Our main text is in Acts 15. Acts 15 and we'll be starting in verse 10. Now this is Peter speaking and he says, now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved in the same manner as they.

Now I probably took what should be three or four sermons and condensed them down. I got started and could not stop. So today, if you hear the gospel, and if you feel your need of the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be talking about one of your favorite subjects. That's just the way it goes. Everybody who believes has, or I should say this, everybody's favorite subject is Christ, who believes. But if you do not know God, and if you do not know the depravity of your soul, I hope this message makes you uncomfortable.

Now why would I say that? Because when somebody hears the gospel, and they are made uncomfortable, That's God working on them. And I hope you realize that you are not saved by this church or any other church. You're not saved by your parents or your children or any other relatives. You're not saved by your acts of kindness. You're saved by grace. And I want us to talk a little bit about God's saving grace this morning.

Now, no matter who you are or how you were raised, you have an idea of what grace is and what it means. The basic definition of grace is just favor, favor, approving favor. Grace means that if you like or approve of someone, you show them favor, which means you show them grace. That person has your approval. You're almost proud of that person. And so you want to do good for them. And we show grace to each other. This is something we do practice.

Now God's grace is no different in that he shows grace to those he favors. But there is more to God's grace than what we lowly mortals practice. God's grace is free. God's grace is unmerited. It is sovereign. And it is everlasting. Now those words that I just spoke are like soft, caressing words to a believer. But to an unbeliever, those are fighting words. Those are fighting words. Because when they hear those things, they will scoff, and they will argue, and they will try to tell you that God's grace, in so many words, is not enough. It's not enough. If they knew how lost they were, they wouldn't argue. And my hope is that you, in hearing this, will be prepared to answer them back.

First, as I've already said, we need to know what the word means. In the New Testament, when they translated that Greek word, which is haris or karis, And its root is where we get words like joy and happy and rejoice. But that word they translated is simply, as grace, is simply just favor. It does not mean unmerited favor, but we'll talk about that in a moment.

Now, grace is not a complex subject. It's actually very simple. And it's so simple that grade school children can understand it, and they even put it into practice. You'll see one, and they'll have their, you know, at least when I was growing up in kindergarten, they had toys lining the walls, and everybody kind of had their favorite toy. There was a sandbox in ours. That was immense fun for me. But if you show grace to someone, if you show someone favors, that little child, you would give up your sandbox, or you would give up whatever that toy is that you really like to that person. And they'll do it on the playground. They'll invite others into their game. They'll always include them. That's how simple grace is. And we know that the concept of grace is simple because, as it says back in verse one of this chapter, certain men understand it and they rage against it. They can't be mad at what they don't understand. but they understand what the Bible says about God's grace and they hate grace because God in his grace chose to show favor to some and not to others.

And the reason that people love the idea that man can refuse God is because they want to be God. They won't say that, but everybody here, I mean, I've heard other preachers say we are almost made to worship. And if it's not the God of this Bible, it's the God of self. There is always a God in somebody's life.

The Lord said long ago, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. That's Exodus 33. In other words, God chooses the recipients of his grace. and the beginning of the gospel, and the beginning of the preaching of the gospel always begins with God chose. It always does. It has to start somewhere.

Recall Paul's conversion. As the story is traditionally told, Paul was converted on the road to Damascus when Jesus arrested him on his crusade against believers. But I would ask you if the gospel was preached to him then. Now that event was certainly a beginning. And I'm not trying to bring up some new fancy theology. It was a beginning. Yet it is also a fact that no one is converted until they hear the gospel. And Paul had only been given the instruction at that time to go into the city. And in that city, he would be told what he must do.

And Paul, he was made blind and he sat in that city three days. He was on his way to Damascus and he sure got there, but not in the condition he expected to be in. He sat three days between that event and his first hearing of the gospel, which came by the mouth of what it says was a devout man. according to the law, named Ananias. And God then told Ananias to seek out Paul. Ananias had heard of Paul before, and he said, wait a minute, I think I know who this is, and he's dangerous. But God told Ananias to go seek him out.

