Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, not by works or adherence to religious rituals. It uses the dispute in Acts 15, where Judaizers insisted on circumcision and adherence to the Law of Moses for salvation, as a primary example. The examples highlight Peter's defense of Gentile believers, emphasizing that God purifies hearts by faith and that salvation is a gift of God's grace, not earned by human effort. The core lesson is that legalism robs God of glory, the cross of its power, and believers of their joy, contrasting the old covenant signs with the new covenant realities of baptism and the Lord's Supper. The message concludes by urging listeners to trust solely in Christ's finished work for salvation, not in any personal merit or religious observance.
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They do a fine work, and I thank God for them. Now with Acts chapter fifteen, verse one, we read, and certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren and said, Except ye be circumcised, therefore the men are of Moses, ye cannot be saved. When therefore Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them, that means they had a good word battle. That's exactly what it means. And all you need to do is take the Greek dictionary and look up those words that are thus translated. And one of the things that church history teaches you, it gives you a thankful heart for those who've taken a stand down through the years.
There are men who stood at crucial times in the history of the church. and they were not afraid to take stand because they knew what they believed and they knew why they believed it. And I thank God for men like John Hus and Luther and Calvin and Zinzendorf and others. So we read that they 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. And being brought on their way by the church, they pressed through Phineas and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles, and they caused great joy unto all the brethren.
And when they were 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 rose 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. And the apostles and elders came together for the consider of this matter. And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, men and brethren, ye 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, and God which knoweth the hearts bear them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit, even as he did unto us, and put no difference between us, that is, believing Jews, and them, believing Gentiles, purifying their hearts by faith.
Now therefore why tempt ye God? to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear. But we believe that to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. We Jews shall be saved even as they Gentiles. That is what I call the Apostles' Creed. That eleventh verse. Now I know when we think of the Apostles' Creed, we think of that which is often quoted. I believe in God the Father, Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, etc.
But to me, this is the Apostles' Creed. We believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we Jews shall be saved even as they Gentiles. And upon that text, You can build the theology of the Apostle Paul and the theology of the New Testament and the truth of the new covenant. Now let's pray together. Our Father, we thank you this morning that the salvation of the soul is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, not by works of righteousness, which we have done either before or after we believed.
We ask you now that you will take this word that is about to be given with it open our understanding. We believe this text so implicitly our God because our Lord Jesus said, every plant that my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. And we can be so easily planted by our own beliefs, by our own activity, rather than by divine grace. And our desire is that we may be plants of the Lord. Grant it our God. There are any in our midst who are still lost.
Oh, God, may they behold thy glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Meet with us. deliver us from anything that would detract. And when we go home, may we go home with a heart rejoicing that we can really do what we sang, sing of our Redeemer because of his wondrous work. For we pray in his wordy name, even our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Acts chapter fifteen. is one of the ten decisive battles of the church down through the years.
And what it deals with is a problem that is with us to this day. It is a problem of legalism. It is a problem that would separate the people of God into companies. Are you in our group or are you in their group? A friend of mine who did a lot of tent work preaching in tents in throughout Scotland and Great Britain and Wales. He said there was a group of men that would come and listen to him in the tent, and they loved the ministry of the gospel that they were getting. And one said to him, do you ever go out of the fellowship to preach?
Oh, that sounds so good, does it? Do you ever go out of the fellowship to preach? And my friend said to him, I only know of one fellowship, the fellowship of God the Father and his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. And I go where his people are, and I minister to his people. Beloved, if you and I can learn that lesson, we'll be delivered from some of the legalisms That was brought before the apostles and elders at the conference at Jerusalem.
Now, legalism has a real problem because legalism seeks to rob God of his glory. If salvation isn't by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, you would have a lot to boast to me about in glory. Because I'm sure every one of you are a lot better than I am. And you could say it took a lot more grace to get you here than it did to get me here. And you'd be boasting. And God will not give you the privilege of any boasting in heaven because you were just like me, dead in trespasses and sins.
