Ephesians 2:8-9
Age of Grace
Eph 2:8 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 man
should boast.
I want to draw out just one word from that text to start with. It is
the word GRACE.
This morning, let’s understand something about GRACE.
I. The Greatest Property of the Age of Grace is Grace.
A. We are presently living in the Age of Grace \\#John 1:17\\.
John 1:17 For the law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
1. It appears that God has divided human history into stages
or dispensations.
2. Each of these time periods emphasize a way that God deals
with mankind.
3. This of the dispensations:
a. Innocence - Before the fall
b. Conscience- F all to flood
c. Man’s Law - Noah to Moses
d. God’s Law - Moses to Jesus
e. Grace (Holy Spirit) - Jesus to Rapture
f. Tribulation (Supernatural judgment) - Rapture to reign
g. Millennium (Christ’s rule) - Reign to release of Satan
h. Eternity - From the judgment of Satan through forever
4. This Age of Grace started with Jesus Christ
a. To some degree, grace began when Jesus was born, but
grace became God’s sole bridge with man when the Holy
Spirit arrived.
b. Grace will be God’s contract and bridge with mankind
until the church is removed off this planet.
B. What is grace?
1. If we are going to talk about something, we need to define
it.
a. Grace is God working.
b. God uses other people and things, such as preachers,
the Bible, even circumstances; however, He is the
One bringing these things into your life and He is
the One doing the work.
2. There is another element to grace.
a. You choosing.
b. You have to choose to let God work through you.
c. At any point that you and I refuse to let God work
in and through us, grace could be stopped.
(1) The Bible uses the words quenched and grieved,
but it means the same things.
(2) If we choose not to let God work, God’s work
could stop.
C. During this Age of Grace:
1. We are saved by grace.
a. That is what \\#Eph 2:8-9\\ is telling us.
b. That means the work has already been done by Jesus
Christ.
c. We must simply understand it and respond correctly to
it.
(1) Understand that Jesus did the work on the cross.
(2) Our response should be twofold:
(a) Believe it.
(b) Surrender to God.
d. Just for your knowledge, salvation has always been by
grace.
(1) It does not matter what dispensation you live in;
if you are going to go to heaven, you had to
believe in Jesus and surrender to God.
(2) How is that possible?
(a) Before the cross, the believer had to look
ahead to what Jesus would do.
(b) Since the cross, the believer has had to
look back to what Jesus has done.
(c) However, no matter when you live, Jesus and
His work on the cross has always been what
saves; and believing and surrendering to
God have always been the only correct
responses.
2. We walk or live by grace.
a. Here is where there is a great difference in us and
the people of other dispensations.
b. People of all dispensations have been saved by grace,
but we are the first group of people to live by
grace.
(1) The dispensation just before grace was God’s
Law.
(2) In that dispensation, there were written rules,
regulations, and rituals for the people to
follow on just about everything.
(a) What they could and could not eat.
(b) What they could and could not plant
together.
(c) What they could and could not wear
together.
(d) Things were so demanding that the New
Testament called the law BONDAGE.
(3) You and I are not under those rules.
(4) I have more to say about, but first let me show
you another area in which grace has changed our
lives.
3. We worship by grace.
a. Again, in the previous dispensation, the worship of
the people with God was regulated and ritualistic.
(1) Their worship was mostly by bringing a sacrifice.
(2) It was a cold, costly, ceremonious way to
worship.
(3) Frankly, there was no joy or personal fellowship
with God in it all.
b. But because we live under grace….
(1) We are free to worship when, where, and how we
feel God leads us.
(2) We have so much freedom under grace, that even
if one chooses not to worship God, God does have
the church punish you or send a ball of fire
down from heaven on you.
(3) That would not be grace.
(4) Grace is God leading you and you choosing to
surrender to Him.
D. Yet, grace is not indifference.
1. Some seem to think God does not care what we do in this
age.
a. They seem to think everything is all right.
b. "I can lie if I want, God does not care."
c. "I can fornicate if I want, God does not care."
2. Know that God cares!
E. God has never been more personally involved with His people
than He is in this Age of Grace.
1. God has filled us with God Himself though the Holy Spirit.
2. God has given us a personal copy of the completed Word.
3. God has opened the door of access so that we can personally
come to the throne of His presence in prayer.
4. He has promised to bless everything we do within His will,
to answer every prayer, and to never leave us or in any
way to forsake us.
F. God has never done, given more, or expected more from any
group of believers than to us!
1. Instead of Christians using grace as an excuse for sinful
behavior, God’s desire is that we use it as the reason
for doing as much as we can for His glory.
a. Instead of saying, "I’m under grace. I don’t have to
tithe." We should be saying, "I’m under grace, Don’t
try to limit my giving to 10%.
b. Instead of saying, "I’m under grace. I don’t have to
go to church." We should be saying, "I’m under
grace. Don’t try to limit my worship to just
Sundays."
c. Instead of saying, "I’m under grace. The preacher
will do it." We should be saying, "I’m under grace.
Don’t tell me to let him have all the blessings."
2. Grace was not given to let us do as LITTLE as possible,
but to let us do as MUCH as we wanted.
