Today, I'm going to bring a message
to you from the book of Acts. Acts chapter 15. I would like
you to turn in your Bible. I'm sure it would be helpful
if you turn to Acts chapter 15. And let's look at this chapter,
some of these verses together. Now, what was happening here
in the early church, Paul and Barnabas had been out preaching
the gospel among the Gentiles, and God had given many faith
to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior. And
when they came back there to the home church in Antioch, certain,
Paul calls them in Galatians 2, false brethren came from Jerusalem
down among the church and taught the brethren and said, except
you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be
saved. So there arose in that day a
question, and I think it's a very vital question that we should
all be very mindful of is salvation by the grace of God alone, or
is salvation a mixture of grace and obedience? And this was the
question in that day. These false preachers came among
the church and perverted the gospel of grace by saying that
the Lord Jesus Christ is not enough in salvation. And of course, we clearly read
in Scripture that in Christ we are complete and accepted in
the Beloved. Now, note this carefully. Beware. Our Lord taught this. Beware
of the leaven or the doctrine of the Pharisees. Beware of that
ministry. Now, listen to me carefully.
Beware of that ministry that says that salvation depends upon
our obedience. Salvation is never described
in Scripture as dependent or determined or accomplished by
the sinful creature, but rather dependent, determined, and accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Of Him we read in Scripture,
1 Corinthians 1.30, of Him are we in Christ Jesus, who of God
is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Salvation, as I've often said
over this broadcast, salvation is in Christ Jesus and salvation
is of the Lord." Now, I want to consider when Paul and Barnabas
went down to this conference in Jerusalem to consider this
matter and to discuss this matter. Is salvation by law and Christ? Or salvation by Christ alone,
grace alone, faith alone? I want you to consider these
words found in Acts chapter 15. And we'll look at five or six
verses here, beginning in verse 7 of Acts chapter 15. Peter stood up in this Council
when they considered this question and hear these words carefully.
Peter rose up and said unto them, men and brethren, you know how
a good while ago God made a choice among us that the Gentiles by
my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. Now,
the first thing that Peter declares unto this Council in Jerusalem
when they consider this A very vital question of salvation.
Peter declares the sovereignty of God in the salvation of sinners. He says, God made a choice a
good while ago. God in eternity determined to
have mercy upon whom He will. God determined and God on sovereign
purpose called Peter, put Peter in the ministry and sent him,
gave him the message, and sent him to preach the gospel. And
God determined where he would preach, to whom he would preach,
and God determined who would be called by the gospel. God
determined who would be given faith and who would believe.
We read this in Scripture. Paul said, We are bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. When? From the beginning. chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto He called you by our gospel." You see, the
first thing Peter declares in defense of the gospel is the
sovereignty of God in salvation. God made a choice among us a
good while ago. God in eternity chose a people
unto salvation and gave them to Christ Jesus. Now, secondly,
in verse 8, Acts 15, Peter declares this. Peter declares not only
the sovereignty of God in salvation, but Peter declares the omniscience
of God. Notice verse 8. Now, I would
encourage you to get your Bible and read Acts 15. We're reading
verse 8. And God which knoweth the hearts,
bear them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit, even as He did
unto us. Now, a couple of things here.
Peter declares that God's omniscient and God's omnipotent. That means
that God knows our hearts. This is what He plainly declares.
God doesn't look on the outward countenance. God looks on the
heart. The second thing He declares
is God's omnipotence, God's almighty power. It says here, He gave
them the Holy Spirit. Now, they didn't earn it. They
didn't merit it. God gave them. God gave Cornelius
in his house, and that's who Peter is referring to, Not only
regenerating grace of the Spirit, God by the Holy Spirit revealed
Christ unto them as all in salvation, but he also gave them unusual
gifts of the Holy Spirit. God blessed them. gave them a
new heart. God made them a new creature
in Christ. Now, Acts 15, verse 9, "...and
He put no difference between us and them." No difference between
Jew and Gentile. All have sinned. All have come
short of the glory of God. God put no difference between
us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now, in verse
9, He declares this. There's no difference between
Jew and Gentile. All of God's elect are accepted
only in the Beloved. They are made one in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus, all believers
are loved with the same love. Herein is love, not that we love
God. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. In Christ, all believers are
loved with the same love. In Christ Jesus, we're all chosen
by the same grace. He blessed us with all blessings,
spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. In Christ, according as He chose
us in Him before the foundation of the world, all believers are
blessed with the same spiritual blessings. He's made unto us
all things in salvation. In Christ Jesus, all His people,
all His sheep, all the elect are redeemed by the same blood
atonement in whom we have redemption in Christ Jesus, the forgiveness
of sin according to the riches of His grace. We're all quickened
by the same Holy Spirit. You have to be quickened who
were dead. We're all robed. Those in Christ
Jesus are all robed with the same righteousness. The Lord
Jesus Christ is made unto us righteousness. He's called the
Lord our righteousness. They're all in Christ Jesus.
They're all partakers same divine nature, whereby are given to
us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust." We're all adopted into
the same family. We're all built upon the same
foundation. That foundation of salvation
is Christ. We're all adopted by the grace
of God into the family of God. by God's sovereign purpose. We've
all been made heirs of the same inheritance, heirs of God and
joint heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're all made partakers
of the same precious promises whereby He's blessed us with
all blessings. You see what he's saying there?
