God's Love: Greater Than Our Sin

The message from Pastor Jason Booth is about God's love being greater than our sin. He reads from Ephesians chapter two, explaining that we are all sinners and by nature children of wrath. However, God's mercy and love are so immense that even when we were dead in our sins, He made us alive with Christ. This shows the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness towards us. No matter how great our sins, God's love is greater. The following message is brought to you by the people of Redeemer Church of Piketon, Ohio. For more information, please visit RedeemerPiketon.org. And now here's Pastor Jason Booth with the message. All right. So we are in Ephesians chapter two this morning, Ephesians chapter two. And very glad to see everybody come out this morning. Very few absence today, and that's a good thing. So we're excited to see everybody out for church. And already we've been able to sing songs to the Lord. We've been able to pray together, to read his word and to study in our Bible study time. So we've had a good season together. And now we turn our attention to the second chapter of Ephesians. The second chapter of Ephesians, the title of the message. And I have preached through this passage of scripture many times. And Lord willing, I will preach through this passage of scripture many more times in my life as he sees fit. But I've titled today's message, God's love greater than our sin. God's love greater than our sin. And let's begin by reading what Paul wrote to the Ephesians all those centuries ago, the word of the living God. And we're going to read verses one through ten. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For 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 works, lest no man may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. It is a comfort to know that in this very dark world filled with all sorts of sin and shame, every corner of this world has its pitfalls, has its dangers. Around every bend, there's something else that could throw us into the ditch of life. And this world is wrought with peril and trouble on every hand. Even those of us who do our best to live lives that are peaceable amongst our fellow man, we're not immune. We're not immune to the plague that is sin. We struggle with sin in our own lives each and every day. And as Christians, we're honest about it. We confess it. We tell the Lord the truth about us, as he has been pleased to tell us the truth about Christ. We live in a very dark place, a fallen world, a world that will one day be reborn. But for now, our dogs die. Bills and checks get lost in the mail. We say things to hurt those we love. We grow impatient with people. We make a joke at the expense of someone who didn't have to hear it. And we do all these things every day, every week, every month, every year, living our lives, bad things happen, we cause bad things. We know we shouldn't, and we do it. We know we should, and we don't. And this, my friends, is the human condition. This is what we are after the fall in the garden. We are sinners. You know, you ought not back talk your mom, young people, and yet, sometimes you do. And even when you don't say it out loud, you might go to the room and think about all the things you want to do. And older folks, as you giggle and laugh, just know you're only giggling and laughing because you did the same thing when you were a child. We get impatient. Older folks, I know people who are pushing 75, almost 80 years old, and who hold death grudges against somebody for something they did 50 years earlier. And they hold on to that, and they relish that bitterness, that pain, that pain that they had to go through. And they hold on to that, and they relish that bitterness like it's a child of their own. They tend to it. They fuel it. They keep it alive. Sin is everywhere. I could spend all morning describing different kinds of sin. But the Scripture simply says that we before Christ were like the rest, by nature, children of wrath. Understand that there are no innocents on planet Earth. There are babies. There are old people. There are young people. There are old people. There are men and women, tall people, short people, people of different weights and hair colors and eye colors, and people of different skin tones, people of different language dialects, people of different cultures. But there are no innocent people, for we are by nature children of wrath. And the Bible goes further. Do you know how the Bible describes sinners? The Bible describes sinners as those who are dead in trespasses and sins. And this is why when I preach, I don't try to convince you to make a choice for God. God will save you in accordance with His good pleasure, in accordance with His good time. Even Christ Himself died in accordance with God's due time, for in due season Christ died for the ungodly. And so sin is everywhere. Sin has painted this world black as midnight. Our hearts are undone. We are far away from God. We are by nature children of wrath. The Bible says that we lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind. What are the desires of the body and mind