to be here with you. I appreciate
the invitation, your hospitality, and I count it a great honor
to be able to count this congregation among our friends. You may be
surprised to know how often Janet and I speak of you all, we pray
for you, And your pastor is just one of my dear friends. We've
got him making an annual trip through Ashland to stop and preach
for us. And we look forward to it all year long. I appreciate
you. Pray God's richest blessing would
be upon you. Now in Acts chapter 15, we have the account of the first
recorded Bible conference. And the theme of that conference
is how are sinners saved? Now that Christ has died, he's
risen again, he's ascended back on high, what role do the law
and the ceremonies have to play in the salvation of God's elect?
The apostles and the other brethren came together to give a clear
answer to this question. And this is the clear answer.
Well, first of all, the question was this, is salvation by grace
or works? And the title of the message
this evening is Grace or Works? Which? Now just to be clear,
the answer is 100% one way or the other. There can be no mixture
of the two. There can be no mixture of grace
and works. Salvation is either all of our
works or it's all of God's grace, one or the other. Any mixture
of works with grace makes salvation all of works. I'll show you that
if you look and hold your finger there. Look at Romans chapter
11. Any mixture of works with grace makes salvation all of
works. In Romans chapter 11 verse 5. Even so then at this present
time also there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works. Otherwise,
grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is
it no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more works. So it's one or the other, isn't
it? And if we add anything to God's grace, we turn salvation
into salvation by works. Christ plus anything is works. Christ plus your law, Christ
plus your morality is works. It's salvation by works. Christ
plus your baptism or your church membership is salvation by works. And I point that out because
there were some here at the church at Jerusalem who said, now Christ
does save, but you also must be circumcised in order to keep
the law of Moses if you'll be saved. And that's worth pointing
out because that was their human nature and that's our human nature
here today. Human nature has always believed
that, salvation by works. You may be sitting here tonight,
and the Lord saved you. He's revealed Himself to you.
You're born again. But I'm telling you what, your
old nature's unchanged. The nature you were born with
is unchanged. We still have this nature that
believes and works, carrying around with us today. And this
is the question that they came to answer. Look here at verse
1 of Acts chapter 15. And certain men, which came from
Judea, taught the brethren and said, except you be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. In verse five,
we read that again, but there rose 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 Paul and Barnabas heard this, and they would not let that go
for one second. Look here at verse two. When
therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation
with them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain
other of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and
elders about this question. So, verse six, they came together
for this first Bible conference. And the apostles and elders came
together for to consider this matter. And there was a lot of
discussion, maybe some argument going back and forth. And then
the apostle Peter stood up and made the answer plain. Salvation,
Peter says, is by grace, without any of our works. Look at verse
7. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and
said unto them, Men and brethren, you know how 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 then Peter continues
to talk to them, and he points out several ways that this is
so clear. Our works or anything about our
flesh cannot save us. Whatever it is you think may
be positive about your flesh, Peter's going to shoot it down.
Nothing about our flesh, nothing that we do in this flesh can
save us. First of all, he shows us that no sinner, whether they're
a Jew or Gentile, doesn't matter who they are, no sinner can be
saved by keeping the law. Look at verse 10. He says, 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?
No man, woman, boy, or girl can keep the law. The law is a burden,
our sinful nature. Our nature is fallen. It cannot
bear the burden of the law. So it's obvious we can't be saved
by keeping the law. Second, Peter tells them no sinner
can be cleansed of our sin by the ceremonies of the law, the
ceremonies of religion, verse 9. And put no difference between
us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. There's no difference,
Peter says, between the Jew and the Gentile. If we're going to
be saved, it's got to be by grace. To the Jews, that meant their
heart couldn't be cleansed by keeping the Passover, or observing
all the ceremonies of the Day of Atonement, or keeping the
Sabbath day. Their heart could not be cleansed from all the
different ceremonial washings. They had many different ceremonial
washings, but it couldn't cleanse their soul, their heart. You
know, it is a good idea to wash your hands before you eat, but
now that's not going to help your soul. It'll just help your
body. It just has an effect on your body. And I tell you what
this means to us today. There's no difference in anyone.
There's no difference whether you've got a religious background
or you've got a background what we might call being a heathen.
