Aren’t you thankful for KJ taking us to church this morning? He texted me and said he’s going to take us to church today, and he did. Go ahead and open your Bibles to Acts chapter 15, Acts chapter 15. And we’re going to be in verses 1-21 today. And today we’re looking at this incredible partnership between gospel churches in different cities and in Jerusalem as they gather together to defend the doctrine of salvation by grace alone.
Now you’ll remember last week that we looked at Paul and Barnabas as they established elders in every church. You remember that they were on their first missionary journey. They went to Pisidia and to Iconium and to Lystra and to Derby. And then they went back through and established leaders in each of those cities. And we also looked at the first seven verses of Acts 15, seeing the importance of godly leaders and gospel partnerships when matters of doctrine arise in the church.
And that’s exactly what happens in Acts chapter 15. The elders gather together to consider the matters of doctrine. And there’s been…this is probably the most important gathering of elders and church leaders in all of history. There’s been some councils that have gathered to discuss major doctrinal issues in history, none more important than the council in Acts chapter 15.
The results of this meeting have allowed salvation to come to your home all these days later, all these years later. And the big idea that I want to give to you today, the one thing that you should walk out of this place hearing today is this- the grace of Jesus is God’s only way to salvation. The grace of Jesus is God’s only way to salvation.
I don’t know what you walked in with today. I don’t know if you didn’t want to come to church and somebody invited you today and you found your way here. I don’t know what questions you have about following Christ or why we’re all singing about what He’s done. But I want to invite you to listen today. I believe that the Holy Spirit wants to speak to you today surrounding the most important decision you could ever make. The grace of Jesus is God’s only way to salvation.
Now there’s a lot of text in the first 21 verses, but let’s just fix our eyes there. Hopefully you brought your Bible and yoru Bibles are open, and let’s just read these first 21 verses together and hear from the Word of the Lord. let’s read in verse 1.
But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question. So, being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the Gentiles, and brought great joy to all the brothers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”
The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”
And all the assembly fell silent, and they listened to Barnabas and Paul as they related what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. After they finished speaking, James replied, “Brothers, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first visited the Gentiles, to take from them a people for his name.
Verse 15. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written,“‘After this I will return, and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will restore it, that the remnant[b] of mankind may seek the Lord, and all the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.’
Verse 19. Therefore my judgment is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God, but should write to them to abstain from the things polluted by idols, and from sexual immorality, and from what has been strangled, and from blood. For from ancient generations Moses has had in every city those who proclaim him, for he is read every Sabbath in the synagogues.” (Acts 15:1-21)
So this is God’s Word for us today. And just a momentous occasion in the book of Acts that Luke gives for us. He gives us a whole chapter describing this council, this gathering, defending this doctrine and this false gospel that was on the rise.
1.
The first point that I’ll give to you today is this. Salvation by grace is worth fighting for. Salvation by grace is worth fighting for. The truths that we’re singing today, the fact that we can come to God as we are and receive His grace, it is worth fighting for.
Now I want you to imagine a road with no guardrails. You don’t gotta imagine it because I’ve depicted it for you over here. So here is a road with no guardrails. And on either side of this road are some very dangerous pitfalls. So let’s just say on the left side is a 20-foot gaping hole. And on the right side we’ll say there’s a sea of lava if you will. Have you ever played “The Floor is Lava”? It’s a great game you can play with your kids.
Now the truth is this. Those are two pretty messed up pitfalls on either side of the road. If you’re driving and you get stuck in this 20-foot hole, there’s no way you’re getting out. I mean you’re not going to get your car out yourself. You’re not even going to climb your way out of a 20-foot hole. You’re just stuck in that hole with only your own efforts to save you. But if you’re driving your car and you land in the sea of lava, I mean you’re fried. You’re incinerated. There’s nothing. It’s not going well for you. You’re destroyed, ok?
Now here’s the truth. Let’s put some labels on these things. The road is the road of salvation. And this hole is the pit of legalism or let’s call it the pit of the law or our own efforts. And then this sea of lava is the way of the world.
Now newsflash to everyone in the room. You were not born on the road of salvation and you did not drive into the way of the world. You were born in the way of the world, sons and daughters of disobedience following the course of this world, dead in your trespasses and sins, falling short of the glory of God, heading toward an eternity in destruction.
