Acts 15. In Acts 15 verse 28
we read, For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay
upon you no greater burden than these necessary things. I want to talk to you about some
necessary things. necessary things. The all-important
issue in the believer's daily life and in our dealings with
one another as brethren, the all-important necessary thing
is the worship of Christ Jesus the Lord in spirit and in truth. That is the necessary thing. The issue that we each must have. The necessary thing is that we
behold Christ our Lord, that we hear Him in the heart, in
the spirit, in the inner man, through His Word, His written
Word, and through the Gospel that He sends forth, preached
through His Gospel, that we may grow in grace and in knowledge
of Him by His grace. in spirit, in the inner man.
Whatever I do, whatever I do that interferes with the necessary
thing, with the all-important issue of beholding Christ and
worshiping Him in spirit, whatever I do that interferes, that disturbs,
that hinders me from doing that, and whatever I do that hinders
you from doing that, That's the thing that must be laid aside. That's the thing that's got to
be done away with. The quickest way that we prove
insincerity, the quickest way that we prove that what we profess
with our lips to be true worship and true sincerity, the surest
way that we prove that it is absolutely insincere is when
we insist that our way and that our desire, our fleshly wants,
are more important than our brethren. Whether it be in liberty that
we have in Christ, whether it be in the liberty we have in
Christ, or in our demanding or expecting too much of others
according to the law, whichever way it goes, Salvation is of
the Lord. It's not of our hand. And we're
being taught by the Lord Jesus Christ in the heart to disregard
the flesh. That's what we're being taught.
To disregard the flesh whether it's good or it's bad. In us and in our brethren. That's
what growing in grace is all about. It's to behold Christ
and everything else just falls into obscurity. Back to verse
19 here in Acts 15. James said, Wherefore my sentence
is that we trouble not them which from among the Gentiles are turned
to God. Now, just a little refreshing
here, you know the legalists had demanded that the believing
Gentiles be brought under the requirements of the Mosaic Law,
beginning with the Law of Circumcision, the act of being circumcised.
So Peter stood up, and Peter stood up and he declared first
of all that it was God who chose him. And it was God who determined
that the Gentiles would hear the gospel of Christ. And it
was God who sent him to the Gentiles. And he said that it was God himself
who purified their hearts by faith. God did it. And he said that God bore witness,
God who knoweth the hearts bore witness that they were pure and
accepted in the Beloved by pouring out upon them the Holy Ghost.
They were baptized in the Holy Ghost. And then Paul and Barabbas
stood up and they declared that everything that had taken place
in the hearts of the Gentiles to whom they had preached the
Gospel was all done by God Almighty Himself. That's what they declared. And then James stood up and James
declared that this is what God has been saying He would do all
along. He gave us His word through His
prophets. He gave us His word in the written
word and He spoke all along telling us that He was going to rebuild
a tabernacle. a spiritual body. It was going to be a temple of
His making, not made out of stones, sticks and stones, but made out
of living stones. Regenerated, believing sinners
that He had brought to faith in Christ and that He Himself
would fitly frame them together. And he would have no respect
of persons. It wouldn't be based on whether
they were a Jew or a Gentile. It would be based on his sovereign
election of grace. And he would build this temple
up, and it would be his building, just like every other aspect
of salvation is his. And then James added, and he
said, This work of God that is the
salvation that's of the Lord has been known by God from the
beginning of the world. It's His work and it's always
been known unto Him. Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and James
all believed and were all teaching that Christ Jesus the Lord is
alive. that he's living, that he's risen,
that he's seated at God's right hand, and that he is working
in the midst of his people, in the hearts of his elect, his
redeemed, bringing them to obedience by his power. and not by the
power of men, not by the constraints of men, not by men trying to
make something happen. Christ is doing it. This was
the message of all of these men at Jerusalem at this council
as they preached. And so James concludes here and
he says, wherefore? Wherefore, because this is God's
work, and it's obvious through all these witnesses that God's
doing this. Wherefore, my sentence is that we trouble them not.
And I like how James practiced what he preached here. He didn't
force the brethren to adopt his view. He didn't say, it's my
way or the highway. He said, my sentence is we don't
trouble them. Let's don't trouble them. You
see, if he would have gone the other route and said, this is
what you're going to have to do, the legalist against whom
he was preaching would have rejoiced in that manner. That's just what
they were wanting, was to bind men and make them, try to make
them do what you would have them to do. But he wouldn't do that.
