All right, if you have your outline,
you know, we're dealing with the subject of a controversy
over the gospel at Jerusalem and acts 15 is a pivotal point
of transition for the cause of the gospel in terms of defining
it and defending it and and what we saw last week in our Outline
was the necessity on the part of the Apostles to deal with
something that had emerged that they weren't expecting and Acts
15 verse 1 we are told in certain men which came down from Judea
taught the brethren and it's in said except she be circumcised
after the manner of Moses you cannot be saved and in our Outline
we looked at our first point last week where we dealt with
the grace of God challenged at Jerusalem And we saw that the
underlying The basic assumptions on the part of of those who had
come from Jerusalem to Antioch and began to teach, began to
teach the brethren the notion that unless they were circumcised,
the gospel that they had believed would have been null and void
or of disadvantage to them was rooted in what we saw was a matter
of pride. We learned that what Paul and
Barnabas were dealing with was their Jewish brethren making
the assumption that they were gatekeepers of the gospel simply
because the gospel, you can pull up point number one, simply because
they were the stewards of the gospel for the last, let's say,
2000 years since Abraham. They were kind of like the big
brother. And as a big brother, you make the assumption that
you always know more than your little brother. And so the Judaizers
had come and brought this condition circumcision after the manner
of Moses as a condition for their salvation and what we talked
about last week was the importance of being able to know when is
it time to defend the gospel from those who are bringing something
that would pervert the gospel or twist the gospel when is it
time to say hey what you are stating is does not correspond
with the word of God. And this is a critical doctrinal
issue with which we cannot compromise. And what I challenged you on
last week, or at least I brought to your attention is that we
kind of live in a culture today where we're not either prepared
or willing to defend the terms of the gospel so that there's
this big tip mentality that we're all Christians if we simply say
we are and nothing could be further from the truth. and the history
of Christianity would bear that out. And the very fact that where
you and I are today in our Christian experience would underscore that. There are very few of us in here
who are what we would call Greek Orthodox or Roman Catholics. We may have been Roman Catholic,
we may have been Greek Orthodox, but we certainly aren't that
today. Largely, we are Protestant evangelicals. And what a Protestant
evangelical is, and I don't really care for labels, I'm just actually
identifying and marking out the historical factors. That you
were born and raised in a setting where largely we held to what
we call the five solas. And that is the Bible alone,
Christ alone, grace alone, faith alone, to the glory of God alone. This is what we call the five
solas. And these five solas came out of the Reformation at the
time that there was a split between the Catholic Church and the Protestant
Church. You and I are largely products
of a Bible-based position or argument for Christianity. We
are largely that, not exclusively, but largely that. And I say that
because the lines have been drawn very clearly, and for now 500
years, the Catholic Church has called the Protestant Church
heretical and vice versa. Now, when you make the statement
that something is heretical, what you are saying is that it
has departed from orthodoxy. It has actually removed itself
out of the sphere and pale of that which is constituted as
true. So right now, on a legal level,
the Catholic Church would say that Protestants are apostates.
that they have fallen from the faith and that they are under
damnation, except they repent and return back to the mother
church, the Roman Catholic church. That is official Catholic doctrine. And you must know that. On the
other hand, with the Protestant evangelical church, it is the
same. The Protestant evangelical church
will hold officially that Catholics and Protestants at radical variance
on the basis of Catholics teach the Catholic Church teaches that
salvation is based upon what Christ did plus what you do and
this is what we would call salvation by works it is the partially
the work of what Jesus did on the cross and atoning for our
sin and but the sinner or the recipient of that justification
has to finish that work by several acts of obedience that are in
compliance with the mandates of Catholicism for them to go
to heaven. That system of salvation is very
similar to what the Judaizers brought in in Acts 15, which
began the split between Paul and the Jerusalem church around
the gospel And we're going to be working through more of that
tonight. Now, the reason why I'm making the parallelisms is
because today in most of our churches, even though, you know,
you may have grown up Roman Catholic or you may have grown up Protestant,
whatever the case may be, largely because church history is not
taught. You don't even know these battles. Now, what you may know
experientially is that you hold different ideas than your relatives
do. who may be Catholic or who may
be Protestant or evangelical, but you don't really know the
fierce battles that went on that created that divide. And therefore
you're not as sensitive to or appreciative of why the Catholic
church has right now in its creeds and in its dogmas that the Protestant
church, um, whosoever holds to justification by faith alone,
apart from works, is under the anathema of God. That is a fundamental
position of the Catholic church, which means they recognize that
what we are teaching as Protestants is that pure faith in Christ's
work alone as the basis of our salvation is the grounds upon
which we are confident that God will accept us. They understand
that doctrine. They reject that doctrine. And
they say that those who hold to that are anathema that's written
in their confessions and in their creeds, their dogmas around Protestantism. And as I said, conversely, the
Protestant churches, which were largely Anglican and Presbyterian
at the time, Reformed churches, accepted that charge and recognized
that there would be no real fellowship that could be had between the
two camps. In other words, logic and scripture lays it out like
this. How can two walk together except they be what? Right. So what I am saying to you is
that you and I have grown up in a context where they have
settled the debate. The division is established legally. And so now when you try to work
through what is the difference between a Catholic and a, and
a Protestant at the foundation of it is the doctrine of justification.
But then the larger issue that really prevails in our churches,
in the battle between Catholicism and Christianity, is what authority
actually constitutes your ground of believing in God? For the
Protestant Church, it's the Bible alone. For the Catholic Church,
it's the Bible plus Catholic tradition, plus many extra writings
that we call pseudepigraphas that the Catholic Church adopts.
those along with the magisterium and the traditions that the Catholic
church has actually adopted over the last thousand years are what
is necessary and binding on every Catholic to get to heaven. And
those are mutually exclusive ideas that can never be harmonized
logically or honestly. And so the division is there.
And I say that because as we work through the text tonight,
you're gonna see why Paul Barnabas stand for the gospel over against
their Jewish brethren who are going to be actually They're
going to be actually seeking to try to bring them back into
Judaism, although it's not going to be said that way What Paul
will understand is ideas have consequences that you can't make
statements that don't have inferences and implications of and people
who are discerning have to be able to catch implications and
follow their logical outcome and try to stop them before it
has its outworking. I'll show you how this works
in our text. We've already worked through
the grace of God challenge at Jerusalem. It was a matter of
pride because they had already heard how that Peter had the
door open to the Gentiles. And now the Jews want to regulate
the Gentiles by being the gatekeepers. It was discrimination and racism
as we learned And at Galatians chapter four, 17, five and six,
and then self-righteousness is always going to be a key where
you and I think that we are the ones that are self appointed
to determine people's salvation. This can happen either way on
the part of Protestant churches, Catholic churches, anybody. If
you think that you are the one who can actually tell people
how they're going to be saved, then you become the gatekeeper
of people's salvation. The Judaizers were certainly
that and we learned in Matthews 23 1 through 3 Jesus says hear
what they say But don't do what they do because they tell you
what to do, but they don't do it and because they don't do
it They don't have the right to tell you how to get to heaven
That's an interesting proposition in itself because culturally
we have an ethic in our world that I think is a cognitive dissonance
and that's this that we will basically give the messenger,
the freedom to be inconsistent, fallible, and living contrary
to the set of dictums that we are allowing him or them to impose
upon us. For instance, you hear it frequently
in politics where you are part of a party, and yet you know
those individuals that are coming up for office are rascals, just
improper individuals. really not qualified because
their morals and ethics are extremely questionable, if not altogether
criminal, but we still vote them in because they happen to just
embrace our particular views. And here's how we argue it. Well,
let's not judge what they do in their private life. Let's
just judge them on the basis of how they adhere or present
our promise to actually actuate the views that we hold to at
that point. You are separating the necessity of the messenger
being qualified to bring the message. Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? Right, and so we do that in church
too. You'll notice in church that where we talked about this
week before last, and even last week, there are very clear biblical
qualifications for leadership. But because we want certain persons
in office, whether it's an individual who is popular to us, or whether
it's a woman, or whether it's a child, depending on the trend
we are following, If we are in a postmodern trend, a liberal
trend, where we don't really believe in the literal interpretation
of scripture, we trend towards what we just want, females in
leadership, because everybody else is doing it. At that point,
this is just a popularity contest. Has nothing to do with biblical
qualifications. Well, we like the way he talks.
