O happy ones and holy, O give
us grace and peace, That in the deep and lowly, A man might be
made to go with Thee. Let's turn in our Bibles to Galatians
chapter 2. And here we have, I believe, Paul's
summary account of this meeting in these first 10 verses of chapter
2. Then after fourteen years I went
up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me also.
And I went up by revelation and communicated unto them that gospel. which I preach among the Gentiles,
but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means
I should run or had run in vain. But neither Titus, who was with
me being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised, and that because
of false brethren, unawares brought in, who came in privately to
spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they
might bring us into bondage. To whom we gave praise by subjection,
no, and not for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might
continue with you. But of these who seem to be somewhat,
whatsoever they were it makes no matter to me, God accepts
no man's person. For they who seem to be somewhat,
in conference added nothing to me. But contrarywise, when they
saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me as the
gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter, For he that wrought
effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same
was mighty in me toward the Gentiles. And when James, Cephas, and John,
who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto
me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship,
that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. Only they would that we should
remember the poor, the same which I also was forward to do. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven,
we praise you for the fact of who you are. And we thank you,
Heavenly Father, for the revelation of your character in the Gospel
of your dear and precious Son. And we pray, Heavenly Father,
that the preciousness of our Gospel, the glory of your Son,
would be the thing that would captivate our hearts and lead
us and guide us as a fellowship, Heavenly Father, that we might
be to the praise of the glory of your grace. We praise You
again, Heavenly Father, for that wonderful, perfect, finished
work, that now and under God are all His works from the foundation
of the world, including the works that are happening in our lives,
in our church and in this world today. We praise You, Heavenly
Father, for Your sovereign, superintending, providential care of all things. You are working them. They're
not just happening, you are working them for the good of all them
who are called according to your purpose. Those whom you love
and those in whom you place a love for you. Grow that love, Heavenly
Father, in our hearts and cause us to rejoice again and again. in our Lord Jesus Christ, that
we might just see Him high and lifted up, gloriously reigning
over all things, head of all things. for his body, the Church. We praise you, our Father, for
your glorious Son. Help us to be found, as Peter
described those people, with hearts purified by faith. Help us to find ourselves at
rest in him and what he has done for us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. At the beginning, of course,
there is a warning in all of these letters, isn't
there? There's a warning that the false brethren are there
in the early church and among the apostles. It's a warning to us, but it's
a warning that should come with thankfulness because they who
dealt with the apostles in these ways and stood with extraordinary
boldness. What extraordinary boldness Satan
has through his ministers in the very presence of God. Knowing that the Lord Jesus was
God, he would tempt him. Knowing that the Lord Jesus was
indwelling his people, and had saved them at the cross and defeated
Him at the cross. And yet in the very face of a
defeat, He rises up again and again in enmity against the people
of God. And like all things, this is
according to the Scriptures. It's just the perfect fulfilment
of the promise of God, and it must be good for God's people. The Lord Jesus promised, didn't
he, Mark 13, for false Christs and false prophets shall arise
and show signs and wonders to seduce If it were possible, even
the elect, thank God it's not possible, but that's how close
they get. They get into the very presence
of the elect and try to seduce them. As Paul describes them
in 2 Corinthians 11, they transform themselves into apostles of Christ. transform themselves and it's
no wonder because Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. Lord Jesus spoke of these wolves
in sheep's clothing. If there were wolves in wolves'
clothing, they wouldn't get too close to the sheep. But when
a wolf is in sheep's clothing, it can get in amongst the flock.
And having got their It can do its damage. And so there's a
warning, isn't there? There's a warning, and the scriptures
are so clear, aren't they? That you are to test the spirits,
you are to test all things and hold on to what is good. You
are to test what you hear me say. It's God's command for you,
for your safety, for your rest in Him. test them. But here these false teachers
are given a remarkable opportunity. And you would think that the
case were closed, and yet even though the door was shut very
firmly in the face of these men, they not only continued on, they
not only were successful, they had their own churches all over
the world in that day, and they have prospered in their ways
ever since. Because their religion is the
religion of men. It's a religion that appeals
to the flesh of Adam. And so it has a natural home
in the hearts of men who've been taken captive to do His will. But here are these false teachers.
