Alright, everybody take your
Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 15. Acts the 15th chapter. And we'll find our text in verse
11 today. Acts chapter 15 and verse 11. And the title of the message
this morning is, The Council of No Compromise. The Council
of No Compromise. Acts chapter 15 and verse 11. The Apostle Peter here is speaking,
he says, but we believe that through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. Now, here in Acts chapter 15,
Luke, the beloved writer of this book, gives us the historical
event The historical account of the first church council. The first church council. And if you want to study this
later, in Galatians chapter 2, Paul gives us the theological
explanation of this council. Here Luke gives us the historical
event and what really transpired, and Paul gives us the deeper
meaning of this in Galatians chapter 2. So Luke gives us his
account of this council. And since this time of the council
here at the church at Jerusalem, there have been many councils.
There have been many councils in the church since this time
and there are some of them that had significant meaning. There
are some councils that have met together similar to this one
where they have declared the truth of the gospel of Jesus
Christ plainly and expelled error. But I'll tell you, many, many
of the councils that have happened after this one have been of no
consequence and no value. Many church councils, many churches
have met together and councils, but yet it is not of any significant
value. This was a council of value.
This had value to our souls. Now, when a denomination today
holds a council, and they do this year to year, you'll hear
and you'll probably... I get letters all the time about
councils and how they're going to get together and unify the
church now in these denominations. But I'll tell you three things
that always happen in these councils. Argument. That happens. You get a bunch of churches together
and they're going to argue. Then comes negotiation. They
begin to negotiate with one another and then a compromise is reached. A compromise is reached. This
happens all the time. Every year at these councils.
These so-called church councils. And for the sake of unity, they
have to compromise. No denomination. that holds any
counsel can survive without compromise. They must have it in order to
have unity. But we know that the church of
God must not and will not compromise for the sake of unity with unbelievers. This church, the early church,
did not compromise. They would not compromise. And
today, we as the church of God will not compromise with unbelievers. We will not compromise. There
is no debate about this. This council was not a debate.
This council in Luke 15 was not something they got together and
then they were negotiating the gospel. No. This was a council
of declaration. Not a council of debate. A council
of declaration of the truth of God's grace in Christ, that salvation
is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. This was
the declaration. And this is the declaration that
we should preach, that we do preach. And friends, at the end
of this council, this declaration, shut the mouths of all legalists. That's what this council was
about. It was about legalism entering into the church. And
this council should have settled it once and for all to shut the
mouths of all legalists in the church. We can see this from
verse 1. If you look at verse 1, it says,
And certain men came down from Judea, and taught the brethren,
and said, Except ye be circumcised after the matter of Moses, ye
cannot be saved." These men, they came from Jerusalem, teaching
that salvation is Jesus Christ plus circumcision. But Paul,
he being a man of God, an apostle of God, would not stand one minute
for this. When he heard what they were
teaching in the church, he would not stand for it. He being a
preacher of the gospel would not let this pass in the church. And so he had determined to bring
them to Jerusalem where they came from and to silence this
heresy in the church. And that's exactly what he did.
He said they came from Antioch down to Jerusalem to settle this
matter, to settle the matter of legalism in the church. And in this council, there were
three men that spoke. There were three men that spoke.
