Good morning. Our pastor Greg
is in Crossville, Tennessee this morning preaching for Donnie
Bell. We should we should pray for
him. Lord God, our father, Lord, we know that you are everywhere
where your people are gathered. You you walk among your candlesticks,
Lord, and you hold up your church and the power of your hand and
you bless the preaching. Please do that. with our pastor,
Greg, Lord, please do that here. We can't, we can't make this
a blessing, Lord, without you. We need your power and your grace. Please forgive us of our sins,
Lord, and turn our feet and our ears to hear what you have to
say. Please give me clarity, Lord,
and boldness in preaching, amen. Besides the words of scripture
themselves, the most encouraging thing I've ever heard about preaching
was from Greg. He said, just don't try to be
anybody or not. Don't try to be anybody else
and preach the gospel. It's that simple. This morning,
I have a message. about Acts chapter 15, where
it shows us so clearly the difference between tempting God by unbelief
or believing God, believing that by grace, God is able to save
his people. So let's go to Acts chapter 15.
We'll mostly be focusing on verses one and five, and then 10 and
11. Now, the first religious organization
I had ever been a part of was one that said that baptism is
necessary for salvation. I remember meeting with the man
wanting to be baptized myself and talking about that. We met
at a restaurant just down the road from a church and when we
were done, he joked, well, I hope you don't die. That's what he
said. This was a man who believed that
my salvation hinged on him baptizing me. I kind of thought to myself,
well, that's strange. The baptistry is right up the
road. Why can't we just go there? But behold the apathy that false
religion produces. You would think that they would
be the most zealous, but they're not. See, the false gospel is
unable to work love in someone's heart for their fellow man because
If you believe salvation is based on something you do, you're gonna
sit back with your arms folded and just wait and watch to see
if other people do what you did. What's worse, though, is that
a false gospel tempts God. It tempts God. When the glorious
gospel of God is preached, though, men either tempt God or they
believe it. There's no in-between. To tempt
It's like if I told a crowd of people, I have a feast ready,
a feast of fat things. Come, all things are ready. I've made a dinner party. You
don't need to bring anything at all. And then I hear one of
them turn to all the rest and say, actually, you do need to
bring something. That would be tempting me, testing
me to believe is as Abraham did in Romans chapter four, to believe
is to account that God, what God had promised, he's able also
to perform. That is faith. Let's read Acts
chapter 15, starting in verse one to 11. And certain men which
came down from Judea taught the brethren and said, except ye
be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved. When therefore Paul and Barnabas
had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that
Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them should go up to
Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders about this question. And
being brought on their way by the church, they passed through
Phenis and 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 of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things
that God had done with them. But there rose up certain of
the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it was
needful to circumcise them and to command them to keep the law
of Moses. And the apostles and elders came
together for to consider of this matter. 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 believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did
unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying
their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why tempt ye
God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither
our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that
through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved,
even as they. In verse one, we see, except ye,
except ye be saved, except ye. You cannot be saved. We'll come
back to that. So look at verse 10. Look at
verse 10 again. Why tempt you, God? by putting
a yoke over their neck. Why do you excite his anger?
Why do you invite his judgment? Since God decided that the Gentiles
would hear the gospel and believe in verse seven, since God gave
them the Holy Ghost in verse eight and purified their hearts
by faith. So why are you turning back to
the law? Why are you turning them to a
schoolmaster who can't give life and to the letter that kills
instead of the spirit that gives life? But now, verse 11, but we, but
we, there's a division here, we who have God's law written
in the fleshy tables of our heart, we who know that the law is a
yoke that we cannot bear, and we who have had the circumcision
made without hands, we believe that through the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. The word but here in verse
11 marks a division, a contrast between two groups and two eternities,
really. If God did not promise eternal
life before the foundation of the world, there would be no
but, and we would have our necks under that yoke, thinking that
we could bear it just like they were. But we. Let's go to Isaiah
chapter 50 quickly, if you would. Here we see the same thing in
the last verses of Isaiah chapter 50. Look at verse 10. Who is among
you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant,
that walketh in darkness and hath no light? Let him trust
in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God. Who is among you
who believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
you shall be saved? Stay upon your God. Don't be
moved away from the hope of the gospel. Let your soul delight
in God's son, his servant, in whom his soul delights. That's
what he's saying. But now look in verse 11, God
speaks to another group, those who say we are Moses' disciples.
Verse 11, behold, all you that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves
about with sparks, Walk in the light of your fire and in the
sparks that you have kindled. This shall you have of mine hand.
