Not of Works, Part 2

Introduction: The Importance of God's Word and the Context of Ephesians 2

0:02 When Moses, the man of God, was reviewing the faithfulness of God to his covenant people, Israel, he said in Deuteronomy 8, in verse 3, Man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. This very statement taken from the words of Moses as recorded in the book of Deuteronomy is the word which our Lord used with minor alterations in the occasion of his temptation, in which he said to the devil, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And, of course, the words that proceed from God's mouth are, according to our Lord, the words found in Holy Scripture. And our Lord's teaching is obvious, that just as physical things, food is essential to the sustenance of physical life, so the food of the words of God is essential for the maintenance of spiritual life. It's because of that conviction that we give ourselves to the careful word-by-word, phrase-by-phrase study of the Scriptures, believing that in this way we live spiritually by the words that have proceeded from the mouth,

1:27 through the mind and pen of the inspired writers of Holy Scripture. We are presently studying together, in a very careful and meticulous way, the statements of the Apostle Paul, as found in his letter to the church at Ephesus, Ephesians chapter 2, and in particular verses 8 through 10. For the benefit of the many visitors who are with us, I will say just a word about the general thread of the Apostle's thought, so that you might be, at least in some measure, right with us as we pursue our studies further this morning. Ephesians 2, verses 1 to 10, is a paragraph in which the Apostle sets forth the very vivid contrast. It is the contrast between what the Ephesians were prior to God's gracious work in them, and that takes in verses 1 to 3, and what they were now, constituted as the people of God, and that takes in verses 4 through 10. And in verses 4 through 7, in which he's giving a description of the after, what God does to those who are dead, bound, and condemned, verses 1 to 3, he tells them some wonderful things in verses 4 through 7, but he's so concerned that they get the message,

2:52 that he goes back over some of the same ground. He recapitulates, he reemphasizes, repeats, enlarges, expands, and underscores in verses 8 through 10, the nature of the transformation already described in verses 4 through 7. And I have entitled that review, that recapitulation, that underscoring, that expansion, a compendium of salvation by grace. A compendium being, of course, a brief and summary, a summary statement of a body of truth.

Review of Salvation by Grace Through Faith, Not of Works

3:29 And in that compendium, we have noticed the nature of the transformation. It is called, in verse 8, being saved. A word that has its roots deep into the Old Testament. A word that gathers meaning in the development of God's own dealings with His people.

3:48 And it means, basically, deliverance from danger, deliverance unto the provisions of God's will. God's kindness. Then the principal cause of that deliverance and that transformation, the Apostle says, is grace. For by grace have ye been saved.

4:08 God's grace is His undeserved kindness to the ill-deserving. Having described then the nature of the transformation as salvation, the principal cause of that transformation being God's grace, he then focuses, he points our attention upon the instrumental means of that transformation. And he says in these words, by grace have ye been saved through faith. The empty hand receiving the gracious provision of God.

4:43 And then, lest we misunderstand and think that the faith is something we contribute, something of merit, he then gives us this parenthetical statement, and that not of yourselves, it is the grace of God. It is the gift of God. And then last week we studied the fourth major line of thought in the passage, the qualifying negative, verse 9, not of works. Having said that we are saved by grace as the principal cause, faith as the instrumental means, he now gives a qualifying negative, lest we in any way misunderstanding of salvation that is of grace through faith is a salvation that in no way is to be attributed to human works of whatever sort. And so in our exposition last week, we demonstrated from many other portions in the writings of the Apostle Paul, that when he gave this brief negative qualifying statement not of works, he was excluding ceremonial works, that is the works done in the practice of religion. He was excluding legal works. That is, acts done with respect to the Ten Commandments, ethics and morals growing out of religion.

The Question: Who Wrote 'Not of Works' and Why?

