Acts 15, we're going to be going back and forth a little bit with the book of Galatians here,
because Paul actually refers to some of these events in the book of Galatians and sheds a
little bit more light on this. Now in Acts 15, verse 1, the Bible reads,
And certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren and said,
Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved.
Now look, this is a completely false doctrine that these guys are teaching,
and it says certain men came down and taught this.
Okay, it doesn't really say who they were or whether they're saved or unsafe,
but we know that they were not saved. And I'm going to prove to you that they
were not saved by using the book of Galatians as a cross-reference here.
Keep your finger in Acts 15 and go to Galatians 5.
You may want to stick a bookmark or something in Galatians,
because that's where we're going to be. Galatians 5 and Galatians 2.
The Bible is really clear on this, that in order to be saved,
you have to have all of your faith in Jesus Christ.
And if you believe that you have to believe on Christ and be circumcised,
you're not saved. Or if you think, well, in order to get to heaven,
you have to believe on Christ and get baptized. And they're mixing in some element of works.
Basically that faith is not enough, but that you have to believe and do something else.
Believe and go to church. Believe and be circumcised.
Believe and keep God's laws. That's a totally false doctrine,
and it means that you're not saved if you believe that.
Because in order to be saved, you have to believe 100% on Jesus Christ.
What he already did on the cross, not trusting in your own works.
And that's played out pretty clearly here in Galatians 5.
It says in verse 1,
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ had made us free,
and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Watch this, verse 2.
Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if you be circumcised,
Christ shall profit you nothing.
Now isn't that pretty clear?
Doesn't sound like you're saved if Christ profits you nothing.
Now, was Paul circumcised? Yeah, he was circumcised on the 8th day as a baby.
He's talking about these people in the land of Galatia here.
They're going out and getting circumcised,
because they thought they had to be circumcised to be saved.
Because these false prophets and false teachers were teaching,
well, believing on Christ isn't enough, you also have to be circumcised.
And he said, okay, I'm here to tell you, if you believe that,
if you're going to go out and get circumcised,
and you think that that's part of your salvation,
he said Christ shall profit you nothing.
And he says in verse 3,
For I testify again to every man that is circumcised,
that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
Christ is become of no effect unto you.
Whosoever of you are justified by the law,
ye are fallen from grace.
For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
And then he says,
For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love.
Ye did run well.
Who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.
A little leaven leaveneth the whole love.
I have confidence in you through the Lord,
that ye will be none otherwise minded.
But he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment whosoever he be.
He's saying, I don't know who it is that's coming in and teaching this,
but whosoever he be is going to be under the severe judgment of God,
because he's brought in this false doctrine and deceived you.
And many of you have gone along with this and are being deceived by this.
And he says, if you believe that the law or keeping God's law
or being justified by the law,
he said, you're fallen from grace.
Christ is of no effect to you.
You're not saved.
And so this is a great passage in Galatians 5,
just proving that in order to be saved,
you got to have all of your faith on what Jesus did on the cross,
his death, his burial, his resurrection,
not on your own works, not on your own deeds,
whether it's circumcision or baptism or whatever else the case may be.
Now back in Acts 15, we're going to come back to Galatians,
so keep your finger there.
But it says in Acts 15, these guys came down in verse 1 and said,
except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses,
you cannot be saved.
Look at what Paul's reaction is, Paul and Barnabas.
When, therefore, Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and disputation with them.
Translation, he had a big dissension and disputation with them.
They determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them
should go up to Jerusalem under the apostles and elders about this question.
Now was it a question to Paul?
Was it a question to Barnabas?
No, the church there is all mixed up
because these phony false preachers have come in and deceived a bunch of them
and they have this faction now that's teaching a work salvation in their church.
And so Paul and Barnabas, they're mad.
They're disputing with them.
They're dissenting with them.
They're making a big stink about it.
And then they say, okay, well we need to send
Paul and Barnabas under Jerusalem about this question.
There was no question.
Paul knew there was no question.
Barnabas never had any doubt about this.
It's just that they were sent there to go talk to James and Peter.
And we're not talking about the James of the 12 disciples.
This is James, the half brother of Jesus, who did not believe on Christ.
But then after the resurrection, he got saved and became a pastor over there.
And so they say, well, we need to send and talk to them.
They don't just trust what Paul and Barnabas are preaching to.
We need to go ask these other guys back at Jerusalem about this question.
Basically, they're going to go there.
It says in verse 3,
And being brought on their way by the church,
they passed through Canice and Samaria,
declaring the conversion of the Gentiles as Paul and Barnabas.
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.
Now, let's look at this from Paul's perspective over in Galatians chapter 2.
Galatians chapter 2.
