The Five Solas: Sola Gratia

As we go through the five solas of the Reformation, we're going to be going through grace alone, but before we do, just a quick review.

The formal cause of the Reformation is what? Sola Scriptura. And that's a question of authority.

What is the ultimate authority for the Christian? The ultimate authority is the Scriptures alone.

The material cause of the Reformation is? Sola Fide, which means faith alone, and that's a question of what?

It's a question of how man, how sinful man is made right with God. What puts man in right relationship to God?

Faith alone. Not your faith plus your good works puts you in right relationship.

Faith is the initiator. That's what brings you into right relationship with God. Then good works will follow, right, if God's Holy Spirit is working in and through you.

So we've gone through Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Christus. This week we're going to go through Sola Gratia, which means grace alone.

By grace alone. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. We all know those words.

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin, how shall my tongue describe it?

Where shall its praise begin? Thank God for grace. Christians love to sing of the saving grace of God and rightly so.

John tells us that the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth come through Jesus Christ.

The new covenant is a covenant of grace, not a covenant of works. Although we are saved by good works, whose?

Jesus' good works, not our own. So yes, Jesus accomplishes all the things that were necessary in the old covenant and then offers us a new covenant because he's completed everything.

Many of the New Testament letters begin and end with the writers expressing their desire that the grace of Jesus would be with his people.

The very last words of the Bible read, the grace of the Lord Jesus be with us all. Amen. So there's a popular misunderstanding and a misrepresentation of the

Roman Catholic Church's teaching on grace. Sometimes it's said that Rome teaches that we're saved by works, grace plus works, but Protestants teach that we're saved by grace.

This statement, common as it is, is a slander against the Roman Catholic Church and we don't want to misrepresent their position.

Rome does not teach that one is saved by works apart from the grace of God. She in fact teaches that one is saved by the grace of God.

So what then did Rome object in the Reformers' teaching? Where does the line of difference between Rome and the

Reformation lie? It lies in a single word, sola, alone.

We believe and the Reformers believed that it was grace, the grace of God alone that saves us, not the grace of God plus something that we do.

We're going to get into this obviously. The Reformers maintained that the sinner is saved by the grace of God alone.

By God's unmerited favor alone. This doctrine teaches that nothing the sinner does commends him to the grace of God and that the sinner does not cooperate with God in order to merit his salvation.

We sinners are the recipients of God's grace. We don't add anything to God's grace.

Salvation from beginning to end is the sovereign gift of God to the unworthy and the undeserving.

There's no one worthy of salvation and there's no one deserving of salvation. Michael Kruger says it like this, grace is unmerited favor.

Or as Michael Kruger puts it, demerited favor. It's not like, it's not that you're neutral and God gives you favor and gets you in.

You've rejected God's commands. You've broken them.

You've discounted yourself from God's favor. So it's demerited favor.

Steve Lawson says, salvation is a gift for the guilty, not a reward for the righteous. And Baptist William Newman once put it like this, grace is the free favor of God conferred upon the unworthy, right?

So think about this, think of it like this. In the Old Testament you heard of the Canaanites, the

Hittites, the Jebusites, all the ites. Well God in the new covenant finds a new tribe, the

Favorites, the Favorites, okay? He bestows his favor upon them and we now become the

Favorites, okay? It's just an easy way to think of it. Okay, so what is it? Grace. Grace is a favor done without expectation of return.

It's the absolutely free expression of the loving kindness of God to men, finding its only motive in the bounty and benevolence of the giver.

It's unearned and unmerited. So this is something that comes from God, not because of anything we do, but because of who he is.

It's very important we understand that. Charis, which is the Greek word for grace, stands in direct antithesis to ergo, which is works.

The two are mutually exclusive. God's grace affects man's sinfulness and not only forgives the repentant sinner, but brings joy and thankfulness to him.

It changes the individual to a new creature without destroying his individuality.

So we're new creations in Christ because of grace, not because we put ourselves in Christ. Those who receive grace are not merely helpless sinners who are undeserving, but are hostile rebels against God with bad hearts and with bad records.

We're sinners. God is not obligated to be kind or gracious to them.

We and they are sinners deserving only of hell. If we get what we deserve, it would be hell.

It would be wrath. It would be punishment. But in accord with his nature, God showers an entirely undeserved love upon them.