apart from God? Selfishness, ambition, pride, vainglory, all of the things that stack nothing but further judgment upon us. That's what we are apart from God. That's who we are apart from grace. There is no good thing in me that dwells, I'll tell you that. Apart from the grace and mercy of God, I am undone. Why? Because God tells the truth on me right in this passage. We are children of wrath. That's the bad news, is it not? But you didn't come here just to hear the bad news, did you? I mean, anybody can point out the hole in the boat. But I guess you got to know where your problems are to start to find solutions. Now, Paul really lays it out thick for him, doesn't he? He says, hey, here's who you are. You used to walk in your trespasses and sins. You were dead. You once walked in these things following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air. Who is that? It's the spirit of the world. That's the devil. That's the great deceiver. You are like your father, the devil, Paul is saying in no uncertain words. He says, among whom you also lived at once in the passions of your flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. That's the baseline starting point for every single one of us. We are lost and undone, beloved. Oh, that preachers would tell people the truth concerning sin, just as the Holy Spirit was promised to go forth and tell the truth about sin and righteousness. Oh, we are lost and undone. You don't have a thing to commend yourself to God. If you were to die right now in your sins apart from Christ, what would you tell the perfect God of heaven and earth? Why would He let you in His heaven? Would you point to the good things you think you've done? Would you point to the good feelings you had toward one person some time ago? Would you point to some other meager thing? Because it's all smacking of sin. And you have no hope in your own strength. You have nothing to offer God. I have nothing to offer God. We are sinners. And the Bible says, sin is assuaged only by the shedding of blood. The atonement must be blood atonement. And that's why Christ Himself came and did what He did. And how does Paul describe this great work that Christ did? We see it in the beginning of verse 4. But God. We've made a mess of things. We've piloted this ship straight onto the rocks. We've crashed this plane straight into the ocean. We've crashed this car straight off the cliff. We have done everything we can do to make our hearts and lives as black as midnight. For we are legally sinners, yes. But my, have we not relished in the sin? On a very practical level as well. We are sinners in word, thought, and deed. We have displeased God. We've broken His law. We stand guilty, each and every one of us. And yet, in the darkest of midnight shines the light of glory. And in verse 4, we see the Lord saying through His writer Paul, But God. I have made shipwreck of my life. But God. I have done everything I can do to displease Him and to bring shame on His name. But God. I have harbored bitterness in my heart. And it has crippled my family. But God. I've made decisions that have wrecked lives aplenty through drugs or through alcohol or through substance abuse of some sort or some kind or some sort of addiction. But God. Doesn't matter where you start. God's hand is not shortened that He cannot reach you. It doesn't matter what you've done. There's nothing you can do that can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, I challenge you to show me sin that's greater than the love of God for His people. I challenge you to show me something you can do that can out-love the love of God. Anything you can do that would cause God to break a sweat and think to Himself, the blood of Jesus won't be sufficient for this. I challenge you and you'll find nothing, for nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And if He has put His seal of salvation upon you, then flesh and blood hasn't revealed it to you. And flesh and blood didn't give it to you. And flesh and blood isn't keeping you sealed. Hallelujah forevermore. No one can take us out of the Father's hands. But God, He's rich in mercy. His great love causes the dead men to live again. He causes the blackest, darkest heart to be made sinless in His sight for Jesus' sake, to be cleansed wholly. You cannot find yourself in a situation where you can honestly say that God cannot save me. If you don't know Him today, know this. No one is outside of the grasp of His grace. If God so desires to move in your life, He will move. And the gates of hell cannot prevail against Him. The gates of hell itself cannot prevail against the move of God in your life. So if God is desiring to show you His glory in the face of Jesus, I was listening to Pastor Henry Mahan preach just this morning and he talked about how Paul likened salvation to having the glory of God revealed in Christ to someone who'd never seen it. And salvation truly is the gospel light shining down upon us. We know we're sinners. This preacher just spent the first part of this message telling you about all the sin that we are, all the sin that we do. But he's also telling you today by the