There were a lot of men there, but only three men spoke. The
Apostle Peter, the Apostle Paul, and the Apostle James. These
are the only men that spoke, and they declared in unity that
salvation is by grace through faith in Christ. Now, friends, this is how all error
and heresy should be dealt with in the church. This is exactly
how it should be dealt with. It should be dealt with by the
preaching and plain declaration of the gospel of Jesus Christ
and not through Bible study. Not through Bible study, not
through opinion groups. They didn't get together and
form an opinion about this. The gospel was declared by men
of God to the church of God. And the church of God believed
it and received it. It's not by opinion sessions,
it's not by debating or arguing about it. God says it and that
settles it. We preach it. And friends, if
men do not like this, if they do not like the gospel, they
will have to go somewhere else. They will not be able to change
the gospel by arguing. God's men just declare it. Men have called of God, declared
the gospel with no compromise at all. Paul tells us of these
legalistic Jews in Galatians 2 and verse 5, he said, I gave
them not subjection, no, not for one hour. I wouldn't even
put up with it for one minute. I didn't put up with it for one
minute in the church. And he said this, he said that
the truth of the gospel might continue with you. There is nothing
more dangerous than a pastor to allow slight errors into the
church, because all errors lead to heresy. All errors lead to
heresy. And when heresy creeps into the
church, the truth is dead. When compromise comes in, truth
dies. You can't compromise truth and
still have truth. Friends, it is either a lie or
it's the truth. You can't have both. And when the matter was declared
plainly by the saints of God, the letter was sent out to the
church declaring exactly what was said by the apostles. Now,
friends, Although this matter was settled, that salvation is
by grace alone apart from works, yet we still have these Judaizers
striving to come into the church unawares. Striving to come into
the church and to scatter the flock. They profess faith in
Christ. They may even speak of grace
and election. But still they are subverting
the souls of men by putting the yoke of the bondage of the law
on believers. Now, these men, these men of
Paul's day, they spoke of circumcision as necessary condition of salvation. That if men believe on Christ,
that's good, that's necessary. That's good that you have faith
in Christ, but You must also follow the ceremony of circumcision
and add that to the work of Christ. And even so, in our day, men
who say Christ's blood is necessary, there are men that say faith
in Christ is necessary for life, but they want to add something
else to it. They, in their crafty manner,
try to add one small work or one small detail to the blood
and righteousness of Christ. In effect, they try to add works
and grace. Now, some of these false teachers,
they love to add the Ten Commandments to the work of Christ. They say
that the Law is to be a guide for the believer's life. That
if you want to know how to live, that you are to go to the Law
of the Ten Commandments. They believe that in order for
a man, a believer, to be sanctified, and we're going to discuss that
later on in the next message today about sanctification, but
they believe that a man is sanctified by his obedience to the Law. That if a man will just obey
these things, if he will strive to obey these things, then he
will be sanctified. But friends, this is a lie. This
is not the truth. How do we know what's true and
what's a lie unless we go to see what God says about it? How
do we know what's truth unless we have, thus saith the Lord?
What does God say about it? Romans 10 chapter 10 and verse
4 says, For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believeth. Christ is the fulfillment. Christ
is the completion. Christ is the ultimate perfection
of the law to everyone that believeth. Friends, there is no place in
Scripture that tells us that the law is to motivate believers. Nowhere, nowhere does it tell
us the law is the motivating factor of believers to love.
What moves you to love Christ? What moves you to serve Christ?
Is it not the Spirit of God that lives in us that has come into
our hearts crying, Abba, Father? The law didn't bring that. The
law didn't bring anything but death and guilt and suffering. The law brought nothing but misery
upon us. But it was the Spirit of God
that moved in us to bring us to cries of life and peace. Paul calls the law in 2 Corinthians
3, verse 7, the ministration of death. Paul calls it in 1
Corinthians 15, verse 56, the strength of sin. Now, how is
the ministration of death and the strength of sin going to
move us to love? It doesn't. It doesn't. It is the Spirit of God that
does this. Now, some subverters of the soul, they don't go to
the Law of Ten Commandments. They make up their own. They
don't even go to the Law of Moses anymore. They just create their
own laws. These also confess that faith in Christ is necessary.
They also confess that faith that is blood is necessary. But
instead of circumcision, they add baptism. They add that you
must make a decision for Jesus. They add you must join the church. Let me ask you this. Are these
not works? Is baptism not a work? I was
reading Moose's bulletin this week, and he was talking to a
Campbellite about this, and he had asked him a question, is
a baptism a work? And he affirmed that it was. It is a work. And he said, so
you must be baptized to be saved. He said, yes, you must. And he
said, so then your salvation is contingent upon your work
of baptism. And he said, yes it is. And he
said, well then what do you do when the Scripture says, for
by grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And he said, well that's your
Scripture. That's your Scripture. Friends, sex, The false religion
of this world, they come to the Word of God and they take to
them what they want out of the Word of God and cast the rest
aside. But this whole thing is the Word
of God. It is God's Word. And God says
salvation is not by works. It's not by works. Is not the moving of decision
a work? Is it not a work for a man to
make his will to determine to do something? Yes, it is. I'll
tell you, you go to an Arminian and he'll say it's not. He'll
say, well, I made my decision, but that's not a work. That doesn't
make any sense. If you made your decision, then
you did something. It is a work. It is a work. And friends, they've made faith
a work. And yet the Scripture tells us that salvation is not
of works. Not of works. So then believer, when you hear
such heresies, see that God's apostles gave no such commandment. And so give no room in your mind
or your heart to hear them. Don't do it. Give them no room at all. No
compromise for the truth. What then is the truth? What is it that they declared
here at this council? I want us to see what we are
to hear and what we are to confess. Verse 11, our text says, but
we believe. But we believe. This is what
we believe. This is what we confess. This
is what we declare. We believe that through the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. First of all, I see that salvation
is by grace. We declare and we believe that
salvation is by grace. By grace. Believers, let us hold
fast without compromise that salvation is completely, absolutely,
utterly of the free and sovereign grace of God alone in Christ
Jesus. That is what we believe. Because that is what the Word
of God declares. And we will not compromise it.