That's how diatrophies worked. John said, he loves to have the
preeminence. And he said, he won't receive
us. And he said, he goes about talking about us and saying every
manner. And he says, and neither will he even let the brethren
receive. Diotrephes was telling the people,
you can't go to them. I'm not accepting them and you
can't accept them either. That's how it is or else you're
going to have to leave this place. He forced his hand and said,
you've got to believe the way I believe or none at all. You've
seen that. Haven't you seen that? Most of
the time, fellows that end up doing that end up proving that
they never knew God because they're glorying in men's flesh all along,
and all along living in sin, hand over fist. And it usually
ends up being found out. But instead, James gave them
this wise instruction, and he left it for Christ to make the
people obedient to this. He did what He was sent to do.
Just like Peter, just like Paul, just like Barnabas, just like...
And James, he stood up and he said, this is what God said.
God's doing this. And he left it. Left it for God
to make the people obedient. Now, so what was James' recommendation? Verse 19. He says, my sentence
is that we trouble not them which from the Gentiles are turned
to God. He said, let's don't trouble
them. Trouble not them. That word trouble means to harass
or to annoy. That's what it means. In the
letter that the church wrote to the Gentiles, they described
a little bit more what this trouble was. Look there at verse 24.
Verse 24. Here's how, when they wrote this
letter to the Gentiles in Antioch, they said, for as much as we
have heard that certain which went out from us have troubled
you with words, subverting your souls, saying you must be circumcised
and keep the law to whom we gave no such commandment. This was
a subverting of their souls. It affected them inwardly, what
these fellows said. They made the Gentile brethren
think that there was something yet for them to do in order to
perfect the work that Christ said He finished at Calvary.
The Gentiles were at peace. Christ was their peace. And these
fellows agitated and disrupted that peace by pointing them back
to their flesh. Christ was their complete acceptance
with God. And these fellows came along
and subverted, tried to uproot them like you'd pack up all the
things in your house and pack them into boxes and try to move
everything, move away, move everything away. That's one of the meanings
of this word subvert. Christ was there rejoicing, but
these fellows would have them at least to some degree rejoice
in their flesh, which If a person is brought to do that, it's a
total denial of Christ and it's idolatry. The word subverted
means turning in a wrong direction. That's what it means. Subvert
means to put into reverse, to go backwards rather than forwards.
Now, this was Paul's argument to the Gentiles in the church
at Galatia. I want you to see this. Look
with me at Galatians chapter 4. You see, by grace, in truth,
and in power, by the power of Christ working in them, these
Gentiles had been turned from their idols to the true and living
God. But now, by the power of a man's
flesh, and by the wisdom of his words, and by the enticing words
of man's wisdom, they were trying to turn them from God back to
the law of Moses, subverting them, making them go in reverse,
not forward. Now look at what Paul says. Let
me make a statement to you, and I want you to understand this,
and I hope you know this, but if you don't, you'll know it
now. The Gentiles When the scripture talks about Gentiles, you know
it's talking about those who are not the natural descendants
of Abraham. They're not the natural sons
of Abraham, not born in Abraham's family tree. They're Gentiles. The Gentiles were never under
the old covenant. the law of Moses absolutely did
not apply to the Gentiles ever ever had no nothing to say to
them whatsoever now I want you to see how Paul compares their
desire to go back under the law of Moses after Christ had called
them He compares that to being the same with the idolatry that
they were in before they ever even knew Christ. Now watch this. Galatians 4 verse 8. How be it
then, when ye knew not God. He's talking to Gentiles. Ye
did service unto them which by nature are no gods at all. But now, After that ye have known
God or rather are known of God How turn ye look at this word
again It's a whole new set of fleshly elements they're using. It's the law of Moses now. But
he says it's the same thing as it was before you ever knew God,
before you ever even heard of the law, before you ever knew
anything about the law of Moses. How turn ye again to the weak
and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage. You see what he's saying to them?
He's saying, when you didn't know God and you were serving
your idols, you were in bondage to your flesh. Now, somebody's
come along and told you about the law of Moses, and about Mount
Sinai, and about the Old Covenant, and about the ceremonies, and
all these things, and now you want to be under those, and you're
going right back to the same bondage you were in before you
ever even knew anything about God, or were even rather known
of God. And he said, you observe days
and months and times and years. I'm afraid of you, lest I've
bestowed upon you labor in vain. So if they didn't have the law
of God, how were these Gentiles brought to be accepted by God? How were they brought into the
obedience that God requires of every sinner He saves? How were
they brought into that obedience in the first place? How did that
happen? Look at Ephesians 2. Ephesians
2. And it happened by God, through
God-given faith, through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
through the working of the Holy Spirit. That's how it happened.
