Find your seat. And if you have a Bible, uh, open it to Ephesians chapter two, uh, in the pew bibles, it's on page 976. I said pew, didn't I? We put our pew bibles into the chairs. It's on page 976. We've been for the last few months. In Ephesians, Ephesians is a letter that's unlike a lot of the ones that Paul has written in the fact that it doesn't address specific problems and controversies, but it's a letter to the church to remind the church of who she is.

And so when you look at the cover and it says a beautiful mess, uh, that's a great picture of the church. A southern thing would be, uh, you know, hot mess. Anybody ever heard that term? They're a hot mess. And it's usually meant nice, but, you know, it does, it does define a person sometimes, doesn't it? They're just a hot mess, right?

Um, the church is God's beautiful mess. This morning, I'm going to talk about the church as God's trophy. Of grace, God's trophy of grace and hats off to our beloved Blake Altman. This is payback because he gave me Hebrews 11 to preach in one week. I'm still holding him to that, that was an impossible thing for a new guy to come and preach Hebrews 11.

So he's given me Ephesians 2, 8 to 10. What a glorious text. You know what a glorious text. It really is something that you, you should know as a Christian. But also, it's just a great text if someone says, what does it mean to be Presbyterian? What does it mean to be Reformed? You know, you don't have to even go to TULIP and all those other things.

You can go to Ephesians 2, 8 through 10. And say, you know what it, you know what it is? It, it, it, it means that God saves sinners. He saves sinners. And He makes us into His trophies of grace. I think one of the most amazing things I get to do as a, as a pastor over the years is to see this unfold in the lives of people.

To see God's sovereign work in the lives of people over and over and over again. Some of you went to the women's retreat. You heard some of the stories of women just sitting in church with us here, right? And tears and amazement and wow, I didn't know that. That's what our God does. He does amazing stories of his grace in his people and he calls them to be a part of a church to share their amazing stories of his grace and he revels in it.

Just as I said to the children, it's like a picture in his den. This is what I've done. That's not about us. It's about him. And it frees us up to tell. All of those stories, but when we get to Ephesians 2 8 to 10, the apostle has explained salvation and we'll look at context just a little bit, uh, as we, as we unfold Ephesians 2 8 to 10.

But let's read that text now. If you're able, please stand for the reading of God's word. Uh, four by grace. You have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of work, 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.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. This is the Word of God. You may be seated. Well, I already started telling you a little bit about my brother Paul. I told you his height and width and breadth.

But there are other things about my brother Paul. There's drawings that he did. There's another thing that happened, uh, years ago when I was selling artificial knees and hips and plates and screws. I got into an operating room with an orthopedic surgeon, his name was Dr. Deverell. And I came in, I was a new salesman, and I'm like, Dr.

Deverell, you operated on my brother. And he thought, it's just a salesman trying to get it in. Which is true, I was just a salesman trying to get it in. Some kind of connection. He goes, Really? What did I do? I said, Well, you might remember him. He was six foot 11 and he was a high school standout in basketball and his ankle had been torn up so badly that you did something where you drilled a hole in his ankle and you threaded a ligament through and he just lit up.

The doctor lit up like yes, and he started to tell all the other surgeons about this surgery he did to my brother. You see, he was glorying in his works on another. And I wonder if you would think about God in that manner. Our text has told us beforehand that he is a God who delights to save sinners, but he's not done when he saves us from our sins.

Like a master surgeon, he is about to make us into his trophy of grace.

Indeed, the Episcop, the Ephesians Church needs to know that, that they are part of God's displaying His wonderful works in them. They may be a beautiful mess, but they're also God's trophies of His grace. Now, you may feel anything but that today, and it's alright. You may feel that if God, uh, put up me on his wall, I would get a small space covered by this other person and that person and, uh, I am, I am not what I hope to be.

But God isn't finished with his people. And we shouldn't compare ourself and our sanctification to others. I know we use those terms. I have a trophy wife. I have a top tier grandson, but we are his trophies of grace. The sermon in the sentence, I believe I stole it from John Stott. Not sure. It's not original to me, but I love it.

We must never forget what we were by nature and what we can become by grace. Oh, Christian, you must never forget what you were by nature. By your own nature. And what we can become by grace. Now we've spent several weeks already in chapter 2. But what we are by nature is important if we are to grasp what we can become by His grace.

