Acts chapter 2, that's where
we're going to begin this morning. And we'll be looking at a few
verses today. Acts chapter 2. Let's bow and have a word of prayer. Lord, we come before you this
morning and we ask that you might be with us today. As always,
we need your help. We need the Spirit with us to
guide us in our worship, to lead us into our honoring of Christ,
to be able to enable us to worship you, to preach you, to understand
you. Lord, we need your help. And
so we pray, Lord, today that you would be amongst us, as you
have promised you would, when two or three are gathered in
your name and we come. Lord, in your name, we don't
come the name of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church. We don't come
in the name of Christianity. We don't come in the name of
the preacher or anybody else, but we come in the name of Jesus
Christ. He is our head. He is our shepherd. He is our leader, our father,
our substitute. We come on behalf and because
of Him. And Father, we are this morning
desiring to hear and to know more about you, to hear from
you, Lord. So we ask that you would bless
this service today. I pray that you would help me
to preach truth today, that you would restrain me from any carnal
wisdom that I might have, that I might be leaning upon, Father,
that you might just give me utterance of truth. I pray, Lord, for these
brethren that are here that they too might hear and understand
as the Spirit teaches them. I know that the words from my
lips, they cannot teach anybody, that they cannot change or convince
to bring repentance to anybody, Lord, but it's by Your Spirit
that You work all these things. We're thankful for Christ Jesus.
We're thankful for His death on the cross as our substitute,
that all He bore on our behalf. that we are the recipients of
His righteousness, the forgiveness of sins and the reconciliation
to God. Father, we're also grateful that
by His Spirit He comes and He ministers to us, that He brings
comfort to us, that He teaches us and grows us in the grace
and knowledge of Himself. So, Lord, we just pray today
that Your will will be done in all things as it always is. We
pray, Lord, that You would be honored in our gathering today,
we pray for our brethren that are not here. We ask, Lord, that
you would be with them, that you would strengthen them, that
you would encourage them. We especially pray this morning
for Brother Raines, Lord. We don't know what all is going
on with him in the hospital, but Lord, we pray that you would
just be with him, that you would minister through the staff at
the hospital, Lord, that you'd be with his family, that you'd
give them peace and comfort, that you'd be with the church
as well, Lord, We just ask that you just bless this time together.
Bless those who are listening by sermon audio or by live stream. Father, we pray, Lord, that you
would also minister to them as well. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Well, brethren, the Lord has
laid upon my heart to continue to look at some of these aspects
of why we need sovereign grace. We kind of started looking at
this two or three weeks ago, and we've looked at several things
of why we need Sovereign Grace. You know, I mentioned this in
the very first sermon that I preached on it, that, you know, often
people wonder why you call yourself Sovereign Grace or why is your
church named Sovereign Grace? Some don't have a clue what Sovereign
Grace is all about. We've had a lot of people visit
our church and they didn't know what Sovereign Grace meant. and
came for a little while and realized what we believed. Thought, oh
wow, I don't know about that. I'm getting out of here. That's
not what I've ever been taught growing up. And so, why do we
need sovereign grace? Or why is that such an important
thing? Are we being sticklers for a theological system? Or
are we preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ? And I lean towards
the latter. Sovereign grace is the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Now, I didn't say Calvinism is
the gospel, as many false teachers say, as many reformed people
say, as C.H. Spurgeon, who I've grown to despise
a lot. Calvinism is not the gospel. Calvinism is a theological system. Christ saving His people. Sovereign
grace is what God in Romans 9 that we've read showing mercy upon
whom He would show mercy and compassion upon whom He'd show
compassion. That's sovereign grace. Sovereign
grace is God giving us or doing to us what we could not do or
give to ourselves. That's what sovereign grace is.
It's bestowing or doing or working on behalf of someone else who
has no ability to do what they cannot do. You know, I've always
said, I cannot believe what I cannot believe. If God has not given
me the ability to believe something, I cannot believe it no matter
how much people try to convince me of it. It has to be convinced
by God through His teaching. I cannot believe on Lord Jesus
Christ. If God doesn't give me the belief
to do it, it's not a natural thing. So we've kind of seen
this over the last few weeks as we've been looking at different
things on why we would need sovereign grace. We've looked at the fact
that we cannot understand or see spiritual things. We need
sovereign grace to cause us to be able to see these things. We've seen that we don't even
know our own heart, that it's deceitfully wicked above all
things and we don't even know it. So we don't even know that
we are being deceived in this religious system that teaches
that if we just accept Jesus, if we just repent, if we just
believe, if we will just ask Jesus into our heart or if we'll
just be baptized If we'll do, try to follow the Ten Commandments
to the best of our ability or whatever the case, then we'll
be saved or kept right with God. That's not the gospel. That's
not the gospel. The gospel is never you do something. That's never the gospel. I don't
care what it is. Repent and believe. And we're
going to be talking about that today. Repent and believe. That's
not the gospel. When someone says, go out and
preach the gospel, what's preaching the gospel? Repent and believe.
