Let's turn to Acts chapter 15.
Probably the hardest thing to let go is
tradition.
And we seem to hang on to tradition
almost more than anything else.
And when those traditions are religious traditions, it
seems like they have a greater hold on
people than does truth.
When you have felt that your relationship to
God, dependent upon your keeping the rituals, the
ordinances, the holy days, the Sabbath days, it
is hard to break away from that tradition.
And when Jesus came, the problem that he
had was that he was breaking their traditions.
And that's where he got into trouble with
the Pharisees.
And ultimately, it is what caused them to
determine that they had to get rid of
him.
Because he was not keeping their traditions.
He was constantly being rebuked by the Pharisees.
And he one day said to them, that
you teach for doctrine the traditions of man.
And that's what ultimately develops is they teach
the traditions of man even above doctrine.
A classic example of course today of churches
that follow the traditions of man over the
word of God is in the Catholic church.
They have officially declared that the church traditions
and dogma are equal to the word of
God and can be considered the word of
God.
And traditions are hard to break.
And if you have come from a Catholic
family, you know how hard it is for
them to see you attending a Bible study
or see you attending a church which does
not have the ritual and all of the
traditional things, the trappings of the Catholic church.
It's interesting to me that I have met
people who really haven't attended church
in years.
And yet they consider themselves staunch Catholics.
And you wonder sometimes about that kind of
a relationship with God.
Is it a genuine and a true relationship
with God?
Now this of course developed early in the
church.
The Jews were very bound up in traditions.
They were very bound up in the ordinances
of the law, in the rituals of the
law.
And thus when Jesus came along and presented
a new approach to God, approaching God through
him, I am the way, the truth, and
the life.
No man comes to the Father but by
me.
It was very difficult for the Jews who
had been so bound in their traditions to
relate to God on the basis of faith.
Though it was in their scriptures, it declared
that Abraham believed God and God accounted it
for righteousness.
Yet they could not divorce their minds from
a righteousness that dependent upon their keeping the
rituals and the ordinances of the law.
So in the Gentile church, there in Antioch,
coming fresh without a lot of traditional baggage
into the knowledge of Jesus Christ, there was
a great liberty in that church in Antioch.
Because these Gentiles were not all bound with
the traditions of the Jews.
And thus they came in and they were
born again running really as they just enjoyed
this relationship with God through faith in Jesus
Christ.
Now it was noised abroad and it got
down to Jerusalem and the church in Jerusalem
that there were these Gentile believers that were
not observing the rituals and the ordinances of
the law.
They weren't circumcised.
They weren't keeping kosher as far as their
food was concerned.
And so there were certain of the brethren
from Jerusalem that went up to Antioch to
see if the reports that they were getting
were actually so.
And when they came and they saw the
liberty that the Gentiles had, they began to
create problems by intimating that they were on
an official mission from the church in Jerusalem
to set this church straight.
To let the people know that unless they
kept the law of Moses, and that would
not be the moral law because that doesn't
change.
But unless they kept the law of Moses,
the traditions, the ordinances, the rituals of the
law, unless they were circumcised, they couldn't be
saved.
It created quite a division.
Paul and Barnabas disputed with these fellows.
There were big arguments and they decided finally
they would go to the church in Jerusalem
and get it settled once and for all.
And so the apostles and the elders came
together to consider this matter, verse six.
The matter of the relationship of the law
of Moses to the Gentile believers as well
as Jewish believers.
To consider if salvation through faith in Jesus
alone was sufficient or is it necessary to
keep the ordinances and the rituals of the
law.
We read, and when there had been much
disputing, this was a big issue in the
church.
A lot of argument over this issue.
In that Mid-Eastern culture, in their disputing,
they can get very loud and very demonstrative.
And so you can sort of picture in
your mind just what was going on.
It's often said in Israel by the Jews,
if you want three opinions, ask three Jews.
It seems like each of them have their
own opinion.
And so here is this big dispute that
is going on over this issue.
So they finally sort of called the meeting
to order and Peter was the first one
to speak on the subject.
Now earlier, Peter, you remember, was called of
God to go to the house of Cornelius,
who was a Roman centurion, their ancestry.
And the Spirit had told Peter to go,
not asking any questions after having given Peter
a vision.
Peter came to the house of Cornelius.
Cornelius greeted him, he had a house full
of people that he had invited to come.
And Peter sort of stood at the door
I'm sure a little hesitant.
He had never been in the house of
a Gentile before, because that was against the
tradition of the Jews.
