Pastor Babij introduces a new sermon series today on the Five Solas of the Reformation. The five solas are:
- Sola scriptura – Scripture alone
- Sola fide – faith alone
- Sola gratia – grace alone
- Solus Christus – Christ alone
- Soli deo gloria – glory to God alone
In today’s sermon, Pastor Babij focuses on sola gratia, how salvation comes about solely by the grace, or undeserved favor, of God. As part of this discussion, Pastor Babij examines three historical viewpoints regarding the effects of the Fall of man:
- Pelagianism: We can still save ourselves
- Semi-Pelagianism: We were contaminated at the Fall but can still contribute to our salvation
- Augustinism: We are spiritually dead and cannot help ourselves be saved at all
Pastor Babij demonstrates from the Bible how the Augustinian view is correct. We are all dead in our sins and must be rescued by God. God has held nothing back with the gift of His Son Jesus Christ and, for those who are saved, nothing can separate them from God’s love, since salvation is totally of Him.
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okay a couple places that I’d like you to turn in your Bibles this morning one of them is uh in Mark chapter 7: 13 and then we’re going to be looking towards Ephesians chapter 2 and so I said a couple weeks ago several weeks ago more than three weeks ago that I was going to preach on the Solas of the Reformation uh only because it’s uh you have already heard it’s the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation November 7 1517 to November 2017 and so uh is the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s pivotal posting of the yet unanswered 95 thesis on that he nailed to the door a Roman Catholic to the door of a Roman Catholic Church in vitberg Germany it was that document that ignited the Protestant Reformation and it was of course a protest against the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church um I grew up a Roman Catholic and um many times after when I became a Believer and people would ask me what’s the difference between Roman Catholicism and what you believe and at first I didn’t really have a good answer but of course now I have a better answer uh a more biblical answer and of course it’s going to rise out of the the these are the differences it’s going to rise out of the five Solas and of course Sola means alone of the reformation and what are they uh the Sola gratia is saved by grace alone uh which is going to be the subject of today secondly solid which is saved by faith alone thirdly solar Christus which is in Christ alone then fourthly solar scriptor according to scripture alone and number five Sol de Gloria for the glory of God Alone Now if you noticed in the operative word is alone now why why because the rules followed by the Roman Catholic Church to measure truth is scripture plus tradition plus the magisterium excluded from start to finish is the principle of solar scriptura or scripture alone so then how the Roman Catholic Church arrives at Salvation of a sinner is radically different than the biblical view of salvation of a sinner now you may have not known this but the Roman Catholic Church does believe and teach that salvation is by grace through faith because of Christ however what the Roman Catholic church does not believe or teach in regards to Sal the salvation of a sinner is that It Is by grace alone through faith alone by Christ alone so then the Roman Catholic formula for salvation is by Grace plus Merit through faith plus works and by Christ plus the sinner’s contribution of inherent righteousness that comes by keeping the seven sacraments of the Catholic church that’s what equals just justification so these Solas are very important for us to get our minds around Even in our day a Roman Catholic Theologian named Thomas aquinus in his Works Suma theologica taught that Grace is a quality of the Soul he thought the whole idea of Grace being moral Justice is located inside a person rather than a holy God imputing Christ’s righteousness to each person ainus is teaching is really a blatant contradiction to the biblical to biblical truth and is really a negation of the consistent Biblical teaching of positional legal righteousness in Christ alone when somebody repents of their sins uh and by faith believes in Jesus to save them alone apart from anything else so biblically speaking it ought to say the righteousness of Christ is credited to The Believer by grace alone and by faith alone and thus a person is justified by Christ Alone apart from the works of the law as it is stated in scripture by the Apostle Paul therefore we conclude that man is justified by faith without the Deeds of the law so the bottom line is the Roman Catholic church does not rest satisfied with Christ Alone her process program in fact nullifies the grace of God because it then becomes a system of works it is no longer a gift it’s something you have to work for to get so the Roman Catholic Church Church’s rules for the measure of the truth flies squarely in the face of the words spoken directly to the religious leadership of Jesus day and of course there’s the mark passage of scripture I want you to turn to Mark 7:3 in Mark chter 7 Jesus exposes the Damage Done by such self-invention human tradition where it says in verse 13 thus