Now you're raising him up because this is a popularity contest. It has nothing to do whether
or not that person squares with the Word of God. Am I making
some sense? Right. So right now in Acts chapter
15, you're going to see an interesting work of the spirit of God demonstrating
how Paul and Barnabas keenly understood the danger of losing
the gospel. And you and I are going to work
it through for the next hour, not only on an exegetical level
in the text, but I'm going to show you how if you and I are
not careful to guard the gospel of our salvation, we could lose
it too. If you and I are not careful
to guard the gospel of our salvation, we could lose it too. There are
a lot of factors that play into why people embrace Jesus and
run for a while and seem to be zealous for the cause of Christ
and over time begin to drift away and depart from the faith. And in some cases, and not too
infrequently, become altogether agnostic or atheistic. There
has been a trend over the last 50 years of what I call born
again atheist, where people have come out of the world into the
church, out of the church into atheism, where they have kind
of like, you know, ran in and hit the skid, it didn't stop,
just slid on all the way through the church, out the church, and
out of God and everything else. Into atheism, I'm being facetious
just to wake you up. But the point is, there was certain
things that occurred in their life, both on a theological and
on a practical level that led to those decisions. And so when
it comes to the gospel, if you think that you're gonna make
it into heaven without fighting for the faith once delivered
to the saints, without contending for it, you're deceived. Am I
making some sense? So I want us to work through
that tonight as we deal with our second and third and fourth
points. Um, under point number two, defending
the freedom of the gospel, defending the freedom of the gospel. We
look at how the argument was laid out by the apostle Paul
that we are saved by faith apart from works, Galatians 2, 16 through
21. Don't go there, but he argued
to the Galatian church because the Galatian church is the context
in which Acts 15 is working itself out. We know that a man is justified
by faith in Jesus Christ apart from the works of the law. That
was his conclusion. And this is the battle that he
fought. And then secondly, Paul's duty to vigorously protect the
gospel. And we closed last week dealing
with Philippians chapter 1, 7, where he says he was called by
God to both the defense and confirmation of the gospel. And we dealt with
those two terms, defense and confirmation. Apologia is the
term for defense. The other term for confirmation
means to strengthen the gospel. The task of the preacher and
the teacher is to defend the gospel. This is where we get
our term apologetics. Apologetics is when you defend
the specifics of the gospel against charges against it and then confirmation
is when you teach the gospel repetitively enough for people
to get it, to get grounded in it, to grow up in it, and to
be able to live it out as their hope for glory. That's an arduous
work. That's an arduous work. And I
shared with you last week what it looks like when you are confirming
the gospel is this. It looks like teaching and preaching
the essential truths the gospel of the person and work of Jesus
Christ repetitively enough to where you almost are in danger
of getting tired of hearing it. What does it mean to confirm
something that is essential and true is to teach it over and
over and over and over and over again to the point where you
almost are in danger of getting tired of it not knowing that
it's designed to anchor you in Christ when the storm comes.
So I'll have you to pull up Philippians chapter 3 verse 3 to give you
an example and then we'll go back and work through the subtleties
of apostasy from the gospel so we all can see it. So what will
happen is and actually pull up verse 1. I'm going to go through
verses 1, 2, and 3. What will happen is and this is a mystery. The gospel will come in all of
its joy, all of its wonder, all of its amazement because the
proposition that God manifests his love in such a way that he
gave his son to suffer for the redemption of our eternal souls
is an amazing proposition that blows away real sinners. And
then when you understand the implications of it for your salvation,
it becomes almost unbelievable. And so Peter calls it the unspeakable
gift It's just something you cannot actually really fully
grasp on an intellectual level, but because faith is present
when the gospel is preached, you believe it and you rejoice
in it, even though it's hard to get your head around it fully,
what God did to save your soul. So now here's how Paul lays out
the argument in the same book, Philippians, around what we mean
by confirming something. When you confirm something, you
establish it and then you build bulwarks around it to strengthen
it. You build pillars around it to
strengthen it. And you look at what's happening
and you see that the core reality or foundation is there. And whatever
that person or people are doing is reinforcing that foundation.
They are not presuming upon the foundation to build other stuff
around it. They are reinforcing that foundation.
And this is why Jesus said in Matthew 7, I will liken the wise
man is the one who hears my word and does it as one that builds
his house upon a rock. And that's the foundation. He
builds his house upon a rock. And so it takes him more time
to lay the foundation than it does to build a house. Others,
because they want to get into the superficiality of appearance,
and they want the accolades of others as to how the house looks,
will build their house on sand but to do so is to be caught
up in the temporary fleeting accolade of people saying, you
look good. But because there's no foundation
there, when the storm comes, not if, but when the house will
be knocked down and that individual will be exposed as to not having
a foundation, just a superstructure, just an appearance of Christianity.
And so here's what Paul says in verse one, finally, my brethren,
Rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you to me
indeed is not grievous, but for you it is what? Notice what he
says for me to write the same things to you is not a burdensome
issue, but for you it is actually salvation For you to hear the
gospel over and over and over and over again is your safety
Is your safety? This is how Paul puts in verse
2 Cause this actually, this text is going to correlate to where
we are. Cause these are the same people that Paul is dealing with
here in Philippians three, that he's dealing with in Galatians,
that he's dealing with in Acts 15. Watch this. Beware of what?
Right. Beware of evil workers and beware
of concision. This is a Hebrew triad coming
out of Paul's mouth. He's talking about one group
of people using three metaphors. Dogs are understood by the Jews
as unclean people. But Paul is using a reverse motif
because he's not talking about the Gentiles as the Jews would
think. He's talking about the Judaizers
who are now in this position of dogs because they have rejected
the pure gospel. And then he calls them explicitly
evil workers, which means he's adopting the prophetic terminology
of Jesus because Jesus constantly call those in his generation,
evil workers, you workers of iniquity. Paul knows what he's
doing here, and then he finally closes, beware of the what? And
this is what we call a contracted expression of the word what?
Circumcision. So who is he talking about? The
same people. He says, beware of them, beware
of evil workers, beware of the concision. So he's using very
alarming language, alarming language, about people who apart from this
warning would not appear to be dangerous. Statement, the legalist
or the religionist who comes to you with the proposition that
you are saved if you do these things will always appear nice. They will never come off as appearing
to be dogs, ravening dogs, or evil workers, people with an
overtly maniacal objective, or the concisioners. And when he
uses the term concision, he's using an epithet that basically
makes you and I think about mutilation, wanting to cut the flesh. That's
the whole book of Galatians to, if you believe it or not. Now
watch verse three so we can go back to our text. Verse three
now. Here's what he says in verse three. For we are the circumcision,
see it? Watch this, which worship God
in the what? And we rejoice in who? And we have no confidence
in the what? Now that there is the standard
of gospel truth by which we all ought to understand where our
confidence lies. We are a spiritual circumcision
not circumcised in the flesh, but circumcised in the heart
by the spirit of God. And our confidence is in God
through Christ. And we put no hope in our flesh. That is what we do to get right
with God or who we are to be right with God. There are three,
three dangers that human beings face in the area of self-righteousness. It's the pride, grace and that's
an oxymoron a person can have a prideful view of grace because
if anything when grace is properly comprehended it should humble
you but when you have a prideful view of grace you now bring grace
into captivity and make it a slave of your own agenda and it's actually
going to be a system of legalism Okay? So the Judaizers are bringing
grace in the captivity and telling the Gentiles they can't have
it unless they act like Jews. Pride of grace. And here's the
second one closely attached to it. Pride of race. Pride of race. See, the Jews don't want to give
up their race. They can't see disappearing as
a people group for the glory of God and the salvation of the
world. So they're gonna capture grace through the pride of race
and the other one is a human superficial thing But it works
all through the scriptures and it's called the pride of face
That is boasting in the appearances of men Being enamored by the
flesh Remember King Saul is head and shoulders above the rest
a very handsome man. And when they looked upon him,
they were totally taken You guys got that? Pride of grace, pride
of faith, pride of race. All these things will cause you
to depart from the gospel. It's an amazing thing how the
enemy works to cause your hope in Christ to shift from the pure
gospel, which is spiritual in nature, to something seen. See,
circumcision in the flesh is something you can see. And good
works as the basis for salvation is something you can see. And
an individual who blows you away, who enamors you because of his
beauty or her beauty or splendor is something you can see. And
all of that is a pseudo gospel. It's a false gospel. Are you
guys hearing me? So if you don't know, if you don't understand
that the criterion for the true gospel is really rooted in things
not seen, then you're going to be hoodwinked by what you see.
