Let's ask the Lord to help us.
Heavenly Father, we do pray that you would. as your son has promised,
cause your words to be spirit and life to us, that we might
see in your word the glories of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
we might know, Heavenly Father, the assurance of salvation in
him. Please, Heavenly Father, be the
one who, as promised, teaches your people and teaches us to
profit. We pray your blessing upon us
in Jesus' name. Amen. So there are several issues here
and time has moved on so I'm not, for those who might have
thought that we were looking at the complicated issues in
Jerusalem, we're going to be looking at them again next week. I wanted us to consider
some things as we come to this particular passage of scripture
that has amongst the commentators divided people for probably the
last 1900 years since Luke penned these things. And they fall into
two fundamental camps and one is that Paul and James and others
were in grave error trying to accommodate the Jews in Jerusalem
and trying to indicate that there are two ways of salvation. There's
a way of salvation according to Jewish rights in some sense,
and it's no problem to continue in them. And then there is the
salvation of the Gentiles, which is a different matter altogether.
And so that it's right for Jews to continue law-keeping, and
it's not right for Gentiles to continue law-keeping. I'm sure there are faithful people
on both sides of the whole equation. And the issue is I don't want
to stand here speculating. We're here just to look at what
God says. And we're here that we might see the hand of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the reality of it is, in
the big picture terms, Paul had reason to go to Jerusalem in
Galatians chapter 2. One of the dictates of the Jerusalem
Council, which we read about in Acts chapter 15, is to remember
the poor. And Paul says it was the very
thing he wished to do. And there was a promised famine
in Jerusalem. And so Paul was gathering resources
and had been, if you can read about it in In 2nd Corinthians
and other places he boasted to the ones that had been a little
bit slack in their giving that these Macedonians up there, they're
just giving so generously. Come on you Corinthians, you
can do likewise. And so he had a gift to take
to the people there. He knew that his days of ministry
in that part of the world, in Asia, in what is modern day Turkey
and Greece was over and he was now moving on and in his mind
he was going to Rome and in his mind he was going to Spain. And I love quoting Proverbs 16
verse 9 that in our mind we plan our path and the Lord determines
our footfall. But he had concern about them,
doesn't he? He says in Romans 15 which he'd written, he'd written
the books of Romans and Galatians prior to going on this journey
to Jerusalem. He says, he asked for their prayers. And he says in verse 30 of Romans
15, he says, Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus
Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit that you strive
together with me in your prayers to God for me, that I may be
delivered from them that do not believe in Judea, and that my
service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints. So he had prayed that they would
accept this gift. which is extraordinary if I came
along to you and said here's a gift from all these churches
and they've been anxiously waiting to give it to you but he prays
that would be accepted to them that I may come to you Romans
with joy by the will of God and may with you be refreshed. He was on his way to Rome and
he was there, as he said at the beginning of the letter to the
Romans, he wanted to be there mutually encouraged by them.
So he was excited about going to this church that had grown
up without his planting at all. And so it was the first of his
journey into churches that he hadn't planted. And then he finishes
this prayer, and now the God of peace be with you all. Amen.
So Paul had reason to go there, and as I said earlier, he gathered
these people from the corners, as it were, and the middle of
his ministry in Asia. in what is modern day Turkey
and Greece and he brought them all there. And it's fascinating
that his journey had been through Caesarea because he'll end up
being in the house in Caesarea and it says that he in Caesarea
will be there for two years and he had liberty. So in Caesarea
even though he's in jail under the Romans and the Romans kept
him in jail because they were hoping that some Jews might come
along, some Christians might come along and bribe the Romans
to get him out but he was there for two years. And he was there
for two years, and it says he was there with liberty. God had
told him, subsequent to these acts, he says, you will testify. Make haste and get you quickly
out of Jerusalem, for they will not receive thy testimony concerning
me. He said to Paul that he's going
to preach before him in Rome. He says, be of good cheer, Paul.
