Acts chapter 15. Now, as we've looked at the in
our studies of the different books of the Bible, the four
gospels told us about the work of our Lord Jesus Christ, his
life, his death, his resurrection and his ascension back on high. Now, the book of Acts tells us
what our risen, exalted savior continues to do in the earth,
not through his bodily presence, but through his church. In the
book of Acts, we see the effects of Christ's work being carried
out through the preaching of the gospel. And in Acts chapter
15, we have the first Bible conference. We think when we have a conference
and we invite the pastors from different places, men we love
and respect and enjoy to hear preach, and we're excited. Here at the first Bible conference,
the speakers are the apostles. The apostles, Barnabas was there,
Luke was probably there. And the theme of the conference
is how are sinners saved? Now that Christ has died, he's
risen, he's ascended back on high. What role do the law and
the ceremonies have to do with the salvation of God's elect?
And the apostles and these other brethren came together to give
the church a clear answer. The answer is not to be debated.
It's not that they didn't know the answer and they're going
to come together and vote and decide. No, they knew the answer. They
came together. to give the church a clear answer
to this question. Salvation, is it by works or
grace? Which one? They came together
to give them a clear answer. So the title of the lesson this
morning is Grace or Works? Which? Now just to be clear,
the answer to that question is it's 100%, one way or the other. There can't be any mixture. Salvation
is either all of works or it's all of grace. And any mixture
of the two means that salvation is all of works. Look over Romans
chapter 11 and I'll show you that. Any mixture of grace and
works, even adding one work to grace, makes salvation all of
works. Romans 11 verse six. And if by
grace, then is it no more of works. There's no works to be
added to it. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. If you add even one work to it,
grace is no more grace. But if it be works, then it's
no more of grace. Otherwise, work is no more works. So what Paul is telling us there
is Christ plus anything, Christ plus any of our works is salvation
by works. Christ plus the law, Christ plus
our morality, Christ plus our baptism, Christ plus our church
membership, Christ plus our tithing, Christ plus our doctrine, Christ
plus anything is salvation by works. And I point that out because
there are some in the church at Jerusalem, some where the
Apostle James was the pastor. They came and told the brethren
this, they said, yes, yes, it's Christ that saves, but now you
also have to be circumcised to keep the law. Yes, it's Christ
that saves, but now you got to keep the law. And you know, the
flesh so easily falls into that trap. What's wrong with the law? You know, what's wrong with keeping
the law? Well, we ought to keep the law. But the problem with
all that is, is we can't. And if we try to add any of our
works of keeping any part of the law, then we make void the
righteousness of Christ. Look here at verse one of Acts
chapter 15. This is where these certain from Jerusalem came. Certain man, which came down
from Judea, taught the brethren and said, except you be circumcised
after the law of Moses, you cannot be saved. Yes, it's Christ that's
saved, but you also have to add to it your circumcision. In verse
five, they said the same thing. There rose up a certain sect
of the Pharisees, which believed, saying it was needful to circumcise
them and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And Paul and
Barnabas heard this, and they wouldn't allow that to go for
even one second without them saying no, that's not right. They wouldn't they would not
keep the peace with these men from Jerusalem if it meant saying
you have to keep the law. Look at verse two. When therefore
Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispensation with
them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other
of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders
about this question. So they got together and they
had the first Bible conference, verse six. And the apostles and
elders came together for to consider this matter. And apparently there
was a lot of argument back and forth about this. People were
giving their different points of view. And finally, the apostle
Peter, however long this went on, finally Peter had a belly
full and he stood up and he makes this answer plain. Salvation,
Peter says, is by grace without any works of ours. Verse seven.