They had this remarkable opportunity. They had the remarkable opportunity
to present their case before the apostles gathered together. Paul came down with Barnabas
and Titus. He came by revelation. He didn't
go there as a private man. He was led there by God and the
other apostles were led there to have what is called the Jerusalem
Council. And these men were there, and
they had that opportunity to be there. They had the opportunity
to present their case. They cannot say that they weren't
heard by the apostles. They cannot say that they weren't
listened to. They cannot say that they didn't
have the opportunity to present their case. They were heard. But all the apostles were united
of one accord, it says in Acts 15.25, they were of one mind. And not only did Peter make those
remarkable statements that we read about the way the Gentiles
have their hearts purified by faith, purified by the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their rest, their trust, their
belief in the perfect and finished work of the Lord Jesus doesn't
just purify our hands with washings and things and doesn't just purify
the things we eat and purify our houses, it purifies our hearts. For those of you who know anything
of your heart, and the only way we know anything of our hearts
is when God shows us what they are, what they really are. A
purified heart is a treasure. Purified heart, purified by faith. Saved them, he saved them. Saved trophies of the grace of
God. And not only that, but these
apostles, as we read earlier, when they'd finished this, they
wrote a letter and then they sent witnesses, Paul and Barnabas
and Judas and Silas, witnesses, so that wherever they went, they
had the letter, they had the testimony of men with them. As I said earlier, the Galatians
letter and the other letters in the New Testament prove to
us that Satan never gives up. As I said of the Lord Jesus,
he was tempted in the most extraordinary ways in that wilderness. going without food and water
for all those days, at his most weakest, Satan came to him, challenging
him. And the Lord Jesus answered him
the same way these apostles and the same way we need to answer.
He answered him again and again from the scriptures. God has
spoken. And when he had been put in his
place, as it were, by the Lord Jesus, it says that Satan just
left him for a season. It wasn't the end of Satan's
attack. Nor with this Jerusalem Council,
nor with this letter, is the end of Satan's attack. And as
it is with the Lord Jesus, so it is with His Church, and so
it is with the individual members of His Church. But in this wonderful
passage of Scripture that's before us, we have some wonderful lessons
from the Lord about these things. It's a wonderful history. Verse
6 of Galatians 2, But of these who seemed to be somewhat, it
appears again and again that Paul, three times he says that
they seem to be somewhat, verse 6 twice and verse 9, they seem
to be somewhat. Paul is not being critical of
the apostles, but he's laying down a foundation that's incredibly
important. He says down further, he says,
God accepts no man's person. God doesn't judge by the sight
of men. God does not receive the face
of men. It's a quote from Deuteronomy
10 verse 17 where it says that this awesome God, this awesome
God, is not partial and he takes no bride." It's a reference to
the judges of Israel. They weren't to be swayed by
the looks. They didn't look. They didn't
need to look at the person. What they were swayed by was
the facts and the evidence. What Paul is saying again and
again is that we who need to profit ourselves, the
need to be called upon to speak to others on God's behalf have
only one thing. It's just one test, isn't it? What does God say in His Word? See, the false teachers were
using their supposed association with the Jerusalem apostles and
the leaders in the Jerusalem churches as confirmation of their
credibility. And such is that way with man's
religion all of the time. How many conversations have you
had with people? How many instances have you witnessed
where someone says, well how can those godly men be wrong? How could this religious machinery
be wrong? And so he said to Luther, how
could the Roman Catholic Church with its millions, with its huge
churches, with all of its pomp, how could it all be wrong and
one little man down there, one priest in Germany be right? Again and again, isn't it, so
often that man's religion, like men, seek when they are troubled,
they seek to find their comfort in the esteem of men and in the
traditions of men and in their association with men. They look for comfort, they look
for affirmation because they belong to something. How could
all those Bible colleges be wrong? How could you be right and all
of this vast Empire of these denominations who are saying
different things. How can they be right and wrong
and you be right? Look at all the people that are
with us. It is never the way with God's
service. God's servants have one master. God's servants have one thing
in mind, and that's the glory of God. Paul, Peter himself, was given
examples of this, wasn't he? In Acts chapter 2, there he was.
