The Glory of God's Grace and Power in Salvation — Eryl Davies

Ephesians 2 and the Glory of Grace in Salvation

Ephesians, chapter 2, and beginning our reading at the first verse. And ye hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation 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.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.

Amen. This morning we are focusing on the glory of God's grace and power in salvation in Ephesians chapter 2 and verses 1 to 10. I appreciate I'm only giving you an overview and a very basic introduction to this important section, but there is continuity with the preceding verses, and this is indicated again by this conjunction, and, the beginning of verse 1, and you he made alive, who were dead in trespasses and in sins.

The Apostle has been praying for the Ephesian Christians in verses 17 to 23. He's been praying that they should know God better, that they should appreciate the great hope which is ahead of them as believers.

In addition, he's been praying that they will appreciate the great power of God which is at work in and on behalf of his people. That same power which raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, which took him into heaven and seated him at the right hand of God the Father, and that appreciation at the same time of the meritorial lordship of our Lord Jesus Christ over all things in heaven and upon earth.

And that prayer is a prayer that we should all be praying for ourselves and for our churches in our own day. But having prayed this prayer, the Apostle now proceeds to give some important teaching, particularly in verses 1, 2, and 3, concerning the sinful condition of humanity outside of Jesus Christ.

Now the Apostle underlines the fact of God's sovereign grace and power immediately in verses 4 down to verse 10. Now the Apostle is establishing a most crucial point here. Not only does God save by his grace and by his power, but apart from the exercise of God's power and grace, no one can ever be saved.

We are totally dependent upon God, not just in terms of the planning of salvation, not only in the accomplishment of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, but also in its application. God must work in us, in his power, to bring a sinner to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Humanity's Spiritual Death Outside Christ

I want to approach these verses pastorally, and as we come to verses 1, 2, and 3, I want to remind you all of the seriousness and the reality of this description which the Apostle is giving to us of those people who are outside of Jesus Christ.

Those of you, for example, who are Christian parents, and you may have unconverted children, they may be young as yet, or they may be teenagers, they may be in their twenties or thirties, but despite your prayers and your teaching, your taking them to church in the early years, they are not converted.

Rightly so, this is a burden to you. You pray for them, you long to see them converted. And here the Apostle is really describing what your unconverted children are like spiritually outside of Jesus Christ.

You're seeing your children as God sees them, without a saviour. For those of you who are Christian young people, you may have unconverted parents, unconverted grandparents, unconverted brothers and sisters, unconverted friends in college, or in work, or in school.

And here the Apostle is giving us a very realistic picture of your relatives and your friends. This is what they are really like in relation to God himself. And for all of us involved in Christian work and Christian witness, maybe in Sunday school teaching non-Christian children, young people, perhaps in the youth fellowship, reaching out to teenagers.

As we live in our neighbourhood, try to witness to our non-Christian neighbours. As we're involved in open air work, door-to-door visitation, and repeatedly there is no response to the Gospel as we share it, perhaps repeatedly, they are not interested in what we are telling them about the Gospel.

Now the Apostle Paul in verses 1, 2, and 3 is really telling us the reasons why they do not respond to the Gospel. It's because they are like this here in verses 1, 2, and 3, that they do not welcome you as a Christian.

And they do not embrace your message concerning Jesus Christ. And for all of us as Christians involved in evangelism, these verses must influence the way in which we evangelise. Whatever the condition is, and we're going to look at it in verses 1, 2, and 3, these people need to hear the Gospel.

And so our witnessing, our evangelism must be word, Gospel-based. But then as we share the Gospel, we need to be praying hard. Knowing that only God can make that Gospel we're sharing effective. We also need to be living godly lives in front of those non-Christians.

So I trust as we look at these opening verses that we will realise their relevance for our own situations and that we'll be prepared to think through again the way in which we are approaching evangelism.

Notice that there are five important details which the Apostle gives to us of unbelievers in verses 1, 2, and 3. The first detail is out of death in verse 1. Right into these Ephesians he says, Christ and you, the verb comes late in verse 5, who were dead in trespasses and sins.

This is a very powerful picture. You can stand by a person who has just died. You may love that person. You may be stunned by that person's death. You may talk to that person. You may wait for a response.

