Thank you brother. What a wonderful
time tonight. Let me take this off because
it's hard to understand me with this on. It's hard to understand
me anyway. Let us open to Acts chapter 20,
the book of Acts in chapter 20. I was looking for a verse, this
was years back, that had gospel and grace. I was looking at those
two subjects and sure enough I found one and this verse has
intrigued me ever since. And I just, I'm just enamored
by this verse. I know you are as well. In the
story of Paul, when he was, when he saw the Ephesian elders for
the last time, starting in verse 17 of Acts 20. And from Miletus, he sent to
Ephesus to call for the elders and called for the elders of
the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them,
You know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what
manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord
with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations
which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews, and how
I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but showed
you publicly and have taught you publicly from showed you
and have taught you publicly and from house to house testifying
both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward
God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ and now behold I
go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem and not knowing the things that
shall befall me there, say that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in
every city, saying that bonds and affliction abide me." But
none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear
unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy and
the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify
the gospel of the grace of God. And now behold, I know that ye
all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see
my face no more, wherefore I take you to record this day that I
am pure from the blood of all men, for I have not shunned to
declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed, therefore,
unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath
purchased with his own blood." The gospel of the grace of God. The gospel of the grace of God.
The word gospel, of course, is the word of Angelion, or Jungelion,
and its English word is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word, Godspell,
which means good story. The good news, Tyndale wrote,
that which brings rejoicing to the soul causes the soul to dance.
But I like this Old Testament verse about the gospel, and that
is in Isaiah 40. He says, O Zion that bringeth
good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain, O Jerusalem
that bringeth good tidings, lift up thy voice. Lift it up. Be not afraid. Say unto the cities
of Judah, Isn't that a beautiful verse?
And there's another verse that's like that, but I won't read that
one. So Paul, the apostle, was telling the elders of the church
of Ephesus of his one goal, to finish his course with joy in
the ministry that he had received of the Lord, to testify of the
gospel of the grace of God. In the word of God, there's only
one gospel. Let's look over at Galatians chapter one to confirm
that. Galatians chapter one, only one
gospel. Verse 8 and 9, But though we or an angel from
heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before,
so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto
you than that which he have received, let him be accursed. There is only one gospel and
that's the gospel of the grace of God. Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. All that He is, who He is and
what He has done. we could say in a nutshell. But
I ask myself, why is Paul stating here that it is the gospel of
the grace of God? It's interesting that he would
say that. And you know, here he calls it the gospel of Christ
in this Galatians, the gospel of Christ, right? And in Romans
1 also. In Matthew 4, it was the gospel
of the kingdom of God, and Paul says here in our text, preaching
the kingdom of God. Right. And then in many places,
the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of God, the gospel of
his son. These are all New Testament verses,
the gospel of Christ, the gospel of peace, the everlasting gospel
and the gospel of your salvation. You could just take it and read
down there. And that would preach right there. I talk about why
is it all those things? So I ask, why does Paul say the
gospel of the grace of God? And I know this will be a review
for many people here, but I just pray they would rejoice in this.
Number one, I want to say it's the gospel of the grace of God
because the good news, the gospel, is something man could not achieve. It's got to be achieved by grace.
Man could never achieve it. The gospel was first proclaimed
in Genesis 3. And many of you know that scripture
in Genesis chapter 3 and in verse 15. where he says, he's talking to
the serpent, I will put enmity between thee and the woman and
between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head. That
means it, that seed of the woman would bring the death blow unto
you, Satan. And it says, thou shall bruise
his heel. That was the first time the gospel
was proclaimed to man. And so what do we find there?
We find man hiding from God. When just moments before Adam
walked daily with God, he changed the fellowship with his creator
and father for a lie from the enemy of his soul. His wife fell
into the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of
life. She was deceived by the cunning craftiness of the evil
one. But Adam headed in with his eyes
open. Look at the fall. He had everything that anyone
could ask for in the garden. He had purpose. He had work to
do. They gave him purpose. He had
provision, all he ever needed for food. He had fellowship,
humanly speaking, with a wife that God had given him, the perfect
wife, the ideal wife, the help mate for him, help meet, meaning
help fit for him, perfectly designed out of his side. And he had fellowship
with God daily. What more could he ask for? In
one sense he did what was described in Romans 1, he worshipped and
served the creature more than the creator who is blessed forever. He showed the evidence of what
occurred in his soul, he died spiritually. He died spiritually,
he no longer valued that fellowship with God and he feared God when
he loved God before. A slavish fear took over the
place of reverential fear and awe and fellowship. Slavish fear
was a characteristic and an evidence of spiritual death. Adam was
cut off spiritually from God. Another evidence of spiritual
death, he tried his own efforts to remedy his situation. works
religion motivated by worldly wisdom. He sewed fig leaves together
because in his fallen worldly wisdom, he thought that he needed
to do something that he could supply, that he could do to remedy
his situation. He needed to cover his nakedness.
