Acts 28:28 Be it known therefore to you, that the salvation of God is sent to the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. I. THE SALVATION OF THE GOSPEL IS "THE SALVATION OF GOD." 1. It emanates from God. It is the product of His power and wisdom. It is the great display of His holiness and of His justice. It stands eternally secure in His unchangeableness and in His truth. It is the stream of mercy that floweth from the God of mercy. (1) There was everything in man, to check the stream of God's mercy. If we look at him as falling in the first Adam, it was so. But besides the fall, in which we were all involved, there was man's own personal sin. It is no right view of sin, to look at it merely as a disease, as a source of misery. It is rebellion against God; it is opposition to His holiness; it is provocation to His justice. (2) There was much in God to check it. One knows not of any one perfection belonging to Jehovah, that did not close the door of mercy, save only His love. But it is His grace that opened the door; and it is His grace that keeps that door open. 2. It is the gift of God. He gives it "without money and without price." It is His munificent, magnificent gift in Christ Jesus, to the very chiefest of sinners. 3. It is the salvation of God in our nature; who, if He had not been man, could never have suffered — and if He had not been God, could never have merited; in whose atonement there is all the glory of Deity, and in whose humanity there is all the perfection of obedience. 4. It is "the salvation of God," and the Spirit of God can alone convey it to our hearts. It is not education, reason, argument, the tears of parents, moral influence, but the Spirit of God. II. THIS SALVATION IS WORTHY OF GOD. 1. God never can act below Himself. All that He does, He does worthily. His Book of creation is a Book in which He manifests forth His glory; so with His Book of Providence. But it is in "the salvation of God," we read that glory in the most distinct and wondrous characters. (1) There we see perfections that never would have been known but for this salvation. Man might have guessed, imagined, that there was that goodness in God that would blot out sin; but never could he have known it, in all the mysteries of creation, and in all the wonders of Providence. (2) There we find the perfections of God in all their harmony. A note may be beautiful; but how much more a chord! Many chords may be beautiful; but how much more all those chords in one grand chorus! And what is the glory of that chorus, that doth unite God's glorious perfections in one song — "Glory be to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men!" See how it meets all the varied cases of sinners. Not one so vile, but there is a pardon in Jesus enough for him. None so unrighteous, but there is enough in Jesus for his righteousness. No case so hopeless, but there is hope here. 2. But this salvation is worthy of God as being most just. (1) This is its peculiarity, and sets it apart from all false religions in the world. (2) It is infinitely holy. The doctrines, the promises, the precepts, are all holy. If God's people are chosen "to be holy." If they are redeemed, it is that they may be "redeemed from all iniquity."(3) The only source of all solid happiness? (J. Harrington Evans, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. |
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