Because faith comes by hearing, and faith is the substance of
things what? The evidence of what? So unless you have a spiritual
sense of discernment, unless your plumb line, unless your
litmus test, unless your capacity to weigh out and judge and determine
things are on a spiritual level, you're going to always be susceptible
to what you see and what you hear. So now let's go back to
work. Let's get back to our second
point so I can make my way into our third point, which is most
critical. The second point or outline defending the freedom
of the Gentiles Paul defends the gospel Vigorously and then
he warns in our third our third sub point watch this now a little
leaven what? Will love in the hole up now,
here's the key to this is the thing that the enemy knows I'm
gonna show you in our text in Acts 15 the enemy knows that
the rule our method of incrementalism is the way you actually bring
anyone into captivity Like a dope dealer, he won't give you a pound
of cocaine, but he'll give you an ounce or half an ounce, just
enough to get you high. And he'll make that a complimentary
thing long enough to get you to where you are enjoying it.
But then it grows, doesn't it? And this is true for all of us
as a danger. Listen carefully to me because
we always, we all are liable to addiction. We all are liable
to addiction, even religious addiction. So I want you to get
this. We are all liable. So when the
enemy knows that weak point that you have towards a temptation,
he will not unload a truckload of stuff on you because that
would be too much. It will be overwhelming, but just enough
to lead you in, make you think you can handle that. Make you
think you can handle that. And what the Jews simply said
was, all we want you to do is be circumcised. Look at verse
1 of chapter 15 again. I'm going to show you what I
mean by this. And then we're going to look at Paul's argument
in Galatians. Look at Acts chapter 15 verse 1. Are we there? And
certain men, which came down from Judea, taught the brethren
and said, except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you
cannot be saved. So just get circumcised, man.
Just get circumcised. You're good to go. One act. You
got that? But now look at verse 5. Look at verse 5. but there rose
up certain of the sect of the Pharisees, which believed saying
that it was needful to circumcise them. And here we go to command
them to keep the law of Moses. See how they're adding on. Do
you see that they have added on? Well, they've got you at
the point of your conceding to circumcision as the grounds of
your justification. Because as soon as you accept
one imperative, one commandment, one precept of duty to add to
what Jesus did, you now got to add the whole thing. Because
your conscience does not know where to stop. If your conscience
is not completely settled on the finished work of Christ as
the grounds of your acceptance, once you start doing for acceptance,
you can't stop doing. Because once they get you to
buy into the validity of the legal system of Moses as a grounds
of justification, at one point, they can continue that on. And
this is how Catholicism built up its massive system of works
religion. And in all of your legalist churches,
they do the same thing. In our Pentecostal churches,
they're legalist churches. Very legalistic. They will not
settle for you accepting a predisposition of, uh, of the gift of the spirit
in the area of maybe glossolalia. But now after you have identified
with speaking in tongues, then you got to have a dress code
and then you got to follow this system and that system. And it
always comes with the caveat. You can lose your salvation.
That's a pure system of legalism. And this is why Peter said in
second Peter chapter three, they promise you liberty, but it always
leads to bondage because the basis of the salvation is rooted
in what you do. And this is why Paul said in
Galatians chapter five, let's go there so that you can see
it in Galatians five. Paul says, if you have departed from grace
back to circumcision, grace has done you no good. If you have
departed from the gospel, and have now adopted the system of
salvation through works, then Jesus Christ avails you nothing. Listen to what he says in verse
3, chapter 5, verse 3. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to the what? See
what he says? See, if you get circumcised,
now you are bound to the law system. Because circumcision
binds you to the law system. You don't get to just be circumcised.
Now, you've got to follow that thing all the way through. Do
you see it? Christ has become of what? No effect to you. Whosoever
you are that are justified by the law, you have fallen from
the gospel of grace. Now, I want you to follow the
logic because I'm going to share with you as we go into the inner workings
of departure from grace to works. I want you to understand that
when he says you have fallen from grace, he doesn't mean that
you had salvation and lost salvation. It means that you had the gospel
and lost the gospel. That you had a knowledge of the
gospel and you lost the only thing that could actually save
you, which was the gospel. And I'm gonna show you in a minute
that there are three things that can be taken from us when we
are not careful to contend for the faith once given unto the
saints. And so we read now in our outline,
our third point. And our third point falls under
this category, The testimony of God affirmed the testimony. Let me see here. Let me see.
How do I want to do this? Go with me to Acts chapter 15.
Let me see if I can make this make this work Yeah, I need to
do that Acts chapter 15 verse 3 and 4 the testimony of God
affirmed will quickly make our way through that and then false
brethren denying a gospel of free grace verse 3 and 4 says
this in chapter 15 It says now And being brought on
their way by the church, they passed through Phoenice, Samaria,
declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great
joy unto all the brethren. And when they were come to Jerusalem,
they were received of the church and the apostles and the elders,
and they declared all things that what God had done with them.
So I mark that simply to say that Point number three underscores
in verse three, three and four, that when Paul and Barnabas came
back, they had actually something to say to the Jerusalem church
about what God was doing. If you get sent on a journey,
if you get called out on a mission and you get, uh, you, you, you
are called to actually come back and give an account as to your
journey. If God was with you in that journey,
you should be able to bring evidence back that God was working. Right?
And so all I'm saying here is that what Paul and Barnabas are
not going to be doing is arguing intellectually around the gospel. They will be arguing that God
was with them mightily in the salvation of the Gentiles. And
then from the standpoint of God being with them, they are going
to then work on the grounds upon which why God was so pleased
to save the Gentiles is the gospel that they preach. So under the
testimony of God affirmed, two things I want you to get. Paul
was sent of God, was he not? That's really simple Acts chapter
9 verse 2. That's where God had plainly told Paul I'm sending
you to the Gentiles and to the Jews and to Kings and I'll be
with you and you're gonna suffer for my namesake and Then secondly
and God was also what with them God also went Several verses
to underscore that and you see the concept of synergism there
This is where Paul would frequently talk about in the scriptures
how God mightily worked through him As a biography, as a sort
of autobiography, I'm always amazed at Paul being willing
to admit how God worked through him. Now think about that statement
for a moment. You are able to tell people concretely,
God was with you and God was working through you. When you
make that statement, you need no other credible witness to
bear with you. If in fact that's true, The evidence
will be there, wouldn't it? Now, I just want to share with
you a few verses around that. The first one is in Galatians
chapter 2, 8, where Paul is going to authenticate his own ministry
to the Jewish church that he is here debating. In Galatians
chapter 2, 8, listen to how Paul uses his language. And actually,
if you were to do a study of the apostle all through the scriptures,
you would find him constantly having to actually Affirm the
fact that God had raised him up as an apostle because he just
was never Accepted by the brethren in Galatians chapter 2 verse
7 and 8 listen to how Paul puts it But contrary wise, when they
saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me as the
gospel of the circumcision was committed unto Peter, for he
that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision,
the same was mighty in me towards who? Now notice how Paul is using
the language. God worked mightily through me.
I mean, you know, it's almost like patting yourself on your
back. It's almost like, you know, giving yourself credit. And Paul
does that frequently because apparently, ladies and gentlemen,
just on a personal level of camaraderie with his Jewish brethren, they
always question Paul. Here's another one. First Corinthians
chapter 15, verse 10. Just want you to see a few. First
Corinthians chapter 15, verse 10. God was with Paul. Let me
show you a few things. Here it is. But by the grace
of God, I am what I am. Is that true for all of us as
Christians? Watch this. And his grace which was bestowed
upon me was not in what? What is he arguing for here?
Evidence. He's saying I have the evidence.
