And I'm just delighted because
the topic that I'd like to look at, I would like us just to focus
on one verse. There's the great description
of the Apostles' Creed. Men can cocktail a creed 150
years after the death or the birth of the Lord Jesus, but
this is the Apostles' Creed according to the Scriptures. And it's really
simple. Like all of the things of God,
they are delightful in their simplicity. And as we read from
John's Gospel, you will find that there's a delightful simplicity
in John's Gospel. Our God is able to say a lot
through very few words. I'll just read the verse that
I'd like us to spend some time thinking about this morning,
and then I'll have to go back and put it into some context.
But the apostles, Peter stood up and said, But we believe,
verse 11, but we believe that through the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they. The they, of course, are the
Gentiles. So let's just read from verse 1 of chapter 15 to
get some context and bring us back to some memories that we
had of a month or so ago. Verse 1, and certain men which
came down from Judea taught the brethren and said, except you
be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. When therefore Paul and Barnabas
had no small dissension and disputation with him, they determined that
Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to
Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. And
being brought on their way by the church, they passed through
Phoenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles,
and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. And when they
were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church and
of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that
God had done with them. But there arose up certain of
the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was
needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law
of Moses. And the apostles and elders came
together for to consider this matter. And when there had been
much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men and brethren,
you know that a good while ago God made choice among us, that
the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and
believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
beareth them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as
he did unto us. and put no difference between
us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore why tempt ye God
to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our
fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they. Then all the multitude kept silence
and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles
and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them. And after
they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren,
hearken unto me. Simeon hath declared how God
at first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people
for his name. And to this agree the words of
the prophets, as it is written, after this I will return and
will build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down,
and I will build again the ruins thereof. and I will set it up
that the residue of men might seek after the Lord and all the
Gentiles upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth
all these things. Known unto God are all his works,
from the beginning of the world, now and unto God. That's the
context. We've got some people away, as
you can see. John's up visiting his daughter and granddaughter
in Sydney. Our guests from England have
gone home and are rejoicing over their time here and thankful
to the Lord and to you people for everything that's happened. They've gone back, according
to Beth, with new recipes and bought themselves a green smoothie
machine. So all sorts of things have happened. So Greg and others send their
regards to you, and Peter as well. Don Faulkner, I believe,
has the last of those operations, well not the last, but the next
big one of those operations on the tumours in his lungs. I think
it's tomorrow, so if you have a chance to send him a note or
write to Shelby, I'm sure it would be much appreciated. Let's
go back to our text, as we've read several passages of Scripture
and we've sung all of our songs have been about grace. In fact,
the name of our church, as much as we couldn't use the name that
we probably would have most liked to have had, Sovereign Grace
Baptist Church, it's the byline of our church because it's the
grace of God that most It must work in the hearts of
God's people for them to see the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the
grace of God as defined in the scriptures that declares the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's full of grace and truth. And we receive any grace that
we ever receive, we receive it from Him. And just as Aaron was
commanded to come out and speak those glorious words that we
read out of Numbers chapter six, the Lord make his face to shine
upon thee and be gracious unto thee. So it's not for nothing
that in this one and only council of the apostles, that our friend
and our brother Peter would stand up and directed by God the Holy
Spirit, our friend and brother Luke has written these words
down, but when he comes to speak And he comes to speak. He wants
to declare what they believe. What they believe. Verse 11 is
a glorious verse, isn't it? It's a glorious summary of what
we believe. It's a summary of what all believers
believe. Peter is speaking here not just
on behalf of the apostles, he's speaking on behalf of every Christian
that has ever been. He's speaking on behalf of Abel,
he's speaking on behalf of Noah, who found grace in the eyes of
the Lord. We believe, we believe that through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they."
