I heard Bruce Crabtree say one
time that singing is a lot more special just before you get up
to preach. And I'm going to move this. My glasses don't focus at that
height. But you do, you pay a lot more
attention to the hymns that you're singing just before you preach. I was, when we preached amazing
grace, I couldn't help but to think about what the Lord did
in his faithfulness 26 years ago when he sent your pastor
to Orlando. How precious did that grace appear?
The hour I first believed. and how faithful our Lord's been
to take us through all the dangers and troubles and trials over
the last 26 years to keep us. And precious your pastor is to
me and to our church and your church here, we're very thankful. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me to Acts chapter 28, Acts. Chapter 28. The Apostle Paul has been through
many dangers, trials, and toils in his travels in preaching the
gospel. And in God's providence, he has
now been brought to house arrest in Rome. And he's continuing
to preach the gospel. notice with me in verse 20 the
Scripture says, for this cause therefore I have called for you
to see you and to speak to you because that for the hope of
Israel I'm bound with these chains. So, the Apostle Paul called the
religious, the Jewish leaders from Rome to meet him so that
he could preach the Gospel to them. And then in verse 23, and
when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his
lodging, to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of
God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of
Moses and out of the prophets from morning till evening. And some believed the things
which were spoken, and some believed not. That's the title of this
message, Some Believed, and Some Believed Not. There is no other
response to the gospel. There's no middle ground. There's
no halfway point, there's no compromise that can be made.
Every time a man hears the gospel, he walks away from that gospel
either having believed or not. How hopeful we are that we will
leave here tonight, every one of us, having believed the things
that were spoken concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. just as there
are only two destinies for our souls. It doesn't matter our
race. It doesn't matter our nationality.
It doesn't matter our status in this world. It doesn't matter
our gender. There are but two. It doesn't matter. Every man, regardless, of his
place in this world, when he hears the things concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ, will either believe or he will believe not. Concerning faith, I want to try
to speak on three aspects of faith,
or four, I'm sorry. I've added one since I wrote
these notes originally. The necessity of faith, the source
of faith, the simplicity of faith, and the object of our faith.
Because that's what believing is. It is faith. The necessity of faith is that
there can be no salvation without faith. It can be done. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 4 says,
without faith it is impossible to please God, for they that
come to him must believe that he is and that he is the rewarder
of them that diligently seek him. There can be no salvation
without faith. I love the message that Gabe
preached last night of that Philippian jailer. He came to the apostle and said,
what must I do to be saved? And Paul didn't give him instructions
on anything to do. He said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house. Hebrews chapter 11 verse one,
faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith is the evidence
of things not seen. So without faith, there is no
substance and without faith, there's no light and no truth.
The necessity of faith is for the salvation of our soul. Second, the source of faith. And as we've just heard, it is
God's free, sovereign, irresistible grace that is the source of our
faith. I hate it when I hear preachers
trying to impress me with a lot of Greek language and so forth,
but I do want you to notice something in verse 24. The word, the first time the
word believed is used in verse 24, it is in the passive voice. That means that the object was
acted upon. And so the ones who believed,
believed because they were made to believe. I was thinking as
you were preaching, Frank, of the Song of Solomon chapter one. Angus and I have been talking
about this the last few days, where the bride of Christ says,
Lord, draw me and I will run unto thee. Draw me and I will
run unto thee. We must be drawn. We must be
made to believe. We are passive in our salvation. Same thing's true about every
aspect of our walk with God. I want to love God. Lord, if I'm going to love you,
you're going to have to put the love of God in my heart. If I'm
going to obey you, you're going to have to make me to obey you.
