That's what they told these men. But the false teacher's message
was this. This is what they were saying.
They were saying Christ was not enough. They didn't
deny faith. They didn't deny that these men
should believe on Christ. They added to Christ. These men
had a message that said, in addition to Christ, you have to come under
the law and you have to keep the works of the law. Circumcision
was the entrance to the law. And they said, you have to come
under the law and keep the works of the law. Anybody ever heard
a preacher tell you that? Anybody ever heard that message
before? After that, you believe now. You have to come back under
the law of Moses and live by the law. Live by the law. Scripture says the just shall
live by faith. And Paul said in Galatians, the
law is not of faith. The law is not of faith. Paul
told Timothy, the law was not made for a righteous man. What need does a righteous man
have of the law? The law is made for criminals.
The law is made for lawbreakers. The law is made for adulterers
and whoremongers and things like that. The law is not made for
a righteous man. These were righteous men, made
righteous by God. So, what did the Apostle Paul
say to them? He said, No. He said, No. Look
here at verse 2. Therefore Paul and Barnabas had
no small dissension and disputation with them, They had a great falling
out with these fellows. Now that's God's man. That's
the man God sent. And he said to these preachers
that said, now once you're saved through faith, you've got to
come back under the law and keep the law or you can't be saved.
God's preacher said to those men, no sir. And he said in Galatians,
this is why I told them no. He said in Galatians 2, 5, To
whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour, that the
truth of the gospel might continue with you. You see that? He said if this continues, the
message these men are preaching, the truth of the gospel won't
continue. So that message was not true. That message was not
true. Now these men were denying the
doctrine of Christ. They were denying the righteousness
of Christ. That's what they were doing.
They were denying the doctrine of salvation by grace. They were
denying the doctrine that righteousness is given from God, from Christ,
to His people through faith. This is what they were denying.
Now let's hear Peter's word. Look down at verse 6. And the
apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter.
And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and
he said unto them, Men and brethren, you know how that a good while
ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles, that's who
these brethren were, they were Gentiles. He said that the Gentiles
by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel and believe. You
notice the Lord, when He sent Peter to Cornelius' house, when
He sent a man to Cornelius' house, that's who He's talking about
here, He didn't send these fellows who were preaching that there
was something they had to do. They had to keep the law. He
didn't send those preachers. He sent Peter with the gospel,
with the truth that Christ is all. That's what He sent. That's
the message He sent. Look at verse 8. He says, And
God which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness. giving them
the Holy Ghost even as he did unto us. He's talking about how
the Holy Ghost came on the Jews on the day of Pentecost. And
he said, when I was at Cornelius' house, Peter said the Holy Ghost
came on those Gentiles. And God tells us here why. Why
that happened. He bears them witness. He was
bearing witness. He was showing in that early
day in the church. He was showing the Jews, I have
purified their hearts. I have made them righteous. I
have chosen them and redeemed them and regenerated them. This
is my workmanship. I've done this. He was showing
the Jews that. And Peter says, even as He did
unto us. And he says, and He put no difference
between us and them. He put absolutely no difference
between us Jews and those Gentiles, purifying their hearts by faith.
You know what the lust of the flesh is? The lust of the flesh
is this. The lust of the flesh is to use
the law of God given to Moses to put a difference between me
and you. That's the lust of the flesh.
That's the lust of the flesh. That's the lust of legalism.
It's to use the law to put a difference between men and men. That's the lust of the flesh. Peter says God put no difference
between these Jews and those Gentiles. He said God's no respecter
of persons. You know why God's not a respecter
of persons? Because the scripture says we
have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We're all
on the exact same level, deserving of the exact same thing. And
what we deserve is hell, condemnation from God. We don't deserve anything
from God. And the scripture says, Who maketh
thee to differ from another? Who puts the difference between
men and men? Who makes men to differ from
another? What do you have that you did
not receive from God? God's the only one who makes
the difference and He does it by giving to men what we could
not have otherwise. So that we receive freely what
God's given to us by grace. So we can't boast that we're
any different from anybody else because it didn't come from us.
It came from God. Now that's how the child of God
will view himself in comparison with others, because he's not
going to exalt himself above others. He knows, I'm nothing,
I'm nobody. What I have, God gave me. That's
the only difference. Only difference. Now, these legalists
gave their ultimatum. They said, except you be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. Well, Christ
gave some ultimatums. And that's my message for you.