That's not the gospel. That's part of the gospel. That's
part of the gospel. That comes after the gospel.
But the gospel is the declaration that Christ has accomplished
salvation for all his people. That is the gospel. The gospel
is the fact that sins have been forgiven. That Christ is victorious. that God is satisfied, that those
for whom Christ died, they have been justified before God and
there is no more sin on their account. That Christ has given
to them imputed righteousness. That's the gospel. And then the
call to repent and believe comes after that. The call to repent
and believe is not the gospel. The gospel is the good news of
the finished work of Christ The call to repent and believe is
the call of conversion. Two different things. The Gospel tells the good news
to those who have been born of God, and those who have been
born of God, taught of God, have the Holy Spirit of God, gives
them understanding of this thing, when they hear the Gospel, are
given to believe and to repent. Repent and believe comes after.
Not before. It doesn't come before salvation.
It isn't the cause of your salvation. We're going to talk about those
things this morning. But we've already seen that our
heart is deceitful about all things. And we don't even know
it. Our heart wants to tell us we're okay. If we'll just follow
this religious system, we're all right. You know, if you come
to church and if you give your tithes and if you You know, if
you read the Bible so much, and if you pray so much, and if you
go out and witness so much, and if you, you know, do good, follow
God's laws, you're going to be all right. That's not the gospel. And our heart deceives us, making
us think that we are producing a righteousness before God, and
the Bible clearly says that all of our righteousnesses are filthy
rags, that we cannot please God, period. our flesh. The only thing
that pleases God is Christ. Christ pleases God. He is the
sweet-smelling Savior. His works are the works that
abide. His works are the ones that are
counted for righteousness, not ours. Nothing that we do can
do that, can make a righteousness before God. We see it all through
the Old Testament. We see it all in the New Testament.
People trying to establish a righteousness before God by doing things that
they think God is going to accept and God will not accept anything
that you try to produce for righteousness. If you try to make yourself good
with God, keep up good tabs with God by doing certain things,
that's not going to be accepted by God. The only thing that is
accepted by God is what Christ worked on our behalf And the
only fruits that we might ever bring forth are spiritual fruits,
and they are spiritual fruits. They are the fruit of the Spirit. They come from inside. They are
on the inside. They are the works of the spiritual
man, not the works of the fleshly man. And so our heart makes us
want to believe differently. We've seen that we cannot remove
ourselves from the curse of the law. God has to do that. He did that in His Son. We can't
get out from under the curse of the law by trying to keep
the law. God had to do it in sin in his son. We've already
seen that we need sovereign grace because we have no ability to
receive the Holy Spirit. We don't have any ability to
understand God's words because they're spiritually discerned.
You have to be born again. Therefore, last week, we've seen
that we cannot cause ourselves to be born again. Repenting and
believing does not cause us to be born again, as some believe
it is. Some believe that's what causes it. That the new birth
comes by a sovereign, gracious act of God on the child of grace. So we've seen that so far in
every aspect of what is commonly referred to as the gospel, that
in every aspect of conditions that are placed upon us, You
need to understand this. You need to believe this. You
need to repent of this. Your heart needs to be right
with God. You need to do the law of God. You need to understand,
read God's word and understand it, and then repent and believe
so that you can be born again. Every condition that modern church-anity,
modern Christianity puts upon the people of God, every condition
that is not the gospel, That is false gospels, okay? They need to be turned from.
They need to be called out, turned from, get away from, not be under.
And a lot of people, they say, well, I can still be under that.
I know the truth, and I know that they don't know the truth,
but, you know, I still get some good out of that. How can two
walk together unless they agree? How can... Let me ask you this. If me and my wife, we've been
married now for a long time, If I went out and started holding
hands with another woman and said, no, I still love you. You're
still my wife. I just kind of like this woman
here, too. What do you think my wife's going to think? She's
not going to be happy, is she? She's not going to be happy at
all. Why? Because I belong to her. I'm
her husband. Whenever we are married to Christ,
if we go out parlating with another. Another gospel. That is not a
gospel. Listening to a servant that is not a servant of God
according to Galatians. Whenever we go do that, that
is in itself somewhat spiritual adultery. And so we listen and
we hear all these quote-unquote gospels that are telling us that Sovereign grace is a cult. Sovereign grace is a demonic
doctrine. Sovereign grace is a theological
system made up by Calvin or Augustine. That's not true. Sovereign grace is the very,
very gospel of Jesus Christ. Call it what you will, but that
is the truth. And we've seen so far that every
aspect of this modern gospel is completely and totally opposite
of what the Gospel actually says, what the Bible actually says.
So if something is the opposite of something, is the opposite
of something, it is what? It's anti, right? If it's opposite
of something, it's anti. And so anything that is opposite
of Christ is anti-Christ. Anything that is opposite of
the gospel is anti-gospel. Anything that is opposite of
righteousness is anti-righteousness. So to try to think that we can
birth ourselves in the kingdom, repent and believe and cause
God to give us salvation based upon the condition that we kept,
that is anti-gospel. That is anti-Christ, anti-righteousness. So is it an important thing?