I don't care what your background is. If we're going to be saved,
it's got to be by grace. Got to be. Our hearts cannot
be cleansed because we know the right doctrine. Now, you can't
be saved because you're a Calvinist. The only way you can be saved
is by knowing Christ. It's not your doctrine. It's
not knowledge. Our sinful souls can't be cleansed
by the waters of baptism. Baptism is a confession of what's
already happened. It's a confession of faith in
Christ that Christ has already cleansed us from our sin. We
don't become cleansed when we're baptized. It's a confession Christ
has already done that. We can only be cleansed in Christ. By faith in Christ. Never by
religious ceremonies. Thirdly, Peter says this. No
sinner is saved because of who they're related to. You know,
he said there's no difference between us and them. There's
no difference between the Jew and the Gentiles. Sinners can
only be saved by an act of God. Look here at verse eight. And
God which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them
the Holy Ghost, even as he did us. Now to the Jews, that meant
that they were not saved because they descended from Abraham.
And I'll tell you what that means to us today. There's many children,
young people sitting here. Now, I know what I'm talking
about when I talk to you. I grew up under the sound of
the gospel. I know exactly what I'm talking about. Just because
your parents are believers does not mean you are. Salvation cannot
come to us through the sinful blood of Adam. We can only be
saved in the blood of Christ. Well, that's how a sinner's not
saved. Here's the question I want to ask tonight. How is a sinner
saved? How can a sinner like me be saved? The answer is only in the grace
of our God. Look here, verse 11. And Peter
says, but we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we shall be saved even as they now salvation. must be by grace. It has to be, because all men
are lost in Adam. You know, Peter here is talking
about the necessity of salvation. If we're going to be saved, it's
going to be by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, if there
is a need for us to be saved, at some point we became lost,
didn't we? When do we become lost? How do we become lost in
this mess where we must be saved? Well, we became lost in Adam.
When Adam sinned, the whole human race sinned in him. Everyone
that would descend from Adam sinned when Adam sinned. When
Adam sinned, not only did we sin, we became guilty of sin
and we received the nature of sin. We received Adam's nature
so that we can do nothing but sin. Everything we do is sin.
When Adam sinned, all of us died in Adam. God told Adam, the day
you eat that fruit, you will surely die. Dying thou shalt
die. Well, he died, didn't he? And
when he died, all of us died in him. Well, if we're going
to be given life, somebody else has got to give us life, don't
they? God's got to give us life by His grace. When Adam sinned,
we all perished. So if we're going to be saved,
somebody else is going to have to do the saving. We can't earn
that salvation because we're spiritually dead. And the spiritually
dead are unable to do anything spiritual. There's no point in
thinking we can do anything to earn it because we can't do anything.
We're dead. We can't deserve salvation from
God just because God feels sorry for us. No, God's holy. He's not going to save a sinner
that way. You and I, by nature, are offensive to God in our sin. Offensive. We're dead, rotting,
stinking corpses in God's sight. When one of our loved ones or
one of our friends dies, we've got to put that body in the ground
before too long. Because if we don't, that body
is going to stink and decay and be offensive to us, isn't it?
That's you and I by nature before God. Offensive to Him because
of our sin. Then if we're going to be saved,
Somebody's got to do a miracle for us, don't they? A miracle
of God's grace. Well, how does God's grace come
to sinners? How can I be a recipient of God's
grace? Well, Peter tells us that it's
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's through the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, God's grace is not God just
ignoring sin. God can't ignore sin. He's holy.
God's grace is God not, He just doesn't decide, well, I'm not
going to punish their sin even though that's what He deserves.
No, God can't do that. God's holy. We parents sometimes
decide to do that, don't we? Our children deserve it and we
don't do it because for whatever reason. But don't be mistaken,
God's not like us. No, God must punish sin because
He's holy. But there's grace to be found
for a sinner, and it's found in the Lord Jesus Christ. The
law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by our Lord Jesus
Christ. Grace and truth. Now grace must
be given in truth. What does that mean, grace and
truth? Look at Psalm 86. David speaks
of this. Grace given in truth simply means
this. That God gives grace in a way
that does not violate God's holy character. Psalm 86, verse 15. But thou,
O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering,
and plenteous in mercy and truth. Mercy and truth. They must go
together. What does that mean? Mercy and
truth. Grace and truth. Well, it means
this, that God saves sinners in mercy. He saves sinners in
grace by making Christ sin for us. And then giving Christ, our
substitute, the truth of God's justice, all of His holy justice
against that sin, and the Father putting His Son to death, that
is punishing our sin fully in the person of our substitute
at Calvary Street. Now the substitutes paid the
price. Now the substitutes bore the punishment. And the Father
can show mercy and grace to his people in truth without violating
his holy character. Because the sin of God's elect
was put away by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
you hear a lot about grace. I would imagine that you're not
much different than me. In Kentucky, I think we kind
of talk about ourselves living in the Bible belt, but I would
imagine your life is not much different than mine. We hear
a lot about this word grace. Well, what does grace really
mean? What kind of grace will really save a sinner like me?