I want to show you Christ's ultimatums today. Let's go and see what
Christ said. John chapter 3 verse 3. Here's
God in human flesh and He gives some ultimatums. These are the
ultimatums we need right here. John 3 verse 3. Jesus answered and said unto
Nicodemus, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except... You see there, he used the same
language those men used. This is the ultimatum. Except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Christ
declares that we must be regenerated by God the Holy Spirit. Because
we don't have life. We come into this world dead
sinners. Dead in trespasses and in sins. And a dead man can't
give himself anything. He can't do anything. So we must
be born of God the Holy Spirit. We have nothing to do with the
second birth any more than we had anything to do with the first
birth. It's of God the Holy Spirit. Those legalists didn't have spiritual
life. They didn't have spiritual life.
How do I know? Paul called them false brethren in Galatians.
And they wouldn't have been preaching what they were preaching if they
had any spiritual discernment. Because here's what they didn't
understand. Look at Romans chapter 2. Here's what they didn't understand. These men didn't understand what
circumcision was. They thought that circumcision
in the flesh was how you were made righteous before God. You
started there and then you kept all the law and that's how you
became righteous before God. Because when God gave the law
to Moses, Moses taught him the law. And God said, this law is
going to be how you're going to have life. But what God meant
was, it's how you're going to have life in that land I'm giving
you in Canaan. He didn't mean eternal life,
eternal righteousness. He just meant in that land. This
is how you're going to live in that land. This is what's going
to distinguish you from those men. But now watch this. Here's what they didn't understand.
Romans 2.28. He's not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. That does not count. That doesn't
make a man a true Jew. That doesn't make a man the Israel
of God. Look here, verse 29. But he is a Jew which is one
inwardly. One inwardly. And circumcision
is that of the heart. in the Spirit, not in the letter,
not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God. That's
what Christ is talking about when He said you must be born
again. You must be circumcised in the heart. You must be given
a new heart. When the child of God is born
a second time, God gives us a heart that we didn't have, a nature
we didn't have, life we didn't have. And He makes us new. He makes us new. And He makes
us to live spiritually. This is being born of the Spirit
of God. And he gives us the life of God
and the understanding of God. This is what God did to Abraham.
Romans 4 says, When as yet Abraham was not circumcised in the flesh.
And he waited 15 years to circumcise Abraham in the flesh. And he
was showing Abraham what he had done in the spirit. In fact,
Romans 4 says he gave it to him as a token, as a memorial, as
a sign, as a reminder of what God had done in his heart. what
God had done in his heart. So Christ says you must be circumcised,
but it must be the circumcision of God. It must be of God the
Holy Spirit. Yeah, you must be circumcised.
Except you be circumcised, you can't enter the kingdom of heaven.
That's right. But it's of God, the Holy Spirit. It's God giving
you a new heart. Now here's the second ultimatum.
Look at Luke 13. Luke 13. Verse 3. The Lord said, except you repent,
you shall all likewise perish. There's an ultimatum. Except
you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Who gives repentance? Who gives repentance? That's
a work of God. God gives repentance. What do
you have that you didn't receive? God gives repentance. What is
it? It's a change of mind. It's a
change of attitude. It's a change of spirit toward
God, toward ourselves, toward everything. And this is what
God gives when He gives you that new heart. He gives you repentance. And God gets the glory for giving
us repentance by Christ Jesus. Acts 5.31 says, Him hath God
exalted with His right hand to be a prince and a savior for
to give repentance to Israel, to His true Jews. Circumcised
in the heart, He gives repentance and forgiveness of sin. Faith
is given when repentance is given. They're two sides of the same
coin. You can't have one without the
other. And in our text, Peter said, The Lord purified their
hearts by faith. He did this. So circumcision
of the heart is the purging of the conscience. It's purifying
the heart whereby the sinner is turned from dead works to
Christ, to rest in Christ, to trust in Christ. He doesn't give
us the spirit of bondage again to fear. He doesn't bring us
back under the law and that bondage of fear that if you don't do
this, you can't be saved. That's not what God does. He
doesn't do that. Christ doesn't give us that.
He gives us the spirit of adoption. He makes you certain, sure to
know you're a child of God now. You're in the household of God
now and it can't be undone. It can't be undone. So these
are Christ's ultimatums. You've got to be born again.
Accept you'll be born again. Accept you repent. Here's the
third one. Number three, Matthew 18. Matthew
18. These are all from Christ, Christ
speaking. He said, Matthew 18, 3, Verily
I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little
children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. We
must be humbled before God. We must be humbled before God. This comes right along. This
comes with regeneration. This comes with repentance and
faith. We're humbled. Our hearts are
broken and contrite. We must be humbled. We must be
made teachable. We can't be taught of God until
we're made teachable by God. We have to be made teachable.
