Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us for the message. I'd like for you,
if you'd like to follow along in your Bibles, I'll be preaching
today from the book of Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. And the title of this message
is The Word of God's Grace. The Word of God's Grace. Acts
chapter 20. And this is, this part of the
chapter that I'm going to deal with in our text is the historical
account of the Apostle Paul who is meeting with a group of elders
from the church at Ephesus. Now Ephesus was a church, a local
church in the town, the city of Ephesus that God had used
Paul to establish when he first came there to preach the gospel
and God had some of his chosen people in that city and he brought
them out by the power of his grace under the preaching of
the gospel by the Apostle Paul and formed a church there. Ephesus
was a very large city, a very active city. It was a city full
of idolatry just like all cities are. The whole world is full
of idolatry. That church was formed there. Paul wrote a letter to that church,
the book of Ephesians, the epistle, Paul's epistle to the Ephesians,
beautiful epistle that speaks of the sovereign grace of God
in his predestinating electing purpose. And so Paul had a special
place in his heart for these people. Well, here Paul, as you
know, the apostle Paul, was hounded all of his ministerial life by
unbelievers, especially the unbelieving Jews. They were after him, they
wanted him arrested, they wanted him shut up because what Paul
preached and what every true gospel preacher preaches is a
message that leaves men and women with no hope of salvation. and of being right with God except
by his free sovereign grace based upon the Lord Jesus Christ who
is God in human flesh and the work that he accomplished on
Calvary in his death to put away the sins of his people and establish
righteousness. In other words, Paul had preached
strongly that no sinner can be saved or justified before God,
that is declared not guilty, made righteous with God, right
with God, based upon their efforts to keep the law, their works. One of the verses that I quote
very often is in the book of Ephesians, Ephesians 2, 8 and
9. For by grace are you saved through faith. And then he goes
on to say, even that faith is not of yourselves. It's the gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And so the
preaching of the gospel of grace, the word of God's grace, exposes
all the hopes and all the refuges that men and women devise in
false religion as being no good. as being evil in the sight of
God. Christ spoke of it in John chapter
3 in verse 19 when he said, this is the condemnation, that light
has come into the world and men love darkness and hate the light
because the light exposes how their deeds are evil, their works,
their efforts to make them, their efforts to clean themselves up,
their efforts to make themselves righteous, And so Paul was hounded
by the unbelieving Jews and some unbelieving Gentiles. And here
he's on his way to Jerusalem and he doesn't know what's going
to happen. You know, that's the providence of God. Paul submitted
himself to the providence of God. And on his way to Jerusalem,
he really believed this would be the last time that he would
see any of these men, these elders, these leaders in the church at
Ephesus. And so these are the last words
that he speaks to them. And he tells them in Acts chapter
20, look at verse 20, let's just start at verse 20. Paul is speaking
to them here in a place called Miletus on his way to Jerusalem. And he says, and how I kept back
nothing that was profitable under you, but have showed you and
taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both
to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says, I didn't keep things
from you. You know, preachers today, there are parts of the
Bible that they either don't understand or don't believe,
and they'll hold them back from people. One of the classic passages
like that is Romans chapter nine, because it speaks of the sovereignty
of God in all things. And it talks about God's predestinating
purpose. It talks about God's electing
grace. And I've even heard preachers
say, well, if I preached that to my people, it'd run them off.
Well, Paul says, I didn't hold back anything from you. You see,
this is the word of God. This is not the word of man.
This is the Bible. This is God's un-inherent, inspired
word. His perfect word. There's no
error here. And if God revealed it in His
word, then I don't have any right as a preacher or a pastor to
say, well, now I'm gonna preach this part to you, but I'm not
gonna preach this other part because you may not like it.
Or you may not understand it. There are things about God that
I don't understand, things that He's revealed right here. Think
about the person of Christ, Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus Christ?
