Now let's look back at Acts chapter
2. Brother Mark read, I'm really
focusing in on one verse, verse 37. But I also want you to turn
to Acts chapter 7. And we're going to in just a
moment look at beginning at verse 51 of Acts chapter 7. Now the title of this message
is this, the difference that only God can make. The difference
that only God can make. Now many times we can reduce
issues of salvation to some simple thoughts, single thoughts, and
we don't want to be guilty of oversimplifying things. But we
have to realize this, that sometimes the scriptures, the word of God
speaks just plain language that by nature we don't want to hear. Like every gospel message, the
true gospel is an intrusion into the life of the natural person. I'm talking about all of us by
nature. It's offensive. Paul called it the offense of
the cross, and he didn't do anything to try to remove that offense.
In fact, he said this in the book of Galatians, if you remove
the offensiveness of the cross, you've removed the gospel. The natural man. What is the
natural man? That's all of us as we are naturally
born. And the scripture says, as we
fell in Adam, we're born dead in trespasses and sins. What
does that death involve? Well, that's spiritual death.
There are people walking around with physical life, but they
have no spiritual life. And what does that mean? Well,
if you read the Bible, it means that we have no righteousness
before God, no matter how good we try to be in our lives, You
see, here's the fact of the matter. You know, we who are Christian
believe salvation by grace. Well, if you can be good enough
to be accepted with God and enter heaven, you don't need grace.
That works. That's what false religion teaches.
So it means we have no righteousness, no qualifications. It means,
secondly, we can't work one, no matter how good we try to
be. And here's the third thing, and this is what's so offensive.
to the natural man, I know because I was there. We don't want righteousness
God's way. We want it our own way. And you
see that first worked out in Adam and Eve when they fell and
realized their nakedness and in their shame, what did they
do? They put on fig leaf aprons to try to hide their nakedness,
hide their shame, but that won't do. What did God tell Adam? In the day that you eat thereof,
thou shalt surely die. That's the judgment. God reveals
Himself in. And what did He do? He took off
those fig leaf aprons, He slew an animal, shed blood because
the wages of sin is death, and He made them coats of skin, which
is a symbol, a metaphor for the righteousness of Christ promised. the merits of his righteousness,
his obedience unto death, showing that the only way a sinner can
be saved and justified before God is by the grace of God through
righteousness which comes to us by Jesus Christ. Grace. And that's the whole issue. But
as I said, we don't want to oversimplify things, but many times in examining
ourselves, we can bring it down to this. For example, if you
claim to be saved, as many do. If you claim to be a Christian,
if you have it in your mind that you're serving the Lord and when
you die you're going to go to heaven as they say at the funerals,
that's what you have in your mind. Many times you can test
yourself by asking one simple question. In my case, what makes the difference
between saved and lost? I claim to be saved, a sinner
saved by grace. What made the difference for
me between saved and lost? Because whatever makes the difference
is in reality your Savior. It's as simple as that. Well,
if you look at your bulletin, I've got a simple outline of
today's sermon there. What makes the difference? And
what I'm going to do is I'm going to tell you what the Bible says
in this issue of what or who makes the difference in the whole
of salvation. And I'll warn you beforehand,
what the Bible says is not what the natural man thinks or wants.
Now, I know that's a very negative way, you know. I was taught in
seminary that when you approach the pulpit, you look at everybody
and say, now, I know you're going to believe what I'm going to
tell you. But that's not the way the Lord
approached it, and I'm going to show you that. I'm going to
read you what the Scripture says. But look at Acts chapter 2. Here's the apostle Peter standing
in Jerusalem, what the Jews called the Holy City. These are the
chosen people of God in a temporal ceremonial way under the Old
Covenant. And it was a temporary thing
now. For the purposes of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Messiah, coming through that nation. That's the main reason
that God chose him, brought him out of Egypt, and brought him
through the wilderness and brought him into the Promised Land. There
were other reasons, but that was the main reason. It was through
that nation that God was going to bring salvation to his chosen
people all over the world, not just to the Jews, but to the
Gentiles. They're called God's elect. And
that was the main reason for their existence. And yet, when
the Messiah came to the earth, The Word made flesh dwelt among
us, Jesus Christ. What did they do? They did, like
all of us by nature, if left to ourselves, they rejected him. But there were a few, the Bible
calls it a remnant, that received him. And we'll look at a passage
of scripture on that in just a moment. And Peter was one of
them. The Apostle Peter, they called
him. And here, after the death of
the Messiah, after his burial, after his resurrection, and after
his ascension unto glory, here's Peter standing at Pentecost.