We have to be made entirely dependent upon Christ as a little child. As a little child. You remember
the Apostle Paul? He's one of the best illustrations
of this. When he was unconverted, when
he was the Saul of Tarsus, he was in religion and he had everything
he was trusting in, everything he was boasting in. He was trusting
in his blood kinship, who his parents were. He was trusting
in the will of man and what he had done, will of the flesh,
what he had done himself. And he was trusting in the will
of man, what his parents had done for him, circumcising him
in the flesh. These were things he was trusting
in. And he had his letters, and he was on the road to Damascus,
and he was riding high in the saddle. He was proud, arrogant,
and he thought the things he had done had made him to differ
from other men. And you know what God did? Christ
converted him. Christ put his face flat down
in the dust at the feet of Christ. and blinded him, blinded him
so that he had to be led by another like a little child, even by
Christ himself. For the first time in his life,
he was dependent upon God like a little child. For the first
time in his life, he prayed. He prayed. That's conversion. That's being converted, being
made a little child. Here's number 4. Look at Matthew
5. Matthew 5. Verse 20. The Lord says, I say unto you
that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness
of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into
the kingdom of heaven. You know who these men were?
These scribes were the scholars. They were the students of the
law. And they They transcribed the law, and they wrote out the
scriptures of the law, and they debated the law, and they meticulously
kept the law. And these Pharisees were the
strictest there was of the Jews. They were the strictest concerning
keeping the law. They stressed law-keeping. They stressed law-keeping. They
tried, with everything they had, laboring with all their might,
to keep the law. They tried that. but they missed
Christ. Christian Scripture says they
stumbled at that stumbling stone. They didn't lay down on Christ
as the foundation and trust Christ alone. They tried to mix grace
with works. They tried to hang on to Christ
and hang on to works. And some just flat out denied
Christ. Just flat out denied Him. And that's what's going
on in our day, brethren. Here's the problem. Here's the
problem. Sinners are being taught works of morality and works of
law, but they're not being shut up to the fact that you will
never, ever, now or hereafter, before conversion or after conversion,
ever keep the law of God. You won't ever do it. No child
of Adam No child of Adam, fallen in Adam, conceived of Adam has
ever or will ever keep the law of God. Never. Never. Absolutely never. And we're not
even constrained by the law of God. Believers are not under
the law of God, and we're not constrained by the law of God.
This is what people aren't being taught. Look at Romans 10, and
here's what it results in. Romans 10. This is exactly what
it results in. Just what it resulted in with
the Jews. Look here. Romans 10. And hold
your place in Romans 10. We're going to come back here.
Romans 10. Paul said, brethren, here he's talking to believers.
And he says, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
is that they might be saved. He's saying, brethren, you who
believe, my heart's desire and prayer for my kinfolk, Israel,
after the flesh, is that they might believe, that they might
be saved by God. Because they're not, he's saying.
Look here, verse 2. For I bear them record, they
have a zeal of God. That doesn't mean it came from
God. That means they have a zeal that appears to be godly. They
have a form of godliness. Here's the problem. Here's the
problem. But not according to knowledge.
Not according to knowledge. It hadn't been taught of God.
It hadn't been taught of God. Look here. For they being ignorant
of God's righteousness. You see that? They're ignorant
of God's righteousness. You know there's a difference
between God's righteousness and righteousness which is by the
works of the law? There's a difference. This is
God's righteousness. It's of God. It's of God's design. It's of God's purpose. It's of
God's making. It's of God's giving. God's righteousness. And they're going about to establish
their own righteousness. Going about to establish their
own righteousness. And have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. For, here's the righteousness
of God. Christ. Christ. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. Here's what they
miss. Here's what men in our day are missing. The law was
not given to make us righteous. The law can't make you righteous.
The law can't make you righteous. Let me ask you this. If you break
the law, if you break the law, just the law of the land, and
you go before a judge in this earthly land, and you tell that
judge, I promise you I'll do the speed limit tomorrow, That
gonna make you not guilty for breaking the speed limit today?
You can't be made righteous by keeping the law. You can't do
it. We sinned in Adam, and when God gave the law, we were guilty.
We can't be made righteous by the law at all. The law was a
means to an end, and that end is Christ. The means was to shut
our mouth and declare us guilty. That's all the law was given
for. And the end for which he was given was Christ. The law
teaches us we're guilty. The gospel says, now here is
your righteousness. It's Christ the Lord. Christ
the righteous one. Christ our righteousness. That
was why the law was given. And if you can imagine, if you
think that I can be saved, I have to, I believe on Christ. I trust
that. I have to believe on Christ.
