Keep you up late and you have
to get up early. And these children, I can't get
over how well behaved these kids are. Here like this, as small
as they are. I'm going to read the first 11
verses and It's not often that I go somewhere
and know what I'm going to preach before I get there. And I pretty
much knew all three messages I was going to bring when I got
here. And this was the second one. And certain men, which came
down from Judea, taught the brethren and said, except you be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. When therefore
Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and dispistation with
them, they determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other
of them should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders
about this question. And being brought on their way
by the church, they passed through Phenis and Samaria, declaring
the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy unto
all the brethren. And when they were come to Jerusalem,
they were received of the church and of the apostles and elders,
and they declared all things that God had done with them.
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. And when there
had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men
and 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. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did
unto us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying
their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why tempt ye
God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither
we nor our fathers which neither our fathers nor we were able
to bear. But we believe that through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they. Now beloved, I've
titled my message this morning Circumcision or Grace. Circumcision
or Grace. Now the hardest thing, the hardest
thing for human nature to grasp is salvation by grace alone.
That's the hardest thing for human nature to bow to, submit
to, to understand and believe. It's salvation by grace alone. No part of us involved in it. Men always want to add something
to grace. And to add anything to grace,
add anything to Christ, and salvation by Christ, nullifies it, voids
it. That's why Paul said, I do not
frustrate the grace of God. I'm not going to make it void.
If righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. And if there could have been
a righteousness whereby the law, God would have given that. But
Christ was the promise that was given. And I'm telling you something,
those who add something to Christ and salvation by grace that nullifies
and voids it, they do this because they don't know Christ, they
don't know grace, and they certainly don't know themselves. If you
ever know yourself and your inability, and your sinfulness, and your
fallenness, and your corruptness, and what you are, you won't have
any problem understanding and believing salvation by grace,
salvation by Christ. You see, grace is not a cooperative
effort. It's not. It's not more grace
by baptism. It's not you get more grace by
having a deep religious experience. You don't get more grace by doing
something. or acting a certain way or doing
something no matter how good it may seem. And then these verses
that I've read to you this morning, this is the issue. Salvation
by grace or salvation by grace plus. And it's the issue then
and it's the issue now. Is salvation going to be by Christ,
by grace alone? Or is it going to be by Christ
and grace plus something else? And that was the issue then,
that's the issue today. And this is the first church
conference that was ever had, was over this one issue, to settle
this issue. Is salvation going to be by grace?
Salvation going to be by Christ? Or is salvation going to be by
Christ plus something else? And see, the first believers,
and that's what they come together, it says there in verse 6, and
the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter. Now the first believers are Jews.
To the Jews first and also to the Greeks. God in sovereign
mercy. Our salvation was of the Jews. Christ came of the Jews. The
gospel was first preached to the Jews. They, the Messiah,
the prophets and priests and all of them told about Christ
to come. So the first believers are Jews. And they had grown
up in the law, they'd grown up in ritual, they'd grown up in
traditions. and all the rituals and that. And Paul called them
Jews by nature over in Galatians chapter 2. He said, We which
are Jews by nature. And what he meant by that, it
was just natural for us to be circumcised the 8th day, being
taken to the temple when we was 40 days old, to have the sacrifices
if we was males, we was dedicated to the Lord. And we were raised
in the traditions of our fathers. Rabbi so and so said this, or
Rabbi so and so said that, or another Rabbi said something
else. And that's what they went by. And so there were certain
among them. And they said that things had
to be done in order to be saved. And that's what it says. Now
it says it twice here. In verse 1 it says, And certain
men which came down from Judea, came down to Antioch, where the
apostles were, where Paul and Barnabas were, and taught the
brethren, taught people like you and me, young believers,
and said, Except you be circumcised, After the manner of Moses, you
cannot be saved. You cannot be saved. And it says
there again, in verse 5, But there rose up Satan. Now they
went back to Jerusalem now. They are in Jerusalem now. Going
down there to settle this issue. And while they got there, there
rose up certain of the sects, as they were testifying and declaring
what God had done among them. There rose up certain of the
sect of the Pharisees, which believed, saying that it is needful
to circumcise them, and not only to ask them, but to command them
to keep the law of Moses. So the issue is this. Gentiles
must be circumcised. Gentiles must be commanded to
keep the law of Moses. Or they cannot be saved. That's
what they said. And when they talk about being
commanded to keep the law of Moses and being circumcised,
this means that they're commanded to keep every jot and every tittle
of the law. That's what they're talking about.