6:03 And he is excluding evangelical works, the works which inevitably flow from, and necessarily accompany faith in Jesus Christ, have nothing to do with being the grounds of our deliverance and of our acceptance. And so this little qualifying negative, not of works, absolutely, shrivels any root of an idea that our acceptance is based upon what we are, or upon what we can perform. Now I had hoped to leave the little phrase, not of works, and move on to what we would call the conscious intention of God in conceiving such a salvation, and that's found in the latter part of verse 9, in order that. All of this is in order that no man should boast. But I've been stuck with the little phrase, not of works. And I've been asking myself the question, and I want to ask it in your hearing this morning, who wrote these words asserting that our doings, our works, our performances, religious, moral, ethical, or evangelical, do not enter in as the ground of our acceptance with God?

7:19 Was it a pagan gentile who had no acquaintance with the richness of the Old Testament Levitical law? When the writer said, not of works, and he was excluding ceremonial works, was he speaking as a man ignorant that the whole Old Testament ceremonial system was given by God, that it contained a rich heritage of instruction and teaching? Was he such a man? When he said, not of works, and he was excluding legal works, moral and ethical conformity to God's law, was he speaking as a man who was living in defiance of the law and was looking for some excuse to veil his rebellion in religious terminology and in theological concepts? When he said, not of works, and was excluding even his own evangelical works, was he speaking as the classic antinomian who says, I'm saved by faith, by faith, and I'll live as I please, and now looking for some façade of theological argument to justify it? Who was this man who said, grace through faith, not of works? Who was he?

8:45 Well, the structure of our message will raise that question and then seek to answer it. Or, if you want headings that are a little more complete, our first concern will be to describe the character of the man who made this assertion, not of works, and then to discover what led him to make such an assertion. Or, more briefly, a question raised and a question answered. Well, who was the man who said these words, not of works?

The Character of the Man: Paul's Relationship to Ceremonial Law

9:14 Well, he was Saul of Tarsus in terms of his Jewish name. He was Paul the Apostle in terms of his Gentile name. But now let's look at this character. And I use the word character not in the wrong sense.

9:31 Let's look at this individual. Let's examine his conduct and character in the light of the Word of God. First of all, let's address ourselves to this matter of his relationship to the ceremonial law. When he says, not of works, and excludes ceremonial works, from what perspective does he say this?

9:54 Well, the Scripture makes abundantly clear that he was a man whose whole training left him thoroughly acquainted with and committed to the Levitical system of life and of worship. He was not a pagan Gentile, ignorant of the divine origin and the significance of the Levitical law, but by breeding, by upbringing, by acquaintance, by habit, and later as a mature adult, by deliberate choice, he was a man thoroughly committed to a full performance of the ceremonial law. Listen to his own testimony as found in Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. This same man is writing to another church and he says in verse 3, For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh, if any other man thinketh to have confidence in the flesh, I yet more, circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews,

11:21 as touching the law, a Pharisee. And in those words the apostle indicates that he was not only acquainted with the divine origin of the ceremonial law, he was in it up to his ears. The eighth day while an unconscious infant, in terms of moral consciousness, he wasn't asleep but unconscious in that sense, he was circumcised. He was given that sign in his flesh that would mark him as a member of that nation, committed in the totality of its life to the ceremonial law.

12:03 Then when he says he was a Pharisee, he indicates that he even went beyond the minimal requirements even given by Moses and subjected himself to ceremonial trappings that went beyond the requirements of Scripture. And in two other places where we find him giving his testimony, he's careful to underscore this fact in Acts chapter 26. Notice the testimony of this man standing before Agrippa, verse 2. I think myself happy, King Agrippa, Acts 26, 2, that I am to make my defense before thee this day touching all things where I am accused by the Jews, especially because thou art expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews, wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently. My manner of life then from my youth up, which was from the beginning of my life, to be among mine own nation and at Jerusalem, know all the Jews, having knowledge of me from the first, if they be willing to testify, that after the straightest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee. After the straightest sect, the strictest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee. Chapter 22, verses 1 to 3.

