Seeking for the help of the Lord
and your prayerful attention, I direct you to the passage we
read, Acts chapter 15, and reading from our text, verse 11. 11. But we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they. Acts chapter 15 and verse 11. This is Peter speaking and meaning
that we, that is the Jews, the apostles, that they shall be
saved the same as the Gentiles. In the first 15 years of the
history of the Church, from when our Lord ascended up into heaven,
there were four major events that are recorded in the inspired
and infallible Word of God that are so vital in the life of the
Church of God. the fourth one of which is the
account that is before us. The first one was Pentecost,
ten days after the Lord ascended into heaven, the pouring out
of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord had said to the disciples
as he commissioned them to go into the world to preach the
gospel to every creature, he that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned. He said
to them, tarry at Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from
on high. And he gave a sign to them. He says, I will pray the Father. He shall give you another comforter,
which shall abide with you forever. And that sign, the Holy Spirit
poured out as they met together at Jerusalem, or the Pentecost,
the languages that were given to them, the ability to speak
in languages that they had not learned before, the sound of
a great wind and the cloven tongues of fire falling upon them, and
the great boldness of Peter to preach and to set forth before
them, and to charge upon the people that were there, that
the Lord Jesus Christ they had taken, and by wicked hands crucified
and slain, but that He had been delivered by the determinate
counsel and full knowledge of God. Peter was there, he was
the minister chosen by God, and God greatly used him and gave
him such boldness, and many were pricked in their hearts, many
were then brought to repent and brought to be baptized and to
continue then in the breaking of bread. A vital time in the
Church of God, giving such assurance that the Lord had ascended to
heaven, He was there, He had made intercession, the blessing
had come down, it had come down, because our Lord had asked it.
I will pray the Father." And with then great witness, the
apostles gave witness to the resurrection and ascension into
heaven of our Lord. Pentecost was the first major
event. The second was that of the calling
of Saul of Tarsus, perhaps it's not sure when, but a year or
so after, within a year, we have that recorded in Acts chapter
9, the persecutor of the church, the one that stood by and held
the clothes of Stephen and consented unto His death, the one that
was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, and that hated the Lord Jesus
and those that called upon His name. And the Lord in mercy stopped
him in his wild career, and as he was on the very road to hail
men and women unto prison, the Lord appeared to him from heaven.
a great light and a voice from heaven. Who art thou, Lord? I
am Jesus, whom thou persecutest." It is the work of the blessed
Holy Spirit to convince of sin, but here is the apostle who had
to have the Lord appear in such a way to him, to be as the apostle
of the Gentiles. And when we think of the large
proportion of the New Testament, 14 of the epistles, all written
by the apostle, the very clear setting forth of the doctrines
of the Church of God, his role here in this account. You know,
if there was ever one, one sinner that was converted, one that
was called into the ministry and so greatly used, it was the
Apostle. And yet the Apostle never forgot
that he persecuted the Church of God. It always was a thing
that he remembered, and it greatly humbled him, it balanced him
with all the rich blessings that the Lord had given him. He says
regarding the others that preached, I labored more abundantly than
them all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. And so that event, that one calling
by grace, the quickening, the appearing, the taking away of
the adversary of the church at that time. We read then had the
churches rest and then they were blessed and they were increased. That is the second major event
that is recorded and which affects right through the inspired Word
of God, the New Testament. The third event was ten years
after Pentecost, which was really equivalent to Pentecost, but
it was this time for the Gentiles, when the Holy Spirit would be
poured out upon the Gentiles. And though the apostle Paul was
the apostle to the Gentiles, it pleased God not to use Paul,
but to use Peter, lest it should ever be said, well, the Jews,
they had the blessing through Peter, but the Gentiles, well,
that was Paul. The Lord would have his church
be as one, and so with both of them, Peter was used. And Peter, who had witnessed
and who'd been the instrument in Jerusalem, he was the one
that was to then go and be able to say that the Holy Ghost has
fallen on the Gentiles the same as us at the beginning. And he
wasn't speaking about it as hearing it as a report from someone else. He had actually seen it at Jerusalem. And of course we remember the
very clear call that he had. Cornelius had had an angel appear
to him from heaven and bid him to go to Joppa and to call one
Simon Peter with the house, Simon Tanna at Joppa, and that he should
come and speak to him words whereby he and his house should be saved. And it's remarkable that there
at Joppa, that was when Jonah was commanded to go to a Gentile
nation, to those that were adversaries to Israel, to Nineveh, and he
didn't want to go. He was unwilling to go. He ran
away. The Lord brought him to go, and
the Lord gave them repentance. But with Peter, the Lord was
pleased to send a vision to him, the vision of the sheep that
was let down from heaven and then received up into heaven.