God didn't bestow his grace upon me in vain. I'm not somebody
that's just talking. I can show you the proof of his
supernatural power working through me. It's amazing. And now watch this. But I labored
more abundantly than they all. Isn't that wild? Now again, I
want you to mark this this is the area where I'm building my
ethic around why? Believers ought never to settle
for the assumption that they're merely saved by grace without
any kind of works following Because that would be a faulty grace
Here's what Paul was able to do. Not only was he able to affirm
that grace works But God's grace worked in a way that it excelled
all the other apostles Is that what it's saying? I lost this
Do you see how that statement could trigger in your mind and
mine a real pushback against Paul or anyone if you thought
that they were boasting in themselves? In other words, if you heard
me say that about any of the colleagues and men that I labor
in the cause of the gospel, if I were to simply say, but I labored
more than they all, you might think Pastor Jesse just lost
his mind, but that's holy writ. And you know what Paul is simply
saying? I was very keenly aware of what God was doing with me.
And when I look out over the labors of the other men, they
have not done what I have done by the power of God. And he's
just being honest. See, there's nothing wrong with
being honest. If it's true, it's true, isn't it? If it's true,
it's true. Now, notice what he says. But I labored more abundantly
than they all yet not I but the grace of God which was what? See Paul from day one was absolutely
amazed at the grace of God Because it was with him Every time he
turned around God was kicking doors in through him Saving people
creating controversy Getting glory for his name now mind you
This wasn't Paul ascending in popularity as some type of magnificent
rock star preacher. He's going to jail. He's being
beat. He's being ridiculed. He's being
tortured. And yet what he's saying is the
thing that kept him on point was his recognition of the power
of God's grace in his life every day. Do you see it? Right. What we don't ever do
at Grace as we teach is divorce the trouble that comes with the
honor of serving God. Because you have a false gospel
if you do that. You're going to always have trouble when you
cash your lot with Jesus. Like the brothers that cashed
their lot with David, trouble. When you cash your lot with God,
the true and the living God, you're going to have trouble
in this life. But what God does to offset the trouble is to bring
in the supply of grace To show you that he's with you in that
trouble and that your trouble is redemptive in nature It has
a purpose behind it and your job is to be able to rejoice
in the presence and purpose of God in your trouble Easier said
than done But this is what Paul is doing So the testimony of
God is affirmed in Paul's life, I can share with you more. I
want to go to point number four to get back to our essential
thought tonight. Our thought is around the necessity
of being able to defend the gospel because to defend the gospel
is to defend your only hope for salvation. And that goes back
to Acts chapter 15, verse five now. But there rose up certain
of the sect of the Pharisees with believing said that it was
needful for them to be circumcised and to keep the commandments
Moses and the Apostles and elders came together for the consider
of this matter and when there had been much Disputing do you
see that? I told you that last time and
that's the verse of it when there had been much disputing. What
do you mean disputing? They were disputing they were
debating They were arguing They were arguing They were going
back and forth They were contending for the claims of the gospel,
contending. They were striving is another
way the word goes, striving for the truth. Sometimes the truth
has to be strove for. Sometimes you have to just fight
for it. But again, this gets into our own personal ethic around,
is the gospel worth you? You know, well, how do you put
it? Um, the colloquialism is, you
know, I don't want to spoil your party. How do you put it? I don't
want to put a damper on your party. I don't want to rain on
your party. Y'all can talk up. I mean, this
ain't church. I don't want to parade on your party. That's
what you said. I don't want to rain on your
parade. There you go. So think about that. If we always
avoid the controversy, then we have to question whether or not
the gospel is precious to us. And then we also have to question
whether or not the souls that are in front of us are precious
to us too. If I know I'm going to offend
you by telling you, you got the gospel wrong, sir or ma'am, I
have to determine whether my offending you is less or more
important than you ending up in hell because I've decided
to avoid the controversy. Are you hearing me? Right, right. And this is the whole issue around
where they are right here. And this is true for you and
me. Now we're not getting into how you deliver it. What we're
getting in is, is, is, is, is into the issue of does God actually
put you and me in circumstances where we really should have talked
up, spoke up. I know he does, but the gospel isn't as important
to us, nor that eternity bound soul. And we let them have a
pass. And we know they're talking foolish.
We know they're talking foolish. See, once you start down that
pattern, you won't have any strength anywhere, because your conscience
is going to say to you, if you didn't do it here, why should
you do it here? If you didn't do it last week,
why should you do it this week? And all that happens when you
and I are not really taking heed to what the scriptures teach.
So the scriptures are giving us a model of the importance
of letting people know when they are on a wrong path around the
gospel and how important it is. Sometimes you're standing up
for the gospel in the context of your family or your coworkers
or others is really about preserving your own soul, right? Because there are seasons when
you need situations to rise up to prove that you actually still
have the gospel. Because we're getting ready to
get into the fact that you can lose the gospel in its own right,
and you can lose the gospel in your heart. In other words, you
can intellectually know the gospel, but your heart has now been separated
from the gospel so that you lose it in heart. You are no longer
committed to the gospel. Are you hearing me? And then
finally, you can lose your life as well. when you and I are not
aware that the gospel is something that should be treasured and
guarded. Point number four, look at point number four, false brethren
denying a free grace gospel. So when I said in verse five,
when we looked in verse five and saw that they finally not
only said that you need to be circumcised, but you need to
keep the whole law, you can put right by that verse, false brethren. These are false brethren, because
notice what it says. there arose certain of the sect
of the Pharisees, which what? Believed. Right, and this is
why we say be careful about the term believing. What are they
believing? Could they be believing the gospel
of free grace? No. Why? Because they're putting
conditions on it, aren't they? So then there is a kind of believing
that is general in nature that really does not constitute true
saving faith. It's the believing that comes
with identifying with the group or being part of the trend of
the moment, but not in reality believing to the saving of your
soul. Now, does the scripture make those categories? Of course
they do. Think about it for a moment.
In the parable of the sword and the seed, the Lord Jesus says
the seed is sown on the wayside. It doesn't even get planted in
people's heart. The birds of the air come and swoop down,
eat the seed, it doesn't even go in. But some of it falls on shallow
ground. And they, hearing the word, rejoice
and believe for a while. But as soon as trials come, boom,
they fall away, right? So that's what we call a temporary
believing that had actually no root at all. They were not saved. It's just that it was easy to
accept those propositions while there was no challenge to your
life around them. There was no challenge. Like
the Judaizers are a perfect example of it, as we're gonna see. What
does it mean to truly believe? And so when I say that these
guys are called false, what? Brethren. So if we call a person
a brother in a religious sense, we are asserting that they at
least ostensibly say they what? Believe. But the moment that
we call them false, we are saying that they are not true believers,
aren't we? And so I'm going to show you
that in Galatians chapter two, where the apostle Paul actually
identified these Judaizers as false brethren. Go with me to
Galatians chapter one, because under false brethren denying
a free grace gospel, there are two sub points. Circumcision
and law keeping is another gospel. Circumcision and law keeping
is another gospel. So this is how Paul opens up
the book of Galatians around this whole, this very issue and
controversy that we're dealing with. Now listen to the stern
manner in which Paul opens up his discourse around it. He says
in Galatians chapter one, verse six, are you there? I marvel
that you are so soon removed. See the imagery that he's using?