His spiritual nakedness could not be covered by outward works
religion. It just makes man look to be
religious, doesn't it? And he may be religious, but
it doesn't do anything for his soul, right? He may look different
to others, But only God can supply what man really needs. He needed
the blood shed from a substitute, a substitute that died in his
place, a perfect type of the Lord Jesus Christ who was to
come in the world in Genesis 315. It shall bruise thy head
was the word to the serpent. So man demonstrates the same
fallen traits today, fallen worldly wisdom. Look at First Corinthians. Chapter 1, verse 18. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it
is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise. I will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom, by that same wisdom, knew not
God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believed. to save them that believe. By the foolishness of the message
preached. Man's wisdom can never get it.
Man's wisdom just leads him to a false religion, doesn't it?
Spiritual blindness and deadness had come in. Look at just one
chapter over from that 1 Corinthians 1 to 1 Corinthians 2, 14. Spiritual blindness took over.
in Adam, and it takes over today, doesn't it? Man is blind. But
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,
for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. It's got to be a gospel
of grace So the gospel of grace shows that man cannot achieve
salvation, and we all know that, but look at how the scriptures
bring it out. No man can by any means redeem
his brother, nor give God a ransom for him, for the redemption of
his soul is precious and ceaseth forever. He needs the preaching
of the gospel. He needs the regeneration of
the Holy Spirit. He needs life in his dead soul. He needs spiritual life. He needs
redemption that God must supply. Only God can supply the redemption
that man needs. And we see in Adam's case, God
clothed Adam with skins. There was blood shed in the garden. There was blood shed and that
was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ whose blood would be shed.
on Calvary, and so we are saved from the foundation of the world,
really, by the Lamb, by the Lord Jesus Christ that was slain.
But anyway, this shows was a perfect type of Christ who was to come.
Number two, the gospel has to be a gospel of grace, must be
a gospel of grace, because it tells of the covenant of grace,
and that is what God did even before man had a need, but supplies
all that man needs. And what I wanted to say is that
even before Adam sinned, God had a Savior in Christ, the God-man
mediator of the covenant of grace, also called in the Bible the
covenant of peace, or the council of peace, or the new covenant,
because it's eternally new, or the eternal covenant, in many
places, in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. This
great covenant that was made within the members of the Godhead
were each agreed to do a certain part to redeem a people that
were given to the Son. As he stated in Hebrews 2.13,
he says, You see, Christ came to the world
to save those that were given unto Him. John 17, 2, As thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given him. We were given unto
Christ the God-man mediator and the surety of the covenant when
God coveted with Him and with us in Him. as our head. He was our head and in that covenant
head, in the Lord Jesus Christ, He actually covenanted with us
because He is our head. So He covenanted with the people
that He was given in that covenant. I hope I made that clear. When
God covenanted with Him and covenanted with us in Him, because he was
our representative, he was our head. I like, and there's so
many verses, but I like this one. This is probably my favorite
verse on the covenant. And you know it, you've probably
got it marked in your Bible. Zechariah 6, 12 through 15, where
he says, and speak unto him saying, thus speaketh the Lord of hosts
saying, behold, the man whose name is the branch. Oh, that'll
make you rejoice right there, the branch. And he shall grow
up out of his place. He shall build the temple of
the Lord. That's his church, that's his
people. He shall build the temple of
the Lord. Even he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he
shall bear the glory. See, all glory goes to Christ
for salvation. And he shall sit and rule upon
his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne, and the council
of peace, that's what it's called, the council of peace, shall be
between them both. Oh, and then another verse, I
just gotta read this one, and you have this one also. Isaiah
42, six, referring to the Lord Jesus, the servant. The elect,
the first elect, it says, I, the Lord, have called thee in
righteousness, this is in verse six, and will hold thine hand,
will keep thee, and will give thee for a covenant unto the
people and for a light to the Gentiles. The writer of Hebrews
calls that the everlasting covenant sealed with the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, sealed with the Christ's blood. David says
that it's an order in all things. And sure. And he says it's all
his salvation. That's all David's salvation.