Lord, I'm dependent upon you for everything. We are passive
in our salvation. For by grace are you saved through
faith and that not of yourself. It is a gift of God, not of our
works, lest any man should boast. A man can receive nothing except
it be given to him from heaven. Who make it thee to differ? What
do you have that you do not receive? If we believe the gospel, it's
because God made us to believe it. Some believed, and some believed
not. The first time we find the word
grace in the Bible is in Genesis chapter 6 when the scripture
says, and Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. It was
grace that singled Noah out and made him to differ And so it
is with you and I." The Lord opened Lydia's heart
and she believed. We're passive in our salvation. breathing out threatenings against
the church and raising his fist to heaven against God, was arrested
passively. He was acted upon on that road
to Damascus, wasn't he? And later he said, when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb, call me by his
grace, reveal Christ in me. It all happened at God's pleasure
and by his power and at his time. Now, am I suggesting in any way
that we sit back and say, well, you know, we just have to see
what God's gonna do. No, the truth of grace is what
causes God's people to beg for it. It's what causes God's people
to plead for it. Lord, I can't come unless you
draw me. The Lord told Nicodemus, except
a man be born again, born of the Spirit, he cannot see the
kingdom of God. How can I be born again? Oh no,
Nicodemus, you don't understand. That which is of the flesh is
flesh. That which is of the Spirit, now that's a work of grace. And
the Spirit's like the wind. You don't control Him. As the
wind listeth with us whoever he will, so the Spirit of God
is such. And Lord, I'm dependent upon
you for every part of my salvation. He's the one who has to take
out the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh. The seeing
eye and the hearing ear are both of the Lord. I don't know if
I've used this illustration. I've used it by our folks several
times, but faith is to our salvation like
breathing is to our physical life. When a baby is born alive,
it breathes. It breathes. It didn't become
alive because it breathed. It breathed because it was alive. Sometimes we say, well, you know,
that baby was ready to come out. That baby's never ready to come
out. It's the mother's body that can't handle it anymore, and
it's the mother's body that pushes that child out. Now, baby, the
Lord likens this new birth in Christ to the physical birth.
And so just as we had nothing to do with our physical birth,
And our breath came as a result of being alive, so it is in salvation. We don't have faith in order
to have life. Faith is the result of our life.
It's the result of it. So the question that I have for
myself and for you is, are we willing to be saved passively? Are we willing to be saved by
grace? Are we willing to be saved God's
way? Are we willing to be saved without
making any contribution to our salvation? The ones who believed, that's
how they were saved. They heard the gospel and the
Spirit of God moved on their hearts and they believed the
things that were spoken concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Those who believe give God all
the glory for their faith. Now, I want you to notice also
in verse 24, the word believe not is in the active voice. In other words, they actively
believe not. They rested the scriptures to
their own destruction. Here's the point. If we're saved,
it's all God's fault, and if we're not, it's ours. It's just
that simple. If a man believes not, he has
actively decided. Salvation is not by choice, that's
some believed, passive. But to not believe is by choice. So for those who believe not,
they decided to believe not, they chose to believe not. They
were active in their unbelief. Through the preaching of the
gospel, the spirit of God takes the word of God and causes some
to believe. Others, the Lord leaves us to
ourselves, we will actively resist the gospel. We will oppose ourselves
and oppose God, and we will decide not to believe. This, some believed passive,
and some believed not active. And that's always the case when
the gospel's preached. Always. Frankie quoted that passage from
James. Of his own will, begat he us. He birthed us. And we breathed
because he gave us life by the word of truth. So the
source of our faith is the acting of God's grace on us. We are passive in that. And it's
Word of God. The Lord uses His Word, the foolishness
of preaching to save them which believe. Scriptures are our only authority. Faith just believes God doesn't
it? Whatever God says, what sayeth the Scriptures we just believe
God. It's amazing to me how some can
can say yes, Bible is the only authority and then they'll write
creeds and confessions in order to test the Bible by it. And
they do, they use their creeds and confessions to judge God's
word. We have the word of God, we don't
look to creeds or confessions or commentaries of dead theologians. I like what I heard one preacher
say when he said, you know, the word of God sure does shed a
lot of light on them commentaries. And that's so true, isn't it?
So true. We don't look to logic or reason
or man's wisdom or to our experience or to feelings or traditions
or visions or dreams. We just believe God. Paul expounded unto these Jews
from the Law of Moses and the Psalms and the Prophets those
things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and some believed, and some believed not. And notice
in the next verse, at verse 25, and when they agreed not among
themselves, you see those who are made to believe and those
who have opposed God by believing not can never agree with each
other. They can never agree. They agreed
not among themselves. What is it that we, well we'll
get to that. Christ is the living word. The
word was made flesh and the word was God and dwelt among us. We beheld his glory. So they
believed the things that were spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ
in his word. Some of us have come from religious
backgrounds that claim to believe the Bible as the Word of God,
but we really didn't. We didn't believe what the Lord
said in John chapter 17, I pray not for the world, I pray for
them which thou hast given me out of the world, thine they
were, I'll give them unto me, I've kept them. We didn't believe Jacob I've
loved, he saw I've hated. We didn't believe that. We didn't believe I will have
mercy upon whom I will have mercy and whom I will, I'll harden. We didn't believe it is finished.
