Grace to You and Peace

Introduction: The Three Units of Thought in Ephesians 1:1-2

0:03 If you have brought your Bible with you, and I trust that this is not your practice, you will make it so, I would encourage you to turn with me to Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus, the epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, as we continue our studies in the first two verses of this epistle, which form the introduction to this marvelous treatment of the great theme of God's salvation by grace coming to light particularly in the formation of the church, of which he is the heavenly bridegroom, the church being in that figure, of course, his bride, being the temple, the Lord Jesus himself the chief cornerstone.

0:57 Ephesians chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints that are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. It is obvious that in this introduction there are three main units of thought. We have studied the first two.

1:29 The first is a word concerning the author of this letter, his person, and then his official position. It is, It is Paul who writes, the one who was the great hater of Christ and his church, transformed by grace into a humble bondservant of the Lord Jesus. It is he who writes. Paul writes the letter, but he writes it not as a common Christian, but as an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, so that all that is written comes with that unique authority given to the apostles who had a unique position, in the church then and in the church throughout all of its history, for as we read in chapter 2 and verse 20, the church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. That is the truth spoken through the apostles and by the prophets. And so whatever we encounter, we encounter not the independent thoughts of a common Christian, but the inspired thoughts and words of a commissioned apostle. And then the second unit of thought concerns the recipients of this letter.

2:44 To the saints and believers that are in Ephesus, in Christ Jesus, which is the better rendering. And we looked at that section of the introduction last week, and we saw that there are three lines of thought with regard to the recipients of this letter. They are people called saints, that is, ones separated unto God, consecrated to God. They are characterized as believers, and the reason for their being saints and believers is because of their union with Jesus Christ.

3:20 And that little phrase, in Christ Jesus, as one commentator has said, is perhaps the most important phrase in all of the Pauline writings. It occurs some 150 times in the epistles written by Paul, in Christ Jesus, which literally means in union with or in connection with Christ Jesus. And so the people of God are conceived of in the mind of the apostle as those who are saints who have been consecrated unto God as they have come to faith in the Lord Jesus, and both their faith and their subsequent separation unto God is rooted in the fact that they are conceived of as in union, union with Christ, united with Him from eternity, as we read in verse 4, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, called into union with Him in time, and one day they will be glorified in union with Christ Jesus. So we have then this word concerning the author, this word concerning the recipients, and now the third unit of thought will be the focus of our attention this morning, the formal salutation or greeting, of the apostle to these people, in which he says, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Nature of the Apostolic Greeting: Grace Captures the Mundane

4:48 This very familiar greeting occurs some 15 times in the New Testament. There are some minor variations, but for the most part, these words grace and peace to you occur in almost all of the epistles. And the basic structure of this greeting was just, just a slight variation of the kind of greeting that was in common usage in Bible days. Instead of writing dear Henry and telling all about the kids and signing it yours truly or affectionately, just as those patterns of communication are common to us in our society in our day, so there was a form of communication that was common to the people of that day.

5:31 And the apostle Paul takes that which was a common form of greeting and with some slight variations, he makes it the vehicle of communication to the people of God. So that at the very outset, as we begin a study of this today, we need to recognize, first of all, that the grace of God does not make us inhuman or discourteous. I've seen some people who, when they get converted, feel that, well, all practices which are not directly rooted in some specific scriptural warrant, are either sinful or unnecessary. And so they become a little less than human.

6:12 They become a little less than courteous and gracious. And they figure, well, whoever said we had to do such and such and dress certain ways and everything that isn't rooted in Scripture we'll just throw it off. Well, no, no. You have no warrant for that in Scripture.

6:28 There's a realm of common human decency that grace does not negate nor cancel. And the very fact that the Holy Spirit would condone, convey to us His very words along the tracks, as it were, laid by the common form of expression of greeting in that day should forever remind us that the grace of God does not make us inhuman or discourteous. And secondly, it should remind us in a positive way that grace can capture the mundane and sanctify it to higher ends. So here's a mundane, common greeting which grace captures, captures and sanctifies to the end that divine truth may be conveyed.