And in that sheep was all manner of unclean beasts. And the Lord
said to Peter, rise, kill, and eat. But he said, not so, Lord. I've never eaten anything common.
or unclean. But God said to him, That which
God hath cleansed, that call not thou common. And then, while
he thought on that vision, the Spirit said to him, Rise, three
men seek thee, go with them, doubting nothing, for I have
sent them. And so he went there to Cornelius'
household, and Cornelius had gathered all his friends together,
and he said, Now shall we hear all present before God, to hear
whatsoever is commanded thee of God. And as Peter so clearly
set forth the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
willing offering and shedding of that precious blood of the
Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit fell, and those
same signs were there, and they were also baptized. Now Peter, afterwards, he was
called to account by the church at Jerusalem, but he rehearsed
the matter from the beginning. and he was able to clearly show
them that the same as what God had done to the Jews, here he
had done with the Gentiles, and to bring them both together. Very vital, important blessing,
so that you and I that are Gentiles, that we may know clearly that
those things that are set before us in the Word of God, that which
is was originally belonging to the Jews only, belongs unto us. The Lord said concerning the
Jew and Gentiles in John 10, Other sheep I have, which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring. And some of us can testify
of that, that the Lord has brought us. and the Lord must do so,
where He has shed His precious blood and put away the sins of
His dear people, then He must bring them, He must convert them.
But then we have this fourth occasion, a gathering at Jerusalem,
which would have been some five years later than the account
at Cornelius. And there would have been quite
a gathering there. Peter, James, John, Paul, Barnabas,
the whole church at Jerusalem, we are told, and a good number
from Antioch as well. Antioch was the base. We mustn't
confuse the Antiochs. There's one Antioch in Pisidia,
in Galatia. There's also one in Syria, which
today is the modern Antioch in Turkey. It is about 740 miles
away, north of Jerusalem. And it was that Antioch in Syria
that was the base for the missionary journeys of the Apostle Paul. It was after he got back from
the first missionary journey that then there was the trouble
in the church there at Antioch, which they were saying that the
Gentiles ought to be circumcised the same as what the Jews were. This was then the matter that
had to be decided at this gathering. It was a very vital, very important
matter that they had before them. We read in verse 5 of chapter
15, that there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees
which believed. They were believers, they believed
that Jesus was the Christ. But they were saying that it
was needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the
Law of Moses. And it was very necessary, and
it affects us today. It affects the Church right through
to the end of time, what answer was to be decided here. So they gathered together to
consider this matter. Now, when Paul was at Galatia,
then they tried there to get Titus, who was a Greek, to be
circumcised, but Paul would not allow it. He said, no, he's a
Gentile, we will not allow that. But later on, in the very next
chapter to this, in chapter 16, we read that Paul did. even when Paul is bringing the
letters he takes Timothy and he has him circumcised but that
is because Timothy was a Jew and if he was not circumcised
that would have been such a stumbling block that Paul would not have
been even able to preach to the Jews they would not have even
heard him out at all and so that is why he made the difference
between Titus and Timothy. But here the question is, should
it be that those that are saved, those that are saved, the Gentiles,
should they need to keep the whole law of Moses before that
they could be saved? Well, in determining the Lord's
will, and this was what was done at this fourth important time
here in Jerusalem, who noticed there was not a direct word from
the Lord. Sometimes the Lord had given
very clear direction from heaven, but here the disciples weren't
given it. Now maybe there are some of you,
you're seeking a word from the Lord, you think that the Lord
will speak directly to you, and yet here is this vital, this
important time in the Church of God and they do not have the
Lord speaking directly to them. We read that there is a lot of
disputation between them. There was a lot of things that
were done in verse 7 when there had been much disputing. And
you think, is this the Church of God? Is this where a vital
doctrine is to be considered and set forth? Well, how was
it decided? Observe that, firstly, the prior
blessing that had come through Peter is brought forward. That time at Cornelius' household,
They were blessed by the Holy Spirit, and they weren't circumcised. They were not, as it were, keepers
of the law. The Holy Ghost sovereignly came
and blessed them. And Peter uses this, this experience
of the blessing of the Lord, the sovereign, free, Gracious
blessing apart from the law of God. And he says they were blessed. They were blessed in this way.
