And I'll take one verse as my
text, but I'll be covering several verses here in Acts chapter 15. But let me read verse 11, Acts
chapter 15, verse 11. These are the words of Peter. as led by the Spirit of God. And he says, but we believe that
through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved
even as they, that is even as the Gentiles. If we're to be
saved, he says, we'll be saved the same way the Gentiles are
saved. This salvation that is of God
has always been by grace. And anyone throughout the history
of our race who has been rescued, has been rescued and delivered
by grace through the Lord Jesus. Let's ask God's blessings upon
his word. We thank you, Father, for the
record that you have left. And there is certainly no doubt
about it that through grace sinners are saved. Your word shows us abundantly
it is not of works, not by the deeds of the flesh, not by obedience
to the law, that men and women and young people are saved from
the guilt of sin, from the penalty of sin, And yes, even from someday
from the very presence of sin, but it is by grace. Oh, God of grace, we thank you
for knowing just a little of our own depravity. We understand that salvation
could never be by anything that we would do. It has to be of
God. and it has to be absolutely free. It has to be by grace. Thank
you for giving grace, Lord, to the undeserving. We're thankful that you revealed
the truth of the gospel of the salvation in, through, and by
Christ Jesus to each of us. Now, Holy Spirit, would you come
and once again impress upon each of us the wonders, the beauties,
and the glories of our Savior, His work of redemption, and indeed
convince us that The message of God to us is saved by grace. We thank you for Jesus' sake.
Amen. As we get to Acts chapter 15,
this is actually a Bible conference that is going to be held. Indeed, it was held. As we get
to Acts chapter 15, we have some things that happened that led
to this, what I'd call, sovereign grace Bible conference. with
the speakers being, certainly one of them is the Apostle Paul,
another speaker is the Apostle Peter, and the other speaker
was the Apostle James, the half-brother of our Lord Jesus. It's interesting
as you study and read a little bit about the history of Christianity,
that down through the years there have been numerous church councils
and various Bible conferences that have been held. There have
been many denominational councils. councils of various denominations. They meet, lots of denominations,
they meet each year and they send representatives from their
local assemblies and they get together and they debate the
issues and they perhaps have differences but they have to
come to some degree of getting along and agreement and then
they set forth their doctrinal position for the next year. Usually it involves much debate
and give and take. They've got to be tolerant of
one another's positions, and then they all come together and
vote, and then this is what the council has decided, and this
is the direction, whatever system of religion, whatever group of
churches it is, this is the direction we will go for the next year.
Most of those are of very little consequence. About in April of
1861, Charles Spurgeon had led in the
building of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in England, London. The previous location where they
met, the facilities couldn't hold all the people and so they
built a new building. They had a dedication service
and April of 1861, and they had a Bible conference. It was a
Sovereign Grace Bible conference. They had five speakers. The five
speakers spoke on TULIP, TULIP. Spurgeon is quoted as saying
that he wanted the tabernacle to be opened and he wanted everyone
to know that the message from that pulpit was indeed the message
of God's free and sovereign grace. And so they had these five speakers
who spoke on tulip, that is five points of Calvinism. I'm hesitant
to use the word Calvinist. If somebody asked me if I'm a
Calvinist, I don't say yea or nay. I say, what do you mean
by that? It's very necessary whenever somebody asks you, do
you believe this, that, or something else, that you then say, well,
it depends on what you mean. So, I will say that I do agree
with Tulip, total depravity, U is unconditional election,
L is limited atonement, and I is irresistible grace, and P is
perseverance of the saints. And Mr. Spurgeon wanted everyone
to know this was the position of the Metropolitan Tabernacle. And of course they had thousands
of people coming and it was a wonderful meeting with the various preachers
who set forth the very truth of God's Word. Well, after that,
I really don't, I can't remember reading, and I have read, of
course, the history of Spurgeon's Tabernacle, and read quite a
bit of Spurgeon. I haven't read that they ever
had another conference of that sort, and there wasn't a Sovereign
Grace Bible Conference, to my knowledge, until one was held
in Ashland, Kentucky. back in 56 or 57, something like
that. In fact, I was talking to Marty
about it before the service began. She's our resident historian. In fact, we were talking about
we wish that many of the things that happened throughout the
history of 13th Street Baptist was that they were written somewhere,
recorded. But there was a Bible conference
held here, and of course, Brother Mahan officiated. They had several
men who preached the gospel here, and we're thankful for that.
