In Acts 15 verse 1, certain men
which came down from Judea taught the brethren, except you be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. Christ cried
out from the cross and said, it is finished. These men said,
that's not exactly what he meant. It's finished, but if you want
to make it finished for you, there's something you have to
do. That's what they were saying. And when therefore Paul and Barnabas
had no small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that
Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them, men from the church,
the church determined this, and they sent some men with Paul
up to Jerusalem and to the apostles and elders about this question. Being brought on their way by
the church church Supported this trip and Paul
and Barnabas passed through Phoenicia and Samaria and they Declared
the conversion of the Gentiles and they caused great joy unto
all the brethren And then when they were come to Jerusalem,
they were received of the church and the apostles and elders,
and Paul and Barnabas declared all things that God had done
with them. You see the joy that fills the
believer's heart to hear that Christ has been gracious to a
sinner. These folks, the brethren, were
excited to hear this. They rejoiced to hear it. Verse
5 says, But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees,
which believed, saying that it was needful to circumcise them,
and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles
and elders came together for to consider of this matter. Do
you see a contrast? Do you see a difference in the
way that the brethren received this news that the Gentiles had
been saved by grace? and the way that these fellows
received the news, they were cold and calloused and hard and
said, there's yet something to be done. These men aren't saved,
not until they've done what we tell them they have to do. That's
the spirit of bondage which every sinner is born with into this
world. And that's that spirit that makes our religious devotions
to be Created out of a legal binding fear that God's gonna
we're gonna be found out That we're really sinners that what
we've done hasn't really measured up to what God requires. It's
the bondage Adam was in after he fell which after he had covered
himself and He still was just not assured and didn't have the
peace that it was a good enough covering, so he hid himself in
the trees that God had made. This is that same spirit that
just, there's no peace and rest there. It's hard bondage. It's toilsome. It's laborious. You can't rest, because you never
know if enough has been done. And you can't enter into this
rest until you're brought into the complete fullness of rest
that Christ is. Now, verse 7 says, there was
much disputing, and then Peter rose up. And Peter brings a message
to them on this matter. And that's what I want to look
at tonight. The title is, Purified by Faith. purified by faith. Peter stands up and he says,
men, brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made choice
among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word
of the gospel and believe. Peter is speaking about the Gentile
Cornelius and his household. when God was ready to send the
gospel of Christ, the truth of Christ, to His chosen, everlastingly
loved, Gentile elect child named Cornelius and those elect in
his household. God didn't send Judaizers who
preached Jesus plus something that you need to do to make Jesus
work effectual for you. He didn't send those men. Those
men aren't sent of God. He sent his servant out of all
his servants, all his messengers that he had raised up, called
out, taught the gospel, strengthened in the spirit, made ready, able,
and willing preachers of the gospel of Christ. In word and
spirited in truth, he chose Peter out of those. for this reason,
that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel
and believe. Now let's review just a minute
back in Acts 10 and let's see how easily God is able to remove
every obstacle in order to bring the gospel to one of his elect.
Look here with me, notice God's really able, he's really able
to make men heed him. He is. Watch this now, Acts 10
verse 5. The Lord said this to Cornelius,
Now send men to Joppa, and call for Simon, whose surname is Peter.
He tells him where he is. He lodgeth with one Simon a tanner,
whose house is by the seaside. He shall tell thee what thou
oughtest to do. And when the angel which spake
unto Cornelius was departed, you know what Cornelius did?
just what he said to do. He called two of his household
servants and devout soldier of them that waited on him continually.
And when he had declared all these things unto them, he sent
them to Joppa. Now, Peter has to be dealt with
on this thing too. Acts 10 verse 9. Now on the morrow,
as they went on their journey and drew nigh unto the city,
Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour.