And that's all my salvation. that the Lord made a covenant
with my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, before the foundation
of the world. What are the stipulations of
the covenant? I've got to go through this just as a glimpse,
just in a summary quickly, and that is the part of the Father,
God gave a people to the Son. God agreed to be our God and
that we would be His people. Can we think of a more blessing
than that? That He would be our God and that we would be His
people. We were a chosen people, not
on the basis of any foreseen merit. Ephesians 1 states that
we were chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the
world, that we should be holy before him. This people would
be forgiven of all sins and adopted as sons and are objects of eternal
love. He loved us. from before the
foundation of the world. He foreknew us, that's that word,
he set his love, his eternal love upon us. He would put his
laws in our hearts. meaning we would have an inclination,
I take that, to seek Him and to obey Him in His Word, among
other things. Now the Holy Spirit agreed to
seek out that elect people and call us out of darkness to His
eternal light, granting us repentance and faith, which are gifts from
God, regenerate us, fill us, seal us, for the day of redemption
and be the earnest of the down payment of our redemption until
that day of redemption. The son agreed to do everything
necessary to purchase his people, his bride, redeem her, to work
out a perfect righteousness by honoring God's law and obeying
it completely, bearing all of our sins on the cross, enduring
God's holy wrath at the hands of that broken law that we had
broken all of our lives. He would rise again and be justified
or vindicated from those sins, showing that His work of redemption
was perfect and accepted by God on our behalf. He would present
us unto the Father as a bride without spot and blemish. What
I'm saying here is that it is the gospel of grace because God
made a covenant of grace in eternity past, which was His own purpose
to save a people that were given to His Son. 2 Timothy 1.9 is
a great New Testament verse. And we all have this one, who
has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Don't you just rejoice in that?
Thirdly, it's called the Gospel of Grace because it describes
all that God's grace did for us in the surety of the covenant
in our Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 7.2 says
this, By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better Testament,
the eternal covenant. Our Lord Jesus drew nigh unto
the Father in that eternal day and struck hands in that covenant,
which is what that means, to strike hands, to make an agreement
in that covenant. And just like Judah of old, he
agreed to bring every last one of his sheep and present them
before God spotless in his eternal robe of righteousness. In Genesis
43, in verse 8 and verse 9, just quickly, Judah said, I was going
to talk about Judah and that surety. We've got to understand
what a surety is in the biblical sense. A surety pays all what
was owed by those he was under covenant with. It's not that
he pays part. It's not that he does a part
of it and we do the rest. He paid it all. And just like
Judah said to Israel, his father in Genesis 43, when Judah and
the other brothers, the other, was it 10 brothers, wasn't it? It was 10 brothers, right? They
were coming back from meeting the prince of Egypt that they
didn't even know that that was their brother that they had lost.
There was one brother at home. There was this brother that they
didn't know was their brother in Egypt, he was the prince of
Egypt. And he had made them bring this other brother to him. And so now Judah has to take
and explain that to his father. That's the background of this.
And so Judah said unto Israel, his father, you see, Israel didn't
want to let him go. You see, it was Benjamin, the
youngest son. He says, send the lad with me, and we will arise
and go. that we may live and not die,
both we and thou, and also our little ones. And look what he
says. Judas says this, I will be surety for him. Of my hand
shalt thou require him. If I bring him not unto thee
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. Of my hand shalt thou require
him, if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee,
then let me bear the blame forever." You see, he became responsible
for bringing back that son safely and setting it before the Father.
And just as Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, would be
surety. He would pay the debt of his
people He made a covenant of suretyship with the Father, meaning
He drew near and struck hands in that covenant, in that contract,
that He would bring all His sheep, every last one of them, and set
us before the Father. If He did not or if He could
not, He would bear the blame forever. Don't you thank God
that we have that prophecy of Isaiah 42? He shall not fail. He shall not fail. Nor be discouraged till he have
set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait for his
law. In covenant engagements. He conquered all of our enemies. He conquered every one of the
enemies that were against us. And that'll make you shout. Death
and the devil were conquered. Hebrews 2 says, for as much then
as the children that were given unto him, that he mentioned in
the verse before that, the children that were given unto him were
partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part in the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil, and to deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage." Subject to bondage. Also, I always want to mention
one other enemy quickly and another enemy. Not only death and the
devil were conquered by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, by
the death on the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. As John Owen
said, the death of death in the death of Christ. So death was
conquered, Satan was conquered who had the power of death, who
kept us in the fear of death, kept us in that trepidation about
death, what would happen after death. But not only that, The
broken law that we had broken all of our lives was paid for,
and that enemy was taken out of the way. The law was against
us. A person could say, I'm going to obey the Ten Commandments,
but you would have had to obey the Ten Commandments perfectly
all your life, and that cannot be done. And so that broken law
had to have been taken out of the way. The Bible says, Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse
for us, for it is written, curse is everyone that hangeth upon
a tree. Christ is the end of the law,
the Bible says, for righteousness. to everyone that believeth. As
a surety, the Lord Jesus gladly took the task of paying the redemption
price for us when we were hopelessly enslaved. What is the redemption
price? His own blood, his precious blood
to him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his precious
blood, in his own blood, Revelation 1. Peter describes that precious
blood. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold,
the most precious thing in the world, silver and gold, you were
redeemed with that. Like the children of Israel in
the Old Testament, you were redeemed with something much more than
that. Not with silver and gold from your vain conversations
received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious
blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. who
verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world,
but was manifest in these last times for you. He is the sacrifice
of the covenant of grace. For this is my blood, he said,
of the New Testament, which is shed for many for their admission
of sins. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves and the Old Testament sacrifices, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. Number four, the gospel is the
gospel of grace because grace initiates it and causes the gospel
to be affected. And I'll be very brief on this.