The salvation of everyone is going to be a salvation that
looks exactly like the salvation of the Gentiles. And what were
these Gentiles doing during all of that period? They had, since
the Tower of Babel, been living in idolatrous wickedness. They weren't even aware most
of them. They weren't even aware of the
great acts of God that the Jews had witnessed. They weren't even
aware of what happened on Mount Sinai. These Gentiles were pagans
and we miss something of what it meant for the Jews. When they
called them Gentile dogs, they really meant it. They really
meant it. They weren't just words, they
were they were a serious challenge to what the Gentile world did
and what the Gentile world believed. So there's a glorious buff at
the beginning of this, and the glorious buff has to do with
the fact that salvation is by grace, and salvation by grace
implies necessarily that people are sinners, and it implies necessarily
that everything they have ever done is nothing but sin. If you
turn with me to Galatians chapter 2, we can just read some verses. Again and again we want to highlight
that salvation is the sovereign work of God on behalf of his
people. It's all that God did. It's God
gathering a people for himself. He's taking out a people for
his name. Someone said that these are some
of the most important verses in the Bible. Not sure about
that, but I wouldn't disagree with them either. We who are
Jews by nature are not sinners of the Gentiles, Galatians 2.15,
knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but
by the faith of Jesus Christ. Get that right in your heads
and read it closely with me. The faith, the faithfulness of
Jesus Christ. Almost all the modern translations
in the last couple of hundred years put our faith in that place
there. But the text says, and says clearly,
it is the faith, the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed
in Jesus Christ. that we might be justified by
the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law, for
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." This
is why Peter puts that but in there, because these people are
saying you must go back under the law of Moses. To live out
your sanctified Christian life, you need to go back to the law
of Moses and obey it. Verse 17, but if while we seek
to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners. Is therefore Christ a miniature
of sin? God forbid. He's talking about
people who don't have the law. For if I build again the things
which I destroy, I make myself a transgressor. And this is a
glorious verse. I pray that you'd have it written
on your hearts. as Job said, written with a pen
of iron on tablets of stones, for I through the law am dead
to the law that I might live unto God. The death of the Lord
Jesus Christ, he was born of a woman and made made under the
law. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
was a death that was exacted on Him by the law of God. When
He was lifted on Calvary's tree, He was made a curse. And because
all the sins of all of God's people were made His and He owned
them as His, it was a legal and right and just thing for God
the Father to punish Him with all of the infinite, eternal,
holy wrath of God. But he died, and he's died, and
we died with him. And therefore, the law says nothing
to a dead man. The law says nothing to a dead
man. But not only are we dead with
him, but we're raised with him, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life which
I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me. That's how you live. You live by the faithfulness
of the Son of God. Faithful in everything, and faithful
now to his promises. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. Christ is dead in vain. While you're still there in Galatians,
let's go down to verse 10. For as many, chapter three, verse
10, for as many are as are of the works of the law. That word
of denotes origin. If you trace anything in your
Christian life to the things of the law, to the things that
you do, the things that you have done, the things that you might
do, It's law. For as many are as of the works
of the law are under the curse, for it is written, Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. It's literally to have
done them. Trying hard is not good enough. Doing your best is not good enough. God simply requires holiness
and perfection. But that no man is justified
by the law and the sight of God, it is evident. For the just shall
live by faith. Let's go over the page to Galatians
4.21. You can read all of this. You'll
see what the buck means in Acts 15.11 as you read Galatians.
Tell me ye that desire to be under the law. Do you not hear
the law? And then he goes on to talk about
those two children that Abraham had. Abraham had two sons, one
by the bondwoman and the other by a free woman. But he who was
of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the free
woman was by promise. Which things are in allegory?
For these are the two covenants. The one from Mount Sinai which
gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount
Sinai in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem which now is, where
this meeting was being held in Acts chapter 15, as it and is
in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem which is above
is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written,
Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not, and break forth and cry,
thou that travailest not. For the desolate shall have many
more children than she which hath a husband. Now we, brethren,
as I as it was, are the children of promise. But as then, he that
was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit.