We believe that the grace of God the Father chose us in election. We believe that the grace of
the Son of God came to be our Redeemer and our Savior. We believe that by the grace
of God, the Spirit of God sanctified us in calling us from death to
life and He gave us faith to believe on the Son of God. We must hold fast that salvation
is by grace. and not of works. Go to Romans
chapter 11. Flip over to Romans chapter 11. You'll be looking at verse 6. In Romans
chapter 11, I hear in Romans chapter 11, The Apostle Paul
is testifying that God has not fully cut off Jews from salvation. He was speaking about how that
God had cut off the nation of Israel and all of those old types
and shadows and dispensation is now past. But so that the
Gentiles would not be so high-minded above the Jews, he said, hey,
wait, fellas. Now just because God has turned
from the Jews mostly and turned to the Gentiles now, that does
not mean that not every Jew is lost. Not every child of Abraham
is lost. He said, look at me. I'm saved
and I'm a Jew. I'm saved and I'm a Jew. Peter
in our text says, we shall be saved. We Jews shall be saved
even as they, even as the Gentiles. So he's telling us that God had
not cast off His elect of the nation of Israel. The elect of God, both Jew and
Gentile, will be saved. And he gives us the example of
Elijah and how Elijah, he said to God, he said, God, they digged
down your altars. And they've killed your prophets
and I'm left alone." And God says, no, you're not. You're
not by yourself. How many times have we, being
a small group, think ourselves alone in this? We're not alone.
Friends, God has His elect people all over the place. He said to
Elijah, I have 7,000. Some people say there were millions
of people in that city at that time. And yet God said, I have
7,000 that I've reserved to myself. 7,000 men that I've reserved,
a remnant according to the election of grace. So then, Paul says
in verse 6, Look at this. If by grace, if
salvation is by grace, then it is no more of works, otherwise
grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. What then? Israel
hath not obtained that which he seeketh for, but the election
hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded. Friend, that's a clear passage
of Scripture. Is it not? It's either or here. It's not one and the other. It is either grace or worse. There is no middle ground. Salvation is either by grace
or it's by worse. Paul says it's by grace, and
election hath obtained it. Salvation was obtained through
the election of God. And this is what we believe,
that by grace we are saved. If any one of us ever is saved,
it will be because of the grace of God alone. Number two, we
believe that man is depraved and dead by nature. Peter says in our text, we shall
be saved even as they. Saved. You see, man needs salvation. Man needs to be saved. And this being saved is the act
of another, not the act of themselves. It is the act of God and not
of man. Because man is depraved. Man is naturally dead in sins. Those who preach freewill works
religion will be accepted by this world. I got a pamphlet
in the mail. I throw them all away. I don't
even care for you to read the garbage that I get in here. They
had a pamphlet called, I think it's the Unity of Faith or something
like that, council that they have. They're trying to get every
denomination just to come around this. And you know what their
object was? To worship the soil. It was to worship the soil. That dirt was holy. And they
were all going to get down in the dirt together and worship
together. Friends, that garbage will be
accepted. I scratched my head at it. I
just don't understand. But I mean, that will be acceptable. That is acceptable by the world. And I'll tell you, I saw a picture
of the Dalai Lama and some Catholic priest standing together. And
they can stand together because they are of the world. Their
religion is of the world and the world will accept them. And
they will accept the world. Their religion is acceptable
because it's the same religion of all natural man. You had this
religion and I had this religion before God came and saved us. We have the natural religion
of man that thinks and starts with man and works its way up
to God. Every man has that by nature.
