Acts chapter 20 while you're
turning there this Labor Day at the Greenleafs. They're going to have a get-together.
Everybody in the church is invited between 12 and 7. I always enjoy
their get-togethers. Thanks. Now, I don't know whether I've
ever preached on just this verse of Scripture alone, but it was
such an encouragement to me what is being said in this verse of
scripture. And it's my prayer that God will
make this to be an encouragement that comes from him to you. Let's read this verse again. And now brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up
and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. Now this is almost the closing
of Paul's address to the Ephesian elders. We're going to consider
next time, beginning where he said, I've coveted no man's silver
or gold or apparel, but we've looked at this eight or nine
different messages out of this final address, but these are
Paul's final words to the elders. His final words. Now, the word
commend means to commit or to entrust. You know, when you go
to the bank, you entrust your money to them for them to take
care of it. That's what the word means, to
deposit. The two things that were laying
heavily on his mind. Verse 25, and now behold, I know
that you all among whom I've gone preaching the kingdom of
God shall see my face no more. Now he's looking at these people
and he's saying, this is the last time that I'll see you. You'll never see me again. I remember this was before they
had internet and tapes and things like that. This is the last time
they would see his face. And he said in verse 29, for
I know this. I know this. I don't think this
is merely probable. I know this. that after my departing
shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples
after them. Therefore watch and remember
that by the space of three years, I cease not to warn everyone
night and day with tears. Now, you cannot keep yourselves. I can't keep you, nor can I present
this from taking place, this inference of grievous wolves
and the men that from among your own ranks will rise up and speak
perverse things, things contrary to the gospel to draw away disciples
after them. No man can help you but I entrust
you to God. He's the only one who can do
anything for me and he's the only one who can do anything
for you. I entrust you to God the great
I am. You see with him There is no
want of power, no want of ability, no want of wisdom to do this. I'm not committing you to some
man. What if you're committed to me for your safekeeping? You'd
be in trouble. What if I was committed to you for my safekeeping? I'd be in trouble. But he says,
I commit you. I commend you to God. I couldn't help but think of
that passage in 2 Timothy 1, 12, where Paul said, I know whom
I have believed. That's so important. He didn't
say, I know what I believed. What we believe is predicated
on who we believe. That's the important thing. I
know what I believe. I don't want to hear it. not
interested. I know whom I have believed and
I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have entrusted
to him. I've committed to him. What have
you committed to him, Paul? I wish I could say this as forcefully
and feelingly and believingly as I should, but all my salvation,
every bit of it, every aspect of it, I've committed to him,
my hands are off. If he doesn't do it all, I won't
be saved. That's how plain this is. If he doesn't do everything
for me, I will not be saved. I commend you to God and I commend
you to the word of his grace. First of all, the Lord Jesus
Christ himself is the word of his grace, isn't he? You know,
Paul read that passage from John chapter one in the beginning
was the word. I love that name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Words are vehicles of communication that express
thoughts. He is the thought of God. He is the mind of God. He is the word of God. And the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace
and truth. Two words that cannot be separated,
grace and truth. This is who Paul committed himself
to, the word of his grace. And this book we call the Bible
is the word of his grace. That's a good name for the scriptures.
This entire book we call the Bible could properly be called
the word of His grace. Grace is defined by words, scriptural
words. And it's a meaningless term.
It's a nebulous, ooey-gooey term that is really meaningless if
we do not use the words the scripture uses to define His grace. The word of His grace. And if I don't give these biblical
words of grace, I am not preaching the word of His grace. Now, let
me give you a few words the Bible uses. Saving grace. By grace, you are saved. Now, grace is not an offer. That's
the way many people present the grace of God. God offers you
his grace. Grace is no offer, grace saves.
And if grace were an offer, two things. That means your salvation
would be dependent upon whether or not you accepted it or you
rejected it. You, that would make salvation
a work. If grace is presented as an offer,
God's offering this, it's up to you to take it. He'll give
it to you. He's willing for you to have his grace. If you'll
just take it while that makes salvation dependent upon you
and not him. And here's the next big problem with that. You won't
receive it. I won't receive it. It takes
the grace of God to receive grace and no natural man will receive
it. So when we're talking about the grace of God, if we're going
to use the scriptural terms, we're going to talk about saving
grace. As Peter said in Acts chapter
15, verse 11, we believe that by the grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, we have had salvation offered to us. We shall be saved, even as they. Now, when you talk about scriptural
grace, remember this is called the word of His grace. Paul says,
I commend you to God and to the word of His grace. Here's a word
of His grace, the election of grace. The election of grace. That's
what it's called, Romans 11 and five, the election of grace.
Grace. Now election is God choosing
who would be saved before time began. Somebody says that's deep,
that's high. Well, it might be, but it's simple.