And of course, nowadays, there are Bible conferences throughout
the land. And when COVID is over with and
passed, I'm sure that we will resume having our Bible conference
in November, and other Sovereign Grace churches will resume having
their Bible conferences also. But here's the very first Sovereign
Grace Bible Conference, and it took place about 2,000 years
ago. This is about 25, 26 years after
the death and the burial and the resurrection of our Lord
Jesus after his ascension back to heaven. And here are the leading
speakers here, three apostles, and of course James being the
pastor of the church in Jerusalem. He kind of officiated, but Simon
Peter was the one who spoke the words that I read to you there
in verse 11. The apostle Paul had spoken earlier. in the conference and then he
most likely spoke after Peter did. This is a very, very vital
Bible conference because after this meeting, there would be
a very concise statement as to the way of salvation. Here's how it all came about.
Here's the Apostle Paul and Barnabas had gone out preaching the gospel. They were missionaries. They
were sent forth out of the church at Antioch. And that's true missionary
work, when a local assembly sends out men to go and preach the
gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. And that's what the church
in Antioch did. In fact, if you go back to Acts
chapter 13, Acts chapter 13, and here is, as chapter 13 begins,
here's Antioch. This is Antioch in Syria. And they have, they've kind of
become the very, I don't know what you'd call it, the centerpiece
of the gospel. This is where the gospel is gonna
mainly go forth from. Now, up to this point, it's been
Jerusalem. But then when we get to Acts,
toward the end of Acts chapter 12 and the beginning of Acts
chapter 13, the focus, it seems to shift from Jerusalem unto
Antioch. And it was at Antioch that this
man, as we know him, the apostle Paul and Barnabas, they were
anointed by the spirit of God and they were sent forth by this
local assembly. Look at chapter 13, verse one.
Now they were at the church that was at Antioch, certain prophets
and teachers. Barnabas, Simeon was called,
Niger, Lucius of Cyrene and Manion, which had been brought up with
Herod the Tetrarch and Saul. As they ministered to the Lord,
and as they preached, in other words, and fasted, the Holy Ghost
said to separate me, Barnabas and Saul, for the work wherein
I have called them. And when they had fasted and
they prayed, they laid their hands on them and they sent them
away. And so here goes Paul and Barnabas and they're sent forth
as missionaries. And of course their mission was
to preach the gospel. They weren't going out building
hospitals or orphanages or doing good deeds of that sort. No,
they had a much high calling, and that was to set forth the
way of redemption, the way of grace through the crucified Savior.
And so in verse four, it says, so they being sent forth, and
this is so vital, by the Holy Ghost. And so they go forth preaching
the gospel. Now, as they go forth preaching,
they meet resistance along the way, and that's not unusual. And of course, later the apostle
Paul will write concerning some of the persecution that he endured
over the course of his ministry, but their business was preaching
the gospel. You get over to chapter 14. Chapter
14, verse one, it came to pass in Iconium that they went both
together into the synagogue of the Jews and spake and a great
multitude of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed. But then
the Jews, that is the self-righteous unbelieving Jews, they stirred
up the Gentiles. and more persecution. And finally
they left, but not before verse seven, and they preach the gospel.
That's where they preach the gospel. This is their ministry. Here's what a man does. This
is all preachers do is preach the good news of the redemption
by the Lord Jesus of finished salvation. And so they move on,
they move on. And you get down, beginning at
verse 8, they come across this man who is lame, and he is healed. by the power of the Spirit of
God. And he jumped up and down. He's so happy. And then the people
of Lystra and Derby, they looked at this man, Paul, and looked
at Barnabas and said, these guys are gods. And they begin to worship
them. They begin to honor them. And
of course, Paul said, don't do that. Don't do that. Well, then
some Judaizers came in. Who are the Judaizers? They come
from Jerusalem and they insist that salvation is by grace and
works. And of course, it can't be both
ways, but they blended works with grace. And they rejected
the ministry of these two missionaries. And then they just turned the
tide of the people against them. In fact, these same people who
said, let's make them gods, the gods are among us, these same
people then demanded their death. And they actually stoned Saul,
or Paul, and drug his body through the streets. And yet, the very
next day, he's back up preaching the gospel again. Verse 21, when
they had preached the gospel to that city and they taught
many, they returned again to Lystron, to Iconium, and Antioch. And so they just keep on preaching
the gospel. They just don't miss a beat.
