We're going to be looking at, excuse me,
Acts 15, but I'd like to read a
couple things to you that just came over
the World Wide Web today.
And one of the articles is from Time
Magazine, this week's Time Magazine, if you haven't
read it.
But it's interesting concerning prophecy in the last
days.
You know, it's amazing to me the things
that are going on, how somebody could still
be holding back from Jesus Christ.
Wondering about, you know, what goals they have
in the future, and not really realize that
the times that they're in.
You know, David's men knew the times that
they were in.
And I'm kind of amazed that some of
the lives that I've watched, Christians, and you
can see they're still holding back.
They just don't quite believe that we could
be at the end.
And they're just looking for that time, almost
like, you know, the kingdom to be now
without the tribulation period and the coming of
Jesus Christ.
But there's two particular prophecies concerning the end.
One is, you know, disease, pestilence.
A horrible scourge of disease, one of the
four major plagues that Jesus spoke of at
the end.
They just had a news conference in Moscow
today.
And Dr. Peter Piot, he's the executive director
of what is called UNAIDS, the way they're
tracking AIDS around the world.
And this is what they revealed today on
the World Wide Web.
Every 60 seconds worldwide, five people between the
ages of 10 and 24 become infected with
HIV.
That's 7,000 people a day.
Almost 25, actually 2,500,000 people a
year.
But between the ages of 5 and 24,
every 60 seconds, there are five new cases
of HIV.
The report also warned that Eastern Europe now
is set to become one of the next
epicenters.
It's just spread all over Africa and much
of the Third World.
But now they say it's entering into Europe
at an alarming rate.
Since 1994, in the Eastern European countries and
the Soviet Union, the HIV infection rate has
increased six-fold or 600% since 1994.
It's approaching, now listen to this, 70-fold
or 7,000%.
7,000% increase since 1994.
By the year 2020, there will be 40
million orphans worldwide because of the death of
their parents from AIDS, and most of the
40 million will have AIDS from their families.
This was just revealed on the World Wide
Web at the latest conference on AIDS.
Just shocking things going on around the world.
And who knows?
I personally don't know if we're ever going
to have a cure for AIDS because that
would open the door for every perversion you
could ever think of.
There would be no more fear or restraint.
I can't conceive God revealing a cure for
it because then all the sodomites and the
bisexuals and the drug users would have no
more fear or restraint if there was a
cure.
So it's interesting.
Now, here's another interesting thing.
This week's Time Magazine, this was on the
World Wide Web today.
Because of the bank mergers worldwide, in fact,
I was just with a banking executive in
Boston, and he's with a banking firm, and
they made $96 million in one day just
by investing.
It's an investment bank.
But the way money is being circulated around
the world electronically, investments.
It says, enter the electronic cash in society.
The idea of digital money is simple enough.
Instead of storing value on paper, find a
way to wrap it in a string of
digits that's more portable and, most important, smarter
than its paper counterpart.
Now, remember, in 96 A.D., God Almighty
showed John the Apostle at the end of
the age that people would no longer buy
and sell with money but numbers.
Now, this is what's interesting.
This was in this week's Time Magazine.
Well, yes, because digital cash is endlessly mutable.
You can control it much more precisely than
paper money.
Now, remember, they've already got the money in
place for a worldwide economic system.
The banks are already, they have the technology
developed for a cashless society.
That's a known fact.
On the 6 o'clock news tonight, Great
Britain, who's leading in this technology now, has
just developed, and they showed the person go
up to their bank teller or the, what
is it, the CNB, where you put your
card in, you punch your PIN number in.
Well, you don't have to have a card
or even remember a PIN number anymore in
Great Britain.
They showed the person go up and put
his eyeball in front of a camera, and
they scanned the iris.
You don't need a debit card or a
bank card anymore to get money, and the
cash went quickly, just like you and I
get from our bank, the cash comes out.
Now, they say because the iris never changes,
and it's 100% full proof for identification,
the human iris.
But what if you don't have an eye?
What if you're blind?
The forehead to meet the needs of the
people that are blind to get cash.
But now look what Time Magazine said today,
or this week.
Well, yes, because the cash is mutable, and
you can control it better than paper money.
Think about the $2,000 check you send
to your daughter at college for expenses.
How is that money really spent?
Books?
Beer?
Electronic cash takes that relatively simple transaction, passing
an allowance, and makes them do a much
more intelligent process because, you see, then there's
receipts for everything when you have electric money.
Everything you purchase, everything you do is electrically
digitized and recorded.
And so there's a record of every cent.
One that hardly requires an old-fashioned system
as a bank.
For starters now, you can send the money
over the Internet encoded in an e-mail
instead of sending a check.
Right out of your own home.
This saves you the trouble of balancing the
checkbook at the end of the month.
And it gives you the option of transferring
the money from wherever you want.
Mutual fund, money market, even an old-fashioned
checking account.
Your daughter can store the money any way
she wants to.
In her laptop computer at the university, on
a debit card, even in the not-too
-distant future, in a chip implanted under her
skin.
And perhaps best of all, you can program
the money to be spent only in specific
ways.
You might instruct some of the digits to
go for books.
Some for food, some for movies.
Unless you pass along a few digits that
can be cashed at the local pub, she'll
have to find someone else to buy the
drinks.
Everything is in place.
Smart digital cash may also address some of
the other problems of paper money.
If you lose your digital cash, for example,
you'll be able to replace it instantly by
asking your computer to invalidate the disappeared digits
and replace them with a fresh set.
And unlike paper money, which stops earning interest
as it shoots out of the ATM slot,
smart money in your chip, in your skin,
or in your computer can keep earning interest
until the moment you spend it.