Uh, there isn't anybody that can mistake the meaning of that.
God chose who would be saved before time began. Everybody in here, you might
not like it, but you know what that means. God chose who would
be saved before time began. It's called in the scripture,
the election of grace. And he went on to say, if by
grace, if election is by grace and it is. Someone says, why
did he choose the elect? Because he willed to do it. Because
he's gracious. Not because of any goodness in
them. Not because of any merit or righteousness that he saw
in them. He did it simply because he willed to do it. Because he's
gracious, that's who he is. He's gracious, he delights in
grace. If it be of grace, it's no more
of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, don't call it grace. Otherwise, work
is no more grace. Grace altogether, electing grace. Now listen to me. You don't believe
in grace if you don't believe in election. And you don't. Someone says, yeah, I do. No,
you don't. No, you don't. You see, election begins with
God. That's not God's offer and up
to you to know. Grace is God's grace. It's electing
grace. Here's another word that describes
God's grace, redeeming grace. Ephesians 1 7, in whom we have
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of his grace. Now remember, these are
biblical words that describe grace, redeeming grace. That
means grace that makes payment for my sin and puts it away and
causes me to be forgiven. Redeeming grace. Don't you like
grace like that? Grace that redeems. Not grace that makes redemption
possible if I do something, but grace that actually redeems.
So that when he said, it is finished, I was redeemed. Redeemed how I love to proclaim
it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. Here's another scriptural term.
Justification by grace. Being justified, Romans 3.24.
Being justified. Now understand this about justification.
Justification is not something you accept. Can you even imagine a judge
saying, well, do you want to be justified or condemned? It's
up to you. You can accept justification or you can reject it. Well, that's
foolishness. That's utter foolishness. Justification is what God declares
you to be. Being justified. Now, if I'm
justified, what that means is I stand before God without guilt.
It means I'm not guilty. It means I'm sinless before God. being justified freely by His
grace. Calling grace. We're to please
God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace. Now, you know what that means?
That means His grace gives you life. It's the irresistible call
of His grace. Lazarus, come forth. He that was dead Dead came forth
living. I love where Paul said in Romans
5, 20 and 21, where sin abounded. Grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death, and don't miss this, How much choice do you have in this
thing of death? What can you do to prevent it?
Not one single thing. Everybody in here knows that.
You can't prevent death. Now in the same manner that sin
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign. How much can you
prevent His grace from reigning? It can't be done, can it? That as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness. This is
righteous grace. Nothing unrighteous about it.
It glorifies God's justice. Sin is punished, sin is put away.
Every believer is perfectly righteous before God. that sin hath reigned
unto death, even so my grace reign through righteousness unto
eternal life, which is by Jesus Christ our Lord. It's liberating
grace. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. It ain't gonna do it. It's not gonna have lordship
over you. Somebody says, well, it seems like if sin didn't have
dominion over me, I wouldn't sin anymore. Be real clear about
this. If you see all you are is sin,
that's because sin doesn't reign over you anymore. There was a
time when it did. You thought you were all right.
You thought you're okay. But when God gave you grace,
when he gave you life, you saw that you're nothing but sin and
you saw your need of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know what
to call this word for grace, but remember we're using biblical
words to describe God's grace. But you know, where Paul said,
I am what I am by the grace of God, I decided to call this making
grace. I am what I am. Whatever it is, I am. I'm a sinner. That's by the grace of God that
he's taught me that. I'm an elect sinner, that's by the grace of
God. I'm a justified sinner, that's by the grace of God. I'm
a redeemed sinner, that's by the grace of God. I'm a preserved
sinner, that's by the grace of God. His grace is making grace,
isn't it? I am what I am, whatever it is
I am. I am by the grace of God. Now there's so much more that
could be said about the grace of God, but if I don't use these
biblical words that define grace and give their meaning, There's
no more difference between me saying, by grace are you saved
and by duct tape you're saved. Same difference. Say, duct tape
will keep anything. Well, I might as well say that.
Or I could say, there's no more difference. If I don't use the
biblical terms, there's no more difference between me saying
by grace you're saved and by peanut butter you're saved. I
mean, you just make grace meaningless if I don't use the word of his
grace. And if I don't have the word
of his grace, I don't have the grace of God, period. Now let's look once again in
our text And now brethren, verse 32, I can't do anything for you. I'm not gonna see you anymore.
I wish I could, but I can't, but I know who can. I commend
you to God. I commend you to God and to the
word of his grace, which is able. Now, everything
that we believe is dependent upon this statement right here.