Any kind of a concourse with Gentiles was
forbidden.
You remember the surprise of the woman at
Samaria when Jesus asked her for a drink.
How is it that you ask me for
a drink?
You're a Jew, I'm a Samaritan.
We don't deal with each other.
And that was very true.
The Jews would not deal with the Gentiles.
They would not enter into the home of
a Gentile.
And I'm sure that Peter probably took a
big gulp and stepped inside, because the Spirit
had prompted him to do so.
And so having been led of the Spirit
to take the gospel to the Gentiles, the
church in Jerusalem felt that their whole culture
was being threatened.
Did you know that this today is one
of the greatest fears of the Jews as
far as accepting Christianity, accepting Jesus Christ?
Their greatest fear is that they will no
longer be a nation.
Their nation, they feel, is held together by
the traditions.
And Jews today will observe the Sabbath, though
they are not religious.
They will observe kosher diets, though they are
not religious.
And it's interesting how that they feel that
it is the rituals and the ordinances that,
the traditions that really hold the people together,
make them a nation.
And they're fearful that if they accept Christianity,
that they will no longer have that bond
of camaraderie that is created through the traditions
that they observe.
And we have had many a Jew tell
us that the reason why they don't accept
Jesus Christ is that they would no longer
be a Jew and the nation would fall
apart.
They feel that it is the adhesiveness of
the traditions.
And yet the same fellows that told us
these things are not really religious Jews at
all.
But it's just the whole nationalism that is
held together by their traditions.
Peter spoke of how God called him and
that his outreach to the Gentiles was by
direct guidance of the Holy Spirit, in order
that the Gentiles might hear the gospel and
believe.
And that God confirmed his going by giving
to the Gentiles the Holy Spirit, even as
was given to the church in the beginning.
And God had made no difference between them
and us, purifying their hearts through faith.
As we sang, you know, He is actually
brought down the walls.
Paul in Ephesians speaks about how that through
Jesus Christ, this partition that used to exist
between the Jew and Gentile was broken down
through Jesus Christ, making us one.
Now Peter is affirming this.
He made no difference between them and us,
purifying their hearts through faith.
Our hearts are purified through faith.
When Paul wrote to the Romans in chapter
three on this very subject, he said, what
advantage then has the Jew?
Or what profit is there in circumcision?
Paul said much and in every way, but
chiefly because unto them were committed the oracles
of God.
In other words, God had spoken to them
as a nation.
And that was the chief advantage of the
Jew, is that that was the nation to
whom God revealed his plan of redemption, because
that was the nation that would bring the
Messiah into the world.
And so their chief advantage was the revelation
of God to them.
They had the oracles of God.
Paul then asked, what then, referring to the
Jew and the Gentile, are we better than
they or the Gentiles?
No, in no wise.
For we have before proved that both Jews
and Gentiles, that they are all under sin.
As it is written, there is none righteous,
no, not one.
There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God.
They are all gone out of the way.
They are all together become unprofitable.
There is none that doeth good, no, not
one.
So there's no difference between Jew and Gentile.
We're all sinners.
There's none righteous, no, not one.
Now here he is actually quoting Psalm 53
verses one to three.
Then he quotes Psalm 59.
Their throat is an open sepulcher.
With their tongues they have used deceit.
The poison of asthma is under their lips.
And then he quotes Psalms 10-7.
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
And then he quotes Proverbs 1-16.
Their feet are swift to shed blood.
And then he quotes Isaiah 59-7-8.
Destruction and misery are in their ways.
And the way of peace have they not
known.
And then Psalm 36-1.
There is no fear of God before their
eyes.
Now we know that what things soever the
law says, it says to them who are
under the law that every mouth may be
stopped and the whole world become guilty before
God.
As I read this, I'm amazed at Paul's
excellent grasp of the scriptures.
As he is writing on this subject just
one by one, scriptures out of Proverbs, scriptures
out of Psalms, scriptures out of Isaiah.
Now he didn't have a strong concordance.
And he wasn't able, you know, to look
these things up.
But he just had the word of God
in his heart.
And he could just quote God's word.
And how wonderful it is to have the
word of God so permeate your life.
That when you get on a subject or
an issue, you can just start rattling off
scriptures that are all saying basically the same
thing, only they're coming from different parts of
the Bible.
And so Paul then said, therefore, by the
deeds of the law, there shall no flesh
be justified in his sight.
For by the law is the knowledge of
sin.
No one has ever become righteous by keeping
the law.
The law brings to us the knowledge of
sin.