So we're right there.
And probably within our lifetime, we'll start seeing
it implemented.
And don't be surprised that if you're offered
just as an experimental thing or for your
own convenience because cars are lining up, you
know, punching in the pin number or your
bank card breaking, that the new system at
Canandaigua National Fleet or some of the other
banks around Canandaigua and Rochester, next will be
the IRS.
And it's interesting, again, when we first got
here from California, we started teaching that we
were going to be in that kind of
a system in a short time.
And you'd be amazed at the people that
left the church and said I was some
kind of a heretic or false prophet who
didn't know Bible prophecy or weren't being taught
the Bible in their churches.
God loves us so much.
He speaks history in advance so we can
be prepared.
But what alarms me is so many Christians
that we don't seem to think it's going
to affect them.
They're just sitting around doing nothing, thinking the
rapture of the church is going to snatch
everybody out.
Well, if we're that close to implanting the
chip under the arm, and it's in Time
Magazine, the banks are ready to do it.
And they've got everything in place for a
worldwide cashless society.
Remember, the mark of the beast starts in
the middle of the tribulation, not in the
beginning.
So you see how rapidly everybody is being
conditioned to receive the mark of the beast
and how close we are to the end.
Man, it is exciting.
And it's exciting to keep a light touch
and not get so caught up in this
world.
So I've got this.
If you'd like to verify it, you can
get this week's Time or if you've got
your computer who doesn't anymore, you can hit
the Internet and get this information off ABC
.com or Time Magazine.
It's whatever you want to do.
So let's see if we get through this
tonight.
Acts chapter 15.
Now, you see the same problem in the
Christian church today, the same problem that faced
Paul.
No one was given an understanding in the
revelation of grace as Paul.
And as he began to teach it, Satan
began to follow him around to try and
stop it, to keep Christians bound even though
Jesus Christ came to set them free, particularly
Jewish heretics.
Now, there's going to have your first so
-called ecumenical council in Jerusalem or maybe church
conference in Jerusalem with Paul and Peter in
the center of it and James, the Lord's
brother.
And it's over legalism versus grace.
Now, some 12 to 14 years later, Paul
writes concerning this place in Acts 15 that
we're in.
So I'd like to show you something, if
you would.
Turn to Galatians chapter 1.
First of all, what happens and what Paul
refers to in his Jewish religion.
What had happened with the Jews, they did
not apprehend the Mosaic law.
The law of Moses was not given to
save them but to show them that they
needed grace.
It was the schoolmaster to bring them to
the end, to stir up the sin that
was in the natural man but never to
free them.
You remember in Galatians, Paul said, Received you
the spirit by the hearing of the law
or by faith, faith in Jesus Christ.
Romans chapter 4 and Galatians chapter 3 specifically,
Paul lays it out beautifully and clearly what
the purpose of the law was in the
Old Testament, that it was temporary.
And those that were saying that you have
to keep the law even after you believe
in Jesus Christ and keep the ordinances and
most of all, the worst thing, the leaven
of the Pharisees after the church was that
traditions, they tried to maintain the traditions and
then the traditions turned into rules and regulations
and it was binding the people up.
When Jesus Christ came to free everybody from
that, He fulfilled the law and He was
buried just as He buried the law and
Hebrews tells us, disannulled the law.
It wasn't powerful enough to change the life
or prepare anybody for heaven.
In fact, Paul brings out in Romans chapter
4 and Galatians chapter 3, that Abraham was
saved by faith.
The father of us all, even the father
of the Jews was saved by faith.
He believed in God and it was imputed
unto him for righteousness 430 years before God
even made the covenant of the law with
the Jews.
And Jesus Christ has come along and fulfilled
it, set it aside in its demands and
its grace now.
Simple faith in Jesus Christ.
Not traditions, not rules, not any legalism, any
outward ritual like washings, baptisms, and most of
all circumcision and dietary laws and keeping the
Sabbath, worshiping on certain days.
There was this marvelous freedom now that my
righteousness, all that is required is my faith
in Jesus Christ.
He fulfilled all the law which no human
being and particularly the Jewish people could not
fulfill.
The record of their failure is in the
scriptures in the Old Testament.
So look what Paul says about the Jewish
religion.
Now remember, he was a Pharisee of the
Pharisees.
He was a Pharisee.
He was steeped in the Jewish religion and
traditions.
He was a member of the Sanhedrin.
But look at the statement he makes after
he's experienced Christ and been set free in
grace.
In verse 13, writing to the Galatians in
chapter 1, he says, You have heard of
my lifestyle.
The old English word there is conversation.
It means lifestyle or manner of living, not
just speech, but my actions.
In time past in the Jews' religion.
He's no longer a member of the Jews'
religion.
He doesn't see himself under bondage to Judaism,
the Mosaic law.
He's a Jew that was steeped in it.
He's been set free in Jesus Christ.
And now he refers to it as a
different religion, the Jews' religion.
He is a Christian now.
He's no longer a Jew trying to maintain
Jewish traditions, the nice things of Judaism or
the Jewish ritual, trying to Christianize it and
maintain it.
It's a different religion.
He understands it perfectly that it's no longer
binding on someone who's come to Christ.
He says, In the Jews' religion, how that
beyond measure, I persecuted the church of God
and wasted it, what men were doing to
this day, following Paul around.
Now, it's interesting.
One thing is you watch a life in
Christianity.
When someone does not apprehend grace and puts
themselves under some legal aspect of trying to
please God by their own works or maintaining
some kind of holiness in their own power
or some dogmatic ethic or set of ethics,
they lose their joy.