Is marrying ourselves to false doctrines, false thinking, false
preaching, false teaching, false Gospels, false Jesuses? We say,
well, there ain't no such thing as false Jews. There's only one
Jesus. Now, Jesus himself even said, there's going to be many
that's going to come saying, I'm over here, I'm over here, I'm over
here. There's going to be false Jesuses. It's out there. claiming
to be Jesus. There are going to be people
out there claiming this is a work of God. And it's not a work of
God. But because people have not been
given the understanding, the spiritual understanding of God's
Word, they don't know God's Word. The Bible even says, even among
God's elect, there are those who, because God has not taught
them and because they do not study their scriptures and know
their scriptures, and the Holy Spirit giving them understanding
of that, they're ignorant. That's why the Bible says, my
people perish because of lack of knowledge. They have a lack of knowledge.
And so they're following every whim and every little doctrine
that's out there because it sounds good, because it looks good,
because the popular people are following after it. It's being
plastered all over the The world is being plastered all over the
internet, all over the radio, all over the TV. But brethren,
remember, Jesus said the people who hold to the truth are going
to be suffering. They're going to be persecuted.
They're going to be rejected. They're going to be small. It's
going to be a small thing. It's not going to be a popular
thing. If the world is out there looking on and saying, that's
awesome, and they want to get part of it, guess what? You can
probably guess it's not of God. Because the natural man cannot
believe these things, cannot understand these things, cannot
know these things, and do not desire these things of the true
gospel. Now that's not my words, that's
Jesus' words. We've already read that Jesus
is the one who said, you cannot hear my words because you are
not of God. So brethren, we need sovereign
grace because apart from We cannot be saved. Without sovereign grace,
we are left hopeless. We are left destitute. We are
left under the wrath of God. We are left to our own demise
in the fact of all we can do is sin and we can't get out from
underneath it because that's all we desire to do. That's all
this flesh can produce is sin. But the difference of the child
of grace is they've been given a new birth and in that new birth
a new creation has come to indwell that flesh clay pot. The Bible calls it we have treasure
in earthen vessels. The treasure is Christ. He lives
in us. He is in us. And therefore what
we are in the inward man is not the same as what we are in the
natural The natural man can only sin, the inward man cannot sin.
Therefore there is a contradiction. There is a warfare. Now today
I want us to look at why do we need sovereign grace. And the reason we need sovereign
grace is because without it we cannot repent and believe. Man
cannot repent and believe. And we know that that was being
preached, that was being taught after the Gospel whenever people
would inquire. As a matter of fact, look in
Acts chapter 2 with me, and we'll start there. There are many that's
out there that's going to listen to this or hear what I've just
said, and they're going to say, well, what about all these verses
that tell us to repent and believe it's a command? See, even the
Reformed believers say that the Gospel is a command. I've preached
that as a sovereign grace believer. I've preached that the gospel
is a command. Gospel is a declaration. It's
good news declared. Because salvation doesn't come
by any conditions, right? So if you command somebody to
do something in order for something to take place, that's no different
than what the Arminian says. whenever they say that you can't
get salvation unless you do this or that. See, repent and believe
is not a command in the aspects of to get salvation. It's a command because you have
been saved. And Christ, in that preaching
to the heart, in that giving the hearing of the ears, in the
understanding of the mind, like calling out Lazarus from the
dead, He is calling His people to repent and believe, and guess
what? They repent and they believe. Because He has given them that.
He has caused them to do that. He has granted them that ability
to repent and to believe. So it is an inward command of
God Not an outward call of an offer or an invitation. The Gospel
is not a command to give someone as a conditional thing. But it
is an inward call that Christ gives to His people because He
has given them spiritual life to believe on the true Gospel. That's why I say I don't believe
anybody is going to get out of this lifetime without ever coming
to the understanding of Sovereign Grace. If they are a child of
grace, if they are an elect of God, before they pass from this
lifetime, they are going to come to know Christ in this capacity. Because faith has been given
to them. And that faith does not hold to a false gospel. If it wasn't such a big deal,
God wouldn't have made such a big deal in the Bible of declaring
all over the epistles to beware of false gospels. If it wasn't
such a big deal, if it was just a, oh, they just don't have a
full understanding. Oh, they just don't know that.
Listen, I completely understand that there are people who do
not have full understandings and that God grants them the
ability to believe that in time as things go along, he gives
them the understanding of that thing. I will say that, but I
do not believe that there'll be people that will lead this
lifetime that never come to know this true gospel. It's just antithetical
to everything that the Bible teaches. So if one is to know
this gospel, it has to be taught by the Holy Spirit. And the Holy
Spirit has been given and promised to be that very thing, the teacher.
Now that's God's promises. That's why I can stand sure on
that. I can stand sure all that the Father gives me shall come
or believe on me. I can stand on that because God
promised that and God doesn't lie. Preachers lie. People lie. Everybody lies. But God doesn't lie. And He said
that all my children, all His people that was given to Christ
will come and believe on Him. They're not going to come and
believe that He didn't do what He said He did. They're not going
to believe a lie about Him. They're going to believe the
truth about Him. He's going to bring them to believe on Him.
happen instantaneously as soon as they're born? No. Is it going
to happen instantaneously as soon as they become a young man?