We didn't believe the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Knew it was there. We knew what the word in the
Greek was. Well, that's the word tetelestai and it means paid
in full. And then we turned around and
tried to tip God for the payment that had already been made. We didn't believe what the Lord
Jesus Christ said when he said, I lay down my life for the sheep,
for the sheep. or for whom he did for no, them
he did predestinate to be conformed to his son. Them that he did
predestinate he called, and them that he called he justified,
and them that he justified he glorified. To make it even more simple than
that, we did not believe that Jesus was God. We did not believe
that he was able to save by himself. We set ourselves up on the throne
of God. And we made God dependent upon
us in order for him to be able to accomplish our salvation.
And all along we said, oh, the Bible is the word of God. We didn't really believe that
he was the fullness of the Godhead bodily. You see, if God makes you to
believe, you're going to believe every word of God. Every word,
you're going to believe God's sovereign and successful in salvation. So the necessity of faith is
that we must have faith if we're going to be saved. And the source
of faith is the grace of God by the Spirit of God declaring
the Word of God. And some believed. You just believe. You can't not
believe. When you're passive in your salvation
and the Spirit of God works on you and convinces you that this
is God's Word and that Jesus Christ is God, you can't not
believe that. You see, you didn't decide to
believe it. You were acted upon passively. You can't not believe. Thirdly, I want us to look quickly
at the simplicity of faith. The simplicity of faith. Some
believed the things that were spoken. Paul didn't send them to a new
members class to be taught a better way. He didn't have them interrogated
by the elders to see if their faith was, they just believed
God. He didn't have them sign a church
covenant. He didn't evaluate their experience. He didn't even have them pray
a prayer. You know, that's real popular in religion, if you just
pray this prayer. They just found themselves believing
everything that He said concerning the Lord Jesus Christ from God's
Word. And that's the believer's experience. Is that your experience? Is that
your experience? You cannot believe. You were
passive and the Spirit of God just made you to believe the
things in God's Word concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
all of it. Well, it all concerns Him, doesn't
it? In the volume of the book it is written of me. Now think about that thief on
the cross. There was nothing in his life that he could present
to the Lord Jesus Christ to recommend him for the hope of his salvation. And there was nothing in his
experience that would have convinced him that that man hanging on
a cross just like his next to him, bleeding and dying, was
the Son of God. Why is it that he believed? One
believed and one believed not. Lord, remember me when I come
into thy kingdom. He knew who the... The Lord Jesus
Christ was being crucified as an insurrectionist. He was being
crucified as a murderer. What reason would he have to
see this dying man hanging next to him and come to the conclusion
that that's God? He was passive. God convinced him of that. And
God left the other one to himself. The simplicity of faith Ethiopian eunuch after hearing
Philip preach the Gospel from Isaiah 53 said, what doth hinder
me to be baptized? What Philip said, if thou believest
with all thine heart thou mayest. I believe that Jesus is the Christ. I believe that this one you just
preached to me is the Son of God. I believe everything that
you just told me about Christ from God's Word. He baptized him. And when Jairus, the servants
came and told Jairus, trouble the master no more, your daughter
is dead. The Lord looked at him and said, don't be afraid. Only believe. You see, believing is not It's
not something that we have to add something. It's just believing.
It's just believing. You just believe. It's so simple. Men make it very complicated. When the Lord came to Martha
and Mary in John chapter 11, and the Lord said, your brother
will rise again, Martha said, I know, Lord, that he'll rise
in the resurrection. And the Lord said, Martha, I
am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he be dead yet, shall he live. And he that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Yea, Lord. I believe that you are the Christ,
the Son of God that should come into the world. You see, believing
is not something complicated. It's simple. Mark chapter 9, when that man
brought his son to the apostles and they weren't able to help
and he brought him to the Lord and he said, if thou canst do
anything, have compassion on us. And what did the Lord say
to him? If thou canst believe, Can you believe? Only by God's
grace. But when you do, you just believe. All things are possible to them
that believe. Let me tell you a secret about
preachers. I'm talking about myself right
now. We get discouraged sometimes.
with the lack of commitment on the part of some church members.