Perhaps a movement of an arm or a leg or may want to hear words from that dead person but the person is dead. And you, Paul writes to these Ephesians, you were dead in trespasses and in sins. That is, on account of and through your trespasses and sins.

Trespasses and sins has brought us into spiritual death. And these two words, trespasses and sins, point to the immensity, the variety, the extent of all our sins as unbelievers. Unbelievers are spiritually dead.

Now, your child or friend or parent or neighbor may be physically alive, extremely healthy. They may even be very active in sport, mentally alert, financially comfortable, perhaps socially involved as well, committed in terms of the family.

But in relation to God, all unbelievers are spiritually dead. There is no spiritual response to God at all. And as you share the Bible, as you bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ, there is no response in the heart, spiritually, to what they are hearing.

Very often they will rebel, they will complain. They will tell us that they are bored, they are spiritually dead. I am humbled to realize that even here in Aberystwyth, for nearly two terms, I was in that state, spiritually dead and blind.

I was surrounded by a small group of Christians, some of them witnessed to me. One person in particular witnessed to me as often as he could and would come to my room and hall almost daily. For one term and a half, I remember towards the end of February that in that second term, he gave up on me.

I still remember him saying to me in my room, I didn't understand what he was trying to tell me, but he told me, you are blind, you are hopeless, and he gave up on me. Three or four weeks later, I was converted, spiritually dead.

And if such spiritually dead people are to be saved, God in his power and grace has to intervene in their lives. I am not going to change them, I am not going to bring them to Christ by mimes or by drama or by music, by any other technique.

God, by the Holy Spirit, has to regenerate them. They need to be changed from the inside, given spiritual, divine life, and brought effectively, irresistibly to Christ. When we are involved in evangelism, prayer is absolutely basic.

We must be active, we must be sharing the Gospel. We must ensure that people everywhere are hearing the glorious news of the Lord Jesus Christ. But our activities in themselves will not change them. God, by the Spirit, must work in the Gospel and in their hearts and lives.

Worldliness and the Course of This World

Spiritually dead. But notice, secondly, in verse 2, worldliness. I've written somewhere a story about a Swansea fishmonger, because it intrigued me some six years ago. Because this Swansea fishmonger had a 15 stone shark in his shop that he was just getting ready to cut up and to sell.

And he explained that within hours it would be sold. There was such a demand in Swansea for such fish. The story is that this large shark was basking the warm waters off the West African coast. Then there came a freak winter storm and this shark was turned off course and was eventually caught by trawlermen off the south coast of England.

And this Swansea fishmonger, very enterprising, bought it. I mention the story just to illustrate what the Bible is saying, that we have all gone off course as humans. The Bible makes it clear that before he sinned, Adam was on course.

He was fulfilling the purpose set for his life by God, namely glorifying God, obeying God, enjoying God. That's the reason why God created Adam and the entire human race. In Revelation 4 verse 11 we read, for thy pleasure they are and they were created.

So before he sinned, Adam's whole life centred around God. All that he thought, all that he desired, all that he said, all that he did honoured God. Adam wasn't living for business or for money or for sex or for sport or fame.

He was living for God. Some of you might think, well that must have been a very miserable existence. Not at all. He was exceptionally happy and fulfilled. He was on course, glorifying God, obeying God, enjoying God.

Suddenly, as you know, the Bible says there was a crash. Adam sinned, turned off God's road onto this dark, sinful, miserable road of sin. And this mould of the world becomes true of all who live in Adam.

For example, a boy about 19 years of age converted some months ago. His parents are not Christians. To his knowledge there were no Christians at all in his family. And a few weeks after his conversion, his parents became very concerned about him.

Before his conversion, he was one of the boys. Regularly drinking, coming home drunk on a Friday, Saturday, Sunday night, going to nightclubs. A popular young boy, he had everything going for him. Parents were proud of him.

And then he was converted to their consternation. Stopped drinking, stopped going to the nightclubs. He had new friends. He was getting up on a Sunday morning going to church, instead of lying in bed.

He was going to church again in the evening. Tuesday night he was going to the prayer meeting, Thursday night to a Bible study, Friday night to the young people, Saturday night he had a prayer meeting.