And he became very hungry and would have eaten, but while they
made ready, he fell into a trance. And he saw heaven opened and
a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet
knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth, wherein
were all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and wild
beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And there
came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill, and eat. This had to do
with the law of the clean and unclean. We saw that in a message
on this passage. The Lord's going to teach Peter
something here before he sends him to this Gentile. And he uses
this law of the clean and unclean to teach him what that law meant
all along. Well, when he told Peter, Peter
saw all these different kinds of animals. Pigs that it's you
wouldn't dare eat these different kinds of fowls that he wouldn't
eat Peter said not so Lord for I've never eaten anything that's
common or unclean Now listen, here's what the law of the clean
and unclean taught all along and the voice spake unto him
again the second time what God hath cleansed is Call not thou
common. You know who made the difference
in the clean and the unclean in that law? God did. God said,
this is clean, that's not clean. And God said, now Peter, you
go to this Gentile I'm sending to you. And he's showing him
through this law. And Peter says, I've never, never
had any dealings with a Gentile. And he says, what I've cleansed,
don't you call common. I've done this work, don't you
call it common. And this was done three times. And then Peter
got the message. He understood that this doctrine
applied to God's elect. Look at verse 19. While Peter
thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three
men seek thee. Now rise, therefore, and get
thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing, for I have
sent them. So he understood this, and Peter
preached the Gospel to them. He went to them and preached
the Gospel of Christ to them. Then he says here in Acts 15.8,
And God which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness, giving them
the Holy Ghost as he did unto us. Now watch where Peter's going
here. These Judaizers were saying that
these Gentiles who were believed had something yet that needed
to be done with them. They weren't pure. This whole
thing of circumcision has to do with purification. That's
what circumcision typified, the taking away of the defilement
of the flesh, a person being purified. And in spirit, it is
the circumcision of the heart. You know that from Romans chapter
2. But now look here, what Peter says, God God himself, God who's
jealous for his name, for the truth of his own glorious name.
Would he have bore witness of this if it wasn't true? God did
this, he said. God which knoweth the hearts. When he said this, it had to
have caused him to think about. Surely to think about their beloved
King David and the scriptures that they had that that We're
in the Lord told Samuel when he went to call David. What did
he say? Look not on his countenance Don't look on the outside Don't
look on the height of his stature Because I have refused him For
the Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward
appearance That's what these Judaizers were saying yet needed
to be done But the Lord looketh on the heart. Purification is
a heart matter. Sanctification is a heart matter.
It's not a matter of the flesh, brethren. It's a heart matter.
And he says, in God which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness. We saw Christ is the counselor.
He's the lawyer. He's the representative. God's
the witness too. That's a good place to be, to
have Christ as your counselor and God as your witness and your
judge. And he says, And God which knoweth
the hearts, bear them witness, and here's how he did it, giving
them the Holy Ghost even as he did unto us. The way God bore
witness that Cornelius and these other Gentiles truly believed
from the heart by a work of the Spirit that God had done in their
heart, was He baptized these Gentiles in the Holy Ghost just
like He baptized the Jews on the day of Pentecost in the Holy
Ghost. It was an outward symbol, outward show to bear witness
from God that He indeed had saved these Gentiles, purified their
heart. And God which knoweth the heart,
bear them witness, even as He did unto us. Now, what did that
mean when he said he bore witness with the Holy Ghost unto them
even as he did unto us? Well, it meant this, verse 9.
It meant God put no difference between us and them, purifying
their hearts by faith. No difference between us and
them. The legalist is looking for something. Anything, anything that he can
use to put a difference between him and everyone else before
God. You ever have somebody that,
the type of person that they can't ever say, they build themselves
up in front of people by putting other people down? by running
other people down. That's what a legalist does.
That's exactly what it does. That's why he wants to have the
law. He can use that law to bring somebody else down below the
level he is in that law. He can't bring himself up to
Christ level, but he can use that law to bring somebody else
down below him. There's always somebody worse than we are, always
somebody doing worse than we are. And so he says, but God
didn't put a difference between us and the Gentiles. Now you
just think about the bombshell that Peter just dropped on these
fellows when he said this. God gave the Gentiles the same
grace and privilege as he gave to those Jews that he had converted. that he had purified by faith.