And so we will make statements like, you know, you can know
about God and not know God. And believers are immediately
smitten with, you know, maybe just what I know is about God.
Maybe I don't really know God. Or you can miss heaven by 18
inches. Maybe you just have a knowledge
of God in your head, but you don't really have Him in your
heart. And the believers, child of God, when you hear that kind
of talk, what do you think? Well, maybe that's all I've got. Maybe
I just have an intellectual understanding. Maybe I don't really know God. The most often quoted passage
from the Old Testament to the New is found in Isaiah chapter
6, where the Lord said, they will have eyes, but they will
not see, and ears they will have, but they will not hear. And you
think, well, maybe that's all I've got. Maybe I've just got
eyes, but I really don't see, or ears that don't hear. The
Lord was talking about those self-righteous Pharisees, the
ones who objected to the gospel, and the ones who actively believed
not. Even Job's words, I had heard
of thee by the hearing of mine ear, but now mine eyes have seen
thee. Maybe I've just heard about God
and I haven't really seen. You see, what we do when we talk
like that is we point men to their experience and we try to
bolster their religious activity in order to correct their lack
of commitment. And all we do is wound those
who are trying to live and walk by free grace, and we cause them
to stumble. You see, the discrepancy is not
between the head and the heart. The discrepancy is between the
heart and the mouth. All men are liars. will say Jesus
is Lord, but they don't believe Jesus is Lord. They will say Jesus...you see
here's what I'm trying to say, the simplicity of faith is not
just do you say that He's Lord, do you believe He's Lord. will say Jesus Christ is God,
but you listen to their definition of God and they've dethroned
God. They've robbed Him of His deity
and they've changed the whole definition of God. Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is God? Not just do you say that He is,
but do you believe that He is You know, in religion we used
to identify the Mormons under Jehovah's Witnesses as a cult
because they outwardly denied the deity of Christ while at
the very same time we were denying the deity of Christ. Making salvation dependent upon
anything that man does. Making it anything other than
a passive work of grace by the word of God in our hearts. to
just believe God is to make salvation a work. There will always be
abusers of free grace, always. There will be many who will say,
who will hear the gospel and think that it's a license to
live as they want. But as soon as we use the law
to correct that, all we do is wound and rob the believers who are rejoicing
in free grace and trying to walk by free grace and have their
only hope and strength by free grace. Oh, I pray the Lord will keep me
from ever doing that again. The simplicity of faith. is that you believe. You really
do believe. And you can't not believe. And
you don't have anything to do with your believing. You heard
the gospel and God made you to believe it. You were passive
in it. And here's the statement that
sums up the entire human race. Some believed and some believed
not. Where are you? Where am I? Oh, Lord, I do believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Lord,
help my wandering, stumbling ways. Help me from, you know,
we're so prone to wander. We're so prone to leave the God
that we love. We're so enticed by the things of this world,
and yet the Spirit of God will not let you. The Spirit of God
will convict you of that sin, bring you right back to Christ. who himself is the subject of
our faith. He's the object of our faith.
Paul preached to these Jews concerning Jesus from the law of Moses,
from the Psalms, and from the prophets. Starting with Genesis
chapter three, I'm sure he told them, this is the seat of the
woman that's to crush the head of the serpent. and going all
the way to Malachi chapter four, I'm sure that he said, you know,
this is the son of righteousness which arises with healing in
his wings. And when the Lord came to those
disciples after his resurrection, And the Lord said to them, all
things must be fulfilled in the law of Moses, in the Psalms,
and in the prophets concerning me. And he opened their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. That's the grace of God. What
a glorious thing it was. There's Christ. And every time
we preach, people say, well, I didn't see that, but I see
it now. I see it now. Turn over one page from our text
over to Romans chapter one. Paul preached those things concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. You must believe. If you believe, it'll be by God's
grace, by the preaching of God's word.