But you imagine that, but now I got to keep the law. I got
to do this work and that work and these works, or I can't be
saved. You're under law. If that's what
you think, you're under law. And you're under the curse of
the law. That's true. Now listen. As many as are of
the works of the law are under the curse. That's what Paul said
in Galatians 3. For it's written, Cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things that are written in the book
of the law to do them. If you offend in one point, in
thought, It's broken the whole law. And that's what we do on
an hourly basis, on a minute-by-minute basis, constantly. That's what we are by nature.
So, if you believe Christ is your only righteousness, that
Christ is all my righteousness, He's my only righteousness, period. You have the righteousness which
is a faith. That's the righteousness which
is of God. The righteousness which is of faith believes Christ
is my only righteousness. He's all. He's all righteousness. Now, back to Acts 15.8. I want
to show you something here, Acts 15.8. Peter said, in verse 8, God which
knoweth the hearts, He gave them the heart, He said, and He knows
it, and He bared them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even
as He did unto us, put no difference between us and them, purifying
their hearts by faith, just like He did us. They've been born
again. They've been granted repentance
and faith. They had been converted, and
they had been made the righteousness of God, and every bit of it was
by God. He did every bit of it. Now,
verse 10, Now therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke, to
put the law upon the neck of the disciples which neither our
fathers nor we were able to bear. You see that? God's children
are His children. If you're a child of God, you're
His child. You're His making, His workmanship. He's begotten
you again. He's done it. You're His child.
And any stranger that comes along, some preacher, some church, some
people, and they start putting a yoke on the neck of God's child
and trying to make God's child come back under the law, they're
tempting God, that child's father. What do you parents do when you're
out in a mall somewhere or somewhere and some stranger walks up and
starts spanking your child? What you gonna do? Huh? They're
tempting you, aren't they? tempting you to jack that jaw
for them if you're not careful. Now let me tell you, when you
tempt God, when we put a yoke on one of God's children, that's
tempting God. Just the same way, tempting God. And furthermore,
Peter said, and we nor our fathers were ever able to keep that law
anyway. Paul said to the Galatians, he
said, neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the
law, but they desire to have you circumcised that they might
glory in your flesh. That's the only reason. Sinner,
I wish you could hear this. I wish, I want God to give you
the ears to hear this, that I'm trying to tell you the truth
and I pray God will bless it in your heart if you don't know
this because Preachers, they're trying to glory in your flesh.
They're trying to glory in what they constrain you to do. They
use it to market it to people to get folks to join them. And
they're going to use it when they stand before God and say,
look at these wonderful works we did. Look at this workmanship
we created. And God's going to say, depart
from me. I never knew you. And if you're found there trusting
in what they've taught you, you're going to be found with them when
God says, I never knew you. I want you to know God. I want
you to fall at the feet of Christ and have the joy that believers
have who have been redeemed by His blood and made complete by
Him. If the Son shall set you free,
you'll be free indeed. And enjoy worshiping God. Enjoy
serving God. Enjoy hearing the Gospel and
His people. No putting on airs. No fake carrying
on like a bunch of Pharisees and no watching. each other and
whipping each other and worried that you're going to be whipped
by another. That's delightful, brethren, to be amongst brethren
and worship God. Now look here, verse 11. He says
this, Peter, we believe that through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they. This is what they
believed. God taught them, those Gentiles,
and they believe this, Peter said, and we believe the same
thing, that we're going to be saved just like those Gentiles
by the grace of God, through the grace of our God, by Christ
Jesus alone. Now look here, and this is what
he means too. We Jews who had the law and who
were striving to attain a righteousness by the works of the law, we believe
Now, by God's grace, we believe we're going to be saved like
those Gentiles who never were under the law of Moses, who never
had the law, who weren't trying to attain a righteousness, who
were just without God, without Christ, without hope in the world,
and yet God, by grace alone, came and saved them. We believe
we're going to be saved like that. Do you believe that? That's what
I believe. That's what you believe. That's
what we believe. The law contributed nothing.
Look back at Romans 9 now. Let me show you this. I'm going
to preach on this next. Romans 9. I thought I was going to preach
on it this week, but I'm not going to be able to. Next week
maybe. Romans 9. Look at this. What
shall we say then? That the Gentiles which followed
not after righteousness. Romans 9 verse 30. Romans 9 verse
30. But shall we say then that the
Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained
to righteousness, even the righteousness which is in faith? Paul says
up the page there, it's not of him that willeth, it's not of
him that runneth. When he says there that they weren't following
after righteousness, it means they didn't have any will, any
desire to be righteous. They didn't have any concept
of righteousness, and they weren't running after it. They weren't.
