Let's stand together once again,
hymn number two in your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book, number
two. ? Lord, we come before thee now
? ? At thy feet we humbly bow ? ? O do not our suit disdain
? ? Shall we seek thee, Lord, in vain ? ? Lord, on thee our
souls defend ? In compassion now descend. Fill our hearts
with thy rich grace. Tune our lips to sing thy praise. ? In thine own appointed way
? Now we seek thee, here we stay ? Lord, we know not how to go
? Till a blessing thou bestow ? Send the message from thy word
that may joy and peace afford. Let thy spirit now impart Christ's
salvation to each heart. Please be seated. We open your Bibles with me to
Acts chapter 28, Acts 28. We'll begin reading in verse
20. For this cause, therefore, have I called for you to see
you and to speak with you because that for the hope of Israel,
I am bound with this chain. And they said unto him, we neither
received letters out of Judea concerning thee, neither any
of the brethren that came showed or spake any harm of thee, but
we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest. For as concerning
this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against." Paul is
in Rome. and he has called the Jewish
leaders together. And as far as they were concerned, this
following Jesus of Nazareth was nothing but a sect within Judaism. And when they had appointed him
a day, there came many to him into his lodging, to whom he
expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning
Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets
from morning till evening. They took all the prisoners when
they finally got to Rome to jail, but the centurion We don't know
where his heart was as far as the gospel is concerned, but
he certainly befriended Paul and gave him leave, the scripture
says, to remain in his own house with a Roman guard. So Paul has
the freedom to have guests coming and going. The Lord ordained
it to be so, that the gospel would be preached in Rome. And
here's the title of my text, verse 24. And some believed the
things that were spoken and some believed not. That's simple. You either believe
or you don't believe. Period. There's only two kinds
of people in this whole world. Only two. Believers and unbelievers. Some believed the things that
were spoken and some believed not. And when they agreed not among
themselves, the ones that agreed with what they heard said, yes,
this is what the scriptures teach. We are persuaded, we are convinced,
we believe God. And the others, fearing that
they would lose their righteousness, said, oh no, we can't believe
that. And so they contended with one
another, and they departed. After that, Paul had spoken one
word, And here we have, again, that quote from Isaiah chapter
six. As you've heard me say many times,
this is the most often passage in the Old Testament quoted in
the New. And Paul calls these unbelieving Jews out on this. Now, remember, he's using this
verse not to cause believers to doubt their salvation. He's
using this verse to pronounce a word of judgment and woe against
those who have openly said, we don't believe that. We don't
believe that. Well spake the Holy Ghost by
Isaiah the prophet unto our father, saying, Go unto this people,
and saying, Hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand,
and seeing you shall see, and not perceive. For the heart of
this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing.
and their eyes have they closed, lest they should see with their
eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart,
and should be converted, and I should heal them." Paul is
quoting this verse as a declaration of God's judgment against those
who have openly said, we do not believe what you're saying. Be it known therefore unto you,
that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that
they will hear it. Oh, these Gentile dogs, they're
going to hear what you self-righteous Pharisees refuse to believe. And when he had said these words,
the Jews departed and had great reasoning among themselves. And
Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received
all that came unto him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching
those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence,
no man forbidding him. Some believed and some believed
not. I have three simple points to
this message. The source of believing. The source of faith. The simplicity
of believing. And the subject or object of our belief. The source the simplicity, and
the subject of faith. Let us begin with the source.
You know the difference between the passive voice and the active
voice. The active voice is when the
subject is doing the action. So Johnny hit the ball, that's
the active voice. Johnny was hit by the ball, that's
the passive voice. Johnny was struck by the ball,
didn't have any participation in it. The reason I'm bringing
this out, I don't want to insult your intelligence, I just want
you to know that these two words believe In our verse 24, some
believed is in the passive voice, and some believed not is in the
active voice. Some is the subject. And so the
ones who believed were passive in their faith. They made no
contribution to their faith. They didn't decide to believe. They didn't say, well, yes, we're
going to agree and we're going to believe. No, they were passive. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth. It is of God that showeth mercy. If you believe God, you were
passive in that faith. The Lord opened Lydia's heart
and she believed. The Lord opened the eyes of the
blind. He opened the ears. You make
no contribution to your faith. This is the source of faith.
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that faith is not
of yourself. It is a gift of God. You heard
the gospel and all of a sudden you found yourself believing. You could not not believe. You
just knew that you were a believer. You knew that once you were blind,
but now you see. You really do believe. You can't
not believe. You were passive. The ones who
believed give God all the glory for their faith, for they know
that they made no contribution to their faith. When it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
his grace, Now, when Paul was talking about his conversion
experience on the road to Damascus, did he make any contribution
to that? Or was he passive when that light shined from heaven
and the voice of God spoke and knocked him down onto the ground?