He had to stand up before all of those people and proclaim
the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he when he was called
to go down to Cornelius, the reaction would have been, how
on earth can he defile himself? What will the Jews back in Jerusalem
say about you if you defile yourself by going into a Gentile's house
and eating with them? I love what God says to Peter
in Acts 9.11. He says, What God has cleansed,
Don't you dare call that common. If God has purified something,
if God has cleansed it, then don't you call it common. You
do as you are told. The prophets of old were always
the same, weren't they? They didn't take any credence
of the men who stood around them, no matter how many they were."
I love reading Ezekiel's commissioning. If you just read those first
couple of chapters of Ezekiel's gospel, you'll see how God revealed
himself to Ezekiel and commissioned Ezekiel and he said, his maid
is horrid like flint. It doesn't mean that Ezekiel
wasn't caring about people, but he said, no matter what they
say, doesn't matter whether they respond positively or negatively,
you are there as my servant, you are there delivering my word. Jeremiah stood almost on his
own in Jerusalem against a city and against a nation, and he
simply said, this is what God says. This is the Gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Moses was the meekest man on
the face of the earth. an 80-year-old man being a shepherd
on the backside of the desert for 40 years. And he's sent by
God and he's commissioned by God and he goes down to the world's
superpower. And his speech is so weak, God
has to provide Aaron for him. He goes down there with a stick.
and defeats a superpower. God's servants will be made to
stand and stand for the truth of the Gospel as it's been revealed
to them by the power of God. And they won't need the affirmation
and the applause of men. They are God's witnesses. They
are God's servants. They have God's message to deliver. as he says, God accepts no man's
person. We are not to be swayed when
we are assessing the truth of the Gospel. We are not to be
swayed by the looks, by the words of praise, the words of men. We're not to
take note when we are judging God's truth by a man's reputation,
by his moral activities, by the things that the world may esteem. We just cling to God's Word. I just want for you to find your
rest, to find your comfort, find your peace in the testimony of
God, in his word. What a warning we have in Isaiah
chapter 8. It says, to the law and the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, it is because there is no light in them. There is no light in them. He says earlier that we are to
bind up the testimony, to seal the law among my disciples. We have in these disputes and
we have in these letters that came out of the troubles of the
Church, we have again and again the Word of God revealed to us
so clearly in the midst of these difficulties which beset the
people of God in those days and have ever since, that we have
a clear place to go. We have a clear guiding hand
from our God. Paul goes on to say, for they
who seemed somewhat in confidence, for they who seemed to be something,
seemed to be considered pillars, he goes on to say later on, they
added nothing to me. They are just there confirming. Paul didn't go to Jerusalem to
have a debate with the apostles about the Gospel. He never did
need to go to Jerusalem to have a debate with Peter and the others
about the Gospel. I get so tired of reading the
commentators and people of contention. It's a common thing, isn't it,
that somehow Peter had this sort of styled Jewish religion and
Paul came along and invented the Christianity that we see
today and they had this sort of battle and at the Jerusalem
Council there were these huge debates between Paul and Peter
and the other apostles and eventually Paul Because he was a more powerful
character and more trained in Jewish theology, Paul finally
won the day through his son Clement. There's not a shred of evidence
in the scriptures for that at all. In fact, all of the biblical
evidence points in exactly the opposite direction. They added
nothing to me. They were confirming that Paul's
revelation is completely sufficient. Paul had the Gospel revealed
to him, we read, isn't it? I neither received it, verse
12 of chapter 1, I neither received it of man, neither was I taught
it. I didn't have to go to a Bible
college to learn about this. I didn't need to belong to a
denomination to do this, to learn this. How did he learn it? By
the revelation of Jesus Christ. By the revelation which is Jesus
Christ. When Jesus Christ was revealed
to him, all of a sudden Paul knew by the inspiration and the
care of God for his soul and for his own glory, God's own
glory, he taught him the Gospel. He taught him the truth about
a sovereign God. He taught him the truth about
man, dead and depraved and helpless. and his religion, a dead and
depraved and helpless man who had a righteousness, a righteousness
that he could boast of before the law. He says in Philippians
3 that according to that law he was blameless. What a remarkable
statement. What a remarkable statement.