You see them become angry and they lose
their joy.
They lose their freedom and they lose their
joy.
And usually they become judgmental and unsatisfied as
a believer.
It's easy to see it.
They've been trapped in Galatianism, legalism, the law,
their own set of rules.
And the first sign that someone has not
apprehended grace even after they've made a profession
for Jesus Christ is they have no joy,
no joy whatsoever.
The law is a heavy burden and a
yoke.
It was not given to give joy but
to bring people to Jesus Christ.
And Paul teaches it perfectly in Galatians.
And Paul can relate to this.
He was just like these men that were
following him around trying to destroy the Bible
studies, destroy the church, stop people from simply
having that freedom to trust in Christ for
all of their righteousness, the finished work of
Jesus Christ on Calvary.
Another thing, a person who has not apprehended
grace makes it very difficult for those around
them.
They have set their own standard and because
they're living that standard, they expect everyone else
to come up to that level and they
make it very difficult for people and it
can just drain everybody around them of all
joy and excitement for Jesus Christ.
And there will be a lack of love,
a lack of tolerance for someone who has
not experienced or understood grace.
The law usually makes them very rigid, unbending
and flexible and leads them into heresy, a
misunderstanding of the Word of God.
And usually they'll form a sect rather than
let go of this dogmatic principle that they're
hanging on to, to establish their own righteousness.
Like these Jews, they'll actually form a sect
or some heretical movement with their aberration of
the truth.
And so then Paul again in verse 14
said, I profited in the Jews' religion above
many mine equals in mine own nation, being
more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my
fathers.
Now again, here's the tragedy of the Jews.
They had taken traditions and made them rules
for righteousness.
And if you didn't keep their tradition, it
was sin.
They had volumes, particularly concerning the Sabbath day,
what is work, what is carrying a burden,
worshiping on a certain day, eating a certain
way, dietary laws, everything being incorporated plus the
traditions.
So in chapter 2, Paul writes about what
happened in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15.
He goes on to say, Then fourteen years
after I went up again to Jerusalem with
Barnabas, and I took Titus with me also,
two Gentile believers.
And this is what's so amazing to me.
Paul said, I profited in the Jews' religion
above all.
But this is what's amazing to me.
He is a brilliant man.
The Jewish mind was superior to probably everyone
in the Mediterranean.
They didn't have the power and the might
of Greece, maybe the culture, the arts of
Greece, or the power of Rome.
But the Jewish mind was such an intellectual
mind, a gift from God, superior to everyone.
Here's this brilliant man, Paul, raised in two
cultures.
He was the Pharisee of the Pharisees.
He had exceeded everybody in his religion.
You'd think he would be the one, since
he'd experienced Judaism.
He's a Jew.
He can relate to a Jew.
God will use this dynamic, intelligent, powerful man
to take the transition from Judaism to Christianity.
He's the one that God will use to
free people from Judaism.
And isn't it amazing?
He sends him, Paul, to the heathen, who
are under no requirement whatsoever of the Jewish
religion.
And who does he use for the brilliant
Jew?
The uneducated Galilean, the Apostle Peter, who couldn't
write.
Isn't it amazing?
And Peter's the one who's called to the
circumcision, the one who didn't have a formal
education, didn't know nearly the Scripture of the
Apostle Paul.
He wouldn't even be approached for the Sanhedrin,
because he was an outcast.
He was a Galilean.
He was looked down upon, yet he's the
one that shows you it's not by might
nor power, what we sang tonight, but by
my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.
And he chooses the foolish things that confound
the wise.
He goes after the heathen with Paul.
He doesn't need Paul to relate to the
Jews.
And you know what that shows us?
It sets you free.
We don't have to form all kinds of
ministries in the church.
Oh, we've got to relate to the sodomites.
Let's have a special thing for sodomites.
We've got to relate to alcoholics.
Let's have a ministry for alcoholics.
We've got to relate to thieves.
Has anybody been a real thief before they
got saved?
Well, you know, let's have a ministry for
thieves.
We've got to have a ministry for every
kind of problem there is.
No, you don't.
There wouldn't be a building big enough to
hold all the different sessions every night for
some particular sin.
God doesn't need that.
He doesn't need to have someone steeped in
that sin to be able to relate to
that type of sin, because it's not by
might nor by power, but by my spirit,
saith the Lord of hosts.
Oh, now, who's had trouble?
Who's had trouble with tobacco?
Let's form a ministry for people trying to
get off nicotine.
It's amazing the things that some churches go
after, and they go into causes, you know,
got to help this group of people, help
this group of people, help this group of
people.
People have been married three times and divorced.
Let's form a study.
You've been married three times and divorced?
Okay, we're going to have a study for
people who've been married three times and divorced.
You've got to be able to relate to
that kind of pain.
No.
Sin is sin.
It's just called sin.
You see nowhere in the book of Acts
or the Gospels where the Spirit of God
or Jesus Christ, biblical hermeneutics or any of
the apostles form specific type ministry for specific
type sin.
God didn't use the great apostle Paul or
need him to relate to the Jew.
In fact, Paul tried to do Jews only,
and God said, no, you're called to the
heathen.
And it got Paul in trouble continually.
Beat up, thrown in jail, rejected by his
brethren, his countrymen.
The Spirit of God having to afflict him
just to keep him from going in certain
directions.
He was so strong-willed.
God says, I can save the Jews without
you, Paul.
I know you have a background in understanding
what the Jew is like, but I'm going
to use the apostle Peter for the circumcision.
You see, it's the Gospel.