The Lord stood by him when he addressed that council. He said,
be of good cheer, Acts 23, 11, be of good cheer, Paul, for as
thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear
witness also at Rome. So there was no question that
Paul was on his way to Rome. And as you know from the shipwreck
story, the journey was no easy one to Rome. So Paul had reason
to be in Jerusalem and on from Jerusalem he had desire and the
Lord confirmed it for him to go to Rome. And I love the fact
that he was in Caesarea with Philip. Wherever he goes he meets
these emblems of the glory of God in the way he saves sinners. And we spoke earlier about the
providence of God that Philip's most famous act He's in, earlier
in Acts when he meets the Ethiopian eunuch, doesn't he? And there's
that Ethiopian eunuch. He'd been to Jerusalem and he'd
been there to participate in all of these religious ceremonies
and to be in some way an observer and to seek what was there and
he went out of Jerusalem, this eunuch. He went away from Jerusalem
as empty as he did when he went. There was nothing in the religion
of Jerusalem that the Lord used in his heart. But he went away
with a copy of the scriptures, and it's just in the providence
of God. He happened to be reading Isaiah, and in the mercy of God,
Philip was sent to him, sent to him. And the eunuch makes
this remarkable statement, doesn't he? He says to Philip, see, here
is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? What doth hinder me from publicly
declaring my union with the Lord Jesus Christ and my union with
all of his people? And Philip says to him, if thou
believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered
and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. See, salvation is not what you
believe about yourself. It's not what you do. Salvation
is what you believe about him. That was the question, wasn't
it? I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. and Philip
had no question about it, this man was a saved man. And he commanded
the chariot to stand still and went down both into the water,
both Philip and the eunuch and was baptised. Caesarea becomes
Paul's home for the two years after these events and in Caesarea
of course you might recall that earlier in Acts chapter 10 Caesarea
is the place where Peter is called to go and he preaches the Gospel
to Cornelius and these others. And so the Caesarea Church is
a church that's based on the Gentiles. And so Paul on his
way there has visited these churches that he's planted and he then
visits these churches that he hadn't planted and he finds himself
refreshed and encouraged so much so that the others join with
him in going to Jerusalem. And so we find, in this part
of Acts, we find Paul on his way up there to Jerusalem. And
when he had saluted them, see we came up to, verse 17 of chapter
21, we came up, when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren
received us gladly. And the day following, Paul went
in with us unto James, and all the elders were present. And
when he had saluted them, when he greeted them, he declared
particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles
by his ministry. Now the ministry of Paul, just
to encapsulate it in simple terms, was that Paul went, directed
by the Holy Spirit, and we have a pattern all the way through
Acts of Paul's activities. What do you recall at will, don't
you? Paul would go. to a synagogue where he knew
he was invited to speak. Paul never spoke where he wasn't
invited to speak. If you had laboured under the
The works gospel as I had evangelism as one of the signs that you
were truly saved, that you would be out there flogging people,
you'd be hitting people up, you'd be doing all sorts of things.
It's just fascinating and it's encouraging to me that the Lord
knows where his sheep are and he knows that they'll hear the
gospel. And Paul never once goes where he's not invited to speak.
So he goes to the synagogues and he speaks in the synagogues
and you know the story, it happens so many times, we've seen it
again and again. What happens? He's there for
a few days, possibly the longest he was there in any of them was
the one in Ephesus. And what happens? He preaches the gospel and we
know what he preached. We can read about it in Acts
chapter 13. He preached the Lord Jesus Christ and he preached
the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. He preached the glory
of all of the Old Testament prophets speaking of this particular one
that would come. This man who would be both man
and God, this man who would would die, this man who must die, and
he did die on Calvary's tree, and he died a legal death under
the law of God because the sins of his people were legally his
sins. He declared them to be his sins. He declared them to be his sins.