No. Or a young woman? No. When is
it going to happen? Whenever God grants them repentance
and faith. That's whenever it's going to
happen. We don't know when that's going to happen. We can't control
that. I can't speed that up. I can't
hinder that. That's the good part about Sovereign
Grace also. Especially for a preacher. You
know, I grew up under a system that believed completely opposite
of what we believe now. That it was by man's choice that
we are saved. That God did all this in Christ
and it was a plan that God predestined, but he never did predestine anybody
to be saved. He never did cause anybody to
be saved. That was by their own choice,
that he give them, choose you this day whom you will serve.
That's what I would always say. I'd use that verse to make that
point. And that repentance and belief
had to be done before God would give you the gift that He had
promised to give you if you did that, right? But, brethren, that's
not what the Bible teaches. It doesn't teach that we are
to do that. So, let's look at this. Acts
chapter 2, some will say, well, here, Acts chapter 2, verse 38,
it says right here, now, of course, this is after Peter has preached
the gospel. He's already preached the gospel.
But now, look at verse 38, it says, or verse 37, now when they heard
this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and
to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall
we do? Okay, they heard the gospel and now what is it? And it says
they were pricked in their heart. Well, who's the one that pricked
them in their heart? Well, that was the Holy Spirit. The Holy
Spirit pricked them in their heart. They said, What shall
we do? Then Peter said unto them, Repent,
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost. Now, as a son, they will say,
Well, there you go. You have to repent. What must
we do? We have to repent and believe
to be saved. for the remissions of sin. You're
not going to get your sins remitted if you don't repent and believe.
That sounds conditional. That's conditional. Repent and
believe for the remissions of your sins. But is that what that's
saying? Repent and be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins. Now
that word for there can mean in order to get It can mean that. But the Bible also teaches that
that for also can mean something different. And I've taught this
to you guys before. I learned this actually from
my grandpa. That word for can mean because
of. And I've given you this illustration
before. If a man goes off to war and fights in a war and does
something very heroic, and he comes back and they give him
the Medal of Honor. And the guy comes and pins it
on him and says, we give you the Medal of Honor for bravery.
Did he get that medal so that he could go out and be brave?
No, he got that medal because he already had been brave, right?
He got the medal for bravery or because of bravery. Same thing here. Repent and be
baptized in every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ because
of the remissions of sin. Because your sins have been remitted,
repent of your false beliefs and be baptized, showing forth
the Gospel. You're not saved by this old
pharisaical law system that your teachers are teaching you to
hold to, that you establish your righteousness by law keeping,
but show that you have had your sins remitted, not by law keeping,
but by death, burial, and resurrection. See, the call to repent and believe
was not to be saved, but to show forth that you have been saved.
Okay? So someone says, well, that was
a conditional thing. Well, no, it wasn't a conditional
thing. Look also at chapter 3 in verse 19. We'll see the same
thing. Peter again says, Repent ye therefore and be converted
that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing
shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send
Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven
must receive until the time of restitution of all things which
God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the
world began." So someone said, well, there you go. He commanded
them to repent and be converted so that their sins may be blotted
out. Okay, well, is that a conditional
passage then? You have to repent and be converted
before your sins were blotted out? Well, brethren, we know
all through the Scripture that our sins are blotted out by what? The blood of Christ. The Bible
overwhelmingly teaches that forgiveness of sins comes by the shedding
of blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sins. Remission of sins is the same
as blotting out. That would be contradictory if
we said, repent and be converted so that you can have your sins
blotted out. Therefore, repent and conversion
is what causes God to blot out your sins. And then for the Bible
to say, by the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. There has to be a shedding of
blood. The shedding of blood is what is the remission of sin
is by the blood of bulls and goats that God accepts. that we are forgiven by the blood
of Jesus Christ. So those are contradictory. Which
one is true? Which one is false? Well, we
obviously know the Bible overwhelmingly teaches that blotting out of
sins is by blood. So obviously our understanding
of what does He mean by repent and be converted, that your sins
may be blotted out. Well, what is repentance? Repentance
is a what? Change of mind, right? Repentance
is a change of mind about something. Being converted means what? To
turn from one thing and to turn to another. So they're very closely
interwoven. Repentance and conversion or
convert are basically synonymous but they are a little bit different.
Repentance is I have changed my mind And now I've been converted
to something else. Remember the Bible says that
they had turned from idols to God? They turned from idols,
that was the repenting, and they turned to God, that was the converting. That's what it is with the Gospel.