The word of his grace is a person, Ty saves, is able, is able. Everything is predicated on his
ability. I've already quoted this. I won't
make much comment about it. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I'm persuaded. What were you persuaded about
Paul? He is able. Are you, are you
persuaded that he is able? Now, if you're persuaded, that
means he persuaded you. The only reason you are persuaded
that he is able is he persuaded you that he's able, and he has
got persuading power that no one else has. You see, when he
persuades, you're persuaded. The word of his grace is able. Let me just rattle off eight
or nine scriptures. I'm not gonna say much about
them. spoke of that leper who came up to him and said, if you
will, you can. That's his ability. If you will,
you can make me clean. I can't make myself clean. You
can, if you will. In Matthew chapter nine, verse
28, when those two blind men groped their way into the presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I love thinking about this, they
were following his voice. They couldn't see. They were
following his voice and somehow they heard him speaking and they
come into where he was and he said, do you believe that I am
able to do this? Do you believe he's able to save
you without any help or any contribution from you at all? Mark chapter nine. Well, I don't have the scripture
for this, but it's in there somewhere. I forgot to put the scriptural
reference on this, but the Lord said to that man who had been
brought to him by the four, he said, son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. And There was an objection. The Pharisees said, who can forgive
sins? But God alone, this man can forgive
sins. And his forgiveness is not like
my forgiveness and your forgiveness. Not at all. You see, I've heard
people say, you ought to forgive and you ought to completely forget,
and I agree, you ought to. You ought to do that, what's
your problem? The fact of the matter is, is
we never forget everything, anything. Something's always rolling around
in the brain, it can't be gone. But when he forgives, he does
forget. And the reason he forgets is
because there's nothing there to remember. That is how powerfully
Christ put away sin. He's able to do that. He's able
to look at you and you, what sin? There is no sin. But he, no, no, he's perfect. He's without sin, he's without
fault. In Mark chapter eight, verse
four, the disciples, I think this is almost humorous. In Mark
chapter six, he fed 5,000 people, miraculously. And then in Mark
chapter eight, he gets ready to feed another 4,000, and the
disciples said, can a man satisfy these with bread here in the
wilderness? I mean, this was just a few days ago that he did
this. And they're already asking, can a man satisfy these? This
man can. Whoso drinketh of this water,
he'll thirst again. But whoso drinketh of the water
that I give him shall never thirst. He's gonna be completely satisfied.
Now, I'm not satisfied with anything about myself, but I, listen to
me, I am completely satisfied with Jesus Christ as all of my
salvation. I'm satisfied with that. I'm
not looking for anything else. I'm not desirous of anything
else. I mean, I'm satisfied, satisfied with him. Philippians
3, 20 says he is able to subdue all things unto himself. Romans
8.39 says nothing is able to separate us from the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus. Our Lord, Ephesians 3.20 says
he is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. Hebrews
2.18 says he's able to succor, to help them that are tempted. Hebrews 4.15, he's able to be
touched. with the feeling of our infirmities. Hebrews 5, 2 said he's able to
have compassion on them that are out of the way. What a wonderful
Savior. Hebrews 7, 25 says he is able
to save them to the uttermost. I don't even know how to define
that word. He's able to save them to the uttermost. Coming
to God by him, Jude 24, he is able to keep you from falling
and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory
with exceeding joy. Abraham was fully persuaded that
what God had promised, he was able also to perform. And with regard to the person
sitting by you, remember this, who are you to judge another
manservant? God is able to make him stand, and God will make
him stand. 2 Corinthians 9, eight says,
God is able to make all grace abound toward you. Because he
was able to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, he's
able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or even think. Brethren, I commend you to God
and to the word of his grace, which is able. You see, the word
of his grace is omnipotent. The word of his grace is almighty.
Nobody in this room has any right or reason to despair about anything
because of what we're talking about. This is the word of his
grace, which is able. What's it able to do? Verse 32,
and now brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his
grace, which is able to build you up. Let's talk about growth. Grow
in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. God's grace is able. The word of his grace, the God
of all grace is able to build you up. Now, whenever I think
of being built up, the first thing that always comes to my
mind that I wish that we would Get this in our mind. A believer
is poor in spirit. That's what a believer is. He
mourns over his sin. He's meek before God. Whatever
God does is right. He doesn't have to understand
it. If God does it, that makes it right because God did it.
A believer hungers and thirsts after righteousness. A believer
is merciful. A believer is a peacemaker. A
believer's pure in heart, and that's talking about the new
birth. A believer is persecuted for righteousness sake. He knows
that the only righteousness there is is the righteousness of Christ.