But some of us, you know, we’ve tried in our own strength at times to appease something of higher power, you know, try to have some. Maybe we’ve gone to religion. Maybe we’ve gone to church. We’ve tried to do some things. But that always proves to only put us in the pit of legalism or the pit of our own strength. And so you know. You’ve tried hard, really hard, in your life to do right things but it never satisfies. And you keep running up against the wall. And over time it just kind of runs out; it doesn’t work. And so you just kind of turn back to the way of the world.
But God who is rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us sent Jesus Christ to die on a cross in your place as a substitute for your sins. And He rose again from the dead, defeating death and the grave and sin. And He is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. And God, in His sovereignty and in His grace and in His compassion, He sends forth the tow truck called “grace” on the road of salvation. It’s a beautiful thing.
And here’s the thing. You don’t climb your way out of the pit with your own efforts and you don’t swim your way out of the sea of lava. God in His grace pulls you from the pit or God in HIs grace pulls you from the way of the world and He puts you on the road of salvation with His kindness and with His grace. And He ignites faith in your heart and you begin to follow Him. and His grace becomes the guardrails unto eternal life. Amen. Anybody with me this morning?
Now that truth that we just depicted that should cause you to erupt in glorious praise this morning is the very thing that is under attack in Acts chapter 15. It’s the very thing that’s under attack in Acts chapter 15. Salvation by grace alone.
Now a definition of grace just as we dive into the text is this: Grace is the unmerited favor of God. The unmerited favor of God. You didn’t earn it. You don’t deserve it. But God has extended to you a grace in Jesus so that you might be placed on the road of salvation and follow Him. That was under attack. Look at 15 verse 1.
It says, Some men came down from Judea and were taching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
Now because of Luke’s orderly account that we’ve been looking at for the last 26 weeks and because of the truth that the gospel and the resurrection of Christ, you and I know that this is not true. Verse 1 is not true. And even as we sit here holding this account, we’ve already seen Jewish history and we’ve seen salvation by law obliterated by Peter’s first message, by Stephen’s message before the synagogue, by Paul’s messages as he goes into these different towns.
And think about what we’ve seen in the book of Acts. We’ve seen Jews saved, Samaritans saved. We’ve seen Pharisees saved. We’ve seen God-fearing Gentiles saved. We’ve seen absolute pagan Gentiles be filled with the Holy Spirit of God through the message of grace alone by faith alone.
And it’s been twenty years at this point since Pentecost and probably about a couple years since Paul and Barnabas’ first missionary journey. The phenomena of pagan Gentiles coming to faith in Christ was still new and massively offensive to the Jews, even the believing Jews. it was hard for them, a hard pill for them to swallow.
And remember we saw Peter go into Cornelius’ house. And Cornelius and the family came to a saving knowledge of Christ. But at least Cornelius was a God-fearing Jew, or a God-fearing Gentile. At least he was trying to be somewhat Jewish. He feared the God of the Jews.
What was a problem was the idea of filthy pagan Gentiles going from pagan to Christian. That was a problem for many. They would have said like, How could they get the benefits of the kingdom without putting in the work of the law? And the Jews had a lot of history and a lot of law that they had to unravel as the message of Christ came into the world.
It’d be like you training your whole life to go to the Winter Olympics. And you work really, really, really hard. Then you get there and the coach says, “You’re not good enough, but I’ll let you on the team anyways.”
And then some other people from some other places show up and they’ve never practiced and they have no skill at all. And the coach says, “Hey, you can be a part of the team too.” I mean that would be kind of offensive to you. And that was sort of what was going on in the mind of the Jews as they started to hear of these Gentiles following Jesus.
But while that was a hard pill to swallow for even the believing Jews, anything less than salvation by grace, it was fighting words to Paul and Barnabas. Could you imagine?
And so verse 2 says, And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them. Could you- I would love to just be a fly on the wall for that dissension and debate. I’m sure that Paul and Barnabas rose up. They’re like, We’ve thought through all these things. You’re not going to come in here preaching this false gospel. And they began to debate.