And the first thing Ananias did was to make Paul see And the second thing Ananias did was give Paul something to see. And Paul's conversion, which he said was a pattern for all believers, is meant to illustrate the pattern of conversion for every one of God's children.

Now he recounted to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1, he said, however, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me, first, Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life. Now we could get into the pattern of how the characteristics of a sinner were shown very mightily in Paul and how God arrested him and saved him and showed him everything. But just as Paul was made aware of his blindness before Ananias made him see, so, likewise, all believers are given the knowledge that they are born spiritually blind. You aren't born seeing. You're born blind.

the knowledge that they will continue to stumble along in the darkness until someone sent by God opens their eyes through the preaching of the gospel. And this is what Paul saw when his eyes were opened. The very next thing Ananias told Paul was, the God of our fathers has chosen you. Now that is the truth that every believer has heard from the beginning. And this is the truth that they adore to hear over and over. The God of our fathers has chosen you. God in his grace chose a people. Now God's grace and God's choice are as intertwined as God the father and God the son. They cannot be separated. Just as no one can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord, as it says in Romans 8.

If you want grace, if you do, you must come to terms with God's purpose. Not your own purpose, God's purpose. which is that belief and faith and salvation are all, as it says in Romans 11, according to the election of grace.

Now, as I mentioned in the New Testament, when they translated that grace, it just meant favor. It did not mean unmerited favor. That wasn't the definition. So where did that come from? Again, it is very simple. No one in all history has ever merited God's favor.

God's grace, unlike ours, is given without a cause, a cause in us, a cause in us. He once said to the people of Israel, the Lord did not set his love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, He's saying he didn't choose you because you were the biggest nation. He says, for you were the least of all peoples, the least.

In the same way, no child of God was chosen by what he or she could bring to the table, which I'm so thankful for. I've got nothing. I've got nothing. Can't dunk. You know, there's nothing here. All believers are the least in value as it pertains to righteousness. They are no better than their peers. The ones who have God's favor, they were found dirty and unloving, hateful, petty, small. Pick an adjective. Nothing in themselves would merit them to God. And each one instead had merited hell. That's what we've earned. Which is why we need grace.

Yet for each one of his people, God loved them with an everlasting love. He, in His grace, would not leave them to die in their sins. And because of His unmerited favor toward them, He washes their sins away, each one equally, individually, and completely. There's no little stain left that, like the detergent didn't get it. It's gone. It's all gone. and He washed them all in the blood of Jesus Christ.

Now God's grace is also free in the same way it is unmerited. It is unmerited because we did nothing to earn it and it is free because it cannot be earned or bought. You can't walk up to God with a $10 bill and try to buy a certificate of grace. If that were true, there'd be no one without grace. We'd all have it.

But free does not mean has no value. Not the same thing. Even though some see it that way. I tried to think of an analogy, hope this one works. But what does a sign advertising free food mean to one who feels he's already full? driving down the road, you're just stuffed, and you see a sign that says, free buffet, just walk right in. You're just going to keep on driving. You don't need that. A man who is not thirsty doesn't desire a drink, just as a man who has worked his own self-righteousness will scoff at the free grace that leads to righteousness.

Yet grace must be freely given with no conditions and with no price must be freely given. Otherwise, no one could afford it. And if it could be bought, then God's grace would no longer be grace. It would be an obligation. And Peter, in 1 Peter 5, did not say that God is the God of all obligation. He said He is the God of all grace. And He gives His grace to His children freely. Freely. Praise God that His grace doesn't cost a penny, or no one would be saved.

Now grace, God's grace, I should say, is unmerited, it is free, and the third thing it is, is sovereign. You hear this at gospel churches all the time. God is sovereign and he has freedom to do whatever he desires to do. Why do we say that? It's true. But we also say it because we love to hear it. We love to hear that He is free of obligation, because there is no ruler above Him. He is not demigod, He is God. He is not a sub-god, He is the King of kings. And He has freedom to do whatever He desires. He has no duty to another. And He does not bow to someone else's will.