7:14 And a recognition of this is a great help to the Christian. You can take such common everyday things as your hello, your handshake, and use it as an opportunity to convey the genuineness of Christian love and of Christian grace. So then we come to study this word of greeting and we must first of all in the course of our study establish the meaning of the key words. We'll not understand this salutation unless we have some present understanding of the key words grace and peace.

Defining Grace: God's Undeserved Favor

7:52 For what the apostle is saying, in essence, as we say, more power to you. Inferring a verb, more power be to you. So the apostle is saying, may grace and peace be to you. Even the grace of God.

8:07 Even the grace of God. Grace and peace which come from God our Father and the Lord Jesus. And if we're to understand the importance of the salutation, then we must first of all grasp the meaning of the key words grace and peace. Let's spend a few minutes attempting to do that.

8:26 The word grace. This choice biblical word, what does it mean in this particular setting? Well, we could take time to trace through its several shapes and shades of meaning in the New Testament, but for the most part, it's safe to say that the normal occurrence of this word speaks of the undeserved favor of God as existing in his own heart together with all the gifts which that favor conveys. Now let me give that to you again.

9:02 What is the grace that comes from God and from the Lord Jesus Christ? It is that undeserved favor of God as existing in his own heart together with all the gifts which that favor conveys. Another has expressed it this way. Grace is God's love for the undeserving, his unmerited favor in the hearts and lives of his children.

9:33 Or another has sought to describe it this way. It is God's grace. Spontaneous, unmerited favor in action. His freely bestowed loving kindness in operation, bestowing salvation upon guilt-laden sinners.

9:54 So you see, in all of these attempts to define the word grace, there is an effort to bring into focus that grace has to do with a disposition in God's heart which moves him to show favor to sinners. But it's a disposition that proceeds entirely from within himself and is no way conditioned by anything in the object of his favor. You must think of those elements if you're to understand the word grace. It is a disposition in the heart of God and it proceeds out of his heart toward its objects with no regard to anything in that object. Grace is not a negative polarity waiting for some positive polarity in its object to draw it out like a magnet reaches out to draw steel. No, no. It flows out like the artesian well.

10:57 This is grace. That disposition in God's heart which moves out in practical ways to meet the needs of the undeserving. And we may say then in summary that grace is the very mainspring of all of God's saving acts to men. It sets everything else in motion.

11:23 That's why Paul can say as he does in the second chapter of this letter, for by grace ye have been saved. Well, I thought I was saved by Christ, by Christ's righteousness, by effectual calling, by the regenerating work of the Spirit. Oh yes, that's true. You were saved if you're saved by all of those things, but stamped over every aspect of God's salvation is the word grace.

11:49 Grace is the driving engine that puts in motion all the wheels of God's saving work in the hearts of men. That's why again Paul can say as he does in Titus chapter 2 in verse 11, for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared. So, grace then is the main spring of God's saving act. So, whenever you touch any strand of God's salvation, you've got yourself up to the elbows in grace.

12:20 You want to go back as far as you can? Where do you end up? You end up with God's purpose in eternity to save a people. And what do you find there?

12:27 You find yourself elbow deep, knee deep in grace. That's why Paul says in 2 Timothy 1.9 who hath saved us and called us not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. So, when we think of God's purpose to save the biblical concept of election, we're right in the midst of grace.

12:55 When we think of the Lord Jesus procuring a just basis upon which God could forgive sinners, giving Himself up to death, what do we find ourselves in as we consider that? Hebrews 2.9 that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man. When we think of the application of that salvation, God sending His Spirit to open the blind eyes of a sinner, to quicken a dead sinner to life, the calling of God, what do we find there?

13:29 Galatians 1.15 When it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb to call me by His grace. So then even faith is called an effect of grace. Acts 18.27 Barnabas helped them much who had believed through the instrumentality of grace. And then the sinner believing he's justified. And what is the climate of his justification? Romans 3.24 That being justified by His grace. And you think then of all the gifts that God confers upon His people. 1 Corinthians 1.4-5 Paul attests to that.

14:09 Paul attributes them to grace. And when all are leaded at the revelation of Christ, that is called 1 Peter 1.13 the revelation of His grace. Set your hope upon the grace that is to be revealed at the coming of our Lord Jesus.