And if we grasp who or what we are by our sinful nature, then the question of predestination, election, God's sovereignty, it's the opposite of what you often hear. I often hear the question of predestination and sovereignty in election. It's not fair. Why could you choose one and not all? But if you understand what you are by nature, then the question of predestination is completely the opposite.

It becomes, how could he save any of us? You might have heard that before. And I've heard that argument before. It just doesn't work with me, but maybe it would if you think of it in this way. Is there a person in your life that you struggle to forgive? Maybe they've done something to you or something to someone you love.

Maybe they've hurt an innocent, maybe they've spread lies or done terrible things to you. And the thought of that person receiving the grace and mercy of God is a bit overwhelming. Might even make you a bit bitter towards God if he blessed them. But you know what, that's not even comparative to God's grace.

His grace is infinitely more than that happening. Because He's infinitely holy, pure, good, lovely, righteous. And every human being apart from Christ, the chasm between us and God can only grow by our best efforts. It can only grow. And so his grace saves. His grace saves. In our text before, the apostle says, and you were.

Chapter 2, verses 1 to 3, look at the things he says about who we were apart from his grace. We were dead. In our trespasses and sins. We were following the course of this world. We were following the prince of the power of the air. The spirit that's at work now in the sons of disobedience amongst whom we all once lived.

In the passions of our flesh carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind. And we were, by nature, children of wrath. Like the rest of mankind. This is what the apostle is telling the Ephesians church. You must remember always. What you are, what you were before the grace of God. And what you can be by His grace.

Now I'll just give you a couple thoughts on God's wrath. It's something that we don't like to talk about. Um, but there, there, there are some wonderful, beautiful things about God's wrath. Let me tell you first, God's wrath is pure. It is holy. It is righteous. It is not like our wrath that so often arises from our idols being blocked or taken.

The wrath that arises from our narcissism, our self protection, or a bad temper. It is not spiteful or malicious or revengeful. It is never arbitrary or random. It is God's response to evil. And it is entirely predictable.

It's God's personal, righteous, constantly hostility towards evil, his settled refusal to compromise with it, and his resolve instead to condemn it. And so his wrath is not incompatible with his love. In fact, his wrath is a result of his love for what is good and what is right. And so God displays his glory in us in these two ways.

He exhibits his skill like a surgeon. Who has saved a life, and then he sanctifies us into a trophy of his grace. So as we look at verses 8 to 10, these would be good ones to memorize. Verses 8 to 10 tells us really how we were saved, how we weren't saved, and why you were saved. How you were saved, how you weren't saved.

And why you were saved. How you were saved. The text says, by grace you have been saved. In some of your translations it might have a dash in front of it or something. As this parenthetical insert into this thought. It's also in verse 5 I think, uh, verbatim. This, for by grace you have been saved. So, in the middle of this book, the Apostle is saying, Oh, Christian, never ever move from that.

We say at Trinity, grace changes everything. You know, it's interesting, I found a bulletin from a church I was preaching in, in 06. On the front of their bulletin, it says, Grace changes Everything we don't need a new statement. We still need to be reminded. It is God's grace that changes everything. And so he says, this is, uh, this is what has happened to you.

So you were Children of wrath and you have been saved by his grace last week. Blake talked about regeneration, said Uh, here's the churchy word, the theological word, regeneration, uh, dead being brought to life. You were dead. It says in Ephesians, and I always say, what can a dead person do? Any of you remember stink?

You were dead. He said, in your trespasses and sins, what can a dead person do stink? That's what you were, he said. You were dead. You weren't trying to find God. You weren't a seeker looking for him. You were stinking dead. And His grace is poured out upon you. It's important in theology where we put regeneration.

Some, some people will put regeneration like the new heart, uh, as a result of our faith. And so here he's saying it's by grace and it is through faith, uh, and then we'll look at why you're not saved. But some people take that faith as saying, it's the gift I give to God for my salvation. It's what I'm responsible to do in order for salvation.