power of the Holy Spirit that grace is greater than all sin. Doesn't that excite the soul and relieve us? Comfort ye my people. Speak softly to them. And why can a preacher do that? Because of God's grace. Oh, have you seen the light of glory that is Jesus Christ? Do you trust Him alone for salvation? Do you trust Him alone? Do you know that all of your sins have been forgiven by Jesus? And that when He died on that cross, He died for you? Flesh and blood hasn't revealed that to you. That's the very glory of God revealed to you in Jesus. And I will encourage you until my last heartbeat that greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world. And why has God done all this? The Bible goes on to say that even when we were dead in our trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. How have we been saved? By grace. Grace is the unmerited favor of God. It's not you. It's not me. It's God. You're not saved because you made Jesus Lord of your life. That's not language found in this Bible. You do not make somebody Lord. Think of it. Someone is Lord because they rule. They reign. And let me tell you, if somebody were to march upon this hilltop with 10,000 soldiers armed to the teeth and they walked in the door and said, we're in charge, you wouldn't have to make them in charge. Why? Because they have the authority due to their ability. And the Almighty God of heaven and earth says that every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That's the end of it all. That's the end of the argument. You don't make Jesus Lord. Jesus is Lord. The question is, do you know Him? Do you know Him? The Bible says here that those who do know Him know Him only by His grace. It's of God's mercy. After all, we're guilty of sin and we have to have someone go the way to pay for all that sin debt. Who did that for us? Jesus Christ, the righteous, when He died on the cross, a sinless, spotless lamb slain for the people of God. Verse 6, so we're saved by grace in verse 5, verse 6, and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I want you to notice the past tense usage of the words here. Salvation is eternally secure. You're going to have a bunch of people tell you that salvation is not secure and that you can choose to be saved and then through some fault of your own somewhere down the road, choose not to be saved and you'll go through this entire process of now I'm saved and now I'm not, now I'm saved and now I'm not. That is a doctrine straight from the pit of hell. It has been sent here as a devious scheme of Satan himself to rob you of the assurance you have in the finished work of Jesus Christ. And anyone who preaches that you can lose your salvation, first of all, they are selling the blood of Jesus infinitely short. They are calling God a liar for Jesus Christ Himself said that He gives His people eternal life. They are putting the onus of salvation on the so-called righteousness of the very unrighteous person that Jesus came to die and to save. And beloved, if I had any good in me, I wouldn't need a savior. I could have kept the law. But I know in me, that is in my flesh, no good thing dwells. And beloved, I know that in you, that is in your flesh, no good thing dwells. But the Lord Jesus can speak the word and His servants can be made whole. I want you to know that even the preaching I'm doing right now, if it were just in my flesh, what would it be? A display of my verbal talent or lack thereof, depending on your perspective. But the Lord God can speak the word and His servant can be made whole. He can sanctify that which we are called to do. And it's not that Isaiah was so awesome. It was that the Spirit of the Lord touched Isaiah's lips with the fire of the Holy Ghost and sanctified and purified that which He offered up to God in the proclamation of those prophecies. Do you think the power to slay Goliath was in the sling and the stone? Or in the technique that David happened to use as he slung that projectile at the giant's forehead? No, the power was in the Holy Spirit of God accompanying those meager elements. Do we think that the widow in the Old Testament who was preparing to eat one last meal with her son, do you think that she was going to find her sustenance in that little bit of meal and little bit of oil? No, it was the accompanying power of the Holy Spirit of God that sustained them and continued to sustain them as the oil never ran out and the meal never ran out. Do we really think that the people of God marched around Jericho and all of their footsteps, their meager nomadic footsteps and sandals, dropped those mighty walls? Nonsense! It was the power of the Holy Ghost of God. Do we think that Moses lifted that rod in the wilderness standing there at the Red Sea and there was some sort of magical power in that old piece of wood that caused the sea itself to part? No, it was the power of the Holy Ghost of God. The Lord takes these meager efforts of His people. He sanctifies our actions wholly. And that's why the Bible says that we can stir one another up to good works. For the works we do that are good are good because they've been sanctified by the name of Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. He's raised us up. Well, what's it mean to be raised up? Verse 6, raised up. Now wait a minute, weren't we just dead in this passage? And now we've been raised up. Raised up to what? It's a four-letter word. It rhymes with life. We've been raised up to life. And what is life but movement and action and vitality? And all of these things are wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost of God. I know that anything we do is going to be smacking with sin and unrighteousness. We still live in these flesh suits. We're going to fight that old sin man, that old man, we're going to fight that guy every day and sometimes we're going to get whipped down pretty good. Paul gave us a whole diatribe about this in Romans. He said, oh wretched man that I am, who shall be able to deliver me from the body of this death? But ultimately, he finds that hope in Christ. He says, I thank God for my Lord Jesus Christ, through my Lord Jesus Christ. He gives us a victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. So, he's raised us up to life. He's raised us up unto good works. These things that he sanctifies for his own purposes. And we give him all the glory and all the praise. We do not share in God's glory. We give God all glory freely. Why? Because we are freely willing since the day of his power to do that which he's called us to do. He's the Lord of glory. His love is great, is it not? He took old jet black, dead, death deserving sinners and he's made us alive by his grace and mercy. Why? Verse 7, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Now, I'm going to say something that I hope catches you off guard. The Lord loves us and he has demonstrated his love toward us, right? Absolutely. He has given us grace. He has shown us favor. He has given us strength in our bodies today to be here right now to hear this blessed truth being preached from the word of God. He has called us together to pray and to sing his praises and for these things we are grateful. He spared our families when they didn't deserve sparing. He spared us. He showed us mercy. He's given us so many bountiful blessings that we couldn't sit here and catalog even half of them today, but by the authority of the word of God, I'm going to share something with you that should be fantastical to your mind. Christian friend, you haven't seen anything yet. You don't even know what God has in store for those who love him and more importantly for those whom he loves. And how can I say that as a preacher? How can I say that? You know, I'm not promising you cars or jets or fancy houses or riches in this world, but I'm promising you something that blows all that to smithereens. In the coming ages, God himself is going to show us the immeasurable riches of his grace in Jesus Christ. We have no idea. We have no idea. That great cloud of witnesses that have gone on before us, they're in the presence of God even now. They too are awaiting the full measure of what God has in store for his entire church. Oh beloved, don't you think for a minute that heaven, that place where God is, that home of the eternal, don't you think for a minute that it is not more real than where you sit right now because it is. It is real. It is real. He is real. His work is real. His salvation has reached into the hearts of multiplied millions of people. His truth is everlasting and it is steadfast. And all of this world will come against him, will come against our faith at times. But like water crashing on the rocks, all of those attempts at vanquishing the truth of God's word always end in the same way. Oh, they burn our books. It doesn't matter. They burn our buildings. They even persecute us. And around the world, Christian people are being persecuted at a rate that's probably never been seen since the earliest days of the church. But the Lord will always have his people. He will always have his remnant. He will always be faithful. And the best news is that he has reserved his finest grace and kindness. His best displays of these things are being reserved for those days in eternity. So we don't even know yet how awesome this thing called grace really is. We've got a hint. We've seen the hinder parts of God. We have an inclination, do we not? We have something birthed on the inside of us that causes us to seek that city whose builder and maker is God. But we've not yet seen that city. But one day, and one day sooner than we like to sometimes think about in this very time constrained world, we're going to see him as he is. And boy, are we going to have our minds blown. And it's going to be every single moment of every single second of every single moment. Everything is going to just be new all of the time. For the Lord himself declares in his word, behold, I make all things new. I have no words for the glory that's going to be revealed in us because of his great love and kindness. You brought the sin. He brought the infinite love. You brought all the fallen bits and pieces of what you are in your broken state. And by his grace and mercy, the master potter put you back on the wheel. And he formed you and he's making you now