 There are those people who are entirely too arrogant and too boastful in their salvation. And what I mean by that is that they're giving themselves credit as though they are the ones because they are so smart, because they are so intelligent, because they're so wise. Things make sense to them. They can see things what they really are. They on their own decided to place their faith in Christ. For them, it made sense. The fact of the matter is that's not really the case. It can make sense. It can look like it's the right thing to do. It doesn't mean that you're going to continually make that choice. It doesn't mean that you are going to make the decision and stick with the decision. Because what we do know about all of us, including the very arrogant who are saved, who say they're saved, is that we tend to want to do what we want to do. And oftentimes the most important thing in our lives is us. When it comes to our salvation, we would rather choose to please ourselves at some point in time versus pleasing God. Thankfully though, it is God who is the active party in our salvation. I want to get this clear through everyone. We are not the active party in our salvation. God is the active party. We are the passive participants in our salvation. So what I want to do is I want to start with one very controversial verse and then work our way through and see how this is nothing that we can take pride in or boast in. Remember the Bible says that through faith we've been saved, through grace we've been saved, through faith, not of our own so that anyone can boast. Nobody can boast about our salvation. And so with that being stated, I want to go to Acts 13 verse 48. And I want you to see something here. And we're going to look at the tense of the verse and so forth, even the voices. And notice what it says in Acts 13, 48. Now obviously this is the founding of the church, the gospel is going forward, and more and more people are coming to Christ, even these Gentiles. And it's when the Gentiles heard this, at this preaching, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed, there it is, to eternal life they did what? They believed. So who believed? Well, those that had been appointed. All of those who had been appointed this word, so all of those whoever it was that had been up, whoever had believed, they were the ones who had been appointed. Now I want you to notice the word that's used here for appointed. In the Greek, this is the word, to tagmanoi, which is to be appointed. But notice what I want you to focus on though, is the voice. The voice in this is, in some cases they say middle. Now the middle voice and the passive voice, the endings are the same. In this case, this refers to God doing. This cannot be in the middle voice that they appointed themselves. That makes absolutely no sense. This is clear as a matter of fact, this is why every translation renders it this way. Those who had been, and by the way, the reason why we see it says had been appointed is because the voice, I mean the tense that this is in, this is in the perfect tense. So this is a completed action in the past. So this could not been them doing so. This is clearly God doing so. God did, it's because of the perfect tense. It's a completed action from the past. So it makes sense now that God appointed them before they believed to believe. So here is a controversial passage because some are going to say that, no, this is them doing so. No, this is clearly God's role. And I know it breaks someone's heart, but let's just be clear. You are not the person that is responsible for your salvation. You're not the person that's responsible for your heart. We cover this often Luke 8, the parable of the seed and the soils. And the soil is the heart, the seed is the word of God. And he goes through, Jesus does and speaks about different people who have heard the word. The problem was though it fell on the wrong sort of soil or bad soil. But those who had the good soil, whose heart is good, those are the ones who kept it and would keep persevering. The question is though, who's responsible for the condition of the heart? Are we responsible for the condition of our own heart? Or is God responsible? It's one of the two. It's not some other force. So here's the question that everyone needs to ask. Your heart condition as you receive the word, who is the one that caused it to be good soil, good ground or a good heart? Remember, all throughout the Bible, starting off in Deuteronomy, the Bible talks about how bad man's heart is. He tells man to circumcise his heart in Deuteronomy 10, but that he knows it won't. And then he tells him that he will do so in Deuteronomy 30. All throughout the Scriptures, we'll see God say, circumcise your heart. Get your heart straight, fix your heart. Knowing full well that man won't do so. And so even when he says for them to do so, even in places like Ezekiel, he says that he'll come back and that he will fix their heart. As a matter of fact, let's go to Ezekiel and look at what it says. Let's start in chapter 11, verse 19. He says, and I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them. Question, who is the active participant and who is passive? Well, clearly it's God. He says, I will give them. It is God that will do so. He says, wach na tatin, which is God doing. So I will give them one heart and put this. So the them, whoever receives this spirit in their heart and get this new heart, that will be those who will be the passive participants. Now, he's speaking about Israel, but it's going to also relate to us as well, because the same thing happens with us. And I will put a new spirit within them. And I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh. So even the condition, the bad condition of the heart, how does that change? Well, it's God that makes the heart or takes away the stoniness of the heart, the whirliness of the