His father one day had a shock of his life. He was going round the houses with some Christians, giving chaps out. They were angry. Their son had become odd, different. The father spoke to him and expressed his concern that he thought he was going to catch religious mania.

Why aren't you still like your friends? You see, he didn't fit in to the pattern that the world accepts. Or come into one of these halls of residence during term time. Those of you staying in halls of residence, I would urge you to pray for Christian students who come here, and for non-Christian students.

It's not easy for a Christian coming into university, living amongst non-Christians. It's particularly difficult in the opening days of a term, when there's so much drink and wilderness amongst the students.

Maybe in a flat, the Christian is only one of seven or twelve students there. Just the one Christian. Maybe in a block, in a hall of residence, there's only one Christian out of sixty or seventy students.

Drugs are used. They go pubbing. Social life is pretty intense. Many of them are sleeping around. And the Christian stands out as being different, at least should do. The non-Christians can't really understand.

But there's pressure on these Christian young people to conform to the standards and the pleasures of the world. There are these enormous pressures on our Christian young people. And I urge Christian young people to resist these pressures.

Don't be afraid to be different, to be holy. Or if you listen to your colleagues in the office or the factory, or listen to people in the supermarket, as you're waiting to pay your bill on the way out, listen to the topics of conversation, the EastEnders, Coronation Street.

I don't know how many times in the supermarket I heard details about Big Brother 3. People are absolutely fascinated, excited, talking about the booze, and the party, and the behavior. Talking about their parties, dance, money.

This was their world. This was all that mattered to them. Their thinking, their values, their pleasures, their pursuits. All without any reference to God. And so Paul says in verse 2, in which you once walked according to the course of this world.

And that's what your unconverted child basically is like. Your unconverted parent, and friend, and colleague, they're in the grip of the world. And you cannot change them. Though God wants you to witness to them, and to pray to them, and to live a holy life in front of them, you'll never change them.

The Devil and the Spiritual Battle

In verse 2 again, we're told about the devil. According to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. The devil is here described as a prince, or a ruler.

The Lord Jesus, in John's Gospel chapter 12, and 14 and 16, used the title, the prince of this world, to refer to the devil. And here the apostle Paul describes the devil as the prince of the power of the air.

Indicating that there is an area, if not literally in the air, but an area in which the devil and his hosts are operating. They seek to further their evil designs. They seek to perpetuate worldliness, disobedience to God, his laws, encouraging rebellion against God himself.

The supernatural world is real. It's not something which is miles away from us, it's all around us. You know that fascinating story in 2 Kings chapter 6, that Vyses was being hunted by the Syrian king.

Because all his secret plans for war against Israel were being discovered before he moved his soldiers. And he eventually realizes that Elisha the prophet is responsible. He's getting this knowledge. So the king sends an army to arrest him.

And his servant looks out of the house and looks at the hills and mountains and he panics. He sees hundreds, possibly thousands of Syrian soldiers and their horses and chariots all around the place. He rushes back to Elisha and says, what on earth shall we do?

That's a modern translation. Elisha tells him, don't be afraid. Remember the famous words of Elisha, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. And Elisha then prays for the servant, Lord, he said, open his eyes that he may see.

And when the servant goes out, he then looks at the same scene and this time he sees a mountain full of horses and chariots of fire all around the angels of God. Elisha is perfectly safe. The spiritual world is very real and very near to us.

In Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12, the apostle Paul tells us that we're not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Devil is real. And the legion of spirits who serve him, they have an influence and a grip on an unbelieving world. Now, you know that there's an upsurge of interest in devil worship, Satan worship. You'd be surprised the kind of respectable people, often business people, middle class and working class, more important people who are involved in Satanism.

They worship Satan. They follow his rules. They break and violate every command that God has given in the Bible. Magic, witchcraft, spiritism. People are fascinated by it. They are exploiting it. People can be influenced.

But notice how the apostle goes on in verse 2. You may be horrified to know what the devil is doing in these dreadful areas of Satanism. But the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, the devil and his cohorts are actively at work in the lives of people.

The God of this world blinds the minds of them which believe not. They seek to snatch away the word being sown. They seek to trap and to entice and ensnare even Christians to spiritual battle. No man, no woman, no Christian can free an unbeliever from the tyranny of sin and of Satan.