It's the good news of Jesus Christ who
conquered all sin, whether it's sodomy, drunkenness, adultery,
bisexuality, pedophilia, whatever it may be, thievery, lying,
pride, unforgiveness.
The plight of mankind.
Every single one of us are open to
any one of those sins.
All there is is each one of us.
And it's the wonderful Gospel of Jesus Christ
who sets you free.
It's amazing how people get trapped.
Oh, these people can't relate to me.
They don't know the sin.
I've got to be ministered to by a
person that came out of that type of
sin.
Not so.
That's a lie from Satan.
It is not by might nor by power,
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of
hosts.
It's the Gospel.
It's the love of Jesus Christ that will
heal and deliver from any sin.
So Paul goes on to say, Barnabas took
Titus, and I took them both, went up
by revelation, in other words, God told him
to do it, and communicated unto them that
Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but
privately to them which are of reputation, lest
by any means I should run or had
run in vain.
So rather than make a big deal out
of it, he just went up quietly at
first to talk to the guys, the leaders
of the church in Jerusalem.
But neither Titus, who was with me, being
a Greek, and he was compelled to be
circumcised, and that because of false brethren, unawares
brought in who came in privately to spy
out our liberty, which we have in Christ
Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage,
to see if they're maintaining the traditions or
the laws.
To whom, and I like this about Paul,
we gave place by subjection, no, not for
an hour, that the truth of the Gospel
might continue with you.
We didn't waste our time with these guys
arguing about non-essentials, traditions.
Remember, Paul wrote the brilliant treatise in Colossians
about feast days and dietary laws and months
and Sabbaths.
Don't anybody judge you anymore concerning those things.
If you really apprehend grace, every day is
a Sabbath.
You cease from your own works and your
own efforts.
You're walking in the Spirit.
Christ is working in you.
Christ in you the hope of glory.
It's the work of the Spirit inside of
us.
No more strain for me.
Jesus said, if you're laboring and you're burdened
and you're troubled, come unto me and take
my yoke upon you.
It's easy, it's light.
You'll find rest unto your souls.
Learn of me.
I'll free you from that yoke of bondage,
of the law, rules, regulation.
You want joy in life?
Apprehend grace.
One of the most difficult things for a
believer to do, more difficult than to get
rid of sin, to apprehend grace.
The marvelous finished work of Jesus Christ for
my righteousness and then the work of the
Spirit in the life that sets you free.
You remember in Hebrews chapter 4, the writer
says if you're going to labor in anything,
labor to enter into rest.
That perfect Sabbath rest, not just one day
out of the week, but when you learn
to walk in the Spirit, you're resting seven
days a week.
No more effort.
No more strain.
No more anger and frustration.
I can live a life of joy in
the Lord.
It says the joy of the Lord is
my strength.
Jesus came to lift that yoke.
My burden is easy.
My yoke is easy.
I'll free you from the law.
Well, boy, you see, Satan doesn't want a
Christian to experience that.
So what's he do?
Well, you can't go to church dressed like
that.
Why not?
James says you can dress any way you
want to.
James says it doesn't matter what you have
on the outside.
God looks at the heart.
He's always looking at the heart, the motor,
the love for Christ.
Is love for Christ behind it?
Or is it some stern duty?
Because I feel that I have to.
My heart goes out to people that live
in a marriage relationship like that.
I do it because I have to, not
because I want to, because of love.
Love has set me free, and I desire
to do it.
I desire to show my love and my
thanks just to express anything I can.
I just want to serve.
I want to please you.
Lord, whatever I do, I want to please
you.
I'm so thankful.
Paul goes on to say, But of these
who seem to be somewhat, whatever they were,
it maketh no matter to me.
God accepteth no man's person.
Everybody in this room is equal, guys.
There's no potentate in the church except Jesus
Christ.
We are all equal.
God esteems all people alike.
And then there's his marvelous, blessed Son, Jesus
Christ.
God doesn't exalt someone above another.
Now, God has different ministries and different strengths,
different capacities, administrations.
Paul brings up in the book of Corinthians,
it says, He accepteth no man's person.
You're just as important as anybody else.
You have just as equal right to approach
God when you have a need as anybody
else in the church.
No matter what your calling is, no matter
what you're doing, it's a child of God.
And if you get to the throne of
grace, the mercy seat before Billy Graham, God's
not going to say, Oh, Billy's here.
Sorry, step aside.
The evangelist is here.
No.
You go in just as you get there.
Nobody.
He's no respecter of persons.
And he's always there with the door open
for you.
So Paul said, Because God accepteth no man's
person, for they who seem to be somewhat
in conference added nothing to me.
But contrarywise, when they saw that the gospel
of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, that's
the heathen, the Gentiles, as the gospel of
the circumcision was unto Peter, the illiterate Galilean
fisherman, God's going to use him to convert
the intellectual Jew who probably knew the Bible
better than Peter.
If you're going to argue doctrine or argue
Scripture.
But you see, Peter had the Holy Spirit.
Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit.
And see, that's the advantage you have over
any religious person.
They may know the Bible.
They may have gone in seminary or theology
school.
They may have had some kind of a
degree.
But if you read your Bible and you're
filled with the Spirit, you've got the advantage.
You win.
The question is, are you filled with the
Spirit?
Are you baptized with the Spirit?
He said, then God will honor all your
reading, all your prayers, and give you power
far beyond and superior to the person who
doesn't have it.
And so he can use Peter for the
intellectual Jew.
For he that wrought effectually in Peter to
the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was
mighty in me toward the Gentiles.