And then in verse 3 it says, So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in great detail the conversion of the Gentiles and brought great joy to all the brothers.
So Paul and Barnabas, they rose up and they defend salvation by grace. And then stop in all the passing towns on their way to Jerusalem and they proclaim the wonders that Christ was doing in the Gentiles by grace alone. And guess what? It brought great joy to all those who had been saved. Because if you’re truly saved, you know that it is nothing of your own doing. If you’re truly saved, you know that you’ve been carried by grace and the salvation that we’ve obtained is not of our own doing but it is a gift of God almighty.
Verse 4 you see them arriving in Jerusalem and you see this beauty, you see the beauty of gospel partnership as Paul and Barnabas are welcomed by the church and the elders and the apostles and they proclaim all that God had done with them. So it’s this awesome moment that the elders of every church show up in Jerusalem and they’re welcomed by the other elders. There was a strong gospel partnership there, and that’s an important thing for a church to have who stands on Christ and on the Word of God.
Last week we talked about our leadership structure. A great way to think about it would be that we’re elder ruled. We’re deacon served. We’re congregationally affirmed. So because the elders are humble and because they’re not lording over the congregation but they’re among the flock and they’re serving with the flock and they’re listening to the flock, the congregation can then engage with the elders and pray for the elders.
And there’s this beautiful thing that happens when there’s humility and when there’s deference under the headship of Jesus Christ. But I think another great distinctive for a church like ours would be that we are partnership protected, partnership protected. Doesn’t that sound cool?
And the truth is as we defend the things in God’s Word as a church, it’s helpful to have other gospel partners outside of our walls who hold true to the same things. And so that’s why we’re a part of things like The Great Commission Collective. That’s why we’re a part of things like The Send Network.
We were down in San Antonio recently with a bunch of church leaders gathered together to worship Christ and to hear from God’s Word. But what’s going on there is we’re probably considering some matters and we’re holding true to God’s Word and we’re encouraging one another. A few years ago, maybe a year ago, even as our world tries to sweep away the foundations of the family and change the definition of sexuality in our world and of marriage in our world, the Bible has already said everything we need to know about what those things are.
And so it’s our job as the church to protect those things. And The Great Commission Collective, you know, a year and a half ago or so they put out a statement. They put out a doctrinal adjustment so that as the world changes we won’t change and we’ll protect what’s truly in the Word of God. And it holds us to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we adapted that to our doctrinal statement here. And that’s a strength of gospel partnership, and you see the very thing happening in Acts 15 because in a broken world, doctrine and technology will always be under attack.
Someone will always be peddling an idea that is not the truth. And a false gospel can easily look like the real gospel. Sometimes it may have more appeal to us as sinners because it appeals to our works rather than His grace. And we can easily make religion look spiritual and we can easily make tradition look like God’s way. But grace says, “Come as you are and the yoke of slavery has been paid for by Jesus at the cross.”
And this great truth is worth fighting for. It’s so worth fighting for. And as the Judaisers brought all of their history to the table and as Paul and Barnabas preached a gospel under the new covenant, that hey, Jesus died on a cross and He wants to save you. Repent and believe and come to him with all of your baggage. It was hard for the Judaisers to get that.
They’re still wondering like in verse 5 they rise up and say it’s necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses. Surely we shouldn’t have to keep all this law that we’ve been doing all these years and you’re going to tell me that these pagans just have to repent and believe and they’re filled with the same Holy Spirit. But it’s worth fighting for and it’s why Luke records for us in verse 5 that they preached this legalistic gospel.
And in verses 6 and 7 depict the struggle and the battle and the debate as they consider the matter. And it’s still alive in our world today. Even as it’s been settled in Acts chapter 15, we still wrestle with this and our flesh wrestles with this as we wake up. We want to do things in our own effort. And yet we have to rely on the grace of God. My efforts, my desire to please God, is a result of my salvation, not a way to get salvation.
This is why Martin Luther rose up in confrontation to the Catholic church declaring that grace was a gift received in faith, not merited by human efforts and rituals as the Catholic church continues to operate in today. The way of the world wants to preach a gospel that says, “Do,” but the true gospel says, “Done.” The way of the world wants you to have grace and add a bunch of things to grace. But the true gospel says subtract everything and come to Jesus alone because His precious blood has paid the cost that you could never pay on your own.