Removed. You have been displaced. You
have been taken away from the space and ground and standing
of the gospel. I'm so, I marvel that you are
so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of
Christ into a what? Now the another gospel term here
goes back to Acts chapter 15 verse five. How are you saved? Believe Jesus, be circumcised,
keep the law. It's another gospel. You see
what Paul is saying? He opens up his epistle, laying
out the gauntlet and establishing the argument very clearly at
the front, right? He's not making room for the
gospel plus. He's immediately saying everyone
who holds to the gospel plus holds to another gospel. Now the implications of that
statement are going to press themselves home on you and me
every day. Because every time you meet someone who says they
are a Christian, you get a chance to determine whether they have
the true gospel or another gospel. Right? And you have to determine
whether or not you're going to let them know, hey, I'm sorry,
that's not the true gospel. If it's grace plus, it's not
the true gospel. Now watch how the language works,
which is not another. Again, this is a rhetorical device. What is he saying? There's no
other gospel. There's only one gospel When we say you have another
gospel, we're saying that you don't have the gospel Listen
to it But there be some that trouble you who would what pervert
the gospel of grace see how he lays out the argument Are you
guys tracking with me now? and then listen to what he says
in verses 8 9 and this is where I've told you that that in the
new testament church where contrary to what you hear in the evangelical
culture that the new testament church has anathemas just like
the old testament church did The notion that God is just free
to love us and we can do whatever we want to do, as if there are
no very clear excommunication principles in the Word of God,
is alien to Scripture. God's just saying yesterday,
today, and forevermore. And just like in the Old Testament,
He laid out the conditions for eternal damnation, here's another
condition for eternal damnation. If you depart from the true gospel
and adopt a perverted gospel, you are anathema. You guys follow
that it's very clear watch how the language works itself out
in verse 8 But though we are an angel from heaven preach another
any other gospel unto you Than that which we have preached unto
you. Let him be what? Let him be accursed now See what
Paul said Paul said there's a curse in the gospel Just like there
was a curse in the law. In the law, you read Deuteronomy
chapter 8, Deuteronomy 29. Here I set before you life and
death. In the gospel too. There's no
difference in terms of God. When God lays out the plan for
salvation, whether the Old Testament or the New, He lays out also
the parameters and boundaries. You break those boundaries, you
go to hell. It's just logic though, isn't
it logic? If God tells you how we are to be saved and then you
say, no, Lord, I want to add something to it. You know what
we're saying to hell with God. And what God is saying is to
hell with you. Do you think you're going to
add something to my work that I did through my son to save
your soul? You're going to tell me what
I did was not enough to hell with you. Are you hearing it? That's how
God is. Think about in that logical.
Come on, let's get logical now I think when we get removed from
the personhood of God, then we are more susceptible to compromise
But if I gave my son for your soul and then you come along
and say well, you know what? I appreciate that but that wasn't quite enough
to hell with you You got that that's how serious
the gospel is That's how serious the gospel is Cause see, we are
fronting on God at that point. We're telling God to hell with
your, your son's death is not enough. God is saying, okay,
you're on your own buddy. Listen to verse nine. As we said
before, so Satan, I now again, if any man preach any other gospel
unto you, then that you have received, let him be anathema
twice. And this is even before Paul
gets into the argument. Can I tell you what Paul is saying
at the opening of his argument with his Galatian brethren around
Judaism? He's letting his Galatian brethren
know, don't expect me to compromise by chapter six. I'm gonna let you know right
up front, there is no room for compromise in my debate. As I discuss the terms of the
gospel over these next six chapters, here's what you can know. There
won't be a softening somewhere down the line. You won't find
me adjusting my gospel to make room for the Judaizers. Up front,
I'm letting you know they're on their way to hell. And when
he closes chapter 6, it amounts to the same thing. That's a person
that knows their gospel. That's a person that knows their
God. Are you hearing me? Where they go to debate, they're
not going to debate whether or not they, if the other person
is more intellectually sharp than them, that they're going
to give up their gospel. They already know that it's either
their gospel or no gospel. They already know that. See,
technically, if a brother come to you that way, you really don't
even have grounds to debate with him. Because he's letting you
know up front, he's not compromising. He is committed to his gospel.
There's no way you're gonna argue him out of his position. The more you try to impose your
views, the more you strengthen his argument against you. That's
all you do. The more you say, but, but, but,
but, but, the more you strengthen his argument against you. So
now the final one is in verse 10. And this is an interesting
concept. And this actually gets into why
we argue for sola scripture instead of sola papa, sola episcopate,
sola bishops, sola apostles. Do you guys follow me? This verse
is the reason why we don't fall down before men, men kiss their
rings, kiss their hands, kiss their feet and bow before them
as if they are infallible and speak ex cathedra. Here's the
reason why. Here's what, listen to what the verse says. For do
I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please men? For
if I yet please men, I should not be the servant of God. Look
at, let me see here. Yeah, verse 11, here it is. Nope, I didn't, nope, I need
to go back. No, it's verse eight, I'm sorry.
Going back to verse eight. Paul's now getting ready to get into
his argument. And this becomes a personal debate. Verse eight,
are you there? But though we are an angel from
heaven, Preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have
preached unto you. Let him be what? but though we
Or an angel from heaven What Paul is doing Paul is saying
challenge the instrumental means by which that gospel is coming
Don't simply succumb to the instrument We have the essential means we
have the effectual means then we have the instrumental means
the essential means is God He is an essential means of our
salvation The effectual means is the atoning work of Jesus
Christ. If it wasn't for Christ's work, we wouldn't be saved. The
instrumental means is the preaching of the gospel through men. That's
the instrument. So you hear the gospel through
a person, but you get to challenge that person when you actually
understand the gospel. Here's what Paul is saying, and
this is true. Here's what he's saying. I can actually preach
the truth of the gospel to you today. And that truth will always
be the truth. Even though tomorrow I come to
you saying I got a new revelation from God and your job is to reject
me because I'm changing the gospel today. Are you hearing what I'm
saying? This underscores the rule of
solar scripture. The scriptures alone are our
authority. In other words, if you buy into
the infallibility and the powers of inspiration that are inherent
in new bishops and new apostles and new prophets, they can actually
change the word of God. Because the prophets were able
to modify revelation as it came throughout history, were they
not? Old Testament, you were under the law to circumcise,
you were under the law to offer sacrifices, you were under the
law to burn incense, you were under the law to do a bunch of
things. New Testament prophets come along, those things are
done away in Christ. You heard that from a prophet.
You heard that from an apostle. And we now believe that because
we believe that those persons were of God, right? Now here's
what they said. Now, God having used us to speak
to you this revelation, You hold to this revelation over against
us. So that if we come back next
week with a new revelation, you reject us. And this is how the
church has been able to stand on the gospel for the last thousand
years, because we take, took the scriptures and stood on the
scriptures versus on the whimsical fleeting traditions of men, which
one day we say one thing, the next day we say something else.
Is that true? Right. So the authority of scripture,
thy word is forever settled in heaven becomes a criterion upon
which now we judge all matters of faith and doctrine. All right,
then let me move on to my fifth point for tonight. We'll work
through this and this is where we're going to get into some
touchy stuff. Peter, the pillar bearing record to Paul. Do you
guys see that? Going back to Acts 15, this is
where we'll wind it down. And if you have some questions,
I don't mind answering them. I don't want you to be passive
listeners. If you have some questions, we'll get into them. 15 minutes
from now Peter the pillar Speaking and bearing record for Paul.
I love this Here's how this begins to work over in verse 7 now when
there have been much disputing debating arguing contentions
Peter rose up that was the typical model right you stand up to speak
and And he said unto the men and brethren, you know how, you
know what I didn't do? I want to, I want to go back
and show you this one thing. Cause I made the argument, but I didn't
demonstrate it. Go with me back to Galatians chapter two. Cause
I just thought about this when I heard Peter say, brethren,
I want you to see where Paul makes a plane in Galatians chapter
two, verse four, that these Judaizers were false brother. Galatians
chapter two, verse four. I want you to see it because
I didn't want you to just take it by inference on my part. I want
you to see it for yourself that Paul, very clear that really
what he's dealing with are people who are in the camp who've gotten
the gospel wrong and They're called brethren But he knows
they are false brethren Why does he know that? because he knows
that Judas Iscariot was among the 11th and that Cora Dathan
and a Byron were among the priesthood and That false prophets have
always been in the church Are you guys hearing me? Galatians
chapter 2 verse Verse 4 actually actually this will help me establish
something else. Let me read verses 1 through 4 because this actually
will get into Yeah, this will get into my sub points. This
is interesting He says then 14 years after I went up again to
Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me how many years
after? Right, you don't know 14 years after what but the context
is where we are in Acts 15 in Acts 15 where they are now going
up to Jerusalem to debate this issue. Paul has spent 15 years
in ministry. So when you start in Acts 9 and
get to Acts 15, 15 years have transpired. You guys got that
now, the chronology? Because sometimes when you don't
have a sense of the chronology in scripture, you won't understand
all of the nuances that went in because you're not clear on
the chronology. So let's mark this. 15 years is a good period
of time, isn't it? A whole lot of stuff has gone
on in your life over the last 15 years. Think about what is
going on in your life over the last 15 years. Think about the
transformation of your own faith over 15 years. Think about the
struggles you have gone through in your faith over 15 years.