You could take all of the Pharisees who nitpicked over the law and
they tied their spices and fiddled around with all sorts of things
and made up rules on top of rules to protect the law of God from
them stumbling upon it. Paul said before all of that,
not one of those Pharisees could have found me at fault in anything
at all. He met the Lord Jesus Christ
and what does he say about all of that? He says it is done. It is manure. We could use a
rude four-letter word, but that's what he was saying about all
of that religious righteousness. Done. He was taught the truth
about God. He was taught the truth about
himself and about man and about religious man at his best. And
he was taught the truth about God, how God saves sinners through
the Lord Jesus Christ. When it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal
His Son in me, the Son who was crucified, the Son who bore the
wounds of that sin-bearing death, the Son who bore God's infinite
wrath against all of Paul's legalistic self-righteousness. Delivered. Delivered is how he
describes it, isn't it? He gave himself all our sins,
that he might deliver us from this present evil world according
to the will of God and our Father. And who gets all of the glory? That's the test, isn't it? Who
gets all the glory? Verse 5 of chapter 1. To whom? To Him be glory forever and ever. Paul was taught his gospel by
God, by the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostles
were taught their gospel by the revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ to them. God says, when it comes to this
nonsense that I spoke of earlier, this debate and this contention
amongst the apostles and somehow finally pull one out, what does
God say about the way he teaches his people? He says, they shall
all be taught of God. I figure that when God says that
He teaches, and He teaches through revealing the Lord Jesus to people,
that He teaches really, really well, that He teaches in such
a way that people get the lesson. And having been taught by God,
they then speak with one voice. As we read in Acts 15, they were
of one accord, the apostles. There wasn't a debate between
the apostles. The debate was between the apostolic
band gathered together and those on the outside. I love quoting
Isaiah 52, but it says, Thy watchmen shall lift up the voice. They'll
lift up the word of God. and with the voice together. They shall sing, for they shall
see eye to eye, when the Lord shall bring again Zion. Break
forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted His people. purified their hearts
by faith." He has redeemed. He has redeemed Jerusalem. He didn't try and fail. He didn't
come hoping that it might happen. He has redeemed Jerusalem. We see wonderful, wonderful pictures
of the accord amongst the children of God in Acts after the Holy
Spirit comes powerfully and He takes the things of Jesus and
He reveals them to them and He saves that great band on the
day of Pentecost and following. And Acts chapter 2 describes
it, doesn't it? And all that believed, Acts 2.44,
all that believed were together had all things common. and sold their possessions and
good and parted them to all men as every man had need. And they,
continuing daily with one accord in the temple, breaking bread
from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and
singleness of heart." When God teaches His people, there is
singleness of heart and gladness And the next word is praising
God. Praising God and having favour
with all people. And the Lord added to the church
daily such as should be saved. That's exactly what he's doing
today. He's adding to his church daily such as should be saved. They were made to be bold. They
were made to stand as one. And I love after Peter and John
have been arrested. After the lame man has been healed
and they bring them in. before them and Peter before
these people who are enraged at them. He just simply proclaims,
the Lord Jesus, be it known unto you and all the people of Israel
that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, even by him does this man stand
here before you whole. neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved." And they saw the boldness
of Peter and John and perceived, I love the description of them,
they perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men. Isn't that a lovely description? Unlearned and ignorant men, and
they marveled. And they took knowledge of them
that they had been with Jesus. My ignorance and my learning
matters nothing if the Lord Jesus is with me. Same with you, isn't
it? Unlearned and ignorant, but Jesus with them. Paul had gone to Galatians with
a Gospel. He didn't need the approval of
the Jerusalem apostles to preach his Gospel. He was commissioned
by God and the Gospel he preached to them was a privilege, isn't
it? What a privilege they had to
have the Gospel preached to them. And it was a Gospel that was
received by them, verse 9 of chapter 1. What a precious grace
gift, to not only have the Gospel preached, but the Gospel received. In any other Gospel, any other
Gospel, any other description of the Lord Jesus Christ, our