And a correct understanding of the law will
bring you conviction of sin.
Because there is none of us who are
righteous, no, not one.
All of us have sinned and come short
of the glory of God.
There is none that doeth good.
There is none that seeketh after God.
And so as Paul wrote to the Galatians,
the law was intended as a schoolmaster to
drive us to Jesus Christ.
But after you've come to Christ, you're no
longer under the schoolmaster.
You've attained, you've achieved.
Once you've graduated, you're no longer under the
authority of the teacher.
What is it?
You used to put in your books, no
more teachers, no, no, no more school, no
more books, no more teachers, dirty looks or
something.
You're, you're, you know, you can sort of,
yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm out of your class.
I've got my grade and it's all over,
you know, and, and you don't feel bound
to them any longer.
And, and so the law, when it has
brought you to despair in yourself, when it's
brought you the consciousness of your sin, and
when it has driven you to Jesus Christ,
it has then accomplished its purpose and you
are no longer under the law.
Now, as I said, we're not talking about
the moral law.
That stands.
Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal
and bear false.
That stands.
That's, that's the moral law but we're talking
about the law of ordinances and rituals and
things of that nature.
No longer under that as a standard for
righteousness because it couldn't make you righteous.
Never could.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no
flesh will be justified in his sight.
For by the law is only the knowledge
of sin.
But now the righteousness of God without the
law or apart from the law is manifested
being witnessed by the law and the prophets.
Even the righteousness of God which is by
the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and
upon all them that believe for there is
no difference.
That is, as far as the Jew or
the Gentile is concerned, there's no difference.
All of us have sinned and come short
of the glory of God.
And all of us, both Jew and Gentile,
are being justified freely by his grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Whom God has set forth to be a
propitiation through faith in his blood to declare
the righteousness for the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God.
To declare, I say at this time, his
righteousness that he might be just and the
justifier of him that believes in Jesus.
Where is boasting then?
Well, it's excluded.
By what law?
Of works?
No, if you could be righteous by works,
then you would be boasting and you'd have
a grounds for boasting.
But as Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory, save in the cross of Jesus
Christ.
And so we sing in the cross of
Christ I glory.
I can't boast of my works.
My works do not and cannot make me
righteous.
It is my faith in Jesus Christ that
God accounts as righteousness for me.
So the righteousness which is of God through
faith in Christ Jesus, which eliminates boasting.
Therefore, Paul said, we conclude that a man
is justified by faith without the deeds of
the law.
Is he the God of the Jews only?
Is he not also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also.
Seeing it is one God which shall justify
the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through
faith.
In other words, our righteousness is predicated upon
faith in Jesus Christ and not upon a
ritual.
And of course, Paul is dealing with the
ritual of circumcision, which to the Jew was
vital and all important.
But that would go for any other ritual,
even the ritual of baptism.
Now, sometimes people talk about the Pauline doctrine
or the Pauline theology as though Paul was
sort of a renegade out here all on
his own, really not in harmony with the
church in Jerusalem, that Paul was just sort
of a outcast because he had this gospel
of faith and righteousness through faith in Jesus
Christ.
And so somehow he was out of harmony
with the church, the main church in Jerusalem.
But having looked at Paul's statement, let's come
back to Peter now as he is standing
there before the council.
And Peter said, why tempt ye God by
putting on them a yoke on the neck
of the disciples that neither we nor our
fathers were able to bear?
Why would you tempt God?
By making another path to salvation through the
law, which was a yoke that neither we
nor our fathers were able to bear.
Now, he's very honest and straightforward as he
talks about the rituals and the ordinances of
the law.
We weren't able to keep them.
If we weren't able to keep them, why
should we try to put the Gentiles under
these same rituals and ordinances?
If God has accepted them and has given
to them the gift of the Holy Spirit
without their being circumcised, why should we go
against what God has done by demanding that
they now be circumcised?
You know, it's interesting.
There is only one place that I can
think of where it speaks of Jesus being
angry.
That's not really an emotion that we equate
with Jesus, is it?
When we think of Jesus, we think of
kindness.
We think of compassion.
We think of love.
We think of forgiveness.
We think of understanding.
In the 23rd chapter of Matthew, it doesn't
say that he was angry there, but his
words would certainly tend towards that.
But the only place where it says he
was angry was when he was coming to
the synagogue in Capernaum on the Sabbath day.
And there was a man in the synagogue
on that Sabbath day who had a withered
hand.
And immediately they began to watch him to
see if he would heal the man on
the Sabbath day.