In fact, I suspect that this occasion when Paul was stoned
to death, that he was stoned to death, I should say that,
and that his soul went to paradise. That's what I believe. That's
when he later would write about going to the third heaven and
seeing and hearing things that he could not repeat. Anyway, they pick up and they
keep on preaching the gospel. And of course, they finally go
back to Antioch. And you'll see in chapter 14
in verse 26, then they sailed to Antioch. They've kind of made
a great big circle. That's the first missionary journey.
They sailed the Antioch from whence they had been recommended
to the grace of God, for the work which they fulfilled. And
when they were come, they gathered the church together, they rehearsed
all that God had done with them. They didn't say what they did,
they said what God did. God has saved people. God has
used us in the healing of people in order to get the attention
of the people that they would listen to us preach Christ and
Him crucified. So they rehearsed all that the
Lord had did with them and how He had opened the door of faith
unto the Gentiles. This is very important. Because
the gospel up until primarily, well, up until Acts chapter 10,
when Peter went and preached the gospel in Caesarea to the
household of Cornelius. Before that, the gospel had been
mainly confined to the Jews. But our Lord Jesus, before he
ascended back to heaven, he gave to these men, he gave to his
disciples the great commission to go in all the world and preach
the gospel. Now, they didn't do that immediately. It took persecution to kind of
to shake them up and drive them out. And then the gospel began
to go forth and then it began to go forth to the Gentiles.
The Jews throughout the Old Testament is primarily the Jews and even
through the four gospels and the very beginning of the book
of Acts. It's to the Jews and the scripture
says to the Jew first, but also to the Greeks. But now we see
things beginning to take a turn. And the gospel goes forth to
us ungodly idolatrous Gentiles. And God has saved many Gentiles
through the ministry of these two men as they preached the
gospel of the grace of God. They didn't preach law. They
didn't preach Sabbath obedience. They didn't preach fasting. They
preached Christ crucified. He was their message. And the
Gentiles started listening. In fact, as many as God had ordained
believed the gospel of the Gentiles. And so as these two missionaries
got back to Antioch and they rehearsed all the things that
God had done through them, word, of course, it spread quickly. God is sending the gospel to
other Gentiles and people are rejoicing. But not everybody
was rejoicing. There was a group of people that
was very upset. Look at chapter 15, verse one.
And certain men which came down from Judea, they taught the brethren. They said, except ye be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved. Now these are
Judaizers. Oh, they would speak of grace
and they would speak of mercy. They would speak of the work
of the Lord Jesus, but they said, in addition to believing on Jesus
of Nazareth, you've got to be in obedience to Moses' law. You must be circumcised to really
be a Christian, to really be saved. Well, this didn't go over
very well, of course, with Paul and Barnabas, because they preached
the grace of God. They preached salvation not of
works. In fact, the Gentiles didn't
know anything about the law of God because the law of God wasn't
given to the Gentiles. That's the reason later in Acts
chapter 15 when the letters went out, James insisted that letters
go out to all the various local assemblies in the area, they
began to speak about abstained from fornication. You see, that
was kind of a way of life with the Gentiles. They didn't have
the Mosaic law. They didn't know about those
principles. And so when the letters go out informing the churches
of this statement of gospel fact that had been decided upon by
Peter and James and Paul, And undoubtedly John was there too,
but he didn't speak at this. As the letters go forth, they
also mentioned things that they should, people should avoid because
they didn't have the law of Moses. But here these Judaizers, they
come in and they insist, there's got to be law preaching here.
