GRACE IS THE ANSWER

321 - GRACE IS THE ANSWER

December 28, 1976

Pastor Henry F. Kulp

Ephesians  2: 7 - 10  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Here we have a beautiful portion of Scripture. Most of you know two of the four verses by heart, and I would like you to know all four of them and see the wonderful truths that are presented here.

1/  God, of course, has a plan and it is not a series of accidents, lucking out and working out.  God is a perfect God, and of course, a perfect God had produced only a perfect plan.

2/  We have to see that there are three divisions in the believer’s life. 

  #1 is salvation.

  

  #2 is life on this earth before we die, or are raptured. 

  #3 eternity when we are with the Lord. Vs. 7 is the third division—eternity for the believer. Vs. 8, 9 are division #1—this is salvation, passing from death into life, passing from a child of Satan to a child of God. Vs. 10 is a division of # 2, our life after salvation on this earth—prior to death or rapture. We want to look at these three sections and see what God has to say.

3/  Vs. 7 that in the ages to come. That introduces a purpose clause, because He is going to do something for us in the ages to come. IN THE AGES THAT ARE COMING ONE UPON ANOTHER. So this means eternity future, God is going to do something for us.  

4/  HE MIGHT SHOW is a very interesting word in the Greek—N - DIKE - NEW - ME - and it means to show, to manifest, to give outward proof, to demonstrate. THAT HE MIGHT BY OUTWARD DEMONSTRATION 

5/  What is He going to show us?  The exceeding riches of His grace.  The word, exceeding is HOOP - PEAR - BAL - O. Balo means to throw.  And hoop means beyond, and here it can mean super, and it is in the Present Tense. That means he’s going to continue doing this throughout all eternity —all during division # 3. What a future we have!  Riches, or wealth, so that He might outwardly demonstrate to us, the super-wealth of His grace. Romans 5: 20 Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound:

6/  How will this differ from His demonstration of Grace today? Today we are saved and kept by grace, but He is not able to demonstrate His super-wealth of grace to us, because we still have our old nature. He has to send suffering into our lives, He has to train us, correct us, and then from time to time send prosperity into our lives. But in eternity future we will be minus the old nature, and all God will shower upon us will be prosperity, no need for suffering, or correction. What a future lies ahead for us, we do get glimpses of it at this present time, but only a glimpse. 

7/  Then also, we have to see that we couldn’t stand to have anything but prosperity.  We would be insufferable, self-centered, and we would want glory rather than giving it to God. 

8/  Grace means everything for nothing.  We might ask the question, how much grace is a super-wealth of Grace? Romans 5: 20 Moreover the law entered, that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: 

There we see a superabounding amount of Grace. Far more then we can ever comprehend. And God is going to be permitted to reveal this to us in eternity future. 

9/  IN HIS KINDNESS

Kindness, CRAY - STOW - TACE And it means generosity.  God has a perfect  generosity.  Here is a father who has a son.  He is always out of line, doing that which is wrong, so the father cannot demonstrate his generosity, because he is constantly discipling, correcting, but the time comes when the son decides to change his lifestyle, then his father begins to show his generosity. It is the son who is holding back the father’s generosity.  IN CHRIST JESUS all of this is true because we have union with Christ.

10/  Vs. 8, 9 Now we are in division # 1. By grace are ye saved.  It is in Perfect Tense in the Greek.  It is something that happened in all the past that goes on forever.  That is the cross.

11/  Through faith.  This is the instrumentality of Salvation, Faith and Grace are the important sections of salvation.  Grace is the divine part, faith is the human part. The only things you do is believe, and there is no merit in believing. It is the gift of God.  And it should read, Not out from yourselves.  The word, that, is two-toe and it is neuter gender.  Grace and faith are feminine gender, so that cannot modify grace or faith, but rather salvation.

12/  It is a gift of God.

13/ Not of works—what does this mean?  That means not of human good.  We need to see we have an old nature that is not only capable of sin, but it is capable of human good—doing many fine things. But we need to see that human good is dead. Hebrews 6: 1  Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God.

All human good works are dead works. They are dead as far as God is concerned, not as far as man is concerned. Then we need to see they are not only dead to God, but they are not acceptable to God. Isaiah  64: 6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. 

All the nice things we do, all the kind things we do are rags.  

14/  Human good cannot save man. Romans  11: 6 And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.

II Timothy  1: 9 Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Titus 3: 5, 7 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 7 That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

15/  Let us notice the old nature and human good. Man was created without a sin nature, therefore he did know human good. But when man fell, man received an old sin nature, and the first thing man did after he sinned was human good. We have operation fig-leaves. The first thing was not sinful, but human good, trying to cover his nakedness.  

16/  Lest any man should boast. What does it mean to boast? To find something in your life that makes you look good. Man is constantly doing this in religion.

I Corinthians 1: 30, 31 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, redemption: 31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. 

I Corinthians 4: 7 For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?

AMEN 

REF: 12/26/1976 / 321 - GRACE IS THE ANSWER / 04/10/2020