Not just part of it. Not just a little of it. All
of it. We're going to come back under
it. And the issue here isn't whether Gentiles could be saved
or not. They didn't say they weren't
saved. They didn't say they hadn't accepted Jesus. They didn't even
say that Jesus wasn't the Messiah. The issue wasn't whether they
could be saved or not. And we're Gentiles. We were not
Jews by nature. The issue isn't whether Gentiles
could be saved or not, but how they could be saved. And how
a sinner can be saved. And that's the issue today. How
in the world does God save a sinner? How can a man be saved? How can
it be saved? I remember being a legalist and
saying that, you know, and I judged people by their outward appearance,
whether they had television, how they dressed, how much makeup
they had on, whether they went to football games or this, that,
and the other, to decide whether they were converted or not. And
I was right in the middle of that mess. So I know what I'm
talking about here. And when they talked about circumcision,
when you were circumcised under the old covenant, and bring yourself
under the law to observe it, you had to observe every bit
of it. And Peter down here called it in verse 10, he called it
a yoke. Now therefore, why tempt you
God to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples? Put a yoke
on them. A yoke, and everybody knows a
yoke is what you, and you know down in Mexico and in third world
countries where they use steers and things like that and they
put yokes on them. They build yokes and they have
to shape the yoke to fit that particular animal. To control
that animal. And that's what he said, you
put this yoke on there. And they use this yoke to try
to control people. I remember I had a calf years
ago. And I couldn't keep him in the pasture. I could not keep
him in the pasture. He would leave grass that high
to go out and get in grass this low on the road and he was going
to get hit by a car and he was going to get me in trouble. So what
I done, I went to the woods and I cut a yoke and I put a yoke
around that rascal and tied it around him and he never got out
again because he couldn't get through the fence with that yoke
on him. I put him under the yoke. I said, you're not, you're going
to obey me, you're going to stay where I tell you, and that's
what they're saying here under the law. Gentiles can be saved,
but how are they going to be saved? It's how. So he called
this thing a yoke. And Paul told the Galatians,
he said, he called this heresy. He said, I marvel that you're
so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of
Christ unto another gospel, which is really not another. So here
the issue is not whether a Gentile, whether me or you or anybody
else can be saved, but how they're going to be saved. How they're
going to be saved. Let me ask you a question. Was
it necessary? Was it necessary for Gentiles
or Jews either to keep the law of Moses in order to be saved?
That's what they said, you cannot be saved. They commanded him
to do that. And you know some want to pick
and choose the parts of the law that they want to keep. Some
want to choose tithing and leave off the Sabbath. Some want to
choose the Sabbath. I know there's people up here
in New Jersey. I know for a fact people up here that go to certain
churches and they keep the Sabbath. And the Sabbath they call it
Sunday. But according to the law, the Sabbath went from 6
o'clock Friday till 6 o'clock Saturday. So they've already
broke the Sabbath by keeping Sunday. And if you're going to
keep the Sabbath, then you've got to keep circumcision. Then
you've got to keep the rituals. Then you're going to have to
have your priest. And you're going to have to start tithing.
And not only tithe your money, but you're going to have to tithe
the stuff out of your garden. If you've got 100 bells of hay,
you're going to give the 10 best. You've got to go through all
100 of them and pick the 10 best to give to God. God don't take
the worst. He don't take the second best.