13:25 The mouth of two or three witnesses, every word shall be established. Brethren and fathers, hear the defense which I make unto you. When they heard that he spake unto them in the Hebrew language, they were the more quiet. And he saith, I am a Jew born in Tarsus of Cilicia, brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, instructed according to the strict manner of the law of our fathers, being zealous for God, even as ye all are this day.

13:55 So this man who said in Ephesians 2, that our salvation is by grace through faith, and then gives the qualifying negative, not of works, including in that every form of ceremonial performance, was not a man ignorant of the ceremonial law, not a man who was detached from that law, but who knew the richness of the heritage reflected in that ceremonial law. One who practiced the strictest expression of it, and one who, even after he came to know the true fulfillment of that law in Jesus Christ, still looked upon certain aspects of it as innocent, if we did not seek to use them as part of the fabric of our righteousness. He says in 1 Corinthians 9, when I was among my Jewish friends, I became a Jew, that is, I submitted to many of the regulations of the ceremonial law. In Acts 18 and Acts 21, we have him taking a vow, a Jewish vow, part of the old Levitical system. So then, we are pressed with a very, very fascinating question.

15:07 What in the world brought him to the place where he was willing, not only to repudiate for himself every ceremonial act, and think of the many he had performed in the course of his thirty-some odd years. Think of the thousands of scrupulous acts and ceremonial details which this man had consciously and deliberately regarded, and now for himself, and then for everyone whom he influences, he says, our salvation has nothing whatsoever to do with one shred of ceremonial law. Now, what in the world brings a man to that? You can't say it's his training.

15:47 You can't say he's just reflecting his background. You can't say he's simply reflecting the prejudices of his mother and father. None of them. If he were simply conditioned by his breeding and his training and the formative years of his life, we would expect him to be one of the champions of the ceremonial law.

The Character of the Man: Paul's Relationship to Moral Law

16:08 And yet he says, not of works. It has nothing to do with ceremonial observances. How in the world did he come to that place? Well, we're going to complicate the question as we move in the second place under describing his character, to look at this man.

16:24 Was he ignorant of the moral law? And one who was given over, as we suggested earlier, to the practice of blatant violation of that law? Did he repudiate the works of conformity to the moral law as having anything to do with our salvation because he himself was a notorious lawbreaker? Again, Philippians chapter 3 answers that question in the negative with ringing.

16:53 Affirmation. Look. Philippians 3 and verse 6. As touching zeal, persecuting the church, as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.

17:12 You see, unlike many of the Pharisees, this man was not leading a double life. You remember what Jesus said to the Pharisees in his day? He said, you people, you make long prayers, but it's all a cover-up for your Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, experience. For a pretense, you make long prayers, but in reality, that's all it is. It's just a big religious front in order to carry on this double life. But not so with this man.

17:38 There was not a person in Paul's hometown who could point to him and say, yeah, look at that Pharisee, but he sure picked my pocket. Yeah, look at that Pharisee, claims to be keeping the law, but I know that he spread lies about me. Yeah, he claims to be a Pharisee, but I know what happened when I was out on a business trip and he went fooling around with my wife. Paul says, no, sir, as touching the law, I was blameless.

18:05 He was like that rich young ruler who when Jesus said, here are the commandments, and he took the second table of the law, honor thy father and thy mother, thou shalt not steal, etc. He said, all these things have I kept from my youth up. Here was a man who had great respect for the ethical and moral demands of God's holy law. He was not a man living in blatant defiance of the law, a lecher, a thief, a liar.

18:31 He was not that. Later on, judging himself by the true meaning of the law, he calls himself a murderer. But at this time, he did not regard himself that, nor did his fellow Jews. Now, what in the world would bring him to the place where he says, by grace have you been saved through faith, and he says, works have nothing to do with your acceptance between me and God?