invalidating this is Mark 7:13 thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down and you do many things such as that of course the Greek word for invalidating is a word that can be translated without Authority in other words Jesus is saying to those religious leaders you have abolished the authority of God and of course in the context of the passage is not only the fifth commandment but the very word of God thus invalidating the word of God by your tradition and he says you do similar things that Rob the word of God of its Authority it’s still going on today see Jesus shows here that rigid adherence to the traditional laws of men can actually mean disob obedience to the very word of God and remember True Religion can never be a product of man’s mind or the conclusion of men’s arguments True Religion should not be mistaken for mere outward observance and religious acts see the real deception in Tradition or the word of God plus something Christ plus something Faith plus something the real danger and deception is making the man-made rules and tradition appear to be the teaching of the very word of God and it’s not the reformers and of course in Sunday school Dave kosha has been going over those reformers all right letting us know what they taught what they went through the battles that they uh had to wrestle with the reformers called the church back to the one true biblical Gospel of Salvation that’s what they did so this was the question proposed by Martin Luther in his writing on the bondage of the will his question is simply this what is the source or the status of faith is Faith god-given is it a gift or must we provide or contribute something to make Faith real of course if we do that if we contribute to Faith then it we really make Faith a work and of course uh Armenians believe that that faith is something we contribute to the message of Salvation and therefore we become Believers so is Faith part of God’s Gift of Salvation or man’s contribution to Salvation that became the real controversy with Martin Luther is our Salvation wholly of God or does It ultimately depend on something we do ourselves this is always the questions how does a person get right with God most religions they tell you have to do this this this this and this and then maybe maybe you’ll be right with God you won’t know until you die but you don’t ever know for sure but yet the says these things I’ve written unto you that you may know you have eternal life so those who say the latter of course man’s contribution to Salvation thereby deny man’s utter helplessness in sin and affirm that a form of semi pism pelagianism is true after all now you say what’s that well Pelagius was a British monk about the end of the 4th Century who argued that the sin of Adam only affected Adam and there was no transfer of a sin nature to his offspring he believed that moral ability to achieve actually Perfection remains within man even after the fall in other words at the fall of Man man was only wounded in the 15th and 16th century the Roman Catholic Church even condemned that theology as heretical another Catholic priest came along named St Augustine and on the other hand he said he argued that the fall was so disabled in that man was placed in a condition of spiritual death and moral inability to do things that please God Man was created he says with a mandate to be holy righteous and perfect however the false so corrupted man’s nature that it is impossible for him to do any good or choose God apart from the gracious intervention of God oh yes some people demonstrate Civic righteousness and outward righteousness to do good but no one has the natural inclination for the things of God in other words Augustine concluded at the fall of Man man was dead spiritually but biologically alive but dead spiritually right could he make choices yes his will was still intact but his will was in bondage to sin so therefore could not make choices on the level of the spiritual uh to choose God or even reject God because they were dead so see what position would we hold as a church all right St Augustine’s emphasis on salvation by grace alone developed out of his conflict with the heretic Pelagius this teaching has reared its ugly head throughout the centuries right up until this present day paganism resurfaced in the 16th century in sanism or the soan movement in the 19th century the movements of liberalism and phism also brought back this particular teaching now Charles finny was a presbyterian lawyer probably at the end of the 19th century or and Finny began conducting revivals in Upstate New York and followed pelagus Pelagius by a denial of the doctrine of original sin finny believed that human beings are capable of choosing whether they will be corrupt or redeemed he refer to Original Sin as an antis scriptural nonsensical Dogma finny denied the notion that human beings possess a sinful nature so the reason I decided to give a series of sermons on these five solers is because pelagianism is still practiced in ch the church today it is in fact it is a practical working of theology in our very day even though it has remained officially condemned as a heresy this heresy rested on a denial of original sin and the emphasis on the on autonomy and of of the Free Will of man to choose to either obey