Now, here you find Jesus bucking directly against
tradition.
Their interpretation of the Sabbath day was that
you were to do no healing on the
Sabbath day, because they felt that that constituted
a work.
So, if a person was bleeding to death,
you could tie a tourniquet to stop the
bleeding.
But you really couldn't try to cleanse the
wound or bandage it up or take care
of it.
Just save the life, but do nothing towards
the healing process until the Sabbath day was
over.
And they taught that as, you know, this
is God's command.
And so, Jesus, when he came into the
synagogue, he felt the tension rising.
And as he looked around, he realized what
was going on.
Because he saw the man over there with
a withered hand.
And he realized that they're wondering if I
will heal this man on the Sabbath day.
And it said he looked on them with
anger.
Why?
Because they would keep this man in a
crippled condition, because it was the Sabbath day
and they did not want to see their
traditions violated.
And so, they would hold back this man
from the work of God in his life,
because it violated their traditions.
That's what upset him.
Anytime our traditions get in the way, and
we would hold people back from the work
that God is wanting to do in their
life, because it violates our traditions, it makes
him angry.
And so, why tempt ye God?
Why make God angry?
It's obvious God has accepted the Gentiles.
Obviously that he has accepted them, because he
poured out his Holy Spirit upon them.
So, why should we put them back under
these ordinances, back under these rituals, which even
we haven't been able to keep?
A yoke of bondage Paul calls it, in
Galatians.
Galatians 5, in Colossians chapter 2, Paul said,
Let no man therefore judge you in meat,
or in drink, or in respect of a
holy day, or of the new moon, or
of the Sabbath days, which are a shadow
of things to come.
The substance is Jesus.
So, what Paul is saying is, all of
these ordinances, all of these holidays, the Sabbath
day, it was only foreshadowing the coming of
Jesus.
It was fulfilled in Jesus.
The Passover was fulfilled in Jesus.
And so, these were all the shadow of
things to come.
The substance, the body is Christ, the substance,
not the shadow.
He's the substance from which the shadow was
cast.
But the shadow only speaks of the substance.
And so, don't let anybody judge you in
regard to these things which were only foreshadowing
the coming of Jesus.
He is our Sabbath.
He is our rest.
We find our rest in Him.
Tragic that some people believe that they have
to keep the Saturday, Sabbath, in order to
be righteous before God.
And they feel that worship on Sunday is
a violating of God's laws, and God's commands,
and that surely Sunday worship is sort of
a, well, they even refer to it as
the mark of the beast.
And you know that God is letting the
tares grow with the wheat, but in the
harvest, you know, you that have worshipped on
Sunday will be tares.
You'll be rooted out and cast out because
you've been worshipping the mark of the beast.
Tragic.
The same issues that were there at the
beginning of the church are still with us
today as people are wanting to hang on
to traditions and hang on to the ordinances
rather than hanging on to Jesus and finding
their rest in Jesus Christ.
He's the real rest, the true rest.
No one has ever been saved by keeping
the law.
No one can ever be saved by keeping
the law.
The law was intended to force us to
realize that we are sinners who need the
grace of God if we are ever going
to be saved.
And even those who offered sacrifices in the
Old Testament, they did so by faith as
they believed the promises of God that he
would send the Messiah.
And so their sacrifices were all offered in
faith.
They weren't saved.
The sacrifices could not put away their sins.
The sacrifices could only cover but couldn't put
away their sins.
That took the blood of Jesus Christ.
So he is the fulfillment.
He is the end of the law to
those that believe.
Why should we put on them a yoke?
As Paul said, the yoke of bondage that
neither we nor our fathers were able to
bear.
When Jesus invited people to come to him,
he said, come unto me all ye that
labor and are heavy laden and I will
give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of
me.
For my yoke is easy and my burden
is light and you will find rest for
your souls.
You can never rest in the law.
The only place you can find rest is
in Jesus Christ.
And in contrast to the yoke of the
law, which Peter said neither we nor our
fathers were able to bear, Jesus said, my
yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Jesus accused the Pharisees of binding heavy burdens
that were hard to bear on the shoulders
of the people, but he said they would
not lift a little finger to try and
move them themselves.
But they would put these heavy yokes.
Now you see, some of these people who
had accepted Jesus were former Pharisees.
And they were still going to do that
same thing that they were doing before.
As a Jew, as a Pharisee, they would
put heavy burdens on people.
Requirements that were difficult or impossible to keep.