Now, in Acts 15 there,
basically, they show up with this question, you know, this thing.
And it's crept into the church there in Jerusalem also.
It's crept into the church in the land of the Galatians.
And really, it creeps in all the time, even today in churches.
This is the number one false doctrine that we are always vigilant,
always on the lookout for,
because the devil always wants to creep in with this work,
salvation or faith plus work.
And it doesn't always come in the same form.
You know, we don't really have a lot of people going around today
saying that you have to be circumcised and believe in Christ.
You know, unless it's maybe some kind of a messianic Jew group
is probably teaching, I don't know.
But, you know, today it's other things that they use.
Baptism or they teach you to lose your salvation
or you have to repent of your sins
or be really, really sorry and turn over a new leaf
and change your life around.
Whatever it is, how they're trying to creep in with this,
that somehow grace through faith is not enough,
you know, to get you there.
And that's what's going on here.
Let's look at this from Paul's perspective,
because Paul explains this from his perspective in Galatians 2.
It says in verse 1,
Then 14 years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas
and took Titus with me.
And I went up by revelation and communicated unto them
the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles,
but privately to them which were of reputation,
lest by any means I should run or had run in vain.
But neither Titus, who was with me being a Greek,
was compelled to be circumcised.
And that because of false brethren,
unawares brought in who came in privily
to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus,
that they might bring us into bondage,
to whom we gave place by subjection,
no, not for an hour,
that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.
So when we're reading this from Paul's perspective here,
explains obviously it's the Holy Ghost of God
speaking through Paul,
but he's basically saying,
I went up there with Titus
and basically there was talk about circumcising Titus
and he said these false brethren had crept in
to spy out our liberty in Christ to bring us into bondage.
That's the exact wording he used in chapter five
when he said,
stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ has made us free.
Be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage,
for I Paul, the old I Paul,
saying to you that if you be circumcised,
Christ shall provide you nothing.
So you see it's the same thing he's talking about here.
And he's saying here that these guys were false brethren.
That means they weren't really brethren.
Means they weren't really saved.
They were false brethren as opposed to true brethren.
And brethren is just a word for somebody who's saved
because with the moment that you believe on Jesus Christ,
the Bible says behold what manner of love
the Father bestowed upon us
that we should be called the sons of God
as many as received them.
So then they be empowered to become the sons of God
even then to believe on his name.
So if I'm a son of God and you're a son of God,
then we're brothers and sisters in Christ.
That's what the Bible is using that term.
So they're false brethren.
They're not saved.
They crept in unawares
and started teaching this false doctrine.
Paul is saying here,
it was no question with me.
I didn't give subjection unto them for even one hour.
They didn't turn me around on this.
He said I fought them tooth and nail
that the truth of the gospel might continue with us.
I stood up for what was right on this.
And it says in verse six,
but of these who seem to be somewhat.
And he's talking about those that seem to be the pillars of the church.
He talked about that in chapter one.
But he said, you know,
those who seem to be somewhat,
whatsoever they were and make it no matter to me,
God excepted no man's person,
for they who seem to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me.
But contrary wise,
when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me,
as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter,
for he that brought affectionately Peter to the apostles for the circumcision,
the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles.
And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars,
perceived the grace that was given unto me,
they gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of the fellowship,
that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision.
So we see here that Paul and Barnabas go up there
and they go and talk to these guys who seem to be the pillars.
You know, the Peter and John and James,
the brother of Jesus Christ, the half-brother.
And he says, you know what?
It doesn't really matter.
He said, that didn't matter to me when I went and talked to them.
He said, God excepted no man's person,
whatsoever they were,
look at verse six in the parenthesis,
whatsoever they were, it made it no matter to me.
God excepted no man's person.
He said, hey, I went into that meeting already knowing what the gospel was.
I already knew what the truth was.
I already knew that salvation is by faith alone.
I already knew you don't have to be circumcised to be saved.
He said, but I went in there and talked to these guys
who were supposed to talk right.
And he said, they added nothing to me.
They didn't teach me anything new.
They didn't give me anything different.
He said, rather, they confirmed what I already knew that I believed
and they extended us the right hand of fellowship and said, hey, great,
keep doing what you're doing.
Go to the uncircumcision.
But you see what we can learn here from this,
you go back to Acts 15, we'll talk more about this.
What we can learn here is we don't have to go to man for the answers
about what we believe.
You know, if there's some question in your mind about something,
the Bible has the answers.
And if you already know what the Bible says,
you're saved, you have the Holy Spirit living inside,
you already know what the Bible,
it's not like, well, we need Pastor Anderson to settle this.
You know, we need this other pastor in this other city
to settle this dispute or whatever.
Look, just know what you believe
and no preacher should be able to shake you on what you believe.