18:56 Why would he repudiate all of that careful adherence to the moral and ethical standards of the law of God as having anything to do with his acceptance? No doubt there were many times when as a lad, it would have pleased his flesh much to have violated God's holy law. But he had a strict conscience about that law. He tells us later on in his testimony that he served God with a clear conscience from his forefathers.

19:25 Now, why? What in the world would bring a man to say the most scrupulous adherence to the ethical standards of the Ten Commandments has nothing to do with your salvation? Now, what in the world would bring a man to do that? It's bad enough that he looks at all that ceremonial observance and says, junk it.

19:44 And then he looks at all of his moral and ethical observance and says, junk that too. Well, has the guy gone plum loco? What influence has been brought to bear upon this man to jar him loose from everything he was conditioned to be? Well, let's complicate the question further by moving into the third category in which he repudiates all evangelical works.

The Character of the Man: Paul's Relationship to Evangelical Works

20:05 Who was this guy? Some detached Christian theologian who sat on his duff all day writing books and never knew what it was to go out after a soul with a broken heart and try to lead him to the knowledge of his Savior? Was he some soft, flabby Christian who liked to sit home and play nice records and listen to nice tapes that tell him how wonderful everything is and how the Lord will come and take him out of the whole mess before it gets too bad? Is that the kind of person?

20:36 No, no. You listen to his testimony. Listen to his testimony. This is the kind of man he was who says that even evangelical works, that is the works done out of love to Christ, have nothing to do with a man's acceptance before God.

20:49 Perhaps the best statement is found in 2 Corinthians 11 and verse 23. Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as one decide himself. I more in labors more abundantly.

21:04 He said anybody who comes with the name of an apostle, true or false, I can take the field in terms of the abundance of my labors. He said nobody can hold a candle to me. He said I did not come behind the chiefest of the apostles in my labors, in my sufferings for Christ. And you read the book of Acts and you then understand why he says in 2 Corinthians 5 some people thought he had lost his, he'd gone off his rocker.

21:32 He said if I be beside myself, it is unto God. People looked at him and said that guy is a madman. He is driven with such a passion. He is consumed with such an arduous commitment to the task of evangelizing and planting churches and nurturing believers.

21:50 The guy is like a man possessed. And yet this man says by grace he is saved through faith, not of works. And he included in that not only ceremonial works, not only legal works, but even evangelical works. He utterly disclaims that one thread of the garment of his acceptance can be found having been taken from the plant of his own evangelical works.

22:20 All of his prayers, all of his holy sighing after God, all of his intercession, all of his tears. He said every work I have done out of love to Christ and in the power of the Spirit it has nothing to do with my being saved by grace through faith. Now you see the question is really complicated. How in the world did he come to that place?

22:42 You got the question now? Who wrote the words not of works? This very man who was a zealot in conformity to the ceremonial law, who was scrupulous in conformity to the moral law, who was, I'm going to use a big word for you kids and you can show it off tomorrow, who was assiduous. That is, he never backed off.

23:06 He stuck with it. He gave himself without any thinking out to the work of the gospel. Now how in the world does that man say these works, ceremonial, legal, evangelical have nothing to do with a man's acceptance before God? Well, we've raised the question.

The Answer: Why Paul Repudiated Ceremonial Works

23:29 Now let's seek to answer it. Having described the character and conduct of the man who asserted these things, let us discover what led him to make such an assertion. All right? What led him to repudiate ceremonial works?

23:44 Well, I'll tell you what happened. It's basically this and we'll look at his testimony. He came to the discovery that all the various details of the ceremonial law were never given to constitute so much capital with which to buy God's favor or to change the imagery that obedience to ceremonial details were not bricks out of which you constructed a tower to God or to change the imagery. They were not pieces of fabric out of which a man was to make a covering for his sin.

24:26 In order to be accepted with God he came to the discovery that all of the details of the ceremonial law were fingers pointing in the direction of a great reality and they were shadows cast from the substance of a great reality. Now, how do I know that? From his own testimony. Listen to his words.