That's a natural religion. All men by nature believe it's
possible to merit God's favor by some performing of some religious
work or by some sincere effort of obedience. Natural men think
it's possible to please God in themselves. I did. I thought if I was a good boy,
if I just followed my mom and dad, if I just came to church,
if I just did my best that Jesus would accept me. No! No, that's
a lie. They believe that God will accept
them when they do all they can. That God will respond, if they
will put forth their will or effort, God will respond to them. But God says something totally
different. God says, I will by no means
clear the guilty. God says, Be ye holy, even as
I am holy. That's what God says. Yet men
who have no such word from God, no such evidence that God will
accept their works, yet they blindly run, thinking that God will accept
them all the while. God says, I will not accept your
works. They have no evidence for their
works to be accepted, and yet they reject that salvation is
of grace alone. And this is because they are
depraved. But we believe, but we preach,
that salvation is of the free grace of God in Christ. We say,
oh, everyone that thirsteth, come to the waters, come and
drink eternal life freely. Come with no money, come with
no price. And yet men say, I must bring
something. Natural man says, I must do something or else I
will not come if I cannot do my part. The natural man says,
unless God accepts me for who I am and accepts my will and
my terms, I will not come. That's what the natural man says.
And again, I scratch my head at that. Freely come. Don't bring anything. I've made
it all. And man says no. Why? Why will you not come to have
life? Why will men not come to see
Christ? Why will they not take eternal
life? Because they're dead. Because
they're depraved. It is utter madness of the souls
of men to cling to their will worship rather than to Christ
alone. Hath God not proven His acceptance
of Christ by His resurrection? Yes. Why will they not come? Why would they join with others
of this world in thinking they can earn God's favor? But we
believe that because man is depraved, he will not and he cannot come.
Number three, we believe that all who believe on Christ shall
be saved. I believe that. We believe that. He says in our text, he says,
we believe. that through the grace of the
Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they have by faith. Yes, God does have an elect people. Yes, Jesus Christ came into the
world and died only for those people. But in time I know this, that
they all shall come and believe on Jesus Christ." Jesus said
in John 6, verse 36, "...all that the Father hath given Me
shall come to Me." How? By faith. You see, we're going
to be saved even as they. How? By faith. Faith in Christ. I tell you, a man can know everything
about the doctrines of grace. A man can know all there is to
know about election. A man can know all there is to
know about the death, blood, burial, resurrection of Jesus
Christ, ascension of the saints. He can know all of the details
of doctrine. But if he has not believed on
the Son of God, he is not saved. He is not saved. And friends, we all had our conversation
in time past, walking according to the lust of our flesh, haven't
we? Yet one day, God opened our eyes to see. God opened our eyes to see and
we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ alone. We confess that
salvation is absolutely of the Lord, that even our faith is
not authored by ourselves. That same verse in Ephesians
chapter 2 and verse 8, it says, "...for by grace you are saved
through faith." And that faith, that faith is not of yourselves. It, faith, is the gift of God,
not of works. And so then faith, all believers
come through faith. Look at our text. Beginning in
verse 7, when Peter was talking, he said, Peter rose up and said
to them, men and brethren, you know 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. He's talking about Cornelius.
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. How? By faith,
through faith. It is through faith. Faith, my
friend, is the channel by which salvation comes. Faith doesn't save us. Christ
saves us. We don't rest in our faith to
save us. We rest in the object of our
faith to save us, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
So then a person may believe everything, but if he doesn't
believe Christ, one of His. Have you believed on the Son
of God? Have you seen He is your only salvation and that salvation
comes by the grace of God alone through Jesus Christ's blood
and that His blood is the only atonement for your souls? If you have, you are saved even
as they. Even as the apostles, you are
saved even as they. And you have all of the rights
and privileges that the apostles had. Isn't that wonderful? All
the rights and privileges of heaven are yours just as much
as they were the apostle Peter and apostle Paul's. Just as much
mine. This is our confession. This was the confession of this
council. And friend, today, this council that I hold before you
today, this is the confession of this church, that we believe
that salvation is of grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ
alone, apart from all works and religious ceremony. And I say,
praise God. Praise God for that. I'm so thankful
that He has delivered to us the truth of His gospel. Let me ask you this. Who maketh you to differ from
another? Why are you here and the rest blinded? Why do I believe and I find my
family and my friends will not? It rests solely on the grace
of God. And so everything God says, is
for the praise of the glory of His grace. Everything, all our
election, redemption, sanctification, it will all be for the glory
of God's grace. And why should not the church
service be any different? Friends, this is what we believe.
And we will not compromise the gospel. May God in His grace
and mercy keep us, that we let not legalism creep into the church. And don't think you can't. Friends,
we have a special group here, have a special church here. But
I know this, that Charles Spurgeon had a special church. And it wasn't even a year after his death that
church turned to an Arminian freewill works religion church.
And it perished from the face of the earth. Truth was compromised
and the light went out. Do not think it cannot happen
here. So we beg our God by grace to keep us. I pray this be a
blessing to our hearts.