Whenever the person hears the Gospel, they repent of their
false Gospels, that's repentance, And then they convert and turn
to the true gospel, which is Christ's gospel. Repentance,
conversion. Repent and be converted from
what? From thinking that your salvation,
that your sanctification, that your justification, that your
glorification, is in your law keeping, in your performing righteous
deeds before God, and be converted to the fact that Christ has been
your obedience, and that Christ is your righteousness, your justification,
your sanctification, your glorification. Make an about face from what
you've been taught to what I have taught you, what Christ has taught
you, Why? So that your sins may be
blotted out. Meaning that God's now going
to forgive you? No, so that our experience in our mind, we know
our sins are being blotted out. If we continue in the pace of,
I need to provide a righteousness of my own by keeping the law,
by obeying God, by following conditions, I'm always going
to fail because the Bible tells us that we cannot keep the law.
The law will thunderously condemn us every day, all day. And so if I continue in this
course, believing that I can establish a righteousness before
God by being religious and doing religious things, it's always
going to be putting up my sins. My sins will ever be before me.
But if I repent, and be converted to the Gospel, the Gospel only
tells us there are no sins. That all your sins have been
forgiven. As far as the East is from the West. All of our
sins have been blotted out. He has removed them. We are now
as white as snow. That our record is justified. There is therefore now no condemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus. That's what the Gospel tells
us. That's why it says, if you repent and be converted so that
your sins may be blotted out of your mind. If you turn this
way, your sins are ever before you because you continue to break
the law. But if you turn this way, you'll see that God has
removed those sins, that you are no longer condemned by sin,
that the law no more has any mastery over you, and that Christ has done all.
to satisfy God on your behalf. Whenever we are thinking this
way, our sins no more are before us. We are no more, and I'm not
saying that we're not sorrowful for our sins, we continue to
sorrow whenever we sin. Whenever I sin, I sorrow for
that. I hate that I sin. Just like Paul, I know the good
that I want to do, but I don't do it. There's a sorrow for sin, but
brethren, there is not a depression. There is not a feeling of condemnation
anymore. There is a rejoicing in the fact
that our sins have been taken away. And so he says here that
your sins may be blotted out when the time of refreshing shall
come. See, whenever we look at the gospel and we sin, the time
of refreshing That time that the Lord sends the Spirit to
bear witness with our spirit that we are His, and if we are
His, then we are children of the promise. And if we are children
of the promise, the promise was that I will remember your sins
no more. That's part of the promise. The Spirit comes as a refreshing
to the children of God that our sins, that no one can lay any
charge to God's elect. I don't see that whenever I'm
going in my own righteousness. All I see is my sin. Because
I keep breaking God's law, I can't keep it up. But whenever I repent
and be converted to the gospel, then all I hear is, therefore,
there is now no condemnation. No one can lay any charge to
God's elect. Forgiven. Justified. Sanctified. Those are the gospel
words. The law words are condemned.
unjust, unrighteous. That's what the law says. And
Christ is saying that you are no more bound to the law, but
you are bound to grace. That you are no longer under
the law, but you are under grace. We are no longer married to the
law, but we are married to Christ who has fulfilled the law for
us. Why do we need sovereign grace? Because we cannot repent
and be converted. We cannot repent and believe. You say, well it says here, that's
what they're telling them to do. Brethren, all this is also
in light of what the Holy Spirit said to us. Turn to Acts chapter
5. All this is told to us in Acts chapter 5, verse 30. It says, I'll start in verse
29. And the other apostles answered
and said, We ought to obey God rather than man. The God of our
fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. And here's the word him referring
to Jesus. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince
and a savior. Why? Why did God send Christ
as a prince and a savior? for to give repentance to Israel
and forgiveness of sins. Wait a minute, I thought the
blood ain't out of sins was me repenting. No, it's because Jesus
was sent and died. How do I get repentance? Well,
you just have to muster up your faith and repent. Turn from it.
You just got to turn from it. See, the natural man will never
do that. The Bible says the natural man, in the natural man, that
no man seeketh after God. He's always going to seek His
own ways, His own devices. He's always going to follow after
His own way. The only way that we turn is because
we have been given repentance. But if you notice there, He gave. Jesus died so that Israel, and
we're not talking about physical Israel, we're talking about spiritual
Israel, so that spiritual Israel might be given repentance. See, repentance is a gift of
the Holy Spirit that was purchased in the death of Christ. It's
a spiritual work of God. Whenever God says that God had
before ordained that we should walk in these spiritual works,
that's one of them. The Holy Spirit works repentance
in our heart, in our mind, so that we will turn from wrong
thinking because we have been taught of God. We will know more
our neighbor, saying, Know God. Why? Because they shall all know
Him. One John says that you don't
have any need that any man should teach you, because the anointing
that we have, that Spirit of God that is in us will teach
us. So we trust in that. Let's look at the explicit verses.