And when James Cephas, which would be Peter,
and John, who seemed to be the pillars,
perceived the grace that was given unto me,
they gave to me and Barnabas the right
hands of fellowship, that we should go unto
the heathen and they go unto the circumcision.
Only they would that we should remember the
poor.
The same which I also was forward to
do because there were many poor believers in
Jerusalem.
Because they'd left the faith.
They weren't getting the jobs.
They were being persecuted.
They were being set aside.
And so things were difficult for a Christian
in those days.
And so the church was to remember the
poor.
But when Peter was come to Antioch, I
withstood him to the face because he was
to be blamed.
For before that certain came from James, he
did eat with the Gentiles.
But when they were come, he withdrew and
separated himself, fearing them which were of the
circumcision.
So it takes a long time for the
Spirit of God to free somebody from a
tradition.
Some long-held tradition.
Now remember, Peter was raised in a society
in a Jewish scheme of things under the
law that you have nothing to do with
the Gentile.
They were dirty and unclean.
And there was no salvation for them.
And so after he came to Christ and
he realized that God loved the Gentiles, he
wasn't afraid to fellowship with the Gentiles until
important people of the Jews showed up.
And then he was intimidated of what these
important people from his background might think.
And he withdrew himself.
And Paul heard about it.
And by Peter doing that, it says, other
Jews disassembled likewise with him inasmuch that Barnabas
also was carried away with their dissimilation.
Then he began to be afraid.
Well, I don't know if we should eat
with Gentiles.
And when I saw that they walked not
uprightly according to the truth of the gospel,
I said unto Peter before them all, If
thou being a Jew livest after the manner
of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why
compelst thou the Gentiles to live as do
the Jews?
Why try to put these things back on
someone that Jesus Christ has set everyone free
from those things for righteousness?
Those traditions, those rituals.
Now, that's what Paul wrote some 14 years
later.
Let's go back to Acts 15 and see
what happens.
As Luke records it, that caused this council
or this meeting to take place in Jerusalem.
Certain men which came down from Judea taught
the brethren and said, Except you be circumcised
after the manner of Moses, you cannot be
saved.
In other words, some outward ritual, whether it's
sprinkling of water, baptism, you know, looking a
certain way, putting yourself under some kind of
a rigid rule to prove that you're saved.
In this particular case, they're saying, You must
be circumcised.
Now, all the circumcision was, was to identify
with the Jewish people and their covenant with
God.
But salvation was given by grace, the father
of the Jews, Abraham and the Gentiles.
Paul brings that out, remember.
He's the father of us all because Abraham
believed by faith.
He wasn't told to be circumcised.
That had nothing to do.
He was saved before he was even told
anything about circumcision.
So it's not necessary for salvation.
It was just a ritual, an external ritual.
It had nothing to do with faith.
And so they're following Paul around saying, Well,
we know that Jesus is Messiah, but you've
got to keep obeying all the Mosaic law.
You've got to be circumcised.
You've got to have this, go through this
ritual or you won't be saved.
When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small
dissension and disputation with them, they determined that
Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them
should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles
and elders about this question.
Now remember in Galatians, Paul says 14 years
later that Barnabas was carried away himself with
that fear.
Well, maybe they're right.
Maybe I should submit to it.
Paul says, No, you don't.
It's not necessary.
And so they got into a big argument
and being brought on their way by the
church, they passed through Phoenice or Phoenicia.
That would be the coast of Israel from
Lebanon down to the Gaza Strip.
All along the Mediterranean, it starts up by
Tyre and Sidon, the Lebanese border today, down
through Haifa, down into Tel Aviv and to
Joppa, right down to the Gaza Strip.
That is what is Phoenice or Phoenicia in
those days.
And notice they personally, purposely passed through there
because of Gentiles.
So as they're going to Jerusalem for this
council to discuss these things, they're going to
purposely go through these areas to share the
gospel with the Gentiles, the heathen.
And they're also Samaria, declaring the conversion of
the Gentiles.
And they caused great joy unto all the
brethren, leading people to Christ.
And when they had come to Jerusalem, they
were received of the church and of the
apostles and elders, and they declared all things
that God had done with them.
But there arose up certain of the sect
of the Pharisees which believed, saying that it
was needful to circumcise them and to command
them to keep the law of Moses.
So there's this powerful group of people who
left the Pharisees like Paul, but didn't apprehend
grace.
They believed in Jesus the Messiah.
They said, but you still have to keep
all the rituals and all the traditions and
particularly the laws.
Now that word sect is an interesting word.
It means to make a choice that causes
disunity.
And the Greek word for sect there is
heresy.
Someone who is a heretic, to teach falsely.
And the apostles and elders came together for
to consider this matter.
And when there had been much disputing, Peter
rose up and said unto them, Men and
brethren, you know how that a good while
ago God made choice among us that the
Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word
of the gospel and believe.
So Peter is saying, look, you heard what
happened to the Gentiles at Cornelius' house back
in chapter 10.
Of course he didn't say that.
There wasn't any chapter 10 then.
And God which knoweth the hearts bare them
witness giving them the Holy Ghost even as
he did unto us.
There's the marvelous thing.
Now, ask yourself this.
Do you have the Holy Ghost?
I'm convinced you have the Holy Ghost if
you wouldn't be here tonight.
You know, one of the first night's balmy
evenings of spring.
There's so much to do.
You're hearing the lawnmowers going now before the
sun goes down.
Just think.
And where are you?
You're here fellowshipping.
You have the Holy Spirit.
You have a desire to worship, to fellowship
together with the saints.
You know, I was thinking the other day.