You shall lie down in sorrow." Is that not the heartbeat of
work salvation? Walking in the light of your
fire instead of the power of God who dwells in the light,
who is light. And surrounding yourself, covering
yourself with sparks of your own making. instead of the power
of God who kindles a love in our hearts for him, who's rescued
us from so great a death, who's delivered us. Trying to be accepted
by God by our own obedience is a yoke that we cannot bear. We
always wonder, is it good enough? Have I done enough? And then
you die and find out it wasn't. Our best deeds in the flesh are
like a flame that can be put out by the slightest wind. It's
like sparks rising up from a fire. They're there for a second and
then they disappear into thin air. That's our works. Like Isaiah
said, surely the people is grass and all flesh is grass and the
grass withers and the flower fades because the spirit of the
Lord blows upon it, our works. Outward obedience to God's law gives us whereof to glory before
men, but not before God, we'll lie down in sorrow. Outward obedience
to God's law will keep us from many snares and vices in this
life, and that's good, but we'll lie down in sorrow. God says
it must be perfect to be accepted. Our best attempts at obeying
God in the flesh are like a candle snuffed out. It's like a spark
that disappears. But the word of our God shall
stand forever. May we be those who trust in
the name of the Lord and stay upon our God. May we be those
who believe that by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved. Back to Acts chapter 15, please. Verse one, except ye be circumcised after
the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. I've never heard someone
these days saying you must be circumcised to be saved, but
I have heard the same thing. You must avoid death until I
baptize you. You must give your heart to Jesus.
Now this tempts God by saying that salvation is of him that
wills and of him that runs. It strikes at God's eternal purpose
to say that. It strikes at God's purpose in
creation, God's purpose in sin entering into the world, God's
purpose in the cross, the purpose of the spread of the gospel.
His purpose is to glorify his son. That is the purpose of everything
in this world. You don't have to turn there,
but in Colossians chapter one, we read that believers give thanks
to the father because he's made us fit, meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. And he's delivered
us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom
of his dear son. in whom we have, not except you
do this, you cannot have, no, in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins. And this one who is our
inheritance, our king, is the very image of the invisible God,
the firstborn, the highest rank over every creature, for by him
all things were created, the things that you can see and the
things you can't see. and he is before all things,
and by him the universe stays intact. The high and lofty one
that inhabits eternity, yet is he not very far from each one
of us? And Jesus Christ, it goes on
to say, is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead. The firstborn, the reason we're
given spiritual life, the reason we rise from our death in sin
is because he is the head and we are the body. The head has
never been without a body and the body follows where the head
goes. And why is he all these things
in Colossians chapter one? that in all things, he might
have the preeminence. That's why it is wrong to say,
except ye be circumcised, you cannot be saved. In all things,
Jesus Christ will have the preeminence. Psalmist says, honor and majesty
hast thou laid upon him, his glory is great in thy salvation. Now, our Lord did say to a group
of Pharisees, except you repent, you shall all perish. But that's
not the same thing as saying, except you repent, God cannot
save you. That's not what he means. He
means that where grace is, there is repentance. And where there
is no repentance, grace has never been. The gospel is not except ye,
you cannot be saved. The gospel is except God make
his son a curse for me. Except he call me his friend
and show me a love that's greater than what any man has ever known
and lay down his life for me. Except he say live to this valley
of dry bones. I cannot be saved. Please, Lord, don't let anybody
under the sound of my voice be found tempting you, Lord. Have
mercy and give us grace to shout. To you alone belongs glory and
honor and power. Now, true circumcision, now,
true circumcision in the Bible is a cutting away that happens
in the heart. We come into this world saying,
I'm fine. God sees that I've tried. My
good deeds, I believe, outweigh the bad. But then we realize
what James said, that he that keeps the whole law but offends
in one point, he's guilty of all. And now, scared by that
thought, we try to clean up. We get to work on ourselves and
we think that God will overlook the guilt if I try to do better,
but then we start to find a law present with us that when we
would do good, evil is present with us. And then we realize
it's hopeless anyway because God has said he will by no means,
by no means at all, clear the guilty. God meets us around in
grace. He meets us around every corner.
He heads us off at every pass. He flushes us out of every hiding
place, every false refuge until we realize I'm an evil person
and I need Jesus Christ or I will perish. That is the circumcision
of the heart, the cutting away of every hope other than Jesus
Christ. Okay, back in Acts chapter 15,
verse five, but there rose up certain, it's always certain.