And that's what Paul was saying in Galatians 1,
when he said, for though we are an angel from heaven,
preach any other gospel unto you than that you've received.
Let it be a curse.
He said, even if I myself come and preach another gospel,
don't listen to me.
If it's an angel from heaven,
if it's another preacher that I'm associated with,
you should be grounded and firm on what you believe
because you got it straight from the Bible.
You don't need to go to man to confirm that.
And that's what Paul is trying to explain in Galatians.
Look, I was sent by the church to go talk to these guys,
but he said, you know, to me,
it really didn't matter what they were going to tell me.
If they told me the wrong thing, he's saying,
I would have just walked away and said,
well, they're wrong.
Because I already know what the truth is.
I already know what the gospel is.
I don't need man to put his stamp of approval
on what I've already read in God's word
and what I've already preached that I know is the truth.
And so that's what's going on.
And this is a, to me,
this is kind of a low point here in Acts 15.
This whole chapter to me is kind of a low point here
from start to finish
because you got a bunch of confusion
and a bunch of people preaching a bunch of false doctrine.
And it's all garbage.
The one person who's really standing firm on this thing
is Paul and Barnabas.
Those two guys that really stood up for the truth there
and everybody else is confused.
Now here's what you have to understand
when you're studying the Bible.
And I think the key to understanding this chapter
is to understand what I'm about to tell you right now.
And that's that when you're reading the Bible,
of course, we know the Bible is God's word.
When the narrator of the Bible is speaking,
we know that everything that's being said is absolute truth.
When we're reading the book of Galatians, for example,
we know that the book of Galatians is God's word.
Every word of it is correct doctrine
straight out of the mouth of God.
Paul was just used to pin it down,
but that's God's word.
When we're reading through any of the other epistles,
when we're reading through Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
when we're reading the book of Acts,
when the narrator is speaking,
we know that that is straight out of the mouth of God.
But sometimes when you're reading the Bible,
the Bible is quoting what man said.
And what man said is not always right.
Now, every word of the Bible is true in the sense that,
yes, that is what Peter said, or yes, that is what Mary said.
For example, look at Luke chapter 2.
Keep your finger in Acts 15.
And I'll illustrate this using Luke 2.
There are people in the Bible who say things that are wrong.
For example, the Bible quotes Satan.
And we know that there's no truth in him.
The Bible says that there's no truth in him.
He is the liar and the father of lies.
And when Satan speaks, he's speaking in lies.
So the Bible quotes Satan.
So you can't say, well, here's a verse from the Bible,
and it's something that Satan said.
You know, and you use that as authority.
You understand what I'm saying?
The Bible is true in the sense that,
yes, it's true that Satan said that.
But what he said was, well, you're reading the book of Job.
Job's three friends are speaking for whole chapters long.
And then at the end of it, God says what they said was wrong.
You understand what I mean by that?
So when we see what man said in the Bible,
we have to understand, wait a minute, man is fallible.
Man makes mistakes.
Man is not always right.
And that's the key to understanding Acts 15.
Let me illustrate that in Luke chapter 2.
In Luke chapter 2 verse 33, it says,
and Joseph and his mother marveled at those things
which were spoken of him.
Who's speaking here?
The narrator of the book.
The narrator of the book of Luke here is telling us
that Joseph and his mother marveled.
Notice it doesn't say the child's father and mother
because Joseph was not Jesus' father.
His father was God the father, okay?
Joseph was just the husband of Mary.
That's all.
It was, you know, a stepdad, I guess you could call it,
or, you know, a parent in the sense of raising him.
But the Bible is very careful here to call it Joseph
and his mother, not to just say his father and mother.
Of course, all the modern perversions of the Bible,
the NIV, the numeric, you know,
they all change this to his father and mother.
Well, if you go down a few verses, we have Mary speaking.
And Mary says in verse number 48, it says,
they were amazed, and when they saw him, they were amazed,
and his mother said unto him,
Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us?
Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
Now that's Mary talking.
Is what Mary said right?
No, because Mary's calling Joseph Jesus' father.
Watch him rebuke her in the next verse.
He said unto them, verse 49,
How is it that ye sought me?
Wishing not that I must be about my father's business?
And he's not talking about Joseph's carpentry business,
he's talking about doing the work of God.
And so that right there shows that people in the Bible
say things that are wrong, and they get corrected for it.
They get straightened out.
And so you say, well, how do I know whether
what someone is saying in the Bible is right or wrong?
Well, you compare it with the rest of scripture.
And whenever the narrator is speaking,
it's always absolute truth, we can take it to the bank.
But when a person is just talking
and giving their opinion like Mary here,
you can't just say, well, that's gospel truth right here.
And I'll tell you right now, let's go back to Acts 15.