Even so it is now. Nevertheless, what sayeth the
Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the
bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So
then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the
free. And he goes on to say, stand
fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us
free. and be not entangled again with
the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you,
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing." To
go back to the law, to go back to circumcision, to go back to
the law of Moses, is to have no profit from Christ. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, he is a debtor to the whole law. Christ is become of no effect
unto you. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you are fallen from grace. Then he gives another
great description of how we live in this world. as grace believers,
as saved by grace, for we through the Spirit wait for the hope
of righteousness by faith. For in Christ Jesus Christ neither
circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith
which worketh by love." The Spirit of God sets people free. It's remarkable, isn't it, how
clear the words are in the scriptures. And as again, I will tell you
that if you go to any other Christian organisation throughout this
land that I'm aware of, in one way or another, they will put
you back under the law. And Galatians 5.18 says, and
if you be led of the Spirit, you are not under law. I'll leave it for you to decide
what that means about those who are under the law, and put people
under the law, and put people under bondage of works. I love
what Romans 10.5, isn't it? Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. He's as far as it goes. He magnified the law and made
it honourable. He's the only person that ever
kept one of God's laws. You and I cannot possibly keep
them. We never have, we never will,
and we deny Him by even attempting to do so. So this is what they
believed, isn't it? This is what Peter was saying
in Acts chapter 15. He says, but, that was the but, to try
and cover what the but means. But we believe, all of them believe. It's very interesting, Todd Nibus
kept talking about the fact that believing is not a choice. Believing
is not a choice. You can choose all sorts of other
things, but when the Lord God comes and makes himself known,
believing is not a choice. Believing, you can choose all
the other ways you'd like to go. There's a great verse at
the end of Joshua in chapter four. You probably recall the
day, you recall the event at the end of Joshua's life in chapter
24 verse 14. He says, now therefore fear the
Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth and put away the gods
which your father served on the other side of the flood and in
Egypt and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you
to serve the Lord, choose. You can choose. God has arrayed
before humanity the most extraordinary range, the most extraordinary
smorgasbord of choices in religion. You can choose. You can choose. You choose this day whom you'll
serve, whether the gods which your father served are on the
other side of the flood or the gods of the Amorites in whose
land you dwell. You choose. He doesn't say you
choose the Lord. He says you choose which of these
gods you want to serve. But as for me, as for me and
my house, we will serve the Lord. Now we know that a man called
Joshua said those words a long time ago, but there was another
Joshua, another Joshua who said those words. So Joshua's the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's Joshua's, this Joshua,
our Lord Jesus Christ, who really says, but as for me in my house,
we will serve the Lord. God's people will serve the Lord. Others can choose, but God's
people don't have any choice. And the reason they don't have
any choice is because of the promises that we read in these
remarkable verses in Acts, that God, who knows the heart, who
knows the heart, He's given them, verse 8 of Acts 15, if you stay
there now. He knows the hearts, and He's
given them the Holy Spirit, even as He did with us. And He's borne
them witness, this God that we're talking about. He bears witness
to His people that they are His children. His Spirit speaks with
our spirit, as Romans 8 says. And He put no difference between
us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. So that's a declaration of the
grace of God, isn't it? That He's purified your hearts
by faith. I love defining the grace of
God. It's one of the most wonderful
things that you can do is go to some concordance and look
up the grace of God and look at the words associated with
the grace of God in the scriptures, and it's the most beautiful,
beautiful thing. See, grace is only ever grace
for the elect. There is no such thing as common
grace, because common grace is ineffectual grace. Peter here
is talking about what we believe, the grace of God was effective
in them, and it's effective in all believers throughout all
time. There is no such thing as common grace. It's as ineffectual
and blasphemous as the idea of common love or a common death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is only ever in the scriptures
described as the operation of God towards people in pure charity. It comes, the grace of God comes
unasked for and it comes undesired. There's not a single word in
the scriptures that tells us that these people in Galatia,
that Paul had gone on this missionary journey, had sent letters down
to Jerusalem saying, we want to know about this. There wasn't
a single word about it. Even the Jews in those places
didn't know about it. It comes from the sovereign hand
of God. I love that description, isn't
it? He visited the Gentiles. When God visits a people, when
he visits the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for his
name. When he takes a people out, he's
going to take a people out in the declaration of his name,
not in the hiding of his name, in the declaring of his name.