You weren't drowning in a pond going down for the third time. When God just happened to reach down and you got a hold of the rope, you were floating on the bottom face down. You couldn't even get a hold of the rope. He had to give you the faith and the grace to do it. You were dead in trespasses and sin. That's what the Word of God teaches. And when we put works with grace, works of any kind, it robs God of its glory. But second, it robs a cross of its power. It is a cross that gives power to the salvation of God.
We come to the cross on Calvary's Hill, and we don't come as beggars. We come with open hands. Not the labor of my hands. We just can't present anything to God. Not the labor of my hands can fulfill thy laws' demands. We come. Not bringing anything of ourselves, we come empty-handed. And we don't want to rob the cross of its power. But the third thing that legalism does, it robs the believer of his joy. There's a joy to salvation by grace, friends.
I don't know of anything that brings joy to the heart. Then understanding and knowing the truth of that eleventh verse of this fifteenth chapter. We believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. And this morning I want to build up to that verse. And we want to keep in mind what legalism does to us. Now, what did these parisaical Judaizers teach? They taught that except ye be circumcised, According to the law of Moses, you can't be saved.
Except you be circumcised. And I want to talk a little bit about the right of circumcision. I believe that under the new covenant, as under the old covenant, there are two signs of the covenant. There are two signs to the old covenant, the mosaic law. The one was the Sabbath day. It was a sign between God and Israel. The other was circumcision. Under the new covenant, there are two signs. The one is baptism. The other is the Lord's Supper.
These two things go together. Both signs that God has given us as believers to perpetuate and to practice. declare the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Baptism teaches the glorious truth that we died with Christ. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And then, of course, the Lord's Supper teaches us the glorious truth of Christ's death for us as a substitute in our behalf on Calvary's cross.
Here we have the signs of the new covenant. Now these Judaizing teachers tried to bring as a method of works a perpetuism. They wanted to perpetuate the old law covenant. Now what was the meaning of the right of circumcision? Why did God give circumcision to Abraham and thus to the theocratic nation. What does circumcision mean? Circumcision means, first of all, the inefficacy of the cross. Or, excuse me, I said that wrong. When I saw my brother come through the door, my heart rejoiced.
Brother Michael just came in and it's sure nice to see him this morning. And I said the wrong thing as a result of it. What does circumcision mean? Circumcision means get it now. I said the inefficacy of the cross. That was totally wrong. The inefficacy of the flesh. The inefficacy of the flesh of man. Godward says, Godward it says, I do not accept the flesh of man. It must be rolled back. And that's what God said to Israel. But more than that, Circumcision became the sign of the righteousness of faith, and this sign God gave to Israel.
It was the visible sign that the Israelite belonged to the covenant people. It was a sign that they belonged to the covenant people. In other words, it was a symbol of the righteousness that he was supposed to have by faith. That's what it was. But notice, it did not communicate life whatsoever. Circumcision never communicated life to anybody under the Old Testament economy. What does a dead sinner need? He needs life. And circumcision never communicated life.
It was just according to Romans chapter four, It was just a symbol of the faith that Abraham had long before he was circumcised. Circumcision is like a label on a bottle. It tells you the contents of what's inside. Can you imagine a nurse with a syringe on her hand trying to get a label... from the bottle into the syringe to help a patient. It wouldn't help at all.
She has to get the contents of the bottle. And my friend, you can have all the liturgy. You can have all the labels that you want, but not a one of them will save. It's the contents that are important. Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what Romans chapter four teaches. And that, my friend, is what the Apostle Paul stood for at this crucial time in history. What about the label circumcision? The label circumcision became a means to the end, even as labels do today. Baptism, friends, is a symbol.
that you belong to the New Covenant people. But being baptized doesn't make you a member of the New Covenant people. You have to be a member of the New Covenant people before you're baptized. I walked out of a church with a Baptist preacher one day. We attended a funeral, and we walked out together, and in this particular denomination, I've heard this preacher say it on more than one occasion. He says, they entered the church and life in Christ by means of baptism. And now they've entered his presence through death. Oh, it sounds so good, doesn't it?
I said to my friend, this Baptist preacher coming out, I said to him, I didn't understand what he meant when he said they entered life through baptism. He said it's an amazing thing when they don't even baptize. It became a... I had a laugh a little bit myself because of the way in which he said it and the truth that was contained in the statement. This is what G. Campbell Morgan said. He said, circumcision in the original purpose of God was ordained for the cure of self-righteousness.