And on the day of Pentecost, that was the Jewish festival,
came 50 days after Passover. That's why they called it Pentecost.
And he's standing there in Jerusalem in the holy city where the chosen
people of God had existed for what, a thousand years? Off and
on. And he's going to do something
that had never been done before as far as what we might call
an evangelistic message. Now the gospel had been preached
in Jerusalem. The Lord himself preached it. And many people in Jerusalem
followed Him for one purpose, for the miracles, but not for
the truth. The same people who waved the
palm branches and cried, Hosanna, later on said what? Crucify Him. And it was because of what He
preached. It wasn't because of how He looked. It wasn't because
of His demeanor. It wasn't because He went around
loving His people. It was because of what He said. His doctrine. And why was that
so offensive? Because what He said told them
that everything they were trusting in for salvation, for righteousness,
and for eternal life was a lie. That's what He told them. It's a lie. And not only that,
He said it's satanic. Hold your place there at Acts
2 and look at John chapter 8. The Lord approached their religious
leaders, and in John chapter 8, look at verse 43. Listen to what he tells them. He said, why do you not understand
my speech? Now, it's not that they didn't
understand the language he was speaking. It was Aramaic. They
all spoke that. What is he talking about? You
can't understand my speech. You do not savingly, in a way
of belief, understand what I'm telling you. You reject it. That's
what he means. You don't believe it. You understand exactly what I'm
saying right now to you. Now, whether you believe it or
not, that's what he means here. Why do you not understand my speech?
He says, even because you cannot hear my word. What kind of hearing
is he talking about? He's talking about spiritual
hearing. And listen to what he says there in verse 44. You are
of your father the devil. These were the religious leaders
in Jerusalem. These were the ones whom all
the people were following, listening to, hearing preached. You're
of your father the devil, and the lust of your father you'll
do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and a bode not in
the truth, because there's no truth in him. When he speaks
a lie, he speaks of his own. In other words, he speaks what's
natural to him. And he says, he's a liar and the father of
it. Why do you not understand my speech? Go back to Acts 2
now. So they had rejected the Messiah.
So here's what Peter does. He stands there at Pentecost
and he preaches to many of that same crowd, plus others intermingled
in with him. Some of the Jewish converts had
come from the Gentile world to worship at Passover and at Pentecost. And here's what he says, look
at verse 22, Mark read, you men of Israel, hear the words, Jesus
of Nazareth. Now notice he didn't say the
Messiah. He could have said the Messiah,
and he would have been correct. But he wanted them to know exactly
who it was he's talking about. Jesus of Nazareth. They said,
can anything good come out of Nazareth? Certainly the Messiah
wouldn't come out of Nazareth. Well, he did. Can anything good
come out of that place? Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved
of God among you by miracles and wonders and such. They said
that God disapproved of him. You remember when they called
him a blasphemer? That's right, they called him
a malefactor. That's a word that means criminal. He's a criminal. He's a lawbreaker. He's a winebibber. He made wine at the first miracles.
Christ made wine. He didn't make grape juice, he
made wine. They didn't call him a grape
juice bibber. They said he's a wine bibber. You know what?
They said he's a drunk. That's what they were saying.
They said he broke the law. He taught against Moses. He offended even his disciples
when he spoke to the Pharisees. They said, Lord, you offended
these guys. You shouldn't have done that. He said, blessed are
those who hear my words and are not offended. Peter says, this man was approved
of God, this God-man, this is the Messiah, this is the Son
of God incarnate, he says, which God did by Him. In other words,
the miracles that He did, God did them by Him. This is God
working. He says, in the midst of you,
as you yourselves know. Now look at verse 23. Listen
to what Peter says. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. Now who's doing all this
ultimately? Who's the source of all of this
Christ coming, their rejecting, Him being crucified? It wasn't
God being taken by surprise. It wasn't God's plan. This was
always God's plan and purpose from the beginning. And you know, people like to
think about God's foreknowledge and predestinating purpose. They'll
say, oh God looked down through the telescope of time and he
foresaw what you and I would do. God is no crystal ball gazer. You might as well go to one of
those houses that has the hand out there. We'll read your palm.