So grace is only towards the elect. Grace is eternal grace. Eternal grace. Grace is sovereign
grace. And we talk about free grace. And people will say, well, that's
just a tautology, you're using the same word twice. Well, it's
a good thing to do, isn't it? It doesn't hurt. It's a blessed
repetition. It's eternal grace. It's sovereign
grace. He says, I'll be gracious to
whom I will be gracious. It's eternal. It's electing grace. That's why there is, in Hebrews
4.11, that throne of grace. You go to that throne of grace
in time of need. If you don't find yourself in
a time of need on a minute by minute basis, then I feel for
you because I am. We have a throne of grace, but
we come boldly to the throne of grace to receive from Him. See, grace is opposed to works
because grace undoes all of human merit whatsoever. See, it's too
humbling. The reason people don't like
the doctrines of grace is that they are too humbling for a heart
that hasn't been broken by God. And it's emptying of self-righteousness. And grace, sovereign grace, exposes
rebels. Exposes rebels. God's children, God's children
in this world are the recipients of grace and they delight in
grace and they all believe in saving grace. You see this, let's
look back at our text in verse 11 of chapter 15 of Acts. We
believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall
be saved even as they. So this is grace that comes and
comes effectually. I love what that word save means. It means to be safe, ultimately,
if you pour it down. And I don't like talking about
Greek, but if you understand that aorist means completed activity,
and passive means something that we don't do ourselves, and infinitive
means something that goes on forever. That's what that word
means. That's what Peter was saying
to those people there. This is a completed activity.
You had nothing to do with it whatsoever, and it's eternal. Eternal. It means to be safe. Other ways that word is translated
in scriptures is to be made whole, to be healed, to be safe, to
be saved. We believe, we believe that through
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. To be a believer in saving grace
necessarily implies that you have absolutely nothing to offer
whatsoever, which is exactly what the scriptures say, isn't
it? We are dead. We are dead in transgressions
and sins. We are incapable. We're incapable
of any law works. We're incapable of doing anything
for ourselves. We are utterly and entirely dependent
upon the grace of God. See, men use the word grace,
and then they deny it by their works. I found a card outside
here that talked about, and I'm sure if you go to this evangelistic
organisation, they would talk about grace. They talk about
grace, and they talk about salvation by grace, and in fact they'd
go and defend it. He says, in this little card
that was in the gutter out here last week, and I'm sure they're
probably all over the place, the only way to get to heaven
is then is if we have a substitute, a perfect person who can take
the punishment for us on our behalf. Jesus, who is God, is
the only one who's ever lived perfectly. And 2,000 years ago,
he died on the cross, rising three days later. He took your
punishment for you if. I see that in statements of faith
almost universally throughout this world. If. There you are. There you are Beth Day. If. Go and do it. Go and do it. That's not the grace of God.
That's not the salvation that Peter's talking about. They never
ever spoke like that. They never ever mentioned that
God loves everyone and Jesus died for everyone and he's out
in the business. hanging over the parapets of heaven, wandering
up and down, wondering how on earth he's going to get his people
saved because they're so willful and rebellious and wicked. Our
God sits in heaven and all of his people are seated together
with him. They deny it. They say, don't
they, that God, no matter how bad you are, will accept you
if if you do something, if you come
to Jesus, if you accept Jesus as your personal saviour, if
you invite Jesus into your life. That sounds so sweet, doesn't
it? As if somehow you can invite the sovereign God of this universe
to do anything. That's why the grace of God that
Peter is speaking about, the grace of God that saves, is electing
grace. The only grace of God is electing
grace. God choosing. You read it there in Acts 15
verse 7. God made choice among us. He
makes choices among people all the time. He made a choice among
the apostles that he was going to send Peter down to Samaria.
He made a choice amongst the Gentiles that Cornelius and his
household would be there. He made a choice. He's always
making choices. And I'm thankful that he does.
It's such a comfort, isn't it, that salvation doesn't have anything
to do with my works. It's electing grace, it's eternal
grace. Those verses in 2 Timothy chapter
1 are the verses that I spoke on at Owen's wife Helen's funeral. It speaks of a God in verse 9
that says, who has saved us and called us. What did he do first? He did the saving first, and
then he does the calling, and he calls us with a holy calling.