He is God in human flesh without sin. Now, I can't understand
the depth and the nature and the constitution and the makeup
of that truth, but I know it's true because God said it. His
name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people from
their sins. His name shall be called Emmanuel, which being
interpreted as God with us. But I'm not gonna hold that back
because I don't understand it and certain people may not like
it. If I were preaching to a group of Jehovah's Witnesses who do
not believe that Christ is God, what would I preach to them?
I'd preach to them the deity of Jesus Christ. I preached to
them the humanity, the sinless humanity of Christ. That's who
He is. That's His glory. In Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you're complete in
Him. And then the truth of His finished
work. You see, this message today that
is so popular, that God loves everybody and Christ died for
everybody and therefore salvation is conditioned on you, that's
a lie. It's not salvation by grace. The Lord Jesus Christ
died on the cross as the surety and substitute of His people.
In the Bible, it's called propitiation, which means a sin-bearing sacrifice
that brings satisfaction to the justice of God. And He did that
for His people, and all for whom He died shall be saved. Somebody
says, well, then it doesn't matter what I do. Oh, no. Read the Word
of God. God's people, whom He chose before
the foundation of the world and for whom Christ died, they will
seek the Lord. They will, because God has determined
that they would. And they will be brought under
the preaching of the gospel of His grace, the word of God's
grace. And they'll be brought by the
Holy Spirit to believe it. Do you have an interest in it?
So Paul says, I didn't hold back anything from you. He says, I've
taught to you, verse 21, he says, repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Now I wanna come back to that,
but look at verse 22. He says, and now behold, I go
bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall
befall me there. I'm going to Jerusalem, he's
bound in his spirit. In other words, he has an obligation
to do this. And he doesn't know what's going
to happen. Verse 23, he says, save or accept that the Holy
Ghost witnesseth in every city saying that bonds and afflictions
abide me or wait for me. In other words, Paul knew that
he was headed for trouble for men. And I'll tell you what,
it takes the grace of God for a man to have such courage. I'll
guarantee you that Paul was not bragging about himself here.
You know, when he sought the Lord to remove what he called
his thorn in the side or thorn in the flesh, you know, God said,
my grace is sufficient for you. Verse 24, he says, but none of
these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself
so that I might finish my course with joy in the ministry which
I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the
grace of God, the word of God's grace, the good news of God's
grace. Paul's at a stage in his life
where he has come by the power and grace of God to see that
it doesn't matter what happens to me here on this earth. I want
to finish my course. In other words, I want to do
the will of God. And I'm going to testify the gospel of the
grace of God. Men and women by nature hate
it. It's a scandal to the world.
but it's the only hope of salvation for a sinner to hear and believe
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel of the grace
of God, the gospel wherein the righteousness of God is revealed.
That's what Romans 1, 16 and 17 tells us. The gospel is the
power of God unto salvation because to the Jew first and the Greek
also, to everyone that believeth, because therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. What is that righteousness of
God? Well, that's the merits, the worth, the value of what
Christ accomplished in His work for His people on the cross,
His obedience unto death. So that the gospel tells me that
I'm saved, not based upon anything I do, or anything I decide, I'm
saved based upon the righteousness of God in Christ. That's His
righteousness imputed, charged, accounted. You hear me use that
term. Preachers don't preach about that today. They don't
even know about it. All they do is they just, it's
all about you and me. But you see, it's all about God.
It's all about Christ. And that's the issue. Now back
there, In verse 21, he mentioned repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. See, that's where God brings
his people by his grace. The word of God's grace is the
word of faith. Now, what is the word of faith?