He's got to have the best. And oh, there's no easy parts
to it. It says do and live, don't and
you're under the curse. And let me tell you, if it was
necessary for Jew or Gentile to keep the law of Moses to be
saved, If that is true, then Paul and Barnabas were false
preachers and false teachers. Because you know why? They preached
and taught that Gentiles and Jews alike were saved by the
work of Christ alone, by faith in Christ alone. Now ain't that
right? Look back over here in Acts 13.38. My they preach that Christ in
fact the Paul turned from the Jews one time He said seeing
that you put eternal life from you. He said I'll turn to the
Gentiles and The Jews got extremely mad, but look here in verse 38
here. He's preaching and Be it known unto you therefore men
and brethren All you brethren and men among you, that through
this man, what man? The Lord Jesus Christ. is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins, and by Him, and you find this
all the way through the Scriptures, by Him, for Him, through Him,
because of Him, and by Him, all that believe are justified from
all things from which you could not be justified by the law of
Moses. And so you see, beloved, they
went and preached that Christ, we're preaching Christ to you.
They went everywhere preaching and teaching the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now they didn't preach the law for acceptance with God. They
didn't preach the law for making you more pleasing unto God. They
didn't preach the law for sanctification. They didn't preach the law to
live a holier life. And let me make a statement right
here, and if you don't hear anything else I say this weekend, get
this one right here. Holiness is a state of being.
You cannot be more holy at one time than you can be another. Now you think about that. Is
God holy? Is He more holy at one time than
He is another? Well, how then that we that are
in Christ, how can we be more holier, do anything to be holier
than what we are in Christ? If He's made our sanctification,
If He hath perfected us and we are complete in Him, then how
in the world can we go to law or ritual or works and make ourselves
any more holy than we can be in the Lord Jesus Christ? Holiness
is a state of being. And if people understand that
and believe that, that our complete and perfect acceptance and sanctification
and holiness and redemption and sanctification is in Christ,
it's done, that we're as holy as God's own Son. accepted in
Him, received of Him, blessed in Him, regarded as holy as He
is by God Himself. You know what makes something
holy? God saying it's holy. He says, you know what made the
tabernacle holy? Because God said it was holy.
You know what made a priest holy? God said he was holy. And that's
what makes, so you can't, I don't care what you say or do, you
cannot be more holy at any one time than you can be another.
Holiness is not by degrees. And that's what law does, that's
what legalism does, that's what works religion does. You know
this as well as I do, you've been in services where folks
say, boy I sure wish I could live as good as they did. I'd
love to rejoice like they did. In works religion they do that
all the time. I wish I was as close to God
as so and so is. How are you going to get any
closer to God than being seated in the heavenlies in Christ?
You can't get any closer than that, can you? And we're seated
with Him. And we have Him, we're clothed
with His righteousness. Can you have a better... So you
see, that's what I'm... So if they're preaching the law
for pleasing God more, for sanctification, then they were false teachers.
And it was the yoke that the flesh is unable to bear. And
let me show you here in Acts 15, 21. And this is something.
It says in verse 21, see Moses has those that preached to him.
If you want to hear Moses, if you want to hear what Moses got
to say, it says there in verse 21, For Moses of old time, ever
since from the beginning, for years and centuries, Moses hath
in every city them that preach him. them that preach him, being
read in the synagogues every Sabbath day. So you see, if you
want to hear Moses, there's plenty of places you can go hear Moses.