God makes the believer to differ by pure, sovereign, free grace,
not by anything in the believer at all. What that did was, is
that hit a direct blow to their pride of race. Now, he was saying
to them, it doesn't matter that you're the natural descendants
of Abraham. That has no bearing on how God purifies the heart. Not at all. He's telling them
that it didn't matter that they had the law and the Gentiles
didn't have the law. The Lord said over and over,
there'll be those that'll stand in the last day and they'll say,
when did we see you thirsty and never give you a drink of water?
Didn't you see us running to feed everybody and clothe everybody
and going and visiting people in prison and doing everything
we could do? When did we not do these things for you? And the one that He saves by
grace will say, sees what He is and knows what He is, and
He says, Lord, when did I ever do that for you? You see the
difference in the two? It's something Peter was thankful
for. God's favor and grace has no respect in the way that the
believer conducts himself in matters of civil obedience or
moral or religious obedience. Peter denied the Lord three times
and it did not affect God's grace, His favor, His love for Peter
one bit. It didn't change at all. because his grace had nothing
to do with Peter's obedience in the first place. It was purely
by God's choice, by God's good pleasure, by his will to choose
Peter and be gracious and merciful to him. And so therefore, when
he disobeyed and failed, which is all that you and I do continually
every day, every hour, it had no bearing whatsoever on God's
grace to Peter. If we'll ever get a hold of that,
if we ever get a hold of that, brethren, that will cause us
to want to serve God in spirit and truth and quit looking to
our flesh and to one another and to walk after Him in newness
of spirit. It will. He said, and he purified their
hearts by faith. Now this is the subject of this
whole controversy. And I just mentioned to you as
I read the scripture that Peter addresses this matter using the
law of purification. We're going to see next week
that James addresses this. He's addressing it in the same
regard, but James addresses it as a making of all things new,
a rebuilding again of that which has been broken, making everything,
the old to pass away and all things new. So, but tonight we're
going to just look here at this purification of the heart by
faith. Circumcision of the heart. That's
what circumcision was given to show is circumcision of the heart
is the purging of the conscience, the inner man. Creating of a
new man, a new heart, in spirit, whereby the sinner is brought
to believe, to behold, believe, to understand that Christ is
all our perfection. He's all the believer's perfection. Completion. Seven. Fullness. We'll get into that
next week. Hebrews 9.13. Look here with
me. Hebrews 9.13. We'll start here and then we're
going to go over to Numbers. We'll look here first. This is
the New Testament commentary on what we're about to look at
in Numbers. Hebrews 9.13. If the blood of
bulls and of goats, now look here at this next one, and the
ashes of an heifer, which is sprinkled on the unclean, This
is talking about ceremony. We're about to look at it. If
that sanctifyeth, cleanseth, purified, perfected to the purifying
of the flesh, ceremonially, that's all it did. It was in type and
picture and shadow. If it did that though to the
flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the
eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God. Purge your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Now let's look at the law of
purification. Numbers 19. Numbers chapter 19. Now here is the law from which
that Now that's the sum and substance of everything this law says right
here, what I just read to you in Hebrews 9. Now let's go back
and let's look at this law of purification. Peter said, God bore witness when He poured
out the Holy Ghost on Cornelius and his household that He had
purified their hearts by faith. Let's see what that means. Hebrews
19 verse 1. Sorry numbers 19 numbers 19 verse
1 and the Lord spake unto Moses and to air and unto Aaron saying
This is the ordinance of the law which the Lord hath commanded
saying Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring thee
a red heifer Without spot Now who do you know who do you already?