I'll tell you right now, a lot of the people in Acts 15
and a lot of things that they're saying are wrong.
They're mixed up.
Later on in the book of Acts,
these exact people are the same people
who are going to tell Paul to shave his head,
go into the temple and do some Nazarite vow
and have some sacrifice offered.
I mean, tell me that that's right.
When the Bible is so clear that Jesus Christ,
when he's crucified on the cross,
the veil in the temple was red and white.
We don't need an animal sacrifice today.
Jesus is the lamb of God.
He was already been slain for it.
We don't need another sacrifice.
And after decades of preaching salvation
by grace through faith,
these people through pressures and through persecutions
and through bad influence and through infiltration
are going to tell Paul,
well, I know we don't believe in this,
but just to fit in Paul,
it's the same people that are going to tell him that.
James, just to fit in though,
just shake your head,
go in there and pretend like you did
this Nazarite sacrifice vow.
That was wrong.
And Paul was wrong to go along with it.
And so we can't just look at something
that somebody did in the Bible and say,
well, they did it, it must be right.
I mean, look, there are people in the Bible
that have more than one wife.
That doesn't make it right.
God commanded one man and one woman
to be joined together for life.
He commanded against having multiple wives.
He said, he shall not multiply wives,
it says in Deuteronomy.
And yet many people today will try to say,
well, polygamy is fine because so and so did it.
You know, the Bible is about people
and people can make sin
and you can't just look at everything they did
and say, well, James said it here.
Mary said it, you know, or so and so said it,
that makes it right.
But it doesn't make it right.
Now the book of Galatians we know is right.
That's an inspired book of the Bible
and everything in there is right.
So when we go to Galatians,
we get a real clear picture of what's going on.
When we read the narration in Acts 15,
we get a clear picture of just these certain men
came down.
Look at verse one again.
Certain men which came down from Judea
taught the brother.
To me, that sounds like these guys aren't brethren.
They're coming and teaching the brother.
Later on in Galatians, we find out for sure,
these guys were false brethren.
These guys were not saved.
They were crept in unawares.
You don't have to turn there,
but in the book of Jude,
same exact wording is used.
He said, beloved,
when I gave all diligence to write unto you
the common salvation,
it was needful for me to write unto you
and to exhort you that you should earnestly contend
for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints,
for there are certain men,
crept in unawares,
exact wording in Galatians,
who were before of old ordained
to this condemnation,
ungodly men,
turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness
and denying the only Lord God
and our Lord Jesus Christ.
I will therefore put you in remembrance,
though you once knew this,
that the Lord,
having saved the people out of the land of Egypt,
afterward destroyed them that,
does anybody know?
Believed not.
He said, that's the true story.
That's what you once knew that,
and look,
it's not possible to lose your salvation.
It's not possible for somebody
who's a saved, born-again child of God
to be totally deceived on these things,
but it is possible for Christians
to become mixed up on these things
and kind of watered down
and they kind of get in this gray area on this.
You're not going to find a saved person
that's just going to preach a full-blown work of salvation
because they got the Holy Spirit inside of them,
but when you get around bad teaching
and bad preaching and bad influences,
you can become confused on these things
and mixed up,
and you can start to waver on things
that you really should be firm on
and not waver.
The Bible is really clear on salvation
and the Bible is really clear
that it's all faith.
So we see here in Acts 15,
really the failure of others
to take the strong stand
that Paul and Barnabas took.
I mean, when Paul and Barnabas walked in,
everyone should have just immediately rallied
and said,
they're right,
and who are these other guys?
Get these guys out of here,
these false brethren, these people.
And then the conversation here also,
the reason it gets a little confusing in Acts 15 too,
is it starts out with people saying,
well, if you don't get circumcised,
you can't be saved.
But then it starts to be a conversation about,
well, should people even get circumcised
and keep the law?
Do people even have to keep the law of Moses?
Not in regard to salvation,
but just should we even be teaching people
to even keep the law of Moses
and to be circumcised?
You know, even if it has nothing to do with salvation,
you know, should we be circumcised, right?
Because the only thing we have to do
to be saved is believe.
There's a lot of things we should do, right?
A lot of new commandments.
They're saying,
should we be circumcised?
You know, should we keep the law of Moses?
Well, the answer is this.
Circumcision avails nothing.
You know, he said it doesn't matter.
Circumcised, uncircumcised,
doesn't matter.
We know that because we have the whole Bible here.
We can look at that very clearly.
They should have known that back then.
Paul knew that.
You know, Mark was that.
And then whether or not we should keep the law of Moses.
Jesus Christ made it clear.
Yes, we should.
You know, except for the carnal ordinances.
The fleshly ordinances.