What kind of grace is God's grace? That's important to point out,
because God's grace is not man's grace. Man's grace really is
works. Man's grace is, well, you know,
if I do something right, whatever it may be, if I walk an aisle,
if I make a profession, if I do something right, God will give
me grace. My friends, that works. You did
something. That makes it works. Man's grace
goes like this. Won't you just make a decision
to accept Jesus as your personal Savior and lay Him into your
heart? And if you do, God will give you grace. My friends, nothing
could be further from the truth. That works. But what kind of
grace is God's grace? What kind of grace will save
a sinner like me? Well, you know, if we want to
find something out, the best thing to do is find out what
God's Word says. If we want to find out something
about who God is, wouldn't it be good to find out what He said?
Here's where God reveals Himself. What does God's Word have to
say on this subject? I looked it up, and there's too
many of all these illustrations and examples to turn to. We'll
turn to some of them, but let me give them to you, and you
can jot them down and go back and look at them later if you
want. First, I do want you to turn to Romans 9. What kind of
grace is God's grace that saves sinners? Number one, it's electing
grace. Salvation has got to start there,
doesn't it? With God's electing grace. Romans 9, verse 11. For the children, 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 that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger. As it's written, Jacob have I
loved, but Esau have I hated. Now what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For he said to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I'll have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Salvation is found in God's electing
grace. Paul said in Romans 11 verse
5 that there's a remnant. We read it earlier. There's a
remnant who don't believe God, who don't believe idols. You
know why? Because God has reserved them
according to His mercy, according to His election of grace. If
a sinner is going to be saved, God must choose us first. Because in our dead nature, we'll
never choose Him. Second, what kind of grace saves
a sinner? Saving grace is undeserved grace. Now, we ought not have to point
that out. That's the only kind of grace there is, undeserved
grace. In Genesis chapter 6, God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. So God determined to destroy
man from the face of the earth. He was going to send a flood
and destroy man. Oh, but God. But Noah found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. And Noah was just as sinful as
everybody else. He had the same nature every
other son of Adam had on the earth at that time. The same
nature you and I have this evening. But Noah was saved from that
flood, wasn't he? He was saved from drowning in
that flood. Not because he could swim. He was saved by grace. God put him in the ark. and he
was saved in the ark. Noah found grace, undeserved
grace in the eyes of the Lord. Thirdly, saving grace is sovereign
grace. We read it just a moment ago,
Paul quoted from it where the Lord spoke to Moses in Exodus
33 verse 19. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. That's sovereign mercy. God gives
grace to whoever he chooses. Not because we've done something
right, not because there's anything good found in us, but simply
because He would. He chose a people to save. His
sovereign right to save whom He will and pass by whom He will. God's King. Any kind of grace
that comes from the throne is sovereign grace. And that's the
grace that we must have if a sinner's going to be saved. Fourthly,
look at 2 Kings chapter 13. Saving grace is covenant grace. Covenant grace is grace that
God promised before the world began. 2 Kings 13 verse 22. But Hazil, king of Syria, oppressed
Israel all the days of Jehoaz, and the Lord was gracious unto
them, and had compassion on them, and had respect unto them. Why? Because of his covenant with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and would not destroy them. Neither
cast he them from his presence as yet. That's so comforting
to me that God's will never changes. His purpose of grace for his
elect will never change because he promised it to him before
the world began. Next, look at Nehemiah. Nehemiah
chapter 9. Saving grace is keeping grace. Grace that keeps us because we
cannot keep ourselves. Nehemiah 9 verse 16. But they and our fathers dealt
proudly, and hardened their neck, and hearkened not to thy commandments.