There's lots of places down home if you want to hear Moses. There's
somebody preaching Moses. There's somebody preaching works,
there's somebody preaching law, there's somebody preaching do
the best you can, there's somebody preaching how you ought to dress,
somebody preaching where you can go and where you can't go,
what you can listen to and what you can't listen to, how you
can wear your hair and how you can't, whether you can use tobacco
or not, whether you can go to the beach or not. I got a preacher
friend down in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. that the first
time he went to Myrtle Beach, he got out on the beach and left
his shoes on, his white shirt buttoned up to here, and his
black pants. And when he got on the beach,
he took his shoes off, got in the water and rolled his breeches
legs up because he was so sanctified he couldn't take his clothes
off and put on a bathing suit. That's pitiful, ain't it? But that's what law does for
you. That's exactly what they're trying
to say. It's a yoke you can't bear. And
if I'd have been there, I'd have said, boy, that guy. I'll tell
you one thing about him. That guy's got religion. Got
lots and lots of it. That's all I'd have thought about
him. He's got lots of religion. I wouldn't have thought, well.
And so they're saying Moses is still being preached today. Let
me ask you another question. If it was necessary for Jew or
Gentiles to keep the law of Moses to be saved, then what we're
saying then that faith is not enough. That faith is not enough. Is faith enough? You read it.
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Much more than being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved by Him. And look here, look in
Acts 16, just a moment. Acts 16 and verse 29. You remember the Philippian jailer
here. You know, Paul and Silas is in the prison there and they
got beaten and God came and tore the jail down to get his people
out. To save this Philippian jailer. And he is fixing to kill
himself and he comes running in and he brought Paul and Silas
out and is all there and he says, Sirs, now this is a question
and this is some kind of a question. I'd love somebody to ask me this
question. Sirs, what must I do to be saved? What a question. What must I do to be saved? I
want to be saved. I want to have a relationship
with God. I want to know how I can be accepted of God. I want
to be saved past this world. I want to be saved from my sin.
I want to be saved from my rebellion. I want to be saved from death.
I don't want to die. What must I do to be saved? Well,
right here, Beloved, whatever Paul answers right here, whatever
he answers, that's going to settle the issue for us. Whatever he
answers. Now he had the opportunity to
tell the whole world, tell the universe, how God saves sinners
right here. He didn't say, now, it's the
law plus, it's the ceremony plus, it's the ritual plus. What did
he say? They said, believe. Believe. Believe. Believe. Believe what? On the Lord Jesus
Christ. Not the Lord Jesus Christ plus
a ceremony. Not the Lord Jesus Christ plus
your tears. Not the Lord Jesus Christ plus
your being on your knees, beating yourself in the chest. No, it's
the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, that's what salvation
is, is what he's saying. And oh my, if there had been
anything else that was going to be added to it, that was the
opportunity for him to say it. Is that not right? Wouldn't that
have been the time to say it? And oh my, you might say, you
know, people, they might say faith is important, but we've
got to do something else. What else would you possibly
do? Well, if faith in Christ is not sufficient, and faith
in Christ is not our salvation, and trusting Him, what else is
there to do? If there is, I want to know what
it is. Don't you? Look over in Romans
with me just a minute. Romans 3. Romans 3. To me, this is such an important,
important issue. Because it was an important issue
then and it's an important issue now. I have been through this with
people for years and years and years. I don't know how many people
I've had bang on my office door down home and come in there and
want to argue and debate and fight and fuss and say, if what
you're saying is so, then there's none of us around here that believes
the gospel. And you're saying that our works don't amount to
anything and that faith is a gift and that faith is not something
we have ourselves. And so they may even make faith
to be a work. It's something that you have and all you've
got to do is exercise it. If all you've already got faith,
then where's the grace at that gives you the faith? Look here now in Romans. Let's look at verse 24 together. being justified freely. I love
that word freely. I wonder how free it is. Being justified freely by His
grace, through the redemption, through the payment price, the
blood shedding of the Lord Jesus Christ. God foreordained him,
Romans 3, 24 and 25, whom God hath set forth, foreordained,
set him forth to be a propitiation, a mercy seat, an atoning victim,
a sacrifice. Through faith in his blood, through
faith in that blood that was shed to atone for sin, God set