14:26 So everywhere you turn, when you think of the great scope of God's salvation, you come head on into this biblical concept of grace. That disposition in God's heart to show faith and favor to undeserving sinners. Or again, God's spontaneous unmerited favor in action. His freely bestowed loving kindness in operation bestowing salvation upon guilt-laden sinners.

14:58 So the whole end of God's salvation is what? Ephesians 1.6 That we should be to the praise of the glory of His grace. So then, God is called the God of all grace.

15:13 1 Peter 5.10 The gospel is called the gospel of the grace of God. Acts 20.24 The very word of God is called the word of His grace.

15:24 Acts 20.32 So my friend, if you're a stranger to the meaning of grace, you're ignorant of one of the great things of Scripture. And if you're a stranger to the experience of grace, you know nothing of God and His salvation. You cannot no more come into any kind of contact with God's salvation and miss grace than you can come into contact with the air and miss oxygen.

15:52 I mean, it's impossible. Impossible. And so the Apostle Paul makes as his first formal word to these people. Having announced who he was and to whom he addressed himself, the first word he says directly to them is this great biblical word grace be to you and peace from God our Father.

Application of Grace: A Sinner's Word

16:17 Let me say by way of application that grace is a word which has come to us because of the awful realities of sin and human demerit. You see, grace is a sinner's word.

16:33 And only those who know themselves to be sinners find that their hearts leap at the sound of the word grace. In fact, it's a pretty good rule of thumb as to where you stand spiritually to evaluate your reaction to the word grace.

16:54 Can you sing that familiar gospel hymn Amazing Grace? How sweet the sound that saved a wretch. Can you say that without tongue in cheek? Or do you bristle a little bit?

17:09 I don't like those words. Wretched. Like the woman one time I was witnessing to on my doorstep who came pedaling to the church and came pedaling to the church. And I said, look, let's not talk about Jesus being the eternal word or anything.

17:20 I said, let's forget all that. I want to ask you one question. I said, have you ever taken your place as a guilty, hell-deserving, wretched sinner in the presence of a holy God? You should have seen her bristle.

17:30 She lost all her cool. She flipped. And she just said, where do you get such words? Guilty.

17:36 Wretched. I said, I get them from my Bible. And I said, until you feel the reality of what the Bible means when it speaks of us in those terms. I said, you have no business talking about Jesus Christ and trying to know who He is.

17:50 You've come at it the wrong end frontwards. I said, you ask God to give you a sight of your sin and your undone-ness and you'll know. You need a Savior more than a created angel. You need a Savior who's the mighty God.

18:06 The everlasting Father. The great Prince of Peace upon whose shoulders of deity rests the great weight of Christ. You're procuring the salvation of men. And I ask you this morning, can you say amazing grace?

18:23 How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. Can you say with John Newton t'was grace that taught my heart to fear? Have you ever feared?

18:41 Feared the sight of God in His holiness? Feared the sight of His impeccable pending wrath? Has grace ever taught your heart to fear?

18:51 You've never known holy fear. You know nothing of grace. That's the first lesson grace teaches. It teaches you to be afraid of things that you ought to be afraid of.

18:58 But thank God, grace never stops there. And grace my fears relieved.

19:05 How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed. Can you go on to say with John Newton, through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come? T'was grace that brought me safe thus far. And grace will lead me home.

19:29 Ah, that's what's packed into this word. So that when the elders stood in that assembly at Ephesus and said, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints and believers that are in Ephesus in Christ Jesus, grace!

19:47 Immediately they should think of the magnitude of that grace and that salvation which has come from the heart of God by way of a virgin's womb and a bloody cross and an open tomb, a salvation of grace.

Defining Peace: Reconciliation with God

20:07 Then the second word is that word peace.

20:11 And we think because we hear this word spoken so much, especially at this season, well, everybody knows what peace is. Well, everybody knows what the sound of the word is. But not everyone knows what peace is. What is this?

20:26 What is this biblical word peace? Well, we may say in the first place it's the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word shalom. Peace. It's a word which describes the condition which exists not primarily between man.

20:44 No, no. You see, that's the almost the exclusive connotation in our way. Let's pray for peace on earth. By that men mean let's pray that all the warring dissident factions of man between men may be done away with.

20:59 But the biblical concept of peace thinks not so much of the horizontal but as it does of the vertical.