There's got to be obedience to circumcision. And they mentioned
that, and that's kind of a key word for all of the law, specifically
that part of the law that men generally refer to as the ceremonial
law. But you cannot divide the ceremonial
law and the moral law. So they want to put people under
the law, and this is the issue. And so we read in verse two here
in chapter 15, when therefore Paul and Barnabas had had no
small dissension and disputation with them, they determined that
Paul and Barnabas and certain others of them should go up to
Jerusalem unto the apostles and the elders about this question.
They said, this needs to be handled by the apostles and the elders. Now they weren't going to Jerusalem
to debate. They weren't going to Jerusalem
to argue. They weren't going to Jerusalem
so every man could give his opinion and then they would vote among
themselves. Okay, what is our official statement? I don't know what we should say.
What do you think we should say? But it wasn't like that. There
was no debate. You see, today when men get together,
generally in church councils, there's got to be give and take
on various things. The Southern Baptist Convention,
I'll use that as an example. They have their meetings and
they have their representatives and, well, are we going to ordain
women or not? We're going to ordain women to
the ministry. We're going to ordain women to deacons. We're going to do this. We're
going to do that. What are we going to say about homosexuality? That's such a critical issue
today. What about divorce? What about various things? That's the way it is in church
councils today, where everybody has an input. And all these different
ideas are put forth, and then they vote and say, well, now,
what is the consensus? We've got to come to some consensus.
We've got to come to some position. It's kind of like the political
meetings when the Republican Party or the Democratic Party
or whatever kind of party you want to name, when they get together
and they say, well, what is our platform going to be? And you
have all these different ideas and then they vote and they say,
well, there's got to be compromise. You know, we can't all get what
we want here, but let's see if we can get the main things. That's
not what this council was about. There was no debate. There was
no negotiation. They went to Jerusalem and out
of Jerusalem will come one clearly worded statement about the way
of salvation. Now, when these two missionaries
came back and they heard what these Judaizers were saying,
these Gentiles got to be circumcised now. You guys did not preach
the full gospel to them. I can just hear them saying that. Because you didn't tell them
about the necessity of the ceremonial law and their duty to obey it. You see, even though these men
spoke about grace and spoke about Jesus, they're really law men. And they hated the gospel of
God's grace. You see, works will not tolerate
grace and grace will not tolerate works either. And we read in
the book of Romans, if by grace, it's all grace, if by works,
it's all works. These men would have people to
think that this salvation is by mixture of grace and works. And specifically they mentioned
that of circumcision. Now, circumcision was an Old
Testament rite. It was an Old Testament ritual,
a ceremonial ritual, whereby the seed of Abraham were marked. They were cut. Little baby boys,
they were circumcised. And they received the circumcision
made with hands. that identified that male as
being one of the seed of Abraham. Now a lot of people today think
that that circumcision of the Old Testament is baptism in the
New Testament. There are lots of people who
believe that. And they say when little infants that they need
to be baptized to get them under the covenant. I'll tell you circumcision
is not baptism. It did not picture baptism. Look
at Romans the second chapter. You see, these Judaizers who
came in, they were ministers of man's righteousness. That's
what they were. They came to Antioch to straighten
everybody out. They want to add something to
the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus. And specifically, they
raise the issue of circumcision. These Gentiles, in order for
them to be really, really saved. They gotta be circumcised. Well,
what was circumcision? Look at Romans chapter two and
verse 28. For he is not a Jew, which is
one outwardly. Romans chapter two, verse 28.
Neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, watch it now,
which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not
of men, but of God. Oh, it involves cutting, and
it involves a sharp instrument. But it's not a knife in the hands
of a rabbi. It's the sword of God in the
hands of the Holy Spirit. That's what it is. It's a cutting
of the heart. It's a wounding of the heart.
And this issue, not only was it raised in Romans chapter 15,
but it was raised in several assemblies. Because the Judaizers,
they loved the law. To them, salvation was all tied
into the law of God, obeying the law. And numerous times we
have in the New Testament, especially in Galatians, in fact, I'll invite
you to turn to Galatians, where this issue is dealt with because
Judaizers, they came into the church at Galatia, and they were
teaching the same thing. In order to be saved, you have
to be obedient to the law of Moses. Look here in Galatians
chapter five. Galatians chapter five. Look at verse one. Stand fast,
therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. And
don't be entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Verse two,
behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if you be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised, he's a debtor to do the whole law.