see that this red heifer is a type of. You were redeemed not with
corruptible things, but with incorruptible things. A lamb
without spot and without blemish. This is the red heifer. This
is the one who purifies, who sanctifies. The red heifer without
spot, wherein is no blemish. Outward or inward no sin whatsoever
was in our Redeemer in Christ Jesus our Lord He said I sanctified
myself that I might sanctify them All right Upon which never
came a yoke Never came a yoke. He was made under the law. No
doubt about that He was made under the law that he might fulfill
the righteousness of the law in those he represented but He
never had to be bound by the yoke of that law. He never had
to be coerced to obey God, restrained by law whatsoever, because there
was no sin in Him. He said, Thy law is in my heart,
I delight to do Thy will, O God. He came delighting to do His
will. There's no spot in Him, no yoke
upon Him. And he says, And he shall give
this red heifer unto Eleazar the priest, that he may bring
her forth without the count. Where was Christ crucified? Without
the count. What does the Hebrew writer say
about that? Let me read that to you. Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13. Why was he crucified
without the count? Verse 12, Wherefore Jesus also,
that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered
without the gate, without the camp. Alright? That he might
sanctify the people with his own blood. Alright? Let's see
here now. They take this red heifer, bring
her without the camp, and one shall slay her before his face. This red heifer, spotless, blameless,
obedient, was carried out there and killed. Christ Jesus the
Lord willingly laid down His life, the just for the unjust,
that He might free us from the curse of the law. We were defiled,
polluted. Now look here, Eliezer the priest
shall take of her blood with his finger and sprinkle of her
blood directly before the tabernacle of the congregation seven times.
And one shall burn the heifer in his sight, her skin and her
flesh and her blood with her tongue shall he burn." Now Christ
suffered the wrath of God in the place as the substitute of
His people, that burning fiery wrath. What do we see in Isaiah
chapter 9? Every battle of the warriors
with garments rolled in blood, but this one shall be with burning
and fuel of fire. That's what our Lord endured.
And the priest shall take cedar wood, and hyssop, and scarlet,
and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer. Then
the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh
in water. And afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest
shall be unclean until the evening." Now let me see here. Let's get
on down here to what I want to show you. Verse 13. Whosoever toucheth the dead body
of any man that is dead It's almost sounds redundant
on whoever shall touch the dead body of any man that is dead
Y'all y'all kind of joked it the way that my southern accent
I pronounce dead and put a couple of syllables in it That's just
how dead we are By nature with double day. I Whosoever toucheth
the dead body of any man that is dead, and purifieth not himself,
defileth the tabernacle of the Lord. This is the law. When a man dieth in a tent, all
that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall
be unclean seven days. And every open vessel, which
hath no covering bound upon it, is unclean. And whosoever toucheth
one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead
body or a bone of a man or a grave shall be unclean seven days."
Now, this law is teaching us that we have absolutely no way
to purify ourselves or to keep ourselves from defilement. No
way whatsoever in ourselves. Not before conversion and not
after conversion. They couldn't come, if they came
into a tent, and they weren't even aware that someone had died
in the tent. If they were sleeping in a tent,
and somebody in the tent died in the middle of the night, and
they didn't even know about it, they were defiled. If they were,
if they took that body, they weren't in the tent, but they
had to take that body, it's a loved one, they had to prepare the
body for burial, and they had to take it to the grave to bury
it, all those things, they were unclean. They touched a dead
body. If they were out working in the field, plowing their garden,
and getting ready for a crop to come in to provide for their
family, being good fathers and good husbands, and they come
across a grave that they didn't even know was there, just went across where somebody
was buried, they defiled. Defiled. Every vessel that's
not covered. This is the lesson. What does
the Holy Spirit do? Seals us. Every vessel that's
not covered, defiled. Defiled. You drink of it? Defiled. Defiled. So, that means every
good deed, every good deed that we do is defiled. You know why? We did it. We did it. We did it. Our dead
flesh is what we have to be purified from. There's no way you and
I can do anything without touching the dead body of one that is
dead. There's no way. Now, the legalists
were saying that there was yet something to be done by the believer
using this dead flesh to make him pure, namely circumcision,
which is typical of purification. And they also said they must
keep the whole law of Moses. Paul said if you are circumcised
you are dead or do the whole law. There is no distinction
made between the ceremonial law and the moral law. No distinction
made. The principle is the same. You
are bound to the whole law if you look to any of it for purification
or sanctification. Any of it. So, the law of purification
told this, you touch a dead body, you're dead. And if you don't
purify yourself, you defile the tabernacle of the Lord. For the
believer, our body is what? What is our body? Know ye not
that your body is the temple, the tabernacle of the Holy Ghost,
which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your
own? Our bodies These carcasses right here that are going to
the dust, they're bought by Christ. He bought them with His own blood
and they belong to Him. Even though they're dead right
now, they belong to Him. And right now the Spirit of God,
if you know Him and the Spirit of Christ dwells in you, He dwells
in that body, in it, in that body. But for the believer, the
body is yet still what? If Christ be in you, the body
is dead because of sin. The spirit is life because of
righteousness. The body is dead because of sin. But get this
now. Get this now. This is talking about purificating.