The second thing that they considered was that the Scriptures told
of the calling of the Gentiles in verse 15. And to this agree
the words of the prophets. Always we should go back to the
Scriptures, go back to what is recorded in the Word of God,
what a principle for the New Testament Church, and for poor
sinners seeking to know and do the will of God, to the law,
to the testimony, to the Scriptures. Do they speak according to these
things? The third thing is that they
observed and knew that God's works were known from the foundation
of the world. And in verse 18, known unto God
are all his works from the beginning of the world. And what is referred
to there is that God is a God of order. Now we think of Abraham. Abraham, before he was circumcised,
he was blessed of God. He was favoured of God. Circumcision
was given as a sign of a covenant for Abraham and his descendants. And that covenant was for them,
and it was a sign, it was a time. Now the Apostle Paul very clearly
sets this forth in Romans chapter 2 and verse 28. He says, And shall not circumcision,
which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee who by the
letter and circumcision doth transgress the law? For he is
not a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit,
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God." And so God knows his plan right from the foundation of
the world, from before the foundation of the world. Everything that
happens in this world, creation of the world, the forming of
man, the fall of man, all of salvation, all the events that
happen in the world, they all work in a perfect order, an orderly
fashion. Some of us, when we make plans,
we have to backtrack. We do something and think, oh,
I should have done that first. But that never is so with the
Lord. He always knows and always is
a perfect order in the way that He does things. And this was
used in determining this matter as to what was the answer in
this case. Should it be that the Gentiles
have to keep the law to be saved? No, they were already saved.
They were already blessed. They were already believers.
and so that that was not necessary and this is then a principle
right the way through that salvation is by grace and so we have in
our text this beautiful testimony but we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ We shall be saved, even as they. I want then to look with the
Lord's help at these words of our text. I want to take the
words, really split the text up into three points. Firstly, what we believe put
into words. The very first words of our text
Peter, he says, but we believe. I want to consider what we believe
put into words. And then secondly, how we shall
be saved. The middle part of the text,
they're beautiful words. Through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. What a beautiful, clear statement. Through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. Then thirdly, sinners saved as
others were. the end word of the text here
it is even as they even as they so I want then to look at the
first point what we believe put into words The Pharisees, we said from verse
5, believed in Jesus, but they stumbled at the law, and it may
be we are like that. You might say, well, we believe
in Jesus, we believe in the doctrines of grace, it may be we've been
brought up under the sound of the truth. But there's something
that stumbles us, something that is a hindrance, something that
we're not clear on. Now, the whole context here,
It's so important we know what we believe, not just generalities,
but able to clear as many that will say they believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. But you get the Roman Catholics
and they say, yes, but his sacrifice is not sufficient, we've got
to add works to this. You get the Jehovah's Witnesses
and they say we believe in the Lord Jesus, but he was not God,
he's not equal with God. and they rob him of his Godhead.