If you think that going through a ritual of circumcision, if
that gives you life, if it makes you approved of God, then you
have forsaken the gospel of God's grace. Actually, you never believed
it anyway. and you have gone back into bondage. And these Judaizers, they went
into the church at Galatia and they insisted upon circumcision. And Paul says, listen, if you
go back to circumcision, you Gentile believers, if you agree
to be circumcised according to the way these Judaizers insist
upon, then the Lord Jesus, he profits you nothing. He's either
all to you or He's nothing to you. You see, that's the way
it is. The Son of God in His work of redemption, His work
of atonement, His work of satisfying God. He's either everything to
you or He's nothing to you. It isn't Christ Jesus and the
law. It isn't Christ Jesus and your
obedience. It isn't Christ Jesus and you
being circumcised. It isn't Christ Jesus and you
obeying all these legalities that men lay down before us.
It isn't Christ Jesus and you go by the rules of your denomination. for a little bit attended a church
where if you were gonna be a member there, you had to sign the church
covenant. We'll abide by the church covenant.
I will abide by the word of God to the best of my ability as
God gives me grace to do so, but I'm not gonna sign a man-made
church covenant. I don't enter in the covenant
with you. We come together in one by the
grace of God, believing the Word of God. We don't have another
document, we don't have another book that we would follow and
say, this is what we believe. I had a man one time, I was preaching
in Indianapolis, and he had a book by J.R. Graves, Landmarkism. And he said to his deacon, and
he asked me, He said, I just want to ask you a question. He
held the book up, said, you believe everything's in this book? This
is what we believe. I said, nope, I don't. And that
was it. That was it. They said, me packing. We only adhere to the word of
God, not the writings of men. I don't get up before you and
I don't read. Philadelphia Baptist Confession
of Faith, because honestly, there are eras in it. Or the New Hampshire
Confession of Faith, and certainly not the Westminster Confession
of Faith. We don't read those things. I
don't adhere to those things. They're written by men. This
is God's Word. This is all we subscribe to.
This is our rule of faith and practice. You see, circumcision
was a picture of the wounding of the heart, the work of the
Spirit of God. Look over in Philippians chapter
3. Philippians chapter 3. You see, just like circumcision
identified a man as being of the seed of Abraham. Even so, regeneration, the new
birth, the work of the Holy Spirit identifies us as being the people
of God. Look at Philippians chapter three,
verse one. Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. To write the same things to you
to meet in deed is not grievous, But for you, it's safe, it's
necessary. Now listen to how he talks about
false preachers. Beware of dogs. Oh, you shouldn't talk about
false preachers that way. They just believe a different
way. They're dogs, wild dogs. Dogs, it would devour you. Beware
of dogs. He says, beware of evil workers. Well, they do a lot of good.
They're evil workers. But that preacher's so nice. Evil worker. He says, beware
of concision. What does that mean? They're
out to cut you. They're out to mutilate you.
They're zealous for circumcision. They're zealous for the law.
And then he says this, for we are the circumcision. Wait a
minute, what? He says, we're the circumcision.
You know what he's saying? We are the true people of God.
You wanna know who the true people of God are? They're identified
this way, three things. They worship God in the spirit.
That's what the true people of God. Those who have been spiritually
circumcised will give evidence of that. They
worship God in spirit, they rejoice in Christ Jesus, they rejoice
in his identity, in his person, in his work, and they don't have
any confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. And
he goes down, look, he says in verse four, though I might also
have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that
he have whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more circumcise
of the eighth day. You wanna talk about circumcision,
he said? Writing to the Gentiles now.
He's writing to people and he's saying, beware of the concision. Beware of those who come in preaching
circumcision. Obedience to the law of God.
And he said, I want to tell you this, I was obedient as a little
baby. My parents had me circumcised. Didn't do me any good before
God. It didn't put him under a covenant.
It didn't give him any safety. It didn't give him any salvation. You see, he was put in the covenant
of God before the world began. You're not put in the covenant
or under the covenant through something that's done to you
by another individual. We were put in the covenant by
God's grace. We're put in Christ Jesus before
He ever made the world. That's grace. Grace begun this
work. Grace will finish this work.