You know the Catholic church, which is a prominent thing in our culture, even in our community, it could be considered the plus religion. Because they teach that you’re saved by faith plus works. Grace plus merit. Christ plus other meditators. Scripture plus tradition. For the glory of God plus the glory of Mary and other saints. And that’s false. That’s wrong. That leads people astray.
And now that’s a really tangible example. But for you and I who wake up as Protestants, who wake up knowing the gospel and the truth, it’s just as easy for us to get sidetracked in our own strength. It’s just as easy for us to add our own efforts to the strength that only Christ can supply through the power of the cross. We have not been given what we deserve. And the gift of Christ that saves is exactly that. It’s a gift worth fighting for. It’s a gift worth fighting for, because apart from it I would still be an enemy of God. and apart from grace, I rely on myself rather than Christ and the finished work at the cross.
Paul and Barnabas rise up and they take this defense to Jerusalem because grace is worth fighting for.
2.
Now number two this morning is this. Salvation by grace has plenty of defense. Yeah, it’s worth fighting for, but man, it has plenty of defense we’re about to see in Scripture.
And so maybe there were a couple of meetings that happened. The first one was just hearing what Paul and Barnabas had seen and what they had done. But very quickly they get in and they were debating, you know, the Pharisees who rose up and said you had to be circumcised. But then very quickly we see in verses 7-21 four speakers who undoubtedly prove God’s grace is the gift of salvation for all who believe.
So Peter speaks first. Go figure. And he reviews the past. And Paul and Barnabas report on the present. And Pastor James, who was the pastor in the church in Jerusalem, he speaks and he relates it all to the future, but even opens his Bible. And so through each of their talks I think you see six proofs of salvation by grace. We’re going to unpack them. Six truths of salvation by grace.
A)
The first is the past revelation. The past revelation. Let’s look at what Peter says in verse 7. Peter stood up and said to them, “Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.”
So Peter was the first to speak the gospel after Christ resurrected to the early church. But Peter was also the first to speak the gospel to Gentile ears. And it wasn’t just the fact that he spoke the gospel to Gentile ears, but it was the fact that God told him to do it. You remember that. As Peter was praying by the sea on the top of the roof and the sheet came down and God spoke to him in a vision. And He said, “You need to go to the house of Cornelius.”
And in obedience Peter, a Jew, stepped across the threshold of a Gentile home, somewhere that a Jew would never go, somewhere that a Jew was supposed to be away from, forbidden to go to. And in obedience he steps across and he preaches the message of the gospel. And he sees salvation come to Cornelius’ house.
And you’ll remember that Peter went back to Jerusalem and it wasn’t accepted there either. The circumcision party rose up like, There’s no way that the Gentiles could receive Christ. And Peter is short and to the point. He says, “The Gentiles heard the gospel, the Gentiles believed the gospel, and the Gentiles were saved. And legalists and Judaisers have no business requiring something of the Gentiles that God has not clearly required.
And Cornelius, he was a Proselyte of the gate. So he wasn’t circumcised. He was God-fearing, doing a lot of things to honor the God of the Jews. but he hadn’t been saved because he hadn’t heard the gospel. And faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so as Peter spoke the gospel, the Holy Spirit came and filled him.
B)
That leads to point number two in the six proofs of salvation by grace. It’s the gift of the Spirit. Verses 8 and 9. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, and he made no distinction between us and them.
So salvation is seen by the Spirit of God that fills the believer. Peter says the whole house received the Spirit of God. You’ll remember it was evident as Cornelius and his family began extolling God in their own tongues. The word is glossolalia. And so as they began to speak in their own languages, the mercy and the goodness and the majesty of God, it was as if the Holy Spirit was sealing the deal and saying, I’ve claimed a new people for my name. I have added the Gentiles to my church. Beautiful. And God declared that He shows no partiality.
Kind of interesting to note between Acts 14 and 15 is when Paul wrote the book of Galatians. And if you read the book of Galatians, it’s dealing with this very issue. And Paul in Galatians, he doesn’t pull any punches. He says if you’re preaching anything less than grace alone, then you’re preaching a false gospel, then you’re dedicated to destruction.
