Steve, could you lead us in prayer
after the bread, and David, could you lead us in prayer after the
wine? I forgot to ask people before the service, so I just
thought of that. I wonder how many of you were
wondering when I read that passage of scripture, what's he gonna
do with that? Is anybody thinking that? Maybe not, but the passage
before us and the one next week are two difficult passages of
scripture. But what I'm going to emphasize
is the last sentence of verse 27, who, when he was come, helped
them much, which had believed, what are the next two words?
through grace. And that's the key. It does not
merely say they believed, but it says they believed through
grace. And that's what I've entitled
this message. Believed through grace. Grace is the origin of that believing. that believing took place through
grace. Now in Acts chapter 18 verse
24 we read of a certain Jew named Apollos. He's going to end up
being quite a preacher and quite a leader in the early church. But this is our first introduction
to him and you'll remember in the book of 1 Corinthians where
some were saying, I'm of Paul and others were saying, I'm of
Apollos. Well, this is the introduction to this man, Apollos. And as a matter of fact, my thoughts
are not that this makes any difference and not that it proves anything,
but my thoughts are as he, this is the one who wrote Hebrews.
You see, you know Paul didn't write Hebrews. I know people
say Paul wrote Hebrews, but he said, I sign every epistle with
my signature. Hebrews doesn't have a signature.
And whoever wrote the book of Hebrews was mighty in the scriptures. You can just be sure of that.
Mighty in the Old Testament scriptures. And Apollos was certainly that. But here we have Apollos, a certain
Jew named Apollos, Born at Alexandria. Now, Alexandria was named after
Alexander the Great. And this city, if you've done
any research into the history of those times, this was the
center of learning in the known world at that time. Perhaps you've
heard of the Alexandrian Library. It's the place where all supposed
knowledge was. And he was born in that city,
a very influential city. And it says he was an eloquent
man. He was a very educated man and
he was a powerful speaker. That's what that means. Now this
is talking about his natural gifts. This is not talking about
his spiritual gifts, but he was a man who was naturally gifted.
I would enjoy hearing somebody naturally gifted and someone
that is not as gifted in speaking. Anybody would. But these are
his natural gifts. And let me say this, natural
gifts quite often can be the greatest hindrance. if a man
trusts those, if people become impressed with those. And he
had these natural gifts of eloquence. He was an eloquent speaker. He
was an educated man. And he was mighty in the scriptures.
Now, I don't think he had a, I know he didn't have a clear
understanding of the gospel because Quill and Priscilla came and
taught him the gospel more perfectly. Maybe he was an Old Testament
believer that it did not yet understand. Christ coming and
he just gave what he knew. You can't preach what you don't
know. And he didn't preach what he didn't know, but he was mighty
in the scriptures. You know, I've met people who
know the scriptures real well, but don't understand the scriptures.
That could be what he was, I don't know. It might be, I can't say
definitively, but he was mighty in the scriptures. He'd read
the Bible a lot and was very familiar with the scriptures.
And he came to Ephesus, this man, verse 25, was instructed
in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit,
he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing
only the baptism of John. Now it says he was instructed
in the way of the Lord, and this is very interesting. This word
is not used many times in the New Testament. It means he was
orally instructed. It could be he was instructed
by men and never instructed by the Lord because he was orally
instructed. Now he would be instructed by
the Lord through Priscilla and Aquila, so let's don't get stopped
there. It says he was instructed in
the way of the Lord, but it could be that he was just orally instructed
by somebody that was a very good teacher and had him convinced
He was instructed in the way of the Lord, being fervent in
the spirit. He was a fervent man, boiling
over is what the word means. I mean, he was a very zealous,
fervent man in everything that he did. This was his personality.
This is the way he conducted himself, very fervent. And he
spake and taught diligently. He was very diligent in his teaching. I mean, this man was a gifted
man, wasn't he? I really like this resume. He
was eloquent. He was mighty in the scriptures.