God and our Saviour and His perfect finished work, finished from
eternity, finished on the cross, all according to the Scriptures,
poured out by grace upon His people. not by works, not by
anything that they've done, any change to that Gospel, any change
to Paul's Gospel, any change to the Apostles' Gospel, anything,
anything added to it, anything taken from it. Which is why there
is this, not a debate between Peter and Paul in Jerusalem,
the discussion is purely between the apostles gathered as one
in one accord together, showing these people, you have a perverted
gospel. Our Lord Jesus fulfilled the
law perfectly and we honour the law by looking to Him. We don't set aside the law of
God, it is fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. Anyone adding to it, changing
it is destined to hell, is anathema. that takes people away from looking
at the Lord Jesus, looking at Him and Him crucified. What do
we see in Him? Colossians 2.9 is beautiful,
isn't it? All the fullness of the Deity dwells in a body, in
the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Colossians 2.10 says, are complete in Him. You are as complete in Him as
He is the fullness of the Godhead body. It's exactly the same word. He to believers is all and in
all. He's all of our wisdom, He's
all of our righteousness, He's all of our sanctification, He's
all of our redemption. And the false teachers are doing
what they've done throughout all time, haven't they? You must
do something. You must do something, something
to add to it, something to embellish it, something to show, something
to show men. As I said, Peter learnt that
great lesson. on his way to Cornelius's house.
What God has cleansed, when God cleanses things, He cleanses
them perfectly. When He purifies things, He purifies
them perfectly. When He purges them, He purges
them perfectly. He saves His people by a sovereign
act of grace. And God's servants don't need
to confer with flesh and blood. They don't need to confer with
flesh and blood at the beginning of their conversion. They don't
need to confer with flesh and blood now or even at Jerusalem. Their Gospel has come from God
by revelation. We enjoy the comfort of God working
in the hearts of other believers. It's delightful for me to be
able to look out on people whom I see the Lord having done an
amazing work of grace in their lives. But we must again and again be
reminded that salvation is a matter between us personally and our
God. And as much as other people are
an encouragement, and as much as other people can be a discouragement. Again and again we must just
look to Him, look to Him. So many people say things and
ask things as if they are wanting affirmation or confirmation or
assurance from me and I don't want to give it. If God assures
you, you won't need to ask anyone ever. These men, in verse 7,
are God-empowered and God-commissioned apostles. But contrary-wise,
he didn't have to ask anything of them, but he says, they added
nothing to him, but contrary-wise, when they saw that the gospel
of the uncircumcision was committed to me, in exactly the same way
that the gospel of the circumcision was committed to Peter. They
had the same gospel, they had the same commissioning, and in
verse 8 we see that they have the same energising, the same
power, isn't it? For he that wrought effectively,
the word is our word for energy, for he that was energising in
Peter, He that was energising in Peter the same, God, was mighty,
was energising in me toward the Gentiles, toward the nations,
in exactly in accordance with what the Lord had promised Paul. The Lord said to him, Go thy
way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before
the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel, and I
will show him, Paul, how great things he must suffer for my
name's sake." The Blessed Holy Spirit indwells
people, God himself in dwells people." Isn't it remarkable
what Ephesians 2 says of God's children? They are a habitation. They are a habitation of God
by the Spirit, through the Spirit. A place where God lives. What a remarkable Gospel we have. What a remarkable God we have. If He is indwelling His people,
then I figure that His people are safe. and secure. If he who rules this universe
and rules the hearts of men is living inside his people, they
don't need the affirmation of others. They don't need the compliments
of others. They are indwelt by him for his
purposes. He'll commission them. He'll
empower them. He Ephesians 2.10 says, for we
are God's workmanship. We are His workmanship. It means
His masterpiece. When God works, all of His works
of art are beautiful, Mirren, absolutely perfect all of the
time. We are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. The end result will be good works
which God has before ordained that we should walk in. Where
Paul walked and where Peter walked, they walked as God's servants
and God's messengers, and so does every Christian. You see, we're not private individuals
anymore. We're not our own. We are bought
with a price. And where God's servants go,