If you've never read Luther's Bondage of the Will, it may be good summer reading for you. I recently read it and re-read it. It says in one place, if we believe Satan is the prince of this world, ever ensnaring and opposing the kingdom of Christ with all his strength, and that he does not let his prisoners go unless he is driven out by the power of the divine spirit, it's apparent there can be no free will.

Only God can do it. That's what your unconverted child is like. Notice, fourthly, in verse 3, the flesh. Now, in case you stand by your son or daughter and say, well, okay, they're not converted, but we can blame the world and we can blame the devil, the apostle Paul corners you.

He says, look, you have to be much more realistic. Your unconverted parent or unconverted child or friend or neighbor may be very nice. They may think the world of you. They may do anything for you to help you.

But the major problem is inside them, not outside. And the term flesh refers not just to the body, but to what we are as humans. Our soul, our mind, our affections, our will. It's human nature. The state of sin and estrangement from God himself.

So Paul is telling us that my whole person is affected and polluted by sin. This is what all unbelievers are like, including my relatives and my friends. Yes, they may be very nice, respectable, good citizens, caring relatives, but sin and rebellion permeates and controls every part of their nature.

This is what we mean by total depravity. That sin has permeated every area of our lives. It doesn't mean that we all indulge in every gross sin. It doesn't mean that we cannot perform civil good. We're made in the image of God.

There is common grace. We can be very nice people. And yet the Bible says our problem is ourselves, our sin, our nature. Notice in the rest of verse 3. Fulfilling the desires, the commands, the dictates of the flesh and the mind.

Sin is in control. God-given desires and appetites are spoilt by sin. Sin empowers and enslaves us. He that commits sin, says the Lord Jesus, is the slave of sin. Only God can change such a person. Notice finally in this description at the end of verse 3.

And we're by nature the children of wrath, just as others. That phrase by nature is important. We're born in Adam. We come into the world with sin, with original sin. Death is passed on to all in Adam.

So we are by nature the children of wrath, just as the others. I rejoiced with some of the young people yesterday over some of the examination results. I do recall a situation where I was in a shop somewhere in Wales.

When the GCSE results came out. And there were about 5 women in front of me. And strange enough they were all crying. And I really thought that someone had died. And so when the crying subsided, I said to one of the women, What's the matter?

Who's died? Oh, no one has died. We've just had the GCSE results. We've just been to the school. My daughter's not got the grades she needs. Her son, disappointed. They're breaking their hearts. One or two of them were believers.

I really hadn't seen or heard those Christian women and mothers crying over the spiritual state of their unconverted children. You can have 8, 10, 12 A's. And if you're unconverted, you are a child of wrath.

Perhaps it points to our wilderness as Christian parents sometimes that education is exaggerated in terms of importance. The spiritual is often minimized. A child's right relationship to God is the most important thing.

Outside of Jesus Christ, my child, my parents, my grandparent, my friend is a child of wrath. A cloud of God's wrath is over that person. And the cloud of wrath is getting darker and darker and darker as the years go by.

At the end of their lives, that cloud of wrath will break and take them into hell for eternity to suffer the punishment of God. Children of wrath. We say we believe it, but I wonder, Christian friends, it's a horrible teaching.

I don't like it, but I have to believe it, I have to teach it because it's here in the Bible. By nature, however nice the people are, however much I love my children, my parents, by nature they are the children of wrath.

I need to pray for God to come and change them. I must hurry. Let's move to verses 4 onwards. I want to divide it up very simply. First of all, the initiative of God in verses 4, 5 and 6. Is there hope for such people?

God's Initiative in Making the Spiritually Dead Alive

Of course there is, and the Apostle reminds the Ephesians of what has happened in their lives. But God, if you ever heard Lloyd-Jones preach on that, you'll never forget the phrase. If you've read his sermon, you'll be familiar.

But God, he makes all the difference. The greatest person, God, can change sinners. Some months ago I read in a reputable newspaper of a young man who was very concerned over a neighbor who'd suffered an injustice in the interpretation of some regulations of government concerning some agency help.

And the young man decided that he would try and get justice for his neighbor. So he went along to local and county councillors and they were very supportive, but said, well, there's really nothing we can do about it.