That which was intended to mark the destruction of self-righteousness or to indicate its absence had become the sign and the cause of its possession. How many people have you met? And you say to them, are you saved? Well, I've been baptized. I've been baptized. It's the same thing that you would say to a Jew. under the Old Testament economy. Are you a genuine member of the covenant people of God? I've been circumcised. And you know there are a lot of unbaptized believers.
Friends, we need to come to grips with this truth that is right here. The symbol becomes a means to the end. and the self-righteousness that comes with a symbol. I can't tell somebody I've never been baptized. After all, they'd think I was a heathen. Admit what you are, for God knows what you are, and come to Him just as you are to be saved by God's matchless grace. You see, the issue in chapter fifteen, Is salvation by works or salvation by grace?
Let me illustrate that if I may. I have to use an illustration that happened to me. Those of you who know me know that I delight in the doctrines of grace. And a number of years ago I stopped in a restaurant to get a cup of coffee and there was a preacher there and a few of his men. I told this story to John Phillips, the Bible teacher. And of course, this preacher wanted to find a, know a few things about me. And he asked me to sit there and have some coffee with him.
So I did. And he said to me, he said, oh, the way you teach grace, you can expect to get in trouble. That's what he said. Well, I turned to him and I said, I have a question for you. But be careful, there's a hook in it. And I want you to think through this question. Think it through well. He said, what's the question? I said, what must I do to be lost? I said, don't answer it. If you can name one thing that I can do to be lost, then salvation is by not doing that one thing.
and salvation would be by works and not by grace. John Phillips, when I told him that, he said, Phil, where did you get that? I said, that's me own. He said, that is the best question I've ever heard on the subject. You think that went through. What must I do to be lost? If there's anything that I can do that will cause me to lose my salvation, then the not doing of that is what keeps me saved. I'm not giving you a license to sin, by the way.
I'm giving you this in order that you examine your own soul. What am I depending on to get the glory? Am I depending on something I do? Going to the Lord's Supper. Being baptized. Learning Bible verses. Learning the right answers for the right people. Or am I coming to Christ just as I am and trusting alone in the mercy of our God? Paul, when he defends the doctrine of grace, he gives three reasons.
In the book of Galatians, he says, if salvation is by the law, then we're under the curse of the law. That's what he teaches in Galatians chapter three. And in verse twenty one, a verse that everybody should have memorized, he says, if there was a law given that could give life, verily righteousness would come by the law. If there's life, a dead man needs life, friends. And if it's possible to do anything to get it, then get it that way. But the problem is, you can't. That's why I said Judaism and the whole system of salvation by works, it robs Christ of his glory, the cross of his power, and the child of God of his joy.
The second reason Paul gives is this. If salvation is by works, then grace is destroyed. You can't have it both ways. You can't be saved by grace and by works also. It's either or, not either and. It is grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. The third reason Paul gives in the Word of God is this. If salvation is by works, then the cross of Jesus Christ is a great bonder. God wasted his time when he sent the Son of God to the cross on Calvary's Hill if there's another way to be saved.
But we sing from the heart there was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. So when there's much disputing in the council, Peter stands up. And I'm so glad for what happened at Antioch with Peter, because it made Peter think. And here we see the great providence of God. Galatians chapter two tells us what took place at Antioch. I want you to turn to Galatians two, and we want to read this very quickly. because it caused Peter to think, what really did God do?
What really did God do through the work of Christ? Verse eleven of Galatians two says, But when Peter was come to Antioch, Iris stood 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 that were of the circumcision. and the other Jews dissembled likewise with him, in so much that Barnabas was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, Peter sinned publicly.
He dealt with him publicly. He didn't take Peter aside and whisper to it. He dealt with his sin publicly. And he said, if thou being a Jew, livest after the matter of the Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compelest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? He put Peter right on the spot. And here's the divine providence. See, the Jerusalem conference follows this. And as the Jerusalem conference follows, Peter gets up and he says, brethren, God by my mouth opened a door of salvation to the Gentiles.