And I can tell you, none of us have experienced the absolute sovereignty that God has. Not one of us. This is especially true of me as a husband and head of the household. It didn't take me long to figure out how sovereign I was. Our sovereignty has some limitations. It's not true sovereignty. But fortunately for you and me, God is not bound by anything.

Now why would I say that is a good thing? I mean, God is also all-powerful. And He's omnipresent. These things sound like they could be abused, abused powers, right? Because if God's grace and mercy were not backed by a sovereign God, there is a chance for them to fail. There would be a chance for them to fail. And just a terrible domino effect begins. If there's a chance that God's grace for us fails, there is a chance for our hope to fail. And for our salvation to fail. and then for our desire to be with the one we love for all eternity to be just a dream. Boy, I wish that'll happen. Those words never crossed a believer's lips.

What did Paul say? I have full assurance, full assurance. I rejoice that God's purpose cannot fail. And that he has the authority to say to one person, I will show grace to you. And they are then found to be in God's grace. One plus one equals two. That's the way this goes. It's very simple. And not a single being in all creation can then say to him, overruled, stop, desist, take that grace back. No one, even if they wanted to, they can spout it all they want. It will not change God's mind. God's grace overrules all because it is sovereign.

Now, just as he is sovereign to give, he is also sovereign to withdraw his gracious hand. My dad once illustrated sovereignty like this. He said, if there were a boat full of hamsters on a lake, and that boat capsized, and the hamsters started to drown, he could choose to save all or some or none. And he would be under no obligation to save any of those hamsters. No law would be broken if he chose not to rescue it, even just one. Just reach down and pick up just one. No law broken if he chose not to do that. Nothing could force him either way. He would be free to choose according to his desire. That is what we mean by sovereignty.

God's covenant is not a negotiation between equals. It never was. He didn't come down to earth and say, all right, I've got a plan. I'm going to do this, and then I'm going to do this, and then you're going to be with me in heaven. And people just said, I don't like that. I think we need to change that up a bit. That didn't happen. He had a covenant. And because he could swear by no higher, he swore by himself. And this covenant that he ended up making was between a sovereign God and lowly man.

Now God is sovereign, so it follows that his grace is sovereign. It means that we cannot either reject it Now, wait a minute. We can't reject it? Isn't God a gentleman? I heard that in a sermon somebody say once. But let me impress this upon you at the same time. Believers don't want to reject it. They're glad it was put on them without their approval. But by the time it is there, they definitely approve. And do not ever think that preaching and believing in God's sovereignty means preaching fatalism. I say that a lot because the language is very similar. Some people preach it. I'm sure there's a name for these type of people. I mean, why even go to church? Why pray? Why do anything if everything God desires will just come to pass without our actions or our will? No, that is not what we are asked to do. We are not told to sit around and wait for it to happen.

And friends, we are not robots. We are not puppets. I hear that analogy a lot. They say, well, I'm not God's puppet. God's not a man. That relationship is false that you just made up. God is not finite with man's way of thinking. God is not sitting in heaven and just throwing a dart at a dartboard full of people's names and just to see which one receives his favor. He gives grace purposefully, planting a seed here, planting a seed over there. And the way that he saves a person includes his heart, it includes his desires. And because of that, a saved man, a saved woman, saved boy and girl will seek after God. Why? Must have him. Must.

I'm reminded of Mike Walker's sermon that he's preached here a couple of times. The violent, the violent will take it by force because they must have it. And God never told his children to do nothing. Instead, the God of all grace tells us to, excuse me, tells us to call on the name of the Lord. We must call. It says to believe in him, we must believe. And he goes on and on. Other things that people do when they're saved in Mark 16, 16 says to be baptized in 1 John 3 verse 11, it says, and to love one another and our neighbors. Do those sound like just sit around? No.