And it'll be simple. Just believe. What? Believe what? Well, look
at verse 3. In Romans chapter one, concerning
his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was made of the seed of
David according to the flesh and declared to be the son of
God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection
from the dead. That's who we believe. I know
whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I've committed unto him. trusting Him for everything. We've got no place else to go. Lord, where should we go? You
alone have the, to whom shall we go? I misquoted that. When
the Lord said to the disciples, He said, will you lead me also? Peter didn't say, where are we
going to go? He said, to whom shall we go? You alone have the
words of eternal life. We know and are sure that thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Lord, you've shut
us up to yourself. This is what we believe. This
is what God makes us to believe. This is who we believe, the God
man, who according to the flesh was the son of David, but by
the power of the resurrection declared to be the son of God,
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, the sovereign, successful savior
of sinners. our surety, our substitute, the
one who satisfied everything that the Father required for
our salvation. Some believed and some believed
not and they agreed not among themselves. Why is fellowship? among believers so sweet. I think
you spoke on it, Frank. I know I've heard somebody say
it recently. You mentioned, we have the same
teacher. We have the same gospel. We've been given the same spirit.
We're not in disagreement. We believe. that Jesus is the Christ, he's
the sin bearer. If I'm going to be saved, he's
gonna have to save me. He's the eternal, self-existent
I am. The uncreated creator and sustainer
of the universe and all things in heaven. physical and spiritual. We believe that he accomplished
our salvation. We believe that he suffered and died and that
the father saw the travail of his soul and was satisfied. We believe that the only righteousness
we have in the presence of God is his righteousness. And we believe that the only
hope we have of our sin being separated from us as far as the
East is from the West is to be covered by the blood of Christ. That he bore all the shame and all the suffering. Turn with
me, and I'll close with this. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. I've been thinking about this
a lot lately. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 21. For He, God the Father, hath
made Him, God the Son. Notice to be is in italics. Sin. The Lord Jesus Christ bore
in his body on Calvary's cross all the sins of all of God's
people. God sheathed the sword of his
justice in the heart of his own son. It pleased the father to
bruise him. He laid down his life for his
sheep. He shed his precious blood, put it on the mercy seat, and
God said, there, I'll meet with you. God made him sin. Who knew no sin? Now I've never
heard a God sent preacher accuse the Lord Jesus Christ of committing
any sin. He's not guilty of committing
sin. He bore our sin. Let me ask you
a simple question. All of us know what guilt is.
When you feel guilty, what is it that you're really experiencing
before God? Shame and separation. Is that not the definition of
guilt? Shame and separation? Turn with me to Psalm 38, Psalm
38. Here's, you know, this, let me
preface this by just saying that this is a great mystery. I don't
pretend to understand this. We stand in awe of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Who knew no sin? The holy, harmless,
sinless Son of God being made sin. What all that means, I don't
know. But I know what shame is and
I know what separation is. Because when I feel guilty, that's
what I experience. Psalm 38, verse five. My wounds stink and are corrupt
because of my foolishness. I am troubled. I am bowed down
greatly. I go mourning all the day long. Is that not shame? Look over in Psalm 40, verse
12. for innumerable evils have come
past me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I'm not able to look up. Is that not shame? When the Lord Jesus Christ cried
from Calvary's cross, Psalm 22, separation, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? The Bible says he didn't look
up into heaven and say that. Having been made sin, he could
not look up. This is what we believe. This
is who we believe. That God the Son took our sin and experienced
to the infinite degree. Oh, the shame and separation
that you and I experience, it ain't much, is it? Don't last
long, we get over pretty quick. He experienced shame and separation
to its infinite degree. And the father saw the travail
of his soul and the father said, I'm satisfied. Your shame, your repentance,
God won't be satisfied. God made him sin. All the shame and separation
that comes as a result of sin, the Lord Jesus Christ knew it
to its infinite degree. And he bore it for his people
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And that's not a pasted on righteousness. That's
our new man, holy and perfect and sinless before God. And that's
our hope. Our hope. You stand in the presence
of a holy God and be blameless? In Christ we can. Some believed, passive, and some
believed not.