It's a bunch of junk. It's superstition. It proves right here that God's
foreknowledge is predestination because it says, by the determinate
counsel of God. Doesn't it? That's God determining in
His wisdom what's going to be done. Well, then, if that's the
case, it doesn't matter what we do. We can go out and live
like the devil. It doesn't matter what... Oh, wait a minute. Peter
goes on, verse 23. You have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. You're still wicked. That's what we are. You remember that? You heard
about that preacher up in Ohio who said when he was describing
the suffering of Christ, he said, oh, if I'd have been there, I'd
have stopped it. Are we crazy or what? Stop the determined
counsel and foreknowledge of Almighty God? Who do we think
we are? Reminds me of a poster I saw
of an eagle swooping down on a mouse and the mouse just sticking
his tongue out. A mouse is a dead mouse. Who are we to think that we can
box with God? You remember that poem? Your
arms are too short to box with God. This is the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God. We're not God. We operate
on this realm. The revealed things belong to
us. But here's Peter preaching the gospel. The good news of
salvation that comes by the man the God-man whom we with wicked
hands, and I say we with wicked hands, have crucified and slain.
No use blaming the Jews, it's all of us. That's the reaction
of fallen humanity against the glory of God. That's what it
is. And being born dead in trespasses
and sins, as the scripture says we are, we're born in opposition
to the glory of God. That doesn't mean we're not religious
or don't try to be good. It means that that which glorifies
God, which is only to be found in Christ and God's way of salvation
by His grace, we're against by nature because we want some glory.
You see, go back to that simple question, who makes the difference?
We want by nature to think that in some way, whether it be a
small way or a big way, that we make the difference. That's what we want. And the
reason we want that, number one, we think too highly of ourselves,
and number two, we want some room to boast, some room to glory. Now that's us by nature. So there's
Peter preaching the gospel. He preached Christ crucified.
He preached righteousness, not by man's will or man's works,
but by Christ alone. His righteousness and beauty.
Now go to verse 37. It says, now when they heard
this, they were pricked in their heart. And they said unto Peter
and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall
we do? Now this is a description of
Holy Spirit conviction. They were pricked in their heart,
their very soul, their very inner being. What is it to be pricked
in the heart is to be convicted by the Holy Spirit under the
preaching of Christ, the preaching of the gospel, the preaching
of the righteousness of God. And of course Peter said, repent,
be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.
Notice it says in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission
of sins. It doesn't say be baptized for the remission of sins. Like
one denomination takes this one verse and says, well, you've
got to be baptized to have your sins remitted. No. Baptism is
a confession of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. That's
the way, in the original Greek, that's the way the word order
works. The remission of sins doesn't
go back to baptized, it goes back to Jesus Christ. It's the
blood of Christ that cleanses me from sin, not the waters of
baptism. And he says, you shall receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost. That's the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So they were convicted and brought
to faith in Christ and repentance of dead works. These people. And it says there over 3,000
were saved. What a meeting. I've never been
in a meeting where I saw 3,000 people converted. Not under the
preaching of the true gospel. Now I've seen a lot of meetings
where floods of people come down the aisle and confess a false
Jesus. But I've never been in a meeting
where the true gospel was preached and 3,000 people were converted. And it doesn't say anything about
them walking down an aisle here either. But they were converted. Now,
turn to Acts chapter 7. Stephen, the evangelist, later
on. Now, he preached the same gospel
that Peter preached. the same Christ, the same ground
of salvation, the imputed righteousness of Christ. And he argued with them. Over
in Acts chapter 6, it talks about him disputing with them. When
they came, he preached Christ and they'd come and they'd argue
and they'd, you know, the opinions of men comes into this, you know,
and, oh, well, that's not what we believe, you know, that's
not what this verse says. You know how it is. I mean, we've
been dealing with it for over 30 years. And before I was converted,
I was the same way. I mean, that's the way we are. We have our what about verses.
Everybody's got a what about. And that's okay if you're really
seriously seeking what the verse actually says. There's nothing
wrong with that now. At least you're reading the Bible.
But Stephen, he disputed with them, and they rejected what
Stephen preached. And so in Acts chapter 7, Stephen
stands up in Jerusalem, and you know what he does? If you read
this whole message in Acts chapter 7, you do that on your own, but
he relates the whole history of the nation Israel from Abraham
on. And he shows them, look, the
very one you're resisting and rejecting, the Lord Jesus Christ,
is the very reason you existed throughout all this time. And
now it's over. And look what happened, verse
51. He says, you stiff-necked. You know what it is to be stiff-necked?
That means to be unbending, unyielding, unsubmissive. You won't bow to
God's Word. And uncircumcised in heart and
ears. You see that? Now those in Acts
chapter 2, it says they were pricked in their heart. That's
what the Bible calls the circumcised heart. Here he says you uncircumcised
in heart. What is the circumcised heart?
