Acts & the Apostle Peter

Today on Renewing Your Mind... ... And in the Great Commission, Jesus said that you are to teach them all things that I have commanded you. When Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost to preach and as he finds himself in subsequent settings he is an echo chamber of what Jesus taught and preached. And we are not surprised that when Peter opens his mouth what comes out are the doctrines of grace. He has been well taught by the Master, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he now is a preacher in the mold of Jesus Christ. And I also want you to note, as we will be looking at this, that as Peter preaches in this evangelistic setting to unbelievers, he does not hold back the doctrines of grace. In fact, he puts a trumpet to his lips and sends out a loud clarion message on the sovereignty of God in salvation even to unbelievers. How powerful is the message of these doctrines of grace and they are able not only to edify believers and make us strong, but they are able to convert lost sinners as well. As we look at Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, the greatest sermon I think in the history of the church, in Acts chapter 2 and verse 23, Peter says this man, referring to Jesus, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.

That's strong medicine. When he says the predetermined plan, that speaks to the eternal decree of God. The word predetermined is a Greek word, horizo. You can hear the word horizon on it. And the idea is the destination is out there on the horizon. And God has already marked out the horizon. God has already marked out the destination of the journey long before we arrive at the destination. That's what the word predetermined means.

It means to mark out on the horizon before you even arrive. And then the word plan, boule, is the Greek word which means God's eternal purpose, God's volitional, sovereign will. And then he speaks of the foreknowledge of God, which is God's foreordination and God's prearrangement of the future that includes His electing love of those whom He has chosen. That's a pretty good way to start the sermon after having quoted Joel chapter 2, 28 to verse 32.

Well, he has much to say about the doctrines of grace. And you'll note in verses 22 and 23 right here, specifically verse 23, he says, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men, not good men, godless men. And they are representative in reality of every unconverted person. The word godless here means lawless, wicked. And this is his teaching on total depravity in chapter 3 and verse 14 and 15 as he preaches after healing the lame man, he says, to the crowd that gathered all around him, but you disowned the holy and righteous one. And this word disowned means to deny, to reject, and put to death the prince of life.

That crowd that day is like any crowd anywhere that is unconverted. They disown and reject and deny the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what unbelief is.

It is a stiff arm against the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Acts chapter 15 and verse 7, Peter appears at the Jerusalem council that was pretty much headed by James. But Peter speaks and he says, brethren, you know that in the early days, God made a choice among you.

And this word choice means to pick out, to select out of many possibilities. He acknowledges God's right as the potter to choose and to make out of the common lump of clay one vessel to be a vessel of mercy. If you would come back to his sermon on the day of Pentecost, I want to pick up his teaching on irresistible grace. And I know I'm taking you back and forth to some verses here. In Acts 2 and verse 39, again, he's preaching to thousands of unbelievers. And in Acts 2 verse 39, he says, the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off. That means both Jews and Gentiles. For children refers to subsequent Jewish generations and for all who are far off, far off refer to Gentiles.

As many as the Lord our God will call to Himself. Again, that's very strong. Notice the call is to Himself. It's not to a program. It's not to a building.

It's not to even just a mere plan. It's to the person of Jesus Christ. That's what saving faith is. It is committing your life to the person of Christ.

But notice he says, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself. This is the sovereign call of God. It's the effectual call.

And it is far more than an invitation. It is a call that secures the result that is intended. It is a call that lays hold of the lapel of the one called and pulls them and draws them to faith in Jesus Christ. It is a powerful call. Also, I want you to note in the next chapter, Acts chapter 3 and verse 16, this is a verse that would be very easy to pass over.

I want to draw it to your attention. Peter is preaching again in the temple area having healed the lame man, and a crowd gathers all around, a crowd of unbelievers, and Peter goes into his gospel preaching mode and calls upon the people there to put their faith in Jesus Christ. But he will also speak to the means by which this faith will come to them. Notice verse 16, and on the basis of faith in His name. Faith here is the commitment and the entrustment of their life to Jesus Christ. It is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know, and the faith – now watch this – the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all.

See, Peter was a southerner. So what this verse teaches us is all faith in Christ is faith that has come from Christ. All faith in Christ is a faith that has come through Christ to the sinner, giving to them the gift of faith that they use to believe in Jesus Christ. I mean this is Romans 11, 36, all things are from Him, through Him, and to Him. So is saving faith. From Him, through Him, to Him, it's the gift of God. God must grant the gift of saving faith before anyone can believe in Jesus Christ.