God or disobey God now before I go any further let’s have a word of prayer Lord thank you this morning for the word of God because the word of God clears things up it puts us on the the right track it it transforms our mind it it pushes aside and exposes wrong teaching especially the teaching that arises out of the heart of man that is energized and really propagated by Satan himself that confuses people and causes them to remain in spiritual blindness Lord help us today and in all of these sermons to get a grasp on the greatness of what you have done in providing to us salvation as a gift that you’ve done everything for us but Lord we are uh at the point you bring us to believe so I pray Lord that you would just clarify and clear our mind up about what it means to be saved by grace alone original sin is really the doctrine which holds human the that Human Nature has been morally and ethically corrupted due to the Disobedience of Mankind’s first parents in the Bible the first human transgression of God’s command is described as the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden resulting in what the theology calls the all of mankind so the doctrine of original sin holds that every person born into the world is Tainted by the Fall such that all human humanity is ethically really dehabitation that and people are powerless to rehabilitate to rescue or to save themselves unless they are rescued by God now there’s three common theologies that are still in play today the first one is of course I mentioned already pelagianism but the followers of Pelagius who was of course a as I said was born in the west of England and he was a British monk uh he believed in human ability he taught that man is qualified for right and wrong action through a self-complete independent inherent capacity to choose God’s way or every any other way so at the fall Pelagius uh on the consequences of Adam’s sin he denied that there is such a thing as original sin he denied that man inherited Adam’s guilt and of course refused to allow that there were any ill effects as a result of Adam’s sin again as I said he believed that at the fall we were just wounded we still had the capability the uh ability to respond to God so the bottom line is if we evaluate it he in Salvation you don’t need any help from God uh that of course is unbiblical it’s humanistic and is unchristian and of course they came up with a middle ground position called semipelagianism and this is an Armenian view and of it is the major view held in the Evangelical church today that man it says man cannot be saved apart from the grace of God but there is something man must do even in his still Fallen state to cooperate with the grace of God if God will save him or reject God’s grace so yes man is a fallen sinner under the wrath of God but but did not lose everything in the fall he still has the natural ability to respond to the grace of God and come to Christ now I don’t hold that position I don’t hold that position because I don’t believe it’s a Biblical position I believe in this third position which of course started back uh with Luther and Augustine and Calvin uh because they were realizing what was being taught and of course augustinianism is considered to be the grace oriented theology that man must depend fully on God for salvation and is totally dependent on the grace of God even in the person’s initial response to the gospel so the question can a man respond to the gospel in his Fallen state Pelagius would said would say yes absolutely don’t really need any help it’s all inside of us semian pelagianism would say yes but man needs help and again the semi palagian view is the prominent view in the Evangelical movement today of course Augustine would say answer that question can a man respond to the gospel in his Fallen State absolutely no he cannot why he’s dead that’s the B position that I hold and our church holds and the reason why is because that’s what the Bible teaches all right so let’s take our Bibles and turn to Ephesians Ephesians and you will see the only thing that sheds light on this controversy and corrects it is scripture alone own so let’s go to the passage in Ephesians and see how incapable you and I were to save ourselves now some have called the letter to the Ephesians the Epistle of God’s grace I agree with that I do agree with that Ephesians of course chapter 2 gives us that passage of scripture that really it really puts a punch right between our eyes and it says in verse number s Ephesians 2 so that in the ages to come he might show The surpassing Riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus and then verse eight for by Grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourself it is a gift of God just that verse alone refutes paganism semipelagianism and the thought that man has anything at all to do in and of their fallen state to respond to the gospel so here in these passages two terms are connected giving us a fuller understanding of of what God has done the first one of course is the word grace Grace meaning God’s gracious care to us God’s UNM unmerited favor toward us but also along with Grace he’s he says at the end of verse number eight it is the gift of God so the gift really and Grace go together gift is really an expression of divine grace that’s