And all along the way, it's grace. And so over here in Acts chapter
15, there was no small dissension. I tell you, Paul got hot under
the collar. And he did so also with Peter.
And sometime we'll deal with that in Galatians, the second
chapter. because Peter indicated by forsaking
the Gentiles and siding with the Judaizers, he indicated by
his actions that this is what he believed too. And the apostle
Paul says, I confronted him to his face. I didn't pull him aside
and say, I need to talk to you in secret because the issue was
so great. It's a very serious matter. because
by Peter's actions, he gave the impression that these Judaizers
were right. And Paul said, I'm not gonna
have any part of that. He took a stand. You see real,
real believers, aren't afraid to take a stand
for the gospel of God's grace. Now, like Peter, and he was a
real believer, but he sure failed then. Take a stand. I get so weary
of hearing mealy-mouthed preachers, mealy-mouthed politicians who
won't stand for anything. Do you stand for anything? We stand here for the grace of
God. We stand here for God's election,
God's predestination, effectual redemption, the work of the Spirit
of God, the preservation of the saints. We take a stand for these
things because this is the very truth of God. And that's why
over here in Acts chapter 15, Paul, he's upset. So they agree, well, we're all
gonna go to, or we're gonna send a delegation to Jerusalem. Go back to chapter 15 of Acts,
quickly. And being brought on their way
by the church, they passed through Pharnasi, Samaria, declared the
conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy in all
the brethren. On their way to Jerusalem, what
are they gonna do? They're gonna preach some more.
They're not taking time off. They're laboring in the Word.
In verse 4, when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received
at the church of the apostles and the elders, and they declared
all things that God had done with them. Paul got in, he began
to talk to the other apostles. He began to talk to James and
Peter, and undoubtedly John was there. Perhaps some others. He says, brethren, let me tell
you what God has done. Not what I've done. He never called attention to himself. But, verse five, there rose up
certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, oh, they believed
some things. saying it was needful to me to
circumcise them and to command those Gentiles to keep the law
of Moses. And so verse six, all the apostles
and the elders, they came together for to consider this matter.
And when there'd been much disputing, who's doing the disputing? the
Judaizers, the legalists. We disagree with this preacher,
Paul. We're opposed to Barnabas. They should have been telling
those Gentiles they need to keep the Sabbath. They should have
been telling those Gentiles they need to be circumcised. They
should have told those Gentiles they ought to be keeping the
Law of Moses. They have totally neglected the Law of Moses. That's what they insisted on.
There had been much disputing, then Simon Peter stood up, thereby
quieted down all those who were disputing, arguing. who disagreed with grace, pure
grace, sovereign grace, free grace. Peter rose up and said,
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. You know what God
did, brethren. God sent me to Caesarea to preach
to Cornelius and his house. And you can go back at your leisure
and read about what he preached, his message in Acts chapter 10. And toward the end of the chapter
then, there were some Jews who said, didn't tell him about the
law. And Peter said, listen, I've
preached Christ to them, they believe. And then they rejoiced,
the Jews did. And Peter says, the Lord made
a choice. He chose me. He chose me to go
to Caesarea. He chose me to go to Caesarea
to preach to a chosen vessel, Cornelius. He chose me to go
to Caesarea to preach to a chosen vessel, the message of grace
only. That's what he said, God made
choice. You go ahead and say it isn't fair for God to choose
me. It don't affect anything. Peter
said God made choice. That by my mouth they'd hear
the word of the gospel. And God made choice that they'd
not only hear by my mouth the word of the gospel, God made
choice that they would believe. If you believe the gospel, it's
because God made choice. He chose you. Look at verse eight. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
bear them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did
to us, and put no difference between us and them, purifying
their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why tempt ye
God to put a yoke on the neck of the disciples, on the necks
of the Gentiles, which neither our fathers nor we were able
to bear. You want to put this yoke on
them, the yoke of the law of God? You want to put this burden
on them, you got to keep the law. He said, we couldn't bear it.