And as he does so, their lives are changed forever. So whoever God bestows this favor, this grace upon, it's a transforming grace.

And a little later we'll learn it's not the grace of initiation, it's the grace that saves from beginning to end.

It's not a grace of opportunity. As Paul wrote to the

Corinthian Christians who were inclined to boasting, who sees anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive?

And if you did receive it, why do you boast if you had not? So no boasting.

So let's say from a different point of view, let's say Rome, that you have two people and God shows both of them grace.

On our view, both would be saved because God bestowed that favor on him. From Rome's point of view, and even from an

Arminian point of view, God shows grace to two people. One rejects it, one accepts it.

Was it the grace of God that saved that person? Or was there a difference between the two people's reactions?

They're going to point to the person and say, well this guy received it, this guy accepted it, this guy rejected it.

Therefore his free will was the cause. Well if it's the cause, then it's not grace.

When God shows his grace, it's not a grace of opportunity, it's the grace of salvation.

So on different systems, and we're going to see a little chart in a little bit, one system is going to say

God offers grace to everyone and then it's up to the person. Well then that means grace is given to everyone and it's up to the person and their response is what's going to get them in.

So they would have reason to boast, right? Well I accepted the grace of God, I bowed the knee,

I did what God told me to do and I came to Jesus. You didn't. That would be reason for boasting.

But the gospel excludes that. Saving grace excludes that. No one can ever stand before God and say, look at me, look what

I've done. God is no one's debtor, not least in matters of salvation.

Who has given a gift to him that he might repay? And that's actually Paul quoting from Job, John 3, 27, a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given to him from heaven.

If God gives you grace, then you receive it. And then let him who boasts, boast in the

Lord. If you received salvation, you're not going to boast in yourself because you know it wasn't anything that you did.

It was something that you received, it was a gift. So what is sola gratia?

Does man initiate and participate in his forgiveness and salvation or does God initiate and complete the salvation of sinners so that the whole work is attributed to the sovereign grace of God?

And that's in response to Desiderius Erasmus' diatribe with Luther. Luther insisted that a sinner is unable to provide or even take hold of the saving remedy, grace.

In saying this, Luther attacked the Roman Catholic system of indulgences, pilgrimages, penances, fastings, purgatory, and mariolatry.

He saw that the only way to defeat Rome's works -based system was to strike at the root of the controversy, free grace.

God freely bestows grace upon whom he wishes, right? And this is the difference between monergism and synergism.

Monergism, mono, the word means one. ERG is energy, so it's one energy or one power that saves you.

Or synergism is more than one. You and God, too, work to save.

So as Reformed Calvinists, we believe that it's monergism, it's the work of God alone that puts us in Christ, sanctifies us, and brings us to the end.

Whereas Rome and other systems teach that it's God plus man, God offers it, I have to receive it, that's one plus one, then

I work, you know, and do the things that I'm supposed to do on the Roman Catholic system. At the end, then, you know, the excess merits of marrying the saints will be applied to my account,

I'll get through purgatory quicker. That's synergism, that's God plus man. The Bible never teaches

God plus man. I mean, they'll say it does, but we don't. So this actually goes back to an earlier discussion with Augustine and Pelagius.

Augustinianism, which is Augustine, he was around at the end of the 4th century, beginning of 5th century, he taught that salvation was all of grace from beginning to end.

Salvation began with grace, was continued with grace, and ended with grace. And just to let you know, he's considered a doctor of the

Roman Catholic Church. He stands in opposition to what they teach, but he's considered a doctor of the

Roman Catholic Church. Augustine was arguing with Pelagius. Now, Pelagius said it was man's effort apart from God's grace that would get someone into heaven.

So, in a second, I'm going to just show you a chart. He believed that it was man's effort.

You could actually be sinless in this life if you tried. This gave rise to a third position called semi -Pelagianism, which teaches that it's man's initial effort.

In other words, he has to receive the grace of God. He has to say, yes, I want the grace of God, submit to it in an act of free will, and then be carried along by grace alone.

So, you have three different positions. All of God, all of man, or this middle ground.

Now, there's only one of these positions that's monergism, that's Augustinianism. Semi -Pelagianism is synergism, and Pelagianism is actually monergism the opposite way.