These fellows said, well, you've confessed that you believe on
Christ, but now let's move on to perfection. Isn't that what
the Hebrew writer said? Laying in the first principles
of repentance from dead works, let's now move on unto perfection.
For the liar, that is, let's leave Christ now and go back
to the law because that's how you'll be purified. That's how
you'll be perfected. Oh, they wouldn't dare call it
perfection because we've learned our legal understanding that
we don't believe in the doctrine of perfectionism. Oh, yes, you
do. Yes, you do. If you point me
into the law into your flesh, you do. Yes, you do. You won't claim you believe it
because you've learned that as a legal doctrine. So you say,
no, no, I don't believe that. But, he says, this is the problem. If you live after the lust of
your flesh, you defile the tabernacle of the Lord. If you live after
the immoral lust of the flesh, you defile the tabernacle of
the Lord. Don't join this body with a harlot. Isn't that what we saw Sunday?
And, if I bring my body into subjection outwardly, and I count
that as being pure. or a little more holy than I
was before, or a little more sanctified, a little more purified,
I've defiled the body. Defiled the body. Because I've
touched the dead body of one that's dead. I'm using the dead
body in order to do these things. To live after the sins of my
flesh or to purify myself. What I keep telling you, the
body, what we are in this flesh is we're lawless and we're legal. That's all we are in this body.
That's the death we are in this body is legalist and lawless. That's all we are. Well, I'm
told to mortify the deeds of the flesh. Well, look at the
rest of the law of purification. It says, that soul shall be cut
off from Israel because the water of separation was not sprinkled
upon him. He shall be unclean. His uncleanness
is yet upon him. The water of separation. Now
I want to know about that. I want to know about that. This
water of separation could also be called the water of purification,
the water of sanctification, the water of cleanness, that
which takes away the defilement. I want to know about that. How
does that happen? We saw it's through the red heifer.
We saw that it's made by these ashes. But now how is that one
that's defiled? How has he brought to that ashes
and that water of that red heifer so that this defilement is taken
away? Well, let's see. Numbers 19 and 17. And for an unclean person, They
shall take of the ashes of the burnt heifer of purification
for sin, and running water shall be put thereto in a vessel."
Now, we just saw this is typical of Christ, the blood of Christ,
our perfection. And a clean person. We're defiled,
remember. And we can't make ourselves pure.
A clean person had to do this for them. They couldn't do it
themselves. A clean person had to do it.
Another must do it. What did Peter say in his first
epistle? He said, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. I think we just
found the clean person, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ
has got to purchase, got to bring this water of purification to
us. Isn't that what the commentary said in Hebrews 9? All right,
now let's read on. And a clean person shall take
hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent,
and upon all the vessels, and upon the persons that were there,
and upon him that touched a bone, or one slain, or one dead, or
a grave. And the clean person shall sprinkle
upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day,
and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his
clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean and
even. All right, how am I purified?