that’s how we understand it what’s God’s grace God’s giving us something something as a gift right and a gift is something you take without paying anything for it you don’t work for it if you try to work for a gift you cancel out the whole purpose of a gift you take it so God’s giving to us a gift now Justice Means people will get quite accurately what they deserve from God and what do we deserve from God Justice and wrath all right that’s what we really deserve Mercy means that God will not give you what you do deserve and what do we do deserve justice and wrath Grace means god giving you what you do not deserve and what don’t you deserve you do not deserve his love his Mercy his salvation his gift you do not deserve deserve that I do not deserve that no one deserves that I do not deserve his forgiveness based alone on Christ’s substitutionary sacrifice so a gift is something that cannot be earned that which no man can claim as his right that which cannot be bought that which cannot be worked for it is solely the result of God’s goodness and God’s Grace Grace again is unmar favor kindness shown to someone who does not deserve any kindness at all it is the free gift of God to people who are utterly undeserving of it so then Grace is that which God does for Mankind through his son which mankind again cannot earn does not deserve and cannot Merit Paul thought of preaching the gospel of grace to such an extent he says it was more important than his own life where he says I do not consider my life uh on any account as dear to myself so that I may finish my course and Ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus to testified solemnly of the Gospel of the grace of God so the the center point and why I start with Grace is because the center point of the Gospel it is that it is the gift of God being offered to Fallen sinful Humanity who cannot do anything at all whatsoever to deserve it they are incapable we are all incapable to deserve it so when we are overwhelmed with God’s undeserved grace and goodness it humbles us and it makes us immensely grateful to God for forgiving us so much a humble person understands the sinfulness of Their Own Heart they see themselves as no better than anyone else they understand that he in and of himself is really uncapable or capable of the worst of sin he agrees that with John Bradford who said but for the grace of God there go I see when a Christian understands the grace of God really everything changes so in Ephesians chapter 2 you see that the word of God is showing us as to the characteristics which permeated Our Lives when we were outside of Christ that is before God began to act upon us with resurrection power before the father started drawing us to himself in other words what we once were pre- conversion this is who we were this is who all of us were we could have no wondrous relationship to Christ unless we were raised to our new position by God’s salvation by grace in Christ so you see we must often remind ourselves of what we once were and what God has now made us to be this is what we were in other words what we were is a person who could not respond to God at all now let’s look at verse number one of chapter 2 of Ephesians there are five things that really bring to light the whole point of grace alone and it’s this the first one is without Christ we once walked around in the condition of deadness look at verse number one it says in Ephesians chapter 2 and you were dead in your trespasses and sin now uh Brethren uh bi biologically alive but spiritually dead see there there’s no better word to be used than dead to describe man in his fallen and depraved condition now just as a person physically dead does not respond to physical stimuli so a person spiritually dead is unable to respond to spiritual things a corpse does not hear the conversation going on in the F funeral PO he has no appetite for food or drink he feels no pain he is dead just so with the Inner Man of the unsaved person his spiritual faculties are not functioning they cannot function until God gives him life so ultimately dead means to be ignorant of God it’s not to know God even in John uh verse chapter 17 it says this is eternal life that they know you the only true God in Jesus Christ whom you have sent so not to know God is death and life that is non-Christian is really a living death two words are used to show our deadness In this passage of scripture it says we’re dead in trespasses and sin see the repetition of these two words is for the purpose of being more emphatic about the condition of our deadness Paul speaks of sin as a power that holds Humanity under its Sway and leads them to death these words also confirm the sinful nature of humanity as the book of Romans confirms it therefore just as through one man’s sin entered into the world and death through sin so death spread to all men because all had sinned and of course there is this word trespass it’s a word that means to slip and fall actually if you remember if you’re aware of the great message preached by Jonathan Edwards sinners in the hands of an Angry God he kind of springboarded off this thought of man in a fallen condition all he can do when it comes to spiritual things is slip and fall and he uses Deuteronomy 32 as his passage where it says vengeance is mine