The meat, and he spells that out.
The meats, the drinks, the divers washings,
the carnal ordinances.
That's clear in Hebrews 9 and 10.
You know, Colossians 2.
There's a lot of places where you see that in the Bible.
But these guys are weak on this, okay?
And you can see that in this chapter.
You see it later when they're influencing Paul again wrongly.
So let's keep reading here.
It says in verse number 5, it says,
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.
Now these guys are saved because it says they believe.
What these guys are basically saying is,
well, you know what?
We do need to command them to at least be circumcised.
They're not saying in that verse that it's necessary for salvation, okay?
These are not the same certain men in verse 1 who came in saying that.
These were just guys who were Pharisees.
So they were really ingrained in the law of Moses.
They were just having a hard time cutting some of it loose,
saying, well, we need to stay with circumcision.
And you know, I don't find that hard to believe
because literally, I grew up in Baptist churches
where literally, when I said that, you know,
I wasn't circumcising my son,
you know, not that I personally would do it anyway,
but you know, when we said, hey, our son's not circumcised,
they thought we were committing some kind of sin, literally.
In an independent Baptist church in the 21st century, okay,
they were so mixed up.
And of course, they knew it had nothing to do with salvation.
But they actually thought that we were somehow violating God's laws
by not circumcising our children.
Now that's some pretty extreme biblical ignorance,
but yet it abounds because of the fact that Judaism
has had such an influence on Christianity today
through the evangelical Zionist movement
or whatever you want to call it, okay.
And so this is pretty believable, this part in verse five,
because I've had a lot of saved Christians who thought,
you know, nothing to do with salvation,
but you know, we do need to circumcise our children,
you know, to be right with God or something, you know.
And it's something that, you know,
and I preach to all the sermon on circumcision.
I don't want to, you know, just get bogged down in that tonight.
But you know, I'd love to go on and on about it
and I want to preach the rest of the chapter.
It says in verse six,
and the apostles and elders came together for to consider this matter.
So they're getting together and having kind of a pow wow
where they're going to talk these things out and so forth.
And when there had been much disputing,
so all these guys are going back and forth,
there's all these phonies in there,
you know, this contention is caused by two different opinions
or three different opinions, you know.
And whenever you have debating and content,
you know, somebody's right and somebody's wrong.
So you got a bunch of wrong people in here saying,
well Peter stands up and he's going to preach the right thing.
Okay, Peter stands up after there's been a lot of disputing.
It says Peter rose up and said unto them,
Men and brethren, you know how that,
a good while ago, I'm in verse seven,
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,
bare the witness, giving them the Holy Ghost,
even as he did unto us,
and put no difference between us and them.
That's a great point right there.
He put no difference between us and them,
the Jew and the Gentile, purifying their hearts by faith.
So Peter's already emphasized believe, faith,
I mean those are the words he's been using so far.
Now therefore, why tempt ye God?
Now he's accusing these people of doing something wrong.
He's telling them you're wrong, you're tempting God
to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples.
Again, reference to bringing them into bondage,
just like in Galatians five,
which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear,
but we believe that through the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they.
Now I'll amend everything that he just said.
Not just because he said it,
but because it jives with the whole rest of the Bible.
So Peter got up and he says the right things.
He gets up and says, you know what,
it's faith, it's believe, and it's all grace.
You're trying to bring us back into bondage.
You're tempting God.
You're insane.
You're false.
Verse 12 says this,
then all the multitude kept silence and gave up.
So Peter kind of shut them up, okay,
because Peter is a pretty well-known guy.
You know, he had a lot of clout.
Then all the multitude kept silence
and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul.
So now that Peter said it,
they're kind of willing to listen to Barnabas and Paul
to get their take on this.
Declaring what miracles and wonders
had God wrought among the Gentiles.
So they began to talk about,
man, we've been getting all these people saved
and all these, you know, the Holy Spirit of God came upon them
like he did on us in the first
and all these great things have been happening.
You know, miracles, Isaac.
It says in verse 13,
and after they had held their peace,
James answered saying,
Men and brethren harken unto me.
Simeon hath declared,
how God at the first did visit the Gentiles
to take out of them a people first named,
and to this agree the words of the prophets as it is written,
After this I will return
and will build again the tabernacle of David,
which is 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,
wherefore my sentence is,
that we trouble not them
which from among the Gentiles are turned to God,
but that we write unto them
that they should abstain from pollutions of idols,
and from fornication,
and from things strangled,
and from blood,
for Moses of old time acted every city,
them that preach him,
being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day,
then pleased that the apostles and elders,
with the whole church,
to send chosen men of their own company
to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas,
namely Judas, Surname, Barcubus,
and Silas, chief men among the brethren,
and they wrote letters unto them after this manner.