That's why there is the bondage of the will, until God grants this saving faith. That is a very important verse. Now come to Acts 5, verse 31. Acts 5, verse 31, and here is yet another important text in which we see the gift of repentance must be also granted to the sinner before they can repent. So in Acts 5, verse 31, He, referring to Jesus Christ, is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a prince and a savior to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin.

Let's take these in reverse order. Forgiveness of sin is obviously a gift, is it not? I mean we don't provide our own forgiveness of sin. God must give to us forgiveness of sin, right? That's indisputable. Well then let's back into the verse, so also is repentance.

It's a package deal. However it is we come to have saving faith is exactly how it is that we have come to have repentance. Saving faith must be given as a gift. Forgiveness of sin must be given as a gift. So must repentance be given as a gift. Repentance is the other side of saving faith. All saving faith has repentance. Faith is the turning to Christ. Repentance is the turning away from sin.

It's a package deal. It's the heads and tails of the same coin. When you turn to Christ, you are automatically turning away from a life pursuit of sin. As you turn to now follow Christ, you turn away from following sin and the world. And so repentance must also be granted just as faith is also granted. So what we learn from this here again is another aspect of the sovereignty of God in salvation. No one believes on their own. First Corinthians 12 verse 3 says, no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. And no one can repent on their own.

God must give it and grant it which He does to all His elect. Let's come now to the book of 1 Peter because we've been talking about Peter in the opening chapters of the book of Acts. Let's stay with Peter.

We're talking about this long line of godly men, and we began with the Lord Jesus. We now want to focus on the lead apostle. The chief speaker in the early years of the church who was Peter. And while we're talking about Peter in the book of Acts, let's now talk about Peter in his epistles. And let's start with 1 Peter chapter 2 and verses 9 and 10.

And we want to begin with total depravity, radical corruption. And notice what he says. This is Peter writing. And remember, he had a very good discipler, the very best discipler, the Lord Jesus Christ. For three years, he sat under the teaching of sovereign grace.

So as he picks up a pen to write this letter, guess what comes flowing out of that pen? Pure, unvarnished, sovereign grace. And so he says, 1 Peter 2 verse 9, God called you out of darkness, darkness. Darkness here has a twofold meaning. It conveys spiritual ignorance, and it conveys spiritual depravity.

And the two go hand in hand together. When you're in the dark, you just can't see. You can't know what's in the dark. And also darkness pictures impurity and a world of sin.

And that's where even the elect were. Before they were called, you were in darkness. And that's where you were before God called you by name. Even if you grew up in the church, you were in darkness until that day when He, as the Good Shepherd, called you by name and called you to Himself. And the Spirit of God drew you to Himself, but where He found you and where you were was in darkness.

And notice the next verse. He says, for you were once not a people. That means you were unconverted.

You were unregenerate. You were not a part of the people of God. You may have even been in a church, but you weren't one of the people of God yet until He calls you. And then you become the people of God. So He says, for once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God.

You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. That's conversion. That's coming to faith in Jesus Christ. That's coming out of the darkness and being drawn into the light, and to be drawn into the light is to enter into the knowledge of God and into holiness and purity of life.

While you're in chapter 2, look at verse 25, 1 Peter 2, verse 25, and here you have total depravity. He writes, for you were, when he says you, he's talking about all the believers. This is your past.

And this wasn't restricted just to believers in the first century. This refers to you. This refers to me. Before we were called by name into the kingdom of God, He said, you were continually straying like sheep. You had gone astray. You were going astray. You were always going astray. You were wandering away from God, not coming to God, wandering away from God.

And He as the Good Shepherd had to leave the 99 and go out into the night and to look for you and to look for me and to bring us into His sheepfold. Look if you will in 1 Peter 4, verses 3 and 4, and this is a laundry list that is just total depravity on steroids. This is total depravity in the full spectrum of the seven colors of the rainbow. For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lust, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them in the same excess dissipation and they malign you. Yeah, you once hung out with these people. You once ran with these people. You once partied with these people. You once were absorbed into this lifestyle before God called you out.

And as He describes what their lives once were, this is where they once lived in sensuality. That word means unbridled, unrestrained, vice of all sorts. You had no self-control. You were like, you had like animal instincts, just going after whatever it was in your flesh and in the lusts of your heart. In fact, the next word is lust, which are sinful passions that drive people into sinful indulgences. That's what lust is. And then drunkenness, that's just habitual intoxication.