and retribution in due time their foot will slip for the day of their Calamity is near and the impending things are hastening upon them see you can’t in other words walk around this world as a sinner dead without slipping and falling matter of fact you and I kept slipping and falling from what is true what is right what pleases God our whole life why because we could not respond to God and of course he uses another word and it’s the word sin sin is a word that really literally means to miss a man shoots an arrow at a Target and the arrow misses that that is the word here hartia it means sin is a failure to hit the target of God’s righteous standard we commonly have a wrong idea of sin we would readily agree that a robber a murderer a gangster an adulterer a drugger a drunkard to name a few our Sinners we would all agree that but since most of us are respectable citizens in our heart of hearts we think that sin has not very much done anything to us we have respectable sins as some theologians have called it but har hartia the word here brings us face to face with what sin is it’s a failure to be what we ought and could be before God see our God is Holy and perfect and he requires us to be holy and perfect to be in his presence we cannot come into the presence of a holy and a perfect god without we ourselves being holy and perfect but we cannot do that on our own he cannot allow transgression and sin into his presence all human beings fall short they slip and fall they miss the target of reaching the standard that God has set before us and that standard is perfection so when a human sins they are missing the mark of God’s righteous standard and at the same time of course they are hitting something else they are namely hitting unrighteousness that is why the Old Testament and the New Testament uh use words that give us the idea of rebelling against God of wickedness of selfishness of Disobedience of lawlessness all referring to the sin of man there’s so many uh we sin such depth uh there the word of God gives us many words to name it so sin is really a violation of a set standard and a violation against the one who set the standard and you and I come drastically short of that standard every time all the time it is not that all human beings are as bad as they could be but that all humans have the potential for the worst of sins and consequently your sin and my sin dominated our life put ourselves up against God and under his judgment so in our sinful deadness we would have never responded to God’s gospel call we needed God’s grace to save us that’s the first thing the second thing in our passage in Ephesians chapter 2 it says is this that without Christ prec conversion we once conducted your our lives in harmony with the way the present age lives in other words the world around us look what it says in verse two in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world so the term World carries with it at least two things number one man in Rebellion against God especially men in hostility to God and then secondly a way of life especially as opposed to the purposes of God the world system the course of this world it is the order or system of this Earth as it now exists since sin and death have invaded it and Mankind is in a depraved state it involves the world’s values and the world’s pleasures and pastimes and aspirations and just by a way of reminder that I’m not talking about the physical world in which God made and we are to care for and enjoy I’m talking about the current thoughts in any any day in which we live the philosophies the ideologies that connect how the world system thinks and then the world system presses what they think upon you to the point where our universities are saturated with teachers who have a world view of of the world and the world systems but not God’s point of view and then we have people that are really permeating all aspects of society and giving the news for example our news media they’re permeated with a world viw that is completely in the opposite direction of what God intends for us to know and the reason why because this world system has been in every generation not just ours opposed to God and His truth truth whether it’s fashion clothing hairstyles languages the way we spend money how we spend our time what we should desire what we should eat how we should worship how we should think it’s all out there and it’s being pressed Upon Us matter of fact Romans 12 says don’t be conformed to the world don’t let the world press you into its mold and believe me that’s what it does because everywhere you go you’re getting bombarded by the thinking thinking of the world but it is not God’s point of view on things it will never lead you at all whatsoever to doing anything right before God it will always lead in the opposite direction so you know what that means you and I were making our more moral and ethical and social decisions based on what is acceptable in society right doesn’t anybody everybody want to be accepted everybody wants to be accepted that’s the pressure when a young person goes off to school and leaves home they want acceptance but sometimes their acceptance comes uh by someone who doesn’t have God’s point of view has a World’s point of you and so we stop asking questions like what does God say what does