And when an unbeliever, that takes away, if they're looking
at their own righteousness, they're not gonna like that. But you
can be built up in being, don't you need to be more poor? I'll
assure you, you do, and I do. Don't we need to be more and
more? To grow in this thing of meekness
before God. To grow in hungering and thirsting
after his righteousness. To grow in being merciful. Oh, I want to do that. To grow
in being a peacemaker. To grow in being persecuted for
righteousness sake. The Beatitudes, what a believer
is. He is able to build you up. And look what it says next. And
now brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace,
which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance. Now this inheritance, when we,
Jeff, I don't know, how do you pronounce the guy that owns Amazon? Bezos, Bezos? I just read it,
I don't think I've ever heard it. But he's supposed to be the
richest man in the world. Then you have Bill Gates, Elon
Musk, all these multi-billionaires that you think about. Do you
know that if all you had was their inheritance, you would
be a pauper compared to this inheritance? I mean a pauper. You see, every believer is an
heir of God and a joint heir with Christ. Everything that
Christ has, is yours and this inheritance Paul speaks of the riches of
the glory of this inheritance in Ephesians 1 18 Galatians 3
18 says if the inheritance were of the law it was no more promise
but God gave it to Abraham by promise now remember what that
means this inheritance is not gained by your good conduct or
lost by your bad conduct It's only because of the promise of
God. It's not according to law, but
it's according to the promise of God. Peter called it an inheritance,
incorruptible, undefiled, that fades not away, reserved in heaven
for you. We're just gonna be here a little
bit longer, then we're gonna enter into our glorious inheritance. Blessed are the dead. that die
in the Lord. Paul said for me to live is Christ
and to die is gain. And every believer gets the same
inheritance. Look what it says in verse 32. And now brethren, I commend you
to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build
you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. Now that is every believer. He's able to give you an inheritance
among all them that are sanctified. You know, Abraham's gonna have
the same inheritance that the thief on the cross had. Moses is gonna have the same
inheritance that the woman taking an adultery will have. This inheritance is experienced
by all them that are sanctified. Now, let me close with a few
words about sanctification. All them that are sanctified.
If you hear preachers talk about sanctification, they're usually
talking about your conduct. a sanctified life. We're trying
to make progress in sanctification and so on. And that, the thing
that is, that kind of thinking, I do know that there is the scripture
said, this is the will of God, even your sanctification that
you abstain from fornication and so on. So obviously that's
part of it, but it's not really giving the picture of what sanctification
is. If we talk about it just in terms of conduct. Because
for one thing, when preachers talk about sanctification in
terms of conduct, they always preach what you'd call progressive
sanctification. You become progressively better,
progressively more holy, and progressively less sinful. Now, that is a denial of so many
things, but first of all, to denial what sanctification means
in the first place. If you can become progressively more sanctified,
you don't even know what sanctification means. Understand that. Sanctification
is the most comprehensive term regarding God's salvation. It means to take something common
and ordinary and set it apart. It's to make something other. I love that term. I'm other if
God sanctified me. That means I'm not of this world.
You remember the way the Lord said you are not of this world,
even as I'm not of this world. We don't trace our lineage to
this world. We're of God. To as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them which believe on his name, which were born. Not of
blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man,
but of God. And when you say this word sanctification,
it's in the perfect tense, it's in the passive voice. That means
you are perfectly sanctified. And it's not something you did,
you were passive in this. both he that sanctifyeth Hebrews
2 11 both he that sanctifyeth and they that are sanctified
are all of one you have the one who sanctifies and the ones who
are sanctified his action in sanctification And we're the
objects of His action. We're the sanctified. Now, what
does sanctification mean? First of all, you're sanctified
by the Father in eternal election. He chose you to be His. He chose you to be other. He
chose you to be holy. according as he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy. Sanctified by the Son of God. By the witch will, we are sanctified
once for all through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. That's how I was sanctified. I was declared by God himself
to be, he's holy. When Christ died on Calvary's
tree, everybody he died for was declared by God himself to be
eternally holy. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. And then there is the sanctification
of the Spirit, spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 2.13. We're bound to thank God always
for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from
the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. Now I'm glad he said that. If
he would have just said sanctification of the spirit, I'd say, well,
how do I know if I am? Well, here's one thing that can't be
separated. Sanctification of spirit and belief of the truth.
You believe the truth, you've been sanctified by the spirit.
If you've been sanctified by the Spirit, you will believe
the truth. You'll receive the love of the
truth. Paul says, I'm not ever gonna
see you again. After my departure, grievous wolves will enter in.
And also of your own selves will men arise speaking perverse things. So what am I gonna do? Nothing
else to do. I commend you to God and the
word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you
an inheritance among all them that are sanctified. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that. We would,
by your grace. Be entrusted to you. For you
to keep us. That we might be entrusted to
the word of your grace, your son. The words of your grace. Which are able to build us up. and to give us an inheritance
among all of them that are sanctified. Lord, bless your word for your
glory and our good. In Christ's name we pray, amen.