It's not wholesale moving away from the truth, it's certain
men. There rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees, which
believed saying that it was needful to circumcise them and to command
them to keep the law of Moses. In Acts chapter 15, it goes on
to say that they wrote a letter to the brethren about this council,
summing up what had been discussed there. And it said that these
certain men who said this in verse five, certain men went
out from us and have troubled you with words, subverting your
soul. I find it very interesting, God
has chosen words to be the medium by which spiritual things are
related. He didn't draw pictures in the
sky or give some feeling, it's words. And our words about God
and his gospel bring either trouble or comfort to men's souls. I
want mine to bring joy and peace to believers And Peter wanted
the same thing. He knew that a rebuke was in
order first though, so let's read verse seven through 11 again. And when there had been much
disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them. See, there's
a lot of words going around, but Peter had a word from God. 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 believe. Now. To believe, I would hate to be
the one who stands here and tells you about something but never
really say what it is. To believe that by the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, to not tempt God, is
to believe. Believe means that We believe
we shall be saved. We trust that what God has promised,
he's able to perform. And that's why it says, shall
be saved. And we believe that this salvation
is through grace. That means not of works, not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God who
showeth mercy. And that this grace is through
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega, the maker of the ends
of the earth. God over all, blessed forever,
amen. To be saved is to believe that
we are saved from God's purpose of sin by election, that we're
saved from the penalty of sin. by Jesus Christ dying on the
cross and to believe that we're saved from the power of sin by
regeneration. And if God does one of those,
he does it all. There's no cracks in the floor
to fall through. This comforts me because things
in life are not easy for me. I find myself I'm always the
one it seems who in daily tasks, I'm forgetting to do one little
thing. As soon as I'm about to pat myself on the back after
I finished something up, I realized I messed up on one little part
of it and the whole thing is all for nothing now. But in salvation,
God does it all. And if you get any of it, you
get all of it. We won't find out that we're
disqualified because we made a little mistake. You see, the
objects of God's love are the ones that He chose to save. And
the ones He chose to be saved are the ones who Jesus Christ
died for. And the ones who Jesus Christ
died for are the ones who will be given faith, regenerated. And they, the ones who are born
again, are the ones who will be in heaven. It's squared up
on both ends. I like that because I would mess
it up. I would be the one forgetting
one little detail. Now we're saved from God's purpose
of sin in the election. Go to Ephesians chapter one,
please. Ephesians chapter one. And no purpose of sin is not
too strong of a word for this. No, it's not. In Ephesians chapter
one, Verse three, blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. Notice
in verse three, he hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in Christ. And that is according, in verse
four, according as he hath chosen us in him. We were blessed according
as we were chosen. And when? Before the foundation
of the world. The choosing and the blessing
happen at the same time. The point of these verses is
that the only place God has ever seen us and the only place we
have ever been is the same place where all the blessings are.
Before Hurricane Milton last year, when that hurricane was
coming, there were certain things in our yard that were special
to me. I didn't want them destroyed,
I moved them inside the house. They were special to me because
I decided, not really because there was anything great about
them. You know, God saw the storm of sin coming and he put us in
Christ. God's people rejoice in this
and we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
we shall be saved. We're sheltered in him. God puts
us in Christ by election, and we rejoice in that by faith.
Like Isaiah says, God says through Isaiah, come my people, enter
into thy chambers, hide thyself for a moment, until the indignation
be overpassed. To believe any less than this. is a yoke, and to teach any less
is to put a yoke around others' necks, because it implies that
salvation really is an attempt at God to deal with a problem
that came up. Salvation is not that. Jesus
Christ will have the preeminence. To believe we're saved through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, means that we believe by grace
we are saved, also second from the penalty of sin by Jesus Christ
dying on the cross. In Isaiah chapter 53, go there
if you will, Isaiah 53. Now the opening verses of Isaiah
chapter 53 say the same thing as John chapter one, that light
shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not. But now
look in verse five, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. Bruised means
crushed. Don't think of just something
at the supermarket having a soft spot on it, it means crushed.
And why? Look at verse six. And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. Laid on him means literally caused
to land on him. Our iniquities. This is why he
stooped down in the garden and he began to be sorrowful and
very heavy. God made him to be sin for us. And once he was made to be sin.