And what he also said in Galatians is this. He said, “There is no Jew or Greek or slave or free or circumcised or not. We are all one by his grace.” That’s beautiful. And then Peter he keeps going. He’s on a roll.
C)
Number three, the third proof of salvation by grace is the cleansing from sin.
Chapter 15 verse 9, the second half, it says he made no distinction between us the Jews and them the Gentiles. And he cleansed their hearts by faith. Cornelius and his household were cleansed by faith in their hearts, not the circumcision of their flesh. It’s just a crazy historical, ceremonial thing that the Jews were raised in. Why do they care so much that you’ve gotta be circumcised? How do they even know that you’re circumcised? That’s a great question.
And yet they’re like, We have to go through all these things and we were set apart. And it had an issue of We’re Jews and we’re set apart and you’re Gentiles and you’re not. And we’ve done all these things to keep us clean and you’re not.
And God says, hey, I’m no longer judging cleanliness and set apartness by the outward appearance of man but by the heart. And God said, “What God has called clean, stop calling unclean.” I’ve called Cornelius and his family clean. Stop calling these Gentiles unclean because I have cleansed their hearts through faith. And your salvation is a result of God’s grace igniting faith for heart cleansing as well.
Psalm 51, David’s prayer. I love this. It says, “For you will not delight oh God in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart oh God, you will not despise.”
It’s as if God is saying to us, it’s as if David is saying to us today, stop trying to offer God sacrifices that will get you nowhere. Stop trying to please Him with your own strivings and your own earnings and your own offerings. Receive His grace that breaks and cleanses your heart through faith. Receive the sacrifice and offering that has already been offered up on your behalf in Jesus Christ. That seat will not earn you a place in heaven.
You coming to church, you following through the motions, you singing the songs, you saying the prayers, you lifting a hand, none of that will suffice God. It all falls short of the glory of God and we come by grace alone. And so we open our hearts in faith to say it’s already been done at the cross of Jesus. And we repent of our sins and we believe in our hearts and we follow Him. We follow His Word and we trust that His Spirit will lead us.
D)
Now the fourth thing (this is a big deal; this is where the whole issue is) is this, the weight of the law. Six proofs of salvation by grace, number four, is the weight of the law. Chapter 15, 10 and 11 Peter says, “Now therefore, why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe- listen to this- that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they also are.
So Peter says, You claim that you can by the law. No one has kept the law! All of Jewish history shows the inability to keep the law and to be saved by the law. If the law does anything for us as human beings, it just shows us that we deserve hell for eternity. That’s all the law does because no one can keep it. It doesn’t matter how good you are, how many righteous things you do. All of us have broken the law in some way and it’s offensive to a holy God. There is no one good. There is none righteous, no not one. It is impossible to keep because the law is meant to be a mirror to show us how much we need the God of glory.
The law is not there to fix us, but to show us that we need fixed. You understand? But God in His grace sent Jesus. And this also is in Galatians. God sends Jesus to be born of a virgin, to be born under the law, to redeem those who are under the law so that we could be adopted as sons and daughters of Christ Jesus.
This is grace. This is unmerited favor. You couldn’t earn it. You don’t deserve it. Jesus is the only human in all of history to never sin, to keep the law. And He was born under the law. He kept it all. And then He was persecuted and He was executed as a prisoner who did nothing wrong for you and for me. And as He bore up under the law and as He proved His holiness and His perfection, His innocent blood was shed at the cross and He became sin who knew no sin so that you and I might become the righteousness of God. This is not of your own doing. It is a gift of God for eternal life in Christ Jesus.
And in grace we can say exactly what Peter said in verse 11. We believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus in the same way as they also are. Whether Jew or Gentile, there’s always only been one way to salvation.
Now in verse 12 it says all the multitude kept silent. It’s like Peter dropped the mic. That’s all we need right? That’s all we need to prove that. But did you think that Paul and Barnabas were going to let Peter have all the fun? Nah. Paul and Barnabas were just like C’mon Peter, and they’re waiting for their turn. And Peter finishes and they fill the silence, ok?
