As we read in the first 11 verses,
Paul and Barnabas leave Antioch, that's where they were, when
these legalists that professed faith in Christ came behind them
telling believers, people that God had saved by His grace through
the preaching of these two faithful servants, They came behind telling
them, well, that's not enough. That's not enough. So Paul and
Barnabas decide to go up to Jerusalem. And I think the reason they did
that, they wanted to make clear once and for all, unite their
voice with that of the other apostles. Peter, for example,
we read what he said in chapter 15, but also with James. John, all the apostles, and the
elders. James, our Lord's half-brother,
seems to be the pastor of the church at Jerusalem. So they
unite as one and say that when men are saved, they're saved
by one means alone, through grace and faith that is in Christ Jesus
plus nothing and minus nothing. If you go back a few chapters,
we won't. But in Acts chapter 13, Saul,
Paul, was in the church at Antioch, along with Barnabas. And God
spoke to the elders of the church and said, separate to me Barnabas
and Saul, that they may go to do the work that I called them
to do. And the church did, and they
sent them out preaching the gospel. Everywhere they preached the
gospel, God was pleased to save a people by that glorious means. But also, every time that they
preached the gospel and people believed, legalists would come
up and say, that's not enough. That's not enough. It happened
at Antioch. It happened at Iconium. It happened
at Lystra. You can, starting at chapter
13, right up to chapter 15 that we read from and find out that
they did that time and time again. Look at verse 1, if you will,
of chapter 15 again. Now, they're at Antioch now. They've made full circle, so
to speak. The church there sent them out.
Now they come back with the good report. But certain men and certain
men which came down from Judea talked to brethren and said,
except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot
be saved. So they go to Jerusalem. And
look at verse 4 again, or rather verse 5. Now they're at Jerusalem. And there rose up certain of
the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was
needful It was necessary to circumcise them and command them to keep
the law of Moses. Peter speaks first at this conference,
if you will, of apostles and preachers and elders and believers. Peter speaks first. And then,
in verse 12, we're told that Paul speaks first and perhaps
Bartimaeus. And then James, the pastor of
the church, he also speaks. But I believe what Peter says
in summing up his message in verse 11 pretty well wraps up
the whole thing, don't you? It sums up the whole thing. What
James said, what Paul said, they agree perfectly with Peter. But
we believe, verse 11, that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we shall be saved. Isn't that glorious? The grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is their confession of faith,
if you will. It's all summed up with those
few words. So clear, so clear. There were many who heard it
that didn't like what they were saying, but they couldn't misunderstand
what they said. So clear, so complete, without
any compromise whatsoever. As Paul himself would say concerning
this time afterwards, when he wrote the epistle to the church
at Galatia, we do not frustrate the grace of God. He refers to
this time too. We do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness came by the law, like these legalists
were saying, if righteousness came by the law, now get this,
this is how serious it is. If the righteousness that God
Almighty requires, that righteousness by which no man shall see the
Lord, That righteousness by which no man without can stand before
God. If that righteousness could be
attained by keeping the law like these legalists were telling
these believers, these Gentile believers, Paul said, if that's
true, then Christ died in vain. Now that's a pretty bold statement,
isn't it? Christ died for nothing. If sinners could be saved in
any other way, by any other means, apart from the grace that is
in Christ Jesus, then he died for nothing. It wasn't necessary. Oh, but again, verse 11, read
it again with me. But, but, here's the answer of
the apostles to that. But we believe, we believe, that
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved
even as they." We believe. Oh, by grace, we believe too,
don't we? Aren't we in good company? Aren't
we in good company, Joe? Imagine that. The gospel that
we love, the gospel that we proclaim, the gospel of the grace of God
in Christ Jesus is the same gospel, the same message that Peter preached. that Paul preached, that James
preached, that they all preached. Man, we're rubbing elbows in
good company, are we not? The glorious gospel of the blessed
God does not change. Why should it? Why should it? No need to, but we believe through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ Remember what they told the Gentile
believers, these legalists? Again, verse 1, except you do
this. You cannot be saved. You cannot
be saved. Grace is not enough. You need
the law. Christ is not enough. Not alone. You need Moses. Faith is not
enough. You need your works. You can't
be saved otherwise. It's no wonder that they were
troubled. Imagine if this were your experience. Because it still happens. Legalist. Trouble. God's true children. Just this morning, I turned on
the TV to check the weather, see how warm it was at the time.