God's servants go with Him. His angels encamp around us. He indwells His people. It's
interesting, in Corinthians I think we find it's so often the case. We go with our heart's desire
that we might have an opportunity to talk to someone about the
glories of the Lord Jesus. And what Paul says to the Corinthians,
he says, you are restraining yourselves from us. We're not
restrained from you, we're not straightened against you, but
you are restrained against us. You see, we go into every situation
as God's servants and God's witnesses. What a remarkable opportunity
the people around God's children have when they meet with Him.
A remarkable opportunity to be in the very presence of God and
to hear His Gospel from His servants. And yet, like these false teachers
and like so many people that we meet with, The one thing they
don't want to talk about is the Gospel. The number of conversations
I have with people who have known me for years and they know what
I do week in, week out in church. They know what captivates my
life and they want to talk to me about farms and chooks and
cricket. and all sorts of other things.
I won't want to have a conversation about the one thing that matters
in all of my life and ultimately will be the one thing that matters
in all of their lives, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. God
empowers and he commissions and he works energisingly. Paul says that he worked harder
than all of them, but he said it wasn't me that was working,
it was the grace of God that was working in me. They were
called by grace and they were empowered by grace. had his moment
on that Damascus road and just soon afterwards where he was
called and commissioned by God and we've described it often
in those amazing words of Galatians 1. And Peter was called and commissioned
of the Lord Jesus beside the lake. It's interesting, isn't
it, that he takes them at a place and takes them to a place of
nothingness in themselves. Poor Peter could not have been
brought lower. then he was brought on the night
that the Lord Jesus was betrayed. Paul was brought as low as he
could into the dust of the earth. Brought low, made to be nothings,
Saul of Tarsus reduced to a nothing and then made to be a something
by the grace of God. The false teachers are doing
the same things today, aren't they? Nothing has changed. In Acts chapter 15, I'll just
briefly go through a list of them. It deserves a longer message. But the apostles gather together
with Paul and make these public statements. that these false
teachers and all of their followers would have to deal with for the
rest of their days. In verse 24 he accuses them firstly
of being liars. They claim that they have a commandment
and they have the apostles working alongside them. They went out
from us troubling you with words, subverting your souls, saying
you must be circumcised and keep the law. They are saying that
this is what the apostles were saying, to whom we gave no such
commandment. They are just openly stating
that these people are liars. They are brazen liars. If you
go back to verse 10 of chapter 15, But now why tempt you God? So brazen they were that they
were testing God, they were trying God. They were preaching the law,
and in that law They were bringing a yoke, a yoke of bondage. Now why tempt you God to put
a yoke upon the neck of the disciples? They wanted to yoke them. It's
amazing how people love to be yoked. They get abused and abused
and abused and they love to be yoked. I read of a church covenant
a little while ago. We saw one a few years ago where
they sign a covenant. They're yoking each other. They're
signing a lie. They will never do one single
little bit of it in any spiritual way that honours God. They're
putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples and look how Peter
describes that. He says no one, No one, neither
our fathers nor we, were ever able to bear that yoke. They had no idea that they had
never kept it. They had no idea that what they
thought was there for righteousness was actually there to magnify
and increase and reveal sin. They were troubling the churches,
they were troubling the churches of God, disturbing them, and
they were subverting, they were unsettling the souls of people. It means to turn away violently
from a right place. They wanted to bring them into
captivity, but they were subverting their souls. burdening them with
an unbearable burden, and they were just teaching that salvation
is not entirely by the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. the elect in grace. That's interesting. Peter wants to remind the people
in Acts chapter 15 that God visited, verse 14, He visited the Gentiles
to take out of them a people for His name. And they are turned
to God. They are turned to God. in verse 17, that the residue
of all men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon
whom my name is called, says the Lord who does all these things. All of the works are of God. Therefore the salvation, as I
said earlier, the salvation of the Jews and the Gentiles is
exactly the same salvation. The apostles speak the same.
