Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. The name of
the message is the gospel of grace. The gospel of grace. What a privilege to proclaim
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. That salvation
is in Christ alone, with no works of ours. Isn't it wonderful?
That all our righteousness comes from Christ. We're clothed in
his perfect righteousness. It's wonderful. All our acceptance
with God comes in and through Christ Jesus our Lord. My, oh
my. The gospel of grace comes from
a statement here that Paul makes in Acts chapter 20, verses 24.
My, oh my. Paul calls the gospel of salvation
through Christ alone the gospel of the grace of God. My, it's
wonderful. Let's read verses 22 to 24 to
see the context of verse 24. Paul says this, and it says,
Now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing
the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy
Ghost witnesses in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions
abide me. 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 received
of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. That's what I testify to you,
the gospel of the grace of God, that salvation's of the Lord,
period, nothing else. In its planning, in its execution,
in its application, God saves sinners, and he doesn't need
any help. The gospel is Christ. He is the sum and the substance
of the gospel. This is why you see books like
Galatians and Colossians written against man's works, because
it's worthless. Salvation's only in Christ, through
Christ, and by his perfect sinatoning work alone, and we are redeemed
by the shedding of his precious, precious blood. all according to God's sovereign
mercy and grace. Isn't that wonderful? And you
know what we are? We're receivers. We're receivers of the grace
of God. Isn't that wonderful? For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourself. It's a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. Praise his mighty name. Oh my. Paul and the apostles and the
saints of old, they preached the gospel of grace. The apostles
and the early believers were despised by the religious Jews
because of the gospel that they preached, that Christ is the
Messiah, and that he lived and he died, he was buried and he
rose again, and he shed his blood to redeem our eternal souls. And it was not, think of this,
they weren't persecuted because they lived immoral lives or because
they were covetous or proud men. No, they were persecuted, beloved,
because the gospel of God's grace, which they preached, is an offense
to human pride. It's an offense to human pride. And nothing's changed, has it?
It's still an offense to human pride. It was an offense to my
human pride before the Lord saved me. But now it's the most wonderful
news I've ever heard in my life. And I just want to tell everyone
now. It's wonderful. So they preached as I do, and
as every gospel preacher does, that salvation, even for the
most moral person on earth, is only possible because of the
grace of God, because we're all born sinners, dead in trespasses
and sins. Salvation is only because of
the mercy of God, given to us in and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. And these people of God in the
book of Acts, they knew nothing of free will decisionism, Show
me in the book of Acts where people are saying, where Paul's
saying, come down and walk an aisle or pray this prayer. It's
not in the Word, beloved. It's not there. They were born
again by the Holy Spirit of God and given faith to believe. And
they said, I believe. I believe. Oh, isn't it wonderful? My. And they didn't talk about
deeper doctrine in private, did they? I had someone one time
say, well, election, that's in-house. You don't talk about that when
you're witnessing to people or when you're talking to people.
Well, why not? Paul did. Paul did. Oh my. My oh my. My, oh my. The only way of salvation
is God being merciful and showing mercy, sovereign mercy, to sinners
in Christ. The gospel of grace and the glory
of God does not appear occasionally in Paul's preaching, occasionally in his writings,
no. No. The gospel of God's grace reigns
through the preaching of the gospel. It shines through the
preaching of the gospel. It dominates all that Paul said. It dominated the gospel of God's
grace. It was the only thing that these
saints of old preached. To them, any word of human merit
or worthiness or works was totally wrong and counted as nothing
when it comes to a sinner's acceptance before God. We trumpet the same even today,
don't we? Salvation is only in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ, and it comes to us by the grace of God. That's what's a wonderful thing.
It's the gospel of God's grace, showing to sinners such as you
and I. It's amazing. And Paul and the other preachers,
they addressed all men, even themselves, as guilty, condemned,
justly perishing, unless God is pleased to come in mercy and
lift the beggar from the dunghill, right? Oh, yeah. That's where I was. That's where
God found me. Was it where he found you? Oh,
yeah. Walling around in the dunghill
of life. And then he sanctifies us and
justifies us through Christ. And we are now accepted in the
beloved because of the perfect sin atoning work of the Lord
Jesus Christ in obtaining eternal redemption for his people at
Calvary Scrolls. It's wonderful. God, be merciful
to us, and bless us, and cause thy face to shine upon us. Psalm
67, 1. The Jews require a sign, and
the Greeks seek out their wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified. That's who we preach. 1 Corinthians
chapter 1, verses 22 and 23. Times have changed, haven't they?