I can't explain, I can't really begin to understand what that
verse means, that God made him to be sin, but I know that it
means this, that God made him to be sin, and everything that
sin gets from a holy God. Every bit of God's vindictive
anger and his fury poured out, concentrated on this one man,
the God-man, hanging on the cross. And without that, there is no
salvation. You've heard on the bottom of
the ocean, the water pressure there is tens of thousands of
pounds from all the water, the weight of it bearing down. I
believe that that's really nothing at all compared to what he experienced. If you could be down there, and
if you could survive that for long enough to have a conscious
thought, you'd have plenty of thoughts and feelings. But I
bet that they wouldn't include shame. But for him, it did. He said, shame hath covered my
face. I bet if you could survive that,
Well, I hope that our thoughts would include praising God and
worship, but there's no guarantee. But he did. He asked from the
cross, why art thou so far from helping me and from the words
of my roaring? And in his own answer to his
question, he praises God. He said, but thou art holy. Under all that weight, Save me, oh Lord, for the waters
are coming to my soul. We read about submarines that
go so far down in the ocean and all the armor that they have
to protect from the water pressure and the weight. But he didn't
have anything like that. He didn't have anything preparing
him or shielding him from God's wrath and from the weight of
our sin. This is the one who God said,
awake, O sword, smite the shepherd, awake against the man that is
my fellow. Jesus Christ had had nothing
but uninterrupted perfect fellowship with God the Father. He didn't
have anything. to prepare him for anything different
than that. It was fury poured out on the
head of our savior. This is the one who had been
the father's delight rejoicing in each other in the persons
of the Trinity rejoicing in each other for all eternity. But he
took our sins and he died so that we never have to. We believe
that by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ tasting death for
us, we shall be saved. And anything less than that is
a yoke we cannot bear. Thirdly, like I said, we're saved
by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ from the power, the power
of sin. Go to Titus chapter three, please. Titus three. Verse three, for we ourselves
also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving
diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful
and hating one another. That is God's description of
unregenerate mankind. But after that, the kindness
and love of God our savior toward man appeared, our savior is God
himself. not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. See, it's not by the yoke that
nobody could bear because if it was, then salvation would
be reckoned as a debt. And Paul goes so far here to
make it so clear that it is not by works of righteousness which
we have done, not something that we have done. If it has our fingerprints
on it, God doesn't want it. God saw every reason in us to
cast us into a lake of fire, and he saw no reason to bless
us, but it's according to his mercy he does. He saw our filthiness
like dogs returning to their own vomit, and he washed us And
he saw our darkened minds calling good evil and calling evil good. And he renewed us by the Holy
Ghost. which he shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by his grace,
we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life,
being justified freely by his grace through the redemption
which is in Christ Jesus. We believe that through the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. You know, the
yoke of earning salvation by, say, circumcision and the law
of Moses is like needing perfectly clean clothes, and you have to
make those clothes, and your hands are dirty. They're ruined
before you've even finished. There's no way it can work. But
being justified freely by his grace is God handing to us, putting
on us perfectly pure white linen, the righteousness of the saints.
We believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved from the power of sin by him shedding on us
abundantly the Holy Ghost and turning our feet toward him and
giving us ears to hear and renewing our minds to understand the scriptures. That's what we believe. That's
what it is to not tempt God. And Galatians 5, the end of that
chapter, we read, in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision
availeth anything but faith that worketh by love. It doesn't matter
if you're a Gentile who's circumcised or uncircumcised. It doesn't
matter if you're a Jew who's circumcised or uncircumcised. It's by faith and that faith
results in love. I started by saying that a false
gospel cannot work love in anyone's heart for their fellow man. But
look, look in Acts chapter 15 one last time here, in Acts 15. Look at verse three. We see the
disciples and the church loving each other in this chapter two,
faith that works by love, because God's people see in each other
God's work, his handiwork. We don't see it so much in ourselves,
but we see it in others. And he that loveth him that begat
loves also him that is begotten of him. So look in verse three. and being brought on their way
by the church. They passed through Venus in
Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused
great joy unto all the brethren. We see in this chapter, the church
being together, doing things for each other, loving each other.
Verse four, and when they were come to Jerusalem, they were
received of the church. and of the apostles and elders.
And they declared all things that God had done with them,
faith that works by love." You see, do you believe that the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is enough to save you? I have no comfort. I have only
a warning for those who don't. The wrath of God abides on you. You're tempting God. You're wearing
a yoke that will sink you. If you have Christ plus something
else, you really have nothing. It's actually really simple.
Do you go to God with something that you're bringing, as if to
say, look at me? Or do you go to God for everything,
needing Him to give you everything? I know this, I know that He has
never turned anybody away. Ask Him to give you faith. And by that faith, you can say,
I believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, I shall
be saved, even as they. Amen.