Here's the glory. This is the source of faith.
The source of faith is that you believe. You were passive in
that. But if you believe not, you were
active in that. People talk about free will.
Yeah, man's got a free will, and that free will is gonna send
him to hell. Because everything that man's will chooses is against
what God says. So, they that believed not, heard what was said and made
a choice. They chose not to believe. I'm not going to have that man
reign over me. I'm not going to submit to that.
I'm not going to give up my righteousness. No, I believe not. I will come up with a different
interpretation of those verses that you just borrowed out, Paul,
but I'm not going to bow I'm not going to believe. You see, all men, here's the
simple truth. And this is a paradox that only
the Spirit of God can, you know, a paradox is an apparent contradiction,
but it's not a contradiction. The gospel is not a contradiction.
It may be a mystery and it may be a paradox. And here it is.
If you believe God, God gets all the glory for that. You were
passive in your faith. God arrested you. He shut you
up. He made you to believe. And if
you don't believe, you're without excuse. You bear the full responsibility
for your unbelief. Some believed. Passive voice. Some Believed
not, active voice. Child of God knows who made him
to differ. Lord, had you not made me believe,
I wouldn't have believed. Thank you, Lord. Child of God is always aware
of their unbelief. Child of God doesn't glory in
their faith. They say, Lord, I believe by
your grace. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. You see, the source of faith is grace. Grace, unmerited,
undeserved favor by God. When God calls you out and says,
you're mine, makes you believe. Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. Well, Lord, how can I go back
into my mother's womb and be born again? What can I do to
make that happen? You see, Nicodemus was thinking
that this matter of faith was an active thing. Something that
he had to participate in, something he had to do, something he had
to swing the bat. No, no, no Nicodemus. Being born again is
being born of the Spirit and the Spirit's like the wind and
he listens with us wherever he wills and you've got to be born
of the Spirit of God. And the child of God says, oh
Lord, breathe that life on me. Lord, if you don't save me, if
you don't keep me, if you don't bless, Lord, I can't, I won't
believe. And as I said, we're more aware,
believers are more aware of their unbelief than they are of their
belief. They are always aware of their need for more faith.
Lord, I'm so ashamed of how little I believe. But Lord, the faith
that I do have, You gave it to me. I didn't make a decision. Coming to Christ is not a choice. You don't have a choice means
that you have two or more options. We don't have a choice. God shuts
you up to Christ. Some believed. Aren't you thankful
that the ones who believed were passive in their faith? Otherwise,
you would have to say, Lord, what can I do that I might inherit
eternal life? What? The source of saving faith
is grace. The source of unbelief is sin. The second source of saving faith
is the Word of God. You know you're a believer when
you find it impossible to call into question God's Word. I just
believe everything God says. Don't understand it all. Don't
understand any of it like I need to understand it. But I do believe
it. Look at verse 23. And when they had appointed him
a day, there came many to him into his lodging, to whom he
expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning
Jesus, both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets.
The word of God is our authority. It's our only authority. We don't
look to traditions. We don't look to confessions.
We don't look to creeds. We don't look to feelings. We
don't look to experiences. We don't look to the opinions
of dead theologians. You know, one of the things I've
learned over the years in studying commentators is that oftentimes
one generation of commentator just repeats what the previous
generation wrote, and they just perpetuate the error of the previous
generation. Be careful when you read commentators,
because that often happens. What saith the Scriptures? Here's preach the word in season,
out of season. This is our only source of authority.
What's God say? God's people are only interested
in what thus saith the Lord. What does God say? Preacher,
don't waste my time with the opinions of men. Don't waste
my time. Just tell me what God says. That's what I want to know.
That's what Paul was doing from morning till night. He expounded
unto them those things concerning Jesus out of the law of Moses
and out of the prophets. You know, the Old Testament,
we preach from Old Testament types a lot here, more so than
maybe in some churches. And I love preaching from Old
Testament. You know, the apostles, that's all they had to preach
from. They didn't have the New Testament. The Lord Jesus Christ, when he
preached, he preached from the Old Testament. So, you know,
he expounded unto them from Moses and the law and the prophets
and the Psalms, those things concerning himself. And they
said, like those men on the road to Emmaus in Luke chapter 24,
oh, did not our hearts burn within us as he spake with us along
the way? Yes, I see that. I see Christ in the scriptures. In the volume of the book, surely
it is written of him. And we glory in the person of
Christ and we're thankful that God has given us a revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when Christ is preached,
some believed. And some obstinately, purposefully,
arrogantly said, I will not believe. Now I make emphasis to that,
brethren, because I think that sometimes Sometimes believers think, well,
you know, maybe, maybe like I heard a preacher say one time, I missed
heaven by 18 inches. Maybe I just knew things about
God in my head, but I didn't really believe him in my heart.