It's the word that points a sinner away from himself for any part
of salvation and to the Lord Jesus Christ for all salvation. And so there's a pointing to
and a pointing away. And when he says repentance toward
God, that's a sinner who's been brought to Christ and forsakes
everything else as forming any part of the ground or cause of
salvation or maintaining salvation. It's all Christ. And I reject
everything else. I reject anything in me or from
me as forming any part of the ground or cause of my salvation. It's all on Christ. The Word
of God's grace reveals and teaches God's people that all of salvation
and all the blessings of salvation can never be earned or deserved
by a sinner. It's all in Christ. In the book
of Ephesians chapter one and verse three, Paul wrote, blessed
be the, chapter one and verse three, blessed be the God and
father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. It's all in Christ. It's all
by him. It's all based upon the merits
of his blood and his righteousness. Salvation by grace, the word
of God's grace, reveals and teaches God's people that no part of
salvation is conditioned on the sinner, but it's all conditioned
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Most people today believe that
salvation is conditioned on their faith, but that's a misleading
statement. Now, the Bible teaches that without
faith, There is no salvation. Without faith, it's impossible
to please God. But faith does not come from
you and does not come from me. Faith is not the product of our
goodness or our free will. That's not what the Bible teaches,
you see. Faith is not the product of a
sinner rising up above the crowd of unbelievers and distinguishing
himself as such. Faith is the gift of God which
proceeds as the fruit and evidence of salvation as obtained by the
Lord Jesus Christ. In the Bible, if you would read
the Bible and study the Bible, you would find that the one main
condition for salvation is righteousness. That's it. God must be just when
He justifies the ungodly. And my faith, my believing is
no part of my righteousness. But if God gives me faith to
believe, he leads me to Christ who is all my righteousness before
God. And therefore I reject all else.
Now many people today when they hear the word repentance, you
know what they think of? They think of, well that means
you've got to feel sorry for your sins. and sorry enough to
make a change in your life. Now listen to me. We should all
feel sorry for our sins. Sorrier than we are. And we should
all feel so sorry that we make a change in our lifestyle if
that lifestyle is an immoral lifestyle or an unbelieving lifestyle. But that's not repentance. Repentance
is a change of mind concerning the issues of salvation and how
a sinner is made right with God. That's what it is. That's what
repentance is. Now, out from that repentance
comes godly sorrow over sin and a change of lifestyle if that's
needed. But here's the thing. When a
sinner's brought to repentance, he's brought to change his mind.
And then when I say the mind, now I'm not just talking about
intellectualism. The mind is the heart, the mind,
the affections, the will, the conscience, the inner man. And
what it means is this, God gives him a new heart, a penitent heart. And that's what, when we talk
about sorrow for sin, we not only sorrow for our acts of immorality,
we sorrow for our self-righteousness, thinking that God would save
us based on anything but the righteousness of Christ. We come
to Christ, the word of God's grace. Now look at verse 25 of
Acts chapter 20. Paul goes on in speaking to these
elders, he says, and now, behold, I know that you all, among whom
I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no
more. Paul knew this would be the last
time he would speak to them and they would see him. And so these
are his last words, verse 26, wherefore, or for this reason,
I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood
of all men. Now what does that mean? Paul
is not boasting of his inner purity or his moral purity. Paul knew he was a sinner, saved
by the grace of God. Read the book of Romans, chapter
7, verses 14 through 25. He talks about how he's a sinner.
He said, he said, this is a faithful saying. In another passage, he
said, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
I am chief. Paul knew that he was a sinner
saved by grace. But when he says, I'm pure from
the blood of all men, what he's saying is, I've told them the
truth. I didn't lie to them. You see,
preaching a false gospel, giving sinners a false hope is soul
murder. That's really what it is. That's
what the Bible teaches. I know that sounds very serious,
but it's the truth. Satan is the murderer of souls. And how does he murder? By hiding
the gospel from sinners. That's what he does. Deception. Satan's goal is to have men and
women in a false refuge, a false religion, thinking they are saved
and that they are right with God when they are not. But Paul
says, I didn't promote a false gospel. I didn't tell you a lie.
I told you the truth. Now that's why Paul was in trouble
from unbelievers, because he told the truth. So he says in
verse 27, for I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel
of God. Whatever God reveals, that's
what I'm gonna tell you. That's what he's saying. That's
why he, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was used of God
to write probably half or more than half of the New Testament.