It's all man, no God. Okay? So, it's the difference between helping grace and effectual grace.

Or we call it, I call it invincible grace. It's the grace that does what it was intended to do.

God extends grace to birth you, to carry you through, and to save you.

It doesn't just initiate it. Rome, grace is necessary, but not sufficient.

In other words, it's not grace alone. Right? So, you need God's grace, they teach it's grace, plus man's effort.

So, it's God, I'm sorry, grace plus something that we add, which again, from our perspective, would nullify grace.

So, real quick, there's a couple of doctrines. Original sin, Pelagianism denies it.

You're born into this world, basically neutral, it's called a tabula rasa. Right? You have a clean heart, and now you go about living your life until you sin.

Or if you sin, because on his view, you're able to not sin. Augustine affirmed original sin.

We're born into this world in a state of sin. Natural will, our ability. Pelagian, Pelagius says, we're able, we have free will, and we can choose to go to the right or left, or do whatever we want.

Augustine said, no, our will is captive to our nature. Right? We're slaves of sin, because we're born in that sinful condition.

So, we're unable, in and of ourselves, to come to God. Grace, on Pelagianism, it's not necessary.

I can do enough good work to get into heaven. On Augustinianism, it's absolutely necessary.

And Augustine taught that it was enough, sufficient enough to save us. Not only was it necessary, it was sufficient.

And finally, sinless perfection. Pelagianism says, yes, that can be attained. Augustine says, no.

We were born, we're going to be redeemed from our sins. The consequences of our sins are paid for, but we will continue to sin in this life.

So, real quick, we can start here. This position says that this pertains to salvation.

God begins the work, and then God completes the work. That's divine monergism. You have the position where God begins the work, and then man completes the work.

That would be more of an Arminian -type position. Although some Arminians say,

God begins it, he gives us prevegent grace, and then he carries us to the end. Other Arminians will say, no, we still have to work out our salvation, okay, and we can fall away.

Two views on Arminianism. One says you can't fall away, one says that you can. On third position, man begins the work, and then

God completes the work. That would be more of an Arminian who says, once saved, always saved.

And then finally, this one, man begins the work and man completes the work. That is deemed heresy by every other position, and it is, because man cannot do this on his own.

We hold to divine monergism. Why? Because that's the only way salvation can be guaranteed. The Bible talks about salvation being a guarantee.

The only way it can be guaranteed is if God completes it from beginning to end. If it resides or is dependent on us in any way, we're gonna fail at some point.

So it has to be a perfect work, which Jesus did on the cross. So the

Roman Catholic Church teaches that we're saved by the grace of God, mostly. Right? Not entirely, mostly.

Which means there's some amount of human effort required, involved. Let's take a look at Ephesians 2, because I think this is an excellent passage to illustrate this point.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

Among whom we also once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.

And we're by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ.

How? By grace, you've been saved. And raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this, not of your own doing, is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

So now, we read this and we say, oh my goodness, this is God from beginning to end.

You have people who see it the other way, Armenians and provisionists, they'll say, well, we still have to choose to receive the grace of God.

And all you want to do is ask them, where does it say that in this passage? Where are you inserting you, me,

I? What I see is that it wasn't of your own doing.

Now they can say, well, of course, salvation, Jesus accomplished the work, it was his work on the cross, we don't do that. Yeah, but you still have to exercise your free will to receive that.

There's something that you're doing that activates the grace of God to bring you to the end.

We see it as no, God's grace brings us from dead to alive. Yes, John.

Yes, yeah, we're going to go through that. Because this doctrine is definitely dependent on our understanding of total depravity.

That man is dead in his sins and trespasses and unable to do anything good, right? Which is what the

Bible teaches, right? Can a leopard change his spots? Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin?

No, then neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil, right? Everyone would speak out today about, a man can't choose to be a woman.

But I would tell the Arminian, on your view, he could. If you choose, you could be whatever you want, right?

Well, no, you can't change your nature. Exactly. You can't change your nature just by choice. Only God can change your nature.

You were born into this world as a sinner. The only way you're going to be born again is if God chooses to change your nature.

It's not dependent on us, okay? So you can actually use that illustration. Anyway, let's, who are the dead?

They include the Ephesians. You were dead in the trespasses of your sins. It's written to the Ephesian church.