him forth to do this and justified us freely through Christ to declare
his righteousness. And then he says in verse 26,
to declare, I say at this time His righteousness, He set Christ
forth, justified us freely, Christ bore our sin, redeemed in Christ,
and through faith in His blood, God declares His righteousness,
that He might be just, holy, and true, and right, and the
justifier of Him which, what does that next thing say? Which
believeth. And that believeth means continually,
constantly. Not I have believed, I do believe. I believe. Now, you see, that's
why we don't go back to a past experience. That's why we don't
go back 20 years ago and say, I got on an altar and I had this
experience and go back and have to go back to an experience to
say I was saved back there. You see, beloved, if I have to
go back 25 years ago and call on an experience to say I was
saved because I felt these goosebumps or I got on this altar. No, no,
I trust Christ today. Today. I believe Him now. I've got to have Him now. I want
Him now. I trust Him this moment. For every good experience you
can go back and look on, you can also go back and look on
a bad experience you've had. And when you go back looking
for an experience, then what you're doing, you're trusting
that experience instead of trusting Christ. So we go on here. Alright, then
he says in verse 20, well where's our boasting then? What are we
going to get to brag about in this? Where's our part in this?
Romans 3.27. Where's our part in this? If
salvation is by believing in Christ, salvation is through
faith in Christ, well where's our part in it? What are we going
to get to brag at? Where are we going to get to stick our chest out
about this? What are we going to get to say about it? What
part are we going to say? Well where's my boasting then? It's excluded. But what law? But what principle?
Of works? Oh, no, no. If you had works,
you could boast. And we talked last night about
law written in our heart. This is one of the laws God wrote
in our heart. But by the law of faith. The principle of faith. That's why boasting is excluded.
Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law. Oh, aren't you grateful that it says
that? Oh, justified by faith without the deeds of the law?
I'll tell you, this is a true story, just as sure as God standing
on His throne, sitting on His throne. Years and years and years
ago, I was riding with a fella, and we used to, years ago, started
preaching in homes like this up in Indiana, and Illinois and
places and we'd just have a handful of folks meeting and folks would
start believing a little something. But we was riding in a car one
time and this fellow, you know, I start talking about grace and
salvation being by grace. And he says, oh no, he said,
he says, I said, faith is a gift. And he said, oh no, no, that
can't be right. Said, you know, I said, the difference
in my salvation than anybody else's is that I had more faith
and that's why I prayed through. My faith is what God blessed. My faith is what got me saved,
and the reason somebody else didn't get saved at the same
time I was getting saved is because they didn't have the faith that
I had. And I said, well, how in the
world can that be? That gives you something to boast
in. He said, well, of course it does. Of course it does. Roger Kraft,
who that was. And listen, that fellow turned
out to be a preacher, and he's still preaching that mess. And he's a false prophet. He's
going to go to hell and everybody that believes him is going to
go to hell with him. You say, that's awful hard preacher. It's
the truth. It's the truth and I don't mean
to be hard. And thirdly, if the law of Moses, the law of Moses
in any degree was necessary to be saved, now listen to me, then
all the Gentiles from all history, Ruth, Rahab, if they were, then all the Gentiles
from history, all the Gentiles like you and I in the present,
and all the Gentiles in the future, we're not saved, if you got to
have love. And weren't they not, when Paul
went and preached to these people, didn't they not become believers?
Didn't they say they were first called Christians in Antioch?
Were they not believers? In all the places they went and
preached, did they not become Christians when they trusted
the Lord Jesus Christ? And so these men met here. These
men met, not to try and back over in Acts, with me now, back
over in Acts 15. These men met, not to try and
work out a compromise on this issue. That's what people do
now, you know, they try to work out compromises. Working, you
know, they try to meet them, they try to all, just see what
common ground we can come around. See what common ground they can
come around. I'll tell you what common ground people can come
around to that don't believe Christ alone and grace alone
and faith alone in Christ. They'll do like Pilate and Herod. They had enemies for years and
then when Christ was crucified, they became friends over the
death of Christ. And that's the way people will
be. Armenians, and Pentecostals, and Methodists, and Baptists,
they can all, people have all these different views, they can
all get together, and they can all agree on this one thing.