Just basically living in this state. And then carousing is the result of the drunkenness, which is just wild parties and orgies. And then abominable idolatries, which is worshiping false gods. And then he says excesses in the plural, which your translation may have flooding.

And the idea is overflowing dissipation. And dissipation is a state of mind so carnal, so thinking about evil that you are continually feeding your flesh and indulging your sinful passion, it's not a pretty picture. And that's one reason we know the Bible is inspired by God, because man wouldn't be talking about himself this way. This is God's diagnosis of what was once wrong with your life. And finally, they malign you, mean defame and slander you.

This is total depravity, my friend. And this is where you once were and where I once was before we came to Christ. Just in different shades and in different living this out.

What about sovereign election? Well, you're going to have to come back to chapter 1, verse 1. So come back to the beginning of 1 Peter, and what I love about this is Peter doesn't hide this truth, because he had been sitting under the preaching of the Lord Jesus, and he saw Jesus preaching this even to the Pharisees and just putting it out there. And so as Peter picks up pen and writes to the churches scattered abroad in Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, first thing out of his pen, who are chosen.

I mean, that's like the taproot and everything is growing out of this sovereign election. Every blessing coming out of being chosen by God, and this word chosen, eklektos, you can hear election even in that, eklektos, the prefix ek, out of. You're chosen out of, a world of sinners. That's how he begins the book, and then look at the next verse. Verse 2, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, according to those whom God previously loved with distinguishing love, Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.

It's a predetermined relationship, foreknowledge. And then in chapter 2 and verse 9, that you are a chosen race. He's talking to the church.

He's not talking to Israel, he's talking to the church here. Those who are believers, who are living stones in the temple of God, who are in alignment with the chief cornerstone, the Lord Jesus Christ, you're a chosen race, and this race has a dignity. You're a royal priesthood. It has purity. You're a holy nation.

You're under new management and under new ownership. You're a people for God's own possession. So to be chosen by God is to be a part of a royal priesthood. It's humbling yet exalting. And it marks you now and puts you on a new path.

You know how you can know who the elect are? One way is by their new lifestyle. They're a holy nation. They've been set apart to God, but they are now pursuing holiness from the heart and godliness. And then you are a people for God's own possession. How wonderful, how glorious it is to be chosen by God. We would have never chosen Christ had He not first chosen us. We were continually going astray. We were in darkness and couldn't see and couldn't find the way to God. So God had to come to us and God first began to come to us and eternity passed before the foundation of the world. He marked out our horizon. He marked us out to be His own possession. And He chose us by Himself and for Himself. And it was according to His foreknowledge. It was motivated by His love as He chose to set His heart upon us with distinguishing love. Again, He's not a stoic sovereign just making computer-like moves in heaven with heart blazing with love for you and me as His elect. He set His heart upon us and then within time He would send His Son to die for us and send His Spirit to draw us to Himself, and that is what we'll look at next time together. God's plan of salvation is based on love for His people, and He ensures the salvation of His elect. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind on this Wednesday.

I'm Lee Webb. Thank you for being with us. Over the next couple of days, we are pleased to feature a portion of Dr. Stephen Lawson's series Foundations of Grace in the New Testament. There are 24 messages in the series, and in it Dr. Lawson shows us that God's sovereignty in salvation is a theme that runs through the entire Bible. This is one of the issues that has caused a great deal of controversy in the church, so we think it's important to understand the biblical roots of the doctrine. This series is a helpful place to begin your own study, and you can request the three-DVD set today with a donation of any amount to Ligonier Ministries.

You can reach us by phone at 800-435-4343, or you can go online to renewingyourmind.org. I think having a biblical view of God's sovereignty doesn't just change our understanding of salvation. It changes our understanding of virtually everything. If you want to further your reading on these doctrines, let me recommend Ligonier Ministries monthly Bible study magazine, Table Talk. Every issue contains articles by trusted pastors and theologians, plus daily guided Bible studies. We're offering a free three-month trial subscription to Table Talk if you've never subscribed before. Find out more at tritabletalk.com. Well, I hope you'll be with us tomorrow as we continue Dr. Lawson's series on the Foundations of Grace in the New Testament. We'll be addressing this question, Did the Apostle Peter Teach that Christ Died Only for the Elect? The Doctrine of Limited Atonement, tomorrow, here on Renewing Your Mind. God bless!