I was thinking, Lord, I've been doing this
for 20 years.
Day in and day out.
Week after week.
Sunday after Sunday.
Thursday after Thursday.
Sunday night, Thursday night.
Mid-week Bible studies.
Traveling around speaking.
Studying the Bible.
And once you're through it, starting all over
again.
Then going through it, starting all over again.
And a lot of tragic things.
I'm thinking, Lord, it's obvious that I've been
born again.
And it's the work of your Spirit.
Nobody could do this without the Spirit of
God.
Week after week.
Year after year.
Day in, day out.
And then people say, Well, I've heard enough.
I'm bored with this.
And off they go.
And yet you have to continue feeding.
Day in, day out.
Week after week.
Month after month.
Year after year.
The same book.
Then go back to that book again.
There's new sheep.
The same meal.
And continue to learn and teach and pray
and study and plead with God.
Lord, you can see if a person wasn't
born again and didn't have the indwelling Holy
Spirit to energize them, Lord, you get all
the glory.
Lord, it can't be done without you.
Thank God.
And you know what it is?
It's a delight.
The crazy thing is, it's a delight to
see people get blessed.
To see a life that's turned around and
a marriage saved.
A marriage that was on the rocks.
Or somebody turned around.
Sin defeated.
Not because of some special Bible study.
But just, you know, the more excellent way.
The Word of God.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, all through
the New Testament.
Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
Next year, the same thing.
That's the more excellent way.
There's millions of steps.
Not one, not twelve.
After you come to Jesus, the more excellent
way.
You just teach the Bible.
And it's amazing how it transforms somebody on
the inside.
And I wonder sometimes, the people come, do
you really have the Holy Spirit?
Is it keeping you alive?
The real person of the Holy Spirit keeps
us alive.
It conquered death.
It conquered the grave.
It conquers sin.
He is so powerful.
Thank the Lord.
You can be filled with the Holy Spirit.
And so Peter's really preaching to them now.
God which knoweth the hearts, bear them witness,
giving them the Holy Ghost, even as you
know us.
You can't live the Christian life.
You can't stay excited about Jesus Christ without
the Holy Spirit.
And another thing my heart goes out to
people about.
I've seen people think that it's the pastor,
the minister, the radio teacher, or the TV
guy.
Now for a while, God may use someone
like that, but I've seen people start to
just kind of taper off and think, oh,
it's just not what it used to be.
And they're backslidden and don't know it, so
they run around trying to find a new
exciting guy.
That's what's going to turn me on.
I've got to find a new guy that's
exciting.
I've got to hear something new and fresh.
You sure do, but it's from the Holy
Spirit.
It's the filling, the fresh filling of the
Holy Spirit.
I've seen people get on and just running
around thinking, oh, I've got to find somebody
exciting to keep me excited.
And you know, they never develop in a
relationship with Jesus.
They just start learning all the different people
that God uses.
So they relate to this and now they
know Him real well.
And they go to His church for all.
They listen to this guy for all.
They start quoting Him.
They get excited about this evangelist.
They get excited about this conference.
But never about Jesus Christ personally because it
wears off.
They've got to run around for someone new
and exciting again.
When God has given us His blessed Holy
Spirit, Christ Himself, the power of the universe
dwelling within us, He says, I can fill
you every morning.
I can fill you during the day.
I can give you fresh fillings.
And it won't bill you like the dentist.
And it doesn't hurt.
And it doesn't make you numb.
It brings you life.
And notice what He says about Jew and
Gentile.
Because of the Holy Ghost, He put no
difference between us and them purifying their hearts
by faith.
It's by faith in Jesus Christ, not keeping
of the law, the precepts of the law,
the traditions that the Pharisees made a sin
issue.
They accused Jesus continually of breaking the law.
No, He broke their traditions.
He never broke the law.
They made their traditions a sin issue.
There's no difference between us and them.
Jew and Gentile.
Paul refers to it now as the Jew's
religion.
He's a born-again Christian.
Now there's nothing wrong with a tradition, but
it has nothing to do with sin or
making a person more righteous.
Now therefore, notice what Peter said, Why tempt
you God and put a yoke upon the
neck of the disciples which neither our fathers
nor we were able to bear?
Why follow us around and you see the
same tragic thing in the Christian church today
in some circles where they're so legalistic that
if you don't dress right, if you don't
sing right, if you don't tithe right, if
you don't pledge, and they pressure you, and
they put this yoke on, that Jesus Christ
is removed.
In fact, He took it upon Himself, the
yoke and the punishment of the law, like
some animal in a yoke with this beam
across His shoulders and His arms tied to
it, tying the sacrifice to the altar, and
they nailed Him to a cross.
He took that yoke upon Himself.
You don't have to bear it.
Why put that yoke upon the neck of
the disciples which neither our fathers nor we
were able to bear?
But we believe that through the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved
even as they.
All we have to do is simply put
our faith in Jesus Christ.
Now, if my faith in Jesus Christ is
from the heart, my life automatically changes.
Thank God I don't have to do it.
It's not my power.
It's the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Christ lives the life through me, through you,
His gift.
And a person who is still trying on
their own, it's the most miserable experience.
And you can look at their lives, and
they have no joy in their salvation.
And they just cannot continue to go forward.
Everything is a strain.
Everything is an ordeal.
I don't enjoy singing.
I don't enjoy serving.
I don't enjoy...
What is it?
It's that heavy yoke of the law.
Not realizing the finished work of Christ.
It has set you free.
Righteousness does not have to be established by
you.
The righteousness is imputed by Christ.
Righteousness was imputed to Abraham because he believed.