The apostles and elders and brethren
send greeting unto the brethren
which are of the Gentiles in Antioch
and Syria and Cilicia,
for as much as we have heard
that certain which went out from us
have troubled you with words,
subverting your souls,
saying he must be circumcised and keep the law,
to whom we gave no such commandment,
it seemed good unto us,
being assembled with one accord,
to send chosen men unto you
with our beloved Barnabas and Paul,
men that have hazarded their lives
for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
we have sent therefore Judas and Silas,
who shall also tell you the same things by mouth.
Okay, now stop for a second.
Here's what he's saying.
They're writing a letter saying,
hey, since you guys are questioning Paul and Barnabas,
we're going to send a couple of our guys with them,
basically just to back them up
and to just tell you that what they're saying is right.
You know, they're going to say the same things unto you,
what you've been hearing from Paul and Barnabas,
that it's all, you know,
that it's all just by faith that we're saved and so forth.
And then it says in verse 28,
for it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us
to lay upon you no greater burden
than these necessary things,
that he abstained from meats offered to idols
and from blood and from things strangled
and from fornication,
from which if you keep yourselves,
ye shall do well, fare you well.
So when they were dismissed,
they came to Antioch
and when they had gathered the multitude together,
they delivered the epistle,
which when they had read,
they rejoiced for the consolation.
And Judas and Silas being prophets also themselves,
exhorted the brethren with many words and confirmed it.
So the bottom line is they write this letter to them
and basically they come down on the side
after they've, you know, debated it
and gone back and forth and argued about it.
Then they finally decide to get on the right side of this
and go with Paul and Barnabas
and to say we're going to back them up,
we're going to send people to back them up.
Now the part here that can be misconstrued
is that I've literally,
and you're not even going to believe this maybe
if you're a sound, you know, student of the Bible here
and you know what the Bible teaches,
you know how they said they're going to basically,
you know, just command them these necessary things
and he just lists a couple of things
and he says if you look at verse number 28 there at the end,
it says, you know,
to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things,
that ye abstain from meats offered to idols
and from blood and from things strangled
and from fornication,
from which if you keep yourselves,
ye shall do well very well.
People have literally tried to point to this passage
and say that's all we have to obey.
Has anybody ever heard that?
I mean, I've literally, you know,
that's all from the whole Old Testament.
Throw out the whole Testament,
but just don't eat anything strangled,
don't eat blood,
don't eat things sacrificed unto idols
and don't do it for his.
So it's okay to steal and kill.
See how dumb that is?
You know, blaspheme God, cross dress,
you know, whatever.
You just as long as you abstain from those four things.
That's not what they're saying here.
What I believe that they're saying here,
and again, these are men in their council
who have agreed together and bargained here.
And see, this is the part that I have
a little bit of a problem with in this chapter,
is why they even gave these people the time of day.
And that's what Paul is explaining later
in Galatians here.
He said, I wouldn't bear with them not even for an hour.
I wouldn't even spend my time with these people.
They're a false brother and they're not saved.
We don't care what they think.
We don't care if they like the fact
that we're not circumcised.
We don't care what they're teaching.
We know what the truth is.
Let's just stand for it.
And the thing that I see here,
when you compare this with the book of Galatians,
in Acts 15, it's like they're trying to get together
and we're all, let's all just talk about this
until we all can agree.
That's the part I have a problem with.
And that's the part that Paul is rebuking.
And then right after that, in Galatians 2,
go back to Galatians 2 and I'll show you what I mean.
Because you might think I'm being a little too hard
on James and Peter and these other guys.
Okay, but let me show you what I mean.
And again, don't get me wrong, they're great guys.
They're great men of God, but people make mistakes.
And that's all I'm saying, that these guys
were a little weak in this area in Acts 15.
Because look at Galatians 2,
when he just finished telling us the story
where he explained how these false brethren came in
and he went and talked to James and Cephas
and you know, these guys.
It says in verse 9, you know, that they basically,
it said, this is the part where they basically
sent them on their way with Judas and Silas,
you know, backing them up.
It says, when James, Cephas and John,
who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace
that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas
the right hands of fellowship that we should go
into the heathen and they entered a certain position.
Only they would that we should remember the poor,
the same which I also was forward to do.
He said, well, you know, I agreed with them on that.
But when Peter was come to Antioch,
I would stood him to the face because he was to be blamed.
For before that certain came from who?
See what I mean?
This is just a problem that James has here apparently
because we keep seeing this crop up.
James had a problem of always trying to please the Jews.
Okay, we see it in chapter 15.
We see it here in Galatians 2, you know,
and we see it later when he tells,
when James tells Paul to shave his head
and do that Nazariah thing.