And what is this obedience? We're purified by the blood of
Christ, forensically, legally, by what he did at Calvary on
the cross, and in the conscience, experimentally, by the spirit
of Christ sprinkling our hearts as this truth of Christ, our
perfection is applied to us in the inner man. Now, and the one
thing Christ commands, what Art just read, the one thing He commands.
What must I do that I might work the works of God? This is the
work of God, that you believe on Him whom He hath sent. You
know what these Judaizers were doing? They pretended to believe
on him. They said they believed on him
with their mouth. They said salvation is by grace
through faith in Christ alone because that's what our good
reformers taught us. And that's what we believe. But
now, the believer is still under the law. And you're still bound
to that law. Well, he says, when God came
to them, He purified them by faith. He sprinkled their conscience. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God? You see that? Now, I'm made to
simply trust God my Savior to perform the whole work. Here's
the thing, here's the thing is what we're being taught. Look
at Romans 8 with me, Romans 8. All through Romans 8 we're being
taught that the flesh profits nothing. That's, if you want
a summary of Romans 8, the flesh profits nothing. You're not a
debtor to live after it in any regard whatsoever. It will profit
you absolutely nothing. Now here's, here's, look at this
now. If Christ be in you, Romans 8.10,
the body is dead because of sin. That means everything that you
and I do is going to be defiled if we're not purged by the Red
Heifer, by Christ Jesus the Lord through the working of the Spirit.
But the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Now, if the
Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in
you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. If I could
just summarize that, this is what I think it's saying. You
hear the gospel of our day, the gospel of morality, the gospel
of the great lie that was started in the garden is this. God wants
you to live like this, and this, and this, and this, and this,
and this. And it's all designed to make a person feel like that
they can somehow make themselves more accepted with God, gain
a reward with God, gain a better standing or become gradually
more and more progressively more holy before God or whatever in
this flesh. What this verse is telling us
brethren is your body's dead, but don't look to yourself to
try to raise it. Don't look to yourself to try
to perfect it. The same one that gave you life to understand that
it's really dead, He'll raise it. He'll perfect it. He will
make it perfect, a glorified body. And now here's the sum
and substance of what He teaches us, verse 12. Therefore, brethren,
we are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh. It profits nothing. For if you
live after the flesh, you shall die. That's why Paul and Barnabas
wouldn't back down on this thing, because if these fellas carried
this message forward, that you have to yet be circumcised, that
you're yet bound in the law, he knew they would die. You see,
he was doing them a huge favor if they would have shut up and
listened to him. But they wouldn't, because they were too exalted
in their pride of religion to listen. And we won't until God
knocks us down like he did Paul. But look here, it says, for if
you live after the flesh you shall die but if ye the new man
that spiritual man through the spirit do mortify the deeds of
the body you shall live the deeds of the body they're twofold brethren
the deeds of the body are the sinful immoral lusts of our flesh
and they're the self-righteous religious works of our flesh
that's what the deeds of the flesh are we got to mortify that
But now, if I don't have any power over that body, and if
the things that I would do, I don't do, and the things I don't want
to do, that's what I do, like Paul said, how am I going to
be delivered from this body of death? Huh? How am I going to
be purified and sanctified and know that I'm accepted with God? How's that going to happen? Oh,
look at this right here. This is good stuff. Verse 14. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Now listen, for ye have
not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received
the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Now let me see if I can give
you an illustration to make this clear. Will, five years old. He is all boy. He likes to climb
higher, thinks he can climb higher and jump further and run faster
than anybody else. And everything's a competition,
you know, for him right now. Well, sometimes he climbs up
and he gets himself into a situation where he falls. He falls. Now, he broke my law in the first
place by climbing up there. We're lawless by nature. That's
what we are. And the law of gravity has him.