Am I making some sense? So, so where Paul is now, he's
dealing with 15 years the church having already been told the
priest the gospel Paul being commissioned Gentiles being saved
and now they're in Jerusalem and we're gonna see and you guys
are gonna be able to affirm this in a moment that time is either
our friend or our enemy time is either your friend or your
enemy either from the last 15 years
ago to now, for you and me, we have drawn closer to God, or
today we are further away from God than we have been. Do you guys follow that? And this is the thing that Christ
has plainly laid out in the word of God and so have the prophets.
That's the parable of the sorn of seed. And some fall away. Over a span of time, You and
I watched people who started but didn't finish. You and I've
watched people who were hot, white hot for God at the start,
who cooled down and begin to distance themselves. And in many
cases, we've seen people depart from the faith over a 15 year
period. Is that true? Right. And that's
just part of the nature of the kingdom. Remember sharing this
years ago and I'll share it now just with you so that you aren't
under the false assumption that You know just because you're
okay today Don't mean you're gonna be okay tomorrow If you
and I don't strive It's very possible that you could be distant
from God tomorrow Am I telling the truth watch this so I remember
when I was 15 years old and thought I knew everything You know how
a 15-year-old knows everything. We know everything. Mama and
Daddy, you don't even need to talk to me. You're blessed to
have me. Right? I mean, you know, you're
blessed to have me. You know how our kids get crazy like that?
Oh, OK. So all of a sudden, you the guru
in the house. And I took my first driver's
class, driver's training class under Mr. Lee. I remember it
vividly. Because Mr. Lee was a short Chinese brother
at Oakland High. And he brought us all in. And
the second class, he said, now, I'm going to let you guys watch
a film. It was called what? Red Asphalt. I'm dating myself. Am I dating myself? How many
of you guys saw Red Asphalt? See, at least 30% of you. Should
be 100. That's why many of y'all have
had more accidents than you should, because you didn't see Red Asphalt.
So they dragged us in there to watch Red Asphalt. And just for
you young people, Red Asphalt is a movie where a bunch of car
accidents happen and people all over the place, blood is on the
asphalt, okay? And the job is to help us understand
how serious driving is. And after the film, Mr. Lee got
up on the podium and he said to us, he do, he said, now I'm gonna let you
know now, At least 30% of you in here will have a car accident
in the first six months that you drive. We all said, no, you
crazy man. I can drive. It ain't going to
happen to me. And then he went through the
statistics. 10% of you going to have a serious
accident and some of you going to die. Did it happen? Of course it did. Of course it happened. Of course,
I saw guys when I was a teenager wrapped around telephone poles
who thought they could drive high. Of course I did. And repeatedly. Did I get into
a serious car accident the first year I drove? Of course I did.
Because I thought I knew how to drive. I thought, you know,
when the light is green for me and it's red for them, they automatically
gonna stop. Because I knew everything, right?
I learned that the red light didn't necessarily mean nothing.
And my car was demolished in seconds. And I barely got away
with my life at 15. And while I'm going through the
car accident, guess whose voice is coming to mind? Mr. Lee, Mr. Lee. And I learned lessons
right then and there about how you cannot replace wisdom and
experience as a teacher. There is no greater teacher than
wisdom and experience. Theory must always give way to
wisdom. And when Christ talks about many
people falling away from the faith, that is just common parlance
in the church. You see people here and you see
them gone. And the here gone doesn't have
anything to do with geography. It has everything to do with
the heart being drawn away by its own loss and enticements. Proverbs 29 one, pull it up,
show you what it says. And then we'll deal with, we'll
open up, uh, just a little bit of this and I'll come back next
week on this matter of, uh, the gospel going back to acts 15
after that. But listen to what it says. Um,
no, Proverbs 18 one, sorry, Proverbs 18 one. That's a good verse too,
but Proverbs 18 and 1 is what I want us to see. Here it is.
Through desire, a man having what? I want you to mark this. This is how we always get in
trouble. See that word desire? It's your lust. In the New Testament,
it's epithemia, your passions, your drives, your curiosities. Curiosity kills the what? Right. And so our lust will drive us
down paths and patterns that will separate us from the people
of God, separate us from God. That's how the devil always works.
He always gets you by yourself and starts separating you. And
separation is a clear indication when there's a break in fellowship.
Are you hearing me? Whenever there's a break in fellowship
anywhere, separation is there. When there's a break in fellowship
between you and God, there's a breach. You're separated. Now, that's the secret place.
Paul talks about that in 1 Timothy 5. We're getting ready to do
a leadership class, and one of the things we warn about is how
to determine when people are qualified for leadership. And
what Paul says in 1 Timothy 5 is, some men's sins go beforehand. That is, some people sin up front
and quickly because it's in their nature to be curious. So they
may come to church for a minute But really quickly they get diverted
to something else and you can see very obviously that they're
not committed to Christ other people's sins are slow and secret
and hid and don't come out until the judgment and The model of
that is Judas Iscariot Judas Iscariot did not come out until
the judgment of Christ He was with the disciples, but he was
separated from them You understand what I'm talking about? Something
had drawn him away in his heart, in the secret chambers of his
heart. And only until that crucial time where Christ was crucified
was he exposed. All the other disciples were
shocked because they thought he was in. And so the word of
God warns us about the heart drifting away. I'm just talking
about the subjective dynamics that go on in our own heart and
mind. I'm not actually talking about the mechanisms and methods
and wiles and strategies of the devil yet. I won't do that till
next week. But what I do know you are aware
of now is that this proverb is very valid. Through desire of
men having separated himself, seeking to enter metal with all
forms of wisdom. A new thing. A new idea. A new concept. A new doctrine. new teaching
a new theory you guys see that right that's the battle we all
face because the devil is throwing out all kinds of propositions
all the time and it's designed to test whether or not we actually
know the gospel and have the gospel and whether or not the
gospel has us and I tell people this all the
time it's not enough for you to have the gospel The gospel
has to have you. You have to discover how the
gospel keeps you. Are you hearing me? Very, very
important. Acts chapter 15 then. Let's look
at this briefly for five minutes and then I'll open the floor
for questions. We'll close. This is under Peter, the pillar bearing
record to Paul verses seven and 11 through 11. And I'm going
to actually deal with verse eight and nine. Starting starting again
at verse 7 and when there had been much disputing Peter rose
up and said unto them men and brethren You know how that a
good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by
my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and what and God
which knows the hearts bear them record giving them the Holy Ghost
even as he did unto us and he put no difference between us
and them purifying their hearts by what and So it's like right
there, the argument and disputations should have stopped because what
Peter clearly did was echo what Paul said in his own experience,
didn't he? What Peter said was, you guys
know. Notice what he says? He says,
men and brethren, you know how that good while ago God made
choice among us. that the Gentiles by my mouth
should hear the word of the gospel and what So there's three things
going on here that Peter is doing Go back to verse 8 Peter is saying
to the people in the room, you know already You already know
that God had a plan to save the Gentiles because Christ gave
me the key to open the door Peter opened the door at Pentecost
and He opened the door to the Gentiles in Acts 10 when Cornelius
and his band sent for him. And Peter struggled with the
same group of brethren back in chapter 10, letting them know
that I couldn't look. God told me to preach the gospel
to the Gentiles. Remember that? We were there
just six months ago. And I want you to see what's
going on. He says, and God, you're at verse eight, go back to verse
seven. And God, Told me to bring the gospel to the gentiles and
this is just this is a very important point because peter now has to
stand up Say to the brethren what paul is saying when peter
said this a while back Men and brethren, you know how that god
how that a good while ago god made choice among us That the
gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel God did
that didn't he? Remember in Acts chapter 10,
the Judaizers jumped on Peter and said, hey, I heard that you
were eating with Gentiles. You went to Gentiles houses.
And Peter says, what could I, that I should withstand God?
Remember that? All I did was preach the word. And while I'm preaching the word,
the spirit of God was working. So what do we say? Faith comes
by what? And hearing by what? And so the
evidence that they had actually become believers was that God
had given them Gentiles the gift of speaking in languages They
were speaking. They weren't taught. They weren't
they weren't cuddled. They didn't nobody said repeat
after me boom The gift manifested itself did it not and it was
for those Jews that were standing around and who really couldn't
believe that God would save Gentiles with the same radical way in
which he saved Jews. Now, Peter is a witness for God
and Peter got to go back and tell his Jewish brethren something
that he knew that they weren't really ready for. And so here
in this account, Peter is standing up saying, brethren did not tell
you this long while ago. You guys see that? I told you
this long while ago. Now, this is what's so interesting
about what's being said. I really want to develop verses
7 and 8 on a more theological level, but I'm going to stay
right here now and deal with the two sub points, three sub
points under our PowerPoint, PowerPoint number five, just
briefly. Then I'll come back and work this through next week.