Righteousness will be imputed to you.
Christ will live His life in you if
you ask Him to be your Lord and
Savior, to come and dwell within your heart.
That's all you have to do.
And He will fill you with His Spirit
if you ask.
It is so fantastic to be a Christian.
Notice when Peter said, then all the multitude
kept silence.
It's almost like they're hearing something, I never
heard that before.
Well, when someone's angry, they can sit in
a service.
Or if someone's wrestling with the law, they
can sit in a service of grace and
still not hear anything.
And say, I never heard that.
It was taught last year.
It was taught in the other epistle.
It was taught six months ago.
They kept silence.
They're hearing something wonderful.
You mean there is hope?
Oh, there's marvelous hope.
God wants to bless.
The Lord wants to fill you with so
much joy and freedom.
Freedom not to sin, but freedom to enjoy
your Christian experience.
They gave audience to Barnabas and Paul declaring
what miracles and what wonders God had wrought
among the Gentiles by them.
And after they had held their peace, James
answered saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me.
Here's the Lord's brother.
Half-brother that Mary had after Jesus Christ.
Simeon hath declared how God at the first
did visit the Gentiles to take out of
them a people for His name.
And to this agreed the words of the
prophets that it is written, After this I
will return and will build again the tabernacle
of David which has fallen down, and I
will build again the ruins thereof, and I
will set it up that the residue of
men might seek after the Lord and all
the Gentiles upon whom My name is called
saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.
Known unto God are all His works from
the beginning of the world.
Now what they're saying here is, what you're
seeing here is a fulfillment of the prophets
of the Old Testament, the things they're saying
about Messiah.
When He would come, He'd begin to rebuild
the kingdom of David after it was all
been dismantled and scattered.
You're seeing the initial stages of this.
Now this is what's interesting.
You see, they're seeing the Gentiles be called
out.
Now Paul lays it out beautifully in Romans
11 that when the fullness of the Gentiles
be come in, whoever that last Gentile may
be to make up the Gentile bride of
Christ, that body of believers out of the
Gentile race, then God, what?
Takes the church out, begins Daniel's 70th week,
the Great Tribulation, the purging of Israel, and
then He restores the kingdom exactly as the
prophets prophesied.
That they were seeing this preliminary stage right
then before their eyes by God touching the
Gentiles.
That Jesus was coming again.
Amos chapter 9, if you want to make
a note of this, verses 11 and 12,
prophesied and Paul quotes it, or actually Peter
in Galatians and Paul here quotes it.
Now there's a very interesting prophecy in Deuteronomy.
I'd like to read it to you.
If you want to turn there, turn to
Deuteronomy chapter 30.
Before I read it to you, I've got
to tell you, this is the first year
at the base of Mount Sinai when God
released Israel all from the Egyptian bondage.
He led them out through Moses.
Now they haven't even started their 40-year
wandering to the Promised Land, but it shows
you how well God knows the future.
And when God makes a covenant for the
future concerning His own, He's faithful to it.
Even though we may fail, God's going to
abide faithful.
It's like He'll abide faithful of His covenant
in the blood for you, for your life,
because He knows your future.
Whether you're going to fail, whether you're going
to grow, your struggles, He's going to be
faithful to you.
Now, this is the first year after their
deliverance from Egypt.
They haven't started their 40-year wandering through
the wilderness.
God knowing Israel, knowing that they will fail
the law, prophesies the second coming through Moses
before they even start out.
Now look at this.
The Palestinian covenant, the promised blessings of the
Jews if they obey the law in the
land.
Deuteronomy 30, verse 1, Now, He just spent
from chapter 28 on the blessings and cursings
when they'd get to the land.
If they'd be obedient, He would bless them.
If they were disobedient, they'd come under a
curse as a people.
And thou shalt call them to mind among
all the nations, whither the Lord thy God
hath driven thee.
That's 900 years in the future.
The Babylonians hadn't come in and destroyed them.
Titus, he's speaking here, Titus hadn't come in
and the dispersion all over the world.
He's already predicting Titus in 70 A.D.
And the dispersion of the Jews all over
the world before they even get to their
promised land and have their offspring in the
following generations.
Because He knows the future.
And He speaks the future in advance.
He speaks history in advance.
Just like He did the mark of the
beast 2,000 years ago.
That we'd be a generation, there'd be a
society of people on the earth going into
a one world government with horrible disease and
then buying and selling with numbers.
Have the technology to buy and sell with
numbers.
To get into hospitals, to have utilities, to
buy groceries, to have insurance.
No more cash.
Here, He speaks and declares a dispersion worldwide
before they even get to the promised land.
900 years down the road.
And from that, another 2,000 that we're
seeing since Christ was rejected.
Now look at this.
The nations whither the Lord thy God hath
driven thee and shalt return unto the Lord.
You're seeing that take place today.
Thy God and shalt obey His voice according
to all that I command thee this day.
Thou and thy children with all thine heart
and with all thy soul, that then the
Lord thy God will turn thy captivity and
will have compassion upon thee and will return.
Not come the first time.
Return.
He is already seeing that He comes the
first time as rejected, returns, they're dispersed, and
He says, I'm going to return.
It's the second coming.
You have to come the first time to
return.
He didn't come to the earth personally and
lead them into the promised land.
He used Moses.
His presence was hovering over them in the
desert.
His presence was over Mount Sinai, but the
first time was when He came in the
form of Jesus Christ.
He was rejected.
He's already seeing that He'll come.
They'll be rejected.
They'll be dispersed throughout the world and He's
going to return.
The second coming.