And so Paul, as he said to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians
5.21, Again and again he preached remarkable
sermons out of these verses. He says, and I want to read it
with you, For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now that word maid in the second
part, there are two maids there. One of them is the divine creative
activity, the body that you have prepared for me was said of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The second one is a maid and
created and sustained, which is us, brothers and sisters in
Christ. Paul preached the Lord Jesus
Christ. He preached him wherever he went. And wherever he went,
there was then this division. So the synagogue had two groups
of people in it. They had the Jews and they had
proselyte Jews. And they went to Jerusalem whenever
they could. They are the ones that are gathered
in Jerusalem, many of them causing these problems. And there were
proselyte Jews. And Paul went to a mixed congregation
in the synagogue. But as a Jew and as a teacher,
he was invited in to speak. And when he spoke, when he spoke,
He declared the glories of God and he declared the glories of
the gospel and he did it in such a way that the people who were
sinners, the people in that congregation who were sinners and needed a
saviour, found it a cause for great joy and rejoicing. And the people who had any righteousness
of their own, legalistic religious righteousness, were offended. And so Paul was kicked out of
the synagogue again and again and again. But he wasn't kicked
out on his own, was he? He went out of these synagogues
with a group of Jews and with a group of Gentiles. Let's just
look at one of these incidences Acts 13 is one of them. It's one of the more extensive
sermons of Paul's and he relates the history and he declares the
glad tidings that the promise was made to the father and the
God has fulfilled these tidings And he talks about the Lord Jesus
Christ in verse 35. Thou shalt not suffer thine holy
one to see corruption. And then he says at the end of
his sermon in this church in Antioch, he says, Be it known
unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man
is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. The big question is, who are
the sinners? Sinners need a saviour. Sinners
can do nothing to save themselves. Sinners have no righteousness
of their own. Sinners have no righteousness
that they can achieve in the future. Sinners can't look back
and see some righteousness. They can't look now and see some
righteousness. And they can't look forward to see some righteousness.
The forgiveness of sins is preached. Not the possibility of the forgiveness
of sins, but the real forgiveness of sins. And then look what he
says in verse 39. And by Him, I love that phrase,
all that believe. If you believe God, you really
believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to
believe it by Him. By Him, all that believe are
justified from all things. from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses." And Paul, if you read on, we've
spoken about this before, but Paul knew as he spoke those words
that there were some in that congregation who became righteously
indignant because Like all of the Jews,
including Paul himself, he had relied upon Moses for his righteousness
for all of his life. He says, Beware, therefore, lest
that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold, you
despises and wonder and perish. For I work a work in your days,
a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare
it to you. God is going to declare it to
his people. God will open the eyes of his people and they'll
see themselves for what they are. And what happens? And when
the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles were
sought that these words might be preached to them the next
Sabbath. I want to hear that I'm a sinner. I want to hear
that there's a savior for sinners. I want to hear that their God
has fulfilled these things. I want to hear that it's done.
Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and
religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking
to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God. And the
next Sabbath day came together almost the whole city together
to hear the word of God. And when the Jews saw the multitude,
they were filled with envy and spoke against those things which
were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. Then Paul and
Barnabas waxed bold and said, it was necessary that the word
of God should first have been spoken to you, but seeing you
put it from you and judge yourselves. See unbelief is the personal
responsibility of every person, isn't it? They judge themselves
unworthy of everlasting life. Lo, we turn to the Gentiles. 48 When the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord, and as
many as were ordained to eternal life believed. 50 The Jews stirred
up devout and honourable women and the chief men of the city,
and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas. Paul on his
journey back goes back through these cities and he goes back
and his other journeys he goes back and sees these churches
that were raised up. When he goes to Jerusalem he's telling
James and the elders there that these are the things he tells
them one by one that word particularly in verse 19 of Acts 21. He told them one by one, he outlined
in detail what happened and what happened in every church. In
every place he went, he went to the Jews, He went to a mixed
congregation of Jews and proselyte Gentiles who were there joined
with the Jews in their legalism. And he spoke. And he spoke in
such a way that out of that congregation was drawn together whom? There were Jews. There were proselyte
Gentiles who were sort of living as if they were Jews so they
could have some righteousness before God. And there were sinners
like the Jews. like the Philippian jail, they
were Gentile sinners. And so the churches that Paul
had planted, the churches that he declares, particularly what
he's going back to, they're always a mixed congregation. They're
always a mixed congregation. They're Jews and they're Gentiles,
and they're proselyte Gentiles, and they're all gathered together.
And why are they gathered together? Why are they gathered together?
They gather together because all that were ordained to eternal
life believe. I love how Paul describes this
gathering together in Ephesians chapter 2. These dead people
that he gathers together, they were dead. They were dead. And he says, but now, verse 13
of chapter 2, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were sometimes
were far off are made nigh. You're made nigh. This is not
a human activity. This is God building his church.
You are made nigh. by the blood of Christ. Christ
gathers his people together. Christ knits his people together.