And there was a fella on the station before I went to the
weather channel, a preacher, and he was doing the very thing
these legalists were doing. He said, salvation is by grace,
but but you receive it at the time you're baptized in water.
That's exactly what he's saying. When you're baptized in water,
it's then that you experience the forgiveness of sins. It's
then that you're immersed into the body of Jesus Christ. Well, that's not true. That's
not true. That's along the same lines as
these legalists were saying and troubling these young believers. That certainly would disturb
the heart, the mind, the peace of a genuine convert, would it
not? To tell them, except you do this. Paul and Barnabas had
gone preaching, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. as he would
answer the Philippian jailer in chapter 16 who said, what
must I do to be saved? There's only one answer. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But we read
in verse 1 of chapter 15, they were saying, except ye do thus
and thus, you cannot be saved. Imagine that. They had believed. They had experienced. the sweet
reality of God's matchless mercy and grace. They had come to know
by divine revelation that one mediator between God and man,
the man Christ Jesus. They had come to experience personally,
personally, that great salvation. But as young believers, someone
comes along and tells them, oh, that's fine as far as it goes. As far as it goes. But it's not
enough. It's not enough. Except you do
these other things, you cannot be safe. Paul's wrong. Martimus
is wrong. They should have told you this
as well. Mm-mm-mm. When all is said and done in religion, and there's already been a whole
lot said and done, hasn't there? There's been a whole lot of ways
taught as being the avenue to God and His mercy. Many ways
to heaven. Folks say, don't be so bigoted.
I've been told that by members of my own family. Larry's gone
off the TV. He's narrow-minded. He needs
to be more kind, more loving. He needs to understand that everyone's
going to heaven. They're just traveling different
roads, but they're all going to end up there. No, no. The Lord Jesus Christ said, there
aren't many avenues to the Father's house, there's only one. There's
only one way to the Father's house. There's only one means,
there's only one truth, there's only one life, and that's in
Jesus Christ the Lord. They say, well, it only matters
if you're sincere. No, no, no. But, after all the
smoke has cleared, After all the empty, Christless religion
has failed, and after every man-made way to heaven is proven a lie,
only this will stand. Only this will matter. Do I know
Christ, Lord? That's exactly right. Do I know
Him? Do I know Have I truly experienced His
mercy and grace? Have I come to Him? Not have
I come to the doctrine, even the correct doctrine. I hear
men sometimes speak as if the gospel is the Savior. No, it's
the message. The message about the Savior.
The gospel of the glorious gospel of God, we cannot be saved apart
from it, but it points us to the Lamb of God, until I come
to Him. Until I fall before Him, until
I embrace Him, until He says, Thy sins are forgiven, I don't
know Him. That's all that matters. I was reminded of that, as you
may well suspect and understand and identify with. Several days ago, spending time
with my daughter, My only daughter. When I got there, she'd already
been out, John, and bought me something. Some little golfing
thing. I said, Misty, you didn't have
to do that. She bought me a book. Wrote inside of it, Daddy, I'm
so glad you came down to be with me. I'll always be your little
girl. And I thought, yes, she will.
But what I want for her, and what I'm praying that God will
use this to do, to show her her need of Him. Isn't that what
we want? That's what we want, don't we,
parents? That's what we want. We want them to know our Redeemer. To know that one in whom is life
eternal. Look again at verse 11. The answer
of the apostles to those who were saying, except you do this,
you cannot be saved, they said, oh yes, you can be saved. We
shall be saved. But we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. Wasn't that
music to these troubled believers' ears? Don't listen to them. They're false brethren. James
says in his address, we didn't send them out. They don't have
our approval. They're not speaking for us.
They're false brethren. Jew, Gentile are saved the same
way. Male or female, black or white,
only one hope for sinners, only one way, only one salvation. But that one hope is a good hope. that one hope rest upon this
foundation, the grace that is in Christ Jesus, by which we
shall be saved." I like that word, don't you? That's a big
word. I've told you this story. My
granddaughter was reading to me, and she'd come across a word,
and boy, she'd look up at me, and she'd try to sound out that
word, and she'd look up at me, and I'd say, she's on my lap.
