And you see how that it says in verse 4, but God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, we were dead as a doornail, hath quickened us or made us alive together with Christ.

Notice this, by grace are ye saved.

The order in the Bible is important.

Grace causes faith.

Faith does not cause grace.

Verse 6.

So by grace are ye saved, and notice also who's doing the action.

And hath Raised us up together.

God has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ.

Again, he's telling us some of the same things that he told us in Ephesians chapter 1 that we have been blessed in heavenly places in Christ.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

And who is the one doing the action?

Who is the cause of all this?

It's not me and you.

It's not mine and your faith.

It's God's grace and mercy that is causing all this to happen in our sinful lives.

He has transformed us.

He has metamorphosized us.

2 Corinthians 5.17.

Anyone in Christ is a new creation, a new creature.

The word there is metamorphosis in the original language.

It's like the old ugly caterpillar coming out and becoming a butterfly.

He has been transformed.

He has been made anew.

He has been created a different thing.

And again, who is the creator?

Not the lost sinner who is dead in sins and his will is imprisoned.

He's not the creator.

He's the one who's wallowing in the mire and he can't do anything for himself.

It is the creator who intervenes and makes that wicked worm into a new Christ-like creature.

God did that.

We didn't do that.

And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ.

Verse 7, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

He gets all the glory because he's the one who did it.

Verse 8.

I know y'all are familiar with this verse.

Ephesians 2.8.

For by faith are ye saved through grace?

No, that is not the order.

For by grace are ye saved through faith in that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

My statement earlier was this faith is not a contribution we make to save ourselves to heaven.

It is the gift of God.

Faith comes out of grace.

Grace does not come out of faith.

In other words, sovereign grace is the cause, faith is the effect.

The order in the Bible is correct, just like Adam and Eve.

Adam was responsible because he came first.

Grace is responsible.

God is responsible.

He is the one who did the saving actions, not the lost sinful man.

The order is not like our friends of other faith and orders think that the lost sinner has faith, and then therefore, because he chooses to have faith, then he appropriates the grace to himself, and then God saves him.

That is not biblically correct.

I want to be super clear on that.

Instead, grace, God's sovereign, intervening, predestinating, choosing grace, chose men.

He chose sinners like you and me.

He gave us that grace, and as a result of that grace, it birthed faith in mind and your lives.

And it birthed obedience, it birthed the change of heart and a change of mind.

Our wants are different.

And God did that.

We did not do that to ourselves.

For by grace are ye saved through faith.

And well, Brother Josh, which one is it?

Is the grace not of ourselves or is the faith?

Neither one of them.

It is literally the faith of Jesus Christ according to Romans chapter 3.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

We don't have faith in Jesus Christ.

We have the faith of Jesus Christ.

He gave it to us.

And I love, and in case you and I got this wrong, well, Brother Josh, I think that faith is of me.

Y'all tell me when we read this, for by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God.

If that wasn't clear enough, not of works, if that wasn't clear enough, lest any man should boast, because man's sinful tendencies is he's going to want to boast about the fact that, oh, well, I'm a preacher and I've saved a hundred thousand people, or I'm a, you know, when I'm a Christian and I made a right choice when I was X number of years old, and I've been walking with the Lord ever since.

Man's default nature is to boast.

And God said, I did things this way, so that I get all the glory and man gets none.

And that's exactly what he told us in Ephesians chapter 1, when he says in verse 5, having predestinated us under the adoption of children, again, the parents choose a child, the child doesn't choose a parent.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

Having predestinated us under the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, he did all of this according to the good pleasure of his will, not man's.

And he did all this, why?

Why did he do it this way?

To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the blooded.

That 100% agrees with this passage of scripture that it is not of man, it is not of our doing, it is of God, it is of grace, and it is to God's glory, and man had nothing to do with that process whatsoever.

God did it all, he gets all the credit.

In any case, none of that was clear, he says in the next verse.

Verse 10.

For we are his workmanship.

Well, brothers and sisters, I built that cabinet right back there.

I did that.

There's not a cabinet back there.

I'm just saying.

If I build a cabinet, that's my workmanship.

Now, to God be the glory, they gave me the strength to do that.

But my point is that our salvation doesn't come from us.

We are God's workmanship.

He made us this way.

Well, read on, for we are his workmanship.

Notice the language created in Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 5.17.

That anyone in Christ is a new creation.

God is the creator.

He's the one who changes the dead alien sinner into a spiritually minded servant of God.

God is the one who does that transforming work, not man.

We are not our own redeemers.

We are not our own saviors.

We are not our own creators.

The glory does not go to our faith.

The glory goes to God's grace and mercy.

For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath.

Look at the language here.

Before ordained.

Well, that sounds a lot like predestination.

The word predestination.

The word pre, the suffix means before.

Destination is a destination.

In other words, I had predetermined when I leave here that I'm going to go home tonight.

If by the Lord's grace I can get there, that's where I want to go.

But I've already decided beforehand when I leave here, that's where I want to go.

I have predetermined, I have predestined, I have pre-decided.

Well, the language here, which God hath before ordained, decided beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Wherefore remember that ye being in times past Gentiles in the flesh who were uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision.

In other words, we were Gentiles, and the Jews thought us that way.

Uncircumcision in the flesh made by hands, that in that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in this world, but now in Christ, ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh or near by us choosing God.

No, we're made near by the blood of Christ.

Brothers and sisters, you and I get zero credit for our salvation.

The preacher gets zero credit for mine and your salvation.

It is 100% a work of God.

So I'm going to close tonight.

I want to read those first four statements that we started with.

Sovereign grace is the cause.

Faith is the effect.

Grace doesn't wait on faith.

It produces it.

Third thing.

Faith is not a contribution we make to save ourselves to heaven.

It is a gift of God.

Finally, the sinner is dead, so he can't believe first.

The Capital S spirit quickens him, and believing follows as naturally as breathing follows being alive.

That is the proper biblical order.

So what is the problem with predestination in election?

Absolutely nothing.

But, brothers and sisters, it is a doctrine that is misunderstood in this world.

We've already talked about that it is not widely and properly taught, that people simply don't like it, and that people believe that it conflicts with their idea of free will.

And it does conflict with their idea of free will because their idea of free will is wrong.

Because man, in his current estate, born of woman, does not have free will.

Our free will is a slave to our sin, and we are actually dead to spiritual things.

We cannot save ourselves or choose to have faith.

We are bound up in our own prison and we are dead alien sinners, and it's by God's grace that we am what we am.

Amen.

Let's close in a word of prayer.

Father God, we come before you tonight and we praise you for who you are.

Father, you are Almighty God.

You have never, never, never attempted to save anyone.

Instead, you have 100% saved every single person that you ever set out to save.

Jesus Christ is the good shepherd, he giveth his life for the sheep.

He has not lost a single one.

He will go at if he's watching the hundred and one goes away from the 90 and 9, he will go after and he will absolutely retrieve that one.

Every single human being that Christ died to save will be in heaven by God's grace and mercy.

Every single one of the elect will be saved and in heaven, and that is all the result of God's your great grace.

Father, to you be all glory and honor and praise.

Father, we are just so thankful and we are humbled by your sovereign and powerful word.

Father, to you be the glory.

Just thank you so much.

Father, please just watch over us as we depart this place.

Please be with the church as the church leads the church house.

Please keep us all safe.

Father, help us to be more diligent in following after you.

And Father, just thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you for your Holy Spirit, and thank you for your great grace and mercy.

We pray and ask all these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.