And yet they themselves wouldn't move a little
finger to try and lift the things.
And so, Peter is suggesting that we not
put the Gentile believers in this kind of
a relationship with God.
There are always those like the Pharisees who
would tell you how you should live, but
so many times they don't live that way
themselves.
So Peter's final analysis, having spoken of God
receiving the Gentiles apart from the ordinances, giving
them the Holy Spirit, saw no reason that
we should now put them under the bondage,
the yoke of the ordinances and rituals of
the law.
So he finally concludes, we believe that through
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we
shall be saved even as they.
Now, I like the way Peter put this.
It was, we believe that through the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be
saved even as they.
He didn't say that they will be saved
even as us.
He recognized that God had saved them through
grace.
And remember now, this is Peter, this isn't
Paul.
This is typical for Paul.
But here is Peter acknowledging that we, Jews,
have to come the same way as the
Gentiles.
We Jews can be saved through the grace
of God, even as the Gentiles have been
saved through the grace of God.
So he agrees with Paul that salvation for
the Jews is no different than salvation for
the Gentiles.
He acknowledges that we are all of us
saved by grace through faith.
No one who has ever lived apart from
Jesus deserved to be saved.
Only Jesus deserved to be saved because he
was sinless.
But no one else ever deserved salvation.
There's not a single thing that you can
do or a collective group of things that
you can do that would cause you to
deserve salvation.
Salvation is a gift of God's grace unto
us.
Those that try to say that salvation through
grace, by grace through faith, in the Lord
Jesus is strictly Pauline, but it isn't.
It is a common consensus in the early
church.
And we find Peter here in perfect agreement
with the teachings of Paul.
By grace are you saved through faith.
And that not of yourselves, it's a gift
of God and not of works, lest any
man should boast.
The Jews were saying that you must earn
God's favor by keeping the law.
Peter is saying you must receive God's favor
by believing in him.
You know, to me the Christian life is
filled with interesting paradoxes.
In the Christian life, the way up is
down and the way down is up.
He that exalteth himself shall be obeised.
So if you're trying to go up, you'll
go down.
Exalting yourself, you'll be obeised.
But he that humbleth himself, the way up
is down, shall be exalted.
The way to victory is by surrendering.
When I surrender unto Jesus Christ is when
I experience victory.
And the way to strength is by my
confession of weakness.
For when I am weak, then am I
strong.
For his strength is made perfect in my
weakness.
The way to a righteous standing before God
is not by my works, my efforts, my
doing, but it is what God has done
for me and the provisions he's made for
me through Jesus Christ and my simple putting
my faith and trust in the work of
God.
God accounts my faith for righteousness, the righteousness
which is of Christ through faith.
This is the righteousness that Paul was preaching
to the Gentiles.
This went against the grain of the Jews
because it violated their traditional positions and beliefs.
The church is now considering this very issue,
and it is a pivotal issue as far
as the church and the future of the
church is concerned.
Whether the church continues to be an organism
that spreads out to the world, or whether
it's reduced to just another Jewish sect will
be determined by this council.
So Peter has put in his two cents
worth.
Next up, Paul and Barnabas as they declare
what God has done through their ministry to
the Gentiles.
Let's pray.
Father, we're so grateful that you have done
it all, and that our righteousness, Lord, is
something that you have wrought for us through
your Son, Jesus Christ.
Not of works of righteousness which we have
done, but Lord, by your grace are we
accepted and are we redeemed.
And Lord, we as Gentiles rejoice in the
freedom, the beautiful freedom that we have in
Christ, Jesus.
We thank you, Lord, that your yoke indeed
is easy, and your burden is light.
And as there are those today, Lord, that
would like to put us under the yoke,
of the law, under the yoke of bondage.
We ask, Lord, that you will help us
to stand in the liberty wherein Christ has
made us free.
Hold our ground, stand fast in that liberty.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Shall we stand?
The pastors are down here at the front
this evening to pray for your needs.
So as we are dismissed, if you have
a need tonight, we encourage you to come
forward and just spend some time in prayer.
Take it to the Lord.
He is able, He is willing, and He
has promised that He would help.
If two or three would agree, He said
He would do it.
So we would encourage you to come down,
and these men are here to agree with
you in prayer that God will work in
your behalf on those issues that are a
problem or troubling you tonight.
God wants to work, and we encourage you
to just turn it over to Him and
give Him a chance to do His work.
Sing alleluia to the Lord.
Sing alleluia, sing alleluia.
Sing alleluia to the Lord.
God bless you.