And I'd say, Laura, you want me to tell you that? Oh, no,
no, I can figure it out. But she'd say, Paul, Paul, it's
a big one. It's a big word. Salvation is a big word. It's a big word. We shall be
saved, Peter says, today. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. But... We shall be saved tomorrow,
too. Now, wait a minute, Larry. Now,
wait a minute. You don't know what tomorrow
may hold. That's exactly right. That's
exactly right. I sure don't. But, you notice
the text. Verse 11 starts with that word,
but. But I know who holds tomorrow. It's true. It's true. I don't know what tomorrow holds.
I don't know what it might bring. I don't know what heartache may
come. I don't know how high the waves may roll over our heads,
but I know He who is the Master of the sea. I know Him that can
say, Peace be still to our souls and give us that peace that surpasses
understanding. And those saved will be saved
forever. Yes, it's a big word. And it's a big work, is it not? A work that only the triune God
can perform. It's a work of His mighty grace. Old Newton wrote, and how true
it is, how precious did that grace appear the hour I first
believed. And so it was. So it was. How precious. Because the hour that we first
believed, we'd been brought down. We'd been brought down. God had
gotten us lost. Before we're found, we must be
lost. before we're ever saved with
the perfect robe of His perfect righteousness, we've got to be
stripped. We can't wear our own filthy
rags and the robe of Christ at the same time. God won't allow
it. God won't allow it. We've got
to be stripped. And after being lost, being made
aware, being convinced that we're lost. For the first time in our
life, all before we gave lip service to it to get the preacher
or someone that was attempting to witness to us just to get
them off our back, oh, I'm not talking about that. I'm talking
about being made aware that you're the sinner. Ever been there? I'm the sinner, not a sinner. No, no, I'm the sinner. There's
not a worse one in the world. And I'm so lost, so helpless, so needy. If God doesn't save me, whatever
that involves, Whatever that includes, if God doesn't do it,
if the great shepherd doesn't come to where I'm at, I'll stay
lost, and when my life is over, I'm going to lift up my eyes
in hell just as sure as I'm standing here if he doesn't have mercy
on me. Remember that? Oh, it was grace that taught
my heart to fear. "'Twas grace my fears relieved,
and then, but not until then, "'how precious did that grace
appear the hour I first believed.'" Do you remember it, child of
God? Remember the wonder. Remember the love that flowed
out of your heart Do you remember bowing down in just absolute
adoration at the feet of Him who loved
you and gave Himself for you? Do you remember that? You couldn't get over it. You
couldn't get over it. God, help me not to be over it
now. Yes, We shall be saved. Oh, but when I'm tempted and
tried and so prone to wonder, I shall still be saved. When
we're brokenhearted and being tossed on troubled seas and it's
dark, oh, it's so dark, darkness of mind, darkness of heart, in
the darkness of confusion, And Jesus has not yet come, but we
shall be saved. And when, as the old hymn writer
put it, I'm growing old and feeble, and my life becomes a burden, and I'm just about wore out, and I want to just lay it down.
I want to go home. And my life is over. Oh, but
I shall still be saved. I shall still be saved. Nothing. Nothing. Do you hear that? You
fill in the blank. That which troubles you the most,
that which burdens you the most, Nothing, including that, shall
separate me from the love of God, shall separate us from the
love of God. Believers, that is in Christ
Jesus. Secondly, looking again at our
text, verse 11, how shall we be saved? Through the grace. Through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ. By grace are you saved through
faith. without a cause in you. Without a cause. What about that,
Don? Without a cause in you. There
was no reason God should have saved you. There was no reason
Christ should have had mercy on you. There wasn't a cause
in us. There was no merit to attract
his love, his mercy. And there was no sin too great
that could repel His mercy and grace. He said, I will have mercy. He who delights to show mercy
looked down upon this worthless, helpless sinner and said, I will
have mercy. He's mine. There's one that I
chose. And the great shepherd said,
yes, there's one whom I redeem with my own precious blood. There's
one of my sheep that will come to me, Joe, like you read earlier.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Glory to his
name. I said I will not come. My dear
grandmother would try to talk to me. She was aware of the mess I was
in. My mother told her the things I was doing, just breaking her
heart and tearing the house apart. And my grandmother would say,
Larry, you need Christ, you need mercy, you need grace. I said,
Granny, that's for you. I would think, that's for old
women that's got nothing better to do. I'm young, I'm going to
live, I'm going to party. I'll not come to Christ. No way
in this world. Christ said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. I said, I won't. I won't. This
rebel won't. Christ said, oh, yes, you will.