heart, the symptom heart. It's God that changes the heart and then puts his spirit in the heart. I will take out the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh. And then if we just go over a little bit further to Ezekiel 36, and look what he says here again, same thing. He says that I will sprinkle clean water on you. Notice the I. I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. You, being passive, you will be clean. Going back to what we learned in high school, what is active, what is passive and so forth. And so in this case, I, he says, I will cleanse you from all your filthiness. Being cleansed, that's not you, that's him. And from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and I, same word, I, because the same word in the Hebrew, not the team, which is I will give and I will give you a new flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, passive, and cause you. I will cause you to walk same, same Hebrew verb tense. I will cause you to walk in my statues and you will be careful to observe my ordinances. And so he's, so clearly the active participant, the one that's actually doing the verb is God, not us. And so Jesus brings this up when we come, when we go to John three, he says, truly, truly, I say to you that unless one is born again, and this word Genomai is used here, so a person must be born. He cannot see the kingdom of God. Well, what does that mean, Coral? Well, when we drop down a little bit further, we're going to see something here. Let's go to verse six. He says, that which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born of spirit is spirit. And by the way, the word born again, it's this Greek word that we see here highlighted on the screen, Genethe anotha, which is to be born from above. Well, can you make yourself be born from above? No, that is clearly an only God who can do so. You can't do it. So again, the heart being changed from above is clearly God. And as we drop back down to verse seven, he says, do not be amazed that I said, you must be born again. And so I want you to look at the tense and the voice of this word that's used here. This Greek word here is Genethe nai, which is, guys, it's in the passive. So those who must be born again, you know what he says, Genethe nai, anotha born from above, this voice is in the passive. So this was done to you. You cannot make yourself be born again or born from above. As a matter of fact, in 1 Peter 1, 3, he says that God caused us to be born again. This is God's work, amen? And then in John 1, he speaks of all of us who were born. I want you to notice something. In chapter one, verse 12, he says, but as many, hostile, but as many who received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. Now, someone may say, well, yeah, but you have to receive them, that's on you. Well, let's see. Verse 13, even to those who believe in his name, who were, look what he says, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Now, born of the will of God, born of God. Now, I want you to notice what's highlighted in the Greek. This Greek over here says, ek feu agenethe san, which is of or from God, they have been born. And then now, obviously this is in the heiress tense, but it's also passive. So it's passive, it was past tense that it was done heiress, but it was done to them passively. So those who were born of God, it's God who did so, born from God. He is the one that does so. And so when we see certain passages like Ephesians one, which says, God chose us, or even Romans eight, starting in verse 29, he says, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. This is God doing so. This is God's work, not our work. Amen. Now, something else that we see also in the Old Testament, because this was also understood, not just as a New Testament believer, but also under the Old Testament. People knew that what was being done to them or for them was not them, not them on their own, but it was God. Even David makes his statement in Psalm 65, for he says, how blessed is the one whom you choose and bring near to you. This is not you doing so on your own, coming on your own. This is God doing so. This is God choosing you. And the reason why this is a big issue is because too often too many people a day make salvation something that they've done, even to go so far as to say things such as they have the ability to decree and to declare certain things. You couldn't even decree and declare your own salvation, much less decree some sort of miracle. All you can do is what God has done. All you can even speak about is what God has done. Your salvation is not your own. You have not been saved on your own. You were bought with a price. The very term, even in English, connotes that it was not done by you, but to you. To be saved, you cannot save yourself. That means you weren't saved. You did it yourself, but we don't see that in scripture. And so I think it's high time that people start giving God all the credit, more credit than they've been, even those who will say that they do give God credit, but you must make the decision. You don't have it in yourself. You don't have it in yourself to make the decision and keep making decisions. You can believe temporarily, as Jesus says in Luke 8, but there's nothing in you that's going to cause you to keep internally, that's going to cause you to stay with him unless it's the Holy Spirit. And so give proper praise and adoration and glory to the one that saved you, now unto him that's able to keep you from stumbling. Not to say that he can keep you and then won't do it. He's not teasing you. He can keep you from stumbling because he will keep you from stumbling. That's why Paul says, I'm confident of him who began, who began it, not you, he did. Again, guys, why it's vitally important is that you put your proper emphasis and praise and credit to the one who deserves it. That is not you, but God. Amen.