Christ did it. Look, that's why Peter said,
of the Jews that were under the law, he said, we're going to
be saved like they were. Doesn't it stand to just make common
sense that if there were some who were saved without the law,
without any works of the law, without any deeds done by a sinner
under the law, doesn't it stand to reason if that's how they
were saved and never had it, then we're going to be saved
like they are. We're not going to be saved this way. We're going
to be saved like they are. Obviously, the law is not something
that's required, right? Well, let's see how it happened.
Verse 11. Ephesians 2 11 wherefore remember now he's talking to
Gentiles again Here's some more proof that they were never under
the law listen Ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who
are called uncircumcision Lawless without law by that which is
called the circumcision in the flesh flesh made by hands by
the natural descendants of Abraham They were just called uncircumcision
they didn't have listen now that at that time you were without
Christ and being aliens, strangers, foreigners from the commonwealth
of Israel. They didn't have any of the benefits
Israel had whatsoever. Strangers from the covenants
of promise. They didn't know anything about
God's promises. They didn't know anything about
a land of promise. They had heard nothing whatsoever
about a land called Canaan, where God would bring them in there.
They didn't know anything at all about this law of Moses,
this old covenant. And they had no hope, and they
were without God in the world. Now that's a description of the
Jews that are going to be saved as well. Because though they
had it, though they had the law of God, they were blind, dead
in trespasses and sins, and they didn't have any idea what they
had. But now look how these ones that didn't have the law, didn't
have the old covenant at all. But now, but now, In Christ Jesus,
this is how we're saved. When Pope Peter said, we believe
that we shall be saved even as they, this is how it happened.
In Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are brought near
by the blood of Christ. For He is our peace. This is talking about what Christ
did for them to reconcile them to God. To bring them near to
God. He is our peace who has made
both Jew and Gentile. His elect Jews and his elect
Gentile. He's made us both one. And he did it by breaking down
the middle wall of partition. That's what he calls the law.
Listen. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity. What does he mean by that? Even
the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in
himself, in him. They wanted to bring him back
in Moses, into the law. I said, they're going to have
to be under Moses' law. Peter said, no, no, no, no. We're
not going to be saved that way. We're going to be brought to
oneness in Christ, not the law, not Moses. And he says, for to
make in himself of two one new man, so make in peace. And that he, he might reconcile
both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity
thereby. That's what he did at Calvary.
He fulfilled the law on behalf of those he represented. Jew
and Gentile so that now the law has no bearing whatsoever. It
does not come into play whatsoever Now how are they gonna be brought
to know this? How are they gonna be brought
to obedience to turn from their flesh? From thinking they can
serve God in that law and to worship him alone. How's that
gonna happen? read on verse 17 and Christ came
He came I thought they used Paul and Barnabas, and I thought James
and Peter. He came. He used a vessel, but
it was Christ that came and preached peace to you. What was that peace
he preached to them? Verse 14, what did it say? He
is our peace. He came and He revealed Himself
in them, that He's their peace. He's what reconciled them to
God. He's what brought them into favor with God and made it so
God is at peace with them and they're not going to be condemned
any longer. He did it. And He preached peace
to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh. For through
Him, We both have access by one spirit unto the Father. And now, therefore, you're no
more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints and of the household of God and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets. That foundation is Jesus Christ
himself. the chief cornerstone, the foundation. In whom, in Him, all the building,
all the living stones are fitly framed together and groweth unto
a holy temple in the Lord. In whom, in Christ, ye also are
built together for an habitation, a dwelling place of God through
the Spirit. So, if that's how they were brought
into this obedience of faith, Christ did it. He satisfied the
law for them. Then He came to them and preached
that He is their peace. And He made it effectual in their
hearts. And He brought them into this obedience by creating them
anew by His power. Then brethren, guess how we're
going to be made obedient from then on? Guess how we're going
to be kept in this obedience of faith? Guess how we're going
to be made to submit to Him the rest of the time? By Him. He started it. He's going to
finish it. It's His work. He's going to
receive all the glory in it. And so therefore, to require
the Gentiles to be circumcised now, after they had been brought
here by Christ, would be to put them in reverse and to turn them
right around from Christ and send them right back into the
bondage from which Christ had just come to them and said, you're
delivered. You're free from it. You're following
Me now, Christ said. You're not walking after the
letter of the law. They were the epistle of Christ
written in their heart, the epistle of God written in the tablets
of the heart, of that new heart that Christ had created wherein
Christ dwelled, wherein God found a habitation through the Holy
Spirit. And they did what His will was and walked according
to His good pleasure because He was living and abiding in
them. Do you understand that? So James
said, I'm not going to trouble them.