And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and
said unto them, men and brethren, you know how that a good while
ago God made a choice among us that the Gentiles by my mouth
should hear the word of the gospel and believe. Peter said, God
chose me to go preach the gospel to the Gentiles. He went to preach
to Cornelius and they believed. Those Gentiles, none of their
salvation could be by works, by circumcision. They didn't
know anything about the law. They're Gentiles. But they believed. They were saved by believing
Christ. Salvation is by grace. And Peter
points out several ways that our works or anything about our
flesh cannot contribute anything to our salvation. First of all,
no sinner, I don't care whether they're Jew or Gentile, no sinner
can be saved by keeping the law. Look at verse 10. Now therefore,
why tempt ye God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples,
which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? Don't you
love these people? Don't you care about them at
all that you want to put this burden on them? That our fathers,
our grandfathers, our great grandfathers, and we ourselves weren't able
to bear it, it crushed us. What do you want to put that
on them for? That is a crushing weight because no man or woman,
boy or girl, has the ability to keep the law. We can't keep
the law. The law is a burden that our
sinful nature cannot bear. So it's obvious, we can't be
saved by keeping the law. Second, Peter points out this,
that no sinner can be cleansed by the ceremonies of the law.
Look at verse nine. And put no difference between
us and them, between the Jews and the Gentiles, purifying their
hearts by faith. Now this, you can't be cleansed
by keeping the ceremony of the law. To the Jews, that meant
that our heart, our soul, cannot be cleansed by keeping the Passover.
We can't be cleansed by keeping the Sabbath day or observing
all the ceremonies of the day of atonement. The heart couldn't
be cleansed by all the ceremonial washings that the Jews had. You
know, it's a good idea to wash your hands after you go to the
restroom or before you eat. Very good idea to wash your hands,
but that can only help your body. That can only help your flesh.
That washing of your hands cannot do anything for your soul. That's
what that meant to the Jews. All this ceremony that you've
been raised in doesn't have any effect on your soul. And to us
today, we don't keep the Passover, the Sabbath, or the Day of Atonement,
but to us today, we can't be cleansed, our soul can't be cleansed
by keeping the ceremonies of religion, means that we can't
be saved just because we decide to. And we go through the ceremony
of walking down an aisle and shaking a preacher's hand. Salvation
doesn't come that way. That doesn't cleanse our soul.
And we can't decide to accept Jesus because we're dead in sin. We can't decide to do anything.
Our heart cannot be cleansed by knowing the right doctrine,
by going through the ceremony of the catechism and learning
all the right doctrine. You're not saved because you're
Calvinist. You're saved because you're in Christ. We can't be
cleansed by going through the ceremony, the religious ceremony
of baptism. Now a believer will be baptized,
but believer's baptism is a confession of our faith in Christ. It's
our confession that Christ, through his sacrifice, through his blood,
has washed me from my sin. The waters in that pool can't
touch your heart, can't touch your soul, won't cleanse you
from sin in any way. The only way a sinner can be
cleansed is by faith in Christ, not by religious ceremonies,
and faith is a gift of God's grace. Thirdly, Peter points
out this, that no sinner is saved because of who we're related
to. He says in verse nine, God put no difference between us
and them. There's no difference between the Jew and the Gentile.
Sinners can only be saved by a gracious act of God, verse
eight. And God which knoweth the hearts,
bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did
unto us. Now you can't be saved because
of who you're related to. God gives this gift to whom he
will, whether it's Jew or Gentile. Now to the Jews, and boy, this
is a problem the Jews had. And after this, Peter's going
to struggle with it some more because this is so deeply ingrained
in his flesh. To the Jews, this meant you're
not saved. because you're a physical descendant
of Abraham. You're not better than the Gentiles
just because you're a Jew and related to Abraham. And to us
today, this means this. Our children are not believers
because their parents are. No child is a believer because
their parents are. They're not saved because God
saved their parents. Salvation cannot come to us through
our sinful blood, through the sinful blood of Adam's race.
Salvation can only be found in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Peter clearly pointed out to them how a sinner cannot be
saved. All right, Peter, how is a sinner
saved then? How is a sinner saved? only by
the grace of God. Look at verse 11. But we believe
that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be
saved even as they. Salvation must be by grace because
all men are lost in Adam. Now, Peter says we got to be
saved. We shall be saved. Well, if we
have to be saved, that means we must be lost. Isn't that right?