E)
And so the fifth thing that we see is signs and wonders. The fifth thing, the fifth proof of salvation by grace is signs and wonders. And all the multitude kept silent and they were listening to Barnabas and Paul as they were relating what signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. So Peter seals the deal. Paul and Barnabas could have reiterated everything that Peter had just said because they too had seen it done.
But this was an opportunity to prove God’s seal of approval on the salvation of pagan Gentiles. And remember in this age of the church, God used healings and tongues and miracles and signs and wonders in a heightened way to authenticate the messengers that He was sending into a new place. They didn’t have the Word of God written down. They’ve never heard the gospel before.
And these men show up and start preaching a gospel and God authenticates their message through the signs and wonders that they did. And so Paul and Barnabas, they start recounting all that they had seen God do. They tell about the lame cripple that Paul was, as he was praying, he stops in the middle of his message and he says, Hey brother, rise up. And the man who had never walked from birth jumps to his feet miraculously and he rejoices in the Lord.
And they talked about how Paul, his miraculous recovery. Remember he’s in Lystra and he gets stoned and they drag his dead, lifeless body out of the city. But he pops up and walks back into the city. And the next day he walks forty miles to Derby. I mean that’s awesome. And then God, they recount the salvation that they had seen and the Gentiles that they had seen filled with the Spirit of God. And these miracles were proof that God in grace truly saves pagans who haven’t done anything to earn it or deserve.
I mean there is so much good news here today. And if you come to church and you’ve never followed Christ, God wants to save you. God loves you. God died for you. So open your heart. Receive Him in faith. I pray that the grace of God is just coming alive to you in this moment.
And as Paul and Barnabas stop talking, Pastor James finishes with the sixth proof of salvation by grace. And it’s the prophetic promise, the prophetic promise. James answered, “Brethren, listen to me. Simeon has related how God first concerned himself about taking from among the Gentiles a people for his name. And with this, the words of the prophets agree.”
Stop there. So Pastor James says, Hey, everything you just heard is true. Man, what great testimonies we just heard about God saving by grace. And then he took out his scroll and he’s like, Let’s just see what God has to say about it. Everybody needs a pastor. Everybody needs someone in their life who will open the Bible and see what God has to say about an issue.
And he goes to the book of Amos. And it’s kind of a hard text to unpack. We don’t have time to do it all. But this is what he reads, and it’s concerning the future glory as God comes to rebuild the new heavens and the new earth. In verse 16 he says, “After this, God says, I will return and I will rebuild the tent of David that has fallen. And I will rebuild its ruins and I will restore it. And the remnant of mankind may seek the Lord.” And get this. “All the Gentiles who are called by my name, says the Lord, who makes these things known from of old.”
So back in Amos, when God comes and establishes the church He’s already talked about the Gentiles being a part of it. It’s not just Jews, but it’s Gentiles. And that’s why Christ could say, Hey, I want you to take the message of Jesus to Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. And all of the Jewish leaders, all of the Jews’ questions have been answered in the Old Testament as Christ says, “I will come to establish a new heaven and a new earth and Gentiles will be a part of it by my great grace.”
Aren’t you thankful for God’s Word? Every word matters. Every detail matters. Every prophecy matters because it points to what is true. It proves what Christ has said is true. It all points to Jesus Christ.
I was sharing with somebody recently and they said, “I want to start reading the Bible maybe. Do you think I only need to be concerned with the New Testament?”
And I’m like, “I mean, that’s a great place to start, but I’d be concerned with the entire thing because all of it points to a perfect Savior. And it’s the Old Testament that actually makes true the New Testament. And all of God’s counsel helps instruct us in following Jesus Christ by grace.”
So James opens his Bible and shows what God has said. And today we are way too quick to read a blog or an author or get man’s opinion on a subject before we simply open the Bible and believe what God has said. You’re inundated with information. You’re inundated on your little cell phone that you get out every day. And information is being thrown at you and little clips and messages are being thrown at you. And blog posts are being thrown at you and authors are being thrown at you.
