BEFORE the Gospel came to the Ephesians they were spiritually in a very deplorable condition. “They were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (verse 12). As to their practice they “walked according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience” (verse 2); still they were worshippers. In their heathen state they were idolaters. They worshipped an idol called Diana. This idol they considered a worthy object of worship, and cried out loudly: “Great is Diana of the Ephesians.” They were not avowed atheists. No atheist has been found among the heathen, for no man can be an atheist without doing violence to his moral nature. Conscience asserts that there is a Supreme Being to whom we must give an account. As already stated, they were worshippers, but their object of worship was an idol. To worship any creature, however glorious, is idolatry. There are some in Christian lands who worship angels and saints, and even their pictures; these are idolaters as surely as the Ephesians were. The true God warned the Jews against idolatry when He said: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only thou shalt serve.” This excludes all other objects of worship. God only is to be worshipped. But the Gospel came to these Ephesians and effected a great change. Like the Thessalonians, they turned from idols to serve the living God. The word of the Gospel is necessary for the salvation of the heathen, though some in ignorance assert that they may be saved without it. Before the Gospel came to the Highlands of Scotland the inhabitants were idolaters. If they did not worship the work of their own hands, they worshipped the works of God’s hands, such as the sun, but the Gospel put a stop to this, and men began to worship the only living and true God. But alas! there is a return to idolatry in this evil age, which is chiefly the cause of the present European War. God is determined to destroy idolatry. He will fight against it with the sword of the Spirit and the literal sword. He is using both swords for that end. Besides the literal sword that is used in the present awful War, the Bible is circulating far and wide and finding its way to places where it has not been before, and is read and welcomed by those who receive it. This is so in Russia and other countries, and will before the end put an end to idolatry. When the Apostle wrote this epistle there were many Christians in Ephesus, so he addresses it “to the saints which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ Jesus.”
In speaking from the text we shall notice:
1. The cause of salvation—Grace.
“By grace are ye saved.” What is the grace by which we are saved? Perhaps some may think that it is grace communicated to believers, such as the graces of faith, love, and hope, etc. You need the graces of the Spirit but these are not the cause of your salvation. The grace whereof we speak is not grace in the creature but grace in God. Grace in believers is only a stream that flowed from grace in God. If there was no water in the fountain the pipes, the conductors of the water from the fountain, would be dry. Grace in the creature is limited, but grace in God is infinite; it is a great ocean without bounds. As God is rich in mercy He is rich in grace. Grace in God may be said to be the love of God which is infinitely great. Christ says of it: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have eternal life.” This is the grace by which the Ephesians were saved. It is the cause, the only cause, of salvation. Works are excluded from the cause, as the Apostle points out—”Not of works lest any should boast.” Many deceive themselves by thinking they shall be saved on the ground of their works, but they are inexcusable for their ignorance because the real cause of salvation is pointed out clearly in the Scriptures. All who were saved in the past were saved by the grace in God. The Apostle who wrote this epistle mentions Abraham as an example of those who were saved in Old Testament times, and excludes works from the cause of salvation. “If Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory; but not before God” (Rom. iv. 2). The Apostle shows that Abraham believed God, and that that was the way in which he was justified. Abraham’s faith flowed from grace in God as the cause of salvation, and he adds that this was not written for his sake only, but for us under the New Testament dispensation, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification. As there is but one way of salvation, there is but one cause of salvation, and that is grace in God as the great fountain from which salvation flows to sinners. In another place the Apostle shows that the inheritance is not of works but of grace—”And if by grace then it is no more of works” (Rom. xi. 6). This much at present on the first head.
II. Salvation as the effect of grace.
Salvation is a great thing, and it implies that we are by nature in a lost condition, and this is clearly taught in the Scriptures. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and are under His wrath and curse on account of sin, and, therefore, need to be saved. If saved, there must be a Saviour before we can be saved. God provided the Saviour in the person of His own only begotten Son. He sent Him to this world in our nature to work out salvation, to satisfy divine justice for such as we are. If saved, we must be saved according to justice, and Christ having fully satisfied the demands of justice, it is a just thing of God to save sinners, even the chief, on the ground of Christ’s atonement. It is (1) a salvation from death—spiritual death. The Ephesians, like all other sinners of the human race, were dead in trespasses and sins, but God quickened them by His Spirit—”And you hath He quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.” Nothing can quicken sinners but the Almighty power of God. They were quickened by the same power that raised Christ from the dead. The Apostle in the first chapter declares this: “And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.” (2) It is salvation from sin. “He will save His people from their sins.” He saves them from the guilt of their sins by pardoning them, and saves them from the depravity of sin by sanctifying them by His Spirit. “Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth (John xvii. 17). It is sanctification that gives them meetness for heaven, the place of perfect holiness. (3) He saves them from the punishment of sin. Christ as their surety and substitute having suffered their punishment which cost Him His humiliation unto death, He saves them from all the miseries to which sin made them liable in this life and in that which is to come. (4) He saves their bodies from the power of the grave and death at the resurrection. “O death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory” (I. Cor. xv. 55). For this they will give the glory to God, by whose grace they are saved. “But thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (verse 57).