Well, how do we become lost? We became lost in Adam. When
Adam sinned, the whole human race that would descend from
Adam sinned in Adam. We sinned too. When Adam sinned,
every one of us sinned. When Adam sinned, every one of
us became guilty of sin. And when Adam sinned, every one
of us received Adam's nature. We received a sinful nature.
And there's nothing that we can do except sin. When Adam sinned,
all of us died. So we've got to be saved. Somebody
else has to give us life. When Adam sinned, all of us perished. So somebody else has to save
us. And that's what Peter's saying.
Somebody else has to do it because we can't earn it. We can't earn
salvation. We can't earn spiritual life,
eternal life, because we're dead. And if we're spiritually dead,
we can't do anything spiritual. We can't do anything to deserve
salvation. We can't do something that make
God feel sorry for us so he'll save us, because God's holy.
We're offensive to God. We're dead, stinking, rotting
corpses in God's sight. Donny Bell told a story yesterday
at the preacher school about his four-year-old grandson. He's
going to take him out to the barn. Donny had a calf out there,
he had a feed. And there's cow manure everywhere. And he told
his four year old boy, now don't don't step in any cow manure
now. And he got him some boots and he put those boots on him,
took him out to the barn. Donnie said not only did he step
in the cow manure, he sat down. He just sat down right in it,
you know, and oh, and Donnie carried him back up to the house
like this. Oh, that was offensive. That's what we are to God in
our rotting, stinking corpses. Well, we're going to be saved.
God's going to have to save us by a miracle of His grace. Well,
how does God's grace come to sinners? Where is this grace
found? Peter says God's grace is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It comes to us through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want
to spend the rest of my time talking about God's grace. God's
grace. It's not just the holy God ignoring
sin because he can't do that. He's holy. God's grace is not
God just deciding, well, he'll just ignore the sin of his people
and not punish it, even though that's what is what it deserves.
You know, we think that's grace because as parents, we sometimes
think, well, I'll be gracious to my child, not punish them,
even though they deserve it. But God can't do that because
God's holy. God's grace is in Christ. The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Now what does that mean,
grace and truth? Look at Psalm 86. Grace and truth
means this, that grace is given in truth so that it does not
violate the holy character of God. God can give grace and still
be true to his holy character. And David said the same thing,
Psalm 86, verse 15. With thou, O Lord, art a God
full of compassion, gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous
in mercy and truth. Now, what does that mean, mercy
and truth? Well, it means the same thing
as grace and truth. It means that God saves sinners in grace
by giving Christ the truth of what we deserve. He gives Christ
the truth of God's punishment, the truth of God's holiness,
by putting His Son to death on Calvary's tree. Grace and truth
means that the Father made His Son to be sin for His people.
And then Christ, in truth, put that sin away by His death, by
His death that satisfied the truth of God's character. So
now, through the death of Christ, the Father can show grace to
His people in truth without violating his holy character because the
sin of God's elect has been taken away by the sacrifice of Christ. Grace comes to us through the
Lord Jesus Christ because in him is grace and truth. And I'll tell you the only way
that you can describe God killing his son so that he can save sinners
in truth, the only way you can describe that is grace. That's
God's grace. Well, what kind of grace saves
a sinner? What kind of grace is God's grace? Well, God's grace is not man's
grace. You know, this is the way man thinks of grace. Man
says, well, I do something good, I do something right, and then
God gives me grace. Well, Peter already kicked that
in the head, didn't he? If I do something good, and then God
gives me grace, that's works, isn't it? That's salvation by
works. Man says, well, I make a decision to accept Jesus. I
make a decision to accept his sacrifice, to cleanse me from
my sin, and then God gives me grace. No, that's works. If I do something to ratify it,
that's works. Well, what kind of grace is God's
grace? What kind of grace saves sinners? Well, I want us to hear what
man says. I want you to hear what I say. What does God's word
say grace is? What kind of grace saves sinners?