And we get many that bring not, as John warns us in his second
epistle, the doctrine of our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is
a blessed thing to have revealed to us who the Lord Jesus Christ
is, the extent of His salvation, that He is able to save unto
the uttermost all that come unto God by Him, and that it is by
grace that we are saved. But when it comes to us personally,
when it comes to our own experience, and to be able to put it into
words, like dear Peter does here, But we believe, and maybe there
are those of you this evening, And you do believe, and you believe
the Lord has worked in your hearts, but how to put that into words? It may be an exercise of this,
of even telling it to the church, but what will I say? I always
remember my dear father speaking of when Alice Robinson came before
the church, and those of you know that she was a mother in
Israel to me, I loved her very much. She was much blessed under
my father's ministry. When she was blessed in 1975,
She was so blessed, so filled with the love of God. She went
out, she saw some Bibles for sale in Coles, and I've still
got mine here, written in front of it, great big red Bibles.
And she went and got sack loads of them. She brought all of them.
I think there was about 40 Bibles. And she gave them to each of
us in the congregation. And no doubt some of you at Melbourne
still have your Bibles. I'd read Bibles, but my father
said when Alice came before the church, she couldn't say anything. She didn't know what to say.
The words failed her. She didn't know how to put them
into words. And in the end, she just blurted
out, and she said, I know that I'm a sinner. But you know, in
one sense, you didn't need to say anything because the church
had already seen the grace. They'd seen her blessed. They'd
seen the fruit of it. They'd seen the love of God.
They'd heard her. But when it actually came to
the church, the words failed her. You might feel like that
as well. Sometimes it is very hard when
called upon to actually put into words what we believe, why we
believe, or what the Lord has done for us. May we think of
the testimonies like of the eunuch when blessed under Philip's ministry. He wanted to be baptized and
Philip said, if thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest,
he says, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And
he was baptized on that profession. He could join in with Peter,
but we believe. Unable to say what he believed. The man that had been born blind,
the Lord opened his eyes. He says, one thing I know, whereas
I was blind, now I see. At that point, he didn't know
who the Lord was. The Lord appeared to him. Dost
thou believe on the Son of God? Who is he, Lord, that I might
believe? The Lord revealed himself to
him. What we believe, what has been
shown to us, revealed to us, taught to us, even if it is one
thing, that's made that particular text sweet and precious, that's
opened our eyes to some precious truth of the Gospel, aspect of
our Lord and His ministry, His person, that has touched our
heart and warmed our heart and affections to Him and His people,
we know that we have passed from death unto life because we love
the brethren. And one thing it will be that
we believe, all of Christ and not of works. Sin and salvation. I'm a sinner. and the Lord Jesus
Christ has saved me from my sins. Often think of those two on the
way to Emmaus. When they came back and they
gave their report to those at Jerusalem, they told what was
done in the way and how Jesus was made known unto them in breaking
of the bread. And what we believe will consist
of that. He that hath begun a good work
in you. What has been done in our lives? What has been done by the way? And then how the Lord has been
revealed to us. how precious that is to be able
to testify over belief, not of a sense or a whole set of doctrines
as it were, but those things that the Lord has pleased to
teach us, they shall all be taught of God. Well this then is our
first point, what we believe put into words, but we believe
that How would you, dear friend, finish that word? Can you? Can you finish it, or do you
desire to? Lord, Lord, do make me a believer. Do help me to speak to thine
honour and glory. I want to look then, secondly,
at how we shall be saved. Our text tells us so beautifully,
so clearly. Through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ we shall be saved. What is grace? Grace is the free
and unearned favour of God. Grace in Christ. He gave us grace in Christ before
he spread the starry sky. Now when we look at this word,
saved by grace, when did the free favour of God, when was
it first shown on a poor sinner? Before the world was. Before
we were born. When the Lord says, Thine they
were, speaking to his Father, and thou gavest them me. Our
names inscribed in the Lamb's Book of Life, chosen in Him before
the foundation of the world. That is when grace was first
bestowed. Remember we spoke of there being
an order in the way that God saves. Beautiful chains we have
it in Romans 8, those that were foreknown, those also who did
predestinate to be conformed unto the image of his dear Son.