It includes Paul and his fellow Jews. We all once lived in the passions of our flesh. In fact, they include every man, woman, and child in Adam.

We were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. So this is all -encompassing.

This is every single human being starts out this way. The dead people he's talking about include you and I, everyone else.

It's the entire world. So what does it mean to be dead? First, it means to be separated from God.

That's the Hebrew understanding. Death is separation. Devoid of God's spirit and following the prince of the power of the air and inhabited by the spirit that is at work in the sons of disobedience.

You do not have the Holy Spirit. You have the spirit of the world, and you're walking according to it.

You were born in Adam, dead in the trespasses and sins in which we once walked. Death, God told

Adam in Genesis 2, is the penalty for sin. When we violate the law of God, we stand guilty before God, accountable to his justice, and separated from him.

We're alive to the flesh, but dead to the things of the spirit. Prior to God regenerating me,

Sunday mornings was golf. That was where I worshiped. Hit a little white ball. Not well, but hit it, right?

That's where I wanted to be. God changed my heart. No, no more little white ball. I want to be in the presence of God and his people.

I didn't do that. God did that. Second, to be dead means we were under the yoke and past it.

So, by God's providence, he talked about this week in Bible study. We serve three masters, the world, following the course of this world, the flesh, we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, and the devil, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working the sons of disobedience.

So, when you're dead to sin, you succumb to the power of the flesh, the world, and the devil, right?

That's what guides you. Third, to be dead means to be we were under wrath. We were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.

God's wrath abides on those people who don't have a payment for their sin, right? Why? Because God is just.

That's what he owes them. The wages of sin is death. They will get it unless they repent and turn to Christ.

Okay, why? Inside the church, many have said and still say that people are sick, desperately sick.

These sick people, however, are still said to have the wherewithal to respond and cooperate with the grace of God.

But Paul never teaches that we're just sick. He says that apart from Christ, we're dead.

Spiritually speaking, we're corpses in the ground without Jesus. We can no more draw near to God than a corpse can summon the strength to get out of his grave.

This is how bad we are outside of Christ. Jesus would say, apart from me, you could do nothing.

Sproul would say, apart from me, you could do no thing. What's the only thing a dead person can do?

Stink, that's it. Stinks, and it's not even him doing it, right? Dead person can't do anything on their own.

Here, Paul points us in Ephesians 2, he points us to God's work in verses 5 through 6, but God, those two words are so important, but God made us alive together with Christ.

By grace, getting what you don't deserve, you've been saved, and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places.

God raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand, and he has done something incredible to us in our union with Christ.

Paul says, God made us alive, we are seated with Christ. This is what evokes

Paul's exclamation. By grace, you've been saved. This is not of your own doing.

Praise God. That way, it can be guaranteed. Paul points us to God's motive.

Why did God make the dead alive? It was not because of our works. Paul says in verse 9, neither the works that we did before we became

Christians, nor the works we have done after we became Christians. Otherwise, we may boast. Paul points us to what?

God's purpose. What purpose did God make the dead alive? In verse 7, he says that we might put on display, both now and eternally, the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

So this is a display of God's grace, that God would even save someone who actively rejected him.

That's how powerful he is. That's how much he loves us. And that's what he's willing to go through in order to shake the dust off us, make us new creations, and put us on his mantle as a trophy of grace, so that we can't boast.

We sit on God's mantle. Why? Not because of anything we did, because of what he did for us and to us.

This grace is part of the new covenant that was promised by Jeremiah and Ezekiel. And some of you know where I'm going.

This is really important, okay, because nobody likes to go to the Old Testament when we're talking about the new covenant.

But we have to, because that's where the foundation is laid for what's coming. So let's read this,

Ezekiel 36. Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake.

But wait a second, aren't I God's creation? Doesn't God love me? Aren't I special?

Aren't I? Yes, but he's not doing that because of that. It's not for your sake,

O house of Israel, that I'm about to say, to act. But for the sake of my holy name, right,

I promise to save a people. You don't want it. I don't care. I'm still going to save you.

For the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came, and I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations and which you have profaned with them.

And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you

I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. Wow. I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols

I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Now, anytime we see the word I in here, it's talking about God. You see anything about humanity, what we did or added to?