I said, I won't bow. Christ said, oh, yes, you will.
I won't ask for mercy. Oh, yes, you will. You're going to be willing, Larry
Criss, in the day of my power, and I'm going to sing his praises
throughout eternity, because he made this sinner willing in
the day of his mighty power. I don't have a problem with that.
Do you? I'm glad that it's not of him that willeth, nor of him
that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy, because if it
wasn't, nobody would ever be saved. through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ. No exceptions. Every sinner that's
saved is saved that way. And there are so many verses
we could read to illustrate that. But just what we've read and
quoted, this is our text. Does it not teach us that true
grace, the grace of God, must be more than a word? It must
be more than a mere word. Grace, the grace of God, the
grace that's in Christ, the grace of the gospel that it proclaims,
it must be more than a mere notion. Grace must be more, considering
what it does. It must be more than a sinner
just coming to know certain facts. It must be more than that. It
must be more than saying, well, I know that Jesus lived and He
died and He rose again and He's coming back. It must be more
than that. And it must be more than a mere
offer, as it's called, of salvation. It must be. It has to be, John.
It has to be more than that. An offer won't raise dead sinners. Lazarus won't come forth if all
it is that Christ does is offer to save him. No, the grace of
God brings salvation. Your will won't bring salvation. Oh, but God's will does. A decision
won't bring salvation. Can you imagine standing on the
riverbank? And there's a man out there in
the middle, drowning. He's drowning. And you say to that man, you've
got a rope in your hand, you toss that, will you make a decision?
Will you make a decision? The man is drowning. He's going
down. No, you throw the rope. He'll grab it. He'll grab it. He'll reach out with all His
last remaining strength and a sinner awakened by God's grace, oh,
they'll come to Christ. They'll come to Christ. They'll
bow before Him and they'll beg Him, Lord have mercy on me. That's grace. And last of all,
oh, the sweetest perhaps of the text, look at it again, but we
believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Where is grace? If salvation
is all of grace, and there's no possibility of being saved
without it, and no mixing of anything with it, and this grace
always triumphs, and it always succeeds, and it always results
in the salvation of the one who receives it. then how can I have
it? How can I experience this grace?
Where can I find grace? Do you have it, preacher? Can,
as we sing a closing hymn, I come up to the front and get grace
from you? No, no, I don't have it. I don't
have it. Can I go down to a little box
and kneel down before a so-called priest? and confess my sins and he absolve
me of them and give me grace? No, that's a lie. What about
the church? Can I get grace from the church? No, no, no, no. It says grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is in Him. Grace is from
Him. I must come to Christ, the fountainhead. He's the source of all grace.
If I miss Christ, I miss grace, and I miss salvation. I can't
be saved without the Savior. This is exactly what he taught
in all of his parables, didn't he? In all of his spoken lessons,
as well as his miracles, all those acted lessons. He said in the house of that
self-righteous Pharisee, who looked down his nose in disgust
at that woman coming into his house where Jesus was and washing
his feet with her tears and drying them with the hairs of her head.
And Simon said, that's just repulsive. Who invited her here? She's got
some nerve coming into my house. And look at him. He's not a prophet. This proves that everything.