Maybe I just have a head knowledge. Let me tell you a dirty secret
about preachers. Preachers get discouraged because of the lack
of commitment of some church members. Lack of attendance, inconsistent
living, you know, just bad attitude. And they will say things like
that in order to try to correct people. Get believers to doubt their
salvation. They will take this very passage
from Isaiah chapter 6. So maybe you've got ears to hear,
but you haven't really heard. Or they'll take things like,
you know, even what Job said, I had heard of thee by the hearing
of mine ear, but now mine eyes have seen thee, and I've read.
Maybe I just heard about God, but I never really saw him. You
see, it's a subtle way of putting men under the law. It's what
it is. Some believed, passive, and some
believed not. Purposefully, arrogantly resisting
God. They said, I will not bow. I
do not believe that Jesus is the Christ. I heard what you
said. But I have no understanding of
that. I will not bow to that. Do you believe God's word? Every
word of it. Every single word of it. You know, what happens when you preach
the truth of God's Word to a man who doesn't believe it and he
can't defend himself with Scripture? He will attack you. And that doesn't just happen
in the gospel. It happens in politics. It happens in all walks
of life. Someone can't defend their position, so they make
it a personal attack. What do they call it? Ad hominem?
To the man? You know, let's attack the man.
We'll shut up the messenger. We can't defend ourselves against
the message. And that's exactly what men do in all areas of life. They have no defense for their
unbelief. I can't say, well, what does,
you know, if they had a concern about Scripture, they would ask,
you know, what about this Scripture? I've had people say that. Sincerely
wanting to know how do we reconcile this Scripture with what you're
saying? And with those, we are happy
to reason with them. But once it becomes a personal
attack and an argument, Once it becomes obvious that they're
not interested, they don't believe, they're not bowing, they're just
trying to justify themselves, then that's the end of the conversation.
We're not gonna go there. What am I saying? Do you believe
what God has said? Now, I was on the phone this
week with a dear friend and he brought up a church in his city.
And I went online and looked it up, and I read their confession
of faith. And they said, we believe the
whole Bible. Here's the verbatim quote from
their confession of faith. This is one of those modern,
seeker-sensitive, big entertainment churches. They call themselves
churches. They're just big goat barns,
and they're not preaching Christ, and they just, But here's what
they said in their confession of faith. We believe the whole
Bible from Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22-21 as the verbally inspired
word of God. And I wanna, I came that close
to writing, going on their website and writing them a letter. I
thought, you know what? It's not gonna be worth it. I would ask them this. Do you
believe, Jacob, I have loved? But Esau, I have hated? Oh, no, we don't believe that. Do you believe I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me out of the
world? Thine they were, and thou hast
given them unto me, and I have kept them. Do you believe that? Oh, no. Well, that's not really
what that means. I heard a story one time about a preacher who
was just reading from Romans chapter nine. He was just reading,
making no comments. And a man stood up in the congregation
and said, yeah, but that's not what it means. He didn't even
give meaning to it. He just read the simple word
of God. You see, that's what believe
not does. Believe not is active in its
unbelief. They will not bow. Oh, they'll
put in their confession, we believe the whole Bible. Had a man, I heard a man say
one time, I believe, I believe the Bible from cover to cover.
I even believe the cover for it says genuine leather. You
know, they don't believe the Bible. Do you believe I will have mercy
upon whom I will have mercy and whom I will I'll harden? Do you
believe it is finished? Do you believe as he is, so are
we in this world? That we are perfect in Christ,
sinless in Christ? You believe that? Oh no, you
can't tell people that. because then you'll take away
their motivation for right living. You gotta put them under the
fear of the law and you gotta, you know, make them inspect their
lives to see whether they're Christians to determine whether
or not they're believers. Do you believe the good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep? I lay down my life for the sheep. Do you believe, for whom he did
foreknow, them he did predestinate to be conformed to the Son, and
them who he predestinated, he called, and every day he called,
he justified, and every day he justified, he glorified, do you
believe that? Believest thou this? And some believed not. Child of God. Every one of those
verses I just read and quoted, you believe them. Why? Because God's made you a believer. Some believed, and some believed
not. This is the simplicity of faith.