Christ brings them together. And the one thing that matters
to them is not their Jewishness or their Gentileness or all the
other things they've ever done. It didn't matter whether you
were a Philippian jailer or a wealthy seller of purple like Lydia.
You were joined together because someone bigger than all of you
and all of your activities had stepped into your life and revealed
himself to you by the simple preaching of the gospel. And
you were drawn together by him. God knits his people together.
So we're drawn nigh. Paul, Paul declares, particularly
declares the things that are wrought, that God brought among
the Gentiles. If you had anything to do with
wrought iron, you people that have ever played with steel,
wrought iron is put together in remarkable ways, isn't it?
Obviously, to get the basic ingredients for wrought iron, you have to
do some very, very serious work with the ingredients. You have
to burn them and heat them and get rid of all the infirmities
and and impurities in them. And then a lot of wrought iron,
a lot of that iron was actually beaten and then beaten and beaten
and in the beating it actually drew all the strands together
so they became knitted together. My point simply is that when
God wrought these things, the things that are wrought, from
God's perspective, it is just His will of command and His purpose
that's fulfilled in all things. But in the lives of people, it
was never going to be easy. It was never going to be easy
for the Jews. The synagogue ruler in Corinth who joined with Paul
in the church. It was never going to be easy
for him for the rest of his days as a believer living there with
his family and others who didn't believe. It was never going to
be easy for all of them. But God wrought these things.
That's what Paul's saying. God wrought these things. Wrought
them among the Gentiles by his ministry. See God grows his church
by a spiritual work in the hearts of his people. And we talked
earlier about something of the history of our church and one
of the passages in the scriptures that was very, very significant
to a number of us in those early days is Ezekiel 36. So just turn there for a second
and we'll close just looking at this. Because we want to think
about the God-wrought ministry and the ministry that Paul had
been given, and it was a ministry that was wrought in tough times.
Everywhere he went he faced persecution. Everywhere he went the Jews were
opposed to him. And yet in the midst of the opposition
and in the midst of all of the turmoil in those places, God
raised up churches. And Paul was not afraid to die,
he says going to Jerusalem, because he'd been in so many difficult
situations. This is a remarkable promise
from the Old Testament. You can read similar ones in
Jeremiah 31, which is quoted twice in the book of Hebrews.
But I think I'm right in saying that this is the passage of scripture
that the Lord pointed Nicodemus to in that night that Nicodemus
came. And it says, He speaks of gathering
these people and he says, verse 23, I will sanctify my great
name which was profaned among the heathen, which you have profaned
in the midst of them. And the heathen shall know that
I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified
in you before their eyes. I'll be set apart as holy. I'll be set apart and seen as
separate. That's what holiness means, isn't it? It means to
be separate. God is not like us. Four, this
is the because. I will take you from among the
heathen and gather you out of all countries and will bring
you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water
on you and you shall be clean. Listen to the shalls and wills
of our great God. This is what has happened. It
happened in Ezekiel's day, it happened in the Lord Jesus' day,
it happened in Paul's day and it's happening today. I'll sprinkle
clean water on you, and you shall be clean. When God declares his
people to be clean, they are clean. He said to those apostles
in that upper room, he said, you're clean because of the word
I've spoken to you. He speaks a word of promise to
his people. You shall be cleaned from all your filthiness and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I
give you. And a new spirit will I put within
you. And I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will
put my spirit within you." Listen to this. The big issue in Jerusalem
and the big issue with so many people today, especially in legalism
and religion, is the whole issue of sanctification. It's all very
well for the Lord to save me, but how now do I live? That's
what the Galatian false teachers were saying. I'll show you how
to live a godly life. Here's a little bit of circumcision
and here's an entrance into all this law keeping. And what does
God say? I will put my spirit within you
and cause you to walk in my statutes and you shall keep my judgments
and do them. and you shall dwell in the land
that I gave to your fathers and you shall be my people and I
will be your God. What a great declaration. God
has a people and he will be a God to those people. And I will also
save you from all your uncleanness and I will call for the corn
and will increase it and lay no famine upon you. And I will
multiply the fruit of the tree and increase of the field that
you shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen.