We certainly don't believe that salvation is by Christ alone,
and grace alone, and not works involved in it, no merit involved
in it, nothing that I do is involved in it. You said it, we're passive
in this business of salvation. We're passive in it. I wasn't
there when Christ died on the cross, except one way, in the
covenant of grace. I wasn't there when my sins were
borne away, but they were still borne away. I wasn't there when
Christ died for my sin and bore my sins in his own body, was
wounded for my transgressions, bore my iniquities. The chastisement
of our peace was on. I wasn't there when they led
him as a lamb to the slaughter. I was not there, but I was there
as far as God was concerned, and you know what? When I believed,
my believing is not what put my sin away. My sin was put away
when Christ died. And that's what the gospel does.
It doesn't come and tell us what to do. It tells us what's done.
It tells us what's accomplished. And it's when we understand that
Christ accomplished salvation, that Christ did it all, to all
Him I owe, then your soul can go to rest. You quit working.
You say, Oh, bless His holy name. I'm going to fall back on Him. Y'all remember in Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress, But old Bunyan was fixin' to go, Christian was fixin'
to go through that wicked gate, the evangelist met him, and said,
now whatever you do when you go through that gate, you stay
straight! Stay straight! Said, don't you get off there,
don't go up that mountainside, see that mountain, don't go up
on that mountain where that lightning and thunder is, don't you dare
go up there. That's the first thing he'd done. He went through
there and up that mountainside he went. He said he got up there
and he met a man in a long robe and a beard with a staff in his
hand. He said, he beat me with that staff. Oh, he beat me with
that staff. Moses, he met Moses on that mountainside. Boom, he beat him. And oh my,
he couldn't get away from him hardly. And he went back down
that mountain and he was all so beat down. He was so dejected. Evangelist said, what's the matter
with you? He said, I went up. Did I tell
you not to go on that mountain? And he had to start back again
and went straight this time. And when he got to the cross
with that burden on his back and that book in his hand, he
said, when I saw that bleeding man, that burden on my back fell
off and rolled and went into a tomb. Two shining ones come
and put these beautiful garments upon me. And they were shining
garments, beautiful garments. And oh beloved, Moses can't do
nothing but make you miserable and make you lose your peace,
make you lose your comfort, make you lose your insurance, make
you sit in Moses' seat and judge others. Judge others. But all these men
met, not to try and work out a compromise on this issue. The
lines were clearly, clearly drawn. It says there in verse 6, and
the apostles and elders came together to consider this issue.
Paul and Barnabas stands for Christ, and they stand for grace.
In fact, it says back up there in verse 3, and they were brought
on their way by the church. And they passed through Phenicia,
Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles. And oh, watch
this. And that caused great joy unto all the brethren. Oh, I
don't care where I hear about God saving one of His sheep.
It causes great joy to me, don't you? Great joy. I have great
joy coming up here and seeing all of you all. A new body of
believers. Oh, what joy it brings me. And,
oh, beloved, they got together to consider this matter. Well,
they come to a conclusion about it. Let's see what conclusion
they come to about it. Now, I don't know how long I've been. Anybody
know? And when there had been much disputing, oh, they just
argued and argued and argued about it. Finally, Peter rose
up. He stood up among them and said unto them, men and brethren,
Now he's going to say, there's some things that we know. There's
some things that we know. He says, men and brethren, you
know, because he went back and told them. He went back and told
them, they had this same argument back then, and when he told them
what God had done, they shut up. How that God, a good while
ago, God made the choice. That ought to shut a man's mouth
right there, you know. Didn't it written that God shall
have mercy upon whom he'll have mercy, and compassion upon whom
he'll have compassion? He said God made this choice.