The calling from heaven is a holy calling. It comes with all the
power and efficacy of God. He called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works. not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace which was given us
in Christ Jesus when? When did the children of God
have this grace? He was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing
of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought
life and immortality to light through the Gospel. He's abolished death, brothers
and sisters, I know it seems impossible to believe, and any
of God's children who don't ponder their meeting with the Lord on
a regular basis, I feel for them. I think it's a sobering and a
comforting thing to think of. But he's abolished death. He
says he's abolished death. He says you don't die. This body
dies, but this body is the one thing that hinders me from worship
and fellowship of my God. Electing grace is efficacious
grace. Electing grace is saving grace. Paul goes on in Romans 9 to describe
it, doesn't he? In words that the religious people
who think they've got some good works find offensive, that God's
children find delightful in Romans 9.11, for the children not yet
being born, being not yet born, neither having done any good
or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might
stand. not of works, but of him who
calleth." My salvation, the salvation that Peter's talking about, the
salvation that makes him safe, makes him whole, heals him. is a salvation that's done so
perfectly and completely that there is no possibility of it
ever failing. See, without election, there
is no gospel. Without election, there is no
grace. Romans 11 calls it the election
of grace. Even so, then at this present
time, there is also a remnant according to the election of
grace. All of God's children are going to be a remnant. a
remnant, just like the remnants in the carpet shop. You don't
see them on display before all the world. You go into a room
and they're hidden around the corner, all the remnants. But
there they are. They're God's remnants. They're
God's remnants. Saving grace is electing grace. Saving grace is redeeming grace. We believe But, we're not having
anything to do with works. We believe that through the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved. That word through means
the means of, or because of this reason. See, for grace to be
saving grace, it must be redeeming grace. That the sin debt is paid. The wages are paid in full. We were sold and we were captive. I love what the hymn writer said,
Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe. Sin had left a crimson
stain. He washed it white as snow. He paid a particular debt. for
particular people and he paid that debt in full. And that's
what the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is testifying
to all this world and to all of God's people. Salvation is entirely in his
hands. Redeemed. Redeemed. Set free. Redeemed to belong
to Him. For grace to be saving grace,
it has to be electing grace, it has to be redeeming grace,
it has to be justifying grace. We are justified in that famous
verse in Romans 3.24, being justified, being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. As I said earlier, The Gospel
is a declaration of the character of God, and the comfort of God's
people is in the very character of God, that He's perfectly faithful
to His promises, that He's perfectly holy, and He's perfectly just. And when He declares that someone
is justified, it means that they have no sin before God. That's what it is to be justified.
No sin, no sin before God. I love what it says in chapter
15 of Acts, it says, God which knoweth the hearts. God which
knoweth the hearts. So there's no point pretending
that somehow we can polish this outside and we can polish this
outside and we can make this outside look to all the world
in remarkable ways to be religious and to be somewhat sanctified
and certainly much holier than those wicked people that we can
see all around us. But God's actually looking at
your heart. He looks at your heart. To be justified is to
be without sin. to be without guilt, to be without
shame, because all of those sins were born in the body of the
Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree, and they were born away,
and the justice of God now declares these people to be perfectly
free of those sins, justified freely by His grace. I know we
quote it often, but this is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ
on Calvary's tree, 1st Colossians 1.22, in the body of his flesh,
through death, through that redemption and through that justifying grace,
to present you his work, is to take his bride and present you
holy and unblameable and unreprovable. And I love what it says at the
end of that sentence. It says, in his sight. He knows our hearts, brothers
and sisters. He knows our hearts. So this
is the saving grace that Peter was talking about. This saving
grace that's in direct contrast and in direct opposition to salvation
by works of any sort at all. So this saving grace comes as
the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed to people through the preaching
of the gospel, which is why when Paul went down there to Jerusalem
to this place where there are difficulties, the first thing
he did was preach the gospel to them. And Peter gets up and
he preaches the gospel to them. He preaches the gospel to them.
We shall be saved. We shall be made safe. See, saving grace is life-giving
grace. The new creature, the new creature,
we are new creations in Christ Jesus. We are partakers of the
divine nature. It is, as Colossians 1.29 says,
it is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And in that new creature,
we have the faith to take hold of the promises of God. That
new life loves the Lord Jesus Christ. That new life loves the
brethren. That new life is a life of repentance. That new life is a life of perseverance. It's the only grace there is.