21:08 Peace describes the condition which exists when God is our friend and all is well between ourselves and God. And then it describes that tranquil state of soul which comes when one is assured of salvation through Christ and hence fearing nothing from God and content with one's present earthly lot. You see, peace in the biblical sense is rooted primarily in an objective situation and out of it flows subjective attitudes. Peace has to do with the condition where the enmity between a sinner and God is removed objectively, really just as much as if someone used to look at you and say look at me and snarl and sneer and clench his fist and something's happened to where he now approaches me with smiles and with outstretched arms and hands. So peace is rooted in this objective basis when the enmity between God and the sinner and the sinner and God is done away with. That's what Paul means when he says in Romans 5 being justified by faith we have peace with God. Justification is an objective blessing.

22:32 It's that blessing by which God removes the sentence of condemnation which justly is directed to us and in its place he gives the sentence not only acquitted but fully accepted in the beloved. And on the basis of that objective blessing of justification we now have peace with God. The issue of his controversy with us is removed. God could look upon us in our sin and say I have fought against you.

23:06 You have broken my holy law. You have resisted my demands. You have not loved me with the whole heart. You have set up other objects of affection which are idols.

23:17 You have not honored me. You have not kept my day. You have offended my fellow creatures. You have broken my holy law and therefore I regard you as my enemy.

23:28 But when through faith in Jesus Christ we are joined to him who died upon that cross and rose again fully satisfying the demands of God's law against our sin then God can say to us based on facts you are now my friend. The cause of enmity is gone. I see all the demands of that broken law swallowed up in my son and I see in my son a perfect obedience to that law and I put it to your account and therefore we may now walk and commune and exist as friends. That's peace.

24:12 When the objective cause of enmity is removed by the objective blessing of justification and then out of that flows the subjective feeling of peace. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy.

24:30 You see the Holy Spirit never imparts subjective peace except he does so on the grounds of the objective blessing of justification. So when someone tells me oh I just have peace I know all is well between me and God I say what think ye of Christ and his salvation? Oh I don't care too much. That peace is a delusive peace.

24:53 It's breathed by the liar and the father of all lies. For my friend unless you have come broken guilty undone to Jesus Christ to find acceptance in him and in his righteousness God has a controversy with you that will go on for eternity unless you repent. And hell is an eternal monument to God's enmity against sinners who persist in their sin.

The Gospel of Peace and the True Christmas Message

25:23 But blessed be God when I've seen that enmity and the just grounds of it and have found acceptance in the beloved the spirit of truth who's revealed to me Christ as the objective grounds of peace then imparts the subjective experience of peace and the fruit of the spirit is peace. And then when a man is at peace with himself now he's got a basis to be at peace with his fellow man. For as James says whence come wars and fighting among you? Where do they come from?

25:58 He says they rise out of your own lusts. You see man who's not at peace with God is not at peace with himself and he's not at peace with God and he can't be at peace with his fellow man. And so when the vertical gets resolved then the horizontal begins to be manifested.

26:16 Now do you see why the gospel's called the gospel of peace? Romans 10, 15 how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace. Is that the gospel of peace that we hear preached by politicians and by liberal so-called theologians who say everybody let's all have a peace orgy. Is that the gospel of peace that comes in the peace symbol and in peace marches?

26:42 No, not in your life. The gospel of peace is the gospel that says God is holy. God is righteous. You are sinful.

26:52 You are unrighteous. And this holy God has a controversy with you. But this same God has come forth in his dear son and has resolved that controversy in the death and resurrection of his son. Repent and believe the gospel and now you'll be at peace with God.

27:11 That's the gospel of peace. And the gospel is called that because it is peace. This kind of peace which the gospel sets forth. Paul says in Ephesians 6, 15 having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

27:29 Oh how relevant all of this is at this Christmas time. Everybody quotes at Christmas time the message of the angels. Pardon. Here's the part they love to quote.

27:40 Luke 2 and verse 14. Glory to God in the highest peace among men.

27:53 Ah that's the message of Christmas. Peace, peace. Everybody going to live at peace. Let's catch the spirit of Christmas and everybody be at peace.

28:04 Oh dear ones how pathetic. Because verse 14 does not declare the grounds of the peace the angels are talking about. They're rejoicing in what they already declared about the ground of peace. They're rejoicing in what they already declared the grounds of the peace in verses 10 and 11.