No, no. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk on my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

So once God puts his spirit in you, now your heart is changed. You are going to seek after God. You're going to eat his word.

You're going to obey what you read. You're going to love him and pursue him. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your

God, and I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you.

I will make the fruit of the tree and the increase of the field abundant that you may never again suffer the disgrace of famine among the nations.

Wow. Then, here comes your part. You will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations.

Notice that you remembering your evil ways and your evil deeds comes after all this.

OK? God places his spirit in you. Now your eyes are open to the fact that, oh my goodness, I am a sinner.

I am worthy of hellfire. Lord, save me. This comes at the end.

And he says, again, this is an inclusio. It is not for your sake that I'm going to act.

This is because I made a promise and I'm going to keep my promise, even though you didn't, declares the

Lord. Let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded of your ways, O house of Israel. So if you were saved later on in life, like me,

I was saved at 33 years old, I look back at my life, which I thought was good, and I'm horrified at the things

I've done, and I'm embarrassed. It's disgusting. And then I look at the grace of God and say, oh my goodness, this is beyond anything

I could ask or imagine. Thank God. If all I have was my salvation, I have more than anything

I need. That's it. Thank you, Lord. Ezekiel 37, the hand of the

Lord was upon me. Okay, so now that was chapter 36. Now we're going to get into chapter 37, where he talks about the valley of dry man's bones.

The hand of the Lord was upon me and he brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley. It was full of bones.

And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry.

No water, no moisture, no Holy Spirit. And he said to me, son of man, can these bones, these dead skeletons strewn across the land, can they live?

And I answered, oh, Lord, you know, it's pretty neutral. You know, God, I don't know, right?

Then he said to me, prophesy over these bones and say to them, oh, dry bones, hear the word of God. What can a skeleton do?

Nothing. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter you and you shall live, and I will lay sinews upon you and will cause flesh to come upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the

Lord. So after God says everything that he's going to do, he now says, all right, let me draw a picture for you.

This is a valley of dead skeletons. They're not able to do anything. I'm going to prophesy to these bones.

I'm going to tell you to prophesy to these bones, and my word is going to bring them to life, okay?

This is all the work of God. He's the sole operator here. We are just the recipients of what he does, okay?

It's a blessed benefit of hearing the word of God. He gives us ears to hear. What do you have that you did not receive, right?

So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.

And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them, but there was no breath in them.

Then he said to me, prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, thus says the

Lord, Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain that they may live.

So I prophesied as he commanded, and breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

Can anybody point to a New Testament verse that sounds something like this?

Yes. Okay, what does it say? Okay. Right, I'm talking about wind.

I should be more specific, right, the four winds, right? John 3, 8, the wind blows, this is about being born again,

John chapter 3, the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it goes or where it comes from, so it is with everyone who's born of the

Spirit. It's wherever the Spirit blows and brings to life. You can no more bring someone to life spiritually than you can organize a hurricane.

You can't do that. The wind blows where it wishes, and so does the Spirit. No one controls the

Spirit. He is in control. He's the third person of the Godhead. So we prophesy, when we go down in Port Jeff, we prophesy to the people.

We tell them, repent, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll be saved, and God, in his mercy and his grace, brings people to life in the proclamation of that according to his will.

Okay, how? As Ephesians 2, 4, and 5 puts it, it is out of a heart full of rich mercy and great love that God saves.

He rescues, raises, rescues, frees, liberates sinners all by grace alone.

Notice the grace does this. It's not an offer of rescue. It's not an offer of liberation.

It accomplishes what it's supposed to do. It's a saving grace. Ephesians 2, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, when we were dead, he made us alive.

There are three terms in the New Testament used to describe a Christian. One, born again, two, new creation, and three, resurrected.

This is very important when you understand and follow what is common to all three of these things. First, the term born again implies you came into existence, right?

You came into the world, new life. You didn't exist, but now you do. What did any of you have to do with your natural birth?

Nothing, right? You would have had to exist prior to you being born in order to do that.

Similarly, in being born again, what did you have to do with that? Nothing. You were the recipients of life when you came through the birth canal.

It's the same way you were recipients of eternal life through the power of the spirit. Second, new creation.

The word creation implies created, deep, right? There's a creator and a creation.