I didn't make this choice. You didn't make this choice.
Moses didn't make this choice. God made this choice. And who's
going to hear the gospel? And watch this, that the Gentiles,
by my mouth, not by Moses' mouth, not by the
Pharisees' mouth, no, no, by my mouth, now watch this, and
you got to always do this, should hear, you got to hear. Faith cometh by hearing. How
shall they hear without a preacher? And he says, should hear, and
I love this, the word of the gospel. The word, the word of the gospel,
the good news. And oh, you go back and read
Acts chapter 10 and you'll see the message that he preached
that, that the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel by
my mouth. And what? Believe. Believe. Believe, that's what he's saying.
And God, and he keeps bringing God in this thing. You fellas
want to fight with somebody, fight with God. Argue with God.
Don't argue with Paul and Barnabas. Don't argue with me. Don't argue
with these apostles. You, your issues with God is
what he's saying. God gave them witness, and God
bore witness to them. Because he knew their hearts.
And that's what he does, he looks on the heart. We look on the
outward appearance. That's all that Moses can do.
Look on the outward appearance. That's all the law can do. Cause
you to look on what's on the outside. God looks on the heart.
Salvation is a heart issue. God gives us new hearts. And watch this. God gave them
witness. How do you know He bare witness to them? Well, He gave
them the Holy Ghost just like He did us. They spake in tongues. They prophesied. And those were
signs that God gave men in those days and women in those days
in order to prove that the Christ that they were preaching, the
Messiah, was indeed Jesus of Nazareth. And then he says, and
watch this, purifying their hearts. God's the only one that can purify
a heart. God's the only one that can purify
a heart. Ain't you grateful? I mean, that's where this issue's
at, right in here. God purified their hearts. Oh, and he done it by faith. No mention
of circumcision. No mention of Moses. No mention
of rituals. No mention of the temple. No
mention of a ceremony. No mention of a ritual. And he
says, God made the choice. And watch what he says now. And
God made no distinction, put no difference between a Jew and
a Gentile, between us apostles, us Jews, and them. We purify
ourselves by water. But he said God purified their
hearts by faith. And then look what else he says.
And this is it. This is this is so dangerous
here. And God have mercy on a man or
a woman who does it. Now, therefore, why tempt you
God? You know what happened when when Israel tempted God in the
wilderness? He's flew 23,000 one time because
they tempted him. How'd they tempt him? Murmuring
and arguing and dissatisfied with him. I don't like the way
you do things. I don't like the fact that...
I don't like this bread. I don't like this water. I don't
like this wilderness. I don't like these trials. I
don't like the way you save. I don't like your sovereignty.
I don't like the fact that you'll have mercy on whom you will and
you'll pass by whom you will. That you'll save one and pass
by another. That you'll tender one and harden
another. I don't like that. I just don't
like the way you do. He says, you're tempting God. Why tempt you God? Well, how
are you going to tempt God? By putting a yoke on the neck
of the disciples. Told you about that yoke. Our
Lord says, take my yoke upon you. My yoke is easy. This yoke here is hard. If you
put the wrong yoke on an animal, it will rub him raw. Rub all
the hair off of it. Blood will start coming out.
They will get raw, get blisters. Got to be a yoke to fit that
particular animal. And that's what he's saying here.
He said, put a yoke on the neck of the disciples. Now watch this. Which neither
are our fathers. Our fathers weren't able to bear
it. Our fathers weren't. All you got to do is look back.