Time can be a friend or what? Peter said long while ago. I
told you, right? Long while ago. How long ago?
It was longer than 15 years ago. Long while ago, you guys heard
that God had appointed me to open the door to the Gentiles.
So you see what I mean by what can happen over 15 years? So
15 years ago, God saved Paul. God's using Paul and Peter. Peter
opens the door to the Gentiles. The Jews have heard this, but
the Jews have not lined themselves up with the will of God. They
still somehow believe that in order for Gentiles to be authentically
saved, they got to come into Judaism. But they were told that
they were authentically saved 15 years ago. And over this 15
year period, what we are seeing is how people can lose the gospel. You can lose the gospel. And
then find yourself talking like you were before you actually
received the gospel. See, now the context which we
are in now is the book of Hebrews. Now the book of Hebrews emerges,
is that right? Because the book of Hebrews is all about do not
turn back. Brethren, do not let an evil
heart of unbelief cause you not to enter into his rest. Remember
the Hebrew writer is laboring to tell his Jewish brethren that
the sufficiency of Christ is all you need. Do not go back
to Moses. That's the whole book. But this
15 year period is exposing how, and this is the other thing that
I see remarkable, and I'm going to stop right here, and this
is why you got to guard your heart. This is the thing that I'm observing.
I'm observing that if you and I don't consistently labor to
pay attention to the gospel. It's defensive nature, it's apologetic
nature, and it's work of confirming the grace of God in our soul.
Here's a sociological and a psychological phenomenon. I'm gonna share this
with you. If you started in legalism, if
you started in false religion, If you don't affirm an authentic
walk with God in Christ through the gospel, you will end up back
in legalism. You will go back to the church
you were born in or the system you started in because the powers
of nature are greater than anything when the power of grace isn't
there to change you radically. Are you hearing me? So you will
see people who will be in the evangelical church for years,
but will have lost the gospel intellectually because the cares
of this life will have taken their heart. And in losing the
gospel intellectually, they lose it in their heart, no heart allegiance
to it. And you know what happens when
you start meeting brothers and sisters who lose heart allegiance
to the gospel? If they're honest with you, you
know what they start to do? Debate you around the gospel,
around grace, around the exclusive claims of the gospel. See, what
you're starting to see is that their heart has been removed
from the allegiance to the gospel. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? The very things that you used to both adhere to, Ostensibly,
if you were taught in a solid church, the Bible alone, faith
alone, grace alone, Christ alone, the sufficiency of God's word
alone. And now all of a sudden they're questioning the veracity,
authenticity, inerrancy, infallibility of scripture. Now they're questioning
whether or not we're saved by grace. Now they're questioning
whether or not our salvation is secure based upon what Christ
did. They're questioning whether or
not you can actually be secure in your salvation. They're actually
questioning the exclusivity of salvation by Christ alone, opening
the door to the idea that all roads lead to glory. Can I get
a witness? Raise your hand, just to help
some of the folks in the room. Because see, people might think that
I'm just building a straw man argument. I am not. I've been
preaching and teaching this thing for a long time, and I see the
battlefront. you can hear the subtle slidings
into apostasy in the hearts of people over time when they start
raising these questions and they'll do it in private at first and
If they are actually being taught by someone And this is where
Paul said in Galatians chapter 5 verse 7 you did run. Well Who did hinder you? That you should not obey the
truth of the gospel. I Would that they were cut off
because he understood that some power now was compelling them
away from the gospel. Some power was compelling them
away. Are you guys hearing me? In the
secret chambers of their own heart, Proverbs 18, they allowed
themselves to be curious about something else and started committing
spiritual infidelity to Christ. Are you hearing me? and that
spiritual infidelity start leading them away from the gospel. And
the thing you do is you go through what I've been teaching for years
is the takeaway principle. That's Luke 18, 8, Luke 8, 18
rather. Take heed how you hear. For what
measure you hear, that will it be measured unto you. To him
that hath more shall be given. To him that hath not, even that
which he appears to have will be taken away. And when we get
back to our reward system, we'll be talking about how you can
lose your crown. Take heed that no man steal your
crown. Jesus uses his language even
in the book of Revelation. What is he saying? He's saying
that you cannot presume upon your salvation. You have to constantly
make your calling and election sure. You have to constantly
examine the claims of the gospel and then examine your own heart
in relationship to those claims. Am I making some sense? Any questions? Any questions? Going once Questions
going you better have a question Okay, so no question go all the
way back go all the way back to raise your hand If you got
a question way back way back because I don't want observations.
I need questions. I Know you got a lot to say we're
question mode people tired. They're ready to go home question
mode You got to put it to your mouth brother You got to put
it to your mouth Cause if you drop it down, like
it's a soda that you letting cool off or something, we won't
hear you. No, but what did he say? Don't, don't, don't give
me the apology. What did he say? Do you know what he said? Yeah.
What did he say? He said that homosexuals are
worse than animals. Okay. He said homosexuals are
worse than animals, right? Yeah. What else did he say? Um,
well he did cite in the Bible that, you know, they should be
killed. Uh huh. Um, You got anything else to say?
Cause I can speak to it. I'm just saying, cause you're
the lawyer. Now, you know, you need to build a case for him.
Well, I'm not building the case to support Manny Pacquiao. Okay.
You almost did. Didn't he? Didn't he come up
like his mother? All right. Cause see, I know, you know that
he used very wrong language, which indicated he knew nothing
about the gospel, which I always have been contending that Manny
never really knew the gospel. This is what I'm talking about.
You guys, When you talk about being a Christian, just because
you say you Christian doesn't mean you Christian. Just because
you say you Christian doesn't mean you got the gospel. Man,
he could be just a nut from another Christian cult. And he just, and he's, he's just
now exposing the fact that he knows nothing about grace and
about the transition from old covenant to new in terms of how
God deals with moral transgressions. And if he really knew grace and
was using this opportunity to actually deal with the sin issue,
what he should have said was the Old Testament law said stone
the homosexual and the adulterer and the fornicator and the drunkard
and the liar and the idolater and the children that rebel against
their parents. Right? And then what he should
have taught was New Testament theology, which says we are to
stone none of them. We are to warn all of them that
if they continue in these things and do not turn to the grace
of God in Christ, they will perish in their sins. He would have
then been preaching the gospel. But because of his ignorance
of the gospel, being caught up in some weird cult that he's
in, he didn't know how to exalt Christ. Christ was absent in
his teaching, which makes him the most heinous heretic in hell. Many, many do. Many, many of
God's elect do. And if you're God's elect, you
will finish well. But there are lots who don't. But how are you
tying that to Manny? Now, come on now. These people
tired and ready to go home. How are you tying that to Manny?
I don't know what he was trying to say. Okay, well good, good.