But he says, it's not of him that willeth or of him that runneth,
but of God that shows mercy. And that's how they were made
righteous. Now look at this, verse 31, but Israel, which followed
after the law of righteousness, They had the law, they had a
will to be righteous, and they ran after it. They strived to
be righteous by their works. And it says, and they didn't
attain to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought
it not by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law. You
know why? They stumbled at Christ the stumbling
stone. They stumbled at Christ. So look
at Romans 3. Here's the end of the message,
Romans 3. Here's the point then. Paul had to make this point over
and over and over. Because if things hadn't changed
in our day, brethren, we grow up being taught, we grow up thinking
that the way to God is by our obedience to the law. I grew
up thinking that was how you came to God. I didn't have to
really be taught that. I just thought that's how you
came to God. You had to do something. And that's what everybody is
taught. And that's what folks are being taught constantly,
every day, all day. It hasn't changed. We have to
be taught this over and over, just like Paul had to teach it
over and over in their day. Look here, Romans 3.28, Romans
3.28, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law. It's not his faith that justifies
him. Faith, the first thing faith does is it's accompanied with
repentance. It renounces self altogether.
Faith receives that which God has done. It's God that justifies. It's Christ that died. Faith
receives that which God's done. Is He the God of the Jews only?
Is He not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, seeing
it's one God which shall justify the Jew by faith and the Gentile
by faith. That's what that means. He's
going to justify them both the exact same way, by faith. Faith receiving that which God
has already accomplished for us. Do we then make void the
law through faith? Brethren, this is the only way
we establish the law of God. The only way we establish the
law of God. It's not by our works. It's not
by our striving to keep the law of righteousness. It's because
Christ did it. Christ gave the law sanctification
of heart, which is the believer's sanctification. He gave the law
righteousness in thought, word and deed, which is our righteousness.
And He gave the law suffering unto death, which is our justification
from all our sins. He gave the law everything the
law demanded. He filled it full and He took
the law completely out of the way so that you're not made righteous
by the law in any regard. And God comes, and He gives you
a new heart, and He gives you faith and repentance, and turns
you to Christ, and you believe on Christ, and He says, now then,
Christ is your righteousness. Christ has made you righteous.
You're righteous in Him. The law has nothing to do with
it. And from that day forward, you start worshiping God for
the first time. I do have one more thing to show
you. Back at Acts 15. I forgot this. Acts 15. Now let me show you something.
I want you to see this. This is very important. Acts
15, down in verse 19, James, after
he spoke, James said this, Wherefore my sentence is that we trouble
not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God. But
now watch this. But that we write unto them that
they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication,
and from things strangled, and from blood. Some of these things
were in the law. Some of these things were in
the law. Why did he then, if they said we're not going to
bring them into law, why did he tell them then to abstain from these
things? Why? He tells us in the next verse.
For, because Moses of old time, for a long time, has in every
city Them that preach Him. Them that are preaching the law.
They're in every city preaching the law. Being read in the synagogues
every Sabbath day. We could say the same thing in
our day. Here's the message. Here it is. Brethren, this is
what He's saying to them. This was their vain religion.
This was their idolatrous religion. They strangled things. They drank
the blood. They made fornication in their religious service. All
of this was part of their worship service. Worshipping idols. And
what James is telling them is, If you've been saved by Christ
and you believe He's all your righteousness, you don't want
to do anything whatsoever that's going to make these law mongers
and these law keepers that are preaching the law, you don't
want to do anything. They know the law. They're being
taught it all the time. You don't want to do anything
that's against that law that's going to bring a reproach on
the gospel you believe. Not because of righteousness,
just simply because If you're going to have any ability to
speak to them and teach them anything about the gospel, you
better not be guilty of anything because they're Pharisees and
they're going to charge you with it. And he's saying there, you
don't want to bring a reproach on your God at all. But see,
this is a new creation. This is a man who knows he's
righteous in Christ. This is a man who's constrained
by the love of Christ not to want to dishonor the gospel of
his Redeemer. You see that? It's a huge difference.
That's not law, that's grace. Do you get that? You get that?
All right, let's stand together. Father, thank You for Your Word.
Thank You for saving us by grace alone, by giving us everything,
life, faith, repentance, conversion, and bringing us to the feet of
Your dear Son and robing us inwardly and outwardly in His righteousness
so that we're complete in Him. Lord, keep us there. Keep us
never looking from Him and help us, Father, by the constraint
of Your love to walk in a way that's honorably, honorable,
that will not bring any reproach upon the gospel of our Redeemer.
We pray that in Christ's name. Amen.