And they can't bear it either. because there's no hope in the
law. You know what the law is called? And there are men today
who teach that the law of God is a rule of life for a child
of God. But you know, it isn't the rule
of life. It's called the ministration
of death. That's what God calls the law.
You see, God's law. It's perfect. It's good. But
it wasn't given as administration of life. There's no life in the
law. There's no salvation in the law.
Well, I'll just keep the Ten Commandments. You can't keep
the Ten Commandments. That's impossible. Well, why
did God give the 10 commandments? And what, do they have anything
to do with us? Well, actually they have nothing
to do with us, but you cannot keep the 10 commandments even
if it was given to you. Because there is no salvation
in anything you do. Boy, I wish people understand
that. It's by grace. They couldn't stand the law,
the Jews couldn't, and we can't either. And Peter
said, why do you want to put that on them? What do you want
to do that for? Here they are rejoicing in Christ
Jesus, enjoying freedom in Him, forgiveness of all their sins,
a righteousness that God has given to them. They have new
life within. They have a Savior. They have
a good hope through grace. And then you insist that they
go under the law of Moses. You say, why would you want to
do that to anybody? That's such an awful thing. Take
away their joy. Take away their peace. and then
put them under bondage. That's an awful thing. And he says this in verse 11,
but we believe, oh, now I'm gonna listen up now. I'm gonna pay
attention because here's an apostle. Here's one of the favorite three,
Peter, James, and John. And Peter's got something to
say. But we believe. Well, what do
you believe? What do you believe, Peter? We
believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
don't read it the wrong way. It doesn't say we believe through
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ they shall be saved even as we.
He didn't say that. He didn't say that. He worded
it this way on purpose, led by the Spirit of God. But we believe
that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be
saved. We gonna be saved the same way
the Gentiles are saved. By grace, by grace. Then all the multitude kept silence. They gave audience to Barnabas
and to Paul, declaring the miracles and the wonders God had wrought
among the Gentiles by them. And after that, they held their
peace, and James answered. He said, I've got something to
say, half-brother of our Lord. Men and brethren, hearken unto
me. He says, Simeon, Simon Peter that is, he's declared how God
at the first did visit the Gentiles to take out of them a people
for his name. And I love that expression, to
take out of them a people, to lay hold of and to seize them
and bring them out. That's what effectual grace is.
And that's what God has done for you. The Word of God was
preached to you. And God the Spirit, He caught
you. He laid hold of you. He seized
upon you. And He pulled you out. Pulled
you out of error. Pulled you out of self-righteousness.
Pulled you out of works religion. And He pulled you. He irresistibly
drew you to the Lord Jesus. the only Savior of sinners. And
he gifted you, the Spirit of God gifted you with faith to
believe. And James says in verse 15, and
to this agree the words of the prophets. He says, this man right
here, Simon Peter, what he had to say is consistent with the
message of all the prophets. And then they agreed upon a letter
to be sent to all the churches. This is how sinners are saved.
By grace. By grace. Don't put people under
the bondage of the law. That's a horrible thing to do.
Rules and regulations. I visited a church one time and
they had a big Back here on the wall, they had their church constitution,
and we promised to do this, we promised to do that, and wasn't
a soul there that could do all the things that they had on the
board, and yet they had to promise to do them all. Law. Law. Men love law. Men love law. I love grace. Don't you? I love grace and thank God. Our
Lord Jesus, all the law of God, he kept it fully. The law of
God doesn't have anything to do with a righteous man. It's
not made for a righteous man. We read in Romans chapter 6,
we're not under law. We're under grace. That's a good
umbrella to be under, isn't it? The umbrella of grace. Lord,
bless the Word to the good of Your people. And we rejoice. The message that we preach is
not, this is what you've got to do. The message is done. It is finished by the Lord Jesus,
our Savior. Oh, grace. Amazing grace. How sweet the sound. that saved
a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm
found. I was blind, but now I see. No wonder the hymn writer, another
hymn writer, said, oh, to grace, how great a debtor. Daily I'm
constrained to be. Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee. all of grace, all of Christ,
and we rejoice. And we go away in peace. We go
away to our homes tonight rejoicing in the goodness of God to us
through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we
pray.