I won that argument. Me and him battling it out. What's
the next question? Anybody got another question up here? I'm
only going to ask you two more questions. While he's walking,
while Phil Donahue is walking around, let me kind of put this
caveat on Manny. Don't, for those of you who are
members of Grace, if God opens a platform for you to talk, if
you don't preach Christ, don't say you are part of Grace Bible
Church. Do you hear me? If you don't preach Christ, don't
say your pastor is Pastor Jesse Gisten. And I'm serious. Okay? Because the reason why the false
arguments and ad hominems and twisted and distorted logic prevails
in the secular world around Christianity is because we don't know how
to actually present the gospel. Manny totally messed up. But I know that's a consequence
of him not having been taught the gospel. He should have been
very clear that he is just as bad as the homosexual by nature. All have sin and continue to
come short of the glory of God. There's not a just man upon the
earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Right? And that becomes
the slate upon which Paul's argument in Romans three is God has concluded
them all under sin that he might have mercy upon all. Right? That's the gospel. That's the
gospel for him to jump on the homosexual thing is just to demonstrate
that he might have some secret private fetish. That's one. Okay. And then two is that he
just does not understand how heinous his own sin is. When I saw that clip for about
a second, I didn't even waste any time. I moved on to the next
thing. I said, that man is still lost. That's what I said to myself. He's still lost. There's no one
who actually knows the grace of God that would frame their
lips to make them appear to be more secure for heaven than the
homosexual. Do you guys hear what I just
stated? There's no one who knows the grace of God that would boast
themselves over against the homosexual as if somehow intrinsically they
are better and more secure. This man doesn't know the gospel. He's more in danger of hell than
the homo. You know, there's a hotter place in hell than those who
practice homosexuality. You know who it's for? False
prophets and false teachers. The hottest place of hell is
reserved for false prophets and false teachers. After that, lawyers
and politicians. What's our next question? Right. You got the mic? I got, I got
the mic here. Same thing. Same thing. The same
qualifying principle that that believing does not determine
that they are actually authentically God's people. Because it fundamentally
is arguing that they are temporarily embracing the propositions of
the gospel for their own benefit. But as you know, many of them
fell away. That's right. If you continue
in my word, then are you my disciples indeed and you shall know the
truth and the truth shall make you free. And that's a critical
point. If you don't have an ethic in your soul to continue in God's
word, you are in danger. It's not the one that starts,
it's the one that finishes. And that's what our brother was
talking about. It all depends on how knowledgeable
or ignorant they are of their own faith. Many people are nominal
Catholics and don't know anything about their own faith system.
And they are, you know, very distant from the Bible. And so
Bible terminology is very aloof to them. If they are asking the
question, what's the difference between Catholicism and Christianity?
No, it's they actually got, they have that history. The Catholic
church has that history in their own dogmas. That's in their own
history. They have that as part of, because
it's like this, they have where it's split off. That's right.
The Catholic church has not hit this. It's their membership that
doesn't know. So here's what I'm getting at.
If a person has gone to catechism in the Catholic Church and been
confirmed in the Catholic Church and thus taught in the Catholic
Church You are taught the reason why there is this big elephant
in the room called the Protestant Church Is because something in
the family happened several hundred years ago called the Hatfields
and the McCoy's right and the split basically amounted to us
condemning them because they believe in justification by faith
alone apart from works. That's Luther's argument. The 95 theses put on Wittenberg's
door and the debates that went on for several years, some decades.
And finally, there was a solid split between the reformers and
the Catholic church. So all one needs to do is Google
it and you can get those answers. Short order is not here. And
so the issue is not showing our Catholic friends
what Catholic doctrine teaches around justification by faith
plus works. They don't have a problem with
that. You understand that? Until you are born again, until
God gives you a quickening of your spirit to help you see the
danger of a grace plus works salvation, it makes sense to
you to work out your salvation by what you do. Because you don't
see yourself as a hopeless hell-bound sinner apart from grace alone. That's a revelation that God
has to bring to you. Again, in the tenets of Catholicism,
which is also in our evangelical church again. And the reality
is there's a lot of Catholicism in the evangelical church. So
in the evangelical church, we still believe in the inherent
goodness of men. But in Protestantism and in a
biblically based gospel church, man is not inherently good. He's
inherently evil and unable to save himself. But a church like
the Catholic Church and many of our Evangelical churches believe
that man has a spark of goodness by which he can reach out to
God and if he can get to God, God can help him and he can help
himself and they can work their way to heaven. There is no difference
then between the Catholic Church and the Evangelical Church on
those tenets. Are you guys hearing me? This
is Arminius' doctrine, Jacob James Arminius' doctrine of man
has the ability to reach out and choose God. And that was
the split right there. Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox
and others said you don't have the ability to choose God. So
that debate goes on in the Protestant church today because it has seeped
back in after 400 years. This is what I meant by the doctrine
long ago. over time the doctrines come
back in to the evangelical church. This is why you have people praying
the sinner's prayer and accepting Jesus into your heart and coming
up to the altar and doing stuff rather than discovering a work
of grace that God must do by which you say, I find myself
believing the gospel. This must be the work of God's
grace. So what I'm getting at is that you can actually show
them those arguments, but that really is not going to be the
point of change. Because even in the evangelical
church, there would be many who, and this is why you see a growing
return to Catholicism in the evangelical church. You guys
notice that? A growing return. And one of the things I've been
arguing for is the danger of our, and we'll deal with that
next week, our mystical paganism, our secular, and legalistic tendencies
in the church that necessarily will lead back to Catholicism
because when you abandon grace, you actually have to return back
to a works system. And when, once you abandon grace
intellectually and in the heart, the Catholic church system will
appeal to you because it's existential in nature. It's not a heart work,
really. It's do's and don'ts and rituals
and, you know, prayed or notters and hail Marys and confessions
and all that. Don't laugh because, again, that's
a dangerous thing. But people are compelled to do
that because they believe that they are meriting favor with
God by that. But to the degree that you do that every time you
do, you actually deny the sufficiency of the atonement for your salvation.
but only God can reveal that to you. Now, having said that,
let me say something else. This is why actually for you
who are part of grace, take all labels and set them aside. Take all denominational labels
and set them aside and deal with people as individuals. Are you
hearing me? Quickly remove the denominational
label issue Because people are on different spectrums of understanding
Both in the Protestant and the Catholic Church You will meet
people in the Catholic Church who are more Protestant than
Protestants are Who are clearer on justification by faith than
people in the Evangelical Church, are you hearing me? And you'll
go, okay, they're only Catholic in culture because that's the
way they grew up. But they have learned the true
gospel and they have, as it were, excised themselves from dependence
upon that system to dependence upon Christ. And many of them
will hold to sola scripture, sola fide, sola gloria, sola
Christos, and all of that, knowing that the Catholic church is wrong. Is that so hard to believe? Why? Because you got a whole lot of
folks who hope the church that they're in, which is jacked up,
gets right. And they know they're wrong theologically
in the evangelical church. We're jacked up in the evangelical
church and all kind of folks stay in their churches. So they're
dealing with split allegiances. And when you talk to them on
a personal level, you want to make sure you're dealing with
that individual. So you give credit where credit is due to
the degree that they understand the truth of the gospel where
they are. You can work with them. But see, when we politicize the
gospel, and what I mean by politicize the gospel is we group people
according to their denominations. We don't respect their individual
personhood. You're not going to be a good
witness or a good evangelist that way. Am I making some sense? Because see, what politics does
is it groups you as a Democrat, or Republican, or progressive,
or liberal, or black, or white, and they don't deal with you
as an individual. So how can a whole group adequately represent
you as an individual? You know there's a bunch of things
in your own ethnic group you don't like. Am I telling the
truth? Right. And so if you're going
to tag my black brothers with all of these demerits, understand,
I agree with you with a lot of them, but don't, don't just plot
that down on me. You better come get to know who
I am personally, personally, so that you can determine whether
or not I have some sense of autonomy as well as wisdom around the
matter of politics so that you don't just condemn me with the
whole group. Cause that's not fair. Am I telling the truth? That's not fair. So you as a
Christian don't go. Oh, there go that Pentecostal.
Well, at that point, you're a bigot. Oh, that's good to go to a Catholic. Assuming that they don't know
any Bible verses. They might know something in
the scriptures that you don't know. Am I making some sense? and the
next thing you know, you done opened your mouth, trying to
play the gatekeeper, and they done took the key from you. Be
very careful. Are we done with questions? Let's
stand and pray. Father, thank you for this time. Thank you
for my brothers and sisters. Thank you for bringing us to the weekend.
We thank God for Fridays, don't we? We sure enough do. And we
are so privileged to be able to study your word again, in
freedom without molestation, without hindrance and all of
that. And the thing that I would desire for every one of us here
to do is to take away from this study, the humility of walking
with you, the humility of it, because you give grace to the
humble. That's what you do. And we all need your grace to
be humble. So we're asking for it so that
we can actually be productive citizens in your kingdom and
actually be able to identify your people individually and
not condemn the righteous with the wicked. As we go our way,
give us traveling mercies, we pray. And have mercy on Manny,
he don't know. He just don't know. That knucklehead
doesn't know. We thank you that you're our
God of forgiveness and a God of grace, a God of correction
and chastisement. Help him get the gospel right.
And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.