Those that were chosen, they were called, they were justified,
they were glorified. And this is beautiful chain. In Psalm 84, He shall give grace
and glory. The beautiful chain of joining
together grace and glory. And we have this with the work
of the Lord for His people in eternity. And then we have that
display, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay
down his life for his friends. If you and I are saved by grace,
then the Lord Jesus Christ, out of love for our soul, came to
this world, lived his perfect life of obedience, and then suffered
and laid down his life a ransom on Calvary's tree for us. All
of grace, having loved his own, this is the love of God that
should take our sins and endure the sufferings of the cross and
the hiding of the Father's face for us. We read, He giveth grace
for grace, For the grace of that choosing He gives the grace of
the sacrifice. And where the Lord has given
the grace of the sacrifice, where He suffered for us, then there
will be the grace of calling, called by grace, irresistible
grace, and using the means of faith by grace, says the Apostle
writing to the Ephesians, i.e. saved through faith. And that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the author and finisher of our faith. He begins that faith
in calling, and He ends that faith when death comes and faith
is changed to sight. And it is all of grace that the
Lord should begin in that way. He which hath begun a good work
in you, this is the grace of God. But where the Lord then
begins that work, passes by a sinner, bids him live, quickens him into
life, his whole keeping is by grace. Now some will say, well,
God calls His people, and He calls them without the Law, but
then He sends them back to the Law to teach them how to live.
We believe that the Gospel is our rule of life, not the Law,
and that our keeping is by the grace of God giving us that love,
constraining love to Him and love to all the commandments
of God and all of His ways, the love of Christ constraineth us. And that when we are tried and
when we are tempted, it is grace that keeps us. When we are passing
through the fire, as we know, the fire shall try every man's
work of what sort it is. It is the grace of God that will
keep us. not ourselves, not by doing lists
of rules and regulations, but the grace of God, sweetly opening
unto us His will, making us willing, touching our hearts, softening
our hard hearts, drawing our affections after Him, causing
us to hate sin. And so many times the Lord will
use the things that we pass through to work those things in us. by experience, what a bitter
thing sin is. Dear Peter knew that path, didn't
he? He went out, he wept bitterly.
Why? Because he denied his Lord and
Master three times. And it may be, in your experience
and mine, there's things that we've gone through, we've fallen,
we've walked through, and then we've wept bitter tears when
we've realized what we've done. mentioned to the Apostle Paul
what is in unregeneracy, but Peter, he knew his Lord, he loved
his Lord, he testified, though all men would forsake him, yet
he would not, and yet he did, but the grace of God kept him. You and I need grace, the grace
that begins. Paul speaks it very beautifully
when he writes the Romans, I think in Romans 5, and he says that
if while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, how much
more then being reconciled shall we be saved through his life. If the Lord has had mercy when
we've been rebels and hated Him and turned away from Him and
had nothing to do with Him, that He would have something to do
with us and met us, maybe in afflictions, disappointments,
sorrows and trials. If then He's turned us and brought
us to be reconciled to Him, how much more now, the trials that
we have now, the more opening up that we have of our own wicked,
deceitful, evil heart, when we say, can ever God dwell here?
Can ever we be one of the Lord's dear people? Grace is sufficient. My grace is made perfect in weakness. And so the testimony here, through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved. It must be
traced. Traced from eternity past to
eternity to come. Traced through calling and traced
through when we have been called. to be saved by the grace of God
from every snare, from every error, from every evil, saved
and kept by the grace of God. By the grace of God, says the
Apostle, I am what I am, not just because of the Damascus
Road, but continually needing of that supply of grace. We are
told specifically of the thorn in the flesh that he'd been given
that was with him, and you and I may have a thorn in the flesh
tonight, and the grace of God is sufficient. Well, what a beautiful
testimony. May we clearly know that it is
by grace you are saved, and be able to testify of it. Well then,
thirdly, sinners saved as others were. At the end of our text,
we read these three words, even as they. Jew and Gentiles. The Apostles hoped to be saved
in the same way as the Gentiles by grace. It wasn't as if the
Apostles were saying, well we are being saved by partly the
law, because we've been circumcised and we keep the law, and partly
because we believe in the Lord, and the Gentiles, well they are
just being saved by grace. No, says the Apostle, we're all
saved by grace. There's not two different ways.