Now we've looked at those implicit verses, repent and believe, repent
and can be converted. And people say, well, there you
go. Them are conditions, but we've seen they can't be conditions
because Acts 5.30 says, number one, Jesus died so that he can
give repentance. Okay. Matter of fact, while you're
still there in Acts, Acts chapter 11, verse 18. I think it's another passage
that shows this very clearly. Verse 18, it says, When they
heard these things, they held their peace and glorified God,
saying, Then hath God also... So that word also means that
what they're seeing is happening is just like what we have seen
happen already. When they heard these things,
they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then have God also
to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. So therefore, the Jews had already
been granted repentance. Now the Gentiles are being granted
repentance. That word granted there implies
the fact that it's not natural. It's something that has to be
given to us. Okay? If it was something that
was natural, then it doesn't have to be granted. Therefore,
then it can be commanded. But something that is granted, you give it to them. Something
that's commanded, they already have it, they're just not exercising
it. Right? But let's look at some verses
in the scripture that teaches these very things very clearly.
Look if you would with me at Ephesians chapter 2. I want to
look at verses 8 and 9 because this is a passage of scripture
that a lot of people will go to. However, I believe that this
is taught incorrectly even among sovereign gracers. I've actually preached a message
on this very verse. You can find it on Sermon Audio.
I believe the title that I entitled that was, What Does the That
Refer To? In Ephesians 2.8.9. Anyway, Ephesians
2 chapter 8 and verse 9 it says, For by grace
are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And so we see here that faith
is a gift of God. Grace is a gift of God. Salvation
is a gift of God. However, the free willer, comes
and says, you know, the that there, and that, not of yourselves,
is not referring to faith. It's referring to grace. Or they
may go all the way back and just say it's referring to salvation.
But they say that faith is not included there. And they give
a good reason for that, or what they assume is a good reason,
is because of the Greek grammar here. They hold that Now remember,
they hold that man naturally has faith, and that he just needs
to move his faith from one object to another. And if they'll put
their faith in the object of Christ, then they will be saved.
Okay? That God will grant them quickening,
that God will cause them to be born from above, and that He
will bless them and give them all the salvation promises. But
they have to do that. They have to bring their faith
from this object to this object, and then God will do it. So they
believe that faith precedes the new birth. The new birth is gotten
by repenting and believing. When, in fact, it's just the
opposite, right? But here they say that the that
in verse 8, and that, that word that, refers not to faith. And the reason they say that
is because, for one, it breaks down their theological premise
that faith precedes quickening or salvation, or is a condition,
the condition for salvation. And the reason they say that
is because they go to the Greek and they say that the word that
there, and this is true and I want to agree with them in this matter,
the word that is neuter, the word faith is feminine therefore that cannot
be referring to faith and so they'll say there you go because
that is neuter and faith is feminine those two genders don't match
so that cannot be referring to grace I mean faith it has to
be referring to the previous part of the passage and I will
agree faith is feminine And that is neutered and they don't connect
up. But what they don't go on to
tell you in that explanation is that grace also is feminine. Therefore, that does not line
up with it either. Saved is not feminine or is not
neutered. It's feminine. Therefore, it
does not line up with that either. So what does that refer to if
everything preceding that is feminine and it doesn't match
grammatically? Well, because faith and grace
and salvation is all feminine and not neuter and they don't
match up, what is it that it lines up with? Well, it lines
up with the whole phrase. It lines up with the whole phrase.
See, faith and grace doesn't agree with the neuter. The word that is a masculine. These things are smarter than
me. I'm just telling you in my looking at the Greek. and the
pronouns and the things there, that that is a demonstrative
pronoun. It is a masculine participle. The phrase, are you saved, is
a masculine participle. The only way that these things
can line up is for that to refer to everything preceding it. Saved,
grace, faith, that is not of yourself. It is a gift of God. I said all those smart things.
Smarter than me. I didn't come up with that. I
went to the concordance and I looked that up. And the concordance
that I looked that up in said this is the grammatical thing
here. This is the grammatical thing here. This does not line
up with this. This doesn't line up with this.
It has to line. Okay, them are all smart things. You don't have to know Greek
to know that though. Because the Word of God has already
told us that the faith that is in you is not our faith. We are not saved by our faith. We are saved by the faith of
Christ. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourself. The saving, the grace, and the
faith is not of you. It's of Christ. Christ is the
one who saved. Christ was the one who gave grace. And Christ was the one who was
the faithful one who obeyed God on your behalf. Therefore, you
are saved. We've already been told above
that we have been saved by grace. Before this, look at verse 5. or verse four, but God who is
rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when
we were dead in sins hath he quickened us together with Christ,
that's speaking of Christ's resurrection, by grace ye are saved. See, it's by the work of Christ
that we are saved. His work of faithfulness, His
righteousness, His faithfulness. See, so it isn't our belief.
It isn't for by grace are you saved, through your faith. Now,
it is Christ who died for you, but it's through your believing
that that you get that promise. That's not what the Bible says.
For by grace are you saved through faith, and that, grace, saved
faith, is not of yourself, it is a gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast. See, if I was to say, even if
it was the faith that God gave me, If I was saved by the faith
that God gave me to believe in Him, then I would still have
room to boast. I appropriated that God-given
faith. See, I would have room to boast.