Oh, it is not so in the book of Ephesians. No, all of this is from God. The faith to believe is given to us. A heart is regenerated by the work of the Holy Spirit, and when that heart is regenerated, it reaches out in faith and repentance. My heart as stone has been taken out, a heart of flesh that longs for the right thing reaches out to our Savior and says, forgive my sins and receive me by grace alone.

And it's this grace, he says. This shows us how we were, how we were saved. The failure to grasp this in Christian people, results in us seeking our redemption through other means. He's already alluded to this. In verse 4, God is rich in mercy. In verse 4, it's because of his great love. Verse 7, he might show off the riches of his grace that Blake talked about last week.

Kindness and grace and, and resurrecting us. Ascending to Jesus where he sits. All of this from him and by his grace. It's not just enough to know how you were saved, but it's also Important to know that this is how anyone is saved. There are no other ways. It might be how you were saved, but there aren't any other ways of salvation.

And so he makes that clear in this next verse. Just to make it clear, you were saved by grace. But then he says on the negative side, right? In verse 8, the end of verse 8. This is how you are not saved. This is not your own doing. It's the gift of God. It's not a result of works so that no one may boast. Now that's a common theme, right?

We see this salvation and boasting in Romans 3, 27. Uh, he's, he's making the, uh, Paul the Apostle is making The argument that Abraham and Moses, too, were saved by faith. It was faith, and God granted them salvation. But also in Romans 3, 27, he says, If it wasn't, then they would have a reason to boast. He would have a reason before God to boast.

But as it is, he was saved by grace. So, we're not saved by our own doing. You're not saved by your own doing. The faith even that you have did not come from yourself, but was a gift of God. O Presbyterians, that's why we pray for the salvation of the lost. We talk to them, we answer their questions, we share the gospel with them, but ultimately our best missional activity is to pray for the salvation of the lost.

Now some hyper Calvinists don't even do evangelism. Because they figure if you're saved, you're saved. If you're called, you're called. That's not at all what these scriptures teach us to do, and it's not at all the life of the apostles and the model before us. But the model is, we bring the lost before our Heavenly Father.

So you may not know this, the first job I had as a pastor was a youth pastor. It was the most fun. It was unbelievable. Got to hang out with a bunch of kids and have fun and talk about Jesus. In fact, we would do some fun things and kids would say, Wait, is this your job? I'm like, yeah, it's my job. Like, my dad sits in an office all day.

Like, yeah, it's terrible to be your dad.

But every year I would instruct all of our small group leaders to choose a kid, the one that we feel was the furthest away from Christ, and to pray for their salvation. And the first year I did that, two of those kids came to know the Lord. And I couldn't believe it. I couldn't, I couldn't believe it.

Really? Wow. Yeah. Uh, it's not your own doing. It's this beautiful gift from God. If you find yourself at odds with other believers at times, if you find yourself judging their level of sanctification to your level of sanctification, If you choose areas where you feel like you have victory over sin, uh, and they don't, um, you're forgetting this vital point.

That it is not your own doing. Whatever is good, whatever is righteous inside of you, is this beautiful gift of God. He says it's not your own doing, and secondly he said it's not by your own works. So that no one can boast. You realize that pride is the sanctification killer in the life of Christians.

It's the gospel killer. It denies the power of the gospel. It holds value to something that we feel like we ourselves have produced. And it keeps us. Keeps us from being humble. It keeps us from being approachable. Keeps those who love us from confronting us about sinful behaviors and patterns. No more boasting.

Richard Loveless writes in his book on revival, he said it's often necessary to convince sinners, even sinful Christians, of their grace and the love of God toward them before we can get them to look at their problems. Then the vision of grace in the sense of God's forgiving acceptance may actually cure most of their problems.

This may account for Paul's frequent using of justification. salvation. and bringing them together. So salvation is all of God and it is not of our works. Paul says that clearly. But why does he do it? So I feel like verse ten is just really this wonderful verse on purpose. Think about that, Christian.

Let's look at this verse again, verse ten, and think about this, Why did God save me? Why am I here? We must never forget what we were by nature, but now comes the second part, what we can become by grace. Look again at verse 10. Verse 10, we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Why were you saved? Because of God's grace. Glory. Why is anyone saved? Because of God's glory. His glory. Workmanship, the trophies of his grace, our names written in his hands, in his book, not to make much of ourselves, but to make much of him. As Spurgeon says, our God does nothing by halves, those he saves.