God want me to do so you and I were going along with the flow and the change with very little if any discernment or critical thinking about what is really going on around us I believe Christians should know what’s going on around them in every realm from the church to the political realm to the social realm they need to know and be aware of everything that’s why we’re always learning and growing so all these world all these views the world system in in really in a a a a self-sufficient independence of God and a willing opposition to God coupled also with a disregard of the judgments of God and the standards of God and the Very existence of God God doesn’t exist anymore if God doesn’t exist do whatever you want so if if in the teaching Of The World God doesn’t exist young people are not guilty of sin they haven’t committed sin there’s no standard all right this is what everybody does it’s acceptable behavior in every every place you go so there’s there’s no conviction in the sense of a worldly standard of any kind of sin because there’s no sin you must bring God and the word of God into the P picture to have any relationship or thought in your mind that you actually have sinned against God in anything you do so in our sinful and Fallen state of mind we were not free we were in bondage to the world’s ideology and Direction and outside and this of course outside influence led us by the nose deceiving us that we were free to make our choices however in that condition we would have never responded to God in the gospel’s call we could not we need God’s grace to save us here’s the third thing in verse number two of Ephesians chapter 2 without Christ we once walked Under The Authority or authoritative lure of Satan look what it says it says according to the prince and power of the air of the spirit that now is working in the sons of Disobedience so us prec conversion in a fallen State you and I being led by the system of the world being in bondage to our own transgressions and sins and now the Bible is telling us and you were under the power of the God of this world which is Satan and his minions and his power is not Earthly no it says it belongs to another realm a Heavenly place the term power of the air May mean either powers that dwell in the air or powers of Darkness I Believe what they mean is po of of Darkness because it says in Ephesians 6:12 for our struggle is not against flesh and blood blood but against rulers against the powers against the world forces of Darkness against spiritual forces of wickedness in Heavenly places so Satan does not have human power he has Angelic power and that’s way more powerful than any human being and he had power over you over me in a preconversion state how do you rescue yourself from that see the devil is the spirit now working in unbelievers when I was an unbeliever I thought everything was all right I was doing fine I wasn’t looking for God everything was going kind of good in my life traveling the world you know had some a little bit of money enjoying myself and I thought I was free I wasn’t free I was being led by my nose I was under the lore of the enemy here the the spirit means a principle that there is a power about it it’s not passive principle it’s an active principle it’s an an evil at work the evil principle is governed by the devil in fact the devil is so subtle that he dominates man and permeates him at the same time convincing him he’s free in other words a spiritual force is powerfully at work to Blind the minds of people to the truth to deceive them as scripture affirms again in 2 Corinthians 44 in who case the God of this world has blinded the mind of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the Gospel the glory of Christ who is the image of God so the evil one will gain entry into your mind and heart through any means possible and he has all of them at his disposal he will seduce with words with pictures with music with entertainment with relationships so the spirit I forces beyond our ability to resist influenced behavior in Rebellion to God in Rebellion to God’s plan and yet real Believers have no need at all to fear him we should respect him but in Christ we have no need to fear him because the victory has been won over him by Christ himself so that means that in our sinful dead Fallen state that was governed by the God of this world the devil we were unable to see the way of Salvation And in that condition we would have never responded to the gospel of God’s call we could not we needed God’s grace to save us and we still do today and then fourthly in verse number three without Christ we once lived governed by the strong lusts and passions of our own mind and body in verse number three among them we too all formerly lived in the lust of our flesh indulging the desires of the Flesh and the mind that’s who we are We crave sinful things why because we are sinners we were born Sinners and anything in the world system can become the source of sinful desire even though it may be good in and of itself the fleshly body can be the source of sensual desires and lusts for food for drink for sexual gratification but it says in the word of God in 1 John 2 for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh the lusts are the strong urgent cravings for something usually that is