And if you’re not careful and if you don’t have a gospel grid, you will be led astray so easily. And you will be led to thinking that doesn’t match up with the Word of God so so easily. And that’s why as Christians we have to be on guard and we have to be careful to protect this message, to protect this truth that it’s not about what we do. It’s about what has already been done and what God has already said. God is rich in mercy and makes us alive in Christ. It is by grace that we are saved.
3.
Now the third point, last thing that I’ll give to you as we finish this, salvation by grace is God’s only way. Salvation by grace is God’s only way. Verse 19 James speaks with finality as the council comes to a close. He says, “Therefore, my judgment,” after everything you just heard, “is that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles that turn to God.” James advises that we should not trouble the Gentiles that have turned to God with the ceremonial laws of old. They have turned to God by grace, not by works.
And then think about everything that has happened. They’ve received the Spirit. They’ve been cleansed by faith. They believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And Peter said, “We believe that we are saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus just as the Gentiles.”
And God shows no partiality. Anytone can come to Him. it doesn’t matter your background. It doesn’t matter your race. It doesn’t matter your sin issues. It doesn’t matter your religiosity. We don’t trouble one another with any message other than repentance and faith in Christ by the grace of God alone.
And so open our hearts and we have faith that Jesus truly did die, that it doesn’t matter how bad I think I’ve been or how good I think I’ve done. God loves us enough to pour out His wrath toward sin, which all of us have done, and give us the gift of eternal life through His grace through Jesus Christ who is the way, the truth and the life. And so that is where we place our faith and our hope and that is why we turn from the wicked way of this world.
But not only that- now this is like a big decision moment. I was going to go through verse 35 but did not have time. But what happens in the rest of the chapter is they land on the decision. So don’t trouble the Gentiles with this false gospel. And they begin to write a letter. And it goes back to all the different churches and they’re all encouraged.
Because that’s what you get. You get to be encouraged if you trust your leaders and you pray for your leaders and your leaders are humble and your leaders care for you and your leaders protect the main thing, ok? And so as the letter went back, the people received it with joy and they begin to preach the gospel dn the Jews and the Gentiles begin to unite even in their differences.
And that’s what the gospel also does. It protects us from false doctrine, but salvation by grace also unites our diversity. And so while James instructs Judaisers to not trouble Gentiles with a false gospel of grace and law, James instructs the counsetl to help Gentiles respect the morality and the laws of the Jews in the gathering.
And that’s what happens in verse 20. He writes in the letter, you know, “We should write to them to abastain from the things polluted by idols and from sexual immorality and from what has been strangled and from blood.” So these are more ceremonial laws and they are the moral laws. Obviously your morality changes if you’ve truly been saved. But the Jews were bringing a lot of history to the table.
And so it’s like, Hey Gentiles, we’re not going to trouble you with a false gospel. You have truly been saved by grace. Praise God. That doesn’t mean you invite all your Jewish brothers in Christ over and start serving bacon and pork chops. Right? LIke that would be pretty offensive and the Jews are going to…it’s going to cause some division and it’s going to be a little bit messed up.
And so it’s like, Hey, you’ve got some pretty pagan things in your culture- sexual immorality and you worship your God through some gross means. And you know, the blood thing, that’s kind of freaky. And so we’re asking you to set all of the things, the ways of the world, aside and come to God by grace and stand shoulder to shoulder with brothers and sisters, Jews, who bring all of their legalism or all of their law to the table. And you guys are united on the road of salvation by grace and grace alone.
Now just turn your attention over here back to the picture, back to our great picture. And if you’re truly on the road of salvation, if you’re truly saved, if God has truly cleansed your spirit, your heart, and given you the Holy Spirit, then you’re not going to drive back into the way of the world, to destruction. No one can pluck you from the Father’s hand. You’re not going to drive into the pit that you can’t get out of. You’ve been saved by grace. And His grace will keep you on that path as you follow Him and as His Spirit helps you.
But that doesn’t mean you won’t veer at times in your faith. You know, you veer off the road a little bit and maybe like your convictions are growing in the way that you believe salvation should be done and walked out on this earth through the Bible. And you get a tire maybe toward the pit of legalism and you start saying, That person can’t be a Christian because they live like this or they do that, and that’s different than what I believe.