I will return and gather thee from all
the nations whither the Lord thy God hath
scattered thee.
That's exactly what you're seeing today.
They're returning.
They're being gathered.
And He's about to build up the nation
Israel again after the rapture of the church,
the restoration of the city of David, the
people of David, and the kingdom age.
And that's exactly what He's saying here.
That's what Amos prophesied.
And that's why the writer says, Known unto
God are all His works from the beginning
of the world.
Remember, He's the Alpha.
He's the Omega.
He knows the beginning from the end.
He knows exactly where you're headed in your
Christian experience.
Now stop and think.
God knowing the beginning and the ending, He
knew what kind of a Christian life you'd
be living right now.
And He still saved you.
He still loved you.
And He'll always love you.
He still went to the cross.
He knows each one of you, what you're
doing secretly.
And He's allowing you to live.
He's watching over you.
Some of you might be having a difficult
time because you're in sin.
Some of you are just being filled to
overflowing with His blessings because you're yielding to
Him and experiencing all the promised blessings.
But He's keeping you.
Maybe some of you are saying, Are you
really enjoying life?
Since you've put your faith in Me, is
it worth it, what you're going through right
now?
Don't you want more?
I've got more for you.
But I still love you.
He still died for you.
He died for me.
Knowing the way you'd be living tonight, the
secret things, because He knows.
He's the God of the beginning and the
ending.
He says, I love you.
I'm going to Calvary for you.
I'll make a covenant with you in my
own blood that I won't break.
Now you can enjoy your salvation or it
can be miserable.
I happen to be one who likes to
enjoy it.
I don't want to wait for the rapture.
I enjoy it now.
It's getting better every day.
I'm enjoying it more every day.
It is fantastic to be a Christian.
I love it.
To be freshly filled with the Spirit and
to understand and know Him in a greater
way.
To rest in His love.
There's a scripture that says you can rest
in His love.
It's fantastic.
Take my yoke upon me.
Learn of me.
I'm lowly and meek of heart.
You'll find rest for your souls.
Not some legalism.
Not rules and regulations.
You see, and then to prove to Him,
I can keep the rules.
You've got to bless me.
No.
Then that's worse.
Then He's obligated.
Grace can't be obligated.
Remember that.
Grace is apart from anything you and I
can earn.
God says, I just want to give.
I just want to do things for you.
I want to bless you.
Yield to the Spirit.
And you'll enjoy your Christian experience.
Known unto God are all His works from
the beginning of the world.
He knows everything about you.
Read Psalm 139.
He knows your down-sitting, your up-rising.
He knows your thought of far off.
That doesn't mean He's far away or you're
far from Him.
He knows what you're going to think before
you think it.
And He still hasn't killed you.
I don't deserve to be alive.
I deserve.
There's so often I look back, I think,
Lord, you could have taken me to the
woodshed and you didn't.
Now He has, and there are certain things
that I don't even go near anymore.
I've learned.
I thank God, like David said, it is
good that I've been afflicted, that I might
learn my statutes, O Lord.
I know that in righteousness Thou hast afflicted
me in His perfection.
It says, by His stripes we are healed.
Well, there's the stripes that He received on
Calvary for my sin, but sometimes, you know,
the scourge is upon us as our Heavenly
Father.
By His stripes we are healed.
So notice what they decide when they realize
what Paul is saying, the beauty of grace,
that God has poured out His grace, and
there's a difference between Jew and Gentile in
God's eyes.
Now they may want to load themselves with
traditions, but it's not a sin issue.
It's not necessary for salvation or blessings from
God.
Remember, Paul brings it out clearly in Romans
chapter 14.
It's not meat or drink.
The kingdom of God and the righteousness of
God, it's not meat nor drink.
It's the marvelous righteousness of God through Jesus
Christ.
It's not meat or drink or holy days.
It says, Lord, here I am.
I love You.
Fill my heart with Your Spirit.
I yield to You.
I offer myself up as a living sacrifice.
God said, that's all I want You to
do.
Now, I can do the rest.
Try it.
It's wonderful.
Lord, what do You expect me to do?
Just offer Yourself, and then You can expect
me to do.
I want to do for You and through
You.
Remember this.
Grace is such a mystery.
That's why they followed Paul around.
They hated him, the legalizers.
They couldn't comprehend it.
It was easier to acknowledge sin and get
free from sin than to apprehend grace and
the power and the beauty of it.
It can't be that way.
It can't be that wonderful.
And they would keep themselves from it.
Grace is so marvelous.
It's so powerful.
My gosh, we're out of time.
Shall we stand and pray?
Grab a hand.
Let's ask the Lord to give us more
understanding of His grace.
Shirley, grab a hand.
God's no respecter of persons.
We just learned that.
We're going to pray together.
Just go across the aisle.
We're one body here.
Let's get right across the aisle and grab
a hand.
We're going to ask God to give us
even more wonderful understanding of grace.
Everybody got a hold of somebody?
Look at this beautiful body of believers.
Fantastic.
Heavenly Father, here we are standing before you
as your children and so often struggling with
joy, trying so hard to please you when
you want to please us.
We ask, Lord, as individuals tonight and as
a church to understand and apprehend even more,
as the Apostle Paul did, the marvelous work
and beauty of grace.
And, Lord, I pray that you'd free anybody
from legalism and law tonight as a means
of blessing or seeking to establish righteousness.
Lord, give them that breakthrough, that marvelous liberty
that you gave Paul in Romans and what
you teach us in Galatians and what the
men had to gather about in Jerusalem.
Lord, we come to you now and ask
you to fill us.
And grant to us new understanding of grace.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.