And just because God is sovereign does not mean that we're supposed to be passive and try to second-guess God. I've committed that action. We simply are told we need to believe that His grace for us is assured because He is the absolute sovereign as head over all creation. And finally, God's grace is everlasting. It says in Psalm, book of Psalm verse 90, even from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. Everlasting just means forever. It means eternal. It means never ending. Everything God does, he does forever. One of my favorite verses. It's because he is everlasting. And because of that, so are his promises. He doesn't make one and then takes it back. His promise remains. His fatherhood, the state of being a father over his children, that's eternal. He doesn't adopt them as sons and daughters. And then later on, when they've committed some sin, He kicks them back out and says, take a hike. No, His fatherhood is eternal. And His mercy for His people is forever, as it says in Psalm 100.

Now, what does this mean for God's grace? It means that His grace is forever given I will give you grace. It is eternally, excuse me, eternally applied to his chosen ones. And it never runs out. Have you ever gotten ahold of something that didn't run out or wear out? And I mean this in kind of, you know, temporal terms as we know things to wear out. Or maybe it didn't cost anything to use as much as you wanted. You could consume as much as you wanted of that thing. Well, I thought about that. We call them buffets. You can, it's just endless food. We see those buffet tables just filled, piled with all these kinds of delicious things and our eyes bug out. And so we go over there and we fill up our plates with as much as we want and it won't matter. They'll come right back in and fill them up behind you. No one leaves a buffet feeling hungry. If you did, you're doing it wrong. God's grace is like that. We can't empty it out by using it. or by rejoicing in it, or by thanking God for it, or by relying daily on it. It's everlasting. And it is meant to be used liberally.

John says in John chapter one, and of his fullness, not his thinness, not his limited stock, but of his fullness we have all received and grace for grace." His grace lasts forever. And it's a good thing it does because we want to be with him forever.

Now that you've heard what God's grace is, let us go back and see why Peter had such a strong rebuke and rebuttal in verses 10 and 11. Go to actually the beginning of that chapter. Acts 15, go back to verse one. It says, and certain men came down from Judea and taught the brethren, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. And therefore, when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispute with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question. So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, describing the conversion of the Gentiles. And they caused great joy to all the brethren. And when they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all things that God had done with them.

But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up saying it is necessary to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. We bookended each side. They had it. Certain men came in and then they went and the Pharisees said the same thing. Of whom? The Gentiles. The Gentiles. Certain men. will always seek to pervert and twist the gospel of God's free grace. These kinds of people were around thousands. I mean, they were around before this part of Acts. They've been around for thousands of years and they're still with us today. They have been around ever since God declared that he would save his people by himself for his own purpose and for his own glory so that it would be said of all his people that they were saved by the grace of God and nothing else.

Certain men do not like God's grace, not truly. They might say it, but they don't know what it means. They would much rather mix a little works into that grace. Works being anything that we do to try to gain favor with God or our thoughts, you know, what we think. Friends, what we do is sin and what we think is sin. You're not gaining favor by those. works, though, makes us feel like we have some control and predetermination on our eternity, instead of doing what God said and believing completely that Jesus Christ died to save sinners, and that we're sinners.

So these certain men come into churches that already have peace, and they already have liberty, in the grace of God, and they try to enact a return to works and to the law, whether it be the law of Moses or their own made up law. God forbid us ever returning to that which cannot grant peace or comfort or everlasting love. The law is not the gateway to God. And again, certain men say, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. Who are they to be putting conditions on that which has been freely given? Why do we need to continue in circumcision or pick a part of the law? Peace offerings, burnt offerings, sin offerings, Indeed, any jot or tittle of the law, when we are found in God's grace.

If it is true that some people have found favor with God, found to be in His grace, and if it is also true that Christ Jesus came to fulfill the law, as it says in Matthew 5, and to be our priest forever, then God's grace must impart on us a full pardon apart from the law. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. So friends, if you believe on Him, you have been given the grace of God. You wouldn't believe without that. It is from a covenant not built on your doing or your not doing, but on being the recipient of something free, something unearned or won, something purposeful, and something that never fails or ends. Use it. Pray to God that his will be done and then use it. He will freely give his grace to all who ask.

May God be glorified.

Bruce, would you close this please?