prohibited or forbidden for example why does a dog do what a dog does a dog behaves like a dog because a it has a dog’s nature if somebody could transplant into the dog the nature of a cat his behavior would radically change that would be a horrible thing for a dog to become a cat dogs all right cats that’s only my humble view for all you cat lovers please forgive me I now a matter of fact I I did have two or three cats growing up only because I rescued them and then I I ended up taking care of them I used to like them but anyway so so why why does a sin behave like a sinner because they have a sinful nature right so parents don’t be so upset when your children go south on you and do what they know is completely wrong and the reason why is because they’re Sinners that’s why you have to pray a lot and you have to make sure that you instill in them the word of God and show them the right way from the word of God and the Bible notice what it says in our passage it says in verse number uh where is it three it says we were indulging the flesh that’s that’s an interesting word there matter of fact the entire person is affected the mind and the Flesh and the thoughts the Deeds these include every base fired uh kindled in the human heart which really reaches out for an object in order to satisfy itself see we are we are still tempted by the idea that sin will make us happy we’re still tempted by that even as strong Believers see it won’t make you happy but it will give you pleasure but the pleasure the pleasure is shortlived so the phase the phase here lust of the flesh really to be born in the flesh means that we have no inclination towards spiritual things to the things of God the flesh is spiritually dead in fact it Rebels against the rules of God and wants to go its own way so you do you see what kind of condition we were in how in the world would we ever conclude that we had any inability in our in of ourselves to respond to God in our fallenness with all these things against us see in our sinful dead Fallen State we were enslaved on the inside by our own powerfully sinful lust and passions with no inclination toward spiritual things to have the things of God the flesh is spiritually dead so in that condition we could have never responded to God in the gospel call we could not we needed God’s grace now where does that lead to us it leads us to the last thing and the fifth thing look at verse number three without Christ we lived a life which was deserving only of the wrath of God look what it says in verse three the end of the verse and we were by Nature children of Wrath even as the W so you see our predicament without Christ was that we were objects of God’s Wrath God was against us all those other things and God was against us due to our failure to live up to the standard of God’s holiness we were under God’s Wrath and Upon Our death we would have been justly condemned to an eternity in hell I heard that Greg preached a great message last week and so you all have a concept of hell right and you don’t want to go go there but you’re not going to escape Hell by doing good works to equal what Christ did on the cross you’re only going to escape it if you trust in Christ alone right well man on the inside has corruption and death man on the outside with his fellow human beings they are engaged in combat with each other and with God his their creator their enemies of God the entrance of sin into the human race has wrecked Havoc with every single thing so what power is going to rescue a sinner in that predicament I say this no power but God’s power only God as it says in Colossians 1:13 for he rescued us from the domain of Darkness to transfer us into the kingdom of his beloved Son in other words after God changes our disposition the disposition of your heart then you choose to receive the offer of Salvation it is only then like it says in Ephesians God quickens us he makes us alive to what to not only see the kingdom of God but then to enter the kingdom of God he does that and he changes our heart to be able to respond to the gospel in Repentance and faith and so when we do that we will be Sav saved by grace alone now you may be saying well what’s the difference what difference does it make if I believe or not believe to be saved by grace alone or even if you do believe it what kind of implications does it have well you know the first implication it has is this we experience God’s unconditional love there’s nothing God asks us to do to be saved he does it all and and provides all of it for us even faith and repentance is a gift of God not of works also Grace is very surprising to us especially when we understand how God Stoops low to reach a longing lost soul that’s why it’s called amazing that’s why so many songs talk about Amazing Grace it is amazing when you understand salvation and what God did for you all also Grace releases us from the slavery of sin if the sun shall make you free you will be free indeed it’s only Christ who could do that also Grace guarantees our security it’s like what Paul said in Romans chapter 8 when the question comes up is if God is for us who can be against us right but in that passage of scripture it was Sinclair Ferguson who brought out some very interesting things about our security in Christ because of being saved by