Times have changed. Do you know what hasn't changed?
Men and women. Oh. Most religionists still seek
signs. There's a whole group out there seeking signs and wonders.
Telling people they're apostles and prophets, that's not true.
Don't believe it. It's a lie from the pit of hell. Then people think, oh, they seek
tongues. Well, tongues have ceased. It
was a sign gift to unbelieving Jews. Then they say, well, my
feelings and my experience, I feel this. I've experienced this. Feelings come and feelings go,
but feelings shall deceive us. Oh, my. Then there's another
camp of religious. Well, they seek wisdom and intellectualism. Philosophy. And they spend so
much time wrapped up in that stuff that they're not looking
to Christ. But God's preachers, beloved,
we preach Christ because we know Christ, because he saved our
souls. Oh, my. And I desire, just as
Paul did and Silas and all these preachers of old, we desire that
others know God and love him. Such a vast and heavenly gospel,
the gospel of God's grace, the sovereign God of the universe,
the one true living God. Such an infinite and heavenly
gospel can never be exhausted. Do you know that? I remember
someone said to Scott Richardson one time, they said, all you
do is preach Christ. And he said, can you put that
on my tombstone? Oh my. My, oh my. The gospel can never be exhausted.
So we preach Christ today, tomorrow, right? And as long as the Lord
gives us breath, Our first message and our last message is Christ. The full sum of our theology
is the gospel of God's grace shown to sinners in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation for sinners, dead dog
sinners such as I and such as you in Christ. It's amazing. Our Lord declared this. I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. That's God in the flesh saying
that. That's God the Son who has become
a man saying that. And the scriptures plainly set
forth the fact Now, because of our sin, we are so separated
from God that there's absolutely no works of ours that will bring
us back to God. We fell so much in Adam. We fell
so far that there's nothing that we could ever do, whether it
be a decision, or walking an aisle. There's nothing we can
do, whether it be baptism, or joining a church, There's nothing
we can do to gain merit and favor with
God, to bring us back to God. And the Bible says, remember
the Philippian jailer? What must I do to be saved? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Believe. Doesn't say believe and do this,
does it? Well, what will motivate us after
the Lord saves us? The love of God and the love
of Christ for us. Oh my. The Lord taught this to
Adam after the fall. He taught that there's nothing
we can do to bring us back to God. Remember, he fell. And then what did God do? He
drove out the man. He placed a flaming sword, which
turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. Couldn't
access it. My, oh, my. So there's no way
back to life in our works or in ourselves. There's no way
for us to work our way to heaven or do anything to get to heaven.
No, it's impossible. But Christ our Lord has come
to bring us back to God, beloved. We fell in Adam, dead in trespasses
and sins. And we who are born again by
the Holy Spirit of God are made alive in Christ, given faith
to believe, what Paul say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we believe by God given faith, don't we? We say hallelujah,
praise the Lord. Oh my. Now how shall he, as the
God-man, deal with the sword of God's wrath and justice that
was against us? Shall he command it to disappear?
Shall he find a way around it? No. He will be a just God and a Savior. Here, take that sword of God's
wrath and justice due us into his own hearts. And pour out his soul unto death
to bring many to God. The way is open. Christ is the
way. Ephesians 2 verses 13 and 14
says this, but now in Christ Jesus, this was written to believers
on Christ, but now in Christ Jesus, you sometimes were far
off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Oh, we fell in and
out and we were far off. We couldn't recover ourselves.
We're about nigh by the precious blood of Christ. For he is our
peace who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle
wall of partition between us. God taught Israel the responsibility
of any man's coming to him apart from Christ when he revealed
his glory upon the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies and forbid
any man to enter except the high priest once a year with blood
atonement, with blood atonement. Christ has come to bring us back
to God, we who are his people. He came to save us from our sins,
not with the blood of bulls and goats, but with his own precious,
precious blood. And he entered once into the
holy place, and he obtained eternal redemption for us. Praise his
mighty name, beloved. Now the veil is rent, the way
is opened, and we are commanded to come boldly into his presence.
all through Christ who is the way, the only way to the Father. Praise God for his great grace
in revealing the gospel of grace, the gospel of the grace of God
to us and saving us from all our sins in and through the Lord
Jesus Christ by the shedding of his precious blood to redeem
our eternal souls. Amen.