What does that mean? That's the new birth. That's regeneration
and conversion. Being born again by the Spirit.
Being given a new heart. A contrite heart. Repentant heart. Believing heart. That's a gift
from God, you see. But here they are left in their
natural state. You uncircumcised in heart and
ears. You do always resist the Holy
Ghost as your fathers did, so did you. And then he talked about
how they killed the prophets. And then look at verse 54. When
they heard these things, now remember back in Acts 2? In verse
37, when they heard these things, they were pricked in it. All
right, look here in verse 54. And when they heard these things,
they were cut to the heart. That's like cutting two with
a knife. Like a death blow. And they gnashed on him with
their teeth. They were so angry, they gritted
their teeth at him. So here you have those who were
pricked in their heart. Oh, what are we going to do?
We're of all people most miserable. And then you have these who were
cut to the heart and gritted their teeth. Now, my question,
what or who made the difference? Well, if we go by the evangelistic
methods of today, we'd have to say something like this. Well,
Peter was just more loving than Stephen was. He was gentler. He had a better pulpit presence. He gave an invitation. The organ
played softly. Or they'd have to say Stephen
was just too hard, just too mean, and he didn't give them time,
and he wasn't as persuasive, and he didn't tell as many stories.
Keep them on the edge. Now, am I telling you the truth
or not? Somebody said, well, you're just
trying to make fun. I'm not trying to make fun of people. I'm trying
to show you reality. Now, you know what I'm, I've
been in these evangelistic things where they try to give you the
method, you know. I read the book by the guy who said that
any preacher in evangelistic meaning should never say, and
in conclusion, because you don't give the Holy Spirit time enough
to sneak up on him. And people were serious about
that. Is that what happened when Stephen
preached? He didn't give the Holy Spirit time enough to sneak
up on him? Stephen wasn't as persuasive
as Peter? What made the difference? Well,
three things. You've got them there in your
bulletin. First of all, turn to Romans 9. Let me show you
what the Bible says as far as making the difference. And what
my point is, it's a difference that only God can make. You can't
make the difference. I can't make the difference.
And the first thing is the sovereign electing grace and love of Almighty
God. That's it. Look at Romans chapter
9. How many times have you heard
stories about preachers who would be preaching through the book
of Romans and skip over Romans 9. Because they say, well, that's
just stuff we can't understand. Well, we can understand it. I'm
going to tell you something. We can understand what it's saying.
We may not like it. But look at verse 6 of Romans
9. He's talking about the national
rejection of Israel. Their rejection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. But didn't God promise to save Israel? Yes, He did.
But He says in verse 7, Or verse 6, not as though the word of
God hath taken none effect, for they are not all Israel, which
are of Israel. You've got to find out who Israel
is. When God said He's going to save all Israel, He said that,
for example, back in Isaiah 45. All Israel shall be saved. Well,
when God said that, what did He mean by that? Was He talking
about a population of people that reside in Palestine? And
the answer is no. No, they are not all Israel which
are of Israel. Verse 7, neither because are
they the seed of Abraham, that is physical descendants of Abraham,
are they all children, that is children of God. But in Isaac
shall thy seed be called. What is significant about Isaac? It's through Isaac that Messiah
would come, the promise of salvation by grace. And he says in verse
8, that is, they which are the children of the flesh It's the
physical descendants. These are not the children of
God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
Now, what are the children of the promise? Those who believe
Christ, who believe the gospel, submitted to Him. And he says,
for this is the word of promise, at this time will I come and
Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, 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, It's not election based upon God's foresight
of your works. He says, but of him that called,
it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger as it
is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now that's
distasteful to the natural man. And the reason is, is because
he just does not believe that he deserves or anybody deserves
to be hated of God. But you see, you can't look at
the hatred of God like you do your own hatred or my hatred. That's a sinful thing. When God
hates, it's just an expression of His justice against sin and
sinners, the wrath of God. John 3.36 says, He that believeth
not, the wrath of God abideth on him. That's talking about
those who live and die in unbelief. And that word wrath, it's not
the same Greek word, but it could just as easily be translated
hatred. Well, look at verse 14 of Romans
9. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness or injustice or unfairness with God? God forbid,
and here's the key, verse 15, here's the difference. For he
saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and
I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then,
it is not of him that willeth. You see, it's not our wills that
make the difference. Nor of him that runneth, running
has to do with the works of man, but of God that showeth mercy."