grace and the first one where it says and we know that God causes all things to work together for the good to those who love God to those who are called according to his purpose for whom he for know he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many Brethren and then it says what th What then shall we say to these things if God is for us who can be against us he who did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us how will he not also with him freely give us all things and then in verse number 35 verse number 33 who will bring a charge against God’s elect see he’s really uh what he’s doing here is that there’s darts being flung at us and the first Dart is this flung at us usually by Satan himself God is against you is really God for you look at your life you’re a mess that’s an attack of Satan a second Dart was Satan really really would bring accusations because of your sin he says what defense do you have when I bring up your sin what defense do you have against that also a third Dart that would be flung at us by Satan is you say you’re forgiven but have you forgotten that there’s a payback day a day of of judgment how will you defend yourself before God look at you look at the sin in your life look at what you’ve done see how do we stand up against those kind of attacks Satan will come to you on a fourth attack and say given your track record what hope is there for you that God’s going to preserve you to the end well what are we to say against these taxs when they will come against us we have to say the exact same thing that Paul says In this passage of scripture but we also have to remember the answer that would come to us When God says to us do you see how much I love you do you see how much grace I’ve have given you I was prepared to Bear my own judgment against you in the person of my own son if I was prepared to do that what would I hold back from you I would hold nothing back from you and that’s why he says that in the passage of scripture it says in verse 32 of Romans 8 and he who did not spare his own son but delivered him over for us how will he not also with him freely give us all things and then he ends the passage of scripture like this he says who will separate us from the love of Christ will tribulation separate us or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or Peril or sword just that as is written in scripture for your sake we are being being put to death all day long we were considered as sheep to the to be slaughtered but in all these things we were overwhelmingly conquerors through him who loved us for I am convinced and this is what you tell Satan I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate me and us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus so it’s not about the what it’s about The Who and the who is Christ and Christ has extended to you his grace alone apart from anything else and that is the only way someone gets saved that’s the only way now of course you may be sitting here uh this morning and and not know that you’re saved you have you may have never come to a place where you have called upon the Lord Jesus Christ and asked him to be merciful to you and to save you to forgive you of your sins and then to receive him as your own personal Lord and Savior now God brings us to that point unless the father draws us we can’t be saved but when the father does draw us he brings us to the place where God’s grace is no longer resistible it becomes unresistable and that’s when we say Lord I’m a sinner you’re a savior save me we’ve all come to that place who are True Believers if you haven’t you’re not a True Believer of course many things happen after that point but come today talk to someone today if you don’t really know if you’re a Believer if you do know then all that you can say is Grace is amazing and I don’t deserve it but I am sure glad God gave it to me see that’s where we all should be and it should motivate Us in service in all areas of our life to be very thankful about something God gave us that we would never have merited or deserved that’s salvation by grace alone right not Merit not works not keeping the sacraments right but by grace alone let’s pray Lord thank you this morning how the word of God lord clears things up in the controversies of men and teaching in the church and the things that surround the church I pray Lord this morning that we would become more aware of your grace in our own life not only the Grace that saves us but the grace that is extended to us every single day because we know Lord we experience your grace and mercy every day of our life so I pray Lord if that there’s that one person who has not come to believe in you yet I pray you would convict them of their sin of righteousness and of judgment and father draw them to Christ that they may confess you grant them faith and repentance give them that gift of Grace so they can believe they can see the Kingdom so they can enter the kingdom of God and they can experience the Forgiveness of God’s grace and know that their sin is washed away by the blood of Christ and the work that was accomplished by Christ on the cross and I pray that they may come to you and Lord for us who are believers help us each day to rest upon the grace that saved us the alone and I pray this in Christ’s name amen