And I've got a few. We won't turn to them all. We'll
just turn to a very few, but let me give them to you. You
can jot them down if you want and go back and look at them
later. What kind of grace saves sinners? Well, first of all,
it's electing grace. Now let's, we will turn to this
one. Look at Romans chapter nine.
So we've got to start here with electing grace because salvation's
got to start with God's election. Romans 9 verse 11. For the children, being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose
of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder
shall serve the younger. As it's written, Jacob have I
loved, but Esau have I hated. That's what God chose. Now, what
should we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? Is that wrong for God to choose whom he will? God forbid,
for he said to Moses, I'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy
and I'll have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then
it's not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but
it's of God that showeth mercy. Salvation all begins with God's
electing grace. Paul said in Romans 11 verse
five, at this very moment, there's a remnant on this earth that
believe God and don't believe idols. Wonder why? All said is because God has reserved
a remnant according to his election of grace. Grace that saves sinners
is electing grace. Second, saving grace is undeserved
grace. In Genesis chapter six, God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every
imagination of his heart, every The imagination of the heart
of every man was only evil continually. And God saw that and God determined
he was going to destroy man from the face of the earth. But Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah wasn't any better
than anybody else. Noah's heart was just as sinful
as everybody else. But why was Noah saved in that
ark? Because Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Undeserved
grace. Third saving grace is sovereign
grace. Paul quoted what the Lord said
in Exodus 33 verse 19. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. Now that's sovereign grace, the
king giving that grace to whom he will. God gives grace to whoever
he chooses, whenever he chooses. Not because we did anything to
obligate him to give us grace, but simply because The king decided
to give it its sovereign grace. I want you to turn to this one.
Second Kings chapter 13. Saving grace is covenant grace. Covenant grace is simply this
is grace that God promised before the world ever began because
of his covenant, his promise to his people in Christ Jesus.
Acts 13 verse 22. But Hazil, king of Syria, oppressed
Israel all the days of Jehoaz. And the Lord was gracious unto
them, and he had compassion on them and had respect unto them.
Why? Because of his covenant, his
covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he would not destroy
them, neither cast he them from his presence as yet. Why not? because of his covenant of grace.
Saving grace is covenant grace that God promised before the
world ever began. And God's gonna keep his promise.
Fifthly, look at Nehemiah chapter nine. Nehemiah chapter nine. Saving
grace is grace that keeps us even though we cannot keep ourselves. Nehemiah nine, verse 16. But they and our fathers dealt
proudly, hardened their neck, and hearkened not to thy commandments,
and refused to obey. Neither were mindful of thy wonders
that thou didst among them, but they hardened their necks, and
in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their
bondage. But thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and of great kindness, and you forsook them not. Yea,
when they had made of them a molten calf and said, this is thy God
that brought thee up out of Egypt and has wrought great provocations,
yet thou and thy manifold mercies forsook them not in the wilderness. Saving grace is keeping grace. Even though we can't keep ourselves
and we don't deserve for God to keep us, saving grace is keeping
grace. Sixth, saving grace is delivering
grace. Grace has delivered us from the
curse of the law. Job 33, 24, then is he gracious
unto him. And in grace, this is what God
says, delivering from going down to the pit, I found a ransom. Grace provided the ransom that
delivered us from the curse of the law. Seventh, saving grace
is supplying grace. Psalm 84 verse 11, the Lord will
give grace and glory to his people. No good thing will he withhold
from them that walk upright. Saving grace supplies everything
we need and everything God requires. Eighth, saving grace lets us
see Christ as the sacrifice for our sin. Look at Zachariah chapter
12. Saving grace lets us see Christ
as the sacrifice for our sin. Not just for the sin of a mass
of people that no man can number, but grace lets me see Christ
as the sacrifice for my sin. Zechariah 12, verse 10. And I
will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and of supplications, and they shall look on me whom
they have pierced. When are they going to look on
Christ who they have pierced? When are they going to look upon
Christ who died because they pierced Him? Because their sin
caused Him to die? When God pours out upon them
the Spirit of grace. Why is it that you seek Christ
as a sacrifice for your sin and somebody else doesn't? The only
difference is grace. God poured it out upon us. Saving
grace lets us seek Christ as our sacrifice. Nine, saving grace
is justifying grace, grace that completely removes all of our
sin. Romans 3, 24, being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus.