24:50 Colossians, chapter 2. Colossians, chapter 2. He's dealing now with some of the details of the Levitical system and he finds people trying to weave them into the fabric of their acceptance with God and what does he say? Let no man, Colossians 2.16, let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day. All of these things that God had laid out in the old Levitical system which are a shadow of the things to come but the body is Christ's. Now, you kids, have you ever had fun chasing your shadow? Any kids here who haven't chased your shadow?

25:43 How many of you kids have chased your shadow? Raise your hand. You've never chased your shadow? Oh, you haven't lived.

25:50 Oh, I used to have more fun as a kid trying to step on my own shadow, trying to outrun my own shadow. Maybe television spoiled your imagination so that you don't know what it is to play with your own shadow. Isn't that insubstantial? Can you go and roll your shadow up and stick it in your pocket and take it to school and say, hey, look how big I was yesterday.

26:13 My shadow was 14 feet long. The sun was going down and the angle was sharper. No, no. What is your shadow?

26:19 Well, it's something. You can see it. You know when it's there. You know when it isn't.

26:24 You know you don't have one when it's a cloudy day, when it's a bright sunny day. Why, your shadow, well, it's a very real thing. You can see it. But it's not so real and you can say naughty words to it and it doesn't even talk back.

26:39 But it's something but it isn't anything. Well, it is. Well, it isn't. Well, yes, it is, but it isn't.

26:49 Do you see what a shadow is? That's better than any philosophical, technical definition. Now you know what a shadow is. It's something that is cast from a substantial reality.

26:57 In my case, six feet 190 pounds of reality cast a shadow. In your case, maybe it's four foot two, the shadow is something that is cast from something substantial and real. You don't have a shadow from a ghost. You don't have a shadow from a fear.

27:15 That's not something that has substance. Now look at the text. Paul says to these people who are being plagued with those who say you must do this and that and the rest of the ceremonial law. He said, no, no, they are but shadows.

27:29 Shadows of what? The substantial reality. And what is the body that casts that shadow? He said, the body is Christ.

27:39 Oh, that's the whole heart of what the apostle is saying. When God said you must offer lambs upon the altar and when a person who had any love for animals had to say no to his emotional and aesthetic sensitivities, plunge a knife into the animal and see it twitch and as it blood falls out it dies. Why? Why the bleeding of the lambs, the spirit the sprinkling of the blood.

28:08 Why? Because there was a body that would one day be broken upon a cross on behalf of sinners and blood would flow that would be a sacrificial offering for the sins of all who would trust in that savior. So the sacrificial system part of the Levitical law was a shadow of what? Of the substance who is Christ.

28:32 Christ, the great sacrifice. The priesthood and the washings. They were but shadows cast from the person and work of Jesus Christ. So in the life of this man there came a time when he discovered look, I've given my life to playing with shadows when the reality is here.

28:54 You can't build ladders out of shadows. Try to stand your shadow on end and climb to the top of the house. Some of you men working on your roof can't see so a shadow is cast from the roof down to the ground. Try to get on your shadow and slide down to the ground.

29:17 Do you see the folly of Paul the Pharisee thinking that by obedience to these things that were shadows he could build a ladder to God. He said, I saw something wonderful. The substance is Christ. And if I have Christ I no longer need shadows let alone ladders out of shadows.

29:42 That's why he repudiated ceremonial works. We find the same emphasis in Hebrews 8 and verse 5. Look at it. Speaking of the priesthood we're talking now about days and special ceremonies in chapter 2 of Colossians.

30:02 Here he's talking about the special functions of special people. And he says in verse 5 well back up to verse 4. Seeing there are those who offer the gifts according to the law who serve that which is a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. All of these things were but shadows.