And he can't free himself from it. He's going down. We're legalists by nature too. We cannot save ourselves by turning
to the law no matter how we think, no matter how he tries by his
own strength to stop himself from falling, that law's got
him. He's hitting the ground. But because He knows that I'm
His Father and I rule my house in love and not by the restraining,
constraining, beating rod of the law. He knows even though
He's broken my law. He knows even though that He's
guilty. He knows He can cry out to me,
Abba, Father. He can cry out, Father, Father. And you know how He is purged
from falling. You know how He's purged from
that defilement? You know how He's saved from Himself? By His
Father. Listen to me. There's a difference
between my illustration and how the Lord performs this work.
If you notice here, the first word, the spirit of bondage,
is in small letters. The spirit of bondage is what
we receive from Adam. That's what gets us into that
defilement. The Spirit of Adoption is the
Holy Spirit which the believer is born of, is led by, walks
in, and where by? Where by? You see that? Where by? We cry, Abba Father. You know when the Lord said,
Accept ye be converted and become as little children. You shall
not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. What does a little child
do? They don't try to clothe themselves.
They don't try to feed themselves. They don't try to get themselves
out of jams they get themselves into. You know what they do?
They cry, Father, Father, Father, Father, Father. And their Father
provides everything for them. That's what the Lord's talking
about right here. How? We're debtors not to the flesh
to live after the flesh, but we mortify the deeds of the flesh.
How? Through the Spirit, which makes
us to understand we're sons of God and brings us to cry out,
Father, Father. That's faith. That's purification
of faith. When He made you to see your
sin in the very beginning, what did He cause you to do? What
did the Spirit cause you to do when He purified your heart and
made you to behold what you are and to behold who He is? You
cried out on the name of the Lord, didn't you? What have you
done every time you've gotten yourself into a trial since then? Called out on the name of the
Lord, haven't you? And we live in a continual dependence
in the Spirit on Him. Continually crying out unto Him
from the heart in the Spirit. and we have peace. And you know
what happens when we have this? You know what happens as the
Lord does this work in us? We're reminded continually not
to go back, not to look to our hand to save ourselves in the
smallest trials, not to touch the dead body, not to join ourselves
with this harlot called the flesh, our will, our strength. And that
defiling flesh, that uncleanness which causes our blessed hope
of calling on our Father to begin to diminish is what we have to
be saved from. But the Spirit bears witness
with our spirit that we're sons of God. And when He does that,
you know what that does? That causes you to cry out. That's what causes us to cry
out to the Father. It's that peace with God that
we have. It's the access by faith into
this grace wherein we stand. And then when those tribulations
come, hope is shed abroad in our hearts by the love of God,
which is shed abroad in our hearts. Our hope is increased. You know
what John said there when he said, that any man that has this
hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. He purifies
himself. You know how we purify ourselves
when we have the hope in us that we are the sons of God? The Spirit
bears witness with our spirit that we're sons of God. And by
the Spirit, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. We cry out, Father, Father! We cry out to Him who is our
perfection. We cry out to Him who is our
purification. We cry out to Him. We cast ourselves
completely on His care. That's what I'm saying. That's
what this being purified by faith is about. Let me tell you how
the Hebrew writer said it. Let us draw near with a true
heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." What
did Paul use in Galatians when he was talking to them? When
he was trying to tell them, don't be yoked again with this defilement
of this flesh. What did he say? Because you're
sons, God sent forth His Spirit into your hearts. Now you cry,
Father, Father. Being made the sons of God, why
do you want to turn back? Don't turn back to that flesh. And so that's why Peter had heard
God say this, what I've purified, what I've cleansed, don't you
call comet. And so Peter asked this next
question in our text, Acts 15, 12. Now therefore, why tempt ye God? Christ said it's finished. The
Spirit of God bears witness with our spirit that we're sons of
God. God Himself bear witness that we're pure by faith in Christ