Now right there is the source of salvation. It is the sovereign,
electing grace and love of Almighty God. God made the difference.
God made the difference. The ones whom God brings to Christ
are the ones whom He gave to Christ before the foundation
of the world. John 6, 37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. Somebody says, well, then it
doesn't matter what I do. Oh, no. All that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. All right, here's the second
thing. Turn to John chapter 3. John chapter 3. Secondly, what
makes the difference? The sovereign, redeeming grace
and love of Almighty God. Verse 14, John chapter 3. He says, as Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. What is he talking about? Who's
the Son of Man? That's Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory. How
must he be lifted up on the cross to die as the surety and substitute
of his people that whosoever believeth in him should not perish
but have everlasting life, have eternal life? Now what makes
the difference there? Their believing? No. The Son of Man being lifted
up. Because if the Son of Man is
not lifted up, they can believe whatever they want to believe
and it's not going to do them any good. He must be lifted up that those
who believe might have eternal life. His being lifted up, His
death on the cross is the putting away of all the sins of all His
people. His being lifted up and dying
on the cross is the establishment of righteousness whereby God
is just to justify His people. As their sins were charged, accounted,
imputed to Him, His righteousness has been charged, accounted,
imputed to them. How do you know that righteousness
was established when He died? Because when He was buried, He
didn't stay buried, He came out of the grave. He rose again the
third day. And then verse 16, for God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. What is
the world there? That's the world that God created,
which he determines to save, not by loving everybody without
exception. He didn't love Esau, but by loving
his own out of the world, his people, Jew and Gentile, his
chosen people. And it's qualified here that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. What made the difference there?
The sovereign, redeeming grace and love of Almighty God. That's
the ground of salvation. His righteousness. The body is dead because of sin,
the spirit is life because of righteousness. And then thirdly,
turn back to John 1, that I opened the service with this. What makes
the difference? Number one, the sovereign electing
grace and love of Almighty God. Number two, Sovereign redeeming
grace and love of Almighty God. Here's the third one. The sovereign
regenerating grace and love of Almighty God. Here's the effect
or the fruit of salvation. Look at John 1 verse 11. He came
unto his own, and his own received him not. That's man by nature,
isn't it? Left to himself. But as many
as received Him, there were some who did receive Him. Why did
they receive Him and the others didn't? Why did the ones Peter
preached to, why did they say, what are we going to do? And
why did the ones Stephen preached to say, well, they didn't say anything,
did they? They just gritted their teeth. What made the difference? Were
the ones that Peter preached to, were they a better class
of people than the ones Stephen preached to? Were they less stubborn? Were the ones Peter preached
to, were they less stubborn, less rebellious, better people? Well, according to the Bible,
no. The Bible says that there's none righteous, no not one. There's
none that doeth good, no not one. There's none that seeketh
after God, no not one. But look here. Verse 12, but
as many as received him, to them gave he power. Now the word power
there is not ability. The word power there is right.
In other words, if I claim to be a Christian, if I claim to
be saved, if I claim to be a child of God, what right do I have
to say that? How can I make such a claim?
Well, he says, to many who received Christ, to them gave he the right
to become or to be called the sons of God, even to them that
believe on his name. Why did they believe on his name
and those who received him didn't? Verse 13, which were born, they
were born. Now what birth is he talking
about? He's not talking about natural birth because the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. You can't
be physically born into this. He says that. Not of blood. Physical
birth will not do you any good as far as salvation goes. The
Jews boasted of their physical connection with Abraham. But
you're not born into this by blood. Nor the will of the flesh. That's the works of the flesh. They weren't born into this by
natural birth. They weren't born into this by
working for it. Salvation is not by works, for
by grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, lest any man should but. Nor of the will
of man, it's not by their free will or their decision. Because
left to themselves naturally, they will not come to Christ.
We will not do it. But which were born, look at
verse 13, but of God. God made the difference. You remember Christ said to the
Pharisees, He said, Why don't you understand my speech? Even
because you cannot hear my word. He's talking about spiritual
hearing, isn't he? Well, the Bible says in Romans 10 and verse
17, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Now,
who gives that hearing? Remember Christ told the disciples
in Matthew 13, He said, blessed are your ears for they hear,
blessed are your eyes for they see. God makes the difference. The Lord Jesus Christ. If I'm
saved, if I'm a child of God, If I'm bound for glory and eternal
life, I can tell you one thing, Christ made the difference. I
didn't. There is a big difference in
me, but it's one made by Christ and not self-made.