Or the way of the world that’s going to tempt you majorly in your life. Praise God, I hope that guitar is ok. And that may tempt you majorly like you’re getting pulled to the way of the world. And you’re going to be prone to be a sinner and you’re now supposed to walk to the glory of God and set aside the things of the world and set aside the way that the world does things and set aside all of the things that you used to do before Christ. You might veer.
You know how like when you’re driving down the highway and you start to go off the road and you hit the rumble strips? And that’s not the sign to keep doing right or left. That’s the sign to get back on the road. Well the Holy Spirit and the Word of God wants to be the rumble strips in your life. The Holy Spirit and the Word of God wants to help you whenever you’re being tempted to follow the way of the world to get back, to course correct, to get back to following Jesus.
Or if you’re getting off track and starting to lean too heavily onto some tradition or some religion that you bring to the table, the Holy Spirit and the Word of God wants to help you to get back to the center, to get back to Jesus Christ and to follow Him unto salvation.
Now we’ve covered just so much text. Can I just speak honestly with you? How many people in this room have been tempted this week to do things in their own strength rather than rely on the grace of God? Put your hand up if that’s you. I mean, that’s me. It’s really easy to wake up and to assess the day and to assess the things on your plate and to assess the things that the Lord has asked you to do and to try to do it in your own strength. So easy.
And if we’re not careful, those thoughts can pull us into a pit of discouragement, into a pit of depression, into grumpiness, into anger, into frustration. And then you remember it’s only by God’s grace that I’m anything. I’m actually nothing, but Christ has filled me and Christ has put His Spirit in me. And Christ has cleansed my flesh. And because I’m nothing, God gave Jesus for me. And Jesus, with the joy set before Him, endured the cross so that I might come to Him by His great grace alone. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost; now I’m found. Was blind but now I see.
That’s all the Lord’s doing, and it’s a glorious truth. And it’s the place that we have to anchor our thoughts every day. And it’s not easy because we’re prone to do things in our own strength and effort.
Now I want you to stand to your feet. We’re going to go out singing about this great, amazing grace. But can I ask you to bow your heads in the room? And I want to give you the opportunity. Every person in this room should be laying themselves down right now. Every person in this room should be thanking God for His grace and asking for forgiveness where you’ve tried to do it in your own effort.
But some of you came and you weren’t expecting to hear what you heard today and you weren’t expecting to feel what maybe you’re feeling right now as the Spirit of God is moving. And that’s what the Spirit does. The Spirit ignites faith in our hearts. And if that’s you, would you just respond to Him? Don’t walk out of the room today and go back into the way of the world and carry all of your burdens and all of your questions. God wants to meet you here. God has met you here. And so surrender to Him. Open your heart to Him.
You just pray a simple prayer that maybe says, God, I’m a sinner and I do fall short of your glory. And I’m lost without you. But today I’ve seen that I need Jesus and I need what’s already been done at the cross. And so God, thank you for sending your Son to die for me. God, thank you for taking all of my sin and my shame and putting it on your perfect Son. God, I want to repent of my sins. I want to turn from the way of the world and I want to follow you unto salvation. I want to follow Christ.
And Scripture says that if you believe in your heart and you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. So trust Him today. Press into Him today. It’s only by His great grace.
I’m going to pray and we’re going to sing. And if you made that decision in your seat, then come forward. Talk to a pastor. Talk to an elder. Bring any questions. We would love to pray with you. Don’t walk out without doing it. Come as you are. But let’s pray and let’s respond.
Lord God, we come and we thank you for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is by grace that we are saved through faith and it’s not a work of our own doing, but it’s a gift of God. And Lord, we thank you for the gift that you gave. You didn’t have to do it. You don’t need us by any stretch of the imagination. And yet you invite us to come as we are, bringing all of our questions and bringing all of our baggage and all of our religion and all of our tradition.
And you shake it all up at the foot of the cross and you show us that we need Jessu. You show us that we need Jesus. And it is grace, grace that is greater than all of our sin that we stand in awe of today. And we worship you. It’s the reason that we can know we have salvation. It’s the reason that we can know that our future is heaven and that our sin has been forgiven. It’s because of what you alone have done. And God, we give you all the glory and honor and power because of it. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