The simplicity of faith. I do believe. I believe God. I believe his word. I've got
no place to go but other than resting all the hope of my salvation
on the Lord Jesus Christ as the only one that can be my righteousness
before God, the only one that can pay for my sin, the only
one that can be my surety and my Savior. I've got no place else to go,
Lord. Where else shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal
life. And we know and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You see, the
source of believing is the grace of God and the word of God. And
if you're a believer, you know that your faith was by grace
alone. And you believe every word that
God has spoken. And the simplicity of faith Huh. When I'm pointed to Christ, all
I can say is truth, Lord. Truth. Yes. Yes. Yes, I rejoice in a sovereign
Savior. I know whom I have believed And
I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. The simplicity of the gospel. Be not afraid, only believe. Only believe. Isn't that what
the Lord told Jairus when they came and told him his daughter
was dead? Bob the master no more. Be not afraid, only believe. Believing is passive and you
just made to believe everything that God says and you're made
to believe on Christ. Those who believed not took part
in their unbelief. They raised their fists toward
heaven and they said, I will not believe that. Oh, the simplicity
of faith, the simplicity of the gospel. Now, if you point me
to my life and to my experiences and to my evidences of salvation
in my life, you're gonna make me afraid. And I have to say,
well, I don't know what to believe now. But if you point me to Christ,
I will say unequivocally, absolute, total confidence, yes. Yes, I
believe. that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God. Now, obviously there are tares
among the wheat. There are. There are unbelievers
that for some reason For some reason, they gather together
with God's people. But I'm gonna tell you, and we
don't always know who they are, but if you get them to talk enough,
you'll find out they really don't believe the gospel. They really
don't. You say, I'm trying to say to
the children of God, to the believers, don't let, Lord, is it I cause
you to be so afraid of your salvation? That, you know, you start looking
for assurances and for evidences of your salvation rather than
saying, do I believe God? You know, I think it was Spurgeon
that said, you know, when I look to Christ, the dove of peace
flies into my heart. When I look to the dove of peace,
he flies away. You know, you start looking for
evidences of your salvation, you're going to, you're going
to lose hope. You're going to get discouraged. And you're going
to be under the law. And the strength of sin is the
law. You're going to find yourself struggling more with sin as a
doubting believer than you will as one who just rejoices in saying,
Lord, you see, the only strength we have over sin is the grace
of God. It's not our resolve or our commitment. It's the love of Christ that
constraineth us. It's the goodness of God that
leads us to repentance. Causing believers to doubt their
salvation only drives them deeper into, you see, it's counterproductive
to say to unbelievers, well, you know, maybe you've got it
in your head, you don't, or say to believers, maybe you have it
in your head and don't have it in your heart, only drives them
to become more unfaithful and more fearful and more sinful
because it strengthens the bonds of sin in their life. The only
thing that breaks that bond, as we saw in the previous hour, is the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ on Calvary's cross and his resurrection from the dead.
He conquered the grave. He conquered sin. He established
righteousness once and for all. Some believed passive and some
believed not active. Let me ask you a question. That
thief on the cross, did he have any evidence in his life to look
to for the proof of his salvation? I mean, he was dying. The Bible
calls him, we call him the thief on the cross. In one of the gospels,
at least, it calls him a murderer. I mean, this guy, he was an insurrectionist,
a murderer, a thief. He was getting what he deserved.
He said that about himself. We're getting what we deserve.
Could he look to anything in his life as the evidence of his
salvation? No. Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. Could the thief on the cross
look to any of the circumstances around him that would convince
him that this one dying between him and the other thief was God? and that he was going to establish
an eternal kingdom? Was there anything in his circumstances
or in his life that would have convinced him that he was a believer
and that Jesus was the Christ? One believed and one believed
not. And the one that believed was
passive in his faith. God had opened up his ears and
he heard the things that the Lord Jesus spoke from the cross. He heard, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? He heard, Father, forgive them
for they know not what they do. He heard the things that the
Lord Jesus spoke and he believed that he was God. Lord, would you remember me? When you
come into your kingdom, I know you're gonna have a kingdom.
I know that your kingdom is sure. All he had, all he had was faith. The subject of his faith, The
subject of our faith was that one hanging next to him. Look
what Paul said in verse 23. He expounded and testified the
kingdom of God. Well, let's go back up to verse
20 first. That's where we started. Look, because that for the hope
of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ is called the hope of Israel.
We were without God and without hope in this world. Oh, what
a sad thing it is to be without hope. Those who raise their fist
to God and take part in their unbelief, who say, I will not
bow, I will not believe, I will not submit to Him, have no hope,
no hope. But for the hope of Israel, the hope of Israel, Ah, Jacob's name was changed
to Israel. Jacob had 12 sons, the sons of
Israel. Picture in the church, Israel has a hope. Not those
who are circumcised by man's hands in the flesh, but those
who have been circumcised in the heart by the spirit of God.