He was fervent in spirit. This man was a man that the Lord
would end up using. But look what it says with regard
to him, knowing only the baptism of John. He did not yet understand
what he would come to understand. Verse 28, he mightily convinced
the Jews in that public place showing by the scriptures that
Jesus was Christ. He didn't know this before they
taught him. Now, did the man preach the gospel
at this time? No, no. He didn't know. The Lord's hand was upon him
from the womb, and he would preach the gospel. He would preach mightily
that Jesus is the Christ, but at this time, he doesn't know
that. And you can't preach what you
do not know. It's impossible. But here he
is, knowing only the baptism of John. And what all was the
baptism of John? Well, look in chapter 19, just
for a moment. Verse one, it came to pass that
while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the
upper coast, came to Ephesus and finding certain disciples,
he said unto them, have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?
Now that's an unusual question, isn't it? You know, I have to
think that there was something in these people that made Paul
question them. He said, have you received the
Holy Ghost since you believed? Do you know anything about the
Spirit of God? Do you know anything about regeneration? Do you know
anything about the work of the third person in the Trinity in
salvation? You know, that's an unusual question
to ask someone. He must have seen something in
these people that made him question this. And look how they answered. They said in him, we've not so
much as heard as whether there be any Holy Ghost. We have no
idea what you're talking about. We've never heard of the Holy
Spirit. And he said unto them, unto what were you baptized?
And they said unto John's baptism. Well, John had a whole lot to
say about the Holy Spirit, didn't he? A whole lot to say about the
Holy Spirit. You read everything about him, and he's speaking
of the baptism. I'm baptizing you with water,
but one mightier than I that's coming after me, he'll baptize
you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He had a whole lot
to say about the Holy Spirit. So I dare say that these people,
while they said they were baptized with the baptism of John, they
didn't even know what it was. Because look what Paul goes on
to say, then said, Then said Paul, John barely baptized with
the baptism of repentance saying unto the people that they should
believe on him who should come after him that is on Christ Jesus. Now, whatever understanding they
had of the baptism of John, they didn't have his understanding,
did they? So it could be a Paulist. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. It
could be a Paulist didn't really have an understanding of the
baptism of John. Like these people didn't. Paul
lets them know you have not understood the baptism of John. So back
to Acts chapter 18, this man was instructed in the
way of the Lord, verse 25, being fervent in spirit and spake and
taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the
baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly
in the synagogue. whom when Aquila and Priscilla
had heard, there was something about this man that they liked.
They saw his fervency. They saw his boldness. They saw
his eloquence. There was something about this
man, I don't know what all it was, his sincerity, but what
did they do? It says, Aquila and Priscilla
had heard him, they took unto him them, and expounded unto
him the way of God more perfectly. Now, after this exposition they
gave of him, we see what he went on to preach in verse 28. He
mightily convinced the Jews publicly that Jesus was the Christ. He
didn't understand this before then. He just didn't understand
it. But now, after Aquila and Priscilla,
they weren't preachers. That ought to encourage every
one of us. They weren't preachers, yet they
were used by God to teach this man the gospel in a way he would
not have known had they not come to him and done this. Aquila
and Priscilla, they were friends of the Apostle Paul. They're
mentioned in several books, but they took this man and they expanded
to him the way of God more perfectly. Maybe it was something like Philip.
When the Ethiopian eunuch said, of whom speaketh the prophet,
of himself or some other man? And he began at that same scripture
and preached unto him, Jesus. You reckon that might be what
Aquila and Priscilla did for this man at this time? They did. And what I like about Apollos, who are you all to be teaching
me? I'm the one with the gifts. I'm the one mighty in the scriptures.