And that's compared to this covenant, this conditional covenant of
works that Jesus is added to. Somehow there's a covenant of
works, do this and you will be saved. They neither preach the
law with any faithfulness nor do they ever preach sovereign
saving grace and cause people to look to the Lord Jesus and
find rest for their souls in those paths. What's the promise
of God in the saving of His people? Jeremiah is one of the most quoted
passages in the New Testament, Jeremiah 31. He says these remarkable things,
doesn't he? But this shall be the covenant
that I will make with the House of Israel after those days, says
the Lord. I will put my law in their inward
parts, and I will write it in their hearts, and I will be
their God, and they shall be My people." The people that He
owns, the people that He calls His own. And they shall teach
no more, every man his neighbour, And every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord, for they shall all know me. This is eternal
life, knowing Him in His true character. From the least of
them to the greatest, says the Lord, because I will forgive
their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more. God's testimony in the Gospel
is what He will do and what He has done in His Son to the guilty
and to the helpless who are made to be nothings in themselves
and made everything in Him. And when Peter, James, Cephas
and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was
given there, they recognised, they witnessed the grace given. They witnessed the grace in the
Gospel. They witnessed the grace in His
life. They witnessed the grace, the
fruit of that grace, the humility. Lord, I believe, help Thou my
unbelief, is the cry of a gracious soul. The cry of a gracious soul
is that in my flesh dwells no good thing, that I have no righteousness
my own. nothing to lose in confessing
my weakness, nothing to gain in boasting. Christ is all. Christ is all in eternity, all
in God's purpose of grace, and He's all to a believer." And
they had fellowship. They had fellowship together. They are saved by grace. They
had fellowship in the Lord Jesus Christ. They had fellowship in
salvation. They had fellowship in the scriptures. They had the fellowship of grace,
fellowship with Christ, a union with Him, a union, a habitation
of God by the Spirit, a fellowship which makes them partakers with
the Lord Jesus. They all together receive the
Spirit of Grace and Spirit of Love from the Lord Jesus. They
have fellowship in the Gospel, fellowship in the declaration
of who the Lord Jesus is. God is Light and they have fellowship
with He who is Light. I have fellowship in his journey
here. I have fellowship with him. His holiness is our holiness.
His father is our father. His throne is our throne. His inheritance is our inheritance. His glory is our glory. It's the fellowship of Jesus
Christ. And Paul finishes by this reminding
us and them, there's only one thing that they asked him to
do, and that was we should remember the poor, the very thing that
he was forward to do, the very thing that he'd been doing all
the time. He was just to continue doing
what he was doing. The Gospel is a precious treasure. The Gospel is the Gospel of our salvation. It's the Gospel of the glory
of God. It's a Gospel that becomes more
and more precious to God's people as time goes on. and the perversions
of it become more and more offensive, because the perversions are saying
something about my Saviour. and they're not only saying something
about Him, they're saying something about all those who are in Him. To attack the Gospel is to attack
the character of God and to attack the character of my God is to
attack the character of all those who are in Him by grace and in
Him by His truth revealed in them. May God cause us to stand
firm in the gospel of his grace. Let's pray.