Let me remind you what that means. As God cut away, that useless
flesh in your heart as the hope of your salvation. That's the
circumcision of the heart. The circumcision of the heart
is what the man who says, I will not believe, will not get rid
of. It's his fleshly works. It's
his dependence upon his own righteousness for his salvation. And when the
Spirit of God comes passively and makes you a believer, all
of a sudden you realize that your righteousness is as filthy
rags and that man at his very best state is altogether vanity
and you have nothing to offer God for the hope of your salvation. You're completely dependent upon
the Lord Jesus Christ to be your righteousness. That's the circumcision
of the heart. And that's all of Israel. And
some believed. They just believed. Now this
same confession that I read the quote about the Bible, what they
believed about the Bible, of course they wrote in their confession,
we believe that Jesus Christ is the second person of the triune
Godhead, that he is the son of God and that he is God the son.
Every mainline denomination of Christianity in the world makes
that claim. That's why you'll find the Catholics
and the Presbyterians and the Baptists referring to the Mormons
and the Jehovah's Witnesses as a cult, because those two organizations
have publicly denied the deity of Christ. And so all of the
Christianity says, well, those are cults because they don't
believe in the deity of Christ, but we believe in the deity of
Christ. Do you? Do you? You know, words change
their meanings over time, don't they? These Jews knew the scriptures. They knew exactly what Paul was
saying. They had no defense to deny what he was declaring. And they said, some said, we
believe, and others said, we don't believe that. So there
was no debate over, you know, over the scriptures. It was just
some believed and some didn't. So what has Satan done since? You know, this idea of a Messiah
or a Christ who would not be successful in securing and accomplishing
the salvation of all of Israel is foreign to the Jewish mindset. You won't find a Jew. Most Jews
today are only Jews by family ties and traditions, but you
find a religious Jew and ask them about the Messiah. Oh, he's
going to establish Israel. He's going to save all of Israel.
He's going to be successful in accomplishing the salvation of
his people. This idea that that Jesus could
die for some that would end up in hell. It comes right out of
Greek mythology. You know, where you've got the
gods fighting with each other and fighting with man, trying
to decide who has established authority, and no one ever wins
in the end. This idea of a Jesus who has
failed to accomplish the salvation of his people is a Gentile heresy. These Jews never would have thought
that. So let me ask you this. When
you say, I believe, are you just saying, you know, I believe what
every other religious person believes, but I've changed the
definition. Changed the definition of Christ.
I've changed the definition of God. Words do change definitions. Gay doesn't mean happy anymore.
Aw, awful, awful. Not long ago. I mean, not in
my lifetime, but a few generations ago, the word awful meant full
of awe. And it was used only in reference
to God. And what have we done? We've
changed awful to awesome. And now we've got a God who has
some awe, but not all awe. Words change meanings and that's
all the religious community has done. Satan has deceived them. They have believed the lie and
they've, they say Jesus is Lord. They honor him with their lips,
but in their hearts, they're far from it. They don't bow to
him. We're not going to believe that. A Christ, Jesus, who shall put
away the sins of his people? You shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. Did he really
save them? You see, they can use all the
right words and mean something completely different. When those
who believed heard the Word of God, they didn't change the definition. They didn't change the meaning.
Yes, He's Lord. He's Lord. He's God. He's the sovereign, successful
Savior of sinners. That's what I believe. I believe that he ascended back
into glory and he's seated at the right hand of God and he's
interceding for his people. He's not up in heaven wringing
his hands, begging men to let him have his way. He's God. He actually took with him the
names of those for whom he lived and died. And I am in fact in
the heavenlies right now in Christ. All my sin's been put away. perfectly
righteous in the sight of God. I believe that. I believe that
as he is, so am I. It's my only hope. I just believe
what God has said. I'm not gonna rest the scriptures.
I'm not gonna change the scriptures. These Jews knew exactly what
Paul was saying when he expounded unto them from Moses and the
Psalms and the prophets, those things concerning Jesus Christ
and his kingdom. as the hope of Israel. And they
believed. They believed. And some believe
not. Child of God, God's made you
a believer. Rejoice. Rejoice in what he's
caused you to believe. Resist the temptation to look
to anywhere other than Christ for the hope of your salvation. And say with that, with that
man, Lord, I do believe. Thank you for my faith. Thank
you for causing me to bow. Thank you for causing me to believe.
Help them on unbelief. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Bless it to the hearts of your
people. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 226. Let's stand together. 226. I am.