We see in our text that Paul, the apostle, kept back nothing
profitable to them in Acts 20 and 20 and verse 21. And he says
he taught everywhere and from house to house, he taught repentance
towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. That scripture
teaches that these two elements, what Paul taught, those are necessary,
right? And the word of God says that
those two things are gifts from God. Repentance and faith are
both gifts. And Paul taught the necessity
of having those things. Needful, he said. They're needful,
he says. I held back nothing needful,
but taught you publicly and from house to house repentance towards
God and faith towards God. Those are things man cannot supply.
You see, grace initiates that because grace grants repentance
and grace gives faith with a new birth. It all comes together.
Life comes, and then repentance comes, and eyesight comes, and
faith comes. It's all right there. It's within
a split second. When you're born again by the
Spirit of God. And He saw us dead in trespasses
and sins, lying in our own blood, and He passed by and said, live. And He called us out of darkness
to His marvelous light. so we could show forth his praises.
And lastly, it is the gospel of the grace of God because all
the glory goes to God. All the glory goes to him for
that very grace. Three times in Ephesians 1, he
says, to the praise of the glory of his grace. or to the praise
of his glory, where he has made us accepted in the beloved. We
see it also in the former scripture, well, it's a scripture that I
didn't read, but it was a scripture, I'll just read it then now. It's
in 1 Corinthians 1.31, and that is, according to it has been
written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Let him
glory, no, I had to skip over that one, I'm sorry. The time's
getting away from me. So, all the glory, goes to the
Lord, you see. All the glory goes to the Lord.
Grace for salvation, the glory goes to the Lord. I like what
it says in Isaiah 43. I just love this verse. I will
say to the North, he said, I'll say to the North, give up and
to the South, keep not back. Bring my sons from afar and my
daughters from the ends of the earth. Even everyone that is
called by my name. And he says, for I have created
him for my glory. I have formed him. Yea, I have made him. I have
made him. I am the Lord. He says in Isaiah
42, he says, that is my name in my glory. Will I not give
to another? Neither my praise to graven images.
What a wonderful passage, and if you're writing, taking notes
down, look in your own time at Ephesians 3, 20 through 21, one
of Brother Streeter's favorite passages, talking about glory
of God in the church, all glory to God in the church, through
the church, through the people that God has called out of darkness
into his marvelous light. It's the same thing as Ephesians
1, really, it's the glory of God through salvation, through
the church, through the church. The gospel is a gospel of grace
because of man's need that only grace can provide. The gospel
is a gospel of grace because of the covenant of grace that
was made before man had that need. The gospel is the gospel
of grace because Christ is the surety of that covenant and all
that he has done. by grace that he has done through
his precious blood and through his work and through his righteousness
that he established. The gospel is the gospel of grace
because grace initiates salvation. by the spirits calling us out
of darkness and granting us repentance and faith. The gospel is the
gospel of grace because God will not share his glory with puny
man who wants to say, oh, I let Christ come into my heart. I
allowed God to come into my heart. What blasphemy! God gives us
salvation. The greatest thing that He can
ever do is grant us that eternal life, even against man's will. Man, with his will, tries to
run as hard and fast as he can away from God. He doesn't want
anything to do with God, just like Paul, until God gets a hold
of him. and God grants him that repentance
and faith. I'll close with this, in Gatsby's
hymnal number 200. Ah, but for free and sovereign
grace, I still had lived estranged from God, till hell had proved
the destined place of my deserved but dread abode. But, oh, amazed,
I see the hand that stopped me in my wild career, A miracle
of grace I stand, the Lord has taught my heart to fear. To fear
his name, to trust his grace, to learn his will be my employ,
till I shall see him face to face, himself my heaven, himself
my joy. The gospel of grace. Thank you.