It's central government. So he went along to the Member of Parliament and he again was supportive, sympathetic. I can't do very much for you, he said, but I'll write to the minister concerned. So he wrote on behalf of his constituent.

Some weeks later he had a letter back from the MP with a copy of the reply from the minister saying that while the minister was sympathetic, he was not minded to help with this particular problem. And it would be monitored over the next three, four, five years.

And this young man was aware that the neighbor was suffering because of this injustice. And then he heard that there was a radio program, I think it was Radio 1, a phone-in and the Prime Minister was answering questions.

He managed to get on to the program. He mentioned this problem. The Prime Minister had to listen, didn't he? And he said, well, write to me. Send me the details and I'll consider it. So he did. He had an acknowledgement of the letter being received.

I think it was about two months later, he had a letter signed by the Prime Minister that he agreed there was an injustice, that the regulation somehow had been interpreted wrongly, that he was informing the minister that he was to act and tell other officials what to do.

The young man was absolutely delighted. What had he done? He'd gone to the top. Very often sinners, often their confusion, ignorance, they're running around looking for help. Yes, experts in various fields can give help in limited ways, sometimes valuable ways.

But they cannot change the sinner. They cannot free him from the mould of the world or from the grip of the devil. God can. We've got to be confident in pointing people to God himself. He's independent.

He's self-sufficient. He's eternal. He's unchangeable. He's omnipresent. He knows everything. He's faithful. He's holy. He's righteous. He's powerful. He's the absolute ruler. And he cares and he loves.

No one less than God can change and save. And we must go to the top, I say it reverently, in our prayer meetings, pleading with God to save. Don't expect the pastor to do it. In our witnessing and our praying at home, pleading with God to do it.

And this great God is a great lover, as Paul brings out in verse 4, who is rich in mercy. This word mercy really is trying to translate the Hebrew word chesed. It's translated in different ways in English.

Loving kindness, tenderness, compassion, motherly kindness. There's pity here. There's a feeling of care. Helping someone in desperate need. That's what God is like. He's not like that minister who was not minded to help.

God is rich in mercy. And if you feel for your unconverted children, if you have compassion, I can tell you that God has unlimited compassion. If you're concerned for unbelievers in your community, God Himself has pity and has love.

If you shed tears for unbelievers, in the heart of God there is compassion and there is pity. He is rich, says the Apostle in mercy. There's an abundance of it. And don't hesitate to call upon Him. Don't hesitate to invite sinners to come and to trust Him.

Then Paul adds, it's on account of His great love with which He loved us. It's not a momentary pity. It's not an occasional compassion. It arises from the very heart and nature of God. He loved us greatly when He appointed His Son as mediator.

When He entered into covenant with His Son and with His elect. When He chose us in Him, He loved us greatly. He loved us greatly when He sent His Son into the world. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, the greatest possible gift.

He loved us at Calvary. He that spared not His own Son, but freely delivered Him up for us all. Hear His love, says 1 John 4 .10. Not that we love God, but that He loved us. And send His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

If you want to see the love of God supremely, look at the cross, says the Apostle. Hear His love. One Welsh preacher who was quite a character, preaching on John 3 .16 and describing the immensity of God's love.

He pictures the angels in heaven being absolutely shocked when God the Son leaves heaven and becomes the God-man. And when He is dying on the cross of Calvary, the same shock amongst the angels. The immense love of God towards sinners.

And Paul says He loved us even when we were dead in trespasses and in sins. Even in our rebellion, our blindness, our spiritual death, defying God, He still loved us. Notice in verse 5, this great power of God.

Even when we were dead in trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. When God intervenes in the life of an unbeliever, He changes them from inside. He imparts life.

It's a sudden work of the Spirit. It's essential. It's prior to conversion. It's a secret work of the Spirit within us. We are passive in it. I may be unaware of the Spirit working and regenerating me.

But the effects are known. This great God makes us alive. It's exciting. You can be preaching. There in the congregation, God is dealing with someone. They are listening. They are listening. They are coming under conviction.

The miracle happens, often under preaching of the Word. Life is changed. Maybe an old man, an old woman. Maybe a student. Remember an American student, Telemene Banger. It was in the middle of a sermon.