The Old Testament saints weren't saved in one way, and we saved
by another. Yes, the Holy Spirit was given
in these Gospel days in a much more marked and clear way than
in Old Testament times, but He was still there. The Spirit was
still there. The Triune God is the same from
eternity to eternity. And those like Abraham, they
saw Christ's day, they rejoiced at it. David in spirit, he called
his Christ, his son Lord. How is it that David's son should
be his Lord? And that was by the spirit he
called him Lord, because he is the eternal God, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now the Apostle Paul, he says
when he writes to Timothy that the Lord was pleased to in him
first save him and bless him as a witness and to those that
were to follow after. Again we think of the ordering
of the Lord in the things that he does in the way of salvation
and the Apostle Paul says that I was called first. He says in
1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 15 this is a faithful saying worthy
of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners of whom I am chief. How be it for this cause I obtain
mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering
for a pattern to them which should after, hereafter, believe on
Him to life everlasting. So when we have in our text,
even as they, we may have in mind the Apostle Paul, even as
he was saved, So should I be saved as well. This same way
of setting forth the truth is done in Hebrews. In Hebrews 11,
we have a long list of a cloud of witnesses, all that lived
and died by faith. And then in Hebrews 12, we have,
Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the
sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience
the race that is set before us. And so even as they, now we may
look on those that have gone before us, those who have gone
before us at Melbourne, those who have gone before us at Sydney,
and we've seen the grace of God, we've seen where the Lord has
begun with them, He has kept them, He has brought them safely
home to glory, and we've seen them and it may be the Lord has
given us that godly jealousy oh that i might be saved as they
were that i might be blessed as they were and it may be that
satan will tempt and he said well you cannot be the same as
what they are how dare you presume that so well we don't presume
so we have the scriptures that raise up a hope in a poor sinner's
heart. And if there are those of you
who have been thinking upon these lines, you've been going over
those that you've walked with, those of your relatives, those
that are now in glory, those who have been blessed. And how
were they blessed? How were they saved? They were
saved by grace. But may you be able to come here. and be able to say, but we believe,
or put it in a personal way, but I believe, that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ I shall be saved, even as they
were. If they were saved by grace,
I'll be saved by grace. If they as a poor sinner that
made many mistakes and stumblings through their lives were saved,
then also I shall be saved. If there is hope for them, then
there is hope for me. And this is a joining together
with the Church of God, the people of God. May our remembrance of
the goodness and mercy of God on those who've gone before us,
be a sweet encouragement and help for us that follow after,
that we might partake of that same grace and same blessing,
that fullness in Christ is not exhausted yet, it never will. It may be that there are some
of you that can say also that I have tasted that the Lord is
gracious. A little taste of it, maybe in
Providence, or in your souls, and in how the Lord has dealt
with you, and kept you, or lengthened out your days, and favoured your
soul. Sinners saved as others were. Oh, many times the people of
God, as the Lord draws them, They look upon the Lord's people. I remember when the Lord was
working in my heart, sitting in the back of the chapel there
at Berwood Road, and seeing the friends sit round the Lord's
table, and it seemed that great mound of seats between me and
them, and they were the godly, and they were the saved, and
I was outside the secret, and I loved them, and I wanted to
be amongst them, but I felt so outside of them, and so distant. But you know it's a blessed thing
when the Lord says, come in, come in, thou loved of the Lord,
wherefore standest thou without? And there's a sweet constraining
and a drawing, and where the Lord has given a love to his
dear people, numbered with them may I be now and to eternity,
given us that token that we have passed from death unto life,
because we love the brethren. May the Lord then seal this word
to us, and looking upon those that have been saved, be able
to say in the words of our text, but we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they. May the Lord add his blessing. Amen.