These things all need to be seen with spiritual eyes. Then you
shall remember your own ways and your doings which that were
not good and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities
and your abominations." See, Job was pushed by the circumstances
of his life and by those miserable comforters until Job not only
wants to defend himself, but almost wants to declare his own
righteousness. And Elihu comes along in Job
33 and he preaches the gospel to him. Elihu says to him, you
won't go down to the pit, God has found a ransom. God has found
a way of saving his people. And what's Job's response when
he meets God? He says, I am vile. So the only
people who see themselves as vile, like Job, and the only
people who see themselves as sinners, you see the order in
Ezekiel 36. God pours out His Spirit and
the response to the people is, then I see what I am. In the
presence of Him, I see what I am. I see Him. for who he is and
I see myself for who he is. And I feel the weight of sin
because sin is only ever seen clearly when we see the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the wonderful and remarkable thing about the
Lord Jesus Christ is that all of the sins of all of God's people
were there displayed. We don't need to see each other's
sins. But all of God's people had all
of their sins displayed publicly before the eyes of all that could
see them in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the only time on this earth
where sin has been seen to be sin and dealt with accordingly. And God's people In the glory
of the gospel, they see themselves for what they are. Paul says
that in me, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. He says every
time I do anything, sin's there with me. They knew nothing, these
men, of progressive sanctification. If you told Job, you're getting
better, Job, look at all your righteousness, you're getting
better, they never would have said it. See, Paul, went to these
people and he declared particularly what things God had wrought among
the Gentiles. This is God's work, isn't it?
Just read down with me. After you've had a new heart,
after you've been moved by God in the ways that He says, after
you've been cleansed and clean, then you declare yourself to
be vile, and then you realize that God does it, He says in
verse 32, not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God. Be it no unto you, be ashamed
and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel. The House of Israel had caused
the Lord's name to be blasphemed. But when He comes, when He comes
in saving grace, and this is what joins these people together,
because we're all sinners at the foot of the cross. We're
all sinners in the Lord. Just read on to verse 36. Look
down to verse 36 in Ezekiel 36. Then the heathen that are left
around shall know that I, the Lord, build the ruined places.
See, He has to ruin. He has to break. He has to kill
before he makes alive. He has to wound before he heals. I build the ruined places and
plant that was desolate. I, the Lord, have spoken and
I will do it. Thus saith the Lord God, I will
yet for this be inquired of the house of Israel and do it for
them. I will increase them with men
like a flock as a holy flock. As the flock of Jerusalem in
her solemn feast, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks
of men. And they shall know. It's talking
about the churches that the Lord Jesus Christ dwells in and meets
with his people in. They shall know that I am the
Lord. I am the Lord. So the purpose of salvation,
isn't it, is to glorify God and to magnify Him. And He brings
His people together and He knits them together and He manifests
His glory in the gathering of these sinners together. Jewish
sinners, Gentile sinners, religious sinners. He gathers them all
together. And they're joined with two things,
aren't they, in so many remarkable ways by the Spirit's work in
them. They're joined to see the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
and they're drawn to see what they really are in themselves.
And therefore, sinners joined together and sinners united to
the Lord Jesus Christ can love each other in ways that the world
never knows anything of. because he makes us all to look
away from the flesh of men and look to that one, that one who
hung on Calvary's tree, to look to that broken body. And as Paul
says to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 3.18, as you look at him, as
you look at him, You become more like Him. I like that. I don't
want us, if the Lord will allow for us, to be distracted from
looking to Him in delight and in joy and in comfort and in
peace. He's done it all well. He says,
I'll do it. And he does. Let's pray. Our
Heavenly Father, we pray that you might knit our hearts together
as you cause your Son to be seen as glorious before us, Heavenly
Father. That we might see him who has
fulfilled all of the promises of the Old Testament, and they
are yea and amen in him. That he's shed blood and he's
broken bloody, and that water that flowed from me side. is
the means by which, Heavenly Father, we can stand in your
presence, wholly spotless, unblameable, and unapprovable in your sight. Father God, we do pray that you
cause us to have faith, and a faith that allows us to see as you
see, to see our Lord Jesus Christ as you see, and to see our brothers
and sisters in him as you see them. Draw us together and unite
us, Heavenly Father, in the gospel of your dear and precious Son.
We pray in his name and for his glory. Amen.