Creation is the work of the creator, and you're not the creator. But if you're the new creation, how can you be both the creator and the created at the same time?

On that position, you would have to have existed already in order to create yourself. You're a new creation.

That means something, someone acted upon you and changed your nature. Again, if you took part in your own creation, you'd have to exist before you were created.

You'd be the co -creator and not in any need of being created. We reject that.

But some people's theological system actually believes, well, I exercised my free will, which is doing a good thing, which scripture says you can't do any good thing apart from faith or apart from Christ.

I exercised my free will, and then God responded to that and brought me to life. We say no.

When God breathes his spirit on us, like the dead bones, he brings us to life apart from our effort, cooperation, or response.

Third is resurrected, which implies you were dead and then made alive. So what did Lazarus have to do with his resurrection?

Nothing. What would any dead person have to do with their resurrection? Nothing. You were dead, and you were made alive.

You had nothing to do with that. That was purely by the grace of God. If you're a

Christian today, it's by God's grace, not anything you did, said, or wanted.

Your heart was changed, so you did want it, but that was because he did something in your heart first. OK, how?

This happens by the free, sovereign grace. Therefore, we mean that the supreme God of heaven and earth, the sovereign, triune

God of heaven, freely wills and applies saving grace to the guilty, contemptible sinners, transforming their lives so that they enjoy him and live for his service.

The Reformers taught that if we experience such sovereign grace, we will understand what it really means. We will realize that if it is not free and it is not sovereign, then it cannot be grace.

God saves not because of anything possible or actual, foreseen, or foreordained in us, but wholly according to his sovereign, loving, good pleasure.

That's something that is incredibly liberating when you recognize just how sinful we are.

He does not wait for us to turn our lives around and start walking in the right direction in order to save us.

He saves us while we were dead, following the prince of the power of the air and the course of this world.

Thank God for that. God's grace is a saving grace. So here's the most important part of the presentation again, the scriptures.

Romans 4 .16, this is why it depends on faith in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to his offspring.

If God promises to do something and it's dependent upon us, well, then he can't accomplish it, right?

But if God does something unique, he sends his son into the world to live the life where we needed to live and die in our place, well, then he can accomplish the whole thing, which is what he does in the

New Covenant. Okay? Romans 5 .2, through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace which we now stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Right? God gets glory in saving dead sinners and raising them to life. Romans 5 .20,

now the law came to increase the trespass, but where the sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that as sin reigned in death, grace might also reign through righteousness, leading to eternal life.

Acts 15, I'm going to have to move a little quickly. This was the Jerusalem Council. At the end, he says, but we believe that they will be saved through the grace of God just as we were.

Romans 11, so too at this present time, there is a remnant chosen by grace.

Now, if God shows grace to every single person on the planet, that would mean he chose every single person on the planet, and that would make him the greatest failure, right?

Because he chose them, he gives them grace, he gives them everything they need, and they still fail. And then it's not a promise, it's a contract.

I do this, you do that. Well, you failed, right? But then there would be people who supposedly did what he told them, so that they would be able to boast.

Grace excludes boasting. You're saved by grace. Again, that's liberating for people who are task -oriented.

This idea that salvation owes everything to God's grace is the overarching theme, not just in Romans, but in all of Paul's epistles.

Paul begins his letter to the Philippians with a prayer for the church in which he says, he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ Jesus.

He who began a good work will complete it, right? Because it's all of grace, it's all of God.

Salvation is neither our earning nor our doing. That's why Paul prayed with joy in Thanksgiving every time he remembered the

Philippians. If man had begun the work of salvation, it was continuing, and had to complete it,

Paul's praise would be silenced. But because salvation flows from a divine work that persists day by day, despite man's struggles and setbacks, a work that most certainly will be perfected in the great day, everything is to the praise of the glory of the triune

God. Anyone who's saved is to the glory of God. Why is it to His glory? Because He did it, not you.

We need grace to forgive us, return us to God, heal our broken hearts, to strengthen us in times of trouble and spiritual warfare.

Only by God's free, sovereign grace can we have a saving relationship with Him. I'm just going to go through this kind of quickly.

We have not too much time left. So we're called by His grace, we're regenerated by His grace, we're justified by His grace.

We're also sanctified by His grace, and we're preserved by His grace.