They refused to listen, and refused to obey. Neither were mindful
of thy wonders that thou didst among them, but hardened their
necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return
to their bondage. But thou art a God ready to pardon,
gracious, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness,
and forsook them not. Yea, when they made them a molten
calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt,
and had wrought great provocations. Yet in thy manifold mercies forsookest
them not in the wilderness." God keeps his people by his grace,
even though we don't deserve it. He saves us by his grace
that we don't deserve, and it's that same grace that we do not
deserve that keeps us. I try to make this point at home
Wednesday night to the folks at Hurricane Road. Don't ever think that God's blessed
you because you've done something better than somebody else. Oh,
you've been faithful and you've done all the things that a child
of God ought to do. We ought to be faithful. We ought
to follow him. We ought to be found in prayer.
We ought to be found in all those things. But don't ever be mistaken. God didn't bless you because
you did something better than somebody else. It's a pure gift
of His grace. It's His grace that keeps us.
Oh, that just, that thrills my soul to know I don't have to
keep myself. Clay, I couldn't do it for a
minute, but He will. Saving grace is keeping grace. Sixth, saving grace is delivering
grace. Grace has delivered us from the
curse of the law. Job said in Job 33 verse 24,
Then is He gracious unto them, and He says in His grace, Deliver
them from going down into the pit. I found a ransom. I provided my son to pay the
ransom. Deliver them. Delivering grace. Seventh, saving grace is supplying
grace. Psalm 84 verse 11, The Lord will
give grace and glory. And no good thing will he withhold
from them that walk uprightly." Grace supplies everything we
need. And everything God requires,
He's provided by His grace. Eighth, saving grace. Look at
Zechariah chapter 12. Saving grace is grace that enables
us to see Christ as the sacrifice for our sins. Zechariah chapter 12 verse 10. Now pour upon the house of David
and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications
and they shall look upon me whom they've pierced and they shall
mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be
in bitterness for him as one that's in bitterness for his
firstborn. When will they look upon Me whom
they've pierced? When will they mourn for their
sin? When God pours upon them the Spirit of grace. With the
eye of faith, do you really see the only sacrifice for your sin
is the Lord Jesus Christ? That's God's grace that enables
you to see. Ninth, saving grace is justifying grace. Now, to
be justified, I've heard this term and I wish whoever first
spoke it, I wish I could go back in time and make them not say
it, tape their mouth shut. To be justified is not just as
if I'd never sinned. No, sir. To be justified is to
have our sin removed. Removed. Oh, what did Paul say
in Romans 3, 24? Being justified freely by His
grace. which is in Christ Jesus. God's
grace removes the sin of His people. Tenth, look at Romans
chapter 5. This is another one of those
things that ought to go without saying, but needs to be pointed
out. Saving grace is a free gift from God. Romans 5, verse 15. But not as the offense, so also
as the free gift. For through the offense of one,
many be dead. Much more, the grace of God and
the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded
unto many. Grace is a free gift. You can't earn it, but you can
receive it for free, for nothing. 11. Saving grace is abounding grace. How much grace do you need? Well, it's bigger than what we'd
imagine. Thankfully, saving grace is abounding
grace. Romans 5, verse 20, where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound. Our sin is so great. And like I said, we can't imagine
how great it is. So the only way sinners like
us can be saved is by God's grace being far greater than our sin. God doesn't give us just barely
enough to get by. It's abounding grace. Twelve,
saving grace is grace that makes us rich. Grace gives us everything
that God requires abundantly. It goes back to abundant grace.
In 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9, Paul says, For you know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, for our sorry
sake, he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be
made rich. Saving grace is rich grace. Thirteenth, saving grace is sufficient
grace. You know what the Lord told Paul
in 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9. Paul begged three times for God
to take that thorn in the flesh away from him. And he said, Paul,
my grace is sufficient. I don't know what everybody here
is going through, but you're going through something. What
is it? Whatever it is, God's grace is
sufficient. It's sufficient. It's enough. Do you know what that means?
It means enough. A number of years ago, my dad died suddenly. A very dear friend of mine brought
his two daughters to the visitation, and they saw me, just broke down
crying. I bent down, I looked them in
the eye. They were just little things,
Sarah and Katie Vance. And I said, girls, I said, it's
all right. It's all right. I'm sad, but it's all right.
I said, you've heard preachers say God's grace is sufficient.