I'm the one who's educated and eloquent. I mean, who are you
all? What are you thinking? No, he listened to what they
said. What a blessing. He wasn't correcting
them. He was receiving correction and
he was listening to what they said. And when he was disposed to pass
into Achaia, the brethren wrote, and I think these brethren were
Priscilla and Aquilas. They're the ones who wrote and
said, y'all need to receive him. The Lord's done something for
him. You remember when Paul was first brought to a knowledge
of Christ and he came to Jerusalem, they were afraid of him. They
didn't think it was real. And it was Barnabas who convinced
them. Well, Aquila and Priscilla are
doing this at this time. They're convincing these people,
you need to receive him. Who, when he was come, helped
them much which had believed. Now, if that's all it said, what
would you think? You would think through this
man's amazing gifts. and through his eloquence, and
through the fact that he was mighty in the scriptures, that
these people believed. But that's not what it says,
is it? If it would have left it that way, we would have thought,
boy, he's something. These people believed through
him, but it doesn't say that at all. It says he helped them
much who believed through grace. That's the origin of their faith.
Not a polis eloquence and mightiness
in scriptures and diligence and fervency of spirit. I mean, no,
that's a high commendation of this man. I mean, we appreciate
that. I want to be that way, don't you? But he helped them
much who believed through grace. And we're going to get back more
to that in just a moment. But look what it says. Verse
28, four. He mightily convinced the Jews. Now that word means
he blew them out of the water. They could not stand before his
scriptural presentation of the gospel. What could they say? It's kind of like, I love it
when they tried to challenge the Lord and after they'd given
this challenge and he made them all look like idiots. And I want
to say that reverently. After that, there's no man asking
me more questions. They said, we've had it with
this. Let's back off. Well, this is the same thing.
Apollos mightily convinced them publicly in front of everybody
from the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. Now, my dear friends, that is
the gospel. Whoso believeth that Jesus is
the Christ is born of God. First John chapter five, verse
one. Now, that's what the scripture says. Now, I realize somebody,
if you don't understand what the Christ means and you believe
he's the Christ, that means nothing. What does it mean to believe
that Jesus is the Christ? Well, it means you believe he's
God's prophet, he's God's priest, he's God's king. And I love thinking
of him, he's God's prophet. He is the word of God. He brings
the word of God. He is the word of God. That's
how much he is the prophet. He is the word when God speaks.
He comes out of God's mouth. He is the very word of God. And I love thinking about this.
When he spake, they said, no man spake like this man. No man. And he spake as one having authority,
the scripture says. Not like the scribes. I mean,
the scribes, when they would speak, you know it doesn't come
from God. When he speaks, what he says recommends itself as
the very word of God. He spake as one having authority. And something he never said,
I love this, something he never said was, thus saith the Lord. Never said that once. He said,
I say unto you, And that's all that needs to be said. That's
the authority he spake with as God's prophet. He brings the
word of God to us. He said, I am the way. I am the
truth. I am the life. No man comes to
the Father, but by me. He's God's prophet. He brings
us the gospel. He's God's priest. And he's a
priest after the order of Melchizedek. He doesn't bring animals blood.
He brings his own blood. You see, the blood of an animal
could never put away sin, but his blood actually put away sin. And he presents his blood to
the father as our great high priest. He represents somebody
with that blood. A priest represents men to God. A prophet speaks God's word to
men. But a priest represents men to
God, and he comes in behalf of some people. Behold, I and the
children which thou hast given me. He comes into God's presence
with my name. Like the great high priest with
the names of the children of Israel engraved on his breastplate,
he comes with the name of every one of his elect, and he comes
with his blood, and they are accepted because of his sacrifice. Why, he's even the altar. He's
the priest, he's the sacrifice, and he's the altar. His body
is the altar that he's presented his sacrifice on. And he's God's
king. Now the king is the one whose
will is done. Now this is how he is king to
his people. He's king because of who he is,
I realize that, but when we're talking about his will's always
done, thy people, shall be willing in the day of thy power. You
see, that's what I need him for. I need him to give me a new heart
and to make me willing. I need his kingship to cause
me to believe. I need his kingship to give me
a new heart and to will my salvation and to will me to persevere all
the way to the end. We need him as the Christ, God's
prophet, God's priest. and God's King, and Apollos was
able to convince the Jews, mightily convince. They couldn't answer
what he sings in the Bible. They might not have liked it,
but they couldn't refute it. They couldn't say what he sings,
not so. He mightily convinced the Jews and that publicly that
Jesus was the Christ. He's now a gospel preacher, isn't
he? Now, I don't know what he was
before then, I can't say definitively, I don't reckon anybody else can
either. I mean, was he an Old Testament believer? Maybe, I
don't know. Did he not know the gospel at all? I don't know that
either, but I know he does now. That's the point, he does now.