into his image. Vessels of mercy. Vessels of use in the king's house. Hallelujah forevermore. Verse eight, for by grace you have been saved. If you have been saved, if you know Jesus as the Lord of your life, you only know him because of his grace and his mercy. There's a gospel song that was popular a few years ago that I really like. And it says, God held me close so I wouldn't let go. God's mercy held me so I wouldn't let go. And I'm here today because God held me. I'm alive today because of his grace. He kept me. God kept me. He held me close so I wouldn't let go. He held me close so I wouldn't let go. It's good to know that I'm in the grip of the grace of the trying God. It's good to know that Jesus will never let me loose. It's good to know that I'm in the Father's hands and no man can snatch me out of the Father's hands. I'm so thankful to know that I am darkness, but he is light. I'm thankful that I am a sinner, yes, and I confess it. But I'm so ever thankful that God came in on the scene, divided the very time itself in half, and sent Jesus, the author and finisher of my faith. Hallelujah forevermore. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing. Oh, let me say it again. This is not your own doing. Salvation is not a choice you make of yourself as though you got up in the morning and decided against blue or red socks. You come running to Christ because he gave you a heart to believe in. He gave you strength in your legs to go forward. He called you unto himself. Our prayers for salvation are replies of regeneration. They're the response to regeneration. What makes one of you saved and one of you not? Let me tell you, it's not any of the choices you've made. It's the unmerited favor and grace of God. He's been pleased to save you. And people say, well, what if I really want to be saved? I'm thinking to myself, do you really think a dead old sinner is going to really want to be saved? Come on. Do you believe Jesus is who he says he is? Absolutely, I do, preacher. Do you believe he died on Calvary's tree and died for everyone who would ever believe? Yes, I believe that. Do you believe he rose again on the third day, like the Bible says, and that Jesus was sinless and he did all these things for his people to pave their sin-debt in full? And do you believe that with your heart? And you look at me and say, yes, I do. And I look back at you and say, this is the word of faith that I preach, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. This is the word of faith. And if you believe that, if you believe Jesus did everything he said he did, who do you think gave you that heart to believe it? The Lord Jesus did. His Holy Spirit abides in you because that's the kind of truth that only God can deliver to the heart of man because he's gotta deliver the heart too. Because your old stony sinner heart isn't gonna receive any of that. And when the Lord does a work in your life, legally declaring you righteous for his sake, no one can take away what he has done. Now, that's love. A mother's love is great. We write songs about it, mostly country songs, but we write songs about a mother's love, don't we? Many of you in this room have lost your earthly mothers, some of your fathers, some your grandparents. And their love, because they were human, some of their love might not have been as perfect as you would like it to have been. Some of you have dear memories of a loving parent or two. Some of you wish you would have had more time. I think if you had any kind of relationship with your parents, time is always the precious thing, is it not? But I want you to understand that our Father in heaven is rich in mercies. He is ever present. He's always there. And in Christ, he will never leave you or forsake you. Men and women in this world will leave you, forsake you. They might not even mean to hurt you and hurt you inadvertently. They might mean to hurt you and hurt you very severely. But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother and his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have a Father in heaven who loves us so much that even in our broken, blackened, darkened state, sends a love that conquers the darkness in the person and work of Jesus Christ. For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God. Well, now I go down to a church down the street that tells me I've got to do all these things in order to make all that work. What's the Bible say in verse nine? Not a result of works. So you mean going to church and paying tithes and offerings and singing in the church choir and working around the church on church work day? None of that matters to my salvation and I'll look you right in the face and say, if you think you're going to heaven because you mow some grass, you have yet to apprehend what grace really is. Mow all the grass for the church you want. You're still a sinner fit for hell's flames apart from the blood of Jesus. You better have his righteous robes wrapped around you. Oh, I want to be found in him. Not having my righteousness, which is no righteousness at all, I need to know that I'm wrapped in the very righteous robes of Jesus. And yeah, I