He said here, 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.
Now God's not given us the spirit of fear,
but of love, power and love don't sound mine.
But when I saw that they walked not uprightly
according to the truth of the gospel,
he said, I said unto Peter before them all,
if thou being a Jew livest after the manner of the Gentiles
and not as do the Jews,
why compelest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews,
we who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles,
knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law,
but by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ,
that we might be justified by the faith of Christ
and not by the works of the law,
for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
So again, good people can make mistakes,
is what I'm trying to show you.
Even, I mean we know Peter and James were saved,
they were great men of God,
their apostles, or Peter was an apostle, not James,
but these men were great men of God.
James the apostle was killed earlier in the book,
if you were here earlier in the book of Acts.
This is James the brother of Jesus.
These guys were good guys, but you know what?
They made some mistakes here.
They were a little bit watered down on this doctrine
and right after the meeting that we're reading about in Acts 15,
Peter and Paul are butting heads on this similar issue,
not about salvation, but just about circumcision,
about the law of Moses,
and Paul has to rebuke him from the face, to his face,
and we know that this is right
because it's in the book of Galatians,
you know, it's just being spelled out to us
by the Holy Spirit of God.
Does everybody see the difference here, what I'm saying?
So go back to Acts 15 and we'll finish up here.
They're basically putting those four things in there,
okay, to placate the crowd that wants to make everybody live like a Jew, okay?
So they're saying, well, here's some stuff that really is wrong,
because the Bible is pretty clear,
it really is wrong to eat blood, you know.
That doesn't really come into play unless you go to Mexico,
you know, they have blood talking,
you know, I'm not going to eat a blood talking.
The Bible is really clear, don't eat blood.
The Bible is really clear, don't commit fornication.
That's any kind of, you know,
going to bed with somebody before you're married.
It's wrong, you're supposed to be pure when you get married
and not have been with any other woman
or any other man respectively.
And so they say, well, here's some stuff that's definitely wrong,
you know, eating things that are strangled
or eating blood or fornicating
or eating things offered and sacrificed under idols,
so we'll just put it in this letter, you know.
Well, hey, we know salvation is totally by faith,
but, you know, by the way, you know, you shouldn't do this
and you shouldn't do that and you shouldn't do that
and you shouldn't do that, all right?
See you later, okay?
So it's just, what I want to express tonight about this chapter is this,
and, you know, I know it's a little bit deep tonight,
maybe a little complicated,
but really the bottom line is this.
Unsaved false teachers, false brothers
who were on their way to hell, okay,
because they were not saved, not blue government,
they came in and brought in false doctrine.
They came in and brought in another gospel.
Paul and Barnabas said, we don't have any time for these guys.
They ripped their face and wouldn't even give them,
don't even care what they said, you know.
When they go to Jerusalem and then,
but then the church there, okay,
they said, well, we're still not convinced, you know,
because they will weaken the faith.
They've been subverted.
We need some clarification on this.
They went unto Jerusalem and in Jerusalem,
there were other people who were creeping in
doing the same thing, okay?
And then there were other halfway people, you know,
there were all different shades of gray here, of confusion.
And at that church, it was this big debate
and they're going back and forth
and they're basically placating
and trying to keep these people happy, okay?
And you know, in the end, what they wrote was correct, obviously.
I mean, they came out and said, hey, it's all by faith,
it's all by grace, but they compromised.
It even says it pleased everybody,
what they came out with in the end.
They compromised with the enemy.
That's what I see happening a little bit in Acts 15.
Not majorly, but you see it happening.
And that's why they continued to have problems,
Peter and James on that score,
because of that compromise they corrected in Acts 15.
So to me, the moral of the story is this.
Know what you believe based on what you read in the Bible,
what you get from God's word, and stand strong on it
and don't sit there and compromise
and feel like you have to water it down
in order to please somebody in the church.
Because really, they should have just stood tall
and maybe those people would just leave.
You know, and that would have been the best outcome
if they're not even saved anyway, okay?
And so, stand strong on what you believe
and don't feel like you always have to run to man
to try to rubber stamp what you believe.
Some famous preacher or your pastor or anybody.
You know, it's good sometimes to ask a pastor
or to ask somebody,
hey, you know, can you show me this in the Bible?
Or hey, where does it say this in the Bible?
But you know what?
If you see something point blank in the Bible,
you shouldn't even really need me
or anybody else to vindicate it, you know?
And I mean, if I get up here
and start preaching work of salvation,
you know, is that going to shake your faith?
I hope not.
Not that I would ever do such a thing.
But you know, your faith ought not be in me
or in any other man.
It should be in the Bible.
It should be in God's Word.
To where you could be firm and grounded on these things.
And I'll just say this.