30:29 By grace through faith you save not of works no ceremonial works because those ceremonies were never given to be a savior. They were given to be a pointer to Christ. They were given to be a symbol of the substantial reality who is Jesus Christ the only savior of sinners. And I say to my listeners this morning if you are one who is seeking meticulously carefully to obey the external practices of your religion whether that religion is Protestantism in all of its humanism with its increasing shapes and brands and sizes the unchanging church is embarrassed about that claim in these days with all the upheaval but whether it be the details of the mass and confession and the sacraments all the whether you be an adherent to Judaism in all of its brands liberal reformed and orthodox my friend listen to me this morning there is no of ceremonies performed with the greatest and most significant detail that can give you one width of acceptance

31:58 before almighty God by grace are you saved through faith not of works not of works not of ceremonial works that's how this man came to that discovery he saw that ceremonial works were a finger pointing at a potential reality well what about the repudiation of legal works here's a man who could say look touching the standard of the law my life was blameless nobody could point the finger at me and say you picked my pocket cheated on my wife and the rest no no not a one not a one not a one well what happened to him out of which he was building a stairway to God he was doing pretty good in fact according to his own testimony he thought everything was going along quite well his external obedience to the law which at that time he regarded as touching primarily external conduct every new act of obedience gave him another block in his stairway unto God what happened to all those concrete blocks suddenly they turned to sand and every one of them crumbled and he was found in the middle

The Answer: Why Paul Repudiated Legal Works

33:27 of a sand heap with such a distance between himself and God that he ever he gave up forever ever trying to bridge that distance with any blocks that he could make out of his obedience to the moral law read his testimony in the first few verses of this chapter that the law no longer has any condemning power to the man who is in Christ lest people get the wrong idea that the law is therefore sinful and has no legitimate function he raises the question verse seven what shall we say then is the law sin may the law for I had not known coveting the tenth word of Moses except the law had said thou shalt not covet but sin finding occasion wrought in me through the commandment all manner of coveting for apart from the law sin is dead and I was alive apart from the law once but when the commandment came that is when I discerned the spirit and I truly understood

34:56 the function of the law when the commandment came sin revived and I died and the commandment which was unto life I found to be unto death for sin finding occasion through the commandment beguiled me and through it slew me so that the law is holy and the commandment holy and righteous in good you see what he's saying and I'm going to tell you what he's saying in the second verse verse two and he says when the commandment came it became as it were the back door into an understanding of the true meaning of all the laws that the commandment came and it was the true meaning of all the commandments and according to our Lord in the sermon on the mount in many places in the old and the new testament that was always the intention of God in giving those ten words of Moses Paul says when I understood the true

36:24 meaning of all the laws and I saw under condemnation as a miserable lawbreaker why because he came to understand the law was not given to be a stairway to God but a mirror to show a man his heart and to show him his heart to such an extent namely Jesus Christ in the perfection of his person and his work then on when Paul preaches the gospel he always is careful to emphasize this is the purpose of the law just a statement from Romans 3 to underscore this verse 19 now we are going to go through the law and the judgment of God because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight for through

37:53 the law cometh the knowledge of sin only a fool of God that will be a fool of God he will not be a fool of God for the soul of the soul of God all the world forever shall not be Seeding spirituality, Romans 7, verse 12 and 13, spiritual, holy, when we see in that law reflection of the infinite holiness of God himself, and we begin to look not at our external deeds, but we begin to look at the thoughts and the intents of the heart. In the light of our Lord's words, anger in the heart is tantamount to breaking the commandment, thou shalt do no murder. Lust in the heart is breaking the commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery.

39:03 And the inordinate attachment to any gift of God is the essence of idolatry. When we begin to understand that that's what the law is saying, and it's saying that to me, how can I ever hope to find it? Acceptance on the basis of that which shatters me, that shows me that the deepest intentions of my heart is sinful, that the first springs of desire are wicked and abominable in the sight of God. That's what happened to that proud Pharisee. That's why he said, by grace are you saved through faith, not of works, not only excluding ceremonial works, but excluding all legal, moral, and ethical works. Because he said, I saw that all of his works, in the words of Isaiah the prophet, were as filthy rags in the sight of God, and could never be the basis of his acceptance of God.