Sovereign grace should crush our pride. It should shame and humble us.

Why? Because we want to be the subjects, not the objects of salvation. We want to take some kind of credit.

We want to be active, not passive in the process. We resist the truth that God alone is the author and finisher of our faith.

By nature, we rebel against God's sovereign grace, but God knows how to break our rebellion and make us friends of this grand doctrine.

So when you find yourself going through trials and tribulations, or rebelling or sinning against God, know that God's grace is working in you to deconstruct you and reconstruct you in the image of God.

And He does this time and time and time again, because each of us sin time and time and time again.

So the gospel is actually being applied to your life as you speak if you're a Christian, okay, and He's conforming you to the image of Christ step by step by step.

When God teaches sinners that at their very core are depraved, sovereign grace becomes the most encouraging doctrine possible.

John 1 16, for from His fullness we have all received grace upon grace. And I like the way this one particular author describes it.

Grace follows grace in our lives as waves follow one another to the shore.

If you ever stood at the beach and you see the waves coming in, and they just keep coming, and they just keep coming, and they just keep coming.

That's what God does with us. He brings us through one trial, then another trial, or washing over, smoothing us out so that we better reflect the image of God that's in us.

It doesn't stop. He won't stop. Grace is the divine principle on which God saves us.

It is the divine provision in the person and work of Christ. It is the divine prerogative manifesting itself in election, calling, and regeneration.

And it is the divine power enabling us freely to embrace Christ so that we might live, suffer, and even die for His sake, and be preserved in Him for all eternity.

The Reformers understood that without sovereign grace, everyone would be eternally lost. God does not have to save anyone.

It's only because of His grace that He does. Salvation is all of grace, and therefore all of God.

Life must come from God before the sinner can arise from the grave. And just going back, a quick point about being dead.

What can physically dead people do? Can physically dead people do anything physical? No. Can spiritually dead people do anything spiritual?

No. Professing Jesus as Lord is a spiritual act. That only comes from God changing your heart first.

So I like to ask people, when a baby is born, does it take its first breath in order to become alive?

Or does it take its first breath because it's alive? Baby comes into the world, takes its first breath because it's alive.

The new creation in Christ exhales Jesus as Lord, confesses

Jesus as Savior, not in order to become a Christian, but because they are a

Christian already. Here's more verses on God raising us from the dead, and this will be up on the

YouTube channel if you want to go through each one of these verses. I'm just running out of time. We are saved then, sola gratia, by the grace of God alone.

Far from leading us to embrace lies of license and moral recklessness, the grace of God in the gospel leads us to pursue lives of consecration and holiness.

Why is this so? The great hymn writer Isaac Watts captured Paul's point when he wrote in his hymn, When I survey the wondrous cross, where the whole realm of nature mine, that were a present far too small, love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.

When I look at the cross, I say that should be me, but it's not. I owe him everything.

Think about that the next time you sing about the grace of God. Calvin says it like this,

Scripture everywhere proclaims that God finds nothing in man to arouse him to do good to him, but that he comes first to man in his free generosity.

For what can a dead man do to attain life? Yet when he illumines us with knowledge of himself, he is said to revive us from death,

John 5, 25, and to make us a new creation. James White, the doctrines of grace separate the

Christian faith from the works -based religions of men. They direct us away from ourselves and solely to God's grace and mercy.

They destroy pride, instill humility, and exalt God. And that's why so many invest so much time in the vain attempt to undermine their truth.

The religions of men maintain authority over their followers by, one, limiting

God's power, two, exalting man's abilities, and three, channeling God's power through their own structures.

A perfect salvation that is freely bestowed by God for his own glory, not a system that can be controlled by a religious body or group.

And even more importantly, such a system is destructive of any sense of pride in the creature man.

And if there is anything man's religion must safeguard, it's man's self -esteem. It's the difference between man -centered religion and God -centered religion.

We exalt God, not man. So I normally put up a slide that asks questions, but I'm here to ask you a question.

If you're a Christian, have you ever asked, why me, Lord? Why did you save me?

Knowing the things that I've done, knowing how I still act sometimes. If you can answer that question, then it's not grace.

It's not grace. He was saved purely, solely, wholly by his grace alone.

You should humble us. Thank you, Lord. Any questions?

Yes, Jake. Thank you.