But see, there is no boasting whenever it isn't reliant upon
our faith being exercised, even the God-given faith that God
gives us in the spiritual realm. That's not what saves us. What
saves us is the faithfulness of Christ Jesus. So, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 is not
a proof text for faith being able to be done in the natural
man, but it is only by sovereign grace. It is a gift of God. Look if you would with me, and
I'm going to try to hurry here. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 and
verse 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 3 and verse
2. And here's the reason why I said
that, and I probably should have put this up at the top whenever
I was talking about the clear facts that we cannot have faith
without sovereign grace. It says, Finally, brethren, pray
for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified,
even as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable
and wicked men, for all men have not faith. Now the Bible here
clearly declares that all men have not faith. So to just say you have to change
your faith from this and put it to this, is contradictory
to God's Word that says, all men have not faith. And the verse
that we just read, that faith is a gift of God. Faith was given
to us in the new birth to believe that the faith of Christ is what
saved us. Christ's faithfulness is what
saved us. And the faith that we get in the new birth believes
that report. To whom has the arm of the Lord
been revealed? Who has believed our report?
To whom the arm of the Lord has been revealed. To whom the one
that God has given faith to believe the report. What is the report? That Christ's faithfulness has
saved us. Why do we need sovereign grace?
Because we need the arm of the Lord to be extended and reveal
Christ as the one who is faithful to save us. We need the faith of Christ to
believe in the faithfulness of Christ. We need the faith of
Christ in order to believe the record, the report, the gospel. No man can believe the gospel
or the record or the report or the testimony or the declaration
unless they have been granted or given or gifted faith. Look at Philippians 1.29. Scripture
says, For unto you it is given in behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but
also to suffer for His sake. So here clearly we see that we
are given to believe on Christ. It's given to us. It's granted
to us. We don't do that on our own.
We cannot do that on our own. It has to be given. It has to
be granted. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 2. Verse 24, 2 Timothy 2, verse 24, And the
servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all
men, apt to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those that
oppose themselves, if God perventure will give them repentance to
the acknowledging of the truth. See, God has to grant repentance
to acknowledge the truth. Repentance. Turning my knowledge
and knowledge from thinking this way to thinking that way. That's
what repentance is. All this junk about revival that's
going on, about people repenting. Listen, if they're not repenting
of their false Gospels, that's not revival. That's not a work
of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit would be teaching
them to turn from their Wesleyan ideas and their charismatic ideas
of all of what's going on. The repentance of changing their
mind would cause them to change their mind about the gospel.
The gospel isn't about them accepting, receiving, repenting, believing,
about them doing anything. The message of the gospel isn't
about them cleaning up their lives. The message of the Gospel
is Christ has done this. And that we are to believe on
that. Not in our religiousness. Look,
if you would, at 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 1. Of course, we've seen
there again that repentance was granted. Now in 1 Peter chapter
or 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter 1. Simon Peter, a servant
and apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained light,
precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and
our Savior, Jesus Christ. We have obtained light, precious
faith. That word obtained there is not
something that we do on our own. We've been given it. We've obtained
it by a gift, by giving, by granting. That's how we obtained it. And
notice, this is a faith that is not the same as all faiths. This is a faith that is different
than other faiths. We have obtained like precious
faith or a faith that is like the others. What others? The brethren. Those who have
been elected of God. Matter of fact, remember, this
is the second epistle that Peter has written and the first epistle
he opens up with to the elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit and obedience and
strengthening of the blood of Jesus Christ. This is talking
about the elect. You say, well, preacher, I think
you're really kind of stretching that quite a bit. Well, let's
turn lastly to, and maybe less than, Titus 1.1. Titus 1.1. Paul, a
servant of God and apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the
faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth which
is after, Godliness. Now, Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ, according to the faith of God's elect. Number one, Christ
Jesus is the elect of God. And we are elect because we are
united to Him. Ultimately, this is talking about
the faith of Christ. Paul was a apostle of Jesus Christ
according to the faithfulness of Christ Jesus, but also the
faith that Christ gave to him. See, it is only because of the
faithfulness of Christ and his obedience and death and resurrection
that any of us can be saved, that are united to him. And those
who are united to him are then given faith to believe that what
Jesus did was for us. Because it says there, in hope
of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the
world began. See, the faith is given to us,
the truth is given to us, but it is only given sovereignly.
It is only given by God as a gift. That's why we need sovereign
grace. We need sovereign grace because without sovereign grace,
we could not repent We could not believe. I think I'll stop right there.
I'm going to read a couple more verses, but maybe we'll pick
up with those Lord willing next week if the Lord so chooses to
go that direction again. Anybody got any questions or
comments? I hope as we've gone through
these passages, it becomes clearer and clearer that we see that
sovereign grace is a beautiful thing. Again, as I said before,
we are left hopeless without it, that no man would be saved
without sovereign grace. So those who are despisers of
the doctrine of sovereign grace, they speak out of ignorance,
true ignorance. And I don't say that in a mean
way or a way that is insulting. I say that in a factual way.