our perfection. Why tempt ye God by saying there's
yet something to be done by the believer? And He says to put a yoke upon
the neck of the disciples. Whose yoke does a believer wear? We wear Christ's yoke. The government
is on His shoulder. When God got ready to bring the
Gospel to Cornelius, He did it, didn't He? He did
it, didn't He? He ruled in the hearts of Peter
and Cornelius, and He brought Cornelius to hear the Gospel,
and when the Lord spoke in their heart, they obeyed Him, didn't
they? when the Lord taught Peter that
the law of forbidden meats was given by God to show that He's
the Lord who puts a difference between clean and unclean. Because
God revealed this in his heart. What did Peter do? Did he insist
in his law obedience? Or did he say, OK, Lord, I'm
going to Cornelius' house? He went to Cornelius' house,
didn't he? The yoke is Christ's and not man's. He rules in the
heart. And you know how he brought this
yoke upon Cornelius? through the gospel that says,
the yoke is his and not man's. He went down there and preached
Christ. And he brought this light and easy yoke upon him. And Cornelius
turned from the law and followed Christ, didn't he? And so when
these fellows come along saying, you've got to obey the law of
Moses, beginning with circumcision, Peter says, neither our fathers
nor we were able to bear that. Peter says, He's saved now. Peter is born
of the Spirit of God. If it were true that once a believer
is born of the Spirit, that he can obey the law of Moses, Peter
would have said, we can put this yoke on him, that's fine, they
can obey it. But Peter standing there as a born again believer,
born of the Spirit of God says, Why do you want to put this yoke
on them? We couldn't bear it then, we can't bear it now. And
neither can they. That's exactly what he's saying. Now be sure you catch what he
says next. Verse 11. But we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. Now the Judaizers were saying
the Gentiles shall be saved even as we. through the works of the
law, the work of our own hand. We've sought righteousness by
the law for generation after generation after generation.
If they're going to be saved, they've got to do it like we've done
it. Peter says, not so. You see these Gentiles here who
have never had the law of circumcision, who never even knew who Moses
is, or who the law is, or anything about that whatsoever until you
brought it up to them? Do you see them? God bear witness
that they are pure and accepted of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Now then, Peter says, we're going
to be saved just like they are, without the deeds of the law,
by faith in Christ, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, that's what we believe when God
purifies our hearts by faith. Have you sinned today? I'd like
to say I haven't. I'd like to be able to say I
haven't. But to think that I have not sinned, much less say I haven't,
would be nothing but hypocrisy. That's all it'd be. And all I've done today is sit
and studied this word. It's the majority of what I've
done all day long and sinned all day long. and get a little
glimpse of something and jump up and tap around on my toes
like I've, boy, I've really discovered something. See if I can learn
anything without God giving me something. Pride, just pride. Got to be purged from that continually. But He washes us continually. We're continually purged from
Him. And we behold that we've been
purged by the blood of Christ. And once purged, we have no more
conscience of sins. It's over. The work's finished.
We believe Him, don't we? I believe Him. It's finished.
I'm just waiting now, hoping for that righteousness which
is to be revealed when He comes. Because He's told me I'm a son
of God, and I trust Him. And I'm not looking anywhere
else but to Him. Nowhere else but to Him. And
by His grace, He'll keep me looking nowhere else but to Him. Well,
if you can't tell somebody that, if you tell somebody that, how
are you going to keep them obedient to Christ? If a man made you believe Christ
the first hour you believed him, you don't believe him. And if
a man makes you obedient to Christ any hour after that, you still
don't believe him. Christ does it from beginning to end, continually. He does it through his word,
through his gospel, in spirit, in truth, through the grace of
God. And he is as victorious in the
work he performs in us as he is in that work he performed
at Calvary. Our God, he's a triumphant. He
says, all power is given to me over all flesh. He can do with
His own whatever He will. And we're going to see, before
this is all over with, that even these ones who came with this
error, even those that came with this, God used it to unify His
brethren and to edify them more and more and more. He did that
on the cross, didn't He?