I'm not going to agitate them, disrupt this peace they have.
Peter said it would be tempting God. It would be tempting God
to do that. So what did James say? Verse 20, Acts 15, 20. But that
we write unto them that they abstained from pollutions of
idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and
from blood. Now, these things were abstained
from in order to keep the weak brethren from stumbling back
into will worship and idolatry, back into that bondage. Because the Gentiles had the
things, or the Jews had the law of Moses which said these things
were to be forbidden. These things were not to be practiced.
Any of these things. But the Gentiles, to them, this
was a way they worshipped their idols. They offered meats to
these idols. committed fornication in their
worship services, they would eat things strangled. They would
just eat something that died of itself, something that wasn't
killed and had the blood drained out of it properly. They just
found something dead, they'd take it and eat it. It was filthy,
it was unclean. And they would take blood and
they would put it in a basin and they would set it beside
them and they would eat this meat by this basin of blood because
their superstition was as they ate the meat of the flesh, the
spirits came down and drank the blood of the flesh. So all this
is saying these things are forbidden in the law of God because it's
idolatry. It's will worship. It's the lust
of the flesh. It's what the flesh delights
in. And he said, abstain from these things because these things
are going to gender toward binding the weak brethren in the law. That's what it's going to do.
It's going to gender them to be bound by the law. So there's
three things, three reasons they were to abstain from these things.
Now get this now. These things were included in
their former idolatry and they would only serve to be a hindrance
between the Gentiles and the worship of Christ. It would turn
them themselves back to their idols and likewise it would affect
their fellow Gentiles the same way. So they said, just don't
do these things. And then secondly, the weak Jewish
brethren the weak Jews who still were hearing the law read every
Sabbath day in the synagogue. When they beheld a Gentile at
liberty do these things, and they knew the law of Moses forbid
it, it would cause the weaker brethren to look at this and
say, Well, they shouldn't be doing that. The law says they
shouldn't be doing that. And I don't do that, therefore
I'm better than them. And they're right back in that
idolatry. They're worshiping themselves. They're falling back
into that legalistic, idolatrous, old spirit that we had. And so James said, it'd be better
to keep the Jews from that idolatry, using the law of Moses, for you
to abstain from your idolatry that you have out here where
you've been serving your idols, those things that you were using
to serve your idols. And the reason was this, this is the
chief reason, that none of the brethren, Jew or Gentile, would
be hindered by Things that didn't matter. Things that were indifferent. So they wouldn't be hindered
by those things from worshiping Christ alone. Now, these things, let me show you
that. 1 Corinthians 8 chapter 8. 1st Corinthians chapter 8 now
is touching things offered unto idols. We know that we all have
knowledge Knowledge puffeth up Makes you proud but charity love
edify This is why they were being told to abstain from these things
if you know Christ you These things aren't going to matter
one way or the other, whether you do them or you don't do them.
Now listen. And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he
knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any man love
God, the same is known of him. Paul's saying right here the
same thing he says in Romans 14. If that man knows God, Christ
is his master. He can make him obedient. You
leave him alone. But now look what he said, "...as
concerning therefore eating of those things that are offered
in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the
world, and that there is none other god but one. For though
there be those that are called gods, whether in heaven or in
earth, as there be God's many and Lord's many idols, but to
us there is but one God, the Father of whom are all things,
and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things,
and we by Him. Howbeit there is not in every
man that knowledge, for some with conscience of the idol unto
this hour eat as a thing offered unto an idol, and their conscience
being weak is defiled. But now listen, meat commendeth
us not to God, for neither if we eat are we the better, neither
if we eat not are we the worse. But take heed, lest by any means
this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that
are weak. For if any man see thee which
hast knowledge, sit at meat in the idol's temple, shall not
the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those
things which are offered to idols? And through thy knowledge shall
the weak brother perish for whom Christ died. But when you sin
so against the brethren and wound their weak conscience, you sin
against Christ. This is one for whom Christ died.
Wherefore, if meat make my brother to offend, I'll eat no flesh
while the world standeth, lest I make my brother to offend.