He said he could remember the part of the verse. Then he said, I saw it. I was so different. I was changed. I wanted to stand up in your church. Tell everyone, this great God has the power to make dead sinners alive unto Himself.

There's a disposition which He gives. A new heart. And we are changed from within. In verse 6 we have a further explanation of being made alive. It includes being raised up, made to sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

No longer are we dead to God, but we are alive to Him. New desires, new values, new standards, new goals. We are placed to a position of spiritual access and authority in the heavenlies, in Christ. We fellowship with God.

We can pray. We are in direct contact with the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in union with Him. God does this by His power. Notice secondly, and I move on quickly, in verse 7, the intention of God. Why has God done this?

Well, because of His glory, we are told in chapter 1, verses 6, 12 and 14. But here, Paul adds that God wants to exhibit His grace in Christ to us in the ages to come. It's a similar reference in chapter 3 and verse 10.

God is using His church to display His grace and His kindness towards us in Christ. When will He do it? In the ages to come. Some commentators have postponed this to the future after death. I believe it has an immediate application through succeeding generations and beyond this life into the next.

And in successive generations, God is saving His people. And in their lives and in the church, He is displaying His grace and His kindness. You think of Luther or Calvin or Zwingli or Latimer or Daniel Rolands.

Think of the revival in Beth Galat in 1817, 1818. One young man who was present in that revival was so amazed by the changes in the lives of notorious characters in the village. Violent people, drunkards.

He was so amazed. And his amazement one day, he said, I really think that the angels should arrange a trip and come down and see what God's grace has done. God is displaying, exhibiting His grace, His kindness in His people for the world to see that He may be glorified.

I can refer again to Lloyd-Jones. A drunkard in his fifties, sitting in the club on Sunday afternoon, listening to some men talking about the preacher, the evangelist. And they said the words, well, the preacher said, No one is hopeless.

There's hope for everybody. And this man decided, well, if there's hope for everybody, there must be hope for me. So he went along to church eventually. He heard the gospel. And he was converted almost immediately.

A few days later, in the fellowship meeting, the doctor said to him, stand up. These are the words I'm quoting. Let them see here the latest monument to the grace of God. It's what God is doing. He is displaying His grace.

He wants all these testimonies and monuments of grace and His kindness in the churches, in the community. And in displaying His grace in our lives, He is glorifying Himself. He gathers in His elect, the Jews and the Gentiles, and in glory, His grace and mercy will be exhibited in a far more wonderful way.

Salvation by Grace, Faith, and God's Workmanship

But notice, in closing, the insistence of God. That's what I'm calling the section, verses 8, 9 and 10. It's a fascinating, crucial section. And I think that sometimes as preachers, we're guilty and isolated.

Verses 8 and 9 are not dealing with them in the proper context. There's a very close link with verse 7. And the whole section of verses 1 to 7. So, what we're having in verses 8, 9 and 10 is a summary of the argument in verses 1 to 7.

But God is confirming through the Apostle that only by His grace and power can we be saved. And He's insisting upon it. There must be no human boasting when it comes to salvation. Paul has argued this in other places.

Remember Romans 3, 27. After describing God's redemptive grace. Where is boasting then? His reply is, it's excluded. Shut out! There's no place for pride and for boasting. End of 1 Corinthians 1. No flesh should glory in His presence.

He who glories, let him glory in the Lord. Let me identify four arguments quickly. And I will be very quick. Grace alone. There's no place for boasting. It's free, unmerited, undeserved love and mercy.

And this is central to the Gospel. Amazing grace, said John Newton. I think one of the most outstanding examples of grace in the Old Testament is King Manasseh. Remember the story? King for 55 years in Jerusalem.

There'd be no king before him as wicked as he was. Dreadful man, lots of sleaze about him. He was an idolater. He encouraged idol worship. He encouraged and paid for the extension of this idol worship.

He sacrificed even two of his own sons to the idols. He dabbled in the occult. He placed a huge idol in God's temple and desecrated it. He killed some of the prophets of God. He killed some of the righteous people in Jerusalem.

He couldn't stand them. At the end of his life, this wicked man prayed. Prayed to God for mercy. Do you know what happened? He was accepted. He was forgiven. He was given mercy. A dreadful man. A wicked man.