After being instructed, he does now. And I love this statement. When he came, he helped them
much, which had believed through grace. Now, if it only said he helped
them much who believed, what would you be thinking? Oh, this
is the man you need to hear. He can help you much. He can
help you much through his eloquence, through his gifts, through his
learning, through his powerful presentation, through his knowledge
of the scripture, this man can help you much. But the Bible
doesn't say that. The Lord gives this beautiful,
glorious statement. He helped them much who believed
through grace. Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says, for by
grace he is saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, that
faith, this is so important, that not of yourselves. It didn't
come from you. It didn't find its origin in
you. It didn't come as an act of your will, that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works. lest any man should boast. You
see, if your faith comes from you, you've got something to
boast in. You can say, I made the difference. So and so, they
didn't believe and I did. Glory be to me, I believed. I
have some glorying somewhere. No, they believed through grace. Now this word is in the grammatical
case which denotes origin and ownership. The origin of their
faith was God's grace. God's grace takes ownership of
their faith. That came from me. It didn't
come from them. It came from me. Look back a
few pages at Acts chapter 13, verse 48. And when the Gentiles They were
glad. And they glorified the word of
the Lord. They glorified this message that
they heard. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life believed. Where did their faith come from?
As many as were ordained to eternal life. Every single one of them
believed. The grace of God. Now, let me say, first of all,
with regard to grace, they believe through grace. God's grace is
not an offer. God doesn't offer anybody grace.
Just like forgiveness is not an offer. God doesn't offer you
the forgiveness of sins. He forgives you, and you're forgiven.
God doesn't offer grace. gives grace unto me who am less
than the least of all the saints is this grace given you just
read it not is this grace offered is this grace given and here's
what peter says with regard to the grace of god he said we believe
that through the grace of our lord jesus christ we shall be
saved now that is In a tense that says both we've been saved,
we're being saved right now, and we will be saved. We believe
that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we'll be saved
even as they. Now, what is meant by this thing
of being saved? I hate it when somebody says
to me, and I've heard this so many times, I got saved. I got
saved. That's just not the kind of language
to use with regard to God's salvation. Now, if I speak from a heart,
a riot, I'll say the Lord saved me. I've been saved. The Lord's
done something for me, but saying I got saved. No, no, you didn't
get saved. If you are saved, the Lord saved
you. But what is this thing of being
saved? What is saving grace? Saving grace is taking a man
who is dead in trespasses and sins, totally under the complete
dominion of sin, unable to do anything to save himself. And
grace saves that man. Grace puts away his sin so he
stands before God without guilt. Grace gives that man a new heart
and now they believe, now they repent, now they love God they
didn't before. Grace keeps that man, preserves
that man, it's saving grace. By grace ye are saved. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even we were dead
in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you
saved. Saving grace. Saving grace is God taking a
man like me, or you, and making us perfectly conformed to the
image of Jesus Christ. Saving grace is God taking a
man like me and making it to where I stand before God without
guilt. Not merely forgiven, but justified. Perfect standing before God's
holy law. Now that's saving grace, taking
a man that's dead and sins on the dunghill. and making him
his own son, making him perfect, perfectly conformed to the image
of his son. Now that's what's meant by grace.
Anything less than that is not grace. God's grace is purpose
grace. It was the grace given before
time began. And this is important. Somebody
says, this almost sounds philosophical when you start talking about
something that happened before time began. How do you know what happened
before time began? Well, God tells us in his word.