They speak out of ignorance. They don't know. They don't realize that all along,
it's been by God's grace that without it, they would all perish. Everyone would perish. I pray that not only has the
passages of Scripture that's been brought forth not only confirmed
to your heart the truth of sovereign grace, but it has comforted your
heart that God can do these things. And that's another thing to not
forget, that God, because sovereign grace is sovereign, it is irresistible. God can bestow that on whomever
He wants to bestow it upon. And so even the person that is
the hardest of hearts, who is the most evil of evil, wicked
of wicked, the person that you think that God can never save, they can't resist the grace of
God. If He decides to give them grace
and repentance and faith, then they will certainly be exercised
in it by God. So there's always hope for any
person that you might know that you think, well, there's no hope
for that person. Well, there's no way that God's ever gonna
save them. They're too far gone. All of us have probably thought
that of ourselves. I'm too far gone, maybe. To do that is to
presume upon the grace of God, that God's grace cannot save
that person. That's why we say, I don't ever
castigate anybody to hell You know, well they're not an elect.
I don't know that. I can't see God's book. I don't
have no clue who God's elect is. Now the Bible says we'll
know them by their fruits and whatever it means. Fruits is
talking about doctrine. You'll know them by their doctrine,
what they're believing. Do we know whether they're a
believer or not? Yes, we can know whether they're
a believer or not. Do we know if they're elect or
not? No! Because somebody who may
not be believing may be an elect of God who is yet to be granted
repentance and faith. At one time, I didn't believe
the Gospel. Does that mean that I was not the elect of God? No.
But I wasn't a believer at the time. God granted me repentance
and faith to believe the true Gospel. I was converted to the
true Gospel. And that was my sovereign grace.
It wasn't because I grew up in church. I grew up in church my
whole entire life. I preached before I ever learned the gospel.
But I wasn't preaching the right gospel. I was preaching the wrong
gospel. I was believing in a wrong Jesus. Was I preaching a Jesus? Yes, I was. Did I think I was
preaching the right Jesus? Yes, I did. But I was preaching
out of ignorance. Just like Paul. He thought that
he was doing the work of God until God met him on the road
of Damascus and struck him down and gave him the truth. Granted
unto him repentance. and belief, converted him. As
the Bible says, that he revealed Christ in him. That's when Paul
realized that everything that I thought was gain, I now count
as done. Everything that I thought that
I was doing for God, that really wasn't for God. All the stuff
that I thought I was doing was just religious posturing on my
part to try to make a righteousness for myself. to make me look righteous
before other men. I was deceived in my heart, thinking
that my righteousness was going to be accepted of God, and it
wasn't. That's why I say, knowing sovereign grace is a comforting
thing, especially for preachers, because I used to think, man,
oh boy, I've got to get this message just right, I've got
to preach it just right, I've got to explain it just right,
so the people would get saved, because if not, their blood's
going to be on my hands, if I don't warn them, if I don't tell them,
It's my responsibility to make sure that they get converted,
blah, blah, blah. But praise God, it's not up to
me. I'm not hindering or helping
anybody into the kingdom, but that is the sole work of God
alone. And so I'm thankful for sovereign grace. What I once
despised, I now rejoice in. That God is sovereign and His
grace is irresistible. All right. Anybody got a question
or anything you want to add? All right, let's pray. Father,
once again, we come to you and we praise you for sovereign grace. We praise you for the irresistible
grace of God that takes out the heart of stone and puts in the
heart of flesh and causes us to walk in your statues, giving
us faith to believe on Christ Jesus alone as our righteousness,
to walk according to the gospel and not according to the law,
or to look solely to our Savior as our only means of salvation.
Lord, we're thankful that Your Holy Spirit does work among men,
that He has given preachers to declare these things for the
comfort of Your sheep. Lord, that You have given men
to declare these things, and that You have given people to
believe upon. Lord, we're so grateful for the work of the
Gospel, but Father, we know that that work is not on our behalf.
God because of the Spirit of God that works among us. So Father,
we give you praise and glory in all things. Salvation truly
is of the Lord. Father, we just pray that you
continue to remind us of these things. May we find consolation
in these things. You tell us to comfort your people,
comfort you, comfort you, my people. And the way that you
tell us to do that is to speak to your people and tell them
that their sins have been forgiven, that Christ has done the work
on their behalf. Father, that there's nothing
left for us to do but to say thank you, and that we do today. We say thank you for salvation.
Lord, be with everyone this week as they leave this place, and
that you might keep them, minister to them, through them, to those
that they may be around, to declare the gospel, to boldly stand for
for your gospel. Father, I pray that those who
are yours who have yet to be converted, I pray, Lord, that
you would turn them, turn their heart, and that you might turn
their mind, and that you might grant them repentance and faith,
and that they might come to you, Father, and that they might be
baptized, showing forth that death, burial, and resurrection
of our precious Lord. And I pray, Lord, that they might
be joined to the church, and they might be able to enter into the work that you
have given for us to do in ministering the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so, Father, again, we just
thank you for all that you have done for us and your love and
salvation that you've given to your people. For it's in Christ's
name that we pray. Amen.