And I know unbelieving, quote, religious, unquote, scholars
today, they say, well, that's Pauline theology, or that's Paul's
opinion. Oh, no, it's God's Word. When
Paul sat down and penned Romans chapter nine, he was penning,
writing the counsel of God. And that's why he didn't hold
it back from them. But look at verse 28. He says,
take heed therefore unto yourselves, be careful, and all the flock
over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. You
have a responsibility as elders to feed the church of God. The church of God is God's elect. The church of God are those whom
God sent Christ to redeem. He says, the church of God, which
he hath purchased with his own blood. For whom did Christ die? The church, he purchased the
church. Who makes up the church? That sinners saved by the grace
of God, chosen before the foundation of the world by God in Christ,
and for whom Christ died on the cross, shedding His blood for
their sins, for whom He lived and died, was buried and rose
the third day, resurrection, you say, for whom He made righteous
before God, and who by the power of the Holy Spirit are brought
under the word of God's grace, the powerful word, the life-giving
word, and brought to faith in Christ and repentance of their
dead works. Now, he's simply telling these
elders, these leaders of the church, be careful, take heed.
Preach the word of God's grace, preach the word of God, preach
the whole counsel of God. Verse 29 of Acts 20, he says,
for I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves
enter in among you, not sparing the flock, also of your own selves
shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples
after them. He's saying that the church is
going to be attacked. And this is especially true in
the last days. You know, much of this program
as I come to you each Sunday, is geared toward encouraging
you to go through the biblical process of self-examination. And the reason I do that is because
I know that many, if not most, who watch this program, you claim
to be a Christian. You claim to be saved by grace. Well, in the last days, Satan's
deception Satan's main deception is a cleverly disguised system
of works that men and women call grace. And therefore we have
to examine ourselves with the word of God. I've mentioned on
this program about the books that we offer. What is salvation? Do you claim to be saved? Well,
what is salvation? Study the word and find out what
it is. What is a Christian? Do you claim
to be a Christian? Well, study the Word and find
out what a Christian is and what a Christian is not. What does
the Bible say? The recent book that we put out
on rightly dividing the Word. In other words, you claim to
believe the Bible. Well, what are the rules of interpretation
for the Bible? People, you know as well as I
do, people go through this book and they come out with all kinds
of perverted things because that's what Paul's talking about here.
These men who come in from the outside and these men who rise
up from the inside are false preachers who claim to be preaching
Christ, who claim to be preaching the gospel of grace. They claim
to be preaching the Word of God, the Bible. And so he says in
verse 31, therefore watch, be on the watch, be on guard, and
remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn
everyone night and day with tears. Paul's ministry was not an easy
thing. And it's true for any gospel
preacher. It's not an easy thing. It's
something that weighs on us heavily because what we're doing is preaching
the word of God's grace, which is the word of life and death.
You know, friend, this is life and death. This is not just religious
opinion. This is not just a religious
think tank. Everybody giving their opinion.
The word of God's grace is the word of life. The word of God's
grace is the word of righteousness. The word of God's grace is the
word of Christ. There is no salvation in anyone
else, in anywhere else. And so when we look at this book
and study it and read it, It's not just a matter of just picking
out certain scriptures and vignettes and saying, well, you know, that
doesn't sound right to me and therefore I'm not gonna deal
with it. No, no, no. If the Bible says it, that settles
it. I've told you before on this
program how I saw a sign outside of a religious organization said,
the Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it. That's wrong.
It's the Bible says it, that settles it, I must believe it. That's the only issue in the
word of God's grace. And that's what Paul is in his
love for these people and in his desire to see others come
to salvation. That's what we want. We want,
we're evangelizing. We want people to come to see
and know Christ by the word of God's grace. I hope you'll join
us next week for another message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 317-07. Contact us by
phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.