That's how we know. But 2 Timothy 1, 9 says, he saved
us and he called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which were
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now, if God
gave you his grace in time and not in eternity, that means his
grace was given to you in response to something about you. but it's
not that way at all. His grace is given simply because
he willed it before time began. It's purpose, grace, according
as he has chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him. This grace,
this saving grace, I love this, it's free. It's free. You know what that means? That
means there's absolutely nothing you have to do in order to earn
it and achieve it. Being justified freely. Nothing you need to do to measure
up. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption,
through the redeeming work of Jesus Christ. You can never think
of grace independent of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Can't
do it. They go together. being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. God's
grace is irresistible grace. Now somebody says, what does
that mean? Irresistible grace. What does that mean? It means
you can't resist it. It means it doesn't take no for
an answer. It means if God gives you his grace, you can't mess
it up. Turn to Romans chapter 5 for
just a moment. Verse 20. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might abound. Now, if you ever and if I ever
understand what God's holy law has to say about me or you, you
know what you're gonna see? You're gonna see sin as a fountain
coming out of your heart, abounding you and covering you completely. The law entered for this purpose
that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded. You find me one sinner where
sin abounds. I don't care where you are, you
find me one sinner where sin abounds. We have this promise,
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That as sin
hath reigned unto death. Now here's the irresistible part. How much ability do you have
to prevent death? Let's say you all your life practiced
perfect health practices. How would that do you? It would do you no good at all.
It would do you no good. You can prevent death. There's
nothing you can do to prevent death. It doesn't matter what
you do. You cannot prevent death. Now just as you cannot prevent
death, that as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so in the same manner might grace reign. You can't
prevent grace. Just like you can't prevent death,
you can't prevent grace. You can't say no to it. You can't
stop it. God's grace is irresistible. That's the only kind of grace
that'll save me. Irresistible, invincible grace. Now that's
the grace he's talking about. when he said he helped them much
who believed through grace. Paul said in Galatians 1 15,
when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace. I mean the very fact that you've
been called and believe. It was a calling of grace. He
called me by his grace. not by my works, not from anything
in me. He separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by his grace to reveal his son in me that
I might preach him. Now this is the grace that's
being spoke of when it says they believe through grace. Do you
believe the gospel? Do you know there's as much power exerted
in you in believing the gospel that there was in raising Christ
from the dead? That's the power of God that has caused you to
believe. What almighty power. He helped them much which had
believed through grace. And let me say this about this
grace. You know, Paul was talking about that thorn in the flesh
that was beating him black and blue. And he said, three times,
I asked the Lord that it might depart. Does that mean literally
three times? I don't know, but it means a
whole lot. He didn't do it just once. He did it again and again
and again. He asked the Lord three times
that it might depart. You know what the Lord said to
him? My grace is sufficient for thee. It's sufficient for everything. My grace is sufficient. Now,
if Luke would have left out that statement, he helped them much
who believed, we would have been thinking about how powerful a
man Apollos is. But we're not even given that
option. He helped them much which had believed through grace. And my dear friend, if you believe,
you believe. through grace, and you know that.
I don't have to convince you of that. I don't have to talk
you into that. You know that if you believe,
it's an act of the irresistible, invincible, almighty grace of
God. Now, I'm thankful for Apollos. I'm thankful for Apollos' help,
but I'm more thankful for the grace through which they believed. Let's pray. Lord, we are so grateful that
faith is the gift of your grace and that it's by the grace of
God, your grace, that we believe. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you would, by your grace, cause everybody in this room
to believe your gospel. And Lord, as we prepare our hearts
to eat the bread and drink the wine,
enable us to do this remembering it's your broken body suffering
the wrath of God that causes us to be accepted in the sight
of thy father. It's your shed blood, the blood
of thy dear son, that makes us wholly unblameable and unreprovable
in thy sight. Lord, enable us to
truly do this in remembrance of thee, celebrating the completeness
of your work in our behalf. In Christ's name we pray, amen.