Look at Romans chapter five, here's the 10th one. Saving grace
is a gift, a free gift of God. What a gift. Romans 5 verse 15. But not as the offense, so also
is the free gift. For if through the offense of
one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by
grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. The same grace is the free gift
of God. Eleventh, Saving grace is abounding
grace. Paul said in Romans 5 verse 20,
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. You know, we
have just a little view of, we just have a little glimpse of
our sin. And even in our estimation, even
in the estimation of a believer, our sin is so great. And we've just seen the tip of
the iceberg. Our sin is so great. It's far
greater than what we even know. So the only way we can be saved
is by God's grace being greater than our sin. Are you a great
sinner? Or sin abounded? Grace did much
more. Well, saving grace is grace that
makes us rich. God's grace gives his people
everything that God requires, and he gives it to us abundantly,
not just by the skin of your teeth, but abundantly. He makes
us rich. 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9. For you know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that you through his poverty might be made rich. Saving grace is grace that makes
us rich. 13. Saving grace is sufficient
grace. What is it you need? God's grace
is sufficient for you. God told Paul in 2 Corinthians
12 verse 9, my grace is sufficient for thee. 14, saving grace is life-giving,
calling grace. Paul said in Galatians 1 verse
15, that God who separated me from my mother's womb, when it
pleased him, he separated me from my mother's womb and he
called me by his grace. Grace is life-giving, calling
grace. Fifteenth, saving grace makes
sinners righteous. Galatians 2 verse 21, Paul said,
I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
could come by the law, Christ is dead in vain. If we could be made righteous
by keeping the law, there's no need for Christ to die, was there?
He's dead in vain if I could save myself. Saving grace makes
sinners righteous because we cannot make ourselves righteous.
16, saving grace makes a sinner accepted
by God. Not acceptable, accepted. Ephesians 1 verse 6, to the praise
of the glory of his grace, wherein in his grace, he's made us accepted
in the beloved. Now look at Colossians chapter
3, Colossians 3, 17. Saving grace is grace in the
heart and on the lips. Colossians 3 verse 16. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one
another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. Saving grace is grace in the
heart. It's also on the lips, look over at chapter four, verse
six. Let your speech be all the way with grace, seasoned with
salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. Saving
grace at first in the heart, and then it'll be on the lips,
because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. 18, saving grace gives sinners
a good hope of eternal life in Christ. 2 Thessalonians 2 16. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our father, which has loved us and has given us
ever everlasting consolation and a good hope. How? Through grace. 19. Saving grace is establishing
grace. I'll tell you a thing about believers.
They're here year after year after year after they're established
in grace. Hebrews 13, nine says, it's a
good thing that the heart be established with grace and not
with meats, not with the ceremonies of the law that haven't profited
them that have been occupied therein. Our hearts are established
by grace, not by keeping the law and the ceremonies, but by
grace. In 20, last, saving grace. is for the chief of sinners.
Look back in our text in Acts chapter 15. Saving grace is for
the chief of sinners. Now notice how Peter says this
in verse 11. But we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. Paul says, or Peter says, us
Jews, us good religious Jews, religious family and background
who've gone to the temple every Sabbath, we shall be saved the
very same way those awful, sinful, vile, Gentile dogs have been
saved. See, it's not right to say, I
see that prostitute over on the street corner. Well, she could
be saved by the same grace saved me. That's not the way we ought
to say it. We ought to say, I see that vile
sinner. It's going to take the same grace
to save me that it does that all. Saving grace is for the
chief of sinners. Now, if I told you when I started
at 20 points, you'd run for the door. But see, when we see them
all together, there's 20 times what God's word tells us God's
grace is. And when you see all those 20
together, we see saving grace is all I need. This saving grace
is all I need. to save my soul. I'm thankful,
salvations by grace, aren't you? Oh, Lord bless you.