3. Grace doesn’t take the brakes of sin off. Grace takes
the brakes of limitations off.
4. People who love God have not been as free to serve and
give to Him as they are today since the days of Moses!
5. Go help yourself to a heaping cup full of God’s grace!
II. The Greatest Power of the Age of Grace is the Holy Spirit.
Acts 1:8 But ye shall receive power, after that
the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be
witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all
Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost
part of the earth.
A. Notice, Jesus promised power and then told us WHO the Power
is, the Holy Ghost.
B. This is HOW God works through us.
C. He sends His Spirit.
1. The Holy Spirit does a work and then waits for us to
respond correctly.
2. For example, the Holy Spirit is doing a work this morning,
in this place, right now. It is a four-fold work.
a. The Holy Spirit is revealing.
(1) God, the Holy Spirit reveals the truth. He uses
His Word and people to do that. To be honest,
that is about all a preacher is good for. He is
supposed to let the Holy God reveal through Him.
(2) After revealing the truth, as He is doing this
morning, the Holy Spirit waits for your
response. Will you believe it? Will you reject
it? Are you interested in it? Could you care
less?
(3) If you give a correct response, the Holy Spirit
will do a second work.
b. The Holy Spirit will draw you to the Father.
(1) He will put salvation, heaven, hell, the Bible,
God, eternity, and other spiritual truths into
your head.
(2) Then He will wait for your response. Are you
interested? Will you reject it?
(3) And if you respond correctly, the Holy Spirit will
do a third work.
c. The Holy Spirit will convict you.
(1) This is where the knowledge the Spirit has
revealed moves out of your head and into your
heart. You will realize sin is not just a word,
but a deed you have done. That you are the
sinner, worthy of hell, with no way out, and
that Jesus died for you.
(2) Then He will wait for your response? Are you
interested? Will you believe? Will you
surrender?
(3) And if you response correct, the Holy Spirit will
do a fourth work.
d. The Holy Spirit will save you.
D. Salvation is just the beginning.
1. After you are saved, the Holy Spirit continues to reveal
truth to you, through His Word, through the preacher,
through circumstance, and so forth.
2. Each time He reveals truth to you, He waits for your
response.
3. If we response correctly, God continues to work in and
through our lives.
4. If we respond incorrectly, it may stop the work of grace.
III. The Greatest Place in the Age of Grace is the Church.
A. Bark and howl against that fact all you want. You will not
change it.
B. There is generally a lack of respect for the God’s church
today, perhaps because of a lack of understanding about it.
1. God commands the believers to assemble together.
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of
ourselves together, as the manner of some is;
but exhorting one another: and so much the more,
as ye see the day approaching.
a. That is not God commanding the saints to watch a
stream online or to have Christian buddies you to
talk to.
b. It is God commanding the believers to ASSEMBLE
TOGETHER for worship and preaching.
2. And God goes further to tell us that Christ died not only
for the believer but for the assembly of the believers.
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself
for IT;
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse IT with the
washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present IT to himself a glorious
church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such
thing; but that it should be holy and without
blemish.
a. We make much over the fact that God died for the
individual AND HE DID.
b. However, the church is the collected, gathered group
of believers.
(1) The church mean the "called-out" assembly.
(2) God is the Caller, and the church is assembly of
individuals He has called together.
(3) When you disrespect the church, you disrespect
the God who called the assembly and the Son who
died for the assembly!
c. In that verse, God is also telling us what the effect
God through grace has on the church.
(1) It is the work of God that the saints be
sanctified, cleansed, washed and left without
spot or wrinkle by the church.
(a) Men and ladies, let me show you the world’s
largest washing machine and iron board.
(b) It is the church.
(2) The church is the place where God’s people come
to hear the word and to be cleansed and pressed;
yet the reason many Christians don’t like
church is because they have don’t like being
told they are dirty or wrinkled.
(3) I suspect if a nice shirt or dress could talk,
they would tell you that being bounced around
inside a washing machine or flatten with an
iron hurts, but don’t they look nice when it’s
finished?
C. Friend, I know the church has its problems.
1. It is made up of sinners. How can it not?
a. Pulpits have preachers who are sinners.
b. Pews have people who are sinners.
c. Why would you expect it to be a perfect place?
2. But it is not the people that we are here to respond to.
3. It is the Holy Ghost.
4. The people are here to be washed and ironed too, even the
preacher.
5. If the people at one church are putting more wrinkles in
you than they are getting out, go find another church;
but don’t quit the place of grace for this is where God
does His work!
IV. The Greatest Peril in the Age of Grace is Falling Away.
2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by
any means: for that day shall not come, except
there come a falling away first, and that man
of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
A. There is much more I could say, but I am out of time.
B. The church is struggling today to muster a minimum-sized
army that will even take a half-hearted stand for Jesus.
This is God’s Age of Grace. You can have whatever walk with Christ
you desire during this age. Let me say again, GOD HAS NEVER BEEN MORE
INVOLVED IN THE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE AS HE IS TODAY. God wants to
direct you in every decision, every more, every action you make.
Being in the Age of Grace means you get to decide just how much that
will happen.
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