III. The instrument by which salvation is received—Faith.
It is by faith we are made partakers of salvation. By nature we are destitute of saving faith, but God works faith in His people. It is His gift and of the operation of His Spirit. The Spirit applieth to us the redemption purchased by Christ by working faith in us, and thereby uniting us to Christ in our effectual calling. It is in union with Christ that we are made partakers of the benefits of His redemption, just as the branch partakes of the sap of the vine. Faith is compared to the eye that sees, and to the hand that receives. It is by faith we see Christ in His divine person. In His two natures as God and Man, and in His threefold offices as Prophet, Priest and King, and in His finished work as the ground of salvation. It is the hand that receives Christ in the free offer of the Gospel. It is an empty hand that is stretched out to receive Christ and the fulness of grace that is in Him. Faith is neither a dead thing nor is it blind; it knows its object, Christ, and will not accept of another in His stead. When Mary was seeking Christ on the day of His resurrection a glorious angel appeared to her, but she would not accept of him, glorious as he was, instead of Christ. But when Christ made Himself known to her she exclaimed with unspeakable joy:—”Rabboni, which is to say Master.” There is a union between the Lord’s people and Christ, and believers are united to one another, but there is a difference between the bond that unites them to Christ and the bond that unites them to one another. They are united to Christ by the grace of faith but not united to one another by that grace, for Christ is the only object of their faith, but they are united to one another by the grace of love. We read in Scripture of brotherly love. The union between them and Christ is everlasting, it cannot be broken, although it is broken in their own experience; still it is not broken in fact. Once in Christ forever in Him. Arminians hold, among other errors, that believers may be in Christ to-day, and fall away from their interest in Him afterwards, but such an opinion is not supported by the Word of God therefore, it falls to the ground, and those who cleave to it to the last shall come down with it. Without faith we cannot please God. How does faith please God? It pleases Him by receiving Him with whom He is well pleased. Whatever else you may do, you cannot please God if you reject Him who pleased the Father by finishing the work He gave Him to do. The Father was always well pleased with the Son, but it was as the Father’s servant He speaks of Him as His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. He came to do the will of the Father as it was written of Him in the volume of the book, and He did the will of the Father though that brought Him to the dust of death. Faith must be exercised towards Christ till it is swallowed up in vision. In this world believers walk by faith and not by sight, but in heaven they walk by sight. They behold the glory of Christ, which the Father gave Him. Faith is the telescope through which they see the land that is far off, but when they reach that land there is no need for the telescope—now abideth faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these is love, for it abides for ever. It is the element of heaven.
IV. That salvation is the gift of God.
A gift is free without money and without price. All understand what a gift from a friend among men is, but many do not understand what a gift is when applied to salvation. A message boy comes to your door with a gift from a friend. He hands the gift to you, and tells you that it is from such a person, and turns away from your door. You call after him—the boy returns and asks what is it? You tell him that you want to know how much you have to pay for the parcel he conveyed to you. He says: “It is a gift.” A gift is according to the ability of the giver. A poor man may give you a gift, but it cannot be much, he gave according to his ability, but if a king sends you a gift it would be expected that it would be a gift worthy of the giver. It is the King of Glory that gives salvation as a gift, and salvation is a great gift. God gave three large gifts to His people. Christ, the Holy Spirit, and salvation, and though we are utterly unworthy of the gift of salvation, the gift is worthy of the giver, and He “who spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him give us freely all things.” You are invited to accept of salvation on God’s terms without money and without price, and if you refuse to accept of it on these terms you can never have it. You must perish in your sins, and can never enter heaven. It was the sin of unbelief that was the cause of many in the wilderness of not entering the land of promise. As the Apostle tells:—”So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
In conclusion, let me add that it was in connection with the sin and fall of mankind grace in God was brought to light in a manner in which it would not have been without that awful event. Satan thought that there was no remedy for the human race, and that he would have them all ruined for eternity, as was the case with himself and the other angels that kept not their first estate. And ever since grace in God was revealed he has done his utmost to keep sinners of the human race in his net by various errors. He kept many of the Jews from salvation by making them go about to establish their own righteousness, and he still keeps many in his net by teaching them that they are to be saved, either in part or in whole, by their own good works. Many have lived and died under that Satanic delusion, who found out that when they entered eternity that they were deceived. They discovered this when it was too late, for they are now in everlasting torment without the least ray of hope of being delivered from their misery. In the land of the Gospel, and especially among professing Christians, perhaps more have been lost by self-righteousness than those who perish in open transgression of God’s law. If Saul of Tarsus had not been savingly changed by grace he would have lost his precious soul by self-righteousness. Christ told the self-righteous Pharisees that the worst characters would enter heaven sooner than they—that is, the worst characters would be sooner convinced of their sinfulness than those who trusted in their own righteousness, and would see their need of Christ to save them. They would appreciate salvation by grace, and close in with it as their hope for eternity. Salvation by grace was the keynote of the preaching of the prophets and the apostles, and it is the keynote of the preaching of the ambassadors of Christ still. It is the keynote of Protestant teaching, and those who do not reach salvation by grace are not sent of God and do not preach the Gospel. They are the messengers of Satan who keep sinners from Christ and salvation. So long as sinners are in a state of nature they imagine that they shall be saved on the ground of their own works. This is natural, as all are by nature under the covenant of works, but all who are taught of God see their need of salvation by grace, and they heartily praise the Most High for revealing to them the grace by which they are saved. We conclude this sermon by repeating the text:—”For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” Amen.