There's definitely more rules
than those four rules that they gave.
You know, there's a lot of laws in the Bible.
There's a lot of commandments and things that are sinful
that we need to stay away from.
Whether it's stealing, whether it's, you know, fornication,
whether it's murder, whether it's adultery,
whether it's blaspheming God's name,
whether it's idolatry,
whether it's covetousness or greed or lust.
All these, there are hundreds and hundreds of laws in the Bible.
But the key thing to remember is that Jesus said,
if you love me, keep my commandments.
The Bible says that by grace are you saved through faith
and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God,
not of works thus any man should boast.
But then he follows it up saying,
for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus
unto good works which God has before ordained
that we should walk in them.
So the Gospel is this, faith alone for salvation.
We don't have to do any works at all.
People who've committed fornication, you know,
after they believe on Christ, they're still saved
because it's not works or abstaining from sin that saves us.
But the Bible said you're saved by faith,
but you should keep God's commandments.
That's the true doctrine right there.
You don't have to be saved, but you should,
just to be right with God.
Not to be saved doesn't do a salvation.
And so that's what these people were getting mixed up on,
is things that we should do versus things that we must do to be saved.
And then they were even mixing in a lot of Jewish laws
Like for example, the more I think about it,
this thing about not eating something that's been strangled,
I'm not sure I quite would even say that that's really
something that they should have put on the list.
I don't know.
It may not be healthy or whatever,
but I'm not really seeing that as a New Testament doctrine.
If you compare scripture with scripture.
And so the bottom line is this,
know what you believe.
Salvation is by faith.
It's not at works.
And we don't need to go ask somebody about that.
And we don't need to compromise with people.
And we don't need to get together and discuss,
is salvation by faith?
Is the King James Bible the word of God?
Because somebody comes into our church and says that it's not.
Let's just tell them, hey, get out of here.
If you don't believe the truth.
Not like, well, let's settle on,
we're King James only, but maybe it's just a translation.
You see what I'm saying?
We need to just stand up for what's right.
Let's just quickly blow through the end of this chapter.
It says after this whole big debate is done and so forth,
it says that they went back to Antioch basically.
Just jump down if you would to verse 34.
They went back to Antioch.
They preached under the church there.
And everybody was really glad to hear confirmed what they knew
anyway, that it was by faith alone
and that there was no works involved in salvation.
Verse 34 is only in the King James Bible, by the way.
Not in the NIV, not in the ESV.
Not withstanding, please, Silas, to abide there still.
Still gone from modern versions,
one of the 16 verses that are missing.
Paul also in Barnabas, verse 35, continued in Antioch,
teaching and preaching the word of the Lord with many others also.
And some days after, Paul said to Barnabas,
hey, let's go again and visit our brethren in every city
where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they do.
And Barnabas determined to take with them John,
whose surname was Mark.
But Paul thought not good to take with him with them
who departed from them from Pamphylia
and went not with them to the work.
And the contention was so sharp between them
that they departed asunder one from the other.
And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed on to Cyprus.
And Paul chose Silas and departed,
being recommended by the brethren under the grace of God.
And he went through Syria and Cilicia,
confirming the churches.
So here we see just more fighting
and more disputing between people.
People are human beings.
They make mistakes.
That's why this is where our faith has to be, not in man.
Because man makes mistakes.
Even Paul made mistakes because he's later going to,
even after standing so strong in Acts 15 in Galatians 2 and 5,
later he's going to shave his head and go into the temple
and do the Nazarite, the phony pretending to be a Nazarite
when he wasn't, which is deception.
And again, he's justifying.
Well, it's OK to shave my head.
Hey, I'm not saying it's wrong to shave your head.
But what I am saying is that he justified it like,
well, hey, I didn't really do it.
I just pretended to.
But he's trying to please man.
That's what he's trying to do.
And we shouldn't try to please man.
We should try to please God.
We shouldn't base what we believe on man.
Let's base it on God.
Because even Paul and Barnabas, they're both great guys.
Here, they're fighting and they're in disagreement.
And people are human beings.
And that's why it's better to trust in the Lord
than to put confidence in man.
Let's pray our hands and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you for your word, dear God.
Thank you for this chapter that we could learn these things.
And I thank you for the book of Galatians
to shed a little bit more light on it
and really show us where you came down on this thing
in the book of Galatians, dear God.
And thank you so much for the consistency of the Bible.
And thank you that we can read it
and learn from it, dear God, and not have to rely on man.
I don't know of any creature, myself included, of course,
that could probably hold a candle to Paul and Barnabas,
or Peter and James and these guys.
But they definitely make mistakes, too.
So Father, help us all to just only lean on the word of God
and not really lean on man as our final authority.
And in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.