You heard that? And they shook their head. I
said, you know what that means? And they said, no. I said, it
means it's enough. It's enough. You look to Him,
it's enough. Lost my place. Fourteenth, saving
grace is life-giving calling grace. The Apostle Paul said
in Galatians 1 verse 15 that God separated him from his mother's
womb and called him by his grace. How do I know everyone Christ
died for is going to believe him? Because God in his mercy
and grace is going to give him life and it's not up to the pastor
to call him. God will call him and they'll
hear. Saving grace. What kind of grace
saves a sinner? Saving grace makes sinners righteous. Paul said in Galatians 2.21,
I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. It can't be
by works, can it? It's grace. Grace makes sinners
righteous. 16. Saving grace makes a sinner accepted
by God. Not acceptable. Accepted. I'm afraid far too often the
greatness of that blessing escapes us. Accepted in God's grace. Paul says in Ephesians 1 verse
6, to the praise of the glory of His grace wherein He has made
us accepted in the beloved, not in our works, in the beloved,
by grace. Next I want you to look at this
one, Colossians chapter three. Saving grace is grace that's
in the heart. And if it's in the heart, it'll
be on the lips. Colossians chapter three, verse
16. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. Look across the page, chapter
four, verse six. Let your speech be all the way
with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought
to answer every man. Grace in the heart will be grace
on the lips. I can't tell you how many times
I've heard Brother Mahan tell us, whatever's in the heart is
going to leak out on you. Grace in the heart will be grace
on the lips. Number 18, saving grace gives
us a good hope. And a hope is not just, well,
I hope it will happen, but I don't know. This hope is an expectation. Saving grace gives us a good
expectation of eternal life in Christ Jesus. Second Thessalonians
2.16. Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
and God even our Father which has loved us and has given us
everlasting consolation and good hope through what? Grace. Saving grace gives us a good
expectation. We ought to expect what God's
promised us. This is what He's promised by
His grace. Number 19. Saving grace is establishing
grace. How I long to grow in grace.
Well, God's grace is establishing grace. Hebrews 13 verse 9. For it's a good thing that the
heart be established with grace, not with meats. And he's not
just talking about what you eat or don't eat. He's talking about
all the ceremonies of the law which have not profited them,
which have been occupied their end. It's not by works now, it's
by grace. Our hearts are established by
grace, not by observing some religious ceremony. And number
20, saving grace. Now, if you've not been listening,
listen right now. I've got good news for sinners.
Saving grace is for the chief of sinners. for the worst of
sinners. I've got good news. Saving grace
is for the worst of sinners. Peter says we Jews, we good religious
people, we've got a good religious family, we've got a good religious
background, we've been raised up in these things, we know all
these things, we should be saved. Even as those awful, sinful,
vile, Gentile dogs. Look at that what he says again
here. Acts chapter 15. We're going to... Verse 11. But we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. Now, we shall be saved even as
they. Whoever you want to put in the
they. But you know, it's not right To say, you know, that
prostitute living a vile life, that prostitute, it's not right
to say, you know, that prostitute's going to be saved the same way
I am. No, it's not. That's making us sound better
than that prostitute, isn't it, than that harlot. No, this is
the way to say it. It's going to take the same grace
to save me as it does that harlot. That's exactly right. That's
God's saving grace. Now, if I told you I had 20 points,
you'd run for the door. If I wanted to go through all
those, and I wanted you to show you, and believe me, there's
many, many, many, you just get your concordance out and look,
there's many, many more illustrations and points I could have used.
But I hope these 20 from God's word will show the point that
I wanted to make. These 20 descriptions of God's grace from the word
of God ought to make it easy for us to see All we need is
grace. God's grace is everything that
we need. That being so, aren't you thankful? God's grace, God's salvation
is by grace, not by our words. How I pray God will be gracious
to us and to you as you continue to worship here and meet here.
How I pray for God's grace, saving grace. All right, Lord bless
you. All right, we have a brief moment
of intermission. We're going to sing two hymns.
Intermission. Yeah, well, yeah, OK. That's
a bad choice of words. No intermission. We are going to sing two hymns.
If you need to use the restroom, this is the time to do it. Be
back before the second hymn ends. And that's going to be I Need
Thee Every Hour will be the second hymn. So when you hear that playing,
get back here as quickly as possible. The bathrooms are downstairs,
one for men and one for women. All right, we're going to begin
now with hymn 118. when I surveyed the Wondrous
Cross. Let's stand for this one. 118. When I surveyed the Wondrous
Cross.