28:20 The angels said unto the shepherds be not afraid for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. And what is the tidings of good joy? Peace on earth? That's the way it's interpreted.

28:33 The Christmas message is peace on earth. That's the tidings on earth. No, no. They said we bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all the people.

28:44 And what is the tidings of great joy? Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. There's the message of great joy. A Savior is born one who will remove the enmity between God and the sinner and the sinner and God.

29:05 And this shall be the sign to you. This is the proof that we're not just spoofing. You'll find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger and suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the highest. Glory to God for what?

29:26 He's provided one who will work out a just grounds of peace. A Savior. Christ the Lord. He who is the eternal Lord become a babe in order to live a perfect life and to die the sinner's death that there might be a just grounds upon which God can have his enmity removed.

29:49 Glory to God for such a mystery. Who would have ever thought of it that the God who had the controversy with the sinner would conceive of such a marvelous way to remove that enmity. Glory to God for such a salvation and then on earth peace among men in whom he's well pleased and who are those men? Men who see in the Lord Jesus their only grounds of acceptance and who acknowledging themselves undone and hopeless cast themselves upon him and they find that they are at peace with God.

30:29 Now you see this is the perspective which if preached would turn all the love of Christmas into tooth gnashing hatred.

30:40 That's why I can have very little sympathy with the holiday as such.

30:45 Listen to this prayer that appeared in the first page of Time Magazine a week ago. A Christmas prayer. And so a lot of unthinking people say isn't that nice? People put in religion back into Christmas.

30:56 Let's listen to the prayer put out by the New York Life Insurance Company. And that's not a free advertisement.

31:03 Let us pray that strength and courage abundant be given to all who work for a world of reason and understanding. Notice the initial perspective horizontal. That the good that lies in every man's heart may day by day be magnified that men will come to see more clearly not that which divides them horizontal but that which unites them horizontal. That each hour may bring us closer to a final victory not of nation over nation but of man over his own evils and weaknesses that the true spirit of this Christmas season its joy its beauty its hope and above all its abiding faith now notice may live among us that the blessings of peace be ours the peace to build and grow to live in harmony and sympathy with others and to plan for the future with confidence you know what this prayer is when you boil it all down it's a prayer to man that man may be able to help himself to be his own savior to live happily ever after without God that's exactly that's not a misinterpretation of it that we may see the good that lies in every one of us that as it is magnified we may resolve all of our

32:32 problems and that's the so-called spirit of Christmas when man puts the magnifying glass on his own inner tendencies to sweetness and goodness and lays aside some of those tendencies to evil and if only we can keep the magnifying glass there then all will be well oh what a pathetic thing poor blind people are some of you here this morning is that your perspective that's not the perspective that the angels had in mind when they said here's the good news a savior's born a savior who's come not for people who have good in themselves and he's going to provide the magnifying glass to bring it out oh no a savior who's come to revels lying in darkness and in the shadow of death and he's come to bring light and life in a climate of grace that will then produce peace and so you see grace is the fountain peace is the stream and if you're a stranger to grace you'll never know peace well we must hurry on now to consider briefly what the apostle says about the source of these blessings we've looked at the meaning of the two words grace peace see to you and where are they going

The Source of Blessings: God Our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ

34:01 to come from well he tells us what is the source of this blessing or these blessings from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ in other words the apostle says to the Ephesians as I desire an abundance of grace and peace to be imparted to you I would immediately direct you away from yourself to the one source from which they flow namely the triune Godhead grace and peace be to you not from your circumstances not from one another but from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ now there is no hint here of what has been called subordinationism that is that Jesus Christ is less than equal to the father in his essential essence the very structure in the original precludes such an idea the structure in the original is such that there is an equality of dignity and worth given to the father and to the son but since grace and peace are the blessings of salvation the order in which the Godhead is delineated is the order of salvation in which the father is always regarded as the fountain and the prime source