The Answer: Why Paul Repudiated Evangelical Works

40:07 Well then, what about his evangelical works? How in the world did he come to repudiate those? The man who could say in labors more abundant. You mean, he did not for a moment entertain any thought that all of the labors of all of his lifetime, through all of his life, through all of his life, through all of the spheres of his ministry, didn't add one billionth of a gram of worth in the sight of God, as far as his being accepted?

40:33 That's exactly what he means to tell us. When he said, not of works, he meant precisely that. Well, what in the world ever brought him to that position?

40:44 Why no confidence in these works as procuring, securing, or adding to his acceptance before God? Because he discovered that his standing, if it was going to hold in the day of judgment, had to be absolutely perfect. And my friend, once that grips you, you don't want anything that comes from you, or any other creature, to be added into your standing before God. When you stand before the perfect God of the universe, you've got to have a standing that is absolutely perfect.

41:17 If I may use the illustration, you've got to have a garment covering you, that the The scrutinizing eye of the omniscient God can look at and examine in every thread and not find one minute imperfection from the top of the shoulder to the hem of that garment at your feet.

41:46 You've got to have a righteousness made up of an obedience to the law that is perfect. Now, in the light of the true meaning of the law, you see what that means? That from the very first risings of desire to the performance of duty, it must be mathematically parallel to the absolute standard of perfection. That's the only thing that God can look upon and say, it pleases me.

42:12 Well, my friend, if that's so, is there any amongst us who wants to take his most fervent prayer that you've ever prayed? Think of the time when you were most engrossed. If God and heaven and Christ, when you were least attached to earth and to sense and to time, would you dare to claim that at that moment you loved God perfectly?

42:35 Would you? Come on now, would you? You say, no, I'm conscious at the moments of my deepest devotion. He's worthy to be loved with a pure love.

42:48 Isn't that your confession if you're a Christian? Sure it is. Think of the time when you were most engrossed. Think of the time when you were most engrossed.

42:54 Think of the time when you were most engrossed. Think of the time when you were most absorbed in teaching someone the gospel of Christ. The time when you were most absorbed in reaching out a sympathetic hand to a brother or sister in temporal need, and you gave a cup of cold water for Christ's sake. Think of all of your deeds that flow out of love to Christ.

43:14 That's an evangelical work. It flows out of love to Christ. But think of your evangelical works. Are they perfect?

43:22 Are they? Of course not. The Apostle Paul was conscious of that. So when he wrote, By grace are you saved through faith, not of works, he took all of the mountain of his zealous works, done in obedience to the word of God, and in the power of the Spirit, and he said, set them aside.

43:43 Don't let them enter into that fabric. Now where does he say that? Well, you turn to Philippians 3. This has been the seedbed out of which the entire exhortation of the church has been given.

43:56 The exhortation and instruction really has grown this morning. Look at Philippians chapter 3.

44:06 Having described what he was, circumcised the eighth day, Hebrew of the Hebrews, tribe of Benjamin, full of zeal, righteousness of the law, blameless, verse 7, how be it what things were gained to me, these I have counted loss for Christ, but now notice the progression of thought, verse 8, yea, verily, I count all things. Right now, it's not just a disposition with reflection upon the past. It is a perspective that bears down upon the present. I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things and do count them but refuse that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having, a righteousness of mine own. There it is. He says, I have committed myself with keen and calculated commitment to a perspective that says I repudiate any righteousness that has anything to do with anything that comes from me.

45:24 And he says, I am committed to the obtaining of a righteousness which has as its exclusive source the living God. Look, the righteousness which is from God, it comes by the instrumentality of faith and it is found wrought in union with Jesus Christ.