He said, look what God did to them. Our fathers weren't able
to bear it. And we certainly aren't able
to bear it. So you want them to do what you yourself can't
do? what our fathers weren't able to do? He says, you want
the Law, and you yourselves don't keep the Law, and our fathers
tried and failed, and you've tried and failed, and yet you
want them to do the same thing? When nobody's ever been saved
by it? Our Lord said in John 7, verse
19, He says, You keep the Law of Moses, and
yet You say you keep the law of Moses, and yet you don't,
and you're trying to kill me. We have Moses. And beloved, if
they were saved, they were saved by grace. That's what he goes
on to say here. Now, if anybody's saved, they're going to be saved
by grace. For I didn't preach Moses, but Christ. And look what
he says here. This is the Apostles' Doctrine.
If you want to know what the Apostles' Doctrine is, right
here it is. Verse 11, but we believe. We believe, who's we? Me, and
Paul, and Silas, and Barnabas, and the Gentiles, and everybody
who knows Christ. We believe. We believe that through the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's the only place where
grace is at. The only place we get grace.
We're blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ. Grace is given by Christ, through Christ, because
of Christ. And it's the grace of Christ
that we live by. It's the grace of Christ that
God called us to. It's grace that's been given
to us in Christ. And we believe that through the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we, us Jews, us apostles, me,
Simon Peter, me, us, us Jews who are professibly, we believe
that we shall be saved, us apostles, me, Simon Peter, just like God
saved these Gentiles right here. If we're going to be saved, we're
going to have to be saved the way God saved them. That's what he's
saying. Well, what do you reckon happened
then? I'll wind it up. Then all the multitude shut up. And then Paul and Barnabas began
to talk. Paul and Barnabas began to talk. And let me give you
this real quick then. Where James said, this is what
we'll do. He said, we'll write a letter down in verse 19. James
is talking up there in Jerusalem. My sentence is that we trouble
not them which from among the Gentiles are turned to God. Let's
don't put no burden on them. Let's not trouble them. Let's
not trouble their hearts. Let's not trouble their mind. Let's not
trouble their souls. But we write unto them that they
are stained from pollution of idols. That's a good thing. Boy, I don't want to be around
no idols. I don't want no statues around. I don't want no crosses
around. I don't want no pictures of...
Tim James calls him Wild Bill Hickok. I don't want him around. I don't want no pictures of him
around. I don't want no crosses. I don't want no angels. I don't
want no statues. And that's what the pollution.
That's what idols do. They pollute you. And from fornication. Yes, that's a good thing. Stay
away from fornication. And from things strangled from
blood. And it didn't look quite well.
They sent him a letter and they went on to tell everybody about
this. And so they dismissed him in verse 30 and then I'm through.
And they got down there and they read this letter. So when they
were dismissed, they came to Antioch and when they gathered
the multitude together, they delivered them the epistle from
James, which when they had read, they rejoiced for the consolation. They rejoiced. Oh, these fellows
are not going to make us go under the law. They've settled this
issue. They've settled this issue and
if anybody comes bringing that again, I'm going to put my fingers in my
ears. I ain't going to listen. I ain't
going to listen. So, oh beloved, grace or circumcision, Christ
or law, faith or word, The answer is very simple to me. Very plain. Very plain. Ain't it to you? Our Father, our gracious, gracious
Father in heaven, blessed be your holy name for allowing us
this wonderful privilege to gather with the people of God, the children
of God, the saints of God here. Thank you for the worship. Thank
you for your word. Thank you for these dear people.
their appreciation for the gospel, their appreciation for the truth.
Bless these dear saints. Strengthen them, encourage them,
and teach us all. Lead us and guide us and protect
us and preserve us in the truth of grace, in the truth of Christ.
Preserve us, O Lord, from error and keep us cleaving and keep
us believing. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name as we thank you. Amen. Amen. The hymn will be number 126, and
let's stand while we sing our last hymn. 126, Rock of Ages.
126. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me
hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flowed Be of sin the double cure, Save
from wrath and make me pure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no longer know? This for sin could not atone,
Thou must save and Thou alone. In my hand no price I'd bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling. While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyes shall close in death, When I rise to worlds unknown,
And behold Thee on Thy throne, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, Let
me hide myself in Thee.