That's why he told them this. Now, there's so much I want to show
you, but I'm not going to be able to. Listen, here's the point
of the matter. If you believe Christ is truly
working in your brethren, and you believe he's truly working
in you, and you believe Christ is all, then it's not whether
you get to go on in your liberty that matters. What matters is
the brother for whom Christ died. Because if we make him offend,
if we offend him, that's to offend Christ. So these things were
done in a very, it was done in a very orderly way and it was
done to teach us that Christ is the one to whom we stand and
one who instructs us and the one who teaches us. Now let me
just end with this. James is talking about the real
issue. This is the issue. The issue
is not outward godliness or outward ungodliness. And hear what I'm
saying now, don't misunderstand me. The believer's chief desire
is to conduct ourselves in a manner which is becoming to the gospel
of our Redeemer. We don't want the word to be
spoken against. The sin of our flesh distracts
us personally from Christ, as well as our own sin distracts
our brethren. We don't want that to happen.
That's why we abhor it and we desire to abstain from all appearance
of evil. That's what Paul said. It don't
have to be evil, but if it might just appear to be evil, he said,
just abstain from it. But the issue is a heart matter. Now get this now, a new spirit,
a new creature. In me and in you, in the new
man, we worship Christ in spirit. Our fellowship with our brethren
is a spiritual fellowship. The flesh still profits nothing. It still profits absolutely nothing. We must remember that. as we
abstain from the flesh and as we see sin in our brethren. We've
got to remember that. Because if we judge after the
flesh, whether it's ourselves or it's others, we're not judging
righteous judgment. We're not judging spiritual discernment. And by that I mean there are
a lot of variables that play into a man's situation, what
he's in, what kind of condition he's in. The issue though is
a spiritual matter. We don't want to regard a man's,
regard a person, respect a person based on anything in the flesh
done by him or not done by him. That's not how we, God's no respecter
of persons and we're taught not to be a respecter of persons. If our respect of a person has
to do with one who who gives a lot or one who just gives a
mite. What will we end up doing? The
Lord said of that widow who just gave a little bit, she's given
everything she had. But to the carnal eye, it appeared
like she hadn't done anything. But she did more than the rest
of them did. See what I'm saying? It's a spiritual
matter, and it's God knows the heart. That was the whole point
that they were saying. God which knoweth the heart hath
bared these Gentiles witness. We're not going to try to climb
up to his seat and take his throne and usurp authority over him.
That would be anti-Christ. We're not going to do that. We're
going to trust that he'll lead these saints on, and he'll make
them obedient. Look at 2 Corinthians 5, and I'll close with this.
2 Corinthians 5 verse 14, for the
love of Christ constraineth us. This is that work we're talking
about. The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that
if one died for all, then we're all dead. You know what that
means? That means me and you need to
just hush and be quiet. and trust Christ to do what he
started. And that he died for all that they which live should
not henceforth live unto themselves. All things are lawful for me,
but all things are not expedient for me. It's not necessarily
good for my brethren, and so therefore I'm not going to live
unto myself as if I'm the only one that he died for when I know
there are weaker brethren that don't understand the liberty
we have in Christ. And he says, But unto him which
died for them." That's who we're living to and who rose again.
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh. This
is exactly what I've been telling you. Henceforth know we no man
after the flesh. We're not judging matters according
to the flesh anymore. We're not looking at the flesh.
Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth
know we Him no more after the flesh." You know what he's saying?
It's better to know Christ in the Spirit, by His working in
the heart through the Spirit, than it is to know Him when we
walk side by side with Him when He walked this earth. better
to know Him through the Spirit. Because now they knew Him, having
risen and accomplished their redemption and seated at God's
right hand. Now they knew Him and knew what He had accomplished
for them. And He dwelt with them continually in the heart. There
were times when He walked this earth, they wouldn't be with
Him when He went someplace else. He said, now I'm with you always. It's better now, they said, that
we know Him in the Spirit. So it is with our brethren. We
don't know men after the flesh. We don't follow men after the
flesh. We don't regard the flesh. And it says, Therefore, if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed
away. Behold, all things are become
new. And that's the whole point. Fleshly judgment. Fleshly judgment
will always do this. It will always run out of the
tent. And it will run and call anybody
it can find. Anybody that will listen. And
it will say, come in here and look. Come in the tent and look. Come
in here. Daddy's drunk. Daddy got off the ark. and built,
made him a vineyard, and made him some wine, and he got skunk
drunk. Come in here and look. And he
don't even have any clothes on. He's naked as he can be. Come
look. That's what the self-righteous, legalistic, prideful nature will
do. But the spirit of grace that
doesn't serve self, but serve God, will take a blanket and
turn around backwards. and walk backwards and not even
look on their father's nakedness and cover him up because love
covers a multitude of sins. Self-righteous legalism delights
to expose them. Love covers them. I hope that's,
those are necessary things. That's the necessary thing, that
you be not hindered from worshiping Christ Jesus the Lord. That's
the key. That's the necessary thing.