45:47 My friends, that's why he wrote the words, trying to get the message through to the Ephesians. By grace have ye been saved through faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, that no man should boast, he repudiates ceremonial works because the Spirit of God showed him. All the intent of the ceremonial law was that of being a finger pointing to Christ, a shadow cast from Christ and having the substance, he would not build ladders to heaven out of shadows. He repudiated all confidence in moral and legal and ethical works because he came to understand that the law was not given to be the means of God. The means of building a stairway to heaven but a mirror to show him his own heart and he repudiated all evangelical works because he knew that though they were the inevitable fruit of saving faith and we'll see that in verse 10 where his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works and we'll call them nothing less than good but he never calls them perfect and they're only good works because when they are done from the life of faith, from the posture of dependence upon Christ, they are made acceptable through the intercession and mediation of Christ and thereby are good works

Conclusion: A Call to Personal Conviction and Humility

47:15 but that will have to wait another exposition but he repudiates even then and he says, my standing with God is gracious, it's holy of God, it is through faith and works have nothing to do with it. As we conclude this morning, let me press upon your conscience this question. Could you write those words with convictions born of the same spiritual experience as the Apostle Paul? Suppose you were asked to write a letter to some friend about the nature of salvation.

47:55 Would you be able to pick up pen and write, by grace you are or if you're not saved, by grace alone can you ever hope to be saved? And that grace which brings salvation as ordained as the instrumental means through faith, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Could you then say, and not of works?

48:22 With the understanding and conviction of the Apostle.

48:27 You see, it's one thing to have a notion of salvation by grace. Paul did not write Ephesians 2 out of the stuff of notions. He wrote it out of the concept crucible of his own spiritual experience.

48:45 As one who once clung to the shadows thinking that they were substance who had come to count the shadows but dumb. As one who clung to his ethical and moral conformity to the law and now went through the pain of Romans 7. He said, I died.

49:07 As one who knew what it was to resist the temptation to think that any of his prayers, his preaching, his sighs, his groans, his compassion had anything to do with his acceptance before God. My friend, if you could write Ephesians 2.9a with any degree of conviction, God's brought you down through that same path. Maybe not all the same trees along the way and the same flowers not keeping you on the path at this precise point at the same time.

49:37 You may not be able to recall every winding in the path as Paul did. I am not saying you must have a one-on-one parallel experience with Paul. What I am saying is this truth is not learned intellectually alone.

49:53 I am saying it is brought home to the heart by the spirit of truth. I say to you, dear young men, preparing for the ministry, God have mercy on you if you become a notional preacher of grace. If you don't feel the pangs of God's law shutting you up to Christ again and again, you'll never be able to apply that law to the consciences of others so that they too are shut up unto Christ. Powerful preaching grows out of something more than the keen head brought to bear upon the scriptures.

50:32 It grows out of the sensitive heart experiencing the word of truth in the light of the fresh or renewed burden that God has laid upon us as a congregation to pray and labor for the restoration of powerful preaching in our generation. It's one thing romantically to pray that, my dear young brethren. It's another thing to know what you're asking for.

51:01 You're asking for God to put a worm in the gourd of your creature pride and begin to show you how bad you are.

51:10 You're asking God to turn the searchlight on and to ransack the murky corners of your heart.

51:18 Am I speaking to someone whose background is what?

51:25 Adherence to ceremonies? Very ethical? Moral? Maybe even a do-gooder evangelical Christian?

51:33 Can you say this morning, my confidence is in Christ and Christ alone. Can you say with this great apostle, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross. In the cross all the types and ceremonies are fulfilled. He is the bleeding lamb.

51:52 He is the great high priest. His is the only offering I seek. Do you see in the cross the full demands of the Lord? All being met in the perfect obedience of the Son of God.

52:04 All the positive sanctions having been met by Him. All of its threats now poured upon Him. Can you cast yourself upon the perfect law keeper and find delight in so doing? And can you look upon all your evangelical works and say, Oh God, unless they're washed in the blood of your Son, they too would merit damnation.

52:30 If so, then you understand something of the apostles' words. By grace are you saved through faith, not of works that no man should boast. Let us pray.