He's a deceiver. He wouldn't allow that sinner
to touch him. Everybody knows who she is. And you know the
story. Simon, there were two debtors, both in debt, and when they had nothing to
pay, when they had nothing to pay,
He freely is the Word. He freely forgave them both. It is so rare, John. So rare. It takes a miracle. To find a
sinner with nothing to pay. Most people will tell you, oh,
I can pay the debt. Because they're not aware of
what a debt they owe to God's justice. Because they think it's
a little debt, they think it can be paid by little. Their
works, for example. Oh, to find a publican, to find
that rare publican who says, God, be merciful to me, I'm the
sinner. There's a debt that I can't pay. I can't pay. Be merciful, be
merciful. When I drove down to my daughter's
Monday, I was talking to Bobby on the phone and she was telling
me, she remembered as a teenager, I think, coming here and sitting
and hearing a fellow named Rolf Barnard preach. She said the
man got up, didn't say anything for a while,
And then finally he looked out and said, is there a sinner in
the place? Is there a sinner in the house? Is anybody lost? Is anybody lost? Bobby said, I didn't like him. didn't like him. Oh, is there
a sinner? A debtor with nothing to pay? With nothing to pay? Oh, come
to Jesus. Come today. The spirit, the bride,
and the bridegroom say, come to Jesus. He delights to show
mercy. Just like he did to that woman
who said to herself, I got to get to him. That woman with the
issue of blood, it illustrates his mercy and grace, doesn't
it? One of his active lessons. I've got to get to him. And so
does any sinner. Got to deal with Christ. If I can just touch the hem of
his garment, I'll be made whole. And as soon as she touched it,
she was made whole. The pollution of her body, her
blood that was killing her, was made whole. What was in her,
His grace overcame. His mercy, His grace, His salvation
flowed into her and she was made whole that quick. That quick,
just like Bartimaeus was. What do you want? That I might
see. And that quick, our Lord says,
so be it. See? And his eyes was open. The Lord said, I am the door.
By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved. No exceptions. He shall be saved. Listen. Listen to this. Our Lord said,
come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. and I will
give you rest." But he also said, if you believe
not that I am He, you shall die in your sins. Does it make any
difference what else you may do or experience or claim? If
you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sins. When I was in high school, well,
before that, grade school, I had a friend that I ran with, close
friend. He'd spend the night with me
or I'd spend the night with him on weekends and in the summer. After God saved me by His grace,
every now and then I would go by his house and speak to my
friend's father because my friend moved away. I tried to speak to him, witness
to him about his soul, about eternity, and he would just brush
it off. Plenty of time, no problem. Some
years later, he was dying. He was dying. And I went to his
house again, sat next to his bed, and he looked at me and
said, I'm so afraid. I am so afraid. I'm dying. I'm going out to meet God. And I'm lost. I'm lost. Look at verse 30 and 31 in chapter
15 and we'll wrap this up. The church at Jerusalem sent
Bartimaeus and Paul with an epistle to all those churches that had
been disturbed by this legalistic teaching and told that you cannot
be saved. They send them back. They go
back to Antioch first, in verse 30. So when they were dismissed,
they came to Antioch, and when they had gathered the multitude
together, they delivered the epistle, which said, don't listen
to these deceivers. which when they had read, they
rejoiced for the consolation." They rejoiced for the consolation. The consolation, the comfort,
my brother and sister in Christ, of sins forgiven. The comfort,
the consolation that our salvation is sure. The comfort. Oh, what consolation that I am
His. and he is mine. No wonder we're
told when they heard that, they rejoiced. They rejoiced. They should have, shouldn't they?
They had a right to rejoice. It would have been wrong not
to rejoice. Remember what the father said to the elder son?
It's meat, it's right, it's proper, it's the right thing to do to
rejoice because thy brother was dead and is alive again. and
they rejoiced. He was lost, but now he's found. Yes, what a great consolation. What a good hope through grace.
God give us grace likewise to rejoice. Washed in his blood,
robed in his righteousness, accepted in Christ. Oh, Wesley wrote a
hymn. I think I can't prove this, but
I declare when Charles Wesley wrote this, he must have heard
Whitefield preach that day. I don't think he could have heard
John and wrote anything like this, his brother that preached
free willism. was a contemporary of Whitefield
who preached God's free grace. But Charles Wesley wrote, Arise,
my soul, arise. Shake off thy guilty fears. The
bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears. Before the throne my
surety stands. My name is written on his hands. Oh, what a consolation. My God
is reconciled, His pardoning voice I hear. He owns me for
His child. I can no longer fear. With confidence
I now draw nigh. And Father, Abba, Father, cry. Amen. Amen. God bless you.