God put no difference between Jew and Gentile. They're all
blessed in Christ Jesus the same. And then he makes this statement
in verse 9, purifying their hearts by faith. Acts 15, verse 9. Purifying
their hearts by faith. Now listen carefully. Let's be
honest before God. By nature, our hearts are defiled
with sin. Deceitful above all things, Jeremiah
said, and desperately wicked. Jeremiah 17, verse 9. Paul put it this way. We have
all sinned. There's none righteous, no, not
one. Only God, only God can purify
the heart. Only God can cleanse us from
sin. Now listen carefully. Water baptism
won't put away sin. Your law keeping and your morality
won't put away sin. Your religious ceremony and self-righteous
reformation won't put away sin. Repentance won't put away sin. The only thing that will put
away sin is the blood of Christ, and that is received by faith,
purifying their hearts by faith. Only the application of Christ's
blood to the heart, by almighty grace, can cleanse and purify
a filthy, guilty, wretched heart from sin. And that's what we
read in Scripture. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
us from all sin. So it's not our baptism. It's
not our ceremonies. It's not our reformation. It's
not our repentance. It's not by any of these things
that we are purified, but totally and only by the blood of Jesus
Christ and that atonement. And this is received by faith.
The means of how this application to the soul, to the sinner, is
applied is by God-given faith. God-given faith sees and lays
hold of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only remedy for sin, the
only redemption from sin, purifying their hearts by faith. And this
God-given faith looks to Christ alone, not to our experience,
not to our tradition, but to Christ alone. Now, Peter says
this in Acts 15, verse 10. Get your Bible and follow along.
He says, Now therefore, why do you tempt or insult God? to put a yoke upon the neck of
the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we can bear."
You see what he's saying there? We can't honor the law. We can't
magnify the law. There's nothing wrong with the
law. The problem is with the sinful flesh. Why would we disgrace
and insult God to try to put an impossible yoke and burden
upon these redeemed Gentiles, which neither we nor our fathers
could fulfill or satisfy. If righteousness is by the law,
he gives this argument in Galatians 2.21, if righteousness is by
the law, then why did Christ die? Christ died to redeem us
from the bondage and curse of the law. He redeemed us from
the curse of the law being made a curse for us. And Peter's argument
is this, and you want to put believers back in bondage when
Christ has set us free? You see his argument there? Why
would you insult God to put believers back under the law that's a curse
to us? Christ has come to set us at
liberty, those who have been bruised. We read in Galatians
5, verse 1, "...stand fast in liberty wherewith Christ has
made us free." Now, do you see Peter's argument here to these
people? He's arguing and he's stating clearly that salvation
is all of God, all of grace, all in Christ Jesus. And then
he winds up his message in verse 11, Acts 15 with this, but we
believe, and we do, we believe through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. Now, Peter's doctrine
is the doctrine of grace. The doctrine of the church of
Christ. We believe salvation from its beginning and election
to its Final glorification is all of grace, not of deserving,
not of merit, and it's certainly not by our free will. We read
in Romans 9, it's not of him that willeth nor of him that
runneth, but it's God that would show mercy. Now, this is plainly
the doctrine and teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said,
no man can come to Me except the Father which sent Me. Draw
him. We believe through the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved. This is the doctrine
and all the teaching of the whole Bible. from Genesis to Revelation,
when it says, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, to the
last verse that's recorded in Scripture, Revelation 22-21,
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. It's all of
grace and all of God. Any denial of the doctrine of
salvation by the grace of God alone is a denial of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life only in Christ Jesus. Now, let's look at three
aspects of what Peter is saying here. Three aspects of the apostles'
doctrine. The first thing Peter is showing
here in verse 11 is this, when he says, We believe that through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they...
He's saying this. Peter shows us the great need
of salvation. He says, We shall be saved. Now
he's saying here, all men are fallen, sinful, and totally depraved,
in great need of salvation by the grace of God. We don't have
the ability to help ourselves or save ourselves. We're dead
in sin, life in Christ, and pardon and salvation is a gift of God.
Secondly, Peter shows us this, how sin is put away, through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not through our obedience, not
through our works, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We have great need for our substitute to make sufficient atonement
and to establish righteousness for us. Particular redemption
and definite atonement is the heart and soul of the gospel.
God made Him. Christ died as our substitute.
God made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might
be made to righteousness of God in Him. To deny Christ's priestly
work is to deny the gospel and to have no good news for the
guilty. Now, thirdly, Peter says this. Peter shows us there's
real, lasting security in Christ. Through the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as the Gentiles. He's saying
this. Lost religious Jew, God's going
to save the lost Jew the same way He saves the pagan Gentile
dog, by the grace of God. There is absolutely no possibility
that those given to Christ in the covenant of grace, those
redeemed by His precious blood, those who are called and quickened
by the Spirit, will ever perish. He said, All that the Father
giveth me will come to me, and those that come to me I will
in no wise cast out. The believer's safety and security
doesn't depend upon us, but rather upon the promise of God. He said,
I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. We can
summarize this conference in Peter's preaching by a threefold
statement. Here's a summary of this conference.
When they consider this question, is salvation by the grace of
God alone, or is it a mixture of grace and works, or all of
works? Peter clearly says that salvation
is all of grace. But here's a threefold summary.
Grace alone, faith alone, and Christ alone. Now, I pray that
you would consider and go back and read these verses and consider
now and think with me. Is salvation all of grace, all
of God, all of faith, all revealed in the Word? Or is it something
left up for me to do, for me to bring, for me to accomplish?
I'm saying this clearly, as clearly as I know how. Salvation is all
of God. salvation is of the Lord.