He will sanctify and glorify in this sentence in the original language, the word his is at the start of the sentence. And so in Greek to emphasize a word or a concept, they put it at the front of the sentence. So you have sentences that sound like Yoda, right? So it's his workmanship. You are. Right? It's his.

It's all his. He belongs to you. He reaches around. He, he's, this, this one is mine and you, you have not yet seen what I'm going to do in this person. Oh, he delights in taking the worst and the filthiest. As an expert surgeon and a lover of human souls, as you have not yet begun to see what I intend to make of this person.

Not that we would be put on a pedestal. We're set on a wall as eye candy, but that he has then given us meaning and purpose and hope for the rest of our lives. We are his workmanship. Oh, Christian, don't add anything to the word Christian. You're not a Republican Christian, a Democratic Christian, an independent Christian, a T Tolerant Christian.

We're just Christians. We are just, we are his.

This is so amazing, uh, especially in the life of Paul the Apostle, for what he was. In fact, when he was converted, the, uh, other apostles were scared of him. Right? It sounded like a ploy. Wait. No, no, not this guy. You know? No, not him. In fact, it took Barnabas convincing the other disciples. He is legit. Even then, it was just, did the Lord really save this man?

person. An amazing conversion. And so we are his workmanship. And then what are we to do? After all this has taken place, here come the works. Here come the works. We are to do good works. You realize it's only possible for a human being to do a good work as defined by God after all this other stuff has happened.

You are now saved and washed and declared righteous in my sight, my spirit dwells within you and now I am laying a path for you to do good works. You see where they fall. You see, if, if our works precede our salvation, that leads to the boasting. That leads to division. That leads to us elevating all manner of causes and things that we think are the most important and judging other people by that.

But if grace and mercy precede our works, oh, then it is God who gets the glory. And we're also free to fail. It doesn't cause our salvation to be put in jeopardy when we see our own shortcomings. As one writer put it, as the branch is created in the vine, we are created in Christ. As the fruits of the branch are predetermined by the laws of that life which it receives from the vine, so our good works, which are the result of our union with Christ, are predetermined by the laws of the life of Christ, which is our life.

I want to close with this thought. In the pastoral prayer this morning, I prayed for the sick, prayed for those who might be losing their jobs. As a Christian filled with grace, we are, we are able to look at a circumstance differently than anybody else. When evil things befall the people of God, we don't throw up our hands and say, Amen, God, where are you?

How could this have happened? In fact, it's so hard that, that, that some, some people really abuse, uh, the sovereignty and the providence of God and say, well, he doesn't have anything to do with that. That wasn't his intention. That wasn't, I mean, if that's true, why would we even pray to him? How can we trust him to save us and rescue us if he's not in control of those things?

But a Christian that understands the grace and mercy of God is able to look at a situation and say, My father loves me. He is with me. He has rescued me. I have been saved by grace. This is one of those things he has laid out for me to do good works. How can I respond differently to a person, to a situation?

How can I respond differently? Because Jesus Christ is my righteousness, and I don't have to prove I'm right. I don't have to win the argument. He has laid out before you good works for you to walk in. Oh, brothers and sisters, you are His workmanship. Never forget what you are by nature and what you can become by His grace.

Let us pray. Father, thank you for this word. And Lord, we know that you have over and over through your scriptures reminded your people of this concept over and over again because it's just so different from how we deal with one another. May we grasp even more deeply the wonder of your saving grace and may it grow in us as we grow in you.

May we be transformed evermore into the image of Christ, and Father, may we look at our life and our purpose in ways different than the rest of this world. We ask ourselves, how can my Father be glorified in this situation? How can I endure suffering or wrong or injustice? How can I show love to those who don't deserve it, even those that may hate me?

How can I do that? Oh, because I am His workmanship. And that's what my father has done for me. Lord, we need to be not just reminded of this, but we need to be changed by this. And so we pray, Lord, that you would receive our ties, our offerings, that it will go to the furtherance of your kingdom. We pray, Father, that you would prepare our hearts to partake of this sacrament that reminds us again that it is all of Christ, that he is with us and in us.

We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.

Sermon transcript is computer generated.