It's electing grace. It's redeeming grace. It's justifying
grace. It's life-giving grace that Peter
was talking about. And he says, we shall be saved. He doesn't say that we might
be saved if. We shall be saved. The grace of God is preserving
grace. So we're kept all the way to
the end. because we cannot keep ourselves. The grace of God keeps His people
and preserves His people. And as we saw and keep reading,
isn't it, that the residue of man might seek after the Lord
and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called." When he names
these people his, they were named his from before the foundation
of the world. In Romans 8, you have those remarkable
verses that are so known and then so denied so openly. For
we know that all things work together for the good of them
that love God, to them who are thee called according to his
purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What then, what shall we say
then to these things? If God be for us, if God be for
us, who can be against us? Peter finishes that sentence
by saying, just as they are. So how are the Gentiles saved? The Gentiles are saved eternally
in electing grace. The Gentiles are saved in redeeming
grace by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree.
The Gentiles are saved by justifying grace. The Gentiles are saved
by preverving grace. This is what we believe. This
is what we believe, says Paul. And your believing it or not
believing it doesn't change the facts. This is what we believe.
This is what God's children have always believed. We believe that through the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved, even as they. I love how the next words go
on, and the multitude kept silence. It's a great way to respond to
the grace of God, isn't it? The multitude kept silence. Let
God be God, and the multitude keep silence. I'd like to close with a couple
of things. I'd like to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and Paul
has his description of this. Same declaration that we believe
in 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9, for you know Do you know it, brothers and
sisters? For you know. God's people know things. We
know things because we're taught of God, as he has promised. For
you know that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through
his poverty might be rich. You know these things. You know
that grace is the unmerited favour of the Lord Jesus Christ. How
rich is the Lord Jesus Christ? He's remarkably rich, isn't he? He can create a universe, and
if he has any need for a bit more, he can create a little
bit more, can't he? He owns everything. We read it in John's Gospel at
the beginning. Everything was created by him,
and everything was created for him. This is his creation. He owns it. He rules it. Every
last little bit of it that wriggles is in his control. But he's rich. He's rich in all that he owns.
But the greatest riches of the Lord Jesus Christ aren't the
things we see with this world, are they? The greatest riches
of the Lord Jesus Christ are the riches of his character.
What riches of holiness? We have no idea what holiness
is. But he's rich in holiness. The father could say of him,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. He's rich
in all the perfections of deity. He's rich in faithfulness. He's rich in love. He's rich in righteousness. The angels sing his praises. Angels. But he's rich, most of
all. And I think he expressed it most
clearly on Calvary's tree. He's rich in the presence of
his father. In Gethsemane's garden, when
that cup was given him and he looked into that cup and he saw
the sins of all of the children of God throughout time, he saw
all of those sins. and his holy soul recoiled in
agony. But in the garden, he could still
call him my father. And in the garden, the angels
could come and support that humanity as those great drops of blood
fell to the ground in sweat in Gethsemane's garden. But on Calvary's
tree, in all of that agony, He doesn't
call him my father anymore. But in remarkable faithfulness,
he says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The great joy of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the great richness that he had was the presence of his
father, the communion he had with his father. And that's one
of the wonders of the Gospel, isn't it, throughout the Old
Testament Scriptures. He says, I will be to them a
God, and they shall be to me a people. The riches is the riches of that
communion he had with his father. Nothing compares to it. For you
who have been blessed by the presence of God in the preaching
of the gospel, in the opening up of his word, there is something
in the presence of Almighty God as he visits his people And he leaves, as he did with the
Shulamite and the Song of Solomon, he leaves tokens of his presence
and tokens of his suffering behind and she goes longing for him. If you read Psalm 11, the things
that she agonises for is more of his presence. He's taken her
into his banqueting house and his banner over her is love.
And when she's absent from him, when he's absent from her, she's
in agony. So he was rich. He was rich in
those things. Yet for your sakes, he became
poor. For your sakes. For the sakes
of all those who know, for the sakes of all those who are the
believers that Peter is speaking about in Acts chapter 15, for
your sake, for your sake, he became poor. He who was holy, and separate
from sinners and undefiled, and perfect in righteousness and
holiness before his Father, was made sin, was made sin. He who was the praise of the
angels was here hanging naked on Calvary's tree and mocked
by men. He trusted in God, they said.