35:31 of blessing Jesus Christ always regarded as the conduit or the medium the mediator of that blessing as the Holy Spirit is regarded as the one who actually imparts and infuses that blessing into the heart and life of the believer and since grace and peace are things that come within the framework of salvation they come to us consistent with the order in which that salvation comes from the father through the son by the Holy Spirit now let's just underscore this for a moment notice Paul says you Ephesians are to look for these blessings of increased grace and peace from God our Father now what does he mean when he says God our Father the fatherhood of God has a threefold aspect in scripture God is father in the sense that he is the author of our being Acts 17 says we are his offspring and in that sense God is the father of all men don't recall if you hear preachers say God is the father of all men and think he is a modernist no if he means by that God is the author of the being of all men absolutely true and you have Paul in Acts 17 to back it up we are his offspring as certain of your own poets had said and then he quotes a heathen poet second sense in which God is

37:00 father is that all men are formed in his likeness all men are made in the image of God though that image is defaced it is not utterly obliterated but then the third sense in which God is father he is father to those who are born of his spirit and adopted into his family now that's not true of all men for Jesus said to some of the most religious of his day ye are of your father the devil and the lust of your father ye will do except a man be born of his he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven and then the whole biblical doctrine of adoption because ye are sons he hath sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts John 1 12 as many as received him to them gave he the right to become the sons of God now Paul is speaking of course of God our father in that third sense how do we know it so because of who he's addressing who is he addressing is he saying Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus to anybody that have happens to gather with the saints at Ephesus no no Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus to the saints and believers that are in Christ so he's speaking of those to whom God is father in this limited and exclusive sense those who've been born of the spirit who've been adopted into the family of God and he says these blessings come from this God and

38:30 they I never come from him divorced from our Lord Jesus Christ in other words to look for blessings directly from God without reference to the mediation of Christ is to look for blessings from a God who doesn't exist the only God who exists is the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ and for people who say well I have a love for God and a devotion to God I'm not concerned about Jesus and salvation but don't you accuse me of not loving God I love God my friend what you love is not the God of the Bible he's a figment of your own imagination he's a non-existent God he's the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ that's why Jesus said no man comes to the Father but by me that's pretty exclusive yes it is it is but no more exclusive than Jesus made it he said I am the way the truth the life no man comes to the Father but by me Philip says show us the Father and that'll satisfy us he said he that has seen me has seen the Father no man has seen God at any time the only begotten who's in the bosom of the Father he hath declared him I would ask you this morning perhaps you're one who's religious and I don't demean that I don't

39:58 speak down to that perhaps you're one who maybe even prides yourself that you're not part of the profane generation that mocks God and mocks sacred things you say I have a love for God I have a devotion to God my friend let me press this question to your conscience is it a knowledge of God and a devotion to God that comes through the knowledge of and devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ through him who sits upon the throne of absolute sovereignty as King of Kings and Lord of Lords who is owner master sovereign as it come through Jesus through God's appointed Savior does it come through Christ the long promised Messiah the Jesus who is rooted in the scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments if not my friend you know nothing of the God who really is and you're worshipping an idol you're worshipping an idol you sit here this morning breaking the first first commandment with a high hand thou shall have no other gods before me you've made a God and before that God you worship unless all of your dealings with God are dealings with the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and yet it's interesting he did not say on the other hand grace to you and peace from Jesus that's the way many people would write it today they profess to have been converted by some kind of a woozy

41:28 nebulous subjective experience of the love of Jesus and the sum substance of all their religion is Jesus not the Lord Jesus Christ just Jesus now at best maybe it's just bad training bad teaching weak theology where there's true grace but I'm fear that in many cases they are worshiping a God of their own imagination you have no dealings with Jesus except the Lord Jesus Christ and all of your dealings with him are with reference to God our Father for he is able to save all who come unto God by him there is one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus you can come to God except through Christ but when you come through Christ he always leads you unto the Father and so just as there is the heresy of a Christ less worship of God there is the heresy of a God less worship of Christ and the apostle would point these people to the only God who

Expansiveness, Exclusiveness, and Directness of Grace and Peace

42:45 Jesus Christ and to dealings with him who is not just Jesus the man of Galilee but the Lord who sits upon the throne who came to that throne by way of a virgin's womb by way of a bloody cross and by way of an open tomb that's the source of these great blessings and to seek them any other way is to seek them in a way for which we have no warrant in holy scripture so the blessings he pronounces upon them are grace greater measures of the unmerited favor of God and all the gifts it brings peace that state of enmity removed between us and God and then all the fruits of it in our own hearts and then he points them to the only source God our Father and the Lord and Jesus Christ now as we conclude our study this morning let me underscore three things for you briefly number one note the expansiveness of what is here extended to the people of God oh child of God if you have grace grace equal to every need arising out of sin and if you have peace as the fruit of the appropriate creation of what grace