We had that in chapter ten in the house of Cornelius. And God never permitted Peter to even finish his sermon. While Peter was yet speaking, the Holy Spirit came upon the household of Cornelius. And what happened? Cornelius and his household were saved and they were baptized. They identified themselves with a new covenant. They identified themselves with a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So Peter comes to a conclusion in verse ten of chapter fifteen, and he asks the question. He says, Nah, therefore, why put a yoke upon their necks, which neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?
Why do you try to put them back under the law of Moses? Why do it? And the whole of the seventh chapter of Romans comes into play. We are dead to the law and delivered from the law, that we might live unto him whom God raised from the dead, even Jesus our Lord. Why put a yoke upon their net? And then he comes to the Apostles' Creed. In verse eleven, he adds, we believe. What do we believe? that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we Jews it's no longer a Gentile being saved like a Jew that was the Old Testament when Ruth would come under the umbrella of the theocratic kingdom of God under the old covenant she had to say my people thy people shall be my people I'm coming under the umbrella of Judaism she was a Moabite she was a Gentile She had to be saved like a Jew under the Old Testament.
But no longer, it's no longer a Gentile being saved like a Jew. The truth of this eleventh verse is that the Jew now has to put away Judaism in its entirety and come just as he is as a Gentile does. And salvation is by grace alone. through faith alone in Christ alone. I'm so thrilled with that eleventh verse. I can hardly contain myself. To me, it's the Apostles' Creed. It forms a basis for New Testament teaching. It exalts the glory of God.
It gives honor to the grace of God. And it gives joy and assurance to the child of God. In conclusion, I'd like to... say one or two things. Number one, when we take that verse and we believe that it is by the grace of God that we're saved, we get a new vision of God. God is not like a university professor grading papers. If you have a grade of seventy, you pass. That's not the God of the Bible. the God of the Bible demands that you pass only magna cum laude one hundred percent he will accept nothing else but perfection and there's only one place you will find perfection that is in the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ being imputed to a man when he believes the gospel and we can sing from the heart Jesus paid it all.
Only the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ can provide a righteousness that is acceptable to God. Back in nineteen seventy five or nineteen seventy six thereabout when this country was going through a recession, a depression. In the Wall Street Journal there appeared a cartoon Two bums on the park bench talking together. The one bum said to the other bum, if I had any ambition, this tight money would sure cool it.
That's what the one said to the other. The problem is, they're going my notes, the problem is when it comes to being saved, all your ambition is useless. God will not accept any of it. He will only accept the perfection that's found in Jesus Christ. Have you ever come to Him? Have you ever bowed the knee to Him? Have you ever said, Oh God, my works are in vain. Anything I've ever done is useless. I fall upon your mercy. I trust only Jesus Christ. Have you ever done that?
Have you ever come to him just as you are as an abject sinner? Acknowledging from God that you're alive physically, but you're dead spiritually. And what you really need is a life that only he can provide. We believe that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. I, dear friends, That, to me, is the Apostles' Creed. It embodies the foundation of that which we believe and which results in eternal life.
My friend, is it yours? It's available to you. It's available to whosoever believe in it. Have you ever truly trusted Christ? I invite you to trust him today because God's word never gives you a guarantee of tomorrow. It is always today if you will hear his voice. It is always now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. If I can help anyone, please stay behind. Let's sit together with an open Bible and talk about this matter.
of being saved salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Let's stand together for the benediction. Our Father, we thank you for these glorious truths revealed to us. Your Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light to our pathways. And we thank you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ for those who, down through the years, have been willing to stand at crucial times when the enemy would come in like a flood and ruin and dilute the doctrine of grace.
And we ask you, oh God of our praise, to take this word given today and speak to each of our hearts. May we carefully examine all that we've heard. Bring it to remembrance. And may the result be that we can sing from the heart, blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. Now we ask you that you'll take this word and bless it to every heart and upon thine own that have truly believed in thee. Dismiss us with thy blessing as we commend one another to thee and to the word of thy grace, which is able to build us up and give us an inheritance among all that are sanctified through Jesus Christ the Lord.