love the Lord, but there are days when I love him a lot more than other days. There are days when the quality of my obedience is nowhere near it is on other times and seasons. I vacillate. You vacillate. That means we change. We have our mountaintop experiences, do we not? But we also have our valleys. We have our big, tall peak moments and then we're down in the trough sometimes as well. We have, it's so funny, the same brain that can read this Bible and learn to love God and learn more about his grace each and every day can also fill itself full of garbage and trash. And like a hog in the mire, we're sometimes equally as happy in one as the other. Oh, but God, beloved. But God, you're a sinner. I'm a sinner. But God has demonstrated his love toward us and that while we are yet sinners, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You're undone. You have no hope. But God, he is our peace. For he made him to become sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Hallelujah forevermore. His grace is greater than our sin. And where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. Oh, it's an invincible grace. Amazing grace. Verse 10, for we are his workmanship. One day he's going to present us. The Lord Jesus is going to present us to the Father. On that great and glorious day, we're going to be presented. We're going to be presented what? We are the trophies of the finished work of Jesus Christ. We've been clothed with the righteous robes of Jesus Christ. And oh, this is not our own doing. We're going to be presented before almighty God. And in that moment, as the infinitude of his majesty peers down upon us, he's not going to see everything you've ever done. He's not going to see the darkness of your old sinner heart. No, he's going to see the gleaming white robes of the spotless lamb of God. And for Jesus' sake, he will bid us welcome. Welcome home. Welcome home to the joys of the Lord. Why? Because his love is greater than our sin. His love is greater than our sin. We're his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. Well, here we go. Now we have this calling that he will fulfill through us. And what is that? That he has created us for good works. Well, what are these good works? The Bible tells us that these are things that God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And then we spend our lives knowing that we know the Lord, loving him back as we can, praying to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord. And then we say, all right, Lord, what do I do? What do I do, Lord, in reply, in response to this grace? Well, the scripture is replete with examples of how we ought to live. But these things aren't the righteousness. And oh, woe is me if I ever preached behind this desk that you were somehow made righteous by something you could do. But I will say this, as the Lord has clothed you in the righteous robes of Jesus, you ought to endeavor to love the brothers and the sisters. You ought to endeavor to be kind one to the other. Why? How could a Christian hear this blessed gospel and not have something well up on the inside that says, man, I don't need to let every little thing in this world get me down. I've got a home whose maker and builder is God. God helped me be kind one to the other. So in light of this grace, God helped me live a life that is pleasing. Oh, I'll fail, I'll fall, but my righteousness is Jesus. I know that. And I'm not trying to store up some sort of special power in my own works arsenal to prove that I know Jesus. No, I know Jesus, let him prove it to you in the preaching of the gospel. I'll be honest about my sin, I'll confess my sin, but Lord God, give me the strength to love my neighbor. Lord God, give me the strength to show grace and kindness and patience, long suffering, meekness, gentleness, temperance. Help me, Lord, to be a good Christian in this very dark and unchristian world. All the while, Christian, don't you be trusting in any of your works because to do that is to call the Lord God a liar. We're saved apart from works. We don't offer up the things we do for God as righteousness or as proof of righteousness. We just simply say, God, I love you. Give me something good to do in this world that edifies the hearer. Lord, let me do something in your kingdom that would let someone else hear this blessed truth. And he'll open doors for you. He saved us on two good works, the Bible says. He loves us, he loves us, he loves us, he loves us, beloved. And his grace, his love is greater than our sin. Lord, I pray that you would add your own blessings to your preached word today for our good and for your glory. Thank you for the love that will not let us go. Thank you for the grace and mercy you've shown us in Jesus Christ. I pray, Father, that you would minister to our hearts, apply this truth to our hearts, O God, into that seed of knowledge that we might dwell richly on these gospel truths today. We thank you, we praise you through Christ our Lord. You have just heard a message from Pastor Jason Booth of Redeemer Church of Piketon, Ohio. To learn more about the good news of Jesus, please visit RedeemerPiketon.org.