44:14 provides what else do you need what else do you need I'm not saying what else would you like or what else might be convenient but if you have grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ what else do you need anything else is there anything that gets beyond the scope of the provisions of grace and is there anything more precious than the knowledge that every cause of enmity between me and God is removed to face the new calendar year what do we need that grace does not provide and what can we desire more than to have abundance of that peace which flows out of grace so note the expansiveness of what is extended to the people of God but in the second place notice the exclusiveness it's extended only to those described in verse one to the saints and believers that are in Christ grace to you and peace to you but to no one else oh my friend if you sit here this morning and you're not a saint and you're not a believer and you're not in union with Christ there's no grace and peace to you until you become a saint by becoming a believer

45:42 through union with Jesus Christ that's the circle of God's provisions of grace and peace within that circle all the grace you'll need from here to glory but outside of that circle there's wrath and the wrath of God is not something that slumbers to the day of judgment John says in John 3 36 he that believeth not the wrath of God abideth on him right now God has a cause of enmity against you and you've broken his holy law worse than that you've despised his holy gospel you trample underfoot the blood of his son he says you're of such a nature by virtue of being a sinner that the only way I can countenance you with delight is to see your sins cleansed by the blood of my son and you strut up proudly and say I'm not that bad I don't need

46:47 my friend you're insulting almighty God and he's angry he's angry he's angry you don't have peace with God this is exclusively directed to those who are saints who are in Christ who are believers but blessed be God you throw down your enmity now in your controversy with God and say God forgive me I see the folly of trying to web weave some kind of of way into your presence with the stuff of my own doings and you forsake that and cast yourself upon Christ as he's offered in the gospel you can leave here this morning with this blessing pronounced upon your head grace to you and peace from God the Father so note then not only the expansiveness of what is extended to the people of God but the exclusiveness and then thirdly note the

47:50 as I was meditating upon this again grace to you and peace from the one true church from the Holy Father from Mary from the saints ah no no no no clear all that rubbish away grace and peace come directly into the heart and life of the believer through Jesus Christ and from God the Father we need not look to other mediators intermediaries with all of this seductive flirtation of Rome saying we're not what we once were she still clutters up the channel of grace with all this garbage of the saints and Mary and the merit of men but blessed be God here is directness of grace from God through Christ to the people of God with no 招 or saints or popes or pellets or personal workers to get in the way and if you're here this morning a stranger to grace I don't ask you to come down the front and go into a room so you can get some grace from me I tell you sitting right where you are Jesus Christ is there at the right hand of the Father waiting to hear that

49:19 silent but real cry of repentance and faith from your own heart and looking to Christ right where you sit this morning you can find acceptance and forgiveness note the directness grace doesn't need to come through my hands or my prayers or some personal workers efforts it comes directly from God the Father through the Lord Jesus now if you've got questions and need some more light to shine more clear light clearly upon Jesus the mediator that's where we might help put a little more light on him but don't you look for help from man the whole system of personal workers and inquiry rooms in our day has become a subtle form of priest craft oh my friend we do not hold before you any other mediators but Christ and Christ oh if I could wish one thing for all of the people of God for this year I don't know a better new year's text than this may grace and peace be to you where from circumstances now things are going to get worse folks all the politicians promises not withstanding I wouldn't be surprised the economy gets worse all the presidents reassurance is not withstanding what else can you have with men more selfish

50:49 you're going to have a degenerating economy people want more pay for less work degenerating economy more welfare stay expected don't pin your hopes there you want abundance of grace and peace don't you look to the politicians even the Christian politicians grace and peace come from God our father and the Lord Jesus so what I wish for you is first of all a vital union with him and if you're not in Christ my earnest prayers that you get in Christ by faith today and that if you're in Christ that you dwell in him abide in him do nothing that will grieve the spirit of grace that will quench the spirit of grace that will rob you of the experience of peace may grace and peace be to each of you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ Amen Let us pray