He trusted in God. They mocked his faith on Calvary's
tree. He became poor. For your sakes,
he became poor. He who created the universe,
he who had the power and authority over all things, it says he was
crucified through weakness. And most of all, he became poor. in that missing of his father's
presence. We never speak of these things,
brothers and sisters, in any way to enter into them, except
if by the grace of God the Holy Spirit might come and do as he's
promised to take those things of the Lord Jesus Christ and
reveal them to us. He became poor, for your sakes
He became poor, that through His poverty, through His poverty,
you might be made rich. How rich are believers now? How
rich? I just read it in Colossians
121, didn't I? Holy, we're rich in holiness,
a holiness that God puts on His people. We're unapprovable. perfect, perfect in His sight,
complete in Him. We're rich in righteousness,
brothers and sisters. We are made the very righteousness
of God in Him. We're rich in power. The Holy Spirit comes and indwells
the people of God, and it's Christ in you, the hope of glory. and
we're rich in his presence. We may not feel it, and we'll
certainly feel his absence more often than his presence. But
then we have a promise from God. What did he say? I'll never leave
you. In fact, it really says, I'll
never, never, never, never leave you, nor forsake you. We're rich. We're made rich. You see, grace is not coerced
from our Lord Jesus Christ by our efforts. From his fullness,
we've all received grace for grace. From the fountain of the
fullness of his being, grace flows and continues to flow. That was that picture in Exodus,
wasn't it? But that rock, that rock that
was struck, the Lord Jesus Christ was standing on that rock according
to the word of God. And Moses took the law of God
and he struck the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a picture of the
gospel. It's a picture of salvation.
It's a picture of what happened on Calvary's tree. And he struck
that rock and that rock opened. And what flowed out of that rock?
water flowed out of that rock. The other remarkable thing about
that rock, for 40 years they wandered in that desert, and
where was the rock? The rock followed them for 40
years, brothers and sisters. Now, I can't explain that for
one moment, but all I know is that every time they set up camp,
there was the rock. And every time they packed up
and moved and wondered, how on earth am I going to get some
water for myself and my children and my wife and my animals? And
they sat down again, and what was there? A rock, a smitten
rock flowing with water. So he didn't have to do anything
else to the rock. The rock was there. Such is the
grace that flows to God's people, that we might be made rich. No
wonder Peter defends sovereign grace, because there's none other. He defends sovereign grace and
proclaims sovereign grace to these people in this one and
only Council of the Apostles. Because it's a description of
the Lord Jesus Christ. It describes him. I might close with those verses
that Noah reminded me of out of numbers. Glorious verses. The high priest had done his
work. The high priest had come out. He'd taken that blood into
the Holy of Holies. I've got the wrong part of Numbers.
It's Numbers chapter 6, verse 24. Thank you Noah. And this is what blood redemption
does. This is what electing, justifying, preserving, life-giving
grace does. The Lord Jesus Christ, in picture,
had been slain, and God had accepted that. You shall bless the children
of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep
thee. The Lord make his face to shine
upon thee, and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his countenance
upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon
the children of Israel, and I will bless them. Grace causes God,
Almighty God, to put his name upon his children. Let's pray.
Our Heavenly Father, we do thank you and praise you that you are
a gracious God and that our dear and precious Saviour is full
of grace and truth. And Heavenly Father, we are so
thankful that sinners like us can hide under the shelter of
His wings and find comfort. We can come to a throne of grace
and find a crucified Saviour sitting there. Oh, our Father,
we pray that you cause us to come and to come continually. You'd cause us to look to the
Lord Jesus Christ, the fountain of all blessings and grace to
all of your people. Heavenly Father, we do pray as
we take these elements, these pictures of that broken body,
these pictures of that shed blood on Calvary's tree, Heavenly Father,
that we might be made by your grace to know him, that as we
eat we might remember him, our father. and we might remember
him with joy and with delight, and that we might find ourselves,
as Peter and all believers have done throughout time, believing,
relying, resting the entirety of our eternal beings on the
doing and dying of your dear and precious son, our Lord Jesus
Christ. Heavenly Father, bless us for
his sake. We pray. Amen.